Posted in Adventure, Concept Albums, Fantasy, Hollow Earth, John Cleves Symmes, Lou Reed, R.E.M., Racism, Red Dwarf, Set in New Jersey!, Short Books, Supernatural, The Feelies, Utopia, William Alexander Taylor on November 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: THE FEELIES-Only Life (1988).
The Feelies were based out of Haledon, NJ, a town not more than fifteen minutes from my house. I’ve always felt this weird association to them. One day a coworker drove me past one of the band members’ houses when I worked in North Haledon (in retrospect this was probably bullshit).
It [...]
Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Chef, Consumerism, Hollow Earth, Humiliation, John Cleves Symmes, John Uri Lloyd, Kate Bush, Lenny Henry, McSweeney's, Short Books, Supernatural, Technology, Travel, Unlikable main character, Utopia on November 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: KATE BUSH-The Red Shoes (1993).
The Red Shoes is something of a disappointment. While I enjoyed The Sensual World, it was definitely moving in a more adult contemporary vein. The Red Shoes proceeds even further in this direction. Since Kate is getting older, it makes sense that her music would change as well.
But there are [...]
Posted in Adventure, Anachronisms, Dungeons & Dragons, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Gross Pointe Blank, Kate Bush, Lars Brown, Short Books, Supernatural, Threats, Violence, YA Books on November 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: KATE BUSH-Lionheart (1978).
Something about the late 70s seemed to make artists very prolific (perhaps it was studio pressure to capitalize on an artist’s success, hmmm?) Here’s Kate Bush’s 2nd record in about 10 months.
And, yea, the cover shows off her budding theatricality (the tour that accompanied these albums (which is available on DVD) is [...]
Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Death, Demons, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Fantasy, Funny (strange), Hollow Earth, J. Augustus Knapp, John Uri Lloyd, Jules Verne, Oddities, Supernatural, Tindersticks, Unlikable main character on November 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Waiting for the Moon (2003).
This Tindersticks disc shows a bit of a departure for them. Two of the first three songs are not sung by Stuart Staples (which is nice for diversity, but it is shocking to hear the first sung words on a Tindersticks disc be in the relatively high register of Dickon). [...]
Posted in Adventure, Books about music, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Demons, Fables, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gay/Lesbian, Gods, Graphic Novel, Hope Larson, Magic, Marriage Trouble, Military, Nature, Neil Gaiman, Oddities, Religion, Romance, Sara Ryan, Sex, Short Story, Tori Amos, Wikipedia on October 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: TORI AMOS-Abnormally Attracted to Sin (2009).
It’s been almost a decade since I was blown away by a Tori Amos album. I feel like she has really been so engaged in the concept of her albums, that she has lost track of the tunes. And while I don’t hate anything she’s done in the last [...]
Posted in Adventure, Anthony Doerr, Chris Adrian, Chris Bachelder, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Death, End of the World, Gay/Lesbian, Heidi Julavits, J. Erin Sweeney, Jim Shepard, McSweeney's, Natural Disasters, Plague, Salvador Plascencia, Sesshu Foster, Sheila Heti, Short Story, Technology, The Future, Threats, Tindersticks, Wells Tower on October 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Tindersticks [the red one] (1993).
Tindersticks are a fascinating band. The first distinctive thing about them is Stuart Staples’ voice: a deep rich bass that he uses almost like a whisper. The second thing you notice is the music. It’s an orchestral/chamber pop collection of dark rockers with fantastic moodiness to it. And then you [...]
Posted in Adventure, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Essays, Nature, Sierra on October 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This is another periodical that’s not really a “real” magazine. Sierra comes free when you join the Sierra Club. I originally didn’t really look at this magazine much either. Then one day the cover caught my eye, and I discovered there’s a lot of cool stuff in it. Not the least of which is that [...]
