Notes from Under a Bare Pine

If I must make one post in the year 2012, I suppose it makes sense that it would be in the heart of paper writing season; right where I have no business writing anything extraneous but have the greatest desire to do so.

Listening to Codeine by Trampled by Turtles

It's nothing to do with the Buffy St. Marie song, of which The Litter did an incomparable cover, but Trampled by Turtles is putting down some sweet bluegrass vibes here.
The semester is going; it evaporates and I am left with the dross of all the things I didn't do and the refuse from all the things I did.
Hope is persistent. It cannot be ignored.

Listening to First Love by Emmy the Great

It isn't Leonard Cohen, but it somehow escapes being simply derivative. This song exists on a different plane from that abominable pastiche of Sweet Home Alabama from He-who-shall-not-be-named.
Newness enters the world and I couldn't tell you how. Bhabha claims it's all hybridity; that we are made new as we encounter the other. I'm inclined to agree, but the places that this idea leads to; the places I am led to by hybridity, identity as negotiated, losing a progressive view of history (with our comforting origin and telos), and knowing otherness in proximity. These are frightening and beautiful. (what's wrong with a few sentence fragments here and there; they'll be resolved eventually (it really just serves to build tension))

Listening to If I Wanted Someone by Dawes

If I wanted someone? Want? Desire is fickle. I'm not sure what I want, but this sentiment rings with some truth in my ears.
And suddenly we are paralyzed. We go from melting glaciers to falling, exhausted, under a bare pine. We had the world coursing in our veins for the shortest time, climbing through the substance of nothingness with blinding voracity. And we are muted, lost in a hollow of snow. Silent and brooding before a mountain that is stronger than we are. But hope is persistent, it cannot be ignored.

Will

Student Playlist #3

Atlas Sound released their album Parallax this past month and I was so intrigued by the name of one of the songs, Modern Aquatic Nightsongs, that I had to give it a listen. Well I wasn't that impressed; I guess I had an idea of what an aquatic nightsong should sound like and Atlas Sound just didn't capture that.

Flash forward a bit and I'm looking for a theme for a playlist to go into the latest Mars Hill issue. All I can think of is the fact that Atlas Sound just didn't capture the meaning of aquatic nightsongs (if you want a band that does that, you'll have to go with Future Islands). I made the playlist and submitted it and it was going to be in this issue, but had to be cut for space restrictions. Here it is anyways; these are my November Aquatic Nightsongs.

November Aquatic Nightsongs/Nautical Midnight Music

Dolphins Into The Future - On The High Seas

-This is purely to set the tone for the rest of the playlist. If you'd like, you can skip to the next song about 3 minutes in because it doesn't change much from there.

AA Bondy - Of The Sea

-This is closer to a ballad of the sea, but it's definitely a November song.

M83 - My Tears Are Becoming A Sea

-So you might be thinking M83? Last I remembered they were just mediocre shoegazing electropop. Well they're still shoegazing electropop, but they're anything but mediocre with their latest album.

Seu Jorge - Changes

-For the soundtrack to The Life Aquatic, Jorge recorded fourteen David Bowie covers. All acoustic and all with a slightly nautical feel. This just exemplifies how these songs play out.

Buck 65 - Whispers In The Waves

-Gord Downie collaborating with Buck 65. Need I say more.

Future Islands - Tybee Island

-I'm just discovering these guys. Hailing from Baltimore, they've been putting out a plethora of music since midway through the last decade and their latest album is turning heads. Specifically turning my head.

Underwater Seacreatures - You Forgot

-What do you mean Grooveshark doesn't have any Underwater Seacreatures? Yeah. That's how lo-fi they are. You want chillwave? Underwater Seacreatures is gonna give it to you.

Harry Manx & Kevin Breit - Sisters

-This instrumental piece is on here courtesy of Tim Andries. Sends chills up my spine. Is it really an aquatic nightsong? Well I'm making this playlist now, aren't I.

Mad Rad - Underwater

-Makes me feel like I'm at a midnight rave under the sea. People and fish all grooving together in a dark ocean.

Freelance Whales - Generator 1st Floor

-It's a sunrise song, but that makes sense because hopefully some rays are peeking over the horizon by now.

Corn and Cut-Offs

A week before classes started, I was doing some landscaping in Coquitlam. I can't remember how the topic came up, but I told one of the workers on the site that it was going to be my last day. He seemed to think that there was plenty of work out there and that I would be better off staying. '"Oh no" I said, "I'm going back to school." To which he replied, "good for you" and paused, "what grade?"
But in all seriousness, I do occasionally reminisce about grade school. From this side of the great divide, it appears to have been made up of eating lunch, holding hands, and playing hooky. In truth I was probably under a lot of stress, but at the very least I could hang onto the fact that my work would have no real lasting effect on the course of my life. As long as I got into university, I could do whatever I wanted with my highschool time. That is no longer the case.
We have been gradually dividing the week up into special days, flash-in-the-pan traditions that will only last so long as we have time, money, and memory for them. Monday is Burger Monday, wherein we travel to the Fort Langley Pub and partake of their Monday burger deal and a couple of pints. Tuesday is either Ben Cooper Day or Cut-Off-Jeans Tuesday, depending on the weather. Wednesday is Creeper Wednesday, rule number one of which is, "no actual creeping." Thursdays are Peppermint Thursdays, where peppermint tea is consumed and I endeavour to listen to some White Stripes. The weekend has not been allocated. We are creating a structure here which, to the casual observer, might seem meaningless or even unnoticable, but which gives meaning to an otherwise arbitrary separation of the week.
Three minutes ago a corn roast started. If I actually owned a pair of cut-offs, I would be wearing them. Regardless, I'm still going to go get my corn on.

Will

Student Playlist #2

I've submitted a student playlist to Mars Hill in hopes of getting it published. Here's the finished product regardless. Enjoy,

Will

These songs are all terrible for studying to, but who's studying anyways?

1. Son House - Levee Camp Moan

- Son House had a job on the levee and a good looking woman, but after nearly ten minutes of this song, you'll be guaranteed to have the blues. This is the heart of the Delta blues.

2. Breathe Owl Breathe - Dragon

- A tale of a princess and a dragon who are pen pals. If you try to study to this, you'll be doing an injustice to your work.

3. Tom Waits - Green Grass

- I always hesitate to recommend Tom Waits to friends. If you think you can handle him though, this is one of his most subdued songs in recent years.

4. Buck 65 - Corrugated Tin Facade

- A haunting song off of his best album. Sorry K-os and K'naan, but Buck 65 is my favorite Canadian rapper and he's a CBC radio host to boot.

5. Johnny Cash - The Mercy Seat

- Covering Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cash characteristically makes Cave's lyrics say exactly what he wants them to. You may want to listen more than once.

6. Blind Willie McTell - I Got To Cross The River Jordan

- That's right, more blues! Make sure you listen to the 4:37 version from his Library of Congress recordings because the recordings close out with a 1:51 refrain of the same name.

7. Josh Garrels - Zion & Babylon

- I still can't believe that I was lucky enough to see Josh Garrels live at TWU a few years back. I also can't believe he still doesn't have a Wikipedia article. Somebody get on that!

8. The Eels - Climbing To The Moon

- If you're ever feeling a little insane (for me it's the months of March and April), throw on some Eels and you will start to feel positively normal.

9. The Unicorns - I Was Born (A Unicorn)

- I don't know about you, but I love it when bands have theme songs. These guys are also from Montreal, so it's pretty much guaranteed that they will rock you.

10. John Lee Hooker - The Waterfront

- This is one of my favorites from John Lee Hooker. It's such a pure distillation of the blues and it's a perfect closing song.

Thursday on Thursday

listening to "Rusty Cage" - Johnny Cash

Break is good. Holidays are good. Rest is good. I near burned myself out this semester and it's been nice to rest from that, to go to sleep reading Chesterton at night, and to wake up in the morning when I want to wake up. There are still things that I need to do, there are still responsibilities, and there is still stress, but it has slowed considerably.

listening to "As Ugly as I Seem" - White Stripes

I've been reading Chesterton's "The Man Who Was Thursday", reading "Paradoxes of Catholicism" by Robert Benson, and debating with a friend about Catholicism. Sometimes it tears me apart. I like Chesterton, I enjoy reading his stuff. The Man Who Was Thursday reminds me of a R.L. Stevenson short story called "The Suicide Club". It is dark and brooding with a noble and likable main character thrust into events beyond his ken. I can still see the ideas though. Chesterton is one of those authors which Catholics and people who wish they were Catholics will recommend. They usually will rave about a set of "Father Brown" stories, about a priest who doubles as a novice detective. It's not that I don't like Chesterton, but I can see the ideas germinating in Thursday that will eventually result in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism. I don't like that. The more I read of Paradoxes, and the more I read in scripture, the more I see how grievous are the offenses that Catholic theology (if you can call it that) commits. Dad gave me some words recently that we need to be wary of anything that takes away from the power of the cross. Then, as I further explored the intricacies of Catholicism, it simply blew me away that one could be so blind to the very Word of God. Anyways, Catholicism gets me all worked up and the fam wants to watch a movie.

Will

Tree Rings and Tea Things

Had my first class this morning; Geog 121 - Earth and Atmospheric Science. It fills up my lab requirement for TWU, but like every mandatory class here, I think I'm really going to enjoy this one. It was just the intro class today so as soon as the professor mentioned that his office was in the back of the Tree-Ring Lab it set the wheels turning and I spent the rest of the time engrossed in sketching the layout of ideally what a tree-ring lab would consist of (super sweet).
The apartment is shaping up very nicely and on my first shopping trip I purchased three different boxes of Celestial Seasonings tea; Chamomile, Sleepytime, and Original India Spice. I purchased them for the double purpose of having both tea and coffee to offer to house guests and so that I can get a feel for the drinking of tea, an area where I have barely any experience (I just finished my second cup of coffee this morning). It is pretty enjoyable stuff, but with the amount of people coming through our apartment and just generally hanging out, I'm burning through it pretty fast.
The beard is coming back in quicker than I expected so Henderson will not be flying solo for long, but in the meantime it can be rough going sometimes. The support received from guys is definitely heartening though.
I have one more class at 11:40 today that I am extremely apprehensive about; Math 101. I'm all prepped though; I already have the textbook, I bought a three-subject notebook this morning, I bought a scientific calculator at Staples last week (and then promptly found my long lost graphing calculator once I moved in), and I have drunk copious amounts of coffee this morning (read: buzzzzzzz). Bring it on Math 101!!! Just try me...
Will

Fresh

I suppose you could say that the incubation period for this blog has reached a close. Back in March, when I published my last blog post, I had begun to get a nagging feeling about importing my blog to facebook; I'm not sure what it was, whether a lack of reader accountability or just that the publicness of the medium subtly changed the openness of what I wrote, but I decided to stop importing my blog and coinciding with this I halted all blog activity. Halting blog activity was only ever barely consciously to purge any facebook readership and make people forget that this blog existed, but hopefully it served that purpose. Regardless of my reasons, I suddenly feel refreshed, I feel as though there are things that I have been holding inside that need a forum (though this is more of a monologue) and so I have come full circle to the reasons why I started blogging in the first place. I must confess that there was a time when I questioned whether I would ever start blogging again, but alas here I am again and so, it seems, are you.
On to the poetry! I have not written as much as I would have liked to over this summer, but upon returning to the lower-mainland I have begun to feel my inspiration returning at a rapid pace. Here is a little something I penned while I was waiting for my bus in Langley. It even talks about real people and real places! Enjoy,
Will

Two-Step

Two-Step twitching at his neck
as though to shake a cold
or lose his breath
everybody stops to stare
to see his naked faults exposed
laid bare on pavement stuck with gum
and littered down with cigarettes

everybody - all the busy bodies
mime like Simon Says to him
some mock and some feel pity
but no body burns to even talk to him

Two-Step feels no need for charity
questioned he pretends to elegance
and all your sympathy will melt
like symphonies dissolving when
no matter what you've done or do
Two-Step turns and walks away from you