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Archive for the ‘Gilmore Girls’ Category

826 NYC Art Show Catalog (2006)

Posted in Art, Gilmore Girls, History, J. Robert Lennon, Marcel Dzama, Mary Gaitskill, McSweeney's, NPR/PRI/PBS, Punks, Short Story, Sonic Youth, WHYY 90.9FM--Philadelphia, PA on April 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH on NPR [interviews and stories] (2006-2009).

While I was finding all of these awesome downloadable shows on NPR, I also found that there are hundreds of downloadable NPR stories about all kinds of bands.  But I was especially interested in the Sonic Youth ones because, well, I’m a fan of the band, but also because it seemed so incongruous to me to hear Peter Sagal introducing a story about Sonic Youth (with noise rock in the background).

The three downloadable shows cover the period from 2006-2008.  It’s no coincidence that this is the Rather Ripped period, where the band is at its most commercial.  And yet it is still pretty neat to hear them play samples of the noisier music as well.

The first one, A 25-Year Experiment in Artful noise (June 12, 2006) appeared on All Things Considered.  It is an interview from WHYY (but with the Peter Sagal intro!).  Joel Rose asks the band about their longevity as well as the history of their sound (this is where Thurston admits that their unusual tunings were because their crappy thrift store guitars sounded very bad in normal tuning).  This interview also revealed to me that Thurston and Kim were married in 1984.  I knew they were an item forever, but didn’t know they were official for that long.  Well done!

The interview also mentions their appearance on the beloved show The Gilmore Girls.  They watched the show with their daughter, Coco and heard Sonic Youth mentioned a few times (by cool chick Lane).  So they got in touch with the producers and were invited on set (I wonder if the actress who played Lane liked them as much as Lane did?).  And they played a fun “troubadour” version of one of their songs on the show (with Coco on bass).

The second download, Story of a ‘Kool thing’ (June 13, 2008) is more of an interview with David Browne, whose book Goodbye 20th Century:  A Biography of Sonic Youth, I have not read (although it sounds good).  This interview delves into their earlier music a bit more (how cool to hear Tom Violence on an NPR show–admittedly this show is The Bryant Park Project, so it’s not quite All Things Considered).  This segment is a general overview of the band’s history and of the book itself (but unlike the book, this offers snippets of music!)

The third one has a rather snarky title: “Turning ‘Sonic Youth’ Fans Into Readers” (January 27, 2009). It’s not so much about the band as it is about a book curated by Peter Wild called Noise: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth.

It’s a brief segment which delves into the inspiration for the book and for Wild’s own story “Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style.”  There’s a strangely credulous tone to the whole piece which makes it seem like they don’t really like the book.  I’m curious about the book as there are a few well-recognized writers on board, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever get around to reading it (although Amazon sells used copies for $2.50).

Contributors include:

Hiag Akmakjian • Christopher Coake • Katherine Dunn • Mary Gaitskill • Rebecca Godfrey • Laird Hunt • Shelley Jackson • J. Robert Lennon • Samuel Ligon • Emily Maguire • Tom McCarthy • Scott Mebus • Eileen Myles • Catherine O’Flynn • Emily Carter Roiphe • Kevin Sampsell • Steven Sherrill • Matt Thorne • Rachel Trezise • Jess Walter • Peter Wild

[READ: April 18, 2011] 826 NYC Art Show Catalog

This item is always for sale pretty cheap at the McSweeney’s site.  It recently was marked down to $3 so I figured I’d check it out.  This is a collection of art prints.  Each one is on a stocky paper just under  8 1/2″ x 11″.  The prints are reproduced beautifully (there’s about an inch and a half border (making them suitable for framing).  The back side of the print has a review of the print.  And, most amusingly, the reviews are by 6 to 8 year olds.

The art is hard to summarize, as it covers a lot of ground.  There’s a ton of different styles as well, from straight ahead photography to line and pencil drawing to painting.  These artists each have one page: (more…)

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T.C. Boyle–”What Separates Us from the Animals” (Harper’s, October 2010)

Posted in Animals, Belle and Sebastian, Gilmore Girls, Harper's, NPR/PRI/PBS, Susan Faludi, T.C. Boyle, Unlikable main character, World Cafe Live on December 8, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN-World Cafe Live [downloaded from NPR] (2006).

