8.31.2006

I, Jontathan, A Perfect Album

The Modern Lovers are one of those bands, like the Velvet Underground or the New York Dolls, whose influence is infinitely greater than their fame. Part of this has to do with the short flash that was their career, with their only recording, the seminal and mind-blowing eponymous Modern Lovers, being released after the band had split. (It's eponymous and posthumous. Yay!) The album, culled from recording sessions with former Velvet Underground member John Cale (he would also record the Patti Smith Group's debut a few years later) as well as other recordings, is a proto-punk masterpiece, one that captures perfectly the feeling of being a teenager in America. I still remember hearing the opening track, the anthemic "Roadrunner," and identifying whole-heartedly with its aura of reckless abandon and love for the transfomative power of rock and the seeking of an America that probably never existed.

After breaking up, the band members went their separate ways. Keyboardist Jerry Harrison went on to play in Talking Heads, the drummer played in the Cars, a couple of other guys probably got jobs pumping gas somewhere and Jonathan, the key songwriter and guitarist, kept the Modern Lovers name, releasing a slew of light, fun albums that were the polar opposite the frenetic, elegiac, and sometimes brooding rock of the Modern Lovers. Basically, he saw punk rock coming and ran the other way. He's most recognized a the troubadour in the film, There's Something About Mary. You know, the guy singing in the tree and on random street corners? Yeah, that guy.

Some of Richman's later albums are almost crippled by their naivete and self-consciousness, though I, Jonathanis not one of those albums. This album, while maintaining a spirit of fun and lightness, adds just enough depth to perfect it. It walks that fine line between stupid and clever that the boys in Spinal Tap were talking about.

The album starts with "Parties In the U.S.A.," a song that borrows (though it goes to lengths to acknowledge its thievery) more than a little from the song "Hang On Sloopy," by... the McCoys (thanks, Google). It's a fun little song about parties, but it also serves as and introduction to the theme of the album, an undercurrent of longing for the past. Richman seems to say that the parties we had when we were younger just aren't happening, maybe because we've changed, maybe because the world has changed or maybe, and most likely, they weren't as great as we remember them being. Or maybe they are wand we just haven't found out how to throw them. Richman postulates that there could "be block parties of which I know not?/Wild beach parties around some open flame?/I know there's got to be parties, I bet there's a lot. But the U.S.A. has changed somehow that I can't name." While we may not be able to find them, they may exist and maybe, just maybe, there's hope for us after all.

The next track is a fun throwaway. It's called "Tandem Jump." There's a great intro with Jonathan as a parachute instructor telling his new jumpers, "When those doors open you will be scared..." after the sound of a door opening and which the band all make "whooshing' noises and act scared.

Next up is "You Can't Talk to the Dude," a song to a woman in a relationship with a creep. How can you not love a song with lyrics like "Your sense of humor has gotten worse/Now that you live with a guy who can't converse/You can't talk to the dude/Well he's set in his way/Got a bad attitude/When you say what you say./You can't talk to the dude/And things will never be right/Until you go." Again, it's a kind of goofy song, but the underlying idea of settling for someone that is just no good is there, peeking out behind chuckle-worthy lyrics. When did we forget the things we wanted when we were younger? Is it too late to remember them?

Following that, we get "Velvet Underground," a tribute to one of Richman's obvious influences. It even includes a pretty decent impersonation of Lou Reed singing "Sister Ray." Richman manages to encapsulate the Velvets in one line: "Sounds as stark as black and white stripes," adding that to him, the band was "America at its best." Later years would see Pavement doing a similar tribute to R.E.M. with their contribution to the No Alternative benefit compilation: "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence." Richman seems to hint that there will never be another band like the Velvets, one that typified rock & roll in every movement. He's probably right, but who knows?

Next up is my favorite song, "I Was Dancing In the Lesbian Bar," a fun little song that asks the question, "when did people all of the sudden get so serious and where can I go to have a good time?" The answer, at least in this song, is in one of those bars for "the ladies." Again, the theme of nostalgia for a simpler time is carried through. Why can't we just relax? Why do we have to hunt for things, for places where we can unwind? Has America changed, or have we as a person, as a people?

"Rooming House On Venice Beach," is next, detailing an old place Richman rented. "Nowadays I hear that the rent is steep." It's almost like Richman's taking a look back and saying, "Remember that? That was fun. Why can't we have fun like that anymore? Or can we?" Which begs us to ask ourselves the question, "Can we?"

