shiver and say the words of every lie you've heard

Ran out of podcasts to listen to earlier today, so i switched over to some music in the ol' shuffle. Skipped the first bunch of songs but finally settled into "The Only Thing That Shines" by Shriekback. Shriekback is a slightly obscure 80s gloom-dance side project. I don't know anybody else in Salt Lake who's a fan (although I'm sure they exist). This song is actually a ballad (and I think a pretty obsessive imbalanced one).

The next song was "Borderline" by Madonna. Today that song sounded SO good. Better than usual even. I pondered a little on the song's end fade out where she's just doing a sort of "la da da da la da da da." I wondered how it was recorded. Is there an actual end to the song that they cut out through fade? Perhaps I just wanted to hear some more even if she wasn't even singing words.

The next song was "Bring on the Dancing Horses" by Echo and the Bunnymen. It was absolute perfect timing, because I found the experience euphoric. Astute readers of this blog (just me I think) may recognize that this was the song that played during the fireworks climax at Sugarhouse as I drove by on I-80 (simply savvy people would recognize the tune from the Pretty in Pink Soundtrack (the 23rd greatest movie of all time)). Today this song sounded even better. I heard things in the song that I never really took specific notice of. Is that a harp? Is that an electric accordion? Most of all, the song sounded so earnest and sincere. I completely believed Ian McCulloch when he sang "First I'm gonna make it then I'm gonna break it 'til it falls apart." I also was willing to actually bring on the dancing horses he was speaking of. The fact that I don't have any idea what "it" is that will fall apart or where these horses are (or even if they're literal or figurative) had nothing to do with the absolute believability of what I was hearing.

I wonder if a song could be written today with the unironic harp, wheezy reverb and earnest (but easily make-fun-able) lyrics that I hear in "Bring on the Dancing Horses" and still be a song that I don't brush off immediately.

I'm the biggest 80s music fan I know. I'm very fond of saying that I've been a fan of 80s music since 1980. 90% of my friends cannot say this because they were born after December 31, 1980. I have a huge fear that my fandom is mostly a result of life chronology. Obviously it's a huge part of it. For the most part the music of today is no worse than any other era. The only reason you think it was better when you were a teen-ager is because that's the music that was released when YOU were a teen-ager.

I like to think it's not JUST that though. I like to think that there was a different sense of sincerity back then (that I think only I can see).

My biggest reason for wanting to take part in time travel is to just go back in time to a time I remember. Would it feel different? Would it feel now? It probably would, but I really really hope it would feel like it did back then -- which is simply a lot different than it feels now in ways too complex to describe and do justice.

Coincidentally while doing my traditional YouTube music video "research" for this post I discovered that "Bring on Your Dancing Horses" actually appears in Hot Tub Time Machine, a movie I meant to see, but didn't get around to. I have a bad feeling that everybody who has seen it now knows the song quite well and they know it as a joke. I'm afraid the song has now been reset. The time machine I'm hoping for is now much farther away.

july 14th: a review and critique

Another successful year!

Strangely I worked on Independence Day and I will work on the 24th, but I actually called in sick to work on the 14th. That's how important it is to me. Ironic since part of the appeal of the 14th is its unimportance.

This year Scott mentioned that we should actually call the holiday "Dependence Day." I like that, but I also like "Mid True Summer." I think we may change the name every year.

Quick review: Craig Blake won this year. He earned points for being the first to arrive, hitting the slip 'n slide over 50 times, counting how many times he went on the slip 'n slide, going on the slip 'n slide in style (sometimes literally jumping the shark at the end), drinking a bit of freedom water and sticking around the longest. His spirit and youth were impossible to beat.

Regan and Dre destroyed in the float competition which they actually entered as a diorama. Laura won the photo-taking competition (see below). I won the ding dong stacking competition. Plenty of others went the extra mile in their enthusiasm (Rhett, Scott, Pete, Steph, yadda yadda yadda).

