one month before his second birthday (from the biography i’m reading).

"deeply into whatever"
CURSIVE
BUILDINGS
FOREVER
the web zone of joshua heineman
[ won't kill you ]
[ p.klaffke ]
[ lacunae ]
[ k.smith ]
[ bldgblog ]
[ d.byrne ]
[ staticonthebrain ]
[ photon detector ]
[ detritus ]
[ cmhs ]
[ utata ]
[ owl ]
[ so it goes ]
[ la blogotheque ]
[ s.pierre ]
[ iluvchopstix ]
[ l.london ]
[ c.eastburn ]
[ s.murray ]
[ ironic sans ]
[ little vanities ]
[ la breeze ]
[ n.kalina ]
[ cameracrowd ]
[ ridin'dirtyface ]
[ longbrake ]
[ cabinet ]
“The authors conclude the thujone concentration of preban absinthe was generally overestimated in the past… nothing besides ethanol was found in the absinthes that was able to explain the syndrome absinthism”
(& so rimbaud, van gogh & wilde were only talented drunks)
ps. i’m trying to imagine what it was like to uncork bottles of french liquor from 1900.
i remember simple things / how’s a building get so tall?
joanna newsom & devendra banhart played that nite too. i was writing some music bits for willamette week at the time, & went to see joanna perform after having interviewed her for a story earlier in the week (i have the most epic souvenir from all this… a show poster signed by the artist, andy, joanna & drawn on by devendra). but vetiver was a real surprise. the songs from that first album became a main element in the soundtrack of that summer. they were quiet & heady in the center of a summer that was not.
by the time the second album was released in 2006, i had moved to san francisco. a thousand things small to stellar in size faded that weird winter. & still, i walked to work each morning zenned out of my mind w/headphones on & this funny city breathing all around me. it’s still one of my favorite records. those songs invoke the feeling of living, not simple memories that can drag on minds such as mine:
some games you play to win / well, you lose
so last nite we went to see vetiver play a late tuesday show at the great american music hall. they went on at 11 & played until half past 12… two of my favorites from the first album, several fantastic versions from the second, a couple covers & a some fun new songs from an album they’ve been recording in sacramento. the new songs have a drive, a dance element, that’s hard to ignore. i had a smile pasted across my face all nite. afterward, i snagged two setlists from the stage & handed them out like candy to wide-eyed kids who were happy to be there like most folks are happy to get a paycheck.
it’s funny i’m not that kid anymore. although in some ways i suppose i am. anyway. then we walked home, toward an earlymorning alarm, & slept.
OVERHEARD: Taylor & Geary.
cities are such BULLSHIT.
cities are some pillars in a sea of people. nothing more. & these human tides come & go, leaving half-truths for the vicarious. & it’s not important what’s real. it’s important what people BELIEVE is real… & somewhere back there the city became a mythical creature we cannot even touch anymore.
cities should have creation myths. in five hundred years, i hope people think san francisco was chiseled out of gold by a greedy demigod who drowned in his own drool, flooding the bay w/water. in five hundred years, i hope new york city skyscrapers are thought of as sprouting from the seeds uncle sam spilled when he tripped on the east coast heading west to manifest destiny.
cities are stories. skylines are written in cursive.
“Making writing rapid-fire, Remington turned a rather staid and quiet activity—writing—into one dominated by force and noise and physical effort”
(serious. this is the raddest article i’ve read in awhile: typewriters & guns peppered w/nietzsche, h.james, m.twain & dylan references)
via Cabinet (Fall 2002 issue, Pharmacopia)