The next track is the best one by far and the most themeatically explicit tracks on the album. It's called "That Summer Feeling," and it's a heartbreak of a song. I'll quote it in its entirety:

That summer feeling/That summer feeling/That summer feeling

When there's things to do not because you gotta
When you run for love not because you oughtta
When you trust your friends with no reason nada
The joy I name shall not be tamed
And that summer feeling is gonna haunt you
One day in your life.

When the cool of the pond makes you drop down on it
When the smell of the lawn makes you flop down on it
When the teenage car gots the cop down on it
The time is here for one more year
And that summer feeling is gonna haunt you
One day in your life.

If you've forgotten what I'm naming
You're gonna long to reclaim it one day
Because that summer feeling is gonna haunt you
One day in your life.

And if you wait until your older
A sad resentment will smolder one day
And then that summer feeling is gonna haunt you
And that summer feeling's gonna taunt you
And then that summer feeling is gonna hurt you
One day in your life.

When even fourth grade starts looking good
Which you hated,
And first grade's looking good too,
Overrated,
And you boys long for some little girl
That you dated
Do you long for her of for the way you were?
That summer feeling is gonna haunt you
One day in your life.

When the Oldsmobile has got the top down on it
When the catamaran has got the drop down on it
When the flat of the land has got the crop down on it
Some things were good before and some things never were
But that summer feeling is gonna haunt you
One day in your life.

Well when your friends are in town and they've got time for ya
When you were never hanging around and they don't ignore ya
When you say what you will and they still adore ya
Is that not appealing, it's that summer feeling.
That summer feeling is gonna haunt you
One day in your life.

It's gonna haunt you
It's gonna taunt you
You're gonna want this feeling inside one more time.
It's gonna haunt you
It's gonna taunt you
You're gonna want this feeling inside one more time.
One more thing...

When you're hanging around the park with the water fountain
And there's the little girl with the dirty ankles cuz she's
On the swings, you know, and all the dust is kicking up
And you remember the ankle locking
And the way she flirted with you
For all this time, how come?
Well that summer feeling is gonna haunt you
One day in your life.

You'll throw away everything for it.
You'll throw away everything for it.
One more thing...

Well when the playground that just was all dirt
Comes haunting.
And that little girl that called you a flirt
Memory comes taunting
You pick these things apart they're not that appealing
You put them together and you'll get this certain feeling
And that summer feeling is gonna haunt you
One day in your life.

It's gonna haunt you
It's gonna taunt you
You're gonna want this feeling inside
One more time.

I love summer, but I don't know if it's summer that I love or the idea of summer. The shorts and the flip-flops and the swimming and the sun. The vacations and the beach and the days that unwind themselves forever. I am haunted by this idea even now as autumn starts to creep its way into my life. "When even fourth grade starts looking good, which you hated." "Do you long for her or for the way you were?" What are we nostalgic for when we start looking back? Is it "the good old days," or a "good old us?" But did that "good old us," even exist? And if we were happy and carefree then, why not now? What's stopping us?

After getting all serious on us, Jonathan drops "Grunion Run," on us, a surf-type instrumental that cleanses the palette and sets us up for the penultimate track, "A Higher Power," which poses the proof for some higher being as love. "They say that magic and the science world collide/but Einstein saw me looking at her and he joined my side." Just when the world looks bleak, like your life isn't going to be as good as you'd like to remember it to have been, love comes along and reminds us that it's possible to reclaim that fire we felt in our youth. That there's still magic left in this dark old world.

And once we're reminded of that, we can relax and take a walk down memory lane with "Twilight In Boston." Since this album's been a walk through our collective and personal past, Jonathan walks us through his hometown on an idyllic, idealized night. There's a moment in this song where, when describing the Victory gardens, Richman nonchalantly adds, "one of my favorite parts of town." For some reason, it grabs me. You feel the longing in his voice, the desire to be somewhere where he feels at home. There's an honesty there that's refreshing, as he longs for his hometown on an album full of songs about longing. The question that it invariably brings up is, "Where is that place for me? Have I found it? If it's not here, where is it? Or is it here and I just don't realize it?" I fear that sometimes I focus too much on where I was or where I'm going that I sometimes forget to enjoy where I am.

For me that's the message of I, Jonathan: enjoy the now. The past is dead and buried and the future still yet unborn. All we have is now. Seize it and enjoy it. Carpe diem and all that jazz. Whatever you do, don't get lost in the false comfort of the past or get so uptight about the possibilities of the future that you miss all the good parties.

If there's an underlying theme in I, Jonathatnm it's this: Just shut up, relax and, for goodness' sake, shake your butt every now and then.

