Play dead

I had Bjork's Debut on tape but not this version- mine ended with "The Anchor Song", not "Play Dead", which I've never heard. My sleeve was a lot like this one but the "Bjork" logo near the song titles was the other one. I think I like this one better.

This week

I've been inactive lately and a lot of my time has been spent in front of the computer. I like looking things up: music stuff, blogs, news, but mostly movie trivia. Last night I saw a half-hour special from around 1994 where Quentin Tarentino talks about Robert De Niro's movie career- especially his movies in the 70s.

He talks about how in 70s De Niro was the biggest name in acting and he worked with the strongest directors of that time: Coppola, Scorsece, Cisero. He has a lot of praise for his performances in Mean Streets, Godfather II, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull, but what's interesting is that Tarentino get's critical of De Niro's later work. He says that he and his friend used to run to see De Niro's movies the day they came out but after a while it wasn't such a big deal. De Niro stopped being choosy about his projects and did more movies. I think that's a very good point, especially if you look at the movies De Niro's done over the past 15 years. I don't even have to list them; you know what I'm talking about.

I never payed a lot of attention to John C. Reilly. He was good in Magnolia and Dolores Claibourne, but the movie that I really like him in is one that I never thought I'd watch, never mind like: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009). Reilly is great in that movie, just like everyone else in it- except for the lead, some boring kid.

There's a book I wanna read called Portrait of a Monster. It's about Joran van der Sloot. He's creepy, creepy guy and I can't believe he's only 24. He liked Natalee Halloway on May 30, 2005, and then he killed another woman exactly 5 years later. Lifetime made a movie about Halloway and I don't know who played van der Sloot but it wasn't who it should've been: Nick Stahl.

Oh shit

I forgot my anniversary. Me and RJ Battles have been together for 3 years, 3 years this past Tuesday, but I didn't stop by and write anything that day.

I didn't realize this until late last night, and while it's not a big deal, I really did mean to do something. 3 years is kind of a big deal. That's a long time.

But really, I've been neglectful of the blog for the past 6 months anyway. I haven't been too busy; I've just been less ambitious than I usually (which isn't very).

I follow 3 blogs. Even though the writing comes off like a high school newspaper student trying to sound like a People Magazine music reviewer, I do usually learn something new about a song that I'm half-way interested in. The writer, Joel, is knowledgable, but "Guru" (a word I don't care for anyway) is a stretch. Also, you can see where a lot of the info comes from- read his post about Sonic Youth's "Teenage Riot" and then take a look at the song's Wiki page- seperated at birth.

For the past year or so I've been following the blog By Ken Levine. He's former writer for M*A*S*H and Cheers and he's a baseball announcer (so, as you'd probably guess, I skip any posts that show a picture of a baseball diamond). I came across his blog one day when I was on Wiki reading about Cheers. There was a story about Carla's husband Eddie and the whole backstory about why he left the show so abruptly and a link to Levine's blog where he tells everything in full detail. It's very interesting and his blog is full of posts like that. Levine also co-wrote the movie Volunteers starring Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, and John Candy. Remember when people made a big deal out of the characters drinking Coke in the movie while the movie company, Tri-Star, was owned by Coke? He gives the details behind that story too. Also, he was in a mini-feud with Aaron Sorkin a couple years ago and a mini-feud with Roseanne this year.

Both The Daily Guru and By Ken Levine feature new posts every single day. It's part of The Guru's "mission", and Levine's blog was voted one of the 25 Best Blogs of 2011 by Time Magazine so that makes for an eager audience. My favorite blogger isn't as productive, or, at least, hasn't been lately.

Last year, Final Girl put up 387 posts; so far, this year there have only been 92- for July, August, and September there were a total of 6 posts. She's written every day of October, but that's because it's October. I mean, I'm not complaining (but I am)- I'm just surprised that someone who ammassed such a large following would just let it all wither. Because I'm sure that a lot of people don't even bother checking in anymore. Final Girl might be on their Favorites list but they gave up on it and have found new blogs to read.

But I'm sure she's got a lot of other projects to work on, and maybe she just wants a break from constantly writing about horror movies. Maybe she's said just about everything she wanted to say about the subject.

What I know for sure (if I can say that, if it's OK with Oprah) is that if she decides to get back into Final Girl full-time, she's such a good writer that she'll attract just as many people to the site. It'll never be a ghost-town (NPI).

Pixies after "Trompe Le Monde"

I was just at the Frank Black Forum and one of the threads was about someone was wondering if the Pixies recorded any songs together after their last LP, Trompe Le Monde- there was a link to Youtube and a couple clips of Pixies demos.

One of them- "Hang On To Your Ego"- I'd heard before. Still, it was interesting to hear it again. The other was "Brackish Boy" which ended up being recorded for 1993's Frank Black. Youtube just has a clip but I'd love to hear the full song; it sounds really good.

