Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Fail Better

Untitled Haiku

Haiku makes you fail,
fail, fail, and fail some more—
then for once not fail.


Billy Collins

Poem is from another old link to a lit mag, failbetter.com (from the Beckett poem which is on the site's main page) that I ran across again while looking for something else and ended up reading for a bit. In addtion to haiku there is an interview with the former Poet Laureate Billy Collins and an engrossing story by Lou Mathews, The Garlic Eater. The opening line draws you in, "Mr. Kim squatted in the shadowed storage room of his market, Lupé's Groceries, contemplating his new gun. "

Ragna had mentioned having a New Order song stuck in her head and I went looking for it. The RetroVid section of Rhino Records has several new order vids. I have only begun to explore but was lost in this site too as they have tons of videos including one of my favorite cover songs, the band X's version of Dave Alvin's 4th of July. There some gems like Johnny Cash's version of The City of New Orleans, Dwight Yokam doing I Want You To Want Me, some Mystery Science Theatre clips, and several Pixies videos from the Sell Out tour DVD. You can enter for a chance to win an autographed copy of Sell Out.

The Pixies have also released a new live album, Hey!, some of the bands personal favorites from the 2004-2005 seemingly endless tour. Alas, it is only being released via internet by download. Review of the 'album' is here from Pitchfork.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for the retrovid link. am enjoying tunest as i type.
you know how you can play a song and it takes you back to a time and a place... that's what i'm doing now and i have a smile on my face.
-tammy

Anonymous said...

that should say tunes as i type
not tunest as i type.

i hate not being able to correct my mistakes.

El Duderino said...

They ran of blank CD's at the Amherst Pixies show, so we were boned. Your Mission To Burma was there too, with some ex wife protesting out front, it added to the overall zoo like atmosphere.

Anonymous said...

I recall the Dead show in '88, on the race track grounds outside Monterey. Went up to the City for another one the next month or so. Red state once again mentoring with a brilliant ruse, a crafty misdirection, to give up one beer at the gate to get five in.

Unknown said...

Talked to Nice Guy Eddie yesterday, he was at one of the Amherst shows. He and maggie just bought a house in Jamaica Plain...

i was still in korea in july 88.only time i saw dead was at the golden gate bridge celebration at chrissy field. dead followed by tony bennett. long strange trip indeed.

Anonymous said...

Forgive Red State, the years catch up with us all at their pleasure. Dexter was likely lip synching american pie at TC at the time. I am thinking John Jumpe was the fourth, maybe that cat from Arkansas (? Lucas) with an affection for Sen. J. William Fulbright.

Unknown said...

Tom L. was the dude from Fayetville, Ark. I lost touch with him but he was teaching for a while in Tx.