Went to go see Neal Pollack read at Quimby's last night. We were a dumb-founded (maybe just dumb) crowd who couldn't think up any questions in the question and answer part. We tried. Oh yes, we tried. But trying to think equals silence, and silence is not conductive in a question-answer session.
In a public venue, I find it difficult to ask questions of a underground/alternative artist. For this reason: No one knows much of the background details of the artist. When you're in these book reading crowds, you have the tendency, though, to assume everyone else knows many more details than you do. You don't want to ask a question that will get you old women staring at you over the tops of their glasses while shaking their heads at your baffling ignorance; this makes you feel like the illiterate scum of the known universe; this is bad.
At Quimby's last night, the only information the group universally knew was that Pollack is from Chicago, is now living somewhere else, and writes as/about hilariously ultra-important alter-ego characters. We got through the first two facts with a certain amount of cautious prodding... "How is your return to Chicago?" "So, are you living in Philly or Austin right now?" "Do/did you like it?"... Neal spared us the grief of stumbling around the third and read an Anthology piece on Columbia.
If you haven't read/heard Neal Pollack yet, you should write it down in your planner for next Tuesday at 10am. Stop into a Borders or your local underground zine shop, and find the Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature and read the introduction. That's all you'll need to understand how important a piece of work it is.
Look for an interview with Mr. Pollack in the second full RF issue.
Input by Mike at 10:59 AM
Football is a game of gods. Baseball is a game of curses
For the 7 out of 8 American households not tuned into the Cubs ill-fortuned drops of games 5, 6 and 7 of the National League Championship Series... Shame on you.
Most people don't believe in magic anymore because they don't bother looking. A good portion of the world, though, got to witness some lingering force from a more mystical time incinerate the bolstering hope (and egos) of Wrigley parishoners. Sure, you can look at each moment in the Cubs' demise and explain it all logically, but when you take the tragedy in whole... There is something far more powerful than you, I, Alex Gonzalez or Steve Bartman at work here. And all of baseball are its puppets.
Red Sox lost as well, by the way.
It is very satisfying for all whose allegiances lie in the south side of Chicago, that Cubs fans were partly responsible for game 6. They, moreso than the Cubs, are the bane of our baseball existence. But, more on this in an upcoming RF essay. Time to work.
Input by Mike at
9:02 AM
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
The Kill Bill soundtrack has a 10 minute Latin-ish cover of the Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Santa Esmerelda.
It's my feeling that covers should never be recorded straight (concerts are a different beast altogether). It's disrespectful and shameless to peddle another musician's wares as one's own - even if you claim it's in "tribute". Can you imagine if Picasso had painted a copy of Van Gogh's Starry Night? Well, the inbred patrons of art would probably have clapped very loudly and pulled some bars of gold out of their cavernous belly buttons to pay Picasso with. But Picasso... Picasso would have laughed all day in those shorts he wore in some of the David Douglas Duncan photos. On the other hand, if Picasso had fractured Starry Night, we'd have an actually interesting piece of work. It's how Dada and Pop Art fed their extended families.
So, my advice to all the ambitious bands out there that would like to do a cover or two... Listen to the original and add something to it. Change its focus, change its flavor, find something inside of the song that the current emphases hide. People will love you more for it.
So, remember. Faithful covers are for chumps and concerts.
Required listening: Cat Power The Covers Record, Red House Painters "Silly Love Songs", Yo La Tengo "Little Honda", the "Roxanne" song in Moulin Rouge, and the above-mentioned track from Kill Bill.
Input by Mike at
11:02 AM
Monday, October 13, 2003
As you might have already noticed, RF proper is functional. The last touch I'd really like to get working before we start pulling people in is to get The Coco Cabana Club's beautiful eulogy of Captain Ahab "Moby Dick". The band is struggling to give me the track without giving me a new incarnation of the blaster worm, but hopefully we can get things figured out in a short amount of time.
Regardless, we'll probably start publicizing the magazine and hope word-of-mouth extends our coverage. And I'll be writing about a bunch of different pieces here so keep coming back.
Input by Mike at
11:33 AM
