December, 2007
You are looking at posts that were written in the month of December in the year 2007.
hey that sounds (kinda) like
Posted on December 31st, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Songs.
two more short clips:
"Spooky" by the Classics IV, and "I'm Her Daddy" by Bill Withers.
the dark shed of the untameable mind
Posted on December 31st, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Words, Comedy, Quotes.
Gilbert Sorrentino, Mulligan Stew:
As far as noting "what my work and my life as a writer mean" -- how shall I speak of that? As I compose, I think sometimes of the lovely and yet terrifying phenomena of all the world: immense waterfalls falling, gigantic gales from the four corners of the earth carrying in their gritty teeth chunks of rough-hewn farmers' tables and beloved credenzas, dust and excreta from Iowa barns, the sweet simplicity of the voices of both Cohens and Kellys, laughter from gay, come-what-may places, girls with braces (glistening with their tears) on youthful teeth . . . how to speak of these things? How to speak of what the tiny, yet handsome vase from Java, the dew-touched day's eye trembling in it, means to me? Of a half-frozen sparrow, beak worrying a Carnation condensed-milk-can wrapper? Of the masculine rhythms of Dostoevski's anger and comedy and compassion? Of the memory of the memory of first love? How . . . ? How can one explain what it means to think continually of those who were truly great? Of the rough expertise of the air-conditioner repairman? Of American cities, wrapped in local mystery -- Natchez and Mobile, Memphis and St. Joe: raw towns that we believe and die in? Of The Last Supper and the wine on the table on that evening of mystery? How is it possible to articulate the surging emotions felt watching children in the playground, running, playing, gleeful on their divine seesaws? The images crowd together, mix with the emotions, judgment is suspended, one is drunk as one is drunk on wine, and laughter. One writes ceaselessly, one writes -- everything. The notebooks fill, the black ink of the recording pen sets down the rhythms of life itself, rich nuggets of symbol, image, both clear and mysterious, deep, lie buried, waiting for the moment when they will be rescued from their temporary home. Meaning is held in an almost unbearable tension on the dizzying edge of the meaningless, and there! There lies the quicksilvery truth that makes one's life as a writer meaningful and endlessly rich. The wearisome hours of staring at the white paper, the lonely white paper, the clock ticking inexorably on -- all of it is worth it as the haunting image of the emotion is wrenched free from the mulchy notebooks and transformed into sheerest beauty! But how does one explain . . . ? To recast one's life as purest art -- that is the program. That is what my life and work "mean". One would like to achieve full expression of one's inchoate and sinewy self. In one's self, in the dark shed of the untameable mind, lies the truth, waiting to be released into the line, the sentence, the story or novel. I strive for it continually.
wallpapers
Posted on December 30th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Stuff, Boring Posts.
When we were in Seattle for Christmas, I discovered that nearly all my Parlando wallpapers looked like crap on widescreen monitors. I'd already adjusted them a couple times for bigger screen sizes and smaller resolutions than I use at home, but this was too much; I couldn't see any way to fix the problem other than making brand new wallpapers, and right now designing non-tiling wallpapers that work both on regular monitors and widescreen is not a task I am up for.
So I am now making tiling wallpapers for Parlando. I'm planning to change them entirely every month, though I'll probably also move some in and out whenever I feel like it. The first new eleven are up now.
you don't say
Posted on December 17th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians, Quotes.
As unfathomable as it seems from the distance of over 30 years, for a few months, Gerry and the Pacemakers were the Beatles' nearest competitors in Britain. --Richie Unterberger, Allmusic
For a very brief time in 1964, it seemed that the biggest challenger to the Beatles' phenomenon was the Dave Clark Five. --Rick Clark and Richie Unterberger, Allmusic
another riff well past its pull date
Posted on December 14th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Words, Badness, Comedy.
"I, for one, welcome our new [variable] overlords."
taking for granted
Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Albums.
I enjoy Radiohead, but they've never been a special favorite. I like some of their albums more than others, but I don't know their stuff inside and out. I admire their adventurousness, and I find it interesting that a large fanbase has so far followed them where they wanted to go. I think of them as a great band, more objectively than subjectively. I didn't like Hail to the Thief at all, and while I didn't give up on them -- almost everyone has an occasional bad album in them -- they slipped lower on my priority list, and while everything I heard about In Rainbows made it sound interesting, I hadn't got round to it and didn't really intend to anytime soon -- didn't even have it on my shortlist of potential Best of 2007 albums I needed to track down.
Which is a longwinded way of saying, I heard it in a bar last week and was blown away.
eponymous hiphop?
Posted on December 10th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Albums, Lists.
It was only when I began actively compiling Eponymous Albums That Aren't Debut Albums -- now up to 86 items -- that I became aware that there seems to be a much lower percentage of eponymous albums in hiphop than elsewhere. Does that seem true to anyone else?
eponymous update
Posted on December 6th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Albums, Lists.
The list of eponymous albums that aren't debut albums is up to fifty. A surprising number of them are from musicians who actually had an eponymous debut, but chose to repeat the title.
eponymous but not first
Posted on December 5th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Albums, Lists.
Over at the useful and fun website Rate Your Music, I have begun a list of eponymous albums that aren't debut albums. I've seeded the list with twenty albums, and am takin suggestions for more (I have to add them myself). I'm only interested in standard albums of new material: not compilations, box sets, etc.
slough of despond - a list in progress
Posted on December 4th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Songs, Lists.
Months ago I promised our friend Joy the bartender a mix of bleak, dark, depressing songs, and finally got round to recording it a couple days back. It's far from perfect; in its eventual final form I wouldn't be surprised if I replace half of these:
