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Archive for the ‘Film & TV’ Category

Peter Kuper–Diario de Oaxaca: A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years in Mexico (2009)

Posted in Culture Shock, Foreign Books, History, Larry LaLonde, Les Claypool, Mad Magazine, Marriage (Happy), Memoirs, Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars, Nature, Peter Kuper, Pig Hunt, Primus, Violence on February 9, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LES CLAYPOOL-Of Fungi and Foe (2009).

Claypool was asked to score a video game called The Spore Wars and, at around the same time, to score a movie called Pig Hunt.  According to the liner notes of the disc, he used the templates that he made for the scores and fleshed them out to make this album.

This was the first Claypool solo album I’d bought in several years (since 2002’s Purple Onion).  I’d heard “Mushroom Men” on the radio and really liked it, so I decided to get the disc.  And I have to say overall I’m a little disappointed.

Now, I’ve been a Primus fan for years (I even saw them right after Suck on This) so I know what I’m getting with Les.  And yet, maybe I don’t anymore.  The disc is very percussion heavy, with lots of rather long songs.  And although I love long songs, I love long songs that aren’t the same thing for 6 or so minutes.  I also rather miss Claypool’s voice.  He doesn’t sing a lot of these songs in his typical falsetto.  There’s a lot of very deep voiced, rather processed sounding voices here (it works great on the muh muh muh muhshroom men, but not so great elsewhere).  Because when you combine that with the bass and percussion, it’ really hard to hear what he’s on about (and Claypool lyrics are half the fun).

Plus, we know that with Primus’ own brand of weirdness, a little goes a long way.  So, hearing the same bizarro riff for 4 minutes can be trying.

Despite the criticisms, the disc is good in small doses.  The first 4 tracks are all really solid.  But that 5th track, “What would George Martin Do?” just sucks all the life out of the disc.  The same goofy riff for 6 minutes with completely unintelligible lyrics.  Ouch.   But “You Can’t Tell Errol Anything” picks up the pace somewhat with a wonderful Tom Waits-ian soundtrack.  The addition of Eugene Hutz on insane wailing vocals brings a wonderful new level of dementia to the disc.

Throughout the disc there some amazing bass riffs (of course) and some really cool effects thrown onto the bass (and other instruments).  But the overall feel of the disc is just too samey.  I think the music would probably work really well as soundtrack music, but it lacks a little something by itself.

I’m not suggesting that Claypool needs to be more poppy, because that’s hardly it (although he does have an amazing gift for clever hooks), but it’s possible that he needs an editor.  Was that the role Ler played in Primus?  Who will ever know?

[READ: February 5, 2010] Diario de Oaxaca

Wa-HA-Ca (that’s how you pronounce Oaxaca (the first question I had)).

I ordered this book for our Spanish collection without really knowing what it was about.  When it arrived I had a hard time deciding where to catalog it…is it a graphic novel?  a biography?  It’s bilingual so does it even go in the Spanish collection, which has much less circulation than our English collection?  As I flipped though the book, it looked really cool, so I decided to just read it and figure it out for myself.

Peter Kuper is, among other things, the drawer of Mad Magazine’s Spy vs Spy since about 1997.  Sometime in 2006, Kuper decided to go on sabbatical from the politics of George W. Bush.  He and his family packed up and moved to Oaxaca, Mexico for two years.  While he was there, the city experienced a semi-annual teacher’s strike.  However, this particular strike turned bloody when the President of Oaxaca turned his soldiers against the strikers. (more…)

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TV 2010

Posted in 30 Rock, Better Off Ted, Chuck, Community, Craig Ferguson, Glee, How I Met Your Mother, John Dore Show, Jon Stewart, Jools Holland, Late Late Show, Later with Jools Holland, Life Unexpected, Modern Family, New Adventures of Old Christine, Parenthood, Project Runway, Robot Chicken, Scrubs, The Big Bang Theory, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, The Inbetweeners, The Office, The Simpsons, The Whitest Kids U'Know, TV 2010 on February 7, 2010| 1 Comment »

In addition to reading, Sarah and I watch TV, too.  In the past, I posted occasional updates to a Tab devoted to TV.  But I’m going to put new information in individual posts instead.  So I’m starting with this season’s TV.

