Culture Snaps - March 12th, 2011

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

WATCHING

Barney's Version (2010)

I love Canada. Wait--let me revise that statement. I love Canada, but I especially love Mordecai Richler's Canada. Such interesting, heartbreaking things happen there! Also, that Canada includes Dustin Hoffman so, huzzah! I'm so happy to finally see this; it was sold out for the entirety of TIFF. 

READING

This Cake is For the Party, Sarah Selecky

I cannot put this collection down. Nothing in these stories reinvent the wheel, plot-wise, but Selecky's voice is incredible, in the kind of way that these character-driven tales have to be buoyed by. This book was nominated by the Giller, and after reading it, it's almost unbelievable to me that anything else could win if Selecky had to lose. 

LISTENING

Blind Willie Johnson, "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground."

Like, on repeat. Also. this cover by the outstanding Kronos Quartet. 

The story of Blind Willie Johnson is one of tragic circumstances, so downtrodden it seems implausible--he was blinded as a child by his father's vengeful second wife (lye to the eyes), he married twice unsuccessfully, and when his house burned down, he resigned himself to living in its rubble. Then he died. But you know what? This song is floating in the cavity of Voyager probe, shot out of the solar system in the hope that this capsule could act as an introduction to our world to other, unknown lifeforms. He lives, but in a different form than the rest of us. 

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Thom Yorke, Single Laddie.

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology


Breaking news: Thom Yorke is my private dancer. Those who deny it only reinforce its truth.



 Happy New Radiohead Day, everybody! 


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My Recent History, Portrayed as Music

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology


What's happening in my corner of the world? Besides the obvious, I mean. Allow me the following indulgence. I WILL SHOW YOU IN SONG! 


New Projects and Preoccupations
As portrayed by Belle & Sebastian's "Wrapped Up in Books" 





What with school and words and the company I keep, this song is basically the anthem of the last six months of my life. Without the guy on the keyboard. And with considerably more berets. 


This is the portion of the self-indulgent post when I look longingly at my bookshelf, now offensively stuffed with titles; at this point, my apartment is basically the opposite of Ellis Island in the 1890s. There's no room for you, little immigrant books. And yet, instead of turning them away, I just push them against the wall and, with a sticky note, assign them a title that better suits my whims. Huh. Actually, that sounds a lot like Ellis Island. 


I, as usual, digress. In other news, Belle & Sebastian is the love that never ends in my heart. I first saw them in Glasgow. When I missed them here last month, my heart turned the color of sorrow that no detergent can remove. Every Belle & Sebastian song takes place either in: 


a) a bookstore
b) a bridge
c) the past


Because these places have a generic importance to me, I think they should in fact add me to their band. I can play the tambourine, and have sort of learned the ukelele. In addition, I have an excellent knack for earnestness when I'm permitted to channel it ironically. And remember before, when I mentioned berets? I really wasn't kidding. I have two. I'm so committed to this aesthetic it hurts. 


So in a nutshell, I'm working on a bunch of new project,s but I'm a miser of information and keep it hush-hush. Sometimes my mind thinks it's Soviet Russia and everyone else is the American people and what's at stake is the Iron Curtain. Hint: the metaphor only works if you accept it at face value. Moving on. 


A Musing on My Use of Public Transportation
As portrayed by Pulp's "Common People"



So I usually hum this to myself when I'm on the bus. Yeah. I've been driving since I was still jailbait, so my newfound dependence on public transportation is like an eye-opening montage. It keeps feeling like a lingering anthropological experiment--I see and learn so much about like, humanity and stuff. Did you know people think that trimming their fingernails on the bus is not only a time-saver, but also super pleasant to those around them? I did not until recently. 


I keep wondering if it's really offensive that this song keeps inserting into my iPod's shuffle. Then I decide that who cares, Pulp is awesome. First World Problem, 0. My sense of worth, FIVE TRILLION. Entitlement level unlocked! 


In all seriousness, travel of any kind always soothes me, and moreso in the last six months when I've become so dependent on it. There's a comfort in physically moving your person from Place Here to Place Else. No matter where you go, there you are. Plus, when you're not driving, yo, you can read. Is this situation made of win? I think I just answered my own question. (ps. THE ANSWER IS WIN)


My Super-Sneaky Shoutout
As portrayed by The National's "England" 





Wouldn't you like to know. 

