Sunday, September 23, 2012

(Review) Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris"



We've all been asked at one point or another if there's an era we'd have rather visited, rather existed within...and I can't recall a single answer where someone said "the current one." I'm sure there are people out there who relish in the technocratic ways of the new millennium, but I'm certainly not one of them. I don't think the vast majority of people are, if we were to poll them. Perhaps this has something to do with the nature of history - we already know the outcome, we already know the significance of the people and things that occurred. They've since been exalted into the public mythos and somehow elevated into the lexicon of the now.

But this is the kind of question Allen poses to his main character Gil Pender (played by Owen Wilson). Gil is a Hollywood screenwriter unhappy with the work that has made him successful. He has completed a novel that he won't let anyone read (not even his fiancee Inez, played by Rachel McAdams). The couple are in Paris supporting the expansion of Inez's father's company. Neither of her parents like Gil and Gil isn't especially taken by either of them, but the tension is pretty old hat for the traditional dynamic between potential son-in-laws and parents.

Gil wants to move to Paris after the wedding, but Inez wants to move to Malibu. Gil wants to walk through the rainy Paris streets, Inez hates the rain and prefers driving. Gil wants to enjoy the night air of Paris, Inez wants to go clubbing with an old (annoyingly know-it-all and pedantic) friend and his wife. The dissimilarities between the couple become more and more obvious (and increasingly uninteresting) the longer the movie plays out, but also lead Gil to question whether Inez is the right woman for him.



There is also the matter of Gil time-travelling back to Paris in the 1920's. And meeting a slew of passionate, creative, genius-level behemoths in the world of the arts: Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald (and his wife Zelda), Hemingway, Man Ray, Dali (played by Adrian Brody), Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, Juan Belmonte, Gertrude Stein (a gregarious Kathy Bates), Luis Bunuel, T.S. Eliot, Matisse, Gauguin, and Degas.



Needless to say, Gil is floored. Not only has he been given the strange and opportunistic chance to visit his desired era, he's meeting some of the generation's most notable, most notorious denizens who have changed the face of the respective arts that they practice. He also wonders if he's fallen in love with Picasso's mistress, Adriana (played by Marion Cotillard) who also wishes she had been born in a different era. Different paths leading to different pasts are apparently littered across the streets of Paris...but only after the clock strikes midnight.



This was the first Woody Allen movie I've ever seen, but I enjoyed it. This could have easily been a two and a half hour movie with a little more in-depth and subversive discussion of the main themes. The whimsy and magical nature of someone inexplicably being pulled into a completely different era is never explained, but it didn't have to be. Paris itself has been described by generations of people as being a magical place (itself a mythos in our historical lexicon), but we tend to know what Gil will end up doing about his life, his novel, and his fiancee by the end of the film. This was a completely enjoyable film and some of the best parts for me personally were Hemingway's quotes delivered with deep gusto and machismo by Corey Stoll.




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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Scaring the Stars Into Submission - Inspirational Imagery

These are some fantastic images I've found randomly over the years that have been, in part, the inspiration for some of the stories in the "Scaring the Stars Into Submission" collection. Often, there have been no artist names attached to the imagery, so if you or someone you know is the owner/creator of any of the images below, please let me know. I'll either take the image down or make sure that the artist is given full credit for the photo (which I'd prefer to do as I'm very pro-artist in every sense of the word). Bottom line: none of the images are mine, they have simply been the impetuses for the excerpted stories in the blog.



















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Thursday, August 2, 2012

R.I.P. - Gore Vidal

(1925 - 2012)

"Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so."

"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests."

"In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you're a great writer, you must say that you are."

"Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot be made."

"Sex is. There is nothing more to be done about it. Sex builds no roads, writes no novels and sex certainly gives no meaning to anything in life but itself."

"Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn."

"The greatest pleasure when I started making money was not buying cars or yachts but finding myself able to have as many freshly typed drafts as possible."

“Trust a nitwit society like this one to think that there are only two categories - fag and straight.”

"The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism. From a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved — Judaism, Christianity, Islam. These are sky-god religions. They are, literally, patriarchal — God is the Omnipotent Father — hence the loathing of women for 2,000 years in those countries afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly male delegates. The sky-god is a jealous god, of course. He requires total obedience from everyone on earth, as he is in place not for just one tribe but for all creation. Those who would reject him must be converted or killed for their own good. Ultimately, totalitarianism is the only sort of politics that can truly serve the sky-god's purpose."

"The average "educated" American has been made to believe that, somehow, the United States must lead the world even though hardly anyone has any information at all about those countries we are meant to lead. Worse, we have very little information about our own country and its past. That is why it is not really possible to compare a writer like Howells with any living American writer because Howells thought that it was a good thing to know as much as possible about his own country as well as other countries while our writers today, in common with the presidents and paint manufacturers, live in a present without past among signs whose meanings are uninterpretable."

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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Nolan's Gotham

*CAUTION: Spoilers!*

So I took this previous Saturday off to sit in the theater and play catch-up with some movies that I'd wanted to see for awhile: "Prometheus" and "The Dark Knight Rises." While I thought "Prometheus" was entertaining visually (but lacking in plot and story), it was "The Dark Knight Rises" that really got me thinking.

I remember hearing about the update of the franchise. I remember my initial reaction was a groan and a "why?" after the debacles that were the last several Batman movies previous. Clooney and Kilmer just didn't have the same panache that Michael Keaton's did (which is a weird thing for me to say, much less think), but those movies began with Tim Burton's appropriate level of camp and then simply devolved into nonsense and awful writing later on down the line. So it was some trepidation that I saw Nolan's first entry into the revamp.




To be frank, I loved this first film. Not only were we as an audience given two villains who had, as of yet, been put on screen (Ra's Al-Ghul and the Scarecrow), but we're also given a look at a Gotham City that is both natural and realistic while still feeling very dark and oppressive. The key to Nolan's success in all three movies has been with the absolute realism the superhero mythology has been treated. Batman is not a god, he is a rich man in an expensive suit. The Batmobile is not a slicked-out sports car, it's a military prototype with warts. The villains themselves aren't mythical or superhuman; they are intelligent, but supremely flawed men with certain gifts for science and knowledge. This is what superheroes and super-villains would look like in the real world; this is how they would operate in the real world. There's no camp here, it's all real danger being played out in the movie. These are people and events that could actually exist in our reality, which helps to heighten the level of excitement and danger.

And like I said, I was dubious. I already had a tarnished view of the Batman franchise, other than the first two with Michael Keaton. Burton's Gotham felt perfect for Burton. Nolan's Gotham feels perfect for Nolan. Two completely different approaches to the same character that both feel right for the men directing the vehicles.

Ah but then...then I heard about Heath Ledger being chosen to play the Joker. And then there were talks about the appearance of Harvey Dent/Two-Face in the next film and, while I was excited to see what Nolan had in store, my doubt reared its ugly head again. I remembered Nicholson's Joker and wondered how that could be topped. Who could possibly dance with that particular devil in any kind of light, moon or sun?



And again, my expectations were blown out of the water. Chaos, anarchy, the breaking down of morals and ethics - all things the character of the Joker stood for in the comics. Review after review said the same thing: this was the best Batman movie ever. And it wasn't just a few reviews, it was ALL of them. Even the critics who didn't completely love the movie couldn't deny that Nolan had stepped up his directorial game, that there was something undeniably stark and hard-hitting about this comic book movie that stuck in the maw of the viewer long after watching.

Ledger's death shortly before the movie came out was tragic. I had seen him in "Brokeback Mountain" and a few other flicks before, but I guess I had never realized the kind of acting range he had within him. His portrayal of the Joker was nothing less than stunning. Again, a realistic approach to a character that originated in something more fantastical and unreal (a vat of acid originally changed the man into the Joker in the comic books). Smudged white face paint, smudged red lipstick, scars leading out from the lips across the cheeks...he was walking terror and Ledger played him brilliantly. While Nicholson's Joker was great, Ledger's scared the hell out of me because I could see someone actually morphing into that version quite easily.

Again, it's Nolan's realistic approach to superheroes and villains that seems to elevate his trilogy beyond just a simple comic-book movie filled with costumes and explosions. He relishes tackling big, difficult ideas. With "The Dark Knight," it was the moral fiber of the common man versus that of the criminal and followed up with the idea of sacrifice and symbol working for the greater good to press on, to continue living after the fear subsides. There is deep, deep storytelling and morality play-work going on in these movies, which only serves to suck the viewer in further.

So as I sat in the theater yesterday, waiting for the lights to dim and the previews to scream across the screen, my doubts about this third and final nail in the Nolan trilogy were firmly laid to rest. I chose to purposely not read any articles or spoilers about the movie.




I had my own ideas about what would happen to Batman versus Bane (a character who, in the comics, breaks Batman's back severely, making him a paraplegic), but I've also got a pretty dark bent to my imagination and should've known better. In this final entry, Nolan sends us eight years after the end of "The Dark Knight." Batman is essentially a fugitive to the people of Gotham after having taken the blame for killing Harvey Dent. The Batman has disappeared, the cops have reclaimed the city, and things have mostly been quiet. Bruce Wayne has become a hermit and the world seems to be doing okay without the caped crusader.

Until Bane shows up and begins causing problems in the underground part of the city. I was a little confused at first as all these little bits of criminal activity didn't seem to fit together and then ka-blammo...the moment comes when it all hits, when the world starts crumbling around Gotham and leaves the city exiled and under Bane's control while Batman lies, back broken and ill, in a foreign prison only one person has ever escaped from; Bane himself.

In the comics, Bane is attached to several tubes that pump a drug called 'Venom' into his system, making him bigger and stronger as long as he takes it once every 12 hours. This particular aspect of his personality is removed while the mask remains (due to injuries he received years earlier in the prison). Bane is realistically strong without being campy and ridiculous, so it's no surprise when an already semi-wounded Batman gets taken down and imprisoned easily.

The side-story here is that of Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle, aka, Catwoman. Where Pfeiffer's Catwoman walked a weird kind of bi-polar line, Hathaway plays the role in a more deliberate, apathetic way and it works. I read a few things and heard some people say they didn't enjoy her in the movie, but I totally loved her in the role despite having disliked the idea when I first heard she'd been cast. She makes for a great middle ground between Batman and Bane and even provides most of the movie's humor in great ways.

What happens to Gotham is feasible; what happens to Batman is feasible. This is both the beauty and the terror of Nolan's Gotham City. These aren't people with special powers, they're extraordinary people doing extraordinary things under extraordinary conditions. But it's believable, which lends it a power previous inceptions (ha!) of the movie didn't contain. The moral quandaries that Nolan proposes don't feel saccharine and over the top; they're real questions that demand answers. At the very least, they demand the viewer to think about what they themselves would do in the situation and that is what makes his trilogy so good.

Now, let's talk about that ending...


One: I'm a little disappointed that Batman/Bruce Wayne didn't actually die. That was my initial belief before the movie even started. But again, I should've known better as it's Hollywood and I've already read rumors of the franchise getting rebooted in a few years. Though I think the next person will have a really hard time topping Nolan. Either way, it's inferred that Wayne moves on and starts a new life with Selena Kyle at the end.

Two: It's also inferred that Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character would be taking over for Wayne, that he would be eventually donning the cape and cowl in an effort to protect the city on his own terms. I loved this. I also hated this as I know Nolan has said he's not making another movie and I think Gordon-Levitt would make an exceptional Robin (though at this point, he wouldn't be a sidekick and I'm sure the point was that he'd become the new Batman, not something else). Either way, that led to pretty mixed-emotions for me as I think Gordon-Levitt has turned out to be a pretty phenomenal actor in most of the things he's done recently. It'd be a shame if he weren't allowed to flex a little superhero muscle in another movie of this franchise, especially since he's got the youthful look a Robin needs to have. I'm hoping for spin-off, but I know better.

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Thursday, July 19, 2012

New Flying Lotus Album - "Until the Quiet Comes"

From the brainfeeder site:


Flying Lotus has revealed the full details of his new album Until the Quiet Comes. As previously reported, the album is out October 2 via Warp in the U.S. (October 1 in the UK) and features a guest spots from Thom Yorke. In addition to Yorke (who sings on a track called “Electric Candyman”), Erykah Badu also appears on the album, as do Thundercat, Niki Randa, and Laura Darlington. Check out the full tracklist below.
Also below, find Flying Lotus’ new tour dates, which take him through North America, the UK, and Europe this fall. It kicks off with a show at the Hollywood Bowl with Animal Collective.

Until the Quiet Comes:
01 All In
02 Getting There [ft. Niki Randa]
03 Until the Colours Come
04 Heave(n)
05 Tiny Tortures
06 All the Secrets
07 Sultans Request
08 Putty Boy Strut
09 See Thru to U [ft. Erykah Badu]
10 Until the Quiet Comes
11 DMT Song [ft. Thundercat]
12 The Nightcaller
13 Only if You Wanna
14 Electric Candyman [ft. Thom Yorke]
15 Hunger [ft. Niki Randa]
16 Phantasm [ft. Laura Darlington]
17 me Yesterday//Corded
18 Dream to Me


Flying Lotus Gigs:
09-23 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl *
10-07 New York, NY – Terminal 5
10-15 Toronto, Ontario – The Hoxton
10-16 Chicago, IL – Metro
10-18 Denver, CO – Ogden
10-19 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
10-22 Vancouver, British Columbia – Fortune
10-23 Seattle, WA – Neptune
10-25 Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre
11-03 London, England – Brixton Academy (all-nighter, with two Flying Lotus sets)
11-04 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso
11-05 Leipzig, Germany – Conne Island
11-06 Paris, France – La Machine du Moulin Rouge
11-07 Fribourg, Switzerland – Fri-Son
11-08 Berlin, Germany – Gretchen
11-09 Manchester, England – Warehouse Project
* with Animal Collective


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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

R.I.P. - Donald J. Sobol, Creator of "Encyclopedia Brown"

While I haven't read an Encyclopedia Brown novel since I was a kid, this is still unfortunate. Sobol's books were read ravenously in my house during my younger days. I'd be surprised if I hadn't read all of them.








Donald J. Sobol, the creator of Encyclopedia Brown, the clever boy detective who made bookworms of many a reluctant young reader, died on Wednesday in South Miami. He was 87.

