No calls this week, but I can't imagine anyone even trying to make it through the harrowing stylistic transitions I threw at them. I suppose Max made a sort of super-call by stopping by, so that was good.
I've been kind of annoyed by the fact that iTunes doesn't include an
"Always on Top" option, so I could see what's playing while using
another application. Fortunately, Firefox has an extension, FoxyTunes,
that allows you to control iTunes, or any other player, from the
Firefox window. Even better, it will display the artist and track title
at the bottom of the window, next to the controls.
I'm in the process of appropriating CSS from this site, and considering a links strategy similar to his "B-Sides," which I like a lot.
Friday night Brian and I watched Being There with Peter Sellers. It was offbeat and, at times, wildly funny. It reminded me of Network
in its portrayal of network TV and the news media. I've rarely seen a
comedy so well photographed and paced in such a stately manner; maybe
there should be more of them.
Saturday we saw Moog at the Oak Street Cinema, part of the
Sound Unseen Festival. It wasn't that funny, except for the part with
Rick Wakeman, who seemed to have modeled his appearance after something
from Spinal Tap. It was very interesting though, both learning about the genesis of the synthesizer and Bob Moog's metaphysical theorizing.
I picked up Pete Townshend's Scooped at the record store
for a very special price. I've heard most of the first disc so far (of
the two-disc set) and it sounds just like what it should be: Pete
Townshend's demos, mostly from the Who era. These two discs consist of
tracks from two or three of his other Scoop double-disc sets. I don't know that I'm able to point out any highlights yet.
Also, these two links are hilarious:
- Car Porn: A Look at a Growing Epidemic
- Excretion, a Human Endeavor (from Harpers.org)
Well, Kevin will be
mortified to know that Tuesday afternoon, the KRLX DJs in the studio at
the time credited "The State I Am In" to: "British duo Belle &
Sebastian," although they suspected that there might be an additional
third member, not named Belle or Sebastian, might be involved because
it sounded like "there's a lot going on there." His mortification may
be ameliorated by the fact that I've taken to reading Achewood, and have made it through the first year of archives.
Let us add Sufjan Stevens to our list of shows to see this term, since he is playing the 400 Bar on 21 November.
So, Max was here and I decided to make a top 10 list, except 10
couldn't contain my favorite albums, so I extended it to 20 with seven
honorable mentions.
* As usual, the word "best" doesn't really apply; the list consists of
albums that I've thought, at one time or another, to be the greatest
thing ever, except for a few. You'll note that I haven't included
artists, because I'm like that sometimes.
* Those with +'s beside them stand in for an artist's greater body of work.
* I'm not sure I've ever been in love with Quadrophenia quite like most
of the others, but it's really great, it's a double album rock opera
with some outstanding moments, and the Who are one of the best bands to
ever pick up rock instruments.
* Also, I'd say that Joe Jackson's Look Sharp! is not my favorite album
ever, but I've thought it is really good for a long, long time, and
nobody else I know really likes it, so I'm standing up for it, as I've
actually done before. (Which reminds me that you should read my latest column.)
Mostly, the difference between the top 20 and the honorable mentions is
that I've noticed that I don't listen to the honorable mentions as much
anymore, or they have sections that noticeably aren't as great as their
highlights. Condensing this list any further was just foolish, I
discovered.
Top 20 Albums:
Selected Ambient Works 85-92
If You're Feeling Sinister
Emergency & I
Endtroducing...
Pink Moon+
Highway 61 Revisited+
Turn On The Bright Lights
The Creek Drank The Cradle
Look Sharp!
Substance (Joy Division)
The Lonesome Crowded West+
It Still Moves+
Winners Never Quit
Kid A
Ágætis Byrjun
Nebraska
Loaded+
Quadrophenia
Pink Flag
Decade
Honorable Mention:
Source Tags & Codes
Singles Going Steady
Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn
Decoration Day
All Hail West Texas
Give Up
Pinkerton
#1 New Contender:
Junior Boys: Last Exit (especially "Teach Me How To Fight")
Tonight was the best show
since last year, easily, and may not be topped this term, in my
opinion. I'd scripted out the first two-thirds of the show or so, up to
the Interpol. You might not think to look at it, but Aphex Twin and
Belle & Sebastian worked great together, at least they did for me
in the studio. The calls were sparse (one, unrelated to the show), but
I did get an appreciative email from Andrew Ullman, currently studying
in Australia.
I've managed to implement my planned reforms to the look of this page.
I know everything is working in Mozilla, and everything is pretty much
working in IE. I'm still working on what should be included in the
sidebar menu.
Well, my last experiments with extra CSS for a more complex layout
didn't work so well, but I did a pretty good job with my WordPress blog for class. I think I might implement that sort of setup for this page when it's not so late at night.
Last night's show at the Triple Rock was pretty great. Fog was weird.
Kid Dakota played as a four-piece with the sound guy from their recent
album, so the instruments all sounded perfect, especially the drums.
Low impressed me by seeming more varied than their albums led me to
believe, though I don't think their sustained quiet mood on record is a
bad thing.
The steak dinner at Brooks House was also great; the debate was not
really. I didn't feel George Bush did a very good job of composing
coherent or well-constructed responses to John Kerry's claims, but
thought Kerry didn't do as well as someone in his position could have.
This afternoon Max and I (and later, Charles) relaxed on the Culinary
House lawn after the cheese party for a couple of hours. It was, yes,
pretty great.
The fourth pretty great thing I have to mention is the party I went to
at Sarah Moody's apartment. The collection of sophomores was somewhat
surprising but quite interesting. Also, I learned that the CLAP Chicken* was not built specifically for CLAP use, which I'd suspected but not previously verified.
Ollie and I discussed the death of rock and roll, or more accurately
the end of progress in rock and roll, and agreed that we didn't care.
I'd noticed that this afternoon while listening to Of Montreal. It's
not new, the basic style has been around for over thirty years, yet
it's still good new music that deserves to be played and heard. Sure, I
like bleeps, bloops, and postmodern bells and whistles as much as
anybody, but I don't think that's really rock music, so I don't think
you can really complain that rock bands aren't innovating, because they
can't. All they can do is recombine the basic elements of the music
along with other influences and hope for the best.
Finally, Paloma and Atley have done a fine job with the late, late Saturday night radio show.
* The CLAP Chicken is a human-size model of
a chicken with a shelf or cubby located beneath its tail, constructed
by Peter Sowinski. The editors of the CLAP stood next to it outside
Sayles on Friday, and tempted passersby to reach inside the chicken and
get the CLAP. A good gimmick never hurts, I guess.
I'm thinking strongly about going to see Primer, which won
big at the Sundance festival this year, at the Lagoon on Wednesday. I
got an email saying I get two free admissions by being a Minnesota Film
Arts member. I'm not a member anymore, technically, but I did get the
email, and apparently that's what's required for admission. Do you want
to go?
---
Village Voice Review
NY Times Review
It seems like the KRLX board is moving really slowly this term, most
notably the production, which isn't happening at all. New music is not
getting played and put into circulation, which is a bad thing. We did
get some money, so that's exciting, but attendance at meetings has been
poor. I suppose I will doing as little as possible next term during
Comps. The DJs are all pretty good, though.
It looks like this week's radio show will feature a special guest. I'm
not sure whether that means any of these songs will be played, but one
can never say. Maybe if dancing becomes a priority.
1. Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours
2. Belle and Sebastian - If She Wants Me
3. Camera Obscura - Let Me Go Home
4. Sly and the Family Stone - Everybody is a Star
5. Junior Senior - Rhythm Bandits
6. Stevie Wonder - Superstition
7. Outkast - Hey Ya!
8. Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man
9. Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage!
10. The Temptations - Ain't Too Proud to Beg
Luna is playing at the Fine Line Music Cafe on Sunday 14 November.
Since that's the end of ninth week, I'll probably wait a while before
purchasing tickets.
