Sun, 31 March: Weekly Review 4

I went to the Box Hill Record Fair today. Had a good time. See the review on my blog here. I’m reminded of the time I went with my mate, Paul. He was a newbie to the fair and so he didn’t know he was supposed to bring cash, not a card. The vendors almost all use cash at these things, because efpos machines cut into their bottom line. It was a classic rookie mistake, and I had to cover him by spotting him a hun’erd or so. This of course cut into my own spending power and I know I left the place minus a couple of desirable items (one was a Buffalo Bop album) because I’d run out of money. Neither of us could be bothered going to a bank machine in town and coming back.

I’m still figuring out my new phone. Main problem is trying to transfer stuff. Bluetooth connection was a problem, I couldn’t connect to my car. And my notes, which are extensive, I had to transfer manually. They include passwords, book recommendations and important idle thoughts. Here a some such idle thoughts:

• The Problem: rich arseholes with influence.
• Ulysses by Way of Jung: Kiss Penelope every chance you get, stupid.
• Teleology: the explanation of phenomenon in terms of the purpose they serve rather than the cause by which they arise. (Thanks Srsly Wrong boys podcast for this one)

I listened to a couple of my record fair purchases. They were Roses In the Snow by Emmylou Harris, and the Bryan Ferry Collection. A couple of nice mellow albums (well, the second half of the Ferry album was). Listening to Roses again, Emmylou’s first bluegrass album, was like visiting some fond old friends who had changed but were still recognisable. The album includes two songs that weren’t on the original, the Hank Williams number I’m Gonna Leave and the English traditional Root Like A Rose. They threw me a little because neither are what you would call bluegrass. I guess they were included because they were recorded around the same time. Good songs, though, especially Root. The album was initially difficult for me to get into. There were a number of ‘Jesus’ songs like Jordan and The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn. And where were the drums? With traditional bluegrass there weren’t any. But the strangeness wore off with time and familiarity with the music. In that way Emmylou was very much a path finder for me. This album introduced me to bluegrass, just as songs on previous albums introduced me to the songs of Gram Parsons and so many others.

That louche lounge lizard Bryan Ferry was also, in his own way, a trailblazer for me. He and Roxy Music‘s sound was startling in the Seventies. The only other person close to them was David Bowie (oh and maybe Lou Reed at times). And those early solo cover songs (what Ferry called ‘ready mades’) were wildly original. His version of Dylan‘s Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall completely revamps the original, giving it a campy glam edge. The video is just as arresting. It’s a good selection of his solo stuff, but it really should include The Price of Love and This Is Tomorrow, two big hits here in Australia at the time. I’m still processing the last track, The Way You Look Tonight, wherein Ferry time travels back to the Nineteen-Twenties and becomes Fred Astaire. Swinging!

It doesn’t seem too big a stretch to go from Bryan Ferry to the love lives of Kpop idols, so let’s go there. A few outlets, Allkpop, Twitter, etc, are reporting that Twice Jihyo, the group’s leader, is ‘dating’ a hunky sports dude called Yun Sung Bin. Have to admit, I’m always surprised when it turns out Twice members actually have private lives. We Onces get so little of that kind of info. Anyway, I’m happy for Jihyo (if it’s true), who we know had been in an earlier publicized relationship with boyband idol Kang Daniel. As far as I know though, Jihyo herself has only said it’s no one’s business what she does in private, so nothing is certain. Now I wanna know if something like this will surface about yesterday’s Birthday girl, Twice Mina. She seems to spend all of her private time playing computer games like Minecraft or making Lego figurines. But she’s so fine, it would be a crime if she wasn’t getting any lovin’. Maybe would-be suitors are put off by that menacing-looking older brother of hers? C’mon Mina, I don’t care who it is, just get down to it – throw me a frickin’ bone!

I had a day off from work and the house to myself, so that meant a huge music listening session in the front room. Playing it LOUD. Started quietly though with some more of Emmylou‘s Roses In the Snow and Bryan Ferry‘s Collection, especially listening to the songs I weren’t familiar with. I think I’ve finally ‘processed’ Bryan’s The Way You Look Tonight, and I like it a lot. He lets the musos loose in the first minute and a half of pure instrumental, all early jazz flourishes and virtuoso playing, before he comes in with his smooth vocal. Reminds me of the Brad Pitt film Babylon. Emmylou’s Root Like a Rose continues to impress, especially husband (at the time) Brian Ahern’s production and arrangement.

From there I went heavy with some Deep Purple‘s Machine Head, an old favourite. I really cranked it for this one and shook the windows. Highway Star comes out the gate like a comet. Ian Gillan sings ‘Nobody gonna steal my head’ and I know what he means. Never Before starts off surprisingly funky before it boogies down. The middle eight in this one is superb (‘I was hurt when I was younger’). It seems to come out of nowhere but hangs together and is amazingly melodic. Smoke On the Water is such a well-constructed song. Ritchie’s guitar solo continues to thrill, and THAT RIFF just drives the song along. Ian Gillan’s meta tale of the fire and the making of the album is pure cinema verite. Space Truckin’ just sends me off to the stars on that comet.

Next it was REM‘s Green in surround sound. I bought this recently when I went to see Dune 2 and hadn’t had an opportunity to listen to it till now. Like a lot of surround mixes, where you usually listen via a SACD player (which I have – a Pioneer) and five speaker set up (three in front, two behind), certain songs work better with it, and some don’t make much difference. In this case, World Leader Pretend, my favourite song on the album, works a treat. Nice separation with Peter Buck’s pedal steel guitar and Mike Mill’s piano. What a song! Stipe’s lyrics are great: ‘I proclaim the claims are left unstated/I demand a rematch/I decree a stalemate/I divine my deeper motives’. So good they were the only lyrics in the album artwork. Orange Crush‘s breakdown section has a helicopter whirring around my head while voices sing and shout at me from various corners. The Wrong Child is beautiful and heartbreaking. Listening to the album after all these years, it still stands up. Definitely one of their best.

I saw them on the Green tour they promoted this album with. It was at Festival Hall, Melbourne. A hot summer day in 1990. They started with Pop Song 89, naturally enough (‘Hi hi’). A lot of the album was showcased, including World Leader Pretend, where Stipe, as I recall, struck a drum (or was it a table?) with a stick. One of my favourite moments was when they did You Are The Everything, the gentle acoustic recollection of late spring days in Athens and a woman, perhaps a Stipe grandmother. He sang the first half with his back to the audience, cradling the microphone in his arms, as if the song was too personal to share with us. Then, at the return of ‘sometimes I feel like I can hardly sing’, the opening lines, he slowly turned around, as if ready to share the song with us. It was a great moment. The other thing I remember about that concert was The Go Betweens played support in what turned out to be the original lineup’s last big tour. He seems to have trouble recalling the details in his books, but I can report with certainty that Robert Forster was definitely wearing his dress at this concert. Man, what a lineup: the Gobs and REM!*

It being a lazy and sunny day I felt the need for a session of No Man’s Sky…Back from his exocraft safari on Planet Jeongyeon, my spawn is caught in a bad weather incident and has to retire to Jeongie’s pad for shelter. Once the weather clears he moves on to Planet Chaeyoung, though the route is somewhat circuitous. He (I?) has to go via the stargate to the outlaw station, Chaeyoung’s Rendezvous, before we can make landfall, because Chaeyoung’s stargate is not working. Somehow it’s no surprise that Chae would choose an outlaw system to base herself in. Actually, I think she may have been the one to established it in the first place (note the outlaw station’s title!). There are some seedy aliens hanging around the station so I quickly get into my ship, The Voyage (Special Class) and make my way down to Babybeast Base via pulse drive. I notice when I land a number of other ships coming down to the trading post nearby. It’s a popular spot, and no doubt a reason why Chaeyoung built her base here. Her planet has a witchy vibe to it, with half-formed, gnarled old trees and mist rising from the mountains. It’s damp with patches of heavy rain, but the critters, mostly giant moth-like insects, seem friendly. Her base, or cottage, is a stone-built affair with two levels, plus a basement. I enter it, and as expected, our pint-sized tattooed goddess is nowhere to be seen. I notice her pots and pans on the top floor and wonder what potions she’s been brewing up. There are pewter cups on the surfaces of all the tables and benches. Nine to be exact, for whenever her fellow Twice members come to call. They hang out a lot. I’ll bet it’s a party when they do. I try the basement, but it’s empty, apart from the many lockboxes that house Chae’s valuables. I wonder what’s in them. I fly up to the trading post and make a purchase from the many toothsome black market items available there. Where to next?

