A collection of three to four weekly articles featuring music, environmental issues, technology, movies, TV, concerts, and whatever else I choose to discuss.
There's a new musical genre term I've heard tossed around lately: chill-wave. I guess it's like New Wave, but more...chill, you know? Now, whether or not Brooklyn-based The Drums fit the chill-wave mold, I'm not sure. However, I'd like to think they do. Their track "Let's Go Surfing" is that nice balance of catchy and mellow.
See, the boys of The Drums hail originally from Florida, but they're now based out of Brooklyn and I've incorrectly seen people say they're actually from San Francisco. Regardless, whether it's Northern California or the North-Eastern Seaboard, the only surfing you'll find is a very chill surfing!
The video for "Let's Go Surfing" is, well, lacking any surf action. It does, however, play like those Levi's jeans commercials which are all shot at night with slightly too-perfect-looking people frolicking on a beach, sending that image that to do so (and to wear their jeans like everyone else) is to proclaim your freedom and your individuality! Why the word "Surfing" fills the screen during the chorus while the guys are singing both surfing and nothing confuses me just a bit.
The song is great! The video leaves a bit to be desired, but it's still worth a watch. And ask yourself this: is the chorus "Oh mama, I want to go surfing" or "Obama, I want to go surfing"? Something tells me Obama would totally paddle out!
I know the ginormous crowd of ACOW followers are wondering what the hell happened to Big Wednesday's entry yesterday. Well, I had a feeling this busy week was going to keep me from the entries I wanted to make. This week, for me, has been crazy busy between a shift change at work, an awesome concert Tuesday night, and my heading up to Sacramento to replace my bus's transmission Friday afternoon (and during the weekend).
So, here's what's coming up...
A full and awesome review of The Grates' show at Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco.
A growing story about storm chasing and climate change.
A free for all Friday (though perhaps not on Friday) on more random web bits (webbits?).
So if you're actually the type of person who does follow this regularly (well, you've made my day), thank you. And bear with me. More fun stuff coming up as we approach Halloween!
Miike Snow (yes, with two i's) is a Swedish band that formed in 2007. None of the guys are named Mike or even Miike, but the double-i does make it easier to search on the internet.
Their self-titled debut has spawned "Animal" as its first single. Despite its appearance on an episode of Gossip Girl, typically something that makes me run screaming away from a tune, "Animal" is as catchy as it is unique. The video for this song is one that I almost feel is classically Swedish. It's very much an art video. There's no message, no plot, just beats, hits, and clashes that a director can fit quick cuts to.
I've described several songs as infinitely singable or danceable. "Animal" is both. I've caught myself singing along dozens of times on the drive home from work and often waking up the next morning with the tune still in my head.
Believe if you do, disbelieve if you want. However, few can disagree that the paranormal is becoming more and more prevalent on TV and in pop culture. Gone are the days of Abbott and Costello Meet the Ghostman and even Ghostbusters; today reality TV has met the unreality of alleged hauntings. Even The Blair Witch Project ten years ago started capitalizing on the handheld docu-drama format with the paranormal. Today Paranormal Activity is in theatres and TV now has three programs investigating ghosts.
First is Ghost Hunters (Wednesday nights) on the SciFi Channel (sorry, I refuse to call it SyFy...it's a stupid name!). This show has been on the longest of the three I'm going to feature today and it's probably the one I've watched the least. I'm not sure why I never really clicked with the TAPS team. Perhaps it's the obvious sponsorship by Roto-Rooter (I mean, are they trying to clean the ghosts out of there?), perhaps it's the occasional personal drama between team members (we don't need a sub-plot while hunting ghosts), perhaps it's the fact that there's such a big team following these guys around (too many cooks with the broth?), but I actually feel that Ghost Hunters is the least professional show out there. And I fully expect lots of people to disagree with me on this one. TAPS has a big following and it's great that it's encouraging others to investigate the unknown, but serious scientific methods should be followed to uncover credible proof.