First, tonight's radio show:
It was really good. Not really good like last week where I nailed all
the transitions and played a really good set of music, but really good
in the sense that Kevin co-DJ'ed. I suppose the listener didn't get to
hear all of our smart comments, especially about how Pitchfork needs a
broader base of advertising clients, but you did get to hear our bets
for who will and won't release a concept album next. I probably should
have picked Hilary Duff for the "Won't" category, but we can't have
everything we want.
Also, he tipped me off to the Radio Nationals show at Lee's Liquor
Lounge in Minneapolis next Friday. I can't say for sure whether I'll be
going, but it will be a factor in my non-SYR plans.
Then he mentioned SXSW 2005, which I'd forgotten about drooling over
last year. It would be really great, but it would also be four hundred
damn dollars plus transportation and food/lodging, which kind of makes
me wonder how much money I'm going to have in my bank account at that
point. It also takes place the same week as the Iowa high school state
basketball tournament, which should involve IMS pretty heavily this
year, so that's is another thing that makes me less than 100%
enthusiastic about taking the plunge. But South by Southwest would be a
fantastic way to forget about comps.
Alright then. Yesterday Teague and I saw Primer, for free! Think of an indie, down-to-earth Back to the Future (or maybe a more hip Groundhog Day),
with more subtlety and a greater air of mystery. The mood was really
enhanced by the camerawork, which kept jumping slightly and tended to
not reveal everything all at once. In fact, the film never really
provided a satisfactory conclusion to the time-traveling exploits of
the two main characters, but that choice might have allowed the
filmmaker to leave the audience with a more convincing sense of dread
than would have been possible with an attempt at actually explaining
their plans (probably malevolent) for the time machine they'd invented.
I'd go see it if I were you, but you won't die if you don't get the
chance.
That brings me to plans for the weekend. I'll probably see both shows
at the Cave (Friday, Saturday), and I'll be at Interpol Tuesday night
(the end of my mid-term break), but that leaves Sunday and Monday. I'd
really like to see I ♥ Huckabees, and probably will one of those two days. If I get the urge and am around at the right time, I might have to go watch The Seventh Seal at the Oak Street, just because. However, Shaun of the Dead, Sky Captain..., and Spider-Man 2 in IMAX, are tempting as well.
Finally, friends, that brings us to the topic of digital music. I'm
blazing toward 13,000 songs at a pretty good clip. I'm not sure how
long it will keep revealing treasures, but I've got a lot of the record
library to comb over before I lose my record libe key in March or April.
I sometimes get annoyed at my song-hoarding behavior, which means I
spend more time finding and ripping music than actually listening to
it, but that's because I want to get my hands on as much good music as
possible before it's no longer available to me. Mostly I'm imagining it
will be really nice next year to have when I'm dirt poor with
potentially little access to free, good new music; I'll be able to
"discover" things for years even if I don't buy any albums.
Also, we've been talking a lot about information in Cyberculture: The
New Digital Image class, and it got me to thinking about how I can
spend even more time working on my digital record collection. One thing
is that I want to find and note all cover songs or songs not performed
by the original artist. I'm not sure how long this would take, probably
a while, but it would be quicker than it seems. I'd like to add a
"Label" field somehow, in order to make not of what record label an
album was released by, but I guess I have that capability in the other
database I keep, so that's not really necessary.
More ambitiously, I want a range of tags to apply to songs and albums.
Tagging is an idea that's in vogue right now as a way to sort and find
files or other pieces of information. Instead of putting songs in
playlists like "Study Music" or "Loud and Exciting Music," or what have
you, you apply tags like "study" or "loud" but you don't have to place
the file in a single folder or playlist. With really good tags, I'd be
able to use smart playlists to listen to, say, slow ambient electronic
music released between 1994 and 1998, but also I could combine that
list with, say, this year's underground hip hop that I haven't listened
to in the past six months, then use only the loud or soft tracks, or
whatever else I wanted. I could use the "Genre" field for broad
categories and use other tags for finer distinctions, plus, I could
have multiple genres for a particular song, which is impossible now. I
think I'll put the tags with a + or something, like "+loud" or
"+shoegaze" in the "Grouping" field and leave the "Comments" field open.
