▼ § ▲ § ▼ § ▲ § INTERESTING & AMUSING STUFF FROM PLANET EARTH ▼ § ▲ § ▼ § ▲ § ▼
Monday, August 23, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
I saw THE EXPENDABLES tonight w/ Ange & Mykey & let me tell you... that was one violent movie! They spent all their budget on big name actors and forgot to hire a screen writer. It seemed like Sylvester was making up everyone's lines on the spot. The bad guy in the end is yelling at Sly and he says "Why did you come after me!? I could have paid you twice as much as they are paying you.... to go fishing!!!" BAHAHAHA I was mildly impressed w/ the way the movie captured an 80's Action movie vibe, but that didn't last long as soon as the huge black dude who only used a tommy-gun-esque shotgun that fired a zillion rounds a minute blew everyone's CGI head off. It was definitely far better than RAMBO 4, which scarred my brain w/ horrible imagery. Anyways, Sylvester is still cool in my book.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
RECORD OF THE WEEK (engineered by Meek!)
"Original Sleevenotes from the 1957 HMV release.
Walking along the streets surrounding New York City’s Broadway – Times Square area late of an evening, strollers often encounter a tall, monk-like figure of ageless quality. The man is blind and he uses a long stave, like a shepherd of Biblical times, to find his way. Though the night might be cold, his feet are usually encased solely in sandals. His body is wrapped in a flowing robe fashioned from rough, brown blankets. His bearded face bears a gentle, haunting look. The man is the world-famous Moondog, poet, philosopher, mendicant, musician extraordinaire.
Moondog is the son of missionary parents and grew up on an Indian reservation in the West. A highly-trained musician, he has an extraordinary knowledge of serious classical music as well as of jazz and ethnic music. He has written provocative symphonic scores and he has penned “pop” melodies. Friends of his will tell you that his blanket garments are filled with cunningly-fashioned pockets very much like cubby-holes and that these pockets bulge with musical scores. His interest in primitive music has drawn him to fashion strange, beautiful instruments of his own designing – whistles and flutes and percussion instruments of unusual timbres. And these, too, fill the pockets of his robe or hang from it by chords, ready for his use in impromptu, street-corner concerts. Inevitably, too, there is his contribution box, an object he once described to a reporter for a New York newspaper as “the only instrument that really keeps me alive.”
Moondog is a modern bard or minstrel, a musician who travels from crowd to crowd making spontaneous music for whatever the listener might care to pay for his entertainment. Usually, his street-corner music is improvised. He listens to the sounds around him – traffic noises, a lonely fog horn bleating wearily from the river. The rumble of a subway train under the street, the sudden drone of an airplane overhead – and these sounds form the basis of the piece he proceeds to create on the spot. His performing gifts are as phenomenal as they are virtuosic and colourful. He uses his hands and feet all at once with his percussion instruments, setting two and three and four rhythms going simultaneously and contrapuntally. He sometimes takes his titles for pieces from the locale – the address on the doorway nearby (2 West 46th Street) – or from the atmosphere (Fog On The Hudson). Almost any night in mid-town New York, as you wander around, you’ll encounter Moondog – and the night around him is filled with startling, spellbinding, imaginative music.
A few years ago, some recordings of a Moondog street-corner concert were made. A tape machine and a microphone were set up right there on the sidewalk and Moondog played away in inspired fashion. You might remember the recordings – they caused quite a stir in jazz circles and many a “serious” musician was attracted to them too. These recordings travelled far – among other places to England. And, there, they attracted the attention of the noted British jazzman, Kenny Graham. Graham was fascinated by what he heard – whole new worlds of rhythm and tonal colourings seemed to open to his mind and ear. It was then that he decided to translate the music of Moondog to the more orthodox instruments you might encounter in a jazz combo of progressive design. Not too Orthodox, however. In both sides of this recording you’ll find such instruments and combinations of instruments as vibraphone, xylophone, marimba, celeste. tubular bells, Egyptian cymbals, flue, oboe, bass clarinet, accordion and “instrumentalizing” voice. The voice belongs to the Ceylonese singer, Yolanda. The result of Graham’s labour is the provocative “Moondog Suite”. Graham’s arrangements of Moondog’s original material are wonderfully idiomatic, excitingly accurate in capturing the spontaneity and vigour that had first attracted him. And the arrangements are performed superbly in this recording by some of Britain’s top instrumentalists.
To complement the unique “Moondog Suite”, Kenny Graham has created a suite of his own, inspired by some of the techniques of Moondog. To his delightfully imaginative composition he has applied the not inappropriate title “Suncat Suite”. Again, here, we enter something of a bright, evocative new world of jazz: one teeming with original instrumental colours and effects, with sharp, new rhythms, and striking, meaningful ideas. “Moondog Suite” and “Suncat Suite” are companion pieces that fit together with exciting perfection. You’ll find them rich, lastingly- entertaining listening.
Kenny Graham
One of Britain’s foremost jazz composers and arrangers; a large red-bearded, soft voiced, strong man with a penchant for spending the greater part of his free time in a loose sweater refusing to conform. Mint example of that rare character, the artist who really does have talent but who genuinely refuses to have any truck with commercialism or to write anything bad just because it pays well. Mercurial temperament which ideally suits almost surrealist life he leads in Soho and elsewhere. Born July 19th –“At eight O’clock on a Saturday morning: the earliest I ever got up,” says Kenny." - trunkrecords.com
"Original Sleevenotes from the 1957 HMV release.
Walking along the streets surrounding New York City’s Broadway – Times Square area late of an evening, strollers often encounter a tall, monk-like figure of ageless quality. The man is blind and he uses a long stave, like a shepherd of Biblical times, to find his way. Though the night might be cold, his feet are usually encased solely in sandals. His body is wrapped in a flowing robe fashioned from rough, brown blankets. His bearded face bears a gentle, haunting look. The man is the world-famous Moondog, poet, philosopher, mendicant, musician extraordinaire.
Moondog is the son of missionary parents and grew up on an Indian reservation in the West. A highly-trained musician, he has an extraordinary knowledge of serious classical music as well as of jazz and ethnic music. He has written provocative symphonic scores and he has penned “pop” melodies. Friends of his will tell you that his blanket garments are filled with cunningly-fashioned pockets very much like cubby-holes and that these pockets bulge with musical scores. His interest in primitive music has drawn him to fashion strange, beautiful instruments of his own designing – whistles and flutes and percussion instruments of unusual timbres. And these, too, fill the pockets of his robe or hang from it by chords, ready for his use in impromptu, street-corner concerts. Inevitably, too, there is his contribution box, an object he once described to a reporter for a New York newspaper as “the only instrument that really keeps me alive.”
Moondog is a modern bard or minstrel, a musician who travels from crowd to crowd making spontaneous music for whatever the listener might care to pay for his entertainment. Usually, his street-corner music is improvised. He listens to the sounds around him – traffic noises, a lonely fog horn bleating wearily from the river. The rumble of a subway train under the street, the sudden drone of an airplane overhead – and these sounds form the basis of the piece he proceeds to create on the spot. His performing gifts are as phenomenal as they are virtuosic and colourful. He uses his hands and feet all at once with his percussion instruments, setting two and three and four rhythms going simultaneously and contrapuntally. He sometimes takes his titles for pieces from the locale – the address on the doorway nearby (2 West 46th Street) – or from the atmosphere (Fog On The Hudson). Almost any night in mid-town New York, as you wander around, you’ll encounter Moondog – and the night around him is filled with startling, spellbinding, imaginative music.
A few years ago, some recordings of a Moondog street-corner concert were made. A tape machine and a microphone were set up right there on the sidewalk and Moondog played away in inspired fashion. You might remember the recordings – they caused quite a stir in jazz circles and many a “serious” musician was attracted to them too. These recordings travelled far – among other places to England. And, there, they attracted the attention of the noted British jazzman, Kenny Graham. Graham was fascinated by what he heard – whole new worlds of rhythm and tonal colourings seemed to open to his mind and ear. It was then that he decided to translate the music of Moondog to the more orthodox instruments you might encounter in a jazz combo of progressive design. Not too Orthodox, however. In both sides of this recording you’ll find such instruments and combinations of instruments as vibraphone, xylophone, marimba, celeste. tubular bells, Egyptian cymbals, flue, oboe, bass clarinet, accordion and “instrumentalizing” voice. The voice belongs to the Ceylonese singer, Yolanda. The result of Graham’s labour is the provocative “Moondog Suite”. Graham’s arrangements of Moondog’s original material are wonderfully idiomatic, excitingly accurate in capturing the spontaneity and vigour that had first attracted him. And the arrangements are performed superbly in this recording by some of Britain’s top instrumentalists.
To complement the unique “Moondog Suite”, Kenny Graham has created a suite of his own, inspired by some of the techniques of Moondog. To his delightfully imaginative composition he has applied the not inappropriate title “Suncat Suite”. Again, here, we enter something of a bright, evocative new world of jazz: one teeming with original instrumental colours and effects, with sharp, new rhythms, and striking, meaningful ideas. “Moondog Suite” and “Suncat Suite” are companion pieces that fit together with exciting perfection. You’ll find them rich, lastingly- entertaining listening.
Kenny Graham
One of Britain’s foremost jazz composers and arrangers; a large red-bearded, soft voiced, strong man with a penchant for spending the greater part of his free time in a loose sweater refusing to conform. Mint example of that rare character, the artist who really does have talent but who genuinely refuses to have any truck with commercialism or to write anything bad just because it pays well. Mercurial temperament which ideally suits almost surrealist life he leads in Soho and elsewhere. Born July 19th –“At eight O’clock on a Saturday morning: the earliest I ever got up,” says Kenny." - trunkrecords.com
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Saturday, August 07, 2010
I saw the only available print of this film, THE 8TH DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER at the OFS last night & it was beautiful. The song in the trailer is NOT in the movie. One of the main actors died during the production of the film, and as a result this is the darkest Kung-Fu film I've ever seen. The guy from Portland who found the reels (and reels for 200 other Shaw Brothers films) in the Shaw Theater, under the stage, in Vancouver BC was there talking about this movie and the process of storing and keeping these & other Kung-Fu, exploitation, & grindhouse movies preserved in a warehouse in Texas. The folks who run the Alamo Draft House in Austin started a non-profit org. to keep these films for any theater that might want to see them.
I also really want to see this other Shaw Brothers film THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING which features the hero Ghostface Killer! They have it on Netflix!
I also really want to see this other Shaw Brothers film THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING which features the hero Ghostface Killer! They have it on Netflix!
Friday, August 06, 2010
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Monday, August 02, 2010
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