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TYP # 2

2008-04-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

Take your pick. The unreleased song by the original songwriter, or the released song by the borrower?

Elliott Smith - I Figured You Out
Mary Lou Lord - I Figured You Out (studio version)
Mary Lou Lord - I Figured You Out (live version with explanation)

TYP #1

2008-01-31T17:26:00.000-08:00

Take Your Pick #1 - "Androgynous" by The Replacements

The Replacements - Androgynous

Crash Test Dummies - Androgynous

Blair - Androgynous

Joan Jett - Androgynous

3M like the tape - movies, music, and mawesomeness

2008-01-26T21:17:00.000-08:00

Last night I saw the worst movie I've seen in the last year. Disney's lavishly epic "The Game Plan" couldn't even hold my attention as long as "Enchanted" and gets my nod for the year's worst.

However, I like to think positively and in the spirit of awards season, of what I've seen, here are my favorites.

Top 5

Atonement – this movie haunts me

Across the Universe - funner than Atonement, but not at the same level

Juno - I don't want to talk about Ellen Page, I want to talk about Kimya Dawson and the soundtrack

The Savages – my favorite actor and actress – can’t be bad

The Darjeeling Limited - not my favorite Wes Anderson flick, especially having to follow up my favorite, but still a good one.

Honorable Mention: The Great Debaters, Sicko, Waitress

Top movie soundtracks:
1. Juno
2. Across the Universe
3. The Darjeeling Limited

Who would have thought that a Wes Anderson soundtrack would have been beaten out by two other movies in the same year?

Kimya Dawson - Tire Swing

Kimya Dawson - Loose Lips

The Moldy Peaches - Anyone Else But You

The Kinks - Strangers

The Kinks - This Time Tomorrow

Satyajit Ray - Title Music from TEEN KANYA

Jim Sturgess - I've Just Seen a Face

Martin Luther McCoy - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Joe Anderson w/Salma Hayek - Happiness is a Warm Gun

I still haven't seen "I'm Not There," which does have some good Dylan covers, but not greatness throughout. I plan on watching "Once" in the next couple days which is supposed to be a movie that will make you fall in love with music all over again so I may have a new arrival to this list. We'll see...

What's another word for random?

2008-01-26T19:57:00.000-08:00

"Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing each other again?"

I love that line.

Best line from Magnolia, followed closely by "That ain't mine."

After you get done with that, check out this remix:

Aimee Mann - Deathly

What's your Aspidistra?

2008-01-03T19:13:00.001-08:00

Lately (as in the last two years) I blog about twice a year. I figured since the new year just started I'd get the two blogs out of the way and be done with them.

I feel the need to mention this band if only to clarify their name: The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir. They are not Scottish. They are not Gospel. They are not a Choir. I cannot confirm or deny their ownage of a yard though.

I'm digging them lately, especially the song "Aspidistra." I joked to my wife, I seem to like songs about drugs/heroin (i.e. Velvet's "Heroin", Everclear's "Heroin Girl", the movie Trainspotting). Unfortunately I made this joke in front of my young daughters and they had to ask what "heroin" was. I tried to play it off that I was saying that I liked songs about female superheroes. Not so smooth. I have to admit, my humor does not always translate to kids, but they'll think I'm hilarious when they're teenagers. Anyway, at least this song is about getting clean.

The other reason that I bring up this band is because for some reason this song reminds me of Portland, but I can't really explain why. It doesn't sound like a song I loved in Portland, nor does it even mention Portland. Usually the music that reminds me of Portland is Elliott Smith or Everclear. Regardless, whenever I hear this song I imagine Saturday Market in Portland, underneath the Burnside Bridge. I didn't sell drugs there, didn't buy drugs there, and actually never really bought much there (except I almost bought a cool man bag, but alas it would not have been big enough for my books), but when I listen to it I can't help but picture it. Portland's Saturday Market is my Aspidistra. What's yours?

The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - Aspidistra

Back to my Past

2008-01-03T17:42:00.001-08:00

Recently, I've reclaimed two lost loves. One of the audio and one of the visual format: Ozma and Back to the Future. Fortunately for me, they're connected.

