No matter where you are, if this song plays, the world turns into a twilight fantasy of glistening highways after a rain, leading you to the city at night, with its neon and mystery and wood-hued cocktails.
Showing posts with label radio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label radio. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Sunday, January 1, 2012
A Few More Things the Intertoobs Taught Us in 2011
Before 2011 drifts too far from memory, we’d like to call out a few non-musical things that made the year worthwhile.
MOVIES
The weeks never have enough hours for us to watch all the films that we want to see and every year our catch-up list grows. Here’s the scant few titles that left an impression, some of which we actually saw.
TROLLHUNTER – Released in Norway in 2010, this clever horror film reached the United States in 2011 and breathed some life into the overused and overspent faux-documentary gimmick. It’s the rare combination of horror and comedy that delivers on both.
EXTRATERRESTRIAL – We haven’t even seen this yet but we’re putting it up here because the trailer is pretty exciting. Every genre flick is looking for a fresh angle and it appears that the inventive director Nacho Vigalondo may have one by framing that tired old alien invasion story through the bleary eyes of a one-night-stand couple shaking off what may be their last questionable decision.
On that same note, we also hold hope that Attack the Block does the same trick with the same trope with a different but equally promising execution. And it was a complete surprise to us how much we enjoyed the remake of Fright Night. Against all sense, it justified its existence. Sadly, that may convince Hollywood to keep on remaking things that are better off left alone.
GAMES
WONDERPUTT -- Keep your Xbox and "Words with Friends", this free online PC game from DampGnat is the shiny, candy-like button we keep pressing. Get a Slushee and some stale tortilla chips with orange cheese sauce to make the miniature golf experience complete.
RADIO ENDURANCE TEST – Invented by our own bastard publisher, S.L. Kreighton, RET is simple: Get in the car, turn on the radio, find a song you know but normally avoid, and listen. Repeat this exercise until madness sets in, or worst of all, win by coming around and learning to enjoy a song you thought you hated. For two or more players, take turns finding a song you know one or more of the other players hates, set the dial and watch them squirm. Okay, so not a game really as much as a form of torture. It’s free though and it really happens.
COMICS
HARK! A VAGRANT – Kate Beaton has been drawing her clever comic strip for a few years now but we only just discovered it this year. The Canadian artist with a history degree squeezes laughs from literature, history (duh), pop culture and everyday weird stuff that inspires her consistently funny work.
THE DEFENDERS – We hadn’t touched a mainstream superhero comic in years, but Marvel’s revival of this late Silver Age title intrigued us enough to buy the first issue and was good enough to bring us back for the forthcoming second issue. The debut has a “getting the band back together” feel and doesn’t shy away from mild humor in the service of a Lovecraft knock-off plot.
Worth a Mention -- We missed the first few issues of DC’s Wonder Woman relaunch but word on the street is they finally figured out what to do with the Amazon warrior princess.
Similarly, we missed the start of Image’s Mudman, but from what we’ve seen, it’s one of the better takes on the tired superhero concept.
Perhaps both the new Wonder Woman and Mudman will soon be collected in a trade paperback and we can eat it all at once the same way we tackled Ultra, The Walking Dead and Great Lakes Avengers.
MOVIES
The weeks never have enough hours for us to watch all the films that we want to see and every year our catch-up list grows. Here’s the scant few titles that left an impression, some of which we actually saw.
TROLLHUNTER – Released in Norway in 2010, this clever horror film reached the United States in 2011 and breathed some life into the overused and overspent faux-documentary gimmick. It’s the rare combination of horror and comedy that delivers on both.
EXTRATERRESTRIAL – We haven’t even seen this yet but we’re putting it up here because the trailer is pretty exciting. Every genre flick is looking for a fresh angle and it appears that the inventive director Nacho Vigalondo may have one by framing that tired old alien invasion story through the bleary eyes of a one-night-stand couple shaking off what may be their last questionable decision.
On that same note, we also hold hope that Attack the Block does the same trick with the same trope with a different but equally promising execution. And it was a complete surprise to us how much we enjoyed the remake of Fright Night. Against all sense, it justified its existence. Sadly, that may convince Hollywood to keep on remaking things that are better off left alone.
GAMES
WONDERPUTT -- Keep your Xbox and "Words with Friends", this free online PC game from DampGnat is the shiny, candy-like button we keep pressing. Get a Slushee and some stale tortilla chips with orange cheese sauce to make the miniature golf experience complete.
RADIO ENDURANCE TEST – Invented by our own bastard publisher, S.L. Kreighton, RET is simple: Get in the car, turn on the radio, find a song you know but normally avoid, and listen. Repeat this exercise until madness sets in, or worst of all, win by coming around and learning to enjoy a song you thought you hated. For two or more players, take turns finding a song you know one or more of the other players hates, set the dial and watch them squirm. Okay, so not a game really as much as a form of torture. It’s free though and it really happens.
COMICS
HARK! A VAGRANT – Kate Beaton has been drawing her clever comic strip for a few years now but we only just discovered it this year. The Canadian artist with a history degree squeezes laughs from literature, history (duh), pop culture and everyday weird stuff that inspires her consistently funny work.
THE DEFENDERS – We hadn’t touched a mainstream superhero comic in years, but Marvel’s revival of this late Silver Age title intrigued us enough to buy the first issue and was good enough to bring us back for the forthcoming second issue. The debut has a “getting the band back together” feel and doesn’t shy away from mild humor in the service of a Lovecraft knock-off plot.
Worth a Mention -- We missed the first few issues of DC’s Wonder Woman relaunch but word on the street is they finally figured out what to do with the Amazon warrior princess.
Similarly, we missed the start of Image’s Mudman, but from what we’ve seen, it’s one of the better takes on the tired superhero concept.
Perhaps both the new Wonder Woman and Mudman will soon be collected in a trade paperback and we can eat it all at once the same way we tackled Ultra, The Walking Dead and Great Lakes Avengers.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Sound Salvation
Since we're in a linking mood -- and that's really all we have energy for at the moment -- let's all give our attention to two related articles from different sources.
Chronologically, Slate came out first, swinging for rock & roll radio with a piece by Christine Pawlak. Hers is a first-person account of life as a radio DJ during what most culture-watchers perceive as the sunset on the empire of FM rock radio.
Two days later, the AV Club's Jason Heller wondered in print as to why classic-rock stations are suddenly including 1990s rock in their rotation. When Smashing Pumpkins rub up against Creedence Clearwater Revival, strange things are afoot.
Chronologically, Slate came out first, swinging for rock & roll radio with a piece by Christine Pawlak. Hers is a first-person account of life as a radio DJ during what most culture-watchers perceive as the sunset on the empire of FM rock radio.
Two days later, the AV Club's Jason Heller wondered in print as to why classic-rock stations are suddenly including 1990s rock in their rotation. When Smashing Pumpkins rub up against Creedence Clearwater Revival, strange things are afoot.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Don't Touch That Dial
No really, don't.
Now that the autumnal equinox has happened, it was just a matter of time before Typing Monkey publisher S.L. Kreighton made us all get into his rental car -- this year a minivan, which was actually quite comfortable -- and go for a drive.
Kreighton's goal was two-part and devious to the core. We all expected him to make us partake in his annual ritual of tooling around aimlessly while listening to the entirety of Bauhaus' "hits" disc 1979 - 1983 Vol. 1. The boss does that every year on the first dark, blustery morning after the first calendar day of fall. There's a free coffee in it for anybody who wants to tag along and at least it gets us out of the office for a good hour.
We had a fine time, and everyone agreed that Peter Murphy’s mad-monkey vocal at the end of “St. Vitus Dance” is a rock & roll freak-out par excellence.
Kreighton sprung his ulterior motive on us as soon as the last twinkles of guitar faded from the CD. After casually reminding us of a past car-radio game, he introduced a new one: Radio Endurance Test.
The objective is also the rule: Scan up and down the FM dial (or AM if your area actually has music stations on AM) and find any station you might normally listen to. Then wait until they play something that might normally make you tune in something else. It won’t take long. Now listen to the entire song, no matter what it is.
In less than 15 minutes we came across the opening verse of The Eagles’ “Witchy Woman.” Since it was decided at a staff meeting in 2009 that nobody at the TMI offices likes The Eagles, we knew the game had begun.
That was quickly followed by a fidgety tip-toe through “Behind Closed Doors” by Charlie Rich. When we all began to sing along to that, we realized that we actually kind of like that song. Spin again …
It all went sour when the new intern Eileen opened the side door of the minivan at a stop light and ran into a cornfield. What spooked her? Don McClean’s “American Pie” had begun. We were all so scared and all Kreighton did was guffaw in the driver’s seat. He nearly choked on his cigar. [It’s true. Kreighton is a horrible man. – ed.]
Strike up a game of Radio Endurance Test next time you’re out and about. Your flesh will crawl in no time.
Now that the autumnal equinox has happened, it was just a matter of time before Typing Monkey publisher S.L. Kreighton made us all get into his rental car -- this year a minivan, which was actually quite comfortable -- and go for a drive.
Kreighton's goal was two-part and devious to the core. We all expected him to make us partake in his annual ritual of tooling around aimlessly while listening to the entirety of Bauhaus' "hits" disc 1979 - 1983 Vol. 1. The boss does that every year on the first dark, blustery morning after the first calendar day of fall. There's a free coffee in it for anybody who wants to tag along and at least it gets us out of the office for a good hour.
We had a fine time, and everyone agreed that Peter Murphy’s mad-monkey vocal at the end of “St. Vitus Dance” is a rock & roll freak-out par excellence.
Kreighton sprung his ulterior motive on us as soon as the last twinkles of guitar faded from the CD. After casually reminding us of a past car-radio game, he introduced a new one: Radio Endurance Test.
The objective is also the rule: Scan up and down the FM dial (or AM if your area actually has music stations on AM) and find any station you might normally listen to. Then wait until they play something that might normally make you tune in something else. It won’t take long. Now listen to the entire song, no matter what it is.
In less than 15 minutes we came across the opening verse of The Eagles’ “Witchy Woman.” Since it was decided at a staff meeting in 2009 that nobody at the TMI offices likes The Eagles, we knew the game had begun.
That was quickly followed by a fidgety tip-toe through “Behind Closed Doors” by Charlie Rich. When we all began to sing along to that, we realized that we actually kind of like that song. Spin again …
It all went sour when the new intern Eileen opened the side door of the minivan at a stop light and ran into a cornfield. What spooked her? Don McClean’s “American Pie” had begun. We were all so scared and all Kreighton did was guffaw in the driver’s seat. He nearly choked on his cigar. [It’s true. Kreighton is a horrible man. – ed.]
Strike up a game of Radio Endurance Test next time you’re out and about. Your flesh will crawl in no time.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Open The Good Stuff, Drink and Remember
Norma Zimmer, aka The Champagne Lady from The Lawrence Welk Show, is dead.
If your first reaction is "who?" then you are either too young, or grew up in a household that didn't tune in regularly to the Welk Show. Zimmer was a singer and dancer who joined the show in 1960, thus spending more than 20 years with a show that ran nationally for nearly 28 years.
Her singing style recalled the Hit Parade era of Doris Day and similar pure, unaffected delivery of pop tunes that sound schmaltzy to the modern ear. Let go of irony and your rock & roll ways and Zimmer's buttery vibrato feels like a hug -- possibly a hug from grandma, but who couldn't use one of those from time to time?
Zimmer's death falls into place after a string of deaths we should have noted here. Yvette Vickers' passing was certainly the most tragic. Gone as well are Arthur Larents, John Walker, Body Snatcher rebel Dana Wynter and Dolores Fuller.
We probably should have given a nod to Wynter's passing, for if you need a smart woman by your side as alien invaders gradually infest your sleepy coastly burg, she was the lady for the job. And Vickers -- what could we say that hadn't been said already?
Norma Zimmer died on May 10, 2011. She was 88. There are other Welk Women still dancing, singing and playing, but only one got the title The Champagne Lady.
If your first reaction is "who?" then you are either too young, or grew up in a household that didn't tune in regularly to the Welk Show. Zimmer was a singer and dancer who joined the show in 1960, thus spending more than 20 years with a show that ran nationally for nearly 28 years.
Her singing style recalled the Hit Parade era of Doris Day and similar pure, unaffected delivery of pop tunes that sound schmaltzy to the modern ear. Let go of irony and your rock & roll ways and Zimmer's buttery vibrato feels like a hug -- possibly a hug from grandma, but who couldn't use one of those from time to time?
[Image courtesy of WelkGirls.com]
Zimmer's death falls into place after a string of deaths we should have noted here. Yvette Vickers' passing was certainly the most tragic. Gone as well are Arthur Larents, John Walker, Body Snatcher rebel Dana Wynter and Dolores Fuller.
We probably should have given a nod to Wynter's passing, for if you need a smart woman by your side as alien invaders gradually infest your sleepy coastly burg, she was the lady for the job. And Vickers -- what could we say that hadn't been said already?
Norma Zimmer died on May 10, 2011. She was 88. There are other Welk Women still dancing, singing and playing, but only one got the title The Champagne Lady.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Good Bye, Arnold Stang
The acting world hosts a limited number of reliable "oh that guy!" [OTG] actors. So the death of one of the titans of OTG work, Arnold Stang, stings particularly hard. Stang was the epitome of OTG quality: instantly recognizable, reliably funny and able to make a decent living by capitalizing on his uncommon looks, voice and talent. Stang died on Dec 20, 2009. He was 91.
Any old jerk can be an action hero, kittenish ingenue or classy leading lady. But the women and men classified as "OTG" actors are essential by bringing a touch of vaudeville and silent film exaggeration to modern film and television. They look like people you may actually know, but excel at performing a (usually comedic) grotesque kind of hyper-reality.
OTG actors play wacky neighbors in sit-coms, greasy sidekicks, service workers who take their jobs too seriously, or any other supporting but genuinely memorable role -- despite the fact that the general public has trouble remembering OTG actors' names.
Stang, a veteran of radio comedy, transitioned to film and television, showing off his dramatic chops as Frank Sinatra's loyal friend in The Man with the Golden Arm:
Recognize that voice? You should. Stang was the title character in Hanna Barbera's Sgt. Bilko knock-off, Top Cat.
Raise a glass to Arnold Stang this week.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Haunted Radio
We are unashamed to proclaim our love of listening to the radio. But it's frustrating that Halloween-happy listeners are supposed to be content with the pittance offered by most stations on Oct 31, in the form of "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers. (It's a delightful novelty hit, though The Typing Monkey prefers "Monster's Holiday" because we like to root for the underdog.)
That's why we tune in every year to "The Roadhouse" on KEXP FM. It's an American blues & roots music show that airs Wednesday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m., Pacific Time.
On the Wednesday just before Halloween, "Roadhouse" DJ Greg Vandy usually fills his three hour show with all manner of murder ballads, blues numbers about pacts with the Devil, hillbilly songs about dead lovers and probably a fair selection of Screamin' Jay Hawkins and other early r&b and rock & roll shouters who dabbled in the dark arts.
Don't live within the station's broadcast range? You can dial it up via the Web and for two weeks after the show airs, you can listen to an archived podcast of the program. We haven't contacted Vandy, but tune in on Oct 28 and the chance of spooky satisfaction is high.
