Ah, the 5th of July... a great day to be born, don'tjathink? Let's see if Andrew agrees.
So this morning I awoke at 6:59, the result of my usual inability to sleep much past seven on any day I don't have to work -though on work days I can sleep way into the morning, almost durn near close to 7:30. Once downstairs, awake but still groggy, I decided to spend some time with a group of old friends. Not in REAL LIFE... that would be, for me, a work of fiction. Rather I spent a couple of chapters with Dortmunder and his gang. Life's been a bit, er, stressful lately (not so much bad stressful but busy and work-stressful and life-changy anticipation stressful) so when I finished reading my last novel I decided that I needed something that would A) make me laugh and B) be enjoyable. This led ultimately to a Donald Westlake book for his comic novels can always be counted on to give my funnybone a tickle, and true to form I found myself laughing out loud a number of times during the first few chapters and continuing to chuckle ever since.
Not wanting to spend the entire pre-awake-children morning reading I decided to head out and do my "chores". Since just after mother's day I've been rather engaged in a rather large project of sanding, assembling, staining, varnishing, sanding, varnishing, sanding and varnishing ten new dining room chairs. TEN. Hey, ya gotta plan for future growth, right? Some people would have guests but we're not very good at entertaining. For this first pass I'm just doing six chairs with the remaining four to be completed probably in 2011 'cause when I'm done with these six I'm taking a break. A looong break. Each chair takes 30 minutes to sand, 20 minutes to assemble and about 40 minutes to stain. Each coat of varnish has to be done in two passes (bottom half of chair and top half) with each of these two passes taking about 20 minutes and the mid-varnish sanding taking a mere seven minutes. All tallied up that's 3.75 hours per chair, not counting varnish dry time and brush cleanup. That seems low.
In any case, such large amounts of child and wife-free time (for no one wants to venture into the varnish-stinky room where I'm working) has given me the chance to listen to some long-format music. That's right, I'm listening me to some classical music! Lately I put on an old favorite, Prokofiev's 3rd symphony. If I were one to make lists, and I am, Prokofiev would easily be in my top five favorite composers. Possibly top three. His music is, in turns, lively, sarcastic, humorous, stark, emotional, inventive, offbeat, and passionate while always remaining melodic. If you like Danny Elfman (and nothing against the elf-man) but have grown tired of his three styles (wacky-silly [Beetlejuice and PeeWee], hero [Batman], and romantic strings [other stuff]) then hop on over to Prokofiev and find out who's the REAL MAN!
But I digress. The third symphony is, in my mind, an early prototype of horror movie music, though when he composed this symphony in the late 1920s the horror movie really hadn't been invented yet, being a good four years before Frankenstein saw the light of day. However the music is downright chilling and I have no doubt that Bernard Herrmann used the third movement as inspiration (if not outright note for note copy material) of his classic Psycho soundtrack. Not the famous staccato stabs but the unnerving title music that appears elsewhere in the film. Of course Prokofiev creates much more tension than this one intense section of one movement and it's all there for your hungry ears to enjoy.
This third symphony is based on material from Prokofiev's opera The Fiery Angel. The entire concept of Prokofiev writing operas puts me in a bit of a quandary. Try as I might I just can't get into operas. My man Beethoven only wrote one and Brahms, another top-five-possibly-top-three favorite of mine didn't write any. But Prokofiev wrote quite a few, which means he was fond of the format which means that perhaps there's something to it that I'm not getting so I can't just mentally write it off as a bunch of snobbery. To my ears, though, opera sounds like a platform for some showboat vocalist to spend two hours dazzling the audience with technique while the actual music sits lamely in the background. My next piece for chair varnishing accompaniment, therefore, was The Fiery Angel which I had to dig out of storage. I think I've listened to it three times since I bought it back when I had more disposable income. I'm nearly done with it and though I can pick out the music that Prokofiev culled for the starting points of his excellent symphony I'm still not impressed. Maybe I should read along with the libretto, something which gave me a greater appreciation for, though not a greater enjoyment of, his Love For Three Oranges opera. Or maybe I should try harder NOT to let the male lead's voice remind me of the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz movie and expect him to start belting out "If I... were KING... of the FORE~E~E~E~E~E~E~E~E~E~ST!" every few minutes.
