My latest art was the Thiebaud exhibit at the de Young in SF. My friend is a huge fan of his, and I too love his paintings. He's the cake painter. There's something about the starkness of his paintings and the way he creates an aura around the subjects that is really satisfying to look at.
Mostly when I work I listen to soundtracks as background music. I use the Sleep Cycle app still to fall asleep to, although I don't need it as much as a I did a couple of years back. It has some sort of "wind rustling dried leaves" noise that I like. When I was having a lot of trouble, I used sleep yoga in the FitOn app. My favorite was a guy named DeAndre.
I cannot fall asleep to music either probably on account of the whole master's degree in music composition. My go-to if I cannot sleep are audiobooks. I put one of those on and can be asleep within minutes.
I've written a little about the whole appreciation of art thing over on my own dumb website. I've got thoughts. I've railed a little about the snobification of art. I blame Richard Wagner. He was really bad about the whole "you will sit there in stony silence and appreciate my music."
Tantacrul has a wonderful YouTube video on the subject of snobs commandeering art.
I'll even do the whole "just look at it or listen to it and pay attention to how it makes you feel" thing one better. I've argued that you don't have to think or feel anything at all. There's a whole "we must feel everything strongly" thing that goes around, and I've argued you can just skip that.
I prefer the quiet delights of art where maybe it touches you and maybe it doesn't, maybe you feel strongly and maybe you don't. It's all good. It's all okay. Stop letting the snobs and gatekeepers tell you what to think or feel about art. They're just trying to bully you, ignore them.
Yeah it wasn't until KB said that all her brain did was perk up about notes and chords or whatever that I realized music people might not like to sleep to music, or be unable to, and a masters in music composition would basically rule you right out! I love that an audiobook knocks you out -- I can't sleep when I hear people talking.
And yeah, just sitting with art, period, is an excellent choice.
Happy Birthday Tim! Reading your posy and commenting as I am walking out of Oracle Park so may you have a better birthday evening than the Giants. (Yes, that's a low fucking bar. 😉)
It was an excellent birthday, so thank you. I mean, I DID have Hicks as my fantasy baseball starting pitcher that night so, not all great....Sigh. I'm wondering if they'll ever pull the cord on the Hicks as starter thing given that they promised him. But I would sure like him to switch roles with Birdsong.
Hicks was a bit frustrating but not all that bad. The fielding last night had some uncharacteristically bad errors and then of course it just got out of hand.
I still dropped him. Probably shouldn't have, but I do have too much pitching. Of course, I would not drop him in the real world. He'll work out the kinks and be fine.
The art stuff really resonated with me. I was oh so fortunate, like your son, that my parents felt travel was as important an education as college. Many of those same museums in Italy (and France and the Netherlands) just opened up new worlds to me and I've sought out art ever since.
Love the Wilco video.
I like our white noise machine for sleeping, though sounds of rain or the ocean work well too. All of these things work not just for going to sleep, but staying asleep if you happen to have a partner that snores.
It IS everywhere. Also, timely! Love it. Thanks for sharing. One day I'll be able to say, "We ent to London today." Can't wait. In the meantime, it'll have to be "Flew to Portland last night."
Jeff Tweedy looks so young in that video! I love seeing him that young but also know how tortured he was from the drugs and mental stuff.
I'm the snorer. (Raises hand.) It's tragic, but true.
And yeah, I think travel is a great teacher. My family of origin never traveled and it just wasn't an option. I didn't go to NY until I was 30 (I won some Hearst thing and they flew me out). Later, I went for THR a bunch of times and brought my then 8th grade son with me and he was just bounding down the streets of Manhattan and on the subway and through Grand Central Station like he owned the place. It was his first trip and he was definitely changed after that.
Yeah, I can't believe Tweedy was that young, or any of us were ever that young, but I guess there is photographic evidence.
That's another great story about your son. He's got an adventurous life ahead of him, I predict. I got the travel bug when I was young, and here I am about to turn 67 and it has never gone away.
Tim, as someone who cannot go to sleep without having a podcast droning in my ear (the main one I listen to, "Sleeping with Celebrities," is actually meant for people who are trying to sleep), I use a product called SleepPhones so I don't disturb my husband. It's a soft headband with built-in earphones.
I have loved seeing art on a massive scale at places like the Rijksmuseum, the Louvre (Delacroix!) and the Metropolitan Museum. Since the pandemic I've developed a lot of anxiety around traveling and don't know when and if I'll ever get to experience art in person again (maybe I can eventually work up the courage to go across the bay to SFMOMA or the DeYoung), but those are some great memories. Your son is very lucky indeed.
There's really something about scale, isn't there? It's always my favorite memory. There was even a reference to that in one of the series on Hulu I wrote about -- "Culprits," where someone is talking about seeing Rothko at the Tate (which I haven't since I've never been to England, which seems now to be kind of crazy to me). And of course the up close detail of any work -- no photos do the originals any justice.
Yep. I had a collector client who coined it. Really a perfect mashup word, pairs well with anything!
I’m not opposed to natural wine per se, it’s the positioning of it as inherently better (or better for you) that I’m touchy about.
Plus, the great ones that “transcend experimental” often are sold at prices rivaling traditional stalwarts (due to scarcity/demand). It’s the automatic pooh-poohing of classic wines emanating from that camp the I bristle at. And talk about anticipointment!
Truth is, I’m open to it all, it’s the tunnel vision marketing, this concept/varietal/region above ALL else that rankles.
I’ve had plenty of not good natty wine. Part of the appeal is that it’s not so stodgy and tannic and manipulated, but when it goes sideways there’s dissatisfaction for sure. I love the price point. I don’t love when longtime faves move well up in price. But there’s always something that comes along that replaces it.
When I was growing up, we did not have any art on the walls although it was obvious my mother had an eye for aesthetics. Unconventionally for the time, the walls in the main rooms of our house were painted gray with crisp white trim complimented with gray carpeting. Our kitchen had a deep red enameled ceiling. But no art on the walls. It puzzled me a bit as I grew up because I felt drawn like a magnet to paintings and sculpture. I drew and painted myself, dabbled in clay. Art has always moved me and spoken to me. To me, film and tv (and music) are of course art forms too I greatly appreciate. I was so fortunate to be able to buy a beautiful plein air impressionist landscape painting in Paris many years ago. As I was contemplating this very expensive (for me) purchase, the young sales woman in the art gallery at the time asked me whether I would regret buying the painting or not buying it. The answer was easy. I live in a very tiny space right now and the only wall big enough to hang the painting is in my extremely tiny bedroom, but it’s the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I see before I go to sleep. This calm, peaceful painting has given me enormous pleasure all these years, I have never regretted buying it.
Yes, the size of David in person is staggering.
Philosophy is great but sometimes only bloodshed will do. On that note, I’ve watched the first two episodes of Mobland (on Paramount, I’m doing a free trial) and it’s very entertaining. Irish mayhem, Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren with Guy Richie directing, what’s not to love.
It sounds like your mother very much had an eye for aesthetics. I love that she was able to use paint to fill the hole at least partially from art. Oh and I love that you bought a painting in Paris and lugged it home and it's given you so much joy over the years. Great story. Thank you for sharing. I haven't done Paramount but I like the sound of Mobland. Given how many people have it I'm probably going to add it soon. Oh, and to your comment above, my son really is appreciative of the experience. It's not lost on him that I never had a chance to do that and also that he's very lucky. Didn't even have to coax it out of him -- he said it a lot on the trip, usually after having seen something ming blowing (and life changing). I couldn't be happier and don't regret the investment, just like your painting!
I actually didn’t lug the painting home with me from Paris. I wanted a different frame on it so they had to ship it to me. When I went to the airport to pick up the painting my heart was racing. It was if I was meeting a lover I’d had a brief affair with. Would I still love the painting? Was I crazy? It came incased in this incredibly sturdy wooden box and when I got it home and removed it from the box, I knew I had made the right decision.
Travel really is broadening and mind blowing. I’m glad your son is having that experience and that you were able to give that to him. My son at 16 got to go to Germany to visit an exchange student he befriended in his school and it really made an impact on him. Tim, you of all people, if you’ve never been to Europe you must find a way to go.
I spend way too much time sitting at my desk typing reports so I can appreciate listening to beats. I've found math rock works well for me, but I'm a prog rock fan at heart. This playlist is fairly typical.
As someone who was ingrained in the 90s American math rock scene and recently discovered that the genre had quite the resurgence in Japan (and lots of those bands are jaw-droppingly good), I am thankful for this playlist!
You probably did, you just might not have realized it!
In the late 80s, the post-Minor Threat hardcore punk scene got tired of the macho aggression and started "Revolution Summer," a wellspring of bands that experimented with different moods and textures. Bands like Dag Nasty, Soul Side, Rites of Spring, and Embrace came out of this. By extension of the latter two, Fugazi was formed. I'm sure you know Fugazi.
That influence rippled out through the 1990s underground punk scene. Instead of 4/4 verse-chorus-verse songs that raged in one-dimensional anger, bands went theatric with dynamics, crazy time signatures, odd song structures, and incredibly tight technical playing. Punk that was on the complex end was "mathy" and as various subgenres splintered out, the sound could be heard in early versions of emo, aughts-era indie rock, and metalcore. Or, to put it in Joe Lynch terms, punk had a prog moment.
Hal al Shedad (the first band I remember being described as "math rock")
That's not a chronological evolution, but it shows how the sound evolved from punk into what the Japanese "math rock" sound is now. But a lot of modern indie rock carries DNA back towards this era of punk, so it's probably in your subconscious.
This was a relaxing post to read! I completely agree with you on art. Who cares if you don’t know anything. Just look at the painting and see if you feel anything!
Sometimes I am puzzled by what music critics like and I realize it’s because I am a music first/lyrics second listener. The music has to grab me before I even consider delving into lyrics. To my ears, sometimes songs with great lyrics don’t work for me because they get in the way of the music. But obviously they sometimes can really come together. Right now that’s Alison Krauss and Union Station’s new album Arcadia. I have been listening nonstop. It’s a bleak record! Which seems appropriate for 2025. Lots of tragedy in American history. Not to mention a chilling song on fascism. The interesting thing is I tend to shy away from dark/bleak books/film/TV. But give me a sad song any day. This one is about a factory in Massachusetts that went up in flames in the late 19th century. The workers, mostly children, perished:
I have added your song suggestions to my playlist.
I am with you on doing what works to fall asleep. I use headphones and listen to an audiobook. Something easy and relaxing. When I can no longer understand English I turn it off and fall asleep.
I think we should have a whole section of responses from people listing what they use to fall asleep. LOVE it. I think most people I know are roughly split between music first/Lyrics first and that's cool too. I love a great voice but I'm also a huge fan of so many singers who probably wouldn't be considered good singers so I'm always a little biased against people who are all "voice" first. I mean, clearly, that's anti-rock and roll for starters. But also, I like emotion in my singing. Not perfection.
And yes I was surprised that you like bleak music but not dark television and movies (the latter of which I knew about). Interesting!
Oh I am 100% with you on unique voices in rock and roll. I am not a fan of American Idol and The Voice and all that. It seems to measure voices more on bombast and singing the loudest.
But when I talk about music I mean the actual song and melody, the instrumentation, the emotion in the voice. I think I have outed myself as a U2 fan in the past. Bono is not that great a singer! But there’s definitely a post-punk aesthetic to that band that makes you feel something that a more superior singer probably wouldn’t deliver. And yes, I like Bob Dylan who would definitely be eliminated in the first round on any singing contest. But boy is his voice unique. You know who he is immediately.
I was about your son's age when I spent an entire summer riding around the country (and Canada) on a motorcycle. Then as now, music was big for me, but art ... not so much. Five weeks into this cross country odyssey -- while wandering through the New York Metropolitan Museum -- I encountered a Rembrandt, the first I'd ever seen in person.
"Okay," I thought, in my callow, snotty, know-it-all interior voice, "it's a Rembrandt. Big deal."
Still, something held me there, but it wasn't until I got up close enough to notice the tiny touches of white paint that brought the character's eyes to life that it hit me just how great this painting was. Looking at all those individual brush strokes, then gradually stepping back to see how they all came together to form a truly magnificent painting ... that moment changed my life.
I can't claim that this newfound appreciation for the power of color and light -- and for the astonishing craftsmanship of true art -- led directly to a career doing lighting for movies and television, but neither can I deny the importance and impact of that moment. At some point in life, the cumulative weight of our experiences reach a tipping point toward a path that often only makes sense in retrospect ... sort of like walking through the hills, then looking back to see where -- and how far -- we've come. Your son will never forget his encounter with Caravaggio, and his life will be all the richer for it.
Oh, this is all kinds of great, Michael. Love the story of how it all absorbed into you. The white paint, the shifting perspective, all of that. Lovely. Oh, and Caravaggio is already on his brain but he was lucky enough to see tons of art and he did a really excellent recalling of what moved him, often work that wasn't familiar to him or he wasn't expecting it. Obviously makes me happy.
Always happy to still be here, even if I can't imagine myself a say older than 44. Actually, that's not true. I've said that the last three years and last night I told KB that I feel like I organically rolled into 45. So there you go. I'm sticking with that.
'Carter' (2022) shares similar vibes to 'The Villainess,' in terms of novel Korean action trickery. It's not first person, but the film is shot to be one take (obviously they're cheating in various places).
My latest art was the Thiebaud exhibit at the de Young in SF. My friend is a huge fan of his, and I too love his paintings. He's the cake painter. There's something about the starkness of his paintings and the way he creates an aura around the subjects that is really satisfying to look at.
Mostly when I work I listen to soundtracks as background music. I use the Sleep Cycle app still to fall asleep to, although I don't need it as much as a I did a couple of years back. It has some sort of "wind rustling dried leaves" noise that I like. When I was having a lot of trouble, I used sleep yoga in the FitOn app. My favorite was a guy named DeAndre.
Oh, I quite like Thiebaud! Also, I am a fan of "wind rustling dried leaves." It's pure.
I cannot fall asleep to music either probably on account of the whole master's degree in music composition. My go-to if I cannot sleep are audiobooks. I put one of those on and can be asleep within minutes.
I've written a little about the whole appreciation of art thing over on my own dumb website. I've got thoughts. I've railed a little about the snobification of art. I blame Richard Wagner. He was really bad about the whole "you will sit there in stony silence and appreciate my music."
Tantacrul has a wonderful YouTube video on the subject of snobs commandeering art.
I'll even do the whole "just look at it or listen to it and pay attention to how it makes you feel" thing one better. I've argued that you don't have to think or feel anything at all. There's a whole "we must feel everything strongly" thing that goes around, and I've argued you can just skip that.
I prefer the quiet delights of art where maybe it touches you and maybe it doesn't, maybe you feel strongly and maybe you don't. It's all good. It's all okay. Stop letting the snobs and gatekeepers tell you what to think or feel about art. They're just trying to bully you, ignore them.
Yeah it wasn't until KB said that all her brain did was perk up about notes and chords or whatever that I realized music people might not like to sleep to music, or be unable to, and a masters in music composition would basically rule you right out! I love that an audiobook knocks you out -- I can't sleep when I hear people talking.
And yeah, just sitting with art, period, is an excellent choice.
Happy Birthday Tim! Reading your posy and commenting as I am walking out of Oracle Park so may you have a better birthday evening than the Giants. (Yes, that's a low fucking bar. 😉)
It was an excellent birthday, so thank you. I mean, I DID have Hicks as my fantasy baseball starting pitcher that night so, not all great....Sigh. I'm wondering if they'll ever pull the cord on the Hicks as starter thing given that they promised him. But I would sure like him to switch roles with Birdsong.
Hicks was a bit frustrating but not all that bad. The fielding last night had some uncharacteristically bad errors and then of course it just got out of hand.
I still dropped him. Probably shouldn't have, but I do have too much pitching. Of course, I would not drop him in the real world. He'll work out the kinks and be fine.
Can't even edit my own posT on the Substack app to fix the word posT. The Substack app really kind of sucks!
Laughing. Well, now you can feel my pain about the Substack editing platform that changes all my words.
I do remember you extolling its virtues once upon a time... 😝
Oh thanks, Tim.
You're welcome! Hope you enjoyed something in there.
HB Tim!
The art stuff really resonated with me. I was oh so fortunate, like your son, that my parents felt travel was as important an education as college. Many of those same museums in Italy (and France and the Netherlands) just opened up new worlds to me and I've sought out art ever since.
Love the Wilco video.
I like our white noise machine for sleeping, though sounds of rain or the ocean work well too. All of these things work not just for going to sleep, but staying asleep if you happen to have a partner that snores.
To complete the circle, when you do make it to London you will have to visit Portland restaurant, on Great Portland St.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/09fM9SbN771U4zc4ggCzEHMPg
Speaking of art and travel, we went to London today and saw this near our hotel.
It IS everywhere. Also, timely! Love it. Thanks for sharing. One day I'll be able to say, "We ent to London today." Can't wait. In the meantime, it'll have to be "Flew to Portland last night."
Jeff Tweedy looks so young in that video! I love seeing him that young but also know how tortured he was from the drugs and mental stuff.
I'm the snorer. (Raises hand.) It's tragic, but true.
And yeah, I think travel is a great teacher. My family of origin never traveled and it just wasn't an option. I didn't go to NY until I was 30 (I won some Hearst thing and they flew me out). Later, I went for THR a bunch of times and brought my then 8th grade son with me and he was just bounding down the streets of Manhattan and on the subway and through Grand Central Station like he owned the place. It was his first trip and he was definitely changed after that.
Yeah, I can't believe Tweedy was that young, or any of us were ever that young, but I guess there is photographic evidence.
That's another great story about your son. He's got an adventurous life ahead of him, I predict. I got the travel bug when I was young, and here I am about to turn 67 and it has never gone away.
Once you get it…just keep going.
Happy birthday Tim. Enjoy your day
Thanks, Joe! I did. Ate a lot of good pizza with friends.
Tim, as someone who cannot go to sleep without having a podcast droning in my ear (the main one I listen to, "Sleeping with Celebrities," is actually meant for people who are trying to sleep), I use a product called SleepPhones so I don't disturb my husband. It's a soft headband with built-in earphones.
I have loved seeing art on a massive scale at places like the Rijksmuseum, the Louvre (Delacroix!) and the Metropolitan Museum. Since the pandemic I've developed a lot of anxiety around traveling and don't know when and if I'll ever get to experience art in person again (maybe I can eventually work up the courage to go across the bay to SFMOMA or the DeYoung), but those are some great memories. Your son is very lucky indeed.
There's really something about scale, isn't there? It's always my favorite memory. There was even a reference to that in one of the series on Hulu I wrote about -- "Culprits," where someone is talking about seeing Rothko at the Tate (which I haven't since I've never been to England, which seems now to be kind of crazy to me). And of course the up close detail of any work -- no photos do the originals any justice.
