Getting Curious With All Y'Alls

Hello everyone!!!

I will be this week's host of the Tuesday Show. I first met Adam when I was 12. We both grew up in west Glen Burnie. I had been expelled from school and Adam's parents couldn't afford to send him. As fate would have it, we both ended up at Arthur Slade Day Care, Monday through Friday, 7AM to 3:30PM. Along with our friend Karl, Adam and I made the most of our time together. We played Mario Brothers, sang hymns and Mr. Joshua taught us to climb trees. In the spring of 1994, upon having enrolled in high school, we helped remodel the Fabulous Whispers Restaurant and Lounge as our "last hurrah." I'll never forget those times.

I had a hard time choosing today's topic. Don't get me wrong. There's a lot of good stuff left to explore. Its just that I have to dedicate some time to actually exploring it. Its gonna be hard for me to say anything substantial about art. I can say that I love sleeveface a lot, but i don't know that I have a thousand words on it. These books are probably pretty long. These movies...shorter, but long. TV is somewhere between books and movies. I don't want to talk music two weeks in a row. I have to wait for the "right moment" to talk about food. And I don't want to talk about my own recommendations.

Which only really leaves "be curious" from Heather Van De Mark's list. Heather's list included far more intangibles than everyone else's. Its like a poor man's Mastercard commercial. I'm declaring the latter half of her list to be my go-to whenever I'm stumped on something to talk about.

Be Curious. What does it all mean?

To me, it means that I'm supposed to spy on people. But in a flattering, non-threatening, lovable way. I'm going to now go through everyone who's done one of these things and list one or two "interesting" tidbits about them that I found by digging deep into the internets. I'm not about to embarrass anyone. Its just that sometimes, we can all be shy. We might be proud of something, but we don't want to tell others about it, because either you think its silly or you don't want to come off as a showboat, or, in some cases, you might just be too dead. So, I'm going to let everyone know your little secrets for you. You can thank me later.

Let's meet some people.

1. Adam Hopkins - Adam really hopes to ride the "Big O" in Montreal sometime soon and he's got a dog that loves to eat flies. Skateboarding doesn't owe him anything.
2. Timothy Huff - Unfortunately, Timothy passed away on October 16th, 2008. I wish he had stuck around long enough to see this.
   
3. Cory Palmer - Cory has a BA in Japanese, but now is unsure how "real worldy" such a degree is.
4. Eric Hopkins - Eric is a great artist and an island child. As his work develops, he need to spend more time in the air looking for the answers he was looking for as an island child. How does man fit into the natural world? He finds them as he move through the deep flat space of his paintings.
5. Jessica Matthews - Jessica told her eighth grade teacher that she wanted to write a book someday, but that day didn't come until some 20-odd years later when her youngest child was born. She tracked down said teacher and told her, "Sit on it, bitch."
6. Matt Smiley - Matt used to get frisky with some other dude on MTV.
7. Heather Van De Mark - This is not Heather's real name. The real Heather [Van Den Berg] finished in 177th when she participated in the Skunk Cabbage Classic Half Marathon. Congratulations, Heather!
   
8. Todd Hargest - When still living in the old country, Todd's surname was "Swanson." Like many immigrants, upon his arrival to the United States, Todd changed it to the more Americanized "Hargest," a shout out to his high school, James Hargest College, where he was known for hurdling goalies.
9. Michael Ward - In 2005, Michael was inducted into the "Ultime Combat de Clips" Hall of Fame, for his goofy cover version of the "Final Countdown."
10. Christopher Myers -I have married Kyle Minor twice, but only once while wearing my good luck kilt. Knock on wood.
    
11. George French - Even after retiring on February 1st from the Telegram and Gazette, George is still remembered as being true to his word, having never succumbing to "Byline Fever."
    
12. Chris Laun - Chris is busy writing a Paul Simon parody song called "50 Ways To Maximize Your Brain Fitness." He's got all the ways down, but he's having a tough time figuring out rhyming names. He's currently stuck on "Make some blueberry pancakes, xxxxxxxxx." Good luck, Chris!
    
13. Mike Gittings - Mike and the neighborhood kids are possibly the most boring bike riders ever.
    
14. Ricky B - Ricky does not like to be forced to eat bread and salad, especially when he's on a budget. He's recently discovered shirts.
    
15. Megan Rogers - Megan is growing up too quickly!

Thanks guys! I love you all!

Winter to Spring and the albums that take me there...

This is a bit of a diversion from my normal format here at Friends Recommends. Part of it is due to it getting late, and me getting tired, and me wanting to go to bed. I still have some great post ideas to be hashed out in the near future, but I couldn't get any of them together for tonight. I did have to take a trip to Annapolis today for a gig in the morning, and when I left the gig at 2 o'clock it was really something beautiful out. It definitely let me know that Spring is on the way. I am always very interested in pairing music with the seasons change, and I think certain albums fit real well with specific seasonal change. For instance, Mingus' "Ah Um" is the perfect album for the first Fall day of the year after a hot summer. It just really sets the table for Fall to make its way in. Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago" struck me as a perfect Winter album, and I'll most likely try to remember that next November. You get the idea.

So this post today is simply to recommend my top-5 favorite albums for this time of year, when Spring begins to show its face, when windows get rolled down for the first time in a long time while driving. Some albums are just meant to be heard with the windows down and played loud. I'm not sure why these five albums are NewSpring albums for me...the might not even strike you that way at all. All I can say is that I've always enjoyed these five albums the most at this time of year. They are great any time, but they will be great great in the coming weeks. If you don't have a car, because you live in NY or something, I recommend them to be playing in the ipod on a walk to work, or as you emerge from the subway to sunshine in the eyes. OK, here we go. I dont think these are in order.

1. The Arcade Fire "Funeral"--This album had it's own entire post just a few weeks ago. But I remember mentioning that this is my favorite time of year to hear it, so just consider this a reminder.

2. Radiohead "The Bends"--This one is more because of memories of a trip to Ocean City sometime while I was still in college. I remember Prevas being there, and Matthayes (where's the list, a-hole?), and Cree, etc. Anyway, I remember Fake Plastic Trees being played a lot on that trip when we drove up and down Coastal Highway, so this is forever an enter Springtime kind of album for me.

3. The Flaming Lips "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots"--Oh man, this one is too perfect with the windows down. Just do it. Take my word. The Soft Bulletin is more of a coldish album for me, but this one screams Spring. When I walked out of my gig this afternoon this is the first album that came to mind for me to listen to. It was great. Real great. Here is a video of Beck covering Do You Realize? from Yoshemi. Not as good as the original, but it's fun to hear.

4. Pavement "Brighen The Corners"--My first Pavement album, thanks to BrotherHop. It is still my favorite even though no one seems to agree with me. Listen to the first three songs (Stereo, Shady Lane, Transport Is Arranged) and then tell me this isn't fighting for top honors in the Pavement discography. I don't believe you. Music video for Stereo.

5. Neutral Milk Hotel "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea"--Possibly the greatest indie rock album ever created, whatever that means. This is solid gold from start to finish. You should really have this one.

6. Beach Boys "Pet Sounds"--I might get crap for this because it is so obviously a summertime album, as the Beach Boys just seem to have that sound down. While that may be true, I can never hold off past the first few warm days before I have to listen to this one in it's entirety. One of the greatest albums EVER regardless of anything. God Only Knows might sit somewhere around number four on my list of all-time favorite songs. Great!

The Fountain (2006)--Darren Aronofsky

Let me begin this post by thanking, many times over, our guest bloggers for this week and for as long as they can stand to do it. I very much enjoyed each of the three posts from The Christopher Myers, Mike Ward, and Timothy J. Huff. Having four people currently posting here certainly keeps it fresh, and offers a much needed alternate perspective to my daily ramblings. I can't thank these guys enough. Over the course of a week they saved this blog from the path of destruction that it was headed it down. It may still be headed down that path, but it is at least going much, much slower now. And they seem to have big plans for future posts, so you will definitely want to stay tuned.

It looks like we have a Steve Colmus list coming in soon, and a second TJ, and I think a second BrotherHop as well. So it is still working like this: I post on Monday, TCM on Tuesdays, Wardo on Wednesdays, TJ on Thursdays, and lists on Fridays if we have them. If we don't have them I'll either do a second post for the week, or we'll have some rotational guest bloggers. Already, George and Colmus have expressed interest in guest blogging. That option is open to other people as well, if that have some insight they are dying to let loose via the world wide interweb. OK, great. Business taken care of. I hope the readers are enjoying the guest blog team posts as much as I am. Nothing quite on the level of a poopy Friendly's booth yet, but I'm sure we'll get there.

I had a couple of other ideas for a post today (it is great to have a couple ideas, BTW, and not be straining to come up with one!), but when I came to HSV's after my gig she had The Fountain just waiting to be watched. So we watched it, and I'm certainly glad that we did. She had already seen it, so had some clue as to what was going on, but I was left in the dark for the majority of the film. I am constantly impressed by this Darren Aronofsky fella. If you remember my rave reviews of The Wrestler from January, you know how much I enjoy this guys work. The Wrestler is still my favorite of his films, but I really enjoyed The Fountain and would recommend it to anyone else as well. Also as previously mentioned, Requiem For a Dream was cerainly an amazing accomplishment for the director, and I think the film was incredible...I just can't bring myself to recommend it freely like his other works. I remember loving Pi too, but saw it so long ago that I couldn't tell you a thing about it. Netflix, HSV?

Anyway, a plot summary of The Fountain is out of the question. To give a plot summary I would have to first understand what went on in the film, which I didn't, and need to watch again. There are three very interesting storylines occuring simultaneously, and I just need to see it again to keep everything straight. The storylines themselves are actually very easy to keep track of, because one is in the far past, one the present, and one the future. It is just how they all eventually unfold that left me a little confused. All of the three plotlines feature the character of Tom (or Tommy, or Tomas) play by Wolverine and his modern day wife is the leading lady played by Rachel Weisz. All three plotlines revolve around the idea of immortality (and mortality) with a central image being the Tree of Life. Of the four Aronofsky films I have seen, this is by far the most sci-fi/fantasy based and he does it very well.

The visuals in the film are out of this world, or stunning as one might call it. Really, I could have even less of an idea as to what was going on with the plot and would still enjoy the movie for the filming alone. You get a good idea of this from the trailor I've included below. You also get to hear some of the great film score by Clint Mansell (who scored Requiem and Pi as well), performed by awesome rockers Mogwai and The Kronos Quartet (who recorded the entire score for Requiem). Awesome, right? The second clip below gives you more of an idea of this soundtrack pairing. See this movie. If you buy it and don't like it, TJ will refund you in full. Clips...trailor first, clip for soundtrack purposes second:

MURAKAMI... MORE-RECCOMMI-ENDATIONS

and i am the final of these replacement muskateers of recomendeering. my name is tj. its a real short name... so sometimes easy to remember... but sometimes easy to forget... i don't mind if you do either. may i first preface the following text with an apology. i am a horrible writer (the grey suite can account for this) and i write with very little editing... so if this is wordy or choppy... please forgive me.

it seems like its protocol to talk about how we first met adam before getting into the actual recommending....so there i was... a freshman at james madison university, with no friends around... sticking my newborn-freshman head out into the open air of the beginnings of adulthood, when i come across'd adam hopkins. i am not sure if i first saw him with a skateboard or with his bass... but either way he seemed dorky enough to want to be my friend. he tells tale of me apparently lying to him about my origins and whereabouts... i have no recollection of this. i do recollect having horribly smelling feet at jazz band and him telling me that it offended his large nose. i also remember him saving my life as we were skating through the streets of harrisonburg va on at least one occasion. all in all, a good friend who needed some weight lifted of his internetty-shoulders and i'm here to help. the other 2 shoulder-relievers did a darn fine job with their first recommendings and i am honored to be a part of this team... i reeealllly hope i dont forget to keep it up.

ok... so with the recommendations...

i am going to refer back to mike gittings list when he recommended HARUKI MURAKAMI'S - WIND UP BIRD CHRONICLES. now this one is an easy one for me... so i thought i'd start here.

For those of you who are unaware of his writings at this point... you are in for a real treat. Murakami holds a special place for me. Perhaps its just because I can relate so easily to the plights of the protagonists, or at least the emotions they go through really are easy for me to associate with. I will continue to read his work for as long as I can see... and I will easily say his writings are my favorite reads. For a lamely brief intro to the author. He is a short, japanese man with a real keen interest in running and music, baseball and apparently writing great stories. He didnt start writing until he was 29... so for those of you out there thinking youre getting on in years to start something new, thats always a nice little treat to hear . I know about the shortness part because I went to an interview with him and we sat only a few feet away. he was seated on a raised platform but we were still eye to eye... and i think he looked at me. (" the baby looked at you?" - cheif wiggum) he was fielding an interview about his latest book WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING - which is another great book... not the wind up bird chronicles, so we'll talk about it another time. Anyways, I think he's 60 years old now, and he's got a great honesty and seemingly "aloof" quality about him which I really admire. When I say aloof, I am more talking about him keeping a distance from his stardom. He is quite popular world-wide... and sometimes characterized as a best-selling popular type novelist to which the elitists would snub up their noses at (they would also snub their noses as my hanging proposition in that previous sentence). Anyway, these qualities of Murakami come through in his novels beautifully as the protagonists usually are based on his life to some extent.

speaking of his life, here's a little pic of the old guy:

The novel at hand THE WIND UP BIRD CHRONICLES is Murakami's longest novel, and I must say it is the only one of his which gets a liiiitttle bit tired in the middle. The plot follows some odd events in a 30 yr oldish man named Toru Okada. He is on the receiving end of a fair amount of loss in the beginning of the novel. His cat, his job, and his wife all go missing and the events that unfold because of these missings fill out the rest of the novel. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that the novel also jumps back and forth chronologically as a second plot about the mongolian empire intertwines with the aforementioned plot. It is a very readable book, but also ( i found) quite complex.

Murakami's novels usually breakdown in 2 categories: some have fantastical elements such as talking cats, and the others are all too real in terms of the not only the scenarios, but the way the emotions come off the page and affected me as a reader. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles leans more to the fantastical side... not so much as Kafka on the Shore, but moreso than Norwegian Wood.

This is a good novel to start on if you want to become a Murakami Fan. However, keep in mind that its a long book. I also wouldnt stop here... i mean... i'd read them all, and actually i have... twice... but here are a couple other titles i suggest if you either (A) loved it and want more, or (B) found it too strange and want something a little different.

NORWEGIAN WOOD
SOUTH OF THE BORDER, WEST OF THE SUN
KAFKA ON THE SHORE.

lastly, what makes murakami a great element of this recommendation site is, his work is choc full of specific recommendations of his own... i would wager that every 20 pages or so he cites a specific work of music or literary work - and each of those references, if you take the initiative to follow up with further exploration turn out to be great recommendations as well

here's a sampling of his references:
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/murakami/site.php

so... i realize that the actual talk about THE WIND UP BIRD CHRONICLES was breif... and i sidetracked a bit.... but its a beautiful book and is worth the money and the time invested. I can't thanks Mike enough for bringing it to the table.

I'm new

Ahoy friendly readers! My name is Mike and it's my pleasure to be able to comment and offer my own insight to this blog. Hat's off to Adam for asking for my contribution. Adam didn't actually give me a lot of instruction about what to talk about, but to just comment on other people's recommendations (or some shit). For now I will be the writer of your Wednesdays. Anyhow, I thought I'd start kind of the same way new lists are presented and talk a bit about Friends Recommend creator Adam Hopkins. Maybe Adam doesn't remember this, but I first knew of him ten years ago, when he came to see my old band at Cafe Tattoo. At the time, he was taking bass lessons from the bass player in my band. I still very clearly remember my friend Greg telling me that his student Adam was coming to see us play, and I vividly have this picture in my mind of Adam standing with a friend of his in the back of the Cafe Tattoo in the shadows. I remember this so well because he was one of only five people there that night. The other band bailed at the last minute, so it was just us, and we got paid a total of $5. I never thought I'd be writing about that moment ten years later...but yeah, what a guy this Adam is. I feel like Adam asked me to do this because I tend to have a lot of enthusiasm for the things that I love. Someone recently said I am "like an eight year old who just won the spelling bee" (when I'm excited about something). I guess this is true. I love sharing the things that I love.

Anyway, I was thinking about what my first analysis was going to be, and decided to go on a bit of a tangent and talk about a topic Chris Myers and I discussed a few nights ago; Tom Green. Remember this guy?




His bits were absolutely classic. Manic comedy at it's best. At first glance his humor seems inane, low brow and cheap...and it is, but it's also really smart at the same time. He had quite a few imitators, including Jackass, and helped spawn viral comedy that is now so prevalent on the web. This bit is my favorite, where he pranks his parents by painting "Lesbian Sluts" on the hood of his dad's car. His parents are so tolerant of him also, because he pranks them over and over and they always forgive him. Take a look.



The reason I got on this topic is because right now Tom Green is on Celebrity Apprentice, and while he definitely has calmed down a whole lot, he still rubs people the wrong way. The people who hate him most (Herschel Walker and figure skater Scott Hamilton) seem to have no creative bone in their body. Tom is great on this show, and you get to see just how smart he is.

Anyway, that's it for this week. Next week, I'll try to go back on topic and talk about someone's recommend.

Laura Cantrell - When The Roses Bloom Again

Hello everyone. I am going to write Adam's blog today.
[editor's note: If I was Stephen King, I would say, "Uncle Stevie's gonna be your driver today, kiddies!"]

Who I really am is Chris Myers, sometimes known as The Christopher Myers around these parts. I would previously ramble at The French Inhaler blog, but that quickly turned into a dream diary or something. I'm not sure when I met Adam Hopkins. The first time I remember seeing him was in high school when I noticed that he was part of some weird cult that sat in a hallway all the day long and refused to go to class. And in the odd chance that they weren't sitting in this hallway, you could tell they were part of this cult because they had "Mr. Belvadere" [sic] written in white-out on their backpacks. To this day, I don't understand how he, like I the year before him, won the "Dumb Kids Math Award" by just sitting in that hallway all day. Because of that, I would argue that I haven't met the real Adam Hopkins, yet.

For my first post, in true Friends Recommend fashion, I'm going to ramble on about a Recommend that was already very near and dear to my heart. This one was mentioned on my good friend Ricky B's list:



I wouldn't say that I hated country music growing up. I sorta appreciated the Dan Seals Greatest Hits tape that my mom would play in the car. And there were worse things than the early-nineties WPOC that my dad would play in his truck. But I wouldn't say that I loved it.

In late 2000, I finally bought a two-fer of Gram Parson's "GP/Grievous Angel." From what I could gather, the style of music that I loved [Wilco, Evan Dando...] was an amalgamation of Big Star and Gram Parsons. Having gotten into Big Star [the pop side of things] a few years earlier, the time had finally come for me to take the leap and explore the more country side of the equation. Spend a week with GP, and you'll never again be fearful of the classic country drawl.

Fast forward six months and I owned everything that Gram Parsons had ever recorded. I had a girlfriend from Texas that introduced to me a few great Kenny Rogers songs and I rediscovered my love for this one:



Having never seen that video before until a few minutes ago, I can now safely declare Dan Seals as being my left-handed role model. I might discuss this video in full in a future blog. One of you needs to recommend it first, so please do it now!

At this point, it was debatable whether or not I knew precisely what Country Music was.

Then came July 12th, 2001: the fateful night when I first saw this beautifully-voiced Laura Cantrell perform. It says a lot about her performance that although I went to the show to see the headliner, my all-time favorite Teenage Fanclub, I found myself humming her "Not The Tremblin' Kind" and "Pile of Woe" on the drive home instead.

Over the course of the next month, I purchased both of her albums, "Not The Tremblin' Kind" and the apple of Ricky's eye, "When The Roses Bloom Again."

I agree with Ricky. This is a Top-5 album. It has usurped the Teenage Fanclub. The Gram Parsons. The Big Star. The Wilco. The Evan Dando.

It was the true impetus for me falling in love with Dolly Parton, discovering the Louvin Brothers and learning how to look past Lucinda Williams' crazy-ass voice [and to delete all of her self-indulgent/bluesy stuff from my iTunes].

The title track, coincidentally, was arranged by Wilco during the Mermaid Avenue sessions. They also recorded a version for the Chelsea Walls soundtrack, but LC's is truly the definitive version.



Recently, my fellow FR poster Michael Ward spearheaded a project where I was asked to make a CD of my Top 60 Minutes of music - songs that I could listen to at any time, any place and never tire of. The majority of the songs were released before I was born. The opening track to this album, "Too Late For Tonight," was the most modern song on the disc. The song is disturbing absent from the internet, but it is 2.5 minutes of pure country-pop magic. A beautifully weaved representation of how it feels to be apart from your true love:

I've been sittin' all night,
Listenin' to my records,
Makin' up my mind.
I'd call you up,
But I'm never on time,
And it's too late for tonight.

If you weren't so far away,
I'd just ring you up:
Got a lot to say.
But the city sky,
Soon will see it's first light.
And it's too late for tonight.

You brought me home one night and left me,
Standing on your stairs.
Turned around to lock your door,
But I wasn't even there.

That was a long time ago,
I'm thinkin', laughing:
An' I miss you so.
An' I'm all right,
But I can't close my eyes,
An' it's too late for tonight.

The hours are long and quiet,
An' it's drifting through my mind.
Some sweet, sultry night,
You'll be by my side.

I can see the sky so clearly now,
The silver an' fiery moon.
Oh, the record player humming so dearly,
In the other room.

Was it BJ, 1972?
He's wishin', he's hopin',
And he's feelin' blue.
An' I'm floating,
On a sweet lullaby,
An' it's too late for tonight.

Oh, goodnight, my dear, goodnight.

I'm sure you enjoyed having to scroll quickly past those lyrics. I don't know why I posted them. One of the greatest tips I can give to any sort of reader is to ignore anything that's indented or italicized. Its always tangential. Let's call that the "Rule of I."

Like a lot of great country singers, Cantrell only had a hand in writing 1/3 of the songs on the album, but has such an amazing ability to choose cover songs that she easily fools you into thinking that she wrote it all. She owns everything she sings. This album and its predecessor are perfectly crafted albums. "Yonder Comes A Freight Train" is the only hiccup on this one, but relatively speaking to some other singers, its hardly an atrocity.

Ricky's favorite song on the album, "Early Years," is also not easily represented on the internets. When I'm asked to do my top 120 minutes of music, this one would easily make the cut, along with a couple others from this album..."Mountain Fern," "Oh So Many Years," "Vaguest Idea." Holy crap, this is a great album.

I'm glad that I have Ricky to talk with about LC. We've driven to Philadelphia twice with the intention of seeing her perfom. Unfortunately, we only saw her once, because the first time, we accidentally got to the venue about a day too late. My bad. When we did actually get our act together to show up at the right place and time, it was to our disappointment that she was opening for some non-descript singer and was relegated to only a 40 minute set or so. That didn't stop her from absolutely wowwing us, regardless. Afterwards, we found Laura at the bar and told her how much we loved her and she made us feel like we were the greatest guys in the world. Oh man, that lady.

A New Era of Friends Recommends

Perhaps this blog is still a little young to be entering a new era, but big changes happen starting today. Well, starting Monday. Actually technically starting Tuesday. Regardless, next week is the start of a whole new Friends Recommend. The reason for this change is that lately I've had a very hard time keeping up with blog posts, and have been unable to live up to my initial promise of posting every weekday with a new recommendation. So instead of giving up on the blog (the original plan) or posting less frequently (the second version of the plan) I will get by with a little help from my friends. I have enlisted three Friends Recommends superstars to assist with the posting duties, and bring you different angles and takes on each of these great lists. Each of these people have submitted a list already, and are no strangers to this blog. I am going to continue personally posting on Fridays, with new lists whenever we get them (now that I have other reviewers, I might do one of these myself). And I will also post on Mondays, with my typical one-sided reviews of things that you recommend to me. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we will have guest bloggers taking over the duties and we can expect great things from them. Without further ado, I give you the new faces of Friends Recommend:

Tuesdays--The Christopher Myers


Wednesdays--Mike Ward


Thursdays--Timothy J. Huff



A little help...(when are they going to release this on DVD?)