Day 30

And finally we have an odds & ends post.

Simon Reynolds has a thrillingly good review at Salon of the new albums by Kanye West and Guns N' Roses. I praise it not because I agree with or have even heard any of the music discussed, but because it's a corrective to the dreaded and endlessly popular "think piece." Instead of a convoluted mess of half-baked reminiscences and observations thrown about in nominal relation to the records at hand, Reynolds briefly summarizes the popular opinions/ideas about the musicians and then zeroes in on the music, most notably the technological aspects. Kind of like what David Bordwell might produce were he a pop music critic, Reynolds discusses in depth, vis a vis Chinese Democracy, ProTools, compression, and digital correction; and re. 808s and Heartbreak, well, 808s, Autotune, and many/most of the other techniques Kanye's puts to use. Sure, he throws in some not unfounded psychoanalysis, but this is a review and not a tech-spec sheet. Writing like this obviously takes a bit of a gestation period, and a solid body of knowledge on the part of the reviewer, but the music world would probably be a better place if more pieces were half as edifying.

Secondly, in a fit of haven't-done-the-dishes-in-a-while resourcefulness a short while ago, I discovered that spoons may actually be preferable to butter knives for spreading. At least in that they can scoop it just as well, but when actually applying the butter to the bread (or other surface), you can adjust how much you're using by turning the spoon to leave some for another swipe. From mild shame to vindication in mere seconds.

And the Egyptian has their weekend midnight schedule up for January. I can finally see Se7en, and will almost certainly revisit Wet Hot American Summer, Dr. Strangelove, and The Matrix, none of which I've seen in a theater.

Whew.

Day 29

AO Scott's article in last Sunday's Times Magazine, "The Screening of America," contains an infographic with the amounts of time people spend per year using various media. The article itself is remarkably ho-hum, regurgitated metacommentary on the state of film/video/television viewing, how and where it's done.

The graphic, though, I find far more interesting. Particularly because my data for the top and bottom categories would be so extremely different. I can predict with pretty good certainty that I'll have spent somewhere over 300 hours at the "box office," more than 25 times the average amount per person in 2007, and almost certainly no more than 50 hours watching "cable/satellite TV." Although vacation time spent with family could push me a bit over that, I'd still be comfortably less than 10% of the national average.*

I would probably vary less widely, though still not an insignificant amount, on broadcast TV, online, video games, and mobile (I don't really like watching anything smaller than a laptop, assuming that doesn't qualify), but home video/DVD is about right on the mark. It's tempting to try to interpret the categories as descending from least to most intentional, but that may be misguided for a number of reasons.

*The total consumption comes 40 hrs/wk. It's difficult to discern precisely how much overlap this entails, but certainly some of the hours spent reading magazines (why is there a single reading activity included here?) must simultaneously be spent watching one of these other screens. I'm assuming "online" means watching video online because 3.5 hrs/wk seems extremely small for all activities.

Day 28

2008 Year-end Lists

Lists
Fimoculous
Largehearted Boy: Music Lists List
Largehearted Boy: Book Lists List

The rest have been collected in a rolling post which will probably be finalized some time in January.

Day 27

There is, downtown at the corner of 8th & Olive, a bus stop with a sign posted. The sign says that due to construction the stop will need to be relocated for "about two weeks" starting August 27. To the untrained eye, the ground-level of the building looks only marginally closer to finished than it was pre-Labor Day.

Day 26

Day 25

Watching Obama's weekly address I had a brilliant thought: You know what would really bring some change to America? If Ze Frank produced these things.

I don't know if framing the president-elect from forehead to lower lip would be frightening or hilarious or what, but it certainly would not be boring.

Day 24

What to listen to in 2009, other than a month of post-punk? Maybe more radio/podcasts. This year I've largely been listening to the Resident Advisor mixes in terms of ephemeral audio, but rarely do they provide a context for lots of different types of tracks, mostly just a lot of great transitions within the same genre(s).

DJ /rupture, on the other hand, will include maybe ten different styles in a one-hour show. "New bass and beats plus live guests (musicians, DJs, poets) and an ear for the global south. Cumbia. Dubstep. Gangsta synthetics. Sound-art. Maghrebi. International exclusives."

Tim Sweeney is another fairly wide-ranging guy, within the confines of dance music. Largely disco and disco-revival (DFA, Rong Music, etc.) but inclusive of plenty more as well. Probably I thought of Beats in Space while reading the New Yorker profile of Cliff Bleszinski and Epic Games, founded by another Tim Sweeney.

I've also been listening to more talking heads at work recently: KCRW's Bookworm and The Treatment, and other odds and ends like the New York Declaration of the International Necronautic Society, mentioned in Zadie Smith's review of General Secretary Tom McCarthy's Remainder and the unaffiliated Joseph O'Neill's Netherland.

Day 23

Prior to seeing Synecdoche, New York, I commented that maybe I'd seen fifteen or so Philip Seymour Hoffman films. It turns that this was an underestimation. As of today I've watched nineteen. Here's an annotated list, in chronological order for me, complete with character names and number signs from IMDb.

# Twister (1996) .... Dustin Davis
Pretty much all I know is that I watched this movie and that Helen Hunt was in it. I would have to look it up to say any more.

# Almost Famous (2000) .... Lester Bangs
I think I watched this on DVD shortly after it came out, around the same time I would've first learned who Lester Bangs was. PSH was one of the few things I can recall really liking about it. Cameron Crowe has never struck me as particularly worthwhile.

# Punch-Drunk Love (2002) .... Dean Trumbell
# Magnolia (1999) .... Phil Parma
# Boogie Nights (1997) .... Scotty J.
# Hard Eight (1996) (as Phillip Seymour Hoffman) .... Young Craps Player

The PT Anderson films. Probably saw all of these on DVD 2002-2003. Magnolia and Boogie Nights turned me into a fan of PSH, along with John C. Reilly and Philip Baker Hall. Pretty much anybody who uses all three initials, really.

I can't really recall his role in Hard Eight. Punch-Drunk Love is more vivid in my memory, though I didn't really like it all that much.

# Love Liza (2002) .... Wilson Joel
# Happiness (1998) .... Allen
# Owning Mahowny (2003) .... Dan Mahowny
# State and Main (2000) .... Joseph Turner White
# The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) .... Freddie Miles
# The Big Lebowski (1998) .... Brandt

The remainder seen in college. State and Main was shown on campus. I'm surprised PSH hasn't worked with the Coens more. Love Liza I watched on tape, which is really uncommon for something not viewed with anyone else. Owning Mahowny was probably at the Lagoon Theater, but not particularly memorable.

# Capote (2005) .... Truman Capote
# Empire Falls (2005) (TV) .... Charlie Mayne

I remember seeing most of Empire Falls in a hotel somewhere with my family, but I don't recall where. Probably Arizona or something. Amanda and I watched Capote at the Harvard Exit in the little theater. Didn't recall until just now that Catherine Keener co-starred in that.

# Strangers with Candy (2005) .... Henry
# The Savages (2007) .... Jon Savage
# Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) .... Andy Hanson

I missed the first couple minutes of the Lumet film at BAM due to unfamiliarity with their showtime policy (they print the time at which the feature starts, not the trailers or ads) and would someday like to make amends. The Savages was at the multiplex in Chelsea. Amy, Swetha and I watched Strangers with Candy on DVD almost immediately after the Buckeyes lost their second BCS championship in a row.

# Synecdoche, New York (2008) .... Caden Cotard
# Charlie Wilson's War (2007) .... Gust Avrakotos

Not counting The Big Lebowski, which I consider more a frequently recurring social event than an actual movie, weirdly enough Synecdoche brings the tally of non-family members I've watched PSH films with to 7 women and 1 man. Odd.

---

Seven days left. I may need to pre-post the final five in order not to worry about them around Thanksgiving.

