Pop Music

Tip o' the hat to Jason C. on this one.

Just a reminder: No matter how rockin' you want to be, it's all @#$%ing Pop Music.



Also here, for those on facebook.

Neil Diamond knows what it means to be American

Dang, yo! Neil has the late 80's-era elementary school teacher fanbase locked up!

By the way, I totally love this song, and it will be pistols at dawn with anyone who says it is anything less than awesome.

Guest Column: Nathan C has "A Few Words About the Gloved One"

Editor's Note: As I mentioned, Nathan was the first to alert me to Jackson's death. Nathan Cone has, since I met him, unapologetically and (I believe) unironically adored the work of Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. And, in fact, for no particular reason I can recall, I associate The Jackson 5's "ABC" with Nathan. I assume we grooved to it together sometime in the mid-90's.

He's been so gracious as to share a few words eulogizing The King of Pop, and a few personal memories.


A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE GLOVED ONE
by Nathan Cone

Incidentally, that was always my favorite nickname for Michael Jackson, “The Gloved One.”

The League knows that I have a special place in my heart and in my record collection for great R&B. Michael Jackson, and his brothers in the Jackson 5, provided a slice of heaven to this listener every time I dropped the needle on one of their records. From “I Want You Back” to “Smooth Criminal,” few could match the grooves of MJ.

A lot of folks in the media went on and on about his music, and of course his problems, but I’ve noticed very few commented on his dancing skills (NPR was an exception). I’ve been re-watching a lot of video clips this weekend, and he was an astonishing talent. He was graceful, like Fred Astaire. He was so much more than the Moonwalk and the crotch grab, and I think a lot of people forget that.

Thriller. Amidst the impressive statistic that it’s the best-selling album of all time, I think even more incredible is the fact that seven of the nine songs on the album were hit singles! Wow.

I was as shocked as anyone to hear of Michael Jackson’s passing last Thursday, but not really conflicted about it. I had already gone through the mourning process years ago, right around the time of the Lisa Marie Presley marriage and on-stage kiss, I believe. MJ addressed his weirdness with a self-knowing humor in the video and song “Leave Me Alone,” but by the 1990s, he was just pissed off, and backed away from the public eye. So despite a few musical salvos from the Gloved One, we’ve really been without the Michael we know for 15+ years. He had long since moved from being on top of the world to being a punch line, and that’s no place to be.

I always wished Michael Jackson would call up Quincy Jones. Clearly their collaborations had a kind of magic to them, like Miles Davis & Gil Evans. I can only imagine what would have happened had they decided to work together again.

Finally, although the League, Mrs. League, Bug, and the rest of the Trinity crew can attest that my imitation of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” dance routine was inspired but weak, I was a badass at the “Moonwalker” video game.

Three memories:

1. When “Thriller” premiered on MTV, I remember sitting in front of the TV with my brother Marcus, eating Oreos and watching the video. (And even at 10 years of age, I thought that disclaimer about the occult on the front end was odd.)

2. My friend David Hardisty had one of the “Beat It” red knock-off jackets. I tried it on, knew I looked like a complete dork wearing it, and promptly removed it.

3. While home in Spring during college, David Wilcox and I went to Sound Warehouse one night, and I bought “Off The Wall” on cassette. I think David felt that in the early 1990s, it was a very kitschy, post-grunge thing to do, to drive up and down F.M. 1960 blasting “Rock With You.” But I think secretly he loved the music as much as me.

So long, Gloved One.


Bonus Memory: One of my earliest Jackson memories involves the totally over-the-top video for the Jacksons’ “Can You Feel It.” Dick Clark introduced it on American Bandstand one afternoon, remarking about the incredible visuals. Years later, it’s kind of cheesy, and amazing that the sound effects overpower the music throughout most of the song, but this is a cool video. Dig the way the Jacksons portray themselves as demi-gods. Ha ha!

Mixed Feelings and the King of Pop

On the phone:

Jamie: ..hello!
Me: The King is Dead!
Jamie: What?
Me: The King of Pop is dead. Long live The King!
Jamie: ...what?
Me: Michael Jackson is dead. Nathan sent me an article. I'm late coming home because I had to verify before going to print.
Jamie: He's dead? (long pause as Jamie is clearly opening laptop and going to CNN) Oh. Oh my god.
Me: Yeah.
Jamie: That's so... weird.
(long pause)
Me: Some mixed feelings, huh?
Jamie: Yeah.

