The 1930s Culture Blog: 04/01/2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

After Hours

I'd considered attempting to do a version of the Velvet Underground's "After Hours", but how could I ever hope to compete with this cute Chinese girl?

SPUK (Thesen gegen den Frühling)

One of the unexpected results of me starting a Carl Barks thread on the Comics Journal board has been the discovery of the art book "SPUK (Thesen gegen den Frühling)" by Niklaus Rüegg.

By now those Garfield strips with Garfield removed are very well known around the web...

... but this is something even more strange. It's "Donald Duck" comics by Carl Barks with all characters and speech balloons removed, leaving behind the impression of a disembodied camera floating slowly around an empty suburbian enviroment. Very eerie. And it's all done with very few lines.

Monday, April 28, 2008

More good Fall songs

I promised someone I would find a few more good Fall tunes on youtube and post them here, so this works more as an introduction to the band.

This is Theme From Sparta FC, probably the coolest football/soccer song ever. Mark E Smith's wife is from Greece, and this is a hymn to the Greek football club Sparta FC, which doesn't actually exist. "Be my toy! Come on have a bet! We live on blood! We are Sparta F.C!"

"Reformation" from their last album. Nice bass riff. Nice random stream of consciousness blabber: "Black River!! Fall Motel! Reformation Post TLC!!"

Cool 80s kickass single, "Cruisers Creek", from classic album "This NAtion's Saving Grace".

"Blindness" (live version) - this is another great bass riff song from recent years. Lovely random keyboard playing from Mark. Yes, that's Robert Plant clapping just before the band kicks in.

New Fall album.

Listening to the new album from one of the best bands in the world. It's very good. Particularly the bit with the banjo. :-)

James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem talking about The Fall:

"I love The Fall. To me, it's the best catalog in rock history. I'll take it over The Beatles or The Velvet Underground. It's really beautiful and broken, and it was the first thing I found that was completely unencumbered by bourgie tastes. Bands like Echo & The Bunnymen—when you're a teenager, that shit's great. You're like, "Oh, this is dark and mysterious and English." But it's really juvenile in terms of its aesthetic. The Fall was different. There's no candy. When you're a kid, you have this impression that things like respected literary novels are going to be like Merchant-Ivory movies, full of precious subtle things. But when you actually read books, you realize that shit's really fucked-up and dark and much more complex than your childish notion of what art is going to be like. The Fall is the first band that erased suburban-American concepts of what punk rock was going to be like for me. It's not heavy. It's not romantic. It's just broken up, and it really scared the shit out of me. It totally changed my life."

There's a great BBC documentary about the Fall on youtube. I don't understand much of what that Mark E. Smith guy is saying, but it's still great:

And one of the great Fall songs... also one of the most tuneful - "Mountain Energei". It's like a small broken Zen pop song. Probably the closest thing to a Fall song suitable for a sunny spring day.:

MOUNTAIN ENERGEI:

Mr Blairstowe and Mr Partridge
They said to me
To get a mortgage
You need an income lid
I thought it was free

Dolly Parton and Lord Byron
They said patriotism is the last refuge
But now its me

And water's flowing down the mountain
But a tree is blocking the water flowing

So I went fishing
A note from a fish said:
Dear dope, if you wanna catch us
You need a rod and a line
Signed the fish

Water is flowing down the mountain
But a tree is blocking the water flowing

Went to the car rental
They said to me
You need a log book and licence, son

Water's flowing down the mountain
But a tree is blocking the water coming
Mountain energei

And water's flowing down the mountain

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Aage Sikker Hansen

I've bought more art books with legendary 1930s-1960s Danish illustrator Aage Sikker Hansen. Here are more images by that wonderful illustrator, including som ads for Tobacco and Coffee that are quite famous and iconic in Denmark. The guy definitely had a thing for black women.

Exploitation movie posters

My old Internet buddy Jeff is doing a cult movie special in his blog this week, which inspired me to to take the Exploitation Movie Posters book down from my shelf and thumb through all those wonderful poster.

The web-site for the book has a sample gallery in hi-res.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Lady and the crappy singer, or Disney's Dream Debased

Here's a goodnight song from me before I go to bed. Me attempting to sing "Bella Notte" from "Lady and the Tramp"

BELLA NOTTE

This is the night
It's a beautiful night
and we call it bella notte
Look at the skies
They have stars in their eyes
On this lovely bella notte

So take this love of your loved one
You'll need it about this time
To keep from fallin' like a star
When you make that dizzy climb

For this is the night
and the heavens are right
On this lovely bella notte

The Songs of Richard Thompson part IV "The End of the Rainbow"

This surely is one of the darkest songs ever written. Pure primal existential despair made into sound. It's a hymn sung to a baby in the cradle, telling it about the darkness of the world.

Thompsons version isn't on Youtube, but that's fine. This is the version by Elvis Costello - his voice somehow manages to make the song even more icy:

THE END OF THE RAINBOW

I feel for you, you little horror
Safe at your mother’s breast
No lucky break for you around the corner
‘Cos your father is a bully
And he thinks that you’re a pest
And your sister, she’s no better than a whore

Life seems so rosy in the cradle
but I’ll be a friend, I’ll tell you what’s in store
There’s nothing at the end of the rainbow
There’s nothing to grow up for anymore

Tycoons and barrow boys will rob you
And throw you on the side
And all because they love themselves sincerely
And the man holds a bread-knife
Up to your throat, is four feet wide
And he’s anxious just to show you what it’s for

Your mother works so hard to make you happy
But take a look outside the nursery door
There’s nothing at the end of the rainbow
There’s nothing to grow up for anymore

All the sad and empty faces
That pass you on the street
All running in their sleep, all in a dream
Every loving handshake
Is just another man to beat
How your heart aches just to cut him to the core

Life seems so rosy in the cradle
but I’ll be a friend, I’ll tell you what’s in store
There’s nothing at the end of the rainbow
There’s nothing to grow up for anymore

Reading books in Swedish

Hmm, so reading a children's book in Swedish is harder than I thought. I've occasionally been reading items off Swedish news sites, but modern language from news items is actually much easier - most of the words are from English or Latin, and they're almost the same in any language. But the language in "Ronia, the Robbers Daughter" is more basic, and the words are more quintessential Swedish, and therefore not necessarily the same - even in Danish, a language that's historically quite connected to Swedish.

So I gave up and went to my local book store and bought Ronia in Danish. It was World Book Day today, and all titles were 20% off. So now I'm parallel-reading the book in two languages, which makes it much easier. Hopefully I'll be able to reread it in Swedish later and understand it.

Anyway, the book truly is a classic. It reads like a primal mythic tale about growing up and discovering the world. It also has a timeless 'Romeo and Juliet with kids' storyline. Truly a must read.

I ordered the British edition of "Moominvalley in November", so I'll be able to parallel-read that book too.

Shopping for books in Sweden

A few days ago I was reading the reader questions on Richard Thompson's homepage, and he was asked - because he's from the UK and tours Europe and currently resides in the US - about the difference between the US and European education system.

Part of his reply:

"I would say that European kids know more, generally speaking, than US kids. One reason is that they spend more time per year in school – by age 18, they’ve had a year’s extra schooling. They seem a year or two years ahead by university level. Background culture, I believe, plays a big part. Most European kids speak 2 or 3 languages, which is just the reality of having all those countries jammed up next to each other, and learning languages is very good for the neural pathways. French, Italian, German families all eat together, and discuss things like politics and culture. TV in Europe doesn’t talk down to you as it tends to in the US, and advertising doesn’t assume you are an idiot. " (source)

Anyway, his answer made me want to act more like a proper European and read more stuff in European languages. That basically means Swedish and German, which are the two languages where I understand about... I dunno, 60-80% if I concentrate. I should get into a habit of reading more in those languages so I can get that percentage even higher.

So yesterday I went shopping in Sweden. The town Malmö is just on the other side of the water near Copenhagen, and now that the new bridge across the water was opened a few years ago, the city of Copenhagen and the town of Malmö are slowly growing into one big multi-lingual metropolitan area, with people moving freely across the bridge to shop and work.

These are some of the books I bought in Swedish in Sweden:

"Ronja Röverdotter" / "Ronia, the Robber's Daughter" by Astrid Lindgren is one of the all time great fantasy books for kids. In Europe this (and her other childrens fantasy novel "The Brothers Lionheart") are even more popular than her Pippi Longstocking books. In The US they're relatively unknown, though. But at least they're both in print at the moment, so US readers of this blog with kids should check them out.

I look forward to reading "Sent i November" ("Moominvalley in November"), the last book, and apparently the most existential and melancholic, in the moomin series. The Swedish cover art is beautiful. Tove Jansson was a great graphic artist too. The current US edition of her Moomin newspaper strips is an absolutely must-buy:

Sunday, April 20, 2008

"World Gone Wrong"

This is me trying to be a 1930s American bluesman and playing "World Gone Wrong". I kinda like the solo towards the end. It's a 'trad.' song... I got my version from my Dylan songbook, but I haven't listened to the Dylan version for some time.

I think my English diction has somewhat improved by all this singing stuff, which is one of the reasons i continue playing English songs instead of butchering the Danish classics, but I'm sure I'm still far from convincing.

WORLD GONE WRONG

Strange things have happened, like never before.
My baby told me I would have to go.
I can't be good no more, once like I did before.
I can't be good, baby,
Honey, because the world's gone wrong.

Feel bad this morning, ain't got no home.
No use in worrying, 'cause the world gone wrong,
I can't be good no more, once like I did before.
I can't be good, baby,
Honey, because the world's gone wrong.

I told you, baby, right to your head,
If I didn't leave you I would have to kill you dead.
I can't be good no more, once like I did before.
I can't be good, baby,
Honey, because the world's gone wrong.

I tried to be loving and treat you kind,
But it seems like you never right, you got no loyal mind.
I can't be good no more, once like I did before.
I can't be good, baby,
Honey, because the world's gone wrong.

If you have a woman and she don't treat you kind,
Praise the Good Lord to get her out of your mind.
I can't be good no more, once like I did before.
I can't be good, baby,
Honey, because the world's gone wrong.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

"The Best Science Fiction Comics And Graphic Novels"

I'm still strangely fascinated by the idea of doing Amazon lists, and then try to get as many viewers as possible. Here's my latest attempt at making list that's a 'hit'. Please visit it HERE.
It's not all a 'popularity game' thing, though. I'm trying to make lists that are genuinly useful. Too few other people seem to be doing that.

I'm not sure exactly how you make these lists become a hit... I guess the trick is to somehow get people to link to the list in their blogs. If you do that it'll get moved towards the top i Google.

The first ten titles on the list look like this, but you gotta click on the link above to see the full list.