Blogging via mobile phone unit, sunning in Humboldt Park with GslPal and Betty the Beagle, drinking beer, reading a book and generally loving life. How's your day going?
It's been a long time since I bought any vinyl new, aside from a single here and there. In fact, the last "from the label, brand new, never been played" LP I bought was probably sometime in the early '90s. I appreciate vinyl, and my first albums were of course vinyl, but I tend to buy used LPs when I buy LPs at all.
Well, yesterday I bought the new Wilco album on vinyl. I really liked the artwork and kind of felt like indulging myself. (It didn't hurt that since GalPal moved in we've actually had a working record player in the house .. mine has been busted for years and I just never got around to repairing it.) The fact that the LP also came with a copy of the CD didn't hurt either, since another reason I probably haven't bought much new vinyl over the years is, well, it's a lot harder to rip something off a record player. And I admit it, I like my music to be portable, music snobbery be damned.
I'll admit I was a bit taken aback when I hit the register and had to shell out $26* for the album, but what the hell, I viewed it as a late birthday present to myself and allowed myself the indulgence. When I got home I turned into a 12-year-old, opening the gatefold, looking over the lyrics and liner notes, growing slightly amused that there were two sleeves (one with additional artwork, the other a plain white one to actually house the record) and just really enjoying its bigness, solidity, and sense of thereness you just don't get with CDs or tapes (or MP3s, obvs).
I've been hearing about the resurgence of vinyl for years and years now. It's not a new story. I've always thought it was great people were still enjoying the format, but it wasn't until yesterday that I realized how important it is that people enjoy the format. I pore over liner notes and art in CD booklets, but man, it ain't the same. And there is a physical connection -- especially when you have to get off your ass and flip that LP over to side two, or back to side one for another listen -- that you just can't get any other way.
I'm not saying I'm gonna start buying nothing but vinyl, I just couldn't afford that, but there is a good chance that if I come across an album I love, even a brand new one, you might find me trekking to the record store to pick up the LP.
*I think the last time I bought a brand new vinyl LP it was under ten bucks, so the sticker price did come as a genuine shock.
I am incredibly lucky to have so many friends who either came out last night or sent me birthday wishes throughout the day yesterday. Thank you to all of my incredible friends.
Hey! Guess what? I survived another year of my thus far pretty awesome life! Thank you lord!
To celebrate I'm having a little get-together at The Burlington tonight. I intentionally decided to have my birthday partyon my actual birthday -- a Tuesday -- this year to avoid all the weekend BBQs / parties / shows / conflicting DJ gigs / general summer scheduling insanity, so I hope you can stop by. I'm going to try and get there between 9 and 9:30 so folks who need to work early the next day can at least pop in early for a drink to say hi. I'm probably going to DJ a little bit, but the evening's soundtrack will primarily be provided by the boys I've been DJing the most with in the last few months; Keep, Marcus, and Rudy.
Hopefully I will have completely ditched this dang summer cold I started getting yesterday by the time I get to The Burlington tonight!
If you weren't there at The Continental on Saturday you fucked up. It was a little slow early on, but by the end of the evening the place was jam-packed with drinking and dancing (thanks in no small part to an influx of 20 Something Bloggers hellbent on dancing their faces off). I was bouncing around the booth and between Rudy and I we managed to keep everyone happy without ever resorting to cheese. We make a good team because we bounce tunes off each other and stay on our toes throughout the sets.
After it was all over we stumbled out the door and into the early Chicago morning sun, only to wake up a few hours later to go down to the Gay Pride Parade. No small feat when your DJ set just ended 4 hours ago.
My staycation begins after work tomorrow and boy do I have a crowded plate of social events. I've actually had to pull out of shooting two shows (Lupe Fiasco and Sonic Youth) because I just have TOO MUCH GOING ON.
You can't go everywhere I go the next few days, but if you're looking for some suggestions of where you can see me without feeling like a stalker (in other words PLEASE attend these events!) peep the words below.
Thursday: Chicagoist writer's happy hour at Happy Village (you can stalk us, we won't bite) and then Brad Peterson at Double Door. Friday: The Midnight Shows at Darkroom Saturday: DJs Tankboy and Rudy Tuesday at Continental! Sunday: Gay Pride Parade y'all! Monday: Rehab Tuesday:MY BIRTHDAY PARTY AT THE BURLINGTON! Wednesday: A day of rest, lawd.
Apparently this dude named Doctor Rosen Rosen has taken Lily Allen's last album and remixed the whole thing. "It’s Not Me, It’s Doctor Rosen Rosen" isn't out yet, but I assume when it is it'll be free.
He's sent out a sample of what to expect wherein he takes Lily Allen's jouncy kiss-of of aa two-finger salute, "Fuck You," and turns it into something creeping with sadness. But in a good way.
Next Wednesday I will be a year older. I will probably wake up late from Tuesday proper's celebrations, wobble into the family room, let the dog out, and then settle on the couch to ponder my place in the world the past few decades and change and where I'm heading in the coming years.
No I won't.
I'm self-aware, but not exactly the "I-must-review-my-life-at-certain-milestones" kind of guy. New Year's Eve doesn't bring forth new resolutions, the day of my dad's death doesn't bring about a new bout of mouring, and birthdays don't feill me with the desire to do a yearly observation. These are all things I think belong in every single day I occupy. You don't make big plans once a year! You have an ongoing focus on where you want to head and you adjust daily to get there, while leaving yourself open to new discoveries. Personal improvement is a 365 day project, and should be treated as a living organism, not a chart on a wall.
So I look forward to celebrating another year lived next Tuesday night (at The Burlington, if you'd like to join me). A year with highs and lows, one with some sesimic life shifts, and one I'm glad I lived. But don't expect me to get all sentimental about it. Birthdays are momentary stops along the whole journey, right?
