From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V2 #65 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Wednesday, February 13 2002 Volume 02 : Number 065 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] the elevated frequency of exchange ["Brian Block" ] [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 ["R. Kevin Doyle" ] Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 [Sue Trowbridge ] Re: [loud-fans] Idaho ["Philip Rostonovich" ] Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 [Tim_Walters@digidesign.com] Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 [Sue Trowbridge ] Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 [Chris Prew ] [loud-fans] Dave Van Ronk (1936 - 2002) ["R. Kevin Doyle" ] Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 ["Andrew Hamlin" ] Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 (fwd) [] Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: [loud-fans] the elevated frequency of exchange Since i was about to send Jer a review of his latest swap mix for me anyway, i might as well follow the lead and make this Jer Fairall Review Week here at sunny Loud-fans Stadium. The mix is subtitled A SELECTION OF 2001, and titled WHERE THEY PLAY THE RIGHT MUSIC after a song written maybe 1975, which makes more sense than it seems. 1. Cure, "Cut Here". It sounds like a Cure song, maybe specifically like the follow-up single that WISH from 1992 never had, cutting their "Just Like Heaven"/"Friday I'm In Love" exuberance with Smith's usual romantic-failure theme (in this regretting not quite have the guts to save a relationship) and their 90's thick production style. Works quite nicely. 2. Rainer Maria, "Thought I Was". I'd heard some other R.M. song and hated the gal's voice, but here it's articulate and does no harm to the tumbling-slightly-ahead-of-itself rhythm and the way the guitar lines seem to struggle heroically against the whirlpool attractiveness of the monotone. 3. Go-Go's, "Unforgiven". Simple, catchy, loud. 4. Bill Janovitz, "Best Kept Secret" 5. Sorry About Dresden, "It's Morning Again in America" I like Bill's rock band Buffalo Tom, and i suspect i'd like Sorry About Dresden in their rocking-er moments, but these are fairly wispy, and i prefer more inherently talented singers to handle songs like that. 6. Anton Barbeau, "Sula2". Amazing that this song lasts 5:32 -- it comes across as a virtually perfect 3-4 minute single. Four chords on soft electric piano, well-formed power-pop verse melodies sung with grace instead of power, an anthemic chorus with big words, an intriguing portrait of the title character, and some interesting percussion. One of Anton's best. 7. Black Box Recorder, "Sex Life". The ultra-British sing/speak and loungey French music are much more attractive than i'd expect to find them. Very sensual yet curiously asexual as Sarah Nixey sings of girls who have boys who have boys who do girls with an even clearer detachment than Damon Albarn did -- more a psychiatrist explaining transference, to his Sunday paper feature writer. 8. Shouting Distance, "Inverness". I realize i'm extremely outnumbered, including in disagreement with Jer, but i've always found "Inverness" to be one of the least interesting songs on any Loud Family album. This a-capella group rendition, however, is quirky, enthusiastic, imaginatively scored, and wonderful. 9. Aimee Mann, "Backfire". Her usual stately, quiet, well-orchestrated style, analogous in tone to Sam Phillips or Suzanne Vega, and in my mind she continues to get better at it. This, for me, is her most effectively Pop song since "Driving With One Hand on the Wheel", if not ever. 10. Rufus Wainwright, "Poses". Glam-rock as it would have had to develop if rock hadn't been invented. Not sure why i always like his songs, but i do. 11. Teenage Fanclub, "the Town and the City". Ebullient, perfectly pleasant, might someday be memorable. 12. Kings of Convenience, "I Don't Know What I Can Save You From". I like this track and the previous one, but i'd like it even better if Fanclub's happiness would infuse KoC's jazzy folk-guitar songs and tenor harmonies. Of course, if it did, they'd sound like another Scandinavian band, Eggstone. That'd be cool. Anyone know what Eggstone are up to these days? 13. Elvis Costello, "Stalin Malone". On SPIKE, which i consider Costello's masterpiece, this is an instrumental, walking jazz in a WEST SIDE STORY vein. This version sets spoken word to it, one of E.C.'s more imaginative takes on revenge and guilt (but mainly revenge). 14. Amanda Kravat, "Steady Now". Soft girly indie-pop builds up and gets orchestrated. Nicely done... Jer warns me off the album as mostly underdeveloped, but this song appeals to me as much as her best songs in Marry Me Jane. 15. Jimmy Eat World, "Authority Song". Driving, staccato, catchy 4-chord rock, in a forthright lyrical celebration of obviousness over obscurity - since, after all, which one is more likely to get through? 