Archive for October, 2005

When you’re an old man like me Halloween takes on a much different role in your life–especially when it falls on a Monday. So along with the obligatory office party, here are some movies to sit up with tonight.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) - Vincent Price in the title role assures your total satisfaction in this camp classic. Even after the storyline itself leaves you bits and pieces of the production will linger. A bizarre mixture of Aligheri and Hitchcock.

The Exorcist (1973) - I’ll probably never get “old” enough to not be scared by this film.

Night Of The Living Dead (1968) - Zombie films are all the rage right now. George Romero started it all with this black and white classic. I’m always finding something new in this movie. A classic whose straight-forward subject matter can’t hide the political and social struggles lurking underneath, almost scarier than the brain hungry corpses just beyond the porch.

The Shining (1980) - Ignore what most people think is scary about this film, because many of them are missing the point. Yes, overwrought Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is scary; but what always terrified me about this movie was what creeped me out about all of Kubrick’s films and that’s the fact that we only see what he wants us to see. The feeling that something utterly unspeakable is lurking just outside the frame is overwhelming sometimes, almost to the point that it undermines a few scenes. John Alcott’s cinematography–all slow focus pulls and gentle tracking shots–is wonderful. Terrifying stuff.

Yesterday was the two year anniversary of the death of Elliott Smith, who was in my opinion one of the finest singer/songwriters my generation is ever likely to have. Like a lot of people I first heard about Smith when he had some songs on the Good WIll Hunting soundtrack, but didn’t get really interested until “Needle In The Hay” was included in The Royal Tenenbaums.

If you’ve never heard Smith or you’ve been meaning to and want a good place to start check out From A Basement On A Hill, a posthumous collection of alternate takes put together in 2004. Its wide range of song styles–from Zeppelin-esque rockers like Coast To Coast to the twee folk of Memory Lane–truly shows Smith as a serious force in music in general and not only the indie rock ghetto he often found himself in.

Author Meghann Marco has written a letter to her publisher asking them why they are not only refusing to allow her book to be included in Google Print but are also suing Google to prevent any other Simon & Schuster titles from winding up there. For the uninitiated there’s an explanation of Google Print straight from the horse’s mouth here.
In addition to her letter to her publisher, she’s written Jason and he’s posted some of her (insightful) comments there.
In short (and I’m not the first or last to feel this way) we need to get content publishers to stop fucking suing people. If an artist or author or musician really perceives some threat from the consuming public let them hire a lawyer and do it themselves; this game of pretending to care makes the book publishers and record labels look even greedier than they actually are, and that’s saying something. It’s perfectly obvious that when the vast majority of your clients beg you to stop suing their audience and you refuse it’s more about money and vindication than protecting their rights.
Based on my terribly small knowledge of these sorts of things (probably due to a lack of reading) this case looks pretty inactionable. Google isn’t stealing anything, and certainly poses no greater threat to publishing as we know it than Amazon did when they decided to provide scans of the first few pages of all new titles. This is just another example of how tightening your grip assures that you’ll lose your hold altogether. It’s very difficult for me to work my head around the notion of paying $26 for a book or $14 for a CD as it is, much less without the added demerit of constant lawsuits emanating from the distributors of such products.

I try not to dwell on my own mortality, but we all know we’re going sometime. Why not go out high tech?

[This process] involves freezing the coffin and body to -18C before lowering them into liquid nitrogen at -196C, which leaves them extremely brittle.
A vibrating pad is used to reduce the remains to a powder and a magnetic field then removes all traces of mercury and other metal residues from fillings or hip replacements.

Later you can plant a tree (which will draw its nutrients from the gravesite) on top of the grave of your loved one. Simultaneously weird and sort of beautiful.

The 100 oldest registered domain names. There’s Apple at number 67. Lists like this are neat because they show how forward looking a company was in the prehistoric days of the internet. Like most I had no idea what this “web” even was in 1987. But as prescient as these companies were (or perhaps just willing to leap onto bandwagns that may well be headed off of cliffs) it’s still hard to imagine any of them were aware of just how important this stuff would one day be. And where’s Microsoft?

With regard to pain receptors the human body is not unlike a computer and can even be ‘rebooted’ to be pain free say neurologists interviewed by Jerome Groopman in the New Yorker. They’re actually given ketemine injections so large that they go into a coma, and in 50% of cases wake up (and stay) pain free.

Wow. Can you imagine if you got fired and they replaced you with a team of people what a bad ass you would feel like? You would be a legend.

I’m selling my third generation iPod to make room for a new one.
Being a lover of music and a lover of gadgets means I am square in the center of the target Apple has hanging up in their offices somewhere; the same target that says “iPod Buyer” over it in huge Myriad befonted letters. I bought a 10GB third generation iPod the summer they were announced, and had it stolen almost immediately along with my Powerbook. When my old company’s insurance replaced everything the new iPods had replaced the old, and so I was upgraded to 40 whole gigabytes of MP3 goodness. For months it was a toy. Then I moved to DC.
Once there I discovered that my iPod was my link to sanity on my daily commute. It was also my strength in the gym, helping me shed tons of weight in my nearly one year stay in DC.
But now it’s time to say goodbye. The new iPods are just too cool. I had resisted upgrading to the clickwheel iPods, and then the color, because I saw no compelling reason to do so. But I did break down and buy a nano (c’mon, have you seen that thing?!) But the location free video options, along with the larger screen and higher capacity make this model total porn very useful.
And so for anyone interested in purchasing my little bundle o’ joy I’ve prepped a listing of all the music I’m leaving on the hard drive. It’s a hugh list and may take a bit to load, but it’s worth it. Or so I think anyway.

An entry about seeing Metric last night in Chapel Hill. Opening were The Lovely Feathers and a new favorite The Most Serene Republic.
Now that I’m back in North Carolina, and probably will be for a few months at least, I’ve made myself a promise to do several things to stave off the boredom and loneliness. One of them is to go see all the shows I could never buy tickets for when I was living here before. This plan started last night with the Metric show.
Metric are Canadian by way of Emily Haines’s stint at art school in Toronto, which might explain the appearance of the other bands on the bill, both Canadian. Despite surrounding themselves with pals from the great white north, Metric are still very much a Brooklyn art rock band; their songs are filled with portamento keyboard and muscular guitar lines, but can veer wildly into punk rock territory at the slightest provocation. I was most impressed by Haines’s performance, which was theatrical and obtuse. She sings with her entire body, striking a pose here and puntuating the political songs with the body language of a used car salesmen or your friendly neighborhood Bush crony. All in all very engaging stuff.
I’m still trying to get my head around The Most Serene Republic. With the exception of the Death Cab For Cutie/Dismemberment Plan shows from 2002 it’s just sort of understood that the opening band will be tolerated but not enjoyed. For the first time last night I found myself wishing for the middle act to be allowed an encore. I don’t know any more about them than you do - and Pitchfork has a pretty lame review of their album, which I have yet to hear after buying it last night. But wow. Interesting melodies, odd time signatures, trombone — very good stuff.
Tonight is matt pond PA at Local 506, which will continue my “see more shows” promise and bring the number of times I’ve seen them to three. This may be the last time before the break, as I’m informed that they’ve been picked as “one to watch” by Rolling Stone.