tops for 2008

(I am forgetting a hundred things)

*going to Greece, Berlin (visting Joshua & meeting Juergen!), and Copenhagen in January
*co-owning a record store! and then letting it go
*In March: the night of Shot to the Face (local filmmakers competition) at the Capitol Theater and then Mikrofest at Hall o' thee Woods later!
*Ness and classmate's art show that transformed the BHR space on Fourth Ave
*Working at K (even though it was brief) was a lot of fun
*Applying to one grad school (Pratt) and getting in!!!
*Giving away all my possessions
*The hardcore show in the alley behind the theater while Henry Rollins speaks
*Sex Vid shows
*walking to Mikrofest (all day) via the train tracks
*after hours film screenings at OFS
*Million Brazilians at Jared & David's house on Quince and State
*that magic bus from new mexico (?) that parked in oly for a few days playing crazy shows
*Woelv/ O Paon at the Olympia Experimental Music Festival
*spending a few months in the olympia forests with herons and deer before moving
*going away parties at home, the theater, and Calliope
*moving to NYC via train!
*Ira dj-ing a Deitch projects after party dance party at the Chicken Hut in Brooklyn
*James Chance and the Contortions at P.S.1
*Arctic Hysteria at P.S.1
*Soft Circle and High Places at Death by Audio
*Lightning Bolt in an empty lot off Broadway in Bushwick
*Kria Brekkan and Olaf Arnolds at Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Greenpoint
*Baltimore Round Robin at Le Poisson Rouge
*Obama!
*getting A's in grad school
*Rings - Black Habit album on Paw Tracks
*desolation wilderness/lake/city center show at metropolitan social club
*Dirty Projectors at Brooklyn Masonic Temple
*solstice dinner at my apartment

auld lang syne

city life / pelham bay park

Lately I have been reading a book chronicling farm life (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle), watching movies set in medieval Norway (Kristin Lavransdatter) and dreaming at night about sacred orchards. My apartment is so quiet at times that I forget where I am. I am too broke to go to shows or buy records, maybe this can become a park review blog!
In Washington this would be the sort of place where you would shoot guns and drink forties, and maybe leave an old couch. In New York it feels very exotic. I don't really understand the graffiti on the trees tho, yet the trees themselves don't seem to mind. In the background looks to be a former landfill. I had to ask several trail workers how to get to the water (the "bay", of Pelham Bay Park). There is no obvious map at the park, and the directions I finally did get were a series of mud paths. I especially liked hearing about when I would get to the "promenade", which is where the photos here were taken from. There were at least ten different types of birds, and at the very end, some green ones roosting in the stadium lights that looked like escaped parrots.
It took about an hour to get here on the 6 train. It is the biggest park in the five boroughs.
There are some areas similar to this that I have been to already, but I think they are industrial land, whereas this is a proper park - meaning you have legal right to be there. Anyway, this park scores lots of points, because there is a ton of stuff to climb on and black squirrels too.

thaumatropic

I saw this in a dream recently, so I made one for here.

danse society

Glass Candy - Deep Gems (Italians do it Better) More like deep jams. This album is sick nuts. A collection of "singles, b-sides, and rarities" is the best Glass Candy release yet. Every track a dance party, I can't sit still when I listen to it. They are getting ready for a new full length, and I have high hopes as they are in a good place. They are the number one band I want to play NYC asap.

and Santogold!

pipilotti rist!

Pour your body out (7354 cubic meters)

Dang this installation is so wonderful. It was my first time to the MOMA, and I spent an hour in this room until the museum closed. There was a droney hum chant loop with three screens of mostly successive projections and a giant circle couch. The footage focused on fruit, dirt and female form. It was so warm and like a spell. Take off your shoes and lay on the couch with a hundred strangers. I was entranced.

Dirty Projectors / Dan Deacon + orchestra

The show last night at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple was pretty epic. I got the ticket a while back being stoked to see Dirty Projectors for the first time, and then this whole orchestra event emerged. A group called So Percussion opened the show, and part or all of them played in the orchestra, or army as it was sometimes referred to. Dirty Projectors was fantastic. They played a lot from Rise Above, which I think I actually listen to just about every day. I love how they are so traditional in form, but their approach is incredible/unique. Dave Longstreth's vocal stylings are amazing. And then came the orchestra. It was the premier of the whole thing, and even though it was rough in spots (and a few songs were just Deacon alone w/ ipod) it ruled, and was very fun to dance to. There were so many people and instruments on the stage, and so many (pro-style) cameras going! Like paparazzi. Folks were damn excited, rightly so.

Reading

Wide Eyed - Trinie Dalton. This collection of short stories is fucked-up and beautiful. The cover art is phenomenal, and motivated me to purchase this volume as none of the library systems I use had a copy. They speak to the dangers of teenage slumber party boredom, or on rationalizing feeding your dog candy. Lot of candy and dreams, and all with a psychedelic reverence for nature. The last story, "Lou in the Moonlight" is truly gorgeous, and reminds me in a good way of the Midsummer Night's Dream parties in the from The Hanged Man. It was like candy, in that I read it too fast, and then found it all gone too soon.

Atmospheric Disturbances - Rivka Galchen. This book took months of waiting in the library hold queue. The end is still settling with me. I got a little lost in the middle, but maybe it also lost itself a little bit? At least all the chapters are around two pages long. Looking at the concept from the outside, it seems really sad now: what do you do when you no longer recognize your lover? There are moments that cut through everything and are quite stunning. I saw Galchen speak on a panel at the Brooklyn Book Fair over the summer, and found her to be pretty compelling. She went through med school only to realize that she was a writer. And a character of sorts in this book Tzvi Gal-Chen is based on her father, a meteorologist. Knowing personal information about her affected my interpretations of the text, but I haven't decided yet if that is good or bad. Overall it was very good, and slightly unsettling.

(just now realized that Photo Booth takes pictures like a mirror)

pertaining to birds and fluorescence

parts of my days

beach house & tickley feather

played tonight at music hall of w-burg. It was wonderful. I'd not heard Tickley Feather, but was curious. It was MELLOW. and good, laid back indeed. and a little bit silly. Beach House was terr-ific, they played all the jams, which is funny as I'm fairly new to hearing their music. They had spaced-out projections, and it was the kind of show that you are singing all the songs again as you walk home and it is starting to rain but that is very beautiful. and the crowd was really nice, when I saw Marnie Stern there a little while back it was a different scene. the projections were like the inside of a jewel refracting.

Rings

Black Habit just came in the mail from Paw Tracks. Circular motion indeed from formerly First Nation. Compared even to the Raincoats and there is truth there. I love the double meaning of the title. This music is reassuring. Three ladies and produced too by Kristin Anna Valtysdottir (aka Kria Brekkan). Music for night and morning.

people look different in new york

Listening

The Watery Graves of Portland et Genevieve - Weener Buddies and Jennifer (Marriage Records) - I am happy to keep locating releases by the artists responsible for the Woelv album that I love so dearly. In addition to Genevieve Castree, this album features Adrian Orange, Davis Lee Hooker and Curtis Knapp aka the Watery Graves. It feels louder than the other woelv releases that I have, and I like that. A very present piano and drums. "Post-partum" and "Sans Pardon" are stand out tracks.

Yes, Please - For Now, For Then, For Them (Bicycle Records) - Just released and first full length, (I love the Purple EP). Has a few tracks from Purple EP, but many more, and more varied. I ordered this in the mail, and was surprised to see many friends names listed on the back of the album as accompanists. I think my favorite tracks are "Flying Violently" with its guitar plucking, and the a capella "Shed All Over" with its love(ers)/body matter like "tiny person" from Purple EP.