Remi's Bloglet - Friday 10 November 2006

Please ignore this entry. _
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06:46:13 PM, Friday 10 November 2006

So I went to an indie rock show on Sunday with my friend Monica. Thunderbirds Are Now! w/Rescue and Plastic Constellation. It was fun. The most interesting thing was the realization that somewhere in the last couple of years indie bands decided that they could rock out and put on a show without losing cool points. Still the same clothes, but now with more energy! Some people in the various bands I saw were wearing those sports straps to keep their glasses on their heads when The Rock took over their bodies. Freakin' excellent.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the audience. Still sitting there bobbing their heads instead of moving their feet, no matter how tight the groove, no matter how furious the attack. I'm 90% sure that the too-good-looking indie couple standing behind me was making catty comments about my dancing, but fuck them, I was having a blast moving around to a band that I really like. I will not be stilled by boring indie fucks! Make a polite circle around my thrashing arms, I'm here to dance!

So, how was the music, you may be asking? It was good!

Rescue were a decent mid-tempo band which excelled when their sound-wash guitar clicked with the groove the rest of the band was playing, which was just often enough to keep me interested and entertained. They put on a good show, interacting in good fashion with one another. Unfortunately, the rhythm section was marred by an overly-showy bassist and a drummer who couldn't always keep up. Their singer couldn't sing, but since when did that change anything. As with all the bands, absolutely horrible sound, especially on the vocals, made it an uphill battle. Over all the I think the band won, but it was hard-fought, and there were clearly people in the audience who were less-than-enthused, especially the ones standing in front of the bassist's amp.

I have no doubt that I'd hate a Plastic Constellations record if you played it for me. In concert, though, this raw four piece set an incredibly high standard for a pure rock performance. Duelling guitars, excellent-use of stop-start dynamics, not-quite-hamony singing to reinforce choruses and ending passages of songs, they pulled out the whole bag of tricks, rocking so hard that one of them was crying due to the massive amount of sweat dripping into his eyes by the end of the show. An excellent experience. I want to see these guys in a packed house. It would be insane. Sound problems were overcome through a combination of not-singing-but-shouting and fine musicianship.

Thunderbirds Are Now!'s set was excellent. I shuddered and moved my feet for 45 minutes straight, which was my intention in coming to the show. Sound was muddy, and even with songs I knew pretty well it was tough to pick out the words. Still, their heady blend of melody, wiry guitar, dance-oriented rhythm section, and throwback synths ruled the day. I had a blast, and that's all I can really say. _
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02:09:52 PM, Tuesday 31 October 2006

Shuttle launch as seen from the International Space Station. I don't know why, but these pictures strike me as beautiful in a very human way. _
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04:30:38 PM, Monday 23 October 2006

Does anyone watch Veronica Mars? Liz and I just went through the first disc and it's utterly delightful. The premise is super-hairy, but the writers present the background in a clear, concise way while telling amusing stories of private investigation, high school angst, and looming conspiracy. The show is about four times better than it has any right to be and my only complaint is that it's difficult to tell the male supporting cast apart sometimes. _
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03:17:57 PM, Monday 23 October 2006

In honor of this listy thing, I present my top 6 albums of the last 5 years. (yes, I misread it. There's nothing from 2000 here)

1. Her Majesty the Decemberists (2003)
It's remained one of my favorite albums since I first heard 'The Soldiering Life'.
2. Gorillaz, Gorillaz (2001)
This album, a copy from the UK before it was released here, was one of the few bright points, musically, during my stay in Austin (The Soft Boys, 'Underwater Moonlight' re-release and a used copy of Guided by Voices 'Box' were the others)
3. The New Pornographers, Electric Version (2003)
I love this band, and this spot was a close race with frontman AC Newman's solo effort 'The Slow Wonder', but this is still the most coherent, and best, statement to come out of this Canadian 'supergroup'.
4. Blackalicious, Blazing Arrow (2002)
Remains, along with Mr. Lif's 'I, Phantom', the rap I find most listenable and exciting.
5. Q and Not U, Power (2004)
A 'new to me' fave that I picked up on the recommendation of my friend Clinton. Powerful, smart, punky and a little off-center. Hits the pocket harder than Tapes N' Tapes, better songcraft than the Unicorns. If you knew how close both those bands got to being on this list, you'd go and download this from eMusic right now.
6. The Books, Thought For Food (2002)
Laptop pop at its finest. An acoustic mess that sounds like nothing else. A little melody, a little dance, all awesome.

Hmmm, nothing from the past two years. There's tons of stuff I love from that period, though, the Decemberists follow-up to 'Her Majesty', Picaresque (I haven't heard Crane Wife, yet), Thunderbirds are Now!'s 'Justamustache', Tapes N' Tapes 'The Loon', Danielson 'Ships', the list goes on and on, but none have sunk as far into my psyche as the above albums have. _
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02:29:50 AM, Monday 23 October 2006

I'm going off to play some tabletop RPGs in the woods with a pack of nerds this weekend!

Also, rbally has become one of my favorite MP3 blogs. The focus of the blog is high-quality live recordings of seminal moments for various bands. Recent highlights include an incredible early-middle period R.E.M. recording from Rockpalast, and an amazing Johnny Cash & The Tennessee Two performance for an Army radio show (complete with plugs from Luther!). Today they posted an acoustic set by Smashing Pumpkins, performed during the release party for Siamese Dream, and yesterday was a stellar Beck w/Flaming Lips set. The site is clearly aimed at a certain taste (90's rock acts with individuality and their major influences), but if that's your bag, and want the cream of the bootleg crop, check out rbally and there'll be something there for you. _
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05:20:06 AM, Friday 13 October 2006

Man, I am so excited about the 300 movie. This fellow did a screen-to-page comparison of shots from the recent trailer. It looks like they're doing it right. _
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04:56:33 PM, Wednesday 11 October 2006

I just re-read this comments thread, which occured during my early experiences at the DSI Comedy Theater. I feel I'm on much better footing to talk about improv now, especially the poor adaptability of Chicago-style improv techniques to 'dramatic theater.'

Long-form improv, and I'm specifically talking about Harold here, is not concerned with resolution. Harold is essentially a magic trick. It achieves cohesion and, at its best, an 'Ah-Ha' moment of completeness through a complex strategy of exploring a theme and reincorporating material from earlier in the show via combining scenes and situations.

Harold gets its power through repetition and change, it gets better the closer the various scenes are by the end of the show. The idea is that all the scenes are, by the end, all about the same thing. It is not a breeding ground for drama because it breaks when true conflict arises. Conflict means there is a difference that must be resolved before things can move, and this is antithetical to Harold's desire to constantly move and close in on itself.

Does this make sense? I'd love to talk with any and all folks from the original thread, as well as any others with interest/experience with improv. _
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02:41:32 AM, Friday 6 October 2006

So the team that I assembled for the 'Cage Match' show defeated 4-time Cage Match Champions Cranpa Hester this past Saturday evening. We were called Hostile Takeover. Here's our logo. I drew the heads, and Ted Hobgood, the mind behind Cage Match, did the modification and text.

larger version available here.

Here's the promo vid. It's pretty amusing. Ted liked my Evil Manager character.

We're performing in an 'exhibition' match this Saturday, and then defending our title the following Saturday. Wish the Hostiles luck! _
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11:16:44 PM, Thursday 5 October 2006

This probably won't interest anyone but me, but here's Alex Toth ruthlessly critiquing a Steve Rude Johnny Quest story.
Useful stuff about comic art and design, although I think some of his critiques are old fashioned. The idea that showing the backs of the heroes is verboten has largely been modified by shonen manga-style storytelling where heroes are shown charging into a scene, which draws the reader in. Of course, these characters are designed with well-defined figures and costumes so they're recognizable from the back, but I still think taking all of Toth's critiques to heart might lead a modern comic artist down a dangerous road. _
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01:12:24 AM, Sunday 1 October 2006

This is a fun little toy. Can you make him loop-de-loop? _
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10:18:55 AM, Thursday 28 September 2006

Happy Birthday, Neil! _
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11:06:26 AM, Monday 11 September 2006

I should have announced this earlier, but I was shy about it for some reason. I have been invited, and have accepted, a spot as a company member at the DSI Comedy Theater. I am on the Harold [1, 2] team Baby Liberty (I'll be listed there soon!) and have my first performance next Thursday at 8pm. It's super-exciting, I have a great team, and I'm looking forward to the long road of learning about improv ahead of me. _
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10:48:26 PM, Friday 8 September 2006

I can drive now. _
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04:22:19 PM, Wednesday 6 September 2006

The first of 10 "Resistance" webisodes leading up to the new season of Battlestar Galactica has gone up. It basically boils down to an entire new episode released in tiny chunks to fill in some non-essential gaps between seasons and to get fans excited about the premier in October. I'm ready! _
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01:23:18 AM, Wednesday 6 September 2006

My friend, John Hill, went to New Orleans on a similar trip to Liz's. Except he was in the 9th Ward and was 'mucking' ruined houses. Depressing, and with some really amazing photographs, John tells his story. _
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02:45:43 PM, Tuesday 8 August 2006

Washington is a perfect mix of disaffected vocal surreal humor and fantastic, yet simple, illustration.

