The Guardian tracks down every single ex-member of The Fall. And finds out quite a few really amazing stories.
(Title of post has no relevance whatsoever being just the name of a completely unrelated song by another artist which i was listening to while reading the article)
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animate inanimate or imaginary objects, whoever you may be rejoice, for it's your day again! It's Captain Beefheart's Birthday, which as everybody knows is when we all stand up and celebrate.
Dance now.
So my part of the celebrations last year was that i gave some songs out to friends & associates all around the world wide webthingy. This year let's change things a bit.
What i'll do this time around is simpler and more general. The songs i'm making available today are just small things that make me happy. Nothing gigantic, nothing that needs any big explanations, nothing philosophical. These are just things that make me feel better if i hear them, no matter what time of the day, no matter what mood i'm in.
Ah, i know there's no real need to explain it, but here and here you may find a short biography in pictures of the man this is all about.
Ok, you can stop dancing if you like now.
I love burt bacharach songs. Some of them are the saddest things i've ever heard. I remember having to drive home in the rain once with nothing but Wichita Lineman or This Guy's In Love With You in the car stereo, so melancholy i almost started crying while i sang along. Close To You is not this kind of song. I just think it's beautiful. This version sounds a lot like the one you can hear in mirrormask. Not a coincidence, i suppose. Wayne Horvitz - Close To You (m:Burt Bacharach, w:Hal David) 160kbps 2.8Mb Mp3.
Me and the Major by Belle & Sebastian. That harmonica! the song became even more special the day i discovered i too can play those same harmonica parts. Did i tell you i realized the other day i realized i'm only 2 degrees of separation from Robert Johnson? I know a guy who knew Son House who knew Robert Johnson. The first song i ever played live was Sweet Home Chicago. Full circle? Circles are just an imaginary invention like time and money and dogs that don't bite because they bark. 256kbps 7.3Mb Mp3.
Another thing they remind me of -they being Belle and Sebastian- is Glasgow. Chritmastime is when i sit around, listen to them, watch old Billy Connolly tv specials and just generally miss Glasgow. You've all seen A Charlie Brown Christmas, haven't you? here's Vince Guaraldi's song from that, Chritmastime is here, vocal and instrumental versions. Listen to him chase himself on the piano in the instrumental. I don't feel like checking size and bitrate, just download them 'cause it's worth it.
Somebody was once quoted saying that the old Charlie Brown specials were the only place you could hear good jazz on television at the time. I just don't remember who it was and where i read it.
Perhaps younger generations will like this track better, YMCK's nintendo sound appeals to the whole retro-thing going on. But i just dig the line "do you know that god is flowing out of your mind?(..) It's yellow, magenta, cyan and black." 320kps 11.2Mb Mp3 for the bossa-loving eccentric.
I have just learned in this moment that the chilean people have done the extremely old-fashioned move of electing the right person. Which here in europe is passé, electing morons is more in vogue.
I love the striking distance between the first and last ever published songs by Pizzicato Five. Fifteen years between them, things just get simpler and simpler.
Lyrics sheet to that last song.
Maki Nomiya was in neither of those songs (that's Clementine on vocals in the bossa), but is in this one: United Future Organization featuring Nomiya Maki - Le Coeur Qui Jazz. From last year's dimitri from paris-produced tribute to The Aristocats, one of the best things to come out of 2005. Lush string stylings, slightly afrobeat drumming, and Maki's voice to top it all off. There was a full moon on friday night, did you see it?
Only one song left. No, three.
Sweet Thing by Van morrison. The live cover by The Waterboys interpolates The Beatles' Blackbird into the ending. i like to sing Caetano & Gal Costa's Baby over that bit myself. For good measure, here's Van singing Angeliou, which is about meeting someone.
And finally, here are some words from The Good Captain himself.
The Clouds Are Full Of Wine (Not Whiskey Or Rye)
The clouds are full of wine
Not whiskey or rye
'n the sky is full of bluebrains,
Bluejays, mermaids
Bluebrains, bluejays, bluebirds, mermaids
bluejays, bluebirds, rainbows
'n the night is full of rhinestones,
Pinecones, telephones
'n the sky is full of rhinestones, pinecones, telephones
Wolfhowls, milkcows
Shadows to some hows
'n the clouds are full of wine
Not whiskey or rye
'n the sky is full of bluebrains,
Baboons, rhinos, fools 'n buffoons
'n my eyes are full of bloodbones,
Snowcones, serenaders 'n sen-n-n-oritas
'n so on...
Melodies that go on, go on,
Go on, go on, go on, go on,
Go off, go off, go off, go off
We here at WGD Central hope you've enjoyed this. It's not about the music. it's about what goes on around it.
Happy Birthday, Don Van Vliet.
The Webmaster, briefly resurrecting his alternative Jonny Crossbones lookalike persona in the early hours of January 1st, 2006.
Amanita Design makes beautiful little games like the one i'd already linked to here, but more specially the amazing Samorost saga. Do not click if you're supposed to be doing more important stuff like working or studying.
And don't say i didn't warn you.
(Tnx to Glunati)
Koala fingerprints, the mother of all potatoes, election day barbecues, the secret key to scissors/paper/stone and no stairways. This list of stuff from BBCNews gets interesting about halfway through.
Also: WiFi Hotspots in my area.
Been a while since i last posted one of these.
Captivating the masses in 2006! Bad parking pictures!
Casa Evaristo's vehicle, misparked beneath the duino snow of 27.12.2005, 7:05 AM
Inspired by this page done by a guy i met and was screaming stuff with last night.
In conversation with someone, whom my recollections are too hazy to identify despite (or because of) my being sober:
Him/Her: "Do you wear anything that doesn't have stripes?"
Me: "Yeah sure. See that hoodie? It doesn't have stripes!"
Him/Her: "Robin, that's a striped hoodie."
Me: "Damn."
Resolution: new clothes in 2006. Soon as i can afford it.
On a train on the way to Mestre, early 31st december morning, i realized i'd forgotten to enter my usual end-of-year blogpost.
Shortly thereafter, i noticed i didn't really care.
While i was next in the post office queue last friday, a little girl skipped right in front of me and went straight to the counter. I didn't say a word because i already knew her: palestinian, no more than 15 years old, a mix of shyness and enthusiasm coming from beneath her black chador. Also because i was the only one in the queue, anyway.
She produced a letter with an address in both arabic and beautifully hand-written latin alphabet, and said to the lady behind the counter "Per la Palestina, per favore".
The lady took the envelope and turned towards the large pricebook behind her. She looked up the country at the letter P, but said "...non esiste..."
A colleague came up and half-whispered "Israele" to her.
"Ah!" she replied, and promptly produced a stamp.
Biting political commentary, i thought as i helped the girl find the right size of coin from her tiny purse.
In conversation with my dad:
Him: "Oh, we went to the pictures last night"
Me: "That's nice, what did you see?"
Him: "March of the penguins. Stupid beasts."
fred: ...And then i had a tsingtao beer...
me: pfffff.
fred: what's so funny?
me: Tsingtao beer. It's not good. It's not bad. It just makes you laugh like hell.
So since i've been asked to post more pictures of Duino, i've decided to release into the wild these images of what was probably the biggest event to have occurred here this year: The Great Sunday Twelve O'Clock Traffic Jam of October the Twenty-Third, in the year of Two Thousand and Five.
For i can say that i was there, that i saw it, and even better: i was in the eye of the storm! For i was (gasp!) a passenger in one of the vehicles involved, and thus had a chance to step outside and take these historical pictures!
(All images open in a new window because i finally figured out how to make them do that.)
Above: Three buses! On a sunday! Notice the cars illegally parked on the sidewalk, at left in the picture.
Above: Our car (actually Pino's Skoda) as it wondered how, if ever, it was to get out of this mess.
Below: Passengers of the car behind us, other participants of that day's expedition to Slovenia, visibly excited with their priviledged place in history being written. Notice the approving thumbs.
Epilogue: The Great Sunday Traffic Jam of Sezana, October 23rd 2005, after lunch.
A much tidier affair.
Mu-Tron Bi-Phase Phaser Effect Processor, as played by Kraftwerk(among others) in the '70s,
And
Combinaison Spaciale EP, as published by Pizzicato Five in 1996.
I'd never noticed the similarity until today, as i browsed a gallery of equipment used by Kraftwerk in the seventies which i'd downloaded off someone on Soulseek (the gallery, not the instruments). Which isn't very bright 'cause there are pictures of the machine in the cd booklet and i'd never noticed those either.
Another thing i didn't know is that Florian Schneider apparently continued playing synth-flute on stage even during their tours in the eighties, but that's something i'm not really 100% certain about(this picture sure looks mid-seventies to me, but who am i to argue with how some guy on the internet archives his shared image folders?), and hope to eventually find some proof.
I also wonder what that washing machine is doing behind him.
Last friday,while i was busy getting all excited about getting free stuff in the mail from my favourite band, little did i know that in london, in those very same moments my best friend was personally experiencing one of my greatest childhood dreams:
She saw a Dalek. 
A real live Dalek. Hiding in a corner of her academy for reasons yet undiscovered.
Although a bit startled by this -and reasonably so- she managed to take a picture and send me it, at risk of extermination.
This proves that no matter how cool your day may be, somebody somewhere is having a cooler one. And fate will do its best to make you green with envy as soon as you get to know about it.
