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Friday, September 15, 2000

23, pt 3: we join the solipsism in progress...
besides the usual birthday gloom, what else acted as the catalyst for this reaction? well, i got my copy of the new rolling stone yesterday, and in it is an interview with cameron crowe, director of such films as say anything, jerry maguire, and the new almost famous. for those who don't know the backstory, crowe was a scribe for rolling stone at the tender age of 15 -- he had fooled them into believing he was older than he was by talking in a deep voice. almost famous is his autobiographical tale of life on the road with rock stars. in the interview, he describes the movie as his love letter to music, that he feels so grateful for that whole era. crowe's love of music is genuine, though i found the article a bit hard to take.

was it poorly written? no. is crowe a jerk? no, again. am i insanely jealous that a 15 year-old got to live out his life's dream, went on the road with rockers, got to write for the country's biggest music magazine -- basically got to do exactly what he wanted with his life? no. well, yes, actually. crowe lucked out more than anyone i can think of right now -- the coincidences and connections that led to his first writing for creem and then moving on to rs are enough to make one sick. on top of that, having read some of his stuff from back then, he really wasn't that good! i don't care how old he was; age obviously wasn't much of a concern for anyone else involved, so i too will strictly judge him on what he produced.

this is sour grapes of the most wretched and irritating kind, i know, and i'm truly sorry. crowe was the guy behind say anything after all, and i probably will see his movie, my middle finger extended at all times as a sign of abject hostility towards his alter ego. so if you're in the theater and see a guy ceaselessly flipping the bird at the screen, come over and say hi!

time to refocus: i write a lot -- well, not a lot, but enough to keep this blog going. i'd like to believe that i'm a good writer and if you hate me and find me terribly smug and egocentric, don't read this next sentence. in fact, to help you out, i'll write it in white text. a number of people have told me so, though i'm not sure to what extent i believe them -- it's this feeling that makes me wish i was back in english class, to have some impartial party judge my merits. taking it a step further, i'd like to believe that i'm good enough to write for a living. while i do have many artistic interests and, debatably, talents, i'll never have the credentials to get into any of them. what i do right now, as you know, is write about them , critique them. critics write about the arts and it is my belief that they aspire to art through their own writing -- some do, but the majority do not. i guess that, besides wanting to create some sort of dialogue between myself and you all, i want someone to stumble across the words i put to this page and say, "my God, what style! what insight! what humor! i simply must have him for my (insert media here)!" i'm not delusional enough to believe that this is the best way to go about it, yet i have no idea how to and not much drive either.

so here is the major problem, then. what's more heartbreaking than having the desire to do something, the need, even, but not being able to? i'll tell you, and it's something i fear more than nearly anything: the realization that you're not good enough to do it. rejection, it's something i've feared my whole life, something that has often dictated the way i live my life and kept my ambitions and hopes in check. rather than risk it, i'd prefer to just keep writing this blog hoping that fate will intervene and all of that crap. i just feel that i'm too young right now to come to the conclusion that what i'm doing right now is what i'm intended to do and what i will do until i reach retirement age. slowly, though, through the urges like the one i experienced last night, i'm starting to believe that it's wrong to keep my dreams at the expense of the possible betterment of my life. once you've reached 21, the years between it and 30 seem like a sort of limbo: for the artist i mentioned earlier, it was a watershed year. hopefully this will be my year, a year for more modest achievements but ones that will, i pray, lead me to fulfillment. i've made my wish.
-fred solinger | steal this link!

23, pt 2:
- in the first twenty-two years of his life, orson welles was one of the premiere radio and theater men of his day. in his 23rd year, he staged one of the greatest hoaxes ever hoisted upon the american public: welles made them believe that aliens, ALIENS!, had landed. the panic and outrage it created was unprecedented -- it made welles a star and was the main reason rko pictures signed him to a two-picture deal, essentially giving him carte blanche.

- j.d. salinger was a published short story writer when he was 22, his work appearing in magazines like esquire and collier's. in 1942, at the age of 23, after numerous attempts, salinger had his first piece accepted by the new yorker, the magazine he held in the highest regard and the one he wanted all of his pieces to appear in -- and, for the next 20 years, with few exceptions, they did. it was this work that got him his book contract and the rest, they say, is history.

- brian wilson started the beach boys when he was still a teenager, 18 to be exact. for the first three years of his career, wilson established himself as america's one-man answer to the beatles, releasing classic singles at an alarming rate. the beach boys lyrics, up to that point, were fixated on girls and cars and surfing and the like; when he was 22, brian released today!, an album that was meant to be played as such with startlingly sophisticated arrangements and even more astonishingly adult lyrics, best embodied by "when i grow up (to be a man)." this work, and that on summer days (and summer nights!!), paved the way for pet sounds issued when brian was, you guessed it, 23.

"some ego you have, comparing yourself to such giants!" at least one of you will say. it's not about ego at all, though, i assure you. have you ever had one of those moments when you had an insatiable urge to create? to do something artistic? i get them quite frequently, but last night, the one i experienced was as intense as anything i've ever felt. no longer did i just want to do something for myself; i wanted to express my love of art to the world. i never did do anything last night: the urgency of the feeling and the inability to pull myself together resulted in nil. i wanted to make a statement but i wanted it to be heard right THEN; doing a little pen sketch of someone that i'd later just end up throwing away, half-finished, wasn't going to do it.

besides the the usual birthday gloom..wait, i should explain. i love birthdays, i really do. i love to be celebrated and showered with gifts. so i guess i'm fond of that aspect of it. it just always seems to be accompanied by this uncharacteristic soul-searching and question-asking that lasts for a day or so and then is gone for a year -- you readers are all too aware of this lack of thought, i'm sure! anyhow, let me try again.

join me for more navel-gazing action later...
-fred solinger | steal this link!

editor's note:: hi. i'm working on an essay right now and i've realized that it's growing to monstrous proportions. i've therefore decided to break it up and present it in pieces today. so, without further ado, here is the first installment. this could turn out to be a very bad piece of writing, but i'd appreciate it more than anything if you stay with it. i really feel like i have something to say and i hope i am able to say it.

23: a couple of weeks ago, i was musing...okay, okay, i was talking to myself, about my favorite artists, and by artist i mean someone who produces a work of art, not necessarily a painting or a sculpture or such. the group i had in mind was composed of orson welles, j.d. salinger, and brian wilson. the first link i drew between this eccentric trio was that they all were prodigiously gifted individuals who released a masterpiece early on in their careers but, for whatever reason, would never reach such dizzying heights again.

welles, of course, created citizen kane his first time up to bat and it's often considered the greatest movie ever. welles, however, was a stubborn man, one who wanted complete control over his work; studio heads weren't quite ready to cede this power to a director and as a result, he'd release only three studio films in his entire career. (it wasn't until late in his life that his other films gained the respect they deserved.)

with his first novel, salinger wrote the catcher in the rye, one of the most beloved and highly regarded books of the last century. it's arguable that mr. salinger is of uneven temperament: he disliked publishers and editors and was so stung by negative reviews, that he just stopped publishing altogether. that was thirty-seven years ago.

brian wilson was the creative genius behind the beach boys. in his early 20s, he put out pet sounds, and to this day it freqeuntly tops polls of the greatest albums of all time. the followup was to be the now-legendary smile; brian suffered a nervous breakdown during its creation: the pressure from record companies, his fellow bandmates and, most crucially, from himself got the best of him and it's arguable that he's never been the same since.

today is my birthday: happy birthday to me. birthdays, for me, usually bring about the worst kind of introspection, that of the self-pitying variety. this year is no different, really, so i'll warn you now -- isn't it great that i don't have to let these thoughts just buzz around my mind and, with the help of blogger, i can share them all with you? today, i turn 23. "how does it feel to be 23?" not a lot different that it felt being 22 which wasn't a lot different than being 21, et. al. i imagine that, until i hit the big 3-0, i'll just keep feeling the same. age ain't nothin' but a number: the age really has little effect on you; it's the number that gets to you.

instead of a "woe is me, what have i done with my life?"-type screed, i'll attempt to be hopeful. "what was that opening about?" you're asking right now -- maybe. "i mean, there was really no segue between the two and i can't see where you're going with this." well, let me try to connect these two parts, if i may.

to be continued...
-fred solinger | steal this link!

