SubVerse

Okay, I’m clearly in a childish mood these days. First “Where the Wild Things Are,” and now this. But so be it, this made me very happy too.

Feist singing her song “1, 2, 3, 4″ on Sesame Street, changing the words to better fit. But it already seems as if it was always meant to be right here…

Yummm…
These first images released from Spike Jonez’ and Dave Eggers’ “Where The Wild Things Are” are making me very happy. (click the pics for larger images)

And you must check this out too: A small scene has leaked online, and it’s adorable.

You can really hear Eggers’ voice in the writing. And it has that casual, psychedelic feel of the old “Little Prince” film from the 70s. Just a kid chatting with his imaginary monster, the way any kid would.

And, though I know some people aren’t too excited that Jonez chose to use animatronic puppets for the Wild Things, I personally think it’s great. We’re so used to seeing everything done with CGI these days, but you just can’t beat the reality of old school, man-in-a-suit muppetry. It’s Big Bird, who’s just so clearly, physically there standing in front of us. He’s literally keepin’ it real. I applaud that.

This week’s eclectic mix moves from soul to hip hop, through big orchestra to singer-songwriter lushness. But each track has that sticky funk, that gets in your head and makes you want to groove. Whether they’re singing about the stickiness of good lovin’, that makes you want to hang around for more - or the sticky good greenery you want to roll up and huff and puff - these ten tunes are gonna get in your soul, and keep you coming back for more.

Sample the tracks individually, or download a Zip File (78MB) of all the tracks here.

1) So In Love - Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions

2) Rosebud - SA-RA Creative Partners

3) You Know, You Know - Mahavishnu Orchestra

4) Les Fleur - Ramsey Lewis

5) 2 Wicky - Hooverphonic

6) River Man (Nick Drake cover) - Shawn Lee

7) Honey Bee - Jessie Mae Hemphill

8) I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl (Nina Simone cover) - Nikka Costa

9) Kiss (ft. Will Oldham) - Scout Niblett

10) Everybody Loves the Sunshine - D’Angelo

11) Abstractionisms - Q-Tip

12) Who’s Got the Weed? - G. Love and Special Sauce

(c) Images this week by Siege.

I really am a little obsessed with zombies. Even this bizarre video caught my attention, and even kinda gave me the chills.

At the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines, inmates have found the perfect way to pass the time: memorizing the dance choreography to American pop anthems of the 80s. The crowning achievement has to be their rendition of Michael Jackson’s ‘’Thriller'’ video, complete with a guy in drag playing his date, while they’re surrounded by hordes of unruly undead (performing pretty awesome zombie dance moves!).

Now, is it just me, or at the beginning when that “couple” is suddenly surrounded by a thousand orange-jump-suit clad zombies, and the trannie girlfriend is acting all terrified - well, it’s really a little scary, isn’t it?

I’ve always intended for Subverse to be an MP3 blog (among other things). But I have been woefully lazy in the year and three months now that this site has existed. It’s time to start following through on my original idea.

My hope (or rather, as my shrink insists I say, my plan) is to put up two mixes a month – every other Sunday.

SUNDAY MIXES: Consisting of curated music on a theme, ideally meant to be listened to in order, as a DJ-ed set.

A mix-tape from me to you.

Today’s theme is simply the weather of this weekend I’ve spent at the farmhouse (in upstate New York). It’s gone from breathtakingly beautiful summer sun across the flower gardens and lush green hillsides – to moody grey hours of drizzling rain and thunder rumbling in the heavy clouds. Only to, once again, be surprised by a peek of golden light breaking through the grey over the Hudson River just before sunset.

And so today’s Sunday Mix No. 1 offers a similar journey. From the joy of a sunny morning upstate, to the quiet of an afternoon indoors, and back again.

See you next Sunday.

- Woodstock - Alice Russell

- Devil Do - Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs

- Shake It Off - Wilco

- History Song (Live, with instrumental intro) - The Good, The Bad & The Queen

- Roll On (Ft. Jenny Lewis) - Dntel

- Assoul - Tinariwen

- Reckoner - Thom Yorke (Acoustic @ Free Trade Show 4/16/07

- Ray-O-Graph - Jackie-O Motherfucker

- Cajuina - Forro in the Dark

- First Desert Ride - Jeff Simmons/Randy Sterling (Naked Angels OST)

- Whole Lotta Love - Ike & Tina Turner

- Jardin d’Hiver - Keren Ann

- All I Want Is You - Sugarplum Fairies

- Paisley Park (Prince cover) - Richard Swift

- Lay and Love - Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy

- The Ride - Joan as Policewoman

- Contusion (Live) - Stevie Wonder

- The Light - White Magic

- Mr. Whippy (ft. Eslam Jawaad) - The Good, The Bad & The Queen

- Boom-Biddy-Boom - Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren

A tune to help you through the afternoon:
The Brightness of These Days - Electric Sheep (feat. Ua)

Electric Sheep is a nu-jazz group associated with Kyoto Jazz Massive. More important is the vocal contributions of Ua, Tokyo’s answer to Bjork. Beautiful and mysterious, Ua is much too little known in America, and she should be very famous. Her voice is transfixing and uplifiting, whether she’s scatting or jazzing or deep soul-ing, i want to crawl inside the sensuous sounds she makes and rest there a while.

My god, what a blast from my childhood…
I actually still have that red-and-blue Shogun Warrior in my room in my parents’ house. And for years, I’ve had no idea what he was or where he came from.
I love when little mysteries like these are solved.



His name, apparently, is Great Mazinga! (With rocket launchers.)
Love it.
“Hey, sweetheart. Wanna come up to my room and see my great mazinga?”
And that line about Godzilla: “Imagine his breath is a blast of fire!”
I’m afraid I’ve dated girls I didn’t have to imagine.

Thanks to Plaid Stallions for the hook-up. A great romp through the past.

This is quite amusing. An episode of the short-run British TV series “Danger 50,000 Volts,” in which Nick Frost and Simon Pegg of “Shaun of the Dead” teach us valuable lessons about how to survive a zombie apocalypse.

You know… just in case.