In Which I Was Born Ginger And Born Free

I've Got Something To Say

by MOLLY LAMBERT

The really fucked up thing about the sort of fucked up and generally just brilliant new MIA video that came out yesterday is that it's still nowhere near as fucked up as the Wikileaks video from Iraq that leaked earlier this month.

I've been making ginger genocide jokes longer than anyone so obviously this touched a special nerve with me. I even wrote a fake chapter from a future history book (The Red Ribbon) about the oncoming redhead race war a few months back.

I really liked this video because it's the kind of thing I can imagine seeing on The Box as a child (even though The Box has been displaced by the internet?) and just being totally fucked up by it forever. Like how the Tom Petty video for "Don't Come Around Here No More" gave me really cool psychosexual nightmares for months as a kid.

"Well it's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle." "That's right."

MIA is bringing back the long form mindfuck electronica video mini-movie with pasty hunted gingers in the place of Richard D. James's bikini clad horrormask girls. Shades of his "Windowlicker" and all the other night terror inducing ultra late block videos that were on AMP in the nineties. She blows up "Telephone" with a landmine.

The string section during the train to Gingeschwitz sequence recalls the long version of U2's "All I Want Is You" from Rattle and Hum. Also the movie Punishment Park and the last part of Roy Andersson's grotesque dystopia Songs From The Second Floor.

screenshot from Call Of Duty 2: Modern Warfare, teaching lil' kids how to frag

It should also be said that I hate shock value for the sake of shock value, and I hate poshlost (high-minded attempts at importance) and I thought this transcended either category, as sort of basically hamfisted as it is. I LOL'd, mission accomplished.

Humanity's inhumanity is not exactly the sort of topic that gets easily played out, just like growing up Tamil in Sri Lanka and witnessing all kinds of fucked up government supported shit doesn't seem like something you'd get over by your third album.

That motherhood mellows you out or permanently enlightens you somehow is just another lie of the patriarchy/Dick Cheney's LOST. Fight the power. Ginger Pride 4 Life. 

LOS ANGELES FUTURISTIC DYSTOPIA MOVIES

Kiss Me Deadly

Repo Man

Future War

Indestructible Man

Terminator, T2, & T3

Demolition Man

Predator 2

The Omega Man

Blade Runner

Assault On Precinct 13

They Live

The War Of The Worlds (1953)

Escape From LA

The Net

Earthquake

Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man

Lost Highway

Night Of The Comet

The China Syndrome

Transformers

FACE/OFF

Blue Thunder 

Escape From The Planet Of The Apes 

The Hidden

Miracle Mile

Volcano

Strange Days

Molly Lambert is the managing editor of This Recording. She tumbls and twitters. 

"Seed" - Crystal Castles (mp3)

"Doe Deer" - Crystal Castles (mp3)

"Mother Knows Best" - Crystal Castles (mp3)

In Which I'm Not Trying To Sound Cocky Or Full Of Myself But I Have The Sneaking Suspicion That I Will Always Be Great

Ed. Note: Today is the first day of our PLEDGE DRIVE, where we ask you to donate if you like the site. We will try to keep the virtual spanging to a minimum, but any donations are much appreciated and would go a long way towards keeping This Recording on the cyber airwaves.

I'M KENNY POWERS

by MOLLY LAMBERT

THIS IS MY KENNY POWERS MIX!!! I'd write this WHOLE BLOG in all caps but I know most of you would find it off-putting. I find PROPER CAPITALIZATION and punctuating to be VERY OFF-PUTTING and that is why I enjoy the internet and KANYE'S BLOG!!!

I identify strongly with Kenny Powers (except for his racism). Maybe the reason we all love cable TV characters like Tony Soprano and Don Draper and Kenny Powers who have such big egos and make such bad choices is because we are all like that deep down at our anonycores. It's just part of being a human being that sometimes you feel like a huge fucking baby who only wants to do whatever the fuck it is you want to do.

So in the spirit of doing whatever the fuck it is you want to do, I made a three volume Kenny Powers themed mix. Three hours and change of seventies rock. I thought about putting some rap in but the playlist kept getting too long anyway so I have restricted it to seventies rock (sometimes early eighties). I'm sorry it doesn't have the Three 6 Mafia song from the steroids doing sequence. I had to make some very tough decisions.

Seventies rock is my favorite genre, and I made this for me. But I also made it for you, and that is why I painstakingly cut up clips of all the best dialogue from Eastbound & Down to thread between songs and make it perfect. There's a lot of Southern rock and yankee/UK takes on Southern rock. There's some random junk too. I do what I want!

This is not the soundtrack of the series, which the MC5's Wayne Kramer put together and you can see a listing of here. This is a narrative mix by me "inspired by" Kenny Powers. Divided into Strikes, the 1st volume is a retrospective of Kenny's baseball career and life leading up to the present, the 2nd deals with Kenny and April's relationship and is love themed, and the 3rd is about Kenny's return to North Carolina.

This is the best thing I have ever done lately. I keep joking that it is my thesis for the last five years, but I am only sort of joking. Is that sad? I no longer care. Certainly when I learned how to use pro tools at the college radio station I did not know my lyfe path would lead me here, to the land of endless blogging and semi-professional online presence having and a horrible recession. There are worse fates than spending your late nights chopping up Ram Jam. Nothing thrills me more than a nice segue.

DON'T YOU DARE COMPLAIN THAT IT IS TOO LONG. THIS IS MY GIFT TO YOU. BASEBALL GAMES REQUIRE A VERY LONG ATTENTION SPAN THAT IS A RELIC OF A DIFFERENT TIME. BRING THAT MINDSET INTO PLAY HERE WHEN YOU ARE LISTENING. IF YOU SAT THROUGH HAVE ONE ON ME YOU WILL SIT THROUGH THIS AND LEARN TO HAVE THE PATIENCE OF A NON-GINGER WHILE I TEACH YOU ALL ABOUT CHOOGLIN.

Eastbound & Down inspired the hell out of me. I dream about making something as fucked up and great someday as Jody Hill and Ben Best and Danny McBride did. If you don't know who Kenny Powers is or don't give a fuck (p.s. if this is you, GET OFF MY BLOG), it's also just a great SPRING AND SUMMERTIME MIX of AM Gold style seventies rock to listen to as you drive/walk/bike around your town or city in coming months. 

I WILL SEE YALL AT SHABOOMS! DJ SHE-BEAR AKA MOLLY LAMBERT

STRIKE 1: SPRING TRAINING

The Joker - Snail

Shakedown Cruise - Jay Ferguson

Sign Of The Gypsy Queen - April Wine

Homesick - Atlanta Rhythm Section

Freeborn Man - Outlaws

Remember The Good Times - Paice, Ashton, & Lord

404 - Ram Jam

Take A Little Word - Hudson Ford

If You Want To Get To Heaven - Ozark Mountain Daredevils

Found Out The Hard Way - Ace

Couldn't Get It Right - Climax Blues Band

Lonesome Loser - Little River Band

Saddletramp - Charlie Daniels Band

(part one alternate link)

STRIKE 2: REGULAR SEASON

Lonely One - Dave Mason

Southern Girls - Cheap Trick

Don't You Know What Love Is - Touch

Jackie Blue - Ozark Mountain Daredevils

She's A Stranger - Mama's Pride

Quite Like You - Nantucket

I Could Be Good For You - 707

Nicole - Point Blank

Feel Like Makin' Love - Bad Company

Fooled Around And Fell In Love - Elvin Bishop

Amie - Pure Prairie League

Sweet City Woman - The Stampeders

Visions Of You - Bandit

Lady Of My Heart - Loggins & Messina

Magnet & Steel - Walter Egan

Keep On Trying - Poco

Outlaw Women - Hank Williams Jr.

(part two alternate link)

STRIKE 3: WORLD SERIES

Going Down - Freddie King

Cheap Sunglasses - ZZ Top

Commotion - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Funk #48 - James Gang

I Got Kinda Lost (Demo) - Big Star

Flirtin' With Disaster - Molly Hatchet

Keep It Warm - Flo & Eddie

Isn't It Time - The Babys

Ain't Wastin' Time No More - Allman Brothers Band

Last Kiss - Fandango

Shambala - Three Dog Night

East Bound and Down - Jerry Reed

Crying in the Night - Buckingham/Nicks

Hold On - Ian Gomm

Fire On The Mountain - Marshall Tucker Band

April Love - Stillwater

Those Shoes (Chopped & Screwed) - The Eagles

(part three alternate link)

Molly Lambert is the managing editor of This Recording. She does a bunch of fucking dumb shit on the internet besides making you awesome Kenny Powers themed mixes. 

In Which It's Awful Not To Be Able To Do What You Want To Do

If You Don't Try At Anything You Can't Fail

by MOLLY LAMBERT

You may recall that "moving to Paris" was the old "going to travel South America," the last resort of a desperate liberal in the face of the thought of a life spent behind a desk. You may also recall that "there's no geographical solution to an emotional problem," ©Mad Men's Matthew Weiner in the final season of The Sopranos, which is a timeless song that is always appropriate. Hey hey hey, it's Revolutionary Road!

As adaptations go this is pretty hamfisted and all the shots of "men in grey flannel suits" made me roll my eyes. "The suburbs are stifling" is the second most over-explored theme in film after "what do Jewish men want?" But I liked things about it.

learn what an unspeakable prick Warren Beatty was to Natalie Wood when they dated

Sex scenes from the 50s/early 60s still feel the most transgressive because of how purposely/overly chaste most media things from that time period are. Splendor In The Grass remains legitimately shocking (and featured the first French kiss in a film) and while set it's set in the 1920s and filmed in 1961 it always seemed like the 50s movie about sex. Also William Inge is a genius. The Last Picture Show wrings every drop of sweat out of its small town fifties Texas setting. Revolutionary Road benefits from this. Why didn't anyone tell me this movie involves Sex In The Kitchen?

