Michael Bérubé - American Airspace

Open thread

Because I stopped by this morning and learned that the previous post had somehow provoked 140 comments. Holy jumping Hathor! What a lot of should- have- been- one- hit- wonders we’ve got here! --enough, certainly, to foreshorten dozens of pop music careers and change the history of commercial radio. But I’ve got to get back to being on “spring” “break,” so I won’t intervene just yet. Anyway, here’s another thread for the next few days. Use it wisely--

And as for David Bowie and Elton John: we’ll talk. I just happen to have a theory about David Bowie and Elton John.

Posted by on 03/08 at 10:30 AM

Then of course we could discuss these same ‘more or less than one hit wonders’ lists as they affected our palates---

[UK News]: LONDON - A musician who sees colour when she hears music can also “taste” the flavours of tones such as a creamy harmony by Bach, scientists say.
Swiss neuropsychologists recruited Elizabeth Sulston, a 27-year-old professional musician, for a year-long study.
Sulston, who has an average IQ, is a synaesthete – someone who involuntarily experiences a crossover of senses from stimuli. In this case, she sees colour when she hears a tone. To Sulston, an F sharp looks violet and a C is red.”

If Bach is Creamy, then what color/taste is AC/DC?

Posted by on 03/08 at 12:24 PM
If Bach is creamy, then what color/taste is Cream?

Posted by on 03/08 at 12:40 PM
AC/DC probably tastes like that very special kind of grit found only in gutters in which one awakes after a night one does not remember.

Cream probably tastes like hard candy and ass.

Posted by Paul on 03/08 at 01:04 PM
I just happen to have a theory about David Bowie and Elton John.

Does it involve alter egos, surgery, and why they’ve never recorded a duet?

Posted by HP on 03/08 at 02:19 PM
Perhaps it has something to do with the era where Bowie and his wife were “bi” and the wife went around doing things like biting other women’s breasts. Sir Elton could seem like pretty conservative bed company after that.

Posted by on 03/08 at 03:42 PM
If Bach is Creamy, then what color/taste is Cream?

And what does “Smells Like Teen Spirit” taste like?

Posted by Chris Clarke on 03/08 at 04:22 PM
Bach:Creamy as Jelly Roll Morton:??

Posted by Linkmeister on 03/08 at 05:23 PM
Actually Dick Cheney tastes like candy and hard ass. Dubya just tastes like butt.

Posted by on 03/08 at 06:04 PM
Well, that killed things dead.

We could talk about bands that actually deserved to be no-hit wonders, like I dunno Hamilton Joe Frank and Reynolds.

Posted by Chris Clarke on 03/09 at 02:32 PM
mm, read a tidbit about David Bowie’s wife Iman recently, she seems a formidable creature even without the biting lark:

Eamonn [Holmes, British TV presenter] didn’t even get past the introductions with David Bowie’s wife Iman. He laughs: “This 9ft creature walked in and I went and shook her hand, saying: “Hello. Eamonn. How are you doing?’ She replied: ‘Iman.’ I said: ‘Hello… Eamonn.’ She screamed: ‘IMAN!’

She started hitting me and slapping me, yelling: ‘I’m Iman.’ I said: ‘I know who you are - I’m just trying to tell you, I’m Eamonn!’”

As for Bowie’s music, how about the mangled versions sung by Seu Jorge in “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” - did anyone else fall in love with the colors in that film? Anyway - Portuguese acoustic Bowie is not a one hit wonder....

Posted by on 03/09 at 05:41 PM
I haven’t seen Life Aquatic yet (not out on video), but I was strangely unmoved by the Bowie covers I heard. I love David Bowie, and I love Brazilian music, but they didn’t do much for me. (Rita Lee’s version of The Beatles’ “And I Love Her,” now there’s a good Brazilian cover but, alas, it’s only sung in heavily accented English.)

