The Kitchen Presents Two Moon July (1986) User Reviews

Becoming an avant garde video classic

[Durrutti · 7/10 · 2 September 2004]

This video is an ensemble piece that contains a collection of experimental performance art pieces by various performers. The entire video takes place in The Kitchen, an enormous artist's loft in the midst of New York City. All the performance pieces are what could be considered Avant-garde in nature, though that term has fallen out of use today in order to make way for the more pedestrian and commonplace whitewash term of alternative; however, when this video was created, the style and feel of each of these pieces was more intentionally risk-filled and groundbreaking than what we see today as is the nature with the ideals of the avant-garde--I don't think the term alternative had been coined and/or abused as yet, people were still saying New Wave or Punk or using terms even more inaccurate and less flattering. Don't get me wrong, these differing pieces are new and experimental concepts in art but all are carefully rehearsed and well scripted, there is some, but very little improvisation on the whole. The highlights of the Two Moon July video are performances by Laurie Anderson, a manic, running commentary on newspapers, media and film by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, and a rare performance of an absolutely beautiful piano piece entitled Mad Rush by Phillip Glass. Lastly, yet least importantly, the video quality of the actual video footage is clear and crisp but rather glossy overall, it's hotlit in places and resembles the tone and texture of a daytime soap opera, it looks low budget and probably was produced for very little money but this can easily be overlooked when considering the rarity of some of the performances contained within; many of these artists and performers had made a name for themselves in New York before the release of this video and many others were known worldwide by people who have followed the avant-garde scene but it is the rarity of some of the performances on this documentary-style video and the sheer number of artists involved that should make it appealing to anyone who would like to experience an interesting amalgam of artistic sound and vision. I believe that Two Moon July, eventually, will be considered an avant-garde video classic to be much emulated yet never matched.

Glass half empty

[karbenbased8786 · 6/10 · 6 May 2006]

I was interested in this for some hard to find performances of Philip Glass. The down side was that the performance of Mad Rush is not the complete piece. It is only the beginning and then the very end, with the majority of the piece missing. The rest of the film is okay, but a bit sporadic and incomplete feeling. These are not standard performances, but instead it is a blended continuous flow of partial songs and random images. There are also some interjections of random images and footage of unexplained orgin, perhaps meant as an artistic abstract expressionist piece. Unfortunately, there is a fine line between abstract media art and just plain random, and boring, nonsense. I suppose its something that you have to watch and decide for yourself, if it was worth your time, or if you should have been doing something more productive like doing the laundry.