Gentlemen Broncos

Oh my God. Please, please, please oh please, please, just please would you watch this video...



I watch this over and over again, day after day, and still, for some reason, find it absolutely hilarious. It is related to the new Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) film Gentlemen Broncos. The movie is just as weird as the cartoon. Please see both.

Art, Cowabunga!

I made a short cartoon. It's about Mondays.

[you can click to make slightly bigger]

Music: Halloween

Lo how the wind did howl and mist lay, about the forested hillside where Fall found itself as night sprung from day. The tones of the season rang eerily around the space, as Halloween crept up along at an alarming rate. Dark and dreary the season had become, no turning back now for Fall would soon be done.

MWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

And so from this amateur poet comes another playlist, a list of some of the eeriest songs I know, older tunes and newer tracks, too. All here for you, before Halloween thankfully. Hope it doesn't frighten you... too much, mwaaahahahahaha.

[where's Vincent Price when you need him?]

Music: Eerie Halloweenie

1. Jonny Greenwood - There Will Be Blood -- off the soundtrack to There Will Be Blood. The man was robbed of an Oscar nomination because of PTA's use of a track off a previous solo work of Greenwood's, and thus that year's best original score never received an award. This thing is haunting and taut, with a touch of humor to its suspense. Just what you want in your horror. Oh yes, there will be blood.

2. Dead Man's Bones - Dead Man's Bones -- off the reduntantly titled debut album, Dead Man's Bones. This album [from actor Ryan Gosling] is half full of immediately catchy tunes, with the other half merely needing a few listens to hit the same mark. It's perfectly timed for the season, it is dark and moody, but the best thing about this track [as well as most of the rest of it] is the fact that it is rumored to have been heavily influenced by Disney's Haunted Mansion experience, which is just amazing. You can hear it here, with the backing vocals, there's a little bit of campiness to it, a lighthearted look at the undead. It makes for a really charming and wonderful tone to the album. It must be all the dancing ghosts and hands popping out of graves.

3. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Red Right Hand -- off of Let Love In. The man is a genius. Screenwriter/Composer/Rock Icon, whatever you want to refer to him as, Nick Cave is pretty much the most badass person you'll find alive today. He always seemed a taboo to me growing up, like I shouldn't be allowed to listen to him. He looked kinda like a vampire, moved about strangely, sang about provocative subjects, and that voice. His voice is probably why I felt like I shouldn't be listening. It sounds dangerous. This track is pretty much the definition of Cave's danger for me. The album on the whole is one of his seminal works, and if you're interested after that, there's a massive catalog to sift through [also check out "Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow"]. Arctic Monkeys are currently covering this song live and have a recorded version of it on itunes, it's pretty good, but ain't nowhere near as scary as this one. Nick Cave scares me.

4. Jennifer Gentle - The Ferryman -- off of The Midnight Room. I once put this up for an old New Ears section. The album at first listen is a little strange, but I saw them perform it live perfectly and it put a whole new spin on it for me. They're an Italian band spearheaded by Marco Fassolo, and one of their main influences is Nino Rota, the Italian maestro behind Fellini's biggest hits [La Dolce Vita anyone? 8 1/2?] You can catch the sound a little bit here, it's whimsical, but at the same time very dark. It reminds me of the ending of Ingrid Bergman's The Seventh Seal when they're all doing the dance of death along the ridge. Great stuff when a song you're listening to in the 2000's reminds you of a Swedish avant garde film from the 50's.

5. Joy Division - Dead Souls -- off of The Best of Joy Division. This is just a pleasure, not quite eerie on the surface except for the title, but when you start to think of the saga of Ian Curtis the song takes on a different vibe. The dead souls that keep calling and eventually get through, ending in suicide. For the longest time I just couldn't get into Joy Division, didn't care for New Order, but about a year and a half ago I saw a doc on the start and end of the band at the AFI Dallas fest and all of a sudden a switch just flipped. I bought Unknown Pleasures the next morning on my drive back to Austin and a new fascination began. God I love music, and I love how different sections of your life change and allow old music to be heard again anew.

6. M83 - Car Chase Terror! -- off of Before The Dawn Heals Us. Probably the scariest song I've ever heard... which is perfect for Halloween. I first heard this about a week before the album was released, I was working for KTCU as a Senior at TCU. As the Modern Rock director for the station it was my duty to check out all the new music that was coming in, sift through all the shit and make playlists for the shifts. So one night I'm home alone, it's cold outside so i cuddle up in bed, put on the ear-muff-style headphones, throw this album on and [light up a joint]... Let's just go over the things not to do when listening to this song:

- Don't listen alone
- Don't listen at night
- Don't listen while under the influence of drugs

This song scared the living daylights out of me. I had to turn the album off as soon as it was over, sitting up in bed and saying outloud, "shit that was terrifying." Literally the scariest song I've ever heard. So enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Music Again

And here we find ourselves again at the head of another playlist I've decided to haphazardly paste together in an effort to showcase taste, something that even when done correctly still comes off more and more as a sort of egotistical flaunt. Then again, I'm probably just being modest and paranoid.

