I Can Tell That We Are Going to be Friends

There is a God!

Dude! THE PIXIES ARE GOING TO MAKE A NEW ALBUM!

Spank Rock!

So I didn't even catch the name of the opening band at the Beck show, but apparently they're called Spank Rock. In my rush to get to class on time, I think I might have accidentally called them awful, but really that was just a function of the terrible sound quality and such; I could see how they'd be really fun. In any case, the point of this entry is that I had some cool pictures from that portion of the concert, and I've been lazy about putting them up. So here they are.


(click the pictures for bigger versions...)

Six word stories. Some are good.

WIRED has a really cool feature in this month's issue. They asked science-ficiton, fantasy, and horror writers from a variety of fields to write short stories... REALLY short stories. I'm talking six words. Some of them are really cool; some are sort of eh. It's an interesting read regardless. My personal favorite is Alan Moore's. It reads:

"Machine. Unexpectedly, I'd invented a time"

Genius.

Feel free to write your own in the comments.

It's a Beckstravaganza!

Okay, I've lost this entry twice... but third time's a charm, right?



So I went to the Theater at Madison Square Garden this past wednesday to see Beck. For those of you who haven't read my archives yet (you really have no excuse since there are only about ten entries), I'm a big Beck fan and he did not disappoint. Beck's music always shows a flair for the dramatic and unexpected; it's full of subtle (or not-so-subtle) absurdity and a wry sense of humor. I'm happy to say all of these qualities are only accentuated in his live show.

It all began with puppets. Yes, puppets. The center of the stage behind Beck's microphone was dominated by a minature recreation of the stage in its entirety, including a minature recreation of the miniature recreation of the stage. Reason number 285 to love Beck: his live shows feature recursion. In any case, the show began with a puppet version of the band rocking out to Loser. A couple of cameramen filmed the puppets, projecting closeups onto the sort of screen that usually shows closeups of, y'know, the actual band. As the first chorus kicked in, Beck and his band entered, dressed exactly like the puppets, and, without missing a beat, took the song over starting with the second verse. Needless to say, it was a really badass moment. The cameramen didn't start filming the band, though, and for the rest of the show (with one exception that I'll get to later), continued to show the puppets up on the screen. The puppeteers even switched the puppet band's instruments to reflect what the real band was playing as they played the set.

And man, what a killer set. Beck drew heavily from Odelay, Sea Change, Guero, and (GASP!) The Information. I would have liked a little bit more from Midnite Vultures, but I can't really complain. Specifically, the show gave me a new appreciation for a lot of the songs from Sea Change. They worked really well in conjunction with his new songs since The Information's mood is similar to Sea Change's in spite of the faster and rockier/hip-hoppier songs. There was one song I was surprised they didn't play, namely Cellphone's Dead. It's the new single, and the Michel Gondry-helmed video'd just come out that day. I thought it was a sure thing. Oh well. One nifty part of the set was when one of the puppets left the puppet-stage with a handheld camera (Yes, the puppet had a camera!) and filmed the actual band.


Towards the end of the show, after a very chill version of Tropicalia, the band exited the stage, leaving Beck alone with an acoustic guitar. He asked the audience for requests, but seemingly ignored their cries of "Nobody's Fault!" and "Nicotine and Gravy!" (though how he could have played that one acoustic is beyond me) and played a solo version of the Flaming Lips' Do you Realize. As he did so, the stage technicians rolled a dinner table onto the stage, complete with glasses, silverware, and a bowl of fruit. The band proceeded to sit down and eat while Beck played. (So did the puppet band, amusingly.) Beck then started playing The Golden Age, which was pretty cool acoustic, but infinitely cooler when the band began playing the chime and percussion parts with the glasses and silverware. A couple of the guys picked up pieces of fruit from the bowl and revealed that they were actually shakers. All of a sudden, Beck's acoustic show was accompanied by a full band playing with what amounted to found sounds. They played another song at the table, which I didn't know but is apparently called Clap Hands, and on that one even Beck got into it, playing the spoons a bit.

The whole band left the stage after dinner and we were treated to a goofy video of the puppet band visiting various places in New York and trashing their hotel room. It was a mildly entertaining diversion that was really only there to allow Beck time to get into costume for the encore, which was a recreation of the homemade video he made for 1000BPM. Beck came out dressed as a bear and did the raps, while the band danced around hilariously.


A couple other random things:
-Beck had a make-your-own shirt station, playing off the same idea as his make-your-own album cover concept. The shirts were pretty cheap for concert shirts and came out looking really cool. I'll post a picture of mine soon.
-The opening band was really awful, but also really amusing. I took some cool pictures of them, but those are also for a different post.
-If you wanna get a sense of what the stuff I talked about was actually like, here's a video of a different concert, but one where he did pretty much all the same awesome things.

Look it up in the Becktionary as a synonym for awesome

Beck's newest album, The Information, has one of the coolest gimmicks in the history of albums. In case you haven't heard, each copy of the album has a blank album cover and a (somewhat) unique set of stickers, allowing listeners to create their own covers for the CD. It's pretty nifty. It's ironic, though, that he chose to use this idea on this particular album.

Here's the thing : Beck has made a career out of being eclectic, no matter what level you look at. His albums have cycled through all sorts of different personas: Beck the anti-folk blues man, Beck the crazy sampler with two turntables and a microphone, Beck the funky MC in charge of starting the party, Beck the depressed singer-songwriter pining for lost love. But he doesn't stop there, each album shifts styles on a song by song basis. Midnite Vultures moves between funk, dance rock, electronica, slow jams; Sea Change has solo acoustic songs right next to wacky string arrangements. Even Beck's songs frequently feature styles clashing together. The point of these descriptions is to suggest that Beck has always been the sort of artist who let his listeners create their own Beck. Whatever you like, there's at least one Beck song for you, and probably a whole album, not to mention the other songs that might take what you like and turn it into something totally different you didn't even realize you could like.

The Information is not like other Beck albums. Unlike the others, which somehow create cohesion out of an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach, The Information is a coherent album on its own. It can be characterized by deep bass, prominentand generally driving drum beats, dense yet spacey arrangements, and a general dark feel. It sounds great on headphones (and not so great on crappy laptop speakers, at least according to Vespe). Most of the reviews I've read, though, seem to have faulted Beck for this new style or, as many reviewers have framed it, old style. The Spectator's review suggests that "Beck needs to find a niche he hasn’t filled before," and Pitchfork says, "the familiar musical settings are something of a letdown from an artist famous for complete reinvention." To me, this seems like a major case of missing the point. I am a huge Beck fan, and I love the way he frequently tries on new musical costumes as much as anyone, but that's not what really keeps me listening to him. It sounds obvious, but apparently it isn't; what brings me back to Beck time after time is the really good music. And the Information is really good music.

Beck begins with "Elevator Music," a groovy song in the truest sense of the word. In some ways, it's a foreshadowing of things to come. This is an album about killer basslines; I was going to list the songs with awesome bass parts, but I realized it could easily be half the album. (Maybe that's why the album sounds bad on laptop speakers?) But don't worry, this is Beck so there's still enough variety to keep things exciting, whether it's the Rolling Stones piano line in "Strange Apparition", the synthy introversion of "Movie Theme", or the, well, I don't even know how to describe the wackiness that is "1000 BPM". Tying the whole thing together is a set of hooks so offbeat and catchy you'll be singing them for weeks a still won't feel weird about doing it in front of your hipster friends. I'm partial to "Think I'm in Love"s simple refrain of "Think I'm in love but it makes me kind of nervous to say so," but there's something for everyone.

In conclusion, don't be fooled. Beck doesn't need to pick some new genre out of a hat in order to make an album that's smart, intriguing, funny, and simply great album. He doesn't need to be whatever you want him to be in order to make an album that you'll like; he does just fine being himself. If you don't believe me, buy the album and let it speak for itself. At the very least, you'll have some fun with the stickers.

BEST. CONTEST. EVER.

I'm sure at some point in your life you've thought to yourself, "Man, things would be a lot better if [insert fictional character here] were real and held a prominent public office." Well, this is your chance to help the campaign. All you have to do is create poster, put it up, and take a picture. (Note: the previous statement is a slight simplification of the process, please see the link for complete details and also funny examples.) So get on it... the election is only a month away!

And to preempt you (whoever you are): No, John Stewart is NOT a fictional character.

Departed Update (AKA Blogging my Dad's Emails)

This just in...

Apparently Jack Nicholson's character's girlfriend wears an Echo scarf wrapped around her head in the Departed. Go check it out; the scarf looks like this:

Did Scorsese create a modern tragedy (of the Shakespeare variety)?

DISCLAIMER: I'm warning you right now, before I begin. DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE DEPARTED YET. Or do, but I may ruin it for you... and I won't lose any sleep over it.

