Don’t Shush Me.
Déjenme ver:
First, if you’re in NYC this month, check out I Kiffe NY, a cultural festival organized by the French Institute Alliance Française which will take place starting tomorrow, October 6 until October 28. Basically, it focuses on urban culture in France, so they’re highlighting awesome shit like music, film, visual art, and dance performances, along with the requisite scholarly panels for those of you (like me!) who like that shit. A lot of the panels are free! Just make sure to check if they’re in French or English. The dance performances seem really fun, but they’re a bit more expensive, $25. It’s not Broadway prices, but still… you could buy a lot of falafels with $25. They’re organizing a CMJ showcase, too!
Second, I was just on Racialicious and found this post from a week or two ago on an ad that Daddy Yankee did to encourage voting… o algo así. The problem is that the slogan is, to say the least, confusing. “Vota o quédate callado.” I mean, that doesn’t sound like my vote is important or necessary or crucial in influencing anything. Well, the Racialicious folk and Raquel Rivera sum up the ridiculousness of this slogan way better than I could, definitely check out what they have to say.
So let’s talk about the song this guy SieteNueve giving Daddy Yankee shit for his politics. The Racialicious contributor says SieteNueve is a reggaetonero, but from the sound of the song… sooooo not. Which, to me, makes the message of this video even louder. No es solo una batalla entre demócrata contra republicano o lo que sea, también es como una batalla entre rap y reggaetón. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it? Either way, I’m digging the song a lot!
The reason I’m mentioning this even though it was posted a while back is that I haven’t heard much hollering about it. And, well, I love me some drama so I thought I would add fuel to the fire. Besides, I don’t think it’s a song that should be… er, shushed and forgotten.
Another thing: it may be because I’m listening to lightweight shit like “Especially For You” all the time (shut up shut up it’s an awesome song), but this dis track is like, the meanest shit I’ve heard in a while. It might be even meaner than Chandra’s “Kate.”
Haha, no no no. Chandra’s “Kate” takes the cake on mean.
On Books and On Time.
I’ve been absent from here. I’m sure you don’t care. But I do want to spend a few minutes writing about this absence.
When I graduated from school a few months ago, one of things that excited me most was the prospect of finally being able to read whatever the fuck I pleased for whatever fucking reason I wanted. No more assigned reading? Hurrah!
So here I’ve been, these past few months, and I have all this time in my hands, but I’m not sure how to divide it properly. Most of my time is spent at work, or asleep, or eating a meal, and then finally there’s some sort of leisure time. It’s bad enough I haven’t been keeping in contact with people, but then there’s the constant “Should I be reading or should I be writing?” issue. It’s the kind of reading too. I have all this fiction on my shelves waiting to be read, and then there’s all these blogs that matter a lot to me and have so much of substance to say that must be read NOW because in the blog world timeliness is next to godliness, right?
And then in terms of writing I have to decide whether I want to blog, or write in my real journal, or if I want to work on little poems and cuentos and such–all of this writing is basically worthless but somehow fulfilling.
On top of that I’m such a fiend with pop culture that I have a fierce desire to keep up with television and such not just because I love it but because it’s a great way to connect with people.
Anyway, my priorities have been as such: work, food, sleep, reading, and writing.
Work is going great, I spend most of my money on food, I sleep as fitfully as I have done for most of my life. I’ve been reading some awesome shit. Like at McNally Jackson, I magically found (multiple!) copies of Etiqueta Negra which blew my mind. Y’know, that magazine that Daniel Alarcón is affiliated with. I spent ten sweet dollars on it, which was a shitload of money but I still hope that my purchase will signal to them that people are interested in those sorts of magazines.
I finally got these Sandman volumes from the library that I’d been awaiting for a couple of months. I finished The Doll’s House and it was almost as exciting as the first time I read it. Neil Gaiman is untouchable. He was around last night at some event for his new book, which I’d had a chance to go.
The other great thing I’ve been reading tonight is this blog called Three Percent, which focuses on literature in translation. I’ve spent a few hours checking out their older posts and I just want to weep with excitement because sometimes you feel so alone… After graduation I’ve been gravitating more and more towards authors who don’t publish in English, so this sort of blog (that leads to even more blogs!!) is heavenly, just because I can see that my interest isn’t unique and because it means there’s a chance to participate in continuing dialogues about literature around the world.
Speaking of translations, I noticed that Oscar Wao has finally been translated into Spanish. I was curious as to how they would pull that off, so I glanced at a copy and I was like, “OH. MY. GOD.” You know what they did? There is an extra set of footnotes. If you’ve read the novel, you know that Díaz uses extensive footnotes, except the novel in general makes so many references to all sorts of shit (not just sci-fi namecheckin’) that the Spanish translators had to add their own footnotes to give context. Yikes! That must be a bitch to read! I can’t even understand how they handled the whole Spanglish issue.
Sigh… The suckiest thing for me right now is knowing that certain books exist and not being able to buy them because having them shipped from far away is just too expensive. (Oh, hello Ville Ranta… I hope to own Papa est un peu fatigué someday…) This is the sort of shit that makes me regret that I went to a private university. What with the shitty economy, I fear I’ll never pay off my loans. What about the public library, you say? They don’t even carry Andrés Caicedo! How am I supposed to learn what Fuguet is fucking fussing about if I can’t get a copy of Caicedo’s works? Bah!
Ian MacKaye + Thurston Moore @ St. Francis College (Brooklyn Book Festival 2008).
Today was the Brooklyn Book Festival and one of the more unexpected panel offerings was a Q & A with Thurston Moore and Ian MacKaye. I’ve already seen Ian speak before and I’ve already seen Sonic Youth live, but I wasn’t gonna pass up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So I queued up as early as I could to make sure I would get a ticket for this.
Johnny Temple, who used to rock out but now publishes books at Akashic, introduced the two and sat back as people interrogated Ian and Thurston. Before he gave up the mic, he did state that not a single author at the festival was getting paid to be there, which was amazing to hear, because they had some incredible “gets” (Walter Mosley spoke at the venue right before the Ian & Thurston panel, I saw him exiting the place). I think only five or six people got a chance to ask questions, mostly because the two dudes had a lot to say. The introduction by Johnny was really great because he gave out a warning that all panelists should give out at Q & A sessions: don’t ask stupid questions. Johnny Temple reminded us that Thurston and Ian have been interviewed a gazillion times, so if we had any basic questions we should just Google the information. I was pleasantly surprised by the level of questioning from the crowd, which mostly consisted of younger (college age?) people. I just wanna give props to all the people who got a chance to ask questions because they were great. Even though we were at a book festival, they understandably asked a lot about music and business, like about the “pay what you want” model à la Radiohead, or how bands these days are quick to align themselves with corporate brands that have nothing to do with music in the first place.
Even before anyone asked any questions, Ian just had to rant about how we shouldn’t use Google as a verb and speak of personal music-listening devices instead of iPods and to stop talking about YouTube and refer to them as video streaming websites. He was crazy serious and he absolutely had a point that we shouldn’t use brand names so mindlessly but I couldn’t stop laughing because before the panel started, my friends and I jokingly bet that Ian would talk more (moore??) than Thurston.
But Thurston got his say, too, such as when he declared his fetishistic love for LP records, and how he and Steve Shelley have had plenty of arguments whether to “sell out” their music for products that are totally unrelated to music.
Above all, I thought Thurston and Ian were hilarious as a pair, in a comedy duo kind of sense. Just picture them. There’s this one really tall dude with floppy hair and another kinda short dude with hardly any hair. Ian definitely played the straight man, carefully considering the questions posed and giving long answers with lots of anecdotes, while Thurston mostly sat back and looked cool, offering occasional witty comments.
As Ian is wont to do, he told stories about when he was younger and he did so very eloquently. He spoke of the shock of hearing a mix tape for the first time, how it had never occurred to him that an(y) individual could choose which songs to put into a tape and even draw a little cover for it. The weird thing is that this story veered into how the person who showed him this mixed tape was some druggy European dude who was a friend of a friend (or something) and how Ian had met said druggy European dude on a ride to see the Ramones in New Haven in 1979.
