At some point this summer I've got plans to visit the places where the exteriors for the "Twin Peaks" pilot episode were shot. You know, the biggies: the Great Northern, the falls, etc.
Somebody has done all the work in finding the locations for me. They even found the friggin' branch upon which the bird in the opening credits perched.
In Twin Peaks for the photo comparisons; More In Twin Peaks for the actual locations.
Wow. I'm super-psyched.
Ohmanohmanohman. HOT CHIP. If you didn't see 'em in the last month, too bad, unless you live in San Francisco or are attending Coachella, because their U.S. tour is otherwise ovah. (I suspect they'll be back through before too long, though.) Holy cow. I saw 'em at the Doug Fir in November 2006 & was suitably impressed by their fantastic-ness. But last night! Oh, last night. They were...magnificent.
Portland must have some fairly ridiculous laws involving concert venues & alcohol, because nearly every place with live music is 21+. Being old & crotchety, I have no problem with this. I don't want my overpriced beer jostled by a passel of hyperactive young 'uns wearing too much eyeliner. The Crystal Ballroom, however, is one of the few all-ages venues in town. It's a weird set-up - the stage is in a corner. The room is "vertically" divided in half by a low black barrier. If you want beer, you have to be in the half that's further from the main stage. If you want to hang out with high schoolers, you can be in the half that's right by the stage. Hmm...beer or teenagers? I choose beer. Luckily we arrived early enough to score prime spots right up against the divider. So I could put down my sweater & my purse & just freak out. PLUS have a great view of the stage. It was sweet.
The opening act was Free Blood, which has some correlation with !!!. They're a duo - let's call them Mr. Beard & Adorable Brunette Girl With Bangs. All the music was pre-recorded, although they did bring out a guy on guitar for a couple numbers. It was altogether too reminiscent of karaoke for my taste. In a sense, that's the point, but when I think about, say, Jamie Lidell live...well, he twiddles his knobs while he's singing. And alls by hisself, at that. Free Blood's performance made me feel at least two shades pastier white than I already am. Plus, when they danced together onstage, it inexplicably looked to me like some sort of chicken mating ritual. The music was fine, & I will totally listen to their album when it comes out, but the live show felt unnecessary.
Anyway, Hot Chip put on what is easily one of my top ten favorite shows of all time. Mebbe even top five. They. Fucking. Rocked. Christ on crutches. I was a four-on-the-floor booty-shaking machine out there. Up down all around. The band arrangement was different this time. At the Doug Fir, it was mostly five guys rockin' out behind keyboards. Last night only Joe Goddard was manning a board. They played more like a typical band - guitar, drums, etc. Plus, maracas! Oh yeah. The lights were good, the sound was good, the band was great. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the most recent album, Made in the Dark, with which I'd previously had some problems. And, ooh, the only song they played from their debut album Coming On Strong just so happened to be my favorite song from that album - "Crap Kraft Dinner". Because really, who does have time for a jack-your-body loser? But I think my favorite moment was during the encore performance of "No Fit State" when they dropped my favorite part of New Order's "Temptation" in there - "Oh you've got green eyes/Oh you've got blue eyes/Oh you've got grey eyes...". (Although, erm, technically speaking, every part of "Temptation" is my favorite part.)
You know, Hot Chip may only be going to heaven if it tastes like caramel, but me - I'm only going to heaven if Hot Chip is there. I hope they let me shake the maracas. I am nothing if not a funky white girl.
New favorite picture of Audun, taken last night:
So dignified, right? You'd never guess that this is the same cat who spent five minutes chasing my hand's shadow on sunlit living room walls this morning.
Also: Xavier's polydactyl kitteh paws OMG2cute!!!!11!!!
Sigh. I wouldn't trade my cats for all the strippers & blow in the world.
Okay, okay, I owe a few post-things. I'll get to them soon, cuddlies, promises! Things have been busy. In the meantime, I simply must say a few words. Seven to be precise.
Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Comedy.
GENIUS. It was made for me! Alice. Musical. 1970s pr0n (real breasts & hair on their ladyparts!). Also, any movie that has a credit reading "Underwater Nude Volleyball Sequences by Jacques Coote" is pretty much guaranteed to be good. Especially if there is not a single underwater nude volleyball sequence in the movie. Played on a double bill with Star Wars according to questionable sources. (The acting in Alice is better, for the record.) Now imagine if we lived in a world where fantastical song-&-dance sex films had won out over sexless preadolescent Wonder Bread space-capades. It's a real shame that this country progressed a bit only to then enter a decades-long slide. We put the puritan back in prurient. Because I cannot imagine any sort of "respectable" distributor releasing this today, but 20th Century Fox put this corker out back in the day.
My intensive research has shown that there are three versions: R, X, & XXX. I understand that this release by Subversive Video has the X & the XXX versions. I cannot figure out which version I watched - there were some rather thorough anatomy lessons that I've not previously encountered in X-rated movies, but I understand the XXX version is pretty seriously hardcore. Whichever version I watched had a few cum shots but nothing that made me ill (they ain't exactly my bag - I'm more Emmanuelle than Splendor in the Ass (although that is my all-time favorite porno title) - softcore porn served with a generous helping of wonky French philosophy is not just up my alley, as it were, it's the alley that's named after me). The disc boasts possibly the crappiest transfer I've ever seen & appears to use a well-worn VHS dub as its source, but it's still totally worth watching if you can find it. (EDIT: I figured out the DVD I watched was not the Subversive Video release but rather from some outfit called Arrow Video. And it is the XXX version. Because I hadn't actually quite finished the entire movie when I wrote this post (guilty!), & near the end there is a random three-ish-minute fuck-tage, which did make me feel a wee bit sick.)
The lead actress, Kristine De Bell, has an engaging on-screen persona & is a convincingly innocent libertine-in-training. For you Meatballs fans out there (I have a soft spot...), she played A.L. in that fine movie. Overall Alice is really quite sweet with some clever moments (Mad Hatter: "Oh, that's not my HAT size..." Hee hee!) & a simple little if-it-feels-good-do-it message.
Plus, the scene & song from which this post's title is derived are freakin' priceless.