I was 7 or so when Thriller hit the radio. Its got to be hard for anyone born after 1978 or so how absolutely important Michael Jackson was to the pop culture scene between 1982 and 1985. Jackson then disappeared briefly to re-emerge with "Bad",. Soon after, things would turn poorly for the entertainer.

Look, I actually really, really like Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and big parts of "Bad". And "Smooth Criminal". And so while we started to hear weird stories almost immediately (trying to buy "The Elephant Man's" bones, the zoo at Neverland Ranch), it wasn't until I was in high school that the first accusations about impropriety with a kid began to creep out. This was all pre-Internet, so the stories came from supermarket tabloid covers and shows like "A Current Affair". But during one lazy summer, MTV showed the video for "Bad" over and over. And I sorta learned the whole thing. I mean, yeah, I needed the video for reference. I'm not exactly Usher. And, yeah, it's been many a year, but there was a time when I was flopping around my living room imitating The Gloved One. Poorly.

I'm not really sure I need to fill anyone in on the details of the scandals. Either of them (younger readers may not remember the first batch, but they were there).

The truth is that I'm not really sure what the hell happened during those cases. Jackson's, frankly, bizarre and secretive lifestyle made it easy to believe just about anything.

So what do you do? Shrug at the death of a guy who somehow escaped justice time and time again? Or mourn/ pity a guy hounded by the media and possibly falsely accused of one of the most grave crimes an individual can perform?

I have no idea.

About two weeks ago I was going to do a post about latter-era Michael Jackson, but got lazy. I was going to talk about videos from "Dangerous" and the video for "Scream" and "Black & White". But... I sorta thought nobody would be interested.

Here's some other stuff.

Bad

Smooth Criminal

The one that's my first memory of Jackson: Billie Jean. Dude seemed so cool.

Latter era Michael Jackson: Scream

Early era (totally rad) Jackson: Don't Stop Til You Get Enough

The Jackson 5 rocks the frikkin' house:



And, man, it wouldn't be complete without Thriller.

Thriller. This video, btw, got MTV banned in my house for a year when The Admiral spied the zombie make-up, decided it was too scary (ignoring that we'd seen the video 100 times before that), and locked it out on the Scientific Atlanta box.

We almost lost cable again, circa 1987, thanks to George Michael's "Father Figure" video, which The Admiral would mistake for soft-core pornography, until I pointed out that they don't show softcore during the 6:00 hour on basic cable.

Here's more Thriller.

Thrill the World Austin 2008

Phillipines prison

The King of Pop merges with The Infinite

It seems only fitting that I would learn of Michael Jackson's passing from Leaguer Nathan Cone.

Nathan just sent this in from Variety.

The League of Melbotis is, despite all, a fan of the Thriller album and believes "Wanna be Starting Something" is nothing less than pop genius.

Its just the last 20 years or so that complicate things.

RIP, Michael Jackson.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Golden Hornet Project

When I was 15, Jason talked me into renting Fritz Lang's 1927 science fiction opus, "Metropolis". I was, of course, immediately disappointed to learn that Madonna's "Express Yourself" video was not a concept baked entirely new for The Material Girl. Instead, the creative team had told a sort of parallel (and sexier) story to the happenings of "Metropolis", in the same landscape.

Madonna's "Express Yourself"*

At any rate, I doubt I'd ever watched an entire feature silent film prior to that cut, but as I recall, it had some pop songs on it, and, of course, even on VHS the movie was brilliantly stunning and the story moving.

I don't really want to get into a whole conversation here on German Expressionist film of the pre-Nazi era, and how one of the seldom-mentioned casualties of Hitler's regime was the crippling of an entire media and art form. But there you have it. While I do enjoy some American and British silent film (like all good former film students, I appreciate me some good Buster Keaton and Chaplin), I'd argue that anyone watching Metropolis will be awed at how far ahead of Hollywood and London that the German's were in using the medium.


Ladytron

It's also impossible to separate Germany's post-WW1 conditions with the output of their cinema, and not wonder a bit about what Lang saw in his countrymen in the years prior to the rise of Hitler. Or his refusal to allow the film's resolution to make a solid case completely on the side of beleaguered labor (what with the Reds running around Mother Russia).

The dimensions of the movie are huge, even by today's standards. And while sets are necessarily re-used for the story, they're unbelievable in scale and practical effects, number of sets, etc... The models of exteriors are phenomenal, some scenes that I assume are matte prints continue to astonish, and the cast is enormous. It's tough to believe such efforts used to go into moviemaking, but clearly Lang wasn't cutting corners.


