"Thriller" singles

They don't do it anymore, but nearly every song off Thriller was released as a single. I bought most of them- at K-mart, Ames, or Caldors, the department stores in my town- but none of them came in picture sleeves. It was just plain white sleeves with holes cut out to show the Epic Records label so I was interested to see what the actual pictures looked like.

I'm surprised by how boring the "Thriller" cover is, and how lame the "Wanna Be Starting Something" picture sleeve is. I do like the "Billie Jean" picture sleeve though- that's cool.

I was trying to remember is I got the Off The Wall album before Thriller, but now I remember that the first time I heard the Off The Wall track "Working Day and Night" was as the B-side to "P.Y.T.". I love "Working day and Night", just like I love the Off The Wall album. I think it's better than Thriller, or at least as good. Of course there were videos for some of those songs, but that was before they became mini-movies. In those days it was just MJ dancing and sweating in front of disco balls and flaashing lights.

"Sleepwalk" EP Tanya Donelly

Sleepwalk EP (2002) Tanya Donelly

The latest record in the RJ Battles EP Spotlight is Tanya Donelly's Sleepwalk from 2002. It came out around the same the same time as her second solo album, Beautysleep.

My only complaint is that the lead track, "The Storm", is the LP version and not a re-recording (when she put out the Sliding & Diving EP ahead of her Lovesongs LP, it featured two B-sides, an album track, but also a remix of "Bum" that was much better than the version on the album).

"The Storm", a ballad, starts out with loud electric guitar and then gets quiet and slow. The song would fit in well on Belly's debut, or even King.

Next up is another ballad, "After Your Party", a sad song about being young, lonely, and living in a big city.

Track three is one of my favorite Donelly songs, "Days of Grace". I was very excited when I read that the song was going to be re-recorded for her 2006 LP, This Hungry Life, along with one of Beautysleep's bonus tracks, "To The Lighthouse", but, neither song turned out as good as the original. "Days of Grace" is a perfect pop song, warm and catchy, but no less sad than the other songs on this EP.

The last track is the saddest of them all. "Last Rain".

"Sometime today it will rain/ One of the last of the 1900s/ Should we go out and try to save it/ Or just let it go like the days and decades?"

Sleepwalk is the perfect EP for rainy days.

Note: There are two version of this EP; one is called Sleepwalk, another is simply called EP.

Youtube comments

A little while ago I was on Youtube re-watching Countess LuAnn's (Bravo's Real Housewives of New York) video for "Money Can't Buy You Class". Please go watch it, I'll wait.

Now what can you or I say about that song?

Like most people, I first became aware of Auto-Tune when Cher used it in 1999 on her song "Believe". You know, like every once in a while her voice would sound fucked-up and robotic. But it was kind of cool and it improved the song, I'd say. I mean, I don't like that song, but it's not terrible.

Anyway, since then, a lot of singers have used Auto-Tune on their records. I think usually you know it when you hear it.

The best use of Auto-Tune is when those guys applied it to news footage of Antoine Dodson and made "The Huntsville Rapist Bed Intruder Song".

He's climbin' in your windows
He's snatchin' your people up
Tryin' to rape 'em/ So y'all need to
Hide yo' kids'
Hide yo' wives
Hide yo' kids/ Hide yo' wife
And hide yo' husband
Cause they rapin' e'rybody up in h're

Again, if you haven't seen it, go check it out, I'll be here.

As you can see, they made a really good, catchy song. I read somewhere that the guys who made the footage into a song split the ITunes profits with Dodson and he was able to buy a new house with the money.

But, back to Countess LuAnn. I don't know who actually wrote this song, but as you would guess, it's awful. It's condesending and very lame. She speaks the verses and sings the chorus and her vocals are aggressively Auto-Tuned.

I watched the video and then I read the comments because I wanted to see people really tear into the song and out of the 28 pages I looked at there were 3 funny posts.

The rest were just as lame as the song. It just got more and more disappointing. You wouldn't believe how many people posted some variation of "Money can't buy you class, but it can buy you Auto-Tune". Or, they'd say, it can't buy you talent, or a hit song, or a good singing voice, ect.

