Kill

Electric Six always have been hedonistic.

The classic albums ‘Fire’ and ‘Senor Smoke’ were defined by their free-for-all fun. Not every track was a hit, but that was the point. They were albums made on month-long benders, or so they sounded. But there was craft too, in the less sloppy moments cut with wit (‘Gay Bar’ for instance).

Then along came ‘Switzerland’ and I lost faith. Overall, their sound became too considered, really.

Now, a couple of albums later and we have ‘Kill’ – and the single ‘Body Shot’. The track is genre-cheating, sleazed-out porn rock. The kind of thing they do best, but which they also overly depend upon.

The video is an explosion of crassness, as though the distinct but subtly played sleaze of ‘Danger! High Voltage’ has been exponentially and uncontrollably exploded away from. But, my! how wonderfully it achieves its crassness.

It might just be enough to win me back.

Also on the list

Now that I have some spare time, Apple and I will also get stuck into planning next year’s European adventure.

Money for ink

Now that I have some spare time, I’m thinking about entering Fish Publishing’s short story and / or one-page short story competition.

I couldn’t hope to win, but it would feel good to:

1. be creatively productive
2. put something out into the literary universe
3. incorporate an attendance at the ceremony, should a win actually occur, into next year’s European adventure.

I might leave the poetry alone.

Maybe I won’t

Despite misgivings, I said I’d still see the Vintner’s Luck.

But everything I read tells me to simply run and hide.

Freedom

For the next four months I shall be free to watch the films I want to watch, read the books I want to read – and enjoy life generally, without the voice of guilt whispering (sometimes screaming) in the back of my brain, “you should really be studying.”

It’s good to answer back

I already own and treasure two poetry collections by Carol Ann Duffy: Feminine Gospels and The World’s Wife. In the collection I bought today, Answering Back, Duffy takes up the role of editor (though also contributes the book’s final piece).

The woman is a genius and here she’s done something typically playful, simple, clever, but also delicately patterned and intricate…

She wrote to a number of contemporary poets with a simple request: Pick a poem from the past and respond to it in some way with a poem of your own.

So the collection is both a fine sampler of poetry from across the ages, as well as being distinctly contemporary in its perspective of looking back.

Although the different approach of each response means no perspective is quite the same as another – as Duffy outlines in the foreword, some poets have chosen “to subvert or to argue, some to play or to tease, some to echo or to transform, others to pay homage or to elegize.”

Appropriately, the collection begins with ‘Echo’ by Walter de la Mare, responded to by Dannie Abse.

A favourite so far (in the teasing category) is ‘Trowel’ in response to Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’, where the best mind’s of Tony Curtis’s generation have now been destroyed by DIY.

Yeah, I’ll still see it

Seeing the trailer, I was worried at first by Keisha Kastle-Hughes’ casting as Celeste, and not just because a little maori girl doesn’t look like a little french woman…

Now, from comments following its premier at Toronto, it sounds like the very core of The Vintner’s Luck, one of the greatest novels I’ve ever read, has been stripped out by Nikki Caro in the translation to film…

… which seems to involve, amongst other atrocities, a hetero whitewashing.

Rumour has it that Elizabeth Knox is somewhat less than cheery.

Does look lush though.

W4V3 G00D8Y3

Gutted as I was to miss this show…

Some dedicated nerdy fans have compiled a video of NIN’s performance of the Downward Spiral – the first time the whole album has ever been played live – from HD footage taken at the show by other fans.

Credit also must go to Trent and the band for encouraging an open video policy at their concerts – full knowing that open source media and an eager community can only mean good things.

The only down side is the sound quality, which is better than most bootlegs I’ve heard, but obviously nowhere near soundboard quality.

Apparently NIN themselves couldn’t record this one-off landmark occasion because of exorbitant fees demanded by the venue. Other shows from their Wave Goodbye tour have been captured with high res audio and sound, and you can hear them playing Cars and Metal with Gary Numan himself on their website.

I look forward to whatever release the band puts out from this as well.

From the fan produced video, here is The Becoming…

None the wiser

A memento from this morning’s activities.

My four pearly red and whites of wisdom, successfully extracted.

Aren’t they pretty!

Got any suggestions for fun things to do with them?

A necklace?

Cufflinks?

Maracas?

Freeze the DNA for future cloning?

Congratulations!

… to Mr and Mrs T-Diddy.

What a foxy pair they make!