Santa Jay Came at last!

I knew he'd come - or at least, he'd drop my pressent off at the Williston UPS branch. I was so excited to see that cute little green package, (wrapped so professionally, with such austerity...) I just had to open it! Even thought it was 5 days after christmas...

"What is it?" i thought as i tore into the tightly bound package...
A TV VCR Combo? A baby brother? Perhaps a Cheese sampler from Dankin Farms!

Mayhaps the complete set of original transformers action figures, or
maybe that totally awesome Voltron set made out of metal...

What is this?!
OMFG
It's Franz Shubert's "Death of a maiden" and "trout" Quinet!
Oh how did he know that devious Santa Jay!

YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

Ahahahahah ahahahaha YAAAAAAAAAY!
So much joy and happiness flooding through my body!
This is the Best Christmas ever!
Thank you Santa Jay (for serious.)
10 points to anyone who can guess the movie in the background.
JB you don't count.

NYE

This time last year

12 Clarke Street Apt 1. Top buzzer
Here's a map.

Top News Headlines for the Day

Don't you just love how Gay rights and Foreign Policy occupy the same amount of space as James brown's crackhead girlfriend? Awesome.

How to Get Free

In 16 Simple Steps:

#1

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A little Adendum: Right after i posted this i was reading some of Eric Olsen's posts (mostly to make sure i didn't rip him off again) and i came across his post referring to Casey's post about the New Age dude and his book etc etc, anyway, he wrote a great synopsis of the effects smoking DMT and i laughed my ass off, so... I'm ripping it off and sticking some of it here, you can read the rest on his Blog, thanks Eric good stuff!

"... There were 6 or 7 of us, in the tiny, spare, filthy kitchen of my 4th floor walk-up, and we smoked this thing that tasted like we were smoking tires-- no, it was worse, it was more concentrated, like we were funneling a buring tire dump right into our lungs. But I kid you not, it was like this: you got the joint, took a long toke, tried to hold it in a bit, and as you passed it to the person nest to you-- yeah, about the time it left your fingers and you tried to bring your hand back-- you were peaking. You were high like you're high at the very peak of an acid trip-- you know, the thing you have 2 or 3 hours of acclimating to, that state that you actually bloom into...you know the point I'm talking about. Well, imagine going from stone sober to Stonehenge in 3 seconds-- yeah, all of a sudden your hand, the one that just passed a joint, is now a Wandering Jew that needs watering, but your other hand is no where to be found so in order to save the dying plants life, you manage to convince everyone/thing (you're not so sure what the hell that thing is that is standing where Allison was a second ago, but....) to spit on your hand-plant. And it'd be like that for, oh, 10 minutes ... and within 30, you were sober again ...."|the rest|

Announcement!

You're all cordially invited to join us at our centrally located (next to the church at the top of church st.) Apartment to ring in the new year, bring drinks, we'll provide the snacks (unless you're a seamonster, then bring snacks too... cause you guys are good cooks.) expect some rug cutting, some under the mistletoe cuddling, and some old grudge shrugging.

Ipod sets by Myself, Ben Hedstrom and Greg Davis, and at some point Todd w/ kick something over. Hopefully not the tree, or my cat. If you plan on stopping by let me know so i can get an idea as to how many of you to expect. Happy Holidays and Cya then!

WHAT: Party!
WHEN: .... December 31st
WHERE: 12 CLARKE STREET APT# 1 (just off pearl, across from Parima.)
WHO: You.
WHY: 'Cause.

Excuse me Mr. Claus

If you would be so kind:

I spent a lot of time reading the Illuminatus! Trilogy five or six years ago, it blew my mind, not to mention it was completely absurd. Throughout it there are contradictory quotations from this book, also penned by RAW and others.

Soundtrack to The Hired Hand; A western Peter Fonda did right after Easy Rider, aparently it's a great movie, i havn't seen it, but i do have the soundtrack (on mp3) What i really want is the Vinyl. Very hard to come by . But if you get the chance take a listen, this album predicts the entire free noise folk sound by like 40 years... Matt Valentine, Tower Recordings, Buried Civilizations, the whole Jewelled Antler crew... A contemporary of Lovecraft, though even less recognized in his day, i've always had a soft spot for their inability to discern their own reality from the worlds they create on paper... adds a bit more creepiness than usual to a late night reading.

My friend Sara Paule used to play lots of various classical records around the house, often they'd just sort of float around and be generally pleasant, and other times, i would stop and be forced to listen; Schubert was one of these. I don't know what we listened to, but i know Bernstein come recommended, and i also know that these later works, including his unfinished, as he approached his young death, were some of his more pained and emotive pieces. Recommended for anyone interested in later Romantic period Classical music.

I'll be setting up my own domain and designing my own website come spring; integrating a blog system is an important step - i recently installed a bBlog on my test server; was a bit of a pain in the ass; i know nothing about PHP or mySQL, so it'll be interesting to see how that works out.

