Sweet, sweet memories of mama boiling corn

I grew up watching Hee-Haw and late night K-Tell commercials. This SNL skit from 2004 reminds me of both of those beloved memories. Watch for the song "Ain't Nothin' Cuter." It is God.

Doctor Uke

The Doctor Who theme play on ukelele. The two great tastes that taste great together.

Book Review: Little, Big - John Crowley

Little, Big by John Crowley

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
LB is lush, beautiful, and strange. It is one of those books, also, that sent me scurrying for other sources to help make sense of what I am reading. The language is poetic, but not dense. The characters are memorable, but like the book, a little removed and detached. I found myself reading this book from a distance, as opposed to feeling involved and part of the story. Which again is also apt, because the book is ultimately about a Tale and one lone family whose responsibility it is to spin it by acting out an ages old set of circumstances set forth by outside forces. The Story which this family enacts is theirs alone and sets them apart, literally it seems, from the rest of the world. Despite the aloofness of the novel, however, I found LB to be rewarding and rich. It is not a casual read, but thick with allusions to other tales, fables, and myths. John Crowley does not simply do this to flex his highly developed literary muscles, but the very nature of his Tale depends upon the existence of these other established ones.


View all my reviews.

Straw-ng Hold

East Texas man builds house out of mud, hay, and sand.
I must admit that building this kind of structure has always been a dream of mine. Who wouldn't want their own ecologically sound Hobbit hole?

Suarasama

I am so happy. A few years ago I stumbled upon a twenty volume Smithonian/Folkways collection of Indonesian music. Most of it was really great but the last disc pretty much blew my mind. It was a collection of guitar music and every track was absolutely incredible. What struck me was how all-over-the-place everything sounded. Some of the songs were made on funky home-made guitars and sounded like weird Delta blues filtered through Middle Eastern ude music, while other stuff sounded like Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Out of all of this great music, one band and song especially stood out. The song was called Fatas Di Atas Awan and sounded like nothing elese I had ever heard. I'm not going to describe it here, but you should give it a listen for yourself. The band was/is a male/female duo called Suarasama, and I've been looking for their album on and off for the last 7-8 years and just discovered today that Drag City will be re-releasing their full-length album, Fatas Di Atas Awan later this month.

Yay.

Since I'm kind of obsessed, I just ordered it on CD and LP. Although I've only heard the title track, which is the song on the Smithsonian compilation, I can't imagine the album being a disappointment.

Frankie Lee and Judas Priest were the best of friends

I've been listening a lot to Judas Priest lately. I never listened to a lot of metal growing up because I was a clueless little snob, but over the past few years I've seen the errors of my ways. Anyways, Sin after Sin is one of my favorite priest albums, and I especially love the song "Diamonds and Rust," which was written by none other than Joan Baez. What's awesome about this song is that it was written for Bob Dylan after he unceremoniously dumped her and treated her generally like dirt. Whenever I listen to the Judas Priest version of this song, I picture Rob Halford in full Priest leather get-up singing to Bob Dylan at the height of his Rolling Thunder weirdness. So my friend and band mate Ryan Thomas Becker sent me this image that he made in honor of my rock and roll fantasy.

Damn you Ryan, damn you.

My Barbarian Invasions

About 18 months ago I was introduced to the performance group My Barbarian by my friend Colleen who sent me a link to a video for a song called "Unicorns LA." I subsequently discovered that it was mentioned in boingboing about three years ago, but somehow I missed it. Since then I have become obsessed with their somewhat singular take on post-ironic performance art. The only way I can describe them is as if Bob Fosse choreographed a Renaissance Faire to be filmed as an after school special to be shown at an early 70s Californian hippie commune, then you have a vague idea of what this group is about.

The most bizarre thing about them is that they somehow manage to project both sincerity about what they are doing, while still being completely self aware of the ridiculousness of their performance. I don't know what to call this approach. "Sincere irony" perhaps?

My interest in them comes partially from my interest in the way popular culture interprets the medieval world. I study medieval art history and I am always confronted by people who misinterpret what I do. I don't know how many times I have been asked if I go to Renaissance Faires, or if I "dress up" in medieval garb. How come nobody asks Egyptologists if they put on Pharonic headwear? Anyway, I do understand that medievalism has a particularly geeky/fanboy subculture aura around it, and it is this aspect that initially attracted me to My Barbarian. I think that possibly only Civil War buffs maintain the same level of intense fandom around their historical subject as medievalists do.

