July 2009

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Learning how not to think

31 July 2009 in lit, the ancient past | 1 comment

If you haven’t read David Foster Wallace’s 2005 commencement address at Kenyon, you should. It’s humble and real and warm, and truly great. It’s also very difficult to read. After his suicide, it’s impossible not to hear the echoes of Wallace’s internal conversation, the darkness and doubt and obsessive thoughts that he clearly struggled to get a handle on.

As I’m sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head (may be happening right now). Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.

It’s not technically available online, but you might be able to stumble across it in the depths of the Internet archives. Thanks, Dave.

Before he created Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels used to send jokes to Woody Allen ... A sample: He was obsessed with the notion that, somewhere in the world, there is a person having exactly the same thought he was at exactly the same moment. He decided to call that person, but the line was busy. Just the right amount of existential angst for Allen, right? Allen told Michaels that this joke was “brilliant,” and according to Michaels, the compliment “kept him going for the next several years.” Excellent anecdotes in Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live.

31 July 2009 | 2 comments

Friday milkshake: Panda Bear meets Atlas Sound

31 July 2009 in music | 1 comment

Friday usually means Stevie Wonder, but today it’s Panda Bear and Atlas Sound, a guy from Deerhunter. I have been playing the 1s and 0s out of their new thing. Warning: It’s going to give you a craving to drink a milkshake with equal parts Beach Boys, organs of the Motown variety, and Animal Collective raspy echoes. Listen at your own risk.

Atlas Sound & Panda Bear. The song is called “Walkabout”

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Atlas Sound guy describes the beginning of the collaboration, from Brooklyn Vegan:

I toured for a period in Europe with Animal Collective, whose band dynamic was very inspirational to be around. On the bus, we often played improvised iPod games. We would take turns formulating a theme or unifying concept and then play three songs. The goal would be for everyone to try and figure out the theme. During one of these games, someone played “What Am I Going to Do” by the Dovers. I was amazed at the hook — a weird organ thing with drums and electric bass. I mentioned to Noah that someone should really sample that riff. He agreed and he taught me a little about sampling and matching up beats. This ended up as the collaborative effort “Walkabout.”

Via Tom Haverford, aka Randy, aka Aziz Ansari.

The man of steal

29 July 2009 in baseball | No comments

Baseball great Rickey Henderson recently gave the Hall of Fame induction speech to end all induction speeches. He was a larger-than-life figure in my childhood, and he had a personality to match, often referring to himself in the third person. For example, “There are pieces of this puzzle that Rickey is still working out,” in a discussion of age and baseball in an excellent New Yorker profile. There was no third-person in the speech, but there was plenty of Rickey being Rickey:

As a kid growing up in Oakland, my heroes were Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Reggie Jackson. What about that Reggie Jackson? I stand outside the ballpark in the parking lot, waiting for Reggie Jackson to give me an autograph ... I said, ‘Reggie, can I have an autograph.’ He would pass me a pen, with his name on it.

The best part is that Jackson is sitting behind him, cracking up, along with Robin Yount and various other living legends. You can watch the whole thing, in three parts, on YouTube: Part 1 has some awesome commentary by Tony Gwynn and Torii Hunter; Part 2 is the beginning of Rickey’s speech; Part 3 is the conclusion.

Dateline: A Mexican discotheque in the early 1970s. “Rickey [Henderson] had a pair of heels on that were about four inches high. Everything was fine until these people came in yelling that they had guns. Then they started shooting” ... Henderson ducked under a table as gunfire strafed the room. When the shooting ended, Henderson looked down and saw a bullet hole had gone all the way through the heel of his shoe. “If tall heels hadn’t been popular, Rickey Henderson might have had his career ruined.” The narrator was former Japanese baseball legend, Randy Bass (aka Ba-su), from a 1987 SI profile: The Hottest American Import in Japan.

