Media Analyses… The Overlooked Brilliance of Femina Ridens (1969) 9 Feb 202022 Feb 2020 I'll just come right out with it; Femina Ridens is an absolute masterpiece. Not merely a magnum opus among soft-core erotica, or of Euro-exploitation movies, or of Italian "sleaze," nor…
Media Analyses… Beautiful Christmas Fantasy 15 Dec 201915 Dec 2019 Off-off Broadway is far from the best Louis Theroux film, but still a great watch. If you click the video, it begins at Louis' strained audition for a role in…
Thoughts & Memories Post-Modern Religion (1/3) Examining Poly-, Mono-, A- & Pantheism 14 Dec 201927 Mar 2020 This series will delve into my thoughts on religion and its continuing relationship to our lives in a changing world. I'm sure this will lead to a very well-tempered and…
Media Analyses Thoughts on Brian Wilson Solo Material 8 Dec 20198 Dec 2019 I always had this idyllic picture of Brian's solo career before I started delving in. I imagined that surely, these must be great works of art that he'd always wanted…
Media Analyses SMiLE (Appendix) Sources for Further Reading 24 Nov 20198 Dec 2019 I hope you enjoyed my "thesis" on SMiLE, 4 years in the making if we start from '15 when the first essays which would go on to become part of…
Media Analyses SMiLE (14/14) Symphony of the Stars 24 Nov 20198 Dec 2019 Recently, I decided to take the concept of astrology and look further into SMiLE for connections. I'll confess outright that it probably wasn't Brian's intention that every track embody an…
Media Analyses SMiLE (13/14) Mute Muses 23 Nov 20198 Dec 2019 In this section, I'm going to outline Brian's New Age philosophies which he was into during the SMiLE sessions. This is ordered by how much I think each ideology was…
Media Analyses SMiLE (12/14) The Gospels of Siegal & Hutton 23 Nov 201923 Nov 2019 Jules Siegal's Account ("Goodbye Surfing, Hello God") 1) So...did Brian actually destroy the master of Fire? Vosse, Anderle, and now Siegal all agree on that. So if that's the case, how…
Media Analyses SMiLE (11/14) The Gospel of Anderle 23 Nov 201923 Nov 2019 These are my musings on Part I of the interview that David Anderle had given to Crawdaddy magazine. The "up arrows" indicate a related piece of evidence which appeared later…
Media Analyses SMiLE (10/14) The Gospel of Vosse 23 Nov 201923 Nov 2019 In these next four essays, I'm going to analyze what the members of the so-called Vosse Posse have said about the album in editorials or interviews. Initially, these commentaries were…
Media Analyses SMiLE (9/14) Psychedelic Sounds Disc 2 Commentary 10 Nov 201923 Nov 2019 Continuing from our last installment, this is my "commentary track" for the Psychedelic Sounds, now reacting to the tracks on Disc 2. 1. Taxi CabberWe know this was an impromptu…
Media Analyses SMiLE (8/14) Psychedelic Sounds Disc 1 Commentary 10 Nov 201923 Nov 2019 The Psychedelic Sounds bootleg is an invaluable peek into the themes running through Brian's mind during the height of the SMiLE Era, and in my opinion contains some rough working…
Media Analyses SMiLE (7/14) The Elements & Other Leftovers 10 Nov 201923 Nov 2019 The Elements Fire makes me feel scared and stressed out. Apart from sounding like fire engines speeding towards a raging inferno, it also sounds like a perfect representation of dread. It's an…
Media Analyses SMiLE (6/14) The Innocence Tracks 10 Nov 201923 Nov 2019 Continuing off from last time, these are my observations on the SMiLE songs I believe would have fit on Side 2, all centering on a theme of childhood innocence and…
Media Analyses SMiLE (5/14) The Americana Tracks 10 Nov 201923 Nov 2019 In these next three sections of my SMiLE "thesis" I will examine the individual tracks which comprise the album according to their common themes (or in the final essay, the…
Media Analyses… SMiLE (4/14) My Fan Mixes 28 Oct 201914 Mar 2020 I'm going to continue my in-depth dissection of all things SMiLE with a look at my changing understanding of it as the years have gone by, mix by mix. (I'm…
Media Analyses SMiLE (3/14) The Structure of the Lost ’67 Album 20 Oct 201923 Nov 2019 Let this "chapter" of my SMiLE analysis serve as the outline for what I think the project would have been if finished on time. The future installments of this series…
Media Analyses… Scattered Thoughts on Princess Diana’s Legacy 25 Sep 20198 Dec 2019 Roundabout Introduction I love The Carpenters. You can't not like The Singles: 1969 - 1973 in particular; in fact, it's my fave "greatest hits" release by any artist. I see it as…
Thoughts & Memories ABBA Songs Bring the Feels 26 Jun 201930 Jul 2019 I was walking back from the gym listening to this song and feeling a lot of emotions. It's so catchy and passionate that you feel good and catch yourself trotting…
Media Analyses SMiLE (2/14) The Men Behind the Music 11 Jun 201923 Nov 2019 This multi-part essay is my attempt to thoroughly examine various aspects of Brian Wilson’s unfinished masterpiece, SMiLE. This essay is written with the assumption that readers already have a basic understanding of the album’s goals…
Media Analyses SMiLE (1/14) Related Material & Packaging 10 Jun 201923 Nov 2019 This multi-part essay is my attempt to thoroughly examine various aspects of Brian Wilson's unfinished masterpiece, SMiLE. This essay is written with the assumption that readers already have a basic…
Media Analyses Vertigo (9/10) The Soundtrack 1 Jun 201926 Oct 2019 Vertigo is nigh inseparable from its soundtrack, and as entertaining or technically proficient as the rest of the movie may be, without the work of Bernard Herrman I do not…
Media Analyses… The Beach Boys’ Impact on My Life 25 May 201927 Mar 2020 SMiLE by the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson is my favorite body of music ever. The only reason I've called other albums "my favorite" in the past is because SMiLE itself…
Media Analyses Scattered Thoughts on Alice in Wonderland 19 May 201929 Dec 2019 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are such beloved and timeless stories that there's really not much for me to say that hasn't been discussed already. Not…
Media Analyses… Jungian Archetypes in Media 17 May 201917 May 2019 According to psychologist Carl Jung there are several archetypes that are burned into the collective unconscious of all humanity. This then got turned into the commonly cited “Twelve Archetypes” that…
Media Analyses… My Favorite Artist, Syd Barrett 5 May 201916 May 2019 When it comes to the realm of music, my two biggest heroes are Brian Wilson and Syd Barrett. Both men created (or were working towards creating) two of the greatest…
Media Analyses Oliver! Observation About Dodger 21 Apr 20192 May 2019 My girlfriend and I were watching Oliver! tonight and we noticed an adorable detail I wanted to share. It happens in the scene where Bill Sykes and Nancy have kidnapped…
Media Analyses Transcribing Brainticket’s Cottonwoodhill 16 Apr 2019 Dawn Muir's various trippy monologues on Brainticket's first album, Cottonwoodhill are brilliant. I consider it the most "far out" psychedelic album ever made and in four years I've yet to find…
Media Analyses… Beatles Musings (& Ranking the Albums) 11 Apr 2019 I love the Beatles, you love the Beatles, everybody loves the Beatles. Books, films, documentaries and blogs have already been made to excess describing why they're awesome. So unlike say,…
Media Analyses The Crown Jewel of Psychedelic Rock 7 Apr 20197 Apr 2019 The United States of America is my favorite album of all time. At the time of writing this blog post, I have a modest LP collection of about 30 or…
