Thursday, December 31, 2009

AR: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot


Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

The controversy surrounding the release of Wilco's fourth studio album is well documented (and well documentaried, for that matter). The nutshell version is that Wilco's recording label Reprise records (a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner) didn't find the finished product radio-friendly enough (i.e., their A&R man said, "I don't hear a single") and refused to release it. Wilco paid $50K for the masters and shopped it to other labels, ultimately settling with Nonesuch Records (another subisidiary of AOL Time Warner)*. The album had originally been scheduled for release on Sept. 11, 2001 - making those unrelated album cover twin towers somewhat eerie - but the shenanigans with the record labels put those plans severely on hold (it ended up being officially released early the following year).

* - This is the rumor anyways - many sources say that Reprise acquiesced and let Wilco take the masters with them *for free.* Which means that Wilco recorded the album with Reprise's money, got the masters gratis, and then sold the masters back to another AOL Time Warner sub-label. And given how allegedly concerned with single-success AOL Time Warner / Reprise originally was, this highway robbery committed by Wilco seems a bit wacky - it is true that Reprise's PR was taking a hit for being so money-oriented about ARTISTS (!!!), but to drop Wilco at no charge seems odd. I'm sure Jeff Tweedy is a pain in the ass for labels, but seriously, what the hey ya? Some part of me wonders whether this was a cleverly orchestrated scheme to generate album buzz... but that's crazy, right?

Around that time, though, the tracks got leaked to the internet something fierce - Wilco was already a hipster's darling kind of band, and the mystique surrounding the "not commercial enough album" caught fire in all kinds of file-sharing corners of the tubes. The band didn't want to stake the rep of their album on crappy leaked versions, so they made the album available for streaming at their website. Nowadays, this all probably seems quite tame, but in '01 this legal free music on the internet idea was somewhat new, and the antics surrounding YHF gave the band and the disc serious cash-money cachet. Amazingly enough, the music involved measures up to the mystique; I remember tuning into the band's website in late 2001, and the tunes still grab me as much today as they did then.

The primary thing to note is that Wilco's alt-country trappings are way gone by this point - they still have the twang in their back-pocket (and still carry smokey-whiskey-addled cool associations), but the songwriting and styles have escaped whatever limitations being that sort of genre-band carried. YHF is sprawling and experimental with all kinds of ambient noises, taped samples, and complexities that make even the simplest numbers endlessly fascinating. This is not to say that it's all-out art-rock - the ornamentation, while integral to the songs themselves, still adorns flat-out great rock songs. Sections of this album are bleak and jarring, evoking wind-blown wastelands, but they alternate with endearing pop hooks at seemingly perfect intervals. Dissonance mixed with tear-jerking sentiment mixed with invigorating youthful stomp. Sgt. Pepper's levels of attention have been paid to the mixing, production and instrumentation here, and while the kind of overt attempt to be weird and arty will invariably alienate listeners at times (and different times for different listeners, methinks), the effort and skill that went into dressing these simple melodies into an epic work. That's a pretty lame adjective - "epic" - but that's the sense that pops to mind when I think of YHF: messy grandisoity surrounding a great set of Americana-drenched tunes.

The second thing to note is that Reprise's A&R man needs to get his head checked. "Kamera," "War on War" and "Pot Kettle Black" are all catchy up-tempo numbers that grab quite readily. And "Heavy Metal Drummer" may be the most obvious alt / indie single ever - it's borderline Weezer-esque '70s nostalgia, for pete's sake! (I mean, sure it's laced with weird-ass synth effects over the chorus, but what do you want?). I've never understood the claims that this album "wasn't catchy enough" or whathaveyou; I specifically remember expecting nihilistic indulgent crapitude based on those charges, but "HMD" and others jumped out of my computer speakers the first time through. Gimme a break.

Those aren't even my favorite tunes. "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" is an all-time album opener, starting in a tape-looped, weird-effect swamp and spilling into nonsensical lyrics over a heavenly organ and a stuttering drumbeat (two of my favorite lines: the opening "I am an American aquarium drinker" and "Take off your band-aid 'cause I don't believe in touchdowns" give you an idea of the surrealism at play here). The song is so polyrhythmic and multi-layered that it's near cacophonous. It also features a Moment - one of those snippets of music that makes everything stop - at 2:30 with a sort of circus-y, tumbling trill piano line. And the song devolves into true feedback-laced cacophony for it's final minute - quite nice. Another decided highlight is "I'm the Man Who Loves You" which features two Moments - the opening spasmo guitar line that kills me every time, and an over-the-top horn blare toward the end over the repeated, slightly melodically varied cries of the title. Wilco gets its share of Beatles comparisons, and this song is a great anchor for that sort of talk.

And those two pale big time to the centerpiece of the album, the perfect summertime violin and organ groove "Jesus, etc." Five stars because songs can't get six, every time I hear

Don't cry / You can rely on me honey / You can come by any time you want
I'll be around / You were right about the stars / Each one is a setting sun

I don't know, the room must get smokey/dusty or something. Just an aching, beautiful tune that's fully composed with simple lyrics that just drop into place. The slide guitar and late-night, intimate vibe probably make it the most country song on the disc. It's a sad planet where "Jesus, etc." - title aside - can't be a single.

So there seems to be ample catchiness peppered throughout, but don't doubt that the A&R guy had some good reasons for his "noncommercial!" reactions. The remaining songs on the album are very slow and make no concessions to anything one might expect given the pervasive knack for melody throughout the rest of the disc. A lot of outright dissonance and metal machine music takes place here and there, and menacing thundering closes that feature inexplicable samples of ham radio talk hardly make for a welcoming environment. I happen to love the theater involved, but I don't exactly find it crazy that people might run screaming from this sort of thing. These tracks also have a tendency to seriously take their time - the last twelve-plus minutes of the album are dedicated to this high-art. And if you think the symphonic mayhem that closes Sgt. Pepper's is dissonant / noisy, well, just-you-wait for the explosion at the end of "Reservations*."

* - A song with a close-to-home sentiment for a lot of people, I think: "I've got reservations / About so many things / But not about you."

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot exists in an odd place for me - I love it as an overall experience, taking the extreme highs with the sometimes off-putting experimentation as a messy whole. With other albums, a little bit of unpleasantness wrecks the entire trip, ruins the album, but with this one, the clutter sits nicely. I have to recognize, though, that the clutter is just that in some moments, and on some spins I find myself itching for the skip track button. That's a tell-tale sign that this is a great but not transcendent album, one that I recommend highly but will understand if it doesn't resonate with others quite as much as it does with me.

Status: Recommended
Nyet's Fave: "Jesus, etc."

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Many Faces of WiniFred

Puppy-Dog-Eyed:

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Take Me to Your Leader:

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Presidential:

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Optimistic:

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Questioning What Exactly It Is These Stupid Humans Want:

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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Avatar Reviewed

WARNING! WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

WE WILL TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENS!


WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!



We were sitting in the semi-dark. The setting was Xmas week in suburbia, the mall, thronged with mad human traffic, anxious, hurrying shoppers, then a crowded multiplex theater. We knew better. We were way early and got reasonable seats, semi-new fangled 3-D glasses in hand; and subsequently installed on bridge of nose, we watched Avatar.

We could not help but be disappointed, it was spectacular visually, even breathtaking at times. The special effects were other worldly. The companions that we rolled with, a pair of twelve year-old new cellphone owners, gave it a 10. One said it was only his second movie 10 ever (purportedly), tied with Transformers II. James Cameron and his team scored all the visceral points they possibly could, it was eye-popping. Unfortunately, the plot was simplified and rushed to include time for as many cool visuals as possible. In the end, this emphasis on the spectacular over the subtle compromised and distorted the vision of the entire movie in a manner both poignant and tragic.

The Avatar could have been so much better as two or three movies. The story was barely nascent before it was climaxing. Major characters go undeveloped, like the gritty female pilot who frees the former U.S. Marine now Avatar and his scientists collaborators. She is a linchpin, the one military person on their side. But she is hardly sketched, she has about six lines before performing her crucial, heroic act. There is no basis for understanding why she might free them. Why does she take this action that is ostensibly against her own race, the human race, and in favor of the native population? It ultimately leads to her death in a battle where she sides against the human race and her military cohorts in a battle to the death, her helicopter painted with the Na'vi war paint!?! Huh?

The failures of the plot are all the more frustrating because there was plenty of fascinating material here. This could have easily been a brilliant trilogy with spectacularly mad character development. The main character, Jake Sully, the Marine now Avatar, is underdeveloped, too. There is barely any explanation of his brother's death and its effect on him. There is no time for exploration of his relationship with Sigourney Weaver's scientist. Similarly his relationship with the evil colonel is on fast forward. It felt like Jake Sully was be-bopping back and forth between sides, so fast it was hardly swallowable.

