I had my iTunes on random shuffle today, and a song by none-other than The Who came on called ‘Pictures of Lily.’
The lyrics:
I used to wake up in the morning
I used to feel so bad
I got so sick of having sleepless nights
I went and told my dad
He said, ‘Son now here’s some little something’
And stuck them on my wall
And now my nights ain’t quite so lonely
In fact I, I don’t feel bad at all
Pictures of Lily made my life so wonderful
Pictures of Lily helped me sleep at night
Pitcures of Lily solved my childhood problems
Pictures of Lily helped me feel alright
Pictures of Lily
Lily, oh Lily
Lily, oh Lily
Pictures of Lily
And then one day things weren’t quite so fine
I fell in love with Lily
I asked my dad where Lily I could find
He said, ‘Son, now don’t be silly’
‘She’s been dead since 1929′
Oh, how I cried that night
If only I’d been born in Lily’s time
It would have been alright
Pictures of Lily made my life so wonderful
Pictures of Lily helped me sleep at night
For me and Lily are together in my dreams
And I ask you, ‘Hey mister, have you ever seen’
‘Pictures of Lily?’
This song was written by Pete Townshend, who has stated that it is primarily about masturbation, though this theme is expressed through double entendres rather than explicit lyrics. In the beginning of the song, the singer laments his insomnia. When his father gives him the pictures of the song’s title, his problems are solved. Soon, he becomes obsessed with “Lily”, seeking to meet her in real life. His father informs him however that “Lily” has, in fact, been dead since 1929. Initially, the singer laments, but before long turns back to his fantasy.
It is noted this song is about Lille Langtry, a little bit about her below:
Lille Langtry was, throughout her marriage, unfaithful, and throughout her lifetime promiscuous. She had many notable lovers, most of them prominent and well-connected men of the time. Langtry’s heyday as a society beauty and courtesan culminated in her becoming a semi-official mistress to the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria’s son Albert Edward (“Bertie”), the future king Edward VII. Edward VII’s relationship with Lillie cooled down when at a party she consumed so much alcohol she became intoxicated, and slipped and fell after stepping on a piece of ice, which infuriated him. For some time he didn’t even see her. Nevertheless he continued being fond of her, and he spoke fondly of her as a theatre actress. He later (possibly to rid himself of the affair) encouraged Prince Louis of Battenberg to replace him as Lillie’s lover.
This part is hilarious 
:
Prince Louis, the First Sea Lord, once complained to Lillie, “I’ve spent enough on you to build a battleship,” whereupon she tartly replied, “And you’ve spent enough in me to float one.” That quote is actually most commonly attributed to the Prince of Wales, and not Louis of Battenberg.
I know this is a bit devious, just thought it was quite funny, odd, and interesting. Rock on! The Who still rule, even CSI seem to think so!
all info grabbed from the Wiki site: Pictures of Lily
November 16th, 2006
UMG’s CEO Doug Morris sure seems to have a lot to say about iPod owners, stereotyping them as out-right ‘thieves’ of music. Though I tend to buy MOST of my music, the occasional album does come from friends, just like it did on mix tapes, burned CDs, etc. etc. An iPod is just another device, and if I didn’t take the subway everyday I probably wouldn’t own one, but it’s a very useful product for many people. To generalize that we are all thieves is exactly why the music industry just doesn’t get it.
I saw a blog post about ‘boycotting’ UMG for a week, I couldn’t help but want to ban them for a hell of a lot longer than that. And now anytime I want a UMG album, I guess I’ll have to Limewire it! (YUP I said it. Me who likes buying CDs, and supports most of my fave bands). I suggest to any band out there looking to be signed or are already signed by UMG to rethink. These money-hungry fellas don’t deserve your talent. I know no one’s reading this but friends, but still I feel the need to put it out there.
Here’s a listing of UMG Labels:
Geffen Records
Interscope Geffen A&M
Island Def Jam Music Group
Lost Highway Records
MCA Nashville
Mercury Nashville
Motown Records
UNI Records
Universal Music Classics Group
Universal Records
Universal Music Enterprises
Universal Music Latino
Universal South
Verve Music Group
Classics & Jazz (Germany)
Decca Music Group
Def Jam (UK)
Deutsche Grammophon Records
Island Records Group (UK)
Jazz Echo (Germany)
Jazz Land Records (Norway)
Mercury (UK)
Polydor (UK)
Stockholm Records (Sweden)
UMTV (UK)
Universal Music Australia
Universal Music Brazil
Universal Music Canada
Universal Music Colombia
Universal Music Czech Rep
Universal Music Finland
Universal Music France
Universal Music Germany
Universal Music Hong Kong
Universal Music Hungary
Universal Music India
Universal Music Italy
Universal Music Japan
Universal Music Mexico
Universal Music Netherlands
Universal Music Norway
Universal Music Poland
Universal Music Portugal
Universal Music Publishing Group
Universal Music Russia
Universal Music Spain
Universal Music Sweden
Universal Music Switzerland
Universal Music UK
Universal Pop (Germany)
Urban (Germany)
And a nice little side note about our next governor:
In May 2006, an investigation led by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer concluded with a determination that Universal bribed radio stations to play songs from Ashlee Simpson, Brian McKnight, Big Tymers, Lindsay Lohan and other performers working for Universal labels. The company paid $12 million to the state in settlement.
November 14th, 2006
“Hot” male musicians or great female vocalist concerts suck: screaming 19 year old girls. Don’t get me wrong, it won’t stop me from an exceptional show put on by some amazing musicians, in both recent cases that being Imogen Heap (last night) and Regina Spektor, both amazing female vocalists, but both offer SO much more than that. As for “Hot” male musicians, I guess maybe NIN’s frontman Trent Reznor is in that category, but thankfully most teenage girls are over him (he’s a little older these days).
So Webster Hall, standing in the rain for like a half hour waiting to get inside, looking at many many young people taking pictures of themselves, wearing the same boots together, oogling the college boys throwing footballs, talking about drinking, music, weed, sex, etc (ok, I think some of them were anyway). Oh and standing behind smokers. It all makes you feel young again, or maybe that’s what I wanted to think, but really the ‘crotchity old guy’ side was coming out a little more. Oh well, we endured it, and got in!
First went on this guy, Levi, who played some straight up guitar songs, then played some looping effects created by the guitar, bows, melodica, etc. He did a pretty cool rendition of a Radiohead song (name escapes me, off of Kid A). But he was a bit full of himself. Oh well.
NEXT came Kid Beyond! If I had any hope in making a big career out of beatboxing on stage… and I did… this guy dashed that all to bits. Alas. He was insane! Any sound, noise, bleep, scratch, sample, synth, drums, harmonica, etc. was ALL done proudly by his very own human lips, tongue, vocals, and at times odd hand jestures. He even threw in some of NIN’s ‘Closer’! Truly incredible. He went on to loop himself with rich bass lines, drums, trance lines, echo-y vocals, etc. He really stole the show.
Just when you were so overwhelmed by great talent, or your feet and legs were about to collapse as Margaux’s and mine were, Imogen comes out. This woman not only is truly talented in every sense of the word, but is amazingly graceful and has a very friendly attitude towards her audience. She had a whole setup on stage, a clear ‘piano’ that housed her electronic gear like her electric piano, computer screen (connected to a Mac running Abelton Live and Pro Tools), a drum machine, a smaller keyboard, and a mixer. To the right of her was another setup that included a keytar, a Korg controller, a loop machine, and some other gadgetry I couldn’t see.
She came out with the Korg controller strapped around her, dressed in 1700s garb all pink, with feathers in her hair. I heard someone before the concert say how tall she was, but in real life ‘tall’ didn’t do it justice. She was massive! And her hair went well above her head with all the feathers! Very pretty as well. After the first song or so she introduced all her instruments (which is why I knew most of what she had, I figured out the rest).
She started bursting into songs of the new album, and brought up the band who included a upright bassist and percussionist, Kid Beyond, and that other act Levi. Kid Beyond seriously kicked out all the beats to her songs, nearly complete replicas of the album tracks. It was an amazing performance overall. I was breathlessly giddy at times, holding Margaux and thinking back to times of ’skipping’ work to stay one more day upstate, and see my love even if for just a few hours. Seriously wonderful.
Despite all the screams in the middle of pared down songs, some oddball yelling ‘God save the Queen’ (wish someone woulda saved us from him), and many other annoyances including nowhere to sit, and many people running into us or talking on their cell phones (I think we ARE getting old!); I would say overall a splendid performance that did not let us down. It’s amazing seeing this girl run around on stage to play something different at every turn, having her band looking at her for every move, and pull off some downright beautiful vocals. She demands your attention in a loving way, and when she ’screws up’ at the beginning with the wrong loop or sound, you can’t help but to forgive thinking “Fuck, there ain’t no one here tonight that can pull off that act. Period.” Cheers Immi!
Her album at iTunes: Speak For Yourself
View Kid Beyond’s Website
November 13th, 2006
Everything everything everything everything everything I’m invisible I’m invisible I’m invisible I’m invisible… Underworld. If you never listened to them, do yourself a favor and check out some of their stuff at underworld. Become a [free] member, and download their live stuff for free (in archive). I’ve been a fan of them since around 97-98, seen em live once in 2000, and have just about everything everything of theirs (including vinyl). They have officially been around since the 80’s, but the sound as I know them started with Dubnobasswithmyheadman in 91. They’re part of the English design collective Tomato, and always have great design.
