So here’s the set list from Aether Everywhere #2. We featured Harmonia’s Deluxe from 1975, and then played some other like-minded jams to round out the second hour. Harmonia started out as side project for Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius of Cluster and Michael Rother of Neu!, and on Deluxe, they also prominently featured Guru Guru’s Mani Neumeier on drums. We recommend both this and Musik Von Harmonia, if you haven’t checked them out. Eno loved them, and Bowie’s Berlin-era albums wouldn’t have sounded the same without them.

The download, courtesy of your charitable psychedelic ambassadors:

1) "Girl Call" - Guru Guru UFO / Great opener - starting out slow and building in waves of echoing guitars and Mani Neumeier's dextrous playing.

2) “Fotschi Song” – Cluster Zuckerzeit/Listen to this and try to remember the last time you heard a song so gracefully kick some ass.

3) “E-Musik” – Neu! Neu! 75/Listen to this and try to remember the last time you heard a song so full-on kick some ass.

4) “Veterno” – Harmonia Musik Von Harmonia/Harmonia’s more stripped down approach, with the drum machine taking center stage and Rother practicing beautiful restraint.

5) “Sunrain” – Ashra New Age of Earth/When the rest of Ash Ra Tempel fell away, Manuel Gottsching pushed on, creating gorgeous cyclical patterns that rivaled the work of his former bandmate and space rock pioneer, Klaus Schulze. This couldn’t be a more perfectly titled song.

6) “Ala Tul” – Agitation Free Malesch/Dear Lord, thank you for making Krautrockers who love them some Terry Riley and Steve Reich. Amen.

7) “Darkness: Flowers Must Die” – Ash Ra Tempel Schwingungen/And just when you thought “E-Musik” kicked the most ass…

8) “Birth of Liquid Plejades” – Tangerine Dream Zeit/Dear Brian Eno, Thank you for taking credit as the inventor of ambient music, even though we put out Zeit in 1972 and you put out Discreet Music in 1975. Love, Tangerine Dream

9) “Universal Band Silhouette” – Jan Jelinek Kosmischer Pitch/This may seem like a bit of a curve ball, considering Jelinek’s a microhouse guy and this was recorded in 2005. For Kosmischer Pitch, though, he decided to assemble his tunes using Krautrock samples, and “Universal Band Silhouette” kicks the album off with hypnotic guitars that would make Michael Rother proud.

10) “Im Garten Der Gemeinschaft” – Popol Vuh Fitzcarraldo/A beautiful cut buried in the soundtrack for a Werner Herzog film about a opera house being built in a South American jungle. Any of the albums Florian Fricke composed for Herzog’s films are worth seeking out.

DOWNLOAD

Be sure to tune into Aether Everywhere next Thursday at 10 p.m. for our year-end special! Tanner and I will be featuring half-hour excerpts from our favorite psych albums of 2007, and then we’ll play some other great mindbenders released this year. And remember, if you like anything here - support the artists by buying their albums! - JOSH

As promised, here’s the download for our sets from the first Aether Everywhere show on December 20th. Thanks to all who listened, and we hope you tune in next Thursday at 10 p.m. on 105.9 fm!

1. “Slip Inside This House” – 13^th Floor Elevators / The leadoff track from the Elevators’ classic Easter Everywhere, and possibly their finest moment.

2. “Vacation” – Excepter / Trippy-ass offering from the Brooklyn neo-pysch/noise/Kraut outfit. KA’s the album, and if Michael from Pure Pop can’t track it down, try www.othermusic.com.

3. “Cross Selling” – Oval / One of the more accessible tracks from 94diskont, and like the others, its beats are sculpted almost entirely out of CD skips.

4. “Kingdom of Love” – Soft Boys / One of the many perfect psych-pop songs found on 1980’s Underwater Moonlight.

5. “Le Grand Dome” – Biosphere / Typical fare from the Norwegian ambient guru, it evokes the barren landscape of his locale above the Arctic Circle.

6. “Deep Chair” – Datacide / The centerpiece of Flowerhead, a phenomenal psychedelic album by Tetsu Inoue and Atom Heart. Lots of interesting rhythms and kids chanting.

7. “Music For Tundra” – Tim Hecker / Buzzy and beautiful track from 2002’s underrated Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again.

8. “Traveling Without Moving (Trip #8)” – Pete Namlook / Didgeridoo, anyone? Air II is a spooky masterpiece, and you should go find it right now.

9. “Cries From the Midnight Circus” – The Pretty Things / If this sounds vaguely like the Beatles, that’s because it was recorded in Abbey Road with production work from Norman Smith. Listen for the shakers.

10. “Archangels Thunderbird” – Amon Duul II / German freaks unleash the chunky guitar chords and funky drums on this one, taken from the awesome, schizophrenic Yeti.

11. “Druganaut (Extended)” – Black Mountain / The Vancouver stoner rockers double the track length, and tack some bongos and organ riffs onto the Jaki Leibezeit-on-“Mushroom”-style drum shuffle.

12. “Slow City” – Pharaoh Overlord / Hypnotic guitar and drum groove from the Circle side project.

13. “Najaf Library Card (Dub Mix)” – Porn Sword Tobacco / This Swedish ambient artist’s dubby (duh) contribution is taken from 2005’s Explains Freedom.

14. “Light: Look At Your Sun” – Ash Ra Tempel / Bluesy slow burner culminating with an acid-fried guitar solo, courtesy of Manuel Gottsching.

15. “Blues Trip #1” – L / Culled from 1990’s initially rare but recently reissued Holy Letters, this features some great Japanese vocals.

16. “Bring Me Coffee or Tea” – Can / Always a nice respite after the half hour face melt that is “Aumgn” and “Peking O” from Tago Mago.

17. “Stereomission” – Mouse on Mars /It doesn’t matter how many times you hear this groove—when you do, it’ll catapult you into another multi-week obsession with MoM.

18. “Ageispolis” – Aphex Twin / Those of you who think that Selected Ambient Works 85-92 sounds terribly dated need to just shut the hell up.

19. “2080” – Yeasayers / Catchy and trippy and sounding very little like TVOTR (save the vocal nuances), this is taken from one of Tanner’s top albums of this year. To read more about, scroll on down…

20. “They” – Nagisa Ni Te / Ever wonder what it’d be like to a have a sing-along inside a plank board clad bar with absinthe instead of beer?

Part 1 (tracks 1 - 9)

Part 2 (tracks 10-20)

Oldy in the Mornin'

This morning Oldham woke me up to go out, and then jumped up for a morning cuddle session. This is the way to start out a good day. He doesn't spend the night on the bed, namely because he prefers his crate, but also because he's huge now and pushes us all over the place. But damn if he isn't the biggest cuddle bug in Burlington. And when he's not cuddling he's staring thoughtfully out the window, watching birds. I know he just wants to snuggle them too.
Time for eggs and coffee.

6 and a half months ago....

Human Tetris

AHAHAHAHA HAAH AHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AHA HAHAHA!
And now for my impression of what Society does to the individual.

Mommy, Wow!

The other night, I was talking with Tanner about how musicians like Keith Fullerton Whitman and Tetsu Inoue can get by using only a couple of notes because they’re the right notes. This invariably led to Tanner talking about the right notes on that big bone organ in The Goonies. (the human mind works in strange and mysterious ways. -ed) Now, whenever The Goonies is mentioned, I think of one thing and one thing only: The Truffle Shuffle. Beyond the obvious artistic merits of the Shuffle, I ponder a specific memory that not only haunts me to this day, but also sabotaged Richford Jr.-Sr. High School’s Freshmen Initiation…forever. The story I relayed that night disgusted and disturbed (delighted?) Tanner to the point that he fervently suggested I blog it. So I will do this thing he asks.

When I was but a boy, attending the aforementioned hallowed halcyon of learning on the hill, there was a yearly tradition that delighted Richford folk young and old: Freshmen Initiation. And I’m not talking about typical hijinx a la Parker Posey in Dazed and Confused either. Oh no. This was actually sanctioned by school administrators, teachers, and even (most of) the parents of the participants.

Every year, each graduating senior was allowed to choose a member of the freshmen class to essentially torture and traumatize for a day. My designated senior, bless her heart, decided that I would crawl on my hands and knees throughout the hallways and kiss the feet of any senior passerby. But that’s not where it ended. During the last two periods of the day, the students were dismissed from classes, and everyone from the town was invited to pile into the gymnasium. Each freshman would then go out the middle of the floor to perform a skit.

These skits ranged in their levels of inappropriateness, from forcing students to eat whole raw onions or pies made with spoiled whipped cream, to dressing the class’s closeted lesbian up as the androgynous Pat from SNL. One of my classmates was outfitted in a slinky teddy and sent out to lip synch “Like a Virgin.” Even the mildly retarded girl in my class wasn’t spared! The two that really sealed the demise of the ritual, however, involved me and my best friend, Mike, and an extremely overweight individual, respectively.

Mike and I were dressed in nothing but adult diapers and boxer shorts, which were tucked up under the diapers. We were then instructed to ride Hot Wheels out to the middle of the floor, lament about our bladder issues and infant-like cognition, and then sing the Pull-Ups jingle. Right about the time I had to show that “I can pull them off and on,” you can guess where this is going, I hooked my thumbs in one waistband too many and pulled everything down. So yeah, basically the entire town of Richford saw my butt and wang.

And that’s not even as bad as it got! Remember the Truffle Shuffle? Well, again, I’d imagine you can tell what I’m going to say next. Yup, the quiet, shy, overweight boy was made to take off his shirt, stand in front of hundreds of townspeople, and shake his torso until the whole place erupted in laughter. Nice, huh? Needless to say, the administration (with some heavy urging from my father, who was the chair of the English department) finally decided that maybe it wasn’t OK to send droves of kids home crying and humiliated. Ya think?

So that is my story. I don’t know what’s more alarming: That it ever happened in the first place, or that we all thought it was completely normal. Don’t ever go to Richford, people.

-JOSH

Top 10 Albums of 2007

10. The National - Boxer
10. Magnolia electric Co - Sojourner

Ok, i had to add this album in after listening to it 4 times in the last 24 hours. I've only had it for a couple of weeks, and listened to it no more than 10 times, but i think it's safe to say this album deserves a spot on this list. It's truly under stated and stately, heavy and dour, hopeful and even occasionally celebratory. And his voice, is addictive - now i just have to spend some more time with the lyrics, are they really as good as they sound when they come through?

"I wanna hurry home to you
put on a slow, dumb show for you
and crack you up
so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain
god I’m very, very frightening
I’ll overdo it"
----

What's not to love with this box set, Jason Molina's never let me down, even when he's not blowing my mind on albums like Didn't it Rain or M.E.C. he's still crafting unique and memorable tunes, and with his turn towards more Youngian country rock, it seems he's found a sound that's proven quite fruitful. Sojourner collects 4 CDs worth of album cuts, alternate mixes and out takes from 4 studio sessions over the last couple years. All together it provides a solid over view of his work of late, surprisingly solid.

9. Arboretum - Rites of Uncovering

This one took a while to grow on me, on first blush i was a little miffed by their Oldham brothers worship (more on the Anomoanon side than the Palace bros), and the occasional lapse into guitar twiddling that didn't seem (at first) to go anywhere. Strange thing happened though, all those rough edges smoothed out and as winter has rolled in I've been going back to this one on my walks and drives. Think Sunn meets Palace meets The Dead.

8. Fiest - The Reminder

This album is probably on the most top 10 lists this year. This one i guess, is my Panda Bear. It's back to front a perfect collection of brilliant songs, running through hushed confessionals and bouncy indie rock - there's something for everyone waiting in line at Starbucks. Whatever, this was the year i started going to Starbucks i guess.

7. Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall

I love Neil... but his more recent output hasn't really hit the mark like i wanted them too. That's not to say i don't love him for coming out and railing against Bush and Co. Or just plain ol' continuing to do things the way he wants to, but after being spoiled like i have by his late 60's early 70's work, Impeach the president just doesn't cut it.
Hearing Live at Masey Hall for the first time was an amazing experience; The recording quality is absolutely fantastic, and its obvious he's at the top of his game. The emotional weight that he's able to bring down on tracks like Bad fog of loneliness can't be touched by anyone, and that means you, Dylan.

6. Yeasayer - All Hour symbol

This is a really cool album. Such an interesting amalgam of styles and sounds - 1 part, Animal Collective, 1 part TV on the Radio, 1 Part Phil Collins. Still here? Good. Cause it's really great stuff, and emotional to boot. The general theme is of bubbling anger, remorsefulness & resentment towards what we've done to the world and ourselves, and a sort of apocalyptic fearfulness of the future played out with big heavy changes electronics, hippy guitars, tribal drums, chanting and (this is where the Phil Collins comes in.) Really catchy 80's vocal stylings. Yes... they're from Brooklyn.

5. Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters

Do i get extra points for having partied with these guys at their farm in Olympia years ago? Josh says yea, thanks Josh. These guys are where i go to for my black metal lately. Not that i'm a connoisseur of the stuff, I'd never make that wild claim. (put down the knife Chris Miller.) I really dig good Black metal, but what gets Two Hunters onto this list is what they bring to the table besides fucking brutal black metal. 1) Shoegaze! big heavy sad shoegaze.... why didn't Mayhem ever think of this? nothing makes your tracks heavier than if you drop into them after floating through some dank swampy aether for 10 minutes. 2) Ethos! Think corpse paint and spikes are hardcore? Try radical green anarchism.

4. Dungen - Tio Bitar

For some reason this album, as well as their last album remind me of Christmas time. There's something joyous and full about the melodies and the playing reminds me of energetic romps through snowy country hills. If you were a fan of their US debut, and chances are you were, you'll be pleasantly surprised here - on first listen the melodies take a little longer to emerge, but after repeated listens you'll be whistling the violins on Visar Vagen, or rocking out some serious air guitar to Mon Amour. You know it's fascinating that my favorite psych album is coming out of the great white north of Europe while my black metal is straight out of the pacific northwest. go figure.

3. LSD March - Constellation of Tragedies

This year was the year i finally got my hands on some LSD March - basically one guy out of Japan who writes these melencholic, smoky, echoing minimalist psychedelic dirges - and accentuates them with sparse bells, noises, whistles, cries and some of the best clean-electric guitar solos i've heard anyone play this side of On the Beach. (ok Nagisa Ni Te, you guys too.) I've heard them described as The VU meets Les Rallizes Denudes, and that comparison doesn't seem that far off - but make no mistakes, LSD March's sound is uniquely and subtly it's own - i could listen to this album, over and over again.

2. Studio - Yearbook 1

This one took me out of leftfield - i hadn't heard a single word about it, and it slipped under my radar up until about a month ago. Since then it's been on regular rotation everywhere i go. There's a track for every situation on this puppy. The Album itself is over 70 minutes, and consists of the duo's various 12" issues over the last year. How can i explain this properly. The duo describe themselves something like, Afrobeat electro pop... but to me it sounds more along the lines of like, if The Cure got into motorik tribal grooves and Robert Smith got laryngitis. Something like that... But to be honest its such an interesting combo of sounds and styles - given that Studio are just that, a studio experiment, you can listen and hear where they had one idea and strung it up against another, and then after a week or so of listening to say, Durutti Column, came back into the studio and layed down some killer minimalist guitar figure.
What makes Yearbook 1 so successful though, is that each idea is fully explored and delivered upon, there's not a single half baked song on the album, and some stretch out over 15 minutes, constantly growing a pulsing with krauty goodness... Now that's tasty.

1. Burial - Untrue

What can i say about Untrue - well, i'll repeat what i said about it on False 45th; This album takes the promise of his debut and delivers in ways i wasn't expecting. While on the self-title, the vocals often floated in and out and left me feeling that their presence was at best arbitrary, and at worst, unnecessary. I've never been a fan of vocals in dance floor oriented electronic music, to me, the synths fill this gap nicely without the need of cooing Hi-NrG mantras. Untrue brings the vocals to the forefront, and while on first blush i was skeptical, i quickly fell under their spell. Composed of samples of voice mail messages and melodic fragments, untrue introduces a layer of gauzy euphoria that floats like London fog over the razorblade hi-hats, woodblock snares, and meat packed bass hits.

All this adds up to an amazingly cinematic experience in headphones that's both warm and romantic and as cold and desolate as nuclear winter, all the while, my head is nodding and my foot is tapping. I think it's safe to say that in the world of electronic music, perhaps all music, you'll be hard pressed to find a more unique and beautifully crafted album this year.

---

Thanks for taking the time to read my top 10 of the year, please feel free to comment - link me to your lists, etc - also, over the next couple of days i'll be posting tracks from each album, so check back in! Thanks also to all of these artists for making 2007 a great year for music!

Neil Young - Sunset Strip

I was contacted this morning by a reader asking me to repost Neil Young's "Roll another Number" from this bootleg that came my way through pure pop a year or more ago. I figure I'll do you all one better and post the whole album.

A few side notes - from what i understand and judging by the on stage banter and set list, this is a recording from the heart of Neil's infamous ditch period. The tracks are all ragged and blown out, Neil is ranting and raving, talking about cocaine and booze, songs start, then stop, then start - but the whole thing sounds magically perfect. If you're a fan of Tonights the Night, and think that Neil Young is best listened to on scratchy vinyl, whiskey in hand, than this recording is perfection. Merry Christmas.

Mellow My Mind - World On a String - Speakin Out - Albuquerque - New Mama - Roll Another Number - Tire Eyes - Tonight's the Night - The Losing End - Tell me Why - LA - Lookout Joe - Don't Be Denied - Yonder Stands The Sinner - Last Dance

DOWNLOAD

Putin it to you.

Awesome. Take a long hard look into Puties eyes.... there's love in those eyes. I needed to come up with a blog to go with this picture, cause it was just too good to let slide. How's the holidays everyone? Good? No? Not so good? Feeling Grinchy? I gotta say - I'm feelin good. This whole unemployment bit is way cooler than i remember it being in the past. Sure i got this ever approaching financial crisis looming just over my shoulder, but that's nothing that a little egg nog, and a little rum, a little more rum, can't f- perhaps a bit more rum, can't fix.

Right now, out my window, it's snowing and it's grey as... It's 4pm. on a Thursday afternoon, where are you? I'm sitting inside catching a buzz with my Bernese mountain dog laying on my feet, watching the world happen. That's pretty cool. KISS liked my work, that's cool too - though I'd feel better about if they had any artistic integrity, but they do have money, which is a close second. Either way, I'm a sucker for validation from people with heavy perms, cigarette breath and too much make-up, thanks mom, Gene.

Oh yes. Tonight, Thursdays, from 10pm till 12pm, myself and good friend / co-blogger Josh LaClair will be hosting a radio show on Burlington's own premiere community radio station, 105.9 The Radiator, titled "Aether Everywhere" (13th floor elevators reference anyone? christ we're clever.) where we'll be running the gamut of all things psychedelic. That means just about anything that, as Josh put it, makes your head go "Wuh wuh wuh wuh wuh wuh wuh [etc]".

Our format will be focused on a single album or artist each show, and with the remaining time, some sort of similar artist, spin off, side project, spiritual successor, like minded contemporary or just some wild shit we like. The goal as we discussed excitedly over Monster energy drinks and with great seriousness, is not to "Like, fucking antagonize people, but like - challenge and sort of like, make people fucking like, rock out."

So yeah. Be there. Be everywhere. Aether Everywhere.
Lol.

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939)

I was stopped cold when i stumbled upon the artwork of this man, Arthur Rackham. I'm a fan of illustrators, evidenced by my interest in graphic novels and the Gorey prints on my arm and walls. Though i'd never seen Mr. Rackham's work before, after looking through a collection of his illustrations; specifically on the piece above, i realized why i felt it familiar; Guillermo Del Toro sited Rackham's work as his artistic inspiration for Pan's Labyrinth.

Rackham's style was wildly fantastic, and classically restrained in the same breath, and his use of (and illustrations for) classic Victorian children's tales as subjects only increases their otherworldly queeziness for me. I can't help but stare at the detail in each plate, the softness of the faces, the subtle and muted tones. Beautiful stuff.

How not to party.

My friend Jared was nice enough to invite me to his Christmas / friend's birthday party over the weekend, unfortunately that was also the same night as the Excellent Plastic Ono cover band and the Greg Davis curated night of avant spectacular. Needless to say, it was a busy night. To top it off, Jared lives in Stowe.

But like good friends JB and I piled into my truck around 9:30 and hit the road. If only i had known what was in store i wouldn't have made the effort. Sorry Jared, no offense. I'll sum it up, Asshole, Pabst blue ribbon, dudes, Sublime, ironic holiday sweaters. When i walked in i got props for my selection, unfortunately , as i informed them - it was what i normally wear. Awkward.

It's not that I'm above all those things, i feel like i have to apologize for some reason, - I'm a fan of cheap beer, stupid card games, and nostalgic tunes. But that night, i guess, after having been emotionally tuned in by beautiful and passionately covered Lennon tunes, and intellectually turned on by the events at Kriya, i was in the mood for something a little more... substantial.

Yes, those are empty beercans decorating the tree.

I miss you, John.

"I miss you, John. 27 years later, I still wish I could turn back the clock to the Summer of 1980. I remember everything - sharing our morning coffee, walking in the park together on a beautiful day, and seeing your hand stretched to mine - holding it, reassuring me that I shouldn't worry about anything because our life was good.

I had no idea that life was about to teach me the toughest lesson of all. I learned the intense pain of losing a loved one suddenly, without warning, and without having the time for a final hug and the chance to say, "I love you," for the last time. The pain and shock of that sudden loss is with me every moment of every day. When I touched John's side of our bed on the night of December 8th, 1980, I realized that it was still warm. That moment has haunted me for the past 27 years - and will stay with me forever."

- Yoko Ono, Today.

Psyched.

It bothered me for several days, but I finally figured who my new daughter, Noelle, looks just like: Paul Sorvino! How sweet is that?! This particular photo of her may not represent the likeness as well as it could, but trust me—every time we wake her up or take her off the breast, it’s all Sorvino. Jealous much? Naturally, her mother and I could not be more thrilled.

You might say that Paul Sorvino and I have a bit of a history, which makes the resemblance all the more special. Well, not so much a history, but my father-in-law and I did sit one booth away from him in an ice cream shop in Stowe. He scolded his grandchildren the entire time. I even tried to follow him into the bathroom, just so I could say that I peed next to Paul Sorvino, but alas, it was one of those one stall/one urinal jobs. I heard Paul Sorvino pee, though! Good healthy stream for an older gentleman, I might add.

So, since I’m supposed to be the music guy for Highgate, I figure I oughta tie at least one song into the post. I’ll leave you with a download of “Jump Into the Fire,” so you can envision that glorious scene in Goodfellas where a very paranoid, very strung out Ray Liotta drives around selling guns, outrunning the narc helicopter, and worrying about his brother stirring the spaghetti sauce.

-JOSH

In the thick of it.

Unemployment gets better and better. Monday with nothing more to do than run through snow fields with a snow dog. That's livin' large - I can see the forest for the trees easily enough.

Shitcanned.

I woke up this morning, sat up - and looked around, Jenny and Oldham were no where to be found. Actually it was 12:30pm. I swung my legs out of bed, and pulled back the curtain, it was sunny out. I had two water glasses on the sill, the big one, was more than half full. The little one however, was empty.