8.27.2006

20 Answers

20. Do you ever want to do something great, but just can't get yourself to start it?
Yes. All the time.

19. Why do you think that is?
Fear of imperfection? Allowing an Adversary to stop me from using my talents to create? I get tired?


18. If you could have any power beyond that of mortal men, what would it be? Just one, folks.

Super speed. I have no clue why, but I think that would be the coolest to just run really fast.

17. What is wrong with crying now and then?
Nothing at all.

16. What's your favorite book and/or movie?
Geez, that's a tough one. Favorite book is probably Catcher In the Rye but I don't know. Favorite movie is, today at least, Rushmore.

15. Why?
Because both spoke to some core of my being that made me laugh and ache and, hopefully, understand myself a bit better.

14. What's your favorite planet or constellation?
Mars. I'm still holding out for us finding Martians there, big red, hulking beasts with four arms and rocky red skin. How rad would that be?

13. Would you rather be thin or famous?
Neither.

12. What place makes you feel secure?
My lady's arms. Yeah, it's cheesy, but it's true. Deal with it.

11. What's your favorite thing to eat?
Boogers. And licorice.*

10. Who do you know personally that you admire?
I admire my favorite instructor, Scott Franson. He's a funny guy who gives good, helpful, honest critiques. He also wrote and illustrated a children's picture book in his spare time. He said something once that will stick with me forever: "Don't sell your dreams." He's cool.

9. Why do spammers have such cool names?
I have no idea, but I', going to have to start stealing them for future writing projects. There was one to day that I loved, "Hilaria Ficklin." How awesome is that?

8. What song makes you smile?
Off the top of my head, "Thunderbird," by They Might Be Giants.

7. Why hate anything but vegetables?
Fear? Ignorance? Self-loathing?

6. Do you think that maybe sometimes you act like the person people expect you to act like rather than the person you want to be?
Yes. And I'm still trying to figure out if that's a bad thing.

5. How come you can never get enough sleep?
Because the universe hates you. Next question.

4. What color makes you want to skip? As in like, walking and jumping at the same time. That kind of skipping.
Orange.

3. When was the last time you had a milkshake?
It's been a while.

2. Don't you want one now?
Yes. Yes I do.

1. Who would win in a fistfight: the Incredible Hulk or Mister Rogers?
I've thought long and hard about this one. Seriously. Last night at work. After much consideration, I've got Rogers on this one. See the Hulk is only strong when he's angry, otherwise he's puny old Bruce Banner. So once Hulk starts smashing stuff, Mister Rogers just starts talking to him, really soft and nice. Next thing you know, the Hulk starts to calm down and change back to Banner. Once the transformation is complete and Banner is laying there, passed out, Rogers finishes him off, execution-style. Cuz that's how they roll in the Land of Make-Believe. Represent, fool.


*Just kidding about the licorice.

Go On And Kiss... Your Boyfriend!

Meet Francis, otherwise known as Zebulon, Heir of Bloodthrone. He likes black nail polish, black comedies, and black licorice and black. He is totally Goth. He has a cape and everything. He has a pair of custom molded fangs that he can slip over his canine teeth for special occasions - like Thursdays. Or any day to be honest. His bedroom is lit only by candles and the window is covered by a black velvet cloth. His room smells kind of moldy. Francis works in the mall at the Sunglass Hut but wishes he worked at Hot Topic because they would let him wear the cape while he was working. He rides his bike to work - cape and all. He hates everyone and everything except for you. He has socks with little skulls on them and a belt made from a rusty chain. Sometimes he wonders if he looks ridiculous. Then he hisses in the mirror and sulks away. When he grows up he wants to be a professional vampire. Or a CPA. Or both.

8.25.2006

Meet the RAWK!

Do you remember your first show/concert/whatever you call it? For some reason, Candace & I were talking about this and we both realized neither of us had a clue what our first exposure to the world of the Rawk was.

I'm thinking it was a Violent Femmes show at the good old Huntridge (its mere mention promts me to shed one tiny silver tear), but I really have no clue. I remember driving out in the desert behind the Silver Bowl with my dad and brothers (in the old brown Bronco...) when U2 rolled through on their ZooTV tour, but I wasn't actually there, so I don't think that counts, though I'm sure that would have been my first one if I chose to count it. Too many years. Too many shows.

Sigh - Good times. Good times.

Anyway, anyone remember their first one?






P.S.: Three words sure to bring the waft of Vegas Rawk nostalgia upon you: Jabba the Huntridge. Yeah.

8.24.2006

20 Questions

20. Do you ever want to do something great, but just can't get yourself to start it?

19. Why do you think that is?

18. If you could have any power beyond that of mortal men, what would it be? Just one, folks.

17. What is wrong with crying now and then?

16. What's your favorite book and/or movie?

15. Why?

14. What's your favorite planet or constellation?

13. Would you rather be thin or famous?

12. What place makes you feel secure?

11. What's your favorite thing to eat?

10. Who do you know personally that you admire?

9. Why do spammers have such cool names?

8. What song makes you smile?

7. Why hate anything but vegetables?

6. Do you think that maybe sometimes you act like the person people expect you to act like rather than the person you want to be?

5. How come you can never get enough sleep?

4. What color makes you want to skip? As in like, walking and jumping at the same time. That kind of skipping.

3. When was the last time you had a milkshake?

2. Don't you want one now?

1. Who would win in a fistfight: the Incredible Hulk or Mister Rogers?



Feel free to post your answers. Mine will be up tomorrow.

8.23.2006

Escapee From the Island of Misfit Sanrio Characters

Got these stickers from Target's Dollar Spot yesterday afternoon. I think they're cool, but then again, I'm obsessed with anything vaguely resembling Japanese character design, so, like, whatever.

8.21.2006

Okay, Okay...

Enough talking about feelings and all that crap. Let's talk about comics. Let's talk about the gloriousness that is Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen's Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E..

Now first off, I know that this post is most likely an exercise in futility for a couple of reasons. Firstly, like three people read this blog. Let's be honest. Secondly, of those three people, none are even remotely interested in comics. But this is my blog and I will type about whatever I want. Tune in next week for my daily posts on the world of competitive full-contact herbology. It will melt your eyeballs and make you pee yourself.

So... Nextwave.

Who are Nextwave?

Nextwave are former super-powered agants of H.A.T.E. (Highest Anti- Terrorist Effort), which got bought out by the B.E.Y.O.N.D Corporation, which is a front for a terrorist organization (S.I.L.E.N.T.) that wants to test unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction on the American people. Like monsters and stuff. They also have broccoli-man robot thingies that look kind of like Doom-bots. They burn when you light them on fire.

H.A.T.E. is led by Dirk Anger, who eats pureed baby chicks and has a giant telephone that he uses for all secure communication. Seriously. He is more than a little high-strung. He wears dresses.

The Nextwave team consists of a bunch of C-List heroes who quit when they found out H.A.T.E. was evil: the female Captain Marvel, a.k.a. Photon from the Avengers, X-51: Machine Man, Boom-boom from the New Mutants/X-Force, Elisa Bloodstone: Monster Hunter and the Captain who was every crappy superhero named "The Captain" you never heard of. Like Captain Kerosene. Yeah. They also stole a cool rocket ship from H.A.T.E. called the Shockwave Rider that is bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside.

Nextwave is dayglo cotton candy comics. Nextwave is not your friend. Nextwave is simultaneously hilarious and overly bad-A. Basically, Nextwave is pure, uncut radness sprayed violently onto paper for visual ingestion.

This book looks and feels like a Saturday morning cartoon with a sugar high. Stuart Immonen's pencils are loose and gorgeous. Warren Ellis writes as a broad self-deprecating impersonation of himself. And it works gloriously. If you are at all interested, there's a trade paperback that will collect the first six issues coming out soon. Buy it. Or else I will come to your house and kick you and your teeth will fly out like so many Chicklets.






Just kidding about the whole kicking thing. Sorry.

I'm Back, Baby!

Okay, it's been a little but since I last posted. So I'm posting. So like, get off my back and stuff. Geez.

Anyway, I'm done with school for the next two weeks so it's just work, which is getting to be a drag, but, oh well, right? I feel like a lump because I have nothing to work on besides these little projects that I just can't seem to get started on, though I did actually do a half-sheet flyer for Bryan's new band today. I think it looks pretty rad. So, yay for me. I'm working on getting a package ready for Chris fighting over in Babylon, but I'm sorta dragging my feet on that.

Sigh.

Basically, I feel like a lazy, tired schlub. Boo-hoo for me.

8.16.2006

(A Lot Of) Pictures From My BFA Show

Okay, so my BFA project went up Monday. It was a huge relief to have it up and done and looking decent. We had a fun open house show opening that let people come and browse the projects and mingle with the artists.

My project was branding (logo, letterhead system, store items like employee badges, shopping bags and some interior design-style sketches), signage (signs for the alphabetical listing system, wayfinding signs to point shoppers to different sections of the stores, in-store marketing posters) and packaging (for things like a journal and t-shirts) for a bookstore that specializes in comic book collections, also known as graphic novels or trade paperbacks. The store's name is Wordballoon and it's the kind of comic bookstore you wouldn't mind being seen coming out of. It's not a comic-book store so much as it's a comic bookstore. Make sense? Anyway, here's some pictures.



The whole of my project as seen from across the mezzanine of the Spori building. I had about fifteen feet of wall space and filled the ever-loving heck out of it.










A shot of my collateral as well as some other branding items like a shopping bag and an employee badge for an employee named... Chris!?




A close shot of my letterhead package. It's the only part of this project that I worked on from the beginning right up to the end. I am never touching it again.




Alphabetical and wayfinding signage. The alphabetical signage was taken from word balloons from scans of comics. They're printed on this great stock from French Paper Company.




This picture brought to you by the letter "P": poster, (t-shirt) packaging and process book (it has all my notes from the project) as well as a framed alphabet sign.




Packaging and presentation board for a journal that the purchaser can doodle comic strips in. To illustrate this I did a little two-pager (my first actual comic strip! Yeah for me!). It was really fun (the strip) though I effectively ruined it in inking. Oh well, practice makes perfect, right?







8.11.2006

Do You Know What Album Rocks?

This one:

"It's Like Soul Man," just came up on shuffle and it rocked me. Yes it did.

BEWARE... !

The ferocious BunnyDillo! It will eat your brains and then you will be stupid! So stupid you think Dharma & Greg is "charmingly hilarious!" So stupid you eat paste! So stupid you own the entire Five For Fighting catalog, including the rare Japanese version of "the Superman Song," sung in pig Latin! So stupid you think that Chicken Chow Mien is a martial art! So stupid you mistake your coffee mug for a urinal. So stupid that you believe that the Abominable Snowmen not only don't exist, but that they are not plotting your demise RIGHT NOW! So stupid that you read a book and don't understand it and that book is called Are You My Mother? So stupid that you think outer space is stupid and you eat boogers like all the time. So stupid that if someone were to ask you your favorite color, you would answer, "gravy." So stupid you don't put pudding in your breakfast cereal. So stupid you dig a hole and put leprechauns in it and bury them alive. So stupid you don't remember that the aliens built the pyramids. So stupid when you see a baby you yell, "MIDGET!" and run away crying. So stupid that you are afraid of octopuses and pinecones and ice cream cones and puppies and muppets and the sky. So stupid that you believe that your toenails are a food group. So stupid that you underestimate the deadliness of the BunnyDillo and it eats your brains and makes you stupid.


The End.

8.09.2006

Dude, This Project Is Killing Me Alive!!!

Okay, so I've been devoting an obscene amount of time to this project, but it's turning out really nice. I just need to start finishing it off, I guess, but I'm so used to just working on it that it's dang near impossible to just kill the thing. But kill it I must. Yea, smite it with a great smiting! Battleaxes and broadswords and blood! I shall slay it with a great slaying and it shall be slayed, and good. This I swear!




Uh, anyway, so there's my excuse for not posting for a while, but I'll post pictures once it's up. Till then, I'm out.

8.02.2006

A Quick Quote

"Lee sighed. He had worked so hard, so tenderly, and his work seemed to have succeeded. He said softly, 'We're a violent people, Cal. Does that seem strange to you that I include myself? Maybe it's true that we are all descended from the restless, the nervous, the criminals, the arguers and brawlers, but also the brave and independent and generous. If our ancestors had not been that, they would have stayed in their home plots in the other world and starved over the squeezed-out soil.' ...

"Lee went on, 'That's why I include myself. We all have that heritage, no matter what old land our fathers left. All colors and blends of Americans have somewhat the same tendencies. It's a breed - selected out by accident. And so we're overbrave and overfearful - we're kind and cruel as children. We're overfriendly and at the same time frightened of strangers. We boast and are impressed. We're oversentimental and realistic. We are mundane and materialistic - and do you know you know of any other country that acts for ideals? We eat too much. We have no taste, no sense of proportion. We throw our energy about like waste. In the old lands they say of us that we go from barbarism to decadence without an intervening culture. Can it be that our critics have not the key or the language of our culture? That's what we are, Cal - all of us. You aren't very different.'"

- John Steinbeck
East of Eden, which I finished last night, sobbing like a baby.

8.01.2006

SMILE!

Here's something I whipped up because I'm tired of working on my BFA project right now. Isn't it super? Or maybe even... SUPER DUPER?! YAY!