I Know, Why Would You?

I'm sitting here and I'm listening to Come Pick Me Up. I didn't like this album when I first bought it. Did you know that? I know, why would you. But still. On first listen it's so, I don't know, clean? Melodic? Just not the Superchunk I grew to admire from something like No Pocky for Kitty or Tossing Seeds. But it's grown on me, and I've shedded my listener cynicism, and am finally able to accept the album for what it is. And you know what? now the strings and horn section actually fucking work! Yes. And these songs are really totally excellent; beautiful, even.

And it only took two years for me to finally realize that.

New in photography: Chicago Chessboard

But you may wonder where I've been. I've been on vacation, sort of. Actually except for the Red House Painters show in Chicago I never really left town. But still, all I really wanted to do with the past few days is actually put some focus on the things I care about, like procrastinating on my side-projects, sleeping in, and letting my beard grow long.

Well OK, you got me again: I haven't been all that lazy. I actually spent a lot of time at the library yesterday, doing some informal research on what is turning out to be an obsession I have with the fusing of design and technology. The good news about this is that there are more than enough books to satiate my undying dependency on such obscure topics.

And not only that, but (also from yesterday's library experience) I'm coming to realize that I love reading UNIX manuals and educational texts that date back to 1983. Just to keep things in perspective.

Speaking of the whole design/technology thing, as well as speaking of Chicago (which I think I was doing a couple of paragraphs ago?), there's an exhibit at the Chicago Institute of Art on building for space travel. How neat is that? Unfortunately I missed it while I was down there, but I've now made it a priority to see this exhibit before it closes in October. It is now up to you to hold me to it.

Oh, and the Red House Painters show really was pretty great. I saw an old friend there (who doesn't have a website, but who works here), and even though we've seen each other only briefly in the past two years, I found it so surprisingly easy to fall into a very warm comfortable conversation with him. I like that. I like having friends like that. But anyway, the show itself was really quite beautiful, though spare, slow, and melancholy (but then, you expect all that going in, right?). That, and have you heard Old Ramon? Well, none of the songs they played from that album (except for maybe "Wop A Din Din") were anything like how they appear in recorded form. This was interesting. It was really cool to see how they've reinterpreted their work and allowed all of it to develop into something new. That, and the extended version of "Michigan" they played really pretty much left me breathless.

But yes, as I type this, I'm supposed to be working on some interview thing I'm supposed to do with some band for my friend's magazine (which is not online, so no link). But come to think of it, might I be able to put it off till tomorrow?

I think so.