the future

dear project leader:

this alien acknowledges that he named "spaceman", by the killers, as single of the year...but he would argue that "this used to be the future", by pet shop boys and phil oakey places very, very high on the list.

he would perhaps create a new category in the list, for GREATEST OUT OF THE BLUE COLLABORATION for 2009, thus giving "future" someplace for a top spot.

coincidentally, this alien saw human league in concert with "the regeneration tour" in 2008...and was fairly impressed. fingers are crossed for a new single or two from mr oakey and the league.


this used to be the future, pet shop boys and phil oakey

postscript: this alien's husband wonders why he has so much pet shop boys on his player...it is not intentional. this alien suspects pet shop boys tracks regenerate on their own.

dear project leader:

this alien's local 7-11 has replaced their outdoor lighting with banks of LEDs...it's surprisingly bright.

kimi

dear project leader:

this alien spent several hours one recent evening trying to purchase today's adorable track, "kimi ni munekyun", by yellow magic orchestra. other than suspicious on foreign mp3 sites, this track was not available for purchase...careless record companies.

anyway, this alien first heard YMO as a young human performing slave labor in the harsh climates / fabulous municipalities of japan. he was instantly entranced, and followed the band for their last couple of albums; then latched onto one member's solo projects, ryuichi sakamoto.

mr sakamoto didn't continue in the same direction as YMO; rather he did a lot of movie scores (merry christmas, mr lawrence), and ultimately settled on jazz and piano solo stuff.

still very interesting, but not YMO. and that's okay. it's worth mentioning, sakamoto did appear in madonna's "rain" video. random.

kimi ni munekyun, yellow magic orchestra

surgery

dear project leader:

this alien's workplace PC was in surgery today...but seemed, at the end of a 5-hour procedure, to be fully recovered. this alien thanks you for the good wishes, etc.

in the meantime, this alien was forced to use an empty workstation too far away from his own desk, and found the arrangement entirely disruptive.

whiteout

dear project leader:

this alien doesn't know why this track was never released as a single off debbie harry's album last year.

debbie harry - whiteout

she assumes an odd "character" (vocally) to sing this one; that would have probably been changed if it was actually a single. (but since nobody except 14-year-olds are played on TV or radio anymore, this alien guesses "singles" aren't really what they used to be.)

she said:

The chorus says it all, but it's about losing the chance of a relationship because the other person is involved with drugs. It's a fairly obvious parallel in a lot of people lives. It was fun to write a really straight-out rock song that had a great sort of punk feel to it.

fantastic mr anderson

If what I think is happening is happening - it better not be.

dear project leader:

this alien went to see fantastic mr. fox today and loved, loved, loved it. all the things one might fondly recall from previous wes anderson movies (well, except for darjheeling limited, perhaps) were present: too-self-aware supporting characters, uncomfortably close close-ups, static and symmetrical graphic layouts, jason schwartzman, layered dollhouse sets...and enhanced with really suddenly-appearing animal behaviors.

(not to mention the bollywood numbers here and there.)

this alien looks forward to seeing mr. fox again.

place for us

dear project leader:

this alien likes this song. and it's free. but that's not why i like it.

listen to Reni Lane - Place For Us (RAC Remix) on @hypem http://awe.sm/22ZZZ

the original single is also really good...much better than this RAC remix they're giving out for free.

blondie 09

dear project leader:

new blondie promo pic; old blondie track.



"island of lost souls", from their album, the hunter, which this alien and about 5 other fans bought the first time around. the rock and roll hall of fame says:

June 26, 1982: Blondie’s “Island of Lost Souls” (from The Hunter) enters the Top Forty, where it will peak at #37. It is the thirteenth U.S. single from Blondie’s first go-round as a group, marking the end of their three-year reign as the New Wave’s most successful singles act.

it's a toenail

dear project leader:

this alien bought the monster a bag of treats, which included cow hoofs. that's a toenail, right?

monster loves gnawing on them.

