Sunday Afternoon Stuff
Well, I've been working on my move-the-CDs-to-the-living-room-shelves project a bit today. The classical stuff all fits into three of those little crates that I'm using (each of which holds about 40 discs). I put all my ♥GF♥'s discs into one regular-size and one half-size crate next to the sterero. (I want to consult with her before I put them in any order.) Jazz next; I think that'll be about five crates, and then world music, blues, bluegrass, and misc. I think I'm keeping the rock albums in here (my bedroom), more for considerations of space than anything else.
I've found some cool stuff that I had forgotten I had, some of which I have never even listened to, some of which I can't understand why I haven't listened to it in so long. For instance -- Have kids? Like classical music? Look no further than Beethoven's Wig ("Beethoven's Wig... Is Very Big..."). There's also Beethoven's Wig 2.
How about Latin American indie rock? Check out Colombia's Aterciopelados. (That's Colombia the country, not Columbia the record label.) I have three of their albums, and I haven't listened to them in probably two years, even though Time Magazine identified them as one of the ten best bands in the world. (This was back in Sept. 2001; I know I have the issue around here somewhere. Stupid Time Magazine makes you pay to search their archives -- Here's a cache of part of their special music issue.)
Like jazz? (If you don't, don't tell me.) If you ever get a chance to pick up The Verve Story: 1944-1994, do it! It's a four-disc compilation of Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Illinois Jacquet, Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery & Jimmy Smith, and a whole bunch more great artists. Again, due to the letter "V"'s position in the alphabet, I forgot I even had this. I'm going to put it in my briefcase and listen to it on the way to work tomorrow. If my drive is anything like Friday's, I'll have time to listen to all four discs.
Meanwhile, I found this guy over at Nude Magazine who reorganized his record collection and is documenting his feelings about each album quite thoroughly. (Just so I don't get accused of having too much time on my hands.)
Now I had never heard of Nude Magazine before, and it sounded like something that could hold my attention. It wasn't what I had originally thought it might be, but it's still pretty good. Here's from their About Us page: Nude was launched in August 2003 by Suzy Prince and Ian Lowey; two people brought together by a shared interest in many of the strange and exotic things which exist at the margins of pop culture. Prior to launching Nude, Suzy owned and ran the late lamented Last Chance Saloon shop in Waterloo; a counter-culture emporium which also served as the venue for massively successful first British art shows by Coop, Frank Kozik and Vince Ray amongst others. Ian was formerly a member of the Strangely Satisfying collective, who ran a popular store in Camden, selling lowbrow art, zines, books and other underground ephemera. Nude has evolved as a logical extension of these projects, another means of championing all manner of stuff we care passionately about. As such, Nude aims to celebrate the spirit of wayward creativity in all its forms, serving up an eclectic mix of contemporary graphics, deviant design, outsider and alternative musics, eccentric architecture, cult writing, indie film, cutting-edge fashion and profiles of maverick genius the world over. It exists as a cross between a fanzine and a commercial magazine, in that the subjects we cover always reflect our own personal interests as well as those of our contributors, but we aim to make Nude as colourful and accessible as possible. In doing so, we try to ensure that Nude is free from the kind of fashionable post ironic cynicism that bedevils many other publications. We prefer the more honest approach of sticking your neck out and admitting to liking things. I like that last sentence a lot. Looks like lots of the stuff they have is abridged from the longer articles in the print versions (like this Bob Moog piece) but still, they're certainly worth a look.
The other day I watched another one of those VHS tapes I got last fall from the going-out-of-business sale at a video store a couple of counties over. To recap, I grabbed about 12 or 15 tapes of late 70s/early-to-mid-80s sex comedies, slasher movies, science fiction, etc. of the sort that no one is in too much of a hurry to release on DVD. (Probably none of the actors are in too much of a hurry to admit they appeared in them, either.) This time, the film in question was 1987's Psychos in Love. Here is the only online review I found of this movie*, and I have to agree with his summation: I just cannot believe how much I laughed through this. Joe and Kate would argue about where their relationship is going while disposing of bodies. The plumber / killer / cannibal is very good. The gore is cheap but good. I recommend this like I recommended "Scary Movie," with some reservations and a stern warning that this will probably not enrich your life in any way. Bon appetit! (I must add -- the title song and accompanying montage are nothing short of fantastic.) To put it another way, if you have ever used the words "plumber," "killer," and "cannibal" in the same sentence, you definitely want to see this. If not, it's optional.
* I just noticed that they pasted that review to the bottom of the imdb page. Whatever.
I'm almost done with watching a real good documentary called The Nomi Song about a guy I had not really been familiar with before, a 70s-80s new-wave performance artist named Klaus Nomi. Real interesting guy. I'm going to have to do some further research and do a whole post on him later this week or next. He drew heavily from a lot of Weimar Berlin influences, which is a topic that interests me, as well as 50s sci-fi movies, opera, and pop standards. In his performances, he often looked like he might have just walked off a Fritz Lang set.
Finally, based on the title of Amba's post from last night, titled "Has Radical Islam Found Its Hitler?" I now feel justified regarding this brief NOTM post from last summer about Mr. Ahmadinejad over there in Iran. Up until now, I was afraid that I might have hurt his feelings. Seriously though, this is a guy who passionately loathes all of the fun, interesting, silly, artistic, brilliant, stupid, brilliantly stupid,dirty sophisticated, original manifestations of human creativity of the sorts mentioned above. He's the world's foremost Anti-KlausNomian. (At least the dictator they have in North Korea likes our movies.) And he wants the whole rest of 1) Iran, and 2) the world, to hate it all just as much as he does. Or else.
