New Work: Guys & Dolls
posted: 06.01.2010 6:09 PM tags: design, posters
Given a note that the stage production would “focus on lights” I went simple and evocative with a marquee. A little Googling showed that most people went for the dice, or if they did take the lights theme, they went more towards neon & lighted signs.
All these productions of Guys and Dolls over the years, and everyone kept settling on the same thing. So weird. I know originality is dead, but that doesn’t mean you should just regurgitate old ideas ad infinitum. Not saying mine’s original (since originality is dead), but at least it’s different.
New Work: Into the Woods
posted: 10.20.2009 8:58 PM tags: design, posters
Just like with Peter Pan, here I chose to take what is typically given a low-level treatment and class it up, even if it is for a bunch of Shorecrest high school kids. Into the Woods is a musical fairy tale featuring the likes of Little Red Riding Hood, Jack (of Beanstalk fame), Rapunzel and more.
The poster attempts to capture not so much the whimsy of the story, but the genuine drama. Traditional fairy tales, after all, contain some dark subject matter, and this play capitalizes on that.
New Work: Peter Pan
posted: 10.20.2009 8:52 PM tags: design, posters
It’s been a while since I posted anything, but that’s okay. Here’s a poster I did a couple weeks ago for The Magnolia Theater, a drama school for elementary-aged kids.
This is obviously little more subdued than your standard kiddie fare, but I hate lowering my artistic expectations just because kids are involved. I’d rather elevate their work than devalue mine, so I choose not to go kid-friendly on these (like my old Wind in the Willows art).
Hey Look, New Website
posted: 06.20.2009 7:29 PM tags: site management
I finally got bored enough with a Saturday afternoon to make some changes to this here website that nobody visits. There will be more to come, like actual access to archived posts, a working portfolio, a better way to contact me, and so on. In the meantime, check out the new linkage to the right, both in the “There” section and “Everywhere”. Because I’m more likely to be in either of those locations than here most of the time.
That said, I’ll see you back here soon for more updates. Thanks for visiting, whoever you are.
New Work: Grease
posted: 03.24.2009 9:26 PM tags: design
Following up on last year’s stellar Sound of Music, this year Shorecrest is back with a rock opera version of Grease. In tune with the in-your-face approach to the musical itself, the artwork was designed to reflect a more DIY approach than the standard, glossy Grease we all know (and most of us) love.
Watchmen
posted: 03.14.2009 10:18 AM tags: movies, reviews
In recent memory, I cannot recall having a more complicated reaction to a movie than I did with Watchmen, the new blockbuster superhero extravaganza from director Zack Snyder. On the one hand, I thought it was pretty great to the last drop. On the other, it left me wondering why it wasn’t better. I guess that’s a logical reaction, because I felt the same way when I read the famed “graphic novel” (I hate that term) by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons last year.
Yes, last year. Despite being a comics nerd of sorts since high school, I never read Watchmen. To be fair, I never really read any of my comics at length. I was a Wizard subscriber for close to ten years, and knew all about the big characters, plot lines and movie deals of the ’90s and on into the early part of the next decade. I had a subscriber’s box down at a comic book store, and bought about 10 titles a month for a while. Yet I never really read most of them. I had them for the art. For their collectible nature. Just to have them.
So just as the Hollywood-spurred comics renaissance began, I was phasing my way out of that world. No more trips to the store, no more Wizard in my mailbox. Despite that, my love for the stories and the characters remained. I’ve seen all the heavy hitters over the years—Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, the Hulk, Daredevil, Iron Man, Fantastic Four—and some of the lesser-known stuff too, like Hellboy, V for Vendetta, Sin City, Road to Perdition, Ghost World, Snyder’s 300, etc. I’ve loved some and loathed others.
In a few cases, the love for a movie has been based on my love for the source material (ex: Batman Begins). In others, I was only familiar with the original work on a Wizard-summarized level, and heartily enjoyed the film (Sin City, Ghost World). In still others, I never cared much about the source but still found the movies quite engaging (X-Men, Spider-Man). Watchmen, as I said, was a book I just read, about six months ago in fact. Having now read the book and seen the movie, I’m fairly certain that it fits into none of the previously described categories.
Lauded as one of the finest works of fiction of the decade (the book was released in 1987), and even of all-time, Alan Moore’s opus had a lot to live up to. I found it thrilling and unusual, but most of that praise was reserved for its place in history rather than an appreciation for the work itself. As a huge fan of LOST, I saw in Watchmen a blueprint for the flashback and flashforward storytelling that is the show’s trademark. I also saw a wonderfully diverse cast of characters intertwined in ways that sometimes even they couldn’t understand. Finally, I saw an early form of meta-fiction, with Moore’s use of “supplementary materials” like pages from the New Frontiersman or excerpts from Hollis Mason’s tell-all Under the Hood. This alternative storytelling (strengthened even further by the comic-within-the-comic Tales of the Black Freighter) set the bar for LOST and so many others to tell their tales tangentially, with the internet, video games, works of fiction from within the world, and more. For that alone, Watchmen is a landmark achievement.
For the comics industry, too, Watchmen was a harbinger of sorts for more dense storytelling. Along with Frank Miller (Sin City, 300), who published his own major work in 1986 with the seminal Dark Knight Returns, comics as a medium were suddenly thrust into a “maybe we can take these seriously after all” mode. This is not to say that the years that followed were filled with works of this caliber (anyone who remembers the ’90s in comic book land can attest to that), yet these books did open up “alternative” comics and “graphic novels” to a wider audience. It’s taken 20 years and a slew of respectable, Hollywood-manufactured movies to do it, but now the medium is seen as more than just something for kids—a conclusion Japan came to decades ago. But whatever. America has always had a strange identity crisis with things we loved when we were children: animation, video games, comics… even as these mediums grow and evolve with us, their childish stigma remains, unfairly.
I therefore take great pride in the fact these geeky subcultures are now fulfilling their destiny and finally reaching the masses. Since X-Men‘s release nearly ten years ago (has it been that long?), the “comic book movie” has become an increasingly viable art form. Action pictures not based on comic characters are slipping in popularity. Non-superhero comics are now given a chance to be made (they made American Splendor into a movie!). There have been numerous missteps—The Punisher. Catwoman. Elektra. Ghost Rider.—but when the genre succeeds, it does so remarkably. Just last year, two of the finest (and maybe THE finest) ever in comic book history broke even more barriers. Iron Man and The Dark Knight now stand as the model for all future comic-to-film adaptations, and in my eyes, they do so for one important reason: these movies approached their characters with a grounding in realism.
Not every movie can do this of course. Some require a wildly unlikely approach. Sin City worked against realism because in a world where everything is (literally) black and white, there are no shades of grey to bring the characters back to our level. They are comic cutouts and stereotypes for a reason. Other comic stories, like Hellboy or Men in Black, are far too (intentionally) wacky to really take seriously. So we have fun with these movies and embrace them for their inherent silliness or hyper-reality. Yet even the costumed, super-powered hero pictures succeed most often when they are able to bring their characters’ struggles back down to earth. X2: X-Men United and Spider-Man 2 outpaced their predecessors with deeply emotional and relatable plots. The eye-popping visual effects and marvelous set pieces remained, but they sat in deference to the story.
The same would most certainly be said for Iron Man and The Dark Knight. With multiple scenes shot in IMAX, and with grandiose sequences like the Lower 5th chase, The Dark Knight was not without eye candy. Director Christopher Nolan, though, strove to limit visual effects to a minimum, doing things with sets and props as much as humanly possible. So, too, did Iron Man director Jon Favreau root his movie in a tangible world. The Iron Man suit itself became a focal point of the story, because Favreau rightly saw that we needed to believe that it was possible for a man (granted, a man of nearly unlimited means, but still, Tony Stark was just a man) to be mobile in that metallic armor.
This whole backstory predicates my actual thoughts on Watchmen, because one of my main issues with the movie is that it largely ignores the reality of its masked heroes. Something entirely lost in Snyder’s Watchmen is the fact that, with the notable exception of Dr. Manhattan, none of these characters have special powers. They are all just normal people who decided one day to dress up in a weird costume, give themselves a quirky name, and go out and fight crime. Snyder’s unique visual style—with its rampant use of slo-mo, overly bloody action sequences and super-strong pugilists—is thrillingly comic-booky, but unlike in the hyper-reality of Sin City or Snyder’s 300, it betrays the heart of Watchmen and its characters. What made the story of the Watchmen (and before them, the Minutemen) so dramatic and ultimately sad was that these were real people. Sure, they were living in an unreal world, a world of naked blue men, a third-termed Richard Nixon and so on, but they were real people we could identify with. Snyder lost sight of that in his adaptation.
