8 posts tagged “music”
Finally got my spankin' new iBall 8x6 pen tablet so I can work at home too. It's just as good as the Wacom but less than half the price. Sweet.
Also bought a whirly, girly, blue wraparound skirt with folksy motifs. It doesn't seem to go with any colour other than white or the colours that it already has, but it's still so pretty.
Meanwhile, Nine Inch Nails are having a late-summer whirlwind tour in the US and Canada. Will anyone be attending their concerts? Those who are going - PLEASE take plenty of pictures and videos!
2008 Summer Tour
NOTE: all times are local venue time zone
7/25/08 Pemberton, BC [Pemberton Festival]
On sale: NOW
7/26/08 Seattle, WA [Key Arena]
Pre Sale: 5/7 (5:00PM)
On Sale: 5/10 (10:00AM)
7/28/08 Edmonton, AB [Rexall Place]
Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)
On Sale: 5/9 (10:00AM)
7/29/08 Calgary, AB [Pengrowth Saddledome]
Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)
On Sale: 5/9 (10:00AM)
7/31/08 Winnipeg, MB [MTS Centre]
Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)
On Sale: 5/9 (10:00AM)
8/2/08 Minneapolis, MN [Target Center]
Pre Sale: 5/7 (5:00PM)
On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)
8/3/08 Chicago, IL [Grant Park - Lollapalooza Festival]
On Sale: NOW
8/5/08 Toronto, ON [Air Canada Centre]
Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)
On Sale: 5/9 (5:00PM)
8/7/08 Uncasville, CT [Mohegan Sun Arena]
Pre Sale: 5/21 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/24 (10AM)
8/8/08 Worcester, MA [DCU Center]
Pre Sale: 5/14 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/17 (12NOON)
8/10/08 Baltimore, MD [Pimlico Race Course - V Festival]
On Sale: 5/3
8/12/08 Knoxville, TN [Knoxville Civic Coliseum]
Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/10 (9AM)
8/13/08 Duluth, GA [Gwinnett Arena]
Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/9 (5PM)
8/15/08 Oklahoma City, OK [Ford Center]
Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)
8/16/08 Houston, TX [Toyota Center]
Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/9 (5PM)
8/18/08 Dallas, TX [American Airlines Center]
Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/9 (5PM)
8/20/08 St. Louis, MO [Scottrade Center]
Pre Sale: 5/28 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/31 (10AM)
8/22/08 Cleveland, OH [Quicken Loans Arena]
Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)
8/23/08 Auburn Hills, MI [The Palace of Auburn Hills]
Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)
8/27/08 East Rutherford, NJ [Izod Center]
Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/10 (12NOON)
8/29/08 Philadelphia, PA [Wachovia Center]
Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)
8/31/08 Lexington, KY [Rupp Arena]
Pre Sale: 4/30 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/3 (10AM)
9/2/08 Morrison, CO [Red Rocks Amphitheater]
Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)
On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)
9/3/08 Salt Lake City [E Center]
Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)
On sale: 5/10 (11AM)
9/5/08 Oakland, CA [Oracle Arena]
Pre Sale: 6/12 (5:00PM)
On Sale: 6/15 (10AM)
9/6/08 Los Angeles, CA [The Forum]
Pre Sale: TBA
On Sale: TBA
The Number 23 is a typical Joel Schumacher film - slickly edited whodunit, special effects, wizardly credits et al. But I quite enjoyed this film - it's visually good, especially in the flashback parts (which are high-contrast with undertones of green) and the story is plausible enough. Nice to watch with a bowl of popcorn on a weekend.
One scene in particular stood out - Jim Carrey and Virginia Madsen meet at the scene of an arson/killing. The song for this scene, as I found out later, is called "Tear You Apart", by a band called She Wants Revenge, whom I'd never heard of until I saw the film. As the video below shows, both the song and the scene go together perfectly. It might not be as effective unless you see the whole film, but you might still want to turn up the AC. ;)
(warning: lyrics and video Not Safe For Kids.)
