laura marling

Okay, so this girl is awesome. And if you know how I feel about other women, this is very much a compliment.

hope you had a good one

christmas card from a hooker in minneapolis

or cleveland?

"i've been living on 9th street here
right above this dirty bookstore
on euclid avenue."

cleveland christmas

but that beer's quite expensive, and our funds were low
so we robbed an old lady and we pushed her in the snow


And here is a bonus video that borders on offensive. But it's brilliant.

cleveland's next top model

Oh my god. This is the funniest thing I've seen in a long while. Easily. There are four episodes and a bonus, but start here. They just get better and better.

he sampled that pinecone for almost an hour

picturesforsadchildren.com, thank you.

early christmas presents

First of all, how amazing is the new Andrew Bird album? It drops in January, but like any other good music has found its way around already.




Coincidentally, Obama also drops January - that is, he drops right into the Oval Office to start turning the country around. Playing this wonderful game will help you get pumped if you can't wait for all the great things that the first of the month will promise.

http://superobamaworld.com/

foreign accent syndrome

WHAT?

is this funny?

Normally stuff like this doesn't really do it for me. I mean, if it were a bunch of teenage boys singing a song about this phenomenon, it would be more awkward than anything else. But this.... this is good. This is amazing. This is perfect. Don't judge me.

fact checkers unit

So the job at Cleveland Magazine is going great. Here is what a typical day hard at work looks like.

hey



i keep having dreams about you
but they are always gone in a split second

imma computa man

there's no better time than now to say how much i enjoy my mac.

and this man.

everybody's got a little soul in their hips.

A friend asked me what Jazzercise is. This video does quite a good job at explaining it. The end.

happy thanksgiving

knowing me, knowing yule

this is an accurate depiction of the holidays in my house. can't wait!

chill out.

Almost all of this song was taken from Alice in Wonderland. This is pretty fucking sweet, and a must-needed soundtrack for the ridiculousness that is finals week.

pogo -alice

the devil, you and me

Okay, so after being totally impressed with old Notwist songs (Consequence, anyone?), I have been reluctant to listen to the new album. I mean, one of my other favorite bands that has consistently wowed me has totally let me down recently (ahemsigurrosahem) and it's hard listening to new music by bands that have an extremely deep place in my heart for whatever reason.

But let me tell you, this stuff is impressive. It draws more of an influence from The Radio Dept. maybe, but all of the songs are awesome and just as good as the old stuff. Maybe even better. Thank God for that.

One of the best songs on the album is "Gloomy Planets". Seriously, this live version with the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra is amazing, merging The Notwists' signature electronic backbeats with more organic elements. Eh, okay. Cut all of that music blog bullshit. It's really awesome, and that's all. You should listen to it. Normally live versions of everything on YouTube are a serious JK, but this is golden. No, not Neon Golden, but something just as tasty.

like all the cars in new york
like all the lights on new year
like all these gloomy planets
you know they stay
anyway

elections.

I can honestly say for the first time in my life that there is some hope for our country. It sounds dramatic but a lot of other people seem to agree. The map is blue blue blue but all of our blues have turned transparent, melting into the landscapes of screaming trees, rooted legs on soil ravaged by industry but mouths fertilizing the ground we walk on with words that are full of the seeds of change.

It is going to take a lot of harvesting and planting and probably some losses but once we figure out the perfect mix of hope and love and ferocity and resilliance, we will see the all of the good things inside of us come crawling out of our skin to bask in the warm glow of brighter days. For the first time in my life, I am actually entertaining the notion that you can make something in this country that is not hurting something else in the process. That you can mend the most complicated, irrational and selfish problems by just widening your state of mind.

