"Noah!?" - I Might Be Wrong!

I might be wrong. And it's not very smart to judge a movie without actually sitting down and watching it. But I spend a lot of time sifting through choices, I don't want to see everything, I pride myself on being selective in how I spend my entertainment dollars.

So "Noah!" I think not. I mean, I think Darren Aronofsky is a pretty good director. I liked "The Wrestler," and "Requiem for a Dream," and "The Black Swan," was quite good. But... Noah? Really?

"Okay I need two squirrels, two caterpillars, two skunks, and anyone got a couple of mo-rats? Still have room on the boat!"

And Russell Crowe? Right? He seems like such a spoiled, babied thug... I think I will take a pass...

Is the Internet a Cancer?

Have you speculated about a possible "post-internet" world? Well, David Byrne has, and it's fascinating, provocative, mind-opening. Typical Byrne. He really is an odd bird. Brilliant mind. Always thinking out of the box. 

"Would the world really be a better place without the Internet? Is a complete reset really necessary? For some, the Internet has offered endless moneymaking opportunities, but whether many of the web’s touted benefits end up reaching the majority of people is debatable. More and more, it seems that only a minority are making a fortune off what was extolled as a universally liberating technology.

It’s hard to weigh the worth of the Internet because we can’t even imagine life without it. We’ve internalized it. It’s part of us, which explains why we are exploited so easily online. Is the Internet a cancer killing us little by little or a wonderful cybernetic extension of our brains? Let’s say we wanted to rid ourselves of the cancer. Would the cure be catastrophic or would the liberation be worth it?"

The Manifesto - Wu-Tang's One & Only!

Felix Salmon tells us why the Wu-Tang's new release is "self-defeating," and in the process he gives us a pretty good overview of the music-selling landscape. The Wu Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is being released in a beautiful box in a edition of exactly ONE!

You can check out the box here!  Quite beautiful! A double Wu-Tang album, 31 tracks, recorded over a 6 year period. Truly a work of art. And only one person will be able to purchase it.  Wow. Talk about swimming against the current of the times. 

We live in an all-music, all-the-time, environment. A great time to listen to music, and great time to get your music out in the world. A not so great time for musicians to be paid for their recorded output.

I do love the confounding audacity of this concept. Brilliant, funny, and well, if you think that music, and music-making is a "high art," you can flow with RZA's thought-stream!

"The first ever private album!  The music will only ever have one incarnation. It will not be made available digitally or in any other existing mass format..."

Ideological Wienies!

As Paul Krugman tells it, "Obamacare fails to fail!" Is it really surprising that "the people" need affordable health care and affordable health insurance? Are we really so "brain-washed" to believe that the medical system shouldn't be "socialized?"

We don't need a "free market" medical system, a system of winners and losers. Just like we don't need a "free market" education system where there are winners and losers.

Of course medicine and education should be "socialized." We all benefit from a healthy, well-educated population.  Anyone who tells you differently is just being an ideological wienie.

Like-Minded Souls!

One of the pleasures, maybe the greatest pleasure of being in a band, and playing out, is meeting other like-minded bands who are doing good work that you admire, and finding that they really appreciate your efforts too.  It's probably the greatest honor to be recognized by your "artistic peers."

Especially if you are toiling away in a local scene. Some nights everything is alive and magical, and some nights the rewards are hard and grudging. whitewolfsonicprincess was recently on a bill with Audiobon. It's a true meeting of the minds and creative spirit.  We love what they do, they love what we do, and approaches and results are very different, but somehow completely complimentary.

It's a mutual admiration that inspires and validates. Audiobon sometimes does covers, and their great front-man David Bon has an amazingly powerful voice. He can do justice to songs by Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. I mean he's got a voice that can knock down walls. A unique, inspiring instrument.

Last Saturday our bands shared a bill and Audiobon played this great Stone Roses song, one rarely heard out in the clubs, "I don't have to sell my soul, he's already in me…" And David's vocal just made it soar… breath-taking… I think Ian Brown would have been proud!

The Giving Up!

It is amazing what you can give up, if you are made to give it up. And life, or life's circumstances, sometimes do seem to ask us to give up a lot. More than we can imagine. But then, it's turns out we can do it, we can let go, we can give up many, many things, and maybe the giving up turns out to be easier than we imagined, and the giving up can become a strength. And there are things you thought you absolutely couldn't live without, that you find that of course, you can live without. And it sort of makes you adjust your thoughts and feelings on what life is, and what life isn't. Life -  being alive is such a simple thing, a thing of breathing, a thing of having a heartbeat, having consciousness, being up and about in the world. And we can add or subtract to the list. But the list, the essential list is very small, very concentrated, simple, not cluttered.

Lost My Voice

Bad cold. Sore throat. Lost my voice. I'm a talker, so it's been a challenge to just sit and be quiet. But it's essential that I rest my vocal cords. If I speak, I sound like Tom Waits crossed with Howling Wolf, crossed with Screamin Jay Hawkins, crossed with a box of gravel.  Except, not as expressive.

Yesterday I did say a few words, "yes," "no," "maybe," and then I was able to croak out these two sentences: "I am losing my voice." and "A cappuccino for here." 

Only the bare essentials.

Kim, Caine and Temper!

I love Kim Morgan and her blog Sunset Gun.  I think she is the best writer, writing about movies, and those who make them, and appear in them, anywhere on the globe. Her latest, a tribute to Michael Caine, is really great. And Caine passes on some real wisdom on "anger" and it's display...

"James Clavell was captured in Hong Kong when he was 14 by the Japanese and spent the first part of his life in a Japanese prison camp. He said to me, ‘The way I survived was I became Japanese in mentality. So I knew where they were coming from in their treatment of us and I knew where I should be in everything.’ He said, ‘The one thing that the Japanese never do is they never lose their temper because anger is an emotion that you should never show to strangers because you expose too much of yourself.’ He said, ‘You must never expose yourself like that to strangers.’ And he gave me this long lecture on the Japanese and anger and I have never lost my temper on a set since. I go home and I scream at the kids. (Laughs) But I have never lost my temper on a set since.”

Divergence

The life you live inside your head is not always, or even usually, the life you live in the world. This can be disappointing. It also means there are surprises along the way, happy, and not so happy. You have to kind of slide with it. No sense in fighting it. It's best to find an ease in the whole divergence of realities. It is best to think of life as a gift, a gift you didn't really expect, or ask for, but a gift nonetheless. You have to adjust and endure, and do the best you can, even if you don't really know what's best or what's not best.

Wes Anderson's Delicate Masterpiece!

Wes Anderson's latest movie, is a meticulously made, delicately rendered masterpiece. It's got a "light touch," a touch of grace, a touch of genius. It's a story, within a story, within a story. Visually ravishing. Perfectly realized. Some have accused Anderson of "style over substance," but this is not correct. Yes, there is style, a grand, beautiful, amazing style that takes you to another world, another realm, another way of seeing everything. But there is substance, it's there in every frame. There is wisdom, humor, grace, bounded by death and dark doings. The movie is a delicate beast. Amazing. Love, love, loved it!

The Jury is Out!

Up super-early. Flick the radio on. I guess I just want to test myself. Can I stay optimistic in the face of the relentless onslaught of bad news: environmental disasters, oil spills, nuclear accidents, contaminated fish, cholera epidemics, early death, mass extinctions, drones, killer robots, pissed off populations, murder, insanity, stupidity? I guess the jury is out. Maybe I need another cup of coffee...

A Coldblooded Person with a Thirst for Power & Money? Perfect!

The Ukraine, it's a country, an issue, a situation, in which I am very unqualified to render an opinion. I hope the people work it out…

But I found this article on the "ex-premier" interesting.  Especially this: 

“She would never pretend she was anything but a coldblooded person with a thirst for power and money, and it’s easier to deal with such people…”

That speaks volumes, doesn't it? Everywhere on the globe...

Genetically Modified Food Really is Another Abomination!

Isn't this exactly why we are, or should be against GMOs?   Genetically modified corn, then stupidity, then "mismanagement," and well, presto, we get a "super-predator!" It's all so predictable. And we still blunder into it, and let Monsanto have their way with us. Another example where corporate greed, and the relentless drive for profits, and control, leads us a state of utter stupidity.  We think we are so smart, that we can mess with the ecosystem, but of course, the ecosystem is much smarter than us.  Silly, stupid, oh yeah, and comically tragic too. And not so funny!

Roger Waters: Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions!

Do we want our "rock stars" to weigh in on politics? I guess it depends. Are they a lame, numbskull like Ted Nugent? Or a smart, engaged human being like Roger Waters? They both have a right to speak out, but I'd much rather hear what's on Roger Water's mind.

Roger Waters has waded into some heavy waters.  Is there anything trickier, thornier, and more controversial than the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? If you speak up, and you are not Israeli or Palestinian, you open yourself up to "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," incoming missiles from all sides.

Still it's hard to argue with his very eloquent statement and support for the "BDS" movement. BDS stands for boycott, disinvestment and sanctions - which aims to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. It's kind of the same strategy that worked against apartheid in South Africa. And the situation in Israel and the "occupied territories" is no longer acceptable.

Here is Waters: "Some wrongly portray the boycott movement, which is modeled on the boycotts employed against Apartheid South Africa and used in the U.S. civil rights movement, to be an attack on the Israeli people or even on the Jewish people, as a whole. Nothing could be further from the truth. The movement recognizes universal human rights under the law for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or color."

And this: "I believe that the root of all injustice and oppression has always been the same – the dehumanization of the other. It is the obsession with Us and Them that can lead us, regardless of racial or religious identity, into the abyss.

Let us never forget that oppression begets more oppression, and the tree of fear and bigotry bears only bitter fruit. The end of the occupation of Palestine, should we all manage to secure it, will mean freedom for the occupied and the occupiers and freedom from the bitter taste of all those wasted years and lives. And that will be a great gift to the world."

“Ashes and diamonds

Foe and friend

We were all equal

In the end.”

A Pig of A Dream!

If you are like me, you might tune out on this post, it's about a dream I had last night, and whenever someone tells me about their dreams, I usually tune out, I think to myself, "Yeah, but it was just a dream."

So yes, this was just a dream. I was wrestling with a pig. I was in Italy. The pig was dressed like a General, and for some reason, I thought the pig was Il Duce, Mussolini himself. At least, for sure, it was a very distinguished pig. It was also a very, very large pig; round, heavy, slippery. And it was relentless. It was doing it's best to sit on me. To pin me to the ground. I was grappling around. Frantically trying to escape. The pig found this to be very funny. I was being abused and laughed at by this enormous pig.

After some sloppy wrestling around on the ground I finally escaped. I found some extra strength and just rolled this enormous pig off me, and then I ran like hell. I left that big roly-poly pig in a heap. I think I will choose to think of this as a very positive omen. Why? Why not? It was my dream!

I am Not of that Tribe!

I am so far from that tribe, that green-clad tribe of inebriates.  They use the excuse of St. Patrick's Day to wear green and consume major amounts of alcohol.  They totally impair themselves, get sloppy, fall-down drunk, end up on the linoleum retching and crying. We were in a sea of them yesterday, waves and waves or drunken revelers. It was sort of like an anthropological expedition.  "Oh look at those youngsters, are they really of drinking age? Look at how they do a shot of some horrid brew, and then check their phones, and chatter away like crazed monkeys."

I do remember long ago, I thought that seeking oblivion was somehow cool, an adventure, a required rite of passage. And maybe it was, or maybe it wasn't. Maybe it really was foolish, and a waste of time, and I was damn lucky to emerge with most of my faculties intact. Now that seems like a lifetime ago. I am not that person. Today it's all about clarity, seeing clearly. And there is a certain "high" in the cold, bright light of clarity.  

And there is something sad and disturbing seeing so many fellow humans seriously incapacitate themselves, thinking that it's required or "fun." I am not of that tribe!

A Million Ways to Skin a Cat!

One good thing about living in a city like Chicago, the brutally long cold winter makes you retreat indoors to the warmth. You have to find things to do inside. We've spent the last few months, writing, rehearsing and recording new songs with our band, whitewolfsonicprincess. Not exactly sure why, but we have been in a creative frenzy. Maybe it's because we love our band, love rehearsing with them. We haven't played out much, too cold to be loading and unloading gear in the cold icy night, but the highlight of the winter has been all the good work we've done together.

So far we've laid down 14 new tracks in the studio, and today we are going to record 7 more.  I love the process of recording. I'm fascinated with the process. I love reading books about recording. There are so many ways to do a project.  

I am addicted to the 33 1/3 series of books.  Most of these books take on a great record and get into the nitty gritty details of recording. I've read about Talking Head's "Fear of Music," Patti Smith's "Horses," The Rolling Stone's "Exile on Main Street," Bob Dylan's "Highway 61," Radiohead's "Kid A," Led Zeppelin's "IV," My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless," Neil Young's "Harvest," Velvet Underground's "banana record."

So many myths and cool stories surrounding the work. Turns out there are a million ways to "skin the cat." The process is amazing, and consuming, but ultimately, it really doesn't matter how the work is done, all that matters is the result. I mean the process matters to those doing the work, but ultimately it doesn't matter if it's lo-tech, hi-tech, layered and refined, or live and raw; one microphone in a kitchen session, or multiple mics strategically placed in a high-class studio.  We love these records because they capture a place and time that somehow transcends time and becomes a work that resonates across time.

It's an amazing thing. Art, a branch of magic.

The Unhealthy Meat Market is Killing Us!

Yes, if you eat meat, I dare you to read this column from Nicholas Kristof...  it's pretty unappetizing. No, I guess maybe disgusting would be a better description. Tyson Foods is a major killer of livestock. They slaughter 135,000 cows, 391,000 hogs, and 41 million chickens per week. The whole industrial meat business is so wrong, on so many fronts. Not good for the animals, not good for the planet, not good for the people that eat the dead meat. The animals live and die in horrifying conditions. They are shot up with antibiotics to fatten them up, they breed chickens with breasts so large, they can't even stand up. The waste is a major problem and polluter of the environment. People eat the result of this whole disgusting process. There are other ways of getting nourishment and protein. It's not hard to do. The "unhealthy meat market" really is a scourge on the land. Long live vegetables!

Your Extreme "Not Included-ness!"

"Well, yes, it's a weird phenomena, you can be "so out," so "not included," so not thought about, so ignored and marginalized, that finally there is this weird switch in polarity, and suddenly your "out-ness," your "not included-ness," your extreme marginalization, becomes the cool thing that others seek out. You are so out, you are finally "in" because you have gloried so well, you have practiced and refined your "outness," so definitively, that it is finally elevated to an art. And others are drawn to it, like moths to a flame!"

Neil Young's Quixotic Campaign!

If you've kept up with Neil Young, you know that he has been on a Quixotic campaign against Mp3s. Only in Neil's case when you say "Quixotic," he's not riding a horse, no, he's driving a vintage car that he restored himself, and instead of a lance, he's got a vintage guitar, probably Old Black, in the back seat, waiting to be plugged into an old Fender Deluxe, and instead of battling windmills he's battling crappy sound files!

He invented the Pono sound system  which is basically higher resolution sound files, that provide a "studio quality" sound and special player that can store and play the files.  When I read about Neil's effort in his book, I wondered if it was all a lost cause, but this is a good first step: "Neil Young Reaches $800,000 Pono Music Kickstarter Goal in 1 Day!"

Remarkable.  Maybe Neil is onto something! Hope so!

On Being the Picky Fly!

Yes, when it comes to pop culture, to what's popular, it's hard not to come to the conclusion that there is an inverse relationship between popularity and quality. The more popular - the less quality. You know, that "lowest common denominator" thing. There are exceptions to the rule. But they are rare.

This may sound "elitist" or something. But I think of it as being a "picky fly!"

As a wee lad, I remember seeing the image below in my crumpled copy of National Lampoon Magazine, (a Junk Food Magazine?!) I mean, I think it was this image. It's the same sentiment. And it's been embedded deep in my psyche ever since.

Pop Culture at it's worst is Fast Food Nation. Think Junk Food. Empty calories. And think about it across the consumer spectrum. Junk Food Music, Junk Food Movies, Junk Food Art, Junk Food TV,  Junk Food Food, etc. Think blockbuster! Mega-seller! The Superstar Stuff. We binge on this crap. And our herd mentality takes over. So if we think every last fly thinks it's good, it must be good, right?!

That is what marketing/advertising is all about...

The Tyranny of the 1% in Music Too!

The tyranny of the 1%.  Yes, it's true in the financial world. The big time hedge funders and financial wizards have some how been able to lord it over the rest of us.

It's true in the music world too. The Superstars, the 1%, suck out all the oxygen from the room.  It's unfair, unjust, it is a tyranny.  If you point it out it sounds like "sour grapes." 

Maybe it's the "herd animal" phenomenon.  We all buy the same records, download the same files, listen to the Superstars because everyone else is doing it too. It's easy, lazy, and well, maybe we are afraid of missing out. Maybe we are all just so easily manipulated by a saturation marketing campaign. Maybe we all just don't really know what's good or bad, only what's popular!

But let's not pretend that the Superstars are the best amongst us.  It is so not true!  It's a great time for music, but not if you are only listening to the big stars, the top sellers. Trust me. It's mostly dreck! Some of the worst of the worst. Check out this list of the top 40 records from 2013...

No way is One Direction, Robby Williams, Michael Buble, Katy Perry, etc. the "best" artists making music today. No way, not even close!

To Brain Or Not To Brain!

It turns out that a well-developed (relatively speaking) brain can be a major hinderance. I mean, it helps to have a brain, I mean we need it, but sometimes that big squishy thing in our craniums can get in the way. Sometimes you need to short-circuit it. I mean, sometimes this happens naturally, and sometimes you have to really work at it. Forgetting can be good. Tuning out can be essential. Working from your "heart," or your "gut" can be just the ticket.

It's a Syllable Thing!

Band names.  I should talk. 

I named our band "whitewolfsonicprincess." 

All one word. All lowercase. Some people love it. Some people hate it. Some people refuse to say it.  People ask me how I came up with the name. I'd like to be able to say it came to me in a vision, but really, I have no clue. It just popped into my head. I figured no one else in the world had put those syllables together before, so I figured it would stand out, be easy to find on-line.

I did sort of want to convey a dichotomy - the male/female thing. The animal/royalty thing. We actually came up with an image - a wolf wearing a princess hat that kind of embodied the idea.

But back to syllables. Aye there's the rub.  Do you want your band name to be "sticky?" It's good to try to go with a few syllables as possible.  If you are a solo act think one syllable: Sting, Cher, Pink.

Or famous bands, two syllables - Beatles, The Who, Pink Floyd, U2.

If you get too far out there it can be trouble, think: Red Hot Chili Peppers (6 syllables!), Toxic Airborne Event, Strawberry Alarm Clock.  And people will invariably shorten things for you... Jefferson Airplane becomes The Airplane...

People don't want to think or say too many syllables... even our band ended up talking in short-hand... think wwsp! 

Kim Morgan on "Wolfy" - "No one's gonna forget the movie..."

I have another favorite blog, it's Sunset Gun by Kim Morgan. She is my favorite writer about movies too. I hesitate to call her a "critic." I'm somewhat leery of critics.  Often critics have steered me wrong. Most of them have probably seen way too many movies or listened to too much music, and are way to jaded and cynical to be relied upon.

The best of those who write about movies (or music), are usually the ones who find those little gems that you might have missed, and must see. Or they see the movies or listen to the music that everyone else has seen and heard too, but they give you a new perspective or insight. Kim is one of the best on both counts.

I guess it also helps that her movie "taste and sensibility" seems so in-line with my own. She's smart, and she sees movie-making as an art form that can be important, inspiring, and says something about our human condition.

Her latest post on Scorcese's "Wolf of Wall Street," is pitch perfect!

"DiCaprio balances his character's evil, humor and movie star charisma with a unique sociopathic dimension. Is that possible? Yes, it is. And he makes it look all so effortless. Elizabeth Taylor once said (I believe it was Taylor) something to the effect of, screaming and hollering and playing drunk is easy, walking through a door and saying, "Hello, I'm home" is hard. In the case of DiCaprio, who dynamically drinks and drugs and yells and rages (I get excited watching him and largely because of him, I've seen the movie three times), it's also his quiet act of bitterly drinking a Near Beer that impresses. When DiCaprio answers how sobriety is faring he states it perfectly: "It fuckin' sucks... So boring. I'm gonna kill myself."  - Kim Morgan

"I'm Just an Animal Looking for a Home..." - D.B.

David Byrne - an amazing human being, with an amazing mind. Listen to the music, read his books, or check out his blog...