Day 22

I got bored the other day and visited Idolator, always a bad idea. Even if the posts themselves aren't vitrolic and inane, the comments inevitably are.

The striking thing was how personally people react to lists. As some sort of attack on character or value. Much of the time I think this is a negative outcome of popism vs. rockism, the largely successful argument for all musical styles and sounds as potentially worthwhile, the idea that a critic or engaged listener ought to be not only open to but perhaps enthusiastic about hearing any/all things at any/all times.

Not that individual scenes (and they still exist) wouldn't or don't create their own internecine squabbles, but the discussion on Idolator re. year-end lists thus far suggests that debates aren't so much over the relative merits of individual works as charges of genre-ism, ie How dare your website not include my second through fifth favorite metal/country/teen-pop records on your list?

All this seems to have very little with the actual enjoyment and appreciation of music. In a pragmatic sense, that's what list-season ought to be about; comparing notes, figuring out what you might have missed or forgotten about, then putting your headphones back on, closing your eyes, and not worrying about it anymore.

Day 21

Of all possible year-end lists⁺, this is probably the most reasonably complete. My year in cities, barring any unforeseen excitement.

Brooklyn, NY
Wayland, IA
Starkville, MS
San Francisco, CA
Oregon City, OR*
Seattle, WA*
George, WA
Myrtle Beach, SC
Vancouver, BC
(Orrville, OH)

---

⁺ I had high hopes of being the first person to bookmark this on Delicious. In fact, I came in second, but the first person did so weeks before the page was active, so it may still count as a moral victory.

Day 20

Subaru definitely just followed up a "green-themed" PSA about recycling car batteries with a commercial featuring a family who impulse-bought a second Subaru because it was so awesome. Someone involved in the decisionmaking process must have caught the irony, right?

Day 19

The urge to rethink a trip to SXSW 2009 is strong. Not so much that several purchases are coming up sometime soon, but more that movies and music are two of the things I already consume in the greatest quantities anyway.

I'd like to visit Austin and environs, but perhaps not when throngs of other people are doing the same. The majority of the bands will make it to Seattle within a year or two anyway, without impossible queues for entry. There are inevitably several films that won't see release, theatrical or DVD, for several years if ever, but they alone probably aren't worth the trip. And given that Cascadia has three film festivals anyway, adding a fourth to the calendar verges on overload.

How else to spend a week in March/April? The first idea that springs to mind is a second try at the trip up the West Coast that went somewhat awry earlier this year. Maybe a flight to San Diego, trains to Los Angeles, Monterey, and San Francisco, and then a drive back to Seattle by way of Newport.

Or perhaps I'll think of something else.

Day 18

I suppose what I like most about the TV on the Radio album is that it feels like they're saving "big" music from its traditional proponents. That is to say, when I listen to it I think of the Arcade Fire, Coldplay, maybe U2, but always in contrast. Particularly the vocals. The singing on Dear Science ranges all over the place emotionally, but assiduously avoids the completely overwrought, which is basically the one mode in which Win Butler, Chris Martin, and Bono vocalize, even when they whisper.

Beyond that initial impression, what strikes me about the sounds on the record, apart from the sheer range of them, is that nearly every song is beautiful in one way or another, either a trademarked Dave Sitek wail of feedback, or gloopy, shiny synths, or Tunde Adebimpe cooing low, or Kyp Malone gliding over top of everything with his unearthly, feminine falsetto.

One idea I had for comprehending the year in music is a system like The Album My Morning Jacket Should Have Put Out: Microcastle. In that vein these guys are probably filling in for both Wolf Parade and Hot Chip, neither of whom fulfilled my admittedly very high expectations.

Day 17

Friday morning on the bus I saw the best poem ever. I tried to memorize it, but wasn't completely sure, so the Seattle Times had to fill in the blanks.

untitled
by Giovanni Paredes, age 6

I dreamt that a zebra was talking to me
I gave him some food
And walked away
The zebra followed me
I yelled, "GO BACK!"
He didn't want to go back
But he went back
Ate some grass
And then drove off
In a red monster truck

Day 16

Listening to a KEXP "documentary" on Echo and the Bunnymen today, I was reminded that I never really followed up on reading Rip It Up and Start Again all that well. So between Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Presidents' Day it's going to be all post-punk/new wave (1978-1984) all the time.

