Thirty years ago on July 31st, I returned to Seattle after spending five years in Tokyo. This last weekend, I made a mix to mark the occasion. Continue reading
Lists
August 16, 2018 (Elvis is still dead.)
On this day, I revisit one of my favorite mixes:
August 16, 2002 (Elvis is still dead.)
total playing time: 1:16:48
The Time – Dreamland (abridged)/Pandemonium (Paisley Park/Warner Bros.)
Elvis Vs. JXL – A Little Less Conversation (radio edit) (RCA)
James Brown – Sex Machine (Polydor)
Scritti Politti – Scritti Politti Turntable Mix by Mastermind (Wizard of the Turntable) (Hypnotize/Absolute/Wood Beez) (Virgin)
George Michael – Too Funky (extended)
Imani Coppola – I’m a Tree (Columbia)
Shonen Knife – Butterfly Boy (F.I. mix) (Virgin)
Seals & Crofts – Diamond Girl (Warner Bros.)
LaTour – Blue (Smash)
Was (Not Was) – Out Come the Freaks (Chrysalis)
Donna Summer – Summer Fever (Casablanca)
Prince & The New Power Generation – Gett Off (single edit) (Warner Bros.)
Rachel Sweet – Baby, Let’s Play House (Stiff)
Was (Not Was) – Elvis’ Rolls-Royce (with Leonard Cohen) (Chrysalis)
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – Summertime ’98 (SoulPower remix) (Jive)
Was (Not Was) – Look What’s Back (Chrysalis)
Elvis Presley – Such a Night (RCA) [hidden track]
55mix
55mix
PART 1 (44m 08s)
Birds Gotta Swim – Martin Mull
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
Shipping Container – Ruby Throat
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
Life, Life – Ryuichi Sakamoto
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
Here Come a Raincloud (live) – China Crisis
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
Help Me Somebody (live) – David Byrne
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
The Ink in the Well (live) – David Sylvian
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (excerpt) – Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra/Witold Rowicki
Don’t Worry About After Death (Shaka Shaka Nippon) – Melon
Theme for Great Cities – Simple Minds
Headless Chicken – Thought Gang
It’s Steeper Near the Roses – Harold Budd
PART 2 (44m 49s)
‘the moment’ (excerpt) – The Art of Noise
O.D. (Optimistic Depression) – Melon
‘the moment’ (excerpt) – The Art of Noise
The Flat Earth – Thomas Dolby
Firefly – Vertigo Angels
‘the moment’ (excerpt) – The Art of Noise
A Bridge to the Rings of Saturn – dip in the pool
Blackstar (pt 1) – David Bowie
The Day it Rained Forever – Nick Heyward
Blackstar (pt 2) – David Bowie
Next – Skylab
Speak to Me/Breathe/Breathe (reprise) – Pink Floyd
(16 March 2018)
Recent reading
Between bouts of worrying about everything going to shit, I have managed to do some reading.
Continue reading
The last day of 2017
Imagine the dumpsters in the photo above on fire, and you’ve got a good depiction of what the past year has been for a lot of us.
On this last day of 2017, I: Continue reading
Xmas 2017 Mix
For the first time in maybe two or three years, I am listening to more than just a couple of Xmas songs. I haven’t been feeling it the last couple of Xmases (I’m still not, if I’m to be completely honest), so watching my usual batch of Xmas movies (It’s a Wonderful Life, Scrooged, The Ref, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, 1941, and especially Bad Santa (the director’s cut, of course) has been about as much as I have been willing to do.
Now and then I have made Xmas mixtapes or mixdiscs, but have not really made an effort in that direction for a few years now. A couple of days ago, I did make a mix that I could dub to cassette and play in the car (the CD player hasn’t worked for a couple of years now, so I listen to cassettes instead), but did not put together a proper mix this year until today.
Here it is: Continue reading
My contributions to the culture, 2017
As we head into the final month of this dumpster fire of a year—all feast or famine, with bouts of depression, more car problems, having to rebuild my website, and general disgust with the state of the world—I need to step back for a moment and reflect on the things I was able to accomplish.
Here we go:
A few recommended poetry books this December
Here is a list of some books of poetry that I have enjoyed, and thus recommend. (I know I have missed a couple, so I will amend as necessary.) Most of the books on this list I purchased this year.
Falling in Love with Picking Myself up—Talicha Johnson (self-published)
Crybaby—Caitlyn Siehl (Words Dance Publishing)
Not Aloud—Christopher J. Jarmick (MoonPath Press)
Tempest of Stars—Jean Cocteau, translated by Jeremy Reed (Enitharmon)
Holy Robots—Vasilina Orlova (Gutenberg Printing Press Independent Group)
The Purple Wash—Minnie A. Collins (self-published)
I could not find any links about this book, but I do know you can get copies from Third Place Books’ Seward Park store in South Seattle.
A Lesser Love—E. J. Koh (Pleiades Press)
Maintaining Survival—Haley Hendrick (self-published)
All the Odes—Pablo Neruda, edited by Ilan Stavans (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Book of David: A Coming of Age Tale—Lola E. Peters (self-published)
Make Yourself Happy—Eleni Sikelianos (Coffee House Press)
(1 December 2017—updated 26 December)
Encore presentation: 1987
Upon discovering that Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ was released on this day 30 years ago, I was going to compile a list of songs from 1987. But that list failed to capture what it was that made that year in music such a significant one for me. Thus, I compile and re-post the entries in my abandoned effort five years ago to recount my life that year through music and mixtapes: Continue reading
Recent reading
For a long time, I have had trouble taking the time to sit and read. I’m not one of those folks who doesn’t read—but, unless the book is non-fiction, there’s always that internalized voice telling me that I should be doing ‘something more productive’.
Recently, however, I have been trying to change that. I started by finishing Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84, which I first began reading in late 2011 or early 2012, getting maybe three or four chapters in. Eventually, I got rid of the book, figuring I would never get around to reading the whole thing. But then I bought a paperback copy in 2015, this time getting maybe nine or ten chapters in, then reading an additional chapter or two every few months. Finally, I resolved to finish it, which I accomplished a few weeks ago.
Since then, I have read a few more books, and am currently alternating among three (one fiction, one non-fiction, one poetry). So, I thought this was a good time for a recap of the books I have read this year:
Read/Completed
- Holy Robots—Vasilina Orlova
- IQ84—Haruki Murakami
- The Game of Love and Death—Martha Brockenbrough
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass—Lewis Carroll
- Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House—Eric Hodgins
- Different Every Time: The Authorised Biogaraphy of Robert Wyatt—Marcus O’Dair
In progress
- Colour Me in Cyanide & Cherries—Mirjana M. Inalman
- There’s a Riot Going On—Peter Doggett
- The Book of Embraces—Eduardo Galeano
(13 July 2017)
Ordinary Average Thoughts 