...from the back of the check-out line at Wal-Mart

I appreciate that you're saving $5-$10 on a shopping cart overflowing with groceries but from back here at the end of the check out line it's easy to get a little aggravated with you and your Bible-thick stack of coupons, half of which are out-of-date. For every 5 coupons that scan properly there's that one where the bar code just won't be read until you finally give up and let the cashier move on to the next one. Funny how you never look back at those of us waiting behind you, ice cream melting, milk going sour, bread molding. Is that guilt that won't let you turn to the right to take in the sight of all the coupon-less shoppers whose patience was tested, long before getting into this line, by the mind numbing process of Wal-Mart shopping? It's not as if you don't save a dollar on a dollar-fifty bag of donuts with their "everyday low prices", you have to kick in a coupon for a dime off because, hey, it all adds up. Don't be such a cheapskate, man. Do your part just as we do, small as it is, in helping build back up the nation's dying economy. I know, it's almost like being tortured to have to give your money to Wal-Mart and I don't blame you for wanting to skim a tiny portion off the top, even if it's only to rankle the boys down in Arkansas. But for God's sake, we've got things to do, places to be. The magazines they put in the aisles to sell, Barnes & Noble style, are all lame and most of us wouldn't be caught dead reading the Enquirer or the Globe in public. There's nothing to do besides grumble and resent you holding us up, knowing that all the other lines are just as long and who knows how many of them will be populated with even more bargain busters each one wielding "War and Peace" sized stacks of coupons, all wrinkled from being stuffed in a purse with all the other useless crap, making the bar codes even MORE difficult to scan. Here's the deal, lady. Me and my friends here, at all points in the line behind you, are willing to throw together $5.00 CASH if you'll just forget about all the coupons. Let me re-iterate, that's CASH, doll. Mean green. You can take that to the casino and walk out with a whole butt load of money. Or you can buy a Happy Meal and sell the toy on eBay for a hundred bucks. $5.00 will buy you a copy of Vogue so you can sit back and salivate over all the fashion accessories you might could have bought with the money you saved at Wal-Mart...but WAIT! You can't get you no Gucci with coupons from the Sunday Oklahoman. Christian Dior and Tommy Hilfiger (sp) don't make no "$75 off" chits, now do they? Ma'am, take my advice. Cash is the way to go. And you might say that $5.00 doesn't seem like a lot when you consider how much money you'll save on Great Value Hominy, or Clabber Girl baking powder, or a Banquet liver and onions TV dinner, or a 12 roll family pack of John Wayne toilet paper... Great deals, I agree. I do love me some Bar-S bologna with Ramen noodles. But just take a look at the fine print on any of those coupons. See? "Cash value of coupon is less than 1/100th of a cent". Looks to me like $5.00 would be a real windfall for such petty work as snipping little rectangles out of newspapers and magazines. $5.00. It's what we have for you. Take it and accept out deepest gratitude. But if you refuse I guarantee you will never be forgiven when some proud-parent-to-be can't make it to the hospital in time to see the birth of his first child for no other reason than that he needed a can of discount priced Skoal and you held up the line. Selfish. Shame, shame, shame. $5.00.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choirs

Watch these. An incredible idea realized. Try to hold back the goosebumps the first time you hear the Virtual Choir during Whitacre's TED Talk. I'm late jumping on this bandwagon but oh well. Something completely original always gets me excited.

Don't be such a sore loser...

Please, please, please stop your bitching and moaning, whining about how it coulda been, shoulda been woulda been, and just accept the fact that the majority of the country voted for Obama so now he's our president. That's the way it works, you know. How about instead of bemoaning the hell-bound state of the nation as a result of this fact you DO SOMETHING, you GET INVOLVED, you work with your "enemy" for the GOOD. I guarantee you they want the best for the country every bit as much as you do, so why not try to reach some middle ground instead of mourning the death of bipartisan politics? Watch C-SPAN for a while instead of Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity so you can reach YOUR OWN unfiltered conclusions and the same goes for us democrats with Jon Stewart, Bill Maher (yuck), 99% of Hollywood. We've all got to realize that these radio & tv pundits are there "for amusement only". They're entertainment and little more.

You will not see me shouting from the rooftops that my man won...nobody in this town would ever speak to me again if I did, not to mention the death stares. The idea of prolonging this whole ugly mess by posting "nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah YOU LOST WE WON!" memes on facebook. It's not for me to jump into the fray of figuring out why Romney lost. That's for the Republicans to sort out...like I said earlier, as far as I'm concerned the reason Romney lost was because he didn't get enough votes (I'm being facetious, of course).

And then I see so many people saying "pray for the president" and I think that's great. We hopefully prayed for Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr,, Reagan, Carter, Ford...yea, even Nixon (especially Nixon)...meaning to say that when we pray for someone we are supporting them and I only hope that such support will be manifest in other ways which manifest in physical ways. This action is the stuff with which God answers prayers. Pray for sure, but don't sit back and wait for God to somehow intervene. Remember that in this world WE are His hands, eyes, ears, etc. His will cannot be done if we use them seeking discord, division, isolationism, and all the other things that run contrary to the Law of Love.

Which is all to say that people have the power to change. A friend of mine once wrote, "Everything changes, change is all that there is" and that's so true. By it's very nature change is inevitable. I wouldn't presume to tell my conservative friends that they need to move over, get out of the way and stop holding that change back. Because I don't see them doing that. There's a cautious aspect to progress and I believe it's their job to reign in change that's unproductive and out of control. Unfortunately the definition of "unproductive and out of control" often seems radically at odds with the vision democrats have. Perhaps it is this balance that allows change to flow at a rate which supports social harmony. Just thinkin' to be thinkin' here...

...which I suppose means that there will never be a time when we're all gonna get along (an opinion which perhaps puts me at odds with the goal of a "Utopian" society I've been told is the goal of the Left). Hopefully I don't sound too esoteric to suggest that the very duality of the universe would seem to even REQUIRE the push and pull of our differing views.

But that does not mean we shouldn't nevertheless strive for harmony, peace, goodwill, and a willingness to overlook a few faults to achieve those things. Bipartisanship is only as dead as you say it it. It's only as dead as you want it to be. Of course there is no such thing as PERFECT bipartisanship. But there certainly is bipartisanship of a DYSFUNCTIONAL sort. If our nation can hold claim to any bipartisan politics at all there is no doubt that they are of the dysfunctional type. It's up to us to do something about that.

Re-reading those words I could almost see how someone might take them as a call for revolution. Encouragement to overthrow and topple the government. No, that's not how I mean it. Just get involved on a realistic level. Our elected officials should be prepared to do their job provided with INFORMED requests. House and Senate representatives should either have a case built by people who cared enough to seek out the facts FOR THEMSELVES or they should not even consider that they have a case at all. If this were the norm I bet things would look a lot different. People should not only know about the facts themselves but understand the whys and hows of PACs and other organizations/corporations that desire to influence votes and elections.

I could go on and on and on...I hope I didn't offend anyone, especially with those opening lines. It just seemed like so many people are dragging the negative aspects of this election out further, stretching them to see how far they will go before turning into something even uglier. I can't count how many people have said "I'll be so glad when this is over" and I definitely agreed. Some of these same people are still regurgitating talking points learned from Limbaugh, Beck, Levin, Hannity, O'Reilly, the usual lot. It's time for all of us to get serious about politics. It's become obvious that social media is going to be a hugely influential aspect of 21s century politics. Since everyone and their long deceased great great grandfather are on facebook and twitter there's no escaping it. Peer pressure to become involved is and will become even more strong. This is a good thing, but also not so much so. The viral misinformation and vitriol will likely continue into infinity. But hopefully more and more people will take it seriously, seeking out facts in the morass of bullshit.

And with such knowledge true change can hopefully be recognized by those cautious of it's dangers as well as those who would embrace it in hope for a better future than they were given. Recognized, acknowledged and unchained.

