Filed under: Music, Vinyl | Tags: 69 Love Songs, The Magnetic Fields, Triple Album, Vinyl
This is a great day for music! The Magnetic Fields’ masterpiece triple album “69 Love Songs” is being released on vinyl this summer. However, there are two caveats: there are only 3,000 copies being pressed; Each copy is $100 (you can find it on the internet for around $80). I really wish this wasn’t a limited release. There is enough demand for more than 3,000 copies and many of those copies risk being bought up, and held hostage, by vinyl scalpers looking to charge anywhere from $150-$500. We’ll see what price the market dictates. Still, even with retail being $100, that is incredibly steep. Three discs shouldn’t be more than $60-$70.
Since this announcement, I went back and listened to this record (all 69 songs). Surprisingly, there is little filler. There might even be more filler found on the Beatles’ “White Album” (One of my favorite records and my favorite Beatles album), which is astonishing considering the amount of material presented here. The material here is grand and never fails to deliver both passion, emotion, and humor with such woking class proletariat honesty (“Come back to San Francisco and kiss me. I quite smoking” or “You make me drink more beer”).
Filed under: Film, Film Review | Tags: French Cinema, French Film, Malle, Miles Davis, Noir
I happened to catch Malle’s first film, “Elevator to the Gallows” last night. It was a fantastic French 50s noir in disguise. I only make that comment because Jeanne Moreau’s performance gives such depth to her character and adds a layer of emotion so rare in noir, that you hardly realize she is a femme fatale with all of the traditional motives attributed to standard noir. What also made this film interesting is that Miles Davis did the improvisational score (recorded one night over the course of 5 hours). He recorded it right before he worked on his next album, “Milestones“.
Despite being satisfyingly compelling, the movie has its problems of course. I felt the tension at times was relieved too easily. Specifically, the item he goes back for at the murder scene (which will implicate him) before he is trapped overnight in the elevator exits far too soon from the narrative. The tension derived from watching him squirm in the elevator now rests solely on the shoulders of dramatic irony. I also felt that the young couple’s scenes with the German tourists dragged on a little long. Nonetheless, these are completely minor complaints when taken within the context of the film.
I still recommend it highly. It is well put together and the Davis score is impeccable.
4/5
The BBC and other news outlets are reporting that Paleontologists have uncovered yet another missing link in our human evolution. This one is from 47 million years ago and scientists are saying this is a big one. It is a fascinating story; a good read.
Here is another news report.
UPDATE: and now we have the Creationist religious rebuttal. I really don’t follow his logic. It seems a simple textbook explanation of how Evolution works would answer most of his ridiculous claims. I wonder if I am yet another victim of “Poe’s Law”.
