Movies I want to see: Space is the Place

After Grindhouse and a discussion with my younger brother, I've decided to check out some more blaxploitation movies. Since everyone's aware of the classics, like Trick Trucker, Superfly, Dolemite, and the Mack, I thought that I'd try my hand at more obscure stuff. Either that, or something weirder.

So weirder I have found.

If you hear the words "Space Is the Place", if you are like me, undoubtedly, you'll remember the song by Spacehog from the late nineties. If you heard the words "Space Is the Place" and were a fan of progressive jazz musician in the 60s, I'm sure that this movie would stir some memories. I know little of this movie, except that it stars Sun-Ra, a somewhat famous jazz musician of the era. I checked out some of his tunes and the good stuff reminds me of Yoko Kano's jazz from Cowboy Bebop, which is a high compliment. The rest, is etherial acid jazz. So if it was a comic book, it would be "What If...the soundtrack to Escape From LA was done by an acid soaked jazzman"? Jazz is cool. It gives me a reason to check out this movie.

Reason two: the costumes. Aren't they awesome? Much like rappers of today, Sun Ra has an overinflated self image. Instead of believing himself to be a god of sex, he sees himself as a literal God. A God who will save us all through jazz and Egypt worship. Who doesn't want that?

Aural Sex: Music from April 15 to April 22nd

Should have updated this earlier, but I am a lazy SOB and/or busy one. Onwards!

Unsurprisingly, Pixies are number one again this week. I attribute this to my listening to their live concert out of Winipeg two years ago. I'm of the opinion that the Pixies' live stuff is a hundred times better than their recorded stuff. Unlike most bands, their banter is kept to a near minimum. The most I heard from the concert recording was Kim Deal asking the audience if they played to Winipeg or not. This met with a deafening "NO!" The concert screams with so much energy that you can practically see Frank Black's sweat come out of the speakers. Great concert, worth hunting down if you're into the Pixies.

The Who is number two thanks to their Live At Leeds album that I pulled off of Soulseek at the end of last week. While the concert on the CD lacks the frantic energy of a Pixies concert, it's worth it just to hear all of the Who's repertoire from the ages in concerto.

New up is Man Man, a small band that everyone should check out. Man Man what Tom Waits would sound if he cloned himself and inserted him into an art band. Some of the songs, are too short and are a little bit too cacophonous, but there's a couple gems in there. Out of their album Six Demon Bag, their best songs are Feathers, Black Mission Goggles (which has the energy of an super powered atomic bomb that can destroy the mother fucking sun!) and Van Helsing Boom Box. The rest is hit or miss, so check yourself before you wreck yourself. They're also fronting for Modest Mouse this summer, which is double plus good since Modest Mouse is awesome (when they're sober).

Clint Mansell's up there since I needed some atmospheric music while I was reading the Ruins. It was the Fountain Soundtrack. (Rob's mini review of the Fountain: Want to see Hugh Jackman cry and people turn into trees? This movie is for you!)

The Embassy's new music that I found through last.fm. From what I recall, it's Swedish, so your millage may vary. The Embassy's techno-lite pop that comes from the Earth's gummy centre. It rots teeth and tickles your ear holes.

The rest isn't really worth commenting on since it's old hat.

As always, you check see what I'm listening to right now by looking up to the left or internet stalking me on my last.fm profile. I got invisible eyes, so I'll see you acoming if you check me out.

The State Of My Shitty Musical Taste

I got myself a big ass ipod now that the breakup has hit the FSJ area. Music's my vacation.

I got myself an 80 gig one thinking that I'd be able to fill it up quickly with my music and tool it up with other dandy things. As of the moment, I've only managed to put 10 gigs of music in there. That's my complete CD collection, with a couple of lost exception as well as three years or so of downloading music. With all that empty space on the ipod, suddenly I've come to the realization that I don't listen to enough music, and that the music that I'm listening to isn't that varied. So I've decided to do my semi-annual music expanding experiment. I've decided that since I've mined out all the good stuff from 80s hip hop, I'm going to start checking out more disco and 70s soul. This is my plan for the future.

That said, I'd digging Of Montreal's new album right now. I've been rather mixed on Of Montreal in the past, liking their beat heavy stuff more so than their meandering slow shit. Out of all the songs in Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer, the best of the lot is the Past Is a Grotesque Animal, an epic 11 plus minute song. The song builds to an explosion like an aural dam bursting after being bombarded with vicious synth. I wholeheartedly recommend this amazing beast of a song.

Today, I have the conch

Before Piggy's (who represents reason) head was brutally smashed in by a rock (which represents man's most base violent impulses) in the classic novel, Lord of the Flies, he held the conch. The conch for those who don't remember Lord of the Flies, was a symbol for democracy, or leadership. Basically, whoever holds the conch, gets to control the island. Got it? My boss has metaphorically passed me the modern day conch on the day to the airport today. While he's conquering the water and fire elements, I hold the mystical cell phone and the date book of order. While it's highly doubtful that I shall get to exercise my executive powers in the next two weeks (blank cheques!), it's nice to know that I'm considered competent enough to run a company for a bit.

The Sound of Music for the week of April 8th to 15th.

Lots of Pixies this week, thanks to me finally transferring my music collection from my old PC to the new one. I doubt that they'll be as much next week, but you can never be too certain. Radio Birdman's up there too, but that's because I transfered their new CD to the computer. Last.fm doesn't track vehicle plays, unfortunately.

The Roots and the Who feature prominently this week thanks to a feature on IGN on the Top 25 Live CDs of All Time. Since I haven't had a chance to listen to all of the Who CD yet, I'm sure that it'll track a lot higher next week.

John Carpenter is on the list, of course, due to Rodriguez's fantastic Planet Terror soundtrack. I digs me Carpenter's crazy synth-o-sounds.

The rest are odds and ends.

As always, you can mock my musical choices, or, better yet, join last.fm so that I can mock yours. It's what makes the world run smooth as a baby's bottom. Or you can gaze to the right and see what I'm listening to right now. SO MANY CHOICES FOR YOUR BRAINS!

Lastly, if you have any new tunes for me to plug into my ear holes, just pop in your comments

Heather Salmon Needs Killer Joints For Paper Movies

My friend Heather is working on another project, Bookworm Music, and this is a good thing. If you have an inkling of what the female nerd scene is like, no doubt you're aware of the idea of a fiction orientated mix cd sountrack is. These communities are scattered across internet tubes like a fistful of pennies. For the most part, these places aren't worth the time and effort. Fueled by the untapped estrogen mines of horny 17 year old women, they spend their after class time creating mix cds for their favourite slash moments. Ever wanted to know which song worms through their brains while they read a story of Frodo's ass being tongued for the first time by Sam while Merry and Pippin lick each other's eyeballs? Beautiful, by Christina Aguilera. This is more true than you want to believe.

Heather is a smart cookie. She's taken the core idea, creating mix cds for paper films and sharpening her knives so that all the shitty parts are taken out. No j-pop, no music dedicated to tender slashy moments, nothing based issue three billion of X-Men. Just soundtracks to movies in your brain made by pop cultural fizz. It's a good idea and a good start. I dig the idea so much that I've created a last.fm site dedicated to it. Give it a check-see. Undoubtably your ears will thank you in the magnificent future

Manhunt 2 lacks Cox, but otherwise, looks good

See that? That's the Manhunt 2 trailer. Spooky, yes?

I'm a huge fan of Manhunt, despite the fact that it's named after a dating site for gay men ( it's true!) I'm not a huge fan of the stealth genre, the only game that I've played besides Manhunt was Metal Gear Solid, but a couple of factors have pushed me to check it out.

Factor 1)

It's Rockstar. And being a drone for Rockstar games that their ability to push new innovative content, I said yes.

Factor 2)

Brian Cox! If the game didn't have Brian Cox, there would be less of a chance that I'd pick it up. Brian Cox is awesome. Did you know that he once played a pedophile *and* played the guy who created Wolverine in the X-Men movies? That, my friends, is called range. Cox one ups himself in Manhunt by playing a snuff obsessed movie director. A snuff director who gets off while you kill gang members and makes quips to encourage your killination. Yes, this is what makes a game worth playing.

This brings me to the stealth genre. Most games of the genre are usually about you sneaking into a base, evading enemies as much as possible along the way. I'm surprised that no one has decided to play with the genre a bit more in terms of content. Wouldn't it make more sense if a game structured on evading your opponents be focused on someone trying to escape from a prison and moving to freedom? There's gold in that there idea, I tells you.

Here We Go Again (Again)

So yeah, I have free time.

For those who are out of the loop (none), for the last three months I've been ovaries deep working for The Man. Or A Man. Or A Dude, since he's not much older than I. Through good fortune, I've been working with a lab tech that used to do my dad's old soil sampling work at ALS. Seeing a lack of line locating in FSJ, last year he started up his own company. Since his brother in law is pussy whipped, he was down one person and since I worked for him a bit during the summer, voila, I have a job.

And busy I have been. All the way from mid January to the end of March, I think that I had something like 6-8 days off. Considering how this was a relatively quiet winter, I think that the company will do well when things pick up next winter.

This leaves me with free time for the next time. A lot of it, I say! Thus, I've decided to get back on the blogging bandwagon. Therefore, expect to see daily posting here and on MKZ until work gets busy again.

Thus endth the lesson