Saturday, January 30, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Saint Joan of Arc on a Postcard" - Margaret Atwood

SAINT JOAN OF ARC ON A POSTCARD 
Here's Joan in her penitential bedsheet,
peeled of her armour, hair shorn,
wrapped round with string
like a boned rolled leg of lamb, 
topped with a hat that looks like paper,
newspaper at that, but without the print,
a conical dunce cap.
Everything pale, hands, bare feet,
thin vestment, drained and blank,
white as the centre of a flare:
foreknowledge does that. 
Some cleric putting a match to her.
Neither of them looks happy about it.
Once lit, she'll burn like a book,
like a book that was never finished,
like a locked-up library 
Her two left-handed angels
and the ardent catchwords
they whispered into her ear —
Courage! Forward! King!
will burn as well.
Their voices will shrivel and blow away
in a scrawl of ash, 
charred scraps of a dirty joke
in the long and dissolute narrative
people keep telling themselves about God,
and the watchers in the square will cheer,
incinerating her with their eyes,
since everyone likes a good bonfire
and a nice cry, some time afterwards. 
It's you reading her now,
reading the Book of Joan.
What do you make of her?
Joan, the cocksure messenger,
or lunatic, or glassy sphere
containing a pure terse chapter
of a story with both ends missing? 
You'll patch up some translation,
you and your desk-lamp lightbulbs,
you and your white-hot stare.

                 
                                                   - Margaret Atwood

Friday, January 29, 2016

Film Friday

In honor of the Sundance Film Festival, here is some of my brother's best work. This is what we had to do before Vine and Snapchat, kids:


Nice shot of the ol' house

strangers on sleds

Baby brother, shreddin'

"Do it, Jer"

Squashed

yeah yeah yeah


That's all, folks.

Bonus! Click here for a scary movie.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Laura Mvula - "Overcome"

"Round the mountain, all God's children run"

Bonneville Shoreline trail - 12.01.2015


New music from Laura Mvula. Incredible, beautiful video:




Take your broken wings and fly...

Take your broken feet and run...

Keep your head up, carry on...

All God's children, come

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Saturday Verse: "The Whistler" - Mary Oliver

THE WHISTLER

All of a sudden she began to whistle. By all of a sudden I mean that for more than thirty years she had not whistled. It was thrilling. At first I wondered, who was in the house, what stranger? I was upstairs reading, and she was downstairs. As from the throat of a wild and cheerful bird, not caught but visiting, the sounds warbled and slid and doubled back and larked and soared. 
Finally I said, Is that you? Is that you whistling? Yes, she said. I used to whistle, along time ago. Now I see I can still whistle. And cadence after cadence she strolled through the house, whistling. 
I know her so well, I think. I thought. Elbow and ankle. Mood and desire. Anguish and frolic. Anger too. And the devotions. And for all that, do we even begin to know each other? Who is this I've been living with for thirty years? 
This clear, dark, lovely whistler?

                                                                                                                                        - Mary Oliver

Friday, January 22, 2016

January Mix: I am, only

01.17.2016

Mix for a neu yær, nu ü


1. I Am Not A Robot - Marina & the Diamonds



2. More Than A Woman - Aaliyah



3. Water - Ra Ra Riot & Rostam



4. Something About The Fire (Carlos Serrano Mix) - Adele // Daft Punk



5. Yellow Eyes - Rayland Baxter



6. Kill V. Maim - Grimes



7. Nobody Dies - Thao And The Get Down Stay Down



8. Sleep to Dream - Fiona Apple



9. Dream Scream - Death Cab For Cutie



10. Part From Me - The Avett Brothers


      
11. Two Doves - Dirty Projectors



12. This Is Heaven To Me - Billie Holiday



13. Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie - Joanna Newsom



14. What Part Of Me - Low



15. i - Kendrick Lamar



16. The Sun Shines Down On Me - Daniel Johnston



Check out the Spotify mix here. Some songs missing.

NOTES:
1. An old favorite
2. Happy 37th birthday Angel
3. Also, new stuff by Rostam? Pretty good!
4. Sorry ya'll. The new Adele album is a major snoozefest. We all know it. Listen to this old mashup to remember the good times.
6. New video is cool cool cool. Also an excellent song to run too when it's too cold outside so you need to hurry up and get it over with. Also, this. Also listen to this stuff especially this cute story.
8. Fiona Apple is forever something else. Check out Marc Maron's great interview with her here.
10. They are playing an event up at Sundance on Thursday. Please bless I figure out a way to get in.
15. Check out the single version here.
16. I was practicing this song on the guitar last night, and could. not. get. through. without crying. Daniel Johnston is poet/prophet.




Thursday, January 21, 2016

A little help for your resolutions

IDK what your resolutions are, but I bet this video can help. Watching Snoop and Martha make mashed potatoes gives me some hope for the world and helps me chill. Enjoy:

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Music for your Midweek: R. Stevie Moore - "I Like to Stay Home"

RIP old bedroom
12-30-2015

Sometimes that autoplay feature on YouTube can introduce you to great things. R. Stevie Moore:

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Music for your Midweek: David Bowie - Everything


He was a beauty


They keep taking down his infamous 1979 SNL performance, sorry folks. If you get the chance to watch it, it's a gem. Instead you get a screenshot and audio. Use your imagination I guess:



I went to see "best comedy" of the year, The Martian a couple days ago as an unintentional David Bowie commemoration. They used this song in the film and I almost teared up. This one would probably have been too on the nose, I guess. If you're a glutton for punishment, click here to go back in time to when another one of his songs made me cry.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Sampa the Great - "Blue Boss"

My mom looking real cool in Switzerland. 1985 ish


Now for something siq to start the year:


HELLO

Guys.

2016 is going to be seriously good.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Love is a place" - E.E. Cummings

LOVE IS A PLACE

love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places
yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skillfully curled)
all worlds

                                           — E.E. Cummings

Friday, January 1, 2016

So far, my favorite year

Hey guys


Everything will be just fine

Have a great 2016