It's the Shat!

You hear about a new William Shatner album and immediately you think: kitschy, loungy, campy, and 'why?'

Well, the new Shatner album (only his second) called Has Been is out, and while it may indeed have moments of kitsch, lounge, and camp, you can add to that list: touching, haunting, funny, and 'well done.'

Think of the album as beautiful musical backdrops infused with beat poetry and able backup from such artists as Joe Jackson, Aimee Mann, Henry Rollins, the electronic group Lemon Jelly, and Ben Folds.

As a matter of fact, Folds is the driving musical force on this outing: producing, arranging, and writing most of the music behind Shatner's musings. The whole enterprise (pardon the pun) is sincere yet funny, and wholly entertaining. Besides the standout cover of Pulp's Common People, there's the haunting and mesmerizing collaboration with UK group Lemon Jelly, Together. And Folds' strong melodic sense is abundant throughout the album, from the heartbreaking That's Me Trying to the comedic, faux-western title track.

I'm still here

Well, aside from my last couple of posts, it's been a while since I've posted anything new here. For almost two months, I've managed to write a little bit on a daily basis (and post here almost as often) about what's been going on in my life.

So here I am with an "I'm still around" post, and if I had a nickel for every kind of "It's been a while since I last checked in"-type blog post that I've read in the past, I wouldn't have...

...to be my own boss.

Yup,that's what I've been up to: Jessica and I are starting our own business. We got our GE tax license number, our business registered with the state, and our business account set up at our financial institution. I'll be buying equipment for our business sometime in the next three weeks, and hope to be in "full-on" mode by the end of October.

I'll make a more formal announcement when things get rolling (website, logos & business cards, etc.), but it's a really exciting time in our lives. Since I'm between regular jobs and I just can't sit on my ass waiting for that next opportunity, I figured this might as well be the time to have our own business, to see what it's like to work for yourself for a change, and to see if we can make a good living out of it.

A Punk Rock Opera

You wouldn't think the guys from Green Day would mature into a nicely-rounded, sensitive, and (shhh...political) punk rock band. But yes they have, with their new concept album American Idiot.

It's their most fully realized musical statement to date, filled with hooks and melody aplenty. Each song is instantly hummable. And while the whole idea of a concept album reeks of 70's-era excess (think middle eastern mountain ranges and navel-gazing psychedelic cheese), Green Day manage to pack a story about a disaffected schizophrenic youth with religious and authority issues coming to age in the media-overload world of today. Or something like that.

But you can just ignore the backstory and enjoy the music, man. There's the drop-dead gorgeous ballad, Wake Me Up When September Ends, about growing old, dealing with the passing of a loved one, and maybe - indirectly - dealing with the whole tragedy that befell the U.S. in a cold September day three years ago.

The only misstep is the pretentious (and there has to be some of that with any concept album) nine-minute Homecoming. While the other nine-minute opus on the album, Jesus Of Suburbia, succeeds musically and lyrically, Homecoming tries to tie up all the plot's loose ends but ultimately winds up sounding like a mess of half-finished ideas.

Anyway, it's an album I can't get enough of. Check it out. I'll end with my favorite lyric:

"Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the Alienation."