Music, books, ideas, art, movies! How we roll!
by Dino Corvino on June 26th, 2009 • 4 Comments »
I chose this photo because you can see a concerned pained look in my eyes.
Today I start a movement. All by myself, right here on this blog, and on twitter and facebook. I am sick and tired, and angry, and Joe the friggin Moron Plumber is in my town, and I just have had enough. So, I create this holiday. I choose to stop the tide, and call time out. We need to address this. We need to say something. We need to stop what we are doing, and we need to just read a book and buy a set of encyclopedias.
We, as a culture, have become sated with the talking point heads, that spew forth nonsense and jibberish. We have learned to accept local leaders so entrenched that they fail to lead or follow, they just sort of exist in a petri dish of funk.
So, I call for a day of fact checking, intellectual acuity. Both left and right. Both republican and democrat, pro choice and pro life people.
Just one day, when we shall have the facts to back up our life. Just one day when we actively choose to read something nonfiction for the purpose on internalizing a fact or ten.
So let us flood social media with the hashtag #improveyourselfintellectually
So let us join this lovely social networking site http://intellectimprovement.ning.com
Let us seek out others who want to learn, and let us support them.
Here is my challenge to you…
1. Donate ten bucks, and check out ten books from your local library.
2. At the very least point and laugh at the talking heads who you know are not trying to do anything other than spew. At the best, send those people an email, and ask them to shut up. Boycott the talking heads of both the left and the right.
3. Start a blog, right here if you like. Put together a reading list, and read a book a week for a year.
4. Do some yoga.
5. Buy a Jim Carlson or Scott Holt record.
6. Know, deep inside, that you are smart and able to have your own thoughts and ideas, and you can find rational for them.
I wish you luck. IMPROVE YOURSELF
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by Dino Corvino on June 18th, 2009 • No Comments »
I wrote a profile a while ago about a local band returning to the scene. They did not like it, and sent this letter to my boss. Clearly, amazing. What amazes me even more is this band never ever ever even played a show. So, I wasted a profile on them.
Names have been X’s out, but just ask, I can tell you.
letter to editor
Dear Editor
Thank you for helping to expose the new xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx to the local community. But your article was rather disappointing in regards that it said little or nothing about the creativity it takes to make a genuine heartfelt project work and getting it accepted by the public. We had asked your corespondent NOT to print certain specific material but it was printed anyway. To that carelessness the article made the band look as if it was still drifting in immaturity rather than having grown through lifes trials to once again be placed back on its origonal foundation of musical genius. 1999 saw some rave revues coming from local newpapers regarding the garage band genius that (LAME CD TITLE) expressed to listeners. And to say the least the three years it took to create that CD were times of great understanding and co-operation with each other so that the heartfelt elements of expression could be captured for the purpose of reflecting how we as individuals grew in life…and in music.
The article took cheap shots by looking more at the problems of the past rather than explored the possibilities of the future. This band is a placement of direction for those involved but will also be an image of idealism for many who wish to escape the entrapments of their own box. To soil the clean slate of the new by printing information of old bones will only give the reader a false perspective of what we are now really about. The public idea of our image is the target of our new goal. We wish to be able to impress a new image of creativity but won’t be able to achieve that goal if the media can’t co-operate to print the best possible information. I for one was hoping to use the new article for my own promotional purposes. But now that you’ve printed material that was requested to be ommitted from the start, I wonder where the next best possible base will be to launch the truth of our project so that the public will accept the band for its music rather than its personal infrastructure.
Regrouping the rebuilding a project is like rebuilding a community after a tornado. If the site is declared a disastor area before it can be examined for potential new construction, then nobody will have the desire to be a part of it!
thank you
xxxxxx xxxx
xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx
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by Dino Corvino on June 1st, 2009 • No Comments »
So, last night I made the mental mistake of tuning into the MTV Movie awards. I had wanted to see if Eminem had talked Jessica Simpson into actually singing with him. I thought there might be a chance. I had also heard that Abigal Breslin was going to be there and be funny (which she was) so that was cool. The thing is, I am a movie guy. I love movies. A lot. I was one of those guys geeked for new Star Wars movies, and one of those guys academically disappointed when George Lucas revealed himself to be a total hack.
