HAPPY HOLIDAYS..... or whatever.

With thousands of cashier drawers making that funny opening/closing sound every second another Christmas season has begun and almost ended. I haven't been in the Christmas mood at all this year. No shopping, no lights, no Christmas treats, and no bad Christmas films... I simply just don't have it in me.

The older I grow the more aware I become of the public's insane attitude toward the holiday season. It all just makes me a little sick. One such attitude that I’ve been noticing is the strangely aggressive intolerance. It's actually become comical in a way, when I tell someone "happy holidays" they reply "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" loudly and full of fire. They might as well not say anything; it would have the same affect.

Ok, first let me just specify that I do not understand peoples' dilemma with words. Everyone is so easily offended by EVERYTHING! We have a million southeastern Americans calling the Middle Eastern population "towel heads", yet they can't bear to be wished anything but MERRY CHRISTMAS. It's expected but no less unfortunate. I was listening to the talk radio station my bosses were playing on Tuesday; it was something really conservative and backwards. The speaker was on some religious soap box about how other religions have basically come to America to destroy Christmas (consumerism beat 'em to it, sorry.) Oh!!! He also said gays were doing the same but I’ll save that for another time...What is certifiably religious about Christmas anymore? Jesus wasn't crucified on a Christmas tree to be resurrected as Santa Clause only to bring us what videogame we want regardless of if we've been good or bad.

they explain it best (plus other FUNdamental facts)

In fact, most of what we associate as part of Christmas is pagan anyway... I won't get on my own soapbox about how religion is halting our progression in becoming a smarter more civilized society, because that’s not my point.

Why does it matter!?!?!? That’s my point.

How does it affect you if I celebrate Kwanza, Hanukkah, Eid al-Adha, or whatever??? Wishing someone "happy holidays" is the most neutral wish ever. If you're offended by "happy holidays" than you're an idiot who has spent their entire life under a rock and who no business talking to anyone about anything, because you simply don't know how to communicate...

Spend the holidays with your family; don’t spend it feeling threatened by an idea that has such little involvement in your life.

The Magic Place

I've been away for a while. i am simply very lazy...

I've been listening to Julianna Barwick's music alot lately, in particularly, 'The Magic Place'....

I'm in love...
It's really funny if you look back over the course of music from the last decade and examine. A good percentage of our most innovative and creative voices have been buried under a mountain of reverb. Julianna Barwick isn't an exception. However, what she's doing musically is something that i have never heard done so relevantly (maybe even at all.)

The music is mostly a capella, she loops single vocal melodies with an RC-50 loop station until she has a choir of just herself. Each song is like one big crescendo, building and building until it fades or dismantles. On occasion there is sparse instrumentation but its just enough, never too much.

Another interesting fun fact is that most of Barwicks music is impromptu.

The timing of each loop is perfect and her voice is absolutely beautiful. What Barwick does is ethereal, arresting and human without the slightest bit of pretense. There is also a vein of creepiness, keeping it from sounding like window dressings; pretty and frivolous.

If you haven't heard Julianna Barwick then I suggest you give her a listen.

good places to start: 'Bob In Your Gait', 'Prizewinning', and 'White Flag'
Her Bandcamp

Just Because Its Criterion Doesn't Mean It's Good

For Example:

enough said...

BUT WAIT! Hold up... I REALLY wanted to like this movie, but i didn't because it was bad. The editing was weird, the acting was awful, tons plot holes and inconsistencies, and the camera and/or crew was constantly in frame. This was a b-movie without the hilarious b-movie antics. It does have it's (few) redeeming qualities; a genuinely interesting story and a gorgeous cover, which is what initially drew me to watch it. Despite having an interesting story (in a nutshell: girl finds white dog, girl finds out white dog was trained to attack black people, girl attempts recondition white dog) Samuel Fuller does nothing with the potential goldmine of a story. Apparently, the movie was unreleased for around 20 years because it was found to be offensive. Honestly, there was nothing offensive about this movie (except for Kristy McNichol's hair cut), it was watered down and lame. This movie could have really pushed the boundaries of cinematic subject appropriateness. It could have been a challenging and intriguing watch. It could have been a good movie.

however, i might give it another try

I Bulit A Mountain

I wanna make music like this: Mountainous Multicolored and Dreamy

Artist: Florian Maier-Aichen



Uhh Apple...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAAAAHAHHA!!!!!!!

Allegedly: Scale of The Universe

An acquaintance of mine put this up on facebook. I'm totally stealing it (sorry!) this is too amazing not to make a big deal about!

http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/

 

Deep Weird Sleep

So, i learned this interesting little fun fact in my psychology class last week. I've been trying to find some articles about it on-line but i can't. I mean it came directly from the teacher so I'm just going to assume that he's right (:-/). Apparently, when you are REALLY sleep deprived you fall in and out of sleep unintentionally sometimes, right? Well, when you come out of the beginning stages of sleep in a sudden jolt those are small seizures! Anyone and everyone will probably experience these, I think that's nuts. I'm sure this interests me because i have no sleep schedual and i stay up for long periods of time (on occasion). Usually I stay up to finish my school projects, but sometimes i just can't sleep. I guess I occasionally experience these small seizures as i try to keep myself awake in the delicate social situations that follow a night of no sleep. I think I've equated it to my mind "exploding" awake but really my brain is just malfunctioning. I think these seizures are called Sleep Myoclonus but I'm not sure. This is the most relevant article I could find.  

http://www.bcm.edu/neurology/patient_education/pdcmdc/myoclonus.html

TIME 100 Ideas That Changed The World

GET IT, READ IT, LOVE IT

Sixteen dollars might be a steep price for a magazine, but the information is actually fairly substantial for small articles. Really, i feel its a better jumping off point especially if you've never learned about a specific idea. I mean, there are 100 different articles so there are plenty of places to jump.

What’s Yr Take On Cassavetes?

In high school I went through a Le Tigre phase, I can’t say it was a lasting one but I did wear out their first LP. I remember there was a song about John Cassavetes (the actor and director) and I’ve honestly never made the connection or actually really cared to make the connection. I’ve seen a few movies that starred Cassavetes but I’d never seen a movie he directed. Last night I watched ’A Woman Under The Influence’ and that’s when It dawned on me, Le Tigre was alluding to John Cassavetes. DUH! I‘m a fucking idiot! I remember the song had this funny vocal exchange that went like “genius…. Misogynist…. genius…. Misogynist.” I understand what they’re getting at I guess, but I have no real opinion. I’ll leave that one up to the feminists.

Anyway, ‘Woman Under The Influence’ was a really good movie. Gena Rowlands totally deserved an fucking academy award for that role but I just read that she was snubbed out Ellen Burstyn in ‘Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.’ Rowland’s portrayal of a woman about to lose her mind was so versatile. It was hilarious, upsetting, disturbing and sometimes completely frightening. I don’t really care but I’ve never seemed more like a movie snob than I do now, I really enjoyed it. It also starred that Peter Falk guy who played Columbo, I actually don’t know much about Columbo but my roommates tell me he’s good at yelling. There was a really intense part where Peter Falk yelled like a crazy man in front of all these children, it was the best scene I’ve ever watched with yelling in conjunction with children in funny costumes.

(i love this picture)

I thought the movie was shot in a really insane way. It’s called Cinéma vérité (I did some reading up! It means “truthful cinema”) I don’t know if the cinematography lived up to that name but throughout the movie there would be cuts where the camera seemed to change resolution or shutter speed…. I don’t really know. It was like going back and forth between an LCD TV and an old television. It really messed with my head. I have no idea if it was intentional or not, but regardless it was cool.

Construction Zone

JESUS! Give me a minute!

In the meantime here's something cool!

by portland based artist Zach Johnson...