Michael Stipe & Mario Batali: BFFs

"His image is uniquely his.  He doesn't look like anyone else, he doesn't behave like anyone else, he doesn't dance like anyone else, he doesn't sing like anyone else. ...His incredible softness as a real person is something that is a constant source of joy for me."

 -Mario Batali on Michael Stipe

"The thing about Mario is that he has such enthusiasm for everything, & I'm really a very, very happy person, & I'm always the glass half-full guy.  I'm like a 6 year old, & Mario is like a 6 year old.  And so that enthusiasm for life & that ability to see beyond the things that are really bad or wrong, & find something good, is really what draws me to him as a friend...as a very dear friend."

-Michael Stipe on Mario Batali

I don't know why this friendship seems so unlikely - maybe their starkly opposite appearances, maybe the different paths in life both have taken - but it makes me smile.  I learned about this friendship in a very round-about way.

You can get there from here.

I've written of my love for R.E.M. before, specifically my reaction to their breakup.  I recently devoured this fantastic R.E.M. magazine by the makers of Uncut, a publication from the UK.  My husband gave it to me on my birthday, & I looked forward to reading a retrospective of R.E.M.  Having read countless R.E.M. books & interviews, I certainly didn't expect to learn anything new from it, but there are a lot of new (to me) tidbits here.  For instance, I did not know that the "yeah"s in "Man on the Moon" were a cheeky attempt to surpass the number of "yeah"s in Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", did you?  This 148 page magazine delivers an incredibly in-depth look at the 30 year career of one of my favourite bands, with essays on every album, rare photos, & UK interviews I have never seen before.

It's hard to remember pop culture media before the internet was in every home.  No Google search for instant gratification; I had to buy Rolling Stone & SPIN to read interviews.  No YouTube to find Much Music or MTV appearances; I recorded them on VHS tapes & watched them back with fuzzy audio & blurry lines.  That's if I happened to catch it when it was on TV, with no tweets to announce upcoming appearances, tour dates or magazine covers.  I had to physically check the stores, looking for Stipe on the covers.  Hard times, indeed.  I still have a binder full of these well-read articles, complete with reinforcements for the punched holes.  The only UK magazine I had access to was a Q magazine with a cover proclaiming R.E.M. the "best act in the world today", & I only have that because I bought it in London.

I took a souvenir.

One of the interviews in the Uncut R.E.M. magazine is from a 1993 issue of Melody Maker.  Mat Smith's article begins backstage at the MTV Awards where R.E.M. is about to play for the first time in 9 months.  Here is an excerpt from the article, as R.E.M. takes the stage with "Everybody Hurts":

"[Stipe] emphasises the 'Oh, hang on' as if it means so much to him, a cry for a lover not to slip away, a suicide to think again.  A plea for contact when only loneliness and death stare back, haunted and inevitable.  I've never felt such a sense of love and sheer, focused care coming from a rock singer.

As the song builds, within it, a latent, controlled turmoil threatens to bubble over.  All of a sudden, Stipe signals a halt with one hand.  The stiff upper lip is resumed, the song fades, the click track halts, but the sentiments stirred survive in all those present.  Then, a movement to the right, a garbled jangle of electric chaos and we're into some kind of pile-driving, sure-footed funk that James Brown would shoot his wife for.  Then the realisation dawns, this is the funk version of "Drive" that Buck was talking about earlier.

Stipe is suddenly enlivened, exhumed, like a mania has descended on him.  He can't keep still, arms aloft like some cheap '70s go-go dancer.  The transition is absolute.  From sheer desperation to sheer control. ...If you could bottle the grin Peter sneaked [Stipe] at one point, you'd be a millionaire overnight.  All of them are beaming.  My heart is about to burst."

I don't know about you, but as soon as I read that, I had to watch that performance again.  I know I have it taped on a VHS labelled Videos #3 or something, but I don't have to live like a heathen in the early 90s anymore.  The transition to "Drive" begins around the 5:17 mark, & it is seamless.

I'm sure you know what happened next; I became sucked into hours of R.E.M. YouTube videos.  Eventually, I happened upon a documentary on Michael Stipe that I didn't even know existed.  Filmed in 2005, Stipe is featured alongside chef Mario Batali for The Sundance Channel's Iconoclast series.  It is well worth a watch - Michael Stipe eating dinner is more captivating than most things on YouTube.  And that's ignoring the fact that Stipe will always be my #1 celebrity crush (as if you could ever ignore his perfect combo of sweet + sexy, calm + passion, intellect + dry humour, but I digress).  When asked what viewers would find fascinating about him, Stipe says "Maybe that I'm pretty normal" & he is absolutely correct.  Stipe eating dinner, going to the market on a moped, preparing a meal, shopping for gifts, going to a concert as a fan...it's like seeing your 3rd grade teacher at the mall for the first time. 