But last night, while watching the Twillight kids win everything, I realized that the guy from Twillight, Robert Pattinson is literally the new Hayden Christensen. Let me explain why.
1. Came out of nowhere. Prior to Twillight, he has about 4 imbd.com film credits. So, it is fair to say that he has not spent a lot of time becoming a charecter actor, and got his big break taking on a franchise role. Nothing wrong with that, nothing at all. The marketing machine saw the good looks, and pointed a director at him, and she got something out of him.
Hayden…Prior to Star Wars, it is mostly nothing but television. Suddenly he is handed Darth Vader by George Lucas. Not questioning it, but apparently you do not need years in the minors before making it to the big show.
2. The Summer House. After Twillight wrapped, and he had a little bit of money, Pattinson went and shot a Short with his friends.
Hayden did the same thing.
3. The Serious Drama. After Twillight, Pattinson has now shot and is promoting “How to Be” where he plays a socially awkward young man having an existential crisis who brings…blah blah blah.
Hayden…did life as a house. Where he played an existentially troubled young man who is forced to spend time with his terminally ill father Kevin Kline.
Both of these features are about young men coming of age, and feature the new young boy actor being schooled by more established charecter people.
4. Shattered Glass and Little Ashes. Both movies take on the young man as a young adult in highly dramatic situations where we can see them as men, instead of boys or jedis or vampires.
I did not catch this until last night. I am shocked by this actual textbook way of doing this sort of thing. It literally weirds me out. Is there no more time for an actor to be an actor, or are we literally putting people into franchises and betting millions of dollars on them before they know what is going on.
What has happened to Hayden recently, where is he at? ‘Jumper’ sort of sucked.
What will happen to the vampire kid? Is this how a career is started, ground up, and ended?
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by Dino Corvino on May 20th, 2009 • No Comments »
I think any attempt by myself to say that I do not like the pop princesses would be a mistake. They are all fascinating to me, and while I do not own many of their records I do own some. I can honestly appreciate the athleticism that goes into the dancing, the artistry of that whole thing. The modern performance on these stages, while having nothing to do with music, is still somehow enthralling to me.
The one that I most love musically is Pink. The fact that she brought in some people I know to play on her records, and some cats from Epitaph were able to eat from that big trough, well that was cool. I like how she presents drums on her productions, and I liked seeing her live the two times I did. Her videos are amazing as well. And she is a vegan, so that seems like a good thing. Or maybe she is just a vegetarian, either way I like and appreciate that she is active in running her mouth, and giving the bird.
The one pop star that I truly appreciate without any reservation is Mandy Moore. She started off as the virginal teen driving around in a VW Bug, and tonight she sang a new country song on Leno, and it was an amazing arc. I am sure that one can talk endlessly about her marriage to musical superhero (and Westerberg wanna be) Ryan Adams, but I think it started earlier.
She used to date Andy Roddick, and they were roughly the two most unfamous famous people I ever saw, and it fascinated me. But, like everything else, I sort of stopped caring.
Then a guy I met once named Justin got a chance to direct her in a feature called ‘Dedication’, so I rented it. Scratch that, I bought it. It was a guy I drank with a few times, and it was his movie. It had an actor I really liked Billy Crudup, so it was an easy choice for me. The performance by Moore was amazing. It was a New York story, and she played an illustrator, and in so many ways she played a cliche, but the cliche was intentional. She was only a cliche, because a lot of people are this, so it becomes said cliche.
That being said, her performance was unvain, and very amazing. I had some friends tell me to watch a previous film called ‘Saved!’ with her in it, so I did. I found that to be so much Hollywood contrivance, and honestly it seemed like prepackaged rebellion. Let us make an anti evangelical movie in an attempt to get some street cred. Where the movie was just a lot of pretty young Hollywood actors doing what young Hollywood actors do, eat the sets and trip on lines in favor of gesture.
And in it Moore was that. She had nothing to work with, and no where to go, so one cannot be blamed for stinking in a stinker. One of my best friends is a principal in the movie ‘Feast’ so I am fond of forgiveness.
But Moore rebounded and made a series of movies that had her with actors like Diane Keaton, and it was great. She played her age, not younger, and she gave good performances. Seeing her in the media was nice, because it felt like she was giving honest answers having moved beyond the unstable ground of teen girl and into the realm of working actor and musician.
So, I found out she is playing at one of my favorite venues in America maybe the world, Joes Pub in NYC, and I hope that you go. She seems to have a good band, and from the download, she has some good songs.
Mandy Moore, thank you.
Music
by Dino Corvino on May 17th, 2009 • No Comments »
If you have been following along, my opinion has netted me some detractors. A local blues society felt the need for their entire board to decry my opinion of the blues event they produced. They got it horribly wrong, and their unfocused response I felt was pretty typical for blues fans. So, the thing is this, I like blues music. Not that much. It is, of course a love and hate relationship. I cannot deny what I have seen, and as a result, I am happy to put this out there.
I think one night I listened to Jack Johnson sing without any instruments at Scott Street Pub, and the crowd loved it. I also was lucky enough to spend an entire 7 days with Eddie Kirkland, and through him got to talk to John Lee Hooker on the phone. I spent a few days with BB King, and a couple of months on the road with the man I think is the greatest performer in the blues related fields Scott Holt.
But, still, we live in a parochial world. Often times we see the white bread get rewarded, and the drunk lady in the NASCAR shirt draw more juice than the serious blues lover. Then, that blues lover gets angry for being the unappreciated genius.
Either way, this drop, is why I love the blues.
Blues
by Dino Corvino on May 15th, 2009 • 4 Comments »
I used to title blog posts by whatever song was on my ipod, and from the reaction I got from the Great Northern Blues Society Board, I think I have to go back that way. I am shocked by the reaction to my comments, but in a lot of ways I am not. We live in a world that loves the critic, and critics love to eat one another. When one declares something, others are quick to jump in and shoot the brave one in the head…see my Howard post on the front page.
In music we can line up the long list of peoples opinions, and we can in fact shoot them down all day. So it goes. I think blues is the worst of this though. There is an almost academic level of bullshit that goes with what is at its core and amazingly simple music. I find it to be a great source of white boy-ism, this sort of bullshit posturing about being a a blues scholar. Like Bob Margolin is a this or Gary Primach is that is an opinion that matters. Who gives a shit?
When I hang out with rock writers, and you say something like Ryan Adams is the best writer of the day, or the guy from Lucero is the best lyricist…no one cares. Everyone knows that this sort of declaration is just in the fleeting world of rock, and as such it goes not matter.
Davey Havok might be the coolest person yesterday, and Mandy Moore might be a genius tomorrow, and Leonard Cohen is going to be the greatest sad singer of all time, until you buy a Tom Waits record. Does any of it matter? Not so much. But, if you ask the blues scholars who the best harp player is, you would expect that Lil Walter could be given a discourse level of discussion.
I know this guy, Bob, who I totally respect. He is one of those serious blues guys. I mean serious. I think he actually buys EVERY blues record he sees. He knows these records with an intellectual rigor that is amazing. He knows the session guys on each of these tracks. It is truly amazing.
The thing with Bob, I did not always dig this. I found it to be amazingly overpowering. Now, in looking back at the GNBS reaction, and to the Howard reaction, I miss this guy Bob. I liked the fact that Bob allowed for my opinion, and my young man declaration. He was patient and smart, and understanding, and was willing to share his knowledge with people without being overbearing or insulting.
I did not get that, and now I do. So thanks Bob for showing me the way. I think that there is tremendous amounts of interesting things in the blues, but do I think it deserves more intellectual scholarship than NO WAVE or hard core. No, I do not. Yet, I do not often get insulted on the internet because I think that Keith Morris was the best singer in Black Flag like I do when I say that Greg Koch is the best guitar player in Wisconsin.
Either way, I ask you this simple question…have you ever thrown a handful of glitter in the air?
Uncategorized
by Dino Corvino on May 15th, 2009 • 2 Comments »
Each summer I try to take on a unique reading challenge. This started in 2002 with my good friend Skylark giving me a list of books to read. It was a challenging summer to say the least, harder than any college semester I ever had, but I realized that I love it.
Last summer I worked with Et Al’s bookstore and read first novels from successful novelists. Just first novels. It was a great summer, because I got to see how some people got started. Like Joyce Carol Oates, or the guy who wrote The Natural. It was a great experience, and Al Post was amazing to work with.
So, this summer I have no idea what to do, so I am wondering if you have any thoughts.
2002.
- The Limits of Growth-Meadows et al
- Diet for a Small Planet-Lappe
- Silent Spring-Rachel Carson
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance-Pirsig
- Zen and the Bird of Appetite-Thomas Merton
- Mind and Nature- Bateson
- Walden-Thoreau
- Walden Two-BF Skinner
- Deep Ecology-Bill Devall, George Sessions
- The Tragedy of the Commons-Dennis L Soden
- Summa Theologica- Thomas Aquinas
- Confessions-Rousseau
- The Whole Earth Catalog
- The Selfish Gene-Richard Dawkins
- The Monkey Wrench Gang-Edward Abbey
- The Forest People-Coling Thurnbull
- Toynbee’s History
- The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind-Julian Janes
- The Territorial Imperitive-Richard Ardney
- News that Stayed News-Stewart Brand
- Arcosanti: An Urban Laboratory-Paolo Soleri
- A Theory of Good City Form-Kevin Lynch
- Consciousness Explained- Daniel Clement Dennett
- The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and Social Life of Cities-Richard Sennet
reading, summer
by Dino Corvino on May 9th, 2009 • No Comments »
In the past weeks I have recieved a few emails accusing me of not helping the 400 Block plan get implemented, and accusing me of not liking the design or that I wanted to put a stop to it. Well, the thing is, the people who emailed me sort of got this wrong. They have made the assumption that my asking questions, posting ideas, is somehow the same as driving a wedge between consensus and successs.
Let me be 100% clear.
1. For the most part, I like the design.
2. The fountain, is dumb.
3. The design will allow less people to attend the concerts on the square which are the center piece of community downtown right nown.
4. The elevated walls are literally a target for skateboarders.
Let me also be clear about this: My problem is the process with which this has happened. I believe that this has been less than transparent. I believe that this has not been rational in the elevating costs of the project. I believe that people have lied in communicating the desired outcome. I believe that we have deviated so far from any sort of downtown plan that nothing should be done if it included this sort of public money.
I also want to say, I support the changing of the 400 block. I support just about any change that people want to do to it. Save for a fountain that takes away seating areas, and elevated walls.
I think that my resistance to this is more about the resistance to the forces that seek to move this plan forward. I think that they have been less than direct in these plans, and this has led to many people being resistant.
What do I suggest…well
1. An open community meeting. Let us go to the room where we have those debates at NTC, and let us have a public discussion of the plan as it is right now. Let us assume that this plan is the plan. Done. Let those that want to enact this change sell the public on it, in a public forum.
If you want me to support you, then stand in public and tell me why. Do not secretly email me from your anonymous email address and tell me this or that. Stand up, and show me. Show the world. You have not done that. You have had meetings in the city council chamber that have been mentioned on the impossible city of wausau website.
And as a result, people do not know why you want to do this.
The position that it is fine, but it could be better, well that does not work at all for me. Why does this design work better? Tell me about the pieces of the design and why you want them. Make an argument based on the evidence, that which you want to be real. Tell me why the fountain is important, why the permanent stage is important, why the raised wall is important.
Tell me something. Do not just assume that anyone who would deign to question you is trying to block your plan.
Well, I do not know your plan. You know why I do not know, because you never told me.
Mayor Tipple said that transparency is a core value. Well, be transparent.
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The Insomniacs-Maybe Sometime Later