Thursday, March 27, 2008

happy place

many of us long and dream for a place that may or may not exist, especially when the weather is grody or when we're having a particularly bad day. two good friends of mine were discussing what our happy place would be like. here they are----->

good friend #1:
"i imagine the inside of the easter bunny's basket being some sort of dreamy mini universe that marries willy wonka's chocolate factory and seurat's "a sunday afternoon on the island of la grande jatte ". add the coug in there somewhere (we don't have to intereact... i just feel comfortable that he's there...and might strum a song or too) and i'm set."

good friend #2
"...i think that right now, i guess, it would be beruit singing for me at a lake house with warm weather and bike trails through forrests, swimming and a tree swing, campfires and grill outs and friends.
or maybe i just want it to be summer..."

as for me:
reading the sunday nytimes in bed, with a chocolate croissant, vanilla soy latte (both on a super fancy bed tray), 1000 thread count sheets, cashmere socks and worn out flannel pj's, some sort of chill music (think silje nes or beach house etc.) the smell of lavendar in the air and maybe some birds chirpin', even though its raining (in my happy place it always rains) OH! and a puppy -- gotta have a puppy.

shit, i'm such a product of my demographic.

what's yours like?

Monday, March 10, 2008

no use pretending

in my lifetime i've maybe listened to this song about 20x. not that many repeats in comparison to other songs i've obsessed over. but this one, this one hangs, swells and drips. i really don't want to listen to it too many times, for the fear that the feeling i get when i listen to it will go away. i think the feeling will always be there, much like my love for raw peanut butter and apples or the smell of magnolias. however, i think the more passes it makes on my ears the softer and more tangible it will become. mystery and elusiveness are essentially what drive our intrigue, then once it turns into a studied or understood thing we move on. especially in our ever evolving and disposable state of consumerism and culture.

i read an interesting excerpt from another blog that mentioned mp3's vs cd's. cd's are a commitment to an album for its customer, whereas an mp3 is a one hitter. the unfortunate conclusion the author came to; is that the music industry is making songs more disposable. this is so we will grow tired of that singular hit thus creating a need for more mp3's, maybe by the same artist, maybe a different one all together, as long as the need/demand/urge is met.

this song, the one you are about to download from here, is not that kind of mp3. in fact if i was able to hand each and every one of you a cassette, 7inch, or cd of this song i would, just so you wouldn't think of it as disposable. because in all honesty this song deserves more than that.

c. blunstone-caroline goodbye


Friday, March 7, 2008

Monday, March 3, 2008

wood, spray and paste

"natural style"




as opposed to your usual spray paint graffiti, garners a warm place in my heart. my early fascination with graffiti began back in atlanta when i used to lurk around truck yards and abandoned buildings taking pictures of the local talent: totem, hense and sever being my favorites:

hense/sever




totem/mr. fangs




so you can imagine my delighted surprise when i noticed this
in my hood last night :




it's the perfect way to reflect urban culture while making a nod to another genre of art, totems! think about it, totems are erected to ward off bad spirits, symbolically represent the status of a family, or to serve as a memorial to a loved one.
how meta! this telephone-totem pole could be a few of those things:

keep the rats at bay (notice the rat warning posted ever so close to the visage of the totem fella), a sign of gentrification for the neighborhood or simply an artistic whim.

other natural urban artists that i enjoy are:

chris uphues:



one of my all time favorites, swoon:



i suppose i say natural as opposed to straight up graffiti, because as i write this i realize this 'natural style' itself is becoming the norm for graff artists. not having access to spray paint, (especially here in chicago, buying spray paint means a trip to the burbs); or maybe being more sculpturally inclined as opposed to having a sprayin urge could be the reasoning.

another favorite is the work the barnstormer collective puts out: