otis redding

put your ray gun to my head

god damned. girls.

video by heidi petty & playplayplay.org
for better quality video, go here

bluesy gospel

this is so beautiful! Shirley Ann Lee singing to her song, Please Accept My Prayer



"Shirley Ann Lee hadn't heard any of her recordings in nearly 40 years. Without a CD player in her house, we were forced to improvise." - as posted on youtube by thenumerogroup

rube goldberg version

I love all the umbrella action!
and the swirling fabric and splashy water bits.
and also the piano dropping and tv smashing...


*rube:

1 : an awkward unsophisticated person : rustic

2 : a naive or inexperienced person

Whenever I come across the word 'rube' I think of reading Robertson Davies.

(definition from merriam-webster.com)*

cats

moving on

old & new

dragonslayer*

*All from Sunset Rubdown's Dragonslayer - all directly from their website. I want my thesis to read like these... but I don't think DM would be cool with that... also, I don't think I could manage it

Idiot Heart. Stay away from open windows, and put the telephone down. Can you run as fast as this house will fall when the alarm bell sounds? No, I was never much of a dancer, but I know enough to know you've got to move your idiot body around, and that you can't settle down until the idiot in your blood settles down. So move around... If I found you in this city called Paradise, I'd say, "I love you, but I hate this city, and I'm no prize." You want to walk around like you own the joint, the way that Icarus thought he might own the sky. I say, "You can't settle down until the Icarus in your blood, in your blood, drowns... And if I was a horse, I would throw up the reins if I was you."

But look at you go (into the fire-star). Look at you go (you are a meteor). Look at you go...

And you know your heart, and you know your heart... but it's an idiot heart. And you know your heart, and you know your heart... but you can't settle down. No, you can't settle down. So just move around...

I hope that you died in a decent pair of shoes, you've hot a lot of long walking to do, where you're going to...



Black Swan. There was a black swan outside the palace - it was appointed by the king. People took it as a sign that he needed more time, but you said, "I ain't afraid of no blackbird." There was a rumor of a ghost in the bedroom - hanging in and around the bed - but by the time the moon rose, you has taken off your clothes and had the pillow under your head. There was the face you saw above you in the fever of a hot black dream, but it was made out of paper and glue, and you were hoping for something a little more realistic. You were hoping for the head of the queen.

My heart is a kingdom where the king is a heart, and my heart is king... My heart is a kingdom where the king is a heart, and my heart is king, the king of hearts.

There was the matador who said he would have you, if you could only give it up and walk away. He has carved out an avenue for you, from the palace to the palisades. But now it's half destroyed, and you are half destroyed. I see you running down a washed out road. I see you running between the dream and the void.

There was a rumor of a ghost in the bedroom - hanging in and around the bed - but by the time the moon rose, you has taken off your clothes and had the pillow under your head. You got mascara all of the bed sheets!* You got mascara all over your clothes! You got mascara making broken-hearted shapes on your face, and you have yet to see the ghost.



You go on Ahead (Trumpet, trumpet II). You go on ahead for a while. I would like to follow you a while.... I would like to just follow you a while. I'd like to watch the white flash of your heels as they take turns breaking the desert heat, to beckon me in languages I've never learned. I'd like to have you navigate to hills where no musicians live, and on the way decide what 'bendings' of your will you're willing to forgive. And I'd like to think the actors never banded. I'd like to throw this trumpet down and go on empty handed. I'd like to think I am not one of them, but I know I am, so I'd like to just follow you a while.

When me and the boys were out we killed a thousand butterflies, so I put their wings into my mouth and said a prayer for our safe arrival. Then a big black car crossed our path, and I wondered whether or not that shit was empty.

See the sirens and the lizards flick their tongues behind the stage. See the actor keep a ritual to keep them all at bay. He would like to come home naked without war paint on his face, and appear before you virgin white if virgins are still chaste. So wait, you've got to wait... you've got to wait for me. I'll appear before you virgin white if virgins are still chaste, then I'd like to just follow you a while.

And if there are two eyes in my head, there are four seasons in a year, and reflections on the water of a burning yellow sphere. And the days add up to weeks, add up to months, and add up, and add up... to years. And if reflections on the water sometimes look like burning tears, we can watch them changing shape without pushing off the pier.

Dragon's Lair. I'm sorry that I'm late. I went blind. I got confetti in my eyes. I was held up at yesterday's parties. I was needed on the Congo line. But my dear, oh, my dear, I'd like to fight the good fight for another couple of years. Because to say the war is over is to say you are a widow. And you're not a widow yet...

So this one's for the critics and their disappointed mothers, and for the cupid and the hunter shooting arrows at each other: Ain't no such thing as a saint, ain't no such thing as a sinner. But there's a swan among the pigeons of Barcelona's floor. There's a Samson with Delilahs lining up outside the door. If you are sharpening your scissors, I am sharpening my scissors, and I am sharpening my sword. So you can take me to the dragon's lair, or you can take me to Rapunzel's windowsill. Either way it is time for a bigger kind of kill.

I see your face when I close my eyes. I see the muscles in your legs from the way you always rise to the occasion of catching things that fall, like the statuettes on pedestals I tend to build to tall. But I have navigated Iceland, I laid my claim on Portugal, and I have seen into the wasteland of the future of us all. And I kicked up a whole country of dead, dead leaves last fall...

Seen from the back of a train I rode away from your station, they drifted in the air like memoirs of old conversations, sprung from a leather case you opened in the wind, to watch the papers chase each other into oblivion.

You're such a champion. I hide behind your sun. You are the champion... So you can take me to the dragon's lair, or you can take me to Rapunzel's windowsill. Either way it is time for a bigger kind of kill...

deep blue sea

via Natori:
(thanks to Amy)

The Unsinkable Scent

At the Titanic exhibit in Times Square NYC, artifacts left from the tragic event are on display. Among them are pieces of leather luggage, ivory hair brushes, gold jewelry and even cuff links inscribed with the “Tiffany & Co.” logo. But most captivating was a collection of 62 perfume vials—the property of first-class passenger Adolphe Saalfeld, a perfumier from England who boarded the Titanic in 1912. Saalfed headed to New York with ambitions of introducing his perfume to the major department stores. And while he survived the sinking of the Titanic, his signature scents went down with the ship and he never created another perfume.

The vials were recovered on a dive in 2000, protected in the leather case Saalfeld had kept them in. But the astonishment of finding these vials amongst the debris was nothing compared to the fragrance they released, still preserved after nearly a century resting on the ocean floor.

Fragrance can elicit the feeling of being transported to another time and place. That is especially true in this case, as these perfumes just arrived from another time and place- one that continues to intrigue and mesmerize since the night it sank- the Titanic.

It seems like it's always the same old song.

oh my god it's a mirage

Was kinda bored and bummed out today so I thought I'd watch this for a bit of picking up/inspiration and ended up in serious BB black hole. Thanks Beastie Boys and Spike Jonze - you are amazing. Watch the Sabotage video here. (couldn't embed it so I took it upon myself to steal some stills to adorn the blog).

And watch this too.

sharon jones

love this guy

now that's what i call tight

thru' these architect's eyes

All this soundtrack talk makes me think of this song by David Bowie. I sort of considered putting it on my soundtrack but it felt out of place. It's a great song by an amazing performer- I should probably burn everyone another cd with just this song, over and over...

THRU' THESE ARCHITECT'S EYES

(Making a goal, is the goal, life's a goal, life's a...)

Stomping along on this big Philip Johnson
Is delay just wasting my time
Looking across at Richard Rogers
Scheming dreams to blow both their minds

It's difficult you see
To give up baby
To leave a Job
When you know the money's from day to day

All the majesty of a city landscape
All the soaring days of our lives
All the concrete dreams in my mind's eye
All the joy I see thru these architect's eyes

Cold winter bleeds on the girders of Babel
This stone boy watching the crawling land
Rings of flesh and the towers of iron
The steaming caves and rocks and the sand
Stomping along on this big Philip Johnson
Is delay just wasting my time

It's difficult you see
To give up baby
These summer scumholes
This goddamned starving life

All the majesty of a city landscape
All the soaring days of our lives
All the concrete dreams in my mind's eye
All the joy I see thru these architect's eyes

strange but not a stranger

Some are songs I've been listening to a lot lately, others are old favourites... all of them hold one dear memory or another...

This one has been on for months. If I could make something half as perfect, compelling and just plain cool as this song with my thesis, I would be one happy girl.

Burning down the house

Watch out
You might get what you're after
Cool babies
Strange but not a stranger
I'm an ordinary guy
Burning down the house

Hold tight wait till the party's over
Hold tight we're in for nasty weather
There has got to be a way
Burning down the house

Here's your ticket pack your bag: time for jumpin overboard
The transportation is here
Close enough but not too far, maybe you know where you are
Fightin fire with fire

All wet
Hey you might need a raincoat
Shakedown
Dreams walking in broad daylight
Three hun-dred six-ty five de-grees
Burning down the house

It was once upon a place sometimes I listen to myself
Gonna come in first place
People on their way to work baby what did you expect
Gonna burst into flame

My house
's out of the ordinary
That's right
Don't want to hurt nobody
Some things sure can sweep me off my feet
Burning down the house

No visible means of support and you have not seen nothin yet
Everything's stuck together
I don't know what you expect staring into the tv set
Fighting fire with fire

-talking heads

I could watch movies all day

Movies I love more:

Brazil
Annie Hall
Dr. Strangelove
Pulp Fiction
Stand by Me
Ferris Beuller's Day Off

Rushmore is definitely still in the top three.

"With friends like you who needs friends?"

Also- the song gimme shelter by the rolling stones kills me every time- and wild horses too... it's so easy to forget what turns us on...