Scott

Even if you don’t have a soft spot for soft stuff, “Declaration of Dependence” by Norwegian pop-folk duo Kings of Convenience is an important album. Forget that it’s beautifully minimalistic, that it has enveloping atmospherics, or even that it runs at a comfortably relaxed pace: this record is just plain good music.

I always have trouble describing how great this album is without drawing an analogy to Simon and Garfunkel. You know, the delicate vocals, contagious harmonies, and tasty finger-picking guitar. On top of this, the Kings have done a nice job of spicing things up with the inclusion of the extended string family, adding some violin, bass, and piano here and there to create a unique feel for every song. The percussion section is conspicuously absent, but this doesn’t stop the album from being rhythmic. In fact, there are some surprisingly catchy grooves propelling the otherwise low-key music. This focus on upbeat tempos saves the album from the slump that snags similar efforts. Lyrically, the words are very introspective, a good match to the musical mood.

On top of the obvious merits of the music, the recording quality is top notch: lots of breaths and finger noise capture an aspect of intimacy in the performance.

Overall this album is consistent, relaxing, enjoyable, and easy-listening. 85/100

Josh

For the last year or two, indie-rockers have enjoyed a high wave of reverb-drenched  70s nostalgia. I’m no enemy of the trend–I find the quirkiness of Midlake particularly endearing, and I’m hugely sympathetic to the stacked vocal harmonies of Fleet Foxes. One blogger favorite I’ve completely failed to connect with, however, are the Kings of Convenience.

Frequently compared to the legendary Simon and Garfunkel, KoC unfortunately capture all of the former duo’s sugary smoothness and none of their politically-informed wordplay. Instead, on their latest album we’re treated to a bunch of saccharine meditations on relationships.

All too often the songs are structured with rhythms that often bear an uncanny resemblance to up-strum patterns employed by Flight of the Conchords. If only the lyrics had even a bit of the Conchords’ irony–instead, we’re treated to song after song of endearingly heartfelt boy-wants-girl tripe that is undoubtedly meant to be tender and endearing, but is instead just…cute (intimate recording techniques and all). It’s all the confessional, singer-songwriter honesty of Damien Rice or The Swell Season, but with none of the passion.

At their best, KoC sound like a “sensitive” soundtrack to a hipster chick-flick. At their worse, they sound like a band that’d be right at home picking up their instruments for a quiet scene in a thirty-year old Barbara Streisand rom-com. 42/100

This is Willow’s favorite way to cozy up to people she likes, whether it’s on the sofa, or as in this case, in the back of the car. I have no idea why she does it it, but she does. This photo was not provoked or arranged in any way.

Isaiah may be hiding it in this photo, but he was pretty flattered by her womanly charm.

Potok is one of my all-time favorite authors. I was recently thrilled to semi-accidentally receive an autographed copy of one of his books…but I digress. Tonight, I stumbled on this anecdote about him on another blog:

My husband heard him talk at AU when he was a student. The one thing he really remembered was Potok talking about raising children in the faith. He was a liberal Jew, yet raised his children relatively “in the middle.” He drew a circle and said, “If everything inside this circle is Judaism, I’m over here on the left. I want to raise my children in the center so that they have lots of room to go to the left or the right and still be within the faith.”

It’s a fascinating story. While I don’t have any children of my own yet, I certainly can sympathize with the above sentiments. But is that possible? Is it ethical? What would the One up above think about it?

Speaking of new flatmates, my brother is living in the room down the hall and waxing lovingly philosophical about anarchy. Check it out: http://jesseambrose.wordpress.com/ :

…I agree with a lot of the anarcho-primitivist “movement”, as it were, however I wonder if maybe anarcho-primitivism is nothing more than another system trying to make life as pain-free as possible. Of course, anarcho-primitivism’s criticism of civilization is that we don’t need a system. But in efforts to detach ourselves from the current system, are we merely advocating a different one? Systems run on ideals- ideals that say if everything was a certain way, life would be perfect, or at least better. The ideal that everyone should be free, for example (of course any system that claims to advocate freedom for all is directly at odds with itself). But what I wonder is, does God’s kingdom run on an idealistic system? …

In late highschool, friend Ben Carr and I used to have a ton of these same directions, thanks in no small part to the craziness that is the Psalters, and later mewithoutYou and Shane Claiborne. I’m glad Jess’ is thinking about the same issues, and hopefully he recognizes when I give him grief, I’m often playing devil’s advocate.

What do you think, are all concepts of anarchy a bunch of shit, or is there something to be learned/adopted from the freegans and freeloaders? Head over to his blog and weigh in (and I mean you, Jrhymes).

the new flatmate, courtesy of atrva

EDIT: Along the Skyline Drive on Sunday, where she was a big hit with the Japanese tourists:

Photo Courtesy of Jesse

At the beginning of August, my wife and I moved out of Boalsburg, PA. Before we did, we called about canceling our highspeed-internet from Verizon. They told us that if we canceled before the end of August, we’d have to pay an early termination fee that far exceeded the remaining billing month we had left on our account. Which is total bunch of crap if you ask me, but fine, I’d play by their rules.

Needless to say, we decided to simply call back at the end of August–which I did, navigating the typical phone-system bureaucracy with aplomb for fifteen minutes before finally confirming that yes, I wanted to cancel all our high-speed services, and no, I had no need to transfer their service to my location. The experience was polite, but prolonged.

Fastforward. Last night, my wife and I realized Verizon had withdrawn two months of internet service fees since then for Sept and Oct. Clearly something was up.

I call them, first thing this morning. After being bounced between four different customer service representatives, I was finally told that they had no record of my August phone call. Would I like to transfer their service?

Long story short, I didn’t find the confirmation number of my first call in time to irrefutably prove I had already canceled the service (btw, at no point did they ask for such a number–it’s only after I insisted on proof of the current phone that they gave me one for the conversation I was having). I’m not even sure the first call in August gave me a confirmation number…so today, it became my word against theirs. The whole thing was rather amusing, in a nasty we’re trying to nickel-and-dime-ya sort of way. Only the nickel-and-dimes added up to $100 bucks. Which is a fair amount of groceries.

Did I get any of my money back? No. And in a way, I blame myself (which is pretty pathetic, if you really think about it). But you bet I’m now going to look in all my files for a confirmation number for my phone call in August, and if I find it, they’re getting another phone call.

Moral of the story: when you call tech support, make sure you get lots of evidence that a). you called them and b). what was discussed.

Oh, and Verizon customer service sucks.

…Reasons Where the Wild Things Are works better as a trailer. (SPOILERS BELOW). The trailer:

1. streamlines Max’s relationship with the Wild Things.
2. doesn’t have over ninety minutes of hand-held camera work.
3. doesn’t have someone’s arm being ripped off by mistake.
4. doesn’t show Max biting his mom.
5. condenses and simplifies the pervasive meta commentary of the movie.
6. doesn’t cost eleven dollars.
7. has all the best lines in it.
8. didn’t force me to watch previews for three contemptible CG children’s movies “coming soon!”
9. has the Arcade Fire in it.
10. is short, mysterious, evocative…like a book I once read..

* All comments intended to be (mostly) tongue-in cheek. I enjoyed the movie.

Agree? Disagree? Comment below.

My desire to work for NPR just grows…

Video of the Swell Season.

BTW, in case you were wondering, the video is better than the new album (which so far completely lacks the immediacy of their previous work).

I recently discovered the radio show “This American Life.” It’s phenomenal.

Lo and behold, I was on my netflix account…and they’re streaming the accompanying tv show that I didn’t know existed.

So we watched an episode of season two.

And then another.

We’re up to six in two days. It’s phenomenal television. I can’t recommend it enough.

Is the shiz, yo. In case you’re not subscribed to my stream…you should. Where else could you see me linking to such priceless gems as this one?

…which in turn, of course, was originally shared a while ago by the genius that is Jake. Thank you social networking! Where’d we be without you.

(Subsequent sidenote on the newest old vice to get suddenly popular with the post-modern crowd again) When I was five years old and being tempted by the evil ways of the world, I saw an illustration like this (probably in someone’s Abeka textbook):

…and I haven’t touched a cigarette since. Tho I do love the smell of pipe tobacco. And the scent of cigars. And even the noxious tracheal burn of cigarettes.

Not to mention matches and flames.