Buscaba un sencillo ordenador portátil. Necesitaba que tuviese buena conectividad, que reprodujera música y DVD.Sólo para textos, internet y para seleccionar fotografías. Nada más.

Tampoco ando bien de pelas, así que tenía que ser económico. Y como soy un pijo, necesitaba que fuese bonito.

Debía ser idiota por pensar que exista algo así, que tenga 2 puerto firewire, 2 puertos USB, Tarjeta PCMCIA, Tarjeta WIFI, Ethernet 100mbps, Salida S-Video, Salida VGA (con posibilidad de escritorio extendido), puerto de IR. Disco Duro reemplazable en 5 minutos con sólo un destornillador de estrella pequeño. Lo mismo para ampliar la RAM (hasta 1 Giga al menos). Posibilidad de reemplazarle o ampliarle la placa madre en 10 minutos. Debía tener autonomía suficiente. Poder enchufarse a la red, leer CD y DVD. Y estaría bien que si no me hace falta lo del DVD podría quitarlo y ponerle otra batería y doblar la autonomía… O si lo voy a utilizar en un lugar con electricidad a mano, podría quitarle las dos baterías y así pesa muy poco. No hace falta que se pueda hacer sin apagarlo, pero se agradece. Debí ser idiota por pensar que algo así se fabricaba, hasta que eché la vista atrás y encontré este “vejestorio” del año 2000… ¡¡¡ 9 años !!!

Apple Powerbook G3 400 Pismo

Está claro que soy idiota y que me gustan los vejestorios, como este ordenador o música del año 2000… y alguna que otra cosilla más incluso con más de 9 años…

Elige: Idiota u optimista. Y recuerda: Lo que la blogosfera vota, va a misa!

Idioteque (Kid A) 2000. Radiohead

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Optimistic (Kid A) 2000. Radiohead

]]> http://topolala.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/radiohead-vs-leftfield-%e2%80%93-idioteque-ndark%e2%80%99s-phat-planet-mash/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:59:37 +0000 hfry88 http://topolala.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/radiohead-vs-leftfield-%e2%80%93-idioteque-ndark%e2%80%99s-phat-planet-mash/

Super Rare track here!!!

Been searching for this mash for fuckin years! Finally tracked it down, had to get Leftfield’s entire discography as a torrent to get it!

Real party kipper,….mashing together  two of the most unique dance songs ever made!

Radiohead – Download

Libertad Periodística, debido a que el mejor grupo de rock alternativo del mundo RADIO HEAD anunció, que el proximo año lanzará un nuevo disco. Presenta un especial donde se puede ver la capacidad que tiene el grupo ingles de tocar en vivo. Para los fanáticos de RADIO HEAD, solo nos queda decir: DISFRUTEN

This one’s for the northerners. Tomorrow night sees the return of the intermittent club night Idioteque at which I hold a residency. It’s one of only a few nights in York which aren’t a couple of years behind schedule, note the lack of Ed Banger-esque electro and soulless distorted wobble bass. Instead expect explorations into the deeper side of house, two-step, funky and dubstep with a happy helping of bass to help deal with the cold outside.

Get down to Fibbers from half 10 to catch myself, Park Ranger and The Boog-A-Loo Crew (both Trouble Vision residents) bringing the noise.

Confirm your attendance here

See you at the front.

If you can have Led Zeppelin Thursdays, there’s no reason why you can’t have Radiohead Wednesdays – right?

Seda’s choice:

That has got to be one of craziest – and best – songs I’ve heard lately. Music for a nuclear holocaust? Love it.

Bow down to the master.

Here’s some good news for you. There’s a brand spanking new song from Thom Yorke of the almighty Radiohead making its way through the hallowed internets. It’s called Hearing Damage and it’s just lovely. The bad news…? It’s on the soundtrack for the upcoming film New Moon aka the next chapter of the Twilight series. For those of us who liked our vampires a little more scary and less glossy, I understand and empathise. The bad news aside…the song more than makes up for it.

Less experimental than his work on the underrated The Eraser record and a lot more accessible, Yorke goes easy on us and gives us some dark electronic pop that should render the rest of the soundtrack pointless. It’s not quite the head-bopper that Idioteque was but it’s close and one could say that this is more of a mind-bender. I had to play it a couple of times to allow myself to become immersed in the beauty of this track.

If Radiohead of the last ten years has turned you off then you might want to keep it moving but if you’ve found yourself to be continually pleased and inspired by the evolution of the most influential bands of the last twenty years and their resident genius-in-chief then turn this one up…and try to forget what movie soundtrack it’s aligned with.

Thom Yorke on MySpace

“Hearing Damage” by Thom Yorke taken from the forthcoming motion picture soundtrack “New Moon”

Et tu, Paul?

Listen Mr. Shirley, we like you here at NPI. We like sports. We like books. We like people who write good books about playing sports. You even tweeted at Tim. But if forced to choose between you and the Beatles, well, we’re gonna have to go with the Beatles.

Now, I have no problem with unconventional stances; in fact, I like them a lot. And I have no qualms with someone’s personal tastes. It’s also true that people who don’t like the Beatles are unfairly maligned (you guys should form a support group with people who don’t think The Godfather is that great and people who think Shakespeare is overrated).

Some of what you say is certainly true: “[T]he mythology that surrounds the Beatles has overwhelmed rational humans’ ability to judge the band by its music.” There is no denying that when you are brought up and essentially conditioned to think something is good, that is going to affect your judgment of that thing, whether your judgment is positive or negative.

But it’s one thing to say that a mythology as large as the one surrounding the Beatles makes judging them “objectively” difficult or impossible—a thesis I’ll accept—and another thing entirely to claim that “we were not around for The Beatles. Therefore, we cannot judge their impact on popular music.” This latter claim is patently untrue—as you seem to acknowledge later in the article, when you claim that you “understand that The Beatles are culturally significant and important in the historical progression of rock music.” You don’t have to be a contemporary of something to understand its impact. I wasn’t around for the Revolutionary War, but I get that it was a big deal.

Being influential and being good are, granted, two very different things. Just because Revolver and Sgt. Pepper changed the way albums were made doesn’t mean you necessarily have to like those albums. But lots of people do like The Beatles. Maybe you don’t like them, and maybe even a sizable portion of people who claim to like them are only doing it to seem like thy have the “right” musical taste, but the Beatles didn’t get to be the most popular band in the world by accident; some people, even some people born after the band broke up, sincerely like this music.

This brings me to the most troubling part of your argument: the implication that you can only really like music that comes out in your lifetime. As you put it, “[A]ny affection I hold for bands that were in their prime before I was around is a wary affection. I feel almost as if I would be stealing if I went around claiming that CCR is my favorite band. Plenty of good musicians have matured in my lifetime; there’s no reason to take CCR from my uncle.”

This seems both untrue and inconsistent with your claim that music and mythology are two different things. If, after all, you claim to want to judge The Beatles based solely on their music, then why is it “stealing” to listen to older bands and songs? I wasn’t around for grunge, but I still think Nirvana songs sound good. I wasn’t even a glimmer in my parents’ eyes in the 1970s, but that doesn’t make Led Zeppelin IV any less awesome.

The reason you overvalue contemporary works (and I don’t mean to imply that all new music sucks; there are plenty of great bands working now) is your idea that works of art get better over time. This is the most disturbing paragraph of your argument:

I’d much rather listen to Oasis than The Beatles. Oasis, or any band that came after The Beatles, learned from The Beatles, improving on their work by listening to, building on and perfecting the styles pioneered by The Beatles. The result: The arrangements used by Oasis are more complex, the sound is denser, the production is better. Claims that Oasis is nothing more than a Beatles tribute band do little to disprove my theory. There is no question that Oasis was influenced by The Beatles — most rock bands are. That influence was likely heavier with Oasis, but even Oasis — brash as the band is — understands the power of what came before. After all, Oasis named an album “Standing On the Shoulders of Giants.” All these improvements can be chalked up to chronological order.

Excuse me when I say…Fuck the heck?! Chronological order is the best way to evaluate music? “Hollaback Girl” came out after “Idioteque.” Does that make it better? Is “Party in the USA” 22 years better than “Welcome to the Jungle”? I’m not saying that certain technological advances may make production values better, or allow newer things to be done, but that doesn’t automatically make better music. Oasis may be able to do a lot of things The Beatles never could, but that doesn’t mean their music sounds better. I, for one, think it does not.

(This is to say nothing of the fact that, in picking a band whose oeuvre you wanted to compare with The Beatles, to illustrate once and for all that The Beatles have been topped….you chose Oasis. Not, like, Radiohead, or Jay-Z, or Wilco…Oasis. The guys who did “Wonderwall.” Ugh.)

Art is not like technology, or the Scientific Method; it does not move linearly. This, again, doesn’t mean that the old stuff can never be topped, but it certainly isn’t true that everything new is better than everything old. Shakespeare was a better writer than Dan Brown, despite the fact that Brown has technological advances and the influence of Shakespeare himself at his disposal. Sometimes new bands try to develop and expand on the work of great predecessors, and very often these attempts fall flat. “More complex” and “denser” do not always translate to better, particularly in music. If it did, the most popular band in the world would be Rush or something.

Are The Beatles the best band ever? I don’t know. They’re not my favorite, but I like them a lot. And the fact that so many people do, in a way that no band since has come even close to replicating, helps their case. It certainly indicates people can still like their music, even if they were born after the Nixon Administration, and that not everyone who claims The Beatles are their favorite band is lying or not thinking for themselves. People sometimes agree on greatness.

And they’re certainly better than fucking Oasis.

Na poziomie początkującym: zagrali Creep. Na koniec. Poprzedzone zapowiedzią: jeśli nie znacie tego numeru, mamy przejebane. (Naiwniak, liczyłem na No Surprises). To zaskakujący wybór, zważywszy, że ponoć od trzech lat ten numer nie pojawia się w koncertowym rozkładzie jazdy. A sam Tomasz Yorke bez ogródek przyznaje, że wręcz nienawidzi swego największego hitu. Czy zakończenie występu tym akurat utworem miało być formą przeprosin za piętnaście lat wyczekiwania na ponowny występ zespołu w kraju? Czy miało być specjalnym gestem w stronę fanów? A może zespół gdzieś tam się przestraszył, że nie dadzą rady bez TEJ piosenki?

Na poziomie średniozaawansowanym: Skoro oczywistość mamy z głowy, możemy pędzić dalej. Setlista wczorajszego koncertu to jedna z najbardziej problematycznych kwestii. Ilu fanów, tyle pomysłów (czego dowodem fakt, że kiedy każdy z dziesięcioosobowej grupy mych znajomych miał wymienić swój ulubiony numer Radiogłowych, ani razu nie powtórzył się żaden z tytułów). Komuś zabrakło House of Cards, komuś Fake Plastic Trees. Ja, który gdzieś na wysokości Kid A przestałem dbać o kontakt z bazą (z kolei, w okolicach solowego Yorke’a przypomniałem sobie o dawnych fascynacjach, no bo pięknie się artysta przeprosił z melodiami), w związku z czym Radiohead to dla mnie przede wszystkim The Bends i OK Computer (które zresztą były reprezentowane przez zaskakująco znaczącą ilość kompozycji – w ramach zadośćuczynienia?). Konwencjonalnie i nienachalnie. Zabrakło mi więc i wspomnianego już No Surprises, ale także High & Dry, z którego teraz pewnie podśmiewują się teraz sami autorzy. I choć to numer dla starych pierdzieli, zramolowałych dinozaurów, to dla mnie pozostaje kwintesencją piękna. Prostego, bez ozdobników.

Na poziomie zaawansowanym: To był niezwykle skupiony koncert. Kiedy w liczącym ponoć 40000 osób tłumie (brak przypadkowych osób przy jednoczesnym zauważalnym zróżnicowaniu przekroju widzów: od małolatów z liceum po pary w wieku – nie przymierzając – moich rodziców. Nota bene, moja Mama wyznała mi: Gdyby nie to, że tam nie będzie gdzie siąść, to ja bym bardzo chętnie z Tobą pojechała) przez godzinę próbowałem po koncercie wydostać się z terenu poznańskiej Cytadeli (swoją drogą: że straż pożarna zgodziła się na taki układ wyjść i wejść to ja naprawdę nie rozumiem) obserwowałem twarze współuczestników, większość pozostawała w dziwnym odrętwieniu, tak jakby ostatnie dwie godziny z okładem było przeżyciem niemalże mistycznym. Znacie ten patent: wychodzicie z koncertu, głośno się śmiejecie, pędzą gówniane żarty etc. A tu nic z tego. Każdy w nierealnym, bajkowym świecie. Żadem festyn czy inne wesołe miasteczko. To będzie truizm, ale Radiohead pokazali, że nie trzeba megafajerwerków, megapomysłów, megarozwiązań, obrotowych scen, gołych ud, by zabłysnąć. By zostać zapamiętanym. Oni w ogóle mają doskonałą sytuację: właściwie wolno im wszystko i na to wszystko ich stać. Oddajemy płytę do netu i to słuchacz decyduje o tym, czy za nią zapłaci? Proszę bardzo! Nie nagramy już więcej regularnego krążka i będziemy wypuszczać jedynie Epki lub single? Czemu nie! I tak dalej. Są nieporównywalni. I to w Poznaniu udowodnili ponad wszelką wątpliwość: wystarczyła sceniczna charyzma, świetne rzemiosło, wyjątkowy leader, który zaskakująco często zagajał publiczność, a na dodatek okazał się być dowcipnym facetem. Ot co. (to ja sobie pozwolę raz jeszcze ten sam numer).

Na poziomie eksperckim: Podczas tego koncertu uderzyła mnie jedna rzecz: w gruncie rzeczy Radiohead operują dość ograniczonym arsenałem środków wyrazu: zapętlone partie perkusyjne, wtórujący im bas, do których za chwilę dosiadają się gitary i /lub klawisze, a na koniec pełen ekspresji, neurotyczny głos Thoma. Nie było jednak mowy o znudzeniu czy przemęczeniu materiału: kompozycje trwały tyle, ile trwać miały, bez dłużyzn, makiawelicznych improwizacji, bezprzystankowego udowadniania swej wielkości. Skromność, ale i świadomość własnej wartości. Trzymanie w ryzach nieujawnionych możliwości, ale i dążność do przełamania schematu. Próbowałem liczyć piosenki, ale po ósmym bodajże Karma Police poddałem się, z radością zresztą – nie było sensu kontynuować kalkulacji, notować tytułów, skoro wszystko toczyło się własną koleją rzeczy. To zresztą był bardzo dobry technicznie koncert: kolega Greenwood na przykład grając na gitarze, naciskał gryfem klawisze keyboardu. Nie należy zapominać, że to był również koncert doskonale nagłośniony, co jak pokazało parę innych wakacyjnych iwentów przecież nie jest wcale oczywistą oczywistością. Słyszalne były wszystkie dźwięki, które generowano na scenie, co tylko podkreślało wrażenie głębi. Cieszę się, że nie przyjechali na Open’era – w występy na festiwalach wpisany jest z zasady kompromis, choćby czasowy. W Poznaniu to oni, a nie Mikołaj Ziółkowski, rozdawali karty.

Na poziomie Supermena: To intymny, starannie wyreżyserowany spektakl. Za każdym razem z innym scenariuszem: set lista z Poznania różniła się od tej niedawnej z Pragi czy Austrii, rozsyłanej masowo przed polskim koncertem przez żądnych wiedzy fanów. Radiohead próbowali zaspokoić wszelakie oczekiwania: i te rock’n rollowe (stąd częste położenie nacisku aranżacyjnego na partie gitar) i te bardziej techniczne. W tej drugiej odsłonie zespół prezentował się ciekawiej, bardziej wyraziście, a ja z zaskoczeniem stwierdziłem, że w gruncie rzeczy to zespół dla tańczących inaczej. Stąd – mym skromnym zdaniem – najlepiej wypadły I Might Be Wrong, Kid A i – przede wszystkim – Idioteque, znacznie bardziej odważne niż w wersji płytowej. Pełne klubowej ekspresji, brudnej, ale i nieskazitelnej. Z wpisaną z definicji tajemnicą, nierozwiązywalną zagadką. Świetnie wybrzmiało też All I Need, niepokojąco romantyczne. I inna „ballada” – Street Spirit, zagubiona autostrada.

Poziom szarego fana: Zadziwiło mnie jedno: nikt nie przejechał po mnie walcem. Spodziewałem się emocjonalnej miazgi, porównywalnej z ubiegłorocznym koncertem Sigu Rós (tak, płakałem). Nic z tych rzeczy. Ale były momenty, kiedy musiałem się zamknąć. Siadałem na trawie i słuchałem. Po prostu. Czułem się tak, jakby zaproszono mnie do intymnego, precyzyjnego świata, bez konieczności spełnienia jakichkolwiek wymogów. Jeśli chcesz, to siądź i słuchaj. Jeśli chcesz, to światła wprowadzą cię w hipnotyczny nastrój. Światła stanowiły zresztą integralną i istotną część tego widowiska: ich intensywność i ostra kolorystyka, nierzadko jaskrawa, atakowały, umożliwiając percepcję zdarzenia na wielu zmysłowych płaszczyznach. A zaraz potem uaktywniało się tylko jedno małe światło, skierowane na Yorke’a. Przecież to widowisko, rock’n rollowe na dodatek. Ale bez nędznego przymilania się. I chyba w tym tkwiła największa moc tego koncertu: w naturalności. I nie chodzi mi tu jedynie o proekologiczne nastawienie.

Radiohead sneaked out their new song ‘Twisted Words’ last week via their website and now you can see and hear the song live courtesy of this great sound and vision on YouTube.

MaggieBear74 also shot a couple of other songs at the Frequency festival.

The prolpusive and krauty ‘Twisted Words’. Colin seems to be having fun!

Cuando uno monta una fiesta e invita a multitud de amigos, una de las cosas más complicadas es acertar con la música y conseguir que todo el mundo baile y lo pase bien. Por ello, cualquier pinchadiscos que se precie tiene bien guardados una serie de temas que suelen resultar infalibles. Nuestra experiencia nos ha demostrado que estos que vienen a continuación pueden ser algunos de los más fiables:

Paperplanes, MIA (Kala, 2007)

La elección de la primera canción es una de las decisiones que más se deben meditar. La gente está llegando y se está aclimatando, charlando los unos con los otros. Sin embargo, y aunque parezca que aún no están prestando demasiada atención a la música, el pinchadiscos debe empezar a prepararles para lo que va a venir, para que luego no les pille de sorpresa. Paperplanes es una canción relativamente nueva y seguramente haya gente en la fiesta que no la conoce, lo cual es importante porque la primera canción que se pincha no debe llamar excesivamente la atención. Además, esta canción de MIA tiene el ritmo adecuado y es bastante ambiental. Como alternativa podría valer Time to pretend de MGMT:

Take me out, Franz Ferdinand (Franz Ferdinand, 2004)

Podría decirse que después de la introducción comienza realmente nuestra sesión. Tenemos que empezar con fuerza desde el primer momento, pero sobre todo debemos ir sobre seguro, eligiendo un tema que le guste a la mayoría de los presentes. Este Take me out, de Franz Ferdinand, cumple con todos los requisitos; tiene pegada, mucho ritmo y es un tema que gusta a la primera:

Debaser, Pixies (Doolittle, 1989)

Es importante ir subiendo en intensidad, pero continuar con canciones de pop o rock y no introducir la electrónica hasta que la fiesta esté más madura. Para mucha gente los Pixies es sinónimo de buen rollo y Debaser es uno de los temas más animados de la banda de Frank Black y compañía. Funcionará seguro:

Cumpleaños total, Los Planetas (Una Semana en el Motor de un Autobús, 1998)

Esta canción es en sí misma una auténtica fiesta. Los fans de Los Planetas te lo agradecerán e incluso puede que a más de uno le de por dar botes y cantar. También puede que te hayas aburrido de esta canción (a mucha gente le pasa). Si es así, una buena alternativa puede ser Mi hermana pequeña, uno de los primeros temas de Los Planetas, perteneciente al “Medusa EP”:

Girls and boys, Blur (Parklife, 1994)

Después de unas cuantas canciones más rockeras, hay que dar paso a los sonidos más pop para hacer una buena transición hacia la electrónica. Esta Girls and boys de Blur, además de ser una canción de buen rollo donde las haya, continuará con el subidón de intensidad después de Cumpleaños Total. Si notáis que la gente de la fiesta es rockerilla, se puede seguir metiendo caña con Song 2, el tema con el que Blur demostró que puede darle a todo y seguir siendo igual de buenos:

Common People, Pulp (Different Class, 1995)

Otro temazo inapelable que además puede coger por sorpresa a algún despitado. Es muy difícil que el espectacular crescendo de esta canción no provoque que todo el personal se eche a bailar y se desate la locura colectiva. Si no es así, es que hay demasiados sofás o que se han acabado las bebidas:

Nine Lives, Midnight Juggernauts (Dystopia, 2007)

Con este Nine Lives de Midnight Juggernauts entramos de lleno en los sónido más electrónicos. Es un tema bastante desconocido pero tiene una pegada increíble, así que es muy fácil que la fiesta continúe después del subidón de Common People. Cada vez que lo he probado en alguna fiesta la respuesta ha sido sorprendente:

Swastika Eyes, Primal Scream (XTRMNTR, 2000)

Clasicazo donde los haya. Pasan los años y las arrugas se notan pero el tema sigue haciendo flipar hasta al más modernillo. Si hay un tema capaz de reventar una fiesta, ese es Swastika eyes. Imprescindible:

The Test- Chemical Brothers feat Richard Ashcroft (Come with us, 2001)

Es muy probable que después de un tema como Swastica eyes las fuerzas empiecen a ser más limitadas. Canciones como The Test ayudan a cambiar el tercio de la electrónica más bruta a una más ambiental. Eso sí, con el poderío de Chemical Brothers no se pierde un gramo de intensidad, más bien se ganan kilos:

Idioteque, Radiohead (Kid A, 2000)

La canción perfecta para terminar la fiesta es Idioteque de Radiohead. El que esté cansado puede disfrutarla igual o más que el que tenga fuerzas para seguir bailando. Además no es necesario moverse demasiado con una melodía como la de Idioteque; un suave balanceo puede ser suficiente para sentir que vuelas (y no hace falta tomar nada raro, no seáis malos):

(Idioteque by Radiohead - live, 18.09.2000)

Friday, I’m in Love aims to tell the stories of how I came to find some of my favourite music. Usually – more often than not – they come on a Friday. Some of these bands have been with me forever, others are very, very new to me, my iPod and my world. Whether they’ll stick around, I couldn’t tell you, but for now they seem to make some kind of sense.

For part two, we’re going to jump to somewhere around the middle. Hope you enjoy.

The who: Radiohead
The what: Specifically, The Bends & O.K. Computer
Sounds like: Radiohead. No other words have been invented yet, or if they have, I don’t know them.
The when: First in ‘95, then the follow-up in ‘97, and everything ever since.

The how: My first Radiohead memory was probably much the same as everyone elses’ – or, is at least likely to have featured the same song. “Creep” was released as a single in late 1992, which means it probably filtered its way down to my end of the world sometime around mid to late 1993. I would’ve been in grade nine at the time, and to be honest, it didn’t leave a very big impact. I remember liking the loud bits, but the rest just seemed kind of dull. I actually preferred the single, “Anyone Can Play Guitar”, but I never went out of my way to pick up Pablo Honey.

My main memory of the song goes something like – A friday or saturday night. Suburbia. A small gathering you could barely call a party over at a friend’s house. “Creep” somehow finds its way into the cassette player. My friend -we shall call him D – looks visibly upset. He sits alone in an overly large shed that was never used for anything more than hanging out in [1]. His girlfriend having recently broken up with him, calling him – amongst other things – a creep. It all seemed a little bit too grown-up to for my liking, and I remember the night ended up being a bit of a downer. The same girl wound up being girlfriend to most of the guys in our group – including, previous to this, myself – and eventually I believe she and D got back together, before breaking up again shortly after. I don’t have a song for that break-up though.

Anyway, for a good long while, that was Radiohead for me – the band who wrote that song with the same name as what D’s ex-girlfriend called him.

Skip ahead to sometime around 1995. I’m sitting in the lounge-room, flicking through recently recorded episodes of Rage while tinkering on my family’s Mac Plus. Faith No More’s “Digging a Grave” begins. Again. I may have listened to it perhaps more than several times that day. Knowing this, I also know that the next clip up is by that Radiohead band, which I’m not all that into. So by the time the first few notes of “My Iron Lung” start, I’m usually not that far away from the rewind button. Except, on this particular play through, I’m not. I leave the room, and when I come back Faith No More have finished, and that Radiohead band are on. It seems this song has a loud bit in the middle too, except this loud bit is far more interesting than their last song with a loud bit- even though Thom admits that this song is in fact, “just like the last one.” And while he seems to agree with my assessment of the last, in that was “a total waste of time,” I don’t share his outlook here.  I rewind, start from the top, and take the rest in.

It plays out, and I’m enthralled. All of a sudden, “Digging the Grave” seems almost pedestrian.

And with that, Radiohead were on my radar. A weekend not long after this, I find myself on a trip up to Perth, armed with a Brashes voucher my parents won at a quiz night, scouring the shelves for this Radiohead band. I pick up “The Bends” for myself, and Björk’s “Post” for my sister [2] with the remaining credit.

Time passes. “The Bends” cements itself as one of my favourite albums of the time. I don’t ever feel the need to go back and try “Pablo Honey”, as from all accounts “The Bends” is where it’s at, and quite a departure from their earlier work.

Which, now that I think about it, seems to be the watch-word when it comes to Radiohead.

1997 was my first year of univeristy, as well as being away from home. It was also the year “OK Computer” was released upon the world, and if you were to believe the hype, Radiohead were about to become the future of music.  Triple J had ”Paranoid Android” playing in fifteen minute rotations – a pretty amazing feet for a six-or-so minute song. Media outlets who had never even talked about music before we reporting of Radiohead’s imenent world domination. It was all very gigantic. As if you could feel history being written all around you.

And, I just didn’t get it. “OK Computer” sounded good, but was it really all that amazing? Sure, “Paranoid Android” was interesting enough, but the album as a whole didn’t seem all that engaging. A feeling that only myself and my girlfriend seemed to share at the time.

But sometimes it takes more than just hearing a song or an album for it to make sense. Sometimes a sound doesn’t click into place until it has something else to link to. Perhaps a visual queue. Or an event. Or an experience. For us, it was a party. Not an amazing party by any means. One of those nights made up of a series of events that just didn’t seem to make any sense. To try and capture the entire experience would be a futile endeavor. My best attempt at explaining the experience would go something like – imagine if Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused was directed by David Lynch, and all set in the confines of a single house party.

Specifics are hazy, but there was something about that night that just felt unreal. Nothing about it made any sense, and yet, everything seemed to fit. People came and left – some we knew, others complete strangers. People we’d not seen since leaving school. People from uni. Overseas students. Random locals. Drunken stumbling and fumbling and a strange feeling in the air that something – anything – could, and possibly would, happen. And in the middle of it all, someone decided to put on “OK Computer”, and as the opening notes of “Airbag” roared to life and filled the air, it all clicked into place.

At that point “OK Computer” had me.

It’s the epilogue to the tale that still seems the strangest part though. A day or so later, while staying over at my girlfriend’s place, I went outside to check the mail and found, crammed in the brick letterbox, “OK Computer”. The CD case smashed to bits – shards of plastic scattered over the pavement below – and the liner notes missing, but the CD in one piece, albeit it with a few scratches. At a loss as to where it had come from, we called a friend [3] to see if he knew anything about it. He didn’t, commenting “If I had it, I would’ve kept it.”

We put it on, and it was as if the events of that night had translated what the band were trying to say into something we could finally understand. And now, as if to drive the point home, it had been delivered directly to us. Following on from the David Lynch reference, I can’t help but imagine Bill Pullman pulling up to the house in the early hours of the morning, cramming the CD in the letterbox, whispering “Johnny Greenwood is dead”, before speeding off in a fast car.

I’ve ridden the Radiohead-Rollarcoaster ever since this, and I imagine I’ll continue doing it well into the future. Every new album they throw me for a loop, and every time I come away from my first or second listen thinking it’s over between us. That I’ll never love  another Radiohead album like I did the last. And yet, every time, without fail, I find myself coming back. At first, simply out of curiosity. Then, eventually, because I need to. The sequence of events go something like this:

Kid A – Played in full on Triple J one lazy Sunday afternoon, a week or so before release. Richard Kingsmill adds his own commentary between tracks. I’m sitting on the floor of a different lounge room, fingers hovering over play-record on my tape deck, waiting patiently for it to start. Just over forty minutes later, it reaches the end, and I go back to the start. I’m confused. It doesn’t make sense. What have they done? Why does it sound so… different? Where did the guitars go? Another play through, a few key moments start to seep in. Slowly. Another, and I’m trying to obtain the tracks I like from Napster over dial-up – starting with “Idioteque” and working out from there. Some time (and frustration) later,  I seem to have aquired the whole thing. And it’s great. The actual, physical CD coming to me for my next birthday.

Amnesiac – Purchased from K-Mart Booragoon on a 15% off everything day. And what did I find? “Kid A” cast-offs. Why is “Morning Bell” on here again? What is this? Some kind of Use Your Illusion type cash in? Is “Morning Bell” the new “Don’t Cry”? But “Pyramid Song” is hauntingly beautiful. “You and Whose Army?” sounds like an “OK Computer” protaganist crawling out from under the wreckage of its doomed world view, ready to take hold and fight back.  “Dollars and Cents” creeps up on you in the dark and takes over. Each track, on its own and in its own way comes out and finds me. Not long after, “Amnesiac” finds its way onto a playlist entitled kid Amesiac. “Kid A” and “Amnesiac” playing back to back, on a loop. “Life in a Glass House” blending wonderfully back into “Everything in It’s Right Place”.

Hail to the Theif – Initially purchased based on the ‘limited edition’ packaging, that – frustratingly – doesn’t fit in any standard CD rack. To add to this, new fangled DRM means iTunes won’t rip it to my Mac easily. Why must they make it so hard? Why?! But, back were the guitars – sort of – and the urgancy of tracks like “Myxomatosis” and “2+2=5″ come to remind me that Radiohead are still, first and foremost, a rock band.

In Rainbows – They asked the audience to name their price. I called it somewhere around the regular cost of an album from iTunes, and a facebook status update from around forty-three minutes after the download is complete suggests I considered this too much. The only song to reach out and grab me being “Videotape”, which is the album closer. A few weeks later I read somewhere that “In Rainbows” works better backwards, and while I’m not convinced this was what the band ever intended, I find out pretty quickly it’s right. Some time after this, for reasons I don’t fully understand, “Videotape” finds me in – of all places – Cape Town. Taking hold and becoming the soundtrack to my final days there. And the rest of “In Rainbows” has hung around ever since.

The why: I’ve learnt from this entry that writing about Radiohead is not an easy task. As I dove into this – all typing and very little planning – I started to realise how difficult an assignment I’d set myself for only my second FiiL. For some reason, I was reminded of Monty Python’s “All-England Summarise Proust Competition” sketch, in which contestants have to sumarise Proust’s fifteen part À la recherche du temps perdu in fifteen seconds. It should be noted, I haven’t ever read Proust. Nor do I really have much idea of what the sketch is on about. I think I first saw it when I was ten or eleven, but it’s obviously stuck with me. And to this day, on occaision, you might find me walking around my house humming “Proust in his first book wrote, wrote about, Proust in his first book wrote about Swann”.

Which is to say – in less words – that trying to explain why I like Radiohead is much like trying to summarise Proust in fifteen seconds. While it may be possible, the longer story – or perhaps, just the attempt – is far more interesting. Or at the very least, hopefully more entertaining.

While I couldn’t say that I listen to Radiohead absolutely every day, they’re always there, sitting and waiting for that mood to take hold. And when it does strike, and the need to listen to “The Bends” or “Kid A” comes, there isn’t much else that can quench the thirst besides a Radiohead bender. They can come on at a moment’s notice, and they have a habit of lasting for days. Sometimes even weeks.

While I hate talking in generalities, most people who have some sort of opinion on moderm music have probably already made up their mind about Radiohead. And from my experience, it’s not even a simple case of people either loving or hating them. There seems to be a surprising amount of indifference towards Radiohead these days – people preferring to discount them as either another band that got too big for their own good, or perhaps a band too wrapped up in the idea of themselves than putting out anything enjoyable or accessible. It’s well documented that the band never really became comfortable with the attention “OK Computer” brought them, and after watching the tour documentary “Meeting People is Easy” it’s not hard to see why they might’ve felt the need to go away and start again. It’s only now that I sit down and compile my own Radiohead history that I’m reminded of how much frustration the band have caused me. How many times that they’ve almost lost me because of their need to try something new. I’ve always been of the opinion that, if I’m to like something, it shouldn’t require effort on my part. Surely I shouldn’t have to try to like something – if it’s for me, then I’ll like it. If not, I shall move on to the next thing. And I don’t think this history does anything to change that opinion. Whether “OK Computer” or “Kid A” or “In Rainbows” grabbed me or not on the first run through isn’t really important. The genius of Radiohead – to me – is that they didn’t grab me. They didn’t knock me back like a song you love should. But there was something in there that drew me back – that keeps drawing me back. Every time.

——-

Disclaimer: I feel I should point out at this stage that, my decision to write about Radiohead for this fortnight’s FiiL had or has nothing to do with the recent re-issues of “Pablo Honey”, “The Bends” and “OK Computer”. In fact, in all honesty I forgot they were coming out until a day or so ago when I saw them in JB- and this has taken me far longer than that to compile. It’s pretty clear that the Radiohead re-issues are driven by their old label’s want to keep making money off the band, which is … we’ll it’s business really. In any case, if you’re interested – or perhaps if you lost your copy of “OK Computer” in a strange, late night letterbox incident, you’ll be able to find the re-issues in most good (and probably many of the bad) CD stores near you.

And I don’t even get any commission for saying that.

—–

[1] Australian Music Trivia: the same shed was the home to the majority of a drum kit that once belonged to Australian band Indecent Obsession, which my friend Rowan had won from a competition on Saturday Disney. The kit never fully arrived – pieces had trickled in over time, some damaged in transit, and despite calls and letters to the powers that be, was never complete.

[2] Which was selected based on her love for Björk’s first album. Though, I never would’ve picked it if I’d had chance to hear “It’s So Quiet” first, or been given prior warning to the frequency and volume she would play it over the coming months. I love Björk, but I’ve never, ever ever, been able to listen to that song all the way through. The opening notes usually enough to send me running.

[3] Same friend was at the time – in one of those strange co-incidences that suggest your world never really gets much bigger than the people you went to school with -living with the girl who’d once called D a creep. And they were together for some time. I don’t have a song for when they broke up.

Cristal En Vivo Festival, La Pista Atlética, Estadio Nacional, Santiago de Chile

Friday 27th March 2009

Nobody could quite believe it at first. As the familiar strains of the song that Radiohead refused to play for years drifted across the National Stadium, 30,000 fans looked at each other in shock. Then the euphoric screaming started. Those who had busily scoured the internet message boards for the set lists of the earlier Brazilian and Argentinean dates had hoped they might hear it (the band had encored with it there), but nobody, not a soul, expected them to open with Creep. Even for Radiohead, the most quixotic band on the planet, this was off the scale.

For the audience, it had been a long time in coming. The second of two nights in the Chilean capital, but the first to go on sale, they were finally rewarded for their patience. There are essentially two types of Radiohead fan. Those that only worship at the altar of one or two early albums, and others who adore every twist and turn of the band’s output, from the prog rock of OK Computer to the bleepy noise of Kid A. Tonight, the final stop on the band’s first ever South American tour, it was the latter who were in attendance and they weren’t disappointed.

Few bands better understand the concept of building intensity to a set list than Radiohead, moving from shade to light and back again, with scarcely a pause for breath. From the heavy percussion and dreamy vocals of The Reckoner (from latest offering In Rainbows) to the grungy college-rock riffs of 1995 single Just, they launched into the warped electronic sound clash of Idioteque before stopping the crowd dead with  Exit Music for a Film. As Thom Yorke gently strummed his acoustic guitar and whispered into the mike, the only sound from the audience was that of cigarette smoke being exhaled, the clicking of cameras and souls being emotionally wrung dry.

With the technical glitches of the night before behind them – when they were forced to leave the stage for nearly ten minutes – the band looked relaxed and happy. Back on stage for the first of two encores, guitarist Ed O’Brien told the masses, in heavily accented but perfect Spanish, that it had been the band’s dream to come to Chile. The crowd of course went wild.

As the minutes passed and the band played a beguiling version of House of Cards ( the finest song from In Rainbows), muffled discussions between fans began as to what they could possibly finish with. Masters of leaving audiences on a high, it was Paranoid Android that finally sent them on their away, a filling-loosening riot of visuals, guitars and noise.

If there were any complaints tonight, they certainly weren’t to do with the music. In a very unRadiohead show of capitalism, tickets were priced on a sliding scale, meaning few young Chileans could afford to be at the front in the ‘Golden Circle’. Those who had queued for hours found themselves penned in behind a barrier half way down the field, from where shouts of ‘more volume’ were audible and frequent. Bizarrely for an event sponsored by a local brewery, they couldn’t even console themselves with a beer, as the only things on sale were fizzy pop and biscuits. Just try getting away with that in Britain.

Meu amigo, se você é daqueles que gosta de música, curte algumas bandas, mas, por algum motivo, não vai a shows, te aconselho a repensar no assunto.

Tá certo que provavelmente você vai ter de enfrentar um baita trânsito pra chegar, tortura psicológica de flanelinhas extorsivos se você se meter à ir de carro, confusão e falta de informação, bares lotados servindo cerveja quente [quando tem], banheiros calamitosos e todos os possíveis perrengues proporcionados pela organização brasileira – que insiste em fazer o papel de amadora mesmo com o mercado de eventos musicais crescente – você tem que assistir uma apresentação ao vivo!

“Mas o ingresso tá caro!” Tá. Mas usa essa grana que você economiza baixando discos ao invés de comprá-los e vai, cacete! Seu papel como fã é esse e, acredite, tu vai sair no lucro.

No caso da passagem do Radiohead pelo Brasil o presente foi generoso. Ali, pelo menos de frente para o grupo, tudo foi lindo. Som, palco, músicas, performance, clima. E ai você volta pra casa impressionado e pensando “Puta merda, agora eu entendi tudo!”

E é essa experiência do “live”, o disco te dá a dica, mas é no ao vivo que você saca na real a idéia. Lá que você enxerga a essência de um grupo. Lá o papo é direto contigo, manja? Então não vacila! Pode ser grande ou pequeno, mainstream ou underground, da sua favorita ou daquela desconhecida, vai  pro show, cumpadi! Só assim pra sacar a pegada de verdade!

IDIOTEQUE – JUST A FEST SÃO PAULO

- Faltou Just. Teve Fake Plastic Trees.
- Visual do palco tão incrível quanto o do Nine Inch Nails.
- Comparando o  Set list, no Rio foi mais guitarrento.
- E aquele BandNews fm começando e encerrando a The National Anthem! É costume do Radiohead usar algum trecho de um rádio local, mas assustou muita gente.
- 3° bis! Alguém no backstage deve ter falado: “Olha, turma, foi tudo ótimo mas eu acho melhor vocês voltarem e tocarem Creep se não vai dar merda.”

Set List – Radiohead
Chácara do Jóquei, São Paulo, Brazil
22 de março de 2009

15 Step (In Rainbows)
There There (Hail To The Thief)
The National Anthem (Kid A)
All I Need (In Rainbows)
Pyramid Song (Amnesiac)
Karma Police (Ok Computer)
Nude (In Rainbows)
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)
The Gloaming (Hail To The Thief)
Talk Show Host (B-side – Trilha Sonora do filme Romeu e Julieta)
Optimistic (Kid A)
Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
Idioteque (Kid A)
Climbing Up The Walls (Ok Computer)
Exit Music (For A Film) (Ok Computer)
Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)

bis 1
Videotape (In Rainbows)
Paranoid Android (Ok Computer)
Fake Plastic Trees (The Bends)
Lucky (Ok Computer)
Reckoner (In Rainbows)

bis 2
House of Cards (In Rainbows)
You and Whose Army (Amnesiac)
True Love Waits (I Might Be Wrong)/Everything In Its Right Place (KidA)

bis 3
Creep (Pablo Honey)

Mais fotos do show, aqui.

Ontem foi o dia da terra da garoa receber o Just a Fest, com bandas de renome como Los Hermanos, Kraftwerk e Radiohead. Minhas pernas ainda estão doloridas e acordar hoje cedo para trabalhar, foi um verdadeiro sacrifício. Por isso, há algum tempo decidi que só vou a shows de bandas que amo muito, porque não tenho mais o pique de antes.

Los Hermanos

O que conhecia da banda não era muito mais do que a música Ana Júlia e eles não tocaram, segundo o meu irmão a canção esta fora do repertório da banda há anos. O grupo abriu o Just a Fest em São Paulo e considerei o show meio maçante e longo demais, acho que quando a gente não esta curtindo qualquer coisa fica longa. Pelo que vi a crítica não foi muito diferente disso, o site Terra lançou a seguinte manchete: “Los Hermanos mata saudade, mas faz show sem empolgação.”

A banda carioca ficou parada durante dois anos e se reuniu para o show do Just a Fest no Rio de Janeiro, sexta-feira, e ontem em São Paulo, acredito que muitas pessoas estavam ali especialmente para matar saudades da banda carioca. Ainda assim, a exaltação no decorrer do show não foi particularmente grande, os fãs apenas acompanhavam as musicas cantando, talvez pelo próprio estilo contido do fiel público do grupo. Segundo o mesmo site (Terra) a apresentação foi fria em comparação aos antigos shows. Também achei que parecia mais àqueles shows que a gente assiste sentado no Radio City Music Hall.

Los Hermanos é formado por Marcelo Camelo, Rodrigo Amarante, Bruno Medina, Rodrigo Barba (todos de camisas xadrezes e de tons parecidos) e mais músicos contratados em instrumentos de sopro, por exemplo. A banda tocou por cerca de 1:10h músicas de toda a carreira da banda, principalmente canções dos álbuns Ventura e Bloco do Eu Sozinho.

Confira o setlist dos Los Hermanos:
Todo Carnaval Tem Seu Fim
Primeiro Andar
O Vento
Além Do Que Se Vê
Condicional
Morena
Sétimo Andar
A Outra
Cara Estranho
Deixa O Verão
Assim Será
Cher Antoine
O Vencedor
Retrato Para Iá- Iá
Casa Pré-Fabricada
Último Romance
Sentimental
A Flor

Eu, como qualquer fashion addict reparei no visual dos fãs dos Los Hermanos. A maioria tinha estilo Marcelo Camelo, barba, cabelos meio sem corte e enrolados. Notei também uma turma com o cabelo estilo Chitãozinho e Xororó em inicio de carreia, mas renovado. O cabelo era repicado em cima, tinha os mullets na nuca e com a aparência de sujo, segundo meu irmão, muitas vezes era sujo mesmo. Alguns visuais me fez lembrar o Renato Russo, outras garotas pareciam a atriz Marjory Esteano na novela Caminho das Índias, com aqueles óculos horríveis de aro grosso. Será que é o novo estilo indie?

Kraftwerk

Meu pai foi ao show só para ver essa banda, que tem quase 40 anos de existência, a qual ele é fã desde a adolescência. Os alemães do Kraftwerk mostrou porque são referência em música eletrônica, o show reuniu uma fascinante mistura de música, vídeo e design. A formação atual, cujo único membro original é Ralf Hutter, apresentou com eficiência germânica um espetáculo audio-visual que, não se aproximava de nenhum show convencional. Muitos não conheciam a banda, fiquei até com medo de vaias, ia ficar com muita vergonha do meu Brasil, mas depois de certa calmaria, alguns dançaram conforme a música. Meu pai delirava ao início de cada canção, provavelmente relembrando algum momento especial de sua vida.

A banda é pioneira em música eletrônica nos anos 70s e é responsável por influenciar a existência de diversos gêneros, do electropop ao hip hop, passando pelo tecno e praticamente tudo que os seguiu no segmento da música feita com computadores e batidas mecânicas. Outro grupo de creio que se baseia bastante no Kraftwerk é o Blue Men de Nova Iorque, tanto na batida eletrônica como no visual.

Os temas das musicas sempre envolvendo robôs e futurismos, os quatro integrantes da banda estavam estáticos atrás de seus sintetizadores. Durante a canção The Robots os músicos foram substituídos por robôs que eram réplicas que deles mesmo. Os robôs se mexeram durante toda a apresentação. A galera gostou bastante da ousadia. A qualidade excelente do som só colaborou para perfeição do espetáculo. Em nenhum momento os músicos apareceram no telão, somente as suas pirações visuais, algumas com cara de vintage. Arrisco a dizer que vi o construtivismo russo em outros momentos.

Setlist do Kraftwerk

Intro

The man-machine

Planet of visions

Numbers

Computerworld

Tour de France

Autobahn

The model

Les mannequins

Radioactivity

Tee

The robots

Aerodinamyc

Musique non stop

Radiohead

A banda subiu ao palco da Chácara do Jóquei, zona sul de São Paulo, pontualmente às 22h e só saiu 2:21h mais tarde! Com um público estimado de 30 mil pessoas entre jovens e grisalhos, foi a primeira vez que os ingleses tocaram em São Paulo após 20 anos do surgimento da banda. Logo no início do show, Thom Yorke cumprimentou a platéia com um “boa nothe.” E o público brasileiro acha demais quando alguma banda gringa troca algumas palavras do nosso difícil português. Ao final, ele arriscou um “obrigada”.

O palco foi todo redecorado após a saída dos alemães. Com tubos luminosos impressionantes que iam desde o teto da estrutura até próximo dos integrantes, criando um efeito visual diferenciado. A sincronia entre luzes e cores seguia o ritmo das músicas e davam o tom com efeitos que iam desde ondas oscilantes e cascatas de luz. O show foi marcado pelo repertório variado entre canções do álbum mais recente e seus antecessores, a banda britânica se deparou com um momento inusitado. Ao finalizar Paranoid Android, canção do CD OK, Computer (1997), a platéia permaneceu entoando o coro que marca o fim da música. Nesta situação, o vocalista Thom Yorke voltou ao microfone e prolongou o verso com a ajuda da platéia.

Os momentos que mais contagiaram a apresentação foi quando tocaram Lucky, Creep e Fake Plastic Trees. Esta última conhecida especialmente no Brasil por ter se consagrado como “música do Carlinhos” ao virar trilha sonora de um comercial de TV que repudiava a discriminação de crianças com Síndrome de Down. Ao fim da canção, era possível ouvir gritos de “Carlinhos” entre a platéia.

Já no telão, que deixou o público na mão logo ao fim da primeira música e só voltou a funcionar na sexta canção. Ouvi muita gente reclamando. A projeção fazia um mosaico de imagens seguindo os membros da banda. Com alguns ângulos inusitados, era possível acompanhar a movimentação dos integrantes e suas performances fora dos formatos tradicionais.

Bis do bis do bis

No final, o Radiohead teve dificuldade de sair, sendo assim, tiveram três bis. Após deixarem o palco pela primeira vez, a banda retornou com Videotape, Paranoid Android, Fake Plastic Trees, Lucky e Reckoner.
Enquanto a deixa serviu para parte do público já deixar o local, o que não entendo, porque muitas bandas fazem bis, Thom Yorke e seu grupo voltou com House of Cards, You and Whose Army e Everything In It¿s Place. Ao deixar o palco, poucos pensaram que o Radiohead iria voltar. Engano. “Adivinhem qual é essa”, anunciou o vocalista antes de cantar Creep, embalada em coro pelos paulistas na última atração do Just a Fest.

Confira o setlist de São Paulo
15 Step
There There
The National Anthem
All I Need
Pyramid Song
Karma Police
Nude
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
The Gloaming
Talk Show Host
Optimistic
Faust Arp
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Idioteque
Climbing Up The Walls
Exit Music (For A Film)
Bodysnatchers

Bis 1

Videotape
Paranoid Android
Fake Plastic Trees
Lucky
Reckoner

Bis 2

House of Cards
You and Whose Army
Everything In Its Right Place

Bis 3

Creep

O público não agitou muito, o máximo que se via eram coros diante de sucessos conhecidos, mesmo na turma do gargarejo. Isso não significou que o show estava ruim, e sim que estavam perplexos com tanto talento. Geralmente não costumo cantar em shows, tenho a voz tão estridente e sou tão desafinada que prefiro só prestar a atenção em quem tem talento para a coisa.

Organização

Algo raro quando se fala em show no Brasil é pontualidade. E contrariando qualquer estatística, todos os shows começaram no horário marcado oficialmente, ou seja, os roadies estavam bem organizados.

Havia filas enormes nos caixas para consumo de bebidas e outra fila enorme para retirá-la. Fora o preço, uma cerveja ou refringente em lata custando R$6 cada. Comentei com meu pai que isso era bom, já que ficaria mais caro ficar chapadão, não que a organização deveria pensar nisso ao estabelecer esse preço abusivo. Se bem que para mim, que acabei de voltar de Nova Iorque, R$6 num refrigerante é uma pechincha. Porém não tomei nem um copo d’água, como os banheiros eram de plástico, tenho um nojo relativamente grande quanto a isso.

Outra coisa que achei bem ruim é a evacuação. Quando o show acabou formou-se um tumulto enorme para sair. Fiquei pensando no caso de uma evacuação de emergência, mesmo com as saídas de emergência, iria muita gente sair machucada.

Maconha e Cigarro

Sabe, achei que estava fora de moda fumar, pelos ambientes que freqüento que geralmente é proibido o fumo. Fora que cigarro é uma coisa completamente retrograda, coisa de gente burra! Estamos há anos luz atrás dos Estados Unidos, em Nova Iorque, por exemplo, tem calçadas, ao ar livre, que esta escrito “proibido fumar nessa calçada”. Os fumantes são descriminados e é assim que tem que ser. No show Just a Fest fumar maconha era totalmente liberado, quiçá cigarro convencional. Na entrada não havia nenhuma fiscalização contra o uso de drogas, confesso que fiquei até com um pouco de medo, porque nessa entra gente armada fácil fácil. Tanto é que era proibido o uso de câmeras fotográficas e tinha gente até com câmeras grandes, tamanha a falta de fiscalização.

Em dado momento, no meio da multidão fiquei tão enjoada com a fumaça de maconha que coloquei o meu lenço, que estava no cabelo no rosto que nem os punks ou bandidos de filme de bang-bang.

O Multishow preparou uma lista com 6 clipes pras pessoas entenderem o Radiohead.

Cá entre nós, acho que eles não conseguiram atingir o objetivo.

Não dá pra entender o Radiohead assim tão fácil. 

A pessoa precisa ter levado um chifre antes (ou passado por algo bem próximo disso).

Além disso, acho que ficou faltando a minha música preferida:

blog do thom yorke

radiohead.com

one month and three days later

I once heard it said, “You try the best you can, you try the best you can. The best you can is good enough.”

I learned tonight that this is not always true. Sometimes you do your best, and it really is the best, but it doesn’t mean anything. Yeah, I’m a bit overwhelmed with emotion right now, but that has been the case for a good part of my life.

Life is entirely too long and too difficult for it to remain like this.

Being too close to people is going to be the death of me.

Bueno, en este espacioparadesaparecer en el que no paro de hablar de series y la Web 2.0, pues no podía faltar LOST (Perdidos, en nuestro idioma). Y esto es porque como bien cuenta este artículo en El País, la fuerza de la serie reside en que ha conseguido crear tras de sí una legión de seguidores, que a través de foros, blogs y demás, han especulado y en parte creado esta serie (por otra parte de producción multimillonaria).

