Your browser (Internet Explorer 7 or lower) is out of date. It has known security flaws and may not display all features of this and other websites. Learn how to update your browser.
While researching the phrase “no holds barred” for my constantly evolving bio on the About Page, I discovered this AMAZING movie poster.
I cannot decide what is the awesomest part of this whole thing. The color? the Type? the Subtitle?
It might be the guy in the neckbrace or the kid who’s turned around not paying any attention at all..
Oh man.. so many wonderful things captured in a single poster!
Today’s CollabFriday “What should I draw” is a combination of ideas from Adam & Chelsea. Who suggested Ron Swanson and a gorilla, respectively.
Made perfect sense as far as I’m concerned.
iPad, iPhone, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
Each week I like to randomly collaborate with whoever is willing. Fridays will rotate reader suggestions (i.e. “What should I draw today”), spontaneous collabs via Twitter w/fellow artists/photogs/illustrators (“who wants to collaborate today), and artist interviews. Follow on Twitter and Facebook so you can participate next Friday!
First Aid Kit follow fellow Swedish folk torch-bearer The Tallest Man on Earth in another wonderful effort that proves Americana is no longer strictly American. With a simple and old sound in the vein of Fleet Foxes, The Lion’s Roar has been (and will continue to be) in steady rotation around here at least until the sunshine returns (sometime mid-June if we’re lucky)
Lyrically it is what you’d expect from a folk record, simply stated and to the point. In typical “ol boy” fashion the two say what needs to be said and get on with it. “New Year’s Eve” makes some really respectable resolutions. The kind that go beyond cigarettes and weight loss and into really important territory like fear, world-view, innocence and the kind of self-honesty that only comes with the daredevil courage these types of goals require. You can listen along on Strong Odors Spotify playlist.
Took a stroll around the neighborhood where the trees are swaying.
People passed in cars with their windows down, with a pop song playing.
A man walked by, walking back and forth the street with a drunken smile to go along.
He stopped to look at me and say, “Child, don’t fear doing things wrong.”
Yet I am still afraid
but if anything
That’s what’s going to save me
One of my favorite questions over the past couple decades has been that of free will.
The matter-of-fact “free will is a gift from God” that I was fed in Sunday school was based on the premise that if man didn’t have a will to choose, then we’d all be robots and God loves us too much to have made us robots.
Honestly I’m not sure where all the animosity toward robots came from.
I’m pretty sure it had something to do with it being the early 1980s and robots were currently stealing all the jobs that once belonged to hard-working Michiganders. (Probably how the robots now feel about the Chinese, I guess.)
Yesterday I posted a few thoughts on Bill Ryder-Jones’s new album If… and honestly since then I’ve listened to it at least 3 times. I was so excited when Bill agreed to do this little interview because based on the integrity of his work i guessed that if nothing else, he’d be honest.
And honesty is really what I’m hoping for in each of these interviews.
I’ve never had an interview I’ve wanted so badly to pick apart and analyze. Bill submitted his responses so quickly and with such candor that I can’t imagine he invested too much of his own time on this, yet he manages to express several thoughts I find entirely compelling.
Amazing snowboarding photography by Jacob Sutton filming William Hughes on the night slopes of the Rhône-Alpes in an L.E.D. suit.
Find out more on Nowness.
A concept soundtrack album accompanying the screenplay never written on a book about reading a book.
Turned off yet?
Don’t let the description or the first listen scare you away. If… is an absolutely beautiful album spanning genres from classical to psychadelic and folk and has taken up about 70% of my listening time for the past few weeks.
Ryder-Jones marvelously incorporates the Liverpool Philharmonic through a variety of perfectly minimal string-laden arrangements interspersed with the type of subdued folk rock on which I typically rely to get me through a long Michigan winter.
While magically painting the subconscious post-war European themes, this soundtrack plays just as easily with the monochromatic view out my February window.
What I really love about it is that although it’s melancholy it isn’t stagnant. The music moves more like a river than a pond and its movement avoids the error of anti-climax that is all too common in quiet music.
This record gets there, but you have to take your time.
If you need instant gratification from new music you won’t find it here… Like most great albums it takes an ample investment on the part of the listener. Give it four or five plays all the way through and you’ll soon find it difficult to find anything else as satisfying.
Listen to Bill Ryder-Jones and all other music featured here when you subscribe to the Strong Odors playlist on Spotify
