A Bowl of Stupid

Un-fucking-believable. I’m just getting over a 3 day bout with the stomach flu, and this afternoon I find that I’m coming down with a head cold. What the fuck? I don’t remember making fun of the cold weather up north THAT much. Karma’s a bitch, but c’mon dude.

Anyhoo, I’m listening to this particular album right now, and coincidentally I had told a buddy of mine a while ago that I was going to post a video excerpt from this episode of MTV Unplugged – probably the last show I’ve ever watched on MTV, actually.

There’s so much that can be said about this song, this TV show, and this band – both on a personal level and with respect to the music itself – that saying too much would probably throw a bigger shadow on both the music and my memories then what is justly deserved (and it could just possibly cause my toes to start randomly falling off or something, the way the week has been going).

For now, I’ll note only the obvious. Nirvana is generally considered to be one of the most influential rock bands of the past 20 years, and a defining musical phenomenon distinguishing grunge and other forms of alt-rock music from the hair bands and bubble-gum pop music that dominated the music scene during the late 80′s and early 90′s.

Nirvana, and to a lesser extent, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and others, surfaced during a time in my life, and in the life of music, greatly in need of focus. Initially, I didn’t give Nirvana much thought considering the trash the recording industry had been throwing at the general public during the years immediately precedent.

Nirvana recorded this episode of “MTV Unplugged” in November 1993.

It was only after I watched this particular show that I, as well as many others, came to see Nirvana as more than simply just another bunch of disgruntled wannabe rock stars. And for me, it triggered a greater desire to soak up as much of their music as I possibly could before they broke-up or otherwise disappeared from the scene, not knowing just how appropriate was my thinking at the time.

Cobain killed himself just 6 months later, in April of 1994.

Ironically, I understand that during post-production, Cobain watched the unedited tape of the show and asked the director to include more images of him smiling since he didn’t want the audience to think he was that depressed.

Nirvana – All Apologies Unplugged
Due to YouTube’s brilliant new copyright policy, All Apologies has been removed from the site. I’m replacing it with another of my favorites from their Unplugged show – Polly (until they get around to removing that video too).

As reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where she served as an editor, Molly Ivins, whose biting columns mixed liberal populism with an irreverent Texas wit, died at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at her home in Austin after an up-and-down battle with breast cancer she had waged for seven years. She was 62.

She will be missed.

Thanks to Kang for bringing that story to my attention.

I’m feeling a bit better, but still pretty weak (err, … make that weaker than usual). For that reason, although I’m gonna post a music clip, I’m gonna let Wikipedia do most of the explaining for the uninitiated. To wit:

Guster is an alternative rock band (sometimes classified as jangle pop), originally formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1991 by members Ryan Miller, Adam Gardner, and Brian Rosenworcel. Joe Pisapia has since joined.

Guster is often recognized for their choice of instruments during their earlier years: two members playing acoustic guitars and one member playing drums and various percussion. Rosenworcel added to Guster’s unique sound with a combination of bongos, cymbals, and other drums, playing live shows using only his bare hands. Gardner would sometimes play a downtuned guitar as a bass instrument. Guster’s sound is also defined by their vocal harmonies, with both Miller and Gardner singing lead vocals on different songs; in songs such as “What You Wish For” and “Happier,” the two members sing different lyrics simultaneously.

Guster released their fifth full length studio album, “Ganging Up on the Sun,” in June, 2006. This is their first single from that album, “One Man Wrecking Machine.” It’s a great song from a great band, and a really cool video.

Guster – One Man Wrecking Machine

Once again, this is about a week old, but I just saw it today and felt the need to post this clip of Jon Stewart and the other writers at The Daily Show taking on President Bush’s 2007 State of the Union Address. Every time you think the routine reaches its pinnacle, it gets a little better. God, I wish I was this clever.

I find it ironic that I’ve received a whole bunch of feedback — including from my neighbor telling me that she and her boyfriend “were cracking up” — about yesterday’s post discussing how miserable I felt. Indeed, I hesitated posting about my illness in the first place because I was afraid of getting heckled by TK and Chez in response to my commentary about how nice the weather currently is down in Miami as opposed to Boston and NYC, respectively.

In contrast, not one person has commented on, or even inquired as to the somewhat more coherent posts I did from the other day quoting from Jorge Luis Borges’ “Collected Fictions,” and describing a drug-resistant bacteria infecting wounded US soldiers in Iraq.

Okay, I get it, I get it – “dance, monkey, dance!”

This video from the Republican National Convention is obviously a few years old, but it’s still both funny and disconcerting. Even now that Bush’s approval rating hovers at an anemic 29%-30%, I doubt the current GOP will stop with this rhetoric for years to come.

And I also doubt I’d have seen it but for the Shark having posted it on his site. Thanks kid.

I feel like complete and utter crap. I would never have even posted anything but for the fact that I’m getting dangerously close to sinking forever into my couch, which is where I’ve spent the last — no joke — 20 hours (when not otherwise in the bathroom vomiting).

Not that it matters to anyone, but I’m also listing the movies I’ve watched/slept through during those 20 hours (just so I’ll know for future reference, because I doubt/hope I won’t remember anything from today):

Patton;

Fight Club;

Snatch;

Constantine;

Serenity (twice);

The Hulk;

Big Trouble In Little China;

Romancing the Stone (don’t ask);

Tron; and

The Boondock Saints.

Yeah, I’m guessing this is payback for gloating about the nice weather we’ve been having down here. Blah.

This is an interesting story. However, I also want to preface the story with this comment:

I’ve been a reader of Daily Kos for years. I like and respect many of the progressive commentators who were pointing out the numerous fallacies and failings of the current administration back when doing so could earn you a trip to Guantanamo for being a subversive islamo-fascist radical. That being said, I also beleive that much of the verbiage used, and allowed, on the Daily Kos forums are far more incendiary than necessary. In this regard, I am much more like Martin Luther King than Malcolm X with respect to my views on large-scale morality and political dispute resolution.

Okay, preface completed.

Daily Kos recently addressed an issue of which I’ve been peripherally aware for several years – the issue of public treatment of Vietnam-era veterans. In a story about Chuck Hagel and John McCain’s friendship and differing views on Iraq, Newsweek assets as fact that many Vietnam-era returning GIs were sometimes jeered and even spat upon in airports.

There’s a small problem with that. Despite the widespread belief these days that troops returning from Vietnam were spat on, there’s no empirical data to support the assertion. In his book The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam, the sociologist Jerry Lembcke looked for evidence of episodes of spitting, and as he wrote in a 2005 Boston Globe op-ed:

STORIES ABOUT spat-upon Vietnam veterans are like mercury: Smash one and six more appear. It’s hard to say where they come from. For a book I wrote in 1998 I looked back to the time when the spit was supposedly flying, the late 1960s and early 1970s. I found nothing. No news reports or even claims that someone was being spat on.

What I did find is that around 1980, scores of Vietnam-generation men were saying they were greeted by spitters when they came home from Vietnam. There is an element of urban legend in the stories in that their point of origin in time and place is obscure, and, yet, they have very similar details. The story told by the man who spat on Jane Fonda at a book signing in Kansas City recently is typical. Michael Smith said he came back through Los Angeles airport where ”people were lined up to spit on us.”

Like many stories of the spat-upon veteran genre, Smith’s lacks credulity. GIs landed at military airbases, not civilian airports, and protesters could not have gotten onto the bases and anywhere near deplaning troops. There may have been exceptions, of course, but in those cases how would protesters have known in advance that a plane was being diverted to a civilian site? And even then, returnees would have been immediately bused to nearby military installations and processed for reassignment or discharge.

Lembcke goes on to cite a 1971 poll finding that more than 90% of Vietnam veterans said they had met a friendly homecoming.

I’ve heard similar accounts on how vets were viewed with much of the same respect in the States we now provide returning Iraqi veterans. I was only a child at the time, but I’ve heard there were generally no hard feelings, and the guys were viewed as reluctant volunteers. As we all know, however, that sharply contrasts the general view that has been propagated by the media and in movies. The media always has had a flair for the dramatic.

Now Kos posts this story, itself somewhat incendiary, about how the mainstream media, this time by and through Newsweek, continues to “Perpetuate A Lie.” Yes, there is obviously truth to the fact that Newsweek is engaging in some shaky journalism by relying on unsupported facts. However, I’m not sure I fully agree with how the story is reported, and how the argument is made, by Kos (through a forum commentator, “MissLaura”).

The use of such incendiary criticism concerning Newsweek — who rightly should be faulted — takes away both the credibility and force of the underlying story; one which bears noting since it may be of some import on how the public chooses to allow the Bush Administration and the media to treat the current batch of veterans — as pawns or as people.

Semper Fi.

As I’ve mentioned ad nauseam, last night was the screening of Sipping Jetstreams, which was presented as part of a Charity Event by the local South Florida Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

Not only was it a really nice night which raised some desperately needed money for the guys over at Surfrider, I won a $25.00 gift certificate donated by South Beach Divers, the only full service dive shop located on Miami Beach. Sweet.

Anyway, I had not seen the movie before, and I was absolutely blown away. It’s not a long film, which is actually a good thing for surf flicks (other than “Riding Giants”, of course) since many tend to get boring with the same guys pulling the same moves over and over for 2 hours. However, this film (and accompanying book) by Taylor Steele and Dustin Humphrey is anything but the norm.

From the markets and souks of Marrakech in Morocco to the blues of the Atlantic in Barbados, from Japan to Cuba, Italy, Hong Kong, and Egypt, Sipping Jetstreams is a photographic journey of discovery and adventure. This two-year odyssey focuses not just on the surfing but the places and the faces of each destination.

Here’s the teaser trailer for the film.

Sipping Jetstreams

Yes, they got great footage of some beautiful people whom otherwise would never would have gained international exposure, and some incredible footage from places not generally considered to be surfing hot-spots. Moreover, it’s got a much more diverse soundtrack than most other surfing movies out there, including songs from Massive Attack, Years Around the Sun, and the Buena Vista Social Club.

This leads me to my second video in this post – the inevitable music video clip. I’m not letting this devolve into a discussion about Cuba. Needless to say it’s a “big ticket item” down here in Miami. I try not to get involved since it has very little to do with me. However, one of the inadvertent benefits of the Cuban influence down here is that I dated a Cubana girlfriend who introduced me to the “Buena Vista Social Club” several years ago.

If you’ve never heard their sound, I’ve been told it’s uniquely Cuban. And it is a bit unlike anything else I’ve heard, from other Latin countries or elsewhere. The sound is amazing (wait for the trumpet), and the video is beautiful and touching. Take a listen.

Buena Vista Social Club – Chan Chan

I saw this video Marc posted over at Uniquely The Epitome, describing how the Earth has been overrun by a bunch of monkeys. I liked it so much that I’m “borrowing” it from him (just like Tim Burton allegedly “borrowed” Kevin Smith’s idea for “The Planets of the Apes”).

Money (or mon-key) quote from video:

“See, the monkeys feel alone. All 6 Billion of them.

Some of the monkeys pay another monkey to listen to their problems.

The monkeys want answers. The monkeys know they’re going to die, so the monkeys make up gods and then they worship them.

Then the monkeys start to argue over whose made-up god is better.

Then the monkeys get really pissed off, and this is usually when the monkeys decide that it’s a good time to start killing each other.”

If you don’t catch it the first time, check out the fleeting reference to “The Flying Spaghetti Monster” as a nice little backside “Ba Fangul” to established religion.

P.S. Monkey? MONKEY? I’m a fucking gorilla, you clown!

Okay, for some reason or another, going surfing in Miami in the middle of January has reminded me of … country music, of course.

I was never too keen about most of the country music scene when I was younger. However, about a decade ago (if not more), I realized that a lot of country music actually sounded an awful lot like some of pop and rock music I had been listening to. I checked my album collection again, and I figured that if country music was okay for the likes of Lynard Skynard, The Allman Brothers, and Molly Hatchet – all of whom I idolize – it may work for some other musicians (if they have the talent).

For this reason, every so often, I’ll pop on Country Music Television (CMT) to see what’s up. Nine times out of ten, all I hear is George Strait, Brooks & Dunn, or Sawyer Brown (*shudder*). But every so often I hear something I like a lot. Such was the case when I flipped on CMT about this time last year, when I first saw the video below – “Kerosene” by Miranda Lambert.

I like it for three (3) reasons mainly. First, because it’s a catchy tune and Lambert’s voice, although still a bit unseasoned (she was only 21 when she recorded “Kerosene” in early 2005), shows promise of strength that could eventually make her a huge country music presence. Second, Lambert is a throw-back to the singer/songwriters of the 1970′s, having written (or co-written) 11 of the 12 tracks on her first album.

And third, because she’s really cute and she’s got a nice badonkadonk.

She claims Tammy Wynette is a major musical influence, and you can tell Lambert has studied her well. Now a year’s gone by, Kerosene has since been certified Gold for digital sales. Lambert was nominated for the CMA’s “Horizon Award” in 2005, as well as the “Best New Female Artist” and for “Best Video” awards by the Academy of Country Music in 2006. She’s also been nominated 2007 Grammy award for the “Best Female Country Vocal Performance” for Kerosene.

Take a listen to her and see if you think she’s worth all the fuss. Did I mention she’s really cute?

Miranda Lambert – Kerosene

I’m playing hooky today. A nice cool weather system blew through the Miami area yesterday and left with it some nice waist to chest-high sets. The air temperature cooled down into the 60′s overnight and right now, as of 9:15 or so, the air temp is still only about 60-65 degrees (F). But the water temperature is hovering at about 70 degrees, so it shouldn’t be too bad out there with a spring suit (shorty) on.

