Halloween. At a time when many people are flexing their creative muscles in an attempt to come up with an original costume, the TV stations will have resorted to airing the same cinematic swill as they do every year. The Exorcist, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and of course, Halloween. And if we're lucky, Donnie Darko or Scream.
Perhaps I shouldn't say cinematic swill, as all of these films are quite good. It's the monotony and predictability of playing them year after year after year (on a holiday that prides itself on surprise and terror no less) that has generated this blood-curdling disdain in me. So, I offer up five alternate flicks for All Hallow's Eve (complete with a ten word synopsis!)
Via davidlynch.de
Eraserhead (1977)
Some weird shit happens man.Like some seriously weird shit.
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Serial killer / Reverend chases kids. Lillian Gish has a gun.
An album, regardless of whether it is a jewel or junk, is simply an opinion. During the recording, it's someone's opinion that decides which studio to use, which songs to play, and which instrumentation sounds best. Maybe even what brand of beer to drink. Afterwards, it's another opinion that deems how the songs should be mixed, which ones should go on the album, and what order they should be in. In my opinion that's a lot of opinions.
However, it does ensure that a great deal of thought is put into to creating the best possible product for the fans. A good thing. Yet somehow, after the fussing and the fighting, the discussing and the deciding, great songs are left off the album, driven into the tuneless melancholy hallways of musical obscurity, only to be brought out for drunken concerts and overpriced compilations.
Unless someone puts five of them on his blog (albeit a melancholy and obscure blog).
David Bowie - Velvet Goldmine
Recorded - 1971
Left off - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (1972)
Released - As the B-side to the re-release of "Space Oddity" (1975)
Elvis Costello - Suffering Face
Recorded - 1985?
Left off - King of America (1986)
Released - Re-issue of King of America (1995)
The Smiths - This Night Has Opened My Eyes
Recorded - September 1983
Left off - The Smiths (1984)
Released - Hatful of Hollow compilation (1984)
via gothic-addiction.blogspot.com
Bob Dylan - Blind Willie McTell
Recorded - May 1983
Left off - Infidels (1983)
Released - The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (1991)
Leonard Cohen - Store Room
Recorded - 1967
Left off - The Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)
Released - Re-issue of The Songs of Leonard Cohen (2007)
It's a brave new world of guerrilla marketing and pseudo-event planning. At least that's what it feels like occasionally. Although I haven't been privy to much of this style of advertising myself - maybe that's a byproduct of living in Winnipeg - the words themselves have become common terms, both online and within my own schooling.
When I originally heard about guerrilla marketing, particularly the idea of an outdoor exhibition or performance of sorts, my mind immediately darted to the well-lit corridors of childhood, and to the classic television program , Art Attack.
photo via vtr.com
For those of you who aren't familiar with the show, the basic premise would involve master artist Neil Buchanan (pictured above) producing arts and crafts with the help of his handy PVA glue. The program was educational and entertaining. However, the real reason anyone watched was of course to see Neil's generation of the stunning Big Art Attack.
Although these pieces were produced entirely for the entertainment of the audience, a similar piece could theoretically be created to raise awareness of a product, gain media attention, or launch a brand. A large, outdoor work of art - under the guidance of Neil Buchanan himself - could shake the pillars of the advertising world in an intense and irreparable way. Imagine a monstrous Nike logo created entirely from kabuli chickpeas and stretched across the length of a football field. Or a simple, heartfelt slogan written entirely with the grey hairs of elderly hobos in mammoth proportions in an abandoned parking lot. It's a powerful thought.
Or maybe they're just talking about something different when they say "guerrilla marketing." Who knows.
In recent years, many music-related videos have been removed from YouTube, usually due to copyright violations. Although the site still contains a superabundance of great music, a huge number of songs and performances simply do not exist online anymore, making them nearly unattainable to the nosy novice or eager enthusiast.
That being said, certain videos have managed to survive the great purging and (for the time being) remain at the world's fingertips. Today, I share three of my favourites. You know, while they're still around...
1. Janis Joplin - Ball and Chain Key Moment - 4:34Onward
2. Diana Damrau - Der Holle Rache (music begins at 2:12)
Key Moment - 4:17 to 4:27
3. The Doors - When the Music's Over Key Moment - 7:20 Onward
Two summers ago, when I was but 18 years old, I saw 1960’s English pop group The Zombies at Club Regent Casino. I went with my parents. As I looked around at my fellow concert-goers I quickly realized that there were other zombies in the casino beyond the band themselves. In fact, the majority of the audience was comprised of the living dead (or at least near dead). At 52 years old, my mother was very possibly the second youngest person there. I’ve never felt so alone. Or more like George A. Romero.
Via vivoscene.com
There are three albums that, in my own listening experience, serve as pillars of mid to late-sixties pop, achieving everything that wildly overproduced, narcissistic music should be capable of. The first is Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, the second, The White Album by the Beatles. Both these albums are privy to much praise from critics and fans alike, and deservedly so. However, these albums have a prettier, albeit shallower, brother in the form of The Zombies Odessey and Oracle. The Billy Baldwin of Pop Operas.
If sound were liquid, Odessey and Oracle would be a heroin bubble bath. There are few albums that are as immediately and consistently beautiful. The band’s layered harmonies, buoyed by lead singer Colin Blunstone’s vaporous vocals, are alone enough to turn one’s blood into ice-cold cream soda. I mean Goddamn, just look at the cover for this thing. It’s more sixties than tie-dyes and chauvinism.
What the Sacrament of Penance is for Catholics, listening to this album is for me. It’s so impossibly innocent that it is actually capable of forgiving me for my sins. That’s a fact. The sparkling production and thumping piano on ‘Care of Cell 44’ and ‘This Will Be Our’ Year are particularly effective at helping me forget that I’m drifting closer and closer towards complete hedonistic insanity every day. Which is nice.
But that’s not to say that the album is entirely merry. The most obvious exception is the exceptionally morbid ‘Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914),’ which, as its subtitle implies, addresses the plight of a shell-shocked former butcher who is fighting in WWI. Additionally, the songs ‘A Rose for Emily’ and ‘Brief Candles’ both deal with the pain of loneliness and how difficult it can be to accept.
The album is loosed themed around the seasons. In fact, three songs – A Rose for Emily, Changes, and Beechwood Park – all mention summer within their opening line. Therefore it is only appropriate that the album closes with what is perhaps The Zombies most famous tune (and certainly among the top ten seduction songs of all-time) ‘Time of the Season.’ And it’s only after an album this good that you can get away with asking “What’s your name? Who’s your daddy? Is he rich like me?” Such panache.
Listening Recommendations: For solace on any rainy day or moment of borderline spiritual/emotional desolation.
