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May 31, 2005
Faith Boogie
"Let Me Do My Thang" rox like Roxanne Shante.
Posted by timothompson at 11:53 PM
May 25, 2005
I Am Phil Spector
What's wrong with a fro, man? It works for Omar Rodriguez. But seriously, if you read Ronnie Spector's bio, you'd know the man was bald as a cueball.
Posted by timothompson at 11:35 PM
Weird Al's Wishlist
I know I bookmarked it on Amazon a while ago, but is this the real Weird Al Yankovic's wishlist? I mean, it looks like the kinds of things he would want. Monty Python, Ben Folds, etc.
Posted by timothompson at 05:11 PM
May 20, 2005
Rave
Let me add to the chorus. Slideshow Pro rocks. That is all.
Posted by timothompson at 08:29 PM
May 18, 2005
Ask David Berman, Week Four and A Half
In case you missed it (I'm just syndicating this crap).
Posted by timothompson at 12:57 PM
Life in the Pitchfork Age
Posted by timothompson at 12:34 PM
May 13, 2005
May 13th: This Day In Beatles History
May 13th is a significant day in the history of the Beatles. In Steve Matteo's book on the Beatles' final album "Let It Be" from the Continuum 33 1/3 series, he mentions that the group posed for their famous photo in the EMI stairwell that reprised an earlier photo from their Please Please Me album on May 13, 1969.
All four Beatles gathered in the stairwell at EMI House, at Manchester Square, for a photo shoot for the cover of an album that was still going to be called Get Back. The photo was taken by Angus McBean, who in February of 1963 had photographed the Beatles in the exact same pose and location for the cover of Please Please Me, which, of course was only released in the UK. As it turned out, the shot was not used for the released Let It Be album. Instead, it appeared on the cover of The Beatles 1967-1970 (the Blue Album), a double album released in the U.S. in 1973.
The furry-faced and hippified Beatles looked quite different from the fresh and youthful young lads of the Please Please Me cover photo.
Steve Moss, whose photo is shown above, took the concept a little further. He merged the 1963 and 1969 stairwell photos together in Photoshop.
May 13, 1970, marked the day that the film version of that album Let It Be premiered in America, almost a month after Paul McCartney announced the Beatles break-up in a press release for his McCartney album. And that ends this installment of "This Day In Beatles History."I had so much time on my hands that day that I decided to try to combine the 2 pictures, putting the young Beatles on the balcony above the older Beatles. First, I scanned the two covers on my housemate's scanner and brought them into Photoshop. Deciding to work with the Blue album's cover as my main image, the first thing I realised I had to do was match the colors on both covers - the photo on the Blue cover is balanced more toward more blue than white, and the Red cover's is conversely redder that white. Having done that, I had to correct for angle and scale on the Red cover, rotating it slightly and shrinking the young Beatles down to fit on that upper balcony. Then came the key: rather than simply joining the two pictures along a cut line, the image you see is 90% the Blue album's photo. After sizing the 1962 Beatles down and positioning them properly, I removed every part of that picture EXCEPT the Beatles themselves, leaving them floating in place. A large part of the remaining work lay in placing them believably into the shot, adding shadow and reflections where they would naturally go. After that, I took pieces of the Red album's photo (the ceiling and a few actual balconies) and merged them into the shot, correcting for perspecive changes (the depth of field on the 2 photos are very different). To finish it off and enhance the blending, I added a slight, fading red tint to the upper half of the photo so that toward the top of the image it would more closely match the palette of the Red album. That was pretty much it.
Posted by timothompson at 04:30 PM
trouser mouse: Tunes Celebrity Playlist Round-Up
"The Donnas have 36 songs and not one by the band they owe everything to, the Ramones."
Posted by timothompson at 02:09 AM
May 09, 2005
Moustache May
Posted by timothompson at 05:12 PM
McCartney + Godrich = McCartney III?
I've been reading a great book on under the radar musical treasures called Lost in the Grooves (web site here and blog here), which covers albums that were either overlooked, badly reviewed or under-marketed when they originally came out. One such release was Paul McCartney's post-pot bust 4-track experimental album McCartney II (on which he played all the instruments in a sequel to his first solo album McCartney).
For his next album, McCartney told Rolling Stone [via] that Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich convinced him to play all the instruments (as he did on McCartney, McCartney II and the "Spies Like Us" theme song–ok, maybe not that one). As long as Godrich can avoid too much knob twiddling, this news is almost as exciting as hearing that Sting has started rocking seldom heard Police tunes in concert again.
Update: Some great Lost in the Grooves merch (including illustrations from Tom Neely) from Cafe Press here.
Posted by timothompson at 03:42 PM
"Real World Austin" Cast Bids Adieu
Just when we were starting to forget about them anyway, the Real World Austin cast is packing up and leaving town. The Statesman's Diane Holloway talks to the cast in today's Statesman . And what do we learn? Austin's own Joel Mozersky (who has designed Austin businesses such as Olso, By George and Uchi) was responsible for the interior design (we're not sure if he also was responsible for the distinctive Austin logo on top of the building derived from the Seaholm power plant's art deco lettering). We also find out that drunken Austinites on Sixth Street got into a few scuffles with the cast, with one resulting in injuries.
Here's a cast summary from the article:
The show will appear on MTV starting June 21st.RACHEL, 22, California
An Iraq veteran who joined the Army as a combat nurse and served four years. She has a boyfriend she met in Iraq, but will she stray?JOHANNA, 21, California
Gorgeous Peruvian American who wants to be a clinical therapist. She's spunky and sweet but a mean-tempered drunk. Deferred acceptance to Columbia University for grad school.WES, 20, Kansas
A junior at Arizona State University, he's a frat-house guy who parties hearty and likes to flirt. He had a reputation on Sixth Street early on.DANNY, 21, Massachusetts
Outgoing Bostonian who left home to 'stretch his wings.' He's working for his father's construction company but wants to be a lawyer. Loves Austin and hates to leave.LACEY, 23, Florida
Unique, and not just for her short hair and virgin status. Born to ex-hippie parents who turned religious, the hairdresser was sheltered from pop culture but adapted to life with her much wilder housemates.NEHEMIAH, 19, Arizona
Born to a drug-addicted mom and forced to grow up quickly. Quiet but determined. Studied film production in college and wants to direct music videos. The least in love with Austin.MELINDA, 21, Wisconsin
Waitress and aspiring dentist. A model-gorgeous flirt who is willing to try anything once. Also smart and funny, she could be a star.
Posted by timothompson at 03:13 PM
May 06, 2005
Who Doesn't Like a Good Looking Hunkus?
Woman on Dr. 90210: “The most common of anal bleachers are girls, all people really, who notice that the area around their anal area, and at first, they go "Mine's not dark. What are you talking about? But 10 to 1, they go home and bend over in the mirror and look. What's the big deal? If it makes you feel good and it's harmless to your body, do it, try it.How much better can you get than a nice, clean looking hunkus?”
Posted by timothompson at 03:05 PM