Loose Ends

I watched Gus Van Zant's Elephant last night before I went to bed. That was a good idea. I woke up in the middle of the night dreaming about a school massacre which eventually left me staring into the reflective sunglasses of one Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy. And in case you didn't know, that ain't good. Yikes. Over the weekend, I watched Breaking The Waves and In America. I've seen Breaking The Waves a few times, so it's lost a bit of its impact. But, In America... Jesus Christ was that heavy. I nearly cried. And I haven't done that in 15 years. I had to watch Office Space, Ocean's Eleven, and American Wedding to try to wipe that darkness out of my mind. I was back into safe, superficial waters until I decided to go for the late night viewing of a school massacre. Tonight, I'm going to try to avoid the heavy films and instead watch a nice depressing report on the state of the freedom of the press in the US on Frontline. I heard an interview with the producer yesterday and the state ain't good. Check it out!

Aside from watching depressing movies this weekend, I finished my WZBC O Six Mix, consisting of songs that I heard on a regular basis on 90.3 WZBC over the past year. Some new stuff, some old stuff which got regular play. The set list:

The Neighborhoods - The Prettiest Girl
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci - Poodle Rockin
Quintron – Places Unknown
Sparks – Metaphors
Stereolab – Interlock
Hot Chip – Over and Over
Greenskeepers – Lotion
Fiery Furnaces – In My Little Thatched Hut
Destroyer - Your Blood
M Ward – Chinese Translation
Camera Obscura – Hey Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken
Nancy DuPree's class (Ghetto Reality) - James Brown
Townes Van Zandt – Waitin Around To Die
Midlake – Roscoe
Band of Horses – Funeral
Nethers – Migratory Birds
TV On The Radio - Staring at the Sun
TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
Wolf Parade – I’ll Believe In Anything


Unfortunately, cd's are only 80 minutes long, so several worthy songs did not make the cut. In fact, 5 seconds may get clipped off the end of one of I'll Believe in Anything, as it is. Bastards. Would it kill them to make a 100 or 120 minutes cd? Missing the cut:

Joanna Newsom – Sawdust and Diamonds
Eric Bachmann – Man O War and Carrboro Woman.
Man Man - Van Helsing Boombox
Mission of Burma – Academy Fight Song and Revolver.
Babybird - I forget which song.
Wire - all their songs.

let me know if you're interested (via comment or email) and I'll burn you a copy. I'm pretty sure you can hear samples of most of these songs on iTunes, myspace or elsewhere on the WWW. The sublimely addictive "James Brown" can by found here.

I've been asked to issue a reminder about the upcoming art show. It's this Thursday, February 15th, from 7 to 11 PM at the Gulu Gulu Cafe in Downtown Lynn, MA. Music starts at 8. Directions can be found here.

And lastly, as a general rule, I don't observe valentines day (more out of circumstance than principle, I suppose), but I thought I would pass on this amusing observation from indexed.blogspot.com:



(and Happy Birthday, KAS)