Hisen

- "Hisen" by Susumu Yokota, from Sakura (1999)

"I Like Beer"

Julia Child and Jacques Pépin tear it up and make some sammies on Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. This whole video is a gem, but the true highlight comes near the end, at 3:36.

Enjoy.

I Try

Speaking of great music...

- "I Try" by Macy Gray, from On How Life Is (1999)

Songs That Were Ripped Off, pt. I

You might have noticed that I tend to make sense of the world by trying to find tenuous connections between anything and everything, especially with regards to pop culture. I've decided to put this tendency to some use by gradually sharing some songs that, to me, sound a lot like previously-released works. I don't want to use the word plagiarism or anything, but the similarities are uncanny.

Full disclosure: I'm trying to write a twenty-page paper on the cemeteries of Al-Andalusia in Spanish, and it's becoming increasingly difficult. As such, this post is the product of tedious procrastination and wasted time.

The song: "Then The Morning Comes" by Smash Mouth (1999)
    What it ripped off: "La La Love You" by the Pixies (1989)

This one's been bothering me for a long, long time. I first heard "Then The Morning Comes" as a tender-eared child of five or six, and didn't discover the Pixies until five or six years later. The first time I heard "La La Love You," I felt like the whole world opened up. What was, to my six-year-old ears, the talent and creativity of Smash Mouth, was revealed to be lazy and unmotivated stealing from a group who actually had talent, once upon a time. Listen to these and tell me the guitar riff is not exactly the same (except way less impressive when stolen).

The original:

 

- "La La Love You" by Pixies, from Doolittle (April 1989)

The rip-off:

- "Then The Morning Comes" by Smash Mouth, from Astro Lounge (June 1999)

Burn, Don't Freeze

Welcoming in November and rain and gray cold today. The weather report says it could snow tomorrow. That seems a bit far-fetched to me, but I'm awaiting winter with eager open arms no matter the precipitation.

I also have been trying to take more photos recently but that's really hard, especially when you're like me and really bad at loading film or seeing things worth capturing and framing them honestly and aesthetically. But it's something I'm working on, and that's all one can really do.

Harvard Square on a Friday night in early September

Also, because the title of this post is "Burn, Don't Freeze," here is that song. It's not really relevant to the above post but it's a damn swell song to my ears.

 

-Sleater-Kinney, The Hot Rock (1999)

Reno Dakota

Being in Reno, Nevada reminds me of "Reno Dakota." If you're unfamiliar with the Magnetic Fields, here's the short (and fairly biting) little song:

Reno Dakota there's not an iota of kindness in you
You know you enthrall me and yet you don't call me
It's making me blue
Pantone 292

Reno Dakota I'm reaching my quota of tears for the year
Alas and alack you just don't call me back
You have just disappeared
It makes me drink beer

I know you're a recluse; you know that's no excuse, Reno
That's just a ruse
Do not play fast and loose with my heart

Reno Dakota I'm no Nino Rota; I don't know the score
Have I annoyed you or is there a boy who-- well he's just a whore
I've had him before
It makes me drink more

-From 69 Love Songs, Vol. 1 (1999)

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There's a really great story behind this song; apparently Reno Dakota was an actual dude who Stephin Merrit tried to pick up at a bar. They got him to sit down for a little interview, where he explained the song and sang a pretty clever response:

It's a bit sad, really, though I've gotta say he seems to have been a really great sport about the whole thing. Which I guess is understandable. I mean, he did get a song named after him.

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This entire digression of a post is merely my attempt to enjoy my morning coffee and to share something that I liked before we leave Reno (the location) and head eastward.