Kate Nash and Passion...

I finally got around to listening to Kate Nash's new album and while it's a giant departure from her earlier stuff, it's pretty great. Half the album is skippable, a few songs are alright but the others are completely repeatable. Like, put this shit on repeat because it's awesome.

She has this song, We Get On, from an old album which is up there in my favorites of all time. It's one of those songs that puts you directly in the narrative and crushes you exactly how she intended to. It's kind of amazing actually. I've only heard a live version and I'd like to keep it that way. It was one of those accidental downloads. It was supposed to be the album version but it wasn't. I don't want to look for it on youtube because I'm afraid of coming across covers or other versions that don't live up to it and I don't want to ruin it.

My favorite song of the new album is called Sister, and it's great.




What strikes me about her, and I guess music/artists in general, is the passion. There's a point in most of my days where I'm jealous/angry at everyone who gets to do exactly what they love all the time. For most people like myself, we have jobs that moderately fulfill us, and find the time outside of work to follow our passions.

Not that I didn't give it a full-time go. I tried the bohemian thing where I had random jobs to pay rent and tried to be a full time writer/director/slacker/whatever, but that wasn't for me. I think for most people it's about balancing dreams, real life and desires. I always wanted a house and pets and a family and wasn't willing to give up those dreams for one that was far less attainable and probably not as rewarding. But the grass is always greener. And even though she probably hates a lot of the crap she has to do, listening to Sister makes me wish I was back in high school, playing guitar in our high school band at some battle of the bands, or sitting on my ikea bed/couch in a bed bug infested building in Washington Heights working on a screenplay.

Passion has its ebbs and flows and unfortunately, writer's block only subsides for short periods. My point is this: I think I need to get better at letting those periods play out and when the writing starts happening in my head, it needs to translate to a piece of paper. Or as Mekhi Phifer would put it, 'do whatever the fuck you wanna do' — just so long as you do it.

I'm out. I'll see ya when I see ya.

-M

Remember that time...

Remember back when I used to blog? Neither do I, though this list of archives to the right is pretty impressive. Our friend Rusted Jesus, has recently gone on what can only be described in Crocodile Dundee terms as a walkabout. He's also blogging again and while he's a much better writer than I am, it reminded me that I do like to put finger to key when I'm not at work or toiling away on a never-to-be-finished writing project.

So here I am. A year and a half removed from my last post, which was just a youtube clip. What have I been doing? Well, I turned 30 (last year), I got married (last month) and I got busy / lazy (always).

Spending your day writing kind of makes you not want to blog when you get home. But I've realized that I need to set some writing goals otherwise I will never finish any of my writing projects. And as much as I'd like to head to the woods to live deliberately, I've got a mortgage and a wife and 4 cats that I would miss entirely too much.

So here I am, returning to the world from whence I came. About the only thing that hasn't changed is that I'm sure you'll all still be reading this at work so I'll try and keep things interesting.

Walt Whitman (or as I refer to him when I'm angry: Walter!) once said, "The secret of it all, is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment — to put things down without deliberation — without worrying about their style — without waiting for a fit time or place." I'm not sure about with 'without deliberation' part since I'm not as good as he was, but he got the gist of it right.

I'm out. I'll see ya when I see ya.

-M

Moonrise Kingdom...

Wes Anderson's latest is what it takes me to blog these days. As most of you know, he and Owen Wilson are responsible for me going to film school and, ultimately, ending up as a writer - such as it is. His new trailer leaves me puzzled about where it's headed, especially after reading so much about it over the last year. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy.



I say this a lot, but I really will blog soon. I have my 'best of' lists to do and I haven't missed those since I started them.

Go big.

-M, p, z & shredder

#OWS...

Looks like Occupy Wall Street has lost some steam. Maybe it's because people got a look at Occupy Ann Arbor. I was in town over thanksgiving and it was pretty pathetic. In fact, I think it's just a plce where homeless people are trying to get free stuff. Instead of signs that say "we are the 99%," they literally have a sign that says, "we need tents, money and socks." No lie. Occupy a different park.

Anyway, it's hard to blog when you could be playing Halo instead.

Go big.

-M, p, z & shredder