Remi's Bloglet - Saturday 16 November 2002

Review Something To Cry About
I liked Neil's first CD, although it was a little heavy on the show tunes and clubby music for my taste. This somber collection really connected with me, even though I have pretty negative associations with a couple of the artists on it. It also perfectly suits its title. I'm just going to talk about what's on the CD, 'cause I'm too lazy to download the extra tracks.

Hector the Collector Shel Sivlerstein: Bitter and sweet, like all good comedy. I love Silverstein's delivery, but here it's more subdued than his usual manic howl.
Leather Tori Amos: Gawd, I hate Tori Amos. Except this song, placed after my enjoyment of Mr. Silverstein, is the perfect compliment for 'Hector'. Sad, but with a little bit of sassy defiance and humor. Add a touch of bombast, and you've got a great tune.
Price of Temptation Roseanne Cash: Neil, where did you learn your CD arranging skillz? As different from 'Leather' as another piano ballad can be. Affecting and sympathetic, and endlessly sad, with that great hanging ending.
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda Joan Baez: I love Tom Waits 'Tom Traubert's Blues' which uses 'Waltzing Matilda' to similar effect. This one isn't quite as tear-in-you-beer, though. Although similar to the two preceding songs, the longing and sadness is less immediate, but no less palpable.
Maybe it was Memphis Pam Tillis: Kick it up a notch! Belt it out, and let it go sadness. Sadness with a smile, that you can wrap yourself in like a blanket.
Cats in the Cradle Johnny Cash: This is a worthy, but workmanlike, cover. It seems like Cash coasted on this one. Still, it's hard to defeat this song, even with a strangely inappropriate 'chikka bum chikka bum' arrangement. I . . . I liked Ugly Kid Joe's cover better. I feel like I've betrayed the secret brotherhood of people who like good music.
Bang Bang Bang Tracy Chapman: Tracy Chapman was my nemesis on my Israel trip. I heard her first album, with that godawful 'Last Night I Heard the Screaming' song, for eight hours straight. Literall from one end of the Holy Land to the other. It does strange things to a man. But this song fits in so snugly where it is, it seems absolutely right, and I find myself enjoying it, even considering giving ol' Tracy another chance. My hat is off to you again.
Silver and Gold Dolly Parton: Maybe I'm just getting sucked in by the countrified flava of most of these tracks, 'cause even though I don't think I've ever heard this song before, it feels like I grew up with it. Must be living out here in Georgia.
Marvin, I Love You Marvin the Paranoid Android: Why haven't I heard these Marvin tracks before? Great stuff. I guess I can see being sad to this song, but it's to silly to not want to get up and dance to the cheesy robot beat and surfy guitar.
You Call Everybody Darlin' KT Oslin: Another silly, although less silly than 'Marvin', sad song. Yummy and harmless, with enough edge to dig down to where it hurts.
Worlds Apart Big River Sdtk.: Wow, more than halfway through and only one show tune! Segues in nicely. A nice and simple song.
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? Eartha Kitt: Then you kick it with the master of overboard emotionalism. Man, I thought she was great as Catwoman, but this song just knocked me out. Slinks into your ears and never leaves.
I Just Shot John Lennon The Cranberries: Yep, it's a Cranberries song. Of course, what could possibly come after that Eartha Kitt song? And it segues very well into . . .
When I Was Young Tina Turner: The CD might have exploded if you put this and 'Brother...' right after one another, but crushing the poor Cranberries in between the wonderful big band '60's sound and the '80's synth cheese in this song seems like a crime against nature. You can just hear the years in Tina's voice. Bad-ass.
Empty Chairs at Empty Tables Men Out Loud: The emptiness in this song, after the excesses of the last three, just crushes me down. Beautiful and Powerful.
Shaking Hands Michelle Shocked: A similar feeling to 'Empty Chairs' but turned inward. Self-loathing and doubt to a jaunty country beat.
The Beauty of Gray Live: Another band I have issues with, and this song is a little too glib and stark for a song about the tough issues in life. Still, it's enjoyable to have just a straighahead rocker at this point.
Still Thrives this Love k.d. lang: Slinkiness removed from Ms. Kitt's school. Slow and sultry in a perfectly brooding cocktail, the perfect pill after Live.
Paradise John Prine: Loss of a treasured place so that it exists only in your mind is a strangely bittersweet experience, and this song captures that.
I Take My ChancesMary Chapin Carpenter: A clever lyric and a never-say-die attitude give this song fire and spirit. Hopeful, yet full of danger and tragedy just around the corner. I could do without the little guitar solo-ette, though.
All That You Have is Your Soul Tracy Chapman: Ending on a quiet note of wisdom. (is this song the opposite of 'Take My Chances'?) _
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03:06:56 PM, Saturday 16 November 2002

I had a great time at Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. However, I'm glad that this is Columbus's last HP film, his limited visual vocabulary is starting to wear thin, and he's proving to be a strange editor when it comes to trimming the books, often sacrificing character for extraneous plot. The effects are a mixed bag, without much innovation, we saw most of this in the first movie. I was mostly impressed with the creature animation. Dobby works for me better in the film than he does in the books, and I thought he looked great. Fawkes, on the other hand, is simply awful looking. He's supposed to be beautiful! The Basilisk is a giant snake, it would be tough to screw up, and they don't. The chemistry between the main characters is better, particularly Harry and Ron, who act more like best friends in this film. The humor is much sharper and better timed than the first film, and some of the new sets (the Weasley House and Moaning Myrtles laboratory in particular) are wonderful. And Kenneth Branaugh as Gilderoy Lockhart rules! _
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10:37:34 AM, Saturday 16 November 2002

It would be easier to get excited if I had found out MAD was looking for a new cartoon four months ago. _
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03:50:13 PM, Thursday 14 November 2002

Sometimes I wish it would just die, already. _
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12:03:35 AM, Wednesday 13 November 2002

In a lapse of judgement that I'm sure I'll regret, I've posted, in honor of the new movie release, the slightly naughty HP fanfic I attempted as a 24-hour comic a year ago. I ran out of steam before getting into anything truly racy, but there is some bad language and terrible puns, and some truly appalling art. For fans only. You've been warned. _
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09:24:31 PM, Tuesday 12 November 2002

My non-HotB mix CD has been sent out. It is a low-attention-span packet of musical fury, and I will comment on the individual tracks soon. For those participating in Heart of the Blogmass, please get a move on with your commentaries and mp3 CD-sending. _
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05:01:26 PM, Tuesday 12 November 2002

Why, when I read the article Moss linked to about the theft of the Principia, was my first reaction 'It must have been Aquaman'? _
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04:58:11 PM, Tuesday 12 November 2002

Isn't the era of arcade gaming over? Yesterday I saw close to a hundred people crammed into a small arcade, clamoring to get a look at two new Soul Calibur 2 machines. I didn't realize things like that still happened. _
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03:37:12 PM, Sunday 10 November 2002

I've been watching Dragonball Z for a long time, where's my demonic possession?
[via Splash!] _
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01:31:04 AM, Saturday 9 November 2002

Spirited Away was wonderful. It was utterly beautiful, surprising, and complex. The dub was perfect, with less celebrity cheese and more acting power that Princess Mononoke (Wow, I hadn't realized Daveigh Chase was in some of my favorite movies in the past year, no, I don't mean A.I.). I really can't say enough for this movie. Dreamlike doesn't do it justice, but comes close to the warmth and magic that Spirited Away produces, but neglects the carefully crafter story, mythology, and characters. This is the sort of movie Disney kept trying to make for the past few years, before giving up and making the light, delightful Lilo and Stitch. I loved Lilo, but Spirited Away bests it on every level. Spirited Away is a great movie in its own right, not just a good cartoon, or a good anime. I would post a more spoiler-ey review, but watching the story unfold for the first time is a delight that I don't want to ruin for anyone. _
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12:14:21 AM, Saturday 9 November 2002

Pirate Wisdom!
[via invisible broadcast system] _
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02:41:16 PM, Friday 8 November 2002

Father of a Boy Named Sue. Some Shel Silverstein naughtiness to get you through the day.
[via mefi] _
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04:22:28 PM, Thursday 7 November 2002

A family takes its picture once a year for almost 30 years. Wow.

[via boing boing] _
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02:42:16 PM, Thursday 7 November 2002

Spirited Away opens here Friday. Yay! This'll be the first anime I've seen on the big screen since I saw Fist of the North Star in a little art theater on South Beach in the early '90's, when the anime 'boom' hit for a few minutes before receding back, waiting for Pokemon. I don't really see how Spirited Away can match up though, Fist was the best movie watching experience I ever had. The entire audience (maybe 30 or 40 people) was of a single mind within the first ten minutes of the movie. It sucked ass. It deserved to be heckled mercilessly. And it was. It was like being there when the Rocky Horror tradition was born, and it was beautiful. _
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04:31:09 AM, Thursday 7 November 2002

I'd really like to be naked and famous about now. Ah well, one out of two isn't bad. _
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04:22:10 AM, Thursday 7 November 2002

Kevin Kline stars in Dead Poets Society 2: The Emperor's Club _
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10:17:41 PM, Wednesday 6 November 2002

A neat story about a quadriplegic comic artist. _
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07:18:13 PM, Tuesday 5 November 2002

I usually don't read fantasy epics, but I just finished the three books in George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. I don't know about it being the best sf/fantasy series in publication right now, but it's certainly good, and the most recent tome, Storm of Swords is the best of the lot. I had almost given up on the series during Clash of Kings, which seemed to lose all the momentum that had built up during Game of Thrones and replaced actual plot with introducing interesting characters and immediately killing them. SoS, however, loses the slightly uneven tone of the first books, matches it with revelations large and small, and finally makes the series feel like it's actually going somewhere instead of treading water (unlike Clash which could have been half the length, and not suffered for it).

The books also have a disturbing taste for extremely graphic sex scenes, a good majority of them borderline or outright rape. The series may be vaguely based on the Middle Ages, but the argument 'That's how it was back then!' leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I think the problem is that sex is almost never portrayed as pleasant or joyous, or if it is, there's another debasing aspect of it (a dwarf having sex with a whore, for example). The violence, like the sex, has little joy in it, and by the third book, RR Martin has the good sense to not graphically describe every single encounter and battle.

Despite some serious weaknesses, I really enjoyed the books. Engaging characters, a multi-threaded plot told from multiple points of view, a sprawling history that feels like it actually happened which unfolds in surprising ways, and just enough imagination and magical weirdness to distinguish it from a simple historical fiction. I may not be as rabid about it as some other folks I know (I'm still waiting for the new Harry Potter book more), but I'll definitely pick up the new volume when it comes out in April. _
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03:39:27 PM, Tuesday 5 November 2002

Travis Morrison of the Dismemberment Plan does a Top Ten List that would be right at home on Heart of the Blogmass _
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11:21:42 PM, Monday 4 November 2002

I saw a political ad this evening that claimed the candidate it was bashing was a 'fake cowboy'. _
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02:08:41 AM, Thursday 31 October 2002

In tonight's D&D game I rolled six 1's during the course of one extended combat. I rolled 3 one's in a row at one point. All evening I rolled over 10 once, and that was a critical, which was immediately followed by a one. Yet I still had a roaring good time. That's how you can tell if you're in a good game. _
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12:50:33 AM, Thursday 31 October 2002

Happy Birthday Kristin! Whoooo! And Many More! _
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09:54:18 AM, Wednesday 30 October 2002

MC Paul Barman is the horniest Jewish Brown-graduate rapper ever! Check out Salon's review of 'Paulelujah!' and definitely download the wonderfully filthy 'Cock Mobster'. A few more tracks can be found here. As I said to Martin, it's naughty nerdcore! _
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11:56:51 PM, Tuesday 29 October 2002

My computer died! We're working on getting it fixed, but it may take a little while. This shouldn't hold up the production of the Hear of the Blogmass too much. This is assuming, of course, that it's just a silly hard-drive problem and not something horrifically fucked up. _
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06:34:25 PM, Tuesday 29 October 2002

What's Your Personality Type?
brought to you by Quizilla _
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03:01:43 AM, Sunday 27 October 2002

Punch Drunk Love is not an Adam Sandler movie, it is a PT Anderson movie. Except it's short, and has a small cast of characters. It's very beautiful, and sad, and always feels like the wheels are going to come off at any moment. But the wheels don't come off, and that dangerously wonky equilibrium and excitement only add to the sense of wonder. It's also incredibly funny. _
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04:06:43 PM, Saturday 26 October 2002

People Participating in the Heart of the Blogmass!
So far I've only seen two completed lists, Mirabai and Neil. I'd like to start working on the booklet soon, so if you said you were going to do it, and now have decided it's not such a hot idea, please tell me. If you need more time, tell me. If I totally missed your commentary, please tell me. I'm looking forward to reading everyone's, and I'm extending the deadline for another week until Sunday, November 3rd. _
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10:26:19 PM, Friday 25 October 2002

Remember the time I called John Gotti and asked him if his fridge was running? (ha ha ha) We laugh about it now, we can laugh about it now. Oh oo oh oo oh oo oh oo yeah yeah yeah. _
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03:52:35 PM, Friday 25 October 2002

I was kickstarted into comic-ey productiveness by my participation in Fright Night 4. New Too Fat! _
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03:02:18 AM, Friday 25 October 2002

Moss pointed this out to me, but didn't post it himself, so I'm posting it here. The best puzzle game ever made is available, for free, for both Mac and Windows. Go download the Fool's Errand and lose a couple days of your life. Trust me, it's worth it. _
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04:35:22 AM, Wednesday 23 October 2002

Just got back from the Soft Boys. The opening band was Tim Keegan and the Departure Lounge who were very acoustic, very british, and a great warm-up act. Mostly low-key songs, but with an absolutely deadpan, deep-voiced cover of the Destiny's Child song 'Survivor'. A great beginning to the evening.

Robyn Hitchcock and company came out and played a retro-rockin' set. He and Kimberly Rew did some great guitar interplay, and they played through the bulk of 'Underwater Moonlight' and their new album 'Nextdoorland'. They also played some of their very early material, including 'Man with the Lightbulb Head', which was suitably bizarre. Some highlights were the Syd Barrett cover 'Vegetable Man', a great underwater adventure addition to the bridge of 'Underwater Moonlight', 'Queen of Eyes' done absolutely beautifully, and a mad rendition of 'Insanely Jealous'.

Robyn's famous between-song stories were kept to a minimum, but there was a good one about electric cable cars and another on the mind, no the brain, the physical brain, as an erotic gift, illustrating the confusion between what is sexy and the idea that sexiness has to be phsyical. Robyn was wearing his usual, a loud-pattern shirt that he changed in betweent he main set and the encore. An energetic performance that had me grinning from ear to ear pretty much all evening. _
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02:02:13 AM, Wednesday 23 October 2002

I . . . think I finished it. Hm. One last listen tomorrow, and then it will (hopefully) be done. _
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06:03:37 AM, Monday 21 October 2002

It appears that my Favorites list has 3 songs over 7 minutes and 7 songs under 3 minutes. _
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09:59:26 PM, Thursday 17 October 2002

Hey Liz, it comes out January 7th. _
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04:20:40 PM, Thursday 17 October 2002

I thougt you might like this comic, Moss. _
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01:02:59 PM, Thursday 17 October 2002

Kristin, these switch ads are just for you. _
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12:11:54 PM, Thursday 17 October 2002

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