My One Day Of Hopscotch 2013

In previous years, I’ve usually attended at least 2 days of the Hopscotch Music Festival in downtown Raleigh, but this year I only made it out for one day, the third and final day of the event, Saturday the 7th.

My brother Dave and I headed to Hopscotch around 2 PM. We got to the art gallery and frame shop, Rebus Works, which was one of the venues hosting Shopscotch day parties featuring venders, food trucks, and all kinds of arts 'n crafts. Raleigh band Goner, one of my local faves, performed on an outside stage and rocked hard.

During their set, Goner, made up of Scott Phillips, Chris Dalton and Greg Eyman, were joined on a few individual songs by Dan Phillips (Scott’s brother) from the band Zapruder Point, and Sam Madison from the local rockers The Bleeding Hearts. It was a fine start to our day of live music.

After that, we went to Lincoln Theatre with the hopes of catching Chris Stamey and the Fellow Travelers. We got there in time to see the last several songs of their set. Stamey (pictured below) and his band, which included Skylar Gudasz, Brett Harris, Django Haskins, and Matt McMichaels, did lush arrangements of songs off of Stamey’s strong new solo album, Lovesick Blues. “Now this is orchestral pop!” I said to Dave at one point.

We wandered around a bit afterwards then found our way to City Plaza for the headliners at the main stage that night. We didn’t see any of the set by the Lollipops, another Raleigh band, but we caught the Breeders who are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their classic album Last Splash. After they finished performing the entire track listing of their best known LP, the Breeders encored with songs from a few of their other discs, including their cover of the Beatles’ “Happiness is a Warm Gun” that originally appeared on their 1990 debut disc Pod. Check out my shaky iPhone video of them doing “Cannonball” from earlier in their show:

A large part of the crowd scattered after the Breeders left the stage, which I guess shows that there aren't a lot of fans of the space rock music of the headlining British band Spiritualized 'round these parts, who took the stage around 8:45. But maybe their appeal is becoming more selective as Spinal Tap's manager Ian Faith would say.

I don’t know their music very well, but I agree with Raleigh News & Observer music critic David Menconi who wrote “Spiritualized followed with a series of crescendos that dazzled but never quite seemed to achieve resolution. It was plenty impressive while it lasted but still did not leave much of an impression afterward.” Read Menconi’s full review of Day Three for the N & O.

We then went to Slim's Downtown Distillery, which was packed, and saw a chunk (2-3 songs) of Broken Prayer's set.  

It was getting late so my brother went home, but I was determined to get to Memorial Auditorium at midnight to see the great John Cale (pictured below), one of the founders of the seminal '60s band The Velvet Underground and creator of over 40 years of influential solo material. 

I wasn’t familiar with his newest stuff, like his 2012 album Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood, but after witnessing him power through such tracks as “I Wanna Talk 2 U” (what a Prince-like title!), and “Scotland Yard,” I definitely aim to check out the new LP and further explore his canon (I only own Paris 1919!). 

Whew! It was a tiring but satisfying day of good tunes and some good food and indie beer. I’m considering it a warm up for next weekend in which I travel to Chicago to attend Riot Fest for the sole purpose of seeing one of my all-time favorites, the newly re-united band The Replacements, play their second show in 22 years (the first was in Toronto last month).

Check back at this space to read all about it.

More later…

Son Volt, Bob Dylan, Postmodcast and the coming summer movie season

I haven't posted in months because I've been so busy over at Film Babble Blog with coverage of Awards season, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and, of course, the regular routine of reviewing current films, but I'm back and hope I can get back here more often.

First up, the last show I saw was Son Volt at the Cat's Cradle and it was a great one. Jay Farrar and crew mostly played material from the new album, Honky Tonk, but a few of their alt country classics popped up in their set including “Tear Stained Eye” (from 1995's Trace), which I captured crudely on video:

Tomorrow night (May 2nd), the legendary Bob Dylan performs at Red Hat Amphitheatre in downtown Raleigh. This is going to be my 20th show of Dylan's (yep, big big fan), so I'm psyched. I don't care that he's pretty much been playing the same setlist this tour, I just want to hear his raggedy vocals take on some of the songs from his latest masterpiece, Tempest (particularly “Pay in Blood”).

