Thursday, April 11, 2024

MIchael's Musings

A Total Eclipse Of The Heart
Michael Shinafelt

The Solar Eclipse happened this past Monday and it was amazing! We had a partial one here in Los Angeles, CA and I will be forever grateful to the woman in my yoga class for giving everyone eclipse glasses, because without them the view would have been considerably diminished. 

I got an up close and personal detailed view it was truly inspiring, great start to the week. Time to motor...

Damnit, I wish one of my personalities liked to clean, the more you know

Careful it's a gusher, that's all

The trailer to Ti West's upcoming flick in his X horror trilogy Maxxxine looks off the f#cking hook!!!

Well the eclipse has come and gone, Beyonce dropped a country album and still no rapture

I would rather light both my arms on fire than going to something as boring as a puppy shower

Stick to the story and eat me! There's that.

For the record the solar eclipse yoga class referenced above was spectacular not to mention quite hallucinatory, green energy surrounded me

 Our minds and brains can evolve. Challenge yourself not to be the same person you were.

Woman Crush of the Week - Kim Kardashian as Siobhan Corbyn on the current season of AHS: Delicate. She is fearless and the main attraction

203 days until Halloween!

On my Bucket List - Have a karaoke party in Hell

Happy Belated Birthday to Kristen Stewart on of my personal favorites '

Why limit happy to an hour?!

And now for something really scary...

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https://www.instagram.com/michaelshinafelt/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/MShinafelt

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Hump Day & Chill

Ladies & Gentlemen - Medusa!

While surfing the WWW I spied the above photo of Medusa from Ray Harryhausen's 1981 stop motion spectacle Clash of the Titans!

This took me back to my teenage years and the memory I have of seeing it on the big screen. Thus we are going to Hump Day & Chill to fond memories from our youth. Yeah. I thought you might quite like that.

Personally I love coming across something that triggers these types of memories from my days of yore. Let's face it while there are many great memories one has as an adult the best ones usually are from when we were young and didn't have adult responsibilities.

I never did catch the redo of this gem, I was reluctant to. I didn't want it to tarnish my memory of how much fun the original was when I saw it at the movies.

Besides, while the stop motion effects were dated by this point in film making history, their simpliicity and old fashioned charm added to the film and the story IMO.

Anyway I'm off with Medusa to Hump Day & Chill, what's your fond memory today?

Clash of the Titans on Wikipedia -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clash_of_the_Titans_(1981_film)  

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

"Not My Problem"

"Not My Problem"

Tom Goss is publicly and comically washing his hands in "Not My Problem," the second single from his ninth studio album, Remember What It Feels Like. The pop/rock banger is based on Tom’s true-life five-year relationship with a very impressive Englishman who was not all who he appeared to be. "I fell in love with a charming but criminal con man who is now in prison,” Goss says, explaining a painful experience in which he was gaslighted and manipulated into believing that it was his responsibility to help heal a man that he loved. “When his lies were finally exposed, I realized that the vast majority of his problems were fabricated to control and take advantage of me.” Goss is supporting the release of the single and video with concerts in San Francisco, Seattle, Palm Springs and other cities to be announced. Tom Goss’s "Not My Problem" is available April 8th on Spotify and all digital platforms.

 

He still writes me on a regular basis,” Goss reveals from his Los Angeles home. “I have a year and a half of letters from a British prison in my house. I don’t read them, but I don’t throw them away either. It’s weird.”


He views the song and video as a “Dear John” letter to his ex; one that gives him the liberation—and last word—that he has longed for. The video is directed and styled by Michael Serrato, who Goss worked with previously on videos such as “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Nerdy Bear.” It was filmed on a prison set at Le Chalet in Los Angeles and in Tom’s own Sounds Awesome Studios in Inglewood. The video stars Goss, Dean Elex Bais as the lying ex, and drag queen Meatball as an overly amorous prison guard.

 

“Watching Meatball terrify Dean was a pure delight,” says Tom of filming the video. While the video is campy and comical, its message is a serious one. “It’s a declaration that my ex and his lies did not and will not break me. I’m resilient and strong and I will continue to believe in people and be a positive force in the world.” 

 

Tom Goss has been singing for more than 15 years, creating a large and varied body of work (nine albums, five EPs, 40 music videos) that tracks his development both as a man and as an artist. He has transformed the facts of his life—a troubled teen and college wrestler; a student studying to become a priest; touring the country as a gay singer-songwriter; falling in love and getting married; the heartbreak of infidelity and the challenges of an open marriage; and, now, being conned by a lover with a secret life—into songs of remarkable range, strength, and beauty. His songs have been featured on ABC, HBO, Disney+, and in several films. His music videos (including “Son of a Preacher Man,” “Breath and Sound” and “Bears”) have been viewed more than 20 million times.

 

His latest studio album, Remember What It Feels Like, reflects on where Tom has come from and where he finds himself today: a 42-year-old living in Los Angeles who cherishes all of his memories, both sweet and bitter, as essential parts of his story and identity. The album is an expansive 15-track collection of happy and light-hearted pop songs punctuated by beautiful ballads and raucous rock. Featured artists include comedian and musician Deven Green, hip hop diva Maya La Maya, wry chanteuse Anne Reburn and Goss's longtime collaborator de ROCHE.

