Something New (This Week)
The record of the year, a filmmaker project, a legend’s beginnings, a short book, and the start of spooky season.
Congratulations, you worked through another week, and get another weekend. Troopers, all of us. Let’s celebrate with some artifacts of art that we can all agree are Good.
The record of the year was released last Friday
You know, that new record that came out last year filled with Y2K era sonic references that lyrically circles love and it’s many varied and intimate themes and ideas? No, it’s not Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS that I’m referring to. It’s the guitarist/vocalist of The xx, Madley Croft, reviving the oft-mocked euro dance genre that powered much of my high-school counter-strike days and nights. Big, fast, and physically moving, Croft, under the stage name Romy, has absolutely captured my musical heart, and is gassing me up to hit the clubs again for the first time since (checks diary) ever. If you’re a dancer, or a music person, or a person in love, give it a listen, or give Carrie Battan’s piece in The New Yorker a read.
https://spotify.link/SVf4XJN95Cb
It’s pervert season
That’s right. Known knower of humanity David Fincher is coming out with a new movie later this year, and his work is finally being covered on Blank Check, a podcast about directors and their filmographies. Join me, as we watch, one-by-one, the sick and disturbed worldview of Fincher represented in literally painful and precise detail across his eleven feature films, before his twelfth graces our world. ALIEN 3, a film that hates its audience, is already in the books. Jump in now to find out what’s the in the box of SE7EN. Sickos unite.
The guy who made songs for commercials debuted with a non-commercial record
I have never had any relationship to the crowd-pleasing, alcohol drink promoting stylings of Jimmy Buffett, apart from likely sprinkles of his work into American movie soundtracks over the last fifty years. After the legend’s death earlier this month, I decided to give the ol’ man a shot. After running his first offering on Spotify’s interface, It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, I started up his first record, 1970’s DOWN TO EARTH. It’s a collection of songs about LSD, the loss of a father figure, using religion to be selfish and unkind, failing to meet expectations, taking shots at Spiro Agnew, and struggling through hard times. It was absolutely not what I expected (songs about cheeseburgers or margaritas or working hard or hardly working), and was warmly produced with a great full-band sound. It’s a great folk/country record! Another great example of how having expectations for art is dumb, and how artists can and do change. Fire this one up while you’re driving out to your friends’ farm, where you’ll spend the weekend pulling down fences and drinking Negronis, like I did. You’ll love it.
https://spotify.link/SuGTiv3a6Cb
A short book with a quick fix for aspiring creatives
I was recently graced by one of a handful of my neighborhoods free little libraries when I found Austin Kleon’s STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST. A short book, that I read in probably 30 minutes’ time, it packs a nice little punch, reminding you of a truth of creativity: that everyone is stolen, nothing is original, and you should let that truth be an asset to you. I would highly recommend finding this thing for free, and leafing through it. But don’t, like, steal it, you know?
…it’s also spooky season
It’s a scorching sunny day of 90 degrees here in Portland, but despite what the weather is telling me, the calendar says that it’s time for spooky season, the (tied for) best season of the year (1950’s Christmas music by the fireside is the co-leader in the clubhouse). I celebrated this week with a selection from Criterion Channel’s HIGH SCHOOL HORROR collection, which boasts some of the most wonderful movies of the 1990’s. To kick off the season, I chose 1996’s THE CRAFT, a story of a newcomer to a catholic highschool who befriends and bewitches a trio of… witches, who are in need of a fourth co-conspirator to flesh out their spell casting and ritual acting. It is a sensational, non-horrific story that I think everyone would enjoy as a time-capsule of that era of filmmaking, of acting, of storytelling, and of fashion. You should add it to your list for this coming spooky season watches.
That will do it for me for this week. I hope to finish some writing on some autumnal music, and hopefully something to offer you for Halloween. If nothing else, I’ll see you next week with more new things, and with less hope for humanity (thanks, David Fincher).
TTFN,
B