Their live show consists of full on jams of their songs, basically using large soundboards with all their sounds being pulled in, and can be brought into any song they want, making for an awesome live experience. Furthermore, Karl Hyde sings and woos the crowd with his free-flowing lyrics, generally created for rhythm and can be non-sensical coming from sources such as conversations or observations. In addition to the heart-pounding musical excursions, they also include wonderful motion graphics consisting of typography for us design-junkies, random images from city life around the world, and live shots from the crowd. At leat that’s what it was like 6 years ago, hopefully we’ll see them here in the US once again.
September 14th, 2006
Despite the rainy weekend as I mentioned in my other post below, it was a fun one! Friday afternoon was dedicated to freelance, until later that evening, but after that and a couple hamburgers cooked on our mini burner since the stove isn’t operating currently, M and I decided to walk to the Blue Lounge in Billburg and have a drink. Then we were pretty darned tired, so back home we went!
On saturday, Margaux was meeting up with Kate in the city, but since the L train decided not to run this weekend, I drove her into Union Square, dropped her off, and went to do a bit o’ shopping. I first hit up Other Music, great place for obscure stuff. I picked up 3 new albums: Vex’d “Degenerate”, Motor “Klunk”, and Herbert “Bodily Functions.” so far so good, Vex’d play some awesome dark dub/industrial stuff. Motor is a mash-up of Kraftwerk and straight 4/4 industrial, with some vocals thrown in. Herbert is all over the place, from Massive Attack to Stereolab to St. Germain. Very exciting new stuff to listen to. I then proceeded to go to Blick’s on Bond St. That store is huge and awesome! I picked up some pads, pastels, charcoal, a black sheet of paper for a poster mat, and a piece of Arches for another design I created of M and I. Yet again very excited to get all of that, it was the final pieces needed to put up a Modest Mouse poster I bought almost a year ago (a very cool concert print sold for $20, sold here: Modest Mouse- Vancouver Tour Poster).
As I was framing and printing these posters, I was listening to Vex’d. Zack, our new neighbor, knocked on the door telling me that he listens to quite a bit of dub including Vex’d, and I’m not sure but he may be a DJ too? Anyway, he has many comps for me to check out, hooray! Nice to have a friendly neighbor!
Margaux was indeed pleased with the posters, and we celebrated (not really) with some tacos, burritos, and a movie “Inside Man,” which we enjoyed. I was saying to her at one point how funny it is that there have been so many grand bank robbery movies over the years, but the last really robberies haven’t seemed to happened in a long time! Just love em anyway I guess. This one broke the norm a bit with its witty humor, semi-surprising ending (ok, done and done, but still fun), and overall entertainment.
Today, M and I checked out the MoMA! Finally got a chance to go to a museum together, and we had a lot of fun, despite being quite tired after going to bed at like 3AM. It was M’s first opp to see the “newly renovated” MoMA, which I have a seen a couple times, but never saw it before the renovation. They had the Dada exhibit there, which wa our main reason to go today. The exhibit was wonderful, really touching upon the history and importance of the movement. As a designer I thought about how influential this movement was for design and typography, really using type as forms of expression and art on their own and often times out of context, honing in on the letterforms themselves. Funny how sexy typography is in my eyes, part of a universal communication and mini-artforms in themselves individually. I also found the Dada movement very motivating in its expression of protesting WWI, the rise of machines, and the traditions of art. Worthwhile exhibit to see. Well, that’s about it. Have to get back to some small freelance duties, and then perhaps some music-making, or video game playing 
August 27th, 2006
OK OK, I’m late and totally slacking on the blog! Well, sorry to say, but things have been a bit nuts lately. So, I will make a list of things I need to talk about.
1. The plane, its crashes, repairs, and new flights.
2. The dead guy. Actually, Margaux does a great post on that, so go check that one out (Midge’s Mind).
3. Bloc Party at McCarren Pool! Good show, kinda. Fun place to see a show, sound was a bit whack, and the singer in Bloc Party kinda screwed up too many times for my taste.
4. Upstate trip. Wanted to camp, got rain again. Oh well, we ate a load of food, enjoyed company with M’s parents, and mine as well for the first time with both of our parents for dinner. A very enjoyable vacation, despite the rain.
5. Back to the grind. All hell seemed to have broken loose since taking a couple days off. Alas. Margaux is cramming to finish her jewelry, I’m working on a Halloween feature for Cityguide in Flash, and have taken up some freelance web maintenance work, which has taken my free time.
6. Broken stove. Ugh. We had an issue with our gas yesterday, which was just because of new meters, however it ruptured into a gas leak in the stove, and now needs to be replaced.
Ok, back to work!
August 24th, 2006
These guys never cease to amaze me with their amazing sounds, craftsmanship, musicanship, humor, and just plain fun. Now you can play instruments based on their designs? FUN! These sounds are gonna pop up in lots of techno groups I bet, possibly including me! Check it out: Music Thing: Blue Man Group
July 13th, 2006
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