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Recently giddy over:

  • Jay Chou - Wo De Di Pan
    Wo De Di Pan
    Jay Chou: Common Jasmine Orange

    And now for something completely different. No one cribs music with more wacked style than China. Jay Chou is a huge star over there on the pop circuit, and he's taken some cues from Wang Lee Hom on combining American rap and hip hop with Chinese music, something Wang Lee Hom termed "chinked out" music. This tune is a catchy hip hop with a patchwork of rhythms and even some classical piano and celeste in the break. Strangely engaging.
  • The Bird and the Bee - Man
    Man
    The Bird and the Bee: The Bird and the Bee

    Imagine a smash of Beck-ish Tropicalia with Suzanne Vega and top it with some cool Brazil 66, you might get this interesting pair, who are the pure-voiced Inara George (Lowell George's progeny! Who knew?) and Greg Kurstin, producer and keyboardist. It's electro-popish, but so much more diverse. Their newer live album not yet listed with Amazon has just been released (Live from Las Vegas at the Palms) on iTunes, which proves I'm no longer under a rock.
  • Engineers - How Do You Say Goodbye?
    How Do You Say Goodbye?
    Engineers: Engineers

    I have four favorites of this atmospheric, Alan-Parsons-ish band: Thrasher, One in Seven, Home, and this one. I can't choose among them; they are all sumptuous moody lusciousness. Naturally any band I adore has the wrong picture come up on Amazon (at left is incorrect!). You can find them on iTunes.
  • Nellie McKay - Zombie
    Zombie
    Nellie McKay: Obligatory Villagers

    Looks: Dinah Shore. Sounds: Blossom Dearie or Dinah Shore. Content: Siberry meets Morrisette meets Mitchell. I've obviously been under a rock as I've only bumped into Nellie now. She's a well educated jazz singer (and pianist) who also writes a lot of poppy angst (where she sometimes wears thin), but her paintbrush of creation is loaded with new synthesis of old riffs. This one is just plain daffy and I adore it.
  • Jamie Cullum - All at Sea
    All at Sea
    Jamie Cullum: Twentysomething

    This is a guilty pleasure song; I don't profess to like everything he does. But this is strangely echoing a number of old tunes from my schooling times... freedom without any borders... Some of Seal, some of Coldplay, some of what we grew up with that harkens to Motown and Jazz. But it blends into a neat watercolor.
  • Supreme Beings of Leisure - Angelhead (feat. Lili Hayden)
    Angelhead (feat. Lili Hayden)
    Supreme Beings of Leisure: 11i

    Mysterious chemistry indeed: Indian melodies, a great black female lead singer, smooth triphop beats. I heard them on an ad for some liquor or something and found them to be a nice addition to my Massive Attack-type-genre. The other favorite is "Never the Same" on their self-titled album.
  • Editors - An End Has a Start
    An End Has a Start
    Editors: An End Has a Start

    The Editors just make me want to go run out into the street and just keep going until I lift off. The band being almost entirely carried by Tom Smith, I was surprised it kept so energetically charged. But they need visuals to match his wonderful voice.
  • Never Give Up On the Good Times
    Spice Girls: Spice World
    I discovered this guilty pleasure very late, and I like it only because it reminds me of a DeBarge tune. Wonder if he had a hand in it. Sure does bounce.
  • The Bones of An Idol
    The New Pornographers: Twin Cinema
    I honestly don't know what I like about this song. And it isn't an obnoxious stick-in-your-head thing. And yet it just does. Their stuff does that. Noble? no. Superior musicianship? Not really. Just damn interesting.
  • Pink Martini - Cante E Dance
    Cante E Dance
    Pink Martini: Hey Eugene!

    This is a bossa nova gem done by Pink Martini - the huge Portland-based cabaret/ orchestra/ I-Love-Lucy-Ricardo-latin-band band. They are not always to my taste, but salvage up so much good stuff from the past you can't help sing their praises. The translation is loosely: "Sing and Dance, What will come God only knows, but follow the light."
  • Dazz Band - Let it Whip
    Let it Whip
    Dazz Band: 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Dazz Band

    I got an itch for some retrofunk and found this waiting to pounce on me and make me into boogymaterial. Why were they so unfamilliar a name to me when they have Earth Wind and Fire rhythms, vocals a la Rick James, and a Princelike groove that's unstoppable?
  • The Polyphonic Spree - Lithium
    Lithium
    The Polyphonic Spree: Wait