Sort of makes "New Detroit" in Robocop seem kind of silly, 1980's Dallas.

The imagery has, of course, become iconic and endlessly emulated in sci-fi films, in comics and elsewhere. Lang's Metropolis would come to define the massive super cities seen in everything from "The Fifth Element" to "Blade Runner", acknowledging that these cities will grow on the backs of a labor class who will most likely always have the short end of the stick. The glories of the towers and the miseries of the folks below would become a perennial theme in science fiction, and, one can see how the first quarter of the 20th Century would be enough to tell you where this was headed. The predictions for technology aren't as important to the film as the homily shared using the backdrop and extremes of the future presented in the film.

The effects are mostly practical and hold up because Lang's grasp didn't overextend his reach. The Man-Machine's metal body looks exactly like what its meant to look like, the flying machines and cars don't take bizarre shapes.


why is evil always more fun and noticeably hotter?

But what's just as striking are the hallucinatory visions experienced by Freder, including the approach of "death". These scenes are a fairly straightforward moment when Lang's involvement with Expressionism crosses over into the Metropolis.

And, curiously, its funny how different the same actress is as Brigitte Helm as "good" Maria and "evil" Maria.** While acting styles have definitely changed for film in teh ensuing 80 years, the actors are still committed and engrossing.

We lost a few things when they added sound to film, but nothing so much as the possibilities for a film to easily cross borders, simply applying new title cards.

My hat is off to the Golden Hornet Project. A friend at dinner asked if they're an offshoot of Austin's "Golden Arm Trio", and I really don't. But the band/ orchestra/ whatever was made up of about 8 musicians, featuring keyboards, two percussionists (phenomenal percussionists), and several strings and guitar players. I am actually very interested in seeing their other work in town this summer.


seriously, when was the last time you got this excited about one of your ideas?

The score was terrific, going above and beyond the call of duty to execute upon their task: helping to tell the story without getting in the way. Its unfair to try to categorize the work, so I won't try too hard here to do so. But what would you be if you didn't try? I kinda/ sorta would compare it in spirit to... oh, David Byrne's score for "The Forest". Only totally different.

Anyway, the movie is a favorite. It was a huge treat not just to see it on the big screen, but with such a huge amount of love put into the music.

I like to point out that for all the snooty, looking down the nose critics like to do with sci-fi, this 80 year old movie had three sold out shows and inspired musicians, who could be doing plenty of other things with their time, to create new works of art just to support it. And not just here. Nathan mentioned a similar effort in San Antonio, and when I described the screening to League-Pal Robb at dinner, he told me about a screening at Seattle's Gasworks Park about a decade back that attracted thousands. THOUSANDS.

Its not the genre that attracted the audiences, but there's something to the mix of story, homily and visuals that sci-fi makes possible. And while few have done it anywhere near as well as Metropolis in those years, I don't see "Wings" (best picture, 1928, and a really good movie in its own right) drawing three sold out nights and a new score.

For the record, there's no known direct connection between this movie and the naming of Superman's adopted hometown. Nor does there seem to be any direct connection between the film, its themes, its portrayal in the comic, etc... and the movie. I think teen-age comic developers, Siegel and Shuster, picked it out of the zeitgeist in the years after the movie appeared in the US. Superman would appear roughly 10 years after Metropolis, by the way. So, yeah, the Germans were ahead of us on this crazy sci-fi thing.




*Dang, yo, Circa 1990 Madonna... you are a bad, bad girl.

**Or "boring" Maria and "hot" Maria, as I declared when we left the theater.

Literal Total Eclipse of the Heart

Let's wrap up what's become Bonnie Tyler week with a League Super THX to Randy for sending me the Literal Reading of the video for Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart".

Making Lemonade

This is my new favorite thing.


An old favorite thing.

Even more Bonnie Tyler

Steven suggested I watch the video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart". And after having watched it...

A) This looks vaguely like something I'd have cooked up in film school had I accidentally eaten a bunch of peyote and got my hands on a modern dance troupe.

B) Bonnie Tyler's hair is awesome. It defies gravity, wind and modern science.

C) I have no @#$%ing idea what this video is about, but Steven is right. It is awesome.



I do dig the suggestion of something really amazing going on here, I just have no idea what it is.

I also never really understood this video, either:


another day at the office for Jim D

Your Saturday Amanda Palmer Mention

I've been listening to a quite a bit of Dresden Dolls and Amanda Palmer of late (mixed with some Dan Deacon, and, the last week, Neutral Milk Hotel. Sorry, Randy.).

Apparently there's an entire album's worth of videos from "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?" online. And, wisely, I think, they've made it possible to embed the videos into your own site. I never understand why they don't want for you to do that.

Here's "Leeds United".



It's an ambitious project to have videos for your entire first solo album, but I'd guess Palmer has friends in good places from her time with Dresden Dolls. For example: Neil Gaiman recently penned the words to the book associated with the album.

I also recommend:

Guitar Hero

and, for our less sensitive viewers "Oasis".

and for that same audience, "What's the Use of Won'drin'?"

It's a short video. Watch until the end.

Music Post

So circa 1992, League-Pal Shauna C suggested I check out a band called "My Bloody Valentine". After I realized my tape deck wasn't busted and that was just what they sounded like, I became quite a fan of their album, "Loveless". It sort of fell in with other stuff I was listening to at the time, like "Lush" and "Curve". But, I thought a bit better.

I don't have many albums from back then that I still listen to. I'll listen to specific tracks, but end-to-end album listening is limited. But Loveless still gets a listen from time to time. In the end, I liked them a lot better than Lush or Curve or whatever.

So today I checked in on Facebook, and a former co-worker mentioned he was going to see MBV tonight. I had no idea they were in the US, let alone in Austin. And, of course, it was the first time I've had plans on a week night in, like, two years. Jason and I were going to see Spoon at The Scoot Inn. I like Spoon. I really do. And we never, ever go to shows any more (although we have two more booked in the next few weeks.)

I had somehow got it in my head that maybe MBV, who was touring Europe, would be here for ACL Fest if they were coming to Austin at all. So I quit checking their site for tour updates a while back.

In short, I missed the show. But I did see Spoon. Whom I also like. I'm still trying to work the karmic balance of all that out in my head.

Records

I am enjoying the new Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. It's a lot closer to what I thought "Fever to Tell" was going to be, but then was sort of disappointed when it was not. I always like it when a band decides to do more of what they're good at.

Also finally got the new Heartless Bastards on my iPod, so that's tomorrow.

Have been listening to "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?" which sort of begs the question of how necessary the other half of "Dresden Dolls" really is, but sometimes you just want it to be a "Dresden Dolls" album, and other times you're glad it is not.

And I admit that I'm one of the people who is listening to Dan Deacon. I am going out on a limb here, but is Bromst (his latest) his attempt to be the Philip Glass of his genre? I prefer the new album to Spiderman of the Rings. Partially because I don't feel like I've been taking crazy pills if I listen to it for three songs in a row.

And Deacon played Emo's on Friday.

More Shows

I think were seeing Black Joe Louise & The Honeybears in a week or so, and then Jamie is joining us for TV on the Radio.


So

I guess I need to start reading the frikkin' Chronicle again.

So that's whats going on with me.

Devo and Superman

So, last Friday I saw that Whitney Matheson of Pop Candy was going to interview Devo and opened the gates to her audience to ask questions of the legendary band. Sure that Matheson was going to be flooded with questions, I shot her off a Very League sort of question via e-mail and then, honestly, forgot about it.

Well, lo and behold, Matheson asked my question. It's actually one of the first questions asked from a fan.

How can I repay you for your consistent level of awesome? -- R. Steans

By rejecting stupidity and embracing ideas and information.

You know, when Devo tells you to reject stupidity - you put on your red, art-deco bucket hat and goggles and you say NO to stupidity. And I hope I'm embracing ideas and information the way Devo would have it, but its hard to tell.

If Matheson's column looks familiar to long-time Leaguers, she also once made mention of my celebration of the Super-lifestyle circa May of 2006.

The funny thing is, this isn't really representative of how Super my lifestyle is in 2009. Is it time for a Super update? Is anyone interested in a photo tour of League HQ's Fortress of Solitude and Hall of Justice?

The problem, then, is revealing that I may have given in to stupidity... Must not let Devo down....

I'm a Creep

Amanda Palmer "Creep" Live On Uke From Red Peters' ODDVILLE from Amanda Palmer on Vimeo.

Special thanks to Steven for sending this along.

1-2-3-4

No matter what else happens today, this made today okay.

Lubbock and Dallas

So. Okay. I'm buying a @#$%ing GPS.

Driving and trying to read directions off a printout from Google Maps in the middle of Texas, twenty miles from anything resembling a landmark just sucks. Especially once it gets dark.

Today I drove from Dallas to Lubbock, using the directions provided me by my faithful admin. I knew I was kind of screwed when the directions took me in this weird partial loop around part of Dallas, and I drove back past my hotel fifteen minutes later.

I'll be doing a lot of driving for this job, so from now on, I will have a polite lady's voice telling me where to go.

I didn't see much of the Llano Estacado or whatever driving in as the sun dipped around 7:00ish, and I arrived about 9:10. So, Wow, Lubbock. Nice, terrifying dark roads you got going on out here.

SMU's campus is very nice, btw.

Tomorrow is Tech.

I had a dinner at the bar where I made the bartender tell me her life story. The BBQ was okay, but very salty. Still, for getting a BBQ plate at 9"30 at night, it was okay.

Dallas Radio

So Driving around Dallas I was having trouble finding rock or classic rock on the radio, but I did find a number of religious stations and a metric-ton of Tejano. It was kind of an interesting juxtaposition of listening to Sarah Vowell's discussion of our forefathers, Puritanism, etc... and then listening to the confluence of religion and politics on the radio, and how political issues aren't actually up for debate. The debate has been settled by an interpretation of the Word of God as channeled from the chosen radio DJ.

It's not exactly news that the endgame here isn't entirely different from how law was decreed and interpreted by the separatists and Puritans who fled England to set up shop far from the Papists and not-as-pure-as-themselves Englanders. Its still a fairly crude set-up of abject paranoia and ego manifested as decrying anyone not onboard with your viewpoint as sent from the devil (let alone finding a flock that will buy into your line). And seeking to rule based upon God's authority (ie: your authority, because only you have the "correct" interpretation of scripture, current events, etc...).

It's just kind of kooky to listen for a while and hear the repeated insistence that there's a conspiracy to silence Christians, how many people aren't really Christians (ie: do not listen to this radio show), and how Obama's spending versus Bush's equally reckless spending (if we want to talk deficit numbers) is somehow a sign of the end times. Oh, yes. The end times. Everything is a sign that the end times are drawing nigh.

Bear in mind, I only listened to this for under an hour and heard these messages repeated over and over. This is on every single day, all day.

Anyhow, having had my earful of people calling in to talk about how nobody else is as Christian as the caller and DJ are, I tuned around until I found some classic rock.

On my way out of Dallas, I was listening to ACDC's "Back in Black". I don't particularly care for ACDC, but they'll do in a pinch. And the DJ came back on the air to announce, "You know what's black but won't be back? Terrell Owens."

Well, yes, technically, TO is African American/ black, and he was just released from the Cowboys' roster (setting them back $9 million). But, still... wow. I don't even know what's specifically wrong with that, but I think there's plenty there to work with.


Something else

Here's something new: My pals in Seattle, The My and Bryan have put together yet another musical act. Here's a link to a sampling. Behold, its the dawning of Jupe Jupe.

So where the hell is your latest, T-Jeff?

ComicBook.com

I want to salute the guys at ComicBook.com. They're building a new site and are picking up RSS feeds from comic-related websites and blogs. Rather than merely grabbing my RSS feed, they actually wrote me and asked if it was okay.

It is more than okay. I am pleased to see some people with some basic manners working on a comic-related site. So, unless they suddenly do something awful, the guys at ComicBook.com are officially blogrolled here in the Comic Links section, and they have my salute.

Go click on their site and see what's what.

Should be interesting to see how it goes for these guys.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was nice. Jamie and I don't do much for the day, partially because I'm a little cynical about the industry that seems to double in size every year around the holiday, and partially because (after 13 years of together-ness) I don't think Jamie wants any of the stuff you get at Walgreens. And neither of us want to go to some restaurant and stand around waiting for a table in unpredictable weather for two hours.

We stayed home and Jamie made a wonderful meal. And we got to spend the holiday with Lucy Goose, who was kind of up in our grill because she'd been smelling the spaghetti-preparations all afternoon.

Jamie got a card and a few candy-related items from me. Some of which Lucy Goose got into and ate last night. So... there's that.

Rockin' Sunday

Today was pretty darn lazy. Took Lucy to the park to run her for a while. She Almost immediately lost her ball when she became distracted.

It was sunny, 72 and breezy today, so the park was packed. The past two times we've been I became a little misty eyed as I know how much Mel loved it there, and both times, Lucy has run up to dogs who share Mel's silhouette from afar, only to stop short a few feet from the other dog when she realizes its not him.

I, myself, was a little sad when I said hello to a Golden who wasn't quite as big as Mel, but shared his same, broad shoulders and thick, mid-winter coat. Hit a little close to home, which was odd, because it was triggered completely by touch.