Another underdeveloped relationship is the one between Jake Sully, the Avatar Marine, and the future lead medicine woman. It suffers from the same problem, not enough time invested made it feel oversimplified and contrived. It was a cliched blockbuster love story. Why does she fall for him so fast? She is powerful, a future tribal leader. Her brother, the future chief, thinks the Marine-Avatar is a demon, and indeed he has these crazy passing out spells. Their romance is based on what? It could have been so much more developed, and more nuanced in two or three movies.

On top of these gaping character holes, there was lots of fascinating background they left out or skimmed over rapidly. For instance, they hinted at the whole pyschotropic weirdness of being an Avatar, the going inside another creatures body with one's own mind, but they did not explore it (a 12 Monkeys like opportunity missed). They barely discoursed on the nature of being interconnected with a horse or a flying dinosaur as part of one's own being and seeing, consciousness and senses, as the blue people are able to do. And what about the opportunity to delve into Jake Sully, he is a paraplegic! This was visually addressed only. No of the delicate psychological territory was probed. Even in the movie's visuals his morphing into the Avatar and the joy of regaining his legs is addressed in platitudes rather than the subtleties and complexities such an issue might have deserved. It was a missed opportunity to be sure.

There were other great back stories like Sigourney Weaver's efforts at a school and her understanding of the Gaian botany of the planet that are only mentioned in the barest way. This final one about the interwoven, interconnected botany and zoology of the planet, Pandora, and all the creatures on it becomes the centerpiece of the saddest part of this far too screamingly fast paced story. Violence triumphs.

Because there is no time to explain the Gaian nature of the planet Pandora in full, no effort to consider what it means to be a Na'vi, the story is left with other way out than orgiastic violence. This was tragic on many levels, but most poignantly because of the reaction of the kids in the theater: cheering on gruesome violence.

The Avatar's plot briefly summarized: evil American corporation shows up on unbelievably beautiful and verdant forest planet to mine valuable metals with massive bulldozers. They come backed by helicopter flying Marines. The helicopter and jungle visuals are eerily reminiscent of Vietnam movies. The natives resist. They are reluctant to move out of their ancestral home. Negotiations are given a very limited time to succeed. When they don't, helicopter flying Marines show up and blast the natives, families and all, with rockets, machine guns, and flame throwers out of their ancient tree that doubles as the village. The natives are decimated and flea. The Avatar subsequently returns to his Na'vi body from his human state, captures the most powerful flying dinosaur and returns to rally the Na'vi for war.

As a sidenote: Cameron, et al., offered up one more Hollywood movie cliche that reinforces status quo, in this case the patriarchy. When Sully return to rally the Na'vi for war, the Avatar's mentor, trainer, wife and the future head medicine woman is now reduced to the status of cheerleader and translator, while he the outsider, alien, possible demon, rallies the Na'vi tribes for war.

But, as we have said, the deepest, most disturbing tragedy here is the ultimate triumph of violence. The juxtaposition of National Guard and Air Force commercials playing in the multiplex before the movie started with James Cameron's failure to find a vision other greater violence as a solution was stomach churning in its implications. The Na'vi in their use of bows and arrows, their speech patterns, their face paint and costumes, their apparent enmeshing with nature could not have been more American Indian in their depiction.

It was if the plot said simply, "Well if the Native North American Indians had been a little better armed, the evil (white/European) exploiters would not have been able to drive them off the land. The Na'vi just had to get better weapons, first machine guns for riding on their flying beasts, then a helicopter gunship on their side, only then, they could win. Ahh whoops, unfortunately, the plot twists and this level of weaponry is only enough for a tie. The Marines were still going to be able bomb their most sacred tree. But wait, the planet, Pandora, can still out escalate them, all of the creatures of the planet in the penultimate moment of the movie, are seized by an epic collective moment of violence. All the creatures of the alien world join in the attack on the human Marines, the wild alien dogs, the enormous multi-colored rhinos, the other dinosaur like flying creatures and phantasmagoria. It was nuts and vile.

Even if Cameron, et al., were really going to hypothesize a Gaian planet inspired counterstrike, a storm, an earthquake or a massive electric shock delivered by the tree roots would have made far more sense then the gruesome spasm of violence that concluded the movie. This Hiernonymous Bosch like vision, madness and violence fused, had the young folks in the theater cheering the deaths of American Marines at the hands of the natives the Blue people, the Na'vi, and the grotesque alien beasts.

The message was practically Old Testament in nature, that less than righteous violence is trumped by more righteous violence with the hand of the All-Mighty on its side. Was there no other way out, Mr. Cameron? The natives could only triumph through violence? It did not seem thus to the Clarion Content. It was intertwined with the speed and pace of the movie, plot sublimated to visuals. In two hours and forty minutes could something other than violent escalation have trumped? Maybe not, but in two movies, surely a much better message could have been sent. The planet and its plants could have begun gradually sabotaging the foundations of the Marines base and its walls. The wind disrupting their flights. The rain soddening their days and bogging down their bulldozers. The tale could have been told that something other than greater violence triumphs. In fact, it was well positioned for Gandhi-King non-violent resistance wins moral.

Unfortunately Hollywood's message was, as it is all too often, "He with the biggest stick wins. My violence is more gratuitous then yours, ergo my side wins because my side produces more shock and awe." Back in the real world, Art is not just a mirror for society, for it is all the more multifarious and complex than that. Art is a hall of mirrors, angled in different ways reflecting slices and sections, angles and perspectives depending on where one stands, processing through some four billion human consciousnesses worldwide. That reflection, refraction and interpretation cycle that it is constantly on-going between humans and our Art is going to inevitably distort some of the artist's original message. The audience is not present in his or her head, but Cameron's vision gives little space to capture any positivity out of this movie. For Cameron and his team, greater violence is the answer.

The Clarion Content cannot help but consider the conjuncture between Hollywood and the election of President Barack Obama. Hollywood backed Obama in way that was important, surely fiscally, and perhaps too, in a more content rich manner, a way that influenced his vision and policy. What then about the meshing of Hollywood's visions and Obama's actions? Is it more than coincidental that like Cameron fails to find away out of the Avatar other than hyper-violence? For all the schools, the aid, the visions of Na'vi's peaceful ways and Pandora's Gaian nature escalation of violence is the key to victory. Is it coincidental that Obama similarly for all the lofty rhetoric, aid provisions, road and school building can find no other way out of Afghanistan other than military escalation? How long before the tweens and teens that made Avatar a 200 million dollar movie already make this same connection? Greater violence is the answer.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Compound words



Just a quick follow-up to our post on the University of North Carolina's Davis Library Finals' Week flash mob. How many challenging, modern, compound-or-not words were there in that post?

Flash mob, itself, a compound word, two words or hyphenated? Wikipedia opts for two words in its header, but it can't make up its mind because it then opens its entry with, "A flash mob (or flashmob)..." Merriam-Webster also opts for two words. The definitive source for such a modern term, Urban Dictionary (UD), opts for two words, as well.

However, easily flash mob is dispatched by the authorities, the Clarion Content thinks it is not as clear-cut. The idea of a flash mob is a singular concept, not an adjective modifying mob, as would be the case in "large" mob or "wild" mob.

Other problematic words emerged from this same post, handheld, for example. Mozilla Firefox is confident that handheld is not a compound word, brazenly underlining it. But then again, what does Mozilla know? Well for one thing, it knows how to spell Mozilla. Though, not so generous to potential competitors, it underlines Facebook as if it had never heard of the massive network. Facebook is a proper noun, ergo the choice for two words, hyphen or compound word belongs to the owner of the entity that is the name. In this case they have opted for one word, and Mozilla, along with Microsoft Word, Google Docs and their ilk need to accept it.

But back to handheld, once again Wikipedia waffles. "Hand held" re-directs to the article for "Mobile Device" which in its first sentence uses handheld as a single compound word. Searching Wikipedia for "hand-held" hyphenated yields a disambiguation page where handheld is treated as a compound word in four article titles and a hyphenated word in two titles. Mozilla, of course, accepts the hyphenated word "hand-held" because it is made up of two words it accepts and the hyphen is a signifier to treat them separately. Merriam-Webster in this case is definitive opting for the compound word "handheld" and dating it all the way back to 1923. The Clarion Content cannot fail to agree, "handheld" a singular descriptive state, an adjective, one word.

The final to compound or not word that popped up prominently in the Davis Library Flash Mob piece was "chatroom." Of course, Mozilla Firefox, in its stern, unforgiving manner says it is a mispelling. As noted previously, due to a programming default, it is willing to accept to "chat-room." Merriam-Webster agrees with Mozilla's anti-chatroom stance. It dates the phrase "chat room" to 1986 and says two words, no hyphen. It undermines itself to a certain extent because the Google Ad Sense ad on the page shills for a one word "chatroom" site. Wikipedia prefers two words for chatroom although the article opens with the dual warnings, "This article needs additional citations for verification," and "This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards."

