Dear Arts staff, who keeps writing posts without signing them? You are so sly.
Here it is: the top 10 tracks spinning this week on the macbook. Quick, Rob, gimme some good tunez for finals week.
10. North American Scum- LCD Soundsystem 9. Creator- Santogold (aka the next MIA) 8. Sunfair- Creeper Lagoon 7. Watch My Feet- Dude & Nem (Jarrett's pick of the semester. don't watch me, watch my feet!)
6. Shut Up and Let Me Go- The Ting Tangs (shamelessly swiped from an iPod commercial. Goodbye, indie cred, goodbye.) 5. The Chauffeur- Deftones (Duran Duran cover) 4. Computer Camp Love- Datarock 3. What Is Love- Haddaway. This song is why 1993 was such a great year. Baby don't hurt me.
2. Puppets- Atmosphere (this album is 100% wicked awesome) 1. Who You Gonna Run To?- Solid Gold
No other set of 10 songs could describe me quite so well right now. This is me on May 14, 2008 at 1:51 p.m. OH crap. Portuguese final. like. now.
Keith Gessen’s just published his first novel, “All the Sad Literary Men” after nearly five years of workshopping, backburning and writing, writing, writing.
The Russian-born, 33-year-old, interchangeable novelist slash journalist, has hit the road, and hard traveling to Iowa City’s Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., for his eighth reading tonight, May 5, at 7 p.m.
DI reporter Brigid Marshall caught the Harvard and Syracuse University-educated author in between Chicago and Iowa City, to pump the East Coast-native with questions.
BM: So, what is it really like to transition from writing for magazines and newspapers to having your first novel, out and published? KG: It’s a real experience. But it’s still pretty early, and so far it’s been read, kind of, only by the reviewers. And the reviews of the book is kind of interesting, but after a while they all kind of start saying the same things as the first one.
BM: So how many places have you stopped at to promote the book? KG: Seven cities down and seven more to go — There have really been a lot of stops.
BM: Now that you’ve had your first book published, do you think you’re going to stick just with novels or are you going to continue with N+1 and writing for other publications? KG: There’s still some thing I want to do journalistically. [Writing] is something I’ve always wanted to do. I studied the history of literature [at Harvard] and, well, I didn’t do the newspaper. After graduation I refused to get a job and just worked odd jobs and wrote stories.
BM: When did you decide to go back to school and write the book? KG: After a few years of [writing book reviews], I decided to go do the MFA program at Syracuse…I’ve never really liked being in school very much…The workshop is very useful for starting out and working out some of the problems in your fiction, but at some point you just have to forget about all those people. A good more than half of it went through a workshop environment.
BM: What was the most challenging, or difficult part of the book? KG: Starting it was hard. It took me a while to figure out the voice. I went through sort of a lot of stories indicative of other writers’ work…Yeah, it took me a while to write this story. And when I was trying to finish it. I was writing about these three guys that messed up their lives, and I had to finish their stories. I could see how things would play out in their lives.
BM: Do you relate to your characters at all? Often authors’ first work of fiction has that tendency to be made of parts of their own life. KG: They’re all kind of versions of me. They’re kind of these creative, goofier versions of me. I’m very sympathetic to them even though they’re not me completely.
BM: What part of the book are you going to read? Is there a particular passage that lends itself to certain audiences? KG: It depends; I’ve been reading different things, like when I’m in New York reading I read a passage from one of the sections that takes place in New York. Some parts are a bit more straightforward and stick well. A lot of the book is set in contemporary life and deals with problems in contemporary life…it’s not quite literary in away. In the best readings people have responded to it being about contemporary issues like dating and being in your twenties, not having any money.
BM: What do you want audiences to take away from it? KG: I wanted it to be as honest as possible about this stage, about what it means to be in your 20s in Boston, New York, and not have any money — what it’s like to go through and have various relationships. I wanted it to be as honest as I could make it, which meant not exaggerating how bad these guys were.
BM: With this honesty and it being fiction, while the characters are in some ways you, do you ever find yourself wanting to fall into nonfiction? KG: Fiction is not doing as much of the lives of these people and just fictionalizing them. I made them more interesting than me, than my life. With fiction, paradoxically you can be more honest, partly because there’s a fiction in the fiction. If this were a memoir I’d be tempted to justify myself. You can be harder on the characters, and it can be darker. For the moment, I’m staying with fiction.