Thursday, September 14, 2000

current playlist: and, a first, some thoughts about the songs that comprise it. can anyone remember the last time this blog was so focused on music, and i don't mean the madonna album. and on that bum note...

outkast, "bombs over baghdad": well, what can i say that i didn't say here? in the month since i first heard it, "b.o.b." has lost none of its appeal or ferocity. since i posted my first review, it seems the track has become everyone's favorite single of the year, and with good reason: not since the heyday of public enemy has a hip-hop single been so single-mindedly focused on being relentless. the song itself best sums up its immense force:"thunder pounds when i stomp the ground like a million elephants." no doubt.

jessica simpson, "i think i'm in love with you": that's right, i said it. sure, she sounds like mariah carey...but without la carey's annoying mannerisms and with an incredibly pure, pure as jessica herself undoubtedly, exuberance in both the song and her vocal. ah, young love. i figured that much of the power of this single lays in the context of the sample, "jack & diane" for those born after 1984 or so: it seems that i'm wrong because utter unfamiliarity with the original didn't stop tom from loving it and making a fool of himself with that "interview" with "jessica simpson." that jessica, she's got him doing silly things when it comes to her. coughs.

robbie williams, "let love be your energy": a tune only a robbie fan could love. so don't even try it if this doesn't apply to you. reminiscent of "lazy days" and a half-dozen 60s singles, "llbye" is extremely large and catchy and is somewhat elton john-ish, but how many of his "save-the-world/i-think-i'm-in-love-with-you" type songs aren't? the message of the song is summed up by the title: no more elucidation should be necessary. i'm this close to calling the ending "robbie-esque" because, even though others have done this sort of thing in the past -- and that "thing," i mention, is big, dramatic endings with trumpets and such -- no one does is it as often nor as well today as he.

harvey danger, "sad sweetheart of the rodeo": harvey danger's 1998 semi-hit, "flagpole sitta" was the song that most people i know carelessly dismissed but then ended up loving in spite of themselves (the new rads' "you get what you give" is a more recent example). it's a song that i couldn't imagine myself liking, but i did, in the end. i called them the nerdy/ier pixies then, and i'll stick by that (and, if i didn't like them, i'd call them "ben folds five with guitars"). well, they've returned with a new single and, thankfully, it's a keeper. i have this one playing after robbie and when this track began, i was fooled into thinking it was another of his tracks (the trick opening of this song reminds me a bit of "let me entertain you"): it's not a million miles away from robbie, though singer sean nelson's delivery is a bit more mannered than robbie's. the heart of this song is the chorus which contains the most delightful bit of falsetto since...God, i don't know. i defy you to keep it out of your head once you've heard it once. a caveat, though: if you don't like "clever" types, skip this one and proceed to...

bjork, "new world": i said a lot about this yesterday, didn't i? well, not much has changed since then. it's killer-diller and i'll leave it at that: proceed to the bjork review if you're hungry for more.

fatboy slim, "sunset (bird of prey)": i imagine that this song will divide opinions like few other singles to come out this year. i like it; will you? well, answer this question: does the idea of jim morrison reciting the lines, in the most painfully earnest of voices, "bird of prey/flying high" repeated ad infinitum -- with the occasional addition of "take me on your flight" and "gently passing by" -- over a fairly standard fatboy-slim-issue techno beat make you burst out in laughter? regardless of your reply, there's no one who can say that this is a good record, but that's not really the point of fatboy slim, now is it? he makes fun, good-time records and, for me at least, this is another in a long string of them.

all saints, "black coffee": my guess is that this track is produced by william orbit, and good for him. the song begins all squelchy with one of the all saints intoning in a near-monotone voice before a swaying little beat comes in and, nearly instantaneous, a pleased look appears on my face. the chorus is eminently hummable -- unlike the one in the similarly excellent, "pure shores" -- and it's dreamy and creamy and all that (yeah, i used those words. fuck you). pure confection of the highest order. "black coffee"? they should've called this one "light & sweet"! (is anyone keeping track of these?)

guru ft. erykah badu, "plenty": as far as ms. badu is concerned, this is much more like it. ("bag lady"? wtf?) this is the best thing she's appeared on since "otherside of the game" and she's put to excellent use on it. guru calls these albums jazzmatazz, but this is one of the very few tracks he's ever put out in the series that really earns the adjective "jazzy." the verses have a really sharp percussion on them that sound like pencils being snapped and a precise keyboard part; the choruses feature some excellent bass and keys: i'd love to know who the players are. this track exemplifies the very best of what guru's tried to do with the jazzmatazz project: mixing jazz players and vocals and hip-hop to create vital sounds, something both genres are lacking in.

radiohead, "motion picture soundtrack": okay, i've certainly said enough about them in the past couple of days, so just a few short things. this is really stirring stuff: the mention of sleeping pills and the last line, make me think of suede, but that group hasn't been this human in years. then again, neither have radiohead, up until now. the 'head are at their best when they're not afraid to let their humanity show, and this isn't an exception. now, enough fucking radiohead!

madonna, "amazing": instead, let's talk about madge. heaven knows i haven't spoken of her in at least a week or so. amusing story on the news last night: "thousands upon thousands" of people got madonna's new album early. and for free! how? (answer: the internet, seeeely.) as if anyone downloading madonna albums early isn't going to end up buying the damn thing anyway. "amazing" is one of the reasons they will be: orbit retools "beautiful stranger" once again and finally stumbles across a suitable hook and chorus. probably sensing that this particular sound was getting stale, madonna retired orbit on this album, for all intents and purposes. if they never work together again, if indeed mirwais is her new producer du jour, orbit leaves with a sublime swan song. (best bit: the piano that comes in near the end.)
-fred solinger | steal this link!

ah, the hostility: do yourself a favor and read lorne behrman's take on the mtv awards. the opening paragraph is perhaps the most hilarious and needlessly hostile thing i've read in some time. also, chuck eddy's at it again with his single reviews. good stuff, but my one complant about eddy is that sometimes it's hard to tell what he thinks about a record.
-fred solinger | steal this link!

one of you pervs out there: so click the link, watch the video, and decide whether or not that's britney's breast hanging out. i'm sure stills of this are circulating all over the internet as we speak. sickos. (for the record, it's definitely a breast, but it's hard to tell if it's britney or not.)
-fred solinger | steal this link!

Wednesday, September 13, 2000

BJORK - SELMASONGS EP
anyone who's heard "it's oh so quiet" -- or, better yet, seen the video -- from bjork's post knows that she has the capacity to handle showtunes. even the staunchest supporter of the theater has to however begrudgingly admit that the very form is a tad ridiculous: people spontaneously breaking out into song for no reason; the conceits behind the musicals; the lethal amount of bathos in the songs. who better, then, to tackle the genre than bjork?

the story: the soundtrack is composed of songs that bjork performs in her award-winning performance in lars von triers' dancer in the dark, in which bjork assumes the role of selma, a czech-immigrant worker who is slowly going blind due to a genetic disorder. her young son will suffer the same fate if he doesn't get an operation; accordingly, the money selma's stashed away for the operation disappears and...well, you get it.

the pairing of bjork and the showtune is just as natural as you'd imagine. the ep begins with the instrumental overture which points out the suffering and despair that's looming on the horizon, yet it's still suffused with a faint glimmer of hope; best of all it's impossibly epic and rife with heartache -- andrew lloyd webber, eat your heart out. without saying a word, it perfectly encapsulates the story. as i said, the dread (you'd think i was getting paid to use that word this week) is still a little ways off, so...LET'S DANCE!

"cvalda" is next on the album, and it's a clattering whirl of percussion with bjork joined by her friend, kathy, played by the divine catherine deneuve. it's a fun little number and i can already see the production in my mind without having yet seen the film. "cvalda" puts all worries aside for the moment; it's refreshing because the next track reveals selma's malady.

"i''ve seen it all" is a duet with radiohead's thom yorke, singing in an oddly low register. his deadpan, in this case, is a perfect compliment to bjork's, um, idiosyncratic vocals. it's an immensely sad song with lyrics characteristic of the theater, where viewers just love to be made to feel bad. bjork sings of all of the things she's seen in her life, trying to accept her fate with total dignity, whereas yorke counters with all of the things -- mostly tourist attractions like the empire state building and the great wall of china. the production is magical and, what to many may be a pairing made in hell, the end result is unbearably poignant.

"scatterheat" is the most "typical" bjork song on the album with its off-kilter and rapid-fire percussion, it sounds like something from post. the song doesn't appear in the movie, though it's opening verse is in the song "smith & wesson." having not seen the film, its lyrics are fairly cryptic and the song goes on for too long for its own good. there's a definite sense of foreboding, and i guess that's why it's here.

the next song, "in the musicals," also recalls bjork's earlier work. it begins with what sounds like bjork singing in the midst of a basketball game, what with the squeaking and dribbling sounds. after that, it moves into musical mode with strings and a big chorus. my guess is that this song is about the sound of music as selma is slated to play the lead in a local production of the play. there's a tapping bit at the end that, while it sounds interesting, most likely comes across better on the screen.

"107 bars" isn't much of a song, per se, as it is a setup. it's similar to spiritualized's "200 bars" in that it's composed of bjork and others counting to 107, with orchestral backing. what these steps represent isn't quite apparent, though, once again, seeing the film will surely clear that up. as they near completion, the music builds and builds and you know that this track is leading up to the climax, not just because it's the penultimate track, but also because of the anticipation and anxiety it emanates.

the last track is "new world" and it's a reprise of the overture, but with bjork's vocals and lyrics added. with those components included, it becomes even more emotional than the overture itself. i'm not quite certain what the song is about, though i have ideas and in the interest of not spoiling the film, i'll keep them to myself. any way you look at it, however, "new world" is the big closer and it's impressively breathtaking. like radiohead's "motion picture soundtrack," this is the type of song to roll over the end credits, except in this case it may be literal instead of just figurative.

does this soundtrack hold up apart from the movie? oh, yes. as i noted, there are some ambiguities and question marks, but they should only make you want to see the film even more. as a bjork album, it's very fine indeed. selmasongs makes you hope that she'll include more classic musical influences on her next proper album, because this ep bears out the promise of "it's oh so quiet" and then some, adding pathos that some may have thought the eccentric bjork incapable of. good show.
-fred solinger | steal this link!

Tuesday, September 12, 2000

million dollar mariah: the problem really isn't that mariah thinks her body is worth $10 million, but instead it's that someone agrees with her.
-fred solinger | steal this link!

RADIOHEAD - KID A
i'm forgoing an introduction to this piece, for the most part (i mean, obviously i'm not really because what then, dear reader, is this?). if you're a regular reader of this blog, you obviously know what kid a is and what it means to the music "scene" and to radiohead, in general. so let's get started, eh?

does anyone remember all of news stories several years ago about massive attack and radiohead working on an album together or the latter making an album and the former remixing it? try to imagine, if you will, what that collaboration would sound like: radiohead's pretentions and prog aspirations mixed with massive attack's brooding production and dense rhythms. kid a isn't too dissimilar from that, though the emphasis is unfortunately on the former.

actually, here's a better touchstone. thom yorke performed guest vocals on unkle's "rabbit in your headlights" and that teaming seems to be all over kid a. you might argue that unkle and massive attack aren't really that different, and you'd be wrong because here's the key: massive attack is happy just being who they are -- their cred was established long ago; james lavelle and dj shadow, on the other hand, want to be taken deathly seriously and, though the beat culture influence there, you know they'd much rather be radiohead.

kid a is that deadly followup album, the one on which the artist who's just shot into the stratosphere, at least in critical terms, struggles to not make the same album again, and to experiment with different sounds. though the music is in no way comparable, an example that comes right off the top of my head is prince with purple rain followed by around the world in the day: there are definitely ambitions on both records, but the followup lacks the coherence of the landmark record; in addition, on purple rain, there's a sense that prince is going for broke and trying to make one of the greatest albums of all-time. this is essentially the difference between ok computer and kid a.

i'll say it now: i enjoy kid a much more than ok computer -- admittedly not a difficult thing to do. in fact, i like kid a slightly more than i'd care to say because of how much i hated ok computer. the album as a whole plays better, there are more "keepers," and there are far fewer tracks with enough pretension to kill a man.

the album gets off to a propitious start with the vaguely-latin chords of "everything in its right place." yorke provides a nice vocal hook to the song -- he's far less strangulated on this album than on _okc_ ; there's a palpable sense of dread, of bad things to come (figuratively, thankfully), but nothing comes to be, like the scene in a slasher flick when the music builds and it turns out that menacing shadow just belonged to a cat.

actually, bad things do come in the form of the title track. it's a relatively light-hearted song with far too much vocoder: it gives off the atmosphere of a lab somewhere in the future (or perhaps even here TODAY!!! -- sorry) where "kid a" -- the first child created by science -- is born. while it is fairly tame-sounding, there is this underlying unsettledness. the song is awful, but i suppose it lays out the groundwork for the "story" of this album.

"the national anthem" is next -- how many times am i going to use dread during the course of this album? well, i refuse to say it again. the song is foreboding and perhaps fit for a nation that has begun to fuck with mother nature. the bassline is very nice, and while many will love the jazz band that plays on it (these "many" are mostly critics and diehard fans), it just strikes me as an outtake from the kevin shields/primal scream sessions: in the end it just sounds like some with potentially life-threatening flatulence.

"how to disappear completely" strikes me as the least "dynamic" track on the album. this isn't a bad thing, really, it just sounds atypical for radiohead. it's a softly-strummed ballad with string accompaniment: without giving in to sound effects and related hoo-ha, by sticking with genuine human "feeling" (something i thought they'd all but forgotten), the band is able to convey a strong sense of alienation and a desire to drop out of society. this track is immediately followed by the ambient instrumental, "treefingers," which seems to try to express the inner feelings of the band. what i sense from it is a need for spiritual fulfillment, something which seems to just be out of their reach. God damn it, radiohead is making even me pretentious. on to "optimistic," then.

"optimistic" is my favorite track on the album. retreating from the introspection and solipsism of the previous two tracks, "optimistic" finds the band trying to contend with the outside world. "optimistic" is, of course, ironic: can you think of any group that comes across less optimistic than radiohead? yorke seems to want to have a positive outlook, but discovers that trying "the best you can is getting old." it's the most melodic song on the album and is also the best potential single as far as i can tell. it contains some fine guitar, primal drums, and a haunting wordless hook from yorke. it ends on an oddly -- get ready for it -- funky note, before giving in to the self-explanatory "in limbo."

"in limbo" is a muddled mess, which is probably what it's intended to be, with yorke occasionaly piercing through the mire with his vocals. it's fairly dull stuff, though in context of the album, it works. it's very densely constructed, but it's far too close to some of the more enervating tracks from okc for me to enjoy it, or even just respect it. next, please.

"idioteque." beat heavy and some cool soundz, but the album is defintely starting to take a down turn. i'm getting the same feeling i did from much of okc. ah, "morning bell" is here to soothe me. warm bass tones and more of those smooth keys like on "everything in its right place." it's not to be, of course, for as the end nears, that creeping sense of dr-...terror returns. i guess it's just as well as the song was starting to get a bit too monotonous. it was just the right time for that trepidation to return, anyway, because we're at the last track, "motion picture soundtrack."

i'm happy to say that the album version is much better than that demo that was making the rounds. yorke can be a great vocalist as anyone who's heard "fake plastic trees" can tell you, but he can just as easily be horribly whiny. in the midst of all of the insanity and fear created by the birth of kid a, "motion picture soundtrack" seems to be yorke's plaintive call for a little humanity in this/that high-tech world. the sound is mournful with a wonderful organ tone and harp and what sounds like some operatic faint vocals thrown in. it does resemble an end credits song -- it's true to its title and to its position on the album -- though it's less uplifting than that fare usually is. the song ends, "i will see you in the next life," as if yorke has given up on this world.

in a way, it's a continuation of the theme from ok computer, that fear of technology and where it's taking our society. whereas okc dealt with the computer age, kid a takes it one step further, to that place where we hope mankind will never tread. in capturing that sense of alarm and utter helplessness, the album succeeds; in being a good album, it's very close. a parting analogy: the trial by orson welles (or how about todd haynes' safeis the cause of one of the most uncomfortable experiences i've had watching a film; i have no strong desire to see it again, yet i can praise it for its effectiveness and skill. while i'll praise kid a for its effectiveness, i'm not so sure i think it's a good recording...yet. and saying that much about that them is much more than i thought possible when going into this record so for that alone, radiohead gets my respect.
-fred solinger | steal this link!

Monday, September 11, 2000

the new mixtape: once again, for those interested, the new mixtape. i was in new jersey this past weekend and brought home a bunch of tape -- mostly hip-hop. i also received four albums from columbia house the other day and they factor heavily into this tape.

side a:
u2, "pride (in the name of love)"
iggy & the stooges, "search & destroy"
public enemy, "brothers gonna work it out"
ll cool j, "rock the bells"
donna summer, "i feel love"
mcalmont & butler, "yes"
de la soul, "breakadawn"
a tribe called quest, "award tour"
siouxsie & the banshees, "spellbound"
barry white, "never gonna give you up"
richard harris, "watermark"

side b:
siouxsie & the banshees, "hong kong garden"
bee gees, "i gotta get a message to you"
neil hannon, "dead only quickly"
human league, "human"
sarah cracknell, "kissing things"
richard harris, "the yard went on forever"
dominique a., "just like a movie star"
wyclef jean, "wish you were here"
momus, "as you turn to go"
bob mould, "he didn't"
tom waits, "a little rain"
bee gees, "new york mining disaster 1941"
bee gees, "i can't see nobody"
david bowie, "'heroes'"
-fred solinger | steal this link!

the sensitive serge gainsbourg: this is, i guarantee you, the funniest thing you will see/hear all day. serge is on a talk show with whitney houston in france...i won't say anything more because i don't want to ruin it. i'll just say that, if you go to one link all day, make it this one. you won't regret it. eternal gratitude to scrubbles for this link.
-fred solinger | steal this link!