[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrzmbSX1pmo[/youtube]
Godspeed, Harvey. Thanks for all the laughs.
Wednesday Wadio: Cut Copy’s ‘Feel the Love’
From the first swirling synths and gleaming melodies of curtain raiser “Feel the Love”, In Ghost Colours asserts itself as a hugely magnanimous record. Everything here sounds stadium-sized, loved-up, and breezily inclusive. – Pitchfork
It frustrates me when the song I want to evangelize doesn’t have an associated YouTube video and I have to settle for something else from the same band. Such is the case today, so I hope to be able to get my point across and at least bend the year of a couple of you’se. The band is Cut Copy and they’re a solid rock/electronica (think New Order for a quick and dirty comparison) from Melbourne Australia. Here’s an alternate choice for a video, Out There on the Ice, which is a good tune but definitely my second choice.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI3tstEeY7g[/youtube]
For me, the first song on their new release In Ghost Colors is head and shoulders above the rest of the tracks and I’m shocked I can’t find more references to it online. Feel the Love is the pretty little ditty I’m attempting to share, and here are a few options for those of you who take my musical tastes to heart:
- Listen to a clip of the song free on LastFM.
- Listen to or right-click and download the MP3. Probably the best option for you, dear.
- Treat yourself to a solid punch in the balls and go do something more constructive.
Feel the Love is very ‘joyous’ and I quite enjoy listening to it in my car on sunny days with the sunroof open. Cut Copy’s electronica influences and current usage is definitely very retro-80’s which is why I think they’ll eventually enjoy quite a bit of success here in North America. The rock element is well produced with great sounding drums and acoustic guitar which melds well with the silly synth creating a (somewhat) truly unique sound. Yes, this has been done before – but rarely as well, and never in Melbourne.
Veekend Video: Wuthering Sheps
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOXmjh6wMyQ[/youtube]
Last week my neighbor Don came over to help me get the lake pump started, and Shep heard him approaching through my bedroom window. He proceeded to bark incessantly and I decided to take some video to undoubtedly use for something silly at some point. Friday afternoon my work productivity hit a wall around 4pm and I edited the yippy barrage into my latest cinematic puppy delight. If you dig Kate Bush, all the better.
Speaking of Nazis
A blog post I wrote on a different website that I tinker with has been linked to by StormFront.org and is sending said site a ton of traffic. Before you report me to the ACLU the post in question is about a character in a movie and has nothing to do with white pride, white wine, white chocolate or anything else of a pale nature. I love traffic of pretty much any kind, but should I feel guilty about this particular source?
I watched a documentary recently that mentioned these guys and they all seemed frustrated with the fact they’re so commonly associated with Nazis and white supremacists. “We’re about white pride,” was the message they hammered home. Every other race on the planet gets to be proud, so why can’t we? I certainly agree with them up to a point. I’d never been to the website before, so I clicked through and have some observations.
- When trying to establish your credibility as a “pride” organization, a huge banner ad featuring David Duke and Don Black is a bit of a step backwards.
- A strictly “nationalist” movement shouldn’t use the classic WWII German font in their logo. The last time I saw this font used was on the box cover for Castle Wolfenstein, and we all know how that game ends. In case you don’t, you have to kill Hitler.
- Amongst all the forum threads for money matters, fitness and homemaking one really tends to stand out: Self Defense, Martial Arts & Preparedness. Are we preparing for the militia exercises in the woods this weekend or the impending race war?
I could continue, but I love my car and don’t want it detonated by a ball bearing pipe bomb with me in it anytime soon. I think I’ll stick to “Glad you like the site, gentlemen. Where do you get your hair cut?”
These are the Nazis of our Lives
In 1981, when I was 8 years old, my father brought me to see Raiders of the Lost Ark in Ottawa, Ontario. He was a stoic man to whom fatherhood did not come naturally, but we always found our common ground at the movie theater. I remember the night well, from the amazing film itself right down to checking the back seat of our Zephyr for mummies on the way home. Tomorrow, I am taking him to that same city to see Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – and the circle will be complete.
The only thing more unlikely than a fourth Indiana Jones movie might be that I once again live near Canada’s capital city… or maybe the fact that my 66 year-old father has a form of dementia that makes Alzheimer’s look like a garden party. If someone had told me several years ago that any of those 3 events were right around the next corner I’d have cheered, packed a snowsuit and then punched a wall in that order. Situations are what they are, and I hope that he enjoys himself and retains memory of the day to the extent that he can. It’s extremely strange to feel yourself slowly starting to grieve for someone who you still see everyday. It doesn’t take a narration by Freud’s ghost to explicate that the trip tomorrow is really for me.
I don’t often get personal on this blog, because sentimentality doesn’t tend to fit in well with giant squid news and dead hooker jokes, but the last couple of months have been rough. Things are sinking in, priorities shifting, novelties wearing off and I am starting to – dare I say it – grow up. I have to perform some calculated fat-trimming to my personal and professional life if I’m to be truly prepared for my next adventure. Sometimes, closure wears a fedora and hates snakes.