Thursday, August 12, 2004
The Bettie-on-the-headphones Variations: I keep trying to post something about poet Steve Healey's Drag City/Kranky fixation, the fact that Christopher O' Reilly, the classical pianist who did that Radiohead disc, is next tackling Elliot Smith*, and ex-[I guess]-New Brutalist Geoffrey Dyer's The Dirty Halo of Everything, which contains a poem called "xo," which I wouldn't have assumed to be 'after' Smith's album if not for "development song" some pages later: "The song is not narrative solely for its textual features. [...] Commercialism has characterized Rock as traditionally formal -- and Rock and Roll would laugh at this -- the utopic question that would seek to overthrow such narratives." I keep trying, that is, but I sound like a jerk on all fronts. I think Dyer means "formally traditional." See?
*Why no link? 'Cos you can't go directly to the page for O'R's UCLA recital (May 2005), and the only other page I found w/ refs to both led to the 'indieporn' site Suicide Girls.
Showtime: Strong, if scaring me ("You people are going to respect me...if it kills you") and making me laugh out loud ("Knock Knock," not so much the chorus as the line about his "controversial views") on first listen are anything to go by. [Same goes for The Ex's upcoming Push, based on Disc 2 alone]. "Imagine" -- Streetsish? I'm completely behind the use of Captain Sensible's "Happy Talk," but the resulting "Dream" is a missed opportunity -- warm-fuzzy-Dizzee-loves-the-people-of-the-world wasn't making it for me. I wonder if mechanicals are being paid to Rodgers & Hammerstein on top of whatever the sample clearance cost; I won't tell the estate if you don't. (Slightly connected: Picked up So Solid Crew's "21 Seconds" recently; odd, in that most of the MCs spend their 21 seconds apiece explaining how they only have the mic for 21 seconds.)
While we're on the IntelPro tip, my father says he's taped the Prudential commercial that allegedly contains my voice. He says the only lyric he can make out is "This is how life should be." I have some thoughts on that topic, but I don't think I've ever sung them. Must be, you know, some kind of Tom Waits/Doritos gag.
*Why no link? 'Cos you can't go directly to the page for O'R's UCLA recital (May 2005), and the only other page I found w/ refs to both led to the 'indieporn' site Suicide Girls.
Showtime: Strong, if scaring me ("You people are going to respect me...if it kills you") and making me laugh out loud ("Knock Knock," not so much the chorus as the line about his "controversial views") on first listen are anything to go by. [Same goes for The Ex's upcoming Push, based on Disc 2 alone]. "Imagine" -- Streetsish? I'm completely behind the use of Captain Sensible's "Happy Talk," but the resulting "Dream" is a missed opportunity -- warm-fuzzy-Dizzee-loves-the-people-of-the-world wasn't making it for me. I wonder if mechanicals are being paid to Rodgers & Hammerstein on top of whatever the sample clearance cost; I won't tell the estate if you don't. (Slightly connected: Picked up So Solid Crew's "21 Seconds" recently; odd, in that most of the MCs spend their 21 seconds apiece explaining how they only have the mic for 21 seconds.)
While we're on the IntelPro tip, my father says he's taped the Prudential commercial that allegedly contains my voice. He says the only lyric he can make out is "This is how life should be." I have some thoughts on that topic, but I don't think I've ever sung them. Must be, you know, some kind of Tom Waits/Doritos gag.