The Clarion Content is inclined to disagree with the fuddy-duddies at Merriam-Webster and the negatistas Mozilla (who think fuddy-duddy isn't a word and have never heard of negatista). Chatroom is a singular concept, a noun referring to a particular meme, a virtual room where one goes online to have chats. Urban Dictionary has no fewer than eleven definitions of "chatroom" all of which treat it as one word. UD also has seven chatroom related phrases defined from "chatroom thug" to "chatroom whore" all of which treat chatroom as a singular phrase. It is certainly still arguable though, even via modern sources, for example, the website www.techfaq.com offers a more reasonable definition for chatroom than any of those on UD, but treats "chat room" as two words.

Ah, these modern words and phrases bring us much fascinating debate. One of our favorite modern linguists, And He Melts noted that, Philip K. Dick in his 1964 novel, The Unteleported Man, produced in the first thirty pages alone a massive treasury trove of hyphenated words ranging from "the impatient ("syn-cof," instead of "synthetic coffee"), [to] the needless ("break-through"), [to] the redundant ("aud-receptors/aud-monitors/data-monitors/data-recorders"), [to] the quaint ("light-years, ""colony-world"), [to] the way-ahead-of-his-time ("UN-egged-on"), and the simply fantastic ("Swiss-made nipple-assist")." We look forward to more of this kind of linguistic fun, thinking, and discussion about the compound words of this modern era. (Which is not to say there are not fun old compound words still to debate.)

Flash Mob decends on Davis Library

A fascinating spectacle that occurred during Finals' Week at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has just come across the Clarion Content's radar. In what is apparently now a one year-old tradition, a flash mob descended on the university's main library, Davis library, during finals week. Their purpose to blow-off stress in a ritual that would have fired Emile Durkheim's imagination. Originally an underground thing, this year it had a public Facebook page. Attendance was estimated at over 3,000 by the Raleigh News and Observer's December 16th print edition. The video below can attest to that number.

The Clarion Content is fascinated by flash mobbing. It has powerful political applications as was first demonstrated at the World Trade Organization's November 1999 meetings in Seattle. Those were the nascent days of cell phone technology. The handheld computer that is the iPhone was a dream of science fiction. Chatrooms were the 90's caveman equivalent of Facebook. The technology available has exponentially multiplied the scale of flash mobbing's potential.

University of North Carolina officials displayed a wide range of reactions as reported by the News and Observer.

UNC Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp said, "You don't know how many people are coming. If they are going to gather like that, how do you stop it?"

Randy Young a spokesman for the UNC campus police said, "We try to weigh in on whether it would be prudent to stop it or whether it would just be better to let it run its course."

Billy Mitchell, the campus fire marshal, said he had not received any complaints and was not concerned.

Check out the video. Remember it is filmed in the lobby of a massive research library that houses nearly than 5.8 million books. Student organizers brought in speakers and positioned them around the second floor railings.


This photo shows the lobby empty.



This video shows the flash mob scene December 14th, 2009.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Beck: The Early Works, Plus Holiday Pics (Take Two)

The following is the song "I've Never Had Any Parents," composed by Beck, year unknown, for the character Monica, the lead role in one of Beck's many musitragicals.

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Lyrics:

I've never had any parents, I probably never will,
They died in a fire when I was two days old,
I've been here ever since.
But there is always hope for the future,
You never know, someone might come,
And love you.
I dream at night of my mother,
She's beautiful, like me,
Her hair is brown and it curls at the sides,
Her eyes are big and tender loving,
No one will ever love me like her.
My father is handsome as anything,
With black hair and soft blues eyes,
He loves to play in the yard with me,
And he never wears polka-dotted ties!
But who in the world would love me like him ...
Yes there is always hope for the future.

While you're trying to digest that, here are some holiday pics from Rachacha for your enjoyment.

Skyping with Meghan/Greg's nephew/nieces:

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Intense breakfast conversation (and new profile pic) - you may be shocked to realize that the pirate-rag on my head above and the neckband in this picture are the EXACT SAME GARMENT!!!:

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The iPFam - and despite all appearances, no, Wrigley is not existing in an alternate dimension inside my chest:

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Joanne, who owns the local movie theater, recently made Zil a star about town by featuring her 30th on the 30th birthday on the marquee. Beck got the royal treatment this weekend (as did some fellow named "Nate"):

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Speaking of Zil, here she is, vastly improving the aesthetic qualities of what would have otherwise been a ho-hum picture! Great to see Zil and Lilly and the rest of the Bishops today for a great brunch by Beck:

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Happy holidays again everybody!

Friday, December 25, 2009

Local Playboy Cybergirl

North Carolina, we have got news for you! The latest playboy Cybergirl is from right here in the Triangle. Stephanie Christine attends the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Tarheels!





Franklin Street look out.

(War is Over)

Happy Xmas from wintry Rachacha, NY, everybody, from a living room featuring not one not two but THREE sleeping iPFam members. Hope everyone's having a glorious holiday; between hanging (and eating chocolate pecan pie) with the extended iPFam, a funtimes four hours spent in the wi-fi-less Cleveland airport, and a great Christmas present-fest that even included a visit from a bold reindeer, we certainly are.

So have a great one. And for your holiday entertainment, here's an abridged classic from David Seadris - ignore the crappy video, but enjoy the story:


Masih beranikah kita bermimpi di negeri ini?

Judul Film : SangPemimpi
Sutradara : Riri Riza
Produser : Mira Lesmana
Produksi : Miles Film dan Mizan Production
Cast : Mathias Muchus, Lukman Sardi, Rieke Dyah Pitaloka, Nugie, Landung Simatupang, Yayu Unru, Jay Wijayanto, Nazril Irham. Serta memperkenalkan Vikri Septiawan (Ikal), Rendy Ahmad (Arai), dan Azwir Fitrianto (Jimbron)


Rasanya masih terbayang di benak ketika setahun yang lalu saya menyaksikan Laskar Pelangi. Ditengah penonton yang antri nonton di hari pertama pemuataran, kami seperti segerombolan rookie yang penasaran akan satu pertanyaan, “akankah Riri Riza mampu menerjemahkan bahasa tulisan menjadi bahasa gambar?”

Jawabannya tentu saja, iya! Laskar Pelangi mungkin film Indonesia terbanyak yang saya saksikan di bioskop. Top score karena saya sampai menyaksikannya 3 kali lewat layar lebar itu. Tidak puas-puasnya saya menikmati suasana alam Belitong, perjalanan Ikal dan kesembilan anggota Laskar Pelangi, suasana haru yang ditawarkan. Semuanya begitu berkesan apalagi ketika itu saya sendiri sedang mengejar mimpi yang bisa dikatakan lumayan mustahil. Mengejar beasiswa ke Amerika.

Sekarang perjalanan Ikal sudah lumayan berubah. Sang Pemimpi merupakan buku kedua dari Tetralogi Laskar Pelangi milik Andrea Hirata. Kali ini kita akan mengikuti perjalanan Ikal dalam menikmati masa remaja, dengan segala pertanyaan-pertanyaan dan hasrat masa muda, serta keinginan untuk meraih mimpi.

“Jangan pernah takut untuk bermimpi. Seluruh dunia akan membantumu memeluk mimpi itu”


Rasanya seperti mendengarkan sebuah kutipan dari buku Sang Alkemis milik Paulo Coelho. Hayatilah impianmu, bekerja keraslah, niscaya mimpi itu akan terwujud. Rasanya saya tidak perlu menjelaskan lagi bagaimana isi dari buku Sang Pemimpi ini. Mungkin ada diantara anda yang lebih khatam duluan melewati saya dalam menyimak dan menikmati buku ini. Tidak perlulah lagi saya menjelaskan siapa itu Pak Mastar, Pak Balia, atau Zakiyah Nurmala. Semua orang sudah tahu, inilah tokoh-tokoh sentral yang membantu Ikal, Arai, dan Jimbron menghayati mimpi mereka.

Petualangan 3 sahabat ini lebih banyak mengambil setting di daerah Manggar, dimana disitulah letak SMA satu-satunya yang ada di daerah itu. Seberapa jauh? Sangat jauh, sehingga ketiga sahabat ini memutuskan untuk tinggal di rumah kontrakan. Kita juga melihat bagaimana Ayah Ikal yang harus bersepeda dan mengenakan baju safari andalan ketika mengambil rapor milik Ikal dan Arai.

Disini kita akan mengikuti pengalaman Ikal dalam menjaga kepercayaan sang ayah dalam menempuh pendidikan, emosi Arai yangselalu ingin membantu dan membahagiakan orang lain, serta Jimbron yang ingin lepas dari masa lalunya. Setiap orang berhak memiliki masa depan masing-masing.

