Go to the FutureisFiction blog
This is song #3 of a playlist for my LYLAS Kat. The subject is great indie lyricists. Each week I’m focusing on the lyrics of one band and why those lyrics are worth delving into. Hi Kat, Since you’ve been obsessed with [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 23 January 2012, 7:19 pm
Nooooo! Etta James died today. Leukemia. My friend Achterom introduced me to Etta James. Of course I knew who she was, like everyone else I knew she was the old broad who sings "At Last." A pretty enough song, with very [...] No related posts.
Source: the Future is Fiction | 20 January 2012, 6:49 pm
via online.wsj.com Nicholas Carr has an article in The Wall Street Journal about the malleability of e-books. Because a digital edition can be perpetually edited, it is never officially finished. He muses on how intrusive school boards and dictators [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 4 January 2012, 5:58 pm
I finally submitted my electronic signature to the petition to congress to oppose the bill that will remove our Internet freedoms (SOPA). I thought I'd share with you the letter I wrote under the section, "Tell your story"… I'm the sixth [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 27 December 2011, 12:55 pm
The police had slashed our tents; thrown away clothes, food, medical supplies; and arrested the protesters and the reinforcements that were ready to replace us. The police had thrown noxious chemicals and burning gas at us and shot us with [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 2 November 2011, 3:57 am
As for how the strike would be publicized and organized, these would depend on the willingness to strike itself. The greater the willingness, the fewer the logistical requirements. How many Americans does it take to change a [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 28 October 2011, 3:23 pm
This is song #2 of a playlist for Kat. The subject is great indie lyricists. Hi Kat, Since you've been obsessed with the Mountain Goats lately, we've been talking about who some of our favorite modern lyricists are. This playlist was [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 17 October 2011, 3:35 am
No effing waaaaay! This is terrific news.
You know what I loved about CBGB? The bathrooms. Not only were they down a sketchy stairwell and covered in graffiti, you had to go backstage to get to them. That one small thing kept their from being a serious division between the bands and the audience. It made CBGB a space where there could be no snobbery about who was on what side of the velvet rope.
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 27 January 2012, 7:03 pm
I don’t know why Memoryhouse is using a music player that doesn’t show up in Tumblr, when their whole blog is based on Tumblr. Anyhow, they’ve just posted their latest, and as you might expect, it’s dream fodder. Click to listen.
Pleased to share a new song. Hope you all enjoy! See you soon.
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 27 January 2012, 3:01 pm
If you’re a fan of DM Stith (and goodness me, why wouldn’t you be?), you should know he’s collaborating with a fellow named John Mark Lapham under the name The Revival Hour. It’s the same beautiful complex layers you can expect from Stith. It seems Lapham’s influence is to pick up the pace a little.
Here’s the song that sounds more like Stith’s solo work. The Wounded Jukebox is streaming (no download) this one and the more upbeat song they’ve currently released.
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 24 January 2012, 11:20 pm
Side One Track One has some great photos of last year’s SXSW. Pictured here is Peelander-Z playing at Elysium.
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 24 January 2012, 11:00 am
Hi Kat,
It’s no secret that Metric is one of my favorite bands of the decade. One may compare them to chick-fronted rock bands like Blondie or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But Metric wins bonus points in having captivating, socially relevant lyrics. I first got hooked on the mysterious “The Police and the Private” and became fanatic with “Patriarch on A Vespa.” I say it’s socially relevant but it’s more poetry than preaching. She’s writing about the world she sees, and as a socially aware person, this is reflected in her writing.
Take the aforementioned “Police and the Private”. She sings:
Didn’t make this up I learned, I learned it from a friend
My friend is coming clean, she told me
Keep one eye on the door, keep one eye on the bed
Never expect to be sure who you’re working for
It’s clear she’s talking about some black market world. Is it drugs? Prostitution? Does it matter which, or does it matter more that the larger point is that “the whole world wants what we’re on…the police and the private, the doctor, the lawyer, the garbage collector”? The tone is desperate and dangerous. Never once does she ask why something the whole world wants is outlawed, as that would be preaching. I liken it to the Talking Heads song “Life During Wartime,” in that capturing the dangers of the lifestyle is more telling and more interesting than a sermon about the morality of those who choose to live in the underworld. The clincher in “Police and the Private” is the last line, Got to get to you the orphanage is closing in an hour. Such a haunting line. Does the character in the song live this dangerous lifestyle in the hopes of making enough money to get her child back? It’s unclear, merely suggestive that criminals lead desperate lives because there are other more innocent lives at stake.
Another example is “Gold, Guns, Girls.” The lyrics All the guns, all the gold, in the world…couldn’t get you off seem to be directed at a certain president and his cabinet that were in power when she released the song in 2009. Did she sit down to write a song about a particular politician, or does her pen naturally gravitate to such subjects because they interest her? Would the song be better if she namechecked Bush or Cheney? No, the song is better because it is about a certain type of person that Cheney happens to be an example of.
Download/Listen to Metric - Gold, Guns, Girls
Full Lyrics to Gold, Guns, Girls
The lyrics to Patriarch On A Vespa wouldn’t be out of place in the latest urban literary magazine. I’ll print them in full so you can imagine them not in a rock song but within your favorite poetry anthology.
Patriarch On A Vespa
Promiscuous makes an entrance
Her mouth is full of questions
Are we all brides to be?
Are we all designed to be confined?
Buy ourselves chastity belts and lock them
Organize our lives and lose the key
Our faces all resemble dying roses
From trying to fix it
When instead we should break it
We’ve got to break it before it breaks us
Fear of pretty houses and their porches
Fear of biological wristwatches
Fear of comparison shopping
Dogs on leashes behind fences barking
Pretty little pillows on floral couches
Until our faces all resemble dying roses
Stop trying to fix it
Patriarch on a Vespa
Runs a red and ends up
Crushed under the wheel
I can imagine this getting high marks at the next Berkeley poetry slam, can’t you? But on the contrary, she sings this while playing the keyboard solo and kicking her legs in the air in total bad-ass fashion. The “it” she refers to I presume to be bullshit suburbia and when she shouts “Stop trying to fix it…we should break it” she has created a couplet not matched in the history of rocking out since The Who first shouted “Meet the new boss! Same as the old boss!” If this song had been popular enough to hit heavy rotation on corporate radio, surely it would have inspired some chair throwing and bra burning.
Download/Listen to Patriarch On A Vespa
If you want to see some chill-inspiring rockage, check out the thrills she throws down at 1:40. It will give you a sense of why Emily Haines is one of the goddesses of indie rock:
Bonus: If this rocks a little hard for you, check out Emily Haines solo career with her backing band The Soft Skeleton. Or if you just can’t get enough, she’s also a sometimes-singer for Broken Social Scene.
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 23 January 2012, 7:23 pm
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 20 January 2012, 6:49 pm
Have you been listening to enough Radiohead? I never do, considering they release another fantastic album every year. Check out this glitch-hop remix of Radiohead’s “Talk Show Host”
Go to the Soundcloud page to get the download link: http://soundcloud.com/mylesaway/radioheadremix
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 18 January 2012, 11:00 am
Listen to "Locussolus - Throwdown (Com Truise Remix)":
Is there a word that means both “epic” and “80s”? Because that’s what this keyboard solo is. Locussolus – Throwdown (Com Truise Remix)
Edit: If you want to download this track, the only blog I’ve found that still has it up is http://mu-sique.com/post/6286812709/locussolus-throwdown-com-truise-remix. Drop them a comment or a Facebook like as gratitude.
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 17 January 2012, 2:32 pm
I was on the Giraffage Facebook page and I saw this on their wall:
“Hey dude, just heard your stuff…love it! …want to do a remix trade sometime? I have stems I can send ova :) Mikey / Blackbird Blackbird”
As a fan of Blackbird Blackbird, that’s pretty nifty. It may be the first time I’ve seen a public note on a social network from one musician I respect attempting to collaborate with another. Just think of the digital gems that will exist in the future as this happens more often.
Have you ever seen this sort of thing, artists you like collaborating publicly on social media?
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 17 January 2012, 1:57 pm
“It started with two crises, and a work of charity. Throughout David Bowie’s time in Los Angeles in late 1975, as he descended into a cocaine-addled psychotic netherworld of alien visitations and Aryan mythology, he had also become obsessed with the abstract, electronic sound of Kraftwerk. But his first attempt at assimilating this new movement proved a disaster, when sessions with, arranger Paul Buckmaster at Cherokee studios were abandoned, essentially unfinished. This was a rare setback, for even in the midst of crisis, David Bowie had proved remarkably adept, in control of the situation despite the psychoses that assailed him. After escaping from LA, via rehearsals in Jamaica and Vancouver for his imminent world tour, Bowie seemed to rebuild himself once again. Yet it turned out that the one event that truly made David Bowie pull out of his psychological tailspin was the act of rescuing the man who would be his companion throughout 1976, namely Iggy Pop.”
- David Bowie: Safe European Home here’s a #longread about Bowie’s Low. It also makes the pun “Neu’s annoys”. (via postpunk)
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 15 January 2012, 11:00 am
That’s a long way for a Florida boy.
Diplo at the Puma Social Club in Abu Dhabi. Hammer, Hammer, Hammer.
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 15 January 2012, 1:56 am
Been enjoying Nikkiya’s “Titanic” for months and I didn’t realize until today that she isn’t even signed! This track is so fresh and well-produced I thought surely it would be the next song blasting on everyone’s car stereos. Alas, we’re going to have to crank it up ourselves.
Even though I currently reside in Oakland I have a soft-spot for the Atlanta hip-hop scene. Apache Cafe forevah!
You can get her mixtape for free from http://www.djbooth.net/index/mixtapes/entry/nikkiya-speakher/
There you’ll find out she worked with MC Lyte on the mix. Nifty.
Nikkiya /// “Titanic” /// Speakher
Associations? There can be only one.
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 11 January 2012, 4:41 pm
Behold! Ten more of the top 50 artists and albums of 2011 have been revealed, and The Go! Team sent over their mix of the top tracks of the year.
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 4 January 2012, 6:06 pm
Tomorrow: Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 4 January 2012, 1:45 pm
Video of "Wild Flag - Romance":
Loving Carrie Brownstein: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/02/120102fa_fact_talbot? of #Sleatter-Kinney #Portlandia #WildFlag
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 31 December 2011, 7:30 pm
Is it possible the new album is going to be even more minimalist than the last one?
The xx: Open Eyes
New from The xx
(Demo) (by youngturksrecords)
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 26 December 2011, 8:11 pm
listening to "andrea true connection - more more more extended version by fggk":
Did you know Andrea True was a porn star? She died this year. #RIP 2011.
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 26 December 2011, 7:39 pm
listening to "Trinity Orchestra plays Daft Punk":
Trinity Orchestra covering #DaftPunk’s Discovery album was the most watched YouTube video in Ireland on the day of its release. @Erzuliet
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 26 December 2011, 6:47 pm
Holy crap. Did you know John Cusack was in a Suicidal Tendencies video? It’s only for a few seconds about 2/3 into it. But gosh golly it’s an adorable few seconds.
Suicidal Tendencies - Trip At The Brain (Official Music Video) - Video
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 21 December 2011, 2:30 am
listening to "Mister Heavenly - Bronx Sniper (OFFICIAL VIDEO)":
This is an interesting album. Has members from The Shins, Modest Mouse, Islands, Man Man and The Unicorns. Here’s a video from “Out of Love”
Source: Your New Favorite Band | 26 November 2011, 1:46 am
Go to Subversive Soapbox channel
Wait, that’s not what Tumblr is? ;)
StuckUp Stickers, iPhone App for Finding & Sharing Street Art Stickers
Source: Tech-ish | 23 January 2012, 6:27 pm
Google Shuts Down Picnik, Premium Free Through April:
Have you used Picnik? It’s this awesome website where you can easily edit photos online. It’s great for web designers and casual photographers alike. Or at list it will be until April, when they shut down for good.
