Poets // Current

"I Will Not Lose" a Haitian Identity poem by Wilkine Brutus

Culture is a little more complex than black and white issues. Ethnic pride can often... more

wilkinebrutus
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7 days ago
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New Website Aims To Be An iTunes For Poetry

The new website PoetrySpeaks is aiming to serve as a social networking hub and online... more

atomiclegion
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7 days ago
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Pixies’ Powerful Doolittle Tour Blends Surreal Sonics, Visuals

After celebrating the 20th anniversary of its pop-punk classic Doolittle with thankful fans across the pond, the legendary Pixies has returned to America to share its noisy love of surreal sonics and eye-candy visuals. That deafening blast you hear is thousands of Pixies monkeys gone to heaven.

Not that the quartet is being met only by longtime fans. After fracturing in the early ’90s upon the release of blistering full-lengths like Doolittle and Surfer Rosa, the Pixies — guitarist and shrieker Black Francis, bassist and vocalist Kim Deal, guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer David Lovering — are more popular than ever. And judging by the joyous crowd that sold out Wednesday night’s rowdy set at the Hollywood Palladium, the first stop on the U.S. leg of the Pixies’ Doolittle tour that wraps Dec. 1, die-hard fans and new adopters alike have spent time since the band’s 2004 reunion memorizing its brilliant songs and esoteric B-sides.

Doolittle was always the artiest of the band’s releases, from the biblical estrangement of the record’s lyricism to the dark and suggestive sleeve art from graphic designer Vaughan Oliver and photographer Simon Larbalestier (exhaustively collected in the Pixies’ recently released mega-box Minotaur).

That spirit was celebrated before the concert with a screening of Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali’s infamous 1928 surrealist short Un Chien Andalou (mashed at right with the Pixies’ “Debaser”). The film was met with cheers that escalated into howls once its ending bled into the groovy boogie of the B-side “Dancing the Manta Ray.”

By the time the Pixies had galloped through rarely performed B-sides like the sinister “Bailey’s Walk” and the spastic “Weird at My School,” the crowd was ready for the A-list.

Francis and crew didn’t disappoint, quickly blazing through Doolittle’s abrasive opener “Debaser,” whose Andalou-inspired surrealist lyrics about “slicing up eyeballs” matched perfectly with the banned silent-film clips of the 1920s compilation Forbidden Images, which was projected on a massive screen behind them. The synesthetic merge brought a measure of high-end live production the band never received in its earlier, less appreciated life. Spearheaded by the Pixies’ trusty lighting designer Myles Mangino and Paul Normandale, and complemented by 11 new films from Judy Jacobs, Tom Winkler, Brent Felix and Melinda Tupling, the viz added eye-candy dimension to Doolittle’s deranged sonics.

The hybrid hits kept on coming. The screen bled red to the Pixies’ jagged dirge “I Bleed” (pictured above). During the twisted love song “Hey,” key phrases came to life in Tom Winkler’s hand-drawn animations. A rousing rendition of “Monkey Gone to Heaven” mashed Oliver and Larbalestier’s photography into the song’s performance, drawing hoots and screams from an ignited audience shouting “God is 7!” at the top of its lungs.

Things turned stranger during the split-screen video accompanying the band’s hit single “Here Comes Your Man,” where four digital Pixies bobbed happily behind their real-time counterparts on the stage. The goofy reel was an odd backdrop for a song the Pixies once seriously disliked, and hardly ever played live back when they were tearing into each other during the late ’80s. But the cognitive dissonance did nothing to erase the show’s momentum.

In fact, by the time the band landed on Doolittle’s galvanized closer “Gouge Away,” the audience’s love had amplified to the breaking point. Its unrelenting applause and shouts brought the Pixies out for two encores, to play remaining Doolittle-era B-sides like the hypnotic “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)” and epic “Into the White,” as well as Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa winners like “Isla de Encanta” and “Gigantic.”

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/11/pixies-anniversary-doolittle-tour-bleeds-surreal-sonics-viz/After celebrating the 20th anniversary of its pop-punk classic Doolittle with thankful... more

pjacobs51
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8 days ago
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Indie Music by BirthrightX

I think I became bold in love when I was set free. Some of my credits YhWH have... more

birthrightx
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1 month ago
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Common Sense Intro

This is something you can think about

bhstwo
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1 month ago
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FREE Internet Poetry Lessons with Poet Reid Baer “NewWarriorMan”

I am willing to tutor FREE the 1st five talented people to contact me who would like... more

NewWarriorMan
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1 month ago
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Erotic Poetry Group profile- D. H. Lawrence

David Herbert Lawrence, novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist, was born in... more

JanforGore
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1 month ago
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After shul this Shabbat afternoon/evening: KinkyJews' "Bagels and Locks Munch" & Poets House reopens

NY Jewish cultural events this weekend: KinkyJews' brunch and Poets House reopens.

davidfcooper
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: Ben Whishaw and Paul Schneider on Jane Campion's BRIGHT STAR

Guess I’m going to have to reevaluate my opinion of THE PIANO. I was one of those backlash guys, one of the ones who read all the effulgent praise about the film, the stuff elevating it to hitherto unknown heights as a stunning, sensuous cinematic event, and anticipated an experience that would forever change my notions of cinematic storytelling. What little I remember of my exposure to the movie centered on the loving display of Harvey Keitel’s unit. Nothing particularly wrong with Harvey Keitel’s unit, it just wasn’t what I’d bought my ticket for.

The plus side of being a film journalist is that you can get to a movie before the hype begins, before the superlatives get ladled on and the talents of a nuanced and intelligent filmmaker such as Jane Campion get blown all out of proportion. Campion’s newest film, BRIGHT STAR — her first feature in some four years — is likely to get all possible variations of “romantic,” “beautiful,” and “sensuous” tagged to it, but don’t let that blind you. Behind the sumptuous trappings — and, yeah, the film is beautiful, no argument — there remains Campion’s typical, incisive examination of the conflict between repression and passion, the creative heart and societal strictures.

The story is built around the relationship between poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) — published but impoverished — and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), a woman who vents her creative soul through her exquisite skills as a seamstress and can hold her own in repartee with the educated Mr. Keats. It is observed by Fanny’s family — including Campion stalwart Kerry Fox — and Charles Brown (Paul Schneider), whose dim view of the budding romance may not solely be motivated by its potential to derail Keats’ career. And it is played out in a world of rigidly formalized courtship rituals and a heightened sensitivity to scandal, not necessarily the perfect environment for genuine love.

The film, in short, is sweet, sad, and moving, but with Campion’s astringent edge keeping the proceedings from lapsing into sentimentality. And that makes all the difference.

That, and the fact that you won’t get distracted by Harvey Keitel’s unit.

Click on the link above to hear my interview with Ben Whishaw and Paul Schneider.Guess I’m going to have to reevaluate my opinion of THE PIANO. I was one of those... more