A Guide to Lucidity

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Lucid dreams can be rewarding and memorable moments for many, its where you can be immersed consciously into your dreams. They can be insight to the deepest parts of your mind, and overtime can be a true tool in solving daily problems. For me, lucidity opens doors in my conscious meditation and lifestyle. Recently, I’ve been encouraging friends, family, and even the occasional stranger tricks to use when attempting lucidity.

The first step for most people is compiling some sort of dream journal. The most ‘conservative’ method would be to write down everything you remember from your dreams as soon as you wake up. If nothing comes to mind, write down how you feel, or what’s going through your head when you wake up, i.e. songs, stress, or feelings for someone. The important thing is you write something down, the things you’re thinking about when you wake up, are the things your unconscious was just thinking about. Get used to being frustrated your first few weeks or even months with a lack of dreams to write down. It is just important to start seeing the patterns in your unconscious, it is the part of the brain we know the least about. A more ‘liberal’ method would be to express the emotions of your dreams every day in artwork or words. This is a tool used by more practiced dreamers and can be beneficial to both artistic and dream world.

The dream journal will help you start dreaming, more and more vividly. Eventually dreams will be recalled multiple nights a week, and you should start feeling patterns between this world and your dream world. The next step is connecting these patterns and realizing when you’re dreaming. Interestingly enough, enlightenment in Hindu belief is very similar to this. In this world, Maya, the illusion, prevents us from seeing what is really true. When the illusion is lifted, your consciousness ascends into Brahman (or nirvana), it is the equivalent of waking from an immerse dream. Lucidity is removing the illusion of the dream world, except the trick is staying asleep. There are many suggestions on how to reach this goal. I’m breaking them into three different groups, waking, dreaming, and immersion.

The first group is for your waking life. These are things to practice while you are living a regular day, to make habit of, and to make a pattern in your life. If you can develop a pattern in your consciousness, than it will translate into your unconsciousness and you will attempt to follow your habit asleep. However, if it is a pattern that is impossible to do in your dream, than you will realize you are dreaming when you can’t complete the pattern. A great example of this is pinching your nose and attempting to breathe out through it. When awake, you wont be able to, but when you’re dreaming, you’ll breathe out just fine because your hand wont really be pinching your nose. Turning the lights on and off every time your enter or leave a room is another one of my favorites. You can’t change lighting in dreams because light is an exterior input (meaning you can’t change the lighting in the room your sleeping in), when you flip the light switch in your dream, you’ll realize you’re dreaming. The last trick  is to check out your hands every once in awhile, make sure they are yours, when people dream, they dissociate from themselves and see other’s hands.

You can and should develop your own patterns and habits. Look back into your dream journal for patterns that already exist in your dream world. This brings up the second group of tricks to reach lucidity, the dream world tricks. This is surprisingly like the dream world methods. For most, these are much more personal patterns in dreams, like people or daily activities. For example, an adult who still dreams about missing tests or forgetting to study for a midterm will train themselves to look for this pattern and realize they’re dreaming. Another example would be seeing someone you have or had a crush on repeatedly in a dream. Creating and modifying these patterns will help maintain lucid dreams night after night.

The biggest difference between these two categories is the focus. patterns in dreams usually have to do with interior motives and situations. Whereas patterns in waking life are created by the dreamer to help reach lucidity. Another way of looking at this would be that your conscious mind is creating patterns while you are awake, and your unconscious mind is creating patterns while you are asleep. The final set of tricks is breaching the gap between the two worlds, immersion. The only time to practice these methods is before you fall asleep. Most of us are thinking up some tangled web of thoughts before we doze off. Lucid dreaming successfully doesn’t always require this step, but it has helped most people I’ve talked to. Just like dreaming tricks, these methods can be very personal; I’ll give two examples that I use from the many I use and have created.

I always begin with focusing on my breathing. In with the good of the day, and the good to come, and out with the all the bad stuff that I’ve been worrying about. This helps focus the brain on the goal at task. After I feel relaxed I begin thinking of a wall. A wall that stretches forever in both directions. I picture myself facing the wall, about two or three blocks from where I’m standing. On the side of the wall I’m on, I picture the conscious (waking) world. On the other side of the wall is the unconscious (dream) world. I walk towards the wall, counting steps, focusing on the goal. However the wall never gets closer because I’m still conscious. The hardest step is to let yourself get tired while focusing on the wall; as you get tired, the wall will get closer. Right before you fall asleep the wall will be nose to nose, on the other side is your dream. Therefore the wall itself is lucidity, visualize yourself on the top, watching the dream world, yet still being conscious of the other side.

My absolute favorite way to lucid dream is to image myself in a hallway, maybe a hotel, a school, an office building, or any hallway with lots of doors. As you walk through the hallway count the doors, and when you start getting bored, or sleepy, or before your mind wanders, open a door. Let your mind think of what ever it wants to on the other side. Just remember to real your mind back in from the room you entered back into the hallway. I also like to imagine other hallways after opening doors, like a never ending web of hallways. Eventually, your brain will grow tired and slow, and like the previous method, you’ll reach a point where you are nose to nose with sleep. At this point, the next door you open will open will be the door into lucid dreaming.