Meme-Warrior Politicians and other ruminations on the current political climate

For every informed citizen caught up in the "game" there are hundreds who don't know their heads from their asses with regard to even the surface intricacies of the issues. Too many of these people shape their opinions on little more than memes like this with maybe a dose of Rush Limbaugh, Chris Matthews, Glenn Beck or Jon Stewart to help shape their viewpoints with little if any regard to the strengths of the opposing party or the weaknesses of their own. It's a game, but so few know the rules and even fewer know why those rules are put into place. People who wouldn't watch 10 minutes of C-Span but will spend two hours stroking their position with Mark Levin or Alan Colmes neither of whom seem to give a rat's ass about anything more important than discrediting the other. You put these people in a room together and you won't get a single moment of intelligent discourse. No, but you just might see an all out bar room brawl. These people have absolutely no respect for their opponents. NONE. I despise George W. Bush and believe some of his actions were not only ill advised but maybe even criminal. Yet if I were sufficiently predisposed I could probably find several things he did that were good for the American people. I would recognize those things. And I'm not defending the democrats, either, because there are just as many on the left who refuse to admit that their "enemy" could do ANYTHING right. I don't think you're going to hear Sean Hannity or Ann Coulter throw out a positive remark about the President. He may as well be the anti-Christ and God knows there are plenty meme politicians who actually think he is just that.

Never mind that he's had a few victories of his own. Conservatives won't even give Obama credit for even playing a role in bin Laden's take down. And that's such bull. The man with his finger on the button is the man with the responsiblity, which makes him the brunt of the blame or the praised victor. Come on. "Obama called the SEALS and THEY got bin Laden". Who do you think gave the order to kill Saddam Hussein? Who killed him? Nobody remembers the guys name, and that's too bad because soldiers deserve recognition, but the fact is that history will show that George W. Bush got Hussein. History will show that Barrack Obama got Osama bin Laden. History shows that because in the end they were the ones whose careers were on the line. To give the impression that Obama was not directly responsible is to feed the fires of hatred that too many armchair politicians thrive on. Which I only bring up because it's a prime example of what I'm talking about. Let's not give credit to the man who would have been crucified if the SEAL mission had failed. What a double standard.

So...and here's the crux of my point I'm probably failing to make. Politics is some deep water. It is for the few to manipulate the many. It is too deep for most people to know what they're getting into and that's why it's easy to best them with facts because they just don't know them all, and most of the ones they DO know have been twisted beyond recognition by candidates who have no use for them. One of the reasons I consider myself a liberal is because I see it as an affiliation that questions everything and wants to know WHY. That's the most important thing I want to know, because if you can't tell my WHY something is I would say WHY BOTHER THEN? I get the feeling that a lot of meme-warriors have little concern for the whys and wherefores. A lot of the time it's just like an ego stroking club. Romney is the leader of one and Obama the other. "Like" their page and get a daily boost. Keep up with all the memes in favor of your party that are floating about in wanna-be-viral land by subscribing to "I am going to vote for Presiden Obama in 2012". It IS like the Super Bowl...Pittsburg Steelers versus Podunk Junior Varsity.

It's why I hate to go into much detail about what I believe politically because at some point I'm going to get in just deep enough to be unsure and there's always some sharks armed with just enough ammunition to make me question the validity of what I have felt in my heart and tried to put in my head for most of my adult life. And sure enough when I get out of the waters and dig a little deeper I can find my own ammunition for when I want to best those pesky sharks. And I will, but it's like Dante's Inferno. It just keeps getting worse.

If I may continue with the analogy...those sharks don't know anything more than I do. But they stay where they're at and wait for the next diver. They aren't looking deeper. They're happy where they are. That's politics to me. It's way, way too complex for me to be so absolutely sure or get to the bottom of any issue. Maybe that's a weakness on my part, but I believe an election should be about weighing pros and cons, not trying to knock each other off the scales. I've given up hope that this generation will ever respect the office of the presidency itself as opposed to the man who sits in the Oval Office. Isn't that sad?

How about instead of slinging horse**** at our opponents we make better use of our time and try to educate all the people who need to be shown how to ask "why" and how to spot a lie when they hear one. Show them there's a higher path than posting negative images and stupid cartoons trying to best the other team. (I should take just a second here to admit that I have done that as well, so I understand the fascination). Teach them what they should know before they go to the ballots and if they don't want to learn we should do everything in our power to keep them FROM the ballots.

I know there's a long standing tradition of political rivalry that stretches back all the way to the founding of the country. It seems negative campaigning has been with us from the start. But do you know what? It's so stupid. It's counterproductive. Some traditions, through the passage of time, become good for nothing and no one. Those are the traditions that need to be tossed. And IMO this is one of them.

dream journal: truckers en masse & unlucky pilots

Two nights in a row now that I've had vivid dreams (see post below). This one wasn't quite as uplifting, to be sure, but quite spectacular in it's own morbid way.

Not a whole lot to it, really, though quite powerful. First I noticed that there more 18 wheeler semi trucks driving through town. Many more than usual. Broadway and Main Street in the town where I live are the intersections of two important state highways so we do get quite a few big trucks hauling their goods across these roads. Some are on the way to the Interstate seven miles away. Others may be trying to avoid the Interstate for whatever reason. In this dream there were at least twice as many coming through town than was normal.

Next thing I found myself at the car wash. I wasn't washing the car or doing anything that might need to be done at a car wash. I think I was talking to someone on the phone. The signal was becoming very sketchy. I heard the announcer on the radio saying something about how there would be a lot of jet airplanes in the sky today so I figured the airplanes had something to do with it (why, I don't know. It was a dream, right?). Sure enough I see a plane flying over to the east.

Then I heard one of them flying particularly close, heading toward me. From a very high altitude and at full speed the plane's nose turns to the ground. It only took a few seconds before I saw the explosion. Incredibly violent. It had been flying so fast that it was basically consumed in the fire the second it hit the ground. The crash couldn't have been much more than a hundred yards from me, but there was no shrapnel.

I turned away and tried to call 911...or maybe I called my wife first and then tried to call 911, I don't remember. Before I could get off the phone there was another brilliant explosion to the north, near a cafe on the side of Broadway.

A period of time passed until I became keenly aware than no fire trucks or ambulances had been dispatched to the scene. Not even the sound of a police siren. I walked toward the scene of the second crash and there was smoke bellowing out but it didn't look nearly as wrecked as I thought it would.

I got back in my car and headed home on a back road I often use as a short cut. I almost never see any other cars on this mile long stretch of what used to be part of the highway a long, long time ago. But in the dream there was a solid line of 18 wheelers all headed in one direction (south). They weren't crawling slowly as if they were in a line at a parade. They were really tooling along.

It was at this point that I woke up. Thinking about it now I can see that it was an unusual, rare dream. I've had many dreams over the course of my life about planes crashing. Usually they are smaller passenger planes or huge commercial airliners. I'm sure I've dreamed of jets, too, but apparently they were not remarkable enough to have been retained in my memory. Yet that's not what made it rare.

Every time I've ever dreamed of airplane disasters I've woken up immediately after the crash. These are the kind of dreams I feel kind of shaken by upon waking. Yet in this one I stay in the dream after the first crash...I even stay in the dream after the second crash all the way up to getting past the back road convoy. I'm not sure at all what that means, if it signifies anything. I read some interpretations earlier this morning and the most logical was the one that postulated the jets as goals and ambitions, things I want or need to do before I leave the planet. The crashing of the planes symbolizes fear of those hopes and dreams being left unrealized and undone. It's supposed to be a warning that I should get my shit together and carpe deum.

All of which may well be true but I really think it's more complicated in my case. So much so that I fear I'm full of crap. Even if I'm not full of crap it would take a long, long time for me to explore the labyrinth of my psyche hoping for significance in a dream. The things I'd find would probably not be stuff I'd want to relate here so it's probably best for myself and everyone else if I simply leave it at that...

...an awesome, action packed dream with just enough David Lynchian weirdness to set it apart from others.

