Bevemeister's blog

Last.fm: ghosts, crowes and shooting sherrifs

Top Artists this Week (see more)

23 Mar 2008 – 30 Mar 2008

4	1		Nine Inch Nails	151
1	2		The Black Crowes	100
1	3		Eric Clapton	86
	4		The Raconteurs	38
1	5		The Beatles	33
3	6		David Bowie	12
2	7		Eddie Vedder	11
	7		Dead Meadow	11
12	7		Iron Maiden	11
10	7		Radiohead	11

It's been too long since I had time to put my weekly chart up, or indeed, felt it was interesting enough to do so.  It's been a bit samey for a while.  I really enjoyed my music this week, so here's how it played out.

This week sees the atmospheric, creepy, totally instrumental 'Ghosts I-IV' from Nine Inch Nails grab the top spot, with a bit of 'Year Zero' thrown in the mix. 'Ghosts' is the new album that Reznor has released totally online without a record company.  Building on the Radiohead model, he lets you download 'Ghosts I' for free (about 9 tracks) or the whole 36 tracks for $5.  You get a PDF booklet plus plenty of wallpapers too.  That's a good deal.  I paid $5.  I don't regret it, and I have a warm fuzzy for not downloading it illegally.

Black Crowes.  Seeing them live this week.  Love the new 'Warpaint' album, and have been throwing on the old ones too in preparation.  They simply are one of my favourite bands of all time.  They're cool, their influences are cool, they do what they want and they in turn do things to me.  Never seen them live before, they haven't been to our shores since the early 90s I believe, so it's gonna be one spiritual evening (thanks Axeman).

Clapton.  Those 86 plays are entirely due to '461 Ocean Boulevard'.  Had it on vinyl for ages, but my vinyl lives out in the garage due to too many children vs not enough rooms in the house, so I don't play them much.  Got a digital copy of this one, and I simply can't get enough.  It surely must be second only to his Derek & The Dominos album in amazingness, although, that's a big call I know.  And I love the song title 'Willie & The Hand Jive' ;-)

New Raconteurs seems good, loving Bowie's 'Aladdin Sane' all over again, Beatles have got a running mainly with 'Rubber Soul' and the White Album. 

Good week, good tunes.

20/03/08

20/03/08

There's a new Raconteurs album?!?

clipped from www.billboard.com Raconteurs Album Being Rushed To Market Next Week The Raconteurs are eschewing the standard months-long wait between finishing an album and releasing it with "Consolers of the Lonely," which will hit retail March 25 via Third Man/Warner Bros. The set wasn't even completed until the first week of March, according to a statement from the band. "The purpose: to get the album to the fans as soon as possible and as we promised," the Jack White-featuring band says. "We wanted to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding it's availability, reception or perception."

Wow, I didn't even know they were working together again, and suddenly I find out and can have a new album within 6 days! That is really cool. As I said way back in one of my first posts, I loved the first album so much that I didn't care if Jack White never did another White Stripes album -- I wanted more Raconteurs. Well, here ya go, bucko....

Twice across the universe

The Beatles at Twickenham Film Studios

A bit of Beatles history to bring us all up to speed for this here post. The album 'Let It Be' came out in 1970 and was the final Beatles album to be released. However, it wasn't the final album to be recorded -- it was actually the result of some aborted recording sessions at Twickenham Studios and elsewhere which took place before the sessions that became Abbey Road (their true final album). These aborted sessions were unpleasant due to the surroundings, the filming that was going on (paul's idea was to make a movie of the sessions) and nasty in-fighting. Some songs were reworked and ended up on Abbey Road, but those that weren't/didn't were given to Phil Spector to turn them into an album, which became 'Let It Be', and which was released just after the Beatles split was announced.

This was a nasty time in Pepperland, as Paul was suing the rest of them and the split wasn't pleasant in general. John was the only one really involved in any way with Phil Spector's work on 'Let It Be' and Paul especially objected to what was done to his songs. Lavish string arrangements were added to 'The Long And Winding Road' and 'Let It Be' which wasn't what Paul wanted (it was Phil "wall of sound" Spector though...it can't have been a total surprise).

Cut to a few years ago and the album is re-released using a completely stripped-back un-Phil'd mix. Called 'Let It Be...Naked', it largely served as a vehicle for Paul McCartney's songs to have the strings removed. Thus, for the majority of the album any differences were hard to spot and the whole thing seemed like a largely unnecessary stroking of Paul's ego. I think I listened to it twice and put it away.

Looking for some Beatles to play the other night, I didn't feel like their other stuff so I chucked it on. Largely, it confirmed what I already thought, but then I listened closely to John's 'Across The Universe' and found a real gem. The original Spector version has strings, ascending 'whoa whoa' male choral lines and a tinny sound, but this 'naked' version has a real warmth and honesty to it. You can almost hear the genesis of the song with the clear acoustic strumming and intimate vocal sound.

Perhaps still not reason enough for the album's existence, but a pleasant find nontheless, and reminiscent of John's very beautiful, very posthumous 'Acoustic' album of recent years (but luckily without Yoko's awful "production" which near ruins that album but for the songs). Here they are for comparison, see which you prefer.

Across The Universe

The Beatles

Across the Universe

The Beatles

A space hero dies

Arthur C. Clarke

Sad to hear today that Arthur C. Clarke has died at 90.  This man wrote some of my very favourite books of all time, and blew my puny teenage/early-twenties mind with the scope of his imagination and almost prophetic science-based predictions.  I loved all of the 2001 series and the first Rama book especially.

I was always (and still am) blown away with his collaboration with Kubrik -- I loved the way the book '2001: A Space Odyssey' was written by Clarke specifically to get made into a movie by Kubrik.  Stanley Kubrik needed a good space script, and Arthur C. Clarke was the obvious choice.  So he wrote a book, and Kubrik made it into a movie immediately.  The book and film go hand in hand, and one shouldn't be enjoyed without knowledge of the other.  Amazing stuff, one of my top 3 books and top 3 movies I guess.

I don't know if there's someone out there to fill his shoes, I haven't read much in recent years because I don't have time, but I hope there's someone with Clarke's passion for imagination based in scientific realism who may be able to predict and to some degree drive space travel technology for the coming century.  I'm just sorry that Clarke wasn't living on the moon or in some kind of space station before he had to leave this world -- reality couldn't keep up with him.

Boogerman strikes again

This is a photo of a booger. It is stuck to a toilet cubicle wall. This toilet cubicle wall is not in a shopping mall or other public place. Rather, it is in my workplace. Societal norms would suggest that this is not the most appropriate for an unwanted nose turkey. Nor is it the place to cultivate an army of nose turkeys, on every stall wall, beside the urinals, probably under the very toilet seat i'm sitting on.

Boogerman, we're getting closer to you, you dirty motherfucker. This cannot continue.

Boogerman strikes again

Last.fm: operation 'ease off Maiden' not going well

Top Artists this Week (see more)

17 Feb 2008 – 24 Feb 2008

–	1		Iron Maiden	196
	2		Radiohead	39
	3		British India	27
	4		Opeth	26
3	5		Robert Plant & Alison Krauss	18
	6		Bruce Dickinson	17
	7		Monster Magnet	14
	8		Ramones	10
	8		Black Mountain	10
	10		Joy Division	9

A far more sensible chart than last week, but clearly I have not yet overcome my addiction, following on from the fucking amazing Maiden concert a couple of weeks ago.  In fact, on Thursday last week I FORCED myself to put something else on, even though I saw no need to.  Since then, I've only kept 3 Maiden albums on my PDA, so there's been a much more even spread.

Opeth's a new one for me, recommended by Mendosus now that I seem to have conquered my death-metal-growl phobia.  Dark new musical doors are open, much to my wife's chagrin ;-)

British India were recommended by my wife, and I'm really enjoying them.  They've got a real Arctic Monkeys vibe, but they're from Melbourne.  They've got those great frenetic rockin' riffs and they make you wanna move about, something best not done in public my yours truly in any form other than foot tapping.

Next week should be a more balanced affair...

Ode to the lonely

I feel extreme sadness for others suffering or misery, or for those who have been dealt a raw deal in life. My chest tightens up when I see people who aren't as lucky as me and a wave of sadness comes over me. It's just compassion or sympathy, I guess, but I feel it for very minor situations where the person probably lives life just fine. But my mind takes me on a Run Lola Run-esque flash forward into what I presume that person's life to be, which in my head is of course is lonely and sad.

I think that i've figured out what it's all about, though.

Loneliness.

