Tamaryn ~

If you explore the artist Tamaryn in depth (and what I mean by this is listen to at least one album) you will undoubtedly discover your ears being drawn in by a combination of subtle repetitive drum sequences and demanding guitar rifts all interlaced by Tamaryn's deep dreamy voice whom at times is barely audible.  As the music grows on you, so does an understanding of shoegaze in it's entirety.  Inspired by My Morning Jacket, I give you one of my favorite songs by the New York based group:

Now I will continue studying for finals...

Ciao,

-b.

Rhye Remix

This year's album Woman by Rhye pulled at the heart strings, sit back and listen as SOHN helps reiterate the passion of the remixed version of Open.



-B

grooves

Moons

I, like many others, have long been fascinated by the beauty of our moon. This fascination does not limit itself to its many faces protagonizing the night skies; my interest digs within the history of what humans believed they were witnessing and the many interpretations of its gravitational pull on our tides, often giving me the impression that we remain incredibly superstitious animals. So during the summer months of the year 2005, I set out to pursue the moon in the dimly darkened night skies of Scandinavia. After weeks of test-shoots and studying quick-changing weather patterns during short intervals of darkness as allowed by this time of the year at such high latitudes, it looked like I would have to take to the sea and shoot from the ferry between Sweden and Finland on the only full-moon nights (due to cloudy forecasts everywhere else). Finally, feeling almost beaten by odds which I felt I should have myself beaten, there it was: big and red and rising slowly above a river in Härjedalen, over the town called Älvros (River Rose). I stopped the car, set-up my gear and began to shoot. Out of my obsession, I became possessed and thus began my pursuit of the moon across the sky. This trip lasted three nights. The video piece is the result of this journey. It turned into a trance-like meditation. 

The drawings of Luna are excerpts of my sketchbook that summer. Each sketch was intended to guide the viewer through the mental process I underwent in order to turn my footage into an installation where the viewer might be afforded the opportunity to experience a little of what I experienced. I'm not sure if this kind of thing ever succeeds, but I hope that those who visited the piece managed to form their own relationship to this depiction of something which we have all seen, gazed and at some point wondered about.

More by Orestes Grediaga can be found on his website :

here

x, B.

starter for 10

Everyone in the universe must watch Starter For 10 because it comes equipped with a fantastic soundtrack and a quirky plot despite its slight predictability.

x,b

Cocteau Twins

I started listening to the Cocteau Twins again but this time I've noticed a lot more about the music itself that is just so utterly grand I'm not sure I'll even be able to explain it.  They seem to be alarmingly ahead of their time (Late 70's to late 90's) and it's pretty apparent if you compare them to their contemporaries.

Elizabeth Fraser, the lead vocalist, impossibly captures every emotion with a distinct flicker and flutter of her voice.  Not only does it pair flawlessly with the actual instruments, it flows perfectly with your emotions as you listen.  I'd like to say they are a band that grew on me and it took me some time to realize how great they really are.

Although you might have to look up the inaudible lyrics, you might realize that you feel no different about the song:  Pure love.
Not sure about this video, but here is a song that illustrates their perfection:







-b

"Existence precedes essence."
-Jean Paul Sartre ...
(but maybe essence precedes existence?)


"It is inauthentic to refer to oneself through the eyes of others."
- Jean Paul Sartre


"One is not born a woman but becomes one."
- Simone de Beauvoir


"Man's greatness is his misery."
- Blaise Pascal


"One is never as happy nor as discontent as imagined."
- François de La Rouchefoucauld 


"Those who live without madness are not as wise as they believe."
- Francois de La Rouchefoucauld

These come across a little more powerful in French...

But an idea is an idea! 

-b

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

The French struggle to write freely in newspapers during and before the Revolution was actually pretty remarkable.  Having to write a whole paper on this stuff is a very eye opening experience because it's made me realize how much I take news for granted.  

 I like these images from an artistic standpoint.  Especially the first one because of the passionate expression on their faces.

-b

chasseurs

Alexander Wang
:')

x,b

soixante

Completely random 1960s stuff:

Jean Luc Goddard and the nouvelle vague, Mad Men's zou bisou bisou Megan, A Bout de Souffle (Breathless), and some Andre Breton (Manifeste du Surréalisme, aka Surrealist Manifesto)

Oh this is what I meant by zou bisou:

Misc. Music

free download

What's better than a free music download from Sun Glitters?




Although this gem has no download button, it's a great listen.

x
B.

Kings

One of the greatest rock videos I've ever seen and I've probably posted this before I love it so much.
I wish they didn't get so popular and change everything about themselves including Caleb's hair because that's some ridiculously awesome hair.


Also:



Beach House's album, Bloom, which came out in 2012 was one of my favorite albums for sure.  On pitchforktv, Beach House released a very different music video merely to complete my life.  You absolutely must watch past the first few seconds because once you hear her sing your mouth will drop and you will immediately realize that you have a love for this band in all its being.


Let the good times roll,

-B

colossal

My very inspiring, wonderful, and long time friend shared a website with me a while ago titled thisiscolossal.com. I browsed through a huge chunk of the website and found some of the most beautiful art applied to everyday life. Take a look and don't forget to visit thisiscolossal!

 Play this whilst you scroll

flowers soaked in liquid nitrogen.  By Jon Shireman shatter on contact.  

Disturbing Watercolor by Dima Rebus

Long Exposure (my favorite) Fireworks photos by David Johnson

Cut-Away Leaf art by Lorenzo Duran

Caricatures of Russian Politicians adorn the streets and are perfectly centered to position street potholes as the mouths of the caricatures.  Russian city officials are desperately trying to fix the roadway situations. 

