There is nothing much more exciting than receiving a package in the post*. Except when you open the package and inside is a beautiful 3 disk vinyl album that looks as good as this.
* Note: The excitement is somewhat diminished if the postman knocks on the door when you are in bed or an advanced state of undress requiring you to grab the nearest clothes heaped on the floor, hurriedly throw them them on while simultaneously running down stairs and attempting to double check everything is on the right way round, taking a second to compose yourself at the door, before opening it calmly as if you have been up since 6.30 am baking, cleaning and doing the tax returns as a way to pass the time before the postman arrives.
I have just realised I could have concisely summed up the controlled chaos I was talking about in my last post by simply referencing this:
Stop Making Sense concert film featuring Talking Heads - 1984
On that note there is a new documentary film Ride, Rise, Roar, which follows David Burns' most recent 2008 tour. It releases at SXSW in March this year. The trailer is here and I think it looks and sounds ace.
Rock and roll is cool. Pop music is cool. Indie music is cool. Music on the whole is cool but across all the genres live music tends to be the coolest of all the cats. I think that is mainly thanks to the unknown and potential variations from recorded versions of songs we know and love. Nobody jumps off the stage on a record no matter how many times you listen to it, but they just might when it's played live. It's that possibility which adds to the excitement. So why is it then that The Ventures performing Wipe Out, all standing in a line, doing nothing more than occasionally turning to their right to face the drummer, are so darn cool? I'm as certain as there will be rain that none of them will be stage diving any time soon.
If I had to be any of The Ventures I would be the bass player standing on the right, Nokie Edwards. He's got a little swagger and glint that says "I don't always want to be in this line, but I know where my bread is buttered, and right now that is in this line; hey don't I look cool?" Nokie, yes you do.
On a slightly less cool note, on the way home I was looking to distract myself so did a little peering through the window of a rather ramshackle secondhand shop, which for me always brings to mind a jar of multi coloured boiled sweets.
The ordered chaos like this shop display draws me in. In the same vain I think that's why I love greasy spoon type cafes: confused colour schemes, chipped melamine tables, bench seats with slightly torn garish plastic covers and cutlery that doesn't match. As with a live music show it's the combination of the unknown and unplanned coupled with someone's care, attention and desire for it to all come together, that gives me a little buzz of excitement; countless opportunities for a single moment of brilliance created from nothing. In this case a slightly startled bear questioning why I was photographing his tea set.
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Except when you open the package and inside is a beautiful 3 disk vinyl album that looks as good as this..jpg)