I made another appearance on my friend Kevin Brewer's podcast, postmodcast (Episode 49: Daniel and Kevin and the Movies). Click on the highlighted title in the previous sentence to hear it.

Lastly, another call back to Film Babble Blog as I'm gearing up for the summer super hero sequel season. IRON MAN 3, opening on Friday, kicks off the season, so let's take a look back at my reviews of the first two films in the franchise, plus last summer's smash THE AVENGERS:

IRON MAN = AWESOME And Other Random Babble (5/4/08)

IRON MAN 2: The Film Babble Blog Review (5/10/10)

THE AVENGERS Starts The Summer Movie Season Off Right (5/4/12)

Be sure to check back on Film Babble Blog on Friday for a review of IRON MAN 3, and a report here on Pop Goes The Babble about how Dylan went down. That is, if I don't lame out and neglect this blog again.

More later...

Ray Charles Plaza in Albany, Georgia

This last weekend, my wife and I went to Albany, Georgia for a family reunion celebrating my Grandmother’s 98th Birthday.

Albany is a small town, pretty much seems like Anytown, USA located out in the middle of nowhere.

Not a lot to see there, but there is the Ray Charles Plaza which features a very cool statue of the legendary musician. As my Grandmother told me when I was a kid, Charles was born in Albany on September 23, 1930, and although his family moved from there to Greenville, Florida when he was still a baby, it’s one of the town’s claims to fame.

On our way out of town on Sunday we stopped by the Plaza, located on the banks of the Flint River in downtown Albany, to check it out. Ray Charles' music, mostly live recordings it sounded like, coming from a bunch of small speakers placed around the statue greets you when you enter the small park.

There are giant piano keys and treble clefts carved in the concrete, and the statue itself, a life-sized recreation of the “Genius of Soul” singing while playing his baby grand piano captures the iconic image of the man quite nicely.

Here's a few shots to show you what I mean:

And here's one of the piano key walkways:

All in all, a pretty cool tourist attraction.

More later...

7-inch Picture Sleeve of the Week: David Bowie: “Ashes To Ashes”

I've been neglecting this blog (only posted once in January) lately because it's a busy season for Film Babble Blog but I'm going to try to remedy that this month. 

Last month, on his 66^th Birthday (January 8^th), David Bowie announced that he had secretly recorded a new album entitled The Next Day that would be releasing in March. To whet our appetites for the release, a video dropped online for the album’s single “We Are We Now?” The video was posted everywhere, and the single entered the UK charts at #6. It's official: the world still wants new Bowie music.

This flurry of Bowie activity inspired me to highlight the picture sleeve for one of my favorites from his catalog: “Ashes To Ashes” from his superb 1980 album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps.

The sleeve features Bowie as Pierrott the clown/mime with white makeup and sinister expression. The image is framed by Warholian-colored squares each featuring a different pose by Bowie in the same costume. The concept and art for this cover was designed by specialist Richard Sharah.

This character, one of Bowie’s many personas over the years, appears in the video for “Ashes To Ashes,” as much a favorite of mine as the song itself:

This is another 7-inch that I don't own, but since there are copies that aren't too expensive available on Ebay, I bet it'll find its way to my collection soon.

More later...

Serious Series Addiction Part 4: The West Wing, The X-Files, Girls, Life’s Too Short, & Enlightened

This is the continuation of a series of posts that started at Film Babble Blog (Read parts 1, 2, and 3).

Since I babble about TV shows here now, this will be its new home. When not seeing and writing about movies, I, like many others, am plowing through many TV series at a time. I use the time watching these shows to exercise on our (my wife and I’s) good ole stationary bike which is aimed at the television in our living room.

Recently, all 7 seasons of the presidential drama The West Wing showed up on Netflix Instant. I missed a lot of them in its 1999-2006 run so I jumped right into it. With its ‘walks and talks,’ snappy dialogue, and idealistic energy it’s a great one to pedal to, even if it can get very cheesy, preachy, and downright Aaron Sorkiny.

When I look back to the political landscape of a decade ago, I prefer thinking that Jed Barlet, as embodied by the mighty Martin Sheen, was really our president as well he seemed more plausible and definitely more presidential than who he actually had in the Oval Office. The liberal democrat fantasyland version of the early to mid aughts, in which wit flows through the hallways via the arguing of vaulted staff members like Leo McGarry (John Spencer), Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe), and C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) over every issue imaginable, is insanely more preferable.

