I found it. At last. Brand name clothes at bargain prices. Do you see the reflection of clouds? Well, those are the clouds parting. TK Maxx was actually placed in front of me by the hand of God.Jamie and I had a big day today. We hit the British TJ Maxx and we hit it good. Funny, it's called TK Maxx... and I really want to know the difference. Wait, I know what it is: I don't run into my 5th grade teacher and fourteen other people I know in the throw pillow aisle at the K. Apart from the name mashup the stores are pretty similar; same stacks of faux-Tuscan candle holders and mismatched lampshades; same overwrought mothers with far too many obnoxious children. In a word, it was glorious! It was the closest I've felt to home in six months.
In other news, I've been finding various and sundry ways to put off revising for exams. My latest hobby is going to the library and walking up and down the art history section pulling books to read that I think will help me next year. I discovered this little gem amongst the Fauves:
I have a working knowledge of post-modernism, at least one that applies well to art history discussion, but the REAL issue in my opinion is finding out who coined "Po-mo" so I can travel to wherever they are and beat the hell out of them. If I have to hear one more self-righteous, converse sneaker-wearing person sigh "it's just soooo po-mo" I will slap a baby.
I have saved the most important thing that happened today (I know! Better than TK Maxx!) until the end. And that is, of course, the release of The Avett Brother's new album, Emotionalism. Most of y'all know that I have been counting down to this for months.... so it was kind of like Christmas this morning; I woke up, ran to my computer and checked to see if the album had been added to itunes. I started the download and ate some cereal and by the time I finished the washing up all 16 tracks were added to my computer, including two bonus tracks! Golly! Better than Christmas! I spent the better part of the morning listening to the new songs and, as Jamie said, "crying softly in the corner." The album was recorded at Echo Mountain studios just outside of Asheville, so on top of everything I felt like a little piece of home was being piped right into my headphones.
See the happy? We are listening to Emotionalism at the bus stop in St Andrews.
I will spare you my blow-by-blow analysis of the album, but I will say that you should probably go out and buy it as soon as you possibly can, if only for "Shame," "Living of Love," "Weight of Lies," "Paranoia in B Major," and my personal favorite of all time and the song the brothers played for me in Glasgow, "Salina." I will say that it's a much more polished sound than what they've put out in the past, so if you were turned off by the ragged barrage of bluegrass/punk/rock/gospel/roots music I probably forced you to listen to at one point or another then this is the one you should go for. Seth Avett is the greatest songwriter alive. The end.
I will leave you with this piece that The Brothers wrote on their website when they announced the release of Emotionalism some months ago. It sums up the album and who they are as artists pretty completely. It also makes me tear up, pump my fist in the air and shout YES; so please, partake:
"This is a time where playing it cool is the way to be. It is a time where people are taught to hold back, to keep their best tricks up their tightly-buttoned sleeves, to guard their love. The days of sonnets spoken to girls in unreachable balconies are behind us, replaced with the new coldness; maybe I'll call you, maybe I won't. In a modern setting where even the satire is satirized, love becomes weakness, tears become a punch line, real laughter a vulnerability, marriage a surrender.
The Avett Brothers introduce 'Emotionalism' today in this very time; a record that marks their position in a livid stance against such mentality. It is a first step in an effort to name and strengthen a procession already in motion; one that wants to write a sonnet, wants to truly laugh, one that says so when it hurts, one that wants to fall in love and above all, wants to admit it with the true excitement that only such a state of heart and mind can create. This spirit rises up against the coldness, against the sarcasm, against the detachment.
The American Heritage Dictionary describes emotionalism as "an inclination to rely on or place too much value on emotion/(or an) undue display of emotion". The structure of the word itself echoes the excessive nature of other terms: alcoholism, narcissism, etc. These words too, offer the image of one that has gone too far. To this end, the terms are the same. Here however, going too far is purposefully done-for a common balance, for something good. The Avett Brothers present the idea that in this era, such display of emotion is entirely due. This is said with an album of songs that mirror the thought. They truly laugh, they love, they say so when it hurts. They stand beneath the balcony and say the best poem they can think of, in hopes that whoever is up there will care to hear.