Dream Journal: the Jonsi Daisy Chain

Last night I dreamed I went to a Jonsi concert with my friend Tristan Shutt.  It was a typical venue but something seemed a little "off". The first thing we saw that was out of the ordinary was the seating. Very organized rows of office chairs directly in front of the stage instead of the floor area crowded with the hardcore fans (where we would have been). Tristan sought out and found a choice seat on the end of a row very close to the stage. So close that I worried the volume of the music would make my ears ring for the next month. Then I thought, not for the first time, "well, it's a Jonsi show and will be worth it".

The stage was fairly large, lined with lights that stretched all the way round. When they slowly came up, accompanied by the "overture" music, a long line of leprechauns hopped, skipped and ran from left to right in front of us. Small leprechauns, much smaller than midgets. Obviously part of the show, or so we figured because next thing you know there are "normal sized" people following them, trotting merrily, laughing. The line just kept on going round and then we realized that the leprechauns had been joined by people in the audience, who would randomly jump up and join the chain.

I turned to Tristan to see if he had caught on. Of course he had and to my surprise he jumped up himself and joined the fray.

So I'm sitting there, seeing all this craziness unfold around me, the whole place just filled with laughter and childish fun. I'm not the only one still sitting but the number of abstainers was dwindling. I thought, "that looks like so much fun, but I can't do that. It's just not 'me'. I'd look like a fool." So I watched, amused.

Then I had that thought again..."well, it's a Jonsi show. It will be worth it." And "worth what? The embarrassment  Everyone else is doing it, who is there to be embarrassed for?" It was with a great degree of surprise when I found myself actually considering doing it. But I held back and stood my ground.

For about thirty seconds...

I couldn't help it. It was actually like pushing down a wall to get to the other side, still convinced that I was doing the wrong thing, maybe that I'd regret it. But all these people were hopping and skipping...Tristan was out there with them...I basically said "what the hell", got up and started running in the circle, leaning to the left like I was taking a sharp turn on a Harley.

I laughed like a fool. Like a madman! So much so that I was seriously hoping noone would think I actually was crazy. I laughed so hard that I cried in the mix. I don't think I've laughed so hard since listening to a Richard Pryor record when I was in high school. Or maybe in an elevated situation with a close circle of friends back in the early 90s. No, running around those ordered office chairs in the theater was the most fun thing I'd ever done, I'd never laughed so hard in my life.

I was still whooping it up in the dream when I woke up. Sometimes when I'm really frightened at the end of a dream I will make grunting/groaning noises before I wake up. After this dream I was sure I'd come out laughing. But as it turned out I didn't make a sound (according to the reliable testimony of my wife). I was quite surprised I didn't because, as I've said, my inhibitions, fortified as they are, were shed like dirty clothes at the end of the day.

The crazy thing is that Jonsi never took the stage in my dream. If that daisy chain had lasted a couple hours I would not have even cared (much as I love Jonsi). Then again I don't think I could have lasted even another hour doing that crazy locomotion before fatally busting a gut.

What does it mean? What would Carl Jung say? Maybe Sigmund Freud could cast some illumination on what surely must been a revelation directly from the deepest well of my subconscious? Or is it something much simpler than that? Something that even someone who doesn't know me could figure out and explain based on nothing more than what I've written here? Then again there is always the probability that it means absolutely nothing. Just a great, fun dream, a treat from the psyche, unused to such frolics.

Of course the last explanation is the logical one. No one likes to realize he's a fuddy duddy who may not even know how to have fun anymore. This dream practically screams "THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO!!!" but I'll ignore it and just "stay in my seat". Like my butt is glued to it. Like my shoes are nailed to the floor and I can't reach them because my back is super-glued to the chair as well. I've been in this unenviable position for so long that I have no idea who put me there or why, only that time has convinced me that I'll never break free, never melt the glue or pry the nails from the ground. And that, my friends, is depression. So a dream like this is not so much a reminder of "what could be" (it never could) as it is "what once was", even if that was long, long ago as a little child playing "ring around the rosey" and whirling around in a daisy chain.

Then of course it could just be symbolic of the joy we'll enter into once we give up our bodies, tied to this paradigm/reality/experience as we all are. If such is the case, all I can say is that all the pain and suffering we've been burdened with in our lifetimes will have been worth it all. If this freedom from inhibition is the normal state of mind in "Heaven" indeed we have much to look forward to and nothing to fear in death.

That's the "dream interpretation" I'd prefer. But it's the "fuddy-duddy" one I'm tempted to believe.

New Spotify Playlists

Just added a few playlists to my Spotify Playlist page. If you've got Spotify you will most likely enjoy them and all the others I have posted there as well. If you don't have Spotify yet I urge you to download it. It's truly the greatest thing to happen for music and fans since the advent of the compact disc. $10 a month is a bargain for the Premium version but as of this writing you can get a free version that is ad-supported.

ORINTHIO SPOTIFY PLAYLISTS

GET SPOTIFY

Sigur Ros: "Ekki Mukk" (a video by me)

"Ekki Mukk" is my favorite song from Sigur Ros' "Valtari" album. I put together this little film as an accompaniment. It's amateurism shows at times but there a few parts that I'm actually quite proud of.

A letter never sent...

I wrote this for my son, who was understandably pissed off because his high school marching band was told to cut their show short at last night's game. I suppose the all the halftime performances were running a bit over schedule, but still there was no excuse not to push back the third quarter a couple of minutes so the band could finish. Especially when he had a spotlight solo during the last song. One that he'd worked very hard on and had worked to perfection. He doesn't handle this kind of disappointment well so I wanted to share something that would maybe place it into a perspective that would offer some solace. I'd originally intended to send it via facebook...he certainly did not want to talk about it last night. But then I changed my mind for some reason. I'm not even sure I know why. But the message I wrote was still valid...maybe he'll see it here someday, though I wouldn't bet on it. I doubt he visits this blog at all. So what the hell, eh? I'll share it anyway for it's nostalgia value.


I understand how disappointed you must have been last night when they called the band off the field before you got to play the solo in "Beth". You worked on that long and hard. You had it down. There's no question it would have been very impressive. The solo you played in "Oye Como Va" was as good as I've heard you play, but the fact of the matter is that you should have gotten the opportunity to do both. It was part of the program that won the superior ratings, very likely played a substantial role in getting such high marks. It was wrong and even stupid to cut the show short. If I had known who was responsible I would have given them a piece of my mind. The football team this year are a huge disappointment while the band has excelled, it only seems logical that you would have been given some kind of priority. Moreover, there were still a couple of minutes left in the half which was plenty of time for the song. 

But what's done is done. One day, when at a class reunion or something, when talk turns to the less than positive aspects of being a senior in this silly small town, you'll have a story to tell about how Prague High School screwed you. :)

The whole fiasco reminded me of something that happened to me, though not related to school. It might take a lot of words to relate it but I'll go ahead in hopes that even if you don't choose to read it now, perhaps one day you will.

I'll start it at the point where I was playing with a band called Big Sleep. By the time I'd joined them they had already built up a fairly large fan base. The sets they played were divided almost equally between cover songs and originals. The covers were a mix of popular underground songs and much more obscure fare which they hoped would "turn people on" to different kinds of music and new bands. Their own songs were very, very good. Musically they were inventive while remaining accessible. The lyrics were much, much deeper than practically anything I'd ever heard with subjects that were rarely heard in any genre of music at the time. Song titles like "Yahweh Observed", "Held Under Water", "Pyre", "Cage Hotel", "Sympathy Trap"...

Needless to say I was thrilled when asked to join the group as bassist (which allowed the original bassist to move to rhythm guitar to replace a guitarist they'd just fired...justifiably, I might add). I did little else during the following two weeks but learn the parts to all of their material. It wasn't hard because, as I said, it was all really very good. It's easy to pick up on stuff like that when you're enjoying it. By the time we played the first show with me on board I had those songs down even better than the original bassist who wrote them (though my nerves were a little jittery and I tended to play a little too fast during the first couple of shows...I could just as well blame that on the drummer but I am...or was...a very strong and "persuasive" player, so he likely got caught up in what I was doing).