The other element of the movie that I just could not stand was its use of music. Song choices were fairly solid, if predictable (I’ll admit, you do kind of have to use “All Along the Watchtower”), but putting Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” over Dan & Laurie’s sex scene just struck me as unintentionally funny; if it was constructed that way ironically, that almost bothers me more. Even worse than the soundtrack, the score was especially hammy and arch, distracting me at all points throughout the film from what I saw on screen. And what I saw was absolutely stunning.
If there’s one thing Snyder does remarkably well, it’s the visual aspect of a picture. The technical aspects of this film were astonishingly on point. Visual effects were huge and exceedingly well-utilized (Dr. Manhattan was brilliant), the costuming was terrifyingly accurate, and most of all, the art direction impeccable. Much like Sin City, Snyder’s almost slavish adaptation style lent itself well to anyone who had read the book. Shot after shot, I marveled with a fanboy’s glee (even if I am not one) at the fidelity to which the movie adhered to the book, visually speaking. Snyder has said that he even casted the film based upon an actor’s relative similarities to the book’s characters. This approach paid off in spades with Jackie Earl Haley as Rorschach, Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the Comedian, yet failed miserably with Malin Ackerman as Laurie/Silk Spectre II. Others have pointed out Matthew Good’s Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias as another weak point in the acting, but I didn’t have much issue with his performance, mostly because I always found that character overtly and cheesily villainous in the book, a mystery novel whose mystery is easily solved by everyone but its characters.
Watchmen was called “unfilmable” by its creator Alan Moore—a mad scientist hermit so disenfranchised with the Hollywood system (does anyone remember From Hell or League of Extraordinary Gentlmen? Didn’t think so.) bastardizing his stories that he took his name off this one—and he may have been right. Even with large sections of the story excised (gone are the newsstand sequences, most references to the New Frontiersman (until then end, when it pops up almost unexpectedly), and the entirety of the Black Freighter subplot, the movie is extraordinarily long at more than two and a half hours. The story of the Minutemen, too, is condensed into a montage during the opening credits (featuring a creepy but can’t-take-my-eyes-off-it “moving still photo” cinematographic style). All of these omissions didn’t bother me as someone who had read the book, but I wonder if I hadn’t read it how lost I might be. So much of the beauty of Watchmen as it was written is about how all these pieces intertwine so intricately. Maybe it is that reason that has me so excited to see Snyder’s director’s cut, which is said to put back a full hour into the movie, which would make it nearly four hours in length.
It makes you wonder then why someone couldn’t convince a studio head to release this in two segments, a la Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill or Steven Soderbergh’s Che (or even the upcoming seventh Harry Potter adaptation). I almost think it would be easier for newcomers to stomach two parts of a four hour movie in a couple sittings if it meant that the story might be rounded out a little better in the process. Or maybe not. Maybe the wildly polar reviews would be just the same. As for me, I think my pendulum swings more towards the “it’s great” end of the spectrum, even with all its flaws. I applaud the people who made this movie (somewhat begrudgingly, in the case of Snyder) for tackling such a beast of a story, and for bringing it to a wider audience, both in the theaters, and in print (everyone seems to be picking it up these days). I liked Watchmen a lot, and can’t wait to see the full version, which I think I’ll like even more. B+
Best of 2008: Albums
posted: 01.06.2009 8:31 PM tags: best of 2008, lists, music, pop culture
I can’t tell you how surprising a musical year 2008 turned out to be. I went in thinking it would be one thing, and ended the year with more new artists dominating my listening habits than any year in recent memory. The volume of new discoveries was only bested by the quality: this past year has given me a slew of artists (especially numbers one and two on this list) I will lovingly follow for years to come.
This list admittedly has a lot of gaps. If it’s not on here, I didn’t hear it. I bought more albums this year than ever before, but a lot of my purchases were devoted to catching up on things I missed out the first time. So rest assured anything not on this list I will get to in due time.
1. For Emma, Forever Ago — Bon Iver
What can I say about this band, this album, that I haven't already said? I only had it for the last six months of the year, but I've played this album around 20 times. When you've got a library of 18,000 songs and have listened to more than half in the past year, these numbers become more than just data. They are artifacts of my love for this record.
Highlights: "Skinny Love," "Re: Stacks," "For Emma"
2. Shallow Grave — The Tallest Man on Earth
I didn't think it possible, even if I had been anticipating this release so impatiently, but this was a close second to Bon Iver. A very close second. It is fitting, then, that I was able to see both live in one place on one magical night. I missed The Tallest Man on his under-advertised Seattle show recently, but I vow never to miss another performance. That voice—and especially the dark, dark lyrics set to such beautiful melodies—is just too good to pass up.
Highlights: "The Gardener," "I Won't Be Found"
3. Accelerate — R.E.M.
To call this a grand comeback album sells it a little short. Even if R.E.M. had been producing music for the masses in the past ten years, this would still be an excellent album. It's not going to make their top 5 records of all-time or anything, but that would be asking a lot. I'm pleased enough that R.E.M. brought back the rock and somehow don't seem like they're reaching. It just feels like an R.E.M. album should, and sounds like what Up might have been had Bill Berry not left the band, with one difference: you can hear the influence of the band's past three records here, and not just in a reactionary sense.
Highlights: "Mr. Richards," "Living Well Is The Best Revenge"
4. All We Could Do Was Sing — Port O'Brien
Highlights: "I Woke Up Today," "Don't Take My Advice"
5. Langhorne Slim — Langhorne Slim
Highlights: "Sometimes"
6. Modern Guilt — Beck
Highlights: "Profanity Prayers," "Gamma Ray"
7. Narrow Stairs — Death Cab for Cutie
Highlights: "Cath…," "Grapevine Fires"
8. Dear Science — TV on the Radio
Highlights: "Golden Age," "Family Tree"
9. House With No Home — Horse Feathers
Highlights: "A Burden," "Curs in the Weeds"
10. Your Anchor — Lackthereof
Highlights: "Last November," "Ask Permission"
11. Who Are We Missing? — Listening Party
Highlights: "Little Tender Hearts," "Before the Night"
12. Re-Arrange Us — Mates of State
Highlights: "My Only Offer," "You Are Free"
13. Made in the Dark — Hot Chip
Highlights: "We're Looking for a Lot of Love," "In the Privacy of Our Love"
14. Volume One — She & Him
Highlights: "Sweet Darlin'," "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?"
15. Don't Be a Stranger — The Moondoggies
Highlights: "Changing"
16. Glory Hope Mountain — The Acorn
Highlights: "Flood," "Crooked Legs"
17. Swimming — French Kicks
Highlights: "Said So What," "Abandon"
18. Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down — Noah and the Whale
Can I call this storybook pop? Englishman Charlie Fink has a certain timbre to his voice that reminds me of fairy tales. The music, too, is precious and playful, but never falls into cliché. It's quite the feat; the earnestness of the lyrics accompanied by instrumentation that might be described as a kind of folk-pop cousin to Beirut. A winner, top to bottom.
Highlights: "Give a Little Love," "Five Years Time"
19. Fleet Foxes — Fleet Foxes
Highlights: "Oliver James," "White Winter Hymnal"
20. Cardinology — Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
Highlights:
21. In Ghost Colours — Cut Copy
Highlights: "Feel the Love," "Lights & Music"
22. Attack & Release — The Black Keys
Highlights: "Things Ain't Like They Used To Be," "Strange Times"
23. Mission Control — The Whigs
Highlights: "Right Hand on My Heart," "Need You Need You"
The Best of the Rest
- Keep Your Eyes Ahead — The Helio Sequence
- April — Sun Kil Moon
- Flight of the Conchords — Flight of the Conchords
- The Rhumb Line — Ra Ra Riot
- Gossip in the Grain — Ray LaMontagne
- You & Me — The Walkmen
- She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke — The Dutchess and The Duke
- At Mount Zoomer — Wolf Parade
- With Blasphemy So Heartfelt — Jessica Lea Mayfield
- Santogold — Santogold
- Falling Off the Lavender Bridge — Lightspeed Champion
- Saturnalia — The Gutter Twins
- The Virginia EP — The National
- Evil Urges — My Morning Jacket
- Visiter — Dodos
- Lucky — Nada Surf
- The Seldom Seen Kid — Elbow
- Acid Tongue — Jenny Lewis
- Vampire Weekend — Vampire Weekend
- The Stage Names — Okkervil River
- Oracular Spectacular — MGMT
- The Odd Couple — Gnarls Barkley
- Heretic Pride — The Mountain Goats
- A Mad & Faithful Telling — Devotchka
- Temporary People — Joseph Arthur & The Lonely Astronauts
- Hymns for a Dark Horse — Bowerbirds
- Golden Delicious — Mike Doughty
- Loyalty to Loyalty — Cold War Kids
- The Devil, You + Me — The Notwist
- Viva La Vida — Coldplay
- Microcastle — Deerhunter
- The Lost One — Barton Carroll
- Watch the Sky — Patty Larkin
- Devotion — Beach House
- Do It! — Clinic
- Answers — Ghosty
- Asking for Flowers — Kathleen Edwards
- Only By the Night — Kings of Leon
- Antidotes — Foals
- Searching — Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
- 808s & Heartbreak — Kanye West
- Real Emotional Trash — Stephen Malkmus
- Day & Age — The Killers
Best of 2008: Live Art
posted: 01.01.2009 12:40 PM tags: best of 2008, lists
I saw nearly 100 live performances in 2008. An astonishing number, to say the least. The live art I witnessed was diverse: theater, literary readings, performance art, and of course, concerts and festivals. I went to five this year, and worked another. Some were more exhausting than others, but all were more than worth my while. Here then, with audio and visual accompaniment (thank you, internet), is my list of the best live art of the past year.
Bon Iver, The Tallest Man on Earth
December 12, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
I was quite frustrated to see that Bon Iver had scheduled a Seattle show opposite Bumbershoot. There was just no way I was going to see that show, and so I had resigned myself to not seeing the artist responsible for my favorite album of the year. And then something miraculous happened. After selling out two shows at New York's Town Hall, a third was added in Brooklyn. I had to go. A month after getting tickets, I was there and it was everything I wanted it to be and more. The two artists that dominated my headphones and speakers in 2008 on the same stage on the same night.
Highlights:
The Tallest Man on Earth — "The Gardener" and "These Days" (Jackson Browne cover, featured below)
Bon Iver — "Re:Stacks," "Skinny Love," "Blood Bank," "Your Love" (Outfield cover) and "The Wolves (Acts I & II)" (featured below)
The National
May 24, Sasquatch, The Gorge, George, WA
The show wasn't supposed to happen. Fleet Foxes arrived on the Sasquatch mainstage after Rainn Wilson informed the crowd that The National had border troubles, followed by van troubles, and would not be making their scheduled appearance. But then word got out; the band was arriving, and would be playing the smaller Yeti Stage later in the evening, opposite tour mates Modest Mouse. It was like buying a ticket to see them at the Moore, only to have the show end up at the Showbox. With the sun setting behind them, The National put on one of the best performances I've seen in ages, by a band I wasn't even that excited about up until a few months prior.
Highlights: "Abel," "Secret Meeting" (featured below)
R.E.M.
May 24, Sasquatch, The Gorge, George, WA
As The National played the opening notes of the spectacular "Mr. November," I pulled myself away in order to secure a prime location for the night's headliner, R.E.M. My decision proved prudent; I was ten feet from the stage and managed to stay enough under cover to never get wet, despite the persistent rain that served as the backdrop for one of the best shows I've ever seen from my favorite band. The band has been rejuvenated thanks to their new record, and it was a joy to hear some old songs resurface, like "Harbourcoat," and "Auctioneer."
Highlights: "Harbourcoat," "Let Me In" (featured below)
Iron & Wine
October 5, Bimbo's 365, San Francisco, CA
By a stroke of luck, I was visiting my friend Laura in San Fran the weekend of a free festival at Golden Gate Park. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass featured Iron & Wine, Ben Kweller, Gogol Bordello and a ton of actual bluegrass stars. We didn't see Iron & Wine at the park, for we had tickets to a special benefit show at the intimate Bimbo's, some strange cross between the Triple Door and Showbox, but smaller. Sam Beam was weary yet jovial, and he treated us to an almost miraculous performance. I had in my head the entire day a song of his, and when he played it I almost cried. Well, not really, but it was that good. Listen for yourself.
Highlights: "Prison on Route 41," "Carousel"
Radiohead
August 20, White River Amphitheater, Auburn, WA
We almost didn't get there in time, which of course was my fault. But once we did, Radiohead treated us and thousands of other fans an outstanding show. I've seen them twice now, both at this venue and almost exactly five years apart. I hope it's not that long before I have the chance to see them again. Radiohead are indeed the greatest band in the world right now, taking obtuse lyrics and futuristic instrumentation and crafting accessible and deeply personal songs. It's like magic, really.
Highlights: "All I Need," "Faust Arp" (which they charmingly screwed up, proving they are in fact human), "Reckoner," and "Arpeggi/Weird Fishes" (featured below)
Joseph Arthur, Anna Ternheim
July 22, The Triple Door, Belltown
After years and years of loving his music, but never getting around to one of his shows, I finally got to see Joseph Arthur live. To have it at the intimate confines of the Triple Door proved fortuitous. The notoriously strange Arthur was in good spirits, joking with the audience, "Don't tell [my hometown] Brooklyn… Seattle's pretty great."
Highlights: "Chicago," "Honey and the Moon"
Wolf Parade, Foals, Listening Party
July 14, Neumos, Capitol Hill
I tried to get there late, as I had already seen Foals earlier in the year and been nothing but annoyed by them. Of course I got there during the first opener, which usually spells doom. Except this time it was a revelation. There was this fat bearded man singing his heart out while playing African-inspired rhythms on a drum kit of cymbals, a bucket and some plastic garbage cans. I was won over. And after the second disappointment of Foals, I was won over again. I've never loved Wolf Parade on the whole (mostly because I enjoy Dan Boeckner's stuff more than Spencer Krug's), but boy were they on fire. I cannot remember a crowd so excited for a show in this town in a long time, and the vibe was infectious.
Highlights:
Wolf Parade — "Shine a Light," "You Are a Runner"
Listening Party — "Little Tender Hearts"
Langhorne Slim & The War Eagles
September 1, Bumbershoot, Seattle Center
There are many kinds of great performances. Some are defined by the joy of the crowd. Some are defined by the quality of the music. Others, like Langhorne Slim's Bumbershoot set, are defined by the charisma of the artist. It's hard not to like a performance when you see such unbridled joy on the face of the singer. I've been really diving into Slim's music all year long, so this was one of my most anticipated performances of the year, and it did not disappoint. The dapperly dressed man smiled his way to greatness, and when he sang "I Love You, But Goodbye," a song I had never heard before, it was like greeting an old friend.
Highlights: "Electric Love Letter," "I Love You, But Goodbye" (featured below)
The Avett Brothers
April 12, Neumos, Capitol Hill
This might be a lot higher had we arrived in time to see the full show, and maybe more importantly, secure a spot that wasn't squished up against the wall. But those things cannot dampen the power of North Carolina's own soggy bottom boys. The Avetts are bringing back a kind of musicianship I thought would've been sadly lost by now, but thankfully is not. Appalachian country rock is back and made new and fresh and possibly even better than it ever was thanks to this family affair.
Highlights: "Go to Sleep," "Shame" (featured below)
The Whigs
May 24, Saquatch, The Gorge, George, WA
This Athens, Georgia trio knows how to rock. With an infectious energy and anthem-heavy songwriting, The Whigs put a solid show together every time out. They seemed to follow me around this year, performing at three of my festival stops. Not that it mattered, for I enjoyed their set every time. First impressions stick in your mind though, so this one is the big winner.
Highlights: "Need You Need You," "Right Hand on My Heart" (featured below)
Nada Surf, Port O'Brien
January 30, The Triple Door, Belltown
I've seen Nada a handful of times now, but this was a special treat: an acoustic show in advance of their new album. Ira sat playing a box, and the audience sat enraptured at the quiet beauty of the songs, new and old alike. Opener Port O'Brien I had no knowledge of at the time, but walked out humming a couple tracks. Many months later, the apprentice upstaged the master, for Port O'Brien made my Best Albums list and old favorite Nada Surf did not.
