LL

" 'Downhill? The term means nothing to you?' "

The Giver, pg. 79

I had the urge to fall, in the physical sense, down a very specific hill in LBI.  This hill, if you will, was more like a mound, separating one business from the sidewalk business.  The hill's meager attempt to be the king of LBI dirt was appreciated by my cush eyes, but in all actuality, the mound was about 4 feet from start to finish.  Watch your ankle.  

My little hill that could was adjacent to the miniature golf course I stood upon with my borrowed green ball and lead of two points.  I drifted into my head for a second, and stared at some point before we got to the hole with the waterfall and bridge - that hole always shakes and quivers with children's anticipation because it's an adventure (for me, it reminds me of the pirate ship in Hook).  I know I was happy to be done with the Polaski's at the register, though that shan't be any logical reason to roll down a hill.  Maybe I just need to travel more.  

[No one threw their clubs this year.]  

What goes up must come down down in a speedy tidal sense, we're on the beach here people.  A tsunami of a body lurching at the concrete with a wide open mouth and a wave of silence gargling through vocal chords.  A body of water without the pretty sounds of a splash.  You're choking.  After my roll down the Shreky grass, would be the interesting, in the most sarcastic sense of the word, landing "I'm sorry, I just felt like rolling down this tremendous hill!"

How does my impact feel?  Is it worth it to disturb these lives for ten minutes?  What would the passersby feel?  Same as the ones I actually care about?  There she blows, tumbling into people with their large tumbling slushees, green and red drip drops staining their polo shirts and white boat shoes.

Did she just roll down that hill, under the rope with an ice cream cone in the palm of her hand?!

  Beach-siders, the source of blood on the island, have these specific put-put faces that obviously have experienced too many pastries in such a short time span.  The women and men of the bay side grimace with wads of cash in their pockets and fake silver lining.  I could have tumbled into them and disturbed their sense of center, but I opted against it.

I would have rather been here:

  

Air bag (not Radiohead's)

Upon finishing Motherless Brooklyn, I will quote another favorite passage of mine:

"I'm an air bag in a dashboard, packed up layer upon layer in readiness for that moment when I get to explode, expand all over you, fill every available space. Unlike an airbag, though, I'm repacked the moment I've exploded, am tensed and ready to explode-like some safety-film footage cut into a loop, all I do is compress and release, over and over, never saving or satisfying anyone, least myself. Yet the tape plays on pointlessly, obsessive air bag exploding again and again while life itself goes on elsewhere, outside the range of these antic expenditures."

Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn, page 262. What a fantastic, hilarious book!

The Dead Weather

Jack White, the dirty bastard, has done it again.  Done what, you ask?  Started a new band of course - the Dead Weather - and this Nashville group masters that raw, gritty-southern, don't-fuck-with-my-banjo sound that I always associate with Tennessee. Alison Mosshart's voice floats and jabs betwixt and between the whirling and yowling guitar riffs White does so easily.  And (bonus!), the immense Jack Lawrence is the bassist too, black rimmed glasses and all.

Check out the short film below featuring the Dead Weather's rockin, spinning song, "Treat Me Like Your Mother"

How many bands is this now, three?

Crystal Castles

A little emo but a lotta rough - it's zombie techno music!  Head-bop your beating skull to Crystal Castles fantasmic "Crimewaves"

CRYSTAL CASTLES - Crimewave (new official video)
Uploaded by Differentrecordings. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

This guy just woke up from many years under the dirt and he's loving it.  That, or he's a super-prepster who got beat up the night before by some punks and doesn't remember a damn thing.  Happens to the best of us. 

Trigger Ballads - a little over a year later

"And today the ocean decided to say no"

Found written under my AA "Trigger Ballads" dress, on red cloth, two days ago.  

I can't remember if I wrote that, or someone else.  I like it. 

MPP

Jump jump like a waiting room chair.  

Swerve, slinky.  Miss the car and wiggle around their ankles. 

Forest of bouncy hair, wiggle with the live-octopus eyes. 

"This wilderness up in my head, This wilderness needs to get right out of my clothes and get into my bedroom."

"Lion In a Coma" Animal Collective

Round up August

From Memoirs (Written 1916-17, Published 1972)

"I was twenty-three years old when the troubling of my life began."

William Butler Yeats

Motherless Brooklyn

A favorite passage of mine from my current book selection, Motherless Brooklyn , by Jonathan Lethem.

"There are days when I get up in the morning and stagger into the bathroom and begin running water and then I look up and I don't even recognize my own toothbrush in the mirror. I mean, the object looks strange, oddly particular it its design, strange tapered handle and slotted, miter-cut bristles, and I wonder if I've ever looked at it closely before or whether someone snuck in overnight and substituted this new toothbrush for my old one. I have this relationship to objects in general-they will sometimes become uncontrollably new and vivid to me, and I don't know whether this is a symptom of Tourette's or not. I've never seen it described in the literature. Here's the strangeness of having Tourette's brain, then: no control in my personal experiment of self. What might be only strangeness must always be auditioned for relegation to the domain of symptom, just as symptoms always push into other domains, demanding the chance to audition for their moment of acuity or relevance, their brief shot-coulda been a contender!-at centrality. Personalityness. There's a lot of traffic in my head, and it's two-way. "

Page 131, Motherless Brooklyn.

Animal Collective TONIGHT

In Prospect Park at 8:15....seeing this song live

So excited!! This will be my third time seeing Animal Collective, but my first time seeing the mind-boggling group on my home turf. Looking foward to it, Panda Bear.

Hot Diggity Dog

please compare Iron and Wine's (yellow below) The Shepherd's Dog and Handsome Furs' (the mean growler one post below) Face Control

Handsome Furs

yep, Handome Furs - check them out

they are the mood setting I've been looking for -

"Legal Tender"

I and Love and You

After 10+ albums, The Avett Brothers might finally be getting the recognition they deserve. Listed on RS's Artists to Watch this month, a lot writers, producers and artists are gossiping about the brothers' (Seth and Scott plus [non-related] Bassist Bob) new album debuting in September 2009, I and Love and You.

The new album is produced by genius Rick Rubin, and is sure to be a little more catchy and a little less sappy compared to 2007's Emotionalism. Supposedly Rubin found out about the bros on youtube, but seeing Ruby work his magic on these folksy arm chair, bearded dudes might be just what my ears need. I'm looking forward to a sound with a lot of emotion but without sounding emotional, if that makes sense. There's quite a difference between hearing whining vocals with a banjo versus hearing the pain peek through southern (and cute) drawls with a rockier edge and harsher tone-of-voice. Right now I'm thinking about their lyrics off there new single, "I and Love and You," and how even though I'm not driving North from North Carolina, I still want the same things.

All one foot in and one foot back

But it don't pay, to live like that

So I cut the ties and I jumped the tracks

For never to return


Brooklyn Brooklyn take me in

Are you aware the shape I'm in

My hands they shake my head it spins

Brooklyn Brooklyn take me in

To acquire a little noise history on the Avett Brothers, take a listen to "Pretty Girl from Chile" and "The Ballad of Love and Hate" off Emotionalism, as well as a personal favorite, "Murder In the City" off The Second Gleam. And if you go to their concerts, make sure to bring a helmet and a sturdy flask.

F&M

First song I thought of when I found out Knickerbocker was my cross street: 

"Knickerbocker," by Fujiya & Miyagi 

Vanilla strawberry knickerbocker glory

I saw the ghost of lena zavaroni

Brooklyn Bed and Breakfast

A new find in my new home: 3rd Ward

What is it: A space to create, collaborate, work, listen, play, feel, and be "interdisciplinary"

Where is it: 195 Morgan Ave. Bushwick, Brooklyn

Why: Cause you can never have enough cool, cheap space for starving artists such as myself

My homies and I caught a free show this past Sunday and thus stumbled upon an interesting new spot with projectors, balloons, and lots of technological hipsters waiting to see something new.  3rd Ward is a great space for artists, photographers, choreographers, musicians, graphic designers, freelancers, writers, filmmakers, DJ's, directors, fashionistas, and dreamers alike.  Many of the events at 3rd Ward are free, and though not all may be cutting edge, it's certainly worth taking the short walk over to see what's happening in our little nook in BK.  A basic membership includes free access to cool mac-based design lab, free access to co-working space, free admission to events, business tools such as a desk, wi-fi, and reception, discounts on various products and classes, and of course to be "in it" with all who's "doing it."  What the website fails to mention is the price of a "Basic" or "Unlimited" membership, but hey, you get a free bike when signing up!  

3rd Ward is set in an old warehouse building about two blocks from the Morgan and Harrison stop.  If you head south from Jefferson and Knickerbocker you'll run into some colorful, picture worthy graffiti on the way.  The art on the way to art spans blocks long of sidewalk-walls, only getting cooler as the sun goes down.  Only about 20 minutes from my current location, I look forward to submitting and seeing more shows and events at 3rd Ward in the near future.  Now to get the K train up in there!

Woodstock looming

In all my years I never realized Woodstock took place on my birthday.  Wowie wowie this makes me so happy!  Below is a pic of Jimi Hendrix performing at Woodstock on August 18, 1969 - almost 40 years ago.  This is like waking up, thinking your stylish only to find that your father wore neon headbands and spandex shorts just like you. 

Everyone should try and visit Bethel, NY - it really is a quaint and subdued place - kind of like the Secret Garden.  Walking through the streets you can feel a secret looming behind the doors and underneath the pavement, itching to tell its story.  Yes, there are rich, artsy and in shape residents who glare at tourists and passersby alike, but walking through the mountains and being in such a momentous and generation defining locale really does have its perks. Go here to get information on visiting Bethel, NY, the home of peace and music.

King Rat this time, not Raam

A beautifully animated short by the late Heath Ledger to new Modest Mouse's EP single, "King Rat"

...and still the ship continues to sink.

Prediction

This song will be on the radio in about a year and a half, so why not take a listen now?!

La Roux, "Bulletproof"

Look for this British electro-pop's full album release in October 2009. 

The big come up

Sunday, August 2, I was a W.E.T. (Work Exchange Team) volunteer at the 2nd annual All Points West Music Festival.  I was fortunate enough to attend the festival for free in exchange for working a few hours at the information booth, VIP Lounge and various other tents.  As my last shift ended, I trucked through the mud on a mission. My body was reacting towards the lower Manhattan wind, which viciously blew the defined-artsy balloons hanging above the festival grounds, making them quiver with excitement.  Last year I remember saying to my friend before Radiohead began, "The wind is an element!" (and though this is common knowledge, when you visualize the New York City skyline, really feel the air whip in and around you, and hear the music pulse deep within your ear drums, it really is difficult to think of anything more than basic elements which appear so magical and new).  The muddy crowd packed like sardines around the Bullet Stage shook  with fevered anticipation, and I waited but 10 minutes to see a favorite band of mine that I have been yearning to see live for quite some time: The Black Keys.  

After going to Bonnaroo for the last two years, All Points West in summer 2008 and a few other festivals here and there, I feel pretty lucky to have seen so many bands I love.  The Black Keys were missing from this list, and boy did they bring it on Sunday.  Playing before headliners MGMT and Coldplay, The Black Keys were the perfect bluesy-rock tuneage for what was a very grimy day.  Grinding out tracks from their latest album, Attack & Release, crowd-pleaser, "Thickfreakness", and the enchanting melodies from Magic Potion, the duet from Akron, OH was (to quote their song title) "All You Ever Wanted".  Vocalist/guitarist, Dan Auerbach, stripped his vocals down to a raw emotion, toying with the east coast wanderlust and pouring his heart deep into the mud in which we stood.  All the while drummer, Patrick Carney, pounced on his drum set like a panther, pounding rhythms that could scare the Hoboken mobsters right out of the Malibu diner and down to Wildwood.  This duet is a match made in musical heaven, and I hope you take a listen.  

Listen to:

"Remember When (Side A)"

"I Got Mine"

"Oceans & Streams"

"I'll Be Your Man"

Thank you, Dan and Patrick, for the perfect post-work, post-rain rockin' experience.  

Comparison

Two very similar album covers by two very different bands:

School of Seven Bells' album artwork from their record Alpinisms

Listen to "Sempiternal / Amaranth"

Harlem Shakes' album artwork from their record Technicolor Health

Listen to "Sunlight"

Loving both rainbow rays in two completely different settings/backdrops/locations.  

It's true one can find rainbows everywhere, and both albums explode with sound just as rainbows explode with color and dreams of never where