Siddhartha - "Holiday (Madonna cover)". This is a very different holiday than the one Madonna took. She went to a glassy swimming pool and danced from floating mattress to floating mattress; she clicked in heels past flashing clubs; she blew air-kisses like electric hummingbirds; she ate whipped cream, and soap, and light. Siddhartha, meanwhile, ate sludge and mushrooms and then went running into the desert, drone coming up like plantlife through the sand, skies filling with a horde of winter locusts and the sound of Siddhartha's inevitable oblivion. Their hearts were beating hard, hard, hard; their bodies voguin' like things possessed.
The Unreliable Narrator - "The Fucking Mountains". From the opening line of this song you are forgiven for thinking maybe it's a joke song, a novelty hit. But listen: I hate joke songs, and this isn't one. Oh, it's got smile and humour and fake theremin - and a sidling, red-nosed bassline, - but there's more going on than yuks. Let me quote: "This impenetrable darkness / this brooding gloom..." When the Unreliable Narrator sings about "the fucking mountains" or, later, "this fucking carpet", he's smiling, sure, but so too is he shaking his head in awe. (When it comes to the carpet, this awe is because of how much the rug reminds him of the sea.) Like when you came out of that mountain tunnel and saw the Alps and were like: "Fuuuuuuuuck!" The Unreliable Narrator's been trapped in a well for weeks and now someone's lowering postcards, snapshots, upholstery samples, and he feels the sights so hard that he can only ba-ba-ba.
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Elsewhere:
Pensione Popolo! Montreal's best music venue (and a darn fine bar/resto) now has a cheap hotel!!!! Stay not far from my house for a measly $30-50 dollars/night. Includes free entry to Casa shows! Finally I have somewhere to recommend to visiting phonograph salesmen.
Saw Dave Eggers speak here in Montreal tonight. I think the most inspiring thing about it was the conviction in his optimism, the certainty of his glee. The way exciting things not just can, but do succeed. "Good from good," he said.
(Photo is of Astana, Kazakhstan. Photographer unknown to me.)
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