90's Take 1.

I'm going to begin something new. Every week, I'll be spreading the 90's love! Ok. Ok, so I am incredibly excited about this because I love 90's indie (well, basically 87-96).

So first up, a little gem from Camper Van Beethoven and the song, "Good Guys"

I love it because its sooo dated and you can see a glimpse of culture while viewing. it.

Take 1.

Camper's has been around almost 25 years, seen a wide range of internal conflict and had a quick fling with Virgin records. Their song, "The Day Lassie Went to the Moon" is pretty much the reason people should download Telephone Free Landslide Victory. I wonder what kind of drugs they were on when they wrote it. If you're not smiling at least a little by the end of the song, I'm convinced you don't have a soul.

2009, Year of the podcast

2009 was a year full of fluctuation.The year year itself took the form of slinky on the floor, the sort of demonstration you see in Physics 101. You start the movement in the beginning, your wrist creating a soft snap with a fierce wave following. The wave is mirrored all the way down, only losing momentum, quickly, along the way. 2009 appears to have much of the same image. It was a year started with high expectations, a fiery momentum that eventually lost its speed and course. There were high expectations with an election, high expectations for economic woes, high expectations with LGBT community rights and high expectations for ending a war.

While I don't want to delve into the politics of 2009 (although I already did vaguely) I can only go so far to ambitiously coin, 2009: The Year of the Podcast. Because quite honestly, there were very few musical albums that came out that were solid. Last year we had, Bon Iver, MGMT, Vampire Weekend and Beck. All those releases were strong and solid. In short, they met expectations.

So, while I am fully aware that music may not be as important as human rights, or ending a war, I'm merely using it to signify the relation it has to the year's tonality as a whole. Wilco's album fell flat, Yeah Yeah Yeah's album sounded like everything released before it, Phoenix became an anthem for a car commercial and Yo La Tengo released an album that has received mix reviews (by adoring critics and cult fans alike). Even Neil's new release was a disappointment.

However alas! not all was lost! *drumroll* here's my list of 2009.

Note to reader: (I am missing many, many, many. I admittedly, unlike my at-the-time-boo, am not the keenest, hippest cat around. And everything new is juxtaposed directly with 90's noise and flawed perfection, because that's just who I am. But the 7 albums (in no particular order) are, for the most part, well done and hold an intrinsic place in 2009 and my life, since, I am just hip enough to assign certain memories with music. ..)

*Madeline Adams "White Flag" (the title song "White Flag" touches so many levels beyond description) and with this album, Madeline fought her way beyond the cutesy singer/song writer box.

*Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavillion. It's no "Feels" but its still damn good. If you've never painted to Animal Collective, I'd suggest it. I've also listened to this roadtripping to the Portland area to calm myself.

*Dirty Projectors-Bitte Orca- They were in The New Yorker! (believe me I was just as surprised when I found them, tucked quietly away near the back of the magazine) and this might be, the best album of 2009.

*The Antlers- In the Attic of the Universe- because sometimes, you just need some ambience. Noted, track 8, "Stairs to the Attic"

*The Avett Brothers- And I and Love and You. Apparently, this was all the rage in Canada. I've heard the title track so many times driving to Blaine in the past two months, some of the only time I've had to myself. All I had was open road and my thoughts.

*Jay-z Blueprint III-A Commercial success and still just as solid as the Black Album.

*Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest- Nothing sums up my summer more than the song "Two Weeks." Fish, orca whales,

missing people, post-graduation confusion and seasickness.

So, with a lack of memorable album releases, I coin 2009: The Year of the Podcast. For reasons, unknown but only hypothesized to me, podcasts made a huge increase in download and play.

Mentionable podcasts:

-This American Life- Ira Glass's voice is so sexy and alluring. mmm Ira.

-The Moth-People's stories told live and unedited by a nonprofit in New York. Probably my favorite podcast.

-Storylife-

-Don't Quit Your Day Job-

-For Women. By Women.

-New Yorker: Fiction & Out Loud-

Best album artwork: Camera Obscura (this artwork is AMAZING) & The Antlers (the colors and image fit the songs with a certain natural ease)

Cheers, 2009, the year of the slinky wave.

<3 Christmas Music

Recently in the zoo of consumer-last-minute-gift-buying I heard Bruce Springsteen in the dollar store. I immediately started dancing in the aisles with the tinsel. When all else fails just add Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus is Coming to Come", Bob Seger's "The Little Drummer Boy". Also heard today, The Carpenters "Merry Christmas Darling" & Frank Sinatra's "White Christmas".

Coming Clean

Digital Literacy and Blogging.

Back in '08 I took a class that required blogging. Yes. Scholars are studying the shift in communication via digital literacy. The printing press changed the way the human cognition understood words (words being seen and not just heard) and thus by access to words, created greater percentages of literacy. Words became accessible! They became a visual stimulus. Hypertext is much the same. Except it takes this visual stimulus a step further, it is interactive, tangible, mailable, in a way that linear printed text is not.

What does this have to do with you? Well, you're reading my blog. You're partaking in the shift. The internet is redefining cultural paradigms. Ah-ha!

I don't have the theories or any concrete answer (which is fitting in a pomo social setting) . I just know that right now, we are in a grand cultural shift. And, now I come clean. Back in 08 I wrote a paper about the idea of social alienation, digital literacy and blogs.

http://dafunkmastameowmeow.blogspot.com/2008/02/alienation-shown-through-in-weblogs.html

Ok. So I was also 20 at the time I wrote this, just getting into my discipline. It has its obvious rhetorical problems but still contained meaty ideas. It should be noted, I ended the entire essay with Flight of the Conchords video.

So really, I ask you to just take a moment to think about what it is you look for when reading a blog, what does it mean when you write a blog? It is not a journal (though some huge ego's treat it as such) and should it, or could it actually have the potential to effectively communicate an idea outside of your own experience-- negating political blogs, that is just too easy.

Fuck. You. American. Apparel./Much Love Yo La Tengo.

Post Preface: I realize my blogs have been scattered, subjective and kind of awful as of late. I don't want to be one of those bloggers (if I continue to blog) that writes about shit that no one cares about or that little or no one cares about (blog to come about blogging soon) so I'm working on it. But in the meantime on with the scattered!!

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I've never bought anything from American Apparel. After speaking to a friend of mine and then reading up on their ethical practices, I am completed disgusted by them. Completely.

http://clamormagazine.org/issues/38/aa/straub.php


1-Ok, honestly, I've never bought anything except sexy objectifying underwear for a male, which I was totally ok with at the time. However now I realize the apparent flaws and hypocrisy in doing so-- 18 and ignorant.

Sidenote I could go on an incredibly verbose, pretentious rant. But, I won't. It's the holidays and the last thing I want to think about is sexism. So TO END

YO LA TENGO is fucking fantastic. They were so self aware of their place within 90's indie.

S^3 Sleep. Sasquatch.Stomach

I need sleep, desperately. I'm clinging to inordinate amounts of caffeine thus, my stomach is starting to hate me. I hope I can keep my cool with small children today at a Holiday party.Fuck.Fuck.Fuck.
However I received an e- greeting card today and it had sasquatch in it.
Sasquatch=completely hilarious.

I have no idea how I'm going to power through, I just know I have no choice. Sasquatch, furry beast of the northwest.

Academia

My friend recently graduated from college, a college he didn’t really want to be in, a degree he doesn’t really felt he earned and his own complacency was only aided with the angst he’s basked in since I remember him. Regardless of his feelings, spending four years developing your mind and learning is a beautiful, beautiful thing worthy of celebration. I’m in the mindset that earning money is easy (not that there is ever enough to live comfortably or that working is easy) but being able to spend time challenging yourself, pushing your intellectual capacity, growing is one of the hardest yet rewarding things a person can do. Graduation from a university deems, at least, a small recognition. (Note: I know that this also carries more than its share of classicism)
I arrive, homemade chili in hand (delicious homemade chili) and as I walk up the stairs to his very small studio above a bar, I can hear the bass from the music penetrate the floor. I think about how this is contrasted by the quiet I find in my own home. We eventually settle and realize that we are missing one key piece, celebratory champagne.

We leave the thumpa-thumpa of his apartment and walk to the co-op downtown. This brings an air of nostalgia and a subtle reminder of change. I buy the champagne, making small talk with the attractive hippie chic man scanning my groceries, a practiced keen wit perfected with time and practice. I shove the bottle in my purse and we walk back to his apartment. As my boots hit the hardwood floor and echo, I hear Jay-Z “99 problems” push its way through the thin mahogany.

Fast forward to an empty champagne bottle and The Beatle’s “Thinking for Yourself” with his ukulele solo of “I will Survive” and the thumpathumpa of Lady Gaga. I think his neighbors must hate us, they must hear everything. There is an old man next door who was pleasant with suspenders. He must hate us the most.

Here I must mix in a conversation about the ignorance of American culture. He yells, “Vice magazine represents all that is wrong with American culture!” and I slur, “Yessssssssssss!! YESYESYES!” and fall back into my chair with a predicted stupor.(See post about Vice magazine)
http://gogorunifyoucan.blogspot.com/2009/11/oh-romania.html

Mountain.

The other day I went on an adventure on a county road and took this sa-weet picture of Baker at sunset. I think I *might* finally understand my digital camera. It will however, never take pictures like my Canon.

In a recent conversation, in which you clearly know the question you pose to the other party & the other party answers, knowing full well you were asking with a subtle basis of judgment . They now suddenly feel pressure to answer accordingly.

I asked them what kind of music they felt they enjoyed listening to.

Let me just say here that I don't want to be a pretentious asshole but I know I'm going to sound like one

And their response was the most unique I have ever received. Usually people feel the need to create either a really hip honest answer or they just answer with really predictable manners, like, "Well, mostly indie stuff" or "Underground hiphop and jazz fusion" or "KANYE!" or "Lady GaGa, because she's just so Euro-trash and original." etc. etc.

But instead, they said that there was a tranquility that is found in silence. They then answered the question. Which was really an ingenious way to answer a question by posing music's unsaid enemy silence-- because really music covers silence. In a way you can never have music and silence at the same time. So doesn't that make them enemies, in a strictly figurative sense? In relation to this, silence, at least for myself and many people I know covers loneliness. However, at the end of the day you have to embrace the comfort of silence no matter what record you are playing or what music playlist is on your computer.

It then progressed to a discussion of Bon Iver. I told him that I read somewhere that listening to Bon Iver was like being able to read and feel a person's most intimate moments. That there is nothing more honest than a singer with a guitar/instrument. It is raw, uninhibited by other's subjective input and in that simplicity, honesty is so clear. While I enjoy the complexities of bands (such as dirty projectors) they don't seem to be as honest as Neil Young or Bon Iver. Keep it simple.

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Two movies you should see,

Coco Before Chanel
This movie is almost flawless and perfect. The characterization, acting and as usual the cinematography is beautiful. The use of aperture and depth of field is something I idolize when I take photographs. It almost made me cry in the theatre. I always knew that Coco Chanel built an empire (when that was almost unheard of for a woman) and defined a lot of the constructs of the 'modern' women, free from the constructs of clothing (and thus symbolically free from the male's dominating force shown through beauty constructs) It was incredibly beautiful and sad.



Les Miserables (1998; directed by Billie August)



Ok. The trailer is a little cheesy but Liam Neeson in an epic power struggle with Geoffrey Rush? So good.

Do Make Say Think was probably one of the best instrumentals groups to come out of the late 90's... not only does their sound prove it but so does this video. teddy bears drinking+poker+cigarettes? Fantastic!

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Move over Ira Glass.

I can't help it. After trying to watch "Sense and Sensibility," (Just, don't. Trust me.) I realized that after a one of the scenes Alan Rickman is a goddamn fox! Not only is he incredibly engaging and hilarious, he is intelligent, witty and has the goddamn sexiest voice I've ever heard. I think he's perfect. I came to this conclusion because I'm trying to get my boyfriend to watch "Love Actually" with me-- the only romantic comedy I find appealing and I've realized it is solely for the reason that I am in love with Alan Rickman. He can even go on The View and make subtle commentary and witticisms with the audience and the middle aged women oogling him.

Julian Casablancas in an incredibly awkward interview in which he successfully does not name drop The Strokes once.

Fun with Sexism

While out last night at dinner and older man offered to take a photo of our table. There were quite a few of us. After taking the picture, with his wife standing by his side, he said, “Every once in a while, I need to be reminded what young women look like.” His wife’s face grimaced. He then proceeded to tell us a joke as his wife was pulling him out the door. It was as follows:

There were three old men on a beach, on that same beach there happened to be a lovely women in a bikini. She was beautiful. She was sexy and alluring. One man said, “I would love to kiss her and hug her…(long pause) and oh wait, what was that other thing we used to do?” The other two men looked quizzically at one another.


After telling us, our table erupted in tequila induced laughter. I then looked over at his wife who was clearly not amused. She pulled him away, dragging him by his elbow away from our table.

As my grandmother so aptly said on thanksgiving, “Men will always think with their penis." My grandfather proved this statement later that night when he said, "Oh! I remember Peggy Lee when she used to be a virgin."