Monday, April 30, 2012

Remember when they brought back the Twilight Zone in the 1980s? One of those episodes, which is not very good, is about a boy who keeps his grandfather alive by telling him one long story. Every night he stops the story at an exciting spot so the grandfather must stay alive to hear what happens the next night. The episode takes place down south somewhere in the early 20th century, it is a great idea though the execution is a little bit dull. I used to tell stories with my grandfather when i was kid. I can not clearly remember but i do not think we would finish each others. I think i would tell one then he would tell one. Except it didn't happen down south deep in the Appalachian mountains but in a driveway in albany ny. Instead of the sounds of horses hooves, cicadas or crackling fires that were in this Twilight Zone, there was only lawn sprinklers and cars backing out of driveways. I cannot remember any of these stories at all, i only vaguely remember most of mine used the name Tom which i was utterly fascinated with when i was a kid. I think if i was thinking of a story and need a sort of generic main character i would always have a clearer vision of what this person would look like if they were named Tom. It just sounds right doesn't it?

Saturday, April 21, 2012

making of

There are few things in life more enjoyable to me then watching clips of music producers, hunched over their mixing boards, explaining how a song was put together. I love listening as sections are muted then brought back allowing you to fully appreciate what is really happening in the song. A few of my favorites include this clip of Butch Vig talking about the Nirvana song In Bloom This great clip of Robbie Robertson breaking down Up On Cripple Creek for us. Also has some nice tributes to the late-great Levon Helm towards the end Finally the very classy Sir George Martin discussing one of my all-time favorite Beatles songs A Day in the Life. A long clip, which plays the song in it's entirety at one point, is worth sitting through.