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"It never makes a sound..."

Live Bed Show

Three items make a set:

• How long has it been since The Office was on? Something like 6 weeks, right? That's just silly, and it's underscored by The Office being the only show I really watch anymore that's on this sort of classical network schedule. [1]
• A week or two ago, I was looking in my iTunes library for the string "live"--for this question of the day--and found Pulp's "Live Bed Show," which I hadn't listened to in a long while, and which is gorgeous & sad: "this bed has seen it all / from the first time to the last."
• Beirut's new version of "Scenic World" (from the Lon Gisland EP) is so much better than the version on the first album that it's almost a different song: the combination of full band + slower tempo gives it the old-world weight it deserves.

[1] Everything else is a combination of reality shows, DVDs, HBO series, and the network shows that've switched over to a different (better) model, like Lost.

"Let me remind you that I am the king of R&B..."

2007 is really shaping up to be the year of R. Kelly, isn't it? He's just been everywhere this year, and it's only March!

Here are a couple of tracks, either from late 2006 or 2007, all of which are pretty great. Everyone should listen to them.

• Ciara, "Promise" featuring R. Kelly
• Swizz Beatz, "It's Me Bitches" featuring Lil Wayne, R. Kelly, and Jadakiss
• Young Jeezy, "Go Getta" featuring R. Kelly
• R. Kelly, "I'm a Flirt" featuring T.I. & T. Pain

Vox Hunt: It's Like You're There

Audio: Share your favorite track from a live album.
Submitted by -Lisa.

Among my favorites:

• 

  Clouds
  A phenomenal Fiery Furnaces live show that you can stream online [1]. It's from a 2004 show in Toronto, and it's done in their older live style where they'd rearrange their songs into one giant, blurry, 45-minute marathon.
• From Dave Chappelle's Block Party, a live version of "Hip Hop" by Dead Prez, which after a break returns at around 2:25 with a sound so loud, so heavy, that it's just mind-blowing every time.
• But my current favorite may be this version of the Go-Betweens "Clouds" from their That Striped Sunlight Sound album last year. It's beautiful, warm, & heartbreaking, particularly, well, considering...

[1] ... or capture to your computer using some audio capture tools, as the case may be.

My new favorite quote.

The Accidental Connoisseur

I'm almost finished with Lawrence Osborne's The Accidental Connoisseur, which is about wine, but more particularly, about wine people and wine stories. It's taken me almost a month to read, and although I read another book in between, I don't know why it's taking me so long--it's actually really funny in parts, but it also tends to lag a bit as he visits wine region after wine region in France.

But I love this quote:

I grew deliriously content. I began to tap my feet under the table and grin fiendishly.... Is there anything better than drinking? When the happiness of drinking overwhelms you, you cannot resist it.

Vox Hunt: It Takes Two

Audio: Share a great duet.

You Know I'm No Good

Ghostface Killah

Not stricly a "duet", but I could listen to this all day.

"If you try to run before you crawl..."

Another week, in brief:

Beyoncé & Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Hudson & Beyoncé were by far my favorite people at the Academy Awards last Sunday.

I'm kind of late to it (is that possible, considering it's not yet released?), but I really love the new Arcade Fire album. It's like classic Echo & the Bunnymen (or a more self-indulgent Go-Betweens), and god knows that's good enough for me. The only downside is that I can no longer say that I'm just not into the Arcade Fire's Big Important Rock; but that's okay, because frankly, they're really too fucking good at it for me to mind.

I haven't stopped playing Siobhan Donaghy's "12 Bar Acid Blues" since I first heard it. It's just so good! And despite itself, it makes me want to go on vacation.

Earless terrier

Weasel

Poor sweet terrier with no ears! Read "Life's looking merrier for an earless terrier":

His bright eyes and mischievous antics would melt the hardest of hearts.

But this puppy found himself abandoned because he suffered the misfortune of being born with no ears.

"And besides, you wouldn't know what to do with me..."

Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer

Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? is my favorite album this year, so far, and frankly it's going to be tough to beat, I think.

Best track, for me: "Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider", particularly in the "Eva, I'm sorry / But you will never have me..." bit of the chorus, the second time around, when the guitar kicks in: then, "I need a lover with soul power / and you ain't got no soul power", & it's so fantastic that I can't help but smile.

Listen to "Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider".

"You're like the Justin Timberlake of Japan..."

The Fast and the Furious - Tokyo Drift

• I have some sort of soft spot for the Fast & the Furious movies. It's strange, because I don't really care about cars. But I loved the first, was sort of disappointed by the second (Paul Walker, absent Vin Diesel, is BORING), but then really loved the third (Tokyo Drift). (I even saw it in the theater.) I've just watched Tokyo Drift again tonight, and it's as good as ever.
• I made this beef stew tonight. I started yesterday by marinating the beef in red wine, olive oil, onions, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves. And then I spent about three hours tonight both doing the rest of the recipe & then just watching it cook, trying it out every 15 minutes or so with some bread. It was very, very good, and we've enough left to last some four days.
• Prince was awesome on the halftime show.

"We break into mobile homes..."

Stranger Than Fiction

An interview with Brian Reitzell and Britt Daniel in Harp about the music in Stranger than Fiction. My favorite part:

"The best thing about working on a movie is that you have a captive audience and they have to listen to the music," Reitzell continues. "You don't have that when you make a record."

"Right, they have to listen to the music the whole way through," adds Daniel. "Unless they walk out like I did during Garden State. I just couldn't take it, man."

Good stuff!