Sunday, November 22, 2009

What A Night!

I had an amazing good time last night playing the two fifteen minute sets (one with Saint Anthony Falls and the other with Avenpitch)! It's been a little over four years since I played with Avenpitch but it seemed like just yesterday really once the old tunes started cranking. Plus it was made even better by being sober and having better body control due to yoga (I got into full splits at one point of the show - proudest stage antic of my life).

St. Anthony was great too, we had three songs and they went really well. We spruced "Coolio Julio" up with an extended Hey Jude style ending and "Goats Do Roam" finally got the live treatment. It was a lot of fun to really sing rather than shout or scream live, something I haven't done that much.

I hope once I move, I'll be able to do a show here and there when I come back to visit. It'd be great fun! If I get any photos from folks, I'll post them here.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Beck & Charlotte Gainsbourg Best Video!!



Beck is so full of awesome that sometimes it almost hurts!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

language of love

I met with my dear friend Chris today and she recommended that I write down some of the ideas that we chatted about. It's strange, I really enjoy conversing about some of these ideas but when it comes time to put them down into the written word I am resistant. For that reason, I"m just going to write without self editing at all. Later, if I want to expand or detail any of the ideas I'll dig in. Thanks Chris for the inspiration.

The conversation in which most of modern culture is engaged is a language of fear and greed (and though I put those as two separate ideas, frankly I believe greed to be an offshoot of fear). Most of our news, advertisement, etc. draws upon the language of fear in order to communicate. This spills over into everyday communication so that our baseline reactions to many of life's challenges is one of fear.

In the rare times where love is used as a tool, it is usually used to sell something, i.e. a McDonalds billboard of a cheeseburger telling us "Go to your happy place". However, I believe that it is possible for us to change the language by which we communicate with society. I believe that it is possible to begin to speak inside the context of the language of love. Imagine what it would be like if our baseline reactions to something new, or challenging were based on love rather than distrust and fear? This isn't to say that fear will disappear from our vocabulary, it will simply not be the first response. This is not an utopian ideal where all life is always perfect. To be honest, our lives will get easier in many ways because a great deal of our anxieties are not the deep issues we deal with as much as they are the fear of the issues we deal with.

I'll roughly paraphrase one of my favorite Sufi stories as an example:

A merchant is traveling into the city of Pompeii. About a day's journey away from town he meets another man on the road. He greets the man and says "Hello sir, are you heading into Pompeii?"

"Indeed I am." the other man replies.

"So am I!" the merchant exclaims, he is happy to have found a traveling companion for the remainder of his journey. "I'm a merchant and I'm going into town to sell some silk from my cart. What's your business in town?"

"Ah, you see I am death and I am going into Pompeii to bring a plague that is going to kill 200 people."

The merchant is thoroughly shocked by this news. "A plague? My God, I've never heard such a story!" The merchant laughs off the man's words as the delusions of a fellow who had seen too much time on the road.

However, once the merchant does reach town a horrible plague does indeed descend on the city. Over the course of the week that the merchant spends in town over 1000 people die of this plague.

Lo and behold, as the merchant finishes his business and leaves Pompeii who should he see on the road other the Death. The merchant calls Death over to him.

"You sure fed me a line. Oh, it's true enough that you brought a plague with you into town, but you told me that it would kill 200 people. Over 1000 people died of this horrible disease. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Death smiled his cold smile. "Oh no, you're mistaken dear merchant. The plague I brought to Pompeii did indeed kill only 200 people. It was their fear of the plague that killed the other 800."


That's what happens now to people trapped in the language of fear. It multiplies their woes by a multiple of five and causes untold misery in their lives. Once we learn to set aside fear, our load will get lighter. I suspect that in the same way that fear multiplies are woes so too does love, to an equal degree, multiply our joys. What would life look like when lived inside of joy?

Monday, November 9, 2009

Sensation Junky (Ballard Breaks It Down)



Modern society makes sensation junkies of us. In the 60s it was sex, in the 80s it was violence, where's the sensation obsession these days? In yoga we talk about people pushing themselves physically past neutrality, past the ability to find solid breath control in order to find sensation. There's one angle. There's also the angle of sensation through gluttony, through inter-personal drama, through voyeurism and conversely through exhibitionism.

That last point, exhibitionism, seems to be a valid source of fuel for the modern sensation junky. You get your fifteen minutes of fame via facebook where your personal drama gets elivated and even reviewed. Increasingly what cannot be talked about, what cannot be blogged about, what cannot be seen/heard and commented on lacks reality.

Communication itself has mutated and evolved, in an eastern sense we are living in an age where the throat chakra is in over-abundence drawning out even the heart. We've been weened on taglines to the point that we lack the ability to look past or even speak our own reality past the basic headline. How many characters does a tweet contain? 256 or somesuch.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

200th Post! (a.k.a. 100 Post Check In Pt. 2)

OK, so it took me about 3 1/2 months to do my first 100 posts to this blog and it's taken a year and seven months to do the next 100 posts so I think it's safe to say that momentum has slowed down a little bit! Once I got plugged into Facebook, I slowed down here and also once I got my managing at CorePower job I also slowed down. I've had a great time managing CPY, it's something that I genuinely believe in and it's the first time in my life where my primary passion is also my job. Before I'd always have a "This isn't my real thing, my real thing is (music, writing, yoga, fill in the blank)" attitude. As a result of marrying passion to work, my work takes up a lot of my time! As a result of that, when I come home I'm less likely to blog about yoga playlists! It's also very important for me to remain professional as a result of the roll I play and so I don't want the blog to give anyone an inappropriate peak behind the curtain.