I just keep on thinking of all the people who watched the video and then said to themselves, "I'm gonna post a comment about how money can buy _____". Why didn't any of them look through past comments to see if- maybe- someone else thought to write the exact same fucking thing.

I'm telling you: Countess LuAnn is going to read those comments and feel vindicated. She's going to say, "Look, all my critics are retards".

And she's going to be right.

Can't get into the new Clash Of The Titans

I have watched so many movies over the past couple of days. I just caught the second half of Jennifer's Body and while that was on I watched Straight-Jacket on Youtube (still have to see 5/7 to 7/7).

I also watched a couple lengthy Carrie Fisher interviews from the 1980s. Plus I discovered- some guy must've videotaped every Entertainment Tonight and local news story on the Twilight Zone deaths ever broadcast. I think it goes to Part 23, seriously. Plus, I didn't realize there was footage. Or, I didn't realize the footage was out there. You don't see anything, but it's no less distubing.

So I'm watching the new Clash Of The Titans now and what I miss is that really scary-looking guy, you know the one. He looked really evil and I think they made up the character just for the movie. Also the scenes with Medusa were much scarier in the original.

The other day I was reading about Tobie Maguire- he was in Empire Records but he requested that his scenes be cut, however, he's still listed in the credit. I caught the last half today for the first place and I can say it doesn't hold up very well. That's unfair, I don't think it was trying to.

Slaphappy

Sometimes this feeling comes on. Ideally, it happens when I'm at work- then everyone's happy.

But mostly I feel this way when I'm home alone (my roommate's are home, same thing) in my room and looking for something to do.

I've got ideas but I'm not a very productive person and this place is a fucking mess.

What to do, what to do...

Post

I never really liked Post. "It's Oh So Quiet" was a good song though, but the best is, of course, "Hyperballad".

I think the whole album should've been scrapped and 'Hyperballad" should've been a stand-alone single with "It's Oh So Quiet" as the B-side.

I like the album artwork though.

Debut

Bjork's Debut (1993) is still one of my favorite records. I loved The Sugarcubes but I thought that the male singer was annoying and wrecked a lot of their songs so I was happy to see that she was going out on her own.

I would've rather she'd done more of the songs with a full band as opposed to all the techno, but, still, there are some great songs here.

The album starts with "Human Behaviour" which still sounds new and fresh all these years later. I don't care for "Crying". When my brother heard it he said, "Is she saying 'Frankenstein needs you?'"

I like the idea of doing a live song for the album- "There's More to Life Than This"- it seems so spontaneous. Things slow down with "Like Someone In Love" with the harps and everything, and then speed up again with "Big Time Sensuality" ( a lot of remixes came out later, but none improved on the LP version).

Side Two begins with "One Day", an exciting song, followed by- maybe the best song on the album- "Aeroplane". It's hard to describe it, please just buy the album.

I always skip "Violently Happy". It represents all the things I dislike about Bjork's solo carreer. But "Come To Me" and "The Anchor Song" close out the album nicely.

(Some later editions of Debut include "Play Dead". Mine doesn't and I've never heard it, but I'd like to.)

Debut was also re-released on DuelDisc and the other side of the disc has all the music videos. I like the idea; Talking Heads did the same thing with their albums, but now that you can see anything on Youtube anytime, a lot of the appeal is gone.

Debut and Post posters

Here are some cool promotional posters for Bjork. I like her, and even saw one of her shows in Boston, but I haven't really listened to anything she's done since Post. I prefer Debut and The Sugarcubes.

I'm slow

I never noticed, and never would notice in a billion years, but, the title of Jason Mraz's second album, Mr. A to Z, is a play on his last name. Mr. A to Z, MrAZ. Mraz.

More movies

In the past two days I saw two Billy Bob Thorton movies for the first time.

No, I'm not crazy about him. Recently I saw footage of a radio interview he did where he acted like a dick because he was trying to promote his recording carreer and the interviewer dared to make a reference to his acting. Apparently, there was a prior arrangement that the interview would focus on music and not movies.

