Category: entertainment

always saturday

elvis3 Comments

Waterfall pavement shimmering Sunshine washes everything A basket of light, I am trusting To water the lawn is a wondrous thing If I could have it this way I know I’d I’d wanna live where it’s like today I’d wanna live where it’s always this way I wanna live where it’s always Saturday A chorus […]

Waterfall pavement shimmering
Sunshine washes everything
A basket of light, I am trusting
To water the lawn is a wondrous thing

If I could have it this way I know I’d
I’d wanna live where it’s like today
I’d wanna live where it’s always this way
I wanna live where it’s always Saturday

A chorus of laughter fills the air
Everyone’s going everywhere
So many choices it’s not fair
I hop in the car and I just sit there

I don’t need, need to think about how much I
I wanna live where it’s all the same
I wanna live where it’s all just like today
I wanna live where it’s always Saturday

In the shops are shining things
I can I can see them glittering
I wish that I could buy them all
I wish I lived in a shopping mall

Shady back yard afternoon
Summer clothes and tennis shoes
When the light begins to fade
A porch swing creaks with lemonade…

A shower of whispers glow and bloom
Late night movie fills the room
Streetlights twinkling like dew
I close my eyes, it ends too soon

All in dreams, I can dream now oh how I
I wanna live where it’s like today
I wanna live where it’s always this way
I wanna live where it’s always Saturday

—Always Saturday, Guadalcanal Diary

Get the actual song here – thanks to Gregg!

Hurts like Teen Spirit

elvis4 Comments

This gives me fuckin’ chills. Hurts like Teen Spirit A brilliant, absolutely brilliant mash of Johnny Cash vs Nirvana vs Blue Oyster Cult vs New Order by DJ Dangerous Orange; you can get the track here. That Johhny Cash song seeps into my skull anyway and I walk around knowing exactly what he’s talkin’ about. […]

This gives me fuckin’ chills.

Hurts like Teen Spirit

A brilliant, absolutely brilliant mash of Johnny Cash vs Nirvana vs Blue Oyster Cult vs New Order by DJ Dangerous Orange; you can get the track here.

That Johhny Cash song seeps into my skull anyway and I walk around knowing exactly what he’s talkin’ about. The fact that this mashup maintains that feeling impresses the hell out of me.

Props to my man Art at Mashuptown – I’ve been neglecting his site and have found a treasure trove of tracks I’ve not heard. As usual he’s got nuthin’ but the finest mash. Give ‘im a Hell Yeah for me.

Tremulous Antenna

elvis1 Comment

I just picked up another of those wonderful BBC live recordings. Though if you’re not a Be-Bop Deluxe fan, this won’t be that interesting. I’m a huge Fan – Be Bop Deluxe is just about my favorite band of all time; I think Bill Nelson’s a brilliant writer, a brilliant lyricist, and of course, a […]

I just picked up another of those wonderful BBC live recordings. Though if you’re not a Be-Bop Deluxe fan, this won’t be that interesting.

I’m a huge Fan – Be Bop Deluxe is just about my favorite band of all time; I think Bill Nelson’s a brilliant writer, a brilliant lyricist, and of course, a true guitar hero.

Of all the bands out there I wish I’d had a chance to see, they’re at the top of the stack, behind only possibly XTC. So these live recordings are like unwrapping forgotten xmas gifts.

Thus i give you Tremulous Antenna, a live recording from (I think) 1976.

It’s a stripped down version of BBD, without the heavy layer of production they often had in the studio; and unlike their classic Live in the Air Age, it covers most of BBD’s lifespan, with songs like Third Floor Heaven from Axe Victim, all the way up to Superenigmatix from Drastic Plastic.

It’s got some of Bill’s best guitar playing from the era, from when Bill was still willing to play guitar hero; it’s got a band where you can actually hear Charlie Tumahai’s bass playing, and better yet, his backing vocals, which never seemed to make it onto the studio albums.

There are some down sides; it’s a BBC studio recording so sometimes it’s sonically imperfect, and worse, Andrew Clark’s keyboards sound incredibly dated, a tweaky synth sound that was fresh and cool in ’76 but which sounds a bit like a toy keyboard today. Yet one has to remember the era and the limited options available to a keyboard guy who didn’t want to travel with a truckload of gear ala Rick Wakeman.

I’m a completist type, though, so for me this is a must-have (And yes, I know this is a re-release of a slightly older disc called ‘Radioland‘; this is re-mastered, sounds vastly better and has MUCH cooler packaging, so it’s the one to buy.)

