Cass Sunstein - Simpler: The Future of Government

I must admit that I tend to flit a bit from book to book about these kinds of subjects; as interesting as I find them, I read parts of many more than I actually finish (case in point: Thinking, Fast and Slow, which is fascinating but which I've been stalled halfway through for months - despite the additional nudge of it being selected as a work book club text partway through!).

I raced through this one, though, probably in equal parts because its ideas are: (1) intuitively appealing; (2) familiar to me; and (3) at least potentially applicable in my work. There's also some interesting colour at the margins in relation to the tortuous process of Sunstein's appointment by Barack Obama as the administrator of OIRA and the massively controversial nature of some of the regulation that he and his office considered - most notably associated with the Affordable Care Act and a suite of environmental regulation - but for me, much of the appeal of these nudge-informed approaches to government action and regulation is their potential to bridge the partisan 'big government'/'small government' debate. More substantially, of course, the foundational assumptions about how people actually make decisions (informed by behavioural economics), the implications for how governments should engage with citizens in shaping 'choice architectures', and the possibilities for huge positive impacts all strike me as very plausible (and normatively defensible, in terms of the concerns about paternalism and lack of transparency).

Not everyone's fully on board, though - pieces like this are a useful additional perspective, and there are plenty of far more strident outright rejections to be found (some knee-jerk and ill-informed, some much more thoughtful).

The Wind Rises

There's such an artistry to Miyazaki's work - most noticeably on the visual level, but he has the ability to engage on the level of story, too. I've seen a few, though by no means all, of his films before and liked them - Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Ponyo and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (as a double feature), and Princess Mononoke, those last two being particular favourites. The Wind Rises is interesting - it has the same gentle poignancy of those others, but without the fantastic elements and overall a fairly muted feel.

There are some problematic aspects - the unquestioned way that the (dying) girl's needs are subordinated to Jiro's work, the romanticisation of the life's work of an aeronautical engineer whose efforts culminate in the building of the fighter planes ultimately used by Japan in WWII - although it may be possible to make sense of them in terms of Miyazaki's concern with the way that beauty and the natural can be tainted or corrupted by other forces ... overall, the film does work better as a mood piece than a particularly thematically consistent one.

(w/ Jade)

Idol XIII top 10

So three down since the live finals started - the first two to go were two of the least interesting (Kristen O'Connor and Emily Piriz), and then last night Ben Briley, who I quite liked but despite that, overall so far so good.

I saw this season described somewhere on the internet as 'Indie Idol', which is obviously a heck of an overstatement but also not completely off the mark - compared to last season, at least, there's a noticeably higher level of individuality to the styles of the singers, along with less in the way of generic polish to their singing (also, a lot fewer ballads). Nor are there really obvious frontrunners, at least so far as I can tell - only a couple of them have displayed any real consistency across the four times I've now seen them sing on the show.

That inconsistency has also meant that I've fluctuated a bit in terms of my favourites, but just now it'd go like this (in terms of how much I like them, not how likely I think they are to win) and actually all but the last have at least something substantial going for them:

1. MK Nobilette. Been a bit up and down, but still my favourite, in equal parts due to that first time I came across her with "All of Me" and to the lovely something in the tone of her voice and the feeling that she's at times able to convey.
2. Jena Irene. Something of a sleeper for me. At first I thought her voice was on the weak side and perhaps a bit strained in its unusual timbre - but over these four weeks, she's emerged as a powerful and interesting singer and this week's "Decode" (a Paramore song) was her best yet.
3. CJ Harris. I've been pulling for CJ despite a couple of pretty average performances, because I like his voice a lot and the way he uses it - gravelly, bluesy, soulful. He seems a bit raw to me, but lots of potential.
4. Majesty Rose. Maybe not the strongest singer in the field but definitely the most adorable, big eyes, gap between the front teeth and all, and with the ability to make a song zing when she gets it right.
5. Malaya Watson. Cool, and a powerful voice to go with. I've gone a tiny bit off her because of the lack of control at times, but I wouldn't be at all unhappy if she can go deep into the season.
6. Alex Preston. Sensitive actually-indie-seeming type who I quite like in the context of Idol and who has real talent, though I suspect I'd dismiss him without a second listen if I heard him on the radio. Still, there may be more to him than he's yet shown.
7. Jessica Meuse. I wasn't a fan at first - she seemed to just be belting songs out without much nuance, and not even always fully in tune - but ok, I now get it a bit, especially from her "White Flag". And actually, with the right songs, someone who I can imagine listening to outside the format.
8. Caleb Johnson. Actually I reckon this guy's really good, especially after seeing his most recent one, "Skyfall", and he has been consistent. But this kind of classic rock-ish vibe just isn't my thing. Another who may have more up his sleeve, in which case I could really get behind him.
9. Sam Woolf. Nice voice, a bit bland. Probably a good shot at winning the thing seeing as he's young, nice-looking and inoffensively pleasant-sounding.
10. Dexter Roberts. Just doesn't give me anything - perfectly okay singer, but I find him boring.

To be honest, that list does reflect my own biases a bit, in terms of the singers operating in the territories that I tend to favour outside the Idol context generally appearing relatively higher up.

... and this is how the Vegas odds line them up for the time being (exactly transposing my favourite and least favourite and putting poor MK very far at the back of the pack, which I'm sure is in no small part because of her apparent lack of stage comfort):

	Dexter Roberts	4.25
	Alex Preston	5.00
	Caleb Johnson	5.00
	Jena Irene	6.50
	Sam Woolf	8.00
	CJ Harris	9.00
	Majesty Rose	10.00
	Jessica Meuse	11.00
	Malaya Watson	21.00
	MK Nobilette	51.00

(a few weeks back)

Straight to You: Triple J's Tribute to Nick Cave

Uneven, with the good ones outweighed by the less impressive or memorable. Still, the power and drama of Cave's songs has a way of coming through, even if only in traces - Adalita's "Straight to You", for example, conveys this strongly. Lisa Mitchell takes on not one but both of the big Cave ballads which have soundtracked so much for me in the past - "The Ship Song" and "Into My Arms" - and gives them fracturedly fragile readings that've taken a few listens for me to take to but which turn out to be pretty nice (the underlying quality of the songs and melodies doesn't hurt); Alex Burnett does a nice, lightly soulful pop take on the deathless "Shivers", acknowledging before doing so (these are live recordings) that it was actually penned by Rowland S Howard; Paul Kelly is as graceful as ever with his "Nobody's Baby Now".

