Mark and tapes!

http://alexdeve.vox.com/library/post/...

I hadn't seen a tape in ages. And then, Mark showed me that it still exists. You gotta love it!

Who still has cassette tapes anymore?  I have a shoebox full of them but no way to play them.

by draw.vox.com

Inspired by Alex's photo of Mark above, I want to put together a gallery of people holding one of their cassette tapes.  Send me a recent photo of you holding one of your own cassette tapes and I'll add it to the Don't Forget Cassettes photo gallery on my other blog, art is the new religion.

Limited time offer:  If you send me your photo AND your mailing address, I will mail you a nice thank you note via the USPS. 

Let's see if anyone sends me anything...

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It's been over two months since I did a post roundup - did any of y'all forget that I have another blog that I update more regularly than this one?

Last week's posts shared a theme: they were all about some of the art I'll be hanging in my new apartment. 

by Susie Ghahremani

5/27: Tree Stump Phonographs
I commissioned some art from Wexford Girl and coveted some pieces by Mark Fox.

5/28: Play
Once upon a time, a rock star named Moby drew me a special drawing.  I framed it.

5/29: Animals & Instruments
I own seven pieces of art by Susie Ghahremani.

5/30: A Lady and A Gentleman from Boston
Check out what Ben and Mena got me for my birthday this year.

And since last week was only a four day (work/blog) week, here's a bonus completely unrelated to art:
5/23: Fire all of your guns at once
I got my motorcycle license!

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I'm trying to post more often on art is the new religion, so here's another roundup to catch you up through mid-March. 

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Neutral Milk Hotel

3/5: Drink To Good Times
Have I told you lately that I love PJ Harvey's Uh Huh Her?

3/6: That little girl is going to break that little boy's heart
In anticipation of seeing my dear friend David Poe at SXSW, I shared a live performance of one of my favorite songs of his. 

Another longtime friend of mine, Chris in Ann Arbor, says he enjoys reading my blog but that I shouldn't point out when I'm writing about my friends.  I think it would be weird to pretend I don't know someone I'm writing about.  Hmm, thoughts?

3/12: car radio, i hardly knew ye
RIP car radio, 8/2007-3/2008.

3/13: SXSW: Motörhead at Stubb's
Lemmy's jeans appeared to have been painted onto his body.  He is a fascinating character.

3/14: Bon Iver is breaking my heart
I somehow missed all of Bon Iver's many showcases at SXSW.

3/15: iPhone Hack
It was Case's idea.  And it worked!

3/16: This is the room one afternoon I knew I could love you
I believe this is the first poll I've ever posted on AITNR.  Please take a moment to vote.

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I haven't done a roundup since February 4th.  Here's what's I wrote about on my other blog, art is the new religion, during the rest of February*:

Louder Than Love

Soundgarden

2/6: I found the simple life, ain't so simple
The genius of David Lee Roth.

2/11: A Not So Happy Birthday
Sharing music-related memories of my father, on what would have been his 74th birthday.

2/12: Dschinghis Khan & Diamond Dave
Amusing.

2/14: Louder Than Love
Thinking about my early crush on Soundgarden on Valentine's Day.

2/19: Where Is My Mind?
Yoav's cover of Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" is intriguing, but unfortunately the rest of his music is not.  Also, props to KGSR's Jody Denberg for playing it, and congrats to my friend Andy Langer on his new gig at the station.

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My posting pace ground to a halt while I was in SF, but here's an update of what happened on AITNR in the second half of January.

First of all, huge thanks to one of my favorite human beings John who linked to AITNR on his MySpace and spiked my traffic for two crazy days.  That was really exciting and flattering - truly a high compliment!

Also, thanks to vanity searches on Google I've gotten comments from some of the people I've written about, including nice words from a CBC Radio 3 Reporter/Producer, someone at My Damn Channel and the author of the Rahsaan Roland Kirk bio I mentioned.  This is also really gratifying.   My post about Wainy Days still ranks on the first page of Google search results - thanks TypePad!

And now for the roundup:

1/14: Record Shopping
My sad little boombox finally died, so I hooked up my portable record player and fell in love with my vinyl collection all over again.  It also gave me an excuse to check out some record shops in Austin.

art is the new religion: Wherefore Bill Withers?

http://www.artist...

Ah, but dear members of Camp 2, you do know Bill Withers. You have undoubtedly heard Club Nouveau's rendition of Withers' "Lean On Me" far too many times to count. If you're like me, you may even have a vaguely sad or embarrassing memory attached to the song. Mine involves a gradeschool birthd...

1/15:  Wherefore Bill Withers?
Proving once again that you can never know what people are really going to respond to, this post about Bill Withers garnered the most comments I've gotten on AITNR - perhaps ever - ringing in at 9 comments so far.  I think that sad little prawn threw everyone over the edge.

1/17: Speaking of Engelbert Humperdinck...
Another record I picked up on a whim during my record shopping excursion.  You have to watch a few moments of the video I posted because it's simply unbelievable.  Warning:  you will not be able to un-see any of it.

1/18: Tonight's Showalter
I went to see Michaels Ian Black and Showalter at Mohawk in Austin on a night when it was 36 degrees out.  It was an outdoor show.  A big part of both of their acts was making fun of how poorly prepared the venue was for the weather and the turnout.  Also, Michael Ian Black had a whole bit on Texas pride that was really spot on.  He gets it.  In this post I don't review the live performance I went to, I just link to Showalter's own internet interview show, specifically to the episode featuring Zack Galifianakis whose last name is harder to spell than my own (but only one letter longer).

1/21: Cut Copy
I know as a general rule that if I want to keep people coming back to read my blog, I should update about five times a week.  But often I just work late and don't have time.  This post is a half-hearted effort to post something anyway, and there's really no there there.  Cut Copy has a new record coming out -- see, now you don't have to click through to read this post.  I think I'm going to go back to the rule of thumb that if I'm not inspired and/or I don't have enough time then I just won't post.   Which explains why I didn't post at all during my trip to SF.

1/31:  Hallucinating to The Mars Volta
I have a ton of respect for this band, but they might have pushed past the point of no return for me.

Bright Moments

John Kruth

2/1: Bright Moments (In the Key of W)
The Mars Volta got me to thinking about Rahsaan Roland Kirk and why I love him so much.  The fact that we can watch videos of Kirk on demand makes up for a lot of the meaningless crap on YouTube.  Bonus: the author of the Kirk bio that I linked to commented!  So I'm promoting John Kruth's book here too.

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by draw.vox.com

Over on my other blog...

12/28: Feliz Navidad Part 2: Jose Feliciano Concert Review
This is the follow up to the cliffhanger of Feliz Navidad, Part 1, featuring grizzled keyboard players, blue humor, no love for the five string bass, and much love for Jose's languid vibrato.

1/2: Show Review: Kathleen Edwards & Davíd Garza
Good times and old friends at the Continental Club, and a slightly embarrassing shout-out from the stage.

1/3: Slice of Austin Life: Dale Watson at Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon
I dragged my friend Elise to Ginny's for some of Dale Watson's crooning, but I didn't make her watch the chicken&$^@ bingo.  Bonus: two quick videos from my digital camera.

1/4: Celine Dion is _____.
If you haven't already seen this video, I give you this chance to laugh.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death

1/7: The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
I read the short book in anticipation of seeing the film.  Whether or not you see the film, I tell you exactly why you owe it to yourself to read Jean-Dominique Bauby's story in his own words.

1/8: Wainy Days
David Wain from The State and Wet Hot American Summer is up to some more shenanigans.

1/10: CBC Radio 3: A Trip To The Great White North
Are you still reading?  This is a good radio station from Canada.

1/11: Meet The New Steve Perry
I still love the old Steve Perry, but this new guy's got an amazing story, thanks to the miracle of YouTube.  Bonus:  I make my case for Sam Cooke's influence on Perry's vocal stylings.

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AITNR is on a light holiday posting schedule, but I have do have a few updates for this roundup.

First of all I want to give a huge thanks to my Vox peeps who heeded all my fishing for comments to my other blog.  You guys are true friends!  In other commenting news, last week brought my first few comments from strangers since the redesign!  Rome wasn't built in a day.

Here's what happened on art is the new religion last week:

12/18 - "What if I don't become famous posthumously?"
Arab Strap's Malcolm Middleton gets drunk and existential in a Santa suit.  Was this song intended to be a Christmas single, or is it just a brilliant marketing scheme?  Doesn't really matter to me, as it's now in my list of top 10 favorite holiday songs. 

12/20 - BEAT IT, Fergie
Fergie + bad, unnecessary covers = fury.

12/27 - Tacks, the boy disaster
My roommate finally got the organ he's been wishing for (the instrument, not, like, a kidney) and I finally had no excuse not to listen to a great band that I keep hearing about.  Bonus:  this post features the third video I've ever uploaded to YouTube!  Aw, what the heck -- I'll post it here too:

Organ Music with Jeff Klein & Evan Jacobs

Thank you for reading!!

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art is the new religion

http://www.artist...

But Fergie's voice has a chainsaw or dentist drill quality to it, especially when she's belting out a song. It is a truly disturbing sound. If this sound were to awaken you out of a peaceful slumber, you would instinctively hurl a heavy object at t...

