No Hope for the Humanity
What I listened to today:
Arab Spring by Literature
http://literature.bandcamp.com/
was a free download a few days ago, now Name Your Price. That pleasant orchestral folk pop that came in with Belle and Sebastian and went out with the Slumberland revival was recommended by the band Pet Milk, a side project of Brown Recluse, a band who somehow managed to be both Belle and Sebastian revivalists and put an album out on Slumberland. The guitars and drums are outstanding.
Beelzebubba by The Dead Milkmen
A 25 cent cassette in a borrowed Lexus. Did you know the 2010 Lexus SC 430 was the last car to offer cassette players as a factory option? Listening with a friend from Philly who never listened to the Dead Milkmen, even I thought the album could use some serious remastering. It sounds nothing like the two Dead Milkmen shows I was lucky enough to see; the first being their last show in 1994, and then this one at the Athens Popfest in October
bleh, I almost started a Google Hangout to see if anyone wanted to watch the video with me, but after linking this account w/Google + (do any heavy Gmail users have only one account?) I realized it was a stupid idea. Maybe in THE FUTURE.
THE FUTURE may as well be today, when I set up the iPad my mom got for Christmas so that she can 1. FaceTime with her grandson 2. display lots of photos of her grandson....for the record, she found Skype too complicated because it involved buying a camera for her computer but she loves texting and was awesome with Twitter until somehow her account got disconnected...hopefully she'll start up again with the app.
Without my parents reading my blog my dad mentioned that Jersey Boys was probably a Tony Winner because it hit the nostalgic sweet spot for baby boomers. Before I say no shit sherlock, I'd really like to see The Buddy Holly Story when it comes to Philadelphia in the Spring.
If the ladies at Chickfactor could just announce who is playing their little Spring shindig then maybe I could make my vacation plans! At this rate I'll be flying home to see my new nephew Lorenzo and then feeling like a shitty aunt when I get on the train to catch the shows at the last minute. Then again, if it was a secret party with excellent bands it would be so much more like Chickfactor.
Then on the way home listening to Blue Collar Comedy Radio on Sirius I was unfortunately exposed to this piece of homophobic comedy:
Really? I have to share a planet with these people? It only gets better when you read the comments...there is no hope for the human race. That's why I think I compulsively attend the festivals and shows I do, so that for a few precious hours I am surrounded by people I love and bands I love and I can pretend the rest of the world, the problems and the people, just go away.
I'm sorry I felt I had to post that. I'm going to listen to Rodney Crowell's Earthbound on repeat for a few hours so I can cleanse my ears with positive country music.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Jersey Boys on Sub Pop
Discussing with my friend Jasmine if there is anything at Sub Pop we'd like to listen to. When did Sub Pop become an adult contemporary label? Srsly. I was wondering if that comment was justified, until I came across a 7" released last month of J Mascis doing an Edie Brickell cover. I can't talk too much shit, so many of my favorite bands right now are definitely AAA (that's Adult Album Alternative for those of you who could care less about industry jargon).
So we saw Jersey Boys at the Forrest Theater in Philadelphia tonight. The minute I looked at the price on my ticket I started thinking about why professional theater is so valued when live music is not. The same fucking show every night, the same songs, the same story, the same staging. I'm sure the price is partially set by unions, but the fact that people were willing to buy every seat but the view obstructed? How many rock shows do I go to with an obstructed view? I'm 5' so I've just given up...wishlist item, platform mary janes .
Anyway, the audience looked like the audience you see on a PBS folk reunion concert. Lots of people in their 60s mouthing the words. I'm sure it was intentional to make the music seem timeless, but I could not put together a timeline of when the events were occurring. It was good to put together "this is the catalog of the Four Seasons and these are the significant events in their career" but it's always sad to see the exploitative side of the music industry shown.
I never thought that Sean Tollefson was influenced by Frankie Valli until tonight.
So we saw Jersey Boys at the Forrest Theater in Philadelphia tonight. The minute I looked at the price on my ticket I started thinking about why professional theater is so valued when live music is not. The same fucking show every night, the same songs, the same story, the same staging. I'm sure the price is partially set by unions, but the fact that people were willing to buy every seat but the view obstructed? How many rock shows do I go to with an obstructed view? I'm 5' so I've just given up...wishlist item, platform mary janes .
