And Now We Turn to the Comics page..

Here's a little something I worked up a couple years ago. I guess you can see who I really think benefits from all these copyright battles (My apologies for it being so hard to read. I will post a better quality version later this evening).

Against Me - "Up The Cuts"

I checked out this album from the library, and I'm really digging this track right now. here's some second hand smoke I remember catching from the blogosphere (all of which is completely arbitrary and without citation). Against Me! has a very loyal following. Some people think they have sold out with this record, or they've moved to a major label, and it's that same ol' same ol' cry from the people that were there first.

Personally this is all new to me, so thankfully I can hear this album for what it is, and that's a pretty straight forward rock record with really strong vocals and lyrics. I'm liking it.

Hobo! - The Musical

Harry Partch (1901 - 1974) is probably a lesser known legend in the world of "classical" music. I put the term "classical" in quotes because it, unfortunately - like the term "modern", usually tends to refer to a composer or type of music that uses orchestration. In reality the Classical period is the time in art from 1750 - 1820 [1]. But I digress...

Partch was the type of American genius that could only come out of the cultural mix that is America.

"In 1930 Partch broke with Western European tradition and forged a new music based on a more primal, corporeal integration of the elements of speech with music, using principles of natural acoustic resonance (just intonation) and expanded melodic and harmonic possibilities. "[2]

Along with that Harry Partch is also famous for inventing the 43-Tone Scale.

Partch may be best known for U.S. Highball, A Musical Account of Slim's Transcontinental Hobo Trip. A piece he based off his own travels from Caramel, California to Chicago, Illinois in 1941. Here's a clip below with a brief explanation.





Here's a clip from a 1968 documentary on Partch, with footage of Harry playing some of his invented instruments:



And here are clips to a 6 part BBC documentary on Youtube:
part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Zombies and the Fine Art of Hiaku...How Many Syllables is "Braaaaaaaains"?

Zombies. Is there any greater horror movie monster? How about Zombies doing Hiaku? Didn't think so.

In Other News...We Have Jet Packs! Hello Future!

I don't know about you but this little YouTube video:

But it looks like the future we were promised is finally here! Finally a world in which we have out own jetpacks. I'm giddy.

I Love Process Part 5 - Al Jaffee, King of the "Fold-In"

For anyone who grew up devouring Mad Magazine, such as myself, you may be thrilled to hear Al Jaffee is approaching his 400th Mad Fold-In - the back cover gags that allowed the reader to line up the points of a picture and expose a punchline.

Al Jaffee is one of those cartoonists whose creativity knows no limits, and I'm am always happy to see that he is still so vital and creative in his old age. That's definitely something to aspire too.

Now the question is, when is Mad going to publish the page a day fold in calendar? I'd definitely buy that!

Link to the article at New York Times.com.

I Love Process, Part 4 - Rolito and Patapon

Few games have ever been based solely on the work of an artist or designer. Sony's Japan Studio has based the game Patapon on French artist Rolito (real name Sebastien Giuli) comical 2-D silhouette tribal eyeball like characters called Patapon's. A wild, and addicting romp of a game that shows just how much is still to be explored in the making games that have total immerse experiences in the worlds in which they create, and get the player involved.

Patapon is a key based rhythm game for PSP, like Pappa The Rappa or Guitar Hero/Rock Band. But it diverges from a rather simple setup that other rhythm based games have by adding elements of god games, and strategy play, all controlled by tapping out key patterns to infectious little ditty's that allow your tribe of Patapon's to hunt, attack rival tribes, or defeat large imposing monsters. The goal is to help your Patapons regain their once mythic glory.

This game ranks up there with other such unique game play experiences as Katamari Damacy, in which seemingly simplistic worlds offer a depth of insight into the characters you control. Where KD offered a world of seemingly infinite expansive obsessive collecting (that is until you have finished the game), Patapon offers a fun alternative to the music/dance/karaoke versions of rythm based game play that are popular right now.