Yo era de los que pensaba que iba a ser un peñazo, y he de admitir que la pillé tarde. Pero un día, que tenia poco mejor que hacer, me baje via burrito la primera y parte de la segunda temporada… Y ahi fue cuando la liamos parda! OVNIS, Conspiraciones, viajes en el tiempo, mitologías imposibles… ; la serie no parecía ser de este tipo de supervivientes, sino mas bien de este otro. Estaba oficialmente enganchado. Una serie con un argumento muy complicado, pero sin embargo que no se pierde en infinitas explicaciones. Con una dinamica narrativa original, numerosas retrospectivas (o flashback) y flashfoward (que no se como se dice en español) y personajes bien definidos y desarrollados. Donde no solo esta el misterio y la intriga de lo que no se ve, sino de lo que ves claramente, pero que no entiendes. En fín, que me lío, es una seriaca!

Esta producida por ABC (la cadena estadounidense de Disney) y va por la quinta temporada, que se empezó a emitir hace bien poco. Yo, que no me puedo esperar, me bajo los capitulos de aqui y los veo con los subtitulos de aqui, porque además se entiende bastante bien. Esta ultima página, Lostzilla, recopila cada poco cosas que tengan que ver con la serie (entrevistas, reviews, comics, curiosidades, fallos de racord, etc.) y la verdad es que esta muy bien organizada. Muy recomendable, siendo un ejemplo perfecto del fenomeno Web 2.0 comentado previamente.

Pero si por algo engancha Perdidos es porque no paras de preguntarte un rato y otro ¡¿Que esta pasando?! Y de hecho hay muchas cosas que posiblemente no hallan tenido explicacion en un principio y ahora se ven un poco forzadas. Y viene, viene, viene el SPOILER… (voy a intentar un poco por encima de que va esta serie).

Una isla desierta, un tanto concurrida. Como casi todos sabeis todo comienza con el accidente del Oceanic 815 en una islita del pacífico. El barco se rompe en dos partes y sobreviven a el accidente dos grupos de pesronas. Ambos se acaban encontrando, despues de mucho tiempo, auqnue el segundo grupo ha sufrido numerosas bajas. En el primero Jack, el medico, se disputa el mando con un filibustero sureño, Sawyer. Luego, pues esta el gordito (Hugo), una pareja asiática (Sun y Jin), la buenorra (Kate), un militar iraqui (Sayid), una embarazada (Claire), un rockero venido a menos (Charlie)… Vamos una muestra muy diversa de estereotipos, que aún asi en su vida han tenido alguna relación (Primer ¿einch?). Sobreviven y conviven como pueden, pero por si no fuera suficientemente duro, cosas extrañas comienzan a pasar: Monstruos de humo, osos polares, una tribo de “indigenas” invisibles que quieren acabar con ellos… Se dividen entre un grupo en la playa y otro a una cueva mas al interior de la isla. Un tipo un tanto extraño, John Locke, es un gran rastreador y encuentra comida para los supervivientes. Pero como antes de llegar a la isla era minusvalido y la isla cura a la gente (sisi, un segundo ¿einch?), no para de darse garbeos por la isla y encuentra cosas extrañas. Una “empresa”, DHARMA, tiene una red de instalaciones por toda la isla. Son de los años 70, y por eso tiene todo un aire retro de lo mas inquietante. John se encuentra con una misteriosa escotilla, que resulta ser la puerta a una de ellas. Tras darle un aire místico, consiguen volarla (gracias a la ayuda de Rosseau, la superviviente del naufragio de una expedicion francesa). Parecen morir todos, por la explosión, pero no, abren y dentro se lo tiene bien montado Desmond, ya que resulta ser un bunker perfectamente equipado. Este, pensaba que fuera estaba todo infectado y no podia salir de su escondite, teniendo que pulsar unos números para evitar algo que no tenia muy claro. Los famosos números 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 y 42, aparecen en múltiples ocasiones (son con los que gana la loteria Hugo, y este piensa que estan malditos, si un tercer ¿einch?). Luego se sabe que son las constantes de una ecuacion que predice el fin de la humanidad, por este muy muy muy interesante video. Antes o despues, “los Otros” esos extraños indigenas de la isla, raptan a la embarazada. Mas tarde se sabe que fué Juliet, una doctora que intenta evitar que los niños mueran antes de nacer en la isla, ya que por alguna razón no pueden (cuarto ¿einch?). Pero ya salvada y todo, pasan muchas cosas extrañas con los Otros, que resultan ser mas organizados y civilizados de lo que parecían. De tal forma les infiltran un topo (Michael) y aunque consiguen raptar a su jefazo (Ben Linus) por un tiempo, ellos tambien secuestran a Jack, Kate y Sawyer, que consiguen escapar. En numerosas ocasiones intentan la hida con barcos que por unas cosas u otras no les llevan a ninguna parte. En algunos momentos los supervivientes tienen visiones, de apariciones de muertos (el padre de John, el hijo de Michael…, nosecuantavo ¿einch?), y otro monton de cosas raras, pero al final resulta que el tal Ben no es tan querido por los otros (ni el les quiere tanto a ellos, ya que intenta exterminarlos a todos) y Juliet se une al grupo, con la reticencia de algunos, por poder ser una espia (recordemos que los Otros se pegan unas temporadas haciendoselas pasar pu*as). Giro de la trama. Aparece en escena una expedicion que parecía ir en su ayuda (con un helicoptero y un carguero y todo), pero tambien parece que quieren matarles. No se sabe si vienen de parte de la novia de Desmond (Penny) o del padre de esta (Widmore), que es el archienemigo de Ben, multimillonario jefe de una multinacional y que lo que mas desea es encontar la dichosa isla. Total un lío. Pero entre los que vienen nosesabeaque, hay un tipo que ve a los muertos y un físico que parece entender algo de la isla, y todos parece que han estado antes allí. Esto no interesa a Ben, que para salvar la isla va a moverla por completo y no se sabe si es sin saber que no solo en el espacio, sino que moverá a los que estan en ella a traves del tiempo (una raccion extra de ¿einch?). Antes de que esto suceda, escapan unos cuantos: Jack, Kate, Sun, Jin, Hugo, Said, Aarón (el hijo de Claire) y Desmond. Solo unos cuantos de ellos, rescatados ahora si por Penny, vuelven a la civilización. Jin “muere” en una explosion en el carguero y Desmond desaparece del mapa ya que a el y a Penny, les busca el padre de esta con no buenas intenciones. Los demás, los Oceanic six, mienten sobre todo lo que paso en la isla diciendo que son los únicos supervivientes. Pero algunos se arrepienten y parece que deben volver de nuevo. Ahora hay dos bandos: Ben y a los que intenta convencer para volver y Widmore y a los que convence para que se enfrenten a Ben. Bueno estos y los que siguen en la isla, saltando de época en época. Seguro que me he saltado muchas cosas, pero fijaos que aun siendo muy superficial, he ocupado un bastante en esta  ”microsinopsis”. Y me sigo preguntando, y es mi ¿einch? particular: ¿Que narices significaba el pie de la estatua con cuatro dedos? ¿Nunca lo sabremos?

Lo dicho, una seriaca, que os recomiendo desde ya que si no habeis visto, empeceis ahora!!

[16:02:44] The Dude: wazup spaceman
[16:29:54] Me: spaceman? spaceman you say?
[16:29:59] … i’m a COSMONAUT!
[16:30:29] … although the russians may not be very popular right now, with all this gas business and stuff <.<
[16:30:53] … but nevertheless i’m not a pesky spaceman… a COSMONAUT i am!