These are roughly in chronological order.

1958

Celebrating her Oscar win for 1958’s “The Three Faces of Eve”

Look at the way he’s looking at her.

A bit of context for the above photo, Joanne decided to go back to school to get her B.A., and graduated from Sarah Lawrence in 1990 alongside their granddaughter Clea.  Paul Newman gave the commencement address.

Newman was an avid car racer, and Joanne hated it.  I read one anecdote that said one time she fell out of bed and broke her collarbone and he said “I don’t want to hear any more complaining about the dangers of racing.”

They were married for fifty years, until his death in 2008.  They mostly lived in Connecticut and did not consider themselves “Hollywood” people, which is probably why their marriage lasted.  Joanne also said that looks fade, but the secret was to marry someone who made you laugh every single day.

“I’ve repeatedly said that for people who have as little in common as Joanne and myself, we have an uncommonly good marriage. We are actors. We make pictures and that’s about all we have in common. Maybe that’s enough. Wives shouldn’t feel obligated to accompany their husbands to a ball game, husbands do look a bit silly attending morning coffee breaks with the neighborhood wives when most men are out at work. Husbands and wives should have separate interests, cultivate different sets of friends and not impose on the other … You can’t spend a lifetime breathing down each other’s necks … We are very, very different people and yet somehow we fed off those varied differences and instead of separating us, it has made the whole bond a lot stronger.”

A children’s poem somewhere in that.

Bill Murray and Woody Harrelson were both in the 1996 film Kingpin.

In the movie Zombieland, Woody Harrelson plays a character named Tallahassee, but Bill Murray plays himself. Tallahassee tells Bill Murray that he’s seen every film he’s ever been in. It then follows that he would have seen Kingpin, in which he stars, alongside Bill Murray.

ALL I’M SAYING is that this is impossible. Kingpin must not exist in that world.

To do that, I would need:

a. a capable computer
(a2. also a wacom tablet and photoshop) 
b. more income with which to purchase the clothes and sundries to sell
c. a good camera

I am always finding things at Buffalo Exchange for super cheap that could be marked up if styled correctly.   Anyone want to invest two grand in a style-wise enterprise?

After about ten minutes I look at the knife and giggle, and sing-song-say something like ‘night chee…” and then I stop because this is not only sort of like the Night Cheese incident, this is Night Cheese.

A sobering thought if I’ve ever had one in my entire life.

There is definitely something to be said for waiting.  In so many areas, I wish I had been more patient.

One of these days I’m going to write a post where I rank all the vampire stuff out there.  Vampire Diaries is not good, kiddos. Not good. At. All.

Instead watch Taylor Swift and Bill Hader in a Twilight parody. I laughed, aloud.

Laura Ingalls Wilder and the pioneer mentality is taken to a logical conclusion in the modern problems of gentrification.

Most victims of violent crimes are not white. This is particularly true for “hate” crimes. We are far more likely to be hurt by the food we eat, the cars we drive, or the bicycles we ride than by the people we live among. This may be lost on us in part because we are surrounded by a lot of noise that suggests otherwise.

Biss articulates something that I have felt for a very long time, (ever since I began to explore and love Los Angeles) but have been left largely unable to articulate.  The subject matter is one that I have felt timid when approaching or discussing for fear of apparent or real racism.  College only amplified this fear when my enlightened ass began to get annoyed at the barrage of Racial Reconciliation meetings, and the endless attempts to bring together these “opposing forces” on campus.  I began to protest that this wasn’t a problem that kids growing up in California faced.  The conversations could become paralyzing, discussing race relations from a middle-class white background entirely devoid of integration.  I feel as if college bred racism, I know for a fact that it certainly bred resentment.

“It’s not racism if it’s true,” how often I have repeated that when motoring along behind a slow Asian female driver, buzzing past them snarling. Or heard someone remark while watching a home security ad, “Oh of course it’s a middle aged white man breaking into that home.” (Perhaps he used to work at Goldman-Sachs?) Racism can often feel safe, comfortable, smug.

This year, because of my extensive traveling I have answered many questions about the area in which I live, and have come to the conclusion that I live in a bubble, removed from any urban environment and from anyone who is different. I drive from my home to my job, to my stores.  There is no walking to and from a corner market or engagement with anyone I do not know intimately.   This isolation from others is a product of my living environment, and something I have been considering in the possibility of moving to another city.  There’s something tactless and embarrassing about a white girl attempting to find a more wholly integrated city to partake in, but I believe it may be important enough.  

My feelings about Portland (6.2% black population), which come to me through a year or two’s reading of the internet (which functions much like a large reflecting pool upon which various threads of thought are visible, and it takes time to gather them all up and see what you have) and through conversations with various friends, have lead me to believe it is a white city where white artistic people live.  I mentioned this to a friend while I was in Kansas City (22.7% black population) and he said ‘That sounds great!’, but I can’t shake the idea that there is some sickness in moving to a place where everyone is the same, and happily so.

“I think you should define the word gentrification,” my husband tells me now. I ask him what he would say it means and he pauses for a long moment. “It means that an area is generally improved,” he says finally, “but in such a way that everything worthwhile about it is destroyed.”

This is interesting to me, given what happened in Los Angeles’ neighbourhood of Silverlake over the past four years. I first remember the stirrings that Echo Park and the adjacent area was becoming hip, and now it has already lost it’s cool edge, but the rents have risen, the area is mid-transformation, and it has become a mecca of insufferability.   

I am as guilty as anyone of the wrongs Biss outlines, the adherence to fear and to allowing Fear Mongering by others to affect my opinion of others and of places.  Though one wishes to avoid such bleak attempt as a college professor who told us that he moved his white family into an entirely black neighbourhood, or my parents who attended an entirely black church until my sisters reported that after a year, none of the other kids would interact with them.  (This all is interesting when I consider how much importance I place on adoption as a necessary element of life.) 

Ted and I talked about this extensively during my visit to Chicago. His neighbourhood, Pilsen, was predominantly Hispanic, though it had been originally settled by Polish immigrants.  We walked the streets and the only other white people I ever saw were mid-20’s white artistic types. Ted said that he was worried the area would gentrify, that it was already beginning, and immediately acknowledged that his presence there was a part of that.

What is to be done, then? Like Biss, I want to believe in the promise of what real diversity and unification might mean, but have not yet discovered how to actualize this process in my heart and life.

You promised me, and you said a lie to me,
that you would be before me where the sheep are flocked;
I gave a whistle and three hundred cries to you,
and I found nothing there but a bleating lamb.

You promised me a thing that was hard for you,
a ship of gold under a silver mast;
twelve towns with a market in all of them,
and a fine white court by the side of the sea.

You promised me a thing that is not possible,
that you would give me gloves of the skin of a fish;
that you would give me shoes of the skin of a bird;
and a suit of the dearest silk in Ireland.

My mother said to me not to be talking with you today,
or tomorrow, or on the Sunday;
it was a bad time she took for telling me that;
it was shutting the door after the house was robbed.

You have taken the east from me; you have taken the west from me;
you have taken what is before me and what is behind me;
you have taken the moon, you have taken the sun from me;
and my fear is great that you have taken God from me!

———

I don’t like poetry, on the whole, but I was watching The Dead, one of the characters gave a this as recitation. The line, “You promised me a thing that was hard for you,” may be one of the softest and saddest things I’ve ever heard. But the idea about shutting a door to a house after it’s been robbed, how many of us are trying to shut those doors?

I also read A Handful of Dust and it was very harsh.  Waugh waugh.

Eagle pose is begun by standing straight, feet planted firm. Swing arms overhead and bring them down quickly, crossing right under left to bring them to prayer in front of the face. Then shifting weight to the left leg, one sits, bringing the right leg high over the left, twisting the leg.  It’s a relaxing and strong pose once you get into it. 

______________

I saw the worst movie today, I had to screen it for film.com, and it made me too sad to want to write anything.  Bikram Choudhury, the founder of Bikram yoga says that he believes 90% of women are born good and 10% are born bad, and that 90% of men are born bad, and only 10% are born good.  I’m starting to agree with him.

In other news, I found a Blur tape at Amoeba tonight, and heard Alex James say: “I’ve got long legs and a good hair cut, I don’t think you can underestimate the importance of those things.”

Awkward pose is so haaaard. You hold your arms out level to the floor in front of you, and sit down slowly as if sitting into a chair. Then you go up on your tip toes and do it, then you squeeze your legs together and do it, then you cry and are sad because you are a FAILURE and you never even did it the first time! You cheated! Technically “trying your very best” isn’t cheating, but it sucks to be giving it your all and not seeming to get anywhere.

_________

Speaking of awkward pose, tonight Abigail and I went to The Paley Center and saw a panel comprised of Kevin Williamson, Meredith Monroe, James Van Der Beek, and Busy Phillips speak about their experiences on the show Dawson’s Creek. (Oh man, you guys, one time Matthew Gray Gubler made this fake documentary, and in one of the episodes he is talking to JVDB and he calls him “jimmy beek from the creek.”) We arrived about fifteen minutes late, but we had tickets at will call.  To our dismay we were ushered into a little room with a screen, like some sort of mangey over-flow room. NO FANK YOU. Several other pissed people are ushered in as well, and we are grumbling fiercely when this queen rolls up in it and announces he has three seats available.  Abigail and I slowly rise to our feet and follow him, I was avoiding eye contact with the other cell-mates. See you, suckers.  Once we got into the main auditorium, there was SO MUCH ROOM, I don’t know why they couldn’t just let everyone in. Infuriating. It was pretty interesting, I kept trying to plug my ears to avoid hearing spoilers, but it happened.  Thanks a lot, life.  (Busy Philipps spent this weirdly inordinate amount of time hating on Chad Michael Murray, like the amount of time I’ve spent talking to people about that crazy Cold Stone girl who was such a weirdo to us last week.  Busy and I had similar feelings on this sort of person.) So after it was over, they were all signing autographs, and their handlers were trying to hustle them off stage, and after a while James Van Der Beek is leaving the stage and he sort of turns and half-waves goodbye to no one in particular. He realizes no one is watching him leave, and turns away.

This is the most difficult pose for me to manage, which is difficult as it comes second. My arms are usually tired from lifting above my head and tightly grasping them together, moving back and forth before dipping first to the right, and then as far a backbend as you’re able, then forward, head to knees.It’s going to take years before I am able to do it correctly.  I bend over, as far as I can, and my body gives out almost immediately. I slowly and quietly move out of the posture, so as not to distract anyone else with my flailing about, and slowly and quietly move back in again.  The practice of bikram yoga is entirely personal, the least competitive endeavour I’ve discovered since prayer.

__________________________

I meant to write a post on Opting Out, but that will have to wait for tomorrow. I’m hosting a showing of Howard’s End tonight, which no one will attend, but I need to study up so I can give an “impromptu” lecture about the film.  More on Opting Out tomorrow.

I got a bag of quinoa from the bulk foods section of Whole Foods today. It had a hole in the very bottom, I didn’t notice. I filled this bag up, up, up to the tippy top, like 3 or 4 pounds of this stuff. I walked slowly up to the front registers, and placed my bag on the conveyor belt, noticing the bag was dripping a few. I look behind me, and as far back as I can see, quinoa seeds everywhere, all the way back to bulk foods. I apologise profusely, and this guy is looking at me like, “You absolutely have to be effing kidding me you did not just make my life worse than it already was by spilling the tiniest seeds known to mankind all over forty feet of this place.” and I evaded his gaze and tromped out of there, downhearted. 

I love whole foods. (I just typed I love whore foods!) Everything in there smells like lavender, they have the silliest most expensive food things you could ever find. They had every kind of kombucha! I bought some of their less expensive items, and made this totally boss dinner tonight. Come over sometime, dinner awaits.

Okay, this little barking dog next door might be the death of me, so I’m going to the gym to get away from it. Foul beast.

love,

Amanda Mae

Good research for a novel, I must say.  Writing isn’t as fun as it used to be, but I’m also not as bad a writer as I used to be. I can’t wait to be 40 and look back and laugh at how terrible I am now, and show my daughters some of my old diaries.  I think I will have a lot of good advice for them, but they’ll laugh, in the end they will have to make their own mistakes.  In these fast-forward memories of the future, we always live in Ross and Ruth’s old house in Redlands and it is always so beautiful there.

I wish I had a picture of that house for you with the long driveway and the mountains behind it, the small tiled ante-room with 60 years worth of desert glass clinging to the shelves. The antique farm sink in the wash room and cold deep freeze filled with hand-cranked ice cream.  The dove hutch with the faulty latch, and the railroad you could ride in next door, and always kittens at every corner waiting to be caught and held.

Also reminded of this:

Lucille 2: You must have scrimped and saved for these.

I usually let her posts pile up in Google Reader and the rip through them as fast as I can, because I adore the pictures, but the writing smacks of the most querulous attempts at humour and pretentious bullshit.  Now believe me, I recognize terrible writing since I can, of course, read my own writing, which is sometimes terrible and sometimes authentic.

AS I SEE IT, OPTIONS:

a) just stop reading it.
b) continue as I am, now that I’ve shared.

Notes for the day:

• Interviewing Abbie Cornish tomorrow about Bright Star.  Bright Star is actually my favourite movie this year. More on that when I’ve thought a bit more, but it’s easily the most beautiful film of the year.

• Karina Longworth was praised today because she doesn’t “waste anyone’s time.”  That struck me as valuable advice.

• Pauline Kael refused to call movies “films” because she felt it was elitist. This struck me as infinitely useful. I call them talkies. I love movies. I love the way they can make you feel, I love how the best ones are beautiful down to the very details, how 50 or 5,000 people work together to make something good out of literally nothing but an idea someone once had.

Yes, someone finally understands.

To quote Peter Sarsgaard (who, given our recent interaction, only seems to know one word for “similar”) it does not seem “analogous.” (Sarsgaard has two cats. He said so. He also told a story about how Dirk Bogarde had a motorcycle and chaps and never rode it but would go sit on it in his garage and ask people to take pictures.  This amused him greatly. I wrote this whole Vanity Fair style opening to my article, like.. “Sarsgaard immediately puts the room at ease with his quick wit and sunbeam smile, laughing handily as he confides in me his…” you know.)

(Dominic Cooper, when we were chatting, you know, like we do, said his sort of hot-shot rise to fame was due to the “unbelievable” success of Mamma Mia!, aaannnnd I felt it necessary to repeat “unbelievable” back to him at least twice, and maybe even up to four times. I think he got my point. Yes, Dom darling, I found it “unbelievable” that even the premise survived a first hazy greenlighting session among the blitzed-out studio executives. Please continue to wear skinny ties and do your hair in this coy fashion because whatever you are doing is more than working for you.)

Also… if anyone has a lead on hanging out with Mira Nair in Africa? Now’s the time to speak up, cause I think we just really would get along. We could talk about yoga, and African politics in the 1920’s, for further topics inquire within.

I like that.  It’s never been difficult to be a woman.  She either means that it’s never been difficult for her to be a woman, or that in Africa it’s never been difficult to be a woman.   I like Mira Nair, the more I see her films. I just watched about 8 of them in a row for this Criterion review, and Monsoon Wedding is in my top 5 of all time I believe.

That above reminds me Beryl Markham’s words. “There are many Africa’s…”

looks an awful lot like Drew Barrymore in one scene of Fever Pitch. 

She looks really lively here, so it’s hard to explain, but in the scene, Drew is sitting on a bench staring placidly into space while Jimmy Fallon moons on about something or other. And the full outfit really DOES look like Bianca’s. Same vacant expression.

1a. Someone referenced me in this wikipedia article.

2. It makes me crazy that I can tell from Twitter that Rich Sommer has a Facebook account and that I won’t even bother friending him because he won’t accept it.

3. Went to brunch in Whittier, Dinner in Escondido, and midnight party in North Hollywood.  Stayed much later than I thought I would at each event,

4. I’m really into Paul Schneider and Tunde Adebimpe right now.

(via oncewed.com)

As I got off on the main casino floor I ran around to each desk telling them there was a man with a gun and hostages on floor 53.  They went into high-panic mode and took care of the sitaution. I put my hand on my stomach again, as I seemed to be in some kind of pain.

It was nice to see him after these past few years, and I kept holding his hand, something we never did in real life.  He let me.

Half an hour long, the current fiction editor at the New Yorker discusses a short story from the archives with a current writer who has also been published in the New Yorker.  Against all logic, it’s only pretentious about one in five times. The rest of the time, it’s informative, interesting and points the way to great writers you may have heard about but not had the time to get into.  And the best part?  It’s free.

Go to:  iTunes store, search New Yorker and then download all of them, for free.

Alela Diane

Guitar, sweet vocals, reminds me so strongly of another time and place.

If you have Spotify, then she’s on there.

Click here to go to Hype Machine and hear a selection of her songs.

The Innocence Mission

Back in high-school I used to love this Innocence Mission tape someone made for me, and I played it a great deal and then lost it and forgot about it until I went to Amoeba four years ago and found a bunch of their albums in the dollar bin.  Imagine Rosie Thomas finally married Denison Witmer and Innocence Mission is what happened.  Although I think they came before.  Think Sarah McLachlan and Natalie Merchant, but in a GOOD WAY.

If you have Spotify, then there’s a few albums on there.

Click here to go to Hype M and listen to them.

Salting Ice cream and Watermelon.

Kottke has a good post on this week’s episode of Mad Men wherein a character salts some ice cream before eating it.  Try salting some watermelon as well, it brings out the flavour marvelously.  Thank you, Aunt Barbara.

plus this title card:

equals this:

Josh Radnor:

Hulk Hogan? King Triton? Mustache, check. Terrifying upper body, check.  Strange family situation played out for the world to see, check. Rebellious, and slightly slutty daughter, check. Twins.

In fact, I think he might very well be the perfect looking person. (In the Country House music video, he sits in a bathtub and reads Balzac and gets poured a cup of tea and makes the craziest face.)  One time he said that babies were like farts and old slippers, your own are all right, but other people’s are the worst.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I wandered into Star Trek  a while ago and saw this visage:

Alex Jamesian in nature!  His name is Karl Urban, he’s 37, and was also Eomer in Lord of the Rings, but I don’t remember him looking particularly A.J. in those days.

And we have our face off, two weirdos:

(Just a note in his defense, there’s someone walking directly behind him, he doesn’t just have a weird mullet/ponytail.)

Hahaha. He looks like Hugh Jackman sort of in that picture.

Joey asked me who I would interview if I could interview anyone, and it would certainly be Mr. James.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2666 by Roberto Bolano

Straight on Till Morning by Mary Lovell

My Story As Told By Water by David James Duncan

Restarting: At Swim Two Birds by Flann O’Brien (which has always had a place on my bookshelf since I discovered that the back cover contains the high praise: “This is just the book to give your sister if she’s a loud, dirty, boozy girl”)

I’m going to start East of Eden this weekend, and have been taking a few cues from this list which seems mightily well ordered.  I was flipping through Habit of Being, as I am wont to do, and Flannery O’Connor’s account of Katherine Anne Porter’s visit (I read Pale Horse, Pale Rider quite a while ago and liked it, although I gather this isn’t the prevailing opinion.) was rather amusing, she has this to say:

“Miss Katherine Anne [Porter] was very nice indeed.  Very pleasant and agreeable, crazy about my peacocks: plowed all over the yard behind me in her spike-heeled shoes to see my various kinds of chickens. I didn’t hear her read but most of the people I talked to who did thought she read well.  They say she had on a black halter type dress sans back & long black gloves which interfered with her turning the pages.  After each story, she made a kind of curtsy, which someone described as “wobbly.”  She’s about sixty-five.  She’s been on her novel 27 years and says all her friends call it “you-know-what.” I hope I won’t be on mine 27 years from now…”

I had some further point which presently escapes me.

The latest meeting of the Sam Seaborn Appreciation Society went well, I appointed myself Secretary and took minutes. Sam so far in this season of West Wing has shown himself to be well-versed in all facets of the law, a good friend to the weak, and a defender of the innocent in addition to his rather endless physical accomplishments, the least of which is that he looks like Rob Lowe.

This brings me to my salient point, could Sam Seaborn watch Wayne’s World and see Rob Lowe in it? Wouldn’t he just realize he was watching himself? Or do characters such as this live in a world where there is no Rob Lowe, there is no Martin Sheen or Allison Janney? We’re supposed to think this is set in our world, but we know it has to be at least a closely paralleled universe.

This doesn’t seem to bother anyone else, but I have to admit, it’s pretty much all I can think about when I watch a movie. If I watch Funny People, I wonder if there’s no Adam Sandler in the world of Funny People.  This disconnect really bothers me, it’s almost as if we’re watching the most outlandish science fiction, a totally bizarro world where (depending on the size of the cast) there’s fewer and fewer cultural touchstones to inform our understanding.  These movies might as well be in a new language, since their ties to reality are tenuous at best.

All that to say, I started watching The West Wing, and six episodes into it, I already feel comfortable enough to guffaw loudly, or sigh indulgently, and mutter something along the lines of, “Oh, that’s just sooo Sam!” I’m already totally into the breakneck pace, the strange 1999 music, and feeling exhausted just watching all of them walk around and never sleep.  So, get excited, because we’ve got like eight seasons ahead of us.

Not much is known about Preston Broadus, also called Bodie. Bodie is one of the quicker dealers, starts out modestly and catches on immediately when told something.  Mostly.  So, yeah, he makes his money on the street, and defends the corners using violence, but there’s something about him that just makes me giddy.  (There’s one scene where he’s complaining about Philadelphia radio, and it’s Garrison Keillor. He looks at it disgusted, and asks why anyone would ever want to leave Baltimore.  But in a different scene, he’s listening to Prarie Home, which means he likes it! Which means maybe we could listen to NPR together, you know, when he’s not landing his ass in jail or denying weapons charges.)  Also, I never see him mackin’ on the ladies. I appreciate that when I sort of have a mild girlish crush on a cold blooded killer. There’s only so much a lady can take when the object of her affection is murdering, dealing drugs and talking up the girlies.  Plus, do you see that face? Just too pretty for words.  But, sadly, there’s always a time limit on a boy who works the streets, so I just don’t see this working out for a white middle-class girl from California and a street-level dealer from Maryland like Bodie.

The latest episode of Almanac, wherein I listen to the new Bill Callahan album for the very first time, all the way through, and provide some thoughts after each song.   Since they’re pulling tracks from the internet, I won’t be posting the track listing, but it is available if you do a little Googling.

Service Bell – Grizzly Bear + Feist
Unknown Legend – Neil Young
My Hands are Shaking – Sondre Lerche

Interview with Wonderfall’s Tyron Leitso, a clever Canadian actor.  We discuss the difficulties of acting, the triumph of timberframing, and unique filmmaker Uwe Boll.

I Don’t Believe You – The Magnetic Fields
Can’t Make a Sound – Elliot Smith
Seems So – Apples in Stereo
Born to Love Magic – Nick Drake

Also I recently learned how to properly export my mp3 files, so they’re a much higher quality from here on out, no more scuzzy audio hopefully. (Now if I can just learn to read a VU meter!) …We’ll just call that the joke that wasn’t.

I Wonder Why The Wonderfalls – Andy Partridge
Not That Dumb – Suddenly, Tammy!
Concrete and the Clay – Unit 4 + 2
Another One Goes By – The Walkmen
Here Comes my Baby – Cat Stevens
Oblivious – Galaxie 500
You Don’t Make it Easy, Babe – Josh Ritter
Saro – Sam Amidon
Beautiful Dream – Suddenly, Tammy!
Me and the Major – Belle and Sebastian
William, It Was Really Nothing – The Smiths
Summer Song – Chad and Jeremy
The Story of My Life – The Velvet Underground

PICS OR IT DIDNT HAPPEN:

Colt Carter is on, in the Case of the Missing Husband.

The show was performed live on March 11th, 2009.

Featuring the vocal talents of:  Christy Giannestras, Cate MacDonald, Amanda Mae Meyncke, Ryan Schaffner, Heather Schaffner & Abigail Schilling.  From a script written by Cate MacDonald, Amanda Meyncke and Afton MacDonald.

Almanac hosts an 80’s prom, and even if you’re rolling your eyes, and you never went to prom and yadda yadda, it doesn’t matter, cause we are doin’ this thing with style.

Dancing With Myself – Billy Idol
Everybody Wants to Rule the World – Tears for Fears
I Melt With You – Modern English
Our House – Madness
Enjoy the Silence – Depeche Mode
The Promise – When in Rome
Age of Consent – New Order
Head over Heels – Tears for Fears
Love is a Battlefield – Pat Benetar
(musical interludes are the remixed wordless versions of Human League songs)

Phd candidate Ryan Schaffner guest hosts, and I interview Zach Weichbrodt, poet in residence at the Almanac chateau.¹

Anna Freud    3:07    The National
Flightless Bird, American Mouth    4:03    Iron & Wine
Most Of The Time    5:04    Bob Dylan
Helplessly Hoping    2:42    Crosby, Stills & Nash
Oliver James    3:24    Fleet Foxes    Fleet Foxes
Interview with Zach Weichbrodt “The Babes of Poetry”
Ceremony    5:57    Galaxie 500
Darlin’ Ukelele    4:07    Jolie Holland
White Collar Boy    3:21    Belle & Sebastian
Oh No    4:21    Andrew Bird    Noble Beast

¹ (The Almanac chateau has many large and spacious rooms, our favourite room is the Correspondence Room.  Dark blue velvet covers the walls, and the entire back wall is comprised of floor to ceiling windows, and appropriately plush draperies.   The room is somewhat spare, holding a single, ancient, manicured writing desk, a large cabinet filled with paper and various writing instruments, and highbacked egregious plaid chair.  Inscription over the door reads: Waste Not Your Thoughts on Idle Men, You’ll Just Repeat Yourself Again.  Only in Latin.)

Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard (Paul Simon Cover)    3:32    Julie Doiron
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (Postal Service cover)    3:44    Jonna Lee
The Same Old Song (The Four Tops Cover)    3:04    Iron & Wine
It’s All Over Now (Baby Blue) -  13th Floor Elevators
Alone Again Or    3:25    Calexico
Love Will Tear Us Apart    3:29    The Cure
Buckets Of Rain (Bob Dylan Cover)    3:29    Neko Case
Highway To The Danger Zone    2:45    Homesick Elephant
Too Little Too Late [Jo Jo Cover]    4:10    Daniel Rossen
Just Like Heaven    4:19    The Watson Twins    Fire Songs
The Breeze/My Baby Cries    6:22    Bill Callahan
Footloose    4:57    Doveman
Always On My Mind (Willie Nelson Cover)    4:51    Iron & Wine/Calexico

Jim Cain    4:29    Bill Callahan
I’m Getting Back Into Getting Into You    2:35    Silver Jews
Tear in Your Hand – Tori Amos
My Friend    5:03    Bill Callahan
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)    3:39
Crush    3:02    Noise Rathchet
Cat Heaven    5:06    Jets to Brazil
NYC    4:22    Interpol
Sixteen, Maybe Less    4:49    Calexico / Iron & Wine
There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve    2:44    A.C. Newman
Lemurs, Man, Lemurs    3:10    Minus the Bear
The Purple Bottle    6:52    Animal Collective

I’m not even going to fill your long ears with tales about when the next Almanac is coming out.  It sits idle and indolent on my hard drive, at about an hour and a half.  My mornings are filled with my office job which I like, and then my afternoons and evenings with all manner of designing and manufacturing underwear.  Today I worked a twelve hour day, I think.  Good for the naturally indolent side of me, difficult though to adjust to that much work.   I have never been the sort of person to falter and fail at writing back to e-mails, I’ve always made time for everything, but on days like today, I just want to fall into bed.

Listening to these two, in the dark, especially Jim Cain, is sort of a lonely experience.  The violins at the end kill me, in the same way that every Bill Callahan song contains a moment so small it might escape everyone else, but for you, it is, and it is just what you needed to hear.

Jim Cain by Bill Callahan (removed by request of Drag City)

My Friend by Bill Callahan (removed by request of Drag City)

Andrew said that I looked like Zelda Fitzgerald, and I think it is sort of apt, at least in tone.  Cate got me a lace parasol for Christmas and I shall twirl it merrily come springtime, wearing a poofy white lace dress.  The other day, I literally thought to myself,  “Well, I am going to need kid gloves sooner or later.”  And no, that is always a later, and never a sooner.  I need to either get serious about my latent desires to dress as if I were an extra in a period piece about French regency excess, or I need to give up and start just wearing jeans and Gap T-Shirts.  Oh yes, I am such a student of Platonic moderation. People will say things sometimes like “I wish I had an occasion to dress fancy.” and I find myself wondering if  Every Day is occasion enough, though lately I’ve not dressed accordingly.

The Almanac radio archives are all up and running! I can’t podcast them through iTunes for various legal reasons, but there they are, ripe for listening.

I wrote that part before Christmas, and here it is the last day of the year.  I’ll spare you many of the details, but really, this has been a difficult one, and I am looking forward to changes.

Next year will be better, parasols and all. Maybe I’ll even put a photo in my Christmas cards, ala the woman holding a cup in Monet’s painting, next year!

Cate and I discuss Things we Do and Do Not like about Christmas, as well as our Ideal Christmas Wish Lists.

Now with super campy intro! A crackling fire, a faux surprise greeting.

White As Diamonds  -   Alela Diane
Good Woman [live @ KCRW]  – Cat Power
You Are What You Love  -   Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
Feelin’ the Same Way  -  Norah Jones
I Feel It All -  Feist
One’s On the Way – Loretta Lynn
I Found a Reason  -  Cat Power
Where Do You Run To -   Vivian Girls
Thanksgiving -   Deb Talan
That Teenage Feeling  -  Neko Case
She Moves in Secret Ways  – Polly Paulusma
Goodbye California -   Jolie Holland
Brother  -  The Organ

There’s something hanging low in the sky tonight, you might see it, there.  The sky stretches out, since you are on a bit of a rise, with nothing at your back, the farthest reaches of a valley.  Dark mountains lie from one side of your lengthening vision to the other, with the pink edges drifting, streaking from the right to the left.  Above you is deep blue, littered with stars.  Expansive, and relatively empty with the exception of the far-off city which glitters with a hot mess of homes and lights and noise.  Lingering dust of the day stands in your throat as you look again, but can’t quite make out that thing in the sky, moving away slowly.

The album played is Love is Love, a Mississippi records release.

New England Sunrise (Old)  7:05  Die Radio Die
Licoln Logs and Lumberjacks 6:31  Die Radio Die
The Chase 4:53 Die Radio Die
As Soon As Beauty Dies (Old)  3:54  Die Radio Die
Lover Left You Bleeding  4:18  Die Radio Die
Windy City (Breaking the Ties)  5:13  Die Radio Die
The Bartender 5:20 Die Radio Die
Life Is Beautiful (Old)  8:58  Die Radio Die

Look for the falling in love show next week.

Interviews: Laurel Wilson, and Abigail Schilling.
Little Boxes  -   Malvina Reynolds
I Feel Like the Mother of the World  -   Smog
There’s No Other Way  -   Blur
Against All Odds  -   The Postal Service
Everything Is Broken  -  Bob Dylan
Ooh La La -   The Faces
Mother Moon  -  Artery
Live As If Someone Is Always Watching You -  Smog
We’re All In This Together  -   Ben Lee

Trent had this to say:

“Almanac is that disappointed feeling when you visit someone’s blog and they don’t have the new episode uploaded…. Almanac is like the day your parents drove to the mall but you had to drive by Disneyland to get there… Almanac is the parents you never had or knew, making it through life on your own…”

Well, the next Almanac is probably not about that, but next week’s episode is about Falling in Love!  Replete with charming stories.

You may remember Nouk from a recent post. I became very intrigued with his style, and I had a few questions for him which turned into an interview, with topics ranging from personal responsibility to what exactly style is.

“You can always judge a person coming out of the supermarket, being the most hilarious fashion mishap on earth. But don’t waste your time and energy on it, eventually all the derision makes you bitter and takes away the ability to be really, and truly happy about the one person coming out of the supermarket being absolutely magnificent.”

How do you spend most of your time?

Nouk Baudrot: Phh. Hanging around in Thrift shops and with friends, I’m a trained actor and it’s hard staying alive with just that. Next month I am starting in a production of Romeo and Juliet though, which is exciting as hell.

What is style, and why even bother to dress nicely day to day?

Nouk: Tough question. Coco Chanel once said : “Fashion passes, style remains”. Style is the most clever way to communicate in the millisecond timeframe you judge a person on the first sight. So I suppose, its just the smartest way to express who you are and who you want to be associated with. Lets be honest, if you go out the door and feel you look like shit, your day will be just that: shit.

At what point in your life did you decide that dressing nicely would be a priority? Can you pinpoint a moment?

Nouk: No not really, when I was twelve I wrote into my diary, that for the rest of time I will wear baggy jeans and boxershort. I dont wear any of these things. But I know for sure that after I lost 40 pounds, when I was 18, everything changed. I got more confident, with wearing what I wanted to wear. I didnt have to hide myself anymore. And most of all didnt have to buy clothes covering up what I didnt like about myself.

You obviously know you’re good looking, that’s clear from the way you photograph yourself. What kind of responsibility do you feel for that?

Nouk: Wow, you are killing me. Responsibility for me staying “good looking”? I dont know, I smoke, drink loads of coffee and sleep is a rare thing for me. But of course I keep care of my looks. I had huge problems with the way I looked when i was heavier, so I try my best to not get back to where I was once, knowing it really, really made me unhappy.

I think I meant this: Do you feel a responsibility to other people, because of your looks, to be good or kind to people that are not as good looking? Do you think that people who are fashion forward and attractive have any kind of responsibilities to others and what might those be?

Nouk: Thats a good question, Amanda. I am a very shy person in real life, honestly I am, so I never felt any kind of responsibility, because I feel people looking at me going, “huh, whats that?” I’ve always been bad in figuring out if people appreciated the way I looked, or were just amused. So I dont give fashion advice to anybody that doesnt particularily asks me for it. And most of the time I think, thats just fine, because I dont think people would dress like me. They just think its cute, but they would be too embarassed to wear it themselves. I think quite a lot fashion forward-ish kind of people are arrogant bastards, that spend most of their time dissing those less gifted, and I don’t want to be associated with people of that sort, since most of the time it is people with too much money, that dont have a real sense of how hard it can be. If I feel any responsibility it is to stay true to where I am coming from and respecting people that have a hard life that isn’t just joyful shopping and going out to parties. I am not a good or especially nice person, but it’s just that most people don’t even have the time to think about fashion, style or whatever coz they are busy sorting out their problems, and they don’t need hipsters judging what they wear whatsoever.

Earlier you said that “style is the most clever way to communicate in the millisecond timeframe you judge a person on the first sight.” So you agree that there is some judgement involved, but also that most people should not be judged? Do you mean that the only people who should be judged on their fashion sense are the people who are actively participating in fashion by dressing well? (It confuses me when people are actively anti-fashion, even taking pride in a sloppy or unattractive outfit.)

Nouk: At first I have to say, I am not trying to be Mother Theresa. To know what’s good you have to know what’s bad. But at some point you can just grow yourself blinders. The bad doesnt change a lot. The good develops.

But you totally understood me. [Lookbook-ers] insist on being appreciated for the fact they are different with what they are wearing, I suppose. So he/she at the same automatically, and plenary victimizes him/herself to be the target of critique from others going the same way. It’s an individual choice isnt it? But you have to be conscious of that fact. If you show, hey I am a hipster/fashionist/neomod/ bla bla bla, with whatever you choose to be you actively make a statement, and others choosing to represent the same will go; “Yeah he pulls it off well.” or, “Oh my thats lame”. It’s a really tough subject, and you would have to go back right to the roots and history of fashion, seeing it is anchored very deeply into ourselves, because it primarily has been a way to show your echelon. But it’s worth an essay really, and with so many facts involved two years of research wouldnt do justice to it.

So let’s sum it up. If you chose to be fashion, deal with the consequences. Otherwise go and hide in your room.

The choice to be anti-fashion is a very fashion driven choice, and can be quite inspiring. But I know that’s not what you meant. I think, it’s the easiest to describe it like that. You can always judge a person coming out of the supermarket, being the most hilarious fashion mishap on earth. But don’t waste your time and energy on it, eventually all the derision makes you bitter and takes away the ability to be really, and truly happy about the one person coming out of the supermarket being absoulutely magnificent. And I know I am a terrible smartass quoting Coco Chanel. But she spoke the truth when saying: “Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger.” Try as long as you want to, it’s helpless mocking the others, it wont change ever. They are the vast majority. Enjoy you are who you are; the one coming out of the supermarket, with somebody noticing you, and truly falling for you at first sight. Maybe because of your dress. But not really. Fashion is just an accessory itself.

 What is your favourite item in your closet, and what does it mean to you beyond it’s basic function?

Nouk: I’d say there is one item I truly love, and it’s shades I bought two years ago. They were cheap and they are scratched and old. But it’s the one true love. I havent lost it in two years. Which means something, shades usually never survive the 2 weeks mark in my life.

What is your ideal outfit, and place to wear it?

Nouk: Okay. I would say… If I would host a really neat party, and maybe even be DJ for a night, I’d go with tailormade high waisted black shorts, in the style of a 1910’s school uniform, with white sneakers and black calf length tubesocks. With that, a perfectly cut, white longsleeve tshirt, that sleeves are actually a little too long… and thats it. Basic. But maybe it also explains a little better what I said in some of the previous answers.

In what direction would you love to see menswear go, and who is leading the pack in that regard?

Nouk: Oh, I’d love to see menswear embracing the classic male shape again. But besides that, I think, beyond all hipness of glasses, suspenders, and bowties and crap. I think it’d be best to find something really, pure. Like the little black dress is for the girls. But who knows what I’ll be thinking tomorrow. Leaders of the pack? I love Ennio Capasa CoStume National, that is how I’d love to see more men dressed. He definitely knows what the male figure is about.

How do books, films and music play into your stylistic decisions? Is it even a conscious move?

Nouk: They definitely do something to me, I can’t listen to the StrayCats without wanting to have my hair like Brian Setzer. Or see James Dean with his classic white t-shirt, getting angry I don’t have one in my closet. So in my case it usually is a consious move. I plan my looks. Always.

Are you the favourite person of anybody?

Nouk: Mhm, I hope so. My gran’ really likes my style, she just recently said I look a little like my granddad in the 50’s, and he was one hell of a guy.

Easier – Grizzly Bear
I’m Getting Back Into Getting Into You – Silver Jews
I Was Never Young – Of Montreal
Spit on a Stranger – Pavement
Tiger Mountain Peasant Song – Fleet Foxes
Taken – Bill Callahan
Great Horned Owl – Headdress
Mexican Summer – Marissa Nadler
Atlantic City – Bruce Springsteen
Not Dark Yet – Bob Dylan
Lose You – Pete Yorn
A Jar of Sand – Smog

Wild Horse – Deb Talan
The Opposite of Hallelujah – Jens Lekman
You’re All I Need To Get By – Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
Some Unholy War – Amy Winehouse

an Aimee Bender story “The Meeting”

Heart of Glass – Blondie
Lull – Andrew Bird
Every Now and Then – Art Garfunkel
I’ll Sit Alone and Think About You (Jandek Cover) – Six Organs of Admittance
Just Like a Movie Star – the 6ths
Asleep on a Sunbeam – Belle and Sebastian

Hong Kong Garden – Siouxsie and the Banshees
All Luck Ran Out – Sondre Lerche
Wouldn’t Mama Be Proud – Elliott Smith
Nikita  -   Elton John
Dying Breed -   Marissa Nadler
An Angry Blade  -   Iron & Wine
Old Fashioned Morphine  -  Jolie Holland
Lunar Sea  -  Camera Obscura

Almanac is a weekly variety radio show, featuring stories, songs and interviews. The show on Die Radio Die got deleted, so I think I may repeat it this Thursday, with our last show being next week.

But until then, here’s the Almanac for May 8th, Exclusively Motown!

Featuring music by Tammi Terrell, Marvin Gaye, Dusty Springfield, The Foundations, The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, you name it, we’re grooving on it.

Flannery and Self Portrait, 1958(?)

Self Portrait, 1951

Sylvia

I never realized they were contemporaries. They’re in such separate categories of my mind.

Favourite just isn’t Favourite without u.

Why is everyone so scared of marriage? I know I am. We explore.

The Bunker – Beirut
Under the Milky Way – The Church
Live as if Someone is Always Watching You – Smog
I Tried to Make You Smile – Denison Witmer
Happiness – The Weepies
The Simple Story – Jane Birkin feat. Feist
Salty Dog – Cat Power

The Shins – When I Goosestep
Denison Witmer – These Days (cover)
Cat Power – Good Woman (Live version)
Daniel Rossen (Grizzly Bear) – Deep Blue Sea
—
Death Cab for Cutie – Carolina
Iron and Wine – Sunset Soon Forgotten
—
Rosie Thomas – Wedding Day
Nancy Griffith – Three Flights Up
Deb Talan – Somebody Loved
Rosie Thomas – Two Dollar Shoes

My newest film is done.  We finished editing it last night, and I hold it here, in it’s case, the product of a few sleepless nights and quiet hours, but nothing of the soul-wrenching and life-threatening experience of the first.  The first was about community, and about people and loves that I don’t have anymore.  The second is about solitary seeking, I’ll find a way to post it soon.  It’s not as lush or beautiful as the first, but I love them both.  I think I just spent more time, period, with Belongings than I did with Twin Talk. 

To be a good woman is nearly as hard as finding a good man, but one needs the other, I think.  This song is simple, spare, and a somber thought.  I had such a strong feeling of affinity when I first heard it, I do want to be a good woman, with all the many things that means to me.  Chasny says in his Dusted review of the song: “Few songs have ever been written that are so bathed in compathia, which Octavio Paz describes as that state where love returns in a concentric circle to the beginning and another place further and washes away all the hatred for a person that only real love could create in the first place… It lives in the same company as “Boots of Spanish Leather.” Unlike most of the pathetic pleadings drowning the world that call themselves “love songs” but are merely made to mythologize oneself in the heart of the other through weepy melodramatics, “Good Woman” is a gift, not a trap.”

That line, ”a gift, not a trap” is astounding. 

I want to be a good woman
And I want, for you to be a good man.
This is why I will be leaving
And this is why, I can’t see you no more.
I will miss your heart so tender
And I will love
This love forever.

I don’t want be a bad women
And I can’t stand to see you be a bad man.
I will miss your heart so tender
And I will love
This love forever.
And this is why I am leaving
And this is why I can’t see you no more
This is why I am lying when I say
That I don’t love you no more. Cause I want to be a good woman
And I want for you to be a good man.

Cat Power – Good Woman (Acoustic, Live at KCRW) 

Cat Power – Good Woman

 

There’s no music, but I do sing briefly. Can I offer you some sunshine?

Twelve minutes of glory.

Also, something seems to be wrong with the file. My voice isn’t that low normally.  I’ll look into it later.

Abigail Schilling, Cate MacDonald and I discuss various interesting topics including:

How to be Interesting
Interesting Movies
How to be Self Aware

…and we tell various stories that we alternately find interesting and uninteresting.

It’s a little bit of everything, just the way Almanac is supposed to be.

Ingrid Michaelson – The Way I Am
The Weepies – Jolene
Bob Dylan – Mr. Tambourine Man
Nickel Creek – Somebody More Like You
Cat Power – Sea of Love

Cat Power – (Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Daniel Rossen – Too Little, Too Late
The Crystals – He Hit Me
Huey Lewis and the News – Hip to be Square
Smog – Left Only With Love

I left my ID card at home when I went to school tonight. I was planning on heading into the station to upload the audio. The problem is I have to go physically export the audio FROM THE STATION and upload it TO MY BLOG. This process takes 30-40 minutes. I stretched screens for screenprinting for three hours, checked my pockets and found no ID card. I came home to get my ID card, long story short,

Thanks for being patient. It really does feel wonderful that so many of you want to hear the silly stories and songs and interviews that I do. It’s one of the brightest spots in my week, knowing that wherever you all are, you’re listening and we can stay close that way.

I’m sorry I’ve been distant, a lot happened in between now and then that kept me from doing what I should have done, but I will go in to school EARLY tomorrow to make sure Almanac gets uploaded. That puts us at around 12:30 or 1 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. And this week it’s like you get TWO Almanacs!

By the way, have you heard the Ricky Gervais podcast? That is ridiculous and so very funny.

See you then.

 

No, I mean… tonight.  Jeez.

 

Meanwhile, check out our archive, by clicking here or up on the menu bar under “Almanac”

 

 

 

The Only Living Boy in New York by Simon and Garfunkel
No One’s Gonna Love You More Than I Do by Band of Horses
Fever Dream by Iron and Wine
When I’m Sixty-Four by the Beatles

Interview with Caleb Winn about the current political climate

In the Pines by Smog
Postcards from Italy by Beirut
No One Locks Their Doors in St. James by Alec Arnold
Pink Moon by Nick Drake

You You You You You  3:11  The 6ths & Katharine Whalen
So Nice So Smart 2:46 Kimya Dawson
As You Turn to Go  1:59 The 6ths & Momus
My Hands Are Shaking  3:01 Sondre Lerche
Sondre Lerche interview

To Be Surprised  4:21  Sondre Lerche
Short Drive  3:28  Smog
Go Places 4:33  The New Pornographers
Funny Little Frog  3:09  Belle & Sebastian
Big Strong Girl 4:02  Deb Talan

Featuring music by Sondre Lerche, the 6ths, Blur and other.

Also an interview with one of the above artists.

Tune in at 8 p.m. pacific time on BiolaRadio.com, OR listen to the archived broadcast available right here on agoodmanishardtofind, as soon as the hour long broadcast conclude.

Almanac is produced LIVE once a week, Wednesdays at 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, on biolaradio.com

If you can’t join us live, check back once a week for new episodes which will be added as they occur, clicking on the link will take you to the original post, where you will see a playlist of the songs and interviews/stories, as well as the file to play the episode.

Season 3

12/03/08 Episode 9: The Women
11/19/08 Episode 8: African Skies
11/15/08 Episode 7: Smalmanac
11/05/08 Episode 6: Die Radio Die
10/29/08 Episode 5: Taking Sides

10/22/08 No Show
10/15/08 No Show
10/08/08 Rebroadcast: Die Radio Die
10/01/08 No Show

09/24/08 Episode 4: Regrets, Summery Mellow

09/17/08 Episode 3: Expectations

09/10/08 Episode 2: Almanac Presents: Your Short Story Hour

09/03/08 Episode 1: Welcome Back!

Season 2

05/09/08 Episode 10: Motown Hits

04/23/08 Episode 9: Your Greatest Fears

04/10/08 Episode 8: Your Favourite Things

04/03/08 Episode 7: Some Serious Business (Marriage)

03/13/08 Episode 6: The Importance of Place

03/06/08 Episode 5: Bite-Sized Almanac

02/28/08 Episode 4: How to Be Interesting

02/21/08 Episode 3: Ethical Living

02/07/08 Episode 2: Politics & Playlists

01/31/08 Episode 1: The Reason Why

Season 1

12/05/07 Season Finale: Favourite Things

11/28/07 Episode 8: Serious Fighting, Silly Fights

11/14/07 Episode 7: The Curse of Being in Love

11/07/07 Episode 6: Good Conversations

10/24/07 Episode 5: The Kinda Halloween Show

10/17/07 Episode 4: Secrets and Lies

10/10/07 Episode 3: Memories

09/26/07 Episode 2: Excitement

Episode 1: Not Recorded

I emailed people and asked them to send in songs, their favourites, and here’s what emerged.

I meant to say something about how well it mirrored my own life right now, but didn’t.  This has been a great season of Almanac, guys. You helped me do this, I couldn’t've without you. Much love.

Music  3:47 James Taylor
Don’t Let Us Get Sick  3:06 Warren Zevon
Do You?  4:49 Jolie Holland  Escondida

On a Neck, On a Spit (Radio Edit)  4:38 Grizzly Bear

The special event in the middle is a reading of Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory”

Painter In Your Pocket  4:10  Destroyer
Like Spinning Plates 3:58  Radiohead

I Want You  3:08 Bob Dylan

I’m watching Fanny and Alexander and it’s tearing my heart up a little bit. Lord almighty. And this is only the second episode! I think there’s like four or five… The weird thing is, and I feel weird even saying this, I think Alexander is really cute, and probably was the best looking boy at any age. He only acted in one other movie after this one, and as near as I can make out with my cryptic understanding of Swedish, he became a lawyer or something akin to that. I wonder what happened there. He is really wonderful in this, and I wonder if that was his decision or his parents to pull him out of acting.

Going to see “I’m Not There” today with Nate. Then tonight I think I will make donuts. Oh, I need to call someone. I’m supposed to be recording but I just don’t know.

Donuts!

Next Week’s Episode: My Favorite Things!

Fight Test – The Flaming Lips
Rise Up with Fists -  Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
Porcelain Figurine -  Andrew Bird
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue -  Bob Dylan

Interview with Elizabeth, age 9, about a fight she had with a friend.

Somebody That I Used To Know – Elliott Smith
Lost Cause -  Beck
So Sorry -  Feist
Walking After You – Foo Fighters
In My Life – The Beatles

Head Over Heels – Tears for Fears
You Are What You Love – Jenny Lewis
I Love You, You Imbecile – Pelle Carlberg
The Curse Of Being In Love – Sondre Lerche
Two Of Us – The Beatles

Gotta Have You – The Weepies
After All – Sondre Lerche
Eros’ Entropic Tundra – Of Montreal
Words for Two – Six Organs of Admittance

00:00

Iron & Wine – Boy With A Coin
Arcade Fire – Intervention
Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You
Peter, Bjorn and John – Young Folks

22:00ish

Interview with Ben Chasny, of Six Organs of Admittance

40:00

Jon Brion – I Believe She’s Lying
Danielson – Did I Step On Your Trumpet?
Regina Spektor – Fidelity
Elephant Parade – Goodbye

I didn’t record the opening monologue, which is fine since I didn’t have any notes. They got accidentally permanently deleted 2 minutes before airtime.

GUESTS AND SEGMENTS:

Cate MacDonald reads a David Sedaris story (20:00)
Erin Meyer talks about Halloween tells a scary story (27:00 ish)
Abigail Schilling reads her story Mysterious Aurelius (40:00ish)

Songs in this episode:

California Dreamin’ by The Mama’s and the Papa’s.
Shelter From The Ash by Six Organs Of Admittance
America by Simon & Garfunkel
Happy Together by The Turtles
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat by Bob Dylan
Dora Goes To Town by Andrew Bird’s Bowl Of Fire
Old Fashioned Morphine by Jolie Holland
The Dangling Conversation by Simon & Garfunkel

Almanac, October 24th, “The Kinda Halloween Show”

Listen here or save target of the link below.

Here it is, my show starts a few moments in.

Almanac, October 17th, “Secrets and Lies”

Here it is, my show starts a few moments in.

Almanac, October 10th, “Memories”

Watching a Zed and Two Noughts, which is probably my favorite movie of all time at this point. Greenaway’s utter devotion to symmetry, to the beginning and endings of life, the connectivity of all things, repetition and duality, it’s astounding and beautiful and perfect. Very nearly hits every single one of my aesthetic desires for a film. Michael Nyman’s score is perfection as well, a perfect tonal mirror to the film.
Here’s my show, Almanac, for all of you who wanted to listen but couldn’t. It starts about a minute in, and runs for an hour. I’m getting better and I’ll keep getting better. Just you wait and see.

EDIT: My show starts about a minute and a half in. There’s a song at the front end.

Almanac, Excitement 9/26

_______________

 

Did you know that

http://www.whatsthescuttlebutt.com

has every single office sound byte ever?  It’s a little amazing.

If you have any interesting stories about misunderstanding, I’d love to hear them.  You could even be on the radio.

Seein’ the New Porno’s tonight.

What’re you doin’?

Abigail is coming over tonight to record a story or two and I’m also recording Cate and I’s thoughts about the Office, one to run this week and one to run next.  It’s hard building up a treasure trove of material.  I want to have a lot of stuff, but we’ll see.  For this week’s episode, I am interviewing Carsten about Torrey Theatre, Abs is reading a story, Cate and I are doing Office round-up, I’m playing some music and probably running a film review of Zed and Two Noughts as well as a band review of Animal Collective.  Since it’s my first show I’ve stuck to things I know, but hopefully as the weeks go by it will increase in professionalism.

WEDNESDAY 7-8 p.m. Pacific Time

Click below to go to the Biola Radio Site

BIOLARADIO.BIOLA.EDU

And also my first Film.com piece runs today.  I’ll link it when I get around to it.

Also, I added Ryan Schaffner to the ol’ blog roll.  Enjoy that, America.  Sorry I am a lazy person and didn’t add you before, Ryan.

Some thoughts about Vertigo, and by extension, about all of us;

In the 1958 Hitchcock film, Jimmy Stewart as John Ferguson attempts to change a woman into his vision of perfection. The two of them do not really exchange words as much as they argue about who she is becoming. If they do, we are not privy to these interchanges. All we see is his obsession with who she could be, not what she is. She eventually cries “Will you love me then? When I look like her?” and he promises that he will.

I had to wonder; how often do we still do that, still try to make subtle changes about the person that we’re with until they are precisely what we want out of a relationship. It ceases to be about that other person, it is enough that they exist, and that they pertain to us in some small way. We get what we think we want, but I think that it’s a pretty widely acknowledged truth that we lose what we had.

On the other hand, shouldn’t we always want more, for ourselves and for our loves? How do we change together without changing each other or changing everything that made us love them in the first place? I think this is what people talk about when they talk about growth. Two people, growing together. I also think that perhaps people should be wholly themselves before entering a relationship, or at least have a damn good idea of what that might look like. I know it’s impossible to be “wholly yourself”, but it seems that when you are really yourself, you have the chance to be loved for what that is, not what it might be.

I hope that we might always love people for who they are, and encourage each other to become the best versions of ourselves. Not by nagging or cajoling, but by truly knowing one another. Knowing one another so well that becoming a better person, a better friend, a better lover isn’t a possibility, it is an actuality.

amanda.meyncke@gmail.com

Carrier pigeons will find a safe and welcoming environment, as will letters, books, and packages sent my way.

I’ve listened to quite a bit of Hem, and with a new cd just out, I’ve had the chance to analyze their sound over a few albums.

Rabbit Songs was remarkable in the peaceful grace it offered, with No Word From Tom offering only a slightly edgier feel. Think of a ‘Prarie Home Companion’ version of edgy.  Rabbit Songs is a superior album, the songs being structurally sound, more complete and whole.

The new addition, Funnel Cloud is heavily laden with orchestral overtones, and lacks some of the simpler charm of Rabbit Songs.  While this album is still simple in ideology, the trappings have become more fixed.  Funnel Cloud begins to make both a stride forward while providing an aural recall to their early influences of lullabies, long walks in the lengthening twilight, and Southern infusion.

The gems on this album are few, (”He Came to Meet Me”, “Not California”, “The Pills Stopped Working”) with the rest being merely forgettable, pleasant background music suitable to a summer day party or inoffensive work hold music.  While perhaps the cd does not deserve that harsh criticism, the earlier Rabbit Songs, and even No Word From Tom had more verve and life to hold them together.

All in all, an album worth borrowing from a friend before purchasing.

If you like:

Iron and Wine
Neko Case
Loretta Lynn

Take a listen.
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(crossposted at atomsandideas)

Promise me no promises,
So will I not promise you:
Keep we both our liberties,
Never false and never true:
Let us hold the die uncast,
Free to come as free to go:
For I cannot know your past,
And of mine what can you know?

You, so warm, may once have been
Warmer towards another one:
I, so cold, may once have seen
Sunlight, once have felt the sun:
Who shall show us if it was
Thus indeed in time of old?
Fades the image from the glass,
And the fortune is not told.

If you promised, you might grieve
For lost liberty again:
If I promised, I believe
I should fret to break the chain.
Let us be the friends we were,
Nothing more but nothing less:
Many thrive on frugal fare
Who would perish of excess.

via xkcd.com