There seems to be a collective grin spreading across the faces of everyone in the world. It is like a patchwork quilt with a million differently-coloured, differently-shaped lips of everyone who thinks that great progress is possible. Lips that have spoken both loving and hateful words in varied tones and in different languages, and that have framed kisses, debates, cigarettes, bubble wands and harmonicas. Lips that have been punched or cracked in the cold winters of hard times but also mended, each time stronger than they were before and less likely to break. Change is going to depend on what we do with them. The patchwork smile quilt will inevitably fade in and out, and parts will break off when the owners of these lips decide to keep them shut and away from others. Silence will break us, but the harshness of our rhetoric can also distance us. But this is something we will have to overcome. The continuous line of joy will not last forever; but instead permeate the borders we have drawn between us and shine like stars in the night. It will blink and fade out and some of its sections will droop with disapproval, but this is okay. Because as long as there are people in this world, there will be changes to make, and as long as we are able to speak our minds we will at least have the opportunity to come closer to the sublime unity we all seemed to feel last night. We need to remember that this isn't over, it's just beginning. This is the first chance in a long time that we have to make things right - let's not rely on scathing and ignorant remarks to make our cases known. Instead, let's take advantage of the sheer breadth of the space we have to grow, and make an effort to listen to others as much as we'd like them to listen to us. The world is a big place, but we, with the help of selfish politicians, have narrowed it down to two sections divided by a river of false assumptions and mental waste. This line is our own unwillingness to compromise. It is all of the things we assume to be true but do not take the time to research. We can't even see our own reflections when we look at ourselves, it seems - just the people we have let ourselves become.

We have room to celebrate, but let's not forget all of those who are alienated by state policies banning gay marriage. By the people who are still the brunt of age-old jokes about race and class, about where they come from and how they see the world. Some tv news anchor claimed that yes, we are "past" race in this country. We're done with this presidential race, but that's the only thing I can see that correlates with that statement. We still have a long way to go.

I'm grateful to have spent last night with people that I love and care about, and to watch history unfold... as corny as it sounds. But again, this is not over yet - it's only beginning. We have a reason now for trying a little bit harder, but that will mean that the responsibility is ours, too. Are we ready for that kind of change?

i'm always pretty happy when i'm just kicking back with you

autumn.

fly like paper, get high like planes

i went to the air show with my dad before coming home. it was full of people who probably love sarah palin, but whatever. i had a good time.

heartbeeps, first weeks

you guys should check out this lovely lil' ep from a northern boy.



ep available AQUI

It has been a strange past couple of days. Things have and haven't been good. Mostly not. But hopefully, this too shall pass.

the priv

sometimes i forget to take a step back and think
how lucky i really am

and for this i am truly sorry

season of the shark

summer sun by yo la tengo
best end of summer album ever

going back to j-school

art is funny
i feel like many people who are in journalism think they are artists
but if its art
its the art of telling the truth
and some people say they Want to Write
and that you can't be creative in journalism
because there is one truth
well duh
and some people say they are photographers
but never a journalist with a camera
and sometimes personal vision should never be mixed with the truth
that's where we get talk show hosts on 24-hour news networks

but that doesn't mean you aren't an artist
i just think its separated from a career
we are humans first, not our majors
and i truly believe that if you can separate telling other people's stories with telling your own
then you are able to be all of these things

when i first learned about the real world

when i was seven
my dad took me bowling
and the man working at the counter
the student teacher in my 1st grade class
this struck me odd because

after all, he was my teacher, and teachers do not live in the real world
he belonged behind a bulletin board covered in a sheet of stapled bright paper
not some dingy cubby holes encasing tattered shoes
he should have been busy dreaming up new ways to teach us our multiplication tables
not throwing a size 11, 4 and 6 on the gum-encrusted countertop
and at that very moment
why wasn't he
photocopying crossword puzzles and lyrics to raffi songs?

but, more curiously,
why wasn't he smiling?

la belleza es tu cabeza

came across this fortune yesterday. it rings true.



a shot of my mom messing about in the garden.



chardon buses joining us around dead man's curve
i miss andy

five years

tomorrow, my favourite band in the world is coming to town. its been 5 years since radiohead has come here.

one more day of work, and then a day on the lawn.

standing on the shoulders of giants

we talked a lot about things and after being happy and being sad, i found a coin on my bedside table
etched in the thick side of it are the words "standing on the shoulders of giants"
the last sentence of our conversation went something like
"i want to tell you how i feel about you when i am with you, but its going to be a game."
"okay"
"its an easy game, find a two quid coin and read what it says on the side of it."
"i don't have one."
"well, go find one then."
okay. bye."
"bye."