I’m up to season 5 now so the characters of Matt Santos and Arnold Vinick, who will run against each other for President in the 7th season have yet to be introduced, but I’m trying not to rush through the series, by watching only 2 at a time. That usually makes for a good West Wing Workout.

The other major older show I’ve been peddling through is The X-Files. Or as I call it to annoy my wife: X-Files-ercising.

I was not a regular watcher of The X-Files during its 9 season run (1993-2002), but I saw it here and there and got the gist of its arc and ongoing themes. This is another show that I’m happy is available on Netflix Instant. I would hate having to deal with all the individual discs in the mail – when I was addicted to The Wire, a few years back, I was driving discs to the post office so I wouldn’t have to wait as long to get more.

Anyway, Chris Carter’s The X-Files is about FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigating paranormal activity that the government denies knowledge of, but they know that the truth is out there. You can get all of this from the opening credits which has the words “paranormal activity,” “government denies knowledge,” and “the truth is out there” in big white lettering appearing through all the dark imagery serenaded by Mark Snow’s eerie theme music.

The show consists of two types of episodes: “Monster of the Week” episodes and government conspiracy episodes. In other words sometimes the show is like an ‘80s horror movie with a supernatural entity, other times it’s like a sleek ‘90s thriller with Oliver Stone-overtones. It can be the most interesting at the beginnings and endings of seasons. I just finished season 5 which led up to the movie, “The X-Files: Fight the Future” (annoyingly not available on Instant), which I had to re-watch – not too bad a task though as the film is pretty good (not so the 2008 sequel “I Want To Believe). So that I can move on to season 6. This has been post-poned because of the West Wing Workout sessions of late however.

Two HBO shows about flawed female protagonists that just began their second seasons have also been on my viewing lists lately: Lena Dunham’s breakthrough Girls, and Laura Dern and Mike White’s Enlightened. Both the program’s 1st seasons are available on Blu ray/DVD as well, which is how I caught up. 

I didn’t know what to make of Girls at first but it and its characters grew on me. Dunham stars as Hannah, an aspiring writer living in New York, who can’t quite get her life together. Her friends, (Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, and Zosia Mamet) are in the same boat, her boyfriend Adam (Adam Driver) “treats her heart like money meat” (her words), and her parents (Becky Ann Baker and Peter Scolari) have decided that they will no longer support her financially.

It can seem like a lowbrow, way less fashionable version of Sex and the City, but Girls has its own groove that makes it a lot hipper. Dunham’s Hannah, who we often see nude, is a self absorbed, neurotic, pile of insecurities that can irk people, particularly her friends, but she feels real and fully realized in a way that many TV personas could only wish to be. Compare her to Zooey Deschanel’s Jess on the empty sitcom New Girl, or Mindy Kaling’s character on The Mindy Project for that matter. Hannah’s damaged but endearing multi-dimensions certainly win out.

Same goes for Laura Dern in her highly amusing half hour comedy Enlightened. Dern, plays a once successful career woman who had a mental breakdown and had to go a treatment facility. Now back at work, but demoted to a basement office position, she dreams of ways to truly change her life – exposing the corruption and corporate abuse of her workplace seems to be what she’s counting on. Mike White, who co-created the show with Dern and wrote many of the episodes, plays one of her co-workers who appears to have a crush on Dern, but is also aware that she’s a bit looney. Enlightened also features Dern’s mother Diane Ladd, and Luke Wilson as her ex-husband in juicy supporting roles.

Finally, the least engaging show I’ve seen lately is an HBO comedy that doesn’t look like it will be granted a second season: Life’s Too Short. Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Warwick Davis, the little person who played an Ewok in “Return of the Jedi” and starred in the Ron Howard fantasy film “Willow,” all take the blame for this show that posits Davis as an exaggerated full-of-himself celebrity star of his own reality show.

The process of watching Davis set himself up as the butt of every lame joke, especially when it comes to shots of him standing in a toilet or in a cheap bear costume, is painful through every episode.

This kind of humor is supposed to be cringe-inducing but it would help if it induced a few more laughs along the way. The only things that comes close to laugh getting here are cameos by the likes of Johnny Depp, Sting, and Liam Neeson, otherwise this is a drag. I hear they’ll wrap up the show with a one-hour special sometime this year. Oh, good. 

More later…