Sunday, April 6, 2008
102,800 Feet
This is a Boards of Canada video for the song "Dayvan Cowboy." The footage is from a guy named Joseph Kittinger who, in an experiment for the military, parachuted from the edge of space. I think the footage is pretty incredible.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Name that Tune: Celebrity Wedding Edition
Yesterday Jay-Z and Beyonce finally made it forever and for real. In this early collaboration, Mrs. Hovah cops a few lyrics for the bridge from which eighties-pop megastar??
Friday, April 4, 2008
Guilty Pleasures: The Albums
On my previous entry I posted five films that I enjoy (a lot) but in a world where cynacism is king, I have to hide my love for these true gems. I feel that sound is my main sensory trigger. I can pretty much pinpoint any time in my life by hearing a song, an album or even a certain artists voice. Here are five albums that shaped and molded me (and yes I still listen to these).
#5. The Get Up Kids- Something to Write Home About: An integral part of my early high school years and an important part of the popularization and eventual backlash of "emo" music, the Get Up Kids wrote some pretty damn catchy tunes. This is by far their strongest album. With comparissons to Weezer (I don't see it) these guys wrote pretty formulaic songs with smarter than your average emo-Joe lyrics. The album still remains in my I Tunes library.
#4. The Counting Crows- August and Everything After: The mid-90's was a tough time for popular music. The FM dials and MTV was flooded with post-grunge bullshit and a lot of corny rap. "Mr. Jones" was the single that made me (and millions of other assholes) buy this album. Yes I would like to punch Adam Duritz in his dreadlocked face but he does have a knack for writing a great pop song.
#3. The Wallflowers- Bringing Down the Horse: Bob who? I recently listened to this album on tape when my parents and I took a trip to see some relatives for Christmas. Everyone knows "One Headlight" but that hit single isn't even half of this underrated piece of work. While the album as a whole isn't "great" the entire first side and the first two tracks on side B are. Although the Wallflowers never really returned with anymore hit singles after this album was so popular, I don't feel all that bad, amazingly this record stands the test of time and I'm embarrassed to say, I LIKE IT.
#2. Boz Scaggs- Hits!: Until I saw a picture of Boz Scaggs when I was about 15 I finally realized two things: 1) He's not black and 2) He likes Miami Vice, a lot. Between this and every single thing Steely Dan ever recorded my mother subjected me to these all my childhood. Boz Scaggs is kind of an intersting guy, he grew up with Steve Miller and eventually went on to play on a few of his albums before making it as a solo sensation. Scaggs has soul, so don't hate.
#1. Various Artists- Lion King Soundtrack: I recieved this CD as a birthday present from a friend when I was in the third grade. The Lion King as a film blew me away. It remains my favorite Disney movie for a pleathora of reasons. I know every lyric on this album, sadly and I still own the original CD I recieved as a gift more than 13 years ago. Oh, Simba.
#5. The Get Up Kids- Something to Write Home About: An integral part of my early high school years and an important part of the popularization and eventual backlash of "emo" music, the Get Up Kids wrote some pretty damn catchy tunes. This is by far their strongest album. With comparissons to Weezer (I don't see it) these guys wrote pretty formulaic songs with smarter than your average emo-Joe lyrics. The album still remains in my I Tunes library.
#4. The Counting Crows- August and Everything After: The mid-90's was a tough time for popular music. The FM dials and MTV was flooded with post-grunge bullshit and a lot of corny rap. "Mr. Jones" was the single that made me (and millions of other assholes) buy this album. Yes I would like to punch Adam Duritz in his dreadlocked face but he does have a knack for writing a great pop song.
#3. The Wallflowers- Bringing Down the Horse: Bob who? I recently listened to this album on tape when my parents and I took a trip to see some relatives for Christmas. Everyone knows "One Headlight" but that hit single isn't even half of this underrated piece of work. While the album as a whole isn't "great" the entire first side and the first two tracks on side B are. Although the Wallflowers never really returned with anymore hit singles after this album was so popular, I don't feel all that bad, amazingly this record stands the test of time and I'm embarrassed to say, I LIKE IT.
#2. Boz Scaggs- Hits!: Until I saw a picture of Boz Scaggs when I was about 15 I finally realized two things: 1) He's not black and 2) He likes Miami Vice, a lot. Between this and every single thing Steely Dan ever recorded my mother subjected me to these all my childhood. Boz Scaggs is kind of an intersting guy, he grew up with Steve Miller and eventually went on to play on a few of his albums before making it as a solo sensation. Scaggs has soul, so don't hate.
#1. Various Artists- Lion King Soundtrack: I recieved this CD as a birthday present from a friend when I was in the third grade. The Lion King as a film blew me away. It remains my favorite Disney movie for a pleathora of reasons. I know every lyric on this album, sadly and I still own the original CD I recieved as a gift more than 13 years ago. Oh, Simba.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today is the 40th anniversary of his death and this is his final speech.
ted.com
i'm just putting a link here - http://www.ted.com/index.php - that has some pretty interesting videos on it. TED stands for a conference held every year in California where 1000 different "brilliant minds" in a variety of fields are challenged to give the most inspiring / incredible speech of their lives. the website linked above started the past couple years and is attempting to catalog videos of all the speeches given since the conference started in the 80s. i recently saw one by Bill Clinton, talking about his efforts to institute a health care system in Rwanda and then using the same model in every developing country. he's had the system working in Rwanda for some time and says it's been a great success so far (i recommend listening to the talk - just search for bill clinton - it's from last year).
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Art for Death's Sake, or Death for Art's Sake?
http://www.ktvu.com/news/15778575/detail.html?taf=fran
This is an interesting story regarding Adel Abdessemed's "Don't Trust Me" exhibit at the San Francisco Art Institute that was recently shutdown "in the wake of violent threats."
Some questions that came to my mind as I read/watched the story:
Is the origin of an image relevant to its significance?
Is the repetition of the images meant to desensitize the viewer and ultimately bring the viewer "beyond good and evil"? If so, is it to propagate the phenomenon as necessary and natural, or is it to make the viewer question that phenomenon?
Where does art end and life begin?
Why do the people in the video (and the critics of the exhibit) tend to talk about art and its boundaries instead of life and its boundaries? Instead of art, why can't we talk about slaughterhouses, inhumane butchering, unjust wars, and bureaucracy-induced alienation?
Can death itself even be conceptualized, or is it in reality a simple lack thereof?
How are death and justice related?
Is there such a thing as a truly "untimely death"?
Abdessemed's exhibit strikes me as decadent, but in its decadence it, I hope, is struggling to create discussion regarding a general attitude and understanding about death and its many manifestations. People who eat meat do so (by and large) without noting and grasping that what they're eating is a murdered animal. People endorse a war that is clearly causing more death, but somehow that kind of death is acceptable. I don't wholeheartedly endorse Abdessemed's work, but this country (or perhaps just the people controlling the media) is severely confused, and I know censorship won't solve it.
This is an interesting story regarding Adel Abdessemed's "Don't Trust Me" exhibit at the San Francisco Art Institute that was recently shutdown "in the wake of violent threats."
Some questions that came to my mind as I read/watched the story:
Is the origin of an image relevant to its significance?
Is the repetition of the images meant to desensitize the viewer and ultimately bring the viewer "beyond good and evil"? If so, is it to propagate the phenomenon as necessary and natural, or is it to make the viewer question that phenomenon?
Where does art end and life begin?
Why do the people in the video (and the critics of the exhibit) tend to talk about art and its boundaries instead of life and its boundaries? Instead of art, why can't we talk about slaughterhouses, inhumane butchering, unjust wars, and bureaucracy-induced alienation?
Can death itself even be conceptualized, or is it in reality a simple lack thereof?
How are death and justice related?
Is there such a thing as a truly "untimely death"?
Abdessemed's exhibit strikes me as decadent, but in its decadence it, I hope, is struggling to create discussion regarding a general attitude and understanding about death and its many manifestations. People who eat meat do so (by and large) without noting and grasping that what they're eating is a murdered animal. People endorse a war that is clearly causing more death, but somehow that kind of death is acceptable. I don't wholeheartedly endorse Abdessemed's work, but this country (or perhaps just the people controlling the media) is severely confused, and I know censorship won't solve it.
My Top 5 Favorite Guilty Pleasure Movies of All-Time
Guilty pleasures, everyone has them, from films to music to books. As for myself I am about to share with you my top 5 favorite guilty pleasure movies. They range in genre but these are movies that I will only watch by myself and then lie about not liking them, when in reality I thoroughly enjoy(ed) them.
#5. Terms of Endearment: Now this is not a horrible movie by any standards, really. The cast is great, this 1983 picture included such stars as Shirley MacLaine (won an Oscar for her role), Jack Nicholson (who also won an Oscar for his performance), Debra Winger, John Lithgow and Jeff Daniels. So if this film is so revered on a critical level, what makes it a guilty pleasure? I cry when I watch this movie, every time. This film covers so many emotions in its 132 minutes that you don't really know how to react. You can probably see this movie on Lifetime at least once a week. I reccomend it to anyone.
#4. The Day After Tomorrow: This 2004 epic disaster film stars Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal and a bunch of other people I don't recognize. This film is filled with cliches and conceptually the plot just doesn't work. I like this film for a few reasons. One being that there is a certain political message inside this film. Secondly I found Quaid's performance as a caring father who just wants to find his son rather believable and heartfelt. Disregarding the plot and the hundreds of millions of dollars (maybe) that went into making this film, I was able to look past it's CGI and other effects to see a real human interest story.
#3. Gleaming the Cube: This 1989 skateboarding film stars Christian Slater who plays a rebel teenager trying to unravel the mystery behind the murder of his adopted Vietnamese brother. Yes this is a terrible movie and yes it tries way too hard. Everything from the 1980's "skater lingo" to the fact that whenever Christian Slaters character is skateboarding from a distantce you can tell it's actually Tony Hawk who is probably a good 8 to 10 inches taller than Slater.
#2. Child's Play Trilogy: When little Andy gets a Good Guy Doll that he always wanted....he soon realizes it's possessed by a notorious serial killer who is good with black magic and put himself into a toy doll. I was never really scared by these films, I find these are more of a laugh riot. Chucky follows poor Andy all the way from early childhood to his late teenage years just so he can "get a real body". Killing nearly everyone that gets in his path, Chucky is truly the most violent, sadistic doll in cinema history.
#1. Judgement Night: This is my favorite guilty pleasure of them all. This 1993 film stars some of Hollywoods greatest: Emelio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven, Denis Leary and Stephen Dorff. When the guys decide it's time for a mans night out--Piven's character decides to rent a super sweet RV. As they are on their way to the boxing match they hit some heavy traffic. So they decide to take a "short cut". Little do they know they made the biggest mistake of their lives when they run into Denis Leary and his gang of thugs. This movie is PURE shit but I LOVE it.
Other notables: "Losing Isaiah", "Out Cold", "The Marine", "8 Mile" and "Apocolypto"
Name that Tune
Dinner on the Molly is all about ye ye pop this morning and if France Gall's 'Laisse Tomber les Filles' sounds familiar, it should - an english language version of the same tune appeared in a certain 2007 film by a famous American director...any guesses?
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