newpageone.com

The Worcester Art Museum is currently showing a spectacular photography exhibit called Who Shot Rock and Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present.  It’s gotten the attention of folks all over town, and I got my chance to see it the other day.

The WAM (as I like to call it) is kind of a hidden gem for the city, the kind of place that you always seem to forget about when you try to come up with cool things to do.  Thankfully, they will bring in this type of show and people flock from far and wide.  I was excited about it because it was combining two of my favorite things in the world: music and photography.  When you think about rock and roll, the first thing that comes to mind after the music is the imagery.  This exhibit focuses on the way photography can help to transform an artist into an icon.

For one, WSR&R is like a quick history lesson in rock.  You start with Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, work your way up to Elvis and the Beatles, then the Stones, Zeppelin, and so on.  Along the way, you see how photographers develop a love for their subjects over the years, the way portraits grow into serious studies on the character of the pop idol.  I spent so much time with a big smile on my face, thinking, “This makes these people legitimate.  This makes them immortal.”  It’s not just the music, if MTV ever taught us anything, right?  Okay, so it’s art for the masses… but there’s a ton of good stuff.

My favorite finds: a larger and more detailed print of Anton Corbijn’s portrait of U2 that served as the cover for The Joshua Tree, a huge six-panel holographic Andy Warhol study of Jimi Hendrix, and learning that the most famous headshot of The Police featured Sting’s calculator wristwatch.  I might have been most moved, though, by the juxtaposition of these images:

"Lose some sleep and say you tried..."

There’s Ian Curtis of Joy Division, the incredibly influential post-punk/pre-New Wave band of the late 70’s.  Curtis committed suicide at the age of 23, driven there by depression and a terrible case of epilepsy.  His lyrics were haunting and the music was moody and danceable.  I’ve always been struck by this photo of him, his sad eyes wandering off in the distance.  Also, his right hand looks freaking huge.  But having read and watched plenty of material on his short life and the band’s endurance as New Order, Curtis is my own personal Jim Morrison.  I got sucked into seeing this picture in person and I would have probably been brought down by it had this not been the one placed right beneath it:

"Head on down to Walter's for some barbecue!"

This is probably my favorite picture of my favorite band.  Here’s R.E.M. in the mid 80’s, sitting at the counter of Walter’s BBQ, a popular joint in their hometown of Athens, GA.  They loved the place so much, they wrote a theme song for it.  Michael Stipe’s silly mug is such a contrast to Curtis’s melancholy stare; never mind the fact that I love both these bands’ work, it was just great planning by the exhibitors.

Other great selections included a nice big portrait of Jack and Meg White, a very cool morphed image of Mick Jagger and a leopard, and a neat panoramic collage of Oasis in the studio with Johnny Marr.  Could have seen more of The Who and maybe some representation of the colorful Flaming Lips, but you can’t have everything.  Still, this is a thorough study of rock.  The show is still at the WAM until May, so go and see it while you can.

The new motto of NP1 is “Playing catch-up since 2001,” and a couple of weeks ago I took another step towards seeming relevant when it comes to technology:  I bought an HD TV.  Now, I know that there’s plenty of folks out there who don’t have HD (and quite frankly, it’s not essential), but it’s getting to the point now that if you don’t have HD, you’re missing out.  It’s like my mother says about when Star Trek was first on TV and not everybody had color TVs.  It was getting to the point where if you didn’t have the newest, nicest TV, you were missing out.

But without a color TV, how will you know?

I knew I was starting to miss out over the past year.  Little by little, I could tell that the widescreen aspect ratio of HD was becoming the new standard of videography for television.  I remember watching House a couple of months ago and watching as House and Foreman sat at opposite sides of the table, arguing over a lupus diagnosis.  At least, I had to infer this, because I heard their voices, but they were both cut off by my standard screen.  I only had Chase in the frame, looking listless and wan.  There’s plenty of other offenders (Verizon ads make no effort to take 4:3 into effect), and it gets on my nerves.  Try watching a David Lean movie that’s been “formatted to fit your TV.”  Try watching a David Lean movie in general, for that matter, you need a little culture in your life.

And so I went on the hunt for just the right TV to fit my needs.  Big, but not too big.  Capable of displaying 1080p resolution at a decent refresh rate.  And all for a price that won’t kill me.  When it came down to it, I went with a 32″ Insignia set that I’m quite pleased with.  I have a CRT made by Insignia (Best Buy’s store brand) which is quite good for standard def, so I felt pretty safe with the purchase.

