January 2012
1 post
Movie drought
What the heck is up with Hollywood right now? This is such a long and intense movie drought. Hanna and I go to the movies a lot, and there were only three movies I saw in 2011 that I actually liked. They were:
The King’s Speech Drive Martha Marcy May Marlene
Everything else, from Super 8 to Ides of March to Harry Potter, was yawn-tastic.
2011 was a terrible year for movies, and when the...
December 2011
2 posts
Bumper stickers are alienating
On my way home today, I was behind a car with a bumper sticker that read “If God wanted us to be vegetarians, he would have made broccoli more fun to shoot.” As a strict vegetarian, I have a few things to say about this.
1. That’s pretty funny
2. God doesn’t want us to be anything, primarily because he doesn’t exist
3. If God wanted us to be mouth-breathing...
1 tag
My favorite music of 2011
I read lists like this every year and they mostly make me angry. To those fellow passionate music enthusiasts for whom this list will inspire similar rage (“OMG, no Bon Iver?” etc.), I’m not sorry.
Nor am I energetic enough to write even a paragraph on any of these. This is nothing more than a quick list that maybe you can look over if your iTunes needs a kick in the pants.
...
November 2011
2 posts
2 tags
A song for a green pheasant
Where music is concerned, taste is enormously complex. As often as we revel in the shared enjoyment of a song or artist, we relish the solitary specificity of our individual favorites. We covet the music “nobody else likes.” It’s a strange art form that inspires its enthusiasts to personalize their enjoyment to levels of alienation.
When I was a kid, I used to wake up...
7 tags
Fleetwood Meg
This is my friend, Megan Taylor. She’s one of my favorite people, and has been for about ten years. This photo is from April 2010, when Hanna and I visited Meg in San Francisco. Before I forget, Meg’s blog is called Poem Sweet Poem. Note: If you’re reading this in Google Reader or another RSS agent, you may not be able to listen to the song files below.
Meg reciprocated...
October 2011
2 posts
3 tags
The surreal world of wrestling promos
Did you watch WWF wrestling when you were a kid? If so, have you paused in your adult life to consider how truly bizarre those televised events were? I have, and to me, there was no single aspect of WWF wrestling more bizarre than the promotional spots each wrestler made before and after each match, during which they pumped up their images, smack-talked their opponent, and reacted to the canned...
2 tags
"I drive... for movies."
I saw the Nicholas Winding Refn-directed movie Drive this week. It’s really great. **No spoilers ahead.**
If you’re already familiar with Ryan Gosling’s outstanding performances in Half Nelson and Blue Valentine, you won’t be surprised to see him delivering subtle complexity and outright intensity in his role as “The Driver.” Carey Mulligan, another actor...
August 2011
1 post
3 tags
June 2011
3 posts
5 tags
The reflected smile, the wordless conversation
Congratulations to my dear friends Jeff and Heather upon their first full day of marriage. Their wedding last night in my beloved hometown of Essex, Massachusetts was one of the truly beautiful, tasteful and original celebrations of love I’ve attended.
On another topic entirely, I just remembered that last week I dreamed of playing in a Herman’s Hermit’s cover band called...
2 tags
Great Scott!
Well, the new album already passed the 500 download mark, which I honestly cannot believe. It must have been posted somewhere really special, because it literally jumped tenfold today compared to Wednesday night’s total.
Huge love and thanks to all who downloaded and shared. It makes it all worthwhile to know people are listening.
Bandcamp wants their nut, so the album is $5 on there for...
2 tags
New Greyshield album
Hi Tumblr friends. Just wanted to let you know my new album is available on Bandcamp. It’s called Obscure Lands, and if you’re one of the first 30 people to download it, it’s 100% free.
<a href=”http://greyshield.bandcamp.com/album/obscure-lands” _mce_href=”http://greyshield.bandcamp.com/album/obscure-lands”>Obscure Lands by...
May 2011
2 posts
Sweet Lights: A Hundred Needle Pins
One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums of the past year, infused with familiar footage that makes every good person smile.
Sweet Lights - A Hundred Needle Pins from Sweet Lights on Vimeo.
April 2011
0 posts
ESPN: Warren Moon says criticism of Cam Newton is...
I really agree with Warren Moon here. The Rich Eisen NFL podcast (which is pretty terrible) compared Cam Newton to three other quarterbacks: Vince Young, Donovan McNabb and Jamarcus Russell. They were solely comparing Newton to other black QBs whom have been subjects of shame at some point in their careers. Not once did they compare Newton to Aaron Rodgers, a QB known for escaping the pass rush...
March 2011
3 posts
The Adjustment Bureau is really dumb
We just saw the movie The Adjustment Bureau. It’s thoroughly dumb. I don’t really want to get into why, other than everything about it was just convenient and fudgey. It had some enjoyable elements, I suppose, and we didn’t expect all that much.
The most disappointing part was that it was essentially a nice romance movie with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, who of course are both...
3 tags
February 2011
4 posts
WatchEXCUSES by Bibio
That’s fresh.
New Red Abbott site
I redesigned the Red Abbott site for the millionth time after it was crippled by some mysterious hack or something. Here’s a link. I might be slightly overstating the fact that we’re working on a new album (we’ve completed one track that we started in March 2008) but don’t tell that to any of our rando internet fans.
http://redabbott.com
3 tags
December 2010
6 posts
Grumble
I wasn’t aware until I recently started using my Twitter account more actively that I had it configured to tweet everything I post here on Tumblr. That’s fine, but as evidenced by recent hashtag-mania here on CM, the opposite was also happening.
Henceforth, my tweets won’t appear here, unless I want them to, and my Tumblr posts will continue to appear in my Twitter feed...
Simply having an extremely disturbing Christmastime http://bit.ly/fa5u79
wonder where this guy with the ORNGMN license plate and #Syracuse sticker went to college #trafficjam
“verbing” should be a word
2 tags
November 2010
8 posts
4 tags
I refuse to be down and out! I refuse! I'm no...
2 tags
8 tags
You win some, you get trumped by the internet some
I just had a flash of “brilliance” in which I realized the rich potential of an Onion-style news story lampooning the much-heralded arrival of the Beatles to iTunes this week. My story would have been a fanfare-filled announcement that the Monkees are now available in Zune.
And by gar, the internet of course beat me to it by one day. In the age where “hyperlocality” is a...
1 tag
3 tags
Smear this on your face
Fans of early Cat Power and the xx should know that L.A.’s Warpaint have released their debut LP, The Fool, and it’s fantastic. The Fool is a dark, intense record of mostly plus-five-minute tracks. The songwriting puts lyrical and rhythmic statements on an even field, as the performers pepper catchy and thrilling moments into roomy guitar-driven rock. All that, and it’s still...
October 2010
8 posts
5 tags
There are just too many bands
I’m part of the problem.
But I’m grateful for those who have the energy to help the rest of us sniff out the good ones. Beachtapes is a blog I enjoy for that reason. Several albums I’m currently enjoying first rattled my eardrums on Beachtapes (including Sweet Lights). Go check it out, and don’t miss the blogroll, which contains some other worthy music blogs.
4 tags
And now for something completely different
1. Patriots give Hall-of-Famer-at-the-top-of-his-gamer Randy Moss and a 7th-round pick in exchange for a 3rd-round pick.
2. Patriots give a 4th-round pick for Deion Branch, former Patriot and Super Bowl MVP whom has been injured for the majority of his time away from the team.
Net: Patriots trade down two picks (4th and 7th round) plus the best wide receiver in football in exchange for a 3rd...
John Lennon...
…we love and miss you.
11 tags
Favorite songs 2010
Last year at this time, I listed some of my favorite record releases of 2009. For this year’s take on the same project, I’ve decided to list about a dozen individual songs from 2010 that are getting a lot of love on my iPod.
Photos and audio/video are included below for each song. Note that these are in no particular order.
Try to ignore the fact that I’m making this list when...
September 2010
4 posts
August 2010
3 posts
1 tag
The Conflict
Over its two most recent episodes, Mad Men has placed its season four theme at center stage. In doing so, the show continues to deliver on its greatest asset and the reason for its success - constant reflections on American culture and identity. Faye explains to a wide-open Don that there’s a simple, yet definitive conflict going on in each one of us:
What I want, versus what’s...
Greyshield on Bandcamp
Bandcamp is a music site that lets musicians self-manage their music store desires, from design to pricing and all the in-betweens (such as administering the file types available for downloads). It’s really cool. Greyshield is on Bandcamp now and you can download the whole album for free. Please do! Greyshield on Bandcamp.
A Red Spring by Greyshield
July 2010
5 posts
6 tags
MIRSLTARL: Music I've recently started listening...
Here’s something to read, on the topic of things to listen to. This will be happening more frequently. Rather than go into exhaustive tonal descriptions of the music, I’m just going to barely supplement the recommendation with what comes to mind. If it’s on this page, I’m saying you should consider listening to it, for whatever that’s worth.
Memoryhouse: The Years...