Bagaimana taste Riri Riza dalam menggarap film ini? Apa tanggapan saya ketika selesai menyaksikannya? Speechless. Terharu. Ya, saya mengakuinya. Ada banyak adegan yang membuat saya berkaca-kaca. Kenapa? Rasanya saya melihat adegan kehidupan saya sendiri dalam film itu. Pergulatan batin yang saya rasakan ketika SMA dulu. Hal ini pun ditangkap dengan baik oleh sang sutradara hebat itu. Dia berkata,

“senikmat apapun kita menikmati ruang berAC, sesungguhnya didalam diri kita masih ada jiwa anak kampong yang tersimpan. Jiwa bebas dan pernah juga memiliki mimpi. Sehingga banyak kejadian di buku Laskar Pemimpi seakan menjadi bagian hidup kita juga dulu. Oleh karena itu kita menyukai cerita semacam ini.”


Pemandangan-pemandangan indah Belitong, suasana pelabuhan yang atraktif, serta suasana sekolah yang begitu kental dengan dunia remaja bisa dijabarkan dengan jelas. Tentu saja kita tidak bisa mengharapkan sebuah buku akan diterjemahkan mentah-mentah, bukankah image of theatre setiap orang berbeda-beda?

Mungkin disinilah letak permasalah ketika sebuah buku difilmkan. Saya dulu begitu marah dan menghina ketika Jomblo di filmkan. Tapi menyaksikan Sang Pemimpi, ada ikatan batin dengan masa lalu kemudian terkuak kembali. Bahwa saya pernah menjadi orang seperti Ikal, Arai, dan Jimbron. Pernah merasa terluka, jatuh cinta, sedih, marah disaat yang sama. Image yang ditawarka kru produksi film ini tidak mengecewakan. Adegan-adegan penting bisa terangkum dengan jelas serta emosi yang tersalurkan bisa didapatkan feelnya. Sama seperti ketika membaca bukunya.

Bagaimana dengan akting para pemain? Percayalah bahwa memang Riri Riza dan Mira Lesmana memiliki Sixth Sense dalam mempercayakan sebuah peran. Buktinya ketiga anak Belitong yang memainkan karakter Ikal, Arai, dan Jimbron versi remaja tidak kelihatan bahwa film ini adalah debut akting mereka. Semuanya terlihat professional dan mampu menghayati karakter yang telah ada. Untuk Lukman Sardi, Mathias Muchus, Rieke Diah Pitaloka, atapun Landung Simatupang rasanya tidak usah lagi kita pertanyakan kualitasnya. Mereka adalah raja dan ratu di dunia itu. Bagaimana dengan Nazriel Irham? Hahahaha. Mungkin agak geli ketika pertama kali melihatnya, tapi sekali lagi satu pesan Riri Riza,

“kami berani mengambil resiko dengan tidak memperkenalkan dia sebagai Ariel Peterpan. Karena kami ingin masyarakat menilai dan menyaksikan Ariel sebagai seorang pemain film. Bukan pemain band dengan segala kepopulerannya”

Walaupun jadinya agak susah sih, karena tiap orang sekali lagi sudah punya bayangan siapa yang cocok memainkan Arai dewasa ini.

Satu hal yang berperan penting dalam film ini juga adalah tata musiknya. Ada Aksan dan Titi Sjuman yang bertanggung jawab menghadirkan suasana Melayu kental dan juga Rhoma Irama yang bernyanyi dengan semangatnya. Great! Atmosfer emosinya menjadi begitu terasa.

Catatan terakhir yang mungkin tersisa, setelah menyaksikan film ini kita akan dipaksa kembali menemukan hubungan antara ayah dan anak, perjuangan antar sahabat, serta kerja keras dalam meraih mimpi. Karena saya percaya, semua mimpi orang bisa terwujud. Maka bebaskan, bebaskan hidupmu!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Deadly cocktail



The Clarion Content was greatly saddened to hear about the death of actress Brittany Murphy at a mere 32 years of age. She first came to our notice in Clueless, where she was paired with long time Clarion Content fave, Alicia Silverstone.

Murphy, a stunning beauty, played the ugly duckling wonderfully. She later had more serious and interesting roles like the tragically abused, chicken eating Daisy in "Girl Interrupted" and Eminem's love interest in the biopic, "8 Mile."

There has been mad speculation surrounding the details of her death. She was a tiny person and was reportedly underweight, bordering on anorexic. We have to be honest, that and prescription drugs were first things bandied about the staff office when we heard of her passing.

The Clarion Content has been attempting to sound the alarm bell about the wave of prescription drug addiction that has been sweeping over America. Celebrities, rather than being immune, have been at the forefront, from Rush Limbaugh's arrest with a suitcase full of prescription drugs, to Heath Ledger's tragic death from a drug cocktail of his own mixing, to this week's announcement that Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler was checking into rehab to get off prescription painkillers.

Reports from Fox News indicate Murphy may have been stumbling down the same tragic path. Scads of prescription drugs were found in the bedroom of the home where she suddenly collapsed. Murphy may have been practicing what is known as polypharmacy, the administration of excess prescription medications. The problem was compounded because likely none of the doctors writing the prescriptions had the full picture. Bottles found in her bedroom had prescriptions written for Murphy's mom (who does not live in the home) and Murphy's husband.

The list of drugs is long enough to be horrifying to the casual observer (even one steeped in drug culture): Topamax & Carbamazepine, anti-seizure medications used to treat depression and bipolar disorder; Topamax is also commonly used to treat migraines, benzodiazepines, Klonopin & Ativan usually prescribed for anti-anxiety, Vicoprofen & Hydrocodone which are narcotic painkillers, Propranolol, a beta-blocker used for high blood pressure and heart disease, as well as a performance anxiety drug and for migraines, plus the generic for the antidepressant/anti-anxiety drug Prozac; the antibiotic Biaxin; and methylprednisolone, which is an anti-inflammatory.

Going through anyone's medicine cabinet after their death is likely to reveal some personal information. It is for similar reasons that folks are so concerned about keeping their medical records private. There is no guarantee that these drugs caused Murphy's death or that there were not other factors, including possibly pneumonia or the flu. However, the Clarion Content thinks it is important that the laundry list of drugs is brought before the public eye as a warning. Our bodies are a delicate vessel. We are each only given one. Youth and celebrity both produce a euphoria and depression cycle that for many borders on bi-polar. Over medicating oneself is not the answer.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Buka Semangat Baru

Kalau ada lagu Indonesia yang terus terngiang-ngiang di kepalaku saat ini, maka lagu itu adalah lagu keroyokan milik Ello, Ipank, Berry, dan Lala. “Buka semangat baru”. Inilah contoh sebuah lagu Indonesia yang baik dan benar. Senang rasanya mendengar lagu ini ditengah gempuran pop menye-menye yang menyerang dari segala arah. Entah itu dari televisi atau dari radio.

Saya sendiri menyimak lagu ini beberapa minggu lalu di salah satu acara musik di televisi. Dari musik yang diusung, dari lirik positif yang ditawarkan, yes this is the winner of my playlist. Tapi saya menangkap ada yang aneh dari lagu ini. Tapi apa?

Pertanyaan itu terjawab setelah seorang teman memutar lagu ini di warnetnya berulang kali. Repetisi yang terjadi di telinga dan di kepala akhirnya saling bertautan. Memang ada yang aneh dalam lagu ini! Sampling lagu yang digunakannya terasa familiar. Beat-beat yang walaupun disesuaikan dengan genre masing-masing penyanyi (secara Ello, Ipank, Berry, dan Lala memiliki warna musik yang berbeda) tetap bisa terdeteksi. Saya pernah mendengar sampling lagu ini sebelumnya!

Ternyata benar, dari video klip yang saya saksikan, sebenarnya saya sudah bisa menebak lagu ini milik siapa. Dengan konsep karnaval, konsep sahabat, konsep semangat yang ditawarkan bisa memvisualisaikan tagline baru yang akan dilempar ke pasar oleh Coca Cola, “buka semangat baru”.
Coca cola ternyata ada dibalik ini semua. Dan saya pikir promo ini berhasil. Dengan konsep membuat satu full lagu yang dijadikan soundtrack, iklan ini mempunyai stopping power yang besar dan kita bisa langsung mengasosiasikannya dengan produk Coca Cola. Mengapa iklan ini dikatakan berhasil?

1. Dari sekian banyak list friend saya di Facebook, entah sudah berapa puluh orang yang menuliskan status “buka semangat baru” di wall mereka. Entah percaya atau tidak, tapi anda akan terkejut dengan kekuatan alam bawah sadar. Mungkin saat ini mereka belum mempercayai bahwa itu adalah iklan Coca Cola, tapi besok-besok, ketika mendengarkan lagu ini, di dalam kepala mereka akan langsung terngiang-ngiang, “ini lagu Coca Cola, ah saya jadi ingin minum”

2. Sekarang acara musik di televisi seperti jamur di musim penghujan. Tumbuh di mana-mana. Ini seperti memberikan pupuk tambahan untuk iklan ini meraja lela. Siapa yang akan menolak memutar lagu ini? Apalagi setelah seminggu premiere lagu tersebut, saya sudah mendapati refrain lagu ini yang kemudian disambung oleh iklan Coca Cola. Di televisi dan di radio. Ide yang jenius! Membuat konsep iklan dengan memanfaatkan keadaan yang ada.

