Elvis + Helvetica? Hellsvetica yes! October 4, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Cinema, Earworms, Etcetera, FFFFOUND!, Helvetica, Pretty!, The Ether, Typography, Videorama.Tags: Elvis, FFFFOUND!, Helvetica, Helvistica, Music, Rockabilly, Typography, youtube
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Firstly: Elvis + Helvetica = brilliant.
{by Hulk4598 on flickr, via FFFFOUND!}
This girl approves.
Now, for a bit of waffle. (Err… waffle).
Note Exhibit A, above. Young Elvis* all dolled up for the film Roustabout, in too-neat leathers with too-tidy hair . Movie tagline: “Elvis Presley as a Roving, Restless, Reckless, ROUSTABOUT”. [Insert sceptical looks here].
But also note Exhibit B:
{also by Hulk4598 on flickr, via FFFFOUND!}
Young Elvis in a rather naff suit, with an acoustic guitar that he never really played much, and a messed-up coiff that looks like he’s just come off stage after this:
(Skip to 1:00 and press play. Watch to the end. DO IT. Honestly. Just trust me on this, okay? You won’t regret it.)
Now isn’t it ironic that despite the extra “L” in Exhibit A ["Hell for leather[s]“, anyone?] Elvis was actually at the peak of his corrupting deviance not as a “Roving, Restless, Reckless, ROUSTABOUT”, but as a cheeky, messy-haired rockabilly boy?
Clearly, the 1950s were hella good for the Rebellious Youth, in music and typography.
*[as opposed to Old Elvis: let's just not go there, okay?]
PS. Much as I appreciate the sentiment, I’m not such a fan of Helvekitty.
PPS. Whatever happened to Elvis movies on Sunday afternoon TV? Oh well, at least we’ve still got:
Spot the Dustpocalypse: Life on Mars/Earth September 26, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Cinema, Earworms, Etcetera, Pretty!, The News, Videorama.Tags: David Bowie, Dust, Dust Storm, Dustpocalypse, Earth, Life on Mars, Mars, Meteorology, Sydney, Total Recall, Weather
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Spot the difference:
{ Sunrise on Mars, via NASA }
{ View from my ferry (7.20am, Saturday 24.09.09), Circular Quay, Sydney, Earth }
Sydney saw the Dustpocalypse twice this week: two epic dust storms sweeping eastward from the inland deserts. The first on Wednesday morning, came with full-force opaque orange skies, visibility nil, and undertones of other-worldly terror.
Tom Coates’ Red Dust photo gallery says it best:
{ I adore the deathly reflection }
The second — this fine Saturday morning — resulted in a greyer shade of haze, and that uncannily Martian ice-blue sunrise.
Both eventually cleared to reveal clearer-than-clear bright Springtime afternoons.
Now how on Earth (or Mars) can anyone who lives on this planet honestly say that the weather is just a topic for idle small talk?
Playing in my Head
Movies: Total Recall
{ via giflix }
Music: Life on Mars, David Bowie.
“Refridgerators”, “pidgeons”, “burried”, and The French Band. July 17, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Cinema, Design, Earworms, Laughing, Pretty!, Spellcheck, The Ether, Videorama.Tags: Air, Art, Craigslist, Mike Mills, Music, Open Salon, Pidgeon, Playground Love, Refridgerator, The French Band, The Virgin Suicides, typos
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Firstly…
Read (v.)>> Good luck selling that “refridgerator”
A brilliant (and very astute) rant from Verbal Remedy (“The She-Lord Of Perpetual Nattering”) on her Open Salon blog Verbs and Spices (once upon a snark) about the relationship between spelling and selling.*
Reminds me of something I once posted about back in the day: Good luck finding that “pidgeon”.
And also, of something I haven’t posted about, but keep meaning to:
I can forgive a typo like this. I kind of like the idea of one Mike Mills being too “burried” in romantic sentiment to spell it correctly… And yes, it’s mainly because, as I just discovered, HE DID THE COVER ARTWORK FOR ALL THOSE INCREDIBLE ‘AIR’ ALBUMS!
My gosh, how I adored (and still do adore) this album and its cover art:
In fact, I wholeheartedly believe we should all listen to it now, and “burry” ourselves in romantic sentiment. So very Virgin Suicides.
* Brilliant name, by the by.
Starstruck December 17, 2008
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Earworms, Etcetera, Videorama, Words.Tags: Baking, books, Christmas, Cooking, Stars, The Night Starts Here, Universe
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I have just finished baking stars:
(Coffee shortbread with coffee/white chocolate ganache icing)
While baking, I listened to Stars:
And as they were cooling, I read a big book about stars:
{ Universe: Stunning satellite imagery from outer space by Heather Couper }
Most of the year, I generally don’t cook anything. I actually had to read the book on how to use my ‘new’ 6-month-old oven. Only the mania of Christmas has the power to send me into a frenzy of biscuit-baking. I am even quite happy to stand around colour-coding cachous. Madness!
