Pirate radio for pirates who like to dance
Sinker Battalion
Month: February, 2012
February 21, 2012
50
Part of our emergency is that it’s so tempting to do this sort of thing now, to retreat to narrow arrogance, pre-formed positions, rigid filters, the ‘moral clarity’ of the immature. The alternative is dealing with massive, high-entropy amounts of info and ambiguity and conflict and flux; it’s continually discovering new areas of personal ignorance and delusion. In sum, to really try to be informed and literate today is to feel stupid nearly all the time and to need help. That’s about as clearly as I can put it…That last one’s of especial value, I think. As exquisite verbal art, yes, but also as a model for what free, informed adulthood might look like in the context of Total Noise: not just the intelligence to discern one’s own error or stupidity, but the humility to address it, absorb it, and move on and out therefrom, bravely, toward the next revealed error. This is probably the sincerest, most biased account of ‘Best’ your Decider can give: these pieces are models—not templates, but models—of ways I wish I could think and live in what seems to me this world.”
- David Foster Wallace
Introduction to “Best American Essays 2007″
February 20, 2012
90s Boy
To hear you talk,
you were mostly an accident
skinny legs in a pair of questionable bluejeans
a growth of beard to conceal a nervous jaw
you shot me a look that said
“please don’t make an example of me”
a look that said you’d been chewed on
hoping to appeal to my Florence Nightengale complex
there’s nothing hot about the way you take off your clothes
you peeled away the t-shirts
and offered yourself up shaking
a nervous kid in a man’s musculature
given to wandering off too easily
30 years old wearing 15 awkwardly
I don’t know whence this fascination
I have with the miserable
why I’d want a man
who wears whiskey for cologne
why when the party slowed
I crossed the room to the kitchen
where you were standing
so helpless
and vulnerable
and I decided then and there
to let you break my heart
February 19, 2012
Musics!
Last night, this young man and I had the most amazing conversation about artists and how there are so many people in the arts who don’t quite seem to understand how much hard work really goes into all of this, how much time and how much practice and how much professionalism really is a reflection of how devoted you are to your craft.
Mike, the lead singer and guitarist in Dead End Days, is one of a certain percentage of artists in my generation who really does Get It. That kind of thoughtfulness is reflected pretty nakedly in this album. In a world where you can’t swing a flannel shirt without hitting a few singer-songwriters, Mike stands out. His musical craftsmanship is careful without being over-calculated, honest and sincere without being unnecessarily sentimental and at times youthfully wild and funny without ever losing the disciplined artist’s sense of self-control. Ever since I downloaded this album this past summer, The Longest Day of My Life has had a steady place on my playlists (“Goodthinker” in particular) and I’m really looking forward to see what they do next.
Please download this album and if you like it, encourage your friends to do so as well.
February 16, 2012
Bone Broke Revival (Chicago)
Can I Get a Amen with Briar Rabbit and others
This Saturday @ the 5 of Hearts Gallery (2015 w. Race Avenue)
8-11 (wink)
$5 at the door, $1 PBR and better beers for better beer prices
February 14, 2012
I’ll add some accent chords to this strip when I’m feeling a little bolder tomorrow. When I’m bolder still, I want to do Wolf Parade’s “Modern World” (you can make the compositions longer by cutting off the end and beginning part of two strips and simply taping them together. Likewise, when I can get around to fixing that middle part, I can just put a piece of tape on the back and it’s like it never happened).
