i'm a star.

_posted in dayedayerocks | 31 December 2007

photographer: my grandmother

And so ends another year. And so a new year begins.

This new year, 2008 has been dubbed... "The Year of Setting Demons Free." Yes, I did say no naming of the year, but in that same post I gave in and said it would happen. So there.

The first 6 months of this year started off, in a word, horribly. Looking back it was some of the darkest days I've ever had and I paid for it accordingly. I wasted valuable time, missed a few opportunities that came my way and lost a few friends. These things happen.

The most important lesson learned from that time-- people fit into your life based on what they are capable of, not what you are wanting them to be capable of. And with that realization came a new level of trust with a few key people in my life and learning some extremely important lessons not so much about the world, but about myself.

I can only say I wouldn't trade that time nor those mistakes for anything. If not for every single one, I don't think I'd see 2008 as optimistically as I do now.

And so... I wish everyone the best for 2008. I think that we are all in for some amazing experiences.

Setting Demon's Free '08

_posted in 21 December 2007

The other day a friend of mine said that one would think that by 2008 you'd have it down. That you'd know everything you need to know to be successful in life: relationships, school and work. But let's be honest, we're lucky if we know how to get out of bed on most days and on those days when it's not a chore, there is still some confusion as to what should be done next.

That's just the way it all plays out. The last week or so has been me doing almost next to nothing. I run so hard and fast that when I stop for a breather it's over. I can't muster up the strength to get back on the track. So I've been watching Lord of the Rings almost every night, extended versions mind you. And I'm talking the extended version.

"la voz aspera de la ternura"

_posted in new music wednesdays | 19 December 2007

chavela vargas: 30 grandes canciones
chavela vargas: cupaima
tego calderon: el abayarde
james blunt: all the lost souls
natasha bedingfield: n.b.
the maccabees: colour it in

_soundcheck: ahmad jamal: ahmad's blues

monday morning blues = you get nothing...

_posted in dayedayerocks | monday morning blues | 17 December 2007

you get nothing this monday morning... but i will give you two things i learned last night and one i've been wanting to put into everyday conversation.

_silliness no.1

it's better to have a bottle in front of you than have a frontal lobotomy.

_silliness no.2

one hand holds want you want and the other holds piss, which do you think will fill the quickest.

_silliness no.3

time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana.

so there you have... silly homespun humor that i am determined to place into everyday conversation.

_soundcheck: ben harper: both sides of the gun

me llaman calle

_posted in dayedayerocks | music | 13 December 2007

this morning i asked my coworker, oscar, to help me translate manu chao's me llaman calle.

the video itself is lovely, but what really does it the way he uses language. the translation has none of the beauty it holds in it's original tongue.

i am a machine of the city
they call me a whore and a princess

strange thing, the song felt familiar. there's a point in there song where he says, "a whore and a princess" and i instantly thought of a film a recently saw, princesas.

new music wednesday = there is no conflict

_posted in new music wednesdays | 12 December 2007

here's a story. my friend buffi threw me a going away party right before i moved to l.a. and all the usual suspects were there including people i'd not seen in years. one group consisted of my computer science crew, all black chicks, who i spent many a night with in the computer lab programing. buffi has an old school jukebox and thousands of records. a few of said records were of ike and tina, as well as a few of ike turner's solo efforts. my friends were enraged and shocked that anyone would have ike turner records.

buffi overheard them venting their indignation and felt attacked and uncomfortable. i had to explain the whole black woman history with ike turner. the situation definitely confirmed my belief that you truly have to separate artist from asshole. to her ike turner was a great musician who knew how to rock ass on the guitar (which he was). to my friends ike was a wife beating bastard (which he was). for them there was no room for anything else.

let's be honest, ike turner was a down right bastard. flaws aside he was a damned good musician. i was always conflicted about separating the artist from the flawed individual. i love miles davis but again, another abusive asshole. there are so many artists who are questionable individuals. shit, there are so many books i'd never read, or music i'd never listen to, or films i'd never watch if i went on the merit of the person alone and not the work.

that's my spiel for this new music wednesday.... so on to the new music... enjoy.

annie lenox: songs of mass destruction
band of horses: cease to begin
manu chao: la radiolina
robert plant and alison krauss: raising sand
sigur ros: hvarf-heim
spoon: ga ga ga ga ga
the national: boxer
wynton marsalis: from the plantation to the penitentiary
youssou n'our: rokku mi rokka

_soundcheck: ike & tina turner: don't play me cheap/it's gonna work out fine

life in pictures... welcome back interactive narratives, you've been missed.

_posted in interactive narratives | photography | 12 December 2007

there has been a shortage of interactive media postings at cali stars, so i thought these new works could be the comeback post. sunday morning news catch up has been hiding out as well. let's be honest, i've not read one substantial thing in some months. but since the christmas break is slowing approaching, its time to catchup.

there are some amazingly beautiful images here. powerful and strong... anyway, on to the interactive goodies.

antero put me on to the boy in the moon. heartbreaking stuff...very well produced piece by a strong writer... it's very dense, it will take a few sittings to go through it all, but its absolutely worth it... there are at least 5 chapters for each part.

