2008 Favorites: Los Campesinos!/We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed

Los Campesinos! may not consider We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed to be their proper second album, but whatever it's place in their discography, its the best collection of material they released this year. To my mind it is the first 'real' record anyway. Hold On Now, Youngster… was a good record taken on it's own merits, but tonally it was just a continuation of their Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP. The giddy sugar rush of Fingers played out at album length left me with a sore stomach and the unsettling feeling that this promising young band had only one gear and they were going to gun the engine until the car ran out of gas. Eight months later this record came out and shortened the odds on Los Campesinos! Turns out they wear desperation as well as they do joy, and that they're interested exploring the threads that connect the two (reflected in the duality of the title). The band's indie rock fetishizing - so key to their early material and appeal - is reigned in here: less inside baseball lyrics, no pep squad shouts, no exclamation points in the song titles (as opposed to four on Hold On Now, Youngster…) just ten great songs delivered with the confidence and charisma a great young band coming into it's own. Turns out that all the twee fixation on indie rock bands was besides the point: Los Campesinos are a band worth getting fixated on themselves.

2008 Favorites: fivethirtyeight.com

Though the internet may give all opinions (relatively) equal weight, it cannot disguise the fact that they are all not created equally. Following the election this year made separating the good online outlets from the bad especially important since it became clear that while the newspapers we're floundering and the TV networks were in a race to the bottom, the online community had finally achieved preeminence (in the zeitgeist if not the numbers, we'll have to do better than 15th in the world in broadband availability for that). Fivethirtyeight.com, though initially baffling to a numerical neophyte like myself, quickly set itself apart from the pack with its methodical calculations, thoughtful analysis, and clear-eyed, if not exactly non-partisan, view on the political landscape. Nate Silver, armed only with oceans of data, an elegant system for decoding it, and his dispassionate tone made a believer out of many a newsreader and blew away the conventional wisdom concerning polls and their use. If you followed fivethirtyeight you were always one step ahead of everyone else - two ahead of the tail chasing media - and after it was over you were left wondering how we ever made it through elections without Nate and crew. Only .7% off in their final projection! The thought of it almost makes me miss the election. Almost.

2008 Favorites: Okkervil River/The Stand Ins

Will Sheff may turn his nose up at the term lit-rock, but when you're writing sequels to earlier records (complete with connecting cover art!), re-purposing "Slope John B" to eulogize Berryman, and intertwining the stories of your band into your music so much that it is impossible to separate them it's time to give up the ghost. You'd prefer prog-rock? Though the band has the musical muscle to stand out of the crowd (good enough for the exceptional Jonathan Meiburg to peel off without batting an eye), it's Sheff's literary preoccupation - and skill - that separates Okkervil River from it's peers. The motown metronome of "Lost Coastlines" is good enough to make you not realize the song has no chorus as Sheff's story of a wandering band (comprised of his wandering band) spills out. And when he does get around to writing a proper rock song ("Pop Lie") it's a dissection of what it means to make and listen to music . Popular music is lousy with deconstructions of itself, but who goes after the audience too ("...and you're lying when you sing along")? You're only playing that game if you've got more on your mind than just rocking out, so whatever term you like, let's call a spade a spade, shall we? Not that thats a bad thing. There will always be a place in rock music for the brainy kids who sound like they swallowed a thesaurus, because most of the time its an asset and not a liability.

2008 Favorites: Frightened Rabbit/The Midnight Organ Fight

To paraphrase the inimitable Susanna Clarke, is it true that while melancholy belongs to all the world, it's individual extractions are made up according to different recipes? Are there distinct and tangible differences between Jewish sadness, gentile sadness, white sadness, black sadness, etc...? If so, The Midnight Organ Fight seems to be a pure distillation of Scottish sadness. Scott Hutchison allows his honey on sandpaper burr run to roughshod through his pained lyrics, while the band only makes fleeting attempts to push their sound past the Lowlands and Northern Isles. So what keeps this record from being some Thistle & Shamrock-style cultural artifact? Grant Hutchison's drumming is the key musical element; for despite the singer/songwriter feel of the material, this is really a drummer's record. Like any good sibling Grant is inclined to kick his brother's ass when he's feeling too sorry for himself, and the drum work on this record has an electric effect on the material. The other key is the sad sack in the middle. Scott Hutchinson paints his demons exquisite and lovely detail but keeps it relatable throughout - drawing the audience in instead of pushing them away. After all, everyone is alike under the skin, right?

2008 Favorites: Deerhunter/Microcastle, Weird Era Cont.

An album I so enjoyed that I bought it twice (I just could not wait for the physical release - I'm weak). With Microcastle Deerhunter totally realized the ideas they had been toying with on the Fluorescent Grey EP and the result is a band in full flower. From the first chords of the beatific opener "Cover Me Slowly" to the epic cacophony in the final moments of "Twilight at Carbon Lake" (in which the band finally perfectly synergizes their love of noise, shoegaze, and 60's pop), Microcastle is a collection art-damaged pop pleasures. It's vestigial twin Weird Era, Cont. is much the same, but radically different. Where Microcastle is comprised of twelve perfectly calibrated pop songs, Weird Era's tracks ebb and flow together in the amniotic fluid of the gauzy production. They are the dreaming of Microcastle; a translucent collection of Neu!-like rhythms, wall-of-sound harmonies, and shoegazing guitar. The exception is "Calvary Scars II/Aux. Out", which takes a delicate seed of a song from Microcastle and allows it to bloom in both expected and unanticipated ways. Closing out the record it proves that Deerhunter are still exploring the evolution of their sound and that progression will be as unpredictable as it is satisfying.

2008 Favorites: Marnie Stern/This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That.

My favorite record of the year. Listening to her music approximates the feeling of falling inside someone else's head, with all the attendant chaos and impenetrability. Declining to use her music to tell stories or espouse opinions Stern prefers to catalog the myriad of reflections that exist in the hall of mirrors of her mind. That's why her virtuosic guitar playing (and Zach Hill's drumming, better integrated here than on her debut) is not gimmick: it originates from the way she expresses herself creatively. Add all the glimpses, echoes, shards, and shreds together and you get a sense of the person - and no one did it better in 2008.

What the hell is wrong with this country?

I hate it here.

2008 Favorites: Michael Haneke's/Funny Games

I was so taken with this movie that I will never recommend it to anyone. Haneke American-ized his decade old Austrian mindfuck and by doing so strengthened it's impact instead of diminishing it. Funny Games is about American movies and American audiences, and the subtitles and Euro-centricities of the original distanced the film from it's subject. Now with the barrier removed it plays even more as intended: a meditation on the festering wound of the American film going psyche. The film's detractors call it didactic and exploitative. Perfectly true, but precisely the point. The moralizing tone Haneke adopts is a perversion of prestige film pretension (see: Ed Zwick and Paul Haggis), while the manipulation of space and time are no more extreme than your average summer tentpole - only here it serves to undermine the audience's expectations instead of gratifying them. The rise of the torture porn genre and other various grotesqueries in the years between the original and the remake merely underline Haneke's argument. There is no audience for this film in America.

2008 Favorites: The Dodo's/Visiter

The limitations of the two-man band only seem limitless (see: The White Stripes). And in light of Visiter's kaliedoscopic sounds, the Stripes "primitivism via constraints" theme seems more like a lack of creativity than possibility. Because where Jack and Meg are simplistic, Meric and Logan are sophisticated. Their background in Ewe Drumming and metal form the twin pillars of the record without succumbing to the cultural colonialism of the former or the potential tedium of the latter. The perfect combination syncopated drums and acoustic guitar [each given equal presence in the mix] is forceful and propulsive, yet complex and intricate. All that from a two-man band, proving once more it's not the tools of the trade, but the imagination and skill of the artist.

2008 Favorites: Fiery Furnaces/Remember

My go to Fiery Furnaces album ever since it was released, this behemoth (51 tracks!) live record is as close to a definitive statement as you could ask for on the Friedberger sibling's music. Though its a more than a little disingenuous to even call this studio edited Frankenstein a 'live' album - it's more a chaotic fever dream of their entire catalog played out as one continuous song. Looking back it seems more and more likely that their studio albums are just Rosetta Stones for understanding their electric and ever-evolving live sets. Don't believe the liner notes: this album has to be taken in all at once or not at all. One complaint: no "Police Sweater Blood Vow"

2008 Favorites: Kanye West/808s & Heartbreak

Screw the haters, the Colberts, and the fake Twitter-ers. This is a great record. Yeah, he spends the whole record wallowing in self pity, but hell, I can relate. The Auto-Tuner? Radiohead used it to buckle and bend Thom Yorke's vocals to better voice his alienation, so why can't Kanye? Sure, it'd make a better EP than an album but with myopia came focus: no skits, no intros, no outros, & no fussy arrangements. Kanye brought the songs and from where I'm sitting there ain't no arguing with "Love Lockdown", "Robocop", "Heartless" or "Amazing".