Google bought Picnik and this is what they’ve decided to do with it. There are so far 93 comments on the Picnik blog, all of them negative. There is a possibility that Picnik’s features will be available in Google+… whoopty-freakin-du.
On the plus side (NO pun intended), in “celebration” of their demise, all of Picnik’s premium featuers will be free until they close their doors in April.
Source: Tech-ish | 20 January 2012, 8:45 pm
You may recognize this foodie blogger as the hottest mechanic in the fictional universe.
Source: Tech-ish | 29 November 2011, 7:56 pm
I knew Google had authors come speak at their HQ but it didn’t occur to me that Daddy G would have the finest in Geek selection. Some of their speakers have included Neil Gaiman, Noam Chomsky and Cory Doctorow.
Here is the video of Randall Munroe, writer of the web comic XKCD. He talks about solving a Rubick’s cube drunk, how to escape a raptor, how math made him able to pee in public, and how much time he spends perfecting his stick figures. Oh, he’s such a dreamcake!
Source: Tech-ish | 29 November 2011, 4:36 pm
Sucks.. #apple #fail #greed #coolapps #reading #ebooks #books (Taken with instagram)
Source: Tech-ish | 24 November 2011, 7:40 pm
Make your own Internet memes faster than Photoshop. Currently only for Mac.
Source: Tech-ish | 24 November 2011, 2:55 pm
Source: Tech-ish | 24 November 2011, 4:17 am
So clever, yet so infuriating.
Source: Tech-ish | 21 November 2011, 6:35 pm
I heard a rumor that they’re patent is about to run out so they’re promoting themselves really heavily right now. Which, by the way, explains why when we were kids there were stupid Legos of different sizes—off brands couldn’t connect with regular Legos or they’d have been violating copyright.
Not that they need any promotion. No one can resist their capacity to create a microcosm out of anything.
Occupy LEGO Land, A Tiny Toy Protest Inside of Occupy Wall Street
Source: Tech-ish | 9 November 2011, 7:50 pm
“I do Facebook two or three times a day but I’m far more active on Twitter. My daughter, Dominique, got me into it. She said I should build up a Twitter following and I said, “What is that?” And she said, “Suppose you want to mobilize people on a particular issue. You can do it right away.” That’s what got me. I was like, “Wow, you’re right, I can reach thousands of people at once.” I was hooked.”
- Reverend Al Sharpton lays out his media diet over at The Atlantic Wire. Read more. (via theatlantic)
Source: Tech-ish | 27 October 2011, 11:28 am
Oh, bummer. Thanks for Lisp, John!
John McCarthy, widely considered the father of artificial intelligence, died today. He was 84. John McCarthy perhaps most notably was responsible for creating Lisp, modern programming languages are still trying to catch up.
Source: Tech-ish | 25 October 2011, 2:20 am
Obama for America: Hi, Tumblr.:
I can’t decide whether I’m more impressed that the Obama campaign realizes that Tumblr is a big deal or that Tumblr is a big enough deal to attract the Obama campaign.
good:
Oh hey Obama.
It’s nice to meet you.
There are lots of reasons we’re excited to be launching the Obama 2012 campaign’s new Tumblr today. But mostly it’s because we’re looking at this as an opportunity to create something that’s not just ours, but yours, too.
We’d like this Tumblr to be a huge…
Source: Tech-ish | 24 October 2011, 5:40 pm
lmao
Source: Tech-ish | 19 October 2011, 11:48 pm
good:
Iran’s Green Movement was hailed as the Twitter Revolution. Egypt’s uprising was branded the Facebook Revolution. Will we remember Occupy Wall Street as the Tumblr Revolution?
Source: Tech-ish | 17 October 2011, 3:59 pm
Source: Tech-ish | 13 October 2011, 5:52 am
““Without computer clubs there would probably be no Apple computers. Our club in the Silicon Valley, the Homebrew Computer Club, was among the first of its kind. It was in early 1975, and a lot of tech-type people would gather and trade integrated circuits back and forth. You could have called it Chips and Dips. We had similar interests and we were there to help other people, but we weren’t official and we weren’t formal. Our leader, Lee Felsenstein, who later designed the Osborne computer, would get up at every meeting and announce the convening of ‘the Homebrew Computer Club which does not exist’ and everyone would applaud happily.
The theme of the club was “Give to help others.” Each session began with a ‘mapping period,’ when people would get up one by one and speak about some item of interest, a rumor, and have a discussion. Somebody would say, ‘I’ve got a new part,’ or somebody else would say he had some new data or ask if anybody had a certain kind of teletype.””
- Steve Wozniak, ”HOMEBREW AND HOW THE APPLE CAME TO BE”
Source: Tech-ish | 6 October 2011, 7:37 pm
“..and he said, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and change the world?””
- One of PopTech’s founders, John Sculley, who infamously ousted Steve Jobs from Apple in the mid 1980s, recounts how Jobs wooed Sculley away from PepsiCo to run Apple. (via poptech)
Source: Tech-ish | 6 October 2011, 5:57 pm
Source: Tech-ish | 5 October 2011, 10:45 pm
Wow. Really? Really? Can I see a source? I heard a quote a few months ago that every month “Facebook grows a new Twitter.” With that kind of growth I suppose this is feasible.
Source: Tech-ish | 16 September 2011, 3:10 pm
Show Me Non-Stop Lets Users Create a Video Channel About Anything
Source: Tech-ish | 16 September 2011, 2:10 pm
Earrings for sale at the Ashby flea market.
Source: The Bay is Better | 27 January 2012, 6:02 pm
Wall of graffiti in the Mission.
I fucking love spots like this: a jumbled collage of fliers, stickers, and graffiti from a hundred different artists, in various stages of decay. It’s a reflection of the varied and constant artistry of the city’s residents, who themselves network and collaborate to create San Francisco’s unique culture. As long as walls like this continue to change and grow, I won’t believe the hype that San Francisco has lost its status as a trend-setter among Bohemians and innovators.
The phrase in white, “Let go lightly,” is actually 3-D, made up of some textured material. For scale, those letters are about a foot tall each.
Source: The Bay is Better | 26 January 2012, 6:03 pm
Cool homemade bike trailer spotted at the Ashby BART flea market. It’s another one of those things that would be a big deal if I lived anywhere else, but is actually somewhat common in the Bay Area.
Source: The Bay is Better | 25 January 2012, 6:00 pm
Saw this fellow in costume at the old Occupy Oakland site. If he has a cowboy on his back, does that make him a dog dressed as a horse, or is the rider actually a pooch wrangler?
Source: The Bay is Better | 24 January 2012, 6:03 pm
Sunday for the matinee you can see four noir films for ten bucks or catch the double feature at the same price.
January 20-29, 2012
NOIR CITY celebrates its 10th anniversary as the world’s most popular film noir festival with a 10-day extravaganza featuring San Francisco treats, a Dashiell Hammett marathon, freshly preserved 35mm rarities, by-popular-demand encore screenings, surprises galore, and super special guest star ANGIE DICKINSON!
Source: The Bay is Better | 24 January 2012, 12:43 am
Roof Top Chillin
Source: The Bay is Better | 24 January 2012, 12:26 am
Happy Chinese New Year!
(Dragon mural in Chinatown, San Francisco)
Source: The Bay is Better | 23 January 2012, 9:02 pm
Source: The Bay is Better | 23 January 2012, 6:02 pm
The #legacy of #dream RIP DREAM #SF art show #Oakland #Graf #graffiti (Taken with instagram)
Source: The Bay is Better | 22 January 2012, 6:00 pm
KingGigster
Source: The Bay is Better | 21 January 2012, 6:00 pm
Graffiti Station/Shrine
Source: The Bay is Better | 20 January 2012, 10:58 pm
The Mission or Chinatown are affordable. Chinatown if you want to live in the big tall buildings and the Mission for a neighborhood with a lot of character. Parking is always a huge plus and you will pay dearly for it.
