Despereaux

 

I’m actually excitedish about a movie right now. I just read “The Tale of Despereaux” by Kate DiCamillo.

 

Yes, I love to read kids’ books.

Now it’s become a big X-Mas movie, as is the inevitable fate of charming little books. I’m a sucker for animated rodents in general. I love a good cartoon (or cgi). So I’m all over this one. I bet the library is gonna be sorry they just withdrew it.

Adelaide

You know the Velvet Underground. You know Lou Reed. You (don’t) know Nico. Now meet  John Cale.

John Cale is known best (if at all) as the Velvets’ keyboard, guitar, viola player. He also shard vocal duties. The Velvet Underground did not exist for very long. After the breakup Cale went solo and he’s been recording steadily to this very day. Unlike Lou Reed, he never hit the big time and remains a cult figure.

the song ‘Adelaide’ is from his first solo record “Vintage Violence” (1970). He’s dismissed this album as ‘simplistic’, but it is one of his best. True, it’s very different from his later work. The sound is uncharacteristcally folk/pop. The songs are less gloomy than usual and the instrumentation nonabrasive. It’s probably not the best introduction to the Cale ouvre, because it sounds nothing like most of his other stuff.