Sat, 15 June: Weekly Review 15

I lost all my work today because of a Word malfunction, so I’ll just give the Cliff notes, coz I can’t be fucking bothered re-writing this. There was another Conversation With Josh (#258 I think), something about Josh doing an Andrew Lloyd Webber song from Evita for his next open mic outing. He mentioned seeing Violent Femmes back in 1995 at the Palais, with front row tickets, and the bass player asked his female friend back stage, but she didn’t go. Creepy muso’s. I mentioned seeing Motley Crue there, and they had titty cam. I took pictures. Hair metal was not really my thing, but I read The Dirt and reappraised them and learned to love their sleazy brand of metal.

Reviewed Aespa’s new album Armageddon, which has been on high rotation. I like its variety: electropop, hip hip, yacht pop, ballads, even some bogan rock (Live My Life). Aespa Karina threw out the first pitch at a baseball game recently. She smoked the batter – not really, but at least she got it over the plate and looked good doing it. Aespa also have a new song coming out, their first Japanese single, called Hot Mess. The product continues, yay. Hey, wait, I used that term Hot Mess in reviewing the Ghost In the Shell manga recently, and it’s come back to haunt me. Que coincidence!

Another day off for me and I spent it, as much as a I could, wallowing in pop culture. For starters I looked at some Rage music videos I recorded on the PVR. There were some pretty classic old-school clips and artists, including The Romantics (When I Look In Your Eyes), The Motels (Dangerous), The Pretenders (Kid), Larry Graham (History of Bass Thumping and Plucking), British Beat (Hands Off She’s Mine), Dexy’s Midnight Runners (Geno), Billy Preston and Syreeta (With You I’m Born Again), and Irene Cara (Fame). The Romantics song was another rocking tune in the same vein as their one hit What I Like About You. The clip even looked like it was from the same performance as that song, the group looking tough in their leather. I really like their early Kinks-like sound: I must get the album (which I believe contains a Kinks cover). Elsewhere Larry Graham, looking like a dandied pimp, surprised me with his entertaining and charismatic account of playing bass for Sly and the Family Stone like a funky mofo. The Billy Preston/Syreeta clip was simple but exquisite, Syreeta looking beautiful in a trendy sequined cap, her vocals dripping with honey. Sweet, sweet stuff. But my favourite was The Pretenders doing Kid at a colourful amusement park. On the song, James Honeyman Scott gives a masterclass in guitar versatility, adding power chords, arpeggios and aftertones. In the clip, Chrissy Hynde gives a similar masterclass in how to use a top hat as a prop and look cool.

Discovered new Twitter account called Women Being Awful that’s pretty funny. It’s not anti-women, just brings up funny memes that feed into interesting discussion threads about sex, gender and relationships. I put it in my Humour list.

I’m also still reading Rewrite by Gregory Benford, and it’s going places time travel books don’t usually go. Benford’s breaking the fourth wall by  including himself and even his twin brother in the narrative. Main character, Charlie, reads about Benford’s book Timescape and seeks him out for science advice about his situation (unstuck in time). This is the sort of silliness Robert Heinlein did in his later years (try reading Number of the Beast), though Benford does it so much better. The blurb tells me Heinlein’s due to show up in this one soon! Audacious, cheeky!

I’m still reading the Gregory Benford scifi book, Rewrite. Author Robert Heinlein and his wife Ginny have entered the narrative. His novel The Number of the Beast was even mentioned. The Heinleins come off like they appeared to have been in real life – paranoid fruit loops. It’s all wacky meta fun, but I’m not really liking the turn it’s taking with the main character, Charlie. He’s now a Hollywood film-maker and has discovered he’s what’s called a ‘reincarnate’ – someone who can live other lives in the past. So he’s making a new parallel history version of the Michael J Fox film Back To the Future in hopes of flushing out other reincarnates, who will intuit his message from the film. This doesn’t really make sense to me. I’ll stick with it, though, in hopes the book will finally make some sense before the end, but I’m not loving this pseudo-science direction it’s taking. Benford’s other time travel book, Timescape, was full of such arresting hard science. What happened?