Of course, said methods take practice, time , trial and error, and frustration. The reward is so sweet, spiritual, and captivating; that lucidity will be your goal for weeks after reaching it for the first time.

When my soul starts growing…

Took a trip down south just a couple of miles, from my humble abode in Portland to the hometown of Oregon’s state animal, The Beaver. It was Corvallis, OR and a good time to visit; Halloween is OSU’s un/official holiday, there was to be a challenging home football game, I was visiting some of my oldest friends, we all had our bikes, and we were set with good music.

The first night was a tour of Portland, actually, with a couple of Big Red’s crazy-ay-yay-yay CoVo friends. It was raining a bit, as it always does, but we’d brave the elements on bike-back, the crazy kids would roam the streets, stirring up dust devils of mischief, and I would meet some very kind souls with some interesting stories to be told.

The next day was a day of slow momentum, starting off heavy and tired, but speeding up and getting more and more exciting and loud as we drove down to Corvallis, kind of like a giant, old steel train. When we got to Beavertown, there were more cars then ever, more people then ever, and more cops then ever. The recipe for a great night! We got to dress up and volunteer at this haunted house, where I was in a dizzying strobe-light room all night, dressed up as a dead tourist (9/11 tourist, since my shirt said “I <3 NY”, but I figure, it might be too soon for that…). That night was crazy enough, but the next day, even nicer things were planned.

We got up at the crack of noon, and donned our hiking attire, put on some Animal Collective to set the mood and drove off to a waterfall that I had been told was one of the most scenic. With good people and good places, our day was off to a great start. We climbed around the river side, saw some gorgeous sites ingrain themselves in my memory receptors and shared some laughs and growls. Oh! and there were many rare Wood Formations, of the likes I had never seen before. The messecah walked again that day. It was one of his dark days.

From there, we returned back to town to find that the Beavers had won their game against some wack California team, though the town didn’t seem as “RAAAAGGGGGEEEEE” as I would have thought them to be behaving. We filled up on quality Hot-N-Ready pizza, got our second batch of costumes and face paints on, hopped on our bikes, met Detective Moustache and Laura, Devourer of Galaxies, and were on our way. Along the night, Captain Awesome danced in a sea of ladies on a stripper pole, and the Detective and I deduced that the Hulk’s buttocks was stuffed. Fred Flinstone did some push-ups for us, Bohemian Rhapsody was sung by us and the other street urchins loud-N-proud, A dirty pirate tried to rob of us of our dignity, and, somehow, Scrubs always just appeared, and played it real cool. Dammmmmn, scrubs.
Eventually, we found The Nest, but I do not know how. I think The Nest found us. It was full of wob-wob-wobwob-wob-wob music, and people who were very wavey and smiley, and potential dognappers, though the dog was one of those sad alcoholic doggies who licked up ground beer constantly. It was an interesting mix of people at The Nest: some were melted into the couch, others were becoming the Dubstep, some were just looking around in wonder, some were reveling in nostalgias of times past. Eventually, as always happens, the Dubstep takes over the room, but that was one of those beautiful, beautiful moments. ‘Everybody’s laughing… everybody’s happy…” Ah… we were all sun kings, that night.

So, that was just a little summary of what the weekend was like. I’m really excited by all that I saw, and I’m glad I opened myself up to what Redwood’s life is like. I dig it, like a spigot. I can’t wait to see what comes, cause this Fall is Being Kind. Here’s a lil playlist of what I’d say Corvallis in The Fall Time sounds like.

Enjoy! and check back in real soon for some exciting news to come.

Animal Collective- The Purple Bottle (870kbps) This song was how my heart felt for most of the weekend: a sort of fluttering, excited, head-bobbing, toe-tapping, silly-dancing feels. Most people do have this fantastic track, and if you don’t, GET IT, but I think you guys should get this one anyways, cause it’s the super-high-quality one, the Vinyl-quality recording. Tasty.

Hot Sugar- The Seagull Now, here’s a band I’m gonna begin following like the ice cream man. This song just oozes chilled ‘tude, and I’d listen to this again and again if I didn’t want to ruin the song for myself. It’s like if Ratatat and Royksopp had baby that was much prettier then them. Get it, if you wanna be cool. But it’s totally okay if you don’t want to be cool…

Talking Heads- This Must Be The Place (Young Edits Sophisticated Melody Version) Just walking around, in crazy tie-dye costume, next to a caped crusader, Edward Sharp and Detective Moustache, this song is basically what it was like. It’s a wonderful re-working of the song that keeps all the lovely Talking Heads-esque ness to it, while adding a crisper beat and some violins and flute that sound like underwater harpoons. Listen, and you’ll understand!

Riton- Banana Song Ah, this song is so calming, yet so fun. I’m pretty sure it’s just Pon De Floor by MAJAH LAZAH mixed with the “daylight come and me wanna go home” song, but it’s great. Reminds me of biking around at 3:30 AM under maples burning with fall’s color.