Next is Ghost Adventures (Friday nights). I've been following this show since it premiered a year ago on the Travel Channel. Actually, Ghost Adventures started with a self-made documentary from 2006 which originally aired on SciFi and has later been replayed on the Travel Channel. Ghost Adventures keeps the number of chefs to a minimum, the team consists of three guys all who carry their own cameras, set up their own gear, and analyze their own findings after one night locked into wherever they're investigating. I like this format. I feel like it minimizes the chances of false readings. It's also been this show that has shown me more evidence that I can't explain away. The flying brick, a teddy bear that moves just a little all on its own, evident scratches...all of these gave me serious chills and really made me question the reality of the paranormal. If nothing else, I find Ghost Adventures rather entertaining. These guys are not afraid to get in there and taunt responses out of the spirits...and that leads to some interesting results! For me, it's a fun way to get home from work on a Friday night and spook myself a little bit. Now, take it for what you will, but I have to share the footage of the flying brick. This sold me on the show when I first saw it and I probably would have sprinted away from it as fast as these guys did!
The most recent addition to the TV ghost scene is Discovery Channel's Ghost Lab (Tuesday nights). The show is only two episodes into their series, but it shows some promise. The team spends at least two days, often more, at whatever location they're investigating. On the upside, it gives them more opportunity to cover more potential hauntings in a given area. On the downside, I don't think it gives them enough time in one location to find everything it might have. Ghost Lab follows the Klinge brothers (and their team) out of San Antonio, Texas with their kitted out Ghost Lab trailer. Funded by the Discovery Channel, they've got some neat technology, but they're also not using anything so new and cutting edge as to set themselves apart from either of the other shows (yet). What I do like about each show is that they put forward some kind of theory and then test it. For example, their most recent trip to Tombstone, AZ (the one place all three shows have visited) toyed with the idea that local thunderstorms coupled with the conductivity of the veins of silver under the town help provide the electromagnetic energy that gives spirits the power to manifest themselves. Two episodes really isn't enough to completely judge a show on, but I still feel like this show has some promise despite having to put up with Mike Rowe's unpleasant voice as narrator.
I consider myself a skeptical believer. I believe, but I've seen enough of what technology can do that I feel I have to judge what I see on TV with a bit of skepticism. That's really my major gripe with all of these shows. The channels that own these shows feel they need to provide a little bit of soundtrack and eerie music to heighten the viewer's experience. For me, all it does it make it more difficult for me to hear what the investigators are trying to hear in the first place. Plus, while the shows claim that nothing's being manipulated, it clear that some stuff is. I mean, the sheer act of editing these shows is manipulation, but when Ghost Lab places fake video lines and a big red REC on anything shot by handheld camera, it just gets to be annoying.
Again, I've had no personal experience with the paranormal to make me believe one way or the other, but (in the immortal words of Fox Mulder) I want to believe. And, if nothing else, these ghost shows are a fun way to spend an evening.
Image Courtesy: National Geographic How many times have your heard someone start a sentence with "Here is where..."? Typically it's been at some tourist location or in a National Park somewhere with a tour guide or ranger giving a talk about that location's most popular sights.
But what of the lesser known locations? No, not the ubiquitous "George Washington Slept Here" signs, but the places where pre-fame historical figures could have easily changed paths in life or where small decisions wound up having large ramifications down the road.
Andrew Carroll has been working with National Geographic to travel around the country to seek out little known historic sites in conjunction with the release of his book Here Is Where: In Search of America's Great Forgotten History. Andrew has been maintaining a series of engaging blog entries for more than a year. So I find it ironic that the day I choose to write about it is the same day he writes his last entry!
See, I've been talking a great deal about environmental issues on Wednesdays and I strongly feel that part of that includes being aware of the history of your environment. You simply can't get a picture of where things are going without known from where they've come.
The stories that Andrew Carroll has uncovered range from the strange to the utterly fascinating. Take, for example, Delaware's small claim to Reggae history. Yes, that is the sound of your eyebrow quirking upward.
