Right this instant, I am super in to Dr. Dog! They are a relatively new music discovery for me, so I've got about 6 albums worth of listening to catch up on. But that's a-ok. I love their video for "Shadow People"-
I also love the singers voice- so interesting! They are playing in Boston on March 22. I would love to go, but it is on a Thursday....hmmmm!
On the recommendation of a great musician, Paul and I have been watching Workaholics on Netflix.
It's a pretty awesome show, that has undeniable appeal for the millennial workforce. 3 Ridiculous Slackers living like it's college, but working as telemarketers. Though almost every single premise of this show is unrealistic and farcical, it's actually kind of strangely easy to identify with main characters.
I'm so bummed that there was only 10 episodes! It led to us going online to dig up some of their old material
This is one of the gems. Wizards. Rapping. It makes perfect sense.
I haven't been this excited about a video I stumbled across on the internet in awhile. This is so good!
Who knew that all the characters from "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and the relations between them could be summarized by the 1990 TMBG hit "Particle Man"?
OF COURSE - Aang is so Triangle Man. But my favorite part is Universe Man's watch.
I know that it's not very festive of me to be talking so much about politics so close to the yuletide. My apologies. I AINT GONNA STOP NOW THOUGH!
I'm sure most of you have heard about the dangerous "Stop Online Piracy Act:" A proposal that would mandate that internet service providers protect us from ourselves on the internet. I'm absolutely uncomfortable with the idea that major media conglomerates, who control so much of what we see and hear already, would have the power to censor the internet, carte blanche.
If you're unfamiliar with what's at stake, perhaps a little rap will help clear things up. I'm in love with this anti-SOPA song by Dan Bull.
The hearings on this bill have been pushed to the new year, presumably with the hope that we'll forget about it over the holidays. UNLIKELY!
You can sign a petition urging Obama to veto this bill here. Use this tool to find out who your congressman is here and call them up (Calling is said to be 5 times more effective than e-mailing!) Don't open the door to censorship.If SOPA was passed, I could absolutely be sued for the stuff I posted on this blog.
Did you have a favorite Christmas song when you were growing up? I did, and it's a little unusual...
I blame/thank it for single-handedly inspiring the obsession with Celtic music that I went through in Middle School.
I'm also only really partial to this version by Dennis Day, a second generation Irish immigrant (born Owen Patrick Eugene McNulty - talk about switching it up with your stage name!). The vocals are nice and casual and gentle, and the instrumentals are the best. Go ahead and shop around, I doubt you'll find a preferable Irish-inspired holiday tune!
The '67 movie was enjoyable, but terribly terribly campy. The costuming and set design did a pretty good job of highlighting the tackiest looks of the era. I liked it as a very archetypal musical, with lots of predictable personality types and plot turns, and lots of good old fashioned sexism (there's literally a song about how "A Secretary is not a Toy"). The music was pretty good too. It's a solid show.
I enjoyed the film too as a vantage point into mid-century NYC. There's lots of good shots of the urban landscape. I particularly enjoyed this shot of Times Square, nearly 50 years ago:
Look at how much of the actual buildings you can see! And how much smaller they seem too.
It was also fun to see D. Radcliffe himself perform his version of the show the next morning in the Macy's parade. It was a nice point of comparison.
I thought he did a good job! Who knew H.P. could dance so good?
On Thanksgiving night, Paul and I watched some decidedly tackier fare together: "Thankskilling" (2009), dubbed by its own creator as "The Ultimate low budget experience."
It's a modern b-movie classic about college kids who get hacked up by a homicidal demon turkey whilst on Thanksgiving break. Here's a hint about what kind of movie this is; The very first shot of this movie is an extreme close-up on a busty woman's nipple.The lady is dressed in a flimsy pilgrim costume with her boobs hanging way out Here's what comes next:
I don't know if I can really do it justice by describing it, but I can say I'm continually unsure if I loved or hated this movie. Can I add that there is a scene where the turkey rapes a lady? And finishes by yelling "you just got stuffed?"
I know I've kind of been talking about this a lot lately, but I really really enjoyed Disney's new-ish film Tangled (2010). After seeing an early teaser for it way back when, my expectations for it were really low.
The cheesy jokes, the hair with kung fu skills, the people falling off a cliff, it all seemed a little.....hackneyed. It distinctly reminded me of the type of worn out humor that you'd see in *shudder* Dreamworks talking animal movies. It turned out though that a lot of the footage in that trailer was either changed or not used.
I will admit that the story was still kind of predictable.But, such are fairy-tales and adventure stories. I think it was a really solid, straight forward telling of a classic children's tale.
I liked the characters. Rapunzel's character was surprisingly dynamic, far beyond the impression you get initially from her big-eyed bobblehead look. And Mother Gothel was a really awesome villain. I also got a kick out of the horse, he was a good mix of anthropomorphic personality and realistic mammalian behavior. The only one I didn't like was the lizard sidekick, he kind of only existed to cut away to during emotional moments.
I think what I enjoyed particularly about it was the music. The tunes are still popping into my head. I like this one best:
I'll admit too that I was a little skeptical of the animation style, being brought up in the era of hand-drawn Disney. I have to say though that I stopped noticing that the style wasn't old school pretty quickly, and the 3-D look actually allowed for a really pretty style for the film.
I also appreciated the Monty Python homage in the bar scene. Aw yeah!
Anyways, it's quite a good movie. It's making me excited for the next generation of Disney films.
