Table of Contents: Culture

Dagny Taggert is Diana Prince

> Sketchbook, Culture

superobjectivist

I have been trying to integrate this earth toned Naugahyde and Corinthian leather draped superwoman into a collage for nearly a year. A powerful compositional anchor in early stages she ends up upending the gizmo midway through…although she was always well framed by this plump heroic dollar sign… anyhoo, nothing doing, so both were relegated to the clipping tray.

So, I’m randomly picking over the remaining stock at a sadly expiring bookstore the other day when I see a stout brace of Ayn Rand http://laparkan.com/buy-sildenafil/ reprints on a bottom shelf… Ah, heady, cute undergraduate flirtations with Objectivisim…

Later, at the tail end of the night I’m pushing SuperNauga around again when it all comes together in a flash…  the Objectivist Wonder Woman, Dagny Taggert as Diana Prince, capitalism and selfishness, melodrama and cigarettes, her Green Lantern Battery the mighty dollar sign, standing athwart the globe like a colosuss. Or something. Anyway, I’d like to think Neil Peart would hang this in his den.

For Your Pleasure 2008

> A Commonplace Book, > For Your Pleasure, > Transmissions, Culture, Music

For_Your_Pleasure_2008_Front FYP_2008a_back

So, here, below, please find a recreated, reposted version of the first in the For Your Pleasure series, from 2008.

It was originally posted at my old ad agency’s then-obligatory “weblog.” That post, along with this, marked the beginning of a good four/five years of committed blogging and writing. I set things up over here at shepelavy.com shortly after, and, well, here we are, still transmitting in the wilderness.

Looking back I can see why I wanted to commemorate that year in music. So much boss tunage! Stew’s remarkable musical Passing Strange opened on Broadway that year. Embedded deep in its soulful heart was “Arlington Hill” – a gorgeous benediction to ardent, addled, questing oddballs everywhere – “Yes, suddenly there is a meaning… and everything’s alright”

It was a banner year for swinging psych — I had finally tracked down the erotically volcanic “Mundo Colorido” by Brazilian jazz chanteuse Vanusa; gotten turned onto the Cambodian rock melange of Dengue Fever; lost it for the hi-gloss epic 60’s revivalism of the Last Shadow Puppets.

Neon Neon remains an enduring one-off treasure – the gonzo synth soaked tribute to the life of 80’s avatar John Delorean.

There were comebacks & old head hits galore: Stereolab and REM released their most vital work in years; the long abandoned second album by Sandy Denny’s Fotheringay was finally, lovingly cobbled together; a delightful egghead pop record by Byrne/Eno; and the Psychedelic Furs played one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen, playing with genuine punk passion to a small motley crowd in a now shuttered, forgotten West Philly niteclub.

Can’t remember where I happened upon the spellbinding, spooky spoken-word charms of Meanwhile, Back in Communist Russia – as evocative, singular, wordy and weird as their name.  The apocalyptic synth-punk of Lost Sounds sizzled and Amanda Palmer’s barrelhouse melodramas were still well inside their sell-by freshness date.

And, as welcome and pleasant then, as now, and ever, ladies and gentlemen — the seasonal zephyr we like to call the Sea and Cake.

Total time: 53 minutes. Download the comp here. Thanks for listening. Cheers.