end of the line

Saturday:
The Doors (directed by Oliver Stone)
The Doors, L.A. Woman (40th Anniversary Edition)

I'm not wholly convinced of the popular consensus that the Doors are a categorically terrible group. When did the tables turn on the Doors? They were such a great rite of passage band. Easy danger. Is there no longer a need for rock 'n' roll to be transgressive? Like at all? I've been trying to put together a top 10 list and reading others' lists for inspiration and it all seems fine, just fine music, but without a lick of danger in any of it. I was on the radio last year talking smack about late career R.E.M. saying they sanded down the edges of the '90s and I feel the same thing is happening now with kumbaya nature of indie rock. Maybe I'll get my list together. The only record on it I feel strongly about is Free Reign by Clinic so I'll put that at #1.



I will concede with confidence that The Doors the movie was and is terrible. The worst part is it reminded me of every lizard-king heavy conversation I ever had about them, ones in which I was a believer and ones in which I was an eye roller.

It is also, in its "trippy" parts, a cinematically desperate and lukewarm Kenneth Anger ripoff. Jimmy Page got himself a curse thrown on him for crossing Kenneth Anger.


Here's the music that got Jimmy cursed.



Here's Kenneth Anger's ritualistic 1973 film Lucifer Rising with a soundtrack by Bobby Beausoleil before he got in with Charlie Manson. It's not my favorite of his, but it has its merits, among which are a pert Marianne Faithful trotting around some stone stairs and then looking high.  Be forewarned in this careful age; there is some nudity. And witchcraft; weren't we as a nation a little scared of witchcraft early on in 2012? Oliver Stone should make a movie about the Page/Anger/Beuasoleil thing. Let Clinic do the music. Give Kenneth Anger $10 million for special effects. It would be like Fitzcarraldo except with devil magic.

I did on Saturday groove with clear conscience on this number. Let me tell you about Texas radio and the big beat!



Sunday (courtesy Matt's and Gregor's best of 2012 lists at Captain's Dead)
Allah-Las, Allah-Las
Sun Kil Moon, Among the Leaves
Divine Fits, A ThIng Called Divine Fits
Woods, Bend Beyond
Water Liars, Phantom Limb
The District Attorneys, Slowburner
Clinic, Free Reign


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The trip down to the end of the line in Cocodrie to eat at Sportsman's Paradise and to pick up the dog from my parents' house was a success and a excess.



I intended to make some resolutions here at the end of the line for 2012 but instead I wrote two articles for my book and met one of my deadlines early for next week and paid January's bills already. Intention be damned. 2013 will be an action year! Yeah! Feel the heat! See you in hell, 2012!

Actually, 2012 was a pretty active year for yours truly. I published a book that seems to be actually selling reasonably well. I actually had a hard time finding a copy right before the holidays. I got to go to some festivals and be an expert. I became a college professor. I wrote some songs and sang and played some songs in public. I read a lot, did a lot, ate a lot, listened to a lot. I figured out some key things in this writing gig. I figured out a few things in general. It's not a bad haul. This could be a perfect time to put a link to "The End" but I'll refrain. Restraint is another thing I learned. Break on through, y'all.