markosis

I think Curtis Mayfield's "Keep on Keeping on" has the best opening a song can have.

"everybody gather 'round and listen to my song..."

My first Hemingway experience. Pretty enticing.

I know lots of us dug the Horse Feathers record, but no big time outlets really are giving them props. Which is a shame, because it is the album that has gotten easily the most plays of all the new albums I purchased. Nouns put me to sleep, and I burned out on Fleet Foxes, but Horse Feathers keeps going back in the cd player.

Yeah, I came off I-81 and went through Roanoke to get to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

great photos there, how long was the trip?

 

Also like how you kept all you beer cans from the trip and stacked them against the wall !

The trip lasted 6 days. I could have done it in 5, but then I wouldn't have met Wendy in Maryland, and she was a really awesome host. It was good to take my time and see some things, anyway.

I'll tell you, that guy was crazy about his cans! No cans made after 1975, no aluminum cans, domestics on one wall, imports on the other, all in alphabetical order. There was even a can of Wilco beer (I kid you not) but the picture came out very poorly.

A little history:

I'm from New Jersey. This past June I moved to Los Angeles. Not much later I landed an internship with the New Hampshire Conservation Corps that starts in January, so I decided to move back east. The trip was pretty amazing. I'm sure some of you may know of the website couchsurfing.com. If you are a serious traveler, go and check it out now. Go. Its a networking site where travelers can find places to stay in people's homes (that's not a very good description.) I lined up a bunch of houses across the country for my latest trek. It was an amazing experience. It seems this couchsurfing thing has become quite a community, and its great. I was treated like a friend by total strangers who put me up in their homes for the night. It really gave me a whole new faith in the goodness of people. Anyway, here's some pics I shot along the way. I hope you all enjoy them.

-Marko

My take: The Satriani song is by no means any kind of stretch of imagination regarding harmony or melody. Its pretty standard stuff. Its entirely possible for somebody else to stumble upon that combination of chords/melody because its very rudimentary. I could see if someone came out with something that was so close to, say, a Thelonious Monk or Ornette Coleman composition, there would be no question it was a ripoff because with those artists there was an expansion of harmony at work in their music; it took a little more than an exercise in major scales, which, at face value, is pretty much what the Coldplay and Satriani songs are.

Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben - Gil e Jorge

Wow.

Through My Sails - Neil Young

I had a small dinner, a little turkey, some stuffing, some grn. bean stuff and some mashed taters. And about 5 glasses of wine. I was pretty proud of myself, until dessert when I had 4 pieces of pie. Then I came home and worked out HARD for about 20 minutes and damn near gave myself a heart attack. I'm thinking I'm gonna jog 4 miles tomorrow morning as opposed to my usual 3 miles.

I've been reading my arse off for past few weeks.

Damn, I wish I knew.

Mr. T Cereal. I never ate it, I hear it was like a Captain Crunch-type of cereal. It is featured prominently in one of my favorite scenes from "PeeWee's Big Adventure."

Good morning Mr. Breakfast!

I've been all over these latey:

Haven't been drinking too much beer here on the west coast. They got this stuff over here, and for a cheap beer its smooth and tasty:

lost in fog and love and faithless fear

i've had kisses that make judas seem sincere

$2.59 in DC. It has been dropping by 10 and 20 cents a day. It hasn't been this cheep in over 2 years. I had a theory: prices would drop continually during the last month of the campaign season. If Obama wins they will flatline, if McCain wins, they will rise again, rapidly. I also have a theory about the stock market, but will keep that one to myself.

Well, prices did decline a good deal back in 2006 before the mid-term elections as well. Interesting stuff.

$2.65 in SoCal

department of eagles - floating on the lehigh actually pretty much this whole cd

Yeah, I'm kind of stuck on that song right now myself, and

"Naked As We Came" - Iron and Wine

"Cinder And Smoke" - Iron and Wine

Easy Beat was quite enigmatic and mind blowing for me at the time. The others, while they are great records, haven't really touched that level of inventiveness. I think they got kind of safe after that record, not as much spontaniety and experimentation.

I love Planet Waves.

this one's a grower, and its grown on me considerably

I like it, don't love it. I had great expectations as they are one of my absolute favorite bands, so I'll need to give it more time. I think there's some tracks that really stand out, and some that kind of blend in. Its a good listen, overall.

A while back Thile and his band at the time did a version of The Band's "Ophelia" which was pretty kick arse.

Oh, and that cover of "Poor Places" is awesome.