WITHOUT MUSIC, LIFE WOULD BE AN ERROR

Poem a Day

2008-05-31T22:31:00.003-04:00

Poem a Day for May is finished now. I've successfully made my way through the month, writing 31 poems in 31 days. Now, I'm going to fly out to San Francisco on Monday and start writing an entirely new batch of poems, but on my own schedule. Read mattpoin.wordpress.com for all the dirt on that.

Poem titles for May 24th-31st

24. Revisionist Fatalism
25. Pizzicato
26. Gris-Gris
27. Bookends
28. No Fruition
29. Time's Collusion
30. False Satisfaction
31. Surface Tension, Disputed Points of Origin

Poem a Day

2008-05-24T02:12:00.003-04:00

Here are the poem titles for poems number 12-23 for the month of May.

12. My Father's Mind
13. A Field Hand Replies
14. Grandfather Clock
15. Prince Remembers the Beginning
16. Paradoxes I: Against Plurality
17. Closet Full of Sparklers
18. Geese Chorus
19. Paradoxes II: Grelling's
20. Offers from Across the Border
21. Aristophanes' Atlanta
22. Superhero Day at the Professional Baseball Stadium
23. The Ernest A. Verlander Memorial Restroom

Braves and Mets

2008-05-19T19:30:00.002-04:00

I'll be in Atlanta for the Braves & Mets series from Tuesday through Friday. Here are the expected pitching matchups.

Maine vs. Glavine
Vargas vs. Campillo
Pelfrey vs. Jurrjens
Santana vs. Hudson

I likely won't be able to make that first game, but the final seems like an awesome showdown. Looking forward to some great baseball.

Studious of Laborious Ease

2008-05-11T23:36:00.003-04:00

I'll mostly be writing on my new wordpress blog, Studious of Laborious Ease for the summer.

The poem-a-day grind for the month of May has proven to be more fun than expected. Sometimes more difficult, sometimes easier depending on the amount of time I can invest, but definitely more fun all around.

Here are the first 11 titles.

1. Wild Horses of Corolla
2. Pompeii
3. Helen, Summoned
4. The Epiphany of Damocles
5. untitled /black birds in the coppice
6. The Sybill Burns Her Books
7. Driving
8. Wasp Tercets
9. Relievers
10. Harold Holt at Portsea
11. New Diviners

Now go read about CPR at my other blog.

31 Poems in 31 Days

2008-05-01T01:03:00.001-04:00

A poem a day in the month of may. With the least writing experience of anyone in the group doing this. What the fuck am I getting into?

Going to California

2008-04-13T23:17:00.003-04:00

This blog may really become inactive soon. More so than ever before. Life is getting busier, days are getting warmer, and I am reading more. All three of those events contribute to less time on the Internets.

I did see the Weakerthans this past week though. It was a great show, one of the best in quite some time, and was made better by having John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats join John K. Sampson on stage for a song.

The reason I won't be updating again until possibly August is this: I'll be in California for the entire Summer. I recently took a job outside San Francisco teaching organic farming and social justice to kids. It starts in June and runs until classes start back on the East Coast.

Here is how my plans are looking. If you plan on being at any of these events or places, let me know so I can say hi.

May 9 - Radiohead & Liars in Charlotte
May 16-18 - Mattstock 2008
May 20-22 - Mets vs. Braves in Atlanta
First week of June through August 17 - San Francisco

Take care.

MP

Sorry for the Absence

2008-04-02T01:36:00.002-04:00

I've been busy. With what? Figuring out my future, planning for the Summer, and watching far too much basketball.

I'll be spending most of the Summer working in the San Francisco area. This blog will likely go catatonic again during that period. I won't be able to shower for three weeks at a time, so the idea of Internet access is laughable.

Classes next semester include Stylistics in Poetry with Alan Shapiro, who just put out a phenomenal book called Old War. Other classes will include two for my music minor - Intro to Rock Music, and Sounds of War.

I like things on the internet that save time. I've been in love with Google Reader for a while now. The new love? An add on for Firefox that gives a pop up message whenever a new piece of mail reaches your Gmail inbox. Being someone who is compulsive about checking the mail and keeping it orderly (no unread messages), this saves me large swaths of time that I can better to put use by reading Stuff White People Like.

More on Cellar Door

2008-03-12T23:42:00.002-04:00

Some more exciting news about the poem I have in the upcoming Cellar Door.

My poem, "Owls", will be one of many in there, with some great friends contributing too. Caroline Fisher, Julie Daugherty, Travis Smith, Amy Olsen, Jonah Garson, and more will have poems in the Spring issue of Cellar Door.

Besides the CD, there have been many exciting happenings lately - Carolina beats Duke, Hansbrough gets the SN POY, and Spring Break, but I just haven't been able to shake the cloud of the Eve Carson story. The past week has been heartbreaking and mind numbing. Closure looks a far way off, no matter what arrests and convictions happen.

Dry Spell

2008-03-05T13:44:00.001-05:00

I received an acceptance letter for a poem of mine last night. Cellar Door will be including a prose poem of mine in the Spring Semester publication.

Dis Is Just Ta Say

2008-03-03T00:25:00.002-05:00

I made this today. I think William Carlos Williams would have approved.

The Lolpoet. A new meme? I hope so.

Finally Going to Mecca

2008-02-16T12:19:00.005-05:00

Or at least a Radiohead concert.

I bought my seats this morning, two in section 6 of Charlotte's Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. Row Q. I cannot say how excited I am for this. Now I just need someone to go with me.

Something that dulls my excitement is having to deal with these large ticket distribution sites. I used LiveNation today, but Ticketmaster is just as guilty of price gouging. Why complain about scalpers when companies are doing the same thing? I'm not quite sure why it takes nearly 25 dollars to process two tickets, but it does. At this rate, I'll have to get a job soon. It reminds me of a comic I saw once.

Happy Trails, Bobby

2008-02-05T13:12:00.001-05:00

Last year I had the pleasure of working with the press for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament in Winston-Salem. Without a doubt, my favorite part of this was watching the Tar Heels play from my courtside seat. The next best part of this job (besides getting paid very well) was sitting in on two Bob Knight press conferences. Coach Knight was his larger than life self in the pregame conference before the Texas Tech team matched up with Boston College. I had the thrill of hearing him comment on strange Jim Crow-esque laws, Albert Pujols, and his saying that, "Adolph Rupp was a son of a bitch."

What I'm saying is that I have a soft spot for Bobby Knight. I would probably hate him if he won more after I was born, since I was a couple months late for his 1987 championship. But still, I really enjoy the fellow. From a distance. We all knew he was getting old - he took a fall while going up the steps to the interview room when I was working, and it wasn't "my buddy just fell flat on his face, haha," but "oh no, Grandma fell and hurt her hip!" that everyone thought. The man is getting up there in years, and he looked rather frail last March.

I'll miss Bobby Knight. Now if only ESPN would take him on as an analyst. Maybe he would punch Mike Roberts in the face.

Note: the picture above is one I took after Knight's Texas Tech team lost. It was his last NCAA tournament game.

Podcast Delivered

2008-02-04T23:41:00.000-05:00

Here is the first bit of the podcast I promised on "Trapped in the Closet." At the moment it is set to be expanded with at least one more person speaking who is well equipped when it comes to the hip-hopera. Make sure to take some time and browse around the site. I've been very impressed with what you can incorporate into an English class.

Trapped in the Podcast

"It has all the trappings of a Shakespearean Comedy"

2008-02-04T20:36:00.000-05:00

I was interviewed yesterday for a podcast produced by Erin Stoneking. The podcast was supposed to be about the literary qualities of a piece of music. So what did she want me to answer questions about?

R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet."

It isn't often that being an English major, Music and Poetry Writing double-minor, and having a love for both high-brow concepts and low-brow culture intertwine. This was one of them.

I promise to link to the podcast site when it goes up.

"Really, it's doggerel, but I love it still."

UNC vs. Boston College

2008-02-01T18:26:00.001-05:00

I would give a run down of yesterday's game since I was in attendance, but I won't for one particular reason - my seat was very far away. How far? I was in row Q of the upper level at the Dean E. Smith Center. The large video screens were at eye-level for me. I will say this though - the game was oddly enjoyable from such a distance. It reminded me of watching game film when I played ball. You can get a better feel for just how an offense works from up there because it looks like little guys on a diagram. Being used to having seats close to the action, where standing is mandatory, watching from the upper deck was oddly relaxing. It was much more like watching a baseball game. I like that.

A Poison Tree

2008-01-30T00:03:00.000-05:00

I've done five pages of writing tonight on William Blake's "A Poison Tree" from Songs of Experience. Almost all of those five pages have focused on meter. Never again will I forget what a trochee is.

I find it scary just how much a great writer can fit into a handful of lines. The images and metrical devices in "A Poison Tree" are not too terribly packed in. Yet, I've had no problem throwing down five solid pages about one aspect of the poem's 16 lines. Nothing is so deceptively simple as a well-written poem. I shudder to think how much one could pull out of sixteen lines of Milton, an author who really condensed a lot into each line. I'm sure whole books have been written about four quatrains of Milton. The more and more I read, the more I realize why Milton is considered the best ever. I was skeptical at first, but now I don't doubt it. I think it is so funny to read through everything that happened for the two or three centuries to follow John Milton, and find where all the great writers cherry-picked ideas from him. Except for A.E. Houseman. He wrote some great poems, but Houseman was a strange bird if there ever was one. Sad one too.

Highly Refined Pride

2008-01-28T22:55:00.000-05:00

First off - the first video for the new Mountain Goats album, Heretic Pride, was posted today. Looks like "Sax Rohmer #1" is the first single. The video is similar to the Bob Dylan video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues" but I definitely got more of a kick out of this one. The Mountain Goats' vid is much more "wow" than the "haha" that goes along with Dylan's. Watch it:

Next on the docket - I've been ordering vinyl to frame and put on the walls of my apartment. I've been getting records that really meant a lot to me growing up. The flat will feel more like home that way. A packaged arrived for me today with Minus the Bear's Highly Refined Pirates in it. Even better, the vinyl is clear and orange, which I am told is special. So of the albums I plan on mounting, here is what I have in:

A new one should come in soon too.

Guabi Guabi

2008-01-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

I've been listening to an African folk song called "Guabi Guabi" all day. The version I've been working is Ramblin' Jack Elliott's version, but the only full one I can find online is this video of Arlo Guthrie from a 1978 live show. It is good, but I recommend dropping a dollar somewhere online and buying the Ramblin' Jack version. Or go get the Essential Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Well worth it.

Guabi Guabi kuzwan le toum diome
Ize les gambi shooey entana
Guabi Guabi kuzwan le toum diome
Ize les gambi shooey entana

Ni izome tingy la ma bonza
Ize widgy le ba na na
Ni izome tingy la ma bonza
Ize widgy le ba na na

Arlo and his band playing Guabi Guabi

Baseball Lying and Skybus Flying

2008-01-21T23:17:00.000-05:00

For fans of baseball, the middle of January is a lonely time of year. It's been months since the World Series, there still a couple months till opening day, and most of the trading's happened. Spring Training, that time of false optimism for about 90% of teams is still a month or so away. You know it is the low times for baseball when the writers over at MLB.com have their top story about how a player who wasn't named in the Mitchell Report just got around to addressing false statements that he was named in the Mitchell Report. MLB.com has never had the greatest writers in the world, and when a story doesn't fly over a fence for the 756th time, they have trouble stringing together words worth reading. So please, baseball writers, quit writing meaningless articles about Jeff Francoeur's film choices and brush up on your Sabermetrics. You're going to have to learn what OPS+ means some day.

Somewhat baseball related: I was looking at what Spring Training and trying to see if I could fly down to Lake Buena Vista, FL to see the Braves play on the world's cheapest airline, Skybus. Unfortunately, Skybus does not fly anywhere nearby, but it does fly to the city where the Orioles play their warm up games. No thanks. Skybus interests me to no end. I am amazed at the fact you can fly on the East coast for somewhere around 40 dollars usually, with some tickets going as cheap as $25. The catch upfront is that the plane has no actual service for passengers, and the hidden catch is that they don't actually fly you to the cities they list. Want to fly to New York? Well, they fly you to New York - Newburgh, NY to be exact, about 75 miles outside of New York City. New Orleans, right? You land somewhere in the middle of nowhere Mississippi and are expected to have a way to the Big Easy. That makes me shudder. LA is a bit easier - you land just fifteen miles outside in Burbank. I think this Spring I'll still try to fly Skybus, maybe to New Orleans in March. Maybe to Florida, where their destinations are a little closer to recognizable civilization. Backwoods Mississippi scares me.

UNC vs. Maryland

2008-01-20T14:12:00.001-05:00

After Georgetown beat UConn last week on a last second three-pointer from 7'2" Roy Hibbert, many people talked about how great a win it was. However, there was a minority who thought that it signified what kind of trouble Georgetown might be in - getting a last second three from a big guy who does not shoot three pointers comes in right behind the full court baseball heave that somehow goes in on the scale of luck. And before anyone says, "Hibbert has gone two for two on 3's this year," I will direct you towards his free-throw percentage: .571 on 70 attempts. I say this because if a team has to have the big guy make the desperation three, they are in trouble. Yesterday, Carolina confirmed they didn't deserve their number one ranking. Tyler Hansbrough is a god among gods here on Without Music, but he shouldn't have been the one to take that last second three. Maryland defended the inbounds well all game yesterday. Except for a couple of short runs, UM just outplayed the Tar Heels on their own floor. It was the first UNC loss I've seen in person, and hopefully it will be the last. The Dean E. Smith Center was as loud as I've ever heard it, which was exciting, but in the end most of us left with a bad taste in our mouths. Unlike Clemson and Georgia Tech, Maryland actually hit their free throws. I felt that the most impressive player on the floor yesterday afternoon was James Gist. The guy scored in every way imaginable, against almost anyone Carolina paired him with. Gist's performance was not one of domination - he wasn't making shots while falling down or dribbling through the entire team for a dunk - but he did hit all different types of shots. The best compliment I can give James Gist is that he looked completely efficient while shooting. Textbook.

At least we had a nice helping of snow here in Chapel Hill last night. I know the novelty of snow in a place that doesn't usually get Winter weather helped take my mind off the loss.

Party's Over For Nodatta

2008-01-17T22:17:00.000-05:00

I hate writing these posts.

In the past hour, nodatta.blogspot.com shut down for good. In the past few years, there hasn't been another blog that could rival the services provided by nodatta. I doubt anyone upped as many albums in the past few years as the guys who ran the site. Just about anything you couldn't find anywhere else could be found at nodatta. It is quite a shame. What's worse, I heard that the reason they shut down might be because they upped the new Mars Volta album that had leaked. Not sure if that is true, but if it is, Mars Volta is a bad reason to have to shut down.

No more OiNK.
No more Albumbase.
No more nodatta.

The big guys are falling hard.

Bear v. Yak

2008-01-17T15:52:00.001-05:00

That's Bear Grylls. Apparently, Bear had an encounter with a yak in Siberia. No one knows any more of this, and won't until the show airs. Is that his blood? Or the beast's? Can't say for sure. Can we be sure that Bear is just really badass though? Yes.

Also badass and British? William Blake. Songs of Experience must have been like the 1790's version of Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden. If Iron Maiden had mirrored Milton's Paradise Lost. That is the first and last Maiden reference you will ever see from me. Enjoy it.

Reunion Tour

2008-01-15T22:03:00.000-05:00

The Weakerthans are coming to Carrboro on the 9th of April. Am I pumped? Considering how much I liked their release from the Fall of 2007, yes!

However, before the Canadians get down to the Southern Part of Heaven, I plan on seeing Jose Gonzalez on campus at UNC on March 3rd, and then the everybodyfields and Chatham County Line in Carrboro on March 7th. Good times.

See you there.

Loch Ness Kotsay

2008-01-14T13:25:00.000-05:00

The Braves recently announced the acquisition of Mark Kotsay from the Oakland A's to fill Andruw Jones' space in centerfield for 2008. Kotsay is about as mediocre as it gets, his OPS+ is at 100 exactly for his career. I'm not exactly sure what Kotsay's wife Jamie's OPS+ is, but is she mediocre? Not so much.

In Search of the Elusive Jamie Kotsay
Kotsay Going to Atlanta. Husband Going With Her.

Both articles come from Ump Bump.

Western Digital

2008-01-13T15:39:00.000-05:00

Western Digital can die a horrible death. They make money by building seemingly-sturdy external hard drives, offering a joke of a warranty, and then when the device quits working altogether after five months of light use, Western Digital's support staff gives you the run around.

If I am ever faced with an anarchic situation where I have to loot and pillage to stay alive, I will make sure to stop by Best Buy and take a shelf full of WD products. Then, I will punt them like footballs into the burning buildings and flooded streets.

2008-01-09T23:55:00.000-05:00

Kenny George is larger than any human being I've ever seen in person. Listed at 7'7" & 360 lbs., the UNC-Asheville center dwarfs everyone, hands down. Reyshawn Terry, in the above picture? He's 6'8". Tonight, Tyler Hansbrough, in all his bulk, looked like a twig for most of the first half. And then this happened.

Tyler Hansbrough turned into Pshyco T, and went on for 23 points and 8 rebounds. This wasn't the most impressive showing for the Tar Heels this season, but if I get to witness a UNC win in person, I won't complain. The thing I will think of down the line about this game, even more than getting to watch my team win, is how I wish Kenny George would get a good break sometime. Last year, his appearance in Chapel Hill was largely a novelty, and this year he was able to move away from some of that with 14 points and 11 rebounds. ESPN's box score gives him 4 blocks, but I would have given him at least 6, and note that George positively altered another 10-15 shots in 24 minutes of play. The guys over at Storming The Floor are pretty smitten with the big guy, and I can see why. All accounts describe George as a soft-spoken, good natured guy. I think many people around the basketball world would love to see the big man from UNCA lose some pounds, get into a bit better shape, and get a chance to play ball for money some day. Right now, the excitement of seeing Kenny George come in the game isn't sustained for long. After three or four possessions, it is painful to watch him make his way down the court, and watching him dunk becomes more and more unimpressive - like watching someone drop clothes in a hamper. I really hope to see George next year, his senior year, looking healthy. Watching him play, it is easy to see that if he had the stamina to play at top condition for 29 or 3o minutes, he could seriously be a 20 points, 20 rebounds, 10 blocks kind of guy. That would make me happy.

On another basketball note, Charlotte and Clemson need to figure out what kind of ball clubs they are going to be. Maybe UNCC is truly an up and down team, and Clemson is still stunned from Wayne Ellington's shot the other night. Also, NC State needs to quit playing games with box scores that look like high school JV games.

Everynight Fire Works

2008-01-04T00:21:00.000-05:00

I signed the lease for an apartment recently that I'm rather excited about - the people I'll live with are good ones, the proximity to campus is desirable, rent is reasonable, and it is literally behind Cat's Cradle. In anticipation of needing to fill wall space, I hunted around the internet and bought a vinyl copy of Hey Mercedes' 2001 full length, Everynight Fire Works.

I would go to battle defending EFW - it could easily be called my favorite album of all time. The amount and quality of rocking that goes on in the 11 tracks astounds me. Everything the band put out after Everynight Fire Works pales in comparison. I'll be so excited when the LP arrives in the mail, and I have no doubt I will be a happier man from looking at that beautiful cover every day.

Tomahawk Chop

2008-01-03T20:30:00.000-05:00

The spring semester is still a few days from starting, but I've already set aside a reward for a hopeful strong finish. I'm getting tickets for the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets series in May. I've always been a Braves fan, but never seen them play, so the three games against their biggest rival should be a treat.

Other tickets I picked up/plan to pick up recently:

1/9 - UNC vs. UNC Asheville basketball
1/18 - the everbodyfields in Winston-Salem
3/7 - Chatham County Line CD release with the everybodyfields in Carrboro

I hope everyone had good and safe time on New Year's Eve. I hope your night was as good as mine, just without the shouting match over which suburb of Winston-Salem was better, Walnut Cove or Clemmons, at two in the morning in a crowded diner.

The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

2007-12-30T00:36:00.000-05:00

I've been listening to the Mountain Goats' new record, Heretic Pride, all night now. There have been background listens, there have been critical listens, active listens, and there have been relistens. I've listened to the record a few times over, and still want to hear it again. This one is something else. I've listened while watching the Patriots run the table, while reading about a way to determine points per possession from basketball box scores, and while doing nothing at all besides listening.

I don't feel like I can write a review of Heretic Pride at this point. It would be lots of comments like, "This is so damn cool!" And it is. But that isn't terribly insightful. So now for the attempt at insight. These were the things that I was curious about before hearing the album, and what caught my ear while listening.

1. The production and arrangement - It seems like ever since John Darnielle first went into the studio and released Tallahassee, the production has gotten increasingly interesting and natural sounding. Heretic Pride definitely sounds more like a full band is in the studio than any Mountain Goats album to come before it. Piano and organ work are featured more prominently on songs here than anything since "No Children." Scott Solter and John Vanderslice really got the sound right on these songs. The string parts are great, and "San Bernardino" features some stringed instrument ostinato from the start that intrigues me greatly. Arrangements are inventive and strong throughout.

2. Bright Mountain Choir - I've always enjoyed the parts of the Mountain Goats' back catalog that featured Darnielle's voice paired with a female singer. Be it Rachel Ware, the BMC, or Kimya Dawson. The parts where female vocals show up are treats.

3. Jon Wurster - I used to think "This Year" was the Mountain Goats' rocker. Not any more. Wurster elevates a number of these tracks to great heights. I hope to see JW on drums along with Peter Hughes and John Darnielle the next time a tour comes through the area.

4. Monsters - Some research would probably reveal more ties, but the monster theme that had been previously suspected is somewhat present. Heretic Pride is not an album about monsters, but perhaps an album about how it feels to be a monster, or be perceived as one. I like that better. Perhaps there will be a video for one of these songs, and monsters will be involved. I'd like that too.

5. Michael Myers Resplendent - One year ago this week, Darnielle posted a demo of this track. It was good. When HP's tracklist was announced, some fans were surprised that MMR was closing things out. Or curious might be the better term. I was very curious as to the changes, if any, Michael Myers Resplendent had undergone from the "Grendel's Mother" esque demo. Well, MMR went in a totally different direction than I had expected. It's big, and it deserves to have the final say on Heretic Pride.

Really, there is only one song on HP that I'm not already sold on, and that is only because it is a little too reggae for my tastes. Lyrically, it is solid. Now I will just wait in anticipation for the liner notes when the record is released on February 19. This record should be one of the best for next year, it would have been for 2007. I just hope that when the end of 2008 rolls around, people won't have forgotten how outstanding Heretic Pride is like they did with The Reminder.

Ska Fans are Proud People

2007-12-29T15:29:00.000-05:00

I found out last night that 17-year-old fans of local ska bands do not like it at all when you say you don't really like ska. If you are ever in a tightly packed crowd, waiting for the opening ska act to finish in order to see a band you like more follow them, never say out loud to the person you are with, "I don't really like ska, so let me know if you want to go sit outside." If you do, expect every person wearing checkered Vans slip-ons in the room to glare an evil glare that says, "I want to do awful things to you with my trombone."

That was the scene for the first half of last night for me. I went to the Werehouse in Winston-Salem to see a friend's band, and had to wait through a ska group to see said band. I've tried so hard before to like ska and reggae, but both just do not entertain me in any form. Except for laughing at characters that you see at ska shows and the white Rasta kids who love reggae, there is nothing entertaining about those kinds of music for me. I tried, but just couldn't catch on.

The band I wanted to see, Holland, 1945, played beyond my expectations. All I had ever heard before were some demo-quality recordings, and seeing them live made any mp3 I had heard pale in comparison. I feel the band's name is a tad bit misleading - I don't hear any traces of Neutral Milk Hotel in this two guy, two girl group, but more like Sunny Day Real Estate without any screaming. Kudos to these kids on big, loud guitars, as well as bass lines that aren't boring.

And one other thing - I've never been to a show in Winston-Salem that started anywhere close to the advertised time.

Day Trip to Chapel Hill

2007-12-28T11:15:00.001-05:00

I spent all day yesterday in Chapel Hill, a town that is as much a home to me now as the one I grew up in. I had plans to see some of my favorite people, and ended up running into a long lost friend the moment I arrived.

This space is not about my personal life though. The latter half of my evening was devoted to the Carolina vs. Nevada basketball game. The Dean Dome was almost full, with even more in attendance than when school was in session for the last game I went to against Iona.

Bobby Frasor's season-ending injury was hard to watch. When he went down, I had no doubt he had blown out his knee. It was bad, watching one part of his leg go one way and the other half go in an opposite direction, laterally speaking. However, I was rather confused and actually hopeful when Frasor got up and walked to the locker room on his own power, albeit gingerly. I've always thought of getting a torn ACL as something that would keep you from walking without support on the bum leg. I feel so bad for the guy, especially since he had an injured foot for a majority of last season. I believe it is definitely possible that Quentin Thomas can come into Frasor's role and not miss a beat, but it will require him to play a cleaner game than he has been. Bobby's assist to turnover ratio is much better than Quentin's, and it seems like Bobby shoots better from behind the arc. While Frasor has played more minutes, Thomas is a senior - there should be no inexperience in his game. Moreover, if Carolina goes all the way this year, I'd like to see Q have an important part in his becoming the only Tar Heel to ever win two national championships. That is really unimportant for the time being though. I hope Bobby Frasor makes a full recovery, and that Quentin Thomas plays up to his ability. Carolina is really lucky when it comes down to it - not only do we have a guy who is the best point guard in the land (look at those stats from last night), but we also have a backup guy. NC State is going to play their second year in a row without a real point guard. That is bad luck.

Other than the Frasor injury, last night's game against Nevada was entertaining. Four UNC players put up double figures, but Ty Lawson really stood out. Lawson managed to put up 16 points, 10 assists, 6 rebounds and 5 steals in 29 minutes. I wanted to be witness to the first UNC triple-double of the Roy Williams era, and if Lawson had pulled out an identical second half to his first he would have gotten it. No dice though, and Rashad McCants still holds the last one, occurring when Matt Doherty was still at the helm. I've never seen anyone go end to end like Lawson - the layup is an automatic when he gets the ball in transition, regardless of numbers. Short man even dunked a ball last night. Good for him. Lawson is almost always a part of my favorite happening when Carolina plays: moving the ball from one end of the court to the other for a layup without any player taking a dribble. That is efficient basketball.

On another note, Tyler Hansbrough put up 26 points in 26 minutes. Sometimes, it seems like Hansbrough ho-hums his way to 25 points. Part of it is the free throws. Through last night's game, Hansbrough is only 92 made free throws behind the program's all time leader. If Tyler keeps shooting ten a game, that won't last long. Fans like me are sort of taking Tyler for granted, I think. When he can put up 26 in 26 minutes and it not feel spectacular, especially when Nevada had two guys taller than him in the game, it is scary. I think once the conference schedule rolls around, we'll see some of those career defining performances. He probably won't score 40 points again like he did against Georgia Tech his freshman year, simply because with Lawson and Ellington playing so well he doesn't need to. Tyler is definitely capable of taking over a game like he did last year against Michigan State at the LJVM in Winston-Salem for the second round of the tournament though. I was courtside for that, and it was without a doubt the greatest basketball performance I've ever been in attendance for.

I should have a post about Cat Power's Jukebox up as soon as I give it a few listens.

Edit: The copy of the new Cat Power I had waiting on me was a promo copy that fades all the songs out around the 2-minute mark, right when they are about to break into the best parts. Matador has me beat. False alarm.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T01:13:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to anyone who happens upon this site.
I spent my eve of Christmas watching the new Sigur Ros DVD, Heima, and I'd say it is on par with the group's studio work. The footage isn't a necessity, but it is definitely enjoyable, and watching it made me remember how epic and mind blowing the last half of the final track to ( ) is.

After enjoying myself on Christmas day, I'll be spending the 26th with family. On the 27th, I plan to go spend a day in Chapel Hill. Definitely plans to see one great person, maybe a couple more friends if they can swing it. Hopefully, I'll be able to take in the North Carolina vs. Nevada game. The 27th has me more excited than the 25th.

Go over to the Mountain Goats' website. John Darnielle put up a demo of a collaboration that he and John Vanderslice hope to work on. Let him explain it to you.

Hope everyone has a great time over the holiday.

In the Craters of the Moon

2007-12-23T16:20:00.000-05:00

The first few tracks from The Mountain Goats' new album, Heretic Pride, are making their way to the internet. The album is due February 18th, and JD has explicitly stated not to link or share the tracks, so I'm not going to be that guy. Will I download it when I get the chance? Yes. Will I buy it the day it comes out? Yes. No sharing though. Don't ask.

Anyway, the track I've listened to the most, "In the Craters of the Moon," is pretty spectacular. Epic sound, and beautiful too. So, consider this a hype entry. I'm not going to search out the HP's tracks one by one. I have a feeling HP might have a thematic strain running throughout, so I want my first exposure to be an intact one for the most part.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

2007-12-22T23:59:00.000-05:00

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude might be the best piece of writing I've ever read. I can think of a few poems I've read that make me feel the same way this book does, except this book is 400 pages long. Often, One Hundred Years of Solitude feels like poetry - like the same amount of consideration was invested in each syllable as the best poets put into the sounds they produce. I am stunned. Please read this book. Please.

Blinded by the White

2007-12-21T16:22:00.000-05:00

The good people over at Storming the Floor just made fun of a Duke basketball player, and that is something I can get behind. We no longer have JJ Redick's poetry to laugh at in Chapel Hill, and Chewbacca graduated a few years ago.

This post, concerning Kyle Singler and his paleness made my day. Singler is so white, he looks like this guy.

I can just feel a new nickname coming along for Kyle "Powder" Singler when Duke plays in Chapel Hill this year.

HP Cover Art

2007-12-21T00:35:00.001-05:00

4AD has the cover art for Heretic Pride, the Mountain Goats' upcoming release, on their website. This graphic is rather small, but the cover seems much more different than I would have expected. Expect something a little more badass? The approaching storm and totally heavy metal font say "YES!" I heard from one person who has given a listen to a watermarked copy (no, I don't have it and haven't heard it) that this album was much edgier and used the full band more often. This album may or may not be monster themed, so I'm hoping that John Darnielle's appearance in Aesop Rock's zombie themed video for "Coffee" won't be the last footage of JD with ghouls we get. I plan on buying the vinyl when the record drops on February 18, 2008, because framing a compact disc and putting it on the wall is dumb.

Small Labels Play it Smart?

2007-12-19T23:29:00.000-05:00

I'll always remember Christmases when I was younger for the wealth of new music I got my hands on. I got my first cd player for Christmas, along with my first cd's. Growing up in a house that was still operating on cassette tapes and vinyl, I remember my older, cooler cousin explaining to me that, "no, you can't flip over your Space Jam Soundtrack cd and have it play on the other side." Sorry R. Kelly. Christmas was a great time to be a music fan - when else were you going to wake up and have that hot new Chumbawamba or Wallflowers album waiting on you (guess which one of those bands I still like)? Christmas as a kid who loved music was monumental until I stepped outside the music box and started listening to artists who weren't so popular or weren't recording for major labels with big distribution deals. Once we age a little and our musical tastes mature in leaps and bounds, we can't really expect Grandma to find that album from the Mountain Goats back catalog. Do they have it at the Wal Mart or the Best Buy? Sorry.

What got me thinking of all this is that since I've started writing here again, I thought I would give a little review of a new album I was listening to. And then I realised that besides Radiohead's In Rainbows, nothing new and exciting had made its way through my speakers in a couple months. And the last thing the internet needs is another review of Radiohead's LP7. It seems to me that during this time of year, the musical giants like Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones all put out best of albums, and the contemporary independent artists delay new releases. What I believe is happening is that smaller record labels (think Matador, 4AD, Merge sized labels and smaller) recognize that a majority of pre-Christmas record sales come from people buying records as gifts for other people - and the chance of Aunt Bettye or even Mom or Dad going into the local record store in the alley to buy Magnolia Electric Co.'s new box set is unlikely. If you look at the slated releases for the past week, along with the coming weeks, only major label artists are dropping their albums before Christmas. It isn't until the 8th of January when smaller labels begin to release albums. I don't think this is a "our small staff is off during those weeks" things either. These small labels know kids are more likely to go purchase records themselves than have them purchased for them, especially the week or two after the holiday when they might have some Christmas money. All of this sounds like smart business practices to me as well. The better the Secretly Canadians of the world know their niche in the market, the better chances the artists they put out will be successful. John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats summed the entire situation up perfectly last month with this quote about his intentions for his new album, Heretic Pride:

It will be released by 4AD, and features artwork by Vaughan Oliver. It was
recorded at Prairie Sun, and produced by Scott Solter & John Vanderslice. We
are really excited about this album, and we wish it were out right now, but
there is a law against releasing albums in December unless you are Queen. Any
album you see released in December is actually by Queen, no matter what it says
on the cover. Then in January everybody is recovering from having listened to
too much Queen. Hence, February. See you then!

So until I can get my hands on Heretic Pride or Cat Power's Jukebox, no reviews. Unless someone gives me some Queen for Christmas.

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover

2007-12-17T22:22:00.000-05:00

ice.

When the semester comes to an end and I am able to relax back home, I tend to spend the hours on end that I would normally be reading assigned texts by reading for pleasure. Life moves a bit slower in Walnut Cove, and the only activity I have available to entertain me when the weather is poor is reading. This week, I have started to make progress on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. I've been holding out on reading this 'must read' until I become fluent in Spanish and can read it as intended, but I have growing doubts as to that whole fluency thing ever coming to fruition. I'm only halfway through at the moment so I won't say anything about the novel past this - the big technical aspect of the book has me thinking about magical realism.

Magical realism is a strange territory for me. Fantasy literature, as well as science fiction, have never been appealing reads. I catch intense shame fairly often when friends discover that I haven't read the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter series. I fully understand why others enjoy those books. It is simply a case of me not being sold on the fantastic. Maybe my distaste for Beowulf should be chalked up to this as well. Maybe not.
I think magical realism should share some common ties with fantasy and science fiction. It makes sense that it does. It would make sense that I would have a similar distaste for magical realism. Yet, I don't. All of the magical realism I've come across has been enthralling. I've loved it. Obviously, using magical realism in poetry is a different game, but James Tate is never boring. His poems are great. Coming across a pair of W.S. Merwin poems in Poetry Daily earlier this year was a treat too. Magical realism can do some great, great things.

I am rather intrigued by magical realism, which is why I am kicking myself at the moment. I had the opportunity to study stylistics in fiction next semester with Daniel Wallace, of Big Fish fame. Wallace seems to have mastered to use of magical realism, and I should have taken the opportunity to work with him since he is a visiting professor at Carolina who leaves after the spring semester finishes.

Here's a promise I am making to myself - take whatever class the writer in residence is teaching next year, no matter who they are and what their forte is. If that means learning from the authority on metaphysical novels written in the fourth person, so be it.

Local Music Roooooooools!!!!11!

2007-12-16T00:21:00.000-05:00

Anyone who knows me in the slightest is probably aware of my love for Married to the Sea, Toothpaste for Dinner, and Natalie Dee, three webcomics put up by a husband and wife. You can read them at the MttS link I posted to the right under 'humor.'

I read those three daily, and I always end up laughing nervously when I could be who is getting made fun, especially on Married to the Sea. TFD makes fun of bloggers a lot, but I don't consider myself in the crowd he pokes fun at so much. People don't really read this thing as far as I can tell, I don't schill for my blog outside of it, when I don't let it consume me. However, these two comics hit a little close to home:

Appalachian State Fans

2007-12-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

To anyone who happens upon this posting who is not familiar with the state of North Carolina, I feel I must clarify something. If you saw the end of the Appalachian State v. Delaware football game for the Football Bowl Subdivision title tonight, you saw something really ugly moments. App's fans all decided to storm the field - with 3:30 left in the game. The whole scene looked extremely unsafe, and I know I wouldn't want to play in that environment. At one point, a Delaware player made it into the end zone and slung the ball at a group of App fans, accidentally hitting a police officer in the process. Then you see an ASU fan enter the field on the corner of the screen and shoot the Delaware player two middle fingers. And you know what, I don't blame the Delaware player. Fans have no place on the playing surface or sideline with time left on the clock. It is completely dumb, and I am embarrassed that these fans represent a state I live in. I saw the state flag of North Carolina being waved at the game, and then people who grew up in the state were making complete fools of themselves in the next frame. Yes, you should celebrate like there is not tomorrow because you just won your third straight D-II championship. But have some class. Players can't come up in the stands, you can't come down on the field.

So, anyone from around the world who reads this, don't let App State fans sway you opinion of this fine state called North Carolina. I have many friends who did go or still go to Appalachian, and I've heard mostly good things about the school. I hope no one I knew was one of the idiots on the field. Apparently this is a newly developed tradition at ASU home games, and the school officials/football staff condone it. That sounds like the first problem to me. The other thing is this: App State fans, act like you've been there before, because you have. I know high school athletics have little in common with collegiate athletics, but when I was in high school we had an equally successful baseball team that the community lived and died with. Our baseball teams and fans were the classiest of each kind every single year. It reflects on your organization in a much better light if you act like you have some common sense, and decency to go along with it.

Here is a video of App State fans rushing the field in a similar manner from a home game this year. Imagine tons more people than this video, and you have what happened tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekBoNQ9nmI8

mp3 Journal

2007-12-14T17:45:00.000-05:00

I've finished classes now for what has been a fairly easy semester. I'm going to miss it come January when I have more hours and more difficult classes.

Since it is the end of the semester, I'll post a list of the songs I rocked extra hard during the last few months. I got the idea to keep a running diary of sorts on iTunes from a good friend, and am glad that I did it. Each time i realized I was obsessing over a song, I just added it to a play list entitled sophomore. Here they are, in chronological order.

1. CC Rider - Old Crow Medicine Show
2. Aeroplane - the everybodyfields
3. Out on the Highway/Worker's Playtime - the everybodyfields
4. Tournament of Hearts - The Weakerthans
5. Sun in an Empty Room - The Weakerthans
6. Over and Done - the everybodyfields
7. 1/1 - Brian Eno
8. Stronger - Kanye West
9. The Old Home Place - The Dillards
10. The Opposite of Hallelujah - Jens Lekman
11. A Postcard to Nina - Jens Lekman
12. Detlef Schrempf - Band of Horses
13. Lamb on the Lam (In the City) - Band of Horses
14. Nude - Radiohead
15. Boyz - M.I.A.
16. Birds - M83
17. Styrofoam Boots/It's All Nice on Ice, Alright - Modest Mouse
18. Speed of the Whippoorwill - Chatham County Line
19. Blue Factory Flame - Songs: Ohia
20. Rock of Ages - Gillian Welch
21. Farewell Transmission - Songs: Ohia
22. I've Been Riding with the Ghost - Songs: Ohia
23. I Gaer - Sigur Ros
24. Goin' to Acapulco - Jim James & Calexico
25. People Gonna Talk - James Hunter
26. Cataracts - Andrew Bird
27. Lull - Andrew Bird
28. Pretty Girl From Raleigh - The Avett Brothers

Gone to Mars, Be Back Soon

2007-12-14T00:42:00.000-05:00

One of my best friends is going to Mars for Christmas. Don't believe me? Check out Zena Cardman's blog at http://goingtomars.wordpress.com/

Go ahead and subscribe to it so that when the action picks up you won't miss you.

Mitchell Report

2007-12-13T16:01:00.000-05:00

I'm right in the middle of studying for an exam on Henry IV, Part 1, John Donne's "The Ecstasy" and Paradise Lost, but I felt the significance of the Mitchell Report warranted a quick post.

- The only good part for me was seeing none of my favorite players named in the body of the report. That means no significant Atlanta Braves players, besides David Justice were named. From skimming through it, the only recent players to suit up for Atlanta was Todd Pratt and Gary Sheffield. I don't quite know when Sheff would have gotten into steroids or HGH, so there is a possibility he could have been juiced in Atlanta. And John Rocker, but that guy and roid rage go hand in hand. I like to think Justice got into the juice while he was playing for the Yankees, a point I will get to in a moment. So yes, the silver lining of this whole mess (and it is one) was no Braves greats. No Maddux, no Glavine, no Smoltz, no Chipper. Definitely not Mark Lemke either. Have there been/are there guys who are getting an illegal edge while on the Braves roster? Of course. Did the team come out relatively unscathed? Yes.

- Paul Lo Duca is a pretty big douchebag. He seemed about as likable as a guy can be while playing for the Dodgers and Mets, but the Mitchell Report has changed my perception. Apparently, Lo Duca is responsible for putting multiple players in contact with Kirk Radomski, the ex-Mets employee who was shipping steroids and HGH to MLB players. Off the top of my head, I remember seeing that Kevin Brown and Eric Gagne were two of the catcher's referrals. From the sound of things, I wouldn't be surprised if there are Facebook pictures of Miguel Tejada doing bodyshots of anabolic steroids off of Paul Lo Duca's manboobs.

- Kevin Brown is a shady dude. There are multiple accounts in the report of Brown overnighting envelopes full of cash, sometimes as much $10,000, to Kirk Radomski's doorstep. Radomski tells at one point of coming home to find a rain-soaked envelope sitting on his doorstep from Brown with $8,000 in cash inside. Brown had checked 'waive signature' when he mailed it. Kevin Brown lacks common sense.

- The two teams that seemed to have more players than others listed were the Yankees and Dodgers. Granted, both teams tend to have lots of free agents come through for a few years at the end of their careers because both franchises can afford high dollar players. Yet, the Yanks had Clemens, Pettitte, and Chuck Knoblauch along with David Justice, Denny Nealge, Kevin Brown and Mike Stanton named, not to mention Giambi. Two of MLB's flagship franchises with some bad, bad press.

- The MLBPAA isn't doing what is right. Head of the player's associating, Donald Fehr, sent out memos to all players recommending they not cooperate in the Mitchell investigation. That really disappoints me. I understand they want to protect their players, but be reasonable. These ball players did something very wrong. Done condone it.

- Barry Bonds was not named. I've decided that the government didn't want to waste ink and paper printing something everyone already knew.

- I'm really scared what happens after this. This will not fade away. I'm scared for baseball. I'm scared that my childhood favorites are going to be implicated soon. That would break my heart.

Now back to studying. Take care everyone, and I'm sorry if your boyhood idol was just outed as a big time user.

Edit: Something I forgot to include up there that is of definite significance: the General Manager. There are multiple cases of the GM having good sources tell him that a player was cheating and using, and went ahead with acquiring/resigning said player. Not just Brian Sabean in San Francisco with Barry Bonds either. Theo Epstein had full knowledge of Eric Gagne's use of steroids, a year in advance, before Gagne was shipped over from Texas. True, Epstein is one of those new wave of baseball guys that I like so much because they are embracing the scientific and analytical aspects of the game. However, that doesn't keep the Red Sox GM from being a 'win at all cost' type of guy. Remember, being a win at all costs type of guy doesn't make you heroic or worthy of worship. It makes you they guy who gives someone a bloody nose while playing ultimate frisbee. It makes you a doucebag.

Yeah, I'm a little pissed off about the state of baseball right now. It is a great game, but money has totally corrupted it.

Now back to Henry IV, Part 1.

Matt

I'm Back

2007-12-13T00:32:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone.

It looks like I'm back on the blogger. It has been a while, but I have to find something to amuse me while I'm on break from school. Because I've been absent since the Al Green concert, let me fill you in.

I quit writing on Without Music for a few reasons. The most important reason being that I go to one of those universities where one must do large amounts of work in order to do well, let alone not fail, even if they are pursuing a 'fake major' like English with 'fake minors' like Music Theory and Creative Writing. The second reason for my hiatus is linked to the first one - I'm in college. College provides the opportunity to do many marvelous things that just aren't there once you graduate. Parties, dates, free tickets to see your #1 ranked basketball team, photo scavenger hunts. All things I won't be participating in when I graduate and join the real world. So why spend loads of time telling you how the Avett Brothers concert I attended was a waste of time and money (it was)? Look for updates when I have time. I might even try to do some form of posting occasionally when school starts back in January. People might even read this, though it is doubtful. If no one does read this, I won't mind - I'll just assume they are going to parties, dates, basketball games, and scavenger hunts where you have to dress up as robots.

Feel free to say hello,

Mattpoin.

Understand the Rivaly

2007-09-17T20:56:00.000-04:00

I haven't been able to keep up on concert reviews lately because I've been faced with the sworn enemy of bloggers everywhere: actual work.

I hate the Yankees as much as anyone. Really, I am a Braves fan. But Shelley Duncan, the new guy in pinstripes makes me laugh. The Red Sox aren't far from being the Yankees in a lot of people's books these days, so Duncan's prank he played on a ten year old Sox fan is classic. Go here to see what I'm talking about.

This Is Why You Always Have A Shortage

2007-09-15T10:27:00.000-04:00

I would be much more inclined to donate blood to the American Red Cross if they didn't think it was perfectly fine to call me at nine o' clock on a Saturday morning.

I'm tempted to put the 'Fuh-Q' tag on this one, but seeing how it is the ARC, I can't bring myself to do so.

Al Green in Chapel Hill: No Grits Were Thrown in the Making of this Concert

2007-09-13T23:10:00.003-04:00

Al Green is still a bad mamma jamma. He said so himself.

I didn't think I would get to hear Al say anything at all though. As of five o' clock, I didn't have a ticket to Green's sold out show at Memorial Hall on campus here at UNC. Craigslist had people asking for tickets and offering upwards of $100 and they weren't getting tickets. Why would I?

However, this is Chapel Hill, where everything turns out right in the end. You always end up getting those tickets you need here. When Sufjan played the same venue, a guy walked right up and offered three to me in the second row. For free. So I decided to call the Memorial Hall box office and ask if they were going to do a ticket dump tonight. They asked me, "What is a ticket dump?" Things looked bleak. "Where you hold tickets to sell on the night of," I replied. Ends up they had a few tickets left in the orchestra pit - that means in front of row A. Center stage. The pictures in the entry aren't pulled from the web. I took them with my piece of crap camera. Best seats in the house. I bought one at a student price. But things get better. When I was standing around waiting for the show to start and contemplating the possibility of making lots of cash off of my great seat, a scalper came up to me and gave me a ticket. I got in touch with my friend Ella, and she too had the pleasure to see Al Green.

Al Green stepped on stage at 9:18 to a packed house, wearing a tuxedo and glasses. He had a gold star hanging around his neck, and lots of gold chains on his wrists. Here's the setlist:

Just Can't Stop
Let's Get Married
Everything's Gonna Be Allright
Amazing Grace
Let's Stay Together
What Makes the World Go Round
Here I am, Come and Get Me
R&B Medley: Sugar Pie Honey Bun/If You Ever Change Your Mind About Leaving/My Girl/I've Been Loving You For Too Long/Wonderful World
Tired of Being Alone
Still in Love With You
Love & Happiness

The Reverend's backing band came out before him though, wearing all black, and featured a horn section (one trumpet, one saxophone, one trombone), two guitarists (playing maple strats), a bassists, a keyboard player, an organ player, a drummer, a percussionist, and two backup singers - one of which was Green's daughter, Deborah (or Debra? I don't know). Being up front and center probably had a lot to do with me enjoying things so much. Al's voice wasn't what it was way back, but he could still hit the high notes. The decades on the road doing shows definitely taught Al Green how to work a crowd, and after every high note Green would say, "Now you try to hit that note! Somebody do that!" and then say, "I'm a bad mamma jamma!" By far the most entertaining part of Green's stage presence was the throwing of roses (upwards of two dozen) to the female members of the crowd. When Green would trot down into the aisles, hordes of women, all over forty, would rush towards the singer for roses and hugs. The Reverend knows how to work a crowd, especially if they are older women. Green was helped out throughout the night by two guys in shiny clothes to dance along.

Green's set seemed to alternate, in the beginning, between work the crowd songs and big hits. An entertaining "Let's Get Married" was followed by "Everything's Gonna Be Allright," which was never more than an extended jam. Afterwards, Green said something to the likes of, "I may be a preacher, but I'm still a man," and launched into an alternate version of "Amazing Grace." At one point during the set, there was a guitar solo played by the teeth. By far though, the closer, "Love & Happiness" was the best part of the night. It really is Green's best song in his catalog, and everyone sang along at the top of their lungs on the song we all wanted. After singing the song, Green walked off to a rocking Memorial Hall, and the band was left to go around and do their solos. At one point, the horns all came to the main mike and played the horn riff at the end of the song, which was great. It wasn't the best concert I've been to, but I had a great time. Also, it gave me a chance to make the grits reference in my title. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, you gain my respect.

I'll have a review of the Avett's show soon. I promise.

Andrew Bird in Durham

2007-09-13T17:12:00.000-04:00

Last night I went to see Andrew Bird play the Carolina Theatre in Durham, an event I've been waiting for now for the past couple years. My friends and I got in the auditorium halfway through Augie March's set and from what I saw they were a decent opening act. It made me realize one reason I really am starting to enjoy seated shows - the opening acts are less likely to be horrible, and if they do end up being bad, you don't have to stand through them. Also, you can get to a show after the start time and still be guaranteed a decent view. After Augie March finished their set, I went out to the lobby to talk with friends and hydrate before Bird's set. The show felt very much like a Chapel Hill show - I knew at least 15 people in the crowd. Also, the ever present Old King was in the seat in front of me.

Before his set, I heard news that Andrew Bird would be sans-drummer, which automatically deflated a bit of my enthusiasm. I was expecting a lot out of the play between Bird and Martin Dosh, super-drummer/keyboard player. However, once Bird came out to play any disappointment was gone.

The main man came out and started immediately to lay down loops on violin. After the loops had been tracked, Bird moved into "Sovay," making most everyone in attendance happy. Bird was accompanied by a sideman in a few songs to help out on guitar and bass, but there was no question who the main attraction was. Bird's setlist, from what I can remember, went as follows:

Intro
Sovay
Why?
Plasticities
Wait
A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left
Opposite Day
Masterfade
Cataracts
Lull
The Happy Birthday Song

(Encore)
Trimmed + Burning
Scythian Empire
Spare-Ohs

The most interesting aspect of Bird's set was seeing which songs worked in new instrumentation and arrangements, and which songs were flat. "Plasticities" sounded like a full band thanks to the looped pizzicato violins. "The Happy Birthday Song" sounded great as well. However, "Lull" lacked that same push that it gets from the drums on Weather Systems. "Nervous Tic" sounded like a demo of the album version. Besides being awed by Andrew Bird's great musical ability, I was rather interested in his stage presence. During "Why?" he seemed to ham it up every chance he got, almost acting out the song.

"Why?," "Wait," and "Trimmed + Burning" were all unexpected treats - Bird's new albums have moved away from almost any tinge of folkiness he has in him, and those old songs allow Andrew Bird to really 'go off' in a way that the pop songs do not. Watching him put everything into them, it is easy to see why those three are still in his setlist.

A special treat was finally hearing an explanation behind "The Happy Birthday Song." Bird described the song as being indirectly about a friend from North Carolina who, 'could take "Happy Birthday," the most cliche, sing it out of tune song ever, and make it sound like the most beautiful thing in the world.'

After the encore, Andrew was nice enough to come out and sign merchandise for fans. I got my copy of Fingerlings 2 tagged up by Mr. Bird, and plan on putting it up so everyone can see it. See:
Nice, right? The only bad thing about the night was getting lost in Durham on the way back to Chapel Hill.

Now I'm going to go up to Memorial Hall and see if anyone is selling extra tickets to Al Green. Have a good night everyone!

Bow to the Google Gods!

2007-09-12T13:05:00.000-04:00

Really, we should all be worshiping at the feet of the Google people. Even if they had created that wonderful search engine and called it a day, we would still be indebted to them. But then they gave us Gmail, Google Talk, iGoogle, and Google Reader, among a slew of other tools to make our lives easier. I just recently got to know the last two programs, and dear God are they wonderful!

Other news: I've been doing some heavy listening lately, which is not the same as listening to Slayer. Elliott's Song in the Air was on all day yesterday, and Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports has been listened to straight through at least once a day for the past week. I've been catching up with the 1990's by way of Built to Spill and Braid as well. More important than all of that though is new music: the Band of Horses album Cease to Begin that comes out in October is not as bad as everyone would lead you to believe. Hopefully I'll get around to writing a review soon. It doesn't match the strength of their debut album, but it isn't a clunker either. However, Kanye West's Graduation is just as good as everyone says it is. "Stronger," the song that samples the Daft Punk track, is pretty much all I've listened to today.

And one other thing: I'm reading a lot of academic writing about poetry right now. I read a good blurb about syllabics this morning that helped answer my main question of "Why write in syllabics?" and I'm also making an attempt to get through Rosenthal's The Modern Poetic Sequence. I have a long line count sequence poem due at the end of the semester and I need some help in wrapping my head around what makes a good one. Reading The Dream Songs is on my 'to-do' list as well for that assignment.

Andrew Bird is tonight. I heard great things from my friend Jamie after he saw AB in Asheville last night. Can't wait.

What We Have Lived

2007-09-11T14:08:00.000-04:00

I've been under the weather lately, so last night I took some time off from doing homework to do some pleasure reading. Well, maybe not pleasure reading - I am in a poetry writing class this semester so any reading of poems I can do can be called 'studying' if I need an excuse not to do work for Economics 101.

I decided last night to read through Ellen C. Bush's Licorice again, and after enjoying that, I moved on the the Spring 2007 copy of Tar River Poetry that I hadn't read yet. Here was my favorite poem in the TRP, a villanelle by Bruce Bennett, who is the director of Creative Writing at Wells College.

What We Have Lived

We live again what we have lived before.
The path leads back. See, see. There is the chair.
We feel it deeper, knowing less, and more.

See. There's the book; the album on the floor.
Old papers waiting to be signed are there.
We live again what we have lived before,

Except, this time, we know we won't explore
what hangs unspoken, heavy in the air.
We feel it deeper, knowing less, yet more

About what grief has schooled us to ignore;
our innocence the sole way we can bear
to live again what has been lived before;

To face again what words cannot restore,
last sessions we can neither change nor share.
We feel them deeper. Knowing less, and more,

We pay fresh homage, pilgrims at the door,
held fast by truths we still cannot declare.
We live again what we have lived before,
yet feel it deeper, kn0owing less, and more.

I hope it is okay to put this poem up. It isn't up on the TRP site, and I really wanted to put it on my site. You know a poem in a specific form is a good one when it makes you want to write in the same form. Villanelles might just be my favorite.

PECOTA!

2007-09-10T11:03:00.000-04:00

The Dugout has been hosting their big finale buildup at Progressive Boink all during the past week, and tomorrow marks the giant conclusion. I check the Dugout daily just to see what Bill Pecota, Dmitri Young, and Kyle Farnsworth are up to. Go to their website and read the entire week's post before tomorrow, and make sure to track through the archives as well. Tomorrow may be the last decent dugout - they make the move to AOL Fanhouse after that.

BOOM BITCH!

The Onion Never Misses a Beat

2007-09-10T10:49:00.001-04:00

Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8

CHICAGO—According to the review, the popular medium that predates the written word shows promise but nonetheless "leaves the listener wanting more."

What happens when one Internet powerhouse makes fun of another Internet powerhouse? Pure gold happens.

The Week Ahead

2007-09-09T22:24:00.000-04:00

The coming week looks to be a great one:

Monday, 9/10: Free Hug Day? Free Hug Day!

Tuesday, 9/11: I have a blues poem due. This is scary.

Wednesday, 9/12: Andrew Bird in Durham!

Augie March opens.

Thursday, 9/13: Al Green in Chapel Hill!
It is sold out, so I have to get there early to get some tickets from a scalper. Hopefully it won't be too much.

Saturday, 9/15: The Avett Brothers in Greensboro!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Roosevelt Hill

2007-09-08T11:05:00.001-04:00

View Larger Map

I know the image right there is awful looking, but just click the 'view larger map' to see what I am talking about.

I went for a bike ride this morning, and found my favorite ride in the whole town in the process. Roosevelt Road drops really quickly and has some great turns in it. When flying down Roosevelt, stay straightish onto Hillview to remain on blacktop instead of gravel, and cross over Plant to bottom out at Dickenson. It is a great time, and you can ride the sidewalk on E. Franklin to get there. If I had someone to shuttle me back to the top, I'd probably coast this hill all day. I can't imagine that the longboarding crowd doesn't know about this place. Best yet, it is a quiet area will hardly any traffic! Wooooo.

True Norwegian Black Metal - The Mountain Goats at Cat's Cradle

2007-09-07T10:12:00.000-04:00

I went to Carrboro's Cat's Cradle last night to catch the Reach for the Skye benefit concert featuring the Mountain Goats. The show started at nine, and had four bands on the bill, which is good for ten dollars, but bad if you have to be somewhere early the next morning. I got there at a quarter to ten as the first band, Hope & Anchor, was finishing their set. I couldn't really make much of the Asheville-based group from the one song I heard, except for the notion that they both looked and sounded like they were indeed from Asheville, which is pretty much saying they looked and sounded like they were from Carrboro. I said hi to friends after their set and checked out who else was in attendance - David Karsten Daniels and Perry from Prayers & Tears were there like always, and took a seat for the next act, the Moaners. The Moaners are two girls, one playing a slew of slide guitars, one on drums, and they are pretty much awful. The Moaners reminded of everything I hated about the whole rock and roll revival idea - sludgy sound, poor musicianship, garage rock, Kurt Cobain vocals, and the notion of loud + fast = good! There set seemed much longer than thirty minutes. No more will be said about them.

Bellafea was up next, and I was rather interested in hearing them. This three piece really reminded me of the better post-hardcore/angular indie from the late 90's. There was the abrasive sonic aspect and metrical changes of At the Drive In, as well as more reigned in moments that were similar to Denali and Engine Down. If I were sixteen again, I probably would have gone ape-shit over their set and would have fallen in love with Heather, the singer/guitarist. However, I am not sixteen anymore, so I just go ape-shit over seeing the Mountain Goats these days and fall in love with John Darnielle.

Last night's Mountain Goats set was a solo one for Darnielle, and was the first time I've seen him play sans-Peter Hughes. I figured it would be a good night from the moment JD walked on stage wearing a t-shirt that said "True Norwegian Black Metal" in Olde English font. I can't remember the entire set, but here is a run through of songs I can recall in order.

Palmcorder Yajna
'New song that was a throwaway from the new record'
Neon Orange Glimmer Song
Dilaudid
Evening In Stalingrad
Keeping House
Game Shows Touch Our Lives
New Monster Avenue
Snow Crush Killing Song
Dance Music
Color In Your Cheeks
Broom People
The Mess Inside
Going to Georgia
Love Love Love
See America Right

(encore)
Jenny
No Children

I am fairly sure those were the songs played. They may be a bit out of order. John said after a couple songs that he decided to put lots of material from Full Force Galesburg in the setlist and wanted to know if anyone minded, and of course there was applause. However, it became evident that the setlist was out of the window halfway through the set for multiple reasons - 1. John couldn't remember the tuning to a song he said "hasn't been played since 1996," 2. John couldn't read the setlist because he didn't have his glasses on, and 3. the crowd was full of people yelling requests at the stage. If JD didn't know a song requested, he would say, "Don't remember that one any more." The call for songs became a bit annoying after a couple rounds of it. I really wish people would just let John play what he wants to play. Sure you might really want to hear him play "This Year" or "No Children." We all do. But do you really want to hear it for the third song? Or do you want John Darnielle to close with it? Wait your turn.

I like seeing the Mountain Goats in any lineup possible, and really did enjoy last night's performance. But I feel like John has a little bit more fun and looks a lot livelier when Mr. Peter Hughes is up there next to him. So, yes, Peter was missed. Who doesn't like Peter Hughes? The man is a great bassist and seems like an all around nice guy. And who else has John Darnielle recorded a record in honor of and called a savior? No one. Anytime the Mountain Goats are on stage, it will be a good time. Any time Peter Hughes is missing, it won't be the same either. John did give us some of his usual hilarious stage banter, likening playing "Going to Georgia" to seeing an ex-wife after twelve years and starting to kiss her and thinking, "Oh, why am I doing this," but by the time the kiss gets to tongue you are like, "Oh yeah, this is great!"

My definite favorite from the night had to be John's inclusion of "Snow Crush Killing Song" and "Neon Orange Glimmer Song" from Sweden. "Snow Crush" had a little extra push behind it that made it great to sing along with. When the Mountain Goats play, there will always be songs left out that you want in. I doubt John ever plays "Sendero Luminoso Verdadero" anymore. It is sad anytime "This Year" isn't played live. And playing a show in Carrboro should always mean he has to play "Wild Sage" just for the 15-501 reference. I've never seen John play "Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" live. But for every song he doesn't play, he delivers with "Snow Crush" or "Orange Glimmer." Or "The Mess Inside." Take your pick.

Oddly enough, after John's last Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill show in May at the Local 506, I heard him talking with a guy afterwards and the guy asked about "The Mess Inside." John said he never played that song anymore but would make sure to play it next time he was in town. He delivered. You have to love John Darnielle.

I might or might not be going to see The National supported by Doveman tonight. Will probably be a last minute decision.

The Internets. You Broke Them.

2007-09-06T20:39:00.001-04:00

Having the your Internet connection crash is something that every college student should be used to. It usually happens right when you are about to send in that final draft to your professor before exams. However, one rarely finds out the reason behind the crash, and it is rarely amusing.

I wasn't on the 'net for a while today, and it was a good thing I didn't need to be, because apparently all of North campus here at UNC was sent back to the technological Stone Age. The reason? Because someone might have had the best bad idea I've heard of in a while. Someone I am not acquainted with thought, "Hey, I wonder, what would happen if I took an Ethernet cable and connected one of my dorm room's Ethernet connection points to the other one on the opposite wall?" That type of creativity and curiosity is what it takes to be a Carolina student. That lack of common sense is just what it means to be 20 years old. I've had my fare share of those moments. I welcome a new brother into the fold with this Internet fun. I've inserted below a drawing of what I think the scene looked like upon connection. Obviously, visual art isn't exactly my forte.

Now I'm going to go see the Mountain Goats in Carrboro. Going to be a great night.

Headlines

2007-09-05T10:58:00.001-04:00

A few key parts from the lead story in today's Daily Tar Heel.

Car chase fails to nab stabbing suspect

Police are still looking for a man called 'Young Buck'

Then a quote from an innocent bystander:

"I seen the car come around the corner, and I was like, 'Damn, he's going fast!'" said Darrell Walt, who was riding his motorcycle nearby as the chase ended. "Of course, he lost it, and they were right on his butt."

I really got a kick out of this article, even though it is rather serious in subject. By the way, if you know the identity or location of "Young Buck," you should call the Chapel Hill Police Department.

You Can Do It Pimp Lucious!

2007-09-05T00:46:00.000-04:00

I took this from the New York Times.

Because seriously, you can't have too many character maps for Trapped In The Closet.

The Everybodyfields & Caleb Caudle in Winston-Salem

2007-09-02T16:19:00.001-04:00

I went back to Winston-Salem this weekend for a few reason, one being to get out of Chapel Hill before the masses flocked in for the first football game of the year. Another reason for going back though, was to catch the Everybodyfields at the Garage in Winston-Salem.
The opening act last night was Caleb Caudle and the Bayonets, an alt-country-rockish group that operates out of Winston-Salem. Caleb has been benefiting from lots of good press in the Camel City as of late, and I went to high school and grew up with the guy back in Walnut Cove and Germanton. Caleb's band would be of interest to anyone who grew up going to indie rock shows in the Piedmont the past few years - his bassist and brother, Kyle, is formerly of Good For You, his guitarist, Daniel, was (and maybe still is?) in Monday in London, and the drummer was from Tori's a Shaker. It was a little odd thinking I'd seen all four guys on stage play dirty little house shows in punk bands five years ago. They've all come a long way.

Caleb being too cool for school.

Caleb Caudle has really matured into a strong songwriter in the past couple years, and his voice is on par with any musical act he shares a sound with. The songs sounded strong and entertaining, and I'm sure they'll improve some more once the band gels (this was only their second time playing together). After his set Caudle told me he had quit his job at the Mellow Mushroom down the road and was on salary to play music full time. So, in the smallest sense, he's kinda made it. Good for him. He recorded a record on his own dime in Johnston City, TN and now a financial backer has started a record label just to let Caleb be a full-time musician and to push the record. If you are a wealthy person and like music, take note - these types of things should happen much more often.

After Caleb Caudle and the Bayonets, the Everybodyfields came on. Last night marked the third time since January I've seen this group in action, and I'll see them again come September 28th in Chapel Hill. Because of the past two shows' amazing quality, I've come to expect a lot from Sam, Jill, & Co. Last night just didn't deliver like I was used to. Sam Quinn, the male half of the Everybodyfields, said he was sick, and it showed. (I think he said Strep throat.) As anyone who has every had Strep will know, singing isn't the first order of business. I can't imagine taking the stage for an hour-plus of sweating when your throat feels horrible, your joints ache, and you are running a fever. The Everybodyfields' slower songs like "Birthday," "Be Miner" and "TVA" really suffered. Most of the slower songs sounded rather weary and unfocused, even with a pedal-steel, electric guitar, and keyboards. A drummer really would have helped tighten the set up, especially the songs off the new record, but no dice. The best parts of the set were by far the "Happy-Time" parts, like "By Your Side" and "Workers' Playtime." However, you could tell that Sam was struggling - his voice was strained throughout and he botched a guitar part on "Workers' Playtime" and an entire verse of "Nubbins."

"Nubbins" was by far the most interesting arrangement of the night - I would almost call it a rock and roll version. The best parts of the song were when the band shifted rhythms from a waltz into a more straight-three like they do with the new song, "Everything is Okay."

So sure, the show was a bit mediocre because the headliners were not on their game, but I'll forgive them this time, if just because they've wowed me so much already. I'll give them a free pass, but only if they bring it hard later this month at the Local 506. Oh, and as long as both Sam and Jill are as beautiful as always. It will be good to see them in Chapel Hill again - I can't believe how dead Winston-Salem is on a Saturday night. Shame on you Wake Forest students.

This week looks to be a good one - The Mountain Goats on Thursday night and the National on Friday. Until then, take care.

Music For A While

2007-08-31T10:34:00.000-04:00

Music for a while
Shall all your cares beguile:
Wond'ring how your pains were eas'd,
And disdaining to be pleas'd
Till Alecto free the dead
From their eternal bands,
Till the snakes drop from her head
And the whip from out her hands.
Music for a while
Shall all your cares beguile.

Text by John Dryden.

Can you comprehend how great this is? Listen to a clip of the piece being performed here.

How Do You Say 'No Thanks' In German?

2007-08-29T15:28:00.000-04:00

I just got an email from someone in the English department here that was a call for submissions about Krautrock for the October 2009 issue of Popular Music & Society. I'd really like to one day get an essay in an issue of such a great academic journal, but Krautrock just isn't my thing. So, if you have a great love of German rock music from the 60's and 70's, let me know, and I'll forward the email to you. Until then, Behalten Sie auf Schaukeln. (I hear that means 'keep on rocking.')

Duke's Creative Writing Classes Must Be Like UGA's "Basics of Basketball" Class

2007-08-28T00:34:00.000-04:00

I'm stalling on finishing the final stanza of a poem I have due for tomorrow's writing class so I spent some time on the internet searching for the some great examples. I came across some poems by a relative unknown. Says his name is Jonathan Clay Redick. I say he should quit his day job.

Here is the wonderful collection of J.J.'s poems that SI.com selected to publish.

I can't wait to read the ones he wrote about that whole drunk driving thing.

The Georgia Peach

2007-08-26T13:41:00.000-04:00

I just watched Tim Hudson of the Atlanta Braves on Paula Deen's cooking show. I think the pairing of baseball and good Southern food is a match that is well overdue. My favorite ball club and my favorite television cook together, making delicious ham with pineapple and brown sugar. Doesn't get better on a Sunday.

The Flee From Me

2007-08-25T12:01:00.000-04:00

I'm not usually one to go crazy about poems from antiquity, but this first stanza of "The Flee From Me" from Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder (1503-1542) is pretty much perfect. Those first four lines, they punch like nothing else.

They flee from me, that sometime did me seek
With naked foot stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.

Time to Take the Car Keys Away From Grandpa

2007-08-23T15:34:00.001-04:00

I used to really like Andy Rooney. He seemed really wise and humorous in the way only old men can be. He knew a lot about linguistics. These days? Not so much. Andy Rooney has talked bad about the game of baseball. That alone is not so bad - plenty of people say bad things about baseball and it is warranted. If someone wants to make a case for the game losing some integrity, I will listen. If someone wants to talk about how foolish it is for the game to worship the past more than celebrate the present, or play pretend-ethics in a world that is pushing towards being meta-ethical, I'll listen. But Andy Rooney has crossed a line. He has said horrible things about baseball. Andy Rooney is not a baseball man. He cannot say these things. Read through the following from Rooney's column for the Stamford Times (huh?) and just make sure to notice a couple things. 1) Xenophobia? 2) Andy Rooney writes like a fifth grader. Fuck you, old man. Fuck you.

Andy Rooney — A no-hit game for me

Baseball has never been my game. I never liked it as a kid, probably because I could never throw a ball very well. My friends said I threw like a girl and that's enough to put any young boy off a game. As I've probably told you — after over 4,000 columns it's sometimes hard to remember what I've said before — my father took me to a Yankee game when I was about 10 years old and Joe DiMaggio struck out three times.
My disinterest in baseball as a kid has lasted all my life. I'm still not interested in the game. I don't watch it on television or follow it in the newspaper. I know all about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, but today's baseball stars are all guys named Rodriguez to me. They're apparently very good but they haven't caught my interest. I also think baseball needs some rules changes, too. For example, the player who starts the game as pitcher should have to play all nine innings without a substitution. A pitcher hardly ever plays more than a few innings and then the manager replaces him with someone who isn't as good. I think baseball managers dominate the games more than the players do and more than coaches do in other sports.
There are 30 major league baseball teams, but sometimes it seems as though the New York Yankees are the only team that ever wins the World Series. There have been 102 World Series since 1903. The Yankees have been in 39 of those and they've won 26. Five teams have never won a World Series. What in the world keeps baseball fans in those cities coming to games?
The figures they keep giving us on broadcasts of baseball games are batting statistics, the amount being paid the players, the number of fans in the stands. There are other statistics I'd like to hear more often. When a player comes up to bat, they can tell me what his batting average is but I'd also like to know how many times he's struck out. Tell me how many different teams he's played with. Which player on either team has made the most errors? What's the average IQ of a baseball team compared with the IQ of a professional football team?
It seems like a major mystery that baseball has never caught on in other countries the way it has here. There are baseball leagues in several countries but their citizens' interest is mostly in soccer [football as they call it]. Cricket is popular in some countries, but it makes hopscotch seem exciting.

It's easier to understand why our football game isn't played in other countries. Football is complicated. It takes a lot of practice and it's expensive. All players need for a soccer game is a ball and a pair of shorts and shoes. It's harder for a bunch of kids to get together Saturday morning and go to a vacant lot to play football than to play either soccer or baseball.
Some of the best times of my life were playing football, and some of the best friends I made were fellow football players in high school and college. You're more dependent on teammates in football than in baseball and a bonding takes place.
In a football game, you're dependent on the players on either side of you. In a baseball game, you're pretty much on your own. Basketball is a better team sport to me than baseball, but size means too much in basketball. I never got taller than 5-foot-9 and didn't make the basketball team in school. I ended up as the backstroker on the swimming team. I was a good swimmer but hated doing laps for practice. The water was always cold and after half an hour in the chlorinated pool my eyes were red and my skin wrinkled. It took the fun out of swimming.
Considering the fact that who wins or loses any game makes no difference whatsoever in our lives, it's interesting how important a game can seem to us sometimes. The greatest sports loss of my life was a high school football game. We were undefeated and the game was the last of the season. It ended in a scoreless tie and we were crushed by what seemed like the worst defeat of our lives.
Write to Andy Rooney at Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207, or via email at aarooney5@yahoo.com

Coloradical! Vinny Castilla Day! Sufjan!

2007-08-23T10:10:00.000-04:00

My favorite site on the net at the moment might just be The Dugout. There is a link to it to the right under the blogroll. The Dugout is basically imagined AIM conversations between pro baseball players and the occasional civilian that pops into the chatroom. All the players and managers have the same type of screen names you thought were really cool and creative in middle school that you still use. Yesterday, I found a great post on The Dugout from a while ago called Vinny Castilla Day. It features Castilla in his Rockies days, as well as the best satire of Sufjan Stevens I've ever seen. Go laugh your ass of.

oh my gohhh-eee-yohhhd

Slaughter Rule

2007-08-22T21:29:00.000-04:00

The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles 30 to 3 today. No one has scored that many runs in over one hundred years. 11o to be exact. Think about that. Someone seems to hit 500 home runs every couple years. Someone seems to hit 300 wins every handful of years (and don't let anyone tell you it won't happen again). A guy comes along who hits 700 home runs every few decades. But it takes more than a century for a team to score 30 runs in a single game.

In high school at South Stokes, I remember playing some pretty awful teams - we beat East Wilkes 30-2 one time, and that was a five inning game thanks to the slaughter rule. The poor Baltimore organization have to endure all nine innings of this one. What's worse, the two teams had to turn around and play the back end of a double header after finishing. There is no way Baltimore can have any bullpen left. Perhaps we'll see some position players coming in to throw knuckleballs to the Rangers. I would love to see it.

The Weakerthans -- Reunion Tour

2007-08-21T23:57:00.000-04:00

The Weakerthans have been around for ten years. Ten years is a long time, especially for a band that deals in such emotional terms - a man can only sing about being sad for so long before he becomes a caricature of his former self. Reinvention, however slight, is necessary.

The strange part of it is, The Weakerthans' existence only starts mattering when you hit high school. For some people, The Weakerthans have been around for a decade. For some, it is four years. This is not up for the band to decide. Just whenever some kid gets lonely and listens to Left & Leaving for the first time.

I am no longer in high school. Accordingly, there is a lot of music I obsessed over during those years that hasn't aged so well. Some of it hasn't gotten worse at all - because now that I look back, it was just bad to begin with. Often those first records from a few years ago were followed up with lesser and lesser works that have tainted the artists' legacy. When I heard The Weakerthans were coming out with a new album now seven years after L&L, I had all the reasons to expect mediocrity. Usually, once people hit about 35, they can't be the same genius creator any more. Pinker says that in How the Mind Works. No one should be ashamed. It just happens.

So I came into my first listen of The Weakerthans new album, Reunion Tour with lowered expectations. And a few songs in, there was nothing to make me think otherwise. John K. Samson is still writing tight songs - you can tell that if all his songs were stripped down to bare bones, these would be indistinguishable from what we all love about the last two records. "Civil Twilight," the opener, is lyrically solid, with the same character traits that Samson specializes in. But the track really suffers from some tired instrument work. Drums do nothing special. The synth lines are almost at center stage, and they are not memorable even after multiple listens. Most of all, the guitars are nondescript and their tones are bordering on cheesy. "Hymn of the Medical Oddity" features clumsy counterpoint in the guitar line and more boring synth work. It ends up being one of the weaker songs on the album. "Relative Surplus Value" is a rocker that follows suit - not bad, not good. Middle of the road pretty much sums it up. The first three song would have been fine as b-sides to the first two records, but the opener is the only one that might even deserve to be on a full length, and in a perfect world it wouldn't be an opener.

But then "Tournament of Hearts" comes up. I was really ready to write Reunion Tour off before this one came on, but I like it. Samson's lyrics work on the subject of the isolation in the middle of a crowd - the man at the end of the bar. And I think it might be a song about the sport of curling too. The fifth song on the record is a return for the cat named Virtute from the previous record, but the song a return to the first three - not bad, not good, not really much of anything. In "Virtute the Cat Explains her Departure," the end could be effective, but the guitars don't really do anything. There is no build. This Virtute song will differ from the previous one on Reconstruction Site in that it will not be the talked about song on the album. If anyone does end up discussing it, it will be because it doesn't deliver.

Any album that is boring five songs in is generally boring from there out. Front loading is a much better idea than putting the best stuff on the back end. But the band then throws a curve into the mix with the sixth song, "Elegy for Gump Worsley." The song, a spoken word passage about the former pro hockey goalie that passed in January 2007, is more like a song from the Books, with spoken word, banjo, acoustic loops, horns, and a lack of drums. The final line, "If anyone asks/the inscription should read/my face was my mask." works well. The song is actually really good. And then, it leads straight into the record's best song.

"Sun in an Empty Room" is the title of both the seventh song on Reunion Tour and a 1963 painting by artist Edward Hopper. I would like to be able to talk extensively about this painting, but I don't know shit about art because Art History wasn't one of the AP courses offered at my high school. However, my high school did possess The Weakerthans, as most probably have in the past few years. Samson does a great job of representing a true emptiness of both self and surrounding in the lyrics. The final chorus of 'Take eight minutes and divide/sun in an empty room/by ninety million lonely lives/sun in an empty room/watch the shadow cross the floor/sun in an empty room/we don't live here any more/sun in an empty room' hits home. This isn't just a sad song. It is a lonely one. I really hope the Hopper painting gets put somewhere in the album art just for good measure. The pairing of two medias is something that should happen more often.

"Night Windows" is a classic L&L-esque song with imaginative percussion as well as guitar lines. Check out the line 'The full moon makes our faces shine/like over ironed polyester.' The more I listen to it, I feel like this song would have made a great opener and is definitely front of album material. "Bigfoot" brings in high-plucked guitar with horns and is reminiscent of DCFC's opener for The Photo Album. After that, the title track finally brings in some synth parts that fare better than the ones from earlier in the album. Multiple drum tracks and higher-level instrumentation help this one bring to mind the phenomenal production on Bright Eyes' Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. The final song on the album, "Utilities," brings in swirling electronics, horns and woodwinds with the usual Weakerthans instruments to open up into a country-tinged waltz with Samson singing 'make me something somebody can use.' The song is great ender to the second half of the album that finishes so strongly in comparison to the first half.

Looking at it, Reunion Tour doesn't suffer from songwriting, just an awful job of sequencing. This album would have made the best EP we'd have ever seen if they had cut it down to a handful of songs, probably too good for just an EP. The record is good, but what is sad is it could have been much better. I'd love to see these songs live - I'm sure some of the songs on the front half would be much better afterwards. God, I feel like I'm 17 again.

more lovely and more temperate

2007-08-20T22:56:00.000-04:00

The one and only place I've ever been published, Brave Little Poem of the Day, was not really daily to begin with, as it actually changed the featured poem every three days. I won't split hairs though - they were the first to deem anything I wrote worthy of acceptance, and I will always have a special place in my heart for their website. For that reason, it saddens me to see that BLPotD has gone on hiatus until January 2008. I hope that the nice people there get things back and running. I will probably sit a poem or two aside to send to them in case they do.

And in case you caught on from the title, I am knee deep in Shakespeare's sonnets right now. I hope no one is ever compared to a day like today - there was nothing pleasant about the brain-draining heat we are getting right now. Will's sonnets are making me work quite hard, and I feel better for it. Hooray for getting back to college. Hooray.

Tract

2007-08-20T13:04:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading the debut issue of Tract, a magazine about the relationship between science and the arts that features the work of students from UNC-Chapel Hill and Harvard. There is a spotlight on the photography of Eric J. Heller, a physicist at Harvard who somehow creates photographic images of the movement of electrons across real-life objects. The color photo "Banyan" is otherworldly. There is poetry from Megan Jordan, easily my favorite writer who went to school here last year, and Phillip McFee contributes two great fiction pieces. Both writers are affiliated with UNC. Caleb Goodrum writes an interesting piece about making a dobro-style instrument called "The Burro" for a UNC Physics & Music class.

I love science almost as much as I love creative writing, and seeing the two paired makes me so happy, especially when it is in such a well put together publication. Volume 1, number 1 (Spring 2007) has a black matte cover and features a stunning picture of cauliflower (from an article about fractals and the Romanesco cauliflower.) Science is one of the most difficult subjects to write about in a manner that doesn't resemble a service manual, and the majority of pieces in Tract 1.1 do a good job of making science sound a great deal more accessible. If you are on the Carolina campus, or the Harvard one too I presume, pick up a copy and read through it. I really enjoyed it.

A Pimp Hit her and Ever Since She's Got a Nervous Condition

2007-08-16T13:38:00.000-04:00

Today, R. Kelly steps it up a bit with chapter 16. This one is more like the short chapters from 1-12, and it is much more entertaining that way. R should leave eight minute epics to other people. Even though there is a "see you, wouldn't want to be you" type of line in this one, I liked it. Good job R. Good job to Twan's 'Shrek lookin' ass' too.

Hymns for a Dark Horse

2007-08-16T11:30:00.000-04:00

I've done my part in supporting local music today.

I went to Schoolkids Records today and got a real copy of Bowerbirds' Hymns for a Dark Horse, which will go onto be known as the best debut album of 2007. I would go further into this, but John Darnielle has a bit more clout than I do, and he has said all there is to be said about this album here at Last Plane to Jakarta. I opened the LP-style folding jacket up, and the sleeve insert that has all the lyrics and 'thank you' notes is hand numbered. You can see the little smudge. I like that. You can tell this album was a labor of love, being the first release for Burly Time Records, and I love the fact that this album is number 1207 in a first pressing of 1600. So, go buy this before it becomes a collector's item.

I also picked up tickets to two shows, The National on September 7th and Magnolia Electric and the Watson Twins on September 25th. I'm going to stand in front and challenge Jason Molina to a staring contest. He might have ridden with the ghost, but if old Mr. Songs: Ohia thinks he's a match for Mattpoin, he's in for a world of pain.

Twan Starts Smoking Trees and Acting Like a Fool

2007-08-15T18:06:00.001-04:00

Looks like by chapter 15, R. Kelly decided actual rhymes and melodies in the vocals weren't all that important. Not even a reference to "I'm Rick James Bitch!" makes this one that great. Really, RK, really, you gotta do better than this.

I'm Gonna Kill Both Ya'll Knucklehead Asses

2007-08-14T14:46:00.001-04:00

Chapter 14 is up today on IFC's site. I gotta say, 14 is kinda weak. Sure there are some funny parts a bit after the four-minute mark, but R isn't hitting on much here. Makes me a lot less excited about the rest he has left to reveal. Just watch the part where Twan is rapping in the car and talking to the mystery g with gold teeth and Sam Jackson's facial hair.

The Everybodyfields -- Nothing Is Okay

2007-08-13T23:14:00.000-04:00

1997 was a good year. Radiohead released OK Computer, Modest Mouse came out with The Lonesome Crowded West, Ben Folds Five with Whatever & Ever Amen, and The Mountain Goats put out Full Force Gailsburg. It is one of those years that you look back on ten years later and talk about how good that cluster of music was. The amazing thing is, just as we are now talking about those albums, 2007 is looking to be a banner year as well. Feist dropped what looks to be my album of the year. The National put out Boxer, which is so damn good. Minus the Bear put out a remix album and will drop Planet of Ice in one week. Joanna Newsom gave all her fans a gift in her live EP, Iron & Wine are set to release The Shepherd's Dog, even though everyone who wants to hear it already has, and David Karsten Daniels flew under the radar with Sharp Teeth, a phenomenal album. There were albums from Dan Deacon and Bjork. The Bowerbirds' Hymns for a Dark Horse was tagged by John Darnielle as possibly his favorite debut release EVER. There were solid releases from The Avett Brothers, Andrew Bird, and Against Me! 2007 is almost too good - stuff gets lost in the mix.

And throughout all of that, there has been one release that I've kept my eye on as much as any - and it will move less units than any of the records mentioned above. The Everybodyfields, that friendly looking pair you see advertised at the top of this blog, are set to release their third album, Nothing is Okay, on Ramseur Records on August 21st. The Everybodyfields are essentially Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews, two alt-country songwriters from Johnson City, Tennessee. Sam and Jill are accompanied by a revolving cast of supporting musicians and have never had the same line-up when I've seen them play. There may be fiddle, electric guitar, keyboards, pedal steel, or just the two main bandmembers. However, it rarely matters - these two are always spellbinding in a live setting and are often adored by an ever present group of superfans.

On their previous two albums, Half Way There: Electricity and the South (2004) and 2005's Plague of Dreams, The Everybodyfields has stuck to all-acoustic instrumentation, save for a hollow-bodied electric bass. In fact, the first two albums are just acoustic guitars, electric bass, dobro, and fiddle. These two albums are solid pieces of work that are held together by Sam and Jill's amazing harmonies. Both singers have 'long' southern voices, with Quinn's being rather pronounced and warbly, and their affinity for slow waltz tempos aids in giving their harmonies lots of space.

However, Nothing is Okay is a departure of sorts for The Everybodyfields. The gorgeous vocals are still present. So are Sam's trademark songs in three. The difference lies in the instrumentation on the recordings. By adding a full, electrified band to their studio sound, the band has effectively created depth to their recordings. Instruments like piano, drums, and a reverb-drenched slide guitar are in the forefront on songs like "Don't Turn Away" and "Aeroplane." The fuller sound suits the singers well. "Don't Turn Away" and "Everything Is Okay" are perfect examples of how a fuller band with more volume allows Sam and Jill respectively to push the vocals harder. When the song is toned down, guitar and piano play more complimentary roles like in Quinn's "Birthday" where the warm guitar fades out just in time for the two singers to harmonize wonderfully. "Aeroplane," the opening track, is musically more mature than previous efforts, and stands out because of it. Both the winding vocals and chords make it a great song.

Nothing is Okay doesn't hit any wrong notes, but some songs feel rather out of place in the tracking order. After many listens, it is evident that the album lacks a true opening statement. While "Aeroplane" is definitely the best track in the set, it isn't quite what one expects from in a lead track. On Plague of Dreams, "Magazine" had the upped tempo and bounce, as well as being in four, to lead the album. The only song on the new record that sounds magazine-esque is the final track, "Out On the Highway," and it lacks the instrumentation that characterizes the rest of the album. "Everything is Okay" could possibly work, but it needs to be tacked on to the back end of "Wasted Time" to create flow. "Be Miner" is really the only song that doesn't sound great on the album, with a strange feel to it that doesn't fit with the general Everybodyfields sound.

The record teeters near falling into a take-turns for each singer record sequencing, and the front end trades some flow for doing so. The constant trade from Sam Quinn's waltzes to Jill Andrews' four-quarter ballads disrupts continuity. It is only once Andrews' "Wasted Time" is followed by the lovely and imaginative "Everything is Okay" that the album starts to flow seamlessly.

Even though it doesn't flow as much as I would like, Nothing is Okay is going to be one of the albums I remember ten years from now. In the day and a half I've had to listen to it, "Aeroplane" has already made it into the Top 25 Most Played Songs list on iTunes. This record is a major step forward for The Everybodyfields. The records are wonderful, and their live shows are a treat. I can't wait to see them at the end of September in Chapel Hill. The last time I saw them, everyone in the audience was handed a rose to throw on stage during the encore. It felt completely appropriate. Every time they open their mouths could be described as gorgeous. Go buy Nothing is Okay, and put it on repeat. Fall in love with the singer of your choice. Love them, and most of all, love their music. I do.

Crazier Than A Fish With Titties

2007-08-13T16:56:00.001-04:00

Yes, just like a sausage-ass-head policeman, R. Kelly has made good on his promise of more chapters in Trapped in the Closet. The title of this post? From chapter 13, which can be found, along with chapter 12.5 - a recap, and an interactive character map on, get this, IFC's website.

After watching chapter 13 today, I'm a little worried - it didn't have that same classic feel as the first twelve, and kinda felt like an episode of MAD TV, but R delivers some lines that make up for it. Make sure to watch 12.5 as well, if just to hear him harmonize the word 'shit' many times.

Almost made a tear fall up out my eye.

Conch: Not Even the Most Popular Species of Edible Snail

2007-08-11T20:06:00.000-04:00

I recently spent a week of vacation down past Wilmington on the North Carolina coast in a little town called Kure Beach, located on a little sandbar with the wonderful name of Pleasure Island (I shit you not, PLEASURE ISLAND). My family has been spending the summers there for the past 50 years, and it is truly one of my favorite places on the planet.

Last night was the final night of the vacation, and seven of us sat down to something called a Low Country Boil. The LCB is a one-pot meal that works in exactly the same way a Maryland Blue Crab boil works - bit metal pot, lots of seafood and a few ears of corn, and enough Old Bay to kill a small child. Our LCB contained shrimp, red potatoes, ears of corn (cut in half), clams, kielbasa, mussels, and a strange little thing called conch. The conch was free from the person working the market counter, which is good because it generally runs between $7 and $11 per pound. As noted in the title of this piece, the conch is a snail, but isn't even the most well known of edible snails - that goes to the little French ones called escargot. So really, conch is like the second-best maker of zippers behind YKK. Not exactly a good thing to be. From what I've found out, the only part of the conch that you actually eat is the mantle, the white meat part that the shell grows out of.

I know when someone talks about how some type of obscure meat from questionable sources that can be defined as 'delicacy' tastes, comparison comes to chicken, and I would have to agree that conch tastes like chicken - just that part of the chicken you would never dare to put in your mouth. Beak? Brain? Something along those lines. Conch taste just as much like chicken as frog, turtle, squirrel, and catfish do, which is to say, not really. I've tried them all, and I usually respond with something about the chicken you eat must be horrible, mutated chicken. Chicken doesn't feel like that. Conch reminds me of the bubble gum from baseball card packs. I know how bubble gum companies like to create crazy, zany flavor combos for kids to chew, so here is what flavor combination conch would be: chicken, dirty saltwater, and grouper. Butter doesn't help. Old Bay doesn't help, which is a sign. No amount of cocktail sauce or salt and pepper could save this stuff. Conch is bad news. Don't let the person at the seafood counter talk you into buying it, even at a discount price. If they offer to give you some for free, take it politely, then go and use it as bait for fishing. Sharks are probably the only animal that would eat conch meat. Very hungry sharks.

In the end, I just picked out all the conch and ate the other stuff. Our Low Country Boil was great, I haven't had shrimp that good in a long time. I say the next time you go to the coast where you can get great seafood, throw down big time with an LCB. Just avoid the conch.

Days of the Leak

2007-08-03T10:10:00.000-04:00

Spin.com has a great article up concerning music leaks. It really is the first article I've seen that makes mention of zip file sites like You Send It, Megaupload, and Rapidshare, which I think are much more involved in leaks than anyone in the media realizes. Just go check out Radiohead fansite Ateaseweb if you don't believe me. Sure, more people probably use P2P sites, but I have a feeling that if you don't use OiNK, you're on something like Albumbase, which I really like. Once again, great writeup.

Left & Leaving

2007-08-02T21:50:00.001-04:00

I head out of town this weekend and probably won't have an Internet connection. I'll make a post now and then if I can, but they whole point of the week is to relax. Not spend an hour finding the links I need to make a post. Since this may be my last post for quite some time, I'll dump some good links here for you to be entertained this week.

Islands - Return to the Sea - Why haven't you gotten this yet?

Purple Rain, Purple Rain. I really want to buy this.

All the Kids Looking Up to Me Can Suck My Dick. What you want Natalie? TO DRINK AND FIGHT! What you want Natalie? TO FUCK ALL NIGHT! Natalie Portman raps.

Look at all the colors.

When I went to see Of Montreal at Duke University, two guys in front of me wearing Family Guy t-shirts recited this entire thing. I couldn't watch it for quite some time. Now a year later, I can appreciate it again.

Worst album covers of all time. Name doesn't lie. Zip Zap Zam!

Let me know when you get this good a beer pong.

That is all for now. I hope everyone has a good week, and please leave comments if you like. I would love some discussion about these posts.

Digital My Ass.

2007-08-01T23:36:00.001-04:00

I was pretty pumped 11 days ago when I bought a new 500 GB external drive for my laptop. I was thrilled by the ability to put all the music and photos I wanted to on the drive and not clutter up my computer. Well, 11 days after the purchase, I became aware that such hopes would not come to fruition.

My external drive crashed tonight after 11 days of normal use. I was nowhere near capacity on the thing. All the files I transferred to the Western Digital My Book were legit files - nothing corrupt.

So tonight I've been showering Western Digital's support team with candy. "Fuck You!" flavored candy. How have they responded? By sending me straight to their FAQ section of their website. I think I am going to send them to the Fuh-Q section of this website, once I make it. Don't buy Western Digital products. Money down the drain.

Arizona, How Could You?

2007-08-01T09:45:00.000-04:00

Eight days ago on Just Call Me Juice, I responded to an article that Marco had posted about his picks for the rest of the MLB season. I said I thought the Braves would make the playoffs just because their schedule from then out was much lighter than that of the LA's and San Diego's. Then I said I wasn't going to bother tallying up Arizona's because I didn't think they had a chance.

Well, now Arizona is in first place in the NL West. Thanks guys. Equally embarrassing, Atlanta is 3.5 games out in the East and 1.5 in the wild card race. The Braves went on an awful slide after my prediction of them getting the wild card. I think the additions of Teixeira and Dotel were great, but may have been a bit late. So, thanks to Arizona, I look like an idiot. Bob Wickman is responsible for a little bit of that as well.

Also, I recently tried to search on Ebay for a Braves jersey that screamed, "I am a true lifelong fan of the Atlanta Braves." I had my sights set on Mark Lemke. Lemke was a favorite of mine as a kid, I always put my vote in for him on the All-Star ballot even though there were guys like Craig Biggio who were better second basemen. Well, a Lemke jersey runs at about $70 on Ebay, which is a bit more than I want to pay. I thought maybe if I found a Jeff Blauser or Steve Avery it might be cheaper, but no. I am really not too thrilled with having to pay $70 for the jersey like that.

Man vs. Four-Star Hotel

2007-07-30T15:11:00.000-04:00

Reading reports that Bear Grylls from Discovery Channel's Man vs. Wild staged scenes and spent nights in a motel while all the time leading viewers to believe he was roughing it killed a little bit of me today. The feeling of a little part of my insides dying was almost exactly the same as when I watched Mark McGwire's congressional testimony from 2005.

Before this, who else was cooler and more all-around badass than Bear Grylls. Look at his name! His first name is Bear, and his last name is Grylls! With a Y! Don't you wish your name were that cool?

And sure, the comments from people about how this makes Grylls all the more insane and impressive because he drank juice out of elephant shit or his own urine when he could have turned off the cameras and walked over to the catering table are worth something, but come on. This brings him down to just a level above the guys from Jackass who do that kind of stuff for kicks and giggles. I never thought it was just him out there alone because of the camera angles make it obvious, but I imagined Bear was all that more badass because as he kicked the Earth in the balls, he had to watch as fat guys holding boom mics and cameras got bottled water and Big Macs. I thought he withstood that torment for me, the viewer, even when he knew he could kill them and take their supplies by making some endangered snake spit venom in their eyes. I thought we had something Bear. What happened to that?

EDIT: I just read that Bear named his son Marmaduke. If it is true, and I completely believe it is, I don't feel as sad about the whole faking thing. Because naming your son Marmaduke is either 1) the coolest thing you could possibly do, 2) the funniest thing you could, or 3) something that requires larger balls than anyone in the world can contest. Bear Grylls deserves some Chuck Norris-esque jokes about him.

We Laughed In a Way People Don't Much Laugh Anymore

2007-07-29T23:41:00.000-04:00

My seven day challenge in poetry went very well. I was both surprised and delighted with the way things rolled out. I didn't have any guidelines, besides finish one poem each day, and I'm sure the freedom from that helped me churn some out that didn't require as much work, but still, I finished. A couple of ones came out of this past week that I think are definite keepers. I am at a point that I feel excited about those two, but I don't feel like they are solidified yet - I haven't had someone come in and rip the shit out of them. I still need that. I think I'll take this coming week off from a challenge like that, but starting on the 5th, I want to pull another seven day stretch with some strict guidelines passed along from a friend. Should be much more difficult and probably more interesting in the end. I'll be writing in a place I've never written before that week because I'll be at the coast.

Then it is back to Chapel Hill.

I think I might take a stab at reviewing the new Minus the Bear album this week as well. Take care.

No one belongs here more than you.

2007-07-27T23:56:00.001-04:00

I think I love Miranda July. I know she's considerably older than I am, but still. Just look at her. And even before I saw her stunningly beautiful photo (above) staring out from the inside-back sleeve of her first book, No one belongs here more than you, when I had only read the first few stories, I knew it. Miranda July can write and I love her for it.

Billed as a filmmaker, writer, and performing artist, July is best known for writing, directing, and starring in the 2005 film You, Me, and Everyone We Know. I haven't seen the movie except for a couple scenes, but I feel compelled to watch it now after reading her stories. The stories in No one belongs here more than you. are burdened by an overarching sadness that extends beyond the characters being down on their luck or in the middle of hard times. July's characters are crippled by a sadness that flows from within, and is coupled by irreparable breaks with the people closest to them. The mood is only deepened when, in many stories, a recognition scene of sorts is realized by the parties involved, and characters see and accept a doomed fate well before they act upon it.

Triumphs are short-lived and often questionably executed, like making money through giving personal fantasy sessions in the back of adult sex shops in Something That Needs Nothing, or connecting with a soul mate even if it means that person is a mentally challenged 14-year old student of yours in Making Love in 2003. The character's positive moments are rarely positive for any reason other than any human connection is a step forward. July's writing makes a strong argument that to be utterly alone is somehow better than to be in society but practically isolated. The latter offers the opportunity for torture - watching the world spin perfectly the same without your own input on it.

Almost all stories in July's compilation contain a theme of sex and sexuality. A 15-year old narrator is raped nightly by a 'dark shape' that is best summed up as a glowing orb. Best friends are lovers only when one is wearing a wig. In Majesty, a woman has reoccurring dreams of Prince William having sex with her at a party where low ceilings force attendees to crawl on all fours. However, the feeling of sadness and sex are never pried apart. While intercourse and sexual feelings may be euphoric to certain characters, it is never divorced from the relationship, from human emotion, and most importantly, from the situation in the story once the sex is finished.

July has supportive quotes on the back cover from two higher profile figures, Dave Eggers and David Byrne, and she is affiliated with the McSweeney's crew, I believe. She should have no problem getting any boost she needs to write. July's emotionally hurt yet fully open style is beautiful. Her stories, especially the longer ones, can really hit home, and can bring pains in the most terrible ways, making the heart and stomach feel bruised and vulnerable. Easily, this is the best fiction I've read this year.

The Books

2007-07-27T13:09:00.001-04:00

I've been a reading machine recently. I leave one book in each room or place I frequent, and read only that while there. The basement is the domain of Freakonomics. Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories is for the bedroom. So is Kay Ryan's Say Uncle. Driving to work is for Moby Dick, and while at work it is How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker. Those last two are accomplished through audiobooks. Herman Melville's classic is easy to follow as I drive down the freeway, but I find it difficult to follow where Pinker goes while I work. I haven't studied psychology at all, and it doesn't help that Pinker's work asks a lot of attention out of the audience when they can read through it with visuals at their own pace. Look for reviews when I finish these books.

Shit! Think! Shit! Think! Shit! Quick put me in the closet!

2007-07-26T19:09:00.000-04:00

Pretty much the best news I could have gotten this week: R. Kelly is planning on releasing another 10 chapters of Trapped in the Closet. Hopefully we can learn more about all the characters of Kelly's hip-hopera. I have audio of all twelve previous chapters ripped to my iPod. I spent one night in the library last semester on the evening of an exam watching TitC instead of studying.

I can't wait for more lines like the title of this post, and another personal favorite, "A tear fell up out my eye." Hopefully there can be more of the midget as well.

The More You Try to Erase Me, the More that I Appear

2007-07-25T12:26:00.000-04:00

Last night, I watched a documentary on Radiohead from right around the release of Kid A that featured a sit down running commentary/interview between Thom Yorke and a British journalist. Yorke was his usual self, which is to say, unusual. The journalist, whose name I did not catch, commented on Yorke's relative obscurity when compared with front men of other similar (i use that term loosely) bands like U2 and R.E.M. The comment went something like,

If Bono or Michael Stipe released a solo album right now, almost everyone would know who they were. However, people don't know who Thom Yorke is, and you would really have to do a lot more work to sell records of your solo album than the lead singer of U2 or R.E.M. would.

I totally agree with what the journalist was getting at, even though Thom Yorke probably cares (or makes it seem like he does) less about moving units than Bono or Stipe. It got me thinking on a somewhat different subject - what effect does an artist's work with a group have on the way critiques are given to that artist's solo output? More importantly, what effect did Thom Yorke's career with Radiohead have on how his solo album from 2006, The Eraser, was perceived?

I feel that Radiohead have only released one album that wasn't any good. Their debut, Pablo Honey, is largely forgettable, except for that one song. So, after that, the guys have released five albums that have been great albums, with OK Computer and Kid A being next to perfect. To many, Thom Yorke is a deity. Radiohead may be the only band with underground credibility that can sell millions and millions of records (and they will whenever LP7 drops). I can't think of any other band to sell records like that and not lose their stripes with the scene, although how important those stripes are is debatable. But the truth of it still is, Thom Yorke can do no wrong in the eyes of the Radiohead super fans. Just got to the message boards at Ateaseweb or Mortigi Tiempo to find that out.

How did The Eraser start? A mysterious website surfaced called The eraser with strange art and odd sounds. Radiohead fans that found the link on a Radiohead blog looked up the IP address and found that it was registered to a man who was generally associated with Radiohead, either producer Nigel Godrich or artist Stanley Donwood. Usually, any Radiohead news is enough to make fans foam at the mouth, but it had been three years since the last band release, so any news was big news in the Summer of 2006. Let it sink in that the fans of Radiohead are so obsessed, they track down the owners of IP addresses for websites they only have vague hunches about. A few days after the website was running, news of what The Eraser was started to spread. In a matter of a couple weeks, the album had leaked, and in less than a month, the album was out proper on July 11, 2006.

And it got mixed reviews.

Yorke's The Eraser wasn't polarizing. We aren't talking In the Aeroplane Over the Sea 'best record ever!'/'piece of garbage' here. But some thought it was a contender for album of the year (Shortlist) and some just thought it was an album released that year (Pitchfork). I tended towards the Pitchfork side of things, while the person I discussed the album with the most saw it as one of the top releases. I was a little disappointed with the production when I first listened to the album. Expecting the same crispness from Godrich and Yorke that was delivered on all the band albums, Yorke's solo excursion lacks dynamics for the most part. Even more crippling than that, from start to finish it sounds flat and compressed. Live versions of songs sound strikingly better than studio versions, as evidenced by Yorke's acoustic strip-down of "The Clock" from the Henry Rollins Show. Live versions should not sound better than studio version if you're working with a glitch record.

Even for the album's faults, it debuted at number 2 in the United States and sold a total of 90,000 copies worldwide. At least that many were probably leaked. Of course, people were picking up the record simply because it was the lead singer from Radiohead. How else would a debut album with no "Creep" to call its own shoot that high? I think the same people who were running out to pick up The Eraser for that reason were largely the people who gave it such glowing reviews (like the majority of British critics did) when there were equally worthy or even better albums recorded in the same year like Islands' Return to the Sea, Regina Spektor's Begin to Hope, Joanna Newsom's Ys, the Blow's Paper Television, and some would say TV on the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain. All those albums were better than Yorke's, and they sold less. Not only that, but you could make a case that Spektor's album and The Blow's record were both easily more mainstream and accessible than The Eraser. I can't help but feel that most of Yorke's success is due to riding the coattails of his band. I enjoyed the album, to be sure. However, I am bugged by the feeling that Thom Yorke's album stole the spotlight from more deserving works. I know he didn't want this to be a big deal. But in the end, it was, at least to me.

The release and hype over The Eraser can be seen as a sort of predicament to music fans - how do you fairly evaluate the music when you are familiar and opinionated about the artist's previous work? Of course, writing reviews is never unbiased, but what if that the bias ends up changing the entire discussion of music for the year? I hope someone can give me some insight about this, or just general thoughts about The Eraser and the subject at hand.

Jumping the Shark

2007-07-25T09:34:00.000-04:00

Sadly, I think the lolcats craze might have jumped the shark in the past couple weeks. It is quite a shame - I loved those things, but I realize that they have just about reached that level of saturation where they just aren't as funny any more because they are so ubiquitous. The sneaking suspicion has been pretty much confirmed by the cultural commentators that are Drew and Natalie Dee of Married to the Sea/Toothpaste for Dinner/Natalie Dee fame. This really is a sad day for me. I'll just have to wait until the next viral sensation comes along the road we call 'internet' and replaces lolcats and dramatic chipmunk.

I also think that the phrase 'jumped the shark' is in the last days/weeks before it, in one of the more ironic moments ever, well, jumps the shark. I will have a good laugh on that day.

Musicwatch - September

2007-07-23T14:37:00.001-04:00

It is always fun to look ahead to upcoming shows, and the month of September is making me drool. Really, it is redonkulous. Here is a quick fly through. The crazy part is, this will probably have to be updated since it is still over a month away.

5th -- Midlake
6th -- The Mountain Goats
7th -- The National
11th -- Peter, Bjorn & John
12th -- Andrew Bird
13th -- Al Green
15th -- The Avett Brothers
25th -- Magnolia Electric w/ the Watson Twins
26th -- The Sea and Cake
28th -- The Everybodyfields/Of Montreal

The question about the 28th is can I possibly figure out how to attend the two shows within a one minute walk of each other in the same night? Odds look against me at the moment with both shows featuring an opening act and having start times that are only 30 minutes apart. But shows at the Local 506 where the Everybodyfields are playing generally start on time, and you never know what kind of...preparation Of Montreal might need to take care of before going on stage.

I think I might have to get a job as a medical research test subject for the medical school just to pay for these gigs.

Michael Vick Can Has Cheezburger?

2007-07-22T14:24:00.000-04:00

Most heart-hurting/funny picture on the internet? Possibly.

Mimes, Bombs, and Rock n' Roll

2007-07-22T12:44:00.001-04:00

Clap If You're Confused and Autopassion at the Werehouse

Last night was the first time I'd been to The Werehouse since Halloween of 2005, and the changes made there in the past two years are astounding. Altogether, The Werehouse contains an art gallery, indoor performance area, outdoor performance area, coffee shop, bar, and has living space for artists. On Saturday mornings, it is also the host to a local farmer's market. The place has grown from a hole in the wall kind of dive to possibly one of the better places to be in Winston-Salem. I think the indoor performance area, as small as it is, is my favorite of all the clubs in town. It gets a slight edge over The Garage for having a lending library where you can take and leave books. Last night, The Werehouse was so much cleaner and less-smokey than before.

The lineup for the show, scheduled to start at 9:30, was Autopassion, Clap If You're Confused, and Brother Reade. In true form, Autopassion hopped on stage sometime after 10PM, and played to a truly excited crowd. This band never ceases to puzzle me when I see them. I wonder how they play what seems to be Winston-Salem and Winston-Salem only without completely exhausting their fans. Autopassion is fun, but from what I can tell, they don't bring new material to every show. Last night, they redeemed themselves for me a bit - I had seen them a few months before at a free show at NCSA and it was not a good show for them at all. The band seemed tighter last night, and the crowd responded. I am always struck by just how talented Autopassion drummer Lee Hinshaw is. He is the type of drummer that makes you say, "I want to play music with that guy." Little guy just flails, and it is a lot of fun to watch and listen to. Guitarist Tim Poovey and Hinshaw were great together last night, and I had a lot of fun watching the two. I would talk about what songs they played, but I wasn't able to understand a majority of the words Andy Siebert sang. It could have possibly been the PA system, but at any rate, he was difficult to comprehend.

After Autopassion finished their set, most people moved to the outdoors performance space to catch Clap If You're Confused's piece, 'Taxidermy Journey.' I came into this with about as open a mind as possible - I had seen one member perform in a dance company a year ago, but nothing besides that. The piece started off with a humorous and melodramatic video of two dolls, one lamenting over a lover, one plotting to blow up a train. After the video ended, the music changed and two mimes (in the above picture) perform on a fixture that was one part box, one part monkey-bars. The partnered work between the two of them with pieces of fabric was a lot of fun to watch. I'd say more, but I don't know anything about dance, so I would most likely sound foolish. The live performance between the two mimes shadowed the humorous video, and for a while it was more serious than the video. Music choices for the piece hopped genres from classical, country-western, jazz, and rock n' roll. The performance took place all around the seats. I think the part I enjoyed more than anything was when the good mime danced as she ate dinner and drank wine on top of a table. After that though, things kinda went downhill. As more characters were introduced, starting with a train, the show got farcical. As the bad mime, plotted to blow up the train tracks, there was a struggle for an over sized, comical bomb between the two mimes and the train. As the bomb "exploded," symbolized by a long piece of red fabric that was pulled out of the black ball, the mimes were draped with the red fabric, and the music ended. Show over, right? Wrong. Then, three demons marched out on stage, joined by a preacher. The preacher and demons then raised the mimes from the dead, and all involved started into a punk rock song, with the demons on drums, guitar, and bass and the preacher leading in vocals. The Mimes and musicians danced through the crowd as demons played Bad Religion-esque music for roughly ten minutes.

I watched the piece with a group of dancers (some collegiate, a couple professional) and I was much more entertained by the piece than they were. Needless to say, the second half of the piece lacked the artistic integrity I think they were hoping for. It was comical, not terribly serious, and admittedly, not terribly artistic either. So, I concede that point. However, it was fun, and I'd go back to watch something Clap If You're Confused does again. It was late by the time the performance art piece finished, and I didn't have it in me to stay for the final band, Brother Reade. Overall, last night's show made for a good weekend.

Twin City Action

2007-07-22T01:47:00.000-04:00

I just returned from a night out in Winston-Salem. The Werehouse has definitely made some leaps and bounds in the past two years. It actually feels like a clean and organized venue now. I saw Autopassion open for a performance art crew called Clap If You're Confused. I'll give a review of sorts when the sun comes back out.

Today (Sunday), I am starting a seven-day challenge in writing. I plan to write a complete poem each day this week. Not having deadlines has killed all my productivity that I left the spring semester with. Hopefully placing and enforcing rules upon my writing habits will help to generate some decent work.

Side note of interest: a friend told me yesterday that they had spent $2300 on alcohol in the past year at college. I find this hard to believe, but this person isn't one to exaggerate. I know I didn't spend $2300 on all luxuries combined last year. Spending $2300 on alcohol in a year seems like a major problem, or just poor consumer practices. Needs to learn a bit about the art of obtaining free beer.

Francold

2007-07-19T12:23:00.000-04:00

The Braves claimed Julio Franco off of wavers yesterday. The amount of happiness this gives me falls just short of Smoltz cementing his spot in the Hall of Fame this year and how I would feel if Altanta got a ring in 2007. Really. Sure, he is set to turn 49 in August, but you can't not like Julio Franco. Best of all, I got the news from The Dugout, a site everyone needs to check daily.

A Short History of Nearly Everything

2007-07-18T22:29:00.000-04:00

As someone who was a chemistry major for a semester and a half, I have a healthy respect for the sciences. I have a decent grasp of basic chem, as well as biology from working in a cancer biology lab for a year. On top of that, I have a fairly good grasp of basic physics and the other major sciences. I like science, I appreciate science. So it should come as no surprise that Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything was a good read for me. The title doesn't lie. Bryson does a good job of giving a crash course in more fields of study than you would think there possibly could be.

Divided by scientific subject and focusing largely on how each field plays into what we experience in regular life, Bryson's book attempts to delve into the epistemology of the sciences, how do we know what we know, the corresponding history of such events, and above all, to create a book about science for everyone that was turned off by the density and sterility of grade school textbooks. Bryson's stories and historical biographical notes of researchers and fieldworkers tend to be humorous (especially if they worked during the 18th and 19th century), and the facts presented are generally astounding. The reader might have heard that Yellowstone National Park is really a volcano, but Bryson's research states much more than a big boom: we're talking death to everyone between the Mississippi and Pacific. Bryson entertains with recountings of strange botanist that preferred to do fieldwork while in the nude, university custodians who penned essays on particle physics that rivaled Einstein, and countless revolutionary ideas that went unnoticed for decades. One special ability of Bryson's that more educators need to pick up on is the ability to inflate the microscopic into terms that are understandable on a real world level. Bringing the cell or atom up to fathomable size is more difficult than one would expect. The same goes for doing the opposite and putting astronomical values like the distance between planets and solar systems on a human level.

A Short History of Nearly Everything faltered in a few places for me though. I found that areas I had already studied to a collegiate level of understanding, like the cell, photosynthesis, or molecular theory were tiresome. The book is not a quick read by any means, at a length of over 500 pages and often consisting of dense material (see particle physics/subatomic particles). I would have enjoyed it more if the material I already knew went down a little easier. Sections on biology, geology, and oceanography felt rather heavy handed, which isn't surprising since geology and oceanography are known to be two of the lesser sciences in academia. Also, for some reason, Bryson ends a book full of amazing theories and facts with a rather dour chapter on all the species humans have helped usher out the door since our arrival. Bryson eschews the style of presenting solid and jaw-dropping information (which was entirely possible to pull of here), and instead goes for a more leaden prose. The result is more than a tad bit disappointing and mostly gloomy.

Even though it is significant, the final chapter is the only one that altogether fails. Otherwise, there are 470 pages that will more than likely captivate the reader while teaching them (sometimes useless) facts. I would warn anyone who had more than an amateur interest in the sciences to read this for pleasure -- professors would probably gag at what they read about their own line of work. But for the general reader, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is entertaining and thought-provoking. I never knew so much about astrophysics or why a species' move from being quadrupeds to bipeds is so risky (pelvis and hips must become weight-bearing, birth canal narrows, means pain for mom in child birth and babies born without fully formed brains, lack self-sufficiency at early age). I recommend that readers give this one a shot, and dump it if it isn't for you.

I'm reading a handful of books right now, including some poems by Frank O'Hara, the famous Freakonomics book, and a biography of Charles Bukowski by Barry Miles. Look for reviews when I finish.

The Waiting Game

2007-07-18T14:40:00.000-04:00

The waiting game, which is not at all related to The Crying Game, thankfully, is what I am currently in the middle of in regards to publication. Getting a piece of writing accepted, not even thinking about printed, takes a very long time, especially when life is otherwise moving at college-paced speed.

An estimated response time of 90 days doesn't really seem that bad on day one or two, but after month two or three, you can't help but wonder if the mail got lost, or the email address was wrong. It has been recommended before the have at least five pieces out at all times, but it is an odd feeling when you can't really remember what those five pieces are at any given time. That last fact is probably a testament to my slack revision discipline, but it doesn't change the fact that the literary world moves at a pace all its own. No other part of society, besides government, can give them run for their money. I'm sure I'll get used to it soon enough though.

On a similar note, one poem that I have floating around somewhere was sent in to the fine peoples at AntiMuse. I just looked at their site, and they are now closed for submissions for a few months. I haven't heard back from them to see if they are taking the poem, but the fact that they are closed to submissions puts me in more doubt about an acceptance than I already was in. Any words of wisdom out there?

What, No Prince?

2007-07-15T22:39:00.000-04:00

Today is my birthday, and someone sent me the link to a site that catalogs the #1 Song On This Date In History.

Mine? "Alone" by Heart. Oh, and the top album on that day was Whitney Houston's Whitney. Here are the lyrics to Heart's chart-topper:

I hear the ticking of the clock
I'm lying here the room's pitch dark
I wonder where you are tonight
No answer on the telephone
And the night goes by so very slow
Oh I hope that it won't end though
Alone

Till now I always got by on my own
I never really cared until I met you
And now it chills me to the bone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone
you don't know how long i have wanted
to touch your lips and hold you tight
You don't know how long I have waited
and I was going to tell you tonight
But the secret is still my own
and my love for you is still unknown
Alone
Till now I always got by on my own
I never really cared until I met you
And now it chills me to the bone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone
Alone, alone

I am quite saddened that there isn't a Prince song in that chart position.

WTFMLB? Part II

2007-07-10T23:51:00.000-04:00

I caught the first of what I assume are multiple commercials this evening during the All-Star game for the Major League Baseball playoffs that featured Dane Cook. I said a day or two ago that I expected terrible jokes, but I was completely wrong. It was just terrible, and there were no jokes. What happens when very funny white dudes with shallow comedic acts go serious on you? The Guardian happens.

I don't care if someone does a hack job on the coast guard. Please don't do it to baseball though. ESPN has done enough embarrassing with The Bronx is Burning for all of us. And I'm not even a Yankees fan.

Young Folks

2007-07-10T13:53:00.000-04:00

As my friends know, I am the only person under the age of 40 who works in my office. I am the only male as well. This makes for some interesting conversations generally.

The radio here is almost always tuned to either 99.5 FM Magic, which plays the best of Michael Bolton and the Bee Gees, or 104.1 WTQR, the contemporary country station that focuses on duets between Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. I make sure to have my iPod fully charged for the eight hours of music I want to block out.

But today during my lunchbreak, I caught the sounds of a familiar whistled melody and went to check it out. Sure enough, the radio was playing Peter, Bjorn, & John's "Young Folks."

Are they mocking me, or is there really hope for society yet?

*EDIT: After I posted this, PB&J was replaced with a Creed song. Can my coworkers possibly be toying with my sanity?

WTF, MLB?

2007-07-09T13:34:00.000-04:00

Major League Baseball announced that Dane Cook will be the face of the 2007 MLB Playoffs. Apparently, not enough males in the 13-26 age group watch baseball.

This seems like a very dumb decision if the MLB and Fox are attempting to gain viewership from demographics that aren't loyally glued to the television for playoff baseball in the first place. And if they didn't care about expanding the audience, why not go with someone who is actually tied to the game of baseball? At this rate, I bet a series between the Padres/Brewers and Red Sox/Angels would compete with 2007's NBA Finals for broadcasted event that no one cared about.

What are the chances of Cook making a joke about the name of a Cardinals' first baseman, regardless of that team being in the postseason or not?

10 Songs for Friends

2007-07-08T22:47:00.000-04:00

Often, songs get tied by people to times and places and they become impossible to separate afterwards. That one song, you know, that one, will always be about the time you drove through the country after it flooded. I just got a new car, and when I first turned on the stereo, I heard, I know who will want to take me home, take me home. From then on, a solid song had much more to it-- a time and a place.
Likewise, we can connect specific people in our lives to specific tunes. Each of these songs I associate with a specific friend. See if you can guess if you made the list.

1. "Buckets of Rain" - Bob Dylan. Dylan sings, "Friends will arise, friends will disappear. If you want me, honey babe I'll be here." I think that pretty much sums up this person for me.
2. "Sadie" - Joanna Newsom. This song snuck up on me. I didn't think it was one of the top songs from Milk-Eyed Mender for quite some time, but I think seeing Joanna Newsom live and hearing this song made the jump for me. That is what a good live song should do. "Sadie" is the name of a dog in this song. More songs should have dogs in them.
3. "Land and Water" - Elliot. I remember five years ago, thinking Greensboro was a long ways away, and after going to the glorious little hole in the wall of Ace's Basement to watch bands I am too embarrassed to admit to, we'd put this record on for the drive home, at least after stopping at the Taco Bell. I can even remember the day I got the cd, Song in the Air from this person. Ninth grade wasn't so bad now that I think about in those terms.
4. "Get Me Naked 2: Electric Boogaloo" - Minus the Bear. I spent a day riding around Winston-Salem, going to the yogurt shop and picking up a check with this person, listening to this song. He got pissed because I left my wrapper from Subway in his Blazer. It was Summer and the whole car smelled like pastrami and vinegar. I just hope that there's another chance for it to happen again.
5. "Wagon Wheel" - Old Crow Medicine Show. A song I associate with many, many people? Oh yes. Here is what you should do: sing some other songs for a couple hours to warm up for this one (because all songs are made to warm up for this one), get drunk to the point that all you can do is sing and play loudly, gather around in a circle, and sing. In fact, after the last chorus, just do a couple of verses again. Then, you will love the people around as much as I do at that point.
6. "Figaro" - Madvillain. You know how you can tie a song to someone? If the only way you would know about the song is from that person, look no further. Madvillain is the only hip hop artist I listen to. Thanks man. I owe you some good music.
7. "Lisa" - The Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers. Perry Wright, the songwriter behind the long moniker 'Prayers & Tears' is a really cool guy and good songwriter. Without this person to drive me to Raleigh one February night to catch the Mountain Goats, I wouldn't have ever heard this band, and subsequently the rest of the Bu_Hanan crew. That means no David Karsten Daniels, no Physics of Meaning, and no Prayers & Tears. Would have been a damn shame.
8. "Jumper" - Third Eye Blind. Another drunk singalong. I nominate this person for best interpretive dance of me being an idiot drunk with a ukulele ever.
9. "Yellow Submarine" - The Beatles. Remember that time this person and I threw a party? Remember when there were fifteen people in my room, singing this song, and my residence advisor came in to sing along? Best moment of living with this person.
10. "Carry On My Wayward Son" - Kansas. I strongly dislike Kansas, especially this song. It sounds like they took all the spare riffs and fragments they had after they recorded the album, threw them into a hat, and called it a song. Terrible song that is far too long. However, a couple people from my graduating class in high school will be forever tied to this song, making it a palatable song to me. The idea to make it our graduation song, however, is no less of a poor decision.