A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That
Sorry I missed Talk Like a Pirate Day, kids. I’ve been a bit busy. And sick.
Speaking of busy, we drove by a large poster tonight:
End the War Now!
Protest 10/27
11am
SF Civic Center
Not to quibble, but that’s not exactly “Now!” is it? I mean, I can see how “End the War a Few Weeks from Now!” lacks a certain urgency, but still… It must have been awkward to raise your hand in the meeting and say that you’d love to end the war, but with Columbus Indigenous People’s Day and Sweetest Day coming up, you really couldn’t fit it in until the end of the month.
Priorities, people.
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Seven words that haven’t stopped being fun to say: Boston Red Sox, American League East Champions.
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It’s not surprising that The Shepherd’s Dog is a fantastic record. What is surprising is that it’s my least favorite Iron & Wine LP to date. How did this happen? I think Josh Hurst nails it:
There’s a reason that all the reviews are talking about the production rather than the songs themselves. It’s partly because the production is so lavish, but it’s partly because it frequently overshadows the songs themselves. Listen to the album once, twice, even several times and you’ll be sure to remember little textural moments or production choices, but melodies are harder to recall. Each song comes forward with a different production gimmick, and so much stuff clutters the surface of these songs that the depth of the songs themselves is crowded out of the picture.
The album is an intricate joy to listen to, but I can’t understand why anyone would choose to obscure or filter Sam Beam’s voice. I’d sooner shave his beard.
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Looking at the calendar this month, I see that National Character Counts Week is coming up.
I can hardly wait to see what the President is going to do to top last year.
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Um, did someone just spam my post turning comment spam into poetry… with poetry?
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The last two books I’ve read have been Working for Yourself and Getting Things Done. Tonight, I start making my way through Tax Savvy for Small Business. And sometime in the next week, I buy my first copy of Quickbooks. Wheeeee!
I really hope this will all be worth it in the end.
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In other news, I like fire. And cameras with slow shutter speeds.
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Seven more words that should be fun to say for another week and a half: Radiohead’s In Rainbows, Downloadable on October 10.
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But wait a minute… to get “Down Is the New Up” and “4 Minute Warning” and some of the other new songs, you’re telling me that I have to buy the special “discbox” for 40 dollars? Well, that seems like a lot, but I guess I’d probably spring for it —
Sorry, what’s that you say? It’s not dollars, it’s Pounds?!?
Wow. You sure know how to take the fun out of those seven words.
*sigh*
3 Ripples from “A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That”
Jim says:
October 1, 2007 at 2:10 am
Your reading list sounds, uh, enthralling. I love those books with pictures of guys in suits smiling at you from the cover, that or pictures of dogs. I’m sure you weren’t able to put those bastards down.
Hope that works out for you!
Streak says:
October 1, 2007 at 4:15 am
which Iron & Wine is your favorite? And besides Radiohead, any new music coming out in the next month or so that catches your eye?
zalm says:
October 1, 2007 at 7:25 am
I’m tempted to go with Our Endless Numbered Days, since Sam introduced a bit of percussion — an element that has become more central and more interesting with each release. But if I could keep only one, I think it would still be The Creek Drank the Cradle. The debut is just so quietly arresting and timeless. And “Upward Over the Mountain” is still my favorite I&W song.
Aside from the Sigur Rós DVD/Best of CD combo coming out in early November, I actually don’t have a whole lot on my radar for the next month or so. I’m still catching up on the past week, really, as I haven’t yet gotten the new José González or The Weakerthans or Erin McKeown discs.
I guess Beirut’s The Flying Club Cup still hasn’t officially come out yet, although eMusic released it early, and it’s wonderful. Beyond that, if you haven’t checked out this year’s albums from The National, Joe Henry or Over the Rhine, you really should. I think they’re all in eMusic.
Ack! I just pulled up a schedule of upcoming releases to find out that Alison Krauss is putting out an album with… wait for it… Robert Plant. (Hey, you got Plant in my Krauss! No I don’t, you got Krauss in my Plant!) Maybe that will work, but it just seems like a Whole Lotta Scary to me.