Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
Pakistan still needs our help. And Oxfam is a great organization helping out. More info on all they’ve done in Pakistan so far over here. If you’ve thought about it, but haven’t donated yet, now’s the time to send your support.
The latest estimates indicate that 20 million people have been affected by the floods, which have swept away or damaged 1.2 million houses. Rushing water has also destroyed roads, bridges, and supplies of food and clean water. The death toll is now thought to be 1,539 people, and 2,055 have been reported injured.
Oxfam and our partners have launched a rapid-relief effort to reach more than one million people with essential aid. Despite major damage to the region’s transportation and communication systems, we are installing latrines and water-storage tanks and delivering clean water by truck to prevent deadly waterborne diseases from sweeping through communities of displaced people.
Text OXFAM to 25383 to donate $10 to @oxfamamerica’s flood relief and recovery efforts in #Pakistan.
Donate to @OxfamAmerica’s flood relief efforts in #Pakistan. $20 will buy a hygiene kit for a family.
http://bit.ly/PakistanRelief17.2 million people affected by the #Pakistan floods, TWICE the population of L.A. Donate to @OxfamAmerica at http://bit.ly/PakistanRelief
#Pakistan #flood victims > ‘05 Pakistan earthquakes, ‘04 tsunami & ‘09 Haiti earthquake victims combined. http://bit.ly/PakistanRelief
Since many of you know me by these blog scribblings or the scribblings of customer service emails here at Greenleaf, you might not know that I am was a smoker. In fact, for one of my first jobs at the label I was carted off to sell CDs on a Keystone tour in Europe (lucky me, huh?) where a couple of the dudes nicknamed me Jimney (ref. Chimney) because of my smoking habit. But I recently got engaged, and now I’m trying to get a little healthier — not eating as many Chicago hot dogs per day, riding my bike to drop off orders to the post office, and the big one, quitting smoking.
Quitting smoking has been tough. I can’t even definitively say that I’ve quit, because I’ve broken down and bummed a cigarette more times than I can count on two hands in the last month. But one of the things that has helped cut down 90% of my smoking has been this electronic cigarette I bought on a whim. Here is a short video from YouTube if you haven’t seen one.
Basically, it works just like a normal cigarette. You suck in, the end lights up, you inhale the vapor, get your nicotine (some vapor is nicotine-less), and then you blow out the vapor. It’s pretty realistic. Moreso than a patch or a piece of gum anyway.
I’ve realized that there were cigarettes that I wanted, and then ones that I needed. The needed made up most of my habit — the ones I didn’t think about, didn’t enjoy, but smoked mindlessly. Those cigarettes (with my coffee, after my coffee, morning break, before lunch, after lunch, in traffic, etc etc etc), I’ve successfully replaced with this mechanism.
The FDA hasn’t approved any of these mechanisms to be “safer than cigarettes,” FYI. Don’t know what the hold up is, but to me it seems like a no-brainer here (even if they’re bad for you, they can’t be as bad).
Like I said, I’ve broken down a number of times — after gigs seems to be the hardest time for me — so the e-cig isn’t a smokeless messiah. In the end, I know that this is temporary and that I need to quit 100%. But, as demeaning as it is for me, for now I’m content smoking this laser-pointer. For anyone who has smoked for as long as I have, this may be the replacement that helps you kick the habit. If so, good luck. All of us need it.
Happy vaping.
Apparently it’s the “IN” thing this year to do a project involving the Frankenstein story. We’re rolling out Dave and Bill Morrison’s reinterpretation of it, and now Conan O’Brien is releasing a 7″ with his.
via TwentyFourBit: We knew that a live album wasn’t the only recording Jack White and Conan O’Brien put to tape back in June, and now the latest release from Team Coco-White has been unveiled: “And They Call Me Mad?,” an “improvised take on the Frankenstein legend” by the former Tonight Show/Late Night host, is now available for pre-order at Third Man Records and will ship out next week.
Seems vinyl is the preferred release method for a lot of folks too. Good thing we pressed a few.
After reading a few reviews and seeing some pics of the Wilco-curated festival out east, I realize now that I should have hunkered down and driven out. Ah well. Hope there’s a next year, guys!
Check out the NY Times write-up for a good overview of what went down.
I happened on Lurie’s music in college when I heard his soundtrack work in Jarmusch films. Maybe that’s backwards since Lounge Lizards is most of the time the first band that people mention when you say John Lurie. But those stark string quartets, and Moondog-esque urban-americana on Stranger Than Paradise, African Swim/Manny & Lo (my favorite), Down By Law, and the Fishing with John series stand as some of my favorite music.
So this week’s New Yorker magazine article was full of welcomed information on Lurie and his absence from new music. Titled Sleeping With Weapons; subtitled: Why John Lurie Disappeared. Link to article (need user/pass to read in full).
Besides a few sections relating to how he started the Lounge Lizards, his roots of playing in the East Village, and such, most of the article focuses on his health conditions and a rift between him and a one-time friend that has sent Lurie away from New York for a long time. It’s a wild story, full of hilarious quotes, sad and startling details, and two sides of a story of which you never know who is bending the facts more.
Luckily, Lurie has been painting recently. But the absence of his music from today’s scene–something he seems less interested in revisiting–is a serious loss in my opinion. Here’s hoping he can find that writer’s streak in him again. It’s most assuredly still there.
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Oh, and here’s a Justin Bieber song slowed down 800%.
J. BIEBZ – U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis
Way better that way me thinks.
I always love following along with visual charts like this. Wish that iTunes would have something like this for a visualizer option for new music compositions. Maybe a more nerdy software will come to be with charts accompanying the music.
Hat tip to Crooks and Liars for pointing us to this great vid.
Plenty more on the Tube. Been digging this playlist from the user d21d34c55.
Stephen Byram gets props for his classic work.
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Designed Beastie Boys cover, and more
Stephen Byram is a lot more than an artist of CD covers, but the graphic designer has created work for some well known acts. He crafted the covers for the Beastie Boys’ “Licensed to Ill,” Slayer’s “Reign in Blood,” and first two Living Colour records.
Byram…is one of four local New Jersey artists who were featured at Suckerpunch Art Gallery, a new gallery space that opened last month in the Chambord factory building in the industrial southwest area of Hoboken. Suckerpunch, run by Wayne Martine and Mark Rosenthal.
For the opening, Byram had a freestanding construction, a large painting, a color print, and a set of 20 drawings arranged in a grid on display.
Steve pretty much defined the look of JMT and Winter & Winter releases. He’s also done amazing things at Tim Berne’s label, Screwgun. I first started working with Steve on ‘In Our Lifetime,’ for New World Records. He has created some record designs for us here at Greenleaf, too.
Congrats on the show, Steve.
I was out of town last weekend camping, so I missed most of Record Store Day. But I did manage to get home for the Liam Hayes performance at Reckless Records here in Chicago which was great. Unfortunately, though, I missed out on most of the sweet RSD exclusives. I was able to pick up the Heart Of Gold/Sugar Mountain 7″, but missed out on the John Fahey LP reissue (only 500 copies pressed! c’mon guys!) But it seemed like there are more and more people combing through the racks of LPs, even on non-RSD weekends.
On Twitter yesterday, there were a bunch of folks pointing to numbers that emerged regarding sales per format and how well this RSD did.
From Billboard:
According to Street Pulse, comparing Record Store Day 2010 to RSD 2009 showed an increase of overall sales by 135.4%.
Here was their breakdown:
All Music + 135.4%
Vinyl + 376.7%
CD + 40.4%
Video – 38.6%
Merch + 28.5%Also, and this is an interesting fact, according to Nielsen Soundscan, Record Store Day 2010 was the biggest day of sales for vinyl in Soundscan’s history. This is definitely good news for vinyl record, and turntable, manufacturers.
Couldn’t be happier about the bolded text. Maybe with more buyers, new LP costs will start coming down a bit. And maybe GLM might even jump into that marketplace.
So congrats to everyone who was involved for delivering on what should be, in my view, a major national holiday… or simply an everyday holiday.
Some amazing images by Marco Fusinato at ButDoesItFloat in a post titled Is there a connection between sound, vibrations and physical reality?
I subscribe to a few tech blog feeds and a lot of my friends I’m linked to via Google Reader have similar interests. There’s an endless supply new devices, apps, and games announced almost daily. Such an exciting time for tech lovers. And specifically for musician tech lovers.
Here is new take on the Tetris model called Chime. This one uses not only a point reward system, but also a musical reward…
It’s exciting to see how people are shaping how consumers access and interact with music today. Gives me a lot of inspiration.
