Life Through Bombardment

Music is something I cannot live without. I honestly think I could do without poetry if I absolutely had to, but I'm not sure about music. Is that a bad thing to say? Or an odd thing to say? That said, I can't create music. I can create poetry. And though I can still get on a drum kit and play whatever within reason, I can never do what Steve Reich has done with minimalist percussion, or any of the other greats, whether you're talking about marimbas, piano, staccato voice, anything.

When I saw this on the Temporary Residence site I nearly shouted out loud. Eluvium is one of my favorite bands, projects, musicians -- however you'd like to categorize such a definition -- of all time. I saw him (Matthew Robert Cooper) open a few years ago for Mono at the now no longer Nanci Raygun in Richmond, and the show was inspiring to say the least.

Eluvium had a keyboard and a guitar: that was it. Lots of huge guitar washes and drones by the end after slow-building crescendoes abound, and a lot of the more subtle piano pieces he did on "An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death." And Mono was just insane. I think they did the beginning of "A Thousand Paper Cranes" too, which will now always make me think of Michael Angarano's speech near the end of Snow Angels. Unfortunately, Yahoo had my pictures. They didn't transfer over. So they're now lost. But at least I was there I suppose.

Here's the specs for "Life Through Bombardment," which I preordered as my only Christmas present for myself as soon as it went up two days ago:

Highly anticipated and long-overdue, "Life Through Bombardment" collects virtually every Eluvium song ever released (plus a bunch of rare and unreleased non-album tracks) into one stunning 7xLP set, all on vinyl for the first and only time. Each record is packaged in its own full-color jacket, featuring exquisite new artwork from Jeannie Lynn Paske, drawn exclusively for this set. The seven jackets are then bound into a beautiful dark green hardbound, linen-cover book, with metallic gold foil stamping and embossed text on the spine, and a beautiful full-color print embossed into the front cover. The inside front cover includes a removable old-fashioned library card, complete with personalized signatures from the artists and designers involved in the creation of this package. The final name on the library card will belong to the purchaser, hand-written and dated when purchased. The inside back cover includes a mind-blowing 12x36" foldout double-sided full-color poster insert, featuring more artwork from Ms. Paske. In addition, each copy of this set will include a unique digital code to download high-quality mp3s of the entire box set collection. This is limited to a one-time pressing of 1,000 copies, pressed onto 100% virgin black vinyl.

TRACK LISTING
SIDE A:
1. The Unfinished
2. Under The Water It Glowed
3. There Wasn't Anything

SIDE B:
1. Zerthis Was A Shivering Human Image
2. I Am So Much More Me That You Are Perfectly You

SIDE C:
1. An Accidental Memory
2. Genius And The Thieves
3. Perfect Neglect In A Field Of Statues
4. Nepenthe

SIDE D:
1. In A Sense
2. The Well-Meaning Professor
3. An Accidental Memory In The Case Of Death

SIDE E:
1. New Animals From The Air
2. Show Us Our Homes
3. Area 41

SIDE F:
1. Everything To Come
2. Calm Of The Cast-Light Cloud

SIDE G:
1. Taken
2. We Say Goodbye To Ourselves

SIDE H:
1. One
2. Swallows In The Bath

SIDE I:
1. I Will Not Forget That I Have Forgotten
2. As I Drift Off
3. All The Sails
4. When I Live By The Garden And The Sea

SIDE J:
1. Untitled (For Piano)
2. Untitled (For Orchestra)
3. Untitled (For Rhodes And Tape)
4. Carousel

SIDE K:
1. Amreik
2. Indoor Swimming At The Space Station
3. Seeing You Off The Edges

SIDE L:
1. Prelude For Time Feelers
2. Requiem On Frankfort Ave.
3. Radio Ballet
4. (Intermission)

SIDE M:
1. After Nature
2. Reciting The Airships
3. Ostinato

SIDE N:
1. Hymn #1
2. Repose In Blue

Needless to say, I'm very thrilled to be getting this when it finally ships. Both Eluvium and Jeremy DeVine of Temporary Residence deserve much applause for such a fine creation.

Eli Manning is God

Thanks to everyone for the comments and emails about the engagement. It'll be in Pittsburgh, if I didn't say that already, so the long distance factor will prove I'm sure to be a bit of a pain. But we'll deal with it. I'm lucky she even said yes I suppose.

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The new Matthew Robert Cooper record has leaked, and thanks to Casey letting me know, I finally snagged it, and it's not surprisingly a very beautiful record. MRC usually puts out records under Eluvium, whose "Talk Amongst the Trees" is one of my favorite records ever. There's some Eluvium type guitar washes on this, but also more "Accidental Memory..." piano pieces. I wasn't a huge fan of "Copia," as a lot of the songs just didn't gel for me. Maybe it was the hugeness of the aimed production. I'm not sure. But this one seems to be on the money. Hopefully I'll get inspired to write to it. I've written most of my poems to atmospheric music. It's cliched as hell to say that now, since so many people run with that, but it's true for me and has been for as long as I can remember.

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Craig Beaven sent me his 100 Favorite Movies list, as he and some friends have sent them to each other, so of course I decided I'll be making one too. I feel like mine's going to be a bit weird, as I won't have nearly as many "classics" on there as others may. "American Movie," for example, will easily be in my top 10, while "Little Monsters" will probably make the top 100. And there are a slew of directors like David Gordon Green, Paul Thomas Anderson, Alexander Payne, Harmony Korine, whose comprehensive films thus far may be spread out over the list, while leaving out a few I imagine.

And this is "Favorite" movies, which to me are the ones I can put on in any mood I'm in and watch, regardless of length, style, or anything else. 100 Desert Island Movies, then? The same type of thing? I'm not sure. But for me no Hitchcock will be on the list, and "Citizen Kane" doesn't make my Favorite list for sure.

I challenge anyone who's reading this to do the same. I'd love to see some of these lists. It would be good for me to see how many amazing movies I need to see that I haven't thus far for whatever reason.

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To me, this whole argument is hilarious and uncalled for. I have to admit, however, that I was indeed entertained by it. I really don't know why Eduardo, who I don't even know, have never met, and whose work I've never seen, talks so much shit on people. It may all be seemingly innocent, but I can see why Collin and Steve got so pissed off. Then again, maybe that's why he does it, to get a rise out of whoever he can. If we write and send out we're involved in Po-Biz. Get used to it or become a dentist. But just like Foetry, if all of us spent less time bitching, we'd probably be producing more quality work, or at least work we're proud of, myself included.

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The new issue of Diode is up, and in just a year Patty and Jeff have really done a hell of a job. The design's slick, simple without looking too basic or hurting the eyes, and they've had a number of great poets involved. Not only that, but they want moving work and have no defined aesthetic, which are the journals I tend to gravitate toward. Narrative poems by language poems by prose poems by completely experimental and uncategorized pieces. It's all there.

Recently, Nick Courtright had an interesting blog post (which I stole from Eduardo, who actually has a lot of good links when he's not starting blog brawls), and I think Diode is a journal that subscribes to this. I've never had a problem with reading just one poem by someone, and often I've bought books on the strength of one poem that blew me away. I've emailed poets and fiction writers to tell them how much I liked their single piece. But Diode tries to have a sampling, and that's great. And they're someone who may need to be mentioned on the post.

If you haven't sent work yet, you should. Greater things will be happening with the journal, and they're getting quality stuff by a ton of great up and comers in addition to the "established" folks, whatever that means. Now I'm starting to sound like a journal.