Mr. Mustard vs. Miss Olive: Battle for the Box

The Campsie Theater lately

Lucy and I are real lucky. For so many reasons, of course, but here I'm talking about our upstairs TV-type room. For better or worse, we follow the model of my beloved "grandparents" (quote marks because they weren't actually relatives but the were my grandparents) Gay and Denny, who had TV trays and watched TV with dinner.

We don't have the trays, but I wouldn't rule it out. What ever happened to TV trays, anyway? Seems like they would be more popular than ever.

Anyway, we've been in the midst of a digital transition upstairs — somewhere along the way, we got the idea that a new TV was enticing. We both resisted. Lucy's old 19" idiot box had been serving her — and then us — well for about 15 years and was going strong. And we were both, on some level morally opposed to replacing a working piece of technology just out of some consumer yearning.

But the yearning grew. Especially after I realized that we could make the transition using my credit card points and not spend a dime on the new idiot box. So we did it, and I bought my first TV since I bought my first TV, stepping up to this.

And it. is. Awesome. I won't go into the TV itself, but rather the ancillary benefits: We gifted the old TV and all the cables and boxes and remotes and stuff to a grateful friend who was in search of a 2nd TV for her kids. And that was super cool. We migrated away from really anything extra because of this amazing thing. And now we watch what we want to watch, when we want to watch it. And some of it is just the most amazing trip down memory lane, only in beautiful 720p.

Highlights at this point:

• Baraka — a cousin of Koyaanisqaatsi, it's an arresting un-narrated trip around the world to holy lands and spiritual people. Restored and rejiggered for modern TVs. OMG.
• Brazil — a close second is the restored version of Terry Gilliam's Orwellian masterwork. Brazil is so many things — tragic, disturbing, hilarious — and also beautiful.
  
• The Prisoner — AMC's recent remake of the 60s classic is perfectly disturbing at high resolution, particularly due to the constant-surveillance aspect of it.
• Mad Men — the most beautiful show on TV just got prettier.
• Lost — the most addictive — and annoying — show on TV ain't so bad in HD either — if only as a 44 minute tropical vacation — only with time travel and shit.
  

TV: I don't really need to watch any more of it, is the simple fact. I can always "rank myself," and say "well, I don't watch nearly as much as most people," but I realize that's a slippery slope. As it stands, I guess it's nice to be able to curate ALL our TV viewing and watch exactly what we want to watch.

In short, we don't tend to watch TV, but neither of us are opposed to watching the TV. Because damn it's purdy.

And a final note: Handpicking programming is great because we can entirely avoid the shit-ton of crap that's out there. Sometimes, though, I'll hear somebody's endorsement of something that I assumed would suck and I am proven pretty wrong. A couple of surprises, lately:

• Tropic Thunder — Hilarious, though I confess to always loving a good lampooning of Hollywood types. It looks terrible, from the poster. It is NOT terrible. It's a genius stroke of self-deprecation.
• Glee — I can't believe I watched the first episode of Glee last night. Lucy wanted it, and so I fetched it for her. I did a skim of it and decided that it looked truly odious, like a revival of Fame. In fact, the first episode was mesmerizing. More like a sadistic cross between Fame and Freaks & Geeks, neither of which I've really seen. I don't know if Glee can keep it up, honestly, but I can't believe how much I like the first episode. Savage, funny, charmingly ridiculous, touching — full of interesting characters and great actors, working with a high-quality script.
  

MMMB practice

March Madness Marching Band is working up a fabulous spring set! Next performances: Creative Cities Summit and St. Paddy's Day parade!

Tripp leads MMmB practice

March Madness Marching Band is working up a fabulous spring set! Next performances: Creative Cities Summit and St. Paddy's Day parade!

I love the bass drum

MMMB practice

March Madness Marching Band is working up a fabulous spring set! Next performances: Creative Cities Summit and St. Paddy's Day parade!

MMMB practice

Working on some amazing new music. What a band we're getting together here!

Third Street Stuff

Ms. Enochs

At Strands visiting Madeleine

IMG_2938

At Strands visiting Madeleine

Sherrific Mint Choco-Cake

This cake will soon be inside of Mick & Lucy. Thanks you, Lauren. You're the best!!

March Madness Marching Band rehearsal

March Madness Marching Band rehearsal

March Madness Marching Band rehearsal

Rebel Valentines at Southland

Helen Keller's Ukelele

The Lauren's Glasses Sessions

At some point, late, Sherrow says: "anybody want to have their picture taken wearing my glasses?" Love that girl.

Asian Steev

Wrong number, my ass.

The Lauren's Glasses Sessions

At some point, late, Sherrow says: "anybody want to have their picture taken wearing my glasses?" Love that girl.

MaryAnne

Hoopster supreme!

Ford Theatre Reunion Valentine's at Busters

Ford Theatre Reunion Valentine's at Busters

"Don't take my word for it…"

At some point, late, Sherrow says: "anybody want to have their picture taken wearing my glasses?" Love that girl.

MaryAnne hoopster supreme

Valentine's at Busters

Helen Keller's Ukelele Valentine's at Busters

Loved talking to you! Come visit again!

Ford Theatre Reunion Valentine's at Busters

Ford Theatre Reunion Valentine's at Busters

Eric

Ford Theatre Reunion Valentine's at Busters

Ford Theatre Reunion Valentine's at Busters

Free design/branding tip of the day

You just really cannot do this anymore and retain retail respect. Typos are very very 'out.'

Free design/branding tip of the day.

You just really cannot do this anymore and retain retail respect. Typos are very very 'out.'

Collexion at Bunk's

Eat burgers! Talk nerdy!

Self-propelled + 1

Shane Tedder and wee one at Debra's Social Stimulus

Cowardly McLion

Host of tonight's Emerald City H'Artful of Fun!

Rachel/rakadu gypsy

Lolli loo!

Debra's Social Stimulus

At Barrelhouse Distillery

Brooke/rakadu gypsy

Rakadu Gypsy

At Debra 's social stimulus

Matt/Rakadu Gypsy

At Debra's Social Stimulus Barrel of Fun

That Voice… remembering Karen Carpenter.

One of my favorite things about doing my radio show, Trivial Thursdays, is that it is the perfect nourishment for my appetite for bits and pieces of our world; I'm always learning things preparing for each upcoming show.

Preparing for this week's show, I noticed that it was the anniversary of the death of Karen Carpenter. She died in 1983, at the age of 33, of complications resulting from Anorexia Nervosa, becoming in the process, the most famous casualty of a peculiar disease that most people had never heard of.

What surprised me is that I chose to meditate on Karen the whole day.

She's such a distinctive and complicated character in American popular culture, and there are aspects of her life and plight that are compelling to me, but I don't always know why.

Sometimes I do. For instance: I wanted to play a musical instrument since my youngest days of grade school. In 3rd grade at Masonville Elementary, students opted to begin Flutophone, which was a preparation for 5th grade, when we would get to choose a "real" instrument. It wasn't unusual for me to be found in those young days pretending to play the instrument that I intended to choose when the magical day came: the Flute. I don't know why, it's just what seemed the coolest to me.

But here's the thing: When that day came, the most unexpected thing happened. We lined up and one by one, announced our preference to the teacher, who then handed us our preferred trial instrument. When I said "flute," the teacher dismissed my preference, insisting that I ought to play trumpet, because flute was for girls.

So I played trumpet. And I was a truly shitty trumpet player, even before I got braces, which just added insult to injury where my trumpet-playing was concerned. I quit band a few years later. Who knows what kind of flute player I would have been? I wish I could tell this to that teacher. Obviously, I still think about it from time to time.

And so, in some small way, I imagine that I can relate to an aspect of the plight of Karen Carpenter: In addition to having maybe the most recognizable voice in popular music (Okay, Sinatra), Karen was the drummer for Carpenters. But as they became increasingly famous, she was pressured to move towards the spotlight and to be more of a girl.

On the well-trod path to Rock Star Heaven, Karen was a different kind of fatality. She didn't OD or choke on her own vomit. She didn't die in a plane crash. It seems like Karen was just crushed to death by the star-maker machine. I'm sure I'm over simplifying this, but it's my blog, so I'll do what I please.

And there are many things about Karen's story that I find interesting and kind of literally unforgettable (insomuch as I continue not to forget them).

Obviously, her voice was uncanny. I still am amazed that in a world where we hear thousands of singers of all sorts, nobody sounds like Karen Carpenter.

Beyond that, was her ability to "own" a song. She didn't write any of those songs, I don't believe; Her brother Richard wrote some of them. But the gems were generally penned by Burt Bacharach or Paul Williams, both of whom are the biggest of guns, when it comes to the American songbook. And yet — when you listen to those Carpenters recordings, it's hard to imagine that those songs aren't completely about Karen.

Which they are not.

They sound that way because she was that good. And because the songs are sad. And because she seemed sad (despite always smiling and appearing sublime in photos) and certainly died tragically. But mostly I contend that it was because she was that good. Karen Carpenter's singing could elicit what in the movies is known as "willing suspension of disbelief."

A connected tragedy, I think, is that there's no way that we'll ever hear her sing without the albatross of the colossal and misguided arrangements of nearly all of the Carpenters material. How I would love for Rick Rubin to have gotten ahold of her and stripped it all away, as he did with Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond. (I concede this wish is flawed since Karen wasn't a songwriter per se. but somebody could've worked something out)

And on a related note, it's easy to hate Carpenters (they apparently chose not to use "the" in their name, btw) for their marshmallowy new sound, and especially its timing. In many ways, their music was the Downey-scented replacement for the dying vibrant Age of Aquarius/Woodstock dream, and the activist/flower power music that went along with it. In effect, Carpenters was the sound of the mall, before the mall had even been built.

And again — that's unfortunate because … that voice. Such a loss, on a variety of levels.

As a final note, for all the reasons mentioned above, the catalog of Carpenters is deeply flawed: grandiose production, unnecessary vocal overdubs, often-misguided material choices, dated-sounding orchestral flourishes. But the real tragedy to me is how great it could have been. There are gleaming facets of brilliance in practically every song — and they are simultaneously burdened and scarred in an assortment of ways.

And maybe that's sort of like Karen's life.

So, finally then, we're left with the songs. Which Carpenters songs are really just closest to right? Here's some of my favorites, not in order:

• Rainy Days & Mondays "What I have they used to call the blues?!" Get some medicine. The musical definition of clinical depression.
• Hurting Each Other As above, only insert "dysfunctional relationships." Move on, both of you. Cease all communication. It AIN'T workin'. Also "covered" exceptionally by Scott Walker (in the sense that he did it after Carpenters)
• All You Get From Love Is A Love Song The most effective implementation of a hooky 70s AM radio sound that does deserve to be treasured in the collective trove of popular music.
• It's Going to Take Some Time A good song to listen to after you've been fired, dumped, beaten up, or sentenced to jail time.
• Calling Occupants of Interstellar Craft The intro not-withstanding, the crown jewel in the bent and tarnished crown of Carpenters. Originally by Klaatu, recorded with 160 musicians. Impossibly poignant, embarrassingly optimistic, unapologetically extraterrestrial. Over 7 minutes long. The deejay at the beginning is their guitar player. If Carpenters had recorded an entire album around this song, it would have been their Dark Side of the Moon.

Finally, there are a couple of pop culture things that a Carpenters fan might want to consider. One is the indie-rock tribute album If I Were A Carpenter. The other is somewhat more controversial, and that is the alarming Barbiedoll-acted biopic by Todd Haynes called Superstar.

Grey Anne performance

Here's a nice collection of simple straight-forward clips of a favorite performer of mine, Portland's Grey Anne, who I saw one strange and wonderful evening at Burning Man 2009.

In Studio Performance: Grey Anne - opbmusic

Grey Anne's website.

My first new iPhone photo of note

My first new iPhone photo of note
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey

Mick Jeffries mick@mickjeffries.com
phone: 859-539-1877
fax: 702-224-2133