dutch baklavah

blue ridge parkway

2012-02-01T14:31:00.000-06:00

gritty wind

2011-12-01T00:51:00.001-06:00

los angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of new england determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the santa ana affect the entire quality of life in los angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability. the wind shows us how close to the edge we are. /joan didion

via wiki: the adverse pulmonary health impacts have been understood by local doctors for decades; the winds pick up and transmit grit, dust, pollens, mold spores and other irritants and allergens for considerable distances. Gastrointestinal effects such as hypermotility and psychological effects such as anxiety and irritability can be produced by these winds. these effects are thought to be produced by increased levels of serotonin in the body. it has been hypothesized that the positively charged CO2 ion, produced by these winds prevents the naturally occurring breakdown of serotonin in the body, giving rise to the increased levels. these serotonergic effects have been reported to be successfully reduced with ambient anionization.

Residents regularly notice a build-up of dust in their homes and grit on their properties during these periods, which are frequent during the winter.

The winds also create positive ions which affects people's mood negatively, and statistics shows increases the number of suicides and homicides.

burning man: sweet drops

2011-11-23T21:54:00.001-06:00

vinegar buckets, camelbaks, and jam sessions at burning man

it's something like the last day of burning man, or the day before. both feel rather similar, and the only striking difference between the two is that one is arranged in a serpentine lineup of cars, and the other sees desert dwellers running amok in the magical, pentagonal lake of dust with a nine mile perimeter. the grounds of burning man, manifested in a dry lake bed in northeastern Nevada, feel infinite and comfortably squished at the same time, so it's a natural haven for fostering many kinds of mind expanding, trust building activities of all flavors and colors.

one of the greatest paradoxes about burning man is that, from the outside, it's easy to expect so many people to be off their rockers; the reality is that it takes a very motivated, proactive, and specific kind of gusto to survive here for a week without dying from debilitating stress. If the apathy of the desert's climate isn't enough to drive people to physical exhaustion, it's still more than likely that navigating and dealing with fifty thousand creative, energetic, and heavily engaged humans will. the place is intense in every possible function and facet, and it catalyzes a uniquely hypersensitive perceptive state wherein the most ephemeral moments carry such unspeakable gravity. heaps choose to remain isolated (or in semi-isolation) with a small group of friends and family, but at any given moment, one can walk in on another's revelation or be interrupted by coconut ice cream amidst dust devils in a dust storm. nonsensery is lauded, and the transcendent human spark that rises from the literal ashes is indeed kindled by the initiative we all take in seeing to it that impossibilities mimic real life. we used to be cavemen, you know.

good company is always welcome in such conditions. burning man is really not a place where you want to quarantine yourself or your experiences, as lonely and aloof as you may choose to be in the default world. for example: normally, when i play guitar, i feel alone and completely desirous of connecting with something outside of my own skin. playing with and for other people is amazing and something i greatly enjoy, but i naturally find myself kicking it in my room, filling the connectivity vial to the point of overflow. what does it mean that some of my richest moments of universal awareness, epic fulfillment, and deep personal consciousness have been experienced alone? i don't know what that means. maybe nothing.

on this lastish day of burning man, i took out my guitar and did the singing and dancing thing. it's always good. one of the fellows at the campsite next to me inevitably heard mein twangz and came on over. his name is dan, and he works as an engineer in berkeley, which means he's a highly skilled engineer. his campmate, sunflower, had shared some tofu jerky with us earlier in the week and lent me his bike pump, though i hadn't had much interaction with dan up until now. he sat down in that there red chair and listened to me play for a bit. when i started feeling like i'd brutalized my noisebox enough, what with sweaty paws and ubiquitous alkaline dust exposure, i handed it to dan. he started playing iron and wine.

anybody who's good at something can make something look easy. after "sodom, south georgia" and "naked as we came," he spun his own yarn and sang through a breezy, ventana blanca of a tune. its melody and structure elude me, but the feeling of wanting to listen to and trust the person singing to you was veritably instilled in me. something about getting lost in the waves of her hair--i don't know. it was easy and familiar, with the citrus twist of knowing you're joining a circle of, maybe, nine people who've ever seen this song.

intimacy and banal familiarity are fundamental legos; guitars are strung out so that they may harmonize under tension, but only at the proper frequencies. i guess that's why i shared a music machine with a stranger, in the desert, over labor day weekend. most of the greatest things in the history and unhistory of the universe are founded on some absurd permutation of events or another, often without the awareness (let alone, consent) of the contributing parties. to be a part and aware of big banging is no small feeling.

in other words, burning man is a microcosm of the universe, but so is everything else imaginable. playing guitar, or doing anything in solitude, is good for creating a world within a world, but there's more to be found beyond that core. it's good to share what you learn with people so you can keep going forward into a new place that you help create, because every day is kind of the last one, and who wants to die having lived by and within someone else's idea of what life is? "days are just drops in the river to be lost, always," says robin pecknold, so when something good happens during one of them, it's a good idea to take note and try your goddamnedest to fill the river with your own sweet drops henceforth.

stories

2011-11-23T21:39:00.001-06:00

now it's a storytelling blog! tadaaa!

rules:

1. mostly true stories make for better stories
2. not necessarily true stories
3. can be edited over time

farajan

2011-05-17T14:25:00.002-05:00

more to come

newlectro

2011-04-09T11:35:00.003-05:00

best electronic music i've found in months. recommended by fellow amoebites/friends in the latest music we like, all sans reviews.

donato dozzy - k

john roberts - glass eights

actress - splazsh

perfection

2011-04-06T22:51:00.006-05:00

this is exactly what i ate at the honey honey cafe & crepery on post street in san francisco last weekend:

except mine had no tomato (moot).

t. rex - t. yorke

2011-03-17T17:00:00.005-05:00

[via]

related: t.rex (1970)

not related:

more pertinent world war ii posters

sort of related: thom yorke + burial + four tet - ego & mirror

the great waterfall

2011-03-14T10:47:00.002-05:00

"after the earthquake"

"the great waterfall"

[via]

burning man at night

2011-03-04T12:47:00.001-06:00

warmth, intimacy and integrity

2011-02-26T12:50:00.004-06:00

on the back of the lp: "my special thanks to doc watson, a most influential teacher whom i've never met. long after i stopped copping all his licks, i realized that the best lessons he taught me had to do with warmth, intimacy and integrity in music."

berserker

2011-02-24T12:53:00.005-06:00

vinyl rentals from amoeba are my new favorite things since i hooked up my dad's old turntable to a friend's sony tower speakers, which flank my bed. currently spinning:

having met whilst working in a new york record store (undoubtedly alongside the obligatory resident cat), scott mou and noah lennox (aka panda bear of the animal collective) bonded over their love of detroit, chicago and berlin dance and formed jane with the express purpose of ditching the binary and cranking up the soul. comprised of three tracks (a fourth bonus cut on the cd), 'berserker' is a good introduction to the Jane oeuvre, providing a precise cross section of their sound. opening with the title track, mou and lennox present a rousing but beatless six minutes that has overt shades of Sigur Ros within its cushioned swelling vistas, an outlook similarly shared on the following 'agg report'. taking a cue from twin peaks, 'agg report' introduces a dubby fingered rhythm that appropriates a ~scape refit of plug research-era tejada that swoops and soars throughout. closing the record is 'slipping away', a dark-hearted midnight trip down to the woods that uses a slow burn, bert jansch framework to silhouette a polite (but insistent) build towards an analogue heavy, jackhammer beat.

[via]

also, i love this album cover:

free joy

yr love

2011-02-18T13:20:00.003-06:00

fever ray - fever ray (2009)

favorite songs right now.

rented from amoeba:

cottage

2011-02-12T04:12:00.001-06:00

[via]

meg ryan is terrific

2010-12-23T03:07:00.001-06:00

warkin'

2010-11-24T15:52:00.004-06:00

found whilst filing cds at amoeba:

--

--

--

pacific northwest

2010-11-10T11:40:00.010-06:00

(^ click the wee speech box for captions)

5 days, 4 nights. 2168mi. highways 1 + 101 north, route 5 south. los angeles, ca to corvallis, or.

dutch baklavah - redwoodss (128 mb)

run time: 56:02

tracklist:

1. black mold - metal spider webs:

2. women - bells

3. avey tare - ghost of books

4. panda bear - search for delicious

5. eternal summers - pure affection

6. brightblack morning light - friend of time

7. boards of canada - seward leaf

8. rachel grimes - at the pond

9. múm - k/half noise

10. kaki king - track three

11. dustin wong - talking walking cloud

12. chieko mori - charm music box

13. great lake swimmers - long into the evening

life

2010-10-24T02:43:00.003-05:00

black mold - snow blindness is crystal antz (2009)

black mold = chad vangaalen. via flemisheye.com: "the album opens with a baffling and beautiful composition, 'metal spider webs,' a lattice of cello and clarinet complemented by shifting electronic pulses. in the dreamlike and metamorphic title track, subtle oscillations and erratic surges build before settling into a simple layering of acoustic guitars and drums...the album is strewn with musique concrete pastiches, creative use of circuit bending and manipulation, and an intuitive and intelligent understanding of rhythmic minimalism." this album comes with a download code for ONE HUNDRED MINUTES of bonus glitches, unfinished beeswax, and other stuff the guy works on during the wee hours of the morning while he is/is not knocking over his bong and watching requiem for a dream for the 43098570394th time.

related: chad vangaalen - soft airplane (2008)

scaaaaaaaryyyy:

Chad VanGaalen - Molten Light

l’avant et l’après

2010-10-20T03:40:00.001-05:00

chilling on the couch with my phoenix

2010-10-18T16:48:00.006-05:00

via nymag's vulture: "'yoooo they banned my album cover!!!!!' exclaimed kanye west via twitter last night. 'they don't want me chilling on the couch with my phoenix!' he said, describing the glorious proposed art for 'my beautiful dark twisted fantasy,' a painting depicting a topless, armless, winged female character farting polka dots and straddling a demonic-looking gentleman who we suppose is meant to be kanye. who are they? still unclear."

most excellent:

via latimesblog.com: "kanye...revealed a piece of graphic artwork in which a naked representation of the artist was in a sexually suggestive position with the mythological firebird in female form. in a follow-up tweet, west wrote, 'in the '70s album covers had actual nudity... it's so funny that people forget that... everything has been so commercialized now.'"

the (best) source of this ballyhoosery is kanye's twitter: "So Nirvana can have a naked human being on they cover but I can't have a PAINTING of a monster with no arms and a polka dot tail and wings [sic]"

in other news: the garden of forking paths is a latenite mixtape curated by james blackshaw and compiled in may of 2007. it is slow, exotic, half filled with strings, and half filled with open spaces throughout which those strings draw themselves out to a fine point before, while, and after resonating with the rest of the plucked atmosphere.

says blackshaw of his selections: "chieko mori, a japanese composer, koto virtuoso and one-time FABRICA resident, who first came to my attention with her beautiful and mesmerising debut recording 'jumping rabbit' for john zorn's tzadik label in 2005, which ranks itself as one of my all-time favourite albums; jozef van wissem, a similarly accomplished rennaissance lute player and composer from the netherlands, who has collaborated with gary lucas and tetuzi akiyama amongst others and whose solo albums often make use of palindromic or mirrored structures interwoven with field recordings to haunting and immensely compelling effect; swedish cellist and improviser helena espvall, perhaps currently best known for her work with US psych-folk group espers, but who has also played with such luminaries as pauline oliveros and eugene chadbourne and whose own recent solo work has demonstrated her amazing power and sensitivity as an artist." read more of his thoughts here.

says wiki about jorge luis borges' eponymous hypertext, "beyond its facade as a spy narrative, 'the garden of forking paths' has similarities to today's digital media and hypertext projects, including perhaps wikipedia. borges conceives of 'a labyrinth that folds back upon itself in infinite regression,' asking the reader to 'become aware of all the possible choices we might make.' the elaborate hypertext is much like the book which borges suggests to be the labyrinth, ('every one imagined two works; to no one did it occur that the book and the maze were one and the same thing...the confusion of the novel suggested to me that it was the maze') in a sense of how the site offers different approaches to how you may interpret the information provided, yet you're not trapped in the dilemma of choosing one and eliminating others; you may choose to unfold all possibilities. you "create, in this way, diverse futures, diverse times which themselves also proliferate and fork" (wardrip-fruin, 33)." (more)

chieko mori - jumping rabbit (2005)

espers - the weed tree (2005)

here is a list of tunings used by james blackshaw.

beside nudity

2010-10-06T16:10:00.008-05:00

via the onion: art world relieved as thieves steal pretty terrible late period renoir work

"the palette was too rosy, the brushstrokes were something out of a college art class, and renoir's gift for capturing his subject's inner mystery seemed to have completely abandoned him—in short, it was garbage and i'm glad it's gone," said malcolm stewart, a curator at the art institute of chicago, which has done little to assist the police in their investigation."

more pierre-auguste renoir works

"beside nudity there is the strangeness of half-clothed bodies; what garments there are serve to emphasize the disorder of the body and show it to be all the more naked, all the more disordered. brutality and murder are further steps in the same direction. similarly prostitution, coarse language an everything to do with eroticism and infamy play their part in turning the world of sensual pleasure into one of ruin and degradation. our only real purpose is to squander our resource to no purpose, just as if a wound were bleeding away inside us; we always want to be sure of the uselessness or the ruinousness of our extravagance. we want to feel as remote from the world where thrift is the rule as we can." /georges bataille, eroticism

more edward hopper works

i want to go to there

2010-09-30T20:26:00.002-05:00

jack rose - kensington blues (2005)

two tramps in mud time

2010-09-28T12:07:00.005-05:00

out of the mud two strangers came
and caught me splitting wood in the yard,
and one of them put me off my aim
by hailing cheerily, "hit them hard!"
i knew pretty well why he had dropped behind
and let the other go on a way.
i knew pretty well what he had in mind:
he wanted to take my job for pay.

good blocks of oak it was i split,
as large around as the chopping block;
and every piece i squarely hit
fell splinterless as a cloven rock.
the blows that a life of self-control
spares to strike for the common good,
that day, giving a loose my soul,
i spent on the unimportant wood.

the sun was warm but the wind was chill.
you know how it is with an april day
when the sun is out and the wind is still,
you're one month on in the middle of may.
but if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
a wind comes off a frozen peak,
and you're two months back in the middle of march.

a bluebird comes tenderly up to alight
and turns to the wind to unruffle a plume,
his song so pitched as not to excite
a single flower as yet to bloom.
it is snowing a flake; and he half knew
winter was only playing possum.
except in color he isn't blue,
but he wouldn't advise a thing to blossom.

the water for which we may have to look
in summertime with a witching wand,
in every wheelrut's now a brook,
in every print of a hoof a pond.
be glad of water, but don't forget
the lurking frost in the earth beneath
that will steal forth after the sun is set
and show on the water its crystal teeth.

the time when most i loved my task
the two must make me love it more
by coming with what they came to ask.
you'd think i never had felt before
the weight of an ax-head poised aloft,
the grip of earth on outspread feet,
the life of muscles rocking soft
and smooth and moist in vernal heat.

out of the wood two hulking tramps
(from sleeping god knows where last night,
but not long since in the lumber camps).
they thought all chopping was theirs of right.
men of the woods and lumberjacks,
they judged me by their appropriate tool.
except as a fellow handled an ax
they had no way of knowing a fool.

nothing on either side was said.
they knew they had but to stay their stay
and all their logic would fill my head:
as that I had no right to play
with what was another man's work for gain.
my right might be love but theirs was need.
and where the two exist in twain
theirs was the better right--agreed.

but yield who will to their separation,
my object in living is to unite
by avocation and my vocation
as my two eyes make one in sight.
only where love and need are one,
and the work is play for mortal stakes,
is the deed ever really done
for heaven and the future's sakes.

