A very short story of mine, Ms. W is Out Today, recently hit the newsstands in the latest issue of Pomp & Circumstance Magazine. Look for it in NYC, and check their myspace page for distribution across the country.
Here’s an excerpt:
You were sick with a cold the night I flew to London. I called you from the cab to see how you were, but it just rang and rang and clicked over to voicemail. I worried you’d fallen asleep too early and would wake in the middle of the night, the morning-night, with only the sound of garbage trucks on the street, and how terrible a time that was to be awake and alone and sick with a cold, how it magnified the aloneness.
I imagined waking up and discovering you seated at the edge of the bed, never having felt you move, because you always made sure to move lightly and not wake me when you got up in the night to pee, or write the things that came to you in your sleep when your brain was “soft,” you said. You would write a note for class the next day, something for you students (“your kids”) and sometimes you would write something for yourself. I would find the notes on the kitchen table in the morning, secret codes scribbled lopsided down the edge of a paper towel. I’d ask what they meant and you’d call from the bathroom, mumbling through your toothpaste, “I need to call the parents about chaperoning the trip,” or “I told the kids we’d play a word game today.”
From Ms. W is Out Today
by Sparrow Hall
Copyright 2007
Dave Gahan’s new video for “Kingdom” is a light storm of radiant simplicity. I’ve watched it at least a dozen times. I love the police car. There’s something about that image that stays with me.
Here’s a video I shot of Wythe and Adrian, Saturday night. Yes, I know you can barely see anything. It was dark, and we were out in the hinterlands of Bushwick, which, with the lights on, looks like the set of Double Dragon.
I spent all of yesterday hanging out with the band, eating Morrocan food, shooting press photos, and hearing all about their new song “Sons & Daughters” for the upcoming Two Blue Wolves Soundtrack.
I caught their CMJ performance later that night at Crash Mansion where the opened for IAMX. THR sounded incredible – unfortunately, the video I shot doesn’t do it justice – but here they are (in all their strobe light glory). This is a clip of “Deaf Ears” from their full-length, History Will Never Hold Me.
Here’s a poem I found in one of my notebooks. I’m not sure when I wrote it, probably a couple weeks ago. I’m posting this for a friend who is going through a sad time.
I am a bell tower
I am a bell tower.
And one morning
all my bells will ring.
And they will be answered
by all your bells ringing.
I saw Anton Corbijn’s new film this weekend, Control, the biopic about Ian Curtis and the birth and death of Joy Division. I went into it with low expectations. I had to. I’m too much of a fan of all the parties involved not to. I was worried that the relatively unknown actor, Sam Riley, wouldn’t be able to pull off the role of Curtis. But more so, I was worried that the film wouldn’t live up to Corbijn’s legacy of iconic image making.
But all of that was put to bed the moment the film began. From the very first image to the very last, Control brilliantly captured the essence of the artist and his band. In some regards, the film surpasses Corbijn’s own photographs from that brief period in music history. It was as if the film gave him the opportunity to meditate on his experience with Ian and Joy Division within the backdrop of that time. The result is a luminous and moving portrait that contextualizes the Joy Division experience.
Mr. Riley’s interpretation of Ian Curtis is so close to that of his subject that the performance resembles a paranormal possession from beyond the grave. Just look at the scenes where the band is performing on television for the first time – I’ve seen the original footage it’s based on, and the likeness is chilling. Just watch Riley’s face. Look up some of the old BBC footage and play it side by side with the film and you’ll see what I mean.
Riley, however, is really only one of many incredible performances that make up the Control ensemble. I especially enjoyed the role of the boyish Bernard Sumner, portrayed as as the innocent and bright-minded yin to Ian’s brooding yang. There’s a scene the two share towards the end of the film in which Bernard convinces Ian to let him hypnotize him as a way of purging his inner demons. And of course, there’s the laugh-out-loud taking-no-shit portrayal of their manager Rob Gretton, the understated Tony Wilson and the ingenious and beligerent producer Martin Hannett.
Now, here’s a recommendation: If you see this film, try not to have anything lined up afterwards. And see it alone. Don’t bring a date. You’re not going to feel like a chatty cathy when you come out of this one. I saw it with my friend Asad and when he came back from the bathroom afterwards, he said there was this guy just standing at the sink staring into space. Asad asked, “You just saw Control, didn’t you?” which sort of snapped the guy out of it. “Uh, yeah,” he said, and turned off the faucet.
