Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Very ordinary, like candy or tacos or semantics

hey, check it out...i'm posting something. i guess this is what happens when you go from 20 semester units to searching for a summer job. inundated with spare time.
since last saturday, all of that spare time was spent sick as hell. i'm still coughing and weak now, but i'm finally feeling human again :)

there are two things that i want to share w/you all today. one is the new Dangermouse project that you MUST download, because it may never be released. the other is a beautiful little poem. the poem is really what drove me to post.

also, DMRC people. seriously, i'm not posting music. i'm posting links to places where music is hosted. seriously. quit trying to cuckold me.






DJ Dangermouse & Sparklehorse. Dark Night of the Soul.
(feat. The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys, Jason Lytle, Julian Casablancas, Black Francis, Iggy Pop, James Mercer, Mark Linkous, Nina Persson, David Lynch, Suzanne Vega and Vic Chesnutt.

Download Link #1.
Download Link #2 (if you use this one, you'll need to grab the song below, as it's missing from this set.)

DJ Dangermouse & Sparklehorse. Revenge (feat. Wayne Coyne).


geez, this one's a story. not one of my rambling ones either, but it's a whole bunch of grown-up high-school drama. if you're into music news, i recommend the following links:
NPR's story (along w/the entire album to stream.)
Wikipedia.
DNOTS website along w/some David Lynch (yes, that one) visuals.


here's the gist: Dangermouse and EMI are fighting again. David Lynch (yes, that one) designed an intricate (and i'm sure dark, and odd, and surreal...like the one above) book of visuals to go with the album which Dangermouse is saying will be released with a blank cd and the following message: “For legal reasons, enclosed CD contains no music. Use it as you will.” how great is that?! basically, Dangermouse is asking you, the public, to find the album on the internet. torrent it--download it through the link above--whatever, just so long as you hear his album.

oh, and it's good too. not all of it is something i want to listen to all the time, but there are a few fantastic songs on there.



i don't post poetry very often but i wanted to share the following. i suppose i could start including poetry more often as i have many favorites, but this one is totally spontaneous. i stumbled upon it this morning and this is maybe the second time i've stumbled upon any good poetry (apart from the classics.) it's so american and so contemporary. it's a kind of poetry that i didn't understand when i was studying poetry, but has become my favorite since then. it's a short story, w/o all the junk. simple, matter of fact, grand.

DEATH AND TACOS

Waiting in line at a taco stand for my number to be called
I started talking to a six-year-old kid kicking his little foot against
A curb and waiting for his dad to come out of the bathroom.
And he said, “Why do you cough so much?”
And I said, “Because I have cancer.”
And he said, “Bummer.”
And I said, “Yep.”
And he said, “Does it hurt?”
And I said, “Only when I breathe.”
And he said, “Why don’t you hold your breath?”
And I puffed out my cheeks like Lois Armstrong and
Let him see it and held it for as long as I could
Before exploding into a hacking eruption of
Stupid sounds and saliva.
And he laughed.
And I coughed and laughed.
And he said, “Feel better?”
And I said, “A bit.”
And I showed him how much better with my
Thumb and index finger. And pointed at a green thread
of mucous that had dribbled out onto my chin
He said, “Gross.” And wiping it off
I said, “Yep.”
And he said, “My granddaddy had cancer before he died on the hospital.”
And I said, “You mean in the hospital?”
And he said, “Yeah on the hospital.”
And I said, “Oh, yeah?”
And he said, “He used to give me candy all of the times I ever saw him.”
And I said, “Sorry kid, I don’t have any candy.”
And, deflated, he said, “Are you gonna die on the hospital?”
And I said, “You mean in the hospital?”
And he said, “Yea, are you gonna die on the hospital?”
And I said, “Probably.”
And he said, “OK.”
And, upon giving that gracious consent, the boy’s dad came out and
The boy said, “Well, bye!” And I said, “See ya.”
And he ran off.
And, for a while, between the two of us,
Dying became so very ordinary, like candy or tacos or semantics,
And death itself suddenly just this obnoxious third-wheel
A pitiful nuisance with nothing better to do with his time
Than to tag along with me and this six-year-old kid.
And I sat smiling in the sun and imagining death at the moment,
A sad sack of lonely-self slumped somewhere in the distance,
As I waited for my number to come up.

-Nathaniel Whittemore

Friday, August 10, 2007

These two asleep . . . (8-7-07)

27,000 Miles by Albert Goldbarth 

These two asleep . . . so indrawn and compact,
like lavish origami animals returned

to slips of paper once again; and then
the paper once again become a string

of pith, a secret that the plant hums to itself . . . .
You see? — so often we envy the grandiose, the way

those small toy things of Leonardo's want to be
the great, air-conquering and miles-eating

living wings
they're modeled on.  And the bird flight is

amazing: simultaneously strength,
escape, caprice: the Artic tern completes

its trip of nearly 27,000 miles every year;
a swan will frighten bears away

by angry aerial display of flapping wingspan.
But it isn't all flight; they also

fold; and at night on the water or in the eaves
they package their bodies

into their bodies, smaller, and deeply
smaller yet: migrating a similar distance

 in the opposite direction.



there is no theme here...i just read that poem and wanted to share it. i saw the first five lines quoted by themselves and i like it that way, perhaps more than in its entirety.

the internet does precious little to stave off loneliness these days. i'm pretty sure that this is my fault. i'd probably also be better off turning to real, live, people for this service.

my grandma is full of great memories about my family's history. the ones that interest me most are the cute little things that we all did when we were kids and have long since forgotten. she told me an awesome one yesterday about my mom's cousin herkey. when he was quite young, he gave his mother a box of chocolates for no apparent reason. when she opened the box, all of the chocolates had been eaten and little herkey proudly proclaimed, "i surprised you with none chocolates!" i love it sooo much!
i have a terrible, really really bad memory...it is a little depressing to think how many of these things will die with grammie when she goes. i hope someone in my generation is able to call up these sorts of tidbits when i am old. who will be the scribe, mental or not, of our generation?


i got a new phone and it kicks all the ass. i had my amazing 6230 for two years and it was still a better phone than any i had seen in stores. finally, one came along that topped it. i am totally in phone heaven.

i know that you're here for the music, so here is a list i cribbed directly from Vertigo's (of Peanut's Playground) top 25 albums of all time (though doing the tables took enough time that you should all be thankful.) i left the 12 that i most wanted to share, and what is left is a pretty good haul for anyone willing to do the downloading.
they should work, though many of them require more than one step.



Nirvana – Nevermind
Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)



Joanna Newsom – Ys

Joanna Newsom – Ys (2006)


Radiohead - Kid A
Radiohead - Ok Computer (1997)


Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (2005)


Death Cab For Cutie – Transatlanticism
Death Cab For Cutie –Transatlanticism (2003)


Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea(1998)


The Postal Service - Give Up
The Postal Service - Give Up (2003)


The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (2003)


Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)


Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds(1966)


Beatles - Abbey Road
The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)


Jeff Buckley – Grace
Jeff Buckley – Grace (1994)




thanks for stopping by. if you are bored, send me a text message...i love getting them now that i have unlimited texts and an awesome phone.