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2006 Recommendations:December (4th Week)Like No Direction Home or The Last Waltz, The Complete Monterey Pop Festival opened a floodgate of music that I've never been that into, but suddenly found myself obsessed with. I know enough about the Mamas and the Papas to be suitably unimpressed with their performance, but that's the extent of the scenes that won't knock you strait out of your chair. The Who's guitar smashing is out-done by Jimi's making love, kissing goodbye, lighting on fire, and smashing of his axe. The real standouts for me on this DVD are Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company. I could go on and on about why they're so fantastic, but hey, why don't you save me the effort and watch this film for yourself (there's a sweet new version with two supplemental discs).
December (3rd Week)This is one of those rare movies where it doesn't feel like the director/writer is trotting out the characters to blab their brief version of what a stock character should say, but rather it feels like we're spying on some real people. The amazing thing is that virtually all the characters are really caricatures, but we are so deftly placed into the Michael Douglass character's mindset - that the over-the-top nature of the characters feels realistic. The casting is terrific (even Toby Maguire is pretty good, and Robert Downey Jr. is always underrated) and might I say that one of my absolute favorite songs of all time was made for this movie (Bob Dylan's "Things Have Changed"). If you're in the mood to worry about who's going to end up with whom, or who's going to live 'til the end - you might want to pass on this one, but if you're ready to be hit with a barrage of slightly dark humor that's nicely woven together with subtly touching character interaction, rent this baby.
December (2nd Week)All things, when traced, lead back to rock, and all rock, when traced, leads back to Led Zeppelin, ergo, you need to score this DVD pronto! The cream of the albeit limited Zeppelin concert footage crop has been assembled here in an amazingly seamless fashion (it shows that Jimmy Page was present in the editing room). The result is what seems to be one long concert spanning Zeppelin's entire career. Plus, as a bonus, you don't have to sit there trying to understand why there are scenes of the band clad in armor riding white stallions through a forest spliced between the songs like there is in their previous DVD: The Song Remains the Same.
December (1st Week)You know those movies that everyone has seen, but somehow you missed, or maybe those books that are cherished must-reads, that you missed the memo on? Well, this is one of those moments for me. The other day I borrowed one of these book lights and it was fantastic. I have always just used a lamp or overhead light at night to read, but these book lights don't illuminate anything but the book. Imagine: the whole world consists of just you and your book - heaven if you choose wisely.
November (4th Week)Here's a poem I ran across recently and fell in love with. Follow the link below and you will find yourself at a page that contains both the text for "A Winter's Tale" and an accompanying audio file of Dylan Thomas reading his poem as only he can.
November (3rd Week)I reserve the right to usurp the weekly recommendation from time to time for my own dastardly plans, and this is one of those weeks. I've been getting a lot of inquires lately on the new book so, seeing as I recently passed the halfway point I'm going to give a little teaser. Here's a link to the first paragraph of the new book which is yet to be titled ("Flake's Bloom" and "Half-Life" are looking like the lead candidates right now). Click on the link below to open a PDF of this juicy morsel. First Paragraph of "Work in Progress" November (2nd Week)In the same vein as Nick Hornsby's High Fidelity, I'm doing a list for this week's recommendation. Here it is, top 3 songs you can hear a hundred times but still blow you away: #3 - "For Your Love" by The Yardbirds #2 - "Long Cool Woman" by The Hollies #1 - "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells November (1st Week)Pulp's "Disco 2000" is a great song, but this Nick Cave cover is the straight poop. In a way it's like that Iron and Wine version of the Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" - I never realized how good the original of either of those songs were until I started digging on their covers. It takes real talent and insight to turn a great song on its ear and keep the intension true. Download this Nick Cave cut (as always, right click the picture below and choose 'save link as' - you may get some noise picks and humbars if you left-click to play the song in your browser, but you're welcome to try), and be prepared to start asking your cooler friends whether they have any Nick Cave discs you can borrow. Nick Cave's cover of "Disco 2000"