Patapon offers a wonderful example of how games can act as a narrative as well as be just plain fun to play. Rolito's geometrically cute art work is reminiscent of online comics artists like Damian5 or the Japanese Neo style of drawing as seen in works like Matthew Cruickshank and Barry Baker (the sadly offline) re imagining of Mickey Mouse

Matthew Cruickshank and Barry Baker's Neo Mickey

With technology, we can bring the mountain to Mohamed, if you will. We can create a frightening Middle Earth in which all that is absent is the smell of the breath of the Orcs as their cast brought to life from the bowels of hell. Yes, we can do epic and monumental things that will always wow and captivate us. But it is moments like leading my Patapon's in a charge against the enemy that I truly value as an entertainment experience. Like reading a good comic book or doodling a character whose story comes to you as if they were alive, sometimes simplicity in narrative and form is better than "Gee Whiz" and "Bang! Bang!"

interview with Rotoli at Gamasutra

In Praise of the Art of The Video Game - A Further Need for Proper Video Game Criticism (Not Reviews)

I love video games. With all my education over the years and desire to continually "search for the truth", my need constant need for debate and dialogue about the world around me, I still find myself coming back to, and enjoying video games. I love old fashioned board games, card games, and strategic games of chance (such as backgammon, or horse shoes, bocci, etc.) - it all compels me. Games played with others are an incredibly necessary social tool, of which I would always choose over playing a game by myself.

Video games, on the other hand, offer the challenge of bettering yourself against computational odds, setting a goal and figuring out ever changing problems and patterns within the set confines and rules of an environment, and accomplishing them. On top of that, they are extremely effective in the instant gratification department.



But aside from game play, I am always interested in what goes into a game, how they can expand the players point of view in ways they never imagined.

I often cite Will Wright's Sim City as one of my favorite, and best video games of all time. How could a game that dealt with urban planning be any fun what so ever? Well, as a twelve year old boy, Sim City sparked something within me very few had - inspiration. I was instantly sucked in by it's possibilities and unique environment and game play. It quite simply blew the roof off of the notion of what a video game was. There had never been a game presented in this manner to me - this was one that made me think in ways I never had. I had to think about the result of performing an action within a game and how that might effect future game play, I had to make sure I had enough money in the bank to rebuild if a natural disaster occurred, I had to figure out, through trial and error, how to make the city run at a profit, so it could continue to grow. Sim City presented elements of Science, Economics, basic math and banking skills (which as an admitted life long math phobic, is something of a feat to keep me interested), and Urban Planning in the form of a "sandbox" environment that was as much fun as building a train set.

At it's heart, a game is made up of a set of rules one must follow to win or end said game. Add a set of variables (advantages, disadvantages, delays) that are put in place during game play that can keep you from accomplishing this, while another player advances, and you have the root of what makes a game "fun" or "challenging." For a long time I have adamantly opposed cheating in any form of game play with others, because I believe it offers the one, static, formula that makes up a true test of mental skill. Cheating should be reserved for real life, when we often are allowed to (and encouraged to) act in our own self interest to get ahead. In the world of gaming, this is sacrilegious. We must come to the game with our own experience, ready to test our meddle against others, on a level playing field/board/mmorpg of mental dexterity.

That's not to say cheating doesn't run rampant, everywhere, even in the gaming world, but I see it as the truest test of character of a person, on how they handle themselves in a gaming situation. Perhaps one of the few windows into a persons soul that we get in this life. Admittedly, I have found cheats or walk through to games I just can't finish on my own, or have grown tired of, but in terms of competition, I feel you must bring what you have in your head to the table (or console, or board).

The truth is that, for the most part, we don't have anything like game criticism, and we need it -- to inform gamers, to hold developers to task, and to inform our broader cultural understanding of games and their importance and impact on our culture. - Game Criticism, Why We Need It, and Why Reviews Aren't It by costik

This statement couldn't be more correct. Video games are still a relatively new teritory, in terms of criticism. While there are sites out there that are looking at games as art, most offer the thumbs up, thumbs down approach to placing a value on a game. We need to look at games as a whole - social impact, cultural implications, metaphors, and style present within. Just as a film is not a single artists work, but an amalgam of talented individuals working together towards a shared vision, so to are video games. It's time we enjoy them with both sides of our brains too.

