I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PLACEBO-B3EP (2012).

Placebo went away for a time and now (well, 2012) they’re back with an EP and an album.  This EP has 5 songs and it returns their sound to days of old (although their sound hasn’t changed all that much, honestly, but their last album seemed less…something).  This returns to noisy days of yore.  “B3” has a sleazy kind of synth, big rocking guitars and drums, and of course Brian Molko’s voice (they wouldn’t be Placebo without his voice).

The second track is a cover of a Minux song “I Know You Want to Stop” and it falls right in with the placebo sound.  I actually thought it was one of their own.

“The Extra” slows down the craziness of the EP, but it sounds very much like a Placebo ballad.  Rather than a love ballad it is a creepy ballad.   The theme is summed up”If I am an extra in the film of my own life, will someone please turn off the camera.”  There’s great guitar sound on “I.K.W.Y.L.” with Molko’s keening voice adding tension.

And the final song, “Time is Money” is one of Molko’s aching slow song.  “Time is Money bastard, so like Jesus, give it all away.”  Somehow he turns that sentiment into a love song.  And I love Molko for that.

For an EP, this is a really solid collection of songs–no throwaway tracks here.  Let’s hope the full length is as good.

 [READ: September 18, 2014] “Stepping Out”

In this piece, I can’t decide if Sedaris is messing with us or not.  This essay is all about his love affair with the Fitbit.

In my head, Sedaris is a pampered homebody who only goes out when he has to.  While I would never say he was unfit, I just can’t picture him exercising, even if that exercise is walking. On the other hand, I know that he is rather obsessive, so I can see him taking to something like this and really running (or walking) with it.

Sedaris’ friend Lesley explained the pedometer to him.  “The goal is to take ten thousand steps per day and, once you do, it vibrates.”  He asks, “Hard?”  She says “No, it’s just a tingle.”  So he bought one.  And he quickly learns that 10,000 steps is a little more than 4 miles for him.

He says he can achieve that easily in a day, especially since he has people coming to his door all the time, “wanting you to accept a package or give them directions or just listen patiently as they talk about birds, which happens from time to time when I’m home in West Sussex….”

He says that after getting his Fitbit, the tingle felt good–not just as as sensation but as a feeling of accomplishment.  And soon he is doing 12,000 steps a day.  He says prefers roads to trails because he hates snakes (there’s a very funny bit about his friend getting a snake bite: “It didn’t have to strike you.”  He later goes past a farm where a cow is giving birth .  The calf was actually birthing  as he walked past: “For a while, she lay flat on the grass panting.  Then she got up and began grazing, still with those feet sticking out.  ‘Really,’ I said to her.  ‘You can’t go five minutes without eating'”  (Boy, Sedaris hates animals).

He also has humorous outlook on animal birth:  “What might I have thought of, after seven hours of unrelenting agony, a creature the size of a full-grown cougar emerged, inch by inch, from the hole at the end of penis and started hassling me for food?”

He says that by the time he saw the cow, he was averaging 25,000 steps a day–around ten and half miles).  He then upped it to 30,000.  He brought grabbers with him to help clean the neighborhood.  (His comment about KFC and condoms is hilarious).

He is up to 60,000 steps a day which is 25 and a half miles.  (He says it takes close to 9 hours).  He’s also getting a garbage truck named after him for all the garbage hie has picked up.  He scorns those who toss theirs in a drawer after the battery dies (recharging it is very easy).  But when his dies he does get a sense of freedom…for a few minutes anyway.