Amanda Palmer, Musicology, Neil Gaiman

Review: An Evening With Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer

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Upon finishing up my listen of American Gods, I decided to shift the paradigm just a little bit, and move from delightfully compelling audiobooks to … performance. But just a little bit, as I kept Neil Gaiman in the mix, and added his beautiful, entertaining and sometimes naked wife, Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls.

Maybe it’s just the space I’m in, but I honestly had no idea just how entertaining this would be. Whether I’m listening to Neil’s poems, probably half of which are to or about Amanda, or Amanda’s absolutely captivating songs, I found myself with a grin on my face the entire time.

Especially… ESPECIALLY… “Judy Blume”…

What a joyful confession! Fuck the “decent church-going women, With their mean, pinched, bitter, Evil faces” who work so hard to ban the works of Judy Blume. This all the evidence you need that Judy Blume is vital. Someone needs to tell your kids the things that you’re too afraid to talk about.

Amanda also does a touching version of Death Cab for Cutie’s I Will  Follow You Into the Dark, dedicated to Ashlie Gough, who died of an overdose in her sleep at the Occupy Vancouver protests.

To be honest, the marriage of these two is so perfect that I’m not quite sure who to be jealous of.

Anyhow, please go out and buy this beautiful 3-cd set of live performances of the two of them, from their Fall 2001 tour.  You won’t regret it, I promise.

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Murder Ballads, Musicology

Murder Ballad of the Week: 1/26/15: Henry Lee, by Dick Justice

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Another classic murder ballad, probably the oldest recorded version of this song. I mentioned the Nick Cave updated version in a recent post about watching the film 20,000 Days On Earth.  I decided to present the Dick Justice version here for this week.

Also known as Love, Henry, or Young Hunting, or Earl Richard, or The Proud Girl.  May slso be related to Young Benjie, Child Waters, and The False Lover Won Back, and may share the same origin.  Goes back to the early 1800s in Glasgow, according to one source.

I think I like Bob Dylan’s version the best.

Dreams, General Musings, Neil Gaiman

Be careful with earbuds at bedtime

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girl_with_pearl_earbudsI woke up early this morning, like work-day early, and i figured I’d get some listening time in. I’m still working on the last 20% or so of American Gods. Well, I guess I wasn’t really ready to be awake, because I fell back into dreamland while listening. In my dream, I was at my father’s place in Florida, with the family on a visit, I suppose. In the dream I was listening to the same audiobook, and I guess he was trying to get my attention, so I pressed stop on the player, but the words kept coming. Strange. So I pulled the earbuds out of my ears (in the dream) and the WORDS KEPT COMING.  There I was, confused as to why these words kept coming from inside my ears with no player and no earbuds. After a few more dream moments of this confusion, I woke up, laughed, removed the earbuds again and was actually relieved when the words stopped in real life that time. One of those recursive dreams would have really thrown me for a loop.

Musicology

The Evens came to Fredericksburg in November 2012

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I was just kind of reliving this night, playing Evens audio and videos.  I never got to see Ian Mackaye during the days I was going to these shows as a young man.  Minor Threat played its last show literally two months before my first, and by the time Fugazi started, I was pretty much enjoying Dead shows, Dead tribute nights, blues and world music with my circle of friends. Guess I was a fickle kid.

I was shocked when I heard that the Evens (Ian on guitar, Amy Farina on drums, and both on vocals) were coming to the Burg. The show was in a tiny little bookstore, Read All Over Bookstore, right smack in the heart of downtown Fredericksburg. No wait. It’s a tiny little store, but it’s large for a tiny bookstore. The show was sponsored by Fredericksburg All Ages, which is appropriate, because Ian has been a tireless advocate for all ages venues.

I spent the whole gig just ten feet from the stage. A kid was crawling around the stage for a while, I’m guessing that was Ian and Amy’s son. A guy was filming the show with what looked like a serious camera. I chatted with him on the sidewalk after the show, he was from OddBox in Fredericksburg. Ever since the show I’ve been hoping to see the footage surface somewhere, but no such luck just yet.  There was a real nice version of Mt. Pleasant Isn’t.  It’s a favorite due to the sing-along chorus: “THE POLICE WILL NOT BE EXCUSED! THE POLICE WILL NOT BEHAVE!” Here’s a version from some other gig, since I can’t post the one I saw:

I hope I can bring my girls to an upcoming Fredericksburg All Ages show. Problem is, a lot of time they’re held on school nights, and my girls have stacks and stacks of homework, and they’re always so tired so early. They aren’t miscreant ne’er-do-wells like I was, making my way from the suburbs into DC sometimes twice a week to see shows like this at 930, DC Space, Roxy, WUST, Pierce Hall, or wherever they were being held that week.

