Dan Mooney

Silent Night

Dan — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 01:29:52 +0000

Commercial Break

Dan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:05:38 +0000

A little birdy once told me that instead of just wanting to be a writer, and saying I wanted to be a writer, and pretending that I was a writer, that maybe I should just take a year and focus on writing. It was optimistic and brash and totally unreasonable and for one reason or another it looks like that’s exactly what I’ve done.

But it’s time to back-burner all this for a while. I’ve got bigger fish to fry, apparently on one of my larger front burners, and the pretense I’ve been sleepwalking under has now collapsed under the wonderful weight of reality.

I’ve written more in the last year than I had in the previous three or four. The last time I had written regularly, and then taken a decisive break from it, was just about six years ago. Things changed for the better for me within two months of doing so and I’d welcome a similar turn anytime now.

This isn’t a huge deal, or a huge break – I hope to be back in early November (and just maybe putting links on twitter) – but I’m writing like this because I need it to feel like this.

Thanks for checking in over the last year. We’ll see you next time.

10Listens Essay: Classic and Unappreciated: Marshall Crenshaw

Dan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 02:49:34 +0000

Long time coming, this one. My two cents on one of the best song-for-song albums I know, over at 10Listens:

The better heading for this essay is probably “Classic and Underappreciated,” because when Marshall Crenshaw’s self-titled debut was released in 1982, it sold pretty well, had a single that charted and made enough of a dent in the minds of enough listeners for Crenshaw to make an ongoing career out of it. Still, for all his talent and for all his good songs, Crenshaw’s is not a name that pops up as often in conversation as other tunesmiths’ might. Among glasses wearers of his generation – not the most scientific way to parse this material, but hey – he had more in common with Buddy Holly than Elvis Costello or Warren Zevon, both more biting in their wit, though not appreciably more intelligent, at least compared to the persona put forth in the songs on this album.

Read the whole thing here.

Show Review: Marshall Crenshaw, 5/1/11

Dan — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:42:37 +0000

For once in a long while, things worked out. I was doing some research for an essay on Marshall Crenshaw’s debut album and wondered just what Mr. Crenshaw was up to nowadays. I knew he had put an album out a few years back, and that he continued to play shows, but hadn’t checked in on him in a while and would soon be glad I had.

Just so happens, Marshall Crenshaw had signed up to play three shows at the City Winery, a wine bar/restaurant/performance space in downtown New York. And I hadn’t just missed those shows, either – they were a few weeks away, and would be in celebration of the 30th anniversary of that very same self-titled debut album, where it would be played straight-through. That the album came out in 1982 and this was only 2011 didn’t matter at all to me, because it was already like magic that this coincidence had arisen and when stuff like that happens I don’t ask questions.

I had been to the City Winery once before, to see the magician Ricky Jay be interviewed for the New Yorker Festival. The crowd was fine, skewed older, though the beautiful venue was a cut above my usual cultural tastes. But I also write about hamburgers, so my tastes run wide, if occasionally shallow. I do like the idea of it, a kind of dinner theatre without the probably unfair connotations. The venue caters to a particular kind of sensibility, I think, and the thoughtful pop of Marshall Crenshaw fit in well with the sophistication of the surroundings.

I was also excited for the show because, as with these artists who have been around awhile, I asked my father to go. I arranged for seats in the back, raised up a little bit, for a better view and for another special reason. But those seats reminded me of another concert I took my dad to, a Gin Blossoms show back at, yes, the Downtown in Farmingdale (of the ‘02 Almost Queen and Tonic shows). The artists had pleasant, brisk music in common, to the point where Crenshaw wrote at least one song with the Gin Blossoms.

For about twenty minutes before the concert, a screen in front of the stage showed us performance clips and interviews with Marshall Crenshaw from the early 1980s. We saw him play Buddy Holly in the movie La Bamba (during which he vaguely resembles an older version of the Mighty Ducks‘ Les Averman) and we caught glimpses of his wry sense of humor and cool midwestern confidence, the same confidence that would propel an artist to make music somewhat independent of the dominant style of its time, as long as it was good music. And it was.