It's funny that I've managed this playlist, because just the other day I found a quote that describes perfectly my state of mind with regards to music. Indulge me if you will:

"Where once was a wide window of musical appreciation, there sits now a shuttered pane of essential favoritism." - Me, 2009

So in an effort to prove myself wrong, I went out of my way to find some new songs that have perked my ear of late. Ironic though, is the fact that two (2) of the artists are certified and have up to around 6 [at least] studio albums to their name. Two (2) also have some serious indie street cred and one (1) is the daughter of a couple pretty/talented people, [I've featured her work here before]. Regardless, here it is...

Music: Leaves Are A Changin'

1. Cale Parks - Breathe In Tact -- off of I don't know what. I know next to nothing about Cale Parks. I downloaded this track somewhere, have no idea where he comes from, no idea where this track originates, no idea what he is up to now. The one thing solid I do know about this song is that it ends a night perfectly. It's 3 am, you're rolling down a wet main street green and red halos light your path near straight as you can, and reflected off the cool asphalt is some other eerie second reality you're pretty sure is beginning to blur into your own. You need to breathe in tact, or keep your breathe intact... whichever applies to your situation.

2. Radiohead - Down Is The New Up -- off of In Rainbows disc 2. When this album came out I didn't give the second bonus disc a real listen, the main album was enough to fill my brain, and the concentrated enjoyment had no room to stretch to another album. Earlier this week this track came across on shuffle and I began my fantastic trip of consumption of this lovely bonus disc. Down Is The New Up became a climb into the foggy beginning of Autumn in Austin. Drizzle and haze, puddled chills. Radiohead will remain my generation's premeire musical group of auteurs.

3. Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM -- from the upcoming album of the same name. For her new album, Charlotte has teamed up with Beck Hanson to create a new set of hauntingly hypnotic tracks for the fall. Her last album, 5:55, was a wonderful little record of nighttime electronics done in collaboration with those suave Frenchies, AIR, and if this new track is any indication, she'll be moving her focus towards hypno-dance. How wonderful it is. Thanks for the help Beck.

4. AIR - You Can Tell It To Everybody -- off the new album Love 2. Pitchfork hates the album, but those that have fallen in love with AIR can't take it as anything less than perfect. The duo of Godin & Dunckel have always been masters of the lovable electro-lounge thing, and here they display it well. I just love that little harp melody's rhythm that starts this track off. I want to relax in a hazy mauve lounge, lit by Chinese lanterns through hookah smoke. There can be leopard skins on the floor, too.

5. The Love Language - Equinox -- off the Paste Music Sampler #52. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only place to find this track, that celebrates the loving reunion of friends/lovers in the fall of whatever year it may be. It is a little repetitive in it's melody, but is entirely comfortable with that. How can one not be, when you've a melody running through your head like the marathon man. These keys just kill my conscious mind, and may very well drive me crazy with catchiness. Please ignore any urge you may have to write The Love Language off right away because of their name, it sounds sappy, but damn it is more pleasurable than anything.

Here's to more frequency in the coming months...

ACL Fest

Went to day one and saw:

The Walkmen: wish I was in this band
Phoenix: currently taking over the world
Thievery Corporation: relaxing electro-fusion
Them Crooked Vultures: meh
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: better at a club
Kings of Leon: need to stop making songs like "Use Somebody"

Can't make it there the rest of the weekend, but that's cool thanks to Hulu:

1985 - 2009

Dear Broken Friend,

I knew you in the days of strapping on proton packs and rolling around in the grass wearing Halloween masks. Enjoying the freedom that only youth could provide, we cavorted about our earliest days with impassioned exuberance for the imagined. We romanticized adventure and played out our endless dreams in the fields of childhood and hoped that one day we might live through to see such impossibilities with our own eyes. A man flying caped through the sky, a dinosaur hidden in the trees, a radioactive spider and a mutated strand of DNA; these were our realities, however fantastic they were.

Living through childhood with you was the most thrilling experience I can now imagine, and only now have I been able to tug at some of those memories I'd thought forgotten. So often did it seem that days of my life, nearly every day in fact, revolved around getting home as quickly as possible so that I may find myself at your front door in an effort to pick up where the previous outing left off. We would start stories for ourselves that lasted for days, unfolding in ridiculously epic fashion, oftentimes ending right where we started in an effort to replay the joy again. In these days that now find worrisome thoughts about the so-called tangibles that make modern adulthood possible, it is easy to lose sight of those things that made those days as joyful as they were. I now know that there will always be a place in my heart for those times and that imagination.

We were brothers, Jonathan, though not in the traditional sense. We shared siblings and parents, possessions and rooms, everything that made up our young lives. You were always there for me, and I was there for you. You had a family that loved and admired you for yourself. You had your mother's laugh and your fathers looks; you had your brothers' attention and admiration, and you had your imagination. That is what I will always remember you for. During the Spring of our lives we dreamt up the greatest childhood anyone could have had through the seasons of youth and I'm now only sad that we'll not be able to dream up an Autumn together as well.

