S T E R E O S O U N D

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phew. anyway. i'm probably taking a break from this for a little while again.
i need to really get it together and redo my website! wee.

Wildly, Mildly

"if you love an earthen jug, say it is an earthen jug which you love; for when it has been broken, you will not be disturbed. if you are kissing your child or wife, say it is a human being whom you are kissing, for when the wife or child dies, you will not be disturbed." –– epicteus

stoicism was some brutish, cold bullshit, was it not? i suppose when socrates said, "to philosophize is to learn to die," it held much truth. but it all sounds like quitting to me. your soul is already limited to this earthly realm. be free. be a mountain. be a poem. "be a ringing glass that shatters even as it rings," as rilke wrote.

philosophy is instruction for those who view poetry as luxury. i'm not trying to say that you shouldn't delve into your consciousness, nor feel proud and honorable and be excited to actually think––you should! i'm just saying (and call me an aesthete if you must) that there is more to feel, and more to see and celebrate than realizing on your own what many men 600 years ago thought out loud. you can be as powerful as humankind was then, and feel the same wonder they did even though you're just as insignificant, despite that shrine you built yourself on facebook.

[addendum:

(i suppose i am cheating by including this since montaigne is arguably one of earth's most important philosophers, even predating descartes, but he really got it, you know? and we must give credit where credit's due.)

"who has persuaded him to believe that this wonderful motion of the celestial vault, the eternal light of those torches that roll so proudly over his head, the dreadful movements of the boundless sea, were established, and endured so many ages, for his convenience and for his service? is it possible to imagine anything so ridiculous as that this miserable and puny creature, who is not even master of himself, but exposed to blows from every angle, should call himself master and emperor of the universe, of which he has not the power to know the smallest part, much less to command it?"

–– michel de montaigne]

More Mountains

what do you think of coriander, i asked?
think the name says it all.
hmm?
well, it ain't walden pond!

nobody spoke. we walked to the end of the block and stopped.
reynard brushed against the damp shrubs in mr. hackett's yard.

...

ahead, the leaves had blown and bottlenecked, creating two lanes within the sidewalk's exposed concrete. i took the left path and reynard followed. a woman in a fishing hat, clumsily navigating a bicycle, rode toward us to the right, smiling, winking at us both.

Facing North

france. i want to go back to that place.

Open Up The Door To Dorothy Ashby

been getting into jazz lately. one of the people i'm really digging is dorothy ashby, who i know, funnily enough, through that high llamas' song "dorothy ashby". (they are a neat band to listen to if you don't know them, also, though i think i have about 7 of their albums and they all sound exactly the same.) dorothy ashby: jazz harpist. pretty wild. she's really known more for the album "afro-harping" (which is much more like the second video i posted--a little more funk/soul/r&b inspired) but before that happened, she was doing a lot of classic arrangements. wee.

today i ordered a copy of "the jazz harpist," her album from 1957, which usually goes for about $60 in a "very good" condition. i got it for $5 claiming to be in the same state. we'll see how it really plays. eep.

take care.

Gonna Lift U Up

this has felt like the longest week of my life.
but, the ending is a beginning.

new-age advice from me.

take it.

What You Got

the miracles: who's lovin' you
al green: simply beautiful
shawn lee: jigsaw [featuring nicole willis]
timothy wilson: baby baby please
william devaughn: be thankful for what you got
natural four: why should we stop now
otis redding: pain in my heart
brenton wood: gimme little sign

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enjoy

Hit It Boys

poor mark linkous. no one can know the crushing weight he felt. the man who doesn't love easily loves too much.

i always thought this was a brave single to release for capitol, but i suppose things were better and more free even in 2001. pj harvey scares me, but she sounds wonderful here, which was the non-lp version of the song. i'm not sure if there was ever a proper release of it.

i captured the audio from this video, though. you can download it here.

take care.

River Sway

hurray my new watering can via sprout home

Okay, Fine –– Even The Sky Looks Like Wine

lol

i will never age *

shit, man! i had the best weekend i've had in a long, long time. i saw so many friends! i danced, i gardened, i drank, i walked so far and for so long and i ate like a king. i'd like to think in some multi-verse, bacchus got a little touchy-feely with cupid. in turn, he then shot his wine-soaked love-drunk arrow into my chest and gave me the power to enjoy myself like half-man-cat, half-god. that's actually exactly what happened.

i also received that lil red fox as a gift. how nice.
and god damn, i finally purchased a watering can. i've been trying all night to make my camera work so you can see it.

* one of my best friends from philly who was visiting described me to her roommate through text by saying "he has the face of a 5 year old."

Innocence

Twenty

hi

tom waits: alice
lambchop: slipped dissolved and loosed
antony & the johnsons: crackagen
jeff barry: our love can still be saved
low: nightingale
destroyer: streethawk II

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i'm off today. enjoy the tunes.

Orbit

iapetus –– one of saturn's many moons.

I'll Just Die

from lambchop's new album, mr. m, which won't be out until the end of february. damn.

There Is No Other Story

pardon me. i'm having a moment. ahem. thanks. listen. okay. i'm dead. sorry.

Chubby Cat

wah! he just wants some meowmix


^..^

New Roommate

i already forget what this is called. oh well. it's a week old now and is having a good time, it seems.

The Bad Arts

destroyer
"the bad arts"
from the album streethawk: a seduction
2001

god damn. just. fucking. god. damn. i got this album just two days ago on vinyl (merge's rerelease from 2010) from soundfix (don't go there. sorry, soundfix!) and i can't take it off the turntable.

the guitar part at 3:29 is what's playing in my ideal heaven cloud bedroom.

i can't stop smiling.

Fillin' Up Your Heart With Hiss

twin sister
"all around and away we go"
color your life, 2010

twin sister is a band i only knew through free downloads from pitchfork, but this past saturday, daniel got me a ticket to see one of several brooklyn vegan christmas shows with this dudette and dudes headlining. i was really just stoked to see widowspeak open for them, but the show blew my mind.

now i have this e.p. of theirs, color your life. puts me in a place somewhere between listening to felix hernandez's rhythm review on saturday mornings, and the band broadcast. when she hits that note on "and i felt touch" -- guhhhhh ––

gorgeous!

(also, this video is pretty bogus, sorry. guess it's better than my botched thanksgiving upload from two days ago. oops.)

11 day vacation starts tonight at 7:30pm. ! merry christmas and shit.

Lambchop

lambchop
the take-away show (on the streets in bastille saint antoine)
"i believe in you"
from the studio album oh (ohio), 2008

more info here!

kurt wagner has––in his own marble-mouthed way––released albums with the endlessly changing lambchop lineup since 1994. that's something else. (they are on merge records, which also holds my heart close with my dear friend adrian orange and her band, thanksgiving, which you will recognize from yesterday's post.)

i never really find music challenging, yet as a fan of tall dwarves, r. stevie moore, and countless psychedelic bands, i have to say lambchop can give me a bit of a hard time sometimes. in college i purchased lambchop's thriller from tower records which is a much slower, more macabre and spaced out record than oh (ohio). then it was mostly got because i knew a casual fan, and i don't think i was as concerned with enjoying it as i was with knowing it. (being 18 is hard.) now there's a slender, waning contrariety between these things for me: to truly know it is to wholly love it.

i just need some music to come to me. now hoping tom waits will stroll in with a sliding slow blues track off his early years album that i remember falling asleep to when i shared a room with my older brother.

i can always use some suggestions. xo

The River

thanksgiving
"ah, oh"
from the river
2005

ah, oh
and through go through
what makes me row
through the world
tonight the wind is blushing
tonight you feel the pull
the blood flow from some vessel
fill it full the whole night falls
ah, oh
and through go through
she makes me row
through the world

[edit: if you're reading this (december 22nd-ish), hit play and click the snowflake button!]

Girl From The North Country

one of my absolute favorite dylan's, though––i'm sure––not his best.
he did like it enough to basically reword the dang thing and call it boots of spanish leather.

that harmonica at the end just kills me; i'm not sure anyone can even understand.

have a good weekend

Cat Nap

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No Jewels, No Nothin'!

“he was a dentist. we immediately became best friends. i can’t even say why. i’ll think about it, and if i come up with anything, you’ll be the first to know.” –– william eggleston on his subject

i'm not really a huge "fan" when it comes to photographers, but william eggleston always makes me happy. for any of you rockers out there, you'd probably recognize some of the many photos he's taken that have become album covers. silver jews, big star, jimmy eat world, to name a few.

see more photos from the eggleston archives, with commentary by eggleston himself, from michael almereyda's book for now: eggleston via the paris review

cool times.

Nineteen

thanksgiving: you don't know me
yo la tengo: little eyes
destroyer: suicide demo for kara walker
swan lake: paper lace
real estate: it's real
blackout beach: three men drown in a river

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hello. today is my ~*birthday*~ (happy birthday to me) so i made a playlist for myself that has a lot of my favorite songs as of late. really i've only been listening to destroyer, swan lake, and thanksgiving for the past month and a half, but these other songs have been creeping in when they can.

have a good day.

xo

Come On

low
"nothing but heart"
live at WFUV/the alternate side
from the studio album c'mon, 2011

play at full volume if you know what's good for you





which you probably don't.

Gone To The Dogs

real estate
"it's real"
from the album days, 2011

daniel is the coolest friend and bought us tickets to see these guys with king krule in january. yesss.

Flashback

image via procatinator

cat gifs and music. if you click, i hope you've got a lot of times on your hands.

The Paintbrush And The Plant

seedmagazine.com has a really beautiful slideshow of images from the book the art of plant evolution. a collection of painted, cataloged flora pre-photography. from the slideshow:

"yellow lotus: nelumbo lute: botanists believed the lotus to be a relative of the water lily, but dna analysis has linked the lotus much more closely to the sycamore tree. in this painting by beverly allen, all stages of the plants from bud to fruit are shown together—an impossible grouping in nature but common in botanic art."

see the slideshow here ! also, a copy of the book may be got for $70 plus. oof.

(here's a fun fact to know and tell: the lotus is the only plant that produces blue flowers. in buddhism, a blue lotus represents wisdom. a yellow lotus doesn't represent anything. a golden one is a different story.)

Savage Night At The Opera

destroyer
"savage night at the opera"
from the album kaputt, 2011

obsessed with daniel bejar right about now.

BONUS:

fan video for "chinatown" from the same album. lol.

Heartswarm

swan lake
"heartswarm"
enemy mine, 2009


i was coming off something particularly strong
you had your gloves on
they looked fucking brutal
as a storm
in heartswarm

swan lake is daniel bejar (destroyer, new pornographers), spencer krug (wolf parade, moonface), and carey mercer (frog eyes, blackout beach) and is the best shit around.