love birds

Here's a poster I designed for this project, based on a lyric from the Ryan Adams song If I Am A Stranger:



Listen: If I Am A Stranger (Now That You're Gone 7" Inch) [savefile]

Solzhenitsyn

"It has long been known that our life stories do not follow an even course over the years. In every human being's life there is one period when he manifests himself most fully, feels most profoundly himself, and acts with the deepest effect on himself and on others. And whatever happens to that person from that time on, no matter how outwardly significant, it is all a letdown. We remember, get drunk on, play over and over in many different keys, sing over and over to ourselves that snatch of a song that sounded just once within us. For some, that period comes in childhood, and they stay children all their lives. For others it comes with first love, and these are the people who spread the myth that love comes only once. Those for whom it was the period of their greatest wealth, honor, or power will still in old age be mumbling with toothless gums of their lost grandeur."

(from The First Circle)

Mushaboom Goes Postal

Has anyone heard this yet? Feist's Mushaboom as remixed by The Postal Service? As if Mushaboom wasn't great enough already...

You can pick up the single on iTunes for $1.07 with tax, or welllll why not, here for a bit as well... Feist - Mushaboom (Postal Service remix)

I've listened to it 12 times today so far. It's a Postal Service track so be sure and give it the devotion of headphones.

"And we'll collect the moments one by one
I guess that's how the future's done"

Alex Dupree & The Trapdoor Plan

Alex Dupree and 16 of his closest friends played a great show at Beerland last night. Highlights were Sarah is Rising and Ramona (as always), as well as a bipolar version of Deep Ellum (soft then loud then soft and so forth), and to finish out the set:

"vinyl floors stick cold
to my feet and to my medicine
pallid glow downstairs
the cabinet mirror all cracked in
this night that wrestles me
is in my knees and under my skin
with an icy cocktail moan
hung on a spike like a gasp in the wind
all that was written must come to pass
so i will give up, i will give up at last."

The Sad Accordions and Zookeeper played valiantly as well. Beerland - you need to work on your acoustics.

[If you're wondering about the picture, and the streak of light, it's film's best attempt at capturing the "lightar" in all of its glory]

Napoleon Bonaparte Says...

"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."

Ryan Adams says... "Can you still have any famous last words / if you're somebody nobody knows / I don't know / Somebody go and ask Claire / She's been dead twenty years / Just look at her hair." (Strawberry Wine)

Listen up February...

Here's what I'm listening to these days, just in case you were wondering...



Mostly I'm listening to Iron & Wine's Our Endless Numbered Days, that's pretty much all I'm listening to, over and over and (why not) over again.

Especially: [1] Sodom, South Georgia [2] On Your Wings [3] Passing Afternoon.

Lyrically:

"All dead white boys say, 'God is good'
White tongues hang out, 'God is good'" - Sodom, South Georgia

"God, every road takes us farther from home...
God, give us love in the time that we have" - On Your Wings

Sigur Ros - Taak...
Especially: Hoppípolla

Lyrically:

"OG ÉG FÆ BLÓÐNASIR (Hoppípolla)
En ég stend alltaf upp (Hoppípolla)" - Hoppípolla

Alex Dupree & The Trapdoor Band - Self Titled
Especially: Ramona

Lyrically:

"Oh who holds the map to the treasures of coal
Oh who scraped up against the granite edge of his soul
Who savors the weeds after trampling the rose
Who drives through the night with blood on his clothes
Who begs for pennies on streets paved with gold

Bear on, Bear on are you liberty's sons
There's no pride in coming home" -Liberty's Sons

Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs
Especially: Measuring Cups

Lyrically:

"and we were tired of being mild
oh so tired of being mild
we were so tired" - Tables and Chairs

Alexandre Desplat - Syriana Soundtrack
Especially: Driving in Geneva


Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
Especially: Shine a Light

Lyrically:

"I was a hero
Early in the Morning
I ain't no hero
In the night"

NPR - Story Corps
Not an album per say, but something I've been listening to a lot of. NPR is recording an auditory history of America, made up of the uncommon stories of common Americans.
Listen:

SAMPLER

Retired Memphis sanitation worker Taylor Rogers and his wife Bessie remember Martin Luther King Jr.'s final speech.

William Jacobs tells his grandson Seth about an unexpected visit from his fiancée's mother.

SOME OTHER THINGS I'M TAKING IN:




Especially: David Gray's Ain't No Love from the album Life in Slow Motion.

Lyrically:

"On winter trees the fruit of rain
Is hanging trembling in the branches
Like a thousand diamond buds
Waiting there in every pause
That old familiar fear that claws you
Tells you nothing ain’t no good
Pulling back you see it all
Down here so laughable and small
Hardly a quiver in the dirt" - David Gray, Ain't No Love

All that to say that I'm really only listening to Iron and Wine. Over and over and over.