Thursday's Child mix

i would have put Dizzy Gillespie's "Manteca" but the Playlist Project would find it. if anyone knows of a better player, please....

6:09 AM - 3 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment

i write to remember - 6/23

I've never dug too much into Greek history or Philosophy, so i'm probably pretty behind on this stuff. After watching a few documentaries though, i was surprised at how into it i was at the moment.

Plato was Aristotle's teacher. Plato had the Academy. During this time, Aristotle birthed up what would be modern Philosophy. He also (basically) created syllogisms, which would be the basis for Logic. do i have that right? I think therefore i am, etc.

it also allowed a bunch of pricks for centuries to come to use the word "ergo."

Once Plato was done doing his thing with the Academy, he passed his torch to someone else. Upset that he wasn't picked, Aristotle went off and started studying natural biology. In this time, he also became to tutor to a boy that would one day grow up to become Alexander The Great, which is pretty awesome.

easy enough. happy monday.

Currently watching : The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Volume One - The Early Years Release date: 2007-10-23

10:55 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

for the life of me

do you remember how big the world was when we were outside? we stood in the field looking up at the stars. it all seemed endless. the plans, the traveling, the adventure. there was that hint of cool as the summer wind blew. the woods were right below us and we had a campfire going. we even brought a few tents this time, even though we lived right down the street. we had a few books and usually a guitar. and some curiosity.

but it's been a bit now. it's easy to forget... just until that song brings ya back. a lot of those songs didn't make sense until now. they didn't mean as much as they do now. and they still mix nicely with the newer ones, too.

it seems like there was a lot of grass under our feet then. something was important. something needed to happen. like taking off.

i use to have a lot of dreams about flying. it was never up in the sky - more like hovering. i would put all my energy into my chest, around where my heart would be. it'd feel like all this pressure... and i would be floating. going forward was harder, but i could pull it off now and then.

and i'd wake up and be sure i could do it. because it's possible.

we'd let the words spill out - onto the page and onto our sleeves. running straight ahead to find out whats on the other side of the mountain.

it's not a story of looking back. it just happens when this song comes on, and my eyes close. i see those stars so vividly. the dark night and the city lights in the distance. and i can feel it all.

its nice to feel.

7:56 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

lingering

The words there in front of me:

we are not so attractive anymore. the stars fade, the river will dry, days will pass, and that clock on the wall never repeats. maybe to each other we still appeal, but wow, we lost our good looks with a good nights sleep.

and we’re not even half way there.

Currently listening : Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings By Counting Crows Release date: 25 March, 2008

10:24 AM - 4 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

paper planes

to think, it started with a paper airplane. i hadn’t made one in years and really didn’t know exactly what i was doing. but i followed the directions on the page, only half trusting the procedure.

"this won’t fly. there are too many bends. too much weight in the front end. it doesn’t even have a pointy nose!"

but with a flick of the wrist, i was proved wrong.

the tiny blank flyer cut through the air until it’s path was stopped by the wall on the other side of the room. what was i to do? i was defeated.

and that night i thought of it in moments when i would wake. something that simple taking flight. traveling a distance well beyond it’s means. there had to be more to do!

the next few days were littered with type written graffiti across walls, posted around town for all to see - to speculate and wonder.

one of the signs simply said, "where were you?"

what would it be like to be the person that catches it’s glimpse as they passed? would they stop to read it carefully wondering if they missed something. some line that had escaped the big font, hidden below somewhere? who wasn’t there, where they were suppose to be? who was waiting...?

i spent the next few days thinking of these lines; little secrets to place along someones route. something to knock them off for even just a second.

i was never one to try my hand at art, but something about this new found excitement brought in a freshness that had long escaped me.

where were you?

would the question ever be answered?

Currently listening : Accelerate By R.E.M. Release date: 01 April, 2008

1:34 PM - 2 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment

becoming La Cush

just back from Austin, TX. SxSW. it was a great trip. all cylinders firing for 5 days. i’m exhausted. my body hurts. i think my mind may have deteriorated a bit, too. i probably walked five hundred miles. (duh da duhd duh)

five days under those conditions can drive a man to mysterious places. five days under those conditions can turn a man into Abe La Cush.



I saw more bands than i can remember, but the top ones that come to mind:

Caitlin Rose
The Ravonettes
The Blacks
R.E.M.
Cage The Elephant
Ben Sollee
Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet

i missed Bob Schneider. grrrrrr. i did make top 100 best beards at SxSW. awesome.


more bars in more places....

Currently listening : Lust Lust Lust By The Raveonettes Release date: 19 February, 2008

7:58 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Hunky Dory

most of the time, i'd rather be sitting in my room with my headphones on. turn up the volume, grab the liner notes, live in the album.

but i just can't stop the itch. those headphones are what got me here, and those headphones are what i return to at night.

it's what happens in the middle, between that time. it's where the stories are made and rock n' roll happens. or it's where the day veered abruptly to the left.

but of course, those bad days only make the night time better. cause... ya know... you got the headphones. they were made because of bad days, ya know.

Currently listening : Hunky Dory By David Bowie Release date: 28 September, 1999

9:19 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

tasting the asphalt

i wrecked my motorcycle today. i'd like to get all poetic on it, but really, it sucked. my whole left side of my body hurts with it cuts, scrapes, and bruises.

coming through Cherokee Park, my tires caught a slick spot on the pavement and decided it didn't want me on it anymore. i didn't have any warning either. so all of those times of "what would i do if i feel myself falling" scenarios were thrown out the window. I'm going up a hill, into a curve, Cream is playing White Room in my headphones, and then i'm staring at the asphalt.

and of course, the things that run through your head after an accident is always fun. "wtf?" "is my leg under the bike?" yes, but only under the wheel. when a gent from across the way asked if i was okay, i thought "well, nothing feels broken." but then i realized that nothing would feel broken until i moved. so i sat up and began to flail my arms. it must have looked pretty ridiculous. i took my helmet off to answer him that i seem to be fine, and then my helmet started rolling down the hill. without thinking, i jumped up and ran after it.

pain!

but i got up, picked my bike up and assessed the damage. broken foot rest (the one i have to rest on to work the clutch). broken turning light. scratched up paint. dented gas tank. a few more things bent here and there.

but i'm up and walking, not looking forward to a sore tomorrow. but really more upset at the inconvenience of it all.

on the plus side, i needed to take my bike in for some faulty part that had been recalled. good opp. for that. and i have good insurance, so it's no cost to me. and i learned what it was like to wreck, so that's behind me now. see, silver lining in everything.

Currently listening : The Very Best of Cream By Cream Release date: 09 May, 1995

9:12 PM - 4 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

legend

i've been working on my first piece of music in nearly four years. it's the first time i've written solo and it's harder than i want it to be. the chords are coming, but not in any unique order. that's one of the most frustrating parts. it's not too hard to throw a couple chords together, but those chords have been put together so many times before, that if you don't have a melody to save it, it's not even worth it.

i have a wall full of cd's. i can look at them and instantly pick out the exceptional from the so-so. so why even bother with the so-so? if it doesn't blow me away, i don't want to wast my time.

we treat songs like cocaine. that junky is constantly shooting for chance that he'll reach the ultimate high. we go through hundreds and thousands of songs, and every once in a while, one gets you. and it fucking mauls you.

and THAT unfortunately, is the criteria i unwillingly, unknowingly, and very much unappreciated-ly put on myself when i'm trying this. and that's the reason i've quit so many times before. i'm not a musician. i'm good at playing cd's, not making them.

but this time feels different. i've got some idea's ahead of time on this one. styles that i want to do. it may be emulating, but it's about picking things to emulate that are at least interesting and not overdone. i want a drum that sounds like the intro to Bohemian Like You. i want a bassline like Big In Japan. i want a hook that's buried inside nonsense until you realize that you've been singing along with it the whole time.

i want to feel like i created one bit of decent music just once and then you can show me the door. and i've got the pressure in my chest and lump in my throat. my head feels like it's either going to explode or black out from the sugar rush-like whirlwind.

and Trent says "i am trying to believe" and he made some sense. he made something, anyway.


"my friends are fairy tales. they rise and fall and then break even"


anyway, i think i'll name my new stringed instrument Legend. then it HAS to live up to it's name. maybe it'll play me, instead of me having to play it. just set the controls for the heart of the sun.

Currently listening : Mule Variations By Tom Waits Release date: 27 April, 1999

7:11 PM - 4 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

depends on the wish

do you ever find yourself in mid sentence and you think, "if i just start slowing down, start talking really slowly, would the rest of the world start moving slower, too?" then you realize that the world is already beat you to it. the whole of time seems to be moving in slow motion; all is quiet with sad eyes looking down on you. it's moments like this where you could cease to exist. the entire world could vanish into the black and no one would have ever even noticed.

but it doesn't.

you may get a few more moments, just as long as your sight stays glazed over. that moment when your vision is blurry, your mind is blank, and your body numb. but it's not forever. you blink and it all comes rushing back. the conversations, the car horns, the clouds, and the construction.

just a moment's pass.

Adam Duritz (in one of his many impossible lines) says:

A kid from NYU walks by and he could be me from a few years before these pictures were taken. He just has to turn and cross the street in a different direction. The guy in the photo holds out his arms. Black birds freeze in a blur of white wings. He could lower his arm and walk away and not be me. He doesn't, of course, and so he is.
It's always the same. You can look back at the pictures of your life and nothing ever changes or you can get up and cross the street and nothing will ever be the same again.

I've been thinking about the next day a lot, lately. I remember looking at some photos of my parents in the days and months before i was born. the pictures have the great, sepia tint of time on them. the color of the late seventies polaroid camera's. that's how i see life before me, at least my parents life. tinted in light brown. i was thinking this as i was on my bike and the sun reflecting off of my helmet's face mask, obstructing sight much at all. with one tilt of my head, everything was in that color. that color of Mellencamp and Aerosmith, Foghat and river rock.

"this is the time before it's born. i'm in the polaroid."

the world doesn't exist before now. and there's something really nice and comforting about that.

another great line comes from Crow Hollister in the new issue of Bejeezus. in a great postcard style send-off while observing the Second Street Bridge here in town he says,:

You can walk across the river on the Second Street Bridge. You can jump from it, too, but only once. Sadly, some people do. You can toss things into the river. A wedding ring from a marriage gone sour. A gold medal symbolizing victory over oppression. A marble. A silver dime. You can wrap a wish around the things you toss and the river will carry it to New Orleans. People down there pluck the wishes from the muddy water in dreams. They answer the wishes, or ignore them. Depends on the wish. Depends on the dream.

Currently watching : Immagine in Cornice: Picture in a Frame Release date: 25 September, 2007

3:46 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment