The Simple Joys Of Maidenhood
Oh yes! My Austin booty! (no not that booty, although I'm sure I did pack a bit more junk in that truck while I was there as well.) Some of the things that make my carry-on all that much harder to zip up -- and believe me I nearly had to throw some clothes away to get my Raymond Scott figurine in my little rollerbag, if Joe hadn't found a way to fit it in his giant duffle. Whew! My underwear didn't wind up being balled up and thrown off the hotel balcony after all.
Joe bought I Need Drugs by The Austin Lounge Lizards at their show at the Cactus Cafe last Saturday night, which is probably our first new ALL CD since Lizard Vision and Paint Me On Velvet years and years ago... or maybe it just seems that way. With titles like "Buenos Dias, Budweiser", "Toast The Earth With Exxonmobile", and "We've Been Through Some Crappy Times Before", it's almost like laughing right along with these playful bluegrass buckoes live. But with nobody around to hear you, uh, I reckon.
A few days later at Waterloo Records, Joe and I became enraptured with the trippy space-synth disk being played in the store, and he also bought that, which was Spirit Animal by Pittsburgh natives Zombi, which I actually carry at my store but never had a chance to hear until that afternoon over the Waterloo speakers. Kind of thought it was maybe a Tangerine Dream album I had never heard before at first, and it was quite awesome. If you're down wit da Dream, I highly recommend.
During one afternoon on a funnybook hunt Joe and I managed to track down Austin Book and Comic (ABC) which was thoroughly amazing. The sheer size and volume of product left us both intimidated, and not even Forbidden Planet in London felt this well-stocked. Got many things there, including the most recent Buffy The Vampire Slayer (season eight, which I have been following) and this Meat Cake issue by Dame Darcy, which my local Trilogy doesn't seem to be stocking anymore. Which reminds me, I still haven't read Darcy's Gasoline that I bought for Christmas. And here I am buying more comics. There's a name for people like me. :)
Oh yeah, back at Waterloo (I'm skipping around here, I know) they have comix as well. Instead of buying music (Joe seemed to be doing well for the two of us in music and videos so I went for the reading material) I grabbed the Vol. 10 issue of MOME, which also doesn't come around my parts back home so I either have to order it or, most of the time, pick it up when I see it when I'm traveling out of town. But it always has some choice work by the likes of Sophie Crumb (yep, Robert and Aline's daughter), Dash Shaw, and the always breathtaking Jim Woodring.
Something else at Waterloo that I was extremely excited about; ever since I was a little girl I was obsessed with cryptozoology. Weird monsters formulated from old and real legends from around the world. (Anybody remember the Monster Cup Slurpee promotion that 7-Eleven had back in the 70's? I had them ALL!) There was a library book from my 5th grade school that had all kinds of drawings and backstories, from the Hippogriff to the Catoblepas (a favorite of mine, the drawing of which freaked me the fuck OUT when I was little). And although I had heard about this book Beasts! it was always in the back of my mind of track that one down someday, but I always forgot. Lo! Beasts! starin' back at me on the Waterloo endcap! With 100 pages of incredible drawings and paintings from lots of great comix and graphic artists... including a catoblepas. This monkeys gone to heaven!
Back to Austin Book and Comic (boingboingboing) I forgot to mention that I did snag two titles from Kyle Baker that have been wasting away on my wish list for eons. Namely his two classics, Why I Hate Saturn, a satire on 1980's dating rituals...
And his first grand outing, The Cowboy Wally Show, a hilarious spoof on the entertainment industry (which I am reading right now). Gads, I don't know why I have been putting off Baker's work for all these years. I think in the past I used to skim through it and be put off by the art, which had an almost photorealist style that I wasn't into at the time. Reading it now, I'm almost envious of how he manages to create so much humor and emotion with so little facial expression. It's so opposite of my own style, and yet so akin to my own humor. I love it. Sorry I ever doubted, Kyle! You've made a fangrrl fer life.
And I meant to mention DVDs, which Joe bought quite a few at Waterloo's impressive selection. But I was stoked to finally have my own (Criterion!) copy of Samuel Fuller's White Dog, which was made back in 1981 but shelved all throughout the 1980's and never shown in the United States until it was released on video in 1990 or around that time. Shelved mostly for its controversial content, about an African American animal trainer (Paul Winfield) trying to rehabilitate a white German Shepard that was trained to kill black people, it was a parable about racism in America that was considered too intense for its time. I figured I'd get it now, seeing as how it will probably go out of print and become extremely rare again. And Joe is a rabid Samuel Fuller fan, so we both win on this one.
Toys! How can I forget the toys! Joe and I always swear that we'll never get another toy again with our house packed with them as it is, but there was a glass case at Terra Toys with all these wonderful replicas of vintage tin wind-ups and friction motor toys that Joe couldn't resist getting this sweet retro Rocket Racer friction motor vehicle, which I can't stop touching (as is evidenced by the photo). It makes me think of childhood. Of my playroom at my parents' house as a little girl, which every space on the floor covered in toys, and me stepping on this little bastards and nearly slicing my foot open each and every time. Those were the days.
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And last but by no means least... lord you should have seen the look on my face when I saw the Raymond Scott Figurine sitting on the shelf at Waterloo Records. I mean, it was like somebody out there purposely held a contest to come up with an idea to Make Melissa Part With Her Last Sixty Bones As Fast As Humanly Possible, and came up with this little concept. Comes with... RAYMOND SCOTT, naturally, in a real cloth shirt and jacket (big selling point, I love action figures with real cloth clothing) and a cute little Clavivox (which Scott invented back in 1952) and comes with a CD featuring Scott demonstrating the Clavivox as well as an Electronium and the Rhythm Modulator (two more inventions of Scott's), and "The Happy Whister" from Soothing Sounds For Baby Vol. 2, and of course his classic calling card "Powerhouse", which no collection should be without. I even brought it to work today, which only one person appreciated, Raymond Scott fan that he is himself. But for now Lil' Scott sits atop my TV cabinet, one finger pointing at his Clavivox, while he beams merrily across the room at me. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Joe bought I Need Drugs by The Austin Lounge Lizards at their show at the Cactus Cafe last Saturday night, which is probably our first new ALL CD since Lizard Vision and Paint Me On Velvet years and years ago... or maybe it just seems that way. With titles like "Buenos Dias, Budweiser", "Toast The Earth With Exxonmobile", and "We've Been Through Some Crappy Times Before", it's almost like laughing right along with these playful bluegrass buckoes live. But with nobody around to hear you, uh, I reckon.
A few days later at Waterloo Records, Joe and I became enraptured with the trippy space-synth disk being played in the store, and he also bought that, which was Spirit Animal by Pittsburgh natives Zombi, which I actually carry at my store but never had a chance to hear until that afternoon over the Waterloo speakers. Kind of thought it was maybe a Tangerine Dream album I had never heard before at first, and it was quite awesome. If you're down wit da Dream, I highly recommend.
During one afternoon on a funnybook hunt Joe and I managed to track down Austin Book and Comic (ABC) which was thoroughly amazing. The sheer size and volume of product left us both intimidated, and not even Forbidden Planet in London felt this well-stocked. Got many things there, including the most recent Buffy The Vampire Slayer (season eight, which I have been following) and this Meat Cake issue by Dame Darcy, which my local Trilogy doesn't seem to be stocking anymore. Which reminds me, I still haven't read Darcy's Gasoline that I bought for Christmas. And here I am buying more comics. There's a name for people like me. :)
Oh yeah, back at Waterloo (I'm skipping around here, I know) they have comix as well. Instead of buying music (Joe seemed to be doing well for the two of us in music and videos so I went for the reading material) I grabbed the Vol. 10 issue of MOME, which also doesn't come around my parts back home so I either have to order it or, most of the time, pick it up when I see it when I'm traveling out of town. But it always has some choice work by the likes of Sophie Crumb (yep, Robert and Aline's daughter), Dash Shaw, and the always breathtaking Jim Woodring.
