Two videos to start your day:
1. Digby provides us a link to Robert Rodriguez's hysterical response to Arizona's new "show us your papers" immigrant law: Machete!
2. The first Star Wars trilogy as told through legos.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Mark Knopfler Playing the Orpheum
I took the train (my old friend!) into Boston last night to catch Mark Knopfler at the Orpheum with Adam and Norb. I've long wanted to catch this dynamic guitarist in action, getting into him back in the Dire Straits days but also a big fan of his 2nd and 3rd solo albums Sailing to Philadelphia and The Ragpicker's Dream.
The show was all I hoped it would be. MK led an eight-piece band through their paces for a two-hour show that covered his entire career. He's always worked with amazing musicians, and their command was on full display last night. They played groove rock (“Coyote”), ballads (the gorgeous “Prairie Wedding”) , blues (“Hill Farmer’s Blues” and “Marbletown,” both off of The Ragpickers Dream), and hits (“So Far Away,” “Romeo and Juliet”). And of course, examples of the MK specialty that I call the "slow-burn" genre, here expressed with "Speedway at Nazareth." This NASCAR-inspired toon starts off relatively simple and slow, driven by locomotive brush drumming, but slowly builds up to an incredible rocking crescendo. In short, the band often expressed its power by holding itself into a groove, but when called for could cut loose and rock out, anchored by MK’s clarion guitar.
I was familiar with a large majority of the songs that he played, which I like because I'm able to hear how they songs get tweaked in a live setting. For instance, a flute and violin gave an Irish touch to a few toons (esp. “What It Is”). I also got a kick out how many of the musicians changed instruments as the songs called for it, although I think that every musician picked up a guitar at one point.
As for MK himself, he’s so talented it’s hard to say much about his guitar playing that hasn't been said before by writers better then I. It was notable that he was limited to performing from a stool. Just after Norb and I pondered if his 61 years had caught up with him, he announced that he wasn't doing his normal "struts and leg lifts" due to having a pinched nerve. Indeed, he seemed to be in some pain during parts of the show, and he was unable to leave the stage for the typical multi-encore end-of-show set (instead, the roadies brought out drinks for everyone and so we clapped and watched them pound water for a few minutes).
All in all, it was an excellent evening. Well worth the price I’m paying in brain-dead exhaustion today.
The show was all I hoped it would be. MK led an eight-piece band through their paces for a two-hour show that covered his entire career. He's always worked with amazing musicians, and their command was on full display last night. They played groove rock (“Coyote”), ballads (the gorgeous “Prairie Wedding”) , blues (“Hill Farmer’s Blues” and “Marbletown,” both off of The Ragpickers Dream), and hits (“So Far Away,” “Romeo and Juliet”). And of course, examples of the MK specialty that I call the "slow-burn" genre, here expressed with "Speedway at Nazareth." This NASCAR-inspired toon starts off relatively simple and slow, driven by locomotive brush drumming, but slowly builds up to an incredible rocking crescendo. In short, the band often expressed its power by holding itself into a groove, but when called for could cut loose and rock out, anchored by MK’s clarion guitar.
I was familiar with a large majority of the songs that he played, which I like because I'm able to hear how they songs get tweaked in a live setting. For instance, a flute and violin gave an Irish touch to a few toons (esp. “What It Is”). I also got a kick out how many of the musicians changed instruments as the songs called for it, although I think that every musician picked up a guitar at one point.
As for MK himself, he’s so talented it’s hard to say much about his guitar playing that hasn't been said before by writers better then I. It was notable that he was limited to performing from a stool. Just after Norb and I pondered if his 61 years had caught up with him, he announced that he wasn't doing his normal "struts and leg lifts" due to having a pinched nerve. Indeed, he seemed to be in some pain during parts of the show, and he was unable to leave the stage for the typical multi-encore end-of-show set (instead, the roadies brought out drinks for everyone and so we clapped and watched them pound water for a few minutes).
All in all, it was an excellent evening. Well worth the price I’m paying in brain-dead exhaustion today.
Quote of the Day
Surely a culture is enhanced, rather than disgraced, when men of talent and passion undertake anonymous and secondary tasks. Excellence in the great things is built upon excellence in the small.
