Events of the last few weeks:Last week, I sampled the chicken fingers offered by three different fast food chains. They all call them something different. Anyway, I sampled chicken products, which, "like background singers, they all come in threes." I originally went into KFC to get three of the Colonel's Crispy Strips, but decided to pay 10 cents less and try the new chicken strips offered at Wendy's. Not too bad, bolstered by a tangy honey mustard sauce. A few days later, I took was feeling lazy, yet still hankering chicken, so I went to the McDonald's Express that's closer to work. They were cheaper, but totally bland and tasteless. Even the crispy part was flavorless. And the ranch dip they came with was putrid. I still ate them all, but it wasn't satisfying. The KFC variation, on the other hand, were as good as I expected. So yeah, it was a big week.
Back in the summer of 1995, I worked for a telephone research company. We had to call people up and ask their opinions. You know, like the polls you see on TV. Or the "nine out of ten people prefer Excedrin PM to..." crap. I always felt very guilty for intruding on people's lives, and I wasn't very good at getting them to stay on the phone. At first, people were like "no, I don't want to buy anything," so I politely explained/trapped them by assuring we weren't selling anything. Then I'd have to say "this will only take a few minutes." The way the survey was set up, if they answered "yes" to any question, that led to ten followup questions, sometimes with their own follow-ups. So sometimes we were looking at fifty minute surveys. I'd sit there, wincing with every answer that led to more questions, with the supervisors watching us like hawks. It got so depressing, having people hang up on you all day, and having to fulfill a quota of completed surveys. Anyway, I distinctly remember one week where I had to tell people that KFC was planning on offering their new Colonel's Crispy Strips that coming holiday season, and then having to ask, "Would you be likely, very likely, not likely, or not at all likely to sample KFC's new Colonel's Crispy Chicken Strips." Some days I'd go home and want to cry. I mean, they're tasty and all, and I like to think I helped introduce them to fast food eating Americans, but I still feel all sorts of guilt and anxiety about that job. On the bright side, I always know exactly what to say when telephone surveyors call me. That very company called me once. And I don't even have to be rude. I can just say the magic words and they end the call. And lastly on the chicken strips, for my money, Arby's chicken fingers are the best, with the Colonel coming in a close second.On the new music front, I'm currently listening to the new Shins record, Chutes Too Narrow. I got it off Caryn's iPod. I thought I'd buy it when it came out, but perhaps now I won't. Oh well. They got my money at the show I went to a few weeks ago, so I don't feel too bad. The way I see it, I first heard their first album by downloading most of it. I loved it, and went to see them twice. Sure, one of them was a free show, but I think a lot of people at the show never bought the record. And they sold out three shows at the Bowery Ballroom. And I may be wrong, but I'm assuming they make more from the shows than they do from the CDs after Subpop takes their cut. Sometimes I feel guilty not buying the CDs, but I usually legitimize it by seeing them live, or buying subsequent CDs. For instance, I just bought the new Beulah cd, which I never would've done if I hadn't downloaded their first three albums. And I'm going to their show next month which I never would've gone to either. So I think in the long run, downloading music will only help musicians. That is, of course, if they play live and if their music doesn't suck. But really, if you're a fan of some singles band like whatever new teeny-bop band is out there, are you going to pay 17 bucks for two singles and half an hour of filler? Right.
On the Shins album- it's pretty good, if not as immediately engaging as their first record. After hearing just the beginning of "Caring is Creepy," from their first record, I downloaded all I could. This one, I probably wouldn't have. What I like, then disliked about Oh, Inverted World, was that all the songs kind of sounded the same. Not really musically, but texturally. They all inhabited the same sonic landscape, with the possible exception of "New Slang," which was also my favorite song on the album. In that way, they reminded me a lot of the Zombies, or some other late 60's/early 70's British rock band. Most of their new album still reminds me of the Zombies, but the songs on the whole sound a lot more immediate. I know just said they weren't as immediately engaging. They aren't. But they can still feel more immediate. The first record was great, but it's like, you don't want to spend all of your time at the beach. You need something else after a while, if just to appreciate the beach more. Anyway, I was watching this video on the subpop website, and I finally figured out who the lead singer reminds me of, vocally. At least in this song. Maybe it's because I'd recently watched Scrooged, but I was amazed to find that the James Mercer, the lead singer, sounds a heckuva lot like Bobcat Goldthwait. It's true. Listen to it, and then think of Bobcat's character in Scrooged. It's the Bobcat turned down to about a '4' I think, where he's more whiny than angry. Anyway, that song, which was fomerly known as "A Call to Apathy" and is now called "Gone for Good," is probably my favorite song on the album, and the simplest and most straight-forward. But feels the most earnest.
I've also been enjoying the new Death Cab for Cutie, which I also obtained via Caryn's iPod. I'd never heard any Death Cab before, really, and had actually heard the Postal Service side project first, and enjoyed that, so I figured the album was worth the 30 or so MB it takes up on my computer.The drums have been returned to my possession as well, after two years. So my rumpus room is nearly complete. I've been showing Miss Charming Melodee a few simple beats. She's almost at Meg White level. It's a lot more fun playing the guitar when there a drum beat to play with. Caryn came over on Saturday, and we did a little more advanced rocking out. Once we get a few more tables, it'll be time to figure out how to use our four-tracks again.
The setup in the rumpus room. "Pants" refers to Underpants Cowboy, of course. I always liked that.
We're slowly exploring our new neighborhood of Fort Greene. Over the weekend Miss CM and I finally took a little bike ride around the neighborhood. I'd only recently discovered Fort Greene Park, where Geoff and I have played tennis now on several occasions. And on our way home, MCM an I just by luck happened to see a cool installation art piece down the street. Miss CM noticed a group of people staring at a building across the street, and there we saw, poking out of the third floor window of an abandoned building, three nearly life-sized marionettes on platforms. Seeing that it was on the hour, I figured it was some sort of elaborate cuckoo clock. Which it turned out to be, although with a lot more back-story. The installation, called The Price (Giving in Gets You Nowhere) depicts a scene, with sounds and music but no dialogue, of The Price , a 1968 play by Arthur Miller. It was a pretty interesting display. At first, mistook the marionette riggings for nooses. I thought it was some sort of macabre artistic display or protest. There was quite a crowd gathered to watch. Miss CM talked with the artists, who was standing next too us, and who informed us that all the timing, done by computers, hadn't been perfected yet. So I'm curious to see what the final result looks like. Though I guess if I were really that curious, I would've seen it by now, considering it comes out every hour from 11AM to 8PM.
One of the figures that I initially thought was being hanged.
The three figured. A woman on the right, holding a jacket; a man in the middle, playing a Victrola; and a man on the right in a lounge chair. The space between the two men, the artist explained, was deliberate, in an effort to emphasize the "distance" between the two men, who I believe are brothers. I'm not familiar with the play, so she could just be making it all up. You know artists...
Today, on the way to the tennis courst, Geoff and I ran into, and through, a movie set on South Portland street. And there on the street were David Duchovny, who was directing, and on a bike, Robin Williams. It looked like some sort of movie set in the 50s or 60s, because all the cars on the street were quite dated. One was actually a Dodge Dart, the model of car my dad owned for quite some time. Geoff commented that he didn't like Duchovny's hair. That's usually his first remark about people. The movie, according to IMDB, is called House of D.