Hey, Man... Nice Pumpkin

      

     

#111

09.09.10

   

Pumpkin - Tricky (featuring Alison Goldfrapp)

   

{Note:  The next several blog entries will feature photos taken with the iPhone camera at the Alaska State Fair this past Friday, September 3, 2010.  It was just my Co-pilot Q and I that night, and we had a great time.}

    

This photo was ultimately inevitable.  No discussion of the "Alaska Fair" is complete without mentioning insanely large vegetables.  Some years that means monster cabbage, but this year it was mega pumpkins.  This particular pumpkin happens to be an Alaskan state record, weighing in at a healthy 1101 pounds.  It was grown by Dale Marshall, in case you want to reserve your pumpkin for Halloween 2011.  

 

He happened to be standing near it when Q and I were there, and I heard some guy wearing a trucker cap and a t-shirt with a silk-screen print of a wolf howling at the moon say to Dale "Hey, man... nice pumpkin."

  

Mark the date, and write this down:

"Hey, man... nice pumpkin."

  

Deep stuff; and eloquently delivered.

  

Alright, I admit it... the pic of the pumpkin isn't outrageously cool, and my lame (but true) story to go along with it isn't much better.  And that, dear reader, is why I have introduced music into this otherwise pathetic blog.  Tricky shall save this day!

  

I have been a big fan of Tricky since he and Massive Attack pushed the boundaries of possible soundscapes in my mind.  I find him to be a fascinatingly unique individual, and his music is ultra-textured and "groovy", for lack of a better word.  It's the only trip-hop I ever care to hear, unless someone else comes along and does it as well as he does (or better?  Is that possible?).  

This particular song is extra cool because it features the gilded voice of Alison Goldfrapp accompanying Tricky's slo-mo rap.  I love her Goldfrapp recordings, too, and will make it a point to feature some of her stuff here soon.  I think this track was recorded before her solo career started; so for all I know, Tricky discovered her.  This song is supposedly a criticism of the pretentious arrogance of Billy Corgan, the main man for the Smashing Pumpkins.  It comes off Tricky's debut solo album Maxinquaye, named for his mother Maxine Quaye who committed suicide when he was a wee lad in England.

     

CCE