art is the new religion

No way to control it, it's totally automatic

I've had this song stuck in my head for days, so the only thing to do now is pass it on to you.

I've known this song for years, but I never knew who sang it until I Googled it.  And, I'm not gonna lie:  all this time I thought the lead vocal in the verse was sung by a man!  I had no idea it was the Pointer Sisters.  I'm still wrapping my head around this as I watch the video.

"All I can manage to push from my lips
Is a stream of absurdities"

OK now I'm on to the costumes - how great are they?  The lavender pantaloons?  The iridescent fabric?  Ruffles, ruffles, ruffles!  The Pointer Sister in the hot pink on the right, her legs go on for days.  The synth sounds in this song are out of this world.  And pay attention to the dancers on the wide shots - I love the woman wearing the spandex bodysuit with a belt.  What is the belt holding up??

More fun facts:

• They really are sisters with the surname of Pointer!
• The Pointers are from Oakland, heyy.
• They were the first black female singers to perform at the Grand Ole Opry.
• Ruth Pointer was a grandmother by the time "Automatic" came out!
• They recorded the pinball number count from Sesame Street!

That is quite possibly the greatest cartoon ever made!

So that's two earworms for ya.  Which one is in your head now?

Time Stops Still When...

My friend Chad sent me the new Goldfrapp record Seventh Tree and I've been listening to in the rare calm moments I've had over the past two days.  I haven't digested the entire album yet, but the song "Happiness" did stand out by getting stuck in my head and giving me a nice fuzzy, diffused feeling, kind of like you get when the dentist gives you nitrous oxide or after you've had two margaritas.

The music here is lulling, but the lyrics themselves also have a narcotic effect -- it seems she's singing from the point of view of a persuasive cult leader.  I'm in - show me some happiness and love, real love...

Here's Goldfrapp performing the song live on the Jonathan Ross show.  This particular clip must have been made by a superfan because they seem to have cut in every camera shot of Alison and Will, the principle members.  Even the one where she looks colossally bored, resting her chin on her hand, while The Rock flashes a smile from the adjacent couch.  Alison is always gorgeous and creative stylistically, so she's inevitably the focal point, but get a gander at Will's facial hair.  He looks like he's midway to morphing into a werewolf:

I was pretty delighted to see a keytar player in this performance, but that thrill quickly subsided as soon as I noticed the guy's wearing shorts.  This breaks one of my cardinal rules of onstage style:  you are only permitted to wear shorts on stage if your name is Angus Young.

Listen to a little bit more from Goldfrapp, including a live performance of "A&E" and "Caravan Girl" from the new record:

• Buy Seventh Tree from Amazon or, better yet, buy it at Insound.

Von Dutch: the man, the myth, the legend

That kerfuffle between Top Model winner Adrianne Curry and Perez Hilton hit a little close to home with one of my friends.

It's one thing for a celebrity to shoot off their mouth and take the flack for it themselves, but it turns out that any company for which that celeb might have posed, spoken, modeled or worked - either currently or in the past - ends up feeling the heat as well. 

Apparently Curry was a model for Von Dutch Watches several months ago, therefore my friend KenE who runs all the marketing for Von Dutch got a deluge of calls regarding her comments.  Never mind that Curry wasn't a current model for the brand, or that Von Dutch Watches is actually separate from the other Von Dutch companies.  It was such a loose connection, yet he still spent the better part of two days doing damage control.  I'm all for free speech, but people should be conscious of just how loud their voice is and how far-reaching the effects can be.

The upside of all this is that I learned a lot more about who Von Dutch (Kenny Howard) the person was:  an artist, mechanic, metalworker, painter and innovator of pinstriping and Kustom Kulture.

All reports indicate he was pretty eccentric and liked to stay close to the edge:

"I make a point of staying right at the edge of poverty. I don't have a pair of pants without a hole in them, and the only pair of boots I have are on my feet. I don't mess around with unnecessary stuff, so I don't need much money. I believe it's meant to be that way. There's a 'struggle' you have to go through, and if you make a lot of money it doesn't make the 'struggle' go away. It just makes it more complicated. If you keep poor, the struggle is simple. "

Keep poor, kids.  Metaphorically speaking.