High contrast, undertones of green, both Carrey and Madsen clad in black, Carrey looking uncharacteristically hot (and that badass tattoo, oh my) ... it's sex, death, bondage and Goth all rolled into one. Hot damn.
Another song by them that I liked was this one called "Killing Time". After the first one minute of (rather repetitive) piano, it starts to develop influences of the tango - one of my favourite kinds of dance and music. I could actually visualise doing a typical tango sequence to this song, and the context is very appropriate for the dance as well.
(Can you tell I'm a sucker for Latin ballroom dances?)
Except for having a penchant for repeating certain lyrics or parts, which can get tiresome and stretch the song unnecessarily, She Wants Revenge seems to be pretty good. I'd like to hear more of their stuff.
I've been going bonkers reading Mike Ashley's fantasy anthologies. This was the first one I read:
I don't remember which author wrote which story, but here I found some of the titles here. These are the ones which I remember and really liked:
A Slow Day in Hell
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
The Shoemaker and the Elvis by Lawrence Schimel - I particularly liked this one, it was very cute!
Escape from the Planet of the Bears by Tom Holt - Excellent parody.
The Case of the Four-and-Twenty-Blackbirds by David Langford. A very Film Noir, Raymond-Chandler-private-detective tale.
Then I read this anthology of science fiction, from the same publishers.
This page contains the entire list of the stories. Special Mention:
The Pen and the Dark by Colin Kapp - Gripping suspense, IMO.
Inanimate Objection by H. Chandler Elliott - This really influenced me, I started seeing all the inanimate objects in my house out to get me!
High Eight by Keith Roberts - This one was really violent and scary...
Shards by Brian W. Aldiss - Has some Monty-Pythonesque instances of brilliant wordplay.
Into Your Tent I'll Creep by Eric Frank Russell - A must-read for ICHC fans who think cats are plotting world domination. It's actually the dogs!
and my top favourite, A Death In The House by Clifford D. Simak - a sweet, touching story about a country farmer who finds a dying alien.
And now I'm on the third - The Mammoth Book of Awesome Comic Fantasy. This far surpasses the first one I read.
The opening story, Happy Valley, is by none other than John Cleese and Connie Booth. BRILLeffingIANT. The second one, Attack of the Charlie Chaplins, is also hilarious. I read a couple more but I can't remember them at the moment.
All of last month and this one, the Film Club at college is showing New Wave. I saw two British New Wave films this week - Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Karel Reisz, and A Taste of Honey by Tony Richardson. The effect is already showing - I've caught myself on more than one occasion yelling in a British accent to no one in particular: "Make me a nice cup o' tea, love!"
The first film is like the British version of On The Waterfront, because Albert Finney's chequered shirts look like those worn by Brando. But he's different in that Finney doesn't have any of Brando's affected mannerisms and brooding demeanor, and the story is of the individual and not of his entire class. And though he is very reminiscent of Brando at the beginning, he gradually grows into his own mould - a very brash, very British working-class rebel, but someone with a slightly playful side.
The second film is a funny and poignant story of Jo, a schoolgirl who falls in love and gets pregnant by a black British sailor, and eventually befriends a gay man Geoffrey, while her single mother Helen continues to pursue men and neglect her. Rita Tushingham, who played Jo, was brilliant. I couldn't shake off the feeling that she somewhat resembled another famous actor throughout the movie, and it was only when it ended that I realised that I was thinking of Gael García Bernal! Her mother's character, Helen, does have occasional lapses of maternal instinct for her child, but failed to redeem herself towards the end when she selfishly barges into the house after a failed marriage and drives out her daughter's caring gay roommate.
Oh, and I just downloaded the first 9 songs of Nine Inch Nails' brand new album Ghosts I-IV. Whee!
(Thanks to Bobavey for the info!)
I also love them for another reason: they remind me of nadaswarams, the South Indian version of the shehnai (immortalised by the late Ustad Bismillah Khan.) These two instruments echo the strange, haunting, 'nasal' quality of the bagpipes. You'll find that the word nadaswaram is phonetically similar to naga, a common word for snake (in fact, it's sometimes called " nagaswaram" literally meaning naga = snake and swaram = sound) and indeed, in almost all Indian films, any scene with a cobra or other venomous snake is always accompanied by the strains of a nadaswaram or a shehnai, even today.