That was enough updating for the rest of the term, I think.
This transcript
of Jon Stewart sabotaging CNN's Crossfire is enough to make me wish I
watched television more. It looks even better than when CNBC had Paul
Krugman "debating" the woefully overmatched Bill O'Reilly.
I guess it also makes me wish the media weren't such a circus of
disinformation and purposeful misdirection when it comes to things like
the presidential election.
I finally got around to reading the Village Voice's Fall Film forecast and saw that Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic, with Bill Murray, comes out December 10.
From the NY Times Magazine piece on the President's ignorance of reason, logic, and nuance:
In the Oval Office in December 2002, the president met with a few
ranking senators and members of the House, both Republicans and
Democrats. In those days, there were high hopes that the United
States-sponsored ''road map'' for the Israelis and Palestinians would
be a pathway to peace, and the discussion that wintry day was, in part,
about countries providing peacekeeping forces in the region. The
problem, everyone agreed, was that a number of European countries, like
France and Germany, had armies that were not trusted by either the
Israelis or Palestinians. One congressman -- the Hungarian-born Tom
Lantos, a Democrat from California and the only Holocaust survivor in
Congress -- mentioned that the Scandinavian countries were viewed more
positively. Lantos went on to describe for the president how the
Swedish Army might be an ideal candidate to anchor a small peacekeeping
force on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Sweden has a well-trained
force of about 25,000. The president looked at him appraisingly,
several people in the room recall.
''I don't know why you're talking about Sweden,'' Bush said. ''They're the neutral one. They don't have an army.''
Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: ''Mr.
President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They're the
ones that are historically neutral, without an army.'' Then Lantos
mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national
guard to protect the country in the event of invasion.
Bush held to his view. ''No, no, it's Sweden that has no army.''
The room went silent, until someone changed the subject.
A few weeks later, members of Congress and their spouses gathered with
administration officials and other dignitaries for the White House
Christmas party. The president saw Lantos and grabbed him by the
shoulder. ''You were right,'' he said, with bonhomie. ''Sweden does
have an army.''
I am listening to and enjoying Now Here Is Nowhere by the
Secret Machines, in preparation for tomorrow night, when they will open
for Interpol. I think I'd listened to the album this summer some time,
but it's been awhile. Though I've been pretty enthusiastic about
Interpol's half of the show since finding out about it, now I'm more
enthusiastic about Secret Machines.
I will have to remember to listen to Hearts of Space on KSUI when I'm in Iowa, after seeing it mentioned on Last Plane to Jakarta, which I'm sure you're tired of my mentioning by now. The radio show, in concept at least, kind of reminds me of Echoes, which used to come on at midnight on certain days of the week after the World Cafe.
Now that I think about it, I would have to credit Echoes with
introducing me to oddball ambient/experimental music, which I
appreciate more and more as time passes. Thank you, Echoes.
It's late and I shouldn't say much, because I have to get up tomorrow and study for a math exam.
But, I did get to see Interpol tonight, which was a great achievement.
Secret Machines weren't so good (too loud, too boring), and First
Avenue was more crowded than I've ever seen it, or felt it (so crowded
that Chloe, who went off to get a Red Bull, couldn't actually make it
back to where we were standing). But then Interpol came on and launched
into "Next Exit," which was fantastic. The first part of their set
focused more on Antics, but by the end they'd played seven or eight of the eleven tracks from Turn on the Bright Lights, which is currently tied for album of the millennium with Sigur Ros' Agaetis Byrjun,
in case you didn't know. They didn't appease Sarah Moody by playing
"Stella," but they played "NYC," just for me, and that was worth half
the price of admission right there. "Roland" was also one of the more
memorable numbers, in my opinion. The double encore set-up was kind of
weird, and after the show there was broken glass and bottles rolling
all over the floor, plus I just got home at 2:30, but the point is that
Interpol played songs from Turn on the Bright Lights, played them live, and played them quite well, and that's pretty tough to beat.
I don't know if it's just a result of my having listened so many times
to their first album, but Paul Banks' voice, which isn't really that
melodious or naturally beautiful, just did me in. I wouldn't put him on
par with Jim James, quite, but when he came out over top of the
organ-synth with "We ain't goin' to the town...," from their first
song, it was just golden.
The November issue of Scientific American says that when listening to
music, "The same kinds of pleasure centers of the brain light up as
they do when eating chocolate, having sex or taking cocaine." I'm
inclined to agree, personally.
Also, we stopped at Cheapo and I picked up Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon. It won out over Galaxie 500's Copenhagen and Echo and the Bunnymen's Songs to Learn and Sing.
I'm going to see the Arcade Fire at Gabe's in Iowa City the day I go home at the end of the term!
Tonight was a pretty solid show,
not too fast, not too loud. The record library didn't have a few of the
discs I needed for what I'd planned, so I improvised a little. Except
for the end, which got messed up. Next term I'll attempt to segue into
a show that knows what's going on and doesn't bring in at least one
laptop every time, because that ends up being a big mess.
Also, I got a show-related call for the first time since show #1. Not a
request, but a thanks for playing "Two-Headed Boy." I got an
appreciative call from someone last time I played "In the Aeroplane
Over the Sea" on my show. I kind of wish someone would appreciate a
band other than Neutral Milk Hotel.
A reminder to myself:
Monday afternoon I am meeting with my advisor. I will state my
intention to sign up for Math Comps, Combinatorial Theory (taking place
in Laird, not the CMC) with Tina Garrett, and Media Theory and Analysis
with Carol Donelan.
Hopefully I can squeeze comps between programming and elections for the
radio station, because overlap would be deadly. I will also have one
class each day of the week, which I like better than only having
classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Spring Term will bring Hitchcock/Bergman with Vern Bailey, the Math
Comps Exam, and either Applied Regression Analysis with Laura Chihara
or Topics in Combinatorics with Tina Garrett. It depends on whether I
want more of statistics or combinatorics, which I will have decided by
then, I guess.
Also, it seems that there has been confusion in some quarters regarding
my stance on ripping, "borrowing," or "stealing" music. This might be
because I said that I plan to either delete or buy all of the music on
my hard drive. The timetable for this extends throughout the next
decade, and probably beyond, so I don't plan to stop importing music I
don't own any time soon.
I estimate that I currently have 800 albums on my computer that I don't
legally own. I've been pretty careful with what I put on there (which
may be hard to believe), so let's assume that I'll want to keep 300 of
them permanently. If I wanted to purchase all of those, it would
probably end up costing me between three and five thousand dollars,
which isn't feasible at the moment.
Admittedly, I think many people have a less-than-constructive attitude
toward copyright in this case, because most artists aren't all that
wealthy and do need some form of income to keep playing music. There
are problems with the current distribution model, yes, but not paying
for something you enjoy, at least in the sense of an album that a band
puts out, doesn't seem ethical to me, in the long run. It's kind of
like a vote for a political candidate: you can talk all you want, but
without actual support (buying albums, voting on election day), you
haven't done much to encourage their continued existence, which doesn't
make sense.
However, I also believe that by not ripping a CD onto my hard drive, I
would be far less likely to discover that I like the artist in question
and support them in the future by purchasing albums, concert tickets,
etc. Thus, the initial act of theft is not intended as such, and
should, in the end, be economically productive and supportive of
musicians in general, rather than just ripping them off.
I just finished Empire Falls and absolutely loved it. That
could be in part because I've spent the majority of my life in small,
rural towns on the decline, but not necessarily. The family
relationships, the characters, Russo's method of telling his story, all
were great. One chapter in particular, a flashback to a boy's vacation
with his mother to Martha's Vineyard when he was nine, was so tightly
packed and well-written that it seemed like it could have been a
terrific short story on its own. I've still got to finish Sartre's Nausea, but I suppose I'll be picking up another book at the library soon. Nicholson Baker's Checkpoint is due back to the Northfield library tomorrow, so I'll probably try for that first.
Pitchfork interview, 1996: Modest Mouse loves them some drunk driving.
The median year in my iTunes library is 1999; the first and third
quartiles are 1993 and 2003. The mode is 2003 (even if I use only the
CDs in my case). The range is, effectively, 51 years (1954-2004). The
median song length is 3:42.
100 Facts and 1 Opinion: The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration (from The Nation)
I feel like there's a lot I should update about, but I don't know
exactly what. Perhaps most interesting is that when I went in for my
advising meeting on Monday, my advisor was browsing my grades online
like normal, and he saw that I was listed as having earned a "D" in
Intro to Computer Science (a class he taught), when we both knew I'd
gotten a "B" (which was mostly salvaged by writing that terrific
text-based adventure game I'm sure you all remember fondly). I had to
wonder why this happened; I have no idea yet.
I watched Notorious tonight, and it was really great. I'm
not sure how it couldn't have been great, since it starred Ingrid
Bergman and Cary Grant (plus Claude Rains), and was directed by Alfred
Hitchcock. Probably it was great mostly because it was so suspenseful
without anybody ever raising their voices or pulling a gun or even
throwing any punches. It was all done with plot and dialogue and subtle
gestures.
Monday night I watched Beat the Devil, which I didn't
think was so great. Apparently, audiences didn't understand that it was
a comedy when it was originally released, because it was so dry. I
understood it, and it was kind of funny, but not really all that funny
in the grand scheme of things. It was enjoyable but not something I
really care if I watch again. (Note: I picked up the DVD in Crack House
after it had been left behind in my room. I picked up a number of
things that way.)
Also, last weekend's SUMO was pretty good. Spiderman 2 was
everything I'd hoped it could be and more. I don't recall the first
installment being anywhere near as humorously self-aware as in the
scene where Peter gives up being Spiderman and wears the dork glasses.
How many blockbuster directors are smart enough to do something like
that, for as long as Sam Raimi did, especially without being foolish?
Not very many. And I liked The Bourne Supremacy was pretty good, but not great. It made me want to watch The Bourne Identity.
Tonight I went and got my brains smashed in by the Drive-By Truckers.
They played for 165 minutes, much of which was so loud that the vocals
started to get garbled and it became apparent that anything much louder
would probably cause technical problems. I realized that I'm not able
to tell Patterson Hood and Jason Isbell apart very well when they sing.
I'd say the definite highlights were "Let There Be Rock," from Southern Rock Opera,
which was the penultimate song, and a medley toward the end of the
first part of the set which started off with "Daddy's Cup" and "The Day
John Henry Died," both of which are new. It was too much to take in all
at once (this was the show that finally got me to buy some earplugs
[afterwards] so I don't need a hearing aid BEFORE graduation), and
their live show lacked the subtlety and gravity of Decoration Day
that really make that album work for me (they focused more on grinning
crazily while swigging Jack Daniels out of the bottle, etc.), but it
was a good time nonetheless. [This addendum may get removed depending
on if I stop liking it. Songs I wanted them to play that they didn't
(to be expected and not complained about): "The Deeper In," "Marry Me,"
"My Sweet Annette." This is because the first half of Decoration Day
is essentially perfect. Other songs they did play: "Sink Hole,"
"Outfit," "Heathens," "Careless," "Do It Yourself," "Decoration Day,"
"Carl Perkins Cadillac," "Lookout Mountain," "Zip City," "Road Cases,"
"Bulldozers and Dirt," "Uncle Frank," "The Living Bubba,"]
I'm thinking that this Saturday's Trail of Dead show will probably be my last concert of the term, but I guess you never know.
