Archive for December, 2008
Blogging Is The New Gym Membership
I suspect that this year blogging is the new gym membership. Many resolutions will be made. Many vows committed to better blogging habits, more posting, more regular posting, more thoughtful posting, etc. Many people will be taking these vows and making these promises. And sometime around the middle of February their blogs will peter out and we’ll return to the status quo: a post every couple of months talking about how they haven’t been posting but they’re resolute on getting back to it.
And, of course, I’m no different. So over the next few weeks, as cliche as it may be, I’ll be attempting to resume some kind of normal posting schedule. There’s lots to talk about of course. Much of it related to the new album that we’re releasing this Spring, the press and radio campaign we’ll be doing around, the big show we’ll be playing in April, and, of course, the writing and recording of a whole new batch of songs that have been sprouting up over the past few months and weeks. If you’re out there, stay tuned. We think, hope, feel, believe, turn it over to, trust that: things are about get interesting.
Until the middle of February. At which point, we’ll all go back to sleep.
Charlotte wishes you a Happy New Year
At least, I think that’s what’s going on in her head.
"Happy New Year!"
Happy Holidays
Hap Tip to Andrew Sullivan for this one. This kid is friggin adorable. And Paul’s melody shines through no matter what.
We won something
Well, that was a surprise. The good people at Hypeful selected the live version of ‘All My Friends’ that we did in September as the 17th best cover of the entire year for 2008. Also on the list were bands like Vampire Weekend, Spoon, Prince, Radiohead, and others. So that’s some pretty august company, as they say.
Thank you, staff of Hypeful and the residents and denizens of Oklahoma City for having such excellent taste. And thank you, Mr. Google Alerts. You’ve served me well today. And thank you, Mr. Mortimer. I think I’ll go to the movies. By myself.
Merry Christmas everybody. And God bless us everyone.
Hearts on Fire
I wrote an email to Scott Plagenhoef, editor at Pitchfork, after reading his blurb citing “In Ghost Colours” as the 4th best album of 2008. Here’s what he wrote:
There was a surprisingly feast-or-famine reaction this year to Cut Copy’s In Ghost Colours, an album that on one hand should be a go-to indie dance/pop/rhythm release (see “Hearts on Fire”, “Lights and Music”) and on the other is actually closer in spirit to a flat-out gorgeous and uplifting pop record (”Out There on the Ice”, “So Haunted”, and “Unforgettable Season”). Our reviewer Mark Pytlik simply yet accurately called In Ghost “a hard record not to love,” yet it also had the sense all year of an LP bubbling just under the surface.
After reading that blurb, I went home to the apartment and put the album on the stereo. I’ve owned it for months but hadn’t actually sat down and really given it a full listen. Scott’s comments seem totally accurate to me in that light. I knew I liked the music but I didn’t realize to what extent.
My friend said “I liked ‘In Ghost Colours’ got my toes tappin but not my booty shakin.” And I responded that it was probably too sad to be a booty shakin kind of thing but perhaps it’s a “toe tappin’ heart hurtin’” kind of deal.
Take a listen. “Hearts on Fire” is this sad beautiful pulsing throbbing late night kind of electro-groove that seems to take you back to your childhood even when it doesn’t.
Tags: music review
Happiness in 2009
If we’re to believe what we’re being told (and I do in this instance), the economy won’t recover from its ills until around the middle of 2010.
That is a grim thought.
Because 2008 was a tough enough year already for a lot people, including myself, and if I correlate economic growth to personal happiness than it means we’re in for essentially another lost year of satisfaction. I’m not sure I’m ready to scrap an entire year to malaise and struggle, even if that’s the reality.
My personal hope is that the economy is a lagging indicator of personal happiness and that the recession we’re currently mired in lags people’s personal situations by a couple months and that people will be able to find personal enrichment and satisfaction next year despite the economic trouble.
What actually drives happiness (or the lacke thereof) is the question here. Is it economic growth, economic change or is economics scarcely related to personal happiness? I suppose, if I needed to bet, the greatest economic impact to personal happiness comes from an adjustment in expectations, perhaps most directly expressed through the stock market, interestingly enough, since the stock market serves as the consensus view on expectations going forward.
If we believe that hypothesis then the periods of greatest unhappiness are the periods of the greatest aggregate decline in expectations. This year that happened in the Fall. Personally, that hypothesis lines up with my own experience.
But now that expectations have reset (at least based on the seeming stability of the Dow) then maybe 2009 can be a period of gradual and renewed optimism for the country and for me personally.
The deal is that over the last few years we’ve all grown accustomed to instant gratification. That not having to wait. And the adjustment towards a sentiment of steady and gradual appreciation through hard work, concentration and a relaxation of personal ego and self-centeredness. Well, that is something that is potentially very difficult and very painful. My guess is that’s the collective feeling we’re experiencing now. The realization that we simply do not have the power to go back and reset the economic circumstances that, as a country, led us here.
If I look ahead to 2009 for myself I see a year where I’m going to hopefully have better and deeper personal relationships with the people I love (and one person in particular), I’ll put out a record that shouuld get at least some positive notices, I’ll play my biggest shows, and I’ll be working hard to stay calm and focused. So those are all good things. Of course, I’ll be doing it on a tighter budget and that is something that is not as fun. But I’m still optimistic.
We’ll see how it goes. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.
Tags: personal stuff
