June 2011
19 posts
1 tag
WatchTINA TURNER FORTNIGHT~!
Background: I know Tina’s radio hits, but had not listened to an album of her until this week.
Tina in the Seventies: “Under My Thumb”, “Let’s Spend the Night Together”, “Acid Queen”, “I Can See for Miles”, “Whole Lotta Love”, “Baby Get It On”, “Viva La Money”,...
Happy Hunting!!!: jonathanbogart: andrewtsks:... →
jonathanbogart:
andrewtsks:
hardcorefornerds:
Maybe this is the fault of the Times, but why are there so many damn commas in this?
“Unlike the Hüsker Dü bassist, Greg Norton, now thriving as a restaurateur in Minnesota, or the band’s drummer and co-leader, Grant Hart, still…
Christgau responds in his comment section:
As regards punctuation in my Times piece, some of those...
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WatchSiouxsie and the Banshees week: finale
Tinderbox (1986): The Banshees went through guitarists like Spinal Tap go through drummers. This time John Valentine Carruthers has slipped through the revolving door, and on “Cannons” and “Party’s Fall” you don’t miss his predecessors. Don’t know how anyone finds the lyrics to “Candyman” defensible. B-...
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WatchSiouxsie and the Banshees week
A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (1982): “Cascade” is the only rocker I need to ride again. “Melt!” is the only one of the pretentious ones that makes its point. Might be their best pretentious one — the sex is unvanilla enough to be plausibly pointing forward to PJ Harvey. B From Hyaena (1984): “Dazzle”, “Swimming...
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WatchSiouxsie and the Banshees week
Some tracks from Join Hands (1979): “Regal Zone”, “Placebo Effect”, “Playground Twist”: distinctions not cost-effective. Kaleidoscope (1980): “Happy House” stands out, with Siouxsie paying attention to her lyrics for once — her aspiriation of “happy” adds disdain. Not much else sticks for me. Even...
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Book awards I keep track of, July 2010 -- June...
My grades for the few titles I’ve read in parentheses. No, I don’t intend to read all of these. FICTION: Booker: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question (B+) Hugo: China Mieville, The City & the City (A-) IMPAC: Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin NBCC: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad Orange: Tea Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife Pulitzer: A Visit from the Goon Squad SF...
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Consumer advisory: Seamus Heaney, Human Chain
Too many rambling multi-part poems and not enough exciting language. But there are three good poems out of 29 (.103, well-short of the Mendoza line):
“The Conway Stewart” , a piece of fountain-pen nostalgia, is mostly worth thinking about as a gloss on “Digging”.
“Sweeney Out-takes”, as the title suggests, doesn’t surpass his previous work about Buile...
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WatchAs part of my quest for non-pro wrestling content, I’m ripping off One Band One Week. A catch is that I want to work through artists to whom I haven’t previously spent much time listening. To that end: Musicians of the week: Siouxsie and the Banshees
Background knowledge: I recall the above bit from Marie Antoinette and Siouxsie’s Basement Jaxx track. That’s it.
Once Upon...
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Some people listen to the Smiths, I make pro...
Five favourite workers of 1990:
Based on what I’ve seen, which doesn’t include much lucha or UWF2.
Tsuruta: You get the feeling he’s responsible for the layout of all his major AJPW matches. The classic June 8th Misawa match begins the process of putting over the rising generation. The rest of the year shows Jumbo won’t go quietly.
Misawa: Deserves his spot as leader of...
Why do I find Gaga's triumphalism less suspect...
Is it just because Journey never wrote a song about being their hair?
Cultural consumption: Th-Su
Music: Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Tell My Sister (box, 2nd-5th) Elvis Presley, Elvis Is Back!: Legacy Edition Lady Gaga, Born This Way (6th) Thurston Moore, Demolished Thoughts (x3) Chic, Take It Off (2nd) Kandi, Kandi Koated The Sonny Sharrock Band, Highlife Low, C’mon Bonnie Raitt, Home Plate Lit: Finished Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question: Very dry. Finished Derek Walcott, White...
Cultural consumption: M/T/W
Music: Mathias Eick, Scala Britney Spears, Femme Fatale (3rd) Todd Snider: Live - The Storyteller, disc two (4th) Cesaria Evora, Cafe Atlantico (?th. First time in 10 years, anyway.) Katy Perry, Teenage Dream The Fall, This Nation’s Saving Grace Hole, Live Through This (2nd) Archie Bronson Outfit, Coconut (x2) Poly Styrene, Generation Indigo (3rd) Guitar Paradise of East Africa (3rd) Sonny...
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“But (Katy Perry’s) “I Kissed a Girl” was just straight-up offensive. The whole...”
– HELL YES. kathleen hanna to CNN in this incredible new interview. (via heidivanderlee)
After reading this, I felt I had to listen to the new James Blunt song (I assumed it was “If Time Is All I Have”) immediately. I made it through thirteen seconds before I realised it wasn’t a ...
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The ten most annoying characters in Wuthering...
10. Isabella 9. Hareton 8. Hindley 7. Heathcliff 6. Cathy Linton 5. Nelly 4. Lockwood 3. Edgar 2. Catherine Earnshaw 1. Linton Heathcliff
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Department of avant-garde film spoilers: Zorn's...
C.
Cultural consumption: Th-Su
Music: Vieux Farka Toure, The Secret (x2): A fine record, but its major effect on me is that it’s improved the standing of the Bombino album in my mind (without me having to listen to the Bombino album again). Listening to VFT somehow allowed Agadez to cohere in the back of my mind. I can make sense of each of the tracks on The Secret - the Dave Matthews one was easy compared to the one with...
Cultural consumption: M/T/W
Music: Buck 65, 20 Odd Years (x2) Raphael Saadiq, Stone Rollin’ (2nd) E-40, Revenue Retrievin’: Paradigm Shift (2nd) Gilberto Gil, Um Banda Um: The title track is a high point of cheesy early-Eighties synthpop joy. Sure beats any Duran Duran, anyway. Ke$ha, Cannibal Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Safe as Milk (2nd); Rhino Hi-Five; Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) Bombino,...
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Two American wrestling feuds
Vader vs Sting, WCW 1992-93 Their first big match, at the Great American Bash (7/12/92), showed they were excellent opponents for each other, though the match has been overrated. It’s overbooked: the momentary ref bump and the “poor Sting hit his head” storyline are drama sinks. The transitions are much smoother at King of Cable (12/28/92): the errors are plausible. This is their...
