my log has something to say to you…i mean, my blog

by t2k on January 23rd, 2008

i know i promised to be better at this whole blogging thing, but there is simply too much "twin peaks" to watch. you can thank my brother for IM, T being idle; he gave me the box set for christmas. and who can think about writing when staring for hours at this man?

 

 

i’d make him black coffee and cherry pie any day.

i have a habit of googling "kxlu," usually in youtube or blog search, to see if anything comes up about me. it’s not so much narcissism as it is voyeurism; at least, that’s what i keep telling myself. i have found some weird stuff; one girl posted a picture of me on her livejournal and then there were all these comments from people arguing whether or not i was weird looking. i guess i deserved to read that.

recently i came upon a bonanza of bizarre.

i don’t know who made this video, and creepier still, where they got some of this footage. i don’t remember having my picture taken in front of our cd racks, much less in profile?! i’ve shown the video to a few people, including my friends and former djs christopher robin and brian who also appear in it, and they are as baffled as i am. i think i am bothered more by the sudden dearth of my long term memory than the existence of the video itself.

maybe i should get agent cooper on the case….

i’m in love with a nun

by t2k on December 27th, 2007

it has been some time. i will try to be better. taylor 2000 ‘08.

anyway, i have always been really into nuns (apparently lots of girls are). i loved "the sound of music" when i was little, and "the trouble with angels" starring rosalind russell and hayley mills is one of my favorite movies of all time (duh).

my favorite nun ever is soeur sourire ("sister smile"), also known as sister luc-gabrielle, née jeanine deckers. she was a belgian nun who had a number one hit in 1963 with her song "dominique," written in honor of her dominican order.  after her success with that song, she left the convent to pursue music. she released a song dedicated to the wonders of birth control called "glory be to god for the golden pill." awesome. by the way, her first record, "the singing nun," is pretty easy to find at any thrift store. it seems like everyone owned a copy of that, the same way i always find the carpenters’ "close to you" and missing persons’ "spring session m." if you’re lucky, your copy of "the singing nun" will include four watercolors painted by the singing nun herself.

i digress. unfortunately, soeur sourire turned out to be a one shot and her career as a musician never really took off. her second album "i am not a star in heaven" is pretty impossible to find and if you find it you should give it to me. teamed with her lesbian partner (!), she started a school for autistic children in belgium. i swear this story is almost too good to be true.

drug problems and tax evasion took its toll on my fair lady and in 1985 she and her partner annie committed suicide by way of overdose.

there’s way more juicy bits to this story but it’s your homework to find out more.

on a final note, soeur sourire made several last ditch efforts to raise money to pay her back taxes in the early 1980s, like selling her paintings and giving guitar lessons. the most amazing thing she did was rerecord her hit song "dominique" - a DISCO version.

taylor 2000 on ice!

by t2k on November 30th, 2007

come for a most hilarious time…

you may be shy, you may be high

by t2k on November 7th, 2007

here’s something to think about tomorrow when you’re bored with life.

 

 

 

 

 

what did i play today?

by t2k on November 6th, 2007

taylor 2000 on kxlu 88.9 fm los angeles
11/6/2007
10am - 2pm
listen live via webstream here.

ciccone youth - into the groove(y)
the smoke - my friend jack
jean-claude vannier - le roi des mouches et la confiture de rouse
mild euphoria - algebra spaghetti
sunshine day - mrs. bluebird (cover of eternity’s children)
le savy fav - what would wolves do?*
———————–
naomi - how do
pj harvey - when under ether*
spacemen 3 - walkin’ with jesus (request)
the castanets - this is the early game*
kim jung mi - track one
———————–
nick cave & kyle minogue - where the wild roses go
david allen coe - penitentiary blues
the shaggs - yesterday once more (cover of the carpenters)
ed askew - oh, all the gold and green eyes*
mike watt - burnin’ for you* (cover of blue oyster cult)
———————–
cottonwood - 50 lbs. of smile
chuck & mary perrin - flying
3 hür el - ask davarsi
john cale - barracuda (not a cover of heart, unfortunately)
ferraby lionheart - small planet*
taken by trees - julia*
———————–
galaxie 500 - here she comes now (request; cover of the velvet underground)
arthur - dimensions/plain talk
bonnie dobson - milk and honey
sally shapiro - i know*
change! - this year will fly*
———————–
sandro perri - the drums*
harry nilsson - river deep, mountain high (cover of ike & tina turner)
ana y jaime - el hombre formal
os mutantes - panis et circenses
beirut - a sunday smile*
———————–
emmanuelle parrenin - apres londee
the cake - mockingbird
ruthann friedman - windy (made popular by the association)
the cave singers - dancing on our graves*
mv & ee with the golden road - the burden*
———————–
lavender diamond - chiquitita (cover of abba)
winter flowers - live to tell (request; cover of madonna)
phosphorescent - a picture of our torn up praise*
time of orchids - gem*

