A big thanks to Ryan Aynes and David Crabb for helping to produce the trailer. To Michael Evashevski and Darrell Lievense for their design and development skillz. To Chris Tilden for all the beautiful footage he shot for the “Stranger in the Strangest Land” video. To Willard Morgan for volunteering his studio. To Jerry Preston, Chuck Bianchi and Alex Parker for their inspiring musical contributions. And to everyone involved in the collaboration for dedicating your time and talent to something completely new and exciting.
TWO BLUE WOLVES
A collaboration based on the story by Sparrow Hall.
Featuring original works by:
Shawn Christensen (Stellastarr*) & Kevin McAdams (Elefant)
The Hourly Radio
Wythe Marschall (Heavy Jamal) & Sam Tyndall (The Kiss-Off)
Ana Lola Roman
Ed Laurie
Dual
Kago
Chuck Bianchi & Jerry Preston
Alex Parker
Slow Ghost
Jessica Caterina
Galaktlan
The Well Enough Folk Band
Eva Schmidt
Jim DeLucia
Colin McNamara
Christopher Tilden
Michael Evashevski
& Sparrow Hall
What’s more – I’ve been known to wear a tie like that.
I was home this past week helping my parents as they prepare to sell the house. As we were digging through the estate a few photo albums drifted to the surface, one almost completely dedicated to my mother. In it, I found this photo of her sitting on some random crumbling wall looking like somebody’s muse. I’d seen photos of my mother from around this time, and yes, she was definitely a hottie, but damn Mom. You rock them high wasted shorts. Now granted, my dad’s a good looking guy, but homeboy must have been working some serious mojo the day those two met.
Actually, I know that story.
They met at a dance club. My mom spotted my dad from the bar. He was out on the dancefloor, dead center, tearing shit up. Now this was 1974, or thereabouts, just to give you a sense of what that dancefloor might have looked like. The way my mom tells it, my dad wasn’t so much of a good dancer as he was a big dancer (the apple didn’t fall far from the tree). Anyway, he must of thought my mom was all up in his business, because he walked right up to her and asked if he could by her a drink. She said she looked down and saw that he was wearing a pair of Stop & Go sandals. One was red and had the word STOP written across the toes. The other was green and read GO.
Ana Lola Roman, “Man with an Axe.” Live at Grasslands, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Video by Sparrow Hall.
Last Saturday, I met up with David, Jack and Asad for Ana’s performance at Grasslands. This was the first time I’d seen her play live, and she definitely did not disappoint.
Read as: ripped shit up.
Imagine the songwriting of Kate Bush, the performance of Tori Amos and the eccentricities of Laurie Anderson, and you’ll kinda get a sense of where Ana is coming from. This video is the intro to “Man with an Axe,” which you can also hear on her myspace.
Ana is one of the artists featured on the Two Blue Wolves Soundtrack. Visit the Two Blue Wolves Myspace to listen to her song “Modern Day Nursery Rhyme.”
Murakami Exhibit, Brooklyn Museum of Art. Photo by Catherine Mangosing.
Catherine and I checked out the Takashi Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art this Saturday. You may know him as the artist who did the album cover for Kanye West’s Graduation. The video for the album’s opening track “Good Morning” was one of the few being shown in the Museum’s theater space – along with a selection of Kaikai Kiki episodes involving fire-breathing blob monsters and giant watermelons.
I’m not really a big Anime fan. I watched my fair share of Akira in college, but mainly with the sound off at dance parties. I have a lot of respect for the artists, and I love the style, but honestly, the content kind of creeps me out. The same goes for Murakami’s work, which is heavily influenced by Japanese comic book culture. That said, I can’t help but love the energy he captures, and his fascinating commentary on modern hyper culture. As an artist, he possesses the uncanny ability to turn everything from sex to mortality into a vibrant caricature of itself. Favorites of mine included the bionic pleasure girls that transform into fighter jets and his paintings of milk and cream slicing through mid-air. Check the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s website for dates and times.
Here’s a song I wrote that David’s been working with.
Time
Lyrics by Sparrow Hall
The hour slips away into another day
There goes another
Time gives away all we have to say
There goes a lover
How much time
And how much crime
Can one commit
Against the heart of another
Take me away
Take me today
And wash these hands of
Time
Because I can’t go on wasting
And chasing
And facing these hands of
Time
Because I can’t go on losing
And choosing
The bruising
For this beaten heart of mine
Won’t you please
Tell me please
How to end this life of crime
Stealing hearts
And cheating hearts
And robbing us of
Time
Because I can’t go on wasting
And chasing
And facing these hands of
Time
Because I can’t go on losing
And choosing
The bruising
For this beaten heart of mine
What Sound / Lamb
I Believe / Simian Mobile Disco
NY Hotel / The Knife
Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) / Kate Bush
Re: Stacks / Bon Iver
Round & Round / New Order
Bluebells / Patrick Wolf
Highwire Days / Psychedelic Furs
What Will Give? / The Radio Dept
Heroine (Theme From ‘Captive’) / Sinéad O’Connor
I recently rediscovered Lamb. The band. Not the shwarma. The experience was a little like running into an old girlfriend and realizing she’s still hot. And immediately wanting to have babies with her.
The album is What Sound, which came out in 2003, and the title track has found its way onto this month’s playlist. This is not the Lamb you might remember. The voice is the same, but the dissident angsty-ness that typified their earlier work has been replaced with a sexier, more stripped-down approach.
Here’s a video to “Gabriel” one of the tracks off the album. There’s moments where it lapses into P.O.D. territory (with Andy Barlow, 1/2 of Lamb, leaping off a building), but the close-ups of Lou Rhodes having her angelic moment are worth the occasional rolling of the eyes.
