INKSTAND

Let me say first off that the only reason I attended this show was because my boyfriend is in the chorus. That’s not to say I have any aversion to it in any way, it’s just that I probably wouldn’t have known it was happening otherwise, and even if I did I almost never go out and do things. He gets me out of the house, just another reason why he’s great. But hey, I’m not reviewing him, so…
Overall, the show was fabulous beyond my expectations and I had a lot of fun attending. The songs were, obviously, comprised of all songs from the 1980’s, most of them in medleys. There were dancers, some from the choir, performing in front of the choir as well as a smaller group called Captain Smartypants. Here’s the set:

Opening medley - Mr. Robato/I’m So Excited/Celebration/I’m Coming Out/Let’s Hear It for the Boy/Ready for the 80’s
The gym medley - Physical/Muscles/I Know What Boys Like/Don’t You Want Me/Another One Bites the Dust
Gentlemen callers medley - Who Can It Be Now/Smooth Operator/You Should Hear How She Talk About You/Call Me
Sweet Dreams
Cars medley - Drive/Cars/Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car/Freeway of Love/Pink Cadillac
True Colors (a capella)
Science medley - Weird Science/She Blinded Me with Science
Rock Me, Amadeus
Video medley - Mickey/Maniac/Whip It/Heaven Is a Place on Earth/Addicted to Love/Thriller
Movie medley - Xanadu/Flashdance/We Don’t Need Another Hero/It Might Be You/Let the River Run/Up Where We Belong/Wind Beneath My Wings/Arthur’s Theme/Making Love/Fame/Ghostbusters
Girls medley - Material Girl/Uptown Girl/Rich Girl/Rosanna/Billie Jean/Bette Davis Eyes/To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before/Venus/Simply Irresistible/Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Anthem (from Chess)
Closing medley - Shout/Karma Chameleon/Walk Like an Egyptian/I Wanna Dance with Somebody/Hungry Like the Wolf/Never Gonna Give You Up/Ready for the 80’s (reprise)
(Encore)
It’s Raining Men

I missed Mr Roboto because I was late, like I am for everything.
My favorite part, overall, was the harmony in the “Call Me” rendition. I think It was a four part harmony and it sounded really good! Full, clear and dynamic. Another great part was the Video Medley, during which the dancers gave it their all recreating videos for the songs. I particularly enjoyed “Heaven is a Place on Earth”, and the “Thriller” dance was fun, but I think the popular favorite was “Maniac” from Flashdance. The guy who did the Jennifer Beals dance was spot on and they used this sparkly glitter stuff in place of the water that was very visually impressive. I wish I had some pictures for you, but you’ll have to settle for streaming video. Click here to see the preview video.
The show also had a sign-language interpreter. I kept watching him thinking “There’s no way he’s saying everything!” A co-worker also went to the show and his girlfriend knows sign language. She said taht since it IS impossible to sign every single word, he was mostly conveying the feeling for what was being said, and doing it well. I believe it, he seemed to put a lot of emotion in to his actions.
Captain Smartypants stuck in my mind with their mash-up of “Wierd Science” and “She Blinded Me with Science.” I always liked the Oingo Boingo song, but not the Thomas Dolby one. Their fusion of the two, however, pleased my ear holes.
I do have a few small criticisms, though. Most of the dancing was done during the first half of the show, before the intermission. It would have been nice to see it a little more spread out in the last section. I dont’ have any recomendations as to HOW they could but, hey, I’m not a choreographer.
Also, I wish the “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” part was longer. They only used a small section of that song. Boo Hoo.
So, yes, I had a great time. I was entertained. And I hear that the last few concerts by the choir weren’t nearly as fun as this one. Since this is the first one I’ve attended I’m glad it was a good one.

Oh yeah, it’s over now so you can’t see it!

My friend Garrett, mastermind behind boontdusties.com (?) has started an internet radio station with his girlfriend Amber with the help of some others. I was supposed to put together a review show for them, but with my recent change of residence I didn’t really have a chance to do that AND drink a lot. Priorities.
The station launched on Jan. 1st and I caught a good portion of that show. It aired from 6pm to midnight, and everyday after it airs the previous night’s show at noon, then a new one at 6pm. They have played some really fantastic music so far. Right now they are playing Calvin Don’t Jump, and it’s really sending me. Its been great to surf the web to. There are a lot of indie/acoustic artists played, but I don’t think there’s a specific sound they’re looking for. They played some Indian music earlier tonight. There is a weekly show from the basement of Bop Street Records in Ballard where they play records based just on the album covers. I can’t wait to hear that one.
I will continue to listen to Hollow Earth Radio as long as they are going, and maybe one day you’ll hear me on it. This is one of my friends’ crazy ventures that is actually worthwhile.

Tonight the guy had a suprise Christmas present for me. I had no idea what it was, and I had my defenses up when I found out it involved GOING somewhere. Imagine my suprise when we rolled up to the theater and BAM! Danielson was playing! How the hell does this guy know me so well?
What can I say, I love the Danielson Familie and their incarnations. This movie explores the history of the band focusing mainly on the lead man Daniel Smith. The rest of the family are sort of studio musicians for the music he writes. While they have their lives doing other stuff in addition to the music, he has his life of making music or art. The archival footage starts as early as Daniel’s art school thesis performance with his brothers and sisters, before the first album was recorded. Many of the family members have their own narratives that each give a different perspective of their musical endeavors.
If you are a fan of the Danielsons, whether it’s because you like good music or because they seem to be popular with the hipsters and you will like them while you’re being told to, you really ought to see this movie. It’s not in wide release, unfortunately. In fact I didn’t even know it was playing here in Seattle. So you may have to wait for it to come out on video. I thought I was going to have to.
The movie has a subtitle: Make a Joyful Noise HERE. It could have been: Struggling in a Sea of Douchebags. The pure honesty and happiness of the Smith family highlights how inane and stupid everyone around them is. Including that fuckhead Sefjan Stevens. Yes, of Illinois and all that. He was in the band touring and whatnot for quite a bit. Then he played solo and blew up. Daniel Smith, meanwhile is too God-y for mainstream and not God-y enough for christians. There are some “man on the street” interviews about the band and everyone’s all like “They’re weird, but I like them. They’re scary. I don’t get it. Are they christian? I like it, but I’m not into Jesus,” etc. Everyone seemed afraid to say that IT WAS GOOD MUSIC! Then there are some Sefjan audience interviews and everyone basicaly jerks off onto his face. (I’m sure the familie would disaprove of my harsh words toward their friend.)
So, this movie ruled and I wish the Smith familie the best.

Years ago I went to see Low play in San Francisco with my best frined KC. Opening for them was a band called The Danielson Familie. I’m sure we made fun of how they spelled it, but after hearing them we were nothing but in awe of them. I have since heard nearly all of their albums. They have changed the spelling of “family” a couple of times, Daniel, the lead man, put out a solo album under Brother Danielson, and now they dropped the “familie” altogether.
The last album I bought was the Brother Danielson one wich, while good, I didn’t like as much as the others. Still, when I saw Ships in the store the other day I felt compelled to buy it and boy, I’m glad I did.
I’ve known from the start that these kids are heavily influenced by their faith, but it’s rarely noticable. Once in a while there is a standout line about the Lord, but mostly it’s hard for a layman to put the lyrics in any Christain context, or any context at all for that matter. I just think the arrangments come close to some of the most beautiful music I’ve heard. My favorite of their albums is Tri-Danielson Alpha. My next favorite is a tie between this and their first album. “A NoNo” from the first album is my favorite song of theirs not only despite, but because of, the bellowing end chorus of “I LOVE MY LORD, I LOVE MY LORD, I LOVE MY LORD, I LOVE MY LORD!”
So here is a sample of these kids singing their hearts out in uplifting ways that can be, at times, haunting. There is also a documentary about them that I have yet to see. I should get on that. (I DID! see review #169!)