"Marley's mother had been living in Wilmington since 1963 when Bob moved there in 1966, hoping to earn enough money to start his own record label. Under the alias Donald Marley, he worked as a DuPont lab assistant and at the Chrysler assembly plant just across the street from the University of Delaware campus." Link
The series of blog entries read like a plan for a fascinating road trip around America and I can only imagine his book will have much more detail and many more stores than the blog holds. But I happened upon an entry from Maui that struck close to home. Amber and I honeymooned in Maui and drove the road to Hana (I think we actually drove just about every road on Maui), but just a couple miles south of Hana is a small church behind which legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh is buried.
Let this be a lesson to us all: even the most simple place can be historically significant. It's all a matter of being aware of your environment.
Ladies and Gents, that sound has returned! Wait, which sound? The almost overblown sound of Brit rock as perfected by bands like Blur, Oasis, and (hell) even the Soup Dragons!
Meet Reverend and the Makers from Sheffield, England! They started up in 2005 and were quickly signed to the Wall of Sound label. And their sound is big, brash, playful, and just reminiscent enough of the Brit rock bands I grew up with in high school!
This week's track, "Silence is Talking" caught my ear because they sample (or come damned close to sampling) the horn section from "Low Rider". Yes, the song can definitely stand on its own merits. It's a great, high-energy track. But the hook is that horn section, that easily singable "ba da bada ba b'dada bap baaaa!"
We come once again to the end of another week and there really hasn't been one story that's jumped out and begged to be talked about. There have, however, been quite a few little stories and oddball tidbits that have caught my eye. Both of them, actually. So here they are in no particular order whatsoever!
First up...tape measures! Wha?! Yes, I do like a bit of home improvement and I'm terrible at eyeballing distances, so I need myself a good tape measure! While those neat digital laser tape measures (which can't be tape measures since they use a laser!) are neat, I grew up in an age where I constantly made mixtapes. Those iTunes playlists just aren't the same. So enter Gama-Go's highly affordable mixtape measure! At a mere eight bucks, even the retro-indie kids can measure twice and cut once with their thrift shop finds! I love that the site notes the tape measure comes in standard and metric (note, that's not the same Metric that rocks Canada so well!).
Okay, so let's say you need to measure stuff, but are just a little more retro than mixtapes. It could happen. I'm sure my blog is very popular with the senior-aged knick-knack crowd! Perhaps Gran needs you to hang a new cuckoo clock or over-sized wooden spoon in the kitchen and you don't want to freak her out with your rock-n-roll kids mixtape measure. Enter this fashionable and classy Owl and Mouse measuring tape made from, I believe, deer bone! Now, this isn't some crazy crafty etsy crowd's creation. This was actually purchased from a unique antique store in Pasadena, CA called GoldBug. By their site, the store looks rather high-end and fancy, but they also have a Facebook fan page, so they've at least got to be somewhat hip!
Earlier this year, I brought you an interesting mashup of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I'm still eagerly looking for an mp3 of it, but in time meantime I'm gonna chow down on this: A Flickr user in Ocala, FL who goes by planetwrite has used a laser engraver (because we all have one of those in our kitchens) to etch (burn? toast?) the image of Rick Astley into some dinner rolls. God, I would love to be at that next dinner party...being Rickrolled the whole way through dinner. Sing it with me now... Never gonna eat you up...Never gonna gobble you down....
Recently Americans voted on their least favorite phrase... whatever!
Lastly this week, a spot of bad news, scientists are rapidly reporting that entropy in the universe may be 100 times greater than first thought. Yes, the universe may come to a quicker end than we all expected! Let's keep in mind, however, that this is still probably a hundred bajillion times longer than we'll be here on Earth. Plus, this also likely explains how the wife and I can clean the apartment and have it messy again in about two days! Thanks, entropy! Just remember, folks, Don't Panic!
There's a new musical genre term I've heard tossed around lately: chill-wave. I guess it's like New Wave, but more...chill, you know? Now, whether or not Brooklyn-based The Drums fit the chill-wave mold, I'm not sure. However, I'd like to think they do. Their track "Let's Go Surfing" is that nice balance of catchy and mellow.