So once I glance at what I've got already, and look at what the library has to offer (unfortunately they only sort by "Rock music." and decade), it'll be time for a downloading spree the likes of which have not been seen since... volunteering days, maybe?

Day 15

You'll notice if you're peering at this post on its original website that the design has changed, at least superficially. I was considering something more drastic, but that obviously has not come to pass. It may require a tweak or two eventually (still can't get the "Posted" and "Comments" items at the bottom to align on the right) but for now it's a pleasant change.

A perfectly valid moment to recall that I initially (February 2002) generated a few posts mostly so I could have some content around which to figure out how to use HTML/CSS.

Day 14

A couple film-related lists.

I was talking to Jeff at the museum today (the new site design is outstanding) and, among other things, we basically broached the topic: Contemporary Hollywood cinema, hot or not?

Of course, it always seems to me that there is just a glut of good films to see, new or otherwise, but when I restrict myself to stuff I'd know about without reading film magazines, blogs, or other specialist media, the list gets fairly slim.

I'm going to leave very good (2 stars) alone and focus just on the great ones I've seen this year. The top group is very general releases, the second group English-language films you might have read about from, say, Manohla Dargis or Roger Ebert, and the third foreign-language films.

Pineapple Express

Paranoid Park
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
Wendy & Lucy

Still Life
Flight of the Red Balloon
Alexandra
The Last Mistress
The Edge of Heaven
*Ashes of Time Redux

For the most part everything here played at least a Landmark theater in the Seattle area, or may by New Year's Eve. Still Life got a lot of press but played only at SIFF Cinema. Ashes of Time also isn't really either new or old.

It seems that it may take some work to find movies to really get enthusiastic about, depending on your tastes and aesthetics, but where to begin?

---

And then there is the list of directors I compiled, quantitatively analyzed by number of films watched.

14 Jean-Luc Godard
12 Coen Bros.
12 Alfred Hitchcock
12 Stanley Kubrick
12 Richard Linklater
12 Billy Wilder
11 Howard Hawks
10 John Ford
09 Wong Kar-wai
08 Robert Altman
08 Ingmar Bergman
08 Frank Capra

It would be interesting to try to find some sort of very rough distribution for the numbers, a function several factors probably.

I took a college class on Capra and Wilder. Hitchcock, Kubrick, Hawks, and Bergman are all thrust at you over and over by most any film critic/historia. Ford is too, but in a different tone, and has less instant appeal to a lot of modern audiences. Wong and the Coens each managed a sort of critical consensus, albeit via wildly divergent styles and worldviews, at the right time. Godard seems to me probably the most revived director of the past five or so years that I've been paying attention to such things; I've seen films of his in at least three separate retrospectives, though none of course were exhaustive. Altman I'm a little surprised by, but he's another name that just comes up constantly, and he's readily available.

And what to say about Richard Linklater? Well, only that I suspect that if you had all the filmmakers on the list, living or dead, over for dinner, he's the only one who would offer to do the dishes, and frankly it wouldn't surprise me if he followed through.

Day 13

According to eMusic's blog, 17 dots, "Reverb is so in right now."

You could pretty much replace that with, "Giving money to people named Andy Slabaugh is so in right now," and I would feel about the same. It's kind of sad.

The song/video they point to, "Come On Over In Your Silver Car" by Desolation Wilderness, is perfect. Almost enough to get me back reading the Forkcast every day.

Day 12

I feel like they read my mind.

It might be hypocritical, but for the most part I try to avoid indie electronic mixes. The excesses of Justice and some/much of blog-house has something to do with it. It could also be that I prefer to listen to mixes of things that are new and strange, but that's not always the case. Most likely it's that a lot of stuff like this comes from bloggers who've listened to enough dance music, or dance remixes of indie hits, to cobble together an hour's worth of mix fodder.