Son Chaeyoung is probably the most artistic member of Twice. She loves to draw and paint, and she’s good at it. Although not my ultimate bias (that’s Mina), she’s the only one whose photobook I have a copy of. It’s called I Am Chaeyoung and it’s full of fabulous photos of Chae in various concepts. My favourite is the so-called ‘Little Women’ set where she’s sporting brown hair with a peasant look and hanging out in a cottage. So adorable. She was embroiled in a little controversy last year when she wore some questionable t-shirts (one, a punk-themed shirt with swastika on it, the other with a MAGA message on it). Some idiots were calling for her to be pulled from the group, but it was obviously just ignorance on Chae’s or her costumer’s part. She did a Melody Project last year with the song Weatherman, and the video was one of my favourite things of that year. She alone of the Twice girls has many strange and wonderful tattoos. She’s quirky and confident. Although some people say Tzuyu (and I won’t argue), I think Chaeyoung’s the cutest Twice member. There, I said it.

Played some more No Man’s Sky. I love the sandbox quality of this game. It doesn’t take much to conjure up the inner child. Let me go there now into my Twice universe.

…On my way out from Chaeyoung‘s planet I stop at a freighter fleet to inspect some frigates, but nothing interests me. Arriving at the outlaw station I parlay briefly with entity Ovk, a Korvax technician, and Pirate King Gine, a surly Vy’keen warrior. Ovk tells me Twice Sana has gone on a frigate trading expedition (she’s a merchant) and needs someone to tend the gutrot flowers on her moon. Since I’m headed in that direction, I say I’ll do it. Ovk gives me Sana’s one-time security code (it’s a close friend, and I’m trustworthy). First I take the stargate to the trading station at the Dream Threshold system to see a smuggling contact I know. Turns out the bugger isn’t there. So I get in my ship and sub it down to the Sana Moon. It’s listed as a Paradise Planet, but it’s actually a paradise moon orbiting the nearby planet of Roga VI. Before I land at Sha Base I do a quick reconnaissance of the grounds to check for hostile visitors (Sha Base tends to attract them – gutrot flowers are valuable). I land and, entering Sana’s somewhat ramshackle pre-fab, I key the security code – ‘My heart is burning’. I harvest the faecium from the single gutrot she has in her lounge. Despite its name, it gives off a very fragrant scent that fills the room with delicious odor. I guess that’s why she keeps one there. Going outside, I harvest the others on the roof. I briefly stop to admire the view. The Sana Moon is indeed beautiful, like its namesake. I need to do a short jump to the other side of the moon, where Sana’s other base, Minatozaki Base, is to harvest the rest, but her gate is down because of dead batteries. It’s a quick fix to fire up the batteries and the gate with oxygen, and I’m away.

Minatozaki Sana was my first bias in Twice. She was wearing a cheerleader outfit for the Like Ooh Ahh video and, when she flicked her pigtails, I was smitten. She’s the ‘clumsy’ one in that video, falling on her arse when she jumps out of the van, failing to hold a ballet pose, and the clumsiness seemed to spill over into real life. There are so many clips of her tripping, falling or dropping things. As the fans say, No Clumsy, No Sana. Her general adorableness in that video and others got my attention, as it still does. But my allegiances shifted soon to one of the other Japanese members of Twice, namely Mina. Strangely, Sana is the only tested Extrovert in the group, which I think is a mark of her honesty (I think some of the others fibbed – Nayeon?). She’s the most flirtatious member, and definitely the one I would most want at my party.

