Thursday, June 03, 2010

.!.!.!.!.!.!...!.!.!.!.

Electronic Night Music Vol.3 (Oct.8th, 2009, 3:14am)

1. Dog Got A Bone - Beta Band
2. Through The Night These days - Jason Collett
3. The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill - The Beatles
4. Heather Knights(Porch version) - Buck 65
5. Bad Dream/Hartford's Beat Suite - Magik Markers
6. Please Don't Go - Floyd Dixon
7. Old Grey House - The Dinner Is Ruined
8. Five String Serenade - Mazzy Star
9. Salty Dog - Cat Power
10. Heart Of Stone - The Rolling Stones
11. Tragedy - Hayden
12. Mercy - Timber Timbre
13. The News Of Your Son - The Joel Plaskett Emergency
14. North - Phoenix
15. Indifference - Pearl Jam
16. Long As I Can See The Light - Creedence Clearwater Revival
17. Bird On the Wire - Leonard Cohen

The joy of discovering.

You ever stumble on something, a book, or a newspaper column or a website, or a magazine or something, read it and just think shit. Whoever wrote this is way smarter and way cleverer than me. You know, when you read someones opinions on stuff and they just seem more informed, and grammatically gifted than you? And witty on a level you can barely grasp? This happened to me when I first read A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. It happened the first time I discovered Charlie Brooker and Marina Hyde in the Guardian newspaper. It happens a lot when I read The Onion. And most recently it happened while I was reading the monthly email from McSweeneys Quarterly magazine. They put up a link for a website called The Rumpus. I clicked on it, and to tell you the truth I'm still trying to get my head around it. The link on McSweeneys was advertising a new book club The Rumpus have set up, but once I got on the website I just started reading snippets of all the different stuff on the site, and I signed up for the newsletter.
     I just received the latest newsletter about five minutes ago, and its why I'm writing this right now. The newsletter, and I assume most of the website is written by this guy called Stephen Elliott and the stuff he writes makes me interested, makes me laugh, makes me think and makes me despair for this world all at once. I guess like all the writers I love reading. Writers like that always give me the feeling that at anytime something they're writing might go right over my head, or simply make me pause with admiration at any moment, and it is exhilarating. But then again, I might be alone in this line of thought. I often am.
     Either way, you should check it out and judge for yourself. The Rumpus. He writes about politics and popular culture and all sorts of other random stuff. Currently he's talking quite a bit about a bill some politicians are trying to put through in San Francisco that would make it illegal for homeless people to lie down. To stop them sleeping on the streets.
    Anyway, you should check it out and if your interested or haven't already done so you should also look out for Marina Hyde and Charlie Brooker in the Guardian. Their respective columns(and books) make for hilarious and very satisfying reading. Writers like them give me hope in this increasingly hopeless world. Sorry if that sounds grim. I didn't mean to put you in a downer, friend. If it helps my neighbours have three giant gorgeous black Newfoundland dogs named Oscar, Angus and Yogi. They are the gentlest dogs you'll ever meet. I try to stop by and see them at least once a day. Oscar is my favourite. He has a grumpy old man face and tries in vain to make people think he's intimidating but he can't hide his gentle nature. His eyes give it away. Hope that brightened you up a little bit. Now go read The Rumpus.