Radiohead just released its new album online. It’s called In Rainbows, and it costs: however much you want to pay for it! That’s right; Radiohead’s just that cool and edgy. Of course, they can afford to be. So I’m not sure how much this is revolutionary. But still, it’s nice to see the music industry all tizzied up over it. I haven’t listened to the cd yet, but maybe I’ll post a review when I get a chance. I have the gut feeling it will be too modern, dissonant, and experimental for me. I have to admit, I was a little more of a The Bends and OK Computer (grr minus ‘fitter happier’…) kind of girl. A little more establishment Radiohead, if such a thing exists. Really, I just think I can’t quite get to the point where ‘like spinning plates’ will do it for me. I like my music a little more comfortable than that. But we’ll see. At any rate, [hehe get it] when it comes down to it, Radiohead’s still pushing boundaries.
No not politics, your brains, sillies.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22535838-5012895,00.html
I’m definitely a right-brainer, although I can make it switch if I try really hard. Good times.
It is nice to know that all of us are capable of a little hero worship. A O Scott, a reviewer for the New York Times, is capable of ripping apart a film with cruel yet witty commentary. At times, he seems to care little for the hearts and souls of the director, screenwriter, actors or crew of any given film. He is merciless when a film does not live up to his standards, which often appear to be placed high above the rooftops of the New York City skyscrapers.
So, it was nice to see him brought back down to the level of an average fan, someone who can appreciate an artist not only for their talent, dedication and accomplishment, but because they are just so freaking cool. Scott sounds almost breathless during certain paragraphs of his latest review, which focuses on Bruce Springsteen’s latest album and upcoming tour.
It was nice to read a piece by a reviewer who is so unabashedly a fan as well. The opening paragraphs include this rant:
Bright and early, me and my girl — my wife of nearly two decades, that is — had let the screen door slam, dropped off the kids at school and set out on the open road, blowing through the E-ZPass lanes on the Garden State Parkway in our Volvo station wagon. We had an advance copy of Mr. Springsteen’s new album, “Magic,” in the CD slot, and most of his back catalog in reserve on the iPod. And now we were driving down Kingsley, figuring we’d get a latte. One more chance to make it real. Tramps like us, baby!Our purpose was not to fantasize but rather to observe the E Street Band in rehearsal, and then to hear what the man himself had to say about the new record, the coming tour and whatever else was on his mind.
Later, Scott comes right out and admits that he is a fan that hangs on every word that The Boss puts to music. I can appreciate a review with a bias, so long as the reviewer is honest and upfront about it.
Possibly my favorite part of the review/interview was this sentence:
”. . . he looked trimmer and tanner than he had the last time I’d seen him, which was on the JumboTron video screen at Giants Stadium a few years back. “
On one other note, part of this review made it clear to me that in our modern musical landscape, there are artists and there are “pop phenomenons.” There are performers that spend hours in rehearsal, trying to nail a piece of complicated choreography in order to stay in time with the fireworks and light show. There are others who work on the harmonies of a complicated vocal lick. Then, as this awe-filled review beautifully describes, there are those artists who work to encompass an entire range of emotions, a political statement and a personal reflection in the space between songs.
In conversation, Mr. Springsteen has a lot to say about what has happened in America over the last six years: “Disheartening and heartbreaking. Not to mention enraging” is how he sums it up. But his most direct and powerful statement comes, as you might expect, onstage. It is not anything he says or sings, but rather a piece of musical dramaturgy, the apparently simple, technical matter of shifting from one song to the next.
On the Convention Hall stage, the band handled the new material as deftly as the chestnuts — after 35 years together, communication is pretty much effortless — pausing to work out an occasional kink or adjust the sound mix. But they must have gone over the segue from “The Rising” to their next number at least a half-dozen times.
“You’ve got to let that chord sustain. Everybody!” Mr. Springsteen urged. “It can’t die down.”
The guitarists had the extra challenge of keeping the sound going while changing instruments, a series of baton-relay sprints for the crew whose job was to assist with the switch, until a dissonant organ ring came in to signal a change of key and the thunderous opening of “Last to Die.” It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that Mr. Springsteen’s take on the post-9/11 history of the United States can be measured in the space between the choruses of those two songs. The audience is hurled from a rousing exhortation (“Come on up to the rising”) to a grim, familiar question: “Who’ll be the last to die for a mistake?”
“That’s why we had to get that very right today,” he said later. “You saw us working on it. That thing has to come down like the world’s falling on you, that first chord. It’s got to screech at the end of ‘The Rising,’ and then it’s got to crack, rumble. The whole night is going to turn on that segue. That’s what we’re up there for right now, that 30 seconds.”
I am not trying to place a value judgement on pop music, which even The Boss seems to celebrate with his latest album, but perhaps it is worth noting that the musician capable of such powerful musical statements has been around far longer then any pop prince or princess and thus, the things he has to say are taken much more serious by a difficult-to-please reviewer, who readily admits to the world that he is a fan.
When I used to work in a coffee shop (The Dragonfly Caffe in New York!) we would get people in to the store all the time who would order a macchiato, expecting to get something that looks like this:
Imagine their disappointment when instead, they received this:
If only the owner of the cafe had posted a copy of the following Coffee Diagram on the menu board, then my job would have been much easier and I would have been called an idiot far fewer times. For those of you who haven’t experienced a real macchiato, go to a real, non-corporate coffee shop and order one in a real glass espresso cup with a biscotti. You’ll thank me later.
Which Harry Potter Character Are You? |
|
 |
You are Hermione. You’re a bookworm always in search of answers. When pressed, however, you can always be counted on to put away the books and help your friends. |
| Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com | |
Which Sex and the City Character Are You? |
|
 |
You are Carrie. You know what you want out of a relationship and you’re not afraid to keep moving until you get it. Wit and charm are your biggest turn-ons, and you like guys who appreciate you for your mind as much as your body. You have fun playing the dating game, but secretly you just can’t wait to find the guy who sweeps you off your feet and carries you into the sunset. |
| Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com | |
It is a dangerous world we live in today. There are news stories on the news every night, pop-ups on the Internet, hidden links lying in wait. Everywhere you turn, there is a chance that disaster might strike.
Someone might let slip the end of the Harry Potter series.
Be forewarned, the person who tells me the end to book 7 before I have read it will face a fate worse then the prisoners at GitMo.
I know the entire book has been leaked onto the internet. Michiko Kakutani has written a review that is likely fraught with spoilers. (This is the first time I have ever avoided the book review pages like the plague). Somewhere, there is a jerk manufacturing tee shirts with the summary of the final book, just to ruin it for the rest of us. Everyone is talking about book 7 and my deepest seated fear is that, by accident or on purpose, someone will say too much.
The good news is, I have spent so much time speculating, guessing, plotting and thinking about the possible ending of the Potter series, that if someone did tell me the end, I might not recognize it as the truth until I was in the midst of reading it. Still, I would like to preserve the twists and turns, as the surprises and hidden clues are one of my favorite parts. This reading experience, years in the making, should be considered something sacred. I don’t care if you haven’t read the books, think they are the end of reading culture as we know it or even the devil’s workshop, don’t you dare spoil it for me!
I will be in line to pick up my copy at midnight on Friday and plan to read into the wee hours of the morning. I will make you a deal- I won’t repeat the details if you promise to do the same.
Recent Comments