February 03, 2015 by David in Photo

5 Faves - Best Coast

February 02, 2015 by David in Music

In light of the speculation that a new album is coming out somewhat soon (UPDATE: May 5!), I thought I'd highlight five of my favorite tracks by Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno's duo Best Coast. I've seen them live a couple times, the most recent being at The Fillmore in SF, and I was really blown away by Cosentino's voice. It's a bit reminiscent of Stevie Nicks, and I don't think any band encapsulates the SoCal beach vibe better. Cosentino's ability to turn three to five chord songs into catchy tracks is all based on her melodies. Love that voice.

Singles - Belle & Sebastian - Perfect Couples

January 30, 2015 by David in Music

My favorite track from Belle & Sebastian's new album. What an intro!!

Vic De Leon "The Royal Tenenbaums" - $2,000

Spoke Art's Annual Wes Anderson Exhibit (multiple pics)

January 28, 2015 by David in Photo

Spoke Art on Sutter St in SF has an annual Wes Anderson exhibit that I've had the luck of seeing the past two years. There are paintings, sculptures, tennis shoes (and for the record, I did not buy them - they were already sold out!), dioramas, portraits, and so much more spanning the life of Wes Anderson's filmography. Each piece of art was for sale, but I apologize that I'm posting this so late as the Exhibit is no longer there. Nonetheless, I still thought people would enjoy the art and the artists!

Maria Suarez-Inclan "Wes Anderson Family" -$50

Both: VanOrton Design - $40 each

Robert Wilson IV "Heaven and Hell" - $35

Fernando Reza "You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity" - $45

Poets & Passages - Girls and Broad City

January 27, 2015 by David in Word

"The New York of Girls is a kind of gray cloud in which to explore the low-level depression and self-absorption of millennials; the New York of Broad City is a Choose Your Own Adventure, a colorful circus of multicultural weirdos. It is the New York I remember from my twenties."

- Rachel Syme, The Broad Strokes, January 14, 2015

Singles - Lupe Fiasco - Mural

January 26, 2015 by David in Music

It's a 1,600 word, 9 minute rap song that's propelled with a beat from The Buchanans who sampled the track Chanson D'un Jour D'hiver from the album Troupeau Bleu released in 1975 by a group called Cortex.

The most amazing thing about this song is the thought that Lupe could perform it live. Baffling with his wordplay and lyrical layers.

"My rap position was black condition and activism / Ammunition for abolition, missions attacking systems / But they're not apt to listen / unless it's dropping on Activision / Are we apps or are we bodies filled with apparitions? / Operating applications, stuck inside an Apple prison / Chicken hack and download updates that lack religion / Or...are we more?"

And that's only about 4% of the lyrics from that track...

Poets & Passages - Donald Glover Interview

January 25, 2015 by David in Word

Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, aka Troy from the TV show Community, aka former writer for 30 Rock, aka this is one talented dude, had a very interesting interview with Rembert Browne from Grantland recently. I've followed both these guys for a while, and Browne comes off as a very personable guy who asks the right (and interesting) questions and connects with his interviewees, which in turn gets the interviewee to open up. Gambino was surprisingly honest, and I thought this interview was refreshing because it felt like a true dialogue between two human beings - not interviewer vs interviewee, but two people talking.

The San Francisco Women's Building (multiple pics)

January 24, 2015 by David in Photo

The Women's Building provides contemporary and affordable meeting and event space supporting cultural events, educational forums, advocacy meetings, and support groups. It's located on 18th St in the Mission, and this mural is astounding.

Pattern Familiar

January 23, 2015 by David in Word

It came to my attention
one day
so late.
Over Irish Coffee -
heavy cream, whiskey,
sugar cubes, and company.
The name I have,
The name I'll keep,
may end with me.

These talks of kings and queens,
Lineage releasing despair
for a child to walk with a sword, to speak
spreading seas, birds and bees.
So it was written.
Our only deed.

Yet days wandered to years
as time disregarded love
and rambunctiousness wrestled and wronged
the avenues we could have called home.
Because why grow up as my stubble grows thick?

Memories remain,
callouses harden from the same, the same,
and I can't remember
a day, a November,
that I wasn't alone
wrapped in ecstasy of you.
Our permanence -
etched lines of physical signs -
only stenciled.
And bruises always fade.

If ever the rust of perception
will clear,
the beating heart in this study
will bear
not just a name, or a poem on names,
but a reason to give in.

And the grin of a doting father
will replace the temporary harbors
dancing like pieces of a cookie cracked
whose fortune read exactly as dreamt.

And I sip and think of kings and queens.

Album Review - The Maccabees - Given to the Wild

January 22, 2015 by David in Music

The Maccabees, a pretty well known band in the UK pretty well forgotten in the States, released their third album, Given to the Wild, in 2012. The album won NME's Best Album of the Year. It was listed as #15 in my Top 25 Albums of 2012, and now that I'm listening to it again, I think it deserved to have a higher ranking.

The album is an original. I can't think of any apt comparisons other than Bombay Bicycle Club's So Long See You Tomorrow (especially the atmospheric intro tracks that flow right into the second) sounding somewhat similar, but the BBC album pales in comparison.

This album is all about love - that which we follow, idealize, grab and grasp for, then take for granted and ultimately lose.