TRYPTOPHAN

so, ah- merry thanksgiving everybodies. the songs i sent you are very loosely thematic, but it's the best i can do...(nothing wrong with a sprinkle of ABBA and a portion or two of ZEPP to get you through the day) Here's the challenge to all you aspiring musicians out there- make a thanksgiving day song. maybe write one about the turducken, mythical creature. or charlie brown. just something. holy pete, there's a dearth of good thanksgiving songs out there.

i really miss the old animated holiday specials. charlie brown, rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, the grinch. you still bump into them from time to time, but today's kids are too wired. just look at the pacing in charlie brown's thanksgiving! you'd think you were watching the uncut version of das boot if you were blindfolded, and it was all in german. but alas, no turkey day is complete without it. and tryptophan?? totally overrated. i'll be among the dead tomorrow simply because it's nearly 3 am right now.

Post Oddity

aghch. well, i suppose the inevitable has happened. a blog!? well o well o well, i suppose everybody and their grandmas have a bloggie now.... but everybody has a toilet too. and mobile phones (just got my first in january- after both of my grandmas had...). and heart-mom tattoos. i really felt limited by the presentation options through email, particularly how crappy cut and paste items turn out, depending on the size of your monitor, etc. the all-white backgrounds are a bit limiting too... and though i've been experimenting with highlighted text, it's a bit hard on the eyes.

so, here's how it's going to work (until BLOGGER gets old)- i'm going to send out a regular email still, but it'll mostly be a link to the latest post and MOST IMPORTANTLY the source of the mp3s as i don't think this site allows for file storage/download. spence lake inspired me with his consistently handsome and sharply-dressed blog, BY THE BOOK!!! (by the way, spence- i'm finally reading Rough Stone Rolling- i'll let you know what i think, ey?)



bowie. man, as you know- i love me some good early-middish 70's bowie. back in the day- DB would sometimes revisit a track he'd already recorded and spruce it up. "Rubber Band," "When I Live My Dream," and "Space Oddity" are among those. the vid above is incarnation #1 of space oddity recorded during the Deram days. most of you are probably more familiar with the later recording (included in the email) which appears on the album of the same name. kind of a wierd mishmash of schizophrenic styles without much continuity or narrative, but it works. little folk gems like "
God knows i'm good" and "Letter to Hermione" are very-60's bowie, though a bit more grown-up. "Wild eyed boy from free cloud" has elements of his earlier days, but is much more ambitious, instrumentally (if you havn't yet downloaded this track from your email- check out the animated clip below). it and "god knows i'm good" (thematically reminiscent of eleanor rigby) are probably my favorites from the album (oddity's not bad either). both this and "Cygnet Committee" remind me a little of the moody blues with their meandering high-concept psychedelia. "Memory of a free festival" is an odd way to end an album, but seems to cater to the summer of love crowd (actually the only song on the album that i really can't stand).

ever experimenting, he seems to have inadvertently struck black gold with "space oddity" (his first top-10 single in the UK) rushed into stores to coincide with the '69 Apollo 11 lunar landing (the british media apparently played it with their coverage of the historic event). all the british isles were in love with him and his one-hit wonder. the original album was self-titled and was only named "space oddity" when RCA re-released the album in the mid-70's (finally hitting the billboard top-ten in the US). Beck and "Loser" in so many ways reminds me of Bowie and "Space Oddity." Neither artist has really recorded much before or since like those songs, but both would end up being defined by them for years afterward.

anyhoo, let me know what you think about the new format (it's still a bit bare-bones, but i'm mulling over other refinements still) also (as usual) i had a tough time picking today's tracks. i almost didn't include "space oddity," (too obvious...overplayed...) but alas, i figured ye'd all like a piece. also- if any would like the original single (from the first video) or something else, i'm always happy to oblige. word to your mom.