Saturday, July 30, 2011

Thoughts on Amy Winehouse

now that Amy Winehouse is dead my thoughts are that she was like a bottle of wine-it should have gotten better over time when allowed to develop-but she kept letting the bottle leak until it turned into vinegar. When I think about how her life played out since Back to Black came out, it seems it was one 5 year long slide into the grave. While I know people are raving about her talent now, in perspective there have been many more talented musicians and songwriters out there-she is one of thousands in that regard. However rarely is someone defined as genius with so little work under their belt. And she was not a genius-far from it-I have heard the demos for her first album. Its not that there are no songs there but they are hardly the trumpet drenched torch songs that ended up on her album. A lot of that credit goes to Ronson. He wrote the music that for the most part she could not. the lyrics are her primary contribution.

in truth, it was probably all she had in her. Her voice was not unique in tone-it was unique in terms of the difference from what was the popular vocal style of the time. Her look and sound was retro everything except the tattoos. and at it was at the time of her death, she was not going to last as a singer either. at 25 years old she was diagnosed with emphysema from so much smoking and probably smoking crack, meth and other drugs didn't help. That final show where she is out of it? you can hear her voice and it has lost all its power. her ability to put energy behind notes was all but gone. SO she wrote one good album-Frank is good but its no masterpiece. That is not much to build a legacy on. There are virtually no unreleased recordings, only a few alternative versions and maybe a live album but that is strictly speaking, all she wrote. By comparison Adele(someone who followed in her wake of popularity with a better voice)who is 6 years younger had recorded THREE albums since Back to Black plus numerous collaborations, studio b-sides and cover versions. Her voice may not last but she is well aware of that and milking it for everything she has. If only Amy could have taken a cue. Like so many she flew first and highest but like Icarus flew too close to the sun and melted her career.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

They Play When You Sleep

aka When Vases Collide

you have a kitchen. I have my own little wonderland. pots croak, plastic bags chatter and melons come to that point in their lives where they are summarily killed by possessed antique vases, though clearly the act involves some apprehension.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Tin Tin is Go!!

A boy and his Dog!!


Is it wrong that the cartoon characters are sort of hot?

a naked name and nothing more...

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Steve Is LOST In Music

its all music
my face looks the same
during every song
doesn't matter what letter it starts with
where culture and color disappear
like hatred tied to tree on fire
like watching all your dreams
go up in flames
over someone's
unease.
catagory, this story
that story, her drug story
its all history
rock and roll
rhythm and soul
you want catagories?
blues
zydeco
southern boogie
techno
house music
speed metal
death metal
eurodisco
singer-songwriter
alt-rock
alt-folk
punk rock
ska punk
post punk
alternative post-punk
punk
folk
psychedelic
new wave
New Romantics
big band
disco
jazz
handbag
chill out
cool jazz
ambient
be bop
free jazz
fusion
acid jazz
progressive rock(prog rock)
avant garde
experimental
rai
minimalist
dirge
noise
pop
funk
reggae
dancehall
easy listening
down tempo
acid rock
kraut rock
girl groups
boy groups
jam bands
gothic rock
industrial music
grebo rock
country
murder ballads
surf
balladeers
kinder-core
horrorcore
shock rock
Quiali
birdsong
howlers
vocalismo
cut up technique
british invasion
gospel
mass
orchestral
symphonic
the people that did everything first
went crazy and never made much money
and the people that followed after
who learned quickly from watching the success
of others and how it could destroy them...
music is full of those stories.
muddy waters writes it.
pat fricken boone has the hit with it.
the whole world is a lot like that at times
in everything.
good to not take it personally and
not get too caught up in catagories that
when it all comes down to it
really just mean the name on the front
of the CD/DVD/LP/Cassette/45/8-track/reel-to-reel
is different.
everyone knows how to spell.
no one needs to know
its psychedelic space rock
to know they like it
when they hear it.
when they groove on it.
if you are different
why not be the best
at being different
make it mean something
be nothing else but
who you are
on your own terms
people will come around
what appears at the time
as a series of let downs
is the slow wheel of time
cascading before our eyes into change
which happens in human hands
but not by human's understanding of time
where we perceive ourselves and nothing before us
or after us with much significance.
when we are only one grain of sand
leaking through the hourglass
with everyone else between
the beach
and the ever lapping waves
of the ocean.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Rememberance Of Looking At The Moon

