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Showing posts from April, 2003

Here comes Johnny Yen again

I felt more than a bit of schadenfreude at Creed being sued for giving a piss-poor performance , but really, asking for a refund just because a band copped a rock-and-roll attitude? Don't be ridiculous. (I wanted to mention the famous Dylan-goes-electric concert, which obviously some people in the audience weren't expecting and hated, but this excellent Guardian article beat me to it) But I wouldn't expect anything more from Creed fans - what else would you expect from the kind of people into such ultra-serious (read: sanctimonious) music but tut-tutting over drinking and drug-taking? Rock musicians drink? Heavens to Betsy!

To surrender I just wept

I got the Japanese pressing of the Flaming Lips' Fight Test EP, with their "Can't Get You Out of My Head" cover and with a copy of the Fight Test music video. They're still making really inventive videos, and indeed it seems there are quite a few great videos being made now (that Lego one for the White Stripes' "Fell in Love With a Girl" even though no one I know just watches videos anymore... Is it function of age? I just don't remember anyone talking much about videos in music publications whereas 10 years ago it seemed like they were part of the conversation about music, for better or worse. But anyway.... can someone get it in people's heads that when I buy a CD I don't just want to watch the enhanced part (in this case, the music video), I want to LISTEN TO IT? It's very irritating to slip in a CD into my computer and not be able to PLAY SONGS OFF IT, WHICH A NORMAL CD WOULD LET ME DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT.

Is Patience Still Waiting?

I had such a case of insomnia last night, I ended up sleeping at 2pm. On the other hand, I did manage to watch loads of episodes of the Sopranos in a row, so the night wasn't a total wash. In the space of two days, I've rewatched season 1 episode 4 to season 2 episode 12 - man, the whole Richie Aprile arc is creepy and great. Richie is like the Laertes to Tony's Hamlet: he's the one without self-doubt, with the absolute conviction of his ways - and thus a perfect foil to show that removing introspection isn't necessarily the solution to Tony's problems. The only problem with watching the Sopranos, really, is suddenly you feel like swearing like a motherf***ing made man...

I'm Not Alone 'Cos the TV's On

So I realised, watching the Singaporean film festival , that I'm still holding on to the idea that if someone shared my taste in movies or music, that if I happened to see the same woman at all the same movies at the film fest or if I saw someone on the train carrying a Sahara Hotnights album, that it will be the marker of an instant deep connection... how very adolescent of me.
To Be Young, Gifted and Black Farewell Nina Simone .

Jacketless in the Jasmine Air

I've decided to start blogging about the numerous shows I'm catching at the Singapore Film Festival , but since I just spent the last 8 hours in movie theatres I need to take a breather to collect my thoughts... meanwhile, here's a Pier Paolo Pasolini poem - I loved the phrase "discouraged harmonicas".

Noir et Blanc

So we were trying to come up with good names for clubs over drinks tonight. My favourites: Snog; Coup D'etat; Veto. My favourite names of real clubs (regardless of actual quality)? Bed (Sheffield); Bungalow 8 (New York); Cream (Liverpool); Embargo (Singapore); Fabric (London); Pacha (Ibiza); Zouk (Singapore). Not that you need that great a name to be influential - the Paradise Garage is the mother club of lots of dance music, but as a name I would say it's only above-average. But then, it did give its name to garage music... so what do I know? I think I could open a bar called Pushkin... Imaginary track listing for my imaginary band, the Mentally Aborted EP 1. Veni Veni Veni 2. Fly American 3. Sinister 4. 29 Down 5. All the Young Dudes
Don't disturb the sexy Random thoughts: Someone should post a spoof personal on one of those sites, answering the standard questions in the style of Ted Bundy or something "Things I can't live without: the death of others".... punks jump up to get beat down... Pedestrian advocacy ... tomorrow I get to eat a pound of (bovine) flesh... that Japan Herald comment from 1881, "the Japanese are a happy race, and being content with little, are not likely to achieve much" - for all of the Japanese economy's current problems, who would say that now? How easy it is to assume racial characteristics are somehow fixed in stone... "Am I hot or not?" is the question of my generation, for better or for worse... the Boston closer-by-committee idea is sound, but the people they need to do it aren't there... I want to be a male guitarist in an otherwise all-female band, kind of like the drummer in the Breeders...

