The curmudgeon of cool TwentyTwenty dumped this on the rug of the interestnet, so I thought I'd post it here, cause shits needs homes in the neu economy, not to mention winter.
"a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb. "
I'd get to that faster than Garfield finds lasagna...nope...not funny...my wife thought that was gangbusters.
I had to take a break from video/radio/scribblatory sword sharpening to post this video of a Dan Deacon "song." If you're not into a gruff lizard who tells it like it is, living in a universe of illustrated dictation, well, the new Bond is out, you could watch the trailer AGAIN.
If you are in need of some LOL-ing 2 day while u werk or what F-R...
Also, here's the sweetest little toon that I've heard in a cute minute. It happened to have the same name as the Dan Deacon video (thanks for helping with future romance mixtapes Youtube search!)
The band is HELLO SUNSHINE, and the singer Joy Bishop is like Natalie Portman crossed with all the beautiful girls in class that you never asked out for drinks, despite resolving to do so on your way to the car, every single class.
Miriam Makeba passed away last night, after a show, on the road, singing, a moving monument to the strength and beauty of the dark continent. In this age of ballyhooed hope and real optimism, it's worth focusing on a figure who was all the prospects of a greater future through excellence in the present.
“Throughout her life, Mama Makeba communicated a positive message to the world about the struggle of the people of South Africa and the certainty of victory over the dark forces of apartheid and colonialism through the art of song.” -Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
Certainty of victory over the dark forces...
Due to my currently hurt ability to rip from vinyl, in lieu of jams, here are some pristine youtubes.
Big shout out to the African friends of Grilling It (Bombzilla I see you!). Down there doing your thing, unwilling to say "this place is fucked" and just leave.
Everyone, everywhere is pumped. I talked to a serial GOP brainbuster last night who was glowing with joy and gracious in defeat. Weird.
Again, head to El Stencemilla for the proper juice, but here's my today.
The US election fallout is currently riddled with three issues.
1) Transition: cabinet favourites, puppies and lowered expectations. 2) The heretofore off-the-record truth about Palin. 3) Proposition 8 (no same sex marriage-o).
My vote for the puppy remains, a black lab named "Maverick"
For "I didn't know Ahhhfrica is a Cah-ntinent" Sarah Palin, watch this informative bit of Maritime rhyme.
In terms of Prop 8, it's a major setback, on an issue that I've never understood. Ever. No antagonist to same sex unions has ever been able to explain themselves. This deadbeat prophet makes an interesting argument (NB, the one minute mark):
I think we need to espouse the hope, equality, possibility and optimism that got Obama elected and trust that the Prop Eight madness will be worked out by a prevailing sense of justice. To use some cliche's - the name of the game is just keep your eye on the ball. There is no excuse for voices to go unheard and issues to be ignored. Baby steps. Just because the screwheads won a single battle doesn't mean the wounded can't be healed.
In the creeping dusk, I got offered a ticket to go see my man Bob Dylan tonight!
Way out west!
Dylan destroys his hits. His band are supremely skilled, and you're left hanging on every word as Bob re-interprets the songs that were forged into timelessness by just him a guitar and a mouth harp. It's not a religious experience. It's not an old troubador going taxidermist on his back catalogue. It's not an old man pretending he can still do what you remember him doing. It is an awesome rock concert. That's what you get. The rock versions. Even anthems like "All Along The Watchtower" "Highway 61" and "Just Like A Woman" sound like he made them in modern times.
Billed as Bob Dylan and His Band (not The Band), the old man smirks and grimaces at his organ. He gets his sway and swag back as he channels harmonica solos - even through long black coat you can see his septugenarian hips swinging - and leads his band.
Protest folk like "Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" and "Chimes of Freedom" are augmented by fighter jet burning up in the startospher electric guitar jams. All of Dylan's words are played back to him, in guitar, by his band. There is a dialogue that breathes new life into songs that have timeless lyrics, but whose pluck and twang would seem antiquated in the current climate of critical ideas and crucial change.
When he strides into "Like A Rolling Stone" it dawns that Dylan is nothing like The Rolling Stones. The tight pants, never let go, scarves and whiskey image that the Stones plod through, around the world, regularly...it's fake...and Dylan is real. He's adapted. The art of adaptation links us to the animals, but man-oh-man when an artist can just be old, but more importantly DO OLD, the age takes the timeless material and weaves it into the fabric of right now. He doesn't need to, but Bob Dylan is sewing the field of fans, plugging in and proving what he still means to rock.
This was the best song of the night, I'll let Chan take us out with it...
It's the day of birth of Grilling It community organizer/game tester/social conscience/shirt tucker/shhhhh'er/modern dylan advocate/technocrat/embarassment victim/do'er of his damn thing: The Wiz, so this post is the kind of shit he likes to see on here.
From The Simpsons # 174. Season: 8 Episode: 21 First Aired: 4/20/1997
The Old Man and The Lisa
Grandpa: We're not allowed to read newspapers, they angry up the blood.
The recycling depot in the episode is called "Uriah's Heap."
Recycling Depot Proprietor: "Sounds like you working for your car, man...simplify!"
Every boy watching The Wizard, despite all their better instincts, kind of wants to be Lucas. Relaxed pad, dope shades, wicked threads and lucious curls. Lucas fuckface Barton had it better than most twentysomething's today and he represented adolescent's of 1989...the clincher being: as far as the viewer knows, all Lucas has to do is hang out with a bunch of cronies and be awesome at Nintendo. This is the sacrifice that he makes, in the world of the film for shades, pad, threads etc.
