Michael Jackson Thoughts

As everyone knows, Michael Jackson died last Friday from heart complications in LA.  While i wasn’t shocked by his death, I was amazed by the reaction both by people and the media.  Some of my thoughts:

1. First off, while it’s nice to see such happy thoughts and words coming out of the media and blogosphere, i can’t believe how everyone has sort of forgotten about the past 15 years of Michael Jackson. I mean, multiple child molestation charges with 13-year old boys.  Whatever the cause of the guilt, do you know anyone who would leave their 12 year old with him alone?
2. Some Good Articles: There is a great recount of all those stories listed here in Vantity Fair and Ebert has posted a great article that weighs both his greatness and his fragility in a good article here called “The Boy Who Never Gave Up“
3. Thinking about his legacy, he’s definitely one of the best performers of all time – his dancing and on-stage presence seems unparalleled.
4. While Elvis brought in Rock n’ Roll, i feel that Michael Jackson brought in pop music.  He came to define the 80’s style while adding more production value to music.  To me, he invented the genre “pop”
5. It’s interesting to see how people react once someone dies.  The immediately become forgiven and can easily take on legendary status.  While that’s ok, i wish more people who feel this way while the artist is alive.  Two months ago nobody was saying how influential MJ was. Then hie dies and everyone in the world starts blabbing off about how influential and transformative he was.  Was he awesome? Yes.  But why didn’t people post how awesome he was before? The same thing happened with Kurt Kobain, Johnny Cash, Elvis and others.  As Chuck Klosterman says (who is an expert on his subject having written Killing Yourself To Live), “You’ll hear nobody stating how influential Boy George is, but the minute he dies it’ll come out with how he was able to break down the gender barriers before anyone else”  And he’s right.  In death, people are no longer people, they become symbols.

Slash’s Autobiography

Image via Wikipedia

A few months ago i plowed through the book Slash which is “written” by the Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash.  I’m a huge fan so i really enjoyed the read.  Here are some interesting things i learned in the book:

• When Slash’s parents got divorced, the first guy his mom started dating was David Bowie. Slash and her would go to his shows with him and just hang out with the guy
• Slash’s mom was a professional costume designer named Ola Hudson. She was quite an artist and tailored outfits and album covers for such acts as John Lennon, Diana Ross and the Pointer Sisters.  He dad also did album covers – for Neil Young and Joni Mitchell
• His mom was also good friends with David Geffen. But when Slash was signed by Geffen’s label, he kept is a secret.  One Christmas, Geffen was eating lunch with Slash’s mom and asked how Slash was and she replied, “you should know, you signed him a few months ago.”  He was floored b/c he had no idea Slash was actually the same little kid that he knew for all those years.
• Slash was really into BMX bikes and at age 12 was considered one of the best riders in the country for his age bracket
• One of Slash’s good friend’s dad was Seymour Cassel, who is an actor (Max’s dad in Rushmore).  He is the one who gave Slash the name “Slash” because he never sat still and was always scheming
• Slash was so messed up on drugs the entire time that most of the success he realized has been forgotten.  For instance, he went to the MTV music awards and didn’t even know he was a nominee.  When they won, he went on stage and didn’t know that it was an acceptance speech.  The whole night was a blur and along the way he left the award in a cab.
• All the members of the band were so messed up on hard drugs that they really couldn’t function.  They had to have a fix before shows to operate.  Slash went to rehab several times and it never really worked until he was long done with GnR
• Alx comes off as a total dick in the book.  They were constantly waiting for him.  He’s arrive late to almost every show.  He wouldn’t show up for rehersals.  While i’m sure he was much more sane than the rest of the crew, he was also the main source of anxiety and stress for all members of the band
• The song November Rain was actually written for Appetite for Destruction but they left it off because they wanted only one ballad on the album and that was Sweet Child o’ Mine.
• Paradise City was written when they were all driving down from San Fran way before they were even getting good gigs and was just a chant they wrote when they were excited to get back to LA.  As the band grew and the egos grew, they never traveled like this again and lost all comraderie.  Reading the book you realize why songs like Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child, Paradise City, Rocket Queen never materialized.  They were written at a time when the band was incredibly tight and the lyrics of Alx, and the guitar playing of Duff and Slash were perfect compliments

It’s a good book and really interesting if you’re a Guns N’ Roses fan.  It’s a bit longer than The Dirt – Motley Crue’s autobiography – and it only focuses on one member so it has much more depth.  I recommend it. 3.5 to 4 stars (out of 5).

Related articles by Zemanta

• Rolling Stone Slash Article (rollingstone.com)
• Steven Adler Should Write His Own Music (therockdose.com)
• Slash To Record Led Zep Cover (idiomag.com)

May Music

Matty Charles in LA by pescatello

I’ve been listening to some good tunes for the past month and thought i’d share them with y’all.  Here they are:

1. Sad Song by Fredo Viola.  This was put on a mix for me by Lady Biasia and is a pretty mesmerizing tune.  You can listen to it back to back every day and not tire of it.  In fact, if you were going to throw a dinner party and didn’t want to destroy the mood with the music but keep it chill and interesting, this would be the track for you. Worth a listen.  MP3 HERE
2. If I Ever Leave This World by Flogging Molly.  Also on the same mix by Lady Biasia and is one of my new favorite running songs.  You may remember this song from the P.S. I Love You soundtrack.  What you don’t? You didn’t see it?  Oh that’s right, nobody did.  And the people who did where so sad that they lost 2 hours in the most horrific fashion that they refuse to admit it.  Unless you’re name is Diane Woodhouse and then you go out and buy the DVD (i kid, i kid). Anyway, regardless of how absolutely horrible the movie is, the track really pumps me up  MP3 HERE
3. Last of American Girls by Green Day.  Many of you might not know this, but Green Day just came out with a new album called 21st Century Breakdown.  Rolling Stone gave it 4.5 stars out of 5 and other people can’t stop slurping it. I think it half has to do with the fact we never expected Green Day to have any longevity or talent and it’s half that the album is just really good and unique (it’s a rock opera for chrimminey sakes). This track is my favorite but probably not for people who don’t like Green Day.  MP3 HERE
4. Starry Tilting Sizzle by Les Blanks.  The band Les Blanks is a my friend Parker’s band.  If you want to know how much Parker rocks the Buzznet psyche, you should look at this slide show.  While i admire his style and loud voice in the office, i never got into Les Blanks until i stumbled across this tight jam.  It rocks. That’s all i can really say. I don’t see how anyone wouldn’t like it.   MP3 HERE
5. Starry Stairs by Okkervil River.  This song came out last year but i didn’t really give it a chance until recently.  Like other Okkervil River songs, it’s heavy on the lyrics but is still quite catchy.  MP3 HERE
6. The Train by Matty Charles.  I went to go see Matty when he came to LA about two months ago and found out that he had put out a new album.  After listening to it for a while, it’s clear this is the best track.  As always, he completely delivers. I think he could be my favorite singer-songwriter of this decade.  MP3 HERE
7. Hikky-Burr by Bill Cosby and Quincy Jones.  I found this from Karen’s blog and loved the tracks so much that  I actually went out and bought this CD at Amoeba.  That’s right i paid for music.  People still do this.  Not you of course, but people.   This is fantastic jam from 1969 – back when people used to jam for no reason other than just to jam.  I wish i could have gotten in on that.  This track will have to do for now. MP3 HERE

Bert and Ernie Gangsta Rap

This just made my day a bit brighter.  I love love love that people spend so much time doing this.  I sincerely thank them.

Music and Basketball

Another good quote from The Sports Guy.  He had an email exchange with Macolm Gladwell and the subject of music and basketball came up.  The Sports Guys responds:

We had lunch a few weeks ago and discussed the parallels between music and basketball. The structure is fundamentally the same: You have a lead singer (the NBA alpha dog, like LeBron or Kobe), the lead guitarist (the sidekick, like Pippen or McHale), the drummer (an unsung third wheel, like Parish or Worthy), the bassist (a solid, reliable and ultimately disposable role player: like Byron Scott or Anderson Varejao); and then everyone else (the other rotation guys). Bands can go different ways just like successful basketball teams. McCartney and Lennon were two geniuses who ultimately needed one another (like Young Magic and Older Kareem, or Shaq and Young Kobe), whereas MJ and LeBron were more like Sting or Springsteen (someone who could carry the band by themselves). And if you want to drag hip-hop or rap into it, the best parallel would obviously be Jordan’s post-baseball Bulls: MJ was Chuck D, Pippen was Terminator X, and there is no effing doubt that Rodman was Flavor Flav.