I'm a Walking Parody of Everything I Know - Parody, Re-contextualization, and Mashing Up Your Own Unique Experience

I often wonder if it's inherent in our human nature to take that what we know (songs, stories, jokes, experiences, and art) and re contextualize it into our own creation. I am a graphic designer by day and a cartoonist at heart. I thirst for satire, parody, puns (clever and bad ones, alike), situations, and stories I can distill into a frame by frame sequence. I'm a writer with pictures, which seems to require a certain innate need to reference the things people know (symbols, images, experience, movies,music, and political reference) sometimes easier at conveying an idea over a simple attempt at an emotional impact.

But I can't help but thinking that the need to re-appropriate is more biological within humans than it is preferential. I think it is in our nature to create collages, mash ups, and remixes of music, video, and photograph's. The very first piece of pop cultural ephemera I can recall effecting me a was an issue of Mad Magazine which parodied the cover of Time magazine. It incidentally was my first introduction to Mad Magazine, an endless source of parody and ridicule I would devour as fast as the sugary candy usually purchased with it. You might say parody and satire were the backbone of the house that Alfred E. Newman built.


But there was something about growing up in the 80's - parody or re-appropriation was everywhere. New Wave seemed to be a mash up of the lighter (more neon) side of punk rocks fashion sense, mixed with a retro futurism of the space age 50's. Shows like Saturday Night Live, were established to skewer cultural institutions and pop culture alike, while being a pop cultural institution themselves. And a young "Weird" Al Yankovic found a special niche parodying the hits of the day with song parodies like "Eat It" (for Michael Jackson's "Beat it", and "Like a Surgeon" to Madonna's "Like a Virgin"). Al Yankovic actually stood as a one man cultural re contextualizing, mash up force. He not only made spot on musical parodies of the music he lampooned, he made parody videos that mimicked the some of the better known imagery MTV was producing and sending through the closed circuit network of cable television. Al Yankovic was a one man monopoly of pop stardom parody. Like an appearance on The Simpson's would be many years later, to be parodied by "Weird" Al, was a cultural cache, a badge of honor, and it would seem that it often lent to a further increasing popularity of the artist who was lampooned.

You tube videos:

Michael Jackson - "Beat It"



Weird Al Yankovic - "Eat It"



But here's where I feel it's more in our biological nature to reference the past, or past work of others. One need only to look at back at Folk and traditional music to see this trend repeated again and again. I've figured out 3 ways in which music is often re-contextualized:

1. Traditional Melodies or well known existing are recycled (lyrics are often changed or "updated")
2. Versus addendum (versus are sometimes added)
3. Song Theme's are expanded upon.

Here are 3 good examples of this in practice:
1. "Love Me Tender" - Elvis Presley (Ken Darby - Credited to Verra Matson/Elvis Presley)
"Aura Lee" or "The Maid with the Golden Hair" (music by George R. Poulton, lyrics by W.W. Fosdick).

Here's the "original" via YouTube (the dudes a bit of a tool, but it was a good version of lyrics and melody):



and of course the Elvis Presley version, where he puts the crooner shine on in the "68 Come back" special:



2. "Amazing Grace" - John Newton

This song was written by Englishman John Newton and sung over a variety of different tunes before being attached to the tune "New Britain." The tune is believed to be of Scottish or Irish origin[1]. The song continued to update and evolve when brought to America, and was not spared from the addendum phenomenon:
<br>
Link to song performance of the song by The Hargroves at The Internet Archive

From wikipedia:

In her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe includes an extra, final verse which may have been taken from another hymn. The additional verse is part of most hymnals today.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We've no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we’ve first begun.

