‘The Dude’ as ‘The Knave’ (Lebowski/Shakespeare).

This might possibly be the most brilliant re-interpretation of a film in any shape, era, or way.  Adam Bertocci – filmmaker, screenwriter, author, Shakespeare and Coen Brothers lover — somehow turned The Big Lebowski into a legitimately worded/staged Shakespearian play titled “The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski“.  Here’s just one monologue, of many, to give you an idea of what I mean.  This is the first bowling scene when The Dude’s, or in this alt-universe “The Knave”s,  explaining how this rug really tied the room together.  Take a peep:

It was of consequence, I should think; verily, it tied the room together, gather’d its qualities as the sweet lovers’ spring grass doth the morning dew or the rough scythe the first of autumn harvests. It sat between the four sides of the room, making substance of a square, respecting each wall in equal harmony, in geometer’s cap; a great reckoning in a little room. Verily, it transform’d the room from the space between four walls presented, to the harbour of a man’s monarchy.

Again, the LINK: Two Gentlemen of Lebowski

Adam Bertocci’s Site

One can also, if one were inclined, find the writing on Facebook.

-Sonny

St. Paul Slim-genics.

[*DISCLAIMER: the following is almost purely Twin Cities/Minnesota talk.  Might wanna turn around if you're from Columbus.]

(Title a reference to THIS GUY.)

I sat down today with the paper and after rummaging through the meat of it helplessly wandered into the “Letters to Editor” section.  It’s all very James Bond super-villain’s trap-ish: meeting my ultimate doom in the back page of the main section at a very escapeable pace and telegraphed to hell.  Not that they’re all bad.  And I guess it’s nice to hear from the neighborhood type clowns every now and again.  But more often than not I end up asking myself, “why did I read any of this shit?”.  The very last published blurb to the paper heads today was perfectly titled, “Do Something… Anything!” (a title that suggests “I’m not here to preach”, along with simple and concise).

The letter was about the off-putting plight of downtown St. Paul; the title sums up the article, there’s no need to paraphrase it.  I thought for a long time most people agreed with that general feeling.  Do something quick, or the city may be facing a nightly unintentional shut down any night the Wild aren’t hosting someone at the Xcel.  I’m not a city planner, I’m not a civil engineer, I’m not even smart in any way, but I don’t think another sports facility (I’m looking at you, “St. Paul Saints Push for New Stadium”) is the ticket to prosperity and cultural relevance.  St. Paul’s already got that niche hosting the NHL team in a state that bleeds melted puck rubber.  And frankly, now isn’t the time to be asking for tax payer cash to build (the Queens better figure their shit out too; how did they get the vikings.com domain?  If I was a Norse warrior traveler from the 800’s I’d be pissed).

Then I hung out with a group of guys who’s youngest member, besides me, was in his mid-40’s.  I learned that, and I really don’t understand WHY, a lot of the middle-aged to elderly block just doesn’t want St. Paul to be active.  And these aren’t some ice-shackers from Inver Grove Heights; all of these guys were raised in St. Paul, and many live there still to this day.  Yeabuwhaaa?  Now I’m real confused.  It’s your hometown, and you WANT the steady decline to ghost town??  “Hold on, someone explain this to me”, I — with about 6 beers in me — asked.  “What do want…”, youngest one mutters, “another fucking Minneapolis??”.  Well… no.  Hell no.  Just because I’m in my 20’s don’t mean I have a goddamn man-crush on downtown Minneapolis.  I’ve got my spots I like, but if Paul was a viable option, I’d probably hang out there over Minneapolis.  But it isn’t.

And that might be part of the problem here: this 18-24 mindset (with a reasonable 30’s chunk) that Minneapolis pisses all over St. Paul and it always will.  Maybe the reason the bars have fled or died slowly, the reason a concert in St. Paul either means a $60 ticket to Xcel or seeing a metal band at Station 4, the reason it’s all out or nothing, is that this mind-set breeds more of the same.  You sit down for coffee with your Uptown friends — who are good shit, you just wished they lived elsewhere — and you laugh at the prospect of ever even driving across the river to the less attractive sibling city.  This isn’t constructive.  Or true.  St. Paul’s got Maharaja’s after all (and if you were to venture further down West 7th, you’d realize there’s another shop of that ilk resting comfortably between houses to the South), that should be proof enough of its potential.

