two upcoming tech docs
BLIP FESTIVAL: REFORMAT THE PLANET trailer from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.
obama arcana
“OBAMAREGGAETON” – Amigos De Obama (download)
(file expires January 25th)
For fear of jinxing anything, I resisted the urge to post this on Super Tuesday Eve, but I like the implications of this Obama reggaetón tune. For starters, credited to the organization Amigos De Obama, it’s instantly historical novelty, sung to the absolute rhythm of its time. More, it highlights another, less devious, musical aspect of the Illinois Senator: his name.
Last week, Mom wondered if Obama would be the first President whose name ended in a vowel. He wouldn’t be (see: Fillmore, Monroe, Pierce, Coolidge), but her point about Presidential homogeneity is well taken. There certainly haven’t been any men of Kenyan descent in the Oval Office, and consequently none whose names roll from the tongue quite like Obama’s. Hence, the genuinely new music. (Yeah, it came out last June, but who’s counting? See translation.)
And, while we’re on the topic: There’s something reassuring but also a bit cognitively dissonant about a silk-screened Obama “The Time is Now” poster in the front window of a tarot card reader.
they say that santa fe is less than 90 miles away…
“Albuquerque” – Neil Young (download) (buy)
from Tonight’s The Night (1975)
Well, here I am.
stengel
If there was ever any doubt that baseball is an oral culture, peep this letter written by legendary manger Casey Stengel to sportswriter Ira Berkow in the ’70s, when Casey was in his 80s. Quoted in Robert Creamer’s superb Stengel, it was a bit of a shock to me to realize that Casey — a raconteurish encyclopedia cataloguing a lifetime of players, plays and stories — was barely literate.
Dear Ira: Your conversation’s; and the fact you were the working writer were inthused with the Ideas was great but frankly do not care for the great amount of work for myself. Sorry but am not interested. Have to many proposition’s otherwise for the coming season. Fact cannot disclose my Future affair’s. Good luck. Casey Stengel, N.Y. Mets & Hall of Famer.
Man, my spell-check loves Casey. Didn’t write in the passive voice, though!
“79 men on third for the mets” – dick mccormack
“79 Men on Third for the Mets” – Dick McCormack (download)
from An Amazin’ Era video
(file expires February 17th)
The baseball stories are increasing with the imminent reporting of pitchers and catchers to spring training this week. Today brings us a Times profile in which we discover that third baseman David Wright actually refers to himself as “D-Wright.” Uh, right on?
Relatedly, I spent some late night hours over the weekend revisiting An Amazin’ Era, the delightfully cheesy Mets retrospective produced just before the 1986 season. Included therein is the above song, “79 Men on Third for the Mets,” folksinger Dick McCormack’s novelty tribute to the nearly 80 players who’d covered the corner for the Mets between 1962 and 1985. (Though the video doesn’t include the ’86 season, McCormack manages to fit in the newly acquired Tim Teufel, who played one game at third later that year.) It’s super toe tappin’.
Anybody got info on this Dick McCormack dude? The infranet reveals the existence of a “We Didn’t Start the Fire”-style number he wrote summing up the 1987 season, though it looks like some lawyers nastygrammed it. Oh, bother.
have read/will read dept.
o There are probably many points in the last quarter/half-decade of pop history where one could argue that cuteness was becoming a little too prevalent, but Sharon Steel has fun trying anyway.
o Kevin Kelly on “Better Than Free.”
o The London Times on McSweeney’s, etc..
o Anecdotal evidence suggests that pitchers, including Pedro Martinez, repeatedly threw at Jeff Kent to help Hall of Famer Tom Candiotti’s fantasy baseball team. Does this count as gambling?
o Google engages in some techno-corporate warfare in China over mp3s.
twofer tuesday (on a thursday) #1: vashti bunyan’s “diamond day” & pavement’s “spit on a stranger”
“Diamond Day” – Vashti Bunyan (download) (buy)
from Just Another Diamond Day (1970)
“Spit on a Stranger” – Pavement (download) (buy)
from Terror Twilight (1999)
Vashti Bunyan, at least pre-rediscovery, seems exactly the type of obscurantist reference point tailor made for Stephen Malkmus. Whether or not he had her 1970 single “Diamond Day” anywhere near his bedheaded skull when he wrote “Spit on a Stranger,” the lead cut from 1999’s Terror Twilight, I’ve got no idea. Either way, given the autumn-burnt originality of “Stranger,” it’s not to accuse the Pavement leader of anything, except maybe getting a melody stuck in his head, and repurposing it for contemporary circulation.
frow show, episode 37
Episode 37: Barackgammon.
Listen here
1. “Vocca Rossa” – Corrado Lojacono (via WFMU’s Beware of Blog/Listener Marty)
2. “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” – Them
3. “Frow Show Theme” – MVB
4. “Run” – Gnarls Barkley
5. “Love Loves to Love Love” – Lulu (from Love Loves to Love Lulu)
6. “Casting Agents and Cowgirls” – Busdriver (from Roadkill Overcoat)
7. “Back to the Grill” – MC Serch feat. Nas and Chubb Rock
8. “Jimmy” – Of Montreal
9. “Baby Strange” – T. Rex (from The Slider)
10. “Et moi, et moi, et moi” – Jacques Dutronc
11. “The Modern Age” – Jeffrey Lewis (recorded 2002/07/31 Peel Session)
12. “Fools” – The Dodos (from Visiter)
13. “Never Learn Not To Love” – The Beach Boys (from 20/20)
14. “A Cloud In Doubt” – Flying (from Faces of the Night)
15. “Diamond Day” – Vashti Bunyan (from Just Another Diamond Day)
16. “Spit on a Stranger” – Pavement (from Terror Twilight)
17. “Red Flag on the Gondola” – Flipper’s Guitar (from Three Cheers For Our Side)
vote hard.
Even as I plan to vote for Barack Obama tomorrow, Will.i.am’s “Yes.We.Can.” video kinda scares the shit out me, because it lays Obama bare. I am frightened by how easily the Senator’s cadences transform into music, how easily the simple harmonies pull melodies from his speech. And all, more or less, without content. When it boils down to it, I like Barack Obama because he’s got a good beat and I can dance to it. It won’t be the first time I’ve put my money where the music is.