Of course, in the last couple of years, TV has changed from working on an easy to summarize Spring/Fall schedule to having shows appear almost at random.   This really undermines the very idea of a “season,” so I’m including a show or two from the end of 2009 as well.

One surprising thing about recent TV is how I watch almost nothing on the CW or Fox.  These were my mainstays as recent as two years ago, but they’ve totally dropped the ball lately.  And I can’t believe how much I’m enjoying shows on CBS (isn’t that the old people’s network?).

And so, for 2010: (more…)

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Lars Brown–North World Vol 2: The Epic of Conard (2009)

Posted in Adventure, Anachronisms, Boredom, Culture Shock, Demons, End of the World, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Kiss, Kiss Meets the Phantom/Attack of the Phantoms, Lars Brown, Magic, Oddities, Oni Press, Supernatural, Threats, Violence, YA Books on February 5, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Attack of the Phantoms (1978).

Technically, not exactly a soundtrack, but I do talk about the music, so it counts.

I don’t think I was allowed to see Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park movie when it came on TV in 1978.  I have seen it many times since then, and have enjoyed its cheesiness each time.  But it has been many years since I last watched it (it was on a recorded VHS tape, so it’s at least ten years).  Imagine my delight to see that it was included on the KISSOLOGY Vol 2 DVD.

Except, rather than the TV movie, what they have included is the “European theatrical” release (did this really get shown in theaters in Europe?  Judging by the poster that I placed here, yes.).

I can’t really compare the two as it has been so long, but I knew there were a few differences right off the bat.  The most obvious to me was the inclusion of Kiss solo songs over random (sort of appropriate) scenes.  The use of “Radioactive” when Gene is crushing things was inspired.  And “Fractured Mirror” works well anywhere in the movie.  The Peter songs seem out of place, and I’m not entirely sure about connecting Abner Devereaux to “Mr. Make Believe” but I guess that’s the least of the movie’s problems, right?

This version also has some lengthy concert scenes with the band rocking out in front of stock footage of fans.  I simply don’t reall if this was included in the original, but I think one of the sonsg actually sounded live (while the others were clearly mimed).  According to various internet sites, Attack also removes a lot of Ace’s dialogue.  This seems very likely, as I thought he had a lot more bad puns.  And I had to wonder if that’s why they included this version rather than the Phantom of the Park (since Gene seems to dislike Ace so much).

What really strikes me about the movie though is how much Kiss is NOT in it.  I mean, it’s at least 30 minutes before they show up at all (we get some delightful scenes with Chopper and his 30-year-old-teenage thugs).  They do some concerts but, since they are the crux of the plot, you’d think they’d have more than a few actual lines.  Of course, it’s not a very good movie, so what’s the point in nitpicking?

Like how all of a sudden, she’s hanging out with the band while they’re all sitting around.  And Paul is playing acoustic guitar and Peter crooning “Beth.”  I’d love to get a copy of the guitar version of “Beth,” though!  Or how the whole concept of the Kiss talismen is not even introduced until like the last 15 minutes of the movie.

It’s of course all worth it to hear the supremely awesome robot Kiss band’s song “Rip and Destroy” (to the tune of “Hotter Than Hell”) which the fans at first hate but quickly come around to.  And then decide that it would be a good idea to rip up the theme park (which we sadly do not get to see).

Of course, watching this version makes me want to see the original TV version just to see what the differences were, but it sounds like that DVD will never see the light of day.  I wonder if I still have that VHS tape anywhere?

[READ: January 15, 2010] North World Vol 2.

