vain, selfish & lazy.

Friday, May 19, 2000

good weekend to you all!: yep, it's that time again, dear readers. from now 'til monday morning, you can keep yourselves busy by visiting the blogs linked below or, hey, by even writing me e-mail! which i won't reply to until monday, but still.

monday, i hope to finish the top 20 movie countdown and do a bunch of other stuff. i hope i find you right here when i return. have a great weekend!
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

sources say giuliani dropping out: a great deal of new yorkers rejoice...until they remember that he's still going to be mayor for another year yet.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

15. the seventh seal - dir. ingmar bergman
on the box, it says, "a perfect introduction to the thinking man's cinema," or something to that effect; it serves as the inspiration to one of scott walker's best songs, who sums up the movie more entertainingly than i could ever hope. the great thing about foreign films is that the directors are willing to take risks and they're, more or less, not as burdened by the need for commercial success as their american counterparts -- no one typified that statement more than ingmar bergman. it's arguable that no film of its time was as ambitious as the seventh seal: it's the story of a knight in the 14th-century, returning from war with his faith in the existence of God all but gone. he returns home to the plague and encounters death himself. the two play a game of chess, hanging in the balance are the lives of the knight and his friends. the dialogue raises incisive philosophical questions, and the imagery is fascinating. all in all, the film typifies bergman, and cinema itself, at his best.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

the immutable truth of the men's room: guys often wonder why women all go to the bathroom together. one imagines that they want to hear, "because we have these huge,lesbian orgies and the bathroom, obviously, is the most conducive environment for them." or something like that. (i mean, why else are there couches in the women's room here? don't ask how i know that, either.) what never gets queried, though, is what exactly goes on in the men's room.

the answer: many things, most of them too noxious to get into. there is one constant, however. if there are three urinals in the men's room, and there are two guys using them, one will be on the far left, and the other will be on the far right. this is always how it happens. now, when guy #3 walks in the door, he sees the setup, and automatically heads for a stall, where he proceeds to make use of the facilities, standing up with the door closed. this is always the case, without exception.

the question is why? is it physically uncomfortable to use that middle urinal? does he think it'll make him look gay if he uses it? i can't answer this, to be honest. in all my life, i've been casually observing from one of those end stalls, but if i were to wager a guess, i'd say it's the latter. though maybe men are just used to going to the bathroom in private, and having to do so in front of other guys is, i dunno, embarrassing? women don't have to face the public shame of the urinal.

after having written this, i now understand why women never think to ask. and, also, it may be why men should be happy that women never answer them when they ask.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

i get the distinct feeling that i'm being mocked: well, this is the last time i take tom's advice about anything ("hey, write something sensitive and the e-mail and hits will come flying in!"). the people at webloglog, who comment on blogs all day long, have found it necessary to trot out my post and put my private pain on display for the whole world to see. what's worse is that they link to the archive and not the front page and then they misinterpreted the post and its gravitas. at least tim got it. i guess i'll nix the entry on my heartbreak over how the "search" function at blogger is currently down for fear of being made the subject of fun yet again. let this be a lesson to me.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

16. goodfellas - dir. martin scorsese
as great a director as i believe scorsese to be, out of all of his films, goodfellas is the only one i can profess unequivocal love for. it's a long movie, but it's a testament to scorsese's ability that every last second is riveting. joe pesci was frighteningly realistic in his star-making turn as tommy devito; ray liotta, in the lead, was perfectly frazzled in a role that should've made him a star. the direction is flawless and, as this is a scorsese movie, the soundtrack is nearly as important to the movie as the characters (best moment: the use of the end of "layla" to capture the state of mind of a pensive liotta). compared to coppola's romanticized mafia, the portrayal of the mobsters in goodfellas is as powerful an anti-gangster movie as there's ever been: the characters go to jail, have to eke out existences, and live in constant fear. on top of all of this, it's based in new jersey. what more could you ask for?!
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

17. wings of desire - dir. wim wenders
much like the director of our last entry, wim wenders was a director who displayed prodigious talent. well, it's now the year 2000 and he's released the million-dollar hotel, based on a screenplay by bono. bono, of u2. a guy who sings for a living. based on early reviews, he better stick to that day job; unfortunately for wenders, directing is the only job he has. but i digress. wings of desire is a gorgeous film and throughout wenders demonstrates blinding technique (the alternation between b&w and color is particularly stunning). the cinematography perfectly captures the beauty and heartbreak of a still-divided germany. the acting is top-notch:bruno ganz is beatific as the angel-turned-man, damiel, and peter falk turns in a truly memorable cameo appearance. arguably the most romantic film of the last twenty years.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

18. apocalypse now - dir. francis ford coppola
this one is always perilously perched between my top 20 and the list i did yesterday about overrated movies. in all honesty, the movie peters out at the end and in spots, it's very slow. in the early seventies, coppola seemed invincible; with this movie, you being to see the chinks in the armor, and by 1996, he'd reach his all-time nadir, jack with robin williams. the acting, by and large is exemplary; some complain about brando, but i can't imagine anyone else playing the role better, and dennis hopper is also great, even if it was typecasting. as it stands, apocalypse now is an often engrossing motion picture with some brilliant images and magisterial direction, even if it does come up short in its depiction of one of the low points in american history.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

falling for "love" again?: don't let it happen to you. and if it does, make sure i'm not in your address book. thank you.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

Thursday, May 18, 2000

this time around, hanson scrape the bottom of the top 20: "oh, mother, i can feel the soil falling over my head..." boy, did it flop. is this the last of hanson?
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

summerstage lineup announced: summerstage, the free concert series held every summer in central park, has announced its lineup for the summer of 2000. let's see, i'm going to go see chic, common, randy newman, masters at work, tricky, rahzel, lamb, and roni size. thank catherine's pita for the heads up!
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

19. the bicycle thief - dir. vittorio de sica
in 1949, the academy created a category named "most outstanding foreign film." this move was necessitated by an italian film called ladri di biciclette, a neorealist tale of what happens to a man whose livelihood depends on his bicycle when that bicycle is stolen. in that description, it certainly doesn't sound like much, but what ends up on the screen is profound and heartwrenching. de sica hired a non-actor, lamberto maggiorani, to play the lead and it was a masterstroke: not familiar with the nuances and idiosyncracies that many actors develop, maggiorani was able to play his character straight and lent an immense poignancy to the role. the events that unfold at the end are inevitable and though you feel it coming, it doesn't stop your heart from breaking. a simple movie that evokes very complex and powerful emotions.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

the twenty greatest movies ever...for today: similar to the top twenty songs ever countdown i did not too long ago, i present the twenty greatest movies ever, in my opinion, of course. without further ado...

20. casablanca - dir. michael curtiz
when you think of the classic hollywood movie, your thoughts should turn to casablanca. with its immense popularity and the way it has worked its way into our everyday lives, i don't think you even have to have seen the movie to know many of the famous lines and the plot. the performances are all of the highest caliber, especially bogart's, who may never have been better than as the unlucky-in-love rick blaine. one of the movie's greatest attributes is the modernity of it all: it could easily be remade in the present day with very few changes (bogart's kind of cool never goes out of style)...well, those pesky nazis would have to go. the end is heartbreaking, and though you may wish that it'd end happily, i bet that you, like me, wouldn't dare change a thing.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

quote of the week: from josef k. at public blog:
"Fred looks like a serial killer, but his blog has become one of the few I read every day."

so nice, he posted it twice. ;) but seriously! josef k. was a character in the trial which is a great film directed by my favorite director, orson welles, so you should go there just because of that. surveying their site, it has the kind of clean, sleek design that i envy and intelligent and funny posts about damned near everything, so go pay them a visit or else I'LL KILL YOU!!!
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

no, spike jonze! why?!: the other day i rented being john malkovich, which i had seen in the theatre in 1999. for me, it was a must-rent because i so enjoyed the wit and snap of the dialogue and the off-the-wall inventiveness of the plot. the one thing that kept it from topping my year-end list of favorite movies was the implausible ending. (yes, i also find it humorous that of all things to call "implausible," i single out the ending, not the fact that these people have found a portal into the head of john malkovich. go figure.) watching it again, i was reminded all too well as to why i hated the ending.

yes, every character in bjm, besides the titular star, does something to really make you think that they're a jerk. craig, despite his marriage, chases after maxine; lotte, after being in malkovich, chases after maxine; and maxine is...maxine. personally speaking, if i found myself living in the hell that was craig's home, and then working in the hell that was the 7 1/2 floor, i'd find that my life was one bleak, endless nightmare. for craig, maxine represented the one thing that he truly had to look forward to during his day, and he'd genuinely fall in love with her, doing whatever he could to try to win her affection.