Pretty much all of the other really totemic songs get a guernsey, though many of these do come off as askew, weaker versions of the indelible original takes - "Deanna", "From Her To Eternity", "Red Right Hand", "The Mercy Seat", "Do You Love Me", "Where The Wild Roses Grow" (this one works quite well - Alex Burnett in a much lower register than for "Shivers" and Lanie Lane), even "Nick The Stripper".

Anyway, I wouldn't say I've ever been a particularly huge Nick Cave fan, but there've been times when I've taken his music quite to heart, and to greater or lesser extents it's always been there somewhere in the background - he certainly deserves a tribute of this kind.

The Government Inspector (Malthouse)

Theatre seasons off and running for the year, and a good one to start - to be expected with Simon Stone at the helm. The premise for its 'The Government Inspector' could all too easily have devolved into unattractively self-contemplative meta-for-its-own-sakeness, and indeed the first few minutes threaten just that. But there's a sure hand at work with this production, from scripting to production and direction and carried through by the performances,[*] and it takes off in richly comic - and, indeed, farcical - vein, and proves thoroughly enjoyable, with much to say about and with the language of theatre, among other things. It all comes together, and would have been a success even without the ultimate (musical) staging of 'The Government Inspector' itself  - but that final play within the play (within the play) is the cherry on top as well as being the (almost) ending that was needed to complete it. Very good.

(w/ Cass, Erandathie & Cass's mum)

---

[*] Good across the board, with some familiar faces, including Zahra Newman (who I was pretty sure I recognised from Stone's Cherry Orchard, and it turns out was also in Blood Wedding, Simon Phillips' Richard III from a few years back, and Joanna Murray-Smith's Rockabye), Robert Menzies and Gareth Davies.

Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac

Maybe Fleetwood Mac's one of those bands that you need to grow into, 'cause these days it's pretty obvious to me that they're basically awesome and yet the history of me talking about them on extemporanea, in 2007 and then again in 2011, is basically one of non-committally vague liking.

Anyway this is a decent compilation, with some good moments and some average ones. On the particularly good side of the ledger line up the Lee Ranaldo Band feat J Mascis with "Albatross", Antony doing "Landslide" (admittedly merely pretty rather than the revelatory version that it had the potential to be), Washed Out's "Straight Back", Gardens & Villas' "Gypsy" (two dreamily synthy tunes by bands that I hadn't heard before - somewhere in the terrain of Beach House and Wild Nothing) and an extremely simple and straight-up - but charming - "Rhiannon" by Best Coast. The New Pornographers and Lykke Li turn in some nice numbers too, both sounding v much like themselves. Also, turns out that "Dreams" did not need a slowed-down, garage-y take (no thank you, the Kills).

Melbourne Now once more

This time with Kai, in town from Perth. We were in the NGV International, and the ones I liked were pretty much those that I enjoyed last time (somewhat surprisingly, the room that blares sound and lights when activated by motion doesn't get old - Marco Fusinato’s Aetheric Plexus (Broken X)).

Also came across a section that I missed last time, including the 'Zoom' project which included cards that we could take away with ideas about how to maintain Melbourne's liveability - the three that I chose read "If all roads lead to Melbourne, start from the beginning" (probably the most poetic of the offerings), "Communities work alongside government to plan and program public places" and "Allow citizens direct access to decision making forums" (the latter two having more of a work flavour, I guess) - it was striking how consistent, and mutually aligned, most of the ideas were.

More generally, just another reminder of how wonderful it is to have a good public art gallery so easily accessible, open to all - and how important the NGV in particular has been, and continues to be, to me.

(NGVA - not visited this time)

Game of Thrones season 3

This show is really exciting, even when you more or less know what's coming. Which is actually quite a trick, especially given that the sheer number of pieces (characters) in motion means that you rarely get to spend more than a few minutes with any one or group of them at a time, and often only the once per episode at that. And yet it's gripping, even stirring - blessed with any number of narrative punches with which it can punctuate its events (often, to great effect, with the closing scene of an episode - like the loss of Jaime's hand) and an array of memorable characters who do spring to life on screen even if some, like Beric Dondarrion or the Unsullied this season, aren't exactly as I'd imagined them from the books, and also effective in its use of the possibilities and limitations of the tv medium to get the most out of all of that...and while the tv series is fast catching up to the books, there's still a lot to come and at least one great major character to arrive in season 4 - assuming that the Dornish make their appearance.

(season 1 + rewatch; season 2)

James J Heckman - Giving Kids a Fair Chance

I've developed an interest in early childhood development over the last year and a bit (*), in which field Nobel laureate Heckman's work has been very influential. This book has a pithy statement of his argument about the value - including from an economic efficiency perspective, and not neglecting the favourable equity implications - of early interventions aimed at both cognitive and socio-emotional skills; the piece itself isn't explicit, but I take it that the focus is from ages 0 to 5 years. And (this is what got me to buy it) it then follows up with a series of short responses from a range of other perspectives, most broadly supportive but a few dissenting or at least questioning key elements of Heckman's claims.

(The whole thing was originally part of a Boston Review forum, also available online.)

"So what I said is what I said and what you said is what you meant": Washington - I Believe You Liar

There's a fine line with this kind of music, moving in that interface between out and out pop and something a little edgier - the need to strike a balance between the pleasures of a simple pop song and the desire to create something maybe a little more interesting, a little different - and Megan Washington gets it right here, nearly all of I Believe You Liar's 13 tracks hitting the mark. I like the faster, peppier ones more - especially those with a bit of a brassier swing to them ... "Navy Blues", "Cement" (my favourite), "Plastic Bag" ... I recognised "The Hardest Part" too.

Damon Young - How to Think About Exercise

An enjoyable little book, which I've read - twice through, in fact - as part of my current focus on improving my lifestyle, energy levels and all-round wellbeing, part of which has involved both doing and thinking about exercise a fair bit more than any time recently prior to this burst.

Organised into short chapters dealing with various values and potentially valuable elements associated with exercise (reverie, pride, sacrifice, beauty, humility, pain, consistency, the sublime, oneness) and drawing on a range of philosophical, cultural-theory, literary and other perspectives, it emphasises the benefits that can come from a holistic, integrated approach to body and mind, physical activity and thought - very much in line with what triggered my own current reorientation towards exercise, while also providing me with some good new ways of looking at and making the most of it.

