March 10, 2007

What Harm Hath Warner Wrought, What Harm!

Robyn Hitchcock - Invisible Hitchcock (1986)

It was nothing personal, the anvil falling on his head, nor the two-ton weight, nor the grand piano, nor the myriad of objects which might drop precipitously from the sky during a lifetime spent as a cartoon character. But knowing was not the same as feeling, a concept the coyote struggled with for years, never able to reconcile the two according to his therapist.

Lipstick Traces On Emmett Kelly's Enormous Collar

Giant Sand - Long Stem Rant (1989)

"There are two types of lipsticks: undulating, long-wave lipstick which, when distilled, gives flags, and light lipstick whose flower produces kisses. These kisses can be obtained in two ways, either by drying the flower plucked at the moment it blooms, or by crushing its seed which gives a highly volatile essence that is difficult to preserve."

- Benjamin Peret, "The Four Elements" (1945)

A Massive Attack Precipitates Massive Denial

Swans - The Burning World (1989)

The dark-winged bombers flew low over the striated horizon, slipping from layer to layer in precise patterns, launching and launching and launching wave after wave of timed and otherwise gimmicked explosives, blossoming up through the night sky in patterns undecipherable since the death of the last of the magi. New magic entered the world while it slept.

March 7, 2007

What Wizards Do While The Wires Play

The Residents - Live in Holland: The 13th Anniversary Show (1987)

The stars in the sky twinkled and melted and spun slowly down like chips of shattered glassine eyes, blinding thousands and tens of thousands as they looked up, only for them to weep a moment, blink, and with new vision see behind the walls of day and night and sleep and death they had built up in their blindness. A new world was begun.

The Biggest Surprise Party Ever

Blackbird - Blackbird (1987)

Strong men lifted the enormous stones up, piling one atop the other, millions of years ago on the now airless and lifeless planet, straining their backs and their hundreds of arms, calling out in synchrony as they heaved, hoots and whistles blowing through the then jungle air. They were happy to turn off the lights and hunker down to wait when the last stone toppled into place, sealing them forever in their tomb. Someday...shh...someday....

A Corn Dog And A Pink Lemonade It Is Not

Big Dipper - Heavens + Boo-Boo EP (1987)

Wild potato hair plant salad, sprig of parsley in arsenic, wilted leek and beef-paste torta and a Coke: $8.37 with tax.

March 5, 2007

What Happens On The Streets Of An Old European Town

Royal Crescent Mob - Omerta (1987)

"It is tasteless and rude, I say, this fashion today, for young men to traipse so gaily through the streets in little but the silks and furs of their morning gowns," doddered the swelling matriarch, miniscule opera glasses screwed to her near-blind eyes, "but, nonetheless, I do so enjoy it." She took another sip of her absinthe and cola and sighed delightedly.

Something Simple

Johnny Thunders - Hurt Me (1984)

I feel the absence of your dares
I am charmed by your world weary airs
With the skill of a hindoo snake charmer
The heart of a gold dalai lama

Still, I'd rather be all alone
Than to be here now

- JAW, Blood Routines (1992)

The Atomic Pan Pipe Symphony Rides Again

F/i - Helioscopium (1997)

Tiny dancing robots swarmed the streets of the planet's largest metropol, shiny spinning wheels and flagellating limbs keening through the languid morning air, startling cats and dogs, little birds, commuters. Children were delighted. Schoolkids went wayward, following the winsome mechanicals, down the boulevards, through the parks, across bridges over rivers they children had never seen. Down to the spaceport they all ran, a blur of flesh and metal and chromed plastic, across the tarmac, up the ramps, inside the massive globular ship. Finally, one last limping child and one last pokey robot clambered up the ramp and the giant circular door swirled shut. Nuclear steam poured from the ship's corroded vents and it slowly ascended into the dark blue sky.