    This is the most peculiar thing. It's an honest cover of the famed Cobain song -- and I hate covers unless they are amazing new twists. Here there really isn't a twist, but it's so sincere and dorky (while staying firmly devoted to the original) that it holds a great geeky power. I adore it.
  • Shahrukh Khan, A.R. Rahman, Ashutosh Gowarikar, and Javed Akhtar - Yuhi Chala Chal Rahi
    Yuhi Chala Chal Rahi
    Shahrukh Khan, A.R. Rahman, Ashutosh Gowarikar, and Javed Akhtar: Swades [Soundtrack]

    A great Road Trip song -- in Hindi! I'll post the lyrics and encourage everyone to see the film, SWADES, about an Indian NASA scientist who returns to India to find his birthplace. And, no, this is not the album cover. That's Amazon's stupid fault.
  • Joanna Newsom - Emily
    Emily
    Joanna Newsom: Ys

    Don't let her voice scare you away, and it Will Scare You. Just read the words and listen: she makes jewels of harp and poems. She's one of the best poets and most interesting crafters of song to come along since early Dylan. And I can't pass up someone who actually looks like an elf. She makes things you've never heard before.
  • Blues in Hoss' Flat
    Count Basie: The Swingin' Machine, Live!
    Ah, magical Basie. If you've heard a lot of student jazz bands, you'll really be surprised by this. I had heard it played so many ways, and forgot to check the original. It was much MUCH better, so light, so carelessly tight like a well-toned dancer. It's best! I don't go for "old" music. This will never get old.
  • Dragon Ash - Deep Impact
    Deep Impact
    Dragon Ash: LILY OF DA VALLEY

    Yes, my older friends will think I've lost my marbles. But I love Dragon Ash. I mean, listen to these speech rhythm patterns. Listen to it abstractly. It's a really great piece of work, and it's fun, and it's a trip to hear Japanese hip-hop anyway. The Best Way to hear it: you should see the video (it's posted on You Tube). I can't resist the jingle bells.
  • Imogen Heap - Just For Now
    Just For Now
    Imogen Heap: Speak for Yourself

    Yes I know. A SECOND one of Imogen. But it's the audible condensation of my favorite Christmas film, "Home for the Holidays," which has Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr. Have a listen and kvetch with the rest of us.
  • I Wanna Take You Out in Your Holiday Sweater
    Pas/Cal: StarTime International Presents: Super-Cuts
    This thing sounds like 70s TV shows. And Glitter. And the giddy stuff of holiday romances, which .... we kind of need more of.
  • Immogen Heap - The Moment I Said it
    The Moment I Said it
    Immogen Heap: Speak for Yourself

    This whole album is a stunner. Although entirely electronic-based, Imogen wrote and produced this richness all by herself (w/Apple of course!) and it is warm, breathing, delicate, and heart tugging. I adore the bubbly "Goodnight and Go", which is popular. But this "Moment" is the most incredible auditory description of a catastrophic argument I have ever heard. I could not have thought this one up. Immi is a wonder.
  • The La's - I Can't Sleep
    I Can't Sleep
    The La's: The La's

    This is true original old style gut Brit-pop. You can tell because you can make out about five words in the whole thing, and you're suddenly overtaken with the urge to buy some serious dancing boots and go stomp.

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Transmission from Madame Portendyla Spectova

Can someone please get a hold of some of whatever the green stuff is that they make Tostitos "Hint of Lime" Chips with and send me a large tub of it? I don't want the chips, I don't need the fat or the salt. I just want that zingy green tangy stuff -- and no, it's not ascorbic acid. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I think someone should market commercial flavorings as their own product. Presuming they're not terribly carcinogenic. Most have a lot of distilled, intensified natural flavors. I think I'm going to go into business with that. You can market them by themselves, to add into whatever food you like. Of course someone would probably sue me for chemical poisoning and giving them osteoporosis or something if I did that. I already thought of those flavor sprays a long time ago, but it hasn't caught on quite yet.

I also invented the Hello Kitty!(TM) Milk-shake with a friend of mine. It's a drink for those boba (milk tea) shops to sell for big bucks: Lavender-colored taro milktea on the bottom, layer of softened vanilla ice cream, strawberry milktea on top. Plasitc cover on top and add straw with manufactured candy bow dropped over the straw (or you can wear it like a candy ring). 5 bucks. I em ginious.

See, there are all these great ideas I get, but I haven't the money to conduct the proper research to clear them with the FDA, or to manufacture prototypes, or whatever. For example, I invented the iPod shuffle long ago (or the seed for it). Sometime in the 1990s I decided that the next great wave in music would be to make cds (which were THE item then) VERY tiny, and to make them colorful, and then make a very tiny player for them with earbuds. This player and the cds for it could be worn around the neck like jewelry. Musical accessories. Voila, we have it, and better, since mp3s. I just have to think of things, and then the rest of you twits can work out the details. Right? Right.

So what's in the future? well, the obvious things are cars that run on water, all new garbage-disposal methods (which would feed organisms that support us), new organisms that wildly enrich soil and regenerate farmland, far better industrial packaging (rice products?)(bamboo?), and so many other things I know everyone already wants and lobbies for.

The not-obvious things are clothes that are made of fabric made of metals or other materials that are conductable or otherwise sensitive (perhaps done organically? Brain cells? Who knows) which are intelligent and can house all your current computer needs and better as well as any communication needs you might have. Press or manipulate the controls on your suit and you are doing much more than Trekkies ever dreamed of. They already have nanofabric, I believe.

I believe we'll start viewing our virtual avatars before we actually meet each other face to face -- at least in some arena of communication if not on the street. I mean -- we STILL don't have the fucking VIDEO PHONE. They had that thing invented in the 1960s, for godssakes. I still can't call up my friend and see him while we talk. So why haven't companies developed the solution to the privacy issue with suitable avatar presentation and representation programs? Why is no one marketing this like it's your own private commercial to the world?

Why don't guys send girls on virtual vacations? Why is that so hard? Not to mention smellovision flower bouquets.

Then there is the superconductor technology. I'm not sure how this will work, but I am positive that superconductors or a similar kind of cell with an organic function will one day be supporting handicapped or elderly people who have difficulty walking, as well as holding up saggy breasts in bras and backpacks and ... an endless list of stuff. Maybe new sports could be invented which utilize their hoverability as well -- a new Olympic sport with superconductor talents.... I'd definitely watch.

I'd like to be able to put my hand on any building and get an instant vision of that place's history or record of momentous events. The docents might object, however. I'd like the world to be a giant Ken Burns film if you wanted it to be. Optional of course.

How about placing your hand on an object and seeing a vid of how it operates, or how it's put together or how it should run or function? How about that being 3-D exploded view? For the mechanic or the medical, or who knows how many uses.

Microtechnologies related to all industries need to be increased. None of the stuff about us in a traditional house now need be so 1) large, 2) heavy, and 3) expensive to operate. Storage of things important to us needs to be transformed. Perhaps holographic imagery will figure more into that.

Ecology and animals and their place in the world have to be re-evaluated. Human thought must be opened to the idea of the purpose, needs, and point of animals and ecospheres on this planet, and their care. They are not the renewable resource we think they are. They are much more, even on an ethical plane, and we have to learn what we're about on that subject. We are so DAMN SLOW.

And on that tack, I think perhaps the biggest inroads I see that need to be made are in the study of human perception and recognition: How people learn. Serious monitoring in better ways needs to be measured and catalogued and studied with regard to how people perceive, function, and respond to the world and each other.

If that were better explored, methods of teaching children or training adults would be changed drastically. Traditional teaching as we know it now will seem barbaric by comparison. Being stuffed into jobs we're no good at would vanish. Giving the individual the path to education in the way that suits them best (perhaps in a way solely specific to him/her) is, I think, something which would bring in a higher platform to all in human life. The idea of a life of missed opportunities would fade away.

Not only would it give the shooting stars of our race the proper launch, but huge progress needs to be made in how we view others, and how they view and function with us. Think of that with regard to race. To country. To even differences between the sexes. The dawn of actual empathy. ... but I digress from what was to have been a light humourous romp through the possible -- How very Me of me. Sorry.

Place might factor in heavily (i.e., things we could invent if we were not confined solely to terra firma, but to space and to other planetary travel as well, but that's.... down the road a bit, since I think we really should feed people first).

I fully expect to be credited for all this heavy mental lifting I'm doing, folks. Send your dollars to me and I'll be bigger than Oprah. Probably figuratively as well, pun intended.

P.S. On a Mother's Day side-note, please be sure that any of the concepts I come up are conceptualized, developed, and tested with both men and WOMEN. Just as a present to my mom, who would frequently be found cursing at any given household appliance, spitting out: "Some MAN invented this." Happily, my days are fuller than hers were -- I have so much more to think up.

And HEY, ::poke::, you're all really behind schedule!

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Places you should go.

  • How to Get the Weight of Your Own Head
    ....Without decapitation of course. Would it make you feel better in your diet battle to leave it out of the picture? Some very humourous physics postulations and retorts.
  • Wendy Waldman - My Last Thought
    An accoustic, almost folky warmth from Wendy - but much more complex. She's only available on Longhouse Records, so I'm presenting her video on YouTube instead. Gorgeous song with subtle changes from an old friend, mentor, and solid composer.
  • Mooncakes Fascionable
    I stumbled across this page too late for last September, but MAN these look fun. Will try to find them next time around.
  • Another Fun iPod Story
    This soldier's story had better not be fabricated. I'd love it if it were really true. Could be!
  • Godiva Mocha Gets My Vote
    This reviewer is funny but he seems to like the product only somewhat; I absolutely ADORE (and should not have) it. Just don't think of it as COFFEE. It's not.
  • All My Sick Friends...
    will like this silly penholder. Just gave me a chuckle.
  • Is Corn Fuel a Joke?
    This blog has some pretty interesting figures. If this is true, I would go with good old solar collectors. Er, well, new ones.
  • Made in Taiwan: Flourescent Pigs
    Yup, you can get just about anything in Taiwan, but you won't find these in the food markets. Not yet anyway.
  • Why snowflakes do what they do
    Somehow I never bumped into an explanation of this atmospheric phenomenon. It's so logical! Of course! Duh! Why didn't I think of it.
  • A SNOW Museum??
    YES!, and where else, but in Japan. Lovely pics, from a CalTech-er.

Much Ado About Nothing:

  • Emily Wells - Symphony 4: America's Mercy War
    Symphony 4: America's Mercy War
    Emily Wells: The Symphonies: Dreams Memories & Parties

    Musicianship she may well have; presence and a good show she may present - I'd have to see her to say. But on listening without seeing her, I'd say it's just an updated Melanie, and her symphonies are just pop music with quartets and some rough edges. People who like Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsome will find her roughness appealing. The thing is, that grows tiresome if there's no amazing writing. Newsome and Banhart are fine writers. I don't think Emily is, sorry.
  • 1234
    Feist: The Reminder
    I knew it was a Mac commercial ditty, but expected some substance upon examination. What I found was Joni Mitchell Lite in the vocals, and lyrics that made only a vague hint of sense. Then there's the scary multicolored people in her video.... just pretty much of nothing.
  • Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5:55
    5:55
    Charlotte Gainsbourg: 5:55

    I have always loved Charlotte as an actress, what with her Patti Smith-like quirky looks and serious, soft voice. So I tried her album. A few tunes are nice, but I found it surprisingly unsophisticated musically (for a person who I suspected might be) and rather too Claudine Longet. Nothing but a soft breath of frost, and it dissipated too quickly.
  • AFI - Miss Murder
    Miss Murder
    AFI: DECEMBERUNDERGROUND

    Can I just say how old they looked and plasticly made to younger on SNL? It was just Wrong. Worse, they've been lame not just lately, but for years. WORST, they snagged the cover artist that did The Birthday Massacre's album art and STOLE THEIR RABBITS!!
  • Ben Harper - One Road to Freedom
    One Road to Freedom
    Ben Harper: Fight for Your Mind

    Bleghhhhhhh. Badly executed, uninteresting, and shamelessly promoted. I think I had someone else in mind (whose name was it then?) when I chose this freebie.
  • Keane - Atlantic
    Atlantic
    Keane: Under the Iron Sea

    I adored the opening section of this tune -- magical drama. But it was suddenly dragged away into Queenland/Rufus imitation, like most of the rest of their stuff. I tried, guys, I really did.
  • Teddy Geiger - Thinking Underage
    Thinking Underage
    Teddy Geiger: Underage Thinking

    I feel sorry for this uncontestably beautiful child of 17 who has been fed media all his life, spat it back cleverly, and been packaged like a Calvin Klein ad when he is really not very special. I would hope someday he will be, but signs point to "no". He will have a lot of lucky groupies, though.
  • Living Things - Bom Bom Bom
    Bom Bom Bom
    Living Things: Ahead of the Lions

    This was described as "glam" in feel. Uh, what unresearching 20 year old decided that? It was also described as an anti-war protest, and that the band is iconoclastically political enough to get banned from the Viper Room in L.A.. That falls when you listen to the lyrics. It's sarcastic, but I could just as easily see it be used by a film like Jarheads, glorifying as well as not. And most of all, it's a lame 70s riff that's not been tweaked at all. BOSTON would have been more original than this. Plus side: Lead singer Lillian Berlin (who used to have a boy's name back in Missouri) has a beatiful husky dark voice. Maybe they'll get better with time, but I'm bored.
  • Bliss
    Muse: Origin of Symmetry
    Queeeeeeeeen!! QUEEN! Have I mentioned before that Muse makes me CRAZY? Have I mentioned they are a fuzz pedaled revamp of Queen tunes? This piece is purely that. I like two of their later tunes, and that's about it. Not this album.
  • Kings of Leon - Pistol of Fire
    Pistol of Fire
    Kings of Leon: Aha Shake Heartbrake

    Garage band raw dry recording, rehashed traditional rock structures, and a vocalist I don't care about. That being said, I think they'd be very fun in concert. But nothing I want to buy, really. Everything Secret Machines is truly, this band is falsely. This doesn't seem synthesized into a new form, it just feels cribbed.
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