This is me, extremely busy. I've been meaning to pen a major Quasi retrospective post; I suppose I can try and get to that later tonight or something. I also wanted to write about the Mia Doi Todd remix album, too -- I suppose I can get to that next week.
This post, however, is mostly an addendum to yesterday's. In a fit of technology-related amnesia, it didn't even occur to me that the new Mountain Goats EP, Babylon Springs, the one sold out on the 4ad site, would be available on iTunes, and so it is. Thanks to L-train for the reminder, it was an accidental oversight on my part, completely.
The most interesting thing to cross my path recently is the new Final Fantasy album, He Poos Clouds -- a ridiculous and giggle-worthy title, to be sure. (Sidebar: What has happened to Owen's Myspace account and website? I hope it's not legal troubles with Square Enix or anything...) I haven't had time to give it a good, full listen yet, but the title of the last track grabbed me: "The Pooka Sings." I've always had a soft spot for the pooka, ever since I was completely obsessed with the Jimmy Stewart film Harvey as a child. (Is he really seeing a giant rabbit? Is it a benevolent animal spirit looking after him? Or is he crazy, or just a drunk? A good way to stumble into the existential questions of reality versus non-reality at a tender age, to be sure.)
Anyway, this is one of the reasons I loved Donnie Darko -- it was a total bizzaro twist on the idea of the pookas as set out in Harvey -- down to the giant rabbit angle. I have no idea if this song has anything to do with Harvey or Donnie Darko -- though, as we might recall, John Vanderslice drops a Donnie Darko reference in the title of Cellar Door (I'm sorry, this will all be kind of lost on you haven't seen the film -- but the linguistically-pleasing phrase plays a key role in the film.)
Speaking of Vanderslice's Cellar Door, I'm always amused that people always notice that "Promising Actress" is an homage to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive but gloss over the fact that "When It Hits My Blood" is a similar take on Requiem For a Dream, and "Wild Strawberries" references, well, Ingmar Bergman's Smultronstället -- English title, Wild Strawberries. And of course, there's probably other cinematic references in the album that I'm missing too, because it seems the theme of the entire album. For instance, the narrative of "Coming and Going On Easy Terms" always rings a bell, but I can't place it.
How the heck did this turn into a tiny dissertation on Cellar Door? Interesting how these things happen; welcome to my brain. (Perhaps it's because I looked through JV's fall tour pictures yesterday and was pleased to find not only a charming snap of those darlings, The Double, but also of The Ladies. Cute0r, on both counts!)
That being said, I totally need to eat my lunch already!
Final Fantasy -- The Pooka Sings
Echo and the Bunnymen -- Killing Moon
John Vanderslice -- Coming and Going on Easy Terms
This post, however, is mostly an addendum to yesterday's. In a fit of technology-related amnesia, it didn't even occur to me that the new Mountain Goats EP, Babylon Springs, the one sold out on the 4ad site, would be available on iTunes, and so it is. Thanks to L-train for the reminder, it was an accidental oversight on my part, completely.
The most interesting thing to cross my path recently is the new Final Fantasy album, He Poos Clouds -- a ridiculous and giggle-worthy title, to be sure. (Sidebar: What has happened to Owen's Myspace account and website? I hope it's not legal troubles with Square Enix or anything...) I haven't had time to give it a good, full listen yet, but the title of the last track grabbed me: "The Pooka Sings." I've always had a soft spot for the pooka, ever since I was completely obsessed with the Jimmy Stewart film Harvey as a child. (Is he really seeing a giant rabbit? Is it a benevolent animal spirit looking after him? Or is he crazy, or just a drunk? A good way to stumble into the existential questions of reality versus non-reality at a tender age, to be sure.)
Anyway, this is one of the reasons I loved Donnie Darko -- it was a total bizzaro twist on the idea of the pookas as set out in Harvey -- down to the giant rabbit angle. I have no idea if this song has anything to do with Harvey or Donnie Darko -- though, as we might recall, John Vanderslice drops a Donnie Darko reference in the title of Cellar Door (I'm sorry, this will all be kind of lost on you haven't seen the film -- but the linguistically-pleasing phrase plays a key role in the film.)
Speaking of Vanderslice's Cellar Door, I'm always amused that people always notice that "Promising Actress" is an homage to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive but gloss over the fact that "When It Hits My Blood" is a similar take on Requiem For a Dream, and "Wild Strawberries" references, well, Ingmar Bergman's Smultronstället -- English title, Wild Strawberries. And of course, there's probably other cinematic references in the album that I'm missing too, because it seems the theme of the entire album. For instance, the narrative of "Coming and Going On Easy Terms" always rings a bell, but I can't place it.
How the heck did this turn into a tiny dissertation on Cellar Door? Interesting how these things happen; welcome to my brain. (Perhaps it's because I looked through JV's fall tour pictures yesterday and was pleased to find not only a charming snap of those darlings, The Double, but also of The Ladies. Cute0r, on both counts!)
That being said, I totally need to eat my lunch already!
Final Fantasy -- The Pooka Sings
Echo and the Bunnymen -- Killing Moon
John Vanderslice -- Coming and Going on Easy Terms
posted by cindy hotpoint at 3:37:00 PM
5 Comments:
JV must be sending out some kind of ridiculously strong psychic broadcast signal today, because I literally woke up thinking about Cellar Door and proceeded to spend my whole getting-ready time (shower, toothbrushing, etc.) thinking about him (and that album and Pixel Revolt). Very strange.
(p.s. I always thought it was weird that no one mentions the "When It Hits My Blood"/Requiem for a Dream connection, too!)
It's Owen's D&D concept album. How stoked am I? I've asked to review it for UTR... so if I get a chance, I'll ask that dude what happened to his stunning online presence.
Ahh, I didn't know that -- thanks for the heads up, K8. Are there pookas in D&D -- I don't remember that!
And thanks for checking up on Owen's 'net situation, I'm kind of worried.
Anon: Studies have shown that JV has the strongest psychic pull of any indie rock artist. (;
Seriously, though, I find it interesting how the collective conciousness really does actually sometimes exist!
You know, in yarz and yarz of playing the deeeeed, I never saw a pooka. Although, I imagine you could have one as a "familiar" equivalent. I dunno. But supposedly, this is his D&D exploration!
And yeah, I'm writing about that, Mia Doi Todd and Espers. I just got the MDT today and am waiting on the full Final Fantasy experience as I just have a couple of tracks. And nothing from the Espers people yet. We'll see. I think Espers is a short blurb, Mia DT about 100 words, but the FF write-up is another 300-400 words, so woo!
A side note about your spam-ender... sometimes, no shit, I can't read the font. I'm like... "b... h... r? is that an r? I think that's an r." And then I panic slightly and worry that I am a spammer.
True story.
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