/robert frost, 1934

i sell the shadow to support the substance

2010-09-23T15:43:00.006-05:00

going through a heavy my bloody valentines phase because of this one mind-bendingly beautiful girl. she makes me want to achieve impossibilities and i can't get through to her, so it's just like a song from the late 80s. thanks to music once again for being the perfect inspiration and repository for most of my emotions.

my bloody valentine - tremolo ep (1991)

my bloody valentine - loveless (1991)

my bloody valentine - ecstasy and wine (1989)

my bloody valentine - isn't anything (1988)

my bloody valentine - sunny sundae smile ep (1986)

in other news: phosphene dream is my favorite thing since my last favorite thing, which is cheese.

phosphene, n.
a sensation of light caused by excitation of the retina by mechanical or electrical means rather than by light, as when the eyeballs are pressed through closed lids.

[french phosphène : greek phōs, light; see phos- + greek phainein, to cause to appear, to show.]

it is especially fun to move the image around with your cursor on the computer screen. the most fun of all is when you do that WHILST listening to the album.

he is like a torpedo

2010-09-16T20:19:00.001-05:00

elvis:

a supremely fuzzy, handsome, feline, torpedo-legged torpedo.

new car mix

2010-07-27T12:15:00.009-05:00

dutch baklavah - new car mix (83mb)

run time: 36:23

quick lil' mix; part one of two, for now. these are some of my favorite songs of the moment that were hastily thrown onto a blank cd a couple weeks ago. some thought and themes have been applied, and the result is this electrified, (mostly) guitarred compilation of motive songs. every track (except for the superbly danceable, meditative health cover by blondes) employs guitar in some mode or another, played through some device that distorts, multiplies, or otherwise disguises the pure sonic of plucked steel. and since this is a mix of songs i picked to make me feel real good while driving, there are multiple tracks from the same album here. chomp on that, mixtape etiquette.

part two coming along! it will feature rockous strings in clearly apparent limelight.

[tracklist => comments]

visuals like cuttlefish

2010-07-19T15:43:00.002-05:00

Jack Rose @ Chapelle Saint-Roch en Volière, Nov. 9, 2009

related: jack rose - opium musick

panda bear @ pitchfork music festival, July 17, 2010

mayne

2010-07-19T01:58:00.007-05:00

dutch baklavah - mayne (118mb)

run time: 1:25:49

this mix has been in the works since early may and kept changing and elaborating through last few passing months. most of this is (relatively) new music acquired in may and june, infused with (relatively) older songs which were inspired by the more recent jams. initially, i thought this would become my first mandala for amoeba, but that turned out to take on a life and mix of its own, wholly separate from this one right here. with bonnie "prince" billy and flying lotus on the same bill, the mix speaks for itself in its sonic gallimaufry; not much else to say but "enjoy."

[tracklist => comments]

amoebendipity

2010-07-14T02:05:00.010-05:00

last night was a good night. today was one of those days. tonight was that night.

my dad is in town for the first time in five years, for one week, so i'm feeling especially giving and loving. this morning upon waking i played and replayed a song i've been updating and revising since i improvised it whilst thinking deeply of the coworker who inspired it. it feels good to play it in a way that i can't fully even comprehend except that while the music goes my heart races like a jackalope being chased by a chupacabras in broad daylight. it's an ultra-hyper-intense, verbally inexplicable, musical thing.

afterward, i repaired a piece of glass for cody and bumped noses with kitty exraordinaire, elvis T. belvis. i used the glass afterward and my insides opened up after being functional and performing a mutually beneficial service for a very much loved one. there was little traffic on the way to work and a new mix with various, notable songs of late playing in the car (this will be available soon). i arrived at amoeba slightly early, decompressed in my car for a hot minute, and walked to work in the somewhat searing sunshine.

this decompression phase is also somewhat of a compression phase. all my thoughts are of amoeba and the day ahead of me, and it's not dissimilar in many ways at all from walking to school (college, not high). to know that, on any given day, i'll interact with someone who has impressed me personally for years without even knowing it is like being able to blossom for the person who planted the seed and witnessing their joyous little reaction. this is true of my fellow amoebites, whose musical recommendations i latched onto for several years before contributing my own material, and here are a few of the more memorable, ephemeral, chance encounters i have had with "celebrities," as they are known, in the past nine months of employment at amoeba music.

the first big wig i ever met was stephen soderbergh, and i have helped him several times at this point. at a glance, he is the most mundane person in the world and is even less enthralled and imposing than his slight cameo in waking life. realizing whose driver's license and credit card i was holding, i lost myself and complimented his shirt immediately. he laughed. it was a reese's pieces t-shirt that could easily have been from wal-mart. "weak on a few levels," thought my brain. the next time i met him we talked about new-old jimi hendrix and the tami show. (as a result of the supreme lack of emotional thrills i get from this guy, he is still the only person of such status whose purchases i can actually remember.) he is not thoroughly enjoyed by the amoeba staff, from what i've gathered, and this amuses me richly.

two days ago i summoned quentin tarantino to my register and conversed with him while he called me sweetheart several times. i told him about the vader project, and he told me about the krasnals group (who, on their website, also link to wooster collective). i will never forget that meeting.

lt. aldo raine: so you're "the jew hunter."
col. hans landa: [giddy] that's a bingo!
[lt. aldo and pfc. utivich stare at him in confusion]
col. hans landa: is that the way you say it: "that's a bingo?"
lt. aldo Raine: you just say "bingo."

about a week ago, michel gondry walked up to me, though i did not call him over from the line. he was the line. he is much, much more handsome in person than i have ever thought him to be on screen, and the eencey weencey "why" details are incommunicable. i think that is the ultimate ace up his sleeve: having the wherewithal to make everyone else around him on camera look better than he does but commandeering the position of impetus and catalyst for the magic that surrounds him. when the words came out of my mouth that i saw eternal sunshine six times in theaters, he balked with disbelief. i MADE HIM believe me, explaining why and how, and he did. i empathized with michel gondry over reading charlie kaufmann's transcript of eternal sunshine of the spotless mind for the first time. in life, as a fundamental practice, i will not veer far from that plane of deeply connective, sometimes ephermeral, communication.

one day at amoeba, sometime in the couple weeks before coachella in april, rosemary dawson and aziz ansari patronized The Record Store. the former has beautiful eyes and giggled at my stupid quips; the latter shared my joy from the glory of bonnaroo and the joanna newsom 3xlp he was buying. i told him i dug the piece in fader magazine he did with animal collective, and he told me it was a lot of fun to do. that was a nice connection. later in the day, ron jeremy and flea both shopped around, and i told the latter how excited i was to see him at coachella in a couple weeks. he has two smiles: blue from the nose up, and divine from the nose down. that was a memorable day.

there have been still more encounters with fictional characters from my life up until now that have become non-fictional occurrences with people i respect, admire, and from whom i draw countless, unconscious metaphors, analogies, and meaning in my life because of how their work has inspired and spoken to me. on the flipside, customers are the wild cards of the influential music sphere. i have been schooled to no end by people bringing me their favorite music (for which they actually pay. they've got me beat there.) and gracefully educated by so many people who are so inordinately passionate about the tunes that tune them up. today i befriended a man from texas who plays multiple instruments and resembles, for me, a young britt daniel. whoa.

my coworkers are the bunch of peeps that are truly enriching my life from the inside out. everybody i work with is a musically apt ferris bueller. if downsides have faces, amoeba requires that they enter the store dressed in very silly masks indeed. of the three hundred or so hollywood amoeba staff, i work closely with about fifty of them on a typical day, catching up on the lives of about half of them as the day goes on. one of my favorite coworkers makes it a habit to show me totally obscure british comedy tv shows; frozen yogurt buffets are involved, too. another coworker reads my poetry and gave me a little pin with an image of calvin and hobbes dancing. yet another coworker introduced me to guitar mastermusicians glenn jones and robbie basho, and i introduced him to kaki king and davey graham. friendship abounds because music abounds. or at least that is how things work with me.

today, i called over a fellow with dark brown hair and eyes so blue that i don't remember seeing them--only being seen by them. he was courteous, kind, attentive, and shy. when he opted to pay with credit, i asked for his id, and saw ryan adams printed beside ryan adams' face (i didn't know his face well enough to pick him out of a crowd). the first thought that came to mind: jackie luskey.

i had talked with this lovely creature last night, after probably a year of radio silence through the loud statics of our lives, because i missed her input to the breaking point. we made it a new point to keep in touch more often and reiterated our mutual feelings of separate togetherness; in short, we caught up on all kindza shit. to reconnect is to plug the speaker cable back in.

this is what i conveyed to mr. adams, very concisely and specifically. i told him about jackie's upcoming mfa excursion in oregon this summer and how fulfilling it is to see someone pursue an intrinsically bold passion. in retrospect, he was almost unwarrantably interested and understanding of the situation. when i handed him his cds, dvds, and wax, none of which i remember, he stuck out his hand and shook mine. we implored of each other beautiful moments ahead in life, and i went back to my register to ring up another fellow desiring stravinsky, wagner, and a young chopin enthusiast, all on disc.

in the middle of that transaction, the voice of god (intercom) paged me for a phone call. a couple minutes later, as i was still talking with the classically inclined gentleman, the VOG (intercom) paged me again for a held call. when i finally answered the phone, a voice said,

"hi, this is ryan adams, you just sold me some stuff. [me: oh, hi!] i'm sorry to bother you at work, but, your friend, is she published? [me: she is, but not as huge as she will be.] what is her name? i don't usually do this, but what you were saying about serendipity, i just feel like she may be this great unsung writer that's totally undiscovered and i'd be missing out."

and i replied,

"she is, and you would be. i'm not sure where to find her formal publications, but if you go to her blog you can read plenty of written snacks that will hold you over until you do."

then,

RA: thread, butter, and jam?
me: yeah, like what you put on toast.
RA: thread, like what you put through a needle?
me: ah, no, but that's a nice play on words. it slides off the tongue. it's bread, butter, and jam, like the toast and...what you put on it.
RA: oh, that makes more sense.
me: ya.
RA: and where is that?
me: dot blogspot. breadbutterandjam.blogspot.com.
RA: bread, butter, and jam. okay cool, thank you so much!
me: oh no problem, have fun!
RA: [bye]
me: [bye]

i already know the three of us have inspired new stories and journeys, long and short, in each of our lives. it moves me to know that ryan-adams-the-guy has been an essential link in connecting with a good friend again, and that even a little effort can manifest itself so hugely, and in the most unexpectedly positive ways, when tended to. it took a contemplative year to pick up a phone; a day to bring that simple sentiment to fruition.

shyness is not a factor in my life anymore. if someone is moderately approachable and worth talking to, i will attend to both notions. the worst that happens is bugging someone who doesn't want to be bugged, but that doesn't last long. there are too many fleeting shoulda/coulda/wouldas in life not to capitalize on a should be/could be/will be moment of life, but this is only a thoughtful meandering. the real issue is what to make of these moments and how to make them uniquely grand in the largest sense of the word. life is a series of short interviews with everyone you meet, and if you do well, you get to go on more interviews until the day you die. if you do poorly, you get to go on more interviews until the day you die. it does not matter who is paying whose bills along the way; there will always be bills, and they will always be paid or unpaid. who do you want to interview? who interviews you? what do you see when you look at strangers? who do you want to affect, and who do you allow to affect you? and how, and why? then, do. life does.

a dose of old-town power

2010-05-19T02:58:00.002-05:00

2 legit.

soft spring

2010-05-07T13:34:00.008-05:00

(original artwork by vladimir kush)

dutch baklavah - soft spring (198mb)

run time: 1:26:34

i curated this mix with a thesis as follows: the first song you hear in the morning and the last song you hear at night have massive impacts on your waking days and restful nights. as such, soft spring commands and mellows the psyche and psoul into a woozy garden of neuronal delicacies. steel-stringed solace melds with breathy vocals that skip verbal stones across placid banks of sonic repositories in this 86-minute-long set. as any other garden, this spring mix is chock full of small thematic emblems expressing themselves by various degrees, like shades of red and blue on a berry bush. travel with me along endless rivers--bumpy with leaping pike, colors doted at will by the sun--which travel by their own currents to reach their own conclusions.

[tracklist => comments]

balumtimes

2010-02-14T13:34:00.007-06:00

dutch baklavah - balumtimes day (98mb)

total run time: 53:27

this is for cody. happy balumtimes day!

tracklist => comments

terry riley

2010-02-08T13:14:00.004-06:00

terry riley - a rainbow in curved air (1967)

1. a rainbow in curved air (18:41)
2. poppy nogood and the phantom band (21:44)

"he draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument." /bill shakespeare

related: the who - baba o'riley

galaxy cruising

2010-02-01T11:18:00.011-06:00

dutch baklavah - galaxy cruising (132mb)

total run time - 1:11:58

compiled during the final months of 2009 in strict correlation with my new job at amoeba. the idea for this mix was to create something that'd get me to and from work on the los angeles metro road buses and subways during heavy day traffic and long, late-night bus stop waiting. as the music begins, i head off on my bike toward the bus stop a couple miles away. after affixing my bike to a no parking sign, i wait for the bus; when i eventually arrive at the underground tubular transports, i speed through the dark for a while (that's where the dubstep comes in). i then leave the subway system and emerge directly into the heart of hollywood tourist country. soothingly distracting music is in order: bowie; boyd; and croaking frogs. as i near amoeba to start the day, it's almost time to listen to nine hours of mostly sublime music that i have no control over hearing.

on one particularly slow tuesday evening, i got paid for an hour's worth of standing completely still with my hands folded at my waist while rick james' "street songs" played in its entirety. working at amoeba is to constantly travel through realms multifarious, and galaxy cruising is a representation of that perpetual motion. enjoy.

tracklist:

1. ghostland observatory - opening credits
2. air - surfin' on a rocket
3. atlas sound - galaxy cruisers (for a.c.)
4. memory tapes - bicycle (horrors cosmic dub)
5. broken social scene - finish your collapse and stay for breakfast
6. sorcerer - shaolin style
7. battles - tonto (four tet remix)
8. burial(/four tet) - wolf cub
9. burial - distant lights
10. animal collective - on a highway (bbc radio session)
11. fool's gold - surprise hotel (phaseone remix)
12. phoenix - love like a sunset
13. david bowie - an occasional dream
14. incubus - aqueous transmission

raptacular hiphopbop sock box

2010-01-27T15:52:00.008-06:00

dutch baklavah + grand city moonrunners - raptacular hiphopbop sock box (89mb)

1. eric b. & rakim - i ain't no joke
2. mos def - close edge
3. mf doom - method man
4. madvillain - great day
5. lyrics born - callin' out
6. bullion - god only knows
7. king geedorah - anti-matter feat. mf doom & mr. f
8. a tribe called quest - excursions
9. method man - release yo' self
10. dungeon family - 6 minutes (dungeon family it's on)
11. cadence weapon - oliver square
12. lyrics born - lady don't tek no
13. edan - funky voltron veat. insight
14. clipse - trill

total run time - 48:22

compiled by b-money in late '08, mixed by dutch baklavah in late '09. enjoy.

more mixes on the way!

panda bear in belgium

2010-01-19T12:38:00.005-06:00

with pantha du prince, 1.15.10

here is the bootleg of his set

here is what a guy on collected animals has to say about it

many thanks to this legitimate dude

[via]/[via]

smorelectric tunes

2009-12-30T12:47:00.009-06:00

continuing with the dj mixes, soulwax put together nearly two hours of sixty-three sort of girl-talky jams that weave in and out of each other faster than a school of fish avoiding hungry dolphins. this comp will probably make you want to mix your own favorite songs down to one track just for ease and fluidity of listening.

soulwax - 50,000,000 soulwax fans can't be wrong (2005, pw: nodata.tv)

cd1 tracklist:
1. intro (0:43)
2. david bowie - rebel rebel (soulwax edit) (4:00)
3. soulwax - e-talking (soulwax nite version) (4:15)
4. märtini brös. - big and dirty (tiga remix) (2:50)
5. thomas anderson - washing up (1:14)
6. puffy & felix - jack u (4:08)
7. bob seger & the silver bullet band - ramblin' gamblin' man (1:26)
8. whitey - y.u.h.2.b.m.2 (2:09)
9. ladytron - sugar (1:52)
10. fischerspooner - just let go (thin white duke remix) (2:17)
11. sweet light - trixx (soulwax edit) (2:49)
12. puffy & felix - 20-minute versions (2:50)
13. vitalic - valletta fanfares (0:57)
14. miss kittin - requiem for a hit (soulwax edit) (3:06)
15. simian mobile disco - the count (1:38)
16. whomadewho - satisfaction (1:52)
17. jackos - bats danse (1:30)
18. zongamin - bongo song (1:42)
19. midnight mike - hot in the kitchen (2:10)
20. hot chip - over and over (3:16)
21. ampex link (0:21)
22. beastie boys - stand together (soulwax edit) (2:29)
23. annie - chewing gum (a cappella) (0:54)
24. [unknown] vs. first it giveth (nocturnal emissions vs. queens of the stone age) (2:26)
25. ol' dirty bastard - got your money (0:54)
26. fatal error - fatal error (1:14)
27. adriano celentano - prisencolinensinainciusol (2:00)
28. the girls - zebra jeans (2:36)

cd2 tracklist:
1. intro (0:06)
2. kling klang - heavydale (0:55)
3. lcd soundsystem - daft punk is playing in my house (soulwax shibuya mix) (3:59)
4. franz and shape - countach (3:16)
5. yellow house - jack my body (1:11)
6. jersey devil social club - homage at 121 bpm (1:13)
7. tiga - louder than a bomb (2:15)
8. !!! - hello? is this thing on? (thomas' n eric's rub and tug throwdown) (1:42)
9. whitey - leave them all behind (soulwax mix) (3:28)
10. blues explosion - mars, arizona (dfa remix) (3:12)
11. tiga - move my body (3:56)
12. linus loves - night music (1:35)
13. lopazz - blood (tiefschwarz remix) (1:34)
14. static - dream it (u.s. rave mix) (0:21)
15. cubik vs. dominator (808 state vs. human resource) (5:07)
16. audion - kisses (1:30)
17. mu - paris hilton (2:00)
18. mr. oizo - flat beat (1:44)
19. ark - sucubz (mr. oizo remix) (1:51)
20. soulwax - teachers (1:46)
21. gary numan - steel and you (1:59)
22. the jimi hendrix experience - little miss lover (0:07)
23. m.i.a. - galang (0:09)
24. jay-z - 99 problems (0:24)
25. zz top - cheap sunglasses (3:15)
26. public enemy - she watch channel zero?! (0:51)
27. snoop dogg - drop it like it's hot (0:22)
28. kraftwerk - the man machine (0:14)
29. dj shadow - the number song (0:29)
30. dutch breaks - full block (0:22)
31. ronnie james dio - dream diver (1:42)
32. the animals - a girl named sandals (1:35)
33. the chemical brothers - galvanize (0:23)
34. dizzee rascal - fix up look sharp (0:20)
35. db - future now (2:25)

madlib - beat konducta (vol. 5-6)

fantastic tribute to dilla recommended by avey tare. 'nuff said.

madlib - infinity sound (never ending) (vol. 5)
madlib - anthenagin' (?) (vol. 5)
madlib - first class (the best catalogue) (vol. 6)
madlib - smoked out (green blaze subliminal sounds) (vol. 6)
madlib - show me the good life (chip stack) (vol. 6)
madlib - smoke interlude (hawaiian punch) (vol 6)

toro y moi - causers of this (2010)

chill-wave.

toro y moi - lissoms
toro y moi - causers of this

omar rodriguez-lopez - solar gambling (2009)

dude from mars volta. solar gambling literally screams of the energy and intensity that comprises the former. i picked this up for the album art and thoroughly enjoyed parts of the record. if i were a hardcore mars volta van i'd probably love this a lot more. either way, it's worth hearing/feeling.

omar rodriguez-lopez - un buitre amable me pico
omar rodriguez-lopez - miel del ojo

related: the mars volta - frances the mute (2005)

the mars volta - l'via l'viaquez

sort of related: spoon - gimme fiction (2005)

spoon - the two sides of monsieur valentine

fader media collaborated with animal collective on their latest mag. this issue includes noah lennox interviewing eric copeland of black dice and brian weitz interviewing cast members from the state, among many other ac-related goodies, including music, film and art. the mag is fully and freely downloadable here in print and here as a beautifully mixed audio playlist starting with an abby portner jam that segues into what would i want? sky, which in turn morphs into black dice's earnings plus interest. so on and so forth for 45+ minutes, including the new panda bear/pantha du prince track, the splendour. this production offers an amazing recent insight to the band and the current goings-on of its affiliated, artsy compadres. this is super duper bluper highly recommended, especially if you dig ac.

related: here is an old pitchfork interview with a pre-feels animal collective from 2003.

there is so much life-affirming music out there. you should experience it.

much love

2009-12-24T02:54:00.012-06:00

headphones times! rounding out december, eeking in my last picks for music we like--and music i affirmatively love very much--before the year ends.

four tet - much love to the plastic people

mexcellent new mix from four tet, set to release his upcoming there is love in you in late january. just over 78 minutes of reasonably moving music from what is, perhaps, plastic people's favorite man at the helm of a set of turntables. what starts out as a compilation of four tetty dancefloor jams relaxes into some truly fonkay jazzy and tropically inspired afro tunes. this mix is perfect for starting out in a certain headspace and ending up in a completely different, albeit wholly pleasant, mindset.

related: burial/four tet - wolf cub/moth

i listen to this pretty much every night on the way home from work as the clock nears midnight. sharp, invisible, complex beats that skate on thin ice and keep me conscious enough to speed over it with them.

four tet/burial - moth

also: white rainbow - new clouds

upward dripping, otherworldly elements floating up into the ether and bumping each other harmoniously along the way, melding and morphing into sonic dreamscapes. bottoming out at twelve minutes and topping out at over twenty, new clouds will please and ease your unwinding mind. mmmm.

white rainbow - tuesday rollers and strollers

with special guest: washed out - fantastic symphony mix

twenty-some minutes of music like a sunset.

1. arch m – bedrm band at caf nva (edit)
2. the samps – magnetic thys
3. samiyam – wrap up
4. toro Y Moi – brubek
5. koushik – homage
6. osborne – afrika (bullion remix)
7. iasos – inter-dimentional music
8. jack nitzsche – untitled (edit)
9. the khalsa string band – song of bliss

bonnaroo is in six months

2009-12-11T10:26:00.005-06:00

yesssssss bonnaroo 2010 yessssssssssssss.

las grecas - gipsy rock (1974)

las grecas - la zarzamora
las grecas - asingara

soul jazz records presents: tropicalia - a brazilian revolution in sound

soul jazz records can do no wrong. every compilation they put out is phenomenal and chock full of completely unheard of, incredible songs from around the world. this comp is full of scratchy, sharp guitars and brillo paddy horns ranging from ultra soft to wholly assertive. soaring brazilian vocals. super duper highly recommended for people who enjoy music.

os mutantes - a minha menina
gilberto gil & os mutantes - domingo no parque
caetano veloso - alfômega

black dice - repo (2009)

on repeat. textures, textures, textures. sounds a lot like the album art looks, and i picked it up in amoeba because it caught my eye and i'd been meaning to give black dice another serious go around in my headspace since hearing two excellent compilations featuring their music.* the more you get into this album, the more it gets into you. repo is sort of the aural equivalent of putting all kinds of toys, children's or otherwise, into a garbage compactor and squeezing it out of a massive playdough extruder.

black dice - glazin
black dice - earnings plus interest
black dice - vegetable

*black dice - pigpen (from the ultrafluid two-part living bridge comp; pigpen is also on black dice's load blown, released in 2007)

other notables on living bridge (2008):
avey tare - i'm your eagle kisser
telepathe - i can't stand it
fischerspooner - amuse bouche

*black dice - trip dude delay (from hisham bharoocha's they keep me smiling... compilation, released april of 2004. the above image is not the album art as drawn by hisham, but it conveys his similarly happy, confused, bubbly vein of collage/line art. zang.)

other notables on they keep me smiling...:
gang gang dance - rugs of prayer
animal collective - the kite
delia gonzalez & gavin russom - relevee
tes - it's like dat

dreamweapon

2009-12-04T11:36:00.004-06:00

spacemen 3 - dreamweapon (1988)

spacemen 3 - ecstasy in slow motion

planetary scientist carolyn porco shows images from the cassini voyage to saturn, focusing on its largest moon, titan, and on frozen enceladus, which seems to shoot jets of ice.

brightblack morning light - s/t (2006)

brightblack morning light - everybody daylight
brightblack morning light - star blanket river child

with new data from the keck telescopes, andrea ghez shows how state-of-the-art adaptive optics are helping astronomers understand our universe's most mysterious objects: black holes. she shares evidence that a supermassive black hole may be lurking at the center of the milky way.

turkey cacciatore

2009-11-26T18:02:00.000-06:00

for $2
i could make you a minister

various artists

2009-11-20T16:33:00.010-06:00

kurt vile - childish prodigy

like a one-man white denim on xanax. electric, atmospheric, grungy, haze that glimmers in a shiny sheen over my neurons at nighttime. good for long solo drives. at nighttime.

kurt vile - dead alive
kurt vile - freak train
kurt vile - blackberry song
kurt vile - amplifier

kid congo & the pink monkey birds - dracula boots

this record sounds like a half-hearted grunge-cabaret joke for the first few songs, but segues into a seriously crazy psychedelic grunge-cabaret face melter. the lyrics abruptly stop and the musicmakers jam the f out for the rest of the tunes. i get the feeling this album was recorded in one go. beginning where it gets good:

kid congo & the pink monkey birds - black santa
kid congo & the pink monkey birds - pumpkin pie
kid congo & the pink monkey birds - rare as the yeti
kid congo & the pink monkey birds - kris kringle ju ju

beck - record club: the velvet underground & nico (1967)

beck - run run run
beck - all tomorrow's parties (feat. thorunn magnusdottir)
beck - i'll be your mirror
beck - european son

various artists - strike 100

totally self-explanatory. the music is two hours of fluid sonics delineating the album art.

johnny cash - i heard the lonesome whistle blow (apparat remix)
jan jelineck - happening tone
peter grummich - solarain
anders ilar - 1003 lullabies

fall be kind

2009-11-18T15:20:00.003-06:00

animal collective - fall be kind ep

headphones.

animal collective - what would i want? sky
animal collective - on a highway

pensando enti/brindo

2009-11-09T12:29:00.003-06:00

pensando, cada día, cada hora
pensando enti
caminando, mi cesta llena de moras
son para ti
temprano, por la tarde, por la noche
sueño de ti

devendra banhart - pensando enti

no pienso enti
solo te siento
pasando por me
como un dulce viento

devendra banhart - brindo

what will we be

2009-11-06T17:49:00.007-06:00

heard this playing in amoeba, apparently the guy is from california. when it came on the speakers, i thought, "wow, this sounds like a follow-up to windsurf's 'coastlines.'" according to his myspace thing, it is indeed the same bloke that makes this music. it seems that hatchback + sorcerer = windsurf. how about that. a simple lil' equation for ya.

sorcerer - neon leon

sorcerer - algorhythm
sorcerer - chemise
sorcerer - el condor
hatchback - closer to forever
hatchback - white diamond
windsurf - pocket check
windsurf - future warriors

gaslamp killer is another amoeba pick. this guy is also making music in california; more specifically, he's located somewhere around los angeles. more good mashup sampling and dark mixing styles happening here. "all killer" is one track yielding just under an hour of music that will make your head nod affirmatively. "hell and the lake of fire" is broken into five tracks and runs like a precursor to his newer stuff. not quite as fluid, but choppy beatmaking has its place, too.

the gaslamp killer - all killer

the gaslamp killer - hell and the lake of fire are waiting for you

the gaslamp killer - part 3

5: 5 years of hyperdub (cd 1)

black chow - purple smoke
quarta 330 - bleeps from outer space
zomby - tarantula

5: 5 years of hyperdub (cd 2))

burial - south london boroughs
burial - distant lights

on a radically brighter note: ralfi pagan knows what's up. he will get your hips a'shakin', and may lure you into his bedroom if you're not paying close attention to his flouncing ways.

ralfi pagan - with love (1972)

ralfi pagan - mi chamaco
ralfi pagan - to say i love you
ralfi pagan - make it with you

closely related: michael ian black - captain's blog

been waiting on the new devendra for a while now. it does not disappoint. his music always speaks for itself, whether it's intolerably goofy or intolerably heart wrenching. i like a singing guitarist who's in touch with more than just his emotions, and devendra covers that base with grace. this has been on repeat since i acquired it last week. "what will we be" holds my attention longer than his previous "smokey rolls down thunder canyon." the latter is very scatterbrained and hops from one theme to the next and across disparate genres at the drop of a hat. it's a fun listen, but doesn't hold my attention from start to finish on a standard run-through. this new album feels like a longer, more focused glimpse into a slightly more experienced devendra, if not a more mature banhart. at the end of the day, i just enjoy the muck out of the noise made by devendra & co. i've yet to be significantly disappointed by anything he's piloted.

devendra banhart - what will we be

though every song is legit dy-no-mite, and one link in an unbreakable devendralbum chain, here are SOME standouts:

devendra banhart - angelika, this guy's getting into the habit of weaving differently shaped and sized themes through a commonly threaded song, and i approve wholeheartedly. "la lágrima en tu corazón / suéltala, suéltala, mi amor." devendra comforts me poetically and bilingually.

devendra banhart - chin chin & muck muck, one of the goofier tracks on the album, this song sings like a story of two hyperstrange friends who are perfect for one another. any tune that analogizes thoughts with hairs on a wild boar's head (and continues the conceit over multiple verses) is a friend to me.

devendra banhart - rats, this record's seahorse.

devendra banhart - walilamdzi, listening to this song is to contemplate devendra's most powerfully delicate composition since korean dogwood. it takes my mind to another place, and it's so lush with soft beauty that i never want to leave.

kooza

2009-11-03T19:08:00.004-06:00

yessssss.

radiohead - the trickster (*pwing*)
quiet village - circus of horrors

sweet jams of the moment

2009-10-22T14:34:00.005-05:00

michael manring - the book of flame (1998)

michael manring - the fire sermon
michael manring - the book of lies
michael manring - the book of living and dying

elsewhere:

the darjeeling limited (2007)

peter starstedt - where do you go to (my lovely)
the kinks - powerman
jakishan - typewriter tip, tip, tip
claude debussy - suite bergmanesque. 3: clair de lune
ludwig van beethoven - symphony no. 7 in a (op. 92): allegro con brio
jodphur sikh temple congregation - prayer (traditional)

phaseone - white collar crime mixtape via

raekwon/blind man's color - vine swinger blend
animal collective - daily routine (phaseone remix)
phaseone - panda jawn
phaseone - villain jawn
phaseone - love test (frank heat vip)
fool's gold - surprise hotel (phaseone remix)

ricardo

2009-10-11T20:50:00.005-05:00

matthew mcconaughey
explains to his friend rich
that he forgot his dr. pepper.
by dede preno

(1/18/07)

rich. my friend. mi amigo. i must, say at this moment. that i—have forgotten your soda.

this is not a story of hardship. this is a story of loss; it is a story of remorse. you may ask yourself, was the weight of the responsibility of picking up wendy's in time for heroes a burden on my shoulders? or was the responsibility of picking up wendy's a weight for us all? i did not know if it would be a weight. i believe this was not a weight. everyone had their heads and hearts in the right place. i went through the drive-through purely. asking not about the 99-cent menu, but personally as matthew mcconaughey about the jalapeño cheddar double melt. some characters walk through first with their chin, some with their chest, some with their shoulder. i walk with the heart and mind aligned first through that door. although that door for me was at the second window. all right.

now, ricardo. you may think, in the deep recesses of your mind, your heart, your soul, did this man that is i become thirsty? did i become enslaved by thirst so that i consumed your frosty beverage? no, i feel that the dr. pepper consumed me. that there is a great freedom in allowing oneself to become consumed by commercial soft drinks. as well. by, the fast-food industry itself.

continue...or else.

--
been listening to a lot of kaki king lately.

kaki king - night after sidewalk
kaki king - the exhibition
kaki king - the government

kaki king - ingots
kaki king - doing the wrong thing
kaki king - nails

kaki king - gay sons of lesbian mothers

nocturnal wonderland

2009-09-28T18:24:00.009-05:00

holy krishna.

day bug from 2009's burning man

filled with dancing people at night

many lighted setup

CUBITRON. giant light installation comprising a grid of roughly twelve million golf ball-sized, independently controlled bulbs syncing to the music.

people crowded under and around it for hours

amazing

amaaaaaazing.

belanterned palm trees

burning women

costumed people roaming all around the festival grounds

spinning flower fire/ heart fire

night bug, with proboscises firing in rhythm to the music

the lake

that sacred night, where we watched the fireworks explode at random times throughout the night

resting by the lake, watchin' the cubitron

end of the festival, last glimpse of the lightgrid

this festival was a glimpse into an entirely different world filled with intense music, lights, dream characters, and joy. comparing it to bonnaroo wouldn't do it justice, and comparing bonnaroo to nocturnal wouldn't suffice, either. just implausibly grand. it was actually this much fun, minus the final frame:

david ellis + blu

2009-09-26T18:19:00.001-05:00

david ellis and blu have made a very nifty outdoor art project:

via
--
michael moschen is beautifully unique movement machine and a uniquely beautiful human being:

and this guy has a lot of time on his hands, too:

--
tonight:

peopled garden

2009-09-21T17:26:00.008-05:00

"a tone of some world far from ours,
where music and moonlight and feeling
are one."

/percy shelly

dutch baklavah - peopled garden
mix 2

1 stag hare - born into magic
2 deerhunter - slow swords
3 lindstrøm & prins thomas - rothaus
4 parasails - skylife 2
5 lauren landes - weird woods
6 animal collective - safer
7 erykah badu - telephone

total run time - 50:35
--
"methinks my own soul must be a bright invisible green." /h.d. thoreau

"in the middle of the journey of our life i came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost." /dante alighieri

"it's when i'm weary of considerations,
and life is too much like a pathless wood
where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
broken across it, and one eye is weeping
from a twig's having lashed across it open.
i'd like to get away from earth awhile
and then come back to it and begin over.
may no fate willfully misunderstand me
and half grant what i wish and snatch me away
not to return. earth's the right place for love:
i don't know where it's likely to go better."

/robert frost, birches

"nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves." /jean-jacques rousseau

"to know of someone here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in silence--this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden." /j.w.v. goethe

"beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them." /david hume

"so shall we come to look at the world with new eyes. it shall answer the endless inquiry of the intellect, 'what is truth?' and of the affections, 'what is good?' by yielding itself passive to the educated will...build, therefore, your own world. as fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions. a correspondent revolution in things will attend the influx of the spirit." /r.w. emerson

open up your mind

2009-09-16T20:54:00.015-05:00

"a true critic ought to dwell rather upon excellencies than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation." /joseph addison

panda bear at all tomorrow's parties, monticello, new york (9/11/09)

01 intro/chores
02 guys eyes
03 ponytail
04 new song 1
05 daily routine
06 bros
07 #1
08 i’m not
09 boneless
10 new song 2

i've read a few reviews that highlight how unappealing panda bear's live set is. makes me feel slightly sad for the people bored by being a part of his world while he's playing music. i've been beyond enthralled both times i saw him. he stands there virtually motionless, save the constant metronomic tapping of his leg. everything else seems to be tied up in each blip of noise he introduces while the last one takes its time to catch up with the backbeat. in fact, i'll take it one step further and say that the best way to experience panda bear live is to close your eyes and step into a world where chaos is filled to the brim, like in a double dare physical challenge. there are way more noises and samples than are necessary to make a coherent song, but, to paraphrase lennox, ample confusion in music is a very pleasing sensation; it's controllable chaos in a world where we have such little say in so much madness. if you want to be blown away by dudes rocking out their guitars, see another band perform; to me, compelling music is compelling music, and his music straight up boogies with my brain.

i know myself, and i know what i want to do
i'm doing my best and i want to know
is it good for you?
you give me trouble
you give me everything that you've got
i'll show you that what's right for me
ain't for you

when you listen to the same music hours a day for days on end, months at a time, any new formation of a song is like hearing it for the first time. it's easy to trust a musician who's been sending good vibes to your neurons for so long to do whatever he or she wants until the next recognizable hook in a song. these days panda bear draws out his tunes so long as to invisibly sew them together. when one is ending, the other lurks, waiting for the perfect time to spill over into a new song. the result is a spacey, highly enjoyable drift through the starry night sky on pandairlines.

says dan levitin:

say you're hitchhiking from davis, california to san francisco. you want the person who picks you up to take the normal route, highway 80. you might be willing to tolerate a few shortcuts, especially if the driver is friendly, believable, and is up-front about what he's doing. ("i'm just going to cut over here on zamora road to avoid some construction on the freeway.") but if the driver takes you out on back roads with no explanation, and you reach a point where you no longer see any landmarks, your sense of safety is sure to be violated. of course, different people, with different personality types, react differently to such unanticipated journeys, musical or vehicular. some react with sheer panic ("that stravinsky is going to kill me!") and some react with a sense of adventure at the thrill of discovery ("coltrane is doing something weird here, but what the hell, it won't hurt me to stick around a while longer, i can take care of my harmonic self and find my way back to musical reality if i have to").

to continue the analogy with games, some games have such a complicated set of rules that the average person doesn't have the patience to learn them. the possibilities for what can happen on any given turn are too numerous or too unpredictable (to the novice) to contemplate. but an inability to predict what will happen next is not always a sign that a game holds eventual interest if only one sticks with it long enough. a game may have a completely unpredictable course no matter how much practice you have with it--many board games simply involve rolling the dice and waiting to see what happens to you. chutes and ladders and candy land are like this. children enjoy the sense of surprise, but adults can find the game tedious because, although no one can predict exactly what will happen (the game is a function of the random throw of the dice), the outcome has no structure whatsoever, and moreover, there is no amount of skill on the part of the player that can influence the course of the game.

music that involves too many chord changes, or unfamiliar structure, can lead many listeners straight to the nearest exit, or to the "skip" button on their music players. some games, such as go, axiom, or zendo are sufficiently complicated or opaque to the novice that many people give up before getting very far: the structure presents a steep learning curve, and the novice can't be sure that the time invested will be worth it. many of us have the same experience with unfamiliar music, or unfamiliar musical forms. people may tell you that schönberg is brilliant or that tricky is the next prince, but if you can't figure out what is going on in the first minute or so of one of their pieces, you may find yourself wondering if the payoff will justify the effort you spend trying to sort it all out. we tell ourselves that if we only listen to it enough times we may begin to understand it and to like it as much as our friends do. yet, we recall other times in our lives when we invested hours of prime listening time in an artist and never arrived at the point where we "got it." trying to appreciate new music can be like contemplating a new friendship in that it takes time, and sometimes there is nothing you can do to speed it up. at a neural level, we need to be able to find a few landmarks in order to invoke a cognitive schema. if we hear a piece of radically new music enough times, some of that piece will eventually become encoded in our brains and we will develop landmarks. if a composer is skillful, those parts of the piece that become our landmarks will be the very ones that the composer intended they should be; his knowledge of composition and human perception and memory will have allowed him to create certain "hooks" in the music that will eventually stand out in our minds.

this goes on for another forty pages or so, all highlighted and underlined in my book. moral of the story: OPEN UP YO MIND TO NEW EXPERIENCES.

related: animal collective at all tomorrow's parties (9/11/09)

thanks again to money, money, music for the tip.

living radically

2009-09-14T20:40:00.004-05:00

datamining the collective unconscious

2009-09-13T11:18:00.005-05:00

SOCIAL SYNTHESIZER explores the aesthetic synergies emerging from the contemporary use of collaborative internet technologies. Combining large-scale video projection and digital audio synthesis, SOCIAL SYNTHESIZER provides a recombinant flux of sensory information aimed at holding a mirror to the collective unconscious as it emerges from the internet in the form of social software and user contributed content websites.

via

related:

revolver

2009-09-12T13:24:00.002-05:00

when you live in los angeles, in a condo surrounded on four sides by other discrete living units, people complain about noise all the time; these days, i don't play music on speakers past tenPM. it is a drag. my last day here, i will be blasting music all day long until the cops come so i can shove my future lease in their fat faces.

this morning, i was hanging out with the window open on the one side of this condo not attached to another living cubicle, and the people across the way had been blasting revolver for the past however many minutes. good day sunshine came on, and i started to whistle loudly out the window.

the guy whistled back! in harmony! strangers are the best. until you get to know them.

beatles - love you to
beatles - tomorrow never knows

related:
billy idol - tomorrow never knows
yim yames - love you to

word of the day

2009-09-11T20:28:00.001-05:00

mountebank:

n.

1. A hawker of quack medicines who attracts customers with stories, jokes, or tricks.
2. A flamboyant charlatan.

v., -banked, -bank·ing, -banks.

v.intr.

To act as a mountebank.
v.tr. Archaic.

