Reading

You know that feeling you have for the radio when you get dumped? Suddenly you realize that every song is about love or heartbreak. I find myself listening to nothing but 24/7 classical and NPR because it's safe. I've been feeling like that with all printed media and news sources these days. I don't want to hear about the next thing I'm supposed to be freaked out about, I don't want to hear about the crappy economy because I KNOW. Yes, my bank account and I are well aware of the economic slump. It seems like there is just so much conflict in everyday life that I can't even read fiction these days.
All of the books on my "to read" pile have been gathering dust.
All I do these days is draw.
Obsessive compulsive doodles, graphic weirdness... I guess it's a way to work my brain without giving me another thing to worry about. If the hero will survive or not is just one more problem my brain doesn't care to deal with these days.

U2; No Line on the Horizon

Finally I have finished my review of No Line on the Horizon, the new U2 album that I think is fully worth the time. It is an album that is much like the Joshua Tree in the way that it is a journey. Bono said that this album is "a more meditative album on the theme of pilgrimage" I believe that is the best nutshell description of it… now for the longer song by song description;

1.No Line on the Horizon
Best Lyric; I know a girl, she’s like the sea/ I watch her changing every day for me/ one day she’s still, the next she swells/ you can hear the universe in her sea shells.

Time is irrelevant, it’s not linear…

Strong throughout, great lyrics, the instrumentation is hot, catchy lyric, it’s a travel anthem

2.Magnificent
Best Lyric; This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue/ only love can leave such a mark

Somewhere between The Joshua Tree and the better songs from POP is this song. Catchy, lyrical, vague in a grasping way.

Edge shows off his signiture 16th note riffs and a fine solo. While Larry drives the beat on in a steady journey.

3. Moment of Surrender
Best Lyric; At the moment of surrender of vision over visibility I did not notice the passers by and they did not notice me.

Somewhat lacking, seems more like a B-side. The lyrics are somehow reminescent of my junior high poetry. Bono has some interesting vocal lix in here though. It’s an ok song but not one I’m going to scream “Oh Yes!” if they play it live.

4. Unknown Caller
Best Lyric; I was lost between midnight and the dawning/ In a place of no consequence or company
It sounds like morning. The sun comes up, the birds start to sing, the world comes alive… the feeling of nature is juxtaposed with a more marching technological chorus; it’s beautifully evocative. It’s the feeling of travel alone, jumping out into the unknown, discovery… the simple beginning grows into organ music, french horn, guitar solos… full sound that burgeons out into the world.
This song grows on me more every time I hear it.

5. I’ll go Crazy if I don’t go Crazy tonight
Not going to choose a “best” for this song;

It’s lyrics are too sing-song, the chorus is like a bad movie soundtrack… it very well could end up on some obnoxious Oprah pick movie in the midst of a montage. The melody is repetitive and simplistic… I can’t even begin to say how much I hate it.

6. Get on Your Boots
Best Lyric; women of the future hold the big revelations… you don’t know how beautiful you are.

Strong track! It’s catchy, it’s all filled with girl power and makes me want to put on some tall stomping boots and dance around. It’s flattering (“you don’t know how beautiful you are” repeated over and over) It’s positive and sexy and fun and I cannot wait to hear this one in concert. Am I wearing sexy boots to the show? You betca I am!



7. Stand Up Comedy
Best Lyric; stop helping God across the road like a little old lady

I am still undecided about this song. The tune is fairly familiar U2, but it seems a little more complex somehow, the lyrics are all over… usually when I feel this way about a track it’s because it’s a new format, a new lyric, just something that is somehow foreign. I felt this way about Thom Yorke’s solo album until I had heard In Rainbows and went back to it. After hearing this a few more times I think I’m going to like it. Right now it seems a bit dischordant…

8. Fez – Being Born
Best Lyric; head first, then foot, then heart sets sail

Ah a Passenger’s track meets an Achtung Track… eerie instrumentation meets the Edge and Larry driving a flying car through the desert. An odd buzzing whirrs through the headsets. I Love this track. It’s a journey in itself.

9. White as Snow
Best Lyric; who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not?

This is by far one of Bono’s best poems. It’s the searching for Grace, the coming short of it, and looking again. The music has a vague hamered dulcimer feeling, quiet piano… but still played with guitar and bass. Bono’s vocal work is longing and lilting, as Irish as it ever gets within the pop music format.

10. Breathe
Best Lyric; the forest fire that is fear so deny it, walk out into the street, sing your heart out!

This is quintissential U2. It’s got that heavy rhythm with soaring guitar and vocal work; it’s going to be amazing in concert. The lyrics are vague, but have enough catches that you can latch your own meaning onto that everyone will think they know what it means. It is independence, freedom, a brave journey into the ether… I love this track.

11. Cedars of Lebanon
Best Lyric; I’ve got a head like a lit cigarette/Unholy clouds reflecting in a minaret/ you’re so high above me, highter than everyone/ Where are you in the Cedars of Lebanon?

I’m still not sure of what I think this one means. Clearly it’s a story of someone far from home seeking truth. There are images of war-torn places, there are decisions to stay or leave… and the enigatic lyric that closes the album;
“Choose your enemies carefully ‘cos they will define you/ make them interesting ‘cos in some ways they will mind you/ they’re not there in the beginning but when your story ends/ gonna last with you longer than your friends”

I Think it’s a song about choosing your battles, and choosing the noble path in life, but still I admit I’m not solid on it.

Happy Earth Day!

I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. --John Muir

Easter in the Castro

Lately posts have been few... I've been in tech, I've been swimming in a blue mess of my brain... I've been curling up in my own shell. It's not something I reccomend. 

Today was Easter and San Francisco is not to be outdone for any holiday, especially holidays that allow for dress up.

 I though it would be a good idea to see the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence up close and perhaps check out the"Easter bonnet" and "hunky Jesus" competitions.

This is Dolores Park in San Francisco's Castro district;

(Poem store; made me laugh because my best friend and I have a running joke about how people are always trying to sell you bad poetry in SF... I was tempted to buy him a poem today but I'm poor and there was a line)



I found that although I wore an outfit that my Grandmother would have been horrified of (tall black boots with my summer skirt and a black top and cardigan) I grossly underdressed. I would have been much better to have worn bright yellow with blue hair... alas, perhaps next year.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a tongue in cheek community service group... really think of them as the rotary club, but in neon habits and white face drag make-up. (Really, I just learned about them, their website is lots of fun if you're interested)



I left long before the "hunky Jesus" competition started... which in all honesty sounds like it's in good fun, but perhaps is still a little too disrespectful for my taste, so I'm not sure I would have actually enjoyed it as much as those around me.


I made a few rounds about the park, talked with a sister about how she made her habit (ah yes shop talk), watched a good drag/lip sync act, a girl rock band and then the polka group started...   The slight searing on my un-sunscreened shoulders and my lingering anti-social mood finally got the best of me when confronted with  "oom-pah oom-pah-pah" ... such is the power of polka.  However a day in a sunny park with drag queens and easter bunnies is a good way to cheer up.

Color on the BART

My friend Shaggy and I saw this lady on the BART, crazy embroidered and beaded tunic and all. Our favorite was the button hat.



We asked her why she was wearing such an outfit. Apparently she was going to a Nick Cave concert.


Got to love Berkeley.

Ouroboros

There are times,

          there are times,
you get stuck in your head,
and all you can see there is blue and there's red.

The red sweeps over with passion and wants,
while the blue tries to swallow with sorrow.
Blue haunts your dreams and the back of your head.
Sometimes life is just blue and just red.

Happy St. Pats

In honor of St.Patrick's Here are a few of my favorite Irish tunes (although not the best videos of them). The best thing about Irish music and Irish food is that it's not elitist. There is some that is better than others, but at the same time it's out there for everyone to interact with and to enjoy.   So I thought I'd post some less refined videos rather than posting all Dubliners and Pogues...

Yes, I'm a Huge U2 fan, but this is also a really good version of the Wild Irish Rover (bootlegged);


A shout out to my Protestant Irish ancestors 

(yes, my ancestors were the kill-joys of old Erin; it still counts);


Now this guy is singing one of the best pub songs ever. If you close your eyes and don't watch him it's good. If you watch him... well...  it reminds me of Bono from the I will follow video, in that he clearly will grow into his style but in the mean time it's awkwardly charming;

--May your troubles be less And your blessing be more And nothing but happiness Come through your door--

John the Baptist and Banquo

At the theater, I finally got around to sorting through the boxes I had previously simply labeled "Dead Things". I carefully transported sad droopy carcasses from disintegrating boxes into new sturdy ones... Once in their new homes of rest the furs filled their boxes with sad glass eyes peering out at me. I'm sorry little creatures, I'm just in charge of keeping you stored here...


The *best* part about clearing out the old box is getting to the bottom and finding this;

... two sad disembodied heads about the size of a walnut. Such is the glamor of my life in costumes.

U2 2009

Update; If you've stumbled across this via search engine, my actual review of the album can be found HERE

A month ago I put my netflix on hold in order to save for the U2 album that came out today. At 12:10 this morning I had already downloaded the new album with bonus tracks and movie from Anton Corbjin...
They are the musicians of my heart, they sing the songs I hear in my head... I love them...
because of that I'll probably be putting up a few posts about the new album this week...

however for those of you who aren't quite as die hard as I am and don't need all the bells and whistles, today (possibly only today) amazon.com is offering No Line on the Horizon as an MP3 download for only $3.99! If you liked All that You Can't Leave Behind, and/or How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, I can safely recommend the new one as well.

Here's the link to the amazon store;
U2's No Line on the Horizon

You'll need the amazon downloader, but that doesn't take up a lot of space on the computer and often the amazon downloads are cheaper than iTunes...

Copy Cat Cola

(This is part of the new Pepsi ad campaign up all over including the public transit here in San Francisco)

Dear Pepsi Corporation,
You officially suck. It has nothing to do with your soda. Although soda pop has a large contribution to obesity and dental caries, I am talking to your advertising devision. I'm mostly offended by the way you've taken what was essentially a very successful ad campaign for Barack Obama and made it your own. If you simply look at the "hope" campaign as advertisement (which is a bit of a simplification), then you have offended me with your sheer lack of originality and the way you've decided to ride the coattails of popularity in hopes that people will like you too. It reeks of desperation. You are the sad high school freshman emulating the seniors in hopes of people forgetting that you don't care enough about yourself to figure out who You are and what You are about. Pepsi, please you can do better than this. Have a little self esteem and don't think that people are going to like you because you've changed your can and have decided to be like Barack. I expect if John McCain had won you would have "Pepsi First" posters up instead.  

Really, it's too late to support Obama, just go back to selling us overly sugary soda and stop with this irritating campaign.  You are not a political figure, you are not going to attempt to haul our collective ass out of this recession, you do not represent a new era,  and you are not giving us "Hope" in any capacity.  Perhaps you should focus on "Fizz", "refreshment" and other such verbs that Pepsi actually can provide us with.
Sincerly,
Me

Heavenly Alchemy...

Oft did I wonder why the setting sun
Should look upon us with a blushing face:
Is't not for shame of what he hath seen done,
Whilst in our hemisphere he ran his race?
- Lyman Heath,
First Century--On the Setting Sun

The setting sun, and music at the close,
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
Writ in remembrance more than things long past.
- William Shakespeare,
The Tragedy of King Richard the Second
(Gaunt at II, i)

What Monkey Tunic?

My work day began with a flurry of finishing normal Renaissance style robes, hems and closures and whatnot... knowing that later in the day I would be trying to figure out how to make a suit for a cow...
This afternoon the client came into the shop to take away the first set of costumes and answer questions we had about the next round.
Our most pressing questions revolve around the actual dimensions of the cow. Right now we have intricate measurements of the cow's head (measurements that do little good in determining suit size)  and the fact that the cow is 6' long and 87" around (at what point isn't quite clear). We hear that the legs are 37", but we don't know where that is being measured from. What the easiest and most logical solution would be is to actually drape the suit on the cow (by the way this is an armature of a cow, not a real bovine). In a faint hope we ask if it would be possible to have access to the cow.

"Well, no, the cow is actually in pieces. The head is in LA, the body is in New York and the legs are in Arizona"

We ask "When you do the Peter Pan shot, could you tell us where the legs are fitting so that we can adjust the sleeve placement?"

"Well, no the Peter Pan shot isn't until after I need to pick up the suits next week so we just won't get the chance"

With people there are usually standard proportions that clothing makers get accustomed to. Generally you can tell where legs and arms are supposed to be. Necks are usually within a given range and arms are also within a reasonable variety of possibilities. Cows however are not something we are accustomed to and therefore guess work is a lot more risky.

So with given frustrations we sit back and figure we just have to do with what we've got...

The woman looks through the costumes and says
"oh no, this monkey hat is totally the wrong color"

"You just said it should be tan"

"Well it needs to look just like the one we rented for the man holding the monkey"

"oh. I don't think you sent us that information"

The woman digs into her folder and pulls out a print out with two teeny tiny pictures on it. One is about 1" by 3/4" of a little brown and gold tunic, below that is a smaller picture of a hat.

"the hat and monkey tunic need to look just like these"

"What Monkey Tunic?"

"oh, Didn't I tell you we need a monkey tunic? Will that be a problem?"

The shop manager told her that we could build the tunic. 

"Do you have measurements for the monkey?"

"Sure we do, here they are."

I am handed the measurements as the client leaves the shop.

 After finding  fabrics that looks similar to the tiny thumbnail I sit at the cutting table to look at how big to make the tunic. On the paper is the following information;

Head to Butt; 18"
around head; 8"