random image hosting

threesix mafia

this pic is pretty outdated. got to hang wit threesix and anna nicole smith lookalikes all night long.

manimal vinyl

just did a little write-up on LA-locals label Manimal Vinyl for the tightrope crew. check it out here

new design

photoshop is cool and all, but i wish i had illustrator

collagescope

first experiments with cs4

as of 6/1, i'm addicted to photoshop cs4. i just started messing around with it, low expectations, and am finding out how to do some pretty fun things. it's the basics, ya, but i'm not looking to get much out of it.

man v nature

i suck at updates

backdated extreme celebrity awesome sighting of the week or month depending on how often i see celebrities

It doesn't quite beat seeing Sir Jeff Goldblum at a screening of David Lynch's shittily collaged fiasco of a film, "Inland Empire," and it doesn't quite top being in the same room as David Lynch once even though I didn't see him, but I did see Miss Doris May Roberts at a swanky new dining establishment last week. Doris May Roberts is probably best known for her role as Ray's mother, Marie Barone, on Everybody Loves Raymond, a role for which she one between one and five Emmy Awards. She looks particularly fetching in this photo with what's-her-name from that steamy movie with Neve Campbell and a messd up marriage to the dude from Platoon whose dad is prez on "The West Wing." Ya...


My first forgotten-about-relisten-who-I'm-now-planning-on-seeing-in-concert-with-Deerhoof-in-May award goes to Cornelius...

vidal v buckley

check out this somewhat hilarious video... two of the twentieth century's greatest men of letters, gore vidal and william f. buckley, trading barbs at the 1968 democratic convention. vidal calls buckley a "crypto-Nazi" and buckley shoots back calling vidal a "queer." pretty amazing that two brilliant men could stoop so low...

vision tricks

focus

(insert: quick obligatory "i haven't updated this blog in forever" comment..)
i've been thinking lately about the quintessential challenges of our generation. among them, averting boredom, not caring so much about your favorite old band's new comeback, appreciating coffee from third world countries as much as wine from the south of france. seriously, the bouquet in my kenyan brew tells stories and complements my recent hangover better than your cab-sav/rack-o-lamb pairing.
also, and perhaps most relevant to my current endeavors, is finding how to humanize our increasingly digital lives. shoutouts to my sci-fi-loving friends... musically, this means putting the soul back into drum machines. i don't pretend that this is a totally new idea, but it does seem to fit into the iGeneration plan. i'm completely stoked on a couple of bands that are increasingly successful at this: Animal Collective (always), Portishead, and one of my new favorite haunts, Tussle. if you can figure out how to get a hold of me, i'll give you samples of all three. there are plenty more, but those are the three on repeat. i think that if we are crafting a new genre of music it has to somehow sieze on this essential balance. intimately speaking, i think a lot of this success can be achieved by making relentless repetition something less than only meditative. check out the two album covers above, which effortlessly show how the beauty of repetition can be both a) incredibly organic and b) mind-altering. tip: view the second one at actual size for desired effect.

which reminds me, i've written about the importance of balance before, and it's fair to say that balance is as important in every facet of my own life as it is in nastia liukin's (we will never forget).

with that, here is a great track that exemplifies the blend of acoustic and digital elements to profoundly soulful success. just check out how seamlessly the twangy guitar plucking transmogrifies into hypnotic repetitive static synth line. listen to the rest of portishead's latest, third, for ten more beautiful examples.

The Rip - Portishead

TEN THINGS I'M CURRENTLY EXCITED ABOUT

In reverse parabolic order...

Intricate Machines getting back in the Stu-stu-studio
Collectivism
New Tracks posted by PicturePlane (myspace.com/pictureplane listen to slang war)
Coke Zero
Eggdrop Top Ramen
Friends starting new bands (check out vince, johann, and erik at myspace.com/furcastmusic)
Repealing Proposition 8
Halloween 2009
The climactic ending to Karate Kid (1984)
Going on vacation to Morro Bay

more music videos

i've been pretty hooked on watching music videos lately. not that i haven't always been into them. i think i really want i/m/ to do a music video sooner than later.

join us

join us

bike gang

callin all bloods if you're with me

buzzword

don't dwindle on the good things you've had. everything good you've ever had you've either hurt or broken. this is probably not your fault, but through some impulse of wandering destiny you recognized another perspective on life.
relax. in 20 years you'll probably realize that all concern was temporary. there are greater arcs of human emotion. be happy with a house or sugar.

707 circuit bent

my good friend and roommate general eric chao-dong just sent me this video. it's the most accessible use of circuit bending i've ever seen. check it out...

Diabolical Modified TR707 from Meadows Ling on Vimeo.

50 YERES

In moments of cynical backlash, I've considered anniversaries pretty arbitrary cause for celebration. The shifting of the tides aside, the turning of years offers little more than historical convenience. Regardless, it was 50 years ago this year that Miles Davis released 'Kind of Blue.' It's a landmark jazz album, and it's a bit amazing that it has maintained its relevance over such a long period of time. I don't need much of an excuse to revisit this one...



Also, 50 years is a really long time.

back again

it's been quite a while since last entry. i sorta can't believe i left enya a group of shitty enya videos as the top post for such a long time, but i guess the SF-->LA move really took it out of me for a while. it feels good to be back in LA and i'm brimming with energy and excitement for all the cool things that are about to happen and all the cool people to do things with. if you're reading this, i'm probably talking about you. on top of the geographic transition, i'm moving up in the world too. ya, i just got my first camera cellphone. none of this bogus iphone3g stuff. i don't need a gps system in my back pocket to tell me what street i live on. but the camera is cool, especially because film has been too expensive to develop and the replacement battery i bought in chinatown for my digital camera didn't fix any of its problems. so here are some photos from my cellphone... a few of them taken at some of the beautiful beach coves i visited in socal. for the record, northern california has its major perks, but the sun shines a lot brighter down south.



follow-up. i planned to transfer the photos to my computer using bluetooth, but my phone is not compatible with my computer. and it's not just because i don't have a mac. i'm a PC and sorta proud of it. so check out some gauzy folk tunes from portland instead.