Emiliana Torrini - Sunny Road

Emiliana Torrini - Sunny Road

I am completely lost on this video, and the song itself. It’s just SO gorgeous.

Life | Wednesday August 30 2006 11:27 am | Comments (0)

Sad Mix

Here’s a music mix I made but (as far as I can remember) didn’t blog when I made it earlier this spring. It’s definitely my favorite mix when I’m Feeling Down, though, so I thought I’d share.

  1. The Chalet Lines - Belle and Sebastian
  2. Waltz #2 (XO) - Elliott Smith
  3. Dear Diary - Travis
  4. That I Would Be Good - Alanis Morissette
  5. Elephant Parade - Jon Brion (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack)
  6. Which Will - Nick Drake
  7. I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
  8. Phone Call - Jon Brion (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack)
  9. Being In Love - Songs: Ohia
  10. Cinders and Smoke - Iron and Wine
  11. Delicate - Damien Rice
  12. Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes - Beck
  13. The Blower’s Daughter - Damien Rice
  14. The Humming Song - Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
  15. The Dumbing Down Of Love - Frou Frou
  16. Red Right Ankle - The Decemberists
  17. Row - Jon Brion (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack)
  18. Nervois Bride - Songs: Ohia
  19. Goodbye My Lover - James Blunt
  20. Man Of The Hour - Pearl Jam
  21. Peer Pressure - Jon Brion (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack)
  22. Streets of Philadelphia - Bruce Springstein
  23. The Drugs Don’t Work - Ben Harper
  24. Ailein Duinn - Karen Matheson (Rob Roy soundtrack)
  25. Sabra Girl - Nickel Creek
  26. Cathedrals - ? (cover of Jump Little Children)
  27. Older Chests - Damien Rice

It’s one of the few that’s been stuck on my playlist listing without changing for several months now, so I think it’s pretty well perfected. Yeah, I was watching Eternal Sunshine… rather a lot. Ha. Anyway, the little instrumental bits cut through the lyrical blues…

Music | Sunday August 27 2006 11:28 am | Comments (0)

Mouse, Bird, and Sausage

What are the people over at Mutt Ink smoking? This is amazing.

It’s strange to see death served so plainly. It’s beautifully rendered and it’s an ugly story, and when it’s over, it’s just plain over. End of story, no reprieves, no glory, no ghosts. Just human folly — but in the form of a mouse, a bird, and a sausage.

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Life | Thursday August 24 2006 11:29 am | Comments (0)

More Twin Peaks

Excellent website about David Lynch with tons of information about Twin Peaks, including outtakes and clips of the cast on TV. It also has info on Julee Cruise, who is my new Favorite Artist Ever. She has an Enya-y, wispy, willowy voice, but she takes it in a VERY different direction.

Only travesty of the site: on the “Cast” page for Twin Peaks, there is no picture of Bobby Briggs. Interwebs, I need more pictures of Bobby Briggs to exsit in the world. Please fix this ASAP.”

Currently drinking: coffee, as black as midnight on a moonless night… aka, pret-ty black.

Life | Monday August 21 2006 11:30 am | Comments (0)

Why San Francisco is awesome.

Yeah, I wouldn’t mind winding up in San Francisco one day. It is simply awesome.
Life | Sunday August 20 2006 11:31 am | Comments (0)

Twin Peaks Brewing Co.

“At a time like this, curiously, you begin to think of the things you regret. Or the things that you might miss. I would like in general to treat people with much more care and respect. I would like to climb a tall hill, not too tall, and sit in the cool grass, not too cool, and feel the sun on my face. I wish I could have cracked the Lindbergh kidnapping case. I would very much like to make love to a beautiful woman, who I had genuine affection for. And, of course, it goes without saying, that I would like to visit Tibet. I wish they could get their country back and the Dalai Lama could return. Oh, I would like that very much.”

– Agent Dale Cooper


Highly recommended baristalink here, particularly for the coffee recipes.

Life | Saturday August 19 2006 11:34 am | Comments (0)

VR Snoqualmie

This is some combination of Too Much Watching Twin Peaks and Homesickness (it’s been all summer since I’ve been home, and even then it was only a week — and yes, the Seattle area is my home in a way that Walla Walla will never, ever be):

I am totally digging on this Quicktime-VR tour of Snoqualmie Falls State Park. It’s been a long, long time since I have been there, but I do remember, quite clearly, that along with the alpine meadows of Mt. Rainier and certain places on the Hood Canal, it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve been in my life.

To end, Twin Peaks Quote the Second:

You listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I am a nay-sayer and hatchet man in the fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch and I’ll gladly take another, because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. I love you, Sheriff Truman.

— Albert

Life | Saturday August 19 2006 11:31 am | Comments (0)

How To Art (#1) — Christmas Card ‘03

I thought I’d give a little reveal on how I’ve done some of my artwork, starting with the older stuff. I know that this one took a long time, and it’s pretty weird, so I’m starting with it:



I want to start with this image for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because it allows me to give an idea of how I build images even when I have no special tools. I made this image purely on the computer (no scans, traces, etc.), in the winter of 2003, before I had Painter or a Wacom tablet (I’ll post about the tools I use later). My dad had said that he was going to download some sort of cool images from Mark Harden’s Artchive, but I said, “Hey! No! Wait! Can I try to make something first?”

It’s really more of an Epiphany image than a Christmas image, but I liked the idea — Mary’s in the stable, Jesus is all wrapped up, and the Magi are on their way, following the star, when she looks out the window and sees them.
I built the image first structurally, outlining the circle and then constructing the figures, the cloth, the barn, the clouds, and the hillside with the silhouettes. Then I turned to shading, making Mary a middle gray, the hillside darkened (as it was lit from behind), and the sky lightest of all. It had some dimensionality, but no magic. I am all about the organic patterns in my art, so I built up the flowing lines of the grass in the field, the wrinkles in Mary’s head covering, the wood lines on the barn, and (my favorite part) the swirls in the cloud. The variation in the color of the lines that you see here is due to the fact that I used the smudge tool to create these lines, rather than drawing them in a flat color — it looked more consistent and flowing, but it still didn’t really have the crackle of energy that I was looking for. I was thinking El Greco. But El Greco is hyped up on the color, which I also didn’t have — I was just working with black and white, for ease of printing. So I used the burn tool — a lot. It accentuated the subtler lines where they were in the patterns and gave it a weird, cloudy, charged feeling, and that’s where it wound up, and where it is now.
I hope you enjoyed this issue of How To Art! I’ll give you more of what I got in the not-too-distant future, and maybe work on some posts about my tools this weekend, too.

Life | Friday August 18 2006 11:35 am | Comments (0)

I Can’t Stop

Cute Overload is my crack. Seriously.
Life | Friday August 18 2006 11:35 am | Comments (0)

Oh and by the way…


Benji won.

YEAH BABY. Adorable picture of him and Heidi….. here.

One thing I’m NOT so happy about is how all of the So You Think You Can Dance videos that were on YouTube are all gone. Seriously, Fox, why? Copyright infringement, yeah, I know, but what are you going to do, release SYTYCD on DVD? It’s a reality show with calling-in voting. Just how exactly does that translate to DVD?

Please. Give me back my YouTube clips, Fox. I, for one, can never have 2 much booty in the pants.

Life | Thursday August 17 2006 11:47 am | Comments (0)
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