by Rodney Eric Griffith | Armour of Rod | |
bp: 132/85
Spectaculary fierce storms in NE Ohio. The skies went completely black, and lightning spiked for hours straight. It seems calmer and cooler now, but I’ve never seen weather this intense.
Tipped by Brian:
Ice-T, quoted on Sky News: “The Hoff will surprise people with his rap skills and humour.”
And: The Saint: The Complete Series One arrived ahead of schedule!
I had forgotten how cool Sam Phillips looked in Die Hard With a Vengeance (on FX last night, muted while I sorted through CDRs, one of which is a reference copy of an XTC session that will probably never come out, even though I know there is a lot of hope for it to be Fuzzy Warbles Vol. 22 someday). However, there was no cool accidental convergence a la The Dark Side of the Moon/The Wizard of Oz.
bp: 122/89
I realise that by now I’m probably in the thousandth tier of people who have discovered and posted about this, but this backwards mix of Britney Spears’ first hit is astonishing.
bp: 133/86
Good heavens. I just Googled Steve Willis, and he’s online. I meant to explain the 1980s small press culture in Armour as background to the origins of Inspiracy Press, and how in my considered opinion there are four key figures from this era of self-publishing: Bob Black, Gerry Reith, Matt Feazell, and Steve Willis. Willis has not, to my knowledge, used the ’net to any great extent—my last contact from him was when he abdicated The City Limits Gazette.
He posted a comment to blargblog a few days ago, plugging a new 64-page Cranium Frenzy featuring Morty the Dog (PO Box 390 McCleary WA 98557-0390). !
SMiLE by Brian Wilson, released 27 and 28 September 2004. On Nonesuch, of all labels. (Sam Phillips is on Nonesuch.)
Feeling exhausted, but much remains to be done.
bp: 138/86
bp: 143/94
I’ve lately been reading a lot about animation, which is in some ways more enjoyable than watching it. There is a subversion of quality peculiar to the form that I find ironic. The guy who isn’t Jerry Beck on Cartoon Brew, for example, seems to be virulently critical of Family Guy, Home Movies and even The Simpsons, but there’s a reason why these series resonate so strongly with their audiences (they have the aura similar to the Jay Ward productions, writer-driven, or shall we say idea-driven). Whereas painstakingly beautiful but content-void animation from the smug likes of Disney has always left me very, very cold, and their admirers tend to be very clinical in their worship.
The trainspotting aspect to the Warner Bros. cartoons is always fun to read about. Another encouraging sight: the Family Guy action figures have some of the most (in)appropriate accessories ever.
bp: 126/82 (yesterday)
bp: 129/87 (today)
HMV is now gone from Cleveland, which saddens but hardly surprises me. In the past month the area lost its historical best record store in (Westlake’s) My Generation. Over the past few years I’ve watched the suburban record stores fade out, the mall chains are struggling, and even some of the better online retailers have disappeared.
Lately I had only shopped at HMV during their infrequent spring cleaning sales, and even the tables of imported singles under US$3 were merely window shopping since they almost never stocked anything I wanted. They were, however, the last place in town for any kind of singles as well as being the only remaining place for imports once My Generation closed. I apparently have missed the closing day sale at the Cleveland HMV; I missed the last day sales at My Generation (although I had been there a few weeks prior; unless they substantially raised the discount, it would not have been that great).
We’re left with a dollar made substantially weaker by Bush, which makes shopping at my favourite online record stores very expensive.
