Damn you, log, you’re always in my way.
Apparently Rossi’s hit that thing twice, and he lives here.
The blog has been pretty active this week.
That contest was pretty ridiculous.
Matt won a CD.
I’m surprised he got it—I never would have gotten it.
Fosters?
The place is on Swift and Markham, you know around there?
Yeah—
So—
I need some MF coughdrops.
Apparently this road is going to close tomorrow. Construction. I don’t know what portion. It seems the justifiable portion is this part. They need lights.
They should just close it forever and make it like a pedestrian mall.
That’s not a bad idea at all.
Did Finn’s e-mail say to your recollection that the djembe thing is playing first?
That’s why Jennifer wants to go.
Well, we’ll have to get there at 8 then.
Well, since it’s 7:42.
It’s hot.
[click]
Cough.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Hey, Tropic of Food, what did you do this weekend?
Oh, not much. Got caught up on my Heidegger and went dancing with some surgeons.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Straight to the Heart of Love
The Country Bears wish to extend a warm congratulations to Erie Choir and Audubon Park on their big success. Welcome to the game, homies. Don't backslide into the honey.
Le Weekend of Debuts
To summarize RB's email below, at least the rock show related parts, in addition to the previously mentioned celebration accompanying the release of "Teenage Horses" and "Slighter Awake", this weekend also will host the premiere of Le Weekend, a band featuring EC and AP members, Sweet RB, Bob "anotha brick in da" Wall and Matt "No funny nickname" Kalb as well as Erin Sale and Ben Ridings of Piedmont Charisma, all tutored by this gentleman:
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
from "The Collected E-mail Correspondence of Audubon Park": Chapter CCXLVII--from: RB
Tu me souviens?
I. Audubon Park & Erie Choir Release new full-length Compact Discs. This Friday, November 10, at the Local 506. I mean, we're playing this show, both AP and EC. And Pleasant is also playing. Oh, and so is Viva -- playing records. Mostly significant is just that it'll cost $10 for admission, and admission includes a copy of both these new compact discs -- and being able to watch the show much more closely than if you're out on the street. This way you can see what we're really like. (Q:_____ . A: Celebreality, that's what.) The Erie Choir album has been 'in the works' since 2001, so come with respect. Or... yeah, respect only. The artwork photography captures the essence of one truly forlorn habitat. The album is released by Sean McCrossin's Sit-n-Spin Records (thanks SEAN). Audubon Park's full-length compact disc is released by another local label, Pox World Empire (thanks Zeno, Mark, Maria, Pleasant, Schooner, God). The artwork photography captures one shirtlessly hype man aglow in the presence of all things. Worthwhile lyric-reprinting also included. And secret art. WARNING: I know for a fact that not every song played at the show by either group will be found on the compact discs made available with admission. In other words, please accept our thanks in advance for attending the show, only to be asked to sit through even more self-indulgences, those that you can not 'pause' or 'stop' or 'throw in the garbage' or 'use for a drink coaster,' but ones that you always reserve the right to leave quietly during.
II. WXDU Benefit at the Duke Coffeehouse this Saturday, November 11. The bands are (in the order I presume is last through first to play): Torch Marauder's Grappling Hook, Noncanon, Natasha, Le Weekend, with special guests The Scene of the Crime Rovers. $5. A mouthful, that bill is. Torch has a new band, and I think it's a band type band, like more than him and the television set(s). Noncanon, we just weren't quite sure about the spelling of the name, but Noncanon does seem most clever, so I'll go with that -- this is my next-door-neighbor Rob K on drums and the guy from Mothlight on guitar and singing. I like the band name, that's as much I've got to report on. Natasha will bring the party if you're mood permits. Scene of the Crime Rovers are, I think, a marching type band -- there must be something political about this, right? -- maybe they'll play during a band's set, that'd be cool. But in the key of me is new-band Le Weekend, with Matt Kalb, Bob Wall, Erin Sale, Ben Ridings, and ma'self. It's fun to put "le" in front of any word, but leave that to us. This is a benefit for the Duke Radio station WXDU 88.7. Pour / some / melatonin / on me.
