Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Beware

Bonnie Prince Billy - Beware (2009)
Download via Rapidshare
Order the Vinyl LP from Amazon here.

Will Oldham writes incredible lyrics. I can end this post here. I really can. Bonnie Prince Billy is Will Oldham's pseudonym btw.

He's from Kentucky and I like this because I've met quite a few people, separately and without coincidence, from Kentucky in the past few years - all good people with unique and endearing stories to tell. I haven't met Will but would be pleased to. Anyhow, without a doubt, Kentucky and its culture seems like a hidden gem or a culture whom South Florida (where I'm from) has been sheltered from and is underrated. I'll be excited the day I step foot in Kentucky for reasons outside of BBQ and Bourbon.

Over time I've also, and without common incidence, suggestion, or tragedy, become curious and keen to country, folk, blue grass, and other Southern musical influences. Bonnie Prince Billy is the latest example and I've recently put his Beware record in heavy rotation. I think I listen to it because I hear happiness's ability to thrive in a whirlwind of endangered love and with each narrative lyric the narrator's triumphant sense of clarity is surprisingly refreshing - heroic even. Although most of these songs are about love, lust, and death and may seem dark or bleak, there's a sunlight-bright honesty in the lyrics and they've demanded my appreciation.

This music also throws away almost everything that is part of the daily routine. Makes me think of observing mountains and witnessing wildlife in a place where there's lots of green and dense trees. It makes me think of being outside. Standing on dirt. Getting struck by an evening gust of country air. Seeing a beautiful woman's silhouette wearing a dress with lace. Slow dancing. Full moons that make it seem like day.

As of this posting, my favorite songs on here are:

• Beware Your Only Friend
• I Don't Belong to Anyone
• I Am Goodbye
  
• Without Word, You have Nothing
• Afraid Ain't Me
  

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Beck - Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime

I think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was the last movie that made me cry.  This song/video captures one of the saddest songs in the movie - an adaptation by Beck of The Korgis' Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime (1980).  

The moments captured show the extremes from which the relationship swung.  From kisses and tossing leaves to paying someone to erase their memories of that person.

Funny fact:  you know how there are songs you may sing on your own in the shower or in the car and you believe to the gods that you can sing and have a great voice?  This is one of those songs for me - the Beck adaptation - not the original.  The two songs are quite different if you pay attention.

Beirut - Gulag Orkestar (title song only)

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Beirut - Gulag Orkestar (single)

I first heard this song at work from a friend's cellphone. It was like a gypsy version of Big Bird had just entered the office in the form of a vulture. The first appearance of the percussion in concert with the dramatic brass and the painful cries are what make this track an instant classic.

Saturday Morning Top ...

Today's list...is in....
no particular order...

• William Shatner became an element of comedy at somepoint in our culture. Can this ever become comedic? Personally I think they're trying to rip off some of the awesomeness from the new Batman movies. I don't mind much anyway...
  
  
• For all the web nerds like me - I found this funny: What if web browsers were women?
  
  
• An awesome collection of hubble collected star clusters.
  
  
• This is going to deliver a lot of awesomeness. Seriously, actually, this is going to be friggin' amazing! AND it would make for an excellent birthday present to me ;)
  
  
• New wallpaper on my desktop friends - I picked the one on the right.
  
  
• Watchmen spoofs that are just begging to begin... heh.
  
  
• Ha-ha
  
  
• I used to think Sloane Peterson and Linda Barret were the hottest women in the universe.
  
  
• Who says flip-flops can't be hardcore!?!!
  
  
• Next Bike Miami is March 14th.
  
  
• Pretty cool Hong-Kong based design house: AllRightsReserved
  
  
• Cool pic of a car speeding through a tunnel. I like how the car, which is stationary in reference to the camera is SHARP.
  
  
• Trying to finish reading Watchmen today. Silk Spectre isn't the highlight of the movie but here are a collection of kick ass shots of her.
  
  
• I guess if you're going to visit a nude beach, it might as well be one of these - who's with me!?

So I don't forget.

"La vida es una novela,
y viendo la con dulzura,
mas dura un cago de vela,
que lo que la vida, dura."

-my dad

Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious sings to me.

Link.

I just learned that this - a Sid Vicious cover of Frank Sinatra's My Way - existed last night during a game of Cranium. Had to quickly check it out and now want to share it with everyone. Friggin' sweet!

I actually never got into the Sex Pistols. I was never introduced nor was I curious enough to engage with the band. They've seemed more like a novelty I dismissed because of all the other punk I was listening to when first exposed with the genre. Maybe my approach was backwards... In any event. I like this. I am sharing it with you.

This reminds me of the movie Children of Men and how the possibility of London being the last civilized city in the world is something I could see happening if it ever came to it. So many good things have come out of the UK. Will that ever stop?

Monday Morning Top 10: Making it Go Down Easier One Link at a Time

1. Be glad you've never encountered one of these.
2. Ten tips to improve your Twitter experience.
3. Ever thought of publishing a book? Here are a few ways on how to do that.
4. A 4 year old's dream parade - Clifford inside!
5. Super solar. Super speeds. Super design. MIT is the bomb.
6. If you hadn't heard yet. Postsecret will be publishing a book.
7. Did you watch Slumdog Millionaire? Checkout the power lines in the slums.
8. The oddest encounter with Wolverine.
9. Whose Line is it Anyway + Richard Simmons. Click here.
   
10. Douchebag FAIL.

This has to be done. It is long overdue. It was done in 20 minutes. Now need to run to work!

Phantom Residual Conciousness

This picture was taken from a random generation of the past 7 days of Flickr photos.

Remember when you were young? When you were really young? I'm talking 16. That was 1995 for me. I was moving on from comics to the internet. I think that may have been a major turning point for me. It wasn't an abandoning by choice. It's just that Marvel, Image, and DC, weren't pumping out anything that spiked my interest and I always felt I'd get lost if dove into the independents. I had very few independants - the one in particular that I miss greatly was a black & white Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles whose content was anything but what you'd see in a weekday afternoon special. The turtles were vicious. They took on enemies with serious martial arts and blood would spill. They were ripped but not cheesy. They had a code and a sensei. They were fuckin' ninja turtles! I'd sit for hours beside my bed taking care not to crease any of the pages because my comics were so cool and valuable that they were under the highest level of security. Still, if anyone finds this comic please contact me and return it for a large reward.

In 1995 a lot of paths began to open. I heard Fugazi for the first time. I was in a mosh pit for the first time. I had sex for the first time. I rebeled against my parents for the 84th time. I was taking my first physics class. I bought a quart of Mickey's from the Citgo on 87th ave for the first time. I'd leave the old man my change for posterity generated from the understanding that he knew I wasn't of age. Poor bastard. Who knows how many bad seeds he'd watered. How many car accident's he instigated.

There was nothing to encourage the deployment of a text message then. There weren't personal GPS's. I may have had a beeper. There was no sense of tracking of anything. No social community status updates. Today there are all kinds of tracking devices. Back then I think moments were better developed and decisions were more carefully executed. I think we would all think more often.

People would chill out and deal with things. They'd have more time to think about the situation. Today a text comes in and the normal response is to reply right away. A status update may be posted and you may be tempted to reply, repost, or make your own commentary. People use the words "link me" in their dialogue. The all-caps abbreviations - like LOL - make it to some people's daily vocabularies. I'm just as guilty.

This note is to tell everyone that its important to invest a little more time, think more, share more, and to communicate more. I want to tell You that you should actually dial and memorize someone's phone number. Talk to your friends and family for a few extra minutes when your'e about to hang up. Give your friends and family the time you think you don't have. Share things, with the internet and with your hands to their physical hands. Shoot them the latest YouTube video. Show them a shell you found on the beach shore. Hand them a photo. Tell them about something you love about them of which they're not aware. Walk with them. Think more about what you did and didn't do.

This post was written under the influence of Andrew Bird's Noble Beast and Angels of Light's Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home.

Slumdog Millionaire Origional Motion Picture Soundtrack

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Slumdog Millionaire OST

This is the last movie I saw in the theaters and it made me think about what kind of person I would be had I grown up in Cuba. I say Cuba, because I'm Cuban and can only speak of what relates to me. I'm also aware that Indian society and Cuban society are two completely different animals but since the movie shows the development of these two brothers from childhood to adulthood and how their main mission was to survive and find happiness, which is common for many Cuban citizens, I couldn't help drawing the line.

The direction and the plot mostly make the movie extremely exciting for an outsider which obviously pales in comparison to what the actual experience of being a slumdog may be, to say the least. This soundtrack piggy backs that direction and I believe the songs are placed in chronological order to the plot.

I hope you enjoy it.

If you like the sample download, feel free to buy the record.

The songs definitely require you to be in the mood for the specific type of sound. Outside of the popular M.I.A. songs, most of the tracks are composed from A.R. Rahman and a composition of other artists and obviously, as far as I know, the songs carry influences from the Indian culture.

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

(tip: stare at the album art above, watch it move! does it move?)

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (320kbps mp3)
Download via RAPIDSHARE - check it out!

This is definitely the pick me up record of the moment. As a good friend of mine put it best, the first two tracks are kinda of hypnotizing. The soundscapes have a lot of layered tones with many subtle transitions. The first track introduces a great percussion section around 2:30 timestamp which set a great tone and induces the hypnosis. This is best experienced loudly for the deep dive. I like to think the creative direction for their album artwork handshakes well with the direction of the music.

The songs that follow continue delivering epic soundscapes that seem to push the listener in a certain direction. It's like moving through a labyrinth of sound. Some clips even have sounds that I'd imagine in a coming of age movie during an epiphanic moment or some kind of amazing discovery.

Order it here, in Vinyl which will give you a coupon to a free digital download direct from the band, or here as a CD.

I'm still digesting this record. Personal favorite tracks include My Girls, Summertime Clothes, and Bluish.

Johnny Cash - The Legend Of

Johnny Cash - The Legend Of
Download via Megaupload

I admit, I hadn't seriously turned to this legend till after the movie. Those who want to hate - hate on or exit the blog....

Before the feature film, I had heard I've Been Everywhere and Hurt, which aren't bad songs but really aren't the meat and potatoes of this record or of any of his work. Now this record covers several eras of Johnny Cash's music, and I prefer the earlier works. The inarguable rawness, darkness, sense of humor and honesty are what make this music great.

Want your own physical copy, buy it here for less than $9.

Personal favorites from this record are Folsom Prison Blues, Sunday Morning Coming Down and Jackson.

Slowdive - Souvlaki

Slowdive - Souvlaki
Download via Megaupload


For some this is an early 90's thing. For me it's an early 00's thing which means mid twenties and all that that entails. Particularly, during intimate times. Anyhow, they're a British band part of the dubbed 'ambient shoegaze' music categorium. Slow paced, introspective, romantic - somewhat more dramatic than most are willing to handle.

Order it from Amazon, here for less than $9 if you dig it.

Track 6, Souvlaki Space Station is the best song on the record.

Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Volumes I & II (1973 - 1985)

Download via Megaupload

Or

Order it here: Billy Joel Greatest Hits: Vol. 1-2 (2CD)

For the longest time, from before I was born, to the Atari 2600's last year in the limelight. Billy Joel had some good years. This post commemorates the best of that time period.

Sing us a song. We're in the mood for a melody. New Yorker. American. Inspired by the Beatles. Feel-good. Big shot. Blues. Pick me-up. Honesty. Women. Mythical uptown-women. The good songs I'd hear while in the car with my dad on the road before a day's hard work. Billy Joel inspires, soothes, and makes for good karaoka,ka,ka,ka,ka.... you ought ta know by now.

Keep Saying No to Smoking Cigarettes

Still going. Proud. No need for a new year's resolution. It's still tempting. I've gone
1 year and 2 weeks since I've quit smoking.

• At 1 pack / 3 days, that's 127 packs of cigarettes that I didn't smoke.
• At $4 / pack, that's $508 bucks I didn't spend.
• At losing 1 minute of my life / 1 cigarettes, that's 2,540 minutes of quality life saved. (hearsay statistic)
  

Christmas Eve Eve Morning Top 10 List

1. The Nipple Hair Moustache!
2. Words that sound offensive but aren't.
3. New Packaging Porn for Monopoly.
4. I recommend this list from Rubin Recommends.
5. Single-Malt Whiskey lovers, peep this.
6. Mac vs PC [cheese]
7. Round trip with the NASA Endeavor.
8. Streaking footage at UC-Berkeley.
9. Some environmental changes we may witness in our lifetime.
10. Cool stuff with trees.