I keep thinking about reading J.G. Ballard's CRASH. And then I wonder "why?". I didn't even read the whole thing, but that was only b/c I got hung up on a slightly inserted lame social commentary. I think I got 20 pages into it...maybe there's something more the book has to offer aside from what I already read...which was pretty powerful stuff, from what I remember...I guess I might as well buy it and read it. It's such a short book as it is, it's not like it'll rob me of my time or anything...
Sux that Elliot Perlman's SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY is only in print in softcover! An oversized tome such as that looks its best in hardcover. It looks rather tacky in softcover, not to mention it's easier to damage. I don't know if they use plastic to form the softcovers, but hardcovers just don't look as fake. I know plastic and similar substances are not literally "fake", but to me they seem that way...hard to explain why...I want to read that book, but I'm so darn tired right now, I should be in bed. I have to return it to the library the day after tomorrow, or renew it. I've already renewed it once, one more time is all I've got. Seriously doubt I'll finish it by 23 days from now...maybe I'll get far enough through it to decide if it's worth buying...it's 700 pages, so...if I can get 200-275 pages of the way through it, I'll check it out again and see if I can stick with it to page 400. If I can get 400+ pages through it, I'll prolly buy it. I haven't even got to page 100 yet and I've had it for over a month. I guess anything's possible, but I really doubt I'll be able/willing to get to page 400 w/o having to check it out again...
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
the taste of yell in bloom...
Nirvana's NEVERMIND's reputation is one of many things that proves how dumb people are. The record throughout just proves that A) Kurt Cobain had a lust for life and had no reason to kill himself and B) that regardless of its influence and how common it sounds today, it's still a cut above the rest; Kurt Cobain didn't just whine about his problems. He 'wined' about much bigger topics. The record doesn't have much in the way of profound lyrics, but the passion with which he sings is explosive. Also, it wasn't as popular as it was in its day b/c of some misplaced idea that Nirvana invented grunge or anything like that. Nirvana wasn't the most 'original' sounding grunge band, nor did they invent grunge. However, they had a much broader appeal than most grunge bands. NEVERMIND's indie predecessor BLEACH still doesn't get the sales it deserves, but that's only b/c the common folk doesn't have enough time and will to dig through piles of records to find something they like. They're fine with what the radio has to offer. If BLEACH were advertised properly, it might have been the NEVERMIND before there was NEVERMIND. Of course, it does have a little of that murkiness that indie records are plauged with, which wasn't an issue with NEVERMIND, which the band decried as being "too polished" or whatever (rolls eyes). I think the band's complaints about NEVERMIND sounding too polished or whatever is rather ironic, considering IN UTERO was just as polished as NEVERMIND. Sure, it's more noisy and chaotic, but that doesn't make it a better record or any less polished. The production techniques of Geffen's mad scientists were in full effect all throughout Nirvana's major label stint. Even BLEACH had amazing sheen considering the amount of money spent on it (less than $1,000). I mean, it doesn't make sense that Nirvana wrote pop songs but didn't want the pop production. If he had kept making murky sounding records, the public would never have caught on and thus college rock/alternative/modern rock would have stayed obscure like it was in the 1980s and Kurt Cobain would still be talking about how much better his music was than Michael Jackson's and nobody would care except maybe some Kurt Cobain stalker, i.e.: someone who was "lucky" enough to live or travel close enough to Kurt Cobain's places of existence to hear what he was saying and couldn't help but be intoxicated by his words and want to feel them from inside...
Not that radio is any better than it was. Less than five years after Kurt Cobain's band disbanded N'Sync won a Grammy for Best New Band. Of course, marketing to spoiled children kind of back fired on the major labels in general - The Get Up Kids, Saves The Day, Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Thursday........none of those bands sell tons and tons of records, but their overall sales have replaced a big chunk of the major leagues' MVPs' sales. In other words, radio may still suck, but people aren't just accepting it. The internet probably keeps that going, but if it weren't for Nirvana, would anyone know something was fundamentally wrong? I mean, Milie Vanilli (sp?) was fraud, OK, but does that mean EVERY pop band is rotten to the core? And no, I'm not saying pop is evil; Mariah Carey and Celine Dion do tend to sing w/o conviction, but at least they can pretend to have passion. Backstreet Boys & N'Sync were so obviously in it for the money and nothing more. But the real proof that pop music isn't inherently evil is the phenominal talent of Michael Jackson. Quincy Jones first said this, or at least he was the first person I heard say this (in the bonus materials on the special edition of BAD from 2001), and I find it to be true: no matter what he sang, it always came out sounding personal to him. And then of course, the fact that Nirvana was basically a pop band with guitars instead of drum machines and synthesisers...but anyway, what I was trying to say with my "pop bashing" or whatever supplemental phrase you would have used, is that pop music USUALLY sucks, or, at least, it isn't as honest and pure as rock music in the majority of cases.
So yeah; Nirvana, I think, made people aware that you can listen to pop without sacrificing integrity and honesty. The internet simply provides a myriad of ways of helping people find pop music containing the often-times elusive honesty & integrity.
In the end, it does sound trite, it gets boring quick, very quick, heck, I feel stupid saying this, but it's true: NEVERMIND, now almost 20 years old, has yet to be equaled in its influence on popular culture. If I hadn't bought the album five+ times already and sold it just as many times just get a quick $1-$4, I'd go out and buy it right now...even albums that I have a personal connection to (I was 7 at the time of NEVERMIND's release and wasn't listening to the radio or watching MTV or VH1) tend to slip my hands too easily, after all, you can go back and re-buy them...if I wasn't two feet away from being dirt poor, it wouldn't be an issue prolly, but...anyway...
Not that radio is any better than it was. Less than five years after Kurt Cobain's band disbanded N'Sync won a Grammy for Best New Band. Of course, marketing to spoiled children kind of back fired on the major labels in general - The Get Up Kids, Saves The Day, Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Thursday........none of those bands sell tons and tons of records, but their overall sales have replaced a big chunk of the major leagues' MVPs' sales. In other words, radio may still suck, but people aren't just accepting it. The internet probably keeps that going, but if it weren't for Nirvana, would anyone know something was fundamentally wrong? I mean, Milie Vanilli (sp?) was fraud, OK, but does that mean EVERY pop band is rotten to the core? And no, I'm not saying pop is evil; Mariah Carey and Celine Dion do tend to sing w/o conviction, but at least they can pretend to have passion. Backstreet Boys & N'Sync were so obviously in it for the money and nothing more. But the real proof that pop music isn't inherently evil is the phenominal talent of Michael Jackson. Quincy Jones first said this, or at least he was the first person I heard say this (in the bonus materials on the special edition of BAD from 2001), and I find it to be true: no matter what he sang, it always came out sounding personal to him. And then of course, the fact that Nirvana was basically a pop band with guitars instead of drum machines and synthesisers...but anyway, what I was trying to say with my "pop bashing" or whatever supplemental phrase you would have used, is that pop music USUALLY sucks, or, at least, it isn't as honest and pure as rock music in the majority of cases.
So yeah; Nirvana, I think, made people aware that you can listen to pop without sacrificing integrity and honesty. The internet simply provides a myriad of ways of helping people find pop music containing the often-times elusive honesty & integrity.
In the end, it does sound trite, it gets boring quick, very quick, heck, I feel stupid saying this, but it's true: NEVERMIND, now almost 20 years old, has yet to be equaled in its influence on popular culture. If I hadn't bought the album five+ times already and sold it just as many times just get a quick $1-$4, I'd go out and buy it right now...even albums that I have a personal connection to (I was 7 at the time of NEVERMIND's release and wasn't listening to the radio or watching MTV or VH1) tend to slip my hands too easily, after all, you can go back and re-buy them...if I wasn't two feet away from being dirt poor, it wouldn't be an issue prolly, but...anyway...
Sunday, October 24, 2010
three times a seller...
Amazing. I finally have THREE buyer feedbacks on my Amazon seller profile. And so far I've had no unfair buyers leaving me feedback. So I'm still 100% positive. I guess I shouldn't say "so...", 'cause I'm fairly lucky that I've been able to ship all of the items I have/had in a timely fashion. A recent Amazon website update has really helped me out a lot; they allow me to pay for postage on their website and print a mailing label. I don't need to pay for it seperately either, it just comes out of the funds that result from the purchase. Sweeeet!!
Dear Leon, if you had the time and inclination to read this, I would have sent it in an email...
Was going to write this in reply to an email I received from a seller on Amazon (which was written in response to an email I sent to him first...)
...I hardly ever went to Barnes & Noble until they relocated to the mall in my town. And even then I hardly ever bought books there, I just ate at the cafe'. Then I started seeing how pointless that was and don't do that much anymore...if I want food, Starbucks or some local establishment is enough. Window shopping makes me feel unfulfilled, which detracts from the joy of food. In a nutshell, I know firsthand that some people dont' have enough money to spend $12++ on a book and I also know that the bigname brick/mortar stores aren't for everyone. I, for one, wish I could shop at a less disposable book store, but there's only one small book store in town and they sell used books, which is cool but the selection is rather limited. They seem focused on selling the current bestsellers and the like to the folks who can't afford to buy them brand new. Current bestsellers are usually either lighthearted girly books or over-the-top thrillers. Stephen King comes out with some good stuff every now and again, but not often. I think the last good book Michael Crichton came out with was RISING SUN (1992), or maybe DISCLOSURE (1993). I haven't read DISCLOSURE, so I can't say anything too good about it, but I did enjoy the film. I'd imagine the book would be at least good. And Jodi Picoult stopped writing quality books a looooong time ago. John Grisham I'm not very familiar with. I tried reading A TIME TO KILL and the style of writing just seemed cartoonish. The rest of his books I haven't tried reading b/c the premises are boring, IMO. And ever since John Grisham became a household name, the crime drama/thriller genere has exploded with half a dozen "masters" of the genre. But I guess Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler were doing it long before Grisham and of course there's tons of no-name books, many of which curiously stand on the shelves of my local library to this day, that are written in that tradition.
...I hardly ever went to Barnes & Noble until they relocated to the mall in my town. And even then I hardly ever bought books there, I just ate at the cafe'. Then I started seeing how pointless that was and don't do that much anymore...if I want food, Starbucks or some local establishment is enough. Window shopping makes me feel unfulfilled, which detracts from the joy of food. In a nutshell, I know firsthand that some people dont' have enough money to spend $12++ on a book and I also know that the bigname brick/mortar stores aren't for everyone. I, for one, wish I could shop at a less disposable book store, but there's only one small book store in town and they sell used books, which is cool but the selection is rather limited. They seem focused on selling the current bestsellers and the like to the folks who can't afford to buy them brand new. Current bestsellers are usually either lighthearted girly books or over-the-top thrillers. Stephen King comes out with some good stuff every now and again, but not often. I think the last good book Michael Crichton came out with was RISING SUN (1992), or maybe DISCLOSURE (1993). I haven't read DISCLOSURE, so I can't say anything too good about it, but I did enjoy the film. I'd imagine the book would be at least good. And Jodi Picoult stopped writing quality books a looooong time ago. John Grisham I'm not very familiar with. I tried reading A TIME TO KILL and the style of writing just seemed cartoonish. The rest of his books I haven't tried reading b/c the premises are boring, IMO. And ever since John Grisham became a household name, the crime drama/thriller genere has exploded with half a dozen "masters" of the genre. But I guess Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler were doing it long before Grisham and of course there's tons of no-name books, many of which curiously stand on the shelves of my local library to this day, that are written in that tradition.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
A FREE FLOATING FULL TORSO VAPOROUS APPIRATION!!!!!
HHHHOK!! I was at Toys "R" Us today and SAW - WITH MY OWN EYES - the TRU Exclusive GHOSTBUSTERS II 4 6" Figure + 2" Slimer accessory boxed set (made by Mattel). Yes, it's still $60 + 8% tax (making it more like $65). But if I order a couple $25 TRU gift cards via Complete Savings, I get 20% off of $50, making the set more like $55 ('cause the gift cards are 20% off AT COMPLEte Savings...seriously everybody, what's stopping you??).
Actually, cooler still, I could order THREE $25 gift cards and I'd have $75 in gift cards, covering ALL of the boxed set and part of the "Exploding" Stay Puft Marshmallow Man home bank. I'd still have to pay $17 or so for the bank, but I wouldn't have to do that right away...
I'm just gonna go ahead and order the CS gift cards in Nov, 'cause I can always buy something else and re-sell it on Amazon if the desired toppings are all eaten and digested...
Actually, cooler still, I could order THREE $25 gift cards and I'd have $75 in gift cards, covering ALL of the boxed set and part of the "Exploding" Stay Puft Marshmallow Man home bank. I'd still have to pay $17 or so for the bank, but I wouldn't have to do that right away...
I'm just gonna go ahead and order the CS gift cards in Nov, 'cause I can always buy something else and re-sell it on Amazon if the desired toppings are all eaten and digested...
Saturday, October 16, 2010
it's beginning to look a lot like imeem...
As mentioned in old (oldER - I know I haven't posted in awhile...) post(s), Imeem is, now WAS, the greatest thing since music itself (woah!). MySpace bought Imeem and turned it into "MySpace Music", which was fine w/ me except they killed the ability to just sit back and let an album flow into one's ears. You had to push "play" to start track #1 and then skip track #1 in order to get track #2 to play. Well, it looks like either MySpace Music is having a bug in their system or they fixed this nonsense...
I'm reading Elliot Perlman's SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY, lovin' it, but I'm not even 1/10 of the way through it, so it might change direction unpleasantly like Poppy Z. Brite's LOST SOULS. But so far so good. There's an author by the name of Patrick McGrath who doesn't seem to have any problem churning out great sickly sweet novels and a book titled "The Assault" by Henry (?) Muslich or some similar looking name...I checked out one P. McGrath novel that the library had (they have THREE!) and "The Assault". Just read a page of Patrick McGrath's DR. HAGGARD'S DISEASE and had to close the book and embrace it, enjoying the beauty of having a book to read and enjoy...mmmm...it just flows so perfectly and the type font on that edition (hardcover edition is out of print I think) is beautiful. I hope the in print softcover edition is so splendidly printed. The cover art for the softcover edition is more striking, but, ya know, sux that they have to make everything paper in order to keep from "needing" to charge $10 more...
Been wanting to bask in the air of J.G. Ballard's CRASH (1973). Can't 'cause I'm broke and the library don't got it. That book kinda felt like watching an atrocity occur and not fully understanding it. Then when I did understand it and wrapped my mind around it, it felt like I was walking into a haze, or fog, sprinkled with some sort of subtly unnerving chemical. Yep, that's the 70's for ya. The movie had to wait 23 years to get made b/c there's enough dumb people who think reading a book isn't the same thing as eeing something on a movie screen. Of course, the movie's only virtue was its intense portrayal of sex, which it could have done better at to begin with, but the "plot" (which I never cared much about and barely makes any sense...) would be sacrificed if the sex scenes were any hotter. Some one should make a X-rated sex movie with all the knockout stars they can convince to do it - maybe Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Connolly, or Megan Fox, maybe Avril Lavigne? Heck, they say men prefer blondes, but I know I'm not the only one who would pay good money to see A BEAUTIFUL FACE...I mean, why would Megan Fox be so popular if blondes had all the attention? Maybe someone already thought of it and couldn't get any of 'em to hop on board. You'd think Paul Veerhoven (sp?) could have thought of something...
Spend the last 5 or so hours listening to Funeral For A Friend on MySpace Music. Great band. Love 'em. Mainly been listening to MEMORY AND HUMANITY, surprisingly released on Victory Records. Why did Ferret Records let 'em go?? Maybe they went bankrupt...Victory Records is the home of all those emo bands that either found better homes or aren't any good anyway...well, Silverstein's almost as good as FFAF, well, maybe not almost, but they got about half or a little more of FFAF's greatness. The singer's screaming gets a little annoying pretty quickly. FFAF doesn't scream in their music, they just sorta yell...idk. It's not as unnerving as Silverstein's screaming. The Silverstein singer sure does have a beautiful voice and they got a lot of great songs. A lot of people hated ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES, but I think it's possibly the best of their bunch. Of course, everyone loved DISCOVERING THE WATERFRONT, but hated WHEN BROKEN IS EASILY FIXED, whereas I like DTW, but WHEN BROKEN IS EASILY FIXED beats 'THE WATERFRONT by at least two-fold in my ears. Of course, I probably do have some earwax buildup. I tried clearing them out a week or so ago, and hasn't changed my opinion of Silverstein as far as I know...but I don't think I got everything either...might need a professional (??) to do the job...
GBII 4pk is out now exclusively at Toys "R" Us. Hoping my sister can at least loan me the $ to get it. I'd consider the mere ability to have it w/o draining all my funds gift enough. I don't know if she has that money available tho...I say "gift" 'cause she seems like she might wanna buy me a gift for my b-day coming up in about a month and 4 days...
Welp; that's all for me for now, I think...I think I can always post again if I think of something else...
I'm reading Elliot Perlman's SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY, lovin' it, but I'm not even 1/10 of the way through it, so it might change direction unpleasantly like Poppy Z. Brite's LOST SOULS. But so far so good. There's an author by the name of Patrick McGrath who doesn't seem to have any problem churning out great sickly sweet novels and a book titled "The Assault" by Henry (?) Muslich or some similar looking name...I checked out one P. McGrath novel that the library had (they have THREE!) and "The Assault". Just read a page of Patrick McGrath's DR. HAGGARD'S DISEASE and had to close the book and embrace it, enjoying the beauty of having a book to read and enjoy...mmmm...it just flows so perfectly and the type font on that edition (hardcover edition is out of print I think) is beautiful. I hope the in print softcover edition is so splendidly printed. The cover art for the softcover edition is more striking, but, ya know, sux that they have to make everything paper in order to keep from "needing" to charge $10 more...
Been wanting to bask in the air of J.G. Ballard's CRASH (1973). Can't 'cause I'm broke and the library don't got it. That book kinda felt like watching an atrocity occur and not fully understanding it. Then when I did understand it and wrapped my mind around it, it felt like I was walking into a haze, or fog, sprinkled with some sort of subtly unnerving chemical. Yep, that's the 70's for ya. The movie had to wait 23 years to get made b/c there's enough dumb people who think reading a book isn't the same thing as eeing something on a movie screen. Of course, the movie's only virtue was its intense portrayal of sex, which it could have done better at to begin with, but the "plot" (which I never cared much about and barely makes any sense...) would be sacrificed if the sex scenes were any hotter. Some one should make a X-rated sex movie with all the knockout stars they can convince to do it - maybe Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Connolly, or Megan Fox, maybe Avril Lavigne? Heck, they say men prefer blondes, but I know I'm not the only one who would pay good money to see A BEAUTIFUL FACE...I mean, why would Megan Fox be so popular if blondes had all the attention? Maybe someone already thought of it and couldn't get any of 'em to hop on board. You'd think Paul Veerhoven (sp?) could have thought of something...
Spend the last 5 or so hours listening to Funeral For A Friend on MySpace Music. Great band. Love 'em. Mainly been listening to MEMORY AND HUMANITY, surprisingly released on Victory Records. Why did Ferret Records let 'em go?? Maybe they went bankrupt...Victory Records is the home of all those emo bands that either found better homes or aren't any good anyway...well, Silverstein's almost as good as FFAF, well, maybe not almost, but they got about half or a little more of FFAF's greatness. The singer's screaming gets a little annoying pretty quickly. FFAF doesn't scream in their music, they just sorta yell...idk. It's not as unnerving as Silverstein's screaming. The Silverstein singer sure does have a beautiful voice and they got a lot of great songs. A lot of people hated ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES, but I think it's possibly the best of their bunch. Of course, everyone loved DISCOVERING THE WATERFRONT, but hated WHEN BROKEN IS EASILY FIXED, whereas I like DTW, but WHEN BROKEN IS EASILY FIXED beats 'THE WATERFRONT by at least two-fold in my ears. Of course, I probably do have some earwax buildup. I tried clearing them out a week or so ago, and hasn't changed my opinion of Silverstein as far as I know...but I don't think I got everything either...might need a professional (??) to do the job...
GBII 4pk is out now exclusively at Toys "R" Us. Hoping my sister can at least loan me the $ to get it. I'd consider the mere ability to have it w/o draining all my funds gift enough. I don't know if she has that money available tho...I say "gift" 'cause she seems like she might wanna buy me a gift for my b-day coming up in about a month and 4 days...
Welp; that's all for me for now, I think...I think I can always post again if I think of something else...
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