So I added some of what I think are my better pieces of writing up on the writing page. The navigation sucks shit, but I’ll get to it in the coming days. I included a couple of baseball pieces, a hockey piece and a horsey piece. I’ll probably add a couple more pieces in the coming days also. It’s amazing how much shit I have lying around.
First published on LAist on April 19, 2010.
Luongo, schmongo. In their first playoff home win since April 27, 2002 against the Colorado Avalanche, the Kings’ special teams battered Canucks’ goalie Roberto Luongo and held on for the 5-3 win in regulation.
The Kings went 3-for-3 in power play opportunities with goals by Drew Doughty 11:00 in the first period and two by Michal Handzus at 4:06 and 11:31 in the second period.
The music loving public was treated in the second half of the ‘00s to mediocrity and somnambulism where the term “originality” was viciously slashed of any meaning. Bands and musicians were content to wallow in merely regurgitating the ideas of those before them and keeping their so-called art on a superficial level.
With one of the first releases in 2010, Xiu Xiu smashes all of this mediocrity and dive head first into the psyche with their seventh proper album Dear God, I Hate Myself.
This isn’t uncharted territory for Xiu Xiu. Mastermind and sole constant band member Jamie Stewart has been churning this out for a decade. There have been some great moments from “I Broke Up” on their first album Knife Play (“I’m going to cut open your forehead with a roofing shingle!”) and perhaps the greatest moment of release in music history in “Apistat Commander” off of A Promise. While there have been some misses especially with the minimalist mess of La Foret the last two uneven releases The Air Force and Women As Lovers saw them hone their craft.
And in Dear God, I Hate Myself, Xiu Xiu perfectly synthesize all the beauty and horror of the psyche with their experimental brand of music to create a warm blanket for those who cannot be merely content with the pop superficiality.
The music itself is everything one expects with Xiu Xiu – the incidental noises and clangs layered on pop songs. While the effect has been jarring in the past, perhaps with the departure of longtime collaborator Caralee McElroy, addition of Angela Seo and the production of Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier have reined things in a little bit.
Saunier has made his artistic career in the deconstruction of pop music with Deerhoof, and in this album there isn’t so much deconstruction going on rather than piecing things back together. It’s a patchwork of sounds that has some pop sensibilities but still jar the listener. The noises aren’t incidental but integral to the overall music. The noises merge with the traditional instrumentation to create a lush soundscape that envelops the words and the desperate intensity in Jamie Stewart’s voice.
True Xiu Xiu takes their cues from Morrissey and Joy Division even referencing Morrissey directly in “This Too Shall Pass Away (For Freddy)”: “Listen, Steven is singing to you / The pain of life you wipe away.” Just like Morrissey crooned to the disenfranchised teenagers since the 80s, Stewart provides a place of solace for the freaks. However Stewart takes it one step further painting pictures of self loathing in the title track, the unbearable pressure growing up in a Korean household in “Hyunhye’s Theme” and escaping a pedophile serial killer in “House Sparrow”.
The synthesis of all of this can be dismissed as shock for shock’s sake or blabbering uber-emo histrionics, however that misses the intricate beauty and horror of Xiu Xiu. It’s not the stuff of Smiths’ songs, but as bleak as the songs and imagery are there is a ray of optimism and humor that comfort.
The music loving public was treated in the second half of the ‘00s to mediocrity and somnambulism where the term “originality” was viciously slashed of any meaning. Bands and musicians were content to wallow in merely regurgitating the ideas of those before them and keeping their so-called art on a superficial level.
With one of the first releases in 2010, Xiu Xiu smashes all of this mediocrity and dive head first into the psyche with their seventh proper album Dear God, I Hate Myself.
This isn’t uncharted territory for Xiu Xiu. Mastermind and sole constant band member Jamie Stewart has been churning this out for a decade. There have been some great moments from “I Broke Up” on their first album Knife Play (“I’m going to cut open your forehead with a roofing shingle!”) and perhaps the greatest moment of release in music history in “Apistat Commander” off of A Promise. While there have been some misses especially with the minimalist mess of La Foret the last two uneven releases The Air Force and Women As Lovers saw them hone their craft.
And in Dear God, I Hate Myself, Xiu Xiu perfectly synthesize all the beauty and horror of the psyche with their experimental brand of music to create a warm blanket for those who cannot be merely content with the pop superficiality.
The music itself is everything one expects with Xiu Xiu – the incidental noises and clangs layered on pop songs. While the effect has been jarring in the past, perhaps with the departure of longtime collaborator Caralee McElroy, addition of Angela Seo and the production of Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier have reined things in a little bit.
Saunier has made his artistic career in the deconstruction of pop music with Deerhoof, and in this album there isn’t so much deconstruction going on rather than piecing things back together. It’s a patchwork of sounds that has some pop sensibilities but still jar the listener. The noises aren’t incidental but integral to the overall music. The noises merge with the traditional instrumentation to create a lush soundscape that envelops the words and the desperate intensity in Jamie Stewart’s voice.
True Xiu Xiu takes their cues from Morrissey and Joy Division even referencing Morrissey directly in “This Too Shall Pass Away (For Freddy)”: “Listen, Steven is singing to you / The pain of life you wipe away.” Just like Morrissey crooned to the disenfranchised teenagers since the 80s, Stewart provides a place of solace for the freaks. However Stewart takes it one step further painting pictures of self loathing in the title track, the unbearable pressure growing up in a Korean household in “Hyunhye’s Theme” and escaping a pedophile serial killer in “House Sparrow”.
The synthesis of all of this can be dismissed as shock for shock’s sake or blabbering uber-emo histrionics, however that misses the intricate beauty and horror of Xiu Xiu. It’s not the stuff of Smiths’ songs, but as bleak as the songs and imagery are there is a ray of optimism and humor that comfort.
Originally posted on LAist on March 2, 2010
Like I said in my piece last week about Frank McCourt, I don’t fault him for trying make as money as he can so long as he doesn’t compromise the quality of the Dodgers in the process. So here I present the best way to squeeze money out of the usual serenity of spring training: “So You Want to Pitch for the Dodgers.”
Originally published on LAist on February 25, 2010.
Used car salesman. Dick Cheney. Rampart Division cop. These are all people I trust more than Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.
It’s amazing too since one would think McCourt would have generated some good will with three division championships since swooping in from Boston to buy the Dodgers in 2004. Consecutive trips to the NLCS have revived the Dodgers from the nadir of the Fox days when decorated players were treated like chess pieces for television market domination.
First published on LAist on January 15, 2010.
Mark Williamson is not a nutjob, although when I saw videos of him parading in Times Square trying to break the “Jets Curse” it’s hard not to think he has a screw loose (or two).
First published on LAist on January 14, 2010.
It’s clear that Benoit Denizet-Lewis loves the gays and the kids. We talked for about 40 minutes on Sunday about his book American Voyeur: Dispatches from the Far Reaches of Modern Life, and he notes a recurring theme of fitting in particularly in the gay culture.
First published on LAist on January 13, 2010.
Below is part one of my book review/interview with author Benoit Denizet-Lewis.
In the introduction to his second book American Voyeur: Dispatches from the Far Reaches of Modern Life Benoit Denizet-Lewis writes, “And although I have written about sports, for the most part I’ve gravitated toward chronicling the lives of people who are ignored, misunderstood, stereotyped, or outside the mainstream.”
This collection of pieces he has written for various publications traditional and online like The New York Times magazine, The Boston Globe Magazine, Salon.com, Slate.com and Out to name several from 2000 to 2008 does probe into the lives of those normally marginalized by the media and the public.
Originally posted on LAist on November 7, 2009.
She did it. It took a shade over two minutes, 2:00.62 to be exact, but Zenyatta became the first mare or filly to win the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic in an improbable come-from-behind fashion that was indeed a classic.
