Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
One of the disciples asked, “What of the man who builds his house inside the house built on the rock? Surely his house will be even less damaged by water and wind. Is this what we should do?”
Some random interesting things I’ve seen in recent days (to sate you while I put the finishing touches on my most favorite post maybe ever, coming shortly):
Ûž This looks interesting — “Revenge Of The Book Eaters: Shows That Ask The Eternal Question: Words or Music — Which Is Better?“ In Chicago tonight with Ben Gibbard & Dave Eggers (and more), Los Angeles on Saturday with Jenny Lewis, Aimee Mann, Dave Eggers, The Mountain Goats and more, and San Francisco on Monday with Zach Rogue (of Rogue Wave), Aimee Mann, Jonathan Richman, Mark Kozelek, Dave Eggers (and more). Finally it hits Seattle on Sept 1, with some of the above folks plus Smoosh and Colin Meloy. (Audio from the recent NY event here, featuring Sufjan and David Byrne duetting).
The Bookeaters events kind of tie in with the recent podcast I contributed to, exploring the relationship of books and music, eh? In any case, sounds like something I would totally love to attend. How ’bout a Denver date? We read a lot here.
Ûž Recommended reading from The Rawking Refuses To Stop — Reinventing The Wheel: Indie Labels In The Digital Age. Thought-provoking reflection on the nature of blog downloads, album sales, hypothetical profit vs. the benefits of publicity for an independent band in the blogging world.
Ûž This one’s for all you ’80s fans out there: A John Hughes Soundtrack Retrospective put together by Derek over at the PureBoredom blog. It includes all those songs you either love or despise from National Lampoon’s Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. And in the immortal words of Ferris: “A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, ‘I don’t believe in The Beatles, I just believe in me.’ Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus but it still wouldn’t change the fact that I don’t own a car!” Ahh, the wisdom of the ’80s movies. They could write a book.
Ûž So you think you know songwriting? How do you feel about folks like Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Isaac Brock and Robert Smith judging your tunes? This year’s International Songwriting Competition is open now through October 16. Have at it.
Ûž Here’s one to file under “Huh. I didn’t know that but now I can squirrel that away in my vast musical memory”: Jesse Malin writes in his latest update on MySpace about the progress of his new album: “. . . Had Kim from The Muffs sing a haunting melody on a track, repaying the background wo-oh’s me and Danny Sage did 10 years ago on the Muffs cover of “Kids In America” on the ‘Clueless’ soundtrack.”
Listen for yourself: Kids In America – The Muffs (with Jesse Malin & Danny Sage on BGVs)
Thanks to Eric over at Marathonpacks for this link to Dave Eggers‘ (author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) reflections on the World Cup over on Slate:
“It was, by most accounts, 1986 when the residents of the United States became aware of the thing called the World Cup. Isolated reports came from foreign correspondents, and we were frightened by these reports, worried about domino effects, and wondered aloud if the trend was something we could stop by placing a certain number of military advisers in Cologne or Marseilles. Then, in 1990, we realized that the World Cup might happen every four years, with or without us.”
Plus, Eggers assigns one fictional character in his essay the name of Fakey McChumpland, which alone is reason enough to read it. This piece comes from The Thinking Fan’s Guide to the World Cup, an anthology edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey and published this month. It also includes a piece from Nick Hornby, so you know it’s good.
I LOVE Dave Eggers; A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was one of the best books I read last year (and it has gone missing from me, I think I’d best just buy a replacement). I welcome any links that you wish to send me from other Dave Eggers articles on the web that you find funny. The man is comic genius.
By the way, I am still rocking the suburbs on the World Cup bloggers pool, which is surprising even to me. Don’t worry guys, I am sure to lose soon! (but in the meantime, call me Prognosticator of Prognosticators)
Name: Heather Browne Location: Colorado, originally by way of California Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel." —Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
From Dave Eggers’ journal McSweeney’s:
Name: Heather Browne
