El Angel Exterminador (The Exterminating Angel): A Surrealist Metaphoric Film By Luis Bunuel

Luis Bunuel is among those defining directors who was so ahead of his contemporaries, his most famous work is his 1930 L’age D’or (A.K.A The Golden Age) which is an astonishing collaboration with Salvador Dali and is among the weirdest films in the cinema history (alongside David Lynch’s Eraserhead). But this is the first film I’ve watched out of his many works and is considered as the strongest one. The Exterminating Angel (originally titled as El Angel Exterminador) is a metaphoric surrealistic story of a group consisted of mostly upper class people who come together in a dinner party somewhere in Italy but strangely find themselves unable to leave. So they are locked inside the house but the viewer won’t see any barrier in their way out during the film. As days and months go by the guests strike with hunger, thirst and they have conflicts with each other and the police outside the house is afraid of breaking and entering. There are only guards watching the house through the front yard. The conflicts and fights continues as the guests try different alternatives to survive, e.g. eating paper cuts and breaking the water pipe installed internally in the walls, some of them go crazy. Other weird events occur in the house, lambs march around in the rooms and a pair of hands sneaks around in the place (making the movie a bit scary in general). After a while one of the guests somehow figures out the way out by repeating the last things they did right before they were locked inside, so she puts everyone in their original positions in that certain moment and asks the piano player girl to play the same song she performed the first night and everyone repeated the same phrases they spoke and actions they did precisely, the result is their freedom. The front door opens and they come out, but still they are fighting and struggling with each other.

In the next scene, the very guests enter a church on a Sunday where the religious ceremony is held. Right after the ceremony, the guests find themselves unable to leave one more time and they are locked inside the church (apparently deliberately) and the sheep enter the scene again and the film ends.

I didn’t figure out the way things happened but when I read the reviews I was happily enlightened. The movie is a true metaphoric surrealist film with horror-driven concepts based on human’s lives on planet earth with insists on the reincarnation theory: So if you come in details, the guests act as people in general, the house is the earth. We live on the earth, we suffer from thirst, hunger and terror and we’re surrounded by people who either hate or love us. But although this very life is filled with troubles and traumas, we never seem to want to leave the earth. We only want to stay no matter what! And the migration of the guests from the house is a beautiful symbol of reincarnation and our next life after death. We just migrate from one place to another with the same problems and traumas, the everlasting story of our existence. Now can you find a better metaphoric tale than this?

At the first glance I thought the movie belongs to 1920s or something, it looks quite grainy and old. The Italian language of the film makes it look even older. But the movie is made in 1962, some 19 years after Citizen Kane (I wrote an extended review on Citizen Kane before) and some 32 years after L’age D’or. I really don’t want to repeat “I enjoyed it!” but I just can’t find a substitute for this phrase. Anyway!

Nick Lowe - At My Age: Country Rock at Its Best

I got a chance to get almost all Nick Lowe albums as well as his Basher: Greatest Hits and his latest “At My Age”. But this very amalgamation of confessional, rock ‘n roll, country rock tunes is pleasant to hear from even a juvenile point of view like me. “At My Age” is capable of being covered as Lowe’s best solo album. It starts out with a self esteem breaker ballad with a Sinatra-ish “My Way” condiment “Better Man” and dives into country rock “Long Limbed Girl”. The lyrics are regretful and a bit confessional and you can feel an old man talking about his life in a very honest way. Contains three covers: “A Man In Love”, “Not Too Long Ago” which appeared in my 2007 playlist earlier in December 2007 and “Feel Again”. This album should have been nominated for a rock grammy and I really feel sorry for them. Unlike other Nick Lowe albums, the songs don’t seem to sink down when their track numbers increase. In fact, it gets better by time. The mix of country rock and jazz with styles of Dean Martin and Nina Simone as well as Sinatra brings almost 34 minutes of tasty music with cool genre alternation, though the alternation does not intervene with style structure and Lowe’s signature is never erased out of every tune. Lowe has experienced many different styles in his long music career, from rock ‘n roll and punk (“Rose of England”) to semi-jazz. But “At My Age” serves well as one of Lowe’s best works alongside “The Convincer” and “Dig My Mood”. Recommended for all Sinatra, Nina Simone, Dean Martin and Bobby Darin fans. And I gotta admit I loved the cover art (lol) with Lowe standing like a slender 80 year old with a coffee cup in his hand.

Top 10 Noel Gallagher Songs (Oasis Songs Performed By Noel Exclusively)

Every time Noel Gallagher steps in, the song is definitely cool. Though, you won't hear him sing much in Oasis, it's mostly Liam. Thought the guitar is all his!
Only reflects personal opinion


10. Going Nowhere
09. Talk Tonight
08. Half the World Away
07. Magic Pie
06. Part Of the Queue
05. Let There Be Love (featuring Liam Gallagher)
04. Little By Little
03. The Importance of Being Idle
02. The Masterplan
01. Don't Look Back In Anger

and... that's TB: the PM of E, right?

Some Of These Days, You'll Miss Me Honey: La Nausée (Nausea) by Jean Paul Sartre

The most disgusting part of our lives is that we exist equally and this existence is the only thing that truly matters. Antoine Roquentin lives in Bouville. Like many of us, he’s living a life of solitude. The only thing he’s certain of is that he “exists”. And it disgusts him because this is the only thing he really sure of. When he touches some “thing” like a stone or anything else, it causes him nausea! Because he finds this touching job, something mutual: “When I’m touching this stone, this stone is touching me as well.” It’s haunting for him to see him among this world consisted of “objects”. He wanders around the city of Bouville, goes to the Mably café, goes to a museum and goes to a library. He used to have a love relationship with a girl called Anny. There’s this “Self-taught man” who gains knowledge through reading the library books in the alphabetical order and claims to be a humanist. Antoine’s mind is filled with the world of objects. The only thing that seems to make sense to him is music; he loves a song called “Some of these days” and repeatedly listens to it while he’s at the café. He finds music beautiful because it does not exists, there are some factors that combine together and this sweet combination produces a pleasant tune that does not exist, that is not an object, that doesn’t make him vomit. Nausea overcomes Antoine several times during his stay in the city of Bouville, where he has apparently come on a research on an 18^th-century politician.

Jean Paul Sartre has depicted his existential philosophy in this novel, written in a daily diary style making Nausea a philosophy novel. Jean Paul Sartre’s is among the few people who have declined the Nobel Prize. This book is written in 1938.

As time goes by, the feeling grows. Antoine becomes more extreme and sensitive to the material world around him, he goes to a museum and imagines the characters depicted in the paintings as real characters that exist the way he does. So he feels happy or sad about them. The Self-Taught man does not seem to make sense anymore; Antoine only has sympathy for him. The humanistic part of this character has no point of interest for Antoine. He is waiting for a meeting/date with his x-girlfriend Anny, who seems to make sense and matter in his life, but right before that he encounters a dark philosophical consciousness when he was in the central park of Bouville. He somehow realizes what all this Nausea is about, he figures out what it is that make him suffer, that isolates him from others, which cause this killing solitude: Existence itself!

No one can help it; it’s disgusting that we exist, just like a tree, just like a stone. Nausea attacks Antoine one more time. He feels distracted and restless. He realizes that the naming of things is something wrong, because names exist and live independent of the objects they once belonged to. And his last date at Anny’s house reveals to him that Anny is not interested in going with the relationship and apart to leave the city with his new boyfriend. So Antoine reaches to the train station to watch Anny disconnect from him for good, and then goes back to back his bags and leave for Paris. He pays his last visit to Mably Café and library to say goodbye to the bartender and listen to “Some of these days” and it’s in the library where more revelations take place: the humanist activist – The Self-taught man – turns out to be a child abuser and is thrown out of library. So I guess the humanistic thing is defined for Antoine again as something materialized. The diary ends.

Afra (or the day will pass)

Having experienced Bahram Beizai’s “Afra” theater was one hell of a something. Today me and my friend Kourosh hit Tehran’s Vahdat Hall. We were worried about getting the tickets on time, the tickets were sold out like 3 weeks ago and without a connection, we would never be able to get tickets. It was interesting that we bought tickets with original prize of 8,000 tomans while there was black marketing starting at 20,000.

“Afra” was definitely the most outrageous theater I’ve ever seen and Beizai is truly unreachable in Persian’s both cinema and theater. It was two hours of pressed back to back monologues with a multitude of comes and goes and scene changes. The acting was perfect; everyone was at his/her best. The little child acting as Afra’s younger brother Borna reminded me of Toto in Cinema Paradiso and Afra herself (Mojdeh Shamsai) was another version of Malena to me, and the script had similarities with the storyline of Malena, though it was written by Beizai prior to Malena. I enjoyed it all along. I hope there was more people like Beizai, he seems so irreplaceable. He’s the one and only!

Top 10 Out of Magnetic Fields "69 Love Songs"

I found this album pretty amusing, and there's a lot of songs here = 69. So why not make another top 10 exclusively out of this. Still, only reflects personal opinion.


10. Acoustic Guitar
09. The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
08. Come Back From San Fransisco
07. I think I Need A New Heart
06. A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
05. Busby Berkley Dreams
04. It's A Crime
03. I Don't Want To Get Over You
02. Absolutely Cuckoo
01. Underwear

Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

Hissing Fauna talks synth-pop on high summits. Apart from its girlfriend/boyfriend break-up and post-relationship status lyrical content, the music is mature enough to overcome something like Hellogoodbye. Unlike most indie albums which lack a hit song, Hissing Fauna has “Gronlandic Edit” and probably “A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger”. The disk is split in half with the 12-minute confessionary “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal” being grotesquely put in the hot core of the album just where the music and hits are topping. This turning point divulges a slow downfall which continues to quench the album constantly until the end of the final “We Were Born the Mutants Again with Leofling”. Now I’m not the one who judges the tracklisting, but I’m sure there are miles of synth-pop/rock fans out there who easily skip the long track placed on the peak of the album, just like they easily skipped “Pass the Hatchet I Think I’m Goodkind” on Yo La Tengo’s “I’m Not Afraid of You and I’ll Beat Your Ass”. It’s not about the cons of 12 minute songs; it’s about where to put it and how it will make sense. Anyhow, this record has been a great success among its contemporaries and topped many charts in 2007. Many found it similar to Deerhoof which I totally disagree, Of Montreal is more coherent and somewhat less unpredictable, and has the advantage of a vocalist almost more reasonable than a Japanese girl who you’re desperate to find when she’s singing English and when Japanese.

Beirut - Gulag Orkestar

The last thing that someone could imagine while listening to the music of Zack Condon, is that this could be a complete DIY job. It’s almost impossible but it’s true. I was blown away when I first heard this. Most of the sounds, instruments and vocals are done by this 21 year old boy in his home. This young multi-instrumentalist genius easily took indie music to much higher summits with introducing his DIY project Beirut. The music of Beirut in this album “The Gulag Orkestar” simulates and represents the Balkan and some traditional Greek music perhaps, but he’s Condon is American and Beirut surprisingly is a one-man-band. Now, this one-band phenomenon has released 2 LPs and an EP so far, all three luscious and succulent in their own fashion. Lon Gisland EP starts out with Elephant Gun, a massive hit with massive sound, a sort of Balkan “Exit Music” and the whole EP revolves around this magnificent hit. If I’m to compare Gulag Orkestar with The Flying Club Cup, I can bring a vivid example: If The Flying Club Cup is the soundtrack to Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Malena”, Gulag Orkestar is the soundtrack to “Cinema Paradiso”. There’s a fresh traditional French taste injected right into The Flying Club Cup and the record is probably quieter. Although Gulak Orkestar – according to its title – represents a more orchestral Beirut, Condon’s smooth and relaxing voice adds a romantic atmosphere the loudness, instead of forcing you to turn down the volume, caresses the listener’s ear. Gulag Orkestar also has a palatable western/cowboy condiment deep inside and John Wayne and Eastwood fans and 50s classic western fans will be absolutely delighted to hear this (especially the ones made and directed in Italy like “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”). Of course it depends on listener’s mood partly and that the album is not made to sound western at all. Prenzlauerberg – which I haven’t still found out what it means, looks more like a city name or something – is my no.1 hit of this disk because of its obvious similarity to Persian traditional folk rhythms and probably it will sound delighting to any Persian music lover because of the very similarity. But I have to say the rest of the album has nothing less, considering tracks such as “Brandenburg” and marvelous “Postcards from Italy” with its sweet mandolin sound as well as others. I just hope all the tunes and melodies used are original. And even if they’re not, bringing all these fascinating pieces together and performing them all together is a precious DIY job.

I'm Indiazed

There’s no such word as “indiazing” something. But you can indiaze the music you listen to. Well I’ve just lost track of the music albums I have on my PC. I think it exceeds a hundred and something gigabytes. There’s this routine I do when I’m working on something else in my room or on my PC and that’s opening my windows media player, push the shuffle button and play all the songs on my library. The shitty thing about it is the uncool stuff popping up in the random playlist. There is music from my past which I never listen to anymore, they suck! Or simply sometimes some crappy pop comes up which… yuck! Imagine you’re working and then “God Speed! You Black Emperor” starts out! Fuck! Or imagine listening to Nelly Furtado or Sarah McLachlan while concentrating on something. It washes your brain thoroughly and they simply suck! Don’t they?

My first policy at first was to get rid of all these stuff and just remove them completely from my computer. I really hate it when I click on my library and Three Doors Down shows up beside some crappy albums which I never ever listen to. There are loads of these unnecessary shits on my computer. But removing them requires removing them from the library as well and that’s time consuming. So then I decided to simply cut-paste them in another folder, and somehow clandestine the un-cool! But so what? I think I’ll burn’em out in some DVDs and keep them somewhere in the near future.

So here’s what I did: I created a playlist for some indie music on my media player, there’s a lot of them I have. I only selected some cool indie which I’m more eager to listen to these days, and not even all my indie stuff (I think I didn’t select Flaming Lips or any Tom Waits) and I chose only a certain number of albums from every artist. Except for the Super Furry Animals!

Now, I’m at ease. It’s just pure indie music being played on my PC. But I think I added too much Super Furry Animals, cuz once-in-a-10-tracks, there’s the Super Furrys. My Indie playlist has now almost 1300 tracks and when I listen to it, there’s no more Yucks or something like that. I Indiazed my library. Cool!

Springfield Citizen Ped

Well, it couldn't be that bad living in Springfield! At least you get to meet Homer, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and Marge! It's gonna be fun. I have imagined myself as an Springfield citizen. This is how I thought I'd look (above).
And here's some other folks as Springfield citizen. I've also made some for my fellow droogies in the Olive Island Lounge. (Sorry I cannot give out its address, it's private and password protected.)




.. and if you like to become a citizen, paint yourself here. It's fun!

Why Citizen Kane Matters?

Back to the sweet days of "The Sims" (the first version) when I used to play this game when I came back from school from 1300 to 1700 (military time) and I used to get yelled at by my dad for : "If you continue going this way you'll end up a bankrupt loser!" and I used to go on playing the Sims, I was already familiar with the word "rosebud" but I never knew what it means. In fact, I almost stopped playing The Sims when I found out about "rosebud", it was the secret code to get a 1,000$ absolutely without a hard work. From that time on, I became a rich man and I bought that big mansion on the hills. But soon I became reluctant to continue, because I already owned what I wanted.
I never understood why "Citizen Kane" is a big film, until I watched it for the third time. The first try disappointed me. I watched a Persian dubbed version of the film with a very bad quality and a very fucked up sound, and about five or six times in the film the language switched from Persian to English and vice versa. I didn't enjoy watching the film and thought: "This is another one of those exaggerated films, just because it's old, it's good!"
As a matter of fact I never was a fan of Godfather! Many millions of people refer to it as the best film in the history of cinema, but AFI - American Film Institute - has hardly insisted on Citizen Kane. Maybe that's why it matters so much, I just don't know.
But when I watched the film for the second time with an enhanced sound and picture quality, and subsequently read dozens of articles about it, I figured out. This movie was too much for 1941 and it was too good for a 24 year old young boy with no knowledge about making films.
In one of the early scenes of the film where a reporter asks Kane about war and Kane starts to go like :"I talked to the president, there won't be any war!" I just couldn't believe that the reporter at the time was 36, while Orson Welles, under that heavy make-up was only 24. That's 2 years younger than me. Gosh!

The story's based on the life of the media tycoon of that period, William Randolph Hearst. At first it was meant to be about Howard Hughes but Welles disagreed because he wanted to play the role himself and he didn't look like Hughes that much. A couple of decades after, Martin Scorsese made Oscar nominated "Aviator" based on Hughes' life played by Leonardo DiCaprio. There were many struggles upon the making of the film and RKO productions finally offered full freedom to Welles over making this film.
There are many glorious moments in this film that are worth watching dozens of times. This movie is a cinematographic masterpiece for its own era. It was among the first films that uses a very noble way of focusing. If you look with more precision in the film, you'll realize that most of the scenes, unlike its contemporaries have focus in more than one object. For example, in Susan Alexander's suicide scene, we have a small stand with a glass and then we have Mrs. Alexander in the bed and the room door in which Charles Foster Kane appears. We can vividly see all three objects clearly, that was something scarce in 30s cinema, I had seen nothing familiar in Chaplin films or famous works like 1331's "M" or any earlier pictures. And it grabbed my attention.
Orson Welles did not know anything about making films and acting in that time, but he gives a timeless performance as Charles Foster Kane. In fact, the only reason I still have tendency towards watching a movie like Godfather is the brilliant performance of Marlon Brando. But when I saw Citizen Kane, I truly was attracted to Orson Welles' performance comparing to that period, I gotta admit, it had nothing less: Charles Foster Kane was 40s Don Corleone and I insist again that Welles was only 24 at the time.
The fade ins and fade outs are brilliant, very rare in the 40s, almost unique. Orson Welles was absolutely too much for his time.
The film script was written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. This man later sued Welles for stealing his script, but that can't be true. However, this was the only field that brought an Oscar for the film, although it was nominated for some other Oscars. I believe this is all because of the reign of William Randolph Hearst over media and Hollywood in that period. Citizen Kane was truly underrated at that time. Only time revealed what ingenuity lied beneath the sequences of this film.
There's this wonderful and at the same time funny part of the film where Joseph Cotton (Leland) shows up at Kane's place after a big celebration, drunk and angry at Kane and mis-pronounces a word, and you can see the quick smile on Welles face. He was about to say "cut" but Leland's "I am drunk" saved everything and that beautiful scene remained untouched and wonderful.
Another one of my favorite scenes is where Kane goes to the house where Jim W. Gettys is at. There's a quarrel there over Kane's speech earlier that day. And then Kane starts to shout and throws'em out. When he comes at the top of the stairs for the first time he falls all the down and breaks his ankle and was rushed to the hospital (of course you don't see that scene in the movie) and has to direct from wheelchair for a couple of weeks. So next sequence that you see is actually when Welles is free of that wheelchair and has to play that part again.
The story telling method is quite innovative as well. The story is told in a serious of flashbacks through Kane's life from childhood, which is drawn beautifully in only one scene when Charlie is taken away from his real parents, to his death. So at the beginning of the film, Charles Foster Kane is actually dead and you'll only see him through those flashbacks which is told and explained by the people around him and people who knew him well.
A true but bitter fact about people's lives, especially famous people, is astonishingly depicted in this film. What really remains from you might not necessarily be what you truly were, but it is what you were through people's eyes. The way they thought you were. What remains as you, is only a you from their perspective. And probably the film's biggest message is that "money can't buy you happiness". I don't think no other film has ever taught me that this professionally. Now I am among those folks who does not believe in educational aspects of a movie, a book or any other form of art, but this film was among the few ones which had this kind of positive effect on me, through its magnificent artistic style. Spoken with cinematographic brilliance and led by the breath-taking talent of Orson Welles, we now have Citizen Kane labeled as "The Best Film Ever Made" and that title does not come easy. That's the reason this film has topped the charts containing names like Godfather, Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, Vertigo, The Bicycle Thief, 2001: A Space Odyssey, among many many others.

Rosebud: A Reminder of Immaculate Happiness

Afterwards, comes the mystery of "Rosebud", this immortal cinematic word. I may be the 45-millionth creature to have solved the puzzle of "Rosebud", but it feels great, anyway. This is the first word uttered in this film, the dying words of Charles Foster Kane. The whole film is about a group of journalists on a research for this one word. Gradually, they don't come to any conclusions and the true source and reason of Rosebud remains without an answer. But a smart audience can find this by him/herself. The journalists at first were searching for a woman with a very name, but there was no woman in Kane's life with the name "Rosebud". The first key scene to this mystery is at the final scenes of the film where Kane goes mad and ruins the bedroom which he shared with Susan Alexander, and then picks up his childhood snow globe and utters this word quietly. The snow globe calms him down, perhaps. In another scene after the research is done and they are throwing his properties in the furnace and burning them all, you'll see a sled with the word "Rosebud" written on it burning slowly. A reminder of the last time Charlie saw his mother, the days of playing in the snow, the days of immaculate childhood joy. Rosebud is the only reminder of happiness for Charlie, a happiness that was taken away from him and never returned ever after. This scene easily solves the Rosebud mystery. Rosebud was about when Charlie was living an innocent life in pure happiness. This is beautiful, ain't it?

You can read Roger Ebert's magnificent review of Citizen Kane only if you click here, and if you want to know almost everything about this film click here, and if that's not enough do as I did: Order the 2 DVD remastered version of this film with backstage scenes and a wonderful audio commentary. Remember, what you see today as Citizen Kane is a duplicate. The original version was burned in the fifties in a conspiracy led by William Randolph Hearst.

A Long Line For Bread / Passport

Dammit! Woke up at 10 today, mom told me to get some bread, cuz the country is starving! I went to the "Sangak" bakery (a kind of bread we have in Iran) and I had no idea I have to wait in line for 150 minutes (2 and a half hours). But I did and in the end I couldn't feel my ears and toes. Thank God I brought my iPod and listened to Grandaddy for like 1.5 hours and then started to talk with folks, that was funny cuz we all had the same milestone: Buy 5 Sangaks! Haha, there were also a couple of minor fights, funny! People acted like this was the only bakery left in the city and that they would starve to death if they don't get to buy their bread.
The fun part about today was when I came back home and mom told me that my passport arrived as soon as I left home, so that's cool!

Jonny Greenwood: There Will Be Blood

Radiohead is probably among the few bands who have almost climbed up the walls to the summit of experimentalism in music scene. This is the 2nd soundtrack album composed by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. Most daring guitar melodies that you have heard throughout Radiohead years from the very first beginning until now are solely Greenwood's work.
Comparing to "Bodysong", a very well-tuned score on the documentary film with the very name, "There Will Be Blood" is even more string-based, less experimental and more violin-driven. The movie is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love) and only based on these three works, especially Boogie Nights, one can easily distinguish this director's smart choice in soundtracks and compare his wise taste to Tarantino and you'll figure out that his choice - Greenwood - is in fact a brave deliberate selection. The film's atmosphere, as I've heard takes place in 1920s, therefore sweeping the album off from anything like "Convergence" (from Bodysong) or any recipe containing eletronica spice would not be accepted. The sound is considered dark, gothic, dramatic and haunting and suits the movie era. I, from my own perspective would have to tell you, Radiohead minus Jonny Greenwood is exactly what you hear in Thom Yorke's 2006 desperate attempt for independence and pride "Eraser", there will be no melodies.

Francis Bacon: In Conversation with Michel Archimbaud

I just finished reading this book translated to Persian. I gotta say the translation was not bad at all and I think the original text was simple enough as well. There are three continuous in depth conversations (in form of interviews) with one of the most prominent painters of our time, Francis Bacon. I was pretty obsessed with the extraordinary color combinations that Bacon used to work with and his paintings reflected dismal configurations and deformed anatomies as well as noble dark and vivid perspectives of nation. Now, I have never been so fond of paintings before in my life, but the work of this Irish artist looks very haunting to me, so I like it.
Michel Archimbaud, who acts as the interviewer in this book was a close friend of Bacon himself, thus we have a very open and modest version of Francis Bacon despite his reserved personality, although Archimbaud states in the preface of the book that Bacon, despite the dark world reflected in his painting is a very friendly and kind human being which was kind of odd.
The interview rotates around different topics: paintings, music, literature. It feels like the interviewer was very interested to know about Bacon's passions and favorites more than concentrating on his work. It is only in the end of the third interview where Bacon flashbacks to his tragic past and the unhealthy relationship with his father. He used to work as a ward. And his early works was denied among his surrealist contemporaries.
He became interested in paintings by looking at one of Pablo Picasso's paintings and confesses that Picasso is his main inspiration in his work, but the interesting part about all these three interviews is that Bacon shows reluctance over almost everything the interviewer asks and barely admits the questions to give out positive answers. Even on his opinion on Picassa, Bacon states that although he's had a major influence on his work, he is really not interested in almost 90% of Picasso's. In literature, except for Shakespeare, he doesn't tend towards anything else, although he mentions all their names.
Then they talk about opera and focus on the work of Wagner for a while, but the answers Bacon gives away, does not shine any light upon aspects of his life and except some special parts, Bacon almost does not reflect anything out of himself knowing this could be one of his last interviews.
This Irish genius' mind is a sophisticated one. If you could just take a look at some of his paintings which I had already posted in one of my posts, you'll see this grotesque and (according to Wikipedia) nightmarish hostile world all over his works. I'm sure many of today's grotesque musicians are Bacon fans definitely: Maynard James Keenan and Marilyn Manson are the one's I'm certain about. But there's this strange contradiction between his artwork, his depressing past and his desperate struggles with asthma as well as other diseases, none are reflected in this interview. It's like John Grisham, or like Mick Jagger giving a detailed interview, witty and fresh, and that's strange.
But when I come to realize and as far as similar artists are concerned, a remarkable amount, wear these kinds of masks as well. When they come to interview they come camouflaged (take David Lynch as an example). They barely give out details. Their answers usually does not reflect the truth. It's just a throw out answer like many others : "I really don't understand why people think that my paintings are dark, I never thought about that! (translated text)" I really don't consider this an answer, it's just a fist in the face of the poor interviewer and saying: "Hey! Why the hell are you asking these stupid questions?" or when an interviewer asks David Lynch to talk about Inland Empire he starts to talk about the pros of meditation and his meditation schools around the world.
These are just funny facts about some artists. The real trick lies beneath. If they don't trust you, all you ever get to see is their sunny sides, nothing more.
The interview was meant to go on for the fourth session, when Bacon would come be back from Madrid, but unfortunately Bacon dies in 28th of April, 1992 at the age of 83. He remains one of the original phenomenons of the 20th century.
The painting below is called "Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion" and that's probably my most favorite among Bacon works.

Still Snowing...

Iran is on halt. All the country roads are stuck and people are hiding in their shells. It's a very peaceful feeling taking a look outside and observing the beautiful snow dressing up the streets and pushing the noisy crowd somewhere else. That's one of the reasons I just love winter. Everywhere is quiet thus relaxing and at ease.
It's getting colder and colder , too. I think it's about minus 13 cc outside at the moment, everywhere is frozen. All the schools' finals are postponed.
The night has just started. It's 1102 to be precise and I'm becoming a night owl, though I don't think I can rotate my head 360 degrees but at least I can "Hoo Hoo" for you! There's nothing better than a vacant city, a city so empty of fools, smugglers, idiots and no ones (not even has-beens), no rush hours, no shout outs, no nothing.

Stars of the Lid: And Their Refinement of the Decline

I DLd this high rate ambient album by Stars of the Lid. I have to admit that ambient works are nearly not my type (Because they are ambient!). But the reason I became interested in this 2 disk album is that it can be the perfect complementary to your studying or reading hours. I have tried several kinds of music for my reading and studying time like Mum, Sigor Ros, Explosions in the Sky, Boards of Canada, Air and some other low-fi soundtracks. Many of them I found pleasantly appropriate but there are distraction moments as well and they disturbs your concentration and your brain conflicts. Because some of them are melodic and melody in general attracts your brain and you're suddenly inadvertently deceived and lost, so you start over. This double disk by far is the ultimate solution to all that. This is no lava-lamp post-rock psychedelic material. It's simply a brilliant ambient record, but from the kind you can't put in your restaurant or any public place. It's a bit futuristic or somehow scientific but it surely won't distract your thinking process and you can comfortably keep studying or whatever brain-concerning thing you want to do. I think I'm going to need this album "Their Refinement of the Decline" on my iPod. You cannot easily pick a favorite here, because all the tracks almost sound alike, but the song titles has been selected under precision: "Don't Bother They're Here", "A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process", "The Daughters of Quiet Minds" are some cool ones. It has been a favorite to a large number of allmusic editors as well and has received a rating of 8.9 (I think) on Pitchfork, so...

Top 10 Air Songs

Only reflects personal opinion



10. Photograph
09. Alone In Kyoto
08. Venus
07. You Make It Easy
06. Run
05. Dirty Trip
04. Sexy Boy
03. Vagabond (featuring Beck)
02. How Does It Make You Feel?
01. Playground Love

I Just Like It. Do I Have To Explain Why?