South Indian musician from a California temple holding a nadaswaram
Ustad Bismillah Khan on the shehnai
This guy also plays a variety of other instruments - fiddle, violin, guitar, etc. He seems to be pretty good. (And he's cute too!!!)
(Thanks to Teho for re-introducing me to this song on New Year's Eve!)
And I've been working like a dog...
It's been a hard day's night...
I should be sleeping like a log ...
But when I get home half-dead,
And I look at my bed,
That's when I know I'll be all right ..."
Hehe ... sorry for tweaking the lyrics to suit my state of mind! Just got back from watching the film - for the second time. I LOVE the Beatles, as does my dad. It's not just a great musical, it's also a great comedy! I can't get enough of the Liverpudlian accents and the dialogues. Here are some gems:
Norm: The place is surging with girls.
Lennon: Please sir, sir, can I have one to surge me sir, please sir?
Journalist: How did you find America?
Lennon: Turned left at Greenland.
Journalist: Do you often see your father?
McCartney: No, actually we're just good friends.
ROTFLMAO. Priceless.
Best. Boy. Band. Ever.
A Review of BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1999)
Director: Wim Wenders
documentary
Most documentaries are boring. It’s a fact that somehow a real life incident or person doesn’t seem as interesting when shown as-is, rather than in widescreen format with Dolby Surround, a glamorous ensemble cast, elaborate realistic sets and lots of extra spice. However, there are always exceptions to the rule – gems like William Nessen's The Black Road (I actually had the fortune to meet him when he visited NID), Elle Flander's Zero Degrees Of Separation, Mahnaz Afzali's The Ladies’, and that greatest of all documentary musicals, Buena Vista Social Club.
The film traces the journey of American guitarist Ry Cooder and his percussionist son Joachim to in March 1998, in search of the forgotten musicians whose rhythms filled nights in the years preceding World War II. These musicians were members of the Buena Vista Social Club, and used to perform regularly, with the club at its peak during the 1940s. The Cooders find these musicians living practically on the streets of , almost forgotten, but very much alive as far as their spirit and extraordinary musical talent is concerned. Through the help of local musician Juan de Marcos González (who plays the guiro), who helps to regroup the members and coordinate their performances at the EGREM studios in , the music from the old days is recreated. Needless to say, so is the magic.
The members include the honey-voiced son and bolero singer Ibrahim Ferrer (who also plays the conga, claves and bombo), singer Omara Portuondo (the only female member, who has worked with Nat King Cole), Compay Segundo (vocals and tres), legendary pianist Rubén González, bassist Orlando "Cachaito" López, trumpet player Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, percussionist Amadito Valdés and the younger members, laúd player Barbarito Torres, singers Manuel "Puntillita" Licea and Pío Leyva, and guitarist-singer Eliades Ochoa.
The film intersperses some of the band’s finest songs with interviews of the members speaking about their lives, along with footage of their live performances at in April and ’s Carnegie Hall in July of that same year. It’s incredible hear Ferrer and Segundo sounding as robust as people half their age, and if there ever is such a thing as musical lightning, it’s ably demonstrated by nanogenarian González’s fingers flying over the piano keys, or by Torres playing the laúd behind his own back.. Tracks like “Chan Chan” (the overwhelming favourite), “Dos Gardenias”, “El Cuarto De Tula” are just a few of the gems on the soundtrack. By turns bittersweet, sensuous and mischievous, it is as much an aural feast as it is visually.
I went to see Buena Vista Social Club because I expected to hear some mind-blowing Cuban jazz. Not only was I not disappointed, I left the theatre with the goosebumps still on my arms, long after the notes had faded into the recesses of my memory.
Here is my favourite track, Chan Chan, performed by Compay Segundo. It's what I describe as a sensuous musical massage - the kind you could dance to with your querido on a moonlit night, with a glass of wine in your hand.
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