Whereas the original lyrics were penned by John Newton in 1772
(stanzas 1-6), this additional verse (stanza 7) was written in the
nineteenth century, and is credited by some to John P. Rees (1828-1900)^[4]. This verse became firmly established as part of the hymn by its addition in popular hymnbooks of the early twentieth century.

3. "Maggie's Farm" - Bob Dylan


image source - http://www.bobdylanroots.com/down.html

Next to Dylan's "Royal Albert Hall" performance, Dylan going Electric at The Newport Festival in 1965, has to be one of the single most iconoclastic moments in pop culture (even if recounts are often more profound then it was actually experienced.) In the book, Behind The Shades: Revisited by Clinton Heylin, Johnny Taplin is quoted as saying that Dylan "seemed to be crying" (pp. 213) after the performance, even though people like Joe Boyd got it, and were "lapping it up"(pp. 211). But the act of playing "Maggie's Farm" electric, with a rock band, at a folk festival, was a sign of protest in itself, lending to the ever deepening history of music evolving.

From Wikipedia -

"Maggie's Farm" is Dylan's declaration of independence from the protest
folk movement. Punning on Silas McGee's Farm, where he had performed
"Only a Pawn in Their Game" at a civil rights protest in 1963 (featured
in the film Don't Look Back), Maggie's Farm recasts Dylan as the pawn
and the folk music scene as the oppressor. Rejecting the expectations
of that scene as he turns towards loud rock n' roll, self-exploration,
and surrealism, Dylan intones: "They say sing while you slave / I just
get bored."

a YouTube video of that performance:



"Dylan biographer Robert Shelton
traces the origins of his 1961 song "Hard Times in the Country" to
"Penny's Farm," a 1920s musical complaint about a rural landlord; it is
also similar to Gid Tanner and Riley Puckett's
1934 song "Tanner's Farm."' - William Ruhlmann (All
Music Guide)

A link "Down on Penny's Farm" performed by Charlie Parr at The Internet Archive.

This behavior doesn't always apply to just music, though. Even the visual arts have their progenators of recontextualization such as Joseph Cornell. Cornell seemed just as comfortable re-appropriating dime store tchotchkies and print matter into mystical little worlds or spiritual shrines of his own devising. Cornell even had a correspondence of cultural mashing with one of the first modern artists to turn art on it's head - Marcel Duchamp [further reference]. When one views the work created between the two in correspondence, assisting Duchamp with his Dossier project, it is clear that even Cornell was helping Duchamp to re-contextualize and re-invent himself once more.

So what is this need, this compulsion for us to take, riff, expand upon, collapse, rearrange, deconstruct, reconstruct, and recompose something we enjoy so much. Since I was a kid, I love to flip the lyrics of a popular song to fit a situation, no matter how silly. It's a sort of mental free form improv gymnastics for me. I like seeing if I can fit my thoughts within the context of the "original". "Stop Your Sobbing" is sung to my daughter with the lyrics "There's one thing that you gotta do, To make me still want you" is replaced with "If there is one thing I cannot do, it is to nurse you." And who didn't attempt this in the most juvenile ways on the playground as a kid. As a kid songs like "Every Breath You Take" could easily be reconstructed into an ode to a bizarre bathroom experience that would have us in stitches. When in doubt Pop Culture will always thrive on the double entendre or a poop joke or two. Even as children we see the benefit of building something off the work of others.

As beings that posses a strange trait called creativity, our human experience in every form is the reference. Making the profound more personal is the name of the game with humans. Or like Bob Dylan proclaimed in that ground breaking album, maybe it's all just about "Bringing It All Back Home"

Originally published 1/11/2008 on Mog

Having Your Adolescent Mind Blown...

It was the summer of 1989 that I don't remember much of. A few small details - I'm 13, grossly under developed, stuck somewhere between wanting to be a teenager but still really I'm just a kid. I had all these feelings of someone older, but the depressing realization that I was stuck with this body for a little while longer.