cough cough ______,
rb
DFW: ...Because I liked to read, I probably didn't watch quite as much TV as my friends, but I still got my daily megadose, believe me. And I think it's impossible to spend that many slack-jawed, spittle-chinned, formative hours in front of commercial art without internalizing the idea that one of the main goals of art is simply to "entertain," give people sheer pleasure. Except to what end, this pleasure-giving? Because, of course, TV's "real" agenda is to be "liked," because if you like what you're seeing, you'll stay tuned. TV is completely unabashed about this; it's its sole raison. And sometimes when I look at my own stuff I feel like I absorbed too much of this raison. I'll catch myself thinking up gags or trying formal stunt-pilotry and see that none of this stuff is really in the service of the story itself; it's serving the rather darker purpose of communicating to the reader "Hey! Look at me! Have a look at what a good writer I am! Like me!"
Now, to an extent there's no way to escape this altogether, because an author needs to demonstrate some sort of skill or merit so that the reader will trust her. There's some weird, delicate, I-trust-you-not-to fuck-up-on-me relationship between the reader and writer, and both have to sustain it. But there's an unignorable line between demonstrating skill and charm to gain trust for the story vs. simple showing off. It can become an exercise in trying to get the reader to like and admire you instead of an exercise in creative art. I think TV promulgates the idea that good art is just art which makes people like and depend on the vehicle that brings them the art. This seems like a poisonous lesson for a would-be artist to grow up with. And one consequence is that if the artist is excessively dependent on simply being "liked," so that her true end isn't in the work but in a certain audience's good opinion, she is going to develop a terrific hostility to that audience, simply because she has given all her power away to them. It's the familiar love-hate syndrome of seduction: "I don't really care what it is I say, I care only that you like it. But since your good opinion is the sole arbitrator of my success and worth, you have tremendous power over me, and I fear you and hate you for it." This dynamic isn't exclusive to art. But I often think I can see it in myself and in other young writers, this desperate desire to please coupled with a kind of hostility to the reader.
LM: In your own case, how does this hostility manifest itself?
DFW: Oh, not always, but sometimes in the form of sentences that are syntactically not incorrect but still a real bitch to read. Or bludgeoning the reader with data. Or devoting a lot of energy to creating expectations and then taking pleasure in disappointing them. You can see this clearly in something like Ellis's "American Psycho": it panders shamelessly to the audience's sadism for a while, but by the end it's clear that the sadism's real object is the reader herself.
LM: But at least in the case of "American Psycho" I felt there was something more than just this desire to inflict pain--or that Ellis was being cruel the way you said serious artists need to be willing to be.
DFW: You're just displaying the sort of cynicism that lets readers be manipulated by bad writing. I think it's a kind of black cynicism about today's world that Ellis and certain others depend on for their readership. Look, if the contemporary condition is hopelessly shitty, insipid, materialistic, emotionally retarded, sadomasochistic, and stupid, then I (or any writer) can get away with slapping together stories with characters who are stupid, vapid, emotionally retarded, which is easy, because these sorts of characters require no development. With descriptions that are simply lists of brand-name consumer products. Where stupid people say insipid stuff to each other. If what's always distinguished bad writing--flat characters, a narrative world that's cliched and not recognizably human, etc.--is also a description of today's world, then bad writing becomes an ingenious mimesis of a bad world. If readers simply believe the world is stupid and shallow and mean, then Ellis can write a mean shallow stupid novel that becomes a mordant deadpan commentary on the badness of everything. Look man, we'd probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what's human and magical that still live and glow despite the times' darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it'd find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it. You can defend "Psycho" as being a sort of performative digest of late-eighties social problems, but it's no more than that.