I did the last of my A/B analysis of Smile by The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson solo. This was the section from I Wanna Be Around/Workshop to Good Vibrations. The Beach Boys’ version of that weird little Workshop section includes, among the hammering and sawing, someone yelling ‘Ow!’, which sounds exactly right. Although both version of Vegetables sound great, I’ve gotta give it to Brian’s version because it sounds so much like a Brian song, he’s gotta sing it. The Beach Boys’ versions of Holidays and the later song Love To Say Dada (In Blue Hawaii in Brian’s version) are both unfinished, being merely instrumentals, so it’s Brian’s completed vocal versions that win out here. I especially like this full version of Holidays, or On A Holiday, as it’s called here. It really bounces along. Both versions of Wind Chimes are excellent, but I’ll give it to the Beach Boys simply because it’s the Beach Boys. The infamous instrumental (because it’s reportedly what did Brian’s head in), Mrs O’Leary’s Cow, is mostly a tie, but I’m leaning towards Brian’s more forceful and better-recorded version. Those drum fills are really smacko. That leaves Good Vibrations, and I’ve made it clear already I think the original’s the best. It doesn’t help that Brian’s solo version has different lyrics, presumably by Van Dyke Parks. I much prefer Mike’s lyrics, especially ‘I hear the sound of a gentle word/On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air’. It’s a slightly different, extended version here, but it’s still a classic.

And that’s the A/B analysis. Brian’s version really brings new and better things to the table, but the original Beach Boys version is the bedrock from which it springs. Yeah, I know that sentence has mixed metaphors, but I’m keeping it because I like the rhyme! There are other aspects about the two recordings I haven’t mentioned, like their different sound qualities, with Brian’s album having a sharper, harder sound, and the original having a softer, more muted sound. Thinking of both versions of the album as a whole, it’s a strange beast. The concept seems to aspire to some literary/musical grandeur, and it achieves that sometimes (Surf’s Up), while at other times it focuses on the beauty of simple things, like Vegetables and Wind Chimes. It may well be the story of the Beach Boys: the group that showed us the surfin’ good times, with an undercurrent of the depths of what life could be.

I did more Tarot study today. This time it was the Major Arcana Empress card. Its signature qualities are Abundance, Fertility and Receptivity. It ‘may indicate the birth of a child or a new creative project. In both cases, devotion and careful nurturing are required to bring them to fruition.’ It also denotes a contentment with one’s position in life, making a good platform from which to embark on new projects with confidence. For all these reasons it’s thought the Empress may be a pregnant woman, though it’s not always clear from its image. My Buffy Tarot deck depicts vampire Drusilla as the Empress. A strange choice, considering most vampires cannot bear children (though Darla did – miraculously). I would’ve thought Buffy’s mom, Joyce Summers, would have been more appropriate. I definitely see the connection with this card to creativity. Starting a new project feels like having a new baby to pour your devotion and energies into.

I put my order into the K-Pop Time store for the new Nayeon album and NewJeans single today. I did some serious soul-searching to decide which version of Nayeon’s album I would get. Would it be the expensive Full Version with all that packaging, or would I go basic and get the digipak? I went with the digipak. It may seem traitorous as a Once, but I couldn’t be bothered getting any more ridiculous, expensive and mostly unnecessary Korean album packaging. After my recent RM purchase, I’m a little bit gun shy. The digipak has posters and cards and things, but it’s far more streamlined. I mainly want the music, and an easy way to place the album on my shelf. Oh, and the money I saved (about 15AUD) I put towards the NewJeans single, How Sweet. And this time I had a discount coupon, so I got ten percent off. I tell you, every cent counts with these crazy Korean albums. I’ll no doubt backtrack down the line and decide I must have the full version of Nayeon’s album after all, but until then, I am content.

I watched eps 5 and 6 of my Yashahime bluray today. The sixth episode was a lot of fun, with Aiya, a spoiled princess, getting Setsuna to double for her in order to escape her studies, and her tutor is Hisui, demon slayer filling in for his sister Kin’u, who is equally skiving off. Aiya’s insane cackle when she’s enjoying herself (even when she is in the grip of an octopus’s tentacles!) is something to behold. I’m enjoying this even more second time around.

Watched eps 7 and 8 of my Yashahime bluray. The narrative is splitting up, with one story featuring Moroha and the raccoon dog dude, Takechiyo, going to his home to reclaim his birthright, another with Setsuna and Towa joining up with the demon slayers on a job to save a village from demons, and one featuring bad guy Kirinmaru’s machinations to rule the world and his daughter’s efforts trying to stop him. I feel Setsuna and Towa are the centre of the show, so I’m enjoying their story arc most so far. They both have interesting flaws – and goals.