This is a live in-studio session promoting The Life Pursuit.  David Dye conducts an interview between songs (we learn what “Funny Little Frog” is about and how “Seymour Stein” came to be).

Stuart and Stevie are animated and in good form and the band sounds excellent.  On “Funny Little Frog” in particular they sound like they’re really enjoying themselves.

The session is only 25 minutes long, but they play 4 songs: “Funny Little Frog”, “Meat and Potatoes,” “Seymour Stein” and “Sukie in the Graveyard.”  It’s worth a listen and it’s available here.

[READ: November 6, 2010] “What Separates Us from the Animals”

For some reason I always put off reading T.C. Boyle stories, even though I invariably enjoy them.  And this was no exception.  I saw that it was a fairly long story and I waited to read other things in this issue of Harper’s (Susan Faludi–where has she been all these years? and another NASCAR article–my second one in a few months after the article in McSweeney’s, which is pretty surprising since I’ve never seen more than a second of a race).

But back to Boyle.  I loved the technique involved in this story.  The narrator is a critical woman who makes claims towards being reasonable about her criticisms.  And the thing is, her criticisms are entirely justified and yet her attitude makes you want to disagree with her. It’s a very cool conceit–an unlikable narrator whose opinions happened to be your own.

What she’s critical of is the new doctor who arrives on their island (I’m gathering it’s Nantucket).  He was picked out of a couple of applicants to be the island’s only doctor, handling basic problems and issues (especially during the summer tourism season) but always with the understanding that serious problems would have to go to the mainland.  In addition to his salary he would receive free lodging in an older, historic house.

She met him on the night of his arrival in order to get him set up in the house.  She immediately invited him to dinner. He accepted for the following night and arrived at their own beautiful house in paint-spattered jeans and dirty work boots.  He ate well and then fell asleep on their couch.  Obviously, this did not set things off on the right foot.  But what was worse was that this dirty demeanor spilled over into the rest of his life: his car has a flat tire for two months and worse, his examination office is filthy too (something I’m totally on board with criticizing).  They’re also concerned with the state of the historic house, which no one has seen yet–what no invitations to cocktails? (more…)

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TV Fall 2010

Posted in 30 Rock, Adventure, Arrested Development, Better with You, Chuck, Community, Corporate skewering, David Cross, Entertainment Weekly, Gilmore Girls, Glee, How I Met Your Mother, John Krasinski, Lauren Graham, Life Unexpected, Mad Men, Mike and Molly, Modern Family, New Adventures of Old Christine, Outsourced, Parenthood, Project Runway, Running Wilde, That 70's Show, The Big Bang Theory, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, The Office, Tosh.0, TV 2010 on October 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The new Fall TV season is pretty much underway.  It brings back a lot of old favorites, as well as a few new series that we’re going to check out. (more…)

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Periodical: Smithsonian

Posted in Animals, Art, Bob Dylan, Books about writers, Christo, Essays, Gilmore Girls, Harper Lee, History, James Gurney, Mark Twain, Milton Glasser, Smithsonian on July 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Our family visited Washington DC and went to a few museums.  We talked about subscribing to Smithsonian magazine (and getting a membership to the museums), but we put it off.  Then I received an offer in the mail to subscribe to the magazine and get a membership all for $12.  So we did.  And I’m thrilled with the magazine.

I recall subscribing to this magazine many years ago (turns out it was about fifteen years ago) as I distinctly remember reading, savoring and the keeping the September 1995 issue which featured a cover about James Gurney’s Dinotopia.  The cover is still blazed in my memory (even if I can’t find a better picture than this online).

As with many things, I find that as an adult (and a dad) I enjoy this sort of magazine a lot more than I did as a recent college grad.  It was also fascinating to learn in the new 40th anniversary issue that the magazine started not long after I was born.  It’s like we grew up together (but I ignored it for years). (more…)

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Steven Blush–American Hair Metal (2006)

Posted in Books about music, Creem, Gilmore Girls, Guns n' Roses, Kerrang, Short Books, Steven Blush, Virginity (Loss of) on February 14, 2009| 1 Comment »

metalSOUNDTRACK: Hmmm….

There’s so much to choose from to go with this book.  And yet, despite how much I loved metal in high school, I really didn’t like hair metal at all.  In fact, when looking at the bands listed at the end of this book, there were very few that I own or intentionally listened to.

