Saturday, February 28, 2009

Vintage.

I procrastinated about asking someone to my prom, and now it seems that everyone has dates already.

Did find a great dress though:

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Ye olde music newes.

I feel like chatting music, and starting in a strange place.

Downloaded some eps from the Blast First site; two tributes to Alan Vega. And one includes a track by the Horrors. Not too shabby, also quite different from what I expected.

About the Horrors. Have been thinking abut bands cutting their own balls off and the Horrors always spring to mind. A friend posted the “Sheena Is A Parasite” vid back in 2006, and was the first I’d heard of them. The video sold me. I purchased the ep. The insane garage sound sold me even more. I started recommending them to old-timey punk friends, thinking they’d adore the meaningless sound of it all (I passed around the Hives in much the same spirit). Who cares about the lyrics? Listen to that! Like the Detroit Cobras, makes you shake that ass!

What I didn’t take into account was that the Horrors would fundamentally change their ep songs for the full-length release. Part of me said, “Oooo, how clever, giving the audience something different and more bang for their buck.” The other part of me was terribly disappointed. I’m curious to find out why they changed the songs, but not losing sleep over it. And haven’t bothered to look up any interviews. I don’t care that much. What I do know is that the ep is a little garage gem; I don't give a toss about the lp.

Was also fascinated with video director's Chris Cunningham’s response, who stated he liked the futuristic sound. Interesting. I must admit the Sheena video became an instant favorite...and how simple is it? Very. God only knows if it got any play on MTV and the like (again, don’t care), so maybe people are so burned out on it they can’t bear the idea of watching it again. But I’m going to embed it here anyway.



Just discovered it was banned back in the day. Really??? People have too much f***ing time on their hands if they're offended by that.

I’ve recently seen a boxed set featuring Spike Jonze‘s, Chris Cunningham’s and Michel Gondry’s video oeuvres and am considering it. May pick it up in just a bit actually. I know exactly where it is, and there is an invisible string leading me toward it ;) Sheena t'aint on it though.

Speaking of videos, I gather there is a rather embarrassing video out on YouTube involving the Horrors and a venue they shouldn’t have chosen. Reminding us all that in this new world, it takes about 2 minutes for your puddle of flop sweat to be seen by the masses.

...........

And as a final aside, just discovered that I could upgrade my iTunes purchases to remove the protections…..at a cost though. Irritating. At 30 cents per song, I could now provide you with the ep….which is exactly why the protections were there in the first place. It would cost me over $50 to convert everything - won’t be doing it - but still, think I got off easy.

The iTunes update from Jan. 7th (I’m always behind the news)

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Cock-rockers and kookaburras: an animation EXPLOSION!

I've wanted to write a post about some favorite films from my wasted youth and now seems as good a time as any. Taking a wee break from the London trip, but will get back to it over the weekend.

My parents were (and are) quite intelligent and maybe a little too open about things. They were interested in my brothers and I having our own experiences, and were fine with parties and staying out, as long as I was safe and called them to let them know where I was. They didn't fret about boys I brought home (not openly anyway). And at one point I seem to remember my mother encouraging me to try LSD "at least once, it's like a conversation with God". I mention all this because they were also pretty laid back about what we watched. It was pretty varied, but there was a love of goofy cult film in our household, including things like Crimewave (the first Coen Bros. sally) and The Forbidden Zone, written and directed by Richard Elfman and starring his younger brother as Satan. I recently tried to get some friends to watch Crimewave, thinking it would be great fun...but, well...I may be its only fan ;) Much like some of the movies I'm about to bring up below!

Favorite films of youth include but are certainly not limited to, the following...and I think I can come up with reasons to watch all of them. My reasons, anyway.

Dot and the Kangaroo: this film came out in 1977, and I was watching it soon after...probably up through my teen years, as it became a rather staple-ish thing on HBO. I can still sing the utterly frantic "Clickety-click" song...and I'm sure if you caught my brother after a few glasses of wine, he could (and would) as well. It's based on a book from 1899, which is news to me (read the wiki last night). The book looks charming. The movie is probably less so...but I've pulled two clips from YouTube: the Bunyip and Clickety-Click songs. The creator of the latter clip points out that the manically cheery song is placed right after the parents have finally allowed that Dot might be dead. Must say I didn't notice that as a kid. Nor as a teen. But then, as a teen things like this start to morph into something else, something with which to annoy others. Which will lead me to the next film in just a moment.

Here is the Bunyip song (written by John Palmer and performed by Maurie Wilmore):



Clickety-clickety-clickety click!!!!! (with spoiler alert, and this song also written by John Palmer and performed by Maurie Wilmore)





Unico has to be the most obnoxious thing I have EVER seen. I love it. I forced many friends in college to watch it, which resulted in people imitating the high-pitched whiny American voices for days (I gather only the dubbed versions are quite this terrifying). Both "The Fantastic Adventures of Unico", 1981, and "Unico in the Island of Magic", 1983, are to be re-released on dvd. Beware! Early Sanrio at its most terrifying. These films include very odd and disturbing elements, which may be why they continue to float around in my head rather than being swept away with the other dustbunnies. Cribbed from wikipedia: "In this film, Unico meets a kind-hearted young girl named Cheri (also spelled "Cherry", voiced by Sumi Shimamoto). Cheri's older brother, Toby (in Japanese, "Torubi", voiced by Shuichi Ikeda), is working for the evil Lord Kuruku (in Japanese, "Kukuruku"), who plans to turn all living creatures, animals and people alike, into zombie-like beings called "Living Puppets" to be his slaves; Toby's job is to change people into Living Puppets and then lure the Living Puppets to Kuruku's island castle. Toby also takes on Melvin the Magnificat ("Yamaneko" in Japanese) - who hates Unico because Unico "intruded" in "his" forest (the forest in which the West Wind left Unico) - as his assistant. After Cheri's parents and neighbors all get turned into Living Puppets, she and Unico team up to stop Kuruku." See? Scary!!

Below is a (link to) clip from Fantastic Adventures (I love this song):
its Chao's cat song, which is why I sing this song of mow-meow-meow. For some reason the YouTube member has disabled embedding (frown).

And here is a clip from The Island of Magic. Unico meets Toby the devil. You don't need to watch more than maybe, oh, up through the demon statue being destroyed to get a very clear idea of the rest of the film.





Animalympics: this film really caught the spirit of things, Lake Placid Olympics and all that. It is spot-on. Was created in 1978-79, and features several full-length musical segments by 10cc's Graham Gouldman (I've included several below). The film stars many great voice talents, including Gilda Radner, Billy Crystal and Harry Shearer. And may I add that Lisberger Studios had the coolest logo ever. It does not surprise me one tiny bit that he and his crew went on to create Tron. Nor that this film is played at sci fi cons.

I never stopped enjoying this, and don't know if it has to do with memories of the time (we were lurking about Lake Placid constantly at that point and I had a crush on a blond boy named Tad) or maybe my friend's memories, as he's from Placid. We once in a while sit down and watch it...has become a bit comfort food-ish.

The Noah's Ark "Go For It" scene (which is mildly brilliant for showing all the bored patrons):



"WE Made It To the Top" (I always over-empathize with that tiger):



And, finally, "Love's Not For Me" - which, oddly, is actually a very pretty song.





And now, Rock & Rule,. I heart this film. A campy friend of mine has the sound mind to love it as well, and we were both a little overly excited about the release on dvd. I don't know how many times I saw this as a kid, but of the four films presented here, might be the one deemed least "appropriate" for a kid. I adored it, but then again, I was 13. And since I started reading my parents' collection of Heavy Metals by age 9 and had already been introduced to drug culture, this suited me fine. It had great music (Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Deborah Harry and Cheap Trick) and the animation, in my opinion, is outstanding. And some of the best secondary characters in film. Cindy Zip is my hero.

Here's Cindy at the club, getting down to "Hot Dogs and Sushi" by Melleny Brown, preceded by Earth, Wind and Fire's "Dance Dance Dance":



Here's Omar's rendition of "Born to Raise Hell" (Cheap Trick):



And, on an end note, the gloriously self-involved dragged out cock-rocker Mok (musically played by Lou Reed and Iggy, natch):



Enjoy!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

The British Museum, 10.04.2008.

Segment II, Day II: the British Museum. I was quite methodical about my time in London...I won't really go through it day by day, hour by hour, but I tried to do one major event each day. The rest of the day was spent noodling in Starbucks, wandering the streets, hitting various pubs with a friend....or being sick in the hotel (I caught a cold 7 days in).

A little background story to my British Museum trip: it was cold and rainy that day. Not unusual for London by any means, but unusual for this trip. As mentioned before, I was getting used to the sun. Rain doesn't suit me. Living in Los Angeles for 11 years will do funny things to a person, like make them forget that socks exist, forget that hair products don't hold up in mist, and forget that high heeled boots are a BAD idea when considering inclement weather. I looked at a map and it seemed close enough to the Tottenham Court Rd. station, so I thought, "Well, why not...I feel all skirty and boots-ish today." Not counting on getting terribly, terribly lost. After my pride was wounded enough, I stopped at a vendor and purchased the map I'm referring to right now to write this entry. My mistake was thinking I could spot the museum from a distance, despite not having any idea what it looked like in the first place. Silly. I would have crossed paths with Bugs and ended up at Pismo Beach at the rate I was messing up. The map vendor pointed me in the right direction. Unfortunately, by this point my boots had eaten away at my ankles enough to draw blood. So my memories of the British Museum are a bit patchy as I limped my way through for a few hours. Needless to say, nought was done the rest of the night...other than tending wounded feet.

The museum itself? Imposing. It was cold, wet and crowded. It felt quite good to get inside after navigating the iron gates, wobbling up the wet steps and shaking my umbrella in unison with 50 other people. The interior? Daunting. Huge. I just followed my nose, and thus probably missed some excellent exhibits from massive and now-extinct cultures. I was most impressed by the Egyptian, Indian and Chinese collections. The Assyrians always impress - their tendency toward zoomorphism is exciting to me. Lion and hawk-headed deities wielding sickles and daggers...very threatening, and there's a slight fear of the completely unknown as well. Why I feel I understand the ancient Egyptians better is anyone's guess. Everything seemed massive and desperately imposing...huge granite busts and sphinxes (plural also being sphinges, which I may like better), lions, wolves; renditions of serene and/or exceptionally vexed rulers...huge tablets of unknown scrawl from this empire and that. Made one feel quite small and insignificant. Heck, I thought we needed the cosmos for that. I wonder who made these items...who modeled for them (and, naughty me, quite interested in finding out who modeled for that fallen soldier in the Greek collection), what they were like, what their lives were like. It leads me to a slight melancholy most times, and sadness at mortality.

The Indian and Chinese exhibits, however, make me think about life and love and sex, and the joys we have in front of us each day. So things started looking up. Pottery dishes to eat good food out of, statuary teaching us grace and divine peace, vases to extend the life of that flower or twig just a bit longer...and the death gods: even them dancing and rampantly jolly whilst treading on their victims. And my favorite god of all, Ganesha, dancing with trunk slightly lifted; stomach jutting in front of him. There is a statue of Ganesha in LACMA's collection whose belly is dark and of a high polish from all the hands that rubbed it for good luck over the centuries. By the time I'd wound my way to the end of the Chinese collection (and those amazing life-sized ceramic statues), I was knackered. And my feet hurt abysmally. Almost time to go.

