Thursday, March 16, 2006

Foxbase Alpha and Spain on the horizon


Experiencing deadline hell again, but just writing a piece (for the mag) on brilliant blogger Ultrasparky, who's spent time in a London replica of Space: 1999's Moonbase Alpha and is emigrating to the UK capitol full-time. Crazy jealous on that point as always, but at least if all goes well it looks like I am ON MY WAY TO SPAIN, April 1-8, to find my own (sex god of the world) Edu Boxer.
Not much else going on. Went to the GayVN Awards last week (I'll post on that shortly), and have also been writing in this issue on Coachella (not sure if I'm going, but at least it gave me the chance to preach once again on why Gilles P. is the god of the world), my girl Tessa Souter, once again the fact that I'm in (mild) lust with Infected Mushroom's Erez, the new Hothouse film At Your Service, with my other loves Nick Piston and Matt Cole, and Los Amigos' new Amigos Invisibles Radio on Giant Step, among other things.
Finally procured a copy of RSL's Every Preston Guild on CD, after a ridiculously rough ordeal that's taken nearly 6 months and involved my also buying it on vinyl much earlier (can't record vinyl at the moment, so nice to have if I ever have the need to spin vinyl again, but not good for a thorough listen). It is resplendently lovely in that UK connoisseur-filtering-Spain, Puerto Rico and Brazil mode of Bah Samba, Grupo X, et al. Still, there is something sweeping and distinctly, colossally RSL about it. (Will they ever come to the US? Fucking unlikely unfortunately.)
Volumen Cero (with my other dream husband, Luis T.) and Dimitri from Paris both this weekend. Not sure if I'll be heading to other, but they're certainly possiblities... xo, B.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Monday


Been crazy busy so haven't posted in a bit, but wanted to get back in by adding some thoughts on the goddess Monday Michiru's Routes. The only hiccup in Monday's otherwise sublime career was 2002's Episodes in Color. Any misdirection there was absolutely rectified on '04's miraculous Moods. The new disc most definitely sustains that momentum, with moments of awe-inspiring pure jazz Technicolor radiance. Things start off slow, with the odd 2-step-inflected "Right Time," and several gentle cuts, but by track 9 – the mighty jazz thunder of "Don't" – she's settled into a flawlessly lustrous groove, that takes off into absolutely fucking ecstatic speed-jazz-dance orbit on the staggering "Yellow Light" (already set to be among the most incendiary dancefloor killers of '06). "I'm Still Here" reverts back to the r+b/sing-song melody of her Optimista-era, but that can be a lovely thing. The plaintive faux-Latin "I Couldn't See" continues in Optimista mode, to beautiful effect. But it's the sitar-dusted, epically deep-percussion-anchored "New Way" that sends the album out in a stunning cascade of psychotropic jewel/densely saturated sunburst fervor. Granted, there is one more track, and it's nearly as lovely: the broken-beat, gently syncopated "Sketches of Myself." All that said, I respect Monday's ArtistShare/purely indie status, but for myself it was much easier (albeit costly) to just wait for the Jap-only Geneon release (with a lovely package once again). Now all I can say to the girl herself is PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE travel further west than Chicago already!!!!!