Music venues help.  And I’m not just saying that cause I love music, it’s just true.  Even an eclectic mix of restaurants doesn’t change the cultural game like an eclectic mix of venues/clubs does.  That’s been proven.  Just look at St. Paul, with it’s ever changing revolving door of eateries (not lately with the economy and all though), and compare it to the Ceder Ave. neighborhood of Minne, which added several venues and clubs since 2000 and turned a dilapidated, rusted part of the city into a healthy, productive little mini-town.

(I hate the Ceder Ave. dudes who dress and put up a front like they’re extremely poor even though they go to the U and get money from home all the time.  Especially because there are real poor people in and around that area.  Seems really insulting to them.  “College kid” poor and real poor are two very different things.  Just cause you’ve been reduced to Ramen exclusively doesn’t mean you can grow a homeless guy beard, cough a lot, dress in layers like what’s on your back is the only clothes you own, and walk around with a sense of “I’m realer than you”.  Just sayin’.)

Where the fuck WAS I now??  Thank God no one’s paying me for this.

-Sonny

King Megatrip – Soul Society 02.

Got another mixtape and awesome DJ to point out today.  His name is Robert Paulson… naw, that isn’t his name; his name is KING MEGATRIP, and he’s got some chops.  Ran into him via the very much approved discussion on WhiteChapel where DJ’s post mixes and/or mixtapes.  Megatrip is doing 12 mixes — one for each month — in 2010.  So if you like one or both, make sure you keep coming back every month this year for more mixtape deliciousness.  He’s dubbing them “A Year In the Soul Society”.  Mixtape number ONE is already up and it sports some remixes from talented DJs, legends, a fair amount of scratching, even some Jazz.  It’s a very eclectic mix.  That’s exactly what he’s done with his second tape too.  Number TWO features everything from Jackie Wilson to RJD2 to Nas.  Your music taste will no doubt be humbled by the awe inspiring inclusion of the UNIVERSE of music!!  Just try to keep up.  It’s a long Megatrip.

A Year In the Soul Society 01.

A Year In the Soul Society 02.

King Megatrip.

-Sonny

Jimmy2Times/Plain Ole Bill Mix.

Over at City Pages they’re featuring an interview with Get Cryphy creators and DJs Jimmy2Times and Plain Ole Bill.  Get Cryphy is a monthly party held in the VIP room of First Ave. that somehow manages to splice Madonna into “crunk” tunage.  Both these DJs are real real good at what they do, it’d be advisable to either hit up a Cryphy party, get into seeing these dudes in some other capacity (Bill was DJing for P.O.S., Jimmy plays around town, he’s playing the Haiti benefit show tonight at First Ave, they both played the Doomtree blowout after party this year, etc.).  These two really know what they’re doing when it comes to turntablism, and they both know how to make a party mix.  Combine their powers?  The world might just cave in on itself; okay, maybe not because they’ve been doing it successfully for months now.  Regardless, here’s that MIX:

DIRECT LINK to the mix.

Again, the INTERVIEW w/ City Pages.

Get Cryphy Blog.

-Sonny

My Icicle Experience Thus Far.

I was looking for some sort of USB converter a few months ago to work in conjunction with my production software.  I was debating going all out and getting a box.  You know, one of those stand-up, USB, IN boxes with 1/4 inch, XLR, 1/8 inch, and MIDI inputs?  Why though?  It isn’t like I’m running Pro Tools.  It isn’t like I’ve got a luxurious, hardware infested studio in my house where I’d need a top of the line USB Port.  So I looked at my options.  Cheaper options.  I followed the path through the “mic an amp or direct in?” forest, around the mountain of “soundcard mic inputs” all the way to a beaten silver and wood chest with “XLR to USB” engraved on it.  For cost, this would be my best option.  I can mic an amp, mic an acoustic, mic a voice (no, I don’t sing; it’s more like yelling), and even buy one or two converters to go direct in for sampling, bass, what-have-you.  Inside the chest was the cheapest, simplest of all XLR to USB converters: BLUE MICROPHONE’S ICICLE XLR to USB.

