So I guess I'm retiring this blog. 

Part of me feels like I need to make some sort of eulogy or something; part of me just wants to move on already.  It's nothing personal; it's not you, it's me.  Sort of.

I've been here since 2001.  I was 25 and had been wanting to do something like this for quite some time.  I met a lot of amazing people, read a lot of interesting stories, discovered a ton of music and books and movies as a result of people's recommendations, and learned a lot about myself in the process. 

And I guess somewhere along the line, I kinda lost sight of whatever it was I was trying to accomplish here.  I'm not really sure if I ever knew what that was; all I know is, I've not been posting here lately, even when I've had stuff I want to say.  And that defeats the purpose of having a blog in the first place. 

And the fact that I've already said this a bunch of times and failed to act on it just reiterates that I need to move on and try something else. 

I'm keeping the account - I'm a permanent member, after all - and I'll keep the archives up, if only because I like going through them every once in a while to see where I was.  And I'll check in on the friends page now and then. 

I'm not saying goodbye to my friends here; I'm just saying goodbye to the service.  It's been a huge part of my life for the last 9 years.  

If you're interested in keeping up with me, friend me on Facebook or follow along on my Tumblr page.

Goodnight, LJ.

The first sentence of this post was "Finally, some breathing room," and then as I was in the middle of the second sentence I got handed some work. 

Anyway.  The point is, the last month has been a whirlwind.  Work has been absolutely crazy; all of my lawyers are busy with cases at the same time, which means that by the time I get home I'm totally shredded.  And on the music side, I played 4 shows, which doesn't necessarily sound like much except that it's 4 more shows than I'd played in about 3 years; the shows went pretty well, and I made a little bit of money, which is all going towards helping pay off the keyboard.  There's more to be said about one of the projects I'm working on, but I can't quite talk about that yet.

Obviously, I never got around to writing the Infinite Jest screenplay.  

I've been so busy that I haven't really been able to listen to any music strictly for pleasure; I was mostly cramming songs in to learn for shows.  This will change next week when the Beatles Box Set lands in my greedy paws.  The new Mew is pretty great, but probably only if you already like Mew; the Lee Fields & the Expressions record is very, very good; I've been loving the new Dodos.  And the new Patton Oswalt album is good, though perhaps not as straight-up brilliant as the 2nd one.

I've read a few books.  Finished the new Pynchon, which was enjoyable but forgettable.  Finished "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and just started reading the sequel yesterday - they're interesting but problematic.  Read Ron Currie, Jr.'s "God Is Dead", which is haunting and beautiful. 

I'm still wondering what to do about blogging.  Clearly my heart isn't in it anymore, at least not the way it used to be, here at LJ.  I post stupid links at Facebook and make oblique statements on Twitter.  I set up a tumblr account a little while ago but all that's doing is aggregating everything else, and there really hasn't been much.  I was all set to write and record a new solo album, and document the process on my vox site, but then I got sidetracked with the Ali Hoffman project and that's really taken up most of my time. 

So.  Lots to ponder. 

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Kinda hard to imagine Thomas Pynchon (and not, say, Tom Robbins) writing this paragraph, but there it is on p. 99 of "Inherent Vice":

"Back in his beach pad there was a velvet painting of Jesus riding goofyfoot on a rough-hewn board with outriggers, meant to suggest a crucifix, through surf seldom observed on the Sea of Galilee, though this hardly presented a challenge to Flip's faith.  What was "walking on water," if it wasn't Bible talk for surfing?  In Australia once, a local surfer, holding the biggest can of bear Flip had ever seen, had even sold him a fragment of the True Board."

Some things:

1.  Gig tonight at Rockwood, the official record release for Ali Hoffman.

2.  Feel like a total music fraud for not really being familiar with the Buzzcocks until earlier this week, especially since it took my younger brother watching an episode of "Entourage" and wanting me to cover "Why Can't I Touch It" to get me to take notice.

3.  Speaking of great music, the new Pinx album kicks a tremendous amount of ass.  nothinganything , you are amazing.

4.  Finished "Infinite Jest" last week, again.  My enthusiasm for writing a screenplay has been tempered a bit by (a) the craziness of my schedule of late and (b) reality, but I think I love that book now even more than I did when I first read it.

5.  And the new Pynchon, thus far, is tremendous.  Every review I've read has made some mention of The Big Lebowski, and they're not wrong.  Definitely the most accessible thing I've read of his, at least through the first 5 chapters.

If I were so inclined, this would be the part where I start navel-gazing.  But I'm not quite there yet.  

I posted this on Facebook already, but it's too good not to share.  (Also, if we're not already Facebook friends, we should be.)  Happy Friday, everyone.

Right, this thing is still here.

1.  Finished watching the complete run of "Firefly" last night with Kath.  Show started off great, then kinda petered out a bit near the end; can't really blame the show's creators for that necessarily, since the network was being a bunch of assholes (as usual) and didn't know what the hell they were doing with it.  I think I still like the movie better, though, for whatever that's worth.

2.  I haven't written any music for my own purposes lately, but that's OK because I've been really busy writing and performing for other people.  Will have some tangible evidence of this soon, which I'll try to remember to put up here. 

3.  **MAJOR INFINITE JEST SPOILERS/DISCUSSION AHEAD, JUST IN CASE YOU'RE DOING THE "INFINITE SUMMER" THING**

Every time I read Infinite Jest, I feel compelled to suck it up and start writing the screenplay.  I don't care that it might even already be in the works; I just need to do it anyway, kinda like how the brittle old man in "Amelie" keeps painting that same (Monet?) painting year after year after year. 

When the book first came out, I had a very clear idea of how it should be cast; it's been 13 years since then, though, and now I have no ideas at all - Michael Cera keeps coming up in discussions, but as a friend noted yesterday, we didn't really buy him as a track star in "Juno", and I'm not sure I'd buy him as a top-ranked junior tennis player either.  Angelica Huston is probably too old to be the Moms.... no idea about Don Gately or Joelle (what mega-hot actress would consent to be hidden under a veil for an entire 10-15 episode run?  Scarlett Jo?)  But no matter. 

I think it can be done as a episodic series of 10-15 one-hour shows.  And since this is a pipe dream, let me get really crazy here.  It would be awesome to have great directors/visual stylists do each episode, or at least do certain scenes - David Lynch doing the Marathe-Steeply conversation, Aranofsky doing certain scenes at Ennet House, Gilliam directing the Antitoi Brother's sequence (all those mirrors!), Alfonso Cuaron doing the Eschaton... and last but not least, Michel Gondry and/or Jean-Pierre Juenet should direct brief snippets of JOI's filmography.  (Speaking of which - I was watching the Watchmen blu-ray the other day, specifically the "Maximum Movie Mode", which I must insist be the new standard for blu-ray extras - and so now I know how to incorporate the footnote experience for the DVD release.) 

I actually might really do this, just for the hell of it. 

Very tired; keeping this short.

So last night's Unwigged & Unplugged show was amazing.  Elvis fucking Costello came out to sing "Gimme Some Money."  I'm not even sure I can describe "Stonehenge" - I took a very shitty camera phone pic which does not do it justice.



Was very excited to listen to the new Grizzly Bear this morning, but for whatever reason I couldn't quite get myself into the right frame of mind.  So I listened to the new Phoenix record instead and HOLY SHIT IT'S AMAZING.  It's absolutely what I needed to hear right now.  I've been listening to so much weird shit over the last few months and while I've been enjoying it, I haven't really been inspired by it.  This Phoenix record, though... wow.  

That is all.

Was in the middle of a long recap of last week's staycation, and something got screwed up and it's all gone, and LJ didn't save the draft.  Phooey.

Staycations are wonderful, but when Monday finally rolled around it really just felt like a very long weekend.  Which is fine; we actually kept somewhat busy, even when we were slacking.

To wit:

Monday was Movie Day.  We watched Slumdog Millionaire (amazing) and Benjamin Button (I loved it, especially on Blu-Ray - Kath wasn't as crazy about it), and then decided to trek over to the movie theater, where we watched Wolverine (fucking horrible) and Star Trek.  I've never been a Trekkie, by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm not even sure I would qualify as one now, since this re-boot is basically throwing certain key elements of canon out the window.  But GODDAMN, I loved that movie, and wanted to go back and watch it again, and I cannot wait until it comes out in Blu-Ray.  

Tuesday was Package Delivery Day, so we bummed around at home waiting for the doorbell to ring.  My keyboard was delivered on Saturday, but the stand I ordered with it was re-rerouted and finally arrived late Tuesday afternoon, along with a spiffy new toaster my mom got us as an early anniversary present.  I think we watched The Wrestler while we waited - I didn't love it as much as I'd hoped I would, but it was still terrific.  And then we went out to a lovely dinner.

Wednesday was Get-Stuff-Done Day.  We did a much-needed book purge (as our bookshelves are literally overflowing - this is one main reason why we sorta want a Kindle) and dropped off a bunch of books at a neat little bookstore we recently discovered in our 'hood.  We were also prepared to get started on a CD-reorganization project, but our local Staples was out of the proper supplies. 

Thursday was Spa Day.  We spent all day at the Spa Castle, an amazing facility that's about 15 minutes by car from our apartment.  It would be even better if they served booze, but that's OK.  Kath got a 90-minute Swedish massage while I hung out in various saunas and steam rooms; then we had lunch and hung out in the personalized jacuzzi pools upstairs.  There's lots of nakedness in the locker rooms (which are obviously not co-ed), which was disconcerting at first but after a few hours of rest and relaxation, you sorta stop caring.

Friday we kinda just hung out.  We attempted to hang out on our groovy back porch, but it was hard to relax because our dogs are constantly trying to eat leaves and paint chips and bugs, and we're too paranoid to let them.

And the weekend was the weekend.

Neko Case's "Middle Cyclone" is my early front-runner for album of the year.

That is all.

I was stuck inside all day waiting for the FedEx man, who didn't show up until 6:30pm (!); my keyboard stand is still somewhere in the aether.  But at least my new baby arrived, safe and sound.  It is FABOO.

2 things I'm excited about:

1.  Kath and I are taking a much-needed staycation next week.

2.  This should be arriving at my apartment tomorrow.

1.  My aunt Hope (my stepfather's sister) passed away on Sunday morning at the age of 63.   She was in great health, great spirits, and then suddenly she was in the hospital with pneumonia and meningitis; she spent 5 weeks in a medicated coma, and slowly fell apart.  Her death is as tragic as it is horrifying.  The family is in a great deal of pain, shock and bewilderment.  

2.  Between that and the sudden burst of pollen in the air, I've been feeling pretty shitty.  I've also been feeling like a fat fuck; I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror yesterday as I waited in line for lunch, and my slight but supple moobs left me feeling ashamed.  While I was upstate this weekend for the funeral, I bought myself Wii Fit; I need to get in shape, but I also need to trick myself into doing it, because I am a lazy bastard.  I've been getting up early the last 3 days and getting into it; I have broken a light sweat but that may just be because it's been fucking crazy hot in our apartment.

3.  I have been in a deep Genesis obsession for the last month or so, and it was starting to drive me a little bonkers.  But I've found a great tonic for it - I've now become fully obsessed with Mastodon's "Crack the Skye".  I've never been one for heavy metal, but these guys are fucking amazing and it's way more prog than I was expecting.  I'm not sure if I'll get the earlier albums, though; everything I've read is that this one is less thrashy and more tune-ful, and I must admit I'd rather listen to that instead.

I'm still wondering what I'm going to do with this journal.  In the meantime, I'm on Facebook.

Sometimes I go whole days
listening bored, half asleep
I won't say anything
that's worth a thing to me
One day, suddenly, time
took a turn that once felt so brief
I blinked to see polite ghosts fading quickly

What begins as an unguarded
train of thoughts slowly can become
an addiction to the slumber
of disconnection and the resonance
of memory that no longer has a shape
but keeps you numb through
the hours tills gone is another day

Be aware, my darling
these things I say I mean
are just traces of something
I long to feel again
I see our time expand
in the air almost forcibly,
spreading thinner till it dissolves completely

I think I'm at the point in my life where there is no such thing as a "guilty pleasure" - I like what I like, dammit, and I care about what I like.  I've spent a lot of time and money cultivating my cultural appetites.  And I'm 33 - I ceased to be "cool" about 10 years ago. 

That said, there are things that I like that bother me; not because it could make me look "uncool" or whatever, but because I can look at it objectively and know that it totally sucks and I still like it anyway.  

I've been listening to The Samples all morning.  The Samples have tortured me for years.  I first saw them on the H.O.R.D.E. tour in the summer of 93, as one of many opening bands for Phish, the band I was ultimately there to see.  There were a bunch of bands at that show that I subsequently became fans of, now that I think about it - that show singlehandedly thrust me into the jamband scene.  I was pretty obsessed with Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit during my first few years at college, and of course Blues Traveler, Big Head Todd, um, the Spin Doctors before they totally sucked, etc.   The Samples were basically The Police, if the Police were neo-hippies who had terribly generic lyrics.

That's really the thing about the Samples that bothers me so much; they very possibly could have the worst lyrics of any band, ever.  They make me feel better about myself as a lyricist, which is saying quite a lot, because I hate my lyrics so much I've basically stopped writing altogether.  And the other thing is that 99 times out of 100, I never listen to the lyrics - I'm almost always focused on the music, the arrangements, the playing, even the vocal melody.  I only focus on lyrics if they're really good (Dylan, Malkmus, Beck) or really bad.  The problem with the Samples is that the vocals are front and center, and the singer has a somewhat distinctive voice, and he sings these endlessly banal cliches with such sincerity and honesty that you really can't ignore them; and so what drives me crazy is that even though their lyrics sound a lot like lyrics I wrote in high school and subsequently discarded as being too cliched, they do sometimes transcend the white-boy pop-reggae thing; some of their songs are absurdly catchy, and they're recorded really well, and it takes me back to that amazing summer, between high school and college, when I felt like I was on top of the world.

Christ, their lyrics suck. 

A quick rundown:

1.  My long-overdue trip to the dentist this afternoon went much better than expected.  I was expecting my dentist to tell me that she was going to have to remove my face from my body; in actuality, even though it'd been 2 years since my last appointment, I was actually in better shape today than I was then.  

2.  Finally watched "Synecdoche, New York" yesterday while I was home sick, and I don't have enough adjectives to describe what I thought about it.  Suffice it to say that I've got the Blu-Ray and the shooting script at the very top of my Amazon wishlist. 

3.  Was at my dad's (and his wife's) gallery opening this weekend in upstate NY (I probably should've invited some of my old high school buddies who are still in the area, now that I think of it).  They had quite a large turnout and they even got some sales out of it; I'm quite proud of both of them.  If you're interested, info can be found here:  http://dalyvoss.com/

4.  I'm again trying to not live or die by every Yankee game this year; it's hard, though, especially when your two biggest acquisitions suck it up during the opener.  But whatever.  The new stadium looks fantastic and I'm sure I'm going to end up slurging on tickets, and I'm sure we'll have a great time regardless of the outcome. 

5.  I can't stop listening to Genesis, pre-Invisible Touch.  The new remasters are fucking phenomenal.  Speaking of remasters, I'm sure by now you've heard what the Beatles are doing...

The short film I was composing music for is finally up and running.  Please check it out and vote for it (if you're so inclined!)

Humilikey

If you're a Facebook friend of mine, you might already know this:  Kath and I are sorta kinda maybe thinking about moving to Brooklyn. 

We dearly love Astoria, which we definitely haven't explored enough; and we especially love our apartment, which is easily the best place I've lived in my 16+ years of NYC living (!); but we miss our friends.  I especially feel terrible for making anybody make the long trudge out to our place, and I am very much aware of how much I've missed by not making the trip out to Brooklyn, what with the social anxiety and the stomach issues and the long long train rides.  

The other thing lurking in the back of our minds is that we may one day have kids, and even though we currently have a 2BR there's no way we could have a kid in our current place.

We're not going to be doing this immediately; we've got at least 6 months left on paying off a loan that we took out to help pay off our credit card debts, and the money we spend on the loan is money that could get us a better place when we do move.  Kath is also in a local dodgeball league here.  And if nothing else, I'd love to spend more time at the Bohemian Beer Garden this summer while it's still within walking distance. 

But as I said before, I miss my friends.  And I think that being closer to them, thereby making it easier to see them, would go a long way towards helping me out with my aforementioned anxiety issues.  And in this economy, prices are coming down; I'm seeing lots of interesting options on Craigslist, and I'm sure if we decided to go with a broker we'd find even better options.  (I'm not as anti-broker as I used to be - we found our current place through Century 21, literally hours after the owner put it on the market.) 

So:  if you happen to hear of a small-dog-friendly 3BR in a good neighborhood for under $2000 (which is apparently possible and not a joke, according to Craigslist), let me know. 

I'm not doing the Popless challenge in 2009, but I have stopped reading Pitchfork, and I've noticed two things - my reckless music purchases have slowed dramatically, and I find that I'm enjoying the music I do end up buying a hell of a lot more. For example, this AV Club feature on that most esoteric subgenre of music called "power-pop" came to my attention yesterday afternoon, and ultimately resulted in me downloading Shoes, "Black Vinyl Shoes" and Big Star's "#1 Record/Radio City"...

...which I'd never heard before.

Everyone talks about Big Star in these hushed, reverent tones (which is odd, considering how joyous their music can be), but my first exposure to them was "Third/Sister Lovers," which could very well be a great album but is pretty goddamned strange when you're expecting to hear something quite different.  And as it turns out, what I was expecting to hear on "Third" is what I ended up hearing on "#1 Record", which is fucking fantastic.  As if you didn't already know.

1.  Finally finished the music for the short film I was working on; the producer seemed very pleased about how it turned out.  It's being submitted for at least one competition; if it makes its way onto YouTube, I'll post a link.  I was contemplating just putting the music up on my vox site, but I think it would be better to hear it in its proper context.  In any event, HUGE sigh of relief that it's over. 

2.  Kath and I devoured most of Season Two of the Wire yesterday, taking a break in the afternoon to see Watchmen.   I'm gonna give Watchmen a B-.  It was incredibly faithful to the source material, almost too much so - the sex scene was a little bit over-the-top, and also reminded me that while I love Leonard Cohen as a lyricist/poet, I've never been a big fan of his actual music.  I have to wonder what the movie is like for people who've never read the original comic; there were quite a few Watchmen noobs in the audience and for the most part they had no idea what the hell they were watching.  Also:  when we were coming out of the theater, we saw that there were quite a few families who'd taken their 6-year-old children to see it.  Patton Oswalt had a great bit about how, because The Dark Knight was PG-13, there's going to be a generation of sociopathic killers in 20 years who had nightmares about Heath Ledger; I can't say that a 6-year-old kid is going to be traumatized in the same way from Watchmen, but, I mean, Jesus - there's profanity, graphic violence and naked boobies and supernatural peener, not to mention the complete and utter destruction of New York City; that's gotta be a lot for a little kid to take in, right?

3.  Back to The Wire - holy shit.  Season Two might not be as strong as Season One, but it's still pretty much ruined every other TV show out there for me.  Perfectly cast, perfectly written, carefully plotted, great performances all around; it's funny and horrifying and sad and gripping and makes me absolutely terrified of going anywhere near Baltimore.

There's a million things going on right now, and I hope to get into them later today; but I am finally allowed to formally announce the release of the record I was working on last year.  I did most of the piano/organ on it, and while I didn't write any of the songs, I did have a pretty big hand in the arrangements.  We recorded it in the same studio where Sufjan Stevens recorded "Illinoise"; I got to play the same piano! 

Anyway:  please to enjoy Ali Hoffman's "This Side of Morning," which you can mess around with here: http://wingcourtrecords.com/