Doing Everything That Makes Me Happy

Fred Muram - Adam [from "Kissing The Ceiling"] (2008)

Karyn Ellis - Low (mp3): This song cues a light Ella Fitzgerald influence. It nods coyly to sadness while entertaining (with a snap and a yelp) an honest question. Why so low? It seems impossible in a world blossoming cliches like rainbows, guitar melodies, skyways, horn sections, friends splashing in streams.

Happy Summer!

Thomas Mailaender & Steve Young - Extreme Tourism (2008)
Order your own VOLCANO FANTASY PHOTO here.

Pack fresh fruit in a ziploc bag, dig out a Hawaiin shirt and your favourite sunglasses. Jump in the car, crank the heat, and drive west with no destination. Burn a CD of chillwave, glo-fi, or whatever the kids called it this summer (i.e. Memory Tapes, Delorean, Neon Indian). Do it right now. I'm not kidding. I am doing it too. Text me a pic of what you find (608-628-5672) on your summer road trip today and I will do the same. Summer is a mindset, let's make it happen.

Feather - Weird Summer (mp3)

In The Event of a Disaster, Try To Have a Sense of Humor About It

Eric Lebofsky [from "Things To Do In An Ice Age"] (2005)

Other things to do if you find yourself in an ice age:

• Talk About the Old Days.
• Whisper Instead of Shout (Avalanche Avoidance).
• Use an X-Acto to Fashion a New Antenna for Your Short Wave.
• Talk To Your Pilates Instructor While Your Search For Your Family.
• Finish Your Memoir. Send it to the Paris Review (It Won't Get There).
• Coreograph.
• Smoothies. Every Day.
• Practice Figure Skating in Appropriate Abandoned Venues.
• Chase After Rations.
• Brain Surgery. Rocket Science.
• Declare "Open Poncho Season".
• One Valerian, Six Yohimbes Every Day.
• Finish Camus.
• Breed Ancient Species. Eat Them.
• Grow Your Monobrow.
• Deep Fry Balls of Cheese, Make Pipes, and Start Your Own Renaissance Fair(e).
• Give Your Attack Dog a Mastadon Bone.
• Biofeedback Therapy.
• Catalog Your Springsteen.
• Meet Your Neighbors (Eat Your Neighbors).
• Bury Your Dead.
• Procreate.
  

Lisa Ekdahl - I Don't Mind (mp3)

Cucurrucucu

I saw Sujay playing this small pizza place in Baltimore a little over a month ago. He sat in a suit and a low folding chair next to a mirrored wall, separated from the bustling restaurant by an empty wooden dance floor. He crooned with a soft strength, unphased by being ignored, like he was singing for a previous generation of ghost memories dancing ballroom in front of him. Memories of train stations, wide-brimmed hats, fried chicken with bones, huddling around a radio, and wounded doves. Singing gently, "what will these pizza patrons ever know, little dove, of love?"

Sujay Pathak - Cucurrucucu Paloma (mp3)

A Refresh

Kristin Lucas - Refresh (2007) [courtroom sketch of the performance art]

"On October 5, 2007 I became the most current version of myself when I succeeded in legally changing my name from Kristin Sue Lucas to Kristin Sue Lucas in a Superior Court of California courtroom. On the name change petition that I submitted, I wrote: "Refresh", as the reason for the change. After a philosophical debate on perception of change, and two hearing dates, the presiding judge who granted the request said: So you have changed your name to exactly what it was before in the spirit of refreshing yourself as though you were a web page."

Read the full, amazing transcript here.

Boat - Name Tossers (mp3)

Let Go

Asher DeGroot, David Gallaugher, Kevin James, and Jacob Jebailey - Walk In The Park

"Let go of attachments to what you’ve been doing for the past year, or years. Let go of failures. Let go of fears you’ve built up. Let go of reluctance. Let go of your ideas about what your life has to be like, because that’s the way it’s evolved so far. Let go of long-held beliefs and habits.

You have a fresh start. Let go of last year, and start anew."

-- From Zen Habits

Hairglow - Let It Go (mp3)

Midwest Dirty Snow

John Wildgoose - Midwest Dirty Snow

I don't have words today, just a song. I'd apologize, but it's a great song.

Lisa Germano - Snow (mp3)

"Artificial" Sweetener

Eric Lebofsky - Untitled (2004)

Children and Corpse Playing in the Streets - Fucked Up Beautiful (mp3): On first listen, the unexpected laughter sweetens, (over) sweetens, (carmelizes on your molars) sweetens this track. But listen again. This time imagine that Marit and Inga-Lill have placed laughter in those exact places in the sheet music to create cuteness. Imagine them glancing up at each other, giggling on cue, and then returning to the lyrics. Fucked up beautiful isn't usually planned, it's a spontaneous genre.

But why? Movies carefully orchestrate emotions of characters, actors cry and laugh on cue to crescendo with the timber of the story. I've never seen sheet music for metal bands (it it exists), but I doubt there is notation to scream the verses. But isn't that pretty important to the sound? Does planning for emotion in music "cheapen" the authenticity of the art? Why is most music expected to be documentary, autobiography, and not allowed to be pure fiction? I suppose this is why we call our musicians "artists" and not "actors". But what if a "musician" hired actors to perform a piece, with their emotions carefully laid out in the notation? Would it be "forced"? The live performance of music certainly contains much acting, the audience just prefers to pretend every performance is authentic. Maybe this is the essence of the "fake" Andrew W.K. rumors and interactive performance art. We tend to want fucked up beautiful to stay a spontaneous genre.