Solar System Lollipops by Vintage Confections

Tea Illustrations by Andrew Gorkonenko

-B

Grave Wave

This music map...  Twisting, turning, altering itself into any state of matter.  With no real infrastructure or simple guidelines it's just here, with me.  There are no county lines, or state borders mainly because there is no security within this musical realm.  It's one of the only things I post about because as much cheese as there is on this pizza, it's become apart of me.  I read reviews from Pitchfork and the harshest ones make me sick.  A musical group: classical, alternative, indie, electronic, dubstep, rock, etc. is forever changing just like my music road, map, world... and just like yours.

Introduction to introduction, I invite you back to the Addams Family and what I'm guessing would have been their (futuristic) musical preference: Grave Wave.  Artists such as Grimes, Gatekeeper, ERAAS, //Tense//, Nuit Noire, Salem, and White Ring are just a few of this abnormal electronic dark exciting music.  Even if it seems ridiculous, I ask you to give it a listen just as I have every other song I've posted.








Hope you're not too weirded out! Halloween is coming. Make it a real Halloween.x -B

Mon Dieu, Hookoo

Goodbye summer and that last fun night with Yas, it's 11:30am, on Tuesday.  French Business with a focus on Micro Economics.  Taught in French.  Maybe 9 other students, all of which are nearly fluent.  And then I'm thinking "Mon Dieu!" Like I am fluent myself... Even though repeating the phrase "mon dieu" over and over makes me no more fluent than my dog chilling on the couch at home.  Then they all start debating the idea of buying goods made by French companies or imported goods made by Vietnamese companies and or Chinese companies.  All in french remember and I'm catching phrases and words and for the most part I can understand but responding is out of the question.  Professor Daubigny divides us, right down the middle.  For and against French Producteurs or Other Producteurs.  Thank DIEU that I'm for French Goods made by French Enterprise.  We debate for a couple of minutes.  Surprisingly, I had actually some pretty good slowly stitched sentences that ended up getting a few nods here and there.

And I can't wait to go back on Tuesday.

Caits' post inspired me to share a few songs that I been listening to often. They are all pretty slow and relaxed so enjoy and relax!









-B

The Header

Inspiration comes at you like the falling boulder in the Indiana Jones ride at Disney Land.  There's that lightning and the bumpy car and you don't know what is going on but you have to do something about it.  Anything..  So you walk outside and look around which ultimately makes the feeling worse especially as clouds roll in overhead.  Over the beaches and the vast oceans and it's quiet and peaceful and everything just feels so weird.  This is always how inspiration approaches me.  But if I don't do anything about it, it just drifts off as if that huge boulder didn't even squish me at all 20 minutes ago and then everything just feels off... For days.  Today this sort of happened minus some intensity.  So I took out my bamboo tablet and opened up photoshop and sat on my computer for three hours trying to make a new header image for figureno.1.  I probably deleted 200 items that were just horrible and tried applying them to the actual blog only to fail miserably with the coding.

So, I just tried to mimic Ann's handwriting and wah-la.  It's a nice contrast because it's handwritten and then we have all this clean cut type text on the actual blog itself.   

Here are a few of the images I made... This was one of the options that I should have taken more time on (hence the off centerness of the entire image): 

The Details and Symbols

Macabre.  Macabre.  Macabre.  I finally went to my first Macabre sale.  I keep debating if I should wear the long Swiss Jacket that I bought in this 85 degree summer weather or if I should just keep it tucked away for a cooler day...  Naturally, I won't wear it because I'd die a slow death of heat exhaustion.  Regardless, I'm inexplicably excited to put that jacket on in the fall or winter and actually need it.  Oh winter... you're so far away yet so close. 

Back to Macabre.  Here are a few pictures of the owners' apartment covered in their glorious sale items.  I regret not buying everything.  No joke.

 

So many amazing items that are one of a kind and completely unique.  I wish my entire closet was full of this stuff!  I guess I'll have to work a few items at a time... Which is what I did here: 

 

Like Macabre on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sh0pmacabre) 

and follow their blog at shopmacabre.blogspot.com 

-B

 

Stuck Between Stations

   

Today was weird, my night was more or less a continuation of my day: movies all day, movies in the evening, moves at night.  I watched Titanic for the first time in years.  Yaddah Yaddah, love story, epic love story, forbidden epic love story, high love story society, etc.  The film, of course, is entertaining, beautiful, sad, and epic all at the same time.  It pulls at every human emotion which is said to be the most important aspect of a film: to make one feel.  We all associate these American films with our American culture because everyone has seen Titanic and if you haven't then you're clearly not from here.  After my movie marathon: Titanic, Jerry Maguire, Sex and the City, and sections of Flubber, I logged onto netflix and began watching Stuck Between Stations.

It's an extremely interesting love story because it was extremely realistic.  The characters, the storyline, the events.  Simply put, the film follows two people who used to know one another in grade school that crossed paths one night in Minneapolis now that they have both developed their own lives.  It's a slow developed film that keeps you locked in solely for the character development.  The love story is quirky and simple but at the same time develops into something more complex and realistic.  I love finding gems like these.   Love love love them.

-B

Rain in July

I'd say the majority of the world will get a few summer rain showers here and there.  I haven't traveled to too many places in the world but I can say without a doubt that rain would grace us with its presence every once in a while when I visited Paris a few summers ago.  It would graze the beautiful quiet city later in the day.  A few hours later the clouds would begin to part and crack like ice just as the sun set.  We'd walk outside to accompany the desk attendants as they smoked their Parisian cigarettes and the puddles would glisten in the reflection of the sunset.  I still have this image in my head of the Rue Vavin after a summer rain shower.  It's one of the most beautiful things I have been graced with in this world and I plan to cherish it until I see it again.  Until it becomes a reality once more.

Cheminées rue Vavin à Paris 6ème  by John Aives (on flickr)

-B