A photo I took at an army surplus store in Georgia.
Month: September 2014
That’s How Blues Works – medium.com
The Digital Age – Rehearsals – “Never Grow Old”
I like to rest in these lyrics. They bring about a great image to visualize.
Electric pow wow drum – A Tribe Called Red
This song made me dance around my room like a crazy person. A certifiable, straight jack worthy, lost his mind, crazy person. I hope it does the same for you. I mean the tagline for this is: Traditional Pow Wow music remixed with Dubstep. Needless to say I was intrigued. I haven’t been to a dance party at someone’s house in some time now, but I feel one coming on. And I feel this song will be the life blood.
Propaganda – Three Cord Bond
Saw Prop last night. Love his cadence. He went wild even for a small crowd and I really respect that. It must be hard to do.
Nihls Frahm
This feels very familiar, similar to the band Eluvium. Calm. Relaxed. Peaceful. Something to listen to while studying. Something to listen to while writing or working. It sets my mind at a baseline, allowing me to move toward creativity if I want to or move toward sleep just as easily. If I look outside, I notice more. More of how the leaves flutter and the juxtaposition of when they fall still. This music makes me more aware.
Victor Vazquez Quote
“How much of my time should I invest in trying to understand how the world is and how much of my time should I invest in trying to understand how the world should be?”
A Walmart oil change, an elderly woman and an episode of Dragnet
I drove through a poor part of town today. The kind with boarded up windows every other house. I thought that while this area was clearly economically depressed, kids still got up and went to middle school, single mothers juggling multiple jobs caught early morning buses to work and auto mechanics covered in oil and grease twisted wrenches. What I mean to say is that while this town looked like it was slowly dying; people went right on living.
Sometimes I fail to think about the people in these ramshackle towns. That they are working long hours and still might not have enough to feed their kids.
Anyway, I was getting my oil changed in this not-so-nice section of town at a Wal-Mart, and I met an elderly woman in the waiting room. I am not sure how old she was because she looked old enough to be my grandmother, but talked as fast as a teenager (with a certain amount of urban swagger) and seemed in very good health. She was very thin and like my 9th grade gym teacher could probably beat a few 20 year olds in a mile long foot race.
We sat and watched old episodes of Dragnet on a rear projection television. We watched as EMTs rushed a young boy to the hospital after a baseball injury and my new friend said of the episode, “If that little boy dies, I’m outta here. Don’t even care none about my car.” I laughed, “Yeah me too.”
She talked about all kinds of stuff. About how she could probably fix her car for cheaper than what Wal-Mart was going to charge. About how she should have gotten a Toyota Camry because they “last forever” unlike her Ford SUV. She talked about how she works 7 days a week and has for 4 years.
She swore a lot. I mean more than I’m used to and I played on public high school hockey teams. But she was kind. She laughed real big and smoky when she told stories or when we went back and forth.
I think when someone extends you kindness; your job is to extend it right back.
The mechanic tossed me the keys to my car and I said goodbye to my new friend. I then drove through that same ramshackle town glad for my decision to take the trip. Then a realization came over me, “They never did say what happened to the little boy with the baseball injury … Bastards.”
The Human Shuffle
“If ChatRoulette catches on, it might even swing our collective online pendulum back toward chaos.”
Below is a link to a brilliantly written article about Chatroulette (the crazy site that pairs random strangers’ webcams) circa 2010. I thought it unpacked the problems, and potential transformative properties of the site, and ones like it, really well. I think the site is a very interesting social experiment that has really just become grotesque slathering of naked people. Author’s note: the end of that last sentence made me laugh so I kept it even though it probably conjures potentially harmful images. Please, forgive me.
Gregory Alan Isakov – Amsterdam
Some days I simply need to listen to this guy play and sing. Today was one of those days.
Tyler Strittmatter 