"Lost In Space"

Years ago, and another computer ago, I had downloaded Lost In Space, along with the bonus disc. Anyway, today I finally bought it- got it used for $8.

The album itself is kind of a downer, but in a good way. Disc Two has a little more variety: there are the B-sides, "Nightmare Girl" (which reminds me of the opening theme to Rosemary's Baby) and "Backfire" (why wasn't it released as a single?), a cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist", and two unreleased songs, "Fighting the Stall" and the best song in the whole collection, "Observatory". The rest of the songs are live tracks from Space.

The packaging is really nice too. I'm not into graphic novels, or as I like to call them, comic books, but I guess they're the cool thing now.

If you get the chance, buy it. If you don't believe me, check out the first track, "Humpty Dumpty".

Carrie

I saw this poster for Carrie on Final Girl's blog. I think it has some really cool design elements.

That got me to read about the movie which I had seen years ago and thought was just ok. The book too.

Stephen King tells the story behind the inspiration, writing, and publishing of Carrie in his book On Writing. It's really interesting. You should definitely seek out On Writing. It's excellent.

Anyway, afterwards I looked up Brian De Palma movies. Some I'd seen, others I was surprised by. I'd seen Raising Cain- this was before John Lithgow got really annoying. De Palma did Dressed to Kill and Body Double- I happened to catch Body Double this week at my friend's house while he was at work.

I've wanted to see it ever since it was mentioned in American Psycho. I wanted to see what the big deal was. Number one- it's very dated. It's dated even before the male lead wanders onto a video shoot for Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax".

Number two- the male lead, Craig Wasson, was a wicked pussy. Since I grew up with 80s movies I didn't realize till lately how wimpy a lot of 80s male movie characters were. Wasson was such a passive loner- not to mention- his claustrophobia- that it was distracting. What the hell.

Anyway, De Palma made so many different kinds of movies- the Hitchcock types, Bonfire of the Vanities, The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible.

Pretty Woman

A friend is over and we're switching back and forth between what each of us wants to watch: She wants to see the Hairspray re-make; I'm into catching Pretty Woman again- Richard Gere and Julia Roberts look so young.

That guy at the hotel is pretty cool. I read the Stephen King short story "Dedication" the other day. It's from Nightmares & Dreamscapes; if you get a chance check it out.

More pictures

Here are just some other pictures I've come across lately.

There's the Echo promo postcard.

The inside of the University deluxe box. Not exactly on my wish list- I'd rather have the King book.

House Tornado (US) promo poster. I'd go get the UK promo poster off 4AD.com but their site is such a drag to use.

OK

...I couldn't take the suspense. Here it is.

Isn't that the most beautiful picture you've ever seen in your entire life? I already loved the album cover for Red Heaven. Nice colors, and funny- it looks like a bunch of little Madonnas- Blond Ambition-era. And the artwork for the Firepile EPs is awesome too. But this is incredible. So cool, so beautiful. I found it on Throwing Muses's page on 4AD.com.

Coolest poster ever

A couple months ago I was looking for images from The Breeders album Pod and I ended up finding this super-cool promo poster for the Frank Black album Frank Black. I love it and I'd kill to own a copy of it.

Well last night I was looking around and I found a picture of an even cooler poster. It's so beautiful, I don't even know what to say. I'm not going to post it now; maybe I'll put it up later tonight or tomorrow- I wanna build some suspense. Wait till you see it, you're gonna love it. Pictures like this were the reason I started RJ Battles.

Falling in love with songs

I'm really loving two of the newest Throwing Muses demos- actually, I think, they're Kristin Hersh solo demos that may potentially become Throwing Muses songs. Anyway, I love the one from September, "Cherry Candy/ Dripping Trees"; I can't wait to hear the finished version and at the same time I can't see how it could be improved. This months, "Clark's Nutcracker" has a sweet melody. As I might've said before, I hope the next TM record brings back Tanya Donelly. "Clark's" would be perfect with Donelly's singing and guitar. I'm keeping my finger's crossed.

By the way, this past Saturday my status update was, "Don't forget to set your clocks forward two hours- Fall forward!" and I couldn't believe how many of my friends thought I was serious. Am I really that dumb?