mid-week-breath

Hello, friends.
I'm at the tea shop where I work, but I'm not working. Instead, I'm sitting and sipping a special drink that a co-worker of mine makes that tastes like a fruit roll-up. Not those nasty artificial ones that are made by Kraft and other such companies, but the natural "Fruit Leather" ones. Delicious. I'm also sitting behind two women who are talking about their relationship frustrations. I can't help but hear snippets of their conversation, especially because one of them has an adorable proper British accent. I love those. Their conversation is considerably familiar. I estimate that they are both in their mid-to-late twenties or older, and they are still having the same conversation that I have with my young friends who are still stuck in the dangerous throes of high-school.

"Why doesn't he/she just ask me out?"
"Would it be okay to date my ex? It wasn't a messy break up or anything."
"What's wrong with men/women?"

It's all the same stuff.
The conclusion that I draw from these snippets is this:
With relationships (notice that I don't say love, just relationships. love is a completely different thing entirely), you never really learn. That's all. I could extrapolate, but it seems unimportant. Anyway, it's an interesting conversation. Even beautiful people sound surprisingly desperate when talking to their closest friends (I hope that's not a terrible thing to say, but sometimes I think that in a way everyone is desperate all the time until they're not, and then it's all over).
Anyhow, I like my workplace, even when I'm not working.

A co-worker of mine just gave me his band's EP, I'll get back to you with that. But for now, here's something for a little mid-week breath; because the week can be stressful and it's easy to stop breathing properly. So, here. Sit down and take a breath:

BON IVER:
Justin Vernon stayed in a remote cabin in the woods of Wisconsin for about four months last year, and the result is his album "For Emma, Forever Ago". It's gorgeous. If you're a musician, it will most likely make you want to go spend four or more months alone in a cabin in the woods somewhere until you've got something as good. If you're not a musician, it's going to make you want to go spend some time in a cabin in the woods, too, just so you can better appreciate the music. With a beautiful and unique falsetto voice chirping and churning, Justin weaves his melodies and sparse, curious (but nevertheless meaningful) lyrics across a loom of sticks and branches, creating a beautiful musical blanket that should not go unnoticed. Listen and be blanketed.

bon iver - flume

bon iver - skinny love

bon iver - creature fear

and a few more:

shearwater - seventy four, seventy five

frightened rabbits - yawns

and the final gasp before the long release:

the cinematic orchestra - to build a home

hope it was a good breath.

Love,
Thomas Archer

Love is Simple

Loneliness is a cold, blank stare from a deer in headlights.

Today I met up with an old friend of mine, still in high school. We went to the beach where we talked about life, family, and predominantly, girl troubles, and all the while I was wishing I had brought my camera. I could've gotten some really great shots. Oh, well, maybe next weekend. Either way, today has been one of those days.

Loneliness is a surprisingly cold wave in a lake on a windy day.

At the beach we saw about thirteen deer in total. One fawn, too. And a skunk, but that was as we were driving off. The deer caught us off guard, and I let out a little chuckle when my friend first saw it and said "holy shit!". That's not something that I think to say when I see a deer. More like "woah!" or "look at that!". Either way, it made me laugh, and my laughter didn't bother the deer at all. In fact, nothing really seemed to bother it, so I approached it. I dared not get any closer to it than about a foot as it was a doe and there may have been an accompanying buck around there somewhere, but I got very close. As I stared into the doe's eyes and it stared back into mine, I seemed to realize some sort of subconscious truth that felt peaceful and serene, and lonely, too. It felt like something started to make sense, but I have no idea what that something was. All I know is that deer have some of the most beautiful eyes of any creature I've ever seen, except for when they're mounted above someone's fireplace. That's a sad sight, a deer without emotion in its eyes.

Loneliness is listening to songs you listened to at the exact same time last year and realizing what they meant to you at the time; what they mean for you now. And it is that cold chill that you get down your spine while you remember who you were with, what you were talking about, and what it felt like to be there and then, not here and now. Like I said, it's been one of those days; nostalgic, with a hint of sadness. So, that's our theme today: songs for lonely, beautiful days.

So, without further ado, I give you, the Songs From Sunday School original Mixtape:

A Lonely Day Without Rain

1. akron family - don't be afraid, you're already dead

2. death cab for cutie - summer skin

3. american analog set - the postman

4. okkervil river - a king and a queen

5. m. ward - chinese translation

6. clem snide - joan jett of arc

7. mountain goats - get lonely

And, one lonely, but positive one to top it off. After all, loneliness is the catalyst for many things, including freedom, discovery, art, self-evaluation, and investigations that lead to new and better relationships.

7. mountain goats - woke up new

Cheers,
Thomas

BIRTH

Have you ever gotten the feeling that you were born at the wrong time?
Have you felt like you would be more comfortable if only you had been born in the Victorian Era, or perhaps the Roaring Twenties? It's a popular feeling, so don't feel alone. I've felt that way myself. When I was very young, I was the only one in my family who at olives. I loved eating olives so much that I thought I might have been better off being born in ancient Greece, where I had heard that they had a lot of olives. It was a stupid idea. Those sorts of ideas usually are. Usually, people are born at the exact right time – or at least that's what I've come to understand. Still, every now and then I (and probably many others) still feel that tug that says "you were born at completely the wrong time."
But instead of ancient Greece, I often feel as if I was born either two years too early or two years too late. Usually the latter; the former is a new concept that just hit me today. Either way, occasionally I feel a bit pigeonholed by the year in which I was born. When your best friends are all a few years older than you, as is everyone you've ever dated [because I have so very much experience in that field], that will happen, I suppose. But then, that's the way it goes. Some days you feel forty, some days you feel 19. Most days you just wander around looking for love. Maybe not.

Anyway, here's some music. The first of the batch is a band from way back, and the rest sound like they ought to be, but in all actuality they aren't! Golly!
Learn much from the mention of this first act, it'll change your life, or at least your social status. Knowledge is power, and all that.

Os Mutantes
Old? Check. The album I'm most familiar with came out in 1968. Weird? Check. Just listen. Foreign and obscure? Double check. This, my friends is a band of rebels from Brazil. Think of them as the Beatles, or more appropriately, as the Velvet Underground of Brazil during some of its most turbulent times. Move over, Che Guevara (yes yes, I know how irrelevant that statement is...). So, when you feel discouraged in the middle of an extremely pretentious crowd, whip out this crazy little trio and set your chin upright. Or, you know...just enjoy them or whatever. That's cool, too.

os mutantes - ando meio desligado

os mutantes - le permier bonheur

note: if you don't know who the Velvet Underground is, please, for the love of all things good and musical, find out.

Sugarcubes
Another band that will up your social status, if that's what you're about (then again, if that's what you're about you really shouldn't be listening to them). Do you know Bjork? The crazy Icelander in the goose-dress with the little-girl voice? Yes, her. This is the band that she started out in. And really, whether you like Bjork or not, they're worth checking out. Imagine all of your favorite 80's pop bands with crazy Icelandic tendencies, and you've got this one right here.
Give it a spin and see what you think. If you don't like it, at least now you can namedrop (I can't believe I keep promoting this sort of thing).

sugarcubes - birthday

[intermission]















Beirut
You know what, on second thought, no. If you haven't heard about them already, they're great. They sound like gypsies. Just go buy their album, someone else has likely already told you about them. Gulag Orkestar's the name, look it up and buy it.

Dr. Dog
All this band ever listens to is Credence Clearwater Revival on vinyl. Or at least it sounds like they do, sometimes. But then come the David-Byrne-esque cries and the slightly better than the seventies production. Still, even with those elements, if you had played this band for me and asked me what year it sounded like they jumped out of, I most definitely wouldn't have guessed 2007. It's impressive what they do, really.

dr. dog - worst trip

dr. dog - the girl

A Band of Bees
I shouldn't even have to write anything here, just listen to the song, you'll see why they're here.

band of bees - chicken payback

seriously, now, come on.

Well, that's all for now. Feelin' some age-confusion yet? Me too. Let's roll with it and see what happens.

Have a great day,
Archer

P.S.







the pipettes - i think we're alone now [yeah, that song]

How to Feel Good

Last night I came up with an idea for a movie on the Lifetime Movie Network with my sister Bethany. It's about a single woman who is unhappy with her life, so she decides to have a child to pass the time via invitro-fertilization. However, the baby is stillborn. But, all hope is not lost, as an orphan is dropped off on her doorstep that very night! She raises the child as her own, until a few years later she realizes that it is mentally handicapped, at which point she has to learn to deal with the trials and tribulations of such an ordeal.
The title of the film would be "Still a Miracle".
Also, there's a romance with a mailman. Also, the mailman loses his leg in a freak mailman accident. Also, it's formulated to make you cry and crave ice cream, and all of the commercials in between would be for those little microwavable personal dessert bowls.
We hate the Lifetime Movie Network.
I laughed way too hard when she suggested the name and had to stifle myself with a pillow.
I love the weekends when family comes home.

We felt a little bad after such a hefty amount of cynical jokes, but then I remembered something, and I realized that we shouldn't have felt bad. And do you know why? Because it's ok to be yourself. I learned this from a little man from Hokkaido, Japan named Kazutaka Nomura. After all, you are you. Allow me to explain:

PWRFL POWER
I'm not always one for the cute little Japanese acts out there, but when they're this good, you can't ignore them. Kazutaka Nomura, a.k.a. PWRFL POWER, sings songs about silly little things. He has a silly little voice. He likes the idea of being silly and little. However, his guitar playing is neither nor. If John Mayer was Japanese and heavily drugged and even more heavily Japanese, this is probably what he would sound like. And with that, I give you PWRFL POWER. Its okay.

PWRFL POWER - its okay

PWRFL POWER - alma song

Doesn't that just make you feel nice? It does me.
Another thing that makes me feel nice is some good Swedish electro. Here, I found some.

Familjen
No, I don't know what he's singing. No, I don't know what all of the songs are about. And yes, I realize that he's probably listened to Abba. But none of that matters, because this thing that he's doing...it's just so right. Familjen is Johan T. Karlsson of Sweden, and he is tired of guitar-based, droning indie-rock (see Interpol). He's also tired of droning, boring techno. So, he decided he would blend the two together and see if it became more interesting. It did. The resulting synth-pop is glorious.

familjen - det snurrar I min skalle

and last, but certainly not least,
the band that cheers me up and enriches my spiritual life at the same time...

Half-Handed Cloud
John Ringhofer is a man, and a child, and a believer. He lives rent-free at a church in Berkely, California in exchange for his custodial duties. He plays many instruments and writes happy little (sometimes only lasting twenty seconds or so) songs about faith and growing.
When I first heard this band, I thought it sounded like a crazed Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) with orchestra instruments and a ukelele had taken over a youth-group praise band. And I loved it. The blatant Christianity in John Ringhofer's songs is, well...blatant. It cannot be ignored. But it can certainly be appreciated, as can his musicianship, as he plays a ridiculous amount of instruments on each album he releases. This is the stuff I'm having my kids listen to instead of The Wiggles.

half-handed cloud - can't even breathe on my own two feet

half-handed cloud - feed your sheep a burning lamp

half-handed cloud - we're very greatly loved

So, feel good about yourself and have a great day!

Love,
Archer

Dreams

Last night I had a dream that hung out in a diner with Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer of the band Weezer. I was surprised at my mind's ability to mimic Rivers' attitudes, actions, and mannerisms. It was very authentic; one of those dreams that you remember and have to force yourself into remembering that it was only a dream.
Tonight I had a dream that I hung out with the guys from Anathallo (whom I actually have met) and Blur, and some guy from a band called Ozma. We were in a park in Chicago looking for coffee. It was also very authentic. I think I need to start meeting more musicians. Either way, these dreams gave me ideas of what to post for the weekend.
Here's a mixtape based on my dreams.

weezer - buddy holly

rivers cuomo - chess

ozma - natalie portman

anathallo - hanasakajiijii four (a great wind, more ash)

BLUR - gene by gene

BLUR - coffee and tv

and that's all, folks.

Have a nice weekend.

A Few Things

© Colin Flanigan, 2008

I think I'm going to have to make a list of the people that I am closest to so that I can make sure to keep in touch with them regularly. I know that may seem callous, but it's just not natural for me to keep in regular touch with people that I don't see all the time. I've forced myself to be good at it with my brother and my best friends, but it's not a trait that runs in my personal or family history. So, I think I'll compose a list.
Maybe the website I discovered today will help.

Thing one:

www.jott.com

Jott is one of the most interesting services that I have had presented to me in a long time.
The basic idea is this: you sign up for an account, enter your e-mail, type in your phone number and jump through a few security hoops, then you can call the website at anytime and speak yourself a verbal reminder or anything that you need to remember and the website will send a transcription to your e-mail. It's pretty amazing.
I screwed up in my first message to myself and had to pause halfway through. The voice recognition software picked up both the comma from when I realized I had said something wrong, and the period after I said "scratch that". Pretty impressive. So, the next time someone tells you about a band you need to hear, a book you need to read, or a movie you should really see, don't forget the name of it and call them later to find out. Instead, send yourself a jott. It's pretty handy.

Thing 2:

www.hulu.com

Hulu is website that apparently has syndication of some sort with Fox and Universal pictures that allows them to host all sorts of television shows and even full movies that belong to those companies. It's probably one of the best things to happen to me in the last few months, considering that they have every single episode of Arrested Development on there. Did I mention it was all free? Because it is. From It's Always Sunny in Philedelphia to 30 Rock and even great classics such as The Tick or Firefly. It's an off-the-beaten-path TV nerd's best friend.

Thing three:

I have decided that this blog is going to be a bit of a music blog, in a way. I'm not dedicated enough to keep a blog entirely about music, there's too much involved. Besides which, I like having a personal blog where I can just write what's on my mind. But I also really like music and recommending it to people. So, I'm going to do that once in every post, hopefully.
Todays top artists are these:

The Most Serene Republic

One word describes this band near perfectly: epic. Imagine a collective of classically trained jazz musicians well-versed in musical theater and with an incredible sense for songwriting forming an indie band, and you've got how I imagine the Republic got its start. Epic, layered sounds, catchy vocal hooks, interesting, if not a bit perplexing lyrics, and a drummer that makes my draw drop every time he changes beats. It's like Sufjan Stevens meets Explosions in the Sky, but a little more...well...ballsey.

The Most Serene Republic - Present of Future End

The Most Serene Republic - Humble Peasants

Foals

British. Indie. New-wave. Math-rock. What more do I need to say? Jangly, angular guitar riffs with syncopated timing and harmonics galore blend with body-rocking dance groove and equally rocking anthems for the mosher in all of us. These boys could start a riot if they wanted to, but they prefer to sound like brilliant musicians. The math rock aspect of their music is fairly obvious, and while perhaps not as complex as the Republic with their beats, they certainly know what they're doing. The video for their song "Cassius" is particularly endearing as their lead singer seems to know exactly how to be a frontman for a band like theirs. Play this in your car stereo with the windows down and confuse the people on the outside.

Foals - Olympic Airways

Foals - Mathletics

Microphones

Not a new discovery by any means, and not a new band (although I do think he just released a new album), but a good one for sure. A lo-fi act mostly comprised of a man named Phil Elvrum, also the principal member of a band called Mount Erie, Microphones is a constant sound shift. Equal parts folk, noise, experimental, and rock (sometimes even at the same time!) listening to a Microphones album all the way through is less of a task and more of an adventure; you never know what's coming next. The one thing you can be sure of is that it's going to be lo-fi, and it's going to be good.

Microphones - The Moon

Microhpones - The Glow, Pt. 2

Thing 4:

That picture up at the top? I did that. It's an old sketch that I did back sometime a year or two ago that I decided to rework in photoshop. As far as photoshop re-works go, it looks rather nice. Still, I'm not entirely sure that I like it. Oh well.

Now, I'm off to prepare some wedding music.

Thank you, and goodnight.

The Art of Fighting: An Introduction

That's what I almost named this blog. Seemed a bit too violent or desperate for me, because, after all, life's not all fighting. Sometimes it's thinking. Sometimes it's forgetting. And sometimes, it's just sitting back and thinking to yourself "This is life". So no, this isn't about the art of fighting. This isn't about how to survive. It's not even about how to live. This is what it's about:

It's about the past, and everything that you learned, and how it's helping you to learn now.
It's about what you remember and what you've chosen to forget that you'll probably have to remember later (whether you want to or not).
It's about what's happening here and now and how your past affects your future and how your future turns out as a result.

It's about all of those old songs you learned in sunday school when you were young that you still try to remember, and what to do when you've graduated from sunday school. When you're too old for "Jesus Loves The Little Children" and you've learned to spell "The B-I-B-L-E"
This is a metaphor.

This is a hymn.

Amen.

P.S.
Because this was an introduction, the actual "new" post is below.

Funeral Songs and New Perspectives

I met up with my pastor today before venturing into the city to look for a job. It's always nice to meet up with my pastor, and it's not really a meeting between a member of congregation and a pastor, per-se, so much as me just meeting up with a friend of mine that I work with who just so happens to be a minister. Either way, the coffee was good.

We met up in the morning, and as soon as I got in his car we started talking about movies and television shows and ideas for short films to make for church (we regularly shoot short films for church services as supplemental material for the sermons as well as just for fun). We discussed his son's television watching habits and how much he was enjoying watching Justice League with his son and debated on which superheroes were better or worse (which is something I find myself doing an increasing amount in coffee-shops lately).

Eventually, we arrived at the topic that I had wanted to discuss with him when I asked him to meet with me. I brought up my parents' divorce from several years back and how it has affected me, both mentally and spiritually. For the most part, I have risen above and grown past the pain of the divorce, and most of my bruises have healed. However, there is one lingering feeling that I cannot seem to shake. I described it to my best friend a few days back, and the description I gave him was the same one that I offered my pastor today:
People whose parents stay together until they die have this wonderful gift in their sense of home and family. They grow up and leave their old home and separate from their family, but no matter where they go, they know that there's that one house full of those particular people that they can always return to, the people that have that special sort of familial love that never dies, and the kind of home whose warmth never fades. Or at least, that's my idealistic view of what those people have. However, because of all of the events entailed in my parents' divorce, any chance of my having such a gift in the future were essentially ruined and replaced with feelings of abandonment and a lack of validation. Frankly, it's no good. It's the one scar from the whole situation that I still haven't been able to buff out after all of these years, and it was beginning to drive me crazy. So, I called my pastor, described the problem, and asked him if he had any ideas.

This is what he said:

"It is going to be a problem.
It's not going to just get fixed.
God's not going to magically remove that longing from you, and you can't expect Him to, nor can you expect for that sort of validation to come from people. Not anymore, anyhow.
However, God does (as I have already seen) and will continue to provide those people that you need to ease the pain and help the situation rather than 'fix' it.
This is similar to mourning a death. You can't fix the fact that the person is dead. You can't fix the fact that you were abandoned and went through what you went through. But you can mourn and move forward. That's what you can do."

I was instantly refreshed, mostly because all of these years I had been viewing this incredibly vague affliction of mine as a problem that needed a solution. But after years and years of searching for solutions and not finding any, even where you most and least expect them, gets a bit frustrating after a while. And, with a simple few words, it was no longer a problem to be fix, but a mistake; a death that will be mourned.

My grandfather died over four years ago. My mother still cries about it every now and then. Now I understand why. But still, even as I am going to be "mourning" for, oh, who knows how long, I'm not sad about this. I don't have to try to fix it anymore. I can face it bravely as a matter-of-fact sort of problem and say that I have it and I am doing all that I can to cope with it. "Cope" is another good word for the situation. I can move forward without being afraid of this problem anymore, and I am at peace with it. I'm incredibly happy about what my pastor told me today, and no amount of mourning will change that.

So, instead, I thought I'd "mourn" the death of my frustration. It's gone, and I don't plan on returning to it in the near future. This is my plan:
I have always had an insatiable love for music, and I hoard and catalog the stuff like a squirrel collecting acorns for the winter. It's disgusting, really, but I can't help it. You know you've become a musical encyclopedia when and one of your friends can ask you what song is playing over the intercom in a clothing store and you can give them the song title, artist's name, album title, and release date all in one breath. So as a result of this musical cataloging addiction of mine, I've developed several permanent mental playlists for the future; songs I want played at my wedding, songs I want to put into films and, inevitably, songs I want played at my funeral. What with all this talk of mourning and funerals and whatnot, I got to thinking about that list again and I decided to share a few songs on that list with you. So, if I die in the next few days, here's your reference list for the funeral. Enjoy.

Colin

Song 1: Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
Song 2: Sufjan Stevens - For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti
Song 3: Neutral Milk Hotel - Two Headed Boy

And one last appropriate song for the road:
Clem Snide - The End of Love