Sunday, January 31, 2010

betablical


Since I found myself within spitting distance of the Museum of Creation and Earth History in San Diego the weekend that the Chargers lost to the Jets and the entire city of San Diego collectively wept as rain began to fall, it became a running joke to say that "Baby Jesus is crying because LT and the Chargers lost." Local newscasts didn't take entirely different routes from such conclusions (making me realize that Will Ferrell's turn in Anchorman wasn't quite fiction either).

For almost the entire duration of my California stay, that "Baby Jesus" joke came back to haunt me tenfold, as another iteration of "El Niño" dumped rain, hail, mudslides, thunder, and tornado warnings on my head for over a week. And even when I ducked into museums or burger joints, I got confronted by the Bible. A delicious bite of an In-n-Out burger reveals a Revelations citation, a slurp of a chocolate shake gets me some Proverbs.

Head to the Hammer Museum and there's an exhibit of all of R. Crumb's original drawing for his recent Genesis Illustrated book lining the gallery walls. As a failed Catholic, I can't say that I know the Old Testament all that well. And as one tour guide put it to a group of septuagenarians tongue-clucking to these panels: "Most churchgoers might be able to hum a few bars, but few know the whole song."

In the exhibit's introduction, Crumb's perceives that when the church began to consolidate the myriad stories that make up the "Good Book," an agenda of patriarchy erased any notions of matriarchal society. It's not hard for me to believe that at one point in such creationist myths, it would've made a lot more sense for the woman figure to be molded first, to have the man emerge from her. Since that's how the story goes thousands of times each and every day.

If the Crumb book revealed anything, it's how contorted and disturbing the first books actually are. Count at least two instances of husbands passing off their wives as sisters so that they can marry richer pharaohs (and unleash God's plagues upon them). But there's also a sequence wherein two daughters of Abraham get him drunk on consecutive nights so as to impregnate themselves. So where is the museum for that?

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

RIP

Rough couple of days all around:


Robert Charles Guidry a/k/a Bobby Charles
(February 21, 1938 – January 14, 2010)


Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr. a/k/a Jay Reatard
(May 1, 1980 – January 13, 2010)


Vivian Jackson a/k/a Yabby You a/k/a Jesus Dread
(August, 14 1946 – January 12, 2010)


Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass
(March 26, 1950—January 13, 2010)

Sunday, January 10, 2010

post no beta



I got smashed in the head by one of these construction barricade walls while walking home on Friday afternoon. Ambulance ride, emergency room visit, calls to attorneys, brain hurting...

2010


Things I'm already enjoying in the new decade:

Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté: Ali and Toumani
Beach House: Teen Dream
Lindstrøm & Christabelle: Real Life Is No Cool
Hot Chip: "One Life Stand" (single, not the album)
Prins Thomas: s/t
Four Tet: There is Love in You
Nneka: Concrete Jungle
The Crystal Ark: "The City Never Sleeps"
Yeasayer: Odd Blood
Bison (supergroup featuring Holger Czukay and Paul 'Mudd' Murphy): "Way to LA"
Peter Gordon and Love of Live Orchestra: "Beginning of the Heartbreak"

Thursday, January 07, 2010

P(B)&J Ballot for 2009


Didn't there used to be automated emails sending your Pazz & Jop ballot back your way? Which was helpful, as I almost instantly forget what my list is, infusing it with "Oh shit! I forgot to mention that track!" outbursts right after I click 'Submit.' Anyway, here's what made it, and what I loved/ played to death but didn't place...

2009 ALBUMS:

1. Animal Collective/ Merriweather Post Pavilion/ Domino
2. Meanderthals/ Desire Lines/ Smalltown Supersound
3. Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics/ Inspiration Information/ Strut
4. Dr. Dunks a/k/a Eric Duncan/ How We Do in NYC/ aNYthing
5. Dirty Projectors/ Bitte Orca/ Domino
6. James Blackshaw/ The Glass Bead Game/ Young God
7. Fever Ray/ Fever Ray/ Mute
8. Ernst Reijseger/ Tell Me Anything/ Winter & Winter
9. Phoenix/ Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix/ Glass Note
10. Death/...For the Whole World to See/ Drag City

2009 SINGLES:

1. Animal Collective, "My Girls"
2. House of House, "Rushing to Paradise (Walkin' These Streets)"
3. Culoe de Song, "The Bright Forest"
4. DJ Kaos, "Love the Night Away (Tiedye Mix)"
5. Dirty Projectors, "Stillness Is the Move"
6. Walter Jones, "I'll Keep on Loving You"
7. Horse Meat Disco, "Eyeko Syko"
8. Jenny Wilson, "The Wooden Chair (Peter Visti Mix)"
9. Song of Sound, "Life Under Bridges"
10. Mendes &Alcada, "Coaster (Idjust Boys Version 2)"

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Group Bombino "Boghassa"; Linkwood Family: "Piece of Mind"; Junkie XL "Cosmic Rave"; Still Going "Untitled Love"; Permanent Vacation "Zucker Hut"; Prins Thomas "Mammut"; Jackpot "Brief Encounter"; Ray Mang "Tattoo Me"; C.O.M.B.I. "P.G.B."; Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas "Tirsdagsjam"; Moxie "Moxie Heart MJ"; The Sexican "Liza"; Capracara "King of the Witches (Rub-n-Tug mix)"; Gerrie van Noord "White Room (BB edit)"; A Mountain of One "Bones (Thomas' Way of the Ancients mix)"; Sandra Nnaké "La Mauvaise Réputation (Blackjoy Instrumental Mix)"; Noir Desir "Le Vent Nous Portera (Rubber Room Rerub)"; Beautiful Swimmers "O Yea"; Soft Rocks "Back to My Roots"; Abel "Round in Circles"