It’s a great read if you’re into the NBA and what’s happening right now.  I like The Sports Guy’s take about Lebron.  This is a great time to be a viewer as Lebron is doing what Michael Jordan did in the early 90’s. He’s just destroying people and making it great to watch.  Plus, there’s a Spinal Tap refernce in there.  How could it be a bad article then.  It reads:

As the 2009 postseason rolls on, the King has become its most compelling story, not just because of his insane numbers, that Jordan-like hunger in his eyes, even the fact that he’s still on cruise control to some degree. (Note: I would compare

Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

him to Nigel Tufnel’s amp. He alternated between “9″ and “10″ in the regular season, and he’s been at 10 in the playoffs, but I can’t shake the feeling that he has an “11″ in store for Kobe and the Finals. An extra decibel level, if you will. In my lifetime, Jordan could go to 11. So could Bird. Shaq and Kobe could get there together, but not apart. And really, that’s it. Even Magic could get to 10 3/4 but never quite 11. It’s a whole other ball game: You aren’t just beating teams, you’re destroying their will. You never know when you’ll see another 11. I’m just glad we’re here. End of tangent.) But his relationship with his teammates continues to fascinate me; because of his character and the spirit of the players that surround him, it’s like watching a more animated/funny/bombastic version of Duncan’s Spurs, or even last season’s Boston team. I really get a kick out of them. Only LeBron and Magic could foster a climate like that just by being themselves.

Any other insight from my readers?

Wednesday’s inspiration comes from Britian

This is a great 5 minute video from the British version of American Idol.  It’s the story of a 47 year old Susan Boyle and her audition for the show.  This is why the web beats mainstream TV.  The fact that i can watch this little clip which is better than 90% of the scripted shows on network television is why i have great love for the internet.

Click here to watch this clip

Top 11 Tracks of 2009 (so far)

I’ve been getting some great music over the past few months and i thought i’d share.  Here are my top 11 tracks of 2009 so far.

(1) Uylsses by Franz Ferdinand.  This band had the badass single Take Me Out a few years ago and i wouldn’t have been surprised if they ended up a one-hit wonder.  But they rebounded with a new album in 2009.  It has one good song called Lucid Dreams and another total classic here in Uylsses. The first 90 seconds get me incredibly pumped and it’s tops on my running mix. Click for the mp3.

(2) 1901 by Phoenix.  As many of you know, Phoenix is one of my favorite bands (lots of past entries). Their last album It’s Never Been Like That is a classic and one of my top 10 all-time.  They have a new album out this year called Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and it’s really really good.  It’s only 9 songs and 5 of them are top notch.  The best of the bunch is 1901 which is worth a listen (mp3).

(3) and (4) Oh, No and Fitz & Dizzyspells by Andrew Bird.  There are 2 songs here and both are killer sing-songy tunes from his new Noble Beast album.  Plus, i love the whistling in the beginning of Oh, No and in the middle of Fitz & Dizzy.  The song Oh, No was the first song i got addicted to and just when i thought i was getting Bird out of my head, Fitz came along and sucked me in for another month. These songs will make you happy (especially Fitz). Here’s Oh, No mp3 and here is F&D’s mp3.

Watchmen was good

I saw the movie Watchmen last night and i have to say that i really liked it.  Here are some thought why.

The movie was….

1. Merciless.  Some will say that the movie is too violent but i think that it actually ads to the character of the film. This is a world where superheros have grown disconnected from their human counterparts.  Showing the amazing painful battles they engage in and are subject to you can sympathize with their pespective but then to also show the other side of the coin – on how they have become cold-hearted, makes the movie quite interesting.    This applies especially to Rorschach who actually explains the exact moment he ceased being human and morphed into a full-time vigilante.
2. Interesting.  The plot was really interesting.  Or, better yet it actually had a story that actually mattered to the characters which is unusual for a comic book movie.  I enjoyed for once watching a comic book movie where i cared whether missles were launched or not.
3. Self-confident. The movie didn’t care about being too graphic, too violent, too campy, too strange, or too unconventional.  It put itself out there on the screen completely.  Bold choices in use of music (more below), in use of graphics (Rorschach’s face), and in use of story-telling.  All of which is completely refreshing.  I don’t see many movies like that and the unusualness makes it better.
4. Sexually unusual. From a three-some with 2 cloned glowing super-humans to showing 40 minutes of shlong, the movie was so unusual, which again made it really interesting.  There was pretty much a comic book porn sex session in the movie which was surprising (and appreciated).
5. Full of blue penis. i’ve never seen so much blue penis.  This is related to the last point, I like how they gradually introduced me to Dr. Manhattan’s penis.  First it was a nude shot of Dr. Manhattan but only above the waist.  Then, it was another naked shot of him, full profile but from afar and with only a glimpse of shlong.  10 minutes later it was an up-close shot of him staight-on with shlong and eveyrthing for a few seconds.  And finally, they would leave the camera on the shlong for minutes at a time.  I think the movie studio probably had a few meetings to determine how best to show it to the audience. I can just picture it now, a 11am meeting on the lot with people sitting around a conference table focusing on the unveiling of Billy Crudup’s penis.  There are storyboards on the walls and one associate director wants to throw it right at the audience from the beginning for shock value while an older producer doesn’t want to show it at all and a fight ensues.  Ah, that’d be a fun meeting.
6. Visually compelling.  The movie looks great.  Coming from the director of 300 (Zack Snyder), I was worried there’d be too much slow motion.  There was quite a bit but it worked. Even though it was 3 hours i’d even go back and watch it on IMAX

Some things i didn’t like:

• The music was horrible. Songs like “The Sound of Silence,” at a funeral and “Me and Bobby McGee” were just so out of place and strange.  Why use such familiar tracks in an completely new fictional world?  Everyone i talked to after the movie noticed it and how weird it was.  I hate thinking about the music in the middle of a movie unless i’m thinking, “wow, this is great” which is a tought that definitely did not go through my head.  Each time a song began, i thought, “whoa this is strange.”  Maybe that was the point.
• It was too long. While it was unbearable, it could have been 20 minutes shorter and my ass would have appreciated it.

All in all it was a good movie.  I give it an 8 out of 10.  What did you think?

Related articles:

• CD Review: Wathcmen (Film Music Magazine)
• Zack Snyder Promises Giant, ‘Hardcore’ Blue Wang In Uncut ‘Watchmen’ [Watchmen] (defamer.com)
• Watchmen Screenwriter Asks Fans to Watch Again (wired.com)
• Paul Rudd Rocks Out With His Cock Out (queerty.com)
• ‘Watchmen’: What the movie did better (pfunn.com)
• ‘Watchmen’: A Tale of Two Movies (space.com)
• Who Watches The Watchmen? I Did — and Here’s a Spoiler-Free Review (wired.com)

Nokia’s “Comes with Music” is slick

A few weeks ago, I went to the Nokia booth at MWC last month and checked out their “comes with music” program. For those who are unfamiliar, here’s the deal:

When you buy a Nokia handset you get access to the Nokia Music Store which has deals with all 4 labels. For the 12 months after you purchase the phone you get unlimited downloads from the store. This isn’t a subscription, for one year the plan is for unlimited downloads for you to keep. They can live on both your PC and phone.  Once a year is up, you keep all your downloads and you then have to purchase any additional tracks

Their new phones are all pretty slick and have smooth iPod functionality built in. One thing I especially liked was their Bluetooth headset which is also a sweet pair of headphones (see below)

This won’t be available in the states until layer this year and then only in the PC so it’ll be a while before we can fully check it out

One thing that always gets overlooked when peope talk about iPod’s dominance us the fact that it only dominated because it had BOTH the software on the computer and the hardware. Without iTunes, the iPod is nowhere.  I was impressed to see the the Nokia software player I’d pretty nice. Not quite as simple as iTunes but still very slick. I haven’t seen any other handset makers making player software which will really hurt them if they try to compete.

25 Random Things About Me

Image via CrunchBase

I got tagged in Facebook to do one of these lists.  I really enjoyed reading some of my colleagues and some of my old friends from high school so i thought i’d put one together.

The rules are that once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged or however many you want. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

Here are my items:

1. I don’t like fruit (with the exception of apples) and i’m happy that my sister’s the same way. It makes me feel less strange

2. I tend to get around. I’ve been to 49 states and hope to get to the final one, Mississippi, sometime soon.  Since college, I’ve lived in Virginia, New York, Washington DC, Boston (sort of), and now Los Angeles.

3. I have no toenails on my 2 little toes

4. I was born in NY, then moved to CA, then moved to Texas before i finished my youth in Minnesota.

5. I grew up in Minnesota.  When i moved east in 1996, i felt like a Midwesterner.  I then lived on the east coast for 11 years.  When i moved to California last year, i felt like an Easterner.  After a few years here, who knows who i’ll be

6. i’ve never broken a bone. I attribute this to my love of milk

7. I love the extended Lewis Family clan and feel so fortunate that i have such great cousins, aunts and uncles.

8. When i was younger I used to dress up like a ninja and wonder around in the woods with my brother.