LJ'S THING OF THE WEEK: No. 1 In Heaven by Sparks
I never thought I would fall in love with No. 1 In Heaven. It's the Moroder Sparks album and I don't much care for Moroder. My favorite things in music are guitars and raw emotion so I've never had much use for that guy.
I forced myself to listen to No. 1 In Heaven a few weeks ago. I love Sparks so wildly much it kills me and I knew that if I put enough energy into digging through the layers of Moroder-sound I'd find the Sparksiness within. I knew I could love it the way I love every other Sparks album, and I was right. I initially found the hidden Sparksiness in the lyrics "You're the only bank that's open all night" and "Didn't look too good in shorts/ Got divorced when I was four." Ron Mael's great gift is for non-precious whimsy.
But then I started getting into the Moroderiness of it and now it's almost all I listen to, the most beloved record of my right now. I'll hear it in five years and it'll make me think of this summer and I wonder what this summer will seem like, how I'll remember it, in five years. Like the sky was always pink, maybe- this music sounds exactly like a pink sky. My favorite song on the record is The No. 1 Song In Heaven. It's a nod. It's totally going on a nod. It's closing your eyes and letting a feeling of calm so calm it chokes you wash across your face and shoulders. You are blissing too hard to waste your muscles on smiling when they could be resting. They need it. They need rest. And I appreciate how the words and concept are extremely morbid. It tells you that if you die you'll hear this song, and I feel like how could that possibly not be true. I'd be mad if I died and this song didn't play.
LIZ'S THING OF THE WEEK: A Very Special Addendum to Our "What's Your Favorite Beatles Song & Why?" Survey (via Lukas & Cookie Monster)
This is Lukas. He's six-years-old and he loves the Beatles. I dropped the ball so hard and forgot to ask Lukas to take part in the first-ever SFW survey, so his mom Danielle shot this little video in which Lukas and Cookie Monster tell us about their favorite Beatles song:
Lukas also made this picture to illustrate his favorite Beatles song for us:
"Doctor Robert" is such a cool choice! Thank you, Lukas (and Cookie!).
JEN'S THING OF THE WEEK: Christian Marclay's The Clock
I started to freak out last weekend because I realized The Clock was going to leave Lincoln Center in days and I hadn’t seen it. I NEEDED to. I really needed to. So I went after work on Tuesday and waited on line for 2.5 hours. The wait really wasn’t so bad. I was reading a book on meditation which seemed like too much to me. Reading about meditation for 2.5 hours while waiting on line to watch time in cinema in real time? Come on. Mostly I just pretended to read the book so no one would talk to me. I was too anxious about getting in to concentrate or meditate.
I got in! You guys, it’s so good. It’s brilliant. It’s perfect. I loved it. I watched from around 7:30- 9:15 PM. I was starving and freezing so I had to leave but under better conditions I could have stayed all night.
The Clock is a 24 hour video piece by Christian Marclay that depicts exact moments in time in film using clips from all film/TV history. It’s amazing. At 7:46 IRL it’s 7:46 on the screen. There’s a clock or someone is referencing time. Around 7:49 there’s a clip from a Pink Panther movie and they make a call to confirm the time and Mulder answers. It’s a dream.
Oh! The sound is really amazing, too.
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