Sprout and the Bean

I really like Joanna Newsom, you might not but I do but we can still be friends. Anyway I like Joanna Newsom but I don't remember haring her "Sprout and the Bean" until I saw The Strangers and it was featured in one of the better and creepier uses of music in film that I can recall. I recommend seeing it because while I didn't "like it" because it's not a "feel good movie" by any means it was really effective and scarier just because unlike most horror movies for almost half the movie I couldn't nitpick with any of their decisions as they did everything that I would've done in that situation (y'know, besides moving to a house in the middle of nowhere to begin with)
But anyway the reason this is here is because I've had the song stuck in my head all day (especially the chorus; it's kind of haunting) and thus so should you, have it stuck in your head that is. Here's the video


and the lyrics

I slept all day
awoke with distaste
and I railed,
and I raved

That the difference between
the sprout and the bean
is a golden ring,
it is a twisted string.
And you can ask the counselor;
you can ask the king;
and they'll say the same thing;
and it's a funny thing:

Should we go outside?
Should we go outside?
Should we break some bread?
Are y'interested?

And as I said,
I slept as though dead
dreaming seamless dreams of lead.

When you go away,
I am big-boned and fey
in the dust of the day,
in the dirt of the day.

and Danger! Danger! Drawing near them was a white coat,
and Danger! Danger! drawing near them was a broad boat,
And the water! water! running clear beneath a white throat,
and the hollow chatter of the talking of the Tadpoles,

who know th'outside!
Should we go outside?
Should we break some bread?
Are y'interested?

and your copy, for the taking
Sprout and The Bean [mp3]

And in answer to your question- don't go outside; it's probably nasty out there.

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Things To Do This Week: Weekend Edition*

*Thursday counts, kinda, right?

