Steva's Winter Dancedrums Mix

This mixtape was created for you by the very awesome Steva Casey and it's incredibly different from her last Psychic Tuesday mix, the oh so rockin' Summer '09 Mix ... this one is delightfully danceable, for one thing ... Steva told me she made it as a cure for the "winter doldrums", and there are so many times that I really need such a cure ... cuz even though the 1st day of Spring seems close, we still have 2 whole weeks to wait ... and a lot of times these last cold winter days can really make me lethargic and anxious and well, a bit on the down side ...

Even with that aside, whatever time of year you listen to this particular Steva mix, it really is just insanely alive and kicking ...

so twist that volume knob to 11 and get ready to start shakin that butt, cuz HERE it is! Thanks, again Steva!!!

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Speaking of winter sadness, here's some terrible news ... Mark Linkous, the man behind the band Sparklehorse died via suicide this past weekend ... R.I.P.

Here's 2 Sparklehorse videos to honor him and his music:

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I've been admittedly a bit of a hermit this past week ... Just ain't feeling social, aside from Bearons practice and coffee mornings ... I did go out to see Kate Merritt Davis' art opening and the early Man Or Astroman reunion show at Bottletree this weekend, which was quite entertaining ... Walker's band opened up and I was surprised by how suddenly punk his sound has become ... Here here, Walker!

On a personal note, I've also been attempting slowly to try & teach myself how to lucid dream ... it seems that I tend to remember my dreams more in the winter, maybe because I don't move around in the bed as much ... I have no idea why, really ... but this particular winter I've been remembering dreams left & right!

I decided that if I am to really take my dreams more seriously and try to have the same sort of awareness in a dream that I have in this reality, then in a way I should also try to treat this reality more like it was a dream and try to do a bit more unpredictable and slightly nonsense things while I'm awake ... to balance it out

Anyway, in light of that, I found a drawer that I originally was going to just smash apart and turn the wood into small paintings, but instead I painted it gold and called it a "wonder box" ... my aim is to very slowly fill it up with random things I've bought that I actually don't even care for ... who knows, maybe I'll end up needing the things later! It's actually a really hard task, "shopping" for things that you don't want or need! ... so far, the box contains only a small net-type bag of chocolate gold coins and some pink gel-filled eye goggles ... haha

the Wonder Box

oh yeah, Laura recently turned me on to the music of Drew Price's Bermuda Triangle, a new Birmingham act that is startlingly fresh and sonically invigorating ... Check out this video to their song "See Through"...

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Speaking of videos, I found a slew this week, ranging from funny to to strange to just plain old beautiful!

1st up is this "cute" (a word I usually hate using but you'll see) video that Enon did for Yo Gabba Gabba that I'd never seen before:

Speaking of Enon ... way back in the early 2000s, I used to run Enon's website ... during this time, I also directed 5 videos for them ( "Cruel", "Come Into", "Carbonation", "Murder Sounds" & "Paperweights" ) all of which they have conveniently posted on their myspace page if you wanna take a look

This next one (by The Fresh & Onlys) visually makes me think of the 80's band Cabaret Voltaire ... I dig all the mask action:

Next we have two refreshingly surreal videos ...

1st there's Shearwater's tale of a feathery eyelashed vagabond & his dog:

And then we have Owen Pallet's ultra strange "What in holy fuck's going on in this?" low budget apartment soap collector thriller:



Last of all is some sheer time lapse beauty by the band On Fillmore ... dig:

Ian's Shuckhuckster Mix

I decided that this year, each month I'm going to feature a "classic mixtape" ... i.e. an actual cassette mixtape that a friend made for me "back in the day" ...

being the sentimental pack rat that I am, I never got rid of any of the many many mixes that my friends made me throughout the years ... in fact, I have them all in one giant suitcase ... at least the cassette ones are ... haha

I really love mixtapes ... making them AND receiving them ... you can capture a mood, a feeling, a thought, even a bit of an era with one ... they are a bit like musical time capsules ... small personal treasures ...

