tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20825883862005599822024-03-13T07:08:13.590-05:00Alex V. CookAlex V. Cook - Author, Journalist, Critic, TeacherAlex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.comBlogger2708125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-75707888454218409192017-09-27T13:44:00.002-05:002017-09-27T14:00:30.072-05:00A Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episodes 1 & 2 recap in question form.<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst">
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<b>Vague spoilers ahead</b>.</div>
My overall impression: favorable. Like the recent reboot movies, it is a <i>Star Trek</i> story for people who find actual <i>Star Trek</i> too boring. I have no real stock in timeline continuity or whatever, but as a <i>Star Trek</i> true-believer, I have some questions.<br />
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<a href="http://www.worldofbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/michelle-yeoh-keeps-malaysian-accent-in-star-trek-discovery-to-promo-world-of-buzz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="800" height="342" src="https://www.worldofbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/michelle-yeoh-keeps-malaysian-accent-in-star-trek-discovery-to-promo-world-of-buzz.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<ol>
<li>Her name is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_MiRWo4Myw" target="_blank">Michael</a>?</li>
<li>What is it saying about a black woman (raised Vulcan(white)) who went from “You should get your own command” to save-the-day clever space acrobat to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfAtfxFvge8" target="_blank">Fletcher Christian</a> to starting a war with the actually-scary-people-of-color in two episodes?</li>
<li>Is the albino Klingon becoming the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVyvwZ_Yh0g" target="_blank">great white hope</a> of the Empire, or is this a un-racist thing (“some see a mistake, I see a mirror”) or just generally racist like most Klingon characterizations are in <i>Star Trek</i>?</li>
<li>Why do Klingon ships otherwise in the <i>Star Trek</i> universe look like man-cave submarines filled with ogre pirates where these Klingons are a staging a Versace shoot in the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+hotel+lobby&tbm=isch&imgil=xEEVx-535afbVM%253A%253BlY5C1BATA7fF_M%253Bhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.hotels.com%25252Fho123947%25252Ftrump-international-hotel-tower-new-york-new-york-united-states-of-america%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=xEEVx-535afbVM%253A%252ClY5C1BATA7fF_M%252C_&usg=__Vt92-CrF3oykn0G96otHutZYwHY%3D&biw=1920&bih=974&ved=0ahUKEwi7x-iEgcbWAhUmsFQKHdNUCuIQyjcIMw&ei=l-_LWfufAabg0gLTqamQDg#imgrc=_" target="_blank">gilded lobby of a Trump hotel</a>? Is it because <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8rC4qInjVk" target="_blank">Klingons are Trump supporters</a>? (don't click)</li>
<li>Why don’t the upright transporter gas burners transport everything in the room? Is it because it is <a href="https://youtu.be/inOmUh1AebE?t=1m11s" target="_blank">just a show and I really should relax</a>?</li>
<li>Why does Admiral Alpha Honky get to swing it around the room as a hologram while everyone else is on the TV? Can they get <a href="http://www.zappa.com/news/frank-zappa-back-road-hologram-tour" target="_blank">Frank Zappa's hologram</a> on an episode?</li>
<li>Is Adobe After Effects a sponsor, given the amount of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPa-5UmDEec" target="_blank">lens flare</a>? Did <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wzULnlHr8w" target="_blank">Ginsu Knives</a> pay to have the sliding doors sound like that?</li>
<li>Will Capt. Georgiou trade in her smart Starfleet tracksuit for Jedi spirit robes? Can she at least get a spirit sword or something? <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000706/" target="_blank">Michelle Yeoh used to do her own stunts in Hong Kong action movies</a>. She could be the most badass captain ever. Put her in, Coach!</li>
<li>Will anyone finish making Lt. Saru’s face? Is he a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe95sn0cN3k" target="_blank">Mummenschanz</a>?</li>
<li>Why does <i><a href="https://www.fox.com/the-orville/?cmpid=org=fbc::ag=360i::mc=cpc::src=google::cmp=the-orville::add=fox_the_orville" target="_blank">The Orville</a></i> feel more like a <i>Star Trek</i> show and <i>ST:D</i> feels more like <i>24: In Space</i>?</li>
<li>Did no one consider the impact of the <i>ST:D</i> acronym on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl7XUDJiJ_k" target="_blank">level of discourse in the forums</a>?</li>
<li>Will CBS: All Access provide non-glitched access to the show soon? I <i>did </i>sign up for a free trial, after all.</li>
<li>Will there be an episode written and directed by the <a href="https://twitter.com/RikerGoogling" target="_blank">@rikergoogling</a> guy? I hope so.</li>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
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when did starship viewscreens replace hologram calls</div>
— Riker Googling (@RikerGoogling) <a href="https://twitter.com/RikerGoogling/status/912447574610759685">September 25, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-9091079603789149062016-02-27T14:53:00.001-06:002016-02-27T14:55:34.165-06:00100 words about Jupiter<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Jupiter_and_its_shrunken_Great_Red_Spot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Jupiter_and_its_shrunken_Great_Red_Spot.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The man at the <a href="http://www.bro.lsu.edu/" target="_blank">observatory</a> said it’s the cream dot over the
treeline. There it was like all the others but then we curved the steps to look
through the lens 130x bigger, more than these words, and that dot was striped,
massive Jupiter, real and floating in lonely space. Io, Europa, Ganymede, and
Calisto, clearly tagalong moons in almost tactile orbits and it is the kind of
thing where you must keep looking and you want them to shut the hole in the dome:
Jupiter is too real out there with nothing separating you except a billion
stupid miles.<o:p></o:p></div>
Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-27940994866674296082015-11-20T16:15:00.001-06:002016-02-01T14:57:33.996-06:00Avagadro's number and thoughts on MY STRUGGLE, Book One.<img height="640" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Avogadro_Amedeo.jpg" width="438" /><br />
<ol>
<li>I finished book one of Karl Ove Knausgaard's <i>My Struggle</i> last night. I thought it was <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1440034417" target="_blank">really good</a>.</li>
<li>There was one point in it where he was talking about reading but not really understanding literary philosophers like Adorno, but how having read them or even having them on the shelf generated an energy in your mind. I haven't read Adorno, but I have friends who have and it is kind of like having that on the bookshelf of your life.</li>
<li>Since this massive book is about memory and intellectual triggers and the vastness of experience, I remembered a heady evening in my youth when I declared to my friends, "Everything is meaningful! Everything is a symbol!" and went off on how a puddle on the concrete was as significant as the ocean, depending on scale and where you are looking. I was probably a little drunk.</li>
<li>Then, last night, I wondered which is a larger number: the number of water molecules in a drop of water or the number of drops of water in the earths oceans. </li>
<li>It all depends on Avogadro's number, which is 6.0221409e+23, or like 6 followed by 23 zeroes. This number is how many atoms or molecules are in a mole, and a mole is the amount of that substance that equals its atomic mass in grams. </li>
<li>Water molecule has two hydrogens (atomic mass 1) and an oxygen (16) saying that 18 grams of pure water had 6.0221409e+23 water molecules in it.</li>
<li>This breakdown from <a href="http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/questions/question/2096/" target="_blank">Naked Scientists</a> says that for every molecule in a drop of water, there is one liter of water on the earth. That seems significant.</li>
<li>All metric measurements are related. A cubic centimeter of water at zero centigrade has one millimeter in volume and weighs one gram. It's a beautiful system. </li>
<li>Knausgaard, as portrayed in this sort-of memoir, is not plagued by such poetic, useless musings. In this first book, he isn't trying to connect anything. He's just trying to make it to a party and to make it through his father's death. Also, he isn't trying to solve the problem of himself, as revealed in his <a href="http://charlierose.com/watch/60570546" target="_blank">Charlie Rose appearance</a>. He isn't trying to be happy. So metal.</li>
<li>He said he is emptying his writing of himself, but he also says he is just trying to feed his family and write books, because that is better than being happy.</li>
<li>One wants there to be a formula to life revealed in a 1500-page <i>Struggle</i> but what's revealed is only struggle. At least in the first 400 pages. </li>
<li>I want Knausgaard to have an atomic mass of 1500 so that <i>My Struggle</i> becomes one mole of the human spirit.</li>
<li>But that's as goofy a notion as that of the Tao: that there are ten thousand things to the world. </li>
"When the ten thousand things have been seen in their unity, we return to the beginning and remain where we have always been" says the Tao
<li>I want this list to go to 15 for 1500 pages. Also I wanted to write something, Its been since the summer that I write something here. Break that silence, which is all Knausgaard wanted to do. So, here it is.</li>
<li>Evidently, I should have posted this on October 23rd. From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(unit)" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>: In honor of the unit, some chemists celebrate October 23 (a reference to the 1023 part of the Avogadro constant) as "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Day">Mole Day</a>".</li>
</ol>
Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-7062068863020831012015-06-29T09:26:00.000-05:002015-06-29T09:26:08.356-05:00dream + talking about dreams + song about dreams + apology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/20000-lieues-sous-1907-scene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="450" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/20000-lieues-sous-1907-scene.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
A still from Georges Méliès' <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Seas" target="_blank">Deux Cents Milles sous les mers ou le Cauchemar du pêcheur</a></i> (<i>20,000 Leagues Under the Seas </i>parody), 1907<br />
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<ol>
<li><b>On the drive to work, I remembered my dream</b>, which I almost never do: I was carrying a baby through this giant Victorian house: part Louisiana plantation house set-up, part <a href="http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/" target="_blank">Winchester House</a>. There were a lot of steps and someone in the dream made a wisecrack about <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=escher+steps&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=1099&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=2VORVa-8KsTQtQXy5IKgCQ&ved=0CB0QsAQ&dpr=1" target="_blank">Escher</a>. I was following this whole family as they ran through the house until we got to a pier. Another wing of the house had been built on the end of the pier but had fallen into the lake and was now submerged. The family shimmied out of their clothes like Europeans at the beach and all jumped in. I set the baby down on the pier and followed and the baby jumped in too. We went through a busted stained glass skylight and swam around the inside of the sunken house. I kept thinking, <i>I better get this baby up to the surface for air</i>, but he or she (don't remember) would swim by giggling up a cloud of bubbles, so we just kept swimming.<br /></li>
<li><b>Last night, I met up some friends and one of them said</b> he's been having vivid dreams, and another recounted a conversation with other mutual friends, saying the woman always hated it when the man would tell her his dream. I pictured an exaggerated, deflating sigh on her part, practically holding up a sign that said HERE WE GO AGAIN.<br /></li>
<li><b>Just before that</b>, I was messing around in the practice space and came up with a simple but kinda cool riff and just added some dumb lyrics about dreams to it, just to try it out and now I really like the song, so since you are so far indulging me...<br /></li>
<li><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hwr1ocODjfo" width="560"></iframe><br /></li>
<li><i>I could have waited, waited a little longer<br />If my heart, my heart had been a little stronger<br />My dreams carry me away<br />My dreams are stronger than I am<br /><br />I could have been your man, could've been your man a little longer<br />If my willpower had been, willpower been a little stronger<br />My dreams carry me away<br />My dreams are stronger than I am<br /></i></li>
<li><b><a href="http://alexvcook.blogspot.com/2008/10/dream.html" target="_blank">As I've said before, my dreams are stupid</a></b>. I apologize to those following this dormant blog all this time and then here I appear talking about my dreams. Exaggerated sigh.<br /></li>
<li><b>I was going to</b> put the whole Georges Méliès movie mentioned above, but I came across another called "The Devil in a Convent" which sounds like much saucier dream material, so here you go, and again, I'm sorry.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V6LTjsBmj74" width="420"></iframe></li>
</ol>
