Ever been looking for something but can’t put your finger on it? That’s how I’ve been feeling for the last several days in regards what I want my blog to be like. Over the last four months, I have been trying to turn Syntaxi into something that would give me an outlet for my writings on films, music, books, and entertainment items in general. The frustrating thing has been realizing that I am not that interested in writing traditional reviews. In fact the posts I’ve liked the most are the ones I have not really planned. So that was surprise since I started Syntaxi as a place to get me out of the thing I call the Amazon review loop. Like a lot of people when I come across something I like I want to share it. And my blog was supposed to let me do that.

A further wrinkle in my dilemma was discovering that there are elements to writing a blog which are different from just posting a 300 word review to a commerce site. Who am I writing to? The person looking for something new or someone who already knows about the item in question? I live in a college town in central PA where most folks are not familiar with the items and personalities that rock my little world. I have been digging into things off the radar, tributaries off the mainstream, since 1988.That’s twenty years folks. SO trying to play catch up with me is not easy even if I give you a leg up. And to be honest, I don’t have the drive that I had when I was twentysomething to help the “un-clued” get to where I am. Not that I don’t want that but I am 50% too lazy and 50% too busy to take that task on. I have to “fess” up to this fact. So what’s my angle here? I certainly want to express the elation that my favorite things give me but how can I do that without coming off like a tastemaker?

And then there is another side to my blogging life. The time it takes to do this. I need to streamline this process. The workflow has been real sluggish after that initial giddiness that you get when you realize “Hey I am actually doing this”! Several of posts have been driven by this need just to keep it going. Some good, some just sorta there but the self imposed deadline has been a real driver. I finally broke down, got firefox 3.0 and some blogging tools to speed up the whole thing. Granted I need to realize what these new tools can do for me but I am on my way. It’s going to take time but it is pointing me in certain directions.

When you add all this up, it points towards a change. An element that I have noticed from all that I’ve done so far is that I need take into account how I view the internet. Posts like this one will turn off a lot of casual browsers. Reading on the computer is different from reading from the printed page and I need to pay attention to this. Not to that it is going to stop me from expressing what I need to. Still after I do this groundwork posts have to be more streamlined. I am not going to become a booster of the ADD society we are turning into. I want for what I do to have content not be soundbites or web blips that pass away into blink and you missed it entertainment. I am still a bit of idealist. I still believe if you are for real that people will take the time.

So let’s review. Less amateur criticism more impressions. A stronger focus which allows for a more casual approach. A better sense of the tendencies of the internet. A framework which allow me to post more without taxing my schedule.

So Syntaxi is coming to an end and being replaced with a new blog that I am calling The Synesthetic Fugue Incident . The mission will be to explore a specific network of influences and how they mesh with my life as a creative person. It is about this open ended search for things that inspire, engage, and give insight. Well for me. Hopefully they will do the same for you.

Wow, that was anti-climactic. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked by this. I am pleased that I finally did something albeit a day or so off. I am not different from so many novices to this blog thing. I write all the time but my biggest hurtle is organization. I am not a outline guy, you know? What I like about writing is the thrill of staring at a blank paper and then filling it up. Improvisation is appealing to me. So there is always this tension between wanting to run wild through my thoughts and wanting for there to be a focus, a crystallization of purpose. And this blog is ground zero for this internal conflict. If this becomes a series of assignments planned down to a T, how am I ever going to get myself to do it? On the other hand, I am not interested in this becoming random flailing about.

One things has been certain, I needed to find some blogging tools to streamline the process. I have other things going on than merely this page. So it has become very important quickly for this to become less intrusive in my day to day. This is the practical dimension of my blogging inquiries. A time shortage is all the excuse that I need to step back from trying to find that fabled happy medium between freedom and discipline. But hey I don’t have that chance now that I downloaded Firefox 3.0 and the Scribefire add-on! Yeah that’s what I’m telling myself.

As I’ve recently discovered, as a new Mac convert, new tech fosters new ideas. I am not so young to be indifferent to this development. Every possibility seems to mutate with the knowledge of what can be done. How quickly can you implement it to its fullest? And trust me, I am impatient to get to that plateau.

So at this point, I am considering the idea of mutating Syntaxi away from what it is into something different. What exactly I am not sure. I am still planning to keep to a three posts a month schedule. Probably one long post and two shorter ones. This would be my minimum. I am not ready to give up the idea of more posts in a month but I need to build up some material before I go crazy with the posting. And I am not saying that stuff I have proposed for future posts won’t be done but I need to loosen up on this. It seems like I should let the flow of my thoughts and interests shape what this blog will be like. A big realization I’ve has about the content here is that I am not interested in writings reviews in a traditional sense. With so many people doing that it feels like there isn’t much need for that. What I would like to do is share my impressions and observations in much less formal way. It is going take sometime to shake this pseudo-critic thing that infects my writings from time to time. What I want to do is show how ideas play off each other and spark things in my thoughts. I see a continuity in the things I treasure and enjoy. It is frustrating that much of what I like seems like a solitary experience. I mean isn’t blogging supposed to connect you to others that share your interests?

Well enough of my ramblings. I am working up some ideas for where this can go. I hope to have something workable by next week. Now note the title and check back in a week and a half or so. Not saying you can’t peek in. As many know blogging is very much like growing up in public.

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Web Threads

Why write something when someone else has obviously done a better job than what I could do? Mirek Lipinski has been doing a bang up job of doing the liner notes for the spanish horror releases for Deimos, the horror arm of BCI/ Eclipse. Besides that and being a driving force behind Latarnia forums, he maintains a blog called Vampiros and Monstruos which focuses on the Mexican Horror phenomenon and the upcoming book he is editing on the subject. The movie originally hit the states due to K. Gordon Murray, the man who imported The Aztec Mummy, an iconic cult horror figure if there ever was one. K. Gordon Murray’s efforts, seem to me, to be more about making some money than anything else. Still his efforts are appreciated if many times unintentionally funny. Or was it? Intentional that is.
I think The Brainiac is hilariously twisted! But we are here to talk doll people and their curse, right?

Impressions/ Observations

Such a great mix of absurdity of atmospherics and absurdity. For some reason the imagery makes me imagine a version drawn by Charles Burns . That name will become more known when David Fincher’s version of Burns’ comic opus Black Hole hits the screen someday, But I digress… To call the Paul Nagle dubbing work on this off or mismatched is being kind. I know I should watch it in the original Spanish ( included on the flipside of the disc) but there is something endearingly kooky about the dub. I am afraid it will destroy some of the charm of the film for me. The imagery is styled after the vintage 1930s black and white horror flicks that Universal released in the day, albeit south of the border and more visceral in a non-visceral sort of way. The frission between the boneheaded dialogue and creepy low budget black and white images creates something close to insanity. I can’t see someone who doesn’t atleast like classic horror taking to this. Nope, no Chucky-style witty banter or those annoying Puppet Master creations. The voodoo elements of the story, which managed to be knotty and full of holes, are strictly witchcraft with the serial numbers filed off. The doll people do their thing in a silent killer kind of way. That they look the last victim in miniature is a nice touch. I thank the lords of the b-movie realm that their routine is pretty basic. Creep up on a sleeping or unaware victim and puncture them with a big needle. Repeat. My favorite character is the occult savvy wife of one of these possibly doomed men. Some may see her as a proto-feminist heroine but I just see her as a slightly arrogant plot device. On the other end of the conflict is Zontar, the puppet master of this witch’s curse scenario. Not really that compelling but his dress sense seems suspiciously Asian. A voodoo Fu-Manchu if you will. Lucky for the long time horror fan, his zombie servant looks like he escaped from a Jack Davis drawn EC Comic. But to be honest if you are coming into this for memorable characters you are going to come up…uhhh…short. Sorry. The concoction is full of surreal incident, hysterical exchanges of dialogue and nostalgically charged cheesiness which make this a good late night diversion. I imagine with the right crowd this would be a great party disc. The movie is for people with a high lactose tolerance for those Saturday afternoon double features of the past.

So at the moment I really want to get this to the place I want it to be rather than always slapping these things together to keep up the illusion of progress. So tell you what I’m gonna do… I am imposing a deadline for myself. My next posting day will be June 22 and I will post on the 1960 Mexican Horror cheese classic, The Curse of The Doll People. There may be others on that day but I am not promising more than that. I’ll expand out what I got to be more than a blip on the mediascape.