I’ve done lots with it so far.  I’ve done everything listed above and then some: mic’d amps (both large and small; this always sounds great, mic’ing amps is the way to go), acoustic guitars, vocals, televisions (in the form of a Pam Grier Coffy sample), and even a little bit of percussion.  Of course, it helps to have a top of the line mic handy.  Ur not gonna get the best out of this piece of hardware with a SOCOM or Halo mic, that’s for sure.  But if you do have a nice mic — I’m using the on-stage standard Shure SM58 — then it isn’t a bad idea to nab one of these Icicles.  Bottom line is cost, and this thing is cheap.  REAL cheap.  I went out to Guitar Center to get one; of course they’d jacked up the price like they always do.  I think they wanted $70 or so for it?  I ended up heading over to eCost and getting the thing for about $30 ($40 or so with shipping and tax).

Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a professional quality converter/box by any means (then again, REAL professionals wouldn’t be using an XLR to USB converter to begin with), but for DIY, office type home studio, it does a pretty fucking decent job.  I had some delay type issues to begin with, but haven’t since.  And at least there IS a volume/gain control on the device itself; between that and the 2, 3, or 4 gains on your production master and track, you should be able to tweak this to the input level you want.  If this was a tech/music-technology/gadget website, and this was an official review, I’d probably give this thing a 4 out of 5.  It certainly gets the job done for a very cheap cost.

-Sonny

Nano-Fic: Modulation.

The partners scrubbed Illyana clean of Tech and Mods in preparation. She

hardly recognized herself from the inside.  Everything had run its course.

-Sonny

Radium-Age Science Fiction.

Before Superman bent our world as we know it to his dominating will, before comic books existed, science fiction writers published from around the turn of the century to about 1930 wrote eerie tales of superior beings.  Beings with minds so advanced and elaborate we humans would combust from simply trying to comprehend, with such superior physical attributes no one would dare fight them.  It’s a scary concept.  Friedrich Nietzsche was one sadistic, twisted, hate filled mother fucker to think it up; who knows his real thoughts on it.  He pretty much invented the idea in Thus Spoke Zarathustra.  He called his concept the “ubermensch” (or “overman”; or “superman”) and set out to prove that one day a superior evolved human (sounds a little like X-Men, right?) will overcome man, ruling homosapien because he knows better than we do.  We’ll all go along with it, cause we’re powerless, and we’ll all be better off for it.  I can’t help but think this sounds an awful lot like the justification of Colonial England’s rule over India and many African nations by that evil bastard Rudyard Kipling (who in turn reminds me of Uncle Ruckus from Boondocks; in that they both betrayed their people by giving into the Imperialism of another culture; Kipling was born in Bombay).

When the idea took off as fiction, Radium Age Science Fiction to be exact, it was presented in a negative, threatening, almost ironic way which must have either rolled Nietzsche in his philosophical grave, or put a big, nihilistic grin on his face.  The 1800’s, oh-my-fucking-God-evolution notion that every single organism must evolve into a perfect specimen, and anything less than that deserved to die off in a disease or war or famine, was gone.  These writers, with their rayguns and whiskey, saw the overman as a threat to humanity.  Something that will steal our woman, brain-wash our children into mindless, droney submission, and use us as pawns against each other only to intervene with all the power of the Universe to will global worship.  Since we simply cannot comprehend the thoughts, will, or value system of such beings, they would be a distant, alien type entity who cannot be trusted (this is what the story of Superman got wrong; or maybe right, in the form of Lex Luthor, but the people of Superman’s Earth don’t get it; this change from Radium Age superman to Golden Age superman comes from the Great Depression, I believe).

It’s been nice to see this notion of the superman revived as of late (Watchmen did it first) in books like The Boys and SuperGod.

Hilobrow, the website that wrote that piece on Radium-Age Sci-Fi, is holding a 250 word short story contest based on the concept.  GO HERE.

There’s no point to any of this, just mindless brain dumpage.

-Sonny

Feed, Contributers, Feed.

Littttle Minnesota Music talk.

It sounds like the Current’s 5 Year Anniversary Party was a little weird; and not in the good way.  First came an update on this page via the Gimme Noise RSS feed claiming that Prince — yup, crushed purple velvet and all — was maybe going to take the stage.  All hell broke loose over the Internet waves.  Twitter (not a fan of Twitter; Mac Lethal did an awesome song about the Twittemenon) lit up, rumors swirled, and those who had tickets (this thing sold out quickly) felt especially prestigious with news they might witness the last scene in Purple Rain.  Turns out, he just sat in the owner’s box the entire time.  Not only that, but he didn’t even stay that long.  He supposedly left the building before P.O.S. played.

Which brings me to the lineup.  I’m not here to rip on any of these bands, besides maybe one.  But I will say that this really isn’t the best lineup (collectively; again, got nothing against these artists themselves, beside one) for a Friday night, party type of show, even for the more Mac-using, North Face-sporting, Hybrid-driving of Current listeners.  I’m not sure if some of the other Minnesota artists and bands were touring, or booked, or what, but they could have, nay SHOULD have gotten a more lively, fun set of artists to play.  Red Pens maybe? Trampled by Turtles (no, they were touring)?  City on the Make?  Slapping Purses?  The Dynamiters?  The Chambermaids?  No Bird Sing?  The list goes on and on and on, this city, these cities, this state, is such a beacon for talent; it feels like the lineup could’ve been better.  Then again, who really knows what Current listeners would want, but more on that in a bit.

So that “besides one” band??  Yeah, they’re a band I saw at the “Best New Bands” showcase earlier in the year, The Twilight Hours.  Now why the fuck these guys were at the “Best New Bands” show was a mystery to me.  YES, I  understand both Munson and Wilson (not Dan from that 90’s band; Matt) were in Trip Shakespeare, and that Muson played bass in Semi-Sonic (ooooooohhh), but they’ve been around the Minneapolis music scene since the goddamn 80’s!!  Just cause they started a “new band” this year doesn’t mean they should play the “Best New Band” showcase.  Those slots should be given to up and comer’s, not aging wankers who rock side to side playing Cities 97 “alt-rock” and like the smell of their own farts.  Okay, that wasn’t nice.  But I wouldn’t have said that if Munson hadn’t decided to drop names like U2 during his “best new bands show” interview before they played.  No one gives a shit about U2 dude, and hurry up and finish ur set so I can see some “new” bands already.

Twilight Hours opened this show and the Gimme Noise report claims the set “failed to really resonate with the mostly young audience who probably aren’t all that familiar with John Munson and Matt Wilson’s distinguished former bands.“  That’s not it though, it’s that they’re SO so fucking BORING.  And I wouldn’t be saying this, talking all this shit, if I’ve never seen them live.  But I’ve been there.  Seeing a band like that at First Ave. makes me wanna play Galaga, go out for a smoke, or talk to strangers.  Not a good way to open the show, IMO.

The rest of the lineup featured Lookbook (who are kinda cool in their own right; but again, there’s so many better bands in the Twin Cities right now, I don’t understand the choice), Mason Jennings (he’s talented, and he belongs; it’s just too bad he had to play to a crowd who just sat through two un-lively sets; the last thing they’re gonna want is Springsteen covers and singer/songwriter stuff, no matter how good the songs are), P.O.S. (who everyone loves, or should; and who apparently saved the night from being a complete disaster of a bore), and Solid Gold closed the show (who isn’t bad I guess, but certainly not anything special; this laid-back Electro thing’s getting a little tired; and they LOVE to wear t-shirts that are too small).  And that was it.  Put this show up again without the Current namesake, it might sell out but only because of P.O.S. And the crowd would be immensely different.  Put it up one more time, minus P.O.S., it doesn’t sell out the main room.  No way.  Poor Mason Jennings was put in such a tough place.