“What year did you say it was?” Thurston asked him.
“1979.”
“Dude, I was there!”
Those are not direct quotes. There was this whole exchange with Thurston asking whether Ian did coke with the druggy European dude and Ian bursting out with a resounding HELL NO. Thurston said he didn’t remember Ian at the Ramones show, but that he sure remembered Ian’s druggy European friend, haha. I’m not sure if Thurston was just pulling Ian’s leg about being at that Ramones show. This suspicion was exacerbated by the fact that, nearing the end of the hour-long discussion, when they seemed to forget about the Q & A and just started throwing out respectfully bromantic comments at each other, Thurston spoke about one of the first times (the first time?) he met Ian. Sonic Youth were playing at the 100 Club in London and Ian was just chillin’ in the audience and then Thurston approached him and was all like, “Yo wassup” and they started talking and how all of a sudden Nick Cave made an entrance and Ian* was “three sheets to the wind” and started bugging out about Nick Cave being in da house and la la la (here Thurston began a priceless impersonation of Nick Cave, except I was laughing too hard to be paying close attention)–which prompted Ian to reply with “That is such a lie!!” And then Ian started talking about how it wasn’t the first time that Thurston had lied about Ian, except by that point I had completely lost it with the unexpected Nick Cave cameo in Thurston’s anecdote. When I left the auditorium I was still howling with absolute joy.
To be hyperbolic about the whole shebang: this was one of the most rewarding hours I’ve spent in my life, if only because it was bitchin’ humid outside and it was so delightful to spend it with Ian MacKaye and Thurston Moore in an air-conditioned auditorium with pretty sweet acoustics that allowed everyone to ask questions clearly without a mic.
I’m sure some of those present will read this and say “This is a completely inaccurate breakdown of the event” and I agree. I didn’t take notes on purpose because I imagined it would be one of those wonderful experiences that I’ll allow to become tainted in my memory with the passage of time.
The rest of the festival, minus the insufferable weather, was fun, too. Somehow I ended up subscribing to The Dirty Goat, a lit mag that features a lot of non-American authors both in their original language and in translation. At least… I hope they send me the issues. I paid good money for the subscription, haha.
EDIT: The One Story posse was at the festival, too, and they just posted a story that various passersby wrote collectively. It’s kinda sorta hilarious. I really wanted to get a subscription to One Story but I had to resist their allure because I was short on dinero. I’d ask my parents to buy me a subscription, but I’m planning to ask them for new bookshelves as a combination birthday/Christmas present this year, and that’s already asking for too much.
* ANOTHER EDIT: Ah shit, my token 90s friend told me that Thurston was referring to Nick Cave as “three sheets to the wind,” which makes a lot more sense.
Donnell.
My favorite branch of the NYPL, Donnell, ceased its regular services a while back but today was its very last day. I went yesterday for one last visit and I have to say that I almost cried on the way there. I think I wouldn’t feel so bad if it would close temporarily for renovations, but they’re getting rid of the entire building and building a hotel there. When Donnell reopens, it will be located on the lower level of the hotel. So I will never experience the Donnell library in the same way again. Who knows how long it will take to rebuild.
I do think that the pain I feel is based on nostalgia. The first time I went to Donnell was on a class trip and got a card there. (I think I cried when I lost the card I got from there, which happened over five years later.) I liked going to the “Teen Central” and checking out all the cool CDs and comic books while listening to music. One specific time I remember they were playing Fever to Tell in the background.
As far as selection, the Donnell was pretty right on for me. That’s why I didn’t mind trekking down to midtown and maneuvering my way around tourists and busy office people. It had a great media center where I borrowed out a whole set of Carter Family CDs which is still uploaded on my computer. That’s right–when seeking my soul failed, I tended to just go to the library and uploaded a lot of the CDs I got there. I’m not ashamed to admit this, and in fact I’m so grateful that the library had such a great collection for me to discover. I remember one time I just came across a Smog album… and the only reason I’ve heard Neubauten is because I took out Halber Mensch out of Donnell.
It had a really incredible selection of foreign language literature that really saved me when I had to get books for my Spanish classes. If I wanted something, it was there, you know?
I didn’t go to prom. I went to the Donnell early that evening.
Hmm. Nostalgia is such a dangerous thing. To be frank (and cheesy I guess) I feel like another part of my childhood has really ended. Fuck, now I gotta make another branch my official library.
Festival Madness.
Honestly. I don’t know why I want to watch Steven Soderbergh’s Che at the New York Film Festival. It’s not like I’m a Che Guevara groupie, y’know what I’m sayin’? And who knows if it’ll be a good movie, maybe it’ll be the ultimate exercise in ego trippin’. I’m deluded to think that I’ll be able to queue up for god knows how many hours and be able to pay god knows how many dollars to see the movie. Never mind having like, 4.5 hours to spare.
Oh, but I’ve never been to a movie with a 30-minute intermission! That sounds so much fun! Imagine the snacks they’ll have for us! And I wonder if they’ll have a magician doing tricks for us while we await for the second half? And oh, I can just picture all the gossip that will be traded around on the bathroom line!
Crap… actually, I get the feeling Che is already sold out, because the Lincoln Center members get first dibs and I’m sure a lot of people requested tickets for the movie.
Okay, okay, I’ll shut up. You should definitely check out the rest of the festival line up. I know that judging a movie by its trailer is akin to judging a book by its cover, but I tried looking up the trailers for the films to get a feel for what they were about. Unfortunately, a lot of them didn’t show up on any sort of google search. Of the trailers I found successfully, the one impressed me most was for an animated movie called Waltz With Bashir. Holy shit, it looks AWESOME. Check out the trailer below.
Strike a Pose.
Oh word? I was chillin’ at Racialicious and the video above was posted on there. I just don’t expect this sort of stuff posted on Racialicious. Usually I go to the site when I wanna feel enraged about all the injustices of the world. (LOL, just playin’. )
The video’s so-so, which is lamentable porque ni es la primera versión del video. If you’re gonna redo a video, it’s gotta be sooooo much more fly than it used to be. (Oof, if only Robyn would read that previous sentence and take it to heart.) Yo digo demasiado Daddy Yankee, not enough Jabbawockeez! Haha. I’m really glad that, at least, the group is getting a lot of work.
Al menos la canción está buena. That’s the reason I’m reposting the video, even though I’m sure everyone has heard the track already. I first heard it on this post on W&W. It’s a really interesting post, worth checking out.
But back to the Racialicious post. What a tease! The post said they’d be doing another post in the future about hip-hop and reggaetón. Can’t wait to hear what they have to say, mostly because the critiques I tend to hear or read about reggaetón are usually by music writers. It should be cool to hear the Racialicious crew–which is mostly female!–speak up on this genre of music. Even if their post sucks, I hope there will be a lot of juicy comments that will make me think.
Damn, I can’t believe this song was released last year, I wish I could put it in my 2008 singles list.
Meninas Brasileiras.
To coincide with LAMC week last month, Latina published a music issue where they highlighted a lot of emerging artists. Well I just noticed that the magazine’s website posted a small video feature to go along with that issue. It features soundbites from several artists* who were at LAMC.
It’s not like the comments section to any website is a treasure trove, but I was really interested in the comments for this post because of the reaction some had over Brazilian Girls. There are no Brazilians and only one girl in the group, and there was some debate over Brazilian Girls being identified as a Latin music group. A couple of them expressed anger at Latina for “lazy journalism,” saying that the magazine should have fact-checked whether there were any Latinos in the band.
I understand why some people are upset, but I do think they’re overreacting. It wasn’t the magazine’s idea to put Brazilian Girls in the LAMC show for Celebrate Brooklyn. I mean, why direct anger at the magazine for wanting a scoop? If the band was there, and it was buzz-worthy among certain crowds, I can’t blame the publication for wanting a quote from the band and then featuring the interview bit on the magazine’s website.