A-Track- Trizzy Turnt Up This song is a combination of all the shitty music we had to listen to as we went to various places, except I’m posting this song, cause it’s the one awesome remix of all those songs. Dude, they mention the purple bottle and soulja boy in one song. I mean, when we were at houses, I really WISH this was playing, but the autotune

The Knife- Like A Pen WHY WERE WE UP AT 7:00 IN THE MORNING? WHY ON GOD’S EARTH DID I APPROACH THAT NASTY SPIDER WHO WAS PROBABLY JUST TRYING TO CHILLAX, AND WHY WOULD I PUT IT SO CLOSE TO MY HANDS? WELL, OBVIOUSLY, YOU ARE DUMB, YOU ARE SO DUMB, HOMEBOY. AND I KNOW WHERE IT’S COMIN FROM! CAUSE I BACK TRACED IT!

Two Door Cinema Club- Something Good Can Work (Ted & Francis Remix) This song makes me feel real good, when there’s those little moments you don’t feel so Boss. Like, for me, I was a bit sad to have to leave Corvallis so soon, but, like this song says “Something good can work!”  Ya-ha!

Animal Collective- Loch Raven (Slowed Down) So, I had the idea to slow down some of my favorite tracks, like you could when albums came on vinyl, and this track came to mind. Low and behold, when I tried it, the results were fantastic. This version of this song really put me in different place, and it’s quite a good, comfy one.

arcatacorvalisportlandanchoragesanfrancisconewyorksandiegobellinghamcougar

Man, let’s let the Hipsters be

So, this is a power-post(BAM!) about a topic I want to bring up here on the world wide internets. Screw hipsters. Sure, they are on the bleeding-edge of what’s cool and hip, but they also stunt their’s and society’s growth in general by letting their actions be dictated by what it means to be a Hipster nowadays.

Being a Hipster nowadays means wearing skinny jeans, ray bahn sunglasses, taking Polaroid pictures, eating at places on the cool streets of town, acting snobby yet socially awkward, listening to obscure bands that you like as long as no one else does, drinking PBR tall boys, riding a fixie, sporting hip ear gauges, and wearing American Eagle solid-color hoodies, among many other classifying things. Now, to me at least, all these things sound slightly cool to do on their own, but then I just think about all of things together, done by one person, then those actions copied by tons and tons and tons of others, and I think about how the world would be, or more over, a town like Portland would be, and it doesn’t sound too appealing. When hipster-ism was first pioneered (whenever some kid decided he liked the idea of counterculture yet realized how being a hippy was far too much work and not very cool today, so decided to model himself after everyone’s soft spot: nostalgia), it was an acceptable thing, albeit awkward and very contrived and pretentious seeming to the outside 90s world, because only a few people were participating in it, weren’t labeled as “cool’ or “hip” or “douchebags” just yet, and just seen as doing their thing.

However, for some reason that’s probably related to our culture becoming an iculture of individualism and ego tripping fools, people decided that this awkward, thick-lensed, coffee swigging man-girl with a bike terrible for hills and enough PBR to fuel a canadian moose hunt, was the new definition of cool. What a joke! They accepted their title as the coolest mothers around and the scene spread like a cold to the minds of developing, impressionable teenagers and 20somethings around the nation. Now, there was a secret army among the people; one of pretentious people who didn’t necessarily do any harm to the world, but were just as much as a drag as just a regular old layman. Everyone following these made-up social rules that were judgmental and shallow, making their own selves be pushed into this shell of chrome retro coolness. So, the end result of all this Hipster-ism was a culture of young people, so determined to “bring the change” or something similar goal, all being something that doesn’t fit quite right, while the handful of people who actually live such a hipster lifestyle are actually mad that there’s so many people making hipster-ism into some yippie-type buzzkill that makes their own life look like that.

So, beyond all the scene-kids who have drifted into hipster-ism and formed their impenetrable sphere of independence, in the center of this swirling madness, lies the people who actually live the “ideal hipster life”, one that I would say is authentic. Real “hipsters”, if you want to call them that, are a much more gentle kind of soul. Not known for the products they subscribe to, or the places they eat or stuff they like, they are known and seen as quite brave type people. They more closely resemble the freedom-fighters of the underground 50s and 60s, trying to live within their own means and on their own terms, in a world that seems to scream at them what to do. Now, here they are, being emulated by the masses, their uniqueness now a standard for coolness, which is quite ironic, but irony is the way of the Hipster.

But what can they do? The thing they do best: keeping being themselves; being honest to who they want to be, not fussing over who wants to be like them or what they could do to be “cooler.” It’s absolutely not about that. Being seen is cool is really quite a tired and used social stigma, and doesn’t have the desired effect of acceptance or betterment that it held before. Now, the cool thing to do is to simply, be.  Don’t be held in by tight skinny jeans or the limitations of where a fixie can go. By trying to appear bleeding edge, one’s illusion of being rad is shattered, cause one finds themselves still just another person in the game, nothing changed but their perspective of others and their now-afflicted view of self.