I've found some cool stuff that I had forgotten I had, some of which I have never even listened to, some of which I can't understand why I haven't listened to it in so long. For instance -- Have kids? Like classical music? Look no further than Beethoven's Wig ("Beethoven's Wig... Is Very Big..."). There's also Beethoven's Wig 2.
How about Latin American indie rock? Check out Colombia's Aterciopelados. (That's Colombia the country, not Columbia the record label.) I have three of their albums, and I haven't listened to them in probably two years, even though Time Magazine identified them as one of the ten best bands in the world. (This was back in Sept. 2001; I know I have the issue around here somewhere. Stupid Time Magazine makes you pay to search their archives -- Here's a cache of part of their special music issue.)
Like jazz? (If you don't, don't tell me.) If you ever get a chance to pick up The Verve Story: 1944-1994, do it! It's a four-disc compilation of Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Illinois Jacquet, Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery & Jimmy Smith, and a whole bunch more great artists. Again, due to the letter "V"'s position in the alphabet, I forgot I even had this. I'm going to put it in my briefcase and listen to it on the way to work tomorrow. If my drive is anything like Friday's, I'll have time to listen to all four discs.
Meanwhile, I found this guy over at Nude Magazine who reorganized his record collection and is documenting his feelings about each album quite thoroughly. (Just so I don't get accused of having too much time on my hands.)
Now I had never heard of Nude Magazine before, and it sounded like something that could hold my attention. It wasn't what I had originally thought it might be, but it's still pretty good. Here's from their About Us page: Nude was launched in August 2003 by Suzy Prince and Ian Lowey; two people brought together by a shared interest in many of the strange and exotic things which exist at the margins of pop culture. Prior to launching Nude, Suzy owned and ran the late lamented Last Chance Saloon shop in Waterloo; a counter-culture emporium which also served as the venue for massively successful first British art shows by Coop, Frank Kozik and Vince Ray amongst others. Ian was formerly a member of the Strangely Satisfying collective, who ran a popular store in Camden, selling lowbrow art, zines, books and other underground ephemera. Nude has evolved as a logical extension of these projects, another means of championing all manner of stuff we care passionately about. As such, Nude aims to celebrate the spirit of wayward creativity in all its forms, serving up an eclectic mix of contemporary graphics, deviant design, outsider and alternative musics, eccentric architecture, cult writing, indie film, cutting-edge fashion and profiles of maverick genius the world over. It exists as a cross between a fanzine and a commercial magazine, in that the subjects we cover always reflect our own personal interests as well as those of our contributors, but we aim to make Nude as colourful and accessible as possible. In doing so, we try to ensure that Nude is free from the kind of fashionable post ironic cynicism that bedevils many other publications. We prefer the more honest approach of sticking your neck out and admitting to liking things. I like that last sentence a lot. Looks like lots of the stuff they have is abridged from the longer articles in the print versions (like this Bob Moog piece) but still, they're certainly worth a look.
The other day I watched another one of those VHS tapes I got last fall from the going-out-of-business sale at a video store a couple of counties over. To recap, I grabbed about 12 or 15 tapes of late 70s/early-to-mid-80s sex comedies, slasher movies, science fiction, etc. of the sort that no one is in too much of a hurry to release on DVD. (Probably none of the actors are in too much of a hurry to admit they appeared in them, either.) This time, the film in question was 1987's Psychos in Love. Here is the only online review I found of this movie*, and I have to agree with his summation: I just cannot believe how much I laughed through this. Joe and Kate would argue about where their relationship is going while disposing of bodies. The plumber / killer / cannibal is very good. The gore is cheap but good. I recommend this like I recommended "Scary Movie," with some reservations and a stern warning that this will probably not enrich your life in any way. Bon appetit! (I must add -- the title song and accompanying montage are nothing short of fantastic.) To put it another way, if you have ever used the words "plumber," "killer," and "cannibal" in the same sentence, you definitely want to see this. If not, it's optional.
* I just noticed that they pasted that review to the bottom of the imdb page. Whatever.
I'm almost done with watching a real good documentary called The Nomi Song about a guy I had not really been familiar with before, a 70s-80s new-wave performance artist named Klaus Nomi. Real interesting guy. I'm going to have to do some further research and do a whole post on him later this week or next. He drew heavily from a lot of Weimar Berlin influences, which is a topic that interests me, as well as 50s sci-fi movies, opera, and pop standards. In his performances, he often looked like he might have just walked off a Fritz Lang set.
Finally, based on the title of Amba's post from last night, titled "Has Radical Islam Found Its Hitler?" I now feel justified regarding this brief NOTM post from last summer about Mr. Ahmadinejad over there in Iran. Up until now, I was afraid that I might have hurt his feelings. Seriously though, this is a guy who passionately loathes all of the fun, interesting, silly, artistic, brilliant, stupid, brilliantly stupid,
Guys like Ahmadinejad hate images like the above. (Weirdos!) I should post more stuff like this, just to piss him off. USA! USA!
posted by KaneCitizen at 7:53 PM
1 Comments:
Hey. I just noticed that we are closer than kittens on the stupid "ecosystem." But that's not the point. I'm an avid jazz fan, and you must be as well. You're a good man, Charlie (Parker) Brown.
Yesterday was dreary so I decided to update the ol' I-tunes library and was astonished that I had not yet loaded even half my stuff! Nothing is better than digging down deep into boxes of CD's you haven't seen since your last move (definately my last move)and blasting them onto permanent playlists. Plus, I downloaded 2 gig (compressed)of the best of what I found yesterday onto a jump drive and gave it to my secretary. Everybody wins.
Let it play.
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