As usual, people balked at the drink selection. It's a necessary evil to have only the competitive drinks out -- freedom water (Perrier), chocolate milk and whole milk. Next year it'll be a lot tougher, I tell you. Next year we're baggin' the chocolate milk and instead of Perrier we're only having Shasta tonic water. I tried the "bonus beverage" of Perrier and milk. Pretty nasty, but I probably prefer it to straight Perrier.

I told a couple of people that I actually had some "good" palate cleansing drinks in the house for the winding down of the celebration. As I type this I realize I forgot to get those drinks out. Sorry if anybody literally left with a bad taste in their mouths.

Check out awesome photos of the event right here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130933720280646#!/album.php?aid=188467&id=589867674&ref=mf

abide by abide by the fourteenth of july

Hey gang. This week marks fourteenth of July week. Remember to come to the celebration at my house this Wednesday (the fourteenth).

Check out the facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130933720280646&index=1

Lemme know if you need anything regarding what's just been said.

anti-dependent drugs

Every year during Independence Day weekend I sort of feel compelled and obligated to watch the fireworks. Pretty much every year I forget to plan to. I still watch them, but very often I do it alone, which is far more depressing than going to movies and music concerts alone (which I tend to do constantly).

I don't hate watching fireworks, but I certainly find nothing incredibly pleasurable about them, so I should feel fine NOT watching, right? Nope. Unfortunately for every annual event such as fireworks watching, I tend to overly realize that there is a finite number of actual incidents of said events in my lifetime. If I'm lucky, I'll probably be around to experience about 60 Independence Day fireworks shows. I've already seen about 25 of them. At the 60th one I don't want to be with my kids enjoying the sights and saying to them "Wow, this is the first time I've actually enjoyed this."

Since I didn't make any plans with friends (and couldn't really since I was "in the office" until 9:30), I decided to just drive around town observing the various shows as I witnessed them happen. My timing was off though. I witnessed the Midvale show in the mirror.

As the incredibly sad symbolism sinks in I'll go ahead and talk about something else for a moment.

This morning I loaded up the old Shuffle with this year's independent mix. I specifically decided not to go specifically "American" bands, but rather my own kind of "summer night sensation of freedom" (which, when compiling music is obviously different for me than everybody else). Some highlighted artists from the playlist include Erasure, Eurythmics, Zeppelin, Lily Allen, Muse, Queen, OMD, Radiohead, The Smiths, The Ting Tings, Underworld, Yaz and a HUGE chunk of New Order ("Ceremony" is my favorite song in the world right now).

Early on I thought, wow... lots of British acts in this one... on the holiday celebrating our independence from them. Huh.

Why the British? An obvious answer would be that they make better music than we do (or at least that Jon Madsen has that opinion). Perhaps an eager psychoanalyst would say that on the day of independence I'm looking to associate myself with what I've severed myself from. Despite being more independent now than I've ever been in my life, I'm yearning for dependence and it's manifested in my desire to be subjected to King George III once again on this day of all days.

The evening's fireworks show ended quite spectacularly (especially for being alone and not as impressed with fireworks as I was when I was 5). I managed to time the Sugerhouse fireshow as I passed under them on I-80 between 700 and 2300 E. When you've lived in the city for as long as I have you tend to find some really unique gems of activities. The particular process of traveling under the fireworks to this particular show on this particular stretch of road has several unique advancements over the sitting in the park with a blanket method. First of all, you actually travel into the fireworks as they happen. There's a wonderful sense of moving depth. The smokey residue wafts onto the freeway and makes the inside of the car smell like the holiday. Also, of course you're listening to your music -- perhaps even your own independent mix (alternated with Showtunes Saturday Night of course). "Bring on the Dancing Horses" by Echo and the Bunnymen played during the big fireworks climax. VERY effective. So effective it was that I just HAD to share it.

Anyway, here's to independence, but also here's to British pop music. How about a little of both? Watch/listen to "Freedom '90" by George Michael. It's a good one. It's worthy of Independence (dependence) Day.



P.S. Don't get this song mixed up with "Freedom" by WHAM! Same singer, same title (sorta); but not the same song. Both are actually pretty good though.

Jon Demand XVIII

SUBSCRIBE!