Thursday, December 24, 2009

09DCS - Treehouse Soundtrack

Next mixchange is up, yo!

01 - Shirley Bassey - Big Spender
02 - Classixx featuring Jeppe - I'll Get You - Gigamesh Remix
03 - Burns - In My Eyes - His Majesty Andre Remix
04 - Daft Punk - Harder Better Faster Stronger
05 - Kylie Minogue - Slow - MONSTR Remix
06 - New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream - Van She Remix
07 - Soulja Boy - Turn My Swag On - Arajay Remix
08 - Franz Ferdinand - Ulysses - Reflex Remix
09 - Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
10 - Yoav - Club Thing
11 - Bjork - Gloomy Sunday - Live
12 - Flying Lotus - Disco Balls
13 - Neil Landstrumm featuring Profisee - You Can't See Me
14 - Children of Discord - Distro
15 - Birdy Nam Nam - The Parachute Ending
16 - Zero 7 - Everything Up (Zizou) - Joker & Ginz Remix
17 - Royksopp - Happy Up Here - Holy Fuck Remix
18 - Telefon Tel Aviv - I Lied

 

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Harvest

I pulled up the tomato plants today. I'd been putting it off, since so many green cherries still weighed down the branches, and tiny yellow flowers still insisted on blooming. But everything had ceased to ripen, the vines were a brown and decaying mess, and my neighbors were probably tired of looking at it all.

Three overgrown plants. Removing them was like cutting down a forest. I filled half the complex dumpster with them. Pulling and cutting and stepping on dropped, popped fruit underscored the sense of death and passing that permeated the last 5 days.

It rained on my way home Wednesday after Amy told me about Kaya. It rains most days in November. There's not enough sunshine, and this is a big part of why things die. She warned me that winter would be hard, maybe too hard for her.

In May, I planted bells, poblanos, serranos, dill, and basil, but all of those were crowded out and consumed by the tomatoes. They were the most vibrant, wild, prolific tomato plants I'd ever seen. The first I'd ever planted myself. They tasted better than even the farmer's market tomatoes. Depending on how widely you stretch the word, you could even say I loved those fragrant plants and the bright red bouquets they gave.

As I cut through the thicket and finally made it through the lower branches, I found three pepper plants. Stunted, but living and flowering, just weeks before Thanksgiving. A small green pepper hung from one of them.

Life. Different, more delicate life, only visible after something more powerful and virile stepped down. I read too much into it, I'm sure, in my need to make sense of tragedy. Nonetheless, maybe she's finding the same in her own garden. I hope she is finding what she needed, after casting what she had aside.

I love you, Kaya. Always will. Keep on growing, okay?

 

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Mixchange 09C

Third mixchange mailing of the year. Some of my favorite covers out of the batch I sent out:

09CCS - Cool Black Ocean
1 - Pink Floyd - Time
2 - Groove Armada - Remember
3 - Campo - En Mí/Soledad
4 - Poe - Spanish Doll
5 - Koop - Waltz for Koop
6 - Supreme Beings of Leisure - Ain't Got Nothin
7 - Bent - A Ribbon For My Hair
8 - Appaloosa - The Day We Fell In Love (James Kane Remix)
9 - CSS - Beautiful Song
10 - Make The Girl Dance - Baby Baby Baby
11 - Will Young - Grace (Fred Falke Remix)
12 - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (Weird Tapes Version)
13 - Starkey - Dark Alley
14 - Birdy Nam Nam - Too Much Skunk Tonight
15 - Skew - El-P Is Playing At My House
16 - Miike Snow - Animal (Punks Jump Up Remix)
17 - Arlo Guthrie - Coming Into Los Angeles

I swear, soon I will start posting short stories here again!

 

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Mixchange 09B

Second mixchange mailing of the year, running a little late. Hurray for old National Geographics, a perfect and never-ending supply of great art!

09BCS: I don't know why you're on Mars

01 - Rob Base - It Takes Two
02 - Datarock - Fa Fa Fa
03 - Daft Punk - Technologic
04 - Ladytron - The Way That I Found You
05 - Crystal Castles - Vanished (Mr. Vega Remix)
06 - Midfield General - Disco Sirens (Blacklight Flashlight Remix)
07 - Klaxons - Golden Skans (Switch Remix)
08 - Reead - Baby (Single Edit)
09 - Nightmares on Wax - Nights Interlude
10 - Aphex Twin - Outside Kickass Violin Solo
11 - Luciano Supervielle - Perfume
12 - Portishead - Numb
13 - Starkey - Marsh
14 - Carl Sagan - Voyager Greeting
15 - Gorillaz - Every Planet We Reach Is Dead
16 - Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
17 - Modest Mouse - Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
18 - The Postal Service - Brand New Colony

 

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Communicate

The sky is unbroken turquoise, the sun is hot and the breeze is cold. Some days I can smell a hint of ocean, even 65 miles inland, but not today, today it's only reflected in the sky. The Pacific smells better than the Gulf. Less Mississippi and more salt. I've been asked to speak again, but I'm out of practice and not sure what to say. Written words barely speak to our senses. Eyes, sure, you require eyes to read, but it isn't the same as seeing or smelling or tasting or touching or listening. So I part my lips to see what happens and it is just something about the weather, this beautiful weather. Something I couldn't possibly communicate to you anyway, the way my parted lips curl upwards into a smile as the heat of the sun warms my face. But I speak anyway, just to shake the dust off and see what happens next.

 

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Art on display

With Little Apocalypse, I started creating collages for illustrations and promotional postcards. And then as I got bored with Little Apocalypse, I started creating collages as stand alone pieces and as portraits of my friends. And after showing them to the super supportive, badass record-spinning Shawn Mediaclast one afternoon, I ended up with an art show! Random, right?

If you're in Eugene you should totally come by and check it out. The display is from March 1st to 14th at the Museum of Unfine Art and Record Store, 537 Willamette. There will be some other artists on display as well: Tony Brown, Brian Bushon, Bonnie O'Clair and Scott Johnson. Not to mention Unfine Art has great collage work up pretty much all the time. The reception will be during the First Friday Artwalk on the 6th. Come eat cookies with me!