A momentous day

Today was my lovely wife's last day of law school.

3 long years have finally come to a close and I think we're both feeling some really mixed emotions. Law school is completely different from any other sort of higher education save medical school in the strain it puts not only on you, but your family and friends. You tend to change a great deal and there are great demands placed on your time.

Jennifer started law school in 2003 and we got married in August of 2004.

I think we weathered the storm nicely and it's weird and exciting that things are about to change quite dramatically.
We're moving to St Louis and we will both be changing our lifestyles a great deal.

I will hopefully be going to graduate school myself to study psychology, with any luck, I will get books published, and I will be getting a new part-time job. I will be busy, which is something that was hard for me in Columbia. The job market is weird here and I spent a great deal of my time here without a job or the money that comes along with one.

Jennifer will finally be ending her twenty-someodd year relationship with school. That journey is now over. But things will be starting again for her and that's exciting and scary. It's hard to go from ordinary person/student to full blown lawyer in a matter of months, but that's exactly what she'll do.

She is a goal oriented person and it's bittersweet when she finally accomplishes her goal. Like a piece is now missing. But the thing is, there's always a new goal to replace the last one.

My posts will probably be fairly sporadic over the next couple of weeks as we finish packing and move and whatnot. But I will try to drop by and talk about things. It's a pretty cathartic experience and one I think might relieve some of the stress.
On a totally different subject, today marks the end of another journey. Today, the Alter Mivo recorded its last program.
For those who don't know, a mivo is a digital video recorder offered by our cable company, Mediacom (hence the merging of Tivo and Mediacom, Mivo. I know, brilliant, right? That's why I'm a writer.). Basically, it's an extremely ghetto version of a Tivo and tonight, my wife and I purchased a real Tivo. It doesn't work, but we have it.

Yes, we're moving on up...to the east side...to the deeee-luxe apartment in the sky.
Yeah, we're moving on up...to the east side. Why, you ask? To finally get a piece of the pie.

Sunday April 23rd 2006 - a truly crappy day

Well, I broke my computer.

Yeah, that's right. I broke it.

I had been having some issues with the case of my computer and, since it was built by a friend and I, I figured I could move the innards from case to case and be better off.

Sadly, I got everything right but one tiny thing.

Somehow, in the process, my 250GB harddrive went a bit screwy. It lost my partitions and with that, close to 200 GB worth of files. A bulk of that was music, and a lion's share of that was bought legally, and a healthy portion of that is irreplaceable.

Luckily, my friend Brad came to the rescue and found a program available over the internet that recovered my files. Using this, I am backing up said files to DVD. This is an intensely long process and in a little over 6 hours, I managed to back up 2/10 of half of the files.

Yeah, it's gonna be a while.

Yay me.

The Beautiful Grace Alter

The second installment of "Meet My Family" is my oldest dachshund,

Grace Alter

She is a long haired miniature dachshund as well and she is a truly special animal.
Say hello.

Daredevil

OH!!! I almost forgot. I've been a posting fool today, but I wanted to tell you about a must read book.


Daredevil

Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark have only been on Daredevil for two issues now and it is incredible. Bendis and Maleev had a long run, but now the guard has changed and I have to admit that this might be some of the best Daredevil that I have read.
The art is excellent and the writing is as well.
Matt Murdock has found himself in prison. Nuff said.

EDIT: I was NOT reading this book through the end of the Bendis run. I only picked it up because my esteemed colleague, Tommy Smith (aka TC Smith) suggested the awesomeness of said book and for that, I am eternally grateful.
I was also wrong about the number of issues currently in publication of this Brubaker run. There are now 3. I had not counted last week's issue.

We regret any confusion this may have caused. But hey, this isn't the Marvel website or Diamond, so I think you can cut me a little slack.

What Am I Reading?

The Essential Spider-Man Vol 1
I never really knew how good the original Spider-Man stories were. Steve Ditko is no Jack Kirby and there are sort of a lot of strange looking panels. That said, this is a damn good book and definitely worth $17.


Nick Fury - Steranko collectionI don't know much about Steranko, but I keep hearing how awesome he is/was. Sadly, very little of his work exists in reprinted (read: cheap) form, so I started here. The artwork is very impressive.


