Liner Notes: February - Velvet Goldmine/Curt Wild/Gimme Danger/TV Eye

I love Ewan McGregor. The 1990s were a very good time for him; he was in Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, and Emma. Velvet Goldmine is my favorite of his 90s era movies, and his performance of "Gimme Danger" is a big part of why he's so good in this movie. So as I've been doing each week this month, let's start with a song. 

This particular performance takes place in the latter part of the movie, after the rise of Brian Slade/Maxwell Demon and after Brian chooses to hurt the people he loves. Curt has been in Berlin with Jack Fairy making new music and saving himself. And they come back together for the "Death to Glam" show and Curt gives us this. 

I love this song. "Gimme Danger" was originally performed by the Stooges and was on their third album Raw Power. It's my favorite Stooges song, and I could listen to either Iggy Pop or Ewan McGregor sing it every day of my life and never get tired of hearing it. The lyric "kiss me like the ocean breeze" has a very prominent spot in my brain. The version by Ewan McGregor isn't on the official soundtrack, which is a shame. I think it's one of the best live performances in the film. 

We first meet Curt Wild earlier in the story when Brian Slade is still in his folk singer era and not attracting any attention, or at least not the kind of attention he would like to attract. He and Wild are both playing at a festival, and watching Wild's performance of "TV Eye" changes Brian Slade's perspective on his own music. If you've never watched this movie, I beg of you to watch it so you can watch Ewan McGregor perform "TV Eye." It's so freaking good. Wild also gets completely naked during this performance which is another reason why I didn't select it for our starting song. As Slade becomes more famous and travels to America, he asks to meet Curt Wild and "help him out." 

My squirrel brain also managed to find the part in the book Please Kill Me where Kathy Asheton talks about the meaning of "TV Eye." Kathy's brothers, Ron and Scott, made up the original lineup of the Stooges along with Pop and Dave Alexander. If you've ever wondered what this song was about, here's Kathy's description:

Iggy Pop (I always think of Philip Seymour Hoffman in Almost Famous when I hear Pop's name) was and is a wild performer. I saw him and some of the original lineup of the Stooges in concert in the 2010s before Scott Asheton died. While he wasn't stage diving and lighting things on fire at that point in his life, Iggy Pop was still Iggy Pop. I've watched footage of the band from their early days and Ewan McGregor just got it. 

Curt Wild is also a bit of Lou Reed (I'll dive into Lou Reed later in the year). Wild's electroshock treatment as a teenager is a real thing that happened to Reed in his teen years. Both Pop and Reed had a huge impact on the London glam scene. They were protopunks, paving the way for people like Bowie and bands like T-Rex and all the little punk and glam children who came later. Bowie produced Transformer for Reed and Pop's iconic solo albums The Idiot and Lust for Life, much like how Brian Slade and Jack Fairy come to Wild's rescue. Combine all these things and their unfortunate addiction issues and you have Curt Wild. 

The movie's narrator, Arthur Stuart, has two encounters with Wild during the course of the story. I'll talk more about them next week when we meet Arthur, but I love the scene at the end of the movie with the two of them in a bar. The idea of memory and what was plays out really beautifully in their meeting. 

I used metallic thread this week. I know better but I did it anyway. I guess it's the most punk thing about me after being an empathetic person. 

Here's this week's entry:

The materials for this week. 

February 15 - spent some time this week finishing the edges since Curt's badge isn't as involved as the others.

February 16

February 17 - Why did I decide to use metallic thread?

February 18

February 19

February 20

February 21

This week's entry and the rest of February's Liner Notes. Next week: Arthur Stuart

The back is fun.

Songs Referenced This Week:

• "Gimme Danger" (from Velvet Goldmine)
• "Gimme Danger" (The Stooges)
• "TV Eye" (from Velvet Goldmine)
• "TV Eye" (The Stooges)
• "Lust for Life" (Iggy Pop - fun fact: this song was used on the Trainspotting soundtrack. This was the first movie I saw Ewan McGregor in; it came out in 1996.)
• "Satellite of Love" (Lou Reed - this song also appears on the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack and is one of my favorite Lou Reed songs. I'll visit with this song in more detail later in the project.)
• One of my favorite Iggy Pop albums is Preliminaires, which is more of a jazz/traditional album. He also did an album of covers called Apres which is worth checking out if you like French songs like "La Vie En Rose" and standards. 

WIPs and Other Small Joys

I actually started working on another needlepoint piece last weekend! I started this piece at the end of last year to add to a wall of art I want to do in my kitchen. I stopped working on it as I started working on the new stitch journal and stuff at work got busy. But I picked it back up for my craft meetup last Sunday. 

I hope to set aside some time this weekend to keep working on it. 

I also started volunteering at Upcycle Creative Reuse Center last Sunday. It's a great place to shop if you're looking for arts and crafts supplies. I help with sorting donations and keeping the store stocked. This is going to be a great volunteer gig for me and also a potentially very costly one. I found some good stuff for future Liner Notes entries. My goal with Liner Notes is to use my inherited thread collection from MLM, materials I already have at home, and thrifted materials. Upcycle is great for the thrifted part. 

For April - Florence and the Machine

For May - Fleetwood Mac's Rumours

Speaking of Fleetwood Mac, I saw the play Stereophonic last weekend at the National Theatre. It's "loosely" based on the recording of Rumours and has gotten me in a Fleetwood Mac mood. It's at the National until March 1, so try to check it out if you can. It's not a musical - it's a play that includes songs. I also started reading Alan Light's book Don't Stop about the enduring legacy of the album. I'm so excited for May. 

I bought a rug. I've never purchased a rug in my entire life. I wasn't sure where I'd put it since it's a big rug (I bought the smallest size) so I've settled on my kitchen for now. I'm on a mission to make my house as whimsical and weird as I can, and this rug is the perfect addition. 

Bea is still deciding if she likes it.

Bea also got a new bed this week. She's pretty much ignored it, but we'll see. She has a process before she accepts something new. 

I also bought two completely unnecessary absolutely adorable items for no reason but that I needed them in my life. 

It's a pierogi holding a chicken! You can get your own pierogi ornament from Cute as a Dumpling.

Did I need a standing pen case shaped like a raccoon? Probably not, but here we are. 

If you're looking for something to do this weekend, might I suggest watching one of my other favorite movies, Harold and Maude? Bud Cort, who played Harold in the movie, died earlier this week. It was a box office bomb when it was initially released but has become a cult classic since. Alamo Drafthouse is showing it this month. The movie also has a fantastic soundtrack featuring songs by Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) although it wasn't released as a soundtrack until 2007. My favorite song is "Trouble."