Different Ways of Seeing

Sam Amidon paying tribute to Papa Jo Jones.

Summer has been really fantastic so far, and it just doesn't stop. A really special show is going to take place tonight at the Lakeshore Theatre, and I'm so excited that I'm financially and physically able to attend. I can't really remember how Sam Amidon's All is Well record made its new-appropriation-of-TRAD-tunes-in-a-digital-world way into our van during the Dosh tour, but it certainly hasn't made its way out of my thoughts ever since. On top of that...


Nico Muhly! What I've heard of Mothertongue is nothing short of incredible and compelling.

Also in show going news... probably don't need to beat this into the ground again but:



LUCKY DRAGONS AT BERRY UMC 8/31

Here's what ArtForum had to say:

"Lucky Dragons... create ecstatic music that completely transcends genres. My attempts to describe what their music actually sounds like always fall short of the magic they are making. I guess you could say it sounds like—ecstatic magic. Challenging stereotypes that electronic music is cold and sterile, Lucky Dragons' live show, though conducted via computers, is a truly great celebration of the human spirit, giving real hope for the techno-future our society is racing toward."

Here's what Lucky Dragons say:

"Lucky dragons shows are about the birthing of new and temporary creatures--creating equal-power situations in which audience members cooperate amongst themselves, to build a fragile network of digital signals connected by touching on the skin. There have been hundreds of these simple yet shifting and unpredictable instances--with audiences ranging from the intense intimacy of one person to the public spectacle of over one thousand people. At the heart of it all is playing together--building up social collectivities, re-engaging the wonder and impossibility of technology and live performance. It sounds--and looks--like simple and ancient patterns coming together and falling apart in a sincere attempt to let wires and screens and words become clear and crystal."

Imagine touching your neighbor and creating a chord via sound transmitted through skin contact. Yes. I'm totally serious. A huddle of humans being thoroughly human. Laughing gently and being entirely curious.

Also performing will be:

1 - Hecuba (fellow L.A. avant-electro-Tom and Jerry enthusiast duo)

2 - Nick Butcher (Chicago's native answering machine manipulator, tape looping mastermind, sound source specialist)

3 - Think/Dance and Younger (Liz Joynt-Sandberg, Megan Cotrell, Ryan Hammer and Matt Joynt constructing a 15-minute movement and sound improvisation).

The details:

Sunday August 31st
Berry UMC 4754 N. Leavitt - Chicago IL
7 PM and 7 dollars

Hope to see many of you there. Please tell your friends and spread the news!

THE UNIVERSE IS FIGHTING AGAINST YOU

More killer, less filler.

(filler, of course, to resume again tomorrow).

But seriously.... SERIOUSLY.... did I just completely miss out on the news that we had a music video? And I'm not talking about the one coming. I'm talking... like, it exists. Right now. It was almost disorienting to watch (!) because I had no idea this thing was living and breathing somewhere out in the world.

Here, take a look:


Entropy Music Video from Stephen McKinney on Vimeo.

WOW, right? If I didn't need to be jumping on a bus right now, I would have lots more to write. Tomorrow, perhaps. But if you have the time tonight, maybe drop a note to Stephen McKinney? Tell him he's fantastic.

What a genuinely nice surprise. Those aren't even the right words. I think I'll stop here... but thank you. Hopefully that makes sense.

I LOOK OUT MY WINDOWS ALL DAY LONG AND MOVE TO THE RHYTHM OF THE SUN

More earthships! In a slightly more palatable video... courtesy of the Weather Channel.



And that would be some Weather Channel music... again, courtesy of the Weather Channel.

A toe tapper, for sure!

SUNDAY MORNING FREE WRITE

Why not?

So I've been working this past week making phone calls for the Nevada Media Directory and I get to wear one of these all day:



It hasn't been bad - I think I've talked to nearly every newspaper, radio, and television station in the great Sagebrush State. The only problem is that I can't get my back to relax once I get out of work. Aches and pains! Which sounds ridiculous. Slightly old-manish. But around hour five of calling, I realize... like, I'm not stressed on the phone. I think I sound nice. Warm and amiable. Secretaries love me. But I'm constantly alert and I think my body stays tense for pretty much the entire day.

Why am I telling you this? Because I had a plan for this weekend - move some boxes for money on Saturday, get a bottle of wine afterwards and watch some Joe Biden youtube clips. Go to bed EARLY. Wake up LATE. And that's not Old Man Wallin talking. I'm determined that that was a pretty 26 year old thing to do.

Look, here... Joe Biden makes Rudy his punching bag:





Just add wine!

But yes... move some boxes. CHECK.
Me and Joe? CHECK.
In bed by eleven? CHECK.

A cat howling outside my window at 5 AM? CHECK.
Three dudes across the street howling at each other at 6 AM? CHECK.

"Naw listen, I played with ANTWAAN RANDLE EL."

"Randle-El??"

"I'm tellin ya, I played with RANDLE EL. ANTWAAN RANDLE EL. Him and his brother."

"Antwaan Randle El?"

"I'm tellin ya, it's the truth."


We fly high no lie you know this... BALLIN!

So here I am... I decided it was SMFW time (the inaugural) and I still have an hour to go until I have to leave for the Threadless Fantasy Football Draft. My back loses (re-reading this, I'm not exactly sure why getting a lot of sleep was the cure) and my eight hour sleep cycle was destroyed... but you!! You've won!! Or particularly, the blog has won. And if the blog wins, we all win.

Very quickly:

You already know this because I took a week to put it up but Andrew Dost is BACK IN STYLE. Not that he ever left! But Spin.com is saying it's so (!) and in case you did miss it, it's nothing but Fun for The Format's Nate Ruess, Steel Train's Jack Antonoff, and our very own Anathallo alumnus.



Just absolutely great news... the three time-travellers are throwing it down Dog Days of Summer Dream Team Style.



I couldn't be happier. And if my name was Joe Biden, I'd toss a "literally" on top of that. Literally, I would.

(that's really enough politics, right?)

(literally)

But to be heartfelt for a second - Jack and Nate are really, really lucky. And I can't wait to see them all swing through Chicago this fall.

Old college roommate news? CHECK.

New actor roommate news? You bet!


I'm in Love with a Nun from Ron Eltanal on Vimeo.

That's Peter Oyloe and he lives upstairs from me. Pretty sweet trailer, right?? Not sure how the thing is being released but here's hoping for "online" and "soon!"

***if that video isn't working, definitely click here.

Finally.

Finally finally. And this is what made me want to post in the first place. If you've spaced out somewhere between Antwaan Randle El and LeBron fixing Kobe's tie... well, this is why you kept scrolling down.

Okay, wait - no. Skip this, too:



Morgan Freeman, Michael Phelps, and Visa. I looked back at my last post and decided there was nothing else to add to "one of the single greatest accomplishments in species history." I think I read that somewhere so I'll put it in quotes and attribute it to TRUTH. And I really don't see why anyone can complain about Usain Bolt celebrating mid-race IF HE STILL RAN AND FINISHED FASTER THAN ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS EVER STEPPED FOOT ON PLANET EARTH.

Okay. Rant over. And back to what I was first typing. The reason I started writing today in the first place:

Earthships.

I can't decide if I should just post the videos or give some sort of half explanation. It's as if the makers decided "you know what, forget heaven on earth... let's make TATOOINE on earth."





These exist today. And I know - Mom and Dad - because you would read this far. It's not every parent's dream to read their son typing out "how sweet would it be to live off the grid in a passive solar home made of natural and recycled material including tires and coke bottles."

But how sweet would it be to live off the grid in a passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials including tires and coke bottles??

I'm saying way sweet. And really, they couldn't have chosen a better name.

Kudos to you, earthship builders. Tell Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru I'm coming home.

PEACE!

Happy birthday

To this guy.

Blu

Yes, this video is 7 minutes, 26 seconds. "Is it worth my time?" you ask. I reply, "yes, my friend, very much so." Watch and be amazed.

YOU BLOG WHAT YOU KNOW

The television at my apartment only gets three channels. Which! Well, that's not such a bad thing. Most everything I would want to catch up with is either on HULU (do you hulu?) or is called LOST. If you can't guess, there's not really a reason for me and my roommates to plant ourselves on the couch at night.

Except lately.... well, there's been this guy:



I LOVE Michael Phelps. I love hearing Bob Costas talk about him. I turn up the volume for the Morgan Freeman commercials. I want to give his Mom a hug after each race. I want to hug Cris Collinsworth after HE gets to hug Michael Phelps' Mom after each race. His gold medals even made me forget about the US Men's Gymnastics team...

...but look, just because you're the underdog doesn't mean you get to:

(1) start every sentence with "yeah!"
(2) end every sentence with "baby!"
(3) look up from your huddled speeches every ten seconds to see if the camera is still rolling (see 1 and 2)
(4) I could go on but I'm re-reading this and it makes me sound cranky and I'd like to think it's because I've been sick all week and heavily medicated at the moment but right!... if you watched it, you know what I'm talking about. And kudos to you anyways, bronze medal winners! Even you, RAJ.

If you haven't been watching, you have no idea what I'm typing about right now. My apologies.

Back to our guy:



I just - there's nothing much to add. He's the greatest Olympian of our lifetime (anyone's lifetime?). He still has the chance to win eight gold medals this year. And it's happening right now! Even his eating habits are legend. Since our boy Phelps swims 50 miles every week, doctors have put him on a 10,000 calorie diet.

In video form:


In pictures:

Three of these.

A five egg omelet.

One bowl of grits.

Three slices.

Three Chocolate Chip Pancakes.

A pound of this.

Two more of these.

1,000 calories of this.

A whole pizza.

Another pound of pasta.

Another 1,000 calories of these.


EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Every day!!!!!!!!!

To recap:
Michael Phelps is great.
He eats a lot of food.
Yeah!
Baby!
It's hard to just jump back and write without it feeling slightly off.
Please bear with.

Canopy Glow news coming soon!...
...and it's good news.

Lucky Dragons @ Berry UMC - AUG 31st

So - I've put together this show that is going to be pretty incredible. Since my exposure to their music at SXSW in March, I've been on a Lucky Dragons rampage. After the first performance that I saw, I called (literally) anyone that I would think of to tell them about this incredibly life-affirming experience. I felt so full of joy and love for humanity that I wanted to spread it around as quickly and furiously as possible! Please, if you do any one thing for yourself, be at this show.

I almost don't want to include this teaser video - stumbling in blind is definitely my preferred method of entry, but I also can't help myself! Mad scientist!



August 31st
Berry UMC (4754 N. Leavitt, Chicago IL)
7 PM 7 Dollars

Lucky Dragons
Hecuba
Nick Butcher
Younger

Both Nick and Younger (Ryan and I) will be playing 15 minute sets.

Should we do some sort of a back to school potluck celebration with this?

CATS, BAGS, AND PUPPIES

From the comments:

"I know I know, you're in a successful band and have families and friends and meals to eat but wayyy in the beginning of this blog, you said it was like your puppy and you'll feed it whatever. Now you are not even feeding it!

You're killing a puppy... And I pinky promise you don't want that on conscience."

No, no we don't.

This showed up in my inbox today. Interesting.

I've been thinking about it - this being our blog's one year anniversary (YES, THAT'S RIGHT) - and we've shared a lot, haven't we? This thing wouldn't be alive without You-Me-Go's steady caretakers... and for our second year, I hope to reign in my uneven tendencies. The pronounced comebacks, the puzzling disappearances. Matt and Dan do it right and this is me rejoining the team.



Okay, I give myself three weeks.

BUT! There will be some news coming soon (I'm sure you can guess), tours to announce, and we'll see if we can't come up with an awful photo shop contest or two.

Hey you all.