Home

So the My Bloody Valentine show last night was kind of a stunner. I think I wanted to go in part out of a sense of obligation--I don't think there is any record I have listened to more in my life than their Loveless, and Isn't Anything is close behind. But a big part of me assumed that the live experience wouldn't quite be able to translate the feelings that I associate with the recorded version-- that was the whole reason they try to be the loudest band, right? To make up for their inability to recreate the album? That's what I thought, anyway.

It was the loudest thing I have ever heard. Ridiculously, I skipped the ear plugs until the finale of "You Made Me Realize." I tried them, but it made the sound to muddy. I mean, if Kevin Shields wanted it to be that loud, who was I to try to counteract his vision by wearing ear-condoms? My ears don't ring at all today, though, which is kind of a surprise.

And I decided not to wear my lawn-mowing ear protectors, too. And I'm glad, because I saw one other guy wearing them, and it would have been awkward.

But the music was just so, well, awesome. I think the entire Aragon Ballroom was in awe of what we were seeing after 16 years of waiting. You could really feel that.

Here's Youtube from last night of one of songs I especially dug.



And Nathan--no sale. By the time we got there, the street was swarming with scalpers asking for only $10--and there were no takers I could see. Sorry!

Last fm correction

Because Last fm does not track what I listen to in my car, I feel the need to post a correction to the data it compiles there. For the record, I have played AC's song "Frightened" exactly 3,000 times on my way to and from work this week. I don't even live that far from school--I just turn into subdivisions and drive around and around, pressing repeat on the stereo.

And I also need to say, as far as my "mental" Last fm goes, that I have thought about MBV's song "Only Shallow" about the same number of times while doing dishes this week. I have heard the song so many times, it is built into my muscle memory or something now, just like my golf swing, because I have listened to it so many times since that album came out like 17 years ago or so. I don't know what I'm going to do when I see it played when I see them this weekend. Probably look around at all the kindred souls as we get misty-eyed.

But really, for real, the song on my mind for real this week is this version of "Alysoun," or "Alisoun," depending on which Middle English minstrel you ask. Too beautiful. Have had two different students sing striking versions of it, too. I really need to get one of those flip cameras to record moments like that.

Best in Show and Tell

This here is Sarah Jane reading from the journal she kept in, I think, 5th grade, and it was the funniest thing, the perfect example of why journals must be compiled and then kept, no matter how banal they may seem to us at the time. The best part for me when hearing this was how easily Sarah Jane slipped back into the voice of her ten year old self.

This was all part of our first Show & Tell club, which is a kind of side-project or offspring of a book club we started a year ago, and I think it is going to continue for a bit. The book club still exists, but it's now more of a "this is what I read and liked in the last month or two" club on alternate months, and with the initial success of this new gathering, we'll have to see what happens. Maybe we'll start a recess club to take its place on the off months.

Here I am flipping through a darkly funny flip book made by Marie, whom I just met that day. I think most people left that day thinking "I want to make one of those things that [insert name] did." That's how I felt, anyway.

Cath and I had initial plans to do a cover version of Animal Collective's unreleased song "House," until we realized that we were bad. We had no problem embarassing ourselves--we just didn't want to embarass anyone trying to watch us. It was a lot of fun rehearsing, though. I love that song. And I learned how to use this cool free download music program to make some background for it. Mason, if you read this, I totally want a Fruity Loops tutorial some time.

Scraper Bike

Hilarious. There might be some bad language in this, but the parts I could make out sounded innocuous enough. The wife: "They have a great sound. Some producer is going to see that and think they could be a pretty good rap band."

As heard on NPR.

Last Day at Markle Pool

The Flop

The kid regretted it. A belly flop from the 8'3" board. And he jumped, too, so it was even higher than that, probably. The seen-it-all lifeguard and the swimmers waiting in line up on the cliff all heard the smack and we all winced in unison.

But that's part of the greatness of the Markle pool: that element of danger. The diving boards are tall, the 30' slide has almost no sides to it, and the lifeguards have this way of tacit encouragement to anyone willing to take a risk.

Click on this shot to get a better look and notice the guy going off the same board--he's in the middle of a weird kind of flipping dive he seemed to have patented. He landed feet first, but in this picture you can see him caught in an upside-down Christ figure pose right before he flipped back over and hit the water.

Me, I just jumped. Pointed my toes a little and it always feels like such a long fall. Then it feels like you are so deep, like 20, thirty feet, but it's probably only 8 or so. I held my breath and tried to swim as far as I could underwater and I couldn't see (or wouldn't look at--I don't remember) the bottom. It's so nice and I wish I were there right now, but it's closed for the year.

Ligonier Marshmallow Fest

So you tell the kids that you're going to the Ligonier Marshmallow Fest and because they are too young to recognize the absurdity of it, they say "okay" and climb into their car seats. And so you say "okay" and climb into your grown-up seats and drive some part of an hour to stand in the sun and compare this small town fair to all the others you have been to.