Gotta go... the kids are awake!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
♪ ♫ ♫ ♪
6/5/2010
Do I mow the grass
On this fine fresh Saturday?
It will just grow back.
6/6/2010
“Secret Agent Man”
Was a nice bit of songcraft
Unlike that Elvis.
6/7/2010
Devo wore those hats
And White Lion wore that hair
Bands these days wear masks.
6/8/2010
My magic headphones
Allow me to hear it all:
Squeak, breath, grunt, fret noise.
6/9/2010
I don’t much for
That Letterman character
Or his evil chin.
6/10/2010
It is tradition
To make at least one haiku
About my great wife.
6/11/2010
Outside the country?
Allergic to iodine?
Time to give some blood.
6/12/2010
I am way behind
On writing music reviews
Today I catch up.
Do I mow the grass
On this fine fresh Saturday?
It will just grow back.
6/6/2010
“Secret Agent Man”
Was a nice bit of songcraft
Unlike that Elvis.
6/7/2010
Devo wore those hats
And White Lion wore that hair
Bands these days wear masks.
6/8/2010
My magic headphones
Allow me to hear it all:
Squeak, breath, grunt, fret noise.
6/9/2010
I don’t much for
That Letterman character
Or his evil chin.
6/10/2010
It is tradition
To make at least one haiku
About my great wife.
6/11/2010
Outside the country?
Allergic to iodine?
Time to give some blood.
6/12/2010
I am way behind
On writing music reviews
Today I catch up.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Current Review - Devin Townsend Project - Addicted!
This review was submitted MONTHS ago and finally saw print. It is definitely worth the wait... where most albums get a week or two of my attention before I move on to something new. This album is STILL getting regular play through my head. And I'm even more convinced that Poederooyan RAWKS!
A few years back I had the pleasure of reviewing a Devin Townsend album and found it a highly enjoyable, albeit Canadian, album. Of particular note was his drummer who had the good fortune of having the unpronounceable last name of Poederooyen. That was in 2003 and I had intended to pick up more Townsend albums but instead squandered my money on licorice bites.
However Townsend has not been idly waiting for my attention, instead forging bravely ahead and making many more solo albums. Fortunately for me I decided that I was tired of licorice and formed a mini tax shelter by purchasing his latest album, Addicted. It was good to find out that the man was still Canadian, still had Poederooyen as his drummer, and had kicked some rather nasty habits, including licorice whips and other things, hence the title.
As part of his recovery Devin has recording this smashing album full of high energy, fun, peppy metal songs. It’s almost like Cheap Trick, My Bloody Valentine and White Zombie got together outside a dance club. The title track is indicative of the entire album – a bigger than life arena rock sound with industrial metal guitars and an uplifting, melodic chorus that somehow manages to remain light and airy on top while staying dense and distorted on the low end. “Universe In A Ball!” is a spacey dance song with a caustic bass that telegraphs out a rhythm while synthy effects lend a sense of weird glee to the festivities, breaking for a brief moment of operatic calm before slamming back into the metal crunch. Cheap Trick comes to the front in the Euro Pop “Bend It Like Bender!” which wastes no time in stepping up the party vibe with a zany guitar riff and lyrics of “Hey boy / We’re ya goin’ with that little toy?” This is not overly deep stuff, just carefree music made for driving around during the summer with the windows down, injecting the joy of being alive into your veins with a cheerful dance-beat chorus sung by Anneke van Giersbergen (seriously, does he hire people based on their names?) of The Gathering.
“Supercrush!” (and yes, every song ends in an exclamation point) is an album highlight, opening with a thunderous guitar riff that builds to a symphonic crescendo before dropping off to allow Anneka to sing a calming chorus which is counteracted by Devin as the music ramps back up and he passionately sings “I don’t want to save my soul / I don’t want to lose control” against a massive rock symphony, forming an angel vs. devil duet. This emotional song explodes as Devin hoarsely and cathartically confronts his addiction with “You want me to die?” and the song crashes in a gloriously chaotic finale. As if to ease the tension a bit the next song, “Hyperdrive!” is little more than a carefree nuclear fueled party song with the message of “Everyday’s a new day” and “Ih-Ah!” is a lilting, restrained pop song of non-distorted instruments that will annoyingly stick in your head like licorice with it’s endearing nonsense chorus of “Ih-Ah” sung by both Devin and Anneka, who this time around sounds like the Wilson sisters of Heart. Well, one of them, anyway. The final track, “Awake!!” (note the extra punctuation because it’s just that good) has fuzzy, crunchy riffs and a cheerful melody to back up comforting lyrics of “That’s alright / You’re only human” before turning up the tension in the bridge, growing energy like a chia pet grows hair until Devin shouts “DECONSTRUCT!” and one by one the instruments peel away over the next two minutes until all that remains is an echo of an echo, fading into the dark.
The more I hear the songs of Addicted more I like them. The lyrics and music are both addictively simple but with enough depth that keep you coming back. Or maybe Devin Townsend is just so talented that it all sounds simple but instead has a fertile depth that can only be appreciated with more listens, depth that sneaks up on you while you are innocently enjoying the heavy jams and boundless energy that makes Addicted approximately 1052% better than that other post-addiction album, St. Anger.
A few years back I had the pleasure of reviewing a Devin Townsend album and found it a highly enjoyable, albeit Canadian, album. Of particular note was his drummer who had the good fortune of having the unpronounceable last name of Poederooyen. That was in 2003 and I had intended to pick up more Townsend albums but instead squandered my money on licorice bites.
However Townsend has not been idly waiting for my attention, instead forging bravely ahead and making many more solo albums. Fortunately for me I decided that I was tired of licorice and formed a mini tax shelter by purchasing his latest album, Addicted. It was good to find out that the man was still Canadian, still had Poederooyen as his drummer, and had kicked some rather nasty habits, including licorice whips and other things, hence the title.
As part of his recovery Devin has recording this smashing album full of high energy, fun, peppy metal songs. It’s almost like Cheap Trick, My Bloody Valentine and White Zombie got together outside a dance club. The title track is indicative of the entire album – a bigger than life arena rock sound with industrial metal guitars and an uplifting, melodic chorus that somehow manages to remain light and airy on top while staying dense and distorted on the low end. “Universe In A Ball!” is a spacey dance song with a caustic bass that telegraphs out a rhythm while synthy effects lend a sense of weird glee to the festivities, breaking for a brief moment of operatic calm before slamming back into the metal crunch. Cheap Trick comes to the front in the Euro Pop “Bend It Like Bender!” which wastes no time in stepping up the party vibe with a zany guitar riff and lyrics of “Hey boy / We’re ya goin’ with that little toy?” This is not overly deep stuff, just carefree music made for driving around during the summer with the windows down, injecting the joy of being alive into your veins with a cheerful dance-beat chorus sung by Anneke van Giersbergen (seriously, does he hire people based on their names?) of The Gathering.
“Supercrush!” (and yes, every song ends in an exclamation point) is an album highlight, opening with a thunderous guitar riff that builds to a symphonic crescendo before dropping off to allow Anneka to sing a calming chorus which is counteracted by Devin as the music ramps back up and he passionately sings “I don’t want to save my soul / I don’t want to lose control” against a massive rock symphony, forming an angel vs. devil duet. This emotional song explodes as Devin hoarsely and cathartically confronts his addiction with “You want me to die?” and the song crashes in a gloriously chaotic finale. As if to ease the tension a bit the next song, “Hyperdrive!” is little more than a carefree nuclear fueled party song with the message of “Everyday’s a new day” and “Ih-Ah!” is a lilting, restrained pop song of non-distorted instruments that will annoyingly stick in your head like licorice with it’s endearing nonsense chorus of “Ih-Ah” sung by both Devin and Anneka, who this time around sounds like the Wilson sisters of Heart. Well, one of them, anyway. The final track, “Awake!!” (note the extra punctuation because it’s just that good) has fuzzy, crunchy riffs and a cheerful melody to back up comforting lyrics of “That’s alright / You’re only human” before turning up the tension in the bridge, growing energy like a chia pet grows hair until Devin shouts “DECONSTRUCT!” and one by one the instruments peel away over the next two minutes until all that remains is an echo of an echo, fading into the dark.