- John Updike
Thinking this sure makes me feel better about all the time I spend doing grunt work...
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Deep Thought
Most thinkers, Nietzsche maintained, "write badly because they
communicate to us not only their thoughts but also the thinking of their thoughts."
communicate to us not only their thoughts but also the thinking of their thoughts."
Quote of the Day
James: What are you doing? You don't smoke...
Donna: They say that smoking relieves tension.
James: Since when are you tense?
Donna: Since I started smoking.
Twin Peaks, Season 2, Episode 1
Donna: They say that smoking relieves tension.
James: Since when are you tense?
Donna: Since I started smoking.
Twin Peaks, Season 2, Episode 1
Earth Day Cleanup
This Saturday, Hunter and I cleaned up the woods near where Green St. meets Hilldale Road here in Ashland. Here's a picture of all of the recyclables we collected (not including trash):
As you can tell, that's quite a haul! We must have picked up at least 75 nips. And all while avoiding Poison Ivy. A nice showing for Hunter's first active Earth Day.
As you can tell, that's quite a haul! We must have picked up at least 75 nips. And all while avoiding Poison Ivy. A nice showing for Hunter's first active Earth Day.
Hating on Fall Be Kind
One of the bands I forgot to mention in my new music post the other day was Animal Collective. At the recommendation of Jonathan Lethem, I picked up the Fall Be Kind EP and was blown away by it. Fun listening!
Reading up on the collective, though, was an exercise in bizarre hipstersm prose. Few, if any, people writing about the music spoke to the music in terms of listening to a group of songs. Instead, they wrote about how the music "fails to build upon" past successes (i.e., the earlier albums are always better) or talk about how annoying Animal Collective fans are (as if you should judge music by who listens to it).
As an example, Ben Graham's excellent review for the Quietus looks at the EP from the perspective of politics and punk and finds it lacking:
While this is interesting, I find it lacking in several respects:
Anyways, at the end of the day, I love this little album and find myself continually listening to it. I'm not reading the lyrics for deeper meanings or exploring what their audience says about them. I'm just enjoying the good songs.
Reading up on the collective, though, was an exercise in bizarre hipstersm prose. Few, if any, people writing about the music spoke to the music in terms of listening to a group of songs. Instead, they wrote about how the music "fails to build upon" past successes (i.e., the earlier albums are always better) or talk about how annoying Animal Collective fans are (as if you should judge music by who listens to it).
As an example, Ben Graham's excellent review for the Quietus looks at the EP from the perspective of politics and punk and finds it lacking:
...Alternative America was able to settle back into its spaced-out hippy comfort zone, as hazy as the fog over the San Francisco Bay. Just ... sit and listen to this new EP by Animal Collective, who have developed their 'Brian-Wilson-with-a-sampler' sound over the last decade to become the cherished darlings and freak-flag bearers of the whole contemporary scene. ... It's always seemed to me that Animal Collective have more in common with these mellow, close-harmonising spiritual children of David Crosby than with the electronic avant-garde they're more usually linked with: frequently wonderful, and groundbreaking and innovative in many ways, Animal Collective nevertheless seem bound to a late 60s musical and cultural aesthetic which is often anachronistic and even unhelpful in a 21st Century context.
... At the close of 2009 this kind of head-in-the-sand navel-gazing is even less acceptable, no matter how physically impressive it would be if you could actually carry out that mixed metaphor as a literal action. The fact is, Animal Collective are highly educated young people from the richest nation on earth, wearing masks and pretending to be pandas while effectively pissing around in a sandpit. The patterns they make are often exquisite. But it's not enough.
While this is interesting, I find it lacking in several respects:
- What is "enough"? Producing more angry music? Inserting deliberately political lyrics into songs that may not be able to support them? The end here is vague and the criticism suffers as a result.
- Again, the defining of the music by its audience. Who cares what scene they're part of? All that you should really be judging is the music that enters your ears.
Anyways, at the end of the day, I love this little album and find myself continually listening to it. I'm not reading the lyrics for deeper meanings or exploring what their audience says about them. I'm just enjoying the good songs.
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