I can't stand that. I can't stand when people go on talk shows for the purpose of promoting their latest project and act like everybody's sole reason for living is to assist them. I remember Paris Hilton went on Letterman to promote a new clothing line or something. Dave kept bringing up her recent arrest and she got annoyed and said something like, "I just wanna talk about my new clothing line. That's what I'm here to talk about". Basically, "Fuck you, how dare you try to have a conversation with me on your show- I'm only here to sell shit".

But anyway, today I saw the middle part of Monster's Ball. Heath Ledger was good, very good. I know I'm not the first or the last person to say it, but, what a loss.

By the way, I can't stand Peter Boyle. From Young Frankenstein to Everybody Loves Raymond, I hate him.

Yesterday I saw Kaiser Blade. Some people call it Sling Blade, but I call it Kaiser Blade. Aah-huhmm. Lucas Black plays the kid, and he would later go on to star with Thorton in Friday Night Lights, the film. John Ritter plays the gay guy and Dwight Yoakum plays the abusive boyfriend of Black's mother (also, Vic Chestnut plays one of Yoakum's bandmates).

This may not be a kind thing to say, but abused women annoy me. If your boyfriend beats you up either leave him or kill him. But if you keep on letting him back into your life and forgiving him then you deserve it.

That's the kind of woman that Black's mother is. He abuses her and her son but she doesn't do anything about it.

I've seen this in real life and you probably have too. Have you known a woman who, maybe her boyfriend doesn't hit her, but he treats her like shit, and she may complain, and she may even break up with him, but they get back together, over and over again? And even if she does end it for good, she just goes out and finds the same kind of man again. Annoying.

Anyway, I guess Thorton is a good actor and director. He just isn't for me.

Hello

I saw this picture today on a friend's Facebook page and thought it was pretty clever.

If you're young, you might not be familiar with the Lionel Richie song "Hello". I'll fill you in.

"Hello" isn't just a sad song. It's dreary and it makes you feel hopeless.

Richie made a ridiculous video for "Hello" where he courts a young blind woman who, at one point, makes a terrifying clay bust of him, complete with Samuel L. Jackson's Jheri-Curl from Pulp Fiction.

I would post a link to the YouTube video if I had any idea how to do that, but do yourself a favor and look it up.

Max Perlich

He's done a lot of different roles, but I always think of Max Perlich as a druggie. He was the mean, dopey druggie in Drugstore Cowboy, and the loveable, dopey druggie in Rush (which I watched last night for the first time in about 18 years), and then he was just a random druggie in Blow.

Can I just say, I hated Blow. Or, it's not so much that I hate Blow- I just don't understand why people love it. It's a downer and there are zero likeable or interesting characters. The dialogue is boring and the plot is this: bad shit happens to Johnny Depp's character.

I'm convinced that people like this movie for one of two reasons; either 1.) they love Johnny Depp, or 2.) they love cocaine.

But back to Max. In Drugstore Cowboy, Perlich plays a young guy who buys and sells from Matt Dillon's character. His character starts off funny and ends up angry and violent. In Rush he's charming and kind and it's sad because you know his character is doomed.

Max Perlich is handsome, but not really in a leading man sort of way. He's more like the old-time character actor- I could see him playing Elisha Cook Jr.'s role, Wilmer, in The Maltese Falcon. Also, Perlich seems to like old-timey hats, he's always wearing them, even in Luscious Jackson's video for "Naked Eye".

Anyway, I like him, and it's always good to see him in a movie. If you want to see him at his best, skip Blow, and check out Drugstore Cowboy and Rush (he's also in Maverick- yes, it's hard to watch, but luckily the Jodie Foster-ness cancels out the Mel Gibson-ness of the movie).

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.

New cable

Now that we have all the HBOs and Showtimes at home I'm seeing all kinds of cool shit. Yesterday I saw Wishful Drinking and right now I'm watching The Jackel. I've already seen it, as well as Day of the Jackel; incidentally, I saw both movies on Cape Cod over ten years ago.

I like the original, and I like the new version too, but I have to admit: I'm very upset by the violence in The Jackel. Poor Jack Black. And the guy walking down the stairs. And the gay guy. It's awful and brutal.

And speaking of...I saw Edge of Darkness too. When I first moved here and was out looking for a job I saw them filming scenes. I stood and watched just a few feet away from where I eventually landed a job and remain to this day. Pretty cool.

In the movie I saw a lot of places I recognize.

By the way, I think this role was a smart choice for Mel Gibson. I've never been a fan, and his drunk driving incident and recorded phone calls didn't improve things, but I felt so sorry for his character that I was able to forget all that.

But the thing is, there are three scenes in this movie that are so brutal and upsetting that I couldn't really enjoy the movie overall.

New books

It was a beautiful late-winter day out yesterday and I went to the library. This time of year, every year, I get the urge to do all the reading I think I should've done during the winter months. Because winter is the time to stay indoors in mismatched cloths and read books.

I've done plenty of that this winter, but, tick-toc, it's almost spring, and every year around this time I start to think that once spring comes I'll be spending all kinds of time out having fun. That hardly happens, but, like most of my ideas, it's a nice thought.

So anyway, I wasn't planning on getting all biographies, but that's what I did. I couldn't decide between two Elvis Costello books so I got both. And Bob Woodward's Wired, plus Belinda Carlisle's Lips Unsealed. So far I've skimmed the music books and read the entire Belushi book. After all, Carrie Fisher was interviewed for it. I think she had the most insightful things to say. But overall, the book was a bore. I can see how it would seem like a scandal in 1984, but now none of those things are a big deal anymore.

All of this leaves me wishing that Carrie Fisher had written a real autobiography- Wishful Drinking doesn't count, it's more like a long magazine article.

Switcheroo

My roommate just swiched us over from DirecTV to Comcast. Our package is larger now, meaning we get almost every station.

I have one problem so far, though: when your flipping through the stations, the display at top doesn't keep up; you have to change the stations slowly if youi wanna know what's on those stations. It might seem like a small, petty complaint, but, believe me, it's a drag.

Aside from the awful earthquake and resulting tsunami, it's a slow news day. I'll just throw out a few incidents and observations.

Right now I'm listening to the second Kristin Hersh solo CASH series. "Flooding" is on now. Even though it's a slow song it grabbed me at the first listen and I'm liking it more and more. It's such a strong song. It might rank among Hersh's all-time best songs.

A lot of the CASH songs are very good. From the first series I like "Morning Birds", "Fortune", "Elizabeth June", and my favorite "Speedbath".

In Series Two, I like, of course, "Flooding", "Gin", "Glass", "Opiates", and "Crooked".

It's too soon to tell with the Throwing Muses demos, as they're just demos, but so far I'm interested in "Cherry Candy/ Dripping Trees" and "Clark's Nutcracker".

I have a feeling that the upcoming TM LP is gonna be good.

Yesterday, the first thing I watched on the new Comcast system was She Devil, the 1989 movie starring Roseanne Barr and Meryl Streep. It's not the funniest movie ever but it holds up pretty well.

The thing is, She-Devil was directed by Susan Seidelman, who made Desperately Seeking Susan. After that movie people had high expectations and all she really did after that was direct episodes of Sex In The City.

Same thing with Heathers. Michael Lehman went on to direct Hudson Hawk- it got bad reviews but I thought it was funny. But then he did movies like Airheads, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, and, the worst, 40 Days and 40 Nights. How do things like that happen? Watch Heathers, and then watch 40 Days. It's scary.




Note: re: the bottom photo...

Julia Sugarbaker, to a sleazy photographer: "If you're looking for someone to suck pearls, I suggest you find yourself an OYSTER".

Least favorite movie lines

I'm sure a lot of people would say "Show me the money", and I agree, but I vote for "There's no crying in baseball".

My birthday is coming up

Aretha

I had this album back in 1986.

I've always grouped Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner together. Both are a little older than my parents, and both were singers who were popular in the old days and made comebacks in the mid 1980s. I've always preferred Tina Turner. She has more good songs and less awful songs. Even back then, Aretha's duet with Annie Lennox made me cringe. Probably the lamest song and song title ever. I don't even want to say it.

Tina, on the other hand, did a cover of Prince's "Let's Pretend We're Married", and her follow-up to Private Dancer, Break Every Rule had even better songs on it: "Typical Male", "What You Get Is What You See", and "Two People". She even had some good B-sides- "Don't Turn Around" and "Havin' A Party". Plus Turner recorded one of my favorite songs ever, "Total Control, a Motels cover that came out on the We Are The World album.