And because I love you all, samples are here.

Oh my sweet Veronica

elvis8 Comments

Veronica Mars season two is getting released on DVD monday the 21st. At last. I was still watching season one when season two started and wasn’t able to catch up, so I’ve seen not an episode of it. On the other hand I’ve watched season one through at least twice, and some eps I’ve seen […]

Veronica Mars season two is getting released on DVD monday the 21st.

At last. I was still watching season one when season two started and wasn’t able to catch up, so I’ve seen not an episode of it. On the other hand I’ve watched season one through at least twice, and some eps I’ve seen three or four times.

At last. Season two. Come to daddy, Veronica!

Elvis was a Spy

elvis7 Comments

Today is the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, and I wish I could find the whole lyric to Elvis Was a Spy by the Frontier fuckin’ Wives, one of my favorite bands ever. Best I can do is to say here’s the song (this was broken when I uploaded it in aac/m4a, I just changed […]

Today is the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, and I wish I could find the whole lyric to Elvis Was a Spy by the Frontier fuckin’ Wives, one of my favorite bands ever.

Best I can do is to say here’s the song (this was broken when I uploaded it in aac/m4a, I just changed it to mp3 so it should play now).

Elvis was a spy
And he died on his bathroom floor with his pants at his ankles
Poisoned by the russians ’cause he took all thier girls
and left them at home with nuthin’

My pal Lex was in that band, and in the heyday of San Jose’s 80’s music scene, they were the band. The one everyone wanted to play with, hang with, be friends with. The tiny recorded output does them no justice, they were awesome, yet as with so many, missed the window, burning out just before the record companies looked to the bay area and found acts like green day, primus, smashmouth, etc.

I miss ’em.

24 gone horribly wrong

elvis7 Comments

I hate to use the phrase jump the shark. It was clever when someone coined it but it’s one of those things you hear all the damned time. People will say it every time a show has an off episode, or because they’ve decided it’s not cool to watch that show anymore, or because something […]

I hate to use the phrase jump the shark. It was clever when someone coined it but it’s one of those things you hear all the damned time. People will say it every time a show has an off episode, or because they’ve decided it’s not cool to watch that show anymore, or because something changed in the show. They seem to miss the concept that it’s not just a slight change; jump the shark means a show gone utterly, disastrously wrong.

Yet, that term applies to season three of 24.

First let me say – Jack is still fucking Jack. Jack is the man, and it doesn’t matter how bad the show gets, he’s still Jack. Jack Bauer wasn’t addicted to heroin, as they say; heroin was addicted to Jack Bauer (and I must give props to my sweet-as-sugar ChelseaGirl for getting me to watch this show; she gets every bit of the credit).

But after watching two spectacular, addicting, irresistible roller-coaster seasons of this show back to back (and almost without sleep, that’s how bad it is watching this show, you just can’t put it down), I hit a wall at season three.

I could go on and on with this – the list of things that went wrong is amazing. Every single episode had something that started my eyes rolling, and this is a show that generally makes little things like logical inconsistencies irrelevant.

But – my god. It starts right from the first episode; a pointless partner for Jack, his teenage daughter somehow become, not just a staff member at CTU, but a high-level computer expert. A baby out of nowhere. President Palmer, the two-legged Muphasa, suddenly a weak and indecisive leader. A love interest who turns up in one episode to die in the next. An entire sub-plot (mexican drug-lords) which boils up and then evaporates pointlessly long before mid-season. A killing that makes no sense whatsoever, just because it means we get to see jack suffer a little more. Tony, the guy who almost turns Jack in for breaking the rules in seasons one and two, suddenly become mister fuck-the-rules-it’s-my-wife in season three.

By the end of the second episode, it had become clear something was horribly wrong. When the baby showed up, it seemed it’d dug deep. And yet it slides, and slides, and slides, digging deeper into the ground with each episode, to the point where you think it can’t get worse and it does.

I went from the point where I could not wait for netflix and had to rent at my local blockbuster, to the point where I kept saying god, how can we still have three more disks to go before it’s over?

This, my friends; this is the shark. Watch as we jump over it.

And so I finished it, and I can say, it did get better, pulling out shards and slivers of the old 24 with the last two episodes, and finishing with possibly Jack’s most gut-wrenching moment ever.

And I fear. Can season four go lower? God, it can, can’t it?

