Old websites don't die, they're just forgotten about until server space becomes an issue.
The Old Mill is the movie-within-a-movie desperately trying to be filmed in David Mamet's State and Main.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
The "Forgotten" Music of 2007
It being the end of the year, I'm struggling under the weight of endless Top Ten lists for this year that was. And just like how movie studios hang on to their Oscar bids for the end of the year, there are some great albums that I loved more than 8 months ago and just kind of forgot about. This is them:
!!! Myth Takes
This was my commuting album for a good month or so. The line between !!! and its more Tortoise-y sister band Out Hud was pretty much obliterated (are the latter even around any more?), by tightening up the party jams and getting a bit more jazzy and progressive with the instrumentation. Its a solid album and another testament of a band that could only get more attention by delivering a stinker.
Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline
The duo's 2nd 2-disc set in a row is like watching a glacier; there are huge forces at work, but the landscape changes at such a slow rate that one can imagine only some huge supernatural force could see it moving quickly. Though they essentially play 20th century classical music, SoTL seem to get a lot of attention from semi-mainstream media duo to their affiliation with Kranky, their humorous David Lynch-obsessed song titles, and their laid back, indie-dude image. While their latest is a masterpiece, this kind of music exists in its own strange world that its kind of unfair to include it next to four-piece rock bands singing about girls. Its great to study and zone out to, and hopefully it can act as a stepping stone to the world of avant garde composers.
Black Moth Super Rainbow Dandelion Gum
Truth be told I just kind of forgot about this band. You need to be in the right headspace to enjoy their 70's referencing acid trip soundscapes. Once again this is an example of a band creating its own world, with little to compare it to, that it rests in a category all its own. If I can say anything bad about it, it's that there may be just a bit too much vocoder.
!!! Myth Takes
This was my commuting album for a good month or so. The line between !!! and its more Tortoise-y sister band Out Hud was pretty much obliterated (are the latter even around any more?), by tightening up the party jams and getting a bit more jazzy and progressive with the instrumentation. Its a solid album and another testament of a band that could only get more attention by delivering a stinker.
Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline
The duo's 2nd 2-disc set in a row is like watching a glacier; there are huge forces at work, but the landscape changes at such a slow rate that one can imagine only some huge supernatural force could see it moving quickly. Though they essentially play 20th century classical music, SoTL seem to get a lot of attention from semi-mainstream media duo to their affiliation with Kranky, their humorous David Lynch-obsessed song titles, and their laid back, indie-dude image. While their latest is a masterpiece, this kind of music exists in its own strange world that its kind of unfair to include it next to four-piece rock bands singing about girls. Its great to study and zone out to, and hopefully it can act as a stepping stone to the world of avant garde composers.
Black Moth Super Rainbow Dandelion Gum
Truth be told I just kind of forgot about this band. You need to be in the right headspace to enjoy their 70's referencing acid trip soundscapes. Once again this is an example of a band creating its own world, with little to compare it to, that it rests in a category all its own. If I can say anything bad about it, it's that there may be just a bit too much vocoder.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
In Rainbows
Radiohead - In RainbowsI should write down some thoughts on Radiohead’s new label-free album release scheme. Not only is it an unprecedented move by a band of their popularity, but also I am contributing money to further this experiment. The Discbox set continues their tradition of limited edition packaging for their albums; see the elaborate limited-edition packaging for Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief. While most of the art may seem excessive, it gives the releases a tactile quality that their web-savvy fans covet and actually go out and purchase.
I paid the $82.25 for the Discbox. Why would I do that, when I could have downloaded the whole album for literally nothing? Several reasons, the biggest being that I love Radiohead’s album artwork. As an admirer of well-executed album packaging, everything from The Bends onward has never disappointed. Sure I was a bit annoyed at first when Kid A sacrificed extensive liner notes for pages and pages of post-apocalyptic imagery. But it grew on me, and now I can’t image listening to that album and not have booklet before me, with its fold-out pages and tracing paper. In a later interview, Thom Yorke made a comment that gives the artwork for Kid A and Amnesiac a disturbing edge:
While explaining the decision to release two albums rather than one, singer Thom Yorke said, "They are separate because they cannot run in a straight line with each other. They cancel each other out as overall finished things... In some weird way, I think Amnesiac gives another take on Kid A, a form of explanation." He continued: "Something traumatic is happening in Kid A, and this is looking back at it, trying to piece together what has happened." About the differences with the previous record he says: "I think the artwork is the best way of explaining it. The artwork to Kid A was all in the distance. The fires were all going on the other side of the hill. With Amnesiac, you're actually in the forest while the fire's happening." Link
All this serves the point that proper album packaging can give off the air of an artifact, forever connected to the music on the disc it protects.
Radiohead are tight-lipped about most of the details on this new album, releasing only one promotional image of the 2xCD/2xLP set to the public. The whole thing will be in a hard-bound book, perhaps with a larger sleeve for it to fit in. The LPs appears to be housed in a sleeve with a V-cut on the side with a somber, grey distressed texture printed on it. There appears to be no packaging for the CDs, though that could be chalked up to: it being incomplete at the time of the photo shoot, it made the image of the packaging too busy, or they have some other idea in mind. Simple cardboard sleeves for each CD would make sense, tying them into the LP packaging and, again, saving on paper and plastic.
The track names on the back of the book or slipcase are set in the same justified paragraph style as Amnesiac, which annoyed me at first but has now grown on me as I associate it with the glitchy gaps in the music and general feeling on disconnectedness in the lyrics. The width of the text box looks like it was determined by the width that made “RADIOHEAD IN RAINBOWS” look properly kerned. The size kind of bothers me, mostly because I like having small groups of text against a grand blank canvas. The little box in the bottom left (aligned with the text box, thank God) looks like a minimized version of the “In/Rainbow” repeated text on the cover. This text treatment is repeated on the 2xCD labels, with black and white backgrounds. That strikes me as a little bit lazy upon first glance, and more than a little like R.E.M.’s similarly off-putting (though not necessarily in a bad way) text on the Automatic for the People CD.
The cover riffs on the linguistic game of hopscotch made when the title is literally chopped in front of our eyes. Though the pronunciation is the same, is any iteration of “IN/RAINBOWS”, “IN RAIN/BOWS” (etc) correct? The same chopping method seems to have been applied to the band name, though most of it is obscured. The text is laid out on top of some sort of black and orange image, perhaps an astronomical image (due to what appears to be a star field in the bottom right hand corner). The record sleeves look like monochromatic photos of peeling paint, distressed concrete, or some other similarly weathered surface.
Given that their previous artwork has focused on bold, layered designs, the somber simplicity is a markedly different approach for them. Nothing so far is as in-your-face as the confrontational covers of their last 4 albums, but perhaps they decided a change in pace was in order.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
The Housing Market
Hill Ridge Dr. I will be able to rattle off the full address of the house I lived in San Antonio until I die. 78250. After 25 years I've lived in 8 different cities, in townhouses with green shag carpet, overpriced split levels with cricket problems, an apartment building from the 1800's, a brand new apartment, and another one whose neighborhood was much more crappy upon reflection. I lived in one town twice, once in the '80's when it was surrounded by cow pastures is now a place I wouldn't want to be in after dark. The second place was the aforementioned split-level, overpriced but for its placement in a good school system.
But the house in San Antonio will always be the best, especially now that I found out it cost less than $80K. You can't buy a dirty mattress in an alleyway for that much around here, though its low price was just as much a product of an economic downturn. In this case, it was too many houses. A developer mowed down some fields and made two HOA-run suburbs, Misty Oaks I and II. We lived in I, on a street that was definitely a hill but I'd argue its status as a ridge. Houses were snatched up, people moved in, and the developer kept building, believing the new houses could be built and sold before the bubble burst. The area being cleared the year we moved was formerly a barbed wire-encircled weed factory/unofficial junkyard, home to feral dogs and giant snakes. Much to some homeowners' dismay, this area was essentially their backyard. It was an eyesore, but better than having large machinery grinding away while you're eating dinner.
Our house was a ranch style, 3 (later 4) bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, huge living room w/ vaulted ceiling, open kitchen w/ giant pantry and island, add-on family room off of the kitchen, huge backyard w/ deck that included built-in seats. Nowhere else have I lived in a ranch-style house, and I hope to someday return to a life free of stairs. Though, truth be told, ranch style houses are a luxury created during the post-war housing and population boom. They take up twice the land of a regular split-level or two story, they require a much larger foundation to be poured (and leveled), among other things. In short, they suck up all the resources needed to create affordable (though nowhere near as luxurious) housing.
In a complete reversal of acreage, my parent's current house rests on a plot that only extends about 2 yards on each side, giving them an uncomfortably close view to their neighbor's windows (and vice versa). However, around here there is no way around it. The older houses (most from the 1970's) are being demolished, what with their inefficient heating/cooling and construction based on a world without computers and big-screen flat panel televisions. In their place are cookie-cutter McMansions on plots almost half the size as would normally be used, with shortcuts taken at every opportunity. In this community, normal drainage procedures (storm drains, underground runoff gutters in front of houses) have been replaced with 4 foot deep troughs that run between the road and the sidewalk, necessitating some fancy footwork if you parked in the street. Upon that is the fact that the roads are the right width for a horse and buggy but not for the SUV’s, which usually take their place halfway in the grass (there are no curbs) in the inevitable event that the homeowners run out of room in their driveway. Navigating the roads in that neighborhood is essentially a game of chicken with the over-worked, stressed out nouveau riches struggling to afford the houses they believe they deserve. And such is the case, the first of the month delivers the mortgage bill with the adjusted rate as the For Sale - Foreclosure signs spring up like weeds.
While these shortcuts do allow the builders to cram as many houses as possible on their land, they serve a much more annoying purpose down the road. With the rules for building materials, as well as the state of the roads in the community are already set in place by the builders, they have already set part of the CC&R that the HOA must follow after the sale. In the case of the drainage and roads, the builders have left the residents with a costly process to bring them up to municipal code in the event that the HOA is dissolved. However, HOA's are notoriously difficult to dissolve, and many critics report that their HOA's have no contractual legal means of dissolving. So this is a concerning thing, not to mention its oligarchic structure, lack of oversight, potential for abuse and lack of homeowner involvement in the decision making process. Their supposed positive side, to keep property values up, has shown to not be the case in many situations. (Link)
So it is in this environment that I contemplate purchasing a home. There's a pretty strict structure for becoming a homeowner around here, having as much to do with upward mobility as financial feasibility. From the apartment you get a condo or townhouse, essentially owning what you were previously renting. And while not having to throw money down a pit every month is a fine idea, it still involves sharing at least a wall with someone else. It may be a sign of age, or exhaustion, but when I come home from work I do not want to hear anyone except who I live with. No pounding bass, no screaming babies, no loud TV, no constant footsteps above. Simply peace and quiet. This is because honestly, after 45 minutes on the beltway I really hate people.
I would like to own a home sooner than later, though since I am not an investment banker nor would I like the financial suicide of a deferred interest loan, I will need to get creative. I don't really want to settle on a 40-year-old house; they have character in spades but upkeep will drain my wallet even faster than the down payment and mortgage. Granted, as of last week the Feds cut the interest rate by 0.5%, rallying Wall Street to some impressive gains. But something stinks about it. Could this just be the Feds' realization that referring to the current credit crisis as a "market correction" won't fix the decline? Half a point is a lot; I think most were expecting a quarter percent, or (more likely) no change at all. I think its going to end up just being a confidence booster in the short term, and hopefully not a mistake in the long run. With the current sub prime lending crisis, its probably going to take a lowering of foreclosure levels to get banks confident again.
Just for a round number, the houses around here are going for the neighborhood of $500K. That's half a million dollars for a zero lot line house squeezed between a turnpike and a highway, in an area where building superseded proper urban planning. This is why it took me an hour to go the 20 miles from my work to my doctor's office.
I don’t have a fix for this yet, and honestly I haven’t been looking so much at individual houses as the real estate market in general. The house-flipping fad caught on pretty bad around here, and there’re a lot of people looking to unload houses. There’s no question that I will own a home someday, its just looking more complicated than I imagined.
But the house in San Antonio will always be the best, especially now that I found out it cost less than $80K. You can't buy a dirty mattress in an alleyway for that much around here, though its low price was just as much a product of an economic downturn. In this case, it was too many houses. A developer mowed down some fields and made two HOA-run suburbs, Misty Oaks I and II. We lived in I, on a street that was definitely a hill but I'd argue its status as a ridge. Houses were snatched up, people moved in, and the developer kept building, believing the new houses could be built and sold before the bubble burst. The area being cleared the year we moved was formerly a barbed wire-encircled weed factory/unofficial junkyard, home to feral dogs and giant snakes. Much to some homeowners' dismay, this area was essentially their backyard. It was an eyesore, but better than having large machinery grinding away while you're eating dinner.
Our house was a ranch style, 3 (later 4) bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, huge living room w/ vaulted ceiling, open kitchen w/ giant pantry and island, add-on family room off of the kitchen, huge backyard w/ deck that included built-in seats. Nowhere else have I lived in a ranch-style house, and I hope to someday return to a life free of stairs. Though, truth be told, ranch style houses are a luxury created during the post-war housing and population boom. They take up twice the land of a regular split-level or two story, they require a much larger foundation to be poured (and leveled), among other things. In short, they suck up all the resources needed to create affordable (though nowhere near as luxurious) housing.
