Hi.

It seems as though I've neglected this space for a while, haven't I? Ah well.

It has been quite mundane for me lately, and I must say, I kind of prefer it that way. I've been staying awake long into the night, shuffling around in the basement doing things like crosswords (which I recently learned are crucigramas en español), drawing, wrapping, playing the guitar and taking photos. (And sitting at the dryer while doing many of these). I've been enjoying myself, yes. Not much else though.

My feet are cold... I think I'm going to go for now. But I will be back!

A Dinosaur and an Old Radio

Man, that dino's swanky.

Pumpkolantern

This is my pumpkin for this year. How nice!

Jeff Mangum and Julian Koster-- 'Engine'

'Engine.'
Here it is. With the recent Elephant 6 Surprise Holiday Tour begun some week ago, it has become common knowledge amongst us Elephant 6 groupies that our hero Mr. Jeff Mangum of the late band Neutral Milk Hotel has been playing in these shows with his friends' bands. And all of us were euphoric to see him playing with his mates again. But we all had a thought in the back of our minds, well, will those crazy E6'rs do any NMH stuff? And here it is. A poor quality bootleg of Jeff and Julian performing 'Engine,' the beautiful B-side to NMH's single 'Holland 1945.' Jeff's crooning and Julian's haunting saw make me shiver. I can't even say how happy this makes me. I guess when you really look at it, I'm just a lame fangirl that got into this band too late, but I'm so ecstatic. Dreadfully, I'm not able to make it to any of the shows, but that's all right. Oh wow, Jeff Mangum and friends are out again. Holy Crap.
Anevengreatervideoofthissongfromyouaintnopicasso...Merci to E6Townhall and Pitchfork for following this so closely, and all the photos and videos. The photo is by Josh Modell and can be seen Here. Oh, and of course youaintnopicasso.com.

An Orange Door

Beck + MGMT

Last night, I accompanied my mum to a concert to see her idol, Mr. Beck Hansen.
We were lucky enough to get right up to the fence in front of the stage, and had a perfect view of everything. The now-popular band MGMT were opening, and having seen them open a show before, I knew we wouldn't be disappointed.
MGMT began their set with 'Electric Feel,' keeping it going without many breaks between songs. 'Kids,' was probably the best, with that great song embellished with a trippy strobe light effect. My statement I made last year after seeing them open for of Montreal still holds true-- they're the best opening band EVER.
And then there was Beck. He was dressed quite dapper, as usual, and being quite the cutie. They opened with a rocking and high energy performance of 'Loser' that got the night going full force. They played stuff from all over his career, including newer ones like a beautiful live show of 'Chemtrails,' and 'Nausea,' as well as our favorite classics 'Where It's At,' and 'Devil's Haircut' (a personal favorite). And all those other great ones like 'Lost Cause', 'I Think I'm in Love,' and their counterparts, of course. The set was a really great and long one for a set these days, and the encore was four good songs, starting with a birthday song to Scottie the drummer, and including the new-ish 'Gamma Ray.' 'Tis safe to say nobody left disappointed.
Anyway, in the end, Beck is bloody amazing, and if you ever get the chance, do go to see him!
I don't even know where I found the photo...

916

So, it's 916. The significance? Well,

my favorite band of ever, the pillows, formed on this very day in 1989. So, today is their nineteenth anniversary, and for us fans, it's a tradition of sorts to recognize this day every year. So it leads me to wonder: what has the future in store for our beloved Sawao, Yoshiaki, Shin, and Jun? They're showing no signs of slowing, so I guess we'll have to wait and see, yes?

Band photo found on the 2005 SXSW site.

Quirkiness

I've been thinking about how wonderful people's strange little quirks are. Life would be terribly boring if nobody had an odd little habit they do regularly.
The other day, I was sitting at a bench at the mall, when I spotted a young-ish man, he couldn't have been older than 25, in a burgundy tee shirt, walking and singing loudly to himself. He strolled by singing some lovely song, and disappeared into the book store. At first, I thought, why, that's odd, because I don't generally see people singing to themselves when they are walking alone. But a few seconds later, after he was gone, I wished I would have stopped him, and at least asked, what song are you singing?
I really liked this fellow-- because he has a wonderful idiosyncrasy of singing aloud. These quirks are great. I love to see all the little eccentricities of the world come out.

Spilled Milk

Scooters

Here are some scooters I have found parked on various streets. I really like the mod little transports, and you don't see them around very often anymore, so whenever I spot one I take a photo.

This is a pale blue Vespa ca. 1964. Ace, no?















This is a cute yellow Stella I found parked in Minneapolis. It has a little reference to a television series featuring the music of the pillows, so it stuck out to me.

Factory CD

I recently was on Ebay, and I stumbled across the coveted Factory CD from Japan. Released in 2000, it's basically just a silly compilation of different songs from different bands. It includes, however, a song that pleases me very much by a favorite band of mine, Noodles. It's called ヘッドフォンオーケストラ (Headphone Orchestra), and it's an absolutely wonderful guitar pop song. ヘッドフォンオーケストラ was only released on the aforementioned compilation, so I was pretty happy in finding this. I purchased it new for a mere $14 from Taiwan (no, not a bootleg), from a Mr. William Cheng (check his store out), and it arrived in the post a few days ago. You can check out a live of the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpqcwi0gLLQ

Happy Birthday, Nelson!

Ah yes, so today is our beloved Madiba Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday. 90 years young, he is. Cliché, yes, but oh, it's true. I think Mr. Mandela needs a little more recognition with the younger generation, and the world in general. We musn't forget about the man with the white hair. You're a hero-- Madiba, I salute you!

Glasses

I got some new glasses today, I absolutely love them. Walking bespectacled is so amazing to me-- I can see again! How novel!