General Musings

Pizza Dare

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Amour_Pizza_Guy_2I think the fairly recent trend of “Pizza Dare” videos, in which women order pizza and then answer the door naked, sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs, is a scam.

I think it’s a full-scale, all-out scam, orchestrated by the pizza delivery industry, in order to convince men, most of whom do not feel they get to see their share of naked women, to take the job at whatever low hourly wages are offered, hell, even for free, on the off chance that they’ll get to experience a live naked girl answering the door.

Also, there’s a double standard at play here.  If *I* do it, I’ll have to register as a sex offender. Women almost NEVER get arrested for indecent exposure.  Go figure.

Fringe Living

This obsession I have with the past…

Sometimes I wonder if I’m obsessed with the past. My father likes to say, “sometimes the past should stay in the past.” Sometimes, when people are uncomfortable with the past, there are demons back there lurking, or maybe what they’re really uncomfortable with is the present, represented by their own linear progress.

Except there’s no such thing as linear progress. It’s a myth. We walk our own road, we do our own time. Anyone tries to tell you different is a liar.

The past can’t be ignored. It’s directly connected to the present, and the future. Re-examining the past with the eyes of experience, you’re likely to learn new lessons that may have been missed the first time around. You just never know what might be buried in there. Maybe it floated right by you when you weren’t paying attention.

One of the ways I’m reconnecting with the past is by re-releasing material from my old Krylon Underground archives. Feel free to connect on facebook for periodic releases of “stuff” — artwork, poetic indulgences, satire, whatever strikes my fancy, as I get around to it. Most of it is not written or drawn by me. I was more of a collector, and towards the end I had quite a collection of submissions mailed to me from friends and strangers.

Here’s a good example. It’s a long piece from what I believe is the last printed copy of Krylon Underground in 1992.

wtfs1wtfs2

Joni Mitchell, Musicology

Joni Fan

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jonifan

Somewhere near my home is a fellow Joni fan. I will allow myself a mild case of tunnel vision in assuming this refers to Joni Mitchell. Because to my knowledge, there is no other Joni that can be referred to as simply Joni.

I can’t remember my first exposures to Joni. I was too young. I remember buying The Hissing of Summer Lawns, though, on vinyl at a yard sale in my late teens. I remember it because I also bought a few Jethro Tull albums at the same time. I still have them all, including the version of Stand Up with the band popping out of the album when you open it.

My early exposure to Joni probably included Big Yellow Taxi and Help Me, because I grew up on 70s popular radio. Hissing was the first in-depth exposure to Joni I ever had, and it floored me. I couldn’t believe there were so many great songs I had never heard, all in one place. I listened many, many times. I still know the record by heart. I had never heard anything like The Jungle Line before. Edith and the Kingpin still gives me goosebumps today.

Not having a guide, I explored some of Joni’s other works as I happened upon them. Court and Spark and Ladies of the Canyon, while obviously great albums, never quite resonated with me the way that Hissing did, although I still smile when I hear Joni’s version of Woodstock, which I sometimes prefer to CSNY’s cover. Sometimes. Depends on my energy at the time, I guess.

Then I met Eve, who introduced me to Hejira and reintroduced me to Blue. Blue, which I had heard before and just not given a fair listen. Blue, which I probably just wasn’t mature enough to hear the first time. Blue, which has some of the greatest songs Joni ever wrote. How did I miss that?  And Hejira, wow. Hejira had me at the very first listen. By the time I had found Hejira, I had already found Furry Lewis, so Furry Sings the Blues resonated powerfully. Coyote, Amelia, and Black Crow were just icing on the cake. Perfect gems of powerful, lyrical icing. I’d put Hejira on my 10-album desert island list any day.

So thanks, fellow JONI FAN, for making me think of Joni on the way home tonight. Even though I was listening to American Gods, I was thinking of you. Perhaps you too are an American God incarnate.

putting more of myself out there