This is so very nice, and the only noise it makes is the click and clack of the subway track. It doesn’t really belong here, but it belongs here. It’s well worth the time.
Back in the day I went out and took the train to see this, and had now forgotten about it. But the MTA is restoring it. Very nice.
Too much emphasis on the toys.
I had to drive up to our house near Lake Tahoe on Wednesday for the simple task of installing our new DSL modem.
You see, even though the house is buried in the Tahoe National Forest, and we neither get–nor want–television or our cell phones to work, we do often have to work from the house. So, being able connect with the world is essential.
My whole time at the house took about 20 minutes for the install, but the drive is around three hours each way. But, since we do rent the house out, particularly to skiers this time of year, and we advertise the house has high-speed, well I had to make sure we delivered upon what was advertised.
I usually would have just streamed KTKE in Truckee (the town about ten miles from our house) but for some reason I just plugged in my iPhone, put it on shuffle, and let it go.
Most of the storage on my iPhone is gobbled up by music (7.2 GB as I write) so there is a pretty good array of stuff, and it was good fun listening to the digital DJ take a turn at spinning tracks, and as Pavlov (one of our dogs joined me for the trek) and I wound our way up in altitude, shuffle handed out a few songs by The Pixies, a band I really love a lot.
Among them was Dig For Fire from the band’s terrific Bossanova album. Such a great cut (I saw the band once, opening for U2 on the Achtung Baby tour).
Well, since I am a big Pixies fan, it presumes I am also a Frank Black (aka, Black Francis) fan as well, so I figured I would throw in a cut from his album Teenager of the Year, with Frank and his band The Catholics.
Compare and contrast!
A classic. “I coulda been someone/Well so could anyone.”
This is an oddball album that came out in 1972, featuring a “band” made up of Nicky Hopkins, Ry Cooder, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and Mick Jagger. The story apparently, is that during the Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed sessions, their producer Jimmy Miller, brought in Cooder to play slide guitar. This made Keith mad and he took off for a few days, during which the boys he left behind recorded these six sides.
One of them, Boudoir Stomp, is Midnight Rambler with different words. This one is a lovely cover of the classic Elmore James song. Great stuff.
For some reason, when I was in high school, I owned this but not Let It Bleed.
Nicky Hopkins drew the cover cartoon.
Kat Bjelland turned 50 today. She was the motivator in Babes in Toyland. Happy birthday!
I was a Babes in Toyland fan back then. Happy Birthday Kat!
I’m sure I heard the Beatles’ version first, and I discovered Little Willie John because of a story in Rolling Stone—so we’re not talking obscure—but still, this is a song that still sounds fresh to me today. A masterpiece.
And here’s an informative conversation about Little Willie John from a Detroit TV show.
I should research where this clip is from, though I suspect it’s from that TV special Keith did with Chuck that made Keith realize he wasn’t the bastard son of Chuck. Rather, Chuck was a bastard.
What’s great about this clip is how generous the music is. Once they get past the stuff that isn’t working, they really enjoy playing. Maybe all the more so for all the awkwardness that it takes to get them there.
I was at the library and happened upon a collection of short stories called Los Angeles Stories written by Ry Cooder and published by City Lights Press. I just read the first one and it’s plain clear writing and storytelling, with a bit of surreal effect, and a voice that I’m looking forward to visiting with some more.
That’s not surprising to me. Cooder is one of my favorite artists, and he knows Los Angeles. One of his greatest records is Chavez Ravine, an epic in song telling of the story of the development of the Chavez Ravine barrio in Los Angeles, turning people’s homes into a baseball stadium. I was going to post one of that album’s many great songs, and then I found this bit of extreme cheese.
Dueling guitars is all you need to know. I don’t remember how the young karate kid gets into this fight with rock god Steve Vai, but I did see the movie, Crossroads, once upon a time. I believe souls might have been involved. Vai plays his own part, while Cooder plays the part Macchio pantomimes. The drama is crazily false, while the guitar playing is appropriately incendiary given the Hollywood stakes. This is fun.
Ps. On Steve Vai’s Wikipedia page it says he started in Zappa’s band, went solo but also played with Public Image Ltd., Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake. Talking about a crossroads.
