I could drink a case of Neko

I bought a copy of Paste magazine last night. I'm not much of a magazine buyer, but who could resist a cover like this?



Neko discusses her fondness for bats, the book Watership Down, and the movie Weird Science. Oh, and also the sex dream she had involving Steve Earle and Madonna. Also in the magazine is Amanda Palmer discussing her Kurzweil keyboard, which she altered to read "Kurt Weill," which the Kurzweil company actually liked. Last time I saw her live, she mentioned that she was considering getting a Yamaha, and changing it to read "Ya Mama." I've seen this same basic thing a few other times. I remember someone describing a Weird Al performance where he made his Roland keyboard read "Poland," and Maury Rosenberg of Hypnotic Clambake went the less classy route of changing his to read "I'm Stoned" (which he quite likely was). I'm not actually sure what the original brand name was; "Limestone" would make sense, but a Google search didn't reveal any keyboard brand of that name.

Incidentally, I was just thinking the other day how interested I am in these marginally popular musicians, when our culture in general seems to focus more on movie stars. Neko might win a Sexiest Indie Rock Chick poll, but magazines that choose the Sexiest Person seem to always go for actors from movies I haven't seen. Well, okay, I might have seen SOME of them, but watching Hugh Jackman play Wolverine didn't exactly make me understand why he was People's Sexiest Man Alive. Eh, whatever. I like my own little pop culture niche. {g}

Other recent purchases of mine include a used copy of the Talking Heads album Naked (my favorite songs on it so far are "Mr. Jones," "Totally Nude," and "(Nothing But) Flowers"), a desk calendar with space pictures, and a wall calendar of Alphonse Mucha pictures. I think I like Mucha because his drawings remind me of vintage children's book illustrations, especially for the Oz books.



See what I mean? Anyway, the calendars cost only $4 each, which is why this is a good time of the year to purchase such things.

And finally:

I'm trying to get all my Livejournal friends' locations plotted on a map - please add your location starting with this form. Username: (Then get your friends to!)

The Whitest Music U Know

Actually, White Music, the title of XTC's first album isn't a reference to the band's own Caucasian-ness (besides, Andy Partridge claims to be one-eighth black), but a play on "white noise." I didn't buy the XTC albums in order, and I'm glad I didn't, because this one took some getting used to. I kind of wish I could go back in time to when the band was new (which would have been right around when I was born) to see what people thought of this post-punk outfit emphasizing energetic organ riffs. It's certainly a far cry from what the band ended up becoming, and it can be difficult to believe that the same guy wrote and sang both "Spinning Top" and "Dear God." Anyway, let's get on with it.

( There's a message in Milwaukee that they're getting in Moscow. )

Well, that's all for now. Tune in next time, when we'll learn why life is good in the greenhouse, and how Barry Andrews completely failed at being the band's third songwriter.