Brad Barrish

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merlin:

grantimatter:

Springsteen wrote “Hungry Heart” for the Ramones?

Oh. Dude.

One of the good things about being home sick was I got to finish reading Will Hermes Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years In New York That Changed Music Forever.

Hermes spent years researching the New York music scene from 1973 to 1977.  He covered not only punk, disco and hip-hops beginnings (three genres that have so many books about their start already), but also lesser talked about 70s New York genres like Salsa, minimalism, loft jazz, opera and conceptual-performance music. Musicians like Patti Smith, Philip Glass, Bruce Springsteen, David Johansen, Willie Colon, Kool Herc, Grandmaster Caz, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Richard Hell, Steve Reich, Lenny Kaye, Wayne County, Handsome Dick Manitoba, David Bryne, Rasheid Ali, etc all get the spotlight as Hermes shows how they were essential to the New York scene. 

Hermes shows the relationships and rivalries these musicians had with each other: How Springsteen and Smith were friends, how Debbie Harry couldn’t stand Patti Smith as a person, how Wayne County and Dick Manitoba got into a fistfight on stage once, how Joey Ramone begged Bruce Springsteen to write a song for the Ramones to play so they could have a hit like Patti Smith did with “Because The Night” (he did, but Springsteen’s management forced Bruce to keep “Hungry Heart” for himself), how the Sugar Hill Gang stole Grandmaster Caz’s lyrics for “Rappers Delight”, how Wynton Marsalis essentially coerced Ken Burns to keep 1970s jazz out of his Jazz documentary because he simply didnt like it (well, I guess thats just a sentence in the epilogue, but still, thats messed up), etc etc etc.

It’s a great read, and I recommend it to anyone interested in New York City history and music history.

(also, the backcover has endorsements from Sarah Vowell, Chuck Klosterman and Luc Sante….that alone will get me to read this).

[via tristn:dontcookbilly]

Just downloaded the iBooks sample. Can’t wait to read this.

I just downloaded a sample as well. Looking forward to digging in.

Remembering Your First Computer Is For Old People

Remembering Your First Computer Is For Old People

parislemon:

Sarah Perez for TechCrunch:

Similarly, actually remembering and recounting tales of your first computer will soon be this odd, old person thing to do, too. Kids’ first computers will be their parents’ hand-me down iPads. There are children being born into the world now who have always had an iPad. Like, from babyhood. I know that you know this already, but really think about that for a minute.

Note to self…

When you grow up you, tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.
Steve Jobs, who passed away a year ago today, on the secret of life in 46 seconds

I feel like I posted this last year, but it’s good enough to remind myself at least once a year.

Looper: In-Theater Commentary Track

Looper: In-Theater Commentary Track

perzadook:

bbbrad:

david:

Rian Johnson:

I recorded a commentary track to be downloaded, put on an iPod and listened to in the theater as you’re watching Looper. This is an odd thing I tried with Bloom, and have gotten a few requests for it again, so here it is.  It is totally different from the commentary track that will be on the Blu/DVD, a bit more technical and detailed. Needless to say, this is NOT to be listened to on a first viewing, or before you’ve seen the film. Also, please work it so that a glowing screen is never out of your pocket during the movie.

Listen to the introduction before heading to the theater, it has instructions. And lemme know how it works.

Marke Johnson:

I listened to the In-Theater Commentary track Rian made for Bloom, and I’ve got to say, it’s just about the most fun you can have in public. Especially when you realize there are a couple other people in the theater listening along, which you can tell is the case when Rian says something funny and a few smothered and scattered laughs can be heard.

So clever! Will be trying this over the weekend.

Love the “glowing screen” PSA. :)

This is just amazing.

yeah what wow

Tho actually makes me want to see the movie even more now.