My cottage

Every few months I grab a piece of paper and start drawing the floorplan of the house that I plan on living in.

Except for when I was 20 and rented a house with friends I've always had my own apartment. That's perfect for me. I'm not gonna buy a house and pay a mortgage for 70 years and I don't wanna buy a condo- that's just a super expensive apartment.

But I do have a plan.

Someday I wanna have my own cottage. Here in western Mass there are a lot of houses where the owners have a large barn or shed at the other end of their property. I wanna find just the right spot- where I can have a driveway and a small yard- and turn that large shed into a 1 or 2 bedroom cottage.

I figure it'll be at least as big as an apartment. Most likely it'll be one storey but maybe I'll have a loft with a ladder and I'll put an spare bedroom up there. I'm picturing a small kitchen with a pantry and a dining area, a large living room for entertaining, a small bedroom for me, and hopefully a bedroom for guests.

I want guests to walk into a small hallway where they can hang their coats which will lead into a comfortable living room with a large couch and two loveseats. Off to the side I'd like a door that goes to the dining room and past that, the kitchen. If possible I'd like a small window in the wall between the dining room and the kitchen. On the other side of the dining room I'd like for there to be a door leading to the hallway, off of which will be the doors to the bathroom and the bedrooms.

I want for the cottage to be very roomy- I'll put on an addition if I have to. Plus, I want for the walls to be very thick and well insulated so that every room will be private. In my floorplans, the pantry off the kitchen provides a buffer between the kitchen and the living room. And the hallway and a row of closets will seperate the bedrooms and bathroom from the rest of the cottage. Even better if there is a second floor- the stairs can be an extra buffer.

And even though it'll be a cottage I'd like for it to be able to accomodate a lot of people if, say, I'm having friends and family over and there's a big snowstorm. There will be a double bed in the guest bedroom and someone can sleep on the couch (maybe it'll be a fold-out and two people can sleep there). Plus, in the house my friends and I rented, there was a bathroom and bedroom upstairs- also- at the top of the stairs in the hallway there was a spot where there was just enough room for a daybed and the wall next to the daybed had built-in shelves for books and an alarm clock, plus there was a built-in lamp over the pillow. We lived there through the winter and on some cold nights I'd sleep up there and it was a cozy spot to read and drift off to sleep. I'd like to have a spot like that in the cottage- a small area tucked away with just enough room to stretch out and sleep.

It'll probably be awhile but in the meantime I'm fine and it's something good to look forward to.

Something else to look forward to

Sometime this month or next I'm going to be posting my review of Shattered Glass, the 2003 movie about Stephen Glass.

In the meantime, if you get a chance to see it, check it out. It's on DVD and the Independent Film Channel plays it from time to time (that's where I saw it).

Gepetto EP: Part One

4AD released two Gepetto [Remix] EPs. From what I understand, they sometimes do that so that fans will buy both EPs in order to collect all the B-sides and that way the single will chart higher.

One of the EPs featured two demo versions of Star tracks and a cover of "It's Not Unusual". The artwork was identical to US Feed The Tree EP. We'll talk about that one another day.

Today we're doing the other Gepetto [Remix] EP, the one I've got. It shares one B-side with the US Feed The Tree EP- Sexy S. It ends with Sweet Ride, but the important song here is Hot Burrito #1. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Juliana Hatfield sings along on this track, a Flying Burrito Brothers cover. I don't normally go for slow songs but this one is amazing. I hate to put Belly down, but so many of their best songs are covers: "HB#1", "It's Not Unusual", "Think About Your Troubles", and "Are You Experienced?".

For now we'll set aside the front and back cover and talk about the inside. The package opens up and there are three main squares instead of the usual one. There is one that is a collage of Belly logos and record labels from the 45 records versions over some kind of spinning laser picture that reminds me of the short film that HBO used to use in the 1980s right before they played their 8pm movie.

Then there is the song title/band member square: on all pre-Moon singles there's a square inside. Half is always a group of Belly logos with one color for the logos and another color for the background. Then the other half will be divided between a photo that takes 1/3 of the space and the text which takes up the rest.

The final square is one picture- wrenches with a red & green background. I had seen this picture earlier- it was the back cover to the Gepetto cassingle. It's a great picture, but I like it better on the tape; in that version the track listing, band line-up, and credits are printed over it in white and altogether it looks great. It would've been a great back cover to the Breeders Last Splash album as the photo colors and the lettering are similar.

