i mean, i am pretty good at some things. but, the using the internet does not number among them. normally, this isn't a problem. i can manage google image searching for dogs in costume and can navigate jstor fairly well. but, i really wanted to proclaim to the world just how much i love roky erickson's "song to abe lincoln." i wanted to put the song on here, but i don't know how to do that. and i couldn't decipher the directions on the blogger help page. the entries that i found were just about putting songs on to play in background while people read your blog. the song, while my current favie, would be really creepy as a score to any blog really because it is sort of about abraham lincoln's corpse. as you may or may not know, lincoln was embalmed extensively, so much so that when his body was exhumed in 1901 to be put into a safer tomb to thwart potential grave robbers, he had not decomposed at all. his clothes were mildewy, but his lanky body was perfectly intact. this photo is from in 1865 when his body was lying in state. you can sort of make out his face. well, that is what it would look like now if you were to get ten feet under ground, into the steel cage covered in 4000 pounds of concrete in springfield, illinois (except no eyebrows apparently). in all, lincoln's casket has been moved 17 times and opened 5 times.
i am not sure that the song is really about his corpse as much as it is about the affective inverse for that wellworn americanism about any dumb kid growing up to be president. roky's song (and his abe) are about the experience of isolation that he treats as universal where we are all afraid of spending our lives undiscovered in log cabins in the woods. he promises "we will seek you out, we will find you..." potentially directed to these lost abes of the world, this we is never defined. it is about the comfort in being both sought and in seeking another. the drums in it are incredible and it ends with this really eerie refrain of "white house white house white house" that it is hard not sing along to even though is made creepier by the music stopping abruptly giving the feeling of erickson's voice literally hovering after the song (haunty). i knew it was gonna be my new favorite song when i heard it start with the lyric "we are all so special."
why are you still reading this? go listen to the 30 second sample at the itunes store already.
lately, i have been working on my ba thesis. it is pretty cool, and going okay but i have a pretty serious procrastination problem which is certainly not helped by either MATT FURIE or JOHN LURIE.
matt furie just had an opening in san francisco at adobe books. see?
there is so much to look at in these!!! plus, matt furie is the author of boys club, the single funniest thing i have read since that Laurie Weeks piece "My Massive Feelings".
this is one my favorite Lurie's, "My Name is Skinny. I am a Horse and I Want to Have Sex With Your Wife. Okay?" I don't wanna say that his paintings are bad, I DO wanna say that his titles are fucking GREAT.
this is a lurie paiting called "Surprise!." It is an internet phenomenon in Russia. It is, apparently, really cool to change the bear's speech bubble to say something like "Hello Bear."
You may remember John Lurie from all those Jarmusch movies he was in way back when he was a babe. You may also remember him from one of the best shows of all time, Fishing With John.
How am I supposed to do homework, when all the Fishing With John episodes are availble on youtube?
get your fill of John Lurie's paintings and their titles here.
so, i moved back to chicago. and that's going pretty cool. i have been taking lots of photos mostly of funny things i see walking around. but i left my camera connectin cord back in bloomington. i forgot that the best thing is living in a city and walking around feeling like it is just full of little gems, if you'd notice them. one nice feature of chicago is the alleys. since basically every has an alley, there is this parallel network that is just foot/bike traffic and trash to dig in. sometimes since the streets are so wide and you're just walking all alone on the sidewalk not encountering any other pedestrians it can start to feel like there isn't the 8 lanes of traffic next to you. its just you cruisin with this background of worn-thin hand-painted hotdog advertisements.
really, things are going surprisingly well. i am chalking it up to the great unseasonal weather. school is turning out great. zoology is going to mostly consist of the professor showing us quicktime movies of bizarro marine invertabrates and us yelling out the appropriate phylla. today, i blurted out "so cool!" in class three times while watching these crazy sea critters move in unpredictable ways. i will be sure to share the best ones.
to get in that festive school spirit, i went to go buy binders today at the office maxxx. i was yelling on the phone to hannah about how lauren berlant was my (academic) soulmate and this woman walking by me in the store started yelling "YOU GO GIRL. YOU GO GIRL!" at me. i didn't know what to do so i gave her like the biggest 'sup?' chin nod. why did she yell that? was she encouraging the idea of soulmates? i hope so. cuz that's a totally sweet goal.
speaking of soulmates, i am really into this video jay howell and jim dirschberger made.
i am pretty much way into the things jay howell makes. i mean, they are really funny and about dogs and being really stoked. duh, it's my jam.
fyi: 2008=positivity and productivity.
2000cre8, dawgs!
gotta go to a videodrome screening for theories of media which is so far the professor explaining to us new yorker cartoons. gee thanks for the tip, dude.
