Saturday, January 28, 2006

'Til Kingdom Come (think of that hidden Coldplay track on X&Y; the song written for Johnny Cash)

My last day of work in photos - It was an amazing bittersweet one in that, if I didn't already, I realized how comfortable I got and how much I enjoyed the company (the people) I was surrounded by. For the first time ever, I think I'm truly nervous and frightened about starting full time student teaching on Monday, now without any sort of safety net. (although on a side note, I may have a job as a part time reader for an undergraduate course at SJSU) Have to take that leap of faith sometime, though, right?


The afternoon started with cake :) I was running across the administration building trying to get rid of it asking everyone I knew if they'd like some ;-)


Cake with Office peeps (sorry, my replacement has been engraining some lingo into me during my week of training her!)


My boss, her husband, and the new IT guy


Lunch @ Sonoma Chicken Coup


Hanging out at Paragon to end the day


It begins Monday and I'm still in denial! Like that lame Bush song, breath in and breath out. Remember Bush? Whatever happened to them ...

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Currently Watching
Wal-mart - The High Cost of Low Price
see related
OOOH, mushaboom....

I love this song. I love this album. Check it out. Mushaboom by Feist (Leslie Feist), another Canadian - It's becoming a recurring theme lately with those Canadians (Matt Good, New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire. Hmm how to explain. Someone called her jazzy/trip-hop sensual pop music. Sounds good. Give it a listen (link above).

The film above - disturbing, it creates a balanced attack on Wal-Mart's business practices on multiple surfaces, including many I never thought of (aside from the typical they are known for i.e. labor practices, strategic store placements).

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Currently Listening
Duncan Sheik
By Duncan Sheik
see related
Life is suffering
Tee-hee, ha-ha
Cold and shuddering
Tee-hee, ha-ha
Cruel and pummeling
Tee-hee, ha-ha

Ok long title, but it's been a long time since I've quoted Toad the Wet Sprocket -

Quick notes -

-Nickel Creek performs "Jealous of the Moon" on the Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno this Wednesday the 25th!
-Blue Merle is the subject of the latest episode of Acoustic Cafe; A great performance/interview with the band plus new full-time fiddler, Luke Bulla
-Bands/Albums fitting my musical approval: Feist (Let it Die), Duncan Sheik (White Limosine), Richard Ashcroft (Keys to the World), and my new favorite of 2006, KT Tunstall.

Busy, busy last week of vacation! Training my successor at the Senate and saying my long goodbyes to all there - It's been fun! This has to be the first time ever that I'll be leaving a job that I don't immediately want to just leave. It's still bittersweet, however. But - Necessary to take the next step forward, which will be full-time student teaching third graders for the next few months - I'm freaking out! I'm also finishing up CERT (community emergency response team) training, certifying me as a rescue team member if a disaster were to occcur in-abouts San Jose State - Pray that it won't ever happen due to my lack of competence

Get together! This friday for my forced liberation of my job, at O'Flaherty's Pub (in San Pedro Square) around 5:30-6 for anyone wanting to join in. Feel free to drop by.

Sing-a-long - Duncan Sheik's "She Runs Away" - Rediscovering this gem from the mid-90s, this song's got it all.

OK! End of convoluted message. Seeya next time.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

the world isn't fair

the title refers to a randy newman track out of just so many that i'm finding just as appropriate today as they were when he wrote them however many ages ago. i just love the satire in the work he's produced - anyway, his album was just one of many i purchased at a local retail that's going out of business in a matter of days (note for those who live in the south bay area!), media play, where everything is 70% off or more. the others i purchased and would like feedback on if anyone has listened to them include:

dar williams - my better self
wilco - kicking television--live in chicago
the jayhawks - rainy day music (the chris thile connection)
ryan adams & the cardinals - jacksonville nights (had a burned so i know how good this one is)
the randy newman songbook vol.1
pinback - summer in abaddon (someone i respect musically swears by them)

How are they?
--


I made it to the seasonal PAC session held in downtown San Jose's Museum of Art this past Friday - Art displayed through diverse form such as through music, spoken word, poetry, dance, painting, and other medium. The above image is actually part of the ongoing exhibit currently held there at the moment, but I wanted to take the time to post it because of its relevance - I forgot the artist, but it is a self portrait of himself, and he is a proclaimed anti-capitalist who believes that it is the factor towards the faceless and brutal realities that comes out of cutthroat business. He essentially expresses how even someone as stought about his beliefs as himself is still susceptible of the allure that is commercialism in america, as represented by mickey. just one of many interesting pieces being displayed, i think the theme is visual politics.
--
i caught munich at the theaters last night, but am still a little reluctant to express how i feel about it without conducting more research on the background behind the israell/palestine and arab/israeli conflict, something i admit i don't have much knowledge on. if looking at the film as a character study of the main character, however, i thought it was intriguing the portrayal of a man forced to kill and the psychological state he evolves into as the killing advances. one thing that is a little eerie is the amount of what occured at munich during the olympics was documented (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre) and how down to a T the film recaptured the moment. if anyone feels like enlightening me furthur on this, please do, i'm all ears.
--
i grabbed a few photos of my office that i'll be leaving in two weeks :-(





And this is just a shot of my workspace at home. Can you tell I'm a Nickel Creek fan? ;-)

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Currently Listening
Eye to the Telescope
By Kt Tunstall
see related
Will the real slim shady please stand up?

I think it's time for odd ball phrases to headline my entries from here on out. If anything, it'll at least piss off googlers who end up finding my joke of a site instead of eminem. It's amazing the percentage of the passer-byers who end up on this site by accident.

Total randomness but who likes hanging out in groups of three? There's a quote in the Kite Runner about cliches being the bane of writing, but, as the author ponders, why? They are true the majority of the time and absolutely capture the moment and what needs to be stated. Well, the cliche I come across with groups of three is the whole "Three's a crowd" syndrome. Too often whether it's just going out to lunch, hanging out, anything that requires conversation, one of the three is just slighted from the conversation. It takes two, not three. Again with the cliches. I had this in mind when I had lunch with three others today - It was great, two side conversations between two people each broke out for the most part.

Hmm. What did I learn? Don't catch myself in a group of three
---
If you're living anywhere within the reach of the Mike Marshall & Chris Thile tour that is ongoing, check it out! Caught them over the weekend at beautiful UC Santa Cruz, home of the now annual Mandolin Symposium :) They got us screaming MANDOCELLO!!! Mandolins, Mandola, and Mandocello playing musical range from Bach to the 25/16 time signatures of a Bulgerian trad., whew, I've never seen such mastery of anything in my life! It'll definitely stretch your ears.

new music to give a chance to:
-KT Tunstall
-The Decemberists
-Mike & Chris live duets
-Spoon

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Three random things:

1. Did you catch the Scrubs season premiere? Oh yeah, that was "Anything Can Happen" by the Finn Brothers being played as the backdrop for the entire episode! Whoever does the music there is a god!!

2. Sara of Nickel Creek's latest entry on "normalcy" and the difficulties of life as a traveling musician. I just love how she writes in such an honest and humbling manner!

3. Not that I listen to radio (aside from kfog and npr), but I've heard that not only has channel 1049 succumbed to spanish radio, but live 105 has taken away their only decent programming, Subsonic, their late Saturday night electronic music with real DJ's who (get this) spin their own music and play non-traditional stuff. Oh well. The end of rock? Will XM thrive? We'll have to wait and see.

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Currently Reading
The Kite Runner
By Khaled Hosseini
see related
Another year... One that definitely sticks out. For me, it's basically a year in two parts - Pre-CRA and after. Meeting new people and being able to finally express without regard to prior perceptions of who I was. Embracing and being embraced for what I believe now and being given the respect and esteem of colleagues around me (and by that, I don't *just* mean my kids!). It does wonders to one's confidence! Its never been more apparant than the last week or two, going back to an older life while on vacation from CRA.

A year ago I posted this same tune by, then, an unknown, although definitely known in the indie world, band, Death Cab For Cutie. Here it is, again. Click to download:

The New Year

So this is the new year.
And i don't feel any different.
The clanking of crystal
Explosions off in the distance (in the distance).