To ensnare or prevail over with trickery.

e.g. don draper is a mountebank of highfalutin proportions.

almost caught up to the current episode. limit your exposure.

tip o' the cap to brandon for introducing that word to my lexicon.

willow sky

2009-09-10T11:38:00.013-05:00

whoa i walk and wonder why.

dutch baklavah - willow sky
mix 1

direct link: http://lklandes.faservers.net/dutch%20baklavah%20-%20willow%20sky.m4a

1. nick drake - northern sky
2. the kinks - big sky
3. beaches - the sky was white
4. queens of the stone age - the sky is fallin'
5. animal collective - what would i want sky
6. six organs of admittance - cover your wounds with the sky
7. geotic - greenery beyond clouds (the oaccas' city in the sky)
8. paul mccartney - vanilla sky
9. air - new star in the sky
10. pink floyd - goodbye blue sky

mixed/edited with garageband.

"we on earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. we are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. we have a choice: we can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction. what happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos.

the earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

[the nuclear arms race] is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

you can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe.

the world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.

it is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. but is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works — that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? it does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.

it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."

more sagan quotes

related: list of misquotations

ants

2009-09-09T09:04:00.001-05:00

sandy

2009-09-08T20:46:00.006-05:00

likin': basic channel - bcd-2 (2008) part 1 part 2

some of these songs are borderline what you'd hear walking into an express men's store. others are very excellent.

basic channel - mutism
cyrus - presence (edit)

mystery album art:

lisa germano - magical neighbors

sandy:

high places - sandy feat
caribou - sandy
beaches - sandy

blue sky

2009-09-07T07:13:00.011-05:00

the harmony of the spheres told me this is what it sounds like when a star implodes on itself:

1.12.2009 Koko, London
1.20.2009 Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom, NY
1.21.2009 Bowery Ballroom, NY
1.25.2009 BBC's Freak Zone Sessions
5.18.2009 Royal Oak Music Theatre, Royal Oak, MI

animal collective - what would i want sky (5.25.09 roseland theater, portland, or)

personally, i think it sounds like a phoenix rising from its own ashes. time will tell whose metaphor is more apt.

closely related: grateful dead - unbroken chain

form of magic

2009-09-05T20:38:00.002-05:00

"painting isn't an aesthetic operation; it's a form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange hostile world and us, a way of seizing the power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires." /pablo picasso

picasso footage

2009-09-04T23:39:00.005-05:00

via
--
deerhunter blog - micromix 16 (mixed by bradford cox) via

1. animal collective - chocolate girl (live on bbc)
2. the dovers - what am i going to do
3. the chills - pink frost
4. coil - the avatars
5. jet harris and tony meehan - some people
6. b-52's - theme from a nude beach
7. birigwa - okusosola mukule*
8. black sabbath - solitude
9. growing - disconfirm
10. beach boys - he gives speeches
11. white magic - day

*most excellent.

posted to his blog right before the ac micromixes. and another song called galaxy cruisers, of which he says,

Here's a song I made on the bus ("Galaxy Cruiser") its for the Animal Collective dudes and Braddax, Fitz, & Chris.

baybay

2009-09-04T09:04:00.003-05:00

scientific american mind asks alison gopnik, "what's it like to be a baby?"

If you look at baby’s attention you see a related but very different picture. Babies and young children are much worse at intentionally focusing their attention than adults. Instead, they seem to pay attention to anything that’s unexpected or interesting – anything they can learn from. We say that children are bad at paying attention but we really mean that they’re bad at not paying attention – they easily get distracted by anything interesting. And young brains are much more generally “plastic”, more flexible and better at learning than adult brains. Young brains are bathed in the cholinergic transmitters that enhance attention in adults, but the inhibitory transmitters that damp consciousness down haven’t yet come on line. If you put all that together it suggests that babies consciousness is more like a lantern than a spotlight – that it illumines the entire world around them.

animal collective - baby day
sharon jones & the dap-kings - nobody's baby

where the wild things are

2009-09-03T20:48:00.002-05:00

apparently spike jonze cast 10-year-old noah lennox as max:

long term trip in the works

2009-09-03T01:19:00.004-05:00

olympic national park

specifically, the hoh rainforest:

within the next few months, i do declare. i'll be listening to this:

taken by trees - east of eden

taken by trees - watch the waves
taken by trees - my boys

and this:

src - the angel song (1969)

feel like dancing

2009-09-02T23:29:00.003-05:00

taken by trees recording in pakistan:

fan video of grizzly bear's "two weeks:"

more of this:

foxy

2009-09-02T01:28:00.000-05:00

missin' the foxter.

last post

2009-05-06T12:24:00.005-05:00

"the fire which seems extinguished often slumbers beneath the ashes." /pierre corneille
--
via ongakubaka:

beaches - beaches

similar to: black mountain, sun dial, older spaced out hendrix

This is one of the more enjoyable all female bands I've heard in a very long time. They're five badass "beaches" from Australia who create churning krauty psych-rock jams. Mastered by Bob Weston of The Volcano Suns/Shellac, this album oozes positive vibes, and minimal vocals allows the music to shine through. Solid from start to finish. A great summer road trip album.

also, i decided just now after a lot of contemplating that this will be the last post of this blog. it's too torn between my own personal doings and music with a much wider appeal than all of that. there's too much amazing music out there that'd be better experienced alongside a proverb or enlightening idea instead of personal ramblings on my part. i'm starting a new one very soon that will feature a quote with a matching song. sort of like said the gramophone, but less watered-down and more prophetic. just simple and restrained, because simplicity and restraint are the new superfluity. except when it comes to cookies.
--

more norml ads

wow, we gotta try that steak

2009-05-03T11:34:00.004-05:00

nytimes profiles past winners of top chef workin in new york:

With its curving wood bar and vases overflowing with freshly cut flowers, the neighborhood restaurant is stylish but comfortable — not the sort of place to eat at every night, but the favorite around the corner saved for special occasions. Perilla seems to occupy a different world from the scene at Centro Vinoteca, which is just how Mr. Dieterle wants it...

And Mr. Dieterle, for his part, quickly learned that investors were more interested in a solid business plan than a star turn on a reality show, and that his winnings wouldn’t go far.

“It’s kind of like being handed a case of vodka and saying, go open a bar,” he said. “It’s not going to happen.”

very closely related: patton oswalt - great food is cooked by psychos (from werewolves and lollipops)

all you really have to do

2009-04-25T13:53:00.008-05:00

"everything that emancipates the spirit without giving us control over ourselves is harmful; none is more hopelessly enslaved than he who falsely believes he is free." /johann wolfgang von goethe

glasser - glad (delorean remix)
--
gail collins of the nytimes examines wisconsin's new $50k state motto, "live like you mean it:"

And Wisconsin has “Live Like You Mean It,” which sounds less like an invitation to vacation than a self-improvement project. As a matter of fact, besides being an old Bacardi slogan, it is also the title of a motivational book whose authors promise to guide you toward “a meaningful, fulfilling, and happier life with results worthy of legacy building.”

I don’t know about you, but when I want to get away from it all, I do not want to take my legacy along with me.

(the article does, however, speak to the benefits of the "wisconsin culture [that] fuels creativity and embraces original thinking in business, travel and education." no doubt.)

also from nyt, is a book still a book on kindle?

Michael Silverblatt, host of the weekly public radio show “Bookworm,” uses the term “literary desire” to describe the attraction that comes with seeing a stranger reading your favorite book or author. “When I was a teenager waiting in line for a film showing at the Museum of Modern Art and someone was carrying a book I loved, I would start to have fantasies about being best friends or lovers with that person,” he said.

David Rosenthal, the executive vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster, recalls the advent of Vintage paperbacks, a line of literary fiction that “could fit precisely into the pocket of your Levi’s with the title slowing, and it was an advertisement for what kind of intellectual you were.”

--
somewhat related, vintage paperbacks has a ton of really bizarre genres with incredibly vivid covers to go along:

i am realizing now that david rosenthal has a very different definition of "intellectual" from mine.
--
iron and wine - around the well (2009)

anyone who knows me knows that i fawn over virtually everything sam beam has ever recorded into a microphone, so i'll simply refer to subpop's description of this release instead of reiterating and stumbling through why i love this guy's music.
--
lotus plaza - the floodlight collective (2009)

lotus plaza - whiteout
lotus plaza - quicksand
lotus plaza - what grows

reminiscent of: radiohead, animal collective

lotus plaza comprises two members of deerhunter: bradford cox (the lead singer/guitarist) and lockett pundt (guitarist). when cox wants to do solo stuff outside of deerhunter, he has atlas sound (highly recommended). and when pundt wants to do solo stuff outside of deerhunter, he apparently contacts bradford cox and makes music with him under the moniker "lotus plaza" while leaving out the other dudes in deerhunter.

i read a pitchfork article some time ago about how good the deerhunter guys are with inventing band and album names. all three projects are really great and have similar vibes, though "floodlight collective" is way more shoegazy, washed out in maxed out reverb, and spaced in lo-fi than either atlas sound or deerhunter. the latter's cryptograms was a little too unfounded for me in any particular point, although it does sound nice in the background, if you're indisposed and seven minutes from sleep, from what i recall. atlas sound is poppier than the other two--more full of melody and life--and deerhunter's "microcastle" is a winning collection of perky, but somewhat patinated, guitar melodies tightly wound around even catchier drum loops and fills. i enjoys the microcastle a lots; i acquired it last summer and it kept me perfectly sweet company when i was alone in my car and/or thoughts/cannabis use.

says cox of his side projects, "it's just that i have ideas that i can't make work with a five piece rock band...there's kind of this palette of sounds that i use that i don't necessarily get to use with deerhunter."

deerhunter - never stops (microcastle)
deerhunter - nothing ever happened (microcastle)
deerhunter - rainwater cassette exchange (rainwater cassette exchange ep, due june 8)

and new from atlas sound, two springy songs via gvsb:

atlas sound - springtime instrumental
atlas sound - time warp
--
pitchfork reports on some new j dilla this summer:

Dilla's mother, Maureen Yancey (aka Ma Dukes), executive produced the album. In a press release, she's got this to say about it: "It wasn't rushed, and it wasn't haphazard. This album combines what he did in the beginning of his career, what he did in some of our early hospital stays, which was very deep, and some stuff pulled from old floppy disks & DATs. It's mind blowing...this is like the missing links to Dilla's legacy."

related and recommended like crazy: j dilla - donuts

j dilla - stop
j dilla - bye.
j dilla - don't cry
--

i blogged a while back about seasick steve performing in nigel's basement. the other basement performance i watch over and over is white denim's "all you really have to do." it is electrifying. white denim is three dudes (one of whom looks like an androgynous girl i know) playing drums, bass, and guitar. neither of the string players uses a pick, and the playing is raucous and hard on the fingers, to understate. there is so much energy in this song that it never fails to seriously excite me after watching it. there is nonverbal communication happening between the band members that is equally as thrilling to watch as the music is to listen to.

white denim - all you really have to do

white denim - wda (workout holiday)
white denim - shake shake shake (workout holiday)
white denim - mirrored and reverse (from fits, due june 22)

take yourself for a ride: white denim - workout holiday (2008)

--
i'm in the middle of reading barry schwartz's "the paradox of choice" again. as i keep recommending it to people incessantly, with no word back from anyone that's looked into it, i'll post a video of his ted talk on the book in an attempt to further pique interest in this guy's ideas:

also by schwartz: the battle for human nature: science, morality, and modern life; the costs of living; our loss of wisdom (ted talk)

tune back next blog post, where i'll yell at the world for not having read anything by michael pollan. (he also has videos on ted.)

live like you mean it

2009-04-25T12:20:00.002-05:00

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society" -J. Krishnamurti

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

gail collins of the nytimes examines wisconsin's new $50k state motto, "live like you mean it:"

And Wisconsin has “Live Like You Mean It,” which sounds less like an invitation to vacation than a self-improvement project. As a matter of fact, besides being an old Bacardi slogan, it is also the title of a motivational book whose authors promise to guide you toward “a meaningful, fulfilling, and happier life with results worthy of legacy building.”

I don’t know about you, but when I want to get away from it all, I do not want to take my legacy along with me.

(the article does, however, speak to the benefits of the "wisconsin culture [that] fuels creativity and embraces original thinking in business, travel and education." no doubt.

also from nyt, is a book still a book on kindle?

Michael Silverblatt, host of the weekly public radio show “Bookworm,” uses the term “literary desire” to describe the attraction that comes with seeing a stranger reading your favorite book or author. “When I was a teenager waiting in line for a film showing at the Museum of Modern Art and someone was carrying a book I loved, I would start to have fantasies about being best friends or lovers with that person,” he said.

David Rosenthal, the executive vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster, recalls the advent of Vintage paperbacks, a line of literary fiction that “could fit precisely into the pocket of your Levi’s with the title slowing, and it was an advertisement for what kind of intellectual you were.”

