Shine a Light

I have the amazing opportunity this quarter to TA a class on Theology and Pop Music. It has less to do about Theology per say and more about looking at the historical progression of music post 1950. Of course I am loving it. I am quiet in the class and love to listen people process through music genre avoiding comments about taste and more looking at political and social change.

Instead of having class last week we headed to the Movie Theatre and watched the documentary Shine a Light from The Rolling Stones. Here is a trailer from the film directed by Martin Scorsese.


It is a live concert documentary interspersed with cuts of past footage of the lineage of the Stones. There were a few thoughts while watching the film.
1. My friend Stephen and I calculated that Mick Jagger has probably sang Start it Up at least 10,000 times. (Do the math I am not exaggerating).
2. The music is kinda boring but man oh man I will watch that man dance over and over and over again
3. Mick Jagger is a bit of a control freak
4. I would rather listen to Buddy Guy play that amazing guitar any day than most pop music.
5. Watching a concert in the middle of the day is kinda fun.

The Stones are the Stones and I am sure we all have our own opinions on the men. I prefer the Beatles but hey that's just me.

Me, You, and Everyone We Know

I love a life that is quirky and imaginative. I love a life full of random moments and a life that can be surprising and wonderful and random. It is never easy nor simple. I think life is meant for risk tasking, surprises, spontaneity. It should be a life full of love or the pursuit of love, which means it is never absent of pain or brokenness. I believe that life without that heartache makes it kind of boring and/or selfish.

On that note I have been fascinated by the work from Miranda July . She is a performance artist and writer. In my mind she focuses on simple beauty and wonder. It's these small things that make our desires bloom. She often times pushes boundaries towards understanding our limitations and I really value and appreciate who she is. She made a film in 2005 that seemed to be a collection of performance art pieces but they are threaded together through the lives of different peoples experiences. I have been thinking about this film for awhile and I have been moved and shaken from her honesty and creativity.

This is a clip from the film. It focuses on this walk to her car and her willingness to risk for something that she desires. It's simple and elegant.


The rest of the film is something similar to this. It pulls your heart strings. It pulled my creativity outside of itself (my creativity has been stuck for awhile). Between this film and Alan Kaprow's exhibit I have been moved and shaped. This type of art, the little ones every day, can add up to a life full of wonder and spontaneity. I want this kind of life. The push and pull. The willingness to lay yourself out there. By writing this I thought of a couple of things that is said in the film. She is waiting for Richard to call and says..."We have a whole life to live together you fucker, but it can't start until you call." There was also Richard stating the predicament of his burnt hand...

Christine Jesperson: [seeing his bandage] Whoa, what happened?
Richard Swersey: You want the short version or the long one?
Christine Jesperson: The long one.
Richard Swersey: I tried to save my life but it didn't work.
Christine Jesperson: Wow. What's the short one?
Richard Swersey: I burned it.

This has been the moments that have made me smile lately.

Art as Life

Living in Los Angeles provides endless opportunity to engage in as well as observe art. Last weekend I needed to get out of Pasadena so my roommate Rachel and I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) downtown LA. It's a great space with an expibit on Alan Kaprow's Art as Life.

Kaprow understood that art wasn't just imitating life but it was something that we did on an everyday basis. From the MOCA website the "exhibition traces the development of the artist’s oeuvre from works that incorporated everyday objects into collages and assemblages to all-encompassing Environments. The installation consists of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and assemblages, along with photographs, films, videos, and activity booklets."

The exhibit was fantastic. It was basically all hands on and you bring yourself and your imagination into the exhibit. There are chances to move furniture, have a discussion, interact with his pieces through overhead projector, and there are film instillations that portray past endeavors.

I loved the feel of the exhibit. There was a maze created by shredded paper as well as fencing and clear plastic. I found the end where it was playing my new favorite dance song low....because the theme was apples and all I kept hearing was "apple-bottom jeans, and the boots with the fur". It was a fantastic exhibit and something, even a week later I can't escape my memory. It is still impacting me today. Every moment can be art....how often do we just want it to be perfect?

For Emma, Forever Ago

I love music and I love to find albums that let me put it on repeat and listen to it over and over again. A few weeks ago a friend introduced me to the album, For Emma, Forever Ago from artist Bon Iver (proounced bohn eevair and is French for ‘good winter’). The first listen was captivating. It is a simple record based around an acoustic guitar and a vocalist that reminds you of TV On the Radio. It’s layers become evident the more you listen and reveals how un-simple the record really is. The track that caught my ear was “Skinny Love,” a song that has you belting out the chorus about a relationship broken and the desire for the other to be heard. It’s been my go-to song lately. Every chance I get it’s playing through the headphones. The story behind the record puts a smile on my face. One lone man, Justin Vernon, moved to a hunting cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin. We learn from his band bio that, “All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stock piled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song.” The lyrics are intense and the music sparse yet the overall album is smart and forever intoxicating. It is not over produced, you can tell it was barely produced at all. The ability to share the loneliness and heartbreak lends a beautiful hand towards honesty. I believe it is a must have for the music collection. It will leave you singing, “my my my my my my, my, my.”

A video for the song Blindsided to get a feel:

sounds.

