I like watching high school TV shows and movies about rebels. I love identifying with rebellious characters because my high school experiences included no rebellion. Once I stayed out past midnight without asking my parents. And that was like, whoa. The girls I was friends with at my all girls high school … we were nice girls. We were a little boring. One girl, the most “anti-establishment(big quotes around that) didn’t shave her legs for a year and for a while dyed her red hair blue.
In an effort to pull me to the dark side, or maybe just to save me from the crap music I was listening to, this girls gave me two mix tapes. They were full of nothing but Beastie Boys and I was in love. I listened to License to Ill every. single. day. on the way to high school. I played the tapes for kids when I was babysitting. (Potentially a questionably choice.)
Nowadays, I flirt with membership in the hipster, indie rock crowd, staying safely on the outskirts but wholly able to hold my own in music conversations. I attribute that to when I was 16, sitting in my 1985 Honda Civic hatchback listening to Paul’s Boutique. (Wonder Boy has had a great deal of influence on my music tastes in more recent years.)
Sitting in my doctor’s office waiting room today, I saw on my phone a message about the death of Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch. I wasn’t sure what to do with the informaton … how to process it. On my way home, a local radio station announced the death and then played No Sleep till Brooklyn and Sabotage. I did the only acceptable thing. I rolled down my windows and turned up the volume, just like 16-year-old me would have done.
I am grateful for the music MCA helped create and which I will enjoy for many, many more years to come. And thank you for getting me out of a phase that involved way too much bubblegum pop.
Last night Wonder Boy and I had an impromptu evening, along with a couple hundred other people, with Leslie Feist and Martin de Thurah. Both were in town to talk about music videos, in conjunction with a new exhibit at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) called Spectacle: The Music Video.
We’ve been to a few events at the CAC now and what I love about them is the intimacy. I think the thing last night was sold out, but once everyone was seated, it just felt nice and cozy. Not overly crowded. And I was about 30 feet away from Feist!
I haven’t seen Spectacle: The Music Video, yet, though I intend to. What intrigued me about last night’s talk was the opportunity to explore the evolution of the music video. Music started as a live art form. Then just an audio one. With video, it became visual and glossy and expensive. Since everything went digital and things have been uploaded to YouTube… Well, I’m curious how that’s changed things. I’m not sure I had that entirely answered last night. Feist expressed how she loved when her songs got a life of their own. She creates something and releases it out into the world. People find it the videos on YouTube and the songs wherever, and can recreate it, remix it, do whatever. And then this thing she created gets even bigger. I would imagine her responses hasn’t always been so zen.
Here’s a little bit about what I learned last night:
Feist, Bittersweet Memories: We got to watch the Bittersweet Memories video, which was just released yesterday. Wonder Boy and I felt so cool. A few months ago we had a party where you had to come dressed like some picture from your past, a la the Back to the Future project from Irena Werning. Feist’s new video is basically the Back to the Future project set to music!
Feist, I Feel It All: While Feist and I have very little in common, her story of the I Feel It All video had a few familiar parts for me. She was planning the video while living in Paris with her roommate, Mary Rozzi. As in Rozzi Fireworks from Loveland, Ohio, where I grew up. She mentioned how cool it would be to have explosions going off in her video in time to the music and Mary was all, “My uncles can totally do that.”And so she went to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and filmed the video for I Feel It All. They had four tries to get it right, but after an accident with some fireworks, had to select from two takes. Two takes! But the video turned out pretty cool. And I thought it was pretty cool to hear her describe the fireworks testing field in Loveland, because thats where I played so many soccer games growing up…
Feist, 1234: The video for 1234, which I had never seen before last night, was done in one take, as in it’s not all edited to look fancy. It really is that fancy.
Feist, The Bad in Each Other: Martin de Thurah is a video director and he and Feist collaborated on the video for The Bad in Each Other. The video is terribly sad (burying the dog!) but also really quirky and weird, in a good way. De Thurah came across like that – quirky and weird, in a good way. He had people laughing but also did a wonderful job of trying to explain how he translates abstract ideas onto film.
Car Park North, Human: This was one of the first (the first?) music videos that Martin de Thurah ever created. It doesn’t feature the musicians at all but still tells such a story. De Thurah said he was inspired from day dreams he used to have as a kid.
Fever Ray, When I Grow Up: I’ve already established that Martin de Thurah presented himself as a quirky individual. Apparently he’s been that way for quite some time. As a kid, he was intimidated by physics. Before a big exam, he stripped down to his underwear, painted his upper body in watercolors and mowed his lawn running very quickly. It was part of a ritual to help him prepare for the exam. Imagine! When he heard When I Grow Up by Fever Ray, he remembered this ritual and wanted to work that idea into the music video.
Royksopp, What Else Is There: The music video for What Else Is There seems very big budget to me. But according to Martin de Thurah, it was anything but. In the middle of the night, they hooked up the singer to the ladder of a firetruck and let her dangle in the middle of the street. Then they drove the truck up and down the street very quietly so as not to attract any attention. Because of money, they hadn’t been able to hire police and shut down the street properly, so they just crossed their fingers that no one would question the girl hanging in the middle of the street.
James Blake, Lindisfarne: I cannot pretend to like James Blake. I just can’t. But hearing Martin de Thurah explain how he came up with the idea for this video was fascinating. The end result is beautiful and twisted.