Crenshaw and his drummer, guitarist and bassist didn’t hop right into the album. They set the stage by playing four songs from earlier in Crenshaw’s career that were only released later, if at all. And after the album, as a sort of encore, the band did other favorites, cushioning the main event at the center of the evening.

It was a genuine thrill to hear the album live, with a fuller band sound. Funny how that happens when it’s live. But the drums seemed heavier, the bass richer, really making some of the tracks stand out very much more than they usually do. “Someday, Someway” was the biggest hit from the record, but “Cynical Girl” and “Mary Anne” were the songs I heard most often growing up. I wouldn’t know the other tracks as well, not having heard them as much, but eventually I became familiar with them and it was pleasantly surprising to hear those fleshed out. “Girls…” and “Rockin’ Around in NYC” were those that benefited most from the heavier sound of the live show. But as for the ones I knew best, “Cynical Girl” was a bucket-list type song to have heard and enjoyed. I believe that one is now played down a step to G from the A of the record version, owing to vocal changes I suppose, but that downshift contributed to the fullness with little compromise to the melody.

As an added bonus, I had signed us up to meet-and-greet Marshall Crenshaw after the show. I had no burning questions to ask, but I shook the hand that strummed those chords and he did sign my CD. I could only say that I’ve enjoyed those songs since I was a kid, too dumbfounded to think of anything else. My dad did engage him in conversation and that was a treat to watch. Mr. Crenshaw said he dug the father-and-son thing. Down to earth. Kind of surreal.

Then on the way home, I got a text from my friend and turned on the radio and heard that Osama bin Laden had been killed.

Interesting night.

Lookalike Love

Dan — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 03:02:22 +0000

Are you a shut-in narcissist happy to masturbate in front of a mirror, yet always left wanting more… of yourself?

Do your exes (or crushes) vaguely resemble each other – and you?

If you wore a wig – or cut your hair – would that new image sum up your picture of an ideal mate?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, thank your empty sky that we have the solution to one of your many, many problems.

Other computer-based compatibility services would have you fill out a questionnaire, getting to know the “real you” in however many different and overcomplicated ways.

They are trying to set you up with someone with the same fractured view of the world.

And they are wasting your time.

Think about this: Most people who aren’t ultra-rich pair off with someone more or less “in their league,” right?

We take that premise to its nth degree:

We find you someone who looks like you.

Those so-called “brother-sister” couples you see out there are onto something, and not merely a legal way to work through two lifetimes of psychological complexes.

They’re in love with themselves – together.

And they’re okay with that.

Are you?

Do you want to be?

Here’s how our system works:

1) Sign up with us online.

2) Include a picture.

That’s it. We’ll run your face through our computers and find those candidates who match your physicality most precisely. Bone structure, other facial features and proportions are most important, but hair color, eye color, and skin tone are all taken into account.

We’ll give you a way to contact your closest three matches. If those relationships don’t pan out, and both parties report back that they didn’t, you’ll then have access to more candidates (people who will look less and less like you) for a small fee every time after that first batch of three.

Is our service not exactly what you’re looking for? Check this out: We’ve listened to our customer base and, for another small fee, we can make hair color, eye color and skin tone uncheckable variables to cover your whole range of mommy and daddy and sibling and cousin issues. Accuse us of exploiting the most damaged, fine, but know that you would do the same.

But don’t think our system is just for attractive people who haven’t yet found themselves. For all you fucking ugly people out there, rest easy. Continue to hide yourself from the world as we do the legwork, sparing you more of the rejection you’ve felt all your life and eventually finding for you another poor unfortunate soul on whom genetics (or bad luck, or other environmental factors) has played a similarly terrible and permanent practical joke.

Simply put, what we offer will be of use to every single self-centered person out there.

Too busy with a high-paying job to meet people?

New in town?

Shy?

Disfigured?

Start living your life, today.

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And then go fuck yourself!