Things That Make Me Happy

It's another edition of things that make me happy! Brought to you by the Natural Life Food Company, a division of ChemGrow, an Allyn-Crane Acquisition, a part of the Squimm Group . Their motto is simple: “We keep you alive."

The Pipettes' "Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me" : Thank heaven for the skanky ass of Amy Winehouse: her successful use of the early 60's girl group sound has made it safe for others to follow. The Pipettes play it much straighter; occasionally, you can forget you're listening to something recorded recently, save for the lyrical content. This song in particular is a winner, alternating between sassy and beautiful (during the chorus and towards the end especially), with a winning tempo that just makes me want to dance. In fact, I used this song to warm me up a couple weeks ago at my cousins wedding; I was listening to my iPod and shaking my ass in between directing people where to park. It got me into a dancing mood.

I've always been a fan of girl groups: I have a boxed set of Lesley Gore, The Shangri-Las greatest hits, and I consider One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found collection every bit as vital as Nuggets.

(The Pipettes' manifesto is pretty enlightening, as well.)


Scary Foreign Movies : I celebrated this Halloween by watching a passel of foreign films, via Netflix. Partly this is because a friend of mine let me borrow his TV for a while, a TV that is significantly larger than my previous one, so that now I can actually read the subtitles from across the room. I started with Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood -- not exactly a horror movie, but it definitely is creepy, and has some supernatural bits. Then I watched Suspiria (Christ, the soundtrack music was overwhelming! Also, this movie might define the limits of my Sirk-inspired love for artificiality and stylization in movies); Godzilla in the original Japanese (I cried at the end; I love you, Dr. Serizawa!); and Mario Bava's Tre volti della paura (which I enjoyed very much, particularly the epilogue). Tonight I watch The Innocents, and then The Host, which I've put off watching for quite a while now, and then James Whale's Frankenstein movies, a Halloween (or in this case, post-Halloween) perennial! In the Netflix queue are several Mario Bava movies. Yay!

You'll notice that most of these movies are decades-old; this is because of my abiding pussy-itude. Seriously, I have a low tolerance for horror, and an even lower tolerance for gore.


More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman : Holy crap, is this book a riot. I swear to Jeebus, yesterday I was reading it at lunch, and I actually had to stop because I was embarrassed that I was laughing so hard. You begin reading, assuming that he's just goofing on everything, right? But slowly you notice that he seems to be creating an alternate world, a world where Jimmy Carter's nickname was Nutsy McMalaise; where feral troubadours prowl the wilderness, looking for cats to kill; where Richmond, VA, is rained upon with human teeth; where the 51st state, Hohoq (also known as Ar), travels the country by unknown means; where furry old lobsters (which actually look like otters) were hunted to extinction and supplanted by the non-furry variety; and where there is an entire shadow history of the United States populated by hobos. It's like magic realism or fantasy, presented as a sort of almanac. It rules.

It helps that I have a crush on John Hodgman. Seriously, when I see those Apple commercials, he makes me want to buy a PC. I have a thing for doughy guys with glasses.

Things That Make Me Happy

Kylie Minogue, X : Yeah, what of it? Kylie has grown into a pretty good album artist; she seems to approach albums as a collection of singles, which can occasionally backfire, but which also means hooky and well-written tracks. Which, you know, is nothing a fan can complain about: Light Years is one of my all time favorite albums -- even the slow song I don't like serves a purpose -- and Fever was also really strong as well. (Body Language, which was released after Fever, is not among my favorites: it isn't particularly dance-oriented, and seems chilly. I associate it with German's trying to replicate early 2000's R&B. Perhaps I should revisit it.) All of which is a long-winded way of explaining that when I see she has released an album, I buy it. On CD. So when I saw it on sale at Barnes & Noble one evening, well, you can guess the rest.

And it was totally worth it. One of my favorite songs on the disc is the very first song, "2 Hearts": it has a jazzy sloppiness (a very deliberate sloppiness, I admit) that I find extraordinarily appealing. That same sort of deliberate looseness is evident throughout the album. Beats aren't totally precise, and synthesizers always have the sort of clumsy chunkiness I associate with new wave. This coupled with the funkiness that underscores most of the songs makes the album very appealing to me.

Kylie Minogue: "2 Hearts".mp3

And the video for another winning song, "Wow":

The Poe Museum, Richmond, VA : Well, it is right across the street from me, but an exhibition of Poe in comics opened up at the end of April, so with the extra day off this weekend, I went to see it. It was cool -- I sort of wish they had been able to find more original art to include in the exhibition, since it's hard to really get a good idea of the art when it's in the printed comic book, and under a plastic case. And the lighting in the exhibition area made it difficult to see some of the exhibits, but it was a fun exhibit, nonetheless, with work by Rick Geary, Richard Corben, and Gahan Wilson.

