Thursday, July 24, 2008

In the Time of Chimpanzees I Was a Monkey


Tip-toeing back into a blob post . . . 'cause, shhhhhh, who on earth knows what's going to set y'all off next. Given what's happened here this week, I have decided to put on the back burner a number of posts, including my rant against Dish Network's dumb ass decision to cancel its contract with Zoom Network, which means no beloved Fashion Television por Moi. Cough. Sputter. Light. Fading. Must. Hold. On.

Instead, I will share something that makes my heart so happy I'm almost embarrassed for myself. Beck is coming to Albuquerque's Kiva Auditorium on Tuesday, September 23rd of this year. Yeah, yeah, I know he's a Scientologist and for that I have yet to figure out how to forgive him. But I think Odelay and Midnight Vultures just might take care of that for me.

If, like Moi, you adore Beck so much you have a lyric memorized for every one of your life's experiences (you've only got one finger left, and it's pointing at the door) please feel free to share your favorite song and/or lyric. If you don't know who Beck is, goodness gracious, what rock have you been hiding under these past fifteen years – go find out now! And if you don't like Beck, then, WTF? Non. You are beyond zee help.

As for Moi, trying to pick a favorite Beck song is like trying to choose between Louboutins. But this one is up there for sure. One of the cheeriest pop songs ever written about a serial killer:

32 comments:

sparringK9 said...

HELL YES.

no really, Hell Yes is my favorite Beck song (its on Guero)

Looking for my place
On assembly lines
Fake prizes
Risin out of the bombholes
Skeleton boys hyped up on purple
Smoke rings blow from across the disco
Bank notes burn like broken equipment
Lookin for shelter readjust your position
Thought control ghost written confessions
Two dimensions dumb your head down
Duck don't look now company missiles
Power is raunchy rent-a-cops are watching
Makin their dreams out of paper mache
Cliche wasted hate taste tested

Hell yes I'm movin this way I'm doin this thing
(please enjoy)
Hell yes I'm turnin it on
I'm workin my legs hell yes
I'm callin you out I'm switchin my plates
(please enjoy)
Hell yes
I'm cleanin the floor my beat is correct

Stretched to the limit attention spans
Snap back retract collapse into laugh tracks
Noise response applause and hand claps
Floodgates open to the sound of the rainbow
Breaking points on the verge of pointless
Fools anointed to the followers fanfare
Look for the common not superficial
Code red cola war conformity crisis
Perfunctory idols rewriting their bibles
With magic markers running out of their ink
Lives in white out
Turn the lights out
Fax machine anthems get your damn hands up



i also love devils haircut, elevator music..

heck you know i love beck i set my drive back from FLA to ATL to "think im in love"

i bout wore odelay out!!

im trying to imagine what a beck concert would look like///er, two turntables and a microphone?? grrrerhahahahahaha

seriously. hes studio. not a band

Gnomeself Be True said...

Must be a youngster thing.

Ewwwww.

Ms Robinson said...

I took a while to get into Beck..I was a laggard. I will admit the Scientology thing disturbs me about him. He is clever but I'm not feeling likeable.

Jenny said...

I have to admit that I'm new to BECK, but everything I've heard is great.My BIL was a HUGE fan and was always handing me songs and telling me to listen. My toes are a tapping over this little diddy about a seriel killer.

**smacking Iamnot because we're the same age**

I think you're safe with this post... I don't see an angry bunch of scientologists swarming your blog....

hmmmmm.

MommyHeadache said...

I have tried to like Beck...but although his lyrics are quite clever I have not managed to get into him. Maybe it is also because he is unnattractive, I mean I fancy nerds but he is an Ubernerd.

moi said...

K9: "Think I'm in Love" is so melodic, isn't it? So pretty. I agree about your studio versus live assessment, though. I guess I'll find out. Just call me Ms Front Row.

Iamnot: I'm not that much younger than you are. Double smack. And one more for luck.

Ms R: I find him terribly clever, too. But without being pompous.

AB: Oh, Lord, that's all I need. I had just started to relax over Daniel Craig's lawyers when the squirrels reared their ugly heads. LAST thing I want to see in my rear view mirror is Tom Cruise with that demonic ass grin of his. Shiver.

EmmaK: I know. I'm a nerdophile myself (Ewan McGregor anyone?), but I hear you on his sex appeal. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. But to me, it makes no difference. He is an arteest of the first order.

Big Shamu said...

What do the squirrels stand on Beck?

moi said...

We are losers, baby
So why don't you skin us?

Big Shamu said...

Hhehehehhehe, then I'm ALL FOR BECK!!

Bunny said...

Hey Iamnot, I'm 40 (41 in Sept) and I liked Beck way back when. When he was just this weirdo who sang "MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack" and recorded songs in his living room.

I love how he draws from so many genre in creating his art.

Jenny said...

careful Moi and Shamu... be very careful.

:-)

Anonymous said...

chew chew chew
chew chew chewchew chew chewchew chew chewchew chew chewchew chew chewchew chew chewchew chew chewchew chew chewchew chew chewvchew chew chewchew chew chewchew chew chew

jus sayin...........

Doris Rose said...

Nope. Not familiar and I have an excuse, sounds interesting, tho. Kind of a dopey video and who is the the serial killer of reference?

moi said...

Shamu: And Beck's all for you, too!