The DJs behind Allez-Allez, though, have no credibility issues. Ewan Pearson, Lindstrøm, The Black Dog; the roster they've accumulated for their blog so far is as impressive as you'll find anywhere.

Nice to hear someone approach this stuff from the proper angle.

Day 11

Interview

Bandmembers Lizzi Bougatsos, Brian DeGraw, Tim DeWit and Josh Diamond utilize all manner of percussion, keyboards and electronics to create a sort of melting-pot avant-pop, music that hints at everything from synth-pop to hip-hop to new age, from psychedelia to Middle Eastern dance music to Afrobeat.

I was expecting good things Monday night, a few less when Growing canceled, but was not prepared for far and away the greatest set of all time.

There have been reports aplenty of Gang Gang Dance's unpredictable and terrific live shows, but it's difficult enough to be clear and direct about music in the first place, let alone a sprawling improvisational live show. At their peak the band seemed to be using two to three percussionists, including a full drum set with plenty of kick, steel drums, and a drum machine, possibly either programmed or played, a bed of sustained synth chords, a higher and more melodic synthesizer line, one or two guitars, a voice kind of like Bjork in a pleasant but definitely otherworldly mode, and enough reverb and delay to swallow the crowd whole. Not to mention the spectacle of Liz Bougatsos shimmying around with waist-length hair and tallest heels I've ever seen a performer wear. The superlative sound at the Triple Door certainly didn't hurt.

For the most part, though, this will fall prey to what I'll have to call the Jan Jelinek curse. That is, even if the record is a not-bad reproduction of what they played tonight, I may not recognize it given the lack of lyrics, hooks, or anything traditionally memorable in a pop sense.

Day 10

It is once again the season for skipping things. However, unlike in New York where Manhattan was too far away and Williamsburg too inconvenient, or two years ago when I was feeling either poor or depressed or something, this year mostly it's that there's just too much stuff.

Thursday I definitely stayed home from a movie because the weather was unpleasant enough that I really didn't feel like venturing out again. Several other at least moderately exciting events have gone unattended mostly because they didn't shout loudly enough from my calendar.

It is important to keep in mind that after about mid-January, though, culture comes to a halt, so we must stockpile memories to keep us warm during the dark and rainy hibernation.

Day 9

DJ /rupture from a list/interview in Pitchfork:

A Popular Artist I'd Like to Fall Into Obscurity

There are so many people who are not worthy of their popularity. And, for the most part, I kind of disregard them. And it's weird that the rest of the world doesn't [laughs]. In a sense, I think my broad condemning would be for any of these bands that are doing the "we need the money, let's get together and tour 10 years later" thing. So, a band like My Bloody Valentine. People are so reverential towards them. Or the Pixies. They're both great bands, but at the same time I'm like, "Well, it's strange to see...." A band's import and meaning is constantly being shaped, and it's often totally out of proportion to what their past status was or what their current status would be.... I don't know, it's hard to explain.

I'm not actively wishing for people to fall into obscurity, but I'd rather see more obscure people getting more shine. I'm happy that Bob Dylan, who I'm not a fan of, can do what he does and endlessly entertain himself and stop innovating, like all of these big bands who have been around since the 1970s do. That's fine. They're becoming totally institutional-- they're like a museum at this point. People pay to go see dead artifacts. But what I'm more interested in is, wouldn't it be great if a young regaetta artist from the Reef Foothills can go do a show in New York and San Francisco and Chicago and do this weird little U.S. tour. A minor step out of the obscurity for these other people, I would be more interested in.

Day 8

I was struck today by the way in which Barnes & Noble is, no matter how "corporate" or bland, still in a completely different league from basically any other type of big-box, mall-linked store.

