February 4, 2008
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Freeze!
Light posting these days. Sorry about the continued YouTubers, but this one was just too good to pass up. (Found via Towleroad).
Flash-mob style group Improv Everywhere descend on Grand Central Station and, simultaneously, freeze for five minutes in place while the world whirls by. Great idea and effect.
My own improv work as slowed down, as I missed the signup for the next course. I'm reviewing my options and hope to resume in March.
Comments (7)
That's really awesome. It's a common stage device to set up a scene, but soo cool to see it used in a happening. Performance art on the cheap. Or not, I have no idea how much organization infrastructure they need to maintain to pull something like that together.
You finally got me on the music, I've never even heard of Missing Persons.
(Very) 80's L.A. band. Drummer (Terry Bozzio) used to drum with Frank Zappa; and the guitarist (Warren Cuccarillo) was Duran Duran's guitarist after Andy Taylor left, and continued to be for many years until they reunited with Andy a couple of years ago.
They had two fairly big hits from this album, "Words" and "Walking in L.A." Good mix of synth hooks and electric guitar riffs. The vocalist (Dale Bozzio) has a rather high-pitched voice and used to punctuate her vocals with crazy helium "pops."
They were somthing of MTV darlings (although I didn't see much MTV until I got into college in 1988, and Missing Persons stuff pretty much peaked out by 1986). It's possible that you'd recognize one of those two hits. You don't forget Dale's vocals in a hurry.
I've been taking secret delight in old 80's music lately and downloading stuff to my iPod shuffle. I never owned the Spring Session M album, so I got it and Best of Blondie classic. Oh, and the Eurythmics' very very first album, the one before Sweet Dreams. It's called In the Garden, and it sounds much more the contemporary (which it was) of old B52's rather than something that presaged their later success. Based on that album alone, you'd never predict that they'd suddenly get crazy electronic/experimental/New Wave for their next two albums (cf. "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" and "Here Comes The Rain Again"). But I like it. It's got some quirky gems on it.
uh oh, yet another of my 30-something friends falls victim to 80's nostalgia!
It explains why I've never heard of them. I was just starting to listen to music around when they would have been getting airplay. At the time I was very into Duran Duran, but once I discovered alternative rock in '89, I never looked back. Didn't stay in alt-rock either, just never revisited the 80's.
but if that's your thing, I say wallow in it!
I'm not sure it's 80's nostalgia . . . since I really hadn't listened to Missing Persons until 1988, two years after they broke up. And Blondie started in the late 1970s. I didn't own any of either group's albums, ever. In some ways, this is listening to stuff the first time around for me. I only know so much about Missing Persons because I'd just recently read up on them in Wikipedia. They were a band I'd filed away to know more about for "later." This was about twenty years ago.
I'm slow, but I get there.
Musically, the 1980's were mostly a wasteland for me, a fact that I attribute to a) that I never had MTV growing up and b) Miami radio SUCKED unbelievably. I mean, really, really terrible. The classic rock stations were playing lots of 70's stuff I didn't care for, or revamped disco, which I didn't like, and then unlistenable crap like Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. Most 80's bands I've come to appreciate I was introduced to when the 80's were on their way out (or later).. Just before college, I was listening to 60's music, as my close friends mostly consumed that, and Peter Gabriel.
Eurythmics, I plead 100% guilty on. But at least they still make albums. I actually have that In the Garden album on vinyl. I had to special order it from Yesterday and Today records. I remember being so excited when I got it. I can't say that I'm nostalgic for that waiting, as compared with the lovely modern intertubes where I can download it immediately and not wait four to six weeks for it to ship. Since I haven't owned a record player in years now, this was a nice opportunity to listen to it again.
I feel like I missed out on so much, so I've had to go back and see what I missed. Or something causes me to go back and review something I missed. There's a Tears for Fears song, "Mad World," I missed the first time around, and have only connected with because the Dresden Dolls did a live cover of it on tour, and I really liked the song.
heh. I hear you about feeling like you've missed large portions of a decade or two. (or three or four...)
I guess I've spent the least time exploring missed music from the 80's for the same kind of reasons I rarely vacation in my home town. It's great when I'm there, but I've been there so much, that it always seems a shame to spend my spare time not going to somewhere entirely new I haven't experienced before.
For me, about the only 70's/80's muscian that has held up over time is Bruce Springsteen. He's the only one I think I've actually have learned to appreciate more over time, rather than it getting stale. Must be the Dylan and Guthrie he was always channeling that sucked me in.
I got to see MTV from the first test patterns and constant reruns of "Video Killed the Radio Star"... I loved MTV in those days.
The Flash Mob thing is cool, btw!
We couldn't get MTV in my hometown. When I was 15 they finally obtained limited satelite cable through those old dishes as big as a truck. I would sit around after midnight on Saturdays watching Nightflight videos. Despite obviously having spent hours watching them, I can't say anything has really stuck with me. Or maybe I should say I have an entire collection of half remembered videos in my head to a bunch of music I really don't like. Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam? oh well.
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