The cause was gastric lymphoma, his son John said.

Mr. Sobol’s books have been translated into 12 languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide, according to his publisher, Penguin Young Readers Group. He continued to write every day until a month or so before his death, his son said. The 28th book in the series, “Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Soccer Scheme,” is to be published in October.

The first Encyclopedia Brown book came out in 1963 (after being rejected by two dozen publishers, something Mr. Sobol liked to tell aspiring writers to encourage them not to lose faith in their work).

Mr. Sobol found a winning formula and stuck to it. Each book holds 10 stories, each involving a mystery that 10-year-old Leroy (Encyclopedia) Brown solves by keen observation and deduction. He notices that the culprit has his sweater on inside out, or claims to smell flowers that are fake. The rest is self-evident. The solution is not spelled out in the story; readers are challenged to figure it out for themselves — or to flip to the back for the answer, as Jack Nicholson’s character in the movie “About Schmidt” does as he lies in bed, engrossed in “Encyclopedia Brown Gets His Man.”

Encyclopedia never ages and never charges more than 25 cents an hour for his detective services. Mr. Sobol wanted each book to stand alone, so that children could start with any one in the series and read the books in any order. The first story in each book always explains that his father is the chief of police in their hometown, Idaville — named, unbeknown to most readers, for Mr. Sobol’s mother. (The books also included characters named for Mr. Sobol’s children and their friends, as well as another town, Glennville, named for a son, Glenn, who died in a car accident in 1983 at the age of 23.)

The 28th book begins:
“Idaville looked like many seaside towns on the outside. On the inside, however, Idaville was different. Very different.

“No one, grown-up or child, got away with breaking the law in Idaville.”

Encyclopedia is not tough, but he travels with a protector, friend and sidekick — Sally Kimball — a girl who packs a punch. Bugs Meany, another recurring character, is a frequent troublemaker. The crimes include theft, cheating and property damage but not murder or mayhem, though an occasional nose gets socked.
 John Sobol said his father did not get rich from his work.
“My father was not a businessman,” he said. “His contribution was sort of inversely proportional to his financial compensation. He lived a comfortable middle-class life.”

In 1979, Mr. Sobol sold the rights to his books — for movies, TV shows and video games — for $25,000 to the producer Howard Deutsch. Mr. Sobol later contested the agreement, and the case was settled out of court, with Mr. Deutsch retaining the movie rights. HBO made an “Encyclopedia Brown” series in 1989.

Donald J. Sobol (his parents gave him the middle initial, but it did not stand for anything, his son said) was born on Oct. 4, 1924, in the Bronx. His father owned gas stations, which he later sold to Standard Oil.

Mr. Sobol graduated from the Ethical Culture School in Manhattan in 1942 and enrolled at Oberlin College. In the middle of his freshman year he enlisted in the Army and served during World War II as a sergeant in a combat engineer battalion in the Pacific. He returned to Oberlin in 1946 and later gave much of the credit for his career to an English professor there, John Singleton, who gave him a personal course in advanced creative writing.

He worked as a copy boy and then a reporter at The New York Sun and The Long Island Daily Press. In 1955 he married Rose Tiplitz, an engineer and writer, and in 1959 he began writing a syndicated fiction column called “Two-Minute Mysteries.”

In all, he wrote more than 80 books. In 1976, he won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Encyclopedia Brown series.

Besides his son John, Mr. Sobol is survived by his wife; another son, Eric; a daughter, Diane Sobol; four grandchildren; and a sister, Helen Lane.



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Thursday, July 5, 2012

The 2012 Paris Literary Prize





The Paris Literary Prize is an international novella competition for unpublished writers. Any topic is welcome.
Shakespeare and Company has a long-standing tradition of opening its doors to aspiring writers and in keeping with that philosophy, the 10,000€ Paris Literary Prize is open to writers from around the world who have not yet published a book.
We have long been admirers of the novella, a genre which includes such classics as The Old Man and the SeaAnimal Farm, L'Étranger and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The Paris Literary Prize celebrates this small but perfectly formed genre while giving a unique opportunity to writers whose voices have not yet been heard.

Awards
There are three Paris Literary Prize awards:

The Paris Literary Prize award: 10,000 Euros
Two Paris Literary Prize Runner-up awards: 2,000 Euros each
All three winners will be invited to a weekend stay in Paris to attend the
Prize ceremony and read from their work at a special event at
Shakespeare and Company.
Last year, the winner of the Paris Literary Prize was Rosa Rankin-Gee for The Last Kings of Sark ; the two runners-up were Adam Biles for Grey Cats, and Agustin Maes forNewborn.

Selection Process & Jury
The selection process for the Paris Literary Prize occurs in two phases. First, our dedicated team of readers (numbering 12 in 2011) goes through each submission in search of exceptional stories, voices and craft and a long list of roughly 10% of entrants is then chosen for closer inspection. After many hours of reading and debate, this is again reduced to form the short list, between 10 and 15 entrants. This is where our Jury takes over, spending a month with the texts before selecting the winner and two runners-up.
To ensure the quality and diversity of the selections, each submission is considered by several readers (for instance, in 2011 each text was viewed at least five times).
The identity of all entrants is withheld throughout the process.

2012 Jury
Erica Wagner will again be chairing the jury for this year’s prize, with the remaining members to be decided shortly. For the list of 2011 readers and jury click here.




Eligibility & Requirements

The Paris Literary Prize will be awarded for a novella, written by a previously unpublished writer. Please carefully read all eligibility terms and conditions before entering.
Eligibility Terms and Conditions to Enter The Paris Literary Prize:
A - GENERAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
  1. Entrants must be individuals and not a company or organization.
  2. Entrants must submit their work using their real name.
  3. Entrants must be over 18 years of age at the time of submission.
  4. The competition is not open to employees of Shakespeare and Company, FestivalandCo, The de Groot Foundation or members of the judging panel. Family members of any of the aforementioned are also not eligible.
  5. The 2012 Paris Literary Prize competition is open to unpublished writers only.In the context of the Prize, this means that:
    • you are not eligible to submit if you have had any book, fiction or non-fiction, commercially published (under your own name or a pen name);
    • *only exception*: in the cases of poetry or non-fiction (and in these cases only), you can have commercially published a book as long as it was a small print run (total print run of 1,000 copies or less)
    You can enter the Prize if:
    • you have never published anything;
    • you have self-published a hard copy book or an e-book;
    • you have published pieces in literary journals or anthologies;
    • you have published your masters or doctoral dissertation;
    • you have published, in print or electronic form, up to 10% (maximum) of the work you intend to submit.
  6. Entrants cannot have any publishing contract at the time of submission (unless the work in question falls under any of the above cases).
  7. Entrants must pay the entry fee in order to be eligible.
  8. Only submissions received and paid for by noon Paris time September 1, 2012 or by the extended deadline of noon on September 15, 2012 will be considered.
  9.  Entries that are not paid for, incomplete, are corrupted or submitted after the deadline will not be considered.
  10. Long-listed and short-listed entrants will be notified by email when they have made the list.
  11. Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted.
  12. No editorial feedback will be provided.
  13. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the judging process.
  14. The winners must be available on June 15, 2013 for the award ceremony, and on June 16, 2013 for their reading event at Shakespeare and Company.
  15. The names of the long-listed and short-listed entrants will be posted on this website after the Paris Literary Prize Award Ceremony June 15, 2013. Since this is a blinded competition, names cannot be publicized prior to June 15, 2013.
  16.  Prizes are not transferable. 
  17.  Entrants will retain copyright of their work. However, in submitting your work, you give permission to Shakespeare and Company and The de Groot Foundation to publicize and promote your work if appropriate (and use your names, title of work and photographs of you in such publicity).
B - NOVELLA SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
  1. The entry must be the entrant's own original creation and must not infringe upon the right or copyright of any person or entity.
  2. A submitted novella must be a sustained narrative with a minimum word count of 17,000 and a maximum of 35,000.
  3. The novella is a work of fiction and can be set anywhere in the world and be on any topic.
  4. Linked short stories, or works aimed at children or young adults will not be considered.
  5. The work must be submitted in English.
  6. Translated submissions:
    • If a translated work is submitted you must note that on your novella entry and state which language it was translated from.
    • You may not submit a translated work that has been published in another language.
    • If a translated entry is chosen for a prize, the prize will go to the author and not the translator.
  7. Only submissions which meet all Eligibility Terms and Conditions will be considered.
  8. By entering this competition, each entrant agrees to be bound by these Eligibility Terms and Conditions.

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Friday, June 29, 2012

J.Haley Campbell At the Writing Salon - SF

My good friend Haley is now teaching at the Writing Salon here in the Mission branch of their organization. She's got her first class starting soon and I can assure you this would be a great opportunity for those of you in the area to get schooled on some craft technique while getting some of your own writing workshopped as well. She's super smart, an excellent writer, and real easy on the eyes. Do yourself a favor and sign up for the five week course. You'll thank me later. Info below:




Honing the Art of Storytelling: Fiction Workshop
Sundays 7:00 – 9:30pm
July 8th through September 9th (skipping September 2nd)
Instructor: J. Haley Campbell
“Imagine the story that you would most want to read,
and then shamelessly write it.”
– J.D. Salinger

Writing requires imagination and discipline, and we determine our output of both. Fortunately, the imagination follows a unique law of supply and demand: the more it’s used, the more it creates. Discipline for art seems harder to come by sometimes in our busy lives. But if writing fulfills you—makes you feel more engaged in the world—you can create the structure to make it a regular part of your life. This course will provide structure with a community of like-minded, literature-loving people to foster a positive and supportive creative environment.



www.jhaleycampbell.com



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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

18 Pivotal Albums In My Musical Education

I'm gonna do this one chronologically, as I think that will be easiest. Autobiographically can get messy and this is just a blog post, not a cleaning house of my collection. There is no way this will ever be a comprehensive list as there are simply too many albums that have affected me over the years. These are simply some of the highlights.