If there was any doubts about how well the band would go over with the new line-up they were dispelled immediately following the first couple of shows. Which was a relief because the guitarist who had been axed was very popular and his lead solos were a big part of the group's overall sound. And so we did well getting gigs to play. 

About three and a half months into the whole thing it became very apparent that our rhythm player was not happy playing guitar and wanted to move back to the bass. By this time we were already in the very early stages of planning and putting together a record, so I was pretty excited. But I knew that my days were numbered because there was no way the other guy wasn't going to play bass on it. First of all he was a much better bassist than a guitarist. Secondly he had a huge ego and there's no way he would have let himself be relegated to what is not exactly an "essential" instrument (at least it had not proven to be in the songs we had been writing and performing). And then to top it all off, the obvious...a member of a 4 piece band is logically going to get paid more as part of a quartet than a quintet. Assuming all members get an equal share, which we did.  

As much as it tore me up, I was not willing to be flat out dismissed. That was in the cards and I knew it, but I couldn't stomach being called to a band meeting and getting the news like that. So I decided to call a band meeting of my own. We gathered together in the place we rehearsed and I pretty much told them that my mental health was on the downswing again and for that reason I thought it best if I quit the group. It was a very, very hard thing to do. I loved playing in Big Sleep. I knew we were good enough to actually be successful, to play a lot more and at many different places across the country. 

So I left the band, greatly disappointed. Not nearly as disappointed as I had been about other things in the past, but this was definitely at the top of the list. They went on to record the record in Dallas with a producer who was well known for working with top acts. And they continued to play steadily. I was there for many of those performances. Sometimes they would ask me to come onstage to sing a song and I would always oblige, but it just made me miss it all the more. They invited me to come put some vocal tracks on the demos for the second album they were working on, which I did. All were pleased with the results. It was funny, when they asked me to do that I was playing with a crappy band out of Glenpool named "The Drop". We only did one show and it was at that performance that the Big Sleep guys came to ask me to help with the demo. Later I was told that the singer had said, in reference to "The Drop", "...JAC has more talent in his little finger than those other guys have in their whole bodies combined". That was cool! I always did like the singer...he had seemed to be the one most disappointed by my leaving the band. 

Anyways...I guess it was a year after I left when the singer decided he wanted to leave the group to concentrate on his full time career of being a high school football coach (I know...I know). So they did a huge "farewell show" and broke up. Indefinately for all intents and purposes. At least that's what we thought.

Okay, a little background is required here. One of the bigger alternative bands of the mid-late 80s was a group named The Call. They had a big hit with a song called "The Walls Came Down". Another track, "I Still Believe" was on it's way to topping the last one when at some point, and for some reason I don't know, their lead singer/songwriter was at a Big Sleep show and was very impressed. So much so that he asked the BS songwriter to work up some lyrics for a project he had begun. He'd also told them that he wanted them to open for The Call next time they came through Oklahoma.

Unfortunately they never did come through Oklahoma while the band was still together. BUT...a few months after Big Sleep HAD broken up their manager gets a call from their management...they're going to be playing in Tulsa and Norman for two consecutive nights and can we open? Well, this was quite an opportunity...for what, I don't know, but it just didn't seem right to tell him that Big Sleep was no more. So the manager doesn't tell him. Says he'll talk to the guys and get back with them.

When this situation was presented to the members of Big Sleep there were mixed reactions. All of them wanted to do it, but each had their own expectations and qualms. A couple thought of this as an opportunity for the band to re-group and get back to playing and writing. Short of this at least it was a chance to play with The Call in front of what promised to be a huge audience. Three of the four were very eager to at least do this...but then you had the coach/singer. He was happy where he was, with what he was doing. It was what he'd wanted to do his whole life so no one could fault him for placing career above band. He seemed tentative, to say the least.

Eventually he made a decision. He would play the show under one condition. That I be brought back into the band, playing acoustic guitar and singing background vocals. I was obviously very happy to do it, though it was unclear if he fell into the camp of wanting to "permanently re-group" or just do the one show. We rehearsed a couple of times with this line up, the last time being a week before the show. I'd figured out acoustic guitar parts to go with the music, which was kind of difficult because the newer songs they'd written were really heavy, not the kind of sound you'd expect to hear an acoustic guitar in. But not only did I figure out the parts, I wrote a whole new song to present. I thought it sounded very good, and so did everyone else except the bass player (which was as to be expected, but also because he was dead against me coming back in, even though he would be able to keep playing bass).

So, here's what I've got going for me at this time. I'm once again playing with what is definitely one of the best bands I've ever played with. I've just written a very good new song that is worked up to the point where we were ready to play it at the next show. And to top it all off, we were opening for The Call, who weren't only the biggest act we'd played for but we actually had enjoyed their music before all of this (even had some of their records). One week before the shows and I'm already too excited to sleep.

And then...

The Friday night show is at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa. Great place to play. It would be our first gig there. We had all our gear packed and loaded. We set out from Seminole to Tulsa, psyched as you can imagine. About 20 miles from Tulsa we hear on the radio, "The Call show at Cain's Ballroom has been cancelled due to the singer being ill". Our hearts sank. Not only did it mean that the Tulsa show was history, if the singer was really sick there was a good chance the next show in Norman would be called off as well. We drove on in to the City hoping to catch the singer in their hotel to at least find out about that. Their management assured us that the show on the following night would go on. The logical inference being that ticket sales were slack at the Cain's so they blew it off. 

So that was the first big disappointment of the weekend. Surely things would get better. They didn't...

The next night we show up, sans singer, who we assumed was riding with someone else. The venue was a place called Rome and it's pretty big. I've played there a few times. The first thing we notice is that all the gear is sitting on the side of the stage in a section that was roughly one quarter it's size. It's not just sitting there, it's arranged there, as if it were going to be sort of a mini-stage. Which it unfortunately turned out to be, and it was where we were expected to perform. I mean it was a pitiful affair, all of us were going to have to be all bunched up, crowded against each other. It it weren't for the fact that we were playing with The Call I'm sure we would have loaded out and said "to hell with this". But it WAS the Call.

We were also pissed off because a band called The Nixons were going to play first on what was turning out to be a three band bill. This was not how we were told it was going to happen. It was pretty obvious what was going on, though. The guy who owned the club was also the manager of The Nixons and he knew that the huge crown The Call would draw would be priceless exposure for his band. We couldn't hold it against them, because we were acquaintances and had some mutual respect for each other. It was on the manager, who had been nothing but a piece of crap since we'd met him years before. The Nixons were going to play on the floor, which doesn't sound all that great unless you saw the chincy little "stage" we were supposed to play on. 

Next set-back...and this was a BIG one. It was time to go on...but our singer was nowhere to be found. Nowhere! We were in a pinch like you wouldn't believe. What to do? We couldn't just call it off. What they did...

...was put an electric guitar in my hand and tell me to go out there and play/sing all of the songs. I didn't even know all of the lyrics. There's a huge difference between playing electric and acoustic guitar, so I had no grasp of the style the singer used. I could only turn it up and hope the distortion would hide my inadequacies. Moreover, I am certainly not the singer that he was. He had a voice that was immediately recognizable. He also had a higher range than me. I was stuck. I had to do it, and I did it, but it was touch-and-go. I took some comfort in the fact that at least my song, which I had been singing (not the regular singer), was in my range. It was positioned at number seven in a nine song set...

...but then, at the conclusion of song number six we get the signal from management that things are off schedule a bit and we could only play one more song. It kept getting worse. But maybe it would be worth it just to play my song there, with such a large audience, with Big Sleep (or at least 3/4s of them)...