I was just thinking, why should there always be an explanation to everything we do. Is that the way it should be?
Why do I have to explain to you what does "This Winki's" mean and where is "E" at the end if you are referring to the Winkie's restaurants. I was thinking of Mulholland Dr. and I thought "This Winki's" can't be that bad. It's so irrelevant, so it's cool! Out of nowhere is always cool. And I didn't want it to conflict with Winkie's to make a complete dork out of myself making a blog on a local restaurant. I still don't know what is a winki. And don't ask me what is that old bread toaster is doing up there and why should it be there? Are you against modernism? Are you a withdrawn conservative citizen??
I have always got so upset with people digging every word you say. Especially in Iran. They want you to give a meaning on every saliva coming out of your mouth: What does that mean? What do you mean by that? Why did you change that? Why don't you change it?
The sad truth is: People asking these kinds of questions happen to be the most superficial citizens you have ever seen. Just experience them and you'll figure out.
If I'm listening to Super Furry Animals, I have to explain why do I like them and what do I enjoy about them! That's so insecure. I just like what I listen to because I simply like it. I don't listen to Super Furry Animals BECAUSE... and I don't watch Jim Jarmusch films BECAUSE... What good does this "because" do to you anyway? These are just my recipes to happiness, these diminutive entities keep me going. That's all.
Although there are very fundamental reasons to millions of jobs we do, and everyone has his/her own opinions and probably beliefs, confessing every detail to every moron so you'll exempt from their way of thinking about you can be the dumbest thing to do for me, and it makes me feel sick. People just go around asking and thus complaining for no particular reason. They are not criticizing you for being you, they are only judging you for not being the way THEY decide you ought to be.
Take "Art" in general. It's all proportional, I guess. You see Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" and I see it, too. You decide what you like/hate about it and I decide mine. We don't need to bring Ingmar Bergman here and ask him. We don't need a jury for that. We really don't. Philosophy is made for more fundamental issues I guess. It's fascinating to read philosophy, I admit. But not every pedestrian in the street walking by is a philosopher, not every painting by Francis Bacon or Picasso has a philosophy between their line that we are bound to understand. It only might have, but you don't necessarily have to KNOW it! You don't really need someone to spare you the detail so you'll know it.
No, pals. "This Winki's" does not necessarily mean anything. Why should it, anyway?

Midlake: The Trials of Van Occupanther

I was about to add Midlake's "Roscoe" to my 2007 playlist some weeks ago when I found out this album is released in 2006, and I went: "Shit!". "The Trials of Van Occupanther" has been a regular resident on my media player and iPod. Signing a departure from the band's lo-fi past, this album is a brilliant combination of 70s soft ballad record filled with piano and acoustic guitar driven melodies. The verse chorus borderline is vague enough for you not to get tired and the vocal harmony all through the album caresses the listeners ear with timely riffs and piano melodies. Tim Smith's voice offer a smooth Yorke-Wainwrightish tune mixed with complex yet magnificent lyrics firming the album in a concept shape. The talented sound of classic rock couldn't be more mesmerizing and more addicting. This album is more addicting than any Decemberists disk, melodically because of its smoother sound keeping the listener away from anything Sonic Youth-ish. The album art well fits the musical contents and cohesiveness is well accomplished. Being labeled as a post Grandaddy phenomenon, Midlake parts its way utterly with this astonishing performance and sails away from the electronic futuristic bubble-gum utopia of anything Grandaddy.
p.s. I guess this is the best short review I've written so far ;)

Flaming Lips: At War With the Mystics

(Another review from the past):
I know a couple of guys who claim the music died in early eighties!! I really hate to talk about music with people living in the past. Wake up! well i really don't care if you want to listen to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Eric Clapton or Metallica till the day you die and make the world a better place with more fresh water, but if you want to talk about the day music started not making sense anymore, I'll shut your mouth!! all my favorite songs are post-90s! you're stuck in past, sorry but Eric Clapton's age is over! We're living in 2006 this is a decade dedicated to alternative, psychedelica, electronicas, indie, modern rock and genres like these! I'll never judge you, not because you're a moron, but because you don't even deserve to be judged! you're history! you think you're radical, but you're not so radical, in fact you're fanatical! and i tell you right now, you oughtta change your mind and all of you're friends are standing in line.
The Flaming Lips finally returned after 4 years, with "At War With The Mystics", unlike Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots and 1999's masterpiece The Soft Bulletin, this album is theme less and is not a concept work, there are different styles experimented here! The record is considered experimental pop! This band was formed in 1983. This is their 12th studio album and I can't believe they're still making good quality music! Bands who have the capability to do that are so rare, i can only remember Depeche Mode or R.E.M . I think At War With The Mystics is again another surreal illusion, that's how the music makes me feel, but as Wayne Coyne has described in their official websites most of the songs are based on real world events just like Radiohead. Free Radical is about a dream that Devendra Banhart had, the W.A.N.D is about an oldman with a wand in hand fighting with virtual enemies captured by the smart eyes of Coyne, and the third track The Sound Of Failure is about a girl having dreams about becoming a celebrity like Britney Spears or Gwen Stefani. The ambient works here are again astonishing, and there are more of them here than Yoshimi, The Sound Of Failure and It Overtakes Me are full of them, There is also an instrumental track called The Wizard Turns On performed so organized and well-tuned, The lyrics are even stronger than in Yoshimi and can be equal to The Soft Bulletin.The weakest link here is Mr. Ambulance driver which has nothing to do with the rest of the album. Although the song is great it's about real world! i used to get out of here while listening to the Lips works, this track doesn't.
We can't deny that Lips music is partially inspired by Pink Floyd, that's a winning card! Pink Floyd's sound is eternal and everlasting, i can feel it in Flaming Lips' music, too. It's about now, and after 30 years, it's still about now!! It doesn't get old!! i have a 2k6 issue of the Uncut magazine with Wayne Coyne on its cover containing these comments: Hail To The Chief AND 's Greatest Band Take Over The World! Well i don't see any similarities between At War With The Mystics and Radiohead's 2003 Hail To The Thief, but anyway!!
My favorite songs here are The WAND, Free Radicals (i still wonder how in the hell are they gonna perform this one live), Haven't Got a Clue Wayne is Really Angry with someone here) and ofcourse the closing song Goin' On!
the lips Rock On, no matter how many stupid shallow music listeners are living in the world!!

City Dressed In White

I went to sleep at 0215 last night and was waken up by my brother at 0700, just to take a look at the snow. It snowed all night long: 40 centimeters. Yes. The city is dressed in white. Everywhere is closed. My brother's final physics exam is canceled. Roads locked. It's a wonderful morning. I went to the roof and took some photos.



And what is more delicious than a light coffee (with milk) on such a beautiful morning?




And what are you going to do when you stay at home? Read? Write? Listen? or Watch?
If you are a choice "C" fan, I have a recommendation. I know it's snowing, but you don't have to listen to "Jingle Bells" or "Winter Wonderland". Instead, listen to this cool 3 disk compilation by The Magnetic Fields, originally recorded in 1999 as 3 separate albums: 69 Love Songs The lyrics are cool and a bit funny. Most song durations will not exceed 3 minutes and there are two male and female vocalists with very relaxing voices, so you won't get bored. This is a wonderful record to listen to. It fills up your morning with leisure and relaxing time guaranteed. And don't get fooled by the "Love Songs" phrase. It's nothing Sinatra, Righteous Brothers or anything near. It's indie music love songs, so you'll probably get the point. (A must have for fans of Morrissey, Cake, Beck and any Damon Albarn side-project). In case you are not a music fan, in fact, there's a movie to watch. And yet again, you don't have to watch Grinch or any of those Tim Burton movies. Sit back and experience Robert Altman's "Gossford Park" and join the party and don't forget to bring your servants and learn how to act like a true bourgeois. If you are a reader, well, go and read "Skipping Christmas" by John Grisham and if you are a writer, go write something in your blog (in case you have one like me). It loosens up your neural networks. Believe!

Enjoy the Naked Lunch

Experienced watching David Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch" for the second time today. In a past entry about The Art of Ridiculous Sublime, Slavoj Zizek had mentioned similarities between David Lynch's "Lost Highway" and "Naked Lunch". As you review the film for the second time, you become aware of those mentioned similarities. Many believe Lost Highway concentrated on the theory of "Parallel Existence", although Lynch never admits that and refers to the name of a disease called "Psychogenic Fugue" to put some self-explanatory comments on his own film. Zizek did not mention anything of this very phenomenon in his book on Lost Highway.
But Naked Lunch can definitely be a twin sister of Lost Highway.
Lost Highway focuses on the life of a very distorted sax player called Fred Madison, an equivalent to the real character of the famous writer William S. Burroughs in Naked Lunch, both depressed, numb and living with quite unhealthy relationships with their wives. There's this identical key elements in both pictures which indicate the turning points of the storyline:

1. The assassinations of the wives. That's where the hallucination trip begins in both films. In Lost Highway, Fred Madison is extraordinarily transformed into a new character and William Lee is also mysteriously put in the Interzone.
   
2. There are subconsciousness characters: The Mystery Man (Lost Highway) and Hans (Naked Lunch), playing out as the roll of the main characters' subconsciousness or evil insides.
3. The parallel identity of Fred Madison and William Lee (in the real world and as a reporter in Interzone or as a separate identity)
4. The Report: which comes in the shape of a VHS tape in Lost Highway demonstrating the murder and the Clark Nova type writer self-report written by William Lee in Naked Lunch.
5. The static existence of both wives: Patricia Arquette (Lost Highway) and Judy Davis (Naked Lunch).

Many believe Lost Highway was mainly inspired by this film (using the phrase "Naked Lynch" as a humorous reference.) Naked Lunch is extremely entertaining and shocking for a mediocre film fan (experienced with some Lynch, Hitchcock or Cronenberg stuff). Having watched almost all Cronenberg stuff, I personally enjoyed watching it for the second time and I believe it's Cronenberg's masterpiece (though I also don't want to exclude my childhood favorite "Fly"). It's sort of a fictitious schizophrenic mind-blowing autobiographical novel based upon William S. Burroughs real life in which he mistakenly murders his own wife. Yet, another hallucination trip with drug abuse and homosexual spice. Enjoy the lunch!

Ys

I drove back home from a short hang-out with my droogies. They ordered me to start a research on Thailand. I think we're going to have a trip there in the early Spring. I wanna call it "Thai Disconnection" because that would be a disconnection point to my life where I can travel abroad after 26 years. I have recently finished my 20 month military service period and I'm getting my passport in less than a week and I'm so excited about that.
I have recently got "Ys" by Joanna Newsom but I have lost track of how many times I have listened to this album . It reflects well on my research on Thailand while everyone's sleeping and I'm awake and listening to this. She's a professional harpist and she has a slight role in some other bands as well. I have played this album twice in my apartment hall and my mom resents her voice and it gets on her nerves. Her voice is like Joni Mitchell singing Bjork. But the music is so wonderful and you'll get used to her voice easily (as easy as I got used to Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne.)
The album consists of only 5 tracks, yet exceeding 50 minutes of playtime. Pitchfork has rated this album 9.4 which is equal to "masterpiece" and I gotta say I'm starting to believe in Pitchfork editors since their mind is so concentrated on novelty, experimentalism and musical virtues. I gotta admit I was shocked by some of their ratings (giving 1.9 to Tool's Lateralus and 2.5 to Dissociatives) but I'm starting to believe utterly now.
It's a precious a feeling you'll get while listening to this album. You'll be your own Alice lost in wonderland, meeting monkeys and bears, birds singing everywhere. The wind caresses tree leaves and you're dancing all the while. The true sound of harp is rarely played on pop/rock music. So it sounds new to the listener. I know why mom hates her, because she resembles Bjork. But it's far better than anything near Bjork with her horrible accent. This is gonna be one of those overheard disks in my library and I still haven't read reviews on this. This only reflects my personal impression over this disk.
I also got Joanna Newsom's 2004 LP "The Milk-Eyed Wonder" but that's another story. It's incomparable to this masterpiece (according to Pitchies!) I have also found musical similarities between Newsom and Devendra Banhart: They are both crazy, crazy-beautiful. I gotta write on Banhart soon. He reminds me of Persian poet "Sohrab Sepehri".

According to Wikipedia:
Ys (also spelled Is or Ker-Ys in Breton) is a mythical city built in the Douarnenez bay in Brittany by Gradlon (Gralon in Breton), King of Cornouaille, for his daughter Dahut.
Click here to go to the related Wikipedia page.

Top 10 Flaming Lips Songs

Only reflects personal opinions.
p.s. I'm not a fan of the pre-Zaireeka era of The Flaming Lips



10. Do You Realize?? (Postal Service remix)
09. It Overtakes Me / The Stars Are So Big, I'm So Small... Do I Stand a Chance?
08. Race For the Prize
07. The W.A.N.D
06. Up Above the Daily Hum
05. Assassination of the Sun
04. The Spark That Bled
03. In the Morning of the Magicians (=20)
02. It's Summertime
01. Waiting For a Superman (Remix)

And here's a cover of that magnificent song by Iron and Wine

On Neil Young's "Live at Massey Hall" And Live Audio CDs in General

(Old stuff republished)

Part One: How Live Audio CDs Can Upset You

Live acts! Yes, they piss me off! (Or do they really?) Mostly you hear unexpected stuff and try to convince yourself this was as good as the original. Bands play their same hit singles over and over. They'll begin to hate their own stuff after a decade playing the same songs. Take R.E.M, they didn't even include their no.1 hits "Shiny Happy People" and "Drive" on their "In Time: The Best of R.E.M" greatest hits album. The reason: they were really sick of playing it and consequently hearing it. It had become a reoccurring nightmare!

Some bands, they don't even bother. They simply do not release any live material! Take Tool. Good job!

Pop live albums, they don't even exist, every when they do, they belong to immortal artists such as Madonna or Elton John, since other live pop albums are all lip singing. You don't want to hear the same studio works with crowd's noise included, do you?

Some bands perform well, but here comes a member who's unable to perform. I saw Audioslave on Live 8. They were amazing, Tom Morello was great, the band performed the song "Like a Stone", and everything was working out well until Chris Cornell decided to sing. I think a huge insect was struck in his throat! His voice spread out in Roma's weather. Perhaps, the air took his voice away.

Nirvana's timeless unplugged live album in New York was of a great concern because a couple of months prior, Cobain had committed suicide. The performance was tender, sweet, and heart-breaking (especially with all those candle lights on). But everything was not weirdly enough out of tune. Cobain was performing his own early funeral; he looked reluctant to sing right off from "About a Girl" to the screaming guts out ballad "Where did you sleep last night?" half the songs performed (six out of twelve) were covers. I think the show was a huge advertising for the ever-unknown Meat Puppets! I personally listened to the show and watched it over for like 74 times, I even have memorized Cobain comments between the songs. He calls one a "little bee" for screaming out and tells Dave Grohl to shut up because of his stupid "This song is good!" comment prior to "Dumb" if I'm right! Maybe they should ban the candle lights in live shows: Layne Staley of Alice In Chains was found dead 4 years after their unplugged show which happened to be a magnificent live performance as well as their last one, still including candle lights! He regretfully had a heroin overdose and his body was found on the saddening threshold of decomposition!