Highlights:
Nada Surf — "See These Bones," "Weightless"
Port O'Brien — "Don't Take My Advice"Cut Copy, The Presets
October 8, The Showbox, Belltown
I was sick, and don't really care for the Presets all that much. If neither of those elements were involved, this show would be a lot higher. Cut Copy on record is a great band, but in person, their anthemic songwriting is even more apparent. Wolf Parade show got the crowd moving at Neumos, but those Montreal boys are no match for Australian dance-pop.
Highlights: "Feel the Love," "Lights & Music" (featured below)
Sondre Lerche
September 1, Bumbershoot, Seattle Center
The final calm before the storm that is Bumbershoot load-out, I had the good fortune to stop and catch the tail end of Sondre's performance at a packed Northwest Court. The ever-charming Norwegian captivated the audience with just a guitar and that inimitable voice, which veers so fluidly between jazzy pop and quirky rock that you hardly notice his endless talent.
Highlights: "Modern Nature," "To Be Surprised" (featured below)
The Flaming Lips
May 26, Sasquatch, The Gorge, George, WA
It's almost unfair to put the Lips on this list. I didn't see the full show, and it didn't matter. I've seen them do the same schtick for years now, and it doesn't matter. Every time they start the show, with Wayne rolling out into the crowd in his giant hamster bubble (this time with the added splendor of emerging from a space ship suspended from the rafters), excitement takes hold. And when the band plays the opening notes of "Race for the Prize," and the confetti starts exploding, it is the highlight of any concert-going year. And really, you can never go wrong with a little public nudity.
Highlights: "Mountainside," "Race for the Prize" (featured below)
Two Gallants
August 31, Bumbershoot Music Lounge, Seattle Center
I went in not knowing what to expect; I didn't even know they were a duo. I just knew I'd probably like it. I walked out loving what I saw. Heartfelt roots rock with blackened edges, told via epic tales of love and loss.
Highlight: "Waves of Grain" (featured below)
Nada Surf, Sea Wolf
March 27, The Showbox, Belltown
Seeing Nada again all electrified was great, and the new songs sounded grander than on the somewhat lackluster Lucky. The real story though was Sea Wolf, a band who I really only knew one song from prior to this show. In fact, I recall listening to their album once and not liking it. But through the power of live music, I've since changed my tune. In a year where my longstanding belief that openers suck was continually proven wrong, Sea Wolf was a fine example of why you shouldn't walk through the door late, or you might miss out on something amazing.
Highlights:
Nada Surf — "Always Love"
Sea Wolf — "You're a Wolf"White Rabbits
May 25, Sasquatch, The Gorge, George, WA
Highlight: "The Plot" (featured below)
Beck
August 30, Bumbershoot, Seattle Center
Highlights: "Gamma Ray," "Hell Yes" (featured below)
Fly Fly Away
posted: 08.10.2008 5:23 PM tags: essay
When I inevitably ask people about their weekends tomorrow, I really hope they ask me about mine. “And what did you do this weekend?” they’ll say. “Oh, nothing really… I cleaned and read and made CDs and watched Six Feet Under and the Olympics,” I’ll tell them, before dropping the announcement of what really consumed my weekend. “Oh and I committed fruit fly genocide.” “What?” they’ll ask, confused. And then I’ll have to explain just why I spent hours on end over the past few days eradicating these tiny, flighty bugs with all manner of tools and the dedication of a serial killer.
That’s what it takes to remove an entire species from the biosphere that is my apartment. I don’t know where they came from (perhaps outside, where insects tend to live?) but I know why they came. A week or so ago I stupidly left an unwashed-out bottle of grapefruit juice on my counter. Days later I was dealing with an influx of these miniscule flies roaming about my kitchen. I spent some time killing them, but obviously I didn’t take them all out, and being as they are, they mated and multiplied exponentially. The covered the corners of my walls, fluttered about the air in no discernible patterns, and generally flummoxed me.
