This sticker is dangerous and inconvenient but I do love Fig Newtons

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Self Titled Album


Light and dark. Soul and flesh. Spirit and the world. "Elton John" is an album of dualities. It's part Elton John the soulful bluesman, part Reginald Dwight the English lad. Later, John and lyricist Bernie Taupin will be able to meld these two sides of the coin into a brassy bronze whole, but on this second album, they're still flipping the coin back and forth.

It makes "Elton John" a strange listening experience. Later albums like "Tumbleweed Connection," "Madman Across the Water," and especially "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy," are practically concept albums (and "Captain Fantastic" actually is), a sign to today's generation that Elton John was as much a rock artist as other 70s greats like Zeppelin and Bowie. But Elton's reputation among the young and hep has steadily declined since the early 80s, partly owing to the break up with Bernie Taupin (meaning the music's gotten less Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting and more Saturday night's the night for drinking wine and listening to soft rock radio) and partly owing to Elton's continued transformation into the world's slightly daffy and rotund but still fun at parties middle aged gay uncle. A listen to his early and mid 70s output, however, quietly dispells the myth that Elton John's music is fit only for the dentist's office or Princess Di funerals.

Even a messy masterpiece like the self-titled second album shows that Elton and Bernie were caught up in a swirl of rock and blues and sad English strings, teetering between being the soundtrack for a road trip across a sun-soaked and Southern-fried U.S. heartland or the soundtrack for a European art film. Both are compelling musical identities in and of themselves, but when combined together they would become the signature sound that would define the originality and brilliance of the 70s Elton John era.

What makes "Elton John" such a compelling record is that we, the listeners, get to hear the struggle within Elton as he seeks to find his musical identity. The duality of the album tugs at the duality in our own souls, between the soulful uplift of the blues-influenced tunes and the plaintive greyness of the English harpsichord ballads. We hold these identities within ourselves too: the sunshine promise of a new day, the yearning for the sun that comes from Elton's brand of sunny blues, and then it's opposite, the rain-swept overcast that clouds our hearts as we face the heartaches and regrets of life. Only in "Your Song" does Elton harmonize the two natures. "Your Song" is a slight smile and a small sorrow; it's yellow-blue sunlight peaking through the grey clouds; it's an English love song by way of a New York rooftop. A 1970s New York rooftop, naturally.




Thursday, November 20, 2008

How to cure writer's paralysis

First: Go to Trailers From Hell

Next: Listen to some oldies 50s rock 'n' roll, like this



Then: Read some Kerouac poetry:
Pull my daisy
Tip my cup
Cut my thoughts
for coconuts

Jack my Arden
Gate my shades
Silk my garden
Rose my days

Bone my shadow
Dove my dream
Milk my mind &
Make me cream

Hop my heart on
Harp my height
Hip my angel
Hype my light

...

Pope my parts
Pop my pet
Poke my pap
Pit my plum

And then finally: Rest assured that nothing you write could be worse than what you just read.

Tumblr blog updated

Get back to the stuff that dreams are made of!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Great Movie Watching Challenge!

I have over 500 movies that I burned to DVD or that are recorded on my DVR and I haven't watched most of them. So I've decided to undertake the great task of spending the next year watching all of these movies and writing about them here on the blog. I don't really have any grand reason why I'm doing it, I just figured I should probably watch all these movies since I took the time to record and burn them in the first place. And it might be kinda fun to watch a bunch of random movies that I wouldn't otherwise get around to watching (why I recorded these randoms in the first place is anyone's guess). I also figure that by writing about them and making it a blog thing I won't be as tempted to give up or forget about it. So there 'tis: The Great Movie Watching Challenge to watch all the movies I recorded to DVD or DVR and then write about them on the blog. I'm giving myself 365 days.

Here are some titles in my collection as preview for what is in store:
The Mad Miss Manton
The Cat and the Canary
Mr. Arkadin
Harold and Maude
Escape from East Berlin
Sleeper
I Know Where I'm Going
Sherlock Jr.
Kiss Me Kate
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Spider Baby
La Jetee
Bluebeard's 8th Wife
The Kids Are Alright
Detour
Broken Blossoms
No Time for Comedy
The Crimson Kimono

and much, much more!