Here’s my album recommendation of the year. Gil Scott-Heron, most known for “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” “Whitey on the Moon” and others, has a new album out from XL. Partly covers, partly new material, and partly spoken word pep talks, “I’m New Here” is a striking piece of work. It’s substantial enough to jolt you out of auto-pilot for a few minutes and sit down and listen, something that you don’t get from much music these days.

Particular standout tracks are the cover of Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil Blues” and Bill Callahan of Smog’s “I’m New Here,” the title track (included below).

You’re just not going to get insights like this from Dr. Phil:

“I believe that the spirits are your parents and their parents and their parents and their parents and they’re in your bloodstream and they run through your body constantly, and they want you to live on because they want to live on, and they are trying all the time to tell you shit, and if you just spend a few minutes with yourself, you will hear them…”

This is my favorite album of the year so far. Forget this last-glitch-over-the-rainbow kid crap. Listen to the Elder Statesman and get your coat pulled.

(Gil Scott-Heron: I’m New Here)

Gnostic Media just did a podcast interview with John Taylor Gatto, one of the world’s foremost critics of the educational system. Gatto was the New York State teacher of the year in 1991. He refused the award and instead used his stage time to discuss exactly how the state was paying him to damage children. His books have gone on to inform the home and alternative schooling movement, both left and right wing alike.

Continuing our education on the Trivium method, this is one of the most important and powerful interviews to date, and my guest for this week and next is John Taylor Gatto - probably the most famous school teacher in the world, and he was New York State teacher of the year when he quit on the OP Ed page of the Wall Street Journal in 1991.

John Taylor Gatto climaxed his teaching career as New York State Teacher of the Year after being named New York City Teacher of the Year on three occasions. He quit teaching on the OP ED page of the Wall Street Journal in 1991 while still New York State Teacher of the Year, claiming that he was no longer willing to hurt children. Later that year he was the subject of a show at Carnegie Hall called “An Evening With John Taylor Gatto,” which launched a career of public speaking in the area of school reform, which has taken Gatto over a million and a half miles in all fifty states and seven foreign countries. In 1992, he was named Secretary of Education in the Libertarian Party’s Shadow Cabinet, and he has been included in Who’s Who in America from 1996 on. In 1997, he was given the Alexis de Tocqueville Award for his contributions to the cause of liberty, and was named to the Board of Advisors of the National TV-Turnoff Week.

(Gnostic Media: Another Brick in the Wall)

(Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling)

New Gorillaz album is out this week. I’m not sure whether a new release from the “band”—“Plastic Beach”—is going to be cause for major fanfare or mass disinterest. I guess this is this generation’s version of the Muppet Show, and not a bad version at that. I’m just a bit underwhelmed by this album after the last one—“Demon Days,” which came out five years ago and was one of the better albums of this decade in my opinion. That was a high point—it was as if the project had somehow been deputized to express the collective malaise about the hell of the second Bush term and continuing quagmire in Iraq (likely because they could get away with that, not being real people and all).

Musically, it’s pretty good—more of the same from the first two albums, closer in tone to the disjointed dub of the first album, fit in to the overall format of the second one. I’m just not exactly sure what they’re saying here. It feels corporatized and watered down, like something that came in a Happy Meal. The guest stars are bizarre—Snoop Dogg opens the album. I mean, really? And Lou Reed? Those aren’t exactly rare commodities. Elsewhere we get contributions from members of the Super Furry Animals, the Clash, De La Soul, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, even Mark E. Smith. Somehow it just doesn’t add up, though.

It’s all of the cute, none of the bite. “Demon Days” actually had some fairly salient things to say. This album seems largely defanged. What happened?

Don’t get me wrong, though, there are some great jams on the album: for instance see the “Stylo” video, with… Bruce Willis?!? here. And it’s great to see the early 90s-acid-house-comic style Jamie Hewlett made popular with “Tank Girl” soldier on. But… come on, Damon, did you just turn this project over to the Virgin Records interns?

(Gorillaz: Plastic Beach)

 
There’s an interesting-looking art show at the ArcLight Cinemas multiplex opening tonight that caught my eye in David Ng’s post over at the LA Time’s Culture Monster blog. L.A. artist Rachel Schmeidler takes celebrity mug shots and renders them in a Warholian style. The results are simultaneously amusing, thought-provoking and chock-full of schadenfreude!

Included in the show are mug shots of Charlie Sheen, Paris Hilton, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Lenny Bruce, Jimi Hendrix, Jane Fonda, George Carlin and the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. Quite a (literal) rogues’ gallery.

I’m glad to see that my favorite celebrity mug shot, that of David Bowie (above), has made it into Schmeidler’s show. Have you ever seen a more elegant and sophisticated mug shot in all your life? If it were not for the intrusion of the Rochester Police Department placard he’s holding, this particular mug shot might be mistaken for an outtake from his “Station to Station” album cover art! Most mug shots, even those of big Hollywood celebrities, tend to look like Nick Nolte’s “portrait,” right? Not the Thin White Duke’s, baby!