But like the piano exploding at the end of the video, my mind, or should I say my very idea of what rock n' roll could or should be, is shattered into a million pieces. I had just heard Faith No More's "Epic" and I was hooked. It was rap, but it was metal too. It was SO different than the Aerosmith/Run DMC fusion of styles. I couldn't really understand it, but I knew I loved it.


I ended up watching MTV all summer, just to get a listen to that song (plus to figure out which member of En Vogue I thought was hotter). I don't even remember how I managed to scrape together $16 for the CD, since I already had a job - watching MTV and psychically beaming my need for that song to some how lodge itself into the hearts of a nation so I could see more of this strange sound that was twisting my sensibilities.


Today, "Epic" is probably thought of as a one hit wonder song for FNM, but those of us who continued to listen knnow that ir really peaked with the "Angel Dust" album. They still managed to put out a few good albums, but no song has ever grabbed a hold of me like that.

Originally published on Mog

Eep Ock Ork Uh Huh - A pop cultural refference I didn't miss, but couldn't talk about

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We used to drive around Downingtown bumping Bizarre Ride II. When I say bumping, I don't mean it by any "it's what the kids are saying" way. We were literally bumping around in one of our shitty cars, me with my hot Rockford Fosgate base box jury rigged into the fuse box of my Chevy Nova, connected on the other end to some shitty tape deck.


I had been introduced to this album by a graffiti kid in my school, and just the fact that it was different than the eras "gangsta's and ho's" mentality made it seem that much more refreshing. Plus. I'm a suburban white boy who wasn't about to represent for the city of Compton.


We loved this album. It was great. It didn't have any of the posturing that, well, just about every hip hop song of the era had. It was self deprecating, funny, and lewd. I mean how many rappers could top Fat Lips confession of picking up a transvestite by mistake (see "Oh Shit!").


Anyway, I felt great unease when we would listen to the song "Soul Flower" being that it had a derivation of a song sung by Judy Jetson's favorite rock star JJ Jetscreamer "Eep Ock Ork Uh Huh (that means I love you)". It puzzled me so (though in hind sight, I guess I should have felt liberated that others remembered this infectious diddy). In those days, I didn't quite understand the significance of reference to hip hop, I just knew I knew what song they were "copying", and it disturbed me slightly. I was 17 and much to reserved to admit my knowledge of a Jetson's episode.


So we continued bumping around the country side listening to the tape over and over, getting stoned and making runs on convenience stores - never imagining that some day I could sit at a computer and relay this moment of discord to others like myself.

Originally posted on Mog 4/11/2007

Suicide - Early Innovators

Originally released on Bronze Records in 1978
re-released in 2000 on mute records w/ eponymous L.P.


I originally published this on Julian Cope's Head Heritage site

A record of proof of an innovative band’s struggle with an unreceptive audience.

“23 Minutes over Brussels” was recorded in Brussels, Belgium on June 16th, 1978. Friend of the band, Howard Thompson recorded it on cassette tape and it was later released on as a flexi-disc insert for a music magazine. Fortunately the good people at Mute records re-released Suicides catalog in 2000. They have been digitally re-mastered so you wont have to scrounge the record bins to try to find these rare treasures. Both the album and the extra disc sound great (even 23 minutes sounds pretty good considering how it was recorded). It stands as a legendary performance, fortunate enough to be recorded. This is not your happy go lucky good time Rock n’ Roll concert, this is the dangerous riot inciting kind.

Perhaps if they weren't so far ahead of their time, the Suicide bootleg "23 minutes over Brussels" could have been the "Royal Albert Hall" bootleg for a new generation. Alan Vega and Martin Rev's second show in Europe ended in a primal scream of "Fuck you! It's about Frankie!" stands comparison to Bob Dylan's angry start of "Like a Rolling Stone" where he can be heard saying "Play fucking loud!" to the Hawks - as possible one of the greatest spontaneous Rock n' Roll moments of all time. In “23 minutes” Alan Vega is heard shouting, “Shut the fuck up, this is about Frankie!” Whistles cheers and boo's swell, the audience renders the sonic assault of Rev and Vega silent by stealing the microphone.

“23 minutes” goes a step further than the myth and lore of the infamous Dylan recording. Dylan’s heresy stood with his decision to “plug in.” This at the time was considered a step toward all that was marketable, because rock n’ roll was electric and was sold to the masses by evil corporations. Folk purists seemed to think of Dylan as a sellout for making what appeared as mainstream credibility. Suicide on the other hand, had no credibility. Rather than “plugging in” or “unplugging” they pared down to bare bones rock aggression.

Alan Vega, a New York City trash artist, formed Suicide with avant-garde jazz keyboardist Martin Rev in 1971. Vega’s idea was to strike Rock n’ Roll down to the bare minimum. Through the use of thrift store electric keyboards and a drum machine, Suicide set out to recreate rock n’ roll from the ground up. Dylan like Rev and Vega had a desire to find his own sound, only Suicide didn’t have a fan base that would come along for the ride.

The mid 70's New York scene was dictated by a common knee jerk reaction to the over indulgence and excess that music had become. Suicide stood on a different plane of aural deconstruction. Vega and Rev's interpretation of "basic" rock n' roll was to minimalize it to the nth degree. Although they started as a somewhat large free jazz ensemble, they soon were reduced to just a guitar, keyboard, and drum machine. A short time after that, they lost the guitar all together. Suicide in its Keyboard, Drum Machine, Vocal line up stands as the epitome of the defiance that Rock n' Roll was built on. Unfortunately, for most artists, the audience usually comes around to their way of thinking, a little too late.

Suicide stands as one of the most aptly named bands ever in rock n' roll. The bands name is described as a "great rock n' roll action word" by Rev in the liner notes of Mute records 2000 release of the self-titled debut album. “23 minutes” inevitably became their scarlet letter as far as performance was concerned. They rarely played live, and usually did to disastrous results. The short set of music showcased in "23 minutes" clearly demonstrates two individuals flying in the face of convention, screaming their guts out to be heard, and failing to make a poignant imprint on the listening audience.

Perhaps it was the back to basics mentality of the "Punk" world that was wrong. Suicide as a group, predate the earliest of the CBGB's scene by at least 3 years. With so much retro revisionism in contemporary music, one is hard pressed to find anything from that period that sounds as though it would be made in today's musical climate. Suicide does though. Most likely you would find them on a package tour with the likes of Stereo Lab or Mouse on Mars, and some how wouldn't sound quite as profound.

Legends and Myths can abound in Rock n' Roll. Many a writer is swept up in the nostalgia aspect of these mythologies and rumors. As we have become inundated with Rock n’ Roll tragedies we are left to ponder why Suicide didn’t become superstars? Possibly it's the fact that their music fell on many deaf ears, their performances and reputations preceded them. What in the 20+ years since the group's demise has sounded (or looked) as raw and heartfelt as that "Suicide Sound."

Suicide was the marriage of performance art with the attitude and pomp of rock n' roll. Only now, with hindsight, can one look at the postmodern implications of the performing side of Suicide. The records stand are the Rock n’ roll side of the band – a good reproduction of what Suicide sounded like live, with a few studio embellishments. The performance was the art. Like most performance art, their shows were temporal, intense and of the moment.

When Suicide unplugged from the popular conventions of Rock they were looked at as hooligans. No one wanted to book them, and audiences usually stayed about 10 feet from the stage, where a chain wielding Vega would swing wildly. One can look at the failure of the New York scene, or any scene for that matter, to accept Suicide as a legitimate act. We have only photographs to offer us a fraction of the story. Find a copy of this recording, sit back, open your ears, and grab a hold of the mental picture.