Still on the Twice theme, members Nayeon and Momo were featured in the latest round of 2wice Date videos on Youtube. Basically, it was a mukbang (eating show) with the two of them (collectively known as the Peach Sisters) eating lots of food (mostly pizza) and trying their darndest not to get too emotional. Basically, they succeeded, which I thought was a pity. Some of the Youtube comments had a go at psychoanalyzing the ladies, but I won’t do that here. At one point Nayeon suggested they discuss some of the bad styling concepts they’ve committed, but Momo obviously didn’t want to go there. Maybe she didn’t think there had been any. Again, a pity, because that would have at least been interesting. For any Once, it’s always fun to watch the members do just about anything, but there just wasn’t anything really new in this video.

I was watching some Youtubes today and for some reason (probably I’d watched something similar) a two year old video of an elephant being helped out of a hole by an excavator machine popped up in my stream. It was a nice little clip, very heart-warming as the elephant appeared to turn and ‘thank’ the excavator for its rescue. This is footage that is typically called ‘human interest’ within the news media. The classic one is the fireman rescuing the cat from a tree. Or, as I was surprised to see on a MSM news channel today, a story about a library book that was returned 35 years after it was borrowed (I believe this was the New York Library). They’re not the usual doom and gloom stories of car accidents and crimes committed, emphasizing conflict within the world. We know why news media tends to focus on conflict and happenings that are out of the ordinary – because they get more audiences. Problem is the reinforcement of these types of stories and the world views they encompass can lead to a distorted view of what’s really going on in the world. I mean, isn’t the main story that happens every day the fact that millions of people actually got along and were friendly and courteous to each other? But that’s not interesting, that’s not entertaining. Well, I disagree. Give me more stories about the elephant over stories of crime and death any day. There’s something therapeutic about them. That’s one of the things I like about social media like Youtube: the fact that, at least some of the time, I get to choose the filters I want for my preferred news media.

I was feeling a little old school, or possibly nostalgic, so I chose some Suzanne Vega to listen to while in the work van today. I went with her Days Of Open Hand album from 1989. It was her third album and the one with her hit, Book of Dreams, on it. The opening salvo of Tired of Sleeping and Men In A War is pure magic: melodic, funky, thoughtful. Later, the stark Predictions mesmerizes with its sharp picked guitar lines and its catalogue of fortune telling methods like an incantation: ‘Let’s tell the future/let’s see how it’s been done’. I like SV a lot, and she continues to bring out interesting albums. I saw her live in 1987 when she was promoting her second album, Solitude Standing (the one with Luka on it), and then in the noughties when she had her excellent Beauty and Crime album out. And when I was deejaying at local radio station 3RRR back in 1986 I played her first album a lot. Some wags joked she was part of the ‘new waif’ movement: kind of New York, folkie songwriter sensibility – usually slender, preferably spiky-haired female. I’m not sure who else was in it (Laurie Anderson?). Maybe it was a movement of one. I loved that album, especially the song Some Journey. I so wanted her to play it at the first concert, but she didn’t. Another great song, Small Blue Thing, always conjures up for me a vivid memory of a dream of a place: it’s a cold night and I’m in some compound like a basketball court with wire fences, and I’m holding onto a…small blue thing (probably a decorative blue pebble). I like how a lot of her songs take things and objects and places and anthropomorphizes them. New York Is a Woman. Ironbound/Fancy Poultry has ‘breasts and thighs and hearts’. One of her latest albums is a tribute to the writer Carson McCullers, who wrote The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (great title). That just feels so right.

Still on the New York vibe I guess, I stopped home for lunch and happened to catch some scenes from the Woody Allen film, Annie Hall. An old favourite, I know it well. There was the classic ‘sneezing’ scene (you’ll have to watch it to know), and the scene where Annie (played by the amazing Diane Keaton) sings Feels Like Old Times. I love Paul Simon‘s turn here as a slick west-coast music producer, with entourage, enticing Annie to come to a party. The way his wrist goes limp when he says ‘nothing’ is a perfect gesture. Such a pleasure to watch. Was it Simon’s idea, or did Woody suggest it? Great writing, great acting, great film. I spotted a young Jeff Goldblum in it just as I was leaving. The earlier scene where Woody’s character pulls the media theoretician Marshall McLuhan out of a crowd in order to make a point to some hapless schmuck is a classic. ‘If only life was always like this!’ Indeed! My favourite Woody film is Stardust Memories, a couple of films after this one. It’s about a Director going to a retrospective of his own films. So meta (and very hard to find). Just as well I saw it three times during its cinema run back in the day.

