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— The legendary @Discographies vents as part of said person’s SXSW coverage. (via nedraggett)
This is definitely how I feel about many top-tier film festivals. I understand how once upon a time people thought it would help bring eyeballs to smaller projects by having bigger projects in the vicinity But when a festival stands on its own, now, it’s a namemaker, and instead of using that to bring in work that may never be discovered otherwise, it caters to people who are already names, and have millions, and don’t wonder if they’ll ever make back the rent money they ponied up to make what is actually a really great, actually indie film.
Not that ‘indie’ really means … anything. Independent film is loosely considered to be anything made without official studio backing or less than a million bucks. And the ‘indie’ films made by professionals are bound to be better (via more experience, more cash) than the indie films made by up-and-could-be-comers. But it’s soul crushing to see films that, objectively, aren’t any better than the one you saw at that tiny festival last month, getting all the laurels because they were made by people who had money and a name and a free weekend.
Le sigh.
(via discographies)
Every occassion is better with a playlist, including the end of the world.
Some choices are obvious (if there’s no R.E.M., you’re doing it wrong and less obviously), some less so (I can make an arguement for A Dustland Fairytale, but mostly, before the world ends I need to have heard it one more time) others are dubious (don’t you put the opening song in that category), but mostly, just enjoy.
Bringing this back because it never fails to crack me up.
THE MITTS PART THOU.
I need this on my dash again.
what is this video called
one of the funniest things i’ve ever seen
THIS IS THE BEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE
USWNT CRACK!!!!!!
Oh my GOD. I’m STILL LAUGHING LIKE ASKLDGLJKGASDGLJADGFGLKADSJHFG THIS IS LITERALLY PERFECT.
CARLOS SKY HIGH
auto reblog.
Can’t wholeheartedly defend this on any level (I mean, the constant US logo! Some of the song choices! Tobin Heath only getting one sequence!), but I literally laughed out loud three times.
[edit] OK upon my dozenth rewatch, I cannot find a single problem, other than the aforementioned ‘too little Tobin Heath.’
The results from Pitchfork People’s List were published today, and 88% of voters were male. (12% were female, there wasn’t an “other” option, fwiw.) Since I Am The Twelve Percent and I spend a lot of my time talking about and thinking about and writing about music, I wanted to ask a couple…
Girl talk. Everyone read.
Whoda Thunk
the best celebration would be to wait in line for 40 minutes at the only diner within walking distance of the house that was open, order 3 full breakfasts (almond milk french toast, vegetarian hash, avocado/bacon/cheddar omelette, sides of fruit and potatoes) and cold coffee to go, and take it out to the middle of nowhere because of Madison’s ‘no fireworks’ policy, and then sit in the 100 degree heat and not sell much of anything because of the burn ban, then split the breakfasts down and decide important life things like tattoo designs and moving across country, while listening to New Wave music and designing a snow Pompeii diorama.
This is what America was designed for, bitches. This is what Germany and Australia and Sudan were designed for, because this is what life was designed for. Some people just haven’t caught up yet. Lucky to have friends who are among the enlightened.
Amazing Grace
I’m listening (and try to hold your gasp of surprise here) to Brandi Carlile’s latest, Bear Creek. Religious language abounds through the whole album. On “In the Morrow’ the narrator ‘took up my cross and walked away / with amazing grace and open eyes.’
Then in “That Wasn’t Me’ there’s this line where she sings/accuses/informs ‘To be wrong all along and admit / it is not amazing grace.’
Fuck. Me.
Admission, acknowledgement, even restitution, not amazing grace. Just part of what we as humans are supposed to be striving towards. If anything requires amazing grace, it’s for the one(s) wronged to be able to truly forgive, and the two parties to move together.
But we seem to be in a place - from politics to interpersonal relationships - where an admission of wrong isn’t lauded or even accepted, but used against someone as a weapon. And who wants to hand their enemies or their loved ones a sword to use against them?
It’s a phrase that strikes me in hymns, but even more when used well in the ‘rock music’ preached against in the sermons following those hymns. In church, the words are too often sung in context and tone as a dirge. In rock, they’re usually used together to describe an ideal. Those two words hold such power separately, and such a wealth of meaning together, I cannot wrap my mind fully around it.
As Dr. Dog sings, ‘why you think we need amazing grace just to tell it like it is?’ Because we’re that far gone. Amazing Grace shouldn’t be taken lightly. It shouldn’t be needed for basic humanity like admitting one is wrong. Yet it is available for the little things, everything. Still we don’t take advantage of it for anything.
Open eyes, broken hearts, wounded relationships, drained of grace.
Today is for Music
There is nothing better than your first time.
It may be awkward. It may be uncomfortable. You may be unsure. You may not understand all the words or catch all the chord progressions. But putting in/on that album and pressing play/dropping the needle on the best possible sound system you have available* to you and closing your bedroom door/email client and completely abandoning yourself to the combination of notes and words that are unique and will never be completely fresh and new again is always a spiritual experience.
(*for me right now, my gorgeous open headphones I got as a birthday gift and spent the past month burning in just so I could use them for the album I’m listening to today.)
Spiritual experiences, of course, can be glorious or horrid. I save the most ceremonial of listens for albums that cannot possibly disappoint me. Because I have seen reviews, sometimes, but also because I still have faith, which in this case equals ‘trust in a particular artist not to release anything that will crush my soul.’
Nothing else exists quite like the experience of first listens. It is beautiful. It is day-making. It is approximately an hour of bliss.
I’m going to go lock my door now. See you on the flip side.
I Do My Father’s Drugs
Working on a new playlist I started some time in 2010, I re-discovered Joe Pug’s I Do My Father’s Drugs. I listen now, in between seeing newsstand magazines hawking the latest Size 0 model and talking over dinner about the aftermath of Wisconsin’s recent recall election, and it’s utterly heartbreaking. A lot here, especially the use of ‘drugs;’ everything from the State’s propaganda, to the depressants and antidepressants and weight pills and placebos doled out, to the ‘illegal’ substance method of dealing with the reality of holding a rifle never wanted.
-
When the party starts on Monday
Christmas starts in June
When no one minds I’ve just arrived
And I’ll be leaving soon
If I return with eyes half-opened
Don’t ask me where I was
I do my father’s drugs
When every revolution
Is sponsored by the state
There’s no bravery in bayonets
In tearing down the gates
If you see me with a rifle
Don’t ask me what it’s for
I fight my father’s war
When hunger strikes are fashion
And freedom is routine
And all the streets in Cleveland
Are named for Martin Luther King
You will see me at the protest
But you’ll notice that I drag
I burn my father’s flag
So when the party starts on Monday
And Christmas starts in June
When no one minds I’ve just arrived
And I’ll be leaving soon
If I return with eyes half-opened
Don’t ask me where I was
I do my father’s drugs
I do my father’s drugs
- Joe Pug, I Do My Father’s Drugs, from 2007’s Nation of Heat
