Purveyor of sheer awesomeness.
Joshua Hale Fialkov is the Harvey, Eisner, and Emmy Award nominated writer of graphic novels, animation, video games, film, and television, including:
THE LIFE AFTER, THE BUNKER, PUNKS, ELK'S RUN, TUMOR, ECHOES, KING, PACIFIC RIM, THE ULTIMATES, I, VAMPIRE, and JEFF STEINBERG CHAMPION OF EARTH. He's also written television including MAX’s YOUNG JUSTICE, NBC's CHICAGO MED and NETFLIX’s AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.
Boys Don't Cry (Some folk say the link isn't working, so, you can cut and past this is it doesn't: http://www.poorlydrawnanimals.com/blog/music/Boys%20Dont%20Cry.mp3 )
So, since the former missus left call it personal depression or whatever, but I've gotten back into the Cure. Trust me, my 14 year old self would kick the shit out of the current me for admitting that in public. Anyways, this is also a little rough shod demo, of Boys Don't Cry.
Hey Hey Little Bandit This is the first song I've written in... shit... six years. Recording's decent enough, but it's not got many frills (and I fuck up in the final verse, but you won't notice unless I say something. Oops.) It's sort of an Elvis-y ditty, it's far from my best song writing, but, y'know, I'm pretty flabby in that department right now. Got one more song I'm outputting right now.
Back before I was a criminally ignored comic book writer, I was a criminally ignored musician. I had a couple of moderately successful bands all the way back to high school, but, as I grew up, I chose other things over music, and honestly, I've regretted it ever since. Music was a huge part of my life from the time I was a kid. Hell, even the bulk of my writing is inspired by music. So, part of those big life changes I mentioned earlier are I'm going back to it. I'm going to start slow, and the whole idea for me, anyways, is to do something purely for love. There's not enough of that in this world. I'm goin to set up a page here on the blog for my musical history etc. In the meantime tho, I set up a myspace page with some tracks from my last recording. So, go here: www.myspace.com/joshuahalefialkov and listen away.
FOR SOME REASON THE OFFICIAL SITE WENT DOWN, SO ALL THE IMAGES AND SUCH ARE GONE. OH WELL.Just got home from seeing The Black Rider at the Ahamnson Theater. For those not in the know, The Black Rider is the musical written by Tom Waits and William S. Burroughs and brought to the stage by Robert Wilson. The show was originally produced about a decade ago, and this is a revival, with Wilson still at the head.It's this Faustian folk tale done Brecht style with a heaping helping of Waitsian charm and Burroughs-y insanity (or, as I like to call it Burroughsanity) and a Murnau aesthetic The Waits Album that serves for most as their only vision of the piece is one of his classic discs, and it's a must own for fans of the later period Waits (I'd say it's second only to Bone Machine).
So, the show. Hm. It's good. It's very good. (Watch my BFA in theater go now!) The mis-en-scene is positively breath-taking. The sheer degree of stagecraft that went into making the whole thing work, is just obscenely impressive. The scene transitions happen without you noticing, the sets morph and grow, shrinking into nothing, growing from back drops, and lighting effects become three dimensional objects. It's positively transcendent.
The performers... well... in that Brechtian tradition, what the actors are doing is so stilted and stylized that very little of it is acting, so much as it is an elaborate combination of dance and vocalization. Even a quick walk across the stage is becomes an epic event. It's pretty amazing. That aside, one of the strangest biproducts of the show being written by Waits is a lot of the cast attempts to do a Waits impression especially on some of the more 'trademarked' songs. Fact is, there's only one Tom, and nobody else can even come close.
The music is absolutely the highlight. The performance is epic, I'd say the band is better than Tom's actual touring band (at least, the band he toured with on Mule Variations, which is the last time I saw him.) The vibrancy and precision of what they do is just... wow. The vocal side of things, aside from the Tom apeing mentioned above, is also pretty damn great. Lots of interesting choices and arrangements. Really, really amazing stuff.
Then, we get to the show itself. Here's the thing. There's a big flaw in the shape and structure of the piece, in part due to a strangely timed intermission (it falls nearly 2 hours into a 2 hour and 45 minute show) leaving the final act feeling very small and disconnected to the rest of the plot. In fact, when the curtain call started, it took about 4 or 5 actors before the audience figured out it was a curtain call. At the end of the day, it fails in a lot of the ways that I think a lot of Burroughs work fails. 2/3rds of the way through the plot falls by the wayside, and it becomes a bit self-indulgent. Which is a shame, because the actual set pieces are really breath-taking. Really, really breath-taking. For me, though, the combination of the extremely stylized series of vignettes that make up the final 1/3rd, and the forward story momentum of the first chunk just does not mesh. The thing is, that at the end of the day, the plot is identical to that of Brigadoon or Oklahoma, just with a darker take. And part of what makes those shows (while somewhat atrocious in their own ways) successful is the feeling of completion. I don't think the show accomplishes that. All in all, a truely unique piece of theater, and the fact that it not only got put on at one of the biggest theaters in LA, and had a pretty decent size audience is a feat and accomplishment in itself. If you're a fan of Waits, Burroughs, or giant avant garde theatrical art pieces, you'll enjoy it.
At the very least, I know that Sean Maher is jealous as fuck.
Just realized how embarassing my Last.fm play list in the corner must be. I'm working on this little spec in my spare time that's essentially an 80's action movie, so I have the bad 80's arena rock blaring day and night.
I've got an eMusic addiction. I just crawl around and try to find shit that I've never heard and try it out. It's so cheap, I just can't say no. So, here's my most recent discoveries. Please note, if these bands are not particularly new or unheard of, I pay little to no attention to what's played on that new fangled radio thing.
Blue States http://www.bluestates.com/ Sort of like if Ennio Morricone was really into Trip Hop. Not as big a fan of the vocal stuff, but, overall, some really great stuff.
The Field Mice http://www.shink.dircon.co.uk/fieldmicebio.htm Early 90's Twee, sort of a New Order by way of the Smiths. Not particularly ground breaking by today's standards, but I can imagine when they first came out being pretty revolutionary. Really nice, not too too mopey.
Field Music http://www.memphis-industries.com/field_music.html Look, I'm a big Of Montreal fan. Field Music, as much as it pains me to say it, is a better Of Montreal. Very pastichey retro sound that's equal parts Elvis Costello/Talking Heads and Beatles/Atlantic R&B, just a breath of fresh air (and they're labelmates with The Go! Team if that helps push you over the edge at all.
So, there ya go. Again, if somehow these bands are all on the top 40 with whatever soulless game show winner is in the top twenty, I apologize. :)
Do you think...
Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.
The Who Still play Baba O'Reilly and My Generation live? Is the irony lost on them? I hope not.