Snaggletooth

View of the Sound from Orcas Island

I catch my snaggletooth rotting
as I glide my jaw from left to right,
grinding my teeth to try to tear
canine against canine, in a futile attempt
to bring symmetry to my mouth.

I tug down on my left ear nervously.
A tic left over from infancy.
When I would thrust my thumb to suckle
and self-sooth myself into sensible submission.
Now an empty endeavor exerting my inner
need to have both ears sit evenly on my head.

I find my conscious slipping.
Wandering from question to question
and judgment to judgment.
A fevered frantic failure streamed.
Until I pull the needle and string
the thread of my thoughts to stitch
the folds of my brain together into
one smooth cohesive quilt.
A patchwork of perfectly placed
motives and memories; a balanced ballast
of cerebral serenity.

Face Time

Well I have to thank my friend Mat for introducing me to this marvel of the internet.

Music Go Music performing on the infamous Face Time! Their new album is out now on Secretly Canadian and you can see it all with the links below. I actually think that the songs live are better than the album, but they are still awesome. Give a good view/listen to an amazing new band.

1. I Walk Alone
2. 1000 Crazy Nights
3. Light of Love
4. Reach Out
5. Explorers of the Heart
6. Love, Violent Love
7. Just Me
8. Warm in the Shadows
9. Goodbye, Everybody

Misstep

My mother and I were walking out of the grocery store recently and she unknowingly stepped in front of a man who was also exiting the store. He was dressed in full army fatigues and had to stutter his steps as he jockeyed his way around my mother. She was honestly surprised of her cultural faux pas saying, "I didn't even see him." But I reassured her, he had no problem with her walking in front of him. He was used to people doing that all the time. His problem was that she was weaving in her steps. She confused him by not walking in a straight line.

A Single Take Obsession

Brock at Cranberry Lake

I, notably, have a certain obsession with single take recordings. Both in music and in film, I have a fascination with the beautiful and natural flaws that exist in the process of creation. It marvels me how much production goes into removing all the tiny errors that we take for granted in life. I don't always understand why we choose to edit out what our memory already does for us.

I can rarely tell you of a time when watching a concert that the musician flubbed. In fact, when it does happen, I think I like it more and mistake it for the way that the song was meant to be sung or played. In music people use field recordings to enhance an already great song. In film people use the way film burns, slips, and double exposes intentionally as an artistic expression. Isn't it just as beautiful when it happens by mistake?

I love found photographs for the same reason. To see the beautiful mistakes that others unintentionally made. I find these mistakes inspiring. I have a drawer full of photos from found wallets, albums, and ones bought in thrift or antique stores. It is this fascination that led me to seek out and find all these awesome internet sites.

Shoot the Player, La Blogotheque, Black Cab Sessions, They Shoot Music, and Southern Souls are all great websites that document such great convergences of music and film, well video really. I first got hooked on these sites after Arcade Fire played for Vincent Moon in an elevator. The rest I found sometime later. I don't know which came first, but I am glad that the all exist.

Many of these sites show their obvious reference to such great documentarians such as Alan Lomax and John Peel. And maybe even a more obscure reference to Pete Seeger's documenting efforts. Or maybe that is just my obscure reference. Anywho, there are those before us who pioneered the documenting of live performances in their natural locations. I think that Bob Boilen even tosses his hat in the ring with his Tiny Desk Concerts for NPR. Which is probably the closest modern example of the Peel Sessions displayed visually.

I want to give a great example of these awesome websites that all deserve their own time dedicating to exploring, but for now I will just show a favorite. Bill Callahan from his Black Cab Session.