over the sea

as i write this i am in a boat on the atlantic. the outside temperature is seventy-eight degrees f. some northern swells are rocking the boat more than i like, although some boat-rocking is undeniably good. i have seen the bahamas. i did absolutely nothing today, laughing at coordinated events. i don't want anything coordinated, except my trip back home. on the eve of christmas i have slightly overdosed on sun, giving my skin a holiday sienna coloring.

the middle

post-reading music: southern-space-chamber group japancakes – in memory of honey (thanks swanfungus)

as i prepare for my journey south to the tropics i reflect upon past year-end times. i wonder if i really do whatever i want or if i just do what is easiest, and that in turn becomes what i want. two toothbrushes, one razor. do i have the fortitude to turn my shoulder on people who are easily offended? the longer i wait the more i see this must be done. i’m wearing my sunglasses in the morning, but the future isn’t bright. i see i need to cut the cord to have any chance. greatness and middle-management are antonyms.

h,b,f,s

this video of an a capella group has already made my week. i am not sure where the group is from but it’s clear they are talented. i developed a love for a capella music during college. the lack of instruments is a very interesting constraint and, when done well, vocal harmonies are one of the greatest things about human music. thus, i get excited when i hear pop music covered by these types of groups. and it just so happens everyone likes daft punk. it appears good music may actually be seeping slowly into public consciousness.

wobbly post

without ale i consistently find gatherings to be a bore. so i travel lightly, making sure to complicate everything with spirits. when my spirits are low i just remember an old nursery rhyme, “liquor is quicker”, and then my glass is half full again. trees just reinforce the need for gin, and models the need for vodka. it’s too bad all my drinks are martinis these days. these days…

value at pi/2

in the endless sine-wave functions that make up my life the social wave and the music wave are exactly out of phase. i am quite alone but i have been making out with great music all week. just yesterday i saw this string of music videos on the gym screens: “chicken payback” by band of bees, “so much trouble” by matt pond pa, “pachuca sunrise” by minus the bear, and “maneater” by hall & oates. i bought “alive 2007”, daft punk’s live set recorded in france which mixes together songs from different eras dj-style. and i became aware of oh astro, a project that mixes and changes samples to create totally great tracks. their latest album champions of wonder is so good it may become my favorite of the year. if you don’t like “hello fuji boy” there is something wrong with you (it splices lionel ritchie’s “hello”, fujiya and miyagi’s “collarbone”, and hot chip’s “a boy from school”). i just wish i had someone other than my holiday tree to listen with. he’s such a rube.

snipe hunt

i think the satisfaction of tracking down an errant piece of code floating in one of thousands of files must be similar to that of a sniper connecting on his or her target. it gives a brief feeling of purpose to one swimming in their own entropic mess. many people try to make their lives a ceaseless string of these kinds of mini-projects so that they can consume meaning in small portions steadily. i don’t believe in this practice, however, as it intentionally leaves no time for stepping back and gazing. while i like the entropic mess i do wish to find some greater purpose or truth. but i don’t think it can be found in a life full of focus. i think my time is better spent blurring my vision and trying to see the invisible. this has led to a number of half-finished projects and a mediocre life on paper, but i haven’t given up.

snow day, snow day

last night was the first significant snow of the fall. while the snow was falling i was putting candy canes on branches of my holiday tree when i thought that perhaps i’d drink some holiday cheer in the form of a vodka shot with a candy cane chaser. since the only light in the house was my holiday tree i had a great view out from the sliding glass doors in the kitchen. to my surprise i saw that the back yard was not covered in the black of night but illuminated in a white glow as if it were dusk (it was ten p.m.). intrigued, i finished my holiday cheer and then put on a hat and mittens to see what was going on. not only was my back yard lit up, but the whole sky was bright. i can only assume that either angels were shining flashlights down from heaven or the moonlight was getting reflected by the cloud cover. i made some snowballs in the driveway and threw them at my house thinking, “this is what alaska must be like in the summer.”

getting back to my roots

friday night was the most fun i've had in a long time. a friend of mine was playing a show at the brillobox. she plays drums for my other friend, an indie-pop music group that makes liberal use of the violin. i must say that i enjoyed all three bands, though, and two of them were from pittsburgh. donora was up first, employing a minimal three-piece lineup. fronted by a girl with a great voice, they set the tone for the night (and i was not upset with the tone at all). ben hardt played second with a string section in addition to drum and bass. the songs had a lot of gravity as well as pretty arrangements. even with the strings, though, they are more rock-with-strings than chamber pop. which makes them a little less appealing to me. i had a very nice conversation with tara from mof during his set. it was also during this time that i started drinking straub beer and night began to fuzz over. i do remember it taking a while for my other friend to start their set, but when it began it was pretty. somehow i managed to get one girl's number and also apparently i agreed to tutor a different girl regarding music. such is my life.