The documentary also reveals that blue is totally Michael's colour.  Enjoy.

"The friendship that Mario & I have is pretty particular & pretty great, & the thing that nobody's really figured out is that it's really because he loves music so much, & I love food so much, & it's just as simple as that."

-Michael Stipe

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The Confectionery - 4

These are the things that I think are great.  So great that I want to sing about them.

 NATHAN FILLION ON TWITTER

There are celebrities that never interact with their followers/fans, instead tweeting about appearances or upcoming movies or albums.  This cannot be said of Nathan Fillion...in fact, I don't know if any celebrity has as much fun with twitter.  If you're not following @NathanFillion (now best known as Castle, but in my heart forever as Firefly's Captain Mal), get on it.  A day after Matthew Lewis, aka Neville Longbottom, tweeted a photo of himself & Nathan hanging out (a nerd girl dream if ever there was one), Nathan created a scavenger hunt of sorts for his London followers.  He tweeted "Ok, London. I left you a treat. Tweet a pic when you find it.", accompanied by this photo:

An hour later, a fantastic Serenity keychain (signed by Nathan) was found by a guy with Firefly characters painted on his headphones.  Does anything make me more happy?  Not right now.

Those are ridiculously amazing, & apparently made by @Bobsmade.  WELL DONE.

Later that day, Nathan hid a Dr. Horrible item, & when the first follower to reach that spot found nothing, Nathan tweeted: "Some heathen must have grabbed it. Tell you what. I’ll leave a package where only you can get it. Tomorrow good?"  The guy goes above & beyond awesome, & I'd just like to point out that he is Canadian & should probably be our King.

Celebrate his awesomeness with a scene/song from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, just because.

YELLOW SERENITY T-SHIRT

This new "want" of mine is a mashup of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine art & Serenity (captained by one Captain Mal, of course).  It is glorious - although I suggest getting it in brown, because duh.  You can buy it here.

BATH SALT PUPPIES

The face-eating zombie puppies are coming.  And you won't run away because they're too damn cute.

LEGO HAUNTED HOUSE

For the first time ever, LEGO has created a haunted house, & it is gorgeous.  Their new Monster Fighters line currently has a Ghost Train, a Vampire Castle & a Mad Scientist's Lab, but coming in September is this thing of beauty:

Yes, please.

THE A.V. CLUB'S R.E.M. PILGRIMAGE

As an enormous R.E.M. fan, it was lovely to see this video of a trip to Athens, Georgia, the birthplace of R.E.M.  Many sites that are integral to the history of R.E.M. are featured, among them:

Weaver D's, the restaurant with a familiar slogan.

The kudzu patch from the cover of their debut album, Murmur.

The trestle from the back of that album.

The video can be seen here, & it is a must for any fan of music history.

CONAN O'BRIEN + KIDS = THE BLUES

There isn't much that needs to be said about this.  It is hilarious, & I am in love with Nathaniel - & just this once, I don't mean Fillion.

Those were my favourite internet sweets of the past week.  Come back next week for more goodies!


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We All Go Back To Where We Belong

R.E.M. has released their final single as a band.  It's gorgeous & moving. 
A lush, horn-heavy arrangement that has Stipe's voice front & centre.  Perfection.
We All Go Back To Where We Belong.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-stream-r-e-m-s-final-single-we-all-go-back-to-where-we-belong-20111018


Yes, it has taken me a month to cohesively put together my thoughts on R.E.M.'s breakup.  When the news broke, I had condolences pouring in from family, friends, & even a few high school acquaintances who remembered something about me. I loved R.E.M., and EVERYONE knew it.

Why this band resonated with me, I don't know.  I'm a good decade younger than the majority of hardcore R.E.M. fans - the ones who have followed them from college radio & van tours to #1 albums & stadiums.  I remember the first time I heard them - I was about 11, & the Chris Eliott sitcom "Get A Life" came on.  Stand was its theme song, & I thought it was a Beatles song for the longest time.

I know.  But you can see the appeal it had for an 11 year old.  After that, I heard Shiny Happy People, & thought R.E.M. was a band that made really, really happy songs that the Mini Pops or Alvin & The Chipmunks could cover really well.  But then I discovered the rest of Out of Time, & I fell in love.  In love with the music, in love with Stipe's voice...in love with Stipe himself.  Absolutely my biggest - & longest lasting - celebrity crush.