As Volume 2 of this saga opens, we see Conrad settling down.  He has retired his sword, moved home with his dad and begun working in his dad’s business as an accountant.

But he really can’t settle down.  The local thugs are still plotting revenge against him and his coworker, Kailee (a kick ass witch), shows up wondering why he hasn’t completed his assignment yet.  His assignment?  Conrad was tired of slaying evil giant animals, so he took a bigger assignment.  Go to Coeur de Lac to fight a demon summoner.  The problem is that Couer du Lac is where he’s from, and where he ran away from many many years ago.

He’s conflicted about going home, but when he gets back to Couer de Lac, he realizes that things seem not quite right. (more…)

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Kevin Barry-“Fjord of Killary” (New Yorker, February 1, 2010)

Posted in Culture Shock, Humiliation, Irish Writer, Kevin Barry, Larry LaLonde, Mister Roger's Neighborhood, Nature, New Yorker, No Forcefield, Primus, Sex on January 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NO FORCEFIELD-Lee’s Oriental Massage 415-626-1837 (2000).

I was terribly disappointed with the second No Forcefield album (so why did I get this one?  Because I got them both used at the same time for $1 each).  And I can’t help but think Id have been so much more disappointed in it had I listened to this one first.

This first record is really quite good.  I still have no idea why Ler from Primus is in the band or what he does on this disc (and he’s the reason I learned about the band to begin with), but this disc sounds like a proper album and not just a bunch of undercooked ideas.

This disc is primarily a collection of electronic/scratching tracks.  The beginning of the disk has more scratch-heavy pieces (provided by DJ Disk), and as the disc moves along we get slightly longer more instrumental-only dancey tracks.  But they’re not really dance tracks either, they’re heavy electronic tracks in the vein of say Prodigy (with no lyrics).  They’re quite inventive and they rock pretty hard.

But it must be said, it sounds nothing like Primus.  There’s virtually no bass, and no guitars and no vocals.  I assume that Brain does all of the electronics and drums, and then there’s a few extra folks helping out.  There’s some definitely worthwhile tracks on here (and the samples are all fun…Mister Roger’s Neighborhood music, for example).

This isn’t a genre I know very well, so I don’t know how it compares globally to others. But I do know bad techno music and this isn’t it.

Not bad for $1.  And, no I never called the phone number.

[READ: January 26, 2010] “Fjord of Killary”

This is a quick, dark story.  It concerns a poet, named Caoimhin, who moves from the city to the West Coast of Ireland.  Specifically, he goes there to buy a hotel.  The hotel has been extant since the 1600’s and was even written about by Thackeray.  Since he is having massive writer’s block, he assumed that this little community on a fjord will give him lots to write about.

But instead, he finds himself very busy tending to the locals (the hotel bar is the real draw) and largely uninspired to write anything.

The actual plot of the story concerns a terrible storm.  The raging ocean that is right below the hotel is rising and rising.  Caoimhin is rather nervous, but the patrons, all old residents of the area, tell him not to worry.  Well, actually they ignore him, (despite all of his lame attempts at conversation making) but the effect is the same.

It’s only when the water actually comes up the porch and under the doors that the people start to really get nervous. (more…)

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George Saunders–“Heavy Artillery” (New Yorker, January 25, 2010)

Posted in Culture Shock, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, George Saunders, Kiss, Military, New Yorker, Paul Lynde on January 20, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-KISSology: The Ultimate Kiss Collection, Vol. 1: 1974-1977 DVD (2006).

I finally got to watch all of disc two of this DVD and it was quite a treat.  Disc two covers Kiss while they are pretty much the hottest band in the world.  And the fun begins right off with an appearance on The Paul Lynde Show!  They don’t make camp like they used to!  I only wish they showed all of the footage, as I think they left out something (or at least they talk about Peter Criss playing a piece of wood painted to look like a piano).

This is followed by two full concerts.  The first is from the Destroyer tour in Tokyo.  The sound is not great (Gene’s bass sounds really bottom heavy and muddy).  But it’s fun to see the Japanese audiences go wild and then politely sit down as soon as Paul starts speaking.

I also had to wonder if the sight of a room full of Japanese fans was a culture shock for 4 boys from New York.  In college one of my teachers made a joke about how when she was living in Germany it was weird because  everyone around you was German.  And we laughed because, duh.  But that’s got to be weird to be immersed in a mono-culture unlike here where diversity is pretty prevalent.  So seeing an audience of all one nationality must be pretty unusual (at least of me anyhow).

The second show sounds and looks better.   It comes from the Love Gun Tour and was filmed in Houston.  By this time the band is completely over the top with their stage show: Gene still breaths fire and spits blood.  But now Ace’s guitar smokes and he shoots a laser beam at it from a new guitar.  Peter’s drum riser goes about 12 feet in the air.  The other three guys also have risers so that at one point they’re all 12 feet in the air.  I mean, for 1977, this is pretty massive.  No wonder their live shows were such a success.

And they have nothing but energy.  It’s really impressive.  Although I still laugh imagining them practicing walking in those 7 inch platforms.  The fact that Paul Stanley can do leaping splits and not break an ankle is tremendous.

There’s another short segment from Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.  I wish I knew if that is what my cousin called me up to tell me was on TV that night.  I would have been 8 years old and a new Kiss fan.  He called me past my bedtime and I heard my mom saying something about Kiss on TV.  I turned it on but when my mom came in I quickly turned it off.  I secretly hope that’s what it was, so now I finally got to see it.  Although realistically I’ll never know for sure.

I have to say though that it seemed lip synched to me.

The bands sounds great during all of these shows.  The only real problem once again is the backing vocals.  They just sound wrong somehow.  Either mixed too high or like they just aren’t trying to find the right notes.  Or something.  It just feels off (Except in Black Diamond, where the ooooh oooohs are always right on).  Oh, and for God’s sake. Ace’s “singing” of “Shock Me” sounds like he’s never opened his mouth before. He barely speaks the words much less tries to find the tune.  Wow.

But despite those foibles (and the fact that Gene Simmons comes off as a total dick in the liner notes (and, let’s be honest, in every interview I’ve ever heard him do)) it’s been a fun nostalgic trip watching these old concerts.  I can’t imagine how much I their show would have blown my mind if I had been allowed to see them back when I was 10 years old.

[READ: January 19, 2010] “Heavy Artillery”

I’ve said before that I find George Saunders to be really hit or miss.  I mean I absolutely loved his short story in the recent McSweeny’s Issue.  But then we get a piece like this.  I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t something about the Shouts & Murmurs section of The New Yorker that brings out the lame in good writers.

This piece had so much potential. The opening quote (which the story is based on) says that young people today (ie. future soldiers) are too fat for fighting and that “a group of retired military leaders is calling for more investment in early childhood education to combat the insidious effects of junk food and inadequate education.”

The possibilities are devilishly clever: spending money on kids to prep them to get killed in battle.  Teaching them head start programs so they can kill people later on.  Oh, ripe pickings all.

But Saunders basically makes a two page fat joke. (more…)

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David Owen–“The Dime Store Floor” (New Yorker, January 25, 2010)

Posted in Black Sabbath, David Owen, Jools Holland, Later with Jools Holland, Nostalgia, The Divine Comedy, The Flaming Lips on January 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LATER WITH JOOLS HOLLAND (Ovation TV) (2010–but obviously not really).

I’ve known about Jools Holland for years, and even knew about Later… from some other source (maybe it was on BBC America?).  But anyhow it is now being broadcast on Ovation TV (and what is that?  I’d never have heard of it except that TiVo found a Flaming Lips show for me).

The premise of Later is that there is one center stage, and encircling it are five or so bands.  The bands all face the center (where the camera is) so they get to watch the other bands, too.   Each band plays a song or two or three (depending on popularity I guess).  And it’s live and fun and generally a good time.

This episode, as I said, had the Flaming Lips on it.  I noted that the TiVo info said 2010, but the Lips played songs from At War with the Mystics, so it was more likely 2006.  Also on the bill were The Divine Comedy (and I was very excited when it said 2010, because I thought that DC had a new disc out, sigh).  The Strokes, Cat Power and a couple other folks rounded out the bill.

It was quite a show, and felt like they packed in a lot more than an hour’s worth of music.  The Lips especially pulled of an amazing three song set (scattered throughout the program, by the way) with a ton of scaled back, but still fun live gadgets (oversized hands, confetti etc).  And, they did a rocking cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”

I asked TiVo to tape more Later.  If the diversity of artists here is any indication, I assume you;’e bound to get at least one band you like on every show.  Cool.

[READ: January 19, 2010] “The Dime Store Floor”

I don’t often review Personal Histories from The New Yorker, but every once in a while one grabs me.  And this is one of them.

I have to assume that everyone feels that smells are highly evocative, so I’m not unique in feeling that scent is super powerful.  And yet, I think I tend to overlook smells in my daily life, even though I’m always secretly hoping for one to whack me up the side of the head and say, hey remember this!

And this piece is all about revisiting scents: both intentionally and accidentally.

I really enjoyed the closing where he opens the Old Spice deodorant and flashes back to his father.  However, I had one major question/quibble with the author.  Well, two actually.

The first was this: “A few years ago, an online store I’d been using ran out of my regular brand of deodorant, and, because I was unable to think of anything else, I switched to Old Spice, the kind my father used.”  Okay, that, wait what?  You buy your deodorant online?  You couldn’t go to any store anywhere and just buy another roll-on?  What kind of unique deodorant could this possibly be and conversely how could Old Spice possibly compare?

The second, a little further down: “…went to a local drug store to buy replacement [toiletries].  There I saw that Old Spice deodorant comes in more strength, formulations and scents than I had thought and realized that the one I’d been using High Endurance Pure Sport couldn’t have been my father’s.”  Where exactly does David Owen live that he didn’t know Old Spice had a huge line of deodorants out?  Go to any store in America, heck open a magazine, you can’t miss it! I myself am monogamous to Tom’s of Maine, and even I know there’s like a half dozen Secret containers on the shelf!

Owen clearly has the internet, so it’s not like he’s unaware of the outside world, and the whole story is about interacting with others, so he’s not a recluse.  I’m just baffled by all this.  (And Sarah and I had a good laugh too). (more…)

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McSweeney’s #33: The San Francisco Panorama (2009)

Posted in Adrian Tomine, Airlines, Alia Malek, Andrew Sean Greer, Art, Art Spiegelman, Big Star, Book Reviews, Books about music, Books about writers, Brent Hoff, Caddyshack, Canadian Music, Cars, Carson Ellis, Children's Books, China Miéville, Chip Kidd, Chris Adrian, Chris Ware, Comic Strips, Constellation Records, Daniel Handler, Dave Eggers, Deb Olin Unferth, Dicky Murphy, Dip-in Books, Do Make Say Think, Don DeLillo, E.L. Doctorow, Edna O'Brien, Entertainment Weekly, Essays, Flash Fiction, Food, Free Speech, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Geoff Nicholson, George Saunders, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Greed, Harper's, J. Malcolm Garcia, J.G. Ballard, James Franco, Jessica Abel, Jon Scieszka, Jonathan Safran Foer, Kara Walker, KPOO 89.5--San Francisco, CA, LGBTQ, Mary Williams, Matthew Klam, McSweeney's, Meatballs, Michael Chabon, Miranda July, Mogwai, New Yorker, Newspapers, Nicholson Baker, Prospect, Rachel Maddow, Roddy Doyle, Salman Rushdie, Seth, Seth Fried, Short Story, Sports, Stephen King, The Blues Brothers, The New York Times, The Onion, The Walrus, Tom Bissell, Travel, Universities, Violence, Wajahat Ali, War, Wholphin, William T. Vollmann on January 16, 2010| 8 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: DO MAKE SAY THINK-Other Truths [CST062] (2009).

I’ve always enjoyed Do Make Say Think’s CDs.  They play instrumentals that are always intriguing and which never get dull.

But this CD far exceeds anything they have done so far (and  they’ve done some great work).   There are only four tracks, and they range from 8 to 12 minutes long.  Each track is named for a word in the band’s name: Do, Make, Say, Think.  And each one is a fully realized mini epic.

“Do” sounds like a gorgeous Mogwai track.  While “Make” has wonderfully diverse elements: a cool percussion midsection and a horn-fueled end section that works perfectly with the maniacal drumming.  “Say” is another Mogwai-like exploration, although it is nicely complemented by horns.  It also ends with a slow jazzy section that works in context but is somewhat unexpected. Finally, “Think” closes the disc with a delightful denouement.  It’s the slowest (and shortest) track, and it shows that even slowing down their instrumentals doesn’t make them dull.

It’s a fantastic record from start to finish.  This is hands down my favorite Constellation release in quite some time.

[READ: December 2009 – January 13, 2010] McSweeney’s #33.

The ever-evolving McSweeney’s has set out to do the unlikely: they printed Issue #33 as a Sunday Newspaper.  It is called The San Francisco Panorama and, indeed, it is just like a huge Sunday newspaper. It has real news in (it is meant to be current as of December 7, 2009).  As well as a Sports section, a magazine section and even comics!

[DIGRESSION] I stopped reading newspapers quite some time ago.  I worked for one in college and have long been aware that the news is just something to fill the space between ads.  I do like newspapers in theory, and certainly hope they don’t all go away but print issues are a dying breed.  When I think about the waste that accompanies a newspaper, I’m horrified.  Sarah and I even did a Sunday New York Times subscription for a while, but there were half a dozen sections that we would simply discard unopened.  And, realistically that’s understandable.  Given how long it took me  to read all of the Panorama, if you actually tried to read the whole Sunday paper, you’d be finished the following Sunday (or even two Sundays later).

Their lofty goal here was to show what print journalism can still do. And with that I concur heartily.  Even if I don’t read the newspaper, the newspapers as entities are worth saving.  Because it is pretty much only print journalism that finds real, honest to God, worthy news stories.  TV news is a joke.  There is virtually nothing of value on network TV.  Fox News is beyond a joke.  CNBC is sad (although Rachel Maddow is awesome!) and even CNN, the originator of all of this 24 hour news nonsense still can’t fill their airtime with non-sensationalized news.

Obviously, there are some decent internet sites, but for the most part they don’t have the budget to support real news investigation.  You either get sensationalized crap like Drudge or rebroadcasts of real news.

So, print is the last bastion of news.  And you can see that in journalistic pieces in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Walrus, Prospect and, yes, in newspapers.

But enough.  What about THIS newspaper?  Oh and unlike other McSweeney’s reviews I’ve done, there is NO WAY that I am writing a thorough comment on everything in here.  There’s just way too much.  Plus, there are many sections that are just news blurbs.  Larger articles and familiar authors will be addressed, however.  [UPDATE: January 18]: If, however, like Alia Malek below, you bring it to my attention that I’ve left you out (or gotten something wrong!) drop me a line, and I’ll correct things.

There is in fact a Panorama Information Pamphlet which answers a lot of basic questions, like why, how and how often (just this once, they promise!). There’s also a Numbers section which details the size, scope and cost of making this (it shows that with an initial start up, anyone could make a newspaper if they talked enough about what the readers were interested in). (more…)

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Douglas Coupland–Generation A (2009)

Posted in Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Culture Shock, Dave Bidini music, Death, Douglas Coupland, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Dystopia, Funny (strange), JPod, Kurt Vonnegut, Natural Disasters, Nature, Research, Rheostatics, Technology, The Future, Video Games, Violence, Yuck!, tagged on January 14, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Static Box (complete) (2008).

I’ve decided not to review all of the volumes of this fabulous free box set.  Rather, since I have now finished it, I’ll sum up and say that it is a fantastic collection from start to finish.

The final disc has a series of great cover tunes.  And of course, there’s the final songs from the final Massey Hall show which are quite emotional, even all these years later.

There’s one or two songs that I probably would have left off for sound quality reasons (although usually they’re pretty interesting/essential for what they are).  There’s one 8 minute song, “Monkeys Will Come” that has quite poor sound quality.  However, it is a recording of the song that the Canadian government asked them to record for Canada Day in 2000.  And I assume there are no better recordings of it, so it’s nice to have.

The best part of this collection is that it allowed me to see which concerts were worth downloading in their entirety (the site has a ton of concerts for downloading…a ton!).  It also got me to track down the two Violet Archers CDs, which I’m quite excited to be getting soon.

And, while I’m in a Rheos mood.  Martin Tielli’s final CDs in his subscription collection just made their way to my house and they are weird and wonderful.  And, I just learned that Dave Bidini put out a solo record a few months back, so that’s worth tracking down too.  Go Rheos!  You are all very star.

[READ: January 12, 2010] Generation A

I was quite excited when this book finally came out.  I had been dipping into the Douglas Coupland back catalog (including watching JPod the TVseries), so this book is a treat.

Strangely, when I started reading the book I realized I had no idea what it was about.  At all.  So, the first thing to note is that it is not in any way a sequel to Generation X.  None of the characters are the same, the setting is not the same, there’s no connection whatsoever (or if there is I didn’t see it).  The premise of the title comes from a Kurt Vonnegut address.  It is quoted on the book jacket and in the book itself, so I won’t quote it here, but the gist is that young people were dismissed unfairly when labelled “Generation X,” so they should insist that they be called “Generation A,” the beginning of the alphabet, and the start of it all.

But when the book starts, it’s hard to understand what that has to do with anything.  Because, as we learn right away, the book is all about bees (which explains the yellow and black cover design). (more…)

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Mark Barrowcliffe–The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange (2009)

Posted in Adventure, Black Sabbath, Books about writers, Boredom, Collecting, Culture Shock, Demons, Dreams, Drugs, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Freaks & Geeks, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gods, Hawkwind, History, Kiss, Magic, Manuals, Marillion, Mark Barrowcliffe, Memoirs, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Nazis, Oddities, Racism, Religion, Saxon, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Summer, Supernatural, The Young Ones, Violence, Wikipedia on January 1, 2010| 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Alive! (1975).

This was the first Kiss live album and was the album that broke Kiss worldwide.  I’m not entirely sure why a live album of songs that didn’t sell very well would do better than the original studio albums, but so it was.

And, yes, the live recording is pretty awesome.  It is clearly a collection of greatest hits off their first three records, and the band sounds on fire: the songs are heavier and faster and largely more consistent than some of the odder tracks on the original records.

There has been considerable controversy about whether the album was overdubbed.  Wikipedia lists a few different possibilities for what originally recorded sounds were kept for the disc.  It never occurred to me that the disc might be overdubbed (and honestly that doesn’t bother me all that much).  But since I had the pleasure of watching Kissology recently, and I could see the state of their vocals live, it would surprise me entirely if the vocals were not overdubbed.  Not because the band didn’t sound good live (they did), but because they were very sloppy with their vocals, consistently leaving off the ends of lines and things like that, and the disc sounds perfect.