Part of that is due to the fact that hey, we're in Chicago, and we need to take advantage of this slim window of welcoming weather while we can! Part of it is the ramped up social activities. Part of it is just a rejuvenation brought upon by more exposure to the sun. Part of it is just that summer melts away your age to bring back out the young and adventurous and throw-your-arms-open-and-smile spirit in everyone.
It also means I grow more prolific than usual, which is no mean feat. I think my brain actually fires off more quickly in the summer. One would think that hours stuck indoors would spike creativity but in my case it's the wide range of options possibilities the summer lays at my feet that stoke my synapses in the most interesting ways.
It's almost like my brain runs off chlorophyllic mechanisms and solar power causes it to really thrive.
How about you, does summer get the same response out of you? And if you live in a continually sunny / warm / habitable clime do you just level out all year long or is their a particular time you feel at your strongest too?
It's difficult to record any quick thoughts on the situation in Iran, since it's such an incredibly complicated situation. And while I'm pleased any time I see Westerners actually giving a hoot about anything going on in the Middle East that doesn't directly impact them, that excites me. I want people to be at least aware of what goes on in other corners of the world. I want folks to care.*
So it's nice to see so much chatter around the Iranian elections, but at the same time it's disheartening to see people trying to boil it down into sloganeering. I read a comment equating the turning of Twitter avatars green as the new AIDs ribbon of 2009; in other words folks are showing support but not really getting involved. I think that's somewhat true, but I do hope that if someone turns their avatar green it also indicates they're showing slightly more than a passing interest in what's going on.
And what's going on is, well, convoluted. Face it, the election results were skewed, but it's very probable Ahmadinejad did have the most vote, even before results were tampered with. And the "opposition party" isn't exactly the opposition. Moussavi has already been prime minister under the current regime so it's not really a case of the bad guy versus the good guy.** They're both bad, and they're both pretty hostile towards the West.
So if you're one of the folks insisting that Moussavi be put in power, you're probably missing the point. I don't think anyone supporting democracy would also support the notion of protests placing someone into power that actually lost an election (and, for the sake of keeping this point clear, we'll pretend Bush vs. Gore didn't muddle our own nation's stance on this particular point.)
No, what these protests are about is free speech. At the base the crowds in the street seem to be angry about a perceived loss. But I think it's safe to say that anger is rooted in their dissatisfaction that no matter what, it seems as if they have little to no say in their government. A government that posits itself to be democratically chosen, but is in fact rigged from the get-go. Believe me, no one would ever make it onto the ballot if they actually weren't approved by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right?
So I don't think we should be angry that Ahmadinejad won, because he probably did. If you want to side with the protesters you should be indignant at the suppression of their voice by a brutal government who sees fit to shoot people in the streets that don't agree with its positions. Be upset
*I was recently shocked to learn that educated people I know didn't even know that a) the U.S. had backed the Iranian government until b) the 1979 revolution when c) U.S. hostages were taken and d) nightly coverage of the situation prompted the creation of Nightline. And that part of the reason Reagan won the next election was due to the Iranian situation and his promise to free U.S. hostages, which he did. I always thought everyone knew all of this and I'm slowly learning that many folks' grasp of history rarely extends more than a few years back, if that far.
**In fact, Moussavi's exhortations to continue to protest on his behalf fairly smacks of a megalomaniac needlessly sending lambs out to the slaughter.
Been reading a bunch of stuff by younger authors to review for the site and I'm beginning to see the effects of blogging on literature. People are beginning to mistake directness for craft. It's weird. Not bad, writing always shifts its sensibilities, that's the point. But weird to actually see it happening.
I suppose that's a byproduct of getting old and attaining some semblence of wisdom and perspective through experience.
Dinosaur Jr are two albums into their amazing reunion of the three original members who, at one point, famously disliked each other more than I dislike The Grateful Dead. And I really do not like The Grateful Dead. Both albums are absolutely glorious -- Farm, the latest is a must buy -- and proves this reunion to be the extraordinary exception to the rule. You always want your favorite bands to team back up and recapture their glory years only to walk away sorely disappointed because they just don't have that fire in them any more.
This is literally the first second I've had to actually do non-9-to-5 writing today! Truth be told (and this should be obvious since I just resorted to a cliché) I'm a tad tuckered so what's say we catch up tomorrow, eh?
I was out Friday joking with friends about being away from a computer when the Facebook name-grab kick off. I had been planning on using my real name since intend to continue using Facebook as less a professional "Tankboy" resource and more a way to connect with folks I actually know, but I wondered aloud if the "other" Tankboy would snag the moniker for himeslf.
The other Tankboy is a photographer from New York who I've sort of shared the name with. From what I can tell we both started online about the same time, and he snagged tankboy.com before I did. I don't really know that much about him (other than the fact he takes really good photographs) but have always been secretly amused at our parallel existence? Doesn he Google Tankboy and get upset when I come out as the top search? When he signed up for MySpace was he annoyed I was already Tankboy? When he registers to leave a comment somewhere and Tankboy isn't available does he shake his fist at the heavens? Probably not, but it's kind of funny to think of.
Well, Saturday morning I rolled out of bed, got the Facebook name I had intended on getting, and then typed in facebook.com/tankboy just to see if it had been claimed ... and it had! By the other Tankboy! So he DOES still try and snag the name from time to time.
Tankboy resides in the body of some tall blonde guy and lives in Chicago with Pickle the Kitten, and a beagle named Betty who may actually be slightly more famous than most musicians out there. He's written about music for much longer than most bands you hear on the radio have even existed. He also swears that it wasn't him who did that and has learned that "deny everything" is a basic tenet of existence.
