Continuing from Part 1, here’s Part 2: Continue reading →
reviews
2
May 10
The 2010 Whitney Biennial, Part 1
I was in New York City for about four hours on April 1st with my friend Caleb, and we managed to spend about ninety minutes of that at the Whitney Biennial. It was the first time either of us had been to one, and while we were short on time and a bit rushed, we managed to see a good bit of the exhibit. I jotted down some hurried notes while we were racing through the galleries, which I’m going to transcribe here, in two parts. Note: rather than alphabetically, the artists are sorted in order of how I saw them.
Part One: Continue reading →
4
Mar 10
I cannot self-terminate
I saw Terminator 2: Judgment Day last night for the first time. Only eighteen years after it was released. And despite it being eighteen years later, it was one of the best films I’ve ever seen. Let’s break it down into five points: Continue reading →
26
Jan 10
People of Earth, when you dance
I got the new Magnetic Fields album, Realism, last night (thanks, Nonesuch!). I listened to it once while falling asleep, and I’m on my second listen through today. At 33:17 in length, it’s a zippy little burst of an album, with crystal-clear production. First impressions of 5/13 of the tracks:
- “We Are Having a Hootenanny Now” is the sort of form study, nearly drained of content, at which Stephin Merritt excels. I love the multi-part vocals, with Merritt’s canyon-low creak holding down the bottom, and Claudia Gonson’s light-as-a-feather voice floating over the top.
- “The Dolls’ Tea Party” features what sounds like a great toy piano and banjo combo, and I love the refrain.
- “Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree” is unparalleled in its 60s sound, coming across almost like an alternate universe early Cat Stevens. And has this great couplet: “Stop mumbling and cheer up/Put down the book, pick beer up.”
- Is “Always Already Gone” a nod to Derrida? I think Stephin Merritt is perhaps the last great Post- structuralist, so I wouldn’t be surprised. What a beautiful idea, applying it to a ballad.
- And of course, of course, I completely love “The Dada Polka.” Listening to this last night, in that liminal place between waking and sleep, I was giddy and grinning during it. I love the weird underlying sound effects during the pauses, like the void is about to sweep in and take away the musicians, and the return of layered group vocals like in “We Are Having a Hootenanny.”
I love The Magnetic Fields so much that it’s almost a palpable relief to have more music by them released into the world. And this album is a great little taste of more of that TMF genius. I’m going to relisten to Distortion, the companion album, over the next few days, and hopefully attempt a side-by-side review later this week.