ASIFA Gallery Show

My piece for the ASIFA Gallery Show at left.

The show was great. Had to skate early, but other than that it was fun, fun fun. Glad Ambrose made it down.

k

i reckon that i save at least ten minutes a day by typing "k" instead of "ok" when talking on messenger. thank god.

Typo

Domain of proofreaders and editors. Scourge of writers and designers. Just glad it wasn't my bad this time. Poor Callie. Probably not that big a deal. Who reads a magazine ad and then contacts the company via their street address these days? It ain't the nineteenth century anymore.

Awkward

Q: What's more awkward than showing up to a party in costume and finding out when you get there that its not a costume party?


A: Going home to change, coming back and finding out that it is a costume party.

Oh well. I had fun in spite of the misunderstanding.

A Band By Any Other Name

I was listening to New Order the other day when I came upon the notion that they had chosen the very best name possible for their band. In addition to being a “new order” for them personally and professionally, their refinement of Joy Division’s more chaotic (or divisive if you like) tendencies and movement toward dance music created a “new order” for music in general. I began to think of other bands that had chosen the absolutely perfect name and others who had not chosen so wisely.

The Best

Radiohead: In addition to being a semi-obscure reference to The Talking Heads (whose career trajectory Thom Yorke and company have taken a page or two from), it’s a name that combines aspects of humanity and technology – a subject that has dominated their music since the beginning. Plus, could you imagine eagerly anticipating the new On A Friday record?

Sonic Youth: Evoking their DIY-inspired beginnings and their ability to stay musically evergreen Sonic Youth’s choice in name is typical of the band’s way with words (Goo excepted).

Queen: Elegant, powerful, pompous and feminine – yep that’s Queen.

Crystal Castles: Whether or not it is a reference to She-Ra’s castle (as the band claims) or the classic arcade game (as is widely assumed), their name perfectly reflects the retro 8-bit sounds of their music.

Yo La Tengo: “I have it” in Spanish. Perfect for heady, abstract indie-rock band fronted by a former music critic.

The Bad Seeds: Seriously, these guys are not good for you.

Self: We’ll Matt Mahaffey did do it all by his lonesome.

Wire: Thin, spare, and metallic are adjectives that perfectly compliment their music.

Broken Social Scene: Literally.


The Worst

Abe Vigoda: Seriously? That’s the best you guys could come up with?

The Smashing Pumpkins: The name conjures imagery of Halloween pranks and youthful indiscretion, which is appropriate for some of the more wistful Pumpkins songs but completely wrong for the majority of their catalog.

!!!: No. Just no.

Spoon: They are one of my favorite bands, but seriously, Spoon? That’s just silly.

Vampire Weekend: I prefer Werewolf Vacation.

Pavement: Pavement is heavy, gray, and under the best circumstances you just forget that it’s there altogether.

Oasis: An oasis is rare, refreshing, and can save your life. Oasis is commonplace, dispiriting, and will rot your soul.

Archers of Loaf: This band should have been bigger than they were. Granted they had a small hit with “Web In Front” and Eric Bachmann has gone on to success with Crooked Fingers, but still they had way too much talent to be alt-rock also rans. I can’t state that it had everything to do with their name, but it certainly didn’t help. Good nonsensical names can conjure absurdist imagery or provoke interesting connections. Bad ones sit there like a dead pig. This is a very bad one.

Something to Hate: John McCain's Presidential Campaign

Has there every been a more reckless and irresponsible campaign for the presidency of the United States? It's as if McCain is running a reality TV version of a presidential campaign. Its all flash and no substance. Oh, the pretty girl arrives in an unscripted moment to throw the whole race into question. Emergency, the campaign must stop to solve the financial crisis (that he doesn't know anything about, or even begin to know how to fix)! These are some of the best plot points to ever come out of a presidential campaign, and next year I hope they honor such exemplary writing with an Emmy. But there's the rub. Next year one of these people will be in charge of the free world and the bizarre national fixation/fiasco of the campaign will be over. It sure is entertaining to watch John McCain. Its also chilling to think of him as president.

Something Great: Rifftrax.com

I love Mystery Science Theater 3000. Mike, Joel, old Crow or new Crow - I don't care. It's all good. It took me a while to dig in on Rifftrax (besides the pointless wordplay that I hate). It was just weird to hear Mike and Kevin and Bill talk as themselves and riff on new movies, but now I'm hooked. I don't care that Kevin laughs at the jokes, or that there is a bit too much toilet humor (Ok that does bother me a bit). Rifftrax is great. The surprise of the bunch is Bill. He didn't really have a fair shake on MST3K, following up Trace as Crow 2.0 (plus the fact that he played the dumb brain guy in the deadly pearl runners. He's always great on RT and has become my dark horse favorite riffer - Mike always has a place of honor at the top. Well done.

Is 'Enough' Enough?

Barack Obama said this yesterday

This happens every election cycle. Every four years. This is what we do. We've got an energy crisis. We have an education system that is not working for too many of our children and making us less competitive. We have an economy that is creating hardship for families all across America. We've got two wars going on -- veterans coming home not being cared for -- and this is what they want to talk about. This is what they want to spend two of the last 55 days talking about."

"You know who ends up losing at the end of the day? It's not the Democratic candidate. It's not the republican candidate. It's you, the American people, because then we go another year or another four years or another eight years without addressing the issues that matter to you. Enough."

"I don't care what they say about me, but I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift-boat politics. Enough is enough."

Fuckin-A.

What the man said just there is a perfect dissection of what the dishonest Republicans dish out, what the lapdog media serve to the American people, and what the American people swallow - every day, not just every four years. Nobody in the equation is blameless (and that includes Democrats), but someone has to stop the bullshit. The Republicans have to stop producing it, the media have to stop serving it and the people have to stop eating it. Republicans get rich off doing it, so that leaves them out. The media too, so unless they have credibility they're out of the equation. So its up to us, the people, to say no. I thought for a while that enough people were fed up with this bullshit, but now I don't know. I hope enough is enough.

Hello Blogness My Old Friend

I haven't written on this here blog in about 3 months, but that is about to change. Right now. I'm going to start with something cool. I love working with Brett and ASIFA-Atlanta. They always have interesting projects and Brett is super supportive. I designed the flier here to advertise their upcoming "Art Inspired By The Golden Age of Cartoons & Comics" gallery show. I may do a piece for the actual show as well. Fun stuff.

Blowin' Smoke

Roll Yer Own 2008

Cherokee County

Installation Pics

Maybe You

Set Pics!

Rock Band DLC: 3/25

“More Than a Feeling”
“Peace of Mind”
“Smokin’”
“Rock & Roll Band”
“Something About You”
“Hitch a Ride”

Well, its certainly better than the last few weeks, but I'm not the hugest Boston fan in the world. As far as place name bands go I think they are the best. Chicago, America, Europe, Alabama, Asia, Earth, Kansas, Nazareth... they all suck. I'm going for cities, continents, and planets so Sleater-Kinney doesn't count. Sure glad that Joy Division changed their name or they might have been cursed. I think this tops my long-standing belief that number named bands are the worst (MC5 and Gang of Four are my two exceptions, and U2 if I'm feeling generous). Anyway, I should be playing "More Than A Feeling" and "Peace of Mind" any day now.

Wristwarmers and new glasses

Man. I am such a poor craftsman. I was never great and computers have ruined whatever skills I ever had. Sewing is easy and essential, but I struggle. No CTRL+Z. Glasses have a Clark Kent vibe. If I make it explicit maybe people will stop offering it like its something new.

Jason Cason

This happens all the time. Every job, school, and function I've ever attended has made this same mistake. Do they think my parents were sadists?

Tornado Damage

And that's when I saw the roof get blown away.

Sons and Daughters @ The Earl

A great (albeit weird) show. Missed A Place to Bury Strangers to see it, but it was worth it. Bodies of Water opened. Never heard of them before, but I was impressed. May pick up their record. Strange Atlanta concert going man was there, so at least my taste is good. Citay stunk the room up with bad jam band-itis. Ugh. Sons & Daughters played rough and unclean, but it suited them. Their guitar player was top. Too bad the lead singer got pissed and fell down. No encore. Maybe they'll transmutate into a three piece.

Rock Band DLC: 3/18

"Blinded By Fear" by At the Gates (master)
"Thrasher" by Evile (master)
"D.O.A." by The Haunted (master)

Yawn. Not getting any of these. I think they program these thrash songs so that you'll wear out your controllers and have to buy new ones.

Rock Band DLC: 3/11

I've been addicted to Rock Band ever since I played it back in January. Finally, here was a slice of entertainment that combined my triumvirate of loves: music, video games, and mindless repetitive tasks. Playing with 3 other people is the most fun I've ever hand playing co-op video games, and even the single player mode is a blast. One aspect of Rock Band that I love is the amount of variety: four different instruments, an almost infinite amount of costume choices, and of course, the wide variety of songs. I have to sympathize with the programmers a bit in that regard. Do they go with the most popular song of a particular group ("Radiohead", Creep) or maybe a less well know song from a popular band (""Queens of the Stone Age", Go With the Flow)? I'm sure that a lot of the decision comes down to the songs that can be programmed, and are most fun to play, but taste has to factor in at some point. In my opinion, Rock Band has the best track list of any of the music games on the market, even if you have to wade through misogyny (Aerosmith) and mediocrity (Fall Out Boy) to get to the good stuff.

Which brings be to the downloadable content portion of this post. Rock Band has another distinct edge over other music games, specifically Guitar Hero 3, in that they publish 3 new songs a week for download from Xbox Live. I've downloaded quite a few and they are almost all worthwhile. I got the Oasis pack out of boredom and was surprised to find that those songs are some of the most fun to play (for me at least). I'm no huge Oasis fan, but I'd rather play "Don't Look Back in Anger" than "El Scorcho" (from a band and album I love) just because, well, its more fun to play. So, I've taken a rather pragmatic view towards the DLC every week. I used to be only interested songs that I knew well, now I'm more open minded.

Here are this weeks tracks:
"Shockwave" by Black Tide
"Crushcrushcrush" by Paramore
"Beethoven's Cock" by Serj Tankian

I'm not reneging on my promise to be more open minded, but I'm a bit let down by these tracks. I've been surprised by unfamiliar tracks in the past (The Grateful Dead, Oasis, The Monkees) but these tracks are seriously underwhelming. Black Tide are a bunch of teenage Ozzfest rejects, Paramore swing from the same branch as Avril and Fall Out Boy and Serj? Well, I used to like System of a Down, but I have no use for his solo material.

I theory I respect Harmonix for going with unknown/new/less popular artists (for a discounted price no less), but in practice I'm not going to get any of these songs. If they wanted to go obscure there are much better bands to go with. I know that licensing and legal issues probably clog up the sources of music, but from where I'm standing these are underwhelming choices. They must have some rubric for choosing which songs are available as DLC, like what percentage of video game users are classic rock fans, pop fans, modern rock fans, etc... I just wish they would include more of the songs I like. Its selfish I know, but I would pay double the normal price if they included more, I don't know what to call it... indie rock I guess. I would love to see some Liars, Marnie Stern (sweet Christ that would be awesome), White Stripes, Spoon, Television, Stooges, Tapes n' Tapes, Modest Mouse, Fiery Furnaces, Les Savy Fav, Interpol, the Cure, Blur, Belle and Sebastian, Deerhunter, Animal Collective, etc... but I know that's probably a pipe dream.

On the walk home

For Reverend Green-Animal Collective
Always Too Late-Annie
Windowlicker-Aphex Twin
Old Flame-Arcade Fire
Recent Bedroom-Atlas Sound
What's A Girl To Do?-Bat For Lashes
Rainbow-Battles
Paper Tiger-Beck
Judy Is a Dick Slap-Belle & Sebastian
O, Dana-Big Star

I've Underestimated My Charm (Again)-Black Kids
Fists Up-The Blow
Badhead-Blur
Kid for Today-Boards of Canada
Swimmers-Broken Social Scene
Everybody's Happy Nowadays-The Buzzcocks
Keep It Clean-Camera Obscura
Dixie Babylon-Cracker
In Between Days-The Cure
Pink Batman-Dan Deacon
Heroes-David Bowie
Hazel St.-Deerhunter
Duplexes Of The Dead-The Fiery Furnaces
M.E.-Gary Numan
Silver Angel-Helium
The New-Interpol
Rough Gem-Islands
The Butterfly Collector-The Jam
Do You Remember The Riots?-Jens Lekman
Insight (Live)-Joy Division
The Village Green Preservation Society-The Kinks
Reformat (Dramatic Reading)-Les Savy Fav
Protection-The Liars
La russe-Malajube
Plato's Fucked Up Cave-Marnie Stern
The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company Resignation Letter-Matthew Friedberger
Rotten Hell-Menomena
A Different City-Modest Mouse
When You Sleep-My Bloody Valentine
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea-Neutral Milk Hotel
Age Of Consent-New Order
Mass Romantic-The New Pornographers
Lime-Tree Arbour-Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Don't Look Back in Anger-Oasis
Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse-Of Montreal
Willow's Song-Paul Giovanni
Gold Sounds-Pavement
Objects Of My Affection-Peter Bjorn & John
The Burning Ambition of the Early Diuretics-The Pipettes
Caribou-Pixies
Glory Box (Live)-Portishead
Don't Stop Me Now-Queen
Nude-Radiohead
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk-Rufus Wainwright
Crimes on Paper-Self
Girl On The Wing-The Shins
Cemetry Gates-The Smiths
Total Trash-Sonic Youth
Change My Life-Spoon
Take Me I'm Yours-Squeeze
Blinded By The Lights-The Streets
Young Dangerous Heart-Subtitle
The Mercury Craze-SUBTLE
Cheree-Suicide
Thank You For Sending Me An Angel-Talking Heads
Buckle-Tapes 'n Tapes
Poppy-TV On The Radio
Tuff Ghost-The Unicorns
Kool Shades-Videohippos
French Vacation-The Walkmen
The Mollusk-Ween
Why Bother?-Weezer
Summer Teeth-Wilco

Mustache Factory

Making mustaches in the dark since 1936.

The Sorting Hat's Sad Demise

Unemployed and friendless. This is how Jo treats her friends.

This Too Will End

http://ihawkstevens.blogspot.com/

Libel and lies! ("Slander and lies" sounds better, but its in print). I don't know who this "Hawk" Stevens thinks he is, but he didn't count on the awesome power of grey thinky whale! It begins.

MouseCopter

Current

Look
I'm weirdly obsessed with the movie Dreamcatcher at the moment. It is not a good movie, but it is a compulsively watchable one. Its so batshit crazy I can't imagine that the filmmakers had any illusions about the movie they were making. It a perfect storm of bad dialogue, bizarre story twists, horrific acting and lame effects. I'm very close to owning it.

Listen
I reached a saturation point recently with my music. For some reason it just wasn't doing it for me and I switched to audiobooks, podcasts, etc... But now I'm back on the wagon. Strawberry Jam has been getting a lot of play. Every time it ends I just want to start all over again. In Advance of a Broken Arm has been on heavy rotation too. Previously, I felt the album wandered a bit towards the middle but now I've come around and have grown to appreciate the whole damn thing. I also have been really into Twoism by Boards of Canada. I always preferred Music Has the Rights... but I think Twoism is the superior record now.

Read
I love thecarpetaggerreport.com and glen greenwald's blog at salon.com. andrew sullivan and christopher hitchens are good too.

HeartBot

Proposed holiday-related heart shaped robot design. Or a fat seahorse.

Its Time Chasers!

Remember when everyone got the Nick Miller haircut and started wearing Castleton shirts?

Marnie Stern T-shirt

So, I'm toying with the idea of making a Marnie Stern t-shirt and the image to the left is where I'm at now. Going for an 80s metal band kind of thing, and the indulgent use of pink is a shame but I love it. So there.

She really hates ovens

Destroyer's Rubies

This is one of those records I bought on a whim and kind of gave up on. It wasn't bad, but it just didn't engage me at the time. But man it snuck back up on me. I was making a mix tape for Kelley and there was a song I thought she would like on this record ("Your Blood"). I started listening to it again and haven't stopped.

Substitutions

I was out of town on business for a few days this week. I've been out of town a lot lately. I feel sorry for Cairo, who has to sit around the apartment for days on end so I cooked up a toy that I thought she would enjoy. I tied an aspirin bottle (her favorite toy) to an elastic string (her second favorite) and suspended it from a step ladder (her thirty-fifth favorite). A meager gesture to be sure, but at least it would give her something to do, right? I got back a few hours ago and she hasn't come to sit on my lap once. All she does is play with that damn thing. I'm ashamed to admit that I'm feeling resentful towards an inanimate object. I always knew that I am easily replaceable, but seriously, this is too much.

Fox in the Snow

There is frozen ice falling from the goddamn sky! What the fuck is going on here?!