Archive

Star Wars vs Saul Bass — Borrowing Liberally from Monoscope

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in March 2008.

Star Wars vs Saul Bass

(via Monoscope)

Sunrise

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in February 2008.

Colors
Colors

A Month In

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in January 2008.

(with thumb)
(with thumb)

29 days ago, in a flash of brilliance with a bread knife and a slightly-stale bagel, I almost took off the end of my thumb. Well-drugged and stitched a few hours later, the immediate crisis was over. But what began was a few weeks of operating with half my opposable digits. I fumbled to pick up things and learned to press modifier keys with another finger, inadvertently writing whole sentences in a gimp substitution cipher. Other limbs substituted for missing abilities, and complex two-hand maneuvers such as opening spring-loaded door latches became new challenges.

Two weeks ago I took the stitches out. This was simultaneously fun and gross, the satisfaction of removing the black nylon thread from my thumbprint not unlike popping a big zit. I’d graduated to “normal” band-aids, the daily application of Neosporin being largely symbolic at this point—a huge scar is inevitable.

29 days later, I’m celebrating by trekking across Stockholm to the biggest climbing gym in Scandinavia. It’s been almost 2 months since I last climbed, and I’m really excited. Going to boulder a bit, and maybe find a climbing partner—hoping that “on belay” translates.

Whistler Singer Songwriter Agitator Remixer

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in December 2007.

Distilling a batch of ten from a rough cut three times that size is a craft. Despite feelings of being unsuited for said craft, I humbly present my list of the ten best songs of 2007.

When initially making this list, Krissy asked if I was making a personal list or a critical list. Despite aforementioned ability to compile a reasonable cut of the latter, I made two lists. It turns out the intersection was actually pretty significant, even discounting remixes or covers. In the end I decided on the following rules: Song or source album must have been first released in 2007. For remixes and covers, the date of the derived song’s release is counted. It must have 4+ stars in my iTunes library and a pretty high listen count.

Surprises: The Streets, Bloc Party didn’t make the cut this year, despite heavy presence in last year’s top 10. No hip hop. No Air, M83, or Ratatat. No drum & bass. Hot Chip and Peter Bjorn and John barely got sliced out. Four songs are remixes, and every song has lyrics. Huge thanks to Xis, .tiff and the Toof for introducing me to most (if not all) of the songs on this list.

I’ll repurpose a tweet of a quote from Erika: each is a simple verse in a complex love story. For a lazy monday afternoon, sitting on the rug in the living room of my friend’s upper east side apartment, it seems framed correct. I have two goals today: write this post, and party. And I’m almost out of post.

  1. Klaxons - Golden Skans
  2. Cloud Cult - Take Your Medicine
  3. Hellogoodbye - Here (In Your Arms) (CLASSIXX Remix)
  4. The Bird And The Bee - Fucking Boyfriend
  5. LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great
  6. Digitalism - Pogo
  7. LCD Soundsystem - New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down
  8. Thom Yorke - The Eraser (XXXChange_mix)
  9. Klaxons - As Above, So Below (Justice Remix)
  10. Midnight Juggernauts - Road To Recovery (Miami Horror remix)

Young Folks violates the “released in 2007” rule, but it makes the list as the bonus secret track 11 because of one night in October with my friend Elise in the middle of an epic flurry of rock shows around San Francisco. We were standing in line at Popscene to see Tokyo Police, the sounds of Peter Bjorn and John were tumbling out of the door of 330 Ritch when a dozen-odd hipsters around us started nodding their heads and whistling along.

Retirement?

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in December 2007.

<3
<3

Sometime before Flickr and Twitter scratched my lazy itch, I used to blog. Whole paragraphs! Structured sentences, posts with conclusions and enclosures! Double entendre! Exclamation points!