16. Ben Folds, "Not the Same". Although it's perfectly clear that Ben Folds can be Elton John if he wants to, i see him as having two great advantages. First, the people in his songs are much more interesting (and, these days, sympathetic) -- how many songs celebrate a friend who decided to become a saviour at the singer's ex-drummer's party? Second, Folds knows his melodies are graceful enough to handle continuous playfulness. This song is remarkably percussive for a ballad, both in how the drums are mixed up front, and in how a shifting array of melody instruments (piano, undistorted guitar, theremin, various synth envelopes) are spotlighted for weird rhythmic breaks. 17. Hey Mercedes, "the Slightest Idea". Emo-rock: the shouty singing, the fast attacks and decays of the guitar, the drummer's fondness for the cymbals, the dropouts where the singer is accompanied only by the bassist playing the same 8th-note over again. Made excellent in this case by the odd way the formula accomodates the fast 3/4 rhythm, and the way the vocalist dodges into and out of what would seem to be his natural alloted beats. 18. Dashboard Confessional, "Again It Goes Unnoticed". A raw and loud but unexpectly pretty version of emo, with rock drums used like bongos and a melody more than strong enough to have survived a slow and Hollywood-dramatic treatment, had this been needed. 19. Josie + the Pussycats, "Spin Around". Catchy, distorted, 1997-ish. Like Letters to Cleo trying to be the Go-Go's, or the Go-Go's trying to be Veruca Salt or Buffalo Tom once those bands learned cheery pop. 20. Melissa Etheridge, "I Wanna Be in Love". A whirling 30-track chorus of Fraggles and (i think) Tasmanian devils circle around a Chinese-scaled opera melody, over a flurry of gongs and kazoos and a cleverly-used and pitch-shifted sample of Malevolent Creation's "Homicidal Rant"... no, wait. It sounds like Melissa Etheridge: squarely 4/4, squarely romanticized, a strong heartland melody in Bryan Adams style, elegantly generic production, and she doesn't howl on this one. Etheridge does these songs very well, and i'm happy to hear one more of them. 21. Luka Bloom, "Dancing Queen". I'm not saying it's profound to shift ABBA's signature song onto fiddle, accordian, pleasantly reverbed guitar strum, and a clear but very-slightly-rough tenor voice. Still, the effort is obviously sincere, and by nature of demographics, a song about people at a dance will be about a different set of people when you change the form of music. The people in this version are more like the ones i was raised among, and to me, that's valuable. So anyway, thank you Jer for another, customarily excellent mix. cheers, -Brian _________________________________________________________________ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 10:58:39 -0800 From: "Andrew Hamlin" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] You Can Count On Me >I don't know if I thought the prologue was redundant, but I remember it >got me off to a bad start with the film: the parents' brief exchange in >the car struck me somehow as not very real, more a fictional kind of >telegraphing. I can't remember the details of the moment well enough to >go into it, though. She wonders why a dentist would put braces on a young girl at the exact moment she's (the young girl) most self-conscious about her appearance (possibly a reference to her daughter, I'm not sure), he replies simply, "I don't know." With a touch of snappish in the "I don't know." They both look tired. I wondered if they'd been fighting. I wondered where they'd been that night, actually. A party seems like a reasonable guess. I suppose we'll never know, Andy "When Cornell saw Ronnie he calmly said, 'Well look who's here' in a sneering sort of way. Ronnie did not say a word. He took a 9mm Mauser pistol from his pocket and shot Cornell in the head. Ian Barrie fired some shots into the ceiling. They both turned around and walked out as calmly as they had walked in.There was a record playing on the juke box that had been hit by one of the ricocheting bullets. It was 'The sun ain't gonna shine any more' by the Walker Brothers and it kept repeating, 'the sun ain't gonna shine any more...any more...any more.....'" - --Kieran Smith, describing the murder of George Cornell by Ronnie Kray on March 9, 1966; from http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6153857 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 09:04:56 -1000 From: "R. Kevin Doyle" Subject: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2002/academy.awards/print.ballot.html Especially: If I Didn't Have You, Randy Newman ("Monsters, Inc.") May It Be, Enya, Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan ("The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring") There You'll Be, Diane Warren ("Pearl Harbor") Until, Sting ("Kate & Leopold") Vanilla Sky, Paul McCartney ("Vanilla Sky") Discuss. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 15:16:31 -0500 (EST) From: Sue Trowbridge Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 On Tue, 12 Feb 2002, R. Kevin Doyle wrote: > http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2002/academy.awards/print.ballot.html > > Especially: > > If I Didn't Have You, Randy Newman ("Monsters, Inc.") > May It Be, Enya, Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan ("The Lord of the Rings: The > Fellowship of the Ring") > There You'll Be, Diane Warren ("Pearl Harbor") > Until, Sting ("Kate & Leopold") > Vanilla Sky, Paul McCartney ("Vanilla Sky") > > Discuss. I can't think of any songs I would have included...there wasn't an Aimee Mann or an Elliot Smith this year. (Remember, none of the music in HEDWIG was eligible because it was written for a stage show that predated the film.) Steve Buscemi, Naomi Watts and Billy Bob Thornton wuz robbed. I personally thought MOULIN ROUGE was a horrible film, but that's just me. Wish Nicole had been nominated for THE OTHERS instead. Also, it looks like the academy voters agreed with me that WAKING LIFE sucked, since it didn't get nominated as best animated film, as had been widely anticipated. SHREK in that category is probably the surest thing in this year's Oscar race. I'm totally delighted that LOTR:FOTR was nominated for best picture. I was surprised that BLACK HAWK DOWN didn't make the cut (although Ridley Scott got a Best Director nod), since war movies generally do well in that category. Nothing to do with movies: Brendan Benson's LAPALCO is utterly brilliant. If you are a power pop fan, it is an absolute must buy. - --Sue ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 15:59:43 -0500 (EST) From: Michael Mitton Subject: [loud-fans] Idaho I recently bought my first Idaho album, HEART OF PALMS, and I seem to be sitting on the fence for whether I want to buy more by them. I like PALMS well enough, but it didn't get me excited. Does anyone want to push me off the fence one way or the other? Want somebody to shove, - --Michael P.S. I happen to agree with Sue that WAKING LIFE wasn't very good. While I really liked the animation, 87.4% of the dialogue seemed lifted from comments made by undergraduates in an introductory continental philosophy class. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 22:11:32 From: "Philip Rostonovich" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Idaho >I recently bought my first Idaho album, HEART OF PALMS, >and I seem to be sitting on the fence for whether I want to buy more by >them.... >Does anyone want to push me off the fence one way or the other? You might look around for a used copy of '3 Sheets to the Wind' (I keep running across them), to get some more low-risk exposure... also try digitalclubsnetwork.com for a streaming video of a show they did at the 40 Watt club in Athens, GA. - -plr "Oh my naivety that you first found endearing And then blamed stupidity" - - Adorable, 'Cool Front 23-6' _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 14:24:01 -0800 From: Tim_Walters@digidesign.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 >Also, it looks like >the academy voters agreed with me that WAKING LIFE sucked, since it didn't >get nominated as best animated film, as had been widely anticipated. SHREK >in that category is probably the surest thing in this year's Oscar race. ATLANTIS--which, along with WAKING LIFE, I enjoyed quite a bit more than the tepidly funny, abominably animated, "Hallelujah"-abusing SHREK--is also conspicuously absent. - --Tim, off to continental philosophy class ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 17:52:50 -0500 (EST) From: Sue Trowbridge Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 On Tue, 12 Feb 2002 Tim_Walters@digidesign.com wrote: > >Also, it looks like > >the academy voters agreed with me that WAKING LIFE sucked, since it didn't > >get nominated as best animated film, as had been widely anticipated. SHREK > >in that category is probably the surest thing in this year's Oscar race. > > ATLANTIS--which, along with WAKING LIFE, I enjoyed quite a bit more than the > tepidly funny, abominably animated, "Hallelujah"-abusing SHREK--is also > conspicuously absent. Disney declined to submit ATLANTIS for consideration in this category, reportedly because they wanted to put all of their promotional muscle behind the more popular MONSTERS, INC. - --Sue ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 17:48:49 -0500 (EST) From: Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 On Tue, 12 Feb 2002 Tim_Walters@digidesign.com wrote: > ATLANTIS--which, along with WAKING LIFE, I enjoyed quite a bit more than the > tepidly funny, abominably animated, "Hallelujah"-abusing SHREK--is also > conspicuously absent. SHREK sucked. I think a lot of the problem is that the voice-over actors are now imposing too much of their in-person personae on these projects (instead of simply serving the animated character) and the directors are obliging them. Or to say it in English, I could only "see" Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, couldn't connect with the characters. And it wasn't funny. And it looked like shit. I didn't see all the nominated films but based on what I did see I think Denzel Washington and Halle Berry deserve to win. That would be amazing, because I don't think a black person has won best actor/actress in 30-something years (Potier in LILLIES?). I want you to make me feel goooooood, JS ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 16:53:53 -0600 From: Chris Prew Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 Phew!!! I thought I was the only person who thought Shrek was a total waste of time. I really don't understand all the praise this movie has gotten... And Eddie Murphy should be banned from doing voiceovers forever. Chris Who thinks Idaho's "Alas" is also worth a look. > > ATLANTIS--which, along with WAKING LIFE, I enjoyed quite a bit more than the > tepidly funny, abominably animated, "Hallelujah"-abusing SHREK--is also > conspicuously absent. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 12:58:50 -1000 From: "R. Kevin Doyle" Subject: [loud-fans] Dave Van Ronk (1936 - 2002) http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/11/people.vanronk.reut/index.html Just thought this deserved a mention... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 16:51:04 -0700 From: "Roger Winston" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 Tim_Walters@digidesign.com on 2/12/2002 3:24:01 PM wrote: > ATLANTIS--which, along with WAKING LIFE, I enjoyed quite a bit more than the > tepidly funny, abominably animated, "Hallelujah"-abusing SHREK--is also > conspicuously absent. Not to mention VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST. Hey, they had two slots left! It's a total crime that Steve Buscemi didn't get nominated for GHOST WORLD. This may be a record for me - I've only seen one nominated Best Picture (LotR) this year. I refuse to see A BEAUTIFUL MIND because I hated THE GRINCH so much and Ron Howard has a lot to answer for. And people have been telling me to stay away from IN THE BEDROOM and MOULIN ROUGE. I like Altman though (usually) so I should go see GOSFORD PARK. Latre. --Rog ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 18:27:21 -0800 From: "Andrew Hamlin" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 >Denzel Washington and Halle Berry deserve to win. That would be amazing, >because I don't think a black person has won best actor/actress in >30-something years (Potier in LILLIES?). Tom Hanks is black. You didn't know that? Andy A yellow banner painted with giant letters in Persian was stretched across one overpass. In the early days of the Islamic Republic it would have been read as "America Is the Greatest Satan." But today the lettering helpfully included its own English translation, reading, "America Is Extremely Naughty." - --Neil MacFarquhar, from http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/12/international/middleeast/12IRAN.html (courtesy Cyndy Patrick) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 22:03:38 -0500 (EST) From: Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 (fwd) On Tue, 12 Feb 2002, Roger Winston wrote: > And people have been telling me to stay away from IN THE BEDROOM That *could* be a mistake. Yes, it moves slowly, yes, they hold some establishing shots for a l o n g time, but I thought it was one of the best movies I've seen in a while. The acting is superb (*this* time I actually think Marisa Tomei is deserving!) and its whole rhythm and focus and eye for detail was so fresh and different from most American movies of late. And my opinion of MONSTER'S BALL has really risen in the days since I've seen it...it's really stayed with me. (These two movies have a LOT in common, now that I think...the Maine and Georgia versions of each other). I need to see it again. Both these films may have their flaws, but there is so much imaginative, powerful, and deeply-felt work going on in them, I think they're worth your time. This isn't a criticism, but I've noticed this list tends to spend a lot of time discussing what the writers think are flaws in films that are entirely worthwhile and have more integrity than 99% of what is out there. I'm pretty sure we're all aware of this (as Jeffrey mentioned), but I think it's worth mentioning again. Like, the recent thread on YOU CAN COUNT ON ME--while I found it interesting, I found myself cringing because I think, sure, the movie has flaws but the rest of it so beautiful and rare, so incredibly moving I'd hate for someone to skip it on that account. Or to say, the movie only had its purported flaws thoroughly dissected here because it was exceptional in the first place. Yeah, beating a dead horse thief, I know... JS ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 23:21:07 -0600 (CST) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Academy Awards 2001 On Tue, 12 Feb 2002, Andrew Hamlin wrote: > Tom Hanks is black. > > You didn't know that? Looks pretty pink to me. I've heard this before - say what? - --Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::American people like their politics like Pez - small, sweet, and ::coming out of a funny plastic head. __Dennis Miller__ ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V2 #65 ******************************