The bands that I liked in this book were: Ratt and Whitesnake.  I also liked Motley Crue’s first two records, but I gave up on them once their makeup went from Kiss to CoverGirl.  Nevertheless, I’m not going to review any of that music here, I’m just going to let you soak in the beauty of this book.

[READ: February 8, 2009] American Hair Metal

My brother-in-law received this book for Christmas. And he proudly showed it to me when we were visiting this weekend. I was immediately hooked, and rather than just flipping through the photos as I thought I might, I actually read the thing cover to cover.

So this book is a loving (or so it says) look at American hair metal of the 1980s and 1990s. The book is basically comprised of three things: outrageous photos, hilarious quotes and occasional comments from Blush. (more…)

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Marisha Pessl–Special Topics in Calamity Physics (2007)

Posted in Against Me!, Books about writers, Corporate skewering, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Gilmore Girls, Marisha Pessl, Mystery, NPR/PRI/PBS, Rush, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Social Distortion, Tegan and Sara, Unreliable narrator on July 21, 2008| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: AGAINST ME!-New Wave (2007).

I’m not sure why I never listened to these guys before. I’m not crazy about the band’s name: it makes sense, but it’s awkward to work with. And I think I lumped them in with the whole emo scene, which I was pretty well done with. Anyhow, I read a review of New Wave recently and decided they might be worth checking out.

New Wave is an astonishingly refreshing and heartfelt album. It’s fairly short, as the songs are fairly short, and they pack a lot of punch. In fact, I’ve been singing this great, catchy chorus all morning: “Protest Songs in a response to Military Aggression. Protest songs to try and stop the soldier’s gun.”

The songs are great: really diverse for what is essentially a punk album. And the topics are protestations that I haven’t heard in a while (at least not in such a catchy style): Lack of originality in the mainstream. (“New Wave” & “Up the Cuts”), Drug Addiction (“Thrash Unreal,” the latest single that I’ve heard). “Stop” is a change of pace mid-album, with a catchy chorus and an almost dance feel. “Piss and Vinegar” is a plea for honesty. And possibly the strangest item on the disc: the song “The Ocean.” One doesn’t expect a punk band’s verse to start like this: ” If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman. My mother once told me she would have named me Laura” and it continues on in that vein. What a shockingly honest (presumably) lyric in a song.

The only thing I don’t like about the album is…the singer’s voice. I just can’t get past it, and I’m not sure what it is I don’t like about it. He sings on key, his voice is strong and impassioned. There’s just something about it I don’t like. Of course, I also don’t like the singer from Social Distortion either. I guess I’m more of a high, whiny voice than a gruff aggro voice. Despite this, whenever the band does harmonies, they sound great! All of the choruses have nice harmonies somewhere in them, and they really make the songs. Plus, there’s a song called “Borne on the FM, Waves of the Heart” which is a duet with Tegan from Tegan and Sara, and it’s really fantastic. They are a perfect match for each other. Normally, not liking the singer would make you not like a band. (How many people can’t get into Rush because of Geddy Lee’s voice?). And yet, I still think the album is great. I’m certainly going to check out some past records as well. I’m especially intrigued by this album title: Reinventing Axl Rose.

[READ: June 25, 2008] Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

I heard about this book when I was scanning the NPR stations and there was a story about authors/publishers making great websites to accompany books. Two of the ones they mentioned sounded pretty interesting, so I jotted them down and checked them out. This was the first one, Special Topics in Calamity Physics. The site was pretty neat, but I didn’t spend much time there, as I was at work. I checked that we had the book and took it out that day. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–Consider the Lobster (2005)

Posted in Big Books, Boston, MA, David Foster Wallace, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gilmore Girls, Meta, Tom Waits on May 29, 2007| 2 Comments »

lobster.jpgSOUNDTRACK: TOM WAITS-Orphans (Bastards) (2006).

orphans1.jpgThis is the piece de resistance of the Orphans set. All of the really, really weird songs by Waits get thrown together on this disc. Weird and wonderful, including a crazy cover of “Heigh Ho” from Snow White.

[READ: Summer 2006] Consider the Lobster.

When I was living in Boston, and going to graduate school, (more…)

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