A Year in Distractions: Concerts 2009 (Better Late Then Never)

With the advent of 2010 coming, and because I am procrastinating my finals by all means necessary, I have taken the time to compile lists of my favorite distractions–aka media, the arts, etc–from the previous year. The rules are not that the cultural item was released this past year, but rather that I consumed it this year and affected me.

Concerts:

10. New York Anti-Folk Festival @ the Side Walk Cafe (August 7th)
9. Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles @ Pianos (Sometime in August)
8. The Roots Present: The Jam @ the Highline Ballroom (April 6th)
7. Wale @ Le Poisson Rouge (May 7th)
6. Jenny Lewis @ Battery Park (July 4th)
5. Hercules and Love Affiar @ Gramercy Theatre (August 14th)
4. Of Montreal @ Terminal 5 (September 18th)
3. Girl Talk @ Brooklyn Waterfront (August 23rd)
2. P.O.S. @ the Mercury Lounge (February 21st)
1. Nellie McKay @ 92Y Tribeca (July 18th)

A Year in Distractions: Albums 2009 (Better Late Then Never)

With the advent of 2010 coming, and because I am procrastinating my finals by all means necessary, I have taken the time to compile lists of my favorite distractions–aka media, the arts, etc–from the previous year. The rules are not that the cultural item was released this past year, but rather that I consumed it this year and affected me.

Albums:

10. Skelatal Lamping (2008) by Of Montreal
9. The Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009) by Kid CuDi
8. Da Exam Mixtape (2007) by Lupe Fiasco
7. Midnight Falls Over Kortedala (2007) by Jens Lekman
6.  Let’s Get Out Of This Country(2006) by Camera Obscura
5. Future Sex/Love Sounds (2006) by Justin Timberlake
4. Special Party Time for Everybody (2009) by Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles
3. Hercules and Love Affair (2008) by Hercules and Love Affair
2. Since I Left You (2000) by The Avalanches
1. Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (2007) by Of Montreal

A Year in Distraction: Cinema 2009 (Better Late then Never)

With the advent of 2010 coming, and because I am procrastinating my finals by all means necessary, I have taken the time to compile lists of my favorite distractions–aka media, the arts, etc–from the previous year. The rules are not that the cultural item was released this past year, but rather that I consumed it this year and affected me.

Cinema:

10. Flesh Gordon (1974) Dir. Michael Benveniste & Howard Ziehm
9. Eraserhead (1977) Dir. David Lynch
8. A Street Car Named Desire (1951) Dir. Elia Kazan
7. Leon Morin, Priest (1961) Dir. Jean-Pierre Melvillle
6. Far From Heaven (2002) Dir. Todd Haynes
5. The Red Shoes (1948) Dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
4. Being John Malkovich (1999) Dir. Spike Jonze
3. F for Fake (1974) Dir. Orson Welles
2. In the Loop (2009) Dir. Armando Ianncci
1. Tales of Hoffman (1951) Dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

A Year in Distractions: Literature 2009

With the advent of 2010 coming, and because I am procrastinating my finals by all means necessary, I have taken the time to compile lists of my favorite distractions–aka media, the arts, etc–from the previous year. The rules are not that the cultural item was released this past year, but rather that I consumed it this year and affected me enough in 2009 to write about it.

Literature:

10. Without Feathers by Woody Allen
A great collection of short stories from one of my favorite comedians/thinkers–the two are one in the same when you boil it down. In Without Feathers, which title stems from a quote from Emily Dickinson saying “Hope is a thing with feathers,” Allen covers a the typical Woody Allen motifs: atheism, the absurd, high culture, Jewish culture, etc.. My personal favorites were: “Death (A Play),” “The Whore of Mensa,” “God (A Play),” and “If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists.”

9. Mysteries of Pittsburg by Michael Chabon
This was a fun little book from one of my favorite authors. It focuses on the summer after graduating college, which, if you were like me, was full of debauchery. The main character, the son of a Jewish mob boss, falls in love, with what in our times would be considered a hipster girl and a gay male. The story is very Gatsby-esque, which makes sense because Chabon wrote the book inspired by The Great Gatsby–and I read soon after reading Mysteries. The ending is a bit weak, but the rest of the book is phenomenal.

8. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
This is one of those books that I have always wanted to get around to reading, but something always gets in the way. It is a fun little romp through science-fiction, absurdity, humanism, death, space, irony, etc. I ripped through this book…. the sequels not so much, but this one is a fun little read.

