Super
Zeep: Zeep: Nina Miranda & Chris Franck Present
The 21st century version of Getz/Gilberto, Nina Miranda and Chris Franck have also been Smoke City and Da Lata. The stand-out track here is Super. Psychedelic/folk/funk mayhem, once you've heard it you need it. Instant classic. Rest of the album is by turns whimsical, mid-tempo, summery-breezy blowing through Tropicalia.
Getaway
Salsoul Orchestra: The Anthology
This latin funk monster emerged as I drifted along the iRiver. Shook my booty all the way home!
Chicago
Sufjan Stevens: Illinoise
This artist, unbeknownst to him, provided the soundtrack to trailer for a crazy virtual world I was developing with the lovely Marc Williams at Mook. Since then, my boy Hari kicked off a compy CD with this track. Fragile vocals, great arrangement, everything an anthem should have. Martha has taught Alfie a dance for it. Apparently Sufjan is on mission to do an LP for each of the 50 United States. Go Suf!
The Heart's a Lonely Hunter
Thievery Corporation: Versions
David Byrne vocalising over an Afro Beat derived track. Polyrhythmi-whimsy. Welcome to my spaceship.
TF2 is sooo much fun, amazingly well designed and so lusciously illustrated you can say goodbye to Time whether you thought you had it spare or not. Never has shooting from your own point of view been as shirk making as this.
Massively hot fire in field Sproughton, Suffolk. Moving back now...
posted from an iTouch. Omigosh, it is a lovely thing.
I hired Okami from the library last week. It is absolutely stupendous. It is certainly in my top ten of cultural products of all time.
In this game you play the Shinto sun goddess, Amaterasu, incarnated as a white wolf. Your mission is to bring the life back to a Nippon infested by decay, disease and a host of cheeky demons. The ink and wash setting is gorgeous and the design of the Celestial Brush as a mechanic is so clever and so (tricky) rewarding as a special power. I gather this is reminiscent of Zelda, which makes me want to catch up with that. It also reminded me very much of Princess Mononoke in theme, tone and the fact there's a prominent role for a large, white, mystical canine.
There's probably a word for cultural tourists like me who love to take mini-breaks in versions of Japan like this. I'm sure I miss most of the allusions, I can't read the kanji that spills out of engine but I just love it, love it, love it.
Capcom closed the developer, Clover Studio, after all the team left to start Seeds. Can't wait for the fruit.
Recently I discovered the philosopher and expert in comparative theology Alan Watts. He lives on through a wonderful archive of sound recordings where he mellifluously gives voice to his observations and theories on how to live and how to understand our consciousness. More on Alan Watts at Wikipedia.
Very much in favour of the work of Scroobius Pip. In particular the genius level lyrics of "Thou Shalt Always Kill"
I was discussing this project to develop a $100 laptop for children in developing countries with Penny yesterday: Talking Tech - WSJ.com. She works in healthcare with the elderly and I think there could be an interesting extension of this program to the elderly, particularly those that are living in residential care. Increasingly the concept of the "silver surfer" will become a reality as we who have grown up with ICT start to dribble, smell of wee and are packed off to stare at the telly in a tawdry communal living room. Having affordable wirelessly capable comms in our laps may well improve the quality of the little life left in us. It will also keep our legs warm.
Finally got to watch City of God. Absolutely beautiful, scary and sad. I was really impressed how a number of stories and characters were conflated from the book and crafted into a really clever story. It was also brilliantly shot & edited with a lot of flourishing that I wasn't expecting. And all this with a group of non-professional actors. And the music. And Brasil. Wow.
Been thinking a lot about the importance and entymology of enthusiasm recently. In the Greek original, it had a sense of being possessed by god, inspired. Wikipedia points out that it wasn't fashionable to be enthusiastic post Glorious Revolution as it had been seen as being factor in the start of the English Civil War. I've also been thinking about confidence and the ability of some to trick others into feeling confident too. Mark McGuiness has a nice sequence of thoughts about the relativities of the two conditions Wishful Thinking » Blog Archive » 5 Reasons Why Enthusiasm is Better than Confidence
Found a funny satire at Get a First Life. Via the fascinating time-waster/PowerPoint resource: SlideShare.
Neil Gaiman: Anansi Boys
A playful epic, sending me spinning off on all kinds of symbolism of the importance of spiders, story-telling and webs. Sing if you're proud to be Gaiman. I know, I shouldn't. I can't help it. (*****)
Garrison Keillor: Radio Romance
A serendipitous find in an Oxfam in Woodbridge, I'd really enjoyed some of GK's radio show that had been syndicated to Radio Four. I thought this book was brilliant for detail and nuance in telling the story of a Minneapolis radio station and touching on many truisms of broadcasting. The character's voices and the intimacy of the stories made it read like documentary, but I'm pretty sure it was a novel. Garrison, if you're reading this, you made it up, right? (*****)
James Ellroy: White Jazz
I can't get enough James Ellroy. I just get hypnotized by him. As noted in main blog, this immerses you in Los Angeles 1958 and all the nastiness you could imagine. One thing I wonder is how Ellroy gets away with is are the "real" characters like Howard Hughes etc. I guess you can't libel the dead? (*****)
henning mankell: White Lioness
More airport thriller trash. Like literary fish and chips, I know I shouldn't but they're just too tasty. This one a bizarre plot to kill Nelson Mandela being expedited from Sweden and investigated by a downbeat local cop. Bonkers.