Avoid Polk St. Gulch or the Tenderloin, notoriously sketchy.
If you don’t find what you’re looking for in the city, North Oakland is beautiful, affordable, and just over the bridge.
I don’t want to share with a roommate, the city is preferable and I must have a washer and dryer. Parking would be a huge plus.
I’m not looking for specific rentals, mostly neighborhoods where I could probably find what I’m looking for without being crazy expensive. :p
Source: The Bay is Better | 20 January 2012, 9:39 pm
Happy MLK Day from West Oakland.
Source: The Bay is Better | 17 January 2012, 9:00 am
Source: The Bay is Better | 15 January 2012, 6:00 pm
What do you get if you cross an apple tree with a littleleaf linden? The Guerrilla Grafters—a renegade urban gardening group in San Francisco—hope the result is a metropolitan food forest. The volunteer activists splice branches from fruit trees onto the non–fruit bearing trees that line their city streets in an effort to grow cherries, Asian pears, and other fresh produce for local residents, free of charge.
Source: The Bay is Better | 7 January 2012, 6:19 pm
(At least according to the best of tumblr tool.)
Source: The Bay is Better | 6 January 2012, 7:19 pm
Wait, this means the population of San Francisco is more dense than London? That’s surprising.
- Tim De Chent, If the world’s population lived in one city… via Per Square Mile
So, if we can move past the haphazard historical, cultural, and biological reasons that people live where they currently are, we could pick a few hundred places in the world where there are good reasons to live, and move all the people to those places. Places with reliable water, equitable climates, available farmland. And then we can rewild the rest of the world.
Source: The Bay is Better | 6 January 2012, 6:36 pm
WANT.
Source: The Bay is Better | 5 January 2012, 6:29 pm
I
Source: The Bay is Better | 22 December 2011, 6:10 pm
Mission District
Source: The Bay is Better | 22 December 2011, 4:00 pm
This is song #3 of a playlist for my LYLAS Kat. The subject is great indie lyricists. Each week I’m focusing on the lyrics of one band and why those lyrics are worth delving into. Hi Kat, Since you’ve been obsessed with [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 23 January 2012, 7:19 pm
Nooooo! Etta James died today. Leukemia. My friend Achterom introduced me to Etta James. Of course I knew who she was, like everyone else I knew she was the old broad who sings "At Last." A pretty enough song, with very [...] No related posts.
Source: the Future is Fiction | 20 January 2012, 6:49 pm
via online.wsj.com Nicholas Carr has an article in The Wall Street Journal about the malleability of e-books. Because a digital edition can be perpetually edited, it is never officially finished. He muses on how intrusive school boards and dictators [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 4 January 2012, 5:58 pm
I finally submitted my electronic signature to the petition to congress to oppose the bill that will remove our Internet freedoms (SOPA). I thought I'd share with you the letter I wrote under the section, "Tell your story"… I'm the sixth [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 27 December 2011, 12:55 pm
The police had slashed our tents; thrown away clothes, food, medical supplies; and arrested the protesters and the reinforcements that were ready to replace us. The police had thrown noxious chemicals and burning gas at us and shot us with [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 2 November 2011, 3:57 am
As for how the strike would be publicized and organized, these would depend on the willingness to strike itself. The greater the willingness, the fewer the logistical requirements. How many Americans does it take to change a [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 28 October 2011, 3:23 pm
This is song #2 of a playlist for Kat. The subject is great indie lyricists. Hi Kat, Since you've been obsessed with the Mountain Goats lately, we've been talking about who some of our favorite modern lyricists are. This playlist was [...] Related posts:
Source: the Future is Fiction | 17 October 2011, 3:35 am
