January Mix: "Can't go back"

There are 39 hours left to the first month of the year.
Meaning you can listen to this mix approximately 45.9 times before February.
Pretty neat, huh?

1. You Only Live Once (The Strokes Cover) - Wolf Saga ft. LYON


2. Helicopter - Deerhunter


3. I Never Learn - Lykke Li


4. Sail To The Moon (Nov. 26th 2003 - London) - Radiohead


5. The Riverbed - Owen Pallett


6. Likely To Use Something - The Belle Brigade


7. Easy - Real Estate


8. Hero - Frank Ocean + Mick Jones + Paul Simonon + Diplo


9. The Old And The Young - Midlake



10. Archie, Marry Me - Alvvays


11. Oblivious - Jessica Lea Mayfield


12. Foreground (Grizzly Bear Cover) - Memoryhouse


13. Back, Baby - Jessica Pratt


NOTES:
1. Don Quixote was published in two volumes. One in 1605, and the other in 1615. Can you magine having to wait 10 years for the second half of a story? It actually spawned the creation of a fake 2nd volume with a fake story. This work was so widely circulated, that Cervantes decided to make it a running joke in the 2nd volume. The hero of the actual novel has to deal with the "false" Quixote throughout the story. Very meta. You can read more about it here. Our professor compared it to those fake versions of Harry Potter that were released before the 7th book came out. Even if those versions of stories of fake, there is a sector of fandom that will seek it out and consume it, just because they love the originals so much, and they want those fictional worlds to extend farther than what the real author intended. There is no right or wrong in this case. Since those stories are fictional, there is no way to say that one story is "truer" than the other. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter is no more "real" than once from a knock-off version of her story.
ANYWAY
I feel the same way about music. I love some songs so much, I just wish they could go on forever. That's why I love cover songs so much. They extend those creations through new iterations. And that's why I love this track.
6. This song reminds me of the type of stuff we listened to when I worked at Jacob Lake. It fits right into those drives we took past Vermillion Cliffs and around the Kaibab plateau. It's time travel to something that never even happened. I found out about this band while I was researching who was going to play at the ASCAP music cafe at Sundance. Didn't get to see them, but super happy I found this track.
11. This girl teamed up with Seth Avett and made an album of Elliott Smith covers to be released soon. I'm very anxious to hear how it all turns out. Watch the album trailer here. And watch this old favorite vid to get a taste of what's coming.
12. See note for track 1

Thursday Verse: "Poem to be read at 3 A.M." - Donald Justice

POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M.

Excepting the diner
On the outskirts
The town of Ladora
At 3 A.M.
Was dark but
For my headlights
And up in
One second-story room
A single light
Where someone
Was sick or
Perhaps reading
As I drove past
At seventy
Not thinking
This poem
Is for whoever
Had the light on

- Donald Justice                                                                                        

I Surrender

My phone is too smart.

I'm confident that enough information has been drawn from me to create my own personal assistant a la the Black Mirror Christmas special. I regularly get alerts like, "This seems to be a place you go to a lot, do you want us to track travel time to this location?", popping up after I've arrived at my mom's or the school I work at. My phone also suggests music articles for me to read and sends me info about Real Salt Lake tickets without any prodding from me. It simply tracks how I scroll through my feeds, learning what keeps my attention.

Trippy stuff.

Instead of fighting against all this information "they" have been gathering, I've decided to embrace it. Anyone with any type of online account (Google, Facebook, Instagram) has already sold their privacy to the lowest bidder. Why struggle against the tide?

One of the creepiest things my phone has is its "#AutoAwesome" feature. It picks photos I've taken, and makes them AWESOME!!! by adding filters, effects, frames, and even splicing them together to make moving gifs. It's the cheesiest, funniest thing. I haven't really done anything with them, until now...

You, dear reader, get to see highlights from my last in all their photo-shopped glory. Google will be so proud:

This snow is NOT REAL

Kishi Bashi - May 23rd

I thought I was going to be a real blogger for a second. Signed up with a company to get free products and stuff, ad then post reviews online. But then all my review photos ended up like this... My review? Mary Kay Makeup is OK!

Watching the USA game at the RioT

Google turns any unintentional photo into art

Google turns Jeremy into a still from one of those TLC ghost hunting shows

View from my room #citydweller

Moving movies

Another accidental art shot with Whitney looking pretty

This is actually beautiful in real life too.
A painting in my grandparents chapel.

Lady Gaga concert. No filter needed. It was insane.

5:00 AM view while working one of my millions of temp jobs.
Google adds that grainy texture you love.

Katie throwin' it down at her bachelorette party.
Thank you Google.

Google tricks you into thinking I use a film camera HAHAHA

Google makes the moon look like another streetlight

Google turns Beck into spooky city

My little cousin took a million photos with my phone.
Google turns it into art, again!

Some photogenic cacti in Arizona

Coming soon to a postcard near you! Thanks, Google.

Cuties with matching buns

Ferngully. Light effects by Google.

Conference mate and cereal. Brought to life by Google.

My brothers teasing each  other to classical music. 

THANK YOU GOOGLE!!!

Shifty Skull Eyes

A spooky corn maze made spookier by Google

Mormon Video pics

Shifty Eyes II.
I take an embarrassing amount of selfies; many of them"improved"
by AutoAwesome. Only a fraction I shared because I need to
maintain at least a shred of my dignity.

Thanksgiving moments, brought to you by Google

Another postcard

And another postcard

Christmas eats

Yet another postcard

Google makes everything look like space photography

So there you have it. 

A peek into my over-developed, over-saturated, over-filtered life. 

It's a beauty.

Thursday Verse: "The Scarred Girl" - James Kickey

The Scarred Girl

All glass may yet be whole
She thinks, it may be put together
From the deep inner flashing of her face.
One moment the windshield held 

The countryside, the green
Level fields and the animals,
And these must be restored
To what they were when her brow 

Broke into them for nothing, and began
Its sparkling under the gauze
Though the still, small war for her beauty
Is stitched out of sight and lost, 

It is not this field that she thinks of.
It is that her face, buried
And held up inside the slow cars,
Knows how the bright, fractured world 

Burns and pulls and weeps
To come together again.
The green meadow lying in fragments
Under the splintered sunlight, 

The cattle broken in pieces
By her useless, painful intrusion
Know that her visage contains
The process and hurt of their healing, 

The hidden wounds that can
Restore anything, bringing the glass
Of the world together once more,
All as it was when she struck, 

All except her. The shattered field
Where they dragged the telescoped car
Off to be pounded to scrap
Waits for her to get up, 

For her calm, unimagined face
To emerge from the yards of its wrapping,
Red, raw, mixed-looking but entire,
A new face, an old life, 

To confront the pale glass it has dreamed
Made whole and backed with wise silver,
Held in other hands brittle with dread,
A doctor's, a lip-biting nurse's, 

Who do not see what she sees
Behind her odd faces in the mirror:
The pastures of earth and of heaven
Restored and undamaged, the cattle 

Risen out of their jagged graves
To walk in the seamless sunlight
And a newborn countenance
Put upon everything. 

Her beauty gone, but to hover
Near for the rest of her life,
And good no nearer, but plainly
In sight, and the only way.

- James Dickey

Music for your Midweek: Gospel Spirituals

I saw Selma a couple weeks ago (it was great) And I've been on a music kick from that era ever since. Starred all the songs from the movie on Spotify. Read all the NPR articles about how the soundtrack was put together. Looked up biographies on most of the artists featured (esp. Mahalia Jackson. Such a cool lady). On Sunday, I walked to Temple Square to see Music and the Spoken Word listen to a selection of songs were for MLK day. All old gospel spirituals in his honor. After the broadcast, I started combing through This May Be My Last Time Singing compilation on Spotify. One thing led to another, and I soon spent hours watching live performance of these tunes. And now y'all get to benefit from my hours of time wastin'. Hope you like it:

Blind Boys of Alabama - 

They have a million videos on Youtube. You should check them all out.

The Soul Stirrers - 

Don't you love his voice? That is true emotion

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - 

Nobody has more soul. I want to be her. 

AND THAT GUITAR SOLO <3 div="">

The Davis Sisters - 

I just imagine these ladies to be any regular seeming women 

walking down the street. And then they sing and it's a whole other world. 

So much talent.

Thursday Verse: "Corner" - Ralph Pomeroy

CORNER

The cop slumps alertly on his motorcycle,
Supported by one leg like a leather stork.
His glance accuses me of loitering.
I can see his eyes moving like a fish
In the green depths of his green goggles. 

His ease is fake. I can tell.
My ease is fake. And he can tell.
The fingers armored by his gloves
Splay and clench, itching to change
                                               something.
As if he were my enemy or my death,
I just standing there watching
I spit out my gum which has gone stale.
I knock out a new cigarette --
Which is my bravery.
It is all imperceptible:
The way I shift my weight,
The way he creaks in his saddle. 

The traffic is specific though constant.
The sun surrounds me, divides the street between us.
His crash helmet is whiter in the shade.
It is like a bull ring as they say it is just before the
                                                                      fighting.
I cannot back down. I am there. 

Everything holds me back.
I am in danger of disappearing into the sunny dust.
My levis bake and my T shirt sweats. 

My cigarette makes my eyes burn.
But I don't dare drop it. 

Who made him my enemy?
Prince of coolness. King of fear.
Why do I lean here waiting?
Why does he lounge there watching? 

I am becoming sunlight.
My hair is on fire. My boots run like tar.
I am hung-up by the bright air. 

Something breaks through all of a sudden,
And he blasts off, quick as a craver,
Smug in his power; watching me watch.

- Ralph Pomeroy                                             

Music for your Midweek: Wing & Claw - "Criminal"

A couple months ago, I went to a house show to see my roommate Julia play with Mo Edwards. These guys, Wing and Claw, started the show, and I liked them quite a bit. Check 'em out:

Thursday Verse: "Warning" - Larry Rubin

Warning

Disasters will strike. Despite the infinite
Precautions you may have taken, the day will come
When, numb-lipped in the dentist's chair perhaps,
You won't b able to put another nickel
In the meter, or when you suddenly discover
The transmission won't unlock into reverse.
And what will you do then - with everybody
Honking, and all the service trucks away
On call? Or your eye may stray into
The wrong column - common stocks, time-
Tables, taxes for your income bracket.
One little slip, and you may find
Yourself on the wrong train, making bad
Investments, questioned by a federal man,
Falsely accused even in a death
Because you left a funeral too soon.
Watch every step: you will not be so lucky
As barefoot birds, singing on the voltage lines.

- Larry Rubin

Music for your Midweek: "We're Going to be Friends" (White Stripes Cover) - Gretchen and Jeremy

One of my resolutions was to do more with music. So, here it goes!

Jeremy and I learned this song a few years ago for a church activity, but hadn't sung it since. Apparently, my dad had loved it and had told my aunt's family about it. I guess he tried to get us to sing it again so he could record it and share it with everyone, but we refused.
Ungrateful kids.
So when my aunt asked us to sing at her son's wedding reception, I saw it as a first step to repentence.
Better late than never, I guess.

My brother Jeremy does real music stuff. You can hear him play drums with Chalk and Foster Body.

Thursday Verse: "Te Deum" - Charles Reznikoff

Te Deum

Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring. 

Not for victory
but for the day's work done
as well as I was able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common table.

- Charles Reznikoff