NMT: 01 MAY 07 Tori Amos --- American Doll Posse

This may be a week late, but it took awhile to figure out what I thought of it, and I may not have been doing these NMT for awhile now, but this album deserves some words.

Tori Amos' latest, American Doll Posse is a sprawling mess of an album. And I mean that in a good way. Each song is by different entities, each with their own webpage (the wiki is a good place to start).

Short review: Multiple Personality Disorder never sounded so good!!!

It's a bit ridiculous, a bit pretentious, a bit crazy, but also pretty damn brilliant and when it works, it really works.

The best songs are "by" Clyde and Pip. Funnily enough the songs I like the least are the ones "by" Tori. That persona is a bit worn out for her I guess.

Basically this album is 16 songs with a bunch of other interstitial material thrown in.

Stand out tracks are "Body and Soul", "Girl Disappearing", "Bouncing Off Clouds", and "You Can Bring Your Dog".

When she rocks, she can really rock, there's some great glamtastic stuff going on here. The sensitive piano oriented plaintive stuff on this album doesn't move me, though. But luckily there's not so much of that this time around.

I have to wonder if this album won't turn off long time fans while not doing anything to pique the interest of new listeners.

It's a bit too conceptual, a bit too unlike where she's been most of her career. It's a gutsy move, whether it's rewarded commercially, it definitely sounds as if she found it rewarding artistically.

Word of the Day (Annie Lennox Edition)

Gobsmacking

That hooligans run rampant at a house party isn't gobsmacking, that Annie Lennox has two teen daughters, that's gobsmacking (at least to me).

(and just pretend that I posted a word of the day yesterday, use your imagination to determine which story out there most likely smacked my gob)

Things I've Been Doing, But Not Blogging About

Saw Spidey 3 on the 12:01 showing Thursday night. Liked it. Emo hair and a hint of eye-liner is the new goatee. Also, I loved all the musical theatre touches in the film and broadly played melodrama. In many ways this was the episode in the franchise truest to its comic book roots. Furthermore, it's easy to take for granted what you're seeing since CGI effects are so common, but this film is incredibly gorgeous and the Flint Marko into Sandman sequence is worth the price of admission alone.

Went to Hollywood Park to watch and wager on the Kentucky Derby. I had the 8 horse to win. D'oh! I knew I was in trouble at the first turn when the jockey was standing up trying to get his horse to rate, and the horse just wouldn't slow down. It was a great ride just to have enough left to finish second. Luckily one of my many bets included an exacta box with the 7 horse. Woohoo! Paid $101.80 per 2 dollars bet. If it had been an 8-7 finish instead of 7-8 my woohoo! would have been more like WOOHOO!!!, oh well.

Grabbed my camera, but the place didn't seem very photogenic this trip. Wasn't all that crowded, the live races weren't very interesting, and horse racing isn't the Sport of Kings anymore (even if the Queen of England showed up at the Kentucky Derby for the first time).

You Know Those Posts Where I Complain About a Much More Famous Person Stealing One of My Ideas, Yeah This Is One of Them

This time it's Mark Steyn who I'm not quite accusing of plagarism. Way back when, I connected Sheryl Crow's supposed joke regarding one square toilet visits with the new policy of fortnightly trash collection in some councils in Great Britain.

Well, look at this paragraph Steyn posted at The Corner (hat tip Instapundit):

If George Bush put a microchip in your garbage under the Patriot Act, there'd be mass demonstrations across the land. But do it in the guise of saving the planet and everyone's fine with it. Meanwhile, to encourage recycling, garbage collection has been halved from weekly to fortnightly. As a result, flies swarm and rats gambol. One of the biggest causes of improved health and life expectancy over the last 150 years has been what we now regard as simple hygiene: clean bathroom facilities and waste disposal. Between Miss Crow and Her Majesty's Government, we seem determined to reverse that.

He gets points for the added value of comparing the reception of Gaiaist influenced ecototalitarianism and supposed anti-terror overreaching by the Bush Administration. If Bush only repurposed the Global War on Terror into the Global Initiative to Save Gaia, he'd still be reviled, but maybe a touch less so.

Either I'm really brilliant on a Mark Steyn level, or we're both being really obvious.

You Make the Call!!!

Word of the Day (Cinco de Mayo Edicion)

Gobsmacking

I would have done a Mexican themed gobsmacking in honor of Cinco de Mayo, but our neighbor to the north taunts me so with stories of gobsmackingness.

To say that Canada Post were acting like pussies wouldn't be entirely unfair.

When this letter carrier went to his supervisor and requested to have this house stricken from his/her route for the reason given, the proper response would have been to laugh loudly in his/her face and if the request was timed just so, a long and voluminous spit take spewing hot coffee would have been in order.

Instead, the customer is forced to pick up his mail at the post office.

This serves to answer my question from yesterday, rather than being too hard on Canada, I'm not being hard enough.

Word of the Day (Cryptozoological Edition)

Gobsmacking

Am I picking on Canadians too often?