So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
For selfl assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions

So everybody put your best suit or dress on
Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
Lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
As thirty dialogues bleed into one

I wish the world was flat like the old days
Then i could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes, or speedtrains, or freeways
There'd be no distance that can hold us back.

There'd be no distance that could hold us back

So this is the new year

Was looking back at last year's year-end-blog and decided to post up my favorite shows of this year as well, with a few highlights:

U2 - April 9, 2005 - HP Pavilion, San Jose. U2, Vertigo Tour, that's about enough said.
Better Than Ezra - May 6, 2005 - Club ZOE, San Jose. Fun at a concert in a club within the confines of San Jose? It happened.
Glen Phillips - June 25, 2005 - Great American Music Hall, San Francisco. Sit-down venue, Glen solo, lots of stories, perfect acoustics.
Nickel Creek - July 28?, 2005 - Little Fox Theater, Redwood City. Probably last time ever seeing them in a 300 or less venue. Memorable for too many reasons, most of all that I got in to this private concert without a ticket and doing what a true fan would do... Show up anyways!
Coldplay - August 19, 2005 - Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View. Had seen the band a few times before, never overwhelmed, but this time they broke through.
Arcade Fire - October ?, 2005 - Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View. Part of the download festival, these are my now second favorite live band behind Nickel Creek. Damn Canadians, their infectious music has sucked me in!
Nickel Creek - December 10, 2005 - Warfield Theater, San Francisco. Yep, them again. Brought some Creekster virgins who ate the show up. Oops, not the best of phrases to have written. Great show though. Never forget cover of Britney's Toxic.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Currently Listening
Picaresque
By The Decemberists
see related
Two Asian-American films I'd recommend that just realized are now on DVD!:


The Beautiful Country - A film that exposes three unfortunate outcomes of the Vietnam War; the plight of Amerasians (half Vietnamese/half white) represented by the main character, the illegal smuggling of Asians seeking refuge to America, and the war damages to the American soldiers of the war, physical and mental. Beautifully shot and produced/directed by Norweigan directors. Nick Nolte, Tim Roth, Bai Ling star for those interested.


Saving Face - What do you do when your 48 year old mother (played gracefully by Joan Chen), widowed, is pregnant, with father unknown, while you, yourself, are gay and have yet to reveal that fact to your mother and rest of the family, and oh by the way, you are raised in the strictest of Chinese traditionalist households, with a grandfather who believes in nothing but honor? A great film that really shines on its character development and dialogue.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

I do this every year - Spend too much time thinking what albums qualify to make it to in my list of favorites for the year, but when it comes down to actually penning down reasons why, I quickly scribble down in one sitting everything, typically leaving out numerous details that I regret later on, leaving me to quietly re-edit what I had originally written, hoping that readers hadn't checked out my list just quite yet. Well, I'm doing it again, aren't I. Here, then, is a list of my favorite ten albums of the year, with the stipulation that they had to have been released this year. Of course, that leaves a lot leftover, so that gets a list in itself.

What constitutes being placed into this prestigious (not really) list? Albums that challenge me. The common theme to most of the music on this list consists of the fact that they were not immediately pleasing to the ear. As a result, most of them stretched my ear, so to speak, and required an effort from my part to realize what it was they were trying to point out. Here is last year's list, just for comparison:

U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
The Finn Brothers - Everyone is Here
The Shore - Self-titled
Scissor Sisters - Self-titled
HEM - Eveningland
Keane - Hopes & Fears
Norah Jones - Feels like Home
Vienna Teng - Warm Strangers
Mindy Smith - One Moment More
Beastie Boys - To the 5 Boroughs

Here we go, and there is a sample track download for you to take a listen to: (oh and there is no particular order, I couldn't possibly be able to justifiably rate albums on a list)


M.I.A. - Arular (Amazon - click to download)

What does she sound like? So difficult to point out. She definitely defined what I stated above. I scoffed and laughed the first time hearing this album, but her mix of world, rap, hip-hop, and dance is infectious as her politically charged lyrics is powerful.

Glen Phillips - Winter Pays For Summer (Duck and Cover)

Glen’s first (and sadly, last) album for Lost Highway Records mixes his always rich and honest lyrics with the best of the type of melodies reminiscent of his old band, Toad. His "welcome-to-reality" take on love 'True', politics 'gather', and just life in general 'duck and cover' and 'don’t need anything' are truly appreciated.


Nickel Creek - Why Should the Fire Die? (Helena)

In a sense, this is the Creekster's first true album that offers a sense of who and where they are musically. The contrasting sounds from the waltsy 'Jealous of the Moon' to the bluegrass infused 'stumptown' to the rocking 'Helena', and the three-part harmonies of 'why should the fire die', all constitute towards the idea that they just cannot be pigeon-holed into a genre. Lyrically, they've antied up and have closed the gap to their musical virtuosity.

The New Pornographers - Twin Cinemas (Jackie, Dressed in Cobras)

This has to be my musical find of the year! Originally I'd been a huge fan of Neko Case, who's only one in this "supergroup" full of musicians from Canada. How to explain them? It's difficult to find any other single group that creates a similar sound, but their unbelievably catchy power-pop sound is one that many bands should look to when defining what constitutes a great pop song. Check it out. You'll love it.

Coldplay - X&Y (Proof *not on the album, but the speed of sound single; great song)

Another album that took awhile to digest, but each listen brought clarity and revealed a much more sonically adventurous band opposed to the last two albums. Definitely worth the hype. Check out the hidden track, "'til kingdom come", originally written for Johnny Cash, but done beautifully by the band.

Sigur Ros - Takk (Gong)

Each song on this record is an adventure! This time singing in Icelandic, opposed to their Hopelandic(sp?) made up language, the band has created a much more richly melodic (and uplifiting!) album that pulls the tear strings from within you. Beautiful, powerful, doesn't need interpretation. Universal.



Ryan Adams - 2005's albums (cold roses / Jacksonville nights / 29)
How do you keep love alive? / The Hardest Part / Night Birds

Somebody take this man on a vacation! Three albums (one of which is a 2-cd set) in nine-ish months, totally unheard of! Each album is distinct from each other, with Jacksonville providing the clearest resemblance to a genre (country-folk). Standout tracks from each album: cold roses – Easy Plateau/How do you keep love alive?; Jacksonville nights - The Hardest Part; 29 - Nightbirds.



Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm (Going Through The Motions)

I really applaud Aimee's attempt at a concept album here - She tells the written story of a boxer in narrative format and breaks it up into chapters/songs, set to typically amazing Aimee driven songs. Within her digipak packaging, it becomes an experience for the participant through music, illustration, and written form. Did I mention the songs were great, too? Check out "Going through the motions".

Kanye West - Late Registration (Diamonds From Sierra Leone)

Yes, yes, we all know he’ll be famous for that line attacking Bush. But his music is just as good and deserving of the recognition. Though geared towards hip-hop, it has the ability to transcend genres and I'll tip my cap at Jon Brion for co-producing this incredibly appealing album that I hope will give Brion the credit he deserves for his bountiful amount of work.

LCD Soundsystem - Self Titled (Daft Punk is Playing at My House)

It's being complimented as this decade's "Substance" album by New Order, which is a tough billing to live up to, quite honestly, but nevertheless, these techno-infused tracks carry with them more substance (no pun intended) than that is typical. It’s got a sense of punk, rock, techno, funk, disco, etc. Most importantly, it's fun. And sometimes you just need some of that (albeit with some meat to it) after a long period of introspective music listening.

Shoulda/Coulda/Woulda

Short list of albums that didn't make the list but very well should have. Maybe they were released months before 2005 or just couldn't crack a top ten.

Sean Watkins - Blinders On
The Arcade Fire - Funeral (fall in love with their live shows!)
Ray LaMontagne - Trouble (Possibly this century's Van Morrison?)
Madeleine Peyroux - Careless Love (could I possibly love her more than Norah?)
Blue Merle - Burning in the Sun (Vocals a la Coldplay, but with a jam bite to them. They've now got fiddler extraordinaire, Luke Bulla in the band!!!)
Wilco - Kicking Television (live double-album, this side of the globe's Radiohead, sonically)
Beck - Guero
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
Wicker Park Soundtrack (Ahhh, not sure about the movie, but could just be a better soundtrack than Garden State!)