Socks with Sperrys

May 25

Mark Richardson: David Berman's "The Summer Before the Night Ecstasy Became Illegal In the State of Texas"

MY FRIEND KYLE always had a lot of money and could get me into the expensive kind of trouble without the trouble sticking. He didn’t mind paying for me if it meant raising hell with loyal company. We were seventeen. You only needed one reason to be friends at that age. I figured we had at least…

(via noelle-aileen)

May 23

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

The Bilinda Butchers - “Sigh”

May 18

Very beautiful. Love Alex’s fancy feet. Love that they’re all wearing black.

May 14

Centipede Hz Tracklist:
01. Moonjock
02. Today’s Supernatural
03. Rosie Oh
04. Applesauce
05. Wide Eyed
06. Father Time
07. New Town Burnout
08. Monkey Riches
09. Mercury Man
10. Pulleys
11. Amanita

May 12

Finally watched Gladiator last night. Finally understand why people yell this all the time.

I’ve had this professor four times already. He’s a really smart guy, but super awkward. He references political science books all the time in class. I’m currently taking a class with him on the subject of California politics, mainly about the fault lines of power, wealth, and diversity. Anyways, every once in awhile, my professor would talk about his grunge days and how he used to go to DIY shows in LA. He talked about the first time he took Ecstasy at a warehouse party and the time when he took LSD while watching Black Flag. Interesting man. Anyways, thought this Arcade Fire “Sprawl II” quote was really cool of him.

Give some credit to Alex Scally.

May 10

I think it was a happy accident that Victoria and I found each other, because the more and more I’m around musicians and artists, I’ve found that the most important thing, if you’re not a one-person thing, which I think few people are, is finding your partner.

I’d been using organs and four-tracks for a couple years before I met Victoria; I’d been kind of obsessed with organ sounds, particularly the organ sounds that we use, since my teen years, when I started collecting them.

So I had a lot of recordings, but they were all very rigid, structural things, you know, like studies in drones and beats and stuff like that. And I was really fascinated with lo-fi recording; like, I loved lo-fi bands and lo-fi recording.

And then I met Victoria, and she’s not only an amazing trained pianist, but she just writes the best melodies in the world. I remember one of the first times we met, everyone was getting drunk, and somebody had a guitar and everyone was jokingly singing, like, early-’90s hits, like Stone Temple Pilots, Red Hot Chili Peppers, just dumb radio hits from the ’90s that we all loved.

And [Victoria] was in this group of people, and everyone was singing stuff, but nobody could get it just right. But Victoria knew every single melody perfectly. And not even just the melody, but like subtleties of the melody, like she knew how the melody worked and why it was so catchy.

And she has this insane ability to find these melodies that are, just, otherworldly, transcendent, narrative. Not just like someone singing a tune, but like transcendent, narrative melody. You know what I mean about the difference between the two?

May 9

“I try not to look back because I find nostalgia to be a waste of space. But every once in awhile, you hear an older song and you can’t believe how much you’ve made, how much you’ve worked, how much you’ve lived. All of a sudden it hits you and you can’t believe what has happened. Those moments can be very, very beautiful.” - Victoria Legrand

My mom always did something for my bday, whether I asked her or not. In 4th grade, she bought 30-something Happy Meals for my entire class. My 18th bday party was lame for a typical eighteen-year old, but for me, it was a blast. I set up Halo in the living room, Rock Band in the media room, and Halo in the family room. My mom was nice enough to let me have the party I wanted and she also provided and made a ton of food.

The picture above was when I was in preschool. I don’t think any other kid in class did this, so I am very thankful to have a mom that really did things for me like this. Wow, I can’t believe I was three in this picture.