Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Do Comrades Make Good Enemies?

This is the second mix from my trip to Florida. It has a similar emotional quality to that of Blahhh, but carries a different weight... that question “Do Comrades Make Good Enemies?” feels almost serious in the mix its self, though the title comes from an incredibly random source.

I’m a big fan of John August’s Blog, and when he was discussing New Years resolutions he went off on a tangent about finding a nemesis. He stated that it was a very difficult process because one would have to find a person equally admirable and despicable and that is a very personal and individual kind of choice:

1. Marching The Hate Machine Into The Sun - Thievery Corporation
2. Every Time I’m With You - Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse
3. None Shall Pass - Aesop Rock
4. Neighborhood #2 (Laika) - The Arcade Fire
5. Equus - Blonde Redhead
6. Hello To The Floor - The Duke Spirit
7. Passing The Hat - Cold War Kids
8. Haunted Piano #1 - Eels
9. Lay It Down - Peter Bjorn and John
10. Squirm - Dave Matthews Band
11. Grey Machine - Pinback
12. The Passenger - Kings Of Convenience
13. Day Old Blues - Kings Of Leon
14. Sail To The Moon (Brush The Cobwebs Of The Sky) - Radiohead
15. Pale Horses - Moby
16. The Sea Is Calm - CocoRosie
17. Road Trippin’ - Red Hot Chili Peppers
18. The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Good, The Bad & The Queen
19. Warrior - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

This’ll be the last entry dealing with Florida for quite some time I think, so I wanna just ramble a little. Sometimes my head thundered. I felt like something just wanted to get out, to escape the tedium of that place... because when there are so few distractions combined with an epic source of laziness the world is not right, not a friend... just a thing to sit on. But hopefully we are all lucky enough to find people who can pull us away from these negatives and convince us that everything is not lost. 

I love that everyone has a future with a big ole question mark sticking out of it, cause that makes life interesting. I love people being themselves and not listening to negative influences, cause in the end there’s only so little we can accomplish in the time we have. So why not make it the things we want to accomplish? I’m like fake movie preaching right now. But that’s alright. It’s kind of fun to do.

I hope that if you listen to this mix you come out at the end thinking about how hard it is to stay afloat with the people you care about and maybe if you can power on and try a little harder... maybe you can save relationships and change that big ole question mark into an exclamation. 

Haha that was fun. Hope you’re all doing quite well in the world.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Zja Zja's Yard

On New Years Eve I stayed over at my friend (we’ll call her Zja Zja)’s house, cause it’s not all that smart to drive on holidays. Especially not that one.  I’ve always been a fan of this particular house mainly because of the people who lived there... and I have some fond memories of past events hosted within. The entire family has a certain charm that you just don’t see in most of the country. Anyway, Zja Zja has the greatest view from her backyard and I attempted to emulate it (poorly) here.



Sunday, January 10, 2010

Blahhh

So I’ve been back in LA for four days and I finally feel settled enough to get back to some kind of a routine. But I wanna talk about my time in springs right now (and maybe in a later post as well).

I got in at FLL on December 15th. Flying Virgin Air is amazing. They make everything comfortable as can be, and both of my landings (there and back again) were spot on perfect which I am just not used to. I fly a lot and I love me some Virgin (not in a perverted kind of way).

Anyway, I managed to get back to the old ‘rents house and immediately felt bored out of my mind... cause that’s what happens to me when I go to Florida. I don’t know the exact reason, but I have to get out of the house there. So I quickly made this mix titled Blahhh:

1. Bourgeois Shangri-La - Miss Li
2. Scream Pilots - Moby
3. Battery - Aesop Rock
4. Dance Little Liar - Arctic Monkeys
5. Song 2 - blur
6. Werewolf - CocoRosie
7. Journey Of The Featherless - Cloud Cult
8. You Only Live Twice - Coldplay
9. Grim Augury (Ft. Vic Chesnutt) - Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse
10. Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits
11. Mountains O’ Things - The Duhks
12. Scatterbraine - Ed Harcourt
13. Jelly Dancers - Eels
14. Ulysses - Franz Ferdinand
15. Three Changes - The Good, The Bad & The Queen
16. Whenever I Wake Up - Karen O
17. No Children - The Mountain Goats
18. Boo - Pinback
19. Pavlov’s Daughter - Regina Spektor
20. Beautiful Boyz - CocoRosie

Then I rushed out the door.

I spent almost the whole trip getting back in touch with my closest friends and family... the ones I had in high school. We’ve all always had similar aspirations, and somehow most of us manage to pick up exactly where we left off. One of my friends referred to this phenomena as a “bookmark friendship”. While we’re away we don’t talk much, but as soon as we reunite it’s like coming back to a favorite book and nothing has changed. It’s miraculously just as you left it. And I’ve found my closest relationships almost always work this way, which I love.

And while I think I should point out that the emotional overtones of the mix called Blahhh connect to my emotional state throughout the visit, I also wanna make it clear that I am really glad I got to see all of those people (friends and family) in the place I knew them best. I have a strange feeling that 2010 holds some interesting surprises for everyone. With the future looking a little brighter each day I want to close by saying I cannot wait to see those people again... this time on my new home turf.