Arnold Böcklin, Castle in ruins
Growing – “In The Shadow Of The Mountain”
His Return
Growing’s monolithic soundscapes aren’t for everyone, but for those who can handle them, they’re transportive. There’s little that can be said by way of description. Their songs are less like songs, and more like little worlds you inhabit for ten or fifteen minutes at a time.
Vocabulary: Churning Hatred Edition
vatinian: extremely strong or bitter, esp. hatred (from the name of a very unpopular roman)
pettifog: to bicker about trifles; also, practicing law with dishonesty or pettiness
otacousticon: an instrument to aid hearing – ear-horns and such
wittol: a man who knows of and accepts his wife’s unfaithfulness
comminute: to break or divide into many small parts
moil: to work or toil hard; also, to churn or twist
desiderate: to wish for or feel the lack of
dorp: a small village (from the Dutch)
welkin: the sky or heavens
irrefragable: indisputable
SUPERSTAR Rajinikanth!
“In the first scene of Padayappa (1999), he’s asked, ‘Hey man, who are you?’ and his answer is a four-minute musical number in which he plays the harmonica, flips through the air, oversees a massive martial-arts demonstration, and then morphs into a baby. At the end, the village chief says, ‘Padayappa, that song was excellent,’ at which point the music revs up again, Rajinikanth climbs a 30-foot-tall human tower and smashes open a clay pot, fireworks explode, and the director’s credit flies out of it.”
For princes are the glass, the school, the book
Where subjects’ eyes do learn, do read, do look.
Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece
…at first, while the Sun was bright, he went merrily on, and without any Difficulty reached the Heart of the Labyrinth and got the Jewel, and so set out on his way back rejoycing: but as the Night fell, wherein all the Beasts of the Forest do move, he begun to be sensible of some Creature keeping Pace with him and, as he thought, peering and looking upon him from the next Alley to that he was in; and that when he should stop, this Companion should stop also, which put him in some Disorder of Spirits. And, indeed, as the Darkness increas’d, it seemed to him that there was more than one, and, it might be, even a whole Band of such Followers: at least so he judg’d by the Rustling and Cracking that they kept among the Thickets; besides that there would be at a Time a Sound of Whispering, which seem’d to import a Conference among them. But in regard of who they were or what Form they were of, he would not be persuaded to say what he thought.
M.R. James, Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance
Mogwai – “Kids Will Be Skeletons”
Happy Songs For Happy People
This album, the second of the “new Mogwai” so disappointing to some, is understated rather than uncompromising, and although it ends up underwhelming at times, it demonstrates their strength in arrangement rather than raw power. The delicate and deliberately paced “Kids Will Be Skeletons” and the sibilant and triumphant closer, “Stop Coming To My House,” are just plain beautiful, something missing from a lot of loud music these days. (insound)