Paul was reading me something last night about shape note singing. It's a type of musical instruction where each note of the scale has it's own shape, and it's supposed to make learning how to make reading music easier.
It was an early type of religious music sung by pilgrims in revival era New England. But as religous fervor lagged in the godless north, the practice moved southward. It was used to make choral participation accessible to everybody in the community. This led to the formation of Sacred Harp groups, America's original participatory singing society.
Singers sit in a square, all facing the middle. It's always a cappella. And it lacks, shall we say, the more complex subtleties of other religious/classical singing. Namely: dynamics do not exist. It is always as loud as possible.
Personally, I think this is pretty awesome! It looks like fun to sing, a style of music that's made for the joy of blasting out a killer harmony, and not necessarily made for joy of the listener.
This song is simultaneously bouncily cheerful and doggedly sad. It's one of Sesame Street's more complex treasures. It really does capture the co-existing optimism and loneliness of being a kid on the hunt for a playmate.
This video is of the original appearance of the song on the show, and features a very bummed baby orangutan with nobody his age in his pen. Later incarnations of this song used significantly prettier and cheerier scenarios. But I think the original bleak setting was a really interesting choice - it makes the song seem sadder, and more pressing. Somebody get that monkey a playmate already, I can't stand it! Poor guy.
All of a sudden, I am all about Cyndi Lauper. She's just so awesome.
I particularly get a girl crush on her around 1:57. I love that she took a song about staying out all night partying and made it seem so innocent and sweet.
It's hard to believe that she's 58! She's still lookin' pretty hot.
She's actually playing on the 23rd in Boston! That would be fun to see!
Ugh! I've been so bad about posting things about the trip. I am just so much better motivated to write about things that happen day to day. Not sure why?
Anyways, Paul and I went to an a.w.e.s.o.m.e concert last night: Fleet Foxes at Mountain Park! It was a gorgeous night, possibly the last unseasonably warm one we'll get- so it was great to get to be outside. Listening to chill music under the stars is about as good as it gets.
The venue was really cool. It was kind of like the iron horse company took a little bite out of a larger outdoor music festival, and planted it in the woods in Holyoke.
Seeing the band live gave me such a better appreciation of how technically impressive their music is. In the expansive open air of mountain park, the acoustic qualities of their music really resonated. It was like the fun of dancing to bluegrass music all shaken up with a choir singing canticle. Really really awesome!
The cat-calls that people were doing during the show were funny too. People shouting "I really enjoy your music!" "You are very talented!" "Honestly, your skill level is really above average!"- It was more like getting report card notes than cheering...but it was funny and cool and somehow seemed to fit the whole mood of the night.
Having gotten to hear a lot of their music live now, I would say that this is my favorite song to hear in person.
The harmonic "ooo" parts just took on a whole new brightness and power in person. If you ever get a chance to see these guys play - do it! It is an experience.
We made it back safely! Hooray! It was an awesome awesome two weeks that I will think fondly about forever. Paul and I did and saw so many cool things. I'm posting all of our pictures on facebook, but I definately plan to use my blog space to talk some about what happened. Perhaps less of a play-by-play than my posts about the mid-atlantic disaster of 2010, but more of a series of posts talking about what we saw and noticed abroad. SO THAT'S COMIN'!
As a little taste, I figured I'd start with something light. European Fashion Watch!
Everybody knows that all the hot trends of the season come from fancy pants Europe and their ability to dress nicely. I cannot tell a lie - almost everybody over there was dressed very hip, pretty much all the time. There was one big trend for ladies that I saw on women across all ages and body types:
MC Hammer/ Harem Pants!
As universally as they have been embraced by the ladies of the old world, I have to say that they were pretty much also universally not flattering at all. I am sad that this is coming across the atlantic soon......Like a horrible fashion shark of doom!
Guys guys guys guys - BIG NEWS...It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is coming back to TV in like 2 weeks and I am so excited.
But I'm also feeling kind of conflicted! Many of you probably know that this season heralds the arrival of "Fat Mac".
Rob McElhenney purportedly gained 50 lbs because "fat people are funny." But I've always thought Mac was pretty good looking! So it's weird!
It's weird though too to have a tv crush on a character who is basically a terrible person. WHATEVER. I'm looking forward to new episodes! I hope they do another musical!
As some of you probably know, Paul and I have been into RPGs lately. We've been playing a bit with our good friends from out in Athol. From now on when we play- this will be my anthem -
My character is a Rogue Halfling girl. I would definitely be cut in half by Baby Cakes. My skills are mostly stealing, sneaking and hiding!
I can't believe I overlooked the fact that he's collaborated heavily with rapper Aesop Rock, creating art for not 1, but 2 music videos!
Also, did you know that Aesop Rock is brilliant?
I've been into to rap lately. But it has to be good rap! I like Aesop Rock because his lyrics are really imagery heavy and kind of abstract. I guess I like verse encroaching on the ambiguous borders of poetry.
Paul and I have very recently started watching "Bleach" (2004), another supernatural animated epic. It's pretty awesome, about ghosts and soul reapers who help them pass on.It sounds kind of like "The Sixth Sense" (1999), but this has way more badassery and monsters!
It's also the first anime we've been watching that's still making new episodes. With 15+ seasons, it may take us awhile to catch up though...
Anywho, I've had the theme song (Asterisk by Orange Range)stuck in my head all day. Having a song you do not know the language of stuck in your brains is problematic, especially if you're one to sing along, like me!
