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Archive for the ‘The Hobbit’ Category

Lorrie Moore–“Animal Instincts: Jane Campion’s moral wilderness” (Harper’s, August 2013)

Posted in Blue Velvet, David Lynch, Deliverance, Drinking, Harper's, Jane Campion, Lorrie Moore, Road Warrior, The Hobbit, The Piano, Top of the Lake, Violence, Winter's Bone on September 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

aug2013SOUNDTRACK: DAVID LYNCH-“Crazy Clown Time” (2012).

lynchIt’s hard for me to divorce this song from the video, because the video is so…David Lynch.  Even though it pictures the lyrics literally, there’s so many weird little Lynchisms that it’s an art unto itself.  Imagine David Lynch directing a rocking music video, but of a song he wrote.  Wow.  But I’m not going to talk about the video.

Musically, his song is a fairly simple construction–it’s primarily drums with some echoing guitars (with no real melody) and other crazy noises.  Over the rhythmic cacophony, we get David Lynch’s bizarre falsetto/spoken words.  Lyrically the song seems to be describing a party that gets pretty out of hand (and the video certainly shows that).

Lyrics include: Paulie he had a red shirt; Suzy, she ripped her shirt off completely; Petey set his hair on fire. And then the chorus: It was crazy clown time.  It was real fun.

Lynch’s voice sounds like an excited child (or demonic clown) as he talks about certain details of this party.  This is definitely a song that people will ask you “what are you listening to?”  There’s very few who will want to listen to this, although I’ve found that after three listens, it makes a kind of twisted sense.

If you dare, watch the NSFW video

[READ: September 10, 2013] Animal Instincts

I very rarely talk about reviews of TV shows–that’s a slipper slope if ever there was.  But I like Lorrie Moore and I like Jane Campion and I hadn’t heard about Campion’s show called Top of the Lake  Moore suggests is the best show on TV.  It aired on the Sundance Channel but was originally a BBC production.  Like Campions’ other works, it is set in New Zealand and the location and cinematography are part Deliverance, Road Warrior, Winter’s Bone and Hobbit.

The show sound very dark, but as soon as Moore started describing it I couldn’t help but think of Twin Peaks.  And indeed, there is a David Lynch nod within the show (girls say they are reading Blue Velvet for their book club). (more…)

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Periodical: Wired

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Consumerism, Danger Mouse, Dark Night of the Soul, David Lynch, Esquire, Funky Web Sites, Guillermo del Toro, Hive, Oddities, Outer Space, Sci-fi, Slaughterhouse Five, Sparklehorse, Stephen Colbert, Technology, The Future, The Hobbit, Tiny Masters of Today, Video Games, Wired on July 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

wiredMany many years ago (1995), while I was in Boston, I bought my first copy of Wired magazine (how could I forget the absurd cover to the right (yes, there IS a picture there) [And I’m very impressed that you can easily link to all of their back issues, just as I did with the link above].  I’m not sure how long it had been in print , but I think it was still young and buzzworthy. [Research shows that this was its 3rd year].  I remember thinking the magazine was very difficult to read.  Literally.  Text ran across pages, the colors were all wild.  The ads blurred completely with the content (by design).  And it was very “techie.”  I don’t remember if I subscribed exactly then, but I did subscribe eventually.  And then I stopped (sometime in 1999).

Recently I got an offer to re-subscribe, for a dollar an issue.  (This is where my idea that I will cancel a magazine once I stop getting a dollar’s worth from it).  I wasn’t sure if I should subscribe, but I figured what the hell.

Not a resounding chorus of cheers for this publication, huh?

Well, since I’ve subscribed I have been pleasantly surprised by the magazine.  And interestingly, the cover story almost never interests me.  In fact, and my brother in law Tim first pointed this out: the cover stories and the big articles take themselves very seriously.  Everything is always The Future Of This.  The New That.  Don’t Be Left Behind!  It’s over the top in its wanting you to take them seriously. (more…)

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