Eroticism. How different is it from porn? Or is it just porn with flair, taste and art?
When this video came out I was working with a group of young leaders. Student empowerment and all that jazz. We had a meeting with 30 young leaders. And we had a low budget operation. I called to book a few hotel rooms. They asked how many hours I wanted the rooms. It was a sleazy hotel annexed to a singles club. I specified I needed the rooms all night but would be having over 10 people sleep in each room. They didn't flinch like if this was a regular request.
That night this video was released. It seemed appropriate we all gather and pile up in one room to watch the video. I was amazed by it. I still love the song and remember some pretty fun nights of debauchery as we danced to this hot sweaty song.
Seu Jorge does an AMAZING rendition of Bowie's top hits in Bill Murray's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Simply a-ma-ZING!
To start, Bill Murray is maturing into really good movies. Lost in Translation? The Royal Tennenbaums? Rushmore? Broken Flowers? His movies are really really REALLY fucking good (now). And in the Steve Zissou's misadventures we discover Seu. Don't even ask me how to pronounce his name... Bowie's music in Portugese is so sublime. It'll make you want to cook up some calamari, make some brushetta and invite friends over to discuss the future of our youths intellectual potential as you later chill with some Port and Stilton. Mmmmm Stilton soaking in some 30 yr old Fladgate.
Reminds me of Booby's favorite saying: "How do I like my women? Just like my Scotch - 15 yr old and mixed with Coke"
Bad Boy Bubby. By far the most disturbing movie I've ever watched. Here's a short synopsis (spoiler alert): Bubby's buxom mother tricked him to stay locked at home for thirty years, during which she mounts and abuses him. Buddy ends up in the streets groping random women until finding a nurse who is even more buxom than his late mother.
Although disturbing, it's an awesome tale of fate and destiny. And how no matter what situation you find yourself in, you can get yourself out of the gutter and turn your entire life around. If you are into weird movies, and you're just not the "Marley and Me" type... then give this a little go! It will change your life!
Years ago, YEARS ago, I loaded up my backpack, bought a 2-month ticket to France and filled my pockets with courage and adrenaline... My trip had 2 goals: to join a wine harvesting team and to promote French-Canadian artists to producers in France.
One of my favorite artists, self proclaimed Yvan the Terrible, gave me a video. This was a beta PAL video, what European TV companies used. Because of it's format I couldn't preview the clip. He told me it was great. His stuff was really cool, upbeat, funky, so I trusted him. And I knew the song, so I agreed to show it over there. (Kinda reminds me of the time I agreed to bring a trunk-full of my sister's wrapped wedding gifts across the boarder, that was fun!)
France, at this time, had very few channels, like 5 or 6. Total. One of these was a music channel like MTV (used to be). Spice Girls was the IT band. If you wanna be my lover invaded the airwaves. Knowing what I knew of Yvan, I contacted the channel's program director. Surprisingly he agreed to see me! Sitting in his office, with a huge window on the Eiffel fucking tower (this guy was obviously big shit, not many people have a huge window of opportunity right smack in front of THE tower).
Immediately he slaps that vid in his player. I'm watching this. It's funky. It's bold. But it's so NOT for the Posh Spice audience! I've got more stuff in my bag. But, he wanted to start with this. THIS. At the end of the vid, I'm still staring at the screen wondering what to do next. Talk about poor choices. I turn to him. He's speechless. So am I.
I tell him about the band. How they're really upbeat, mod, fun, top 40s, etc. But the first impression is forever stamped in his mind. To this day, France's top guy in TV music programming is convinced Canadians are all cross-dressers.
I skipped the last 2 week's installments to Weird Music Wednesdays! I was just too busy (I know, strange hunh?). I must tell you my work schedule is most bizarre and challenging to keep any personal life or routine.
Oh woe is me! I get to travel ALL the time, live in hotels with maids and clean linen daily and I complain that I can't keep up with my blog. *sigh* Doncha just feel so sorry for me? Doncha?
Although I may not be a super fan of this weird little dude, I do have absolute respect for him. He is a true artist. And, there are 2 songs of Marilyn Manson that I LOVE. Tainted Love and Sweet Dreams. Like a mother looking at her kids I love them both equally but had to choose one for this post. It was a hard decision, a life threatening decision indeed (like my recent purse purchase on Etsy, oooh I can't wait to get that in the mail!)
Oddly enough these songs both remind me of Adam Sandler. I know. Pretty fucking strange link. Adam Sandler, king of comedy and Marilyn Manson king (can I say king???) of weirdness and goth and off-the-radar music. What could they EVER have in common?
Listen to Adam's stuff. His music (he sings, not only in the Wedding Singer, but he sings on his comedy albums!) goes from mellow singing to yelling and screaming Manson style. I'm sure he was a fan of Marylin. Question is: can I convert you?
Look at this lady! She's old but man is (was) she ever funky... In honor of this national heat wave day, crank up the speakers, mix a pitcher of sangria, turn on all the fans, and dance dance dance!
