future islands on letterman

so happy that a band as soulful, strange and wonderful as future islands has made a splash in the mainstream - they deserve every human eyeball and every splice of attention span they get.

the song that really made me fall in love with future islands was TIN MAN watch HERE when came across them in 2011 along with a few other bands (such as mutemath and their album ODD SOUL - actually, come to think of it, I'd alternate endlessly between ODD SOUL and Future Island's In Evening Air - the albums went so well together)

By the way, a slight detour ON the topic of 2011, my brain always comes back to: WHY was that such a great year for music??? were people trying to crank out their magnum opuses (opi?) before the then-pending apocalypse? keine ahnung. future islands' growly charm wasn't for everyone - in fact I tried recommending the album to several friends who said they 'couldn't get past the weird vocals' - their loss, really, - that was

now FF to the present: last week I came across future islands letterman performance (hard to avoid since a co-worker asked me if I knew who they were) I'd only ever seen still photos of the band but never video so was overjoyed when I finally watched it ( as usual, about 3 weeks after the rest of the internet)- it is a romantic, genuine triumph one is unlikely to see online or anywhere for that matter- something to both make you dance and/or bring you to tears...
Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting On You) [Live... BUT just in case that link disappears here is a link to the youtube video minus the Letterman intro FULL ALBUM 'SINGLES' IS STREAMING on the 4AD site HERE and how Kerouac-Brando is the singer, Samuel Herring? Besides the obvious comparisons, a commenter on the Letterman video calls him: the "love-child of Buster Poindexter and Robbie Williams" (hilarious for personal reasons because I ONLY know of Buster Poindexter from his appearance on the Jim Henson Hour when I was 9 years old), future islands on letterman; future islands discography, future islands singer, Samuel Herring

Oso Seattle Mudslide and the process of liquefaction

My Geology Professor in Seattle was inclined to warn us in great detail about the dangers and hazards of the Pasific Northwest coastal landscape, one of those being liquefaction.  Basically, he recommended that before you build a house or even buy lland you should have a geologist survey it to be sure your bacyard won't eventually end up in your livingroom OR - worse - your town gets buried alive when the getound gets so saturated with rainfall that ir just simply turns into liquid and sloshes over anything in its path... 

pretty terrifying.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023215066_mudslidemondayxml.html

and here is  State Geologist Dave Norman discussing the science behind the disaster:

http://seattletimes.com/flatpages/video/mediacenterbc3.html?bctid=3387727468001

Vivienne Westwood's opinion on what passes for Art (from a 2012 interview in I-D magazine)

And I thought I was critical...

used uNiVERse / noTHing MODeRn courtesy of NGO Berlin at chromoos art festival, das Moosdorf Berlin by Moosdorf Korrektiv

I accidentally sumbled upon this little gem my cousin Nigel sent me back in 2007 in an email shortly after I had moved to Berlin:

"Joseph Conrad once wrote that his purpose as a novelist was simply "to make you see." According to Viktor Shklovsky -- the influential Russian formalist critic of the 1920s and '30s -- our daily, automatic routines leach all the freshness from existence, so that we no longer experience the wonder of the people and life around us. Art's purpose, consequently, is to "defamiliarize" the familiar, to shake up our dulled perceptions, to reinvest the dingy, gray and arthritic universe with richness, color, vitality."

Michael Dirda, THE WASHINGTON POST Book Review 2.3.2007" 

on that note it is with great pleasure that I announce my participation in the CHROMoos Art Festival at Das Moosdorf, Berlin. 

website: www.dasmoosdorf.com

it is going to be incredible. 

Opening April 5&6, 2014

GAME ON!

used uNiVERse / noTHing MODeRn courtesy of NGO Berlin at chromoos art festival, das Moosdorf Berlin by Moosdorf Korrektiv