The Books and Oil Pastels

Last week, my beautiful girlfriend Emma felt compelled to purchase some oil pastels and two textured oil pastel pads, one white and one black. Over the weekend, we'd been listening to some music by The Books and we each became inspired to use these adult-friendly crayons together and see what we'd come up with. Let me first say that, if you are not familiar with The Books, please familiarize yourself with them and their music. I'd love to describe the music in great detail, but I simply cannot. They are within a genre of their own, using an eclectic collage of audio samples from tons of unlikely sources and mixing them with cello, guitar, bass, banjo, etc. If you decide to check them out, listen to the albums Lost and Safe and The Way Out. I'm confident that if you've made it this far into this entry, you won't regret listening. You might even thank me and risk your life for me someday simply for the fact that I introduced you to fulfillment. This is what Emma and I came up with. Thanks to The Books, we were able to listen to albums that were pleasant from start to finish, therefore providing ample inspiration to actually finish something I started.

Top 10 Albums of 2010

This will be a quick read for many of you, partly because I'm too excited to put a lot of thought into a description of each of my ten favorite albums and partly because I've realized that each description would be, at best, an articulation of how each of these albums has made me feel, which really seems pointless to me because I know that our feelings differ. If you value my opinion and have an interest in listening to any of these albums, all you really need are the names of the albums. Telling you how each one made me feel seems like unadulterated manipulation. Here they are.

10. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening



9. Jónsi - Go


8. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz


7. MGMT - Congratulations


6. Vampire Weekend - Contra


5. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest


4. Ratatat - LP4


3. Caribou - Swim


2. Avey Tare - Down There


1. The Books - The Way Out

Two from Panda Bear

I basically wanted to share two new songs from Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear), one of the founding members of Animal Collective. I definitely intend to dedicate an entire blog entry to my feelings on Panda's music, but I'd really need a bit of time to gather all of what I'd want to say and I feel that it would be best to wait for his new album Tomboy to be released. Hopefully it'll be released within the next few months. I found two new songs that were part of a very limited release vinyl. The visuals were performed live by Danny Perez (director of Oddsac) at Pitchfork Music Festival 2010. Each song is said to be part of the new album.

My Girls

Hello, followers. It's been a while since I'd last written something. It's not that I haven't been finding the time. It's that I've been lacking motivation and inspiration to express myself through this medium. I'll be frank. I'm not exactly sure as of yet where I'll be going with this post. I do know that I will start by expressing my thoughts and views on an experimental music group known as Animal Collective and, more precisely, their song My Girls.

I'd first heard of Animal Collective around 2005 and had not really listened to them until 2007 and was blown away by their latest album at the time, Strawberry Jam, and was instantly blown away by their use of extensive vamping and harmonies as well as their versatility. One song would sound like nothing I'd ever heard (Fireworks) and another would sound like something that would've appeared on The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band had it had a fourteenth track (Cuckoo Cuckoo).

After first hearing Animal Collective for the first time, everything I thought I knew up until that point about the number of possibilities within the creation of music instantly became a form of doubt similar to questioning the existence of the Tooth Fairy or God for the first time.

I must admit that the use of an open mind (whether achieved through guided meditation, religious experiences or various psychedelics) is almost always a prerequisite to truly understanding the art forms the members of Animal Collective create. Some of the first music the members had ever recorded was inspired or, at least, influenced by the use of LSD during improvisations. I firmly believe that most of the music within the experimental genre is related in some way to the use of psychedelic and/or dissociative substances. Perhaps it's called "experimental" not solely because of the uniqueness and originality of the song structure, but also because of the widespread use of experimental substances by the artists.


On numerous forums consisting of endless FAQs, written experiences, debates and suggestions involving psychedelic trips, one can find long lists (often posted by long-time subscribers to the LSD culture) that all claim to be the best lists of music to listen to while under the influence of psychedelics. As an open-minded person (although I am open to the possibility that I'm close-minded), I acknowledge that opinions differ when it comes to art appreciation. One will argue that Shpongle is the best music to listen to while tripping. Another will claim it's Pink Floyd. Another will say Brian Eno. One thing I've found is that, on almost every list I've ever come across related to this subject, Animal Collective is written and, more often than not, the only description the author will give is as follows:

... Animal Collective - Extremely trippy music ...

It's quickly approaching 2011 and I'm very much an avid listener and appreciator of Animal Collective. One could possibly construe from this that I'm very much an avid user of psychedelics and facilitator of LSD culture, but I will neither confirm or deny these things since, as an open-minded person, I accept the possibility that I either am or I am not... or that I'm neither or both of those...

When I'd first heard Animal Collective's groundbreaking 2009 album Merriweather Post Pavilion, I really didn't know how to feel. I knew I definitely didn't hate it because I listened to the album in its entirety. I knew chances were that I liked it because I immediately wanted to listen to it again.

After the second and third listen, I drew the conclusion that it might've been my favorite album of all time. The fact that it's been almost two years since my first listen and that I'm still very much into the album pretty much guarantees that my conclusion was correct. It's rare that I find an album that has one song that appeals to me. This album has eleven masterpieces on it. I was unsure at first about how I felt about this album as opposed to the other albums I had listened to, but it's pretty much how I feel every time I hear a song I'd never heard by them. It's completely different from the others, but still very much the same at the same time, in some way I don't understand but don't question. When compared to their 2004 album Sung Tongs, you might as well be comparing bacon to pork chops. They're totally different but made of the same things... and wayyyyyyy too good to be kosher.

More often than not, while using LSD or other psychedelics amongst peers, there will be someone (never named Dave) cursing the establishment, hypothesizing methods of improving the world, delving into quantum theory, recognizing every instance of unnecessary evil including television commercials and reality shows, proposing the abolition of a monetary system, proving the existence of God, extraterrestrials and alternate universes, stripping themselves of ego and delusions leading to materialism and greed, criticizing musicians and other celebrities of being "sell-outs" and finding inner truths within the music they're listening to. The next day, that same person will be talking about how great the visuals were and how great the music was, watching television and proposing plans to become a sell-out, realizing the music heard the day before no longer has an inner meaning, but still sounds cool. Don't worry. I'm going somewhere with this.

After a "friend of mine" listened to Animal Collective's song My Girls from the album Merriweather Post Pavilion while on LSD, the lyrics really made sense. This song actually proposed demands that go against everything that seems so evil to most during an acid trip. "I don't mean to seem like I care about material things like our social stats. I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls". I believe the song is a cry of my generation and should be one of all generations explaining that we know that we don't want needless bullshit in this world, and we also know that we definitely don't want them. As long as we have a place to live and the ones we love, what's the point of all the other crap? If there's any song within the genre of modern music that has a positive message, this would be it.

12 Angry Russians

Well, I haven't written anything in several months. I'm not really too sure what to write about so I'll let my fingers do all the work.

Earlier this week, I watched a wonderful Russian film called 12. It's a dark comedy loosely based on the 1957 Sidney Lumet film 12 Angry Men. In this Russian version, a Chechen youth is being charged with the murder of his Russian officer foster father, who is also his uncle. It's up to a jury of twelve Russian men, filled with clashing opinions and backgrounds to reach a just verdict. The film mostly takes place in a public school gymnasium where the jurors are held until a verdict is reached. Parallel to this, the film shows the Chechen boy's flashbacks from what I believe was the Second Chechen War, an absolutely devastating occurrence for anyone to have gone through.

Director Nikita Mikhalkov painted a picture that most of the world never gets to see. The media is constantly portraying the entire Chechen population as barbaric and homicidal. Any war that we see today is a war between governments and not a war between peoples. I believe that this is the message this film was trying to get across. Another is that, when someone is facing a charge of any crime, it is up to that person's net worth and/or their ethnicity to save them from facing imprisonment. This is true even in our own country. There is nothing more corrupt than a judicial system and nothing more ignorant, arrogant and prejudiced as a jury of "your peers".

I also watched another film called The Education of Charlie Banks. I purchased this movie because it was cheap and didn't realize until I got home that the film was directed by Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst. I have to say that his directorial talent definitely reconciles his lack of talent in music. Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Ritter are the two main characters. Jesse plays Charlie Banks, an Ivy League student, attending Brown University to meets up with childhood tough guy legend, Mick (played by Jason Ritter), when he shows up unexpectedly in his dorm and decides to stay a while.

The film is set mostly in the mid-70s. Although I feel the film is lacking in some areas on which I cannot point my finger, I feel the cast gave a fairly realistic performance and that this film is worth watching just to see that Fred Durst can do something somewhat productive.

Well, I think that's all. I'll try to think of something else to write soon.

Jeu

I was on the National Film Board of Canada's website today and found an interesting short animation film that I had seen on the Independent Film Channel earlier. I'm not too sure what it was about the film that caught my attention, whether it was the
beautiful excerpt of Sergei Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto or the interesting movement of abstract art. Perhaps it was both.

The name of the film is Jeu and was created by Georges Schwizgebel. If you like the film and/or would like to know more about it or its creators, you can check out it's website at http://www3.nfb.ca/webextension/jeu/en/index.php. You can let me know how you felt about it by emailing me at DaveCB@optonline.net. Enjoy!

More on Synecdoche

I discussed the film Synecdoche, New York in my last entry and have watched it several times since then. Throughout the years, I've spent uncountable amounts of money on many things, many of which I'm not so proud. There have been a few occasions after which I'd felt I'd gotten my money's worth. Purchasing this film was possibly the most appropriate example I can recall. If there is one thing that links Charlie Kaufman's works, which include (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Being John Malkovich) together besides his name in the credits is that not one film would be a film I could imagine most people enjoying. In fact, during the screening of the film, it was reported that the film was "so weird that half the people left the theatre before the end, either confused or offended by what they saw.

I'm not going to lie and say "these people are idiots. They wouldn't know a good film if it smacked them in the face", but I would say that many people are forgetting that film is sometimes (not often) still an artform designed to simulate a message, a vital message. I'm not a Charlie Kaufman expert. I can't claim that I even begin to understand half of what he's trying to convey with the film. I do, however, understand enough that I felt myself to be an entirely different person after watching it.

The film is definitely a personification of illness, both mental and physical. It doesn't allow you to relax or even feel comfortable with yourself, with your life or certainly how you've been living it for however long you've been doing so. The world is filled with relationships that can only be justified with insanity and delusion. Many people will sacrifice ever knowing themselves just to try and be with a person they honestly have absolutely no interest in, but strive for it out of loneliness and self-destruction. Compromise is probably one of the most devastating human vices one can ever have, saying basically "I can't have my life the way I want it so I'll stop it here and make something out of this", having the only thing to look forward to be death, while throughout the entire duration of that lapse spending every second as if death will never come, as if neglecting its inevitability would erase its inevitability.

I wish that people would look away from The Hills and American Idol for two hours, turn their cellphones off and give a chance to see possibly the quickest wake-up call that ever existed, without being stubborn about it. It has been quite apparent throughout my experience that negligence never bettered any situation. Please, if you have not yet seen this film, do so. If you make it through to the end, without interruption, I guarantee you will want to see it again. This has been the most rewarding thing to me in a very long time.