texting between friends.

Self: YMCA is playing “Sweet Child of Mine,” haha, shocker…

Drew: The Mville Y plays the worst music! Puddle of Mudd and stuff. Baaad.

Self: In a way, Mville YMCA makes me want to go faster and harder though, haha, like I am running away from the Land of Bad Beatz.

Drew: Some people believe in putting cheese in front of you, others believe in having a wolf chasing you; the Y must feel the wolf is more motivating, haha.

oh, brother! birthday!

(I am shocked and shocked again, by all the beautiful people in my life).

Gary is totally cheesing here. Love it. (Also, Gary! proof! You really love Frances!):
Tim monopolizing my sister :) (just kidding, Tim):
I am a whole awkward head above Ashley:
This photo sums up our relationship perfectly:

Oh, brother! birthday! (photos) by Leslie Albanese is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

sunday--

1. My first time at the Episcopal Church in Athens, with Ms. Kelley McArthur and farm friends. I was incredibly impressed.
2. Philosophical ponderings/general orneriness with Mr. Kelly Latimore (who gifted me the beautiful book of Chilean poetry and prose, pictured above).
3. Chit-chats with Ms. Morky Magic.
   
4. Skype with my music-making-soul-brother, who is going somewhere big; just you see.
5. Thesis. Thesis. Thesis.
6. Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire.
7. ice cream sandwiches.

(a good day)
-----
EL VERDADERO PROBLEMA
de la Filosofía.
(Nicanor Parra)

es quién lava los platos
nada del otro mundo
Dios
la verdad
el transcurso del tiempo
claro que sí
pero primero quién lava los platos

el que quiera lavarlos que los lave
chao pescao
y tan enemigos como ante

(THE GREAT ENIGMA/ of philosophy/ is who's going to wash the dishes/ it isn't life after death/ God/ Truth/ the passage of time/ [these things] of course/ but first who's going to wash the dishes
he who wants to wash them, let him wash them/ later alligator/ and true enemies forever).

so many epiphanies.

not enough language for them.
yeah, and I get it.
yeah, and I'm happy
yeah, and it's beginning to show.

so many by Leslie Albanese is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

10 Laws

lyrics by East Forest
photo mine.

1. Always see the dangers first
2. Always protect your feet
3. Always be ready for cold
4. Always be ready for heat
5. Always know where a good water resource is
6. Always master the skills necessary
7. Always get the job done
8. Always know your place
9. Always disallow foolishness
10. Always rest whenever you can

Yeah, I'll dig a tunnel, from my window to yours.

A series of fairly unflattering photographs.

(proof that we really do love each other):

over a decade of brother/sister/sister/brother.

photos by Leslie Albanese is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Title from Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)"

crowded.

Thanks, Tim Xie, for sharing these photographs.

Drew is totally a creeper in this one:
This break is surely killing me. But only a little.

sound to touch like music to feel.

I'm just going to go ahead and project that Arcade Fire made last.fm's #1 most played for 2010. Either way, they're my #1.

Hearing Arcade Fire for the first time was like learning what music could be for the first time. It was my Freshman year in high school (so sometime '04-'05?). Dale was home (either already on OU's big holiday break, or for a weekend or something), and he, Frances, and I were driving his beat-up white Geo down Rt. 736, playing Neighborhood #2 (Laika). I think I owe my fascination with Régine Chassagne to Adam Torres (Adam, I don't know I ever told you that?), who likely introduced Dale to Arcade Fire in the first place. Hell, Adam, I think you introduced Dale to Southeast Engine, Joanna Newsom, and Neutral Milk Hotel, too-- who were all passed down to me through him around the same time. In a weird way, those 4 artists + oddly enough, Roman Catholicism, were what kept me strong for some of the hardest things I've faced to-date (all of which sort of compounded in those early years).

Funny--I've watched my musical tastes refine subtly each year--in high school I was jamming out to a lot more Brit-pop and a lot less banjo--but those 4 artists (plus a few others--Ryan Adams, Modest Mouse, & the old-folkys I inherited from my folks) have remained constants for a really long time...

Drew and I had a conversation about music the other day, and about "staying on top of the scene" so-to-speak, and I've gotta say: as much as I love discovering new music (it's a hell of a feeling), part of me doesn't mind humbly playing and re-playing the same familiar artists I've been in love with forever. Music isn't an image. It shouldn't be exploited to project some status of "hip-ness." Music is a feeling. It's always been a feeling.

Actually I listened to an old Radiolab the other day on Musical Language (which--side note--did a fascinating re-visit of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring), and in the episode this psychologist, Anne Fernald, describes sound as touch. Science confirms it: hearing is the act of sound vibrations touching our ears in different places, at different frequencies. I guess, internally, I took it a step further (the podcast doesn't go here, but it could, I think):
If touch is the action that gives the result of feeling (like looking is the action that results in sight, for example)-- and if sound is touch...
wouldn't music be the feeling that results from the action of touching (sound)?

It doesn't really work when you analyze it, I guess. That's the funny part. Feelings shouldn't be deconstructed by literary devises or critical theory--

(oh, this is a head/heart thing, isn't it?)

sound to touch by Leslie Albanese is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.