Dylan Project

Bob Dylan The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

A few days ago I decided to get deeper into my Dylan collection by focusing on one album per week, listening to it at least once a day. I chose Another Side of Bob Dylan to begin the project, and I'm very much enjoying it, but last night I felt like hearing something else by him so I slapped this one on.
I don't know...I guess I'm finally at a point in my life where I can truly appreciate Dylan, because this album was spellbinding from start to finish (I think 'Corrina Corrina' is the only track that doesn't jibe with me, and it's not bad). Sure, I've heard this album before, but I think I knew back then that I wasn't 'ready' for it yet. I had this strong suspicion that it would be something I would have to come around to at a future point when my head was a little more together.
I guess I'm making progress, because sitting through this album last night was a pure pleasure.
'Masters of War'...the sound of righteous indignation. The vitriol Dylan projects is shocking, even frightening until you consider (and I mean truly contemplate) exactly what it is he's aiming this intense ball of hatred at. A line like 'Even Jesus would never forgive what you do' is severe on the surface, but it makes it's point pretty darned effectively.
There is some sweet guitar work going on in 'Oxford Town' that for some reason I just never latched onto in the past. I marvelled at it last night.
What a panaroma of imagination is 'A Hard Rains a-Gonna Fall'. Those last two lines are sublime...'I'll stand on the water until I start sinking' (an allusion to the apostle Peter who, when he saw Jesus walking on the water and heard Jesus bid him 'come' had the faith to actually stand on the water himself until fear of the storm distracted him from the One who beckoned and he sank) and 'I'll know my song well before I start singing" (read-between-the-lines and it's the same thing as the line in "The Times They Are a-Changin'":"Don't criticize what you can't understand"). Just sitting back and forming a mental picture of the descriptions he calls off is mind blowing. I am fearfully close to the point where I recognize and truly appreciate Dylan as the fountainhead...
If I had the time I could go on and on about this album.
It's no wonder the Beatles took such a shine to young Zimmy.

Adrian Rogers, R.I.P.

Adrian Rogers
Sept 12, 1931-Nov 15, 2005
Rest in Peace

A man who lived his life to the fullest, whose legacy is the positive influence he's had upon millions of people and the lives that were enriched by hearing him preach (and seeing him LIVE out the principles of) the word of God.

Strange and Seedy

WARNING: There is some explicit (and maybe even a tad disturbing) content at this site, but it's so over-the-top weird that I couldn't resist blogging it.
Check out these "Lobbycards"...advertising/promotional tools that were displayed in X-Rated movie theaters to showcase currently playing or upcoming features back in the "good old days" before video and DVD took over.
These are some of the tamer ones, but no less bizarre.

New RS Castaways Avatar

Here's my new RS.com Castaways avatar...

Top Ten Violent Death Scenes

A little bit late for the Halloween deadline, I suppose, but nevertheless I was amused by the YesButNoButYes list of Top Ten Violent Death Scenes.
The inclusion of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer at number 2 completely legitimizes the list, IMO. That was the most disturbing film I've ever seen in my entire life.

Hwangki On The Internet

This from a blog called "oh~~~baby", and I must say there is a certain poetic quality to it...but you decide...

How long do you using a computer?
Most of all, people use a computer to internet.
Internet is given to us many disadvantages.
So now, Let's look at the actual conditions of using internet and various ways of properly solving.
First of all, we behave lacking all sense of responsibility by using internet anonymously.
We cannot know anybody because of using instead of our name.
So we bring out crimes. It can be social problems.
For example , some people spread rumors or other people falsely introduce themselves.
Secondly, internet game-poisoning is led to social problems.
Nowadays watching TV and newspapers, We meet with accidents.
For instance, some people game for days on end. They don't sleep and eat.
Then they unexpectedly will be died. I think they excessively behaved.
Thirdly, among people human nature decreased using internet.
So it can be an unaffectiontely society. The people sue internet all day.
Due to it, they who don't meet their friends stay at home all day long.
Although they directly don't meet friends, they can chat with their friends though internet.
In conclusion internet is a necessity they could not live without.
Therefore, we unconditionally must not exclude using internet, we should prescribe time to use internet.
In future, we should reduce time to use internet, we make an effort to enjoy our hobby by ourself.

Thanks, Hwangki. That's excellent advice.