Anyway, the audience looked like the audience you see on a PBS folk reunion concert. Lots of people in their 60s mouthing the words. I'm sure it was intentional to make the music seem timeless, but I could not put together a timeline of when the events were occurring. It was good to put together "this is the catalog of the Four Seasons and these are the significant events in their career" but it's always sad to see the exploitative side of the music industry shown.
I never thought that Sean Tollefson was influenced by Frankie Valli until tonight.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
I'd like to take Robert Pollard out to lunch
Always trying to figure out what team I'm batting for. I already have too many New Years Resolutions, but one that was killing me was not listening to new music. Barely any. So I am going to remedy that (ha) but blogging about it...I'd love to start videoblogging but I'm not sure that would be too much like taking my work home...so here we are.
I bought the new Guided by Voices in a forgetful haze on iTunes at 2 AM on Christmas Eve. Eve as in Evening, as I wasn't sleeping. As if I'd be sleeping in with my adorable nephew sleeping in the room across from me. So today I was checking my credit card (oops) and while debt sucks (new years resolution: pay pal donate and Amazon wish list buttons on blogs), I did see I bought Let's Go Eat the Factory. This is semi significant as when I dropped my eMusic subscription when they dropped Merge, my new music listening also dropped to 0. Bad bad Ramona.
I'm not really buying new music if I'm just buying new music by old bands.
Again, I'm confused by Pollard's theology. God Loves Us simply repeats "We are living proof that God loves us!" When I listen to his solo work all sorts of theologically beautiful messages come out. I can't remember what he was saying at that show in Seattle, but I remember it was so perfectly beautiful, mentioned Christ, and I was trying to write the lyrics on a scrap of cigarette box so I'd remember them when I was sober.
Do I have to describe the music? Can I just talk about how it makes me feel? Can I assume you know what GBV sounds like? Or that you'll know what GBV stands for....
These are things I always love about GBV:
The songs are always perfectly impossibly short. It's very rare you think a song is going on too long. By the time your brain forms that thought, it's over.
At some point Robert Pollard had to decide between being a teacher and being a performer. For me, between being a librarian and hanging around with bands.
At one point in my life I aspired to drink as much as he could. This was a mistake, not only a mistake that got me one step closer to recovery, but a mistake that I have to someday and somehow make amends to that woman from the 40 Watt Club for the night I tried to match Pollard beer for beer and ended up puking over the side of a couch she was trying to rest on all night. It was a New Years Eve show, give or take a few days.
I love they have a big fan fest and my bff said she won't go because she's slept with too many of the boys that go. I want to meet those boys too!
I love that I can put on most GBV albums and be happy just to listen in the background, but when I am driving or laying in bed and listen to the words, I find observations and humor that stick with me for days.
I love that when I was in that strange year where I was a h.s. frosh/community college student I bought the reissue box set of the first 5 albums on CD (aka Box) and I have listened to it, probably at least once a month on average, although perhaps more when I consider the weeks I would listen to nothing else, hundreds or thousands of times since then.
"My Europa" comes through sounding like something on that box set, but recorded in a basement studio.
"Chocolate Boy" song most likely to be played on NPR (I'm guessing).
"We Won't Apologize For the Human Race"...it only took 3 minutes for me to realize this is the longest song on the album. I'm imagining the strings as actual strings caging the band in here. They're quite beautiful. How can they sing the word "some" and make it rise above so perfectly? Was this just an exercise in making a 4 minute song? Are they alien or human? This may end up on my mix of awsome GBV songs I was supposed to make for Tony Perkins a few years back. A few years might be ten-ish now.
I'm thinking it will be humbling to write this with as little research as possible. It will be humbling to be wrong.
Am I going to have to listen to an entire album while writing about it to remember what I listen to this year? I am going to have to figure out a way to remember what I listen to without doing first impression listen blogs on everything (videoblog?)
Then again, there is a reason i didn't like much music this year:
Oh, I guess I could be more popular if I put .mp3s and stuff up with the bands I talk about, but whatever, there is so much of that and so little of me. I mean, there is usually something I want to listen to (even for a limited time) on NPR.... like the fact that this Let's Go Eat the Factory is streaming there for a limited time.
I bought the new Guided by Voices in a forgetful haze on iTunes at 2 AM on Christmas Eve. Eve as in Evening, as I wasn't sleeping. As if I'd be sleeping in with my adorable nephew sleeping in the room across from me. So today I was checking my credit card (oops) and while debt sucks (new years resolution: pay pal donate and Amazon wish list buttons on blogs), I did see I bought Let's Go Eat the Factory. This is semi significant as when I dropped my eMusic subscription when they dropped Merge, my new music listening also dropped to 0. Bad bad Ramona.
I'm not really buying new music if I'm just buying new music by old bands.
Again, I'm confused by Pollard's theology. God Loves Us simply repeats "We are living proof that God loves us!" When I listen to his solo work all sorts of theologically beautiful messages come out. I can't remember what he was saying at that show in Seattle, but I remember it was so perfectly beautiful, mentioned Christ, and I was trying to write the lyrics on a scrap of cigarette box so I'd remember them when I was sober.
Do I have to describe the music? Can I just talk about how it makes me feel? Can I assume you know what GBV sounds like? Or that you'll know what GBV stands for....
These are things I always love about GBV:
The songs are always perfectly impossibly short. It's very rare you think a song is going on too long. By the time your brain forms that thought, it's over.
At some point Robert Pollard had to decide between being a teacher and being a performer. For me, between being a librarian and hanging around with bands.
At one point in my life I aspired to drink as much as he could. This was a mistake, not only a mistake that got me one step closer to recovery, but a mistake that I have to someday and somehow make amends to that woman from the 40 Watt Club for the night I tried to match Pollard beer for beer and ended up puking over the side of a couch she was trying to rest on all night. It was a New Years Eve show, give or take a few days.
I love they have a big fan fest and my bff said she won't go because she's slept with too many of the boys that go. I want to meet those boys too!
I love that I can put on most GBV albums and be happy just to listen in the background, but when I am driving or laying in bed and listen to the words, I find observations and humor that stick with me for days.
I love that when I was in that strange year where I was a h.s. frosh/community college student I bought the reissue box set of the first 5 albums on CD (aka Box) and I have listened to it, probably at least once a month on average, although perhaps more when I consider the weeks I would listen to nothing else, hundreds or thousands of times since then.
"My Europa" comes through sounding like something on that box set, but recorded in a basement studio.
"Chocolate Boy" song most likely to be played on NPR (I'm guessing).
"We Won't Apologize For the Human Race"...it only took 3 minutes for me to realize this is the longest song on the album. I'm imagining the strings as actual strings caging the band in here. They're quite beautiful. How can they sing the word "some" and make it rise above so perfectly? Was this just an exercise in making a 4 minute song? Are they alien or human? This may end up on my mix of awsome GBV songs I was supposed to make for Tony Perkins a few years back. A few years might be ten-ish now.
I'm thinking it will be humbling to write this with as little research as possible. It will be humbling to be wrong.
Am I going to have to listen to an entire album while writing about it to remember what I listen to this year? I am going to have to figure out a way to remember what I listen to without doing first impression listen blogs on everything (videoblog?)
Then again, there is a reason i didn't like much music this year:
Critic-Approved Archetypes It Takes Effort For Me Not To Dismiss On First Listen As We Go Into 2012
So lets see how long I can keep up the ruse of not being a critic, I'm just on the hunt for that perfect song...or the band that makes me fall in love with them. The last band obsession I had was Psychedelic Horseshit a few years ago. That was a few years ago. That sucks.Oh, I guess I could be more popular if I put .mp3s and stuff up with the bands I talk about, but whatever, there is so much of that and so little of me. I mean, there is usually something I want to listen to (even for a limited time) on NPR.... like the fact that this Let's Go Eat the Factory is streaming there for a limited time.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
A Life Changing Breakfast
Oh wow. Since that last post.
1. I won the fabric from Fluffyland. It's wonderful. I haven't decided what to make with it yet, but the large piece of floral fabric is perfect for covering my table for craft fairs.
2. I got the job. Srsly. It's been life changing. I get to hang out with a rad band, I went on tour, I work with all their digital distribution accounts, I order/organize and sell the merch, and whatever other random things come up.
It's pretty simple, going to grad school online and studying digital information management DID NOT prepare me for public library work as much as it did of my simple, true dream "to help independent bands navigate the digital music industry". For a while that was sort of a "good luck getting paid doing that Court" so I said "okay, I'll do the 6-18 month old story time every week"...the funny thing is, I came around to loving the story times. I still had a magic number where if the crowd was over, oh, 35 people I was less happy than performing for 15...I know the statistics are good, and I can still do it, but you really lose something trying to entertain/educate so many kids at once, and I'll leave the details of that argument to the teachers and parents.
Wait, did I just go off on a tangent about the library again. Go figure. I was really here to show you what I ate for breakfast this morning. I ate noodles for breakfast!
I wasn't sure, I didn't want cereal or eggs or sausages or toast, but I was making Oolong Tea and looking for lunch (which is usually a frozen Safeway Select meal, not too exciting, but usually around 300 cals) when I realized, hmmm, these noodles require boiling, and I don't like cooking at work (except for my copious tea consumption) so maybe I'll eat them for breakfast.
Yummy yummy yummy idea!
Also, I'm the kind of woman who keeps tea bags in her purse and has a tea drawer at home. See, it's not
quite full right now:
You might see the Dieter's tea in there. Yes, it makes you go to the bathroom. I've read a lot of stories online, and there is no set time it makes you go...so with that warning, I only drink it on days I 1. overate while eating out 2. don't really have much planned for the next 24 hours. It does taste good, sorta a roasted field grass black tea taste.
And finally, since I keep eyeing the Keuring and thinking "oooh, I could save money on coffee"....I mostly love my HotShot. The only thing that drives me crazy is the old ones used to have the "heat" and "dispense" buttons on the front, so almost everytime I use it I hit "dispense" instead of "heat" on the first try. I rarely use the French Press, this is how lazy I can be, I usually get my coffee (black, no sugar, no cream) at Jack in the Box so I don't have to park and get out of my car. Yes, this is from a woman who never went to Starbucks by herself until two weeks ago (and I only bought something because I was terribly embarrassed that I had to ask if there was a bathroom key, and I didn't want to be a jerk to the employees, even though I know Starbucks isn't the WORST place to work...I just managed to avoid going there unless someone else insisted, for instance, Starbucks does have clean bathrooms when you're travelling). Okay, so a picture of my HotShot and the rarely used French Press.
Good morning anyone!
1. I won the fabric from Fluffyland. It's wonderful. I haven't decided what to make with it yet, but the large piece of floral fabric is perfect for covering my table for craft fairs.
2. I got the job. Srsly. It's been life changing. I get to hang out with a rad band, I went on tour, I work with all their digital distribution accounts, I order/organize and sell the merch, and whatever other random things come up.
It's pretty simple, going to grad school online and studying digital information management DID NOT prepare me for public library work as much as it did of my simple, true dream "to help independent bands navigate the digital music industry". For a while that was sort of a "good luck getting paid doing that Court" so I said "okay, I'll do the 6-18 month old story time every week"...the funny thing is, I came around to loving the story times. I still had a magic number where if the crowd was over, oh, 35 people I was less happy than performing for 15...I know the statistics are good, and I can still do it, but you really lose something trying to entertain/educate so many kids at once, and I'll leave the details of that argument to the teachers and parents.
Wait, did I just go off on a tangent about the library again. Go figure. I was really here to show you what I ate for breakfast this morning. I ate noodles for breakfast!
I wasn't sure, I didn't want cereal or eggs or sausages or toast, but I was making Oolong Tea and looking for lunch (which is usually a frozen Safeway Select meal, not too exciting, but usually around 300 cals) when I realized, hmmm, these noodles require boiling, and I don't like cooking at work (except for my copious tea consumption) so maybe I'll eat them for breakfast.
Yummy yummy yummy idea!
Also, I'm the kind of woman who keeps tea bags in her purse and has a tea drawer at home. See, it's notquite full right now:
You might see the Dieter's tea in there. Yes, it makes you go to the bathroom. I've read a lot of stories online, and there is no set time it makes you go...so with that warning, I only drink it on days I 1. overate while eating out 2. don't really have much planned for the next 24 hours. It does taste good, sorta a roasted field grass black tea taste.
And finally, since I keep eyeing the Keuring and thinking "oooh, I could save money on coffee"....I mostly love my HotShot. The only thing that drives me crazy is the old ones used to have the "heat" and "dispense" buttons on the front, so almost everytime I use it I hit "dispense" instead of "heat" on the first try. I rarely use the French Press, this is how lazy I can be, I usually get my coffee (black, no sugar, no cream) at Jack in the Box so I don't have to park and get out of my car. Yes, this is from a woman who never went to Starbucks by herself until two weeks ago (and I only bought something because I was terribly embarrassed that I had to ask if there was a bathroom key, and I didn't want to be a jerk to the employees, even though I know Starbucks isn't the WORST place to work...I just managed to avoid going there unless someone else insisted, for instance, Starbucks does have clean bathrooms when you're travelling). Okay, so a picture of my HotShot and the rarely used French Press.
Good morning anyone!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)