Damp City

Went and saw Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson this evening. It’s a fine documentary. Nothing too spectacular but it has some wonderful footage and the obligatory Johnny Depp voice over. I never get tired of watching Dr. Thompson shoot typewriters and pour scorn on Richard Nixon.

I walked most of the way home in the rain. I should have stayed on foot. The bus I rode the last few blocks home on smelled like a beer can left out in the sun with cigarette butts floating in three inches of rancid lager at the bottom.

It is uncharacteristically cold, wet and dreary for this time of the summer. There are strange booming noises somewhere out in the street.
I desperately need to sleep but I've been having the dream about the pit bulls fairly regularly this week and I'm afraid to close my eyes for any great length of time. I am experimenting with a rather potent combination of red bull and cachasa (Brazilian sugar cane booze) and it appears to be keeping me on my feet, or at least crawling semi-coherently. I am focusing on beautiful things and aggressive noises. Today's survival anthem is both a beautiful thing and an aggressive noise. My most favorite punk song ever. by X.

My phone's off the hook, but I'm not.

Lonely is all we are, lovely so far.

I forgot to bring the ashtray in from the balcony before the rain arrived. I went out there last night and found four cigarette butts floating in three inches of brackish brown water. Ah the metropolitan life I lead. I am a velour smoking jacket held together with duct tape.

Crappy sound quality be dammed, I think this next survival anthem sounds better over-cranked and the most important thing is you can hear the Tunde Adebimbe’s ethereal rasp just fine. It’s what’s keeping me moving forward today, stumbling along on 1 ½ hours of sleep, determination and six and a half cups of coffee. Thank you for taking my hand.

Next Anthem. Heard best past 4 am. Kills hangovers

You roll home just as the sky starts to get light. Things are as quiet as they're likely to get, the clock is starting to close in uncomfortably towards five. You both crash down on the couch like dead weight. It does not collapse. She falls sideways and her head comes to rest on your leg, further incentive to stay upright as it would be horrible if she were to move.

You cry out in unison disgustedly as the birds begin to sing. The sky turns the colour of an old bruise, like the one on your arm where she squeezed you too hard when the band started playing. Your mouth tastes of cigarettes. You help her into bed and close the door and curtains against the horrible encroaching daylight.

This weekend has left me feeling less than refreshed as I stare down the barrel towards another week of working with freaks and other assorted deviant motherfuckers. Drinking with co-workers on Friday night had me staggering home in the wee hours. I also checked out Les Savy Fav and Jay Reatard at the Commodore which was an amazing show but doesn't exactly have my liver writing me any mash notes.

Not exactly hung over. Just dispirited and a little jumpy. I feel wrung out. I feel a theme week coming on, all survivor anthems all the time. Songs that make it easier to roll out of the house tomorrow morning. Steve Earle seems like the perfect place to start. More to come....

Listening to Watchmen

Whoever cut the Watchmen trailer deserves a prize. I'm sitting there watching The Owlship rise out of the sea, and Dr. Manhattan exploding Vietcong, and The Comedian being chucked out a window in slow motion and all I can think about the whole time is that they chose to play The Smashing Pumpkins' “The Beginning is the End is the Beginning” behind it. An inspired choice, I thought.

Terrible, terrible song; but an inspired choice.

The movie Batman and Robin is a shit comic book adaptation and an assault against all that is pure and good in humankind. Playing it behind the trailer for a film adaptation of one of the greater graphic novels ever made takes irony to all new heights. I don't know if the finished film will be any good, but the trailer made my day.

Watched the Watchmen trailer in front of the Dark Knight, a really damn good movie. Christian Bale's Batman needs a lozenge.

Ah, blowing the dust off the long neglected blog (again)....

This year say it with an internet meme: Pick a most important album of the year for every year since your birth....

1973 The Stooges - Raw Power

1974 Big Star - Radio City

1975 Bob Dylan and the Band - The Basement Tapes

1976 The Ramomes - The Ramones

1977 Television - Marquee Moon

1978 Elvis Costello - This Year's Model

1979 Talking Heads - Fear of Music

1980 The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight

1981 The Gun Club - Fire of Love

1982 The Clash - Combat Rock

1983 X - More Fun in the New World

1984 The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime

1985 Tom Waits - Rain Dogs

1986 Spacemen 3 - Sound of Confusion

1987 The Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands

1988 The Pixies - Surfer Rosa

1989 Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

1990 Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet

1991 My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

1992 Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over

1993 Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville

1994 Weezer - Weezer

1995 Bjork - Post

1996 Cracker - The Golden Age

1997 Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole

1998 Massive Attack - Mezzanine

1999 Junior Kimbrough - Meet Me in the City

2000 Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

2001 The Dirtbombs - Ultraglide in Black

2002 Spoon - Kill the Moonlight

2003 The Kills - Keep on Your Mean Side

2004 TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes

2005 The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday

2006 The Roots - Game Theory

2007 PJ Harvey - White Chalk

2008 Jay Reatard - Singles 06-07