Wait, is today your birthday? If this is true, Happiest of Birthdays to you dear Tim! I’m glad there is a you!
Thank you Suzanne! Yes, it's today. I share it with Earth Day. Stupid Earth, stealing all the spotlight!
Happy bearthday! What’s the special coveted bottle of wine going to be tonight? FYI, my favorite wine word: anticipointment!
Does "anticipointment" mean you're anticipating a great bottle and then you open it up and it's just okay?
I had chilled red with the pizza at Pizzaiola and then some Gamay Noir at home. Natural, of course. (Ducks.)
Yep. I had a collector client who coined it. Really a perfect mashup word, pairs well with anything!
I’m not opposed to natural wine per se, it’s the positioning of it as inherently better (or better for you) that I’m touchy about.
Plus, the great ones that “transcend experimental” often are sold at prices rivaling traditional stalwarts (due to scarcity/demand). It’s the automatic pooh-poohing of classic wines emanating from that camp the I bristle at. And talk about anticipointment!
Truth is, I’m open to it all, it’s the tunnel vision marketing, this concept/varietal/region above ALL else that rankles.
Agree that Gamay is often underrated.
I’ve had plenty of not good natty wine. Part of the appeal is that it’s not so stodgy and tannic and manipulated, but when it goes sideways there’s dissatisfaction for sure. I love the price point. I don’t love when longtime faves move well up in price. But there’s always something that comes along that replaces it.
When I was growing up, we did not have any art on the walls although it was obvious my mother had an eye for aesthetics. Unconventionally for the time, the walls in the main rooms of our house were painted gray with crisp white trim complimented with gray carpeting. Our kitchen had a deep red enameled ceiling. But no art on the walls. It puzzled me a bit as I grew up because I felt drawn like a magnet to paintings and sculpture. I drew and painted myself, dabbled in clay. Art has always moved me and spoken to me. To me, film and tv (and music) are of course art forms too I greatly appreciate. I was so fortunate to be able to buy a beautiful plein air impressionist landscape painting in Paris many years ago. As I was contemplating this very expensive (for me) purchase, the young sales woman in the art gallery at the time asked me whether I would regret buying the painting or not buying it. The answer was easy. I live in a very tiny space right now and the only wall big enough to hang the painting is in my extremely tiny bedroom, but it’s the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I see before I go to sleep. This calm, peaceful painting has given me enormous pleasure all these years, I have never regretted buying it.
Yes, the size of David in person is staggering.
Philosophy is great but sometimes only bloodshed will do. On that note, I’ve watched the first two episodes of Mobland (on Paramount, I’m doing a free trial) and it’s very entertaining. Irish mayhem, Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren with Guy Richie directing, what’s not to love.
It sounds like your mother very much had an eye for aesthetics. I love that she was able to use paint to fill the hole at least partially from art. Oh and I love that you bought a painting in Paris and lugged it home and it's given you so much joy over the years. Great story. Thank you for sharing. I haven't done Paramount but I like the sound of Mobland. Given how many people have it I'm probably going to add it soon. Oh, and to your comment above, my son really is appreciative of the experience. It's not lost on him that I never had a chance to do that and also that he's very lucky. Didn't even have to coax it out of him -- he said it a lot on the trip, usually after having seen something ming blowing (and life changing). I couldn't be happier and don't regret the investment, just like your painting!
I actually didn’t lug the painting home with me from Paris. I wanted a different frame on it so they had to ship it to me. When I went to the airport to pick up the painting my heart was racing. It was if I was meeting a lover I’d had a brief affair with. Would I still love the painting? Was I crazy? It came incased in this incredibly sturdy wooden box and when I got it home and removed it from the box, I knew I had made the right decision.
An even BETTER story!
