i started something i couldn't finish

it was a year ago today i started this blog. and soon afterwards i did not think i'd be doing this one year later but i am. i have used this forum to pontificate about movies, music and some other random things i love. today is no different...

thanks to the few and not-so-proud who read my diatribes...you know who you are. thank you kindly!

i am hoping to scribble a couple things in the near future like griff jr.s return to the emerald city, babettes feast next weekend, ebay wreckage and a soon to be new place for me to eat at called jack's tapas cafe (mainly chinese) - thank you for the tipster jbeeh coz' i love water spinach.

ok,k

kielslowski...
i do not know much about this guy so when the seattle film festival (which finally ended this last sunday - phew!) had a documentary on this incredible filmmaker, i decided i best check it out. titled "still alive", this touching and effective doc talks to all the right people who went to school with kielslowski, was taught by kielslowski and who worked with kielslowski and done with all the right angles. never too overbearing or drenched with sentimentalitity, this documentary gave insight to one of the finest movie makers in the last half of the 20th century. i got more of an impression that kielslowski was doing things his way although he was never quite sure what way that was...instead, he just created what he was feeling instead of having his own imprint - he just went with his gut. i get that impression from his "color trilogy" and "the decalogue". the mark of his movie's seem to be clear with a more linear movie like "the double life of veronique" which i also love but do not have the same affection for the previous mentioned craziness. if you know me well enough i have pushed people to watch "the decalogue" and have received mixed results from "i hated it" to "we could not watch the entire thing...". still, i stand by k. kielslowski and believe his movies stand alone among many others.

if i didn't love you

after eating at maneki last night, i was listening to fountains of wayne with a pal and she asked me "who influenced these guys"?

that was a clever question only in that she already knew the answer and there is nothing like sarcasm after a deluge of japanese food. keeping the tongue firmly in cheek or close to, i told her squeeze appears to be a major influence and she did not know of such animal. ha ha - now who's older and wiser? not me, i am just older. so instead of playing squeeze, i just talked about other tangental things, laughter ensued and that is that. so today's download is one of those records everybody should own, ARGYBARGY!! what a funny record...sweet, romantic and sappy but damn it, exceptional songwriting to the point where i am going home to listen to it right now.

if i, if i, if i, didn't, didn't...

c.harper

rest in peace charley.
every little thing about this guys illustrations i like.

lorna and henry

oh my - what a weekend. i want to say i wish it was still happening but i rather say this, i am glad it is over. i crammed way too much into it, ate too much great food, saw too many movies, and was on my couch and the floor of my apartment for close to four hours on saturday night. i am feeling it and coffee is almost helping. i really hope you all had a great weekend too with whatever you did. i wish i was in bed reading a magazine or watching a dvd of some mindless movie, talking trash about madrona moms and west seattle ice cream.

in keeping with my download freakout, the previous feist record - not the new one, is here for your pleasure download it here!

hey, seriously let it die.

what a wonderful man!

not too many years ago, about four or so, i met a woman who i took a liking to pretty damn quick. watching her take a tuna sandwich that was not hers for the taking had me captivated along with her crooked smile. still, ours was and remains a strange relationship as we pushed and pulled each other in every direction.

we tested each other, our limits and smarts. and just like the murakami novel, we seemed to be like satellites - going in opposite paths. hell, she even at one point moved to an island on the opposite side of the world...but i digress. yet to this day, we remain intertwined.

today we have a d/l of mmj "Z" and it's up for grabs. this same woman and i share the love of my.morning/jacket and now you can too. this, their latest record is one of the finest records to come out last year...i can't stop listening to it. live, these guys rock out so damn hard. i love 'em.

to nik.

sweet child owen men

last night i finally got around to watching "children of men". i can recall wanting to see this movie over and over after hearing good, bad, great and just awful things about it.



i liked it. a lot. for me the best science fiction is not way out things that are so futuristic that i just cannot seem to believe any aspect of it...thereby my not being a star wars nerdlinger. instead i prefer that feeling and view of a story which almost appears contemporary, as though this is happening right now with some of your more way out things like a story similiar to "children of men". at times this movie had a strange cronenberg feel to it...something biological and futuristic simultaneously while still appearing like this can happen tonight or tomorrow. pushing that point one step further, the obvious and well done nod to politics (hello guantanamo!) and the insane view of what the apocolyptic future might look at was spectacular. i was kind of blown away by the appearance of every shot - the direction was just incredible. netflix saved the day although i must say that if i saw this in the cinema on the big screen...i probably would have been numb after the lights went up. instead, i did my dishes and said, clive owen is my favorite actor alive right now.

artists only

track #4
small world huh?




so, so sick.

see my friends

once in a smoke filled rage, i told someone who thought they knew everything about music that ray davies wrote better songs than that duo known as lennon-mccartney.

i stood by it and of course i was more trying to insight some kind of tension than make that exact point. still, i love them all and really, i don't want to say one is better than the other only because i actually find all three of these songwriters very different albeit from the same era. and sure, ray has been around for what seems forever, mark david chapman and the break-up of los beatles, blah, blah blah...well, i still cannot say enough great things about the first five kinks records. the second one, kinda kinks, i think is a masterpiece! every single song just bleeds british red blood all over the listener. ray davies' words just are so simple and so direct. god damn it, down load 'kinda kinks' here because you too must share the love. song titles in the comments...

kinda perfect

heaven must have sent you from above...

dear marvin,

i miss you terribly. you are and have been and will always be my favorite singer. i can still recall the first time i heard "what's going on" as a kid. the song struck me as something i must listen to, that i had to pay attention to this for it was written for me and later to learn for everybody. hearing you for what seems like year after year - your music became a part of the soundtrack to my growing up in so.cal. sorry to say i also have the simple memory of the day you were shot and killed in 1984. how i can still remember talking about it with my friend dvaldez prior to going to see the cramps play at a club called ichabods in ftt which is now a burger king? memories can't wait. man, i miss you marvin! i bet you'd still be knocking us dead with new stuff if you were around but be sure, you have never left...

d/l the #1's made famous by marvin right here!

obvious #4

chatting away on instant message not too long ago, i recently thought of a song i hadn't thought about it quite a bit of time. i am not going to tell you which song but i will tell you the artist...prince. i have never hidden my love of the minneapolis manic but one thing that amazes me most about him is that although i don't love everything he does but i am always interested. and the man has some b-sides that are unbelievable that you know really must check out along with mixes and tons of mish mashed stuff. go to the comments portion of this blog entry for details...so, here you go and there i go. the weekend is here!
CDs 1&2

las peliculas de habla espanol+ usted = ahora hablamos!

the seattle film festival has started and so far, so - so, so - so? well, last night i saw an outstanding movie called "el violin". here you will find the trailer to this mexican movie that had me transfixed from the moment it started to the very end. i won't tell you too much about the plot but i will tell you that the acting, on the most part by the older character don plutarco and his grandson was pitch perfect. i was reeling after seeing this movie and i hope everybody will have the chance. netflix it, find it and just watch it. filmed in beautiful black and white, movies like this don't come out often enough!

love, song

The change will do you goodI always knew it wouldSometimes I'm thinking that I love youBut I know it's only lustYour kiss so sweetYour sweat so sourYour kiss so sweetYour sweat so sourSometimes I'm thinking that I love youBut I know it's only lustThe sins of the fleshAre simply sins of lustSweat's running down your backSweat's running down your neckHeated couplings in the sun(Or is that untrue?)Colder couplings in the night(Never saw your body)Your kiss so sweetYour sweat so sourSometimes I'm thinking that I love youBut I know it's only lustThe change will do you goodI always knew it wouldYou know the change will do you goodYou know the change will do you goodDamaged goodsSend them backI can't workI can't achieveSend me backOpen the tillGive me the changeYou said would do me goodRefund the costYou said you're cheap but you're too muchYour kiss so sweetYour sweat so sourSometimes I'm thinking that I love youBut I know it's only lustThe change will do you goodI always knew it wouldYou know the change will do you goodYou know the change will do you good

I'm kissing you goodbye

stupid girl

neil. i love ya and i don't care that you make weird records like trans or are you passionate (wait, i kinda like both of those) or that you are such a weirdo. you are my 'go to guy' and just recently i was watching "rust never sleeps" for the kajillionth time and was still astonished! electric, acoustic and noisy and cantankerous, neil - you are one lovely man. i was not sure which neil lp to put up on this blog of mine and decided on the mighty zuma - download it here!

not too long ago cnik and i were listening to this and she said it felt like the music was hypnotizing...as if it was meant to put the listener in a trance. maybe, however i am not sure what that means yet after listening to 'cortez the killer' (over and over) with all the noodling, maybe she was onto something. that joint rocks in at over seven minutes but it moves at a pace that makes one think it goes on forever...in fact it fades out and yet lingers. i just remember listening to this album over and over when i was 15 and now thirty years later i am still doing the same! now its your turn! happy friday y'all.