WWW.AETHEREVERYWHERE.COM

HIGHGATE is DEAD

just kidding. Rather, has transmographied into it's new butterfly like form and can be found

HERE

or directly here.

BOOKMARK IT.

LOVE IT.

SAY HELLO, (and that goes double for you, mr. or ms. nevercomments)

Don't come here anymore afterwords, cause nothing is going to change. This page is not unlike the empty Cocoon video case after the VHS has been removed from it's protective case and inserted into the VHS player of hosted wordpress bliss.

It's 3:30 am, and i've been working on setting this up for 4 1/2 hours. I did it all while laying in bed watching "Children of Men". Forgive me if i've stopped making sense.

Blade Runner

Over the weekend Jenny Jay and I headed a couple blocks down the street to the Roxie, Burlington's answer to the indieplex, to see Blade Runner, on the big screen. I was giddy - Blade Runner is one of those films that i was too young to have seen in the theater, and having watched it years back now on a degenerated VHS, i was now certain i was going to see this film the way it was intended.

I couldn't have been more right - like so many great films that i'll only ever have the chance to see on the small screen, Blade Runner was almost unrecognizable to me on the big screen; the scope, the score the grandeur - that i had been doing the art so wrong for so long by confining it to my tv set - it was enough to make me want to swear off the small screen for good.

The amount of detail that went into this film can finally be grasped when you see it in the theaters, everything, down to the magazines on the racks, the hair pins on the streetwalkers, - it's all there, and real - that the world the characters slog through is created not out of the lastest CG, but from real models, painstakingly detailed - gives the whole distopian future such a gritty truthful weight that no amount of CG outside of Children of Men have been able to tough since the whole business bought stock in Silicon Valley.

And don't get me started on the lighting. Or the music.

Bottom line is - if your a movie fanatic, keep your eyes on the roxy schedule, as judging by the size of the crowd for a mid winter 11:40pm showing we can hopefully expect even more great showings - Here's hoping for a back to back alien/aliens/alien3 triple play. We're lucky to have a spot showing indie films, and even luckier that they'd be willing to take the risk of showing older films, lets get out there and show them it's worth it.

Beach HouseMonkey House

All right, you guys. This is a combination social announcement/call to arms for all readers of Highgate and their respective circles! Some of you may recall that a couple of weeks ago, I provided you with the coolest picture you saw all day, and proceeded to go on and on about Beach House's brilliant forthcoming effort, Devotion. And if you've paid attention to anything Tanner, Jay, or I have said about their very insular yet transcendent performance at Higher Ground last year, you probably feel at least slightly remorseful about the looming tragedy in your life that is You-Missed-One-Helluva-Trippy-Show,-G. For real. Victoria Legrand's droning organ and divine vocals transformed The Showcase Lounge into a veritable womb for the eight of us who were lucky enough to be there.

I went that night with a strong affinity for their self-titled debut, but I was ultimately skeptical that it would translate well in a live setting. To my surprise, most of the songs I was familiar with took on an added warmth, reaching emotional heights merely hinted at on the album. The intimacy only seemed to add to the overall energy, as if the gaps in the small room allowed that much more of the stage's orange glow to permeate throughout the space. Since the duo was opening for Grizzly Bear that night, the set was less than an hour, but I can say with some degree of certainty that it was the finest hour-long stretch of live music I experienced last year. Well, maybe Animal Collective, but since Beach House are coming to The Monkey House in March (!) for, like, six bucks (!), the edge goes to them. And this time around they're headlining, so we should be treated to healthy doses of both of their stellar albums. As a side note, Victoria not only brandishes a set of amazing pipes, but she's also a total sweetheart. I talked with her for a bit while she broke down equipment, and we discussed everything from the merits of Black Dice's Beaches and Canyons to her unrestrained excitement about the impending release of their second album. It was so refreshing, because she came off sounding much more like a schoolgirl describing her first crush than a jaded hipster who has Ryan Schreiber wrapped around her pinky.

So anyway, make sure you don't miss out on Beach House this time around. It’d be a real shame to have them come back to the area, only to be greeted by another empty room. They'll be playing the Monkey House in Winooski on Sunday, March 30. Papercuts will be opening, as well as a still-undetermined local act. (Please, Greg Davis!) Also, don't forget to pick up their sophomore album, Devotion, which comes out in late February. Give yourself ample time to fall in love with those tracks, and you'll be glad you did when you hear what they can do with them live. See you then!

-JOSH

Exhibit A. one of a handful of current designs for tanner moore design.

Has it really almost been a week since my last post? most likely. Where to begin... As of last week, I've gone into business for myself. Things being as they are I've got over 60 hours of work a week to divide between 4 clients, 2 of which are looking to be regular long-term involvements, which is what led me to decide to give freelancing a go.

The problems there being that i haven't the slightest idea of what it takes to organize this sort of venture. Luckily that's where having alot of smart friends comes into play. I'm gonna be picking alot of brains in coming weeks. For example, I've collected (and billed.) a few times already, and upon payment i realize that no taxes have been withheld, while that makes a payment look extra special, it also makes me think about how much I'll be paying in quarterly (thanks for that tip Jay.). If i don't start setting a percentage aside, preferably in some kind of high interest bank account, i could be in a bit of financial trouble.

Next is getting things like a printer/fax/scanner - I've been needing one of these for a while, so nows a good time to pick one up. Printing invoices and all that important stuff. Setting up a business through the state, that means going to Montpelier and signing some papers, and then printing companies start sending me pens with the company name written on them in generic times font. I know the score. sort of.

I've been reading some great books on the matter over the last few months, mostly supplied to me by Jay (if didn't already know by now, Jay's has a bit of experience in the design/multimedia industry.) , two i highly recommend are Hillman Curtis's: MTIV: Process, Inspiration and Practice of a New Media Designer and my current read Karlssonwilker's Tell me Why: The first 24 months of a New York design company - Both are a brilliant reads, full of wit and insight into an industry already jam packed and bursting with people like myself, trying to snag clients, make a name, make a living and ultimately have some fun. It's pretty inspirational stuff, on different levels, one being to see their work and read their wisdom, and i'd say even more so for myself, to read about their mistakes, about the clients that dropped them, or projects that never made it to completion. That these guys fuck up and don't always hit the mark was shocking to me, somehow I've always imagined that these top tier firms never screw up... that they do, makes me think i might have a chance... slight as it may be.

Beyond the work and the papers, i need to start developing a website for myself, something that I've been dancing around for a while now, mostly because I'll have an idea of how i want it to look, write it down, consider it for a while, dissect it, deconstruct it's contents, rearrange it, and by the time i think i might have something i either get sick of it or see something else that shoots me off in another direction... the idea of creating a website that represents my ideas professionally as a web designer is an exciting and extremely scary idea. Now that it's become necessary I'm gonna have to bite down on something and chew... having to do it, actually makes it alot easier to, oddly enough.

Then there are business cards, letterhead, blawdy blaw - etc etc. But the work comes first and that also means keeping up with the times and doing what i can to stay on the ball, i have some decent design skills, or at least a good eye for good design, and i may be a damn fine standards based HTML/CSS coder / photoshoper, etc. There are so many areas that i need to tune up, and while i don't want to spread myself thin - it's important to have a working knowledge of all sorts of tools, who knows when i'll be asked to add AJAX functionality to older code, and even if I'm not all there on my Javascript, if i know even a bit of how it works, I'll be able to code my sites ahead of time to allow for easy integration and upgrading.

Anyway - with any luck providing the floor doesn't fall out and the sky come crashing down, (which in this industry happens, all the time.) you should be seeing alot of changes to Highgate, namely that i'll be moving. Unfortunately some douche from the south named, sadly, Tanner Moore, has already gone ahead and registered tannermoore.com (check it out, for a larf.) so i'm gonna have to see what else i can find. Perhaps a catchphrase? we'll see...

Hey everyone. Sorry that it’s taken until now to post the latest Aether Everywhere set and download (Jenny’s been checking her computer every couple of hours, folding her arms, and stomping away), but both Tanner and I had pretty hectic weekends. OK, so mine wasn’t really all that hectic, but since I was recently informed by my supervisor that, no, a hot pink Marc Bolan t-shirt (and the like) is not acceptable attire for work, I had to go get me some new threads.

Aaanyway, this past Thursday, we featured Ghost’s Snuffbox Immanence from 1999. A lot of people consider this to be their “classic” album, and I’d agree with that (although depending on the day, Lama Rabi Rabi gives it a run). We then spun a bunch of like-minded Japanese psych tracks, ranging from Ghost’s side work with Damon and Naomi (the rhythm section of Galaxie 500) to Nobuzaku Takemura, whose Steve Reich-meets-Markus Popp “Kepler” is reminiscent of Snuffbox’s “Daggma.” Hope you enjoy, and tune in Aether Everywhere this Thursday at 10 for some Elephant 6 action! - JOSH