*

FUN ADDITIONAL FACT! If I woke up trapped in the video of Pulp's This is Hardcore on an endless loop for the rest of my natural existence, like you know in Groundhog Day, when Bill Murray keeps waking up in the same day, and eventually learns the secrets of the townspeople and robs banks and--well, anyway, if I was stuck in this video, that would be great. That would be the existential crisis to beat. 



The first time my brother saw this video, he was silent for a long time; then he said, in a quiet somber voice, "Now I finally understand. This is the language you speak, the shapes you see. This is the battery from which your brain saps its momentum. Now, finally, I can warn the others." 


I'm paraphrasing, of course, but you get the idea. 

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All my friends.

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology


I don't ever want to be stagnant when it comes to awesomesauce, so every few months I like to reconsider my definition of 'perfection." 


Well, today's the day. And luckily, I stumbled onto Franz Ferdinand's cover of LCD Soundsystem song "All My Friends." 


 


Whew. I did not want to go the Sam Shepard well again, let me tell you. Not that I object, but you know. A girl doesn't want to seem repetitive. 

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Besties!

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology


Wow, Andrew Garfield. After I saw you in The Social Network, I thought we might be able to hang out, maybe get some cookeis and watch American sitcoms together. You know--the things that friends do together. And then I saw this video.



 Good news! You've been promoted to bestie. AND MAYBE MORE. (stay tuned for program details)

Full disclosure: he is also the new Peter Parker. This does not hurt his case. NEPOTISTIC!

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Mad Nature Boy

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology



"Nature Boy" + Mad Men + kitsch value x bongos = MADE OF WIN.

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Marian the Librarian

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

This song is so boss. I used to listen to it on repeat in fifth grade, which should give you an idea of the strange delights of my childhood: back then, BRAVO! would run three old movies back to back every weekend, sometimes with a theme. Some weeks it was Westerns, some weeks it was musicals, and some weeks they would do films all starring a certain actor; the fun was in figuring out the connection, because sometimes it was more obscure, like a producer or similar sets of controversy. These weekends became my gateway drug to TCM, and I trusted this anonymous programmer to tell me what to sample as I made my way through classic cinema. So naturally, every week I woke up early to check the tv listings in the paper for what was playing.

One of those films was The Music Man (1962), which while not topping the glory of the previous year's West Side Story, DOES boast this most excellent sequence.



The Music Man (1962)

I'll be honest; if I ever met a librarian named Marian, I would probably woo her. Like, the chances are very good-- I'm no mathematician, but the odds are like 345%. The temptation of all the delicious rhymes and possibilities of bookstack sonatas would be too great, transcending technicalities like "gender."

Highlight: when Robert Preston rhymes "librarian" with "carrion." Genius, folks. We're in the presence of genius.

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Culture Snaps - Sept. 21st

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

WATCHING...

Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse (1996)

A splendid documentary detailing the not-quite love affair between famed New York Ballet ballerina Suzanne Farrell and her choreographer, "Mr. B"(George Balanchine), and her life and career as one of the most famous dancers in the world. The narrative combines archival footage with candid interviews, and quite frankly, is the bomb. Although I can't help but wonder if the producers of Mad Men were making a statement when they named one of Don's girlfriends after her...

READING...

The Emperor's Children, by Claire Messud (2006)

Three privileged New Yorkers hit thirty and find themselves nowhere in particular, and this intelligent, rapt novel details their adventures of self-discovery (which, most often, resembles something closer to self-delusion). Messud's writing is sharp and satirical towards her characters, all the product of a self-aware, overindulged generation, but keeps their struggles (or lack thereof) deeply sympathetic. If you have friends who are artists, OR WORSE, have secretly BEEN ONE all this time, you will recognize at least one character on these pages. Beware the perils of vaulted expectations and artistic entitlement, I always say. To myself. As a warning. But also as a crutch.

LISTENING...

Dream On, Scala And Kolacny Brothers (2004)

You might recognize this haunting track from the trailer for The Social Network, or, as it's aptly nicknamed in my circle, "the Facebook movie". But I know it as only one of the many wonders produced by Scala & Kolacny Brothers, a Belgian girls' choir which covers mostly modern songs in classic choral arrangements (featuring U2! The Divinyls! Motherflippin' THE CURE!). This particular offering, a version of Radiohead's "Creep", single-handedly transforms the Aaron Sorkin-penned film about the development of a webpage most often used for updating friends on the status of your ham sandwich into a tragic, Orwellian opera for twenty-somethings: 





Not to miss: their version of Nirvana's "">Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Depeche Mode's (!) "">Dream On." DEPECHE MODE, you guys. That's all I needed out of life. I can finally retire and live out my days on a family farm  in rural Ohio. 


Or. 


Not do that. Yep. One of those two options, for sure. 

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Culture Snaps, August 31st

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

WATCHING...

The West Wing, Season 3

You don't seal up the old car in the garage just because she's got a little mileage. She cleans up nice, and purrs all the way home. Love like this, you can't buy it in a store.

READING...

Kazan on Directing by Elia Kazan

The legendary (some might substitute 'notorious' here) Broadway and Hollywood director Elia Kazan's collected notes comprise this slim volume, on topics that vary from casting actors for their unseen wounds to Brando's ferocious arm muscles. From the LA Times: 

Before starting to direct a new play or movie, Elia Kazan would purchase a little school notebook and, as rehearsals and early performances proceeded, fill it with his thoughts. Taken together, these notebooks constitute a unique (and as far as I know unparalleled) record of an uncommonly passionate and acute directorial mind at work and, in edited form, they are the fascinating and unsparing core of "Kazan on Directing."

LISTENING...

The Honeycombs, "Have I the Right?"

Men in suits spinning in unison? IN 1964?

I thought about suing these guys for reading my diary 20 years before it was written in an attempt to collectively woo and demolish my heart for all other men, but then I remembered how clutch this song is, and I told the lawyer to chill already. Simply put: this song is why we all do what we do, whether or not we know it yet. Plus: clapping in groovy unison!

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Culture Snaps - July 19th

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

WATCHING...

Cracks (2009) 

The plot description doesn't do it justice: the cloistered world of a 1930s girls' boarding school swim team is disrupted by the arrival of a new pupil. But it's really about the murky depths of female friendship, the petty jealousies that drive us to do bad things, and the transformation of a boarding school into a glorified orphanage for unwanted progeny of the well to do.  

READING....

God is not Great, Christopher Hitchens. 

I can't help but read this thing expecting Hitchens to appear out of thin air and narrow his eyes at me, muttering something about the "gruesome and gorgeous" nature of commerce.

LISTENING...

The Black Keys, Brothers (2010)

This album is a sensation, and have compelled me to hereby christen this sound as "wallow rock." In the best possible way.

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Happy Birthday, Place of Birth!

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

Let's celebrate Canada the only way I know how...by watching old Hawksley Workman videos on repeat.

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Two Weeks

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

Ampersandology is on temporary hiatus while I relocate to Montreal to get my write-on for two weeks of intensive workshops, panel discussions, and, let's face it, the badgering of writers I admire for autographs and/or pieces of their brain. Such as!  

Chuck Klosterman

Josip Novakovich 

Deborah Treisman (of The New Yorker!)

In the meantime, I've got plenty of exciting posts upcoming for next month, and if I get any downtime, expect them soon. So stay tuned, Soda Pop. And maybe catch up on some oldies. Or, listen to this appropriately-titled song by Grizzly Bear until I return!



Whatever floats your boat. I'm easy like Sunday morning.

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Culture Snaps - June 2nd

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

WATCHING...

Well, I'd blame Encyclopedia Brown, but it's alarming how often I've started to do that. You're off the hook this time, Boy Wonder.  I guess I'll have to point the finger at the spitfire acting, top-notch snarky dialogue, and the empty bottle of hooch where this show's heart is supposed to go.

READING...

Elizabeth Abbott, A History of Celibacy

You'd think a detailed account of the historical narrative of the celibacy movement wouldn't be sexy in the least. You'd be wrong. I'm generally an Elizabeth Abbott fan, but this one is a stand-out. Please note: the picture I've chosen makes a great case for the single entrendre, don't you think?

LISTENING...

Local Natives, Gorilla Manor

My no-fail source for music recommendations has come through for me this week, pushing me onto Local Natives' Airplanes. It is so splendid: light, rhythmic and achy in the heart place. Thanks, Bug.

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Lost, Harps, Doing Well

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

I don't even watch Lost, but this video on the music of a typical episode just transfixed me. Even for non-viewers, I'm sure its moody soundtrack has become somewhat iconic, so to see the instruments make the familiar sounds is really neat.



I'm generally a big of Michael Giacchino's work, so it's nice to see him doing really well (for the record, winning the Oscar for Best Score is the definition of 'doing well'). It doesn't hurt that something about a film'television composer's job has always fascinated me. But then, I'm esoteric. Natch.

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Culture Snaps - May 19th

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

WATCHING... 

Chloe (2009)
Dir. Atom Egoyan

I don't know. Generally, I really enjoy Atom Egoyan films. Let me reshape that: i really enjoy the first two-thirds of Atom Egoyan films. The last third usually comes out of nowhere and nulls the entire premise. Which is fine, but something it all seems too pat, too neatly resolved. I felt this way about Where the Truth Lies, and I definitely walked away from 2008's Adoration with that thought in my mind. And his most recent offering, Chloe is a remarkable example of this formula: for the first hour and a half, it's this charged examination at fidelity and marriage, specifically, the difficulty of being both a parent and a lover. And then suddenly, it veers off course, almost --dare I suggest-- into camp. I won't spoil it, nor would I hesitate in recommending it. But you know: grain of salt. With Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried. 

READING...

Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg (2006)

Concise yet sparing no detail, these short stories collect a random sampling of New Yorkers in a way that seems eternally fresh. She's sympathetic to her characters, but not sentimental, and her turns of the phrase are precisely and enviably tuned. I picked up this collection because I'd heard the Eisenberg just snagged herself a MacArthur "genius" grant, and when you finish this book, it's no great mystery why.  

LISTENING...

Spin Doctors, Pocket Full of Kryptonite (1991)

The Spin Doctors all but disappeared after their phenomenal breakout album, but it's still in my rotation. It sounds very early 90s, but in a good way (I know, that sounds like an oxymoron, but trust me). Maybe I'm biased, but any band who writes a song called "Jimmy Olsen's Blues" is one I will pay attention to at all costs.

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Culture Snaps - May 10th

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

A weekly rundown of what I'm into this week. 

WATCHING

Art & Copy (2009)

Directed by Doug Pray 

Finding myself jonesing for some mad ad men without my weekly Don Draper fix, I turned to Art & Copy, an illuminating look at the creative minds in the advertising industry. With all the lush eye for production and visuals you'd expect from a documentary aimed at the creative process. 

READING

The New Kings of Nonfiction

Edited by Ira Glass; Featuring Susan Orlean, 

David Foster Wallace, Chuck Klosterman & Malcolm Gladwell

I've been a heavy diet of nonfiction lately, and this book of essays--with subjects ranging from a teenage day trader to a right-wing radio host--hits the spot. Edited by This American Life host Ira Glass, This collection's strength isn't in its novelty -- almost every piece in the book is published elsewhere, sometimes twice. It's in the range of voices found in the pages, and the fact that it's a terrific introduction to "literary nonfiction" -- a term which Glass dislikes but I'm sneaking in anyway. The colors that these writers use to paint their subjects is nothing short of inspiring. Now, if only it had a few less kings to make way for a queen...

LISTENING

Dan Auerbach

Keep It Hid (2009)

The thick, dust-smothered rhythms from Black Keys guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach's solo debut are about as sexy, melancholy and run through the hard dirt as a rhinestone cowboy -- which is to say, very. 

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Today in musical tangents!

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

You won't catch a whole lot of music recommendations around these parts, mostly because I like to leave that sort of thing to the professionals. Because despite my famous tradition of dating musicians nigh-exclusively (the more tragically impoverished the better!), I openly attest to knowing nothing about music.

This is my safety net, by the way: it lets me like the Clash alongside that one song by Hilary Duff with next to no irony. So with all that in mind, I have new finds to share, and so begins my likely sole foray into music recommendations.

1. Mountains and Mouths. 
Link: Bruce Peninsula.

First up is Bruce Peninsula, who I would describe as "Native American gospel music by way of Tom Waits.' I know, right? How can you NOT listen after that endorsement? Enjoy!


Bruce Peninsula, "Crabapples"

Go seek them out on their MySpace page.

You know how you sometimes read books about subjects that are completely outside your realm of experience, like Sudanese orphans or Russian despots? Just to see the world from another perspetive? That's why you listen to Bruce Peninsula. I have no idea where this mindscape comes from.

2. The gateway to Mecca is paved with bandwidth. 
Link: 120 Minutes. 

Sadly, I've never known what "alternative" music really was, because since  a young age, all the other stuff in the other sections was alternative to me. It's gotten worse, with age, I'm afraid. The kids with their hippity hop and their beat boxing and their WIFI symphonic...! I fear the radio. And I'm barely a quarter century!

So imagine my glee when I found this archive. 120 Minutes originally aired on MTV from 1989 to roughly 2003, and was THE place to be for alternative music of the day. But then it got canceled. Its loving fans got together to compile this tribute, an itemized collection of every episode, from the featured guests to their playlists. Complete with videos! Interpol! Morcheeba! BLUR!

Their playlists are unbelievable. Don't click on the link until you're ready to say, "Okay, Afternoon, I didn't really want to use you productively, anyway." What makes this site so glorious is that in one click, you can relive the glory of the days when music artists didn't substitute units of currency for the letter S. Is it too much to ask, radio? What the hell happened to picking up an instrument and playing a song?!?

Whoa.

Okay.

So bad news: I just became my father.


3. Adventures in tangent thinking!
Link: Beck has a YouTube channel. 

Beck's The New Pollution. Let's sit down and give it its due. Because it's Beck, and he is always good. Now, let's be honest: I don't have a reason for posting this, other than the following itemized reasons.

a) I want to.

b) My brain looks like this video. Approximately. So basically, what I'm implying is that my thought process translates into a 60s dance collective with sinister overtones. I'm including the frontiersman with the ax (symbolic of my sense of shame) and the German industrial conga line of funk robots (standing in for my idea of love).

c) Someday, Beck and I will live in a deserted schoolhouse in the middle of a field, and we will invite the funk robots to every meal. He'll wear shirts adorned with curtain tassels and do impressive splits at odd times. I will fashion cowboy hats for him and remain alone in the new pollution. It will be a good life.

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Video Hits and Misses

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology

JUNO NOMINEE: Beast, "Mr. Hurricane"

New piece up at the Scope -- and it's about MUSIC, which made it a refreshing change of pace. Adam Clarke and I tackle the Video of the Year award at the Junos this year. For anyone not NL-side, the Junos have eaten St. John's. Fear for us; tell the world our story.

The nominees are...

Serena Ryder, "A Little Bit of Red."
Beast, "Mr. Hurricane"
Classified, "Anybody Listening?"
The Most Serene Republic, "Heavens to Purgatory"
Land of Talk, "It's Okay"

The Secret to YouTube Success

by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology


When it comes to YouTube sensations. I find that most videos can be measured on a sliding scale of Entrancement vs. Repulsion. The higher a video can entrance your senses with disbelief/confusion/sheer audacity, the less it matters how much it would repulse you in your everyday life -- that is, whatever you do that isn't in front of a computer screen searching blindly for entertainment at 3AM. The scale could help to explain the perplexing reality that a video translating the innermost thoughts of your cat is currently one of the all-time most viewed thing on YouTube.

But it's still not yet an exact science. Let's just say this video from South African rappers Die Antwoord pretty much breaks even on said scale. It's like it knows how bad it is, and in so doing, makes it glorious. Enjoy, however begrudgingly.

Treat me like your mother.

by Jillian Leigh, Ampersandology


Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 


And what am I thankful for today? Among other things, this video for The Dead Weather's "Treat Me Like Your Mother," which usually becomes the wackest four minutes and thirty seven seconds of my day every time I watch it.  





I am digging this sound.