The Office (Original British Version)

And we're up and running again after a very extended holiday weekend. We're getting right down to business (I'm trying to embrace brevity) with a few more Cory Palmer picks before we proceed to our first flesh-and-blood recommends.

Everyone has probably seen one of the versions of the Office. The American version is all over television here in, well, America. It is a never-miss for me on Thursday nights (actually I usually miss it, but I always catch it after the fact before next weeks episode...it is free on NBC.com. That counts). I feel like less people have seen it's British predecessor (with brevity comes slightly bigger words as well). I saw the entire British series, which is two full seasons, before I had ever really heard of the American Office. The first season of the American Office is basically a remake of the first season of the British Office, and then they went their own way with it. All of the characters are in both versions, but with different names and drastically different personalities. This wikipedia entry has some additional info including the character equalities, the biggest being the boss David Brent played by Ricky Gervais in the British Office, and Michael Scott played by Steve Carell in the American Office. Also, the humor in the British version is a little more, well, British.

When I heard about the American Office I immediately said that it could ever equal the quality of it's British counterpart without even seeing an episode, because I loved the British version so much. It is a fairly regular argument among some friends about which is the superior version, but it's really apple and oranges. Basically, if you currently enjoy the American Office and haven't seen the British version you probably should because it is equally as funny. Same goes the other way around. Like I said, I love both and don't think I could choose between the two. Cory favors the British version, so here are two of my favorite clips from the series.

Happy Thanksgiving, friendly world.

In lieu of the holiday I decided not to post a formal entry today, which further rips Cory's picks off (he only got two days this week). So, since most people are off work tomorrow anyway, and shopping, and not reading awesome blogs I won't post then either. We'll pick back up on Monday and I'll continue with Cory's recommends. New list next Friday from brother Eric.

Hopefully everyone has things to be thankful for, and I hope you spent the day doing something you enjoy. I came across this great clip of my favorite comedian Andy Kaufman, and it just seemed right to share with you all.

Bjork--Vespertine vs. Medulla

Vespertine (2001) and Medulla (2004) are two successive releases from Iclandic singer Bjork. Now, upon receiving vicious criticism from loyal readers I am trying to shorten the length of these posts (I tend to ramble on?), and this is my first attempt. Let's get down to business.

I hated Bjork before I heard Vespertine. I thought she was a weirdo and I could never understand her music (after hearing parts of albums Post and Homogenic). Hearing Vespertine changed all of it for me. The soundscapes she creates on the album are amazing...sampling everyday things like door slams, popcorn sounds, ice cracking, someone walking on snow, and cards shuffling to create really interesting beats. The overall sound of Vespertine is heavily sampled giving it an electronic feel, but it is more organic because of the constant use of everyday sounds.

Medulla on the other hand is almost completely a vocal album. Sampling (of vocals) is still a major part of the project, but almost every sound on the album originates from the human voice (with very few exceptions). She enlists the help of heavyweight voice noisemakers Mike Patton (of Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas) and Rahzel (the Roots, and possibly the greatest beatboxer of all time) on a couple of tracks.

For me Vespertine is the masterpiece of Bjork's career. It is a complete musical statement and the album itself has a sound. Every song on it has it's own vibe, but they all contribute to the complete album sound. It is also forward thinking and innovative while still remaining true to the album concept. Medulla on the other hand is very much an experimental album. It is amazing that Bjork was able to put together such an interesting album with only the use of vocals, but for me it always sounds a little like something is missing. I still LOVE the album, but it doesn't quite work overall to me as well as Vespertine does. For the record I prefer Vespertine but Cory noted in his post that he prefers Medulla. You be the judge for yourself! Below are three interesting quotes by Bjork about the album sound and vibe of Vespertine, followed by a video for each--Hidden Place from Vespertine (first) and Where Is the Line? from Medulla (second).

"It sounds like a winter record. If you wake up in the middle of the night, and you go out in the garden, everything's going on out there that you wouldn't know about. That's the mood I'm trying to get. Snow owls represent that very well."

"I was collecting together all the noises that I know that are like hibernating and that sound like the inside of your head. I guess 'Vespertine' for me was going really, really, really internal and trying to make music with huffs and whispering and music boxes."

"Vespertine is little insects rising from the ashes."

Almost Famous (2000)--Cameron Crowe

This entry could be alternately titled "I Already Dropped the Ball" and it could be an apology to my many, many loyal readers. The intent of Friends Recommend is for daily updates and feedback on some of my friends' favorite things. And a little over one week into this and I've already missed an entry. I swear my reason is valid, and has something to do with me being in Michigan all weekend in sub-zero temperatures, but who wants to hear about that?