The other thing to ask is SO WHAT? That’s a serious question and I’m not asking it to be dismissive of the complainers, necessarily. I’ll be the first to admit I was iffy about Brazilian Girls as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn lineup, mostly because I thought their sound didn’t really jive with Miranda!, who at that point were supposed to headline the show. Also, the people organizing the show could have found another group who could use more exposure in NYC. Brazilian Girls already have a decent following here. And yes, I do feel like it could have been a group that had more people of Latin American descent, or who performed music that is more clearly based in some Latin American genre or other, or a group that performs primarily in Spanish (or Portuguese).
But back to SO WHAT. Like, digamos que ninguno de los miembros en un grupo se puede identificarse como una persona Latina. Is it really bad if a band is inspired by a genre of Latin American music and infuses it in their own work? I don’t really listen to Brazilian Girls, pero ellos admiten una influencia multicultural (tienen canciones en varios idiomas) que incluye música de origen Latino. I mean, hey, why don’t we yell at all the bands with mostly Latino members who insist on making music in genres dominated by Anglos–rock o lo que sea–or who write most of their lyrics in English and accuse them of rejecting their own cultures. (I’m not advocating that we do so. After all, we’d be yelling at a looooot of very talented people.)
Of course it’s a touchy situation–you don’t want the non-Latino to just latch on to Latin American music because it’s trendy or because of some romantic view. Ick, ick. At the same time, I don’t think it’s the end of the world to embrace bands that openly acknowledges being inspired by Latin American music and even make an effort to perform in Spanish, etc. Not to get all cheesy on you, but I do think that music should be inclusive, not exclusive. The more people can enjoy music, the better, and I enjoy groups that reflect how vastly diverse our world is becoming, don’t you? Or maybe you feel threatened that your culture will lose its identity if there’s too much back-and-forth and dialogue among various cultures. Hm, I guess I understand that too.
I mean, I think the biggest tragedy with Brazilian Girls is that their music doesn’t grab my attention. Seriously, I can’t imagine ever being a fan.
LAMC has had non-traditional acts before, the kind you would not expect to see at a convention on Latin American music. The one time I went to see Aterciopelados, Coheed and Cambria opened for them(!). I was aware that their lead vocalist is Latino, but Co & Ca are mostly made up of white musicians, the band is based in the US, their music is influenced by American rock bands, and they sound totally prog-y, a genre that I seriously doubt originated in a Spanish-speaking country. Frankly, having them open for fucking Aterciopelados was one of the biggest WTFs I’ve experienced in my life. I don’t get what the LAMC’s goal was, but they have a track record for featuring musicians of all backgrounds and of all genres, and I guess the Brazilian Girls appearance was just another act in the same vein.
One thing that did surprise me, I should note, was the comment by one person stating that the singer of Brazilian Girls is Latina because she is Italian, and Italy is a “Latin European country.” I never even knew that there were “Latin Europeans,” but there’s a whole article about it on Wikipedia, y como todos sabemos, ¡Wikipedia nunca miente! (Jajaja.) Supposedly it’s equivalent to the term “Latin American.” Pueden leerlo aquí, como pueden ver, the article is under dispute. En serio, you learn something new everyday, and the whole Latin European concept kind meets my quota for today.
But c’mon, dude, even if Italy was the heart of the Roman empire and was all over the Latin that now makes a basis for Romance languages, “Latino” has a totally different concept in the US. Here we’re talking about hispanohablantes (and in some definitions, those who speak Portuguese as well). If you ever read Latina magazine, in fact, you’ll see that is geared toward women who have a Spanish-speaking or Portuguese-speaking heritage, primarily from the Americas. Nothing in their pages on Italy, or France, or Romania…
A final comment about the video on the Latina site: I thought it was cool that all the artists interviewed were able to speak English. Some had heavier accents than others, but they were all more than capable of presenting their groups in English and expressing some of their artistic views. Bilingualism is always appreciated! Kudos to those interviewed for this video.
Sorry for the weird, scattered and not-very-timely rant. I mean, what do you think? Am I completely off-base, am I too dismissive of the commenters? Maybe I completely missed their point.
* The groups featured in the Latina video:
Brazilian Girls
Chana
Francisca Valenzuela
La Pulquería
Los Fancy Free
The Fire and Reason
Ximena Sariñana
Estoy Aquí.
Hi. It’s been a while.
In case you cared, and I’m sure you don’t, I did go see Kinky for my very first time a few weeks ago. I had this whole post about how much I loved the entire afternoon, from Pistolera to Mariachi Real de Mexico to el Instituto Mexicano del Sonido to Kinky. I was wrong about my guess in the previous post; IMS did not DJ the show and instead played a solid set with his band and it was wonderful. At one point they did a real 1-2-3 punch going from “Para no vivir desesperado” to “Mirando a las muchachas” to “Hip hop no pares.” They’re my favorite songs of his so I was ecstatic.
Well, I scrapped that whole long post because all those silly little details aren’t crucial, what matters is that I was watching Kinky from the back, and I saw how strongly people reacted to their set, and I really had one of those moments where I thought, “Why am I not doing something like this? I could do it!” I don’t mean to say that Kinky were so sub-par that I thought I could do better. But I did wonder what stops me from making music while other people just get up and do everything they can to make music. Siiigh. You know what they say: those who can’t, blog.
Last night I went to a free screening of Velvet Goldmine at McCarren. It was fun. There were a few technical snags which were annoying as hell, but for the most part, I had a good time. I feel like I giggled through the entire movie. At first it didn’t seem like there were gonna be a lot of people but when the movie ended and I looked back at the crowd, I was surprised! I also thought there would be a big queer contingent dominating the crowd, but there was a strong mix of people to see the movie. Either way, I’m glad there’s so many people who dig the movie.
I leave you with a real gem I found on YouTube. Absolutely glorious.
A Day in the Park.
Oh guck! I mean, oh fuck! Alejandro Escovedo had to cancel his appearance at SummerStage tomorrow so he’s been replaced by el Instituto Mexicano del Sonido and Mariachi Real de Mexico! I’m sorry to be so happy about this change, but I’ve wanted to see IMS live forever and missed every chance. I’m mad excited about this! However, it sucks Escovedo had to cancel due to illness, hope he gets better soon.
I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that IMS will be DJing throughout the afternoon. The Central Park folk run a tight ship in terms of scheduling, so I’m sure it’ll be like the Jamie Lidell show with three performances and a DJ playing between sets.
This video makes me so happy.
What Are We Selling Here?
I wanted to point to two commercials from the current Payless ad campaign. The first I’ve seen for a few weeks now, and the reason it caught my attention was because it uses “Van Nuys (Es Very Nice)” by the totally defunct band Los Abandoned. You can see the ad here. I was very pleased to hear it because they never got very big and I feel like they should get a few royalties for their hard work, right? Also, that song is so peppy, I can’t fucking deny its awesomeness. Below, the original video to the song.
Well, more recently I noticed another ad with happy beautiful young people running around in bargain-priced shoes. But this ad uses “Snapshot” by Kinky, who will be playing a free show on August 9 at Central Park. That one surprised me more because it’s an older song. It was never one of my favorites from Atlas, so at first I had to ask myself, “How do I know this song?” I know that Kinky and Los Abandoned are very different bands from very different places, but seeing the two ads, I was pleasantly surprised by two Spanish-language groups featured in these ads. (Actually, I must clarify that both bands had a strong “Spanglish” approach to their lyrics, though.)
I just went to the Payless website and it said that the agency that did the ad is Martin Williams. I wonder if the person who took care of the music thought it was fun and young and appropriate for the demographic they wanted to hit (trendy “cosmopolatinos”??), or if the person just really liked those bands. I also wonder if there are other Payless ads with Latino-friendly bands playing in the background?
Of course, neither of these ads will have as much of an effect as the use of “Paper Planes” in the Pineapple Express trailers and ads. I don’t know how well the movie will fare, which is being released today, but I sure as hell know that the use of “Paper Planes” has affected M.I.A. somewhat positively. I mean, I don’t know for sure if she’s moving more units, but I assume greater exposure to the masses means more chances of selling albums. I was listening to Z100 for the first time in ages, and heard the intro to the song. I wasn’t sure it was the commercial for the movie, but the DJ assured me that I was hearing a “new” track from M.I.A. At first I was really excited that I was hearing her on the radio (don’t ask me why, I can’t explain), but then I was like, “Wait, what about the gunshot sounds??” They tried to mute them, but the song just sounds ridic like that.
“All I wanna do is BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! … and take your money…”
Jamie Lidell, Janelle Monáe, etc @ Central Park SummerStage.
Fui a Central Park pa’ ver el concierto de Jamie Lidell, Janelle Monáe, Little Jackie, José James, y el “dejota” Gilles Peterson. The concert was really loud. I know I keep saying that about every concert or movie I attend, but it just stresses me out. I also hate seeing so many kids running around at these things without any earplugs or headphones on; they’re gonna ruin their hearing like that. For some reason it makes me want to punch their parents, which is a pretty unfair statement because it’s hard enough to be a parent without having some childless douchebag blogger talk shit about you on the internets cos you forgot to cover your kids ears’ at one measly loud show. ANYWAY.
Janelle Monáe totally stole the show today, no offense to el señor Lidell. I think the best non-musical part of her set was when she took the time to tuck her hair back in place. I don’t know how she gets her hair like that, but basically in pictures it always looks impeccable. During the first song I thought it might be frozen in place, but girlfriend shakes it like a Polaroid picture (yay for 5-year-old pop culture references) so her pretty hair got all messed up. Bee tee dubs, Janelle is mad flaquita, it’s true. Like when she would stand in profile she would disappear cos she was so skinny. Nah, nah, I’m just playin’.
I should really talk about her music, right? Okay, well, it was fucking awesome. It was my first time being exposed to her and I’m tellin’ y’all, I’ve caught the virus!! Especially cos you’re like, “Oh, she just crazy, doin’ moves she learned at the James Brown School of Rock, blah blah,” pero then she busts out Chaplin’s “Smile” and you’re like… “Oh, hi. I love you.” [In Oprah voice:] She can siiiiiiing, y’all!!! Monáe really stands out because production-wise, she’s not part of that retro female army that seems to have cropped up post-Amy Winehouse’s success. Instead, she talks about robots and shit, and is more forward-sounding too. It’s like the “All is Full of Love” robots come to life and singing about their experiences.
Dude, her band was cool, too. What was up with the one dude who was dressed like he was ready to go golfing? He was just pushin’ buttons and shit, but he was so happy to be there, and he knew every word to her songs.
I was kinda offended cos Little Jackie went on after la señorita Monáe. I don’t mean to dis cos I’ve only heard their one single, “The World Should Revolve Around Me,” but come on, Monáe has been hyped so much and she is obviously (1) a fantastic performer and (2) a more interesting musician. Pffft. I held my final judgment until the set ended, but after seeing their set, I couldn’t take the band too seriously. On record, the single is flawed but catchy, but live, it was much more underwhelming. I feel sorry for them. If they’d been stuck with a more lackluster lineup, they might have had a greater effect on me. It’s not that the group didn’t try. The one thing they had was good stage presence. I liked that they had their whole act down, like how the backup vocalists pulled out a lot of girl group moves that were really charming. But if you think about it, there were like six or seven people on stage, and the performance was pretty mild compared to some other musical acts I’ve seen. At first everyone was enthusiastic and still reeling from that high of having witnessed Janelle Monáe do her thing, but as Little Jackie’s set continued, less people seemed invested in cheering on the group. It didn’t help that they have a song titled “LOL,” which had so much more potential to be hilarious, but they delivered it with straight faces.
Having heard the other groups, it was interesting to notice how hard Lidell’s band rocks. I mean, not when he was alone on stage buggin’ out and doing all the crazy electronic shit, but when he’s with the other four awesome dudes in his group, la música suena muy rocanrol. It makes an interesting counterpoint to the vocals which are so much more soul-based. The arrangements reminded me of early rock music. Am I making sense? Whatever.
So Lidell was dressed like mofuckin’ matador, the bassist/guitarist looked like a parachuting Elvis, the sax-y dude was in a robe, the drummer was dressed in all green which reminded me of Peter Pan, and the keyboardist… actually, the keyboardist looked like a regular civilian. It was nice to find out this music works well in sunshine. Just puts a smile to your face, y’know? Lidell’s voice was in tip-top shape. The performance was enthusiastic and fun, and people were very receptive, though I think he would have benefited from a smaller crowd. Even Lidell had to give props to Janelle. (Earlier, he actually watched her entire performance and he just had a goofy smile on the entire time. He was so tickled by her act.) I think the phrase he used was, “That’s the craziest shit I’ve seen in a long time,” but mind you, that’s no direct quote.
I did see the opener, Jose James, but it didn’t leave much of an impression on me. I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying too much attention. He seemed like he was all feel-good vibes yesterday. I don’t really get jazz, so I don’t know if he was “good” or “bad,” but part of me thinks that if he really stood out he would have caught my attention. Is this a fair statement?
And about the DJ, Gilles Peterson… it was a good set, although my music taste doesn’t jive too much with his. Biggest surprise: he mixed Violeta Parra’s “Arauco tiene una pena” with some really hard techno beat. I was perplexed by the choice. Luckily, he redeemed himself by following the song with “A Message to You, Rudy.”
We Now Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming.
Get ready for a longass post. I know that in the blogosphere, timeliness is next to godliness, but y’all gotta understand my modem died in the ass on the 23rd and it took me a while to get back on track. Believe you me, I was überpissed that my modem died only after two months.
But part of me is really glad, because on the 23rd I went to a free panel for the NYILFF on this movie that, until the day of the panel, was titled Humboldt Park. Now it’s called… something really generic and forgettable with the word “holidays” in the title. I really enjoyed myself at the panel, mind you; the cast members present were Freddy Rodríguez, Luis Guzmán (!!), Melonie Diaz and Vanessa Ferlito. They were all really nice, and the cool thing about the footage was that they really did seem like this big, fun family which warmed my crooked little heart. Half the panel focused on the making of the film and the other half was a Q&A that veered a lot more into Latinos & the film industry in general. But I felt funny listening to the filmmakers. I’m not trynna sound like some punkass kid who’s all “FUCK THE SYSTEM,” but I felt like they were pandering too much to what the studios want. The filmmakers seemed really eager to please a wide audience (por ejemplo, the title change was, apparently, because Humboldt Park “wasn’t testing well”) and although that’s a noble pursuit, you can’t be all things to all people, so I wasn’t sure how to receive this information. More than anything, I ended up feeling worried.
The whole conversation was kinda getting me down, PERO. Then they talked about an upcoming project that I pray will not end up in some sort of development hell. The words “Puerto Rican City of God” actually escaped their lips a number of times. Holy shit. It’s gonna be based on that Tego song, “Julito Maraña.” They said the script was a beautiful mess of 160 mofuckin’ pages. That’s a shitload of pages, y’all. It’s actually gonna be filmed in the Puerto Rican ghetto, too. I don’t know where this area is but I inferred that it’s an area headed by a drug lord, and he actually gave his blessing for this movie to be filmed. They haven’t started filming though, they’re probably still working out all the pre-production shit.
I know we should be moving away from the sort of movie that makes it seem like Latin America is nothing but a destitute shithole filled with violence and pain and corruption, but I dunno… if it’s done well (I fucking hope it’s done well) and there’s true artistry involved, I think this sort of story is worth being seen.
On the 24, I went to the Public Theater to see a new play called Tío Pepe, which was part of the Public’s Summer Play Festival. I knew it was going to be a modest affair, but I had no idea that all the tickets for the play’s week-long run were already sold out. They told me I could get on a waitlist for the matinee, and since I didn’t have other plans, I told them I was game. I was the fourth person on the list and some of the people were requesting multiple tickets, but I totally lucked out and got a ticket!
