Ray Davies should be the poet laureate

I love the Kinks, especially Autumn Almanac and Dead end Street. Screw Wordsworth and Colleridge, Mr. Davies is where it's at.


Speaking of Wordsworth... I am SO tired of hearing about him in every class I take. Yes, I realize as an English major that I need to be well versed in his works and those of his contemporaries, but can't we modernize things a little bit? Wordsworth and John Milton are killing me.
How about some Dylan Thomas and James Joyce? What about those awesome Russians Chekov, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky? Samuel Beckett anyone? I won't even ask about the Beat writers because I know that would be too good to be true. Come on Kean, get it together.

"hooray for tuesday!"

I've been playing Elliott Smith's cover of the Minders' song "Hooray for Tuesday" nonstop. It is just that good. This is a great contrast in mood after reading Albert Camus' The Stranger, which was excellent, but really stark and depressing. Anyway, here is the absolute and total happiness that is "Hooray for Tuesday".


















Lastly, Meditate on this! ^ (My preschoolers have various theories concerning that red "glove hat" and the hermeneutics of its existence).

A "Chune" tune

I'm really getting into 1960's british (and american) pop. Back then the word "pop" was not synonymous with homogenized aural shit, it actually signified expert craftsmanship in both songwriting and producing. Thanks to my copious (and obsessive) re-readings of the books written about Elliott Smith, I am finally finding out about the Zombies, The Left Banke and Box Tops. These guys knew how to use harmony and complex instrumentation to their advantage.



Beautiful piece of baroque pop! I totally see where Smith was influenced when it came to chordal structure and lyricism. (disregard the smelly pictures in the video haha)

Alex Chilton= excellence

I cannot believe that he was sixteen when he sang this! I love the terrible lipsynching job in this video... seems intentional!

amazing cover

ballad of el goodo

Alex Chilton is an excellent musician, and I can't believe that I didn't listen to Big Star sooner. Very many kudos to Elliott Smith for referencing Chilton, because I have found a hidden musical gem. I'm bracing myself for yet another snow storm and the copious amounts of shoveling that it entails. Thank ye gods for Stolichnaya, cranberry juice, space heaters and Big Star!

love my space heater

I'm listening to some Bob Dylan, Evan Dando and Elliott Smith to get my owl painting in gear. I finally finished James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which was really good. I think that every Irishman should read this, it totally sums up the Irish-catholic guilt to a tee. I don't know if I'm ready to start Kierkegaard's Either/or... its really esoteric