The Wave In My Mind

Check out this review from Flick Filosopher (she rocks, too!) http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2010/03/033010the_runaways_review.html

An added bonus is the discussion of women in rock in the comments.

:-)

Tomorrow is going to be fantastic! Right at the end of my work day I am running out the door and across the street to Penn Station and getting on a train for Albany to go to the Plastic Jesus record release party at Valentine's AND, much to my delight, they got the Turbo AC's to come up there, too, and play. (As well as a whole lot of other bands.)

Two excellent bands. The Turbo AC's are big favorites of mine -- see my icon for this post -- and are great live. And I've been looking forward to this Plastic Jesus show for a while now.

Road trip! Road trip!

Here's some vid. Go to the links. Well worth your time and will give you a nice shot of adrenalin!

Turbo's "Avenue X" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Nsynwwe4A and "The Future" which is one of my favorite songs of theirs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kZrWY08B6s 

Unfortunately, Plastic Jesus's mySpace page seems to be messed up somehow, seems two songs are playing at the same time, so I'm not going to encourage that with any links.

Edited 4-1 because I realized that one of the links was less than perfect.


I happen to think that Liev Schreiber is a fantastic actor as well as being great eye candy -- see pic http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2008_Defiance/2008_defiance_009.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.allmoviephoto.com/photo/2008_defiance_009.html&usg=__PIEsxbB26L4E8w9oHFsVijCeB7g=&h=2001&w=3000&sz=391&hl=en&start=2&itbs=1&tbnid=STyGClAbOp2ksM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dliev%2Bschreiber%2Bdefiance%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1 that I find especially appealing for those who might not know what he looks like. For a long time, I mostly had just seen him on stage (Yes, I'm very lucky. I live in New York City and am relatively close to a number of off-Broadway theaters). His Talk Radio blew me away and I had seen it back in the day when Eric Bogosian did it himself.

More recently, he's been in some bigger money-making mainstream films (ie: not a modern Hamlet nor Walk on the Moon, nor The Daytrippers although I loved him in all of those) and probably can feel a certain sense of security. I'm happy for him about that 'cause that means that I'll continue to be able to see him in theater (notorious for not actually paying very much considering the irregular nature of the work) -- any artist reading this will understand what I mean. Obviously, his bit as Sabertooth made it easier for him to take on Vilma in Taking Woodstock although slimming down for that dress must have been difficult.

BUT -- but, jesus on a hockey puck! I sure wish the blockbusters or wannabe blockbusters were movies I actually wanted to see. I wish they were movies that got better reviews. X-Men Origins: Wolverine got a lot of crap reviews from the reviewers I consider decent -- except for Schreiber; but, they pretty much said something like: He chews up the scenery and his acting shows how bad everyone else is.

Ok, nice for him, sorta, but why couldn't everyone else rise to the occasion? Or why couldn't the director have a clue as to how to actually direct actors to get good performances out of everyone?
 
I saw XMO:W on an airplane and I'm really glad I didn't pay money for it and that isn't because I'm a film snob, 'kay? I enjoyed the few minutes total that Schreiber was on-screen. (And, just in case someone wants to jump all over me saying it's 'cause I don't like the world of comics, can I say that I really like Iron Man?)

Fast forward to this month. I liked the idea of Repo Men when it was named Reposssion Mambo, even though it seemed potentially derivative of Repo! The Genetic Opera. I really wanted to see Liev Schreiber in another work -- aside: I got cheap tix in the nosebleed seats to see him play Eddie Carbone in A View From the Bridge recently, it was good, and I wasn't too annoyed with Scarlet Johanson who I normally can't stand -- so I was looking forward to it.

Erg.

Well, even from the trailer I had the feeling that I was going to be debating about waiting for it on dvd. Then, I read this hilarious review at Flick Filosopher: http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2010/03/031910repo_men_review.html . She's fantastic and I love the perspective...and I'm still kinda thinking if I can find it at a bargain matinee, I might still go to see it. But, seriously, even for Schreiber, would I want to sit though all of that?

[Let alone how guilty I'd feel for going to see something that ripped-off the title of one of my all-time favorite movies: Repo Man. Here is Alex Cox talking about his first movie before it became a cult fim: http://www.alexcox.com/dir_repoman.htm And here is the trailer from way back when: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=554AX4l1tmw  Poke around on his website and in youtube and you can find bits about Repo Chick. I really want to see it so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for its release at least in art houses.]

Her review reads like a great piece of fan-fic, except that this is anti-fan fic. You MUST go look. Did I give you a linkie? Yes. I. Did.

Here it is again:  http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2010/03/031910repo_men_review.html

Enjoy.

And Whatever's For Us is a beautiful album. That was her first (co-written with Pam Nestor).

And here's some random Joan videos.

In These Times:     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgJLS8y-nnc

Love and Affection:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T4lg8VAjMI&feature=related

When You Kiss Me:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBt25zyRb-c&feature=related

And a very 80's track! Drop the Pilot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifARMmcqhD8&feature=related


Her albums really work as albums. I like it when someone does that. It is one of the reasons I don't go for iPods...I like hearing the album all together.

I'm not sure how this happened, but as I'm working my way through the vinyl, I'm discovering how much 70's/early 80's AOR/Prog Rock is there. I mean, I knew about the Jethro Tull. I listen to it often. (It gets played back-to-back with the Clash or Killing Joke or even Bessie Smith...I did warn you I'm ecclectic) But, I have now removed History the Greatest Hits of America from the shelf, too. And, I'm duitifully listening to the several (!) Fleetwood Mac albums I have. I really like Mick Fleetwood's drumming and there are some good songs, but I'm unimpressed overall with the albums...I get bored and then I have to put The Adverts on to scrub my mind out.

Even though my voice is not the best, I think I prefer MY version of Sister Golden Hair rather than America's. That one is DEFINATELY going.

It was Peter Gabriel's 1983 "Plays Live" album. Both records.

For me?

Dull. Dull. Dull.

Great musicians. Great production. One great song. Two other almost great songs. But, shockingly soul-less.

It will be put on evil-bay as it has been rarely listened to and the cover is in pretty good shape.

I now remember why I never listened to it. I had to listen to an Adverts radio cuts album to scrub my brain free of the 80's production of 70's AOR.

Anyone noticed that there aren't enough hours in the day?

...starting in the New Year. I've got a New Year's Resolution that a friend and I are making to go through our complete music collections and actually listen to everything bit by bit. I'm also thinking of culling and we are both considering trying to write a piece about this and see about publishing it in a music 'zine we both read religiously. (Not naming no names yet...)

I'm going to be using LJ as my music diary to keep track. Anyone who reads me can join in making fun of my totally ecclectic collection. His (my resolution partner) is a little less ecclectic. He is mostly garage rock and punk/hardcore. I, on the other hand, have punk/hardcore, post-punk rock and opera, and chamber music, and jazz and swing and folk with a couple of random bird song and sound effects albums thrown in for good measure.

Yes, I know someone is probably thinking, "Well, whaddya expect?!? It is a bunch of random headlines!" Sure, fine. But, they've got some sort of algorithm for sorting and searching for stuff. They've got spiders, right?

Today I poked around in their menus for a while and finally found a Feedback page where I could send them a note (as opposed to clicking on pre-made buttons or a place to just send them props). Here is what I wrote:

Two things: One, Your Sci/Tech section is almost exclusively made up of technology -- specifically computer or wireless technology -- and has very, very little broader science information. I know that there is a great deal more available -- even about technology -- than what Google puts in. I get feeds from Clean Technica and the ACSE for issues that are near and dear to my profession. If there are so many interesting things just in my feeds, I know that Google could be doing a whole lot better in this area. For example, I don't follow astronomy much and can barely tell Jupiter from Mars in the night sky, but researchers at the U. of Rochester have found that a star they thought was a binary is actually way more complex..."First Known Binary Star Is Discovered to Be a Triplet, Quadruplet, Quintuplet, Sextuplet System" (In Science Daily). That sounds pretty cool. So does http://cleantechnica.com/2009/12/12/us-to-become-world-leader-in-solar-pv-market/ . Today in Google News, I see 5 items on phones or phone networks, 3 on video games, 2 about social networking sites, one on a car. There was one piece on the geminids and one mention of Copenhagen. The rest was about computers, networks, and a hard drive. Whoopie.

Science and technology is far more than that. How about this? http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0409-metal_rubber.htm "Chemists Create Self-assembling Conductive Rubber" If that doesn't have the Gee-Whiz Factor, I don't know what does.

Two: Why does clicking on Google News bring up local weather reports (almost always from areas very far away from my IP address)? Traffic reports also sometimes get included. How is an accident in Dallas or Seattle -- while possibly tragic to those directly involved -- important to me in New York? Or vice versa? Do people in San Francisco need to know about flooding on the FDR Drive? (I'm assuming that this news has popped up for them occasionally since I've been blessed with information about the Twin Peaks tunnel once in a while.) Please don't tell me I can avoid this by making a customized-for-NY news page. I don't think anyone's typical local weather and traffic reports are particualarily news-worthy on a national scale.

That's my grumble for the day.

May he rest in peace; but, seriously, that man pissed me off in 1983 with his I'm-too-stupid-to-wear-a-condom-and-it-is-all-the-woman's-fault-anyway song Billie Jean...then there was some claim that this was written about a "mentally ill fan". Great. Write a song being nasty and then make it into something about how downtrodden you are and for good measure, note that NOW you are blaming someone "mentally ill". There's so many -isms at work here, I don't know where to start. Sheesh.  (I heard a story once about how much Quincy Jones  -- who produced -- hated this song.)

So, to not forget there was a response to this, I post this link here: http://www.imeem.com/othersideoftheuniverse/music/eiGbVKAj/lydia-murdock-superstaranswer-to-billie-jean-12mix/

It is a long version and I can't embed the player here. But, I loved this when it came out. The guy was talented; but, no, I don't have to like his work. I have no particular opinion on the man himself. Never met him.

Just listen to the song! ;-)