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies seem to be back in the zeitgeist lately. I’ve noticed an uptake of borrowings of the films in the library, and there have been some TV programs about it, including a doco series I watched today called Lord of the Rings, Icons Unearthed. What’s going on? Anyway, it was an entertaining and informative overview of the making of those films, and also of Tolkien’s road to writing the books. I know a fair bit of the lore of Jackson’s Lord of the Rings because the original dvds were so chock full of behind the scenes information, but this documentary had even more. I didn’t know exactly, for example, why Liv Tyler’s Arwen character arc was watered down from warrior woman to inspirational/ethereal love interest for Aragorn. Turns out one of the main reasons was that good old Liv couldn’t ride horses and was afraid of them, and riding horses well was essential to her character. Even the scenes that were shot in the first film of her riding a horse to save an injured Frodo were done from on top of a fake horse-riding rig.

I have to say I’m very glad of this. One of the first online spoilers I learned about the film’s initial shooting was that Arwen’s character was being beefed up to replace the other warrior woman role in the story, namely the wonderful Eowyn, who is my favourite female character in the book. Spoiler indeed. From then on I ignored any and all spoilers about the films because I was so gutted about this new, stupid development. So it was a very pleasant surprise to come to the second film, The Two Towers, and find that Jackson and co had reinstated Eowyn, in the wonderful form of Miranda Otto. Man, what were they thinking in the first place? Can you imagine Lord of the Rings without Eowyn, without Miranda Otto? It’s like imagining Aragorn being played by, original choice, Stuart Townsend (the doco gives us some poop about his departure as well). No thanks. So thanks Liv Tyler for your aversion to horses! The series continues next week, and I’ll be there.

Watched the rest of those Icon Lord Of the Rings docos on SBS On Demand tonight. I hoped one of them would delve into the machinations that brought us Miranda Otto’s Eowyn to the screen, but it was not to be. Instead there was some mildly interesting goss about the WETA studio that provided the special effects. Apparently some Newline studio bean counters were sent packing when Jackson and WETA realised they could use their own bean counters – or at least, that’s how I interpreted it. But most of all it would seem the main problem with the production was the controlling monster that Peter Jackson had become. He was forever making last minute creative and clever changes to the film that gave the staff and creatives a hard time to catch up to. One example was how, when he decided to change one scene, a frustrated Howard Shore, the film’s composer, had to re-score the entire scene. Going by the cast and crew’s struggles with Jackson on the later trilogy, The Hobbit, he did not change his ways.

Speaking of warrior women like Eowyn, a long while ago I, under my band name Grover’s Mill, wrote a little song called Illyria, which was about a character from TV’s Angel spinoff from Buffy. I’m putting it up on this site’s Archive section, and while at it I took the opportunity to remix it today. It’s a mid-paced doom metal song, not great and not as heavy as I wanted it to be but, I dunno, it’s a song I wrote. I wish I’d played the lead guitar riff with a bit more finesse and that anyone other than me sang it, but I like it. Illyria was such a cool and kick-ass character, she deserves a song about her. I have another one, a sequel to it called The Final Battle, that will also go up soon.

Jin, the oldest member of BTS, and who has just finished his army service, decided to hold a special event for fans called a Free Hug Event. He originally intended to allow three thousand fans to have the honour of hugging him, but it got reduced to one thousand due to practical concerns, and some fears he might get mugged. After the event Allkpop reported it as ‘unexpectedly wholesome’, but photos surfaced of some fans stealing a kiss. They were apparently two Japanese women (it’s reported there were only two male fans at the event). This small liberty sparked off outrage among fans, some calling for law suits against the offending women. Meanwhile, Jin and his people seem quite unperturbed. It’s crazy shit, and I love it.

I had a look at and listen to Twice Nayeon’s new song and music video, ABCD, which has just been released. First impression is it’s a more adult vibe, like Jihyo’s Killing Me Good, and a bit retro. There are bits in the song that remind me of Britney Spears, and especially in the chorus, Beyonce’s Crazy In Love. Other fans have picked up on this and some are labelling her Nayeonce, which is funny. The video shows us multiple versions of Nayeon in various looks and situations, like she’s inhabiting multiple universes. In all of them though she is dominating, the centre of attraction. A lot of attention has been made to a part in the dance break where Nayeon appears to put a hand on her crotch. In all, it’s a good song, I think I like it, and the video’s fun. I look forward to the coming promotional blitz for the album and song.

I’m looking through a big coffee table book I borrowed from the library today about the Beach Boys. It’s called The Beach Boys by The Beach Boys. It’s pretty lush with amazing vintage photos and text that’s all in their words. I believe there’s a documentary film companion to it. It was such a blast to see it there, a large book in the library, I just had to borrow it. We have some good shit in there sometimes, you know. I don’t know how informative or revealing it will be (it is an ‘official’ account), but I will at least enjoy the copious photos. One little tidbit: according to David Marks, Dennis Wilson could be a bit of a bully. I wonder where he got that from? (hello Murry Wilson).