Dirty Songs for Sad Lovers

I bought the new The National album the week it came out, and I highly recommended it for anyone who is a fan of the indie group and/or Matt Berninger beautiful voice. While it is more dynamic than their previous albums, I still do not love Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers the way I love Boxer. However it should noted, that it may be my favorite album title of all time.

Start with this track and see it goes:

90 Mile Water Wall - The National [zshare]

So Long SHUNT

Its a sad day when the only club-art instillation hybrid in an abandoned train station closes. That day is today. With different artists and performers every evening, SHUNT was always an interesting place for a drink and was packed this past Thursday with the end so near.

In a city obsessed with guest lists and members clubs, the queue for SHUNT speaks to it's egalitarian door policy; it doesn't matter who you are, you have to be here before 11:00 and you have to wait to get in. Apparently the minds behind the magic are looking for a new venue, but its hard to say where another cavernous space exists that is just waiting to be filled with surprises around every dark corners.

SHUNT's front entrance in London Bridge train station

So long SHUNT

364 Days

"Once again they gave the worst job to a black man..."

One year tomorrow since the election, and the critiques are rolling in from all corners of the media. While Obama has managed some passing grades with expectations like his, there should have never have been a recession, right? Seeing as he has not actually been in office for one year, waiting until January for another round of report cards seems fair. And remember six years ago this time, the US had not 'occupied' Iraq for one year yet, and the only war Obama has started is on Fox News.

She Wolf vs. She Wolf

A latino goddess and an indie white boy, both are worth a download:

Shakira - She Wolf [zshare]

She Wolf- The Violet Hour [zshare]

More Kapoor

I will fully admit to being a fadist, but this is for anyone who missed the Cloud Gate reference in my last Kapoor post.

A Poem for Last Week

I retired my copy of Lunch Poems today for a new handbag book of poetry. Poems are the best kind of subway reading, and I cannot recommend Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara highly enough (it even fits in my smallest handbags).

FIVE POEMS

Well now, hold on
maybe I won't go to sleep at all
and it'll be a beautiful white night
or else I'll collapse
completely from the nerves and be calm
as a rug or bottle of pills
or suddenly I'll be in Montauk
swimming and love it and not caring where

• 
  

an invitation to lunch
HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT?
when I only have 16 cents and 2
packages of yoghurt
there's a lesson in that, isn't there
like in Chinese poetry when a leaf falls?
hold off on the yoghurt till the very last,
when everything may improve

• 
  

at the Rond-Point they were eating
an oyster, but here
we were dropping by sculptures
and seeing some paintings
and the smasheroo-grates of Cadoret
and music by Vaese, too
well Adolph Gottlief I guess you
are the hero of this day
along with venison and Bill

I'll sleep on the yoghurt and dream of the Persian Gulf

• 
  

which I did it was wonderful
to be in bed again and the knock
on my door for once signified "hi there"
and on the deafening walk
through the ghettos where bombs have gone off lately
left by subway violators
I knew why I love taxis, yes
subways are only fun when you're feeling sexy
and who feels sexy after The Blue Angel
well maybe a little bit

• 
  

I seem to be defying fate or am I avoiding it?

-Frank O'Hara 1960

Been Waiting a Long Time for Bye Bye

There are few bands I follow as closely as LCD Soundsystem, and there are few bands who have had so little activity in the last few years to follow. Thankfully, the new album is out in November, and in the mean time an amuse bouche:

LCD Soundsystem - Bye Bye Bayou [zshare]