Retirement’s been mostly a drag, just kidding. Yesterday I woke up to the sounds of my parents’ neighbors dogs barking. Apparently they’re redoing the kitchen and they’d given the kids a Wii for Christmas. All Wii and no wee, ah nevermind. Poor pups. My newly slashed thumb was stitched up, and I managed to gimp along with just one opposable digit.

crowd
crowd
Parents had an epic holiday party, with the whole congregation and a large part of the caucasian, largely older, largely richer than you crowd came by for a drink of pinot gris (and not chardonnay, as my unscientific testing proved). I took photos, poured wine & Diet Coke and generally played the good PK (that’s Preachers Kid). Dad was a good host, and Mom made sure stuff happened. I’ve never seen them cook more food consumed so quickly. Where lesser mortals would have catered the whole sum bitch, they made. Everything. From. Scratch.



parents in the kitchen
parents in the kitchen
Can I just say that phylo-wrapped white asparagus is basically crack?

liz
liz
Met some interesting folk including a Baltimore inner-city school teacher and an elderly gent who’d lived the entirety of his life in Cambridge Maryland. He kept asking me if I was applying to move back. I wasn’t quite sure if he was fucking with me or not.

Apres party, Mom and I took off to head back to Alexandria, Virginia. She works 5 days out of every 2 weeks at the hospital in the ICU. It was good to kick it with the moms. We got stuck in traffic on the Chesapeake bay bridge, drove by Annapolis and circled half the beltway back to Old Town.

Met up with an old friend Dennis at his place of business, and he gave me a CD of his noise/ambient including a remix of a track I’d made a decade ago. It sounds like he just slowed it down 75% and added noise, but my now unsophisticated ears aren’t attenuated to the sounds of ambient like they used to be. Maybe if it was sped up and covered by a singer-songwriter.

Afterwards, I ran into the Korean crew, drinking & smoking in one of the Old Town locals, and my resident BFF Dabysan dropped in. We made to another bar, and watched (some of us Sang) karaoke amidst the Virginia-legal cloud of tobacco. Technically it was day six without a smoke, but it didn’t feel like it this morning.

dabysan
dabysan
This morning I had a cup of my old favorite, Misha’s. Harrar Americano, short cup, less water pls thx. Ran into Misha, Andrea, Joel, Sang, Dabysan and a few other folk. The place hasn’t changed much in the 2.5 years I’ve been absent, except for a coat of paint and a new logo on the cups. And onesies for sale.

Today was an epic battle against the internet gnomes, rain, designing, photographing and drinking more coffee. It’s almost midnight here on the east coast, and the rain’s let up. Time for something new, like fomenting plans for flights across the globe. There are 5 tabs open to Expedia, one to Vox and one to Twitter. This place is closing in 6 minutes, and I’ve got an itch to scratch.


QotD: Best Gift of ‘07

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in December 2007.

What's the best gift you received this year?

d.r.p.d.r.p.d.r.p.d.r.p. (+ y)d.r.p.

Best tangible gift, anyway.

Dad gave me his vintage Leica III rangefinder. It weighs more than my first car. I hope to shoot lots of black & white in the next few weeks.

Also, FTW! <3

Kimya Dawson, Juno and The Moldy Peaches

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in December 2007.

Anyone Else But You
Anyone Else But You
The Moldy Peaches


Despite latent bias against soundtracks in general (cough), I love this Moldy Peaches track from Juno. It pairs two guitars with boy and girl vocals in probably the most perfect way possible. I got a little misty the third time they played it in the film. Also, any song with lyrics like this, is well, <3:


I will find my niche in your car
With my MP3 DVD rumble-pack guitar
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you
...
Up up down down left right left right B A start
Just because we use cheats doesn't mean we're not smart
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

I won’t spoil the ending, but after you’ve seen it you’ll think this was written for the film. Kimya & co’s music fits this film like Air’s proper for the Virgin Suicides. Find more here and here.

One Last Americano in Hayes Valley

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in December 2007.

Krissy: I can has beans!

I’m still retired.
I’m still retired.

First Person Shooter

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in December 2007.

Outbound on the 22 Fillmore
Outbound on the 22 Fillmore

Je T’Aime Neue Grotesk

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in December 2007.

Akzidenz Grotesk