* = new addition to the station

———————– = air break

on-air guests: sean, mapi

fireside chat-esque conversation with ivor re: yogurt, coupons, reality tv, etc.

special appearance by mom

here is a recipe for brown sugar pie i mentioned. i’ve made it twice. make it once and tell me what you think.

preheat your oven to 400 degrees. mix together until you can’t get it any smoother:

2 cups brown sugar
1 tablepoon flour
3 eggs, beaten
½ cup milk
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pour mixture into two uncooked pie shells. i didn’t make my own but i bet it would be way better if you did. don’t get the deep dish kind because it won’t cook right (too large!). bake for 30 minutes, then check your oven. if it’s totally jiggling around, give it five or ten more minutes. if just the middle is soft, take it out. let it cool and it will firm itself up. the second time i made it, it was a little liquidy which was delicious when served with ice cream! please don’t be boring with your choice of flavor. this pie is very versatile and will work with better flavors than vanilla bean!

 

lásky jedné plavovlásky (or, loves of a blonde)

by t2k on October 30th, 2007

i have some sort of transference issue with images of women with long, blonde hair. while standing in line at daphne’s during my lunch break (a  mediterranean fast food chain in los angeles), i commented to my friend allegra that the stock mural on the wall depicting a flaxen-haired daphne running away from the god apollo reminded me of me and my friend colin. she replied "you think anyone blonde is you." it’s true. from disney’s sleeping beauty to france gall (see my post devoted to her), i immediately feel like i have some sort of secret rapport with anyone else bearing a head of white blonde hair. it’s psychotic and conceited, and it’s true.

one shining example is tiger lily in mary martin’s "peter pan," a program i watched religiously as a kid. she had hair that would rival mine when it used to be much lighter, and i was completely infatuated with her. it was only later that i wondered why they didn’t actually cast an actress who could even remotely pass as native american, but i guess they didn’t do that back then. watch any john wayne movie for proof. i think i like it better anyway because of it’s un-PC-ness - why should i be offended if she looks like me?

here’s a clip from "peter pan," featuring sondra lee as the indian princess (according to imdb, this was her last role. this makes me sad.)

 

what’s so special about it?

by t2k on October 30th, 2007

i don’t do much for halloween these days. my last few attempts at a costume were half-assed, usually ending up as something i’d probably wear on any given day (i’ve been "summer of love" for the past three years). however, i had some amazing costumes growing up, all made from scratch by my mother. i always felt sorry for kids who had store bought costumes, because i got to start planning mine in late august, since it usually took my mother that long to lovingly slave over patterns and fabric. i was spoiled, okay?

my favorite part of halloween was that i got to wear rouge. no one really uses rouge anymore. it’s too bad, because with the right dramatic effect, one could emulate miss yvonne in "the pee wee herman show." no, not "pee wee’s playhouse." what i’m talking about is the hbo special that aired in the mid-80s, and apparently my father, my oldest brother, and i are the only ones that know about it. we reference it constantly, and usually to blank faces. miss yvonne would actually be the perfect costume for me. oh well, maybe next year.

for those of you who haven’t seen it (which i’m guessing is most…and if you have, where have you been my whole life?), here is my favorite clip from "the pee wee herman show." if you don’t feel like watching the whole thing, skip to around -4:35 and watch for about 90 seconds. you will be sold, i promise.

 

baby pop

by t2k on October 24th, 2007

poor france gall. can’t a girl sing about her sweet tooth without everyone thinking she’s orally inclined? i grew up in an era completely lacking of innuendo (”i wanna sex you up,” anyone?), so it’s hard for me to understand how a seemingly innocent song about lollipops from 1966 sullied the young girl’s reputation as a singer.

unfortunately for the demure ingenue, after her 1966 hit, “les sucettes,” every song she released was interpreted as filth. the curious promotional video to her children’s song “j’ai retrouvé mon chien” (”i’ve found my dog”) suggested a bdsm fetish. “la petite,” sung with the much older actor maurice biraud, branded her a lolita. most bizarre were the accusations of necrophilia in “bonsoir john john,” written for jfk, jr. the french are either just really dirty or really sharp, because that stuff would go right over the heads of most americans; then again, we are the country who thought a teletubby was gay.