BPRD: The Black Flame
I just finished this up last night. I won't spoil it for anyone, but damn. It definitely will have repercussions throughout the BPRD universe. And I like Guy Davis's art. If it can't be Mignola, he works too.


Man-BatEveryone should go out and buy this. Admittedly, Man-Bat is not the most imaginative Batman villain, but this is an excellent mini-series. The story is interesting so far, but the real reason to buy it is Mike Huddleston's art. I've loved his work in the past, but this in particular is excellent work. It's atmospheric, well done, incredible. Buy it.

The great Paikea Alter

I will take this opportunity to introduce my family.
This is my youngest. She is a long haired miniature dachshund.
Her name is Paikea and she is named after both a. a character from the film, Whale Rider, and b. the Polynesian God of sea monsters and soft-shell crab.
Say hello to her. She's awesome.

Wanna see something awesome?

Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy"
Click Here!

Watch this Movie!!

This is hands down the most fucked up movie I have ever seen. I'm hard to scare and I don't much care for horror, but THIS movie is intense as hell. Graphic scenes of sex and torture. I have come to not expect much from horror movies as I didn't find Rob Zombie's films to be scary or even really that disturbing and those were supposedly so bad that the studio shied away from them. Those were nothing compared to this film.
This one won't let you down.

What am I playing?

Well, my wife, my friend Brad and I like to play Karaoke on the PS2 and we saw THIS



at Best Buy yesterday and had to have it. Sadly, we know like 4 of the songs on there, but we'll learn.


Before that, I was playing a few games, among which you would find the following:

EC #7 - Armed Forces

In 1979, EC released Armed Forces.

This album is notable for a few reasons.

1. Bebe Buell, Liv Tyler's mother claims that at least one track, "Party Girl" was written about her, though EC dismisses the claim.

2. The album is titled Armed Forces and clearly has a military/love theme. He states in the liner notes, that the album was to be called Emotional Fascism and it's possible that could have been a better title. Song titles include: "Two Little Hitlers," "Goon Squad," and "Oliver's Army."

3. This was the first album attributed to Elvis Costello & the Attractions though This Year's Model did feature the Attractions as backing band.

There are a few great songs, notably "Oliver's Army," the Nick Lowe penned "(What's So Funny) 'Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?," and "Accidents Will Happen."

As for my thoughts about the album, it's not my favorites. The highs are high and the rest is boring. The bonus disc is cool because it contains several tracks from the famous Hollywood High School show. But other than that, this would not make my desert island EC discs.

Rating: 6

Idiot game

Sadly, I spent way too much of my night on
THIS idiocy.

I think about 20 minutes ago, my brain liquified and poured out my ears.

Fuck it, I'm going to sleep.

EC #6 - Get Happy!!

1980's Get Happy!! is one of EC's stylistic departures. Basically, this is his Motown/soul album. Even the cover looks like an old record complete with the wearing around the hole in the center.

He was smarting from a racial incident wherein he got really drunk and said something derogatory about Ray Charles and James Brown in a bar, and he decided to finally make that soul record he had wanted to make.

The song, "Riot Act" tells the story, "when the heat gets sub-tropical and the talk gets so topical." Clearly, he didn't believe what he said and it bothered him to be such a stupid drunk. I guess one could see this album as both his penance and tribute to those he offended.

That said, this doesn't play as just sounding like a Motown record. In fact, many of the songs sound more like other EC songs rather than Motown. That is, until you listen beneath the surface. Some of the songs actually were written for use by Motown and others were simply written in the style. Maybe the performances aren't soul styled, but the song structures certainly are. Some of the performances actually sound that way as well, most notably, "High Fidelity" and a Sam and Dave b-side called "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down." The rest of them, however, are pure EC. The one track I can't get my head around is the excellent, "New Amsterdam," which sound pretty much nothing at all like Motown. But it's a good song, so you can only complain so much.

My personal favorites are the above mentioned, "Love For Tender," "The Imposter," and "Opportunity."