Insert quick Wikipedia reference:

The Back to the Future movie series is referenced often enough in Ozma songs to warrant mention here. The song Lorraine is about George McFly's girlfriend who is Marty McFly's mother. The song Game Over contains the lyric "where I go I don't need roads," which is a play off Doc Brown's dialogue at the end of Back To the Future. The lyric "You'll never be my destiny" in the song Continental Drift is a play off George McFly's dialogue when speaking to Lorraine in the 50's diner.

Perhaps Ozma is the taste of the college geek variety, but I still like it, if only because it reminds me I was a college geek who still loved old school Nintendo(and had one in my dorm room). I have to also include Relient K in this Back to the Future homage. They may be the only Christian band I can actually listen to.

Ozma - Lorraine

Ozma - Continental Drift (Flight of the Bootymademoiselle)

Ozma - Game Over (I wish I could find the acoustic demo of this song, I like it so much better...if I find it I'll add it to my "I miss Portland" blog).

Relient K - Hello McFly

I still wish I owned a Delorean.

Dumb and Dumber

2007-07-28T14:38:00.001-07:00

Last night I went to Barnes and Noble. At first it was just to get some coffee, but how can you not start looking at books or "trashy" magazines?? Fortunately I was able to find a fantastic series of books about the wisdom of animals. One that particularly caught my eye was the "Wisdom of Pandas."

Within this book was a plethora(my favorite word)of knowledge culled from some of the great Panda thinkers of our time such as "Mohandas Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Mark Twain, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Walt Whitman, and the ubiquitous Anonymous. Those were some great pandas."

The Wisdom of Animals series will amuse, inspire, and empower readers.

Reading through the book I couldn't resist acting like Chris Farley in the Zagats skit.

Speaking of Pandas. Think he's ever heard of "Pet Sounds?" Possibly.

Panda Bear - Bros

Mr. Bobby Dylan

2007-07-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

For the inaugural blog it's only fitting to mention Bob Dylan. There is not much that can be said about Bob Dylan that hasn't already been said. So I'll leave it to the experts:

Joan Baez:

"[P]eople say to me, that if I hadn't discovered Bob, people wouldn't have heard of him. People would have heard of him. ...[However, i]n those days, since he was such a grubby little thing, they needed to have him sanctioned [by Baez] before they would listen. So yeah, I'm happy that I did that."

Bono:

"I think he is a very tenacious character. I think underneath all the so-called eccentricity, which I think is just a mask, there's a very true person. He's a good father --- I've seen him with his children --- with a moral compass, and who can get lost at sea like everybody. But I think he's very strong."

Donovan:

[After mentioning the accusations of "ripping off" Dylan and being irritated with Dylan comparisons in general, Donovan tells this anecdote:] "I remember arriving, and Bobby Neuwirth, Dylan's roadie at the time, quietly bringing me into Dylan's suite... I went into a little television room, creeped in and shut the door. It was dark in there. Dylan was just a shadow. He was looking at the ice skating championships from Austria on television in a darkened room. He didn't say anything. We just sat down. Neither asked the other a question. There was nothing to say, nothing to ask. Slowly my eyes got accustomed to the dark, and I realized there were other figures in the room sitting on the couch. Slowly the figures became more real. It was John, Paul, George, and Ringo. I must say I felt a little out of my depth."

George Harrison:

"Dylan is so brilliant. To me, he makes William Shakespeare look like Billy Joel."

Dave Matthews:

[Asked to name his favorites.] "It wouldn't be fair if I didn't name every Dylan record. It almost makes me furious sometimes, how good his lyrics are. You know, you aspire to things. I'm trying and trying [to write a song], and I'll get something and I'll say, 'That's pretty good,' and then I'll listen to Blood On the Tracks and think 'Who the hell am I kidding? What the hell am I talking about?' 'Come in, she said / I'll give you / shelter from the storm.' Asshole!"

In more recent Bob Dylan news there's a new 3-cd mega Dylan collection. The "definitive retrospective." I'm not sure how this is really any different from all of his greatest hits cds, but the trailer is impressive. Seems like another way to make money. Just go buy all of his albums.

In honor of the inspiration.

Bob Dylan - My Back Pages