I made one more stop on my way out....into the library area. Oh, the books of it all! I was jealous. There. I admit it. The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte is kind of a wet dream fantasy for me; if I collect anything, it is books. So the library was difficult. But beautiful. Many, many objet d'arte mini-collections behind glass - I can't possibly do it any sort of justice; no notes, tired, and good golly, nearly four months have flown by! But at least the photos below can give you a glimmer :)

It was time for me to leave then...as it is time for me to leave now. More soon!

Natural History Museum, 10.03.2008.

I'd mentioned I might go more indepth on the London trip, so hold onto yer hats. Going to be a long ride.

May as well take it day by day. First day in, after a surprisingly comfy-womfy flight on Air New Zealand - highly recommended!, and checking into the Kensington Marriott, I trotted off to the Natural History Museum down the street. It is almost skipping distance from the Gloucester Road tube station.

I was flummoxed from the get-go, because, as you other Americans are well aware, you have to empty your pockets at the door of any museum. But I couldn't find the desk where I might pay, and saw no lines (despite tons of people). Suffered a surfeit of guilt as I walked in...and laugh now that I should feel guilty about learning for free. A friend tipped me off that there is no admission fee...but they heartily enjoy donations.

The dinos held the greatest allure, and as soon as you walk in you're battered with huge skeletons - picking their largest and most visually impressive 'saurs to draw you in. A diplodocus stretched from snout to tip-of-tail by way of a post-mortem greeting...beautiful. And I always find myself wondering what they really looked like. Glad that archeologists and such have been finding organs and skin imprints to fill in our rather huge knowledge gaps.

The museum was PACKED. I know I've said this repeatedly, but I don't think I've ever been so pressed against my fellow man anywhere. At least fellow humanity I don't know. It was a bit claustrophobic, and unfortunately, the way the paleo area is arranged, it's much like a cattle run to the slaughterhouse. Once you're on the path, there's no going back. I think this is excellent information for those who 1) can't stand crowds, and 2) may not be able to stand for long periods of time. I thought of my overweight friends a lot on this trip.

After a while, I felt like bolting, but eased into a focus on getting photos and lessening my fixation on the people around me. The family ahead of me were horrified by the amount the dinosaur exhibit cost...odd concern, that. And of course you could hear everything anyone was saying, because everyone is up your nose.

Having said that, it is an amazing collection. I was enchanted with the way they had set up the walkway - the dinos are on two levels and you get to see most specimens from two perspectives. Space-saving and interesting - very clever. The top level allows you to be face-to-face with the bulk of the dino skellies, lots of predators up there...the grouping of raptors is posed quite well, making it easy to imagine them coming after you (Jurassic Park may have assisted with that visualization).

The lower level is more the "Have fun with learning!" level...lots of little informative plaques and games/exercises. But you can still look up and see the skeletons above you (as they're placed on clear plexi; again, quite clever thinking).

The shadows are amazing. I wish I wasn't constantly being prodded forward by the crowd. Could have stayed and snapped shots for a very long time. But they had to be on-the-fly. Too bad, but got what I could.

The rest of the museum is much like any natural history museum, with impressive bits and not-so impressive bits. I dislike taxidermy and don't much care that it was the only way for people to learn at one time. Looking at musty and motheaten dead animals does not impress me. A particularly horrifying display of hundreds of dead hummingbirds left a deep impression.

It seemed as though I was always walking in the wrong direction...the walkways are teensy-tiny and once again force you into intimate contact with perfect strangers. I became quite worn out after three hours or so, and decided to call it a day even though I hadn't seen the mineral room yet. And heck, I'll be back.

Beautiful museum, and an excellent first stop when you head to London. Afterward, if you walk west down Cromwell, there's a very tasty little Indian restaurant near the Holiday Inn and Marriott, across the street. Tiny place (and for the life of me I can't remember the name), but quite worth it. One waiter is very sweet and the other is quite rude. Good luck to you on which one you get ;)



"Full screen" mode (the little button on the bottom right of the frame) is advised for the above slideshow...I like to think it's more impressive that way.