I put on the song “Fruit Fly” by Nada Surf (amazing, isn’t it, how there’s a song for every moment?) and set out to remove them from my life. “There’s No Home For You Here” by the White Stripes rang through my head as I used my makeshift flyswatter (a yellow dish towel) and literally flogged them to death. The ones with the audacity to fly directly into my face met their fates in the palm of my quick hands; though, crafty little devils they are, I often captured them and clenched my fist only to watch them fly out unharmed moments later.
I thought by midweek I had successfully won the battle against these pests of the smallest order, but somehow, Darwin had chosen them to continue to take roost in my kitchen. Though I had discovered (finally) that the grapefruit juice was the drawing card, and had removed all foodstuffs and juices from my kitchen, the little buggers remained. Pearl Jam’s “Bugs” now my soundtrack, it had become clear to me that even Hitler would have problems erasing the existence of fruit flies from my apartment (and yes, I know that sounds insensitive, but that’s why it’s funny). So this weekend, I decided I’d had enough. No more mister nice guy.
I’m pretty sure I’ve taken out upwards of 40 of them in the past two days. I used my trusty dish towel. My bare hands. A couple kills came from a magazine insert I had fashioned into a swatter, though these homicides came at the expense of my kitchen wall, where ink had rubbed off the print and onto the paint, somehow now immovable and un-washable. With each successive murder, I felt closer to the goal of complete annihilation of this species of most unwelcome house guest. And yet they keep coming. Every time I think I’m down to the last of the Mohicans, I discover more fruit flies scurrying on the surfaces of my various kitchen appliances, walls and cupboards. Do they mate when I’m not looking? Do they sense the end of their world and are left to do nothing but have sex? Do fruit flies even mate in the traditional sense? Or do they just duplicate themselves like cells? It sure seems that way.
With each smack of my towel against a hard kitchen surface, I wondered what the neighbors must be thinking. “What is this racket, and at such odd hours?” Worst of all, it doesn’t happen at regular intervals. “Once I’ve started to get used to all that banging, then comes a long period of quiet before it all starts up again!” they would say. Or maybe they don’t even notice. I sometimes wonder if anyone can hear any sounds emitting from my corner apartment. If only they knew I was in here committing mass murder. That might raise some heads.
It’s late afternoon now, and I’ve taken a break from the slaughter. I’d like to believe there are only two or three left buzzing around, but that’s too many. As long as there are two, there’s a chance for twenty. I think they know that. Every time I smack one to its flattened death with my towel, I flick it into the sink, where I will wash it down the drain later. The ceramic basin of my dirty old sink quickly becomes a war-like graveyard, with bodies strewn about waiting for their proper burial. For some reason the rest of the living flies still like to gather around this very location, perhaps to mourn their dead. I am left to wonder about the thoughts of the fruit fly. When they see this giant arm wielding a yellow towel of doom, do they know their time is nigh? Do they make haste with the living (and the reproducing) in the meanwhile?
I seem to recall from some elementary school science class that the life of a fruit fly is something near 24 hours. If that’s the case, what keeps them going? There’s certainly no food left for them here, I’ve made certain of that. I cleaned my sink, washed my dishes, scrubbed my oven top, and removed all signs of sugary, fruity food for them to feast on. For all my efforts to snuff them out, I am left with nothing more than an endless frustration that their existence is something I have no control over. Just about the only good thing that has come out of all this is that it’s help me take my mind off, for a while at least, what really hangs over my head… the end of summer. I’m looking forward to life without these fruit flies, even if right now I can’t quite imagine what that might be like. Life in the months ahead, as summer turns to fall and then winter? Not ready for that, though I have a good idea of how that might be. It resembles life with these stupid bugs in my kitchen—miserable.
New Work: A Run for the Kids
posted: 06.19.2008 8:37 PM tags: design, portfolio, work
My friends Meaghan and Kiah were kind enough to ask me to help advertise a little charity event they put together to help raise money for The Vera Project. Since I can’t say no to a lady (nor a chance to design another poster), I said “yes please!”
Even though they know me well enough to expect the best, I’m thinking they weren’t expecting this. Not too shabby for a day’s work, if I do say so myself. Check out the full size version of the poster and tell me if I’m wrong. It’s no Kleinsmith or Scott Hansen, but I like it all the same.
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