To be honest, though, I’m not sure what the hell Current listeners would prefer.  The bands I mentioned (except maybe Red Pens because of their local hype, deserved hype, and legend) probably wouldn’t be up their ally.  Too sweaty, too normal, too Rock and Roll.  Don’t get me wrong, the Current’s cool and I love what they’re doing to mainstream radio, I just think they’re so concerned with playing music that’s off-kilter, they’re not playing a lot of great music.  But it’s all on the listener.  Their listeners WANT that, they feed off it, and like all other radio stations, the Current caters to the listener.

-Sonny

Threadless T’s.

Threadless.com is pretty good idea for a website, really.  Assuming you’ve never heard of it.  Artists submit their designs for t-shirts, users/visitors rate the designs (typically a design per week I believe), the designs with good enough ratings come back again.  So, a t-shirt can only be ordered for one week, unless it gets enough favorable votes.  Not only does this make some of the shirts incredibly unique — if it’s only on sale for a week, chances are you’re the only one in Fayette, Missouri with one — it also rewards good design, ideas, and artistry.  Here’s a couple examples:

Here’s the LINKS to each of these:

Milky Way Shirt

Funkalicious (Boom Box Space Suit)

I know, I know… “White people LOVE t-shirts”, right?  Yeah, well I don’t know of one race or ethnicity that doesn’t wear t-shirts on a regular basis.  Especially down in South America where it’s hotter than hell.  “Stuff White People Like” must have been running out of ideas when they debuted “t-shirts” as a topic.

-Sonny

Texture – Aphasia EP (FREE).

Texture from Weaponizer released an EP last week, the first of a trilogy.  They’re apparently all going to be named after neurological disorder.  This 4 song digital EP deems itself as:

Aphasia-

–noun. Pathology.  The loss of a previously held ability to speak or understand spoken or written language, due to disease or injury of the brain.

Aphasia starts with a patient, steady track that pushes the mind to floating spaces.  Cyberpunk/chopped lyrics and droning musicality present themselves over an ambiance of paranoid futurism.  There’s really nothing happy about it, and that can be a good thing.  “Distance”, and the entire album really, measures itself against the listeners wandering mind.  This is especially true with the unbelievable instrumental tracks on this album, starting with track 2, “Vilnius Colony” (which, surely, reminds me of my ex co-worker from Lithuania).  The song builds steadily, adding little piece after piece like a skyscraper, until it reaches a crescendo that climaxes into the clouds.  There’s scratching, guitars, electronics, and artibeats that work very well together.  The falling action — or denouement; if Dwyer-French taught me anything — caps off “Vilnius Colony” well.  “Impact” features a guy dubbed Harlequinade, who sounds whacked out of his mind insane.  The horns of the track come straight out of “The Maltese Falcon”; Sam Spade would be proud.  They’re basically looped over a beat (with a bit of reverb).  This track’s a bit more of a head-nodder, but still features that “ambiance” I spoke of.  The end track is another instrumental, “Ram Dass”.  There’s a bit of a Thom Yorke solo shit weaving in and out: the quick and almost constant beeps and clicks, the lack of your standard artibeats.  But it’s certainly unique (I can’t even really imagine Yorke’s voice over it), and the echoey samples of the “psychedelic experience” give it a great dimension beyond “second instrumental track”.

This stuff’s FREE, so if you’re curious you have absolutely NO excuse not to check it out.  Linkage:

APHASIA on Black Lantern (the label)

BLACK LANTERN Home

Direct LINK to the ZIPPED Files

Texture’s Bio

-SonnyW.