A little further into this entry we'll address the fantastic movie Almost Famous, but I can already see that I'm going to run out of days this week to cover all of the Cory picks that I stand behind whole-hearted. So I'm just going to give some backup and props to a few of these picks that I might not get to. Hopefully I'll get to cover some of them in the next few days, but if not these are a few of my all-time favorite things that made it to Cory's list and I feel everyone would/could enjoy. They are the Bartok String Quartets, Bjork's Vespertine (sorry, no love for you Medulla!), Slaughterhouse Five (Vonnegut's Bluebeard nudges this one out for me, but I still love this book), Amelie, Donny Darko, and the British Office (although I think I am won over as a Michael Scott fan). All of these things are worthy of your ears and eyes and if I don't give them adequate recognition this week, I hope to in the future.

When I look over these lists of my friends, I generally try to comment on the things that I have some knowledge of that might be slightly lesser known to this audience as a whole. For instance Cory's list initially had the Harry Potter books on it, which I know he loves. However I decided to remove them (with his approval!) because most people have already formed an opinion, and if they were going to read them they have probably already done so. I've already made the decision that I will probably never read these books, so a recommendation doesn't weigh too heavy with me. I also try to apply this point of view to the things from a list that I choose to comment on during the week. Today's commentary does not follow this point of view. I know most people have seen Almost Famous, and most people I know already love it. But when I was going through Cory's list I found a Youtube clip of the scene that ends this post and I couldn't resist getting it up here. It has contributed strongly to my strange and unhealthy love of this song.

If you have never seen Almost Famous, I am recommending that you go out and get a copy now or put it at the top of your Netflix cue. If you don't like it you can blame me, but if you don't like it we probably don't have all that much reason to be friends anyway. If you fall into this category and you rent it based soley on my recommendation and really dislike it, please comment and tell me why. I need to know.

The basic story line is of an aspiring teenage rock journalist, William Miller, and his pursuit of writing a cover story for Rolling Stone on the fictional band Stillwater. Philip Seymour Hoffman is his usual amazing self in the role of Lester Bangs, and Kate Hudson and Jason Lee are both standout in their roles of Penny Lane and Jeff Bebe. All-time favorite funnyman Mitch Hedberg also makes an appearance as the Eagles road manager. This is one of my favorite scenes from the film and if you tell me you weren't singing along by the end I would probably call you a liar. The scene is a testament to the powers of Elton John's Tiny Dancer.

Cory Palmer

This seems like the right day to put up a Cory recommends list, because as I type this I am sitting in the Detroit Metro Airport waiting for him to come pick me up in his big red minivan. Cory was one my seven roomates in what was dubbed the "basshouse" in Michigan, cleverly given it's title because five of the seven people living there were bassists. Deep, I know. I Iook forward to spending the weekend with him drinking some much missed Michigan beers. He also promised me that he wears pajamas now, so there won't be too many awkward Cory-in-his-boxers moments that many of us have grown to love. Anyway, Cory is an extremely talented orchestral bassist currently living in New York attending the Manhatten School of Music and is plugging away on the orchestral audition circuit. He will be a student until he wins an audition, and Manhatten is college number 3. Good luck, guy!

Cory has a real nice, huge (I actually had to edit some of it for size out of consideration for our less focused (sister-in-law) readers) recommend post. And for the record this is the last list I have in the vaults, so for this to continue some friends need to start recommending! Don't be timid. No one is judging your picks, just happily accepting your recommendations. I promise. Email them to hopkinak@gmail.com And without further ado, Cory recommends:

Music:

Bjork--Medulla, Vespertine
Bob Dylan--The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Explosions in the Sky--The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place
The Roots--Things Fall Apart
K-OS--Atlantis
Sage Francis--Personal Journals
Killswitch Engage--Alive or Just Breathing
Krakatoa--Channel Static Blackout
Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell
The Julliard Quartet--Bartok String Quartets
Pablo Casals--Bach Cello Suites
Rostropovich--Shostakovich Cello Concerto

Books:

Vladimir Nabakov--Lolita
Irvine Welsh--Trainspotting
Vonnegut--Slaughterhouse Five
Douglas Hofstadter--Metamagical Themas
Ayn Rand--Atlas Shrugged
Fyodor Dostoevsky--Crime and Punishment