I had an R.E.M. scrapbook, filled with newspaper & magazine clippings.  It started as an English Media project, but I still have it in my closet upstairs.  I did one of my required Concert Critiques for Musical Repertoire class on an R.E.M. concert.  I convinced my English teacher (a fellow fan) to give me bonus points every time I could fit an R.E.M. reference into an assignment, as long as it made sense.  It always did. My brother had a portrait assignment in art class, & made this for me:

It hung first in my locker, then my bedroom, then my apartment, & now it's in the scrapbook, because my husband thinks it's creepy.  I have one clipping from a classmate's assessment of an essay:

So, yeah, the news of the break-up made me more than a little sad.  It was broken to me by someone I'd describe as my high school music nemesis (at the risk of sounding like Survivor's Coach!)...he hated R.E.M., & I hated The Tragically Hip (his favourite band), almost to comic exageration.  I admit, at first I thought his post on my facebook wall was a joke.  R.E.M. have been through so much in their 30+ years as a band: constant speculation over Michael Stipe's sexuality, a guitarist's meltdown on a plane, & of course, their drummer's shocking onstage brain aneurysm.  They had just released a wonderful album (Collapse Into Now) reminiscent of their earlier work...and now they decided to "call it a day"?

A quick search told me it was true, & I was immediately saddened that I will never go to another R.E.M. concert. Though their breakup makes the 4 concerts that I did attend in Toronto very special.

June 1995 - Molson Amphitheatre, with Luscious Jackson opening, with my friend Jen.  They were awful lawn seats - this was back in the day when you had to physically line up for wristbands on one day, then go line up on another day, only to have a random wristband number selected to be the start of the line.  That sucked.  My first REAL concert, only a few months after Bill Berry's near-fatal aneurysm & subsequent amazing recovery - the only time I would ever see that original lineup. Those 4 guys together - Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills & Michael Stipe were R.E.M.  Their album Monster had come out earlier that year, showcasing a new gritty, dirty guitar sound, & the video for What's The Frequency, Kenneth? revealed a newly bald Michael Stipe to match his eratic dancing. 

To this day I have a thing for bald guys.  Imagine my disappointment that my husband did not inherit his father's receding hairline.  I snuck my huge walkman recorder into the concert, where I recorded the whole show in a horrible quality I will always cherish.  Yes, it is marred in plenty of places by the guy behind us yelling "Orange Crush!" throughout the show (& no, they didn't play it), but it was a dangerous act of rebellion for 15 year old me. 

My next R.E.M. show was in support of UP, their first album as a trio.   My friends & I had better seats than the lawn seats in 1995, & I swear Michael Stipe made eye contact with me.  Magical.  Earlier that year, R.E.M. had done an interview at MuchMusic, so of course, I dragged my friend Craig & a then boyfriend downtown to be there for it.  I stood right next to Mike Mills, & when we were outside, Michael Stipe walked past me & smiled.  AT ME.  He was small, & in a lime green peacoat, & huge nerd glasses before nerd glasses were cool.  It still makes my heart flutter.  It was an amazing day.  I have a worn-out VHS somewhere of this interview & you can see me.  Right next to them.  Of course, you can also see my then-boyfriend, which explains why the video is still in my Mom's basement.

The next concert was my favourite.  May 2001, a free concert outdoors at Yonge & Dundas. I went with my future husband, who is not an R.E.M. fan.  At all.  We were about 10 rows back, Michael was lovely, funny, sweet, & still crazy sexy to me.  The band sounded great, I loved their new album, Reveal, & my future husband even admitted they were fantastic live.  Or he at least said "good".  The most memorable R.E.M. moment was when it started pouring, & Stipe started singing CCR's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?"  My husband has noted that my love for Stipe's voice is odd, as I am a vocalist myself.  No, Stipe's voice is not the most technically sound, but truly, it is magical.  Here it is, the clip from that very concert:

Sigh.

The last R.E.M. concert I attended was in 2003, which was not memorable at all, unfortunately.  It was a huge venue, & even with seats considerably close, it couldn't compare to the outdoor show.  I was unable to attend the next few shows R.E.M. played in Toronto, which turned out to be their last shows here.

It's a weird thing when a favourite band breaks up.  Another favourite band, Dream Theater, saw the departure of their drummer last year - a founding member & huge force within the band.  It was shocking, & there's a feeling of nervousness & anticipation to see what the next move will be.  At least, it was like that for me, but I've been said to take my music very seriously.   The R.E.M. break up wasn't quite that unexpected - they have been a band for 31 years, practically an eternity in the music business.  But they have been the soundtrack from my adolescence to adulthood.  Almost every R.E.M. song has a memory attached to it.  And that's why it's sad to say goodbye to R.E.M.

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