This particular one was given to me by my great and wonderful friend, Ian Frearson who now lives in Seattle, WA ... I think the tape dates back to the year 1996 and most of my memories associated with it involve riding my bike all over Orr Park in Montevallo ... It also makes me remember the job I had back then at a vegetable market called Fresh Market and my funny boss, Ronnie who had a bit of a lisp and always had a big pot of peanuts boiling in the back room ... and he never called me Paul, he always called me John (the name of the guy I replaced) ... haha

It also makes me think of Ian himself, of his personality, his musical tastes, memories of things we experienced together, etc ... Listening to it these days (as opposed to back in '96) some of the songs are rather dated (The Beastie Boys, Nirvana & Luscious Jackson ones for example) while others are pretty unique and timeless (Joe Jackson, Richard Davies and Thee Headcoats) in their own special way ... and still others just make me laugh and fill me with amazement at their strange addictive playability (Air Miami, Noise Addict, Nick Drake) ... I recall in particular the Wire song ("Outdoor Miner") blowing my mind and listening to it over and over again ... It felt a bit Life-altering, really

Anyway, HERE it is in all of it's tape-hiss & big-spaces-between-each-song magical glory! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. And after all these years, thanks Ian!

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This past week I did many things, and one of them was finishing this huge painting of a bunny lady I did ... Here's a sort of "3 photo time lapse" deal:

Also, as I mentioned last week, Bad News Bearons have started practicing again ... and amazingly the weather these past 2 Sundays has been miraculously Springish ... Here's a silly video that Eileen made during the last practice ... In it, I hit the ball & run, but Colm & Rachel are too quick for me:

This past Friday, Laura & Nancy invited me to go to J&J Junk, this epic thrift store way out in Chelsea ... It was a ton of fun, too and I ended up with lots of Christmas lights, some clothesline, 2 rolls of old wallpaper and this ugly 70's dress I'll use in some sort of future short film project ... Thanks for the good times, Laura & Nancy! ... Below is some very smiley photographic evidence of the trip:

Nancy & her apple

Laura & Nancy

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In video news, the word ridiculous could be the uniting theme for all four of the following videos that I came across this week ... I'll post them in order of least to most ridiculous ...

okay, this 1st one is actually pretty great ... especially the album that it comes from, plus it features vocals by Noah Lennox from Animal Collective ... it's just the "tree man" (or whatever he is) that strikes me as silly ... see for yourself:

this one is hands down pure ridiculous, along with just plain old terrible music it's laugh-out-loud hilarious to think that the band is actually serious about what they're doing ... Brian Teasley sent me the link ... He loves stuff like this:



I heard the song for this next one at Bottletree the other day and it suddenly made me want to look up the video, since it was stuck in my head ... Watching it makes me realize just how ridiculous pretty much all the videos from the 80's were:

finally, speaking of the 80's we have this one, which is not only ridiculous, but kind of frightening in a way, seeing Paul Reubens playing Pee Wee at the age he is now ... if anyone thought he was creepy then, he's waaay creepy now! I do, however enjoy the fact that he ends up using the iPad for a drink tray in the end ... nice one, Pee Wee ... haha:

Half Awake Mix

This mixtape will be perfect for:

A. Wanting to sleep in

B. Wearing pajamas all day long

C. Getting excited about menial tasks

D. Doing something unexpected

E. Drifting in and out of dreams & waking

You can delve into it right HERE.

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Wow ... this past week seems like it lasted FOREVER! Time's weird like that ... Maybe it's because the weather changed so much ... all four seasons in one week! I'm not kidding ... Last Tuesday we had a bit of Winter snow again and then it got really cold ... then it felt like maybe 4 days of Autumn, and as Saturday unfolded, suddenly Spring appreared! The biggest surprise was Sunday, because my softball team, the Bad News Bearons were scheduled to have our 1st practice of the year ... I think most of us assumed it would be too cold, but voila! It was actually a Summery 70 degrees that day, which seemed miraculous and made for the best 1st practice ever ... crazy!

Elise sent me these crazy "Are You Psychic?" cards ... there are 5 different shapes on them (a star, square, circle, triangle and cross) and you have to guess which one the other person is holding up ... sadly, I'm not any good at it! But then again, neither are any of my friends ... haha

Below is some footage Jonathan Purvis shot at the HoWaYaDa Klann opening at Litebox ... I think it turned out pretty amazing and beautiful:

I woke up Friday morning at 6:30AM to roaring sirens ... Leaping out of bed, I ran to the front porch and immediately saw this sight about a block away:

I quickly got dressed and walked down the street to get a better

look ... This house that's divided into 4 apartments was all ablaze and smoking ... most of

the folks who lived there were standing outside in their pajamas, shivering ... it was a pretty sad scene to behold and it made me paranoid about the safety and vulnerability of my own place ...

