Archive for March, 2006

An absolutely obscene and massive listing of MP3 blogs. Nothing to do for the next six weeks? Here you go. ~

I’ve been on a mission not to set foot in my office this weekend. I’ve managed to do so by taking a couple of car trips, one to the mountains and another today to the Western edge of the state. Mostly I spent the weekend wandering up and down several state highways in search of something I hadn’t spent the last six months staring at, namely a Macintosh or the interior of a sparsely furnished office. I never knew there were so many places in western NC that billed themselves as “villages”. For anyone interested there are some recent pics. ~

Tons of free MP3s from SXSW bands. This is from the schedule. It should stay up for a bit, but it never hurts to not dilly dally. ~

Letter to Alex and Chris, Twelve Years in the Future. I want to be this parent one day. ~

Could you draw the Coke logo from memory? Monochrom has asked people to do just that, as well as drawing some other famous brand marks from memory. Pretty fascinating check on how deep this stuff gets in. (via MetaFilter) ~

Thursday tunes is dead. Long live Thursday tunes. Largely ignored and superfluous it will now be replaced by…something else. ~

Why did ‘Brokeback‘ lose? I think everyone with an interest in film has an opinion, but I think we could all agree it has something to do with the fact that mainstream Hollywood just isn’t ready to take this on yet. The conservative rise to power has had a chilling effect on entertainment, so giving the nod to ‘Crash‘ I interpret as a sort of punting technique. It’s Hollywood’s way of communicating that it is in fact sensitive to the difficulties of people who aren’t straight and white, but that it’s still easier in 2006 to recognize a film that espouses better race relations than one which invites us to examine homosexual relationships. Essentially Hollywood has not found a ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’ for homosexuality, a film that can present this subject matter in a light that middle America will find non-threatening. And certainly a movie that hinges on infidelity and gay relationships is not that film.
It’s still very sad to me that until Hollywood allows it to be otherwise, gays and lesbians in mainstream films will be the serial killers, oddballs and comic relief.
This is what makes some films so tough for me to watch, in fact: it’s the necessity of stating everything for the record, of making an issue of sexuality or other traits simply because of the linear qualities of telling a story in filmic language. It’s a deeply flawed way of doing things. Right now, the moment a character announces he or she is gay in a film, the film instantly becomes “about” homosexuality. Is ‘Lethal Weapon‘ about the fact that Danny Glover is black? Of course not. But Hollywood is still in a stage where it wants us to be proud of it for having gay characters, so they turn homosexuality into an opportunity to preach.
How about a buddy cop movie where a guy and a girl are both detectives. They get off work and go to the local watering hole to meet their partners–for him a wife, and for her (tadaa) a wife. No one flinches. No one explains it. It just is. The characters aren’t fighting any prejudices, or asking for anyone’s approval. They’re demanding it, assuming it. That would seem like a much bigger victory to me than ‘Brokeback’ winning an Oscar. ~

Neko Case’s new record drops tomorrow. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is drenched in reverb and Case’s own bell-clear instrument, and was four years in the making. This is especially good timing for me, since I’m in the process of rediscovering my love for classic country and what they now call “alt.country”. It’s something about the sinister sadness of a Telecaster through ten feet of plate reverb, accompanied by a lonesome female voice that really makes me happy. Go figure.
Case’s solo records highlight her dynamism as a performer, as they’re so different from her output with The New Pornographers, Cub or Maow. She describes the thread connecting these various styles for her thusly:

“I was 19,” she once explained to an interviewer. “I was heavily into punk rock, and punk rock was really dogmatic and macho. But this record made me feel like, you know what, these people are singing about something they really care about. These ladies aren’t kidding. And they sing about religion with more passion than anybody sings about anything — not about love or sex or violence or anything. It’s like their voices are these crazy cannons or something, and they could just blow shit out of their way with them. I wanted to be able to sing like that, because I thought that must’ve felt really good.”

But no matter who she’s working with the fact is that her voice is without a doubt one of the strongest you can find working today, pitch perfect and rock steady even in live environments where poor sound can render such things a luxury. I’m going to go ahead and predict this record showing up on lots of top ten lists at the end of the year, including mine. ~

Yoga with David Lynch in Indiana-$115 plus hotel. “Um, Mr. Lynch, when I was doing downward facing dog just now I noticed a severed human ear next to my mat. Any idea what that means?” ~

I admit it. I’m hooked on “The IT Crowd“, the Channel 4 tv series about the IT department of a Wernham-Hogg type company somehwere in the UK. There’s humor, nerdy in-jokes for nerdy folks like me, and of course cute British totty. And Welsh accents. Can’t forget that. Don’t bother trying to watch the episodes online, though, unless you’re in the UK. Those of us across the pond will need to grab some torrents. ~

Attention all DC design nerds: it’s that time of year again, the DC Paper Show.

It’s the biggest paper show around and we pull it
off every year. NRECA is easy to get to and the vendors bring
all their best stuff for you to investigate and bring
home to fill up your shelves with. And, as always, there will be
yummy snacks for you to shove down your throat before perusing
the samples. This event is not to be missed!

Free paper schwag rules, and a good time is always had by all. ~