The Breeders, Mountain Battles

Now, to shake things up even more, let's move to something more recent- The latest Breeders record.

I'd say Mountain Battles is another uneven record from the Breeders. They all are really. Pod is the only one that could be called consistent; the rest are a mix of hits and misses. For every "Cannonball" there's a "Mad Lucas".

With Mountain Battles(2008), you should check out:
Bang On
We're Gonna Rise
Night Of Joy (and, probably my favorite:)
Walk It Off

I'm very impressed with the sleeve design.

Sky Motel: Part One

We'll take a quick break from Belly and do a little Kristin Hersh, for balance.

In 1999 KH released Sky Motel, her 4th solo album (counting Murder Misery then Goodnight). Sky Motel, as opposed to Hips and Makers & Strange Angels, was a rock album with a full-band sound.

There were two singles, Echo and A Cleaner Light. I always liked the idea behind the two EPs that were released (I assume it was an idea and not just an accident)-
The Echo EP had two B-sides, both covers (Echo, get it?): Nirvana's Pennyroyal Tea and The Beatles's Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey.
The A Cleaner Light EP had 3 B-sides, all acoustic versions (cleaner versions) of early Throwing Muses songs, specifically early weird (though beloved) TM songs: Hate My Way, Garoux Des Larmes, and Cry Baby Cry.
Hate My Way was the third track off the first TM album and the other two were from the first two EPs, The Fat Skier and Chains Changed. I think it's fitting that "Garoux" and "Cry" were included. The two songs are a lot alike; they could almost be mistaken for each other.

Belly, band members

Remember back in January when I was making all kinds of promises that January and February were going to be big months for Belly here at RJ Battles? Then I only posted 4 posts for the entire month of January?

Well now there's no stopping me.

This post is about the band members themselves.

After leaving Throwing Muses for the Breeders and then leaving the Breeders, Tanya Donelly started Belly with the Gorman brothers, Tom & Chris, and Fred Abong, who played bass on TM's The Real Ramona. Abong didn't stay long and was replaced by Gail Greenwood.

Feed The Tree(s)

For the "Feed The Tree" sleeves, the guys at 4AD used a different picture for each cover.
1) Feed The Tree EP
2) Cassingle cover, plus side
3) 12" EP
4) 7" single

Baby Silvertooth: Part Two

Baby Silvertooth: Part One

Baby Silvertooth (1992) is a Japan-only release from Belly. It has two tracks from Star plus seven B-sides. It starts with a remix of Gepetto that's faithful to the original. It's the best kind of rock remix- one that switches around certain elements of the song in a subtle way so that you almost wouldn't recognize it as a remix. This EP has a quite a few covers, the first of which is It's Not Unusual, an upbeat version of the Tom Jones song which features handclaps. Trust In Me is interesting- the original is from the Jungle Book soundtrack. Next is a slow song, Dream On Me which was a B-side on the Feed The Tree single. It's dreary, but catchy. Belly's cover of The Flying Burrito Brother's Hot Burrito #1 is beautiful and Julianna Hatfield sings backing vocals. Elvis Costello had covered the song on his album of country covers Almost Blue (under the title "I'm Your Toy")- Belly does a much better job. Sexy S is one of my all-time favorite Belly B-sides. It was track two on the Feed The Tree single along with Dream On Me and the full-band version of "Star". Sexy S is probably Belly's second-noisiest song after "Are You Experienced". Belly's first release Slow Dust featured early versions of the Star tracks "Dusted", "Slow Dog", and "Low Red Moon"; the only true non-album original was a slow song called Dancing Gold (by the way, this song was featured in the record store scene in the movie The Doom Generation). The closing track on the Gepetto single was Sweet Ride and that later became the title of the Best of Belly compilation. Baby Silvertooth closes with the LP version of Feed The Tree.

This afternoon

This afternoon my friend and I were walking to the bank to see if my tax refund had gone through yet. We were crossing over a side street when I spotted a quarter on curb. She saw it at the same time and since she was closer she swooped in and scooped it up.

Eight hours later and it's still bothering me even though afterwards I found two pennies right by each other on the sidewalk and then a dime outside of the drug store.

That quarter should've been mine.

I finally saw it

After my last post I went to youtube and caught about 6 minutes of Letterman's interview with Leaf Phoenix. It was pretty much what I expected.

I never liked him to begin with. He's not even a lesser version of River; they're nothing alike and if not for the last name you'd never know they were related.

