#and we went to the eras tour together twice which just the best experience in the world

[sophisticatedswifts]

I owe so many of my friendships to Taylor and I’ll always be so grateful to her for that

[miashyperfixations]

TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR

16.08.2024 @ Wembley Stadium, London (92,000 Capacity)

Written Oct 2024

No matter the album, or tour, it’s always a dream to see Taylor Swift live in concert. This highly anticipated run of 5 London dates fell towards the end of her world tour, with only a few North American dates at the end of the year afterwards. The entire tour spans from March 2023 to December 2024 with 149 dates - this was the 128th night of the tour, the 5th London show overall but night 2 of this Wembley run, having done 3 earlier shows in June as well. I am glad we went to these August shows over the June ones as the hype was at a peak because people knew what to expect and in some ways, it was easier.

I have seen Taylor live twice before, on the Reputation Stadium Tour back in June 2018 in both Manchester (Etihad Stadium) & London (Wembley Stadium), so I kinda knew what to expect in terms of her and how she performs. Even back then Taylor’s tours were a full-on production - The Eras Tour is no exception. The woman knows how to put on a show. She truly is a theatre kid through and through, just with an insane budget.

There were many times during each era’s song set I  just took in the set and props. I was in awe. Not just because this is what I’m going to study, but because it’s crystal clear to everyone just how much effort goes into this show. It ran so smoothly with no hitches or even hiccups that I can’t not commend every crew member on the tour. Purely thinking about the logistics for each individual set gives me a headache, let alone the whole show! Even the outfits are complex, she has set bodysuits, jackets & dresses for each Era’s set, sometimes multiple! Whilst the actual outfits don’t change, the colours do rotate every show so it’s fun to try and guess which ones she’ll wear. A surprise to everyone was that she debuted a new ‘Midnights-Era’ bodysuit at our show, which was fun, but also a little confusing to notice in the moment!

I absolutely loved when, during both the ‘Fearless Era’ and ‘Speak Now Era’ sets, that the band got to come out and have their moment. It’s clear that they love what they do (who wouldn’t?) and it’s such a full-circle moment especially for those like Paul (Sidoti, Guitar) and Amos (Heller, Bass) who have been there since the start of Swift’s career. Of course, there are certain aspects that also change every night. A highly anticipated change is Kam during ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ where during the original song, Taylor would say “...like ever!”, at the end of the spoken bridge, Kam gets the line. And he says something related to the city/country they’re in. For example, in Liverpool he said “eee, get on your bike” in a scouse accent, or in Melbourne, “Like naur” was the line . On our night, it was “what a knobhead!” , which, I think, was one of the best choices he could’ve made! Another special thing that happens during the ‘Red Era’ set, is that Tyalor’s team chooses someone from the crowd (mostly little kids) to receive her ‘22 Hat’ that she wears on stage during the song ‘22’. It’s such a cute experience and a once-in-a-lifetime moment that I’m sure those chosen will remember forever.

During the ‘Folklore/Evermore Era’ set, there were a few moments that stood out to me. It’s tradition for the audience to maintain a comically long applause after the song ‘champagne problems’, and on our night it lasted for around 4 minutes. It was so loud, and so long, that Taylor exclaimed “You win Wembley night two!”, once she was finally able to talk, she also shared that her parents were at the show and that she could “...guarantee my parents were just recording that on their phones. [...] Every time I have a sad or bad day from now, not only will I have the video in my mind but I'm going to revisit that moment". It lasted so long, that immediately after those comments, she launched straight into the next song, which happened to be ‘august’. This is a song that I was highly anticipating, and not just because it also happened to be August at the time. It’s one of my favourite songs from ‘Folklore’ and it then directly transitioned into the bridge of my favourite song on the album, ‘Illicit Affairs’. THis rendition of the song was also heavier, and more powerful than the softer  recorded version, which I absolutely loved. One of 3 songs from ‘Evermore’ on the setlist is a particularly meaningful song called ‘marjorie’ dedicated to Swift’s grandmother, an Opera singer who died when she was young. Hearing a song like this that I can somewhat relate to in a city that means so much to was an emotional rollercoaster but I definitely wasn’t the only one crying, it is a very emotional song.

Similarly to her last tour there is a dedicated part of the setlist every night, where Taylor sits down to sing two songs not on the setlist.  I remember at the date we went on the Reputation Tour, she played ‘So it goes’, a Reputation album track and the only one that wasn’t on the setlist then, meaning that I was among the first audience to hear the whole album live, and I think that’s pretty special. During the Reputation tour, it was one song on the acoustic guitar on a B-stage at the back of the stadium, but here on The Eras Tour, it’s one on acoustic guitar and one on the piano, and they’re often mashups. It became such a phenomenon over this tour, that fans started keeping track of which songs she had/hadn’t played and whether or not they could hear their favourite songs by the date they were going to. The night before our show one of Taylor’s longtime friends, Ed Sheeran, came out during this part to sing a mashup of all their collaborations over the years, so I thought we weren’t going to get anything super major for our surprise song set, and I didn’t really have any burning desires for a specific songs. The first song genuinely surprised me as she played ‘London Boy’, (an album track off of her 7th studio album ‘Lover’) because she’d never played it in front of a  live audience before and I didn’t think she ever would, considering she’s no longer together with the person she wrote the song about. So hearing ‘London Boy’ in London was amusing. The second surprise song shocked me. She played a mashup of ‘Dear John’ (off of ‘Speak Now’) and ‘Sad Beautiful Tragic’ (off of ‘Red’).  I don’t think we were the only people to experience this, but there was a moment during both piano songs where we knew what the song was, and we were singing along, but couldn’t place the song title till a few lines in! Before The Eras Tour, Taylor hadn’t played ‘Dear John’ in almost 11 years, since the ‘Speak Now’ tour in 2011-12. She sang it for the first time on this tour in Minneapolis, and this was the only other time on the tour that she played the song. It’s a massive fan favourite at over 5 minutes long. The slow piano power ballad mixed perfectly with ‘Sad Beautiful Tragic’, another album track, but for another album. ‘Red’ was the first Taylor Swift album I listened to. After my sister got it on CD for her birthday, it lived in the car from that point onwards, and even now when one of the songs comes on in the car, we all stop and sing along. STB is one of my favourites off the album, so I was extremely happy we got to hear it live.

There were so many mums and daughters (including us!)  there together enjoying the show and it was so wholesome, to bond over something wonderful so much so that you’d make a day of it. There were also many dads at the show, some reluctant and on their phones and others fully immersed into being a ‘Swiftie Dad’. The whole show is just the peak of girlhood. It’s a fun and interactive experience for all ages and I could tell that so many core memories were being made that night. The swapping of friendship bracelets didn’t stop with the show either, even on our way out, we swapped so many and gave some to security who asked for them - vendors, merch sellers, and even some of the on-duty police officers had some on! 

Seeing Holly Humberstone, Paramore and Taylor Swift all in one night was without a doubt, the highlight of my summer and the perfect closer before I start my life as a uni student, hopefully venturing into this exact industry for my professional career.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Fashion is an instrument through which you show you belong to a group.

- John Weitz

John Weitz was a man for all seasons. Handsome, intelligent, and debonair. He was a novelist, historian, businessman, spy, and above all a renowned mens and ladies fashion designer. James Bond was fiction but he was the real deal.

Born in Berlin in 1923, Hans Werner Weitz was the son of a prosperous clothing manufacturer and German first world war hero, who had won the Iron Cross in the infantry. The family was living well when Christopher Isherwood visited. But they were Jewish, quick to understand what was about to happen, and, in the early 1930s, moved to London, where the young Weitz went to well known private school, St Paul's in London. At St Paul’s he said it was normal to be caned if he didn’t wear morning clothes to class, so he always did with lapels rolled properly. “On weekends we wore blazers…correctly…with the collar up and with a scarf and with brown suede shoes, which were very new then….but never, of course, after six,” he once reminisced.

He was an apt pupil and Oxbridge seemed to be a seamless next stage. However he lasted only a year studying at Oxford University.

Instead he headed off to Paris to begin an apprenticeship with the women's tailor, Captain Edward Molyneaux. In 1938, at the age of 18, Weitz was falsely arrested as an enemy agent while working in the London office of the Paris fashion house Molyneux.

His father was already in America and in 1939, and when France was overuun at the outbreak of the war, Weitz could see he had to get out of Europe. After a tortuous trip through Shanghai, China and later Yokohama, Japan to reach the USA.

In 1943 and now a naturalised American citizen and aged 21, John (as he was now dubbed) was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, operating in Germany until 1946. He was fluent in both French and German which came in handy in his work during the war in Europe.