For those of us who put a premium on the effect that music had (or still currently has) on our lives, albums tell a story. Just like John Cusack's character in "High Fidelity" while he's sorting his album collection "autobiographically" (see video below), music has and always will be a constant for me.


When I still had a record collection (close to 4,000+ pieces of vinyl; 12"s, 10"s, 45's, picture discs, whatever...), there was really nothing like pulling every record off the shelves and spending an entire day reorganizing. If you've never had a record collection close to that size, I can't even begin to describe how cathartic an endeavor it can be. It might happen, at most, twice a year but was closer to once every two years. Who am I kidding...it wasn't even a day long endeavor. It easily took a whole weekend.

But everyone's got their top lists of albums that come out in a given year or of all time. This one is different. These are the albums that, while I may not listen to now, were pivotal in some way at an important part of my life that is easily remembered through these albums and that, ultimately, lead me down some other musical avenues that lead down others that lead down others...etc.




Digable Planets - "Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time & Space)"

Eighth grade trip to Washington D.C., Spring Break of 1993. While in a music store, I bought this one, Soundgarden's "Badmotorfinger," and another tape (yes, all cassette tapes) that I don't recall now. We were in D.C. for four days and I had this one on repeat the entire time. It was unlike anything I had heard before, save for Arrested Development, but this one tickled my eardrums in the sweetest ways. The lyricism was unlike anything I'd experienced (and very little that came later, save for the stylings of Camp-Lo). It was poetic, it was surreal, it was new-agey hip hop, and after several years of not listening to it, I put it on in my car on the way to class one day and could still rap along to every lyric.

Standout Tracks: "Nickle Bags" and "Swoon Units."





Bjork - "Debut"

I first saw the video for "Human Behavior" on MTV (remember when they actually played music videos?) back in junior high and fell in love with it. It was new, it was weird, and her voice did something unexplainable to me. The entire album was all over the place musically; ballads, euro-house type tracks, and oddities like "Anchor Song." I have followed her success with every album since and while some albums were less successful to me than others, I listen to her often. This album opened my eyes to the female voice in the music world and the kind of power it could bring.  

Standout Tracks: "There's More To Life Than This" and "Aeroplane."




Pearl Jam - "Ten"

Like most everyone else at the time, I swooned over a lot of the music that was coming out of the Seattle area in the early 90's. Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, etc., and this album was the one that broke the dam wide open for me. There was the funk element of Jeff Ament's bass, the often unintelligible scream-singing of Eddie Vedder, and the emotional wail of the guitar work of both Stone Gossard and Mike McCready. I would listen to this one long into the night, well after I was supposed to be asleep in bed, and let it crash me down into dreamtime. I was less impressed with every successive album that came out after this one, but it still retains a ton of reminiscence of my early days of really understanding that I had a love for music.  

Standout Tracks: "Garden" and "Release."




Smashing Pumpkins - "Gish"

The lesser known debut album by these guys became an instant favorite between me and my friends after we found out about it. Originally influenced by their second album, "Siamese Dream," (a far cleaner, more concise, but no less powerful collection of songs), this was the one we'd drive around to with the windows down and the radio cranked loudly. Billy Corrigan's voice was distinctive, almost whiny and tinny, but was backed by what can only be called one of the loudest, heaviest bands to ride the Seattle sound without actually having originated from the region. I stopped listening to them after their third album, a double-disc called "Melloncollie and the Infinite Sadness," but I always return to the first two albums. There is something unabashedly raw and focused about them that feels missing from later releases. This is the album that really made me want to play the bass guitar.  

Standout Tracks: "Tristessa" and "Bury Me."





Fugazi - "13 Songs"

I first heard this album (and the one below) in my friend Anthony Verheage's basement. I had been playing the bass for awhile, but was nowhere near his skill. I had brought mine over so he could teach me a few tricks and once we had worn out our fingers, he began playing different albums for me, purely because he too loved all kinds of music. This album was the combined effort of earlier EP's - "Margin Walker" and the self-titled "Fugazi." He played "The Waiting Room" with it's bouncy opening bassline and that was it for me. My love affair with Fugazi had begun and until their "indefinite hiatus" in 2003, I have collected everything they've put out. When I sold my record collection to move out to San Francisco, their records stuck with me and remain on my bookshelf now along with a very few others I simply couldn't part with. The band erupted out of the old New York hardcore scene from lead singer Ian Mackaye's first band Minor Threat, but you wouldn't know it to hear them. They are about as experimentally punk as you can get, playing with discordance and off-notes to create atmosphere and feeling. A truly amazing band.  

Standout Tracks: "Bulldog Front" and "Provisional."





Quicksand - "Manic Compression"

I used to buy a magazine called "College Music Journal" back in high school. Each month, they put out an issue chock-full of album reviews, bands to watch, and a cd of songs from almost everyone they talked about in that issue. A brilliant little rag that opened up the doors to a gargantuan amount of music for me during my high school years. One issue talked about Portishead's first album "Dummy" (another highly influential group for me) and this one, Quicksand. Quicksand, like Fugazi, was the afterbirth of a New York hardcore band called Youth of Today lead by frontman Walter Schreifels (who has since gone on to do several side projects post-Quicksand). Anthony played this sophomore album for me in his basement as well and I'd never heard anything so delicately angry before. Awash in guitar effects and low-tuned bass guitar work, this album was a sonic wall made by only four guys. The lyrics? Fantastic. The music? Mindblowingly good.  

Standout tracks: "Landmine Spring" and "Skinny (It's Overflowing)."





Morphine - "Good"

We didn't have any good alternative rock radio stations in Oklahoma City when I moved to Kansas City in 1995. Thankfully, 105.9 the Lazer, based out of Lawrence pumped out new music to Kansas City all the time. Morphine was one of those bands (along with Soul Coughing) that I got turned on to as soon as I arrived. A three-piece pseudo-jazz outfit, lead singer Mark Sandman played a two-string bass alongside a drummer and upright bassist. They made songs that were both homages to the old jazz crooners, the lonely sax players in dark New York alleyways at 2am, and raucous rockabilly equally. If you've never heard any Morphine before, go out and grab any of their albums, but this is the one for me.  

Standout Track: "You Look Like Rain."





A Tribe Called Quest - "Midnight Marauders"

Ask any fan of true fan hip hop and they'll tell you this album is in their top ten. Possibly their top five. Released in 1993, this album helped propel what some now call "conscious rap" into the musical lexicon and has been a staple of almost any good dj's record bag. Party jams, social commentary, lyrical word play; this album's got it all. As shown by highlighting as many of their peers in the industry on the front and back covers, this album was all positivity from front to back. I had been listening to a lot of guitar-based music by the time I heard this in 1995, but my band mate Jerry let me borrow the album. I had it for months and never wanted to give it back. This is another of those LP's I kept after selling off my record collection and has become the standard by which I judge all hip hop albums now. And really, I know that's unfair, but this collection of songs is one I listen to front-to-back, never skipping any. Ever.  

Standout Tracks: "Award Tour," "Electric Relaxation," and "Lyrics to Go."





Ella Fitzgerald - Any Album

I got first turned on to Ella through my ex-girlfriend Erika. We would spend hours curled up with each other in her room, napping away an afternoon with Ella playing softly on the cd player. Every time I put on an Ella album, I'm reminded of pillows and softness, the smell of rose water and relaxation, lazy Saturdays and lilting naps. I can't imagine nicer moments attached to an album than those.

Standout Tracks: "I've Got You Under My Skin," and "Wait 'Til You See Him."






Roni Size / Reprezent - "New Forms"

I graduated high school in 1997 and took a trip that summer to Germany. While there, I saw on the European version of MTV two videos: Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" and Roni Size's "Brown Paper Bag." Up until then, I had no idea that electronic music even really existed. I didn't know anything about the various genres that made it up, I didn't know the performers, nothing. I wasn't as impressed with Prodigy, but the video for "Brown Paper Bag had me captivated. The opening bassline clinched it as well, a raw, but natural sounding upright backed by hard hitting double-time boom-bap drums. Once I grabbed the album, a double-disc of jazzy drum'and'bass, I was completely hooked. One of the earliest electronic albums I ever owned and still one of my favorites to this day, despite where the genre of drum'and'bass has gone since. It's the EDM album I use to turn other people onto the wider genre of dance music because it is so accessible without being hard on virgin ears.  

Standout Tracks: "Watching Windows" and "Share the Fall."





The Miles Davis Quintet Box Set - 1965-1968

My boy Scott worked at a music store in high school. For Christmas, he secured me this super dope box set of the Miles Davis Quintet. Six discs of pure excellence from the man himself. Every time I hear certain songs now, I see the colors of the discs they were on. This was my true introduction to the larger body of Miles' work which bubbled over into his more fusion work on "Bitches Brew" and "Filles De Kilimanjaro" later on.

Standout Tracks: "Pinnochio," "E.S.P." and "Nefertiti"






Fiona Apple - "Tidal"

Another amazing female vocalist. Lot of angst on this one but coupled with a very sultry, cool piano style. Where Tori Amos felt too classically trained for me to really get into, Apple's work felt more visceral and primal - untrained, but deliberate. This is the album my roommate John and I would put on when we got home from house parties in college. It was a good way to unwind after a night of nonsense and, often, drama.

