Lately

For the past few weeks (probably 7 days out of 14- I wish it was more) I've been drawing. I was almost going to write drawing and sketching but luckily, I haven't done any sketches. I consider a sketch to be a plan, a casual note that you write out before you go to bed and highlights a few quick essentials you need to take care of. It might just say:
laundry
buy butter
mail letters

I've done a lot of sketches and I've have to put 99% into the catagory of Useless.

Because when I sketch something, it usually means that something doesn't end up as a fiished product. Usually one sketch will lead to another, more detailed sketch, then to a pile of them. I didn't used to sketch. It was something I picked up in high school, freshman year. We were told to keep sketchbooks and we were graded on them. This completely changed the way I made pictures.

It brought out one of my worst qualities: my laziness. I never used to sketch. I'd have an idea and I'd sit down on my bed or at my desk and I'd set out to make a finished picture, either in pencil, pen, colored pencil, or watercolor. Every once in a while I'd decide I could do something better and I'd re-do a certain picture, but that was it.

My problem is, once I'd done a sketch, a quick, sloppy, basic sketch, I lost the motivation to make my original idea into a finished picture. Why bother?

It was years, a lot of years, before I realized how bad things had gotten; how I had boxes and boxes of sketches but only slim folders of finished pictures.

That's why lately when I sit down to do something I just do it, like the old days.

This weekend I wanna do a picture, maybe a watercolor, involving water. One or both of the photos above might be the model.

Under The Dome

Last night my friend and I went for a drive and I had him drop me off at Papa Gino's so I could get their bacon cheddar burger that I love so much (and their raspberry iced tea) and as we were pulling up he mentioed that he had Stephen King's novel Under The Dome (2009) in his backseat.

I started reading while I waited for my burger and now in over 300 pages deep.

I just want to take a moment to say how much I'm enjoying it, mostly I want to say how much certain characters are making me furious. It always amazes me how strongly people can respond to characters that don't even exist. It's all just words on pages but it all comes to life- even if you tell yourself, "It's just a book".

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

I started this warm summer day at 7:30am and had a couple Popcicles waiting for The West Wing to come on. I checked out The Daily Guru where one of the spotlighted songs was The Supremes's "Come See About Me".

That led me to look up The Supremes and read their story. Two things stick in my mind:

Number Two- They were very determined to get signed to Motown and though Berry Gordy wasn't interested at first they kept coming back till he found a spot for them giving handclaps and backup vocals on other people's songs.

Number One- Though the Supremes continued on throughout the 1970s, the end really came with the song "Someday We'll Be Together" (which was really just Diana Ross solo). It was the last Number One for Diana Ross and the Supremes and also the last Number One song of the 1960s, which I think is fitting and very bittersweet.

So anyway, lately I'm feeling a little more energized and I'm looking at things differently which is what happens as you get older, I guess. One thing I've thought a lot about is how good my parents are with money. When I was a kid I called them "cheap" but they're savers and don't like to waste money. And even though for my entire adult life I've known the correct thing to do, for most of that time I've done the complete wrong thing. At long last, it's time to be responsible. I'll still have fun- there's no way around that- but I'm going to do things differently, the way they would.

The good thing is, part of it will be pretty easy. Unlike a lot of people, I don't care about clothes and almost all of mine came from friends and family members. Right now I'm wearing my buddy's boxer briefs.

And I always hear people say "Oh I love that movie, _____ .I'm gonna buy the DVD this weekend". Or they talk about their "collection". I know people who have over a hundred DVDs and they haven't even watched most of them. I never owned more than ten DVDs (most have been sold):
Pixies (the one with the videos from 2004)
Cruel Intentions 2 (which I had to own because of the shower scene)
Tokyo Drift (I'm a big fan of Lucas Black)
Tin Cup (a good movie but I shouldn't have bought it)
The Cannonball Run (ditto)
The Rules of Engagement (a good movie and perfect to pop in when there's company and nothing good on TV)
The Exorcist (I love The Exorcist and I wanted to see all the extras and to watch the movie with the director's commentary)

I'm going to buy The Exorcist again, but I might wait till there's a deluxe package that includes both versions plus the extras. I also want to buy The Godfather III because I love it and I'm slightly obsessed with it.

