31st

My favorite halloween movie is Halloween. The best parts are those that take place in daylight, under that late-afternoon sky. Classic autumn vibe. I associate the feel of halloween more with the hours of 3pm to dusk than any sort of midnight graveyard or lights-out bathroom mirror seance.

John Carpenter - Halloween Theme - mp3

Ett helt år

Mike Downey, you so crazy. Two blogs in one day, wtf? Yeah, because it was just brought to my attention that I have been living in Sweden for exactly 1 year as of today. And with that I have decided that yes, I do deserve a few beers tonight.

Plant a tree. We can watch it grow.

Follow the string of talented people: my pal Chris plays drums in Grizzly Bear. When they were here in Uppsala last year I snagged a copy of their remix album of songs from their debut Horn of Plenty. On that remix album is a track glitched with and added to in all of the right ways by a London fellow named Simon Bookish. Because his remix was so unmistakably good I dug deeper. Yep, everything I've heard from Mr. Bookish to this point has been equally weird, creative and interesting (like before, in all of the right ways). I'd love to see him live one day. So anyways, while browsing around a Simon Bookish place on the internet I linked up to another London fellow whom Simon Bookish is currently touring with. His name is Leafcutter John. While clicking and creeping my way through his website I realize that not only is Leafcutter John making special music, he's also writing his own software that I'm guessing he uses to make, record and perform his music with. And here's where it gets really good (and free); he has made a number of his programs available for download (Mac only). I installed OS 9 just so I could try out some of his early programs. They're simple -looking and make lots of noise. I'm not here to critique them, only to pass the word along. I've had the most fun with Leafcutter John's Forester V1.3 program. Make sound forests using your own audio files, prance through the forest you've created in barefeet, stop for a rest under the old oak (the old oak: maybe a .wav file of 6 children singing a really old song, knives splashing in the sink or maybe even your electric guitar a' reelin' and a' rockin'. You decide.)


Leafcutter John's homepage --> downloads --> software. There it is. Check out the video tutorial, it's informative.

Information age

Beck is character that I have cared about (a lot) in the past, and then have completely forgotten about. Admittedly, I haven't made any effort in keeping up with him in the past 6 or so years. But I do recall bursts of pure beauty oozing through my car stereo in 2002 as those singles from Sea Change graced my ears. One of the best concerts I've ever seen (Top Five easily) was Beck at the Metro in Chicago when he was touring in support of Odelay. I also absolutely loved Midnight Vultures. Who cares if it showcased Beck's "funny side". It was the album I turned to back in 1999 if I wanted to cut a rug, you know, bust a move.

I shouldn't give up on someone like this so easily. Beck? Beck! Here's what I've been hearing/reading lately that has brought me back around again...where it's at:

In a recent interview with Beck that I caught on MTV (couldn't find the transcription or video online, how unprofessional of me) he talks about the production of his new album The Information. To paraphrase: instead of using samples taken from various sources as he and everyone else has done in the past, he brought in a group of musicians and had them play loads of various stuff that he thought he might like to sample. He recorded these musicians. These recordings were then pressed to vinyl. These vinyl records were then physically looped by a human being, referred to as a DJ. Just the lengths that he went through to accomplish this are huge. It makes 4 piece rock bands and us laptop jockeys look like chumps. Now, I haven't heard one single song off of The Information, but now, because of this, I want to.

And because of this:

Beck album banned from UK charts (from nme.com)
Beck's new album 'The Information' has been banned from the all-important UK charts as it's extras features break the rules.

The album, which was released on October 2 in the UK, has fallen foul of the rules set by the Official Chart Company according to nme.com

The packaging of the CD, which includes a DVD feature and stickers that allow fans to design their own artwork, has made the album illegible in Sunday's (October 8) countdown.

According to the OCC, the DVD of homemade videos for each song on the LP - plus four random sticker sets designed by artists handpicked by Beck - gives 'The Information' an "unfair advantage" over other releases.

Commenting on the ban, a spokesperson for Beck's label said they knew they risked the album being dropped by the charts, but that Beck was keen to include the extras.

They explained: "We knew before the album was released that the DVD and stickers would affect its chart eligibility, but they're both such brilliant ideas that it was never a question of us doing anything different from what Beck had planned for the release of 'The Information'."