While they didn't have several more obscure books I idly searched for, they did have say, Jameson on Jameson, a series of interviews with Marxist cultural critic Fredereic Jameson, which caught my eye. You certainly wouldn't want to have to limit your library to what could be found there, but I suspect such a restricted diet would be far more enriching than one limited to, say, Johnny Rockets or Victoria's Secret or Eddie Bauer.

Day 7

I've noticed recently with long-term events like NWFF's year-long film series and SIFF passes going on sale, there's an almost inaudible nagging in the back of my mind. It arises because I haven't spent more than 15 consecutive months in one place since graduating high school. Even with absolutely no intention of going anyplace else, my mind stalls when attempting to contemplate anything past the start of spring.

My suspicion is that it'll take until about Thanksgiving 2009 to stop thinking in year-plus stages. Could be sooner.

Day 6

Northwest Film Forum presents an in-depth, yearlong exploration of the films of 1969, presenting a diversity of feature films, documentaries and experimental works that were seen on screens during that tumultuous year.

On their survey a few months back, the NWFF asked about paying for year-round admission, and while that didn't quite happen (personally I'd rather see Landmark or AMC institute something like that) this is a great deal as well; the year-long series pass is $69.

Last night I realized that, at least since I started earning a paycheck again back in March, I've only watched one video a month. This is perhaps less than optimal since it means that I basically never really choose which older films to watch, but just glean the good stuff from local repertory programs. And mostly that means (outside of NWFF) I see pretty safe stuff; not that it's not good (The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, and Notorious over the past month), but all the same it feels like a sort of cinematic malaise is beginning to creep over me. If only it were the new year so I could make some kind of resolution...

Day 5

The Guardian

They did it. They really did it. So often crudely caricatured by others, the American people yesterday stood in the eye of history and made an emphatic choice for change for themselves and the world.

...

Rove's America was not just turned on its head yesterday. It was broken up and recast in a very different mould.

...

Mr Obama will take office in January amid massive unrealisable expectations and facing a daunting list of problems - the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the broken healthcare system, the spiralling federal budget and America's profligate energy regime all prominent among them. Eclipsing them all, as Mr Obama has made clear in recent days, is the challenge of rebuilding the economy and the banking system. These, though, are issues for another day. Today is for celebration, for happiness and for reflected human glory. Savour those words: President Barack Obama, America's hope and, in no small way, ours too.

The Nation

We are inheritors of this momentous victory, but it was not ours. The laurels properly belong to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and all of the other martyrs who died for civil rights. And to millions more before them who struggled across centuries and fell short of winning their freedom. And to those rare politicians like Lyndon B. Johnson, who stood up bravely in a decisive time, knowing how much it would cost his political party for years to come. We owe all of them for this moment.

Whatever happens next, Barack Obama has already changed this nation profoundly. Like King before him, the man is a great and brave teacher. Obama developed out of his life experiences a different understanding of the country, and he had the courage to run for president by offering this vision. For many Americans, it seemed too much to believe, yet he turned out to be right about us. Against all odds, he persuaded a majority of Americans to believe in their own better natures and, by electing him, the people helped make it true.

...

In this way, Obama redefined the country for us, but our responses involved generational differences. For younger people, white and black, his vision seemed entirely straightforward. It is the country they already know, and they expressed great enthusiasm. Finally, they said, a politician who recognizes the racial differences that are part of their lives and no big deal. For young blacks and other minorities, Obama's place at the pinnacle of official power lifts a coarse cloak that has blanketed their lives and dreams--the stultifying burden of being judged, whether they succeed or fail, on the basis of their race.

For others of us at an advanced age, Obama's success is more shocking. We can see it as a monumental rebuke to tragic history--the ultimate defeat of "white supremacy." That vile phrase was embedded in American society (even the Constitution) from the outset and still in common usage when some of us were young. Now it is officially obsolete. Racism will not disappear entirely, but the Republican "Southern strategy" that marketed racism has been smashed. Americans will now be able to see themselves differently, North and South, white and black. The changes will spread through American life in ways we cannot yet fully imagine. Let us congratulate ourselves on being alive at such a promising moment.

