Latrocious videe-i-e-i-e-i-o

Apparently, the music video isn’t completely dead. Here’s a couple good ones I’ve spotted lately.



Lots to love here from Company of Thieves. Jangly indie pop that takes me back to my college days, Genevieve Schatz belting out the chorus like Björk fronting R.E.M., and a video homage to the opening sequence of Rushmore put this one on my radar. Good stuff. Link from /Film.



Andrew Bird is a genius, plain and simple. I saw him for the third time last Thursday at the Ogden Theater. It’s amazing to watch one guy play guitar, violin, xylophone, whistle and sing all in the course of one song, and do it all incredibly well. You can’t quite get the full effect in this live video for “Fitz & Dizzyspells,” from his latest album, Noble Beast, but the addition of the marching band makes up for it. Link from Stereogum.



And in case you don’t get the reference in the title, Three Times One Minus One’s gonna make it a'ight...

The Expendables

News broke today that Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined Sylvester Stallone’s latest project, adding even more star power to a cast that’s shaping up to be insane... both literally and figuratively. I’ll let /Film explain:

The cast now includes Mickey Rourke, Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren, Forest Whitaker, Eric Roberts and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film tells the story about an “expendable” team, hired to do jobs that no one else can or will. The team is sent to infiltrate a South American country to overthrow the ruthless dictator and liberate the country.

Wow. I’m surprised they didn’t consider re-titling this “Where Egos Dare.” (Thank you, I’ll be here all week.) I wonder who gets the biggest trailer on that set? If Jean-Claude Van Damme hadn’t turned Stallone down, this could have been an 80’s action movie fan’s wet dream. As it stands, it’s still pretty close. Obviously, we’re very likely talking massive train wreck, but there’s no way the inevitable bad reviews will stop me from seeing this movie.

The Movies of 2008

Great editing. Thanks to /film for the heads up.

Work and Play

Last week, due to a last-minute illness of one of our regular writers, I blogged for work. It was an interesting experience. Not because it was new, but because in the four five years that I’ve been posting here, I’ve created a voice for this blog that I’m totally comfortable with—if I had to give it a name, I’d go with “geek snark” (or maybe gnark? sneek?). Even though I got the opportunity to write about a really amazing night of music, comedy, and dancing (2 of the 3 will seem quite familiar to regular readers of this blog), the assignment for work presented a challenge for me, because it didn’t feel like the blogging voice I’m used to would exactly cut it in the world of real reporting. (On the other hand, if you look at some of the other posts on Elevated Voices around the same time as mine, you’ll find several videos of a drag queen and a guy pretending to be French hunting “celebrities” around Denver, so “real reporting” is a term I use loosely.) I can’t say I’m 100% happy with the end result, and unlike this blog, I can’t go back and make unlimited edits, but I guess it turned out all right for a first effort. If there’s one thing I’ve figured out in the extremely limited writing I’ve done, it’s that I can at least do a decent job of mimicking other writing styles, so hopefully, I’ll get more chances to practice other voices beyond this one.

(And because I know she’s going to post a comment to this effect anyway, my friend Jenny has been telling me to try writing for other outlets for years now. It’s just taken me a while to figure out that she might actually be on to something.)

Just Browsing

This is why I love the interwebs. I found this photoblog, Delineated.com, while clicking links on my Last.fm profile. Turns out one of my neighbors (meaning, she has a very similar playlist to mine) my friend's friends is a photographer in Toronto. The blog seems to be more miscellaneous stuff, but she also has a site of terrific concert shots, and I really dig both. After all, it’s not everyday I run across a photographer who likes to shoot old hotel signs and Bonnaroo.

Photo © Carrie Musgrave

Reboot

One of the blogs I've been reading lately is Obsessive Consumption, one woman's quest to track all of her purchases and through that, comment on our culture of consumerism. Each day, she posts an item that she purchased (either with a photo or a very cool sketchy line drawing). Lately, I've been trying to think of ways that my blog can better reflect its theme (that being how I spend my leisure time), and Obsessive Consumption's format has given me inspiration. So, from now on, each of my posts (hopefully daily) will deal with at least one thing I did that day during my free time. For example:

Rome: The Complete First Season. For the last couple of nights, I've been watching this immensely enjoyable HBO show (and really, are there any HBO shows that aren't?). Since it’s about to return with new episodes, I wanted to get caught up before the second season begins. I love that the show is historically accurate (at least by Hollywood standards), yet still interesting dramatically. Turns out sex, politics, and war makes for good TV. But who knew all Romans had British accents?

The Random Factor

My life is finally back in the neighborhood of normal, so I've had some time this weekend to relax and reclaim my apartment from the dust and mold and piles of laundry. But despite my insanely busy week, I've been like a squirrel preparing for winter, gathering little nuts of randomness to share.

One of the sites I make a point to look at everyday is The Daily Monkey, a quirky collection of monkey-related photos and writings run by Brian Biggs, an illustrator I've worked with in the past. The monkeys haven't exactly been "daily" lately (Brian seems to be in the same boat as me), but the last post turned me on to this amazing set of photographs by a New Jersey photographer named Jason King. If there's one thing the internet has proved, it's that there's an incredible amount of undiscovered creative talent out there in the world, and it's nice that the internet has provided a place to see the work these people are creating. Of course, the internet has also proved that there's no end to what people will collect and fetishize, but that's a discussion for another time.

So, you may have heard that Dan Brown, author of a little book called The Da Vinci Code, is getting sued by anyone and everyone who's ever written a single word relating to Jesus. It's gotten so bad, last week, King James filed suit against him. Hey-o! (Ba-dum-bum.) Anyway, one of those suits, filed in London by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, was recently dismissed by the presiding magistrate, Justice Peter Smith. The interesting twist to this story, however, is that Smith included his very own code in his printed decision. Between this and the judge who handed down her decision in rap form in an Eminem defamation case in 2003, I can't help but think that judges who get cute with their decisions are really just publicity hounds with WAY too much time on their hands, and should really be spending more time earning their money the way they're supposed to.

Despite looking rather disinterested for most of the match, DC United tied with FC Dallas last night to extend their unbeaten streak to 5 matches. United's only goal came from midfielder Ben Olsen, who has continued to play well while anxiously awaiting the announcement of the US World Cup roster (which will be shown live on Tuesday's Sportscenter at 6pm Eastern). Best of luck to Ben, one of my favorite players (so much so that I own his jersey). He's definitely a bubble player for the US, but hopefully his strong recent play will be enough to earn him a trip to Germany. As for United, having seen all of their games this year, I have to say I don't think DC has played particularly well in any of them. There have been nice stretches and good individual performances, but barring last week's dismantling of the hapless New York Red Bulls, United haven't dominated anyone, but they still have yet to lose this season. That worries me a little bit. Something needs to happen to light a fire under their collective butts so that they don't think they can just coast through the season. At this point, they're looking a lot like the Chelsea of MLS: not pretty to watch and not looking like they're all that interested in the games, but still so good that no one can beat them. As an aside, I just wanted to mention that the Washington Post does a fabulous job with their United coverage (and soccer coverage in general). I'm continually impressed by their top-notch soccer writer, Steven Goff. Check out the profile of United's hybrid defender/midfielder, Josh Gros, that Goff wrote as a preview to this week's match. A lot of papers would just run a tiny preview box (if they bothered to cover MLS at all), so it's nice to see this type of effort and quality. As for Gros, he's an interesting character. If you can continually get under the skin of a classy World Cup winner like Youri Djorkaeff, you're doing something right. And check out that photo: Josh seems to be a tongue-chewer, just like me and MJ.

My friend CJ asked me to make her a mix of Rush songs, which turned out to be a very fun experience. It had been a long time since I had really dug deeply into my Rush collection, and it gave me a chance to renew my long love affair with the kings of geek-rock. It also exposed a few glaring gaps in my collection, which I quickly filled thanks to the iTunes store. As any good Rush fan knows, the band has gone through three pretty distinct phases. They are: 1974's Rush — 1978's Hemispheres; (1980's Permanent Waves acts as a bridge to the next phase) 1980's Moving Pictures — 1987's Hold Your Fire; and 1989's Presto — the present. The first phase introduces the band as a heavy rock trio who share a lot in common with Led Zeppelin: a high-voiced lead singer, a killer guitarist who favors Gibson guitars, a monster drummer, long songs exhibiting a love of Tolkien, and some very questionable fashion choices. 2112 is the high point of this phase. The second phase finds the band tightening up their sound (and song length) and introducing the synthesizer rather strongly into the mix, as well as Neil Peart swinging his lyrics away from swords and sorcery towards more futuristic science fiction. Moving Pictures is the peak album here, and is arguably the ultimate Rush album. And finally, in the third phase, the band largely ditches the synths, gets back to a more groove-oriented rock sound, and Peart's lyrics become more personal. This phase sees the band struggle (as all aging acts do) to stay relevant with their new music while trying to meet the fans' demands for their greatest hits in concert. For me, Counterparts is the album to own from this stretch, as it rocks harder than anything the band had done since Permanent Waves. Through their career, Rush have also put out six live albums. My personal favorite is Different Stages, but they're all fairly interchangeable. I prefer Different Stages because the mix is little more raw, which is something most Rush live albums are not. So what does this all mean? Well, to my and CJ's delight (and her husband's dismay) she got three discs, one for each era. And I discovered that digging through Rush's music to make a mix allowed me to rediscover my love for them, so I've decided maybe I should do the same for other bands I used to love but haven't listened to much of lately. Next on my list: Led Zeppelin.

I think I had some other stuff to talk about, but I can't remember. I'm in food coma now after a delicious omelet and cinnamon toast at Cafe Patachou. If you're ever in Indy and looking for a breakfast spot, don't miss this place. Yum.

IMAGES
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

SOUNDS
Permanent Waves, Rush
Signals, Rush
Power Windows, Rush
A Blessing and a Curse, Drive-By Truckers
Skeleton Jar, Youth Group
Mr. Beast, Mogwai
Nashville, Josh Rouse

Growing Up Young

The Peter Pan syndrome is now a generational movement. Meet the folks that New York magazine refers to as "Grups", but I like to call "half the people I used to work with in New York". It's a great article, because I always love seeing some writer try to pigeonhole an entire generation in 1,200 words.

However, I will admit there was quite a bit of self-recognition happening as I read this piece. The idea of adults refusing to grow up, embracing the dress-down movement as cultural rebellion and obliterating any sort of generation gap between them and their younger siblings and children is not news to anyone who's been within 50 miles of a major urban area in the past 5 years. It's just that the media is finally getting around to giving a name to the 40-something moms who still want to be Natalie Portman in Garden State and the (ahem) men in their early 30s who are wearing larger sizes of the same sneakers they wore in 5th grade to work every day. There's no doubt I fall into this category, and I'm not really ashamed to admit it. (Except that I think pre-ripped jeans is one of the stupider ideas the fashion world has come up with, and I'd never buy a pair. Besides, I've never spent more than $68 for a pair of jeans and don't plan on ever breaking that record if I can help it. Also, I don't have any kids yet, so I haven't tried to mold them into little versions of me. Yet.)

To me, it comes down to this: the media can try to create whatever labels they like, although hopefully it's something better than "Grups", which came from an old Star Trek episode. Lame. Whatever the term, there's only one way that I see this whole issue becoming a problem. I've had a job where I had a wear a jacket and tie, and you know what? It sucked. I sit in front of a computer all day. What the hell do I need to be wearing a tie for? So that I can spend the whole day hating my job while feeling like I'm slowly suffocating? No thanks. As long as someone will keep paying me even if I show up in head-to-toe Adidas, I'll keep dressing in clothes that make me feel comfortable, and young, and yeah, I'll say it, hip. My parents played their Beatles albums just as often as they played my Sesame Street records, and 30 years later we still enjoy each other's music. So there's no reason why my kids can't listen to Sufjan Stevens and Bloc Party. I have friends whose daughter loves to dance around the house to The Apples in Stereo, and she's one of the smartest children I know. So what? I don't see anything wrong with wanting to stay current on the latest music, or wear trendy clothes, or aspiring to a job that you actually enjoy instead of just doing it for the money. We can still be "adults" without becoming our parents and grandparents. But the lesson we should take from their generations is, they knew when it was time to put aside their lives and act like a parent. When attempting to stay young and hip becomes more important than raising your child and being a parent, that's when it becomes a problem. If it ever comes to that for me, I'll be happy to trade in my Gazelles and Ben Sherman bag for a sensible pair of Rockports and some pleated Dockers. But I don't plan on letting that happen, so don't hold your breath.

Chromewaves also posted about this article, as well as gathering a few links of responses, some embracing the label fully, and some wishing those darn overgrown kids would just grow up!

The Hand Of The Artist

I added two new links to my sidebar tonight. Both are illustration blogs by some artists I really enjoy: Process Recess by James Jean, who I've written about before, and Tropical Toxic, by Tomer and Asaf Hanuka. I've worked with Asaf in the past, and I'd love to work with both Tomer and James if the future allows. But I think it's fascinating to get a peek into the thought processes of these guys, and also to see what a big impact Photoshop has had on the "finishing" aspect of modern illustration.

I haven't come up with a new name for the blog yet, but I have made one decision. Beginning with the previous post, my headers are all going to be movie titles. Why? Because it's fun for me, that's why. God bless IMDB. I thought about using song titles, but Jenny beat me to that one.

Catch Up

As I stated so eloquently yesterday, I've got a mess of stuff to talk about, so here it is:

James Jean. If you read my recent post about Fables, you might recognize James' work from the covers of the collections. But he's also done some great work for Spin lately (pictured here), as well as some excellent stuff for other magazines and comics. I'm especially digging his cover for Green Arrow 50. But my favorite part of James' site is his blog, which gives the reader insight into how he works. Very cool stuff. I'd love to hire him, although I'm not exactly sure "Top Doctors" or "12 Hot Neighborhoods" is really his thing.

The Weathered Look. I'm always looking for new ways to make my layouts interesting, and lately I've been playing with different ways to antique or weather objects artificially. I've tried a lot of different things, both hand-crafted and digital, but recently I came across a handy little set of Photoshop filters that might make life a little easier. MisterRetro has created some very cool effects with his Machine Wash Filters which seem like they could be a massive step down the road towards getting that weather-beaten look. And for only $32 per disc, what a bargain!

...and the #1 song in the nation is... Here's a fun thing. You can select any day of the year (ideally your birthday) and find out what the #1 song was on that date every year since Billboard has been keeping its charts. The day I was born, the top song was "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight & the Pips. But my favorite birthday #1 is definitely 1990: "Ice Ice Baby". Word to your mother.

And finally, Füssball. The Nats take on Poland tomorrow in Kaiserslautern, Germany (TV coverage on ESPN2 at 2 pm eastern). This will be a good chance for the US to see one of the stadiums where they'll play this summer (they face Italy in the same stadium on June 17), but more importantly, it's a chance to work European players into the squad. Barring injuries or big surprises over the next two months, tomorrow's lineup should be very similar to the starting 11 who line up for the first match of the World Cup. The Yanks traditionally don't play well in Europe, so it will be interesting to see how they do tomorrow. Surprisingly, there should be a strong American presence in the crowd due to nearby Ramstein Air Force Base. After playing in front of so many hostile crowds in the US, it might be nice to play in front of a friendly crowd across the pond.

Like it or not, soccer is working its way into the American conciousness. Here's two articles from This Is American Soccer and The Sports Network that take two different angles but both suggest the same thing: soccer is already here, and it's just around the corner from huge popularity. Thanks to Todd and my dad for the links.

Breathtaking

My friends Nikki and Tom, being the adventuresome couple that they are (you may remember them as my hosts on our Alaskan Adventure back in August and September of '04), recently took a trip to Churchill, Canada to see polar bears in their natural habitat.

It sounds like an incredibly interesting trip, involving several days on a tundra buggy that sounds like it was like a moving camp bunk, but it led to some amazing photos by Tom. As I've mentioned before (and as anyone who's checked out the links on the right side of the page will know), Tom has his own website and is a rather accomplished nature and aerial photographer, but these polar bear photos are some of the most spectacular I've seen from him. But don't take my word for it. Take a look for yourself. A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. I'm particularly in love with "Peace on Earth Vertical". While you're there, please take the time to check out some of his other albums as well.

Elbow Room

Man, I am slipping. One of my favorite Brit bands, Elbow, has had a new disc available on iTunes since September 27th, and I just discovered it today. Granted, the physical CDs won't be released in the U.S. until October 18th, so technically, I haven't really missed the release date, but the fact that I didn't even know they had something new in the pipeline worries me. Am I slipping in my old age? Luckily, I was clued in today by two things: an ad in the latest Paste magazine, and a glowing review from Frank at Chromewaves. Since he and I seem to have similar taste in music, I downloaded Leaders of the Free World right away. I haven't gotten through much yet, so the jury's still out on whether Frank's effusive praise was warranted, but so far so good. One thing I agree with right away: the Peter Gabriel influence is front and center on this disc, especially on the third track, "Picky Bugger." With a little reworking of the backing instrumentation, it would fit right in on a number of Gabriel solo albums.

Frank's Radiohead comparison also prompted me to do something I've been thinking about for a while: complete my Radiohead collection, which meant finally purchasing Kid A, Amnesiac, and the live disc, I Might Be Wrong. All three discs have some good songs, but mostly listening reminded me why I was so happy to hear Radiohead's compass point swing back towards a more traditional rock sound on Hail to the Thief. I still maintain that had Radiohead combined Kid A and Amnesiac, they could have produced one great album and had some solid B-sides left over.

Mystery Man

As Major League Soccer continues its growth in this, its 10th season, one way I tend to track its progress is through the media coverage. In cities with MLS teams, coverage in the sports page for the home team (and soccer in general) is usually pretty good. Take a look at the paper in a non-MLS city though, and you’re usually lucky to find a standings table on the next-to-last page below the local high school scores. So as an American soccer fan so often does, I turn to the internet to get my fix. ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and the offical site for MLS are my main sources. Marc Connolly, Grant Wahl, and Jeff Bradley generally provide the bulk of the writing, offering insightful columns and interviews. But the stable of knowledgeable writers is beginning to grow. Ives Galarcep, Jeff Carlisle, Frank Dell'Apa, Jen Chang, Michael Lewis, Jamie Trecker and Robert Wagman also tackle MLS and US Soccer from time to time with varying degrees of quality and criticism. But the sign that the coverage is starting to mature is that there are now humorous columns that bring you MLS news with equal parts smack talk, sarcasm, and self-deprecating humor. Former MLS player Greg Lalas is beginning to find his voice, but much like ESPN.com’s Sports Guy column on Page 2, MLSNet has The Clean Sheet, written by a guy who calls himself Tino Palace. This is most definitely a pseudonym (if you look at his photo on MLSNet, you'll see he’s taken pains to disguise himself), and rumors of his true identity range from Drew Carey (celeb soccer fan) to Jim Rome (card-carrying soccer-basher) to Don Garber (MLS Commissioner). Whoever he is, the man can write. Granted, you’ll need a fair amount of soccer and pop culture knowledge to understand his jokes, but I take it as a good sign that a column like this can find a following. It speaks well for the development of MLS and soccer fandom in this country.

And then there's Heather Mitts. She may have a long way to go as a writer, but after looking at the faces of all these balding, paunchy sportswriters, she gives one heck of a headshot.

Odds and Ends

My concert future is starting to look very bright. Just got tickets for my brother and I to see Gift of Gab and Lateef the Truth Speaker from Blackalicious in two weeks. Ben Folds is going to be here the first weekend in May, and the week after I'm heading up to Chicago to see Doves. Add in back to back U2 shows in October, and I've got a pretty good stretch coming up. Hopefully, there will be a few more to fill in this summer. I'd love to see Coldplay, Stereophonics and Elbow if they get over to the US this year.

Todd passed this along from Kottke.org. It's a pretty ballsy example of culture jamming, which just happens to be the last chapter I read in Naomi Klein's excellent book, No Logo, a look at globalization and the growth of corporate conglomerates that spun into a movement (and of course, requisite website). I forgot how much I was enjoying that book before I got sucked into Gormenghast, so I've added it to my sidebar. And no, the irony of linking to her book for sale on a giant corporate conglomerate website is not lost on me. If you want to buy it, try your local bookstore, as long as Barnes & Noble hasn't squashed them out of business. (Steps off soapbox.)

And finally, apparently, laughter really is the best medicine. Well, maybe not the best, but good enough for a physician in India to start a laughing club 10 years ago and for the idea to spread to the US. That's funny stuff, people.