Random sticker sets, design your own album cover, unfair advantage, I love it.

Opening doors and walking right through them

I can easily say that today was one of my more Swedish days here. It's only mid-afternoon, but I feel like I've already stretched myself further today than ever before in learning about and proving myself to the culture here. It started early this morning when myself, 10 other classmates and our teacher from our language class hopped on a bus and took the hour ride to Stockholm. There, we received a guided tour through the innards of Sweden's politcal paliament building, known as Riksdag.



We were led into the viewing room just as the elected representatives sat down to vote. We had no idea as to what they were voting on; there was no audio being piped into the viewing room. No matter, I'm usually lost when the politicians here talk anyways. For the next 10 minutes they flipped through papers, one woman got up and briefly talked, then it was over. It felt good to be in the presence of the political system at work. In September a new Prime Minister was chosen, this time from the Moderate Party, and changed the entire face of Sweden's political system. I highly recommend reading this if you're interested in seeing how things have changed here. For novelty's sake, the new Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt is only 41 years old, the Finance Minister sports a pony tail and earring, the Environment Minister is openly gay and living in a same-sex relationship and 349 elected Riksdag members, 164 (or 47%) are women.

After arriving back in Uppsala I headed back to my school for my scheduled oral exam, 1 of the 2 exams I'll be taking in order to test out of my language school and be let loose into society. It went really good. I sat facing two of the school's teachers and basically proved that I, in fact, could speak the language when asked to. I can't say I was nervous as getting by here is a daily series of tests that all begin with your ears and then your mouth as you pick words out of your brain and cast them into the listeners airspace. Language is the key to this society and I haven't had to kick through any doors lately.

My city's islands

I counted 20 burned out and/or boarded up windows in just one of the Robert Taylor highrise buildings once. What happened to those 20 families? The Metra train that runs from Joliet to Chicago's LaSalle Street Station rolls just outside of the public housing's property. I used to sit on that train often, peering out and into what really was your classic textbook big city ghetto. I never saw kids playing basketball on the abandoned courts. Gutted conversion vans and other disposable automobiles sat on blocks rusting out. What were those steel cage-looking vertical stripes that ran up and down the buildings? Elevator shafts, stairwells? When the hotplate sparked and the flames licked up the walls did they climb down through those cages? Or maybe they moved to another wing of the building where the smoke wasn't' so thick.

Thank you dynamite. Thank you cranes with attached wrecking balls. Thanks to bulldozers and trucks large enough to carry all of the rubble off. Pave over the shambles, plant trees, I don't care. Build overpriced condos and butcher shops. Absolutely anything has to be better to look at and to live in than those horrible buildings. Quality of life for Chicago's less fortunate can go nowhere but up from here.



CNN's report

Get the rare out

I've always been a fan of b-sides and rarities. Buying 7" records and compilations was fun, but what was possibly even more rewarding was gathering up enough rare songs by a band to fill up one side of a cassette tape. I can't say I ever stopped doing this, as I've been downloading my fair share of non-album tracks via filesharing programs for the past few years. Take a little, give a little. For any Wolfie completists out there, here are the two songs I contributed to both of our Japanese releases on Philter Records back in 2000. Joe Ziemba also submitted 2 of his own songs to the releases. If you asked him nicely maybe he'd agree to let me put those songs up here as well. These cds sold for about $30 each as imports, so I'm guessing that lots of you haven't heard them before. Enjoy!


Love Bugs - from Awful Mess Mystery (Philter Records Japan exclusive track)

Upper Peninsula - from Where's Wolfie (Philter Records Japan exclusive track)

Never gonna die again

Same as every year, I'm content with being one year older. Birthdays don't bother me. I'm 29 now. I'm looking forward to 30. Next year is my Golden birthday; I'm not actually sure if anyone talks about Golden birthdays these days. But age can mean knowledge. It means, surely, more experiences under one's belt. You've had more chances to fuck up and therefore more chances to get it right. I'm starting to realize that a portion of my 20s were wasted and overly compromised. But to say I'd want to go back and change that would probably mean that I wouldn't be exactly where I am right now. And that would be a shame.

Welcome autumn. I dig you every year. You never get old either.