Search

Recent Comments

• refinance rates in texas
  PUNITA LEATHERS Assorted Styles and Sizes 23-Piece Walking Sticks Refi 43214A 23 Walking...
• grants for single mother
  Did you hear what Clinton said about that?
• Damon Natani
  Hello I was looking for trustworthy information on supplies for wide format printers. Your site was...
• Christi Hobden
  Hi, extremely awesome blog. Thank you for finding the time to make these useful articles :)
• Vickie Gumz
  Sick of obtaining low amounts of useless traffic for your website? Well i wish to inform you of a fresh...

• 'DENTAL FEATURES
  • Blogging Bellingham
  • Coming Soon To Theatres
  • Floss Chat Archives
  • Flosstown Hall
  • Headline of the Day
  • Song of the Day
  • Video of the Day
•  
• FLOSSLIGHTS
  • Dear Akbar and Jeff: Go North!
  • Muse Held Hostage
  • Affirmative Action Out of Control
  • test your sanity
  • More Green Grass
•  
• PACIFIC NORTHWEST
  • Bellingham
  • Portland
  • Seattle
  • Vancouver

• CONTRIBUTORS
  • Gonzo
  • spaceneedl

• Friends, Associates

Archives

• Arts and Leisure
  • Comedy & Jokes
  • Design & Style
  • Festivals & Fairs
  • Film & Movies
  • Literature & Writing
  • Music & Noise
  • Sports & Games
  • Theatre & TV
• Life and Society
  • Careers & Education
  • Community & Culture
  • Family & Friends
  • Food & Drink
  • Health & Fitness
  • Nature & Weather
  • Religion & Folklore
  • Travel & Holidays
• News and Talk
  • Finance & Trade
  • Ink & Pixels
  • Law & Politics
  • Media & Advertising
  • Obits & Memorials
  • Pulpits & Soapboxes
  • Science & Tech
  • War & Peace
• This Month in History
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005
  • December 2004
  • November 2004
  • October 2004
  • September 2004
  • August 2004
  • July 2004
  • June 2004

ear candy

• 
• Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Naturally
• If anyone's been paying attention, I listen to a wide variety of music, only a fraction of which I've reviewed here at Transcendental Floss. I tend to go through phases when I'll be stuck on a particular artist or genre, really immersing in it for a few weeks at a time, and what I find so interesting and exciting is that during each phase I have this experience where I feel like there's no better music than what I'm listening to right then and there. Well, I've just discovered Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and I can say with complete confidence that this is the best music I have ever heard. Seriously, this is magical stuff. Brooklyn, New York's Daptones Records have managed to produce record after record of fine R&B/soul/funk music using vintage musical equipment and analog recording techniques in the ultimate homage to the legendary Motown and Stax catalogs. The Dap-Kings, serving as the Daptone house band, are the modern day equivalent of Stax's Booker T & The MGs, laying down the tastiest grooves, sweetest guitar riffs, and of course the horns that make this music so electrifying. Sharon Jones is the quintessential soul singer, able to capture moments of tenderness just as easily as moments of gritty passion. Enjoy!
• — Gonzo
•  

• 
• Van Morrison - His Band & The Street Choir
• As much as I love the 1991 movie The Commitments, Van Morrison, some 40 years earlier, had already proven that the Irish have plenty of soul. Perhaps my favorite album of his, His Band & The Street Choir could easily be said to share some DNA with the music of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (soulful crooning, grooves, horns, etc.), yet with a decidedly unique twist that is all Van The Man. This music simply makes me feel good on a deep, deep level. What's so great about Van Morrison is that he's covered such a variety of genres, from soul to blues to country to jazz to celtic to a kind of meditative, almost new age sound that is all his own, and so as I move from phase to phase of musical immersion he's very often right there with me.
• — Gonzo
•  

eye candy

• 
• Be Kind Rewind
• I was not prepared to love this movie nearly as much as I did. While I've liked a lot of Jack Black's work, he's a guy with limited range who I can easily see wearing out his schtick. However, teamed with a very sweet and funny turn by Mos Def, an equally sweet Danny Glover, and under the direction of the mad genius of Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep), Black's occasionally formulaic performance does nothing to keep this film from achieving success as a comedy and a bittersweet slice of life in Passaic, New Jersey. I was surprised over and over again how Gondry unapologetically went sentimental, eschewing so much of the cynicism that passes as gritty realism these days, which is music to my unapoligetically sentimental ears. I laughed. I cried. I learned that Mos Def is by far the best artist to crossover from music to acting that I've seen in a long, long time.
• — Gonzo
•  

brain candy

• 
• Franny & Zooey - J.D. Salinger
• I work at a university where I supervise a team of student employees. One employee, in painfully embarrassing hindsight, reminds me an awful lot of me, but before this hindsight came into focus he was a big, fat pain in my ass. Relentlessly sarcastic and arrogant, yet brilliant, this guy pushed my patience to the limit. Then, one day, I saw him sitting under a tree on campus reading Franny & Zooey and it hit me like a lightning bolt. I know this kid. I WAS this kid. So, I stopped to talk to him about the book and about Salinger in general. He'd read The Catcher in the Rye first, then moved on to Nine Stories, which, with the story A Perfect Day For Bananafish, introduces the reader to the inimitable Glass family. Franny & Zooey, then, becomes the natural next choice, with Raise High The Roofbeam, Carpenter & Seymour: An Introduction to follow, and this was exactly the same sequence that I followed 20+ years earlier. Ever since, while we're not buddy-buddy, there's been a new-found understanding between us, a sense that I'd been his shoes, that we shared some interests. Oh, and I went back and re-read Catcher, Nine Stories, and am currently falling in love all over again with Franny & Zooey.
• — Gonzo
•  

Hard Candy

• Lick your chops and chip through the nuggets of past Floss Aid recommendations.
• — floss aid
•  

The (Candy) Man