Band/Artist: Various Artists
Album: What Is This
That Stands Before Me?
Best song: “Changes”
Worst
song:“Symptom of the Universe.”
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What Is This That Stands Before Me?
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Category Archives: various
Singles
Band: Various
Album: Singles
Best song: “Birth Ritual” and “Would?” are classics.
Worst song: “Waiting For Somebody” is so so dumb.
Part of being old is the mistaken belief that the thing from one’s youth are the best things to have ever existed. I’ve written about it a million times, but — if I can pat myself on the back here for a minute — I do try to buck that trend. Balancing the “everything new is the best” with “everything from my youth is the best” is a tough road to hoe, but here we are. Continue reading
The Music of Nashville: Season 1 Volume 1
Band: Various
Album: The Music of Nashville: Season 1 Volume 1
Best song: The radio mix of “Telescope” is the most catchy of the songs. “Buried Under” or “Wrong Song” are probably the strongest overall.
Worst song: “When the Right One Comes Along” isn’t great.
I won’t go over my love of the television showBreaking Badhere, largely because I would never stop writing were I to sing its praises. This blog post would be longer than the bible and no one wants that. But, the point is thatBreaking Badis my favorite TV show of all-time. The only live television I ever watch isBreaking Bad(and sports) and now I have nothing by which to structure my Sunday nights. Continue reading
Flashdance
Band: Various Artists
Album: Flashdance
Best song: Oh, whatever.
Worst song: What a dated record.
There’s something about memory that’s lovely and nostalgic and a little disjointed. A lot of this project involves my reconstructing memories that don’t quite fit and picking out the things that have stuck out in my early years, on some level.
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I haven’t seen Flashdance in, probably, 25 years. I don’t have a ton of incentive to see it again, as it’s largely a relic of a completely different time. I don’t really remember the plot; I could easily lie and look it up on Wikipedia for the purposes of this piece (though, I did just peak at the Wikipedia page and see that Joe Esterhas(!!!) wrote it. How great is that?). But, ultimately, this project is more about memory than it is about accuracy and my memory of Flashdance solely remains in Jennifer Beals.
Ms. Beals was, indeed, my first celebrity crush.
Sure, I remember the big dance scene and I remember the music and I remember the ridiculous fashion. But, considering its influence, a lot of that may just be reconstructing shit from derivative works.
But, really, I remember Jennifer Beals.
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Videotape is such an anachronism. I’ll not get into the notion of the speed of technology other than to say that our family had tons of videotapes at our house when my sister and I were kids. Many early memories are of sitting in front of the TV, using the VCR remote and watching tapes of movies we enjoyed.
This is, undoubtedly, how I first saw Flashdance. And it’s odd to think about that. Said technology is about as useful as a manual typewriter. Sure, it does a job, but so many other things do the job better.
Do you know anyone who owns videotapes and actually watches them? I don’t think I do. I make fun of people who have hotmail.com e-mail addresses. I couldn’t imagine meeting someone who is way into his or her VCR.
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We all have movies that define our youth and, oddly, Flashdance is one of those for me. The movie is famous largely for its styling; it was directed to include sequences that truly looked like the burgeoning new medium of music video. The dance sequences brought up “Maniac” and “Flashdance… What a Feeling,” the movie’s essential theme. I don’t care much for the music now — after all, those songs are pretty dated.
But, man. Jennifer Beal in that off-the-shoulder sweatshirt. Young Ross loved that thing.
Nativity in Black
Band: Various Artists
Album: Nativity in Black
Best song: As a cover record, most of the songs are pretty solid. They are, after all, Sabbath songs. I’d say the highlights are 1000 Homo DJs’ version of “Supernaut,” Megadeth’s spot-on “Paranoid,” the Bullring Brummies’ “The Wizard” and, mostly, Corrosion of Conformity’s “Lord of this World.” Cathedral’s “Solitude” is pretty great.
Worst song: Ugly Kid Joe mangles “N.I.B.” Therapy?’s cover of “Iron Man” (with Ozzy singing, no less) is pretty bad. I can’t really support Faith No More doing “War Pigs.”
In talking with a younger friend recently, she mentioned a life goal was to write a book. She’s a fellow journalist — though, she actually writes in her profession — so I asked her if she wanted to write a book of fiction or nonfiction or what.
She said she’d never really written much fiction, but did so recently and entered a short story into a competition. Apparently, she’s doing well in said competition and has found a new skill that was before unrealized. Continue reading