aural crack, thumb memory and romantic math
Why the hell so cold in Powell's? Do books spoil or something?
I finally thought to get a copy of PET SOUNDS from the library and download it to my music collection. It's pure sweet, dreamy ear crack. I never really listened to the album in its entirety until this year's Carnival Reverie; the stage crew had it playing during construction. If the only way you know the Beach Boys is via "Good Vibrations" and "Sloop John B" played on their own in the middle of some commercial station's middday rock block, you really ought to listen to PET SOUNDS in one sitting. It was the Beach Boys' first record made out from under the thumb of their tyrannical stage father, who's the one responsible for pap like "California Girls" and "Surfin' Safari". "No, Caroline" sounds like an empty beach, "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" contains some of my favorite lyrics and the clean, crisp bass line on "Pet Sounds" shows exactly how Yo La Tengo came about. There's more brief, judicious theremin in "I Just Wasn't Made" that makes even the cool whine on "Good Vibrations" seem heavy-handed. (Incidentally, if you listen to "Good Vibrations" in the context of SMILE it loses its soda-pop-commercial connotation and is a hell of a lot cooler and less bougie.)
The Beatles loved SOUNDS and made the Sgt. Pepper album in response, and Brian Wilson had always planned to counter with SMILE, meant to be a purely American concept album, which lingered in music limbo for years for various reasons and was finally released last year as it was originally recorded. Laugh at Brian Wilson as much as you want; in his day, at least, the man was a fucking pop genius. (Thoughtful, intelligent novel on great works of music that never were, the death of the sixties, and son-father relationships here. If you like Lewis Shiner's stuff, pick up SLAM as well.)
Enough rawk critcism. Today's other obsession is with my new travel drive, USB drive, or thumb drive as I prefer to call 'em. The fact that it's the size of a pack of gum, skinnier even, and has four times more memory than my old Commodore 64 amazes me. And you can get these fuckers as heavy as a full gig! Twenty bucks and I have something that looks cool on my keychain and lets me take files back and forth between school and home/the coffee shop without annoying attaching and converting. Not since I got my new bike have I been so satisfied and enchanted with a purchase. Why has no one manufactured these in cool colors and prints? Why doesn't someone make these in the traditional Mac palette, or better yet, in the old shiny candied fruit colors they used for the original iMacs and clamshell iBooks? Missed revenue, I say. They really ought to include a thumb drive with every new computer; they're cheap enough.
Mathematical equations as art and a surprisingly romantic and corny explanation of the physics process of entanglement here.
You know you miss it ... lengthy culinary entry coming soon for the world's best nut brittle.
You know how cold makes your bladder shrink? Mine's shrinking right now. Time to pack up my shit and git.
I finally thought to get a copy of PET SOUNDS from the library and download it to my music collection. It's pure sweet, dreamy ear crack. I never really listened to the album in its entirety until this year's Carnival Reverie; the stage crew had it playing during construction. If the only way you know the Beach Boys is via "Good Vibrations" and "Sloop John B" played on their own in the middle of some commercial station's middday rock block, you really ought to listen to PET SOUNDS in one sitting. It was the Beach Boys' first record made out from under the thumb of their tyrannical stage father, who's the one responsible for pap like "California Girls" and "Surfin' Safari". "No, Caroline" sounds like an empty beach, "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" contains some of my favorite lyrics and the clean, crisp bass line on "Pet Sounds" shows exactly how Yo La Tengo came about. There's more brief, judicious theremin in "I Just Wasn't Made" that makes even the cool whine on "Good Vibrations" seem heavy-handed. (Incidentally, if you listen to "Good Vibrations" in the context of SMILE it loses its soda-pop-commercial connotation and is a hell of a lot cooler and less bougie.)
The Beatles loved SOUNDS and made the Sgt. Pepper album in response, and Brian Wilson had always planned to counter with SMILE, meant to be a purely American concept album, which lingered in music limbo for years for various reasons and was finally released last year as it was originally recorded. Laugh at Brian Wilson as much as you want; in his day, at least, the man was a fucking pop genius. (Thoughtful, intelligent novel on great works of music that never were, the death of the sixties, and son-father relationships here. If you like Lewis Shiner's stuff, pick up SLAM as well.)
Enough rawk critcism. Today's other obsession is with my new travel drive, USB drive, or thumb drive as I prefer to call 'em. The fact that it's the size of a pack of gum, skinnier even, and has four times more memory than my old Commodore 64 amazes me. And you can get these fuckers as heavy as a full gig! Twenty bucks and I have something that looks cool on my keychain and lets me take files back and forth between school and home/the coffee shop without annoying attaching and converting. Not since I got my new bike have I been so satisfied and enchanted with a purchase. Why has no one manufactured these in cool colors and prints? Why doesn't someone make these in the traditional Mac palette, or better yet, in the old shiny candied fruit colors they used for the original iMacs and clamshell iBooks? Missed revenue, I say. They really ought to include a thumb drive with every new computer; they're cheap enough.
Mathematical equations as art and a surprisingly romantic and corny explanation of the physics process of entanglement here.
You know you miss it ... lengthy culinary entry coming soon for the world's best nut brittle.
You know how cold makes your bladder shrink? Mine's shrinking right now. Time to pack up my shit and git.