Check it out. _
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12:01:36 AM, Saturday 5 August 2006

Hey guys! Drowning & Falling, which I was the art director on, is finally out!! The game is incredibly fun, playing somewhere between a snarky D&D session and a board game, with characters being created and ground into sausage as their players attempt to make it through a series of mad rooms (that were thought up by the very same players, no GM)! And all proceeds after printing go to ORBIS International, which fighs preventable blindness around the world.

The book itself is really gorgeous. All the artists involved, each indie comics pals of mine, did a great job, and the book really shines as a result. Check it out. _
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02:24:34 AM, Wednesday 2 August 2006

For All Seasons is a gorgeous little program playing with with type as graphics.

[via Advertising & Design Goodness, a very amusing blog I've been meaning to link to] _
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06:45:49 PM, Tuesday 25 July 2006

Joe Mathlete Explains Today's Marmaduke. Strangely hilarious, and totally self-defining. _
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05:19:56 PM, Thursday 20 July 2006

This entry's comments are going to be used to plan out an improv show. Please do not comment here if you're not in the show. _
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12:51:11 PM, Thursday 20 July 2006

Mike Mignola's bizarre fantistorical eldritch comedy The Amazing Screw-On Head has been made into an animated pilot for SCIFI. Go Watch It. Several laugh-out-loud moments, an all-star vocal cast, and animation that look like it leapt straight out of Mignola's brain. Almost perfect. I want more now, please. _
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01:26:42 AM, Friday 14 July 2006

I quite like Pitchfork's Infinite Mixtape #1. There are many, many worse things you could listen to for an hour and a half. _
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11:27:22 PM, Wednesday 12 July 2006

Had my Level 2 Class Show tonight. I thought it went well. We didn't blow the doors off, but it was a solid team effort and there was continuous laughter throughout. No video this time, alas.

I'm continuing to enjoy improv both as an endeavor and as performance. I'm really enjoying getting on stage with people I trust and just playing. It's an excellent feeling. _
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10:39:18 PM, Sunday 9 July 2006

Erin K has a new blog site called Found on the Ground. It's delightful. _
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01:05:58 AM, Sunday 2 July 2006

I'm going to GenCon. _
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11:31:23 AM, Friday 23 June 2006

Gobelins l'ecole de l'image, what I understand is an animation school in France, has turned out five excellent student shorts for the Annecy film festival. My favorites are Pyrats [larger version] and Burning Safari, both of which show a high degree of polish and entertainment in their under-2-minute lengths.

Also, for whatever reason, they had a podcast feed for these entries, which is just bizarre and cool. _
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08:29:16 PM, Wednesday 21 June 2006

Just saw Cars. It was good.

The main thing that's stuck in my head is that the voice of Lightning McCool's manager, Harv, is voiced by Jeremy Piven, who plays the best Worst Human Being Ever, Ari Gold, in Entourage. Having just devoured the entire series, it was an amusing bit of serendipity. _
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10:05:57 PM, Friday 9 June 2006

One of my favorite songs off of Spoon's most recent album, Gimme Fiction, is The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentin. The song now has an excellent video.