--
somewhat related, vintage paperbacks has a ton of really bizarre genres with incredibly vivid covers to go along:

i am realizing now that david rosenthal has a very different definition of "intellectual" than i do.
--
lotus plaza - the floodlight collective

lotus plaza - whiteout
lotus plaza - quicksand
lotus plaza - what grows

reminiscent of: radiohead, animal collective

lotus plaza comprises two members of deerhunter: bradford cox (the lead singer/guitarist) and lockett pundt (guitarist). when cox wants to do solo stuff outside of deerhunter, he has atlas sound (highly recommended). and when pundt wants to do solo stuff outside of deerhunter, he apparently contacts bradford cox and makes music with him under the moniker "lotus plaza." i read a pitchfork article some time ago about how good the deerhunter guys are with inventing band and album names. all three projects are really great and have similar vibes, though "floodlight collective" is way more shoegazy, washed out in maxed out reverb, and spaced in lo-fi than either atlas sound or deerhunter. the latter's cryptograms was a little too unfounded in any particular point, although it does sound nice in the background, if you're indisposed and seven minutes from sleep, from what i recall. atlas sound is poppier than the other two--more full of melody and life--and deerhunter's "microcastle" is a winning collection of perky, but somewhat patinated, guitar melodies tightly wound around even catchier drum loops and fills. i enjoys the microcastle a lots.

says of cox, "it's just that i have ideas that i can't make work with a five piece rock band...there's kind of this palette of sounds that i use that i don't necessarily get to use with deerhunter."

deerhunter - never stops (microcastle)
deerhunter - nothing ever happened (microcastle)

and new from atlas sound, two springy songs via gvsb:

atlas sound - springtime instrumental
atlas sound - time warp
--
iron and wine - around the well

anyone who knows me knows that i fawn over virtually everything sam beam has ever recorded into a microphone, so i'll simply refer to subpop's description of this release instead of reiterating and stumbling through why i love this guy's music.
--

i read the other day some verses

2009-04-14T10:59:00.007-05:00

"if our young men miscarry in their first enterprises, they lose all heart. if the young merchant fails, men say he is ruined. if the finest genius studies at one of our colleges, and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of boston or new york, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being disheartened, and in complaining the rest of his life. a sturdy lad from new hampshire or vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always, like a cat, falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. he walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not 'studying a profession,' for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. he has not one chance, but a hundred chances." /ralph waldo emerson, self-reliance
--
i've been reading a lot of emerson lately, and i watched into the wild yesterday. as i read self-reliance and other essays from his first series i'm reminded of how often a good block of text can easily substitute for the company of any number of people. to come into contact with thoughts you've had as explained by someone hundreds or thousands of years ago is quite an intimate experience, indeed. however, in emerson's perspective, at least, a life is really not worth living alone with the company of only books and the ideas of people with whom you will never be able to converse or challenge. into the wild parallels that as chris mccandless writes in a book, as his final diary entry, "happiness only real when shared." intellectual fulfillment and deeper universal understanding may come with solitude, but true happiness can really only be experienced in the shared places between common-minded people.
--
pur ti miro, from l'incoronazione di poppea, is the first song i remember hearing in my music appreciation class focused on opera a couple years ago. originally it was sung by two castrati, or dudes whose you-know-whats had been you-know-whatted in order to preserve their prepubescent, pure voices. these days, since no male opera singer in his right mind would do that in order to conserve for himself a contralto of that calibur--not to mention, it's been an outdated opera modus operandi for centuries--the song is performed by two women, usually. all the clips on youtube of such performances are weirdly sparse, and at least one of the women is usually outfitted in skintight vinyl. it distracts from the intended mood somewhat, to say the very least.

ANYWAY the original song that i heard was a simple arrangement of a couple strings and a harpsichord with the two men singing this incredibly, and intimately, interwoven melody of love and dedication. each voice flies in accordance with the other like two birds swooping inches from the water as they careen through a brook (or some shit like that). it is supremely romantic--alomst too pretty to listen to in parts, but i listen to it on repeat, anyway, because it really is so beautiful. i could easily say this duet revolutionized the way i listened to and understood music from that point onward.

so, with that, comes animal collective's leaf house. i've always considered it one of my favorite ac songs, and probably my favorite song showcasing avey's and panda's harmonies and how lush they can become when finagled through mixers and multipliers and all sorts of what-nots.

it sounds amazing live. i'll be seeing ac in milwaukee on may 19, which is thirty-five days from today. five weeks is the length of time i spent in spain as a teenager, and they were the best of my life, still. everything else after that has been set against that initial bar of living abroad at fifteen. if five weeks could change my life and inspire me to the degree that living in spain did, i'm sure i can muster up some fireworks to kickstart my life yet again before experiencing ac live. good grief, i get goosebumps just thinking about it. bonnaroo is twenty-three days later. HUZZAH!

the happiness project

2009-04-09T19:58:00.005-05:00

"a friend is a person with whom i may be sincere. before him i may think aloud. i am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal, that i may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, which men never put off, and may deal with him with the simplicity and wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another." /ralph waldo emerson

animal collective - grass

we do the dance up on the plains
then i shake your shoulders
you push me down into the grains
who rubs our noses in the night?
we do, we do.

--
charles spearin - the happiness project

Meaning seems to be our hunger but we should still try to taste our food. I wanted to see if I could blur the line between speaking and singing - life and art? - and write music based on these accidental melodies. So I had some musician friends play, as close as they could, these neighbourhood melodies on different instruments (Mrs. Morris on the tenor saxophone, Marisa on the harp, my daughter Ondine on the violin, etc.) and then I arranged them as though they were songs. /charles spearin, co-founder of broken social scene and do, make, say, think

tripping halfway up

2009-03-27T16:03:00.007-05:00

this is a piece of flash fiction i wrote a couple weeks ago.
--

      franklin williamouse escaped indoors after a wild of bees chased after him.
      "whooo! did you see how hot it was outside, ma? you could poach an egg on the pavement."
      franklin mussed out his hair like there were bats tousled inside, and flakes of dust and detritus flushed into the air, illuminated for a brief moment by the voyeuristic sunlight lurking past the shades through the window next to the front door.
      "take off your shoes! they're covered in filth!" his mother cried at the sight of her child. franklin threw one ruddy boot after the other onto the mat next to the front door and darted upstairs, tripping halfway up.
       ms. williamouse's shoulders rose above her head as she leaned into the sink that housed the dirty dishes. sweat dripped down her nose onto her yellow apron, somewhat ochre these days. she sighed a willow tree and muttered this way or that about why her life hadn't come to fruition as she imagined.
      "a widow at such a young age." sunlight dipped under the top of the windowsill and imposed its way into the kitchen. it cast a beam of particles in the air that drifted and rested on her, only to fly right away or become invisible in the beam's unilluminating absence. upstairs, franklin romped around his bedroom, chasing with his wide eyes the bees that ran him indoors after a spell. he bustled from one window to the next as the one-act play of bees ensued.
      ms. williamouse cast her gaze to the ground beside her, glancing peripherally at her grandmother, mrs. williamouse. she was still. her lucid blue eyes only listened, now. more than four score and seven years ago she was born with a slightly doughnut complexion and, even as a woman, garnered physical similarities to abraham lincoln in his later days. in her youth she resembled something of a slightly less feminine lincoln. she was an unfortunate looking woman, from what she'd been told by her peers. ms. williamouse sighed a steam engine and went back to scrubbing the dishes, which would be recycled for dinner.
      "it's not right," as the food wouldn't clear off the plate. "it's not fair for my own sister to have been widowed at such a young age by her husband." she placed the unclean dish on a towel, and sank forward back into her shoulders. "i don't know how to help her."
      mrs. williamouse's hands stacked like paper on top of one another. her mouth, closed like a clamshell, was bulbous and puckered inward with roughly the same grisly formation, somewhat beautiful in its unabashed nature.
    "i don't know what to say to help her," ms. williamouse offered to no one. "i don't know what to do. nana, i don't know what you want me to do with you!"
      franklin had quieted and moved to the top of the stairs, peeking from behind the lathed wooden beams. his mother didn't notice him, because she doesn't notice what she doesn't expect to see. she turned now toward her grandmother. the sinking of her shoulders had transfered itself to her face.
      "i should give her my happiness, but it died with franklin. i should give you my home to stay in, but i can't take care of you in either one of our states. i don't know how i can help anyone with all of these grievances upon me! i don't know what to do!" her voice quivered to the frequency of her shivering skin; the sun burned through the kitchen window onto her back and the bow tie of her yellow apron. franklin watched.
      mrs. williamouse, with two or three slow twitches of her facial muscles, turned her head toward her granddaughter. she squinted into the light, slowly and with an efficient effort.
      "sunshine, happiness may be well and good for the body," her eyes almost closed shut now, "but it's grief that develops the powers of the mind." she reversed her slow twitches and averted her gaze back to empty space. ms. williamouse stared at her grandmother for a moment, her eyes wide as the drying dinner plates. she had more dishes to clean than had been cleaned at that point, and saw that franklin's shoes had left spatters of dried mud and leaves on the wooden floor next to the front door. she pulled the white drape past the window in front of her and returned to scrubbing. the plates dried a little more slowly in the shade.

there is so much

2009-03-19T09:53:00.007-05:00

"before i go on with this short history, let me make a general observation– the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. one should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. this philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when i saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true. " /f. scott fitzgerald, the crack-up (1936)

--
associated press reports that the obama administration plans to reverse bush's stance on gay rights at the UN:

According to negotiators, the Bush team had concerns that those parts could commit the federal government on matters that fall under state jurisdiction. In some states, landlords and private employers are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; on the federal level, gays are not allowed to serve openly in the military.
--
yale university is offering several semesters of lectures streamed online for free. courses include intro psych (which i'm about halfway through), intro to ancient greek history, philosophy of death, intro to the old testament, and others.

the opencourseware consortium has dozens more links to universities around the globe that stream thousands of lectures for free. open educational resources is a similar service.
--
the new york times examines music and memory:

This process, of memory formation by neuronal entrainment, helps explain why some of life’s offerings weasel in easily and then refuse to be spiked. Music, for example. “The brain has a strong propensity to organize information and perception in patterns, and music plays into that inclination,” said Michael Thaut, a professor of music and neuroscience at Colorado State University. “From an acoustical perspective, music is an overstructured language, which the brain invented and which the brain loves to hear.”
--
reuters says passion for opera is love at first sight:

Then the learning begins, with fans taking a number of years to discover how to truly appreciate opera fully.

"Fans get hooked when they are still outsiders, before having an active apparatus to interpret the experience, or are thoroughly socialized in what constitutes the enjoyment and how they should decode it," Benzecry said in a statement.

"Learning through interaction happens not at the beginning, as expected, but as the logical continuation that helps to shape the initial attraction."
--
i finished the great gatsby a few days ago, and read the curious case of benjamin button this morning.

closely related: midlake - roscoe

whenever i was a child, i wondered what if my name had changed into something more productive, like roscoe, and born in 1891 waiting with my aunt roselyn.

lots more f. scott fitzgerald e-texts here.
--

fifty and sunny

2009-03-15T12:29:00.010-05:00

the blagoblognet gobbled up my post yesterday, which introduced a new mix featuring songs heavy on heavy synths. i will remake that later. right now it's fifty degrees on a sunday afternoon and i'm enjoying some new, peaceful music that audibly reflects the buds on the leaves starting to form on the tree outside my living room window. this lil' collection of ten songs is somewhat of a prelude to my impending road trip to california.

1. great lake swimmers - still /lost channels
2. chad vangaalen - city of electric light /soft airplane
3. stephen steinbrink - when it's easier /ugly unknowns
4. elizabeth cotten - wilson rag /freight train and other north carolina folk songs and tunes
5. geotic - middle school sleepaways (yosemite) /eyes
6. don peris - jubilee /go when the morning shineth
7. little joy - don't watch me dancing /little joy
8. stuart and caan - i wanted so long /the mayfly dance
9. vetiver - strictly rule /tight knit
10. bonnie "prince" billy - i don't belong to anyone /beware

download it here.

in other news: bonnaroo is 88 days away. to continue my long tradition of vaguely relevant celebrations, i've been watching bugs bunny, tom, and jerry perform liszt's hungarian rhapsody no. 2, which happen to be some of the greatest classical music videos of all time. i'm not sure what would even compete.

mini morning (re)mixes

2009-03-03T09:19:00.006-06:00

some fine remixes for this dreary tuesday. i've included a new yeasayer song because everything they do is a remix of something else. enjoy the following music betwixt images of warhol and basquiat's powers combined.

feist + ed droste - service bell
elliott smith - satellite (helio sequence remix)
yeasayer - tightrope (live)
bruce springsteen - i'm on fire (cousin cole's bad desire mix)
black lips - veni, vidi, vici (diplo remix)
dj dangermouse + jay z - dirt off your shoulder
the knife - marble house (dave sitek remix)

1. four tet - hilarious movie of the 90s (manitoba remix)
2. beck - dark star (dave sitek remix)
3. roger o'donnell - for the truth in you (four tet remix)
4. professor murder - free stress test (harkin & wolf mix)
5. the roots - don't say nuthin' (valiant remix)

--
highly notable albums of late:

great lake swimmers - lost channels

bonnie "prince" billy - beware

beirut - march of the zapotec/realpeople holland ep

various artists - dark was the night (disc one)
various artists - dark was the night (disc two)

here are the notable tracks:

and here are all the tracks:

Disc 1
01. Knotty Pine (Dirty Projectors and David Byrne)
02. Cello Song (The Books and José González) [orig. Nick Drake]
03. Train Song (Feist and Ben Gibbard) [orig. Vashti Bunyan ]
04. Brackett, WI (Bon Iver)
05. Deep Blue Sea (Grizzly Bear)
06. So Far Around The Bend (The National and Nico Muhly)
07. Tightrope (Yeasayer)
08. Feeling Good (My Brightest Diamond)
09. Dark Was The Night (Kronos Quartet) [orig. Blind Willie Johnson]
10. I Was Young When I Left Home (Antony and Bryce Dessner) [orig. Bob Dylan]
11. Big Red Machine (Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner)
12. Sleepless (The Decemberists)
13. Stolen Houses (Die) (Iron & Wine)
14. Service Bell (Grizzly Bear and Feist)
15. You Are The Blood (Sufjan Stevens)

Disc 2
01. Well-Alright (Spoon)
02. Lenin (Arcade Fire)
03. Mimizan (Beirut)
04. El Caporal (My Morning Jacket)
05. Inspiration Information (Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings) [orig. Shuggie Otis]
06. With A Girl Like You (Dave Sitek) [orig. The Troggs]
07. Blood Pt 2 (Buck 65, Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti) [orig. The Castanets]
08. Hey, Snow White (The New Pornographers) [orig. Destroyer]
09. Gentle Hour (Yo La Tengo) [orig. Snapper]
10. Another Saturday (Stuart Murdoch)
11. Happiness (Riceboy Sleeps)
12. Amazing Grace (Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues)
13. The Giant of Illinois (Andrew Bird) [orig. Handsome Family]
14. Lua (Conor Oberst and Gillian Welch)
15. When The Road Runs Out (Blonde Redhead and Devastations)
16. Love vs. Porn (Kevin Drew)

andrew bird - noble beast (two-disc version)

vetiver - tight knit

and for good measure, six organs of admittance - shelter from the ash

--
in other news: 100 days to bonnaroo!

grizzly bear, animal collective, tv on the radio. and all the others above. heavens to betsy it's going to be one fancy parade indeed.
--
hey: if you're not a member of imeem, go sign up right now. it's free, and you can only listen to thirty-second clips of songs if you don't join. it's the only music site i've found that lets you upload unlimited quantities of music and tweak playlists to your own likings. the ONLY thing that sucks about imeem (and it does suck a lot) is that they tend to stick little adverts in between playlisted songs, so it fucks with the flow of good music. other than that, no emails or annoyances.

words on film

2009-03-01T09:55:00.008-06:00

"theater is simply what cannot be expressed by any other means; a complexity of words, movements, gestures that convey a vision of the world inexpressible in any other way." /eugene ionesco

charter is not a great internet provider, but i now have unlimited bandwidth that i can use to acquire media of all sorts. it's kind of incredible to think about how much happier and productive i am when i can consume all the culture i want. someone said to me, in so many words not too long ago, that movies are just movies, and not to be taken to heart when contemplating life and life's decisions. after considering that platitude for a while, my only response is that the same can easily be said of music and literature, which is to say that if you can't personally find a reason to apply the great gatsby or rigoletto or the godfather to your life, it's your grand loss, and that is sad to me.