The arrival of HD has caused a recent surge in hot-air balloon programming.

There was, of course, a bit of a learning curve.  I thought I’d done all of my homework, but there were a couple of issues I needed to come to grips with.  For one, I knew that I’d likely need an HD box if I wanted all HD, all the time.  Still, I had a feeling that I could get something out of the direct cable line into the TV.  Sure enough, the local affiliates are available in HD, but that’s pretty much it.  Another thing I thought was weird was that there are something to the effect of “sub channels” in some cases:  WBZ is on channel 4, but then the HD version of the station is on channel 4-1.  I don’t quite get it, but it works, so I’m not complaining.  Now I can see the final episodes of LOST or the weekly NBC Sunday hockey game in HD as they are intended.  I’ve always felt that hockey is the best sport for HD viewing as the detail and speed are easier to follow in higher resolutions.  Anybody who complained about not being able to see the puck shouldn’t have any trouble now.

Another issue that I had to contend with was playing video games on an LCD screen.  As it turns out, there’s some settings to mess around with in order to get your games playable.  As far as my Wii is concerned, everything is easy to do.  Just a change of the Wii settings and a utilization of the TV’s “Game Mode” feature, and I’m stompin’ goombas and whatnot in no time.  HOWEVER, I found that the Playstation 2 has its own set of problems.  Long story short, the picture that the PS2 puts out is just fine for a standard TV, but LCD sets need to “process” the interlaced image before it hits the screen.  The result is a split second of lag between your button press and the corresponding command being onscreen.  Hence, my PS2 is now just a noisy DVD player… but a DVD player nonetheless, and with more screen settings, all of my movies look great now.  Am I saving up for a PS3 now?  You could say that.

I’ve never been one to jump on new technology the second it comes out.  Sometimes, it’s buggy and needs to be tested by the general public before I’ll bother to spend my money on it.  Other times, it’s bound to be upgraded by the time I think I’ll get the latest cool thing.  When it comes to HD, I think that I timed it just right.

Can’t get it out of my head.

Just remember, comrades, he’s laughing with you.

Right now is a good time to be Jeff Bridges.  I mean, it’s always good to be Jeff Bridges, but this week is probably as good as it gets.  For starters, he won an Oscar on Sunday for a movie that I didn’t even hear of.  I guess he played an alcoholic, and the Academy goes nuts for that sort of thing.  I’m wondering if this character enjoyed White Russians, because he looked enough like The Dude.

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Yesterday, the next part in the greatest week in Jeff Bridges history was revealed… the trailer for Tron Legacy hit the Internet.  Now, just let me start by saying that I’m not one of these people with a strong personal attachment to the original Tron.  The reason for this is that I had never seen it until about two or three months ago… but when I did, I could see why so many socially awkward people my age love it.  It was pretty neat, a lot of fun to watch, and funny, too.  It was one of those movies that Disney did a great job with in the late 70’s/early 80’s… and they seem to have lost their touch when it comes to that sort of thing.  I’m pretty optimistic, though…  it looks slick, the designs are sweet, Olivia “13 from House” Wilde is hot… well, just take a look for yourself.

Oh, hell yes.  Too far away.  I’m going to have to freeze myself until it’s time.

And, oh yeah, Jeff’s got a great website.  Handmade.  Literally.

I was just watching the Bruins game on NESN and saw an ad for the new “shrimp taco” at Taco Bell.

Not exactly a conventional equation

Who came up with this one?  Who really wants to eat this?  Maybe you’d think to yourself during a lazy Friday night with some friends thinking, “Hey, guys, I’m real hungry for a taco but it’s Lent; what do I do?”  If you did it at home, where you know that you have control over the environment, you might think it sounds like a good idea.  Maybe you’d put it on the Internet and think you’ve beaten Bobby Flay to the punch.  But this is Taco Bell we’re talking about.  The idea of getting Mexican food from a place where I can’t directly see it being prepared frightens me.  Now we’re throwing shellfish into the mix?  I’ll pass.  Why?  Because I’m scared, and I’m man enough to say it.

Well, now I’m hungry.  I’m thinking Moe’s for lunch tomorrow…

There’s a deleted scene from Pulp Fiction in which Uma Thurman explains to John Travolta that there are two types of people in the world:  Beatles people and Elvis people.  Everybody knows who they like better.  Sure, you can like both, but you don’t like one more than the other.  And while I may share my birthday with the King, “Burning’ Love” is about as close as I get to being a fan.  Give me the Fab Four any day of the week, although I’d rather the Stones… but that’s another story altogether, isn’t it?