Now I'm listening to other songs from a bootleg called The Purple Tape 2. It's got "I Can't Forget" from the Leonard Cohen tribute, I'm Your Fan, and "Born In Chicago" from Elektra's 40th anniversary collection.

"Born In Chicago" is a throwaway, but "I Can't Forget" is interesting. It sounds like it was recorded the same day as their other tribute album song from that era, Neil Young's "Winterlong".

It's great, though, hearing songs like these. I love the Pixies but I've played the shit out of all their songs- even their B-sides are worn out so it's good to hear something of their for the hundredth time instead of for the thousandths time.

Here's some news:

Stephen King has a new novel coming out this fall called 11/22/63 and I read yesterday that they're making it into a movie and Jonathon Demme is directing. So many great directors have done SK novels, I think the only one left is Scorsese.

Let's see, there's been DePalma, Kubrick, Cronenberg, Carpenter, Mary Lambert, George Romero, am I forgetting someone?

Also, King is working on a sequel to The Shining. It's going to be called Doctor Sleep. Interesting title.


I just realized tonight that tomorrow is a big day: it's going to be the 3 year anniversary of RJ Battles. I can't believe it's been that long.

I want to do something special but I'm not sure what would be "special". I'm going to have to sleep on that. I'm going to bed now, Good night.

Pixies after "Trompe Le Monde"

The computer

In general I'm not very ambitious, but today I was feeling super-lazy, so I spent almost the whole day on the computer looking up random shit. And for the past three hours I've been on Youtube, mostly watching Kevin Smith.

I don't care for his movies and I don't see why people make such a big deal about them but I like him a lot. He tells a great story- when he talks about Prince the whole story is probably longer than a half hour but it leaves you wanting more.

He also tells a funny story about a fued with Tim Burton. I love that kind of thing. He seems very truthful, a lot like Kathy Griffin. Some things are, I'm sure, exagerated for effect, but I feel like he's really trying to be as real to life as possible. I like that.

Best songs since 1999 (not since "1999")

Here it is- the very last day of September and I'm back.

I was without internet for a few weeks- the router was broken here at my house.

Luckily, there hasn't been much to report so you haven't missed anything. One thing I wanna talk about tonight, though, is songs from the past decade that I really love.

Last night I was on YouTube and I kept looking up videos for songs that really got a strong emotional response out of me over the last 10- 12 years. Songs that I consider beautiful and near- perfect, and- in some cases- kind of get me choked up.

One of the first songs I thought of was 1999's "My Love Is Your Love" by Whitney Houston. A second ago I said "near- perfect"; this song might be perfect. I'm not a big Whitney fan. Then again, I grew up with her music and there are a lot of her songs that I'm very, very fond of:

"I Wanna Dance With Somebody"

"Moment of Truth" (the B-side of the previous song)

"How Will I Know?"

"I Will Always Love You"

"I'm Your Baby Tonight"

"We Didn't Know" (duet with Stevie Wonder)

While "My Love Is Your Love" wasn't a huge hit and a lot of people have never heard it, I think it's one of those songs that everyone who has heard it, loves it. Right now, I think everyonwe considers "I Will Always Love You" to be her signiture song, but I believe that in the future, "My Love Is Your Love" is the song that she will be remembered by. From the very first lines it has something special.

One song that reminds me of a certain time period in my own life- around 2004- is the Sarah McLauchlin song "Fallen". While it's a bit over-produced it still hits its marks. It's sad and regretful. It's like a serious blues song. And I think a lot of people can relate to it. And even if it doesn't reflect your own life, I think that for four minutes or so you can imagine that you relate to it.

I never bought a Dido album and I only know her singles. I don't know why I've never sought any of her other songs. It' strange because the Dido songs that I've heard are so good and they really hit me. I know three Dido songs. The most popular is probably the weakest of the three: "Thank You". But it's a great song. Then there's 'White Flag". I love the sentiment. I'd really love the song but something doesn't match up. Maybe I just don't belive what she's saying. And for a song like that you have to belive that it's true and not just a love song.

I'd say that Dido's best song is the first of her's that I heard: "Here With Me". With this song I belive that she means ever word she says and this song still gets to me.

There's one song from the past decade that really hits me hard. I love all the songs from Kristin Hersh, Tanya Donelly, Aimee Mann, and Jenny Lewis. But it isn't a song from any of them. It's a big, commercial, radio song that really gets to me and puts a lump in my throat.

One summer- either trhe summer of 2008 or 2009- there was this big hit on the radio called "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis. I heard it a few times and didn't understand the appeal. I still don't.

A few months later, Lewis released another single, this one called "Better In Time". I fell in love. This song is so sad and so sweet and Lewis sings so beautifully. I feel two things when I hear this song. I relate to it because I've been through it and I understand it. And at the same time, I feel so bad for Leona Lewis. When she says "Gonna smile cause I deserve to" I get choked up.

Anyway, there are a lot of great songs that I've enjoyed over the past dozen years but those are the ones that hit me hard.