Friday, December 02, 2005

Reptile Without A Body

Well, I don't know anymore, I was going to hang out by the big giant disembodied dinosaur head, but all the tourists beat me to it. So now he's got a new bunch of friends. Is this good? Looks like the bodiless reptile exhibit is the coolest kid in class now, which means we never talk anymore because now he doesn't know me. Alright, whatever. The West Edmonton Mall is insane. What happened, WEM? You used to be cool, but now you're crazy, too crazy for me. I can't hang out with the West End Carnivores, I drink milk, I like potatoes, I watch Gilmore Girls. Do you watch Gilmore Girls, WEM? Does Ichabod Rex here watch Rory and Lorelei? Rory has such a big forehead, doesn't she? A walking candy apple, that one. I didn't like her in Sin City. The actress, I mean, not the character. Rory goes to Harvard or Yale or something like that. She met her new boyfriend there. They might be getting serious. Does Harvard have big-headed tiny-eyed lizard-heads populating the halls? Does Yale? I don't think so, WEM. Stop being crazy.


"This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" + Arcade Fire Is this as good as the original Talking Heads business? I don't think so (although I LOVE the translated sound, the vibrating guitar lines—plunk, plunk—and are those little taps being made on a xylophone?). Win Butler's voice is as ragged and torn as last year's jeans. And the AF version needs more voice, too. They really like their covers, but I've got mixed feelings. When this band played here, Butler said that he and the rest of the group were coasting toward the edge of crazy doing the same ten tunes over and over. So they played some Springsteen and some New Order. The Springsteen I didn't recognize, but the sound was very muddied on it. Have you heard the AF's cover of "Maps"? The thing is, the Fire don't attack their covers enough. They need more power out there (no puns, please). They need to beat the song up and not stand back and be respectful. Win Butler needs to sing these songs like he sings his own. Whatever, though. This is a solid cover, very decently done.

Note: I took these mp3s off a blog which I can't, for the life of me, recall. Random surfingness. But it was a good blog, I loved every selection on it, and I wish I could pass on the URL. All credit, unknown blog, to thee.

A Journal Of The Plague Year + Daniel Defoe This is a famous book. This book is famous because it is wonderful. This book is what everyone in those sap-headed creative non-fiction classes is trying to write. It's Wisconsin Death Trip but in London, while England is fighting off the Dutch. Shortly, the Great Fire will frost the entire city. Times are incredibly tough. This is a run-on book, a book of lists and figures, a book of anecdotes, a book on economics and politics and religion and superstition. This book is not a novel. This book is true and good. This book is common sense and heart-wrenching confusion and, more than anything, death.

In the first house, there died four persons. A neighbour, hearing the mistress of the first house was sick, went to visit her, and went home and gave the distemper to her family, and died, and all her household. A minister, called to pray with the first sick person in the second house, was said to sicken immediately and die with several more in his house. Then the physicians began to consider.

[Edit: Good God, I said local profiles on Fridays, didn't I? That was Note Number Two in the listening section. Apologies. Check back Monday for an atonement post. Have a good week-end. Lucky bugs win prizes.]

[Edit (Sunday): I found the blog and the blog is Hello Gina and she has the smile-out-loud "Sweet Troubled Soul" up right now, the stellastarr* single, along with the "stellar" James Iha remixplosion. Love the kick when all the instruments—except for that drumbeat—cut out for, like, two seconds, and Christensen belts out the title phrase.

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