In a complete reversal of acreage, my parent's current house rests on a plot that only extends about 2 yards on each side, giving them an uncomfortably close view to their neighbor's windows (and vice versa). However, around here there is no way around it. The older houses (most from the 1970's) are being demolished, what with their inefficient heating/cooling and construction based on a world without computers and big-screen flat panel televisions. In their place are cookie-cutter McMansions on plots almost half the size as would normally be used, with shortcuts taken at every opportunity. In this community, normal drainage procedures (storm drains, underground runoff gutters in front of houses) have been replaced with 4 foot deep troughs that run between the road and the sidewalk, necessitating some fancy footwork if you parked in the street. Upon that is the fact that the roads are the right width for a horse and buggy but not for the SUV’s, which usually take their place halfway in the grass (there are no curbs) in the inevitable event that the homeowners run out of room in their driveway. Navigating the roads in that neighborhood is essentially a game of chicken with the over-worked, stressed out nouveau riches struggling to afford the houses they believe they deserve. And such is the case, the first of the month delivers the mortgage bill with the adjusted rate as the For Sale - Foreclosure signs spring up like weeds.
While these shortcuts do allow the builders to cram as many houses as possible on their land, they serve a much more annoying purpose down the road. With the rules for building materials, as well as the state of the roads in the community are already set in place by the builders, they have already set part of the CC&R that the HOA must follow after the sale. In the case of the drainage and roads, the builders have left the residents with a costly process to bring them up to municipal code in the event that the HOA is dissolved. However, HOA's are notoriously difficult to dissolve, and many critics report that their HOA's have no contractual legal means of dissolving. So this is a concerning thing, not to mention its oligarchic structure, lack of oversight, potential for abuse and lack of homeowner involvement in the decision making process. Their supposed positive side, to keep property values up, has shown to not be the case in many situations. (Link)
So it is in this environment that I contemplate purchasing a home. There's a pretty strict structure for becoming a homeowner around here, having as much to do with upward mobility as financial feasibility. From the apartment you get a condo or townhouse, essentially owning what you were previously renting. And while not having to throw money down a pit every month is a fine idea, it still involves sharing at least a wall with someone else. It may be a sign of age, or exhaustion, but when I come home from work I do not want to hear anyone except who I live with. No pounding bass, no screaming babies, no loud TV, no constant footsteps above. Simply peace and quiet. This is because honestly, after 45 minutes on the beltway I really hate people.
I would like to own a home sooner than later, though since I am not an investment banker nor would I like the financial suicide of a deferred interest loan, I will need to get creative. I don't really want to settle on a 40-year-old house; they have character in spades but upkeep will drain my wallet even faster than the down payment and mortgage. Granted, as of last week the Feds cut the interest rate by 0.5%, rallying Wall Street to some impressive gains. But something stinks about it. Could this just be the Feds' realization that referring to the current credit crisis as a "market correction" won't fix the decline? Half a point is a lot; I think most were expecting a quarter percent, or (more likely) no change at all. I think its going to end up just being a confidence booster in the short term, and hopefully not a mistake in the long run. With the current sub prime lending crisis, its probably going to take a lowering of foreclosure levels to get banks confident again.
Just for a round number, the houses around here are going for the neighborhood of $500K. That's half a million dollars for a zero lot line house squeezed between a turnpike and a highway, in an area where building superseded proper urban planning. This is why it took me an hour to go the 20 miles from my work to my doctor's office.
I don’t have a fix for this yet, and honestly I haven’t been looking so much at individual houses as the real estate market in general. The house-flipping fad caught on pretty bad around here, and there’re a lot of people looking to unload houses. There’s no question that I will own a home someday, its just looking more complicated than I imagined.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The British & the Press Section
This article describes the problem of British indie bands getting visas to perform in the US. This reminds that only since I started reviewing CDs that I actually go to the "press" section of a band's website. I usually avoided them since they were mostly hi-res promo shots, press releases and links to reviews that I had already read. But now with artists like Lily Allen and Klaxons rising to a level of popularity that leads to a US tour, they don't have enough years under their belt to convince the visa office that they've been "internationally recognized" for a "sustained and substantial" amount of time. Now these Press sections, formerly only useful to reviewers and members of the, well, press, now act as depositories for the proof of popularity they need to secure a visa.
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