Before I got sick and disappeared I listened to a T Bone Burnett concert on mp3. These files are much better, much, much better than the one I listened to, but if you can help me find it -- yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus!
I'm also digging (re-digging?) this interview with Daniel Knauf (Carnivale) in two parts -- part one and part two.
Steely Dan kept me alive; the solo work of Donald Fagen keeps me sane. Join the conspiracy, won't you?
Prior to this I would have talked your ear off about the truss rod, but hoo-boy! There goes my image of the British as being Stoical.
I'm not sure these are "the best" exactly, but #1 is a doozy. If I'd thought of it you'd be reading it here. And Truss was a Conservative PM -- sheesh!
Disclaimer: I've already bought the CDs.
Colder Streams by The Sadies. Dallas Good was taken from us way too soon. You should really buy the whole album. But try: "Stop and Start""Message to Belial""Better Yet"
I went to see Meshuggah live. If you like Metal you'll love Immutable.
The Invisible Light: Spells by T Bone Burnett. "Critics only call something 'experimental' when the experiment has failed" -- John Gardner. You should listen to these albums. Or listen to Low Country Blues by Gregg Allman and knob-fiddled by Burnett, which I yack about here. Or, you can listen to an album of experimental music.
We got married in 1994, just days after Kurt Cobain kissed his shotgun, an ending that didn't catch anybody by surprise. I hear anything from these albums and get a litle misty-eyed particularly, but not exclusively,1994. 1994 was pretty good -- for me, and for music, if not for poor Kurt and his family.
We honeymooned at Daytona Beach, Florida and watched cars get stuck in the sand. Disney World was over an hour away. I loved FM radio. Hey, back then I used to buy magazines for a piece like this. Now I get it delivered to my inbox. Plus ca change....
James McMurtry says it like it's a bad thing, but by the end of the evening you will be drinking beer.
Sometime in the late 80s I stopped collecting comics. I realized then that the men-in-tights show was just a Soap Opera.
The Suits in the room are treated like a bunch of yardsticks, but they are often the smartest people present. I was watching Logan and Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and wondering how Marvel gets the herbs and spices right. I mean it's just a superhero show -- fellas in longjohns beating each other up. And yet DC struggles.
I think somebody at Marvel knows who the smartest person is in a given room and is paid to keep an eye on that person. And that is the person Marvel hires for less -- they are artiistes, after all. They can't be smart about EVERYTHING. And at the end of the day Marvel has gotta sell soap.
The CBC had a one-season show, "The most talented performer" or somesuch. We'll put you in front of a "coach!" was the promise. The performers did their song-and-dance for him.
"You haven't given me a reason to get out of bed, never mind drive across town."
He was such a jerk. But boy-howdy, did he ever get performances from them!
Similarly David Byrne. I don't doubt that he was an incredible asshole, especially in his last days as a member of the Talking Heads. But there's a reason why Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz are just footnotes to David's show, and it has nothing to do with what amazing musicians Weymouth and Frantz are. (Quick -- whose music did you last queue up?)
"I know why," said my aunt. "Back in the day this was considered cutting edge. But we haven't heard about her until now. Her life was more extraordinary than her fiction. Thomas Mann, Leo Tolstoy, George Elliot, Dante Alighieri -- people get out of bed and want to learn another language to get closer to these writers. We should be reading them." (BTW I recommend the translations of Oxford University Press.)
What I learned: give people a reason. (I'm jealous of people with actual editors for that very reason -- if you can't impress her you can't impress ANYONE.)