Now, the big thing is that Leaf is quitting acting for a career in hip-hop music ("Sounds like something a rabbit would listen to"*) and Casey Affleck is following him around making a documentary- some people are saying the whole quitting acting/ hip hop thing is a hoax. I don't know.

But the Letterman interview was fun to watch. I think Dave was nice to him. Over the years I'm sure he's had plenty of drugged-up guests, and not just Farrah & Crispen. So even though he got some good jokes off he was basically gentle and good-natured.

Leaf wore sunglasses (by the way, the show was taped indoors, and typically, even though there are bright lights onstage, most guests go unprotected) , plus he had a big scruffy beard. Some news reports called him aloof and I guess he was. To me he seemed rude more than anything else. I hate when people go on those shows and have to be drawn out. Usually it's just because they're nervous, but in some cases, they act like being there is a chore.

It was even worse than that with Leaf. His attitude seemed to say "Hey, why are you making jokes? What's so funny? I just wanted to sit here in my sunglasses for 10 minutes, why are you talking to me?"

Part of the reason I wanted to watch No Direction Home this week is because the Leaf/Letterman reports reminded me of the 10 minutes of it that I'd caught at the time.

Let me say- I like Bob Dylan. I've got Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61, and my favorite, Nashville Skyline. That last one I picked up on vinyl for $1 and I used to play it at my old apartment on the 4th floor at night when it was snowing. "Tell Me That It Isn't True", "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You"-great songs. I wish I was listening to them right now. But as good as I think he is, I don't quite see him as the genius that everyone says he is. He's very talented but even he admits that a lot of his songs are literally cut & paste jobs. But anyway...

In the scene I saw, Dylan's at a press conference and a bunch of reporters are asking him questions, clearly making fun of him and trying to piss him off, and he's sitting there (in sunglasses if I remember right) answering, clearly annoyed. Reviews that I read at the time mentioned these press conferences and talked about how they felt bad for Dylan being hounded by a pack of "square" reporters who "couldn't comprehend the power of his poetry", ect.

I remember watching and being completely on the side of the reporters. Dylan was sitting there as if the press conference was taking precious time away from his job of saving the world when, really, all he did was write radio-friendly folk songs. He was being pretentious, and the reporters, in their own lazy way, were calling him on it.

So I guess that's the problem I have with Leaf Phoenix. He's an actor. Some say he's a great actor. A powerful actor, one of the greatest actors of our generation, mesmerizing, fearless. But come on, there's no reason to act like that.





* rabbit quote from Marcia in the Brady Bunch Movie.

More good news

I was thinking today about that Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home. I caught the last few minutes of it years ago and have wanted to see it for a long time. Turns out my father has the DVD so I'm going to borrow it this week. Stay tuned to hear all about it.

Now I'm gonna go watch the Leaf Phoenix/Letterman interview on Youtube. Can't wait.

Lucky

I touched on this subject in an earlier post but now I have to tell the full story:
Her in town where I moved in October I walk everywhere. And everyday that I leave the house I find money on the ground.

My whole life I've looked down while walking. Part of it is fear of tripping; part of it is shyness. I've gotten better over the years and I try to have a more confident posture, but my gaze is still usually directed at the ground.

Now, my walking style is starting to pay off, and handsomely too.

I'll always find at least a penny. A lot of times I'll find a nickle or dime too. I like days where I end up with, say, 16 cents to drop in my washed-out salsa jar. I'm not the type to check coin return slots in vending machines and whatnot but there were a couple times where I found a lone quarter on or on the ground in front of a pay phone that I was about to use.

There was a night a couple months ago where I found 2 or 3 one dollar bills on the road alongside the curb while I was walking to the supermarket. Last week my friend and I were leaving a Wendy's dining room and I could see that there was some kind of bill on the ground outside right in front of the entrance. I called out, "Dollar on the ground. It's mine", and then rushed through both doors so that anyone approaching from the parking lot couldn't beat me to it.

Even though my parents are Catholic my friends are always calling me a Jew (actually they're always calling me a dirty Jew or a filthy Jew). It's my nose, my cheapness, and the way I've always got an eye out for money. They're right, but sometimes I even surprise myself. Earlier this morning I was walking back from the drug store and deleting some of the texts that were cluttering my Inbox and Outbox when I glanced at a small pice of paper that was frozen into a snowbank along the sidewalk. It was dirty, faded, folded into 8ths and half covered in snow but somehow I spotted it: a one dollar bill.

Sorry, my friends are sleeping and I had to tell somebody. But that's exciting, right?

