If you’re like me and you look forward to pretty much anything that Bonobo (a.k.a., Simon Green) puts out, then I suppose that today is very good day for both of us. His new album ‘The North Borders Tour – Live’ has been just been released – and the CD version even comes with a full-length companion DVD.

The release is made up of 11 tracks recorded at various stops (London, Seattle, Croatia, etc.) on the 18 month tour for the studio release of “The North Borders”. And European fans – take note! “Golden Tickets” are being hidden in some of the albums stocked at indie record stores which will enable you to attend the final shows of the tour in style (check out this post on the official site for more details about this Willy Wonka-esque gesture).

Listen or buy it on Spotify // iTunes // Amazon.

(Video is for ‘Prelude – Kiara [Live]’, taken from Bonobo’s DVD of ‘The North Borders Tour – Live.’)

I have all kinds of love for this art project by Álvaro Franca, a Brazilian designer who, it seems, loves typewriters and also some of my favorite authors.

(Via BoingBoing)

Sometimes the Universe whispers an offer of happiness to you:

Pardon me…“, it asks. “Would you be interested in seeing something called ‘Apocalypse Pooh’? It’s a mash-up of ‘Apocalypse Now’ (iTunes / Amazon) and the cartoon version of ‘Winnie-the-Pooh‘, made by some mysterious Canadian film-maker.

“Tell me more…” you say.

Pooh Bear is dancing around in front of a mirror, à la an unhinged Martin Sheen. Do you think you would you enjoy seeing that?

“I would.” you say to the Universe.

And what about Piglet as voiced by Dennis Hopper? Would you like that?

“Very much so!”

Perhaps you’d also like to see Tigger appear in the scene where Chef is in the jungle and he freak…

You hear yourself erupt in a guttural, Sam Kinison-like howl: “I WANT TO SEE THIS!! SWEET LORD –  I NEEEEED TO SEE THIS!!”

“Of course you do,” the Universe says as it regards you with a sort of bored bemusement. “Everybody does.”

Like almost every other person who has ever tried to write a pop song, I’m a fan of The Beatles. Truth be told, though, I never spent all that much time listening to the “Post-Beatles” work of the Fab Four – save a childhood rewind-and-replay-until-the-tape-breaks obsession with a Paul McCartney song called  “Coming Up”.1

Recently, though, I took the time to watch Martin Scorsese’s ‘George Harrison: Living In the Material World’ documentary (iTunes / Amazon) and gained new respect for how Harrison forged an identity for himself both during and after The Beatles. Seeing that film is probably why I noticed that today is the release date for ‘The Apple Years 1968-75’ (iTunes / Amazon)

A remastering of 6 albums worth of George Harrison’s post-Beatles output, ‘George Harrison: The Apple Years (1968-75)’ serves as a counterpart to Harrison’s other post-Beatle boxed set, ‘The Dark Horse Years 1976-92’ (Amazon). This new collection features re-released versions (with bonus tracks, natch) of ‘Wonderwall Music’, ‘Electronic Sound’, ‘All Things Must Pass’, ‘Living in the Material World’, ‘Dark Horse’ and ‘Extra Texture (Read All About It)’.

This collection seems like a great place to jump in to Harrison’s solo work if you are, like me, a lot more familiar with The Beatles than with what he did afterwards, . Check out the trailer above or, for more details on the remastering project, click here to go to the Official George Harrison page describing the release.

  1. I liked the song well-enough, but my love was mostly due to what a seven year old me considered to be McCartney’s bravura, multi-character green-screen performance in the video. []