I’ve convinced myself that Feist’s I Feel It All video (I am in awe, I love it) influenced the first two thirds of Maggie Rogers’ video for Alaska… after which it’s no longer one take and falls apart for me, but I still love the song. I can find no evidence to support my hunch other than Maggie’s mention of Feist in this interview from 2013, have a look anyway.
How do I know if I love you
I found this video sometime in March or April and I’ve been meaning to post it since then, though there’s so much more about it that hits home now:
So many reasons to love someone; so many people to love for specific, incomplete reasons; so much hair-pulling over whether or not the “right person” (if there even is one) can ever meet all expectations; the combination of fear and relief inherent in choosing to extract oneself from that binary way of thinking; and wide-eyed wonder at the paradoxical experience of feeling simultaneously so free and so committed.
But mostly it delights me that my Dancing, Philosophy model human (see 0.33-0.36 in the video) doesn’t come in a box, that he doesn’t have an off button, and that he is moving with me to New Zealand.
Rainy day perfection
I can’t believe I’m just discovering this now, it’s fitting my current keyhole perfectly. (I previously posted my favorite version of this song here.)
Inner struggles
In search of home
This song is everything I need right now:
As a words person, I’m frantically trying to learn the language it takes to describe the sonic landscapes that are really doing it for me these days, and thanks to everyone who’s been patient with me in trying to get more of it into my system (Evan Scott Matt and for the Flume tip, Samyak)!
It’s got all the swelling instrumentation, sweet layered vocals, and slow-attack bass of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvrCEsazZ5M
…but with far more appropriate lyrics for my current state of mind: that strange sort of “anticipated grief” or pre-nostalgia that comes on the verge of a purposeful decision that’s going to change a Whole Lot all at once. [I’ve written previously about the related feelings that come after the shift.]
Plus a healthy dose of the same overall feeling — that I love, by the way — of Continue reading “In search of home”
Ella Fitzgerald, master of wabi sabi
While I’m on a roll with the live performance theme, here’s my favorite botched lyrics performance ever:
What I didn’t realize until just now is that she actually won two Grammy awards as a result of her amazing recovery, thanks again Google!
Live music + visual art = yes please
I just caught a fascinating performance on KALW, a live interpretation of an essay written by an inmate comparing and contrasting two photographs of movie screens with eerie music in the background… was hoping I’d be able to Google up the photographs described and was thrilled to find a video of the entire performance:
I was quite moved by the live music / commentary + film performed during Brent Green and Sam Green: Live Cinema at the Exploratorium a month ago
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFYHMKjEY9l/?taken-by=aelizabethu
and so if I weren’t going to be out of town that weekend, I would definitely be checking out Paul Dresher Ensemble’s They Will Have Been So Beautiful: The Electro-Acoustic Band In Concert with Guest Artist Amy X Neuburg at Z Space:
Continue reading “Live music + visual art = yes please”
4+1 ways to boggle your brain!
[Meta Method 1, Part 1] First, fall in love with this exact version of Andrew Bird’s Tables and Chairs, and listen to it at least once per week for a decade (give or take one year):
[Method 2] All the while, contemplate its lyrics, wondering in particular whether he is painting a picture of a utopian or dystopian future*… and in either case,
[Method 3] ask yourself both what this perspective might reveal about your professional calling’s current overlap with the FinTech industry, and finally,
[Method 4] debate whether either of the above matter in the short term, if at all.
[Meta Method 1, Part 2] Then, watch this video of him playing the same song (while marveling again at both his incredible talent AND how privileged we are to witness live performances):
Appreciating the wizards behind the musical curtains
Last night I drove up to Sonoma to see, among other bands that I like, Sandy’s play in a barn at the Huichica Music Festival.
One of the things I really appreciate about live performances, and especially intimate ones like last night’s, is that we get to experience all the work that we hear the results of but never get to see on the records: the load-in, the sound checks, the broken strings and forgotten lyrics, the moments of accidental ear-piercing feedback, and the communication between the musicians and people like Jeremy Harris behind the soundboard supporting Sandy’s.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGiw0akkY3e/?taken-by=aelizabethu
Jeremy ripped it up onstage during Vetiver‘s set later in the night. A lovely human being in general, Continue reading “Appreciating the wizards behind the musical curtains”
Interconnected journeys / imagined realities
1
Sometime back in 2012 or so, Geoff played this record for me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZKV3EOj72g&list=PLBWtPvMJyoMHiDN4eKxwj7Fs9vP9OkJzh
2
About a month ago I listened to Scott’s Ethereal Drifting mix again for the first time in a while and I cracked right open starting at about 13:30 (start from 7:06 for a good entry point for the connection I’m making here, but please listen to the whole thing at some point!):
Continue reading “Interconnected journeys / imagined realities”
Elizabeth Ü 