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Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-29765733318271218512015-05-18T11:34:00.000-05:002015-05-18T11:57:38.460-05:00soundtrack for remarks on the Mad Men finale<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://a3.res.cloudinary.com/tristanmedia/image/private/c_limit,fl_keep_iptc,h_800,q_100,w_800/v1373523955/sdozuz65stdxcreo3asg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://a3.res.cloudinary.com/tristanmedia/image/private/c_limit,fl_keep_iptc,h_800,q_100,w_800/v1373523955/sdozuz65stdxcreo3asg.jpg" height="640" width="398" /></a></div>
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Robert Longo, Untitled, 1981 from <i>Men in Cities, </i>More <a href="http://www.robertlongo.com/portfolios/1030/works/32560" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<img src="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/345/MI0003345610.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" height="189" width="200" /><img src="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/691/MI0003691014.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" height="200" width="200" /><img src="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/515/MI0001515404.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" height="197" width="200" /><br />
<b>Father John Misty - <i>Fear Fun</i><br />The War on Drugs - <i>Lost in the Dream</i></b><br />
<b>Grateful Dead - <i>Workingman's Dead</i></b><br />
<ul>
<li>You know you wanted him to jump off that cliff, not create a singalong on the hillside.</li>
<li>But then his idea of "happiness" is like John Cage's concept of "silence" - a noisy thing constructed out of passively and openly consuming the noise/contentment of others and reframing it as your own.</li>
<li>It made me mad last night, in both viewings. I watched this whole thing so he could create that Coke ad?</li>
<li>But it is an acceptance of how the world works? Joan needs a second name on the marquis to make it hers, so she adds her own. That world's most desirable woman finds herself the most meaningful and fruitful partner. She becomes her own binary star around which she elliptically orbits. Not a boobs analogy, by the way.</li>
<li>Did Meghan get killed by the Manson family? She became so unimportant once that check was slid across the table that I had to consult Wikipedia to see if she was alive. Did she only exist to birth her mother into this world? Is Roger bagging the mom the last triumph of the Greatest Generation? Is this really <i>Benjamin Buttons</i>?</li>
</ul>
<div>
<img src="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/669/MI0001669349.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" height="195" width="200" /><img src="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/387/MI0001387909.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" height="196" width="200" /><img src="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0002/187/MI0002187528.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" height="195" width="200" /><br />
<b>The National - <i>Alligator</i><br />Slowdive - <i>Souvlaki</i><br />Faust - <i>Faust IV</i></b></div>
<ul>
<li>The story goes that Bill Backer (similarly alliterative/descriptive kind of name as Don Draper) from the real McCann-Erickson had the Coke ad epiphany sitting in Shannon airport, watching a family lose it over flight delays until someone went and bought Cokes for everyone. He wrote "I want to buy the world a Coke" on a napkin and brought that back to the agency.</li>
<li>I put a theory out there that Don Draper is Scarlett O'Hara - down to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6bOpJ5elW8" target="_blank">wearing of drapes</a> and making people not give a damn. I was going to say also: relying on the kindness of strangers, but that was <i>Streetcar</i>. If he'd <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn26pEDEhyY" target="_blank">eaten a turnip</a> at the ashram, I'd have felt validated in having such a theory and would have gone directly to the Internet with it in proud hand.</li>
<li>The race car on the salt flats? He already made a land speed record chasing the collapse of his myth from the tip of the Empire State Building, viewed in that sales meeting, to lotus sitting at the coast.</li>
<li>I wanted Don to become <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuRQH_hLcTw" target="_blank">King Kong</a> with the Empire State Building bit. Or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMCeDBn1Zu0" target="_blank">Andy Warhol</a>. </li>
<li>Did Andy Warhol ever show up in the show at some point? I would have loved to see Peggy at a Factory party.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<img src="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/679/MI0001679009.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" height="177" width="200" /><img src="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/166/MI0003166311.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" height="200" width="200" /><img src="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/597/MI0001597709.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" height="194" width="200" /><br />
<b>The Mountain Goats, <i>Tallahassee</i></b><br />
<b>Fucked Up, <i>David Comes to Life</i></b><br />
<b>Jimmy Cliff, <i>The Harder the Come</i></b><br />
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<ul>
<li>What is Don and Betty's other kid's name? He didn't even get scandalized, poor guy.</li>
<li>I was going to say something profound about the importance of dish-washing in Mad Men but realized I was think about the dish-washing scenes in <i>Olive Ketteridge,</i> so never mind.</li>
<li>I still do and will forever think about that time Don came back home late to Connecticut and all Betty had for his dinner was chicken salad and crackers and how good that plate of chicken salad and crackers looked. I want some chicken salad right now.</li>
<li>Who got Lane's office after he died? Because, ew... And now somebody else will get that office without knowing, Remember how "this is home" they were being? Or was that even the same building? And does it matter when the trace of your death is as faint as the trace of your life?</li>
<li>As people are saying Mad Men/ SCDP/advertising/the '60s/'70s is purgatory, are they all dead on arrival, only to be born in how they leave? Are the virtuous pagans in the penthouse tier of hell, gazing over the rim, waiting for a harrowing? Is McCann-Erickson an uprising in Hell? The devil just doing business? A tide in which their trickle of darkness becomes manifest? Is Pete Campbell the Orpheus that successfully got his wife out of the shadows forever? I kinda knew Trudy was going to win out in the end.</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://player.spotify.com/user/cookalexv/playlist/6VsnR8CaxKMMlJfGGtrTlZ" target="_blank">Playlist in Spotify</a><br />
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify%3Auser%3Acookalexv%3Aplaylist%3A6VsnR8CaxKMMlJfGGtrTlZ" width="300"></iframe></div>
Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-23739032903850707872015-04-07T11:19:00.000-05:002015-04-07T11:42:24.857-05:00A barbed-wire maypole: Three Derek Jarman movies<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jubilee_(1977_film)_poster.jpg#/media/File:Jubilee_(1977_film)_poster.jpg"><img alt="Jubilee (1977 film) poster.jpg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Jubilee_%281977_film%29_poster.jpg" /></a><br />
"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jubilee_(1977_film)_poster.jpg#/media/File:Jubilee_(1977_film)_poster.jpg">Jubilee (1977 film) poster</a>" by Source. Licensed under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jubilee_(1977_film)_poster.jpg" title="<a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Non-free_use_rationale_guideline" title="Wikipedia:Non-free use rationale guideline">Fair use</a> of copyrighted material in the context of <a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_(1978_film)" title="Jubilee (1978 film)">Jubilee (1978 film)</a>">Fair use</a> via <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/">Wikipedia</a>.<br />
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<b><i>Jubilee</i> (1977)</b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jFHnnnDtGgQ" width="420"></iframe><br />
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<i>Jubilee</i> is Derek Jarman's wet kiss welcoming and also saying a last good bye to England during the economic despair that led to the punk movement. It has a Shakespearean cant to it - much of the dialog involves a wild-eyed seer making a speech to a gathering of dim bulbs until it is time to watch one of them light up and say their part. There is a time-travel plot involving the arrival of Elizabeth I into the ruins of Elizabeth II, but really, it is a cascade of punk apocalypse charm. The recurring theme throughout the film is scavenging among the dead. Car wreck victims, royalty, one poor girl (presumed dead) being trussed on the street by a barbed-wire maypole are stripped of their earrings and jewelry. Everything is ravaged. And over-acted.<br />
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If this sounds like too much of a downer, there is a healthy dose of groovy 70's nudity and the introduction of a baby-faced Adam Ant.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.brainwashed.com/common/images/covers/mj006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.brainwashed.com/common/images/covers/mj006.jpg" height="475" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">VHS Cover from <a href="http://www.brainwashed.com/tg/videos.html" target="_blank">Brainwashed</a></td></tr>
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<b><i>In the Shadow of the Sun</i> (1974, finished and soundtracked in 1980)</b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PXYTwr3RaQg" width="420"></iframe><br />
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I've always known of this film for the Throbbing Gristle soundtrack. Fittingly, the imagery of this 48-minute mood piece consists of layers of washed out film juxtaposed so you have slow-moving figures engaged in some kind of trance ritual mixed with anonymous car-window landscapes and people tapping on typewriters. Like how the noodling soundtrack never commits to a song, the film never commits to a vision and yet together the impression emerges. The world is layed waste not by politics or punks, but by a wearisome existence. All that is left is a ghost. If I'd seen this when I was nineteen, I would have declared it the greatest movie ever made and likely thrown a copy of <i>Naked Lunch</i> at you for disagreeing.<br />
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<a href="http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjE4MDg4ODMzOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODQ0NDQzMQ@@._V1_SY317_CR4,0,214,317_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjE4MDg4ODMzOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODQ0NDQzMQ@@._V1_SY317_CR4,0,214,317_AL_.jpg" height="640" width="432" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Blue</i> (1993)</b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3RoasUMmV9Y" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Jarman's last film is part conceptual art joke, part intimate poem. The filmmaker was in the final throes of AIDS related illnesses, rendered nearly blind, when he released this film consisting of a single shot of the color blue as a number of actors and musicians muse in an ethereal collage over the various meanings of blue: sadness, the sky, the planet Earth, the wind. The soundtrack is a compelling, stream-of-consciousness sound collage. It's easy to think the image isn't important, but I found myself turning to it as if I was going to miss something. I suspect Jarman felt the same way. It is a final joke on transformation, in that there isn't any.<br />
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A common misconception is that the blue in this film is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Klein_Blue" target="_blank">International Klein Blue</a>, the pigment created by avant-garde artist Yves Klein. It is a similar hue, inspired by Klein's color and his "leap into the void" as Jarman faced his own.<br />
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Enjoy!Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-20808999294407390502015-04-03T16:45:00.001-05:002015-04-03T17:57:16.025-05:00Record Score: Remember Wynn, Pensacola, FL<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-pAjkG89ZVKU/VR8J7m6AaJI/AAAAAAAABIs/1zp2B1L4HLo/s640/blogger-image-821867208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-pAjkG89ZVKU/VR8J7m6AaJI/AAAAAAAABIs/1zp2B1L4HLo/s640/blogger-image-821867208.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Remember Wynn <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">in Pensacola, FL has all the trappings of being a hipster vinyl haven - in a house in an off-the-beaten neighborhood, almost no social media presence - but</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Yz7nw3kGuWo/VR8J-4aKevI/AAAAAAAABJE/gnIGLfmLr9Q/s640/blogger-image--1517769899.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Yz7nw3kGuWo/VR8J-4aKevI/AAAAAAAABJE/gnIGLfmLr9Q/s640/blogger-image--1517769899.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">is actually the kind of store the true record nerd relishes and those for whom vinyl is a lifestyle enhancer might blanche at. Wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling Pac-Man maze of records. *This* shy of being a hoard. The owner, Jackie Seale, was setting out box after box of dollar records in which these were found:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Jkx0VlwkN1A/VR8KBIquwuI/AAAAAAAABJU/v97ysft1O1M/s640/blogger-image-2038518870.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Jkx0VlwkN1A/VR8KBIquwuI/AAAAAAAABJU/v97ysft1O1M/s640/blogger-image-2038518870.jpg"></a></div><br></div>He said Little Feat's WAITING FOR COLUMBUS was not supposed to be in there, but finders keepers. He plans to fill the front yard with vinyl come record store day. I've almost bought those Genya Ravan albums a bunch of times, so I let the price pull the trigger. Lou Reed plays on one of them, I think.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-hpTL1gpCfvo/VR8J3EXAA_I/AAAAAAAABIk/HbsNy7NcTcM/s640/blogger-image-1194167502.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-hpTL1gpCfvo/VR8J3EXAA_I/AAAAAAAABIk/HbsNy7NcTcM/s640/blogger-image-1194167502.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">His prices are good to average. This $50 copy of Baton Rouge blues legend Silas Hogan's TROUBLE AT HOME was too rich for my blood, but he does mail order. He has the original Lightnin' Slim ROOSTER BLUES as well, both on Excello.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The true record score:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-sdDmAxBhZ5g/VR8KCOeNC0I/AAAAAAAABJc/wWgK0xijaVs/s640/blogger-image--878309.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-sdDmAxBhZ5g/VR8KCOeNC0I/AAAAAAAABJc/wWgK0xijaVs/s640/blogger-image--878309.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Maya is way into The Doors and now I am too again. You can make up your own words while stuck in beach traffic.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BgBXZyURY2s/VR8KABpTt9I/AAAAAAAABJM/L54DXaJnqiY/s640/blogger-image-409992950.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BgBXZyURY2s/VR8KABpTt9I/AAAAAAAABJM/L54DXaJnqiY/s640/blogger-image-409992950.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I had a premonition that the Terry Riley record would be here and found it tucked away in the 60s section. He has things sorta organized by decade. The Howlin' Wolf is on the prestigious United-Superior label and the super score live nightclub Lightnin' Hopkins LP is on Guest Star. I love semi bootleg blues records.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Should this not be enough to get you to P-cola, the Al Fresco food truck court in their quaint downtown is what every food truck scene should be like. Meaning: the food is actually delicious, there are tables and no roar of gas generators.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ww1_tN6RvGU/VR8J97cgVjI/AAAAAAAABI8/3ZiOoLOUZ_c/s640/blogger-image-166169214.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ww1_tN6RvGU/VR8J97cgVjI/AAAAAAAABI8/3ZiOoLOUZ_c/s640/blogger-image-166169214.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-KfIJ2s-qrTg/VR8KDIMOe9I/AAAAAAAABJk/k3NdCvxj0VI/s640/blogger-image-918570371.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-KfIJ2s-qrTg/VR8KDIMOe9I/AAAAAAAABJk/k3NdCvxj0VI/s640/blogger-image-918570371.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">And they have a beach.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-h6GIuIZyQU4/VR8J8ugGKJI/AAAAAAAABI0/wA646mRsSr8/s640/blogger-image--488706150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-h6GIuIZyQU4/VR8J8ugGKJI/AAAAAAAABI0/wA646mRsSr8/s640/blogger-image--488706150.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Remember Wynn</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">7007 Lanier Dr.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Pensacola, FL 32504</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="tel:(850)%20476-8630" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="telephone" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0">(850) 476-8630</a></div>Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-61610401063899033202015-03-19T11:12:00.000-05:002015-03-19T11:12:09.253-05:00A library moment<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/16863149051" title="image by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="image" height="480" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7617/16863149051_27f717948a_c.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I am going to miss Middleton Library when I leave this campus job in May. I've told people for years my favorite perk of working on campus was the library and they all thought I was crazy.<br />
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It was the first place I was excited about when I started college in 1987. The same copy of the Susan Sontag Artaud anthology is on the shelf with the same stain from where I spilled my first cappucino on it, nursing my malleable adulthood in the terrible cafe they had on the second floor of the Union.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/16863157471" title="image by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="image" height="480" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7640/16863157471_af786b738b_c.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I still like the sturdy, academic glow of bound journals. I always wondered if anyone ever looks at these or do they sit there like batteries, waiting to be hooked up to the right flashlight.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/16676565498" title="image by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="image" height="480" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8644/16676565498_15a0f78f85_c.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I love this view from the fourth floor. I wish there was a zip line from here to the tip of whatever that tower is atop the architecture building.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/16656996357" title="image by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="image" height="480" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7285/16656996357_2f988f8032_c.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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On my way out, I saw one of my former students on his laptop in the fourth floor lobby. I was amazed. Most students only know the library as having computer labs and never even venture past the second floor. Which is okay; it is the way of things. <br />
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That said, I made an Intro to Mass Media assignment once where students had to check out a book and submit a photo outside of the library with themselves and the book. Many of them captioned the photo with "Last time I'm ever doing this!"<br />
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I checked out an Artaud book like old times, Harry Crews' FLORIDA FRENZY where he called the South "the hookworm and rickets belt" and Denis Johnson's RESUSCITATION OF A HANGED MAN. Hopefully this spate of activity will keep them afloat a little longer.Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-81390696155063067642015-03-10T13:05:00.000-05:002015-03-10T13:05:31.924-05:00If you're feeling introspective about IF YOU'RE FEELING SINISTER<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/454/MI0002454954.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/454/MI0002454954.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1631908.If_You_re_Feeling_Sinister" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="If You're Feeling Sinister" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348805250m/1631908.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1631908.If_You_re_Feeling_Sinister">If You're Feeling Sinister</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/755159.Scott_Plagenhoef">Scott Plagenhoef</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1222818667">4 of 5 stars</a><br />
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This book was particularly good at relating the appeal of Belle & Sebastian, which is not the easiest thing to do. Thanks largely to one line from Jack Black's character in HIGH FIDELITY, B&S are regarded as sad bastard music, when in fact, they are sneaky bastard music. Stuart Murdoch's art lies somewhere mid the line between Morrissey's Vegas-sized dispesia with himself, love and the world and Stephin Merritt's open distaste for it. I think Murdoch likes his little corner of the world, the cadre of misfits who parade through it and correctly views the rest of mankind as dangerous and/or tedious. But the deal with B&S is that their melodrama is an embrace of adolescence rather than a continuance of it.<br />
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I never knew the backstory about Murdoch's long period of isolation recovering from chronic fatigue syndrome basically birthing the songs from TIGERMILK fully formed into the world. The first track, "The State I'm In," is one of the greatest things indie rock has done. If TIGERMILK had been his/B&S's only release, it would give creedence to the "everybody's got one good album in them" theory, but truth is, they continued and eveolved and wrote even greater songs (at least up through THE LIFE PURSUIT, anyway). <br />
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Granted, the book talks more about TIGERMILK (only at the very end does it really delve into SINISTER at a fine level) and probably should be named for the first records. But if that doesn't really hang you up, this book does a good job watching the incubation and hatching of a little genius band wthout blowing it out of scale. And like every good <a href="http://333sound.com/" target="_blank">33 1/3 book</a>, it made listening to a great record and even more rewarding experience, even if it didn't go through it micron-by-micron.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/334560-alex-v">View all my reviews at GoodReads</a> </div>
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The book's discussions of C-86 scene in Scotland made me want to listen to that whole delightfully scrappy era of indie pop, particularly Orange Juice, whose "Rip It Up" titles <a href="http://open.spotify.com/user/cookalexv/playlist/7p4MQWTSHK2JMUp3gy2eCh" target="_blank">this little handy but not totally Scottish playlist</a>, which, unlike the book, culminates in IF YOU'RE FEELING SINISTER in detail.<br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:user:cookalexv:playlist:7p4MQWTSHK2JMUp3gy2eCh" width="300"></iframe><br />
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To cap it off, all this Scotland-climate preciousness coupled with this dour rainy weather we're having led me to write this twee bossa nova about staying in. Contains a little cussing. Enjoy!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EDBiYbO57FU" width="560"></iframe><br />
Alex V. Cook - "Nasty"</div>
Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-36039953214295554722015-03-08T16:58:00.000-05:002015-03-08T19:52:27.098-05:00Charming Hammond<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/16569965758" title="image by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="image" height="478" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8680/16569965758_7b56fbe4b0_z.jpg" width="640"></a><br>
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I did talks and panels at Hammond, La. Regional Arts Center's <a href="http://hammondarts.org/literary-festival" target="_blank">"Celebrating the Written Word" </a>literary festival over the weekend, which was great. You should go, not just because the people there run a great festival, but because you get to experience charming Hammond. It's a living downtown of funky bars and restaurants and so on. Even the buildings that were not in use (a minority) were full charm assaults. I had no idea, even though I've lived half an hour away for decades.<br>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/16137676663" title="image by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="image" height="479" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8719/16137676663_de3596589d_z.jpg" width="640"></a><br>
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I might have begged off a panel to go see a movie in the old Ritz theatre.<br>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/16570071368" title="image by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="image" height="479" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7621/16570071368_56582746bc_z.jpg" width="640"></a><br>
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It reminded me immediately of Keokuk, Ia., the city I was born in but didn't live in. My grandma lived there and when we'd stay there, we'd inverably have to go to the Revall drugs to get a refill on her nitroglycerin. The buildings in Keokuk all had upstairs apartments like those in Hammond do. As a kid, I dreamed of living in one of those apartments. I thought it would be so cool to say I lived above the Rexall, to bound down the stairs to get candy with couch-cushion change.<br>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/16756586352" title="image by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="image" height="640" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8577/16756586352_3889dd146d_z.jpg" width="480"></a><br>
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I double-dog dare you to drink whatever is in this bottle in Rexall's window. Speaking of drinking, all the bars we went to had package liquor setups in them, namely shelves of wine bottles. It's probably how things are where you live, but it's a rare sight here. I like it. Why should one have to endure the harsh flourescent reality of a convenience store or grocery to get your drink on. And since I'm here...<br>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/16135209804" title="image by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="image" height="463" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7653/16135209804_ccc20667c9_z.jpg" width="640"></a>
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I really wanted to see an adolescent me peer back at me from the apartment over the Mason Lodge. I bet the magic hour light makes cool shadows on the cheap ancient carpet in that living room, even if it puts glare on the TV.<br>
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Anyway, check out Hammond! And thanks <a href="http://hammondarts.org/home" target="_blank">Hammond Regional Arts Center</a> for a great festival. Check them out, too!Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-54899482917121763752015-03-03T12:32:00.002-06:002015-03-03T12:36:39.829-06:00To see her naked body: Leonard Cohen's film I AM A HOTEL<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/hotel.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/hotel.jpeg" height="320" width="177" /></a></div>
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The '70s-'80s music of Leonard Cohen can be a bitter taste if you are not accustomed to it. That art comes off as dated, louche, a one-note baroque internal symphony performed by the orchestra that is the gazing male ego. Yet, it is classic and, to me, irresistible. This 1983 film for Canadian television, I AM A HOTEL, is Cohen manifest.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/giCKH7QYvuA" width="420"></iframe><br />
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It takes a painfully '80s ballet leap through five of Cohen's songs, most notably "Memories," a tune from <i>Death of a Ladies' Man</i>, an album Cohen himself can't take. The album started as a collaboration with Phil Spector that was wrested by the latter (it is reported that a gun was involved, go figure) to become a lush, arrogant monstrosity. Each chorus swells up like a tropical storm only to reveal its goal in the momentary calm - "To see her naked body." It's as honest as a rock song gets. It is really good. Old pond frog Cohen even wails "herrrr nakkkked bodddyyyy!" at the end.<br />
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<a href="http://tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/118825/wall-of-crazy" target="_blank">Tablet</a> published a beautiful tribute to that album.<br />
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The "Memories" scene has Cohen as a mannequin/1950s ballroom singer (maybe a Roy Orbison shadow) perched on a balcony stage as the chambermaid and bellhop lunge at each other. It's notable that Cohen opens the door to the ballroom for these two and then sings as they cavort. That seems to be the deal with Leonard Cohen; he opens doors you know you shouldn't. He is the last ladies' man so you don't have to be.<br />
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Otherwise, Cohen sits in his room singing to women only in memories. I'm reminded of one of the greatest Cohen tunes, "Tower of Song" (not included in the film) where he sees himself stuck in a flophouse of artist tradition.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13.4399995803833px; text-align: center;">I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13.4399995803833px; text-align: center;">Hank Williams hasn't answered yet </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13.4399995803833px; text-align: center;">But I hear him coughing all night long </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13.4399995803833px; text-align: center;">A hundred floors above me </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #ccccdd; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13.4399995803833px; text-align: center;">In the Tower of Song </span><br />
(from <a href="http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/leonardcohen/towerofsong.html" target="_blank">here</a>)<br />
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The film doesn't really go many places Cohen isn't already headed in song, but then, he is the celebrated dark rider in folk music's cloistered sexuality, and he is always motioning for you to jump in the saddle with him.<br />
<br />Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-77429103065303336512014-12-24T12:54:00.001-06:002014-12-24T16:40:36.891-06:00Push forward! The Ten Vinyl Albums of My 2014<div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">I like to think I'm not a nostalgic person - push forward! - but my year defined by a growing vinyl habit says otherwise.</span></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><br></span></div>Here are the ten vinyl albums that defined my phonographic habit this year. Mostly 70s, overwhelmingly white and male - I know what ground I need to make up in 2015.</span><div><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br></span></font></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MVBgkGMG2C8/VJsVn0jwUzI/AAAAAAAABEo/t3dmdVgLwfE/s640/blogger-image--1418640629.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MVBgkGMG2C8/VJsVn0jwUzI/AAAAAAAABEo/t3dmdVgLwfE/s640/blogger-image--1418640629.jpg"></a></div><div><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br></span></font>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">1. Drive-By Truckers - ENGLISH OCEANS</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">particularly the song "Hanging On" on side 2. It is a simple tune by DBT standards but it chokes me up a little with its frailty. </p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 15px;"><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-MnKDjdMYv7A/VJsViN2MERI/AAAAAAAABEI/AAbcvsQD1uw/s640/blogger-image--249440478.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-MnKDjdMYv7A/VJsViN2MERI/AAAAAAAABEI/AAbcvsQD1uw/s640/blogger-image--249440478.jpg"></a></div><br>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">2. Hot Tuna - HOT TUNA</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">One in a massive pile purchased from Dylan Bell, mostly for the back cover, but it jangles a note in every corner of the room.</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-F-M6Ooy2VeM/VJsVjZbdb4I/AAAAAAAABEQ/TLwOavGnxY4/s640/blogger-image--1829450369.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-F-M6Ooy2VeM/VJsVjZbdb4I/AAAAAAAABEQ/TLwOavGnxY4/s640/blogger-image--1829450369.jpg"></a></div><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 15px;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">3. Dillard & Clark -THE FANTASTIC EXPEDITION OF DILLARD & CLARK</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">Drew me dangerously into eBay. The congenial jangle and the laughing idiots on the motorcycle on the cover make me think of those I've had fortune to play music with this year, esp Lance Porter, Lewis Roussel, Leon LeJeune, Jamye St Romain, Anna Byars and Ben Bell.</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-LZ3VswRMFCs/VJsVqjRK8CI/AAAAAAAABE4/bDNseoGWFIg/s640/blogger-image--1311971913.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-LZ3VswRMFCs/VJsVqjRK8CI/AAAAAAAABE4/bDNseoGWFIg/s640/blogger-image--1311971913.jpg"></a></div><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 15px;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">4. Funkadelic - MAGGOT BRAIN</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">Back ages ago I realized the vast majority of the music I listened to was by white people and sought out this album to help correct it. Fortunately, Tess Brunet up at Lagniappe Records had it in stock when the condition returned.</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-QDQTlEzE_mg/VJsVpLpcGsI/AAAAAAAABEw/Ug4VPMZQx7s/s640/blogger-image-1925768995.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-QDQTlEzE_mg/VJsVpLpcGsI/AAAAAAAABEw/Ug4VPMZQx7s/s640/blogger-image-1925768995.jpg"></a></div><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 15px;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">5. Elton John - CAPTAIN FANTASTIC & THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">Seduced by the elaborate package, it was one of the first times I listened to Elton John on my own volition rather than it just being on. He's pretty good, Elton is.</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-zYCaJ_7RiRM/VJsVsWoPQxI/AAAAAAAABFA/iAeymGWlVfU/s640/blogger-image-1300331357.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-zYCaJ_7RiRM/VJsVsWoPQxI/AAAAAAAABFA/iAeymGWlVfU/s640/blogger-image-1300331357.jpg"></a></div>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 15px;"><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">6, Bob Dylan- PLANET WAVES</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">In high school, I found myself defending Bob Dylan to my dad, who said, "Elton John, now there's a good singer." F Elton John, I thought. I tried to sell my daughter on Bob Dylan and I forget what she said about him, but it was funny. This album and NEW MORNING are my Dylan.</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ArmReKxNrAA/VJsVkvdrPRI/AAAAAAAABEY/pNvg9ixbdJ0/s640/blogger-image-951578041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ArmReKxNrAA/VJsVkvdrPRI/AAAAAAAABEY/pNvg9ixbdJ0/s640/blogger-image-951578041.jpg"></a></div><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">7. Robert Ashley - PRIVATE PARTS (THE RECORD)</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">So simple. Talking about almost nothing. Piano tinkling. Tablas in a hypnotic telegraph from the universe. It's the best thing I listened to all year, the very year where Ashley left us.</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x0z076eUtQo/VJsVmQVSWaI/AAAAAAAABEg/eHEby64SCDQ/s640/blogger-image-1790559002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x0z076eUtQo/VJsVmQVSWaI/AAAAAAAABEg/eHEby64SCDQ/s640/blogger-image-1790559002.jpg"></a></div><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br>8. Lyres - LYRES</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">Tremolo, scream, drum break, everything.</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-KgFkHEUlnCs/VJsZojxEraI/AAAAAAAABFM/YitgsuEUUTc/s640/blogger-image-507923491.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-KgFkHEUlnCs/VJsZojxEraI/AAAAAAAABFM/YitgsuEUUTc/s640/blogger-image-507923491.jpg"></a></div><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">9. Sly & the Family Stone - THERE'S A RIOT GOIN' ON</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">Purchased and played on the day of the Ferguson verdict. Not on purpose, but it served one anyway. Sly became a gun-toting recluse, girded against The Man, during the recording of this, but didn't lose sight of the shared beauty of humanity that begat "Family Affair" - one of the world's greatest songs. You can be fearful and have a gun even. Just don't kill anyone.</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-TfBs_zoIYnY/VJsZqDLCRuI/AAAAAAAABFU/E46OhDTmSe4/s640/blogger-image--2147302600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-TfBs_zoIYnY/VJsZqDLCRuI/AAAAAAAABFU/E46OhDTmSe4/s640/blogger-image--2147302600.jpg"></a></div><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">10. David Bowie - SCARY MONSTERS AND SIPER CREEPS</p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica;">I got to sing in a David Bowie tribute night and it pushed me forward in my singing. My daughter is baking herself in a Bowie-shaped pan pushing herself forward. Push on in 2015. No cocaine necessary on that the 70s took it all for us. Push forward!</p></div></div>Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-87040549197902673242014-12-08T09:29:00.001-06:002014-12-08T09:44:22.399-06:00three lovely records<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thenewinquiry.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/robert-ashley.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://thenewinquiry.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/robert-ashley.png" height="360" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Ashley</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In my quest to check out and listen to every cool LP in the LSU library before my contract dries up in May, I filled my brain with three lovely records from <a href="http://www.lovely.com/" target="_blank">Lovely Music</a>.<br />
<br />
From their website:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Optima, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Founded in 1978, Lovely Music is one of the longest-lived and most distinctive independent labels active in the recording and promotion of new American music. According to label founder Mimi Johnson, the label is “dedicated to releasing the best in avant-garde and experimental music, from electronics and computer music to new opera and extended vocal techniques.” Placing emphasis on the artist’s intent, Lovely Music recordings are always composer-supervised and produced.</span><br />
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<ol>
<li><b>William Duckworth - <i>The Time Curve Preludes</i></b><br /><br /><img src="http://www.lovely.com/covers/4529520312.jpg" /><br /><br />This is a powerhouse of minimalist piano (the repetitive kind), riffs and swells of notes that curl into the air like tulips taking their steps to the sun.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/b4IFhDXxl44" width="420"></iframe><br /><br />The beauty of this work is that it has all the rigor and transcendence one wants (if you are one that wants such things) but is also infused with humor. The above <i>Prelude XXII </i>has in it the DNA of "The Entertainer" as it does the connection tones of 1970s era phone trunk systems.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lovely.com/titles/cd2031.html" target="_blank">Album at Lovely Music</a><br /><a href="http://www.billduckworth.com/">www.billduckworth.com</a><br /> </li>
<li><b>Alvin Lucier - <i>Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas</i></b><br /><br /><img src="http://www.lovely.com/covers/4529510152.jpg" /><br /><br />Alvin Lucier is maybe the truest of the experimental composers - his pieces could be performed in a physics lab, yet in some like his landmark <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jU9mJbJsQ8" target="_blank">I Am Sitting in a Room</a></i> (a repeated text run through recordings of recordings of itself, gaining reverb of the room each time, to eliminate Lucier's stutter) and <i>Silver Streetcar For The Orchestra</i> (a persistently tinged triangle) there is a humor, albeit desert dry.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qqIAS8eumMI" width="420"></iframe><br />Performed by Nick Hennies of the super cool Austin band Weird Weeds.<br /><br />In <i>Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas</i>, one may find merriment in the absurdist persistence of these works - largely about two tones extremely close in pitch - but more likely, annoyance that, if allowed, can transform into enlightenment. If you can swing that move, you have life covered.<br /><br />I once had an idea to write a book about phenomena as art, and emailed Alvin Lucier to ask to interview him for a chapter about his music. He responded:<br /><br /><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Dear Alex, I have lost interest in being interviewed for books and articles. It seems to me that you could study my work and write something more interesting that I could relay to you. You should do the work. I never say anything that seems complete and true. Cordially, </span><span class="il" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 204); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Alvin</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span class="il" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 204); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Lucier</span></i><br /><br /><a href="http://www.lovely.com/titles/cd1015.html" target="_blank">Album at Lovely Music</a><br /> </li>
<li><b>Robert Ashley - <i>Private Parts (The Yard/The Backyard)</i></b><br /><br /><img src="http://www.lovely.com/covers/4529510012.jpg" /><br /><br />This album is astounding. Robert Ashley's deal is about the spoken voice, almost informal music and the ordinary in our lives, and how when concentrated, they become something extraordinary. A friend of mine studied with him and said his music is "boring, but in a really good way" which has stuck with me forever.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xBU8vLIJbSE" width="420"></iframe><br />Robert Ashley, <i>The Backyard</i><br /><br />Im on my third listen to this piece, with its guileless tablas, the digestive melodrama of the organ and ol' Robert droning on about how <br /><br /><i>$14.28 is more attractive than fourteen dollars. It's just that way.</i><br /><br />Ashley's hypnotic voice feels magically profound. I want to walk around with those tablas going, narrating everything I see. Had Ashley lived, he could have made an app that just had simple music and his voice describing everything the phone camera sees. I might never turn such a thing off.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lovely.com/titles/cd1001.html" target="_blank">Album at Lovely Music</a></li>
</ol>
Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-19469296112018717782014-12-07T16:14:00.000-06:002014-12-07T16:14:00.812-06:00Pelicans!<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/15348241914" title="pelican1 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="pelican1" height="600" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8574/15348241914_e6d5e18cca_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/15348241924" title="pelican3 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="pelican3" height="600" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8672/15348241924_0da0739d12_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/15784494249" title="pelican2 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="pelican2" height="573" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8643/15784494249_60cbf1b0b3_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/15348242004" title="pelican5 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="pelican5" height="600" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8665/15348242004_4b1b471500_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/15970501415" title="pelican4 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="pelican4" height="800" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8562/15970501415_7012d27711_c.jpg" width="600" /></a><br />
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<br />Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-28350017808425717432014-12-04T10:19:00.000-06:002014-12-04T10:40:47.297-06:00[Train whistle blows in the distance.]<img src="http://cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dune2.jpg" /><br />
One of Moebius' storyboards for Jodorowsky's proposed adaptation of <i>Dune</i>.<br />
<br />
We got a DVD player for the first time in ages and here is what I watched:<br />
<ol>
<li><b><i>Jodorowski's Dune</i> (2013)</b><br /><img src="http://gnula.nu/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Jodorowskys_Dune_poster_usa.jpg" /><br /><br />The infamous cinematic madman behind <i>The Holy Mountain </i>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdXGhsAynGI" target="_blank">trailer</a>)<i> </i>and <i>El Topo</i> (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixY1_TXAZwQ" target="_blank">full movie</a>) comes off as the greatest liberal arts teacher mentor you never had, talking at length about a science fiction epic that never got made based on a book <i><b>he never read.</b></i> <br /><br />A friend told him the gist of Frank Herbert's <i>Dune</i> and he concocted a better Jesus myth rooted in the mysterious spice melange that turns a desert planet and a desert rat humanity into flowers of enlightenment. <br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4WWu1kclNDA" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />It made me want to go check out <i>Dune</i> from the library, not read it, and do something profound with my life.<br /> </li>
<li><b><i>Mystery Train </i>(1983)</b><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/nb0yBDSqTfs" width="420"></iframe><br /><br />I openly admit to falling asleep to this movie every time I try to watch it, and I don't mean that as a dig. I fall asleep at movies. It's me, not you. But there is something about this film that drifts into my consciousness, how it strands my thoughts in the deadbeat crypto-Memphis of Jim Jarmusch's creation.<br /><br />I had the subtitles on and it seemed like every time I nodded back into it I saw<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
<b> [Train whistle blows in the distance.]</b></div>
<br />on the screen. I'd watch (and fall asleep to) a movie that just had a black screen with that written on it. If I were as brave or wild as Jodorowsky, I'd make that film.<br /> </li>
<li><b><i>This is Spinal Tap</i> (1984)</b><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/P6Fc_5slG_Q" width="420"></iframe><br /><br /><i>The is Spinal Tap</i> is one of those movies embedded in my cultural DNA that I think I may never have seen first-hand. I did the responsible thing and watched it with my daughter who made it half way through. The next morning she asked me if the drummer died. The whole experience went to eleven.</li>
</ol>
Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-88312552438867847912014-11-26T11:45:00.003-06:002014-11-26T11:45:59.255-06:00Introducing Andy Pratt, Whose Records are Like Life.<img src="http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/337/MI0001337517.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" /><br />
Andy Pratt, from <i><a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/andy-pratt-mn0000755979/biography" target="_blank">AllMusic</a></i><br />
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If you know Andy Pratt at all, it is likely for this blistering, gender-switch, pop orchestra number "Avenging Annie," a near hit for the songwriter and later covered by Roger Daltrey.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Sq1rvSCbed4" width="420"></iframe><br />
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I didn't know about him before a chance meeting via the YouTube recommendation engine, which led me down the forest path to his 1969 album <i>Records are Like Life. </i><br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="570" id="tsFrame195890" src="//cf.topspin.net/api/v3/player/195890" width="250"></iframe><br />
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A large number of Pratt's albums are available for streaming (and embedding) on his site <a href="http://www.itsaboutmusic.com/andypratt.html">http://www.itsaboutmusic.com/andypratt.html</a>. If the embed does not work, here is the album on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGGjK1rxWTE" target="_blank">YouTube</a>.<br />
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<i>Records are Like Life </i>is a prime example of 70s cusp sylvan wildness, where a guitar summons the spirits of mystery from the wood as on "Wet Daddy" or a piano/organ mix crafts a palace of staggering melancholy like "Oliver." Much of Pratt's first album is like this, grandeur that is tinged with a marked innocence. "Shiny Susie" is an upscale orchestrator's take on T. Rex/Donovan sexuality that would come to flower in his next album.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="650" id="tsFrame189399" src="//cf.topspin.net/api/v3/player/189399" width="250"></iframe><br />
<br />
Pratt comes into the fullness of his powers on <i>Andy Pratt </i>(above or on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xns6UQcCA0E" target="_blank">YouTube</a>) See particularly the hit "Avenging Annie" as well as the Zappa-influenced "It's all Behind You" with its deep-spoken soliloquies and sitar-interludes and sleaze-soul come-ons. "Summer, Summer" is like light rock Rolling Stones, if that's a possible thing. I could imagine a <i>Parade</i>-era Prince performing the "All the King's Weight." The schizo-twang of "Who Am I Talking To" might be the thematic track on the album - for Pratt seems to be asking that to the panoply of musicians in his head.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="660" id="tsFrame195886" src="//cf.topspin.net/api/v3/player/195886" width="250"></iframe><br />
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With <i>Resolution</i>'s release in 1976, Steven Holden said in Rolling Stone of Pratt, "By reviving the dream of rock as an art and then reinventing it, Pratt has forever changed the face of rock." Praise no artist should have to uphold, the album is powerhouse, gelling his myriad talents into a concentrated vision. The title track finds his Jagger-esque sneer transmogrifying into a sinewey croon, surrounding his grand melody like ivy.<br />
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"Treasure that Canary" takes more than a little from the Stones' <i>Beggars Banquet</i>, but he does wonders with the leftovers. I particularly like the AM gold jet to the stratosphere at the end.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lxzUPUDEI0I" width="420"></iframe><br />
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Somewhere after this, Pratt entered into every grand artists' search for a hit as well as an embrace of Christianity that loses much of its edge for this listener, though he finds a career in that world. Fast forward to the informally crafted albums he releases through is website to land upon 2011's <i>Life and Death,</i> in which a beleaguered Pratt emerges from some artistic wilderness, sounding is he is clinging to just that.<br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:album:1pNivkaQpvf8ZC8d4mw7yk" width="300"></iframe><br />
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In the crudest pop critic algebra, this album is<br />
<br />
(Chris Bell + ELO + Steve Earle) / lonely<br />
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"No yer not/gonna break me down" sounds as unconvincing as a growl from a defeated yard dog, but in that raggedness comes Pratt's glowing humanity. "I'm a long time loser. You're not gonna break me down." "Rapture" proclaims it is "a long, long way to Valhalla' over a congenial rumble rock that reminds me of Roky Erickson's post-13th Floor Elevator's glory on <i>The Evil One</i>. Pratt may seem to have lost it a little - trading his recording studio Boston for a storage-unit Tom Petty - but in that losing, has found something.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xKE-3lfwz1k" width="420"></iframe><br />
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"My Complaint" feels more of a true resolution than <i>Resolution</i> - he's tired of everything - "My complaint must be a hundred miles long." He starts answering his own complaints with a cranky "What?" It feels like as true a rock song as man can sing.<br />
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Check out and buy more of his work on his website <a href="http://www.itsaboutmusic.com/andypratt.html">http://www.itsaboutmusic.com/andypratt.html</a>.<br />
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<br />Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-91785936905517282622014-11-17T13:14:00.002-06:002014-11-17T15:54:05.215-06:00Just as my Nick Cave infatuation was starting to fade<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ANick_Cave_and_the_bad_seeds_live_%40_Paladozza_(11174862314).jpg" title="By Alessandro Bonvini from Reggio Emilia, Italy [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons"><img alt="Nick Cave and the bad seeds live @ Paladozza (11174862314)" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Nick_Cave_and_the_bad_seeds_live_%40_Paladozza_%2811174862314%29.jpg/512px-Nick_Cave_and_the_bad_seeds_live_%40_Paladozza_%2811174862314%29.jpg" width="512" /></a><br />
<ol>
<li>I finally watched <i>20,000 Days on Earth</i>.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zQ5lNd7hHgk" width="560"></iframe></li>
<li>I saw Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds this summer in New Orleans and it was the most transformative concert I've seen in a decade. Cathartic, climatic, catastrophic, loud as a gun, precise as a scalpel. Just as my Nick Cave infatuation was starting to fade, someone mentioned<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/mistertoups/posts/10103948177043585">Post</a> by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mistertoups">Andrew Toups</a>.</div>
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and it pulled me right back into it. I came up with the first three verses of a blatant Nick Cave ripoff tune called "Demon! Demon! Demon!" while walking the dog this morning.
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<li>I'm in love with his studio. A while back, <i><a href="http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/n_10378/" target="_blank">New York Magazine</a></i> ran a discussion between Sufjan Stevens and Stephin Merritt on the comparative values each puts on pop music, and the question of fame came up:<br /><br /><strong style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;">Do you crave massive fame and popularity?</strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;">STEVENS:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;"> No. [</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;">Laughs.</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;">] I wouldn’t mind being popular in other ways, but not with music.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;">MERRITT:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;"> I don’t care if I’m famous. I want to be rich. I want to be able to do what I’m doing on a bigger scale, and if I feel like having an orchestra, I’d like to be able to snap my fingers and have it happen that day. I don’t particularly like orchestral music, so it’s not much of a constraint for me. But it is a constraint not to have an enormous apartment with reverb chambers and an empty swimming pool where I can record the drums if I want to.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;">STEVENS:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;"> You want an empty swimming pool?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;">MERRITT:</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;"><span style="color: #232323;"> </span><span style="color: red;">Y<b>eah. I want the facilities that Abba had</b></span><span style="color: #232323;">. I may not use them like Abba, but I want to have the creative freedom to do what only a lot of money would allow me to do. So I don’t really care about fame, but I do care about money.</span></span></li>
<br />In the world of this movie, Nick Cave has some Abba-grade digs. Pianos all over the place, fancy rugs, lots of light. he and Warren Ellis loll around intoning into microphones with engineers floating in the dust motes to catch some genius.<br /><br />
<li>The resources of the studio are Nick Cave's amanuensis, a word-of-the-day from 2011 that has stuck with me.<br /><div class="sidexside" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 14px 0px; padding: 0px; width: 460px;">
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<li style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="main_entry_word" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; margin: 5px 15px 5px 5px;">amanuensis</span></li>
<li style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: #1122cc; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 5px;"><img alt="audio pronunciation" src="http://www.merriam-webster.com/images/wod/mwol2010_audio_pron_blue.gif" style="border: none; margin: 0px 3px -1px; padding: 0px;" /></a></li>
<li style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="pron" style="color: #757575; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal;">\uh-man-yuh-WEN-sis\</span></li>
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<li style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong class="hdrleaders" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #757575; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 12px 5px 5px;">DEFINITION</strong></li>
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noun</div>
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<span class="ssens"><strong>:</strong> one employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript</span></div>
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<li style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong class="hdrleaders" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #757575; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 12px 5px 5px;">EXAMPLES</strong></li>
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Marco worked as an <em>amanuensis</em> for a judge who needed to compose his opinions orally while recovering from cataract surgery.<br />
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"As early as the 1840s and 1850s, the <em>Ohio Cultivator</em> published women's columns that spoke vividly for women's rights and honed the talents of two important abolitionist feminists, Hanna Maria Tracy Cutler and Frances Dana Gage, who is now best remembered as the <em>amanuensis</em> for Sojourner Truth's 'Ain't I a Woman' speech." -- From Frances W. Kaye's 2011 book <em>Goodlands: A Meditation and History on the Great Plains</em></div>
</li>
<li>The recurring themes of Nick Cave's creative life is transformation and memory, which he taps into quite well. I'd like to have some financial advice - for a guy who hasn't exactly been a huge pop star he's doing quite well in houses and cars and studios. Plus, that would be a hilarious investment advice show.<br /><br />But the whole thing is about transformation, his whole gig maybe. Maybe it is the human gig. Anyway, he makes it seem graceful and terrific and you should see this film even if Nick Cave is kind of a clown to you. Baton Rougeans, <i>20,000 Days on Earth </i>is playing at the Manship Theatre on Nov. 29. (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/810641128977846/" target="_blank">Facebook event)</a></li>
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Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-77124346383250966332014-11-12T10:20:00.001-06:002014-11-12T14:53:44.647-06:005 things from living in the world<img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/76947000/jpg/_76947407_76947406.jpg" /><br />
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. I think it looks like a dog.
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<ol>
<li><img src="" />The ESA is landing the Rosetta on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.<br />Live Feed (via <a href="https://new.livestream.com/ESA/cometlanding">https://new.livestream.com/ESA/cometlanding</a>)<br /><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="http://new.livestream.com/accounts/362/events/3544091/player?width=560&height=315&autoPlay=true&mute=false" width="560"> </iframe><br /><br />Also, it has been discovered that the comet is singing a 40-50 hertz song into space and because the European Space Agency is cool like that, they put it on Soundcloud<br /><br /><iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/176387011&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><br /></li>
<li>Back on Earth, Glenn Beck has explained he is retiring because of illness. I harbor no real love for Glenn Beck, but it is impossible to ignore the effectiveness of his personal invective on the public. I was weirdly moved by his semi-cryptic announcement about his mysterious illness. Basically, he doesn't dream and it is destroying him, causing him to feel searing pains in his hands and feet. He speaks of having his wife check his feet for broken glass and doesn't mention stigmata, so I'll give him points for toning it down here.<br /><br />The announcement is a powerful cocktail of vulnerability and ego.<br /><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="224" src="http://www.video.theblaze.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=36910783&width=400&height=224&property=theblaze" width="400">Your browser does not support <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" id=":10.14" tabindex="-1" role="menuitem" aria-haspopup="true" style="background: yellow;">iframes</span>.</iframe></li>
<li>I lost my keys. That will remind you live in the world. If you find them (they have a white plastic bottle opener, an ironically unused green carbiner clip and Hyundai key fob on the ring), drop me a line.<br /></li>
<li>I'm becoming nostalgic, or realizing that I have always been nostalgic despite denying it. My band, <a href="http://rakers.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">the Rakers</a>, has embarked on a monthly River City Rewind project at <a href="http://www.chealseascafe.com/" target="_blank">Chelsea's</a>, where we cover a bunch of old, forgotten Baton Rouge songs from yesteryear. This is one of my current favorites we are doing for the 11/19 show at Chelsea's.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wrxFYGcxX7A" width="420"></iframe><br />The Greek Fountains, "Countin' the Steps"<br /><br />Come on out! We are doing a Kyper song!<br /></li>
<li>But yeah, nostalgia. My earliest "memory" is of the moon landing in 1969. The story goes that my father held me up to the TV to see it when I was but a few months old and forever I insisted I remember it. Now, I know memory is a selectively curated collage. My ability to remember people is as dodgy at Glenn Beck's but you don't see me comparing myself to Winston Churchill. <br /><br /><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91Lt6%2Blfc4L._SL1500_.jpg" height="320" width="320" /><br /><i>Tashi plays Messiaen Quartet at the End of Time</i><br /><br />My nostalgia is manifesting through my daughter's record player and I just realized that I can check out albums from the campus library. As a student, I would take up residence in the library basement listening rooms and study and smoke and wallow in obtuse classical music, so now I'm checking these records out and doing the same at home, without the smoking.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/UeSVu1zbF94" width="560"></iframe><br />I love Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, composed for an odd quartet of musicians imprisoned with him during WWII. From wiki:<br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px;"><span style="line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered </span></span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="World War II">World War II</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">. He was captured by the German army in June 1940 and imprisoned in </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_VIII-A" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="Stalag VIII-A">Stalag VIII-A</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">, a prisoner-of-war camp in </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6rlitz" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="Görlitz">Görlitz</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">, Germany (now </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zgorzelec" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="Zgorzelec">Zgorzelec</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">, </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="Poland">Poland</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">). While in transit to the camp, Messiaen showed the clarinetist </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Akoka" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="Henri Akoka">Henri Akoka</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">, also a prisoner, the sketches for what would become </span><i style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">Abîme des oiseaux</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">. Two other professional musicians, violinist </span><a class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jean_le_Boulaire&action=edit&redlink=1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #a55858; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="Jean le Boulaire (page does not exist)">Jean le Boulaire</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;"> and cellist </span><a class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C3%89tienne_Pasquier_(cellist)&action=edit&redlink=1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #a55858; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="Étienne Pasquier (cellist) (page does not exist)">Étienne Pasquier</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">, were among his fellow prisoners, and after he managed to obtain some paper and a small pencil from a sympathetic guard (</span><a class="extiw" href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl-Albert_Br%C3%BCll" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #663366; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="de:Carl-Albert Brüll">Carl-Albert Brüll</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">, 1902-1989), Messiaen wrote a short </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trio_(music)" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="Trio (music)">trio</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;"> for them; this piece developed into the </span><i style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">Quatuor</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;"> for the same trio with himself at the piano. The combination of instruments is unusual, but not without precedent: </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rabl" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="Walter Rabl">Walter Rabl</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;"> had composed for it in 1896, as had </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hindemith" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px; text-decoration: none;" title="Paul Hindemith">Paul Hindemith</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;"> in 1938.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;"><br />The quartet was premiered at the camp, outdoors and in the rain, on 15 January 1941. The musicians had decrepit instruments and an audience of about 400 fellow prisoners and guards.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10.9090909957886px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatuor_pour_la_fin_du_temps#cite_note-1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;"> Messiaen later recalled: "Never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension."</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatuor_pour_la_fin_du_temps#cite_note-2" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-size: 10.9090909957886px; line-height: 1; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[2]</a><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 10.9090909957886px;"><br /></span></sup><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 10.9090909957886px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20.3636360168457px;">Brüll</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;"> provided paper and isolation for composing, and he also helped acquire the three other instruments. By forging papers with a stamp made from a potato, </span>Brüll<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;"> even helped the performers to be liberated shortly after the performance. After the war, </span>Brüll<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20.3636360168457px;"> made a special trip to visit Messiaen, but was sent away and told the composer would not see him.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10.9090909957886px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatuor_pour_la_fin_du_temps#cite_note-3" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<br /> But, I also really love Tashi, the string quartet on this recording. Check out that cape!</ol>
<ol><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91Lt6%2Blfc4L._SL1500_.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></ol>
Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-48772586055333619582014-10-06T15:39:00.001-05:002014-10-06T15:44:47.854-05:00Under the influence of A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE<img src="http://ms00.mask9.com/mt0x0000/10626/image/201010/movie-a-woman-under-the-influence-by-john-cassavetes-poster-mask9.jpg" /><br />
"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: DroidSansRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.7681884765625px;">cos he was the one to send it with truth that's something from </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: DroidSansRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.7681884765625px;">someone and Gena Rowlands" - Fugazi, "Cassavetes"</span><br />
<br />
5 things:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>