NY Times

Mr. Obama inherits a terrible legacy. The nation is embroiled in two wars — one of necessity in Afghanistan and one of folly in Iraq. Mr. Obama’s challenge will be to manage an orderly withdrawal from Iraq without igniting new conflicts so the Pentagon can focus its resources on the real front in the war on terror, Afghanistan.

The campaign began with the war as its central focus. By Election Day, Americans were deeply anguished about their futures and the government’s failure to prevent an economic collapse fed by greed and an orgy of deregulation. Mr. Obama will have to move quickly to impose control, coherence, transparency and fairness on the Bush administration’s jumbled bailout plan.

His administration will also have to identify all of the ways that Americans’ basic rights and fundamental values have been violated and rein that dark work back in. Climate change is a global threat, and after years of denial and inaction, this country must take the lead on addressing it. The nation must develop new, cleaner energy technologies, to reduce greenhouse gases and its dependence on foreign oil.

---

Other than just a rare chance to feel unguardedly optimistic, Obama's victory felt visually striking: seeing a black man on that stage, delivering that speech. I can only hope it means more than symbolic hope for everyone in the country who's traditionally underrepresented, obviously African Americans but of course also poor Americans, female Americans, gay Americans, etc.

Day 4

It's as good a day as any to update my walking map of Seattle. The fact that it is now always dark and frequently raining after work makes it much less enjoyable to stroll anywhere other than home, or perhaps some other place close and warm, so progress is likely to slow considerably.


As a reminder, the red indicates streets without sidewalks which I will ignore. The paler streets are those I've walked. The map stretches from 85th Street at the north edge to Jackson Street at the south. At this point I've pretty much covered everywhere regularly convenient and started on places that aren't, although that's not such a bad thing. The truly and deeply residential areas of the city along the west and east sides will likely be the last to go. Queen Anne is also a steep enough hill that walking down is not entirely enjoyable and walking directly up is foolish.

UPDATE: I should also mention that Seattle street views are now available on Google Maps. The house numbers are not correct, but the pictures are clear enough that you might be able to read them anyway.

Day 3

It seems that Jan Jelinek has put out a new album under the name Ursula Bogner on his new label and invented quite a backstory. Given the lack of true obscurity in the age of the internet, I suppose PR like this fills a necessary niche in the musical landscape.

What excites me about this stuff, though, is not the pseudo-history associated with it, but the atmospheres it conjures in your head. Early synthesizer and computer music sounds like it's coming from some sort of fantastic place that may never exist. If I had some sort of public place to design--a bar, a restaurant, a coffeeshop, maybe even a club--this is exactly the direction I'd go in. Modernist furnishings and artwork, oscilloscopes and other odd and kind of outdated-looking electronic equipment, and most definitely background music like this.

Maybe the OHM compilation, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Farben records and drone music by Jelinek and others. Most certainly Keith Fullerton Whitman, particularly Multiples. Ghost Box records and library music.

The obvious name for such a place would be "Back To The Future," but just as obviously that would be an impossible name to use.

Day 2

From the candidate statement of The Socialism & Liberation Party:

The United States is the richest country in the world. Every person should have the right to free health care, education, job training, childcare, affordable food and housing, and a good job with full benefits. Under capitalism, the wealth created by workers is unjustly controlled by the rich. Their economic decisions are based on maximizing profits, regardless of the cost to people or the planet.

Day 1

November will see a blog post every day. I hope to stockpile a few to get started and cascade from there on in.

Most pertinent today is probably my successful Halloween costume at work, for which I dressed up as one of my two bosses and came away with such prizes as an orange "Happy Halloween!" tie featuring a mummy, and a few other odds and ends.

Also of note: the hordes of young trick-or-treaters milling around Market Street as I walked through Ballard after work. Somehow the costumes didn't strike me at first (the much larger adults were mostly not dressed up) and, not having visited the neighborhood for a long time, struggled for a while to remember if this is really what life was like outside of Capitol Hill. Then it clicked and I calmed down.