fluxion23

Love songs for the economy: a mini-mix

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:52:57 -0600

What's a near-global meltdown without a soundtrack? Well, less tacky than this, probably, but I am unphased. John Lennon gets some good primal screams in, Aerosmith's apocalypse sounds more prescient then they intended ("Too many houses on stilts!"), Lindsey Buckingham sucks it up and forges forward (this is an older track, but don't miss his new album if you're a fan), and finally David Byrne and Brian Eno offer something that almost sounds like hope.

Amazon.com: John Lennon | Aerosmith | Lindsey Buckingham | David Byrne and Brian Eno

Dave Gahan - Kingdom (Booka Shade alternative remix)

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:09:03 -0600

I can't be sure where this mix is originally from. The "Kingdom" single(s) came out about a year ago, and the Booka Shade Club Mix even has a video, the visual hook of which seems to be that everything is lit in a way it should not be, including the inside of Gahan's mouth. This mix is new to me, off of a dubiously legal compilation of Depeche Mode remixes called Mutebank, volume 2. I prefer this mix of the song more than any I'd heard before. It's more, for lack of a better word, Shady.

Beck - Walls

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:20:57 -0600

A new Beck album isn't the event it once was, I don't suppose. He seems to have settled into a long career, occasionally making a great record, usually making a decent one, and sometimes missing the mark. At any rate, it's a 'walk, don't run' kind of affair. The latest album, Modern Guilt, is in the middle. But it does grow on you.

Amazon.com | Pitchfork

So which one's the real "In a world" guy?

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:06:02 -0600

Voice actor Don LaFontaine died on Monday. He was the man known to American moviegoers as the "In a world" guy. He claims to have invented the phrase, though authorship of something so mundane is very difficult to prove. And to complicate matters further, there's also Hal Douglas, who, confusingly enough, is also known to American moviegoers as the "In a world" guy. The trouble is, when they put on their gravelly, bass-heavy, oh-so-ominous movie trailer voices, they are difficult to tell apart. I've watched dozens of old movie trailers dating back dozens of years, so I've gotten better at it, but not many people pay that kind of attention to who's doing the voice over. Particularly as they both got older, they began to sound more and more alike. For example, the trailer for the original The Terminator is classic LaFontaine. The beginning words, "In this city," while not exactly "In a world," would sound just as hokey in a preview today: Hal Douglas has a bit more rasp and a bit more bass in his voice, and to younger moviegoers (and even gamers) is probably the more instantly recognizable voice. You even get to see what he looks like in this classic and very funny anti-trailer for the Jerry Seinfeld movie Comedian: LaFontaine was in the business first, and was generally thought of as the king of the movie trailer, but these two men have exactly the same job. Perhaps it is the plight of the voice-over actor that if they do their job well, no one gives any thought to who they are or to the nuances of their timbre. Of course, even though these two generally get the more menacing voice overs, they are not alone in the business. Check out this skit, from the beginning of some awards show that no one ever watches featuring LaFontaine and four other voices that you can't help but know by heart. (I especially like the gag with the Disney guy in his gay yellow sweater.) Hal Douglas is on the phone for a brief moment in the skit, and LaFontaine dismisses him, in what seems like a joking nod to some rivalry. At least from now on, there will be no mystery as to who is voicing the trailer for that new thriller, because one of them is dead. RIP Don LaFontaine.

Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:38:26 -0600

I heard of this album from magazines months ago, but I never actually heard it until the fine fellows at Sound Opinions mentioned it on their show. They did so only to ridicule it, but when they played the 30 seconds of the record that was supposed to demonstrate how intolerable it is, I thought, "Oh my god, this is great." After spending a week or so with the record, I've decided that neither of our first impressions were correct. It's not great. But neither is it garbage, and it's not dismissable. Johansson's voice is uneven and uncontrolled, but that's not a problem by itself, and she has a surprisingly deep and evocative sound at the low end of her range. It's true that the idea of an album of Tom Waits covers stinks of vanity and overstretching, but in large part thanks to the production of Dave Sitek (of TV on the Radio), the record never sounds like an under-talented starlet making a record of Tom Waits covers. Even when it's not working -- which I'd say is about half the time -- it's not because it's a put-on, or a pony show, or any of the other things that many people have accused this record of being. Johansson's main vocal touchstone seems to be Sinead O'Connor. The record oozes raw earnestness, from both vocalist and producer, and if that's sometimes a bad thing, it's not at all the bad thing that you expected to hear. Definitely worth a listen or ten.