Essential Knowledge

I bought The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge- all 1096 pages- for under five dollars. I like it because, like my older reference book, The 1997 Information Please Almanac, it's full of facts and whatnot.

You can look up, say, the country of Chad, or find a mini biography of Patty Hearst. One of my favorite sections is "Awards"- Nobel Prize, Pulitzer, Grammy, and Oscar. You can see, for each year, who won for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Supporting Actor & Actress. What I wish it had, though, is all the nominees. It's always fun to see who was snubbed. In 1980 Ordinary People famously beat Raging Bull for Best Picture but I'm thinking of the Best Song catagory for 1999.

I remember at the time Trey Parker and Matt Stone made a big deal because their song from the South Park movie lost to Phil Collins's song from one of those Disney films. "Blame Canada" was nominated and I think the Academy thought that made them very cool and "with it". They ended up ignoring the song that should've won: Aimee Mann's "Save Me" from the Magnolia soundtrack. It's probably the best song they've nominated in the past 30 years, maybe the best ever.

Anyway, most of my books are in storage at my parents' house so when I'm bored and have an hour to kill, I'll look through the NYTGtES and look up subjects that I'm clueless about, like stocks and bonds and baseball and afterwards I feel just a little bit smarter. It's a good feeling.

Frank Black and the Catholics

Unlike some Frank Black singles, I didn't buy any of these for the sleeves. The top image is the front cover for the Robert Onion single. I think it represents the single most frustrating thing about being a Frank Black fan. You've got the first track (taken from the Catholic's third album) which has an exciting instrumental background mixed with awkward, nonsense words (I know it's about Mars, and I know it's an acrostic) and that's what's chosen to be a single, rather than songs like "Bullet", "Stupid Me", "Llano del Rio", and "If It Takes All Night".

What radio station would ever play "Robert Onion", really? If I owed a radio station I might play it once or twice late at night and that's only because I like the sound of the band playing.

The Robert Onion single contains one of Frank Black's best songs ever: "Pan American Highway". Long after I and anyone reading this has died, that song will be prominant on any collection of FB's best songs. So it's frustrating when a song like that is wasted as a B-side while "Robert Onion" is the song sent out to represent Dog in the Sand, the Catholics strongest, most consistent album.

Years ago I did a search online and saw the single for Dog Gone from the first Catholics record. The B-sides were all covers, and while I'd never heard of "Do Nothing" or "The Big Hurt", "I'm Going Down" was my favorite Springteen song so I couldn't wait to hear FB and the Catholics doing it. To this day I'm still disappointed. Maybe if I'd never heard the original it would be different, but as it is it sounds bland and unoriginal- pointless. I ended up liking the other two B-sides better. If there had been a Headache EP III I could imagine these songs on it.

All My Ghosts seems the most like an actual EP- I'd say it's the intros to both "Living On Soul" and "Changing of the Guards". The guitar playing on them and the third song, "Humbolt County Massacre", is so loose and bold and the songs themselves are so memorable. All My Ghosts is the perfect mini-record. No filler, every song is perfect and they go great together.

This blog needs:

This blog, RJ Battles, needs some new life. While I've tracked down some cool images to post here ("tracked down" isn't the most honest way of describing how I sat at my computer and sifted through some different music sites, but oh well), so I think this blog is attractive enough.

This blog is missing good writing. If I were to group together my best posts- the ones that contained great, interesting, funny writing, how many would there be? I'd say two, maybe three. Really, there's only one post that immediately think of and that was written a year before I started RJ Battles and was simply reprinted here.