My Bloody Valentine 3-D

My Bloody Valentine (2009)

I'm glad that I went to see this instead of the new Friday the 13th. I'm not much into modern horror movies- they're all about pain and new, gorier ways to chop people up- the last one I saw, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, really turned me off. It's just too upsetting for me. That's why I've avoided the Saw movies and Hostel and Rob Zombie's movies. And I think Friday would be just like those.

Though some scenes were too much, mostly MBV was done in the style of an 80's slasher. It was more fun, there was some suspense, and the 3-D was impressive.

Almost the entire film was neat to look at- especially the ariel shots of the bridge leading to Harmony and the mines. Hopefully more movies will be made this way over the next couple years; there's a lot that could be done.

What bothered me the most (aside from the shovel scene and the Tom Atkins porch scene) was when the wife was closing up the supermarket and she and the other girl heard a noise. What with everything going on they should've just left- especially since they were right by the front doors. I know it's stupid to complain about horror movie characters doing stupid things but I can't help myself.

The 3-D glasses cost 3.50. That bothered me a little too. Also, before the movie started there was an announcement saying to throw the glasses in the recycling bin afterwards. Why, so people don't carry them out and hand theirs to people waiting in the ticket line and saving them three and a half bucks?

Anyway, I'd recommend My Bloody Valentine to anyone.

Mission Statement

It probably started earlier, but around 1997 I noticed that every business or group, no matter how small, had to have a mission statement- a few sentences or one long sentence that stated that group's goals.

To me it always seemed too formal, too "7 Habits" (someday soon I'm going to finally read that book, the original). Still I'm going to try to outline, briefly, the purpose of this blog.

I think it was sometime last year, Final Girl put up a link to Entertainment Weekly's list of 10 Greatest Horror Movies. She mentioned the same thing that I liked about there list: Along with each movie they put up a picture from the film, and in just about every case they used an image that wasn't the usual movie still that you might expect.

I like that.

And that's what I try to do here.

You might notice for the Aimee Mann post last month I used a picture that was a composite of the Smilers artwork and for the Body of Evidence review I used a "Dita" photo from the "Erotica" video.

I'm trying to show, not just my favorite images, but some rarely-seen pictures that you might not normally come across.

I have some more that I'll be rolling out over the next month. Stay tuned (Shattered Glass review coming soon too).

Big Weekend

There's a lot to look forward to over the next few days, especially this coming weekend.

My friend is working Friday, so Saturday we're gonna try to do a double feature: My Bloody Valentine 3-D and Friday the 13th.

Plus I have a few more Season 4 episodes of The West Wing to watch- then there'll be my definitive WW post.

Tomorrow I'm going to start working on a series of new oil paintings. I'm very excited and still I'm dreading the clean-up. It's such a pain and I don't think I have any paint thinner.

Any day now my review of Shattered Glass will be up. I've been promising that for a while. The wait is almost over.

Plus, don't forget: I can solve all your problems. Ask RJ. Come to RJ, let me make everything all better.

Ask RJ

One day when I was a kid I discovered the advice columns in my local newspaper and got hooked on them.

They were a big thing back then- Ann and Abby were still lucid and alive, plus our paper ran Dr. Ruth too.

For years now my dream has been to have my own advice column. Now I'm going to do it. Ask RJ is officially open for business. I always know the right thing to do plus I have a wealth of experience and information. Got a question? Ask RJ! Is it OK to wear white after Labor Day? Nope. What is Madonna's full name and birthdate? Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, August 16 1958. How many Ethiopians can you fit in a Ford Escort? All of them.

Ask RJ

End of an era

Tonight I walked to the neighbohood store for cigarettes and got a sad surprise.

I walked up to the register, cash in hand, and asked for a pack of my favorite cheap cigarettes (usually I smoke Camel Filters or Marlboro Mediums, but when cash is low- which it usually is- I get Doral Lights; like Camels, they're made by RJ Reynolds and they're almost like CFs, just 70 cents less); the kid behind the counter hesitated for a moment, then turned to get them while saying that they were going to stop making that brand soon and there were only a couple packs left.

Right away I felt a little sad. Dorals aren't something I would've normally tried but my mom used to smoke them so I'd given them a shot years before. Now she smokes Basics and when I told her the news she didn't really care, "I don't smoke those anymore".

I guess I'm getting all emotional for no good reason.

In the winter months

In the winter months it's great to have something to look forward to, no matter how small or low-key. It's cold and windy and dark outside and even if you want to venture out of the house there's not much going on anywhere. So it's good to find fun wherever you can.