October (4th Week)Here it is, your Halloween Trifecta: Three great movies to... okay, you got me, two great movies and one schlocky one (but it's scary)...three movies to make your Halloween week complete: The Crow - Where did all the people who loved this movie ten years ago go? It seems like no one I mention this movie to has seen it. A murdered rocker comes back on Halloween for revenge, and to rip some sweet riffs on his electric guitar while sitting shirtless on a rainy apartment rooftop. Yes! It has some good action scenes and Brandon Lee is actually really, really good in this one. Plus the whole getting accidentally shot, almost exactly like his father, adds some clout for this movie as a Halloween must see. Donnie Darko - One of the best, and possibly the most original flicks of the last several years. The cast/acting is fantastic even from some actors who aren't always great. This one is set in the eighties which is pulled off amazingly well with the help of a better than Tarentino soundtrack (yeah, I said it). This movie is by no means a slasher but it does have that dark something that makes it a fun late night viewing - and the climax takes place on Halloween. The Original Texas Chainsaw Massacre - This is by no means a good movie, in fact it could be the worst movie I have ever seen. The first half hour is like watching paint dry, there is no real plot arc, in fact, there isn't really a plot. The camera work is laughable. But oddly, all of these shortcomings just make the whole thing more haunting. It's one of those films that you can make fun of while it's on, but it's disturbing enough to make it stick in the back of your mind. October (3rd Week)A friend gave me this disc shortly after it came out about four years ago. I threw it into a spindle with a bunch of other stuff that I wanted to get to eventually and there it sat until I went exploring for a fresh CD to throw in my car yesterday on the way to work. 36 hours later and I'm totally obsessed with this album, I've listened to it ten times and I can't wait to get back into my car to listen to it again. I had really never listened to The Flaming Lips save for a track hare and there, big mistake.
October (2nd Week)Do you ever have that feeling when you're listening to an album at that perfect time, where you feel a sense of ultimate gratitude - to the band, but even beyond that to the musicians who influenced that band, and beyond that all the people who have helped shape the human fabric that made the band and the situation in which you're listening to it possible. With this crushing sense of gratitude comes the longing to give something back, back to the band, back to the world. Well, this week it feels like I'm doing that - and it feels good. I've been obsessed for the last two weeks: scanning Joyce manuscript images, looking for his old letters, comparing twelve different lowercase "e"s, and tweeking contours on my laptop. The result is a font that imitates James Joyce's handwriting that is as good as I can make it. Follow the link below to score the font: Grab the James Joyce font
October (1st Week)With rare exceptions, I don't like hearing an author/poet read his/her work aloud. It nearly always sounds pretentious and hoity-toity. Yuck. This is the ultimate exception: James Joyce reading from Finnegans Wake. Skilled readers of the Wake are hard to come by (Joyce may be the only person qualified for the job due to his transient flowing between languages and double, triple, and quadruple meanings behind nearly every word of this text). This is the only recording of Joyce reading from his final work. At the time of recording (1929) he was nearly blind so the recorder, C.K. Ogden, transcribed this passage in giant lettering for Joyce. During the reading however it became necessary for someone to prompt Joyce by whispering the words in his ear for him to recite. Right click on the picture of James and "save target as" for the audio. Also, follow along using the PDF document below. I've translated the passage into James Joyce's handwriting using a font that I've created by scouring his letters and manuscript scraps (more on that next week).
September (4th Week)Have you seen the new Ipod commercial? In it, young hipsters are waving Nanos around, each leaving a trail of light behind. It looks pretty cool, but it reminds me of something way cooler. More than a half-century ago a photographer named Gjon Mili was assigned to photograph Picasso for a magazine. Upon arrival he showed Picasso some prints he had carried along using an open shutter in a dark room to catch a machine's streaking lights. As the story goes, immediately Picasso began tracing shapes in the air with his finger, Mili opened the shutter, handed him a light and this figure of Picasso and his Minotaur was captured. Perhaps if you could step away from time, look at it objectively, instead of being caught up in it, you might see the world this way, in which things that at any one moment don't make much sense (like a point of light in a room), but when joined with the context of their future and past, mean something.
September (3rd Week)Aliens land and demand you point them to Earth's finest band; the band will be taken to an intergalactic battle of the bands, the prize: a ray gun that turns sprouts to chocolate and muzak to reggae. Who do you send? Will Bob Dylan rock hard enough to get their flippers tapping? Will Atmosphere's cultural references be lost on the ten-eared judges? Based on their Minneapolis show on Friday, I'm putting my vote in for sending Zero 7. True, they aren't my absolute favorite band - but I dig 'em, and I'm positive our galactic neighbors would understand why. Zero 7's lead singer, Sia, emotes plenty and her pixie-like charm would help win over the judges. And the band's electronic percussion couldn't hurt any. These Mp3's are from a very similar show that Zero 7 put on about a month before the Minneapolis show. Right click the track you want and click "Save As." If you've never listened to Zero 7, I'll recommend tracks 2 and 4 for starters. If you are already familiar with Zero 7, see track 3 to blow your gourd. Enjoy. Zero 7: Live @ Lowlands (08.18.2006)
September (2nd Week)If you're into the chill-techno, electronica type thing, then this album would be worth picking up. It's quality from start to finish. I wouldn't say there are really any standouts (I do dig "Vampire Song" though) but, there also aren't any clunkers on here. A great disc to accompany your Geometry Wars sessions.
September (1st Week)Here's a free little program that adds typewriter sounds to your computer. Just load it onto your laptop and sidle up next to some hoity-toity folks at the coffee shop and plunk away. It has value besides pestering though. If you don't use a typewriter often, I think you'll find it amazing how much the typewriting sound helps to keep you in that writing groove.
August (4th Week)Yes, there are subtitles. Yes, most of this film is in black and white. And, yes, anyone who walks past as you're watching will think you're one of "those" people. After literally years of hearing that this is a must see, I finally broke down and watched "Wings of Desire." Just as with "City of Angels," which is based on this movie, there are parts that I think are outta sight, and there are parts that I think could be much improved. Overall though, this flick is pretty eye-opening. The poet, Homer, in this film is pure gold; and the Nick Cave concert toward the end was a real treat. I ended up not really liking the message, but it was still well worth the watch.
August (3rd Week)This would be a pretty daunting book to read cover to cover. I suppose the ideal way to read it would be to read each section as a sort of tinted mirror to every unit as you go through history classes, but that ship has sailed for many of us. If you read the first part of this history and feel like you are in danger of putting the book down, skip ahead to a part of history that interests you and see what the teacher did tell you (and probably didn't know) in high school. Let me just say this, political views aside, if I had a K-12 kid, I would start him/her on this book right away. It is one of this books that has real power: it can teach tolerance, it can teach compassion, and most importantly - it can open the reader's eyes to the human responsibility to help each other.
August (2nd Week)If you ever find yourself in SLC and you are fond of amazing food at reasonable prices, you must check out the Oasis Cafe. They have this chicken entree that is this pastry bowl filled with mashed potatoes, chicken, and some kind of green (avocado?) sauce that I would probably drown a kitten for - and their peach cobbler is just as good.
August (1st Week)A few months ago I put Neil Young's song: "On the Beach" here and announced that I was going to acquire the album. After listening to it a bah-zillion times, I'm convinced that it's one of those albums everyone needs to own. It's like Shakespeare or some such thing, even if you don't like it, it's too important and influential to have not experienced.
July (4th Week)It was only about a year ago that I realized that Van Morrison isn't just for high school / college girls. Somehow I get all nostalgic listening to him, even though I never really listened to him when I was younger. I think he really lets it loose on "And It Stoned Me" from the Moondance album. Incidentally, my opinion of him skyrocketed while watching "The Last Waltz;" he lets it all hang out. So if you don't like him yet, check out that film too.
July (3rd Week)This interview was passed on to me by a big Radiohead fan. It's just over a half hour long and well worth a listen whether you're a Radiohead fan or not. It really makes me wonder what the face of the world would look like if we were all a bit more honest with ourselves and in turn, each other. Whew, sorry to get heavy and, well...honest there for a second.
July (2nd Week)Whoa! Now here's a website. This is by far the most interesting band website I've ever run across. Plug in your headphones and go for a ride. Incidentally, check out the song "Protection" off the album of the same name, and the video for "Angel."
July (1st Week)I read somewhere that this service is one of the few good things about the internet. I don't know if I would be quite so negative about the net, but this is, nevertheless, one of the best uses of the net I've seen. Last.fm allows you to listen to commercial free radio with a unique selection of music for each user based on which bands you tell it you're in the mood for -- it will chose music that fits with those bands and play it. You can also skip the current song or tell it that it should play more like the track you're hearing; so it essentially continues to get a better and better feel for the music you like. If all that wasn't enough you can also create a buddy list of sorts and listen to each other's personalized radio stations. Did I mention it's free?
June (4th Week)Chances are, you already have "Urban Hymns" by The Verve. If not, one of your friends does. Sadly, most people bought this album for "Bittersweet Symphony," a song for which the band must give all proceeds to The Stones. Anyway, the real gem on this album is "The Drugs Don't Work."
June (3rd Week)Okay, riffing off of last week's recommendation - check this out: the music video for Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water." Show it to your friends and revel in their stunned half laughter as their brain cracks in two and fries like an egg ala those old drug commercials. I'll put a link to a streaming video of it, but if possible you should check it out on "The Work of Director Michel Gondry," which has oodles of other sweet videos for your head baking pleasure.
June (2nd Week)All that Michel Gondry touches turns to gold and this movie is no exception. Trippy? Yes. Amazing? Yes. Charming? Yes. Unique? Absolutely. This is the director who did that White Stripes Lego music video and my favorite music video of all time "Let Forever Be." Pair him up with Charlie Kaufman, the writer of Adaptation and Being John Malkovich. Sit back and let your mind slowly blow away.
June (1st Week)Need that perfect background for your laptop that tells everyone else in the coffeehouse that you're into good music and also hints at some artist flair? Then check out gigposters.com. They've got a hand full of posters for just about every artist you could think of.
May (4th Week)If you've ever read "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," you know what I mean when I say that it's one of those books that could never be made into a movie. So little is real in that book first off, and secondly, most of the humor and insight takes place in Hunter's head. Now, if you've ever seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, you know that somehow Terry Gilliam managed to pull it off. Some absolutely top notch acting by Johnny Depp and some even topper notch acting by Benicio Del Toro go a long way to sell the story, which is surprisingly well cut to fit cinema length.
May (3rd Week)Sometimes it takes that one song perfect song at that one perfect moment to get you into an artist. For example, for me, and for a friend of mine, "Visions of Johanna" played at that one moment, led to a Bob Dylan obsession. I would say this happens maybe once or twice a year for me, but it happened to me twice in the last week. One was a Jimi song, but it's one of the more popular ones and I'm already a Jimi fan, so I'll pass on that for now. The other was Neil Young's "On the Beach." In about ten minutes I'm going to go buy the album of the same name. I'll have to admit that I've never been a Neil Young fan, but today that might change. Good song.
May (2nd Week)I attended the Arcade Fire show at First Ave. September of last year, so it was bittersweet to catch a broadcast of the show on The Current a week later, because it caught me off-guard so I wasn't able to record it. But after much googling I have found someone who did. Follow the link below to score it. Funny story: As a bit of a music elitist, I felt, as I usually do, that the crowd wasn't worthy of the Arcade Fire's amazing show. As a perfect example, there's a lyric where they sing "Children, wake up. Hold your mistake up." Well being the heady audience it was, several people held up their beers. This is where the sweetness begins, because one of the ladies about fifteen feet away held up her beer and the guy (presumably her date for the evening) held her up as high as he could. I got a pretty good laugh out of it at the time, but here's the great part...the situation meets you at any level you want to take it. At first you think, ha ha, his girlfriend is his mistake, but then maybe maybe it's his girlfriend's beer consumption that's his mistake. But even further in the chain, and probably more likely, is that his mistake is his not listening to/taking to heart the lyrics of the artists in front of him. It would make a great story, if only I knew someone who liked to write about concerts...
May (1st Week)This album was recommended to me by a fellow at the "Clap Your Hands" show. I've had a couple weeks to chew on it and I'm officially ready to give it my stamp of approval. This is the fourth official release by "The National." Alligator is solid from beginning to end - partially because there isn't a ton of variety to be found on this album. It took me a while to figure out why I was able to keep returning to this album and keep enjoying it. For me, the sound of this album rings quite true to my own inner voice. It deals with a variety of emotions with a relatively even-handed attitude - and therefore, for me, this band has a welcome, honest feel.
April (4th Week)Well, I've done it. I've gotten through all of "Ulysses." It was no small task, but it was an enjoyable one. Everyone knows they should read "Ulysses," so instead of recommending it, I'm going to recommend one of the two companions that I used to help me along the way. "The New Bloomsday Book" was essential to any understanding that I derived from this experience. It lets you know when characters are speaking from a dream state and when they're referring to other characters by names other than their usual monikers.
April (3rd Week)This is my first individual song recommendation. It's a cover by M. Ward of my favorite CCR song: "Green River." It's not on an album or anything, so I guess you'll have to pay the man a dollar to download it. The good news is that the proceeds go to charity. I'm not going to say that M. Ward's version is better than the original, but it's right up there.
April (2nd Week)As predicted the Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah! (CYHSY) show was fab. The opening band, The Brunettes, got me going and the main show was great. I hadn't ever heard CYHSY live except once on Conan O'Brien, and I had heard they were a little lack-luster live. Not True. The real treat was hearing their new stuff, one song of which (Satan Said Dance) may be my new favorite CYHSY lick. After a bit of googling I found a live show available for download - check it out by clicking the image below.
April (1st Week)I'm hadn't planned on advertising products on this page, but these are just too good to keep secret. There are CDRs that look like little 45 records now (they're textured and everything). The best part is that they're about the same price as other cheepy blank CDs. I scored mine at Best Buy, so I'm sure they're available just about anywhere you can get blank CDs.
March (4th Week)Okay, well we've already had the best album of 2004 on this list (Arcade Fire's "Funeral"), why not throw on 2005's best? Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah! is just flat out fun. These boys are coming to the 400 Bar next week and it will be the best concert in Minneapolis this year. This album makes my short list of music you should buy no matter what genre you're into.
March (3rd Week)Were you forced to read The Great Gatsby in high school, not relating to a lick of it? You're not alone, but don't give up on Fitzgerald yet. There is collection of his shorter writings that dons the name of his best essay: "The Crack Up." You'll find other interesting reads in this collection but the "The Crack Up" essay will prove to you that F. Scott isn't just for high school teachers. If you ever feel that life is a grind and that maybe, just maybe, you're going to freak -- you'd better give this one a read. This book is worth having for the cover picture alone - there's a photo copy of it on my desk (try saying that at your next party; people eat that kind of talk up with two hands).
March (2nd Week)What if you could have been there the day Bob Dylan "went electric?" Imagine it: 1966, a British audience that had come to see the man who was the definition of American folk/rock sings along to the first half of the set, and then, without warning Dylan goes backstage only to come out with an electric guitar slung on his shoulder. He proceeds to play the second half of the show on his electric, even his hits of the time. The crowd is torn - some shout "sellout" during his set, most stand in awe. What if you could have been there for that moment, the moment Dylan went electric? Now you can:
March (1st Week)There's a fab new radio station in the Twin Cities area. They play a great mix if Indie music and the music that has influenced it. Where else are you going to hear Spoon, Johnny Cash, Portisehead, and Atmosphere on the same station? Not convinced? What if I told you that it's commercial free? You can tune it in at 89.3 FM if you're in the Mpls./St.Paul Area, if not, you can stream it through their website - just follow the link below.
February (4th Week)Here is a fabulous book of short stories. One of the stories in it can be found in just about every anthology released in the last ten years: "Gryphon." While "Gryphon is a solid, solid story, I would direct you to the Saul and Patsy story (which later spawned a novel). Charles Baxter has an uncanny ability to capture the special in-between moments of life that are far too absent in popular fiction. Click on the picture of the book to be taken to his website where you can not only purchase his work but read some samples as well.
February (3rd Week)The Arcade Fire's album: "Funeral" is, dare I say? Yes...perfect. These high-energy Canucks put on quite a show at First Ave. a couple months ago and are worth all the hype they've been receiving. There album gets you moving without being dancey; it's intense without being in-your-face; and it's comforting without being sappy. The first song on this record makes my top ten songs of all time -- just check out the lyrics: http://www.arcadefire.net/lyrics/funeral#tunnels You hooked? I thought so.
February (2nd Week)Okay, time for something on the lighter side. What recommendations page would be complete without a Stallone picture? If you haven't seen Demolition Man in a few years, I think it's high time you checked it out again. Laughable? No. Campy? Yes! This movie gives me the impression that Hollywood wanted to crank out another schlockbuster action movie, but some behind-the-scenes writer actually put some thought into the project. The future-speak dialogue is fantastic. The cast is actually fairly respectable (if you have an eagle eye, you can spot Jack Black in his 5-seconds of screen time). And if you like gratuitous sex and violence (and I know that you do), then add this one to your Netflix queue.
February (1st Week)No text will give you as much bang for your buck as a compilation of Hemingway's short stories. I'm going reserve the right to mention other short stories of his in future recommendations, but for this week I'd like to direct your attention to "A Clean Well-Lighted Place." Although it's only a couple pages long, this story packs a wallop. Hemingway claimed to have revised his stories more than a hundred times before releasing them...if you don't believe it, read this one.
January (4th Week)This one is for all you music lovers who recognize all the bands on my links list and are saying yourselves: "Doesn't this guy have anything to recommend that I haven't heard of?" Well, here you go. This little gem is hard to find, but if you like the Talking Heads, Scissor Sisters, and good groovy music in general, check these fellas out.
January (3rd Week)I'll throw a movie in here just to spread it around a bit. Okay this movie isn't necessarily my favorite, but there is some sweet dialogue and more than any other movie, it makes me feel like someone out there values screenwriting over marketability. The cigarette scene in this movie has the subtle profundity that is very rarely found in cinema today. Just a warning: you will have to read subtitles.
January (Week 2)Here is the first book to make my list of recommendations: Endless Highway: the Autobiography of David Carradine. I'm not even a big "Kung Fu" fan, so even if you don't know and/or love Carradine already - this one is still worth checking out. Carradine is not afraid to recognize the regrets in his life and present them as such. He is a wanderer above all else; and what could be more interesting to read than a story about the wandering path told from the perspective of the man who strode it.
This book is out of print, so you're best bet to acquire a copy might be Amazon.
January (Week 1)Seeing as this is the first of potentially a whole smorgasbord of sweet albums, stories and films, this is a special occasion. As such, I believe it deserves the best, as in the album that I consider to be the best album of all time. So here it is, with out much further adieu…drum roll please…
Feel free to run to your local record shop and score it right now. Or visit http://www.grandaddylandscape.com to score it online.
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