bravery

dear project leader:

this alien is a casual fan of the bravery...listen to and like their music, have bought an album, etc., so i was pretty excited to see they had a new track and album out. the single, "the spectator" is okay. not great. not as engaging as previous releases...maybe it's a video-only song (used in "the vampire diaries", on tv).

as for the new album, stir the blood, here's this alien's initial impressions: album starts out with some good pop-rock stuff, which, by track 3 ("slow poison"), had pretty much sold me on the album. then, out of nowhere, track 4 goes into some sort of manic depressive hostility thing, and the following two songs are either generic or just unappealing.

then, "the spectator," mentioned above. but yay, track 8 ("i have seen the future") comes along to resuscitate the listener with another uptempo synthy bass track. track 9 doesn't really move me so much, but it's passable. "jack-o-lantern man" gets back into the darkness at a time this alien no longer cares to follow you there. in one sitting, this album is a bit tiring with the processed vocals and rambling basslines.

try it out one track at a time, as the first few tracks are fairly appealing.

broke

dear project leader:

this alien wonders, when moses broke the other tablets, were those the ones that had the footnote to "Thou shalt not kill (*except when going to war, chasing down terrorists, or you know, whenever)".

this alien doesn't subscribe to "the bible" or any of that, but he does think killing humans is wrong. why don't the pro-lifers?

wonder

dear project leader:

this alien is working at someone else's office today, and wonders if the small collection of coins left unattended is a trap.

x-post

dear project leader:

this alien is also now on livejournal, under the username thisalien. just because.

reality

dear project leader:

this alien has observed reports of behavior that may cause us to rethink cohabitating with humans on this planet.


"THE 650-POUND VIRGIN": a man who somehow gained 500 pounds in less than 10 years, mainly by locking himself inside his parents' house and eating his life away (while watching the rest of the world live their lives through the living room window).

this alien has to ask: after the first 200 pounds piled on, who kept buying and delivering twinkies to him? not saying the gain wasn't his fault, but one must accept that the guy was enabled by people who WERE willing to leave the house, run down to the 7-11 and stock up on his behalf.


"HOARDERS": one's mother lives a mile away, and hasn't taken anything out of the house in a dozen or so years. ANYTHING. every room of the house is piled with rotting garbage. the bathroom hasn't been cleaned for as many years. mother has asthma, maybe resulting from the decaying cats under the 2-foot drift of trash in the den? or perhaps from the mattress and box springs that literally disintegrate to the touch.

this alien asks once more: after the first year of trash buildup, who didn't hire a haulaway service to clean out even a dumpster's worth of trash, whether mom complained or not?


this alien recommends further observation before proceeding with plans to settle here. but one item for the "plus" column: basic cable is awesome.

world aids day

this alien remembers it was oddly exciting when the first WORLD AIDS DAY was organized. merchandising and media events were released, but outside of the typical communities, it never really caught on. it was a time when people still thought rock hudson was the only person they "knew" who died of AIDS. 

i've known relatively few people to pass on due to HIV-AIDS, so that list runs through my head whenever december 1 comes up on the calendar, noted with a press release or two, but no other real notice. 

just a few people that come to mind:

a property manager at an apartment i once rented. our conversations would be interrupted by him going into a coughing attack while he had to hold his head to alleviate the chronic headache pain.

two co-workers who were a couple. one went out on disability, never returned. the other went out for a short time (in those days being gone less than 6 months was considered a short time); came back having lost a significant amount of weight, but holding up well. disappeared a few months later.

a friend with whom i had similar cultural background. his parents never acknowledged his HIV-AIDS, but instead recorded a voice mail greeting for callers that he had died from "cancer".

ex-brother-in-law, ex-cousins-in-law. they were fortunate enough to have family surrounding them to the very end. family who didn't isolate them out of fear, or out of shame.

club-friends couple, one passed away, the other moved away...not wanting to stay in the same city where he lost his love. even those who didn't die from the then-unmanageable disease disappeared.

of course there were others whose images try to fade from my mind. but then this alien will run into someone from that era, serving as a reminder that we are still here to remember those who have gone.