Lucas exists as an antagonist for Jimmy and a mild romantic rival for Kevin Arnold, but more than anything as a fork-in-the-road for children's rooting interest.
We get both Jimmy and Kevin Arnold, neither of whom would be anything without Jenny Lewis - a young woman who enchants boys still. Lucas of the curls and skills...or...Kevin Arnold, the Beau Bridges babysitting slightly weak "leader", or Jimmy the skilled savant yet severe social sapling in the Capcom/Konami universe.
The film iself, for kids in the know, solves this debate; when Lucas delivers the last line of the scene embedded below (there's a shorter version, but the encoding SUCKS).
This version is just the line (6 sec, save now for the future):
and the version with Kevin's comeback
Lucas is unable to handle the stature, skills and trappings of his world in a cool fashion. Thus, he is less than Jimmy or Kevin Arnold, who the viewer is left with. Viewers of The Wizard then hybridize and ego ideal from the honest flaws and super traits of the two brothers. Lucas becomes a warning for all spoiled, young gamers: never try to be too cool, otherwise, it's game over.
"I suppose on some deep and profound level, the evening would seem incomplete to me without three minutes of howling." -Warren Zevon
Black Sabbath > So many Saturdays spent napping...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WHAT'S NEXT?
PS: As a bonus for everyone who read this far, here's a video voiced by Jenny Lewis of The Wizard fame. It's what you might call, levelled (that pyramid wants the beaver unicorn so bad)...watch the whole thing:
One of the best things about the computer is that when you remember a song, a video, quote, salient message board thread (neeeeerd) all you have to do is boop boop boop boop on the keyboard and it's in front of you. They say that Pornography fueled the internet's rise, but googling "reverse cowgirl stance 2 chix 1 zebra" isn't going to help you find that scene from Stripe For The Picking 4.
However, I did today google "Log Rider" and found this video. I remembered that there was such a thing, that it was this good and seconds later it was playing.
It's cloudy as all outdoors, outside today. I'm enjoying this new Lee Perry and feeling that no matter how crazy things get in this world, the future's looking good. Interesting always wins, especially when all the meanings of funny are in there too. Like a new Lee Perry Album. Here's a sample of the hallowed science:
There's lots of new jams on it, actual super-produced by a champion of music production, but I'm feeling Saint Selassie, call me a traditionalist, hey...call me old fashioned.
The Canadian election has come and gone. A victory for Harper and the Conservatives, as expected. A non-majority, as expected.
It was an election with what is predicted to be a record low voter turn out. That just seems crazy to me, with the world in a tailspin, long trusted systems crumbling, everything but currency is in a state of potential flux, and we have a record low number of people willing to exercize their franchise. I hate to think that the number of people who "party" on Canada Day exceeds the number who "vote" on election day.
I thought we knew that in parliamentary politics, a victory for the other team can still be a win for you. They teach this in schools. It's dumb and lame and predictable that although Stephen Harper is complained about verbally more than any Prime Minister I've lived under, people (and we'll get the demographics in the morning) chose not to vote.
Another three million spent, nothing changed. My thoughts turn back to the more interesting American election, but first, some music:
I trade lots of songs with my cousin Bubble, and was waxing the other day about how weird it must be that all kids listen to techno these days. Her focus is soul and rock, which led her to drop this all-time zinger "I go to see these dj's and after about an hour I'm like could you please play something I can sing, these all sound like intros!"
Sounding ancient I said: "when I was in my first year of University, everyone who went away to school came back listening to Ben Harper and shit."
See in the video below, the earnestness from the year 2000 Gore vs W era, it seems so innocent. Not that we know any more now than we did then, but let's just say the world has been coloured by events that would make that stars and stripes earwarmer of Ben Harper's innapropriate (ps, Ben...Harper, if the stage lights don't make winter headgear too hot then you're probably not playing hard enough, I'm sure he read that).
Harper vs Vedder Burn One Down 2000 Live @ MSG:
This is a more accurate representation of what we were listening to, but all my mixtapes are buried in a time capsule, so I'll fill you in on the specific joints (Wu Tang, Mobb Deep, Cypress Hill, De La, Xzibit, you know) in about five years when I get all my tapes back.
Call it pedestrian if you want, but rap gives you drive.
Funny memory. My buddy The Ikester, who used to BLAST the Ben Harper song (in a ritualistic fashion), had a Pathfinder with a decal on the back window that read "Biggie Smalls Is The Illist."
That's enough nostalgia trippin'
It's my birthday tomorrow, I'll be feeling older than the internet, burning things down and I'll lace this space with a dose of old songs and further election grumbling.
For now, here's one for forthcoming harbingers now predictable of doom and glimpses of unquestionable beauty. By a dude named Andrew Bird, who it would've been cool to have in first year. Andrew Bird -Scythian Empire
Here's another song I wish I'd had in the fall of 1999. It goes with the political frustrations, economic madness, chilling autumn, rapidly accelerating sports intensity and heat at the cinema. We dubbed this summer the "Oh Eight, The Summer of Hate", however the love just won't go away. Bizarre. Sheila E and Prince - A Love Bizarre
Here's Shakespeare's Othello, acted out by the best sweet snack on the market, faithfully yet modernized, wild:
Tomorrow: A big talker looks at 27, the election deaded and we move on.
