I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001).

It’s something of a shame that BOC has fallen off the radar so much.  While never a big seller, they’ve been a surprisingly good singles band.  And on this disc, they have a couple of songs that could have been big hits if anybody still cared about them.

“Dance on Stilts” is their most interesting song in quite some time.  It’s catchy, it’ got a cool riff and it’s got a great keyboard sound that you could easily hear on rock radio.    “Here Comes That Feeling Again” could also have been a pretty huge hit, even now on a mellow rock station, it would work very well.  In fact, the whole disc plays wonderfully within the classic rock style.

Cyberpunk author John Shirley (who wrote a song called “Transmaniacon” based on a BOC song) wrote most of the lyrics for this disc.  And the band seems inspired by the subject material because throughout the disc, the riffs are solid and catchy and the songs are great.  “One Step Ahead of the Devil” has the great BOC keyboard sound that punctuates the chorus, while “I Just Want to Be Bad” is a silly song that surpasses it clichés with a  cool unexpected minor key riff.

Since the band has only released two albums since Imaginos, it’s faint praise to say that this is their best album in that time.  But this album is definitely one of their best released.  Whereas Heaven Forbid sounded like a standard collection of BOC songs, this one seems like a collection of superior tracks based on the classic BOC format.   BOC fans who were unsure if it was worth tracking down these latter day discs would do well with this one.  The final track, “Good to Feel Hungry” is pretty silly and is definietly something of a throwaway, but aside from that the whole disc is very solid.

[READ: March 20, 2010] “Just Before the Black”

This is the second story by Franco that I’ve read.  I’m torn about whether I think he ought to be a good writer or not.  I’ve enjoyed his acting, but when an actor switches to another medium, it’s always tough to know whether he’s serious.  Of course, Franco has gone to writing programs, and is in pursuit of his PhD, so I think his writing motives are pure.  It’s also interesting to wonder if there were any writers who inspired him to want to write.  In the two stories I’ve read, his style has been terse, and I’ve wondered if Hemingway was an inspiration.

This one started off short and brusque (typical of Esquire fiction), and I was afraid I wasn’t going to enjoy it.  But after a few paragraphs, the heart of the story came to light and I found it really fascinating; the story morphed from a tough guy story about two dudes hanging out in a car to an introspective story bout two dudes hanging out in a car.

The story opens with a scene remisincent of Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.  The narrator wonders what it would be like to drive a car right into a brick wall.  And, by the end of that scene, he does so.  Fortunately for him and his passenger, the car they are sitting in is a tough old boat of a car, so not much dmagae is done (although passenger loses a  tooth, which results in him being called Jack’O from now on–ha!).

Aside from that, not a lot happpens.  Pot is scored and smoked, deep thoughts are spoken and argued about and then, the narrator revisits Christopher Walken in Annie Hall.

I suppose its not fair to be so critical of Franco as a writer.  He should be held to the same standard as other writers.  But regardless, I was surprised how much I got into the story.  The main character was a fascinating guy, who may be slumming it with his friends.  And yet he also admits that hes not very smart himself.  With these two Franco stories that I’ve read, it seems that he is really intresting in exploring people’s psyches.

I’m not sure that these will make me hunt down Franco’s short story collection, but I am interesting in reading some more by him.

For ease of searching I include: Blue Oyster Cult