Amazon.com | Village Voice

We sell boxes. And we're done with MySpace.

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:08:02 -0600

As I am not a band, I will now leave MySpace to the people it was originally intended for -- bands. I never cared much for it, anyway, and my profile has been neglected for so long it's getting embarrassing. Only one thing to do with it, and it's the same sad thing they had to do with Ol' Yeller. In memoriam, there's this video, which has sat under my "About Me" header for months, and is still one of the best things I've ever seen on YouTube. (Favorite line: "Yeah, I got a kid.") And it's even local.

Desktop theme: Deco

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:04:49 -0600

I've always loved art deco design, for the angular shapes and the sharp contrasts, but most of all for the colors. They seem unique to me in any art movement of the 20th century. Last time I did this whole thing, I just started with a hazy vagueness (which turned out ok, surprisingly!), but this time I started with a famous painting by Tamara de Lempicka called "Young Girl with Gloves." From there I had to work backwards towards something that would actually make a usable interface. Ain't that just always the way. After resisting the temptation to make another dark, "inverse" theme (it's always there with me, especially in the middle of the night), I went with a fairly neutral palette, the base color having perhaps a half-hint of green, but mainly a medium-light grey, highlighted with gold and black. Now, a word about "gold." I always thought it was a color. I was surprised and possibly enlightened to discover that... it's not. Red and green and blue are colors, they happen all on their own and stand firm in any light, but something like "gold" is so dependent on the colors near to it, and perhaps even the shapes and context it's put into, that it can't be called a color anymore than you can call "puke" a color. Gold is an emotion, and at its very best it's an event. If that sounds obvious, well, it does to me too, now that I see it. Ain't that just always the way. Aaaanyway. The icons are very different than the ones in the last theme I put out, even though they're based on the same basic stuff. The folders (very dominant in any desktop's color scheme) are a lipstick shade of rose, and many of the basic colors of other icons have been changed, enhanced, or the icons completely redrawn and reworked. Before you install any of this, make sure you have the latest gnome themes:

sudo apt-get install gnome-themes-extras

Do that first, and the "themes" package should drag and drop nicely. The icons should install just as easily, the wallpaper as always is at your discretion, and the login theme (labelled "Deco-gdm-login.tar.gz") should be extracted and moved by the root user to /usr/share/gdm/themes. And then (I have found no way to make this one-step, unfortunately), you have to go to System > Administration > Login Window, choose the "Local" tab, then choose the theme that you just plopped into the "/usr/share/gdm/themes" folder. The theme ought to show up immediately, even without restarting or logging out. (If it doesn't show up, try restarting or logging out. Heh.) Make sure you also choose "Themed" and "Selected Only" from the two dropdown menus at the top of the window, respectively. The process is not as pretty as it should be, I know. But if it was, it would be called Apple and it wouldn't be free. It also wouldn't be this customizable, so it's kind of a wash. Anyway, here you go.

Screenshot 1

Screenshot 2

Sample: Icons

Download

Complete package (12.0MB)

Gtk theme only (491 bytes)

Icons only (4.5MB)

Wallpapers only (3.6MB)

Gui Boratto - Anunciacion

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:25:13 -0600

Even the least of the Kompakt Total compilations is worth having, and Total 9 is not one of the least. I could have picked any of a dozen tracks off it, but in the last year or so, Gui Boratto has won me over in a special way. This track puts me in the mind of a grainy Michael Mann nightscape.