As an aside, for anybody down here in the Miami Beach area, if you take a look over at the Miami-Dade County Surf Forecast, you’ll see that the Surfrider Foundation, South Florida Chapter, has added a second show for tonight’s public screening at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, of the amazing surf film “Sipping Jetstreams: An Adventure in Life” by Taylor Steele and Dustin Humphrey:

From the markets and souks of Marrakech in Morocco to the blues of the Atlantic in Barbados, from Japan to Cuba, Italy, Hong Kong, and Egypt, Sipping Jetstreams is a photographic journey of discovery and adventure. This two-year odyssey focuses not just on the surfing but the places and the faces of each destination.

Food and beverages will be sold at the event. All funds raised during the evening will be used by the Surfrider Foundation South Florida Chapter to run effectively its campaigns (getting beach access re-opened at Haulover, funding water testing at the Key Biscayne Nature Center, creating teaching materials so kids can learn about Florida’s watershed, among others). Help Surfrider accomplish its mission in protecting oceans, waves and beaches. Come and see a surf flick!

I’m going to be at both showings the 10:00 p.m. showing, and if anyone else wants to show up – the more the merrier. The plan is for a bunch of us to go out for a couple beers afterwards, as well.

UPDATE:

The surf this morning was simply outstanding. The air temp quickly warmed from 60 to 75 degrees (F), with the water temp about the same. When I first got out, there was a nice offshore breeze coming from the west, and the water was glassy with a nice ground swell putting together some nice chest high sets. It reminded me of California conditions more than Miami.

And then the tide changed. And the wind changed. And the kooks came out of the woodwork. And the last hour of my session was a bit of a nightmare. You ever see slalom skiers? It’s about the same concept, only in this case, you’re trying to get around a bunch of mooks sitting inside the surf break right where you want to go. Well, it’s still a beautiful day, I had some good clean waves for a while, and I’m really in no place to complain when I heard on the radio on the way home that the temperature is in the single digits up in Philly, Boston and New York City.

I received favorable responses from several friends with respect to the “unauthorized” video I posted yesterday for Tool’s latest release, The Pot. Hell, I’ve personally found myself watching the video over and over again today. It’s a great tune. And just now, Marc Rapp over at Uniquely the Epitome posted a follow-up with another great unauthorized video from that same director.

Marc’s post got me thinking about the first video I had ever seen for one of Tool’s songs, their classic “Sober.” That song is the epitome of Tool’s underlying aesthetic and sound. It also gives you a glimpse at how the vocals of lead singer, Maynard James Keenan, have evolved and strengthened since Sober was first released in 1994. It is also one of the creepiest, disturbing, and utterly brilliant music videos I’ve ever seen.

So, I apologize if this is turning into “Tool Week” over here at The Bowl, but restating what I’ve said in the past – it’s my damn blog and I can do whatever the fuck I please. That’s not to say anyone will ever read it again if this keeps up, but that’s for another day. Okay, watch this video, preferably on some sort of powerful hallucinogen.

Tool – Sober

P.S. Yes Kang, I said “Tool” again. He-he, uh, he-he.

The band “Tool” has been a favorite of mine for years (as is “A Perfect Circle,” another band in which the lead singer, Maynard James Keenan, is a member). If you’re not familiar with Tool, think Marilyn Manson meets Rage Against the Machine (who, coincidentally, may be regrouping later this year), with a pinch of Pink Floyd thrown into the mix.

As for their background and influences, here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

Tool is an American progressive rock band, formed in 1990 in Los Angeles, California. Their overall sound has been described as “grinding, post-Jane’s Addiction heavy metal” as well as “a primal sound as distinct as it is disturbing” — most simplified categorizations of the band’s genre are often dismissed. They are known for addressing philosophical and spiritual issues in their lyrics, such as evolution and Jungian psychology, organized religion and transcendence, as well as for songs that feature “complex rhythm changes, haunting vocals, and an onslaught of changes in dynamics” which often result in a greater-than-average track length.

Yeah, what they said.

This song, The Pot, is the second release off of their latest album, 10,000 Days. The song is an amazing showcase for Keenan’s vocal talents, as well as the bass playing of Justin Chancellor – both of which you’ll hear at the song’s outset.

Although an accompanying video has not yet been released by the studio, according to “The Rock Radio” a video was shot last month over the winter holidays. Notwithstanding, there has been an unauthorized video produced that is itself pretty good and captures the moral and religious overtones contained in the lyrics, as well as the overall “trippiness” existent in Tool’s other videos. Check it out.

Tool – The Pot