This is awesome... Every video that New Order put out, including new videos made especially for this collection, plus the orginal 30 minute Documentary of the band expanded to 70 minutes... that's alot of extra footage... awesome. Here's their video for Perfect Kiss; a great early video concept of "filming the band performing the song live in the studio." Plus i love watching Peter Hook play bass; dude is so good.

I've been meaning to check out some of Warren Ellis' comics for a while and this comes highly recommended; There a few pages where driving through LA, Desolation Jones, and ex-MI6 secret agent and a friend discuss the idea of Post Structuralism; that buildings and cities like LA are designed not to be lived in, but to be driven through... Sounds like a fun read.

Last but defiantly not least; The Complete Factory records design collection by Peter Saville; if you're wondering if you've seen his work before you probably have. There's a companion book simply called "Designed by Peter Saville" by Peter Saville. I'll take this too.

(ps Santa, you can click the pictures to find out where your elves can find them.)

Cutting down Trees

Outside of my recent, almost entirely all consuming obsession with New Order, I've had the chance to give a few new and excellent albums a go through. And since yesterday my obsession finally peaked w/ the arrival of the 18 N.O. albums (movement up to Technique), 12" and 7"s i won on Ebay, i may soon have even more time to put towards listening to new music...

Or maybe i could start a NO remix project... yeah....

No!

Beach House - S/T

I took a drive on Sunday up the F.C. to find a tree to chop down and display ceremoniously in my living room. It was a great sunday to be in Vermont; there was snow on th ground, the sun was blasting, and the air was clean. I grabbed my Ipod, my spirits, a coffee and hit the road. This was the first thing i played, and it lasted almost the entire trip to my friend Johns organic farm; I hadn't heard it yet, but picked it up on a hot tip from AQ.

It was pefect. exactly what you want to listen to while driving through a sunny winter landscape... so much warmth, yet w/ a certain cold detactment. Buzzy organs, crunchy spare percussion, and boy girl vocals w/ that west coast lackadaisical hum and strum; equal parts Beach Boys, Yo La Tengo and yes, Broadcast.

and so i don't step all over AQ; here's what they said:

Wow! We haven't been this smitten with a debut release in quite a while. Didn't know much about this Baltimore duo but we do know, the second this record we laid ears on this the first time, we were immediately seduced by the glorious sounds within. Hazy, daydreaming pop with equal parts magic, mystery and dreamy darkness, all drenched in beautiful melodies and sincere sensuality. Kind of made us think of Broadcast taking a warm bubble bath with Coco Rosie. Lights out, candles burning, bubbles floating, reverb dripping. There is a timelessness in these songs that is so evocative, Warhol's factory, a summer twilight in Southern California in the '70s, an abandoned art studio in the UK. You can never quite put your finger on exactly where these songs are drawn from but in the end it's music truly unique and wonderful. A mysterious voice, a haunting presence and songs carry you off, eyes closed, to somewhere much more enchanting then wherever you really are. So nice!

"This is why events unnerve me,
They find it all, a different story,
Notice whom for wheels are turning,
Turn again and turn towards this time,
All she ask's the strength to hold me,
Then again the same old story,
Word will travel, oh so quickly,
Travel first and lean towards this time."
-Ian Curtis

On the way home, i needed a pick me up - the tree was cut and loaded in my Tacoma, and the sun was already on its way to bed. I had stopped in to visit my grandmother, she still lives alone, despite having had a stroke and a suffering from a potentially fatal aneurysm in her stomach. She was sad; she had gone to her monthly Widow's support group and all the ladies their had been talking about how they're going on cruises for the winter, or trips down south, or even Europe... but because of her stomach, she can't go anywhere and she's stuck here for the winter.

I sat on the floor and played w/ her weird cat Minew and listened to her roll off half-connected stories about my grandfather, how because of a heart condition he wasn't supposed to live past 18; but made it almost to 80 - and her uncle who was a secessionists for Quebec; how when she was a girl they would smoke corn silk, and when she was in her 20's she traveled to Spain and Tangiers She even informed me, seemingly out of the blue, that

"Your grandfather and I never had sexual intercourse till after we were married...."

leaving me smiling awkwardly and wondering how to respond to that, before i could respond she turned her attention back to the cat. I missed out on so much not being born till the 80's...

So on the way home i listened to more New Order...

Listless? Don't be.

If you didn't know already (but if you're reading my blog, chances are you're well aware of it.) False 45th has been publishing various year end music roundups as opined by local musicians and music lovers. So far their have been some great write ups, including some great reads by Neil Cleary and Greg Davis.

Today was mine and Ben's turn - check it out. Oh, and better clear your schedual for about 10 minutes, i didn't realize it, but mine's a doozy. |False45th|