In other words, this is not a movie you just “catch” on a Friday night. Wait til Sunday. This movie has Sunday written all over it.
I just dowloaded a few of the photos from THR’s studio session with Stuart Sikes. I especially liked this photo of Aaron – Nothing powers you through an indie rock ballad like a mothership of Gatorade.
Ryan called me to talk about the story while they were making a few final tweaks to “Sons & Daughters,” THR’s new song for the Two Blue Wolves Soundtrack. I haven’t heard it yet, but judging from Aaron’s expression it’s sure to be cheery.
I spent the weekend hanging out with my friend Asad Jaferi, an entertainment lawyer who works for BMI, specializing in copyright law. We were talking about Radiohead’s new album In Rainbows and the band’s choice to sell it exclusively on their website where fans are allowed to pay what they wish. According to the reports I’ve heard, the average purchase price tends to fall somewhere between $2 and $10, even though they have the option of paying nothing at all. Asad says it’s going to become a trend in the not-too-distant future – bands ditching their labels to go directly to the public online. His theory is that at some point you’ll be able to access any and all music for free, with various corporate sites and advertising sponsors picking up the bill – similar to Napster, minus the monthly fee. In turn, labels will have to reorganize their business models to provide artists with relevant services – most likely focusing on artist management.
Asad has been a huge asset to the Two Blue Wolves collaborative in helping us develop our online publishing model. PLUS, he has pretty stellar taste in music and knows where all the best bars are in the city. Just don’t ask to crash at his place or you’ll end up sleeping on the fainting couch.
1) You can’t beat a drag queen at karaoke.
2) Hotwiring a golf cart is harder than you think.
3) No one’s too old for a Walk of Shame.
Two Blue Wolves took over Bennnington campus this past Friday with two bands from the soundtrack playing Friday night, a reading the next morning, and a dance piece based on the story performed later that night at Martha Hill Dance Theater.
The Well Enough Folk Band opened for The Kiss-Off at the Student Center to a large and mixed crowd of students and alumni. If there are two bands you’ll never see playing on the same bill – it’s these two. I was interested to see how they were going to pull off the transition from down home indie folk to synthed out electro glam, but somehow TKO managed to tap into the power of the Four Winds and enacted a miracle. After a dramatic lead in of “All Things Happen,” The Kiss-Off plunged into their dance track, “Laying Dead,” and the dance floor broke loose with an impromptu lesson in contact improv.
While on campus, I had the chance to hang out with some old friends and crashed a few student parties, which are never quite as raging or decadent as you remember them. But I will give credit to the girl who threw the party in Kilpat and introduced me to her boyfriend, one of the members of The Spinto Band, and to her friend who asked if I went to Bennington when Bret Easton Ellis was there.
Somehow, we convinced the school it was a good idea to put the bands up in a faculty house, and we spent all of Saturday night congregating in the kitchen and the backyard, which doubled as a cornfield. This was following the aforementioned karaoke party, hosted by the trés-fabulous drag queen, Peppermint Gummybear, of New York’s trés-debaucherous Rated X, The Panty Party. How they ever managed to get her past the planning board is an impressive feat in committee approvals. But then again, this is the same school that brought Squeezebox up when I was just a wee lad. Ah, the good old days – when transvestites arrived in packs of 12.
The presentation of Two Blue Wolves at the Kinoteca Theater had an impresssive turnout, and my sincere thanks to all of you who came up afterwards to share you feedback and support.
I think the highlight of the entire weekend, though, had to be Eva Schmidt’s 2BW dance piece at Martha Hill. It was the first time I’d seen it performed. For those of you unfamiliar with the space, Martha Hill is one of the largest dance theaters on the East Coast. A beautiful, high-vaulted space, nearly the size of a gymnasium. The piece was done completely in the dark, lit by only two industrial-style flashlights, which, at first, were positioned facing one another while Eva moved along the light between them. Then, folding flashlights face-down into the floor, we watched as the glowing discs shuffled aimlessly about the cavernous space. The piece concluded with Eva holding a flashlight in each hand, tracing the beams like searchlights into the void – the movement of the lights extending, or even replacing, that of the dancer. A chilling performance. You could feel the room holding it’s breath the entire time. We’re planning on filming the piece and posting something online, but we’re still figuring out some of the logistics. I’ll let you know when it’s up.
Thanks again to everyone who came up for the performances this weekend, to the current students for lighting things up, and to the college for having us.