Various shows on WFMU pull out lots of good Halloween- and horror-themed music too, and we'd be reprehensible boors if we didn't also mention Dr. Demento.
If all else fails, The Monster Club hosts hundreds of old time radio dramas in the horror, mystery, supernatural and suspense genres. (You'll need to subscribe to get the download password, but it's otherwise free.)
That's why we tune in every year to "The Roadhouse" on KEXP FM. It's an American blues & roots music show that airs Wednesday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m., Pacific Time.
On the Wednesday just before Halloween, "Roadhouse" DJ Greg Vandy usually fills his three hour show with all manner of murder ballads, blues numbers about pacts with the Devil, hillbilly songs about dead lovers and probably a fair selection of Screamin' Jay Hawkins and other early r&b and rock & roll shouters who dabbled in the dark arts.
Don't live within the station's broadcast range? You can dial it up via the Web and for two weeks after the show airs, you can listen to an archived podcast of the program. We haven't contacted Vandy, but tune in on Oct 28 and the chance of spooky satisfaction is high.
Various shows on WFMU pull out lots of good Halloween- and horror-themed music too, and we'd be reprehensible boors if we didn't also mention Dr. Demento.
If all else fails, The Monster Club hosts hundreds of old time radio dramas in the horror, mystery, supernatural and suspense genres. (You'll need to subscribe to get the download password, but it's otherwise free.)
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Radio On!
The Typing Monkey has a challenge for you. It requires a car with a working radio. If you don't have both of those things, you can stop reading and skip on to another post here, or click on one of the links in our "Monkey Love" section and enjoy some other Web-based entertainment.
Those who are prepared for it: This challenge can only be a good time. Consider it an exercise in chance, discovery and a way to return a tiny bit of wonder to the act of listening to the radio.
But first, we are required to say:
Corporate radio sucks. Media leviathans own multiple stations in single markets and continue to drain both the local personality and musical diversity from these stations in the belief that they know what listeners want to hear, niche-programming music into blank-eyed predictability.
Conversely, technology has enabled consumers to program deeply personalized playlists of music they can take wherever they want, without annoying commercial interruptions or a disc jockey who pretends that his job is a non-stop party. MP3 players and cloud-storage music services have made the act of listening to music on the radio the technological equivalent of shaving with a straight-razor sharpened on a leather strap.
Now then:
If you've read this far, we won't rehash any sad statistics regarding media consolidation and the shrinking pool of songs from which radio programming draws, because the point of all this typing is to praise radio.
That's right, we love radio and we're not afraid to admit it.
It's easy to tune in to talk or news radio and leave it on all day at work, or while doing chores around the house. Some passively listen to a single music station because it's easy to do so. There's comfort in tuning in a classic rock station while you clean the gutters, or some other unsavory but necessary labor.
But hopping from station to station -- particularly easy with a car radio -- forces the listener into activity, and consequently makes the radio experience significantly more fun. Even in the dullest radio market a few well-chosen stops on the dial can provide a reasonably good driving soundtrack.
So here's the challenge: Reprogram a few of the presets on your car radio. Sure, pick whatever stations you may voluntarily listen to, but toss in a few that trade in genres you might not think of immediately. Don't pick stations you hate, though. This is a game, not torture.
Now, the next time you have to drive for more than 20 minutes, turn on the radio and find a song you like on any of the stations. Listen to it and if you don't like the next song, change to another station on the presets until you find something agreeable.
Those who are prepared for it: This challenge can only be a good time. Consider it an exercise in chance, discovery and a way to return a tiny bit of wonder to the act of listening to the radio.
But first, we are required to say:
Corporate radio sucks. Media leviathans own multiple stations in single markets and continue to drain both the local personality and musical diversity from these stations in the belief that they know what listeners want to hear, niche-programming music into blank-eyed predictability.
Conversely, technology has enabled consumers to program deeply personalized playlists of music they can take wherever they want, without annoying commercial interruptions or a disc jockey who pretends that his job is a non-stop party. MP3 players and cloud-storage music services have made the act of listening to music on the radio the technological equivalent of shaving with a straight-razor sharpened on a leather strap.