Gena Rowlands in John Cassavetes' <i>A Woman Under the Influence</i> is killing me.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yUoQmPircus" width="560"></iframe></li>
<li>Here is part 2 of the movie.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/N6fftOvnmOE" width="560"></iframe></li>
<li>We got cable and a new TV and Google Chromecast so we can stream everything to everything and experience the media world like all the ants in the digital anthill at once.<br /><br />It sort of works. The system glitched out just as Gena Rowlands asked her kid if he thought she was dopey and the kid said "You're smart. You're pretty. You're nervous, too." I feel that way about our wireless network. And the move in general, I guess. Everything I like is smart, pretty and nervous.</li>
<li>Honestly, I don't know Cassavetes' work all that well. I know he's important in that golden era of film that I don't really get into. I'm more familiar with this Fugazi song about him.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/cZlMzB_sNxk" width="420"></iframe><br />Fugazi, "Cassavetes" from <i>In On the Kill Taker</i>.</li>
<li>But, wow, what a movie. It is a masterwork in staggering dynamic shifts, like the scene where the African-American guy working for Peter Falk starts singing and Gena Rowlands is transfixed and all up in his face like he is going to kiss him and then the worker places a hand on Gena's head like she's going to kiss her but doesn't and then it escalates further and Peter Falk bellows for it to stop and it does as if the earth quit rotating. He apologizes later not knowing who or what he is apologizing for. Theirs is world held together by frayed cords.<br /><br />I haven't even gotten into part two of the movie and I still want to sing its praises. I need something new to get into (in this case, Cassavetes) like I need a hole in my head. <br />Speaking of things with holes, I think I have a new guitar. It is smart and pretty. Not even nervous.<br /><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="2" style="background: #FFF; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: -webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width: 99.375%; width: calc(100% - 2px);">
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Porch life forever.</div>
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<a href="https://instagram.com/p/tyYjH5PTsP/" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_top"> View on Instagram</a></div>
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<script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script><br /><br />It is a black lacquered Fender acoustic/electric, well suited for absorbing all possible light and transmitting my mannered darknesses.<br /><br />"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: DroidSansRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.7681884765625px;">in the dark till the lights came up my heart beating like a riot riot " - Fugazi, again.</span></li>
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Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-5401951845554875012014-08-13T08:13:00.004-05:002014-08-13T08:20:46.912-05:00tripped<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14903009011" title="tripped1 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="tripped1" height="480" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5590/14903009011_1e986c0e89_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
I caught a glance of the elusive LSU School of Music ghost squirrel a while back. I followed the squirrel through the trees for about 10 minute before I got a good look at it and it me.<br />
<br />
I would have liked some enterprising woodwind student to have come out and soundtracked the affair.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14906068595" title="tripped2 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="tripped2" height="480" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5566/14906068595_547c414156_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
This morning, the moon was taking the escalator down from the top deck of the stadium<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14903008901" title="tripped3 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="tripped3" height="480" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3903/14903008901_91116a71a9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
and this guy is trying to peek in my office window.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14906068385" title="tripped4 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="tripped4" height="480" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5580/14906068385_f33667153d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I've been thinking a lot about fonts and letterforms lately and how the curves all interact. For a second yesterday, I was saying, "I am going to make a font!" Almost downloaded the <a href="http://fontforge.org/" target="_blank">program</a> and everything.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14719395990" title="tripped5 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="tripped5" height="480" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3896/14719395990_09f08760d0_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
This creative switch has been tripped by the fact that I am in the throes of finishing <i>Gas Station Boudin</i>, among other throes. Nothing will get you thinking about things more than having a task at hand.<br />
<br />
Anyway, good morning, long-neglected blog readers! Come see <a href="http://rakers.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">my band, The Rakers</a>, at the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/the-BEATnik/371735282968343" target="_blank">BeatNik</a> if you are in New Orleans this Saturday. (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1450039835268036/" target="_blank">Here is the Facebook event</a>)<br />
<br />
For those that don't follow me <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5282086.Alex_V_Cook" target="_blank">elsewhere</a> and have been wanting to know what I have been reading, I was blown away by Denis Johnson's <i>Angels </i>and Yukio Mishima's <i>The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea.</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9903.Angels" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Angels" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347426900m/9903.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9903.Angels">Angels</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6468.Denis_Johnson">Denis Johnson</a></blockquote>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1022784664">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What a book! Everything is precise, even the hallucinations and the real unfathomable horrors, even the sense of indirection in these characters' lives. There is no mercy in this world, but there is a tactile web of sympathy, and precision of that sympathy is what holds us up over that darkness to which we are drawn.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/162332.The_Sailor_Who_Fell_from_Grace_with_the_Sea" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327629352m/162332.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/162332.The_Sailor_Who_Fell_from_Grace_with_the_Sea">The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/35258.Yukio_Mishima">Yukio Mishima</a></blockquote>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1010719571">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This book is all killer, no filler. Precise sly from the early pages where a young boy peeps through a hole in the wall to watch his mother have sex with a sailor, this perverse parable of fate, glory and destiny unfurls like a pennant planted on previously unclaimed land.<br />
<br />
Mishima's language razor precise; I can only imagine how powerful this is in the original. His sense of time passing is magical, minutes can flow into pages and a whole season can be condensed on a paragraph break. Points of view are similarly mutable; as if everyone is of a single cultural mind. And the ending almost had me shout NO were I not vainly attempting the stoic, flaws of manhood woven through the book. Total page turner, yet perfectly crafted.</blockquote>
The types used for both were designed by a Mr. Dwiggins. I told you I was into this.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/162332.The_Sailor_Who_Fell_from_Grace_with_the_Sea"><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="710" scrolling="no" src="//instagram.com/p/rDrY_OPTs8/embed/" width="612"></iframe></a><br />
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And I wrote a slew new songs I'm proud of.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/7mF8cNHwM9U" width="560"></iframe><br />
"I'm Not Afraid of my Soul"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/c42VJ3TFEVY" width="560"></iframe><br />
"Supernova"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3-2SmLZ9vmg" width="560"></iframe><br />
"Esmeralda"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZJj5wxsI214" width="560"></iframe><br />
"Flannery O'Connor"<br />
<br />
So that covers me. Today's ramble has been brought to you by the Tony Williams Lifetime.<br />
Have a good one!<br />
<br />
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:album:4F87oejn638g4Os0rZzZct" width="300"></iframe><br />
<br />Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-6218746916994967012014-07-08T20:01:00.000-05:002014-07-08T20:31:53.172-05:00Four TV things<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2555542167/image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2555542167/image.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sparkle Johnson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>24: Live Another Day</b></i><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/g5D8DhgLsWE" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
I cannot muster the interest for the World Cup. I haven't climbed aboard Neil deGrasse Tyson's weird little spaceship, though I longed to co-pilot the original <i>Cosmos</i> one along side Carl Sagan who would, on the outer stretches of the mind's glorious imagination, tell me he is my real father and ask me if I want to get wicked high. I didn't even watch all of <i>The Wire</i> though I know, I know... I don't care that much about TV. I'd just as soon watch <i>Star Trek</i> than anything.<br />
<br />
But I love <i>24</i>. It is stupid, predictable, jingoistic. It relies on it structural conceit the way a dozing lummox does a straining hammock frame. It is essentially a giant phone ad. I love every president-personally-involving, about-to-gouge-out-your-eye-if-you-don't -tell-me-who-you-are-working-with moment. <i>Ponk pink ponk pink</i> goes the beat of my heart. I'm sorry.<br />
<br />
The thing I love about this ninth season/reboot is that Jack Bauer, the unflappable stress sponge that has saved countless American hides in real time for almost a decade, is fed up. Democracy has failed him time and again. He doesn't even flinch when the government is out to arrest him one second and then he's on the phone with the president the next. By the way, William Devane with his Alzheimer's and his Wilford Brimleyist public speaking style is the most believable president on the series.<br />
<br />
Jack won me over this season after torturing a sympathetic terrorist a little too much as he forced doctors to waker her from a coma so he could do so, and his partner witnessed a man gone too far. Jack, for the first time, recoiled at himself and apologized, saying, "I shouldn't have done that. It's just that I hate these people." That is a great apology! Insufficient, like all apologies, but still, an honest one.<br />
<br />
Jack is a savior, a torture spy Jesus, forever arisen from the cave. He is Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," killing people he once saved. I love it when a noble soul has had it.<br />
<br />
Plus, Chloe is a goth now! The only thing that would have been hotter is if Agent Scully had gone goth.<br />
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<i><b>The Leftovers</b></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/TX4IVPpmrQw" width="560"></iframe></i><br />
<br />
I'm only two episodes into HBO's latest contribution to the rapture noir genre, and truthfully, I don't yet care about any of the characters, but then, like, God didn't care about them either. 2% of the world upped and disappeared in an instant. You even got the "In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned" gag, with a car plummeting driverless into trash cans as a handful of people yelled for so-and-so who just vanished.<br />
<br />
It's great that only 2% left. Just enough to jack with the social order but not dismantle it. People join a guilt cult where you have to wear white and be silent. My wife astutely pointed out that it is the same cult John Lithgow joins in <i>The World According to Garp.</i> I keep hoping to see him lumbering around in the background. Otherwise, people work for insurance companies and coffee shops just like in pre-God-forsaken now.<br />
<br />
The slight shift that the remaining 98% needed to make to get along is jarring, which is the beauty of the show. Our deal is so fragile, yet we can survive and mutate to anything. We have a much harder time living with ourselves than we do any level of adversity.<br />
<br />
I remember right after Hurricane Gustav walking through the fallen trees in my powerless streets to Calandro's, the neighborhood supermarket, which was weirdly open. There was no power, just battery lights and people making cash purchases for whatever there was to have. I asked if there was a cold Coke in the place and Misti the cashier said, "There's Cokes, but they ain't cold."<br />
<br />
A weary panic was in the air there, a semblance of going about one's day against a wave of futility. Lights were flickering and everyone was sweating and worn to a nub. I thought then, <i>I bet the rapture will be like this</i>. Not a wholesale desolation like Hurricane Katrina, but a system-wide bummer like Gustav. It kinda is, on HBO anyway.<br />
<br />
I love it when Justin Theroux breaks the toaster at the station because he believes the rapture has taken his bagel. A vengeful god indeed!<br />
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<b><i>Superjail</i> </b>(season 4)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xmMslQRB3aI" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
This is all getting to heavy. I'm on a Beckett kick again and maybe that is informing this gloom fetish. Superjail is not part of that. It is a dense, hypnogogic, lurid eye massage. I'm a little chagrinned that they have dispensed with the opening song, what with the new version of it before every episode, but that is a small price to pay for the Bosch-like mayhem this show creates.<br />
<br />
<b>Sparkle Johnson commercials for Hotel Furniture Liquidators in New Orleans.</b><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xzDEBCF3ZYo" width="420"></iframe><br />
Lamps everywhere!<br />
<br />
New Orleans TV has always played host to great lo-fi local ads. Every person of a certain age who grew up in their broadcast area knows by heart the addresses of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5NZwctIkng" target="_blank">Seafood City</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSadkr6W_Lk" target="_blank">Rosenberg's</a>.<br />
<br />
Add Sparkle Johnson to that pantheon, shilling for Hotel Furniture Liquidators.<br />
<br />
I had a discussion on Facebook - where I saw this - about whether Sparkle was in blackface (unsure; I can't tell if the Google Image search for <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=sparkle+johnson&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ZpK8U-CMF4Hd8AGrxoDIBw&ved=0CDUQsAQ&biw=1311&bih=622" target="_blank">"Sparkle Johnson"</a> tells the story or not. I think the white guy in the photos is a <i>different</i> Sparkle Johnson.) and whether it was covered by the transformation clauses of drag (possibly). It's a send up of bounce, which is in itself a send-up of hip-hop, masculinity, femininity, urban fetishism and a bunch of things. And is a real thing unto itself. Where do you get sent with the send-up of a send-up? Does the real thing get lost? Isn't that what the web kind of is now? Either way, I'm riveted. I wonder if it works and if so, for whom? Are hipsters flocking there? Wouldn't they already be? So many questions does Sparkle pose.<br />