7. The Virgin Suicides by Jefferey Eugenides
After reading Middlesex this year, I picked up The Virgin Suicides, which was, in my opinion, not better, but was easier to relate to.  I grew up with a bunch of crazy religious people and could never really understand their mindsets, which is the struggle of the protagonists all had. The book was written in first person plural and that added a whole other dimension to the story. I have yet to see the film, but, if it is half as good as the book, it should be enjoyable.

6. Candide by Voltaire
I cannot say how many times  Candide has been recommended to me by a wide variety of people. It is a story for a skeptic atheist. There is nothing but comical misfortune for the main character, which provide me with non-stop amusement.

5. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
This novel was one of the last novels I read in 2009. It won the Booker Award in 1998 and is about two former lovers of Molly Lane. At Molly’s funeral they discuss their lives, where they are and where they are going, and Molly’s other lovers. Clive, a composer, and Vernon, a newspaper editor, begin to get entangled with another one of Molly’s ex-lovers, who is the Foreign Secretary and hopeful PM candidate. The two friends begin a downward dissent that leads them to despise each other and start planning “vengeance.” After reading this book, I thought: “I need to read this again.”

4. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
There was something about this novel that I just truly love. I think it was because I projected on Mr. Gray. Not the whole homosexual subtext, but more about the innocence that Gray projects, which he is not and uses as a mask. I felt connected to this character because no one cannot understand him and he hides a secret no one can see. For me it is my anti-theism, desire for power, and love of a certain plant, which I hide behind a baby face. For Gray it was his homosexuality, love of wealth & status, and opium.

3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez,
One of my dearest friends told me this was one of his favorite books and after reading it I can totally understand. This novel, which I will have to read again because of all the Aurelianos, was like having a good friend with me. That is not to say I was necessarily thinking about my friend, but more that Márquez has such a intimate writer’s voice that I felt immediately like I had a friend right next to me. There is such an immense understanding of the human condition in this book that it is no surprise that it help Márquez win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

2. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
A family friend gave this book to me before I headed back to the East Coast. It took me a while to get to it, which I very much regret. It is a story about a post-apocalyptic world that was destroyed because of, more or less, climate change. It is frighteningly real and sobering. There is a lot of humanity in this novel, which was why I was drawn to it so much.

1. Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Quite possibly the meanest/awesomest critique of religion. The book is not necessarily a critique of religion, but 20 pages left of the book, it sticks it to the religious mindset–hardcore! Atwood is a beautiful writer and this book was a stunning achievement, which won the Booker Award. It is a novel that has multiple story lines going at all times and revolves around the story of Iris and her sister Laura’s growing up in a town outside Tornoto during the Great Depression and in the present tense as Iris is writing a book about her life. Throughout Blind Assassin there is another book, suppossedly written by Laura, called Blind Assassin, which chronicles the affair of a young woman and a atheist-Marxist Pulp Science fiction writer. They drink bootlegged scotch, talk about life and politics, and have wild passionate sex. It is awesome! This was the best and most enjoyable  read I have had since The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

A Year in Distractions: Songs 2009

With the advent of 2010 coming, and because I am procrastinating my finals by all means necessary, I have taken the time to compile lists of my favorite distractions–aka media, the arts, etc–from the previous year. The rules are not that the cultural item was released this past year, but rather that I consumed it this year and affected me enough in 2009 to write about it.

20. “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z (Feat. Alica Keys)
19. “Here and Hell” by Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles
18. “Beef” by Mos Def
7. “Daylight” by Matt & Kim
16. “The Reeling” by Passion Pit
15. “Let It Rattle” by P.O.S.
14. “Seventeen Years” by Ratatat
13. “One Day” by The Juan MacLean
12. “Sound and Vision” by David Bowie
11. “Tail & Mane: by Cryptacize
10. “Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig” by Jens Lekman
9. “Chelsea Hotel #2″ by Rufus Wainwright
8. “Razzle Dazzle Rose” by Camera Obscura
7. “Pursuit of Happiness” by Kid CuDi (Feat. Ratatat and MGMT)
6. “Auditorium” by Mos Def (Feat. Slick Rick)
5. “Lovestoned-I Think She Knows” by Justin Timberlake
4. “True/False”  by Hercules and Love Affair
3. “We Were Born the mutants Again With Leafing” by Of Montreal
2. “Make Sure” by Lupe Fiasco
1. “Id Engager” by Of Montreal

A Year in Distractions: Stage 2009

With the advent of 2010 coming, and because I am procrastinating my finals by all means necessary, I have taken the time to compile lists of my favorite distractions–aka media, the arts, etc–from the previous year. The rules are not that the cultural item was released this past year, but rather that I consumed it this year and affected me enough in 2009 to write about it.

Stage:

5. Offices @ The Atlantic Theater Company: Linda Gross Theater
Written by, Ethan Cohen
Directed by, Neil Pepe
Offices was three vignettes based around… office life. It focused on isolation, desperation, monotony, and absurdity–which made it right up my alley. It was written by Ethan Cohen, so I already had a dispostion to like it. My favorite sketch was about a government official who worked in Homeland Security, who did not know what the hell was going on. This vignette had similar themes and motifs as Burn After Reading, but it was still highly enjoyable.

4. Avenue Q @ The Golden Theatre
Directed by, Jason Moore
This musical won the 2004 Tony Award for best musical and I had been dying to see it, since my sister and father started listening to it around the same time. It is Sesame Street for adults–well, Sesame Street for Public Radio listeners. Sesame Street for adults is Wonder Showzen. The story revolves around a 23 year old English major trying to figure out what he is going to do with his life–aka, I project hardcore onto this musical. There are great songs like: “It Sucks to Be Me,” “The Internet is for Porn,” and “You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You’re Makin’ Love).” It was nice to see the performance before it went Off-Broadway. It was also nice to hear, “George Bush. Is only for now!” right after Obama’s inauguration.

3. Torture: Why It Is Wrong, and The People Who Love Them @ The Public Theater
By, Christopher Durang
Directed by, Nicholas Martin
At first, I thought this play was a bit chintzy through the first half of Act I. I found the characters and dialogue a bit over the top and felt that the play was geared towards a bunch of bourgeois Manhattan theatre goers, who live in their isolated bubble of culture and money–but then again, what play by the Public isn’t that? The play is about a young woman that wakes up to find herself engaged to a young man, who looks slightly Middle-Eastern, but claims to be Irish, after a night of drinking. He is a bit psychotic and has aggressive tendencies. He strong arms his way into meeting his future in-laws, who are a very conservative couple in Jersey. The father thinks the young man is a terrorist and tortures him with fellow “shadow government” operatives, who are inept ideologues. The play was pretty funny and ends with quite a tour de force of witty writing–and ingenious set and stage usage! (Was seriously blown away by how the set and stage was used at the end)

2. August: Ossage County @ The Music Box
By, Tracy Letts
Directed by, Anna D. Shapiro
This play won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and rightfully so. This was a birthday present for me and it could not have been more perfect. It is a very dark comedy about a family coming together after the disappearance of the patriarch of said family. Wikipedia describes the play as: “A The three-act play, which runs for about 3 hours, 20 minutes including intermissions, [that] deals with such issues as drug abuse, alcoholism, suicide, death, family dysfunction, sexual harassment, pedophilia, aging, generational change, racism, incest, infidelity, and ultimately love.” In other words: all my favorite themes were covered. The incest was hilarious, seriously! This play covered what I feel about the Midwest. It ends very darkly with someone singing: “This is the way the world is. This is the way the world is.” Loved it!

1. Our Town @ Barrow Street Theatre
By, Thorton Wilder
Directed by, David Cromer
Another Pulitzer Prize winning play and damn was this a fine production. The production was preformed in a former cafeteria or gym and was very intimate. The audience was more or less on the stage. Besides a roughly 12′ x 15′ performing space, the production took place around and in the audience. The main draw of this performance was the Narrator, who was also the director of the performance. He brought a very matter-of-fact atmosphere to the production and constantly gave hints or reminders to the stark and dark third act. This performance was so good it made John Lithgow, who was in the audience at the time, tear up. This play was deep, which is a word I hate to throw around. I had read it before, but the direction and interpretation of Cromer dead on. It was romantic but at the same time drenched in skeptical realism. It is still being performed and I have thought many a times about seeing it again. This production blew me away! I am getting all emotional just thinking about how much this production affected me!

“…Still, This Shit Makes Me Sad!”

First off: I despise the Cult of Dylan. His worshipers make me gag. However, I do love some me some Bob Dylan. The man is a damn good storyteller and poet (I’ve heard “Hurricane”). I think that he might be one of the greatest artists of the past century, but no one is perfect. I do not put Dylan on a pedestal, especially because he became an Evangelical in the 80′s–fucking 80′s. Nor do I hold anyone in apotheosis. Still, this shit makes me sad!

Is growing up selling your soul?

Follow Up Questions: Why does me knowing nothing about financial systems make me feel less mature around financial types?

“I Listen to Music!”: Princess Chelsea

Not sure exactly how I found this artist, but “all-in-all” a cool find. Princess Chelsea is an “electroacoustic” artist from Auckland, New Zealand.  I was hesitant to support Princess Chelsea for two main reason: her love of Disney films and because the label she is a part of is called “Lil’ Chief Records,” which has a caricature of American Indian for a symbol. Seriously, these two factors have been eating away at me, but I cannot deny Princess Chelsea.  Her musical influences appear to be a lot of classical music, AIR, and Dr. Dre? Actually, after listening through all of her MySpace songs multiple times, it is clear that Dre did have quite the influence on the adorable New Zealander.

Her first single, from what I can only assume is an upcoming album from–ick–Lil’ Chief Records, is “Monkey Eats Banana.” I have had this song in my head for a few days, mainly because it is a pop gem: few words and a hook. However, the words do not actually show up until nearly two and half minutes into the three and half minute song, which defies traditional concepts of what pop music is. The song repeats “Monkey/Eats Banana/That he stole from your house” over and over again, and yet… I cannot stop listening.

Below is the music video for “Monkey Eats Banana,” which is crude and very low budget–not that really matters, if anything only heightens my love of the Princess. At the same time, I prefer Princess Chelsea’s music without images and wish only to consume the celestial and delicate, yet complex, sound of her music. Instead of the images and illusions reflected in the music video.

She describes herself on her MySpace page as being between the ages of 16-24, which I do not know how I should take. Is she an actual age or merely a being trapped in a realm that encompasses various stages of emotional development? Either way, I will be paying close attention to Princess Chelsea and hope desperately that she finds her way off the Island of New Zealand and onto the Island of Manhattan.

Princess Chelsea’s MySpace Page:

http://www.myspace.com/wonderfulprincesschelsea

I Would Rather Wander

“Haven’t you ever had a mentor before?” My sister asked met his question on Sunday, while we were discussing various topics that concerned  our presents and futures. I replied, “No, not really.” I had a couple teachers help me through high school and a  professor my senior year of college, who provided guidance and ensured that I got over my nihilistic spiral created by years of living and watching my childhood desires of peace and harmony erode by the bitter reality that is life, but I still approached this professor with a degree of hesitance and skepticism. My sister told me that my lack of having a mentor might be because I have high standards and require a lot of certain criteria to be met when gaining a mentor, a friend, or an ally. This conversation arose during a moment of existential crisis I go through fairly periodically before making some sort of change in my general life structure. I told her that,  while I do hold people I respect to high standards–I hold myself to higher ones–the more accurate reason is because I do not, nor have I ever, truly believe that there is a real human adult–in consciousness that is. How can you find a mentor who can mature you into an adult when you do not believe there is an adult on the planet?  Conundrum!

(My theory and reason for this belief in the lack of a fully consious adult on this planet could be a doctoral dissertation–and might one day actually be one–so, I shall let this idea merely exist for the time being. But I do hope one day to really flush this out.)

With that being stated, it should be made clear that I do think one can gain bits and pieces from wiser people and through interactions with other species and forms of existence. For example, I think a lot can be gain from watching how birds go about their day and have had a friend describe orchids in a way that made me envy their existence.  Likewise, there are people who have and have had a different life experience than myself, which can have lessons and derived from. However, I do not view anyone one existence with a completely rosy disposition.  A colleague told me at my job that he thinks Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi were the quintessential human beings to have ever existed. This comment took a lot of restrain from yours truly not to flat out laugh in this gentleman’s face and begin an all out ridicule of his zeitgeist, since it was apparent that it was completely unhealthy. (This same gentleman told me later in the same conversation, more or less, he was pro-social engineering and pro-death penalty. When I asked, “What would Gandhi think of the death penalty?” He responded with a sigh and said, “That’s a really deep and interesting question.” What a dilettante?) When discussing the incident with a friend I truly respect he brought up King’s distaste for homosexuality and that Gandhi had some strange view of the females. My friends are critical of things in much the same way I am. It is why I consider them friends.

For someone who is “hyper-critical” (which I place in quotes because I think that everyone should be critical, but it is these critical individuals who are labeled this because they are often viewed as outcasts or “provokers”) it is hard to find “kindred spirits” and that individual must therefore exist in a state out of sync with the rest of the population. That is not to say that this is a bad thing. I would argue quite the opposite, but it can be frustrating at times to exist in such a state. It is for this reason I spend my time with minds that I do not have a traditional personal relationship with. To me reading and various other artistic expression is how one, who does is unable to conform with the rest of society,can feel a sense of unity or at least be relieved that they are not a psychotic head case incapable of relating to whatever the rest of society enjoys: some stupid television show or a new singer that repeats the same damn 18 words in a three minute song.

Myself, I have always been fascinated with protests and social movements. I love them conceptually and have yearned with much of being for one to happen. “Viva La Revolución!” But every time I have participated in a protest or been to a group that advocates change, I am always taken aback by how much I am in disgust with said group in much the same way I view people who wear “Che” shirts. It fills my body with a visceral disgust that makes me cringe and eventually, usually within a few minutes, leave whatever I originally set out to do. I think that the old forms of protest are dead–and maybe they never really were alive. I must say that I am still young and have much of life to experience, but I have watched protests and counter cultures gain no footing because of mass media’s lack of coverage. Or worst: choice coverage–I am talking about you “Tea Party” people. So, my views on protests and social movement are pessimistic at best, probably cynical, nihilistic at worst.

Serendipitously, I picked up Christopher Hitchens’ book, Letters to a Young Contrarian, which has a subtitle called The Art of Mentoring, a few weeks ago. I cannot tell if I chose the book because I was in the mood for it, if the book created the mood I am currently in, or none of the above. I started reading the book after I got into one of my “existential funks” I happen to fall into when I think all is not right and that I am living in an Absurd–yes capital ‘A’–world. Hitchens argues that there are people out there who cannot simple settle and be part of what many, if not most, other people accept. At the same time, there are individuals who cannot stand the idea that there are “multiple truths.” Granted, I do not think truth is simple, in fact it is one of those concepts that has be insidiously defined and used in so many ways that at times I wish I could throw out the whole fucking concept. Truth, like Power, is sometihng that is used way to often and far to frivously by many people on both “the Left” and “the Right.” (Left and Right? When will humanity ever get over binaries?) Hitchens states that it is not an action that creates this “dissident” individual or “contrarian,” but it is rather a state of being, the core of their personality or way of life.

In this series of letters, Hitchens, has given me some semblance of mentoring. Again, I am skeptical about thinking anyone person is completely perfect because life is change and, therefore, this person will change as will my own thinking. However, I have found this book to be somewhat helpful.  He states his book that:

“Distrust any speaker who talks confidently about ‘we,’ or speaks in the name of ‘us.’ Distrust yourself if you hear these tones creeping into your own style. The search for security and majority is not always the same as solidarity, it can be another name for consensus and tyranny and tribalism. Never forget that even if there are “masses” to be invoked, or ‘the people’ to be praised, they and it must by definition be composed of individuals” (99).

I feel that this describes very much what I feel when I am at protests or rallies or listening to some ideologue talk about something or another. How can someone really speak for another individual? Does that not strike you with a sense arrogance? I know that what gets me upset when I am at anti-war protests, which I go to because there probably is some last threads of a romantic in me, is when protesters cry out “No blood for oil!” or something stupid like that. Well, yes there is probably some truth to your one sentence argument, but do you really accept it as the whole truth? Life cannot be simplified into one sentence cries or rhyming chants. If anything, life is so complex it is at times far to incomprehensible and thus why humans spend time trying to unpack it or try unraveling the false truths that were created to simplify the vastness of existence–I looking at you religious people.

So, I shall continue to wander existence looking for camaraderie and mentors, which I hope to find, but then who knows? Life is too short to spend with people who are not willing or not prepared to face the difficult and sometimes painful realities of existence and the human experience. (A quick tangent: I have found that the people, who are unable to deal with the pains of the human experience, tend not be able to fully take part in the joys and beauty of life, but that is a generalization and should not be viewed as a fully crystallized way of seeing things.) I shall wander and continue my life hoping that it goes for the best and seeking ways to improve the situations of my fellow creatures and planet, while at the same time understanding that I have but one life to live and it is a short one, so I should enjoy my time as best I can. I do not believe in an afterlife and find that the people who do waste their time in the “here and now” because they believe they have an eternity to enjoy. I find this foolish and silly–and I use silly as a very offensive word full of ridicule. They can enjoy their television and I will enjoy my wandering.

Oddly Not Nearly As Satisfying

I’m pretty sure I have psychic trauma from growing up during the second Bush’s reign.  It  made me very scared of mass culture, media control, and of religious people–better put: It has absolutely made me petrified of 90% of my fellow citizens in this country. Seriously, we accept and encourage ignorance–these people need to grow up and start fucking thinking!

So, when I find this video of Tom Delay–the former Baptist Republican House Majority Leader during the height of Bush/Cheney Craziness (2003-2005), who later resigned due to legal issues stemming from his association with Jack Abramoff–one would think that this video would cheer me up. It did give me quite the chuckle and I do get some form of satisfaction watching the Wash-Uped Fucker shake his ass in a red and white striped suit with a republican elephant symbol on his back. The clip though seems not nearly capable of repaying for the damages such an ideology that  spread and permeated all facets of society during the time.  Less rant. More Video.