...it may HAVE been worth it, but I'll never know. For some God-forsaken reason the bass player insisted that we play "song number 9". After all, it was the song we were originally going to end with, right? Yeah, that's understandable, I'd almost be willing to agree and do it...had it not been for the fact that I felt like I was owed at least SOMETHING for stepping up and salvaging at least all I could from this dismal affair. I'd gauged the audience and felt certain that my song was better suited to their tastes, as demonstrated by reactions to our other songs, and would therefore be the best choice. I didn't get my way. We ended our part of the show with "song number 9", which got a much less enthusiastic response than had it been "song number 7".

We left "the stage" and what was probably the worst, most screwed up set of circumstances I've ever experienced in my days as a musician. I walk over to the table we had reserved and who do you think was there?

The singer. They said he'd been there for a while. I will never know why he did that. I'm sure it wasn't because he wanted to put me on the spot or anything sinister. He raved about how "good" I was...he probably even thought I was, because he really did have a lot of respect for me. As upset and disappointed as I was, for some reason I just could not hold it against him. 

It was the final nail in the coffin of Big Sleep. The re-grouping with me on acoustic guitar never materialized. The show we'd been so anxious to play, waited so long for, had been disastrous  I don't think anybody even WANTED to put it all back together again. Disappointment on such a large scale drove us all apart. All there is now are a lot of memories of the fun times we had. Tales of road trips gone awry, of camaraderie  of rehearsals that birthed new songs, of fans and people who showed up to every show without fail, of compliments from other musicians, of going to our peers shows and being called out to from the stage, of getting the opportunity to play our music to hundreds of people while other musicians struggled to even book a show, of inside jokes and nicknames, of every unique and awesome thing about being in a band and playing the music you love...

...and then there's the one story that's my favorite to tell. The tale of how everything went straight to hell the weekend we opened for The Call. 

2 photographs

"Blue Window"

"Aqua"

Jimmy Idle...lost record covers

A trio of albums from my rock-god alter-ego Jimmy Idle.

"A BLOOD SACRIFICE, MY FRIEND"

"JIMMY IDLE: THE SELF-TITLED ALBUM"

"YEAH, I'M A BAD-ASS!"

A short rant on something that should be obvious.

After much thoughtful consideration I have come to the conclusion that politicians don't deal in facts. They mix data, statistics, polls, opinions, then they wad it all up like pieces of paper in their fists to throw at their rivals. Nothings against the rules because when you get to a certain point there ARE no rules. They all lie, they all cheat. Their promises are made to be broken. Republicans, Democrats, they're all hyocrites.

Politics is a game, all the way from the top seats in the White House to the arm-chair pundits cheering on their team via Twitter and Facebook. I don't blame anyone for voting from their gut because it's six one way and half-a-dozen another. I've actually read posts from friends who say any bipartisan effort to resolve issues is outdated and a useless, ineffective means to an end.

The gap between "us" and "them" has never been so wide. Thick dividing lines have been drawn, they want to know which side you're on. I resent that I am put in a position where my choice of who to vote for opens me up to ridicule and ostracization. That sounds extreme but anyone who has watched these campaigns play out should see it plain and clear. How much of this anti-bipartisanship can we endure until civil war breaks out? That sounds extreme, too. I don't see how it cannot be inevitable as long as there is so much hate infusing the political climate.

I take comfort in the hope that the next generation will learn lessons from our obstinance and set things to right. I hope that their approach to politics rises above childish insults, bully tactics, personal attacks, "tit-for-tat" excuses, Tea Party isolationism, Occupy extremism, Chick-Fil-A support feasts, Chick-Fil-A "kiss-in" demonstrations, wars on religion, wars on women, wars on Christmas, wars in the middle east, AM radio spokesmen with more power than the president... I hope they can find intellectual and moral middle ground in understanding sensitive topics like abortion, sexual orientation, religion... I have faith that they will be able to approach one another with more empathy and acceptance than my generation ever could, deprived of a tool that connects cultures, attitudes, opinions... could it be that the Internet will teach our children more about understanding the plight of their fellow man better than ever we could? We shall see.

In the meantime here we are. Fresh from nit-picking all the rhetoric from the Republication National convention, ready to hear some validation from out of Charlotte. Or coming down off of that ecstatic cloud with the GOP nominating your man, ready to throw mud at the "socialists". It's all great fun, ain't it? I guess it all depends on how far down it is on your list of priorities.

film..."Powerline" by Husker Du

Sorry so small. I'm hesitant to post this to YouTube because of possible copyright issues, so I'll just go ahead and use Blogger's video upload service. I'm a bit disappointed with it's size, but what am I going to do?

This is a music video I made for the Husker Du song "Powerline". I was inspired by the mid-period videos by R.E.M. ("Life and How to Live It", "Time After Time", et al). I used footage from the film "Holy Ghost People" and an armed services training film about Vietnam.

Future Islands - Give Us the Wind

Rock Scene!!!

Once again a bit of snooping around of the Internet has yielded a treasure trove of nostalgia. This time it's in the form of Rock Scene magazine. I was but one month away from my 12th birthday when I saw the debut issue (pictured) in the newsstand at Mom's Minit-Mart. Even at that young age I was really into what could only be considered  the "alternative rock" of it's time. Rock Scene looked to be right up my alley. It was tied with Creem for the title of "favorite magazine". Up until now I'd only seen a few covers floating around in the images section of Google. Even those were enough to spark fond memories, so you can imagine my delight when I  came across rockscenester.com. EVERY SINGLE ISSUE scanned and presented in an easy-to-use format!!! It was printed on low grade pulp paper and all of the photographs were in black and white but that just made it all the more endearing to me. It's probably been over 30 years since I had a copy and looking through them now, after all these years, brings back some extra-powerful memories. It's no understatement when I claim that Rock Scene had a good deal to do with shaping my taste in music. Obviously as an 11-12 year old boy I was ripe for the picking. Check it out...if you're an aging rocker like I am you might actually remember it. If you're a bit younger you'll get a kick out of what is most definitely a snapshot of the 70s, from the content to the ads.

ROCK SCENE

The boys of summer...

Do you remember when? Does it make you feel older?

click on picture for link

These "Bet You're Not Old Enough To Remember" posts are like a plague on facebook, and yet I still am amazed at how old they make me feel. Of the 11 references in this article I immediately recognized every single one (even though a couple were barely memories even from childhood). I can sympathize with the youngster who doesn't recognize Eeell Gibbons, but SURELY everyone knows who Archie Bunker is??? And it isn't the fact that I recognize them that makes me old, or even that the youngsters might not recognize them. I feel old BECAUSE I *THINK* THEY WILL RECOGNIZE THEM. And then they don't. That's when I feel the real disconnect between the generations and realize I'm consigned to a particular place and time that is terra incognita for the movers and shakers of the modern world.

Not to say that some of the references deserve to be remembered. Some are better off forgotten for their actions/statements and others simply because their notoriety is so utterly trivial. Twiggy, anyone? Others barely hang on to their place in the nostalgia machine because they are an aspect of something just as trivial yet a bit more amusing. For instance, the rumor that Alice Cooper was the guy who played Eddie Haskell in "Leave It To Beaver". But it's all in vain, because only a couple of decades will erase all memory not only of Eddie Haskell but of Alice Cooper and "Leave It To Beaver" as well. Oh, sure, there will be revivals down the road. But even that phenomenon cannot completely save our pop culture heroes from obscurity. When's the last time you heard a big band blowin' out some swing tune from the 40s on the radio/internet/whatever? And that's not even 100 years ago. What was the scene like in 1912? Have to ask grandpa. See if he remembers.