Is Leonardo DiCaprio a good actor? he might be! It had been so long since I heard him without a bad fake accent that I had forgotten. Also I haven't seen Catch Me If You Can but I now understand that the secret to making grown ass square faced Leo (as opposed to teenage babyface Leo) attractive is period dress. He looks fucking great in casual clothes of the fifties. Markedly less so in casual clothes of right now. Kate Winslet is a great actress. I mean yeah duh since Heavenly Creatures, thought u knew!

I talked so much shit about this movie and Sam Mendes in general, which goes to show that the more shit I prematurely talk about something, the more inclined I am to totally change my mind when I actually do see/hear/whatever it. If you know me then you know that I do this all the time time time time. I'm not saying it's my best quality.

My expectations were just so low that I was surprised that it was any good. I think I just liked the performances even if it ended in "serious actors yelling" which I find more tolerable when it's anyone besides Sean Penn. It's also a horror movie about abortion policy (timely!), reminding us that without proper birth control you're fucked.

Calling a bitch irrational is the best way to keep her down. I could write a whole goddamn book on ways to keep the patriarchy going. Some more sample chapters: "High Fashion Photography," "Pitting Women Against Each Other," "The Oscar Curse."

Doing your husband's best friend in a car is a dope neg. Does Kate Winslet have a "get fucked in a car" clause in her contract or something? Now that I think about it she gets drilled in crazy places in a lot of movies. At least she escaped Na'vi fleshlight tail sex.

Actors love smoking. They LOVE it. There is no prop an actor loves more than a cigarette (unless you consider their own faces and bodies props).

Kathy Bates is a national treasure. In my alternate feminist universe they write vehicles around her instead of making her topless in About Schmidt for a laff.

it's hard to describe any of the themes of this movie without making it sound totally terrible: people in the mental asylum might be the only sane ones! men who have problems expressing their emotions like to yell a lot! I guess it's hard to discuss the themes of realist novels without sounding like a total douchebag.

One of the innumerable differences between fiction and real life is that in fiction screaming fights between former lovers are always really intense and sexually charged, and in real life those kind of fights are just miserable and nobody feels very sexy when they are BURSTING INTO ANGRY TEARS. Nevertheless the hot fight remains a founding trope of romantic fiction, and the whole basis of screwball comedy. 

Where are the kids? Could you really be this much of an absentee parent in the fifites because if so I want to go to there. I'm sure this is not the best set-up for the kids but from the POV of a leisurely drunk adult it sounds like a delight. 

Betty Draper's bad parenting comes straight out of the Richard Yates handbook, but April Wheeler is MUCH more sympathetic than Betty Draper because Kate Winslet is a MUCH better actress than January Jones. Although a MUCH less awesome men's magazine profile taking place at an airport Chili's (obviously).

I like how in the fifties they were just like "No, of course women can't have dreams! There aren't enough dreams to go around!" Wouldn't be kool if all the omega males just stepped down and were like "have at it, girlfronds, it's dreams reparations."

Kathy Bates's husband turning off his hearing aid at the end. WHAT A STUPID ENDING TAG. Women be jabbering! I hate this cliché even though (because?) I am the jabberiest. I mean come on, like, really Tina Fey? You think porn for women would be a fake guy who pretends to listen? That really is like a Cathy cartoon. Besides, they already make pornography for women, it's called amateur porn. 

Mahnola Dargis pretty much nailed this one, in one of her great take-downs that makes movie studios afraid of letting her reviewing their "prestige" pictures, because she always sees the emperor's new clothes when it comes to Oscar bait. 

Don't get me wrong, this movie is just okay and the last act is a mess. Was it worth somebody's marriage? I would say no movie is worth somebody's marriage but a genuine masterpiece like Reds is worth several marriages. That one killed Warren Beatty's relationship with Diane Keaton, but nobody was betting on that horse for the long race because Warren was still all Tiger Tiger Woods y'all at that point.

The real question is would Mendes and Winslet's relationship have survived if the movie had won some Oscars? I'm going to say yes. So maybe it was just watching the movie, mostly a pretty, shouty, tinny reproduction of Yates's work with the knowledge that it probably had something to do with the demise of the lead actress's relationship with her husband who directed it that made me find some genuine sadness and regret and feeling in it. Tabloids love when A-list actresses's relationships break up because it humanizes them. Also because it sells hella magazines.

It is equally possible that the Mendes-Winslet marriage broke up due to Away We Go. 

Molly Lambert is the managing editor of This Recording and co-author of Lyric Fail. She tumbls here and twitters here.

"If It's The Beaches" - The Avett Brothers (mp3)

"Backwards With Time" - The Avett Brothers (mp3)

"Yardsale" - The Avett Brothers (mp3)

"When I Drink" - The Avett Brothers (mp3)