What’s fun to consider is how these pieces will acquire greater and greater “camp” value over the years. Charlie Sheen’s mug shot (shots?) as seen on TMZ and Perez Hilton today will gain, in time, the same sort of arch, kitschy excess as, for instance, a mug shot of disgraced silent era comedian Fatty Arbuckle has.

Stated differently, a mug shot of Twiggy, say, would have a higher kitsch quotient than one of Naomi Campbell, although the Campbell mug shot might well surpass it in the camp sweepstakes at a later date. What would Susan Sontag make of this post-camp fare, I wonder?

—Richard Metzger

Cross posting this from Brand X

 
When I was looking for a photo to run with this post in the L.A. Times photo database, the caption for the above shot of Malcolm McDowell as the perverse Roman emperor Caligula read, ” ‘Caligula,’ with Malcolm McDowell as the ruler, shocked audiences in 1980. Now it seems just unpleasant.” That was from a review of a 2007 DVD release. Not a good one, obviously!

Many of those associated with the film, including screenwriter Gore Vidal and actors Helen Mirren, Peter O’Toole and McDowell, wanted to distance themselves from Caligula but especially director Tinto Brass, now 76, who railed against the film’s producer, Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione, for adding what Brass thought were “gratuitous” hard-core sex scenes. But now, inspired by the success of James Cameron’s billion-dollar Avatar, Brass wants to revisit the subject of “an abandoned project about a Roman emperor that was ruined by Americans,” implying he wants to do a remake of Caligula.

From The Guardian:

It remains to be seen whether Brass’s dalliance with 3D technology will spark excitement in other adult film producers. Thus far the porn industry appears to be adopting a surprisingly coy approach to the new medium, scared off by the high production costs. Added to this is the fact that most pornography is produced for the home-entertainment market, where viewers will need 3D TVs in order to enjoy it behind closed doors. “We’re very excited to do 3D production,” Rob Smith, director of operations at the Hustler Video Group, said recently. “But we don’t feel market penetration [of 3D TVs] has hit the level we need.”

The sad news for Brass, meanwhile, is that 3D technology is not quite the virgin territory he thinks it is. Other pornographic film-makers have been there before him, with 1969’s The Stewardesses widely credited as the first 3D adult movie. Shot on a budget of $100,000, this sensitive account of footloose cabin crew went on to earn a tumescent $27m from porn cinemas around the globe.

While it does seem rather obvious that 3-D pornography could help lead the beleaguered adult industry toward better days, the whole concept of a big-budget Caligula in 3-D — remember all the puking? — seems deliriously misguided. Production is due to start in Italy sometime in May.

Cross posting this from Brand X

 
My wife happens to work in the Latin music biz, so I get to hear a lot of music that never reaches the average Gringo. I really dig the extremely raw music in these two clips by Los Inquietos Del Norte (The Restless, or The Hyper-Active) and Los Pelapapas (The Potato Peelers). Mind you, this stuff is HUGE. How fantastic is it that a band of regular dudes with clarinets and tubas can shoot their videos with a cell phone (see below) and sell a ton of records? Now that rock music and hip-hop have become so completely ingrained in our popular culture, what kind of music can the kids of today deploy to get up their parent’s noses? I’d highly recommend these wild regional Mexican jams. Dig that crazy accordion!
 

 
Newly found private press LP goodness via Tony Coulter’s wonderful fortnightly dispatch over at WMFU’s Beware of the Blog.
 

 

 

Rave ‘til dawn!

If you live in or near Chicago, don’t miss this performance by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Thee Majesty—their first appearance in the Windy City!

Thursday March 4, 7:00pm / $20
St. Paul’s Cultural Center

Thee Majesty featuring Genesis Breyer P-Orridge!
US premiere of Universalove featuring live accompaniment by Naked Lunch!

Special sneak preview screening!
CIMMfest 2010 kicks off with a William S. Burroughs-themed night of film and music. First up is Austrian band Naked Lunch, who will accompany the US premiere of Thomas Wolschitzs 2008 film Universalove with the songs they built the film around. Next up is a special, but secret, screening of a documentary featuring Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, Jello Biafra, Grant Hart and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, followed by Q & A with the director. Finally, for the first time in Chicago, Thee Majesty featuring takes the stage. $20 gets you access to everything.

Tickets here.

 
Professor Himonya teaches us how to piss someone off with a paper business card. Really important stuff here, folks! From the Gakuranman:

The anger videos are in Japanese, but that hasn’t stopped many of the gimmicks from reaching other cultures. Don’t let me speak for him however – take a peek at the videos yourself. I painstakingly added English subtitles too!

Aside from being an insanely funny guy on television and having a face made of rubber, Himonya-sensei is actually a linguistics professor at the Tokyo Tokai University, teaching and writing books on communication. Or so I was nearly led to believe. Himonya is actually a stage name and the University he claims he works for is imaginary.

(via Nerdcore)