A good friend will occasionally sing “cherry pie” in the slowest, saddest way, steeped in ennui and maudlin tones. It usually happens at night, when he’s lazily surfing the web, laptop propped atop his supine chest. It’s probably not how Warrant ever intended their hair-rock sex anthem to be presented.
Still, it’s pretty adorable.
back in the day, my mom frequently took us to the library (berryessa, what what!?) and it was always a joyous occasion. i was practically a barnacle in the young adult section, but i often wandered the other aisles too. i guess there could be a map that charts my favorite spots correspondingly with my age…
there are vivid memories of excitedly hogging the spinner racks that housed the christopher pike collection (r.l. stine was his weaker, diluted counterpart). i think this was after graduating babysitter’s club and boxcar children but before i moved onto the stephen king canon. in the classics area, i distinctly remember thinking, “wow, what a cool title!” when stumbling upon of human bondage (i never even read it).
at any rate, we all have our beloved library memories. we all know libraries are super cool places. we all know they bring us back to simpler, satisfying states of being. so why is it that that i rarely take advantage of the main library, literally next door to my work? a visit yesterday reminded me how stupid i am for neglecting this neighborhood treasure. i was rewarded handsomely: some flicks that i’ve been dying to see, and random CDs i’m eager to dig into:
anyway, i’m looking forward to the newly re-opened inner richmond branch!
Hope Germick doesn't mind me sharing this since it is his birthday present, after all. What you see here is the result of: a really shitty inconsistently dry/leaky cheap brush pen, dollar store watercolors, Google image search, and a crazed fervor to pump out a mediocre portrait as a sad gift an hour before the birthday party. I'm not pleased with it, but at least my roommate could tell it was The Purple One, and Peg said she liked it which means a lot (who cares if the birthday boy likes it!). Also, the great thing about screwing up the proportions on Prince portraits is that it's okay, because he is naturally a bobblehead. So in this case, a large head and small body work just fine. PS – the hamminess is intentional. PPS – in the original picture I couldn't find his nipples. True story!
back in college, or as peg likes to call it, “the dark ages,” i got hooked on call & response, a favorite band of mine from oakland. their musical aesthetic totally nailed it for me. they managed to create funky, jazzy, soulful, substantial californian breezy pop that was super infectious, sweet, and sway-inducing. classic. you couldn’t listen to them and stand still. golly, even thinking about emperor norton records catapults me back to the “dark ages.”
two of the sassy gals from call & response have formed another band called rubies. they sound more or less like C.A.R., but with even more depth and maturity. i dig the sophisticated layering.
i am so addicted to this tune! i’m not into catching live shows anymore, but i immediately looked up their schedule and saw that they were playing at mollusk gallery in april. alas, i will not be around for that. anyway, i hope you are as mad about this sexy song as i am.
peggy introduced this brilliant masterpiece to me. it is absolutely mandatory that you listen to this. this is some hilarious r. kelly ridiculousness. some very rewarding, funny four minutes.
thanks peg! real talk.
dang, i’m just too busy for words but there’s so much to say. internet is down at home, which means if i’m nowhere to be found, just look on the floor by my bed. you’ll find my corpse – self-cannibalized out of sheer panic and anxiety due to the web withdrawal. addiction ain’t pretty.
more blasts from the past. i always felt meh about them, but gosh darnit if these this trifecta isn’t lethally good.
why digital technology rules, reason #5,032:
this happens from time to time:
for whatever inexplicable reason, out of the blue, you’re reminded of a song precious and dear to you, one buried very, very deep in the vaults of your adolescent subconsciousness. suddenly, you’re seized with an urgency to hear that song NOW. it must happen or you’ll go crazy. the solution: seeqpod or youtube that $hit. the immediate gratification is aurally and emotionally orgasmic. it could almost make you cry.
it’s a stark contrast with little me 12 years ago, who would get so frustrated with futile attempts to capture any beloved but rare song on tape when it would come on the radio. picture it: a teen lazily laying (lying?) by her stereo, with her finger positioned on the record button, ready to attack and immortalize awesome discovery tunes (this is when live 105 was actually cool). when they did come on, i was tragically nowhere near my stereo. i think this is really a familiar, magical coming of age past time for all of us.
back to the song in question. those opening twinkling melodies that i haven’t heard in a decade, the stirring strings…the effect they have on me now is priceless. the other two are gillian gilbert and stephen morris of new order. they didn’t play “selfish” nearly enough on the airwaves for me. this was a sleeper / lightning seeds / red kross / juliana hatfield / all the classics kind of phase in my life.