I’m so glad I got in, because the play totally exceeded my expectations. Just goes to show that, even though this work is by an up-and-coming playwright, Matthew Lopez, the Public definitely produces quality shit. It had a cast of five and, although I don’t claim to be an expert, they were all really wonderful except that a couple of them had really really terrible accents. I mean that it was very obvious they’d grown up here or had lived here since infancy and that they mainly spoke English. But that’s okay, generally their delivery was really good and believable and fun.
The script was pretty good, too, lots of laughs and it was really a great way to deal with issues of escapism and self-delusion, among other things. When I found out the reason for the play’s title, I was like, “Ooh, this is really juicy info.” The other thing is that it was totally sincere about its appreciation of old school musicals. The matriarch of the family, played by April Ortiz, got to sing a bit and she had a great, booming voice. I hope this play can move up to longer runs or bigger venues. It would be a pity to just let it die.
Oh my god, and the actor playing Alejandro, the son who wasted all of his potential, was sooo fiiiiine. He’s some dude named Nathaniel Mendez, and his bio was short as hell–he doesn’t even have a Law & Order credit (yet). What is this kid doing with himself? Okay, maybe it’s because he’s not a New Yorker or something? I was shocked by the short bio, to be frank, because he was so good in the play. Hope he gets more work.
That same evening I went to see Estilo Hip Hop. Last year, I went to a screening of Raquel Cepeda’s Bling: A Planet Rock, and they showed a preview of Estilo Hip Hop. At that point the filmmakers, Vee Bravo and Loira Limbal, were still seeking financing and were working on their footage. They showed us like 15 minutes, and I’m telling you, that after seeing the final product on the 24th, only two or three of those minutes made it into the 1-hour movie. I do remember them last year expressing their ambition to do a far more extensive project with exposure to more countries, but in the final product they focused on rappers from three countries, Brasil, Chile, and Cuba.
The screening was fucking rowdy as hell. The doc was awesome, I wish it hadn’t been just an hour. The doc doesn’t just focus on hip-hop in Latin America, it also focuses on the real activism that hip-hop has inspired, which I thought was fucking rad. The music was great, too. As ex-Prisionero (and current Updater) Jorge González said in an interview about Chilean hip-hop: “Chile es un extraño caso en el que el hip hop no pasa por los Beastie Boys, sino por De La Soul.” Loosely, “Chile’s a strange case in that hip-hop is influenced not by the Beastie Boys, but by De La Soul.” Don’t worry if you missed out on Estilo Hip Hop in Nueva York, though! Vee and Loira said the movie’s gonna air on PBS in Spring 2009.
As I noted in my overly emotional way last Friday the 25, I had wack first time at the Quad, what with the screening of Stellet Licht (Luz silenciosa) fucking up and all. As luck would have it, El Guincho cancelled all his US shows (visa issues?), which meant he couldn’t do his show at the Seaport. So Friday was just filled with disappointment. The bigger slap in the face is that they were replaced by some Brooklyn indie band. C’mon, those are a dime a dozen. I mean, yeah, the band was okay, but what makes them stand out? I was pleasantly surprised, however, to hear Atlas Sound for the first time. The tourists and other passersby didn’t give a shit, but I thought the music was good. Pop-y just the way I like it, and kinda ethereal in certain parts, too. I wonder what Deerhunter sound like.
On Saturday the 26 I went to see Malta con huevo, which isn’t ~*QUALITY*~ shit, but it still made me giggle. There were like ten of us in this hugeass auditorium, which in itself was totally hilarious. I think my favorite thing about it is the tone and how it changes from the first half to the second, but I also dig the structure of the story.
This past week I wasn’t up to much. I’m still getting used to having cable for the first time since, um, 1995. And that was cable in fucking Chile, too. I’m totally fascinated in how useless it is. (We got the service so my parents could watch Korean-language channels.) We don’t get any of the expensive channels but I was still shocked that there’s really no profanity allowed on cable. I think the bestest thing about having cable is that they show Law & Order all the time, and I’m totally addicted to the entire franchise, it’s true.
I found the Criterion Collection DVD of La haine at the library (thank heavens, cos I didn’t want to spend the money on it without seeing what was in it) and I have decided that Mathieu Kassovitz is the most handsome director in France. Also, fashion aside, the themes in the movie are still remarkably relevant. It was weird hearing the director’s commentary, though, because it was done before Sarkozy was elected, and Kassovitz is very vocal about not being a fan of the dude. But I’m still glad I listened to it, because I did get a better sense of how these kids’ lives are turned upside down in a mere 24 hours. It was cool because he also mentioned that he was on Charlie Rose, so I tracked down the interview and it was great! It was a relief to see that Kassovitz hasn’t always had a great accent in English–when I heard how well he spoke English on the DVD, I was kinda shocked and wondered if this man was perfect. I’m glad to see that he is human after all, and that he had to learn not to sound like the stereotypical French person speaking English. You can see the interview here. I also loved hearing on the commentary that Jodie Foster sent a copy of the movie to fucking Scorsese, imagine how Vincent Cassel felt about this? He musta pissed his pants…
I also watched American Psycho and it was pretty fucked up but I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s just that when a part was funny, it was really fucking funny. Like that whole sequence with all those interchangeable yuppies comparing their business cards… it was delightful to watch. It was exciting to find out that it was directed by a woman, just because there aren’t enough female movie directors anyway. I’m glad I heard the director’s commentary for this movie, too, just because it helped me understand and interpret Patrick Bateman a little better.
I’ve been reading a bit, too, if you would call it that. I read Agota Kristof’s The Notebook, which had its share of disturbing moments, but the narration was incredibly and consistently well-done and the story culminated to a satisfyingly fucked up ending. In addition, I finished The Left Bank Gang and The Living And The Dead by the Norwegian comic book wonderboy that is Jason. I was pretty “meh” about The Living And The Dead, but I thought The Left Bank Gang was fucking awesome. I finally read The Rabbi’s Cat, too. Damn, I totally forgot that Joann Sfar is a dude, so you can imagine my surprise when I read the “about the author” bit in the inside cover of the book. I read Sfar’s The Professor’s Daughter which I thought was too brief and not substantial enough, but thankfully The Rabbi’s Cat did not disappoint. The story was lovely, especially because I don’t know much about the Jewish culture in North Africa, and I also loved Sfar’s artwork. Can’t wait to read the second part.
I also read a couple of essays from this book called Beyond Babar, which is about children’s literature in Europe. The only reason I picked it up at the library is because one of the essays was about Christine Nöstlinger’s Konrad, which was one of my faves as a kid. There was also one on The Neverending Story and how it’s ~*TOTALLY META*~ in a way that the films could never capture. (Would have been cool to read an in-depth discussion on Michael Ende’s Momo, too.) It was a cool book with a lot of discussion on translation.
I’m excited about this month. I’m gonna go see Janelle Monáe and Jamie Lidell at Central Park mañana (¡¡es gratis!!), and I’m gonna spend a lot of time at MoMA watching Coen Bros movies. They’re having a marathon! Also, next week, the Fordham University Theater peeps are staging a version of The Martian Chronicles with mofucking puppets, and the tickets are pretty cheap, too, so I’m gonna try and check out the production. Good shit all around.
Don’t Ask Me How Stellet Licht Ends.
