tencent mix #3: the melody of pseudoscience

Understand nature. Understand yourself. It's feng shui (literally wind-water) in a very small nutshell. Sound hokey? As a kid, I always brushed aside the idea as one of those age-old Chinese superstitions (Why can't the mirror go there?), but the concept is pretty straight-forward: Surround yourself in a healthy environment and good things will happen. Let's hope this is The Truth.

The mix is self-explanatory. I'll point out some notable tracks:

Wasp Nest / The National
It's Hipster, with a cap H! and some of the best lyrics around. As an aside, the lead singer is very fashionable and dreamy to the nth degree. Their most recent album, Boxer, is arguably one of the best of 2007. Slow Show gets me every time.

Rolling Down The Hill / Glass Candy
Toe-tap-tastic! Your feet will move like Baby Velma. If you haven't seen an episode of Scooby-Doo where the cast members are all smaller versions of their future selves, then you've missed out on some glorious childhood entertainment. Baby Velma's feet moved like lightning!

Maybe the fast feet were to make up for the adult-size head on the child-like body. If I remember correctly, however, ALL the characters were that way. It was part of their charm. But no one moved like Baby Velma! No one.

Carrying A Stone / Loney, Dear
Starts off as a soft whisper and crescendos into fantastical goodness. Those Swedes know how to make some delicious music. Mostly I'm partial to 'Ahhhh Ahhhh Ahhh's' and sweet, sweet orchestral work. Did I just use sweet and orchestral in the same sentence? I most certainly DID.

Shake Our Tree / The Rosebuds
Hailing from the indie rock scene of Raleigh, NC (Home of the Wolf Pack!), here's a song from The Rosebuds' 2005 record, Birds Make Good Neighbors. The call and choir response format undoubtedly MAKES the song a keeper in the playlists.

I'll keep the current one up until the next mix post. If you'd like a copy of any mix in a more tangible technological format, ie cd or mix tape, email me with an address, and I'll make it happen.

Happy listening! Can I get a disco ball back here?....

tencent mix #2: a salute to my hot pink, NKOTB fanny pack

I'm certain that I get more hipster cred than I know what to do with. In watching Harold & Kumar for the ump-teenth time and having discovered Owen Pallett's rendition of Mariah Carey's 'Fantasy' (Thanks, Alex!), I start to wonder where it all comes from. Maybe it's the beat-up Keds. Perhaps it's the graphic t's and excessive (to offensive) amount of java-drinking. More often than not, I'm sure it's having bands like Okervil River, Arcade Fire, Sunset Rubdown, and Beirut on my playlist.

Let's revisit Harold & Kumar for just one moment.

Can you remember when Harold steals the 'extreme' Jeep from those jerks at the Quick-E Mart? Remember what song they sing? That's right -- Wilson Phillips. Hold On.

Sooooooo not hipster.

But I know all the words. And I LIKE that Wilson, and that Phillips. I unabashedly admit to it. So I'm making a mix in honor of a few of the pop gems I discovered in my formative -- Casey Kasem listening, when-MTV-played-videos -- grade school years.

Here's a salute to my hot pink NKOTB fanny pack, and a head nod to the dichotomy that is me.

oh, the people we meet

The past few weeks and weekends have been pret-ty darn craaaaazy. And I've met quite the array of interesting people:

1) Miss Rhoda (Trip to Midtown Tavern, not to be confused with the Cinema): You don't have to be Encyclopedia Brown in the schoolyard, or Detective Poirot on the Orient Express, to figure out that a pint-size glass of Alabama Slamma looks nothing like a pint-size glass of White Russian. And so, we find Miss Rhoda, on a snowy weeknight, having one too many. On most occasions, even while inebriated, I'd hope that I could tell the difference between the likes of Koolade and a tall glass of cream. But, alas, this distinction was not in Miss Rhoda's situational skill set.

(Pay attention now!)
A chance encounter with Miss Rhoda.
OMGY? Or OMGN? Jury's still out.

2) The J-man (From Colorado with love, via the United States Postal Service): My one and only Valentine's Day card this year said something like this -- 'Jesus loves you. Jesus loves us all.' Thanks for relaying the message, Val and Crider.

3) Lady at Walgreens (Trip to my birthplace, Morgantown, WV): Every once in a while, if you have one dimple and a stellar personality, people will tell you all about their near-life altering or ending experience at the Mon General Hospital across the street -- without you even asking. And this could all happen whilst eating Circus Peanuts (still grrrrooooosssss!, btw).

4) Mr. Circus Peanut, revisited (Trip to Walgreens): If I wanted to eat pure sugar and have it be a pleasing experience, I simply would eat Sugar In The Raw. If I wanted to eat pure sugar and have it be an unpleasant experience, it would be orange, and peanut shaped. I'll always remember, Mr. Circus Peanut -- how I gave you a chance, and all you gave me in return was the taste of rotten banana.

5) Mr. Feta Turkey Burger from Wegmans (Trip to Market St): Circus peanuts, turkey burgers. Not people, I know, but you react to them like you react to people. Like it / don't like it. Etc, etc.

So recently, my taste buds gave turkey burgers a try. Let me just say, there's nothing quite like the marriage of meats and cheeses on a George Foreman grill. And meeting this couple for the very 1st time? Mmm-licious! Nom nom nom...

What was it that I placed on top of my turkey burger? Why, more cheese of course! Two thumbs up for grilled cheesy-laden turkey patties, topped with cheesiness, in a garlic-butter toasted bun.

tencent mix #1: greyskyblue

This is an exercise in nostalgia and self-reflection.

Just the other day, I was at your regular bookstore, wearing my mom's homemade scarf, sippin' Seattle's Best coffee, and playing the role of bookstore browser. I was drawn to a graphically-pleasing book, covered mostly in mono-spaced, typewriter font, entitled 'Four Letter Word: Invented Correspondence from the Edge of Modern Romance.' As I was flipping through each new page (I love the feeling of new pages between the fingers), I was reminded of a handful of letters I'd written and an excellent cyber-conversation I had with Alex the iBanker on the topic of nostalgia -- where I espoused, like the cheesiest of cheeseballs, the following:

I think the thing about [it] is that feeling of closure -- or I guess, the feeling of something old ending and something new beginning -- but really, or at least it seems to me -- that there's no real beginning and no real end to anything. There's just stuff. We always end up digging things up from our past and wishing the good times could have been an everyday occurrence for the future. Anyway, that's my spiel on nostalgia.
[END QUOTE]

Memories throw off our tendencies to think linearly. It's not regret, per se, but an illustration that life , or our way of thinking of it, can sometimes be circuitous. But it's healthy to think of the past in order to appreciate the things you have in the present. This is a mix that sums up a group of letters I wrote about a short time in my life I value. In many ways, the exercise was cathartic. Yes, catharsis -- only without the Oedipal complex and gouging of the eyes. I happen to like my eyesight, despite my myopia -- it allows me to make analogies about a bunny and a carrot, joke about all of my keen senses, and wear cute glasses.

I apologize to the adoring fan(s). This is not a 12-song mix for The People, but there will be more of those to come. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I hope that you can find something you like amongst the riffraff of tune-age.

in a nutty nutshell

I guess there are a few things you should know about me. I'm forgoing the classical paragraph writing for list form. The reason is very simple. I *heart* list-making. So hold on to your hats....

THINGS I LIKE

1) Music: In the words of a cheesy, Depeche Mode song, I just can't get enough. And here's the reasoning behind it: There's a song for every occasion. Love found. Love lost. Love found, then lost, then found again. Rollin' with your homies. Drinking gin and juice. Rehab. Learn how to spell G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S. Shake it like a polaroid picture. Make milkshakes that bring all the boys to the yard....

You can find it all in a song. As unique as a song is to the person that's singing it or writing it, it's unique to you for all the reasons you identify with it. And there's just something about that fact I truly enjoy.

2) Growlers: Microbrews in a me-size container. True ingenuity and freshness in a bottle, at a tasty and affordable cost. Quite honestly, there's only so much Apricot Wheat a person can drink anyway, and growlers just might be the perfect Baby Bear size for sampling all of life's fermented flavors.

3) Deee-licious foods and food-making: It wasn't until recently that I decided that I enjoyed cooking. Most of it stems from being spoiled by a doting and amazing mother who loved to cook good, homestyle, authentic foods, Asian and otherwise -- and you can't get goodness like that (not where I live, at least) unless you make it yourself.

4) Letter-writing, slideshows and mix cds: Some might find it adorable. Others might find me a bumbling sap. Bottom line is I only know how be me, and I look forward to occasions where I can sit down and write a nice letter and/or make a toe-tapping mix or even a slideshow for someone; I like the sincerity of these activities.

5) Friends and travel: Friends and travel seem to go hand-in-hand, particularly when you're an active member of the fun-centric ultimate community. They end up finding each other like Britney Spears to the cuckoo's nest, and while I can't say that I'm so happy for Britney (or Kfed and the kids), I'm happy for my friends and the opportunities that arise to travel and hang LOOSE with them. At the end of March, I'll be traveling to Joshua Tree National Park with some of my best buds from the ol' alma mater, Penn State. All I can say is OMGY!!! I have no doubt that it'll rival the RV roadtrip of 2003, and there's little doubt that you'll be hearing about all the hijinks and mountain pies as well.

6) Other things I *heart*, needing no further explanation: Scratch-off lottery tix, cuddling, cheese (the edible and figurative sort), coffee, 80s movies starring John Cusack, graphic t's, Megatouch, and fried chicken....

More recently: Winning free breakfasts by spectating Mario Kart races (a sport of the 32-bit SNES variety), Guitar Hero, Vonnegut and Marquez, 3-chord guitar songs, singing in the shower, and dinner club.

There are very few things I don't like. Though, two things that continually top the list are presumption and pretension. They're like stink on shit -- and I don't like 'em. Anyway, I try to stay clear of the stinky McStinkertons that pass through every once in while. It's much nicer to smell so fresh and so clean (even if it takes a whole bar of soap to get that way).

The only problem with list-making is that I have no conclusionary paragraph to offer. I've simply run out of introductory things to say. Sorry for the abrupt nature of this ending, but that's it for now.

Cheers.