all because of one song? never mind that her lyricist was notorious dirtyman serge gainsbourg. while i first read about it, i wrote the whole thing off as sensationalism. i follow celebrity gossip so i know a stretch when i hear one. i looked up the translated lyrics to “les sucettes,”, which are pasted here:

annie likes lollipops,
aniseed lollipops
annie’s aniseed lollipops
give her kisses
an aniseed taste.
and when the barley sugar,
perfumed with aniseed,
slides down annie’s throat
she is in paradise.
for a few pennies
annie gets her aniseed lollipops.
they have the colour of her eyes,
the colour of happy days.
annie likes lollipops,
aniseed lollipops
annie’s aniseed lollipops
give her kisses
an aniseed taste.
when on her tongue
just a small stick remains,
she jumps to her feet
and returns to the drugstore.
for a few pennies
annie gets her aniseed lollipops.
they have the colour of her eyes,
the colour of happy days.
when the barley sugar,
perfumed with aniseed,
slides down annie’s throat
she is in paradise.

okay, they are kind of dirty, but i probably wouldn’t have given them a second thought if they were sung in english. mme. gall is about as sexual sounding as michelle tanner. all i thought was “where the hell can i get anise-flavored lollipops?”

then i saw this video and was like “well, shit.”

i’ll never eat a ring pop the same way again.

also, if you’re interested in seeing her stint as a dominatrix, here it is.

sparkle, neely, sparkle!

by t2k on October 23rd, 2007

i want to tell you about someone.

one of my favorite, favorite films is “valley of the dolls,” starring one of my obsessees, sharon tate. i love how quotable it is (”you know how bitchy fags can be!”, “boobies, boobies, boobies. nothin’ but boobies. who needs em?”, etc.). i love its unintentional campiness (the unfortunate love beads bra, the old wig-down-the-toilet trick). and i really love its theme song, sung so plaintively by dionne warwick. i never knew, or cared, quite frankly, who wrote it until….

….a few months ago, my friend peter, an avid listener of my radio show, recommended a singer/songwriter to me. all he needed to sell me was the phrase “schizophrenic woman from the 1960s.” honestly, i am so easily won over with just the mention of that decade. it’s sad, really. i’m like pavlov’s chick.

dory previn is her name. her life is kind of unbelievable. her father kept her and her family under house arrest at gunpoint for months during her youth. she was the first wife of composer andre previn, with whom she collaborated on several film scores, including “valley of the dolls…!” while dory was receiving shock therapy for her mental illness, he left her for mia farrow in the late sixties. it seems their divorce was the impetus for her solo career. between 1970 and 1976 she released six albums, all of which explored the uncommon song subjects of incest, stockholm syndrome, and psychosis.

i heard the “theme from ‘valley of the dolls’” in a whole new way when i learned that dory previn wrote it very shortly after her nervous breakdown. at its surface a winsome, soulful pop ballad, its soul is an emotionally lost self-confession.

here’s the title track from her 1972 concept album about the dark side of los angeles, “mary c. brown and the hollywood sign.”

dory previn - mary c. brown and the hollywood sign

why? why do i bum around?

by t2k on October 23rd, 2007

i don’t know what it is, but i’ve recently become obsessed with tiny tim. he used to really creep me out (and still does - creepiness = instant obsession), but i think reading about his personal life made him more endearing; he had a fixation on older music, which appeals to me for obvious reasons. how did he become so famous in the 1960s? weren’t people totally unnerved by him? he used to freak me out like gallagher or sam kinison freaks me out.

i found this video of him singing sonny and cher’s “i got you babe” with eleanor barooshian (amazing name, by the way) of the girl group the cake, not to be confused with the awful band cake. the cake sang backup vocals on my favorite soft machine song, “why are we sleeping?”. tiny tim is singing cher’s part. her voice is pretty terrible, but that doesn’t mean i won’t play it on my show. you know, bad = good. the video was taken from this documentary called “you are what you eat,” which was produced by peter of peter, paul, and mary. i found out about it while researching tiny tim and now i’m dying to see it. just goes to show you that there are still some pretty incredible things out there that i don’t know about yet.

if that stirred anything in your little hearts, you should also check out this video by the cake. it’s pretty hilarious. i really want to know what the girl on the left is thinking, or not thinking. what’s even more confusing is that i watched another video from a different performance and she’s doing the exact same thing…nothing. was this their schtick? if so, what does it mean? if it wasn’t a schtick why didn’t they kick her out of the band? i need to know.