And this one was sad, just how I like them. Hopeful, mostly vacant streets. The carnies too hot to bother you much. They let the kids cheat. The kids climb over the rail and knock down the targets with their fists, choose their crap, and leave.

This guy's van was parked next to about a hundred fancy antique hot rods. At first I assumed it was for sale, but now I think the sign was just for laffs.

It is not often you see a tent at a town fair selling--what are these, exactly? Under or outer wear? I was afraid to ask.

Slush/ No Slush

Annual Bluegrass

It is hard for me to go a full year without at least one day at a bluegrass or old-time festival of some kind, but we had for the past couple, so today I took advantage of the annual labor day festival up in Kendallville to hear some live banjar. When you are not around a banjo, the idea of a banjo is funny. But when there is a banjo near you and it is ringing, you realize that is is not funny at all: it is, I don't know, not funny. It's cool.

A lot of the bands that played were full of young'ns. My favorite of the night, Midnight Ramblers, looked just old enough to drive their van from their home in Virginia--after they changed out of their awesome big white hats and matching pink shirts (really, they looked awesome--I wish I could pull that look off sometimes) they had this quasi-Abercrombie & Fitch look to them. It was a jarring change.

The crowd at these things often skews old, though; I don't know where the young fans are. B isn't one yet. He just wanted to go find dogs to pet.

The highlight of this festival is always the one or two groups that get up there and play some great clawhammer or at least something old, maybe something Ralph Stanley played. And then there are always the hats that you get to see, and you get to watch people eating a lot. A lot of people eating a lot.

A skatepark fundraiser bake sale. How fantastic is that! I stood around this booth for awhile thinking maybe that all the local skaters might ride through and raid the place, doing ollies or whatever on the pies, and how funny that would be, but they never came.

Don't even ask me what B ate for dinner. I'm too ashamed. But when you're around people eating the way these people were, your idea of what is normal gets warped quickly.

Raising the stakes

Look at this cool invite Sarah Jane made for our club. Cath saw it and said, "we have to get serious about this." Time for practice.

Kaifei

Our own Mason Hunter just released an ep under the name Kaifei, and it sounds a lot like a record made by Panda Bear's imaginary friend. I don't think Mason would disagree. It's great stuff. In one of the comments below, he gave the url where you can download it.

If I remember right, he told me that he produced most of this using a program called Fruity Loops. I downloaded the demo and it's pretty danged cool. I can almost imagine myself using it to fulfill my dream of becoming a DJ--even better, a vegan, skate boarding, documentary film-making DJ. School has started, but maybe I'll give that dream a shot next summer.

Cut it out.

What a cool idea. I wish I had seen these examples of book cut-outs before we made ours in Club last spring. I have a couple of books left over and a lot of Mod-Podge, so I might have to try something different. It would take an incredibly sharp knife to make those, though--we had a fair bit of trouble with our big squares.

Assistantships, cont.

As an fyi to this year's seniors, I am willing and able, I decided, to take assistants for any period of the day except 7th. If you're interested, send me an email.

Harvest Rule

If you grow tomatoes, it is a rule that, when your tomatoes come in, you have to take this exact picture. It is part of keeping your garden's Martha certification or something. So . . here is ours.

I must be the laziest vegetable gardener. I have watered that garden exactly none times--oh, but I do love to knock down weed starts with this old-timey hoe I got from my gramma Pierce. I forgot that I did that--so, not so lazy, maybe.

Catching up

Okay, that was some nice time off. First, some older snaps from a couple weeks back at the county fair:

Here is Michelle in her favorite barn at the fair, with this crazy kind of bunny that has to be the fluffiest thing in nature. Really, if every home had a couple of these sitting around the living room to pet every once in awhile, we, as a nation, would be a lot more chill.

Mike, showing my kids how to steal their first peak at a tractor pull. B was pretty into it.

The first "freak show" style exhibit I've ever noticed at our fair. And yes, we all paid to see her, and yes, it was sad and we felt bad afterwords, or at least weird.

And . . . school is coming. I know, because the marching band for the school near my home has begun practice and as always I can just hear the drum line practicing their Indian-drum style war-chant. It always makes the idea of the first day of school take on an ominous tone, but I'm excited for it, myself. School! Any AP kids from last year who are looking for an assistantship during 1st period, let me know.

1/2 Party

So we pulled off the last-minute party to celebrate spending half our lives together, Cath and me. People came. Their hearts were only half in it. They brought half-pizzas and half bottles of wine and had a so-so time.

J & B follow the chalk time-line of our lives that Cath drew. It was missing a lot of detail, so I wonder how much of it she actually remembers.

Every time Sarah Jane sews herself a new top, she has to buy a new phone to match it. It's a fact.

Eric, posing like he's some Three Rivers Festival superhero. What strange powers he must have.

We decided to let Smokey drink; it was a party, after all.