lotte falls in love with maxine after she's been in malkovich. the question of the realness of her love is valid because had she never been in malkovich, she most likely never would have pursued maxine. so why do the two of them get together in the end and live happily ever after? maxine doesn't express one truly human emotion for the majority of the film; she seems only capable of loving someone who has power and fame, and that is why she marries craig as malkovich. and yet at the end of the film, God knows why, she realizes that she loves lotte and has all the time.

what the HELL? was the story brutally butchered in post-production? is there some missing reel out there that heretofore has not been revealed? do i need to purchase the dvd to find out what happened?! in fairness to the film, i can't imagine that coming up with an ending to this truly innovative flick could've been easy -- if it had ended with craig and maxine ending up living happily ever after themselves, i would've been just as annoyed. a movie this outright loony deserved an ending to match, not the scene of a contented mom and dad/mom and young daughter enjoying themselves by pool. maybe i'm just biased because i'm a guy and there are some psychological issues at work here that i'm not consciously aware of, or maybe, just maybe, i'm justified in feeling that the end of this movie made less sense than its very premise. anyone agree?
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

let the movie stuff begin...: let me kick things off, then, with three movies i somewhat like but find terribly overrated by most critics...

1. la dolce vita - dir. federico fellini
whenever critcs get attacked for not discussing foreign films, nine times out of ten this is the one they proclaim their love for (or if they really want to seem cool, they say 8 1/2, but that's another story). even with its length, it's still an enjoyable film to watch, and that's due to both mastroianni's masterful acting and fellini's artful directing. however, after i'm done watching it, i have no interest in seeing it for a very long time. there are a number of classic scenes -- the panoramic opening, the last gasp orgy -- but fellini got carried away with himself on this one, because there are even more boring, pointless stretches. you end up just feeling aggravated because instead of having something ineffably fantastic, you have to settle for just flashes of brilliance. and three hours is just way too long to wait for mere flashes.

2. taxi driver - dir. martin scorsese
here's another one that's riveting to watch, but ends up being one big, "so what?" the movie ends up spreading itself way too thin, introducing one interesting subplot after another, but not devoting enough time to any of them to really end up saying much. deniro was his usual dynamic self as travis bickle, keitel played probably the first of many disturbing characters he'd tackle in his distinguished career, and scorsese would continue to prove himself america's most exciting director since stanley kubrick. however, this movie ends up being one that is more interesting once you turn it off, as you're left to discuss the many questions it raises and never quite answers. one wonders what travis bickle would make of new york city now.

3. jules and jim - dir. francois truffaut
francois truffaut loved moviemaking and loved the movies even more. in the case of jules and jim, the former would betray the latter. jules and jim is another movie that is visually entertaining as truffaut deployed many a device to creatively push the narrative forward. the cast is superb, especially moreau, but even they can't save the script from itself. while truffaut was a brilliant director, his screenwriting on this one left much to be desired; obviously, we're meant to feel sympathy for these characters, yet i couldn't even muster up any sort of feeling for the oft-cuckolded jules, and the ending! as if i didn't see that one coming from a mile away. perhaps it's unfair to lay the blame squarely on truffaut -- having not read the novel it's based on, it could very well be roche's fault. regardless, jules and jim has many of the qualities of a fine movie, except someone forgot that this film should be about the characters.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

XTC - "I'M THE MAN WHO MURDERED LOVE"
grow, v. - 4 a : to pass into a condition : BECOME (grew pale) b : to have an increasing influence (habit grows on a person) c : to become increasingly acceptable or attractive (gee, i didn't like that new xtc single at first, but man, did it grow on me)

a year on from bitter diatribes against his wife like "your dictionary," and andy partridge still has yet to make peace with love. in fact, he just killed him. that's right, he put a gun against love's sugar head and pulled the trigger, and it was at love's request! he hadn't worked much this past century, you know, so andy put him out of his misery. and as far as andy's concerned, he did the world a favor!

so i guess you get the gist of what the xtc single is like lyrically. it's the same clever kind of stuff that we've come to expect from them over the years, but this time it may be a bit too obvious. (yes, yes, i'm getting sick of the italics too). but never mind that, let's talk about the music. "i'm the man who murdered love" is the first single from wasp star which was described as being the "rock" album as compared to apple venus' orch-oustic sounds. the very notion of "rocking out" was enough to send certain xtc fans into a tizzy.

