 |
January 13, 1998: Starship Troopers was actually the last movie I saw in a movie theatre. Before
that it was the last Bond movie. Am I retrograding? It pretty much sucked, but not altogether.
I must admit that I smiled a few times. Such a silly little ditty.
I also liked its take on fascism, giving it a Melrose Placey kinda face. Il Duce Barbie-stylee. Two days ago I saw Born on the 4th of July on TV again. It was better than Starship Troopers, but didn't
really touch me this time. |
|
January 13, 1998: Flaming Burnout - Estrus Benefit Compilation is a pretty new record that I bought the other day. Koziks Man's Ruin label released it to help Estrus Records get back in the saddle after the fire that ate the hole Estrus warehouse. Estrus is, as you might know, one of the best 90's garage labels. And the roster of Flaming Burnout really is something: you've got japanese punkrawkers Teengenerate, Swedish stalwart garagerockers The Nomads and weird instrocombo Man or Astro-man?. You've got Hi-Fives showing off their vocal stylings onna Billy Childish tune, The Makers doing a take on The Godfathers' great Damn Nation and a brilliant sad song called Nobody Loves You Like Me by Madame X (no, not the silly heavy fuck-Os). If you bought the Milarepa record for a good cause, do yourself a service and buy this one for another good cause. It rocks way good. You'll be a poorer person without it. |
|
January 13, 1998: I bought the latest Sonic Youth effort last year, but I listened to it for the first time right now. It's pretty good, but too damn unfocused. It's called SYR 2 and it's part two in a series that started with the red SYR1. It's basically the same fodder on these two beautiful colored slabs o' vinyl: drones the SY way, crystal tinkering of strings, sexy vocals by Kim G. and Dutch+French song titles. These two records are not to be considered real Sonic Y. albums, I reckon. But they're good in a medative way. Sonic Youth can't do nothing wrong in Mr. Pig's book, 'strewth. |
|
January 13, 1998: This weekend I started reading Banana Yoshimoto's debut novel, Kitchen, but I didn't have time to really get into it. It starts out
v. promising, though. It's a weird ode to kitchen and the people
who spend time in kitchen. Very japanese and stylish. Hong Kong director Yim Ho recently made a Wong Kar-Waï-ish movie of it, which I've heard is a good flick. I must say that I don't love those HK art films as much as I love the heroic gunshed stuff, but I do like them. Effortlessy, they blend arthouse with epic traditional Chinese. I'll get back to you on Kitchen, the book. |
 |
January 13, 1998: Another record that I've listened to a lot on my own lately,
fuck knows why, is Schoolly D's (I spell it old style, OK?) 1994 album Welcome to America. Man! That's some hard rap he's spurting out there. I know that Schoolly is about as PC as Black Korea-era Ice Cube, Baby's Got Back-era Sir Mixalot or Niggaz for Life-era NWA, but who cares? If that makes me a sexist, that makes you pretty much too-PC-for-your-own-health, Buster! This is vintage rap: dirty, groovy and not containing one inch of compromise. |
 |
January 13, 1998: Damn those records! I'd love to be all Adbusters and shit, but even though I don't consider myself a consumerist
kinda person, I still end up hoarding books, records and comic
books like a fucking gopher with eyeglasses. I've tried for some
time now to get my friends hip to Bill Hicks. Success has been somewhat mixed, I must admit. Still, the four
Bill Hicks rekkids that are available from Ryko Disc are pure and undiluted must-have material. Hicks, as lots of
people probably know by now, died of pancreatic cancer in 1994,
32 years old. He was brilliant all the way through, sometimes
stumbling into pure obcenities, sometimes striding into the darkest
of human territories. Hicks' take on pro life people: "I think they're annoying people, most of my friends think they're evil fucks!" On humanity: "We're a virus with shoes, that's all we are." On military: "Anyone dumb enough to wanna be in the military should be allowed to." Vitriol haven't been this stylish and political since Lenny Bruce, no joke. |
 |
January 13, 1998: On a less offensive note: Boy! Those! Mick Harvey! Serge Gainsbourg! Adaptions! Are! The! Bees! Knees! Harvey (Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution, The Bad Seeds) released one album in 1996, if my memory serves me, and a second one in 1997. Last album, my fave was Sex Shop. On this album, suitably monikered Pink Elephants, I dote for the bizarre anti-drug ballad To All the Lucky Kids. I mean, Gainsbourg was well known as one of the wildest persons in France for several decades. And then: an anti-drug song? Oh, humanity... |
 |
January 13, 1998: Nuff gabbing about records. My favourite comic book tough girl since Modesty Blaise went all mushy on us, is named Miho (or, most of the time, "deadly little Miho"). She's another of those strong Frank Miller women in the Elektra/Martha Washington style. 'Course Julie Doucet draws tough girls, 'course Krystyne Kyttre and Dori Seda are the original comic book outlaws. But when I say tough, I mean TOUGH. To paraphrase an old James Cagney poster: All Miho breaks lose in: FAMILY VALUES. The story itself is no big deal, it's the same old Spillane-comics that Miller's been doing for the past years now. But as
usual, it's very fucking beautiful to look at and the storytelling
is first-rate. As usual. Miho, though, is deadlier than usual.
Less than 5 ft, more kick ass capacity than Slantgirl, she is my comic book heroine, bar none. Kiss me, deadly. |
  |
January 13, 1998: Last week I bought a big fat Weegee book, Weegee's New York: Photographs 1935-1960. It's un-dirtyword-believable, I tell you! Beautiful, beautiful
and relentless as it comes. This is the guy who did the book that
John Zorn's hardcore combo Naked City took their name from. "The Famous Weegee" is THE photographical
portrayer of Metropolis. Check him out at your local library,
if you don't wanna spend a quarter of this month's rent. Which
is what I did. But it was a birthday present, I'm happy to say.
Another birthday present was the cooler-than-thou Glen E. Friedman photobook Fuck You Heroes. Highly recommended of course, distributed by 2.13.61, but also very expensive. I'm lucky to have such nice friends.
Love you all. I'll let you into my compound when Harumagedon comes. |