Watching the Rally in the Valley

From the Reagan Library in Simi Valley a few quick observations.

The Democrats made a huge mistake in refusing to have a debate hosted by FNC. Having Chris Matthews host the Republican debate has been good for the Republicans collectively (at least so far).

Having a hostile host (and Matthews so far has been much more antagonistic than Brian Williams was towards the Democrats) helps sharpen the message being delivered and allows the GOP candidates to shine.

Debates should be adversarial, if these candidates aren't going to debate each other directly (and there's too many to make that feasible), then it's helpful to have a surrogate adversary in the host.

Other quick impressions, McCain seems even crankier than usual, maybe he saw all the good press Sen. Gravel got and was jealous.

All the candidates who answered the question on Iraq did so in a strong and defensible manner. Gov. Romney and Mayor Giuliani did so especially well. The others fall into the background (Rep. Paul excepted), but they definitely stand out.

Another impression, Republicans really do like America as it is much better than Democrats do (and that's not just about the current office holder, it goes much deeper than that).

Giuliani answered the Roe v Wade answer well (and most correctly).

Rep. Hunter turned a question about having to moderate to get elected into an answer all about the border fence. Probably a smart move, maybe not.

Giuliani went back to the moderate question and pushed his message of effective leadership well.

Wow, again, the camera does not love Sen. McCain (and he's too rambly).

Follow Up to A Different Blog's Word of the Day

A few days ago Pastor Jeff's "word of the day" was discipline.

I quipped in the comments that it was "one fine album".

Not being familiar with the album he asked if I recommended it. I'll just YouTube my answer.



Above is a performance (with interview interspersed) of the title track Discipline. Sheer instrumental mastery and compositional sophistication fully displayed. Amazing stuff.



Next, the beautiful Matte Kudasai, a lush and wonderful song captured in a performance of a more recent vintage. Adrian Belew has a perfect voice to accompany this soundscape.

Another track off of Discipline is Elephant Talk. That freaky thing Tony Levin is playing is called a Chapman Stick. It's used extensively throughout this album and lends the whole project a unique sound.



I love this stuff, I guess I can understand not loving this stuff, but only barely. It is a little too smart for its own good at times, and prog rock can be pretentious. King Crimson didn't avoid some pretentiousness on this album, but it's still such a fantastic document of a group of musicians at the top of their game, that a little sefl-seriousness is forgivable.

So if those three songs aren't a recommendation to buy this album (there are more tracks as amazing as those on that album), then I don't know what else to say.

I Have Some Suggestions . . .

A Canadian magazine seeks candidates for "the worst Canadian", naturally I have a few suggestions.

Unfortunately, I can't find the links and sources for my candidates, you'll just have to take my word for the existence of these folks.

Candidate A (or is that Ehh?): Derek MacIntyre of Dauphin, Manitoba (b. 1904 d. 1983)
It was reported by reliable witnesses that over a 50+ year period Derek visited the same diner on Main St. and in all those visits not once said please or thank you to any of the waitstaff.

Candidate B: Dominic Marie de Borchave-Deveraux of Hull, Quebec (b. 1953 - )
He is reported to be the smelliest French Canadian in all of Quebec (no small feat). Through a combination of infrequent bathing, eschewing of niceties such as soap, toothpaste, deodorant (too bourgeois), and his work as an artist specializing in mixed media installations that focus on creative taxidermy, coupled with his diet consisting mainly of french bread liberally drizzled with melted garlic butter, this aging dirty hippie manages to be the singularly stinkiest gentleman in all of Canada (again, no small feat).

Candidate C: Robert "Bonzo" Dillingham of Vancouver, British Columbia (b. 1983 - )
Known amongst his friends as the biggest mooch in all of Vancouver. Is reported that he takes the biggest and most frequent bong hits at any social gathering, and furthermore has not once been known to have shared his own stash or pitched in when new supplies were being procured.

Candidate D: Jack Brockton of Whitehorse, Yukon (b. 1937 - )
This person may have a Canadian passport, but he can hardly call himself a Canadian. He doesn't drink beer, doesn't like hockey, and thinks nationalized health care is a big waste of money and a huge mistake. Furthermore, he thinks Canada is lucky to have the United States as a neighbor and thinks folks who whine about the USA are silly. Truly villainous thoughts for a Canadian.

Anyway, those are my suggestions. I'm sure there must be worse Canadians out there.

(and before I forget, heh heh, the magazine is named "The Beaver", heh heh)

Word of the Day (You Mean With That Title This Wasn't Already a Porn Show?)

Gobsmacking

Oops. Comcast has something on their face, I think it's egg, at least I hope it's egg.

Giving the People What They Want . . .

. . . and what the people want is NAKED MANNEQUINS!!!

Noticed that on sitemeter the majority of my hits lately have been image searches through google to old posts. The image that comes up most frequently was the naked mannequin image that capped this post.

Well, if you look at the flickr set in which that shot was included, there are more naked mannequins where that one came from, so here are all the naked mannequin shots in one convenient blogpost.







I'm all about service.

(and if you click on the photo you'll be taken to the flickr page where you can get the full sized shot for whatever it is you plan on doing with it)

Word of the Day (The Future Is Now Edition)

Gobsmacking

I probably shouldn't be gobsmacked at all about this, it's just another step in the evolution of the internet. This part caught my attention, though

"There is a weaving together of entertainment and promotion and marketing," he added. "It's difficult to say where one ends and the other begins."

Locking future generations into the Disney brand. Mickey Mouse Forever! Kids have been marketed to for awhile now, it's nothing new, but it's getting increasingly sophisticated and a touch creepy.

(also, I can't help getting the feeling that some folks who might later end up being on Dateline might also find this new service attractive)

Sometimes the Money Follows the Science, and Sometimes the Science Follows the Money . . .

The fervor favoring 'doing something' immediately about global warming has increased even as the scientific data supporting the primacy of manmade causes to that warming have decreased.

At least that's what this climatologist claims (hat tip Tim Blair).

I think this explanation/analysis says quite alot

And the political realm in turn fed money back into the scientific community. By the late 1990's, lots of jobs depended on the idea that carbon emissions caused global warming. Many of them were bureaucratic, but there were a lot of science jobs created too. I was on that gravy train, making a high wage in a science job that would not have existed if we didn't believe carbon emissions caused global warming. And so were lots of people around me; and there were international conferences full of such people. And we had political support, the ear of government, big budgets, and we felt fairly important and useful (well, I did anyway). It was great. We were working to save the planet!

Checking Myself, Before I Wreck Myself (LDS Edition)

Ken Jennings has a post up regarding what he sees as a resurgence in anti-Mormon bigotry. I think he's right, I think it's on the increase, and I think it's shameful (Andrew Sullivan to name names was especially shameful in this regard).

I don't share his faith, but I share his concern over the manner in which his faith is being maligned.

Before I get too self righteous on this matter, I checked to see whether I poked fun at the LDS before, and turns out I did take a few swipes.

In a post where I pointed out Ken Jennings sarcastic suggestions for Jeopardy!, I titled the post, "Are Later Day Saints Allowed to be THAT Bitchy and Catty?". First, my apologies for getting the name of the faith wrong, it's Latter not Later, I know this, just didn't see it as I was typing, and nobody ever pointed it out these many months later (or is that latter?), second, I think Bitchy and Catty was overkill, 'sarcastic' would have worked much better, thirdly, as far as I know sarcasm is an allowable form of comedy for Latter Day Saints, but I was using comedic overstatement for effect, so forgive me.

The only times I have referenced Mormons was regarding Ken. Beginning where I first linked to Ken Jennings and was pointing out that he has a new (at least then it was new) blog. I was approving of his hippie hatred, as is clear to anyone who reads this blog, that is one group for which I believe no type of discrimination or bigotry is uncalled for.

That was a tweak at Ken, not a swipe at his faith, I hope that is how it would be received.

The second time was on the day Snakes on a Plane was released, and that was post like a mother%#$@er day (as an explanationg for the faux-expletives). He was jokingly referring to placing some bets, and I jokingly referred to the prohibition against gambling amongst Latter Day Saints.

It's always seemed a bit strange that the old time locals in Vegas and a big part of the important folks about town have been Mormons (less so today as the city expands, but then there still is Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid from nearby Searchlight).

But I'm sure my experience isn't unique in that whenever I've met a Latter Day Saint they've been good, decent, and warm folks, so if their faith is rather shiny and new and if their origins seem a bit strange, so be it. Regardless of where it began, this faith is one of the better ones as far as how it treats those outside of their faith, and for my money that's the best way to measure a faith.

No faith has a monopoly on belief, or believers, so how they react when they meet the unfaithful is important, and on that count the Latter Day Saints are golden and their faith's ability to adjust their views has been exemplary (the shift in attitudes towards blacks for instance)

Faiths I may not be so generous towards include, Scientology, Islamic Extremists, Extreme Secularists, Gaiaists, Jainism (really, space clad priests?) and any New Age-y repackaging of any sort of Eastern Mysticism. All that stuff is just plain crazy.

Word of the Day

Gobsmacking

My theory regarding Robert Horry is that he is a voodoo priest. During the last five minutes of key playoff games, he calls down the spirit of Pete Maravich and uses those shooting skills when needed.

Of course this comes at a high cost, which is why he's a seemingly mediocre player the rest of the time, and acts as if he's in his mid-50s rather than mid-30s.

His legend grows.

He presents a difficult conundrum for folks who get to vote for the Hall of Fame. His stats don't justify consideration, but he's collected a series of moments and has been a contributor on some amazing teams, and he holds some important playoff records (2nd most games played, most 3 point shots made, 6 rings with 3 teams). He'll get votes, he should at least have a little exhibit, even if he's not a hall of fame level player, he continues to have a noteworthy career.

(of course, what's really gobsmacking is that I'm a year older than him)