I highly recommend Spoon. It took a little while to realize it, but they've become one of my favorite bands. _
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04:44:57 AM, Friday 9 June 2006

I have been playing with Legos. What are you all up to? _
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03:44:09 AM, Friday 2 June 2006

Vaguely dumb name aside, Avatar the Last Airbender is an excellent show. Multiple story threads, engaging characters, and jaw-dropping animation for a TV show combine into a terrifically satisfying whole. Yeah, sure, it's an American anime-style cartoon, but the sensibility of the show finds a satisfying hybrid between standard American adventure cartoon and long-form anime storytelling. What a delight from Nickelodeon. _
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02:16:11 AM, Tuesday 30 May 2006

Websites as Graphs. Pretty graphs of the HTML of websites, creates neat weedy floral patterns. I'm pretty happy with how too-fat.com looks, the newslet exploding into a mess of links and linebreaks. Here's an explanation of what you're looking at. _
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03:05:13 PM, Saturday 27 May 2006

Friday Random Ten
1. Horses (Live) -Bonnie 'Prince' Billy : Gah, this guy's solo acoustic shows must be absolutely heartbreaking. He tears apart his songs at a molecular level and wanders around inside them, making them even more lonesome and gut wrenching. This song is no different.

2. Pagan Poetry - Bjork: It's a Bjork song. Not one of my favorites. Although, at best I'm only a dabbler in her catalogue, so it may just be lack of familiarity. Strings in what sounds like an eastern/pentatonic riff, electronic bloops and thumps, and that gorgeous, lonesome voice over the top, rising and crashing as the music steadily sways behind.

3. Sleeping In - Postal Service: Slacker blooprock? How did this album, this band, become one of the great inoffensive things in indie music. It's like Bjork without any of the rough edges. All the songs are more-or-less the same. Pleasant, but ultimately forgettable. Perfect for doing something else to, and thus worthy.

4. Porchlight - Neko Case: The opposite of The Postal Service. A voice so big and commanding, demanding, you can't do anything else while listening to it. This song is solidly within her middle range of songs, a beautiful slow jam with a harsh lyrical undercurrent of being chased by terror and sorrow.

5. Watch Me Jumpstart (Live) - Guided By Voices: GBV was the hardest band in the world to watch live. Butchers of sublime pop songs, a drunken bar band stomping through each song in exactly the same way. And yet . . . King's Ranson-Happy Motherfuckers & Sad Clowns, this live album, manages to have the stomp, while also captures a little of the magic of the recordings here, too, which keeps the entire 66 song set humming along and entertaining. I like this song a lot, I think it's about running away from things, disappearing at dawn, accepting your fate. A nice attendant to the previous Neko Case song. A bit more mournful than most GBV songs from this era (before Bob Pollard's rockstar life caught up with him and he ended giving interviews about his one table that had all his 'stuff' on it).

6. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down - Miles Davis: I put this on my 6 Over 10 mix, so you know I love it. So sleazy and winding and perfect.

7. Trying Not To Think About Time - The Futureheads: Not one of my favorites from this excellent first album by these Scottish popsters, sort of taking up time between Stupid and Shallow and their excellent cover of Hounds of Love. Still, it's got their nervy, twitchy energy and their fantastic vocal harmonies, it just never gels as well as their best songs (btw, this album, their self-titled debut, has the best three opening songs of any album released since 2000).

8. From My Bedroom Window-Dead Nora: A long, building intro flows into spry pop from these adorable indie folkies. This album (We'll Have a Time) has really grown on me since my friend Donovan introduced it to me, and this join is a good excercise of their personal, diaristic style of songwriting. Simple and direct, but full of ache and hope.

9. Wraith Pinend To The Mist And Other Games- Of Montreal: I should love this album. It's got the dense pop arrangements, the catchy melodies, the weird instrumentation. Yet I've never been able to bring myself to listen to it all the way through. It's too demanding to put in the background, yet not rewarding enough to give a concentrated listen. Sorry, Anne, it's just not for me. This song is a good encapsulation of the album as a whole.

10. Autumn Is Your Last Chance-Robyn Hitchcock: This has been a pretty bleak set, eh? Or maybe I'm just interpreting it that way. Liz is leaving for two weeks and I'm going to miss her terribly. This song manages to capture my feelings, in tone if not lyrically. Grey sky with occasional flashes of light, but the light's grey, too. _
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10:02:24 PM, Friday 26 May 2006

CO2: We Call It Life.

Hilarity ensues. _
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04:43:44 PM, Thursday 18 May 2006

A six-minute preview of Aaron Sorkin's new show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I'm pretty excited. _
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09:23:01 AM, Wednesday 17 May 2006

I had been hoping this would turn up on YouTube sometime. I saw the animated short Fallen Art at a film festival last fall. It's really creepy, beautiful, and funny. The grainy Flash does nothing for the wonderful textures of the movie, but it gets the point across. _
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11:01:38 PM, Wednesday 10 May 2006

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