Moz on tour

Morrissey to play here in NYC on June 30 at Madison Square Garden. I'm hoping it's at the Theatre at MSG and not the main arena. But I have a feeling it will be in the arena. In any case, I'm glad it's on a Saturday!

Check the True To You website for dates in your area. There are lots of dates.

Class of 1984

TGIF! TGIF! And it's a three-day weekend for me. I'm so excited I can just spit!

Who remembers this movie? Did you see it? I went to see this twice when it came out. I had a "crush" on that wild chick. Every Male Mo in the world loves a bad girl with an attitude. I'm sure if I see it today, I might be a little embarrased that I loved this flick so much that I drew that bad-ass punk chicky a thousand times over in class. I guess I just loved that outfit she had on. I had a pretty big punk fascination at the time though the only band I was listening to was Blondie.

I may have to rent this movie this weekend to refresh my memory of it. The reason why I thought of this movie is because every time I pass by my old school on the way to work, these memories keep flooding in and each day I pass by, I get a "remember this?" thought into my brain.

Next stop - Videodrome starring Debbie Harry herself.

Vinyl Mania

Another one bites the dust. VinylMania closed it's doors on March 18. Off course we are not surprised as every record shop takes its turn to close down. I mean, I guess it had to happen. And why should I be upset at all this when I haven't bought a vinyl record since the early 90s. But it's not even just the record shops but also shops that sell CDs. If Tower Recods could not keep up, how will the small shops do? It was sad to see Tower Records go though because I had special memories connected to that place as do most music maniacs. When I was 17 that would be around 1984, I abandoned the local records stores in Queens to that of Manhattan's Village shops. My first stop on my big venture out in the Village was Tower Records. On my first ever trip to Tower Records, I bought Depeche Mode's Speak & Spell. And when WLIR (The Station That Dares To Be Different 92.7) announced the release of The Smith's Hatfull of Hollow, I dropped everything ran over to Tower Records and dashed my way over to the import section to buy my most treasured and most beloved Smiths record. It began a love affair that is still strong. But soon I would even abandon Tower Records to those of smaller spaces. Those little shops where you walk in and hear the door make chiming noises. One in particular is located still at St. Marks place. SOUNDS was where I went to buy just about all my records. This is where you will find slightly used LPs, promos and imports at half the price as well as bootlegs. I would always find what I was looking for and there was so much music for me to catch up on and SOUNDS had it all. I remember buying Talk Talk, Alphaville, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, Soft Cell and a bunch of others and not spend any more than $20. And these albums got played plenty. And I always made sure to by blank tapes (chrome off course) whenever I finished my records shopping so that I can make a mix of all the music I had just bought for the walkman or the portable stereo. Imagine if we could blog then.

There was so much warmth in all that. Hunting for your records from store to store and getting home all excited and making those tapes. Now in the digital age, things have gotten so cold and sterile. But I'm mostly reminiscing and romanticizing the exciting days of my youth. I just wish it had the same hold on me now as it did back then so that I cold enjoy life more. Ah well....

St. Marks is losing its charm and I just know that it won't be long before SOUNDS closes its doors too.

Please watch

Perhaps if more people realized that we are not the center of the universe and that we reside on just a mote of dust in this vast universe with a thin layering of life, we might like each other more. Or even me for that matter.

Lunar Eclipse

There was a Lunar Eclipse last Saturday. And what was I doing? I don't even remember, but I had not the slightest hint of this going on. I guess I need one of those calendars.

So, if you're into this and you missed it or if you didn't miss it, watched it and want to see more of it, then head over to this site where there are some fantastic photos of the eclipse from certain parts of the world. There's one link that will show you a movie of the whole eclipse which looked very dramatic.

From APOD website:

"Completely immersed in Earth's cone-shaped shadow during the total eclipse phase, the lunar surface is still illuminated by sunlight, reddened and refracted into the dark shadow region by a dusty atmosphere."

I Satellite - Cover Songs

Sometime ago I posted about a Chicago based synth artist by the name of I SATELLITE. I was checking out his website recently and noticed he's got page with cover versions of some cool stuff out there. You can download them from his site. The mp3s are towards the bottom of the page.

Songs include:

• Alphaville - Into The Dark
• Alphaville - A Victory of Love
• ABBA - I Am The City
• New Order - Your Silent Face
• Japan - Life In Tokyo (two versions)

I was very impressed with his version of Alphaville's A Victory of Love and New Order's Your Silent Face (a favorite NO song!) He sounds like Marian Gold as well as Bernard Sumner.

Good stuff. You should check it out.

Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker

Over the weekend I got the new Skinny Puppy CD - Mythmaker. I've been listening to it since.

The album begins with signature Ogre's vocoded voice titled "Magnifishit" a great opening track.

The whole album is a great deal of Skinny Puppy coming back in full force. My opinion is that The Greater Wrong of Right though a good release does not have that "we're back" feeling. Whereas Mythmaker is saying "We're really back!" Just hearing that opening track with Ogre's signature vocoder voice put a near smile on my face. I thought "finally" a kick-ass beginning. No slow build-up or anything. At each level, the opening track builds to a good dose of synth sounds echoing in stereophonic pleasure. I started thinking to myself that maybe this is as good as it gets, the next song might disappoint me. But it didn't and I enjoy listening to the entire album. I think Puppy's release Last Rights was the first time they began incorporating more melodic elements into their song and you'll find some of that in Mythmaker as well. I like the melodic beginnings and angry harsh choruses in some of their songs.

I have yet to venture out to all the side projects that Ogre and the rest have been involved with. To date, I have some old releases. One from Download, Cyberaktif, and the single Doubting Thomas.

Grey Gardens - Final

Walter Kerr Theatre - 3/2/07

Some reviewers state the women of Grey Gardens are mentally ill and probably didn't even know that they were being exposed through the Maysles' documentary.

I just think these were two beautiful and talented people who did not get the chance they deserved and lived a secluded life outside of the world. Where inside Grey Gardens, time seemed to have stood still. Where little Edie still sees herself as a little girl who dreams of taking off to her New York career after the age of 56 and big Edie who believes she's never strained her voice and how she should get it back to the way it was when she was in her 40s.


I don't care much for musicals. I can't stand all that singing and dancing "Broadway" style. The lyrics they use are so silly as in this musical, the song "Jerry Likes My Corn" proved to me that I may never see a musical again. The first act killed me with all the exhausting Broadway routine of song and dance. For most people, the first act was a necessary as we had to see just where these women were coming from. How they ended up the way they did. It was interesting only a little bit to me. You first realize how important music is to big Edie. Well, you'd have to be if you had your own live in pianist. A gay one at that, complete with those neck scarves they they all wore at the time. Total poofster, and one that no rich bitch in East Hampton can do without.

Anyway, it was during the second act that shook me to attention. Everything was familiar and I was amazed at how closely the characters resembled both big and little Edie. This is where little Edie becomes the lovable innocent looking after her mother after all these years and never getting the chance to get out and live. It's a little heartbreaking towards the end when she's all packed up to leave Grey Gardens but hears her mother crying for her because she's starving and can't open up the can. She puts everything down and gets back to tend to her mother.

Morning Rain

There are other rain songs out there. But today I thought of this one only because on the way to work, I pass by my JHS and my HS. They were just a few blocks away from each other. So this classic by the Eurythmics is the obvious choice for me.

The video makes me want to take the plane and head on over to Scotland. Great scenery.

Happy Friday, all!!

Grey Gardens III

Today I purchased my ticket to Grey Gardens! And at a discount too. I'm going to see it this Friday night. Yay!

And you thought I was done writing about this. :)

There is an official site (not the musical site). And a Yahoo! group. From what I've read, the Marble Faun actually posts to that group.

Fortunate

Friday night and we're still celebrating. My friend D and a couple of other ladies took me to Max Brenner again and we actually had dinner before going towards chocolate pizzas and truffles. It was fantastic. After that we headed over to Madame X. You know how you pass a place so many times wondering what it's all about but never finding the reason to be in there? Anyway, one of D's friends was also celebrating a birthday so he was having his party over at this place. We went upstairs to a private area and saw a gang of young and mature people hanging out. There seemed to be a theme going on as a lot of people came in wearing wigs. Both boys and girls. We sat there observing the scene and I'm fine doing just that these days. We sat next to a beautiful Asian girl who was wearing a roaring 20s get-up complete with feathered headband. Turns out she was the entertainment which we missed. I think she said she was doing some tap dancing or some kind of dance. Now she had stationed herself in the corner as the resident tattoo artist. She painted D a fabulous sparkling tattoo on her arm. Met the birthday boy who had just turned 30. I told him how old I had just gotten and he said that it was a remarkable age and I was wondering how he'd know that. Anyway, had some fun and left and I have D to thank for it. Nights like this often make me forget a lot of crap that I usually think of and can actually live through the rest of the weekend feeling fine.

Came home just after midnight to find my light bubs in the living room were all blown up. This is the third time since I've moved here that I had to change the bubs. How often do you have to change your light bulbs? Not such an easy task as the ceiling is high and I have to get up on the chair to do it. By the way, my apartment still pretty much looks like I have just moved in and I'm now in my 6Th month! Time does not go by so slowly.

That Other Place

I know that there were or are a couple of you who have made visits to my other blog. For a while there, even though I was posting in here, I did go back and posted a few more entries.

If you've gone there lately, I'm sure you got a message saying that the blog is private only. Please note that I did not make it private for anyone other than myself. I'm not posting there regularly and I'm not inviting only certain people to read the blog.

I just didn't want to delete it completely and I also didn't want it to be accessible to the public anymore. I want to keep it for myself because I'd like to revert to some of the posts from time to time. I mean, I did write in there for about three years. Would you throw away your journal or your diary? There were some posts there that were highly personal and emotional. And I remember writing them thinking nobody would read them. But then as shocking as it was, there were people actually responding. They were all kind-hearted and respectful responses from some very nice people. It was nice to have people on my side for once.

In the old days, those feelings were either locked-up or written down somewhere in a book for my own eyes only. I don't know whether putting myself out there for a select people made me weak or strong. Only you can answer that, hopefully truthfully.

I really do miss it though. Some of those people are now gone. I guess blogging was a thing they can either take or leave. There wasn't much attachments for them and they can move on to other things. Perhaps they grew and learned something and didn't need it anymore.

For me, it's still a forum for my thoughts which never get the audience they deserve sometimes. And honestly, I do get a kick out of people's responses. I'm happy whenever a comment is made. And I get very excited and I usually post a response to the comments.

Where else can it be all about me? The life I've lived where I always stood in the background and I was never the center of anything.

I'm a very anxious person which is why some of my posts seem to have been done in a hurry or look incomplete. Usually, when I'm writing about something outside of emotions and feelings, I get kind of anxious. But when I write about what I'm writing about now, I can actually blah blah all day long with details filled in. Though I do seem to branch out from one thing to another.

So I guess I should conclude. And in short, please don't be offended if you made way to my older blog to find that it is now private. If you really do want to access it - though I don't see why, let me know and I'll add you in. And for those that were there from 2004 and on, thanks for some memories and support and all that. It may be just "something" to you guys but for me, I think a lot of it was important for me.

Things have been emotionally crazy for me lately though. I'm getting all sorts of negative emotions flooding in yesterday, today and tomorrow. So you've been warned.

The Secret vs. What The Bleep Do We Know

You know for a long time I've been going on about the movie What The Bleep Do We Know. And now out comes The Secret. And because these guys appeared on Oprah, you know they're all gonna flock to it. I'd rather they see What The Bleep because it was enough. Deepak Chopra is enough or even Dr. Wayne Dyer. These guys are all talking about the same thing. These idiots with The Secret are talking about it as if they made up the stuff.

I'm not being fair because I haven't seen the movie they're trying to pull off to the public. Rather I just saw them on Oprah and I'm making a judgement based on that. That one guy that says "I call it intention.." Dude, you didn't call anything. And you didn't make that up so stop trying to make us believe that you're the genius behind all this. That one guy dressed up like he's some kind of guru. I couldn't watch the whole thing.

Anyway, I urge you that if you're interested in that sort of stuff, skip it and see What The Bleep Do We Know instead. It's only fair since they're the first people to make a movie out of it.

Labels

I keep forgetting about the "labels" feature! I keep having to go back and put them there.

Grey Gardens II

Here's a little taste of Little Edith Beal in all her glory. To the tune of Madonna's "Hung Up" off course. Madonna would be proud.



Little Edith Beale's fashion show.

Grey Gardens

Grey Gardens - The Beales of Grey Gardens:

Aw forget it! I thought about writing a "review" of this and then remembered - I'm not a strong a reviewer. You guys can do that and what seems to me - with ease. I just can't throw all those words around and make it sound like it came out of some newspaper column or something.

By the way, when I post about a CD, DVD or anything like that, it's not really a "review" rather than just me saying "I got something and I like it." Or maybe write a few words about how I feel about the whole thing.

So here's how I feel about this DVD. It started out with a friend at work who started talking about it and I had no interest whatsoever in it. Until she lent me the Grey Gardens DVD and I was hooked. I have to credit my friend who pushed this on me somehow knowing that what's going on with Little Edith Beale is something I can relate to.

It's about a bird trapped in a cage. She longs to break out of the cage and hit the city of New York to finally make a career for herself. She likes to dance and sing. So does her mother big Edith Beale. Which is why they ended up living the way they did. A 28 room mansion in the Hamptons which is falling apart. Garbage everywhere, raccoons getting in the house, cats all over the place (imagine the smell). These two were part of the richest family in the world. The cousin and aunt of the late Jackie Onassis. They were once ordered to leave the house or fix it up. Ms. Onassis came to the rescue that one time but since then the house has deteriorated.

I feel so much for little Edith Beale when all she can think of is to leave that house and get to the city. "Any rats nest will do." Exactly how I felt all those years living in Arizona. When for some reason, I couldn't leave because of my father. Edith can't leave because of her mother who must be looked after.

Edith still dreams of becoming the dancer she always wanted to be. She often talks of never getting a chance. Missing out on everything. All on the account of her having to take care of her mom for 30 years. But I fell in love with her. Little Edith. The fashion icon. You've gotta see the makeshift outfits she puts together for herself. It's like a fashion show. And in later years, fashion designers have used little Edith's look on their runways!! As little Edith sometimes calls them "revolutionary." Her head is always covered. It's either a scarf, a towel, a sweater or something and all holding it together is this one broach which makes the entire outfit. She's got nowhere to go. They are both recluses but she takes the time to put outfits together and parades around in them just doing whatever.

Then there are the old pictures that they pass around to show to the film crew (Maysles brothers). These two were quite lookers in their young age. Breathtakingly beautiful pictures of both Ediths. Including in the room is a beautiful painted portrait of big Edith. At one time one of the cats gets behind it and does it's business. Memorable quote from big Edith: "No, I'm glad. I'm glad somebody's doing something what they want to do!"

Towards the end of the movie you see a bird taking off away from the roof of Grey Gardens. But inside you see little Edith Beale dancing around in this little room. All trapped, all wishing to spread her wings and fly away to get her life started. And she's only 56 years old.

In this DVD you are taken inside the lives of people who once had everything that they wanted. Money and all. Then all of it was stripped away and they were left to live in a home that would fall apart round them. And them along with it. You get to see a mother daughter relationship like no other.

I went out and bought the boxed set of this DVD. There's been quite an interest in the story. Now it being on Broadway and a movie about to be made starring Drew Barrymore. But this documentary was out in 1976! So it's had some kind of cult following. And usually I know about these things. Somehow, this one has passed me by until now. The boxed set included another DVD full of footage that was not seen in the first one. So much footage that it's a movie entirely on it's own. Here you can see so much more iconic fashion from little Edith. More singing and dancing and little Edith's philosophies.

Memorable quote from little Edith Beale: "You know what stays the same? Nature! The sun and the moon and everything else go on. In spite of man. He crumbles."

I do love her. After he mother died, little Edith Beale stayed at the mansion for another 4 to 5 years and then sold it. She moved to Bell Harbor in Florida and finally lived the remaining years of her life in luxury. She was given the chance to do some cabaret. But it never took off. But now, she's a star. She died in 2002.

I'm buying a Ouija board to contact her.

I know this was badly written.

Sarah Nixey - Sing, Memory

Some good songs here, namely, When I'm Here With You, Strengelove, The Collector, Endless Circles, Masquerade and... The Black Hit of Space.

I'm not the only one who has been praising the genius of the old Human League (coincidence? - And thanks XO!). It's a pretty good version of it in my opinion. This is not a U.S. release. I bought it on import. More of an impatient buy on my part. Not wanting to wait for a domestic release and thus getting burned by spending way too much for a CD. I might want to stop doing that and just head straight for the iTunes downloads rather than handing over my hard earned cash for a glossy CD packaging. But it's a choice you make.

Visage - DVD video collection (edited)

Coincidences never cease to amaze me. Just after posting about the whole Blitz scene I found this Visage collection of videos at Virgin yesterday while out doing some browsing. Well, I did intend to get the one thing, but then you know how it goes. I could not resit buying this.

I just like the scene in which Steve walks out of the Limousine to enter his Blitz night club. The quality of the videos are surprisingly well done.

The videos are presented in a seamless fashion. One video leading to the next.

Beat Boy was not such a great album. It was their last release in 1984. Love Glove possibly being the only listenable track in that album. Visage ended there. I guess it was interesting that the later videos were filmed in Egypt and other parts of Africa and some excellent scenery and shots were taken there. Steve is seen interacting with the locals engaging the kids of Egypt to style their hair and whatnot. I guess if I was in Egypt and had all those amazing scenes to film, I'd incorporate them into the videos even if the song had nothing to do with it. What does Love Glove have to do with the pyramids of Egypt? But still interesting to see a flamboyant Steve Strange amidst the locals and villagers of the land.

Still, it's a good buy for any fan of early masters of the VISual AGE.

It's just a day like any other day

I forgot my pod today. And I really needed some of those songs on the way to work. Today, of all days.

This has nothing to do with Valentines Day.

The weather decided to be extra crappy (I'm not surprised). Just that the thing is, I can no longer say I'm a thirty-something anymore. And I don't lie. Maybe the face could if I keep moisturising regularly.

This Friday I'm going to try and get discount ticket for Grey Gardens. Something I'm falling in love with and I'll write more about it soon. I despise most Broadway musicals, but I'm obsessed with these women and must see it. But, I can't really afford the $110.00 they're asking for orchestra seats. I guess I could go balcony. I don't know. I'll have to see tomorrow or Friday how I want to go about it.

I just felt a sudden jolt of joy and pleasure in thinking about all this. I hope it lasts the rest of the day.

Beautiful Darling

I got an e-mail today notifying me that there is in fact a movie in production on the life of Candy Darling. The e-mail came from a member of the production team and a friend of Candy Darling, Jeremiah Newton.

"Hello: You mentioned in your FACTORY GIRL review that someone should do something about Candy Darling. Well, we are. The documentary is called BEAUTIFUL DARLING/The Life and Times of Andy Warhol Superstar Candy Darling. We have been in production for 6 months now, and along with me, the producer is Gill Holland and the exec prod is Paul Morrissey."

More info can be found here and here.

Photo by Laura Rubin.