hold ourselves together with our arms around the stereo

you're going to be hearing a lot about the national this week. their 4th full-length, boxer, comes out today. we've already featured two tracks here, and i emailed a third, hauntingly sappy one to friends i miss from home. how about another?

the national - apartment story

mtv's subterranean premiered the band's video for "mistaken for strangers," track two on the album, and seven on jeff's mix. i wanna be the guy in headphones.

sam's town

I sincerely apologize for having dropped off the face of the planet like I have, but thankfully, Sam is here to rescue us all with a mix I've been listening to nonstop for the past 24 hours, and one I hope you'll spend as much time with yourself. Without ado...

SAMANTHA'S MIX: i want people to be afraid of how much they love me [pop-up player]

1. muscle 'n flo - menomena....they have shocked me, shocked me, SHOCKED ME! a lovely surprise and i haven't heard anything like it in years.

2. punctual as usual - the parson red heads....a summer video montage, driving with the windows down in a road-worn saturn, humming along "you are the ground beneath my feet."

3. a king and a queen - okkervil river....a sick, sweet waltz. and i'm a sucker for the horn intro.

4. goodbye - asobi seksu....i bought this cd on a lark when i had a free afternoon and too much money on my debit card. love from the get-go. and she inspires me to learn japanese...one day.

5. stars and sons - broken social scene....i watched half nelson on a snowy, cold saturday morning, wrapped in a blanket at my desk. he started to dance and i just knew.

6. beverly - the carrots....toe tapping, 60s girl harmony that makes me wish i was sipping lemonade and listening to vinyl, my hair up in a beehive and my feet zipped up in a great pair of go-go boots.

7. comfy in nautica - panda bear....wow.

8. wet and rusting - menomena....there's an awesome home-made video of the band members jumping up and down on mini trampolines. just makes me smile.

9. tokyo - headlights...jeff and i have debated many a time the best headlights material, and while i love the new stuff, i always come back to this song. "if home is where the heart is, then home is here." if that doesn't say it all....

10. look! - the antlers....in the attic of the universe is my most unexpected and cherished find. it just sounds like magic. anyone can download the album *FREE* at reloada.uk.com and i suggest that you do.

11. wearing the colors - the laughing....i just want to be in a dark nyc night club, wearing tight pants and grinding up on some rock and roll, indie dude that puts his eye liner on better than i do.

12. crown of love - the arcade fire...i was never a huge af fan until i saw their video at blogotheque and now i'm sifting through the material, hoping to find a real gem. this could be....? might be...? i haven't decided.

13. my moon my man - feist....1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10 reasons to love this song. :D haha, and the album for that matter. i wish i was a sealion woman.

14. snow & lights - explosions in the sky....a song i love to get lost in, lying on my floor with my eyes closed, just day dreaming.

15. goodhouses - madeline....be careful; this one will getcha. hauntingly beautiful.

16. sawdust & diamonds - joanna newsom....one long song after another, i know, but she's just such a great story teller. her voice cracks in just the right way and she's totally believable. she could sell me anything and i'd snatch it right up.

17. save your day - jose gonzalez....oh, jose. my lover, you have comforted me on so many nights. he's always ready to wipe away my harshest and fiercest of tears, with never a complaint. oh, jose. and! seeing him live was like seeing the messiah. but better.

18. holland - sufjan stevens....even sad things are beautiful.

19. the apple tree - peter and the wolf...."how lucky to be, so unusally free."

[I'm going to put this up as a ZIP file to download, but I'm having trouble archiving it. Anticipation makes the pleasure.]

--

Libra (September 23-October 22)
"There can be no transformation of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion," wrote psychologist Carl Jung. That should be your motto in the coming week, Libra. Clear thinking and impeccable logic will not be sufficient to guide you to your next great adventure. You need the driving force of succulent emotion rising up in your solar plexus, the lush power of raw sensitivity piercing your heart. Feel as deep as you dare.

just a reminder

while we're at it, another great.

this is why we gather here.

:)

for mark

allen ginsberg - howl
allen ginsberg & tom waits - america

chew on this

charles bukowski - dinosauria, we

born like this
into this
as the chalk faces smile
as Mrs. Death laughs
as the elevators break
as political landscapes dissolve
as the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree
as the oily fish spit out their oily prey
as the sun is masked

we are
born like this
into this
into these carefully mad wars
into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
into bars where people no longer speak to each other
into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings

born into this
into hospitals which are so expensive that it's cheaper to die
into lawyers who charge so much it's cheaper to plead guilty
into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes

born into this
walking and living through this
dying because of this
muted because of this
castrated
debauched
disinherited
because of this
fooled by this
used by this
pissed on by this
made crazy and sick by this
made violent
made inhuman
by this

the heart is blackened
the fingers reach for the throat
the gun
the knife
the bomb
the fingers reach toward an unresponsive god

the fingers reach for the bottle
the pill
the powder

we are born into this sorrowful deadliness
we are born into a government 60 years in debt
that soon will be unable to even pay the interest on that debt
and the banks will burn
money will be useless
there will be open and unpunished murder in the streets
it will be guns and roving mobs
land will be useless
food will become a diminishing return
nuclear power will be taken over by the many
explosions will continually shake the earth
radiated robot men will stalk each other
the rich and the chosen will watch from space platforms
Dante's Inferno will be made to look like a children's playground

the sun will not be seen and it will always be night
trees will die
all vegetation will die
radiated men will eat the flesh of radiated men
the sea will be poisoned
the lakes and rivers will vanish
rain will be the new gold

the rotting bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark wind

the last few survivors will be overtaken by new and hideous diseases

and the space platforms will be destroyed by attrition
the petering out of supplies
the natural effect of general decay

and there will be the most beautiful silence never heard

born out of that

the sun still hidden there

awaiting the next chapter

-Charles Bukowski, from The Last Night of the Earth Poems, 1992

[post-thought]

random

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator
-threadless.org


I had the strangest dream last night. I slept violently, up and down between my couch and bed, each time picking up the dream where I had left it.

I remember flying, most of all. I had built a jet pack, and someone had decided to reproduce the design. I remember crash landing on a darkened suburban block. I remember a house and an open field, earlier, where an older man was tending to a giant swing set. I remember an ornate school, like a castle. I was looking for someone. I found someone, and I remember his water glass and David Mamet book. When I crash landed, I was greeted by a stranger. He told me my jet pack design didn't work, and these millions of replicas were a waste. But my own worked -- didn't it? I did crash land. The stranger took me to safety and spoke to me in confidence. I woke up to Bush's "Machinehead" LOUD on the radio in the other room and lied there awhile, enjoying the song, before thinking I'd wake neighbors and scrambling to turn it off.

Bush - Machinehead

This is very, very important. If you don't know why, google is a good place to start. I have mixes to put up still, I haven't forgotten. Most nights, I fall asleep sadly, knowing I've lost the time to post them, again. Emma, China, Sam... I owe you girls. I'll get them up soon, perhaps in a vicious triple-bill. But in the meantime, read up on this. Between it and the madness spurred on by the RIAA, there's a lot to digest...

On a lighter, more beautiful note... George Lois.