Travel really is broadening and mind blowing. I’m glad your son is having that experience and that you were able to give that to him. My son at 16 got to go to Germany to visit an exchange student he befriended in his school and it really made an impact on him. Tim, you of all people, if you’ve never been to Europe you must find a way to go.
I have been to Italy and France and Ireland. I will get back someday. (And Canada! 🇨🇦 Woooot)
I’ll keep it simple. Nice bouillabaisse.
Well said! Also I laughed. And yeah, I like doing these and I'm always surprised that they are so few and far between, but it'll even out soon enough.
I spend way too much time sitting at my desk typing reports so I can appreciate listening to beats. I've found math rock works well for me, but I'm a prog rock fan at heart. This playlist is fairly typical.
https://youtu.be/eXsSUQIVm6k?si=1uKOlp42N2re4zkk
As someone who was ingrained in the 90s American math rock scene and recently discovered that the genre had quite the resurgence in Japan (and lots of those bands are jaw-droppingly good), I am thankful for this playlist!
Math rock is a thing. Who knew?! Well, you guys knew.
You probably did, you just might not have realized it!
In the late 80s, the post-Minor Threat hardcore punk scene got tired of the macho aggression and started "Revolution Summer," a wellspring of bands that experimented with different moods and textures. Bands like Dag Nasty, Soul Side, Rites of Spring, and Embrace came out of this. By extension of the latter two, Fugazi was formed. I'm sure you know Fugazi.
That influence rippled out through the 1990s underground punk scene. Instead of 4/4 verse-chorus-verse songs that raged in one-dimensional anger, bands went theatric with dynamics, crazy time signatures, odd song structures, and incredibly tight technical playing. Punk that was on the complex end was "mathy" and as various subgenres splintered out, the sound could be heard in early versions of emo, aughts-era indie rock, and metalcore. Or, to put it in Joe Lynch terms, punk had a prog moment.
Hal al Shedad (the first band I remember being described as "math rock")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp4QhsQTb8k
Portraits of Past
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-QUF3q1HVE
Dillinger Escape Plan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iczM4AJWgY
Sleepytime Trio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IFMsZr9SL0
Drive Like Jehu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyFOIEut-rA
Christie Front Drive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26XT0aLWyeA
The Promise Ring
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COawUHkiosQ
American Football
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-SWkpGKdP8
That's not a chronological evolution, but it shows how the sound evolved from punk into what the Japanese "math rock" sound is now. But a lot of modern indie rock carries DNA back towards this era of punk, so it's probably in your subconscious.
Impressed with this work. Damn, yo. I’ll see what threads connect to my stuff…
I mean, it what comes from years of working at record stores and college radio -- it's not something I get to use with the kids, yet.
And, that list is just off the top of my head! I'm sure someone will come by and be like, "But you forgot Don Cab!"
Math rock! I like it. Not sure I could sleep to it, but I could definitely walk around some cherry blossoms or big downtowns with that for sure.
My go to for sleep is Debussy's La Mer and Nocturnes, especially Nuages. I also use the YouTube rain and stream background noise videos.
I have a "Sleep perchance to dream" playlist on Tidal. I've never tried to share a playlist before but here goes....
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/9ba93643-9242-4a63-a10c-896a34be6639
This was a relaxing post to read! I completely agree with you on art. Who cares if you don’t know anything. Just look at the painting and see if you feel anything!
Sometimes I am puzzled by what music critics like and I realize it’s because I am a music first/lyrics second listener. The music has to grab me before I even consider delving into lyrics. To my ears, sometimes songs with great lyrics don’t work for me because they get in the way of the music. But obviously they sometimes can really come together. Right now that’s Alison Krauss and Union Station’s new album Arcadia. I have been listening nonstop. It’s a bleak record! Which seems appropriate for 2025. Lots of tragedy in American history. Not to mention a chilling song on fascism. The interesting thing is I tend to shy away from dark/bleak books/film/TV. But give me a sad song any day. This one is about a factory in Massachusetts that went up in flames in the late 19th century. The workers, mostly children, perished:
https://youtu.be/2nUxmxgs51A?si=SSe7oPc-lPof3Fpz
I have added your song suggestions to my playlist.
I am with you on doing what works to fall asleep. I use headphones and listen to an audiobook. Something easy and relaxing. When I can no longer understand English I turn it off and fall asleep.
I think we should have a whole section of responses from people listing what they use to fall asleep. LOVE it. I think most people I know are roughly split between music first/Lyrics first and that's cool too. I love a great voice but I'm also a huge fan of so many singers who probably wouldn't be considered good singers so I'm always a little biased against people who are all "voice" first. I mean, clearly, that's anti-rock and roll for starters. But also, I like emotion in my singing. Not perfection.
And yes I was surprised that you like bleak music but not dark television and movies (the latter of which I knew about). Interesting!
Oh I am 100% with you on unique voices in rock and roll. I am not a fan of American Idol and The Voice and all that. It seems to measure voices more on bombast and singing the loudest.
But when I talk about music I mean the actual song and melody, the instrumentation, the emotion in the voice. I think I have outed myself as a U2 fan in the past. Bono is not that great a singer! But there’s definitely a post-punk aesthetic to that band that makes you feel something that a more superior singer probably wouldn’t deliver. And yes, I like Bob Dylan who would definitely be eliminated in the first round on any singing contest. But boy is his voice unique. You know who he is immediately.
I was about your son's age when I spent an entire summer riding around the country (and Canada) on a motorcycle. Then as now, music was big for me, but art ... not so much. Five weeks into this cross country odyssey -- while wandering through the New York Metropolitan Museum -- I encountered a Rembrandt, the first I'd ever seen in person.
"Okay," I thought, in my callow, snotty, know-it-all interior voice, "it's a Rembrandt. Big deal."
Still, something held me there, but it wasn't until I got up close enough to notice the tiny touches of white paint that brought the character's eyes to life that it hit me just how great this painting was. Looking at all those individual brush strokes, then gradually stepping back to see how they all came together to form a truly magnificent painting ... that moment changed my life.
I can't claim that this newfound appreciation for the power of color and light -- and for the astonishing craftsmanship of true art -- led directly to a career doing lighting for movies and television, but neither can I deny the importance and impact of that moment. At some point in life, the cumulative weight of our experiences reach a tipping point toward a path that often only makes sense in retrospect ... sort of like walking through the hills, then looking back to see where -- and how far -- we've come. Your son will never forget his encounter with Caravaggio, and his life will be all the richer for it.
Onward, into the mist...
Oh, this is all kinds of great, Michael. Love the story of how it all absorbed into you. The white paint, the shifting perspective, all of that. Lovely. Oh, and Caravaggio is already on his brain but he was lucky enough to see tons of art and he did a really excellent recalling of what moved him, often work that wasn't familiar to him or he wasn't expecting it. Obviously makes me happy.
Hbty,Hbty, HbdT, Hbty!
Always happy to still be here, even if I can't imagine myself a say older than 44. Actually, that's not true. I've said that the last three years and last night I told KB that I feel like I organically rolled into 45. So there you go. I'm sticking with that.
Um, that would have been me who put you onto Villainess, you're welcome Tim!
What an exchange. Hahaha. Happy belated birthday, Tim!
Before 'The Villainess,' there was 'Hardcore Henry' (2015), which might have been the first first person film? Anyways, it's great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96EChBYVFhU
'Carter' (2022) shares similar vibes to 'The Villainess,' in terms of novel Korean action trickery. It's not first person, but the film is shot to be one take (obviously they're cheating in various places).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulPHag30btQ
LOL
This made me laugh when I saw it.
It is a great movie.
Part of me was thinking it was you, but I'm not going to argue with KB.
I don't think that's wise or healthy. I think I saw it independently, or on her recommendation.
Ha! You're on to something.