"Old Bed" by Mike Rooney with Rigby added.
Rigby and Clover and their dreams
all images by jESiO
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Research & Practice
"Anyway...: An Introduction to the beginning of my Muse/Coney Island project."
This may become it's own piece...or may be a thread on this blog...unsure yet, so keep posted.
Below are images of a journal entry I found from 2003. Below that, is the actual text. Trying to incorporate a way to make them interactive (by clicking on image/it flips you to word doc image/and back/etc). For now, the pics only enlarge and the text is separate.
If anyone's ever read I Love You, Ronnie by Nancy Reagan, you'd bet the jist.
July 20, 2003
11:12 am
NYC
Just getting out of bed-made some oatmeal—on 2nd cup of OJ—a little dehydrated !
It’s all for the good, though, I must say, b/c yesterday was the 1st day I really felt my niche in NYC. Adam & I went to his friend James’ house in Brooklyn. V. cool place. Reminded me of an art studio (or music) moreso than a home.
It was awesome, though. There was a sitar on the wall! Original art everywhere…proper thrift-store chic furniture~nice.
Anyway, went to Coney Island for Siren Music Festival, sponsored by Village Voice. A friend of James & Melissa got us into VIP & backstage (name was Morgan & he was a kick-ass wizard @ cinematography set to tripped out beats. His shit could easily fly well w/ the Bonnaroo crowd.
Anyway, I liked the crowd a lot.
May go to reg. beach w/ Heather Whited today. She’s staying in Village w/ friends.
Flowers in the Attic
Image by jESiO
My friends just bought a house in Colonial Place...built around 90 years ago or so...Weird things are in their attic. Little girl's homework. School uniform shortpants. And the coolest sticker ever...
I don't know when the Norfolk Skatepark existed. My mind says it was during Cogan's punk rock heydey, with kids in Chucks skating down to shoegaze, detouring through a beautifully graffiti'd Colley Avenue train trestle.
So I made a little tribute. :)
Falling and Flying
Reviews have been great. I love T Bone Burnett, love “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski. I don’t like Maggie Gyllenhaal has an actress but thinks she picks great movies, so I tolerate her presence as a means to an end.
The film gets an A for authenticity. Bad Blake’s exist out there, not only in country music—or even solely in music…The 50-something alcoholic playboy who has lost his looks, most of his money, but none of his charm exists everywhere from bar room to boardroom. I’ve met Bad Blake before and am probably at times hanging out with his younger self now.
The accolades Jeff Bridges is getting are deserved. He gets the fast, muffled diction of a drunk and wipes his words into the mike or across the payphone like he’s windexing them into a dashboard. He comes equipped with the bad boy eye twinkle and manages to show us a new form of down and out loser—not as lost as Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas—or as raw as Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler—but similar, with a little more intelligence.
Supporting cast—eh. Gyllenhaal has a decent accent and a pretty orange dress. Other supporting actors—Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell—were poorly used. The movie could have been edited down another 30 minutes—Duvall’s fishing buddy/AA going bartender/supporter didn’t need to exist. Wasted space and wasted talents of one of our finest performers (see The Road—which is coming to The Naro soon).
Farrell’s ex-protégé turned pop-country star could have been less stereotyped and more of a central focus—Bad’s void in not being a father figure is a huge issue for him and this could have been addressed more poignantly through the music—country music at that, the most melodramatic and whiskey friendly of all—but it wasn’t. Instead, it tries to cram in Bad’s long lost son, Gyllenhaal’s little boy who actually gets lost (cue obvious), and the “I taught you everything you know—Yes you did, thank you, I feel guilt about my success” vibes between Bad and Tommy (Farrell).
Maybe I wish for this because I thought Colin Farrell did a wonderful job with the few non-singing scenes he had. He walked the fine line between real musician and industry-created pop star nicely. When he sang, his eyebrows furrowed, eyes pierced an unknown point behind the audience—and it wasn’t “Tommy”, it was Colin—who’s been through a few addiction and paternity battles himself.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Yes it is.
ART? (or preparation)?
pic: 4.bp.blogspot.com
pic: puremusic.com
pic: rmlford.files.wordpress.com
ART? (or homage)?
gabriel cece: tattoo of digital image on radiohead cover
David Hepburn painting of photo of Beatles
Photograph of actress dressed as Frida Kahlo painting.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Amy and Appalachia
Junebug was released in 2005 and I saw it back then. All I really remembered of it yesterday at the video store was 1: it was the most realistic portrait (accent and family dynamic, for instance) of the part of the South I come from I'd seen in a non-documentary...and 2: the church basement scene couldn't have been more real unless they could somehow make me smell ham biscuits through the DVD player vents.
It'd been a day of nostalgia anyway. Snow, for one. Something from my youth I rarely encounter--especially in my daily life. I went to writer Mike D'Orso's house (coincidentally, he lives in my neighborhood--which I didn't know when first emailing with him). He's featured in altdaily right now and mentioned Grundy--my Appalachian hometown, so I went to his house and we talked writing, winding roads, jukeboxes, the future of music...he gave me a copy of the article he wrote in 1983 for Commonwealth magazine...
pic: coalcampusa.com
He said one of the strongest images he recollected was how there's a railroad on one side of a mountain, a narrow road on the other, with some form of river or creek in between. I found this pic of Grundy online. It's what I saw in my head when he was talking.
the old Grundy--before it was torn down to build a Walmart...
Anyway, Junebug rocks. It's my favorite Amy Adams performance. She's usually too saccharine for me. The way she clicks her mouth when she smiles too wide...the overanimated pitch in her voice...But her character in Junebug, Ashley, the pregnant sister-in-law from BFE, NC who's impressed with her "city" sister-in-law the way tween girls are impressed with Rihanna or Miley Cyrus or something--it's an actual vulnerable performance where Adams's quirks make the character believable and sweet.
And THE CHURCH BASEMENT. I saw a youtube comment that said, "This is a whole scene from my childhood I thought would never show up in any movie. It's very moving," and I concur. I shy away from a lot of the fervor in the particular brand of Baptist towns like these offer, but when the traditional hymns are brought out, I feel like I'm melting. I knew every word and every nuance of where a bass or high note would happen.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Kookoo for Cocoa Puffs
pic: virginiaimages.com
I just found a tool that allows you to type in your city and any other city in the world to compare the musical taste compatibility between the two. Apparently, the 757 jives with nowhere...at least nowhere I like. Every city I typed in had 0% compatibility, including: Pittsburgh, Austin, & Bristol UK
Our area's top 10 are currently:
1. Lady Gaga (trendy, yet acceptable)
2. Jay-Z (coming to town soon, so ok)
3. Kanye West (really?)
4. Drake (really, really?)
5. Linkin Park (first rock band: +...of all the rock bands, our fave is LP: -)
6. Ke$ha (#1 song on the pop charts nationally...not a fan)
7. Death Cab for Cutie (first band i like on the whole list)
8. The Killers (second band i like...but they have no current material)
9. System of a Down (even further away from current songs--does the 757 lie down at the foot of fm99 or z104? really? can we look for something new in rock music please? at least Gaga and Ke$ha are current)
10. Coldplay (eh. christ martin is a crybaby)
Friday, February 5, 2010
Natural Prozac
A friend posted the link on facebook. Wow. I haven't seen Mr. Rogers in over a decade, but his voice takes you way back way fast. In the clip, he is asking the government (in 1969) for public television funding and manages to get $20 million in 6 minutes. He does it simply by discussing his philosophy on children to a Congressman--with the same monotone gentility he used for his young audience. His recognition that children aren't feeling anxious or angry about large events, but rather small things like getting haircuts or sibling rivalry--and then showing children "bad" feelings are normal and can be channeled into activities like running--instead of biting or hitting--hit a nerve for me. They obviously resonated with the Congressman, who told Mr. Rogers he was giving him goosebumps. If adults could realize the same is true for them--it's okay--normal, even-- to get frustrated at the basics--making dinner, laundry, etc. The trick is to channel the energy into something positive, be that exercise, art, gardening...
Monday, February 1, 2010
Costume Couture
image: berkleymagazine.co.uk
image: whatiwore.tumblr.com
Halloween Idea #4
So I googled "Karl Lagerfeld Costume" and found image 2. It's from Jessica at whatiwore, and she blogged about it last October, thus making my idea secondhand. However, going back to my first Halloween post on Frida Kahlo, as well as my post on cover songs, even if underlying structure of the idea isn't one's own, one can still take it further outside of the box, making it newly original and true to self. If I decide to do this costume come October, I can thank Jessica for showing me one version of how to do it, and move on to find my own...
Pro's: No one else I know will dress as this and it's inexpensive.
Cons: Someone else already did this. It won't be a group costume. May be unrecognizable depending on what party I have/go to.
Only 8 months to go!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Golden G's
People just interviewed the amazing Betty White for its "My Life in Pictures" series (I think that's what it's called). The above picture was full page and just so pretty :)
So
I thought about The Golden Girls and wanted to find vintage pics of all of them...see what they were like before they retired to Florida. And...
This is the G-Rated version. There are A LOT of naked Bea Arthur pics online. Weird!!?? Possibly a practical joke blown up into the cybersphere? Weird. Weird Weird.
shout out
I was reading the modcloth blog, which is one of my favorite fashion sites, when I came across their best/worst dressed from Sunday's Golden Globe awards. Glee's Jayma Mays was voted one of the worst dressed wearing the Badgley Mischka dress above. Not my favorite dress either.
I've never seen Glee. I normally don't pay attention to the worst dressed lists unless they're insane a'la Bjork wearing the swan, etc. However, I went to high school with Jayma, and while I don't watch a lot of TV, I pay attention when I see Glee on the news, just because it's cool that someone you know is successful at doing her thing.
