Wine here, and for about a second the profound nature of this decade ending washed over me this past weekend. I mean come on, ten years ago I was just about to embark on that seemingly endless march of being a teenager with all of these major life events ahead of me that even the thought of me sitting here in Chicago, in my apartment, and in my mid-20’s knowing full well what happens to Harry Potter in those sweet books would be laughable. But, no, here I am quenching my thirst for some delicious coffee and reflecting on the passage of time. It seems so cliched though right? The end of a decade for some reason signifies a new beginning, when really we’re choosing to look back on a neatly defined although still arbitrary-ish amount of time. We reflect on those events sequentially and assign meaning to them in the overall development of the self, and then we look to the future. This has been a particurally rough decade for the world and even Time Magazine has called this the “Decade From Hell”. I wouldn’t go that far, but I certainly agree it has been humbling. But yet now with 2010 on it’s way, hope exists. Maybe because in a karmic sense, we almost feel we deserve a decade of growth and prosperity as opposed to all that we have lost and that really does sound quite nice.
When I have a bunch of different things pile up at work I tend to get overly stressed and almost freeze as I watch the pile grow bigger until I somehow choose a day where I feel a little bit more energized than usual or something like that and just start hacking away at that mountain of paperwork. And maybe through progress is how we’ll feel better about our situation as a nation and as a world in the coming decade. Most of our current issues will persist well into the next decade, but as long as we choose this moment – one that plays quite well into the notion of a just world – to start chipping away at these issues instead of each other then Time magazine will have something else entirely to reflect back upon when I’ll be approaching my mid-30’s…I wish I wouldn’t have typed that.
But despite the issues that were affecting one of the broader ecological levels in my life, I still remain focused on those events that took place a bit more on the micro scale from which I feel I’ve gained the most insight: Milestones such as graduations and licenses and big moves, losses be they family or friends or love, and unforeseen instances that tested my character when I was least expecting it. While I understand the importance of the issues facing our world and their impact on my life, I was lucky enough to be born in a situation where I can be selfish enough to assign more meaning to a concert I went to than, say, the Tsunami that affected so many other lives almost 5 years ago this Christmas Eve. In a situation where the gap between the world and my life had the illusion of being wide. But then there are others who do the exact opposite, and that assignment of meaning to random events in one’s life in the overall construction of the sense of self is why I do what I do. Or, rather why I do what I ultimately hope to be able to do, but you get what I mean.
So, this year why not take a little bit of extra time to reflect and compress a decade’s worth of lessons into a nice profound second of revelation and then get on with our lives because waiting until the calendar reads January 1st to start doing what you hoped you’d be doing by now this time ten or seven or thirteen years ago is going to get you in trouble one day. Alright, I’m off to start chipping away at my mountain, what about you?
Wine here. So Whiskey and I had a meeting of sorts last night over some delicious sandwiches at Birchwood Kitchen. For everyone who is familiar with the dining establishments in Oxford, we decided this is a perfect cross between Kona and La Bodega, ergo amazing food. Anyway, and he’ll probably yell at me for typing this, but we decided to pump some life back into this lovely blog that, in all honesty, was starting to circle the drain. It’s been almost exactly a year since the first post, and while we’ll think of some sort of appropriate retrospective to hopefully maybe possibly collaborate on Sunday but until then let’s get back to business eh? I’ve got a full french press, an episode of House playing in the background, the beginnings of what will surely prove to be a long and bitter winter in Chicago swirling outside, and hopefully something other than work to talk about this time.
I was hoping Google could help me pick a topic at random, but I clearly didn’t fully realize the function of the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. I am also quite tempted to do a very thorough analysis of the latest Lady GaGa music video in a live-blog style, but then again I want to hold on to some dignity now right? There’s always my stand-by introspective post about how far I’ve come and blah blah blah but who cares. SO without further ado and stalling…I think it’s time for some year-end lists…maybe even some decade-end lists? No, that’d be way too ambitious and stressful a project, because after all this is the decade where I actually refined my taste in just about everything. We’ll save that for another, probably rainier, probably more reflective sort of day.
Let me start off my Top 10 Albums list by saying I was terribly disappointed by the level of music this year. My hopes are riding on 2010 with forthcoming albums from Vampire Weekend, Final Fantasy, Panda Bear, Spoon, Yeasayer, Of Montreal, Beach House, (shut the front door!) Arcade Fire and hell even Interpol will be back. Let me also say that I can’t even think of 10 albums that I went bat-shit crazy over like in previous years. I’m not being a downer, it’s just the truth that it was a fledgling year in the indie music world despite what otherblogs and websites may say.
10.) Fever Ray – S/T
This solo album from the female half of one of my favorite bands of all time, The Knife really only fills out this proper top 10 list based on the strength of production, similarity to the band from which she is a part of, and probably one of the weirdest but best videos I’ve seen ever. What you get here is some dark and moody pop music…a statement that really doesn’t make any sense at all but those Swedes just know how to make music.
The Antlers were one of the best new artists to emerge this year with an album full of lush melancholy songs that I honestly waited far too long to really listen to. The lead singer shows glimmers of brilliance with a voice akin to Antony Hegarty but without the melodrama and orchestration that isn’t too fancy but is still rather clever in it’s implementation.
Apparently it was the year for some really good side projects, and Handsome Furs are probably at the top of that list. Now Wolf Parade has spawned some great bands such as Swan Lake and Sunset Rubdown that co-lead singer Spencer Krug heads up. Now I realize this is the second album from other lead singer Dan Boeckner, and I wasn’t really feeling their first album, Plague Park, but with Face Control I am now a fan. It’s a simple guy and girl set-up that can still sound as organic as a standard band especially riding on the riffs that Dan provides. I could go on with more hyperbole but just check it out for yourself.
This album shouldn’t really qualify for this list, but like I said it was a thin year and the fact that a charity comp made it on my top 10 should be further evidence. Go here to get further background info. on the philanthropy because I’m only really concerned with the music for right now. This album brings together all of the major players within the indie “scene” these days and is also filled mainly with covers, but my god are they excellent.
Dirty Projectors is another band I’ve slept on for far too long and this album full of avant-pop arrangements with jittery guitar riffs and seemingly chaotic song structure appeased the music nerd that I really don’t try to hide. The addition of Angel Deradoorian helps include a calming force to all of Dave Longstreth’s crazy ambition and the result is their most accessible but ultimately successful album yet.
Oh my, I could go on for days about Andrew Bird and the fact that I’ve seriously over played this album since it was released last January is the only reason it’s not further up. His show at Carnegie Hall I was able to see last year is in a really close race with the best show I’ve seen ever with the artist who garnered top honors on this year’s list. He makes me want to quit my job, go pick up my violin back in Ohio, and practice until I can play anywhere near as well as he can live or otherwise. Even without his live show, this album stands on it’s own legs with amazing orchestration, witty wordplay, and super-human whistling abilities that he is able to reproduce, loop, and even harmonize with live.
I’ve tried for so long not to like this band. They are typically over-hyped and the darlings of the indie scene, but only when Arcade Fire or Sufjan aren’t doing anything. Well, with Veckatimest they’ve begrudgingly won me over with song after song that just produce a wall of sound (literally, they pretty much cover every audible frequency in the spectrum sometimes) but doesn’t feel bombastic in any way. Hell even Jay-Z and Beyonce like these guys, which I still can’t determine is a good or bad thing.
This insanely high placement for these newbies is more than likely due to the fact that I just saw them play here last weekend for what is third on my list of amazing shows I’ve seen this year. Regardless of such petty mitigating factors, The Big Pink managed to produce one hell of a great album filled with all kinds of hooks – the kinds of hooks we’ll probably be seeing sometime in 2010 in a myriad of commercial music soundtracks. They produce a huge sound without feeling too muddled down by their vast array of pedals and craft some great electro-rock and oh one of their backing vocalists is the sister of Patrick Wolf (who’s album was number 11 on my imaginary top 20 list of ‘09).
This album is everything I love about music and immediately rose to the top of my list when I saw them play here back in September. The Swedish know how to write some great pop music, but the French know how to put on a damn good show. I’m running out of ways to describe how good this album is so I’ll just post videos and songs to talk for me.
Wine here. So, hey, it’s been a little bit hasn’t it? The past few weeks have been crammed full of things as Whiskey so plainly put out there, but I assure you we’ve (or at least I’ve) been up to some sober activities as well! Yes, Halloween was a hoot as was our night being incredibly close to one of my favorite bands of all time, The Sounds (insert a slight school boy squeal)! But, the bit I want to focus on for this post would be my trip back to Columbus, my first home to drop off my faithful stead to roam through slower and better paved pastures around those suburban streets.
It’s been a sad time for beloved car lately. About two weeks ago I bee bop down our stoop on my way to work for a lovely Wednesday morning with the grad students when I notice a pool of shattered glass by the driver’s side door and notice as I get closer that my window had been smashed in! Naturally I check inside to see if anything is taken but no…everything is in the exact same place as it was. Well except for my window which was now located on the driver’s seat, the floor, on the street and pretty much everywhere else in a 4 ft radius. Now I’ve already painted this picture that I have a stressful job that really doesn’t give me too much time to myself outside of those two glorious days off where I get to recharge so I decided along with my mother’s guidance to just wait it out and drive the car home sans window…Fast forward a week and a half later and I embark on quite possibly the most epic road trip I’ve experienced in that car which is actually saying a lot considering the amount of death defying journey’s through mountains I’ve navigated safely through with my go-kart. Well the trip was filled with odd smells throughout the not-so-great state of Indiana and forced me to resort to using my big headphones as earmuffs because there really is a reason why people don’t drive with their windows down in November. I made it back safely and was only just barely run off the road by a semi once, so I would consider this a successful ride.
I had only four goals during my short short stay in Columbus: 1) See family 2) Get coffee from Stauf’s 3) Turn car over 4) Not miss my flight home. Anything else was considered bonus points, so thankfully I was able to see some Columbus friends but not nearly as many as I hoped to see and managed to get a bit of sleep in the process. Now I’d love to go on some sort of introspective rant as to how it felt to come home after becoming acquainted and essentially starting a new life up here in Chicago but either I’ve gotten over wanting to do that or I just wasn’t there long enough for it all to sink in. I guess it was kind of surreal to be back but honestly it’s just Columbus, Ohio…it’s not really a city that’s synonymous with profound. Rather I guess the absence of feeling should reflect well on my, either getting over, or packing up and shipping to Chicago, issues I had yet to work out. Or, like I said all of that trite dribble doesn’t bear the same weight in my consciousness anymore after listening to people with issues I couldn’t even imagine having to live with. Whatever the case may be, it was still a good time in the Buckeye state and hopefully I get to go back soon but as it stands now I probably won’t be back until 2010. I’m going to really miss driving that car though. We had some fun whipping around those familiar roads one last time, mainly showing off for all of the other mid-size luxury cars what we had learned surviving the commute on Lake Shore Dr. over the past three months, or what it really meant to parallel park. I don’t know why but that last little bit of reflection almost got me to tear up! And about a car nonetheless! I may be moving on past introspective ruminations about seemingly mundane events but I will always be a sentimental guy at heart.
Hey there, real quick before i pick up a case of pabst in celebration of college football viewing today (if the Buckeyes win, they are the Big 10 champs and going to the Rose Bowl!!)…
Tonight at the Beat Kitchen…The Pinstripes on tour from Cincinnati. They’re good people. And they’re better than your friends band. Doors at 7, show at 7.30.
yo! whiskey here. i’m eating a bagel (plain, of course) listening to all of the doofi (plural for “doofus”) here at school ramble in obnoxious self-importance. i could take them all in a contest of fictional superiority, even though this is one of the fundamental definitions for core pathology in Adlerian theory. ANYWAY…
so i survived the month of october (or oktober, if you’re german or willing to partake in pseudo-germanic drinking “traditions”), which included two 3 day festivals (red scare’s oktoberfest, riot fest), two back-t0-back gaslight anthem shows, a cobra skulls halloween show featuring teenage bottlerocket as the “secret” headliner (the 2nd time in a month we saw them as a “surprise” guest band, a david cross comedy gig, and more..spanning 31 days, dozens of bands, and a shit load of guests in the whiskey/wine/moonshine booze/love den. and i won’t even start on halloween costumes…
after a pretty wild and memorable foxy/sounds show two nights ago (eh…i guess nov 7 is close enough to october), there is a relative quiet period in our lives. maybe that means more blogging? or maybe that means even less due to the lack of material to share. we’ll see. anyway, if you had anything to do with the last month of insanity, i wanted to say “thanks” and “hurry the fuck back here so we can do it again, damnit!”
one of my few goals for graduate school that i failed at during my undergraduate education was to stay on top of my recreational reading. here is what i’ve finished in the last month or two:
wow. i guess i didnt really realize it, but ive only read two authors in some time. i’ve been trying to get through all 40 or so of bukowski’s books and who doesnt love jack kerouac? i’ll look into diversifying my library later.
Tonight at the House of Blues and tomorrow at the Double Door I am seeing this:
hope they play that hot water music cover!
also, before I leave you all to go engage in this musical experience, get a load of this!
this is dan andriano from the alkaline trio playing solo under the “emergency room” moniker. he played at day 3 of red scare’s oktoberfest at the beat kitchen. in honor of the lawrence arms’ 10th anniversary, he covered a song of theirs! and i was there! you cant see me though. bummer.
If you’ll permit, I need to share a tale from the bottomless well of stories that is my job. Today, one of my residents stood for 7 seconds. This feat alone almost got me to break down at work for the first time because this man hadn’t stood on his legs since December 11th, 2000. There are probably a few dozen reasons why this has been permitted to happen and most include a number of people dropping the ball or thinking he is somehow unworthy of the time and attention he requires in order to really connect and make progress and honestly I had pretty much given up on him too. It was a few weeks back and I was trying to convince him to make an attempt at getting out of bed so that we could go wash him. He dismissed me and yelled for me to get out, which at that point I was pretty much used to. This was also a critical time for me as I was stewing in this perceived lack of motivation in any of the residents to make sustainable change in their lives. Now this notion was more than likely brought about by some of my co-workers but I really can’t blame them. Well anyway, I was up in my office catching up on some charting when this man’s roommate comes knocking looking visibly upset and contemplative. He said that he was sick and tired of watching his roommate and good friend do nothing about his life and waste away. I let him vent for awhile and came to understand that he had been bottling up these feelings and that watching him dismiss me earlier was the last straw and he needed to do something but was afraid to lose his friend amidst the confrontation that was needed. Now, this man’s roommate has some significant cognitive deficiencies -which recently have been amplified by a very serious bout of seizures- and for him to approach me in this manner was, and still seems incredibly significant. I automatically switched in RA mode and did the one thing I am pretty confident in: Roommate Mediation. What ensued was an incredibly open and honest conversation between two grown men that have connected so intensely that it could be scripted and aired on any movie screen. From that day forward it’s been a slow build-up of progress with some setbacks of course and maybe some innocent manipulation of the roommate dynamic to get some things moving along. For the past two weeks I’ve been sitting with him while he explored the western border of his condensed world and sat up with his feet on the ground for ever increasing periods of time all the while hearing about his life and secrets to a great meatloaf, which after reciting a few dozen times I can’t seem to recall the portions and types of meat he swears by. Well today with a bit of help from me under his right arm and a nurse under the other, he lifted himself up for a mind boggling 7 seconds. I think it took me a couple of minutes to regain my normal gait after my legs fell asleep in our morning meeting, but the idea of standing up after almost 9 years off of them is unfathomable. Needless to say he earned his can of pop today…
Now I’m sitting here trying to sort through my thoughts on the day and really trying to take something away from this. There’s a certain cynicism that is gnawing at me trying to wake me up to the cliched nature of this story and to try and make some grand oration about all of the lessons learned and constructing applicable generalizable metaphors is pointless. It’s a tool used in most medical dramas where the plight and ultimate success or failure of a patient is applied to one of the main characters in some sort of moment of ultimate clarity about their own lives that we as the mindless observers somehow cram this piece of sage wisdom into our own puzzles of existence. At least for tonight I’ll take a break from being cynical because if this man could stand for 7 seconds today, then, well, I should be able to do anything.