Yesterday i got laid off. My job got outsourced to a couple douche-bags from Montreal called Number of Names. I'm a little pissed. But you know, actually i feel pretty good, besides this splitting headache and a void where last night between 1pm and now should be. I gotta say, I'm kind of excited. I've hated this job of mine for a good while now, about six months ago the company (a small upstart web based marketing firm.) came under new management through a Canadian based group, they quickly and quietly fired about 50% of the people i worked with, about 12 people (like, i said, small.) They then took most of operations and all that junk up to Montreal, leaving our Burlington branch sort of hanging in breeze.

Let me analogize this. I felt sort of like, K-Cos in Dances with Wolves. Living in his hut out on the frontier (my cubical in a barely occupied office.) with only my trusty horse (my ipod) and curious native Americans (The internet) to keep me company. And my wits. That can be my Dreamcast i had setup in the break room.

Anyway. So work trickled in, mainly a little "slap some makeup on this", "give me 15 variations of color and font for that", perhaps a "can you design this site from the ground up over the course of about 8 total revisions and 4 months so we can then outsource this motherfucker to some assholes who've never worked in web before and have no idea what Photoshop is?" thanks, sure thing ass.

So to quote Bob Dylan, i had a job in the great north woods, working as a cook for a spell, but i never did like it all that much and one day the ax just fell. Just replace cook with web designer. So currently I'm considering heading to New Orleans so i can get a job on a fishing boat, right outside of Delacroix. That, or I'm gonna find work around here somewhere, preferably in the design field. I'm also thinking of going back to school, part time, to finish my degree. I wonder what kind of credits i can get transfered from a Sound Engineering school in Sydney and a year of Philosophy and English lit from Evergreen. . . . Shit.

Unemployed for the Holidays - I picked the wrong week to quit smoking.

But like i said, I'm strangely not that concerned, i mean, i am a little bit. But i got some savings, and I'll go on unemployment if i can't find work through the holidays, but in the meantime I'm still doing freelance work (thanks Gene Simmons.) - it seems like everyone needs someone with my kind of skills. (no not those skills.) Right? But I'll keep you all, my dear sweet readers, in the know, as i plan on documenting every embarrassing, boring detail of my unemployment.

Why? Why not. I'm unemployed, i got nothing better to do.

This Just In:

Books Responsible for Iraq War!

The other night I experienced something that can only be likened to accidentally knocking my uvula with a toothbrush. Or to put it another way, if I were posting this on undead Molly it would land squarely in the "vomit" category.

It all began innocently enough. I'm rocking the Man vs. Wild marathon when it cuts to commercials. Bear's just finished hollowing out and climbing into a dead camel (after drinking the contents of its auxiliary stomach, of course) and I need a little cuddle time with my two-year-old, Genevieve, to decompress after that intense display. With my attention directed away from the TV, I begin to hear a familiar series of plucked strings, and it takes me a second to get my bearings. Where have I heard that before? Why, it's the beginning of "Read, Eat, Sleep" by The Books! How exciting! What is this, a commercial for the Global Climate Coalition or something? Wait a second... Oh, please God, no! I am not seeing this! My eyeballs are melting! Onto the screen rolls the all-too-familiar metal monstrosity that so conveniently supports All That is Wrong With Our Country on a mere two axles and four oversized tires. The single most abhorrent status booster for those who are too pathetic/lazy/clueless to derive self-worth from actually doing something worthwhile. A mothereffing HUMMER. The Books. In a Hummer commercial.

So there you have it. I was speechless then, and to be honest, I still have no idea what the hell to say. I haven't felt this betrayed since my BFF, Todd, called one night to inform me that The Shins were playing house band for the Gilmore Girls. (No offense, Faith.) And let's face it, that's about 500 times less offensive than SELLING YOUR SONG TO MOTHEREFFING HUMMER. I just don't know anymore. Honestly, sometimes I feel like I've been drugged and whisked away to an alternate universe. Now, after some googling I realized that this commercial's been out for awhile, so I apologize if this is old news/bitching fodder for some of you. I just needed to vent somewhere, and where better than the hallowed pages of Highgate? Where, I ask you?

-Josh

"Dear Santa."

What made me want to read this memoir written by the famous Victorian era mystic explorer Alexandra David-neel was when i read about the Tupla she created while in Tibet:

"The method involved was essentially intense concentration and visualization. David-Neel's tulpa began its existence as a plump, benign little monk, similar to Friar Tuck. It was at first entirely subjective, but gradually, with practice, she was able to visualize the tulpa out there, like an imaginary ghost flitting about the real world.

In time the vision grew in clarity and substance until it was indistinguishable from physical reality-a sort of self-induced hallucination. But the day came when the hallucination slipped from her conscious control. She discovered that the monk would appear from time to time when she had not willed it. Furthermore her friendly little figure was slimming down and taking on a distinctly sinister aspect.

Eventually her companions, who where unaware of the mental disciplines she was practicing, began to ask about the "stranger" who had turned up in their camp-a clear indication that a creature which was no more that solidified imagination had definite objective reality.

At this point, David-Neel decided things had gone too far and applied different lamaist techniques to reabsorb the creature into her own mind. The tulpa proved very unwillling to face destruction in this way so that the process took several weeks and left its creator exhausted."

Neato.

Oh great Cthulhu, The Solstice is almost upon us, and i've been a very penitent servant this year, perhaps you will reward me with these lovely plush slippers in your likeness? |link|

Chuck Taylors, all black. Hi tops, This is what i wear, with double thick Wool insoles. I go through about a pair a year, give or take. Right now it looks like my current pair will last me till about March.... 16th. Give or take. But i need at least a month or two break in time.

I think i was one of the lucky few who A) have never watched twin peaks and B) haven't already had the ending ruined for them by some jerk. Regardless, i'm about half way through this nightmare inducing series and I'm getting the impression now that like life, this one's more about the ride than the destination. Regardless, each episode is leaving me unsettled, wide eyed, smirking and desperate for more.

Question: Did you know that Mr. Tojamura was really Catherine, cause it took me about 2 episodes to figure it out. I was really proud of myself when i did. |Link|

On Vinyl. Remastered? Please. I've got the rest of his albums on vinyl, well at least the ones i want, actually i need The Lodger, but that can wait. But that i don't have this perfect album, is unforgivable. |Link|

Anything and everything. Preferably double disc, collectors editions, box sets are nice - but why the hell don't they ever contain everything he's done, their's always something left out. When the cold nothingness of January and February roll around I'm desperately going to need his films to get me through. A long Wednesday night with one of those big bottles of wine and Barry Lyndon... yes please. |Link|

PJ II - Rude of Me

The oh-so-witty title for this post goes out to my girl Sue Westfield in Berlin. Schreien aus, hündin! And seriously, it was terribly rude of me to whet your appetite for some Philip Jeck and not come up with the tuneage. I’m sorry, OK? They hate me…They aaaaall haaate me! (Remember when Nels and Harriet Oleson adopted that freakish Nellie clone, Nancy, and she would play the marginalized orphan card and say this every time she was caught doing something manipulative and evil? (Like, say, tricking Willy into locking a classmate in the icebox overnight so she’d miss auditions for the lead in the school play?) That is how I say this--all defensive and quivery.)

I present to you a mix with some of Jeck’s better, but not necessarily best, material. “Why not the best, Josh? W…T…Frick!” you ask and assert. Well, guys, some of his best songs are ultra-long, so for variety’s sake, I went with all relatively short ones (which for him is anything under ten minutes). Get ready to become ob-freaking-sessed with “Pax.” - Josh.

The tracklist:

1) Above
2) Wholesome
3) Pax
4) Surf Finger
5) Wipe
6) Below
7) Lambing
8) Now You Can Let Go
9) Veil
10) I Just Wanted to Know

Download

Too much Red Wine...

and sun dried tomatoes,

and heavy cream,

and Parmesan cheese,

And bursting yummy pomegranates

and crispy Pancetta, and butter paw licking JC

and fresh stuffed tortellini

and homemade Maple basalmic vinigarette

and happy house guests and pets.

and a Skillful chef

And Doctor Doolittle.

and fresh local nuts and vegies

and a lovely handmade dinner table

and...OMG.

and did i mention the wine?

Oldham says: "Josh, you go ahead and eat, i'll handle this one