The Earworm of Change November 5, 2008
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Democracy, Earworms, Etcetera, Obama!, Pretty!, The News, Wisdom.Tags: It's A New Day, Obama!, President-Elect Barack Obama, Will.I.Am, Yes We Can
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This morning,
there is only one song doing circuits in my head…
Yes We Can
President-Elect Barack Obama
(feat. Will.I.Am)
By this afternoon (our time),
Will.I.Am will have released a new song, It’s A New Day,
in celebration of Obama’s election win
(see more on NME).
Of course,
Obama needs no melodic enhancement (see below),
but I’ll be listening anyway.
UPDATE: It’s A New Day here.
Nothing on Obama’s speech,
but heartfelt nonetheless.
First published at tumblr Proof (v.)
Earworms and Mind Wanderings October 19, 2008
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Earworms, Etcetera, Pretty!.Tags: Ads, Douglas Adams, Joanna Newsom, Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, Lose Yourself in Melbourne, Music, The Sprout and The Bean
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The Sprout and The Bean, by Joanna Newsom
Last heard: in the ‘Lose Yourself in Melbourne’ TV ad.
Right now, deadlines are swooping down upon me
like the vengeful fighter jet-turned-eagle
in Douglas Adams’ The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.
So wandering along cobblestones
to the tune of harps/nonsensical lyrics,
wearing a pretty dress
and carrying nought but a big ball of red wool
sounds like a charming idea.
First published at tumblr proof (v.)
A Beatles song for every financial meltdown October 11, 2008
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Earworms, The News, Words.Tags: Abbey Road, Etymology, Parlous, Syncope, The Beatles, The Economy, The News, You Never Give Me Your Money
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You Never Give Me Your Money
(♫…you only give me your funny paper… ♫)
A carefree tune for these parlous economic times *,
from The Beatles, Abbey Road (1969)
……………………………………………………………………………………
* And on that point,
why is the global economy always in a “parlous” state?
Does this word serve no other purpose
than to furnish economists
with their own special euphemism for “scary”?
The short answer?
Yes.
The Maven’s Word of the Day (Random House):
“Parlous is actually just a variant form of perilous, and that’s exactly what it means… The existence of the form parlous is the result of a linguistic phenomenon called syncope, in which a word is shortened by the omission of one or more sounds from the middle of it….”
Indeed.
Now play on, my cheerful troubadours….
♫ All the money’s spent, nowhere to go… ♫
First published at tumblr Proof (v.)
When it rains: Earworm October 4, 2008
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Cinema, Earworms, Etcetera, Pretty!.Tags: Erik Satie, Gnossienne No 1, Lang Lang, The Painted Veil
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It’s raining.
Gnossienne No. 1 written by Erik Satie in 1893.
Last heard
played by Lang Lang, in The Painted Veil (2006)
and (rather too hurriedly) by Aldo Ciccolini, in Paris (2008).
First published at tumblr Proof (v.)
That song… October 1, 2008
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Earworms, Etcetera.Tags: Basia Bulat, Little Waltz, Volkswagen Eos
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last heard
in the Volkswagen Eos television advertising campaign (2008)
First published at tumblr Proof (v.)
Earworm (n.) September 30, 2008
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Earworms, Etcetera, Words.Tags: Earworms, Etymology, Music, The Darjeeling Limited
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- A song, or part thereof, that becomes stuck in one’s head — often inextricably and inexplicably — going around and around and around and around and around…
- Etymologically, a calque (ie: borrowed and phoenetically adapted into a similar-sounding English word) from the German word Ohrwurm, of the same meaning.
- Called chiclete de ouvido in Portuguese: literally chewing gum of the ear.
- Also known as: Phonological Loop, Last Song Syndrome, Repetuneitis, Aneurythm &c.
- Usually carries negative connotations — as with advertising jingles and repulsive 1980s soft-rock intros (follow that link at your own peril). But in the right context, earworms can be a good thing. In exciting times, an internal loop of Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries creates just the right sense of dramatic ambience. The riff from Rage Against The Machine’s Wake Up is great for angry stomping in the city. And The Puppy Song (from You’ve Got Mail) burbles with overtones of an impending Springtime long weekend…At the moment, I’ve got the entire Darjeeling Limited soundtrack burrowing deep into my aural canals, and I love it.
If your earworm curiosity is particularly voracious, read Can’t get it out of my head, Vadim Prokhorov’s epic earworm article from The Guardian (June 2006):
“Earworms seem to be an interaction between properties of music (catchy songs are simple and repetitive), characteristics of individuals (levels of neuroticism) and properties of the context or situation (first thing in the morning, last thing at night or when people are under stress),” says Kellaris, whose study, Dissecting Earworms: Further Evidence on the ‘Song-Stuck-in-Your-Head’ Phenomenon, found that at one time or another nearly 99% of people have had earworms.
All Proof (v.) audio posts are archived under ‘Earworms’.
First published at tumblr Proof (v.)