Sooo...the dress wasn't a hit. However, Chloe Sevigny has made publicists happy for years donning weird clothes. It's raised her profile. With Glee's win for Best Television Series-Musical or Comedy, and Jayma standing out front wearing Spiderman's leftovers, it may make people remember who she is in the future, may help her career.
It's a weird thought...to think clothing can be responsible for increasing either fame or recognition, but nonetheless a true thought. Look at Jennifer Lopez (the green boob dress--at that time she was just Puff Daddy's girlfriend), Lady Gaga (everything she wears, really), Boy George, Marilyn Manson, and on and on.
While Jayma's dress doesn't go as high on the scale as the musicians on the above list, the Sevigny's and Lopez's of the world may end up with a new contendor if she keeps this up.
Monday, January 18, 2010
el coco loco
I'm gathering materials for a Chanel collage. Broken mirror, perfume bottles, satin...The concept has been running through my head for over two years now. However, it takes a long time to accumulate Chanel bottles at $80 a pop. So I've started thinking digitally. I'm going to make digi-collages strictly for either color or image balance...Here's the first:
The Norva Flies
My husband's band, Flies With Honey, played the Norva last weekend. They rarely play an all original set, so hearing it on a big stage was a lot of fun.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
make it grunge
Just heard Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes.” Simple. Sweet. It sounded like Bright Eyes or stripped down Death Cab for Cutie…Took a minute for me to realize what I was hearing.
I have had an MP3 of Hole doing this song live in the early 1990’s for several years, and it’s one of my favorite songs.
Songs like this are the epitome of why covers can be the best songs. If the bones are strong, the muscles can be stretched in so many directions. The eyes Lou Reed are lingering on are certainly not the same as Courtney Love. He “lingers on” and she “lingeeeeeeers OOOOOOOONNN” until her throat is raw.
He’s cute and she’s crazy. He romantic. She frantic. Which is weird since he’s on speed and she heroin. Just sayin’.
Yet they are both so phenomenal. I am thankful when I get to experience great songwriting…the kind that lets you hear songs in new ways. It’s a testament to the songwriter, but also the performers who recognize the potential of a piece of music and broaden it. While collage and digital design allow for room to tweak a piece of art into something new, those are more manipulative mediums. They rarely make you see multiple facets of the original in new ways. They add layers, possibly colors, possibly quotes or braces on the Mona Lisa.
Songs are different. Covers aren’t adding to, they’re stretching out, allowing the ear to hear the same thing it’s already heard in the original (be that chord progression or tone, and, of course, lyrics) but to also hear something new. And more importantly, or perhaps more momentous, to feel something new.
Most great bands cover songs without copying them. From Nirvana doing Leadbelly & David Bowie, to Ryan Adams doing Oasis, it’s striking when done well.
Some of my favorite covers:
“Hallelujah” (bones provided by Leonard Cohen, flesh by Jeff Buckley, kd lang)
“Long Black Veil” (bones by Danny Dill & Marijohn Wilkin, flesh by The Chieftans/Mick Jagger, Ralph Stanley, and Social Distortion)
“Lost Highway” (bones by Hank Williams, flesh by Tom Petty, Jeff Buckley)
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Saturday Playlist
-"Amusement Parks on Fire" by Amusement Parks on Fire
I remember buying this because I liked the band name. I grew to like the band.
-"Bleach" by Nirvana
They were sooo young.
-"The Bar" by BT
My cousin wrote this song. Only a small group of people now flung worldwide know it. This blues version randomly popped up on my ipod and I didn't even know I had it. Made my morning.
-"Eraser" by Thom Yorke
He's crazy.
-typing Bat for Lashes in my iphones Pandora
It turned me onto Metric...reminds me of Today the Moon Tomorrow the Sun sorta. I'm gonna download some more.
-"Pinkerton" by Weezer
Lyrics make me laugh...but it jams.
"Lovers" by Sleepy Jackson
Indie Lee Hazlewood vibes with a Dylan/Petty lyrical twist.
-Jeff Buckley pandora radio
Heard "Lucky" by Radiohead. Missed Adam's old band Softstone. Dawn sang the hell out of this song.
Friday, January 8, 2010
She's A Winner
image: www.best-horror-movies.com
Halloween Idea #3
Carrie is my January pic for my Halloween costume. I went as Princess Toadstool a few years ago and could use the same dress--just blood it up a bit. I could even use her crown because Carrie was prom queen before all the shiz went down.
Pros: Already have the outfit
Cons: Will get fake blood on everything and will not be able to sit down or hug anyone...
Only 9 months to go!
UPDATE:
I went as Carrie for Halloween 2010 to the Zombie Prom:
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Had a little party...
Hehe
Crabs
Friends
Bacon
Haha
Eggs
Fudge
Revelry
Horns
Exactly
Resolutions
Remains