well, don't fear too much, friends: xtc has never really traditionally "rocked out," and in middle age, they haven't changed on us now. if "itmwml" is any indication, what we're going to get is an electric power-pop album, which is just fine by me. "itmwml" (damn, even the anagram is long!) is a singalong in the "ball and chain" and "mayor of simpleton" mode: it's fun, infectious, and very easy to hum. it's also a joyful outing, which stands in stark contrast to some of the lyrics, with andy exhorting "yeaaaah! what do you think to that?" in the choruses, and going bonkers exclaiming "OH! IT'S THE MIDDLE OF THE SONG!" during, yep, you guessed it, the middle of the song, which does actually rock out a bit.

as mentioned above, "fun" is the operative word here -- note i didn't say "classic" or "timeless," but "fun." as much as i actually do enjoy this song, i can't help but wonder what's the point. i certainly do hope that there will be more on offer on the wasp star album. after last year's triumphant return, i'd hate to think that andy and colin are running out of steam already.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

movie special: today, i'm going to do things a bit differently. my love of film is nearly equal to my love of music. nearly. so i'm going to do a few things about movies today, i hope. one, i will review gladiator which i saw not too long ago; second, i'll tell you why the ending of being john malkovich sours what would otherwise be a classic movie; then, i'll tell you about three movies that i sort of like, but are terribly overrated; and finally, i'll do a run down of my twenty favorite films of all time. ambitious, no? let's see if it happens!
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

shhhhhh!: go here and, if you're clever, you'll be rewarded with interesting smiths stuff. no, no, don't thank me. thank kempa for hipping me to this link.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

but how do you feel about the music?: have we entered a new era of reviewing? will this become the new thing? what it is is a review of primal scream's xtrmntr from the village voice's lorne behrman and it's the first review of his i've consciously read. what it reads like is a transcript of cybersex gone bad (which assumes, i guess, that it does go right sometimes). whatever your opinion of it, anthony decurtis is sure to hate it.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

hey, have you been to riothero's lately?: because the dude has gone content-crazy. personally, i believe it may be a desperate attempt to move into the (c) category of blogs as outlined below. but, when the content is of the quality that he's dishing out, you really can't complain. and so i won't.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

Wednesday, May 17, 2000

verbal diarrhea: you know, i never thought i'd have a nice word to say about diarrhea...UNTIL NOW! i just received affirming e-mail from the kind, er, folk at verbal diarrhea. why don't you go visit their site as a way of saying thank you for me? if you thought i was a power blogger, prepare to be dazzled!
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

terence trent d'arby info if you go here, you'll be able to hear clips from four new tracks from the long-awaited (at least by me) new album by terence trent d'arby. click on the last image, the one that looks like he has a little black dog on his head. the clips sound wonderful, so here's hoping his (eep!)solar return is well worth the wait.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

sitemeters are depressing: hey, i'm grateful to the nice people at sitemeter for the free counters that they provide to folks like me. really, i am. it's just that watching the number of hits you receive is either elating or depressing, with no in between.

when i started out, it was with little fanfare, so i was appreciative of every visit that i got. as more and more people noticed me and starting linking to me, i saw a significant rise in the number of hits -- very exciting, indeed. when this past weekend came, i feared that i'd lose what little momentum i had gained. when i arrived monday morning, my fears were confirmed: i only had thirty or forty hits each for saturday and sunday. imagine my surprise, then, when monday would be my most popular day so far with 130+ hits!

but now i'm getting depressed. yesterday, i dropped off to 100 or so hits, and as of noon today, i only had about thirty hits. when i look at the numbers now, i'm thinking, "hmm, that's a drop off from yesterday at this time. what's going on?" and thoughts like that continue: do people not like my writing? am i not good enough? is my picture scaring them away?! that last one was a bit of a joke (just a bit), but i hope you get what i'm saying. sure, it should be all about quality and not quantity, but i don't know what quality i'm achieving because so few of you are giving me feedback! (and if that's not a hint, i don't know what is.) i would like to say a big thank you to those who have written: as hokey as it sounds, it's messages like the ones i've received that make it all worthwhile, so please keep it up!

i've just realized that this is a good compliment to the piece i wrote earlier (no, not the regis one). if you wonder why people do the things they do to get links, read this one again.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

join him...or die!: well, well, it looks like regis is trying to bring the kids into the fold. he has already subjugated people within every other demographic, and now he's coming for our children (or your children as i don't have, and may likely never have children). kids, don't fall for his tricks!

i think i'll just take this opportunity to say that i've tried to get on both "jeopardy!" and "who wants to be a millionaire" to no avail. i sent "jeopardy!" a postcard when i was in high school, but i never heard back from them. as far as "millionaire" is concerned, i've qualified for the phone-off round countless times, but i've never been one of the lucky folks who's gotten "randomly" selected. this, of course, pisses me off to no end when i see people like the guy from the other night who used all of his lifelines by the time he got to the $500 question and then lost on that very same question and went home with nothing.

still, it's not as bad as the woman on "super greed" who made her team lose everything because of her pigheadedness. she was oblivious to her teammates' "look you idiot, you're wrong"-faces, and then turned down the offer of splitting $20,000 amongst themselves before answering that "from sea to shining sea," and not "home of the brave," was a line in "the star-spangled banner." which wasn't correct. by the way, if you, like me, have no morals and love it when people fail, you really should watch "greed," even if it wouldn't exist without "millionaire"'s success.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

why blog?: things continue to get heavy and philosophical over at skykicking, so if you're expecting commentary on rare layo & bushwacka tracks or an exegesis of pink's "there you go", you might want to go back later.

based on an entry over at oh messy life, tim comments on the very nature of why we blog. he doesn't necessarily agree with what he deems a pessimistic view from oml, but he thinks that we're doing it for more than just "brand loyalty." and i, of course, agree with him. while i do very much attempt to barter links and do things that one might consider unethical (tom, for one) to get my site on someone else's blog, there is very much a reason why i do it. tim says that the process of blogging is creatively stimulating and that the blogger appreciates the feedback he receives -- this is all true, but i'll take go the next step which may be implied but is not said on skykicking: i want my page to go out to the biggest audience i can get.

i, as do many of my fellow bloggers, feel like i have something of value to say and i'd like for people to hear it. you have rock stars who say that they don't want to sell-out. in a way, that's bullshit: figuratively, you don't want to sell out, i.e. changing your sound to attract mass popularity, but if you really believe in what you're doing and feel that it's saying something and is important, you want to literally sell-out: you want the largest audience imaginable to hear your work. and that's exactly how i feel about blogging. by writing on songs that i feel passionately about, i want to share my love of them with others and hopefully have those songs affect their lives as they have mine (and now i feel like i've come back to my mixtape essay).

i'm not going to write too much more because i feel like i'm repeating myself now, so i'll wrap it up. i like reading things that stimulate my mind and get me thinking about things in ways i've never thought of them before. in return, i'd like to provide others with something to think about. by gussying up the design on the page and bartering links, i'm getting a better opportunity to reach more people, so then it's up to me to say something to them (which i hope i am). it's the internet equivalent of doing concerts and visiting radio stations and doing in-store appearances, etc.: it's not something you overly enjoy doing, but you think it'll be worthwhile because you believe in what you're doing so much.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

answer to question: well, this certainly came fast enough. tom was kind enough to humiliate me by reminding me about "be my baby." i consider myself humbled and embarrassed.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

question: is there a pop song alive that makes better use of drums in its intro that blondie's "dreaming"? the surfaris' "wipeout" comes pretty close, admittedly, but i can't think of any others. if you can, use the ol' humanclick over there to educate me, or write me.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

what makes a blog a blog?: while reading skykicking this morning, i found that tim said something interesting (and you thought the two were mutually exclusive!). he says that he doesn't feel as if he belongs in the top echelons of the blogging community because he fails in two primary categories: links and design. while i feel my design is fairly appealing and is certainly better than both tim's and josh's, it's not nearly as nice as the blogs belonging to the true web jockeys out there. this is neither here nor there, really, since i don't think a nice design is essential to the blog.

what does seem to be a big thing to the blogging community is the link (indeed, why else would blogger have created the "blog this" capability for when you find that link you've just got to have right now). i've visited a number of blogs and it seems that they fall into three categories:
a) the blog as link resource: i'd say things like riothero and blue lines fall under this one. basically, these blogs seem to serve as bases where people can go to indulge in their love of the link.
b) the blog as substitute for a homepage: essentially, i'd say that my blog fits under this, as does skykicking. this seems to be for people who are too lazy to set up an actual webpage and just throw big, long articles onto their blogs that might be beyond the attention span of the average blogger, which may eventually lead to our downfall.
c) the blog as a combination of both 'a' and 'b': i'd say that this label applies to blogs like westernhomes and catherine's pita which have a healthy mix of original content and links to often intriguing things. like this site, for one!

so what does it all mean? i don't know. monitoring the "average visit" to my site, the time spent here seems to be under three minutes, which seems to go along with my assumption that there are too many words for your average blog reader. on blue lines, tom compared, rather ambitiously, hip-hop to the blog. well, my comparison is this: the blog is the internet equivalent of the microwave and usa today -- in a world where people increasingly want things given to them instantly, the blog helps them find what they want to read with as few words as possible. my style of blogging may be archaic, but i hope that those of you who keep coming back appreciate it.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

Tuesday, May 16, 2000

his name is prince...again: that's right, the ruse is over. at least he seems to be admitting why the name change occurred. but will he still leer at white people who call him prince?
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

ooh, a new link!: hey all, there's this blog, y'see. it's called catherine's pita, and it has linked to yours truly. it seems to be another music-type site, but what sets this one apart is that it's called catherine's pita. i recommend going there, and while you're there, ask why it's called catherine's pita, won't you?

she makes mention of the star chamber, which must mean that our profile has gotten too high. i'll tell you this much: it has nothing to do with indie, and everything to do with pop. if you want to learn more, you'll just have to ask me.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

handy xtc links: i know that a number of you who visit the site are, like myself, big xtc fans. which means that you know that the new album, wasp star, is due out in a week. if you can't wait that long, you can download the song from the band's american website, tvt records. you can also hear all of the tracks from the album at cooking vinyl, the album's distributor for the rest of the world. see! record companies and mp3s (or realaudio) can peacefully co-exist.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

who's the boss?: yesterday, while riding the subway, i had "thunder road" playing on my headphones. the lyrics, of course, are very poetic, but part of what i enjoy about the song is the same thing i enjoy about many morrissey/smiths songs: this immense romanticism and desperation that, depending on your state of mind, you find either heartbreakingly true or delightfully ridiculous. for example, "i know it's over": it's an incredible, wrenching song that, for a long time, seemed to be my theme song; now, a little older a finding myself in a better place personally and emotionally, some of it strikes me as quite ridiculous, and there are a ton of other songs that do the same thing.

the difference, i'd say, is that at times, moz seems to be very self-aware and probably secretly knows that what he's writing veers off into melodrama. bruce just seems so damned serious, which is very endearing when he's writing songs like "thunder road" and aggravating when he's writing the plodding material that's "graced" his recent output.

so let me make a statement and it's up to you to decide how you feel about it: early bruce springsteen is like morrissey before he lost hope in everything and everyone. bruce wrote "born to run" and moz has "there is a light that never goes out." both are about escape -- bruce wants to get out of that dead-end town with his girl by his side, and moz wants to escape out of this life and would like to think that there's someone committed to him enough to join him -- and both have a unbearably poignant, tragic romanticism to them. discuss.

and for more of my writing on morrissey and how he saved my life, go read my article at freaky trigger.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

mf - the mixtape: this tape doesn't quite exist yet, and i'm not sure if it'd actually work in reality. i'm assuming that, on average, all magnetic fields songs work out to be about three minutes long (sure, "papa was a rodeo" is the great exception, but there are a bunch of two-minute tracks to balance that one out. and wouldn't it be wonderfully perverse if merritt was mindful of the length of his songs and strictly adhered to keeping their average at three minutes?). that way, there are fifteen songs to a side, and thirty in total. the following thirty songs, then, represent my favorites of merritt's work with the magnetic fields, arranged chronologically so as to show off the evolution i mentioned in the previous article.

side a:
when you were my baby
you love to fail
the saddest story ever told
jeremy
100,000 fireflies
either you don't love me or i don't love you
take ecstasy with me
strange powers
desert island
in my secret place
lonely highway
born on a train
when the open road is closing in
crowd of drifters
i have the moon

side b:
the desperate things you made me do
don't look away
the dreaming moon
i don't believe you
absolutely cuckoo
all my little words
the sun goes down and the world goes dancing
sweet-lovin' man
long-forgotten fairytale
the death of ferdinand de saussure
the book of love
grand canyon
i don't believe in the sun
busby berkeley dreams
papa was a rodeo
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

mf - the early years: last night, i relistened to all of my magnetic fields albums. because i only own it on tape, i found that i hadn't listened enough to wayward bus/distant plastic trees to discern which songs were my favorites, beyond the obvious "100,000 fireflies."

on listening to this album, i was amazed to find how many of the tunes themselves were dispensible. it confirmed what i'd long thought about stephin merritt: i think that for the most part, up until charm of the highway strip, his ability to create soundscapes far exceeded his ability to write melodies. the production on distant plastic trees was terribly experimental; the effect was similar to what would've happened if the jesus and mary chain had used synthesizers instead of guitars: often lovely melodies were drowned out by the oddest sounds and textures. wayward bus was more traditional with merritt in spector mode, nicking riffs from "be my baby" and "then he kissed me," but the arrangements were busier and more fleshed-out than they'd been on dpt.

when holiday was released in 1993, it represented merritt's best fusion to date of songs and music, with the songs becoming more and more memorable and the music veering from spector to a more 80s synth-pop style. charm of the highway strip, which followed, was a more stripped down affair with outstanding lyrics and also, as i believe tom said, was the first bubblegum synth-country record ever.

get lost was my first mf record and it might still be my favorite: at the very least, it's their most consistent. on past records, merritt's production style was gimmicky and i'm sure he wouldn't deny it. get lost, however, represented a change in style -- it's an adult record in every way imaginable, and it is on this record that i believe merritt became the great classic songwriter that everyone now proclaims him to be. in my eyes, the albums strikes a perfect balance between the synthesizers and the "real" instruments. those who tuned in late were caught off-guard by 69 love songs, which is exactly what i think merritt intended to do with that audacious display of fecundity. however, much of what was to follow on 69 love songs has its roots in get lost, and that album was a result of the fascinating evolution of stephin merritt, musically and lyrically, which is on full display on those terrific early records.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

Monday, May 15, 2000

anyone who loathes radiohead is a friend of mine: and, hey, it doesn't hurt when you give links to fellow star chamber members' blogs too (now how about one for me, as well? ;)) go visit pearls that are his eyes because, not only are they on point regarding radiohead, they're also listening to the motown singles collection and throwing up links to the blog of my favorite auteur, orson welles.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

it's the gayle-ry: it seems my power blogging has gained me notoriety. i've been mentioned on the gaylery. i say "mentioned" and that's what i mean: there's no commentary, no compliments, nothing, just a link. but, as always, i am grateful, though initially, neanderthal that i am, i feared it was the gay-lery and thought that i was in for a randy comment about the new photo. (that proved not to be the case.) i've just realized that, if that photo was in black & white, it'd be game for the cover of a smiths album.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

NEW FEATURE ALERT: in my ceaseless quest to become more like tom, i've downloaded humanclick which, in my experience with it, is a neat albeit unstable tool that enables you all to contact me in a chat environment. since i'd love feedback on the site, i hope that you'll give it a whirl. just click on it and you'll be whisked away to a magical land where you can grill me on anything you like...well, almost anything.

as far as my tom emulation goes, for my next trick i'll affect a british accent and profess my undying love of smog.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

born in the u.s.a.: well, it seems that my commentary on tom's english tape on friday has gotten both tom and josh to talkin'.

tom was nice enough to explain to me what his english tape was all about. to summarize, the tape is not a means of answering what it is to be english; on the contrary, the tape is pop's answer to the question, with side 1 representing an antiseptic, accepted view and side 2 hopefully being more fragmentary and diversionary, i.e. closer to the truth. i think he nails the nature of the cultural observer: things seem different on the inside than they do from the outside. in this case, that is to say that england has more different local identities than i thought.oh, and he says my blog rocks, which you already knew.

madman josh suggests compiling an american tape, something which all three of us agree would be lengthy and difficult to assemble. that doesn't deter our josh, though. he doesn't yet have much on the subject, and the artists he has named are ones that i have little interest or knowledge about. (dylan, ellington, and the lips are all very american; it's limiting to call sun ra "american music," for the galaxy is his playground; snoop would make the cut on about a 100 or so disc set; and waits was very american in his lovable drunk phase, e.g. "the piano has been drinking (not me).")

as it stands, i'd have a difficult enough time making a new york city tape (upstate new york might as well be a different country, and i think billy joel is a good representative of long island, which is not necessarily a knock on long island or a commendation of mr. joel). i honestly believe that, with the five boros and their differing populaces, i'd have to narrow it down yet again, and make a manhattan tape. right now, without straining too much, i can tell you that there'd be a lot of velvet underground songs on it. (rarely has a band committed itself to documenting the experience of living in one town or city, or had its songs so infected by that town or city, like the velvets did with manhattan.) more as it comes to me, i guess. let the dialogue continue!
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

blog burnout: it's perhaps only appropriate that an entry i wrote purely for blogging's sake ends up being lost in limbo due to an error. usually whenever that happens, i lose all will to retype what i'd written; unfortunately for you, this is not one such case.

i'd been away all weekend long, so when i got in today, i expected to go blog wild...and i did. perhaps it was too much, too soon, because now i feel like i really have nothing to say. i believe that you readers come here looking to read something interesting, and it is my desire to provide that to you, maybe in hope that you'll spread the url of this site to others. (i think there's a spin-off blog entry in here about the nature of blogging and the relationship of the blogger to his audience.)

what i end up doing, though, is writing crap that no one should want to read and then i feel annoyed because i can't think of anything to write about. ain't that a bitch? off i go, then, to read something that will inspire and interest me on the bloggers i like to visit.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

who is the power blogger?: he is i and i am him, for now at least. i'm not exactly sure how this works, but i think it has to do with who's blogging most often. doesn't sound like it has much to do with power, but i will not dispute the claim.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

the new photo: well, it's not really new; it's actually several years old now, but you get the idea. shameless, yes, but i've gotta do something to boost traffic. just know, kind reader, that if i had breasts, i'd show them to you. so for the next few weeks, at least, you'll have to keep going to the breast chronicles.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

JAMES BROWN - "COLD SWEAT"
last week, i'm sure you remember that i put together a list of my twenty favorite songs ever for that particular week. well, today, you'll notice that "cold sweat" has made its way onto my mixtape, and if i was doing a countdown this week, it'd be a shoo-in for the top 20.

what i try to remind myself every time after i listen to james brown is how every instrument, every element, is devoted to the beat, and every time i put him on again, i'm still astonished at how rhythmic his music is -- "cold sweat" may very well be the apex of this approach. even with "out of sight" and "papa's got a brand new bag" presaging it, i don't think that anyone was quite prepared when this song hit the streets in 1967.

people often attack james brown for not being able to write a proper song, but "cold sweat," even without its embellishments, is a killer, particularly that pre-chorus. with all of the rhythmic elements, it's a stone-cold classic. for starters, listen to the guitar. now, do you hear an actual tone being played by the guitar? no, the percussive sound it's making is almost similar to that of a woodblock -- something so simple, and yet something so incredibly clever.

props to the band, while i'm at it: j.b. may very well be the greatest dancer i've ever seen. not to take away from his accomplishments, but anytime i put on his music, i feel like dancing up a storm, no matter where i am. it may not necessarily be pretty, but the music makes it difficult to contain yourself. the guitar, i mentioned above; the drummers created classic break after classic break; the bass swooped in and out, ducking and dodging in; besides the classic horn solos, the horns as a group were immensely percussive. they had more than enough skill to make you think that all songs should be eight minutes long, and it really didn't seem to matter who the personnel were: with band after band, replacement after replacement, everything was always on the one and, in my eyes, it was never clearer than on "cold sweat."
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

site updates: a few things to notice today: i've added week number two to the archives, so if you're new to the site, please indulge in both weeks; if you will direct your eyes to the blog links, you'll notice one that's not mentioned on this site before, and that is skykicking. skykicking comes courtesy of tim finney, the latest star chamber pretender to the throne. he'll attempt to amuse you and hold your attention with his feeble anecdotes and garish photo gallery, but it all comes across labored.

and, of course, i jest with young tim...though he's really not so young anymore, turning 18 today. go visit his site now and be dazzled as he exercises wit and intellect far beyond his years.

finally, i made a new mixtape this weekend, and its contents are on display on the sidebar. perhaps there'll be more to come on that later today or this week.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

i've got mail: two great pieces of e-mail in the ol' mailbox; i promise i'll get back to both of you soon! thanks for the feedback, and especially thanks for the smile link, but sadly i was too late. :P
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

my name is fred. what's your name?: i just found a link to this blog from the friendly folk at log.nu. somehow, they confused me with pop's antichrist, josh kortbein, but stb's devoted readers already know that i'm such a whore for links that you could call me betty and i'd still be grateful. i very much appreciate this link and command you all to go visit their site.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss

hello again!: hello, my loyal readers. it's the start of another week, and here i am back with a full weekend of tales to blog. i probably should have made a note that i don't have access to a home computer, so i can't update on the weekends. :\ ah well -- it was for the best this weekend, as it was my girlfriend's birthday, and we had a nice time of it. so, i just wanted to let you all know that i'm back, and i hope that a weekend of no blogging hasn't deterred you.
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss