Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Album of the Week
Godspeed You! Black Emperor "f# a# ∞"
There's Godspeed, then there's everyone else.
There's Godspeed, then there's everyone else.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Album of the Week
Just got the CD re-issue of this doom masterpiece in the mail and have been playing it all week. It's cold, slow, and brutal. Perfect. Speaking of doom, I'm off to see OM tonight at the Independent with Lichens opening. Riff destruction begins at 9 PM.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Graves At Sea, R.I.P.
Graves played their last show at Slim's last night. They went out fighting. Everyone sounded great, and the crowd was way into it. The singer lost his voice towards the end and though he told the audience that was it, you could see he clearly didn't want to leave. They ended up playing one last song, "Reclamation", and people lost their shit. It was a great way to go out. They will be sorely missed.
sfgate ran a piece on the band on the eve of their last gig here.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Movies 2007
My personal favs of the last year. I count 2 original films (Eastern Promises and The Taste Of Tea), 2 documentaries and the rest book adaptions. Honorable mention goes to Lust, Caution, Pan's Labyrinth, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, and Paris, je t'aime. For the start of this year, I'm looking forward to checking out Persepolis and There Will Be Blood in the next couple weeks. So in no particular order:
King Of Kong - A hilarious documentary about two 40-somethings battling it out for the highest score in Donkey Kong, the popular 80s arcade game. Hands down the funniest movie I saw last year. Think "Rocky" with nerds.
Eastern Promises - Subtle, yet absorbing and intense thriller about a woman who inadvertently gets involved with the Russian mob. This is directed by David Cronenberg, so you know the blood and guts are soon to follow.
War/Dance - Heart wrenching and uplifting at the same time, this documentary follows a group of refugee children from a tribe in war torn Northern Uganda as they attempt to compete in the country's prestigious national music competition. Hard to watch at times, but I think everyone should see this inspirational film.
Stardust - A truly magical piece of work based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman, who also penned my favorite comics series, The Sandman.
Lady Chatterley - One could easily dismiss this film as just another soft core sex romp, but in fact Pascale Ferran has directed a tender & delicate, deeply sensuous adaption of D.H. Lawrence's infamous book.
No Country For Old Men - A must see for Javier Bardem's portrayal of a chillingly stoic, cold-blooded killer.
Control - The tragic story of Ian Curtis, singer of the highly influential English rock band Joy Division. A number of well known actors had been approached for the lead, but in the end newcomer Sam Riley nails it as the ill-fated Curtis.
The Taste Of Tea - I saw this at a film festival in 2006, but it officially just got US distribution last year so I'm including it here. I can't even begin to describe what a wonderfully odd, quirky, imaginative, strange yet touching & heartfelt movie this is. Talk about something completely different.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
This was a random post on the craigslist music forum from about 2-3 years ago. It's like a short I can imagine someone like Zhang Yimou directing.
I just was thinking about how much more music is than just collecting cd's like so many Hummel figurines. When I was teaching English in China (first year University girls at a teaching college). I made a mix tape for a lesson and discussion on basic music terminology. The tape included Chopin, Miles Davis, Lester Young, Neil Young, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Hank Williams and Clem Snide. 95% of my kids said they liked Chopin because it was "relaxing" and "made them feel good." I had difficult time generating discussion on most of the other pieces. After the lesson the room cleared except for the girl that called herself Fantasy. I should explain that the students all named themselves (often strangely, eg Smart, Firefly, Chocolate etc). For a second she just looks at me really scared like, which was not unusual. I was the first white person any of them had ever met. Then she said in a very quiet voice, "I like number 7." Number 7 was a two minute snippet from Voodoo Child off of Electric Lady Land. I asked her why she liked it and she said, she just closed her eyes and it made her feel different. I said "different how?" She said "different like going somewhere." She had a really passionate look on her face which prompted me to offer to lend her the CD. She freaked out and said no no no. I should point out that students had extremely limited access to the West. Their internet was heavily fire walled, TV and radio were state run. Plus the kids all spied and snitched on each other, especially the ones who were in the party. None of them were supposed to get too chummy with me and I was monitored and spied on to make sure I wasn't becoming too much of an influence on the kids. About two weeks later, this girl again waited for me after class and she had a folded piece of paper that she handed me. "A present for you," she said. Folded into the paper was a CD of traditional Chinese music. She looked at me very intently while I thanked her. The next week I folded all the exam papers in a strange way and handed them back as I called the names and the students left. I had arranged them so I called Fantasy last. Into her paper I'd folded my copy of Electric Lady Land.
She took it and walked out quickly. I never said anything about it and neither did she, but we often exchanged significant glances after that. That was a few years ago, but I recently got an e-mail from her. Things have opened up a bit since then. It turns out that she was a pretty accomplished pianist and she'd managed to get a keyboard and had a band that, until the recent SARS scare, was playing gigs at a kind of secret bar in Shenzhen, PRC.
Unless you lived there you can't really understand the kind of risks, real and emotional, that she has most likely taken to pursue music.
I just was thinking about how much more music is than just collecting cd's like so many Hummel figurines. When I was teaching English in China (first year University girls at a teaching college). I made a mix tape for a lesson and discussion on basic music terminology. The tape included Chopin, Miles Davis, Lester Young, Neil Young, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Hank Williams and Clem Snide. 95% of my kids said they liked Chopin because it was "relaxing" and "made them feel good." I had difficult time generating discussion on most of the other pieces. After the lesson the room cleared except for the girl that called herself Fantasy. I should explain that the students all named themselves (often strangely, eg Smart, Firefly, Chocolate etc). For a second she just looks at me really scared like, which was not unusual. I was the first white person any of them had ever met. Then she said in a very quiet voice, "I like number 7." Number 7 was a two minute snippet from Voodoo Child off of Electric Lady Land. I asked her why she liked it and she said, she just closed her eyes and it made her feel different. I said "different how?" She said "different like going somewhere." She had a really passionate look on her face which prompted me to offer to lend her the CD. She freaked out and said no no no. I should point out that students had extremely limited access to the West. Their internet was heavily fire walled, TV and radio were state run. Plus the kids all spied and snitched on each other, especially the ones who were in the party. None of them were supposed to get too chummy with me and I was monitored and spied on to make sure I wasn't becoming too much of an influence on the kids. About two weeks later, this girl again waited for me after class and she had a folded piece of paper that she handed me. "A present for you," she said. Folded into the paper was a CD of traditional Chinese music. She looked at me very intently while I thanked her. The next week I folded all the exam papers in a strange way and handed them back as I called the names and the students left. I had arranged them so I called Fantasy last. Into her paper I'd folded my copy of Electric Lady Land.
She took it and walked out quickly. I never said anything about it and neither did she, but we often exchanged significant glances after that. That was a few years ago, but I recently got an e-mail from her. Things have opened up a bit since then. It turns out that she was a pretty accomplished pianist and she'd managed to get a keyboard and had a band that, until the recent SARS scare, was playing gigs at a kind of secret bar in Shenzhen, PRC.
Unless you lived there you can't really understand the kind of risks, real and emotional, that she has most likely taken to pursue music.
Friday, January 4, 2008
In the Realms of the Unreal
A retrospective of work by one of my favorite artists, Joseph Cornell, is being shown at SFMOMA through this Sunday, January 6. Below are examples of his elaborate "box constructions" for which he is best known, though he also made experimental short films and beautifully intricate collages (represented by the first pic below), which at a glance appear to be paintings or drawings, but upon closer inspection are, in fact, many separate bits of carefully and delicately placed images. Check the artchive for more info and artwork.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
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