I love Cuban music. It's awesome. For a country that went through so much shit, it's incredible how their music is so happy. And Celia is by far one of the most famous singer coming from Cuba. Unfortunately she passed away in 2003, so you can't catch any of her shows. But her music will live forever. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
O Brother Where Art Thou - Homer's classic brought to life by the Cohen Brothers and George Clooney aka the Dapper Dan Man. This must be one of my most favorite scenes in a most extraordinary movie. And it's an awesome song, truly a great little tune. Actually the voices remind me of a blogger I follow. She sings. And this is right down her alley. You can find her here.
But this song should make you smile in a warm fuzzy type of way. It's just a good moment. Then they actually think Pete was turned into a toad, and is the lead into some really great and funny moments in the movie. I hope you enjoy this smooth little tune, and I hope you'll take a gander down at Sidetracked's and listen to some of Wuppy's music.
Have a great Wednesday peeps! And I'll be back with more juicy details, I know you're expecting them...
Lady Gaga is the epithet of weird. But... she IS in the top 40 lists across America. And that goes against my criteria for these posts, sorry. I'll come out and say it: I think she is awesome. I do. She's not only good, she's great. In these times when there are a shitload of female artists trying to make it, this lady has the entire pop world going gaga over her catchy tunes. And she has an ass all can be envious of! Seen her on the cover of Rolling Stone? Even if that is done with airbrush magic, I want it. Not to touch and play with, but I want it on me, not like ON me, but you know like mine, sorry not that I want to make that ass mine, but I want it linked between my thighs and my back, shit that still makes me sound like Ellen Degeneres... Aargh! I need to go to the gym. Enough about her awesome ass, let's stick to her tunes.
But this video. Whoa. Whoa. I want the story behind this clip. Here is a gang of college guys, average Joe's, singing and dancing in perfect unison "Bad Romance". Do they have a choreographer? Were they just sitting there bored one day and said "Hey let's learn to sing and dance that hot new Lady Gaga tune and make a video of us doing it?"
Try to watch this and not smile. I challenge you. I double challenge you.
This song... I cannot listen to this without having tears come to me. It's the story of how the Brits captured my ancestors, and destroyed them. I was at this concert. I trembled under an emotional flash of goose bumps upon goose bumps. I found myself surrounded by an overwhelming crowd of people on the verge of tears.
My American friends just celebrated with pride their Independance Day. Last night, as I was out on a girls' night I was told by a friend that the Queen of England was my ruler. (This topic came about because they noticed my "good table manners" with proper silverware use, and how I could dine with the Queen, ugh I even capitalize that word!) She is not MY ruler, nor will she ever be. Although Canada is a democratic country with it's own elected leaders - constitution - laws, we never had a Tea Party, and never will be a fully 100% Independent Union. We'll always have her face plastered on our money. To this day there is tension between the French and the English speaking people. To this day there are misunderstandings and hatred.
Zachary, by the way, is an American artist from Louisiana. He is famous worldwide and nearly oblivious in his own country. Three days after Independance Day I had to celebrate a true blue American artist.
Réveille (translated lyrics)
NB: the original Acadians referred to the redcoated British soldiers as “Les Goddamns”. The expletive was used so often by the soldiers, that it was one of the few words the French speaking Acadiens could recall. These Acadians have become today's Cajuns of Louisiana.
Wake-up - Wake-up
The Goddams are coming,
To steal the harvest.
Wake-up - Wake-up
Acadians,
To save the village.
My great great great grandfather,
Came from Brittany,
The blood of my family
Has nourished Acadie.
And now the accursed ones come,
Chasing us like cattle,
Destroying the families,
Throwing us to the wind.
I have heard tell
Of going with Beausoleil*
To take up arms
And fight the accursed ones,
I have heard tell
Of going to Louisiane,
To find peace
There in Louisiane.
I saw my father
Made prisoner,
While my dear mother
Could not stop from crying.
I saw our beautiful home
Put to the torch,
And I have become an orphan,
An orphan of l’Acadie.
Wake-up - Wake-up
The Goddams are coming,
To steal the children
Wake-up - Wake-up
Acadians,
To save our heritage.
* Joseph Broussard, dit Beausoleil. Acadian pioneer and resistance fighter Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil was born in Port-Royal, Acadia, in 1702. In 1740 he with his brother Alexandre established a community at Boundary Creek (above present day Moncton, New-Brunswick). During the 1755 expulsion, Broussard (a former militia captain), his brother, and a group of Acadians evaded capture, and conducted a guerilla campaign on land and sea against the British military. In 1759, however, Broussard and his partisans, facing starvation, were forced to surrender. Imprisoned at Halifax until 1764, after the treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian war, Beausoleil led one hundred ninety-three exiles to Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti). Members of the party was Beausoleil’s first cousin, Pierre Richard, direct ancestor of Zachary Richard. In February, 1765, the group arrived at New Orleans and continued onto the Attakapas region of south Louisiana, where Joseph Broussard was named captain of the militia. He died on October 20, 1765 from a tropical disease which decimated the exile Acadian community in its first year in Louisiana. His gravesite remains unknown.
I originally posted this song on June 30. Little did I know today would be the official "Wear Purple Day" in memory of the recent suicides due to gay abuse. I have no tolerance for intolerance. Live and let live.