Original art by Rick Geary: "The Tell-Tale Heart", from Graphic Classics:
Edgar Allan Poe (which I coincidentally bought at the gift shop).

On top of this, though, the Poe Museum itself is very pretty. Especially the so-called Enchanted Garden, a courtyard in the middle of the complex. To wit:

Yeah, so I took the opportunity to play around with my new cameraphone. And, sure, that third picture even hurts my corneas. You got a problem with that?

In the gift shop, I asked about volunteering. So I may be doing that. We'll see.

How I Met Your Mother : As Heroes has become increasingly disappointed, and as I've lost interest in Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives as they both seem increasingly desperate to attract viewers, even as the quality of the shows have waned, I've found that the network television series that I watch regularly have decreased a great deal. Basically, it's Lost (which has enjoyed something of a resurgence this year, as it seems the writers may, in fact, know where they are heading towards) and perrenial favorite 30 Rock. And that's a shame: there's something that episodic television can do that you don't get from many other forms of entertainment. But, owing in part to the reviews of the show on the A.V. Club TV blog, I decided to give this a try. Sure, it seems sort of Friends-esque, but fans of the show point to the superior writing and interesting chronological tricks to demonstrate what makes the show different -- after all, virtually all of the show is a flashback told from 2030. That's interesting, right?

Well, yeah it is, but what completely got me was how funny it is. I started watching it, and it was amiable enough. But by the end of the first disk of the first season DVD set, there's an episode that features a cockamouse -- half cockroach, half mouse -- that invades the apartment of the main characters. There is some discussion whether it is, in fact, one or the other -- maybe it's a cockroach wearing the skin of a mouse? -- but it is never resolved. They finally get the nerve to throw it outside, at which point it starts flying, and as the characters watch, it tries to fly back into the apartment. The unique narrative structure, at least as far as TV is concerned, means that everything we learn in the episodes depends on what the narrator tells us; if the narrator decides to exagerate a story for narrative effect, this is what we see. It allows the writers to indulge in minor bits of surreality without straining credibility. It's a show that is definitely concerned with story: with how they are told, and how we see our lives as a story, and how we try to impose narrative on our lives. And, as funny as the show is, it also has moments of heartbreaking sensitivity, which, on the whole, never descend into melodrama. It's just a really good show. Plus, it had the good taste to feature Roxy Music's "Mother of Pearl" in a romantic montage, which immediately makes it a cut above just about anything else.

Plus: ROBIN SPARKLES!!

Things That Make Me Happy

(I mean, besides my being employed.)

The B-52's: Funplex. I had suddenly become interested in The B-52's again after hearing the Junior Senior song "Take My Time", which features Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson -- you can see the video for it here -- the video is a little "Mesopotamia", a little Tom Tom Club. There was also a write-up about their origins in Rip it up and start again : Postpunk 1978-1984 which did a lot to raise my enthusiasm for the band. As a result, I've been rediscovering the joys of "Wild Planet," "Whammy," hell, even "Bouncing Off The Satellites" has a couple of really winning tunes on it. I knew the group was still touring, but they also haven't released a new song in a decade, so it seemed unlikely that they would be releasing much in the way of new music anytime soon. But then, yesterday, I happened to stumble on their website, and guess who has a new album coming in March? And a new single out now?

And it's actually a good song! Not their best, by any means, but good enough. It sounds a little like "Get Ready"-era New Order, but that makes sense, since it has the same producer. The slightly synthetic feel leaves Fred's vocals pretty naked when it's only him singing; to be honest, I think his vocals work better on something slightly groovier, something more like -- dare I say it? -- "Love Shack". But when the girls start harmonizing, everything falls into place, and all is right with the world. Especially when you have lyrics like this: "I'm your daytime waitress at the Taco Tiki Hut / I'm your daytime waitress Here's your stupid 7-Up." Makes me wish my local Funplex had a Taco Tiki Hut.

Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma. I'm not normally a fan of manga outside of Osamu Tezuka, just because I tend to like my comics either four-color Pop Art superheroes beating up mutant street beatniks, or pretentiously arty and in black and white. In fact, this manga shares a lot in common with my arty comics, except it isn't even remotely pretentious. It's a slice-of-life comedy that is actually, genuinely funny. So funny that yesterday, while eating a tofu burrito at Moe's Southwest Cafe, I absolutely lost it, and damn near died for laughing. (Tofu: It Kills!) The expressions on the title character's face as she waits for a souvenir that it seems will never appear, or when she finishes lighting fireworks, or as she has a bouquet of flowers every bit as large as she is tied to her body (!), that's what make this comic a pure gem. The character is full of joy and love, and brings equal amounts joy and agitation to all who know her. It's the best comic I have read in a while, and because my library carries the first four volumes, I don't even need to buy my own copies! (They appear to be well-worn, as well, so it seems like I'm not the only one in the library that is reading them.)

and lastly:

The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats. Cuz teh phunny, it iz.

Things That Make Me Happy

So, as I'm sure you all know (and if you don't, well, I'm telling you), that this is my last week teaching. So, you know, I am -- how you say? -- a bit anxious. So I've been taking my happy-making things where I can.

First up, we have...

Blockade Boy.

Technically, it is a comics blog, but in reality it has sort of become an elaborate piece of continuing fiction that takes moments to laugh at the hideously dressed super-heroes (and super-zeros!) of yesteryear. It is written from the vantage point of the eponymous Blockade Boy, an unfortunate victim of The Legion of Super-Heroes need for cannon fodder in the 1960s -- or so we thought! Together with a cadre of assorted Legion also-rans -- his friends, enemies, frienemies, lovers -- he patrols the spaceways as a space-pirate aboard the H.M.S. Exquisite! He offers up new costumes for the hideously attired, and provides satirical commentary for panels from comics in the past. Oh, and he has a robot dingus. Don't ask.

Anyways, there is rarely a day that I don't at least get a chuckle from what he posts. Often, it's more like roaring laughter, or possibly girlish tittering. For a while, he had been only posting once a week, posting costume designs each Monday. Recently, though, he has gone back to posting daily, and has been concentrating on a story where Lana Lang gets superpowers thanks to her amazing 21" waist, and where Superboy takes it upon himself to be a total dick to her. Which, as BB is quick to point out, is standard Superboy behavior. Blogs in the voice of characters tend to be a sort of one-trick pony; once you sort of get the joke that Prince Namor is complaining about his Lucky Charms cereal, then that's pretty much it. But by choosing a cypher, the author of the blog can project as outrageous a personality onto him as necessary, without fear of reprisal. At the same time, with the artwork, he brings something else to the endeavor as well, in addition to his facile wit and his encyclopedic knowledge of comic history. It's possible that the audience for the blog is limited, but I find myself wondering why he doesn't have more readers. I think maybe he needs his own logo.

Reading his posts has also gotten me re-re-re-reading my Legion Archives -- which also makes me happy -- just because I remember what a crazy comic it used to be before it got rebooted umpteen times and became incredibly boring. Unfortunately, I only have volumes 1, 2, and 6-9 down here; the rest of them are still at my parents' house.

BeaucoupKevin posted a video of Pulp performing "The Fear" live, and oddly enough, that makes me happy, too.

Pulp - The Fear (live)
Uploaded by beautifulcynic

Maybe it's because this pretty much describes how I'm feeling right now. Plus, I've always loved this song: it's like a song in a horror movie, but the horror is that everyday, you're a little closer to death. From the moment we're born, we're circling the drain. Once you realize that, it's almost... liberating.

And Mrs. Eric's willingness and advocacy in trying to get me a job makes me happy. Finally, that networking thing is finally starting to pay off!

More will come as I get happier.

Things That Make Me Happy

To begin with, Today's Daily Puppy makes me happy. It may make me a brainwashed defender of the status quo, but puppies usually make me happy. I know, I know: I am two steps away from hanging this poster in my cubicle.

Courtesy of a post on WFMU's blog: This is a video clip of Bongwater performing a Roky Erickson song, "You Don't Love Me Yet". This is one of my favorite songs that they recorded. It starts out with Screamin' Jay Hawkins yowling towards the camera, and just gets weirder from there, what with the one Neanderthal guitarist wearing an op-art a-line skirt, and the squarest looking back-up singers swaying with professional disinterest in the background. And then anarchy asserts itself (even among the background singers!) as Ann Magnuson launches into her spoken word, performance art thang.

And then there's Conway Twitty, with the Residents dancing crypticly behind him:

Sure, the Residents don't do much, but when you are dressed up as three eyeballs and a skull, what else do you need to do? Both of these clips are from Night Music, which, we are told, "ran for a short time on NBC around 1988-89". I cannot imagine anything even remotely this cool ever airing to begin with.

Also, for those of you who are like me and think that when Fergie is going about her "lovely lady lumps", it sounds like she has breast cancer -- honestly, it is not appropriate to associate breasts with sexy lumps -- a suitably mournful version of "My Humps" by Alanis Morissette. This has been doing the rounds, so I don't feel like I'm obligated to embed it here.

Oh, and this makes me very, very happy:


All is again right with the world. Have a groove-tastic day!