Read This Poem. Now.

Joe Plicka (poet, teacher, and friend), has published a beautiful poem with Anti-Poetry. To read it click here. He visits this site from time to time, so leave a comment and tell him he's crazy and/or brilliant.

Dancing on Lime Green

I grew up in rural Idaho with no MTV and very little pop music in the home. What I got came from Saturday morning radio (Casey Kasem’s Top 40) and my older brother and sister (AC/DC, Ratt, Def Leppard, etc.) It seems I was born with a fascination for pop music that has never quite left me (as you can plainly read). One of my earliest memories, and most certainly my earliest musical memory, is from about the time I was in Kindergarten. My oldest sister Alison came home one night, having borrowed a record from her friend. She went into our front room and put the vinyl on the turntable and let it spin. I spent the remainder of the entire evening dancing around on our shaggy green carpet to “Beat It”, “Billy Jean”, and “Thriller”. I’ve always appreciated Michael Jackson as an artist. There is a lot that can be said about him, great and terrible. But I’ll always remember green shag carpet and Eddie Van Halen’s unmistakable guitar in “Beat It”, driving a five year old boy mad with joy.

What are your earliest musical memories?

Lynchian

What is David Lynch up to these days besides making really weird films, you ask? Well, let me tell you. He's up to Interview Project. Over the course of a twenty thousand mile road trip his crew would stop at random and talk to the men and women of this great nation. There is a fascinating humanity on display in these vignettes (uploaded for your viewing pleasure at the rate of one per day. I suppose any life is worth considering for at least that long).

Gus and Milo

Christy and I have two fine boys. See them here through the talented, generous, friendly, artistic, focused-despite-the-unchecked-rowdiness-of-my-children, lens of Lacy Jane.

Discovery

You may want to put this one on your calendar for July 7th. The album is called "LP" (how clever!). Discovery is a two man electronic side project, Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend and Wes Miles of Ra Ra Riot.

Discovery: So Insane

In Memory

My Grandma, Beth Reynolds Blake

1916 - 2009

"Late Fragment"

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

-Raymond Carver

(see also)

The Place You Last Knew Rest

As far as poetry in song goes, there is one album this year that is going places others are not, and that is Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle by Bill Callahan. His almost stoic vocal delivery was somewhat lost on me at first, but after spending an hour with him I see it now. Behold:

Too many birds in one tree. Too many birds in one tree, And the sky is full of black and screaming leaves; the sky is full of black and screaming. And one more bird, then one more bird. And one last bird. And another. One last black bird without a place to land. One last black bird without a place to be turns around in hopes to find the place it last knew rest. O black bird, over black rain burn. This is not where you last knew rest. You fly all night to sleep on stone. The heartless rest that in the morn will be gone. You fly all night to sleep on stone, to return to the tree with too many birds. If. If you. If you could. If you could only. If you could only stop. If you could only stop your. If you could only stop your heart. If you could only stop your heart beat. If you could only stop your heart beat for. If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart. If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart beat.

Bill Callahan - Too Many Birds

Updated: mp3 via Unnecessary Umlaut

Crazy On You

Shara Worden has a mean set of pipes. She's such a spritely little thing outside that voice, and is now sporting an athletic looking (in a 70's sort of way) bob a la Karen O. I met her several years ago, before I knew who she was, as one of the Illinoisemakers. A fine person I must say, and I wish o wish that I loved her My Brightest Diamond stuff more, but I must confess I think it is just interesting and okay. However, I was browsing YANP today and found this clip of her, as one of the Decemberist troubadors, absolutely slaying a cover of Heart's "Crazy On You."



This might be the most acceptable time to admit that two of my first tapes (you know it), were Heart's self titled album and Def Leppard's Hysteria. My rock roots run deep.

Also (to revisit an old post) you might want to watch her kareoke Whitney Houston's untouchable "I Will Always Love You". We've seen American Idol hopefuls butcher it year after year. This should put a smile on your face.

Five Tracks

Here are five songs that have made me extremely happy to be a rabid fan of pop music in 2009.

Animal Collective: Bluish
Phoenix: 1901
Bowerbirds: Northern Lights
AutoKratz: Once More (Yusek Remix)
Tiny Vipers: Dreamers