My Barbarian explore so much more than medievalsim. Their whole shtick is an examination of/commentary on, and weird embracing of 1970's Southern California new age culture and its interests. What I love most about these guys is the way they can both satirize this culture for its excesses while also embracing it for its hopefulness and sense of possibility.

The one to watch.

This is pretty darn cool. iTunes along with the makers of the upcoming Watchmen movie have just published the first chapter of an animated webcomic of the Alan Moore classic graphic novel. While I still have my doubts after seeing the new preview for the 2009 film version made by the guy who brought us 300, I'm quite excited by this animated version.

Ten out of Ten Doctors...

A comix artist named Rich has created a surprisingly good Doctor Who fan comic featuring all ten Doctors. The art and the story are both very good, and are in some ways more entertaining than the last season of DW.

HeLP!

I've been going record crazy. It is an addiction I cannot and do not want to curb. I am going to go broke. I don't care. Vinyl is precious to me. It gives my sad little life direction. It keeps my hands out of my pants (except when I reach for cash to buy record). I used to hate people like the one I have become. I worked at a used record store for ten years. I once mocked and loathed the sad, empty-lifed recluses who came into the store and snot-pawed the vinyl like some middle-aged pizza loving Gollum whose one-ring was an out-of-print Italian prog album. Now I am that person. I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs. I try to eat fairly healthily. I exercise regularly. I collect vinyl. I am new at it. It is a corrupting influence. I don't know exactly what caused this mania. I got a new job. I am in a band that makes me happy. My life has changed significantly in the past few months. This coincides with my new habit, but I'm not sure how the two fit together.

Here are my recent acquisitions of the past month or so:

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Geraldine Fibbers - Butch
XTC - Skylarking (Mermaid Smile version)
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
Jethro Tull - Warchild, Heavy Horses, Living in the Past
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Lou Reed - Transformer
Big Star - 3rd
David Bowie - Scary Monsters, Changesonebowie & Changestwobowie
Billy Bragg - Workers' Playtime
Can - Ege Bamyasi
Decemberists - Crane Wife, The Tain, Her Majesty, Picturesque
6 Nonesuch Explorer Albums

There are more, but I'm too weak to go on.

Rest in peace, Arthur C. Clarke

There were two major authors that completely consumed by brain from about the ages of 10 to 14 - Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke. Ray Bradbury showed me that there was something beautiful, scary, and poetic in almost everything around me, while Clarke taught me about potential.

Almost everything that guy wrote was about how we could achieve anything we wanted as a species as long as we just rolled up our sleeves and got to work. Nothing happens to any character in a Clarke novel if they just sit on their hands. His heroes are always people who think big, question everything, and look ahead. Unfortunately, it is our inability as a race to live up to Clarke's vision that I am so disappointed in the world right now. I feel that we're asking all the wrong questions, setting all the wrong goals, and simply not applying ourselves. We could be achieving greatness, but instead we're fighting over whose god is better than the other.

In spite of this, I refuse to give up hope. It is because of people like Arthur C. Clarke that I cling to one last shred of optimism. He never gave up on us, so I guess I can't either.

Glove Makes the World Go Around

My friend Jennifer Gooch, who is a MFA student at Carnegie Mellon has created a website called onecoldhand.com that seeks to reunite lost gloves found in the Pittsbutrgh area. She has been getting mad attention from some major news sources.

Here's a link to the AP article about her endeavor:

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- It's like an online dating service for long lost gloves. No, that's not a typo.

A Texas native who experienced her first snowflakes in Pittsburgh last year was miffed by the lost gloves she spotted all over the city last winter. Whom did they belong to? Wouldn't they want them back? Why were people just walking past them?

So Jennifer Gooch, who is pursuing her master of fine arts degree at Carnegie Mellon University, started onecoldhand.com in an effort to reunite dropped gloves with their mates -- and in the process spread some goodwill.

Universal Soldier

I'll admit it. I am a big fan of musicals. I was raised on Singin' in the Rain, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Jesus Christ Superstar, Wizard of Oz, and all of the other great musicals. I have never understood some people's dislike (in some cases revulsion) to movie musicals. The argument is usually that they are unrealistic, the plot is too thin, ridiculous and unbelievable, the characterization is weak, etc., etc. Of course these are the same people who love slapstick comedies and sci-fi actioners, two genres both entrenched in their own brand of unrealistic conventions, but that's another story (Note: I love these genres too, I'm just saying).

As a big musical fan, Beatles buff, and a fan of the director Julie Taymoor, I have been very excited about the new musical Across the Universe. I saw it over a month ago, but I'm only now getting around to completing my review. Although I totally loved it, the reviews have been decidedly mixed, it's at 54% fresh (read: good) at Rotten Tomatoes. Some of the negative reviews are spot on: that it is ham-fisted and overly naive (true), that it depicts a cliche-ridden, overly nostalgic and overly-simplified view of the 60s (also true), and that it is full of embarrassing cameos (half-true). What these critics hardly ever mention is the sheer inventiveness of the musical numbers, the excellent acting and singing, the amazing visual effects, the great score and performances of Beatle standards, and the film's palpable exuberance towards its subject matter.

One of my biggest complaints about some critics is the inability for many of them to temper their reviews based on the material. Criticizing a musical because the plot is thin, or the characterization is weak is like complaining about the lack of special effects in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Each film genre has its own inherent strengths and weaknesses, and although we should expect high quality from every film and also expect films to push the envelope of their respective genres, it is kind presumptuous to expect one kind of film to deliver a complete experience that is beyond the constraints of its genre in every single aspect.

While ACTU almost wallows in some of the hoarier musical conventions (boy meets girls-loses girl, big sing-a-long production number as deus ex machina, etc.), it fills the screen with some of the most beautiful and inventive images I've seen in a long time. The bizarre production number featuring "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" remade as a plaintive broken-hearted lesbian soliloquy set amongst a choreographed football practice is worth the price of admission alone. There are some numbers that take these very well-known songs in such unexpected ways, that I sat through much of the movie with a big, goofy smile on my face in anticipation of what was going to happen next.

In the end, if you're a fan of musicals and/or the Beatles, you'll probably enjoy this one. If not, then don't go.

En-"list"-ed

My friend Jennifer Gooch (who's becoming quite the cause célebré as an artist and a songwriter) posted a list of words on her blog pertaining to themes and ideas in her art work. It's kinda like Eno’s Oblique Strategies inverted.
After reading her list I made one of my own for songwriting. I was slightly surprised at the results. My list reads like the personality traits of the child of Neitzsche and Faulkner - a Southern Gothic Ubermensch?

Here’s my list:
1. regret
2. family
3. memory
4. death
5. renewal
6. tokens
7. brotherhood/sisterhood (in the sense of bonding together against or for a common cause)
8. names
9. outsiders
10. metamorphosis
11. language
12. body parts
13. declarations
14. science
15. abuse
16. sexuality
17. small town life
18. escapism
19. story
20. lying
21. defiance
22. (inability to) travel
23. secrets
24. war

Rock Lottery

This past weekend I participated in an annual event called Rock Lottery which celebrated its 10th anniversary with a two-night event. I’m not going to go into details about the event rules since you can read about that here. Suffice it is to say that RL is an exhausting but very rewarding process, that takes a few days from which to recover.

This year was a little different in that there was the possibility that a band could be drummerless. I was in that band. Also, I was in a band with arguably the most experimental musicians on the roster. I would like to say that I had a really great time and that working with the people with whom I was assigned introduced me to ideas and working methods that I had never tried. My bandmate Sarah Alexander especially had some really cool improvisational techniques that really opened my eyes to new ways of working. Although I listen to a lot of experimental kinds of music, my own music is folk based and rooted firmly in traditional American and British songwriting structures.

As a band, we intentionally avoided going for the comedy or outrageous stage show angle and really tried concentrating on making interesting sounds. I will agree that our performance could have had more polish, but overall I was happy with the direction and ideas. All of my bandmates agreed that we could have used a few more hours practice (and some sleep). The reaction of the crowd was definitely mixed. Some saw us as a mild disappointment while others were supportive of our more experimental approach, while there were others who didn’t like us at all. The best compliment I had was from my friend and Rock Lottery 9 alum, Ian Johnson, who said the band sounded like what the Replacements or another 80s Minneapolis band would have sounded like if they were from a parallel universe and played experimental music. We were definitely the strangest band that night in terms of the kinds of music we were playing, which veered from rhythmic and textural experimentations, electronic dance, Velvety post-punk stuff, to powerpop.