I liked Aretha's "Jimmy Lee" and her version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash", but I think her best song from the 1980s is her duet with George Michael, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)".

Anyway, I remember reading the cassette sleeve and seeing that Andy Warhol did the cover, but back then, that name meant next to nothing to me, though I knew who he was and could recognize his picture and some of his paintings (I grew up with People magazine).

The new IFC

I've written before about how the Independent Film Channel has started running commercials. That's bad enough, IFC used to be one of the few stations where you could watch good movies, uninterupted.

Remember when American Movie Classics used to play old movies? It wasn't as good as Turner Classic Movies, but it was commercial-free and they played some good movies sometimes.

Then AMC started playing commercials and everything went to shit. Their idea of a "classic" changed from A Man For All Seasons to Top Gun. These days, I don't think they play anything older than 1970.

But the worst thing is, instead of just playing regular commercials, they also do endless ads for their own programming. And that's not all. In prime-time, they sometimes have these "date night" features where a man and a woman will talk about the movie that's playing. Why do think that anybody wants to see this shit? I just wanna see the movie. If they need to run ads that's fine. But why are they going out of their way to show things that nobody wants to see?

Now IFC is doing the same thing. At night they'll play reruns of The Larry Sanders Show, but they have it hosted by some guy I've never heard of, and before and after the commercials he'll talk and interview people like Michael Cera and Sarah Silverman. It''s always un-funny, but they call it "Comedy Deathray", and those words are always sung is this gay, annoying way. I'd rather they just played more car commercials than this shit.

It's a new day

Today is Wednesday, March 9, just past midnight.

I've been thinking about the seasons. Late winter is the time to make plans. Because of the weather and the short days you can't get much done, but you can decide what you're going to do when it warms up.

In springtime you plant seeds. You get things started so you'll be be busy in the summertime when the weather is warm and the days are long.

In the falltime you start to wrap things up and squirrel stuff away because winter is coming again and you want to be prepared and secure so you can relax and be comfortable and safe once the temperature drops and the snow falls.

So I'm going to get things started. Plant seeds- both real and figurative. I want to 2011 to be a productive year so that on December 31st I can look back proudly.



Note: Cucumbers are more than 90% water. I read that they're also colder inside than the air around them but i don't know if that's true or not.

Madonna, 1989

Last week I came across this photo on a Madonna tribute blog. At first I thought I might've been done at the same photo session for the "Like A Prayer" single cover, but looking at it, her hair and outfit are too different.

Anyway, it's a really cool picture and Madonna looks so young there.

Belinda Carlisle, 1991

Live Your Life be Free (1991) Belinda Carlisle

This was one of my favorite albums in 1991. I haven't listened to it in over ten years and I just downloaded a few tracks that I used to like- they hold up Ok after 20 years.

I love the photography and the lettering; they did a good job.

This is home

lately I've had a problem with one of my roommates, but, really, I'm happy here and I love my room.

I'm very comfortable here. My favorite spot is my loveseat. It's where I read and watch TV and, at least three nights a week, it's where I sleep (it's also perfect for afternoon naps). It's my nest, and no matter what kind of day I have it's great to have a place to go to.

Brand New Box

My CDs and cassettes from the old days are all seperated from their cases and spread around in different storage boxes, but I found a bunch of tape sleeves and decided to put them into use.

My first project took 5 minutes and a few strips of Scotch tape.

I've had this old Whitman's Sampler mini-box where I put tiny things- pills and whatnot, and last week I covered the lid with The Breeders Last Splash sleeve. It's dorky but cool and looks really nice.


Note: It's time to give terrariums another shot. I know, I'm excited too.

Good TV

For the past two days my TV has been stuck on VH1. They've been playing some great shit.

Last night I had company and we made a pizza and watched The 100 Most Shocking Moments in Music. We got sucked in and couldn't pull away. The show would mention things like the Gram Parsons incident, but mostly they focussed on newer stuff: The Station fire, Fergie, ect. The top 3 moments were deaths and I knew well ahead what they would be. It was the order I disagreed with.

