he's almost home...

he's had a bit of a battle but the little buddy will be coming home soon. welcome to your life, mr. elliot! xoxo.

famous for being elliot

my sister is having a baby today. his name is elliot and we will welcome him in the afternoon. in his honor, i have decided to post a blog about the noteworthy elliots in the world who share his moniker so that he knows what he's getting himself into.

of course, he is officially the most noteworthy but here are a few of them that may struggle to fill his tiny little shoes.

elliot from e.t.:
i remember watching e.t. when jen and i were little and having a heartwrenching time with the whole experience. it was the first time i think i really understood how cruel adults were. they were so mean to e.t. how could anyone be mean to an alien with a face like that and a glowing heart full of love? oh, i couldn't take it - that shrill sounding, "elllllllllllllllliottttt" as those mean scientists were carting him away from the only human that ever loved him. it was terrifying because i loved e.t., too and i couldn't stand the thought of him being scared and alone.

i remember feeling the same way when i watched elian gonzalez being taken away from his family.

t.s. eliot:
there's a reason t.s. eliot is in the literary canon. he's a genius. he wrote a surprisingly small collection of dark poetry, his most famous being the wasteland, which has topped the list in almost every 20th century british and american literature class i have ever been in. eliot is among those originally-american writers (sylvia plath, ted hughes, william burroughs) who forsaked u.s. soil for british shores and took up residence there. as a result, their works forever defy classification into english or american literature. by the way, eliot was a banker in england.

the love song of j. alfred prufrock by eliot is perhaps one of my most favorite poems of all time. it's about a young man (we can only assume is eliot) who just can't seem to land a dame cause he's real awkward and shy. the imagery is amazing. click here to hear eliot read it out loud or here to read the text version. honestly though, hearing eliot's monologue changes your whole understanding of the poem and enhances the melancholy and images. i recommend!

elliott smith:
speaking of getting choked up, this brilliant and painfully awkward and shy (um, i'm seeing a pattern here) folk singer was an amazing lyricist and poet.

the first time i ever heard elliott smith (his real name was steven paul - didn't know this until now), i couldn't believe that his voice was so melancholy and wavering, floating above his delicate acoustic plucking. it was one of those moments when you realize that you are really hearing something for the first time.

his songs are heartbreakingly beautiful, not unlike his life. he spent much of his time in echo park hiding from the attention that the hipster set showered on him. he was a virtual recluse but he could sometimes be spotted by himself at the roost hiding behind a shot of tequila and a beer, a depressed and paranoid drug addict.

in october 2003, elliott apparently stabbed himself in the chest in his apartment in echo park after an argument with his girlfriend. there has been much speculation as to whether or not elliott's death was a suicide or homicide, since his girlfriend was the only witness and there is some very incriminating evidence in the autopsy report. the case is still inconclusive but read her side of the story here.

it's been a while...

but if you are reading this, you are a gem! thanks for coming back. my life has been one thing after another these days and to be quite honest, i didn't think anyone was reading this except my sister (hi jen!) and maybe the casual one night standers who come upon my blog by mistake and leave me some crazy comments. but i have discovered i do have some regular readers and i thank you for urging me to come back to my blog. you know who you are.

without further ado, i give you glass candy!

this italo dicso revival band has been dear to my heart for about two years now when i discovered them at a tiny little bar in orange county of all places. italo disco, which i never even knew existed until after i saw GC, is a mostly european phenomenon that you can read about here because i am much too lazy to tell you about it in an eloquent manner. i'll let wikipedia do my dirty work.

now, while you were off lost in an '80s italo world of strobe lights, disco mustaches, and sunglasses at night, i was off image-googling "disco ball." i must say, what an interesting contraption with loads of history and variations! stay tuned for a disco ball post. you won't be sorry. we'll discuss the world's largest disco ball and why and much more. see below:

anyway, glass candy has taken italo disco to a whole new level by putting their own spin on some very classic jams. for instance, they recently unofficially released an italo disco version of my mind's playing tricks on me, a '90's rap one-hit-wonder, originally by the geto boys , who have since died (what? R.I.P. homies) guess we can look into that later... after the disco ball post, that is.

so, glass candy are from portland and have been around for some time. if you ever get the chance to see them (they do play in LA on occasion) don't miss it! singer, ida, has a haunting and raspy but soothing voice full of spacey reverb on top of some funkspastic (yes, i did just say that... er, sorry) bass lines and crazy high pitched synth and drum machine madness, and yes, that disco violin!



to make a long story short, these guys are nothing short of amazing and are making it possible to indulge your guilty booty-shakin' pleasures without feeling like you are trying to be ironic without being um... well, ironic. you know what i mean. but if you don't, check them out here and download this sh*t!

by the way, you can find most of glass candy's stuff at troubleman unlimited and italians do it better, along with other dazzling italo acts like the chromatics and mirage.