For those of you playing at home, (Hello? Anybody home?), Deimos released The Curse of The Doll People on DVD with Night of The Bloody Apes. For me the former is the pick of the disc rather than the latter. But hey if you wanna get a leg up, there’s a lead to start your not so very hard quest to see this wonderfully cracked piece of vintage horror.

What I’d like to do is set a loose ten day guideline for my posting day. The reason I was able to crank out so many posts early on is that I had some stuff accumulation. Let’s face it, the reserves are low. I got a few attempts at a Robert Pollard post kicking around, a stab at Tom Wait’s “Real Gone” and, a Lou Reed’s “Sally Can’t Dance” piece that is threatening to engulf my brain if I let it. Time is growing short so that’s it – See you in eleven days – g.

I hate the idea that this blog has become a series of excuses and postponements. Then again, I know that this last couple of weeks has been a real tangle. With long work hours and slightly neglected video projects calling out for attention, I have been scampering to bring something, anything to completion. I am still working on the Mexican Horror post for my next big posting as well as the Robert Pollard post. I want to focus on my cult movie fixation at the moment SO I will probably try to do something quick and dirty to follow up what was supposed to be this real compact posting on Mexican films that I like. It’s interesting how the longer it takes the more involved I want it to be. The way I hoping to address the gap between posts is to find some way to streamline the posting process. With my ever shrinking schedule, I need to cut minutes from the process. I really do not want this to become a series of strung together You Tube clips. But, hey, to keep things rolling here’s a few clips to show where my head is at.

Los Campesinos – Hold on Now, Youngster. The album title is clearly tongue in cheek because this album is so youthful. On Amazon, the album is listed as neo-psychedelic. And I say what?? These songs do not fit under the label. Don’t get me wrong this stuff is very ambitious stuff. Yet never at the expense of a hook. I mean if you squint you can call this music punk. The band throws some any styles into the mix that you any number of genres could claim it. Psych? Punk? Pop? Indie? All figure in. And that’s what makes it so fun.

The structures are varied. There are fast parts, there are slow parts. Boy-girl vocals.

Singer-songwriter aspirations. ( There is some Belle and Sebastian in this, if they were really excited.) Keyboards and the like vie with noisy guitars.  It is some of the best noise-pop I’ve heard in awhile. (More pop less noise. Bis is in there somewhere, I think.) I really like the clever and ironic lyrics as well. 

I am outside the demographic for this stuff but I don’t care. I have been listening to this album religiously for the last two weeks. It is not just for the breadth but the depth. There is a vital humane quality to this stuff which over rides any spot the influence game you can play.  Favorite tracks? Just press play. You will like it all or wonder what the deal is. 

Here’s some you tube videos give you a taste

The Future of The Left – Curses – The power trio’s debut mines out the last reserves of 90s indie guitar rock to great affect. Basslines like garbage compactors, trebly guitars strung with razor wire, and great four on the floor drumming. Black humor and gleeful rage seperates this from the macho posturing that dominates most, if not all, “heavy music”. Great use of new wave and post punk textures to keep the tossers away. A good start in the increasing spare field of decent noise rock with a brain and a tongue in its skull. B+

Tapes n Tapes -Walk it off – Not the first band to get the sophomore jinx. Seems like a touring record. They needed more rock numbers for the set or something? Good songs damaged by muddy production and unfocused arrangements. And the song sequencing makes this short album seem much longer than it is. I think -or hope?- that it really comes alive on stage. If they can survive this, I think the next record will be pretty damn good. A balance between this and The Loon would be great. More Beta Band, less Pavement please, thanks! I’ll give it a few more spins, in hopes that it reveal itself to be better than I think it is. C

Vetiver – To Find Me Gone – I have just avoided the “Freak Folk” scene because it seemed so fey and mannered for me. I am not a big fan of the flower power music that wafted out of the 60s. I like my music to have some sort of edge. And the soft idealism of much of it just doesn’t connect with me. I like my 60s dark, trippy and/or gritty. So picture my surprise when I really like this. It strikes me as more like folk country run through modern production techniques and spiked with Indian flavored drones and touches of feedback. I hear Slowcore elements of groups like Codeine without the tortured vocal phrasing and even some Krautrock rhythms. This stuff is really smooth and calming. But if you dig into some of the lyrics, you may find dark turns. But this is really good natured stuff that flows slowly but keeps your interest while zoning out at the same time. A hermetically sealed atmosphere which I don’t want to hear all the time but good for a spin on a Sunday morning after a long and loud Saturday night. B+

I wish I could spend more time with each of these. But who has the time? Use the links provided to explore.

(Okay I am complaining alittle bit..stupid dvd player..)

I am still figuring out the internet vs Local/ “Clued vs Clueless” thing. It is very similar to that letter writing conundrum. (Yes I used to write letters.)Do you try to do the catch up thing or do you just throw ‘em into the moment? As I wrote the last sentence I think I am siding with the latter. Just with a side order of the former. I have been in the tributaries of the mainstream for way too long to pretend I came across some things yesterday. 
 

So I am just going to blow off all my big plans and just post some links to the things I’ve been grooving on these days. With the promise to myself I’ll get back to all these things I’ve been digging for years. I am always looking for new things to blow my mind.

From Boing Boing, the well established blog that I finally got into, is this link to Gangstagrass. A free album that mashes up hip-hop with bluegrass to great effect. I am not a big rap fan though I like Anticon, Deltron 3030 and geek stuff like McChris. I tell myself I should check out stuff like Aesop Rock but I am lazy. And my bluegrass tastes lean towards a touch in my insurgent country. Stuff like The Gourds or Robbie Fulks, or even The Mekons will have a taste in their stuff but nothing full blown. But Gangstagrass is equal parts of both genres and not to mention really professional sounding for something you can get for free. Free is good right? Check it out.

My quest for pitch black British comedy has lead me to Peep Show. Only season one has been released in US and it is not the best season. Which is the best season? I am not sure. Like a lot of Britcoms, it is the overall appeal comes through seeing more than one episode. It all about the way the story builds. And a nifty gimmick which gives it a unique style.

So here’s a link to the first part of episode one. Start there and dig further if you find it remotely interesting. This is some funny stuff if you can handle something brutally honest. Each episode builds to an extreme squirmy social situation. I want to write something more detailed. But I have lots of plans.

I enjoy webcomics like Boy on a Stick and Slither
but I also follow newspaper strips online as well. Yeah I like me some Pearls Before Swine but it is actually in papers around here. So here’s a link for something that will probably not come to my neck of Penn’s Wood. Zippy is a playfully odd strip which is the definition of a cult item. The above link is a good start to understanding Bill Griffith’s work. It may take awhile for it to stick but it sure is addictive when you get into its surrealistic media satire groove.

I may be new to podcasts but I am well versed in the slanted funhouse world of cult/psychotronic/ bad cinema. As a struggling movie maker, I find more inspiration in the flawed and failed attempts of past genre specialists than the bland cgi saturated focus grouped efforts of modern Hollywood. On the internet I came upon sites like Eccentric Cinema which wrote smartly about movies that most ‘normal” people would consider dumb. But only now have found what seems to be the top of the line in cult movie podcasts, Cinema Diabolica. The production values seem closer to something that might be played on radio, if radio didn’t suck, and the guys mix intellect with gut level humor with aplomb.

And coming back to music, I point you in the direction of The Kills’ third album Midnight Boom . I never listened to this duo writing off as some White Stripes sort of thing. But boy I’m glad that I listened to them. A rough guitar, some clever “found sound/organic” bits, drum machines, a female singer, and a minimal style which is thoroughly modern but points back to the golden age of first generation NYC CBGB 77 Punk. Greatness in a concise accessible package that is just the right amount of experimentation and straight ahead rock. Recommended.

Well this felt good. Maybe this is the direction to take this. A wild ride right across the digital info-scape. Okay I am done. See you in about a week with a chance of a more focused post here and there.

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I just wanted to get one more post in here before the month was out.  The slowdown continues. I have about half a dozen posts in various stages of development. But there is lots of other things going on right now. Primarily movie making stuff but also some personal changes I am trying to engineer.

The things I still have in the pipe are a Robert Pollard Post, a Tom Waits bit, a review of 1982 horror movie Superstition, and a small links roundup for a few favorite film sites. Pieces not yet out of development (in other words still in my head) are bits of two very clever comedies, the ultra dark ultra funny Peep Show and the quirky and almost gentle lampoon The Flight of The Conchords, and a write up of my impressions on Denis Johnson’s novel Already Dead. So lots of ideas and little time. I am hoping to have a few bits up in the next couple of days.

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