This is a great album, but probably isn't a great place to start a collection. At its highs, it's very high, but it can drone on a bit, being 20 songs long. And in addition to that, there are 30 songs on the bonus disc. Naturally, they aren't all gems.

Rating: 7

EC #5 - This Year's Model

We have gotten to my favorite of his albums, This Year's Model.

This is his second album, but in terms of sound, I sort of think of it as the first REAL EC album. My Aim is True is a truly great record, but it doesn't sound that much like any of his other work. This Year's Model is where he found the sound that he sort of defaults to.

It's a truly excellent album and strangely, despite coming out in 1978, it sounds like it could have been released last year. There really isn't a bad song on there. I don't LOVE "Night Rally," but it's hardly bad.
That just establishes how great the rest of the songs are. That pretty good isn't up to par.

It starts fast and furious with "No Action" and ends with a song that is best summed up with the line "I wanna bite the hand that feeds me." This line is from "Radio, Radio" and EC first came to my attention during the big SNL anniversary they had not too long ago. They showed a classic performance wherein EC was scheduled to play "Less Than Zero" from his debut album. Less than a line in, he stops the band and says "I'm sorry, there's no need to play this song." And they launch into "Radio, Radio." Doesn't sound like a big deal, right? Well one of the producers thought so and swore that EC would never play on American tv again. If that isn't punk, I don't know what is. It clearly didn't stick since I know of at least two other performances, though the oldest I am aware of was "Veronica" in the late 80's.

"The Beat" is a strong contender for my favorite EC song period. In fact, most of the songs on this record are. There's a heavy keyboard sound, but not your standard keyboard. The guitars are accompanied by a strange rock organ, which really separates EC from his contemporaries. The songs no longer sound like Buddy Holly. EC found his own voice and now, people copy that.

It is clear to me that bands like No Doubt and many other "ska" bands have studied "(I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea." I don't like those bands, but they have good taste. This is an undeniably cool song. And listening to it, you really can see an early blending of rock music with reggae rhythms. They had begun experimenting with these back on "Watching the Detectives" on My Aim is True.

This is damn near a perfect album and would undoubtedly make my list of top ten albums of all time.

Rating: Perfect 10

EC #4 - My Aim is True

My Aim is True, one of the greatest debut albums of all time.

The year was 1977 and Declan MacManus took the handle Elvis Costello for the first time and made a punk album that strangely sounds like it was recorded in the 50's. It's the classic, angry, young man album. Now, if you listened to My Aim is True and immediately followed it up with some of his modern stuff, you might think it was a completely different man on a completely different planet.

If you think about it, in 1977, a punk dressed like Buddy Holly might have seemed pretty alien as well.

It launches with a fast, short little jaunt, "Welcome to the Working Week," which really sets up his entire career. This album is like if a punky, sarcastic kid from the 50's cut a record.

Perhaps EC's best known song, "Alison" sneaks into the middle of the album and is instantly memorable.

But there are a ton of highlights. This is a truly great album and there are songs here not represented on the greatest hits record that are still very worthwhile.
"Blame it on Cain" is an amazing track and I have NO idea why it's not on there. "Less Than Zero" is excellent as well. Luckily, they didn't completely fuck it up and they included "Watching the Detectives" and "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes," which are two of his best songs period.

The bonus disc is cool, but not really essential. The only tracks I am excited about are EC's cover of "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" (in my opinion, a spectacular version of a not so spectacular song) and a couple demos of tracks that would eventually see light on his second album.

A great record that I recommend highly.

Rating: 9

EC #3 - All This Useless Beauty

And that brings us to 1996's All This Useless Beauty, which was recorded as Elvis Costello & The Attractions.

This is a pretty divisive album. People either love it or hate it. I fall in the love it category. In fact, it's probably my favorite late EC album. It's good from beginning to end and on the new rerelease, there are a ton of good bonus tracks and demos and shit.

This is also a clear example of something EC likes to do every so often and that is write songs with other people in mind. "You Bowed Down" sounds like a Byrds song and the reason for that is that he wrote it hoping that Roger McGuinn would record it. This album also features a couple tracks written with Aimee Mann. She recorded "The Other End of the Telescope" in her days with 'Til Tuesday and "World's Great Optimist" (which is in the bonus material for this album) saw light of day on one of her solo albums. Also included is the Johnny Cash rejected, "Complicated Shadows," and a song written to be in Sam Moore's key, "Why Can't a Man Stand Alone?".