Pugilists in Song - The Felice Brothers "Ballad of Lou the Welterweight" vs. Simon and Garfunkels "The Boxer"

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Film loves boxing - it's all tight close ups of extreme action. Blood and teeth, slow motion expressions of pain. Bodies in exquisite form inflicting pain upon one another in the confines of the square ring. This does wonders for the lack of set and costumes needed. Two half naked men swinging on each other in the most primal of manors. Even if your not a boxing fan, it seems to always appeal to our most basic sensibilities of the survival of the fittest. Boxing is so glorified because it exists as a sport and a metaphor of ones existence in society.

So what happens when songs, which seem to exist as the melodic metaphors for our existence, deal with the very same symbolically rich sport as film? Well we get an even more textured look into the struggle. The sweet science offers as much to the poetry of lyrics as it does in the poetry of brutality each opponent inflicts on the other withing the confines of the ring. The confines of the melody we get to look at the big picture boxer, more than the "the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him til he cried out..." that film likes to focus on.

Simon and Garfunkel offer up what is an admirable and noble sounding character in their song "The Boxer". He is ambitious, but wary of his years. His ambition is still drives him. Simon and Garfunkels offer a modest peek into the character of the boxer:

"Asking only work mans wages, I come looking for a job, but I get no offers
Just a come on from the whores on 7th avenue
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there"

The Felice Brothers boxer, Lou, on the other hand could very well be Scorsese's Jake LaMotta. But he's doomed, whether he knows it or not. He's a boxer in his last moments, perhaps the same type of punch drunk brute, who would pry the jewels out of his championship belt to make bail. There is no denial of what boxing has made of him. He has a woman, who loves him despite the brutality of his profession. She is an angel to him in his last moments, that he's happy to get his gloves on.

"Powder your nose
take off your panty hose
let me love you from behind, my darling
Powder your nose, pull on your panty hose
We're going down to my bout, my darling"

His narrative may lack an the eloquence of proper romance, but it is the prose of a man in the moment before he steps into the ring for the fight of his life. Lou's love for his par amoré, may be good for one round, but like a true fighter, he's got his eyes on the prize. Lou's fate is sealed by the bookies though, who set him up a supposed ringer - Joey who "was a no one. Just some big dumb kid from Flushing." His fate is sealed, Lou is hit low and it's thebeginning of the end for our hero.

Paul Simon's narrative is a broader portrait of a boxer, on who knows his time in the ring is waning, he has been pummeled and beaten, and dreams leaving, but he will always be a fighter, no matter what.

Simon's boxer exists almost as an early version of Brando's Terry Malloy in ??On The Waterfront?? (without the former prizefighter status). A character who is conflicted, but noble at in his heart.

It could be argued that Boxing was America's first national sport. It's first huge stars were immigrants and minorities that bested the competition. The sports start stood as pinnacles and examples to their race of what was possible in this country. That with a little determination and some gravel in your gut, you could transcend your lot in this life. Regardless of what a persons moral character consists of, in certain positions, people will always hang a certain amount of symbolic responsibility given to a person. Boxing may be the sport in which more hopes, dreams, expectations, and disappointments are saddled by an individual, than any other. But like Paul Simon says "No it isn't strange, after changes upon changes, we are more or less the same." Belt or no belt, there is a certain understanding of both boxers as to their own character, both as individuals and as fighters.

[Close up shot pulls back from the respective boxers in their final moments. In silence a slow fade to black as the credits scroll.]

The Lyrics:

The Boxer (©1968 by Paul Simon for the album ??Bridge Over Troubled Waters??. Lyric source lyricsfreak.com with revisions by the author)

I am just a poor boy and my story's seldom told
Ive squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises
All lies and jest, still the man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest, hmmmm

When I left my home and my family, I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station, runnin scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters, where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know

Lie la lie...

Asking only work mans wages, I come looking for a job, but I get no offers
Just a come on from the whores on 7th avenue
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there

Now the years are rolling by me, they are rocking even me
I am older than I once was, and younger than Ill be, that's not unusual
No it isn't strange, after changes upon changes, we are more or less the same
After changes we are more or less the same

Li la lie...