"we do not go [to the theater] like our ancestors, to escape from the pressure of reality, so much as to confirm our experience of it." /charles lamb

in the past few days, i've watched "doubt," "frost/nixon," "slumdog millionaire," "milk," and "the wrestler," to round out the new film category. for good measure, i've also been repeating some old favorites, like "groundhog day," "shawshank redemption," "amelie," "reservoir dogs," and "adaptation" (to compare meryl streep's performance with "doubt"). every single one of these movies adds something to my life, and adds something novel every time i watch each. "frost/nixon" and "the wrestler" (maybe even "groundhog day," to a certain extent), stick loneliness square in the limelight, and that's a theme i love to be explored in film. it's virtually impossible to get a decent film made entirely on one's own, so to see such a universal downfall of the human condition conveyed so well in film is actually a joy to see and with which to empathize. after all, negative emotions are no reason to get down on life. avey tare says, "either way you look at it, you have your fits, i have my fits, but feeling is good." he also says, "i can't hold what's in my hand / don't do any good to say this isn't what i planned." no doubt.

"true tragedy may be defined as a dramatic work in which the outward failure of the principal personage is compensated for by the dignity and greatness of his character." /joseph wood krutch

i told a friend recently that nixon's downfall, as portrayed in "frost/nixon" by frank langella (who was also great in "good night, and good luck"), is exactly the kind of punishment i wish would befall bush 43. killing the dude with a bullet or putting him through endless trials for war crimes and rampant disservices to humanity would be a waste of time and effort in the quest for true justice. no one feels any better putting that douchenozzle peanut factory ceo through a trial where he pled the fifth to every single question, and no holocaust survivor feels any better that hitler put a gun to his head in his final, cowardly moments as a genocidal warmonger. what did make people feel like they'd at least gotten some sort of relief or revenge on a man of this calibur was nixon's admission of wrongdoing, and that it was public, humiliating, and humbling. sam rockwell, playing james reston, jr., wonderfully delivers the following lines in response to the closing frost/nixon interview:

You know, the first and greatest sin of the deception of television is that it simplifies; it diminishes great, complex ideas, trenches of time; whole careers become reduced to a single snapshot. At first I couldn't understand why Bob Zelnick was quite as euphoric as he was after the interviews, or why John Birt felt moved to strip naked and rush into the ocean to celebrate. But that was before I really understood the reductive power of the close-up, because David had succeeded on that final day, in getting for a fleeting moment what no investigative journalist, no state prosecutor, no judiciary committee or political enemy had managed to get; Richard Nixon's face swollen and ravaged by loneliness, self-loathing and defeat. The rest of the project and its failings would not only be forgotten, they would totally cease to exist.

fuck that guy (who happens to be nixon, in this instance), and serves him right for ending up the way he did. but a lot of other things could be said on the contrary, and that's basically what i got out of the movie. among other less salient themes.

"a film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet." /orson welles

"slumdog millionaire" was entertaining. i didn't really gather any grand life lessons or feel the kind of loss i did while watching "the wrestler" or "milk," for example, but i was engaged and entertained for sure. it wasn't a bad movie, but it certainly didn't evoke my ethos, pathos, or logos any more than any other relatively good movie. it wasn't earth-shattering; it wasn't the axe that broke the frozen sea within me. mostly, i was reminded of the scene in the coffee shop episode of stella where an old businessman (played by cameron of "ferris bueller's day off") falls, completely unwarrantedly, in love with a barista after knowing her for about fourteen seconds and proposes that they spend the rest of their lives together. the girl, probably half his age, feels exactly the same. it is ridiculous, and at the end, the three unrelated protagonists are discussing their relationship, and michael black dryly recants, "yeah, it didn't really work out in the end. they went out a couple times, but it sort of fizzled out. it turns out, they didn't really have a lot in common." and that is how i feel about the reunion of the slumdog millionaire and latika. for people who enjoy happily ever-afters, this movie delivers. and perhaps i'm missing cultural cues here, but the dance scene at the end was preposterous. how can i take a movie like that seriously when it culminates in a mumbai train station, coordinated dance-off? it's like ending the great gatsby with a syncronized swim number as nick carroway paddles ceaselessly into the past. although when salim resigns himself to death in a money-laden bathtub before a shooting spree and whispers, "god is great," that was an awesome moment. the rest of the movie was cumbersomely structured. in light of the other films i'm blaggin' about, i'm quite confused as to why it walked away with so many awards. sort of like the diametric opposite of gladiator winning every oscar except best actor, which went to denzel washington. what the hell was that all about.

"the real actor--like any real artist--has a direct line to the collective heart." /bette davis

"milk" is one of those movies that feels like it was made by some of your own friends, for your own friends. it encapsulates a massive feeling of excitement that i have for moving to san fransisco. there are just more people involved in social progression over there than there are in madison, wisconsin, and the land itself has the history to go with it. movies told quasi-documentary style with plenty of fiction added in always make me feel this way if they're done properly. doubt and slumdog were entertaining, but milk makes me excited to do something tangible and meaningful with my life, and that's more than most people can say after watching any ol' flick. not only was it a fantastic movie with seriously great acting on the tail end of talent's range, it also beautifully juxtaposed puccini's "tosca" with the fall of harvey milk as complicated by dan white. before his death, tosca's lover realizes all the good things in the world that matter are essentially over for him, and it whips him into a rapturous optimism about life. the opera concludes with tosca throwing herself off a building after realizing it was kind of her fault that the one she loves is now dead in her arms. in a nutshell. take a gander:

vissi d'arte

e lucevan le stelle

now imagine these sentiments applied to the life of harvey milk and all that he fought for. there's a scene in "milk" where the eponymous character is watching the final scene of "tosca," and this look that's transfixed on sean penn's face is really harrowing. he's more than aware of all the threats on his life made by assholes (that is actually not a bad pun), and it's as if he can see himself as cavaradossi and tosca simultaneously, wondering as which character he'll wind up and who'll be his foil. maybe i have a soft spot for film that refers to opera in order to convey a really simple message too powerfully expressed to be put into a soliloquy or dialogue. see the fifth element, closer, shawshank redemption, pretty woman, and a slew of other movies where the opera is a direct shout out to a major theme in the movie. this dude, who i guess is some guy on a blog whose words i could never legitimately use in a graded paper, makes a good point about the marriage of opera and film:

Perhaps a better though unexpected reference for the use of narrative by a different medium is opera. Yes, stories are told by opera, but they take a very different form. For one, the marriage of music, voice and acting require different approaches, and value different aspects of story. In opera, story creates the trajectory for the opera, and provides the context for the music and vocals. But it is not really the heart of the creative form. The music and vocals are. The storyline of many operas can be summarized nicely in a sentence or two. That is fine for the medium, as the real value lies in the sound, not the story.

it's about "the spectacle; the bigger than life emotions," as harvey milk may or may not have actually said.

"a play should give you something to think about. when i see a play and understand it the first time, then i know it can't be much good." /t.s. eliot

everything is in the eye of the beholder

2009-02-25T08:01:00.008-06:00

"when a woman dresses up for an occasion, the man should become the black velvet pillow for the jewel." /john weitz
--
men always look identical at fancy occasions: very good, but uniform. these woman arrest my attention:

they'll never let you perform in the pageant naked--i already asked.

every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around.

you're famous for your mud? how's your chinese food? (and natalie portman on the right.)
--
"art is not an end in itself, but a means of addressing humanity." /modest mussorgsky

"the more horrifying this world becomes, the more art becomes abstract." /paul klee

SeeqPod - Playable Search

yuri arajs:

keegan wenkman:

nick howard:

more art from all of the above

love your neighbor

2009-02-19T11:10:00.007-06:00

"most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do." /bertrand russell
--

Neighbours
Norman McLaren, 1952, 8 min 6 s

In this Oscar®-winning short film, Norman McLaren employs the principles normally used to put drawings or puppets into motion to animate live actors. The story is a parable about two people who come to blows over the possession of a flower. Film without words.

thousands more shorts and documentaries from the national film board of canada.
--
bedrich smetana's moldau is one of my favorite classical compositions ever. instruments breathe in and out of each other, finishing each other's phrasing wherever necessary. bells on staffs dance along to a wedding polka by the riverbank. it ends like a w.h. auden poem and finishes like a firework. read about it while you listen to its beauty:

Vltava (1874) is the second symphonic poem in Má Vlast, and portrays the river, called the Moldau by German-speaking Czechs such as Smetana, which rises in the umava forest and flows through the Bohemian countryside and the city of Prague before joining the River Elbe. For Smetana, the course of the river provided a ready-made musical structure; Vltava is a sort of rondo, with the flowing theme of the river recurring in different forms between colourful episodes depicting Bohemian life and folklore along the riverside. Two brooks, portrayed on two flutes, form the sources of the river; these flow into the main stream of the river itself, the surging string melody which Smetana is said to have derived from a Swedish folk-song but which now sounds quintessentially Czech. Hunting horns are heard in the forests, before the river flows past a rustic wedding celebration where the guests are dancing a polka. Smetana led the way (here and in his String Quartet "From my Life") in introducing this light-hearted dance to symphonic music. The next episode portrays moonlight shimmering on the river in magical orchestral colours, and Smetana evokes the legend of the Rusalkas, the water-nymphs who feature prominently in Slav folklore and would later form the subject of Dvorák’s best-known opera. The music accelerates and grows agitated as the river crashes over the Rapids of St. John, above Prague, and finally sweeps through the Czech capital itself. The majestic chorale-theme of Vysehrad, the great rock-fortress that is the symbol of the Czech nation, towers over the closing bars, as the Vltava flows unstoppably onwards to the Elbe.

¡olé!

2009-02-16T17:54:00.001-06:00

"writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. they deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. when writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. we are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. it’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. you can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship." /anne lamott, bird by bird
--

eat, pray, love, by liz gilbert

closely related:

bonnie "prince" billy - you remind me of something (the glory goes)

i like the places where the night does not mean an end
where smiles break free and surpirse is your friend
and dancing goes on in the kitchen until dawn
to my favorite song that has no end

random thoughts for valentine's day, 2004

2009-02-14T07:57:00.005-06:00

"no one can do me any good by loving me; i have more love than i need or could do any good with; but people do me good by making me love them--which isn't easy." /john ruskin
--

here is the original script for eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, written by charlie kaufman.

CLEMENTINE
Have you ever read any Anna Akhmatova?

JOEL
I love her.

CLEMENTINE
Really? Me, too! I don't meet people who even know who she is and I work in a book store.

JOEL
I think she's great.

CLEMENTINE
Me too. There's this poem --

JOEL
Did this conversation come before or after we saw the house?

CLEMENTINE
I think, before.

JOEL
Seems too coincidental that way.

CLEMENTINE
Yeah, maybe.

Joel and Clementine wander near some beach houses closed for the winter.

CLEMENTINE (CONT'D)
Do you know her poem that starts "Seaside gusts of wind,/And a house in which we don't live...

JOEL
Yeah, yeah. It goes "Perhaps there is someone in this world to whom I could send all these lines"?

CLEMENTINE
Yes! I love that poem. It breaks my heart. I'm so excited you know it. (pointing to houses) Look, houses in which we don't live.

Joel chuckles appreciatively.
--

--
the times explores the art institute of chicago's edvard munch exhibit:

Most of Munch’s figures are not mad, but paralyzed by oceanic feelings of grief, jealousy, desire or despair that many people found shocking either for their eroticism, crude style or intimations of mental instability. We see his subjects alone, in couples or small groups in settings whose opulent colors and odd forms, whether indoors or out, are always removed from reality, located in some artificial, stripped down place where color, feeling and form resonate in visual echo chambers.
--
for centuries, flowers have carried coded messages. a dark rose, for instance, symbolized bashful shame; a foxglove, deceit. but the rules of love have shifted, and our floriography needs modernizing as well. jason logan illustrates some updated meanings for the flowers you'll be sending (or receiving) on valentine's day.

i see you better when the lights are out

2009-02-10T09:45:00.006-06:00

"the fool looks at a finger that points at the sky." /the little boy advising nino in "amélie"

--
here is the area around which i plan to live come this fall:

there's a body of water called grizzly bay! should i frequent it often, i could be a grizzly bayer! that is tops.

the grizz recording:

grizzly bear - two weeks (live on letterman)
grizzly bear - cheerleader (live)
daniel rossen - graceland (paul simon cover)

for old time's/good video's/good music's sake,
central and remote:

--

stereogum prematurely reviewed junior boys' newest album, "begone dull care." i had it on repeat for a number of hours before i actually committed my full attention to it, and at that point the listening experience transformed from something like hearing the pleasant, background white noise of a busy city at night to listening for individual nuances of sound and lyrics that the junior boys are so good at layering and arranging. "begone dull care" certainly isn't a departure from any of their previous catalogue; rather, it's the latest effort from a couple guys who keep getting better at making the music they make, and from that, it follows that this album would be their best to date. i'm not a fan of "last exit," no matter how many times i listen to it. "so this is goodbye" is worlds better (and worlds away), in my opinion. it's just a different kind of music from one to the next, but "begone dull care" is more of an extension of their previous album. early favorites include "what it's for," a fluid, futuristic gondola ride kind of song complete with about a minute and a half of droning at the end; "parallel lines," in which a sardonic, unrequited lover bemoans, "it's alright to say it just as long as you don't really think so;" "bits & pieces," a fully danceable, synthy loop of cymbals and dub beats circling around the premise of banging at the end of the night ("i see you move / i see you better when the lights are out"); and "dull to pause," which reminds me a lot of elliott smith's "in the lost and found" in that the lyrics are actually quite morose and wistful, but juxtaposed with a jolly, jaunty melody suitable for biking around on a spring day. i love that a lot of the junior boys' catalogue is like that--bummer lyrics about last goodbyes and lost girls set against the finest electronic beats this side of diplo.