BM: Who are you aiming your audience to be at this reading? KG: I hope students come because this is a book for young people who are about to launch themselves out into the world.
I'm here to add even more evidence to the heaping pile of reasons why I'm not a hipster. I'm not even hip. Stop reading if you're anyone whose image of me as cool will forever be tarnished by even more proof that I couldn't get into a club if I founded it. Who's ready for a hot plate o' nerd?
I like Coldplay.
Scratch that, I LOVE Coldplay. In honor of the band's newest single, "Violet Hill," which drops today and is available as a free download (taking yet another page from Radiohead's book?), I'm going to share my fixation with the band.
I think Chris Martin is hot, his high falsetto is mesmerizing, his piano parts breathtaking, and the band's soft-piano-rock is deep. Is it wimp-rock, like so many have said? Maybe. But is it substantial? Definitely. Coldplay is the future of pop music. The group is holding the pop-rock banner higher than anyone, and doing it with more talent, better songwriting, and more appeal than any of its peers. I also can't hate any band that is socially active and politically aware (I'll save that diatribe for a U2- or R.E.M.- related post, though).
Not only do I have two Coldplay posters in my room, I have seen the band live. I spent my sophomore year of high school drowning in the sorrow and exquisite pain of A Rush of Blood to the Head, the British quartet's second album. Who knew tragedy could be made more personal through Martin's honey-drenched voice?
It is simply too difficult to name my favorite Coldplay songs because the group's sound is so versatile. Instead of having a distinct sound and only working within that parameter (Dave Matthews, I'm looking at you), or experimenting with everything and not excelling at anything, Coldplay merges its signature stylings with creative musical leaps.
While Coldplay can do it all, the ballads are what make the band. There, the musical talent crosses with Martin's uncanny ability to marry emotion with pitch-perfect diction, and leaves fans' psyches leveled after a listen. Listening to Coldplay is like an enema for the soul.
Everyone who has seen Wedding Crashers knows about the whispering romance of "Sparks," which is one of the best non-overt love songs of this decade, but heartbreak, regret, and repentance are where the band hits its heights. No Coldplay song has been more therapeutic for this listener than "Warning Sign," which also serves as the score for a crucial plot point in a forgettable film called The Last Kiss. There's nothing better than Martin's high-pitched voice, like a canary's song. He pulls every ounce of sadness into this song and out of the listener, and while I don't know exactly what he's singing about, I know I've been there. From the first time I heard this song, I connected with it more deeply than any Coldplay song before or since. I never used to believe in regret, but "Warning Sign" showed me I was full of it. This is one song everyone should hear.
I love The O.C. but its use of "Fix You" during Caleb Nichol's death definitely diminishes the song in my book. "Swallowed In the Sea" is a much more suitable sad song. It is sad and alternately triumphant, celebratory and painful, and it's Coldplay's mastery of paradoxes that sets it apart from its artificially deep peers, putting it into a class with legends like U2 and yes, R.E.M. Coldplay is all about a different kind of love, an unconventional, darker yet more resonant love, which makes it all the more engaging, and this song is a great example of that idea.
There's nothing sadder than an accident, and Coldplay taps into this with "Trouble," a song which serves as the score for episodes of MTV's "True Life." This song will break your soul as you sympathize (or maybe even empathize) with Martin's plight. It's martyrdom at its most modest, complete with piano accompaniment.
As far as the rockier songs go, Coldplay peaked early with secret-love anthem "Shiver." The second track on the band's debut, Parachutes, the tune captures that Cady Heron-esque feeling of being in love with someone you just can't have, or just can't muster the words to tell. Many great songs have been written about long lost loves, forbidden love, and love from afar, but very few truly great songs encapsulate all three, exemplifying that feeling of loving someone completely while they have no clue how you feel. From that moment on, Martin established himself as a magnetic personality, so sensitive and such a chameleon. He is able to inhabit an emotion and convey it expertly, genuinely, and then launch into another mood. Like the great lyricists before him, he gives names to feelings listeners don't yet know they feel.
I'll be the first to admit, the near-identical chord progressions in louder Coldplay singles "Clocks" and "Speed Of Sound" are less than imaginative when juxtaposed, but both are still great songs. I prefer "Speed of Sound," even though "Clocks" is the song that made me fall in love with the band. "Speed of Sound" is more driving, more forceful, and more energetic. It is the sound of a confident band, something listeners weren't used to when the single was released off of the band's most recent album, 2005's X&Y. Yet "Clocks" has one of my favorite lyrics of the last ten years: "Am I part of the cure, or am I part of the disease?" Martin scores again. Decide for yourself.