The cool thing to do nowadays is be yourself. Be a folky, be a scene kid, be a biker, whatever. Be proud, but completely headstrong,  of everything you are; your opinions, your decisions, the truth of what has happened to you in life to make you who you are, or what you choose to look like. No one’s words or actions have control over what you should be. So, stop trying so hard to be cool, just know that you’re the best person you know (cause you’re the only person you really know), and go forth and shine. Get rid of the knots in your mind and your gut, do those things that before have made you feel uncomfortable (those are just opportunites for you to allow yourself to grow into a more open person) and go and have fun, worry free in the sunshine, before it’s all gone.

Pants off, it’s a dance off!

So, today’s post will be minimal on my usual sass, I gotta jet outta her soon. Here are some pretty bangin’ tracks. I don’t care how old they are, I know they’re from the last years…. So, saddle up and enjoy these bumpin tracks. If they don’t move you, you are a cold, dark vessel of remorse.

MGMT- Of Moons, Birds & Monsters (Holy Ghost Remix)
Justice- Planisphere (Religion Remix)
Mr. Flash- Dirty Bossa Nova
Drop The Tough (The Twelves B-LIVE Remix)
MGMT-Kids (Soulwax Remix)
Talkin’ In My Sleep (The Bloody Beetroots Remix)

Revenge of The Gameboy

So, a couple years ago, the long-held champ of the world of portable gaming found a new rival, and a new era of un-fun games came out, subsequently. The days of the simple joys of Gameboy games were gone for the fancy-shmancy gimmicks of newer systems and tricks; it was the battle of the Nintendo DS and the PSP. Both sound like they could be diseases, and for some reasons they probably both could be classified as such. Because, though they were super high tech with their 3D technology and wobbly nub-sticks and screens that get all touchy-feely, many of their games sucked or were just put out to try to sell money. By stealing some cool ideas from semi-successful games, hordes of terribly uncreative and repetitive games came out. What irked me in particular was how, well, real, the music was trying to get. They were putting full songs in their games, but they sounded pretty out of place in the handheld world.  They sounded crunched up, gasping for air. Let me out, they said.
And the years of avid Gameboy fans listened, and became musicians and are now currently out to prove us all that small sounds can still be bigger then studio-pumped up garbage. In the past few years, slowly, 8-bit music has been sneaking it’s way into the hearts and souls of it’s listeners, showing us how how the most basic, wired, electronic, savage sound can have just as much prettiness as a harpsichord and Paul McCartney harmonizing. Ooh, yeah. Sexy.

The Remixes

There’s been some experimentation with remixing with 8-bit sounds, seeing as how it was recently discovered that using zelda samples, you could rock the house in half and half again. Or that Fraggle Rock could somehow get cooler. Last night, I saw a triple-show type thing at the Satyricon, a little hole in the wall place, literally. It was almost too cool for me. Anyways, this guy  named Matthew, but stage-named Purse Candy (who hit on me after I tried to talk to him before the show, I should have known, me and Rob are the only straight, friendly guys around… Matthew kept giving me all these silly winks and air kisses. Ooh, how dreamy), started off his set with some game-boy samplers, which I though was really rad, but then his set devolved into nothing more then some owl city sounding thing. Props for looking classy, at least. Check out these sick remixes. You’ll poo yourself in excitement if you don’t.

Deadmau5- You Need A Ladder
Fraggle Rock Theme- (Skeet Skeet’s 8-Bit Adventure)

The Rethinkings

Some artists have been doing 8-bit covers of very popular songs, and getting good reception. Of course, there’s plenty of really poopy songs out there that try and fail to capture 8-bit glory, but I guess it’s harder then one would think. Check out these songs that I think are at least comparable to the originals:

>Nirvana- Smells Like Teen Spirit (8-Bit Remix)v

Bag Raiders-  Daft Punk Is Playing on My Nintendo

The Rebirth

Now, as 8-bit has proven it’s worth in the sub fields of remixes and covers, I feel 8-bit music is going to sneak it’s styles and sounds into our new artists music. In fact it already has! Back in 2007, Panda Bear released the fantastic Person Pitch, with “Good Girl/Carrots” buried as track 5, with a 12:42 track time, heavy drumming patterns with subtly building energies with layers of sound-instruments. Then, before you have time to notice it, the song morphs into the “Carrots” half, and what’s funky is that you really don’t even notice it. The tempo changes, the key and pitch changes, but Panda does it so smoothly and suddenly, it’s like it was bound to happen by natural. It’s an odd feeling to be tricked by a song, but when it happens right, it’s tasty. Anywho, you can listen to that track below if you want, but the reason I brought it up was to call attention to around 6:08 where some gameboy-reminiscent beats come in, reminding me of Nintendo glitching out, but in such a fashion that it’s extremely danceable. I always did kind of like it when CDs would skip or games would freeze and make a kinda annoying, yet catchy sound.
Franz Ferdinand then released Tonight, which was pretty electronic for the Franzies, and if you listen to the track “Twilight Omens”, the opening hook thing is ripped straight from an Atari. Good, tasty, adventure music.
However, most recently there’s even been some suspicious work going on in the world of 8-bit sounds. Vampire Weekend’s fantastic new album (which you should go get, by the way. If you don’t like it at first, try it again and really listen or dance or whatever, and you will) features a track called “Diplomat’s Son”  towards the end of the album. It starts out as what you might come to expect from them, sounding completely afro-beat, with dancing string instruments, however featuring a sample of M.I.A.’s “Bucky Done Gun”, and then…. wait for it… 8-bit sounds! For Vampire Weekend, having M.I.A. in a song, plus using such a nice, clean electronic beat was very unexpected. But, keep listening and one find the songs surprises once again, as the song breaks down to a Brooklyn-style drumming section sounding like the most indie gameboy I’ve ever heard, like vampire weekend turns momentarily into a jump-roping rhyme mini-game on Looney Tunes Olympics or some shiz. Interesting, interesting, I like.
But then, one more odd thing about all this 8-bit craze recently. This part is very intriguing, indeed. A new M.I.A track! Let me say that again, in case you have that bad of memory: A NEW MIA TRACK! It’s called “There’s Space For Ol Dat I See”. …And guess what kind of beat it has? Yes. You win. I think it was made with that Playstation 1 beat-making game. I wish I was kidding. No I don’t. I really think it is. This track is large, space-sized, space-oriented, lo-fi, super dancable, kinda bollywood-y, and M.I.A. sings! The last minute of the song totally dissolves into gameboy filth. Tasty, tasty filth. If you don’t listen to any other songs on here, listen to this one. It kinda makes me see a connection between where dubstep is going and where electronic in general is going. Who knew something so simple could be so fat?!  Her new album’s still not out till May, but this is a precious morsel. Dear reader, do take in mind how both Vampire Weekend’s new song, and M.I.A.’s new song have gameboy sounds in them and those awesome break-beat parts of gameboy rock and roll, not to mention Vampire Weekend sampling M.I.A. in their song. Coincidence? I hope not.

Panda Bear- Good Girl/Carrots

Vampire Weekend- Diplomat’s Son

M.I.A.- There’s Space For Ol Dat I See

BONUS:

First new Gorillaz track from their upcoming album, Plastic Beach:  Gorillaz- Stylo

The Beatles never broke up…

 

So, I stumbled across this very interesting website the other day. It’s one in which the owner claims that he is in possession of a “lost” Beatles album, one that the Beatles made… after their break-up. This mystery person claims that he, uh, traveled to another universe completely after bumping his head, and in this alternate reality, the Beatles never broke up. He has a whole nice story about how he got to walk around in the other universe for a while on his website, along with the ALBUM ITSELF, for free, and some FAQ’s. Now, as soon as I heard about the possibility of The Beatles having another album that we all haven’t heard because it doesn’t exist in our reality, I nearly shat myself with happiness! I cruse over to his website at (http://www.thebeatlesneverbrokeup.com/), and proceed to listen to the “album”.
Now, what the album appears to be, from our universal perspective, is a really good mash-up of Beatles solo work and older B-Sides. However, the album is almost TOO well put together. The FAQ tackles the similarities question with a pretty good answer, I thought:

3. Thanks for posting the download and sharing your story about this pretty cool collection of songs. After listening to all of it, however, it sounds like a collection of previous Beatles and post break up albums from this dimension mixed into new songs.
I didn’t recognize Sick to Death, but everything else just seemed like a mix from other songs that could be made using modern mixing equipment.  Has anyone else given you the same feedback?  – Steven

A: I have heard that feedback actually, and infact I had a feeling some of the songs had a familiar sound to them as well. The only conclusion I can come up with is even though in the alternate universe The Beatles hadn’t broken up, that didn’t mean their future music ideas disapeared. I wish I grabbed this other tape that had a song very similiar to “Imagine” on it that Jonas played, only it sounded like it had a big band behind it with horns and huge orchestral sections, though the lyrics were practically identical to the original “Imagine”. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the alternate dimension when The Beatles were songwriting they brought melodies and lyrics they had in their head to the songwriting table and hashed them out with the rest of the group, where as in our dimension they didn’t have the other band members influences.

Dang! That’s good enough for me. I personally really like the album, and is exactly what I’d expect the Beatles to sound like if they kept going into the later 70s/ 80s.
You can download the album off the original website and see for yourself. New Beatles album from an alternate universe? Dangermouse getting extremely bored?
Either way, I figure we should scrap NASA and look into all this Alternate Universe mumbo jumbo. God… what if the Beattles just didn’t break up in another universe? Exciting!

Get the album or listen to it here

What a tribe, what a trip

Hey all out there on this crazy united World web system. I hope you are enjoying your monday-anti-funday, and I hope the series of tubes has been keeping you entertained.
The past two weeks have been a mad crazy blur of excitement, meeting pretty people, dancing, singing and respectively, losing my voice. The weekend before this one, three of my closest friends from Portland, OR came down from their various colleges to come check out what all the jazz is about down here in Arcata. Man, as soon as they stepped out of their car, tired and a bit cranky from their epic drive of over 8 hours, we snapped back to our old ways and habits and inside jokes. We tore the town up, bringing smiles, merriment and mischief to where ever we went. The first night, we followed our instincts and came to a GIANT house party full of costumed people, a bonfire, beer pong, and rambunctiousness. The cops came a couple times, just because they were jealous I think, but it all was good. The next day was a journey from the top of the back of the Redwood forest to the edge of the great bay that Arcata sits on. We got there just in time to watch the sunset bleed a warm ruby on the clouds then sink away to nothing. Ah, good times, good friends, and good events set into motion.
Then, a week passed by and various school work was done and not done, and it was time for the arrival of more classic friends. This time coming from farther south, Greg Lanton (know that name, you will see it making headlines later on) brought his lovely friend-o Agnieszka (who I so often butchered the name of) from the U.C of Davis. They brought quite different energies when compared to the week before, but they were good ones, and they were especially good ones being as how they were drenched in Halloween spirits. Drum circles, Didgeridoo, Shots, Midget King of The Hill, stories exchanged of days gone by. And that was just the tame day one. The next day, WAS Halloween. Me, being the excellent planner that I am, put off getting a costume till the day of. I suggested being a toilet paper mummy, wearing a speedo, being a fixed gear fool, or something else easy and hastily put together. However, Greg and Agnie took one look at me and knew: cross-dresser. Man, you don’t want to see what happened, but let me tell you-it was DAMN SEXY. Like, ooh lala, girls were mad jealous of my lady lumps (and man lumps, I guess). Greg was my German Pimp-overlord and I was fifty dollars, no more, no less. Ah, good times.

There was a house party we kind of just found and invaded, then there was the Plaza. The square plaza, the centerpiece of Arcata, was already completely overcrowded by people when we got there around eleven. Completely. Some kind members of our school band played some drums, and the crowd was ignited in a tribal rocking and rolling, limbs flailing like a bunch of drunken hippies at a drum circle (oh wait, that’s what we were). People climbed the statue of McKinley and just sat on the top with their MD 5050′s, cheering into the wild, pulsating crowd underneath their feet. The square was totally taken over and illegalities were everywhere. You didn’t even have to take anything yourself, there was enough smoke going around and booze being spilled to give anyone a contact buzz. There were great costumes, creative costumes, and some just really funny ass people (Yes, the ass-people made another live appearance, damn them!). Greg, Agnieszka, Fran and I found a favorite alley that we frequented, because sometimes we were just too super fly  for the square. We met super-sperm there and founded our very bathroom (haha). Around three, the cops started to kick fools out after someone fell off the statue, and we all stumble-retired to warm waiting beds to try our hand at sleeping… or non-sleeping.
The nights went too quickly and the days seem like a blur. That’s the mark of a great success, I think.All in all, everything turned out very well in these confusing weeks, and everything that needed to happen, did. People were released from their mental prisons, I served as the sexiest tour guide available, and so many good people were able to come together. Ah, Halloween, the festival of freaks.I hope to see more of these people and I hope they took a little Arcata and Zack Cada with them. Well, time to go try and put everything else together again. Phew. Jedi Braid Ahoy!

Here’s today’s killer playlist. Listen to it and just enjoy, or go ride your bike. Whatever- it’s your show
TO GET SONGS (MP3), OPEN THE FILES IN A NEW TAB AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS TO DOWNLOAD

Devendra Banhart- Pensando Enti
Panda Bear- Take Pills
Neon Indian- Deadbeat Summer
Cool Kids + Hey Champ- (We are) Champions
Florence & The Machine- You Got The Love (The XX Remix)
Dr. Dog- The Old Days
The Cool Kids- What Up Man
Discovery- I Want To Be Your Boyfriend
Bonobo- Days To Come
Deadmau5- You Need A Ladder

 

 

 

People are strange

Me included, of course. I’m as strange as it gets. But in particular, what I’m talking about is what goes into making up a human. We’re different from those around us based on our actions and choices (and our physical mumbo-jumbo), but I wonder what causes us to make those decisions. What makes us decide to go right at a fork in the road, what makes us say those awkward things to those we interact with, and what makes us decide that those things we hear are awkward in the first place? Ah, lot’s of deep-meta thinking here, with no real answers in sight. Ah, it’s a Monday. Bleh. 8′oclock classes.
I know personally, a lot of the guidance in choices I make from day to day comes from the music I listen to. The lyrics, the crescendos in volume, the loopy choruses that fill a lot of the music I listen to, and the nice raspy harmonies that compliment the main singing quite nicely; all of that reflects how I act on a day to day basis. Sure, it’s not the only thing, of course. A lot of my actions also stem from copying what I deem to be “successful” traits I find in another person or influence, or from nature (the best teacher there is!). By listening to what I call “good” music, I tend to have a better outlook on life, as opposed to when I listen to “angry” music or music with unsettling lyrics, which usually puts me in a darker mood. Perhaps I’m more susceptible to the subtler influences of music, and perhaps that’s because I listen to so gosh darn much of it, but I have this deep feeling that everyone is affected by what music they listen to. We all tend to listen to our favorite music a lot, thus memorizing the lyrics and usually the tone by which the artist sings it. We get a nice feel for what emotion the artist is trying to create, and then we absorb that feeling and let it color what we see in our everday waking lives. Our favorite music becomes our personal gospel temporarily, what with our habit towards memorizing and chanting lyrics and taking the lessons we’ve learned from the music. Perhaps we just listen to music that reflects how we feel a lot of the time, but I like to think that it works the other way around and that music listens to us. But then that would probably mean we’re in Mother Russia or something, cause, as we all know, everything happens backwards there.
So, listen to this music, absorb it’s wholesome goodness and let the playlist play you.

To download files, click the song title with your middle mouse button to go to the MP3 hosting site, then follow directions to download. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezie. If for some odd reason, you don’t have a middle mouse button and you find yourself quite perplexed, just right click the song titles and click the option that says “Open Link in New Tab/Window”. Also, welcome to the internet.

Animal Collective- Chores
Devandra Banhart- Baby
Crystal Castles- Knights
Bloc Party- One More Chance
Dr. Dog- The Old Days
Passion Pit- I’ve Got Your Number
Menomena- Running
Kings Of Convience- Boat Behind
Iron & Wine- Naked As We Come
High Places- The Storm
Animal Collective- Winter’s Love
The Beatles- Mother Nature’s Son

Happy Fun Time Monday Bonus MP3!!!

San Fran Album Kablaam!

Well, San Fran was definitely not what I was expecting, and in hind sight I don’t really know what I was honestly expecting. I guess that old image of a sunny place full of electric trolleys, gay rights activists and cultural acceptance, like all the movies promised. However, what I found was exactly what the Arctic Monkeys predicted: some Fake Tales of San Francisco. Many of the people there were great souls and were most likely lured in by the same sense of mystique that ensnared myself to visit the town. However, Sanny Franny was not really much different from any other town. It was pulled apart by urban sprawl, the streets were plain, narrow and straight and the hippies there didn’t want to help you unlock your mind or put flowers in your hair, they just wanted to sell you some “dank nugs.” It makes me wonder if San Fransisco was ever the cultural mecca it was cracked up to be, and according to my mom, Haight-Ashbury was only as awesome as the stories told for as long as Kesey and friends had made it awesome.
On first arrival there, I was still in awesome-Arcata mode, meaning I said hi and waved to everyone I saw. Then, we saw three guys with guns in their pants and daggers in their eyes. Apparently, we were in the better part of town, but just the other week, someone had been stabbed right in the middle of San Fransisco State University. Yes, I know these are tough times and people are forced to make compromising deals in their lives every day, but to hear that this kind of thing was happening at the very place where peace-loving radicals were supposedly forged, made me sad. I know the world is capable of producing so many finer people then this, and I want to help the world and the people inside it to remember this. Humans can be whatever they want. That’s what makes us so special. Specialization is for insects, and we are not insects. We can change paths whenever we want to and can go in any direction that life pulls us, if we allow it. Yes, we are not the only living, thinking beings on this Earth, and must be humble in our human abilities, but that does not mean allowing yourself to be pulled into doing the wrong things, or even nothing at all. We all have moral compasses unique to ourselves that help guide us smoothly along life’s floating journey down the stream of time, but many times people refuse to listen them. No one lacks these compasses. Sure, some people’s pointers may be a bit skewed, but they are still pointing somewhere and the direction they point is very very important to one’s own life.
Remember, improving your own quality of life is very important, but valuing the people around you- the other living, thinking people around yourself- is even more important. Do what you know is right and life won’t throw so many speed bumps in your path. Help and love, without greed or envy, those around you, and they will return the favor, without a doubt, in time and probably even in double. Hate only creates more hate, just as love creates more love. Now you tell me, which world would you rather live in? One of hate or one of love? Yes, we are entrapped in this crazy world with so many laws and red-tape holding us tightly into the grid, but we also live in an age where we are told we live in a nation of the people. People do not fit molds,  amd should not have to compromise. Let’s change things a bit, earthlings. You know we could.

And on that note, some album reviews I think ya’ll would enjoy. Some of these albums are a bit old in internet time, but they’re nonetheless listen-worthy.

Noah and the Whale- The First Days of Spring

Ah, now here is a quality album. It is an album full of heartbreak, hope, and musical talent. Noah and the Whale is a nice little band that popped up strong in the musical world back in 2008 with their first album, and now they are back just a year later with an album reminiscent of that feeling you get looking at a sunset alone for the first time in months. The first half of the album is slow and haunting, but never leaves you looking for melodies or harmonies, as they appear just as easily, but maybe classier, if I can say so. The First Days of Spring explores the deep, foggy feelings that have before been left to fester inside your heart, and shows you just how delicate and pure their music can be while still giving you such powerful messages. It is mushy at times, but everything about this album is wonderfully put together and so neatly placed in perfect time, that I don’t really find myself minding. Not that there’s anything wrong with mushy… So, go get this album, put it on, take the doggy for a walk and let the music and the world work together to refresh your soul.
RATING: 9/10

Key Tracks:

The First Days Of Spring
Blue Skies

Iron & Wine- Around The Well

For anyone who enjoys Iron & Wine, this is just another reason to fall in love again with their magic, rhythmical singing and guitar plucking. For anyone who has yet to experience Iron & Wine, this is also great kicking off point, as it gives a good overview of the two unique sides that have defined Iron & Wine’s music.  Around The Well is a compilation album of B-sides, Rareties, live sets, and discarded ideas, which can (for many artists) be a recipe for a very messy album. However, this double-disc collection is very, very stable and full of as catchy songs as any of I&W’s main discography. The first half showcases early I&W, meaning it’s full of whispered lyrics, fast, plucky guitar layers and plenty of very catchy hooks and melodies. The second half is more loosely put together, and more dense and layered, but still none-the-less I&W.
Fans looking for a direct follow-up to the intense sound created on The Shepard’s Dog might be slightly dissapointed, but this collection is definitely a showcase of what Iron & Wine are capable of. Personally, I’m always a fan of B-sides, because they show us the side of an artist we never really get to see, or that side which the producers deem not to be suitable for the mainstreams ears. It’s fun, it’s joyous, and it’s usually pretty unfiltered content from the artist (less producing). This particular  wcollection is brimming with talent and well built  ideas and is definitley worth adding to your collection.
RATING: 8/10

Key Tracks:
Peng!33
Communication Cups and Someone’s Coat
Such Great Heights

Deerhunter- Rainwater Cassette Exchange

I’ve posted one song from this EP before, but I believe this whole album deserves recognition. It’s such a step forward for Deerhunter as a band, after 2008′s Microcastle and Weird Era Continued, which dealt with all of the odd weird emotions that come from losing a band member to cruel early death. Most of their music was very drug-adled and were quite long, drawling songs that came off as pretty hypnotic. This 5-song ep marks the band’s step up from the ambient confusion of death and it’s themes to a more prog-rock sound that instead inspires some hope. Deerhunter’s classic dreamy vocals remain and the repetitive guitar and light, yet powerful drum touches remain, but, like I said, the sound has evolved. Deerhunter is trying hard now to break into the neo-psych scene, and quite honestly, if this EP is any indication on their direction, they have quite a fighting chance. Some songs reminisce of early Pink Floyd, such as “Game of Diamonds” Egyptian-style drum pattern.  A nice morsel for fans who hunger for the band’s next full-length, this EP is a nice step in the right direction and a healthy breath of fresh air into Deerhunter’s corpse-y history.
RATING: 8.69/10

Key Tracks:
Game of Diamonds
Rainwater Cassette Exchange

The XX- xx

Here’s something new. The XX, who are from London, England, have been called a 2 piece and a 4 piece, but latest news calls them a 4 piece. Bursting almost out of nowhere, though they have been around since around 2005, The XX have taken the music scene by storm. Sporting one of the simplest sounding sounds in recent music history, their style is a very refreshing breath of fresh air. The two lead singers, a male and a lady, have very depressing-sounding voices (but somehow in a fantastic way)that are balanced complimented by the racing guitars and chugging bass line tall tied together with very simple drum loops, which come off more as fleeting heartbeats then what actually drives the music. The XX state with sad faces that they have shunned what the music industry wants them to be, and their simplistic form showcases the bands taste for catchy hooks and warm melodies that somehow also chill to the bone. This album, full of plenty of musical genius but very little actual density, is a great reminder to everyone else in the world that for music to be good, it doesn’t have to have more layers then a high school freshman indie kid on sweater-vest day. You’ll look good if you look good, regardless of what you cover yourself in.
RATING: 9.4/10

Key Tracks:
Crystalised
Islands
Basic Space

Other Albums From Various Times That You Should Have If You Don’t Yet, Like Honestly, Go Buy Them Right Now:

Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion
Delta Spirit- Ode To Sunshine
Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest
MGMT- Metanoia EP
High Places- High Places
Arctic Monkeys- Humbug
Menomena- Friend and Foe
Blitzen Trapper- Wild Mountain Nation
Dr. Dog- We All Belong
Panda Bear- Person Pitch

Enjoy yo Friday!
I’ll be back sooner then last time, I super-promise!

Pre-Hardly Strictly

Well, the weekend finally came. This has been an interesting week to say the least, and perhaps I’ll go into details on what that means later. For now, I head down S.F. way to go the Hardly Strictly bluegrass festival… for free! However, before I go, I need to leave you fools something to do, cause god knows what horrid music you’ll try to boogie down to this weekend without me.
Remember, kids, play by the rules, and that you make them! You’re on the pursuit of happiness!

Electric Wire Hustle- They Don’t Want
Gorillaz- Dare (Rodon’s Symphonic Remix)
Florence & The Machine-  You Got The Love (The XX remix)
Groove Armada- Drop The Tough (The Twelves B-Live Remix)
Justice- Stress (Auto Remix)
Kid Cudi- Make Her Say (Sammy Bananas Remix)
Jay-Z- D.O.A. (Chase & Status Remix)
Hot Chip- Ready For The Floor (Soulwax Nite Version)
Busy P and Murs- To Protect and Entertain (Crookers Remix)
Deadmau5- Hi Friend!
Architecture In Helenksi- Do The Whirlwind!
Kid Cudi- Pursuit of Happiness