Special bonus points to those who remember Magnapop. After taking almost nine years off, they’re back. Mouthfeel was their last album. It came out in early 2005. According to their website they toured, they had a good time and now they’re hard at work on a new album. Nice to have them back.
Magnapop – Satellite (224kps mpthree)
Yay! It’s Musiquiz time again! Today for some reason I’m thinking about a band that’s last album was released about a year and a half ago. That’s not so interesting in itself, and it’s hardly a clue. But what’s strange is that their previous album came out in 1996, so it was their first album in nine years. These guys fit nicely into that college alternative universe. They were bouncy, they were upbeat, they were danceable, they were on MTV. This song was probably their biggest hit, and was the one that drew me into the fold back in ’96. Check it out:
Take a guess, and as before, I’ll post the answer at ten tonight.
I just can’t get Snowden out of my head. On the way back from the Sierra I must have played track six (“Between The rent And Me” about twenty times. I would play it once, then play it again, them again. Then I’d fake out the world and play something else for about three minutes before returning to play it again.
And so on.
Click the link below to see for yourself whether I’m insane or not.
Snowden: Between The Rent And Me (224 kps mpthree)
Website traffic is through the roof all of a sudden. It’s the ol’ Black Dahlia again.
Do an image search for “Black Dahlia” and you get this. The very first picture on the page is on my own site. Click on that and you’re pulled into my page about the delicate skin. I wrote the script years ago (completed it in 2002) from an idea that germinated back in ’99. It was the culmination of a long-held fascination with the Beth Short case. I wanted to write about it, but I didn’t want to simply tell the tale in a straightforward ho-hum manner. That had been done ad-nauseam already. I wanted to write something contemporary, something modern, that had its roots in the original case and drew power from it, but which played out like a ghost story. I wanted to tap into the tragic essense of the oringinal story but wrap in a feeling of supernatural dread. It took a hell of a lot out of me, but I did it. And the script is great.
It was optioned a few years ago, but the development of the current DePalma film clouded the vision of those who read it (“Isn’t there already a Dahlia film in the works?”) and it slammed headlong into roadblock after roadblock, especially after someone close to the DePalma peoduction got his hands on it; the next day the trades were filled with announcements. Forget that the DePalma film is based on the James Ellroy novel, which itself wasn’t a direct telling of the Beth Short story. Forget that mine was actually a modern crime story that uses Dahlia as a backdrop. Forget that there were worlds of difference between the two. There just can’t be TWO Dahlia movies.
Until now, of course.
New Line is now making Steve Hodel’s entertaining, but ultimately misguided tome, The Black Dahlia Avenger into a film. And once again, any attempt to get TDS off the ground will be met by a round of blank stares and comments like, “There just can’t be THREE Dahlia movies.”
So I’m just gonna throw in the towel on this one. You want a cool supernatural thriller? Here’s the premise: In the course of an investigation, a troubled, eccentric Robbery-Homicide detective meets a woman whom he begins to suspect may be an emerging incarnation of Liz Long, who died in the notorious Blue Rose murder of 1947.
Read it here. You’ll have to change the names in your head. I haven’t gotten around to doing it on paper.
Apparently, I can’t just leave my work at home. I have to take it with me on vacation.
Amoeba representin’ at Lamarck Col in the Sierra Nevada:
As usual, things don’t always turn out as you plan. I’m back from the Sierra Nevada a couple days early. The plan was to dive into the Sierra over Lamarck Col. Then head out of Darwin Canyon, up the vast granite bowl of the Evolution Basin, over Muir Pass, down LeConte Canyon, up to Dusy Basin, over Knapsack Pass, through the Palisade Basin, down to the Palisade lakes to rejoin the John Muir Trail, up over Mather Pass to Upper Basin and then out via Taboose Pass. But Keir’s feet aren’t up to the task. Totally my fault. The route I had chosen happens to be one of the more brutal sections of the John Muir Trail, and without proper conditioning and pre-punishment to the feet and legs, it can destroy one’s spirit. So we cut the trip short by a couple days and come out over Bishop Pass.
If you have even the slightest idea of where I’m talking about you get a medal (immediate members of my Sierra-obsessed family, of course, excluded.)
I’m now sitting in Burbank Airport. On Monday we learn upon coming out of the Sierra, exhausted and sunburned, that my grandmother, mother of my mother, has died. I’m going out to New Mexico for some family time.
I’m outta here folks. I had meant to prepare some nifty posts for while I was gone. But HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! Yeah right. If you have some magic time expanding machine, I’d like to borrow it. For the next seven days I’ll be here. See you when I get back.
While at Amoeba, try not to be too destructive while browsing. It makes things difficult for other shoppers.
This is our smut section (yes, we have one of those.) We all stand around and stare for a few minutes, just to absorb the enormity of what had been done here. Luckily, Logan is able to spot the guy who responsible. She asks him to leave before he got around to shopping the classics section.
Yeah, it’s “Believe” by Dig. Remember Dig? Not many people do. It’s unfortunate. Head honchio Scott Hackwith put together a band that often struck a fine balance between hard-edged rock and lyrical beauty. They were never well-received by critics, who wrote them off as sort of Jane’s Addiction redux, perhaps aping the pioneers of grunge-art rock. But they still have a small, ardent cluster of followers. I even managed to find a Dig fansite on the web.
Me? I just love the sustain and the feedback. Check out “Decide” as an example. More than any of their songs, this achieves that perfect balance.
Dig – “Decide” (192 kps mp3)
I’ve got some music I want to share with you. but I want to make it kind of interesting. I’m gonna give you an mp3. You tell me who it is.
If you can.
At exactly 10:00 PM I’ll post the answer. And another tune.
This band opened for Garbage one night in Santa Barbara before they got huge. And if that’s not enough of a hint, they just recently played a show at The Viper Room that I didn’t know about, otherwise I’d have been there. This is remarkable because the band has been long extinct. Or so I’d thought. Apparently, they have a new album in the works. This song was also an MTV Buzz Clip for weeks back in ’94.
And here’s a picture of the band:
I’m on La Brea. I’ve just crossed Hollywood Boulevard, approaching that intersection where Groove Fitness used to be (you know, that gym that supposedly had a live DJ spinning electro/house/trance while you worked out?) Ahead, coming from the other direction, is an ambulance. I dutifully pull over. There are a few other cars pulled over as well. And there’s another car parked on the sidewalk. A few more drivers pull over next to me. We wait. The ambulance draws closer. Slows down. What’s it doing…?
Wait, why is there a car parked on the sidewalk?
That’s when I realize that half the cars at the intersection were just involved in the very accident the ambulance is here to deal with. Nothing horrible. It is, as I suspect are common in L.A., just a monumental fender-bender. Since no one needs CPR and since the ambulance is here anyway, I drive on. And I think of my friend Alan, who wants nothing more to be in a situation where he gets to save someone’s life by giving them a tracheotomy. Every accident he passes becomes an opportunity to realize this odd dream, but so far, his pocket knife remains unused.
Next block. Just past Sunset now.
An SUV is pulled over on the right. Three men jump out of the vehicle and dart into traffic. It’s as if they don’t even see the oncoming cars. Then they’re jumping back to safety. One of them has forgotten to close the door of the truck. The traffic slows. They take advantage of this and charge into it again. They’re holding cameras.
I look left. Photographers cluster at the gates of the former Chaplin Studio, which is now the Jim Henson Company. These guys are paparazzi. I can’t see who they’re after, though I’m willing to bet Miss Piggy is taking a cigarette break on the lot. I fight a mad impulse to yank the car over and dart into traffic myself, though it looks like fun.
Daredevil, man of letters and hero to harp seals everywhere, Michael Keefe, has checked in with yet another cluster of excellent music reviews. If you’re wondering about the new Thom Yorke album, wonder no longer. If you’re jonesing for a Libertines fix, Dirty Pretty Things is on shelves now. Click here to plan your next foray to Amoeba, or what passes for Amoeba in your neck of the woods.
So I’m trying to decide on a name for a new website. This website is going to be the front door for my freelance web design projects. I want to be able to tell people to drop by this place if they’re curious to see what I’ve designed. Since I hope to be catering to creative Hollywood actors and photographers and such, I want something that’s simple and cool and, perhaps, a little cute.
Pondering this yesterday, I immediately think of bluebunny.com. It just jumps into my head and starts twitching its nose. I like it. I can already picture a spare, white web page with a single blue rabbit in the corner. Blue Bunny. That’s cute. I can imagine the conversation:
“I love your website! Who designed it?”
“Blue Bunny Design.”
“That’s so cute!”
But of course. bluebunny.com is taken. So is bluerabbit.com. I try greenbunny.com. redbunny.com. purplebunny.com. Taken. Taken. Taken. I do like the bunny thing, because I’ve always had this thing where I blame all the ills of the world on the Nefarious Black Bunnies of Doom and I’d like to invent a slightler nicer version of the species. Bunnies, however, prove to be popular on the web. So I try another animal, still thinking about the cool color idea. Colored animals. That’s gonna be my “thing.”
Cats are cool. I try bluecat.com. Taken, of course. Along with bluecat.net, bluecat.org, bluecat.info and yes, bluecat.biz. bluekitty? Taken. azurekitty? Taken. cobaltkitty? Available, actually, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it:
“I love your website! Who designed it?”
“Cobalt Kitty Design.”
“Oh.”
“Kitten” has the same problem. Kittens of every color exist on the web. But I do notice that blueberrykitty.com is available. So it jetkitty.com (“jet,” as in “black,” but with a cool “rocket” connotation.)
Briefly I try “puppy” but I guess I’m just not as into puppies as I am bunnies or kittens because I can’t get sickpuppy.com out of my head.
Later, I bring this up to some of my co-workers and get them thinking about it.
“Would you rather patronize a designer whose site was “littleblackbunny.com” or “blueberrykitty.com?” The question is met with immediate gagging all around. And for good reason. I don’t want this to be a cute-fest. That’s why bluecat.com would have been so cool. So then this exchange occurs:
Kirk: (improvising) What about… cat… tendon?
Me: cattendon.com?
Kirk: Believe me, it’s better than blueberrykitty.
He’s actually right. But then my little scene becomes:
“I love your website! Who designed it?”
“Cat Tendon Design.”
[projectile barf]
We keep going, inventing stuff on the fly. From cattendon.com we manage to get to kittygristle.com. Kitty Gristle. We laugh and laugh at first, but then we start repeating it and you know what? It’s kinda catchy. I start asking around. Test audiences like kittygristle.com a lot. “A little something for the girls and a little something for the boys.” I have reservations. I DO like the rhythm of the words so we try a few variations. kittythistle.com comes up. So does kittymissile.com, which I rather like (sort of like jetcat.com) kittyshizzle.com comes up, but I veto that one pretty quick.
kittygristle.com
That’s what people like. Kirk even draws a cartoony kitten in a frying pan and tells me it’s the logo for kittygristle.com. So if I go that way I already have some key art.
The jury’s still out. Other possibilities have come up. deepbluecat.com is available. I like that. And “indigo” is under-used in the animal kingdom, so indgobunny.com is available. And I’ve been playing with things other than colors today. concretekitten.com has popped up in my head once or twice (concretekitty.com is not available.) shadowbunny.com is taken, as is darkbunny.com, so those are out.
What do you think? Would you ask a guy who ran kittygristle.com to design a web page for you? What are alternatives? Any good synonyms for “blue” that I haven’t thought of (I’ve thought of a lot.)
So on Friday and Sunday my Mom and I catch some live tennis. Live tennis is a lot like televised tennis, but without the advertisements. That instantly makes it a thousand times better. Add to that the immediacy of a 360 degree chorus of oohs and aahs and you have a superior spectating experience. Unfortunately, all the big names are out before we get a chance to attend. Agassi, Safin, Hewitt and Roddick are either eliminated or bow out to injury. So on Friday we catch Robby Ginepri and Dominik Hrbaty (take notes, I’ll be quizzing you later) and then on Sunday we catch the final between Dmitry Tursunov and Tommy Haas.
Haas wins a very large cup and a big bottle of sparkling wine to pour into it.
You can’t tell in that picture above, but tennis has changed in the last few years. Balls have gotten a lot bigger. And I mean the green fuzzy ones. Check it out:
My Mom’s in town, so expect more photos and less verbiage. Yesterday we spend some time in the humidity and oppression of Summer ’06. First it’s a hike in Temescal Canyon. Then it’s an evening on the Santa Monica Pier where I’m working the Amoeba booth for the Twilight Dance Series. Last night it’s Lyrics Born, who puts on a fun show. Not that you could tell by looking at this particular attendee:
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, MUSIC, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, MOVIES, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, SCREENWRITING, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, STUFF, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, ME.
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