"Clocks"
"Speed of Sound"
"In My Place" wins as Coldplay's most emotional song of the drum-heavy set. Not since the Police's "Message in a Bottle" has a song of such isolation felt so inclusive. The longing and loneliness in Martin's voice could draw tears from the driest ducts. Only Coldplay could make something so depressing into a hit single. Plus, Will Champion's drumming is the caramel center in this chocolate truffle of a song. The song would be fine without it, but the unexpected strength of the drumming takes it from (to quote Spinal Tap) 10 to 11. Martin's lyrics are vague and highly relatable, as it seems only British songwriters like Morrissey and Thom Yorke can do(though Michael Stipe is the exception to the rule).
Every great band is capable of at least one great unabashed Beatles' reference. Coldplay's comes in the form of "Everything's Not Lost." With its singalong vibe and happy-go-lucky lyrics, Coldplay tries optimism on for size and finds it fits well, if only on this occasion. Even Coldplay, as solemn and over-thought as much of its music is, can still tilt a chin-up and turn a frown upside down. This song is a sweet attempt at finding a softer side of life, bathed in yellow light and butterflies (or maybe just not covered in complete gray). This is Coldplay's "Everybody Hurts," and Michael Stipe must be proud.
Never ones to shy away from politics, Coldplay confronted the issues of the day in an obvious way on "A Rush of Blood to the Head." The result is a stark look at human nature and power-grabbing, serving as almost a warning against senseless violence. Maybe the most disturbing Coldplay track, it is one that stays with listeners for a long time, tonally creating a post-apocalyptic setting. The song was so dark it was used as the theme for the third season of "Six Feet Under."
Coldplay's new album is said to be a departure from the band's earlier work. Let's hope the new single and new album live up to the great legacy the band has already built. Three albums deep and the band has already placed itself in the upper-echelons of the music world. Not so bad for a group nagged by its detractors for being a U2 rip-off.
-Meryn, who wants to be Gwyneth Paltrow every day.
When I was in high school, I, like many people, considered myself very cutting-edge and cool to be able to quote the New Jersey trilogy (Clerks., Mallrats, Chasing Amy) at the drop of a hat. So much profanity! So many gratuitous sexual references!
These days, I consider myself a bit more on the objective side, but I'll be the first to admit that I'll always be a bit biased on the pro-View Askew productions side. I still love Clerks. as much as I did, though I no longer dream of being able to drop a ridic amount of money to order and ship this shirt to me.
In recent years, it's become harder and harder to justify my generally positive sentiments toward Mr. Smith. Beginning with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, his career decisions have been...questionable, to put it politely. When a Smith-phile such as myself momentarily forgets that she even saw Clerks II (hey, in my defense, Smith's own website seems to want to pretend like it, along with 2004's syrupy Jersey Girl, never even happened), you know that something has gone awry. Not only this, but he's somehow veered into "supporting comic relief" roles, acting in movie that he himself didn't even pen. I mean, not that I begrudge a comic geek as vocal as Smith the chance to act in the Daredevil movie, but his acting skills have always been touch-and-go, and reading lines that he didn't write has just never worked well for him.
Okay.
All that being said, am I wrong for getting a little bit excited at the prospect of Silent Bob getting back on track?
Meet the newest View Askew production, titled, as you may have guessed, Zack and Miri Make A Porno.
The plot follows two friends who, nearly broke, decide to turn to the adult film industry as a way to make money fast. As one could guess, the uber-romantic vibes of shooting porn lead them to realize they might actually be harboring feelings for each other.
No disrespect meant to Seth Rogan, but as you can see, the casting follows the Smith tradition of having gorgeous leading ladies ultimately hooking up with...less than stellar-looking leading men. (Ben Affleck aside, I suppose.) Fingers crossed that this doesn't end up mirroring the uptight-girl/childlike-man dynamic of Rogan's last starring outing, Knocked Up.
Call me a hopeless optimist, but I'm getting good feelings from this one. As we've got several months until it's release, God knows when we'll get a trailer released, but the talent pool is good, and Smith has had a good two years to recharge the creative batteries. Along with this, Smith's following project is, believe it or not, a horror movie called...wait for it...Red State. I can get on board with that.
well hello again everyone!!!!!!!!!!!! Ann here!!! legitimately the only Arts staff member still blogging.
I am just going to interject (interrupting myself...HAHA! I'm sooooooo kooky and funny.) and say that April has been probably one of the best months all year. For several reasons: #1 WEATHER. I am so excited to wear fashionable clothing again. not to mention how pumped I am to start using fake tanner again. my legs just scream orange. #2 WORKLOAD. Nothing like seeing people actually do their homework on the weekends. All of us nerds are having a good chuckle over this one...suckers. #3 BLOGS. So many awesome lolcats lately. #4 SPRING METABOLISM. Is there no greater gift? Nothing like having the metabolism of a middle school boy! whew I tell ya. I ate a whole pan of brownies to myself, hopped on a scale, and what do you know. I LOST weight. Loving it. #5 MUSIC. I have stumbled across so much good tunage lately that I just can't help but share it with all our friendly readers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!! "taco", if you're out there, this list is for you and your unruly disposition and your cheerful comments on the DI website! :):):):):):) loves it!!!!!!!! cheer up friend! you're about to peep my iTunes!!!
note: If I see one more person pepper a facebook wall post with too many smiley faces, I will barf.
1. "I Am The Walrus"- Bono and the Secret Machines (blasting it just for you, Jon Gold.) 2. "Blazing Arrow"- Blackalicious 3. "Hard Sun"- Eddie Vedder 4. "My Friend the Sleepwalker (The Cowbell Song)- Am Syndicate 5. "Black Thumbnail"- Kings of Leon 6. "Glass Danse"- The Faint 7. "Electric Feel"- Mgmt 8. "Retreat! Retreat!"- 65daysofstatic 9. "The Equaliser"- Clinic 10. "Ready for the Floor"- Hot Chip 11. "When the Lights Go Out"- The Black Keys 12. "Situations"- Del tha Funky Homosapien 13. "New York State of Mind"- Nas 14. "I Go Blind"- Hootie and the Blowfish (Go ahead, judge me. It's times like this I can justify how much I'm not a hipster, even though I do have exquisite musical taste.) 15. "Turn Into"- Yeah Yeah Yeahs 16. "Black Cat"- Ladytron 17. "Alice"- Moby (O.M.G. I haven't heard Moby kick this much musical tush since "Play". I want to rave naked. Moby has really pulled out all the guns for his latest release. He's baaaack.) 18. "Somewhere a Clock is Ticking"- Snow Patrol 19. "Within You Without You"- Sonic Youth (I'm also compiling a mind-blowing covers playlist. check back soon.) 20. "Make Love F*ck War"- Moby feat. Public Enemy (how have I not found this gem yet? how? how? power to the people because the people want peace.) 21. "Bottoms Up"- Keke Palmer (IF YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT YOURSELF YOU WILL FIND THIS SONG ASAP. NEW DANCE ANTHEM, FO SHO. YOU KNOW YOU HOT, SO LET EVERYBODY KNOW.) (http://youtube.com/watch?v=JGDj4dTBWrQ) There you have it ladies and lads. A glimpse into my mind, and the only thing I have cultivated all month. actually that is an exaggeration but this April playlist owns. It's the best one I've ever made. Sidenote: I finally saw Juno. I don't know how I feel about it. I liked it I guess. I guess. I'm sort of on the fence about it. Some of her lines were so fakely delivered. Whatevsies. Pregnancy sounds awful. shudder.
welp folks there you have it! so much springtime fun I might get sick! summer is going to rulezsies! btw that polygamy thing down in Texas makes me queasy. And that fact that ol' Hil just won Pennsylvania produces a similar gag reflex. not to toot my own horn, but I'm going go jump on my bed and listen to my playlist again and try to restore my pure glee/euphoria.
