daughters of the american revolution constitution hall, washington, d.c. 08 april 2009: top notch performance great seats, too, for this sold out show. thanks to davy, kristin and dave
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Marching Bands of Manhattan New Year Crooked Teeth President of What My Mirror Speaks Company Calls No Sunlight Grapevine Fires I Will Possess Your Heart I Will Follow You Into the Dark Title and Registration Cath... Soul Meets Body A Movie Script Ending Long Division The Sound of Settling Bixby Canyon Bridge
Lupe Fiasco's songwriting is absurd. I purchased The Cool last year; lyrics are a tapestry rich with conceptual continuity spanning from his previous album, Food and Liquor. I'm listening to that disc now, continually impressed by the light Lupe sheds - genuine, sharp, playful, empathetic, brilliant.
This lyric from a track on Food and Liquor caught me off-guard:
A two family habitat for humanity With a view within the insanity. Live? My vida loca was built like Bob Vila villa gone.
Yo, did my man just drop a Bob Vila in there? That's what's up.
Recently signed up for Netflix and have been blasting through my queue (is that really how it's spelled?). Netflix is great - opens the door to a long list of good movies I never got around to seeing.
My #1 pick so far:
Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
"The bleakest movie you'll ever want to see twice." Indeed, after viewing I forced my parents to watch the next day. The cinematography is dreary, but when "Bring on the Lucie (Freeda Peeple)" by John Lennon is reprised as the end credits roll... well, it just makes me want to dance.
Also, wow. I just read this article: "Legalize Drunk Driving". Don't let the *gasp* title turn you off, it's an interesting argument. The warning about giving the government "power to make the application of the law arbitrary, capricious, and contingent on the judgment of cops" struck a chord with me.
Put my money in your meter, so it won't run down. But you caught me in the squeeze play on the cheesy side of town. Throw me a dime, throw me a line - 'cause there's a fat man in the bathtub with the blues.
Fat Man in the Bathtub Little Feat
Was it Casey Jones or Casey at the bat Who died out of pride and got famous for that? Killed by a swerve, laid low by the curve - Do you ever think they ever thought they got what they deserved?
from show @ wilmington's grand opera house, august 10 (less than one month after the show, following a couple of half-hearted/hapless attempts to blog from my cell phone). concert was good, tweedy et al took the stage on time and played a great set:
Sunken Treasure Wishful Thinking I Am Trying to Break Your Heart Blood of the Lamb You Are My Face Company in My Back Hotel Arizona Handshake Drugs Pot Kettle Black Side with the Seeds Radio Cure Impossible Germany Jesus, Etc. Theologians Poor Places Spiders (Kidsmoke)
[encore one]
Hummingbird Hate it Here Walken Walk On I'm the Man Who Loves You
[encore two]
Heavy Metal Drummer The Late Greats Casino Queen Outtasite (Outta Mind)
the grand opera house made an ideal venue; there was some speculation about whether anybody would fire one up inside the venerable establishment (olfactory confirmation at the beginning of the second encore).
Arrested Development is like an onion. It's delicious. I like garlic, too. Cheers, AD, you laser beam of crispy goodness piercing the smog and drudgery of our daily existence.
Just heard John Hiatt's "Cry Love" (featured in Episode 4, "Key Decisions") on XPN. Nice.
I just started listening to Wilco recently. Was first put off by roaring ambient noise crescendoing in some of their songs. Still not sure what that's all about. Digging the sound now. Lyrics are just right - ambiguous enough to project my own experience onto everything, yet avoiding complete nonsense.
Dad waited in line early this morning (5 a.m.) and got tickets for the Grand Opera House show. What a coup! Getting into this one is, like, a major privilege. Everything's coming up Millhouse.
"America was founded by men who understood that the threat of domestic tyranny is as great as any threat from abroad. If we want to be worthy of their legacy, we must resist the rush toward ever-increasing state control of our society. Otherwise, our own government will become a greater threat to our freedoms than any foreign terrorist."
"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."
– John "Q-Tip" Adams
Perhaps the application of the second quote is to do the right thing even (especially) when the wall of opposition seems insurmountable. Now, where did I put my "The Good and You" reference guide? Often it is speciously simple to ossify what the right thing is. In many situations it becomes a matter of perspective. An example is the spectrum of viewpoints on current military action by the United States.
I have encountered, and at times been a self-contained example of, an array of conflicting beliefs held by the highest conviction as being right. I find it epistemologically problematic when people hold contradictory, irreconcilable absolutes. If, as Lennon/McCartney placed in addled words, "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together," then I feel a shared culpability for others' absolutes, as they could easily have been my own. This affliction of empathy is uncommon amongst the highly polarized/politicized compartments of Democrats and Republicans. The team-mentality of election time in the U.S. is a playful outcropping of a deep need for "Us and Them," a deadly way of alleviating our personal fear and guilt by clinging to a group dependent on each other for survival.
I think we are each imbued with an innate sense or intuition for the good, although that intuition requires empirical honing. That honing should include drawing on the collective experience of history to augment our individual lens for the world. My personal intuition about implementing the good has been very haze-y in recent years, but some developments have emerged. "Revolution is dead." "Why bother?" "There is nothing new under the sun." Lazy pessimism. The battle of wills that has raged for the millennia is a race toward death, but there is, perhaps, another way. It involves withdrawal and self-sacrifice, not revivalist coercion or militant fascism. Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"To preserve the freedom of the human mind and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement."
It's all about Freeeedom, man. Liberty. Not the vacuous hedonism of self-destruction and dogmatic nihilism. Nor the false construct of mystical superstition. I appreciate the inclusion of "freedom of the press" as a sibling to "freedom of the human mind." The communication of ideas, education by a variety of perspectives, is the best hope for the improvement of the condition of man.
I was looking for a clip from King of the Hill where Dale Gribble (a cartoon hero of mine) is using bookstore basement as a firing range.
"And so we say farewell to A Farewell to Arms." [Blasts a giant hole through the dangling book.]
Copyright-infringement-free YouTube has failed me, but I did come across this, which seemed relevant (and priggishly obscure) enough:
The Minute Men perform "King of the Hill" – I checked out some more of their stuff. Don't really care for the sound, a kind of frantic, strained, ska-punk-pop. And thought the production value of this video was pretty childish (ok, I like the part where the big dude rolls down the hill). But their counterculture appeal against modern feudalism is cool.
We roll into the city via the Holland Tunnel around 7 pm. Found a ridiculous parking spot at Irving Plaza about two blocks from the show. Only a block in the other direction to Pete's Tavern for dinner and drinks (another claiming oldest bar in NYC) - pasta primevera had 8 cloves of garlic.
Long line to get into Fillmore at 9:30 (doors opened at 8) and Eisley has not gone on the stage yet. Mute Math starts before 11 pm and plays their typical hour and a half set - consistently brilliant live performance enhanced by real-time and recorded video displays (cool addition to the 'tube wall' lights)
Highlights: Stand-up bass for "Stare at the Sun/Obsolete" Darren standing on drum hoisted by crowd during "Break the Same" PECULIAR PEOPLE - finally! The NYC audience
Watching the British Open yesterday reminded me that PGA coverage varies by network. Features and commentary are different (CBS has Faherty), but what sets ABC in an eschelon above is their use of sweet musical tracks in the program (CBS has theme music by Yanni).
I remember a few years ago - just getting into golf - watching the leaderboard before commercials set to cuts from old classics and brand new releases (Beatles, Zeppelin, Tears for Fears, The Killers - anything between).
Yesterday's coverage included a heady segment of the instrumental intro to The Who's "Eminence Front" during the super-slow-motion swing vision shots. Yes!