<br />
New Orleanian culturalistas tend to be wildly protective of appropriation/misunderstanding of what's "theirs" so I wonder how this fits in. I wonder if this is like a bounce Moebius strip of referentiality. I'm not sure if this is offensive or in bad taste. I like it when I'm not sure how to feel about something I'm presented. I usually say that is when I'm in the presence of true art.<br />
<br />
This one is weirder.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/jv-N_8YUkko" width="420"></iframe><br />
CHAIRS! Apply directly to your butt! It's also got a great finish.Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-43754481064904684002014-06-22T23:40:00.003-05:002014-06-23T08:09:54.969-05:00Night-blooming cereus<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14486428415" title="IMG_9275 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_9275" height="480" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5198/14486428415_a1b71ab2c8_c.jpg" width="640"></a>
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If the slideshow doesn't work for you, please click <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/sets/72157645317527715/show/" target="_blank">here</a> to see it. <br>
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I feel like I've been waiting for months for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night-blooming_cereus">night-blooming cereus</a> on our patio to bloom, like the wait for good news or a baby or a unicorn or sea creature to come into the frame of your camera set up in the wilderness. Its freakish glory lasts for a single night, once a year, if at all, and then it goes dormant. One wants to get poetic about it, like<br>
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Mine - by the Right of the White Election!</h1>
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<span class="author" style="background-color: white; color: #4d493f; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.05em; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/emily-dickinson" style="color: #043d6e; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">EMILY DICKINSON</a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><br>
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Mine - by the Right of the White Election!</div>
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Mine - by the Royal Seal!</div>
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Mine - by the sign in the Scarlet prison -</div>
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Bars - cannot conceal!</div>
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Mine - here - in Vision - and in Veto!</div>
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Mine - by the Grave's Repeal -</div>
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Titled - Confirmed -</div>
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Delirious Charter!</div>
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Mine - long as Ages steal!</div>
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or to suss out whatever Walt Whitman said about white flowers and as usual, Whitman has the best attitude.<br>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><i>You must not know too much or be too precise about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.</i></span><br>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14463327406" title="IMG_9271 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_9271" height="480" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3914/14463327406_9e6c30c059_c.jpg" width="640"></a><br>
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Shot with a Canon PowerShot SX using the flashlight from the iPhone 5 for lighting. Magic provided by flowers.<br>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14485193462" title="IMG_9266 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_9266" height="480" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2928/14485193462_4e63e8accc_c.jpg" width="640"></a>Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-49383670589912487742014-06-12T09:46:00.002-05:002014-06-13T07:26:53.309-05:00Rooster died and the "just keep writing" blues<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14190835846" title="mulatto bend 8 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="mulatto bend 8" height="480" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2907/14190835846_df8d0ffe14_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
The fine folks at LSU Press had me expand on life and death and Slim Harpo's grave over on their <a href="http://blog.lsupress.org/discovering-louisiana-mulatto-bend-resting-place-of-slim-harpo-john-allen-and-ophelia-jackson" target="_blank">blog</a>. That is actually Ophelia Jackson's grave in the same graveyard as Slim's. We didn't have band practice last night so I went to a session of the Baton Rouge Adult Music club and we played "Ophelia," as it happens. Then we played the Band's version of Springsteen's "Atlantic City" from <i>Jericho, </i>which I've never heard, somehow.<br />
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I'm not as up on the Band as I should be, I guess, but they are such a mortar to the bricks of the music I love. I figure I'll hear it all by the time the second coming of Ophelia occurs.<br />
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I'm into my 78s a lot, priming the pump for the "just keep writing" blues that I am currently experiencing. <a href="http://instagram.com/p/pFVo0GPTtD/" target="_blank">This one sounds fantastic,</a> maybe even because of the worn spot at the center. I suspect that can be said about anything with a worn spot at the center.<br />
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I'm reading a bunch of Flannery O'Connor, which will give anyone the blues about his or her own writing.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48468.The_Violent_Bear_it_Away" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Violent Bear it Away" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388381676m/48468.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48468.The_Violent_Bear_it_Away">The Violent Bear it Away</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22694.Flannery_O_Connor">Flannery O'Connor</a>My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/961901633">4 of 5 stars</a><br />
Something in me feels scorched having just finished THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY. Or, perhaps it is the wound this wild novel opened has been cauterized.<br />
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It's the perfect book for the ardent heathen like myself to have my possibly empty spiritual foundation shaken by the biblical odyssey of a reluctant prophet, slinking with futility against his destiny. It's also a great melodrama for the parent of a newly sulking teenager whose life is being ruined by said parent. Flannery O'Connor's rhythms, her nests of ness-es - madness, fullness, weakness, emptiness - seethe and writhe like serpents.<br />
<br />
Fairly certain Cormac McCarthy lifted his backbeat from O'Connor, doubtless the scholars of Southern Lit and confirm or deny this, but really, who could blame him? I want to set the woods on fire right now. Everyone does, maybe. The characters and climax are five-star, but I got a little lost in its middle thicket, and not in the way I want to get lost in a novel. It was hard to tell who the real main character was, who was really who, but I suspect this is more of an existential construct on the part of the author than a failing. Whatever it was, it was hard going and it was beautiful.</blockquote>
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Also, in a fit of reading things I've never actually read, I read <i>Death of a Salesman</i>.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12898.Death_of_a_Salesman" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Death of a Salesman" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347856025m/12898.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12898.Death_of_a_Salesman">Death of a Salesman</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8120.Arthur_Miller">Arthur Miller</a>My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/953748436">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
I made a crack about "Death of a Salesman" the other day on Facebook and realized that I'd never actually read it. It was one of those books I only knew from the wake it left in the waters. This is one of the those great works that still challenges the world to understand and accept its universal meaning, a spectacular avant-grade meta-statement about the anti-nature of modern (then and now) times. That little tube on the heater, the panic in Willy Loman's emotional oscillations - perhaps not the best book to read when one is considering a career change unless if it's read as a warning fable. Willy pursues an uncatchable dream and ends up clawing the ground in the dark.<br />
<br />
One thing that doesn't get mentioned is how vivid the scene directions are. Flute music represents the characters in a house that is permeable with the environment, just as the timeline folds back on itself in a strangling loop.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You kind of want Willy to succeed at failing after all that failing to succeed and yet you get left empty for it.Willy's successful brother Ben cements a dream in the salesman's withering mind with "The jungle is dark but full of diamonds." That would only work if the diamonds lit up and showed you the way.</blockquote>
It made me want to design a dark, glowing stage layout in PhotoShop, which is something I imagine Arthur Miller never really had in mind as the desired effect for his writing. We don't get to decide the effects of what we do.<br />
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Here is a song <a href="http://rakers.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">the band</a> is working up into a resounding rocker. I played it at a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/477934209004572/" target="_blank">singer-songwriter meetup</a> at the library the other day. It's kinda my favorite: a monolithic downer with a little glimmer in the dark.<br />
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<br />
Speaking of, our band has been pulled into the fold surrounding <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HenryTurnerJrListeningRoom" target="_blank">Henry Turner Jr.'s Listening Room</a> and the compatriots there and its a sweet group of people doin' their thing. Thing is, <a href="http://theadvocate.com/home/9434129-125/body-of-missing-canoeist-found" target="_blank">Rooster died</a>. He was a wild, old longhair that looked and carried on like what you'd picture a guy named Rooster looking like and carrying on. Like most wild people, he was a really nice guy in the brief time I've known him. He lived across the river and didn't have a car, but he had a canoe and a bicycle and he'd row the Mississippi to ride across town to hang out with the fold and then at night, row back.<br />
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Before you start on the "bad idea" route about canoeing across the river at night, with the barges and the undertow and all, he heard it already and got across the way he could. There are plenty of bad ideas that govern our lives and even our untimely ends, but they don't define us. The fact that we get across however we do is what defines us and to that, I salute you, Rooster.<br />
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<br />Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-16763147881178959402014-06-04T10:31:00.002-05:002014-06-04T11:53:17.729-05:00100 words on the new Jasper Johns paintings<iframe height="600" src="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/arts/design/jasper-johns-regrets-a-new-series-at-moma.html?_r=0#slideshow/100000002780892/100000002780901" width="600"></p>
</iframe><br />
Slideshow as presented in "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/arts/design/jasper-johns-regrets-a-new-series-at-moma.html">A Lens Catches; a Painter Converts</a>" in the March 21, 2014 issue of the <i>New York Times. </i>Click on the painting if it's acting funny.<br />
<i><br /></i>
Jasper Johns went from painting things everyone knows to those no one does at a pace so slow he could watch the change of centuries whizz by, so slow I thought my favorite painter might have already been dead and how his art is so successful that the artist disappears completely into the image. That’s gotta feel good for a guy whose ties to existence seem tenuous.
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<img src="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_1998.329.jpg" /><br />
<i>White Flag</i>, 1955<br />
Jasper Johns (American, born 1930)<br />
Encaustic, oil, newsprint, and charcoal on canvas; 78 5/16 x 120 3/4 in. (198.9 x 306.7 cm)<br />
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From <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1998.329" target="_blank">The Met's website</a>.</div>
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Also, the paintings, “Regrets,” bear giant M’s, which led to “Me and Eddie Vedder” by the Rugburns and. by extension, what would happen if Johns did his target/flag treatment on a pot leaf?<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/g3qHvLoZf5U" width="560"></iframe><br />
The Rugburns, "Me and Eddie Vedder"</div>
Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2082588386200559982.post-80426206500270942812014-05-26T13:06:00.000-05:002014-05-26T13:07:43.286-05:00100 words on Mad Men and oak trees<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14296287873" title="oaks1 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="oaks1" height="480" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3772/14296287873_84cde3beaa_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Last night’s <i>Mad Men</i> with Burt watching the moon landing under a big Jackson Pollock with his maid,<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14296291103" title="oaks2 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="oaks2" height="480" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3828/14296291103_bc8d6ea6d9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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the same moon landing that my father held me up to the TV to at only a few months old, a holding I swore until I knew better that I remembered being held,<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14089455348" title="oaks3 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="oaks3" height="480" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5534/14089455348_1eeaeb6f77_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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got me thinking about the big paintings,<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14089466739" title="oaks4 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="oaks4" height="480" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5508/14089466739_43e909938b_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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squinting through the oak trees that limb/limn their way across my whole life, sometimes even falling through my roof like a loosened astronaut<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookalexv/14272789661" title="oaks5 by Alex V. Cook, on Flickr"><img alt="oaks5" height="480" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5572/14272789661_2de1a9656c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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or Don Draper falling
off that office building already, what with all the balcony shots all the time.<o:p></o:p></div>
Alex V Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03727183490888659528noreply@blogger.com0