4.0 out of 5 stars METHYLATED GROUSE INVITED TO VISIT HARVARD, October 23, 2011
By
C. A. Foster "the lamper-stang" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
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This review is from: The Pedant and the Shuffly (Paperback)
John Bellairs is really underrated. I don't know if he received a surge of popularity like Harry Potter, but he deserved one. This is an early work, like Faces in the Frost, and it suffers from a lack of the cohesion he would later master in his young adult serial tales with Johnny, Rose and Lewis et cetera. His early books, this one included, contain all the energy and esoteric knowledge with a sort of unbridled presentation that whips the reader around but does not truly take him on "the ride."
If you have come upon this review because you need something for your kids, buy all of John Bellairs's books and you will raise erudite and well-balanced people from them.
If you are an adult and someone, perhaps with a gothic leaning, has advised you to try Bellairs, why you would be a fool not to do it. His writing is elegant and full of esoteric facts about magic (through history, not facts espousing its efficaciousness) and architecture and history. It is also whittled to a sharp point, something you can read in the length of a movie and walk away with ten words you learned, characters that are clear in your mind and quite lovable, but mostly with a fondness for this man who made a Victorian and gothic backdrop out of 1950s New England.
So... I urge you. Read!
This review is from: Asylum (Audio CD)
This may be one of the most underrated Pink Dots Albums of all time. Of course it challenges the ear like so many others, and some songs seem to be completely out of reach to those who enjoy humming tunes or singing to themselves as they paint eggs or slice carrots or whatever it is they do. But the quality of composition on this album, between programming synthesizers and arranging Schoenberg-esque movements here and strains of gypsy violin there, is something that could never be repeated with the tone and color achieved here. The songs seem to match the cover art, synesthetically: the songs are bursts of red and purple with very chalky blue and dark stabs of black just as you are losing your mind.
This level also demonstrates a glimpse of future maturity for the Dots, as the compositions are not rushed or overly zippy. They are focused, and the deeper you listen the more focus you will hear. Silverman seems to tap some very meditative fingers on the surface of a Korg.
The lyrics are genius: even if you want to laugh and make fun of them, good-naturedly, as you and anyone else familiar with the Dots has the complete right to do, these are very clever lyrics that you will remember for the rest of your life.
Even now, I think I might be able to do Asylum a capella (up to the Hill, because that song has a narrative which one is apt to jump ahead and sing out of order).
This review is from: Shadow Weaver (Audio CD)
Anything truly worth liking will challenge your notions a little bit, will rub you funny and make you complaintive at first. Hopefully not so much as to make you get rid of it, but maybe just enough to inspire mockery or garner some harsh criticism from you. And then, those scales fall away and you realize you are confronting something unique, something which is peculiar and disobeys all the commonplace standards you realize you were holding up to it.
Almost every Pink Dots album has done this for me, especially this one. It is a very unusual album, with help from Steven Stapleton in both the design and the album's trademark sound-which is highly diffuse and completely odd. At times it will sound like someone is tapping a chord on a jazz organ in a field as a train goes by 100 feet away and someone is walking in circles hitting a triangle. You will really lose yourself in imagining the circumstances under which the music was made.
At least three of the songs you will like right away. They are ripe Dots ready to be plucked from the tree of song. But here and in the Maria Dimension both, Ka-Spel abandons his narrative style for a more intense and often repetitive style: mantras, chants, dirges composed of one line Ka-Spel really likes.
This album is worth the cost for the first song, but the rest will unfold one tolerant moment at a time, and by the time you tolerate the whole thing your mind will evolve into truly appreciating the bizarre nature of this, and many other, Legendary Pink Dots albums.
The Legendary Pink Dots: A Perfect Mystery
VELVETEEN ACROSTIC, UNCERTAINLY
Just look at the artwork for this album. Black, white, yellow. Just look at it. This album has promise. Pick it up. Feel that weight? You are going to be getting much more than that in the amount of weight which will be added to your soul. This one is designed specifically to make you think something is wrong, or perhaps right for the first time ever, with your speakers. This is the turning of the century page, and the relentless triangular dream. It is sharp if you pick it up, rather than stepping inside of it. Don't make that mistake... a dream with fewer sides would be superfluous.
JUST LUCUBRATE AND MEDITATE AND THEN YOU'LL SEE THE PEOPLE, October 22, 2011
This review is from: Under Triple Moons (Audio CD)
When I bought this it had a pink sticker that said, "This is the best of the Dots. -E. Ka-Spel."
And he may be right. You will never be treated to more quavering synthesizers, more audio experiments on beautiful analog, old-style electronics, more devilish lyrics which absolutely tickle the mordant geezer within each of us...
It is long, it is thorough, it reveals some absolutely stunning musical talent: especially "Oceans of Emotion." This song, and others to an extent, will take your breath away if you are fully listening to the obsessive synchronicity this psychedelic, experimental band could achieve. It is old world bandstand stuff of the highest order, stopping on a dime and beating at 834.343434343434 beats per minute for nineteen measures.
The Dots variety package is here as well... songs for weeping, songs for rejoicing, songs with historical figures and cities and spies and drunks at the bar... sing while you may, but you better get this one today. Comment | Permalink
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Whispering Wall
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SWIRLING NEVER, BUT BOBBING SAD IN A PEWTER BOWL, October 22, 2011
This review is from: Whispering Wall (Audio CD)
This album is necessary for fans of the Legendary Pink Dots. It marks a shift toward a very new sound... a new way, o my brothers... where horns are heavily and mellowly processed, unhorn like, and guitar work is so slight and shimmery like a harp in an aluminum tunnel... where the microphone seems to be hidden in the most deep and resonant part of Ka-Spel's face... and the Silverman achieves tiny electronic orchestrations that would normally only be heard when an array of beautiful things goes tumbling to the floor. I am talking chandelier down a marble stairway, pearls scattered on a velvet rug. Intensely beautiful, but quietly so, with drums that hum and click and "pssst" to whisper in your ear.
Furthermore, this album has so much unity. The sounds work together within themselves as the album plays, and the album maintains a fastidiously tailored style from start to finish. It is smooth, sonorous.
This is music for the middle of the night, to be barefoot in a dark purple room while candles and incense warm and sensualize.
I have listened to this album more than any other Dots album: while it cannot be said to be their best, it is perhaps the pinnacle of a style, of an audio-choreography, for which only the Dots had the mellow focus.
Do upon your honor purchase this album.
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Island of Jewels
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VOLUPTUOUS LADIES IN A WORLD OF CRUMBS, October 22, 2011
This review is from: Island of Jewels (Audio CD)
There is a very distinct mountain range in the progression of albums by this band. There are the tapes, piles of them, tiny mountains, at the foot of their journey. Cascading onward like a herd of igneous rocks, they seem to visit studios and buy crazy synthesizers and team up with individuals like Hanz Myre, who contributed something quite excellent to the band although it is not clear what. This album is near the top of the second craggy peak, "The Golden Age of Dots," a large 6 piece (correct?) team of musicians eventually shattered by its own weight like the Roman empire. Then you have crevices which contain live albums, albums made in four days, as well as work spread elsewhere like Tear Garden.
But at this time, the Dots put out several albums which are so dense that you cannot help but hear something new every time. This is one of those albums.
It sways between frenzied dance music, classical riffs, and drawn out 100% DOT$OUND of time of time of time cranking ever the catapult back and preparing to fire on the last day of the world as conveyed through Korg and Roland language.
This album is very political, spinning fairy tales of captivity and generals and televised debauchery. Do not play it for those who are traumatized by war, as it has many lyrics which move me, a man who has never seen battle, to pain or despair.
This album has one of the best three-song finishes ever achieved by the Dots. I must listen to it again.
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French Collection
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MAGNETIC JUDO BETWEEN STEEL LOVERS, October 22, 2011
This review is from: French Collection (Audio CD)
This is a wonderful live album... not since "The Lovers" have the Dots put out a live recording so crisp, so pure, so true... and some of the songs on here truly surprised me! Not only is the setlist surprising but the approaches to the songs are very performance oriented: after all, this is when the Pink Dots seemed to temporarily set aside their keyboards and have crashing live cymbals, guitar, bass, and horn horn horn. Psychedelic, tinged with their gothic excellence but really more inclined to just being witty and vigorous--this one is a romp. Do yourself the honor of buying this album, because it is versatile. Some Dots Albums are only for night time, some are for day. This one works on a midday summer road trip as well as when you are idling along some icy November night, holding back very bitter tears.
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Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll: Revised Edition
by Recorded Visions
Edition: Paperback
Price: $15.56
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PRECISE TO THE POINT OF METICULOUS, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll: Revised Edition (Paperback)
A lot of tab books are terrible, but this one is pretty well made. Of course it is a nightmare untangling Tony Iommi's weird phrasing--how does he make one lick sound so eternal, I cannot deliver it so poignantly--but this book lays it out clearly and most of the tabs are right.
They say, never listen to anything but your own ear when you learn a song, but this person had a very credible ear.
There is another tab book out there with a live photo of the band bowing for an audience: this tab book is poorly done, and as you listen to the song you will say "without a doubt this string of tablature was just written onto the wrong strings." This book thankfully does not have as many, if any, technical mistakes. Plus many books will lazily say "guitar tuned down one step" but that is not true... it is almost always one and a half, or C# tuning. This book says C# when it is actually so.
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Lord Jim (Penguin Popular Classics)
by Joseph Conrad
Edition: Paperback
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Conrad is just not for me, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Lord Jim (Penguin Popular Classics) (Paperback)
This book is decent enough, but I was not even taken with Heart Of Darkness. I thought maybe that book had been his Gatsby, or his Sun Also Rises... after all, those are my least favorite books and the most well-known books of other very talented authors. But Lord Jim is long, O Lord, it is so much longer and slower than I thought.
It does have passages that reveal beauty, but most of it is dialogue within dialoge and recounting of stories and testimonials about boat behavior... it is not very funny, and it is very drawn out.
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Blood Pressure
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VOODOO CHANTEES YUM, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Blood Pressure (Audio CD)
This is an album that TG would call a bootleg. It must have been recorded off the soundboard then, because it sounds great.
However, this album has a lot more grungy guitar work than I would have thought. It also has Zyklon B Zombie buried in it somewhere, which is a jukebox essential for TG. And of course songs which appear elsewhere under another name. But it is at least 80% new material.
I recommend this album, because you must have as much Gristle as possible. And this one works well, play it on your porch as kids trick or treat. You will retain almost all of your candy that way. Comment | Permalink
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Nikolai Gogol
by Vladimir Nabokov
Edition: Paperback
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The Cherubs Have Cobbled Together This Stew of Alarm, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Nikolai Gogol (Paperback)
I never liked Nabokov, thought he was pompous and hyper-erudite. In this book he seems to have something to say!
If you love Gogol, read this book. You will weep.
If you love Nabokov, this book will make you love Gogol. And that is the proper thing to do, believe me.
It has Nabokov's failings... at times the reader will wonder if Nabokov is going to stop describing the place he is writing from and get back to Gogol! But that's what you pay for with Nabokov, it has very amusing moments about it.
It also sets out to wax humorously on Russian culture at length: but this is actually very useful for lovers of Russian literature who are not Russian. Truly great.
Nabokov makes some questionable statements about who should like Gogol's work, some very elitist statements. But do not worry. Gogol is definitely for everybody. Read this book if you have enjoyed Gogol's work. But it would help to read most of Gogol first, and love it thoroughly if you want to be moved by this book and find a kindred spirit in its author Vladimir Nabokov.
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Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson (Literary Conversations)
by Hunter S. Thompson
Edition: Paperback
Price: $17.16
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Much Needed Clarity on Thompson, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson (Literary Conversations) (Paperback)
I hope many people buy this book, as it distances the journalist and the man from the image and Johnny Depp. So sad, so sad do I get when I see Thompson's books with Johnny Depp on the cover... "It is the only thing that will get the kids reading." In my teenage explorations I was more drawn to the smell of a yellowed paperback with Steadman art all over it, but so what, I am slow and not very headstrong they may say...
There is a little repetition within this book, from interview to interview, and of course you are getting more exposed to the cascading styles of each visitor as a trip to Dr. Thompson's home or designated meeting place is drawn and detailed. That adds a variegation to this book, a look from many eyes on this one subject. And I like the way they make Thompson seem all right. Mortal, candid, especially vain--is there one writer who was not required by Thompson to read the man's work aloud, while the old man laughed and begged them repeat the best parts, or slow down so he could enjoy it longer?
Go ahead and read this one. Ultimately you will see it is necessary. Comment | Permalink
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What I Believe
by Jacques Ellul
Edition: Hardcover
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A Little Derivative, A Little Slow, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: What I Believe (Hardcover)
This book is definitely more casual, thus it lacks the incisive character of Ellul that we academics truly admire.
You get this casual feel not only from the subject matter, such as True Love, Memories, Illusions, Etc. but also from his informal citations of other things he has heard and read. If this is the last Ellul you have not read, then read it, do. But I will supply a short list of books, and if you are interested in Ellul then these are all ones you must read before What I Believe:
The Technological Society
Propaganda
The Political Illusion (nothing here that we of the 1984 generation do not already know, but some interesting perspective and of course, Ellul's voice and style)
Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet (this one is truly amazing, very short but engaging because it is biographical and informal, but edited with great academic precision)
Betrayal of the West (not as good as all the former, but good argument)
His religious books have always let me down. I am not religious enough to accept scripture as vehemently as Ellul does, so when I am hoping he will convince me his arguments come off as fallacy.
Ellul is a wonderful scholar and his writing should be an inspiration to anyone who wishes to write academically.
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Re-Mastered)
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YOU CAN GROW, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Re-Mastered) (Audio CD)
This album will make you grow, either as a musician or an appreciator. This is from the time of highly inspired guitar work that alternates between mellow and frenzied, smooth and percussive. I bought it for Cowgirl in the Sand, which I happened to hear on a classic rock radio station a year ago. I knew I had to have that album. Luckily all the songs are fantastic and they blend together really well to create a very solid album. Not a lot of songs, but each one is a very long and thoughtful voyage.
I was born in the mid-80s, so I have absolutely no business associating with this type of music: but the character of Neil Young and the very spirited contributions of Crazy Horse make me dream I could have been a part of this time. Music was more for performance, unlike the pervasive electronic djs and tape-runners of the new century; yet while it was performance driven it did not have the desperate urge to show off virtuoso skills or one's vigilante image of which the 80s and 90s saw so much. Any person who likes this kind of stuff, especially in this time, will probably have a refined sense of sentimentality, of history, of vintage excellence and style.
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You Can't Win
by Jack Black
Edition: Paperback
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Hot on the Elbows of Pale-Blooded Satans, July 18, 2011
This review is from: You Can't Win (Paperback)
God what a wonder this book is. It is a treatise, a sacred parchment that picks up right where the Bible leaves off. The beggars and the mutants go straight to Heaven, and this book is Heaven's guest list for 1907.
The words and the voice and the taste of it all are so sharp pointed at the reader's soft gut. Comment | Permalink
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Requiem Settings (1-6)
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SILVERMAN CON CARNE, April 20, 2011
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This review is from: Requiem Settings (1-6) (Audio CD)
The beta lactam ring site offers a minute of each song, but it must be just the first minute... Silverman's tactic is to slowly build something melodic and wonderful out of either silence or the sound of someone doing something quietly.
This one is hypnotic, engaging, and of course it has a very dark aura about it. The inside says it was made while the Silverman meditated on family death and certain personal hardships.
My favorite thing about the Silverman's work, which caused me to buy this and all his other albums, is how I get so locked into them while I'm listening-- I can be driving, or working at my desk-- then I look at the stereo and I'm absolutely shocked how deep I have gotten into the track. This album is a time catalyst, a moment accelerator.
It could be all keyboards so far as intrumentation is concerned, but there are lots of tape sounds and outdoor recordings. This is a very worthwhile recording.
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Mission of Dead Souls
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HEY! LOOK!, December 10, 2008
This review is from: Mission of Dead Souls (Audio CD)
I am amending the below review, which was previous. I have recently found videos of this live TG performance on youtube, and I have to wonder why the sound quality is actually superior on this old vhs that somebody put up there. I think maybe TG did not like some aspect of this recording after they made it. One has to wonder, "why is Discipline only reprised, and the song itself removed from the album?" I don't even know, but TG LIVE AT KEZAR has all the songs, with more in-between song moments and lyrics you can actually understand. No, I think they either chose to put out an intensely rough LO FI recording, or they did not like their last performance and so turned REVERB up to full power. The crystal clear version on youtube-- I love them!
----------Read on if you want me to tell you to buy a record player.
If you even want to hear this album's content, it's worth buying a turntable and finding the record. I had this CD for a year, listening off and on and just plain uninterested in it... but the record... MAMA MIA! Dat'sa my Greestle!
A lot more beat-driven, heavier pounding and clacking sounds... that guy is right, very Psychic TVish and full of crowd banter... near the end, I'm pretty sure a drug deal is going down-- there's a quiet moment onstage and you can hear some guy saying "we don't have it here! We have to go get it! Come on, ---" The LP is this:
-more screechy
-less fuzzy
-more distinct (somehow, the individual contributions to the whole soundscape are easier to assess)
- more fun to watch a record spin than to watch a digital second-counter!
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Plutonium Blonde
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
THEY STILL GOT IT!, December 8, 2008
This review is from: Plutonium Blonde (Audio CD)
I was impressed greatly by this recent release. The artwork is great, and hearkens back to their handmade early career with the scratchy letters and collage styling. The music is certainly of their current period, which I would classify as all their post-millenial muzak, perfected to my ears in The Whispering Wall-- this one is pretty close to that.
This album also embodies Ka-Spel's archival spirit, as he slips in some tapes and samples from old OLD works--- linking the webwork of his prolific oeuvre, one could say.
It was excellent live music, and that essence translates well in the record. These guys are definitely experts at constructing an album after all the years. It's fun to listen to, best played at night, and surprisingly I think it will complement all the seasons-- usually albums are for one or two seasons at best for me, then they must lay dormant for next year. Miaow! Comment | Permalink
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The Technological Bluff
by Jacques Ellul
Edition: Paperback
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
DO NOT PASS ELLUL: DO NOT COLLECT 100 DOLLARS., November 2, 2008
This review is from: The Technological Bluff (Paperback)
This is a pretty good book for Ellul, with a few of his most common failings. I'll start with those. Written much later in his life (mid-1980s I believe) Ellul is much older, and discernably more crotchety. He complains of "music that is just noise" and that "kids wear their stupid headphones too much!" So sometimes the eloquence of his discourse is interrupted by personal opinion, and here it really hurts some very fine threads he weaves. I am always amazed at how Ellul can start to think on one thing that everyone knows about, describe it, pick at it for a while: then assess it in a startlingly objective way. To me it always comes off not as superhuman intelligence, but as a very passionate desire for understanding. Uh oh, I haven't finished complaining and I got myself all turned around.
Anyway, the other problem is that you won't understand a lot of the examples he uses if you're not French. I don't know what Minitel is, and I have no insight/longing for insight on the French Government's various boards and committees. I just want those good world-encompassing ideas. Of which there are many here, but it takes patience through some of the more obscure stuff.
Books that should DEFINITELY come before this in your readings:
Technological Society
Propaganda
(after those) Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet
Finally, a thing that might prove good about this book (if you think so): in it Ellul disavows some of his earlier ideas. I have used it as somewhat of a guide for what not to read, since this book from his later life has statements like "In the Political Illusion, I was totally wrong when I said..." and so forth. Was he wrong? If he thinks so, then maybe it's not worth studying... but that's up to you! Comment (1) | Permalink | Most recent comment: Mar 14, 2011 6:56 AM PDT
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Perspectives on Our Age: Jacques Ellul Speaks on His Life and Work
by Jacques Ellul
Edition: Paperback
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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
GOODTIME ELLUL SOUP, November 2, 2008
This review is from: Perspectives on Our Age: Jacques Ellul Speaks on His Life and Work (Paperback)
The last guy is right, this book is worth 4 stars. But not because of some seminary stuff: I'll explain henceforth.
1st reason- This book has the failings of a few other Ellul books, most namely to me The Technological Bluff. His ideas are quite fine, but applied too specifically to stuff I don't know or care about. The French Government, this weird medical device that they obviously don't use anymore: personally, I like Ellul's broad, world-encompassing notions and ideas. "Think globally, act locally!" Indeed, Ellul (that's his slogan)!
2nd Reason- because it's similar to Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet... but not as good! Here he also brings back some of his big ideas, and doles out some more really good ones! Yes, I admit that! But it doesn't have the poetic narrative of his own life to feed from. It's more just like "hodge podge of thinkings from the porch of Jacques Ellul." If you haven't read Conversations, read that first. Then this. I still insist it is very good, but some parts... the problem could also be that I'm not into dissecting economic situations, and here he discusses Marxism (and its influence on him) pretty heavily.
The last chapter on religion is good for bridging the gap from Ellul's study of technique to his ideas on religious texts. I was pretty disappointed when I found out he was a Christian, thinking perhaps he was a crackpot who had some moral aversion to the technologically advanced rock n' roll kids are listening to these days (and he does say that at one point), but he does have some very eccentric and thoughtful spiritual ideas that definitely separate him from the herd of followers. Because I dislike blind followers of both religion and technology, so I said, "Oh no, Ellul: don't do dat, boy!" at first. But he's all right, so far as I know. No "God told me to save the world by writing this book" or "the human body is a technology of God, so that's okay!" Enjoy! Comment | Permalink
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Jacques Ellul on Politics, Technology, and Christianity: Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet
by Jacques Ellul
Edition: Paperback
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Excellent insight on the life experiences that made Ellul's concepts, November 2, 2008
This review is from: Jacques Ellul on Politics, Technology, and Christianity: Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet (Paperback)
This book is excellent for those who have already gone through Ellul's major works--- in fact, much better because in this one he outlines some of his ideas and refers to past works with some subtlety. "Conversations" is more focused on why Ellul thinks the way he does. It begins with his early family life, goes through his university years, then the whole Nazism movement in Europe (and he has some pretty inspiring tales there). What a beautiful life he led: and this was made right at the end of it too, I believe. The preface in mine alluded to his apparent "oldness," his inability to quickly recall names and his frequent bouts with weakness/illness. Still, I thought this was great and read it twice as soon as I got it. Comment | Permalink
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Part Two. The Endless Not
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THROBBING GRISTLE IS NEAT ANYWAY YOU SLICE IT, April 3, 2007
This review is from: Part Two. The Endless Not (Audio CD)
The band has changed immensely in the long span between working together. From what I'd gathered, I thought they hated each other and were totally done working together. But that's all personal aside stuff.
Looking at the album for what it is, it's hard to find a comparison with previous TG works... a few lyrics are sung reminiscent of oldies like "Persuasion" and with the same general GP-O 'smartiness.' Some words are used a little too repetitively for my taste though, some parts come off as "needing lyrics, but we don't have any to go there."
The music is what you would expect... each person has gone off and done their own thing since TG, refined their signature style and whatnot. So this album bears four signature styles, with a TON of Peter Christopherson/ COIL-like influence. Liking Coil will help you like this album.
It's very lush for TG, not as sparse as you would think. But damn, it just sounds good. Full of quirky synth noises and processed sounds. Throbbing Gristle is good, in my opinion, as long as you can play it loudly and someone will say, "what the hell IS this?" "Almost a Kiss" is not as good as it was on TGNOW, though--- but at least it's different. Comment | Permalink
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CD 1
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
THROBBING GORGHLE-SNAFF-JAMBULUS!, December 6, 2005
This review is from: CD 1 (Audio CD)
I have this CD, which I found at a record store... and it is inDEED Throbbing Gristle. Industrial style packaging (meaning it looks like a landing strip at an airport) and full of text from each bandmember on the definition of TG. Lots of weird Gennesisms such as "thee EYE ov L-IF-E bleeds from my tortured PENIS." Anyway, it sprawls and hums and fizzes and crackles, eventually (at around minute 25) turning into the rhythm from "Convincing People"... and that hangs around for a while with some damned funky bass, one continuous track shuffle of live TG... a great thing to listen to while you do housework, paint a picture, or when you are trying to have a private "whispers only" conversation with something that no one else MUST POSSIBLY overhear. Just throw this on and whisper away; that's my promise.
"And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks" by William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac
This book was very instructive in showing me what idea of structure Burroughs had when he set out writing. I think he evolved beautifully from this story but it is not at all bad. The good dialogue and little pieces of gestures and debauchery are still there in seed form. When I try to compare it to myself I see "1,000,000 words" being my first work--no story, no cohesion, but that gets filtered into the next thing, which is like this book here. At least I hope so. It made me want to find a collaborator.
Would I read it again? I doubt it. The zing and the structure were not enough to bring me back. But it was a good shot for Burroughs. Kerouac's chapters were also good, although I am still not familiar with his work. Just like Joan Didion... what the Hell did she write again?
"Ada" by Vladimir Nabokov
"Oghhhghgh! When will it be OVER!" I thought a hundred pages ago. Then I came up with a trick: I will just read the first sentence of every paragraph. As the pages flew by, I realized that they meant nothing to me and I set this book down entirely. Will I ever pick it up again? That is truly what I do not know. Nabokov is still smart, and yes his imagination is white hot here, but unfortunately his fixation on puns and adolescent sex blur the larger narrative. I mean, christ, if I haven't figured that out in 250 pages then the project is in trouble. No movie options here. Where the hell is a smooth-talking, gay Jim Carrey?
"Mickelsson's Ghosts" by John Gardner
Mickelsson's Ghosts did not float my boats. It is going on too long, and the flavor of the character gives me gas. I do not think I will worship this fruitcake's memoir any longer. It is too bad that I walked away from two long books right in a row--worse, that both were the last completed works of their authors. Sorry boys, I am sure you meant well but you forget that if people are not enraptured by the first 150 pages, then however much of the reader's attention can be salvaged thereafter will only be spent frantically searching for a way out of the book. God bless the people who rummage all the way through to the end, with their conniving tricks: reading only the first sentence of every paragraph, skimming only the dialogue, or skipping the longest chapter and thus creating a mystery in which the reader must define certain people or events; ones which the reader would have learned naturally, but oh no, the reader has amnesia or blacked out during a crucial fifty pages, and now the hunt for meaning is on!
Unfortunately I am not in the mood for games of that sort, so I put down the book and now I am walking the other direction because I know the book can't get up and come back to me. Books are fucking lazy, and stupid. They have no ability to shoot back smart remarks, or defend themselves against criticism.
I am still going to read Gardner's book on creative writing when it comes in the mail: come on, I need to get smart. I need to figure out whatever is missing from my set up. I am a sentence writer. I need to expand my vision. I need to carry a tune. I am a guy who hops out of the bushes, shrieking from the back of my throat and giving someone a terrible fit that makes them gasp and put a hand to her chest. But after that unbelievable experience, I stand there staring at my victim as she stares back. I got nothing now. That's all. What if, instead of standing there with a vacant look on my face, I pulled out a rag soaked in wine and slapped my victim in the face with it? A crimson stain on one cheek, purple dots on a white blouse, and then I blow on the handful of sugar in my other hand and mace them with pure Hawaiian sweetness? I would enjoy that, but then we have only a short story length affair going. Yes indeedy. In order to bolster this hefty drink order, I would have to start running, full speed, get behind the person and make them look all around. They are bewildered, but every movement of mine has terrifying meaning--what comes now? So I run, twenty or thirty feet, over to a carefully placed bucket of water with a plastic cup in it; lift a full cup, and fling it at them. Dip my hands, soak them, and then I charge. They have either dodged the cup, or they are soaked; but either way my ice cold wet hands are going up her blouse and patting her belly as I chant something conceivable as Latin to the layman's ear, blowing as hard as I can when my mouth is given a close-up of either of my victim's exposed ears. Then I say, "That is the wind, calling you back!" and by now they might be able to hear the music in the background, playing over this whole debacle: Little Brown Jug. None of that Whipping Horse Pulling Food bullshit. This is green light passage to a new world of eclectic events, all transpiring concurrently and changing the theories of the awake mind. That is how I see the steady evolution of my method. God knows I would not do it right the first time, and that new ideas would come with each rendition that may infringe on moves that I had cherished as golden perfect... but by Christ, it would eventually reach full potential and that is what I am sitting around waiting for.
Goodnight, book. I will probably never come back to you!
By
C. A. Foster "the lamper-stang" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
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This review is from: The Pedant and the Shuffly (Paperback)
John Bellairs is really underrated. I don't know if he received a surge of popularity like Harry Potter, but he deserved one. This is an early work, like Faces in the Frost, and it suffers from a lack of the cohesion he would later master in his young adult serial tales with Johnny, Rose and Lewis et cetera. His early books, this one included, contain all the energy and esoteric knowledge with a sort of unbridled presentation that whips the reader around but does not truly take him on "the ride."
If you have come upon this review because you need something for your kids, buy all of John Bellairs's books and you will raise erudite and well-balanced people from them.
If you are an adult and someone, perhaps with a gothic leaning, has advised you to try Bellairs, why you would be a fool not to do it. His writing is elegant and full of esoteric facts about magic (through history, not facts espousing its efficaciousness) and architecture and history. It is also whittled to a sharp point, something you can read in the length of a movie and walk away with ten words you learned, characters that are clear in your mind and quite lovable, but mostly with a fondness for this man who made a Victorian and gothic backdrop out of 1950s New England.
So... I urge you. Read!
This review is from: Asylum (Audio CD)
This may be one of the most underrated Pink Dots Albums of all time. Of course it challenges the ear like so many others, and some songs seem to be completely out of reach to those who enjoy humming tunes or singing to themselves as they paint eggs or slice carrots or whatever it is they do. But the quality of composition on this album, between programming synthesizers and arranging Schoenberg-esque movements here and strains of gypsy violin there, is something that could never be repeated with the tone and color achieved here. The songs seem to match the cover art, synesthetically: the songs are bursts of red and purple with very chalky blue and dark stabs of black just as you are losing your mind.
This level also demonstrates a glimpse of future maturity for the Dots, as the compositions are not rushed or overly zippy. They are focused, and the deeper you listen the more focus you will hear. Silverman seems to tap some very meditative fingers on the surface of a Korg.
The lyrics are genius: even if you want to laugh and make fun of them, good-naturedly, as you and anyone else familiar with the Dots has the complete right to do, these are very clever lyrics that you will remember for the rest of your life.
Even now, I think I might be able to do Asylum a capella (up to the Hill, because that song has a narrative which one is apt to jump ahead and sing out of order).
This review is from: Shadow Weaver (Audio CD)
Anything truly worth liking will challenge your notions a little bit, will rub you funny and make you complaintive at first. Hopefully not so much as to make you get rid of it, but maybe just enough to inspire mockery or garner some harsh criticism from you. And then, those scales fall away and you realize you are confronting something unique, something which is peculiar and disobeys all the commonplace standards you realize you were holding up to it.
Almost every Pink Dots album has done this for me, especially this one. It is a very unusual album, with help from Steven Stapleton in both the design and the album's trademark sound-which is highly diffuse and completely odd. At times it will sound like someone is tapping a chord on a jazz organ in a field as a train goes by 100 feet away and someone is walking in circles hitting a triangle. You will really lose yourself in imagining the circumstances under which the music was made.
At least three of the songs you will like right away. They are ripe Dots ready to be plucked from the tree of song. But here and in the Maria Dimension both, Ka-Spel abandons his narrative style for a more intense and often repetitive style: mantras, chants, dirges composed of one line Ka-Spel really likes.
This album is worth the cost for the first song, but the rest will unfold one tolerant moment at a time, and by the time you tolerate the whole thing your mind will evolve into truly appreciating the bizarre nature of this, and many other, Legendary Pink Dots albums.
The Legendary Pink Dots: A Perfect Mystery
VELVETEEN ACROSTIC, UNCERTAINLY
Just look at the artwork for this album. Black, white, yellow. Just look at it. This album has promise. Pick it up. Feel that weight? You are going to be getting much more than that in the amount of weight which will be added to your soul. This one is designed specifically to make you think something is wrong, or perhaps right for the first time ever, with your speakers. This is the turning of the century page, and the relentless triangular dream. It is sharp if you pick it up, rather than stepping inside of it. Don't make that mistake... a dream with fewer sides would be superfluous.
JUST LUCUBRATE AND MEDITATE AND THEN YOU'LL SEE THE PEOPLE, October 22, 2011
This review is from: Under Triple Moons (Audio CD)
When I bought this it had a pink sticker that said, "This is the best of the Dots. -E. Ka-Spel."
And he may be right. You will never be treated to more quavering synthesizers, more audio experiments on beautiful analog, old-style electronics, more devilish lyrics which absolutely tickle the mordant geezer within each of us...
It is long, it is thorough, it reveals some absolutely stunning musical talent: especially "Oceans of Emotion." This song, and others to an extent, will take your breath away if you are fully listening to the obsessive synchronicity this psychedelic, experimental band could achieve. It is old world bandstand stuff of the highest order, stopping on a dime and beating at 834.343434343434 beats per minute for nineteen measures.
The Dots variety package is here as well... songs for weeping, songs for rejoicing, songs with historical figures and cities and spies and drunks at the bar... sing while you may, but you better get this one today. Comment | Permalink
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Whispering Wall
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SWIRLING NEVER, BUT BOBBING SAD IN A PEWTER BOWL, October 22, 2011
This review is from: Whispering Wall (Audio CD)
This album is necessary for fans of the Legendary Pink Dots. It marks a shift toward a very new sound... a new way, o my brothers... where horns are heavily and mellowly processed, unhorn like, and guitar work is so slight and shimmery like a harp in an aluminum tunnel... where the microphone seems to be hidden in the most deep and resonant part of Ka-Spel's face... and the Silverman achieves tiny electronic orchestrations that would normally only be heard when an array of beautiful things goes tumbling to the floor. I am talking chandelier down a marble stairway, pearls scattered on a velvet rug. Intensely beautiful, but quietly so, with drums that hum and click and "pssst" to whisper in your ear.
Furthermore, this album has so much unity. The sounds work together within themselves as the album plays, and the album maintains a fastidiously tailored style from start to finish. It is smooth, sonorous.
This is music for the middle of the night, to be barefoot in a dark purple room while candles and incense warm and sensualize.
I have listened to this album more than any other Dots album: while it cannot be said to be their best, it is perhaps the pinnacle of a style, of an audio-choreography, for which only the Dots had the mellow focus.
Do upon your honor purchase this album.
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Island of Jewels
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VOLUPTUOUS LADIES IN A WORLD OF CRUMBS, October 22, 2011
This review is from: Island of Jewels (Audio CD)
There is a very distinct mountain range in the progression of albums by this band. There are the tapes, piles of them, tiny mountains, at the foot of their journey. Cascading onward like a herd of igneous rocks, they seem to visit studios and buy crazy synthesizers and team up with individuals like Hanz Myre, who contributed something quite excellent to the band although it is not clear what. This album is near the top of the second craggy peak, "The Golden Age of Dots," a large 6 piece (correct?) team of musicians eventually shattered by its own weight like the Roman empire. Then you have crevices which contain live albums, albums made in four days, as well as work spread elsewhere like Tear Garden.
But at this time, the Dots put out several albums which are so dense that you cannot help but hear something new every time. This is one of those albums.
It sways between frenzied dance music, classical riffs, and drawn out 100% DOT$OUND of time of time of time cranking ever the catapult back and preparing to fire on the last day of the world as conveyed through Korg and Roland language.
This album is very political, spinning fairy tales of captivity and generals and televised debauchery. Do not play it for those who are traumatized by war, as it has many lyrics which move me, a man who has never seen battle, to pain or despair.
This album has one of the best three-song finishes ever achieved by the Dots. I must listen to it again.
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French Collection
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MAGNETIC JUDO BETWEEN STEEL LOVERS, October 22, 2011
This review is from: French Collection (Audio CD)
This is a wonderful live album... not since "The Lovers" have the Dots put out a live recording so crisp, so pure, so true... and some of the songs on here truly surprised me! Not only is the setlist surprising but the approaches to the songs are very performance oriented: after all, this is when the Pink Dots seemed to temporarily set aside their keyboards and have crashing live cymbals, guitar, bass, and horn horn horn. Psychedelic, tinged with their gothic excellence but really more inclined to just being witty and vigorous--this one is a romp. Do yourself the honor of buying this album, because it is versatile. Some Dots Albums are only for night time, some are for day. This one works on a midday summer road trip as well as when you are idling along some icy November night, holding back very bitter tears.
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Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll: Revised Edition
by Recorded Visions
Edition: Paperback
Price: $15.56
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PRECISE TO THE POINT OF METICULOUS, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll: Revised Edition (Paperback)
A lot of tab books are terrible, but this one is pretty well made. Of course it is a nightmare untangling Tony Iommi's weird phrasing--how does he make one lick sound so eternal, I cannot deliver it so poignantly--but this book lays it out clearly and most of the tabs are right.
They say, never listen to anything but your own ear when you learn a song, but this person had a very credible ear.
There is another tab book out there with a live photo of the band bowing for an audience: this tab book is poorly done, and as you listen to the song you will say "without a doubt this string of tablature was just written onto the wrong strings." This book thankfully does not have as many, if any, technical mistakes. Plus many books will lazily say "guitar tuned down one step" but that is not true... it is almost always one and a half, or C# tuning. This book says C# when it is actually so.
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Lord Jim (Penguin Popular Classics)
by Joseph Conrad
Edition: Paperback
Availability: Out of Print--Limited Availability
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Conrad is just not for me, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Lord Jim (Penguin Popular Classics) (Paperback)
This book is decent enough, but I was not even taken with Heart Of Darkness. I thought maybe that book had been his Gatsby, or his Sun Also Rises... after all, those are my least favorite books and the most well-known books of other very talented authors. But Lord Jim is long, O Lord, it is so much longer and slower than I thought.
It does have passages that reveal beauty, but most of it is dialogue within dialoge and recounting of stories and testimonials about boat behavior... it is not very funny, and it is very drawn out.
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Blood Pressure
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VOODOO CHANTEES YUM, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Blood Pressure (Audio CD)
This is an album that TG would call a bootleg. It must have been recorded off the soundboard then, because it sounds great.
However, this album has a lot more grungy guitar work than I would have thought. It also has Zyklon B Zombie buried in it somewhere, which is a jukebox essential for TG. And of course songs which appear elsewhere under another name. But it is at least 80% new material.
I recommend this album, because you must have as much Gristle as possible. And this one works well, play it on your porch as kids trick or treat. You will retain almost all of your candy that way. Comment | Permalink
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Nikolai Gogol
by Vladimir Nabokov
Edition: Paperback
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The Cherubs Have Cobbled Together This Stew of Alarm, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Nikolai Gogol (Paperback)
I never liked Nabokov, thought he was pompous and hyper-erudite. In this book he seems to have something to say!
If you love Gogol, read this book. You will weep.
If you love Nabokov, this book will make you love Gogol. And that is the proper thing to do, believe me.
It has Nabokov's failings... at times the reader will wonder if Nabokov is going to stop describing the place he is writing from and get back to Gogol! But that's what you pay for with Nabokov, it has very amusing moments about it.
It also sets out to wax humorously on Russian culture at length: but this is actually very useful for lovers of Russian literature who are not Russian. Truly great.
Nabokov makes some questionable statements about who should like Gogol's work, some very elitist statements. But do not worry. Gogol is definitely for everybody. Read this book if you have enjoyed Gogol's work. But it would help to read most of Gogol first, and love it thoroughly if you want to be moved by this book and find a kindred spirit in its author Vladimir Nabokov.
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Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson (Literary Conversations)
by Hunter S. Thompson
Edition: Paperback
Price: $17.16
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Much Needed Clarity on Thompson, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson (Literary Conversations) (Paperback)
I hope many people buy this book, as it distances the journalist and the man from the image and Johnny Depp. So sad, so sad do I get when I see Thompson's books with Johnny Depp on the cover... "It is the only thing that will get the kids reading." In my teenage explorations I was more drawn to the smell of a yellowed paperback with Steadman art all over it, but so what, I am slow and not very headstrong they may say...
There is a little repetition within this book, from interview to interview, and of course you are getting more exposed to the cascading styles of each visitor as a trip to Dr. Thompson's home or designated meeting place is drawn and detailed. That adds a variegation to this book, a look from many eyes on this one subject. And I like the way they make Thompson seem all right. Mortal, candid, especially vain--is there one writer who was not required by Thompson to read the man's work aloud, while the old man laughed and begged them repeat the best parts, or slow down so he could enjoy it longer?
Go ahead and read this one. Ultimately you will see it is necessary. Comment | Permalink
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What I Believe
by Jacques Ellul
Edition: Hardcover
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A Little Derivative, A Little Slow, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: What I Believe (Hardcover)
This book is definitely more casual, thus it lacks the incisive character of Ellul that we academics truly admire.
You get this casual feel not only from the subject matter, such as True Love, Memories, Illusions, Etc. but also from his informal citations of other things he has heard and read. If this is the last Ellul you have not read, then read it, do. But I will supply a short list of books, and if you are interested in Ellul then these are all ones you must read before What I Believe:
The Technological Society
Propaganda
The Political Illusion (nothing here that we of the 1984 generation do not already know, but some interesting perspective and of course, Ellul's voice and style)
Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet (this one is truly amazing, very short but engaging because it is biographical and informal, but edited with great academic precision)
Betrayal of the West (not as good as all the former, but good argument)
His religious books have always let me down. I am not religious enough to accept scripture as vehemently as Ellul does, so when I am hoping he will convince me his arguments come off as fallacy.
Ellul is a wonderful scholar and his writing should be an inspiration to anyone who wishes to write academically.
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Re-Mastered)
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YOU CAN GROW, October 21, 2011
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This review is from: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Re-Mastered) (Audio CD)
This album will make you grow, either as a musician or an appreciator. This is from the time of highly inspired guitar work that alternates between mellow and frenzied, smooth and percussive. I bought it for Cowgirl in the Sand, which I happened to hear on a classic rock radio station a year ago. I knew I had to have that album. Luckily all the songs are fantastic and they blend together really well to create a very solid album. Not a lot of songs, but each one is a very long and thoughtful voyage.
I was born in the mid-80s, so I have absolutely no business associating with this type of music: but the character of Neil Young and the very spirited contributions of Crazy Horse make me dream I could have been a part of this time. Music was more for performance, unlike the pervasive electronic djs and tape-runners of the new century; yet while it was performance driven it did not have the desperate urge to show off virtuoso skills or one's vigilante image of which the 80s and 90s saw so much. Any person who likes this kind of stuff, especially in this time, will probably have a refined sense of sentimentality, of history, of vintage excellence and style.
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You Can't Win
by Jack Black
Edition: Paperback
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Hot on the Elbows of Pale-Blooded Satans, July 18, 2011
This review is from: You Can't Win (Paperback)
God what a wonder this book is. It is a treatise, a sacred parchment that picks up right where the Bible leaves off. The beggars and the mutants go straight to Heaven, and this book is Heaven's guest list for 1907.
The words and the voice and the taste of it all are so sharp pointed at the reader's soft gut. Comment | Permalink
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Requiem Settings (1-6)
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SILVERMAN CON CARNE, April 20, 2011
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This review is from: Requiem Settings (1-6) (Audio CD)
The beta lactam ring site offers a minute of each song, but it must be just the first minute... Silverman's tactic is to slowly build something melodic and wonderful out of either silence or the sound of someone doing something quietly.
This one is hypnotic, engaging, and of course it has a very dark aura about it. The inside says it was made while the Silverman meditated on family death and certain personal hardships.
My favorite thing about the Silverman's work, which caused me to buy this and all his other albums, is how I get so locked into them while I'm listening-- I can be driving, or working at my desk-- then I look at the stereo and I'm absolutely shocked how deep I have gotten into the track. This album is a time catalyst, a moment accelerator.
It could be all keyboards so far as intrumentation is concerned, but there are lots of tape sounds and outdoor recordings. This is a very worthwhile recording.
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Mission of Dead Souls
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HEY! LOOK!, December 10, 2008
This review is from: Mission of Dead Souls (Audio CD)
I am amending the below review, which was previous. I have recently found videos of this live TG performance on youtube, and I have to wonder why the sound quality is actually superior on this old vhs that somebody put up there. I think maybe TG did not like some aspect of this recording after they made it. One has to wonder, "why is Discipline only reprised, and the song itself removed from the album?" I don't even know, but TG LIVE AT KEZAR has all the songs, with more in-between song moments and lyrics you can actually understand. No, I think they either chose to put out an intensely rough LO FI recording, or they did not like their last performance and so turned REVERB up to full power. The crystal clear version on youtube-- I love them!
----------Read on if you want me to tell you to buy a record player.
If you even want to hear this album's content, it's worth buying a turntable and finding the record. I had this CD for a year, listening off and on and just plain uninterested in it... but the record... MAMA MIA! Dat'sa my Greestle!
A lot more beat-driven, heavier pounding and clacking sounds... that guy is right, very Psychic TVish and full of crowd banter... near the end, I'm pretty sure a drug deal is going down-- there's a quiet moment onstage and you can hear some guy saying "we don't have it here! We have to go get it! Come on, ---" The LP is this:
-more screechy
-less fuzzy
-more distinct (somehow, the individual contributions to the whole soundscape are easier to assess)
- more fun to watch a record spin than to watch a digital second-counter!
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Plutonium Blonde
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
THEY STILL GOT IT!, December 8, 2008
This review is from: Plutonium Blonde (Audio CD)
I was impressed greatly by this recent release. The artwork is great, and hearkens back to their handmade early career with the scratchy letters and collage styling. The music is certainly of their current period, which I would classify as all their post-millenial muzak, perfected to my ears in The Whispering Wall-- this one is pretty close to that.
This album also embodies Ka-Spel's archival spirit, as he slips in some tapes and samples from old OLD works--- linking the webwork of his prolific oeuvre, one could say.
It was excellent live music, and that essence translates well in the record. These guys are definitely experts at constructing an album after all the years. It's fun to listen to, best played at night, and surprisingly I think it will complement all the seasons-- usually albums are for one or two seasons at best for me, then they must lay dormant for next year. Miaow! Comment | Permalink
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The Technological Bluff
by Jacques Ellul
Edition: Paperback
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
DO NOT PASS ELLUL: DO NOT COLLECT 100 DOLLARS., November 2, 2008
This review is from: The Technological Bluff (Paperback)
This is a pretty good book for Ellul, with a few of his most common failings. I'll start with those. Written much later in his life (mid-1980s I believe) Ellul is much older, and discernably more crotchety. He complains of "music that is just noise" and that "kids wear their stupid headphones too much!" So sometimes the eloquence of his discourse is interrupted by personal opinion, and here it really hurts some very fine threads he weaves. I am always amazed at how Ellul can start to think on one thing that everyone knows about, describe it, pick at it for a while: then assess it in a startlingly objective way. To me it always comes off not as superhuman intelligence, but as a very passionate desire for understanding. Uh oh, I haven't finished complaining and I got myself all turned around.
Anyway, the other problem is that you won't understand a lot of the examples he uses if you're not French. I don't know what Minitel is, and I have no insight/longing for insight on the French Government's various boards and committees. I just want those good world-encompassing ideas. Of which there are many here, but it takes patience through some of the more obscure stuff.
Books that should DEFINITELY come before this in your readings:
Technological Society
Propaganda
(after those) Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet
Finally, a thing that might prove good about this book (if you think so): in it Ellul disavows some of his earlier ideas. I have used it as somewhat of a guide for what not to read, since this book from his later life has statements like "In the Political Illusion, I was totally wrong when I said..." and so forth. Was he wrong? If he thinks so, then maybe it's not worth studying... but that's up to you! Comment (1) | Permalink | Most recent comment: Mar 14, 2011 6:56 AM PDT
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Perspectives on Our Age: Jacques Ellul Speaks on His Life and Work
by Jacques Ellul
Edition: Paperback
Price: $21.95
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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
GOODTIME ELLUL SOUP, November 2, 2008
This review is from: Perspectives on Our Age: Jacques Ellul Speaks on His Life and Work (Paperback)
The last guy is right, this book is worth 4 stars. But not because of some seminary stuff: I'll explain henceforth.
1st reason- This book has the failings of a few other Ellul books, most namely to me The Technological Bluff. His ideas are quite fine, but applied too specifically to stuff I don't know or care about. The French Government, this weird medical device that they obviously don't use anymore: personally, I like Ellul's broad, world-encompassing notions and ideas. "Think globally, act locally!" Indeed, Ellul (that's his slogan)!
2nd Reason- because it's similar to Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet... but not as good! Here he also brings back some of his big ideas, and doles out some more really good ones! Yes, I admit that! But it doesn't have the poetic narrative of his own life to feed from. It's more just like "hodge podge of thinkings from the porch of Jacques Ellul." If you haven't read Conversations, read that first. Then this. I still insist it is very good, but some parts... the problem could also be that I'm not into dissecting economic situations, and here he discusses Marxism (and its influence on him) pretty heavily.
The last chapter on religion is good for bridging the gap from Ellul's study of technique to his ideas on religious texts. I was pretty disappointed when I found out he was a Christian, thinking perhaps he was a crackpot who had some moral aversion to the technologically advanced rock n' roll kids are listening to these days (and he does say that at one point), but he does have some very eccentric and thoughtful spiritual ideas that definitely separate him from the herd of followers. Because I dislike blind followers of both religion and technology, so I said, "Oh no, Ellul: don't do dat, boy!" at first. But he's all right, so far as I know. No "God told me to save the world by writing this book" or "the human body is a technology of God, so that's okay!" Enjoy! Comment | Permalink
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Jacques Ellul on Politics, Technology, and Christianity: Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet
by Jacques Ellul
Edition: Paperback
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent insight on the life experiences that made Ellul's concepts, November 2, 2008
This review is from: Jacques Ellul on Politics, Technology, and Christianity: Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet (Paperback)
This book is excellent for those who have already gone through Ellul's major works--- in fact, much better because in this one he outlines some of his ideas and refers to past works with some subtlety. "Conversations" is more focused on why Ellul thinks the way he does. It begins with his early family life, goes through his university years, then the whole Nazism movement in Europe (and he has some pretty inspiring tales there). What a beautiful life he led: and this was made right at the end of it too, I believe. The preface in mine alluded to his apparent "oldness," his inability to quickly recall names and his frequent bouts with weakness/illness. Still, I thought this was great and read it twice as soon as I got it. Comment | Permalink
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Part Two. The Endless Not
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
THROBBING GRISTLE IS NEAT ANYWAY YOU SLICE IT, April 3, 2007
This review is from: Part Two. The Endless Not (Audio CD)
The band has changed immensely in the long span between working together. From what I'd gathered, I thought they hated each other and were totally done working together. But that's all personal aside stuff.
Looking at the album for what it is, it's hard to find a comparison with previous TG works... a few lyrics are sung reminiscent of oldies like "Persuasion" and with the same general GP-O 'smartiness.' Some words are used a little too repetitively for my taste though, some parts come off as "needing lyrics, but we don't have any to go there."
The music is what you would expect... each person has gone off and done their own thing since TG, refined their signature style and whatnot. So this album bears four signature styles, with a TON of Peter Christopherson/ COIL-like influence. Liking Coil will help you like this album.
It's very lush for TG, not as sparse as you would think. But damn, it just sounds good. Full of quirky synth noises and processed sounds. Throbbing Gristle is good, in my opinion, as long as you can play it loudly and someone will say, "what the hell IS this?" "Almost a Kiss" is not as good as it was on TGNOW, though--- but at least it's different. Comment | Permalink
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CD 1
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
THROBBING GORGHLE-SNAFF-JAMBULUS!, December 6, 2005
This review is from: CD 1 (Audio CD)
I have this CD, which I found at a record store... and it is inDEED Throbbing Gristle. Industrial style packaging (meaning it looks like a landing strip at an airport) and full of text from each bandmember on the definition of TG. Lots of weird Gennesisms such as "thee EYE ov L-IF-E bleeds from my tortured PENIS." Anyway, it sprawls and hums and fizzes and crackles, eventually (at around minute 25) turning into the rhythm from "Convincing People"... and that hangs around for a while with some damned funky bass, one continuous track shuffle of live TG... a great thing to listen to while you do housework, paint a picture, or when you are trying to have a private "whispers only" conversation with something that no one else MUST POSSIBLY overhear. Just throw this on and whisper away; that's my promise.
"And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks" by William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac
This book was very instructive in showing me what idea of structure Burroughs had when he set out writing. I think he evolved beautifully from this story but it is not at all bad. The good dialogue and little pieces of gestures and debauchery are still there in seed form. When I try to compare it to myself I see "1,000,000 words" being my first work--no story, no cohesion, but that gets filtered into the next thing, which is like this book here. At least I hope so. It made me want to find a collaborator.
Would I read it again? I doubt it. The zing and the structure were not enough to bring me back. But it was a good shot for Burroughs. Kerouac's chapters were also good, although I am still not familiar with his work. Just like Joan Didion... what the Hell did she write again?
"Ada" by Vladimir Nabokov
"Oghhhghgh! When will it be OVER!" I thought a hundred pages ago. Then I came up with a trick: I will just read the first sentence of every paragraph. As the pages flew by, I realized that they meant nothing to me and I set this book down entirely. Will I ever pick it up again? That is truly what I do not know. Nabokov is still smart, and yes his imagination is white hot here, but unfortunately his fixation on puns and adolescent sex blur the larger narrative. I mean, christ, if I haven't figured that out in 250 pages then the project is in trouble. No movie options here. Where the hell is a smooth-talking, gay Jim Carrey?
"Mickelsson's Ghosts" by John Gardner
Mickelsson's Ghosts did not float my boats. It is going on too long, and the flavor of the character gives me gas. I do not think I will worship this fruitcake's memoir any longer. It is too bad that I walked away from two long books right in a row--worse, that both were the last completed works of their authors. Sorry boys, I am sure you meant well but you forget that if people are not enraptured by the first 150 pages, then however much of the reader's attention can be salvaged thereafter will only be spent frantically searching for a way out of the book. God bless the people who rummage all the way through to the end, with their conniving tricks: reading only the first sentence of every paragraph, skimming only the dialogue, or skipping the longest chapter and thus creating a mystery in which the reader must define certain people or events; ones which the reader would have learned naturally, but oh no, the reader has amnesia or blacked out during a crucial fifty pages, and now the hunt for meaning is on!
Unfortunately I am not in the mood for games of that sort, so I put down the book and now I am walking the other direction because I know the book can't get up and come back to me. Books are fucking lazy, and stupid. They have no ability to shoot back smart remarks, or defend themselves against criticism.
I am still going to read Gardner's book on creative writing when it comes in the mail: come on, I need to get smart. I need to figure out whatever is missing from my set up. I am a sentence writer. I need to expand my vision. I need to carry a tune. I am a guy who hops out of the bushes, shrieking from the back of my throat and giving someone a terrible fit that makes them gasp and put a hand to her chest. But after that unbelievable experience, I stand there staring at my victim as she stares back. I got nothing now. That's all. What if, instead of standing there with a vacant look on my face, I pulled out a rag soaked in wine and slapped my victim in the face with it? A crimson stain on one cheek, purple dots on a white blouse, and then I blow on the handful of sugar in my other hand and mace them with pure Hawaiian sweetness? I would enjoy that, but then we have only a short story length affair going. Yes indeedy. In order to bolster this hefty drink order, I would have to start running, full speed, get behind the person and make them look all around. They are bewildered, but every movement of mine has terrifying meaning--what comes now? So I run, twenty or thirty feet, over to a carefully placed bucket of water with a plastic cup in it; lift a full cup, and fling it at them. Dip my hands, soak them, and then I charge. They have either dodged the cup, or they are soaked; but either way my ice cold wet hands are going up her blouse and patting her belly as I chant something conceivable as Latin to the layman's ear, blowing as hard as I can when my mouth is given a close-up of either of my victim's exposed ears. Then I say, "That is the wind, calling you back!" and by now they might be able to hear the music in the background, playing over this whole debacle: Little Brown Jug. None of that Whipping Horse Pulling Food bullshit. This is green light passage to a new world of eclectic events, all transpiring concurrently and changing the theories of the awake mind. That is how I see the steady evolution of my method. God knows I would not do it right the first time, and that new ideas would come with each rendition that may infringe on moves that I had cherished as golden perfect... but by Christ, it would eventually reach full potential and that is what I am sitting around waiting for.
Goodnight, book. I will probably never come back to you!