Saturday, June 27, 2015

Saturday Verse: "The Truth is Forced" - May Swenson

THE TRUTH IS FORCED 
Not able to be honest in person
I wish to be honest in poetry.
Speaking to you, eye to eye, I lie
because I cannot bear
to be conspicuous with the truth.
Say it — all of it — would be
taking off my clothes.
I would be exposed. And I would be
possessed. It would be an entire
surrender (to you, eye to eye).
You would examine me too closely.
You would handle me.
All your eyes would swarm me.
I'd be forever after hotly dressed
in your clying, itching, greedy bees.
Whether you are one or two or many
it is the same. Really, I feel as if
one pair of eyes were a whole hive.
So I lie (eye to eye)
by leaving the core of things unvoiced
or else by offering a dummy
in place of myself. 
One must be honest somewhere. I wish
to be honest in poetry.
With the written word.
Where I can say and cross out
and say over and say around
and say on top of and say in between
and say in symbol, in riddle,
in double meaning, under masks
of any feature, in the skins
of every creature.
And in my own skin, naked.
I am glad, indeed I dearly crave
to become naked in poetry,
to force the truth
through a poem,
which, when is made, if real,
not a dummy tells me
and then you (all or any, eye to eye)
my whole self,
the truth.

- May Swenson                                                                                  

Friday, June 26, 2015

The dream that you dared to dream

Thinking about George today and wishing he was here to see all this. I guess the best way to commemorate the day is to share this video of of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "Somehwere Over the Rainbow" during the Gay Pride festival last summer. Coincidence? I'll let the rainbow behind the organ pipes speak for itself. Song starts at 18:09




Love to George.
Love to everyone.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Music for your Midweek: Souleance - "Mais Um"


The solstice was on Sunday,
so now I can officially say
"Hello Summer."

And hello #2. I've missed you.

I'll be celebrating by hanging out downtown for a Real Salt Lake watch party after work and pretending I'm on the beach in Brazil. Here's a track for just that from the French duo Souleance. I know nothing about them really, but you can give them a listen here. Check out one of my fave tracks below:



Olá Verão

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

"Don't let them win"

Coming live at you from Sweat Lake City! Another cover for your moody summer:


We had been meaning to record it for a while, and finally got around to it Thursday. Feels apropos with everything going on the past week. Watch it and share it a few times so that we can afford air conditioning for our sweltering apartment.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

"Gotta go a long way..."

Hug your dads, hug your moms, hug your friends, hug everybody.


Happy Father's Day

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Saturday Verse: "One Art" - Elizabeth Bishop

ONE ART

The art of losing ins't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or 
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, 
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident that
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
                                                       
- Elizabeth Bishop                                                                               

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Music for your Midweek: Sylvan Esso "Everything is Free" (Gillian Welch cover)

A beautiful cover that finally convinced me to give Gillian Welch a good listen. Georgie was a fan, and would sometimes try to get me to sing "Miss Ohio" with him, even though I didn't know the words. Sylvan Esso are always great. Take a look:



Blogger is acting a little screwy, so if you can't see the video, click here to watch.

Much love to everyone and everything.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Music for your Midweek: Tiny Ruins "Me At The Museum, You At The Wintergardens"


We have a few clouds this summer day in Salt Lake, so this song is a good fit:







Nobody feels old at the museum
Nobody feels cold in the wintergardens


Tuesday, June 9, 2015

June Mix: Tulip in a Cup

The drive from Fairview

R-E A-D-Y for a moody, dreamy summer.

1. Valentine - Fiona Apple



2. In The Devil's Territory - Sufjan Stevens



3. Sagres - The Tallest Man On Earth



4. Your Fool - Natalie Prass



5. Overwhelmed with Pride - Avi Buffalo



6. Another Saturday Night - Sam Cooke



7. Sunday Candy - Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment



8. Web - Thee Oh Sees



9. Silent - Radioactivity



10. The Worst Taste In Music [Extended] - The Radio Dept.



11. Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte - Eugene Ormandy: Philadelphia Orchestra



12. Black Star - Radiohead



13. Tangible Intangible - Fly Golden Eagle



14. The Moon Of Manakoora - Les Paul & Mary Ford



15. We Rule The School - Belle & Sebastian





Check out most of this mix through Spotify. Some tracks missing:




NOTES:
1. "No chance of growing up"
2. "Be still and know"
7. You can get this whole album for free! Check it out here.
11. The most beautiful beautiful.
12. Also:

13. Wish the song was around when I was at prom. Perfect for a slow dance.
14.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Saturday Verse: "Life" - Alice Cary

LIFE
Solitude—Life is inviolate solitude—
     Never was truth so apart from the dreaming
     As lieth the selfhood inside of the seeming,
Guarded with triple shield out of all quest,
     So that the sisterhood nearest and sweetest,
     So that the brotherhood kindest, completest,
Is but an exchanging of signals at best. 
Desolate—Life is so dreary and desolate—
     Women and men in the crowd meet and mingle,
     Yet with itself every soul standeth single,
Deep out of sympathy moaning its moan—
     Holding and having its brief exultation—
     Making its lonesome and low lamentation
Fighting its terrible conflicts alone. 
Separate—Life is so sad and so separate—
     Under love's ceiling with roses for lining,
     Heart mates with heart in a tender entwining
Yet never the sweet cup of love filleth full—
     Eye looks in eye with a questioning wonder,
     Why are we thus in our meeting asunder?
Why are out pulses so slow and so dull? 
Fruitless, fruitionless—Life is fruitionless—
     Never heaped up and generous measure—
     never the substance of satisfied pleasure—
Never the moment with rapture elate—
     But draining the chalice, we long for the chalice,
     And live as an alien inside our palace,
Bereft of our title and deeds of estate. 
Pitiful—Life is so poor and so pitiful—
     Cometh the cloud on the goldenest weather—
     Briefly the man and his youth stay together—
Falleth the frost ere the harvest is in,
     And conscience descends from the open aggression
     To timid and troubled and tearful concession,
And downward and down into parley with sin. 
Purposeless—Life is so wayward and purposeless—
     Always before us the object is shifting.
     Always the means and the method are drifting,
We rue what is done—what is undone deplore—
     More striving for high things than things that are holy.
     And so we go down to the valley so lowly
Wherein there is work, and device never more. 
Vanity, vanity—all would be vanity,
     Whether in seeking or getting our pleasures—
     Whether in spending or hoarding our treasures—
Whether in indolence, whether in strife—
     Whether in feasting and whether in fasting,
     But for our faith in the Love ever-lasting—
But for the life that is better than life.

- Alice Cary                                                                           

Thursday, June 4, 2015

A space that only you can fill



The view from one of my favorite hidden walks behind the avenues

Some morning inspiration for your Thursday found in this New York Times article:
"Vous allez trouver votre place. You will find your place... somewhere in the world, there’s a gap shaped just like you. Once you find it, you’ll slide right in."
I know that I'm at risk of sounding like one of those girls, but I hope this is true. The article is entitled "How to Find Your Place in the World After Graduation". Well kids, I graduated from college three and a half years ago. Yesterday, I "celebrated" the 10 year anniversary of my high school graduation*. I'm ready for my ramblin' ways to come to an end.

*One of my high school classmates wrote a song about our graduation called "June 3rd," so I will never forget the first day of the rest of my life!

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Music for your Midweek: Moses Sumney

Moses Sumney opened for a bunch of Sufjan Stevens shows. And killed it, apparently.
He's great great. Take a look:


Also, this song is breaking my heart on the regular:

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

"We made another video!" or "The Importance of Being Earnest"


"To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up."
                                          - Oscar Wild

We've got another video for you, and it has us looking quite serious and sincere. My deepest apologies. Oscar Wild was right; being natural is the hardest thing. But I think it actually turned out quite pretty, and Julia is great, as always.




There are a bunch of songs we want to cover, but few that are suited to us. Suggestions are always appreciated!

And click here to see our first video.