• Thursday : Of Montreal at the Avalon, Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal: Ten Chi at Royce Hall, "Dark Play or Stories for Boys" at Boston Court Theatre, Little Fish at The Blank Theatre, Wreck of the Unfathomable at Theatre of NOTE, A Judas Priest double feature. First "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" then "Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance vs. Judas Priest" “a doc chronicling the fallout from a 1985 suicide pact between two teens and the subsequent court battle that followed when their families sued CBS Records and Judas Priest on the grounds that subliminal messages in Priest's music started the fire.” at Silent Movie Theatre, Amelia Cuni “The dhrupad vocalist ‘forges an uncanny blend of traditions’ with her original interpretation of John Cage's 18 Microtonal Ragas” at REDCAT or Gail Can See for Three Days “Joshua Faigen's story of a journalist and a woman about to be executed” at Theater Tribe
• Friday: 4 x 4: Four New Works by Four Queer Artists at Highways Performance Space, The Bald Soprano at the City Garage, The Glory of Living “Rebecca Gilman's thriller about a young girl's detour 'into a life misled'" at Victory Theatre Center, Birdy “Study of the social impact of war, adapted by Naomi Wallace from the novel by William Wharton” at the Lounge Theatre, Liberating Jesus! at the Edgemar Center for the Arts, Girlfriend Experience “Paul Tarantino's Internet-era bedroom farce.” at the Next Stage, Parallel Lives “Abridged version of the comedy by Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney” at The Complex, The Piano Lesson “August Wilson's familial battle over an upright piano” at The Hayworth, She Wants Revenge at the Henry Fonda, Strip “Bikini girls grind the pole in George Damian's exotic-dancer story” at the Actor's Playpen or Joanna Newsom at the Walt Disney Concert Hall (!)(!)(!)
• Saturday: Not Now Right Now (Industry Showcase,CD release party) at Crash Mansion L.A., Jens Lenkman (and Throw Me The Statue) at the Troubadour, Displays of Affection: “Carnality by Mark Loewenstern, Riches by Lee Blessing” at Avery Schreiber Theater, Hero “Soldier returns home early from Iraq, in Luis Alfaro's comedy” at the Studio/Stage , Out of Thin Air: Tales of a 21st Century Wizard “Brandon Scott combines stories, magic, mind-reading, music and quantum physics” at Actors Forum Theatre [this sounds like the coolest thing ever], Stars at the Orpheum or Socialism Conference “The Party for Socialism and Liberation hosts “a day of Marxist speakers, workshops and discussion on the revolutionary struggle against capitalism, war, racism and bigotry” at Hermandad Mexicana Nacional @ 10:00 am (map) [word.]
• Sunday: The Life and Writings of George Orwell at the Felicia Mahood Senior Center, Rooms 2A-2B “Steve Bindman leads a discussion sponsored by the Secular Jewish Humanists of Los Angeles” @ 11:30 am or Tosca “Casa Italiana Opera Company presents a fully staged production of the Puccini favorite starring Begona Bilbao in the title role, with Don Squillace as the noble Cavaradossi and Mario Biscaldi as that rat Scarpia. Preceded by a five-course meal at 2:30 p.m. [that pretty much sounds like heaven] at the Casa Italiana Community Center of St. Peter's Parish @ 4:30 pm
• And so since I was actually sent a press release about it (which made me feel really cool and important and influential) I'd like to announce that the :
• West Coast Premier Of Cult Hit Continues Through December 21, 2007
  HARVEY FINKLESTEIN'S SOCK PUPPET SHOWGIRLS
  Now playing Fridays 11PM at Theatre Asylum, 6320 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90038.
  Chicago's acclaimed Harvey Finklestein Productions LLC in association with C.A.F.E. is pleased to present the west coast premier of the cult favorite HARVEY FINKLESTEIN’S SOCK PUPPET SHOWGIRLS. The puppeteers consist of Los Angeles area actors Eddie Beasley, Jonathan Caplan, Dorien Davies, Steve Sabellico, and Lowe Taylor. Harvey Finklestein Productions LLC is pleased to announce BACKSTAGE SEATING, which offers audience members a unique view of the production. The BACKSTAGE SEATING is very limited and available on a first come first served basis at the door on the night of the show. This puppet show is ADULTS ONLY.
  HARVEY FINKLESTEIN'S SOCK PUPPET SHOWGIRLS is a truly unique and wholly unauthorized parody of the Joe Eszterhas film Showgirls -- as performed by sock puppets. The play, like the beloved film, follows an ambitious young drifter as she navigates her way through that world of power, topless dancing, seduction, vulgarity, gambling and sex that we call Las Vegas. If you haven't seen sock puppets pole dance, you haven't experienced the true power of the theater.
  Harvey Finklestein premiered Sock Puppet Showgirls in 2002 in Chicago where it played for over nine months and was hailed by critics as: "a great moment in Chicago theatre" (Windy City Times), "hilariously tasteless" (Chicago Tribune), and "a real sock-it-to-'em production!" (Chicago Sun Times). In 2004 Harvey Finklestein retooled Sock Puppet Showgirls and Harvey Finklestein’s Sock Puppet Showgirls played in Chicago before heading to New York to partake in The 2004 New York International Fringe Festival. The show became one of the hottest tickets of the festival while playing at The Cherry Lane Theatre. Since then there have been two successful limited engagement runs of Harvey Finklestein’s Sock Puppet Showgirls at Ace of Clubs in New York, one during the fall of 2005 and one during the summer of 2006.
  Other productions by Harvey Finkelstein Productions LLC include UU7: A Magician Never Tells His Tricks, a live action parody of the James Bond genre told with actors in mascot costumes, a rock band, and a movie screen, also Harvey Finklestein’s A Puppet Christmas Carol, a twisted look at Dickens. Harvey TV is a new puppet-sketch video series and can be seen on YouTube.com. Please visit www.harveyfinklestein.com for more information on Harvey Finklestein Productions LLC.
  HARVEY FINKLESTEIN'S SOCK PUPPET SHOWGIRLS performs every Friday at 11:00 pm through December 21, 2007. Tickets are $15, available at the door or 800-838-3006 or on the web at www.brownpapertickets.com.
  