Here it is: RRC HAll of Douchebags
This was posted in the comments of Review #11, way back when. I just took a look at again and thought I’d share. The purpose is to showcase some very, very horrendous band photos. I could look at these all day, that is until my eyes are sore from staring at the computer. This happens a lot. One thing they love to point out is the number of photos featuring a band standing against a brick wall. They refer to them as brick-wallers.

Another thing they do, wich I find odd, is that they call any given band mamber “Jeremy” when they want to single them out. My friend Jeremy is the one who left the comment linking to this site. I doubt there’s a connection, but I’ll have to ask him.

First of all, I hate dancing. Secondly, I didn’t know discos still existed. The other night some friends of friends were going to 80’s dance night and invited me along. Dancing? The eighties? What posessed me? Probably the fact that I was already drunk. And as much as I don’t like dancing, I’ve learned that if I have enough booze in me I can keep at it for a while. My ankles just get tired because the only dance I know is the twist.
So Neighbors’ entrance is in an alleyway. This was kind of creepy, but when I hung out there to smoke, I kind of felt like a hoodlum. There’s a huge dance floor and people dance. I guess that’s what’s supposed to happen. I didn’t know if it was a gay joint at first, becasue the crowd seemed pretty mixed. I suppose dance clubs attract fags like flies to shit anyway, but I looked it up an it is a gay joint. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed, which was really cool. I tend to feel out of place in most gay bars for some reason.
I think the best part about it was that there was this spot in the back behind a glass wall with a couple couches and tables and stuff, so you could get away from the mostly shitty music that was playing. Ok, it wasn’t all that bad, but while there I DID realize that George Michael’s “I Want Your Sex” makes me want to peel my skin off with a pair of pliers. I just now remembered (i was drunk!) having a rolling chair fight with one of the other guys. I’m suprised they didn’t get mad at us about that. I was beyond caring, it was fun.
So, I don’t know what the cover was, but that would probably be a determining factor in whether i go there or not again.

I worte this on my old blog after it was moved over here, so it got stuck in limbo.

Why did it take me so long to hear this album. I mean, everyone should own it, and by that token, I should’ve heard it by now. I bought it used wich means some douche-bag actually SOLD it! I want to ask this album to the prom, date during college, have a trial speration while we experiment then get back together get married and have two kids. It’s that good.

Gray Matter KimmieI’m glad that Josh has started writing a blog stemming from the Boontdusties page. With Gray Matter Kimmie Josh seems to be chronicling some of the important aspects of my patheticaly co-dependent group of friends. Okay, maybe I’m the only one who’s co-dependent, but that’s because I rarley meet people I like, muchless people who become a family to me. So far he has touched on some of the things that I was not around for because we all went to two different high schools in the same district. While Jake ping ponged between the two, KC and I were stuck at the shitty new one, Freedom. All the other cool kids went to Liberty. I met a few of them during high school, but thank God I assimilated into the tribe later on.
While it may seem that the content of this page is only of interest to those involved, I assure you our lives are better than anything you can ever read/watch/hear/feel/taste anywhere.

Still photo, not playable!


About three years ago, my friends Jake and Garrett had this idea to make a movie about saving my life. From what? I don’t know, severe depression? Odd, since both were also susceptible to such emotions. I just watched the rough edit and I have to say it’s great. It’s more about our friends lives when we all lived in Arcata, CA. I promised Garrett I wouldn’t show it to anyone else yet. I’m giving him input and hopefully it’ll be done soon. I’ll keep you posted.

The problem with reviewing music is that it’s very difficult for me to represent sound with words. I can say that I bought Elf Power’s original ep, “Vainly Clutching At Phantom Limbs”, on CD a few years ago just on a hunch. I used to randomly pick cds out of the Indie Rock section. This is one of the only bands that actually paid off. The ep was lo-fi and homemade, right up my alley. In years since, the band has polished up, and I haven’t heard much of their later albums but what I’ve heard is good. This new album just came out this year and I think it’s really great. I love listening to it. Give it a shot. I can’t even say “You’ll like Elf Power if you like….” I don’t know who they sound like. You can hear samples of their other albums at Amazon but for some reason not the new one….hmm….

you can hear some of the new songs on their myspace page. wich for some reason wont link.