Sniraffe

The Language of the Dying Suns

Listening to She Keeps Bees - Dig On

   I finished another paper last night. Ending it, I was listening to Bright Eyes' I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and at 3:30 in the morning I was in that place where I too felt like going wild. I'm close to this first finishing and am excited to not know what to do. I have hope. Let me reiterate: I have hope.
   I find it difficult to post on a poetry blog because I have been in a drought of inspiration. I get crazy in times like these and I will write about anything. I will write because, of course, I would die if I did not. The community poetry blog is a good format though; in the same breath it allows you to show your poetry to other people, critical people, and to place a more realistic level of importance on your writing. It does not allow you to be esoteric, you must engage.

listening to Shakey Graves - Roll the Bones

   I just thought I'd share that. One of my loaned books was returned to me last night with a letter and more poetry. That is the best way. So long as we keep writing letters and putting poetry in them, our language will not be one of metal or binaries. I had hoped to leave this particular book in this particular person's care for a time, but I cannot pass up a letter; letters are the best. But let me say it again (til our language dies and we are left speechless on the shore of an unknown ocean (and even then)): hope remains.

Will

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