Can I Live

Sample Pictures

Thesis

I'm already hours behind on my reading. But when today was as nice as it was, I can't help but forgive myself for being irresponsible about school work. Besides, it's still summer! I mean: today I watched an iridescent butterfly flutter in the morning sun while I ate an apple and cooled off in the late-August breeze. How could I work today after living that?

Last Day Of Summer

> Took an early morning walk

> Watched television's best show, Louie

> Attended a fantasy football draft

> Watched Cowboy Bebop with my friends

> Tried to make music with Zech, but ended up eating a burrito and bike riding

> Walked around with E.swee and Andy

> Watched the sunset on a porch with people I love

Great News, Everyone!

Both Grouper and Lil B released new music today, and both releases are phenomenal. Grouper's Water People 7" is on another level (as per usual). Lil B's I Forgive You is delightful for being completely unexpected.

Fitting that I spend the last moments of summer digesting music from these two phenomenal artists, as their work more than any other's soundtracked my spring semester. Let's be honest, I'm getting into that back-to-school mentality.

Summer Music Review 08

This is certainly not the bang with which I planned to end my Summer Review series, but maybe it's for the best that I don't heavily involve myself in art criticism when I should be sleeping.

Tha Carter IV [2011]

by Lil Wayne

[YMCMB]

This review will be short and sour.

When Weezy was in prison, rumors of Tha Carter IV had me excited for what promised to be a return-to-form, statement-making, MBDTF-level comeback record. "6 Foot 7 Foot" was exactly the ear-grabbing single to celebrate Wayne's freedom and rediscovered ability as a wordsmith. The song is absurd, breakneck, and dense. It's everything I wanted and didn't get from Tha Carter IV.

Excepting the singles and a few other songs ("Megaman"; "How To Hate"), the album just sounds flat. The verses and production are unmemorable. There are none of the surprising musical detours that made Tha Carter III such a fun and rewarding listen. I figured Weezy F would be pouring himself into the entire record with all the passion and drive that seemingly went into "6 Foot 7 Foot."

I was wrong. Maybe I was too concerned with a comeback narrative, and not enough with the fact that he's releasing music again. Wayne does sound happy to be out of jail, but not at all eager to prove himself once more as a great rapper. Hard to blame him for being content. It's just too bad his contentedness resulted in an undemanding, lethargic record.

gg

Hard to say goodbye to two best friends in two weeks. Ted, you beautiful nerd, not sure how I'mma make it without you. Thanks for all the Ted talks and all the toons. Have fun in .jp

Conclusions

I'm not tryna make y'all jealous, but I only have one class tomorrow. And it's at 1 o'clock. Not too worried about it, but the beginning of fall semester is certainly something to give me pause. Will I be able to motivate myself? Will the classes be too much? Will I actually get sleep this year? That I began this blog at 11 PM and not 4 AM is a good indicator of what I hope my sleep schedule will look like. On that note: goodnight, fam.

PON PON PON

How To Live Here

O / the feeling

Thesis

Sometimes I listen to Drake and read through a month's worth of my own tweets, reaffirming my long-held belief that I'm the best. Sometimes Twin Peaks makes me forget about nonfiction problems. Sometimes this new apartment already feels like home, even though there's nothing on the walls.

#GreatBandNames

It's never easy saying goodbye to Rozay before she heads west to her other B-town. But it must be done.

Apartment #10

I'm thoroughly in downtown Bloomington mode, listening to Good Luck and watching bros walk my neighborhood streets. Though I've lived here my whole life, the place takes on a different vibe from this perspective. I feel in the middle of everything. It's starting to seem less like vacation and more like real life, which for some reason makes it harder to wash the dishes. Even so, I couldn't be happier with what's going on right now.

Conclusions

This was a short, sober post. Which makes sense: tonight was the first sober night I've spent in this apartment (lol summer). Tomorrow I look forward to a new couch and hella chilling. Maybe watch more Twin Peaks, probably spend more money at the Salvation Army, definitely eat more peanut butter and jam for lunch. Take it easy, fam. I know I will.

So Proud Of Twin Sister (they r gon blow up)

The Big Day

Can you believe it?

Thesis

So, it's 4 AM (again). I'm moving out of my childhood home and into the first real place of my own. A place with no staff to cook my meals or clean the bathroom. Of course this is terrifying, but it's also among the more exhilarating Changes I've undergone. I doubt tomorrow will be very memorable. It'll mostly be aggravating, what with lifting heavy objects in the late-August heat and struggling with the (small, so small) size of the apartment. Oh well! We can sip it all away with an easygoing wine dinner. What more, we can dream it all away in brand new bedrooms. Can you believe it? Though this isn't a giant leap for mankind, it is a step in the right direction for some sort of self-sustaining version of myself.

On my own

Not me. Dallhaus, the most loyal of friends, will be right at my side. We're moving ourselves in (working parents, fam), and we're still working on a name for the place

> New York City
> The Bishop
> Bag End

> The Birthday Party

It'll have a jungle-themed bathroom and several globes. It'll have two well-adjusted residents. It'll have a clean kitchen and plenty of lamps. It'll have room enough for the two of us. Just the two of us, he and I.

Summer Music Review 07

Well yeah, I'm totally preoccupied with the insecurities I have about moving my life from one place to the other. And I'm in a totally "Marvins Room" mentality. But something tells me it's time to review that blockbuster record you should have already downloaded.

Watch The Throne [2011]

by Jay-Z & Kanye West

(Roc-A-Fella; Roc Nation; Def Jam)

Cash-grabbing partnership with a living rap legend? Throwing thousands in the air for an Otis Redding sample? Beyonce and Frank Ocean singing the hooks? Funky accordion waltz outro to nearly every song? A shameless Blades Of Glory clip interrupting an otherwise stellar track?

This is what you call a victory lap.

If anyone deserved it, it's Yeezy. After the endlessly rewarding and self-effacing artistry of MBDTF (an album so Big it's instantly recognizable by its acronym), he's earned the right to just have plain old fun with Jay-Z. I mean, seriously, what more can they say than, "Jay is chilling/Ye is chilling." This is not a deep album. This is not an emotional masterpiece. In fact, almost every song is a simple, ostentatious exclamation of the duo's absurd wealth. There's the occasional, shallow commentary on blackness in America, but any sort of insight is flat-out invalidated by "other other Benz." Well, not invalidated, but made moot - because: Jay-Z & Kanye West. Because these two stars actually made This Album (presumably in luxury suites across the globe).

And This Album is great. Great fun. Listen to the instrumental drop out and charge back at you before Kanye's breathtaking first lines of the record: "Coke on her black skin made her striped like a zebra/I call that jungle fever." Listen to the raging, brostep synths of "Who Gon Stop Me." Listen to the string section finale of "Why I Love You." This is the kind of music that elevates. Makes you feel ecstatic, huge. Who cares that "Welcome To The Jungle" is pretty forgettable or that "Made In America" quotes Ricky Bobby? How can you deny the accessibility of this music?

There's no grand statement to be made here. No pretensions. No dark or twisted. It's just two of the most celebrated artists of our time rapping over big budget, grandstanding, stadium rock levels of holy shit production. Pure fantasy.

"Marvins Room"

Let me take a sentence to say: probably the Best Song Of 2011.

Conclusions

This was a more well-rounded post than my past few, in the sense that it talked about my personal life as much as it did music. As I've said before, this is Not A Music Blog. I just love music with all my heart and more. I love music in a better way than I can love my friends. Even so, I can't wait to open up my life to this co-written chapter.

Aforementioned Best Song Of 2011