I read some more of the manga Ya Boy Kongming! on mangafire. Eiko befriends a singer who it turns out, surprise surprise, is a member of what will be her rival group for a place in the upcoming mega concert. I’m still liking the manga, and I applaud the mangaka’s attempts at that very Japanese pursuit of eliminating conflict at every turn, but I do wish Kongming would stop quoting The Art of War by Sun Tzu. I’m not a fan. I know it’s probably appropriate considering who Kongming is, but instead of Sun Tzu, I’d rather Lao Tzu.

One of the hazards (or great things, depending on your point of view) about working in libraries is you discover so many interesting books that are out there. It’s a hazard of course because your to-be-read list gets impossibly bigger and bigger, if you don’t control yourself. One such I encountered today was The House At Baker Street, by Michelle Birkby. It has a premise irresistible to any Sherlock Holmes fan (which I am). Here’s the blurb:

• ‘When Sherlock Holmes turns down the case of persecuted Laura Shirley, Mrs Hudson, the landlady of Baker Street, and Mary Watson resolve to take on the investigation themselves. From the kitchen of 221b, the two women begin their inquiries and enlist the assistance of the Baker Street Irregulars and the infamous Irene Adler.’

Don’t know about you, but I’m in. Or at least I’m half-way in. I was able to control myself enough to not borrow it straight away, but I’m definitely thinking about it. It’s on my TBR list. When I was in England (just before I went to Paris – see above) I visited Baker Street. Was sad to see that 221b, or where it should’ve been, appeared to be a bank. But there was a nice Sherlock Holmes motif on the tiled walls of the station.

Speaking of library books, I read some more of A Geek In Japan. There was a fantastic chart titled Japanese Popular Culture: A Chronology. It begins in 1947 with ‘Osamu Tezuka publishes his first manga’, and end in 2016 with ‘Kimi No No Wa (Your Name) by Makoto Shinkai becomes an internationally acclaimed anime movie’. In between there’s Godzilla, Kurasawa, Dragonball, Visual Kai and so many other major references. It’s keyed to the categories of Manga, Anime, Cinema, Television, Landmarks and something called Tendencies. I’ve already noticed some omissions, like no films by Yasujiro Ozu, or artists like Perfume, but some that are there pique my interest. I must check out Kumi Koda, ‘the best-selling J-pop star of 2007’. A good conversation starter for Nippon geeks.

So it’s Good Friday, the day that commemorates when Jesus died on the cross. And that makes it good? For the record, I’m not a Christian (can’t come at the whole resurrection and forgiveness of sins stuff), but I like what we know of Jesus. He’s okay. I’m one of those people who says ‘Happy Birthday, Jesus’ when he sits down for Christmas dinner. Respect.

Well, he’s not Jesus, but he comes close. Yes, I’m talking about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. I had a listen to the Smile album today, the one I bought at the record fair last week (and the one Brian almost ‘died’ for our sins to try to make ;-). The album comes with a beautiful booklet that details the story of the album and includes all of Van Dyke Park‘s amazing lyrics, festooned with lovely (and strangely appropriate) Victoriana images. I happily read along to the lyrics as the music washed over me. Brian and his group of superlative musicians and singers recreate the original and possibly surpass it. Bear with me, people, it’s only my first run-through of this particular album, so I’ll need time to process it. But on first impression: what an astonishing piece of work! The version of Surf’s Up here may well be the best. I’ll need to study and ponder and compare. Let me get back to you on this.

Lately, when I’ve been settling down in my rocking chair (yes, I love my rocking chair) to read more of A Wrinkle In Time my dog has decided it’s time to play. So I’ve been a bit behind in something that I was supposed to knock over quickly. The characters are now on the planet of Camazotz and they’ve met the sinister Prime Coordinator, who has ‘taken over’ Charles Wallace. He tells sister Meg, ‘On Camazotz we are all happy because we are all alike. Differences create problems…Individuals have been done away with. Camazotz is ONE mind.’ This is reminding me of the Borg, from Star Trek. It’s a variation on one of the great themes of literature (and a sociology trope): society versus the individual. I’ve had my own thoughts about this lately. Maybe I’ll share at some point.

I finished the graphic novel of A Wrinkle In Time. I really liked the overall weirdness of it all. The characters Mrs Whatsit, Who and Which. The creepy IT (a disembodied brain dripping ooze onto the floor!). The tesseract idea for space travel. Even the nightmare of uniformity planet Camazotz was memorable. But why is it considered a time travel book? It’s more about space travel. In the end, love wins out (nice, but simplistic). The theme of individuality versus conformity was half-baked. Oh well.

Time for a big shoutout to one of my all-time favourite bands, Stereolab. They’re the band Tim Gaine formed after leaving McCarthy (as mentioned in my Box Hill Record Fair blog, remember it?) with his then partner (then wife, then baby mama, then ex) Laetitia Sadier. Their music might be described as retro futuristic (or futuristic retro) with dollops of lounge, noise, motorific beats, moog and some subversive lyrics sometimes sung in French (because Laetitia is). Or something like that. They formed in early Nineties around Laetitia, Tim and stalwart members Mary Hansen and Andy Ramsay. Australian member Mary passed away in 2002 in a road accident (RIP Mary) and the groop (yes, always spelt that way) continued till 2010 then broke up. In the late 2010s they reformed and are still touring, as far as I can tell. I’ve seen them a bunch of times and have all their albums. Anyway, they have a newsletter I subscribe to called Lab Report and the latest edition of 29/03/20124 announced the Switched On CD boxset update, now including all five albums on eight discs. These are albums full of extraneous material they had not put on their proper albums. They were very prolific! And that’s not counting the Oscillons From the Anti-Sun album, a triple disc affair (with DVD), which is not considered a Switched On album. They were also flogging some merch, including a t-shirt I already have. What caught my eye, however, was an additional album called Little Pieces of Stereolab, a 15 track introductory sampler including 3 tracks from each of the 5 albums. Not having seen the track list, I can only speculate what’s on it and my mind races to come up with my own idea of what should be on it. Time for a playlist, me thinks. I’m so glad they’ve reformed, for a lot of reasons, but chiefly because now they have released the other two Switched On albums (Electrically Possessed and Pulse of the Early Brain) that they didn’t release when they broke up. I indignantly felt they personally owed me those albums at the time; and now they’ve released them, I am happy. Now, how’s about another tour, guys? Album?

Speaking of favourite bands, today my nephew Ben told me Pearl Jam are coming out for some concerts. They’re playing the very large Marvel Stadium (50,000 seating capacity) in Melbourne. I’ve gotta get a ticket. One of my fave bands and I’ve never seen them. There’s also a new album to go with it, so can’t wait. A lot of people thought they would have broke up by now (some saying they should have), but no, they’re clearly in this for the long haul. And I’m here for it. Move over Rolling Stones!

Another slight Kpop let down for me was the new Aespa video for their Fraggle Rock theme song, Get Goin’. Most of the Fragglers (digitally) join in with the girls as they dance and sing their way through the song, and everyone seems to have fun, but…it’s Fraggle freakin’ Rock. I dunno, maybe I’ll at least like the song if I listen to it some more. But hey, on the bright side, I recently heard that Aespa will be coming out to Australia for some concerts later this year! So there’s that. Yay!

TV show themes, like Aespa’s new song, seem to go with Bubblegum, and another genre that’s often likened to that is Power Pop. A video called 5 Forgotten Power Pop Bands (That Are Actually Great!) came up on my feed not long after the Aespa one, which had me thinking that. The bands featured were mostly obscure to me (no doubt why they’re ‘forgotten’) but I liked the concept of the video. It had me going to the channel that made it, called Pop Rocks Radio. They have a bunch of other videos in the series, and dub themselves ‘your channel for all things Power Pop’. Other videos feature Badfinger, Big Star and The Raspberries (Eric Carmen RIP). If push comes to shove, power pop might just be my all-time favourite genre. That combination of chiming guitars, power and melody. I mean, The Beatles pretty much invented it. Teenage Fanclub and so many other of my faves are power pop. I subscribed. Those Youtube algorithms are sneaky.