This is a quick little post.  Enjoy this recording, off of vinyl, of the DJ Lelewel track Grand Piano.

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I realized while posting this that I have made the assumption that this tape was from a boy to a girl.  Investigating and analyzing that intuition has me believing the sophistication of all possible situations that might have inspired someone to make this tape.  I can believe that he made it for Heather, mixing romantic music with movie samples that meant something to him.  Now as any guy who made a mix tape for a girl knows is that you want her to enjoy the music.  Amateurs will use obvious songs, like Wonderful Tonight by Clapton.

The movie High Fidelity teaches us that it’s not what you are like, it’s what you like.  So you begin to use music that shows off your awesome taste in music.  Making this tape wasn’t easy either.  So the time and dedication, along with the desire to show off makes me lean towards a male making this for a female, meaning he gave this to Heather.  ( I am fully aware that he might be a she )

Outside of the peacocking a mix tape is, the source material is also very masculine.  This side starts out with many quotes from The Princess Bride our favorite Robin Williams movie, Dead Poet’s Society.  Sorry Patch Adams fans.   Only boys like Dead Poet’s Society.  But then again, maybe Heather knows so much about her man, and so much about the music they love, that when he was away she wanted him to always have “All The Comfort’s of Heather”.

Either way, the B-side of the tape does prove one thing – one of them was a Canadian.  Enjoy the music.

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At the end of the school year, just like any moving day in a dense residential area, there are a lot of things left behind.  Objects of our life that give memories physical proof sift out as we move along.  Sometimes others catch it before it is gone forever.  Ever get in a bidding war on Ebay for a bundle of Kodachrome slides of some family from what might be 1963?  Obtaining this mix tape was much easier.

Our dorms at St. Johns in New Mexico had recycling bins and, at the end of the school year there was a box of tapes next to them.  Included was this gem.  I think I have it still, somewhere.  A well made mix tape, and written on it the title:

All The Comforts Of Heather

Harry Connick Junior and Dead Poets Society samples!  Enjoy, or beware, however your tastes lean.  I do realize that in this Facebook age I may currently be Friendfaced with the creator and or recipient directly or by a couple of degrees.  I hope this does not embarrass or offend you by my posting this.  I do think in all seriousness that this is an excellent mixtape.  I made mixtapes.  I know now we can just download all these samples or movies and put this together with one hand (the other one being covered in Cheeto cheez flavor crystals).  Then, you had to hit record and stop at the pristine, correct moments.  Hell, the samples had to be done with a microphone to speaker connection with AIR as the transfer medium.  No ctrl-c then ctrl-v.  It meant something so much more to make a mix for someone, especially one that I am sure whose setlist of music and movie samples was well planned in a non-college rule notebook, with blue erasable ink.

And then sifted out of someone’s life in a cardboard box as they left that desert campus at the foot of Montesol.  I am happy to let your work live on this place we call, intertubenettron.

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House Music.  Enjoy this recording of Bad Boy Bill from around 1990.  I work next door to Excalibur night club here in Chicago, but in the late 80′s and early 90′s it was The Limelight.  All ages dancing somehow on the weekend.  Can you imagine any club being all ages on the weekend, much less one in Downtown Chicago?  When it ended, we had to move our dancing to Medusa’s.  Both places awesome, both places just way too much fun.  And good old Chicago House Music.  Enjoy this.  And House Music is not dead.  Just watch Bob’s Burgers.

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As much as I love zombies, let them go. I mean, how much longer until there is a zombie version of Plato’s Symposium?

The new hotness: Alternate Universes. Not Steampunk. Sorry, Steampunk was cool, but now it’s just tired. Not to say there isn’t room for other *punks. I predict the next big one is Reaganpunk; you know, the one where future/current technology is filtered through 64 color crt displays, tape databases, and prominent CCCP logos.
However, *punk is just a visual depiction of alternate universes, to a certain extent. To me, *punk is an extension of our distrust of knowledge we don’t understand and the alchemists who are the gatekeepers; this technology was present in that era, but the knowledge was coveted, the manufacturing infrastructure not developed. Those who could afford it, kept it to themselves and never shared, therefore it was lost when we lost the artificers, or became a tool of the illuminati.

Alternate universes are more fun. They are personal. No matter how much we like to think of the big picture, and what the world would’ve been like had Hitler become a successful artist, it’s more about us. What would my life be like if there were other choices? What would it have been like for my parents, how would they be different?  It’s not about sticking goatees on people and saying they are evil.

Of course I am working on an alternate universe story, but not the usual kind. It’s not about exploring a fully fleshed alternate universe, but about examining the path the reality we are living in has followed. Music plays a big part, so enjoy this soundtrack. Yes, the music plays a part in the story. Get ready to buy my books!

Non and Other

One day I found a lot of records and a 1968 Vincent Bell Signature Series Coral Electric guitar.  I had dreamt of such things for years.  July 4th a few years back, we were walking home and decided to pass by a house that was being rehabbed.  The workers were regularly leaving interesting looking furniture out back.  This was usually in the morning, so when we walked by at night around 10, we weren’t expecting anything.  Especially not what we did find; about 100 records including pretty much every Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Traffic album.  2 Abbey Roads, and what I had been hoping was an unpeeled Yesterday and Today, but alas was not.  There is also a lot of great jazz.  The records are for the most part in mint condition.  After catching my breath on the record find, I looked on the ground and noticed a shadowy shape that looked like a guitar case.  I picked it up, expecting it to be empty, but it’s weight told me otherwise.  In my haste to open the case I overlooked one of the latches and almost tore the case apart, but once open I almost fainted.

I had heard the myth of people traveling in Mexico and finding a lost stack of 1953 Les Pauls for US$100 dollars each, so when I saw the beautiful, archtop, firefly hollow body guitar inside, I was in heaven.  Ok, it wasn’t a Les Paul, but it is awesome.  A Coral Electric Vincent Bell Signature Series circa 1968 Worth about $600, but priceless to me.  Excellent action, super solid construction, incredible sound, and best of all, working electrics.  Definitely well taken care of.  Once I learned who Vincent Bell was, I was even happier.  He was inventor of the electric sitar, and played on the soundtracks of Barbarella, Twin Peaks, Family Guy, G.I. Joe, and Doug Hennings’ Magic Show.

I can only guess that the previous owner of the records and guitar is dead.  I mean, how else do such things end up in the trash?  Either dead or in such a state that he left these things behind and could not pass them on responsibly.  Fortunately, they fell in to the hands of people who appreciate them.  As I get my recording abilities back on line, I will be posting more.  I have a few albums already digitized, but want to do more.

The Persuasive Trombone of Urbie Green has been remastered on to CD, but it is no longer in print.  And my recordings are from vinyl with only the most egregious snaps and crackles removed.  So enjoy this teaser track as I prepare the rest of the album.

As a bonus, enjoy this Langhorne Slim video.  Gina and I had shown up to one of his shows at Ronny’s on California way too early.  Early enough that it was only us, Langhorne and some girls hitting on him.  We left before he played because we were tired.  But it was on the walk home that we found the guitar and records.  Thanks Langhorne!

Licensed to Ill

I like to communicate, verbally and visually. I avail myself to all the tools that facilitate that process. As a creative person, one with an ego that he can control at the opportune times, the concept of celebrity intrigues me. I am not trying to be famous, nor do I really want to be. One fallacy that the cult of celebrity propagates is that a craft is not worth doing unless one can be famous doing it. The fact is that craft is it’s own reward. The people who became known for did so through a combination of skill, luck, and hustling.

My big concern is why we elevate certain crafts above others and what does that mean. I’m not going to try to answer it in one post. Consider this a contribution to an extended dialogue that has been going on for quite some time. I’m not so eloquent to give answers as I am to create new questions. As someone who decided relatively late in life to start a creative career, I find that the spectrum of people who work creatively, career artists, are incommensurate with the cult of celebrity. As I said before, being famous is a different career than being creative.

I must pause to point you to Seth Godin’s blog. Wiki him if you have never heard of him. He has great tips on marketing, tips on how to be a non-obnoxious self promoter, and tips on how to be generally awesome. As I was writing out my thoughts on celebrity, he was posting his opinion on celebrity. Specifically, why we do elevate anyone to that status and what it means.  You can click through and read it.  It is short, I will wait.  It will be a nice segue way into the next paragraph.

Here goes my “True Story Of Celebrity”. The year is 1986. I had just finished my first year at Latin, and was hanging out downtown with classmates. I was feeling all growsed up. I forget who I was with that day. Dan Schlade and Billy Morrisey? Either way, near the intersection of Division and State/Rush was a Rose Records. Man I miss record stores. At that Rose Records I bought the cassette for The Beastie Boys’ Licensed To Ill. It was my first big boy music tape purchase. And I rocked out to it.

My sister is a few years older than me, and was a sophomore in high school. She always had people calling the house, and I got to know who regularly called. One day I get a call asking for my sister, I ask who it is and he tells me his name is Mike. I know my sister knows a Mike Nisk, but he’s never called the house. Hmmmmmm.

Well, a classmate of my sister’s had a relative who was dating one of the Beastie Boys back in New York. In the video for “Fight For Your Right”, I believe she’s the girl that gets pulled onto the couch and kissed by one of the Beasties (I know, I still can’t tell them apart). My sister and her classmate went to see the Beasties on their first tour (I still have the t-shirt, and it barely fits). Because they knew someone who knew someone they also got backstage passes and had some interaction with the Beasties. I’m not being intentionally vague about lurid details. From what I recall, the Boys were wasted and she only got to meet them briefly.

However, someone was smitten, because I later found out that the Mike on the phone was Michael Diamond, AKA Mike D of the Beastie Boys. He called our house. Remember there were ONLY landlines then. I answered the phone, and yelled to my sister about someone named Mike on the phone. That was pretty damn cool. My sister told me that he was calling to get together and party next time they were in town. I don’t think she took him up on the offer. Which is too bad because I could have had a Beastie Boy as a brother-in-law and always have a free place to stay when I was in New York.

If it was Paul’s Boutique era Beastie Boys I would’ve been starstruck. As it was then, I thought it was really damn cool to have talked to someone I had seen on Friday Night Videos. I probably would’ve had the same reaction if Steve Ray Vaughan or Herbie Hancock had called. Cold Shot and Rockit, respectively.

Saturated with media growing up, it’s easy to give in to idolatry. Then I started having a lot of weird human interaction with people who had only occupied this artificial mythological station. Once I started to accept my creativity (it’s kinda like coming out of the closet, but with less sex), you realize that creation is damn hard work. Add it with the realization that I’m usually not the first person to feel or think what I am, and I realized how human and chaotic the whole world was. At the root of it all is working at it, and facing insecurities and doubts about yourself.

Still, in my head, I elevate others based on their achievements working in a craft I respect and sometimes practice. For me that’s what it is all about. If Neil Young and Jack Kirby happened to be in the same room as me, I would probably start twitching and stuttering. When I did get a question out, it would probably be a question about drop-d tuning or blocking out my panels. I really don’t care about people’s personal lives until they become personal to me.

On that note, next installment of this series will tell you how I just missed being married to Salma Hayek. True story. The fact that I am not is totally my sister’s fault too.

I’ve reinvented The Mewl several times.  That’s the person and the blog.  I’m the person.  At least I think I’m people.  Who knows.  I’ve got plans for this site and some others.  Big plans.  The kind Peter Gabriel has.

I am a sucker for book covers.  Same with album covers.  As we move towards digital storage, the need for quick, iconic identification is not dead.  It’s more important than ever.  Here goes Euclid’s Elements with a spiffy design I whipped up.  “I will follow him until that point of which I have no part of Eu – clid.”  This is just one element (see what I did) of something I am working on.  The biggest danger of going digital is that a digital culture relies on a different, somewhat more fragile infrastructure than an analog one.  If I don’t have electricity, digital is pointless.  The beauty of Euclid’s Elements is that it is so successful without using numerals; math through tones.

Included in this post is another song by Jerm Boor. 

5 Second Project from Sam Prus on Vimeo.

Originally I was a little more ambitious with my animation vision, but I’m just getting to know the Cinema 4D dynamics and didn’t have time to fully get a grip on the technical.  So last minute inspiration/change gave me this one.  I need to smooth the camera a little, I didn’t have time to fine tune it further.  I dunno, I kinda like it. And even though it is done and in, I would still like to fix it a little, just because I was having fun making pixels.

The best part was this morning I saw this poster for an upcoming Nacho Vigalondo film.  Get to know his name because he’s a really fun film maker, meaning you can see how much fun he has making movies.

I am a big fan of Nacho Vigalondo.  Granted, I’ve only seen “7:35″ and Timecrimes, but I know what I like.  I get the same visual taste from his films that I do from Kubrick and the Coens.   Good company for sure.  I don’t have the right words, as this isn’t an intellectual comparison, but a visceral one.  It might have something to do with their color choices, visual compositions, and pacing.  And the feeling that there is some invisible volumetric fog floating through his scenes and affecting the light but not the crispness.
Nacho, if you would like me to extend this video and make a video poster for you, I will.   I might do it even if you don’t ask me.