Cute Overload

I swear, on my honor, that five minutes ago I just witnessed, out my own kitchen window this morning, the above baby rabbit and (at least what appears to be) a baby chipmunk playing. It was more than mere playing, actually, it was out and out frolicking. They may have even gamboled a time or two. I almost dropped my bagel with the last of the cream cheese on it (but didn't thank god). It was, needless to say, so cute. I will never be able to eat rabbit or chipmunk again. From now on, I am a rabbit and chipmunk vegetarian.

Pitchfork

Not a ton of photos this year because I thought my camera's battery was dead when it was actually user error, so bummer for that. This was a better Saturday than last year's, all told, and that's mainly because of Animal Collective's set. That band--good lord. I think they're the only relevant band making music these days. Other folks make nice stuff to listen to, but A.C. is just on a different level. Can't believe I didn't get to hear "Brother Sport," though.

Day started out with the sweetest of rains, so gentle, like it didn't want to trouble you with getting wet, and then it left and the clouds just kept the sun off you for much of the afternoon. Cath and I were ready with our parkas and hats, though, just in case. Later in the day, Cath got to meet the designer of the Califone t-shirt she's wearing here, just by chance.

Apart from the music, this festival is all about ironic t-shirts and tattoos. I wonder if some day kids will get ironic tattoos. Most of the "clever" t-shirts just make you go "ugh," especially the hand-scrawled tank-top that read "This shirt is not ironic." Whoa--what a head scratcher that one is. Two shirts made me laugh: (1) 20-something guy wearing a shirt that said "#1 Grandma"; and (2) a shirt that said, simply, "Pot." Not that I condone drug use, but that is funny.

Almost all the tattoos I saw, including the one above, were ugly. I think tattoos need to be simple, in clean lines, iconic. Those like the one here just get too busy and from afar end up looking like bruises.

These two guys were sitting next to us before the A.C. show started. One of their friends found them and asked what happened and one answered "we fell." I think they thought they were at Burning Man, where antics like this are taken as evidence of . . I'm not sure what, but it's something the cyber-hippies out there would appreciate.

Did a fair bit of lounging around at stage B, playing Gin with these cool card Cath bought. For the record, these were my favorites sets of the day:

1. Animal Collective. I need to devote my life to seeing these guys live as many times as possible. That, and being a good parent to my kids, but really the latter. Kids will raise themselves.

2. Caribou. They played pretty early, and not as long as they could have, but I really liked the way they all faced each other and the drummer-facing-drummer drumming. I didn't expect him to be able to make his music translate live, but it was pretty dang great to see and hear.

3. Ruby Suns. Lots of this had to be looped or played-back or whatever, and I really wish he had brought one more band member there to flesh out the live sound. But still, the beats were really great and some of the harmonies, too.

4. F*** Buttons. Two guys with suitcases full of electronics facing each other across a table, but totally dynamic. It was cool how they cut their last song on a dime and then just walked off the back of the stage.

5. Atlas Sound. Dude was totally nervous at the beginning, but it was great for the 20 minutes or so I saw before we had to go to try and get a good position for A.C.

I missed some good stuff, like Dizzee Rascal and The Hold Steady, but there were more tough decisions this year than there were last year, with more good stuff going on at once. A great festival though, with lots of nice folks everywhere you go.

And I can't believe I missed out on running into Nathan and Joe. I was completely looking forward to watching A.C. with them especially, but after seeing them briefly during Caribou, I lost them and never saw them again all day. Shoulda had their cell # with me. Next year, we'll plan it better.

And Joseph, if you're back from Ghana yet, I only had one key--it takes two keys to open your apartment. No big deal. You can just pay us half the cost of the hotel room we ended up getting. (jk--not sure how I messed that up)

Half a Life

Cath and June, last visit to Julierette's

Oh, I love this picture of my wife. As of Wednesday, we've spent half our lives together. It sounds important, but you never hear of people, or even Hallmark, recognizing the achievement in any way. We had the idea to celebrate this milestone by organizing a "half-assed party," but we never got around to it.

Sitting here, remembering and all, I can't believe all the fun stuff I've done with her, my Catherine--like the time we went to that one place, and then there was that one other place, too, and also that time that we just stayed home. I mean, dang.

I've been thinking lately that we should have just gotten hitched that very first summer we met when we were still dopey teenagers--how amour fou that would have been. But I have been saving the fou. There will be lots more fou.

In for Pitchfork

Seeing the schedule/ times for Pitchfork is what finally helped make up my mind--I don't know how I waited this long to pull the trigger. Saturday looks to be better than last year, easily, and presents a couple of tough decisions with Fleet Foxes and F* Buttons playing at the same time and Dizzee Rascal overlapping with Ruby Suns.

Anyway, one call to my folks to confirm baby-sitting and I got our two tix. Can't wait.

More Michigan

I know there has been a high photo-to-text ratio here lately, but summer photos tend to speak for themselves.

Cousin Sarah, with Dilly Bar

June, tree

Birk: Lord of the Flies trainee

Michigan

Cousin Henry's poker face

Cousin Will, up a tree

June. Windy day at Sturgeon Bay