(and so I've decided that if you wanna send me a press release to publicize or shill for something...I think I'm okay with it, though of course I reserve the right to refuse things that are against my sensibilities.)

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Your Simply Amazing Stuck in My Head Song of the Day

When I was waiting in line today at the post office this song came on my iPod and since that time around 3:40 this song has been in my head. Not necessarily the correct lyrics but the melody and some lyrics that I fit in there, because this is a rather dense song with obtuse lyrics but that are still so beautiful. It's Joanna Newsom's Sawdust and Diamonds and its from her Ys album (and now I still have no idea how to pronounce it.) Perhaps it was also the Harptallica post from earlier today that reminded me of this song but, I don't even know how to explain it besides, it reminds me of a line from The Decemberist's "Tain"

when the dawn comes to greet you, you'll rise with clothes on
and advance with the others, singing old songs
of cattle and maidens and withered old queens.
let the music carry you on.

The song reminds me of fields and flowers and flowing dresses, and a far off Princess Bride-esque landscape. It's over 9 minutes long but it's worth every second and here are the lyrics, which really help to have.

From the top of the flight
Of the wide, white stairs,
Through the rest of my life,
Do you wait for me there?

There’s a bell in my ears.
There’s the wide, white roar.
Drop a bell down the stairs.
Hear it fall forevermore.

Drop a bell off of the dock.
Blot it out in the sea.
Drowning mute as a rock;
Sounding mutiny.

There’s a light in the wings, hits the system of strings,
From the side, where they swing—
See the wires, the wires, the wires.
And the articulation in our elbows and knees
Makes us buckle;
We couple in endless increase
As the audience admires.

And the little white dove,
Made with love, made with love;
Made with glue, and a glove, and some pliers

Swings a low sickle arc, from its perch in the dark:
Settle down, settle down, my desire.

And the moment I slept, I was swept up in a terrible tremor.
Tough no longer bereft, how I shook! And I couldn’t remember.
Then the furthermost shake drove a murthering stake in,
And cleft me right down through my centre.
And I shouldn’t say so, but I knew that it was then, or never.

Push me back into a tree.
Bind my buttons with salt.
Fill my long ears with bees
Praying please please please love
You ought not
No you ought not

Then the system of strings tugs at the tip of my wings
(cut from cardboard and old magazines):
Makes me warble and rise, like a sparrow.
And in the place where I stood, there is a circle of wood—
A cord or two—which you chop, and you stack in your barrow.
It is terribly good to carry water and chop wood,
Streaked with soot, heavy-booted and wild-eyed;
As I crash through the rafters,
And the ropes and the pulleys trail after
And the holiest belfry burns sky-high.

Then the slow lip of fire moves across the prairie with precision,
While, somewhere, with your pliers and glue, you make your first incision.
And in a moment of almost-unbearable vision,
Doubled over with the hunger of lions,
Hold me close, cooed the dove,
Who was stuffed, now, with sawdust and diamonds.

I wanted to say: Why the long face.
Sparrow, perch and play songs of long face.
Burro, buck and bray songs of long face!
Sing, I will swallow your sadness, and eat your cold clay,
Just to lift your long face;
And though it may be madness, I will take to the grave
Your precious longface.
And though our bones they may break, and our souls separate—
Why the long face?
And though our bodies recoil from the grip of the soil—
Why the long face?

In the trough of the waves,
Which are pawing like dogs,
Pitch we, pale-faced and grave,
As I write in my log.

Then I hear a noise from the hull,
Seven days out to sea.
It is that damnable bell!
And it tolls—well, I believe that it tolls—for me.
It tolls for me.

Though my wrists and my waist seemed so easy to break,
Still, my dear, I’d have walked you to the very edge of the water.
And they will recognise all the lines of your face
In the face of the daughter of the daughter of my daughter.