 

"Not My Problem" is a bit angstier than other tracks on the album. It acknowledges the heartache and pain Tom Goss experienced after learning the truth about his ex’s largely fictional life, but also acknowledges that there is a day to every night, a peak to every valley. In true Tom Goss style, the singer manages to find a bright spot in the experience. “If there’s one positive thing I have learned from my ex, it is that reality is whatever you construct it to be. If he could create a fanciful life out of nothing, any of us can. It’s actually kind of empowering to believe that we can all dream big, take chances and risk it all.”

 

“If choosing to live in a distorted reality helps you to keep your spirits up, that’s fine. It’s not my problem. But don’t hurt people: that’s not cool. You can create whatever reality you want without being a douchebag.”

 

Visit http://tomgossmusic.com
 
Follow Tom Goss on FacebookX and Instagram.
 

Monday, April 8, 2024

Solar Eclipse

The Solar Sclipse is going to put on a dramatic show today in a good way. There is also another dramatic thing going on as well.

"Yes" the rapture is nigh. The rapture coming is akin to Chicken Little saying "The sky is falling" 

Thus the Solar Eclipse and Beyonce having made a Country Album are the bringers of this catastrophe.

Hit it Deborah Harry and Blondie!


Solar Eclipse on Wikipedia -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse  

Sunday, April 7, 2024

Congratulations!

Don Lemon & Tim Malone

Congratulations to CNN anchor Don Lemon on his marriage to his longtime partner real estate broker Tim Malone in NYC!

Have a terrific Sunday Funday!

Don on IG -

https://www.instagram.com/donlemonofficial/?hl=en 

Saturday, April 6, 2024

Woo!!!

Woo

Independent record label Independent Project Records (IPR) announced today that they have released two albums as companion pieces by U.K. cult band Woo. The band was recently featured in Electronic Sound magazine.

 
Both Robot X (originally released in 2016) and Xylophonics (2017) have been reshaped and newly conceived with updated artwork for release as, for the first time ever, a one-package release on double CD and double vinyl sets, as well as digital formats. Additionally, a new video for the Robot X focus track ‘Repeatability’ is out now on IPR’s YouTube channel, produced and created by Woo’s very own Clive Ives.
 
IPR and Woo first worked together in 1988 with the release of Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong and then the acclaimed 1989 cult favorite It’s Cosy Inside. Almost forty years later, the men behind Woo, brothers Mark and Clive Ives, have been remarkably prolific, and Independent Project Records is in the fourth year of its relaunch. Time to join forces again.
 
“We had a great collaboration with Bruce back then,” says Clive Ives of Woo. “Both Mark and I were delighted about this new double album with IPR. We love Bruce Licher’s aesthetic and distinct designs. He has really surpassed our expectations with his beautifully crafted letterpress artworks for the two albums. And IPR asked the brilliant Josh Bonati to master our albums!”
 
“I first met Mark and Clive Ives in the mid-eighties after being thoroughly amazed by the music of Woo on their self-released debut album Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong,” remembers Independent Project Records founder Bruce Licher. “I’m very excited to be working with them again on their catalog almost 40 years later, as both Robot X and Xylophonics are wonderfully weird albums cut from the same cloth as the electronic uniqueness they created years ago. There is nothing else quite like the sound that the Brothers Ives make — a sound that is quintessentially Woo.”
 
Robot X and Xylophonics tell a story of retro-futuristic visions from different angles: both proudly experimental, they combine a deluge of musical influences to offer something that is, quite remarkably, deeply layered and minimalist at the same time. The unpredictable instrumentals invite listeners to attach their own fantasies to what they hear, whether those fantasies belong to the past, the present or, more likely, a robotic future. 
 
Robot X was created from snippets of recordings made on a 4-track tape machine in the 80s. “One of our most abstract and surreal albums," Clive Ives calls it. When the record was first compiled in 2016, the brothers felt that the reality of humanoid robots being made and being used was imminent. This concept became the main inspiration for the album, fuelled by the influence of Terry Gilliam’s 1985 masterpiece Brazil, with its blend of sci-fi and dark comedy.
 
The story, set in a dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines, proved influential for Robot X’s artwork, too: Clive Ives collaged together various old industrial machinery etchings to create robots, coming up with something that is obviously not as practical and functional as modern (real world) robots are designed to be. Even with good design, the question arises: how will these logical machines co-exist with unpredictable humans?
 
Xylophonics came together after the brothers Ives started reworking tracks found in the 90s section of their spacious archive. Back then, they had just begun recording onto computers. These tracks showcase their first opportunity to properly link drum machines with keyboards, and create loops and multitrack more layers without the need of sound on sound on a tape deck, working on melodic loops made with tuned percussion instruments such as marimba, kalimba and xylophone, and creating a feel that is equally futuristic and optimistic.

Follow Independent Project Records on Social Media:

Friday, April 5, 2024

At Least Tell Me I'm Pretty...

Due to the writer's and actor's strike this week part II of AHS: Delicate premiered this past Wednesday (with the best episode of the season thus far) and coming at ya this Wednesday April 10th is part II of Chucky's third season.

Well I really love the TV version of Chucky it's off the wall and it works spectacularly!

I was never a big fan of the Chucky film series. Fact: I only saw the first Child's Play and turned off 2 & 3 while trying to view them at home. I didn't see another one until Bride of Chucky which was hilarious!

That is what the series does it capitalizes on what makes Chucky entertaining and fun. It does not attempt to make him scary, because let's all collectively admit it , none of us is scared of a three foot tall talking doll!!!

Chucky on the WWW -

https://www.syfy.com/chucky