Confessions: Karl Marx

Dug this one up in a book called "Late Marx and the Russian Road," edited by Teodor Shanin.

Apparently Marx's daughters at some point made him fill this out as part of the game "Confessions" which was popular at the time.

Your favorite virtue - Simplicity
Your favorite virtue in a man - Strength
Your favorite virtue in a woman - Weakness
Your own chief characteristic - Singleness of Purpose
Your idea of happiness - To fight
Your idea of misery - Submission
The vice you excuse most - Gullibility
The vice you detest most - Servility
Your pet aversion - Martin Tupper*
Favorite occupation - Bookworming
Poet - Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Goethe
Prose Writer - Diderot
Hero - Spartacus, Kepler
Heroine - Gretchen
Flower - Daphne
Color - Red
Name - Laura, Jenny**
Dish - Fish
Favorite Maxim - Nihil humanum a me alienum puto***
Favorite motto - De omnibus dubitandum****

*Victorian poet of fame, since forgotten, who was best known to his generation for trivial dialectic moralizing in blank verse
**Marx's daughters were named Laura and Jenny
***Nothing human is alien to me
****Doubt everything

Subversive Cinema: The Most Amazing Movie That Was Never Made...

Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune

Jodorowsky has recently been getting a lot more (deserved) attention thanks to the release of a long-time-coming well produced DVD Boxset. For the first time his most well known movies (El Topo, The Holy Mountain) are available (legally) on home video (with included soundtracks!). I, along with a lot of other cinema lovers, can finally watch and re-watch the Jodorowsky weirdness. Additionally, new 35mm prints of these films were made and toured shortly last year.

So recently, I was completely floored when I heard out about his failed attempt to make Dune. [David Lynch would later make a Hollywood adaptation in 1984 to fund his next film, Blue Velvet]

The Wierd World of 70's Cinema sums up this lost project best:
"In development from 1974 to 1977, the film was to have featured Orson Welles, David Carradine (hot off the Kung Fu series), Gloria Swanson, Amanda Lear and Salvador Dali as a mad emperor who sits upon a toilet throne. With art design by H.R. Giger and special effects by Dark Star's Dan O'Bannon who both soon after worked together on Alien. Music was to be by Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and French prog rockers Magma."

According to Jodorowsky:
"The project was sabotaged in Hollywood. It was French and not American. Their message was 'not Hollywood enough'. There was intrigue, plunder. The storyboard was circulated among all the big studios. Later, the visual aspect of Star Wars strangely resembled our style. To make Alien, they called Moebius [Giraud], Foss, Giger, O'Bannon, etc. The project signaled to Americans the possibility of making a big show of science-fiction films, outside of the scientific rigor of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The project of Dune changed our lives."

Hoooollllllyyyy Shiiiiittttt.

For more information and concept sketches on this sadly uncompleted project see the following:
"The Film You Will Never See" at Dune Info
"Jodorowsky On His Unmade Dune" at WFMU Blog

-Klax

New Man Man

KWUR Week veterans Man Man have a new album, Rabbit Habits, coming out in April. This is a new song from it. That sound you hear is Dylan having a Man Mangasm.

A Blast From The (Not So Distant) Past

A little food for thought on this post-Super-Tuesday Wednesday.

Impressive how far (and how not far) we've come in the last 8 years.

Also, I want to point out that this video was directed by Michael Moore. Back in 2000, he was an ardent support of Ralph Nader. He has since "flip-flopped" coming out passionately against Nader, spinning such staunch pre-2004 statements to the point of denial.

-Klax

Bonnaroo 2008 Lineup Released

www.bonnaroo.com
June 12-15, 2008
Manchester, TN

In light of this, let's take a look back into music festival history. Waaaay back in 1996, Clinton was starting his second term, the economy was looking up with the development of this new-fangled interweb, and Lollapalooza announced that Metallica was going to headline the '96 tour. The cries of pained and outraged indie fans (I'm not sure if the word "indie" had been coined yet, but you know what I mean) echoed far and wide, and it would be the last actual Lollapalooza tour. Keep in mind, these are the people who had sponsered Rage Against the Machine, Sonic Youth, The Beastie Boys and so many others in recent past. The tour tanked, attendence sucked, and Lollapalooza wouldn't appear again for another 7 years. In other words, Metallica effectively killed Lollapalooza in its original inception.

Flash forward 12 odd years; a Clinton might once again take office, the economy is in the shitter, and Bonnaroo announces that Metallica (not to mention Jack Johnson) is headlining in 2008. Again, keep in mind, Radiohead headlined in 2006. Don't get me wrong, I have no real issue with Metallica, but this isn't 1998. Or 1988, for that matter. Festivals with the potential to attract so many people should be showcasing new bands as well, and yet I don't see a single band that hasn't been around for at least a couple of years (yes, even Vampire Weekend has been together since last year). This probably won't spell an end to Bonnaroo, but really, they can do better. I'll be damned if I'll pay $250 bucks a ticket to see Metallica and Jack Johnson.

Here's to hoping for a better Lolla lineup.

SU05 Renovation July 4th Party

KWUR's first renovated birthday! I know the pictures are a little late, but here they are. Somewhere we have pictures of the renovation in progress, including all the crazy spraypaint grafatti that we unfortunately had to cover with the vinyl stacks. Please note the badass lamp that someone stole with badass lampshade. Also note awesome green light and psychedelic Topaz. Fix the topaz! This should be world viewable, enjoy!

http://wustl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080125&id=3106234

My trip to Louisville to see Sharon Jones

So Sharon Jones played at the Duck Room on Thursday. The problem with the Duck Room, though, is that it only holds about 200 people and tickets sold out in a flash, leaving me high and dry. I frantically searched ebay, craigslist, stubhub, to no avail. But I wasn't about to let Sharon Jones come to the midwest without seeing her. So last night I rounded up a crew and we drove out to Louisville (about 4.5 hours away) to see her.

After an uneventful drive we arrived in Louisville to find that we were in a different time zone and the concert was about to start. After a quick dinner and a minor fiasco (after dinner we couldn't find my wallet, which we needed to get our will call tickets - we found it though), we somehow showed up at the venue in time to see the opener, the Ivan Milev band. These guys were slightly unexpected, but proved to be pretty amazing. The band consisted of a violin and an accordion. The guy on the accordian (probably Ivan) was doing things I have never seen someone do on that instrument. His solos sounded like a whole band playing and also included some pretty funky tricks (like really quick squeezes). Check these guys out at their myspace.



After a pretty long wait, the Dap Kings came out and did their best. These guys are all incredible musicians and their playing was so tight I felt like I was watching the JBs or the MGs with the Memphis horns. And when Sharon came out there was no stopping them. I never thought a 51 year old woman could be so damn sexy, but when she opened her mouth it was all over. The highlight of the night was when I got a glimpse of stardom. For one of her songs she said she needed a young man, so I hopped up on stage and she and me a song. (I'll post pictures when I get them) The theme of the song was that guys need to slow down and be cool and the ladies will come to them. Pretty good message. It also allowed me to booty dance with the woman herself. And I stick by my assessment that she is a sexy lady. I was almost tempted to ask her to meet up after the show (I didn't of course - if only I had that kinda chutspa. I guess we had to drive home anyways).

After a little over an hour they ended the show, but then came out for a four song encore. The first song featured the bari sax player, Ian Hendrickson-Smith, who had some serious chops. He put more soul through that instrument during his solo than I have in my entire body. If you check out their album pay special attention for him. When Sharon came back out she did two James Brown songs, but the highlight was definitely "This is a Man's World."



If you haven't checked out these guys yet, don't wait any longer. I drove 8 hours for a 2 hour concert. The least you can to is visit their myspace or grab the CD (I bought the LP - another good option)


Edit: Some pics from the show

Sharon rocking out, KWUR GM getting a hug, the baritone solo

Photos courtesy of backseatsandbar.com