It’s been a long time since I really watched a music video. After listening to Feist and Martin de Thurah discuss them, I’ll definitely pay more careful attention. Last night was wonderful – I look forward to the Contemporary Arts Center hosting other similar events!
Last night Wonder Boy and I went to the inaugural night of The Ballroom at the Taft Theater, ostensibly to watch J Roddy Walston and the Business. While we were parking, we saw Frank the Tank and Easy Breezy walking to the show. They were going for the same reason we were. The Features. And they were fabulous! So, a review in two parts.
The Ballroom at The Taft Theater
I’ve seen plenty of shows at The Taft Theater and I’ve always loved the romance of the building… the intimacy of the venue despite how many people it holds. With the recent closing of the Southgate House, The Taft is smart to be opening a smaller venue. There’s a need in this city for venues where smaller acts can play. Enter The Ballroom.
While the main theater at The Taft is grand, The Ballroom is a lot more VFW hall. The room is in the basement and looks cavernous. Fortunately, the acoustics are pretty great. And because it’s in The Taft, visitors get to enjoy nice bathrooms, which is a feature that few other concert halls in town can compete with.
I’ll be seeing another show at The Ballroom next month and am looking forward to it.
The Features
To begin, it’s worth pointing out that it would hard for me to acknowledge a bad Features show. But, if it was bad I would just tell people it was good. Because it was fabulous, I’ll let anyone and everyone know.
I was happy for The Features when they got included in the most recent Twilight soundtrack, but concerned about future shows. Last night there were lots of teens and the show. Fears realized. But in what I view as a funny F you, the song from the soundtrack was never played. Instead, they played and sang their butts off.
I’ve been seeing The Features play a little more than a show a year for about eight years now. When I saw them open for the Kings of Leon years ago, I knew I’d found my new favorite band. Last night I got to watch other people discover them. “This guy is awesome!” I heard one man say. When the show ended the couple next to Wonder Boy and I just kept exclaiming, “That was unbelievable!” Yes it was.
We introduced Biggie to our house on Christmas 2011 and it’s taken him until about now to get adjusted. He’s a nervous guy! We don’t know what his background is. Only that he was found outside. So when he spent the first six months of his time with us nervously pacing at all hours and not sleeping well, we didn’t know what to make of it. Over time, he’s calmed down. And I think we can officially say that he’s relaxed.
Too relaxed.
Biggie’s schtick is to snuggle up in bed as close as possible to the human he loves the most at that moment. Usually Wonder Boy. But when he decided I’m the target, he goes crazy. Like many cats, Biggie likes to sit on a high perch so he can show dominance and keep a lookout on his surroundings. If I sleep on my side, my hip is the highest point on the room. So I guess it looks like a perfect place to sleep? To rest 20 pounds of dead weight?
All night long he’s purring his head off and getting really close to my face so that when I open my eyes, I see this.
I don’t know what time Biggie decided to get affectionate last night, but at 5 am I woke up feeling nauseous and having a big cat walking all over me. When I officially woke up around 7, I still felt nauseous thanks to a bad night of sleep.
So today, even though I’ve been off coffee for about six weeks, I am relying on this.
And for some reason, I keep getting John Mellencamp stuck in my head…
I listen to some people talk about their past in such detail that I’m envious. I remember the past like short movie clips that are only part of the whole. Certain things I remember as sensory experiences – the smell, the touch, the way it made me feel. Other things I remember as if I’m filming a scene and am removed from what actually occurred.
One thing I remember fondly from growing up is dance routines. My sisters and I, along with other kids on the street, would choreograph dance routines to our favorite songs. We’d get dressed up and perform for our parents, friends or a mirror. I think we just lip synched but maybe we sang along, too. If we sang, that would explain our small audiences.
I’m certain I did a very uninspired routine to Young MC’s Bust a Move. I suspect I got down to a little Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis and the News and some occasional Debbie Gibson. The music that most accompanied all of our dance routines was Whitney Houston. We had the albums Whitney Houston and Whitney on cassette and played them a lot. Those albums were packed with hits, with my personal favorite being I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me). Do you remember just how big that song was? How good?
When I learned that Whitney Houston passed away this past weekend, I was sad because she left a lot of people behind who have got to be struggling with losing her so young. Selfishly, I was also sad for the finality that gave to some of my memories. I know it doesn’t matter. I’m probably never going to do a dance routine again, and it’s even more unlikely that I would do a dance routine to some Whitney any time soon. But thinking back 25 years about dancing around my house never seemed that long ago. Now, with her gone, it solidifies the fact that my past is indeed past. But every time the opening notes of I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) come on the radio, you can be sure that I’ll turn it up and sing along. I won’t dance, but I’ll be remembering when Whitney inspired me to do so.
Here is a photo of my sister and I, along with a neighborhood friend, right before or after one of our dance routines. This picture is awesome for so many reasons. Do you see our make-up? We look like clowns. I loved that peach dress I’m wearing. The skirt was layered ruffles and I would pop the collar and accessorize with a turquoise-colored bead necklace. On the fireplace mantle behind us are a bunch of Lego creations my brother made – a house and a tower. My sister’s sock a and show choice is terrible but so much funnier since she’s also wearing a white anklet.
