sometimes a great notion

Photo

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:49:15 -0500

When You Awake - The Band

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:53:05 -0500

When You Awake - The Band

Patricia: I wonder where we’ll end up? Joe: Away from...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:25:05 -0500

Patricia: I wonder where we’ll end up?

Joe: Away from the things of man, my love. Away from the things of man.

I have come to the conclusion that Joe Versus the Volcano is officially impossible to write about. ...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:17:20 -0500

I have come to the conclusion that Joe Versus the Volcano is officially impossible to write about. This has only taken my five years to realize.

"When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others they want to be..."

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:26:25 -0500

“When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others they want to be alone. After all, human beings are like that.”

- Gertrude Stein (via psychotherapy)

It’s officially When Harry Met Sally Day over at...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:19:20 -0500

It’s officially When Harry Met Sally Day over at Filmosophy, which basically means that if you’ve ever wanted to start reading our site, today is definitely the day to do it…no less than TWO wonderful essays (He Said/She Said style) on the movie, Meg Ryan, and Men and Women Trying to Be Friends Without Sex Getting In The Way.

He Said: Patrick’s essay

She Said: Erica’s essay

Men and Women Can Not Be Friends (When Harry Met Sally, 1989)

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:29:20 -0500

Men and Women Can Not Be Friends

(When Harry Met Sally, 1989)

truman show.

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:15:53 -0500

truman show.

Survivor, Roger McGough

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:07:20 -0500

Everyday,
I think about dying.
About disease, starvation,
violence, terrorism, war,
the end of the world.

It helps
keep my mind off things.

"The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable...."

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:38:05 -0500

““The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.””

- Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without Country (via mlee525) (via goldenmeg)

Photo

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:56:22 -0500

John Lennon (with son Sean) shows off the new automated mixing...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:53:23 -0500

John Lennon (with son Sean) shows off the new automated mixing board at New York’s Hit-Factory, 1980. “It looks like he’s turning Sean on to the world of music,” says photographer Bob Gruen.

I’m starting my new job today!

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:18:11 -0500

I’m starting my new job today!

Good Man - Josh Ritter (live) I want to be this happy about...

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:36:02 -0500

Good Man - Josh Ritter (live)

I want to be this happy about something in my life ever.

I heard the night birds picking up the song, you threw your hair...

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:25:52 -0500

I heard the night birds picking up the song,
you threw your hair back and you sang along,
and I realized that I might lose you, you might lose me, drift apart in the night and
never know why and not know how.
I said what if we are like the Northern sky?
What if there are things that come between us that we can’t take back and we can’t make right?
You said I don’t know darlin’ but I’m here with you and we’re coming to the chorus now!

- “Right Moves”, Josh Ritter

a short list of things i'm embarrassed to have never read:

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:04:45 -0500

Crime and Punishment, Dosteovsky

Beloved, Tony Morrison

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Catch-22, Joseph Heller

Light in August, William Faulkner

all Henry James novels

Though, to be fair, I did make a sizable dent in this list in 2009 by finally reading Anna Karenina, Watchmen, and Infinite Jest.

So anyway, what are yours?

when you are 21, you are allowed to write poems like this:

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:43:03 -0500

i lost you over paris
in the clouds
in the way people reacted
to the things that you said.

i pictured you in venice,
blonde and falling and
wishing
for answers to questions that plagued you
year after year;

remembering yourself on a bed in france
touching and moving apart
awkwardly, like some bad first date
and your smile that made none of it matter.

London was the perfect place
to meet you, enchanted…
running after a train, and knowing
i’ll never see you again, and that
someone, somewhere remembers the trade off.

letters unanswered for the better
life moves on
(and makes strangers of us all.)

forgive the moments, the seconds
the times I led you on.
i’m sorry like an ocean
rising high on a lunar tide.
it’s your fault, it’s my fault:
we both succumb to water.

—- written by me, ten years ago, when everything seemed very important and tragic.

A cover to break your heart: Buckets of Rain (Bob Dylan)

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:56:18 -0500

A cover to break your heart:

Buckets of Rain (Bob Dylan)

from the ol’ music blog today… eceu: Famous - Super...

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:29:00 -0500

from the ol’ music blog today…

eceu:

Famous - Super Deluxe

POP GOES YOUR MONDAY #7

For most of these PGYM features, I’ve tried to pick songs that you knew. But I’m guessing that this time out a whole lot of you will never have heard this pop mini-masterpiece before - in fact, I’d feel fairly comfortable stating that, unless you lived within the greater Seattle area between 1995 and 1996, this song is completely unknown to you. Of course, my perspective is a bit limited, since I actually did live there at the time, and thus can’t speak to what was or was not being played on radios, but judging from the reactions I’ve gotten over the years whenever I’ve busted out this CD, most of the other 49 states have never really been acquainted with Super Deluxe.

So, then, a bit of history: Super Deluxe was (is?) a four-piece local power pop band that enjoyed a tiny nibble of fame back in the mid-90s on account of their debut record, Famous. They followed that up rather brilliantly with the quick release of an original Christmas song a few months later, “All I Wanted Was A Skateboard”, which blew up like gangbusters on local radio (and, admittedly, for a novelty alternative Christmas song, is actually surprisingly good). Soon, they were playing sold out shows throughout the area, including “big” concerts like 107.7’s annual Deck the Hall Ball and Bumbershoot. They started getting attention from Melody Maker and Rolling Stone (“equal parts Cheap trick, Big Star and Redd Kross”). Soon after, another song of theirs (“Years Ago” )- which actually started out as a B-side to the compulsively catchy “She Came On” single - started getting massive traction. Soon, most of Seattle was swooning again.

And then? Well, then they kind of fell off the face of the earth. Not literally of course, but for all intents and purposes. They released a follow-up record in 1997, Via Satellite, which went basically unnoticed, and then they “took a break” for several years after that. Rather randomly, they reformed and released their third record, Surrender, in 2005 - a full seven years later. I can’t speak to the quality of that record, because I’ve never heard it - but it seems that was how most people reacted. Their MySpace page hasn’t been updated since.

Ah, but the glories of “Famous”! The promise of all those big hooks and jangly guitars! I saw them live at a local community college at the height of their powers, and they put on a fantastic show. We were fairly sure we were seeing greatness. That we weren’t only slightly dampens the happy feelings I still get when I hear this song. It reminds me of high school, of going over to my friend Matt’s house and strapping on a guitar, while he got behind the drums. We would rock out on this song over and over, screaming the chorus together: “YOU MAKE ME FAMOUS!”. I’m not even sure what that means, but I loved every second of it.

Summons (Or This Won’t Hurt You a Bit, and It’ll Cheer Me Up)- Mary Karr For an instant...

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:05:47 -0500

Summons (Or This Won’t Hurt You a Bit, and It’ll Cheer Me Up)
- Mary Karr

For an instant I looked away, and an ocean
blossomed between us, 3000 miles
of wild silk rippling. On the other side

your unreachable body. Listen,
the globe’s meridians bore me,
and I deplore time zones and the lone heart’s
metronome without your broad chest
thumping close counterpoint. No breath I draw
will properly fill my lungs till your fine spirit

again issues into me. No eyes will level pierce
this heart’s core till your gaze again
sends the deep arrows flying. Darling,

remember: our faces in proximity make
a pure small space — a vessel or goblet
that could hold the whole Atlantic. Always

I stare you-ward: Come spill yourself in me.