Film:

Amelie
Donnie Darko
Almost Famous
Man On Fire
Equilibrium
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

Art:

Dali
M.C. Escher

Miscellaneous:

Television:
Arrested Development
Entourage
The Office (British version)
Heroes (1st Season)

Cheap At Half the Price--Fred Frith

Fred Frith is a musician, composer, improviser, guitarist and more most commonly associated with the avant-garde side of jazz and improvised music. He is a musician that I haven't spent very much time familiarizing myself with, but one who I have always known I would enjoy and need to start listening to. I link to wikipedia a lot, but they have a pretty comprehensive description of him here if you are interested in learning more about the guy. Some of his work that I have checked out (not too in depth) and enjoyed is the band Skeleton Crew with Tom Cora, a duo album with Anthony Braxton, and some recordings with John Zorn. If you are looking for more stuff to check out perhaps Huff will chime in here and point you in the right direction.

The album we have today, and our last post from the TJ Huff list (our inaugural friends recommend list!) is Fred Frith's Cheap At Half the Price. TJ has been getting on me for a long time to listen to this one, even going as far as sneaking it on my ipod some months ago. It had been sitting there untouched until last week when I got TJ's recommend list and I figured it was probably time to give it a chance. I must admit, I am completely in love with this album now. It is eclectic beyond description with influences drawn from anywhere and everywhere. It is (supposedly) the first album Fred Frith sings on, which he does on about half the tracks, the other half of the album being instrumental. I would never call this a "pop" album but it is definitely pop-influenced (whatever that means) and much much more accessible that I expected from the first Fred Frith album I really checked out. If you consider yourself drawn to singers with weird and unconventional voices this is something for you. At first listen it reminded me of a mix between They Might Be Giants, Devo, and Servotron, but edgier and more interesting. A documentary about Frith titled Step Across the Border was released in 1990 and I definitely intend to check it out to learn more.

I wish I could post the whole album here so you could listen to how different each track is, but I can't. You can't even upload audio by itself to this site so I've set one of the tracks from Cheap At Half the Price to a couple of pictures of Frith in imovie. Don't mind the pictures...I just put them there so the screen wouldn't be black the whole time. This track is from the vocal half of the album and is called "The Welcome". It was very hard to choose just one, but I think this captures the mood and charm of what he does through the whole album and makes you feel happy in an off-center kind of way. Really, if you like slightly strange music you should have this album.




That might have been too short. Here is one more track off the album to give you more of an idea. Sorry, no pictures with this one just the audio. This is "Cap the Knife". I also really love "Some Clouds Don't," and "Some Clouds Do" and also how the track "Absent Friends" sounds like Riverdance meets the Shire. Enjoy!

The Big Snit (1985)--Richard Condie

This is a short ten-minute animation by Canadian film-maker Richard Condie. I'll be honest and say that I really wasn't a fan of this after my initial viewing, but this second time it really started to grow on me. Huff really loves this one. The short exchanges between the husband and wife are my favorite parts, and I really love when he says he isn't sawing. Pretty good. This will only take up ten minutes of your day, so take a look. More info on Richard Condie at his website.

Cello Concerto--Aram Khachaturian

I am pretty sure every single one of my readers is familiar with the work of Soviet-Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian. I would actually bet money on this. If you think you are not familiar with his work stop reading this post now and call me on the phone and bet me some money on this. A lot of money, I would put it up. The reason I am so confident in this is because if you have ever been to the circus and seen dogs jumping through hoops, or a person spinning plates on TV, or a guy on a unicycle Khachaturian's Sabre Dance has probably been playing in the background. It has also been used in the Simpsons, and is the theme music for the Buffalo Sabres hockey team. If you are still unsure how Sabre Dance goes here is a youtube clip:



Now if you recognize this and are a friend of mine, chances are you have experienced my favorite pop culture reference to Sabre Dance. Remember Pee-Wee's Big Adventure? Remember that amazing scene of Pee-Wee making his breakfast and then pouring Mr. T cereal all over his waffles? OK, so the music playing isn't Sabre Dance. It is Breakfast Machine by Danny Elfman (who scores all of Tim Burton's films), but check out the scene below and pay attention to the music (it also plays throughout the rest of the movie). There is no way that Sabre Dance wasn't the direct influence for the mood and character of Breakfast Machine. See for yourself:



So there is your introduction to the great composer Aram Khachaturian. Although Sabre Dance is his most well-known work I would definitely not consider it his finest. I haven't actually heard the Cello Concerto recommended by Huff in it's entirety, just this clip of a child-prodigy playing one movement of it on Youtube (sorry for all the youtube today).



The clip did interest me enough to download the whole three-movement work when my downloads refresh on emusic.com. If you are looking to expand your classical horizons you could do worse than to start with the work of Khachaturian. The larger-scale orchestral works might be a good place to begin. The Suite from Spartacus is another very popular work which has been featured in a number of movies. Additionally, Sabre Dance is just one small part of the ballet Gayane, and although I have beaten the Youtube clips into the ground today one more example of Khachaturian's work, also from Gayane, is this classic scene from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssy:



Additionally since the whole basis of this blog is recommendations and since I already mentioned Danny Elfman in this post, I would urge you to check him out as well. My personal favorite is the score to Edward Scissorhands, but there are plenty of others out there as well (the original Batman, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Big Fish all come to mind immediately).

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close--Jonathon Safron Foer

Not only does our most recent poster TJ Huff recommend this book, but I also strongly urge you to read it. If I were to submit one of these silly lists this would be in the top-5 of my must read picks. After a year or two of TJ telling me I had to read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close I finally broke down and bought it used off Amazon.com for $4.00. You can currently get it there at the amazingly low price of $3.05. Crazy!

It usually takes me a long time to read a book...like months. This isn't because I am stupid (it may be partially because I am stupid) or a slow reader. It just tends to take me a while to get involved in a book, and I end up reading most of them a few pages at a time over the course of a couple of months. This, however, is one of those books that as soon as I picked up I couldn't stop reading and ended up finishing it in two days. If you want a nice big-word explanation of the book you can check this summary out over at Wikipedia.

Basically it is the story of a boy named Oskar (I think he is 12, he might be 9, but I think 12, but maybe 9 now that I really think about it) dealing with the loss of his father who was killed in the Septemeber 11 attacks. He goes on a city-wide search (in NYC) looking for the owner of a key he found in his father's room. Now, the book has its share of very saddening moments as could be expected. As Oskar would say some of it makes you "wear heavy boots." But what I loved most about the book is how these sad parts are paired with funny...really funny, like some of the funniest things I have read in a book, like LOL funny, parts. The overall effect of this is what TJ calls happy-sad, or beautiful-sad...I'm sure everyone can think of an example of a happy-sad thing they love. Happy-sad is sort of the same as salty-sweet, which is why things like chocolate-covered pretzels are so good. It is also why life-long friend (and weirdo) Matthayes dips his french fries in his frosty when eating at Wendy's. A lot of songs are happy-sad, one of my favorites being Martha by Tom Waits, which you can check out here. Sad because what he's talking about is so depressing, but happy because the song is just so good. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is this same kind of thing. I urge fellow Friends Recommend readers to leave their favorite happy-sad things in comment form. I'm dying to know! I'll leave you with this excerpt from the second page of Extremely Loud:

My first jujitsu class was three and a half months ago. Self-defense was something that I was extremely curious about, for obvious reasons, and Mom thought it would be good for me to have a physical activity besides tambourining, so my first jujitsu class was three and a half months ago. There were fourteen kids in the class, and we all had on neat white robes. We practiced bowing, and then we were all sitting down Native American style, and then Sensei Mark asked me to go over to him. "Kick my privates," he told me. That made me feel self-conscious. "Excusez-moi?" I told him. He spread his legs and told me, "I want you to kick my privates as hard as you can." He put his hands at his sides, and took a breath in, and closed his eyes, and that's how I knew that he actually meant business. "Jose," I told him, and inside I was thinking, What the? He told me, "Go on, guy. Destroy my privates." "Destroy your privates?" With his eyes still closed he cracked up a lot and said, "You couldn't destroy my privates if you tried. That's what's going on here. This is a demonstration of the well-trained body's ability to absorb a direct blow. Now destroy my privates." I told him, "I'm a pacifist," and since most people my age don't know what that means, I turned around and told the others, "I don't think it's right to destroy people's privates. Ever." Sensei Mark said, "Can I ask you something?" I turned back around and told him "'Can I ask you something?' is asking me something." He said, "Do you have dreams of becoming a jujitsu master?" "No," I told him, even thought I don't have dreams of running the family jewelry business anymore. He said "Do you want to know how a jujitsu student becomes a jujitsu master?" "I want to know everything," I told him, but that isn't true anymore either. He told me "A jujitsu student becomes a jujitsu master by destroying his master's privates." I told him, "That's fascinating." My last jujitsu class was three and a half months ago.

Timothy J. Huff

TJ Huff was the first friend I made at JMU when we both started college in 1999. We played in jazz band together, he on guitar and myself on bass, so we were in very close proximity. His feet smelled terrible. He claimed this was because he went all summer without wearing socks in the same sandles, I think it must have been some sort of foot problem. At the time he also claimed to be a transfer student from another college, which I recently found out was a blatant lie. Since 1999 he has been one of my very best friends, and a frequent recommender of great things for me to check out. He is a fantastic artist and his creations can be viewed and heard at www.huffart.com He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY with his great lady friend Fiamma and two fun cats who have seven legs between the two of them. Pictured here is self portrait of the man himself, printed from a woodcut in which he gave himself a not-at-all-exagerrated beard. And on to our first batch of recommends:

Music:

Moondog
Fred Frith--Cheap at Half the Price
Shugo Tokumaru--Night Piece, Exit
Ground Zero--Grande Pikenese Opera
Aram Khachaturian--Cello Concerto
John Coltrane--One Down, One Up, solo on Walkin' from Miles Davis in Stockholm 1960

Books:

Any Haruki Murakami (especially Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore)
Vonnegut--Welcome to the Monkeyhouse (short stories)
Jonathan Safran Foer--Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Ernest Hemingway--Old Man and the Sea
Nicholson Baker--Box of Matches

Film:

Jan Svankmejer shorts
The Big Snit Animation

Art:

Manet--Execution of Emperor Maximilian (Boston MFA Version)
Degas--David and Goliath
Piero Manzoni--Artist Feces
Jacques Hnizdovsky prints
Leonard Baskin
Euan Uglow paintings

Miscellaneous:

Food/Drink:
Dalessandro's cheesesteak (Philadelphia)
Grimaldi's pepperoni and extra basil pizza (Brooklyn)
Dumont cheeseburger (Brooklyn)
Old Speckled Hen English Ale
Black Boss Porter
Don Fulano Tequila (Mexico)


And starting Monday you will get my take on some of these recommendations from TJ. Exciting!

Before We Get Started (edit)

Tomorrow is our first post and it should be real nice. At the recommendation of a few highly critical family members I have decided to try to update daily. Realizing that people only read blogs as a way to waste time at the office, I have decided to update on weekdays. So we will have the friend-of-the-week's list posted tomorrow, and then the Monday-Thursday after that I will pick one thing from the list to comment on and give my two cents, for whatever that is worth. Also, this solves Chris Myers' complaint of me not actually doing anything at all for this blog.

And Keep in Mind

You aren't necessarily recommending to me personally, but more so to the entire bunch (couple) of people who are reading this blog. The interest is in the stuff that has affected you the most, not what you think will affect me the most, or even what you think will affect anyone else. Is that the proper affect, or is it effect? Knowhatimsaying? So basically just send me your all-time favorite things, and I will let them be known to the rest of the internet world.

The How and the Why

OK, friends. The idea for this blog came to me recently after finishing reading Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins. It was recommended to me by one friend and one family member, and I had no interest in reading it. I reluctantly read it and it became one of my favorite books immediately. Then I realized that most of the great things I am aware of in the area of the arts have come as a recommendation from a friend or friend of friends. So the idea is this. Every Friday I will feature a new friend of mine, and they will give their favorite picks in the areas of music, film, literature, television, etc. The idea is that if something is good enough to be a friends' all-time-favorite, or life-changing album, movie, or book, then it is probably worth checking out. There is no limit to the amount of things that you can recommend, but it should be things that you really love, not just the last book you read. You are not recommending to ME necessarily, but sharing your favorite things that hopefully others will be inclined to check out for themselves.

Basically I will post these things in the order they come in and a new one will go up every Friday morning. The format will be me introducing this friend, how I know them, what they do, and then I'll post their list of recommendations. Then starting Monday the following week I try to highlight something from the blog, and discuss it in depth. I do this for four things on the list (Mon-Thurs) and then Friday we start all over with a new person.

If you are not officially my friend and you came across this blog by accident, feel free to join in. Send me your picks and I will eventually post them. My email is hopkinak@hotmail.com Also, there will be a miscellaneous section so it doesn't have to be limited to just music, movies, art, and books. If Jeff Weber wants to recommend food I will gladly relay his recommendations to you.

Adam.