Archive for January, 2006

One is the Loneliest Number

Posted by Le G on January 26th, 2006

one

Brief one again, and flecked with only a dash of innuendo (much less than an earlier post, but then you needed the secret decoder ring to suss that one out and I’m not giving it up so easily). I’m back from Lancaster and Liverpool. Was good to see people and catch up. Talk went very well, probably the best version I’ve given, with plenty of time to talk and show visuals, flesh out ideas that haven’t been presented before. Ping Pong Country never looked so good (except when it’s actually played). Managed to eat well (my hosts, Marc and Christine, were very generous with hearty food, especially fond of the Indian meal we whipped up together and those M&S naan breads were amazing. Nothing like that in NZ at the shops) as well as get out to the country (thanks to Graham for the lift out to the moonscape that is Dent and its environs. And for arranging the crap weather, too. No, no, it was all good, really.*) Also got a dose of Liverpool and its expanding nightlife, but only for a night. It doesn’t look as grim as it did the first time I was there (sure, you’ve got plenty of places just abandoned and crumbling, especially out near John Lennon International Airport, but there were lights and sounds and people out on a Monday night and that counts for something. I mean they are the Capital of Culture in 2008, so they’ve got to get it together before then. I just ask that you keep the Beatles’ legacy at a level which is not so screechingly tasteless).

Also saw the latest Egoyan film, Where the Truth Lies, which was actually very good. Funny and Vertiginous, with Hermann-esque music to bring the point home, Kevin Bacon was great and Colin Firth was very good at capturing the smooth decay of a lecherous 50s entertainer on the way out.

Berlin has been bitterly cold the last few days and I’m pining a bit for southern climes now (pining, pining). It’s getting a wee bit lighter, but the days end too quickly. Of course, I picked the wrong time to come here as the weather is just bleak and the Russian winds bring out a crisp solemnity to this already solemn place. I hope in my talk on play and the city next week at Club Transmediale I can liven things up a bit. Details of the festival here. The paper is just gestating at the moment, but it’ll be good to go for next week. Fingers crossed. Lovely design on those posters, don’t you think? Looks to be a fun week, with lots on and some good inspiration for the next research project. Already thinking about it with some relish.

Tunes. A couple that you may or may not be familiar with. First off is the Katzenjammers and a great cover. I think this is just amazing, in part because it’s live and that and it came out in 1981, not long after the original.

The next one, is some East German rock, which has a great boogie beat to it and sounds pretty remarkable to my ears. It’s Communist bell-bottom rock. Great.

And finally, a nice Brazilian cover of an 80s classic, instrumental version with brass, which is just fantastic and revives a cut which has edged toward the played out for many, many years.

*(The expression “it’s all good,” in its past and present tense, is not my own. More about that later. Honest. I’m such a tease sometimes.)

Iso G.

Of Adverts and Perverts

Posted by Le G on January 17th, 2006

Another short one, before I head. I just had a media memory come back to me last night, after seeing the image above here in Berlin. Just around Xmas in NZ, I saw two ads for a national department store (name escapes me now). Both had young bikini-clad women boucing around in slow motion, to the sounds of the Chills. One seemed mildly appropriate in that it used “Heavenly Pop Hit,” a wonderful pop confection that was the first song by M. Phillips I remember hearing, played while the woman takes a slow plunge from a high diving board into a pool. The other, however, seemed oblivious to what kind of impact a song like “Pink Frost,” a song about a woman dying, would have on the image they’re trying to evoke, the opening chords dropped over a shot of three young girls bounding around in their fleshy, David Hamilton-esque, summer best. It’s a good thing that it never gets to the actual lyrics, which go like this:

I want to stop my crying
I want to stop my crying
But she’s lying there dying
How can I live when you see what I’ve done?
How can I live when you see what I’ve done?
What can I do if she dies?
What can I do if she dies?
What can I do if she’s lost?
Just the thought fills my heart with Pink Frost
I thought I was dreaming -
so I didn’t heed her screaming
I’m so scared
I’m so scared
She won’t move and I’m holding her head
She won’t move and I’m holding her head
She’s lost…Bye Bye Bye
She’s lost…Bye Bye Bye
She’s lost…Bye Bye Bye
Pink frost…Bye Bye Bye
I’m really not lying
I’m so scared
I’ll have to stop my crying
Now she’s dead
What can I do if she dies?
What can I do if she dies?
What can I do if she’s lost?
Just the thought fills my heart with Pink Frost
(Oh no!)