(ps. This is one of my favorite setlists, i love all of these songs, and some of the artists are some of my all time favorite players, do yourself a favor, download this one, pop it into your ipod for that ride on the train, walk in the winter woods, or drive down the coast - also check out my mad photoshop p0Wnage! -tanner)

1) Damon & Naomi w/ Ghost - “I Dreamed of the Caucasus”
2) Keiji Haino - “I Don't Want To Know”
3) L - “Troll”
4) LSD March - “Kimi Wa Tengoku”
5) Maher Salal Hash Baz - “What's Your Business Here Elijah?”
6) Susumu Yokota - “Sleepy Eye”
7) Nagisa Ni Te - “Me On The Beach”
8) Boredoms - “(two circles)”
9) Nobukazu Takemura - “Kepler”
10) Boris w/ Michio Kurihara - “Fuzzy Reactor”
11) Masaki Batoh - “Spooky”
12) High Rise - “Outside Gentiles”

DOWNLOAD

A good while, not a long while.

My childhood dog Bean died today. My father called me and told me that she had had three seizures this morning and was having trouble breathing so that i should come up to Highgate as soon as possible, because she needed to be put down.

When i showed up to the Vets office my dad's truck was parked in front and his black lab Ebony was sitting patiently in the drivers seat. I popped Oldham into the cab with him and greeted my dad. As soon as i saw my dad i started to tear up, he had been crying - I gave him a hug.

Something about my father; he is at the same time both deeply emotional and emotionally... ineloquent, (for lack of a better word.) so that it's always seemed to me, that when he does express his feelings, they come from a deep well, or reserve and that he cries for more reasons than there are apparent in that moment.

So i gave him a hug, and we went in to see Bean, who was on the Vets bench with a little doggy oxygen mask on her face, lightly sedated. I wanted to cry, but i didn't. I gave her a long pat and pulled some dried up dirty off of her ear, and scratched her head and bent down close to her face and told her she was a good girl. I patted her some more, my dad said his goodbyes and i gave her my final goodbye, a bunch of little snorting sounds that i used to make to her, and she to me. The vet gave her her shot, turned off her gas, and within a few seconds she was dead. I cried a bit then.

The vet asked if we wanted a cadaver bag, but my dad just scooped her up. I didn't know what he was going to do with her, though i should have. Ever since my dad was young he'd been burying his dogs in the pine forest out behind my childhood home. There were alot of dogs buried out there, 3 of his Airedales, one i remember named Missy, my sister's German Sheppard, Pepper. My dad's beloved lab Ginger, oh, and one of our old cats, either buttons, or shadow. Now Beaner was gonna join them in the pine forest menagerie.

When we pulled up by the woods edge i saw that my father had already dug a deep hole, deep enough he told me, so that some other dog won't dig her up... luckily the ground wasn't frozen yet. He handed me her little beagle corpse and i crawled down into the hole and set her down. We debated whether we should have brought a blanket to wrap her in, but in the end we decided that it didn't matter really, and that this way she would go back to the earth as quickly as possible.

It was hard to start shoveling the dirt over her... she was still warm when i set her down, and i was worried she was still alive. I waited a minute, then shoveled on the dirt, i waited till i absolutely had to to bury her face. After a bit my dad took a turn shoveling, and after about 20 minutes or so, we had her buried well enough. My father said he'd go back later and cover the ground over and flatten it out with his tractor. I remember thinking over and over again, that it was a great thing to have people that would carry you down into the ground and shovel dirt onto your corpse in the middle of January.

Afterwords we stood there a moment, my dad and I agreed she was a good dog. We didn't stand there much longer, as it seemed then it would have been overly sentimental, besides, while we were burying her i had plenty of time to think fondly on her, and how it's this sort of tradition, physically laboring in the memory of someone, that allow for us to let go - i felt somewhat better.

Afterwards we went and got some lunch at the Swanton house of Pizza, we split a small works and talked about this and that. Dad told me this story about how only yesterday Bean, always wily in that hound dog way, found Ebony sleeping on her bed, and had devised a plan to get him off by going over to my dad and acting like he had food, begging and pawing at his leg - when Ebony jumped off the bed and rushed over, Bean had ambled over and reclaimed her spot.

We also talked about a plot of land he wanted to buy in Shawville, and how - my grandmother, on my mother's side, used to run this very restaurant, back in the 70's - only back then it was a diner, not a pizzeria, nothing else was really the same - it had been remodeled almost completely but that the trellis above our heads that spanned across the whole ceiling and which was wrapped through and through with all sorts of fast growing vines, was in fact build by my father and my great grandfather.