Bob Dylan's unplugged was a disaster, he make his "Knocking on Heaven's Door" a dead rarity.He made the audience forget it was a huge hit. The Rolling Stones' live performances all look alike, since they perform their 45 year old super hits like "Angie" and "Satisfaction". Some live acts are completely unnecessary. Take Eels' "Short String: Live at Town Hall", that don't make sense. No, you cannot entertain people by duplicating your drum speed and shortening the song lengths on your hits. That simply won't help.

Some bands are supposed to be live, though they lack some music, so they do covers. Take Scala, doing the most lunatic covers with a group of high school cheer leaders, playing Nirvana's true hit "Smells like Teen Spirit" at the same show which they play Puddle Of Mudd (a pure Nirvana-wanna-be-quartet) playing their stupid "She Hates Me". That can get on nerve that can be so not adolescent and immature.

Now, there are bands that are born to play live. They've got the right stuff in their blood. U2, Coldplay, Travis, Elton John, R.E.M and maybe the Red Hot Chili Peppers are among these.

Part Two: How A Good Live Album Can Make Sense

But why in the hell am I trying to emphasize on live stuff? It is the only reason that I can announce you that finally I have listened to the unreleased concert of Neil Young in Massey Hall in 1971. I can say that Neil Young probably was the most confident man on the planet to have this standalone acoustic performance back in the glory days of The Doors, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Simon and Gurfunkel, Bob Marley and Johnny Cash, playing mostly new songs which some of them have now become his greatest hits. His work was genius enough to be called upon by Bill Cosby whom later had to re-title his band name to Crosby, Stills & Nash and Neil Young just in order to shout out the news about the newcomer! And he was the only artist to have Pearl Jam (the biggest band in the world at the time) spending time with him and gradually produce and record an album all inspired by the talent, thoughts, opinions and inner-culture of Young (1996's No Code)!

And the young Neil starts off with "On the Way Home"; his voice is soft, divine and high. His clothing and hair style can only resemble Kurt Cobain in his unplugged; he plays the guitar and the piano. There is no band. He's alone in the dark; he plays modest by telling jokes and sharing his memories from Canada. "Heart of Gold" is his masterpiece, this song was included in his "Man Needs a Maid" performance by the second half but you cannot hear clapping hands at "I Wanna Live, I Wanna Give…", since this was the first time the song was being heard by the audience. Perhaps no one could have guessed that day about this magnificent song being put into the charts of immortal songs of the 20^th century. "Heart Of Gold" is the sole chart topper in Neil Young's courier. He once drops his guitar pick and when you hear some puffy noises on the microphone he confesses that he shouldn't have played with it!

The Live at Massey Hall concert was one the most inspiring live acts I have ever heard. I just wish I could have the live DVD also.

James Dean Bradfield - Great Western

Back when I saw James Dean Bradfield's stand alone performance in Later With Jools Holland show a couple of years ago, I thought "Thank God that Richey James Edwards committed an apparent suicide and James took Manic Street Preachers' lead afterwards", that was when the Manics went worldwide. Despite all the success the band has gained during their glory days of 1998's This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours, this trio from Wales have been one of the most underrated and underestimated bands of the 90s, with potentials to take over U2 (in my opinion).
James Dean Bradfield's debut solo work is again a political package, but not a radical Manic-style one. An all-melodic record from half-brain of the Manics (The other half is Nicky Wire who has released his solo work I Killed the Zeitgeist in 2006 also). The Manics' grunge rage and riot has been eliminated, instead some epic piano based harmonies have been replaced, making this 11 track album a record capable of giving more and more listens and not getting tired.
Yet you can hear the soul of Manic Street Preachers all over the album, this happens to be a brilliant work composed by a brilliant talent.
The first single An English Gentleman is addictive enough as well as and That's No Way To Tell A Lie and Emigre, I'm personally so delighted to see James releasing a solo album, where there's pure James Dean Bradfield, away from many things having influence on him!

Air - Pocket Symphony

Premiers Symptomes was commencing a self discovery period for Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin . With Moon Safari, Air was officially introduced, that was when the duo gained signature. The Virgin Suicides was precious enough for Sofia Coppola (daughter of Francis Ford) to put it in her movie. 10,000 Hz Legend was brutalized by critics despite guest stars it included (e.g. Beck, Buffalo Daughter), Talkie Walkie was a masterpiece according to many opinions. And now the return after 3 years:
Expected something unique and preferably different. I expected another lava-lamp dream or another hallucination journey. But this album is too dead for that! The guest stars sound like half-life victims of emptiness. By the way who in the hell wants to have Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) as a guest star? The record CAN sometimes be considered trippy, but convincing enough to seek some other stuff in your music collection. By the 3rd song, Moon Safari is where you yearn to belong.
To be extremely optimistic upon this, Pocket Symphony longs to be Air's valiant experience. The tunnel once Daft Punk traveled into. I'm not sure if they survived getting out!
This is the one I always referred to as elevator music. This is genuine ever-looping elevator music. By the time you're out of the elevator, you're courageous to walk into the alternate elevator the next time you're going up or down!

Manic Street Preachers - Lifeblood

By the release of Know Your Enemy, I marked the critical point for the Manic's downfall! Despite three beautiful songs (Ocean Spray, Let Robeson Sing & The Year Of Purification), the album was recorded in the most annoying quality ever!
By the end of 2004, Manic Street Preachers released an album what they called their Pop record, I listened to "The Love Of Richard Nixon" which exclusively had been performed by the band's bass player Nicky Wire and James Dean Bradfield performed the backing vocal, the song was another all-political but this time pure-pop, then they made a video for "Empty Soul", an early U2-style hit!
By that time I had no idea how great that album was, this album is their most underrated since the Manics are so far away musically than the riots they have been for a decade. This is tender, political (no wonder), sweet harmonic sound of pop! Enjoyed it all along, specially tracks as "A Song For Departure", "Solitude Sometimes Is" and "Emily". One of my most recommended albums of the past three years. Also a great experience for the band itself.

Salò - The 120 Days of Sodom

This is another post from the past (360 days):
Just nights ago, my sickest film chart topper got replaced! David Lynch's "Eraserhead" was technically the sickest thing I had ever seen in terms of a movie. But Eraserhead has to slip one step downward for the new chart topper and that is Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò.

I had two hours of anxiety due to the contents. I had to watch my room's door in case someone comes in, I would have no particular excuses. More than two weeks ago I re-ordered Eraserhead since I gave it away to a slut and I never had it returned, I was worried how am I gonna find it but now it's in my DVD collection (Don't get me wrong! I don't collect DVDs, In fact I just hate archiving but some films are just irresistible and when you have someone bring you great movies twice a month how can you possibly escape?) When I got the DVD back I told the film man : "Now that's one hell of a sick film!" and he admitted that though he recommended me to watch Salò and therefore I ordered it!

I was already familiar with Pasolini. I had seen Arabian Nights and another film that I don't remember the title .(if it had any, it was a sort of a 90 minute interview with Italian folks about sex) I personally didn't figure anything out of Arabian Nights but it was cool to watch.


