the sun's not yellow it is chicken
Remember the drawings/collages Gabriela and I made for a documentary called Freak Out In Cucamonga? Here’s the trailer! Click to play:
My drawings in a movie that features Paul Buff, Motorhead Sherwood, Don Preston, Frank Zappa and Weird Al Yankovic — it’s all downhill from here ;-)
I’ve talked about it there, so I may as well write about it here: I had this idea of a collaborative sketchbook travelling around the world from one Frank Zappa fan to the next, where each participant gets two pages to doodle, write and/or glue in whatever as long as it’s Zappa-related. Now the book is about to hit the road, as Gabriela’s contribution and mine (the cover) are finished.
More on Flickr. I can’t wait to see the kind of stuff people are going to come up with! Which will be some time next year probably, with some 30 participants already lined up. Let me know if you’d like to join in…
In April ’98 I had the good fortune of seeing Elliott Smith live at the Vooruit in Ghent. I remember him coming on stage: incredibly shy and unassuming, apparently totally unaware of the fact that the place was sold out to a bunch of people who had adored “Roman Candle”, “Either/Or” and “XO”, and were delighted to hear him play live. The concert turned out to be mesmerizing. I don’t usually keep ticket stubs, but here’s my exception to the rule:
Later that year, Elliott was scheduled to appear on a Dutch TV-show called “Two Meter Sessions”. I was away from home spending my time in Ghent at the time but managed to catch this appearance on video through the wonders of vcr programming. And now, thanks to a recently purchased vhs-to-dvd recorder, so can you.
I had a bit of trouble splitting the footage in two so as to oblige YouTube — hope you enjoy it anyway:
Part One:
(YouTube link)
Part Two:
(YouTube link)
You’re dearly missed, Elliott.
Heee! Greg and I managed to goad Pat into uploading video of him playing and singing a couple of tunes. Now if only I could convince Gabriela to sing “Lunes Otra Vez” in front of the iSight while I accompany her on guitar.
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…
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