Little bit of digital art I made on my Surface Book in iso
If countries were people at a party, Canada would be a delightful, pretty girl in the corner, who smiles and politely says hello, but is so afraid to express an opinion or offend that shows no personality at all. She doesn’t swear. You make a sarcastic joke and she takes it literally, and you decide that’s a perfect time to walk away. If you’d left after five minutes you’d only remember her beauty, but the rest of the conversation has clouded that.
Her older brother USA is in the next room loudly telling stories and grabbing everyone’s attention. Perhaps he’s the reason Canada is afraid to rock the boat. You stand there listening. Some things he says are hilarious, some fascinating, some brilliant – all very charismatic. But every now and then he says something clearly not true. Nobody challenges him on it because he’s far too confident in himself – and you’re pretty sure he just grabbed someone else’s drink right out of their hand and nobody said anything. You hope that he can be reasoned with, because of the side of him which is good. He has a lot to offer if he loses the attitude.
A recent conversation started me thinking about my favourite albums, or at the very least, the albums that shaped me and my personality (or possibly spoke to the personality I already had). It’s impossible to rank such a list, but some items that make the shortlist are obvious.
The first album I ever bought with my own money was Hello Nasty by Beastie Boys. At that time I was familiar with their previous work, but not intimately. My knowledge was largely drawn from their clever and often amusing music videos.
So in a similar vein, Hello Nasty was introduced by way of the video for Intergalactic. It was hilarious, fresh, and experimental. And I can’t pass a robot voice nor a thumping beat. That song was, and still is, a JAM. I wanted to see more, hear more and learn more.
Big Power Ranger energy
In 1998 I was 15. I had a job at the local pharmacy delivering medication to little old ladies on my bike. I made $6 for my 90 minute shift after school, two days a week. On a good shift, I’d get to deliver to Gladys Day – who, despite living only a block away from the pharmacy would give a whopping $2 tip. There’s a reason I remember her name 22 years later.
So in a good week, I’d make $15. An album was over twice that, and in those days all you had to go off was what you’d heard on the radio or seen on TV. I took the plunge and bought it, and got far more value than I had paid. I listened to that album on loop. I was a regular on the (very active for 1998) Beastie Boys message board and made friends from all over the world.
The first two minutes of this are pure comedy, as is Mike’s dance move at 3:25
Last year I read Beastie Boys Book, which I thoroughly recommend to general music fans. One thing that delighted me was a chapter by Adam Horovitz titled “Hello Nasty Is Our Best Record”. Horovitz goes on to outline his reasoning, and what grabbed me was that I agreed with all of it. Hello Nasty is weird, genre hopping, lyrically both deep and goofy, and yet all works. And the cover artwork encapsulates all of this. Horovitz says it best:
This song still gets me – and only holds more weight after Yauch’s death
Most of those who only casually know Beastie Boys seem to draw their conclusions from Fight for your Right (To Party). In my case, I wasn’t even aware of their first album until years later and was surprised how different that was from the band I’d come to know from listening to (in this order) Hello Nasty, Check Your Head, Paul’s Boutique, Ill Communication, and To The Five Boroughs. To this day I still surprise friends when I play tracks such as I Don’t Know or Song For Junior and tell them it’s Beastie Boys.
I was fortunate enough to see these guys play three times, the highlight being their 2005 “dress to impress” tour at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney – right up front in the January heat. When Adam Yauch died of cancer in 2012, it was the first time that a celebrity death had ever affected me. These guys were always true to themselves, did things the way they wanted, and pushed boundaries. They were never afraid to speak up for injustice, be it Tibetan freedom, endless war, or sexism (“Like you got the right / to look her up and down“). And all the while they were happy to goof around and have a laugh (“Dogs love me cause I’m crazy sniffable“) or drop cultural references in French or Spanish. When I visited New York City for the first time in 2011 I felt I already knew my way around based off Beastie lyrics.
They were never in it for money or fame – they just did what they loved and said what they felt. Ad Rock, Mike D and MCA had an overwhelmingly positive impact on that 15-year-old-me and the life that followed.
Play or fold, love is bold What is the future that will unfold? Some like it hot, others like it cold But we all want to hold the remote control
In December 2018 I had a good chunk of time off work, and little desire to hang around Vancouver for the winter, so as is typically my want – I chased the sun. I locked in a trip home for January, but had all of December clear.
Key Largo
I’d long had the desire to do a road trip through the south of USA (still do) but the scale and cost was mounting the more I planned. I then noticed that there was a SpaceX rocket launch scheduled for the following week (a huge bucket list item) – and so my Florida road trip was born.
I flew into Orlando, stepped into my Hyundai and got out of that city as fast as I could in search of a spot for lunch. I found a spot in Sanford, and had arrived less than a minute before the heavens exploded with torrential rain, thunder and lightning – and I realised how much I had missed real weather.
Couldn’t get enough of the trees
I moved down the coast from St Augustine (beautiful), to Daytona (trash), and Cocoa beach (magic).
I caught my first glimpse of Cape Canaveral on the horizon from Cocoa Beach. I sat at the Rikki Tiki Tavern having a beer and eavesdropping on the conversations nearby. They all looked like locals or even holidaymakers – shorts, old t-shirts, thongs. But their conversation – discussion about terraforming Mars to my left, and genetic engineering to my right – was very unexpected. The genetics conversation was way over my head.
Florida is the butt of many a joke in pop culture, and driving around I could see why – but the experience in that bar felt very much like home, Australia. Appearances are not important. The concept of “class” is near non-existent, and that is sometimes used for jokes aimed at the place, but I for one love it.
The launch itself was INCREDIBLE. It had been a long time since I’d felt that level of child-like excitement, and the experience was far more mind-blowing than I had anticipated. The flame was intensely bright, the roar made my hairs stand on end. And no matter how many times I see a rocket land back on the pad, it’s still as unbelievable as the first time.
So much to geek out on
Further down the coast I found myself in Everglades National Park, cycling around gators, turtles and an enormous amount of bird life, and eating all the delicious corn and BBQ food I could manage.
I then drove all the way along the Florida keys. I have to say it’s one of the most stunning drives I’ve ever done. Along the way I managed to snorkel, laze by the pool and stuff my face with Key Lime Pie, Cuban sandwiches and Cuban coffee.
So simple, so delicious
Loves me some pie
It now falls into the category of places I wish I’d had more time with, but will most likely never see again.
Hiroshi Nagai always delights, and serves as a perfect visual aid to this month’s playlist
I’ve thrown in a few more oldies this month. Being stuck at home has led me to dig through some old favourites seeking comfort during my slow descent into solitary madness.
The Strokes dropped The New Abnormal which really only made it clear to me that JC should just focus on The Voidz instead, and so I ended up listening to Tyranny and Virtue again instead.
And given it was the 15th anniversary of Guero last month I had to revisit it, and since I couldn’t decide on a favourite I threw one of the 8-bit remixes that came out at the time. Yes, the original is better, but chiptunes warm my soul and I get to feel like I’m collecting coins or rings as I listen.
Lyrically, Girl is a great example of what I love about Beck’s stream-of-consciousness style. The official lyrics for the hook are “My … girl” where the ellipsis is mumbled and interpretation is left up to the listener. Is it sun-eyed or cyanide? The rest of the lyrics can be read differently depending on perspective, but overall it’s a very dark song cast to an upbeat tune.
“I know I’m gonna steal her eye” isn’t quite as charming when taken literally.
Back in the 90s I was fascinated by IBM’s Deep Blue project – which aimed to create a computer program worthy of defeating the world’s greatest Chess champions – Garry Kasparov’s loss in particular was a huge moment in what was seen then as artificial intelligence, but with today’s perspective just some brute-force programming.
AlphaGo (now acquired by Google) is today’s equivalent, with two key differences. This time the game is Go – a 2500 year old Chinese game with far more complexity than chess. Secondly, AlphaGo was designed with deep learning and improves with repeated plays.
The doco makes for great viewing (especially being stuck inside right now) and it’s free to watch on YouTube! It’s fascinating to watch Lee Sedol battle with the emotions of playing against a machine and everyone LOSE THEIR MINDS with move 37.
We’re not just teaching computers any more – they’re teaching us. And what’s more – it’s coming for my vfx industry with Netflix’s Archer being one such example (no, not that one). I’m not one to proclaim changes like this to be doom and gloom for the artist. In my experience, clever tools only free up artists from mundane activities and leave them to focus on the art. I always say “if something can be automated, it should be”, and advances in tech and tools have only led to a greater volume of work. That said, it will be an interesting shift.