So, the old blog went into stasis from Oct 08 to Aug 09. Since it's come back I've used it first as a place to post music videos I like and more recently as a place to make quiet asides and post pictures of my bunny rabbit and my wife! God only knows where I'll move with it next. Pretty sure I'll always be posting music videos here but I'm not sure how it will change. When I move to CA it may very well become more life update-y just for the sake of friends in MPLS, although Facebook will also serve that purpose. Perhaps, as when I move to CA I won't be managing right away, I'll get back into the whole Yoga Playlist thing.

I've got to say that when I started this blog almost two years ago I wouldn't have been able to predict where I would be in two years time. Not just in having a job that I genuinely love but also to the degree in which I am content with life. Not nearly as much pushing and wanting to be somewhere/something/someone else. It's a good little life! =)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Queen!

For no real reason, here's the music video to Bohemian Rhapsody!



Even with all the 70s throwbacks we had a few years back, you really couldn't have gotten away with the tight white lyrca tops at any time other than the original decade.

Monday, October 12, 2009

My Old Time Radio and Pulp Magazine Reviews

I thought I'd pop by and let all y'all know that I've started a sister blog to this one where I review Old Time Radio Drama, Modern Audio Fiction and Pulps. It's at www.goldenmasks.blogspot.com Check it out my friends and leave some comments for fun! For those of you who have never learned the joys of old time radio, it's just about my favorite form of entertainment, and tons and tons of it are available for free download as podcasts on iTunes. Now that it's Halloween time, download some classic horror thrills!

My plan is to get at least 10 reviews posted a month. They are not professional level reviews, they're done for the entertainment of myself and my readers. I do hope to get better and better at reviewing but at the end of the day I'd rather get more reviews out and have them be less than perfect rather than a very few perfect reviews.

PS: Click on the ads to side on the Golden Masks blog and help make me big bucks! I'm up to 6 cents so far, financial independence cannot be far behind! ;)

Friday, October 9, 2009

Noel and Tempie!


Even better is Noel and Tempie!!

Tempie!


Tempest the bunny is one of my favorite things!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Slight site re-design

I've slightly redesigned this blog because I think the huge Youtube videos look so much better. Now the blog archives links section comes after the 7 current posts. Enjoy the new look! I considered a new color scheme too but nothing looked quite as right to me as the current soft tones.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)

Hmmm, I read about this on Pitchfork today. Not what I expected from Raveonettes (well musically it is but lyrically it's not at all). When I think about it, I'm rather amazed that I've never heard a strong anti-rape pop song before. It's quite catchy and very sad at the same time. Does the song belittle the topic? I don't think so, I think that the very real issue of rape should be more in the public eye and I'm OK with a song going out against it. The lyrics are simple but then so are the lyrics of most anti-war or politically based songs. Simplicity, when in alignment with strong melody and beat, is a powerful tool. Rape is still hidden from the public eye and yet it's so frequent and one of the worst things about it is that due to the sexual nature of the crime it makes the victims feel terrible about themselves in a way that robbery or (non-sexual) assault do.

Meanwhile, the art scene signs a petition to get Polanski exonerated. Blech.
OK, apologies for the mini-tirade

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Pictureplane "Goth Star"


I quite enjoy this song and the video has a lovely aura of disquiet.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Grizzly Bear Tonight

I'm heading out to see Grizzly Bear tonight! Should be fun, this video is pure brilliance!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Very Best "Julia"

Well, Miike Snow was sold out by the time I got there. Bummer. I did however get the chance to dance for an hour and a half at Too Much Love instead and that was a lot of fun.

Here's a great video for one of the best of '09. Superhappy awesome South African pop with some cool electro flourishes. I expect this one is going to become big.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Sara Lov "Animals"

That last track called "Animals" reminds me of this very different track, my other favorite song titled "Animals" from 2009

Miike Snow "Animals"




I'm going to go see these guys on Saturday I think. Should be a fun show!

Moving out West

I'm moving to California! The announcement has been made officially through work so I can talk about it, though I choose to do so here rather than on my higher profile Facebook page.

I'll be working with CorePower still (hurray!) and helping out at the Huntington Beach studio. I've been wanting to move to CA for years and it's great to see it finally coming together. Jan. 1 is the move dates. Noel's going to move out later so I'll be able to get a lay of the land and such. This will be the longest we've been apart but after 16+ years of marriage, I think it's safe to say a little long distance relationship time won't change anything.

Yoga and sun and beaches and the ocean and palm trees and all sorts of other good stuff - here I come! Does this mean I need to change the name of this blog?? ;)

David Lynch in Dub

Cool thick dub track with samples of David Lynch talking about the creative process.

Monday, August 24, 2009

When I'm In the Club

This is my current "song of the year can't stop listening to it" obsession. Simply the act of imagining myself listening to it brought me to dancing in the middle of an office supply store, how many songs do that?

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Bug

I'd heard a lot about the Bug about a year back and I bought a remix of this track by the awesome South Rakkas Crew but never got the album. Just picked it up, damn it's good stuff! Here's the first single:

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

It's Been A While

Hi! It's been a while since I've been here. Hope life is going good! I've got Yogi Training starting this weekend, so that's exciting. I'm over on Facebook quite a bit the past week (I go through phases of spending time on Facebook and then disappearing for months on end, I'm in a "spend time" phase right now.

I bought the YACHT album today. I'd read about them on Pitchfork and kind of avoided the album as the clips didn't do it for me. On first few spins, I'm rather enjoying it. You can hear the LCD Soundsystem sound for sure, but the lyrics are more fun and not as self-referentially ironic, which I like.