I'm not a natural writer. Growing up, I drew and painted. I had a picture in my head, with the colors and shapes, and not much was different between the idea and the paper.

But my writing is never like that. I never see the whole thing, only pieces. Even if I wrote a perfect sentence and followed it with another, chances are they wouldn't be related and the mismatch of it all would cancel the two out.

(to be continued)

The childrens' book

As you know, I'm writing a childrens' book. Some of you are planning on getting it for your kids, and some of you are planning on having kids just so you can give them the book. Thank you, I appreciate that.

I just spent the night writing a rough draft of the full story (though I haven't fleshed out the ending just yet). But as I wrote, the story came together in my head and I like it. I think it's a sweet story without being really sweet or really a story.

It's very basic. I mean, it's for kids under 5.

But I've been thinking of promotion and I think that'll be fun. I can't wait to make posters and put them up around town.

Music and movies

I'm watching Harold and Maude and thinking about music in movies. It started with The Graduate, more or less and continued with Easy Rider and by the early 1970s it took off. Recently I saw The Wicker Man and the songs were ridiculous, especially the one at the beginning.

So far in Harold and Maude the songs don't seem too out of place, but still. I always think about if i made a movie how I'd put some of my favorite songs in certain scenes, but at the same time I know it'd be wrong. Popular music only seems to work in movies like Goodfellas or The Departed. Can you imagine some song playing in The Godfather (I know there's that one scene with the piano but that works). Even in The Godfather Part III Elvis Costello's "Miracle Man" plays for a few moments but it isn't distracting ( I'll bet it was Sofia Coppola's choice to have that song play. By the way, I thought she was great in that movie ).

( I missed the first half hour of Harold and Maude and now it's halfway through- I hope I haven't missed "Trouble"- I wanna hear Cat Steven's version. )

News

AOL headlines always suck me in and then once I read the story I feel like I've been had. I never learn. But today it said "Law & Order: SVU actor arrested in NYC" and that grabbed me because I read somewhere that the producer, Dick Wolf, runs those shows with an iron fist and even sets the actors' bedtimes. So I wondered who it was and what they did.

Turns out Ice-T was pulled over for not wearing a seat belt and then arrested for driving without a license. First I thought, "Wow, you'd think they'd give him a break since he plays a cop on a local TV show", but then I remembered "Cop Killer" and figured it kind of made sense- I bet they're still a little upset about it.

All I know is, it's one of my favorite songs and I've never even heard it.

Just something I saw

I was looking through a stranger's Facebook pictures and one of the albums was "Funny things I saw at the supermarket". It was mostly odd products and signs but this was my favorite picture.

Frank Black "Frank Black"

On top, from the Frank Black cassette sleeve, it's a faded, washed-out version of the logo painting that's featured in the CD booklet.

The middle is a promo cover for the Frank Black LP, and on the bottom it's the Japanese cover (notice the small ad for Trompe Le Monde).

What the fuck?

Why is it that half the time people leave comments here at RJ Battles it appears as two or three lines of boxes or some fucked up symbols?

Are people wring from other countries, in other languages, and it just isn't transfering right?

Whatever's happening it's kind of annoying. Is there something I could do to make the comments come through in real letters?

If anyone knows, please tell me about it. Thanks.

"Everything is New"

I love the top image, the back side to the Everything is New EP, and of course, the middle image too- the front- which I posted here earlier.

The bottom picture is the back side to Show Me Your Tears.

Note: In the top image, check out the tiny kitty. I love it.

Something old, now something newer

I like Bluefinger, FB's first big solo record as Black Francis. It's got some really good songs on it. I don't think, though, there's a huge difference between this album and some of his other solo stuff.

But there is one moment where he sounds, to me, like the old Black Francis: on the song "Tight Black Rubber", when he says "It's amazing/ It works" it sounds like the old days.

Anyway, here's the sleeve for Threshold Apprhension.

"Alec Eiffel" promo

Thought I'd throw some Pixies in too. Here's a promo for Alec Eiffel.

