Action Figures, Goddammit

The Secret Story of TOYS from Anthony Ladesich on Vimeo.

In Case You Missed Them...

Radiohead will be performing on Austin City Limits this week. Check local listings for details, OR, you can just watch the program here on WLBU...


You better jump on this opportunity before Mitt Romney cuts PBS's funding and gets rid of Radiohead and Big Bird.

P.S. bon Iver is next week. 

Football Anyone?

Football season is officially underway tomorrow night, fellow bastards. Any of you care to make any predictions? I'll start:

AFC Championship: Colts vs. Chargers   Colts Win
NFC Championship: Packers vs. Saints     Packers Win
Colts vs. Packers and the winner is............ Colts

As far as college goes, the Vols will be lucky to win 6. Otherwise, Ohio State and Boise State in the BCS Championship game, and God willing the Broncos finally mess up the BCS and win so we can get a playoff!!!

So how do y'all see the season shaping up?

A LOST primer and refresher

I've been following LOST since the first episode. A pretty fantastic piece of storytelling, but impossible to follow if you missed the first season or so. This video does an excellent job of distilling five seasons into five minutes in a very creative way. See you on the island next Tuesday.

Up Your ... Alley

From YouTube:

Todd Schorr: American Surreal is the first mid-career retrospective of the Los Angeles-based artist. Schorr is a leading figure in Southern California's cartoon-based movement, dubbed Pop Surrealism, which embraces low-brow culture and a ribald graphic style indebted to pop sources such as Mad magazine. Schorrs astonishing, highly polished realism, (inspired by Bosch, Brueghel and Dali), sets him apart from his best-known peers such as Camille Rose Garcia, Gary Baseman, and Mark Ryden. The exhibition, curated by SJMAs Senior Scholar and Curator of Collections Susan Landauer, is accompanied by a book published by Last Gasp, San Francisco.

Reminds me of Candykiller a bit. Todd Schorr's official site is here. I embedded the playlist from YouTube, so 5 two minute videos should play consecutively.

I'm Keeping With The Theme

Today's Theme: Really Hot Women

Let's do this for Dave. I'll start things off with this one of Sienna Miller.

Shit

John Alvin, designer of an amazing collection of movie posters, passed away last week.

From the Times:

John Alvin, who created memorable images for movie posters, billboards and advertisements, including the two fingers touching above the Earth’s surface for “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” died on Wednesday at his home in Rhinebeck, N.Y. He was 59.

His collection of posters, seen here, is nothing short of amazing.

That Time of Year

I'm trying to come up with my top 5 records for this year. The one thing I've noticed is that the list of albums that I really wanted to get my hands on, but lacked funds to purchase and/or easy access to a record store (just can't get used to the buying music on the innerwebs thing) to find is longer than the list of albums I bought and LOVEd. So here's my list of my favorites that I got and favorites that I wish I got. had got. had gotten.

Top five (or so) of 07:

1. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
2. The National - Boxer
3. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga GA
4. Grinderman - Grinderman
5. Bruce Springsteen - Magic
5. Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
5. Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight

Top five I wish I had acquired in 07:
1. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
2. Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy (I think that's what it's called)
3. New Pornographers - Challengers
4. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
5. Ween - Cucaracha
5. Lucinda Williams - West
5. I'm Not There Soundtrack

Holy Crap!

Back in 2000, Channel 4 produced a remarkably in-depth documentary called On The Edge Of Blade Runner, about one of my all time favorite movies. To my knowledge, it's never been released in the US. (It would seem that someone posted it to Google Video a while back, but - surprise, surprise - it's gone now.)

Download the DivX player, and Flog The Pickle.

Army of Darkness

Tonight I'm trying on the idea that Army of Darkness is the pinnacle of western civilization. I have the deluxe boomstick edition rented and I mean to use it. Just ya'll steer clear of my house tonight, there's going to be bloodshed.

Found this old trailer last night that got me craving it.

6363 Sunset Blvd

"6363 Sunset is a fascinating second look at Elvis Presley’s recording sessions at the RCA Hollywood Studios in March of 1972 and 1975. The first 6 tracks are from the 2 nights in 1972 that produced "Burning Love" and "Always on my Mind" and the final 6 tracks focus on the session that produced the Elvis Today album and in the middle, we get 7 tracks from the "On Tour" concert rehearsal sessions also recorded in the same studio."

In other words, the first 6 and last 7 tracks are the most interesting, and the middle part is the same Vegas stuff you always hear -- with the exception of maybe "Until It's Time For You To Go".

Fakin' Tare of Pusiness

Under The Black Light

New Rilo Kiley album is full of disco moments and prickly kiss-off lyrics. Listen to it for that, or for the fact that Jenny Lewis is yummy yummy yummy.

Also, the Earlimart mentioned earlier is up as well.

Elvis - the Legacy

I stopped and got gas in N.C. today and noticed these on the counter. The girl behind the counter said "they're pretty good, but they don't sell too well." I didn't buy one.

I think tomorrow is the actual Dead Elvis anniversary, isn't it?

Happy Birthday, Bob

Sixty-six!

Again With The Of Montreal

I can't stop listening to Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? - it's a solid effort from start to finish. My favorite track as of this moment is "A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger." Should I mention that the album more or less chronicles the disintegration of Kevin Barnes's marriage and subsequent mental collapse? Yes, I should. Should I also mention that this particular song combines some particularly dark, introspective lyrics to a bouncy disco-inflected pop song? Nah. (But I do like the playful comparison of his depression to black metal bands in Norway ...)

A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger

I spent the winter on the verge of a total break
Down while living in Norway
I felt the darkness of the black metal bands
But being such a fawn of a man I didn't burn down
Any old churches
Just slept way too much
Just slept

My mind rejects the frequency
It's static craziness to me
Is it a solar fever?
The TV man's too loud
Our plane is sleeping on a cloud
You turn the dial
I'll try and smile
We've eaten plastic weather
This family sticks together
We will escape from the south to the west side
My mind rejects the frequency
It's just verbosity to me

I spent the winter with my nose buried in a book
While trying to restructure my character
'Cause it had become vile to its creator
And through many dreadful nights I lay praying to a saint
That nobody has heard of
And waiting for some high times
To come again

Dirty old shadow stay away
Don't play your games with me
I am old and now I see
The way you operate
If you don't hurt me then you die

Kinks Show At The Winterland (February 19, 1977)

Hey, free bootleg from Heather at I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS! Get it whilst you can.

Of Montreal, My New Favorite Band?

The Mummies Rock!

Fucking brilliant idea! Learn more about them from their in-depth bio.

Shit.

The Austin City Limits Music Festival has released its lineup for next year's festival. Not to continue the "whinge" about leaving the Live Music Capital of the World(seriously, they call it that), but come on! Bob Dylan is fucking headlining?!! Not to mention Bloc Party, Lucinda, Decemberists, Amy Whinehouse, Steve Earle, Peter Bjorn and John, the National, Patterson Hood, and Farmer Jason (Jason of Jason & the Scorchers doing the kiddie rock thing), and Spoon among others. Every year I've been here I've been very lukewarm about the line-ups, and now it's a killer. They're doing it on purpose. Fuckers.

On the bright side, I have to return sometime in the fall to defend my dissertation. I may have to make it conveniently happen right around festival time.