Official Blondie Web Site: Chris Stein

Blondie: Chris Stein
News about Chris Stein, guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Blondie.

Archives

Links

Earlier pages:

Posted by Chris Stein at 5/27/2003 07:04:00 AM

we (the band) were in L.A. memorial day weekend shooting a video for the 'good boys' song with Jonas Akerlund who has directed the new film SPUN (check out http://www.spunthemovie.com/ very cool site) which DH has a supporting part in... i daresay this looks to be the best blondie video to date, hopefully it'll get played more than once somewhere, anywhere, here, there, everywhere, etc etc etc speaking of movies the metaphor of matrix is so apt its absurd; everyone (especially in america) is living in a tank being fed a bunch of hypnotic hallucinatory bullshit that they are in love with, at the same time their essence and energy is being sucked out and used as food for some vast parasitic machine... the difference with reality and the film is that in the world here everybody kind of knows whats going on they just dont give a fuck and zion doesnt exist... the ultimate irony is that the matrix movie is part of what keeps everybody in their trance state even though its laying the scheme out in plain view and living color... i guess like the film it'll take the 'real world' turning into a burned out graveyard with black sky before people decide to take action about changing their situation... on a more cheerful note i thought x-men2 was just terrific, in a way it was almost better than matrix, it was sooo much better than the first x-men and the first matrix was a hard act to follow even for itself i wish you guys would ask some questions that i could actually answer sometimes... for some reason ive gotten several things about the record not coming out in canada and ive got no idea where this kind of stuff comes from, once again: to the best of my knowledge the next blondie record will be out everywhere in sept-oct of 2003... if anything changes which it shouldnt i'll put it here, tour dates are getting booked now and should include everywhere we've played in the past as well as perhaps some new areas, as far as i can tell touring will start in the summer and then pick up again in the fall, europe and the u.s. will be included in the touring schedule... i hope this general outline will answer some of the endless questions about this stuff... i saw in the new york times that chimpanzees were going to be included in the human race, as human(s) from now on, this was a small item and didnt say where or what this decision would affect, it was pretty vague actually, does that mean that some group like the republicans would be left out of the human race to make room for the chimps?... speaking of which the "goodboys" video has a monkey in it... some recommendations: theres a Jet Li movie called "Hero" thats really fantastic except for the score which is a total cop of crouching tiger (speaking of tigers there is also a tiger in the "goodboys" video) lately ive been even more into japanese and chinese films than in the past... an amazing chinese film is called "Fallen Angels" by director Wong Kar Wai, another by the same director is "Chunking Express" which has gotten more attention than "Angels" pretty great though i liked Fallen Angels a lot more... of course the japanese film "Audition" has been around for a while now is totally great though very heavy duty (definitely not for kids) the new film by the same director Takashi Miike "The Happiness of the Katakuris" is very crazy worth seeing, a very very amazing american (i think) movie called "Devils Playground" about rites of teenage passage into adulthood in the Amish community in the US, just amazing, who knew this stuff? last night finally saw "Mighty Wind" which was way better than i expected, i wish it was longer actually...lastly for now, i just came upon a really far out book by british author Martin Amis titled "Night Train", im going for sure to check out some more of his stuff what else? rain, lizards, that swamp smell is kind of gross, the dogs go rolling around in the swamp and come in laden with the aroma which they rub on stuff, "swamphounds swamphounds" sung to the tune of the simpsons theme...speaking of the simpsons why the fuck havent we (blondie, debbie) ever been on their show... i suggest a write in campaign, start writing to homer directly at chunkylover53@aol.com all for now love chris

Posted by Chris Stein at 5/16/2003 07:06:00 AM

i am finally able to announce, relate, distribute, etc. the following: tahhh dahhh!!!: the record is aptly titled "THE CURSE OF BLONDIE"... for a long time the title was "PHASM" but towards the end of everything debbie came up with the other which seemed oddly appropriate so thats it, (thanx for all your suggestions, maybe in the future we could have a thing where the fans pick a title for something)... record is gonna be released by SONY International in Europe, the UK, Japan, and Australia around Sept.-Oct. 2003 the first single is a thing called "GOODBOYS", that should go to clubs and radio around mid july touring should start in the summer we're at the "SUMMER SONIC FESTIVAL" in Osaka Japan on Aug.2 and in Tokyo on the 3rd. after that Australia ok? the ufo stuff is still going on, check: http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/1966/840/4 for further crazyness xxx chris

Posted by Chris Stein at 5/08/2003 07:09:00 AM

great bunch of messages from all thanx as per...a lot of questions and requests for info about the next recording... it is imminent and we're getting an 'official' bunch of stuff together to put up hopefully not later than next week thatll tell some dates and release schedule... we're gonna rehearse in june as it looks now, jimmy should be back and im gonna work in a replacement for me for shows i cant attend due to the baby situation... the baby thing is really quite amazing on all levels, for one its like right here in the room with us but still far away in its own dimension... barbara's site is http://www.mysteriousmysteries.com/ related to that is some funny shit that i havent mentioned previously;;; i guess about three years ago barb went to an audition for a tv commercial which she of course landed... what it turned out to be was a spot for the sci-fi channel that came out really amazingly, what it purports to be is a home video of some girl (her) on a helicopter ride in new york on vacation seeing a flying saucer, ufo etc etc... the sci-fi channel had this thing called "happens" that was supposed to be stuff people sent in but was really just shot by them of course... barbs segment was the first and best one, is really great, it aired on the sci-fi channel a bunch of times when they first did it (i think shes got a quick-time version on her site, i looked for "world trade center ufo" on google and was amazed at what came up for ex: http://www.alcione.org/VIDEONY1/videony1.html has a version of the spot as well as a detailed analysis of it in spanish) its her on a 'sightseeing' ride in a helicopter, whats even more cosmic is that the 'tour' happens to be mainly of the world trade center, so theres barbara with her little camera being photographed from the back seat by her 'husband' or whatever when what do you know, a UFO starts zipping around the wtc, she points it out, exclaims, it kind of buzzes the copter then zooms off leaving a trail, the end... well not really the end cause this thing is still generating responses and is all over the fucking net... check out the sci-fi.com bulletin board: http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/1966?pnum=745 its a mind fuck the amount of ranting that has gone on in relation to this, one would think it was at least a little obvious to people that maybe it was a commercial ? it seems that the ones who are the most desperate to believe in something are also able to just bypass the basic unreality of the thing and go plunging ahead into arguing about its qualifications... anyhow theres some pretty funny stuff on the bulletin board there, barbara and i wrote a couple of messages early on but by now the thing has a life of its own, looking around just now im amused to see that it still is going on, questioned etc... what else? the other day we were out walking and here comes flappy (flapjack the dog) with a deers leg in his mouth, actually it looked quite a bit like his own large brown leg though i think he was aware of the difference... grooossssss, he's a good guy though and dropped it when asked... as the season progresses the roads here are the resting places of too many splattered animals, kamikaze squirrels who dash madly around in front of the car as if tempting fate, on easter sun. we went to the mailbox only to find a big gray cat lying peacefully in the sun where he'd gotten hit and died, very sad i just couldnt leave him, he was obviously related to humans, even in death he gave off a vibe of interaction, so we put him in a box and gave him a nice funeral, put in a can of friskies and a collar for his trip to the other side.... he is risen... well maybe all for now, as usual thanx for the support love, chris

Posted by Chris Stein at 5/02/2003 07:12:00 AM

from Ouspensky again: "...art which does not reveal mysteries, which does not lead to the sphere of the Unknown, does not yield new knowledge, is a parody of art, and still more often it is not even a parody, but simply a commerce or an industry." and dude wrote that in like 1915 or so... wonder what he'd think of the current state of affairs ol' P. D. Ouspensky is pretty dense stuff, it takes me quite a while to get through one of his books but i'd heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to try and stretch their brain a bit, i find that studying his writing has the effect of making me think less about the dumbass side effects of what goes on in the world and more about the basic human condition, about why the human race seems to only be able to 'rise downward' as it were... theres a great film playing on cable tv these days entitled i think "grass" or such, is the history of marijuana 'reform' and legislation in the US... beyond the questions of drug use what i got out of it is just the general way terror media tactics have always been used here to influence popular opinion, it never fails to amaze... apparently there was a period following the civil war where morphine, heroin, cocaine and various related heavy ass stuff was readily available to the american public in the form of "remedies" for this and that... interestingly, a great deal of this use was the province of the middle rather than lower classes since they were the strata of society who could afford doctors... just when the problems and dangers of addiction were about to come into focus suddenly along comes the 'horrors of the killer weed' etc etc completely diluting and adding a layer of insane bullshit to the whole subject... i've always thought that the post WW2 generation had none but the fuzziest information available to them about drug use, the results being that me and a lot of others who came up in the sixties were a lot less cautious than perhaps they should have... and of course this relates to the way so much is dealt with here, young people who have to cut through layers of lies and misinformation arent going to bother to question etc etc thanx again for the baby related encouragement and advice it really is much appreciated... the american deal seems to be almost done so we should have an actual release date for the next record pretty soon, (while working on the thing for so fucking long i of course wondered if it was any good but having been away from hearing it and being confronted with the finished thing i think its really fantastic, one of the best ones etc etc) great electrical storm here last night, first one this season... i got a great letter, i quote: "but, cHRIST, aren't you a little old to be cranking out kids?? I'll never understand you Hollywood types..." ...i love it,... yeah, like i was just saying to ben and j-lo the other day "well the baby isnt born yet but at least its got a good agent..." all 4 now love chris