New Dylan
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Honestly wasn't much anticipating the new Dylan album. Been out a couple of weeks now but I haven't felt a real desire to pick it up. But Laurie sent me this link today and I've got to say I like how this song ("Beyond Here Lies Nothing") sounds. Not sure what the story is behind the film, except that it was apparently part of some Dylan project for IFC. But when I go to the IFC, I get a blank screen. Oh well. Enjoy anyway.
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 11:08 PM,
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Polly Rocks
Monday, June 22, 2009
Polly Jean Harvey, John Parish and their band gave a great performance last night. Surprisingly (at least to me) was that they didn't do one single song from PJ's solo career. She stated right up front that they were only doing material from the two albums under her and Parish's name.
Nice to see Eric Drew Feldman still playing with PJ, on bass and keyboards. Feldman played with her the one and only other time I've seen her live, at the Wiltern Theatre in L.A. back in 1995. Of course long time readers of this blog may remember that the first time I ever saw Feldman playing live was way back in 1977, when he and I were both much younger and he was part of Captain Beefheart's then newly constituted Magic Band. It was great having that connection to the Captain. Beefheart, of course, is one of PJ Harvey's major influences and from what I've read, she's one of the few people who stays in touch with him. And it was nice to still hear that Beefheart influence in some of the song structures and chord progression. Parish had it in some of his guitar work, and it brought a smile to my face.
But I think I'm done with concerts. The problem with concerts is the people who go to them. The asshole factor is very high. It was generally an older crowd, which I suppose shouldn't have surprised me, as PJ has been releasing albums since 1992, 17 years ago now. The venue was outdoors, and like an idiot, I forgot to bring a jacket. I sat there for about an hour before the headliners appear. I don't want to say bad things about the opening act, a solo acoustic guitar playing from England who is a friend of PJ and John and whose name I can't remember. I think the cold wore down my patience. Then of course, the moment it began, and entire group of people decided to finally take their seats in my aisle. Followed quickly by a middle age couple who had gotten up a few minutes earlier and now believed (mistakenly) that the large group had taken their seats. Lots of back and forth in my face.
Then there was the jackass about ten rows in front of me who decided it was his right to stand up the entire show and ignore the protests of everyone around him. It's not like he was dancing either. He was just standing and occasionally swaying. Not that he blocked my view, but he was blocking the views of others and all the protests and the jackass' insistence at standing became quite a distraction. He ignored several requests by the ushers, which led to some protests about his right to stand from some middle age, biker looking couple near me, who at one point decided to go down and join him in solidarity. I swear at one point the bike guy said, "It's his right to stand, This is America." Uh, no. It's a paid venue, under which there are rules and regulations. I doubt there's one against standing through a whole show, but his "right" to be oblivious to the inconvenience of others doesn't give him a right to alter the experience of the dozens of people he wasn't annoying. At any rate, I had an urge to run down the aisle, grab the stupid cap off of his head, and fling it in the air. Demonstrate my right, as it were, to show what a fucking asshole he was.
These kind of experiences, combined with the cost of tickets, really makes me think it's time I stop going to concerts. I'm too old for this shit.
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 7:09 AM,
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Alone Again
Sunday, June 21, 2009
I'm such a goddamn idiot. When am I going to learn that it is okay for me to buy 1 ticket to a concert that I want to see? No one here in San Diego, in my age or peer group, shares my quirky, indie musical tastes. I bought two tickets a couple of months ago to see PJ Harvey and John Parish tonight. I assumed that somewhere along the way, I meet someone who would be interested in going. Fat chance. Down here, it's all cover bands, endless 80s nostalgia, bad metal bands and country. Well, I'm going tonight and I guess I'll see if I can sell the other ticket, but the show is not sold out so that's going to be a problem. Everybody there except for me will probably be in at least a couple, and why buy one random ticket from some stranger if you can get multiple seats together at the box office? So I'll do my best to to enjoy the show and not fixate on the $50 (including various service fees) that I will have pissed away.
