March 2009
42 posts
Ryan Adams - English Girls Approximately
...
1 tag
I’m after truths more essential than those found by reason alone.
February 2009
38 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-2-22) →
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (69)
The Hold Steady (16)
The Tallest Man on Earth (14)
Bright Eyes (14)
M. Ward (13)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Bat for Lashes - Siren Song
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Groceries are adventurers and we tell their stories.
I sometimes like to watch people as they watch their groceries come out of the cart, across the scanner, and into their bags. The food items shift from being a product among many to being something personal, even private.
Into all manner of cloth or paper bag, what once was colorful and eye catching disappears behind opaque vales.
...
1 tag
“The brain… assembles a “self” which can be thought of as the...”
– Paul Broks, from Into the Silent Land
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Young Adult...
4 parts
in a series of posts coming soon, i’m going to outline the four corners of my worldview. (its actually more like three corners and a unifying thread.)
the purpose of the exercise is threefold. but taken together, contradictory.
first, i’d like to craft something a meaningful document that i can rest upon as defining. a personal kind of religious text, perhaps.
second,...
1 tag
Watch
Two term Benjamin #1
What follows is the beginning of a list of two term phrases that I’d like to insist are creations of my own. Call them my contributions to the meme pool.
Satiation rating
Concentrated subtlety
Catastrophe balls
More when they come to me.
PS. I’m standing on some random dock on the esplanade listening to what sounds to me to be a talented trumpeteer practising his craft on the...
I’m walking to the bus stop three blocks away. I’m listening to Nimrod by Green Day. It’s 12 years after the albums release. Today is a beautiful day. Warm and clear and fresh. I’m walking past sleek condos and old rusty vans. I’m walking to a bus stop while my iPod downloads the editorials from todays NY Times. I’m listening to songs that remind me of vacuuming...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-2-15) →
Burial (29)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (28)
The Thermals (26)
The Tallest Man on Earth (26)
Blitzen Trapper (23)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
1 tag
‘Naturally’ by Huey Lewis & the...
Left Hand Smoke - Step Outside.
I used to LOVE...
WONDERFUL. →
2 tags
The truths within you are lies without you.
a poem
Where do you consider
your home to be?
Is it a place,
A person,
A group of people,
Or a collection of belongings?
Why?
What about it makes it home?
Is your home inherent and automatic,
Or does it take awhile to establish?
Does it go where you go?
Can you feel at home somewhere you’ve never been?
Do you like leaving your home to explore your horizons,
Or do you prefer the...
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (February 11,... →
Watch4819cleveland:
“Alela Diane performs To Be Still standout “Dry Grass & Shadows” (accompanied by her father on mandolin) in this new “Dumbo West” session. Shot at the Funky Church, in Alela’s hometown of Portland, Oregon. Directed by Mark Hoffman.”
Via gorillavsbear.blogspot.com
Didn’t know we had a Funk Church!
“A tendancy to melancholy…let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault.”
– Abraham Lincoln (via psychotherapy)
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-2-8) →
Françoise Hardy (44)
The Tallest Man on Earth (26)
M. Ward (22)
Cat Power (21)
The Hold Steady (20)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Watch
Joe Jackson - Sunday Papers
Beth Orton - Heartland Truckstop
2 tags
walking downtown
I was walking downtown this afternoon. From across the street I noticed this tiny old woman standing on the sidewalk at corner edge of a building. She was small, sure, but elegantly dressed. Distinctly upper middle class, I’d say. She appeared to me to be waiting for a ride, perhaps her husband of 40 years or more was to be picking her up in just a few moments.
My attention was divided...
1 tag
Here’s an idea: karaoke for the sports fan. I imagine setting up a microphone at a table, maybe even investing in a fancy headset just like the real sportscasters wear, and letting folks sign up to announce the details of the game. At each commercial break a quick vote by show of hands from the audience could determine the announcers fate until the next commercial break.
It’d be a...
2 tags
hugs and buses
One of my favorite things about riding public transit is seeing people hug goodbye as the train or bus rolls up. I’ve been in that position, of having to say goodbye in the face of dwindling seconds, and it’s a bit like looking into the future: here comes the bus and there goes my friend, my love, or my brother.
Air travel is different in that way. The plane’s departure is more...
1 tag
Scope
Ever have the experience of picking up a book, perhaps at Powell’s, and being struck by the puny size of your interest in it? I’m talking about a book whose subject is of such miniscule interest that to imagine anyone, anywhere in the world, being capable of saturating their life with such astounding dryness is almost too much to bear.
But then you might think to yourself as I did,...
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human shit
“This is not a new me, or a crispy realization, its the sound of me unlocking, your love will be safe with me.”
Thats the final line from Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago and I deeply believe it has not gotten the attention it deserves.
The album is a breakup album, easily the best of 2008 that Ive heard, and that final line is wonderful. On one hand he finds no new growth...
I had a thought recently regarding both fashion and romantic relationships. I really like the idea of being a kind of effective canvass against which “she,” whoever she may be, is the color.
I’m curious what others think. Is it tasteless? Misogynistic? Or strangely classy, perhaps even romantic?
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-2-1) →
The Elected (15)
The White Stripes (11)
Oren Lavie (11)
Department of Eagles (11)
Beirut (10)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz