1968 is Undead

Hello folks,
I'm back from honeymoon and yes, I'm officially married now. It feels good. Also, I'd like to point out that I hate the Phillies fans who were screaming and honking outside my window until 3AM last night.

In lighter news, let's talk about death.

Marco Lanzagorta has assembled a collection of 30 fantastic essays prepped for the 40th anniversary of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (including an intro by the man himself) and not only is this a fascinating compendium, but yours truly has an essay in it, published in today's segment.

1968 is Undead touches on the ways that we are "haunted" by the 1960s, even today (and this essay was written before Bill Ayers, a Weather Underground member turned college professor, became such a central figure behind John McCain's campaign).

Here's the rest of the feature. When you get a chance, you really should go through a check out a few or all of them.

Monolake and Joe Gibbs

Two new reviews on reissues:





Monolake- Hongkong Remastered
Their classic album retooled.


Joe Gibbs- Scorchers from the Mighty Two
The late reggae hitmaker has some of his best compiled.

"People’s homes were just a medium for the redistribution of wealth"

Douglas Rushkoff on the credit crisis, published a while back but recently reprinted by the revived Arthur Magazine ofr its poignancy with regards to...well, you know.


Also, interesting of note to anyone annoyed by or entertaining the notion of Obama's supposed ties with Bill Ayers, Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert explore the cozy relationship between Palin and the secessionist, anti-American Alaska Indendence Party in this article over at Salon.

RIP Alton Ellis

Author of one of the most gorgeous love songs ever written (see above) and the godfather of Rocksteady

Partial Blackout

I've been real busy lately. I'm getting married in less than a week, so it's been hard to keep up. Here's a few I recently wrote:

Populous and Short Stories- Drawn in Basic

Max Richter- 24 Postcards in Full Colour
More on that one soon, I hope.

Adventure- Adventure
Although I don't think my article makes its case that well, it was interesting to see an essay by Simon Reynolds for The Guardian reference the same idea of background sounds in childhood television as instructive electronic tools (as discussed in this article about the BBC Radiphonic Workshop). I think 8bit chiptune music, like the Nintendo songs heard on endless loop during childhood play, were equally the base of electronic music fanaticism. The fact that the Nintendo experience was more tactile just reinforces the intimacy of the connection to electronic sounds, which were at one time totally weird and progressive. That the airwaves were peppered with new electronic sounds as new wave, freestyle, and even soft rock was overtaken by Casio and Roland, and television and film composers fired their orchestras and hired a single synth player to score the mess of 80s action and comedy, is secondary. Nintendo sounds produce Pavlovian responses because they were directly linked to the adrenaline and endorphins released under the tension of game-playing.

For more on BBC Radiophonic Workshop, see The Alchemists of Sound documentary in its entirety on Youtube (under the user's video. See part one below)



Also check out:
Make Believe Maverick by Tim Dickson (Rolling Stone)- A total smear to be sure, with its share of distortion, but still a concise biography of a man who has used a cozy relationship with the media to win popular support around a biography that's not even remotely accurate.