There’s a bright spot; season five, which I watched in real time and which hooked me, is truly great teevee. I can’t say if it’s as good as thefirst two, or better. Yet it stands out as a brilliant season of teevee. So I know it’s not a loss after season three. Yet, I wish for season four to start with a bobby-ewing-in-the-shower. Please.

Warn me, someone. Is season four as bad? Dare I put it my netflix queue?

Rock Star 6767

elvis2 Comments

If you’re as hooked on Rock Star as I am, you should follow Big Dave Navarro’s blog, 6767. He’s got some commentary going that’s dead on about the issues with this season (though i think he’s still holding back a bit, you can tell by his body language that he’s frustrated with things, i think […]

If you’re as hooked on Rock Star as I am, you should follow Big Dave Navarro’s blog, 6767. He’s got some commentary going that’s dead on about the issues with this season (though i think he’s still holding back a bit, you can tell by his body language that he’s frustrated with things, i think much more than he says).

I keep meaning to post a summary on this show, both what I’m likin’ and my frustrations, but as usual, I can’t seen to line up the time and the inspiration together, they’re on opposite ends of the wheel. It’s been like that now for a good couple months, time and inspiration chasing each other around the tree. If they get faster maybe they’ll turn into butter.

Kick In the Eye

elvis1 Comment

And he spoke of pastures green
I was never told why
Each journey lasts an age
And my throat feels dry
It must be the lesson
Hidden deep inside
It must be the lesson
So roll the tide

So I began the crossing
My throat burned dry
Searching for Satori
The kick in the eye
I am the end of reproduction
Given no direction
Every care is taken
In my rejection

Kick in the eye

Every care is taken
With my rejection
And my abduction
To my addiction
Every care is taken
With my protection
And my abduction
From my addiction

Kick in the eye

-Bauhaus, Kick in the Eye

I wish I had something meaningful to follow that up with, or some meaningful reason to post it, but the truth is that I was looking for a line about a poke in the eye and wound up on this instead.

And I was looking for that only because I feel like I’ve had the classic poke in the eye with a sharp stick. I’ve got that walked into a door look going . And the worst part is, I have no idea what I did to my eye. I’d rather have a punch to make the story good, show you the skinned knuckles to go with it.

Grumble. I need an icepack. And a long island ice tea, while I’m at it.

Rockstar – thy name is mediocrity

elvis7 Comments

I’ve said before – i loved rockstar: inxs. But so far, I’m not loving rockstar: prefabSuperGroup. I loved rs:insx because – well, because of the guys in inxs. Gary Beers, the various and sundry Farriss brothers, the odd but talented Kirk Pengilly. This was a big deal to them, finding a singer. And not just […]

I’ve said before – i loved rockstar: inxs.

But so far, I’m not loving rockstar: prefabSuperGroup.

I loved rs:insx because – well, because of the guys in inxs. Gary Beers, the various and sundry Farriss brothers, the odd but talented Kirk Pengilly. This was a big deal to them, finding a singer. And not just a singer, a singer who had to fill some big fucking shoes without replacing the original guy.

That produced a sense of drama. There was a sad story beneath it all.

And then there were the singers; right from the start there was a deep pool of talent. JD, Mig, Marty, Sweet Susie McNeil; Jordis and Ty and Deanna. Ok, sure, there were some who were over thier heads, but there was a lot of talent, I mean al lot. Any of those people could have won, if not this, than something.

And I look at this installment, and see… Nothing.

Now, we have to take away the band factor. It makes a difference, but you can’t make another rs:inxs. But it’s the talent that troubles me. There’s one person who’s wowed me, Dilana Robichaux. She’s awesome. And after her there’s – a pool of mediocrity. Jill Gioia’s adorable, but average, Storm Large looked great in week one but ordinary in week two. Patrice Pike was boring the first go-round, though much better in week two. Lukas Rossi, who needs to lay off the foundation, has real talent and might be a dark horse.

The rest – range from forgetably mediocre to absolutely awful. I’m wondering how most of these people even got to the final, when some of ’em can’t seem to even carry a tune.

I’m wondering why the talent pool for this edition is smaller. That’s not how this should work.

I imagine I’ll keep watching. The house band simply smokes, i like Dave Navarro (though he’s getting a little too adorable for his own good), and the less Brooke Burke wears, the better I like her. And I want to hear Dilana sing more.

But it ain’t what I hoped. Where’s the fuckin’ talent, people?