His latest post on Big Data and the Cyclical Universe is kind of a mind-blower.  The Matrix comes alive.  "I'm just an animal looking for a home..."

"One wonders if when the machines take over, will we truly see an end to science and the birth of a world that is—as the Hindu’s, Maya and many other have described it—an endless eternal loop of history playing itself out and then repeating over and over forever? Everything that happens simply a repetition of something that has happened before." - David Byrne

The Cherry on the Cake!

I am not a big-time worrier. I am more in the Alfred E. Neumann camp - "What, me worry?" Or in the Marty Feldman camp - "What hump?"

But I live with a major league worrier. If I ever bring something up, climate change, war in the middle east, Kim Kardashian's derriere, well, my major league worrier can out-do me, any old time.

If I think we are heading to the wall, my colleague  has us going over the cliff, down thru the valley and into the jaws of hell. It's actually pretty bracing and challenging, and tests my powers of positivity. I love her dearly.

So anyway, do I bring up this topic? A giant 30,000 year old virus revived from the frozen Siberian tundra? It's almost like a John Carpenter movie or something? And it would be just the cherry on the cake don't you think?

Our rapacious greed for every last mineral, or drop of oil, unleashes some ancient scourge… horror movie stuff, bad juju, bad karma! Oh my!

Sunday Afternoon on the Kitchen Floor

Sunday afternoon on the kitchen floor
beyond comatose, zombie-fried
a barely-kicking being

it's been a very long, cold week

listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
singing about Hannah Montana,
Miley Cyrus, and the Higgs-Boson
Nick is such a shameless name-dropper

the floor is colder than my body
means that I'm still alive, right?

a friend sends me a text…
"In Touch Magazine says:
Kim Kardashian butt
won't stop growing."

I think, "yes, that is a problem…"

I text back: "Yikes! Look out Kanye!
Butt-Crack!"

That ends the conversation.
The refrigerator wobbles and sort of titters,
it's always got something to say.

Time clicks along. 
Nick's voice
wraps around me
like a dark cloak.

Yes, it is Crazy!

There's always that crazy person, in the street, shouting, saying anything that comes into their head. We've all become like that crazy person. And we don't need to be in the street, no, we have smartphones, computers, we are always plugged in, with many avenues to carry our thoughts. We can always, always say what's on our minds. Lots of flotsam and jetsam. Lots of babble. Maybe sometimes it would be good to be silent. To not say what's on our minds. To keep the words, the thoughts, to ourselves. But that's not the "flavor" of our culture. No. We speak, we tweet, we rant, we let it all out. Like that crazy person. Maybe it doesn't seem so crazy if everyone is in the street shouting, trying to be heard over all the others, but it is, it's crazy.

KCRW's Apogee Sessions!

I came across KCRW's Apogee Sessions music site when I was looking for a live session with Roseanne Cash. Her latest record is really, really good. She is an excellent lyricist. No cliches. Lots of heart and intelligence. KCRW is one of the great radio stations in the States. They play cool music, always on the lookout for new, emerging and maybe sometimes over-looked artists.

There are superb sessions with other bands/artists too.  I recently watched sessions with Johnny Marr, Jim James, Teddy Thompson, Death Cab for Cutie, Gary Clark Jr. and Queens of the Stone Age. All quite good. All professionally recorded in a nice little room. A perfect introduction to new music.

Usually the band does a set, then there's an awkward interview, then another set. The interviews are pretty cool too. Kind of cringe-inducing, but revealing.  You really get a sense of who these artists are, or at least how they want to present themselves. Highly recommended!

Randomness is a Little Scary!

Yes, and what if all the splendor of the universe is a result of random chance? And what if all creation is the result of a simple algorithm? That's Darwin's Dangerous Idea as explained by Daniel Dennett.

It's a little mind-boggling, and unsettling. We instead like to invent grand narratives and Big Daddies. Randomness is a little scary.

And when you see the beauty of the world, the incredible complexity that can arise from simplicity, it does seem miraculous.  But then think about billions and billions of years. That's a lot of time for random chance to do it's work. And natural selection is sort of an invisible hand.

Darwin, most of us can only take in a little bit of Darwin at a time. But the Darwinian world-view blows all other ideas, cosmologies, etc. out of the water.