Sure, it’s got a haunting opening riff, an iconic signifier of that Flying Nun/Dunedin sound, but you have to think that either someone at the ad agency is taking the piss or they’re just using the song as shorthand for “cool.” Hard to believe that the joke would be lost on the greater NZ audience. The song would be pretty well-known to a number of NZers, so it’s just a bizarrely morbid choice. Oh, and when put on hold at Telecom, Chris Knox’s “Not Given Lightly” is the background music (along with Split Enz and other Kiwi legends. No Dave Dobbyn yet, thank Christ). And can I just say that since moving to NZ, my adoration of C. Knox has been tempered by his public appearances on TV and in print. Talk about your cultural cringe.

The song, then, and you should be picturing nubile young girls frolicking in a verdant summer setting while you’re tap, tap, tapping your toes to a song of death:

Chills - Pink Frost

Iso G.

The Impossible Dream?

Posted by Le G on January 16th, 2006

A quickie for now.

So, just over a week in Berlin and I’ve managed to bang a paper into shape and get another one underway. However, I leave for Liverpool/Lancaster tomorrow, where I’ll give a talk and meet up with Marc and Christine again. Even though it’s become a bit of an annual thing, I suspect it may be a while until I get back to this hemisphere again, given the flight costs. Lucky me for now though. Lovely thoughts of a pub or two. Each time it’s been a pleasure to get across this particular pond to see friends. Yet, unless a conference shows up in this neck of the woods, I’ll be biding my time in Australasia, which these days is just the right place to be for so many good reasons.

I’ve been biding my time in the internet café up the street, where for 5 euro I can pretty much have my own little office space for the better part of a day. Not much cause to go outside as it’s near -10 and grey. Earlier in the day, I’d been sitting in the kitchen with the gas stove blaring, door closed so none of that precious heat escapes, dreading a shower for the walk from shower to room, thinking about how to make that coal oven work its little cast-iron belly off. From what I can tell, the UK looks a wee bit warmer, though I’m sure the rain will dampen any hope of heat.

Pretty much housebound the last few days, I’m looking forward to this trip as it gives me a chance to be in Liverpool for a couple of days. I just wish the NZ dollar was a bit stronger because I’m really counting my pennies (pence?) in both countries.

More musical interludes. This one comes from New Zealand’s Demarnia Lloyd, who was in an outfit called Cloudboy a few years back. She’s been pretty quiet as of late, but her first few releases were great. Reminds me of Barbara Morgenstern a bit, however a wispier version.

Demarnia Lloyd - Too Long Away

At some point in the future, I’ll put up some old radio shows which I’ve just rediscovered. They sound pretty good after all these years, actually, so why not share.

Iso G.

Into the Groove

Posted by Le G on January 9th, 2006

Okay, that’s two Madonna-esque headings in a row. Not intended at all. See, I was gonna title it “Southern Man,” but that doesn’t really suit me now, as I’m in Europe. I’ll save it for later, perhaps for the moment when I get my NZ residency or something.

Been away for a while. It’s not that I don’t love you, but other things have distracted me. Good things, so don’t you fret.

Now in Berlin, where I’m doing bits and pieces of work, having a tiny amount of fun, but generally trying to get over the cold and grey-ness of it all. I’ve got the coal oven going, which has yet to put me into the big sleep, and I’m writing this from the kitchen where I’ve got the stove on to keep me warm. It’s only -10, so my Canadian readers should console themselves with thoughts that I still have some tolerance for a good chill, but I know that with more time in New Zealand, this is going to be frickin’ cold soon.

A run-down, then, of what’s been up as of late (in no particular order):

1) Xmas in NZ - I’ve done the Southern Hemisphere at Xmas thing twice before, once in Nelson on New Zealand’s South Island, and then in Hobart, in Tasmania. Both of those consisted of some wild adventures (near death experience, lost in the swells kayaking off of the Abel Tasman track in NZ, and lost on the beaches near Bicheno during the heaviest rainstorm in fifty years in Tassie). This year, a much more laid-back and land-based affair, positively mild in comparison. Out to Otaki, which is where the image above comes from, at a sedate dinner arranged by an Australian colleague. A drive up the coast to a friend’s bach (short for “bachelor”) where, if the weather was clear, we might well have seen whales and penguins.

2) New Year’s in NZ - Those other southern moments are marred only by memories of a night of Simply Red played over and over (NZ) and a cheese fondue that failed, congealing into a rubbery mass of goo impenetrable to even the crustiest of breads (Hobart). My mother and sister know what the latter is like, but that’s not to say I can’t do a proper fondue. I have in the past and since and vow to do so again. I’ve been told that fondues are making a bit of a comeback in Aus, but I just can’t see them really sticking. Now NZ could probably be the perfect setting, what with the cold and all.

New Year’s in Wellington was modest by those standards. We ended up at house in Petone, on the outskirts of the city, minutes before midnight. We then headed down to the beach, where we could get a good view of Wellington in the distance. The fireworks went off in staggered fashion (no Guy Fawkes-like incendiary accidents this time), with me standing in the bay, dead jellyfish lapping up on my feet. Squishy good fun.

3) Antti’s visit - My Finnish friend Antti made an appearance in Wellington just before I left for Berlin. We rented a car and we headed up the coast, driving on the opposite side of the road for the first time. It was no big deal really, but I was using the curb alot to keep me in the right, rather, left lane. The car itself was a bit of a crappy number, a Toyota Joinus, with a cassette deck (!) and no uumph, so doing the Rimutakas was a bit of a nightmare. I felt like the car was just going to coast backward at some point. This stretch of highway near Wellington is just some of the most treacherous road I’ve ever experienced. 13 kms took us more than half-an-hour to complete. Great vistas, though.

4) The non-willed diet - In early December, we hosted a popular music conference at Vic. Shortly after it ended, I came down with a serious stomach bug, Campylobacter, a bacteria you can only get from your food coming in contact with un- or undercooked chicken. Now being a veggie, that’s a scary thought, because I’m sure the actual chicken eater was just fine. I had nothing to eat for four days and looked a little bit gaunt and pale by the end of it. I had to alert the Public Health Authority as well, as this is a public health issue. I have no doubt that after six weeks of German bread and beer all the weightloss will be lost.

5) The long flight - A 24 hour flight, which saw me sitting beside someone on each leg of my journey who knew nothing about health protocols when expectorating. Mouth covered, please, when hacking. The movie selection was just terrible as well. I sat through Elizabethtown, which ranks as one of the worst films I’ve seen in years. The acting, the story, the editing, the music was all wrong. Trying to be an even more mediocre indie-esque movie than Garden State, it misses the mark on every point. Shortly after that I read a story about how Orlando Bloom, once being groomed to be Hollywood’s newest heartthrob, has instead provided an abject lesson in how not to shape your career. At least he’s not dating Tara Reid. Yet.

6) Earthquake! - My first real earthquake in New Zealand, felt a few weeks ago. Most of them happen while I’m at work or sleeping, so I’ve missed out on the shaky fun. This was one was pretty forceful and for the first time I could actually distinguish it from the wind which usually wracks my apartment (up over 130 km a few weeks ago). Made me a bit unsure as to whether or not I should be living on the 5th floor of a concrete highrise. Most Wellingtonians recommend a wooden house as that is better at taking the stress of an earthquake.

7) January in Berlin - I’m gearing up for a couple of talks while in Europe, one in Lancaster and the other here at Club Transmediale, the electronic arts festival which I’ve been doing research on. That latter one has yet to be written, but as it’s a few weeks away, I should be able to devise something interesting. I’m also doing a bit of DJing, and will sit in on a set that my flatmate Remco is doing after Jean-Jacques Perrey’s set. I’ve got a couple of his LPs ready to autograph, and brought some of my weirdo moog LPs, which are hardly a match for Remco’s. His record collection of novelty cuts just puts mine to shame.

8) Music in 2005 - I’ve been pretty restrained in my music buying this year, so I can only mention a few albums that made the move across the globe easier to bear.

Luna - Rendezvous. Dean Wareham remains one my favourite artists ever, guitar-wise and lyric-wise, so it was a bittersweet last album from them. Britta and Dean was a good indicator that he’ll continue being a pop-minded eccentric.

Husky Rescue - Country Falls. Finnish alt-country music. Great stuff, especially for the single “Summertime Cowboy,” but it’s simultaneously moody and upbeat all the way through.

Vitalic - OK Cowboy. It’s been a few years since the “Pony” EP, both cuts which show up here, but the sound is still varied across the album.

Sigur Ros - Takk. At first listen, I was put-off by the poppier bent of this, but after a few listens, it’s really grown on me.

Patrick Wolf - Wind in the Wires. I caught him in Berlin last year, where he’d done a stripped-down show due to his being robbed a few days earlier. I loved “Lycanthropy” from a few years back, with all the Angela Carter references, but his much more straight-ahead acoustic sound on this one is still pretty great. Bit of a prodigy this one.

Broadcast - Tender Buttons. I was suitably impressed with this lot from day one, especially “The Book Lovers,” but their stripped down sound on this one is still worth repeat listens. It’s a grower, like the Sigur Ros, but then I like those.

So that’s where I’ve been, obviously leaving out some crucial detail, which I’ll no doubt get back to at some point down the road, but will dangle here just to keep your interest piqued.

As I always feel the need to catch up, and keep you caught up, here are a few more songs to keep your toes tapping:

Buddy Rich Big Band - The Beat Goes On

Carmen Miranda - Chattanooga Choo Choo

Frl. Menke - Komm Computer

Gil Gilberto - Expresso

Lavern Baker and Jimmy Ricks - You’re the Boss

Louis Prima - I Wan’na Be Like You

Serge Gainsbourg - Untitled

Iso G.