reading watching listening

let’s do it!

reading

el reino de este mundo by alejo carpentier. i am on a mission to read more books in spanish by people who wrote in spanish. this is the first of a new bunch group of authors for me to try. so far so good. i don’t always get all the vocab, but i get enough out of it that i can see it in my mind. which is good. and i can tell you what it’s about. haiti and revolution back in the 19th century. this is the guy who coined the term “magical realism” or in spanish “lo real maravilloso.”

lee miller’s war  edited by antony penrose. lee miller pretty much rules. awesome photographer and apparently a solid writer. this is a collection of her war correspondence from world war 2 when she was writing for vogue and a couple other magazines it seems like. she was travelling with the army as it made its way across france and into germany. writing and taking pictures as she went. it’s a little rough to read her german hate, but she lived through the blitz. i’d prolly not be stoked on germans at the time either.

when baghdad ruled the muslim world: the rise and fall of islam’s greatest dynasty by hugh kennedy. the title pretty much says it all. about the abbasids reign of a few hundred years. started out solid, but i’m kinda bored with it at this point. i think i’m not gonna finish it. i’m not sure where it goes wrong. the info is good. i think part of the problem must be the writing style. and there’s nothing really wrong with it, but i thin it doesn’t grab me. but points for modernizing the translation of historical texts so that i know that in some cases what they really meant was “motherfucker” or “shit.”

roxy music: both ends burning by jonathan rigby. roxy music biography! what? fucking awesome!!! unfortunately not so awesome. i had to stop around country living. too bad. there’s some good info, but not enough. and it’s just kinda dull. the eno parts are all good. but there’s way too much focus on ferry. not enough on the rest of the band. and come on, brian ferry is no lyrical genius. nor an awesome songwriter. so what the fuck. if it weren’t for the rest of the band, they wouldn’t’ve been awesome. oh well.

watching

taste of tea by katsuhito ishii. this movie ruled. calm. beautiful. righteous. totally made me feel good. watch it.

spring, summer, fall, winter and spring by kim ki-duk. also calm. also beautiful. also made me feel good. couldn’t figure out why. but it did.

pan’s labyrinth by guillermo del toro. amazing. gorgeous. totally brutal. never want to see it again. i said that the first time i saw it, but i watched it again with h who hadn’t seen it yet.

the dark knight by christopher nolan. yay batman! solid solid.

space is the place by john coney. but come on it’s all about fucking sun ra! this movie might be one of the dumbest thing i’ve ever seen. but it’s awesome in its ridiculousness. and its fucking sun ra! although the best part was the ten minutes of sun ra and arkestra walking around in egypt set to the song watusi. that ruled! hooray!

listening

the ex and getachew mekuria  at the logan square auditorium and at pritzker pavilion. these two shows totally blew me away and made me feel awesome. so did…

phil cohran at the pritzker pavilion doing a tribute to sun ra. although it was more of a tribute to phil cohran. but it was truly truly amazing. got choked up a couple of times i did.

 jarvis cocker at the dumbass pitchfork music festival. we went to pitchfork and all we saw was jarvis. we spent 30 dollars a piece to see him. and boy was he worth it. lots of man love for that guy. from the dudes a few yards away from us. i expected underwear and glasses to be thrown on stage in uncontrolled outbursts of nerd love. we were pretty close and pretty much in swoon the whole time. hopefully he’ll come back when his new album comes out next year.

piss piss piss moan moan moan at enemy. alex (of the rories, the band i’m in) and nicole play some amazing noise drone electronics. this was a righteous show. i’m usually not a fan of total noise, but i guess this wasn’t total noise. is it power electronics? who knows. but it was loud. and it was good.

all the new jazz records we got on our trip to san francisco. i can’t really pick just one. but just for the sake of it i’ll say arthur doyle and sunny murray live at the glen miller cafe. hooray!