3. Sosok Ello, Ipank, Berry, dan Lala bisa mewakili anak muda dan dinamis yang menjadi target pasar terbesar dari Coca Cola. Yah, untuk mereka yang ingin terlihat seperti idola mereka, pasti akan memilih produk ini daripada produk lain.

4. Seorang teman di Jakarta juga berkata promo tagline ini benar jor-joran. Keempat artis ini roadshow dari kantor ke kantor (kebetulan teman saya bekerja di bilangan Sudirman) dan menyanyikan lagu “Buka Semangat Baru”. Setidaknya trik ini cukup berhasil untuk menancapkan lagi di benak orang bahwa lagu itu milik Coca Cola.

5. Dua event besar, Natal dan Tahun Baru. Event apa lagi yang membuat kita membutuhkan semangat baru? Disaat perjalanan selama satu tahun dan kita mungkin marah, kecewa, gembira melihat hasil kerja keras selama satu tahun. Di saat inilah introspeksi biasanya terjadi, dan resolusi untuk tahun depan harus dibuat. Percayalah mereka tidak akan memilih “Baik-Baik Sayang” dari Wali, atau “Lakukan dengan Cinta” milik Mahadewi sebagai soundtrack mereka. Lagu Buka Semangat baru mewakili semangat itu.



Dari buku Marketing In Venus, Hermawan Kertajaya menjelaskan bahwa salah satu hal yang mempengaruhi keberhasilan sebuah iklan adalah taktik. Bagaimana pesan yang dilempar bisa tertangkap dan tidak salah target. Bagaimana dengan iklan ini? Dari sisi contentnya mungkin standar, tapi dari segi context, hal ini berhasil untuk pasar Indonesia. Dengan menyelipkan full lagu itu tadi. Seperti lagu “Online” yang diidentikkan dengan koneksi cepat milik salah satu provider selular. Konteks ini terasa pas karena posisinya bisa nyelip di berbagai acara musik dan image tagline nya menjadi semakin kuat.

Akibatnya? Bahkan potongan lagu-yang-diselipkan-iklan-didalamnya membuat kita harus mendengarnya sampai selesai karena telah jatuh cinta dengan lagu tersebut. Bedanya dengan lagu yang telah popular duluan dan dijadikan tagline iklan, adalah kita sudah bosan dengan lagu tersebut. Sehingga ketika iklannya muncul di televisi, kita bisa saja mengganti saluran televisi atau radio tanpa merasa berdosa. Berbeda dengan ketika orang-orang masih “penasaran” dengan lagu “buka semangat baru”, mendengarkan musiknya pun orang akan terhenti dan mendengarkannya sampai selesai.

Overall, tagline “Buka Semangat Baru” rasanya akan sukses dan salut saya untuk orang dibalik konsep kreatif iklan ini. Setidaknya ada iklan baru yang mempunyai stopping power besar dan bekerja dengan caranya yang unik.

Monday, December 21, 2009

EL-SLUGged, Too

Lost another EL-SLUG Saturday, this time due to a little wind and a lot of fellow handler incompetence. Too bad, too - Garret and Jon Miller showed up, and all they got to see was some inability to work against a zone. Ugh - not exactly the recruiting job we want to be doing. On the plus side, at one point Cole tossed an upwind huck down the right side - I was playing his dump at the time, but I saw that the throw was going to hang up badly. I sprinted 50 yards downfield and got a good read on the disc which was floating out of bounds. Ran to the front corner, laid out out of bounds, caught it and flipped it back over my head before I hit the ground ... straight to EBay for the score. GREATEST! In a reasonably competitive game, no less. That's the fifth (or so, I can't really remember for sure) in-game completed Greatest of my life (To Mike K at Rice down the right sideline at Stanford; to Brett R in New Orleans; to Kate (?) in a BUDA game - lay out the back of the endzone push back, complete with parents and Aaron in attendance, and the one to Paul last spring) plus there have been a bunch in pickup and such. Good times, and a very important skill to work on when you're goofing around on the quad. So at least the scrimmages weren't a total disaster (he said, out five bucks, AGAIN). :)

Good weekend - Sunday disc was fun, too (Minnesota Tom showed up and wowed us; he might be moving to Phoenix this summer, which would be awesome), and was probably the last bit of Ultimate for the year (excluding maybe a pickup game on the 30th; regardless, my toes / feet / ankles / knees / hip / back / shoulder / elbow / wrist / hand / finger can use the rest) (and YES, that is a catalog of currently dinged-to-injured body parts, LOVE IT). Afterwards, Beck and I caught the inept Favre over steak dinners. We ate local for the weekend, going to Asi Es La Vida up the street (under the pretense that it was under new management; it's not, and the food, while still good, is stupid pricey) Saturday night and getting takeout at Slice of Sicily on Friday night. Had an early Christmas present-fest with a package from my parents on Friday night; great gifts! Thanks! Finally caught the "Epitaph" episode of Dollhouse which I've been meaning to do for quite some time now - it's a cool, futuristic outcomes of the Dollhouse storyline, and it gives a nice foreboding flavor punctuation mark on the whole series. Otherwise, just hanging with the S/W/F (and yes, I just realized that) and getting some reading done for school. We're Rachacha-bound later this week, and other than the multi-hour flights, are looking forward to it greatly, dreaming of an un-sandy Christmas as we are.

So, time to read / work / drink some coffee for today. Don't try to stop me.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

AR: Dark Side of the Moon


Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

We appear to be stuck in the upper register lately... DSoTM is an obvious pantheon member and easily one of my favorite albums. PF came to San Antonio on a legendary 1994 weekend; all the cool kids grabbed those Division Bell shirts, but I picked the black and rainbow DSotM cover edition off the rack - 21 years late, but at least I was evincing a modicum of taste. I even pulled the usual dork move and wore the t-shirt the following day to school; this would normally earn me all kinds of that-guy points, except that cool teacher Dee Brady noticed my selection and commented on how great it was that some of the youth today still knew what was what. YEAH (in as far as knowing what is what constitutes being a fan of one of the best-selling albums of all time, I was right there)! So I was in with the 40 year-olds if not with my peers (a path I think well worth taking). Of course I was, because why on earth would you not spend $25 on a chintzy t-shirt that commemorates one of the best albums EVAH? I'll never understand my peers. Or kids these days. Whatever.

I can't remember what initially clued me in to this album - I am sure I had heard of the Wizard of Oz dilly* somewhere, but that was not the driving factor. KZEP played a slew of songs off the album *all the time* - "Money" in particular, but "Us and Them," "Time," "Brain Damage" and even "Great Gig in the Sky" all made regular appearances. I vaguely remember seeing the guitar music for "Money" in a Guitar magazine somewhere along the line, and that may have very well been the final push that got me into the record store to join the multi-millions. I definitely listened to it on headphones on my aforementioned speakerless CD player, and that combined with the fact that my copy was an awkwardly-boxed 20th Anniversary edition (with a large XX and a small iconic prism-light emblem on the cover) clues me in that I must have obtained it in 1993. I may not remember the exact date, but I remember the mall record store where I purchased it at a too expensive but worth it for a legendary album 20 dollars. And I remember the album itself - the anniversary edition (which, incidentally, was too big to fit into any standard-sized CD slot - thanks, Capitol!) included a bunch of slick graphic postcards and a brilliant insert booklet with lyrics. I *pored* over that booklet, I tell you what, any time I was listening to the album in the unofficial mode (i.e., with the lights on). On other occasions, I passed on your typical chemically-induced psychedelic experiences in favor of the easy light orbs available behind my eye-lids. It's a perfect soundtrack for those all-but-the-aural-one sensory deprivation experiences.

* - Just in case you live in Soviet Russia where DSotM and WoO sync you, there is a largely discredited rumor that Dark Side was composed to match up with Wizard. There's all kinds of accompanying mythology - you have to start the music at the third lion's roar to time it right, isn't it weird that "Money" comes on right as it changes to color, the album ends on a heartbeat right as the film zooms in on the Tin Man's chest, etc. It is quite a nifty experience, I'll say - the band entirely denies it, of course, but many scenes, like the one with the wicked witch and Dorothy matched by "black ... and blue" will definitely cause you pause. Check it out if you get a chance; I am sure the internets are rife with links.

It would be easy enough to wax on about the psychedelic majesty of this disc and the utterly serene effect it brings, but that's nowhere near the half of it. Pink Floyd had been experimenting and taking songs into the stratosphere well before 1973, and you could easily argue that Meddle is farther out there in terms of extended space rock. So that uniquely Floydish grandeur and sonic space is not new here. The truly nice thing is the containment - that experimentation has been encapsulated into utterly powerful packages with a variety of styles that flow impossibly into one another. Those packages are split into two sides, each a continuous composition - the first a sort of outline of birth to death, the second a commentary on crass commercialism and various struggles to socially exist / maintain sanity in contemporary society. All songs are, as allmusic describes it, "immaculately produced," and it was no small feat to maintain a cohesive "album sound" given the variety of instrumentation and voices on the disc. It's a downright sheen - sets a benchmark for what I think of as "crystalline sound," and manages to maintain a effortless, leisurely pace despite the tension inherent in the songs. Not to mention the tape loop effects, the incorporation of ambient spoken word, the quadrophonic stereo dynamics that make your head swim in the headphone experience... yeah. And all of this surrounds great songs - cool structures, great lyrics, incendiary soloage, and no dull moments on the disc. None!

So if you take a gander back at my album ratings system, you'll note that Dark Side effectively has it all - great flow / cohesion AND variety, no dips (and a number of high altitude peaks), ridiculous stars stats (four(!) fives, two fours, and three threes), a great opener / closer that starts/ends on the same heartbeat, permitting infinite looping, and a solid dose of mystique taboot. Hell, it even has an iconic cover and a great title (with "moon" referring to lunacy and PF's spaced out tendencies). And it even meets the rock peaked in 1974 requirement (if a little more literally than I meant, and, um, close enough). Call me a populist, as lavishing praise on this album is pretty much an act of playing along with the masses and critics alike, but it just *is* the sort of artistic achievement that makes the majority of albums seem slapped together and uninspired by comparison. So I could end right now, utter the words "desert" and "island" (which are probably losing their effect with this many in a row, oops) and let you know that "Time" is my favorite track. But that would be sacrilege, right? So skip to the bottom if my t-by-t takes bore you.

Dark Side quietly fades into life with a faint, steady heartbeat. "Speak to Me" adds on ambient effects - a watch tick, water drips, an agitated (but very low volume voice) that claims he's "been mad for fucking years, absolutely years, been over the edge for yonks," and a cash register, all of which click in a strange daily life rhythm. A second voice chimes, "I've always been mad," more voices scrum beneath the surface, and a hideous, stereotypical maniacal laugh clicks in, crescendoing as more industrial sounds rattle. A four-time scream explodes in volume to the perfect smooth opening chord of "Breathe," taking us straight from that one minute excursion of psychosis into a wide landscape relief...

"Breathe" is a slow, echoing soundscape, starting the first instrumental section of the album in drenched psychedelia. After the cacophonous opening, the song comes as sweet relief - this is about as laid-back trippy as things get. The lyrics soothe despite their somewhat cynical content: "Breathe, breathe in the air / Don't be afraid to care" before several lines that point out the more limited and Sisyphean aspects of modern life. The song fades perfectly into

"On the Run" - an instrumental fast-paced passage of paranoia and general discomfort. The coolest thing about this tune is the way it was recorded - the main organ line is a riff played on a synthesizer, sped up severely and looped indefinitely. A high hat drum drives the beat, flanged sound effects jump all over the place and airplane / laser-beam fly overs swim around the track as PF abuses the stereo features of the recording. An overhead airport announcement blares airplane departure times, and a voice chimes in somewhere in the middle "Live for today, gone tomorrow, that's me" just before a siren wails overhead. More laughter and a bomb / plane crash to close - a disquieting track to say the least, and its echoing footsteps on marble of the runner "run" right into an army of clicking tocks and the sudden burst of

"Time" - A clock shop's worth of grandfather clock / alarm clock / you-name-it-clocks explode to open this track, and after your nerves slightly recover, the tick-tock-tick-tock electric drumbeat leads to the album's second spaced out area of psychedelic grandeur. The drawn out intro to "Time" is perfect; sparse, despite the myriad things going on - a lead guitar riff, a tinkling organ, a drum solo-ish kind of free-form beat. A song about the limited nature of our existence starts with a jam-out that takes its sweet time. Nice. All of this collides at the 2:30 mark into a down and dirty funked out blast of the awesomes. I lack language for how much I enjoy this track. The opening lyrics are incredible:

"Ticking away, the moments that make up a dull day / Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way / Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown / Waiting for someone for something to show you the waaaaay/ Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain / You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today / And then one day you find ten years have got behind you /No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun."

The first part is over a slinky sick guitar part, and after "waaaay" it goes over a multi-tracked angelic chorus of oohs. Too good - but after "gun," in kicks a roaring, reverbed, chorused, arena-drenching guitar solo of existential bliss. Seriously, a pantheon effort, all the way through to its wind down which segues to the next verse perfectly. I have to put the second verse down, too, because the lines here are classic:

"So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking / Racing around to come up behind you again / The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older / Shorter of breath and one day closer to death/Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time / Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines / Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way / The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say."

Great stuff, if you're into frank acknowledgments of mortality and all. At the tail end of "Time" we get "Breathe Reprise," a minute more of the initial laid-back space track.

"The Great Gig in the Sky" - a lovely piano ballad with slide guitar accents that famously features a rather insane vocal improv performance from Clare Torry. Though a spoken word lyric assures that, "And I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do; I don't mind," the death wail contained herein certainly captures death's fear along with its sweet relief. This is one of the stupider tracks to write about, as its all about the lilting vocal - check it out. "Great Gig" concludes side one on a somber fade out. Side two, natch opens with the cash register rhythm of

"Money" - I refuse to believe that anyone doesn't know this arch sarcastic take on capitalism, hasn't heard it on the radio a billion times and doesn't know that it's signature riff is in 7/4 time. I'll just throw on that its groove, however many times you've heard it, is sublime. And that this 7/4 song has a best-ever saxophone solo in it ... that gives way to a nasty melt-your-face guitar solo over a 4/4 bridge ... that fades into a more subdued but equally nasty guitar solo ... that fades back up to the face-melter from before! Incredible sequence! The pyro fallout still smolders as the song kicks back into its 7/4 riff gear to close with a final verse. It's amazing that despite the overplay this song has gotten on the FM dial, it still manages to slay me. It ends with some spoken word over the fading riff into the church organ sound of

"Us and Them" is a very, very slow number accented by a saccharine, late night saxophone howl. It features a rather over-the-top chorus with lyrics lamenting war - the whole song is sort of a lament of arbitrary differentiation of opposites. There's an extended instrumental section from about 4:40 to 6:00 (this is the longest track on the disc at 7:41, btw). It's a poignant tune - and again, achieves a magnificent, serene effect. It also has the astounding feature of the last notes segueing into

"Any Colour You'd Like" - a mid tempo instrumental number with layered, swirling, and echoing-in-round synthesizers, syncopated rhythms, a funk bassline ... and a divine breakdown at the 1:20 mark. Two guitars go into a deft interplay that evokes image of the funkiest call and response dance I can imagine. This song is a five-star killer all the way through - its 3:26 was clearly born of a jam session, but wow did they hit it. And they even wind the jam down so that it snuggles against

"Brain Damage" - A simple guitar riff song that reminds me a whole lot of the opening notes of "Wild Honey Pie" and the general pattern of "Dear Prudence" from the White Album, this is the most overt tribute to Syd Barret (the long-departed and gone-insane member of Pink Floyd). The lyrics are generally about conformist notions of (in)sanity and contain the eponymous "And if the band you're in starts singin' different tunes / I'll see you on the dark side of the moon." Great, trippy number, nicely backed by soulful singers; it often gets paired (and rightly so, because of the seamless transition between the two) with

"Eclipse" - Holy mother of album closers. This is a big, bring-down-the-house sum up of all that has gone before, with full band, pentecostal organ riffs, choir-backing. The lyrics, because they make the tune (with a serious run-on sentence and seemingly arbitrary inclusion of the word "And" throughout):

"All that you touch / And all that you see / And all that you taste / All you feel / And all that you love /And all that you hate / All you distrust / All you save /And all that you give / And all that you deal / And all that you buy, / Beg, borrow or steal / And all you create / And all you destroy/ And all that you do / And all that you say / And all that you eat / And everyone you meet / And all that you slight / And everyone you fight / And all that is now / And all that is gone / And all that's to come / And everything under the sun is in tune / But the sun is eclipsed by the moon."

The album ends with a perfect punctuating final chord and the aforementioned thirty-second heartbeat fade. A parting spoken word shot is delivered, too: "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark." Just a great, great work - it's beautiful regardless, but if you have any penchant for psychedelia and the blues rockers / synthesizer experimentation that pepper this album, you'll have the same harmonious response to this one that I do. And if you get too locked in that ear to ear smile and don't pay attention, your album will loop heartbeats to heartbeats and you'll be back in for another Infinite Jest of a ride.

Pretty obvious that DSotM is the disc that will make it into the desert island suitcase even if I get shipped to a second desert island and have to pare down the original group. Part of it is probably due to my biases for certain types of music, my taste for jams, etc.; I'm not going to argue with others who tend to put this in the 50 range of their top 500 album lists. Shimon and I recently talked about PF and their tendency for sleeve-heart emoting. I'd argue that this album hits the perfect balance - grandiose in scope, dead serious, but so well-crafted as to negate accusations of pointless self-indulgence. Maybe that makes me the perpetual teenage would-be stoner who is fascinated by unsophisticated takes on madness and spacey instrumental passages. That's fine. But for me, Dark Side captures capital-I It and is a full realized work of art that is simultaneously exploratory, contained, crafted and certain-mood-evoking; I'd be yes, insane, to ask anything more.

Status: Desert Island Recommended
Nyet's Fave: "Time"

Addendum: Phish covered this album in its entirety before a small crowd in West Valley City, Utah, on 11.02.1998. This was all the more impressive as they had just covered The Velvet Underground's Loaded just two days before in Las Vegas. So I suppose they had two albums ready for Halloween that year. They segued to it straight out of the narrative section of "Harpua" - I don't need to tag a Phish lesson onto this already ridiculously long review, but they typically play a snippet of some song in the middle of "Harpua" as part of the narrative of what "Jimmy" is listening to on the radio or what have you - and it had to have been one of the more shocking / mind-blowing / OMFGWTFTTMHOORAY! moments for the people in the audience when the band kept playing the entire album. They do an exceedingly serviceable job, obviously lacking saxes, backup singers and tape loops and such, notably putting a particularly wacky spin on "Great Gig" by having Jon Fishman sing the thing falsetto and exuberantly. Solid work, everyone and their phishy moms wishes they could have been there, and this concludes the Phish cover albums series! YAY!

Also worth noting is that DSotM has been covered by a ton of bands, both live and in studio. One notable / popular version is Dub Side of the Moon, a reggae take on the disc. More interesting to me is that The Flaming Lips have announced their intention to release an official album cover of the LP. Wha? There's no predicting those guys, I guess - it should be interesting to see what they do with it, as sometimes they remain faithful to covers ("War Pigs," "Bohemian Rhapsody") and other times they go goofy ("Can't Get You Out of My Head," "Seven Nation Army"). We'll see. Alright, I think that's enough. :)

Friday, December 18, 2009

The 16:00 Mark



This is a video of the men's league final from last night (boring) and some interspersed action from the consolation game in which I found myself (fun times!). Check out the 16:00 mark for a Mutumbo-esque point block (complete with finger wag). Check out 20:10 for one of Cole's trademark wacky throws. Enjoy.

It's Been a Long, Long ... Long Time

Picture 1

That angelic humming you hear? The sweet chorus that fills the ether every time an inbox empties. Note, of course, that the second I showed this to Beck she surreptitiously sent me an e-mail with the subject "hi" and the content "ha!" Let's all remember this when the spousal harassment suit comes up, okay?

Feel a little better about last night, though I am eager to get a chance to right the Ulti-verse*. Fortunately the Elizabeth Lambert** Scrimmage-for-Lunch Ultimate Gauntlet II (EL-SLUG II!) is happening tomorrow morning, so I'll be able to restore balance AND win some free pizza. Huzzah! Looking forward to it. For now, though, it's off to attack Friday with some straight up WORK. Yeah!

* - As Beck would say, "Hilarious Nate is hilarious."

** - Just in case you're unfamiliar:


Resolusi tahun baru kamu apa?

Setidaknya itu yang ada di dalam kepala setiap orang ketika tahun baru datang menyapa. Mencoba mengevaluasi kembali apa yang telah telah terjadi selama satu tahun kebelakang dan harapan-harapan di tahun yang baru. Bagaimana dengan tahun ini?


Satu kata yang rasanya tepat untuk menggambarkan tahun ini adalah menakjubkan! Ada banyak momen-momen penting nan sacral yang telah terjalani. Ada beberapa hal yang besar yang tentu tidak akan pernah terlupakan selama tahun 2009 ini.

1. Wisuda! Kenapa ini menjadi momen penting? Yah, selain factor usia yang sudah tidak muda lagi (hahai!), memang target ini harus dicapai. Setelah wisuda di bulan 12 tahun 2008 harus terlewatkan karena suatu maneuver yang lain.

2. Kerja! Kerja yang dimaksud disini tentu saja di Asta. Harus saya akui ada banyak pelajaran, pengalaman, pendewasaan yang terjalani disini. Walaupun akhirnya jodohnya harus berakhir, tetap ada banyak hal yang telah didapatkan selama 6 bulan bekerja dengan orang-orang hebat.

3. Teman! Tahun lalu, saya masih berada di lingkaran luar di AngingMammiri. Tahun ini? Ada begitu banyak sahabat yang telah menemani disaat duka dan senang. Berbagi bahagia, senang, marah, dan itu semakin mendekatkan satu sama lain. Tahun ini mesti terlalui juga dengan teman-teman di kampus (ya, kalian, anak RUSH!), sahabat yang menemani 4 tahun berkuliah, harus menjalani kehidupan selanjutnya. Bertemu sesekali untuk bertukar kabar dan bertukar cerita. 3 orang punggung tempatku bersandar harus pergi juga meraih mimpinya masing-masing. Satu di Yogya, satu di Jakarta, dan satu di Menado. Setidaknya saya tahu kita selalu bisa saling memanggil kembali.

4. Kecelakaan! Hahaha. Mungkin ini yang paling membekas selama tahun 2009 ini. Sebuah bentuk perhatian yang diberikan oleh yang di-Atas. Bahwa saya masih diberi kesempatan. Bahwa ada rencana lain yang telah disiapkan olehnya untukku. Hasilnya? Benar juga. Ada banyak kesempatan dan hal lain yang terjadi.

5. Kerja! (lagi). Setidaknya ini sudah pasti. Tinggal menjalaninya saja di bulan depan.

Hari ini tepat 1 Muharram 1431 Hijriah. Beberapa hari lagi tahun 2010 pun sudah siap menanti. Ada begitu banyak rencana dan begitu banyak harapan yang terucap. Semoga saya bisa menjadi seseorang yang lebih baik lagi. Amin.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Suffering Suckitude


Not so easy, after all - our team discombobulated tonight and got its collective ass handed to it 12-6 by the same red team we crushed Tuesday night. Studer was absent, so was Gus, and that left us with few handlers. I had a very frustrating night as they set out explicitly to stop my hucking, which is fine - I still got some off - but we couldn't take advantage of the easy breaks that allowed (no one cut all night! wha?), and worse, a ton of our new players zoned into our downfield throws, as opposed to the good dumping and swinging we've been using. So I spent a ridiculous amount of time running behind the play, looking for dumps only to be ignored and un-utilized. Throw in some turfed flicks, throw in some good handling / possession play by our opponents, and we got totally smacked around. It was 8-1 at half - completely embarrassing, stupid, etc., and I don't entirely feel all that bad about it* - I played some relatively tough D, got all my throws on spot, even if people didn't always cut accordingly and/or catch them. Just a pitiful showing, and we got rightly tossed out in the semis.

* Actually - and this is a following morning update - I keep mulling over what I could have done to help us more, but wpcts, we had a ton of people turning the disc, dropping the disc, and generally not being aggressive or smart or in really any way good. BP and Trant played some good D and made me work, but way too many times I came down field open and teammates couldn't get throws off, or when I did get the disc turned upfield to get no cuts. I'm still left with this crappy feeling that I wasn't able to ratchet it up and take over, but I suppose I just gotta let it go - it was a bad night, some people didn't make some plays, and that's about that.

I worked out some of the ya-yas in a consolation game where many people had left / not shown up, so we ended up playing a bit of pickup. Cole went into all-out goof mode, which was equal parts hilarious and impressive - he nutmegged people, threw crazy no-look goofy-handed backhand scoobers, and generally made a mockery of his competition with full-on antics. I laid out for one of his super-crazy throws, drawing many a cheer. Good way to end an otherwise terrible Ulti-day - I suppose I got in a nifty 11 game winning streak there, so All Things Must Pass and all that. So it goes.

AR: A Live One


Phish - A Live One (1994/5)

Ah, the danger of reviewing Phish albums: I'm a full-fledged fanboy, so you're not going to believe anything I say positive about their albums, and the temptation is to go into even more-boring-than-the-song-by-song-accounts minute-by-minute accounts of the particular jams incorporated here. Fair enough; you don't want to hear it, and I don't particularly want to write it, given that anyone with a similar level of interest is likely already well into the most popular albums like this one anyways. So I'll try to keep things concise and general audience level unlike, say, a thirty minute exploratory "Tweezer." As though that sort of thing would ever find its way onto a major label release! Right? Oh, who am I kidding, this great disc is going to get the full track by track treatment. You should have guessed that.