The Listening Room Goes To Work

A couple of days ago I brought a portable CD player and one of my CD cases to work with me, so that Roy and I could listen to something besides KOMA on the radio.
Here are the albums we listened to, with some commentary that I wrote as each was being played:


Paul McCartney & Wings Band On The Run

This is the best post-Beatles McCartney album, bar none. Paul and Linda's vocal harmonies may not be in the same league as the magical blending of Macca, Lennon & Harrison but they still sound pretty good together and you can really tell they're enjoying themselves.
I like how he has incorporated sections of previous songs into "Picasso's Last Stand", even though I'm not too fond of the song itself. Glad he didn't close with that one...
"Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five", on the other hand, is a brilliant endpiece and I like the way he's tacked the chorus to the opening number, "Band On The Run" to the end.


Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Damn The Torpedoes

This is Petty in his prime, creating the early seventies template for American rock and roll, putting his nasally voice on the line, as definitive and ultimately recognizable as the greats: Jagger, Dylan, Fogerty, Springsteen.
There are some cool guitar bits hidden throughout the record. That Rickenbacker Petty sports sounds sweet but you've got to listen close to hear the essential elements, else they blend so smoothly into the over-all sound that you don't notice them.
The Heartbreakers playing is tight and solid as a rock here, grooving each song in it's own unique way but never losing that modernized-60's folk rock feel.
Roy, my reviewing partner, says of Damn The Torpedoes:
"It's cool, man. I had this on 8-track. My ex-brother-in-law gave me that 8-track. He also gave me Dark Side Of The Moon. I gave him 5 dollars apiece for them."
"So you bought them," I noted, "They weren't 'given' to you."
"I bought 'em. I had money to spend in New Mexico."
"So which did you like better?" I asked. "Dark Side Of The Moon or Damn The Torpedoes?"
"I like 'em both the same."
"But if you HAD to choose?"
"I'm not that way. I don't see one thing as being 'better' than the other. My stepmother didn't raise me that way."
"Okay, but tell me this," I continued, "How would you rate Damn The Torpedoes in relation to Tom Petty's other albums?"
"It's a good album," was Roy's response, "It's much better than his other albums. What do you think?"
So I told him what I thought...
Yeah, it's his best album, I agree. But I don't think there's too big of a quality gap between it and his other records. I wouldn't say it's MUCH better, but it's the one I'd pick if I could only pick one.
Tom Petty definately belongs in the upper-tiers of great American rock music icons, right up there with Springsteen if not Dylan, above lesser voices like Seger and Mellencamp. And yet, even as I acknowledge his right to keep such hallowed company I must also confess that I'm rarely in the mood to listen to his music. Don't know why that is...same thing with Steely Dan. I should remedy that in regards to both Petty & Steely Dan.
Soon, I promise.


The Alan Parsons Project I, Robot

Call me a nerd. Call me a geek. If an appreciation for sci-fi concepts stolen from Isaac Asimov novels and applied to keyboard saturated semi-pretentious prog rock makes one a geek, then I plead guilty as charged.
Truth be told I loved this album as a dysfunctional, escape-dreaming teenager when it first came out, just as I adored Parsons' debut, Tales Of Mystery & Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe. Maybe even a little bit more, but I fell away from the fan-fold with the release of their third album (I think it was called Pyramid) and I clearly remember disliking Eve. In all of Parsons' music since I, Robot the only thing I really like is the song "Time".
The vitriol still flows, however, in "I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You".
The very fact that this song became a major hit is testimony to the crankiness of the human race and the assumption that everyone has someone to detest.
Alan Parsons sure knows how to mix instruments (and their levels) into a compelling sound. He was, after all, the man behind the boards for Pink Floyd's production masterwork Dark Side Of The Moon. If you get a chance, check out his work on Al Stewart's seminal recordings Year Of The Cat and Time Passages.
I relaize that there are legions of rock fans out there who would insist that once you bring into a song a choir the size of the one currently gigging in the Mormon Tabernacle you've more or less neutered that songs eligibility as a "rock" record. And that choir shows up at the window of several tracks on I, Robot...But what else would you expect from a self-professed CONCEPT ALBUM?
I don't worry too much these days about whether or not it's "rock", and I don't guess I cared much back then, either, cuz whatever it is, it sure sounds good through headphones.


Pink Floyd A Saucerful of Secrets

Just the other day I made a comment about how the Allman Brothers' Eat a Peach was an incredible album considering the band had just lost a key member (Duanne Allman). Likewise, A Saucerful of Secrets is a sophomore effort doomed to be remembered as the first "Post-Barrett" Floyd release. But surprisingly it meets the challenge head-on and delivers a batch of fresh psychedelia that's richer and, IMO, even more satisfying than the lighter, more innocent fare on The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.
Back in the early seventies, capitalizing on the massive success of Dark Side Of The Moon Harvest records released both Piper and Saucerful as a double album which they called A Nice Pair. Consequently there was a period of time when I was blissfully unaware that these were two seperate albums...which is kinda strange, seeing as how there really is such a different "feel" between the two...and though I enjoyed the first record in the set (Piper) I always thought the second Saucerful) was the more satisfying listening experience.
I still feel that way.


Steve Miller Band Abracadabra

I'm not typically a big Steve Miller fan but I do remember liking this album quite a bit when it first came out (MTV had played the title song's video to death and I was working in a record store at the time, so I picked it up with my discount). I haven't listened to the thing in YEARS and I suppose I'd forgotten what it was about this particular album that caused it to stand apart, above and beyond Miller's other records.
It is an uneven affair, though, now that I hear it anew. The vocal harmonies on the opening track, "Keeps Me Wondering Why", remind me of what I liked about it. "Something Special" is some of his best songwriting, but then there is fluff like "Give It Up", a ska-fueled exercise in tedium that gets old very quickly (although I gotta admit that the a capella introduction is pretty cool).
There's an earnestness to Steve's voice that matches the clean sound he uses on his guitars which is endearing at times and annoying at others. Examples of both extremes can be found in "Never Say No". His voice fits pretty well in the verses but then loses all momentum in the tacky chorus.
One thing's for sure...Oklahoma sho nuff do love dem some Steve Millah...He makes a yearly stop at the OKC Zoo Amphitheatre every summer and the crowd is always as huge as the pot smoke that hovers over them is thick. A dive bar band in Oklahoma who can't play at least one or two Miller songs will likely not be invited back for a second performance.
Personally, I don't get it. I mean, yeah, the guys a talented guitarist and has a knack for writing infectuous if lightweight hard pop songs...but to go see him EVERY SINGLE YEAR like a lot of Okies do...Nope. Ain't-a gonna do it.


Charlie Patton Founder Of The Delta Blues

I just gotta be in a certain mood to enjoy most blues music, but when it comes to the pioneers, like Patton and Robert Johnson, hey, I can dig that just about anytime.


The Mighty Lemon Drops Laughter

I wish I didn't have to admit this, but the Mighty Lemon Drops brand of late 80's alterna-rock just has not aged very well. Not saying that it doesn't have a few redeeming qualities, but I have to wonder what it was about them that inspired me to buy 3 of their albums "back in the day".
A great band name, that's about all they've got going for them...ahh, but that's a tad harsh. " Heartbreak Thing" is actually pretty good, even if it does sound like something I've heard before in more than one other song.
Maybe it's the singer's distanced almost deadpan delivery that detracts...most of the music is pretty decent, but for some reason these songs don't impress me like I remember they once did. Pedestrian chord progressions so simple a beginner could have written them and hey, howzabout a little emotion in that vocal delivery?
The sad thing is that Laughter is the Lemon Drops album I thought was the best of the three I had. Now I can't bear the thought of listening to the other two.
Believe it or not there were critics who had the audacity to compare the Mighty Lemon Drops to Joy Division. That's like saying "kitsch" and "timeless" have something in common.
I don't think so.

Nude as the News

Not what you think.
Actually, Nude As The News bills itself as "Rock Writing for the Musically Obsessed", so it's right down my alley. In fact, I'm kinda surprised it has taken me so long to get hip to this well done website (or is it a blog? I dunno).
The current front page review is of the most recent Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen albums, bashing both of them as weak offerings in their respective catalogues and pointing out that Young has more experience releasing duds than Springsteen.
And while I think I like Devils & Dust more than this reviewer did, I still have a nagging suspicion that he's right insomuch as it is not an album that meets the standards set by his seminal work (Nebraska, Ghost of Tom Joad, Tunnel of Love just to mention the records done without the E Street Band that outshine his latest). Still, I hope that's not discouraging to the Boss, as I certainly don't think he's even close to reaching a point of irrelevance and even if it's not quite as outstanding as, say, The Rising, it nevertheless is a very satisfying and enjoyable album (even "All The Way Home", which the NATN reviewer heartlessly compared to "an outtake from Human Touch...ouch!).
Alas, I have not heard Neil Young's new album...heck, I've got Neil Young albums in my collection that I've had for a couple of years that I haven't gotten around to listening to. The man is just too darned prolific. It's kinda ironic, I suppose, that the guy who wrote "It's better to burn out than it is to rust" just keeps churning out product year after year, the bulk of which most artists of his stature would have left in the vaults for a post-mortem Anthology celebration ("...oh, I can see why he didn't want to put that out while he was still alive, but now that he's gone it's rather poignant...").
I will keep my eye on Nude As The News, because it looks to be a pretty well-written venture, plus they've got a really good interview with Mark Kozelek in the archives...

Where My Head's At

So I just got off the phone with my brother, who had some very encouraging, complimentary things to say about my poetry/song blog Bipolar Confessional. He was also a bit miffed that I hadn't put anything new up in Nausea & Bliss in the last several days (in case you don't know, Nausea & Bliss is a bizarre photoblog that I maintain as a creative outlet).
All taken care of now...
He mentioned that he and his wife often check out this blog to "see where (my) head is"...
And it made me wonder if the Listening Room, with it's rotating line-up of goofy titles*, is an accurate representation of "where my head is at".
Though I admit that I did not think too long or too hard about it, I came to the conclusion that NO, it is not a very accurate representation of the location of my head in relation to the stimuli I allow into it. But it is a peek into the outer reaches of what I'm into.

*A few of the goofy titles I've used for this blog:

"Frightened By the Ghost of the Heart"
"It's Okay, Mom, That's Only The Sound of My Dying Ego Screaming"
"There Never Was a Horse Like the Tennessee Stud"
For Future Reference... current title of blog, as this post is being typed: "A Heartbreaking Blog of Staggering Ineptitude"


So, where IS my head at these days?

Well, for the last few days I have immersed myself in two albums. I finally picked up Autechre's most recent offering, Untilted, and to say that I am impressed with it would be a slight understatement. It's one of the best things Booth & Brown have done in years. I can't believe I've made myself wait since April to get this thing. Truth be told, I wasn't expecting it to be this good.

The second is the sophomore release from Sun Kil Moon, the enigmatic Tiny Cities (aka Mark Kozelek's Modest Mouse Reconstruction Project). It took me a couple of listens to get past the fact that it's all Modest Mouse covers with no original Kozelek songs, but eventually I settled into it, realizing that I didn't let the fact that What's Next To The Moon was all Bon Scott-era AC/DC songs keep me from adoring that record.
And it is a lovely record. My current favorite tracks are "Neverending Math Equation", "Space Travel Is Boring", "Four Fingered Fisherman", "Grey Ice Water" and "Ocean Breathes Salty". That's almost half the album, and there were a couple that will probably make the list of favorites after I hear it a few more times (likely suspects: "Trucker's Atlas", "Dramamine" & "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes").
Tiny Cities is a bit short, clocking in at a mere 30 minutes and 35 seconds. But as I pointed out to a friend who was concerned about it's brevity, one would not complain that Nick Drake's Pink Moon was anything less than all it needed to be, and it was even shorter than 30 minutes.



I've been utilyzing some time I have on my job by making some recordings on my brother's 4-track recorder. Roy enjoys helping me with it and it's a good way to kill time (seeing as how Roy would just as soon do absolutely nothing).
I haven't gotten anything definitive down just yet, though a couple of songs are promising.
I have, however, completed an experimental thing in which I have multi-tracked myself reading William Blake's Thel to the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar's frilly finger-plucking and a reading of Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" played backwards. It's a strange collage, but oddly affective.
My productivity with these musical projects is severely affected by the discouragement I feel upon realizing that even though I play a decent guitar, my sense of rhythm really sucks.

Speaking of Thel, I have been reading and re-reading that particular poem, enjoying it immensely. On the flip side of that coin is another poem I have delighted in of late, Charles Baudelaire's grim "To The Reader"...
Check it out:

To the Reader
by Charles Baudelaire


Folly, error, sin, avarice
Occupy our minds and labor our bodies,
And we feed our pleasant remorse
As beggars nourish their vermin.


Our sins are obstinate, our repentance is faint;
We exact a high price for our confessions,
And we gaily return to the miry path,
Believing that base tears wash away all our stains.


On the pillow of evil Satan, Trismegist,
Incessantly lulls our enchanted minds,
And the noble metal of our will
Is wholly vaporized by this wise alchemist.


The Devil holds the strings which move us!
In repugnant things we discover charms;
Every day we descend a step further toward Hell,
Without horror, through gloom that stinks.


Like a penniless rake who with kisses and bites
Tortures the breast of an old prostitute,
We steal as we pass by a clandestine pleasure
That we squeeze very hard like a dried up orange.


Serried, swarming, like a million maggots,
A legion of Demons carouses in our brains,
And when we breathe, Death, that unseen river,
Descends into our lungs with muffled wails.


If rape, poison, daggers, arson
Have not yet embroidered with their pleasing designs
The banal canvas of our pitiable lives,
It is because our souls have not enough boldness.


But among the jackals, the panthers, the bitch hounds,
The apes, the scorpions, the vultures, the serpents,
The yelping, howling, growling, crawling monsters,
In the filthy menagerie of our vices,


There is one more ugly, more wicked, more filthy!
Although he makes neither great gestures nor great cries,
He would willingly make of the earth a shambles
And, in a yawn, swallow the world;


He is Ennui! — His eye watery as though with tears,
He dreams of scaffolds as he smokes his hookah pipe.
You know him reader, that refined monster,
— Hypocritish reader, — my fellow, — my brother!


This is actually a different translation than the one I've been digging into, but it looks to be a good one.

So that's more or less where my head is at these past few days. I've been tired. I've eaten a lot of chili (oh, God, you can't believe how much I love Frito chili pie)...I bought a couple of Little Ceaser's pizzas for Roy and I (he asked for deep dish jalapeno and I got the regular pepperoni).
Speaking of jalapenos, I have developed a real taste for spicy, hot foods. I have always tolerated fairly hot vittles, but I'm getting to where I like it when my tongue starts burning, knowing that it will pass. My wife tells me that peppers and other very hot foods act as a stress-reliever, because the body can experience what should be a stressful stimuli (pain from the heat) all the while knowing that no harm will come and that it will pass. Somehow this translates into a reduction of stress. So it's probably a good thing that I've been eating so many peppers, seeing as how there are times when working with Roy becomes stressful.

And speaking of Roy, I had a few extra "Roy-isms" that I hadn't posted, and this is as good a place as any...

~~~"I hope we get bowling ball-sized hail."

~~~"I'm playing my Iranian trumpet."

~~~"I wanna chase people with a chainsaw on Halloween."

~~~"I'm gonna pass gas in the Synagogue."

~~~"I'm eatin' bugs."

~~~"CHOCOLATE BRICK!"

~~~"I'm gonna make my bed in a chocolate cake."

~~~"I DON'T GET PAID FOR THIS!"

That last one is just so funny...it's what he says every time I ask him to do something that he doesn't really want to do (and that would include just about everything). He winds up doing what he's asked, but he moans and complains, "Ahhh, I don't get paid for this shit", with the volume of his voice rising to a crescendo by the time the last word is out of his mouth.
I can envision this becoming a nationwide catch phrase, with people everywhere bemoaning, "I don't get paid for this"...sort of the modern day equivalent of Freddie Prinze's old line, "Eez Not My Chob!"
Roy's eyesight is faulty, and I often wonder just how blind he is. He misplaced a pack of cigarettes the other day and thought he'd lost them. More precisely, he thought someone had stolen them from him, and he bellowed, "Some crack head done pimped me!"
I found this to be absolutely hilarious, just as I find amusing much of the time that Roy and I spend together. I mean, it can get tedious at times, but for the most part it's pretty cool to get paid just for being a friend to a guy who is as entertaining, unusual and interesting as Roy.
I'm thinking of starting a regular feature here in which Roy and I will listen to selected CDs from my vast collection and will do a Siskel and Ebert number on 'em. I really think that his insights will make for enjoyable reading, along with my own well-established views. Look for it in the near future, transcribed directly from the master tapes.
But DON'T wait for the Fellowship Students interview I teased you with a few days ago. Not that the guys renigged, but I never got around to sending the questionairres out to them (that was how the interview was to be done, by their answering memes & pre-written questions via e-mail...okay, okay, so it's a lame idea...I didn't do it, are you happy now?)...

Let's see...where else has my head been?
Reading Esquire magazine from cover-to-cover. Subscribed to it a couple of months ago.
My son Bryan, who will be 11 next month, decided he was too old to go trick-or-treating on Halloween last year, but he still enjoys dressing up and handing candy to the kids. Here he is, shrouded by darkness in his Phantom of the Opera get-up.
Amazing kid, my son. He is currently obsessed with Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, having seen the DVD more than once and since I gave him a copy of the soundtrack on cassette. He shuts himself up in his room and sings along...I'm sure he puts on full-scale productions of the musical in there with himself in the leading role.
His other musical fixations at the moment are the Beatles (he now has all their albums on CD and can sing along to practically every one of their songs) and They Might Be Giants (quickly absorbing their 2 CD "Best of" collection, Dial-a-Song). Other than that he still listens to the classical station every night as he goes to bed.
I'm glad he's into music to the extent that he is. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but you know how kids are these days, with so many leisure activities bidding for time. He loves his Playstation 2 (Sly Cooper is his favorite game) and he enjoys his DVD collection (all 3 Harry Potter movies and a whole lot more), but thankfully he has given music a prominent place in his tally of interests.

And now I need to shut this computer down and pick up where I left off doing whatever it was I was doing when I decided that getting on the computer and blogging was more important...

Wow! I'm Apocalypse Now!

Hey! I'm kinda proud of this!

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com