I have been meaning to write some thoughts but they are jumbled or sparse or not ready to be articulated. I have encountered both beauty and pain this week. Really what's new....I have been meaning to say something about music and how it has given me solace and hope and a sense of peace as of late. The Bon Iver song "Skinny Love" has arrested my soul, just like the new Death Cab song did the week before, and the week before that was The Avett Brothers and Bright Eyes. I have connected and have found new depth in a space where I thought was already deep and vast but on the other side looked so narrow, just wide enough where my hips could eek through. The love and the beauty that the sounds bring forth arrest me. It changes my mood, it changes my attitude. It has given me the permission to ask new questions and lately to be satisfied with answers I have received before this.

Somewhere along the way I thought life was supposed to be easy. Now I just realize it is just supposed to be beautiful and when I say beautiful I don't mean our Western expectations of beauty. Lately I have found beauty in the garbage, in the uncomfortable moments. Where I once had fear it is no longer there. Where I was was timid I now open my mouth. I know what I want. It has taken a long time to get there but it nice that in this moment of time there seems to be some sort of direction without a plan of how to get there. It's funny how life moves and where it moves you to.

Life is really what you make it to be. Lately it's because I can't get away from the sounds that ooze from life. Music has been my place of solace and rest. A soundtrack that makes some days that could feel so dead feel so alive...I hope my life is never devoid of music and the place that it exists in my life. I don't think I can ever get enough...

It's funny the song that is playing at the moment is Over the Rhine and Karen reminds us....
I was born to laugh
I learned to laugh through my tears
I was born to love
I'm gonna learn to love without fear

and that's what I will try to do....

The Time is Now....

My friend Carissa posted a comment in my blog the other day about the fact that I mentioned a bearded man in my previous blog post (Ray LaMontagne). I thought it was time that I make a confession about my love about the beard. It's an odd fact or really obsession that I have about the opposite gender. I find the beard endearing and something that many men take as the road less travelled. It seems like it could be considered a faux pax in Western culture. I poo the pax and highly celebrate and encourage the use and growth of the beard.

I don't know why I have this obsession. No one in my immediate family ever had a beard so it is not a sense memory but it has grown into a vision of something adorable to me. The beard holds a sense of the alternative, like I said, the road less traveled. The beard seems to me something that accents a personality or an attempt to scoff at high culture desires of cleanliness. There is a hint of adventure with the beard. Something like a mystery worth being solved. I will see men on a regular basis and think to myself, there cute...why? I realize he had a beard. I am a sucker.

The beard is a lovely addition to any man. Even scruff is allowed. I always mourn a bit when March comes along. Mustache March is something that the Fuller community men lovingly participate in. I am grateful for February and that the beard is grown in anticipation for the Mustache to take full effect, almost pride. When March 1 comes I mourn a little for the loss of facial hair but the stache still makes my little heart smile and there is a chuckle or two because it's hilarious.

I value and honor the facial hair known as the beard. Men don't fear about the use of facial hair.....you have a friend in me.

Thoughts on a break

The new quarter began and it should be a great last quarter. I am a bit nervous about graduating but I know that I will be fine and I will be at the places I need to be. Last week I took a lot of time for myself and processed through life and it all happened with the help of my itunes. I love my itunes and i love my music. I am a bit enamored with it all, I won't lie.

The records that have been stealing my ears have been:
Bon Iver The record is called: For Emma, Forever Ago. is simply beautiful. Simple. Elegant. It's as if the singer from TV on the Radio sang instead of Nick Drake. I have read the comparisons to Iron and Wine but I don't hear it....Anyway....There is a bit of struggle for meaning and hope but in there you can feel the process. All the music was done by this man and it's good and sharp, wise, and simple. The music itself has been on repeat and a lot of it has found my staring into space and I unconciously let the sound seep into my soul. Here is an excerpt I found:

“Bon Iver (pronounced: bohn eevair; French for “good winter” and spelled wrong on purpose) is a greeting, a celebration and a sentiment. […]
“It wasn’t planned. The goal was to hibernate. Vernon moved to a remote cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin at the onset of winter. He lived there alone for three months, filling his days with wood splitting and other chores around the land. This solitary time slowly began feeding a bold, uninhibited new musical focus. The days slowly evolved into nights filled with twelve-hour recording blocks, breaking only for trips on the tractor into the pines to saw and haul firewood, or for frozen sunrises high up a deer stand. All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stock piled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song.”

I found the newer Ray LaMontagne, Till the Sun Turns Black. I might like Trouble a bit more but the opening track is entitle "Be Here Now". There are piano, strings, a bearded man singing his smokey voiced tunes. It's beautiful and elegant. There is a maturity in the idea of relationships in this one and the music is simply beautiful. He brings elegance and grace and the desire to find the man (or woman) to nuzzle yourself into...

The Avett Brothers have stole my heart. My friend Travis and I went and partook in their goodness Sunday night. The show was high energy from beginning to end. They have a way about them that had me recognize the value of the past and the need to still create something that is new and fresh. Beautifully done. Lyrically catchy. Heart wrenching at some places and fun in the next moments. I was blown away at their musical instrument versatility. I am glad that great americana/folk is still being made and honoring the tradition that was before. The record:Emotionalism is worth every moment listened...

I also encountered Rosie Thomas on Saturday night. OH MY she makes me smile. I had the chance/opportunity to chat with her briefly after the show and yet again realized we need to be friends. Her and I click and she gave me some amazing advice on being patient for love and that it will find me when the timing is right and when the right man sees my quirks as beautiful rather than annoying. She is getting married in August and it was lovely to here her gush on and on about the beauty of the love she found as well as the process of getting there. You can tell she really is in love and it is making her even MORE adorable on stage (if that is even possible).

love.