For me it's my upcoming West Wing marathon. I'm planning on 11 episodes tomorrow and the other 11 on Sunday. But I'm not going to be watching them. I'm going to do some paintings, both watercolor and oil. I do watercolors regularly but it's a big deal when I pull out the oils.

Oil painting is so much fun and I do it pretty well but the set-up and the clean-up are a fucking pain. Otherwise I'd do it all the time.

My problem lately (actually, for the past year, but especially lately) is that I've been taking a lot in- books, movies, TV, ect, but I haven't been creating much. It's all off-balance.

This weekend will set everything right.

The Wicked Wing of the West

My boss gave me the season four DVD of The West Wing after I mentioned how much I like the show. I'm thinking of popping it in this weekend and having a marathon.

Someday, probably someday very soon, I'm going to have to do an in-depth post about The West Wing (only seasons 1-4; everything after Aaron Sorkin left sucks), and talk about Sorkin in general.

By the way, last month before my wireless G died I caught Shattered Glass again on IFC. Keep an eye out for my review.

Belly promises

Before computer problems struck me mid-January, my plan was to use the month to spotlight Belly's Star LP. That didn't work out but it doesn't matter because during the first week of RJ Battles I did a post about the 4AD cassette artwork and showed my favorite pictures.

Of course I'd also planned on scanning the Gepetto[Remix] EP that I have- it's probably my favorite Star-era artwork. Then there are the "Feed The Tree" covers; each format has a different tree photo- the cassingle, the 45, the 12". And of course there's Baby Silvertooth, the Japanese EP containing B-sides and a "Tree" remix.

But fuckitall, it's February, it's time to talk about King, Belly's 2nd and last studio album.

King came out (in America) on Valentine's Day 1995, the same day that Throwing Muses's University was released.

I couldn't wait for King, but it ended being (to this day) a disappointment. The songs- as good as they are- are wrecked by poor production. Like the opening song, Puberty: great lyrics, an amazing chorus, the best title, but it just doesn't soar the way that it could and should.

Track two, Seal My Fate starts off with a guitar that sounds like springtime but even that song ends up being just mid-90's rock music. Same thing with Red, and on and on.

It's easy to see why Now They'll Sleep was chosen to be the lead single. It's one of the few songs that sounds complete. I read an interview at the time about how rough the rehersals were; they'd play and play and still couldn't get the sound they wanted. Anyway, it's what I'd call a Tanya Donelly "hummer", where- like "Not Too Soon" and "The Night You Saved My Life"- it's got some great sections where she hums a little and it makes the song that much better.

What should be the best song on the record ends up suffering the same problem as Puberty; King is amazing but it could've been 10 times better. It could've been the song of the decade, something to make everyone forget "Teen Spirit".

After everything else we're left with Judas My Heart which was, that spring, my favorite song from the record. I still love it, but now I think it's too bland and not helped by the incluion of the piano.

If it's taken me a long time to like the album, it'll take me twice as long to like the B-sides.

The Now They'll Sleep tracks didn't do anything for me aside from "Baby's Arm" and I don't think I'll ever like "John Dark"; on the latter some of the lyrics just get stuck in my ear.

Seal My Fate does better: "Spaceman" isn't a favorite but the band takes a new approach (Tanya Donelly says in the liner notes of Sweet Ride that had they stayed together, they would've continued in the direction of "Spaceman"); "Diamond Rib Cage" is a straightforward rock song, good, but like "John Dark" it has some lyrics that don't fit; the gem is the last track, a cover of Harry Nillson's "Think About Your Troubles"- it would've fit in perfectly on- and elevated- Star.

King was and is a troubled album. I don't think record studio pressure or constant touring helped. They couldn't get the performances they wanted, plus I think there were different ideas about which songs should be on the record. I think "John Dark" was supposed to be on King but got left off at the last minute. "Diamond Rib Cage" as well- I'd say the King artwork playing card theme was inspired by the song's lyrics: "My heart in a diamond rib cage".

So anyway, King is still a great record. You can put it on and have a good time and not have to skip any songs. It just could've been so much better.

Back for a couple days

There's been a lot happenning and even more not happenning. I've been sleeping plenty, working during the week, and reading all weekend long.

I had such big plans for January, February too for that matter. But January is the worst month. Sometimes the best you can say is I made it through January.

My internet has been down since the middle of last month; whenever I'm away from Facebook for an extended time I always expect more messages waiting for me, or at least more than none. Oh well.