the plusses of minus

http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus.html

so this might be one of the cutest, sweetest, and really most wonderful "webcomics" in existence. minus is the story of a girl with magical powers who can grant wishes and basically make whatever she wants to happen happen, though mostly she does what she does for other people - though sometimes, she does things just because, like switching the heads of everyone in a diner or turning herself invisible or into a puddle. it's a little like that twilight zone episode (remade for the movie), and she definitely has some sinister moments, especially early on.

the writer/artist, ryan armand says:

"Each minus strip is painted on a 15x20" piece of Illustration board. With this comic I am
pretending I am making a comic strip for a newspaper in the early 20th century. A special
newspaper that lets me use as much color as I want, because real papers have limitations
on that sort of thing. Or maybe they did in the past I'm not sure! "

most recently in the strip, after bringing some people back to life - which briefly created a zombie outbreak of sorts -, she has caused the entire human race to die (they asked to be reunited with everyone who died).

this is one of my favorite strips:

although there are several that are simply amazing.

new music?

yeah.

i fail.

seriously, you'd think i'd have learned by now that i just can't keep a regular blogging schedule. it's not like i'm "too busy" or anything. and i have been doing the listening end of things, just the actual blogging about it has lapsed.

that said, a few new things have been taking over my listening recently...


so nevermind that i have a gigantic crush on zooey deschannel, which pretty much guaranteed i'd like this cd no matter what (well, i guess had it been an album of celine dion covers i might have had an issue with it). this cd is completely adorable and brilliant. a nice mix of sun soaked acoustic pop, 50's/60's girl group-esque songs, with a little elliot smith mixed in. the cover of the beatles' "i should've known better" is simply amazing, turning an already pretty brilliant early mid-period beatles song (was it in help? or hard days night? i forget...) into a sunny, Hawaiian tune (slightly silly, as evidenced by Zooey's audible giggle during M.Ward singing the chorus). amazingly, she actually wrote or cowrote all the songs (other than the aforementioned cover, and the covers of "you've really got a hold on me," and "swing lo sweet chariot.") especially amazing considering that usually when most actresses make that attempt into music, they don't (jenny lewis being an exception). i really truly hope the title "volume 1" means there's going to be a volume 2, as it would be wonderful to hear more of what this collaboration might produce.

check them out on their myspace page!



so it's been over a decade since their last poper studio album, and almost as long since their live album. they did pop up a couple of years ago on a serge gainsbourg tribute, but otherwise the past ten years have nee nothing but rumors and silence from the portishead camp (there was a beth gibbons solo album in there too i think...). so the big question is, was it worth the wait?

well... was it???

YES!!!!

a little less sample heavy than the last two (actually, i'm not sure there's any sampling on the record), it continues on their gloomy, noirish, not quite trip-hop sound where we last left it. beth's voice is still amazing - haunting and wavering, but never weak. a comparison can be drawn between this album and some of the better parts of radiohead's last few albums - a mix of electronic beats and krautrock instrumentalism. there's a few tracks that seem to channel joy division ("we carry on" in paticular), though this isn't a bad thing. this is everything this album needed to be (though, really, had it been just a rehash of Dummy or Portishead, it still would have been an amazing record.) apparently you can download the entire album pretty much everywhere online, especially since it leaked about a month early. but it really is worth shelling out the 13 or 14 bucks you'll pay for it to have it in hand.

so possibly back to some of me regularly scheduled blogging later... maybe...