Amazon.com | Resident Advisor

Summertime mini-mix

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:34:58 -0600

<p>Summertime mini-mix</p>

Since the fish are indeed jumpin' and the cotton is looking on the tallish side, here's 25 minutes of "Summertime" that will seem either tedious or pleasantly melancholy, depending on what you think of the Gershwin tune. First, an overlooked Willie Nelson version, from an album he did with Leon Russell. (The recent "Legacy Edition" of the album Stardust could have and maybe should have included this track.) Then there's the Janis Jopin version, which would be a definitive version of the song if that were possible, which I sincerely doubt. Then Greg Dulli does his blue-eyed-tortured-soul thing, making the song sound not only sad but also angsty, and then Booker T. and the MG's do a great soft/loud take on it. Then the cherry on top, John Coltrane's version from the My Favorite Things album. It might be too obvious to include, but it's too damn good not to.

Amazon.com: Willie Nelson | Janis Joplin | The Twilight Singers | Booker T. and the MGs | John Coltrane

Nat King Cole Trio - Bang Bang Boogie

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:48:14 -0600

While we're in the 50's. Am I crazy, or does this song seem a bit... well... kinky? The Daddy/Baby labels may be just old slang, but now that they're outdated it's easy to see the dominant/submissive dynamic that they only barely obscured. Thanks to Nat's light-as-air delivery, the whole thing sounds like a game, a little fun after Daddy gets home from work. "Has Baby behaved?" Because if not, she may be in for a spanking. Let's review quickly, Nat -- what's the safe word?

Amazon.com | All Music Guide

Jimmie Rodgers - Kisses Sweeter Than Wine

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:41:09 -0600

Depending on your point of view, this is either a joyous celebration of love and its fruits, a quaint throwback to a more naive time, or a grim cautionary tale. But there's no getting around it -- it's damn catchy.

Amazon.com | All Music Guide

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Strange Things Happening Every Day

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:54:40 -0600

I'm not much of a God-fearing man, but that doesn't stop this from being a favorite song of mine. The simple yet ineffable truth of the title is (to appropriate a John Lennon quote) bigger than Jesus.

Amazon.com | All Music Guide

Wallpaper: "Have to"

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:04:34 -0600

Ahem. Presented with all due apologies to Veer and the fine artists who keep me going back there. This began life as a wallpaper of theirs that proclaims, "You have to disconnect to reconnect," which sounds like an Oblique Strategy, except lame. (You're required to sign up for an account to download wallpapers from them, but of course that's free.)

At any rate, I believe I found the hidden message in it.

Note: This is only in 1440x900 size (png pr jpg) instead of the usual range of sizes. I'm not going to go all-out for a goof. :)

So serious about Chicago

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 04:58:12 -0600

The Dark Knight was shot in my adopted home, Chicago, but so was the last Batman film, if you take the literal definition of "shot." Where Batman Begins took place in a CG world that had tiny bits of the real Chicago mixed in with it, The Dark Knight very much exists in Chicago. Chicago's buildings, streets, and even basic infrastructure are all over it. Not that anyone not fairly intimate with the city would ever notice, because the city is not treated like that at all -- the movie is not crammed with recognizable landmarks and cultural shout-outs, the way most movies shot in Chicago tend to be (The Fugitive is a good example). It doesn't pander to Chicago's famous puffy pride, and cannot even announce that it is Chicago, because of course it's Gotham. But because of this subtlety, rather than in spite of it, the movie ends up making the city look better than any movie ever has. The locations and shots are never about the individual places, but about the feel of the city, the dark canyons, brick alleys, ubiquitous commuter train tracks, and most of all the unique and pervasive mixture of architectural styles. The Art Deco lives next door to the Modern; Louis Sullivan and Mies Van der Rohe borrow sugar and visual real estate from each other; everything from the literal inception of the steel skyscraper to the unfinished Trump Tower coexist -- and not just in one place, everywhere you look. The city's architecture is visionary in its anachronisms, and because of that all the more comfortable in its visions. I noticed in particular one man's office -- maybe you'll notice it in the movie, but probably not -- located in a building I once worked in, on the northeast corner of Michigan and Wacker. And I had to dig up an old picture I took from that building. So very... Gotham-y.

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Ponytail - Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came From an Angel)

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:01:44 -0600

I knew this record was something special the first time I heard it, but the more I listen to it, the more it's... whoa. Hot new audio love affair. Don'tcha love those? I picked this track because it's the longest, not for any better reason. The whole record is amazing.

Amazon.com | Pitchfork