Readings

Punk Rock

Volcano Girls just came up in the shuffle. You know, I've always kind of liked the way Louise Post has kept at her music making. For a long while, I heard the stupidest of things justified as being "punk rock" or "the most punk rock thing we could do" (Green Day releasing an acoustic single). When Louise Post started touring again, she had put on a lot of weight after (I think) a bout with depression or whatever else. After Post's version of Veruca Salt came out with an album, I was in the Wicker Park dog run, and someone I know who is in the Chicago band scene made a reasonable, but snarky, comment to me, along the lines of: "Louise should have put herself together better. She needed to be more marketable before she went touring again." Geeze. But is the music good? (This was a woman who said this, btw.) Right now, it seems to me that being fat and still rocking hard is the most punk rock thing you can do. Of course, it helps that Ann Wilson went there before. And that Kirstie Alley is dealing with the same things. And both of them are still hot, just like Post.

Boring Music

I just poked my head up form the keyboard and thought, Christ, that is one boring-ass song. I don't know what the song was, but I realized I have a whole pants-load of droning alt-rock on my Nomad. And I don't like it all that much. I think the progenitor of all that stuff for me is Red Red Meat's Jimmywine Majestic, even though that album isn't all that drony. Where did all this shit come from? I need to start cranking up the AC/DC more, as if I don't crank it up enough already. Time to set up a new bike riding playlist. Heavy on the AC/DC and the Flogging Molly.

Margaret Kane, Runaway Bride

I can't be the only one who has noticed this, can I? I am convinced that the reason the story of Jennifer Wilbanks became a national story, not because of the Laci Peterson factor, not because of the big wedding factor, but because subconsciously the American public thinks she looks like a Keane Doll. And Americans love Keane dolls.

Jennifer Wilbanks, Runaway Bride

A Big Eyed Waif from Margaret Keane

And now the two of them in combination:

Destruction and and the Hidden World

I don't think I'm alone in loving DVD commentary tracks, often more than I like the movie itself. A lot of time, you get details that are larger than the movie itself. like with the director commentary for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. Gore Verbinski talks about how hard it was to find any beautiful cove that wasn't completely developed b y people already. Look one direction and see verdant palms and cerulean sea. Turn around and check out the 40-room hotel and the attached 24-hour casino.

When the entire world is overdeveloped, sometimes destruction is an creator of new horizons and views. Two stories along that line, one from the US and one from Iraq.

Iraq first . After the first Gulf War, there were uprisings in the Mesopotamian Marshlands in southern Iraq. As part of crushing those uprisings, Saddam Hussein (using British plans that dated from the 1950s colonial period) built “an extensive and elaborate system of drainage and diversion structures”. Sounds like dams and canals to me, but it may be something more.

In any case, when the U.S. invaded in 2003, dykes near Basra were destroyed, which reflooded approximately 20% of the area. The Eden Again project is dedicated to taking this opportunity to rebuild the wetlands, and make better use of the water. (“Eden Again” comes from the legend that the Garden of Eden story may be based on these wetlands.)

The other example of creation from disaster I read about today involves the Glen Canyon. Any of you who know a bit bout the environmental movement are probably familiar with Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang. One of the main plot concepts in that book was to blow up the Glen Canyon Dam, which created the artificial reservoir called Lake Powell and covered up canyons that Abbey considered as beautiful as any in the world.

Well, the ongoing drought in the southwest has caused Lake Powell to drop by 144 feet, to about 33% of what it was in July of 1999. The drought has many disturbing implications for drinking water and power generation in the Southwest and in Southern California. But ill winds and silver linings mean that you can go and see the beauty that Abbey wrote about in 1875, beauty that hasn’t been visible for over 30 years.

Travel writer Susan Spano wrote about this for the LA Times, though I read about it in the Tampa Tribune: Exposing Utah's depths

Opera Residue

So I went with the folks to go see the Orlando Opera put on Aida. It was fine, enjoyable, even though I came up against my basic disassociation from the Opera form again. I can listen to classical all day long, can enjoy musicals, and Gilbert and Sullivan and all sorts of performances that are related. But listening to singers perform at me in a language I don't understand puts me off, and often puts me to sleep.

And this is Aida, for god's sake! A well-performed version of it! And I still stared and stared, and then dozed just a little.

That said: I really like the poster. The Orlando Opera has a local Orlando guy -- Larry Moore -- do the posters for each of their seasons, and they're just beautiful. The Salome was a particular standout, but I tend not to buy posters of performances I didn't actually go to. Not always, but usually.

It's a shame the Aida poster isn;t online, because it is quite exceptional. Moore works in pastels, though I see from one of his other sites (larrymoorestudios.com ) that he also does fine art.

Speaking if fine, fine art, I feel I should my pal El Rey every time I mention art. Somewhere else on the site is a story I did about buying art from him, along with photos of the finished pieces. He has also started a blog, talking about his "process", just like some fancy-schmancy paint slinger. And remember: Every El Rey purchase you make goes to the fund that keeps him off the streets of the Mission District, begging tourists for cigarettes and coffee. No change, just smokes and joe.

Fake Bios

On a totally separate topic, today I ran across Laura Ingraham's web site for her radio show. I don't want to get ranty, especially about one of the Eva Gabors of political punditry ("WHY is she famous again?"), so I won't. But one thing about her site was really annoying: her fake bio.

Don't get me wrong: I'm a huge fan of fake bios. I've written a lot of 'em, like this or this or these).

But boy, Ingraham's fake bio is just lousy. Because it reads like a wish list, instead of something funny or interesting or fresh.

I mean, that's just dull. Second rate. For someone who can twist a fact until it screams for mommy in the service of her views, you'd think she'd have a little more supple imagination about something besides the Gay and Lesbian Organization at Dartmouth and Bill Clinton's blowjobs.

Crap, that was getting close to rant land. Sorry.

Full disclosure: the fake bio idea is one I swiped from Harlan Ellison, though I'm sure it's been around for longer than that.

Here's one from Ellison, from his collection The Essential Ellison:

And here's probably my favorite fake bio of Neil Gaiman's from the whole passel of fake bios he did for the trade paperback collection "The Sandman: Season of Mists":

Just lovely. 8 short stories, for your pleasure. The trade paperback also has excellent Nadar*-style photos of the contributors. The fantastic graphic design (usually by Dave McKean, I think) of the Sandman trade paperbacks is one of their finest, and possibly most overlooked, qualities.

* Nadar (Felix Tournachon) was a bohemian who took up the photography in 1850s Paris. He made portraits of people like Baudelaire, Dumas, Berlioz, Sarah Bernhardt, Theophile Gautier, and others.

Keith Giffen

For no particular reason, the name Keith Giffen popped into my head. Probably because I was thinking about the Legion of Super Heros and the "Five Year Leap" storyline that Giffen initiated, back in the late 80s. It may be my favorite series ever involving the traditional super hero format.

And thus: the Keith Giffen Resource Page.