Firefox AK - Color the Trees

Reminds me of Wounded Rhymes a fair bit and the similarities don't end with the sound - Color the Trees was from the same year (2011) and its creator likewise hails from Sweden. I quite like it, but while most of the songs have a nice enough melody to them, I think my favourite of hers is still the beguiling "Cardiac Arrest", which brought her to my attention a few years back.

Mistaken for Strangers

Liking the National no doubt added a bit to the viewing experience, and having just seen them live again didn't hurt either, but the pleasures of this documentary don't particularly depend on familiarity with their music. It's somewhat about being in a rock band, and much more about the fraternal relationship between Matt and Tom Berninger (the former, suave singer of aforementioned outfit; the latter, shambolic metal-fan younger brother wannabe film-maker) on which it is amusingly good.

(w/ Al)

Emmylou Harris - Evangeline & Cimarron

A pair of relatively indistinct 1981 records, both largely made up of outtakes, I think, from the much more memorable Blue Kentucky Girl and Roses in the Snow.

White Night Melbourne, Saturday 22 February

Browsing the White Night website; maybe I should've done this before going to it, but then again, it's reinforcing the thought I had last night that there'd be no surer way to make it un-fun that to try to be comprehensive about it - far better to take it more or less as it comes.

Like everyone else in the whole of Melbourne, I liked last year's, and this year's return was another hit. Expanding its 'footprint' was a good idea, and meant there while the crowds were still, inevitably, an issue at times, overall there were many more opportunities to spread and break out a bit.

We went through the heart of the city and later back again, and saw bits and pieces there, but spent most of our time in and around the Alexandra Gardens, where we followed the lights to the source of the 'Crepuscular Beam' (striking from afar, but even more so from directly beneath), wandered through the 'Arcadian Reverie' and were struck agog by the sight, first glimpsed from afar, of Craig Walsh's 'Monuments', video projections of five huge faces on to trees on the opposite bank of the Yarra, like some pagan gods and also intensely human, awe-inspiring and moving - the highlight of the night.

 (w/ Cass)

Idol XIII

Last year was the first time that I'd watched American Idol, and I got into it to the extent that from the time that I discovered how much I was enjoying it (pretty much the start of the top 10, I think) it became pretty much a regular weekly watch for me - the only tv show that I can remember to've ever inspired that kind of commitment from me, at least in my adult life.

And yet, when I saw that it was back this year, I thought about deliberately not watching it this time round - mainly because of a suspicion that the ready gratification that it offers, the individual moments which can literally be spine-tingling, breath-taking (for me there were perhaps ten to a dozen of these over the course of last season), along with the general emphasis on immediate pleasures (ballads, anthems, high notes, crescendos), was likely to be conditioning me to respond to this kind of relatively easy, superficial music at the expense of other, potentially deeper experiences.

Not a music-snob thing on my part, it goes without saying...but art of any kind can ennoble and educate those who engage with it, directly in terms of the depth of our own capacity to experience the art-form itself, and more profoundly (albeit relatedly) in relation to our moral and emotional character - and maybe it cuts both ways, such that if the art we expose ourselves to, the music we listen to, offers the simplest and most straightforward of emotional pay-offs, then through repeated exposure we ourselves lose some deeper sensitivity and capacity to experience. It sounds abstract, but feels real.

Despite those concerns, though, tonight I came in partway through the live performances of the top 10 girls, and I wasn't paying that much attention and then got a phone call mid-show and what I did see wasn't super-exciting anyway and so on - and then there was this girl called MK (Nobilette) singing, second from the end, and all of a sudden something was happening, basically from the first note she sang...she has something. This was a bit wow.

Having now watched/rewatched all of tonight's efforts on youtube, my other favourite performances from tonight are also 'M's - Majesty Rose and Malaya Watson (I'm a bit sceptical about any of these three winning, but for now at least I see that America / the world seems to share my liking of them - as of now, theirs are in fact the top 3 most watched on American Idol's official youtube channel) - and actually most of the others at least have something interesting about them...so what do you know - I guess I'm watching again in 2014.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Tells its story - of DiCaprio's utterly unscrupulous trader Jordan Belfort's rise to riches - with a verve which carried me through probably the longest film I've ever watched in a cinema that wasn't either a Lord of the Rings film or part of a festival (in that latter category, this one comes straight to mind). It's downright funny in places too, not to mention outright grotesque in particular moments that stand out event amidst all of the debauchery and excess. For me, as a whole, this was a film that was more diverting than really a knock-out, but still, nicely done.

Some support cast-y things:

• Kyle Chandler, who plays the FBI agent pursuing Belfort, looks exactly like a young Robert Forster (ie Max Cherry in Jackie Brown).
• Belfort's first wife is played by Cristin Milioti - I couldn't place her at the time, but google tells me that she not only is the mother in HIMYM (as finally revealed in the last ep of season 8), but also had that memorable cameo in 30 Rock's fifth season as the 'sexy baby' comedienne.
• McConaughey's turn near the start is gold.

(w/ Mehnaz)

Star Trek Into Darkness

The first of these was, a bit unexpectedly, good in a suitably flashy kind of way; this one's also zippily easy to watch.

Top Gun

What I knew about Top Gun before watching it on tv last night (non-exhaustive of course, but these are the main points really):

1. Tom Cruise, fighter pilot, Val Kilmer, antagonist.
2. "Take My Breath Away" (good).
3. 80s (see previous).
4. Famously homoerotic topless volleyball scene.

So, really I hardly needed to watch it at all cos it turns out that was all I needed to know. An additional highlight, closely related to #3 above - the hyper-dramatically hazy San Diego, California sunset palm tree shots.

"There's a science to walking through windows": The National @ Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Sunday 9 February

I'd say that the National are pretty well a known quantity for me, at least to the extent that you can ever say that about any artist - I've really internalised Boxer and Alligator and High Violet, and to a lesser extent Trouble Will Find Me too, plus I'd previously seen them live not once but twice - and yet, their show yesterday still added some new dimensions to my experience of their music (the one that's top of mind right now is how great a song "Conversation 16" turns out to be - that's the one that goes "I was afraid - I'd eat your brains - cause I'm evil"; "Graceless" also stood out more than I'd have expected).

So anyway, in about an hour and a half (I think), they got through a fair number of the best songs from their last three albums, and knowing them inside out and loving them as I do it couldn't help but be a good experience (despite the somewhat crummy sound in the grass area, where we were), and it was..."Fake Empire", "Mistaken For Strangers", "Slow Show", "Terrible Love", "Bloodbuzz Ohio", "Sea of Love", etc, etc (not to mention the always welcome "Abel" and "Mr November" from the slightly older Alligator, which I would've liked them to dip into more).

Support from Luluc, who I've also seen multiple times before although only once as a headline act in their own right - their sounds suited for the grassy, expansive surrounds of the Music Bowl as a baking hot Melbourne summer's day wound down.

(w/ Al)

the everybodyfields - Plague of Dreams

An earlier one by the everybodyfields (I've kept on listening to the lovely Nothing is Okay, and in scouring the wilds of the internet for the relatively little that's been written about this wonderful three piece, have discovered that their name is lower-cased). There's a purity to it, arising in no small part from the simplicity of its meldings of voice, acoustic guitar, dobro and fiddle, but also a wracked air - a sense of hurt and striving - that causes it to stick all the more. Jill Andrews sings, heart-in-mouth and heartbroken, on two of the highlights with "The Only King" and "Can't Have It"; Sam Quinn's at the helm for the other, his plaintively scratchy voice just the right fit for the dreamy, end-of-the-river/end-of-the-day feel of "Good To Be Home"'s six minutes-plus.

John Scalzi - Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas

Call it Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead meets Stranger Than Fiction, plus a heavy dose of tv sci-fi, and specifically (I suspect) Star Trek - a small group of new recruits on the starship Intrepid begin to realise that something is very wrong with their ship, leading them eventually to the realisation that they themselves are minor characters in a not particularly well-written science fiction tv show from 2012, that show having created the (future) timeline in which they're existing, with particularly adverse implications for their likely life expectancies, not being stars of the show (*). It's meta and recursive (as it has one of its characters say) but in a way that always makes sense, and in a way that's only part of the effect rather than being its whole point.

It's a good read, hitting a tone that allows it to be comedic and not too heavy while also generating stakes that feel real enough to be exciting, and achieving some genuinely affecting moments with its three codas, all of which elaborate on the effects of the incursion by those ensigns into the 'real' world from the perspective of relatively peripheral characters.

Emmylou Harris - Thirteen

I have all these Emmylou albums on my hard drive, picked up cheap at one time or another; Thirteen is one of them, from 1986. I wouldn't say it's particularly distinguished, but nonetheless, nice - and, well, listening to her sing, it never gets old. I can hear a lot of Patty Griffin on this one - although, of course, it's actually the other way around, with Griffin's career not having started till the 90s - and the trace of Harris' early career collaborations with Gram Parsons is legible, too, on straightforward but likeable cuts like "Sweetheart of the Pines".

Buddy Miller - Cruel Moon & The Majestic Silver Strings

Two quite different records from Miller, several years apart. Cruel Moon came out in 1999, two years after the fantastic Poison Love, with which it has a lot in common including generally being at its best in the moments where Julie Miller's harmony vocals are most integral (songs like "I'm Gonna Be Strong", "Sometimes I Cry" and the title track) and also being rather simple and rather soulful and very, very good. Whereas The Majestic Silver Strings was from 2011, and saw Miller enlisting a whole battalion of additional guitarists and vocalists (Lee Ann Womack, Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, others) and covering a fair bit of territory including a couple of downright abstract drifters, not all of which speak to me as much as his more straight-ahead offerings - though the album as a whole has plenty to offer.

Neil Gaiman - Absolute Sandman vol 4

Holds The Kindly Ones and The Wake, both quite different in art style from the preceding issues (and from each other) and, like those others, benefiting from the 'absolute' presentation. A fitting ending; this makes it three times that I've read through the whole series (although only the second time that it's been in sequence) and it still holds up on any terms, art, literature, etc.

(vol 1 , vol 2 , vol 3)

Community seasons 1-3

I feel a lot of fondness for Community! Have been watching these again in the intervals between other things over the last few weeks.

(last time)

The Breakfast Club

Was it maybe with Heathers that I discovered or realised that the teen film was a genre that I really liked? If so, that'd be at once apt and not - apt because I was in school myself then and also because I don't think I've come across an entry in the genre since that I've liked more, and yet not because, in retrospect, to the extent that it was the apotheosis of the 80s teen film, it was a genuinely apocalyptic one (albeit exactly calibrated to appeal to my sensibilities at the time).

Anyway, however it started, for me, the teen flick has been a totemic genre since the days when I was the same age as its protagonists and onwards since; in light of which it's again both surprising and not that I've never before seen any of John Hughes' entries in the field (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink ... I have seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off but for some reason have it filed away in a different category) - surprising inasmuch as they're seemingly canonical in the genre, but then less so given that they were made before my time, whereas much of the appeal for me was the personal identification with the characters, stories, situations.

But I've at last made my way to this one - The Breakfast Club - and found it charming, but lacking in the piercing, poignant quality or sense of recognition that my favourites in the genre have brought in the past. Partly that may be the timing - released in 1985, it feels overly simplistic and innocent, and after all that was close to three decades ago now. But I also wonder whether part of it may be me, my own school years now well and truly behind me. Still, though, I see the appeal - each of the five types is effectively archetypal ... and at last I understand why people always talk about Molly Ringwald as such an iconic teen star and sweetheart.

20 Years of Kill Rock Stars 1991 - 2011

A sampler that came with something that I bought last year - plenty of the riot grrl and successors (I'd be tempted to put Marnie Stern, represented by "Transparency is the New Mystery" in that latter category, for example) type tunes that I associate with the label. Best, along with those I already knew (the Stern, Comet Gain's fantastic "Why I Try to Look So Bad", Thao's "Bag of Hammers", the Gossip's "Standing in the Way of Control"): the Thermals' "Now We Can See", Mary Timony Band's "Sharpshooter", the Corin Tucker Band's "Doubt" and, more generally, the never unwelcome reminder of how nice 90s alternative rock, done properly, can be.

Her

I liked this one - for me, it just didn't strike any false notes in the way that it tackled its subject. David said afterwards that he wished he hadn't known that the OS's voice was provided by Scarlett Johansson because it meant that he was imagining her when Joaquin Phoenix's Theodore Twombly wasn't; a good point, but perhaps the price of getting a film like this made (not that I'm down on Scarlett as such - in fact, she might well be the best option of the top echelon, fame-wise, of female stars). A nice supporting turn from Amy Adams too, who it's turning out is kind of awesome.

(w/ Daniel L and David)

Rosanne Cash - The River and the Thread

A rather lovely record from Cash, her voice as warmly rich as ever, the songwriting of a piece. Not flashy, but very nice.

Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular

One out of leftfield for me, but when Nicolette texted the day before and said she had a spare ticket, I thought that, given that I was free, in the spirit of openness I ought to go along. Huge auditorium ('the Plenary') in the Convention Centre, MSO playing music from Doctor Who, accompanied by big screen scene montages, sometimes with dressed-up monsters (turns out there are lots beyond the Daleks) roaming the aisles. Emphasis on the last couple - David Tennant and Matt Smith - which meant that I at least knew what they looked like and recognised a couple of the 'companions' (Billie Piper caused an audible collective sigh from the audience when her image came up), and hosted by the fifth doctor, Peter Davison.

Everything I know about Doctor Who I know from pop culture, never having watched an episode all the way through, but the music was pretty good - cinematic - and the accompanying montages seemed to hit some big emotional and other arcs from the recent series, and together they actually did make me feel that I could understand why so many people have such a fondness for the show - it was fun and a good Friday night activity...and now Peter Capaldi's casting might even tempt me to start watching.

Short Term 12

It turned out to be a good thing that I didn't know much about Short Term 12 going into it, because that made its impact all the greater. This is one of those little independent films - like Monsters, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Mud - that has a glow to it, sensitively directed and carried along by at least one stand out performance (here, it's Brie Larson's natural, forcefully conveyed central turn). It was like exactly everything that this film wanted me to think and feel, I did.

(w/ Cass)

List

Updated list of 50 songs most listened to according to itunes (so, since maybe 2007, 2008):

1. Different Worlds - Brittany Cairns (208 plays) [last time: #1]
2. This World Can Make You Happy - Amaya Laucirica (130) [#2]
3. 100 Million Little Bombs - Buddy Miller (126) [new]
4. It Must Come Through - Jen Cloher and the Endless Sea (116) [#3]
5. New Year - Beach House (115) [#4]
6. State of Grace - Taylor Swift (114) [= #43]
7. 23 - Blonde Redhead (105) [#5]
8. Out Loud - Mindy Smith (93) [#6]
9. Useless Desires - Patty Griffin (92) [new]
=10. The Mother We Share - Chvrches (91) [new]
=10. Starry Skies - Laura Cantrell (91) [new]
12. Aeroplane - The Everybodyfields (87) [= #8]
13. Coming Home To Me - Patty Griffin feat Julie Miller (84) [#7]
=14. Sweet Talk - Jessie Ware (82) [new]
=14. Slow Show - The National (82) [= #15]
16. Godspell - The Cardigans (80) [#11]
=17. No Bad News - Patty Griffin (78) [#37]
=17. Even Though I'm A Woman - Seeker Lover Keeper (78) [#13]
19. Blue Lips - Regina Spektor (77) [= #8]
=20. Ode to LRC - Band of Horses (76) [#10]
=20. Don't Tell Me - Buddy Miller (76) [new]
22. All I Can - Sharon Van Etten (75) [#14]
=23. Circumambient - Grimes (74) [#12]
=23. Manchester - Kishi Bashi (74) [new]
=23. Hey, Snow White - The New Pornographers (74) [= #15]
=26. You Keep Me Hangin' On - Janelle Arthur (73) [new]
=26. The Bleeding Heart Show - The New Pornographers (73) [= #19]
=26. I Don't Ever Give Up - Patty Griffin (73) [new]
=29. I Think I Broke Something - Dan Rohmer and Benh Zeitlin (72) [new]
=29. I Got Nothing - Dum Dum Girls (72) [= #17]
=29. Red - Taylor Swift (72) [new]
=29. I Couldn't Be Your Friend - Tegan and Sara (72) [new]
=33. Modern Love - The Last Town Chorus (70) [= #19]
=33. Lie in the Sound - Trespassers William (70) [= #17]
35. Mexico City - Jolie Holland (69) [= #21]
=36. Perfectly - Natalie Imbruglia (68) [new]
=36. Don't Let Me Die in Florida - Patty Griffin (68) [new]
=36. Wild Old Dog - Patty Griffin (68) [new]
=36. From This Moment On - Shania Twain (68) [new]
=40. With God On Our Side - Buddy Miller (66) [new]
=40. Joints - Holly Miranda (66) [= #21]
42. Fake Empire - The National (65) [= #24]
=43. Alex - Girls (64) [#23]
=43. What I Thought Of You - Holly Throsby (64) [= #29]
=45. To A Poet - First Aid Kit (63) [= #29]
=45. Crush in the Ghetto - Jolie Holland (63) [new]
=45. Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National (63) [= #29]
=45. Burgundy Shoes - Patty Griffin (63) [new]
=49. Let's Get Out Of This Country - Camera Obscura (62) [= #29]
=49. Ride the Wind to Me - Julie Miller (62) [= #38]

The Lone Bellow - The Lone Bellow

First listen through, it starts with "Green Eyes and a Heart of Gold", up-tempo altish-country-rock, guitars and electric bass, drums and accenting harmonies all the way through, bits of banjo and mandolin, prominent lyrical references to New York City ("the F train takes us home"), ok but not life-changing; and then, three and a half minutes into hitherto quietly folkish second track "Tree To Grow", the build to and sung-shouted harmonised rise on the line "it gets harder and harder" - and I knew I was gonna like this one. Repeat listens reveal an all round solid modern americana record, covering the usual bases well; in the ballpark of, say, the Everybodyfields.

Inside Llewyn Davis

One thing about the Coen brothers, they never fail to make interesting movies. I was going to say that I think I generally prefer the simpler, perhaps broader pleasures of many of their earlier films (Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy and O Brother, Where Art Thou? especially), but a quick glance at their filmography goes to show what a remarkable track record they in fact have maintained all the way through to the present day (I'd forgotten all about their excellent True Grit), not to mention their range along the way.

Anyway, there's a lot to chew on with Inside Llewyn Davis, much of it at the level of suggestion, implication, tone - it's very much an art film. Comic and sombre, it seems to regard the folk scene of 60s Greenwich Village primarily as setting qua setting, though there's a fondness to the depiction too.

(w/ Wei and Andreas)

Neil Gaiman - Absolute Sandman vol 3

More of these great large-format, recoloured issues of Gaiman's masterwork. Includes Dream and Delirium's charming visit to Destruction, and the stories within stories of the Worlds' End sequence.

(vol 1 , vol 2)

The Man With The Iron Fists

Deliriously violent kung fu genre piece written, directed and starred in by RZA, 'presented by' Tarantino. The two best things about it: Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu (collectively, and both well into the spirit of over the top fun), and the overall determination to create as much action and mayhem as possible. But despite those assets, the film feels thin - it does plenty to occupy the attention, but ultimately, there's not much there.

Micachu and the Shapes - Jewellery

It has its moments, but this piece of kitchen-sink pop is a bit too discordant for my tastes nowadays.

Patrick Ness - A Monster Calls

Not the monster you're expecting but, it turns out, the one you need. A good one.

Lev Grossman - The Magician King

In which Grossman continues his extremely enjoyable conversation with fantasy and, I suppose, between 'fantasy' and 'literature'. Like The Magicians, it's sincere in its belief in the pleasures of fantasy and magic and simultaneously determined to investigate their implicit costs and consequences, and succeeds on both levels at once, not least through the characterisation of its key protagonists, thoroughly damaged and eminently recognisable all.

Jose Saramago - The Elephant's Journey

A whimsical and often humorous narration of the overland (with sea-crossing section) transport of an elephant from Lisbon to Vienna in the mid 16th century, peppered with digressions and authorial commentary, and with more than a bit of the air of a fable. Has more in common with Death at Intervals than Blindness, but is different again from either of those; I can't remember exactly why Alice lent it to me, but it had something to do with the amusing way that it steps out the various organisational and logistical elements of the journey.

"Pop-prog"

A mix cd from Julian a while back, provided with expressed doubts about whether such a genre exists at all. A bit of Pink Floyd listening through late high school and early uni aside, I've always struggled with prog - it doesn't speak to me...for the most part, that's also true of the songs on this mix, though they make for interesting listening - the only ones that I really like are the pair by Genesis, "Back in NYC" and "The Carpet Crawlers".

I'm Not There soundtrack

I haven't seen the film - want to, though, if only for Cate as Dylan - but figured the soundtrack was nonetheless a good bet, with quite the roster of artists taking on a range of Dylan cuts, some that I knew and others not, across two cds. I've never gone deep into his discography, but I guessed I've listened to a handful of his albums, heard a whole bunch of other songs, and generally had a fairly meaningful experience of his music - as well as the aura - without truly becoming a fan over the years...anyway, some of the contributions don't make much of an impression, while others are great.

Some that stand out, for a range of reasons: Cat Power's "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again", Calexico and Charlotte Gainsbourgh's "Just Like A Woman" (hard to go wrong with that one), Roger McGuinn and Calexico's "One More Cup of Coffee" (that latter popping up on several tracks, as do a few other acts), Jeff Tweedy's "Simple Twist of Fate", Mark Lanegan's "The Man in the Long Black Cloak", the Hold Steady's "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?", Antony & the Johnsons' "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (though not as revelatory as that pairing had the potential to be), Eddie Vedder's "All Along the Watchtower".

Arcade Fire - Reflektor

If you're going to release a double cd, then you've got to earn it, and Arcade Fire do that with Reflektor. It's partly through ensuring that the two cds are pretty different in sound - the first rockier, the second more expansive...in their different ways, both are kind of dancey, and also kind of not. (Flipping through a Rolling Stone earlier today, I saw a phrase about indie-pop's adorable crush on disco, in the context of Tegan and Sara's Heartthrob, and Arcade Fire definitely have some kind of relationship with it too, albeit to generally more sombre effect.)

The first disc is higher energy, with clearer drums and beats, more guitar, and vocals more to the foreground (Win does all the lead singing on Reflektor, though Regine's presence is still felt on many of its songs) and a closer - albeit only really in relative terms - relationship to the mainstream of rock music (though the pair near its back end which are the most straight-up on the album are both essentially placed in quote marks - "Normal Person" by the plug-in and feedback that opens it, and the jangly "You Already Know" with an introductory voice announcing the band's name); the second takes a spacier, more slowed-down route and includes my two current favourites, "Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)" and "It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)", as well as the delightful "Afterlife" (speaking of which, this made my day when I saw it).

Then again, there's plenty that holds across the whole set - the unexpected change-ups and transitions which have always been a hallmark for them (going back as far as "Wake Up"), the odd instrumental choices that you don't consciously notice till you focus on them, the sense that what's in play here are more pieces of music than conventional pop songs, and lots and lots of hooks (again, often coming from unexpected directions).

You can play spot the influences with them, but Arcade Fire have always sounded more like themselves than any combination of others, and over the course of Funeral, Neon Bible, The Suburbs and now Reflektor - four outstanding albums in a row - they've carved out a distinctive musical identity and one which continues to grow in interesting ways each outing...they're turning out to genuinely be something a bit special.

Six Feet Under seasons 3 to 5

Some thoughts on what makes Six Feet Under, and makes it good at that:

• I mentioned Crewdson in writing about the first two seasons; the dvd cover for season 3 is much in that vein, while taking cues from Hopper too, not least in the staging of the characters, none making eye contact with any other (nor with the viewer).

• Indeed, there's a painterly eye to many of the shots throughout the series, particularly the interiors, and particularly in the Fisher's house, which contributes a lot to the show.
• The flights of imagination, conversations with dead people (whether the patriarch Nathaniel, other significant figures like Lisa, or those being prepared in the embalming room) and dream sequences are also important to the show's tone and feel. And they're only sometimes obviously fantastic, so that being brought out of them is sometimes jarringly disorienting; a special case, perhaps, which does something quite interesting with the subjective experience implied by those depictions, is the recurrent deja vu throughout the episode in which Nate recovers from his collapse.
• Six Feet Under is very good on relationships and on interactions. I recognised a lot that was familiar from my own experience in it, even where the personalities being depicted were quite different - which, of course, prompts the question: just how different are they, actually?  
• It's also striking that the show's very committed to giving as many of its characters as possible real inner lives, even the relatively minor recurring ones.
• It feels like a very adult show. I don't think I could have got anywhere near as much out of it as I have, had I been watching it during its original run (2001-2005), though probably I would've responded to aspects of its sombre, slightly surreal palette.
• After googling, I remembered Lauren Ambrose (Claire) from seeing her in Can't Hardly Wait, way back when. Funny how these things stick with you, somehow.
• Ruth is the character who's most touched me, I think.
• Oh and the finale. What a closer. I think it's congruent with everything that's come before, and strikes just the right tone...it's memorable.

