GROUCHES
by Sean
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

There are at least two ways to be a curmudgeon.

  • Sole & the Skyrider Band - "A Sad Day For Investors (Astronautalis remix)". You can build a house out of cinders, chalk and dustbunnies. A perfect house, no one would ever know but you. Then you sit in your IKEA parlour with friends, all sipping Glenmorangie, and you're the only one who knows: this whole place is cinders, chalk and dustbunnies. You hold yr curmudgeonliness to your own chest and walk around town chewing on a piece of paper, a little slip that has the word SOURPUSS written in bitter ink. You glare at the news-agent. You shake your head when you see someone buy an extra-large ice-cream cone. If they only knew. You sit in your corner office and look onto the city and suspect, every day, that maybe this whole place is cinders, chalk and dustbunnies. [buy/MySpace]

  • Rihanna ft. the Dream - "Hatin' on the Club". You can wake up early and while the sun is low, start making jars of sky. Cover your kitchen table with mason jars and pour sky blue sky into every one of them, boiling & sealing & setting them near the patio door. When your boyfriend arrives, that asshole in sunglasses, you don't go with him. You don't go out. You fold your arms and mouth the words "No way." Instead, as he watches you through the patio doors, you drink that sky. One by one you twist open the lids of the jars, your hold them up to him, and then with the sun nooning through to you you drink that sky up, drink it in front of him, in glinting gulps; stand all alone in your apartment drinking a hundred jars of sky. [official website]

---

Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes, Blackout Beach, Swan Lake) has a blog and it's wonderful. (Years ago, we asked him to do a guest-post for Said the Gramophone. He never answered. Carey, if you're out there... please!)

This time-lapse video of a particular intersection on London's Abbey Road is getting a lot of play, but to be honest after about a minute and a half I was tired of tourists' hijinks. But I kept watching. Why? Because I was smitted by the song, Blame Ringo's "Garble Arch". (The band is not actually a Beatles cover band or anything - their name is revenge from a previous [and rather spurious] legal threat by Richard Starkey.) [buy]

Posted by Sean at February 24, 2009 12:17 PM
Comments

while the songs today aren't for me, although I am sure they are for many other people, Carey Mercer's blog is awesome. thanks for the tip off. I hope he does a guest post.

Posted by Alex at February 24, 2009 5:24 PM

I rather like that image, of drinking in sky. Songs that I may normally avoid gain greater meaning once placed within your context. Thanks for doing what you do.

Posted by Joseph at February 24, 2009 9:44 PM

Seems like the RSS feed is not showing this week's posts

Posted by Eric at February 24, 2009 11:25 PM

thanks for carey's blog. so perplexing and consuming to read, but I think i can tag another few months on to my degree and get through it.

Posted by david b at February 25, 2009 2:08 PM

I totally dig Blame Ringo!

The band name story is silly, the video is fun and these guys make wonderful music!

This blog is amazing! thanks!

Posted by Chol at February 27, 2009 10:46 AM

It must be annoying to work near that intersection.

Dustbunnies are also called "slut's wool." One of the few things I remember from _The French Lieutenant's Woman_.

Posted by johnofjack at March 1, 2009 10:43 PM

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"And I shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and I will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.

Emma Healey writes poems and essays in Toronto. She joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. This is her website and email her here.

Jeff Miller is a Montreal-based writer and zinemaker. He is the author of Ghost Pine: All Stories True and a bunch of other stories. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Say hello on Twitter or email.

Mitz Takahashi is originally from Osaka, Japan who now lives and works as a furniture designer/maker in Montreal. English is not his first language so please forgive his glamour grammar mistakes. He is trying. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Reach him by email here.

Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet.
PAST AUTHORS
Dan Beirne wrote regularly for Said the Gramophone from August 2004 to December 2014. He is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.

Jordan Himelfarb wrote for Said the Gramophone from November 2004 to March 2012. He lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
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