I remember names
strange words shouted
as though I were meant to understand them
a sudden state of disorientation
the pavement suddenly curled up around me
boys arms pushing;grabbing
pulling apart.
my head landing hard
the smell of the street
warm beneath my face
the taste of the tar
and my tears there
in the otherwise
beautiful midday
summer sun.
I couldn't hide.
I couldn't stay in one universe then.
real life was where my head floated around
at night, when the medication wore off
and real ultra-vivid life came
lunging back at me.
there was no where to run.
boys chased me in the day.
I could never run fast enough.
at night, if I ever did manage to sleep
I would be chased again.
I could never run fast enough.
upstairs, downstairs
houses with a hundred haunted rooms
filled to the brim
with ghosts.
with dead men's faces
talking in the walls.
talking all night long
talking about the watchers
and the black hands in the darkness
in protection I built up the sheets and the blankets
like a fortress.
the pillow rested on my chest.
forced to stay awake
chin resting on the clear dream mirror
breathing fear closely condenses on
windows.
my fingers were dream machines.
drew me past dangers
to a future better remembered.
the glass was like a message
scratched into the beach at low tide
destined to be washed away
just the moonlight, a few bright stars
an a aimless childhood fantasy...
a place to paint, to chart a course for escape.
design a space ship, or a doorway, a floating sphere
or just some way to get the hell
out of here.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Dry Sparkles On Black Rocks

a transformer explodes
dry heat drinks in like dying star
signaling the birth of summer
desert blossoms wilted trampled usunder
by the hooves of children
send them out to pasture
not going to recapture
that time or place herein
you can't go home again
the clothes fit someone else
the seams are splitting
repeating lost selves
inbetween what is and what
you'd cling to if you could but
that line is right there staring back
and if you could you would have it out
like setting fire to the A/C to burn the house down
you spend too much time trapped in contrast
too much time in the mire and morass
too negative to laugh at chance
attacked by panic
danced with skeletons
but avoided death in the thrill and the will
to be here dodging sparks set off by witches brooms.

Tweed & The Fleecey Hammock

We have reason to believe that Tweed is affiliated with the Meow Meow Mob. They need to charge him with murder because their cuteness is killing me!



Tweed In Repose

The Fly

Wow, just finished watching the Fly(1986) by David Cronenberg and, jesus, is that movie dark! the man is crazay and never lets up. If you have never seen either Scanners or Dead Ringers you will probably not understand why. I think I need to chase this with something like The Incredibles, The Iron Giant or The Brave Little Toaster. My skin is crawling. I love it!


Sunday, July 17, 2011

Premonitions Of A High Desert City

where we can sit up
all night
the clouds move around
different stories
are in the space
around
every sleeping
hound is awake
in the bales of grass
and symphonies play songs
about abstract architecture
what about that picture
of you on a hill
its just begun to snow
white letters raised on a white hill
upstaged by declarations
your love and my love
flying over new york skies
mountains of biography
littered layers of lights
your hands in mine and
lightening storms,
low clouds
the storm front back-lit orange
horizons explode
like atoms colliding
dance along the waterfront
locked in perfumes
flashes from inside
captured by the safety arcade.
but memories in clasped hands
of a life that might have been
up in smoke burning leaves
for the bereaved and
is there anything else to be?
here with you
in a high desert city.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Paper Stories In An Information Age

your bells
are welcome
they seldom set
before the sun
unrung and dated,
illuminated like
manuscripts from
secret ancient
information ages
tales of Saint Andrew
in the radiant city
turn to dust bowl blues
and a town without pity
the winds of time
rip pages,
fold edges in
an origami sea,
1,000 cranes
and all time constrained
by a paper ideal.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Its Always Saturday In Heaven

the bare light
falls on your
shoulders
romantic ticks
you find it groovy
like some black and white movie
I can't stand to look at anyone else
one vision of beauty has always been enough for me

the hole in the room
lets water in quietly
like an exit wound
but I knew to catch you
when you tried
to leave too soon
the universe said maybe
but we both said not yet
there is still glitter to surrender
my own little tree in the woods
by the edge of a meadow
where I said I love you
and the sun set on some chaos

while cross winds blew the darkness and the day
you tilt you head to talk just right
a flash of teeth and yet underneath
a hundred birds flutter away
the fact that you aren't perfect
the fact that We dream in excess
lets waltz around a little more
while the universe says
yes

(its not always impossible you'll see)

Muy Bueno Musico news

OOoooo, Squeal!!

Just happened to be reading an article about Robin Guthrie playing with Brendan Perry, the tour(raves) and whatnot-and decided to check his website while I was at it.

And there I learned that:

Robin himself has a new album out(Emeralds)
Robin has also just produced the new Harold Budd album
which means there is also a new Harold Budd album.
There is also a new Gregg Araki film
He of huge Harold Budd/Robin Guthrie/shoegazing fame
he of Mysterious Skin, soundtracked by Robin AND Harold
the new movie is soundtracked by Robin.

excuse me while I go jump around my room like a silly teenager.

Kitty Update: Josquin ate some fresh bay shrimp and some 'grilled' style fancy feast. not much but I'll take it. He also pooped on the bathroom floor which, while that might sound bad-means that at least he is going the bathroom(his kidneys and liver still work) and drinking water. So I don't much care, as long as its somewhere.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

words in the face of surrender

the bells and the whistles
of the city
and its towers
in the aftermath
lines of burnt out streets
like a time ravaged face
or the lines in
a cliff's face
where invisible
seagulls fly and buoys
float in the air
from sea levels
in a different age
when we were
unaware.

gah....I am sputtering...trying to write and all I can think about is my kitty.
please, Josquin get better. Please drugs work this time.
please.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Untitled # 231

lift the old castle latch
wait for the sunrise
until monsters turn to ash
run when the sun dies
for another night
grab a gun
grab an axe
don't get distracted
that's the catch

Monday, July 4, 2011

potions / portions / petition for the grandeur witness

billie holiday
roman holiday
roman candle
roman catholic
catholic guilt
family quilt
layers of silt
over the ocean
drink the potion
set moves to motion
dry salves for show downs
ear eyes for shoot outs
dry eyes to lights out
in the middle
of the night

Complete 2011 DVD List A-Z (updated)

list of dvds

A Single Man
The Abyss
Adventures of Ichabod Crane/Wind In the Willows
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Alice in Wonderland
Air Force One
Alien
Aliens
Aliens vs Predator
Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem
Alive
Arachnophobia
Army of Darkness
A.I.
Avatar
Aviator
Backdraft
Back to the Future 1,2 & 3
Batman Returns
Bats
Bauhaus : Gotham
Bedknobs & Broomsticks
Beetlejuice
Bladerunner: Director's Cut
Blazing Saddles
Blue Velvet
Bound
Best of David Bowie: Videos
Boys n The Hood
The Birds
Blade Runner
Brave Little Toaster
The Brave One
Brazil:Box Set
Breakfast Club
The Bridge
John Cale / Fragments For A Rainy Season
Candyman
Casino Royale
Chicken Run
Chip & Dale
Clash of The Titans(2009)
Close Encounter of The Third Kind
Cloverfield
Commando
Coraline
Anton Corbin Videos
Corpse Bride
Chris Cunningham Videos
Dances Sacred and Profane
Dark Crystal
Dawn of The Dead
The Day After Tomorrow
Dark Knight, the
Day of The Dead
Daybreakers
Dead Snow
Dead Zone
Deep Impact
The Departed
Die Hard
District 9
The Doom Generation
The Doors
Dracula
Dune
Edward II
Edward Scissorhands
Eraserhead
Erasure Videos
Escape From New York
Evil Dead II
Existenz
Fantasia 1,2 & Legacy(boxset)
Fantastic Four:Rise of the silver surfer
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Finding Nemo
Neil Finn: Seven World Collide
Firestarter
The Fearless Freaks:the flaming lips
Flaming Lips Videos
Fly
Fly II
Fright Night
From Hell
Fourth Kind, the
Fog
Fugitive, the
Ghostbusters I + II
Gladiator
Goodfellas
Goonies
Gothika
Grey Gardens
Hannibal
Haunting
Harold and Maude
Hellraiser
Hereafter
Hitchcock: Gotta Let This Hen Out
Hitchcock Storefront Hitchcock
Hitchcock: Sex, Bugs, Food and Insects
Hollow Man
Hunt For Red October
Inception
Incredibles, the
Independence Day
I, Robot
Indiana Jones (box set)
Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Iron Giant
Iron Man
Iron Man 2
James and The Giant Peach
Jaws
Joy Division: Here Are The Young Men
Jurassic Park (box set)
Jurassic Park: The Lost World
Jurassic Park III
Jurassic Park: Making Of DVD
King Kong
Kraftwerk: Minimum / Maximum
Kung Fu Panda
Ladyhawk
Labyrinth
Land of the Dead
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Legion
Lord of The Rings:Fellowship of the Ring
Lord of The Rings:Two Towers
Lord of The Rings:Return Of The King
Lost Boys
Love & Rockets: Haunted Fishtank
Love Is The Devil
Madonna: Videos
Marjoe
Matrix
Matrix Reloaded
Matrix Revelations
Mary Poppins
Meaning of Life
Medicine Man
Michael, George: Ladies and Gentlemen Videos
Milk
Mirrors
Mommy Dearest
Morriseey: Oye Esteban
Morrissey: Who put the M in Manchester
Mysterious Skin
Namaha Man
New Jack City
Night of The Comet
Nightmare on Elm Street
Nightmare Before Christmas
Night of the Living Dead
9
Nomi Song
101 Dalmatians
Pandorum
Paris is Burning
Passengers
Patriot Games
Pi
Pet Shop Boys videos
Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean 2
Pirates of the Caribbean 3
Point Break
Poltergeist
Polar Express
Prince of Darkness
Prestige
Predator
Public Enemies
Purple Rain
Quarantine
REM Videos
Requiem For A Dream
Return of The Living Dead
Return of The Living Dead II
Robocop
Romancing The Stone
Saving Private Ryan
Secret of Nihm
Sherlock Holmes
Shutter Island
Sick and Twisted Animation Festival
Sick and Twisted Animation Festival 2
Silence of The Lambs
Simpson's Series I
Simpson's Series II
Simpson's Series III
Simpson's Series IV
Simpson's Series V
Simpson's Series VI
Simpson's Series VII
Simpson's Series IX
Simpson's Series X
Simpson's Series XI
Simpson's Series XII
Simpson's Series XIII
Simpsons Movie
Sleeping Beauty
Sleepy Hollow
Slither
Smiths Videos
Kathy Smith Workout DVD
Snakes on a Plane
Snow White & The Seven Dwarves
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Spider
Spiderman
Spiderman 2
Spiderman 3
Splendor
Star Wars I, II & III(box set)
Sweeney Todd
Suede: Lost In TV
Terminator
T2
Terminator: Rise
Thelma and Louise
Thing, the
300
Time Bandits
Tony
Total Recall
Toy Story I + 2(box set)
Toy Story 3
Transformers
Trick or Treat
Tron
Tron Legacy
12 Monkeys
24 Hour Party People
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
2010
2012
30 Days of Night
True Romance
Twister
U2 Videos
Up
Warriors
Watchmen
Watership Down
Robin Williams: Live on Broadway
Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Witches of Eastwick
Wolfman
X-Men
X2
X-men 3:Last Stand
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Young Frankenstein
Zodiac
ZombieLand

Untitled # 230

magnetic strip
one from the hip
take a trip
on a ship
lets explore

Deliquesce like an iceman
in the blinding summer sun
peonies beckon like
strands on a horse's mane
whipping like magician's wands