Anyway, here are PJ and John from Letterman, about a week and two days ago.
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 5:31 PM,
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Oron's Last Appearance
Saturday, June 20, 2009
This is very sad and I am surprised that I have never seen this before. From October 10, 1985. Orson Welles doing an interview with Merv Griffin, just a couple of hours before he died. Welles had turned 70 five months earlier, and of course much of the conversation is reflecting back on the past, including a couple of touching remarks about ex-wife Rita Hayworth and good friend Marlene Dietrich.
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 11:54 AM,
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White As Diamonds
That's not what the morning is like here in San Diego today. It's actually gloomy, overcast and a bit drizzly. Which is actually fairly common here for May and June. Summer doesn't really, usually hit in full force until July. Anyway, I have had this song by Alela Diane running through my head. It's fairly melancholy, as least to me, and actually sounds more appropriate to the day than the title of the song suggests.
Alela is a wonderful young singer/song writer/musician who I had the privilege of seeing perform last month in a very intimate setting at UCSD, where she was backed by a three piece band that includes her dad. I encourage you all to check her out sometime. She currently has two full length albums out and her latest one, To Be Still, is one of my favorite releases of this year so far. You can listen to some of her song's at her MySpace page.
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 11:43 AM,
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Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
I've been remiss in mentioning that Elvis Costello, patron saint of this blog, has recently released a new album titled Secret, Profane and Sugarcane. It's noteworthy for several reasons. First, I think it came out within about a year of his previous album, Momofuku, a frequency at which most modern musicians, Elvis included, don't usually produce. Second, the album cover art is by Tony Millionaire, a very idiosyncratic artist of comic books and comic strips of some distinction. Third, it really is a country album. Way more so than even 2004's The Delivery Man. This one feels a bit more stripped down than that earlier release and I think is a bit more directly country, rather than country influenced. And by that I mean traditional country, not the contemporary, slick Nashville stuff, gussied up as pop music and merely calling itself country because of some trace of a vocal twang. Finally, I just read on Elvis site that it entered the Billboard charts at #13, the highest placement of any Elvis release since 1980's Get Happy. I wonder what that's attributable to? Maybe all the time Elvis has spent being Mr. Celebrity and Elder Statesman in recent years.
The nice thing about this age we live in is that you can go legally check the album out on line before you buy. Elvis' site is streaming the album in its entirety. I sort of like when modern technology reintroduces a concept that existed in some other primitive form years ago. For example, when I track the progress of a baseball game on line, it reminds me of those pictures I've seen of the pre-radio days where the progress of a game was wired to some neighborhood store where someone would post the scores on a large sign outside for all to see. The streaming of albums in the hopes that you will purchase the whole thing reminds me of the days (even slightly before my time) when one could go into a neighborhood record store and ask them to play the record for you before you purchased it.
Here's a promotional video that Elvis did for Newsweek. It's kind of but not really the title track. It's called "Sulphur to Sugarcane."
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 10:27 PM,
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The Magnificent Ambersons
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Turner Classic Movies featured Orson Welles tonight as part of their "Great Directors" series running this month. I came in on the end of The Lady from Shanghai. After that, The Magnificent Ambersons came on. I wasn't planning on watching the whole thing, but as always with Welles, I was mesmerized by the opening. Ambersons in its final released version is, of course, another Welles film that did not make it to the screen in the way he intended, yet it is still wonderful. Flawed, but wonderful. The end scene--ordered by the study and shot by others with no involvement of Welles whatsoever-- in an attempt to tack on some sort of sappy, upbeat ending to a downer of a story and is painful to watch. Yet the rest of the story and its melancholy tale of a bygone era, with some wonderful camera work and set designs and the presence of the inimitable Joseph Cotten, is well worth seeing.
But when the hell is there ever going to be a worthy DVD release of this film?