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steve jobs introduces the first ipod ever:

sony releases new stupid piece of shit that doesn't fucking work:

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strange statues around the world:

los angeles

prague

turin, italy

salzburg

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music from various musikblags that i'm really digging lately, without any semblance of coherence in theme or thought to tie them together, except they all make muh body groove in one way or another:

the love language - stars
antony and the johnsons - another world
antony and the johnsons - my lady story (pocket remix)
phosphorescent - 20 reasons to quit
port o'brien - is this really what it's come to?
the shivers - beauty
vetiver - everyday
devendra banhart - forget about him (kath bloom cover)
marissa nadler - river of dirt
jeremy jay - love everlasting
vega - well known pleasures
ariel pink's haunted graffiti - can't hear my eyes (this is my ringtone)
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radiohead (thom and johnny and the usc marching band) at the grammys:

alien workshop skate video featuring two animal collective songs:

my house, currently listed on craigslist:

from splendid photos around the net:

photoshop artworks

how to hide an airplane factory during ww2

mini morning mix

2009-02-06T10:08:00.004-06:00

"we die many times, and each new infancy is a surprise that i have the tendency to look over when it suits me, and decry when not--when i am sailing, or when things go well." /will oldham, disorder
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a mix, for me, constitutes about eight songs or more. even if each song is ten minutes long, a mix that comprises seven songs or less is just an amuse-bouche for me, most of the time. full-length mixes tell stories, and every nuance in a song is a different habit literally playing itself out through music. mini mixes are generally more indicative of a specific emotion or event that's ephemeral in nature. here is something i threw together since will oldham's "the way i am" came on my shuffled playlist yesterday and got me in a lil' mood.

1. dr. jones - gris gris gumbo ya ya
2. seasick steve - salem blues
3. bonnie 'prince' billy - the way i am
4. old man luedecke - at the airport
5. the tallest man on earth - the gardner
6. elliott smith - all my rowdy friends have settled down (hank williams, jr. cover)
7. devendra banhart - now that i know

enjoy this video of seasick steve performing "walking man" in nigel's basement:

blind man's cosmic roor

2009-02-02T11:11:00.001-06:00

"i have had a 'call' to literature, of a low order--i.e. humorous. it is nothing to be proud of, but it is my strongest suit...seriously scribbling to excite the laughter of god's creatures." /mark twain, letter to orion and mary clemens 10/19/1865
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what i love about this photo of michael phelps ripping a roor is not that he is ripping a roor. obviously he smokes pot. he lives underwater, for fuck's sake. he's twenty-three and spends his time swimming in a pool of liquid, and he does it better than anyone else in the world ever has. the baltimore bullet won the genetic and social lottery, and his payoff is a life of doing whatever he wants and having the world love him for something that just comes to him naturally (which isn't to say that he doesn't work like a madman to be as good as he is). in other words, his success in life is borne from something he was born with. he didn't choose to have a perfectly built swimmer's body, but swimming is thus his strongest suit.

being surprised at phelps smoking pot, then, is like being surprised at a tribal teenager smoking pot before going on a hunt in the forest. in the botany of desire, michael pollan describes "a cannabinoid moment" while hunting during which he essentially feels all the effects of cannabis taking over his body. his eyes and attention are focused on minute details, his hearing is far more attuned than normal, his appetite becomes palatable, and he has a heightened sensory perception, in general. he makes the connection that the reason we have cannabinoid receptors in the first place is because we produce our own cannabinoids (one of which is anandamide) the way we produce our own hormones, and these neurotransmitters are released during activities like hunting, when it would make sense to be hungrier and more perceptive of our surroundings--entranced by them, even.

following from this, i see no reason why swimming wouldn't fit in that category. surely, early riverside-dwelling man caught fish in the river when all he had were nets made of leaves. ninety-nine percent of the world's population dabbles with cannabinoids, and roor makes the finest glass percolators out there. kudos to michael phelps for answering his true calling in life by hopping in a body of water, and kudos to him for joining the rest of us in having fun while smoking a drug that we all produce in our own brains, anyway. try making sense of that with morphine or alcohol, both of which are legal.
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cosmic rays are real, and malibu from american gladiators harnesses their healing powers:

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dig this little five-songer i whipped together upon waking this morning:

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Mammatus (also known as mammatocumulus, meaning "bumpy clouds") is a meteorological term applied to a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud. The name "mammatus" is derived from the Latin mamma (breast), due to the resemblance between the shape of these clouds and human female breasts.

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the pixel plant created a very basic online version of what programs like fruity loops and abelton do, and it's fun to toy around with.

this online drum kit is also fun to play with. now whenever i type words i imagine i'm playing the drums. technology has made it so easy to fake ourselves into being synesthetes.
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blind man's colour comprises two unsigned dudes who are obsessed with animal collective to the point that they covered merriweather post pavilion in its entirety, with the help of some forumers on collected animals. i do not love the whole thing, as there are ubiquitous moments of discord and missed notes (not to mention, i'm already biased toward the original album to begin with), but there are really great standouts--most notably, the mellowed-out brother sport and taste, in which they substitute all their own lyrics and turn it into a leaf house-esque romp through easy beats and ukelele loops with breathy harmonies bouncing about. props to these guys for that.

blind man's colour - taste (ac cover)
blind man's colour - brother sport (ac cover)

they also record their own, original stuff, and these songs i found on gvsb and i guess i'm floating are the happy haps (and wholly indicative of their ac love):

blind man's colour - the warm current's pull
blind man's colour - ancient urchins

new mix

2009-01-26T17:07:00.004-06:00

d.a.n.c.e.

1. el guincho - fata morgana
2. dgenerate nation - skate with me
3. bullion - god only knows
4. tobacco - hairy candy
5. flying lotus - beginners falafel
6. eagles of death metal - flames go higher
7. brendan canning - love is new
8. lil' wayne - kush
9. the hood internet - get your smoke on (ol' dirty bastard vs. white williams)
10. tv on the radio - golden age
11. metric - dead disco
12. justice - d.a.n.c.e.

seeqpod is pretty great, but not as great as muxtape. the former doesn't allow user uploads; the latter does. thus, i am at the mercy of the seeqpod e-library. regardless, this mix kicks ass. as my internet access is limited to 5gb/month for the time being, i've not been able to acquire much new music beyond what's blogged about. this dance mix contains some new jams and older favorites that i have danced to many, many times. enjoy this video for "skate with me" by dgenetics:

a lot of musical things

2009-01-26T10:35:00.000-06:00

"i love [bob] dylan's words, but even more than that, i love the fact that he loves words. /elliott smith
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smith was also a huge t.s. eliot fan.

elliott smith on songwriting

i first watched this as a junior in high school, when i was first falling in love with playing guitar. his openness about teaching people on the other side of a camera how to write songs like him, as impossible that is (unless you're earlimart or conor oberst or emily haines), was so inspiring to me. looking at chords as shapes instead of letters and numbers, absorbing compelling music regardless of the genre, and writing what pleases yourself are all concepts i first attained from elliott smith.

smith performing alameda live

performed may 3, 1997 in arizona, a healthy six and a half years before his suicide when he was likely abusing copious quantities of hard drugs and partaking in fucked up relationships with women, bandmates, and friends. wayne coyne, in an article mourning smith's death, said he saw smith as "a guy who had lost control of himself. he was needy, he was grumpy, he was everything you wouldn't want in a person. it's not like when you think of keith richards being pleasantly blissed out in the corner."

if i were to compile a soundtrack to my life, it might only be about a dozen songs in length, and each one would speak of a notion or issue in life that i've been contemplating or battling with for years. alameda's chorus, "nobody broke your heart / you broke your own 'cause you can't finish what you start," has eeked its way into my blood and become the backdrop for a lot of relationships in my life. i'm still trying to figure out whether the sentiment applies more to me or other people, or if the distinction matters at all.

an interview with smith and janeane garofolo

one of the few times i've ever seen him laugh or smile on film.
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mike einziger [of incubus] on songwriting

one of the earlier videos i used to teach meself guitar. this dude is an awesome guitarist and knows way more theory than is necessary to be a successful rock musician, but i suppose that's (one of many reasons) why he's excelled in life. i remember watching his spindly little fingers manhandle the strings of that old, heavily-strung instrument, and i worried moment by moment about what would happen should he get into a snowboarding accident or a surfing accident or a large dog accident and permanently injure his fingers. when a person's livelihood is manifested through his fingertips, the body becomes a precarious temple, indeed.

there's a part in this video when einziger is talking about a music class he took as a kid where he learned to recognize pitch intervals just by listening and integrating sonic frequencies into his permanent memory, essentially acquiring absolute pitch to the best of his ability. he notes that it was the most valuable thing he ever learned in a music class. why isn't music a central tenet of public school systems? why is it presumed that future generations will be benefitted only by mathematics, science, and literature? what of the personal insight into others to be gained by training the ear to listen for variances in dynamics and tonalities in speech? why aren't children taught to play instruments early on to strengthen their hand-eye coordination and reinforce their learning potential for other subjects? plenty of books have been written about this kind of thing. i hope obama has read one of them.
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who's in charge here? is a website whose purpose is to determine a band's leader by analyzing a publicity photo. after sufficient discussion has taken place, a verdict can then be passed based on a majority vote.

learn more about acrassicauda in the superb documentary, heavy metal in baghdad:

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brian cox used to be a musician who toured with jimmy page and europe, but now he's professing physics at manchester university and working on the large hadron collider with cern. watch him explain shit:

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the finale of this post is animal collective's music video for "my girls," which, according to me, is the best video they've ever slapped against a song ever. their weird videos like peacebone and water curses are telling enough of their generally inaccessable style, but they've never really been very appropriate for the subject matter of the song, let alone the sheer sonic ecstacy that each one pumps through the airwaves. even the video for who could win a rabbit, though exquisitely edited and filmed by the same guy who did the my girls video, ends with the dudes sitting around in the wooded darkness eating what i can only assume is human flesh. not so much for my girls. tom whalen at no rip cord poignantly notes that "animal collective dropped most of their serious shtick when they stopped wearing masks." indeed, as one who wishes synesthesia were available to all people at all times for the express purpose of enjoying animal collective on multiple planes of existence, i am totally satisfied with this video. it's complete with swaths of color spread out over multifarious textures and heavily edited laser beams radiating from the center of pink-mouthed bodies, and watching compelling music is amazing, regardless of the medium.

whalen also recognizes that "at points the singing style, the full mouthed annunciation, seems to invite this kind of alternate hearing, this accidental multi-valence," whereas mark richardson at pitchfork (who is a huge ac fan in his own right) expressed his doubt at the vocalists' abilities to purge words curiously:

Animal Collective don't tell stories, and their music rarely has characters; there's little clever wordplay and fewer money lines you'll repeat later on. Rather, the words reinforce the sense of vulnerability that cuts through the music, and wind up being an essential component on an album that oozes confidence from every pore.

i interpret that as a massive cop-out for someone who can't find for himself the stories and characters and ubiquitous clever wordsmithery throughout ac's metier as verbal and aural mashers. furthermore, it seems to me that a lack of clever wordplay and strong characters would preclude an album beaming with confidence, especially when it comes to animal collective. panda bear's "youth prayer" was filled with warbly, wobbly, flaccid yelps and nailboard scratch whimpers, but it fit as his musical response to his father's death. it is decidedly lacking confidence. but panda bear has fully grown past that, and avey tare has opened himself up by transitioning from shorter vocal segments draped in reverb and chorus and shimmering with harmony to lengthier verses that i might only describe as winding stories that weave their way through proverbial wisdom and in between extended moments of climactic bliss. i read a fan review for banshee beat that said the song "peaks like a fine orgasm," and it's a simile i could apply to numerous ac songs.

i do, however, appreciate richardson's raving review of the album, which echoes what i've heard from most ac fans in that merriweather post pavilion is really the culmination of everything geologist, avey tare, and panda bear have been striving to convey since they started making music. they've got the electronics down, their vocal styles convalesce more after each live show, and it's all been manifested in their latest album. it fucking rules.

the blood in the dark will attract the sharks who are not violent--we've all got hungry bellies.

berries in my heart bread

2009-01-24T13:23:00.000-06:00

"if they be two, they are two so
as stiff twin compasses are two,
thy soul the fixt foot, makes no show
to move, but doth, if the other do."

/john donne, a valediction forbidding mourning
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more vladimir kush
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the holy moment, waking life

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these three songs have been chasséing betwixt my ears lately:

lyrics for transatlantique and tikwid
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nyctaper has a butt-kicking recording of animal collective's january 21st performance at the bowery ballroom in new york:

If Tuesday night was a celebration of history, Wednesday night at Bowery Ballroom, Animal Collective exhibited why they deserve the accolades. In the most intimate venue they may ever play, AC performed a ninety minute set of near perfection — an impressive balance of energy and proficiency.

what would i want sky

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this study guide for the love song of j. alfred prufrock is very good. it's concise, moderately insightful, and has full appendices for references and contexts. if the pedagogy of every literature class in high school were along the guidelines of this document, i might have been motivated to read more often. also, what do fifteen-year-olds know about dudes like j. alfred prufrock and john donne, anyway? what kid that age can truly empathize with this kind of crap:

for god sake hold your tongue, and let me love.
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love's mysteries in souls do grow,
but yet the body is his book.
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who ever loves, if he do not propose
the right true end of love, he's one that goes
to sea for nothing but to make him sick.
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dull sublunary lovers' love
—whose soul is sense—cannot admit
of absence, 'cause it doth remove
the thing which elemented it.

you can't legalize teaching the deepest meanings of john donne's poetry without unleashing some seriously novel and lascivious ideas on the students that might as well be prefaced by a forty-five minute x-tube session and an e-stroll through condomdepot.com, because that guy strings words together whose harmonies enforce such attention as to pull pairs of eyes and ears toward them, into the bedroom where they reside. it's that anthropomorphic, and anthropomorphism, like after-shave, is best used sparingly.

i think i can hear mice porking in the space between my walls.