Something else at Waterloo that I was extremely excited about; ever since I was a little girl I was obsessed with cryptozoology. Weird monsters formulated from old and real legends from around the world. (Anybody remember the Monster Cup Slurpee promotion that 7-Eleven had back in the 70's? I had them ALL!) There was a library book from my 5th grade school that had all kinds of drawings and backstories, from the Hippogriff to the Catoblepas (a favorite of mine, the drawing of which freaked me the fuck OUT when I was little). And although I had heard about this book Beasts! it was always in the back of my mind of track that one down someday, but I always forgot. Lo! Beasts! starin' back at me on the Waterloo endcap! With 100 pages of incredible drawings and paintings from lots of great comix and graphic artists... including a catoblepas. This monkeys gone to heaven!
Back to Austin Book and Comic (boingboingboing) I forgot to mention that I did snag two titles from Kyle Baker that have been wasting away on my wish list for eons. Namely his two classics, Why I Hate Saturn, a satire on 1980's dating rituals...
And his first grand outing, The Cowboy Wally Show, a hilarious spoof on the entertainment industry (which I am reading right now). Gads, I don't know why I have been putting off Baker's work for all these years. I think in the past I used to skim through it and be put off by the art, which had an almost photorealist style that I wasn't into at the time. Reading it now, I'm almost envious of how he manages to create so much humor and emotion with so little facial expression. It's so opposite of my own style, and yet so akin to my own humor. I love it. Sorry I ever doubted, Kyle! You've made a fangrrl fer life.
And I meant to mention DVDs, which Joe bought quite a few at Waterloo's impressive selection. But I was stoked to finally have my own (Criterion!) copy of Samuel Fuller's White Dog, which was made back in 1981 but shelved all throughout the 1980's and never shown in the United States until it was released on video in 1990 or around that time. Shelved mostly for its controversial content, about an African American animal trainer (Paul Winfield) trying to rehabilitate a white German Shepard that was trained to kill black people, it was a parable about racism in America that was considered too intense for its time. I figured I'd get it now, seeing as how it will probably go out of print and become extremely rare again. And Joe is a rabid Samuel Fuller fan, so we both win on this one.
Toys! How can I forget the toys! Joe and I always swear that we'll never get another toy again with our house packed with them as it is, but there was a glass case at Terra Toys with all these wonderful replicas of vintage tin wind-ups and friction motor toys that Joe couldn't resist getting this sweet retro Rocket Racer friction motor vehicle, which I can't stop touching (as is evidenced by the photo). It makes me think of childhood. Of my playroom at my parents' house as a little girl, which every space on the floor covered in toys, and me stepping on this little bastards and nearly slicing my foot open each and every time. Those were the days.__scaled_600.jpg)
And last but by no means least... lord you should have seen the look on my face when I saw the Raymond Scott Figurine sitting on the shelf at Waterloo Records. I mean, it was like somebody out there purposely held a contest to come up with an idea to Make Melissa Part With Her Last Sixty Bones As Fast As Humanly Possible, and came up with this little concept. Comes with... RAYMOND SCOTT, naturally, in a real cloth shirt and jacket (big selling point, I love action figures with real cloth clothing) and a cute little Clavivox (which Scott invented back in 1952) and comes with a CD featuring Scott demonstrating the Clavivox as well as an Electronium and the Rhythm Modulator (two more inventions of Scott's), and "The Happy Whister" from Soothing Sounds For Baby Vol. 2, and of course his classic calling card "Powerhouse", which no collection should be without. I even brought it to work today, which only one person appreciated, Raymond Scott fan that he is himself. But for now Lil' Scott sits atop my TV cabinet, one finger pointing at his Clavivox, while he beams merrily across the room at me. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted by Melissa at 11:11 AM
1 Comments:
The lady on the cover of Why I Hate Saturn looks like she just killed Daria, and for once Daria was dressed nice.
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