When we got home, I grilled up burgers and Jamie and I watched the end of Star Wars Episodes I and II, and as its been years since I'd watched either one, it was mind-boggling how bad those movies really are.

I did some chores and then headed over to Jason's for a while where Reed, Jason and I played some music. Its been months since I picked up my bass. Honestly, I'd sort of decided it was going to find a home in the back of a closet somewhere or under the bed, but I had a great time this evening. So look for future tours of the band I was informed would be named "Reed, Jason and Platypus".

many topics

Dogs (Mine and those of others)

Cassidy is here. We never bothered to move the couches back after the Superbowl on Sunday, and with two dogs in the house, I'm not very inclined to do so. Everyone kind of gets a spot.

Lucy has been much better after her misfire with the rawhide bone the other week. She's been back to normal speed for a while. I do fear she's getting really, really spoiled these days in Mel's absence and with Jeff the Cat spending more time upstairs and peacefully snoozing during the day.

For those of you who missed it, TST has brought a pup into her own life by adopting a retired greyhound. Before Lucy, Jamie and I had talked long and hard about doing the same, as... hey! it's a dog that's already been trained. And they have a great disposition. Unfortunately, we also read in more than one place that they can chase cats. So if you want to blame someone, blame Jeff.

I am thrilled for TST and her new pal. I believe his name is Holley. May they take over Houston together.

Work is Busy

Work has finally caught up with me. I still really like my job, but I'm past the honeymoon period and its work. I have to plan months out. I need to not screw up.

It's a good thing.

The Boss

I think Jason will be trying to get us tickets to see Springsteen. Jamie will, most likely, not go.

Hawaii

I want to take Jamie to Hawaii this year. I want to see her dance about in a grass skirt with a wreath of brightly colored flowers atop her noggin. And we should sip fruity drinks in a lounge chair at 6:00 pm.

Is it totally evil that I hope things sink a little lower so I can actually afford to take my wife on a single vacation in this lifetime?

That said, I am dreading (absolutely dreading) the flight. So I can wait.

Furloughs

Friends at my former employing university are on staggered furloughs. If you don't know what this means, it translates thusly: They are not getting paid to work, so the university is sending them away in blocks of time that will, hopefully, not impact the university too greatly. But, basically, everyone is seeing their salaries decreased.

When they start talking about "freezing tuition" at universities, beware. And when you vote for people who vote against supporting university funding, also ponder what that means. Universities need funding for everything from test tubes to trash bags to handicap parking spot paint. When you have no state funding, and you have no tuition money, you're left with the kindness of strangers supporting your favorite university. And when those strangers realize their pockets are empty...?

There's a slight chance that people might not be able to graduate this semester at that school I mentioned if the furloughs get longer, wider, deeper, what-have-you.

Universities get funded from somewhere. And while tuition is expensive, those fees barely begin to cover the total expenses of most schools. Schools like the University of Texas are hard to understand to the outside observer. We can all agree we need the school for the educational aspect, and we can agree that we need something beyond a "teaching college", but its hard to understand the value of the scholarship, research, etc... going on.

Anyway, its easy to be cavalier about Universities and the fact that they cost money, but its a complicated eco-system. If you're concerned its all a bunch of communism, then I'd point to how universities get their rankings, research funding, etc... in what's a pretty straightforward system of meritocracy. In order to draw the right talent (which equates to rankings and research dollars), you gotta have the dough. So if you want your degree to be worth something (or your kid's degree), it costs money. So ponder what having Stanford has meant to Palo Alto, or what having UT has meant to Austin and its industry. Or what the Research Triangle means to North Carolina as per producing talent, which attracts companies, etc... Its an eco-system, and all of these things need each other.

With such a terrific tradition of public higher education in this country, its my sincere hope that a university education does not return to pre-WWII levels of being accessible almost exclusively to the wealthy. Or that public institutions become second class universities.

Coachella?

I don't think I'm going*, but the lineup for Coachella is, once again, really very good.

Here.

I can't help but note that My Bloody Valentine is listed. Part of me refuses to believe they'll keep it together long enough to make the show, but if they're doing Coachella, maybe they'll do ACL Fest?

Also:

Paul McCartney
Morrisey (for JimD)
Leonard Cohen
The Crystal Method (your mileage may vary)
Girl Talk
Calexico
TV on the Radio
Jenny Lewis
Peter Bjorn and John
Public Enemy
The Cure
Throbbing Gristle (A bad I've never heard, but always respected the name. Not quite as awesome as RevCo, but not bad)
X

No matter what, ACL Fest is going to pale in comparison.

*Jamie and I are talking about taking a lengthy vacation this summer, so that'd be where I'll spend my vacation days.

Back from Houston/ Here's some of those tapes

Jamie, Lucy and I went to Houston over the weekend to visit with my grandfather. He was feeling better this weekend than he has in a while, so it turned out to be a good time to visit. I was pleased to see how nice his assisted living facility had so many amenities.

It's an odd sort of communal living, and while I understand 100% why they have it for older folks, man... you'd think a bunch of apartments with a sort of cafeteria for non-older folks might sell, too. If anyone wants in on my idea for a unique development project, send me a note.



Here's Jamie and Lucy sitting on the bed in my old room. A rare occurrence for Lucy to actually look at the camera.

I forgot to take a picture or two of my grandfather, which is actually why I stuck the camera in my pocket. But since we were on the topic...


Here's a small portion of my tape collection left at my parents' house from yesteryear. A lot of my tapes went to college with me, and so a lot of the cases were actually empty. I had a few other tape containers as well, but I have not a clue what became of those cases/ tapes/ etc...


I actually found some of those tapes that I was talking about in my last post.


As well as many that I was slightly less excited about.


And some I probably should have mentioned but did not.

A pretty good chunk of bands and albums

Over at Jason’s blog, he’s made a list of albums he found to be especially influential to him in his younger years. It's instructive to look at his post first to see how this started. It's interesting that The Pope has popped up in the post as Pope and Jason were sort of music-buddies in high school, and I was sort of on the periphery of all that.

Jason’s cited a few albums, such as Kenny Roger’s “The Gambler” and Neil Diamond’s “The Jazz Singer” as pivotal records in his development, cutting off somewhere near his freshman year of high school. And I can't deny that I also would list those albums. As well as the various Chipmunks albums we owned which were absolutely a gateway drug into the hard stuff (Blondie, The Knack, what have you...).

What’s interesting to me is that I was in the same house, and actually have oddly different memories of some of these albums. Jason was the older sibling, and so a lot of what came down to me until 1990 came directly from whatever Jason was bringing into the house, so I have somewhat fuzzy memories of who bought what first, and who copied whose tape.

“Cure: Disintegration”. By the time I bought this album, its entirely possible Jason had a copy and I had no idea. I recall the events thusly:
1) I saw the video for “Pictures of You” on 120 Minutes, which was on Sunday nights.
2) I was taken to Northcross Mall, pre-driver’s license, to buy some other item that week. I bought “Disintegration” at chain record store. I recall this specifically, because I ran into Peabo’s brother in the store while making my selection.

I was one of those guys who really liked the Cure in high school. It is true. But I also recall it was kind of a line in the sand between what some of my pals were listening to (R&B and hip-hop), and what I was going to listen to, and deciding I was utterly unapologetic for not agreeing that MC Hammer was the bee’s knees. Or George Strait. And on the basketball team, disagreeing about something like whether or not people will always love Bobby Brown is a pretty good way to stick out like a sore thumb.

What I totally did not get in the 1980’s was Metal. I’m not talking “Poison”, LA Metal Lite. I mean stuff in that wide range between Dokken and Celtic Frost. Although I have fond memories of watching a Vinnie Vincent Invasion video with my dad in which a guy in a flame suit is set alight and runs around, which I guess was supposed to look tough, but set me and The Admiral laughing until we cried.

“Ramones”. I believe Jason had “Rocket to Russia” first, but I don’t recall. I just recall buying “Ramones: Mania” at the PharMor mega drug store thing that briefly existed near Westwood High School. I also bought a few other Ramones albums, but in the face of Ramones: Mania, always felt there was little point.

I recall listening to “Pink Floyd: A Momentary Lapse of Reason” prior to “The Wall” by a few weeks, at least, but I certainly knew the entire album of “The Wall” by the beginning of 8th grade. But certainly I agree that "The Wall" was of far, far greater interest.

We bought “They Might be Giants: Flood” and “Pixies: Dolittle” at the same time, and I preferred TMBG for a while. I wasn’t sold on the Pixies until Bossanova, but I also didn’t listen to any more after Dolittle. I was a TMBG fan for a number of years, but sort of wore out on them in college, even skipping a show I had tickets to and had, in fact, driven to, but left so I could prepare for a history exam I was stressing over.

It’s difficult to recall how into “Jane’s Addiction: Nothing’s Shocking” I was, as well as “Ritual de lo Habitual”. These days I barely listen to the band.