Posted by on 03/09 at 05:55 PM
I should clarify...they fall into the category of “so bad it’s good” with no offense to Seu Jorge who is both a good actor and musician…

Posted by on 03/09 at 06:46 PM
Gotcha. I’d probably understand better if I’d seen the movie. I mostly wanted to go on-record with my love for both David Bowie and Brazilian music. And that Rita Lee song. She was in Os Mutantes, and that’s a great cover.

Posted by on 03/09 at 07:52 PM
Is there anyone who doesn’t have a theory about David Bowie and Elton John? Mine is called “Totally Glam and Totality: One Night, One Bed, Bowie, Elton John, and Leo Strauss.” Can’t find a damn journal to publish it in, however. Believe it or not, it was rejected by “Interpretation.”

Posted by on 03/10 at 12:22 PM
Can one really discuss Elton and Bowie and their bands without acknowledging the influence of Marc Bolan and T-Rex? Derivative attributes become senselessly endless though, i know: Bolan to Brian Jones to Pipes of Pan and the drummers of Morocco buried in the Atlas Mountains et al ad nauseum

I do suspect the smell of teen spirit was pretty skunky and the black eyed peas claim they smell skanky. Then there is the work of Christian F. D. Shubart (1787) that assigned emotional characteristics and attributes to all the chords.

Posted by on 03/10 at 04:04 PM
Schubart: “It’s part of a trilogy, a musical trilogy I’m working on in D minor, which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, I don’t know why.”

Posted by Alex on 03/10 at 04:07 PM
Lick My Love Pump: influenced by Mozart or Bach? Discuss.

Posted by NTodd on 03/10 at 07:08 PM
Discover the Nutwork rebuttal to Horror o wits.

http://homepage.mac.com/jholbo/nutwork/

Posted by on 03/10 at 08:12 PM
dude.

clearly the boys need direction. no more open threads allowed.

Posted by Roxanne on 03/10 at 11:12 PM
Personally, I think the RNC would have gone much smoother with Oban instead of Macallan. Oban goes so much better with good, juicy, fleshy meat . . . wait . . . where am I?

Posted by on 03/11 at 12:36 AM
Na nana nana
HEY!!
nuna nuna na
Na nana nana
HEY!!
nuna nuna na…

Posted by Chris Clarke on 03/11 at 01:24 AM
OK, now, that’s it. I’m back at home and working on my own computer again, and it’s clearly time to police this thread. (The other one is completely effing hopeless, though extremely provocative.) From now on all comments on this post must (a) contribute to a unified field theory of Elton John, David Bowie, and Roxanne Cooper, (b) help us to understand how best to Discover the Nutwork, or (c) establish a firm conceptual basis for cataloguing animals that belong to the Emperor and do not, from a long way off, look like flies.

Thanks, everyone.

Posted by Michael on 03/11 at 01:46 AM
That (a) is a tough one, Michael, in that Roxanne is actually worth having around and is thus the eight balll in the apple and orange tree.

Posted by Chris Clarke on 03/11 at 01:54 AM
Rocket Man > Major Tom > ?

Posted by Roxanne on 03/11 at 07:30 AM
Oh, and did you know that BowieNet is now hosting blogs?

Posted by Roxanne on 03/11 at 07:36 AM
Roxanne - direction? We don’t need no stinking direction.

Posted by NTodd on 03/11 at 10:15 AM
Let’s see, following the arrows of direction>>> pointing from Star Trek to Ziggy to Uncle Ernie/Major Tom to Star Wars… Music by that vastly and much over-rated John Williams. As for the new one i saw this today:
-- Bob Thompson, a Syracuse University professor and pop culture expert. “The accepted wisdom is that you don’t mess with the franchise. .....But so much of the fan base is people who saw the first episode 30 years ago, and they are old enough and mature enough now for something darker. There is a trend toward embracing darkness in children’s literature and movies,”

While glam rock may have had an influence on those who watched Star Wars 30 years ago allowing them to mature so much more slowly so that they are almost ready for a PG 13 rated film… i wonder about Bob’s supposition regarding a the trend in darkening childrens’ lit. Is that since the Grimm brothers???

Posted by on 03/11 at 03:09 PM

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