crooked teeth & feather: listen

Showing posts with label listen. Show all posts

Kitsch

I am digging this animation so much. The lewd yet adorable imagery, the 1950's/60's illustration style - odd color choices, awkward geometry, expansive watercolor washes, doodly graphic elements. The animators are the Australian studio Rubber House, and it's worth taking a jump over to rubberhousestudio.com for a sampling of their other animation work, all equally adorable and cleanly produced.

Honk!fest '12

Honkfest is one of the best things Boston (technically Somerville) has to offer. I've been going for the past five years, and it never disappoints. The rules are: take someone new to initiate and blow their minds, and spend as much time as possible dancing in the streets with utter, unfettered abandon. Check and check. This year, it literally rained on our parade, but that didn't keep us from skanking down Elm st in the middle of the night, the brass horns and raucous, costumed crowd twirling and stilt-walking their way into the hearts (and ears) of Slummerville residents and visitors alike. How does one join a street marching band anyway? Should I invest in a squeezebox and some vaudevillian attire? Yes.
Pics from fellow Honk! attendees, c/o #honkfest on instagram:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsZBX2RhDZE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I have a particular fondness for out-of-context songs (see above, the fantastic Vera Lynn doing 'We'll Meet again' and the unfortunately un-embed-able ending to the anime Metropolis, with Ray Charles' version of 'I Can't Stop Loving You'). There's something to that irony, of visual destruction with a background of sweetness, romantic sadness...and the flip side is just as exciting, when normally sweet, endearing songs are done in an unexpectedly vibrant, even angry way - This weekend, my wonderful group of western MA folks lost a great friend, the impassioned, whip-smart, loud-mouthed Jameson Lavo, who headed up a local band called Trials and Tribulations; they did a fevered cover of 'You Are My Sunshine' that knocked my socks off the first and every successive time I saw it. I used to sing the song, in it's more traditional form, to the twins I cared for every night. It's so inherently sad when you are attentive to the lyrics, and worked amazingly with Jameson's hardcore energy (the sweat was literally flying by the end of it, and he'd have collapsed on the floor in passionate anguish several times). Four weeks ago I got to dance with him to bad 80's music for the last time, and indulge in some OWS discussion one last time, and thats the way I'll remember him, like a scene of destruction set to gorgeous, swooping music, or as something gorgeous and pure, set to a fevered scream.

WATCH

Apart from being an unabashed fan of Edward Sharpe and Magnetic Zeros, I thought this video paying tribute to some New York dance, cheer and jump rope programs was really cute. It brought me back to when I was part of teams like these, something I miss. And after a pretty awful week, having lost a friend to suicide and needing to find new employment, it's good to find uplifting moments where you can.

Scott

Scott Walker: 30th Century Man is on Netflix Instant. My only qualm: no footage of him performing Port of Amsterdam, my favorite by him (originally by Jacques Brel), and then I search YouTube and there's no Amsterdam there either, though there is a surprisingly unsatisfying cover of it by Bowie. Scott Walker: primo music of choice to accompany art-making.

LISTEN

So, there's this adorable, fun band I know named Sway. And they're the best. Aaaaannnd...you can totally download their latest album in it's entirety for FREE via a link on their FB page. You should do it.

DEAD MAN, Jim Jarmusch's 1995 meditation on how awesome Johnny Depp looks wearing fur and a top hat. Plus, the soundtrack is unbelievably mesmerizing. I somewhat recall a road trip where my ex and I drove through the Blue Ridge Mtns listening to Neil Young's trippy ambient guitar from this film. You really have to be in a specific mood for it, but worth. it.