he called me a few minutes later. i missed the call, but figured he had solved the riddle.

hell yeah!

so i don't know how i want to live my life
but something like this, probably

peaceboned/superstoned

pitchfork = win

but
damn union park's curfew.

space

más de barcelona

i know it may be cliché, but my infatuation with urban public transportation has prompted some interesting photographs. there's just something about a bunch of strangers waiting around for a train that makes me feel so many things at once. these are just a few more from beloved barcelona, which will hopefully be home for good - some day.

so much beauty in dirt

i have been wanting to sleep ridiculous amounts, why is it? i don't know. andy is off to edinburgh in a few days, so back to the whole long-distance thing. but its okay. some people have it a lot worse. and i'm a firm believer in the internet, so there you go. here are some pictures that i've been very tardy in uploading for the world to stare at.

i really am not sure what this blog is here to accomplish, but i'd rather have it like that. you know? sometimes people scare me with their internet spaces that boast FIRSTNAME LASTNAME PHOTOGRAPHY or FIRSTNAMELASTNAME WRITER or whatever it is the individual would like the world to see them as. maybe i'm looking too far into it, but sometimes its just nice to defy categories while you still can, in my opinion. the world is a mess, let it be.

i haven't really seen my friends as much as i should be lately. i don't know. i don't want to talk about it. but don't get me wrong - the time spent with other people has been wonderful. maureen & i have been recording some new songs about things that make us happy and sad. i took some pictures of her and others at the beach and at this abandoned greenhouse we found one day when the sky couldn't decide if it wanted to storm or not.

(it didn't.)

Some really bad covers...

So I have been very busy lately, but if you want to hear some horrible covers (one in spanish) of some songs i've been digging recently, head over to http://www.myspace.com/kristinmajcher

in the past few weeks i've been listening to mainly recommendations of friends, but we saw eef barzelay the other night. he was very good, and it was a wonderful time. first time in the beachland tavern since casiotone last summer, i think.


i never thought i'd say this, but the new sigur ros album has left me... disappointed. its not bad , but after everything else they have ever done ever, it is not exactly what i expected. there's a lot of simple songs that are just kind of blah. simple is fine, but this is a boring kind of simple that you hear in every filler indie band out there that strives to punch your lights out with their lack of talent and unwillingness to deviate from the norm. sigur ros is not like that, of course. which is why it is so hard to listen to their new stuff, which is mediocre at best. they are still one of my favorite bands, but i just kind of regret even listening to the new album. aww. :(

okay, let's break away from the negative. here is a gem i've discovered recently - joiejoiejoie, a french artist living in belguim making some tunes that make me wish i were riding a bicycle down the champs élysées more than... writing a blog on stolen internet from a suburb of cleveland, ohio. but have a listen and check out the website.

taishan mountain - joiejoiejoie



joiejoiejoie.free.fr/

home sweet home

Okay, so after an action-packed few days of my friend getting mugged on the subway, taking 3 planes to get home, getting stuck in Philadelphia for a night, and finally getting some shit together, I was talking to my neighbors about my trip, and all of the different places I visited. When Barcelona came up, they lent me this French film with Audrey T. in it - L'aburge espagnole. Its about these Erasmus students who end up living together in Barc, and all of the ridiculous things that happen when you study abroad. Definitely one of the best movies I've seen for a while, and it really makes me miss Spain already.

I'll write a proper blog later, but for now, you should watch this:

the sheets with the stars and the moonbeams

hoy tengo veinte años
y es una cosa muy rara.
(i'm 20.)

apollo sunshine - sheets with stars

its been 20 years now and i don't know
what i am doing or where i should go.
and remember you're naked in my bed, too drunk to speak
and suddenly it feels so good to be twennnteeeeh

It's okay, it's alright. Pack your bags, let's leave tonight!

You know I can't believe i'm tellin' everyone that i know
that every stamp in my collection is a place we could go!

Your cat, your dog, your owl, or bumblebee

Lately I've been feeling like the day has come
You'll walk up to me and erase my memory
Can't wait to feel brand new
I cant wait to meet you again,
friend

how do people do this?

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.