Here’s an essential and intriguing missing piece of the Krautrock puzzle : A German man known simply as Alex (Alexander Wiska) plays Turkish pop music on his electric saz backed and produced at Inner Space studios, on his first two LPs, by most of the members of Can ! Below is an entertaining fan made clip for the song “Derule” which is a cover of a popular Turkish tune propelled by the incomparable drumming of Can’s Jaki Liebezeit.
The always notable Kurt Ralske just recently blew my mind by introducing me to the work of Polish singer Ewa Demarczyk. Dealing mainly in symbolism and metaphors for freedom was a necessary tactic for her lyrics under communist rule, but one needn’t speak Polish to pick up on what is conveyed in these heavy 1966 performances.
The career of Nico, née Christa Päffgen, and what happened to her after she crossed paths with Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground, has certainly been well-documented (see at the bottom, Nico: Icon). Less well-documented, though, are Nico’s “model” years, starting out in Berlin when she was all of 14. The accompanying photos are just a few selected from the fine—and generous—set found here.
Ranging in date from ‘52-‘67, these shots certainly capture a more innocent time in Nico’s life. I particularly like the ones below where Nico looks like she just stepped into a Godard film. It’s somewhat incredible to think that the face in the above black-and-whites would later go on to sing this, and this, and especially this!
Baths is 21 year old Will Wiesenfeld of Chatsworth, CA. His debut album Cerulean will be released on Anticon Records June 22. Baths is one of the freshest things coming out of Los Angeles right now - part banging LA beats and part indie pop. The songs utilize the ultra-limited kick and cracking snare combo that sets LA apart from the rest of the beat world, but atop this foundation Will adds delicate melodies, live bass, piano, guitar and other undefined instrumentation that really gives the music his own signature sound. The vocal songs feature Will’s croon layered and stacked until it is one with the music and are definite highlights on the album. His voice reminds me of a cross between Panda Bear and David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors.
Despite early beginnings as Post-Foetus, Will’s life was changed the night of September 12, 2009. Beat wizard Daedelus invited WIll to open up the Destroy LA show happening at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. After witnessing the sounds of Flying Lotus, Nosaj Thing, Daedelus, TOKiMONSTA and others from the LA scene, Will immediately began work on the Baths project and Cerulean was made in just a few weeks.
To begin promoting Cerulean, Will began his weekly residency at Low End Theory this past Wednesday and did a bang up job. If you are in the LA area, make sure to catch him this week with underground rap heroes Anti Pop Consortium. Oh yeah, Stupor above is NOT on Cerulean but you can download it here. Both the song and video, filmed and edited by Mario Luna & Will Wiesenfeld, were made the afternoon/evening of April 17th, 2010 as a little bonus for fans. Down below is one his vocal tracks from Cerulean called Hall.
I am very sad to announce the passing of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge’s white Jack Russell Terrier mix, Big Boy. Those who have followed Gen’s work for the last several years will likely instantly recognize the white dog.
Having been put in charge of walking and looking after Big Boy many, many times, this is a sad day for me.
Dearest friends and One True TOPI Tribe
Today, after battling various symptoms courageously, our BELOVED and ADORED best friend and superbly loving being dropped his body. He had been suffering from mixed symptoms that were a result of lymph cancer that had spread throughout his body. All of which got more intense and debilitating until he chose to move on to another form of being.
“Biggie” was cradled in my arms as he let go of this form of existence and we told him to look for his “Mummy” Lady Jaye. As we spoke those words he looked up to me, licked my left hand directly on the two wedding rings and then kissed my face looking directly into my eyes. We felt a shiver run through us as Lady Jaye and Big Boy connected with each other and then with my SELF….
In the two plus y-eras since Lady Jaye dropped her body that we have been almost lost and disabled by grief “BigBoy” a/k/a “Biggie” has been my solace, my constant source of love and consolation. Without his loyal and unconditional love we’d have been totally lost. He was rescued from being abandoned, tied to a fence on xmas eve. We count our SELF blessed by his arrival in our lives.
Samuel L. Jackson apparently just revealed that there’s going to be a Nick Fury movie. I’m hoping for a cross between Hasslehoff’s version and Danger: Diabolik, with proper Steranko sets.
Earlier this week Samuel L. Jackson appeared on what is surely the most annoying radio show in the history of the world, Radio Big Boy, and dropped a huge Marvel bomb. While talking about his nine picture deal with Marvel and confirming that he won’t be in Thor, he revealed this:
“The Avengers should start shooting some time next year, and then some time after that there’ll be a big S.H.I.E.L.D. movie.”
That’s right, Nick Fury’s secret organization will get its own solo movie. At least if Sam knows what he’s talking about. It’s worth noting, however, that during the interview Sam seemed confused about some of Marvel’s other movies. For instance he had no idea who was playing Captain America (even though he’ll be in the movie) and thought Chris Pine was playing Thor (it’s Chris Hemsworth). So it’s not exactly like he’s a Marvel insider. Still, if there’s one project you’d think he’d be clued in on it would be any potential S.H.I.E.L.D. movie since as Nick Fury, he’d be the star of it.
In a development which will likely strike fear into the hearts of all Dangerous Minds readers, new software has been developed which can recognize sarcastic tweets. Presumably this is 90% of the content on Twitter. Via Slashdot:
“Even humans sometimes fail to recognize sarcasm and irony; can machines do better? An algorithm that identifies sarcastic tweets (PDF) on Twitter and sarcastic sentences in product reviews on Amazon will be presented next week in the International Conference for Weblogs and Social Media in Washington, DC, and in the Computational Natural Language Learning in Sweden in July. A team from the Hebrew University, Israel, has developed an algorithm that identifies sarcastic sentences by using a machine learning technique in which a small number of sarcastic sentences act as seeds for the software to learn and generalize upon. The algorithm can then identify sarcastic sentences that are nothing like the examples. The variety of recognized sarcastic sentences is impressive, though the results are not perfect. But again, we don’t do it so well ourselves, do we?”
It’s been a while since anyone’s mined Letters of Note, but this one was too good to pass up: a 1990 letter from Frank Sinatra to George Michael urging the “reluctant pop star” to loosen up and “dust off those gossamer wings.” (!)
FRANK SINATRA
September 9, 1990
Dear Friends,
When I saw your Calendar cover today about George Michael, “the reluctant pop star,” my first reaction was he should thank the good Lord every morning when he wakes up to have all that he has., And that’ll make two of us thanking God every morning for all that we have.
I don’t understand a guy who lives “in hopes of reducing the strain of his celebrity status.” Here’s a kid who “wanted to be a pop star since I was about 7 years old.” And now that he’s a smash performer and songwriter at 27 he wants to quit doing what tons of gifted youngsters all over the world would shoot grandma for - just one crack at what he’s complaining about.
Come on George, Loosen up. Swing, man, Dust off those gossamer wings and fly yourself to the moon of your choice and be grateful to carry the baggage we’ve all had to carry since those lean nights of sleeping on buses and helping the driver unload the instruments
And no more of that talk about “the tragedy of fame.” The tragedy of fame is when no one shows up and you’re singing to the cleaning lady in some empty joint that hasn’t seen a paying customer since Saint Swithin’s day. And you’re nowhere near that; you’re top dog on the top rung of a tall ladder called Stardom, which in latin means thanks-to-the-fans who were there when it was lonely.
Talent must not be wasted. Those who have it - and you obviously do or today’s Calendar cover article would have been about Rudy Vallee - those who have talent must hug it, embrace it, nurture it and share it lest it be taken away from you as fast as it was loaned to you.
This Spawnkill editorial hits the nail on the head: game manuals were often cooler than video games themselves. Like record covers, and even CD liners now, game manuals have become a dead art. For those of us who grew up in the Nintendo era, but who lacked the resources to actually get a Nintendo, game manuals borrowed from friends were the next best thing, like a way to pretend you were playing the game. I remember long hours spent in the back of school buses imagining what video games must be like from the manuals other kids showed me, which were invariably more interesting than the actual experience…
Throughout those shining years of my childhood, purchasing a new game often meant thumbing through the pages of a mammoth tome detailing impending gameplay down to the letter. If I were stuck on a long car trip with a recently-purchased title, digging into that precious parcel and retrieving the manual was the first thing on my mind. It was a way to game vicariously through a few simple, innocent pages, and one of the first ties I established to any game I had my heart set on playing through. Unfortunately, it’s also a familiar constant that gamers new and old can kiss goodbye with the decision to downsize the distribution of manuals entirely, spearheaded by Ubisoft, and perhaps many more companies to follow.
Call me old-fashioned, but the feeling of thumbing through the crisp (sometimes colored) pages rife with back story, notes from the designers, and detailed instructions on how to play gave me a real sense of anticipation. It was genuinely difficult to wait those few short hours until the final journey home at the end of the day to eagerly devour the content on the disk (or cartridge) inside. In some cases, being treated with some delicious fiction related to the title was something to look forward to as well, especially if you needed a little extra hype to fully enjoy the adventure about to unfold.
And let’s not forget the lovely serial numbers or copy protection that would require you to find a certain line or word in the manual to be able to install the thing. Good luck if you threw it away! But even now, as illogical as it would be to require a simple word or pass phrase as DRM, it was part of the charm that came with buying a new game.
New Everything is Terrible spotlights what it takes to be a stuntman. Highlights: Choking yourself, taking punches, fighting like a guy but looking like a girl. Wait for the gang signs and the “pain and agony of being the hero.”