And I'm laying out my winter clothes, wishing I was gone, going home
Where the New York city winters aren't bleeding me, leading me to go home

In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him
til he cried out in his anger and his shame
I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains
Yes he still remains

Li la lie...


The Ballad of Lou The Welterweight (by The Felice Brothers Lyrics transcribed by the author, to the best of his abilities, author unknown at the time of this post.)

Powder your nose, take off your pantyhose
Let me love you from behind, my darling
powder your nose, pull on your pantyhose
Were going down to my bout, my darling

Before the bell would ring
he had a way like Errol Flynn
As he sauntered to the ring
with a sheet on

But the [laygrounds] scared the girl
Heaven knows she thought the world of Lou
It was hard to see him sway in the neon

Joey was a no one
Just some big dumb kid from flushing
he had a face like an ugly bull
always pouting

He hit Louie kind of low
And he fumbled on the ropes
As the bookies blocked the rows, shouting

Powder Your Nose..

The blows were hard and loud
He could hardly hear the crowd
In the bleachers where they howled
they were cheering

I remember in the eighth, it was clear that Lou was fading
And something caught his eye by the ceiling
He saw her as she spoke in the shifty yellow smoke
She said, "Louie you look bad, like your dying"
But Louie could not answer, his eyes cast up towards the rafters
And then they slowly sealed in the silence

Powder your nose...


http://www.myspace.com/thefelicebrothers
http://www.loosemusic.com/thefelicebrothers/
http://www.loosemusic.com/

This article originally published on Mog

A post via Sketch cast....

There could be something to this sketch cast thing. I'm not sure how I feel yet, but it would obviously lend itself to a different form of drawing then I may be used to. Maybe it will lead to a sort of graffiti like short hand of drawing, in which much information is conveyed in small sketches. Here's my first post with a semi review.

Great little video find - The Unicorns...

I would noramlly brissle at the thought of this subject matter. Perhaps because it reminds me of horrible airbrushed Trapper Keeper notebooks, and D & D kids. This I like though...

I Love Process Part 3

My web cartoonist hero, Adam Koford, has posted this fantastic tip (no pun intended) about getting the most out of your pens. I have been trying to figure out what type of pens he uses for his comics, and this clip tells you that he prefers the Faber Castell PITT brush pen. Enjoy!

The Littlest Wings

I will probably elaborate on this at another time when I am not so tired and buzzing on the adrenaline that follows a child being born, but I am proud to introduce the newest member of our family, Elisabeth. She was 4 days late, but we managed to have a very stress free 5 hour delivery at home with a wonderful and skilled mid wife. We are elated that our family has grown +1. I sat down realizing that a couple of my favorite songs for baby’s are more boy oriented (“Beautiful Boy”, and “Stay Up Late”). So when I sat down and heard this beautiful version of Neil Youngs “Little Wing” by Elizabeth Mitchell, I nearly cried all over again. Feel free to post some of your other favorite songs you might play for that little special someone.

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Omnikrom "ÉTÉ HIT"

I don't understand a thing they are saying, but I love the use of green screen and the "neon" graphics. Plus Hip Hop from other countries sometimes just seems cooler then the tired out stuff played here.

Parts and Labor's "The Gold We're Digging"

I believe all rock videos should be of limited budget, funded by the band, and be done as much as possible by the band itself. Well. that might be difficult for some, but at least employ some one who is willing to work with the simple premise of putting visuals to your music. And for god sake, stop trying to make videos look like a blockbuster movie!

That being said, here is a perfect example of a great looking video, a good song, and rather simple idea (no matter how complex the actual execution was). I compare it to a cross between Wang Chungs video for Everybody Have Fun Tonight and The White Stripes Fell in Love with a Girl.

Satyricom International's Latest Press Release...

Over on CNN Money there was a article about CEO's salaries are 364 x's more than the average worker. Not one to let news like this get to their employees, Satyricom has released a statement to clarify their own CEO's (Dr. Skinny) value.