Emotionalism is a weakness. It is a presentation of a heart-lucid reality to those who do not seek it. It can be mocked. It can be ignored. This record and the group that executed it take part in a voice, singing to the guarded, the scared, the damaged, the emotionless. They will choose whether or not to listen."
YES. YES. YES.
*pumps fist in air
... and isn't Scott's album art beautiful?
In other news, I've been finding various and sundry ways to put off revising for exams. My latest hobby is going to the library and walking up and down the art history section pulling books to read that I think will help me next year. I discovered this little gem amongst the Fauves:
I have a working knowledge of post-modernism, at least one that applies well to art history discussion, but the REAL issue in my opinion is finding out who coined "Po-mo" so I can travel to wherever they are and beat the hell out of them. If I have to hear one more self-righteous, converse sneaker-wearing person sigh "it's just soooo po-mo" I will slap a baby.I have saved the most important thing that happened today (I know! Better than TK Maxx!) until the end. And that is, of course, the release of The Avett Brother's new album, Emotionalism. Most of y'all know that I have been counting down to this for months.... so it was kind of like Christmas this morning; I woke up, ran to my computer and checked to see if the album had been added to itunes. I started the download and ate some cereal and by the time I finished the washing up all 16 tracks were added to my computer, including two bonus tracks! Golly! Better than Christmas! I spent the better part of the morning listening to the new songs and, as Jamie said, "crying softly in the corner." The album was recorded at Echo Mountain studios just outside of Asheville, so on top of everything I felt like a little piece of home was being piped right into my headphones.
See the happy? We are listening to Emotionalism at the bus stop in St Andrews.I will spare you my blow-by-blow analysis of the album, but I will say that you should probably go out and buy it as soon as you possibly can, if only for "Shame," "Living of Love," "Weight of Lies," "Paranoia in B Major," and my personal favorite of all time and the song the brothers played for me in Glasgow, "Salina." I will say that it's a much more polished sound than what they've put out in the past, so if you were turned off by the ragged barrage of bluegrass/punk/rock/gospel/roots music I probably forced you to listen to at one point or another then this is the one you should go for. Seth Avett is the greatest songwriter alive. The end.
I will leave you with this piece that The Brothers wrote on their website when they announced the release of Emotionalism some months ago. It sums up the album and who they are as artists pretty completely. It also makes me tear up, pump my fist in the air and shout YES; so please, partake:
"This is a time where playing it cool is the way to be. It is a time where people are taught to hold back, to keep their best tricks up their tightly-buttoned sleeves, to guard their love. The days of sonnets spoken to girls in unreachable balconies are behind us, replaced with the new coldness; maybe I'll call you, maybe I won't. In a modern setting where even the satire is satirized, love becomes weakness, tears become a punch line, real laughter a vulnerability, marriage a surrender.
The Avett Brothers introduce 'Emotionalism' today in this very time; a record that marks their position in a livid stance against such mentality. It is a first step in an effort to name and strengthen a procession already in motion; one that wants to write a sonnet, wants to truly laugh, one that says so when it hurts, one that wants to fall in love and above all, wants to admit it with the true excitement that only such a state of heart and mind can create. This spirit rises up against the coldness, against the sarcasm, against the detachment.
The American Heritage Dictionary describes emotionalism as "an inclination to rely on or place too much value on emotion/(or an) undue display of emotion". The structure of the word itself echoes the excessive nature of other terms: alcoholism, narcissism, etc. These words too, offer the image of one that has gone too far. To this end, the terms are the same. Here however, going too far is purposefully done-for a common balance, for something good. The Avett Brothers present the idea that in this era, such display of emotion is entirely due. This is said with an album of songs that mirror the thought. They truly laugh, they love, they say so when it hurts. They stand beneath the balcony and say the best poem they can think of, in hopes that whoever is up there will care to hear.
Emotionalism is a weakness. It is a presentation of a heart-lucid reality to those who do not seek it. It can be mocked. It can be ignored. This record and the group that executed it take part in a voice, singing to the guarded, the scared, the damaged, the emotionless. They will choose whether or not to listen."
YES. YES. YES.
*pumps fist in air
... and isn't Scott's album art beautiful?
