Heavy Rotation 10-4-13

Earl Sweatshirt-Doris

The West Coast hip-hop movement has been filled with moments of brilliance, violence and straight up silliness.  Quasimoto was this guy back in the day who got kind of emotional at times.  Perhaps, Drake’s openness framed Earl Sweatshirt’s, yet it feels so much more raw, straightforward and honest.  Earl says, directly, “I’m depressed.”  What?  An MC letting his guard down that low is a pretty new thing to me.  Then, on the other hand there is a song about fucking freckles off a bitch’s face.  So, it is a mixed bag of maturity.  Yet, unlike Drake, who pours out his heart again and again, this kid is still protecting it.  He is only 21 or something and he should protect it.  Yet, this album has some of the best sounding beats I’ve heard in a while (since early Qausimoto/GZA?) and his delivery is priceless. 

Sonny and the Sunsets-Longtime Companion

This album came out in 2012 and he has a new one this year, which is also really good.  I’m spacing the title at this point, but it is really good and has a bit better production value than this one.  I looked up Sonny’s name beforehand, but I want to make you, dear readers look that up yourselves because it is fun to investigate things on your own.  Anyway, this amazing album came up as a recommendation on Spotify.  I listened to it and I thought, this is a divorce album.  It turns out it was.  Yet, what is brilliant about it is that it is as open as open can be.  He spares us from too many personal experiences, which could alienate a shitty episode from listeners.  You know that he and his wife had spilt up, yet he makes that break up as universal as possible.  You feel him, in ways, kind of letting go as he sings, yet you’re not sure if he wants to give her up completely.  His voice only says so much.

Other Stuff:

Galaxie 500- This is Our Music

Townes Van Zandt- Live at the Old Quarter

Bruce Springsteen- Nebraska

Pavement-Slanted & Enchanted

Drake- Nothing Was the Same

Neil Young-Zuma

Demisenberg

I cannot stop thinking about Walter White.  His downfall is epic.  No, his entire character arc is epic.  I can't recall a man I loved then hated, really hated, then felt some need for redemption for.  I mean, you watched this man create something for nothing.  You watched a man who had no clue what his short life may bring become a different person once they have some power.  Walt is what happens to lottery winners with the exception of working for your money.  But, it came so quickly, and that is the man's demise.

There are times you understand his lies, his cover ups, his desire to not really see what he had become.  And that is why, by the end of fit all, you want the best for Walt.  He pulled it off.  Those initial lacks of responsibility became realities by the end of the show.  There were these moments, and if you add them all up and make a sum of it, you realize so much of the death.....perhaps, all of the death in the show is all Walt's making.  Not his making per se, but his inability to take responsibility for his initial action of grabbing Jesse and making a cook.  I felt as if Walt had been in a sort of denial of everything until New Hampshire.  It hit home for him.  It sucks to be so alone when you haven't been for such a long, long time.  Yet, there is Walt, disconnected and paying someone to just spend time with him.  It is sad, and that is where you really re-connect with him as a character.  I think it is that moment when you forgive him.

Alas, the finale.  He does, somehow, and rather believably, make everything right.  And, at first, after watching the last episode, I thought he took the bullet for Jesse when he hit the remote.  Yet, he did take the bullet for Jesse by staying on top of him as he set of the barrage of gunfire.  The bullet would have hit him and by Walt lying on top of him, he saved Jesse.  Finally, Walt dies with a very Taxi Driver camera set up with the overhead views.  That is also another fitting ending to the show and a great homage to an amazing film.  The camera, like a hawk, spins slowly, so we see the cops.  Oddly enough, you have to ask is Walter White the Travis Bickle of 2013?  Were his actions, after all of its said and done, good for society?  A world without Gus is a better world in a way.  The morality of the show is one that will resonate for a long time.  Walter White is one of the best written and complex characters of our modern era.  He is our Ahab.  He will go down with so many mixed emotions; some good, lots bad.

His death is like reality.  It is conflicted and awful.  It is something you want to forget, yet never can.  Finally, it is a memory.  Those become clouded and odd as time passes.  Yet, you never forget the moment death happens. I will never forget Walt's bloody prints on the canister he last touched.  Nor will I forget his coldness when a child dies in the desert.  Yet, I will mourn his absence: the good, the bad and the ugly parts of it

Loves and Hates via haiku

Loves in haiku:

1. Bananas so ripe,

easiest to peel their skin 

And ingest goodness

2. Pittsburgh Pirates won

a meaningful game to go

to the World Series. 

3. Having a new cat

reminds me of my old cat,

color difference. 

Hates in haiku:

1. The essays pour in,

so many grammar errors. 

Teach another day 

2. Caring about things

that don't revolve around me 

are just way too much. 

3. The cat hides a lot,

Looking for him everywhere. 

Still he is hiding. 

Up North and a Secret

Yesterday's ride was awesome.  I went with a guy named Frank who I met at open studios last week.  He is a good rider and forced me to push myself big time.  We began in Brooklyn and took the Brooklyn Bridge to get to the West Side Greenway.  The bridge at 10:00 AM was, as expected, extremely miserable.  To add to the misery, though, was some sort of large scale walk.  That means there were hordes of clueless people merging in and out of the bike lane and making riding straight up dangerous.  That bridge is truly the worst crossing in the city.  The only problem is that getting to that bikeway on the west side is so easy via that damn bridge.  Then it was off to upper Manhattan and the Bronx.  I hadn't ridden in the Bronx in years and used to love it!  There are nice rolling hills and you actually realize how much of that borough is really interesting and unique.  Onwards north, though to Yonkers, Westchester county, baby!  Yes, Yonkers where there is a secret to be found.  I'm not sure I want to share that secret, but it looks like this for miles:

There is so much lush greenery here.  It is paved and goes on for 36 fucking miles.  We didn't even ride all that much of it, but need to make a return trip with an earlier start to tackle it and complete a round trip.  That would pretty much equal an entire century.  So yesterday's long ride added up to be 65 miles in total.  I added another 10 to that through the evening so got to a nice 75 logged on Saturday.  If you do discover where this secret begins in Yonkers, please keep it on the DL.  It is worth keeping quiet about so it doesn't get all that crowded.  These riding days are dwindling and need to get back there before they disappear all together for the year.

Wha?

I almost bought this tonight. Really????