well shalom, friendly Arts Blog world!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!1!!! As anyone who knows me will attest, I am an avid LOLcats aficionado. My profile picture on facebook is an LOLSquirrel, I email the best LOLcats to my grandmother/sister/dad/friends/editors at all hours of the day, and I check the website hourly (with more frequency/seriousness than I check gmail) for updates. Point in case. Alright, well as more of the world adopts LOLcats, my pretentiousness is starting to flair up and feel a bit uptight. Since I assume that frat-tastic Chads and their bros just can't appreciate squirrel humor the same way a Gets-It can, and since everyone knows about LOLcats now, I needed to find something else. No worries, I don't believe in "discovering" new things, so you can put your Hipster Nation red flags away and get ready for a new obsession. I am all about the love and sharing here. Thus my search began and ended rather quickly. I tried LOLjocks, but I don't get enough sports references for it to click (sorry, Hothan). I was stumbling aimlessly and deliriously around the internet (probably hopped up on DayQuil) for more laughable fun when I hit the goldmine: The FailBlog. OMG we have a winner. This, friendly arts blog world, this is the reason we have the internet. Excuse me while I try to keep my pubescent snickering to myself. So legit. Go check it out, http://failblog.wordpress.com/ .
-Ann, who now walks around consistently chuckling to herself and muttering "fail"
Mariah Carey is back three years after the release of her last studio album "The Emmancipation of Mimi." Oh, she certainly is.
I caught her "Touch My Body" video on youtube.com yesterday because I heard Kenneth, from TV's 30 Rock, stole the show — hard to do when Mariah, obviously wearing nearly nothing for most of the video, actually has a great voice. Yeah, I said it.
The music video is nothing short of ridiculous, but I love it. And I am 100% surprised that Mariah would invite Kenneth into her bedroom and completely understand why she included a unicorn. The single has already hit #1 in the U.S.
For someone who just passed Elvis' ranking in number ones, and now only waits to surpass The Beatles, you think there'd be some better lyrics than these:
If there's a camera up in here Then it's gonna leave with me When I do (I do) If there's a camera up in here Then I'd best not catch this flick On YouTube (YouTube) 'Cause if you run your mouth and brag About this secret rendezvous I will hunt you down 'Cause they be all up in my business Like a Wendy interview But this is private Between you and I
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8ISECfO9hNc
Grant it, no one has ever been this blunt, and probably brilliant because of it. Clearly this is true as I just listened to the song (from the anticipated "E=MC² ") twice in a row. I can't stop the Mariah Madness. The rest of the album arrives April 15.
Like they say (somebody, somewhere): Two outta three ain’t bad.
(Photo credit: Susan Z. Elgin)
In the context of the Mission Creek satellite show last Thursday in Davenport, two outta three were frikin’ fantasmo. It’s just too bad that the third (the crap in the middle) sucked so so so so so hard.
White Rabbits, which our other fine DI spies were unfortunate to miss, were an energetic group — somewhat of dark yet spry insano pop complete with two drummers, two singers, and a hotly tickled piano. In short, these are things I like. Despite only having one album to extract from — the wonderful debut, Fort Nightly – White Rabbits pulled off a one band hat trick (white rabbit out of a hat?!?!?! Get it?!?!!?! It doesn’t even make sense in this context and whoa!!!!!) with the likes of “The Plot,” “While We Go Dancing,” and “Kid On My Shoulders.” Seriously: when a band can revive itself after an amp decided to inconveniently die, and play perhaps its best song (“Kid”), that’s saying something. In inspired me to get up from my padded chair and join the maybe 15 others dancing. And subsequently made fun of by a friend in Dbag mode (thanks, John C. S.). But it was worth it, and let’s hope these fine men go far.
In other news, The Walkmen blow. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been standing up, excited to hear a reputable band, and feel after half a set that I really just wanted to go to sleep. I think they were drunk, I think the lead singer (I don’t even care to Wiki his name) was a third rate Julian Casablancas wannabe, and the songs almost always dragged when they should have done something, anything at all!, but suck. I hate them, and my iPod is happy to get rid of them.
Spoon? Well, they’re Spoon. Perhaps you’ve heard from other folk that they didn’t play “The Way We Get By,” “Small Stakes,” or a number of Gimme Fiction singles. Consider this: with the show they gave, this seems exciting in retrospect. If they pull a decades-old song from nowhere, a killer Clash cover, and my favorite Kill the Moonlight song, “Stay Don’t Go,” onto the stage, stop whining. Simply the one-two punch of “The Ghost of You Lingers” (miraculous live) and “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” was worth the night. Yes, the two encores could have been enhanced by one mega-encore, and maybe they could have played just half of “The Way We Get By.” It’s pretty repetitive anyway (but in a good way… I guess).