Untitled mix cd

I've always thought that the New Pornographers' brand of pop was quite unique, but here we go - Sparks, on the strength of "The Decline and Fall of Me", must have been a huge influence, because that song sounds an awful lot like a template for much of the Pornographers' (still genius) output. Other discoveries from this mix cd (from Julian): a mash-up of "Head Like A Hole" and "Call Me Maybe" ("Call Me A Hole", by PomDeter) works quite well but probably would work better if I was more familiar with Carly Rae Jepsen's original; a band called Wondermints made some nice retro-sounding pop a while back ("Fleur-De-Lis"); "Our Own War" by Loudon Wainwright III is good and so too, from her last album, "Shine" by Joni Mitchell.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Exciting and great-looking, and better paced than the first one. And Legolas even has some complexity!

"Starry skies" (2013 cd)

The soundtrack to last year.

1  State Of Grace – Taylor Swift

Red (Big Machine; 2012)

2  Forever Is A Long Time – Krystle Warren

Love Songs – A Time You May Embrace (Parlour Door; 2012)

3  I Think I Broke Something – Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin

Beasts of the Southern Wild OST (Thirty3 And A 3rd; 2012)

4  Forever Green – The Felice Brothers

Mix Tape (New York Pro; 2010) – although somewhat ironically actually from a mix cd

5  Sweet Talk – Jessie Ware

Devotion (Island; 2012)

6  Manchester – Kishi Bashi

151a (Joyful Noise; 2012)

7  I Couldn’t Be Your Friend – Tegan and Sara

Heartthrob (Warner; 2013)

8  Useless Desires – Patty Griffin

Impossible Dream (ATO; 2004)

9  With God On Our Side – Buddy Miller

Universal United House of Prayer (New West; 2004)

10  Ohio – Patty Griffin

American Kid (New West; 2013)

11  100 Million Little Bombs – Buddy Miller

Poison Love (HighTone; 1997)

12  Starry Skies – Laura Cantrell

No Way There From Here (Shoeshine; 2013)

13  The Wire – Haim

Days Are Gone (Polydor; 2013)

14  The Mother We Share – Chvrches

The Bones Of What You Believe (Glassnote; 2013)

1

Seems like I listened to a lot of big glossy pop records through 2013, and Red, which carried me from last year well into this, was the biggest and glossiest of them all, and maybe the best. I like Taylor Swift heaps – knowingly, but not at all ironically – and “State Of Grace” knocks it out of the park, shearing along in vivid, rapturous lines…it’s a rush.

2

It was not once but twice that Krystle Warren’s astonishing voice caught me – a while back at a Nick Drake tribute concert, and then again over the in-store speakers in Basement Discs. That second time, it was Love Songs that was playing, a swooningly romantic set that partakes of folk, blues, jazz and classic pop, and swirls it all into a confection that feels timeless. Sometimes it’s in the tiniest details that a song gets to you; “Forever Is A Long Time” is at once the lp’s most representative and its finest moment.

3

Something about Beasts Of The Southern Wild really caught at me and lingered – I guess that’s what art does. Like a splinter under the skin, I worried at it and it went ever deeper; I suppose I’ll never fully dislodge it, or uncover just what it is that causes such a visceral response in me. But there’s this, at least: the music’s an integral part.

4

I find myself singing along to this one a lot; so dusty, so evocative.

5

There can’t be too many songs that so embody their titles as this one, all elegant swagger, and going down so smoothly.

6

“Manchester” sounds like a rainbow, swirling upwards all the way through to that final flurry of strings.

7

So Tegan and Sara emerging with such a monster of a pop album, riding on waves of synths ripped straight from the 80s, melodies to kill for and an eye for the stadium – that was maybe something of a surprise. But what’s not a surprise at all is that it’s so plainly, desperately heart-on-sleeve – which is what makes “I Couldn’t Be Your Friend”, and indeed the whole of Heartthrob, so darn great.

8-11

Well, this year, I basically fell completely in love with Patty Griffin. There’s something transcendent about her music, some quality that calls to mind that old line about music being feeling then, not sound; it’s a quality present on luminous, unadorned songs like “Useless Desires” as well as in the more ornate mysteries of a track like the riverine “Ohio”. And then there was Buddy Miller, a fellow traveller along these roads of contemporary Americana; for several months through the middle of the year, I pretty much only listened to the two of them. Like Griffin, Miller has impressive range as both a songwriter and an interpreter; his 9 minute-long reading of Dylan’s “With God On Our Side” is revelatory, its simplicity perfectly, finely wrought, and then there are cuts like the chiming “100 Million Little Bombs”, its yearning feel completed by Julie Miller’s distinctive, lovely harmonies.

12

Another unutterably sweet slice of modern country from the ever delightful Laura Cantrell, from another wonderful album – it feels so effortless, and yet there’s so much craft and heart to it that you couldn’t possibly take it for granted.

13

Yes! Clearly Haim are all kinds of awesome, and Days Are Gone didn’t disappoint; “The Wire” is the best of the new songs on it, sheer pop-rock pleasure. (I was very tempted to choose their excellent cover of “Strong Enough”, which isn’t on the album, instead.)

14

I only discovered this one recently, sugary-sharp, and I keep expecting it to wear off, and it keeps on showing no signs at all of doing so – like all the best pop, it’s a moment, fleeting, that feels like it might last forever, even though you know it never will.

December 2013

* * *

Previously

2012
2010 & 2011
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005 

Mazzy Star - Seasons of Your Day

I'm sentimental about Mazzy Star, and for me - as for many if not all of their other fans, I suspect - there's a doubled affect and piquancy, in that their music at once recalls a very specific time and state of mind, and a more generalised out-of-time mood.

How that translates to the release of Seasons of Your Day, many years on from those halcyon days of the 90s, I'm not exactly sure. But, somehow, it fits seamlessly - not much has changed in their sound since that earlier trio of records (She Hangs Brightly, So Tonight That I Might See, Among My Swan), yet rather than sounding in any way anachronistic or stale, Seasons feels simply like another, perfectly-fitting swatch in the tapestry of the band's music and what it's meant for me.

Killing Them Softly

Overall doesn't do a bad job with its somewhat philosophical take on the crime genre, though the tone's a bit odd...the frequent interweaving of politician/media punditry on the state of the American economy and society (with implied parallels to the criminal economy) were a bit pretentious - ie overreaching while underdone - for mine.

Ace Attorney

Japanese, film based on video game, entertaining - although it doesn't have the same fizzing energy of, say, a Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Gilbert Hernandez - Marble Season

This was pleasant but I suspect that comic aficionados might get more out of Marble Season than I did; having said that, the evocation of childhood is quite charming (it reminded me of Peanuts, which I was fortunate enough to have encountered in my own childhood and which I've thought before might be worth going back to). This was a gift from Wei, delivered by Ruth when she was visiting a while back.

Little White Lies 50

Little White Lies is a film magazine and this was one of its issues, but it felt more like a book. A 50th issue special, it comprises 50 short pieces by a range of film writers and makers, one for each of the last 50 years (1964-2013) and each about a single frame from a film released in that year, and with facing page graphics all done by different artists. It's a nicely packaged thing, with some really good writing in it, and a few flashes that gave me new perspectives either on particular films that I'd already seen or on film as a whole, as well as several that made me want to watch the films in question.

Records

If I'm honest, going out was never really on the cards for tonight - not in this current phase that I'm in. Well, staying in instead, with no particular plans, and my eye fell on my old box of records, literally gathering dust under the coffee table; idly flipping through a few, I came upon Tigermilk, and it all at once reminded me of a whole bunch of things - how much I loved that album in particular (extemporanea's name is from Dorothy Parker, but the colour scheme comes direct from Tigermilk), and the way I felt about music during that time, and a whole lot of other things besides.

So I pulled out the record player from the shelf where it's been sitting, unused, since I moved into this current apartment coming up to two years ago, put on Crowded House - although I'm now on to Temple of Low Men - poured myself a glass and set up in front of the speakers and so here we are.

The turntable was a birthday gift from Sid; it may have been a 21st, which would've made it 2003 - which sounds about right. He also gave me a copy of The Unforgettable Fire - a good choice, U2 being a band that's always been there and whose music I've felt close to at more than one time in my life (another memory - my parents giving me their best of 1980-90 cd one Christmas), and that one perhaps my favourite.

It coincided with a time when I was super excited about pop music, still discovering new things all the time, and spending probably far too much (but never enough) time in second hand music stores. Dixon's on Brunswick St was a great one, and so too that one on Swanston Street (was it Collector's Corner at the time, or something else?)...most of the records I've ended up with were acquired over that final period of uni, from mid 2003 (I guess) through '04 and '05.

The Cocteau Twins were big for me then - really, absolute-favourite-artist big, and I was deeply enough in love with their music that I wanted to listen to everything they'd ever released. Thing was, they had a massive back catalogue, lps, eps and singles - some of which had never made its way onto cd. And so the record player enabled me to listen to music that was otherwise unavailable to me - specifically the wonderful "Aikea-Guinea" and "Love's Easy Tears" eps, plus The Pink Opaque compilation and the "Echoes in a Shallow Bay" ep (the latter two actually available on cd, but hard to find), and I also acquired a vinyl copy of the ever-amazing Treasure along the way too (in fact, from memory, it was bundled with the "Aikea-Guinea" ep). I really did love the Cocteaus at that time, and it was so wonderful to be able to get to these whole other swatches of their music via vinyl.

In a slightly similar vein, at some stage I picked up Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (despite the massive Cure fandom from a few years previously, I'd never got to the cd - in some, small, part because the cd omitted one of the songs from the original double-record version); also a Lush ep ("Mad Love") and the Smiths' Hatful of Hollow.

Also, a few pieces of new vinyl bought for various reasons: a Scout Niblett ep, a Tujiko Noriko 12" called "I Forgot the Title" (both of those first two weren't available on cd, I think), We Are The Pipettes, In Rainbows.

And then there was a lot of cheap second hand vinyl, and I wasn't always particularly discerning, so some of these are more random than others: Pavlov's Dog's At the Sound of the Bell, Dead or Alive's Youth Quake (I guess I bought that one because it had "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" on it, not that that's really an explanation), Kim Carnes' Mistaken Identity ("Bette Davis Eyes" - still a great song), Bread's Lost Without Your Love (??), Ry Cooder's Get Rhythm, a Shirley Bassey 25th anniversary greatest hits (this was probably because of that "History Repeating" song), a DG Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic recording of some Debussy, a cd called Spanish Classical Guitar by Juanillo de Alba, two 12" singles by the Darling Buds ("You've Got To Choose" and "Crystal Clear"), the Boomtown Rats' The Fine Art of Surfacing, Roxy Music's Manifesto (I listened to that one earlier to see whether it had gotten better with age...it hadn't), Modern English's After the Snow (a 4ad record, and home to "Melt With You"), Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' Easy Pieces, Paul Simon's Graceland (good album!), Kate and Anna McGarrigle's Love Over and Over, Don Henley's Building the Perfect Beast, a 45 of the "Brass in Pocket" single...some of those I'll hang on to, but most I'll get rid of now, I think.

Amidst all that, a few do stand out. ABC's The Lexicon of Love was one - unexpectedly, I ended up really liking that one and listening to it a lot. Born in the USA - pretty sure that I came to this one through the vinyl. Also Bridge Over Troubled Water, which I don't remember really getting into at the time but which I'm certainly glad to have in my collection now.

Plus a whole lot of Talking Heads, some of which I also have on cd, some not - I guess there was a lot of their stuff second hand in stores at the time (I wonder whether the more recent surge of modern bands influenced by them has changed that): Remain in Light (1980), Speaking in Tongues (1983 - two copies ... I think at least one of them maybe had a tendency to skip or get stuck), Little Creatures (1985), True Stories (1986) and, most pleasingly, Fear of Music (1979), the first of theirs that I listened to - borrowed from the ERC library at Melbourne Uni - and still my favourite, textured corrugated cover and all.

Finally, of course, I've acquired a bunch of touchstones, mostly new and, for the older ones, generally in re-pressings...I already mentioned Treasure and Tigermilk; in addition, there's Unknown Pleasures, Closer, Isn't Anything, Loveless, OK Computer, Moon Pix, Funeral, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, In The Aeroplane Over the Sea, Boxer. (And, to a lesser extent, Sgt Peppers, Parallel Lines and the Diva soundtrack.)

And really, it's that last batch that's most telling - all of them of course utterly, intimately familiar, inside and out via cd but I've got them on vinyl anyway in part because music sounds better that way and I wanted to be able to hear those records at their finest, and in part just because I wanted to have them on record, the physical artifact, large-size sleeve and cover (and insert) art, and the record itself, shiny black and tactile. The role that music plays in my life has shifted over time, and certainly I don't have the same intensity of feeling for it that I did back in the days when I was building this collection - but it's at no risk of going away either, and these records are a reminder and a link back to those times, and by any means completely of the past at that.