I can't bear to think of people being lonely. I guess I feel that the downtrodden are more likely to experience loneliness and that's why I get the emotional response when I see someone who looks like they're doing it tough.

I don't think i've ever experienced real loneliness, so i'm not sure what it is about that emotion that gets me. If anything, i've always had so many people in my life that i've never properly been on my own. I think that I remained naïve and sheltered for too long because of this, if i'm honest. But possibly, this leads to a lack of understanding about living in solitude, and perhaps then, a fear of being alone.

If I had my time again the only thing i'd do differently would be to spend some time on my own to grow as a person before I met my wife. That would have saved us some grief along the way i'm sure, and would have removed the blinkers so my wife wouldn't have had to subsequently do it over the years we've been together.

Perhaps, being a man, i'm just explaining an emotion that everyone feels yet i'm shocked to be experiencing so acutely. Whatever it is, though, I hope to provide my kids with all the tools they need in life to never feel the isolation and pain that my imagination assumes these lonely people feel.

Decapitating the web

clipped from alistapart.com The proposed default behavior for version targeting in Internet Explorer solves the problem of “breaking the web” in much the same way that decapitation solves the problem of headaches. In its current state, version targeting is a cure that will kill the patient. Version targeting could have been an opportunity for Microsoft to demonstrate innovation. Instead, the proposed default behavior demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the World Wide Web, a place that according to its creator, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, will always be “a little bit broken.”

Sorry to get nerdy for a moment, but Microsoft have raised my anger up to ranting levels. Their proposed model to ensure they don't "break the web" (in one browser) again when they release IE8 is to ensure that no websites ever use IE8. Basically.

If you are a website professional, and do want to ensure your sites are displayed in as standards-compliant a manner as possible, then you will need to put some code into your sites to 'invoke' IE8. Sounds ok if you don't dwell on it too much, but if you do, you realise that Microsoft have basically decided here to leave the web as it is in 2007 (IE7) for a large percentage of sites out there. Forever more. Basically, it's OK for those sites to be crap, apparently, because you're allowed to now have a bad site that works fine in IE7 until the end of time.

Now, the web is not the exclusive domain of people who create websites well for a living, but it is CERTAINLY all about progression. What I take from all this is that browser manufacturers that work to ensure cutting-edge compatibility with current standards (ie companies that care about the web) and those who use those browsers (ie people who care about the web) are the ones that will now experience a new deliberately "broken web".

Not Microsoft.

Which is their whole point, I guess.

A momentous day for Australia

I've really wanted to write about my response to last week's apology to the stolen generation, but have been too busy until now. I was so impressed and it drew such an emotional response from me that I couldn't let it go by without getting my feelings down.

It seems Kevin Rudd can do no wrong so far. That he made the apology the first order of business for the new parliament was as symbolic of the way he's going to govern as the apology was symbolic of his commitment to changing the way this country views and treats our indigenous population.

His speech was heartfelt and meaningful but also pointed to his plan for action. He didn't try to justify the past, he commented frankly about the atrocities committed as a way to recognise what these people had been through. Probably most important beyond the actual act of apologising was his outline of how he plans to start to change aboriginal health and education and decrease the 17 year gap between indigenous and non-indigenous life expectancy. He was realistic about timeframes, but didn't look to pass the buck to future leaders.

My workplace stopped to watch the apology, and it was a very moving moment. People were crying. I even found tears welling up in my eyes and had chills through my body for most of it. The top brass were mainly there watching too, which impressed me.

Of course, Nelson's opposition leader speech was a different story, and was in fact largely offensive and inappropriate. I found myself shaking my head at what he was saying. His attempts to justify the past and highlight supposed "good intentions" was plain out of line. As a couple of people have said to me since, Hitler probably had "good intentions" too. The people turning their backs on his speech were justified in my opinion, and I wish that I'd made some kind of stance too -- I think I was too stunned at what I was hearing. As impressed as I was at Rudd asking Nelson to greet those in the gallery with him, and present the gift to the speaker with him, it was a hollow act on Nelson's and the Liberal's part after the sentiment expressed in their speech.

I am excited about the direction of this government and the country at the moment. It is so refreshing to have kindness and social justice on the political agenda for the first time in 12 years, as opposed to greed and fear. Thankyou Kevin Rudd. Please don't let me down.