The Boy in the Moon

photographer: peter power/the globe and mail

part 1: full article and supplemental (01.dec.07)

part 2: full article and supplemental (08.dec.07)

part 3: full article and supplemental (15.dec.07)

_quote

Tonight is a lucky night: I can feel him slip off after 10 minutes. He stops grunting, strokes his bottle, turns his back and jams his bony little ass into my hip, a sure sign. He falls asleep.

I hurry after him. For all this nightly nightmare - eight years of desperate worry and illness and chronic sleep deprivation, the havoc he has caused in our lives, threatening our marriage and our finances and our sanity - I long for the moment when he lets his crazy formless body fall asleep against me. For a short while, I feel like a regular little boy's father. Sometimes I think this is his gift to me - but parcelled out, to show me how rare and valuable the gift is. Walker, my teacher, my sweet, sweet, lost and broken boy.

The Marlboro Marine

photographer: luis sinco

interactive video

l.a. times article (19.may.06)

_quote 1

It's an insane connection that you make with that person at that point. To see somebody in your sights and to pull that trigger, it's almost like you're there with them, seeing their life flash before their eyes.

_quote 2

DC was a slap in the face. I even had a congressman miss a meeting, and when I showed up at the office the assistant said he didn't have time to meet with a veteran. I didn't understand why a man with that type of job couldn't take five ten minutes out of his day to speak to someone who had fought for everything this country stands for.

_quote 3

To look back at it now and just think about holding a rifle, and firing at another human being, it's gut wrenching as well as, you know, brain wrecking. How do you justify it regardless of what your causes are or what their causes are?

The Ninth Floor

photographer: jessica dimmock

interactive video

_soundcheck: bob marley: kaya

indeed it is wednesday

_posted in new music wednesdays | 05 December 2007

title: CARNIVAL in yellow    photographer: daye rogers

bad religion: new maps of heaven
beirut: the flying club cap
damon albarn: mail music
kaki king: until we felt red
serj tankian: elect the dead
the mitchell brothers: dressed for the occasion
tupac shakur: the best of 2pac, parts I and II
wyclef jean: the carnival II: memoirs of an immigrant

_soundcheck: wyclef jean: the carnival II: memoirs of an immigrant

plans, schemes and other manner of distraction, meaning it's only ever about me...

_posted in dayedayerocks | 02 December 2007

i was in the middle of posting the new monday morning blues playlist when i realized i didn't love it. i mean the music is perfection but my ordering was off, some of the songs chosen were done so haphazardly while others were chosen with such care.

and i realized that the last few years has been a haphazard mix of consistency and inconsistency, more of the latter than the former. in the midst of it all there's always me, planning and scheming, distracting myself from actually doing. i do more planning than doing, it's as simple as that. the end of each year brings along the regrets and the blah blah blah. but the most important thing has always been the naming of the year: "the year of the foundation," "the summer of her celluloid self." and there have been others to be sure, i just can't recall them. sp is also guilty of this. i can't recall any of his declarations of year and season, but there have been a few. that kid is like my emotional doppelganger, except that doppelganger's are evil, harbingers of bad luck and seek to destroy. ok, doppelganger may be the wrong word. ah! as hubert sauper would say, he's an "intellectual mirror". much better.

anyway, i've decided there is no naming of 2008. it'll be what it is, another year. just one more year i try to get better. better at being consistent. better at loving the people i love. better at not being so quick and willing to dislike the people i don't care for. better at not being so hard on myself. and better at just enjoying it all. before i know it i'll be 98 with a room filled with family (i said family, not cats... dear god don't let it be cats- do me know if its just going to be me at the end with a bunch of fucking cats) trying to say everything i never said. no, im not getting all emotional and no, there will be no emails proclaiming emotions sent out tonight.

this is just me pumping myself up for my A-game, because 2008 knows exactly what im looking for this year. i only want to get be better by the time my bit of business is taken care of.

all that to say, no new monday morning blues... and of course there will be a declaration of "the year of...." in the next few weeks... i'd be cute and quirky if not for being strange and insane.

monday morning blues = thus, africa.

_posted in monday morning blues | 02 December 2007

this week's monday morning blues is about taking it home, to its beginnings. thus, africa. it's west african heavy of course. as well as ali farka toure heavy, as it should be! toure is to mali but son house and robert johnson are to american blues.

I know for some the language barrier will be an issue, but the beauty of music is the feeling you get. you may not know what tinariwen are singing about in soixante trois, but you know its something that is real. it's haunting and its a longing for something thing that was lost. approaching a song where all i have available to me is the music, the tone of the unknown language makes for initially like knowing what the songs are about on a visceral level before i start searching for translations. what i find most interesting is my feelings and opinions of the music isnt changed by the words. the music truly lives as the words.

listen.

Black Night: Muddy Waters