I LOVE this song. LOVE it! This is MY JAM MAN! You know, this is the music that puts an instant smile on my face. Last night was a cruddy night? I need me a rush of Gogol Bordello with a Captain and Coke. Which succeeds more in making me smile? Who cares, all I know is I am smiling now. When I first heard this funky little gypsy tune I wanted to hang a row of pompoms in my car (have the string of pompoms, just never got to it), let my hair grow (which I did) and dance in the rain (which I do, sometimes).
Who needs illegal substances when you have dudes like Gogol Bordello singing the joys of purple? Who I says, who? (Owls say "hoo" that's who!) So go: wear purple and sing it, sing it loud and when you are asked why you are doing this? Tell them it's so you can be more tolerant and open.
This is the third week in a row I offer a Weird Music Wednesday. As I mentioned the first time I did this, to me it's not weird. But it's stuff you won't find on iTunes' top downloads, or on any Top 40 radio station. You may however hear it on a college radio station, those crazy college coeds find lot's of funky stuff.
I find it because I'm a nerdy geek always on the look-out for new music. When I'm watching a movie and they play something I like, I immediately jump on the computer to research who it was, and what it was (to Booby's great disarray "Do you HAVE to do that now?").
I found this one little song totally randomly. It's a 33 second song, BONUS the sample will give you the song almost in its entirety. I like songs that have roots. Songs that mean something, not just the new hot flave of the week that will soon be forgotten.
When I listen to this hot rod J.D. Cornett I like to imagine him sitting with his banjo surrounded by his Kentucky mountain friends (some with teeth, some without), enjoying themselves full blast, drinking moonshine, hanging their clothes on the clothesline going from the wood stove to the bunk bed... I also like to try and picture who his fans are, or were if they're dead already. This song has such emotion and life. I love it! It's raw and pure just like me and my readers! (yeah, I'm a suckass!)
This album came out in 2005. It'll never be outdated because you can't even label it under any category other than: "Wow, what was that?" 5 women going acapella full throttle like a band? Is it Latin? Is it African? Is it Jazz? Disco? Funk? WHAT IS IT?
And I've never seen a music group name more befitting than Zap Mama. An all-women ensemble, hence the Mama. And music so tight, so alive it'll shock you and electrify you... hence the Zap.
My old high school friend made me discover this band. Then to our great surprise they were performing at a really cool bar in Montreal, on a night we were fully available to jump in our car for a 2-hour drive. I'd never seen an entire room of people constantly getting up off their chairs to dance, jump, scream in delight. The place was shaking so much, beer bottles were literally jiggling their way off the tables and falling on the floor. All night you could hear the smashing sounds of bottles committing a happy suicide. It was awesome. One of the best shows I've ever seen. And as someone who once managed bands and worked for festivals I've seen A LOT of live shows. I don't get impressed that easily anymore, kind of a drag really...
This music is an instant feel good ticket. Slap this on and you'll be smiling all over in no time (even the skin behind your elbow will smile). It's like that 5-hour energy drink without the side effect! Feeling in the dumps? Tired? Sad for no reason? Take a break and listen to Zap Mama, it's a direct order from Dr. Nikki.
I'm going to try something out for a while. I'll try to make Wednesdays Weird Music Wednesday. Actually, in reality, to me this stuff isn't weird at all, it's funky or eclectic or a tad bit radically different from the blast of stuff you hear over and over and over again on any regular radio station convinced that repeating top 40s is the only way to deliver music or keep an audience and sell ads. Thank god for college radio stations across the country for tuning our ears to new stuff!
So for my first Weird Music Wednesday post I'd like to share this delightful little album. United Future Organization, or UFO as I refer to. Here's a link to the Amazon page where you can sample their stuff.
What kind of music is this? It's smooth lounge music. Really cool techno stuff that isn't "ravish", so - no, there is no need to swallow a little pill labeled with a "e" to get it, or annoyingly weird like fusion jazz that features a group of people playing together who obviously aren't listening to one another like grade school kids in a playground yelling for attention.This is the kind of stuff you can picture yourself with a martini glass in hand, comfortably crashed in a red velvet couch at your favorite lounge...
This is the album I always turned to when my boss asked me to design a new flash promo thing. I'd shut the door, unplug my phone, turn off my cell, and blare this stuff. It inspired me to create. Or at least I got to sit there and think about things and take a long break as my boss believed I was busy creating his new hot flash presentation for his international conferences. I was a speed worker, designed flash stuff that normally took hours and hours in less than 30 minutes (what he didn't know didn't kill him). With a closed door he was more in awe of my work than if I actually let him see me. Kinda like the dressed cocktail waitress in a strip club turning more heads than the naked dancer...
I love this album. I have loads of stuff I want to share with you. Choosing my first pick was a debate. Afraid that the first pick would symbolize my favorite. It doesn't, it's just what mood I'm currently in. I do promise to share stuff you'll (hopefully) have never heard of, I just ask for an open ear and an open mind.
Hope you like it! Feel free to let me know what you think, and mostly to share your little personal hot discovery...