H&M

On November 19 at 10 a.m., H&M will open two brand new stores, at 150 Powell Street and 150 Post Street.  FINALLY.

shows, Sufjan, CDs

Is there such a thing as too much live music?

I'd say no, as long as you're up for some sleep deprivation. Last week I saw five shows, all of which were fantastic, four of which included good old friends from out of town performing. It was great to see Fil, JD (for two whole days) and Ian. (I wish I could say Sufjan was my friend, or my suitor, but alas I've never met the chap.) The Knitters' new album, The Modern Sounds of the Knitters, is out and you should own it. Those kids successfully avoided the sophomore slump.

After our Friday afternoon in-office happy hour, I walked over to Ian's show at Hotel Utah, and when that was finished a group of us went round the corner, literally, to have a house party at another friend's office. So I managed to spend 16 hours at three different places which were all within a block of each other.

Last night Audree and I went to a fashion show that featured her bags. It was fun to see the creative vision of 7 or 8 different independent designers. One of the designers was a handsome rocker looking guy, who I knew I'd seen somewhere before. I bought a really cute hoodie from him and did my best to refrain from asking "Where do I know you from?" Which was a good thing, because after racking my brain all night, I think I remember seeing him on an episode of "Blind Date."

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Promotional "The" CDs that landed in my mailbox this week: The Cranes, The Occasion, and The Veronicas. I've never listened to The Cranes before (gasp!) but I'm digging the record. Mellow, atmospheric, otherworldly. The Veronicas album came with an exuberant note from their record label and an entertaining bio (their "dynamic Sire Records debut album kicks the "Wow Factor" up a notch or two"). Listening to the album and looking at their photo (hot young twins), it's clear how they could appeal to Avril and Kelly Clarkson fans. It's solid radio pop rock and it will probably blow up. But I was a little taken aback by the lyrics to their song "Secret." Here's the chorus:

You can call me 6 times but still I won't pick up the phone
You can spend all your money on me but I'll still say no
You can write a million letters every day confessing to me
That I am the girl of your dreams
But nobody ever asked me
I never looked at you that way
Cuz I always thought you were gay

Now I'm not advocating for some uber-PC censorship, I just worry that this could give tweens and teens some unnecessary ammo for intolerance, however subtle it may be. Am I overreacting?

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It's a beautiful day outside and I'm inside blogging. For shame.

Being back in the full

Being back in the full time working world is quite a change! I need to dust off my rusty time management skills to juggle SFist duties, other writing gigs, shows, KB/dance, socializing, and everything else. Let's see how my new schedule affects how often I blog.

The holiday weekend was dedicated to BBQs -- Penn had one on Sunday at his house with tons of food and lots of cool people. My upstairs neighbors hosted yesterday's BBQ, with more great food and lots of nice new people to meet. I was chatting with Penny and fellow SFist Sam's name came up (via her Becks & Posh blog) and Blakely's name came up while talking to Jen. She must have heard us, because a little while later she and Xav showed up, which was a treat (even though we'd been to the Diamond Nights show together the night before). Jen has a line of fantastic t-shirts called Lacquer (sp?) that should be available at RAG soon. We watched the fireworks from Crystal and Emmett's cozy living room -- we've got quite a view here.

You have to check out the world's ugliest dog! [via SFist MattyMatt] This devil dog is unbelievably ugly.

Blagg strikes again: No Admitted Hipsters Found at 'Total Hipster Party'. It's funny because it's true.

Finally, in a gross self-referential display, I'm going to link to one of my own posts, but for good reason. I want you to scroll to the bottom of the comments to read about the idea that kind commenter Uncle Wendy shared about doing the Record Club online. Genius idea Uncle W, thanks for sharing!