The more I hear the songs of Addicted more I like them. The lyrics and music are both addictively simple but with enough depth that keep you coming back. Or maybe Devin Townsend is just so talented that it all sounds simple but instead has a fertile depth that can only be appreciated with more listens, depth that sneaks up on you while you are innocently enjoying the heavy jams and boundless energy that makes Addicted approximately 1052% better than that other post-addiction album, St. Anger.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Displaying 1 of 2 Blogs
5/30/2010
My big “To Do” list
Does apparently include
“Write six more haiku”
5/31/2010
The last day of May
Means that the end is quite near
For public school kids.
6/1/2010
In my haste to write
I failed to give respect for
Memorial Day
6/2/2010
It’s tough to recall
What happened three weeks ago
I’m sure it was fun.
6/3/2010
“School’s Out for summer!”
I now owe some royalties
To that Cooper guy.
6/4/2010
Driving with my wife
On another short road trip
Love her by my side.
My big “To Do” list
Does apparently include
“Write six more haiku”
5/31/2010
The last day of May
Means that the end is quite near
For public school kids.
6/1/2010
In my haste to write
I failed to give respect for
Memorial Day
6/2/2010
It’s tough to recall
What happened three weeks ago
I’m sure it was fun.
6/3/2010
“School’s Out for summer!”
I now owe some royalties
To that Cooper guy.
6/4/2010
Driving with my wife
On another short road trip
Love her by my side.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Ketchup
5/26/2010
Haikus are easy
When you are not overworked
Hence the current lack.
5/27/2010
Hunter green plaid shirt
And brown plaid shorts. It must be
Fashion Faux-pas Day!
5/28/2010
Before one can rest
Ya gotta hustle and toil:
The three day weekend
5/29/2010
My deepest desire
Is that I could one day sleep
Past seven A.M.
Haikus are easy
When you are not overworked
Hence the current lack.
5/27/2010
Hunter green plaid shirt
And brown plaid shorts. It must be
Fashion Faux-pas Day!
5/28/2010
Before one can rest
Ya gotta hustle and toil:
The three day weekend
5/29/2010
My deepest desire
Is that I could one day sleep
Past seven A.M.
Monday, June 14, 2010
I TOTALLY RAWK!
For some warped reason, if you search for "How to build monkey bars" on Google this blog is #2! YAHOO! I pity the foo who actually tries to build them from my plans, but it brings me pride and joy nonetheless.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Haiku backlog
5/19/2010
I am far behind.
Very close to one whole month
Kids, it’s just haiku.
5/20/2010
My TV dinner
Exploded in the micro
Popcorn: Bad idea
5/21/2010
Weather should be checked
Before riding into work
To prevent drenching.
5/22/2010
Just one man against
One hundred ten thousand files
Only one survives.
5/23/2010
Defenseless against
Coughs, throat clearing and chit-chat:
Headphones left at home
5/24/2010
It takes just one hour
To stain just a single chair.
Just nine more to go.
5/25/2010
Inspired by the
Weeds that grow around my feet
Thank you, Poor Old Lu.
I am far behind.
Very close to one whole month
Kids, it’s just haiku.
5/20/2010
My TV dinner
Exploded in the micro
Popcorn: Bad idea
5/21/2010
Weather should be checked
Before riding into work
To prevent drenching.
5/22/2010
Just one man against
One hundred ten thousand files
Only one survives.
5/23/2010
Defenseless against
Coughs, throat clearing and chit-chat:
Headphones left at home
5/24/2010
It takes just one hour
To stain just a single chair.
Just nine more to go.
5/25/2010
Inspired by the
Weeds that grow around my feet
Thank you, Poor Old Lu.
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