We'll always love you and miss you.

Your friend,

Kyle

End of Summer

Sometimes I think, Thank God for Summer. Everything seems much more relaxed during the few months that call the season their home, there's usually a vacation involved and the sun, oh the glorious sun. This Summer however, the prevailing phrase emblazoned on my frontal lobe has been Damn Summer. At this point, on this last day of the season I feel like it's okay to say, because here in Austin it's been too long and too hot.

Now the beginning of the season was great, don't get me wrong.

One of the more productive things to have come from the Summer of 09 hasn't been been musically related ["popular music" is driving me crazy right now -- lo-fi, wtf?] or creatively driven [about three things really to be proud of]. No, more than anything this Summer's joy has been derived from the resurgence of Summer Reading, and this year I think I've had the most productive stretch of reading since High School. Granted, there've been a few fluffs in there, but for someone that has always had an incredibly difficult time finishing a book, oftentimes starting a whole new one before I'm halfway through the first, this has been fun.

Let's review shall we?

Michael Crichton - Travels -- wonderfully exciting true tales from the only non-fiction book Crichton wrote [to my knowledge]. It starts with his journey through medical school and into his life travelling the world. You can see how his real life experiences provided fodder for his great life's work as a novelist. Incidentally, the only book I didn't finish this summer, but will end the season trying my damnedest.

Jules Verne - The Mysterious Island -- coming off reading of some of Crichton's adventures, I picked up a book I had started a year ago on a family vacation to Oahu. During the first go through, I got about 100 pages in. At this second attempt, all 629 pages went down in a blaze of glory. I felt like I was in 5th grade again reading Verne. The love of adventure and nature and science combined tugs at those strings attached to your heart, the ones in control of youthful exuberance and naive optimism. This novel wouldn't last a day if it had come out in our current decade, which is why it was a joy to read. There's hope for the world in Verne's Universe.

Ok trying to piece these all together is a little harder than I thought. I think we next move onto:

Jean-Dominique Bauby - The Diving Bell and The Butterfly -- what an unbelievably uplifting book, especially when compared to the tragic situation the man had to live through in the short time the book was written. It has stuck with me, this odd idea of feeling completely consciously liberated in your mind, yet trapped in your body. This is "locked in syndrome", and rather than go mad, Bauby wrote a book. You've probably seen the movie, and if you have before reading the book, like me, you'll undoubtedly find it impressing on you even more. After reading this book you'll want to craft your life into the best work of art possible.

Steve Martin - Born Standing Up -- I've always thought of Steve Martin as a total goober. Sure I enjoyed his movies like Three Amigos, and The Jerk, but I enjoyed them as a kid. I had no idea what Martin was ever trying to get at with his humor [ok so Three Amigos might not have the deepest underlying current]. Needless to say, the man is hilarious and he is probably one of the smarter entertainers around. The book chronicles his attempt at StandUp comedy fame, from his childhood in Waco, Tx to his formidable years in LA, jobs at Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm, to his inevitable celebrity. There's really not much more to say than, the book will make you fall in love with Steve Martin's genius [if you aren't already], watch all of his films [if you haven't already, and yes, you can skip most of this decade's work, save Shopgirl], and buy all of his comedy albums [if you haven't already... btw, he's got some of the best punchlines I've ever heard].

I might be missing one in here, but I'm pretty sure from here it's:

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone -- My girlfriend convinced me to start reading this after we'd gone to see Half-Blood Prince in the theaters. I was kind of surprised at my enjoyment of it. I've seen all the films to date and have really loved everything about them so far. The world is one that is easy to find yourself lost in, and that's all you really need. The anglophile in me loves the thought of Britain's popculture seen through the eyes of a wizard, and I won't lie: the scenery of snow in my mind, while lying in bed on a Texas summer night does wonders. So the fluff took over and I blew this out in a few days and moved onto...

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets -- again, not much to be said about these other than, once you finish one, you gotta move on. That said, this was a great one, liked it more than the first, and from all I've heard, they just keep getting better. So, after two books in a matter of 2-3 weeks I had to move on for a bit. Nothing against Harry & Co., but I needed a break from witchcraft for a while, which led me to the start of the summer.

Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park -- ever since picking up Crichton's travelogue there's been a nagging urge to pick up one of his books again and just eat it up. So I did, and for my choice I went with Jurassic Park, a book that my 7th grade teacher is pretty sure I read based on the spotty book report I put together after listening to the abridged book on tape back in Junior High. So I picked it up and finished it a couple days ago, and I must say, I enjoyed it more now than I sort of did then. Funny that I read The Lost World [Crichton's sequel, not Doyle's adventure] in 6th grade and finished it in two days, without reading the first. But I'm glad I did. And now, still enthralled by Crichton's style, I'm headed back to where the summer started, on this last day of summer, to try and get through a few more of his travels before the beginning of Fall.

How was your summer?