Bunny: See there, another "young" fan. Thank you, Bunny, for your erudite explanation of Beck's jeanius.

AB: Do. Not. Start. Because once I'm done with this project and am once again Not Writing in September, look out, missy.

Ghost: G-wan. Go. Shoo. Freakin' pests, even after you explode their little bodies with homemade C-4.

Doris Rose: The serial killer is himself. Dopey video? Noooooooooo! Freakin' jeanius video! No one has mentioned the freakin' jenius video! K9, I need you to come over here and de-construct this thing!

sparringK9 said...

damn thing wont play! i will go to you tube though

AND GET FUNKY WITH SOME CHEESE WIZ!

but hell, im trying to WORK. having been a rodent has left me exhausted. grrrrrherhahaha

i'll be back...with a critique

moi said...

At your leisure. Thanks!

moi said...

Oh, and it's the video to "Sun-Eyed Girl." Muchas gracias. Just a sentence or two. So I'm not alone in my madness.

sparringK9 said...

oh! its the video for "sun-eyed girl"! i know it WELL, as it is on guero with "hell yes" the coolest beck song. evah.

sun-eyed girl, to me, is a song about the unattainable love object -alternately adoring her, and and hating her, with some bitter fantasizing of her demise as punishment for her indifference or straight up rejection. he addresses her wonderfulness with a kind of hallucinatory worship..

but then again...when he says hes gonna make her die...well if you look at the culture there is the expression something "kills" and that means its great....and she doesnt EVEN KNOW whats going on. theres nothing he wont try....

the point being: the intensity of this kind of lust/infatuation...so much so words like "kill" and "die" are the only words to convey just how obsessed he is.

think back goils.....to the jurrassic era when you were first feeling love...oh yes...its all coming back to me now

grrrrrrrherherhhahahaha

the video is really just an excuse to showcase becks fascination with latino culture of LA and accessing their unique vernacular such as in the title track "hey guero" (which i also like)

Aunty Belle said...

uh...Ditto Iamnot.

Scientology disqualifies all else, doan it? I mean, FOLKS! Jes' sayin'....

sparringK9 said...

btw "guero" means "white boy" in spanish slang. no its not on my "rosetta stone" lesson. im not sure how i know that.


i could write so much more...take her eye...means fill it with him. make her die...die for him. its a love song punched up and twisted as only beck can.

and there is NO WAY the volcano god Xenu is going to allow one of his MINIONS to be a killa. so relax. the worst we can say for beck is he is spending his hard earned dollars being audited for left over thetan souls.

with tom cruise however, watch your back.

run, katie, run!

Jenny said...

Hey Moi and K9! Keep going, I could "listen" to you two all day long. Seriously, Prof. K9 is making me forget Squirrels.

And, I'm adding Beck to the Ipod... The Mister is going to be very happy.

moi said...

k9: Yes. Twisted love song. That's it. Unrequited nerd boy love turns to hate. The lyrics are shivery, like the experience of being out on a bright sunny day and then for some weird reason your flesh suddenly goes all goose bumpy and clammy.

I saw her, yea I saw her
With her black tongue tied round the roses

A fist pounding on a vending machine
Toy diamond ring stuck on her finger
With a noose she can hang from the sun
And put it out with her dark sunglasses
Walking crooked down the beach
She spits on the sand
Where their bones are bleaching.


And don't you love the video fold ups a la Mad Magazine? The bottles of pills that turn into a skull? The way the toy car and truck combine to make an El Camino? Beck grew up in East L.A. and Guero is a tribute to his childhood and his on-going fascination with those experiences. Can you imagine, his skinny white ass bopping around that environment? "Que onda guero?" for sure.

The Poet Laura-eate said...

Consider yourself awarded @ mine!

:-)

h said...

I guessed who the killer was in a WhuDunIt mystery based on Beck.

moi said...

Poet: I'm honored and tickled pink, thanks!

Troll: No kidding? Name o' the book/movie/play por favor?

Gnomeself Be True said...

If you guys knew how much I enjoy being "smacked" you wouldn't do it so often. :-)

Edith said...

I'm a toss up. Some Beck songs I like, other's I'm not terribly fond of. However to each is his own and yeay for you having a fav artist. I personally get excited to see the bands I watched at bars in my old neighborhoods.

I can understand your excitement though because The Badfish Band from my hometown is playing in my new city! Woohoo for music!

Anonymous said...

yeah i do like those mad magazine like fold up pictures...and el caminos

moi said...

Iamnot: Ba-duh-bum.

edi: Welcome to Moi's blob, edi! My favorite way to listen to live music is in some dark dive somewhere downtown. But I don't do it nearly as often as I used to. Okay, so I don't do it. Dang. Need to work on that.

Beck's Squirrel: My #1 goal for next year: Purchase vintage El Camino. Restore. Trick out. Be über cool in it.

sparringK9 said...

next flumoxing post: favorite "hole" songs. grrrherhahaha

moi said...

K9: "I got a little blister from/touching everything I see . . ." :o)

czar said...

My son the music czar has seen Beck a number of times. Usually it has been standard renditions of his songs with some bizarre stage twist, like a big puppet show. He just saw Beck in Belgium a few weeks ago, though, and said it was a 360 from other shows -- few weird stage goings-on, but a small band doing totally different and unique renditions of the Beck songbook. So, no telling what you might end up seeing.