Meg White is a robot

Continuing this blog's prattling on about all things White Stripe, here's a " Meg White is a robot " page.
In Memoriam 15 April is the anniversary of the Hillsborough football disaster in 1989... I remember staying up late, a boy of 11, eager to check out who might meet Everton (well, assuming Everton would win) in the FA Cup final and just being horrified at the scenes being shown. The sad part is, while the disaster spurred the conversion of stadia to all-seaters, there still hasn't been a full inquiry into the actual events of that day: check out the Hillsborough Justice Campaign .

Yeah

Things inspired by the "yeah-yeah-yeah" refrain of "She Loves You": the "ye-ye" nickname of Real Madrid's 60s team ; ye-ye music in France; and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' band name. Ah, the world-conquering genius of a seemingly simple phrase...

You're Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl)

Just watched Punch-Drunk Love , which I found captivating - the weird flat quality of L.A. light seems to come through very nicely in the film. I really liked the moment where Barry (Adam Sandler) meets Lena (Emily Watson) in the Hawaii hotel and her leg just automatically lifts up - it's the moment on the film poster. Why do women's legs do that upon kissing? Answers on a postcard. While waiting for the show I popped into HMV and got me a copy of the White Stripes ' Elephant . It's got bass! Dang. Good stuff, more like De Stijl than White Blood Cells with its huge amount of bluesy stuff and the presence of a cover song. I really like "Well It's True That We Love Each Other", that final song with Jack and Meg and Holly Golightly singing - nice little banter going on. But nothing really grabbed my gut the way "Fell in Love With a Girl" or "Hotel Yorba" did the first time I heard them.... maybe it needs listen #2. Meg White remains supe
King Jeremy the Wicked ruled his world... Random thoughts: Tina Brown has a nice piece in the Times about the difference between George Bush and Tony Blair... why do even things shot for 4:3 sometimes look better in 16:9?... Train's "Drops of Jupiter" may be catchy as hell, but the lyrics are nonsense - asking the woman to think of "the best soy latte [she's] ever had"? Such new-age mumbo-jumbo.... just caught the great Weezer "Keep Fishin'" video, with the Muppets, and it got me to thinking: my favourite-ever videos: A-ha "Take On Me", Blur "Coffee and TV", Blind Melon "No Rain", Smashing Pumpkins "1979", Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Prodigy "Smack My Bitch Up", REM "Everybody Hurts", Bjork "All is Full of Love", Chris Isaak "Baby Did a Bad Thing", Eels "Novocaine for the Soul", Fiona Apple "Criminal", Fatboy Slim "The
Another day... just breathe This whole SARS thing - I blame the People's Republic of China, for not responding to the epidemic early enough, for thinking that the WHO's labeling of Guangdong as the source of the disease was somehow politically motivated, for being so concerned with face. Ugh. I think face is the most overrated characteristic: if everything negative makes you embarrassed, then maybe it's time to think about growing a thicker skin. The truth shall set you free. Speaking of the truth, somewhere amid all the news about the war, Dubya has signed an executive order reclassifying loads of documents that were scheduled to be declassified... apparently war is a good time to hide other news.
You're not bigger than this, not better, why can't you learn? I'm not sure how long my ticker can take supporting Everton ... nice to get a win under the belt, and one against Newcastle at that, but just once I'd like to see my team rout an opponent... Committing to a film plan by putting it into print (okay, online): these next few weeks I will watch John Sayles' Sunshine State , Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights , Francois Truffaut's Jules et Jim and The Four Hundred Blows , Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Seven Samurai , and Paul Schrader's Auto Focus . Why? Because I have the DVDs, damnit, and they shouldn't be treated like those books one buys just because they look good on the shelf.
Pleasure at the Fairground Good Lord. Mick Hucknall in trying to be part of the House of Lords , seems to reveal himself to be against liberal democracy. Sadly, it's all too easy to just dismiss "politicians"... a cheap rhetorical trick. Here's a link to a Mitre Hotel video , home of the only dive I've ever seen in Singapore, where the bars unfailingly try to be chi-chi, and where it's like banging your head on a wall sometimes to explain the appeal of grubby bars in the East Village.
Happy together Farewell, Leslie Cheung. You always had the saddest eyes. So, Pestilence here in Singapore and War in Iraq. That's half the Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding into the world already. (Footnote: Is the gender-neutral term "Riders of the Apocalypse"?)