I just went to see this movie called Stellet licht, which was being shown at the Hola Mexico Film Festival. Our screening fucked up. Instead of film, they were showing us a DVD and you betcha it decided to freeze on us. The DVD quality was fucking great and honestly I wouldn’t have noticed that it was a DVD if it hadn’t frozen (though now that I think about it, I should have realized there were no “cigarette burns” in sight). It froze once and they just skipped over to a part that was okay, which was an odd decision—I wondered if I’d missed anything important, I couldn’t tell how much we’d skipped. I tried to forget it, but then the movie froze again. It was awful. I’m so mad because all I wanted was a refund and all I got was a stupid pass to see another movie at the Quad Cinema. I love movies and that’s all fine and dandy, but $10 is a lot to me and I could have had a whole fucking meal with those $10. I wish they’d just refunded the money to me. I mean, I’m hungry right now, you know? I skipped on lunch. They told us we could come back and see the movie for free the next time there is a screening, on Sunday, but I don’t know if I can make it then. They also gave us a choice to stay and just see the rest of the movie from where it froze the first time, but I didn’t have the heart to go back in again. I’ve been having a bad day. I really want to go home right now, but my internet died on me again, which is why I’m at the school computer lab, and also because I’d been meaning to go see El Guincho, which is tonight at the South Street Seaport. But frankly I’m bummed beyond belief. Such a downer, cos I had a really good day yesterday.
The director of Hola Mexico or whoever was running the show today was bugging out about the whole situation. All those cranky older people at our matinee… I’m not saying he handled the fiasco very well, but seeing all those people yelling at him, I certainly didn’t envy him.
To Catch You Up.
Here are some things I’ve done or gone to in the past two weeks and haven’t written about:
On July 10 I went to a DJ Showcase at SOB’s (for LAMC) where I saw DJ Raff for the first time! I didn’t stay the entire night and I lost track of the many DJs, but I’m pretty sure I also saw Gregzinho spin cos he was the one who played a lot of Brazilian funk. It took me a while to loosen up, but once I did, I had a lot of fun.
On July 11, I went to my last day at work after only four hours of sleep, and then after work I ran over to the Park Avenue Armory to see Die Soldaten. (History on this opera here.) I wrote this whole spiel about my experience but fuck that. Basically, I dozed off several times in the second half of the production because I was tired, and I’m not an opera expert, but that was a disappointing experience. I spent a lot of money for my ticket and the storyline was another iteration of the fucking “fallen woman” storyline and I didn’t care to be emotionally attached to any of the characters. I didn’t “get” the music, mostly because it wasn’t exactly melodic shit, BUT I do commend the conductor and the musicians for the solid execution. The technical aspects of the opera, too, were absolutely brilliant, but who cares about that stuff when the story and the music don’t grab you, right?
On July 17, I went to see Junot Díaz for a Central Park SummerStage event. He took part in a reading, Q + A, and a roundtable discussion with Aleksandar Hemon and Saskia Sassen. Sassen is a scholar and not a fiction writer, so her approach to the works of Díaz and Hemon was interesting. Most of the crowd was there for Junot and I felt bad for Hemon, whose work deals a lot with his Bosnian identity and roots. Weird shit: both Junot and Sasha are bald and wear glasses. [Cue eerie music.] It was a beautiful night in the park and good to hear them. Didn’t know that Sasha existed so it would be cool to check out his stuff. The questions were mostly sucky but there were a number of interesting answers, so I was really happy with how the evening turned out, and I hope the Central Park folk add more readings and literary events next summer.
On July 19, I literally forgot about Siren and instead I ran over to the Belasco Theater on Broadway because I heard Passing Strange was closing the next day AND because I heard that the July 19 performances were going to be filmed by SPIKE MOFUCKIN LEE. And yes, I totally saw him walking around the theater! I also saw S. Epatha Merkerson (y’know, the tough NYPD lady on L&O) and Rosie Perez in the theater. That was way cool, but you know what was fucking cooler? Passing Strange. Holy shit, that show was beautiful. I refused to give Die Soldaten an ovation (I’m stingy with my ovations) but I gave one to Passing Strange. I’m gonna remember my experience forever. That show was so well-written and it’s such a pity that it had to close, especially considering that shows such as The Little Mermaid and Grease are still running. Tch. Broadway is pretty much a joke except for the rare times it gets shit right. Sometimes I couldn’t even understand the lyrics but the music seriously rocked–I have admittedly listened to the Spring Awakening soundtrack multiple times, but that shit does not even compare to how hard the music rocked at this show. The humor, especially the meta shit, was absolutely divine. Can you believe my luck, too? I got to the box office two hours prior to the show, paid $27 for my ticket and got an orchestra seat. Not to be overly dramatic but… okay, let’s be overly dramatic: I feel like Somebody’s watching over me, man.
On July 20, I braved the brutal heat and went to see Liars for the first time in like, five years. In these past five years, the band has grown beautifully and they’re one of the few New York bands that have not disappointed me. The set was solid, and I was feeling woozy. (I was actually dehydrated, I’m sure.) And who knew they had a fourth person live! I didn’t. Seriously, excellent set, though it was kinda weird seeing them in the daytime. A lot of their shit sounds way too spooky and is better suited for the nighttime.
Yesterday I went to see The Dark Knight. I don’t know why the dude sitting next to me sat next to me but we had fun together. I mean, I liked hearing his reaction to the movie and I think he was tickled by how I reacted to the movie; we weren’t completely quiet about how we felt… I was kinda disappointed with the trailers they showed, I thought they’d go for more awards season fare but they went for the action trailers instead. Saw a Watchmen trailer and… I was lukewarm about it. I don’t know if it’s because I’m not familiar enough with the comic. But I felt kinda bummed to see the March release date, which to me is bad news. (HEY! REMEMBER WHEN 10,000 BC WAS RELEASED IN MARCH? LOL) I really really hope I’m wrong about that. Er, anyway, The Dark Knight was fucking awesome; in particular, I’m awed by the script. I actually felt confused during a couple of big action sequences and at times even zoned out, but I was totally at the edge of my seat during the Superevil-Nemesis-Explains-It-All bits. Not that I’m always into a lot of talk-y shit, but the way it was written and laid out was really compelling to me. I think I’ll go see the movie again. One complaint: the theater turned up the volume to eleven and it seriously hurt my ears. It’s one thing for my ears to be damaged from constant concert-going, but the c’mon, they should feel safer at the fucking movies!!
In the next few days, I’m gonna try to catch some movies at the New York International Latino Film Festival, which started yesterday and ends on Sunday July 27, and the Hola Mexico Film Festival, which begins today and will also end on the 27.
Nananananananana, Leader!
Shocker of all shockers (NOT): The Dark Knight opened at #1 position in the box office. Not only that, it’s got the numero uno US opening of all time at $155 million, which doesn’t surprise me either. What boggles my mind, then? As of this writing, 12:45 pm on July 21, 2008, The Dark Knight is #1 on the IMDB Top 250!
And to think, I still haven’t had a chance to spend $12 on the movie yet!
Deerhoof + Metropolis Ensemble @ Celebrate Brooklyn.
To The Kid I Yelled At For Standing On His Seat At The Beginning Of The Deerhoof Set:
I know I was cranky at you and it sucks to be yelled at, but I seriously appreciate that you listened and got off your seat. I know we were all there for the music and that seeing the band isn’t as crucial, but come on, if I hadn’t wanted to see the Deerhoofers, I could have stayed home and just listened to my CDs, right? And even though they were so distant and tiny, I really loved being able to see them instead of spending the entire hour they were on stage staring at your derrière. Honestly, I don’t know what you were hollerin’ at me for, about how you couldn’t see them well, cos after you got off the seat, I saw you record plenty of video footage without any problems. But yeah, seriously, thank you so much for actually stepping down from your seat.
Stay fresh,
Elizabeth U.
—
Welllll. The Metropolis Ensemble were pretty cool. I wasn’t too hot on the first piece, which to my ears, meandered too much without a proper anchor. The soprano, Hila Plitmann, was seriously talented, her voice captured every subtlety well, but I was mad spooked when she started this spoken part. I dunno, for some reason it gave me the heebie-jeebies.
The first piece was no comparison to the ensemble’s reinterpretation of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Giving it a more electronic spin was cool. All right, so I wasn’t scandalized the way people were back in the early 20th century. And there were certain points when I was like, “This sounds like a soundtrack to a sci-fi movie made in the 70s or 80s.” (Where all my theremins at, right??) Pero, when it came down to it, the ensemble was totally rockin’ that shit. Real badass.