Standout Tracks: "Sullen Girl" and "Slow Like Honey."




V.A.S.T. - "Visual Audio Sensory Theater"

This band is...interesting. Imagine heavy industrial music but with benedictine monk chanting added over the top. It's a contradiction in terms, maybe, but it works. My friend Mandy turned me on to this one during my sophomore year of college late one night. She played "Pretty When You Cry" and it was a jolt to my system. Personally, if I'm in a weird mood and it's a choice between Nine Inch Nails or VAST, I'm going with VAST the majority of the time. I think the music is more intricately layered and far more interesting than Reznor's work (though I like Reznor). Lyrically, I find him more interesting as well; less "depressed angry teenager" and more "sullen angry adult with hindsight in check."

Standout Tracks: "Pretty When You Cry" and "Touched"





Braid - "Frame & Canvas"

My friend Steve turned me on to these guys that same year. Based out of Champagne/Urbana, IL., Braid was a four-piece 'emo' group back when emo didn't mean "whiny teenagers with shitty lyrics who buy their clothing at Hot Topic." He gave me their first album, "Frankie Welfare Boy, Age 5" and I was hooked. Their debut was loud, it was screamy, but there was a ridiculous amount of melody within the chaos too (check out the opening track "Angel Falls" to get an idea of what I mean). By the end of 1998, near the middle of my enjoyment of their music, they had broken up. This was an album that was raw, both emotionally and sonically, but with enough growth shown over the previous albums to have cleaned up the rough edges. Not five minutes ago, I found out they're playing a reunion show here in San Francisco on August 8th. And there's a new EP out. And I got real excited.





Hum - "Downward is Heavenward"

What to say about this album? I've mentioned it numerous times throughout the blog. I've recommended it to damn near everyone I know. It is yet another album that I never skip tracks on when listening to it; start to finish, in one listen, every time. I had the opportunity to see their reunion tour last November back in Kansas City. Since I'm only going to repeat myself on its importance to me again, go HERE to read more about this album and the others.

Standout Tracks: "If You Are To Bloom," "Green to Me," and "Apollo"






The Cinematic Orchestra - "Motion"

In 1999, when I bought my first turntable, first pair of headphones, needles, everything...and maxed out my credit cards doing it, my roommate John and I went to St. Louis one weekend. This album had come out sometime earlier that year, but I had no idea who they were; I just wanted to buy some records to play on my new turntable. What did I happen to find during my first completely uneducated record shopping experience? This, L-Fudge, Nightmares on Wax, some Beastie Boys, and a few others. Very beat heavy and very unintentional. There's a good possibility that this first trip to the record store completely directed me towards the more chilled out trip hop/lounge genres than I would have believed possible. I had absolutely no education in most of the artists (Beastie Boys being the one I actually knew and loved at the time), so it was a total crapshoot when I paid for them all at the counter.

This album, along with the Nightmares on Wax single ("Finer" / "Les Nuits"), was the nicest surprise. A full jazz band playing some super mellow, super lush instrumentals that were so expansive in sound they made me feel small. An amazing album that I still listen to on the regular.

Standout Tracks: "Night of the Iguana" and "And...Relax!"





Dj Cam - "Mad Blunted Jazz"
&
Dj Shadow - "Endtroducing"

When I finally flunked out of college from too much partying and not enough studying, I moved back to Kansas City and lived with my good friend Katie. Her older brother Josh had been a dj for years before I had ever even thought about doing it myself and we would usually head downtown to a super tiny joint called YJ's to hear him play every week. Whether he knew it or not, Josh's influence on my particular dj-ing aesthetic was massive. He downplayed electronic music and hyped the skill needed to play the more hip hop oriented beats.

He also played tracks off both of these albums (among many, many, many other albums that I've since added to my collection of listening enjoyment) while playing at YJ's. Graciously, if I ever wanted to know what he was playing, he'd show me and let me make notes in my little notebook. Once I really got moving with my own dj-ing, I frequently went back to these notes and found these records. Some got put into the rotation, others didn't due to my changing tastes. But these two albums...oh man. I CANNOT get sick of "Mad Blunted Jazz," no matter how many times I listen to it. And the further backwards I go through the history of music, the more I hear the samples in Shadow's "Entroducing." Believe me when I tell you it's not hyperbole to call these two albums absolute classics amongst most hip hop fans and almost all fans of trip hop and chillout. They're essential listening for any time of day or night.

Dj Cam Standout Tracks: "Sang-Lien," "Romantic Love," "Dieu Reconnaitra," and "Pure Pleasure"...but really, the whole album plays like one long musical foreplay session that shouldn't be ignored. 


Dj Shadow Standout Tracks: "Changeling," "What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 4", and "Midnight In A Perfect World."


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