Oh hey...

OK, I fell off.

Right now, I am braising two enormous veal chops for stuffing whilst roasting an onion and fighting evil all at once. I am a busy guy. Smacking my lips and shaking my ass.

I know that being hyped on David Shire's incredible score to the original Taking of Pelham One Two Three is kinda bullshit what with the new adaptation set to be released this summer... but this Denzel busted-ass remake will have nothing on the original 1974 Walter Matthau high-stepper. And I am damn sure the music will not come close to the erratic, bombastic street-funk that won David Shire two Grammys. So, I will still be hyped.

And this Denzel/Travolta madness will need to be really really good for me to even consider it for viewing (unlike the dirty made-for-TV Edward James Olmos disaster...).

Get with it.

David Shire - The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (Original Motion Picture Score)
Tracklisting (12"):
A1 Main Title (2:18)
A2 The Taking (1:51)
A3 Blue (0:32)
A4 More Taking (0:59)
A5 Dolowitz Takes (0:59)
A6 Dolowitz Killed (1:25)
A7 Blue Green Talk (1:59)
A8 Money Montage 1 (0:55)
A9 Money Montage 2 (2:57)
A10 Fifty Seconds (0:50)
B1 The Money Express (3:55)
B2 Conductor Killed (1:18)
B3 The Money Bag (0:38)
B4 The Pelham's-Moving-Again-Blues (3:10)
B5 I'm A Police Officer (0:56)
B6 Renewing Disguises (0:47)
B7 Goodbye Green, Hello Garber, Goodbye Hippie (1:10)
B8 Smoking More, Enjoying It Less (0:26)
B9 Mini-Manhunt (2:12)
B10 End Title (3:00)

Calendar years and I am supposed to do what...?

2008 has passed unromantically into 2009.

We are now three years closer to imminent doom, if you ask my wife or the Mayans or Nostradamus or any of those other crackpots. I stopped worrying about the 'bolt from the blue' when I was 8 years old and read Marvel Secret Wars.
( -- for those not hip to this Jim Shooter masterpiece/action figure tie-in, all the Marvel superheros and super villains (like The Wrecker?) are scuttled off to some patchwork planet to fight an epic battle to amuse this godlike entity known as the Beyonder. The winner of the battle will be given anything they desire... so of course, super baddest dude of all, Dr. Doom, decides that rather than fighting the same heroes that had been kicking his ass for the last 30 years - he would try to usurp the power directly from the Beyonder. Well, the crazy shit worked, kinda, and rather than just disintegrating the heroes into dust, he gets all dramatic and tosses a powerful energy blast into their HQ to shred them to pieces. Of course, because the power of the Beyonder is so great, Doom cannot contain it all within his mortal mind and it runs astray and his paranoia begins to bring back the dead superheroes until they are all back in action and kick Doom's ass... again. It's a damn good story for being written simply to sell a toy line. )


Anyway, I always feel like I have to rummage thru every top ten or top fifty or top whatever list that comes out this time of year.... whether about music or movies or books, I really give these lists a shot. I guess because I just want to find something new that someone else found merit in... so I am ecure I wont be completely busted.

From the always hit-or-miss Pitchfork Best Albums of 2008, I found this posthumous gem from Arthur Russell... the LP Love Is Overtaking Me. Boy... I cannot stop listening to this collection of very emotionally charged 'folk' compositions. Russell's ability to paint a story over his faint but powerful acoustic guitar is as compelling as it is subdued. Russell seemed to travel in quite luminary circles during his all too brief time on the Earth - Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, David Byrne. Those relationships make sense when you hear the literary quality of his lyricism and the classical, maybe even minimalist, arrangement of his compositions.
Hey, for once, Pitchfork got it right and stopped worrying about BPM and more about authentic song crafting and human storytelling thru the folk that isn't folk.

Love Is Overtaking Me was digitally restored by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear. Culled from the many tapes Russell recorded during his final 10 - 20 years before passing from AIDS in 1991. Released on the Audika label, I don't think it will be the last posthumous collection we see from Arthur Russell... at least I hope not.
<click here for download>

$1.77

I paid $1.77 per gallon for gas today. Just wait 'til the inauguration, when the other shoe drops and the shit is $4/gallon again.
And the expressway tolls went up to $3.75 per trip... that's $7.50 a day.
Driving eats my shit.

To combat this crass commercialism and my refusal to willfully accept the crushing depression brought on by having to pay outrageous sums of cash money just to get to work, I present The Pop Group's uncompromising 1980 LP - For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?

If you are worried that The Pop Group might sound like the Bay City Rollers or Britney Spears, then maybe you deserve to pay $7.50 to drive to work and home again. So I will be listening to this crazy shit in my mini-van, sneering and shaking my fist along with the super-hardcore funk miasma. It will take away the pain.

Fuck - Baby Loves a Funny Bunny

I love this album, the CD came in a giant matchbox.

1. Boy Meets Girl
2. Swinger
3. Love Me 2
4. Flight of the Mongeese
5. Tired
6. 22 No
7. Nice Burg, Lettuce
8. Talent, OR
9. Ballet High
10. Part of Me
11. Rococo
12. Like You
13. Loosened Mind?
14. Crush a Butterfly
15. Whimper and Cry
16. (untitled)
    

It was released on the 'Walter Rhesus Lampighter' label, which I am pretty sure was a vanity label. I remember there was a show at either the Khyber or some similar joint where Come opened for Fuck.. I thought that was a little backwards.

Enjoy.

If you're going to race with the devil, you've got to be as fast as Hell!

I wake up a lot in the middle of the night. It comes with the territory of being a neurotic narcoleptic with sleep apnea. I am sleepy all day and I can't sleep for 8 hours straight. So I watch a lot of shitty movies... because that's what is on TV at 3:30AM when I wake up. Rarely I will come across something that interests me enough to keep me up.
Last night I watched "Race With the Devil", an incredible chase thriller from 1975 starring Peter Fonda and Warren Oates. I read a bit about it this morning and of course there are plans to remake it this year... I am sure it will suck my balls and motherfucking Ashton Kutcher or some other asshole will star.
Anyhow, the movie revolves around 2 married couples on vacation in an RV. They stop in some secluded area for the night and get drunk (like people used to do in movies) only to stumble across some locals performing a fucking-A gruesome Satanic sacrificial ritual. They try to do the right thing and report the crime only to discover that the fuckers in town are all in on the shit. This sets them on a trip out of the stick with hope of getting to the "big city" so they can analyze a blood sample and set things straight.
The trip to the city is plagued by intense paranoia and kooky characters. The closer they get to salvation, the more shit gets in their way... great cinematography, and Peter Fonda's frustration with the loopy shit that is going on lead to a terrifying epic chase scene. Good flick.

Anyway, I was so disturbed by this damn movie that I never got back to sleep, so I made a playlist to accompany my feelings of dread and hopelessness. I will post it soon.

And put "Race With the Devil" in your netflix queue before Hollywood fucks up and remakes it.