Ginger's follies, foibles and fixations.
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| You Listen to Me, Mr. Kick-Ass Ginger's follies, foibles and fixations. |
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Friday, September 19, 2003 La La La, It's The Friday Five!  [photo from Filmtracks] 1. Who is your favorite singer/musician? Lately it has been Danny Elfman. Why? Have you ever seen him perform "Ain't This the Life" with Oingo Boingo on Urgh! A Music War? Have you heard the album "Nothing to Fear?" Or the score to Pee Wee's Big Adventure? Or Jack Skellington's lovely singing voice in Nightmare Before Christmas? Or the score from every other film released by Hollywood these days? Then you wouldn't have to ask. What would "The Simpsons" be without it's distinctive theme song? Plus, he's a redhead. And he's still sort of weirdly hot even though he's nearly as old as my parents. 2. What one singer/musician can you not stand? Lenny Kravitz. Why? Even though every song I've ever heard of his has been repetitive, derivative crap, there are lots of other people who seem to think he's brilliant, thus encouraging him to pump out more repetitive, derivative crap. And his videos are awful. 3. If your favorite singer wasn't in the music business, do you think you would still like him/her as a person? It's hard to say. The fact that he has opted to marry Bridget Fonda and not me is not in his favor, but judging from his general artistic sensibility, his stage presence, his lyrics and the brief interviews I've seen or read, I think he'd be an interesting person to know. Whether I'd like him or not would depend a great deal on how nice he is to me. 4. Have you been to any concerts? If yes, who put on the best show? Well, unfortunately I have never seen Danny Elfman in concert, a fact which plagues me with regret. As reported in this space previously, the best show I've ever seen was The Flaming Lips and the Butthole Surfers in Omaha. Stone Temple Pilots were there too, ostensibly the headliners (riding high after their first album became a huge, MTV-friendly hit). They managed not to embarass themselves, but they were clearly rank amateurs next to the mindblowing sets of the previous two, far more experienced, bands. I'd have to say Flaming Lips were the better of the two, but both were so great I left my body. And no! I was not on any sort of mind-altering substance! I might have been dehydrated, though. 5. What are your thoughts on downloading free music online vs. purchasing albums? Do you feel the RIAA is right in its pursuit to stop people from dowloading free music? There are a lot of people with stronger opinions on this. Personally having a dial-up connection means I've downloaded almost no music, except for a couple of demos, rare, and live recordings that can't be purchased. Otherwise, I probably would have bought them, because I find that paying for a CD is much more convenient than spending hours downloading songs onto my computer, and then burning them onto CD. It doesn't work for me. On the main, I believe that making art readily available in any form to those who might enjoy it is a good thing. What's bad for "the industry" (ie. not taking every possible penny from consumers of pop music) could arguably be bad for the artist, but what's good for "the industry" can be bad for the artist too. I believe that file-sharing and the resulting fallout can push a restructuring of the music business in which artists will gain more autonomy from labels, and put themselves in a position to actually receive more of the money fans pay for their music. How exactly that will work, I don't know - but I'm sure there are a few people out there with some good ideas. posted by Ginger | 11:30 AM Thursday, September 18, 2003 Yoga Bitch is Back! I went to see this show a few months ago, which is directed by a friend of mine, and it was a much good time. It's funny because it's true, and she talks about pee and Prada bags. Go tonight, because it's your last chance... --------------------------------- YOGA BITCH Two nights only! When Suzanne Morrison arrived in Bali, Indonesia, for a two-month yoga retreat, she thought she was on the path to inner peace and killer abs. She imagined that she would return to the States a changed person, no longer a cynical cocktail waitress but instead, an Enlightened Being who would OM into each morning and massage her boyfriend's third eye before going to bed at night. But the universe had other plans for her... A very funny and very true story brought to you by the director of the Off-Broadway hit, 21 DOG YEARS: Doing Time @ Amazon.com, YOGA BITCH offers an irreverent glimpse at what can go wrong on the road to enlightenment. ST MARK'S THEATER * SEPTEMBER East Village * 94 St Mark's Place * just off 1st Ave Reservations: 212-868-4444 OR http://www.smarttix.com Presented by Horse Trade Theater http://www.HorseTrade.info -------------------------- posted by Ginger | 2:24 PM Tuesday, September 16, 2003 No Match for a Good Blaster at your Side, Kid "Do it because you love Star Wars... or just to annoy people." Many thanks to Fred for the link! Update Sept. 17: I was thinking about this topic earlier this morning - which is scary enough - and it struck me as wrong that people who embrace the Star Wars religion call themselves "Jedi." Jedi are the monks--studied, disciplined, gifted and dedicated--and Sith are basically just the monks of the Dark Side. But what do you call the ordinary, day-to-day folks who aren't "with the Force," but do recognize its power for good or ill -- like what Han Solo became at the end of the first film. Force-ists? Somehow calling the whole belief system simply "The Force" strikes me as wrong because it describes a particular thing, comparable to chi in some Eastern religions. Since this "energy field" is arguably the only real component of this religion1, however, perhaps calling it "The Force" kind of works, but this doesn't lend itself to a handy label for its proponents. Any ideas? 1 Then there's the whole midichlorian thing, which I think we can all agree is best left ignored. posted by Ginger | 6:03 PM Sunday, September 14, 2003 Shoddy Journalism Some snotnose at the USC Daily Trojan didn't bother to fact-check this article about a protest of John Ashcroft's recent visit to Boston. (link via Mike) Okay, look -- there is no piece of music called "The Imperial Death March" anywhere in any of the Star Wars movies. The correct title for the piece they are apparently referring to is The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme), which does NOT appear in the first Star Wars (which is now, unfortunately, known properly as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope). This briliant theme by John Williams, which evokes the ominous fascistic power and terrible charisma of one of cinema's greatest villains, is heard for the first time in The Empire Strikes Back, with echoes and pieces of it popping up in the scores of subsequent Star Wars films. Good fucking grief. You would think that USC would be more respectful of their most culturally significant alumnus. posted by Ginger | 10:35 PM |
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