Ultimately I think we played in the best spirit of the Rock Lottery, and I’m happy with many of the things we did. I also had a really great time working with Cory, Sarah, George, and Rob, and hope to have the opportunity to play with them again some day.

Goodbye, Syd.

I had to put my 15 year-old cat to sleep today. He had cancer. He was diagnosed about two years ago, but was doing ok. Over the last few months his tumor had gotten really large. I had already decided not to do chemo, so I was prepared for the worst. He had stopped eating the last few days, and he moved very little. I decided to take him in to the vet today. I got to say, "Goodbye," to him.

He was a great cat. He was very affectionate and even natured. He loved people. He was a gentle soul. He was also polydactyl; he had extra toes. His front paws looked like he was wearing little gray boxing gloves. Syd was a smart cat. He would come when his name was called. He understood other commands, too. He was very clever. He would pull my hand out from under my pillow with his paw as I slept. He would then drag my hand over to his head to be rubbed.

He loved to get in the shower right after I used it. He would wait until I left the room and then jump in the tub. He loved to drink water from the tub. He didn't drink water in the normal way that cats do. He would dip his paw in the water and make a little paw-cup with his thumb.
I miss him very much.

Heavy Pet-ing

This is an animation featured on youtube. Even though millions of people will see this, I had to post it because it is so damn charming. A student named Julia Pott at Kingston University made this as her final project. The short film consists of animation of cartoon animals synched with audio interviews of various people talking about there first crushes.

Civic Duty

I'm not a car person. Never have been. I never understood the love for an automobile. I just recently bought a '97 Honda Civic. I can't say that I love it, but I do enjoy it more than I have ever enjoyed a car before. I had to get it because I just got a teaching position in a town 33 miles away, and my wife and I can no longer carpool to the university. Plus, the gas for driving the Jeep everyday was killing me.

This is why I enjoy my "new" car - it's economical, kinda bland looking, no frills, yet enjoyable to drive. I like to think I now own the automotive equivalent of myself. Kinda weird and egotistical, like the old tv show "My Mother the Car" as an ego driven masturbatory fantasy.

Still, I really miss riding my scooter everyday, and hope to one day have a job in Denton that allows me to take 2 wheels instead of 4 everyday to work. Either that, or I'll live in a city with real public transportation.

Psych!

So I stumbled across a BBC2 radio special on the history of psychedelic music. Some of the interviews are really cool, especially with Joe Boyd and Mike Heron. However, some of the interviews are lifted directly from the tv documentary Rock and Roll: An Unruly History.

Unfortunately, the narrator adopts a kind of jaded a holier-than-thou attitude and thinks it is necessary to make dismissive jokes demonstrating how naive and ridiculous everyone involved in the 60s counterculture now looks. If you can get past the self-conscious narration, the series is pretty good.

For the Record

In honor of my friend Matt, I am going to try and post the LPs I have been purchasing of late.

From Half-Price in Dallas 9/10
Robyn Hitchcock - Invisible Hitchcock
Pentangle - Cruel Sister
Brinsley Schwartz - Nervous on the Road
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead

Ebay
Incredible String Band - Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking

From Recycled over the past month
Willie Nelson - Phases and Stages
Rolling Stones - Through the Past Darkly
Mike Heron - Smiling Men w/Bad Reputations
Pentangle - Solomon's Seal

From Forever Young
Incredible String Band - 5000 Layers of the Onion
Kinks - Lola vs. Powerman...
Incredible String Band - Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (accidentally scratched and immediately replaced - see above)

Waterloo and Cheapo in Austin
Neutral Milk Hotel - Aeroplane Over the Sea
Pogues - Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
Palace - Days in the Wake


I have also raided the $.25 bin at Recycled and grabbed a bunch of stuff from Fleetwood Mac to the Clash. I'm also building up my Dylan and Pink Floyd catalogs.