tencent mix #4: timestamp, the open road

I once promised Alex the iBanker a teleportation device, so that we might visit and play whenever we please. Until I have a better grasp of wormholes, the string theory, and the space-time continuum, the both of us will have to stick with driving and our love for -- and freakishly similar tastes in -- indie and pop music, to keep us company.

This mix is for you, Alex. Sadly, it seems that I'll have to trade the automobile (zoom zoom...) for a jet plane very soon.

Here are a few additions to The List:

1) Lacrosse
2) Short story edition of The New Yorker
3) Pac Sun

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.

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.