It's been a long time since I've watched any television, but I will always have a soft spot for "The Simpsons." This always seems to remain consistently clever and edgy, and the episode broadcast Sunday that my buddy Charlie hipped me to underlines this. This was the Valentine's Day episode, "Love, Springfieldian Style," done as an anthology ala the annual Halloween episodes. This time, it's cinematic love stories ala Simpson, with fairly deft recastings of "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Lady And The Tramp." But the best was saved for last: Bart reconstructing..."Sid And Nancy." Yup, you read me: Bart as Johnny Rotten (spitting apple juice at the crowd), Nelson as Sid Vicious (now, isn't THAT apt casting!), Lisa as Nancy. (I wasn't too impressed with "Steve" and "Paul" in this sequence, however.) The band gets called "the Sex Pistols," even using Jamie Reid's logo and graphics, and although you do not hear any actual Pistols classics "performed," the parodies of their tunes are pretty good, actually. (Still, the producers were hip enough to use the Buzzcocks' immortal "Ever Fallen In Love" in the "drugs" montage. Oh, and the substitution of heroin with another brown substance was fantastic!) Be watching for the brilliant Simpsonsization of CBGBs at the end:
A final word to the racist idiot
Current mood: nauseated
Category: Life
Please stop listening to my music. It really makes me sick that someone as twisted, hateful, and ignorant as you gets any sort of enjoyment out of something I put my heart and soul into. It makes me wanna stop playing, because I don't want you having any pleasure. I despise you and your kind. And besides, I think I made the point that I'm a race-mixer and a musician deeply rooted in sounds and styles eminating from what you find to be an inferior race. Dig this: There are no inferior races. Just inferior people. And you are not even inferior. You are several leagues beneath that.
I've said my piece. You shall never recieve any more reflected glory from me. Now seriously: Please stop listening to my music, and throw on something more suiting you. No, not Skrewdriver. Maybe Lawrence Welk? That's about as white as I can think of.
Modern adventures in momosity, Pt. 1
Current mood: enraged
Category: Life
You guys say you miss my blogs about dealing with momos? You're about to get a new one. I just got a friend request from a 16-year-old in Vegas, with the added note "I like ur music." So I go to check his page, and his headline says something like "fuck Obama," and then he describes himself as "a normal white guy who likes to stand by his race, keep down Niggers...."
That's when I stopped reading.
I promptly opened a message to this genius, and titled it, "So you like my music?" Then typed in the body: "Well, a lot of it is influenced by black music, such as the blues and soul. And I do not appreciate your racism. You can fuck right off." Then I blocked him after I sent it.
Then something occurred to me. So I wrote him another message: "By the way, my bass player is a black man."
To quote a 25-year-old song, "It's the worst excuse in the world/And it doesn't make it alright...."
Castro unplugs, Vale unplugs, I unplug, EVERYBODY unplug!
Current mood: overstimulated
Category: Life
Interesting, to wake up in a world where Fidel Castro is no longer Cuba's presidente. I have to admit, despite his government's horrible human rights violations and the horror stories of the Cuban refugees I have met (and these people, to a man and woman, despise Castro), I was impressed with how long he remained in charge, and the tenacity of his continual defiance of our government. No, this is not support nor endorsement of the guy. Merely grudging respect and admiration. It takes a lot of strength and balls (or maybe just pure full-bore stubborness) to pull that off for so long. It will be interesting to see which direction the younger Castro, Raul (who has been acting Cuban president since Fidel's surgery last year), will take the island. He reportedly is the more moderate of the two brothers. Whether "moderate" is to be placed in quotation marks or not remains to be seen.
Alternative culture archivist and commentator V.Vale posted an interesting blog via his publishing company RE/Search's own MySpace page. It deals with the invasiveness of this decade's information overload, and how it's sucked the subtlety and beauty out of life and language. He uses the work of William S. Burroughs as a springboard for every point in the discussion, also touching upon how he feels this century thus far has not produced any cultural works of any lasting merit. (I would disagree, bringing up The Libertines and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlossberg, for two.) The decimation of the written and spoken word has been a major concern of mine for awhile. I think it's why I've come to loathe text messaging. Thanks to computers, IMs and TMs, modern youth do read and write quite a bit. But there's not a damned bit of actual literacy there, and many that I'm friends with are proud of how they don't read books. Vale also comments on how text message speak and advertising (among other things) have sucked all the poetry from our language, and how we live in a continually noisy environment that's created the circumstances under which we've lost the cultural signifiers of which he speaks. It ends with a Burroughs quote ("It can't get too quiet for me … "), before Vale concludes that (eventually) "a perfectly silent, ad-free environment will only be possible for the ultra-rich…." Maybe this explains why I awoke this morning and did not put on any music for a change, the only sounds I'm hearing being the whirring of my electric heater, the clacking of my computer keyboard, and the pound of construction hammers outside. And why I've found myself turning things off increasingly. I'm far from rich, but this usually plugged-in boy has found himself wanting to unplug a lot, lately....
In Rod We Trust, pt. 3
Current mood: impressed
Category: Music
Yeah, this Rod/Faces thing is bordering on obsession. But I got to reading the lyrics to "You Wear It Well"...and I knew they were good, but damn! This guy could REALLY write a tight, poignant lyric in this period! Such deft internal rhyming, too. Any of us who write songs could clearly learn a thing or two by studying writing like this:
I had nothing to do on this hot afternoon But to settle down and write you a line I've been meaning to phone you but from Minnesota Hell, it's been a very long time You wear it well A little old fashioned but that's all right
Well I suppose you're thinking I bet he's sinking Or he wouldn't get in touch with me Oh I ain't begging or losing my head I sure do want you to know that you wear it well There ain't a lady in the land so fine
Remember them basement parties, your brother's karate The all day rock and roll shows Them homesick blues and radical views Haven't left a mark on you, you wear it well A little out of time but I dont mind
But I ain't forgetting that you were once mine But I blew it without even tryin' Now I'm eatin' my heart out Tryin' to get a letter through
Since you've been gone its hard to carry on I'm gonna write about the birthday gown that I bought in town When you sat down and cried on the stairs You knew it did not cost the earth, but for what it's worth You made me feel a millionaire and you wear it well Madame Onassis got nothing on you
Anyway, my coffee's cold and I'm getting told That I gotta get back to work So when the sun goes low and you're home all alone Think of me and try not to laugh and I wear it well I dont object if you call collect 'Cos I ain't forgetting that you were once mine But I blew it without even tryin' Now I'm eatin' my heart out tryin' to get back to you
After all the years I hope it's the same address Since you've been gone it's hard to carry on
In Rod We Trust, Pt. 2 (UPDATED!)
Current mood: rockin
Category: Music
Couldn't resist: Two different instances of The Faces performing Rod's solo hit "You Wear It Well," a particular fave due to the immense ache in the lyric and the rural swing of the music. First we have them lip-synching it on Top Of The Pops, and although it oddly cuts out at 1:21, this is worth seeing for Rod's suit and hair alone (which he *ahem* is wearing well) and his cheekily pulling a "lyric sheet" out of his pocket!
And here's the entire song performed live on the final Faces tour in '75, with Ronnie Lane's replacement Tetsu Yamauchi on bass and a definitive statement of their irreverent live presentation. Rod looks a bit naff here, but he sure pulls a killer mic move 3/4s of the way in. And I'm sure it burned the Faces' hide this performance was solely credited to Rod on this broadcast:
In addition, here's a piece of an A&E Rod Stewart documentary I found that deals specifically with The Faces. Great footage and insight from Rod and Ron Wood:
In Rod We Trust
Current mood: rockin
Category: Music
Ugh. Too scattered today to really post much of a blog. But a recent musical project I'm developing has me reaching back to the Faces for inspiration. And the Faces seem to be in the atmosphere, anyway: Their own shiny lil' boat races are beaming from the cover of this month's edition of Uncut, for one. And why not? The times call for the Faces, I think. As I told a friend earlier, they were rather The Replacements when Paul Westerberg was still in high school and Tommy was unwrapping his GI Joe at Xmas. Very much an unsung protopunk outfit (successful as they were), playing irreverent, stripped-down, unpretentious rock 'n' roll in pink satin suits and with a hell-raising joie de vivre. And this, in a time ruled by such oh-so-serious sorts as ELP and James Taylor! Yeah, it all went south when singer Rod Stewart (yes, child, THAT Rod Stewart) met Britt Ekland (although keyboardist Ian McLagan claims in his autobio that it was a pain to drag Rod into the studio as early as Ooh La La two years previous). Still, what a glorious band in their prime. Cynical about that? Peep this clip of the lads swaggering through "Stay With Me" live on UK TV. And just try to claim you ain't smilin' and shakin' a tail feather!
Currently
listening
:
Ooh La La
By
Faces
Release date: 14 September, 1993
In honor of Valentine's Day, I present a portion of an IM chat with a very dear friend of mine. Who just so happens to work as a webcam girl....
jp: LMAO!!!! jp: the fetishes some men have I fuckin luv it!! Tim: yeah? jp: have u ever drank ur own cum before?? lmao Tim: Um, no comment.... jp: this guy just drank a shot glass full of his own cum! Tim: oh, man! Tim: he came THAT much?!! Tim: you're shitting me! jp: yep jp: lmao jp: i luv my job Tim: wow! Tim: that's a lotta jizz! jp: tell me about it jp: he wanted it face to face jp: so thats what he got jp: lol Tim: I'm speechless jp: i know right jp: lol jp: im still in aw Tim: wow Tim: was he saving it up or something? jp: yeah he saved a whole lot 15 loads jp: from what he says Tim: he must have not orgasmed for WEEKS! jp: roflmao Tim: the most i can do is about tablespoonful, probably jp: thats average ya know but my gosh jp: lol Tim: I'm impressed Tim: talk about stupid human tricks...
Happy VD, y'all. From me, JP, Mr. Happy 'Nads, and the Rolling Stones:
Tim Napalm interview in "The Aquarian"
Current mood: adored
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers
Nice little piece Christine did. However: 1) As stated yesterday, my dear sainted Christian mother would never have dropped an f-bomb! Proving that scribbling notes is NEVER preferable to taping the interview. 2) Who is Mick Chain? I've heard of Nick Cave, whom I did mention in this context. But Mick Chain?! 3) Since this interview, of course, Raul has left the band.
This story is on the stands now, East Coasters. I should have a list shortly of locations where it's available.
Currently
listening
:
Straight Up
By
Badfinger
Release date: 01 June, 1993
amused
nauseated
angry
overstimulated
impressed
rockin
loved
adored
