and if you want to kill yourself remember that i love you

things are going well here in the san luis valley. i am currently putting together a small art show featuring the work of various la puente staff and volunteers that will be displayed in milagros coffeehouse. im pretty excited to put it together and share some of my own stuff as well. more details to come.

i thought i'd take this opportunity to share some of the jams that find themselves in constant rotation on my ipod:

grizzly bear friend ep

the latest from grizzly bear (released fall 07) is a small collection of remixes, covers and experimentation. grizzly bear reworks some songs from their first album horn of plenty ("alligator" and "shift") as well as some of the gems from yellow house ("little brother" "plans" and "knife"). along with remixes of their own work is a cover of the 1950's crystal's song "he hit me". this eerie declaration of love speaks, "he hit me and it felt like a kiss. he hit me but he didnt hurt me . . . he hit me and i knew he loved me". the orignal crystals version has an upbeat tempo that somehow masks the perversion of the content. grizzly bear's cover changes the tone completely by intensifying the instrumentation with overlapping fits of noise and almost invisible vocals. you need to really listen to the song to feel all the emotion and distance of the content.
the album also includes covers of grizzly bear songs by css, band of horses and atlas suond. each cover is a totally new approach to the stories presented in the original grizzly bear songs. i strongly encourage you to listen to the originals on yellow house if you're not already familiar with them.
basically grizzly bear is amazing.

track listing includes:

1. alligator
2. he hit me
3. little brother
4. shift
5. plans
6. granny diner
7. knife - css
8. plans - band of horses
9. knife - atlas sound
10. deep blue sea


animal collective strawberry jam

this is by far my favorite album of the moment. i cant stop listening to it, start to finish. animal collective's eigth album is a festivus of sound. the whole thing flows as a solid narrative. and that narrative can be about anything, whatever you want. the lyrics express so much without really telling you anything explicity. but the best part is the instrumentation and overlaying of sounds. it all comes to a beautiful conclusion in "derek" with hot and fierce percussion.

1. peacebone
2. unsolved mysteries
3. chores
4. for reverand green
5. fireworks
6. #1
7. winter wonder land
8. cuckoo cuckoo
9. derek

juno soundtrack

if you havent seen juno go out and do it. now you certainly have the right to not be totally impressed by it but i'd be surprised if you dont find it even a little charming. witty dialouge and a main character you'll be smitten with are two of the movie's strong points. another is the fun and fitting soundtrack. kimya dawson is the star of the jams. this woman's been kicking shit in the music business for a long time, first as part of the moldy peaches and now mostly solo. her lyrics are like a rainy day trip to the mall or a barefoot afternoon in the park. dawson has seven tracks on the record including a duet with antsy pants and "anyone else but you" with the moldy peaches.

the sountrack also features tracks from belle and sebastian, buddy holly, mott the hoople, barry louis polisar, cat power and the velvet underground. one of my favorite tracks is sonic youth's cover of "superstar" originally made famous by the twisted carpenters. this song has a particular presence in the film as mark tells juno she has to get into sonic youth. frustrated with him, later in the film, juno declares "and i listened to sonic youth and they suck- it's just noise". ha.

1. all i want is you - barry louis polisar

2. my rollercoaster - kimya dawson
3. a well respected man - the kinks
4. dearest - buddy holly

5. up the spout - mateo messina
6. tire swing - kimya dawson
7. piazza, new york catcher - belle and sebastian
8. loose lips - kimya dawson
9. superstar - sonic youth
10. sleep - kimya dawson
11. expectations - belle and sebastian
12. all the young dudes - mott the hoople

13. so nice so smart - kimya dawson
14. sea of love - cat power
15. tree hugger - kimya dawson and antsy pants
16. i'm sticking with you - the velvet underground
17. anyone else but you - the moldy peaches
18. vampire - antsy pants

19. anyone else but you - ellen page & michael cera

for polly

the armpit hair trees were originally envisioned for ms. polly, my dear friend. i added my favorite photo of her to give it that p.k. flair. happy birthday, polly, even if im a few weeks late.

sugar

fall of my senior year i made a short video narrative about the romantic pursuits of one lovable ramona tompkins. below is a clip from the piece:

this losing (in diaries)

so i finally got digital copies of some of my work for blogging purposes. below is a piece i made spring of my first year of college. it's a short personal essay expressing my own experience with grief. let me know what you think:

winter solstice mix

so i made this awesome winter solstice mix to send to all my favorite people for the holiday season (i understand that i am fairly late for the holiday season but tardiness is one of my more endearing traits). but it turns out that you can only burn songs that you bought on itunes up to seven times. so i apologize, dear friends, but the mix i meant to send to all of you only made it into the hands of a few. until i put together a new mix check out the following tracks on your own:

1. mystery juice -- sean lennon
2. winter time -- drug rug
3. he hit me -- grizzly bear
4. take pills -- panda bear
5. master of none -- beach house
6. hard to explain -- the strokes
7. gipirales -- ponies in the surf
8. cross bones style -- cat power
9. bedstuy parade -- mos def
10. winter wonderland -- animal collective
11. good girl/carrots -- panda bear
12. south carolina -- archers of loaf
13. on a neck, on a spit -- grizzly bear
14. lie lie lie -- drug rug
15. hold on -- john lennon

colorado sunset

day drive with mike

these mountains are all around me everyday. if you thought moving to rural colorado was a bad idea you were so wrong. and if you're totally jealous that i live in this amazing place then you're totally on it. and if you never thought about visiting me then think again, pal.
think again.

slv sky

last saturday i house-sat for the ledonne's. it was a perfect polaroid opportunity as the sun set over the san luis valley.

armpit hair trees

armpit hair trees. ink and acrylic on canvas board.

misc.

the sexy men of monterey house:

14 states in 10 days

sorry for this delayed post. after charity ball and the outreach christmas party i high-tailed it out of colorado for a whirlwind adventure that left me with little blogging time. and now the new year is settling it. time for an update.
originally i had just planned on a week long trip in st.louis to visit ms.polly and friends. but after some serious deliberation i decided to drive down to atlanta to see my family for christmas. so i drove 17 hours in one day to st.louis from alamosa. then 8 hours from st.louis to atlanta. and then a two day journey across the south from atlanta to alamosa. probably the most driving ive ever done in that amount of time. it was fun but exhausting. also, winter road trips are not nearly as fun as summer road trips. and the state of kansas is big and uneventful. some painful moments, needless to say.
i had an awesome time in st.louis. polly, patrick and i made time for some crazy adventures. and of course i got the royal treatment from the omura family.
one afternoon polly, jenny and i explored an old abandoned building in the north part of the city. here are some highlight polaroids:


a corner of the building's exterior. dead trees and a spiral staircase.

jenny claimed that the building had at one point been a homeless shelter. these boxes of hotel soap and stuffed animals confirmed it.

this is a toliet.


jenny rocks out on the rooftop.