Have you seen the new Eminem video? You probably should even if you don't like him or dislike rap music in general. [Link 1, Link 2]
I am listening to and enjoying Panda Bear's Young Prayer, thanks to my conversation with Mathias today in the post office. In his characteristically well-written review
on Pitchfork, Mark Richardson notes that, "It's the kind of record that
will have a profound impact on a small number of people, be ridiculed
by many more, and never be heard at all by almost everybody." I fit
into the first category, it seems. This definitely makes me want to
check out the Animal Collective's Sung Tongs.
This thing is kind of cool. It makes for an easy and useful way to learn about different genres of electronic music, which are legion.
My radio show
went pretty well this evening. I got to play some tracks from the Panda
Bear album I've mentioned, and a lot of Brian Eno's "Thursday
Afternoon." I'd say the first half was excellent, and the second half
pretty good.
Another reminder to myself:
Remember to order Kompilations
from Kranky on Monday (assuming I have enough money in my x.com
account), when it becomes available for pre-order. I imagine it will
receive heavy play on my radio show. I also wouldn't be surprised if we
get it in the record library, but I would rather buy this myself.
"You can't do that to President Oden; he's a man of letters!"
Thanks to Charles for biting the bullet and organizing an enjoyable
literary reading/party/gathering at 506 N 6th St. Perhaps most
momentously, it featured a screening of Auf der grossen Wiese, attended by most of the cast.
Also, I'm happy to report that my room is feeling quite pleasant
(finally!) due to the line of thunderstorms that so spectacularly broke
the warm air mass hovering over Northfield. Good job, line of
thunderstorms.
I'm thinking that the last track on the new Beastie Boys album, "We Got
The," sounds a lot like Public Enemy's "Fight the Power," but not in a
totally derivative way.
Echoes of Technopeace's Kickoff: Paper Toss. My current high is 26.
Maybe I should mention that Eminem's Mosh video isn't just a good music
video, it's one of the most effective and moving pleas for change in
the White House since Fahrenheit 911. [Again: Link 1, Link 2]
I watched Open Range this evening and liked it a lot. I
hear that some have found it to be slow and meaningless, at least
before the gunfight, but I thought the characters were extraordinarily
developed and thoughtfully expressive for a Western. Although the
editing was kind of weird (short shots and scenes fading in and out
through the first hour or so), the mode of presentation really got me
into the characters and their plight. Also, the scene where Robert
Duvall shoots a guy from through a wall is incredible. Sight and Sound
magazine has a really great piece on the movie; I think it's in their
September or October issue but isn't online at the moment.
Max and I went to see ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead this
evening. Iqu and Forget Cassettes opened. Iqu (turntable, synths,
theremin) were pretty good, and Forget Cassettes were...forgettable?
That might be too harsh, but I wasn't convinced that I should check out
any of their albums.
I'd heard that Trail of Dead can be great or terrible live, but luckily
tonight they were great. At least three of the songs from their new
album (January 2005) were terrific, as were most songs from Source Tags & Codes and Madonna.
They tossed bottles into the crowd, gave somebody a cymbal and stick
for the last song, strummed guitars with microphones, included a cheesy
electro dance number, but it all worked because they weren't very drunk
and they clearly have a sense of drama (unlike some bands who act crazy
but just wind up looking like morons). They had two drumsets, which was
pretty terrific. The vocals weren't as good as on the albums, but they
played ferociously.
Also, I enjoyed my earplugs quite a bit. I could hardly even notice any
ringing in my ears afterward, unlike the days of annoyance I endured
after Drive-By Truckers. There were times when I wanted things a little
louder, but in the end I think I succeeded in enjoying myself more than
I would have otherwise.
Max pointed out to me that the New Republic seems to be having an identity crisis. Editor-in-chief Martin Peretz is writing things like this,
nonsensically supporting President Bush and the war in Iraq (he fails
to acknowledge the reason we gave for going to war), when this weeks
cover is an endorsement of John Kerry for president. For Peretz, from a
traditionally (mostly) liberal publication, to be questioning Kerry on
such an issue as this on the eve of the election is unconscionable.
What a counterproductive moron.