Videos

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.

[amazon asin=B00FKIWFBY&template=iframe image]

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.

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.

Tech

So I got a new phone.

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I didn’t NEED one. I probably shouldn’t have ordered it. But it was there. And they hooked me. I mean, it does address some of the “shortcomings” of my previous phone. Although, to be honest, my “phone” had no shortcomings. It was the all-powerful computer, audio-video and communications subsystem that came included with my phone that has gradually begun to disappoint, at the same rate as the growth of my expectations.

I ordered my last phone, the RAZR MAXX HD, to address a shortcoming — battery life — it was requiring to be tethered to the power grid with increasing frequency, as if it had become addicted to electricity. Ironic, since the phone was billed at the time of its introduction as the best battery life on the market. But batteries, like humans, grow old and weary, and need to recharge more frequently.

The old phone also suffered from the ailment that all smartphones (at least those owned by power users) tend to suffer at some point or another — it began to lag. Even bringing up the applications menu might take thirty seconds to load. I know that I could probably speed that up by doing a factory reset, releasing software hooks, storage and detritus caused by badly programmed applications and whatnot, but I felt, as a man, that I had to draw the line somewhere. I mean, who’s the tool and who’s the owner? I’m not going to let some damned overpriced subsidized phone tell me what to do! Fuck that. This relationship is over.

Turbo got a big ole butt
I know I told you I’d be true
But Turbo got a big ole butt
So I’m leaving you.

I ordered the Droid Turbo.  Geek specs: Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, Quad-core 2.7 GHz Krait 450, Adreno 420 GPU. Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, splash resistant, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, 1440×2560 pixels. 3GB RAM, 64GB Storage. 21MP (5248×3936) camera. 2160p video @24fps, 1080p@30fps. Fast charging (60% in 30min), wireless charging (Qi-enabled). Oh, and I ordered it in ballistic nylon.

A 21MP phone camera?!?!?!?  What’s the fucking point of that? There’s no possible way that the tiny little phone camera lens can take full advantage of a sensor that dense. Just no way. But we’ll see. We’ll see.

Musicology, Nick Cave

17,318 Days on Earth

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Tonight, Eve and I finally got around to watching Nick Cave’s film, 20,000 Days on Earth, released in the US in September, which, as you can imagine, marks his 20,000th day, in a sort of creative fashion, involving psychoanalysis, car rides with people that may not have actually been there, assembling pieces of his history for his museum of Important Shit, and mostly the creative process by which the 2013 album Push the Sky Away was created and recorded.

Highlights: Warren Ellis telling him that a particular phrase sounded like Lionel Richie; and a scene near the end where he’s watching Scarface with his kids.

I followed up the film by making Eve watch the official videos released for the two Murder Ballads duets back in 1995: Where the Wild Roses Grow, with Kylie Minogue, and Henry Lee, with PJ Harvey.  I started showing her the Dylan version (Love, Henry from World Gone Wrong) and the Dick Justice version (1929, and included in Harry smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952), but she was too sleepy to hear any more.

 

Fringe Living

Layla Cries

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I got bogged down in some Illuminati conspiracy web content earlier today.  I spent a significant amount of time reading about Debra Hunter Pitts, aka Layla Cries, who (according to the literature) was the girlfriend of both Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana back in the day, and seems to have love children by both of them.

The story goes that she was taken as a child and trafficked into the covert world of the rich and powerful, due to her psychic abilities.  [Note to self – do NOT publish article about my own psychic abilities]  After years of horrible slavery and forced prostitution, she was finally rescued, and planned to make it her mission to bring down the power structure. Somehow she met Clapton and Santana (this almost sounds like a TV Funhouse episode so far) and both wanted to marry her, but she didn’t want to marry either.  However, she did want to have their children.

Clapton supposedly paid to put her album out in 1971 (Layla Cries – Dressed in Love). In addition, despite what everyone knows about Pattie Boyd being first George Harrison’s wife and then Eric Clapton’s, and being the true inspiration of the song Layla, according to the literature (and an interview with Debra) not only was she the inspiration, she actually wrote the song and gave it to Clapton, originally titled Baby.

I have thus far been unable to confirm the existence of the Layla Cries album. It sounds like a real collector’s item.

Until such a time as I can get my hands on a copy (even a digital copy), this will have to do: The Beatles performing the Dead Kennedys’ California Uber Alles.

Books, Fringe Living

Support the free library…

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I came across this today, it’s a video by someone who has moved into the free library at Slab City, and is kind of now the de facto caretaker of the library.

I love the idea of this place.  I love the idea of this library in this place.

In the expanded text under the video is the following verbiage. I plan to go through and find some of my more exotic books that I collected in my youth, that can maybe find another life among the “dirty kids” at the Slabs. I encourage you consider doing the same.

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If you would like to send support in a different form, you can also send support-packages to
PO Box 642
Niland, CA
92257

Some of the things that we can use are educational books on travel, survival, philosophy, politics, art, ‘zines, queer resources, science, alternative health and healing, spirituality and classic literature, “banned” books, beatnik poetry, etc….

Some things that I could use personally are gluten-free and health-food snacks (the grocery options are very limited here in this part of the desert), nails, medicinal herbs, toilet paper, outdoor gear, reasonably healthy canned cat food, decent acrylic paint, professional grade paint brushes, small canvases, india ink and stones for energy purposes.