seventy-seven:: NYC Blackout, Where Were You 30 Years Ago?

I'm fixated on the year 1977, as part of my personal nostalgia. I wish I was cool enough to be into Paul Weller back then or had stories of listening to Bowie's Heroes. No, my friend and I were listening to his older brother's Queen album snickeringly trying to decipher "Get Down Make Love" and thinking Cheech and Chong was the funniest shit.

I think my parents didn't know what to think of me watching the news back then. That summer, news of the Son-of-Sam taunts and whack poetry were watched by 8 year-old me. I was getting a sense that outside of suburbia, times were bad (Carterian malaise?) and cities were places to fear. When the news broke the next day on the radio about the looting and how NYC was in "anarchy," I remember I was in the kitchen (trying to wish my sister into the cornfield) and being amazed that this was occurring. I'm sure my mom explained riots/civil unrest with a leftist, sociocultural bent. I don't recall a 24/7 TV blitz out in California. If there was, we didn't watch it but I wonder if it was on.

I only knew of one person who was in NYC that summer. She was 17, going to summer school, and scared shitless.

Was anyone in NYC during the blackout?
If not, do you recall it affecting you?

photo:: I think this was the only blackout that the Twin Towers were in.

video:: "pâte filo," Malajube [2006]

video:: "pâte filo," Malajube [2006]
Time:: 03:43

Dot to dot & colour spots. More colour, always beguiling in ways & days from a to Zed. I'm not sure how I came across Malajube, but I'm somewhat fixated on music videos with animation these days. More on that in another blog entry. Indie "grindcore" from Montréal, Malajube have wacky lyrics & an infectious funk savvyness that draws me in. It also serves my fixation on Québec & L'Alizé may steer me towards a pâté of a different sort...à la viande où tourtière.

VIDDIE:: Camera Obscura. "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken"

The song is a response to "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?" by fellow Scot, Lloyd Cole. In the video, how many cultural references can you find??? The Ikea-meets-Tokyo vibe is just too good.




He said “I’ll protect you like you are the crown jewels” yet
Said he’s feeling sorrier for me the more I behave badly I can bet

Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment

Jealousy is more than a word now I understand
I know you can stay a girl by holding a boy’s hand

Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment
Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment

I’ve got my life of complication here to sort out
I’ll take myself to an east coast city and walk about

Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment
Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment
Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment

ANAGRAM DU JOUR:: SADDER PET
cheatcode:: metres/second, mendacity. dead giveaway::latter-day Arouet Le Jeune {Voltaire}

liner notes:: "cheer-up Lola" as for me, I'm not, despite my presskit on both the anagram & the video.

Film Clip:: Running Through the Louvre {Godard & Bertolucci}

Anyone else skeeved out by Bertolucci's "gaze"? I turned a blind eye when watching his Stealing Beauty for some reason, but I just couldn't help but feel like I was watching a lecherous old man's horne?y, voyeuristic fantasy when I watched The Dreamers. It's all very beautifully shot & edited, playing with a Michel Gondry-like theme of the blurred edges of reality, which is why I put up with it.

I recently raced down the steps of Kodak Theatre in the spirit of the Louvre scene in Bande à Part& The Dreamers on a springish evening in Hollywood. In the genre of the moment, I wound up at the noirish Formosa Café, trying not to raise the ire of the waitstaff. I just quietly sat drinking my martini w/olives & not being raucous or noisy, but maybe I was thinking "one of us, one of us!!!"

international weather now Wednesday yonge 34ºF/1ºC mostcldy 32ºF/0ºC partcldy mulholland 60ºF/16ºC mostcldy 67ºF/19ºC partcldy

VIDDIE:: EBTG "When All's Well"

VIDEO:: 03:00
EBTG Video for "When All's Well"

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A poor quality video, but I just needed to get this one out there. You just got to love a jangly song with horns that uses "deign" and "dross." You really need the stereo separation to fully appreciate this song.

Hailing from Hull, Tracey Thorn & Ben Watt's Everything But the Girl got the name from a well-known slogan of Turner's Furniture Shop on Beverley Road in Hull, according to WikiPedia. I always wondered about that. In the 1990s, I recall hearing that Ben Watt was ill with a rare disorder. Looking that up, I found that in 1997, he published a book, Patient, chronicling his battle with & recovery from an autoimmune disorder, Churg-Strauss syndrome.

When it's dark baby,
there's a light I'll shine,
and if you're lost, I'm right behind,
cause we walk the same line

And I don't need reminding
how loud the phone can ring [how lonely refresh can be]
when you're waiting for news

Whoops, wrong lyrics...


We are not true
We are not pure
We are not right

O but still I'll steal to you at night
Too selfish by half
Too ugly by far
But when your songs have been sung, come to me
Rumours are rife
And winter blows cold
Reminds me of such wretched times
And yet all the same
I will never deign
To think ill of you
When all's well
My love is like cathedral bells

Amongst all the dross
The lies and the grief
There are so many things you just wouldn't believe
But amongst all the dross
The lies and the grief
When all's well
My love is like cathedral bells

VIDDIE:: EBTG "Rollercoaster"

VIDEO ONE:: 03:10
EBTG Video for "Rollercoaster"

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A quick post, as I'm swamped & busy keeping others up until all hours. In 1984, I bought My Ever Changing Moods by Paul Weller's Style Council. It featured the vocals of Tracey Thorn on a few tracks & the next year I would discover her collaboration with Ben Watt, Everything but the Girl. In '85, I played to death my import copy of the heavily acoustic Love Not Money. I lost track of EBTG until Amplified Heart, a handful of bittersweet songs with often cool synthwork intertwined with the acoustic arrangements. The big hit with umpteen remixes from AH was "Missing," but I love the sadness of "Rollercoaster" & the fact that Tracy Thorn is riding a bike in the apartment in this video. Sometimes we soundtrack our lives & I recently paired this with another track on the album, since my life is just an image of a rollercoaster anyway.


I still haven't got over it even now.
I want to spend huge amounts of time on my own.
I don't want to cause any serious damage.
I want to make sure that I can manage,
because I'm not really in your head,
I'm not really in your head.

And I see love and disaffection
and the clouds build up and won't pass over.
This is my road to my redemption.
And my life is just an image of a rollercoaster anyway.

I still haven't got over it even now.
I want to spend huge amounds of time in my room.
And I'm not coming out until I feel ready,
not running out for a while my heart's unsteady,
and I'm not really in your head.
I'm not really in your head.

When you sky falls to minus zero,
well some things must dissappear.
Oh this is my road to my redemption.

And my life is just an image of a rollercoaster anyway.
The names may have been changed but the faces are the same
The names may have been changed but as people we're not the same.

And I'm not, no I'm not, no I'm not
really in your head.

And my life is just an image of a rollercoaster anyway.

Chorus

ANAGRAM DU JOUR:: GO CRUEL AND NERVE
cheatcodes:: Hear the screams of center 42, quippy quip Thurston Howell Magnolia

"for the oncoming season (what spring will bring)," tell me what you mean by parka chic, lady december...

international weather now Wednesday bloor 5ºF/-15ºC overcast 12.2ºF/-11ºC flurries mullholland 52ºF/11ºC partcldy 64ºF/17ºC mostsun

VIDDIE:: The Old Grey Whistle Test-BBC:: Aztec Camera

VIDEO ONE:: 03:18
Roddy Frame, frontman of Aztec Camera, performs "Walk Out to Winter" with the band on The Old Grey Whistle Test.

VIDEO TWO:: 03:24
"Walk Out to Winter" (Single Version)
Music Video, Rough Trade (Sire?)

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The station previewed this over the weekend & it received the nod from the Mac Alizé. The preview party involved salty chips & a bit of the drink. An acquaintance in the UK recognized the set of The Old Grey Whistle Test, which is not documented with this video. The Old Grey Whistle Test was a low budget BBC show that was all about the music. The name is from the "old greys," which were from the first pressings of the vinyl records. The "whistle test" is whether or not the tune was catchy enough for the audience to whistle after hearing it. The show ran from 1971 to 1987. There is a "New Grey Whistle Test," an Internet enterprise & the concept is close to my heart. A Google search will get you there.

A very young Roddy Frame of the Glasweigian band, Aztec Camera, plays a unique arrangement on the single version of "Walk Out to Winter" {April 1983 Rough Trade # RT 132}, using synthesizers in their predominantly acoustic sound. This was the second single from the album,High Land, Hard Rain, the first of which was the MTV-friendly "Oblivious." Fear not, that video will be featured in the future. High Land, Hard Rain is #12 on the "Top 100 Scottish albums" on the Scotsman website. The album was nosed out for the #11 spot by Lloyd Cole's Rattlesnakes, one of our faves, although not yet vetted by the Mac Alizé. A pop record in the best sense, Frame's melancholy lyrics, guitar skills equal or greater to those of Johnny Marr, and the often sunny arrangements with Dave Mulholland {bass} and Campbell Owens {drums} make it shine.

We met in the summer and walked 'til the fall
And breathless we talked, it was tongues.
Despite what they'll say, it wasn't youth, we hit the truth

Faces of Strummer that fell from your wall
And was left were they hung
So sweet and bitter, they're what we found
So drink them down and

Chorus
Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there.
Chill will wake you, high and dry
You'll wonder why.
Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there.
Chance is buried just below the blinding snow.

You burn in the breadline and ribbons and all
So walk to winter
You won't be late, you always wait
This generation, the walk to wall
But I'm not angry, get your gear
Get out of here and...

Chorus

ANAGRAM DU JOUR:: RAILWAY HATH JIVED
cheatcodes:: Plath novel, "roger __", Donny Smith from Magnolia

international bright young thing