Deerhoof were absolutely lovely. I didn’t know a lot of the songs and assumed they played a lot of new shit, though after a few unfamiliar songs I panicked and was like, “What if they’re just old songs I’m not familiar with?!?!” Truth is, I only own like two of their albums; I’ve heard like three or four of them in their entirety and they’re mad prolific so who knows what I’m been missing!! They might have played old stuff, though I doubt it. The newer stuff, for some reason, sounded more melancholic to my ears. They played some great older shit, but c’mon, they didn’t even do “Panda Panda Panda.” I know “Running Thoughts” would be asking for too much, but why not “Panda Panda Panda”?? Inquiring minds wanna know.
Yo, Greg Saunier is crazy. He went up to the mic a couple of times and was Paula Abdul-level incoherent, though he managed to inform us we could pick up free sheet music for their first Offend Maggie single, “Fresh Born,” at the Celebrate Brooklyn booth. All the fanboys were geeking. There was one kid who was dancing so intensely he was like, having seizures. Imagine how crazy he dances when he’s alone in his room?!?! Anyways, Greg is fucking awesome, it’s like his inner rhythm machine has only three settings, Supersoft, Hard and SUPERFUCKINGHARD. It didn’t dawn on me until today that the reason he looks so huge at the drums is not just because he’s damn tall, it’s also because the kit hardly has any pieces. Maybe like three pieces… I mean, Nick Andopolis would laugh his ass off at Greg’s kit, y’know what I’m sayin’? The other thing that I realized is that as jerky and out of control he might seem, Greg is totally right on when it comes to keeping time. Dude’s brilliant.
Oh my god, and since when are there four ‘hoofies again? I totally haven’t kept up since Friend Opportunity kinda disappointed. So that was a surprise. New guy didn’t say much, everyone else said thanks and stuff like that. Hilarious, cos the mic is at Satomi’s level and John and Greg had to crouch down a lot to speak into it. Man, I can’t wait to see this band again.
Julieta Venegas, Plastilina Mosh + DJ Bitman @ Central Park SummerStage.
Went to Central Park today to see DJ Bitman, Plastilina Mosh, and Julieta Venegas. I got there 30 minutes before the show started, which was stupid of me. I mean, it’s not like I wasn’t gonna get in, but I woulda had a better spot if I hadn’t had issues with the trains. Thirty minutes before a SummerStage show is cutting it too close, especially when it’s a big fucking deal like Julieta Venegas, y’know? La próxima vez tendré más cuidado.
Can I tell you something hilarious? I totally forgot that DJ Raff was gonna play with DJ Bitman. I was so stoked to see him on stage, for real. Big step for him and for Bitman, and I’m so happy for them. I don’t know Bitman’s material too well but it was cool to hear him spinnin’, especially cos they did Raff’s “Latin ’n’ Proud.”
Weird, on the hard copy version of the SummerStage program, it says, “Chilean musical veteran DJ Bitman a.k.a. Jose Antonio Bravo (of legendary group Los Tres)…” I heard a huge record scratch sound in my head, y’know? I was like, HOLD UP. Los Tres?? I don’t know what the source for this bio was (the one on the SummerStage website is accurate), but it’s like, if he had really been in Los Tres, I sure woulda heard about it. And I probably would have paid more attention to him, because Los Tres are fucking awesome. I’ve checked out some other sources and none of them even mention that.
Anyway, it was a good set, very hip-hop heavy. They had a rapper with them, he seemed really nice, had a decent flow but mostly a chill vibe. Oh, and for one of the songs, this pale little flaquita with the shortest mini-skirt evz came out and I was confused and realized that it was Francisca Valenzuela. She did her thing and immediately disappeared. I can’t even remember what she sang, I had my earplugs on (and thank the lord cos shit was mad loud) and on top of that, her fucking mic was too low. Actually, during Bitman’s set there were major mic issues. Like sometimes Bitman would wanna say some stuff to hype up the crowd or say thanks, and they wouldn’t turn on the mic for him. Goddamn. The sound people should pay closer attention!! That’s actually why I didn’t catch the rapper’s name, but I think someone said he was venezolano? Will have to verify.
Plastilina Mosh were a surprise for me. I’m not too familiar with them and I expected them to be not unlike Bitman and Raff, just a lot of electronic stuff, so imagine how I felt when a full-on band showed up on stage. Yes, there was a keyboardist and a laptop DJ, but also two fellas mainly on guitar, a main vocalist/guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer. The drummer was a woman! That was fucking exciting, you don’t see many female drummer bumming around, you know? She was really good, too. For some reason they were all dressed as if they were in different bands, which made me LOL a little. They had great energy and it was actually really cool to see that they were muy rocanrol.
They did, however, lose me around the time they did their “we don’t really know how to reggae but here’s our attempt at reggae” song, mostly cos in my less-than-knowledgeable ears, it didn’t sound very reggae and even worse, it was kind of too slow to be playing during a hot summer day. And this slump dragged on for like three songs before the good vibes picked up again. They covered “Viva Las Vegas.” They also did this really catchy song that they dedicated to all the ladies, which was really great until they started going “Me so horny/love me long time,” which are phrases that just make me really uncomfortable.
Y qué digo sobre Julieta. Let’s start with the superficial stuff: I think she’s better-looking in person, which is incredible because whenever I’ve seen pics or video footage of her, I’ve always been captivated by how pretty she is.
I know I must sound demanding but her set was a mixed bag for me. It was way too short, for one thing, and that made me wish Plastilina hadn’t gone on for so long. Second, it was very heavy on newer material, like from the past year or so. Now, I absolutely LOVED “Primer día” and “Eres para mí,” but I’m not that big a fan of Limón y sal. I mean, I sang along to “Me voy” and “Limón y sal,” but c’mon… they’re pretty weak pop songs by Julieta standards. Also, she did the rap part to “Eres para mí,” and I almost fainted from the shock, just cos I’m so used to Anita Tijoux rockin’ the mic at that point. This live version was fierce though!! The Sí songs included “Lento,” “Algo está cambiando” and “Andar conmigo,” which I’m not complaining about. It just would have been nice to hear some of the lesser known stuff, like “A tu lado.” ALSO! She did “De mis pasos” which is such a badass song and the live arrangement for it was awesome. Seriously, one of the best pieces she’s ever written and I’m glad she still keeps it in her repertoire.
Julieta was backed by fourteen other musicians! There was a string quartet, a 4-person horn section, and some percussionists, as well as a regular band. They were supercool, plus they all seemed to be having fun which made me happy. And she played on guitar, keys, and (the crowd favorite!!) her accordion, though half the time I think she just sang.
I think the best thing about this lineup was that they’re all acts that have been around a while. They were all very polished and professional and got through the minor technical difficulties that appeared on occasion with a smile. Not only that, the fact that these acts have been doing their thing for a “long” time meant that they were all comfortable and had a great connection which really helped the vibe. I will say that this wasn’t my best experience at the LAMC show for SummerStage but I definitely enjoyed it for what it was. In part I was a bit upset with some of the crowd, but I don’t wanna get into it because I don’t have the energy to get mad. I dealt with it as I could. And believe me, when the announcer peeps came up and mentioned how many people had to be turned away, I was definitely grateful that I got a chance to see all these musicians.
Short shorts.
(1) This dude re-did “American Boy” into “Caribbean Girl” which is painfully forced and uncreative (some would say faithful). Even worse, just a few changes in the words changes the entire context of the song. It’s more about ~*O HEY MAMI CAN I MACK ON YOU*~ and less of a fun, escapist, ephemeral summer jam, which is how I viewed “American Boy”. Una tragedia, yo digo. I got the sense that this dude is totally in love with his own voice, cos he sure likes to show off how suave he sounds.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!!
(2) Finished reading Las películas de mi vida. The idea was interesting but Fuguet didn’t follow through as effectively as in his other stories. I have to say, however, a lot of times he catches me off guard and I’m hit with some massive emotional punch.
(3) I was having issues with Soulseek–that is, I was too impatient to wait for Soulseekers to stop banning me for not sharing–so I went out and bought the Amandititita album. It was cheaper than most CDs. Yay for being on a major, huh? The album kinda lags in the second half, but it’s still kinda fabulous.
(4) New York mag asked a number of people–including RZA, Kim Gordon, and Albert Hammond, Jr.–to contribute summer playlists, which were turned into muxtapes. One of the Pistolera members participated and filled the muxtape with some great tracks. Here is the link to the muxtape. Speaking of which, I updated my muxtape.
(5) Albums I really really wanna check out:
Julieta Venegas’s MTV Unplugged, which features fucking Marisa Monte (!!!) as well as La Mala Rodríguez. You can check out the version of “Eres para mí” with La Mala at La Onda Tropical. (BTW, congrats to La Onda on their 3rd anniversary and on their mention on Latina.) I love this new version but I absolutely love the rap in the original that Anita Tijoux does. Anita’s lines flow beautifully with the rest of the song and include my favorite lines in the entire song: “el corazón es un músculo/si no late, revienta.” Besides, if I hadn’t heard this song I never would have known about Makiza which is one of my favorite hip-hop groups. Pero bueno, nothing like reinterpretation… right?
I’m also seriously jonesing for Håkan Hellström’s latest album, För Sent för Edelweiss. I don’t know what it is about him, he’s seriously one of the funnest pop musicians I’ve heard. And I’m glad he’s not a Swede who sings in English, obviously living in an English-speaking country, most of the Swedes who come our way tend to perform their music in English, and I’m sure it’s the reason Hellström isn’t well-known here. But his music’s solid! It’s unfair that he shouldn’t get the same exposure.
(6) I’ve been trying the beta version of the new Last.fm and I think it’s swell. Accessible, easy-to-navigate, fast, and easy on the eyes. Seriously, a pretty layout is crucial. It almost makes me wanna pay for a subscription.
(7) Rewatched Dogfight for the first time in years and had a good cry. Good movie.
Jeffrey Lewis @ Sound Fix, 6/27
I wrote this post last week after seeing Jeffrey Lewis:
The last time I went to a Sound Fix in-store was for Art Brut (what have they been up to??), and I couldn’t even get into the bar area where they do the shows cos I got there too late. This past Friday I went to see Jeffrey Lewis for the first time ever, only to find out that it was a benefit show for which I had no money, and even worse, there were four other acts playing before Jeffrey got on stage. I guess it evened out with the fact that there were no openers for the Babasónicos, but still, it was exhausting even if the acts were pretty okay.
First one up was Kate Ferencz. I feel really mean saying this because she seemed kinda nervous, but her music was awful. Just brutal sitting through it (I was just so tired I couldn’t stand through much of it). I understood that she had this whole lo-fi, heart-on-her-sleeve esthetic but as someone on the listening end, I didn’t find it enjoyable. I mean, I like Beat Happening and other such acts as much as the next person, but I seriously questioned her ability to play and sing at the same time. Her singing on top of that was very child-like in a grating sort of way. I don’t think she understands the concept of a melody and interesting song structures. To me, her songs felt like they meandered too much without anchors such as choruses and the like, and I don’t even know if she understood the capabilities of her voice so that she could write songs that would play up her strengths.
Wow, I just re-read that last paragraph and I sound like the biggest cunt in the world. Well, in her defense, she had a lot of her friends come to the set and they seemed to enjoy it a lot.
The next act was Archipelago, which included a guitarist/vocalist, a drummer, a flutist, a violinist, and a xylophonist. I got the sense, however, that the group was led by the guitarist/vocalist dude. Like they weren’t really interacting much and they all looked very focused on their parts as if they were still learning the songs. It was your reg’lar, pretty indie pop rock act, but I thought they had a good go live and they had some interesting arrangements. And even if it seemed like they didn’t all know the songs by heart, they were fairly polished and professional live. They were probably my favorite out of the four lesser-known acts.
I wasn’t the only one who approved: in the middle of the set, this little girl (or boy??), probably like a year or at most 18 months old, just waddled her way up the stage. The band members had a good sense of humor about it. The little girl was particularly taken by the drums, as I was taken by the really handsome drummer guy. Said handsome drummer guy offered the little girl one of his sticks and she took it and got to bang on it a bit. He was like, “That’s it, I’m done,” obviously upstaged by the cute little girl. It was adorable. Fortunately for him, he was able to keep his job since the dad of the little girl quickly scooped her back and away from the stage. The rest of the set went wonderfully.
Well, apparently The Best Thing Ever, the group who went on after Archipelago, were playing their second-to-last show ever. They were engaging, even though I wasn’t in the mood for being engaged. By this point I was feeling pretty worn down. The crowd was chatty but the band members were not deterred and pulled out all their best tricks. The sing-a-longs were a success, which fascinated me, and in fact the singer dude said something really smart: “The secret to playing shows is making the people think they know the songs already.” I can’t remember how their music went, mostly because each song was different. This one guy was really cool cos he played the trumpet, and I really liked that the cellist girl really knew how to rock it on her instrument. I guess they were on the punkier side of things.
The last act before Jeffrey went on was Laura Stevenson. She’s basically a singer-songwriter, which sucked for her because most people were not down for her shit. She was aware of this, too, so she kept her set short and sweet. I felt bad for her. The songs were well-written if nothing too memorable. What was memorable, and unfortunately so, was her vocal delivery. When she spoke she had a natural voice, but when she sang she would force it to sound more child-like in her throat instead of singing from her gut. It was pretty annoying and, in my opinion, took away from the quality of the songs.
After so many years, I finally saw Jeffrey Lewis live. I felt pretty goofy standing right in front of him wearing my Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights t-shirt. The story of how I acquired the aforementioned Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights t-shirt is long and complicated and so it will have to be told on another post.
The set was fucking good. After all, he has toured extensively, usually as an opener for a crappier act, who knows why. Unfortunately, he didn’t bring his comics or a projector to illustrate his songs, but it was all good. Another weird thing was that he’d played a lot of shows recently, so he wanted to play songs he hadn’t played in any of the shows. So really, there was no chance at all for me to hear him do his song on The Fall. People kept shouting for him to do his Will Oldham song, but we got some great shit, such as “Don’t Be Upset” and even better, “Back When I Was 4,” which was the very first song of his I ever heard!
But let it be known I wasn’t entirely drunk on some sort of nostalgia. I enjoyed the brief-as-hell set for what it was: a dude with little vocal range with his guitar telling these intricate stories through song while accompanied by a really enthusiastic friend. I’m sorry, I totally don’t remember what his friend’s name was, but it seemed like he was just playing the accompaniment parts by ear and I thought that was way cool. Jeff’s delivery, as expected, was deadpan and monotone which really tickled my funny bone. Can’t wait to see him again.
The Wackness and The Dopeness.
Okay, so this review might spoil things mildly? But like the spoilers don’t matter cos if you go see it, it’s really for Josh Peck’s performance?
Just came back from a screening of The Wackness, now in limited release. I think the studio has a lot of faith in the movie cos the ads have been everywhere, even on the D train I like stared at the ad for like 50 minutes on my commute to work. I’m not really sure it’s gonna work because, for a movie that’s getting a lot of push, the movie theater wasn’t even like half full. I think that the movie’s gonna expand regardless and the studio is probably gonna hype it up as a movie with some sort of “cult” or “word-of-mouth” following. I use quotations because come on, it’s so fabricated. I do agree that the premise of the movie is a bit narrow so that it might be received as cult, but even from the film style you can tell it’s just a straight up normal movie. Wow, I seriously wish I could be more eloquent about this last point because that wasn’t clear at all. Well, we’ll see what the numbers are by the end of the holiday weekend.
So what should I talk about, the wackness or the dopeness of this movie?
The movie’s cute. If it comes out and the Virgin reduces the price to $10 I’ll probably buy it and watch it at least 5 times out of boredom. I’ll probably learn all