Now then:If you've read this far, we won't rehash any sad statistics regarding media consolidation and the shrinking pool of songs from which radio programming draws, because the point of all this typing is to praise radio.
That's right, we love radio and we're not afraid to admit it.
It's easy to tune in to talk or news radio and leave it on all day at work, or while doing chores around the house. Some passively listen to a single music station because it's easy to do so. There's comfort in tuning in a classic rock station while you clean the gutters, or some other unsavory but necessary labor.
But hopping from station to station -- particularly easy with a car radio -- forces the listener into activity, and consequently makes the radio experience significantly more fun. Even in the dullest radio market a few well-chosen stops on the dial can provide a reasonably good driving soundtrack.
So here's the challenge: Reprogram a few of the presets on your car radio. Sure, pick whatever stations you may voluntarily listen to, but toss in a few that trade in genres you might not think of immediately. Don't pick stations you hate, though. This is a game, not torture.
Now, the next time you have to drive for more than 20 minutes, turn on the radio and find a song you like on any of the stations. Listen to it and if you don't like the next song, change to another station on the presets until you find something agreeable.
But don't ever stay on any one station for more than three songs. You'll surprise yourself by what you settle on, and if you plug in some off-the-path stations, the whole thing can feel like listening to somebody else's iPod set to shuffle.
Just do it. Seriously, it's fun. To prove it here are some recent results from a Typing Monkey staff field trip:
Stations programmed
~ Classic rock
~ Classical music
~ An "oldies" station that spans from *Your Hit Parade material on up through unnecessary modern versions of jazz standards by the likes of Rod Stewart
~ A well-funded "indie" music station
~ "World music" station
~ Two urban contemporary/R&B/hip-hop stations
~ Jazz
~ A "JACK FM" channel
~ Pop and rock hits of the '70s and '80s
Here's what we heard, starting at 9 p.m. [Brackets] indicate the songs we skipped, or missed due to the three-song limit. An asterisk* indicates songs we heard only part of.
Jack Jones -- "Wives and Lovers"
Barbara Lewis -- "Baby I'm Yours"
Tymes -- "Wonderful! Wonderful!"
[Carley Simon - "Nobody Does It Better"]
Breakestra -- "Lowdown Stank"*
[Brother Ali -- "The Preacher"]
REM -- "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)"*
Boston -- "More Than a Feeling"
The Cure -- "Close to Me"
[The Police -- "Synchronicty II"]
Steve Miller Band -- "Jungle Love"*
Led Zeppelin -- "Celebration Day" (Zeptember!)
[Station break]
The Wailing Souls -- "Kingdom Rise & Kingdom Fall" (12" Mix)*
The next day we tried it again at 1 p.m. and netted nothing worth hearing. Really, a total wash-out. Nobody needs to hear "Gypsy" or "Magic Carpet Ride" ever again radio. We can play those songs in our heads if we feel the need.
And lately the "urban" stations seem stuck on a permanent loop of passionless, Auto-tuned "soul" jams about getting drunk and engaging in casual sex. There's better urban contemporary material out there, we've heard it.
Three days later, we took a chance on a morning drive. If you want to hear music, statistically, this has to be the worst time of the day to listen to the radio.
After minutes of fruitless searching we settled on the last dramatic bars of Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D minor, a decent transition into The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" then Queen's "We Will Rock You" (didn't stay for "We Are the Champions"). Switching again we landed on Charles Mingus' "Better Get Hit in Your Soul" (a revelation) and Blind Willie McTell's "Broke Down Engine Blues." That was enough to get us to our destination and now we know it's time to check out Mingus Ah Uhm.
You have the rules. Give it a try. And if you live in a barren radio wasteland, try it anyway. You never know what you might end up with after exploring the dial.
Car radio image courtesy of Antique Automobile Radio, Inc.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)