Anita Bryant? Well, she's certainly no Fred Phelps, but do we really want to keep her memory alive as anything other than a cautionary tale? Even if you agree with the gist of what she had to say (I don't) surely there's no way anyone can condone the way she said it. Foster Brooks? Ah, yes, the good old days when alcoholism wasn't considered a disease. It was a time when 12 Step programs settled for 8 or 9 steps. The days when the Marlboro Man rustled herds of cattle and Spuds MacKinzie rolled out the kegs of Bud (I'll bet ya not too many people remember good old Spuds!). Bad stuff to be sure but I'd take it all back in a heartbeat if they'd get rid of all those emberassing Viagra ads. Oh for the good old days when an erection lasting longer than 4 hours was considered a good reason to pull out the ole Black Book, pick up the phone and start dialing. We didn't need or even want to know that such a miraculous phenomenon required a visit to the doctor. 4 hours, man, I'm not gonna need no doctor, I'm gonna need an undertaker (if you catch my drift, and I think you do, nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more).

I have to wonder, though, if my embarassment of Viagra ads isn't yet another vestige of my perception. My generation, as teens, may have had Playboy magazines stuffed between our mattresses...year old copies found in our dad's dresser, likely...but we were ignorant about sexuality. Well, obviously I can only speak for the male segment of the spectrum...I don't have a clue what the gals were up to. I only knew that they were usually a lot more mature about the subject so they must not have had a Hugh Hefner or a Bob Guccione to corrupt them.

What I'm (unsuccessfully) trying to say here is that I don't think kids get red faced at the concepts set forth in the disclaimer & side effects rider of a Viagra commercial. When I say "kids" I'm talking about older teens, younger tweens, and I may just be incredibly naive thinking that kids that age in my day weren't as enlightened, but I know I wasn't. I watch an episode of "New Girl" and I think, my God, that really goes for the blue humor (in case anyone doesn't remember the term, blue humor is basically the same as "dirty jokes". If "dirty jokes" has passed from the idiom I don't know what to tell you). I am probably a prude when it comes down to it, but I would be embarassed watching "New Girl" with my 27 year old daughter. Hell, I'd be embarassed to watch it with my 40 year old wife. I know, that's pathetic of me. Childish, even. I think of it as being "over protective" and maybe it's a hold out from the time when I beat that punk Laurence to a pulp for shouting obscenities within hearing distance of our elderly neighbor, Mrs. Huggins. I can't help it. I don't want my friends and loved ones to descend into the deep, dark, nasty pit I fell into long ago.

Which takes me back to where I came from...This is the kind of thing that makes me feel old. Kids are just smarter than they were when I was one of them. More savvy. Even the miscreants have more street smarts. I don't guess I should expect, or be disappointed, that they don't know Joe Friday or the Indian guy getting all teary-eyed because pollution has ruined his ancestral hunting grounds. It goes both ways, to a small extent. I don't think I would recognize Kim Kardasian if she had one of those "Hello! My Name Is..." tags on her blouse. I've never gotten more than 10 seconds into a Britney Spears song. I'm clueless as to why anyone gives a flying fart about Lindsey Lohan. I feel like a dirty old pervert when I contemplate how really good looking Zooey Daschenel is. I can count the number of post-2000 bands I really like on one hand. TV? Is the news on yet? Okay, you turn it on.

In the long run I think these facebook "nostalgia" posts are so popular because they would seem to suggest that, hey, I may be old but I've got something you don't have! Unfortunately the typical response is probably hey, that's ok, you keep it. It makes us feel good to be reminded of those things which, hey, even WE had forgotten until someone else's post reminded us. We like this stuff because it gives us a chance to revel in the generation gap. It's a bittersweet undertaking but one that offers perspective. Not just of how wide that gap becomes the older we get. We can recover memories lost between the horns of that gap by viewing a You Tube video of the Groovy Ghoulies. A picture of Linda Blair becomes a piece in a jigsaw puzzle that's always been there, scattered with all the others around the part you've already put together. It just somehow came loose, waiting for you to find it and put it back where it belonged. The bizarre experience of playing cardboard records cut from cereal boxes, held down on the turntable with nickels, becomes an esoteric bond between those for whom the very idea isn't patently ridiculous. "Hey, you think Marilyn Manson is outreagous? Well, come over here and let me introduce you to Alice Cooper". "Yes, son, that's the third re-make of this movie. When we get home we can watch the original. It's so much better." A bridge of sorts.

Assuming, that is, that anyone wants to cross it.

ha ha!

********************************************

the next day:

a lot of great clouds in the sky today

a short rant about Spotify's iPhone app

If you're thinking of going premium with Spotify for the iPhone app don't bother. It's a piece of crap that crashes every 20-30 minutes. That said, the service is worth the money even without it. Still it bothers me because if you tell me I'm going to get something for my money I want EVERYTHING you offered. I feel like I'm being taken advantage of by the developers who have been aware of the problem for a long, long time and have not addressed it. It CAN'T be a major bug so what's the deal? You know? Boo hoo! Punks! Thieves. Disappointing. But hey, for 10 bucks you can turn your laptop into one of the biggest, most diverse record collection you could dream of. Perhaps it's too much to expect to be able to do the same with an iPhone. No? Then why did you wastrels tell me it was part of the deal? This is the kind of stuff that turns your ordinary upstanding citizen into a Unabomber. Like when the Man keeps you down, you know? Makes you think they've got you sunk, pushed down to some bottom level of their insidious Monarch Mind Control techniques. It makes you give up all hope for the technology that brought us the Internet as well as the social corruption & degradation it brought along for the ride. I feel I've been exiled and excommunicated by the high priests at Spotify who pontificate and praise the many wonders of their product while turning a blind eye to it's defects and shortcomings. They sit around plotting and scheming all day long to find a way to get the licensing for Beatles songs, Pink Floyd songs, Led Zeppelin songs...I say WAKE UP!!! Beatles fans can listen to their CDs and MP3s cuz you KNOW they've already bought 'em. Floyd and Zep fans, too. Hell, they can just turn on the classic rock radio station and wait a few minutes, they'll hear something by them. I say STOP MESSING AROUND WITH THAT, SPOTIFY!!! Get your spit together. FIX yer apps. Start firing your developers, take a trip down to Silicon Valley and find some new ones, for God's sake. Ones that can take charge of the situation. Ones that can, in the words of a great postmodern thinker, GIT 'ER DONE. I'm dead serious about this. I've been let down too long. I see people cancelling their subscriptions left and right because of this. Yes, you goofballs, I've thought about it, too. Lucky for you you've got a few things going for that none of the other streaming subscription music services I've seen have. Bigger file size/better sound quality is the hook you've got me reeled in on. Trust me, that's the ONLY thing, because as far as selection and UI are concerned Rhapsody and Rdio both are comparable and in some ways even better. But they've got crappy sound quality. Really crappy. That might not be an issue with some people and as such I don't have any qualms about recommending either service over Spotify to those people. I hate to do that, too, because I'd rather be true blue to the core. I'd rather be faithful and loyal to a company that I believe in. I don't pay for Internet services as a rule. But I've made the exception with Spotify and that's got to mean something, right? All they need do is fix the crashes and I'll gladly give them enough free PR to afford the licenses for those Beatles songs I mentioned earlier. Punks! Get with the program! NOW! FIXXXXXXXX!!!!


Update: Ummm, well. I guess I should apologize. A helpful member (Moderator) of the Spotify Community gave me the solution to my problem, which was simple as changing a streaming setting from "Normal" to "High". How was I to know? I always figured "normal" meant "normal". Doesn't matter, though, because all is working properly. It wouldn't be a bad idea for the developers to put a troubleshooting page in the app. 

Sigur Ros: "Valtari"

I remember when Sigur Ros' last studio album came out. I debated long and hard whether I should listen to the full-length stream of "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" or wait another week until the official release. Eventually my curiosity got the better of me and I spent considerable time with the low-quality stream. I recall being hesitant at first because the record was so much different from it's successor, "Takk".

"Takk" is, in my humble opinion, probably the best record ever made. Sounds like lunatic hyperbole, doesn't it? I don't expect anyone to jump on the bandwagon...Even now I can hear the choruses of "are you crazy?" So be it. There's a spirit about their 4th album that moves me every single time I hear it (and trust me I've listened to it countless times). There's not a single moment on the entire album that fails to impress. It flows seamlessly from song to song, an hour passes and you wonder where it went off to. Even so, the songs stand on their own every bit as successfully. It's easy to get lost in "Takk". It's epic. There's not an album like it. There will never be another album like it.

