cars are artifacts

Sunlight in the weeds...I wish that I was blind...
to the ghosts dancing in the breeze...
blowing through my mind.
Got a Corvair in my yard. It hasn't run in fifteen years.
It's a home for the birds now. It's no longer a car.

Last night I dreamed that I was swimming in a sea.
Like always, with everything I went in too deep.
Got a Corvair in my yard. It hasn't run in fifteen years.
It's a home for the birds now. It's no longer...a car.

Got a simple friend out west, and in the blink of an eye,
I'd swap him straight, his life for mine...and never wonder "Why?".

three years in san francisco

good friend katie just started this blog to reminisce about her three-year tenure in this truly unique city. a poignant denouement to three years well-lived.

i lived with her in the best apartment in san francisco for one year, and will miss her and jose even more than those infamous parties.

no touching!

in an unfortunate twist of events in my unending search for new shoes, i liked these today. it's worth the zoom, but probably not the money. in other news, i'm still a broke-ass law student.

more cool shoes by common projects

wisdomatic

this is an excerpt from an article on terry gross. not only does he kind of look like tim roth, he's about as cool.

guided by headphones

i'm re-falling in love with portable music blasting directly into my ears. random selection ('zufaellige titel' as my deutsche-pod puts it) is the only way go. abandoning choice, let sapphic gods control my experience. following are the last ten picks. no complaints when it works out this well...

my bloody valentine - when you sleep
high places - namer
the beach boys - here today
brian eno and david byrne - america is waiting
cornelius - i hate hate
fellini - rock europa
arthur russell - in the light of the miracle
disco inferno - the last dance
ariel pink's haunted graffiti- interesting results
primal scream - higher than the sun (a dub symphony in two parts)

random image hosting

threesix mafia

this pic is pretty outdated. got to hang wit threesix and anna nicole smith lookalikes all night long.

manimal vinyl

just did a little write-up on LA-locals label Manimal Vinyl for the tightrope crew. check it out here

new design

photoshop is cool and all, but i wish i had illustrator

collagescope

first experiments with cs4

as of 6/1, i'm addicted to photoshop cs4. i just started messing around with it, low expectations, and am finding out how to do some pretty fun things. it's the basics, ya, but i'm not looking to get much out of it.

man v nature

i suck at updates

vidal v buckley

check out this somewhat hilarious video... two of the twentieth century's greatest men of letters, gore vidal and william f. buckley, trading barbs at the 1968 democratic convention. vidal calls buckley a "crypto-Nazi" and buckley shoots back calling vidal a "queer." pretty amazing that two brilliant men could stoop so low...

vision tricks

focus

(insert: quick obligatory "i haven't updated this blog in forever" comment..)
i've been thinking lately about the quintessential challenges of our generation. among them, averting boredom, not caring so much about your favorite old band's new comeback, appreciating coffee from third world countries as much as wine from the south of france. seriously, the bouquet in my kenyan brew tells stories and complements my recent hangover better than your cab-sav/rack-o-lamb pairing.
also, and perhaps most relevant to my current endeavors, is finding how to humanize our increasingly digital lives. shoutouts to my sci-fi-loving friends... musically, this means putting the soul back into drum machines. i don't pretend that this is a totally new idea, but it does seem to fit into the iGeneration plan. i'm completely stoked on a couple of bands that are increasingly successful at this: Animal Collective (always), Portishead, and one of my new favorite haunts, Tussle. if you can figure out how to get a hold of me, i'll give you samples of all three. there are plenty more, but those are the three on repeat. i think that if we are crafting a new genre of music it has to somehow sieze on this essential balance. intimately speaking, i think a lot of this success can be achieved by making relentless repetition something less than only meditative. check out the two album covers above, which effortlessly show how the beauty of repetition can be both a) incredibly organic and b) mind-altering. tip: view the second one at actual size for desired effect.

which reminds me, i've written about the importance of balance before, and it's fair to say that balance is as important in every facet of my own life as it is in nastia liukin's (we will never forget).

with that, here is a great track that exemplifies the blend of acoustic and digital elements to profoundly soulful success. just check out how seamlessly the twangy guitar plucking transmogrifies into hypnotic repetitive static synth line. listen to the rest of portishead's latest, third, for ten more beautiful examples.

The Rip - Portishead

TEN THINGS I'M CURRENTLY EXCITED ABOUT

In reverse parabolic order...

Intricate Machines getting back in the Stu-stu-studio
Collectivism
New Tracks posted by PicturePlane (myspace.com/pictureplane listen to slang war)
Coke Zero
Eggdrop Top Ramen
Friends starting new bands (check out vince, johann, and erik at myspace.com/furcastmusic)
Repealing Proposition 8
Halloween 2009
The climactic ending to Karate Kid (1984)
Going on vacation to Morro Bay

more music videos

i've been pretty hooked on watching music videos lately. not that i haven't always been into them. i think i really want i/m/ to do a music video sooner than later.

join us

join us

bike gang

callin all bloods if you're with me