Speakin' of dem laughs, I don't know if I've ever shared my affection for South Park here. Last season's "Imaginationland Trilogy" basically summed up my life's philosophy, and more recently they've dealt with the Britney Spears' nightmare of fame with tasteless acumen. All the episodes are now available for streaming download at their website. Celebrate the new dark age with me.
Did you hear about Michael Bay's rejected script for The Dark Knight? It's been making the rounds for quite a while now. Bay aficionados should be amused.
And: I don't think I heard a more inspired Various Artists compilation in 2008 than Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli (Numero/Creative Vibes), a round up of rarely heard acoustic solo guitarists from the late '70s/early '80s following closely in the footsteps of Tacoma trailblazers John Fahey and Leo Kottke. It comes as a gorgeous cardboard package containing luminous steel string vibrations sure to soothe the troubled mind and still the hurried pulse. This is music for peace. Hunt it down if so inclined.Neat sidebar: I was listening to All Things Considered on NPR yesterday, and low and behold there's a feature on Richard Crandell, who just happens to be one of the guitarists spotlighted in this collection. Turns out Crandell is one of the 10 million Americans who suffer from essential tremor disorder, a condition that plagues my own mother, and I fear may one day catch up with me too. When Crandell realized that etd inhibited his ability to play the fingerpicking style he'd mastered, he was eventually able to discover a new mode of tonal discourse via the mbira, a traditional thumb piano from Africa. I have a feeling a few folks featured in this space over the years have employed such a device. Anyway you can read/listen to said piece here. And you can order Wayfaring Strangers here.
Love and peace in '09, friends of mine...
3 comments:
very nice blog : )
glad to see you're back Lee!
I have really, in all honesty, never watched Entourage. I know of it, though. I'm not trying to be a smug little bastard which, for the record, I am. That's the show on HBO Marky Mark produced. It doesn't suprise me that it features some hip music. Most HBO shows do and I've always thought that major top-40ish pop stars idolize independent music.
On another note, thank you for the mention of the VA comp Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli. This recently made it's way into the college radio station in Lexington. It's seldom that folks in Kentucky get to hear such bliss on a shitty frequency.
I read the first four pages of Bay's screenplay. The line about "a beautiful woman: platinum blonde with a huge rack. She is the hottest woman in the world, but she wears glasses because she is also the smartest woman in the world" made me lolz. It's both a tragedy and a blessing this screenplay was rejected.
I just finished googling essential tremor disorder. I offer my prayers to your mother. I have not heard of Richard Crandell (why did I even close out the Google window?) but it's cool for him to get a mention on NPR.
May '09 be good to you as well.
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