ALO is a compilation of performances from 1994; it was released in '95 and is a pretty healthy mix of signature tunes, previously unreleased but concert staple tunes, some quite poppy numbers, and one left field oddity. Most importantly, it was their first official live release, giving the uninformed (which very much would have included me in 1995) a taste of what all the noise was about. Phish knew the double LP was en route and had purchased all kinds fo digital, fancy-pants recording equipment in order to tape all of their 1994 performances. A complex process involving band member journals and phish.net voting polls went into selecting the final list such that the end product was a mix of band and fan favorites. That process itself worked wonders, as the lack of a singular mind led to the inclusion of some invigorated live versions, some fan favorites finally put to collectible official wax, and some waaaaay out there experimentation of which the band was so fond.

"Bouncing Around the Room" is a lively take on the lead candidate for Phish's poppiest song* - it had already been released on the studio Lawn Boy and is not an improv vehicle in any sense, so it was sort of a strange lead track choice. In the interest of being representative, though, a solid choice - sort of shows Phish's more reined in side, showcases a single-worthy wispy love/dream song of sorts, and reveals that they can nail those harmonies and intricate guitar loops live, too. The second track, "Stash," had also been previously studio-released on Picture of Nectar, but in nothing like the monstrous form here. It's a minor key calypso jazz jam number with bizarre lyrics and just a sick, sick lead guitar melody. The jam winds spaceward, and if you ever want a quick lesson in "tension and release" musical improv dynamics, ALO's "Stash" is a great place to look. An all-time version of an already great song clocks in at about thirteen minutes, but the whole thing simmers and destroys the studio version.

* - The other candidates would be 2000's "Heavy Things," 1993's "Sparkle" and 1994's "Down With Disease" (which, believe it or not, had a video made), though the latter is so explosive and dynamic in concert that it's not truly in the running. 1994's "Sample in a Jar" is probably another one. "Bouncing," though, in particular, never features improv and has a tendency to induce groans from a noticeable part of the audience. I happen to find it to be pop gem-ish, but that's just me.

"Gumbo" is a goofy sort of previously unreleased New Orleans funk number featuring a tale of a gun-slinging parrot. It's backed on ALO by the Giant Country Horns to fantastic effect. At 5:15, it's another contained poppier number; the vocals are memorable and it's butt-bumping beat makes for great dancing. "Montana" is the oddball here - it's a fairly freeform ambient jam that is actually lifted from a Tweezer improv, but functions nicely as a stand-alone piece. It functions even more nicely as the de facto intro to Phish's signature "You Enjoy Myself," a multi-part fugue-based tune that in concert gets all kinds of space exploratory treatment, bass solos, a segment called "nirvana" and some one-of-a-kind vocal scat jamming. The ALO version is 21 minutes long (!), giving all the sections, composed and otherwise, ample room to breathe (the vocal jam segment alone is some six minutes). It had been previously released in much tighter form on Junta, but the ALO version gives a much better idea of the possibilities of the song. Not to mention hearing those passages nailed live is just breath-taking - this is one of my favorite versions of "YEM," fwiw.

"Chalk Dust Torture" shows up as a repeat of a release from A Picture of Nectar, and thank Hashem it did - the APoN version is sparse and a little routine, whereas this one brings the crazy Led Zep on speed energy the song normally features. All kinds of concert goodness in this straight-forward rocker - a big riff, an anthemic chorus of "Can't I live while I'm young?," and a devastating guitar solo. This song often evokes "Fireworks!" comments, and this version is one of the best at that - indulgent, '70s guitar god rock, good for all of its 6:49. Things slow down a bit for the dramatic (and previously unreleased), reggae-inflected "Slave to the Traffic Light," a soaring, epic piece. It's a fan favorite with limited lyrics, lots of volume dynamics, some emotional keywork from Page and a long outro that the band uses to ramp up to a blissful peak. Great to finally have this in official release form; Phish nails all eleven minutes.

Disc 2 opens with "Wilson," a borderline metal rocker from their Gamehendge narrative. Ba-dum, ba-dum ... "Wilson!" goes the audience-participated opening, and in similar fashion to "CT," Phish proceeds to tear things up. "W" is a fairly simple song (it's one of the few I can play (at least the rhythm guitar part)), and Trey et al. use it to, yes, rock faces off. This is a standard version in that pyrotechnic antics are standard 'round these parts; again, previously unreleased, so great to have etc.

And then there's "Tweezer." A blink of Phish's popular riff-rock, funky-groove improv vehicle is on APoN, but the versions of "Tweezer" fans talk about often get the EPIC tag and while on in free-jazz improv land for half hour chunks. (Beck had the misfortune of witnessing a 45 minute Tweezerful second set on 6.22.95 in Canandaigua, NY, and I don't think she has forgiven the band in any tangible way since). This is one of those Tweezer-beasts, and you have been warned. I *heart* them big time, because if you can find that proper state of attention, the band is doing fascinating stuff with musical interplay, changing tempos, melodies, keys, you name it. It's what phans know as "Type II Jamming" which essentially means getting telepathic and abandoning all standard music rules. Experimental, to say the least, and understandably not everyone's cup of tea. ALO's "Tweezer" comes in at a just a shade under 31 minutes, features all kinds of dissonance, and alternately earns severe praise from admirers and asinine comments from Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly record reviewers (I'll let you google those two yourself). And it has some outright goofery in there, too, lest you take the whole ordeal too seriously. Litmus test - do you have Miles Davis in your record collection? Okay, but do you have Ornette Coleman? Not to say that Phish is on his out-there level, but you should probably be able to tolerate that before cracking open a drink to hang with this track.

The album leaves orbit to return to the circular full band mid-tempo calm down of "Simple." It's a triumphant celebration of life type tune, usually sandwiched in the middle of a Mike's Groove (see here), but here it's syrupy smile induction stands alone. This is its official-release debut, and it's a tight five minutes of relief from the previous track. Another o-fd, "Harry Hood," follows, and it is a whole lot reggae-influenced grandiose goodness, too. It and "Slave" are pretty tightly coupled in my mind, and another of the great selling points of ALO is that both tunes find their release to the world here. "HH" is a multi-part composition that is all about beaming smiles - one of the best showcasers of the wide range of all of the members of Phish's talents, and this is one of the all-time versions. I've said that before, yeah? Well, yeah. Litmus Test II - if this one doesn't fill you with chills and warm glowing warming glows at the same time, you will pretty much never get into this band. It's a fifteen minute ride, with every part in its place.

The double disc closes with "The Squirming Coil," another song that had already been released on Lawn Boy but one that once again gets the live workout. The big attraction is Page's awe-inspiring solo to close - it's about a five minute outro, with the other members slowly dropping out and eventually completely leaving stage as he brings the show to a sublime halt. It's gorgeous. But the rest of the song features song cool driving vocal passages and one of Trey's "serene solos" - a few Phish songs ("Lizards," "Divided Sky" would be other examples) have these slowed down guitar passages that just sing and maximize the effect of his sustain. The live take is certainly warranted, here, as while the studio cut is good, this is yet another special cut.

And that's A Live One - not just a stellar intro to the band and a wide variety of their playing styles / stellar instrumental chops, but one that contains hardcore fan-attracting rarities and some best versions of Phish standards, many released for the first time. And so I run into the problem at the beginning of the review - this is easily the best traditional live album from Phish, and it's possibly the best live album of the 1990s. But I don't trust myself to rate it - I prefer the full show releases, and so I really don't go running for this LP very often. But when I listen to it, it's across the board awesome! Pinnacle stuff! But I know I also just like Phish a whole lot and have killed any critical mind I have toward them. So... hmmmph. I suppose in the absence of full shows, this would definitely be among the Phish albums I take, so I would toss it in the Desert Island suitcase. But that suitcase shouldn't be the type of thing that requires this much of a weighed decision! Ugh! What to do?

I'm perplexed. Clearly the only answer is to give it some kind of dual rating. Wait, I've got it. I will give it the Schroedinger's Cat esteemed place in my DI suitcase. I won't know whether it's really there until I look. This would, of course, require me to actually travel to a desert island, so I'm comfortable just leaving ALO in this evaluative state of quantum flux. Problem solved! Regardless, for all of your non-phan-addled minds and purposes, the take home message is that this is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and will definitely help you figure out if Phish is the one thing that's been missing from your life. It was for me! This was one of the first official albums of theirs I got after attending that Liz concert on 9.25.99, and there is no doubt that the two hours of smoking music herein changed my brainstate forever. Dig into it, and some late night, instead of watching that Friends rerun for the fifth time, use thirty minutes to check out a "Tweezer," why don'cha?"

Status: Recommended (Desert Schroedinger's)
Nyet's Faves: "Chalkdust Torture" and "Harry Hood"*

* - Sometimes the faves selections are affected by external factors. In this case, "YEM" is already one of my favorites from Junta, and "Stash" is already the favorite from APoN. I'm loath to call a 31 minute formless "Tweezer" jam a favorite no matter how cool it is; that's not really the purpose of favorites. So the choices here are qualified, but they're both still excellent cuts from this album.