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phosphorescent, full grown man

i got the shotgun; you got the briefcase

the wire is every bit as good as obama told you it was. and speaking of obama, if you haven't heard his south carolina acceptance speech, get over to youtube right now -- its worth every minute of the seventeen it will take to watch it.

son lux

After stumbling across this through opuszine and Andy Whitman, i'm really looking forward to son lux's debut on anticon. Pitchfork captures the aesthetic fairly well: "applies underground hip-hop's collage aesthetic using borrowed beats, backwards instrumental squiggles, and snippets of crowd noise [to] a quavering piano ballad". you can download "break" at the pitchfork link above; also notable is "throw" at the son lux myspace (also above). covenanteers maybe interested to note that son lux got his first break at a music festival at calvin college, where he ended up opening for sufjan stevens and neko case.

[forthcoming cover art image by joshue ott, who's made some great images using a program he developed called "superdraw"; the web version of superdraw is superaddictive]

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hood, the lost you

alternate atlantas

Surprisingly enough (give the generally flat-lined condition of the city's urbanism), there are a few interesting urban happenings going on right about now in, regarding or around Atlanta (where I presently do not reside).

[from Willa's Wonderland]

.1 A number of them are collated under the title "re/constructing atlanta", "a synchronistic network of exhibitions and events that examines the real and imagined nexus of art, architecture and urban design." The projects gathered under this rubric seem to be mostly concerned with various aspects of the Beltline project.

One project that stands out is Unbuilt Atlanta; speculative architecture is typically great fun, so one hopes that there were some invigorating visions on display (the projects were on display back in September, I believe -- perhaps they're still on display somewhere). This review of the exhibit notes that Martha Schwartz once proposed a ring of golf courses surrounding the city; I suppose that would be the urban-scale equivalent of a bagel garden, but I'm not sure that makes it a good idea.

The most intriguing project, though, is probably Willa's Wonderland, which nicely blurs the distinction between comic book and (speculative) architecture. The architects describe the lead character, Willa:

"...a precocious eleven-year old. Through her journey around the Beltline she comes to understand the vital importance of building a dream with vision and wisdom. Her travel includes both progress and pause, led by the characters and places she encounters along the way. Her observation of noble Institutions should guide us in projecting a new and nurturing future for Atlanta. In 2039, Willa will become Mayor of the City and her childhood experience will shape her leadership."

The narrative works with a sort of dream logic, passing through various moments arranged along the Beltline, from the botanical arcade [above] to sound field [below].

.2 Also of interest might be the History Channel's "City of the Future" design challenge, which is located in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Washington (DC) this year. The contestants in Atlanta maybe aren't quite as interesting as those in DC or San Francisco (and I think we can safely say that, in DC at least, one of the more prosaic visions was chosen).

[entry by University of Maryland team at DC event]

in case you need confirmation of ryan's suspicions

cbs news presents this report on courting the "hipster" vote.

i don't see a single pbr in that video.

[via the american scene; here's ryan]

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boards of canada, dayvan cowboy

[youtube jukebox will be my new feature, since i like having recurring features; of course, ask blood brother ted will always be the best feature eatingbark has ever had -- clip it and grip it, bloodbrotherz]

lookout mountain, lookout sea

long, long interview up on pitchfork recently with david berman; here's david on the album and its cover:

I really, really felt like the title and the ideas of the songs, the idea of me going out into the world instead of me looking in-- all of it came together through the painting that I got to be the cover, which is by a guy named Stephen Bush who's an Australian painter. He's done this painting 27 times. Once a year, he paints it from memory with one tube of black and one tube of white. It's a painting of three elephants, you could say it's Babar, I'm not positive. For him, it's something to do with French colonialism. It's called "The Lure of Paris". For me, it's great. There's this character, this hero, but he's an elephant. He's standing on a rock, the sea is very rough around him, there's amazing light coming down through the sky, and then there's the other elephants coming down a cliff on a rope. I thought for a minute that I wasn't going to be able to use it. It was so devastating that I didn't know what to do. No other cover has ever... they've all been arbitrary, except for maybe Bright Flight. There's never really been any connection to what's under the cover. And this time, it's everything. Like, when you'd read a paperback when you were a kid, and you'd really like the characters, you'd look at the people on the cover and be like, "Are these the people?" And you get older and you'd realize, "Wait. This is a different artist." And then you get older, and you realize there's no connection, the author doesn't need the artist, blah blah blah. This time, maybe they're all elephants.

highlight for jew-loving covenanteers has got to be that the new album namechecks our beloved hump.

and, just for fun, the video for sleeping is the only love:

as bonuses:
punks in the beerlight
o captain, my captain (live, go walt)
i'm getting back into getting back into you

iowa

Have to say I'm pleased -- like the Dallas Morning News (don't ask why I know who the DMN endorsed), I'm all about the seemingly widely divergent pairing of Huckabee and Obama. In part because I think Obama would win that contest, in part because I genuinely prefer Huckabee to his competitors -- yes, the fair tax is ridiculous and no, I don't think that the presidential election is a good place to state your religious preference, but there are some things to like about Huckabee as well.

What unites Huckabee and Obama, though, is that both of them are outsiders. Not members of the establishment. Over the past couple years, I've come to think that Andrew Sullivan and David Brooks are similarly united by their amazing ability to oversimplify complex issues, but I think they got it right this morning.

Oh, and 9udy11 finished behind Paul, Thompson, Romney and Huckabee. That's something to be thankful for.

music two thousand seven

i had fun doing this last year and so i do it again this year. conveniently, it is the first post i've made in a while. please note that, if i left off your favorite (radiohead, m.i.a., brad paisley or whatever), it might not be just that i didn't hear it but also that i didn't like it. also, what a great year for music.

that said, in alphabetical order, thirty songs that were ridiculously good this year:
!!! - must be the moon (link)
aesop rock - harbor is yours
apples in stereo - energy (link)
arcade fire - keep the car running (link)
architecture in helsinki - heart it races (link)
bat for lashes - whats a girl to do (link)
battles - atlas (link)
blonde redhead - 23 (link)
buck 65 - way back when (link)
busdriver - casting agents and cowgirls (link)
brazos - mary jo
cadence weapon - sharks (link)
chromatics - in the city (link)
cool calm pete - get with the times (link)
css - music is my hot, hot sex (link)
dalek - paragraph relentless
dana falconberry - sadie (link)
el-p - smithreens (stop cryin) (link)
feist - i feel it all (link)
great lake swimmers - your rocky spine (link)
handsome furs - what we had (link)
his name is alive - how dark (really sorry i couldn't find this one)
kanye west - stronger (link)
ladybug transistor - always on the telephone (link)
lcd soundsystem - all my friends (link)
national - slow show (link)
of montreal - the past is a grotesque animal (link) (wow what a terrible video... hit alt-tab real fast and just listen)
ratatat - (remix notorious b.i.g.) party and bullshit
ted leo - sons of cain (link)
twilight sad - cold days (link)

favorite album with no representative in this list:
the field, from here we go sublime (link)

favorite album:
the national, boxer (link)

favorite mash-up:
100 dbs, snoop dogg vs. aphex twin, drop alberto like its hot (link)

favorite bands from athens geogria, in order:
drive by truckers
of montreal
maserati

most underrated album and best live show with under fifty attendees:
his name is alive (link)

favorite album from a previous year i didn't hear until this year:
hood, outside closer (link)

get p.u.b.a.r.'ed for two thousand eight:
santogold (link
cadence weapon (link)
bike for three (link)