Category: Me Myself And I (Page 8 of 15)

Angeles

9/2/'06 / moonbug

You may have noticed my linking a couple of days ago to a guitar-tab page for Elliott Smith‘s song “Angeles”. In my opinion, this is one of Elliott’s most brilliant compositions — lyric-wise as well as melody-wise. As with many of his tunes, Angeles sounds deceptively simple. Only when you attempt to sing and play it on the guitar does it become clear how intricate and beautiful the chord changes are. There’s a different chord just about every single word and if you’re going to play it right, you’re going to have to know every single one of them.

Obsessive as I am, I spent the last couple of days trying to master the tune. Here’s a little QuickTime video with a version I’m moderately satisfied with, warts ‘n all (YouTube edit for those on dial-up). It obviously comes nowhere near the way Elliott Smith performed it — although on occasion Angeles proved to be a tough one to play live, even for him…

Horror Vacui

8/26/'06 / moonbug

When I was in art college back in the early 90s, this is how I spent many an evening — aimlessly doodling. The internet as we now know it was non-existent, I had no computer and no TV in my little appartment. What I did have was a turntable playing Neil Young records, a pen, ink, a coffee machine working overtime, and a lot of spare time. There was no horror vacui, no deadlines, and whatever I drew was strictly for my own enjoyment. An example (click to see the whole thing):

Ah, the good old days!

Cucamonga

7/25/'06 / moonbug

Lots of artwork going on. I’ll most probably be illustrating the German version of a biography of a “very well known musician” (hint: Waltzing Mathilda!). Gabriela and I are also working on a series of collages for a feature film documentary dedicated to Frank Zappa’s Cucamonga days (early to mid ’60s). To whet your appetite, here’s a drawing I made from a very fuzzy photo downloaded from the interwebs:

$Cucamonga: Zappa\'s Early Mothers Of Invention$

Lost!

7/16/'06 / moonbug

Back from a wonderful vacation in England and Ireland. We visited London, Dublin, Galway and one of the Aran Islands. Good times!

Aran

See Flickr for more.

To my devastation though, upon arriving back home, I seem to have lost my sketchbook. It was in a bag together with my leather jacket and a Woody Allen biography — all of which are now missing as well. I don’t care so much about the book or the jacket (both are replaceable items anyway), but loosing my sketchbook, well, that makes me kinda sad. There’s all sorts of stuff inthere; sketches from Buenos Aires, imaginary doodles, little ideas and scribbles, and of course my Dublin/Aran/Galway drawings… I’ve called the railway’s lost & found department to see if they had recovered it, but to no avail.

The plan now is to spread some flyers around the train station as well as around my neighbourhood (may well be that we left the bag outside my front door, thus allowing anyone to take it with them). But frankly? I don’t think I’ll ever see it back again.

Bugger…

Squirrel Notes

6/3/'06 / moonbug

Went to see Zappa Plays Zappa in Brussels last Tuesday. The accoustics were horrible, in stark contrast to the music which was absolutely superb. Since I have a ZPZ reviews thread open over at Kill Ugly Radio, I figured it was of the utmost importance that I, at least, provided some insightful commentary afterwards. So I printed out the Berlin playlist prior to the concert and scribbled notes on it in total obscurity throughout the show:

Zappa Plays Notes

This is just a sample; there were more!
In retrospect, they turned out to be anything but useful. It’s akin to that great Simon Carmiggelt anecdote where he wakes up in the middle of the night with A Grand Ideaâ„¢, grabs his notebook and, half-awake, in semi-darkness, writes down the Incredibly Insightful Dream which is surely going to provide ideas for his next essay. He wakes up the next morning to have a look at his notebook where, in big emotional letters, it is written: “Little brown squirrel on the road!”.