Oh, hai.  Did you know that I also blog over at http://www.artisthenewreligion.com?  It's true!

Last week's post roundup yielded both increased traffic and some good comments.  Good comments on my Vox blog, I mean, since no one ever comments on my TypePad blog.  Except for Ashod and Emily and Ottmar Liebert.  But I do know some of you are reading because you told me via instant message and telephone.  So, I'll try to do a wrap up about once a week.

Here's what happened on art is the new religion last week:

12/11 - Show Review: Frank Smith
I finally posted a show review for Frank Smith, wherein I fixated on the seated bassist.  That guy really bugged me.

12/12 - Let's "Let Die", Shall We?
Speaking of really bugging me, no one can top the irksomeness (is a word!) of Fergie's performance at the "Movies Rock" event.  I posted the video and then went through each aspect of why watching it made me want to give up the internet altogether.  This post has merited me the most in-person comments thus far.

12/13 - Rock n Roll Forever
Look, last week at work things were super hectic and busy and maybe I kind of phoned this one in a little.  If you're skimming, you are allowed to skim this one.

12/17 - Feliz Navidad Part 1
This one you can't skim, you must read it.  It's all about my quest to see Jose Feliciano last night.  Plus, part two is on its way.  Cliffhanger!!  

Thanks for reading.  I love you for it.

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Now that I live in Austin and I'm not writing a weekly music column for SFist anymore, I've been thinking a lot about where else I can channel my writing energy.  The redesign and revival of my TypePad blog art is the new religion has been a huge step for me, and I want to take a moment to commemorate the completion of one full week of posts.  Hooray!

by draw.vox.com

Recent highlights & post notes from art is the new religion:

12/5 - Frank Smith is a band not a man:  My dear friend Ashod IMed me today and gave me the gentle, friendly advice that I need to make good on my promises.  Meaning, if I say "I'll let you know what I think of the show" (which I did in this post) then I actually need to do it.  He went on to point out the times I haven't done it.  I do feel a twinge of guilt when I never follow up on that sort of thing, but then I tell myself no one's reading so no one will notice if I don't follow up.  So thank you, Ashod, for pointing out that at least one person does care and I need to do a little work on my follow-through (and perhaps my writerly self-esteem).  Stay tuned over there for my thoughts on the Frank Smith show!

12/6 - Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac:  Did you know that Fleetwood Mac was an amazing band even before Stevie and Lindsey joined it?  (I can hear the comment one of you is making right now, and I'm ignoring it.)  Peter Green was a phenomenal guitar player, circa 1969 before he went mad and left the band.  The writer of the Santana classic "Black Magic Woman"?  Peter Green.

I have so much to say about Fleetwood Mac that it's a little scary.  I once got into a half hour discussion about Fleetwood Mac with a dude in a bar in Portland -- he'd popped off with some ill-informed tidbit about them and suddenly we were in an in-depth discussion of their history and musicality.  As much as he initially annoyed me, I kind of loved him for giving me the opportunity to talk about an obscure obsession of mine.  It was an intensely gratifying experience.  I feel obligated to mention that Ashod was at that bar with us.

Anyway, in this post all I do is embed three YouTube videos of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and also link back to my recent 'Mac-related post here on Vox.  But the videos are really good.

12/7 - The GRAMMY nominations are in:  In which I ramble on about a company I worked for 8 years ago and share my opinions on awards for which I am not qualified to vote.  Bonus:  A comment from GRAMMY Nominee Ottmar Liebert!  (Thanks Case!)

12/10 - The Hacienda Brothers:  The good part is when I quote my friend's description of the difficulty of playing pedal steel.

And now I've realized that this post is really meta and self-promotional and therefore kinda creepy.  Sorry about that, it's just that I'm excited.  And it also illustrates the difficulty I'm having in separating the subject matter of what I post about there vs. what I post about here.  Though I have done it on occasion, I'm philosophically opposed to cross-posting, so at the very least I will try to keep the content on both blogs unique.  But being meta, self-referential and self-promotional is fair game!

OK I'm done now.

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I have an especially big crush on my Vox neighborhood lately.

Firstly, there was the unveiling of the new blog banner I commissioned from Draw (a.k.a. Marc) for my TypePad blog.  Isn't it beautiful?

by draw.vox.com

Finally, when M-----l offered up a real handwritten letter to anyone who wanted one, I jumped on it.  And he wrote me this great letter that made my day:

So there was this boy and this girl and they'd never met...

http://outgoingsignals.vox.com/librar...

M-----l wrote me a letter! With underwear drawings!

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