Jason, Reed, (possibly even Peabo) and I went through a “Who” phase, circa 1989. Its why I still know all the words to “Magic Bus”.

We also went through a Jimi Hendrix thing, but that was much more short-lived.

Album I can't blieve wasn't on Jason's list: Violent Femmes (self-titled)

This album is probably still some sort of right of passage for 13 year olds everywhere. I saw the band play live at least three times, and had several of their other efforts, but none were as raw or sounded as much like a teen-ager's inner-monologue as that first record.

Plenty of people don't like the album or the band, but I think practically every high schooler post 1980 has at least heard the record (or at least "Add it Up"). It's difficult to imagine me having a go-to album at this point in my life the way this album always was at the ready in my room, then my car, from 13 until today. 20 years of not being sick of a record isn't bad.

In 8th grade I played a “Buddy Holly: 23 Hits” album until it wore out. I probably had originally fished it out of a bargain bin at Walgreens, but can'r recall. I was surprised to later learn that other people actually liked Buddy Holly, too, and “Rave On” continues to be a favorite tune. I also learned about the limitations of the 45rpm record, and why they could fit 23 Buddy Holly songs onto a long play cassette.

In 8th Grade I was also listening to a “Roy Orbison’s Greatest Hits” album quite a bit, so I was probably one of the only kids in my class who became giddy at the prospect of The Travelling Wilbury’s (JAL may, actually, be the only other kid who appreciated Orbison, but I didn’t know he appreciated the man until we re-connected in college and he was singing "The Candy Colored Clown" in his dorm room a la "Blue Velvet".). I have fond memories of ceasing my task of mowing the lawn to listen to “Blue Bayou” on my Walkman.

"Talking Heads: Naked"
You'd think I bought the album because the covered featured a chimp, but that's not the case. When the album debuted, I was familiar with the Talking Heads from their early 80's pop hits such as "Burning Down the House". And I had watched "Stop Making Sense" on VHS in my 5th grade art teacher's classroom as he tried to explain art-rock to a room full of kids who thought GI Joe was the apex of our culture.

I saw the video for "(Nothing But) Flowers" in the winter of 8th grade, I guess. I was quite taken by the Latin American stylings overlayed with Byrne's distinctive voice and even more distinctive lyrics about missing modern conveniences when mankind has returned to a natural state, which seemed hilarious and horrible and terribly, terribly true to my mind. I read a lot of Bloom County at the time, which would inform my world view more than I'd want to admit in later life.

I remember getting my money together on the morning of one of our basketball games. After the games, we would all go to Lone Star Cafe, and down the strip mall was a movie/ record store which carried a wide selection of music.

The tapes were behind the counter so punk kids like myself couldn't steal them, so I had to ask for the cassette. The guy behind the counter eyed me for a minute, said nothing, then put the tape in my hands. The cassette was made of an odd, amber plastic and I had only seen the greyish-hue of tapes before.

"That's a really good album" the guy said. I had never, ever spoken to anyone before during the transaction at the counter. I froze. "Really?"

"Yeah. Good stuff." He was pleased that I obviously overvalued his opinion. I was pleased that an adult I didn't know was telling me I had excellent musical taste.

And it was a great album. I listened to it repeatedly, filling in my world view with "Democratic Circus", "Mommy Daddy You and I", "Mr. Jones"... It's still in rotation in my collection, too. As are all of the Talking Heads' other albums, and probably 85% of Byrne's solo work.

In middle school I read a now-forgotten sci-fi novel called The Architect of Sleep, whose protagonist repeatedly referenced "Tangerine Dream", so I bought one of their albums, and then a few more. All of which have disappeared over the years, including the two I had on vinyl. They also appeared as the instrumentation in a few 80's era movies, such as "The Keep", and I want to say a Michael Mann movie somewhere along the line.

Its been years and years since I listened to any Tangerine Dream. What they did do was open my mind up about atmospheric music for the state of atmospheric music, which dovetailed nicely when I got to college and was force fed a diet of The Orb, Woob, Black Dog, et al. courtesy Mssrs. Shoemaker and Sanchez. Which, of course, led down other musical corridors we won't detail here.

I don't know exactly when "Siousxie and the Banshees: Peepshow" entered the rotation, but that album became a favorite. Siouxsie's unique vocal stylings, and the band's arrangements were different from almost everything else in rock at the time that I knew of (they used an accordian in a completely non-ironic way, and it worked, for chrissake).


There were hundreds of songs, and dozens of albums, I'm sure. And I know I missed several.