Link: http://www.indabamusic.com/submissions/show/4374

Hi everyone,
I am shamelessly plugging this contest my brother has entered. It's some kind of music contest where I think people write a song and the winner gets to do some kind of collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma.

So, check out the song he wrote. It's got a little Brazilian flavor to it. His name is: Barmey Vishnu Ung (it's sorted alphabetically by first name).

And if you like it, vote for it! Although voting might force you to register.

Voting ends January 10th.

Anyway, check it out. I like it better, personally, than what is currently listed in first. But, you know, he is my brother.

Ok, so it has been a while. And probably at some point soon, I'd like to make a more substantial post, but I just saw something that bothers me a whole lot. And amazingly I'm not talking about the strangeness of the tapas we just had.

I'm talking about this:

Jim Carrey's new movie, Yes Man. IMDB plot synopsis: "A guy challenges himself to say "yes" to everything for an entire year."

Oh, really?

Does this maybe sound familiar as a plot device?

Perhaps it reminds you of that 1997 opus, Liar Liar. IMDB plot synopsis: "A fast track lawyer can't lie for 24 hours due to his son's birthday wish after the lawyer turns his son down for the last time."

Even more upsetting - the lead actor in Liar Liar? None other than Jim Carrey. Seriously?

So tonight we went out to see "Brand Upon the Brain!"

Aside from the fact that the movie is a flashback-fest about a man who lived at an island orphanage in a lighthouse, featuring crossdressing, a mad scientist, and of course, graphic nudity, this movie was really weird.

A silent movie, the showing we saw was narrated, live, by Crispin Glover (a personal favorite), music provided by a live orchestral group, Ensemble Noamnesia, sound effects by Foley artists, and of course, vocals provided by a castrato.

So you're just going to have to sue me when, when Liz asked what I thought of the show, "it was kinda weird" was the first thing that came to mind.

Liz had seen another movie from Guy Maddin (I think possibly with Beni?), so she was kind of prepared for the experience (that movie featured a woman with a leg filled with beer, or something like that). Me, not so much.

In summary, definitely a unique experience, but maybe a bit too much Freud for Friday night.

I felt the urge to blog this article, about how bands are using blogging/myspace/youtube to reach out to new audiences, and spend hours every day interacting with their fans, but only got around to it now. I was curious to get the input from cobloggers who may have, say, read humorous stories about woodchucks on their favorite band's website, or gone to play email organized kickball with them.

Originally, I felt sort of "where have all the struggling artists gone?" But I was reading A Room of One's Own today, and have been forced to rethink that. They mention the OK Go Youtube Dance clips , and of course I had seen and enjoyed those, so maybe this is ok thing. Then again - it can sort of seem like bloggers who happen to play music.

UPDATE: Stephen drops by. Someone who knows what they're talking about - sweet!

I would have left this in the comments, but couldn't give up my precious linkies.

I'm feeling like the side of me that's hesitant is a bit of curmudgeon. Because of course the Times played up the extreme cases - the guy who writes a song every week, and sells them mostly straight off his web page. Who doesn't tour, so much as goes and visits cities that he has large audiences at one at a time. Which must be rather rare.

Ah - I should have used examples! What I'm meh about:

1) Natalia's bus driver. Trying to use the internet/myspace to just recreate the scientifically produced for mass production record label advertising blitz approach.

2) My own experience with Harry and the Potters. Cool enough, but more internet cuteness phenomenon than actual music.

Those leave me a little doubtful. The finding a bar to play in, a couch to sleep on, and an audience to make a tour happen - not so much.

My parents were in town over the weekend. I'm finding interactions with my parents much different now that all the kids have moved out and are over 21 - we spent the whole weekend just walking around town, a little shopping and a lot of sitting and drinking coffee or alcohol and eating good food. There's a very authentic feeling eastern european restaurant in town (though their goulash had tomatoes, so who knows?), that had a live pianist - nothing too fancy, but it made the meal feel much more special.

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In a conversation with Natalia earlier today, I was given crap about the sorry state of this blog, and vowed to do something about it. We were praising Julie's hilarious posts, and I was lamenting that I can't pull off that humor - I'm just too dorky. My posting instinct is to drone on about whatever little thing I'm currently obsessing over, that nobody else really wants to hear about. Which leads us to today's post.

You see, I just bought the Bad Plus's new album, Prog. It has a unusually high number of covers (4/10), and they weren't songs I was intimately familiar with. So I've been researching. And I'd like to share my research, in a format pioneered by the Bad Plus themselves: Wikitube. I haven't listened to Prog enough to have the intelligent commentary my obsessiveness demands, and I figure most of the people reading this are just going to view it as an odd collection of Youtube links, so I've just commented on the videos.

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A guy in a squirrel suit rapping Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as A Cloud"? It has to be a joke, right? Apparently not (it didn't like my link to the official site: http://www.golakes.co.uk/wordsworthrap/). I guess this has been around - but it was too perfect not to share.

The poem is in the air, as it also featured in the movie I saw the other night The Namesake. I was tempted to praise it for being a movie where the guy didn't wind up with the girl. But he winds up with good memories of his father and his culture instead, which is more important anyway, of course.

Sigh. I should be looking up papers on plastic so that I can figure out what's the difference between polymethyl methacrylate and polymethyl acrylate and why the fuck my data looks exactly the opposite of what it should, but I haven't test-driven this new setup yet and I'm too tired and melancholy to do anything productive right now so here's a half-assed attempt to jot down what is up currently with me.

Don't get offended
If I seem absent minded
Just keep telling me facts
And keep making me smile
Don't get offended
If I seem absent minded
I get tongue-tied
Baby, you've got to be more discerning
I've never known what's good for me
Baby, you've got to be more demanding
I will be yours

-- Bloc Party, "This Modern Love"

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So I got drunk tonight and I was all set to write a retrospective on my life since the JG post a while back, but then I got on IM with Stephen, which was much more enjoyable and healthy. I figured I'd put a few excerpts down in leiu of the longer, whinier post I could have written had I not had the free wireless in my apartment. But it's all I got, and it's better than 0:

(13:50:11) Julie: stephen.

(13:50:16) Stephen: hi!

(13:50:36) Stephen: i am very interested to know your position on my decemberists review

(13:50:38) Julie: I am watching the valentine's day Invader Zim episode.

(13:50:44) Stephen: ahhaha yes!

(13:50:50) Julie: Aw! I have not even alid eyes on it!

(13:50:55) Julie: laid.

(13:50:58) Julie: laid!

(13:51:47) Julie: But it may be too much for me tonight. Tonight is a night of retrospective, and The Decemberists might fuck with my head.

(13:52:15) Stephen: oh wow

(13:52:33) Julie: yeah.

(13:52:36) Stephen: but why

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I don't really listen to NPR, because I don't really listen to the radio, because I don't really drive a car. But I drive when I come home, and the rest of the progression follows. They occasionally have a show that covers somewhat indie/pop music, and while it's rarely something totally new, the interviews are usually pretty good. A few groups I'm fond of have made appearances. Anyway, today they had an interview with Thom Yorke (lead singer of Radiohead) with one quote that completely cracked me up. (Not direct quote because it doesn't seem to be online yet.)

NPR: You seemed to lose your mind a few times on stage on your OK Computer tour...
TY: Yeah, I was really out of it. I was just bored. You know, after we got done recording OK Computer, we were just so damn sick of all those songs, the thought of playing them again and again at every show was just really painful and unpleasant. And we were playing huge audiences, and I was just like "Oh, whatever, I don't want to do this".

Also, I was asked about to comment on the authenticity of the spicy pel'meni (dumplings) served on State St. in Madison by a fellow M2Mer. I can state that I've never seen pel'meni prepared spicily, maybe because it really wouldn't go with the sour cream. Of course when cooking a large batch, it's traditional in some circles to make one spicy pel'men', designated as the lucky one. I don't know if there's a standard for what type of luck it brings you (I think some other cultures put a coin in one, which pretty clearly is supposed to bring you wealth).