third uncle has been playing frequently on shuffle; everytime this happens i can’t help but turn it up. it’s a blistering, feverish brian eno song remade by bauhaus, and listening to it reminds me of how awesome they are. i get nostalgic thinking about the very first time i heard bela lugosi is dead…the hypnotic, haunting minimalism. then, hearing kick in the eye (it was the first track on a goth compilation box set), how peerless it seemed at the time. peter murphy’s solo career wasn’t terrible either…
okay, alright, YEAH, i admit it, i was a goth adolescent. i fantasized about my day of emancipation, when i could smoke cloves, go to all the haunts (hyuk hyuk), and wear whatever i wanted. i still cringe when i think about the outlandish outfits, the accessories (you can be sure i owned at least one ankh), my one-track “art,” the whole shebang. it’s mortifying! as much as it pains me, i try to embrace the past and if nothing else, find comfort in knowing that it felt truest to my angst-ridden, morbid character. i threw out most of my t-shirts from back then, but i couldn’t part with the joy division or skinny puppy one. i still have my mixtapes and all of my sisters of mercy albums (to which josh said: “you must be embarrassed”). now the whole “culture” seems like such a ridiculous 90s legacy.
i can trace the origins of my goth conversion back to one singular person: lee, the YMCA summer camp counselor on whom i totally crushed when i was 13ish. he was a 20-30 something chinese dude with an accent, and was the most beguiling badass EVER. though a bit scrappy, he had a striking countenance, a subtle snaggletooth, thick black hair, walked with a swagger, and was never without his ray bans, leather jacket, and scuffed winklepickers.
doesn’t sound like your “typical” camp counselor, right? kinda aloof, but overall good at his job. what an anomaly.
recently i thought i had seen him on the street. it made me feel very, very strange.
i’m self-conscious and embarrassed about my absurd goth teenage self. it’s an exercise in humility, reflecting back on different periods of your life. what you were like, how you carried yourself, what you were trying to project.
in the end, it’s key to remember: ain’t no shame in that game.
awww…nostalgia. click here to treat your ears to the inspiration of this entry’s title. talk about a jaunt down musical memory lane! a classic.
please listen to this! this is the kind of thing i live for. so good and fun.
it’s my favorite “holiday” of the year. since i lack a clever costume today, i commemorated by wearing a skeleton tee (under a biz-casual black v-neck) and orange sneakers. in past years, i was catwoman, the joker, and a deviled egg.
from 2006, here are some pumpkins we carved up at steve and mike’s (photos taken by alex):
peg’s and mine
mike’s, anthony’s, hao’s
derek and fran’s
other than the obvious reasons for loving halloween, i get super-psyched about all the festive halloween music programming that the community/college radio stations unleash upon us lucky listeners. it’s exciting as hell!
local jazz juggernaut KCSM 91.1 has AWESOME programming on hallow’s eve, but only in the morning. unfortunately, i don’t think they archive their playlists nor their programs. check out their playlist on 10/31 from 6-9 am. you’ll see lots of goodies, like louis armstrong’s “skeletons in the closet,” raymond scott’s “dinner music for a pack of hungry cannibals,” glenn miller’s “swingin’ at the seance,” turk murphy/elvira’s “alabama ghost,” and so much more. mmmmmm….
i also found this “cool cat” while googling “halloween jazz” – he’s a dj in richmond, virginia who whipped up a mean playlist that you can listen to on his blog. as he wrote, “hear the fear.” his tunes include kay starr’s “the headless horseman,” nina simone’s “i put a spell on you,” the mingus big band’s “the chill of death,” and so on. there are also smatterings (or should i say splatterings?) of bloodcurdling 50s b-movie screams.
lastly, and this isn’t really pertinent to halloween, but twin cities community radio station KFAI has a program called “encuentro.” recently, it presented a two-part series dedicated to frida kahlo’s life, featuring “songs that she loved, songs that were popular in Mexico during her lifetime, and songs that were the musical backdrop for her artistic work.”
pretty friggin’ cool RIGHT? i can’t wait to tune in.
here’s part one and part two. unfortunately, the sound files are real media. for the clueless like me, this means they’re not as straightforward as itunes or media player automatically launching them for you.
enjoy!
(i just realized that i have melted chocolate on my hand from the take fives and almond joys i’ve already consumed this morning. i think it’s time to make sure i don’t have any smeared around my mouth)
behold, in all its glory….
24 inches of SOF’ BOY!
it’s fancy, with a hefty $130 pricetag and limited edition status (only 200 pieces total). the last thing i need is another “collectible” or “toy,” especially since i’m so over it (and by “it” i mean boutique vinyl bullshit).
BUT, it’s so purdy, it practically glows! sof’ boy is one of my all-time favorite characters, created by one of my all-time favorite artists/musicians/ubertalented folks – archer prewitt. the charmingly repulsive (and vice versa) comic series details the rambunctious adventures of a happy-go-lucky lovable blob who’s got shit luck, and always manages to elicit maniacal laughing from yours truly. sadly, it’s created at an agonizing slow-as-molasses pace (i believe there are only three or four issues total).
back to the topic of toys, there’s more…12 inch versions of the coctails. can’t say i’m a huge fan of the way these look, but that’s okay. archer designed them, so that’s all that matters.
and because i am a geek of the highest order, i thought i’d take a moment to celebrate my love for sof’ boy, archer, and the sea + cake with this unabashed moment of glee:
