Lately I have been confused and troubled about some basic things like: who I am. What I’m doing. What I’m not doing. What I should be doing, etc. etc. ad nauseum. When I get like this I like to read Paulo Coelho, and in case anyone else is feeling that way, here’s why… he writes things like this:
“There is no tragedy, only the unavoidable. Everything hath its reason for being: thou needest only distinguish what is temporary from what is lasting.”
“What is temporary?” Asked Elijah.
“The unavoidable”
“And what is lasting?”
“The lessons of the unavoidable.”
This is from “The Fifth Mountain”.
He also throws around a lot of archaic words I don’t understand like “god” and “warrior” but his books hold a lot of wisdom and are generally a short, easy read if you’re in a place where you need that kind of thing.
Did anyone else happen to notice these incredible lyrics:
When I look back on the best days of my life
I think I watched them all on tv
I am so homesick now for people that I never knew
I am so homesick now for places I can never be
I might have a couple words wrong but wow what a heavy sentiment and so clearly expressed. I am humbled.
That’s by Sam Endicott from the Bravery. It’s called “Time Won’t Let Me Go.”
Some gals at dinner the other night were saying how bangs are back. Naturally this got me thinking about Louise Brooks. Also about a book I used to flip through at Powell’s back when I hadn’t the dough to buy new books. It’s called KiKi’s Paris and it’s about the Paris scene in the twenties when Hemingway and Picasso ruled the roost.
But about the bangs…We used to call this haircut “The Louise Brooks” or “The Lulu” and here’s why:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9AsN_jAxaE
And you probably noticed a few other currently trendy looks in there too. The nerdy guy with round glasses plays in every indie band that ever comes out of Glasgow. There’s surely a picture of him in an attic somewhere that he must look pretty bad in by now cuz he looked just fine last year in that Vampire Weekend video.
There seemed to be a lot of movies being made in the twenties and thirties about young, pretty, working class girls hooking up with horrible old rich men. International travel by cruise ships had maybe spread the new American classless society to London, Berlin and Paris where a shiteload of films were being produced. The great depression probably fueled the fire.
Here’s a video Gothman made from my favorite movie about a poor girl getting destroyed by a rich pig. Of Human Bondage, starring Bette Davis and my periodically favorite actor of all time Leslie Howard:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqjTMJYdZ2k
I will be making a whole section on Leslie Howard, arguably the coolest man who ever lived.
So Anton came by and possessed our studio for a bit before their show. Played us some more of his stuff. He also laid down a Julee Cruise style bass synth part on our new music/album/recording/whatever project. I’ll get some of that up soon, I am just very disorganized by nature and my work ethic is sporadic and of it’s own nature.
Anton said it’s cool to put some of my favorite one so here’s some of my favorite one:
In a rather interesting and often arresting book called “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” the author states that the chickens in these horrible modern style chicken farms, which are of course often the subject of urban myth, are genetically identical. Well it just so happens that one huge benefit of being in The Dandy Warhols is that some of the brightest minds on earth are big fans who have become great friends. So I went ahead and emailed Dr. Howard Pryor who leads a lab of the leading stem cell researchers on earth right now.
You might know his work because of South Park’s “Eek-a-penis.”
I went to the game and at the end I felt like it was me too who had lost.
Why?
That’s crazy. I could have just as well rooted for Dallas. I have about as much in common with Dirk Nowitzki as I do with any of the Portland Trail Blazers. Am I the only one who wonders why I put myself through the emotional trauma of going to a basketball game? When “we” got posession with thirty-ish seconds left I got an adrenaline rush that nearly stopped my heart. It couldn’t have been worse if they had passed ME the ball.
So dumb. It’s all that old monkey wiring still hangin around inside our poor old monkey brains. Weird.
One of the only baroque records that I truly love is a collection of tafelmusik by Johann Heinrich Schmeltzer. Back in those days the very wealthy and powerful would hire their favorite composer to make music to dine to. Thus tablemusic became a genre.
Recently we have begun recording some very cool music that I’m hoping will become an album of perfect modern tafelmusik. Somebody’s gotta do it. We have a lot of dinner parties so we’ll be able to take it for a lot of test runs. Fun. As we go, I’ll put little thirty second bits of it up that FatHead records live on his laptop microphone.
Oh my gosh Anton’s new stuff has fat beats. He just sent me about half a dozen tracks and it’s amazing.
I’ll ask him if I can put a little bit of it up on here.
There’s one particular track that I think might be the coolest one that any of us or our friends has ever made.
He sings really cool on this stuff too.
Jeez. Really some unbelievably cool beats here. Damn. Leave it to Anton.
Time: 7:00pm.Address:1624 NW Glisan.Venue phone: 503-223-4527.** Little Cloud Records Showcase with LSD & The Search For God, Sun Atoms, and Tremours **Buy Tickets