Asterix

*Be Sure to Click on the Link to See the VIDEO!

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Pondering Poi Dog Pondering

If you have not yourself purchased, received, or dreamed of receiving a digital-reproduced delivery of LP's to your computer, then, well, perhaps you are quite a bit younger than I am. However, a couple years ago I was given a turntable apparatus that could translate the LP to digital and I was over the moon, so to speak. Unfortunately, there was a discrepancy  between my computer and the register of the LP in question, and for some reason, I could not connect my computer to the phonograph, for a couple of years.

In the meantime, I have purchased a new laptop after more than a decade of devoted service, and low and behold, the new laptop supports my LP-conversion program.

And, I am in heaven.

I have been listening non-stop to John Denver, Kiss, Rush, Pink Floyd, Blondie, ZZ Top, Marty Robbins, Bach, Manfred Mann, King Crimson, and a whole host of others that defies explanation.

In short, what can we say about the LP?

First and foremost, it calls for patience, something that for sure is a lost art/virtue. We want it now, and we want it NOW. Not a few seconds ago, but NOW!!!

Yikes.

And, it suggests imperfection. How many times did I have to "persuade" the needle to move forward in all of these LP's? Quite often. And, it made me realize how intolerant we have become with regards to  reproduction of sound and entertainment. We want everything perfect. We want life to be perfect.

Wake Up.

Life is not Perfect.

Listening to Kiss Alive II, it is not perfect.

Pondering Poi Dog Pondering, I was moved to wonder about their existence still. I have their eponymous LP here and have been listening to them and remember so much. Liberty Lunch and Poi Dog Pondering defined the end of the 80's and beginning of the 90's in Austin.

So, I looked them up and found this video from that time period. If I am not mistaken, and I am about 90% certain if not more that I am the blonde guy with the red shirt and god-forbid-white shorts in the video as I am pretty sure I remember being there that day for this recording as I was a bit of a Poi Dog junkie at the time and followed them quite closely. I used to be in many places in Austin for "events" and am pretty sure that is me, and yes, I did once possess such white shorts,... the horror, the horror.

But, the fact of the matter is is that there is nothing better than just living the moment, as this video tries to portray. These were times in Austin well before SXSW was even an event to be known.

Not to knock that as it is great that Austin founds its way upon the map of discovery, but this video reminds me of the humble roots it used to have, or like Gotye, like someone I used to know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XC4Vu1hofU

enjoy.


Friday, May 25, 2012

Walken the Line

There is a curious attraction to the unattractiveness of Christopher Walken that to me defines a nation.

Mr. Walken is beyond talented and can make the best of us winch when it comes to being creeped out. And yet, there is an strikingly familiar and comforting feeling when we see him. It is almost like a constant of Chaos in the storm of Chaos.

Something that CW, if I may, inserts into his movies is an element of dance, as he is, not unlike many of his contemporaries and those before him in showbiz, multi-talented and singing and dancing is one of his clauses that he chooses to include into various manifestations, not to mention an off-Broadway rendition of the "The Dead," which ironically I did not see, though another did, and Walken apparently shined in that twist of Dedalus as well.

Why am I thinking, then, of this video right now, tonight?

I do not know.

But, for some reason, it was so appropriate. Maybe it is for you as well, your...weapon of choice.