11.30.10

"People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that's bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they're afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain."

- Jim Morrison

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving

and a weekend of friends, family, loved ones, and really good food.

**Keep an eye out for a special new post by the end of the weekend**

A Song for Sunday

"Chariot" by, Page Francis

[this is a fan-made video, but I thought it was kinda cool]

11.12.10

it's a quarter past one

in the dreary birth of a new yawning day

the stars give light to the blurry night sky

like needle marks

through black construction paper

held up to a shy flashlight.

True Love Will Find You In The End

[I don't have permission to host the video on my blog, so you can follow the link above to YouTube to watch the full music video. Believe me, I tried.]

This song has been around for a while, but I heard it for the first time last night. It played out through a really dramatic closing scene of a TV show, and I just found it really powerful. I came across this version of the song, covered by Mates of State, and thought the video was really original and definitely worth sharing with you guys. Be sure to give the original version a listen as well though. Personally I prefer the original (which was the one played on 'The Big C' last night,) and I'll share a video of that version as well below.

The original music and lyrics are by singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston. His song True Love Will Find You In The End has been covered by countless bands and solo artists, and is one of the most well known tracks in his discography. Johnston's rise in popularity can't be credited to one particular person or event; some of his exposure was actually thanks to the late Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. Kurt would often be seen wearing a t-shirt with Johnston's album artwork on the front of it, reading "Hi, How Are You."

Although Johnston used to tour worldwide, his involvement in the music industry in recent years has been more behind-the-scenes. In 2004 he helped put out a two part album entitled The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered, which features a vast line-up of artists from Tom Waits, to Bright Eyes, to The Flaming Lips, to Beck, just to name a few. One disc features covers of Johnston's songs performed by these artists, while the other disc features his own renditions. Johnston suffers from bipolar disorder, but has managed to put out some really substantial tracks despite those difficulties.

Daniel's a really interesting character; in a 2002 interview with Pitchfork, he talked about his fascination for not only music, but old comic books, even Salvador Dali paintings.

"Now I'm really into Salvador Dali. I mean, I always was, but recently I got a bunch of Salvador Dali books and I bought some postcards and started hanging them on my walls. And like I'm listenin' to The Beatles, smokin', you know, and I'll be looking at these little postcard Salvador Dali paintings on my wall just freakin' out! They just look like they're movin'! When I'm high on... and I'm looking at the wall, it just freaked me out! I mean, those paintings are so loud."

It's nothing short of interesting to hear Johnston rant on about getting stoned, listening to The Beatles while Salvador Dali paintings come to life through the walls, like he's Hunter S. Thompson, and then listen to his mellowing anthem of undying love, True Love Will Find You In The End.

Take a listen.

breathing in november

i like when you stay

and i get to share

the thick not too hot not too cold

where did the humidity go?

who cares?

crunchy leaf city street

new york air

with you

i like writing lines for you

specially selected soaking with passion

dripping dropping words

that look simple on paper

but read like a map to Atlantis in my head

i like how you leave me tongue-tied bleary-eyed

but still up for the ride

hoping we'll get off at the same stop

and your hand will reach for mine

[photograph property of Moriza]

On The Road (Part Two)

The following excerpt is from Jack Kerouac's On The Road, (p. 209-210)

We were telling these things and both sweating. We had completely forgotten the people up front who had begun to wonder what was going on in the back seat. At one point the driver said, "For God's sakes, you're rocking the boat back there." Actually we were; the car was swaying as Dean and I both swayed to the rhythm and the IT of our final excited joy in talking and living to the blank tranced end of all innumerable riotous angelic particulars that had been lurking in our souls all our lives.

"Oh, man! Oh, man! Oh, man!" moaned Dean. "And it's not even the beginning of it - and now here we are at last going east together, we've never gone east together, Sal, think of it, we'll dig Denver together and see what everybody's doing although that matters little to us, the point being that we know what IT is and we know TIME and we know that everything is really FINE." Then he whispered, clutching my sleeve, sweating, "Now you just dig them in front. They have worries, they're counting the miles, they're thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they'll get there - and all the time they'll get there anyway, you see. But they need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really won't be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end."

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Photographed above, on the left is Neal Cassady, (the real-life Dean Moriarty,) and on the left is Jack Kerouac (a.k.a. Sal Paradise)