There's a fair amount of variety on this album, but it tends more toward the pretty than the super pissed. I find it to be a very easy album to listen to and on this one, the bonus disc is essential. This is probably the best of the bonus discs in the series of rereleases.

Instead of just being demos and live cuts, the other songs ("That Day is Done" with the Fairfield Four, "Almost Ideal Eyes", and "What Do I Do Now?") are easily as good as anything that made the cut to be on the album. I rate this album very high and it would be an excellent entry point for the uninitiated who might prefer the pop to the punk.

Rating: 9

EC #2 - Spike

I wish I could say I was doing this in some kind of order, but that's not the case. Basically, I am just listening to them the whole way through as I find them.


That makes the next one 1989's Spike.

Spike is notable for 2 major reasons.

1. "Veronica" was one of (if not THE) highest charting hit singles in his career and though many people think it's about some lover of his, it's really about his grandma.

2. EC and Paul McCartney got together and wrote some songs, among them "Veronica" and "Pads, Paws, and Claws" from this album.

As a whole, I quite like this one. "Baby Plays Around", co-written with then-wife Cait O'Riordan of the Pogues is pretty forboding when you consider that the song is essentially about cheating and...well, the marriage didn't last. It's a pretty strange album in that it's poppy, but at the same time, just a bit off-kilter. "...This Town..." has a chorus "You're nobody in this town til everyone thinks you're a bastard." And that is immediately followed by a really creepy death penalty song, "Let Him Dangle."

"Tramp the Dirt Down." is the best "pissed off at the man" song since Bob Dylan's "Masters of War." And it has a bit of an Irish flair. It's a beautiful song and so unbelievably angry at Thatcher's England.

As I said, I like this album a lot. It's poppy and fun, but at the same time, it has lots of mystery and strange nooks and crannies to explore. This is a much easier listen than Mighty Like a Rose.

Rating: 7

EC #1 - Mighty Like a Rose

The first one I got to was Mighty Like a Rose.

Mighty Like a Rose was recorded in 1991 and falls into the "bitter" category of EC's albums. You see, his albums are usually broken up by style or tone and this is definitely a bitter one. It's sarcastic and a touch mean-spirited at times. I read that the Gulf War was weighing heavily on him at this time and the album is definitely tense. Tunes-wise, it is not his best. A lot of the tracks have a Beach Boys type pop sound with these extremely sarcastic lyrics over them. The best of the album are "The Other Side of Summer" (which features criticisms of John Lennon, the state of the environment, and "pop princesses") and "So Like Candy" which was co-written by Paul McCartney.
Overall, I wouldn't really want to listen to one very often and it certainly wouldn't be my go to album of his, but variety is the spice of life and if you want to hear a dude who's really pissed off, then this is the one for you.

Rating (the ratings are based on just EC albums, not other albums): 4 because "The Other Side of Summer" is so awesome.

I'm gonna keep doing this until I have listened to each of the albums with new ears.

My Elvis Costello Project

Maybe you know this about me and maybe you don't. But I LOVE Elvis Costello. He's probably my favorite all time artist. Great songwriter and awesome singer.
And super unique as well. I am going to be posting a project I have been working on.

Basically, I am listening to every EC album I own with new ears. It's a pretty long term deal, but I am listening to them all and I will post my thoughts here.

It'll seem backwards cause of the way blogs work, but that's how it has to be. I will number them for you.

ENJOY!!!

A New Life for this blog

Hey guys,
I had no idea what to do with this blog, but I have figured it out now.

I have decided to use this as my public thought pad.
I will keep my Livejournal group at http://community.livejournal.com/grant_alter/ which is where I will be posting stuff from my comics.

But this is my mouthpiece to the world. I will talk about concerts, movies, music, video games, comics other than my own, and whatever else strikes my fancy.

So now you know...and knowing is half the battle.

Grant