Here you are.
- Fire on Fire, on Fire
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC18Nl7s6z0[/youtube]
Fire on Fire began without a name in a warm kitchen in Maine. Some of us used to be in Cerberus Shoal. We were three friends whose musical interests grew outward from the punk roots of our youth to a more personal intimate exchange and we began playing songs for each other. Songs on guitars banjos and harmonium with lots of words and voices. The music was living, open and it invited everyone to take part in it. The circle widened to include two more friends who brought rhythm melody and more voices and songs. Fire on Fire is now five friends who play fierce and emotionally sharp words to stab at our selves, our situations, our lives. Our music comes from the heart of each singer and songwriter. Take that statement how you like. Each one of us brings themselves to the common table without self consciousness. Playing for the enjoyment of playing and in turn creating a live performance that is electric and ecstatic foot stomping and howling all the night long. All five friends live together in a big blue house across from green oil tank # 28 in South Portland, Maine.
- Monopoly
Here is the final creative coming together of a song I wrote last summer for Baby Beasts, called “monopoly”. Let’s put it to rest. Let’s put it to the test. Also featured in the film are Juliet Frou, Andres Restrepo, Ravi Raj, and Baby Beasts Shenandoah Davis and John Benjamin.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXjZv1CsJDU[/youtube]
“Monopoly”
I’m not above taking you down a dark alley
and treating you to a good time
It’ll be on me.
It’s on me
It’s beyond me
It’s on me
It’s beyond me
You deserve a purple heart and not a bruised one
and no botched deals, no missile crises at all.
It’s on me, it’s beyond me
This old neoteny, no mustachio handlebar.
It’s on me, it’s beyond me
how living on monopoly’s so hard.
Just in time to watch,
Just in time to see,
Put me to bed, turn poison into medicine
Be head of state, put poison into medicine.
And living on monopoly’s so hard.
Living on monopoly was ha ha ha ha hard.
- La Lune de Miel on Chine
I’ve been posting sparsely while home in Boulder for the holidays. Once the reorganizing, prioritizing, and atoning is done, Carrotrope.com will be a better reflection of my interests. If you care about the music in language, fashion and design, you should read this blog.
To keep things tidy and whole for myself, I’ve imported some of my poetry from an old, unseen site. I’d love to get some diplomatic but honest feedback (ok, I yearn for it). Go to Poems for poems written by me. Poetry includes my poems, musings on poetry and language, and poems I love of others. Expect songs by me and myfriends, as I pull myself together.
Otherwise, I’ll continue to post on fabric, fashion, and design as Molly, her brother and I (a.k.a. Adapt Apparel) ramp up sales. Designs that go on shirts and skirts and posters will all make appearances here.
I’ll continue to post on economics, business, branding, and “responsible capitalism” as I continue to work for Interra and attend BGI.
I’ll continue to share songs that I find meaningful (like today’s, a catchy-as-hell recent creation by my friend Sam Cooper, called “La Lune de Miel on Chine”).
- Carrotflute
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=hpfYt7vRHuY[/youtube]
The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra
Thanks Hula Hula!
- Neck, and Neck
Here are 2 reasons why Last.fm is among Time’s top 50 sites for 2007.
1) I can now prove to Andres (operating under pseudonym Anderz) that he (through the mix-cd’s he makes) is the source of nearly all of the music I listen to:
[singlepic=83,320,240,,]
2) My friend Dawn found me on the site on accident because I was (at one point) the top listener of Karen Dalton. Go figure.
Today, in honor of the end of the quarter, I bring you musical love in the form of Animal Collective, because I apparently like them a lot. (see also). The song begs your patience, and pays off with a happy ending.
- “as the world falls down”
A great overview of the messy world of sustainable fabric I’ve just dipped my toes in: “A World Consumed by Guilt” at the New York Times.
We all make compromises every day. Making them with your eyes open instead of arbitrarily is the best piece of advice I could give.
“Future Fashion White Papers” (via PSFK) may be a good resource for making compromises with your eyes open:
FutureFashion White Papers aims to educate all people interested in sustainable fashion and offers safe environmental practices for the industries and consumers. It is an invaluable and ground-breaking resource that proves how style and sustainability can coexist.
We shall see.
Today’s postsong: Trying to navigate the world of sustainable fabric is kind of like going to masquerade ball after eating a dosed apricot, and ending up dancing with David Bowie… Or not, but either way, today I bring you David Bowie, singing “as the world falls down” from the movie Labyrinth.
- Good Night Baby Beasts
The band Baby Beasts is effectively deceased, and promises to be reborn in other forms.
- “feet don’t fail me now”
I’m finding more and more good stuff by Alan Lomax.
He founded the Association for Cultural Equity to “to facilitate cultural equity through cultural feedback.“ You can find much of his work (on film) at Folkstreams, a “National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures streamed with essays about the traditions and filmmaking.” For example, here’s a preview of a piece on “cathartic Sunday jazz parade of social clubs like King Zulu, the Young Olympians and the White Eagles in New Orleans”:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjDJFTTvukc[/youtube]
(the whole thing is streamable here)
Today’s postsong is hijacked audio from the above documentary.
- Prettiest Train
My last post included a version of “Prettiest Train” by Karen Dalton in Boulder, Colorado in 1962. Now here’s the same song, from Alan Lomax’s recordings of prisoners at Mississippi and Louisiana State Penitentiaries in 1948 - 1949.
