Saturday, July 30, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Loud Music" - Stephen Dobyns



Anderson .Paak
July 28th, 2016


LOUD MUSIC

My stepdaughter and I circle round and round.
You see, I like the music loud, the speakers
throbbing, jam-packing the room with sound whether
Bach or rock and roll, the volume cranked up so
each bass note is like a hand smacking the gut.
But my stepdaughter disagrees. She is four
and likes the music decorous, pitched below
her own voice–that tenuous projection of self.
With music blasting, she feels she disappears,
is lost within the blare, which in fact I like.
But at four what she wants is self-location
and uses her voice as a porpoise uses
its sonar: to find herself in all this space.
If she had a sort of box with a peephole
and looked inside, what she'd like to see would be
herself standing there in her red pants, jacket,
yellow plastic lunch box: a proper subject
for serious study. But me, if I raised
the same box to my eye, I would with to find
the ocean on one of those days with wind
and thick cloud make the water gray and restless
as if some creature brooded underneath,
a rocky coast with a road along the shore
where someone like me was walking and has gone.
Loud music does this, it wipes out the ego,
leaving turbulent water and winding road,
a landscape stripped of people and language–
how clear the air becomes, how sharp the colors.

                                                           - Stephen Dobyns

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Anderson .Paak - "The Bird"

July 23rd, 2016


Going to Twilight all on my lonesome to Anderson .Paak do his thing live, and in person. He's too good and none of ya'll know.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Beyond Recall" - Sharon Bryan

BEYOND RECALL 
Nothing matters
to the dead,
that's what's so hard 
for the rest of us
to take in–
their complete indifference 
to our enticements,
our attempts to get in touch–
they aren't observing us 
from a discreet distance,
they aren't listening
to a word we say– 
you know that
but you don't believe it,
even deep in a cave 
you don't believe
in total darkness,
you keep waiting 
for your eyes to adjust
and reveal your hand
in front of your face– 
so how long a silence
will it take to convince us
that we're the ones 
who no longer exist,
 as far as X is concerned
and Y, that they're forgotten 
every little thing
they knew about us,
what we told them 
and what we didn't
have to, even our names
mean nothing to them 
now–our throats ache
with all we might have said
the next time we saw them.

                                  - Sharon Bryan

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Saturday Verse: "I Wish in the City of Your Heart" - Robley Wilson



June 3rd, 2016

I WISH IN THE CITY OF YOUR HEART 
I wish in the city of your heart
you would let me be the street
where you walk when you are most
yourself. I imagine the houses:
It has been raining, but the rain
is done and the children kept home
have begun opening their doors. 


                                  - Robley Wilson

Friday, July 15, 2016

July Mix: Summer Sick

July 3rd, 2016

Here we go!

Halfway through!

This summer's going by without being a summer at all

And it's giving me a panic attack



Oh well!


1. Summertime - Kat Edmonson



2. Yes I'm Changing - Tame Impala



3. Two Hands - Mideau



4. Jealous Guy (John Lennon Cover) - Donny Hathaway



5. Nobody Speak (Featuring Run The Jewels) - DJ Shadow



6. Sun - Two Door Cinema Club



7. You And I - Margaret Glaspy



8. A Day's Pay For A Day's Work - Darkstar



9. Both Hands (Over My Eyes) - David Bazan



10. My Heart Is An Apple - Arcade Fire



11. Monad - Chris Cohen



12. Before - Wye Oak



13. Owl Eyes - Devendra Banhart




14. Ticket to Hide - Guided By Voices



15. Can I Stay - Ray LaMontagne



16. Prayer for the Dying - Lisa Hannigan



17. Glass Eyes - Radiohead



18. I Think It's Going To Rain Today - Madeleine Peyroux



NOTES: 
1. Thanks to Bekah for this
2. This is a great song if you are driving through a carwash
5. This is a great song if you love vulgarity and always want to go on a run WHICH I DO
6. This is a great song if you want to pretend it's early summer of 2013 in Provo
9. Be still my heart
10. "I can't explain why it's a sin, the state I'm living in a sin"
18. One of Nick Drake's "favourite songs from his favourite album"



Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Tired" - Langston Hughes




TIRED 
I am so tired of waiting,
Aren't you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two -
and see what worms are eating
At the rind.

                                  - Langston Hughes 

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Music for your Midweek: David Bazan - "Both Hands (Over My Eyes)"

June 26th, 2016


Julia introduced me to this song a few weeks ago, but it wasn't till more recently that I became obsessed. Has all those sad things I like. I listened to it on repeat 17 times on Monday. That should give you a sense of what my Independence Day was like.
Here it is:


Anyway, I prefer the solo version best. Though the original is still just as much as a heart break. I would like to record an acoustic version as soon as I buy a mic so STAY TUNED.