"Headache" and "Men In Black"

The top image is a pretty rare cover- I saw it once at a record convention a long time ago.

The bottom picture is the Japanese Teenager of the Year.

"I Don't Want to Hurt You (Every Single Time)"

Here's the inside and disc for "IDWtHY(EST)".

(Not great artwork, but the colors are attractive.)

Black Sessions plus the Kitchen Tapes

Back in 1996, my friend bought the Black Sessions CD- the one with the black and white cover and the block letters; I waited cause I knew there was another version out there that had a couple extra songs on it.

They're really the best part of the CD. There is a solo version of "I Want to Live on an Abstract Plain" but what I really like are the early versions of "Jumping Beans" and "Modern Age" played with Joey Santiago. The finished versions are great- especially "Jumping Beans", but these demos are my favorites.

Note: One time in Providence, on Thayer St., I saw this on vinyl. It looked pretty cool but I try not to buy doubles of anything, no matter how much I might want to. Plus I didn't own a record player at the time.

Frank Black Month

July is Frank Black month here at RJ Battles. I'll be putting up some of the record sleeve scans I've got- some good, some not as good.

Here is the front and back from one of the Black Session CDs. I'd never seen the back until a couple days ago. All in all, I like the packaging.

It's 9:30am

So I'm watching The West Wing. President Barlett is being re-elected. The episode before this one was the debate. I don't think I noticed the Brolin connection before. Josh Brolin played George W. Bush in the Oliver Stone movie W. and on TWW his father James Brolin (Pee Wee's Big Adventure) played Governor Ritchie and the character was meant to be- or at least Brolin played him as- a G. W. Bush-type. Small world.

You might remember that my boss gave me the season four DVD of TWW. Someone gave it to her because supposedly a resturant that she owns is mentioned on the show. I looked it up, and if it's true it isn't mentioned in the forth season- it's mentioned in the second season, in an episode called "17 People" where Toby becomes the 17th person to learn about President Bartlett's MS.

I've been trying to see this episode for over a year and every time it's replayed I have to work.

Frank Black Cult of Ray-era

I think The Cult of Ray is everyone's least favorite Frank Black album. While the music is great, the lyrics are his weakest. Many ill-advised word choices, and I think it's because so many of the songs seem written out of anger and bitterness.

The song title itself turned me off towards "You Ain't Me" before I'd even heard it.

Another reason I dislike TCoR is because my hope were up so high after Teenager of the Year.

I can appreciate the direction FB was going in. I think the goal was to do a record that wasn't as produced as TotY. Something that was more like the Peel Session with Teenage Fanclub and I think the Headache EP B-sides were a blueprint too. "Oddball", "Men in Black", and "At The End of The World" had the perfect sound after all the keyboards on the first two solo records.

The Cult of Ray was more of a compromise between the two different approaches. FB finally prefected the sound on the first Catholics record.

Here are some Cult of Ray-era singles.

Frank Black 1996- now

I've wondered: do I like certain album art only because I like the music? I've looked around Eyesore at the other 4AD artists, the ones I've heard of but whose music I haven't heard. None of their album covers jumped out at me.

But there's proof that I don't like certain sleeves just because I like music. Ever since Frank Black left 4AD I've been underwhelmed by the record sleeves. I mean they're fine, and some of them are very good, but you can tell that there's a I-don't-care-it's-all-about-the-music-so-I'm-not-gonna-get-all-wrapped-up-in-the-sleeve attitude.

Still, there are some that I like. Here are two Show Me Your Tears-era EPs.

There's been a lot going on

But I'll be putting up some new posts over the next few days.

I'll be spotlighting Frank Black record sleeves and there'll be a review of one of my favorite movies, Point of No Return. I can't wait.

By the way, how come I can't read half of the comments people leave here? Usually it's just lines of boxes. Why? Is it a language thing, people sending messages from other countries?

Talk to you later, RJ