Month: May 2008

japan – life in tokyo

a better bowie? maybe not, but i loved these guys growing up. maybe because no one else did? life in tokyo was recorded in march 1979 in los angeles by david sylvian and none-other-than giorgio moroder. japan originally wanted to record “european son” with the producer but moroder preferred to work on a backing track he had already prepared. he gave sylvian four demo songs, and then went for a long lunch. while out to lunch, sylvian had fitted some lyric ideas he had gathered on the plane to one of moroder’s pieces and re-arranged the chosen track. later on the same week, the rest of japan arrived and recorded the entire piece. at this time, two distinct full length versions were prepared. one was timed at 6min 18sec and was not released until 1982 when it came out on the UK special edition cassette of “assemblage” and on the japanese vinyl LP.

CATEGORIES: clips, music

WHY NO KNIVES IN SALAD?


why are you not supposed to use your knife when eating salad?

in old days, the blade of knives were made of (unfinished) steel, and the vinegar in salad would rust the host’s knife, requiring hours of cleaning. for this reason, it was considered rude to use a knife when eating salad. considering that most knives are now stainless steel, please feel free to use your knife when eating salad!

CATEGORIES: musings

suicide: ghostrider

suicide ghostrider



…suicide’s lead singer vega, owed an obvious debt to elvis presley and rockabilly singers, but his muttering, shrieking, nervy delivery was unique, sounding… at once both fragile and threatening. on the rhythm dept, rev’s simple, keyboard riffs, initially played on a battered “farfisa organ” (that is before he acquired an actual synthesizer) were accompanied by primitive drum machines of the time. this proved to be an ideal backdrop for vega’s vocals, and guaranteed them to get “booed as soon as (they) came onstage”. their albums and performances in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s are regarded as some of the most influential post-punk recordings that helped form the shit we listen to yesterday and today. including but not limited to that boy band joy division, too bad poor ian took the groups name too seriously!

CATEGORIES: clips, music

champagne iii – researching the (shape of) legends

while researching these legends, i also dizzily came across the name of lee miller. miller was a model, photographer and the muse-lover of man ray (many of his most famous nude images are of lee miller)! much has been said about lee miller’s breasts in the art world, but i never thought i’d see her name in association with champagne coupes. nonetheless, tony perrottet of tony’s secret cabinet–a blog of historical anecdotes from his forthcoming book napoleon’s privates: 2500 years of history unzipped–writes, “miller was widely regarded to have the most beautiful breasts in the city [paris] – thus, it’s said, inspiring a french glass company to model a new coupe on her form.” this is the coupe form that was all the rage in the 1930s and the one uber-designer marc jacobs allegedly copied for his winter 2007 glassware collection (as seen in the food and wine link).

well before the problem of the solidity of the glass was completely determined, and the opaque bottle in the shape of a pear had definitively been chosen to preserve this precious wine, the amateurs already knew the best manner to serve it and to taste it. the height of its refinement consisted, in fact, of pouring it from very high above to allow it to foam. if the goblet (which, according to the legend, was molded on madame de pompadour’s breast, a favorite of king louis the fifteenth) had been used for a long time, it was soon realized that it presented two defects in the tasting of champagne: the quick loss of bubbles owing to its too big opening, and the almost total absence of a bouquet. therefore, the flute was soon the preferred beverage recipient. today the connoisseurs still give preference to the flute, which they recommend to fill only at 60% in order to allow a space and thus preserve all the aromas. a true connoisseur knows also that to maintain its freshness, 8 to 10 degrees celsius, and to enjoy the spectacle of the bubbles that climb back up to the surface as if by magic with a delicate murmur, the flute must be held only by the stem.

madame de pompadour not say: “champagne makes woman more beautiful and… gives spirit to the men!”

CATEGORIES: musings