Why do I bring this up?  Well, back last September, a box set I’ve been waiting for ages to get had finally been released.  I didn’t really know that it was being developed, I just knew that it had to happen some day.  Sure enough, George Martin had emerged from Abbey Road like Moses with the tablets.  Only instead of some guidelines handed down from God, it was the complete works of the Gods of Rock, remastered in stereo.  Although I owned a couple of the Beatles’ albums already, their presentation left something to be desired.

The Beatles Stereo Box Set is part of a balanced breakfast.

Now, I don’t consider myself to be an audiophile.  but I know when something sounds like crap.  I can’t buy a set of headphones without trying them first, I was a freak about finding “good” cassette tapes in junior high, and I once spent a beautiful spring weekend indoors, re-ripping 200 CDs for my iPod at 256 kbps instead of 128.  So I don’t know, maybe I am an audiophile.  That’s why this set got me excited.  Finally, we’d have the Beatles in true stereo, cleaned up and mixed to sound as good as possible.  After about a month of listening here and there, I’m happy that I spent the money on it.

Now, sure, I was skeptical.  Just how good was this thing going to be?  Could it really sound like I always imagined “perfect” recordings of these songs could sound?  I’d read a couple of reviews that seemed to point me in that direction.  I figured that, at worst, it’d be the albums with the levels turned up and the left and right channels panned this way and that.  At best, though… well, I couldn’t put a price on it.  Considering that Amazon had a pretty good deal going on, I took a chance.

When it arrived, I was immediately impressed by the packaging.  The box is simple, and very neatly carries all sixteen discs in their cardboard slipcases.  I’m still a fan of the jewel case, but I guess that the slipcases were meant to be like record sleeves.  Each one is stuffed with great photos of the band, as well.  Almost too nice to do anything with.  It’s all super-glossy;  you’ll want to hold everything by the edges even if you’re not an obsessive collector-type.  I popped all the CDs into the computer and ripped them in an afternoon.  Listening on the laptop speakers, I could tell that everything sounded good, but I knew that the true test was to play them in the car.

That’s when I was able to truly appreciate the work that went into the set.  My favorite time to listen is while I drive, and I decided to throw The White Album on first.  I was in love all over again with my favorite Beatles album.  ”Back in the USSR” screeches in and it sounds great.  No more of the “flat” sound of the mono mix that I’d heard for years.  Sure, I loved my old copy, but this was like having Paul in the car with me.  And the whole album sounds this good.  I was never a big “Bungalow Bill” fan, but the new mix absolutely surrounded me, Paul’s bass seemed to envelop me, and the voices of the whole band (plus Yoko) were alive… sounding like they were having a good time, even.  ”While My Guitar Gently Weeps” remains George’s masterpiece, and “Helter Skelter,” well… let’s just hope that this thing is kept far away from Charles Manson.

INVISIBLE SKATEBOARDS

I was also dying to get this set because I absolutely HATED the quality of my old copy of Magical Mystery Tour.  I’m very happy to say that “I Am the Walrus” is everything it should have ever been, not the muddy and even choppy mess that I used have to put up with.  ”Strawberry Fields Forever” is probably the track that I can say is the finest achievement of this set:  I heard things in this mix that I didn’t even know were supposed to be there.  From what I understand, nothing was added on throughout the set, which probably speaks volumes to the job done.

I won’t bother to analyse Sgt. Pepper’s because to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of that album.  I will say that it sounds great, and it deserves to.  As for Abbey Road, well… it was probably the easiest to remaster seeing as how it was recorded in stereo to begin with.  Accordingly, it sounds incredible and the “second side” is more majestic than ever.

The older, EMI/Parlophone/Capitol albums are great in their own right, but I’m not as big a fan of the stuff pre-Rubber Soul, so I can’t really tell you one from the other.  Still, I’m glad to have all of it.  I mean… it’s the Beatles.  By default, it’s better than a good chunk of my iPod.  There’s really too much to cover here.  I haven’t even watched the DVD with “mini-documentaries” about the albums.

If you’re a Beatlemaniac, you might do well to invest in this set.  You owe it to yourself if tape hiss or inferior mixing practices distract you from a good song.  Or if you want “Eleanor Rigby” stuck in your head again.  Hearing is believing, and you’ll believe that the Beatles are better than ever… at least until science invents a way to just plug music right into your brain.  Don’t worry though, that won’t happen for a few months.