So why did so many people expect "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" to be anything like "Takk" or any of their other records, for that matter? Why were so many disappointed? To my credit it didn't take long for me to integrate this observation into my expectations of the music. Okay, so getting used to the first single, "Gobbledigook", was a whole 'nother story, but I won't go into that, other than to say that I still sort of have to mentally disengage that song from the rest of the album before I can appreciate it totally.

I confess I didn't quite "get" "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" on the first few tries either. A couple of songs really stood out for me initially. "Gódan daginn" and the title track, for instance, sounded like exactly what I believed Sigur Ros should sound like. "Ára bátur" showed a lot of promise, but I figured it would take some time to find the right state of mind to appreciate it fully. "All Alright" is such a fragile song that it's hard to listen to even after all this time, though I've toughened up my Inner Child since then to the point where I can actually hear without feeling too unfomfortable. "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur" and "Vid spilum endalaust" were so far out of the expected mold that I thought for sure I wouldn't cotton to them. But guess what? They are a couple of my favorite Sigur Ros tracks now! I don't know how many other people who bought the record and felt let down eventually came around, but I can honestly say that "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" is right up there with "Takk" on my list of best Sigur Ros albums.

It's been three years since all that...three years with Sigur Ros on "hiatus" while Jonsi donned a bird outfit, wrote a slew of really good pop songs and toured the world with a show that was a real life-changing experience...though I wouldn't know that personally, since I was unable to arrange a trip to Laurence, Kansas. My life remains, at least in that aspect, unchanged. Jonsi was relatively "everywhere" last year, from a television ad (???????), a slew of talk shows, even composing the complete score for "We Bought a Zoo". Seeing as how 99% of all Sigur Ros fans love Jonsi and are on board with practically everything he does, one could be forgiven for suspecting a distinct possibility that the next Sigur Ros album ("please, Lord, let there BE a 'next' Sigur Ros album") might just contain some pop elements. After all, there were indeed a few songs he was playing that could well have been proper Sigur Ros numbers ("Tornado" & "Grow Till Tall", for instance).

Three years gone. Prayers are answered. And no, there will be no "Takk" sequel. Not even a ""Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" " sequel. No "( )" sequel and no "Ágætis byrjun" sequel. Nothing that bears any resemblance whatsoever to Jonsi's "Go" stuff. Instead...

"Valtari". Not since "Von" has there been a Sigur Ros album so challenging, so demanding of your complete and total attention. If I may speak only for myself, it's a DIFFICULT album. Perhaps some of the difficulty is the afore-mentioned process of trying to seperate "Sigur Ros A" from "Sigur Ros B". But it's hard because you really do have to LISTEN to get the desired effected. You can't hit the "play" button, settle back and read a good book. Not to say that a couple of the songs in the second half don't make beautiful ambient music. They certainly do. But unless you're concentrating on the sounds as they come out of the air, following without trying to comprehend them, you won't get pulled quite as deep into the experience.

I've read a few reviews of the record and for the most part I don't think they've given it the credit it deserves.  That's not to say that the opinions haven't been favorable. I guess 3 1/2 out of 5 stars in Rolling Stone is nothing to scoff at, seeing as how a lot of REALLY good albums pull "only" 3. Spin gives "Valtari" 7 out of 10, which seems more realistic but their website doesn't show the actual review so I don't know what their writer is judging. Pitchfork has even less love, with only a 6.1. Even so, such rankings are nothing to be ashamed of. Still I don't think the disc has been received in the way it should have been.

And this is why...

I saw a reviewer on YouTube give his take on the album. Somewhere lost in the typical "record review jargon" the reviewer was spurting he said, and to paraphrase only slightly, "'Valtari' isn't my favorite album in Sigur Ros' catalog"... I thought, "Dude! The record just came out two weeks ago!" The guy struck me as being a fan and since he spoke in terms of "favorites" I assumed that he had the band's other discs ranked in some semblance of preference. Who knows, maybe his initial instincts will serve him faithfully and it won't become an album that, in his opinion, won't hold it's own with their earlier work.

But, and I've probably said it here already, "Valtari" is not the kind of record you're going to "get" in just a few listens. Though it may not be apparent to many who primarily listen to "popular music", "Valtari" holds a lot in common with modern symphonic music. I can't describe exactly what I mean by that, only to say that the more you listen, the DEEPER you listen, the more you appreciate (ugh! I KNOW I've already said that more than once!!!). Take a symphony by Gustav Mahler. The second one, for instance, aka "Resurrection". It's length is staggering. It violently pulls you into it's world with one of it's primary motifs. Then you practically drown in all the different melodies, textures, etc. until by the end of the piece you're not really sure exactly what you've been through. But you know that there's something, some "things" you've missed. Pieces of a puzzle which, when put together, will make the the artistic vision a bit clearer and the listening experience more fulfilling. With Mahler (and practically all classical music in general) there are a LOT of puzzle pieces. And it's not so much that the pieces "complete" the symphony. You'll eventually learn that the symphony can NEVER be complete. Because it's dependent upon the listener to determine HOW the puzzle pieces fit together. It's an interactive process in which the brain is given free reign to assemble and dissemble sounds and melodies at it's pleasure, at it's whim even. It cannot be complete, but the more you listen the more you are familiar with the possibilities, having noticed or used them before in some combination or another.

This is how I listen to "Valtari". It's no less challenging, in it's way, than Mahler's second. Ian Cohen, in Pitchfork's review, speaks of the album as "leaving you to fashion highlights out of relativity". Maybe I'm just looking for something different in the music I generally listen to but WOW that sounds like it would be AWESOME!!! Isn't that what postmodernism is all about? He describes the music as "work, a trudge, asking for too much by way of demanding nothing concrete." This demand, he feels, is "due to Sigur Ros' unwillingness to exert any sort of artistic will on the listener".

Mr. Cohen, I can understand how you might feel that way, though the assertion that the band is artistically lazy gets under my skin. And I won't insist that "Valtari" is a "maximalist version of  "( )'", even though you think we hardcore Sigur Ros fans might use it as an excuse. I'm surprised you compare it to "( )" after all. Not that you're the only one, but I suppose it's difficult/impossible to find a point of comparison for something like "Valtari" in the entire SR catalog.

There IS NO point of comparison. Listening to "Valtari" IS work, though I would add that it's only a "trudge" for those who think they've already got a firm grip on what this band is all about. Which is not meant to suggest that they haven't crafted a recognizable style and sound in the past. I only mean that if you think you're going to pigeonhole them and put them in a box, you'll be confused when they fly out and you probably won't recognize them anymore. That's the point when you'll have to decide if it's the band you're running with or just the songs. Not to say that it's a bad thing to be "all about the songs". But that's something that hardcore fans of Sigur Ros, and most other bands as well, have gone beyond.

It's at that point when people will say to you, "Oh, well, you'll just like anything that band does, whether it's good or not". On one point that is a correct assessment. Yes, I admit I will like anything Sigur Ros does. They'll put out an album that sounds like death metal cum  Partridge Family and I will listen so hard and so deep and with such respect for what they are capable of that, yes, I'll likely find a lot that appeals to me, even in a record like that!  

Okay, so...the reason I'm writing all this is because a friend of mine asked me to. Well, that's  not quite true...he asked me what I thought of the album. There's no false humility in claiming that my opinion was especially important to him. I was the one who introduced Sigur Ros to him. He happened to be one of the lucky ones who walked into the store while I was playing "Aegetis Byrjun" on the stereo. He fell in love with the band there and then and has since seen them several times (a fact which has never failed to rankle me, as I've only seen them twice). Since then he's asked for my take on every new Sigur Ros album that's come around the bend. He said he was slightly underwhelmed with "Valtari". Or at least his first impressions weren't as favorable as they had been with previous records.