On a lighter note, I finally finished this commission I'd been working on for my friend Duncan ... it's a painting of the Edward Lear poem, "The Owl & The Pussycat" and I think it turned out pretty nice:

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In video news, the band Liars have a splendid new one out for their song "Scissor" ... I kind of hope they have a video for every song of their new album "Sisterworld", since this one is so damned amazing:

Speaking of amazing ... both this new Caribou song ("Odessa") and the video for it simply blow me away:

Lastly I found a new video by Bobby Birdman and it makes me laugh cuz I remember Bobby from a while back ... I was selling merch for Brightblack Morning Light (when I was still with Paul F. and he was still in that band) on a Bonnie Prince Billy tour in California ... Bobby was part of Will Oldham's band back then ... it was a crazy & fun experience being on that tour etc ... Lots of memories ... Anyway, this song's pretty cool and also YACHT make a special guest appearance in it ... dig it:

Recap Mixes A & B

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,

PSYCHIC TUESDAY!!!

YOU TURN ONE YEAR OLD TODAY!

These mixtapes will be perfect for:

A. Getting sentimental

B. Remembering some things you totally forgot

C. Catching up if you missed out

D. Feeling a bit schizophrenic

E. Turning one year old!

I was telling Laura yesterday (as I got these "recap" mixes together and compiled all of the "backyard" photos from this past blog year) that it's funny how small a year can seem, especially when looking at it as 50 + weeks translated into 50 + one inch photographs ... and yet how enormous and epic it can seem at the same time when listening back to it as 2 big 25 song mixes ... weird! I guess when I started this blog, I never really projected very far ahead, since what happened in each week and the week past seemed so important at the time ... ah, Time! you ole devil!

The oddest sensation for me though, is the feeling that the blog started out (and still starts out each time) as something that comes from me ... and yet, looking back on it ... it seems to have become a "something" in itself, something that's now separate from me ... it's kind of like knowing a tiny bit what a parent feels like to see her or his child growing up ... wow

Anywaaaay, on that note, here are Recap Mix A and Recap Mix B, consisting of the 1st song of each mix from start to finish through this past year ... Enjoy!

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Sentimentality aside, I actually don't have too much to report ... after finishing those bathroom door paintings last week, I took a rather nice break from painting and enjoyed a bit of a "week off"... writing in my journal, cleaning stuff up and slowly getting my website revamped (something that prolly won't be finished till like late April ... haha) ... Friday was a pretty amazing day, full of snow adventures and later a great art opening called "Role Playing" at Litebox Gallery ... a bunch of my friends had photos and paintings in the show ... the funnest part for me was playing with a lot of these home-made instruments in a an installation called "flusaudiuxtory: intermental transdio expeririactive aumition" a HoWaYaDa Klann (Larry Hoagland, Jess Marie Walker & Brad Davis) installation of multiple amplified assemblage situations ... Jess Marie took this photo of Jonathan, Walker and I going crazy on it:

I got so carried away on this instrument made of old rusty wrenches that I sort of broke it and it had to be repaired ... whoops

So anyway, they're gonna be doing a special performance using all of these instruments this Thursday, Feb. 18th ... check out all the info about it right HERE.

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So I mentioned that the same Friday as the opening it snowed ... and it was a great snow! Like in the movies! haha ... so please forgive the oncoming onslaught of celebratory snow photos I took that day:

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Okay now that I got that out of my system, in video news I found the following black & white gems this past week:

David Brown brought this next one to my attention ... and the only appropriate word to describe it is AWKWARD ... bear witness:

And now, ladies & gentlemen ... let us now bid a fond farewell to last blog year's photographic anchor, the much-loved "backyard photo" ... soon to replaced by the baby new year blog photo,

the "front porch photo" ... haha ... Here we see the back yard photo in a before-and-after-the-snow series ... Bye bye! we'll miss you, old friend!