I. Audubon Park & Erie Choir Release new full-length Compact Discs. This Friday, November 10, at the Local 506. I mean, we're playing this show, both AP and EC. And Pleasant is also playing. Oh, and so is Viva -- playing records. Mostly significant is just that it'll cost $10 for admission, and admission includes a copy of both these new compact discs -- and being able to watch the show much more closely than if you're out on the street. This way you can see what we're really like. (Q:_____ . A: Celebreality, that's what.) The Erie Choir album has been 'in the works' since 2001, so come with respect. Or... yeah, respect only. The artwork photography captures the essence of one truly forlorn habitat. The album is released by Sean McCrossin's Sit-n-Spin Records (thanks SEAN). Audubon Park's full-length compact disc is released by another local label, Pox World Empire (thanks Zeno, Mark, Maria, Pleasant, Schooner, God). The artwork photography captures one shirtlessly hype man aglow in the presence of all things. Worthwhile lyric-reprinting also included. And secret art. WARNING: I know for a fact that not every song played at the show by either group will be found on the compact discs made available with admission. In other words, please accept our thanks in advance for attending the show, only to be asked to sit through even more self-indulgences, those that you can not 'pause' or 'stop' or 'throw in the garbage' or 'use for a drink coaster,' but ones that you always reserve the right to leave quietly during.
II. WXDU Benefit at the Duke Coffeehouse this Saturday, November 11. The bands are (in the order I presume is last through first to play): Torch Marauder's Grappling Hook, Noncanon, Natasha, Le Weekend, with special guests The Scene of the Crime Rovers. $5. A mouthful, that bill is. Torch has a new band, and I think it's a band type band, like more than him and the television set(s). Noncanon, we just weren't quite sure about the spelling of the name, but Noncanon does seem most clever, so I'll go with that -- this is my next-door-neighbor Rob K on drums and the guy from Mothlight on guitar and singing. I like the band name, that's as much I've got to report on. Natasha will bring the party if you're mood permits. Scene of the Crime Rovers are, I think, a marching type band -- there must be something political about this, right? -- maybe they'll play during a band's set, that'd be cool. But in the key of me is new-band Le Weekend, with Matt Kalb, Bob Wall, Erin Sale, Ben Ridings, and ma'self. It's fun to put "le" in front of any word, but leave that to us. This is a benefit for the Duke Radio station WXDU 88.7. Pour / some / melatonin / on me.
cough cough ______,
rb
DFW: ...Because I liked to read, I probably didn't watch quite as much TV as my friends, but I still got my daily megadose, believe me. And I think it's impossible to spend that many slack-jawed, spittle-chinned, formative hours in front of commercial art without internalizing the idea that one of the main goals of art is simply to "entertain," give people sheer pleasure. Except to what end, this pleasure-giving? Because, of course, TV's "real" agenda is to be "liked," because if you like what you're seeing, you'll stay tuned. TV is completely unabashed about this; it's its sole raison. And sometimes when I look at my own stuff I feel like I absorbed too much of this raison. I'll catch myself thinking up gags or trying formal stunt-pilotry and see that none of this stuff is really in the service of the story itself; it's serving the rather darker purpose of communicating to the reader "Hey! Look at me! Have a look at what a good writer I am! Like me!"
Now, to an extent there's no way to escape this altogether, because an author needs to demonstrate some sort of skill or merit so that the reader will trust her. There's some weird, delicate, I-trust-you-not-to fuck-up-on-me relationship between the reader and writer, and both have to sustain it. But there's an unignorable line between demonstrating skill and charm to gain trust for the story vs. simple showing off. It can become an exercise in trying to get the reader to like and admire you instead of an exercise in creative art. I think TV promulgates the idea that good art is just art which makes people like and depend on the vehicle that brings them the art. This seems like a poisonous lesson for a would-be artist to grow up with. And one consequence is that if the artist is excessively dependent on simply being "liked," so that her true end isn't in the work but in a certain audience's good opinion, she is going to develop a terrific hostility to that audience, simply because she has given all her power away to them. It's the familiar love-hate syndrome of seduction: "I don't really care what it is I say, I care only that you like it. But since your good opinion is the sole arbitrator of my success and worth, you have tremendous power over me, and I fear you and hate you for it." This dynamic isn't exclusive to art. But I often think I can see it in myself and in other young writers, this desperate desire to please coupled with a kind of hostility to the reader.
LM: In your own case, how does this hostility manifest itself?
DFW: Oh, not always, but sometimes in the form of sentences that are syntactically not incorrect but still a real bitch to read. Or bludgeoning the reader with data. Or devoting a lot of energy to creating expectations and then taking pleasure in disappointing them. You can see this clearly in something like Ellis's "American Psycho": it panders shamelessly to the audience's sadism for a while, but by the end it's clear that the sadism's real object is the reader herself.