Of the "Sigur-Ros-Can-Do-No-Wrong" fan type, I had the primal urge to defend it...even though I was somewhat underwhelmed myself. That's where all this "give it a few listens before you judge" comes from, I'm sure.  I've said it, I've repeated it, I've implied it...the plea "don't give up on it so quickly" is all I can offer, but I think it's valid. I believe this album will reveal itself slowly, as the band members themselves have said.

Having been almost a month now since hearing the LP in it's entirety, the question is "Well? How did it hold up for you? Was it worth the time and effort to sit through the whole thing as many times as you have?"

Yes, it has. Although I don't think I've even broken the surface of what it has to offer I have nevertheless found myself in a place where I'm comfortable and, how should I say it? Prepared for where it will lead through the days to come. At first it sounded almost unfinished. Now I can appreciate a sense of sparseness for the sounds to float within, seldom anchored by gravity. There are still a couple of things about the record that disappoint. The mixing/production quality on "Varúð" is, to my ears, atrocious. It is possible that Alex Somers & the band did this on purpose, but this detracts significantly from the song, IMO. There are other places that the production could be, once again IMO, improved. Nothing that would completely ruin the overall experience, though. Also it just doesn't feel right to me for the last three songs to be completely devoid of  a "proper" vocal part. "Proper" as opposed to the voice being used as an effect, which is all very nice, but one primary reason I love Sigur Ros is Jonsi's voice so I was kind of hoping it would put in at least one more appearance before the album's finish.

As for the individual songs... "Valtari" rises out of the mist with a song that translates as "I Breathe". "Ég anda" sounds like a house filled with ghosts. Disembodied voices floating in a large, dark room. I don't usually think of music in terms of "thought pictures" (for lack of a better term), but I can't help but envision these wraiths trapped in time and space, for some reason tethered to the world, unable to slink into eternity where they belong. The lead vocal comes in and I imagine it's an incantation chanted over the spirits, a spell to melt the cord and usher them from a prison they've almost grown used to. "Ég anda" is one of three songs that I immediately enjoyed, that only took a couple of listens before they hit.

"Ekki Múkk" is one of the three, though it had a head start, being the first song to leak from the album. As with it's predecessor, "Ekki Múkk" rises up from silence with an eerie feel. There is a similarity, for me at least, to the material on Jonsi and Alex's "Riceboy Sleeps" album, which is perfectly fine with me, since that one has grown on me to a marvelous degree since it's release. The "ace in the hole" for this song are the chilling string arrangements from Amina. Jonsi shows off his ability to hold a musical note until cows come home. Such an awesome song, I don't know that I'll cotton to any of the others as I have this one.

There's really not much to the next track, "Varúð", other than a nice three note chorus from what sounds like a boys choir. It builds and builds and builds but inevitably reaches an anti-climax. I keep expecting Orri to kick into a heavy duty full drum assault but all I get is the pounding of what sounds like a tribal war drum. Nothing wrong with war drums and the such...I hear them more as "build up" and not "climax" (haha). Its not the main reason I'm ultimately dissatisfied with the song, which is the production. Since I've already commented on it I will move on..

Next up is the other song that I immediately loved. A truly beautiful piece of music, "Rembihnútur" spends it's initial half gathering up the sounds and snatches of melody that will eventually dominate the song. Jonsi sings a soft lullaby and then it all erupts into one of the most beautiful melodies I've ever heard from him. The harmonies and multi-tracking only sweeten the sound. Maybe it is those harmonies that remind me, for some inconceivable reason, of the Beach Boys, with their tight vocal interaction. I felt the same way about "Hoppípolla" when I first heard it. Once again, I have no idea why I make the mental connection, as I am not not a fan of the Beach Boys. I do, however, acknowledge the awesome quality of their combined voices.

I don't have the vinyl version of "Valtari" (as I have not owned a turntable in decades), but it's easy for me to hear the dividing line of side A and side B on the CD. As such I have had a difficult time getting past "side A". That's not to say that the last four songs are inferior to the first in any way. Still, I feel kind of drained by the time I get to "Dauðalogn", which is not a good thing seeing as how powerful the song is. It doesn't help either that I can't shake a melodic resemblance to "All Alright" that makes me suspect lazy recycling. I know Sigur Ros has far too much integrity to have ever done something like that so I have done my best to separate the lines and have paid more attention to the expressive qualities of the vocal. Using this approach it's easy for me to hear "Dauðalogn" as one of their best songs, able to hold it's own with just about anything they've done.

Before the album came out the band licensed the CW Network show "Vampire Diaries" a portion of "Dauðalogn". It was used in a scene where a two people are seen in a car underwater, having obviously just crashed into it. There are long shots of a woman, bubbles slowly exiting mouth and nose, sitting resigned to her fate with a look in her eye that is chilling. And there in the background is Jonsi singing, Icelandic or glossolia God only knows, and it just goes so well with the images I can't help but be impressed. I watched that and I kept repeating to myself, "DON'T think of this every time you hear the song!" I hate to have a video producer's vision provide the soundtrack to any song I listen to. But it's been hard to keep from it. The fact that it's a CW show makes it even worse. But what's done is done. I've found a way to mentally evict the offensive elements while still keeping the elegiac sense that was so awesome in the juxtaposition of song and drama.

"Varðeldur", one of the last three tracks, all basically instrumental, sounds to me like little more than a lengthy epilogue of it's predecessor. It took a few spins of the entire CD before I realized that's not what it actually is. On it's own merits the song is just this side of ambient, something you'd find on a Brian Eno album. The same holds true of "Valtari", the album's namesake which translates into "Steam Roller". Not exactly "steam roller" as you'd expect with a metal album, still there does seem to be a slow, lumbering motion that gives the unlikely title credibility.

Bringing it all back home is an experimental number called "Fjögur píanó". "Four Pianos". The idea of the song was for each individual musician to play an uncomplicated piano part to a simple loop. None of them would be in the same room at the same time and none would hear the parts that were played by each other. When the four completed this process they mixed the parts together and the result is "Fjögur píanó". Knowing that gives a much deeper appreciation to what they've attempted with the experiment. I could go into my whole spiritual mumbo jumbo about the source of inspiration and how it might work itself out in a situation like this but I'll spare you. Suffice to say it's a very enjoyable number and a successful outcome for the test. The pianos fade into a last spill of ambiance that eases the listener out of "Valtari" back into the mists from which it came.

And there it goes. Like the snake eating it's own tail, drawing you, beckoning you to play it again. To travel full circle again, finding bits and pieces of sonic bliss you missed the last time around. Worth the trip. Yes, I say it's well worth the round trip.

"Valtari" track by track

Liverpool Legends...June 26,2012...Branson Missouri

The wife's been itching for a vacation and I figured it would do me good as well to get out of the house for a few days. We decided to go to Branson, Missouri, which is basically a tourist trap for people in the heartland who won't commit to Vegas or the coasts. Not that I'm putting it down. There are a lot of cool places to see and things to do. The main draw of Branson is live shows. Mainly country and western tributes, "jubilees" and "jamborees". Mickey Gilley has a theater there. Jim Stafford as well. The Oak Ridge Boys is probably the most recognizable act to own their own theater in Branson. LOTS of tributes, impersonators, and artists who have passed their "heyday". Ticket vendors are everywhere. 

I'd only been in Branson once before today. We stopped here for a while on the way home from a Sigur Ros concert in Kansas City. We didn't have time to do much of anything that day. There's a place called the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum that we checked out. A lot of fun. They've got a hologram of Walt Disney or somebody that I thought was fascinating. I'm obsessed with holograms. 

The one attraction I saw at the time that really interested me was a big theater completely decked out in Beatles regalia and the words "Liverpool Legends" in big letters on a banner that hung over the entrance. It looked like a really big deal, obviously a Beatles tribute band. I didn't know if show was a long-running affair or for a limited time but I decided that if I ever came back to Branson I would go see Liverpool Legends.