3. Kurt Cobain (honestly, that could top the least shocking list)

Michael Jackson was #1, and while it was a surprise, he was 50 and we all knew he was an addict.

I think that #2, John Lennon should've been #1. Here was a beloved musician, so known for being peaceful, shot down by a maniac in front of his home, in front of his wife and young son.

But anyway, afterwards they played the 4 hour miniseries The Temptations (1998). My first instinct was to turn the station, but we got sucked into that too. It was an interesting story and surprisingly well-done. I watched it all except for the final 20 minutes when I fell asleep.

Note: David Ruffin was such a dick. And the other Temptations let him get a way with murder.

If you get a chance, watch it. I think you'll like it.

A fight

I live in a house with three roommates. There's the owner, who I'll call Papa Bear- he's 47 and a very nice guy. He's had a 20 year old kid living there for the past three years or so- we'll call him Baby Bear. He's also a nice guy, an easy-going, pot-smoking gamer. He's always at his computer playing games.

Finally there's Stickman. I call him that because he's wicked skinny, AIDS-thin you might say if you saw him. He's a second-shift nurse and he's been "friends" with the owner for maybe 15 years. Friends is in quotes, not because they're really a couple, but because they really can't stand each other. Because of the hours they work they don't see much of each other but about once a month there will a fight over some petty issue and Stickman shouts like an angry teenage girl. It's funny and scary.

Stickman and Papa Bear might be around the same age, but Stickman looks closer to 60. It's a combination of his weight, his shaved head, his shortage of teeth, and his all-around bitter attitude. In the year and a half that I've lived here, Stickman has never had a friend over, and I heard from Papa Bear that he doesn't get along with any of his family.

I avoid Stickman as much as possible but there's a problem. When he isn't in his bedroom, burning incense and blaring Fox News, he's in the bathroom. And as he leaves for work around 2:20pm, he expects to have exclusive use of the bathroom for the full three hours before he leaves.

But, in his mind the time goes back even earlier. Thre have been times when I came home at 11am from a two-day stay at a friends and then showered and brushed my teeth, only to walk out and find him standing at Baby Bear's door and complaining about me.

Showering, shaving, brushing my teeth- these are all chores to me, and I try to get them done as quickly as possible. And I also try to avoid spending a block of time in there, so I'll brush my teeth early and then later I'll go back and shave and shower. I'm not exagerating when I say that Stickman spends more time in the bathroom than the rest of us combined. So how can any sane person resent anyone else being in there.

Today, my brother came to take me out to lunch. Before we left my brother needed to use the bathroom. It was 12:35pm. A coupe minutes later I heard Stickman in the hallway, "He better not be taking a shower, THIS IS MY TIME" and he stormed down the stairs. A moment later he started pounding on the bathroom door, saying he needed to get ready for work. As my brother came out I reminded Stickman that he had over an hour to get ready and as we closed the door to my bedroom my brother said that Stickman was a fucking douchebag.

I haven't seen him since. He's home now but he has his door closed. I'm not saying anything to him unless he says something first. I'm happy this happened but now I don't have to pretend that nothing's wrong.

I know I'm not the only person who has roommate problems; there's a world of complaints out there. But I think this one is special because Stickman is so crazy and so blind to how inconsiderate he is.

Well, enough about that. Good night.

Back to work

I know it's winter, but it's obscene the ammount of time I've wasted since the year started. It's the first day of March and I have nothing to show for the past two months.

Yes, I've been posting here and I've drawn and painted a handful of good pictures in addition to working full-time, but, really, that's nothing, and at my age I should be much more productive.

I have started the change today: Tonight I'm re-starting work on my childrens' book Christmastime With Clementine. I re-wrote the first half of the story and I did some practice watercolor illustrations.

I also have some good ideas for what I'd like the front and back cover to look like. I want the whole thing to be very beautiful. And I want it to be hand-made. Instead of taking it around to publishers and trying to sell it, I'm going to make it myself over time so that I have complete control over it.

Christmastime With Clementine is going to be a very personal story. While it does contain a message, its main purpose is to create a mood. I want readers of all ages to feel that mood when they open the book. The book will evoke all the warmth and happiness and love of Christmastime with family.

Gotta go- Charlie Sheen's on 20/20 now. Later, RJ