LM: But at least in the case of "American Psycho" I felt there was something more than just this desire to inflict pain--or that Ellis was being cruel the way you said serious artists need to be willing to be.
DFW: You're just displaying the sort of cynicism that lets readers be manipulated by bad writing. I think it's a kind of black cynicism about today's world that Ellis and certain others depend on for their readership. Look, if the contemporary condition is hopelessly shitty, insipid, materialistic, emotionally retarded, sadomasochistic, and stupid, then I (or any writer) can get away with slapping together stories with characters who are stupid, vapid, emotionally retarded, which is easy, because these sorts of characters require no development. With descriptions that are simply lists of brand-name consumer products. Where stupid people say insipid stuff to each other. If what's always distinguished bad writing--flat characters, a narrative world that's cliched and not recognizably human, etc.--is also a description of today's world, then bad writing becomes an ingenious mimesis of a bad world. If readers simply believe the world is stupid and shallow and mean, then Ellis can write a mean shallow stupid novel that becomes a mordant deadpan commentary on the badness of everything. Look man, we'd probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what's human and magical that still live and glow despite the times' darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it'd find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it. You can defend "Psycho" as being a sort of performative digest of late-eighties social problems, but it's no more than that.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Monday, November 06, 2006
Friday, November 03, 2006
New Music
Ladies and Rossi--
Three new AP songs--from the forthcoming mega-super-hit LP TEENAGE HORSES--have been posed HERE. We (MWK!) put up our "lead-off single" Despicable Cousin, the power-ballad Sympathy for Youth, and the hype-hop Friday night jam A Plum in Light and Air.
In addition, check out the new songs by Le Weekend--Chapel Hill's next most underrated band--who are having their debut show the night after AP/EC's earth shattering cd release party. I hope there is some music left in the world for them to play. We may use it all up on Friday.
REMEMBER: only one week until the show (11/10). Tell both people you know!
Three new AP songs--from the forthcoming mega-super-hit LP TEENAGE HORSES--have been posed HERE. We (MWK!) put up our "lead-off single" Despicable Cousin, the power-ballad Sympathy for Youth, and the hype-hop Friday night jam A Plum in Light and Air.
In addition, check out the new songs by Le Weekend--Chapel Hill's next most underrated band--who are having their debut show the night after AP/EC's earth shattering cd release party. I hope there is some music left in the world for them to play. We may use it all up on Friday.
REMEMBER: only one week until the show (11/10). Tell both people you know!
Thursday, November 02, 2006
TROPIC OF FOOD CONTEST
We at the Tropic of Food, and by we I mean ME, have authored the contest below in honor of the release of TEENAGE HORSES and SLIGHTER AWAKE. Those two albums stare Janus-like out from the mists of the history of music and bring a terrible judgement on the world. That said, here is the contest. Put your answer in the comments and the first one that is right will get either a copy of the cd or mentioned in a future Audubon Park song (possibly in a negative way). This contest probably isn't open to the members of Audubon Park
You can also listen to Audubon Park songs on our Reverb Nation audio player while you ponder. New songs from the LP will be added as soon as I can get MP3 versions of them and load them up!
Good Luck!
_______________
You can also listen to Audubon Park songs on our Reverb Nation audio player while you ponder. New songs from the LP will be added as soon as I can get MP3 versions of them and load them up!
Good Luck!
_______________
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Coming of HORSES!
Ladies and Mans--
Audubon Park's Debut LP CD will be released on NOVEMBER 10th.
TEENAGE HORSES
The recording will be presented by the Pox World Empire Record Label and will be celebrated that same night by a CD RELEASE PARTY at the Local 506.
IN FACT: that night will also see the release of AP sister band Erie Choir's debut LP
SLIGHTER AWAKE
and also, by paying the $10 admission to the show you get a copy of BOTH long playing debut records free! But also, PLEASANT, local band of some note, and DJ VIVA, person of interest, will be strumming and spinning for you delight.
So Remember theses Specifics (RSS Feed of your mind):
11/10/2006
Local 506
Chapel Hill
AUDUBON PARK
ERIE CHOIR
PLEASANT
DJ VIVA
ERIE CHOIR
PLEASANT
DJ VIVA
$10 and 2 free CDs.
___
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