Of course this is all nitpicking.  Alive! is a fantastic document because the live versions add a lot of punch to the originals.  But on top of that, you get fun extras like the drum solo and banter of the 12 minute “100,000 Years” as well as Paul’s drinking banter: “I know there’s a lot of you out there that like to drink…vodka and orange juice!” (How can you pass that up?).  It’s hard to pick highlights from such a good record, but “She” is a particular one with Ace’s wild guitar pyrotechnics.  Right on to the end, the disc is a rocking good time.

It’s also funny to hear that “Rock And Roll All Nite” is not the final encore; rather it is the next to last track with “Let Me Go Rock n Roll” being the BIG FINISH.  That’s the last time that THAT would happen!

[READ: December 28, 2009] The Elfish Gene

I happened to pass this book in the New section of my library and I loved the title.  I read the blurb, made a mental note of it, mentioned how much I liked the title to Sarah and then more or less forgot about it (although, actually, I still see it every day, as it’s always facing out, cover forward).

Imagine my surprise to see that Sarah got it for me for Christmas!

So, yes, this is the best parody-titled book that is not a parody or a make-a-buck joke book that modifies a popular title.  Rather, it is a memoir of a British guy who spent his teen years utterly absorbed in Dungeons & Dragons.  But I must disagree with the Christian Science Monitor’s review as “laugh out loud funny.”  I only laughed out loud once in the book (the dog walking scene is hilarious), but that’s because I don’t think it was meant to be funny (at least I hope it wasn’t).

I’ve said before that I’m not a big fan of memoirs in general.  I find them mostly to be a big “so what,” and often without the subtlety required for a good novel.  But the topic here was delicious enough for me to dive right in.  And I think that this book, which I absolutely enjoyed, sort of proves my theory.

Barrowcliffe has done nothing worthy of anyone caring about.  He’s just a guy who played D&D, so when checking out the book, you kind of feel, so what?  Plus, the book is completely unsubtle, with him summarizing his attitude over and over and over.  But nevertheless, I could not put it down. I was hooked from the opening and was totally intrigued all the way to the end.  (I even put down the book I had been reading to speed right through this).

And yet, Barrowcliffe himself is so unlikable.  And not, as he suggests, because of the D&D. (more…)

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60,000

Posted in Against Me!, Alex Stone, Clash of the Gods, David Foster Wallace, David Goldberg, Dropkick Murphys, Evan Goldberg, Flight of the Conchords, Gordon Korman, Gordon Lightfoot, Harper's, Infinite Summer, Jeff Kinney, Jens Lekman, Loudon Wainwright III, Marisha Pessl, McSweeney's, Paul Debraski, Paul F. Tompkins, Pearl Jam, Pierdomenico Baccalario, Pseudonymous Bosch, Seth Rogen, Sonic Youth, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Flaming Lips on December 28, 2009| 1 Comment »

[cue music]:

I saw these stats come sailing in, on Christmas Day on Christmas Day.
I hit 60,000 views on Christmas Day in the mor-ning.

I hit 30,000 views back in March, and I was quite thrilled.  When I started the blog in May of 2007 I didn’t expect to get all that many views, it was more or less a blog to keep track of my books and maybe have other people comment too.  And so, it took nearly two years to get to 30,000.  Imagine how delightful it is to reach the next 30,000 views in the span of just nine months!

So thanks everyone for checking out what I had to say.  And thanks also for all the comments.  As with the first 30,000, I’ve included the stats that have brought me to this hallowed (but random) spot.  And I must add that Infinite Summer, which is underrepresented in my top ten posts, was absolutely essential for this huge spike in views (thanks DFW fans).  But, by far the biggest surprise was the surge that came from the first book(s) on the list below.  I posted about the Ulysses Moore series in April.  And it was by far the most frequently sought and (presumably) read post on the blog.  So, Scholastic Publishing, if you read this, please note the craving that my readers have for the rest of the series!  And please update your site!!

So, anyhow, thanks all.  Listed below are the Top Ten (and a few extra) viewed posts on my blog.  Happy New Year!

(more…)

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