Here is part of the opening sequence.
The Magnificent Ambersons
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 11:35 PM,
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If You Are Under 17...
Monday, June 15, 2009
...please call your parents over to the computer to read along with you, because...
Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Site
This is a voluntary rating thing I thought I'd try out, because I saw it on Mark Evanier's blog. (Note how it's also really an ad for yet another online dating site.) Apparently, I warranted this rating due to multiple uses of "F" bombs (no surprise there), heroin (I can't remember when or why, though I certainly wouldn't have been advocating its use), and...get this...the word "dead." Twice. Huh?
So I imagine then if I were to post a couple of nude pictures here, it wouldn't really affect the rating. Not that I'm about to, but you never know.
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 11:07 PM,
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Red Dead Redemption
Thursday, June 11, 2009
I haven't really been much into video games for the past 6 months or so. Honestly, there haven't been a lot of new releases that really have gotten me all that excited and I've played my old games so many times that it's hard to pick them up again. When I first started playing games seriously about five years ago, one of my favorites was a game called Red Dead Revolver. In hindsight, it wasn't all that good. But being new to games, I didn't really have much to measure it against and it was a western, a genre I love, so I enjoyed it. Never did finish it though. I got very frustrated with some of the controls and some levels that I found just too hard to defeat.
The Great Western Game is a holy grail of sorts for gamers who also happen to be western fans. One would would think that the genre would be an ideal match for the medium, but compared to other genres--military, science fiction, horror--there have only been a miniscule amount of western games developed, reducing the odds of finding one that matches the level of quality in the greatest games in those other, more popular settings. We want the western Halo or the western Call of Duty. Gun, one of the first games to come out on the XBox 360, had its virtues but came up short.
For several years now, rumors have been circulating that Rock Star Games has been developing a sequel to Red Dead Revolver. Rock Star, of course, is the studio behind the immensely popular and controversial Grand Theft Auto series. Now the original Red Dead also bore the Rock Star brand, but they only picked it up from another studio and, to my understanding, put some finishing touches on it, so it wasn't a true Rock Star Game. Well, the rumors are long past being rumors and Red Dead Redemption is finally on its way. Okay, this might not be news to insiders, but as I've said, I've kind of tuned out on the gaming biz for a while so it's news to me. There doesn't seem to be a solid release yet, but supposedly its going to hit in the first quarter of 2010, plenty of time for me to save my pennies. Trying not to get too excited, but keeping my fingers crossed.
Here's the latest trailer to whet the appetite.
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 11:49 PM,
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Screw You, Yankees
You know, with the shit year I've had, do you think the Yankees could have won at least ONE of the 8 god damn games they've played against the fucking Red Sox this year? God, the obnoxiousness of Red Sox fans right now is enough to send my fucking blood pressure off the charts. I curse the day Theo Epstein was born.
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 10:40 PM,
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Bottom of the World
More Tom Waits.
Wish I could find another site I could just link songs from. Oh well. I can't, so you get the song I wanted you to hear with someone's amateur Waits slide show from You Tube. There are worse things. I love this song. Like "Walk Away" from the previous post, it's from 2006's massive compilation of Waits stuff called Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards.
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 7:20 AM,
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More on Seeqpod
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Following up on my previous post, it doesn't appear as if Seeqpod--the site from which I've been embedding a lot of the musical selections on this blog--is coming back anytime soon. According to this article they are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and possibly looking to partner with Microsoft. But none of it sounds positive to me or like anything is going to happen in the very near future. So I better not hold my breathe waiting for their return and should probably start finding some alternative sources to fix some of this no longer available songs.
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 10:55 AM,
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Broken Songs of the Day
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Seeqpod.com, the site from where I've been embedding some of my music, seems to be out of commission right now and has been since at least this morning. So if you are wondering why there are no songs where the "Song of the Day" is supposed to be, blame them.
posted by Jim Chadwick @ 12:18 AM,
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