Thursday, March 04, 2004
The academic job market giveth, and the academic job market taketh away.
Farber state-of-play; decent running draft, w/ a 3-4 paragraph mess where the discussion of the relation between Godard's La Chinoise and MF's mid-'80s painting should be. Other than that, needs tightening, but the points are onscreen, finally. Letting it sit for a few days.
Phoenix piece on Mekons' Punk Rock and The Sundowners' Chicago Country Legends (possibly the "Ugly Band" of the thusly-named Mekons song). Note to self: watch sentence length.
Alice Faye presently singing campaign rewrite of "I'm Just Wild About Harry": "It's only human/to vote for Truman." (I've never heard this version before, but I used the same rhyme for one verse of a still-incomplete song, "Never Tell Your Lover How You Voted," which I'd almost forgotten about.)
Most pleasurable listening of the last few days -- first 5 songs of Rainer Maria's Long Knives, repeatedly. Really dies after that. Non-rockist move w/r/t to previous records, in context of heavy g-b-d manners; only letting the one with the pipes sing. I will state right here that their lyrics are uncut emo-goes-to-writing-workshop, and that, except for the outchorus about "individuality" in "The Awful Truth of Loving," which casts a pall over what follows (it's song 5), I do not care a whit. "Have faith in the blue lady."
Which reminds me: Is "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" even more a part of the indie lingua franca than The Smiths in general? "The Double Life"*(song 4 of above) seems closely modeled thereupon; Lucksmiths' "There Is A Boy That Never Goes Out"; line on new Destroyer, "There is a light, and it goes...out."; cover by Montreal's Stars on first album (which I haven't heard). Others? Funny, I was stronger on "Cemetery Gates" and "Boy/Thorn" at the time. (Insert personal memory of listening to The Queen Is Dead with [relatively] punkier, mildly disapproving highschool bandmates here.) Related: The prospect of seeing L.A.'s premier Smiths cover band (The Sweet and Tender Hooligans, no lie) "perform Louder Than Bombs in its entirety" is not as unappealing as it might be, though I don't think I'll actually make it.
*This is a strong contender for my new 'band' name. Looks good in a couple of typefaces, no caps. Thinking also of Cukor, and Kieslowski, and direct applicability to my own doings. Hey, it's not as pretentious as "Rainer Maria," or the name of this blog. If this is taken, please write me immediately -- otherwise, watch this space.
Also had something to say about The English Beat's still-great Wha'apen, but this would lead yet farther afield. "This one -- your unity rocker!"
Farber state-of-play; decent running draft, w/ a 3-4 paragraph mess where the discussion of the relation between Godard's La Chinoise and MF's mid-'80s painting should be. Other than that, needs tightening, but the points are onscreen, finally. Letting it sit for a few days.
Phoenix piece on Mekons' Punk Rock and The Sundowners' Chicago Country Legends (possibly the "Ugly Band" of the thusly-named Mekons song). Note to self: watch sentence length.
Alice Faye presently singing campaign rewrite of "I'm Just Wild About Harry": "It's only human/to vote for Truman." (I've never heard this version before, but I used the same rhyme for one verse of a still-incomplete song, "Never Tell Your Lover How You Voted," which I'd almost forgotten about.)
Most pleasurable listening of the last few days -- first 5 songs of Rainer Maria's Long Knives, repeatedly. Really dies after that. Non-rockist move w/r/t to previous records, in context of heavy g-b-d manners; only letting the one with the pipes sing. I will state right here that their lyrics are uncut emo-goes-to-writing-workshop, and that, except for the outchorus about "individuality" in "The Awful Truth of Loving," which casts a pall over what follows (it's song 5), I do not care a whit. "Have faith in the blue lady."
Which reminds me: Is "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" even more a part of the indie lingua franca than The Smiths in general? "The Double Life"*(song 4 of above) seems closely modeled thereupon; Lucksmiths' "There Is A Boy That Never Goes Out"; line on new Destroyer, "There is a light, and it goes...out."; cover by Montreal's Stars on first album (which I haven't heard). Others? Funny, I was stronger on "Cemetery Gates" and "Boy/Thorn" at the time. (Insert personal memory of listening to The Queen Is Dead with [relatively] punkier, mildly disapproving highschool bandmates here.) Related: The prospect of seeing L.A.'s premier Smiths cover band (The Sweet and Tender Hooligans, no lie) "perform Louder Than Bombs in its entirety" is not as unappealing as it might be, though I don't think I'll actually make it.
*This is a strong contender for my new 'band' name. Looks good in a couple of typefaces, no caps. Thinking also of Cukor, and Kieslowski, and direct applicability to my own doings. Hey, it's not as pretentious as "Rainer Maria," or the name of this blog. If this is taken, please write me immediately -- otherwise, watch this space.
Also had something to say about The English Beat's still-great Wha'apen, but this would lead yet farther afield. "This one -- your unity rocker!"