At some point during The Departed's long and jarring ending, you might think to yourself, "This reminds me of Hamlet." Okay, maybe that was just me, but I think there's something to the Shakespeare comparison. There's no denying that the movie is a tragedy; after all, basically everybody dies. But it's more than that. The movie may be thickly and carefully plotted, but at heart it's still about the characters. There's Matt Damon's Colin Sullivan, a State detective who's secretly working for the bad guys, and Leonardo DiCaprio's Bill Costigan, the up and coming gangster who's secretly a cop. Both of their lives revolve around Frank Costello, the head mobster played by Jack Nicholson. I'm not going into the performances. Everyone's heard about how good they are and everything you've heard is probably true.

If MacBeth and Hamlet were about the dangers of ambition and indecisiveness, respectively, both of The Departed's protagonists share the tragic flaw of hiding their true identies. They do it for a variety of reasons, but the end result is the same for both Costigan and Sullivan. They slowly but surely fall apart under the pressure, and it's no surprise that the movie's climax (well, the first climax) finds them acting their roles when they finally should be revealing their true natures. Costigan tries to prevent Costello from falling into a trap he set while Sullivan leads the raid and ultimately kills Costello, his own father figure. Ironically, it's at this moment in the film that everything seems as if it's going to work out alright.

Of course, it's a tragedy, so everything can't turn out alright, and we get the final act in which everyone gets what he deserves (or worse, as is often the case in these sort of tragedies). One of the things that everyone seemed to want to discuss was the rat at the end of the movie. Some have called it ham-handed and stupid. If it were an obvious metaphor, I'd be annoyed, but it's not like it's Jesus symbolism. It's just Scorsese reinforcing the idea that there are rats everywhere, even in places you wouldn't expect (like a balcony in broad daylight), and that they haven't been exterminated even though everyone's dead. Also, it's a way to get the audience to chuckle after watching four characters get shot in the head in about 10 minutes. Either way, it's not Superman Returns's Jesus symbolism, so I can't really complain.

Since I've kind of lost my tragedy focus (and I'm not sure exactly where I was going with it anyway), I'm going to keep going with my random thoughts. The one thing that I'm not so sure I liked was the soundtrack. Obviously, it's a bunch of great classic rock songs, but it was used very aggresively, with very active mixing. What I mean is, the songs frequently jump from quietly playing in the background of a scene to being the sonic focus of the moment. It's jarring, and presumably intentionally, but I'm not sure if I'm a fan. I guess it gave the movie a rougher, more brutal feel, but still, a little subtlety might have worked just as well.

More stream of consciousness: Some of the people I saw the movie with disliked the ending, saying it felt forced. I think it was earned. The whole movie is a bit unrealistic if you stop to really analyze it, but the movie doesn't really invite you to pick it apart. Even as the story gets increasingly complex and begins relying on a number of coincidences, it does so in such a way that it feels natural which, now that I come to think of it, is another hallmark of the Shakespearean (or even Greek) tragedy. I mean, Oedipus murdering his father randomly? What are the odds of that, right? It still feels organic in a strange sort of way, and you get the same sort of feeling in The Departed. So I say don't worry so much about whether it's actually plausible, because the movie says it is and there's no reason to argue. And check it out, I made it back to classical ideas of tragedy. Better quit while I'm ahead, right?

(More reviews, of Beck and the Killers, primarily, should be coming soon...)

Prohibition, part deux

I can't even tell you how upset the congressional ban on online gambling makes me. It's not because I'm an avid online gambler; I've never played a round of online poker in my life. I just think this new law, tacked on to a homeland security bill, is one more step on the road towards theocracy. I mean, what's so bad about a bit of poker? I guess the bible has a line somewhere that can maybe sorta be interpreted as saying it's bad to gamble, if you're drunk and you squint real hard (though I don't know why you'd be drunk if you think gambling is immoral...)

The most depressing part is that we aren't even heading towards a real theocracy. It's some sort of religious plutocracy. After all, it's not like they banned all forms of gambling. Playing the lottery online will still be very legal under the new bill. So basically, gambling isn't so immoral as long as it's funding our government. Meanwhile, we're losing our basic right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and the pseudo-right is doing whatever they please.

You may be thinking to yourself, "dude, relax... it's just online gambling," and to an extent you're right. I just don't see this bill as limited to gambling. It could easily be television next, or the internet getting banned on the back of some homeland security bill that probably doesn't even make us safer. Who knows? I'm not content to give this stuff up for the tiniest chance of safety, because one day we're going to wake up to find we have less freedoms than the sort of countries we're so busy trying to create democracies in. And then we'll have to ask ourselves whether it was worth it. Except that'll probably be illegal.