29 July 2009 | No comments

Memphis dirty go-go

21 July 2009 in music, visual | 2 comments

Stop whatever you’re doing and watch this. It’s called “Windowdipper,” and it’s by Jib Kidder, aka Sean Schuster-Craig. I remember Sean describing his music as something like minimalist crunk, or Dirty South boogie, or Memphis dirty go-go, or something, but you really have to see this to get it. Sean, if you read this, remind me of the official sub-sub-genre. In the meantime, holy crap. Enjoy.

Unconsciously satisfying

20 July 2009 in flickr, photo | 1 comment

Great design hits you on many levels. During our staff meeting today, Nick gave a nice example of the way it can hit the subconscious: When you shut the door of a luxury car, like a BMW, it feels different. And this feeling may not even register in the conscious mind, but I think it matters. The feeling of solidity and integrity during that action is unique and lasting, even though it occupies a tiny sliver around the experience of driving. It reinforces quality, security, class — critical elements of luxury.

I hesitate to admit this in a public forum, but I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a new piece of silverware. Our silverware drawer is a hodgepodge of airline spoons, thrift store forks, garage sale knives, odds and ends of various shapes and sizes. But you’ve got to wonder whether the experience of eating wouldn’t be greatly enhanced — even unconsciously — by great silverware, like the set above by craftsman David Mellor. I saw it yesterday at Heath Ceramics in Sausalito, and even a philistine like me could tell that it’s got something going on. For $160, you can find out for yourself.

If you do, listen to your subconscious, and let me know what it says.

“The name just popped into my head one day ... I just don’t feel like I had a past, and I couldn’t relate to anything other than what I was doing at the present time. And, it didn’t really matter to me what I said. Still doesn’t, really.”

16 July 2009 | No comments

Tim Cohen / Sounds for fog & summer

15 July 2009 in music, reviews, san francisco | 3 comments

My pal Greg Gardner is working on some night moves called Secret Seven Records. A few months ago, he released some friendly sounds by Mt. Egypt, and now he’s getting ready to drop some more home cooking: The Two Sides of Tim Cohen. It’s a solo album by a local rapscallion named Tim Cohen, formerly of Black Fiction, and it’s a real nice collection of foggy folk songs. I tend to favor the loose, spacey side of rock music, and this album is open and astral — but with rough edges that reminded me of Panda Bear minus the Beach Boys-ish harmonies. More Floyd, early Floyd. Saucerful of Secrets, soundtrack to “More” Floyd. Whatever the vibe is, it’s rough and quiet and psychedelic and probably has British roots. But I’ll stop before I say more because it’s better than I’m making it sound, and I’ll probably be on someone’s knuckle sandwich list if I throw around any more crazy notions. I’ll attach a song that’s more Leonard Cohen, or maybe mellow Replacements, than Floyd, okay?

It’s a quiet, moody jam called “Warriors & Clowns.” A choice cut.

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Royal-ly sucking

15 July 2009 in baseball, kansas city | No comments

Zack Greinke’s lockdown pitching during the bottom of the fourth inning of tonight’s All-Star game made me wonder: When was the last time a Royal looked great in an All-Star game? Of course Bo Jackson’s epic home run to lead off the 1989 All-Star game comes to mind. Royals Review helpfully offers a brief history of Royal participation in the All-Star game over the past decade.

2008: Joakim Soria named, pitched one and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief.
2007: Gil Meche named, did not play.
2006: Mark Redman named, did not play.
2005: Mike Sweeney named, struck out as a pinch-hitter in the 7th.
2004: Ken Harvey named, struck out as a pinch-hitter in the 3rd.
2003: Mike MacDougal and Sweeney named, neither appeared.
2002: Mike Sweeney named, replaced Paul Konerko at 1B in the 7th inning, flied out to right in the 9th inning.
2001: Mike Sweeney named, replaced Jason Giambi at first in the 8th inning, flied out to right in the 8th inning.
2000: Jermaine Dye voted to start, Mike Sweeney named. Sweeney pinch-hit for James Baldwin in the 4th, reaching on an error. Sweeney did not appear in the field. Dye walked once and struck out.

Yeah, not so illustrious.

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