Darling, we will be fine; but what was yours and mine
Appears to me a sandcastle
That the gibbering wave takes.
But if it’s all just the same, then will you say my same;
Say my name in the morning, so I know when the wave breaks.

I wasn’t born of a whistle, or milked from a thistle at twilight.
No; I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright.

So: enough of this terror.
We deserve to know light,
And grow evermore lighter and lighter.
You would have seen me through,
But I could not undo that desire.

From the top of the flight
Of the wide, white stairs
Through the rest of my life
Do you wait for me there?

It's such a pretty song and when I listen to it, especially as the melody rises I feel like my soul lightens and rises as well. Speaking of religious ecstasy like symptoms here's the video filmed at a Unitarian Church (I'm beginning to dig those people.) Enjoy

a domani.

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I Must Say I'm Intrigued

I saw this on Idolator yesterday and being a fan of strange and bizarre music my antennae were piqued (raised?.) It's a band called Harptallica and it's, I'm sure you can figure it out (hint: it's two harpists covering Metallica songs) And they actually sound really good, in a slightly skewed way of course. But it is really cool and maybe its the fact that my mom plays the harp or the fact that their both attractive enough, but I want them to be a big success. So please someone sign them to a record deal; I'm sure the lads in Metallica would be happy with the income considering how they haven't done shit for years, and this kind of project has a niche (fans of The Decemberists , Joanna Newsom, lullabyes) Plus I just believe people are craving new and different instrumentations and arrangements, I know I am.
So good luck ladies; now just do one thing and cover this song and I'd love you for ever.

Please?

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Your Simply Amazing Stuck in My Head Song of the Day

These posts at the end of the day are the hardest things! Especially on days where I don't have one song overpoweringly in my head- instead I had like 30, but for about 3 minutes at a time. Like I was sorta of self conscious about my breast and wanting them to be bigger so for a second it was a song by the Lords of Acid, then King Missile, then Joanna Newsom, Bruce Springsteen and The 5,6,7,8s. Incredibly frustrating.
But then I started thinking about some of my friends and about how far away they all are and how I don't know whats happening in their lives, and about one friend in particular, Theresa, who if not my best friend at Duke was my most important friend by a long long margin. She had been working in D.C. and I knew she wanted to move to New York but then on the (omniscient) Facebook she joined the New York network and I had no idea and she looked so happy and beautiful and I felt so incredibly disconnected that..it was kinda hard. So I wanted to do a song that reminded me of her, on the one in a thousand chance she sees this and knows I'm thinking about her. I was first going to do Frou Frou's Let Go because that song really reminds me of one time sophomore year when I was in her room, and she was kind of down and was playing the song over and over and we were talking and I'm assuming I was either commiserating with her or trying to cheer up my Mohin, but then as I was walking through the WEL quad to my room I sent her a text along the lines of "i really thought she was saying 'cuz there's booty in the breakdown'" which inspired a response of "that got a literal LOL out of me" which made me really happy and obviously, since I still remember it so fondly meant a lot to me. But alas I couldn't find a video for that song.
After I couldn't find anything for that song my mind went to another song she introduced me to. Theresa sang a cappella and was quite into it and she played for me a beautiful song off the Best of College A Capella 2004 by UCLA Awaken (I think) called Gravity, which I think was written by one of the group members. It was so hauntingly beautiful and impressed me alot. The name of the songwriter is Sara Bareilles and her album Little Voice is apparently number 1 on iTunes album sales, but she's one of Theresa's favorites and its not hard to see why; that voice, the emotion. She's a new artist, with what seems like a huge future (and like I told Theresa her musical scouting skills are blowing mine away) So here's a live version of Gravity and below is Gravity as performed by UCLA Awaken (once again I think) Enjoy


UCLA Awaken- Gravity (mp3)

(and this post was way too wrapped up in my own emotions that I couldn't even properly articulate or express, but its still an amazing song. sigh, I'm sorry I just miss my Theresasaurus Rex :(

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