Now Salò is about a group of fascists forcing a couple of pretty young boys and girls into a castle and doing whatever the hell they want with them. They have some storytellers to teach the young boys and girls the most disgusting jobs ever. And the kids just have no way to escape there. The movie comes in several episodes like "Circle of Blood", "Circle of Shit" and so on in which the kids are forced to eat shit and learn how to pee on their master's face. The Italian president is also among the fascists libertines who tries to actually implement everything instantly after every lesson. All the while I never had a clue why in the hell are they doing this! Why do they torture them in the most brutal way but couldn't refrain from watching it: The Violence. It was all about that! The little boy in Arabian Nights was also among the slaves! The fascists finally kill all the young kids with the most violent behaviours like extracting the eye with a knife, putting a candle under their nipples, cutting their tongue and ok I stop explaining!

I know the movie takes place is a Mussolini environment and Pasolini was soon murdered after the release of the film which was banned in Italy or other countries for several years! You cannot make such a film and just keep on living! ;)

But you know what? I'm really happy to have this film in my room. Now I can watch it with my friends and just discuss it over! I know the original DVD is very costly (about $600) in europe. So I'm lucky to have seen it almost 2 bucks!

The Refurnish

I felt like I was choking by my previous template. The gray-scale dark environment was killing me. That was when I though about all those high user traffic sites like Google, Yahoo! and many many blogs I saw with white backgrounds. So I decided to refurnish this blog and change it to something more becoming. I almost lost half my eyesight over the top banner with the cool old toaster. The cool part about it is the bread inserted which looks like a kind of bread in Iran we have called "Sangak". My mother toasts Sangak in our very old toaster everyday. So I'm glad to add a morning sensation to the blog.
I also got rid of some unnecessary stuff on both my sidebars. The Reddit news reader was absolutely not making sense. And I was not very happy with Reddit since I don't get much publicity by it. God bless website-traffic.cc and Digg . I replaced my Last Fm album quilt with Top Artists. Threw the music player (Rudebox) away for a while and I still don't know why, but it is now more... webby! (lol) More content-oriented than flash. And also increased my font size by one and changed the face to "Georgia". I've always had a mega crush for this font when I saw its simplicity in other people's blogs. So no more dark stuff, at least for now. I'm happy with this one. I don't think I'm going to change it for a while. It fits here and it fits me.
It's now morning on This Winki's. Put your bread in my toaster!

L E O N A R D   N I M O Y
B O T H   S I D E S   N O W
( J O N I   M I T C H E L L   C O V E R )

On Alternative Grammy Nominees 2007

Here's that glamorous trophy again. Justin Timberlake received this trophy, many other true artists as well. This is not about music. It has just become another fashion. I really don't give a damn about other categories, I'm here for alternative music session. Last year was a disaster, not because Gnarls Barkley album was a bad album at all, in fact that was the sole hip-hop record I thoroughly listened to and bought. But the sad part is: That's hip-hop. Why should a hip-hop record be nominated for an alternative grammy? Aren't there enough categories? Anyway here's my first glimpse on this year's nominees. But I have to admit some past winners in this category truly deserved the trophy.

1. Lily Allen - Alright, Still: Here we go again. If this shit wins this year, they should get rid of this category, this is pure pop! This is Britney, this is Gwen Stefani, alternative? What's so alternative about a pussy chick sitting on a motorbike?
   
2. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible: LMAO, now this is my winner, good job!
3. Bjork - Volta: After 2004's Medulla, this is the shittiest Bjork record I have ever heard, and you know what? She's getting old. There are other Icelandic acts as well, but since she's a weirdo, that's enough reason to nominate her. The only one-more-try song is the opener "Earth Intruders", and its cover art is a mess.
4. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away: I won't be disappointed by this band's winning. Thank God I see 2 indie nominees here as well. "Wincing the Night Away" had two great hits: "Australia" and "Phantom Limp". But the rest of the album doesn't make sense at all. I still recommend their 2001 "Oh, Inverted World". But anyway it's good to see'em here. I like The Shins.
5. The White Stripes - Icky Thumb: Ladies and Gentlemen! The Teacher's pet. Every Jack White fart wins a grammy, everything they touch becomes gold. "Elephant", "Get Behind Me Satan" and all the noise you know. All winners! Honestly, I don't hate them at all. I like "White Blood Cells" and it's kind of cool some of them tunes, but winning the trophy for the third time and every time they get nominated? Please don't do this to music! Don't mix it with fashion!

2 out of 5, that's 40% that's worth!

Person Pitch

This is the new music. 2007 has definitely been the year of Panda Bear. It's Panda Bear everywhere: Amazon, Pitchfork, RollingStone, etc. Now this one is one of those 45s (lol) that you should let it grow on you, just like Neon Bible which didn't make sense at my early listens. I listen to this everyday. Its a post rock psychedelic gem. Panda Bear is a member of Animal Collective and for National Geographic readers I gotta say that it's not a Panda Bear. Animal Collective's music is sophisticated and psychedelic enough, but this side-project takes the limits higher and more hallucinating. Beach Boys fans, especially Brian Wilson fans will be glad to hear a sound from their inner memory in the background of Person Pitch. In fact, this is not backing vocal, this is the lead vocal, but sounds far away. The 12 minute epic "Bros" has been selected as one of the best tracks of 2007 by Pitchfork. And Amazon's best alternative list has been astonishingly genre oriented, unlike past years: Panda Bear, Besnard Lakes, Deerhunter, The Clientele, Of Montreal and Animal Collective look family!
Animal Collective's "Strawberry Jam" has been a success. But I was amazed by critics to vote for Panda Bear as the best. That's fair enough. After all, a noble idea is always the best one, no matter what.
This disk is an excessive dream pop amalgamation with Beach Boys-ish atmosphere all through the 7 track while, totally recommended to all dream pop fans and a must for all Animal Collective, Liars, The Battles, The Twilight Sad and Andorra lovers.

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Top 10 Grandaddy Songs

Only reflects personal opinions!


10. Wretched Songs [The Broken Down Comforter Collection] 1999;
09. Guide Down Denied [Just Like the Fambly Cat] 2006;
08. Jed the Humanoid [The Sophtware Slump] 2000;
07. Lost on Yer Merry Way [Sumday] 2003;
06. AM 180 [Under the Western Freeway] 1997;
05. Minor at the Dial-A-View [The Sophtware Slump] 2000;
04. El Caminos in the West [Sumday] 2003;
03. The Crystal Lake [The Sophtware Slump] 2000;
02. Summer, It's Gone [Just Like the Fambly Cat] 2006;
01. At My Post [Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla EP] 2005;

There's more ATMs with Air Conditioning!

Snaps From the Last Day of 2007

I was just wandering around the house and staring at my monitor. My dad bought a digital camera yesterday after ages of research. My brother couldn't wait to get some none sense photos and I didn't mind putting them here.
Plus today I launched the new private site for the Olive Island Lounge on WordPress, I really wanted to try WordPress cuz I believe it's cool! No, I cannot give away the new site address and even if I do, it demands username and password which only the members know.
I'm sorta playing around, you know. Tomorrow I'm gonna apply for my passport and I'm excited.


Not bad, not bad, all the DVDs are worth keeping, I got rid of all the stupid films (hahaha). I can see,... hmmm let me see: Space Odyssey, Ed Wood, Eyes Wide Shut, Eraserhead, Stalker, Wild Strawberries, alright forget it.


This camera's zoom is perfect, I wonder what are they bluffing about.


And this vocabulary book is going to take 37 years to finish, man! It has like 20 new words in every 10 pages and it's like 370 pages totally. Thick!

Hello 2008!

and here's your song

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