He would only ever describe his work in Germany until 1946 as "sensitive," though, much later, his publisher John Fairchild told the New York Times that Weitz "loved all that romantic part of his past. He was a perfect gentleman."  What is known about his OSS work was that he was part of a 1944 mission in support of the plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler  formulated by German Wehrmacht officers, under the instigation of Claus von Stauffenberg. After the war, Weitz helped to liberate the Dachau concentration camp

Weitz was also a man with connections, as when he confirmed that a former OSS boss had shown him gangster blackmail photos of the longtime FBI director J Edgar Hoover with his boyfriend, Clyde Tolson. In the 1970s, Weitz's friend Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, producer of the James Bond movies, teased him about his resemblance to the character - adding that Weitz was better looking.

Weitz returned to New York in the 1940s, a young garment trader well placed to pick up on American women's new taste for informal sportswear, leather coats and men's shirts.

Weitz founded his women’s sportswear business, John Weitz Designs, in 1954, and launched men’s wear a decade later. For his women’s wear, he often tailored the best of men’s designs for the female figure, with looks such as shaped houndstooth checked coats, formal shirts with jet buttons and cuff links, and corduroy pants.

“Whatever happens in women’s pants comes from the men’s pants,” he said in 1965.

In the Sixties, Weitz began phasing out his women’s and children’s apparel business to concentrate on men’s wear. By 1977, Weitz had 18 licensees and $150 million worldwide retail sales of products bearing his label, including sunglasses, belts, umbrellas and even cigars. That year, he also reentered the licensed women’s apparel category, because, he said, he saw the need for an alternative to coordinated sportswear merchandising.

“I’m rather sick of seeing American working women treated as children with prepackaged clothes,” Weitz said at the time.

In 1964, he launched his menswear range, applying the technical standards of manufacture he had learned from his father. Unusually, in that era of obsolescence, he went for ease and wear - clothes, he said, should be worn "as if they are old and valued friends".

Of course he committed fashion faux pas here and there. This was the 1970s after all. But the previaling zeitgeist had to be understood before we laugh or wince at the designs today. None left a lasting impression quite as strong as the posthumously awarded ‘king of the ‘70s’—the leisure suit.

Once hailed by top designers John Weitz and Calvin Klein as a garment with staying power, the leisure suit was ostracized from the kingdom of en vogue before the 1970s ever came to an end. Just as it had swiftly risen to the top of fashion, it fell into the leagues of comic relief twice as fast.  Today we laugh at the cheesy styles, feminine colors, and garish plaids. But what we seem to have forgotten is that the leisure suit did more than just provide us with years of laughs. The leisure suit helped men open themselves up to new ideas in clothing. It allowed them to experiment outside of the style box they’d been locked in for too many years. If the 1970s had passed without the leisure suit, “business casual” for men might never have developed as soon as it did. The leisure suit may have been a fashion catastrophe, but it laid the groundwork for men to strut their fashion stuff for decades to come.

He was his own dream model - "healthy and scrubbed," with a flat stomach - and toured stores showing off his new line of narrow, European-cut shirts, half the width of the standard American style. His navy suit, alphabet-patterned ties and aubergine socks are commonplace now, but were then part of a new, executive self-presentation, more about putting it together than design. By 1974, he had become a household name, with annual earnings of $18m and a Coty Award, fashion's prize for innovation.

Weitz skilfully let his name generate money by itself, using witty advertisements to maintain a high public profile. A poster on the back of New York buses announced, for example, "She ditched him, John Weitz ties and all".

He also used his writing abilities to promote the business image: his book Man In Charge, The Executive's Guide To Grooming, Manners And Travel (1974), became a bestseller, but was really just part of his trade in suavity and martinis. Even his headquarters was above Madison Avenue. There were also two well received novels, Friends In High Places and The Value Of Nothing.

Two other books, however, marked out Weitz as a historian of the Nazi period. He wrote Hitler's Diplomat, a biography of the third reich foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Hitler's Banker, about the president of the Reichsbank, Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht.

He was repeatedly asked about reconciling the sale of navy blazers and researching von Ribbentrop, but he saw no clash: "Who else but a fashion designer would understand such a worldly man?" Weitz certainly comprehended the Nazis genius for the projection of personal image, and, though never a major historian, established a sufficiently solid reputation as a researcher that the president of Germany consulted him on the subject.

Meanwhile, he lived the life of his executive book, raced cars at Sebring in the 1950s, and belonged to the New York Yacht Club and the Vintage Sports Car Club. In his Park Avenue apartment, a Chinese chef cooked dinner parties for his friends - among them the novelist Tom Wolfe- and film people.

In 1964, he married the actor Susan Kohner, and their two sons, Christopher and Paul, remembered Ingmar Bergman taking them to the circus, and film directors John Huston and Billy Wilder dropping in for coffee -"just nice old men around the house every once in a while". The boys' chief complaint about their father was that he made them wear blue blazers. Both Chris and Paul would go on to forge their own Hollywood careers as the producers and directors of such movies as American Pie (1999) and About a Boy (2002).

John Weitz had a deep fondness for cats which raised eyebrows amongst his more masculine following. But Weitz was unrepentent. Weitz adored their elegance, and was quoted on them more often than on the Nazis. "Even overweight cats instinctively know the rule: when fat, arrange yourself in slim poses," he wrote.

John Weitz died on 3 October 2002 at the grand old age of 79. He remained a dashing figure and aged well - like the American version of Gianni Agnelli. He had throughout his life the air of adventure, even danger. He was stylish fashion designer who lived up to the executive image of his clothes. It’s no wonder no one balked when he made a name for himself with the nowadays unthinkable ad slogan, “John Weitz designs for the woman who wishes her husband could afford her.” His was a life well lived.

[yessoupy]

i think i have to unstan harry styles.

best weekend of my life (so far)

it's been a week [a fucking year] and I still haven't posted my review. at this point y'all know the show was awesome. hannah is posting her pics after a week straight of actually working (let's take up a collection to hire hannah to go to harry shows and produce exclusive content for us, what do you say?). after a week [a YEAR] away from the harrie commune all I can say is.... I don't know if I can continue on this way without it. i might have to stop altogether. [somehow, i’ve made due.]

after the last show of the 2018 tour I had such a fierce feeling that I'd missed out on something I would have really loved. there was nothing to do for it, since it was my sister's wedding day, so I moved on pretty quickly. but I also made the decision that for harry's next tour, I was going to go all out.

my dudes, what a way to ring in the new era. [and present me needs to interject here that i think i knew that something was going to go horribly wrong in 2020. even with tickets in hand to such faraway shows as phoenix, denver, and raleigh, i could NOT book flights or hotels as late as february. i knew about coronavirus in late december because i was traveling abroad and acutely aware of travel warnings about wuhan province. and in early february we had our mardi gras party and franny showed up kind of sick and i hugged her but cautiously, mentally cataloguing her symptoms. so when it finally happened i think i was just ... resigned. and that’s why i wasn’t as upset as i would have been if nothing had changed from the time i started writing this review.]

this kind of show always seemed like something that happened to other people. getting the actual tickets was rather stressful (though not as stressful an experience as others had...) but once everything shook itself out i couldn’t even think about the weekend or else I’d implode. thank god for @chasm2018‘s organizational abilities. 

we missed a measles exposure at LAX by 2 days (bless). my first harrie commune™ experience of the weekend was riding the connections shuttle to pick up @papiermachecat at terminal 6 like she was a conquering hero (she is). we rode the connections shuttle to pick up @stylesinthewild and found a little table at starbucks in the baggage claim to wait for the bay area harries to arrive in their rented minivan full of goodies.

we piled in and hannah got us to our two hotel rooms, one with three queen beds, and somehow we got to the forum twice, once to buy pre-show merch and then the final time for the fine line show. we all dressed up and then took just ONE picture. one.

you know how the show went. i’m trying to cover ground that the squad hasn’t already posted [a YEAR AGO]

here is the note I DM'd to harry the next morning, which i think sums everything up nicely:

thank you for the show last night at the forum. I flew in from Houston and met up with friends from all over, only one of whom I'd gotten to hug in real life prior to yesterday. today we're sharing beds and toothpaste and fond memories. thank you for being you and bringing us all together. 💜

i don’t remember WHEN i sent it, maybe 3am, but later that day i took an uber to a vegan tattoo artist’s backyard studio to get a planned tattoo that @papiermachecat had sketched for me and my impulse tattoo of a fine line around my left wrist. while i was doing that, the squad finished up eating breakfast with other harries and then went to stand in the pop-up shop line.

you’ve heard the line stories. i fucking LOVE standing in a line for something because of the people you meet. in front of us we had a personal DJ who’d play what people wanted to hear and airdropped a picture of harry’s dick from WMYB. we’d break off in pairs to go to CVS or visit other people we knew in line. and this hasn’t been written about before, but one of those times hannah and i were walking around the block we saw some men standing by some cars near the entrance and we kind of stopped.... and i think at the same time realized who we were looking at ... and after looking around and realizing that no one else in the fucking line recognized jeff azoff hannah went in for the kill. we thanked him for taking such good care of harry, answered questions he had for us, thanked him again, i had the presence of mind at the end to tell him our names, and we took the pop-up shop merch menus that hadn’t been passed out to anyone yet, and then walked back to our spot in line silently, processing that moment. sometimes i’ll think about that conversation and get all warm and fuzzy thinking about that show and how well it went and how much LOVE there was for everything and harry and between all of us and it sustains me through a shitty, shitty pandemic day at work.

eventually we got through the line and got our merch and looked at all the things they had set up and after moving our reservation back we got to cafe habana to sit at a very familiar table and i took off my bandages to show my tattoos to everyone (to this day i regret not having the presence of mind to show jeff my brand new fine line tattoo, he would have loved it) and we ate and laughed and had the server take our picture and that’s probably what i miss most about the weekend, being in that place imbued with such silly meaning to us and all FEELING that gravity of where we were and being able to recognize it in each others’ eyes and smiles. perfect weather, amazing food, the best company.

the early morning saw our three queen room breaking up, and @papiermachecat left a single zyrtec in the middle of the room on the floor, bringing me to tears laughing even without her physical presence. @chasm2018 and i went to randy’s donuts (where we met up with @treatpeoplewithnice again) and GOD i want to eat donuts that good again. 

it was sad to leave LA that afternoon, wearing my new tpwk oversized hoodie. it wasn’t the last time i was around a big crowd of people, wasn’t even the last concert i attended before all of this happened (that was in vienna on december 30), but it was the last time i was going to be full of unbridled joy. that weekend was the real ode to joy.

we’ll get back to it, it’s just going to take some time.

@stylesinthewild, @papiermachecat, @greeneyesharry & emily, @treatpeoplewithnice, @aggresivelyfriendly, and @chasm2018: fine line forum squad forever in my heart. that weekend will always be so special to me for so many reasons and it wouldn’t have been the same without each and every one of you.

@accidentalharrie and @styloff - ONE of these times we’ll be in the same place for long enough to do more than hug and grin at each other.

@ferryboatpeak and @ticklefighthockey - it was great to meet you! and la who would have thought then our next meeting would be in the backyard of an airbnb sitting six feet apart because we don’t want to spread a disease?

to harry, who isn’t reading this but i need all of you who ARE to know my heart ... thank you for bringing these people into my life. this experience of being your fan has changed me in such profound ways that there’s really no way to express it. it’s less about you and more about those who love you like i do, and i love them. and you.

to jeff, thank you for taking such good care of harry and having his best interests at heart. 

to anne, thank you for raising such a good person and giving him to the world.

to camille, thank you for fine line. without you, that weekend doesn’t happen the way it did and i love that weekend. 

[rose-of-pollux]

Quiz thing

Tagged by @belphegor1982​

When did you last sing to yourself?

This morning, and it was Queen’s “I Want it All.”

If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about anything, what would you want to know?

“What are my finches actually saying about me?”

Rest under the cut--

What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?

Getting my master’s degree in biology/my thesis project on finch learning.

What is the first happy memory that comes to mind, recent or otherwise?

Traveling in New York City with @ksturf​, seeing Anastasia on Broadway and catching 100 Unowns.

Do you have a bucket list? if so, what are the top three things?

Not really.  I want to publish a thing, though.

Do you feel you had a happy childhood?

I think so!

When did you last cry in front of another person?

Ummm... I honestly don’t remember.

Pick a person to stargaze with you and explain why you picked them

...Does the person have to be living?  My answer depends on that. XD

Would you ever have a deep conversation with a stranger and open up to them?

No, but it’s been my experience that strangers like opening up to me for some reason. *shrug emoji*

When was your last 3am conversation with someone, and who were they to you?

Back when I was doing my master’s, my procrastination habit had come back to bite me hard, and I had left a first draft of a term paper on crocodilian behavior til the night before it was due.  It was @ksturf​ who got to hear me screeching into the void at 3AM as I got the thing done (time zone differences made it not as bad for her).  That is the last time I ever stayed up that late.

(The kicker to this is that 1. I was one of two people who turned the first draft in on time, and 2. My professor said that it was “Such a wonderful first draft and very clear that I spent so much time and effort on it” that I didn’t need to revise it and would get an A on it.  Lesson learned: it’s easy to bluff your way through a term paper--even at 3AM--if it’s something that genuinely interests you)

What is your opinion on brown eyes?

...I love them.  And I would say that even if I didn’t have them myself--because ^he does.

Pick a quote and describe what it means to you personally

"...I’ve enjoyed a lifetime of adventures around the world...” -- Robert Vaughn.

Honestly, it means so much to me--he lived such a full and fulfilling life, and if I even accomplish a fraction of the things he was able to do, that will be time well-spent.

What would you title the autobiography of your life so far?

The Life and Times of a Scatterbrained Writer

What would you do with one billion dollars?

Keep/save enough to live comfortably (maybe slightly frivolously--gotta have my Nintendo games and fandom merch), make sure my best friend also lives comfortably, some for my family, and give whatever we don’t need to those who do.

Are you a very forgiving person?  Do you like being this way?

Hahahaha... No, but I am very good at hiding it.  Should I be better?  Yeah.  Will I?  *shrugs*  Who knows...

Would you describe yourself as more punk or pastel?

Pastel, I guess?

How do you feel about tattoos and piercings?  Explain

Tattoos aren’t for me, nor are piercings other than ears.  And I have such a low pain tolerance that I probably wouldn’t have gotten my ears pierced if my mother hadn’t had it done when I was a toddler (my mother was a traditionally-raised Hindu who had only emigrated to the States from India a few years prior, and toddlers getting their ears pierced is a tradition going back literally thousands of years; getting a nose piercing as a mark of adulthood is also a tradition going back thousands of years, but my response to that was a firm #NOPE, and that was the end of the conversation).

Do you wear a lot of makeup? why/why not?

Nooooooo, I hate it, I hate the way it feels on my face.

Talk about a song/band/musician/lyric that has affected your life in some way

So, Rockapella, Genesis, and Queen are three bands that I’ve known since childhood--in the case of Queen, I didn’t know it was them until I was much older (“We Will Rock You” was my hometown’s unofficial fight song for sporting events, so I’ve heard that song since elementary school--usually coupled with “We are the Champions”), and even then remained a casual fan until I watched Bohemian Rhapsody last year and just went headlong into loving them.  Freddie Mercury was an absolute legend, and finding out that he had ties to India like I did was an absolute thrill.

Rockapella were my first music loves--saw them on the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego game show, rediscovered them years later, and never left them again.  I’ve conversed with two of the Carmen-era members online, and met two others in person.

Genesis has been my musical fixed point, along with Bryan Adams.  I’ve just constantly been listening to them throughout my life.

The Monkees brought me to tumblr and subsequently led to my meeting people here that I’m still in touch with, even if I’ve drifted away from the fandom.

And Zach Adkins holds a special place for me, as well, seeing him as Dmitry in the Anastasia musical with @ksturf.

List the concerts you have been to and talk about how they make you feel

So, I have seen Rockapella in concert 3 times, the Monkees twice, and a solo Nez concert once.

The Nez concert was in 2013, before the more recent... clouds covered the sun, shall we say?  I had a wonderful time at the time, and many good memories, and I feel awful that things have come to this--especially when a good portion of it seems to not be in Nez’s control at all.  It’s a dang shame, but I’ll cherish the memories I have.

The two Monkees concerts were in 2012 and 2014.  The 2012 “Gazpacho tour” was truly a remarkable thing--honestly, I don’t think anyone saw a tour coming after Davy had passed, and suddenly, here it was--and I remember the night before the official announcement, when Nez had teased us and everyone here was going absolutely bonkers over the possibility, before he broke the news before the official announcement.  And then, the concert itself... there was something magical that night, undoubtedly--Micky having us, the audience, sing Davy’s signature song, “Daydream Believer,” saying that it belonged to us now.  It was so sad and wonderful at the same time.  The 2014 tour had a more upbeat and celebratory feel to it, sort of the promise that the daydream was still alive.

The first two Rockapella concerts were before my Carmen Sandiego Renaissance; they just happened to be performing in my hometown twice, so I went to see them because “Oh, these guys!” (though only two of the guys from the Carmen era were actually still with the band).  I had a great time, but it was nothing like the third time, when I went because I had rediscovered how much they’d meant to me (and drove over an hour in a snowstorm to see them.  Abysmally foolish?  Yes.  Do I regret it?  Absolutely not).  The third time was also when I got to meet the two Carmen-era guys (and the new guys) after the concert, which was... more amazing than I can ever describe.

Who in the world would you most like to receive a letter from and what would you want it to say?

I would have loved to have received a reply to the fan letter I had sent Robert Vaughn just two months before he had passed.  Obviously, I learned after the fact that he probably had been too sick to reply, but a reply I would have wanted would have been... just him knowing that he knew how much I admired him, and how much better he had made the world.

Do you have a desk/workspace and how is it organized/not organized?

Hahahahahaha, no.  I’m the most disorganized person in existence.  Any computer stuff I do on the couch.

What is your night time routine?

Dinner, toss around story ideas, make sure the finches are roosting/turn their light off, eventually sneak into bed as quietly as I can so as not to disturb the finches.

What’s one thing you don’t want your parents to know?

How unhealthily I eat some days...

If you had to dye your hair how would you dye/style it and why?

Nooooo, I wouldn’t want to...

Pick five people to go on an excursion with you. who would you pick and where would you go/what would you do?

...I don’t do groups well; I’d just pick @ksturf and we’d go back to New York City.  Or maybe Hollywood this time, who knows?  Sightseeing and things--catch some Pokémon, too....

Name three wishes and why you wish for them

I wish:

I had enough money so that I and those I care about could live comfortably (self-explanatory)

That I could understand what birds were saying, and they could understand me (as someone who did a thesis on bird learning and behavior and has been trolled multiple times by multiple birds [including my own], I have personal questions I want answered).

That Robert Vaughn was still here (again... self-explanatory)

What is the best Halloween costume you have ever put together?  If none, make one up

I put together an awesome Carmen Sandiego costume in like... 2011?  Everyone knew exactly who I was.

What’s one thing you would never do for one million dollars?

...There are a lot of things I would never do for a million dollars.

What’s your Starbucks order, and who would you trust to order for you, if anyone?

Dragonfruit refresher with lemonade.  @ksturf is the one I trust.

What is the most important thing to you in your life right now?

Well, I just wrapped up my one-year position as a lab tech, so finding where I go from here is pretty much the biggest thing right now...

[artdjgblog]

Innerview: Stephanie Haselman / Indie Workshop May 2005 Photo: ​Travis Wears, 2004​

Note: Blog feature.

0​1) Your work seems to have quite a range. Can you talk a little about the various mediums you work in? Many people ask me this. It is not that I set out to use a certain this or that. Most of the time it is intuition, or whatever lies in the path. Sometimes it’s really what’s in front of me or whatever I find that solves the problem efficiently and effectively. Every day is different. Every day my mind is different. I sometimes get silly because I obsess over if a project should wait because the ideas could be in a totally different language tomorrow or next week. Though, sometimes I only have a small hoop to jump through…and thus, must crank it out. There are times when I will try not to approach the same thing, and in the same way twice. I do have strict rules with myself about recycling my own work…unless I truly need to. There may be a definite feel and/or look to my body of work, but I try to reach each solution in a different way. It’s more about idea and process than trying to earn cool points. I’m not really concerned with the current styles and trends in the news, books or galleries. When a person spends their time worrying about that stuff, they can become easily lost or burnt. It’s all a vessel. It’s all chaff. I was never really a fan of piggy-back riding. The majority of my time is spent not thinking, rather doing. I may pick things out of the street, off of my floor, or rummage stores/sales and keep them for my boxes-full-of-potential-goodie-use, but sometimes I never know where and how they will be conceived (sometimes they just find a place in a scrap book or on a shelf). However, there are times when I will get a certain image in my head rather quick…and I will instantly know how and why it needs to be done in a particular medium. Every time somebody starts asking, or saying why and how…or, that I’m a this or a that…I start to overthink. That’s when it can become dangerous. That’s when I consciously try to get one step ahead of myself. The only competition I have is myself. 0​2) Is there a particular era or movement that inspires your work with collage? There are definitely certain art & design movements and individuals that have inspired me with collage, cut-paper and a more hands-on technique. These include: Constructivism, European Art/Design, Hans Schleger, Lester Beall, Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Ivan Chermayeff, Push Pin Studio, Ray Johnson, Art Chantry, Stanley Donwood, Philip Cheaney (it keeps going and going). Really, design is collage in the truest form: cooking up a batch of ingredients to get a final product or solution…in hopes the audience will eat it up…or it sometimes eats them (sometimes it can eat the birth parent too). I started doing collage work at a young age with my older brother, simply thumbing through Mom’s magazines and cutting out fun words and imagery. Eventually, after struggling with drawing I found that I liked to illustrate with collage. It’s not that it was easier, I just enjoyed it better and I enjoyed the very hands-on appeal and variety that came from it. I could be more aggressive or I could be more subtle with it. I especially liked doing things from scratch more and more after I was taught design on the computer. I didn’t like, and still don’t like that screen barrier that keeps me from actually touching my work. The first semester at college we didn’t even touch a computer, and I was so naive to them anyway that I didn’t care. We were mainly doing a lot of hands-on, fundamental projects. It’s funny because one day I was talking with some friends about our second semester of design, and beyond. They were all gung-ho about finally getting on a computer to do their design. I mentioned how I was going to take the non-computer route of the graphic arts. They all kind of looked at me like I was stupid and told me that I had to learn the computer if I wanted to pass school and get anywhere in the modern design world. That is so funny to me now, since I’ve started my own thing and have had a little bit of success with my creations. Designing on a computer was quite a struggle at first (and still is at times). For a short time in college I even considered not doing design because the computer was a huge road block to me. However, after the struggle with myself and with computers, I soon realized what a valuable learning experience I was in. But, I didn’t completely realize that, and I didn’t really find myself until school was halfway over. My design/illustration professors hailed from Eastern Europe and Russia. They stressed drawing and more of an old fashioned hands-on approach. They taught the computer, but they also preached that the computer is only a tool. The instructors at Southwest Missouri State University (now called Missouri State University), being from a different part of the world and culture than I, had a tremendous amount of influence on me. Along with the fundamentals (which I use more than anything each day), I was taught to find my voice of expression. It took me a couple of years to really process it and really understand what I was going to do with design. When I started doing so, it was in more of a hands-on way. If illustration or drawing communicated more effectively, then so be it. If strictly a typographical method…and so-on. It was a very creative environment, with so many things mixed in the pot. Towards my last year I didn’t really have an emphasis that bent me in a significant way. I had kind of learned to put it all together, draw from that pool and focus more on idea…with the methods of reaching being unhandicapped. It was an incredible learning environment. I not only looked up to my instructors, I also fed off of my friends/classmates. The energy there is quite incredible (it’s one of the best kept secrets in the country)….that is, if you really “get it”, and are willing to partake and work. I just wish I would have worked harder. However, I think I did work hard, it just took me a bit longer to develop and see my potential. There isn’t really a formulated way of “getting it” in design (or life for that matter). The “getting it” comes more individually…finding that certain thing that lights the fire. After visiting several design firms and professional working atmospheres, I would always come home disappointed and unfullfilled. I felt the things that I could do best, and really enjoyed doing, weren’t found in a lot of design firms. And being very protective of my creative abilities, and very private, I did not want to work in a potentially smoothering situation. I don’t see anything wrong with designers working in those environments, it just wasn’t my calling and I just didn’t want to go that route personally. So, after doing a few music related projects on the side and being inspired by a lecture from legendary designer Art Chantry (who simply told me, “Expect to starve…several times over.”), I decided to drop-out of school, move to Kansas City and begin my own design adventure. Fortunately, I kind of hit it at the right time because music poster designers are getting a lot more creative recognition than they used to. Of course, now you can throw a rock and hit a poster designer. 0​3) You obviously do a lot of work for local bands in Kansas City such as the James Dean Trio, Namelessnumberheadman, and The Elevator Division. What can you say about the local music scene there and how it has influenced your work? In college I befriended the band Elevator Division, started designing for them, and we all eventually moved into a large, old house in January of 2002. For over two years that orange and poop-brown Kansas City ghetto home leaked with productivity. It was an incredible creative monster at it’s peak of development…DJG Design operated out of an old photography studio in the basement and a nook in the garage that was literally made out of old doors and mattresses, Elevator Division practiced and recorded in the basement (along with four or five other bands/projects along with a part time recording studio), there was creative writing brimming out of the top floor and much chaos on the two floors in between. At one point you couldn’t fit another person in there. Full-time inhabitants were sleeping on floors and couches and touring bands/musicians would stay there about every other weekend and there was always a visitor or two. I think there were close to ten or twelve people actually living there at one time (which I’m sure is illegal). When we sat down to do the exact family tree of our time in the house it was astounding as to how many people stayed or lived there….we even had rats coming up from the local doughnut shop and random birds coming out of the walls…even a cat or two. However, all great towers are toppled and thus Bunker 5032 collapsed in the Spring of 2004. I am very thankful for the time we all shared, and we all peacefully departed our own ways. A lot of things came and went in the wake of that, but I think we all took a little bit of that magic with us. The thing I miss most is the brotherhood we had. We all helped each other, and not just as friends but on a business scale too. For instance, the bands that lived there (I think there was about three or four at one time) and the ones that visited, all needed graphic design…and I could easily be found tormenting myself in the dungeon. For some of my clients/friends who didn’t have a key to the place, I developed a special knock on my West basement wall for them so I could run up and let them in. I’ve never really had to go out of my way with self-promotion…it has been mostly a trickle-down effect. So, this is how I officially started my design odyssey. This is how I was creating at such a rapid rate and meeting so many bands and people that needed my sword of protection. One of my favorite memories from that time is when I was creating the packaging for Elevator Division’s “Whatever Makes You Happy” EP. I had wrestled with my design for a couple of months, and finally completley changed it at the last minute of the production process. This project was made out of cardboard, with each design individually cut, glued and spray painted by my shaky hands. In one of the biggest rain storms that I can remember, my idea (and I) came alive like Frankenstein’s monster. I was spray painting out of a small room in the basement and was starting to get a little nauseous from the fumes and pure madness of it all. In the third hour, a loud crack of thunder shook that mighty house frame and I bursted out of the basement in a large puff of red, and with red paint streaming out of my nostrils, ears and hair. I then dived off of the front porch, head-first down the small grass embankment and into the gushing current in the street…all of this in full view of the drug dealing squatters that stayed across the street. Anyway, it is one of my favorite designs and favorite design moments. Since moving my operations into a small apartment on my own, and not really getting out to shows much, I don’t have the outlet for client potential and client relationship like I once did. Though, I gained great assets in privacy, two kitty cats and keeping things in order, it was a strange transition because the life in some of my friendships died a bit and I didn’t know how I was going to continue my design quest. In the past year I haven’t done the amount of work like I did in the first two years, but I am still doing a lot. And no matter how much I do I still need more to pull out from under my pillow in the morning. I do set goals to make at least fifty posters a year, but I always feel like that’s a wimpy goal to accomplish. My main client right now is The Brick, a really great music venue in Kansas City, Missouri. I still make posters for other various shows/bands/musicians, but the ones I do for The Brick are always some of my favorites. I also have an exhibition there every December. It’s kind of a yearly DJG Design bowel cleaning. I still design for local indie lable The Record Machine from time to time and anyone else who comes knocking. I also have many things in the works and some plans to get my name out a bit more too. A milestone in my new place was having sixteen nice design girls from Iowa State University visit. It was so nice. I don’t think I could have done that while living with a bunch of guys. There is a pretty decent music (and art) scene here in Kansas City and in Lawrence, Kansas. Though, at times it feels non-existent. But, perhaps that’s because I’m not really into the whole thing…which is kind of strange because I like music and I like producing music graphics. Also, scenes can be very band wagon-like sometimes…and sometimes bands have to show their worth by making it in other cities before they are fully recognized and appreciated here. The older I get the less shows I go to, or even want to go to…I kind of maxed-out my concert punch card a couple years ago and I am usually too broke or tired. It’s not that I don’t care, I kind of just stay home more, watching movies and studying…or designing. It’s kind of funny how I slipped under the radar here. I am so out of a loop that is so small and fragile that the people who are in it are probably behind at times too. I’ve got nothing against it all, it’s just kind of interesting how I’m not really a part of it. I’m well into my fourth year here, and though I’ve got my work up around town, and nationally recognized in magazines and books…it seems like I’m still not really known here. I’m ok with that though. I’ve always kind of kept a low profile without even trying to. I just get up and do my thing. And as a designer I don’t really have to show my physical face…though, I guess I do expose many faces of myself through the work. But, that’s left up to subjective interpretation. Anyway, It would be detrimental for the city if they had to watch me give the six o’clock news every night. 0​4) Your paintings and illustrations seem to feature a lot of animals. Is this a personal interest of yours? My most vivid memories/experiences have all involved animals in some way. Growing up on a farm extremely helped me pass the time. I was never bored. There was always a new adventure and animals played a major role in my life. I have too many random incidents and stories to tell (and I do not want to take up all of the indie workshop server space). However, one of the things that had a major role in my life was a dead animal backpack that my grandmother made for me. It was denim and lined with plastic for easy cleanup. Very quite brilliant and I wish I still had it. Sadly though, I think it was tossed for stinky reasons some time ago. I don’t really think a lot about the animals depicted in my work. A lot of times when I work it’s like a “Choose Your Own Adventure”. Things just keep building until they are complete, or they just kind of happen. Hardly ever do I consciously make a decision to draw an animal unless I truly need one. Once I had a thought of doing a Noah’s Ark-like tribute. Perhaps I’ll jump on the boat this instant. The best thing I’ve done since I was a child, depicts a lonely handicapped water buffalo that I brought to life while on hold with the phone company. Sadly though, precious Mortimer was stolen at an exhibition…and more so, I did not have any copies, slides, or scans…nor can I even begin to reproduce him. He is sadly missed each day. Hopefully he will come back to me, and justice will reign on the poor soul(s) who cheated me. If I do really start thinking about animals…which you have gotten me to do… well, apart from animals adapting to man and invention, I think about how they haven’t really changed much (at least from my unscholared animal knowledge). I find their need for survival and reproduction so much more intelligent and superior than ours. Sometimes I sit and wonder what my voice sounds like in an animal’s ears…or what their thoughts are about me. I also think about the beast in man…that constant wrestle. And if I could be an animal, I’d perhaps be a centaur with dust mops as hind legs with a cookie dangled in front of my crooked teeth. However, most centaurs prefer to romp naked, and I would not be comfortable with that. ​0​5) Personally, I’m interested in how an artist’s childhood has influenced their creative output, particularly Midwesterners. How do you think your life so far has inspired your work? While developing in my toddler and grade school bedrooms/art classes, I really enjoyed that head-to-hand doodling and scribbling…that awkward imagery, in a world that was mine (and I still do). I think that those glorious and beautiful naive drawings and things that we all did…and more importantly, our young ways of thinking…that stuff is the real meat and potatoes of life and has a higher value of truth and purity than most professional art and design, business and so-ons. Growing up on a farm in the Midwest definitely played a major role in my artistic development. It’s so interesting because I don’t know where I got my artistic jeans from. There are very few artists in my collective family tree, that I know of. As I extend those jeans in design form, my siblings are too in their own ways…my younger brother is a musician, my older brother works at Disney World and my sister has a young child of her own, so I guess she is going through all of that art and discovery stuff right now too. We were definitely raised in a rural society, but it’s almost like we never finished growing on that branch in some regards. I feel that in some weird way a mold was kind of broken. I don’t know how it happened. It’s not like we were gifted, considered golden or special by any means… we started as children like everyone else. We were always drawing or creating, every week we were into something new. My brothers and sister and I would always be in the sand box, yard, creek, timber, and bedroom, re-creating the places or things we had just visited and experienced: tractor pulls, theme parks, state fairs, museums, sporting events, cities, movies, television…you name it we framed it. I don’t think my parents ever really put a cap on our creativity or with what we could or couldn’t do, even with movies and television programming. I can remember always watching cartoons and creative movies and tv shows…sometimes violent and filthy ones. Always playing war, building forts and tree houses, drawing WWII battle scenes with my dad, dragging dead animals into the yard with the dogs, even hunting at a young age. Even in high school, when everyone else my age was moving on with dating, going out…the typical stuff, I managed to continue to hold onto a large chunk of my childhood. Sometimes I would rather spend my nights and free time drawing or researching in my room…hmmm, actually I haven’t really changed much. One of the little things growing up that I remember (and try to apply with life) is how some of the kids had the giant boxes of crayons (you know, the box that had fifty different colors or something ridiculous like that?). Well, I always had the small pack and I knew it took more than a bunch of colors or a name brand to get me where I personally wanted to go. I could go on and on about my childhood (short snippets of it can be read on my website). More importantly, I and my siblings were raised in a good home. We were taught right from wrong and we knew our limits. At times we certainly weren’t the best kids, but my parents gave us everything they could. I am very thankful for my upbringing (Thanks Mom and Dad), and I appreciate it more and more the older I get. It’s funny because when I was in high school there was a hunger in me that wanted to get out of that rural environment so bad…but, now that I’m older, it’s nice to to go back to the farm. I think that someday I would like to live on a farm, but I would want to be a little bit closer to a larger city. Perhaps I’ll even get a chicken or two. Anyway, it’s not that I thought I was a great artist as a child/young adult…I just enjoyed it. However, when I finally decided to pursue a future in art and I got to the point when I started recognizing for myself what “real” drawing and “real” design was, I realized that my skills lacked (or, at least I thought they did). This I especially found out with my first couple of years in college. It was like starting over. At times I didn’t think all of this was meant for me. It was really discouraging and I fell behind a bit. It wasn’t until my third year, after finally getting the strength to take illustration classes, that I really started getting comfortable with myself again. I really started “getting it” and learning how to apply myself to “it”. I finally started discovering things about myself again. It was such a crucial moment in my life. I was like a kid again and having fun with it…actually getting something out of it and not just doing it for a passing grade. From there I stopped wrestling with my drawing self, and with a few other parts of myself. Through the more recent years I’ve also found my eyes popping-in-love with Folk Art, Graffiti, Polish Posters, Push Pin Studios, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Saul Steinberg, Cy Twombly, Paul Klee, Joan Miro…I could go on and on. However, it seems that so many kids really find their sense of design smell by picking other people’s noses. They may be really good at it, but hand-me-downs can only get you so far before they begin to fall apart. I think it is great to study others, maybe even borrow a piece of yarn or two. Everyone does it, everyone has their influences and certain kings ‘n’ wings in their own design heavens. But, it can be dangerous if crucial development doesn’t take place on a personal level. I’m not saying that you have to be one-hundred-percent fresh, or have to go a certain route…that’s near impossible, nothing is completely original anymore. However, it’s putting your own touch on it…a thumb print…a soul. That is what gets me off the couch to do this. If I couldn’t find myself in my own work, learn more about myself, and really get my hands dirty, then I would take a scoop shovel to all of it ( and roast a hot dog or two). Somedays it’s like learning to walk again…or Indian arrowhead hunting…or plucking fatted ticks from the farm dog and squishing them with a stick…or studying for a fifth grade spelling test when the words were starting to get a bit more challenged…or stressing over who to take to the prom, when you honestly don’t want to attend…but you end up going and having a good time anyway. So, I’m a believer in everything that has made up my life has brought me to this point in this here interview. I don’t think I’m explaining all of this in the exact way that I want to…but it is close, and foremost I trust you “get it”. Thank you for your valuable time, patience and showing interest in me and my work. Spread the good word. Now, get to work! -djg

[firmanep]

28/28 Vision: Retrace

28/28 vision, life’s been hit me with precision. I’ve seen both ways, mourn and defeat at the bottom in one side, glory and prosper in the other. I choose to live on and keep 27 years back on my head. At 28 I begin to realize that everyone walk their own path, with their own pace. All of sudden, the meaning of success, settle, stand-on-your-feet, etc dissolve into thin air.

Nor, this doesn’t mean those words and its meaning is nothing but perception. Yet it’s a word of progress, everything in life is on process not an unchanged or fix terms. To make it clearer, I simply put it on my case. I wouldn’t say that I’m a success or failure person if I see this on my own perspective not others. What I trying to do is put those terms not in binary opposition. But in a life line terms. Life line is a sum of all variable in life. They are time, space, body, mind, money, social, career, relationship, sex, etc. So let’s put it in practice, I using “age” as metric. In example, at 27 YO I get a job promotion, start a mortgage, not in a relationship, feeling numb, stretching my financial belt, 58.000 hours listening music, etc.

Looking back farther than a year, I see myself rolling in a rollercoaster adventurous life. At 5 my parents enroll me to primary school in assume I “a slight smarter” than my counterparts. So I’m 1-2 year younger than my primary school friend age average. Yet instead accelerated in academics, my passion in football is stronger. So, it swiped the whole 6 years in primary. I won several trophy, even my profile been written on local newspaper as “bintang cilik”.

My career in football stop when I get into junior HS. Some shit happened at that time, my sister passed, family breakup, I move to my granny house, join a motorcycle gang, and drunk for the first time. That’s all more than enough to put a stamp in my face as “a broken home little shit”. But fortunately I found another passion, music. I start collecting cassette since at class 5 primary school. For local act i listened to Sheila on 7 generation band. Then I start a band, which then I ditched by because my “musical taste”.

Fuck, thanks to MTV After School Rock, so I bit move from locals and see global. At JHS I listened to hipmetal acts like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park for a brief of time. Till I really struck on Warped Tour bands like Blink 182, Sum 41, New Found Glory, etc. Because of the rarity of the cassette, I start digging music at 2nd hand cassette dweller. From which I got more recommendation, so I begin listen to more “edgy” bands like MXPX, NOFX, No Use For a Name, and local indie bands like Nudist Island and Buckskin Bugle. So almost all my “pocket money” at JHS went off to buy cassette. Oh wait! I get my first and second girlfriends on JHS. LMAO.

So, half of my JHS I spent as a member of “packed gang” (in motorcycle gang and in a band), and the last half I spent by myself, walking around finding cassette. My last year in JHS been so frustrating, I don’t have much friends because they left me/or in opposite, so i don’t see any reason to took a same school with them. Then I get into HS, speaking spatially, it’s really far from my JHS. But it’s a “throwing stone” away from my granny house. Surprisingly it’s really easy to make friends then.

Though, talking about “cultural taste”, they’re a level under my JHS friends. But I see a genuine quality in them. Like most of HS kiddos allover Bandung, we’re maniacally love occupy a Warung and make it our base camp. I can say that “nongkrong” is in par with curriculum. Everyday, after school we ambush that Warung, then we called “TeronX”(wtf!). Playing cards, or in my case I watching people playing cards then getting drunk. While in the other time I still digging music, it’s easier then because the CD & MP3 era came. And I start come to indie gigs twice a week, and I make friends from a fuckin pit! there. Local bands growth fast then, gigs and indie music start to intervere the mainstream. Their music starts play at MTV and Radio.

In HS, i live in 2 social spheres, at school and at gigs. They feed my certain personal dimension. School friends give me a kind of family-ish feeling, we eat together, we talking about life and girl together, we’re wasted together (6 hours before final exam we’re still wasted as fuck!). While gigs friends gave me a cultural experience and influence. It constructs my cultural taste, ie: I decide to being an Emo Kid as fuck. I listened to Emo bands, I dress like Emo bands, I scream at every Alone At Last shows, heartbreak like Emo kid, I writing devastated poems like Emo kid, and I start an Emo band. Yet, the most important is the 2 social spheres successfully distracting me from home, which I no longer knew with.

After finish HS I decided to take a moment to think about my future, so I not in hurry get into college. Like most of school-bonded HS alumni I pretty often still come to school. Thanks to our occupied Warung, so I always know where I should take shelter. 2 life changing things happened then. First, I met my first long last girlfriend. Second, I join a look-kinda-gonnabe-rockstar band. Not at once the two different interest got head-to-head!. Yet they’re still got along hand by hand. The girl is a freshman in my HS. So we’re separated generation. I met her at the first time when I have a meeting with my band near school. It’s a cliché that I have bigger guts as fuckin alumni to come to her, greeting and ask her phone number. Since then, a full week I spend my time with her and ask her to be my GF, and voila she accepted me. Soon I knew the reason she want to be my GF is because of the spreading news about me and my band. Our band is like HS hero then. Again, it’s a fuckin cliché. But, in fact even a cheesy reason could lead into a 7 years relationship. Strange huh!.

The band is another story. Lovely Lolita, we’re named it after a single of local shoegaze band The Milo, although our music is not a dot like them. So it all starts when I invited to featuring with one of my HS band at one single, which then listed into an indie compilation. Me and one of its guitar player thought we’re should making Emo project together. So we’re looking for another player, then we’re met a drummer who still a HS kiddos in my HS then. Then our band started with only 3 players. I took a role as Vocal and Bass then. We’re recorded a single demo and spread it on MySpace. Surprisingly, the acceptance is huge. So we’re playing from gigs to gigs. Our music evolving as our influences richen. So we’re thinking to have a bass player and I just focus on vocal. Then we’re being 4 player Metalcore/Post-Hardcore band. We’re record 3 more songs plus 1 song at the brink of our breakup. Our fans base growing bigger, we’re lined up in a big league gigs, and one of major Radio enlisted us as one of must watch indie band. So, it was a really fuckin 4 years of awesome time.

I took on college a year after I graduate from HS. I get a diploma program in state university in Bandung. I took Broadcasting major. It’s clear then I get on that major because of my “serious passion” in music industry. I thought, if I work in broadcasting company it’ll easier to “spot lighting” my band. But it’s not going well academically. My grade is average. It’s because soon I realize that I actually not into Broadcasting. At 20 I started to blown by books and thoughts. So that’s when the pseudo-criticize dimension of me started. One of my lecturer said that I suppose to took Political Science major. That’s be my battery to get off. Luckily my mom accepted it and get me into PolSci related Bachelor program in one of mediocre university. Although then financially we’re kind of broke. But that’s my mom, she push herself and eagerly sacrifice her life just to ensure her son not fail.

I start my second Uni almost 21. In contrary with what happened in primary, there my age are 2-3 years above average. So I always think it’s a setback. I try not to waste it since this is my second chance. Then I accelerating everything, my time overly consumed by reading books, writing paper, seminars, and other academic things. It’s obvious I left almost other thing behind. That’s moment I no longer dealt with music and band stuff. The path that seems like been written, the other player focus chasing their own project. So that left me with 1 thing, my girlfriend whom struggling enter a new life phase, college. At that point of life we’re destined to get along, our life line walk side by side. Struggling to graduate from school and find a decent job. We’re also financially not sufficient, so we take any after school job. I work for my Uncle as tour guide to pay my semester. From 21 to 24 my old social life melt into thin air, instead I make new friends with people in academic and activism circle. Which then I realize has huge contribution to shape my thought and mental.

Entering new social sphere shocked me mentally that time. I really change into someone I don’t even know. A skeptical and over-thought pseudo-academic person. You know, that asshole kind of person who ultra assuming their thought being original and super right. At that time I don’t feel comfortable hanging out with my music circle friends. So I totally left them. As a replacement, I’m diving deep into books and activism. Which I believe they are my “true” passion and moronically my life path. I really mean it that time, my writing published at prominent activism web site, presenting my thought at seminars and discussion, being part of mass demonstration, etc. With that load of activity I still finish college just in 3,5 years. And rightaway I don’t thinking about get a “formal” job anymore, so I decide to get a Master degree at the best state Uni in Indonesia. With my saving from part time job as tour guide I pay the administration. My mom doesn’t know that I already accepted at Master degree. Till when the school calendar is coming I tell mom that I going to Jogja for 2 years. My mom shocked. Not only by the fact that I choose to extend my school year, but also by the fact that I’m going to live away from home for a quite long time. So I say sayonara. I leave mom in confusion.

The Master year been super well for me, I got almost Suma Cumlaude at my first semester. My paper presented at Bangkok and Rangoon. Though, unfortunately I don’t get there to present them by myself. The problem is classic. I broke. My saving run out fast. Thanks to unplanned budgeting and excessive drunk habit. Plus I only got a little amount of money from writing project. So in the brink of the second semester I don’t have any money on my pocket. So that was my first experience being financially broke.

Somehow although with my academic achievements I don’t get any of scholarship. Even I mail my Rector then to ask tuition fee postponed, and no answer. So with that condition, at that time I don’t see any reason to stay in Jogja. So I back to Bandung with head facing down like the losing army march back from devastating battlefield. I already knew what I’m going to face, thousand mock. And that come from my own family. But I knew, I was wrong been took some huge decision spontaneously without any plan ahead. So I swallow the pills.

It’s been quite a time to stand on my feet once more. This is the second time I fail at college, the different is this time I fail not by my academic issue, but a god damn run out of cash. My heart break and I fall so deep haunted by my failure. But whatever it takes I should rerun my life. Fortunately one of my friend recommend me to his boss. He just built a research institution, so he hire people to work with him. And I got the job which is suits me. Not only the job, but also the office location, it’s in Bandung. So I work like a year there, until some shit happened again. The company declare bankruptcy!. For brief of time I still can live by some cash I save. But it doesn’t take long till I got broke, once more. So in such devastated time I randomly throw my CV to any open vacancy. I visit every job fair, I sent bunch of mail. What I get is nothing. It’s understandable now why it is happened. I am 26 then. While I wait for job interview, I took any work that I able to do. In example, I’ve been working as part time primary school teacher in my mom office. I teach Social. Then I begin to accept my condition. Yet I know I can do better. So I still connected with activist and academic circle. From the same circle, I met with the second girl I declare as a “serious” relationship. Actually she is not from that circle, but more like friend of my friend. We’re accidentally met at one café when I have a meeting about an event we’re going to run.

Friend of mine greets me with her, who eventually is one of that café share holder. I don’t know, but somehow we’re so easily connected. Our conversation last till the café close. And that is the start. From then we’re regularly meet and somehow our relationship up a level to “a relationship”. We’re thru a great days together. It is possible that our life line slightly different. She just graduate from college that time and I am a jobseeker cum part timer guy. That’s preconditioned us to can spend a lot of time together. But then I got the job in Jakarta and she work in Bandung. Even though we’re still regularly meet when she back her home in Jakarta, but our relationship start to tumble. It’s partly because I’m in adaptation phase with Jakarta and she just starting work in Jakarta. So our communication start dismissed. We’re lost in translation. And at 6 month of our relationship we’re decide to breaking up.

I get a quite decent and suit job in media industry. Since the break up I decide to focus on how to struggling in Jakarta, build my career Monday to Friday and have some reboot in Saturday and Sunday. At the same time I begin to fix my relationship with my family, one of the reason I start a worker life. But it’s not until the 6th month I work then I rethink about what am I wanted to achieve in Jakarta. So I start to redirect my life. And I thought I should save some cash to prepare my future. Yet I still don’t know what am I going to do with that cash. Then I remember one of line in an Indian clan movie, if I not mistaken it is Appache. At the closing, the main actor had a convo with his counterparts. They’re talking about land property ownership.

The whole movie highlighted the conflict between Indians and the invader to claim a land. One of the line got stuck in my head ever since, the chief Appache tell a young brave warrior that “ain’t a men without a land”. Thus when it comes to saving, I always thought that I should save my cash in property not a mere virtual digit in Bank Account. So I tell my mom and she support my idea. Then I went to developer and bank, they accepted my mortgage proposal. At 27 I mark a monumental decision to pay credit to bank for long years. So I start my 28 with years of credit on my back but property on my feet.

Now I’m 28. What does it means by being a 28?. That question keep buzzing me days before I turn a year older till now when I officially 28. Honestly I still don’t know the answer. But I just knew that it is the time that I should continue step my feet to the next phase of life. I should be more stabile, mentally and materially. So when the time to settle comes, I’ll be ready or at least prepared. How to do that?. Simply by fix a once broken thing back then and set timeline goals. So I set it up. Now I got my 2 year plan. If that realize, and it should, it would be another monumental life decision. I wish. May the lord open.*** Bandung 26 January 2018 Ps: Sorry if my grammar sucks. It’s unedited and I don’t give a fuck, tho!

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

Reputation (almost) one month thoughts

So when this album came out, I decided as almost an experiment that I wanted to keep a frequent enough collection of my thoughts of how I feel about the album as time passes. This is mostly due to how quickly I started being real with myself about how I felt about 1989 and fears it would happen here too. Either way, this was meant to come out on the 11th as that would be exactly a month after I felt heard the album, but as I’m going to be interstate, I’m writing them out now. I will warn now that this will have opinions and talk about Taylor’s relationships and how quite frankly I don’t see all the love songs as purely being about Joe nor Karlie, so if you can’t handle that, it’s probably best you skip past now. With that in mind, lets get started.

Ready For It: So I didn’t say this in my first post, but along with being a borderline satire portrayal of her relationship with the media (the main reason I adore it still tbh), this song has always given me, someone who never shipped them, Haylor vibes. Honestly, if I had to guess, I would say that before the concept of 1989 came about, Taylor was going to write the album we guessed about, the satirical one calling out the media. And while aspects of this did show up on 1989 through Blank Space and I Know Places, I do honestly believe Ready For It was also started in this time, maybe even starting as a joke song about how the media saw the two, but didn’t fit on the album so was scrapped until Reputation when it found its place. All speculation of course, but that’s honestly the feeling I get.

End Game: So I’m holding my breath as I can already hear you guys pulling out the pitchforks for what I’m about to say... a song too early in the album for that line? :P Anyway I honestly believe that despite all of our celebrations about Calvin getting nothing on this album that this song started off about him. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want the song to be about him and I don’t think the end result is about him, but just as I believe Better Man started off about Jake but was modified to fit Taylor’s relationship with Calvin, I believe this song started in the early days of Tayvin and were later modified to fit her relationship with Joe. Once again, speculation at best, but it’s just the vibe I get with some of the lyrics and its placing on a so called linear album. I’ve also come to realise that in many ways, this is the last holding piece of the 1989 era. And by that I mean it’s the last (or at least only on this album imho) song that was written for outsiders as opposed to fans. That’s not to say that fans don’t like it, but at least in my experience, every non fan I have shown this song to adores it, especially the Future verse that most fans hate. And I know people will bring up Look What You Made Me Do, but tbh that seemed pretty split across the board in my experience. Like whether you loved or hated it didn’t seem to be correlated with whether you’re a fan or not.

I Did Something Bad: The more I listen to this, the more I realise this has absolutely nothing to do with Kanye. Like the first listen, I 100% thought it was just about everything, the media, her haters, Kanye, Calvin, you name it. But the more I listen to it, the more I realise that really, it’s only about Calvin. It’s about how he was so willing to stand next to her for fame but ‘dropped’ her name and hence any credit she deserved off the project they did together. It’s about how he believed he had full control over her and manipulated situations (For every lie I tell them, they tell me 3 anyone?). And ultimately, it’s about how he played everyone to the point that Taylor doing the right thing came off as doing something bad. All up, it’s definitely the song that’s grown on me the most. I reckon there’s a high chance for this to be mixed with Bad Blood on tour which, even with Bad Blood being my least favourite Taylor Swift song ever, I wouldn’t mind because I could see it being awesome.

Don’t Blame Me: Another song I reckon was at least started long before most the others. To me at least, while I have my issues with the tracklisting which I’ll talk about later, this definitely feels as if it should be on the same album theme wise as Ready For It, so while they may not have been written at the same time (it wouldn’t surprise me if they were though), I definitely think Taylor had the same vision of “This is what the media sees me as” in mind for the two songs. And while that seemed to be the aim for the whole album, which once again, I will talk about later, these two show it the best for me personally.

Delicate: To be honest, I don’t have much more to say about this song specifically than last time. I still love it and still love the mix of love and anxiety she uses in it.

Look What You Made Me Do: I still give or take feel the same about this song. Amazing production, okay lyrics. I’m sad for Jack’s sake that this wasn’t nominated for a grammy because he deserved it.

So It Goes: I don’t know what the fandom has against this damn song. Like I’m not saying it’s in my top 5, but some of you act like it’s the next coming of the apocalypse and most the rest of you ignore it. It’s a jam and would be amazing for tour... but then again, so was the production of Wonderland and we all know how that went despite it being loved. But yeah, tbh, with how much people are sleeping on this song, I can see it being the only Reputation song not played on tour.

Gorgeous: So a story I never told the first time around; the first time I heard this song, I was going into with the satire mind that Look What You Made Me Do and Ready For It had and flat out spent the first verse thinking it was making fun of Kim and that lifestyle that Taylor pretended to be like to fit into. Like Kim was this alluring figure who Taylor felt she couldn’t talk to/against because she was one of the pretty popular girls, you know, kinda like that scene in Mean Girls where Cady talks about how she can’t stop bitching about Regina but still wanted her to like her. That quickly died off with “You should think about the consequence of touching my hand in the darkened room” but still. Not much else to say outside what I’ve already said about it.

Getaway Car: Someone pointed out not too long after the release that this song has major RED vibes and I’m starting to think that’s why I love it so much. It also kinda gives me I Knew You Were Trouble from the other side vibes so I’d love to see a mashup of the two on tour, but I doubt that’s happening.

King Of My Heart: To be honest, this is the only song I will 100% say I think is about Joe and no one else. The bridge of the song is my favourite on the album and like I said originally, it grew on me quite a bit with time.

Dancing With Our Hands Tied: Honestly, I do get Kaylor Met Gala vibes from this song. However, I don’t think it’s purely about her nor do I think that it is all romantic in meaning. I think the song is about every time Taylor went out and had relationship rumours, true or not, created whether it be with Harry, Dianna, Ed, Karlie, Joe and whoever else. I think it’s about the fact she felt she couldn’t even have friends let alone a lover without anxiety. And most of all, it’s about the regret of letting that anxiety hold her like it did, which is partially why it’s the more grown up and better version of I Know Places. Still reckon that the two will be mixed for tour and even though I get the concept, my dislike for I Know Places is getting in the way of me looking forward to that.

Dress: Honestly? I really like this song but I don’t seem to love it as much as everyone else. I mean nearly everyone I know has this in their top five, see it as the sex song (which it’s not, it’s the intimacy song, So It Goes is the sex song) and label it as a must have on tour. Meanwhile, while like I said, I think only So It Goes is at risk of not being a nightly play at this point, I’d be okay with Dress being a b side acoustic song played once or twice on tour. Maybe part of that is my want for an acoustic version for this song, but yeah, as much as I like it and play it often, I don’t need it on tour like I do other songs.

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: What I find the most interesting about this song is despite having wanted an satire based album since RED that this would have fit on perfectly, this is the one song that I feel fits that on this album that couldn’t have happened without the 1989 era. And by that I don’t just mean Kanye, because the beauty of this song is that while yes, it takes its swings at him, when you really sit down and listen to it, that’s only a small fraction of what this song is. This song is basically tearing down everything to do with the 1989 era; the fake media, Kanye, Taylor’s fake friends and Taylor herself. For those of you who got through high school without reading The Great Gatsby, Taylor identifying with Gatsby is not a compliment. It’s basically calling herself out for fakeness among other things. None of this stuff could have happened, hence the song not being able to be written had Taylor not been pushed up to the point of everyone, herself included, thinking she was untouchable. And that’s just so interesting to me and honestly, makes the 1989 era which I felt so disconnected to a little easier to accept because at least for this song, it was necessary. So in short, this was kinda what I thought Gorgeous was going to be after the first verse on the first listen given I went in with that satire mind. While I don’t see it being the case, I kinda hope this is the closer for the tour. Like imagine all the confetti and fireworks and big balloons stuff they could do with it. But to be honest, I still reckon Look What You Made Me Do will be the closer and this will be one of the first songs played.

Call It What You Want: Now about half way through this post when I spoke about how I think King Of My Heart is the only definite Joe song, I can image a lot of you were asking yourselves about these final two songs. I definitely think Joe strongly influenced them both, but I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised if Taylor came out and said that there were other influences too. In terms of Call It What You Want, to be honest, I kinda think a little about Harry and Tom. Now before you all shoot me saying how Harry was a kid with commitment issues and Tom was a rebound, I know, trust me I do. What I mean by them being present for me is that I think that moments of criticisms and the fact that while it may not have been for long, they both stayed with Taylor despite those criticisms is playing a role here. Like 100% the same can be said about Joe and that is going to be the main source of the content, but it wouldn’t surprise me if thoughts about how Taylor was still the one Harry was walking to in that zoo or Tom wearing that top despite criticisms helped pushed that line of “I’m the one he’s walking to” because even if it all became too much in Haylor’s case, there was a time when what they felt for each other overpowered any media or criticism. Once again only speculation, but yeah, wouldn’t surprise me at all if this was one of those songs that took moments from several sources. In terms of personal relation to this song, literally I wrote a 2000+ word post about my feelings on this song and why it means the world to me, nothing has changed. I still 100% adore it and while my top three (this, New Year’s Day and Delicate) cycle from day to day, it will always be one of my favourite Taylor Swift songs ever and most days is my favourite from this album. There’s just nothing more to say.

New Year’s Day: Like Call It What You Want, I imagine that this song has several sources. Clearly a large one is her relationship with Joe, but I kinda also feel like this is just about love in general. I mean in one way, it comes off as a Long Live part 2 which implies a love to her fandom, but also there were moments in it where I actually thought about her family. Like the part about being there even if the person strikes out and has to go back home could clearly be about Joe considering he’s an up and coming actor, but to be honest, my first thought when hearing the line was Austin and the fact he too started his acting career in this time. I mean the ‘babe’ part would be kinda weird to be about Austin, but yeah, either way, that was my first thought. Likewise, it’s kinda ironic that Jimmy Fallon said about his mother on his show because my first thought when hearing the first two lines of the second verse was actually surrounding Andrea’s cancer battle as opposed to Taylor’s media one. Once again, all speculation, but yeah, this song just comes off to me as being about love generally as opposed to TayJoe. Either way though, this is the most “old” Taylor Swift sounding song on this album and I highkey really hope that this is the tour video tbh, but I imagine that that will be Getaway Car or This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.

General tracklist order thoughts: The tracklist order for this album was all wrong and that made the album seem like a bunch of brilliant songs all just randomly chucked in together until it was pointed out what was wrong to me. Honestly, the first time I listened to it, I only felt like half the songs belonged and the rest, while brilliant in their own right, didn’t fit and were only chucked in to finish the album and should have been on the next album. The issue is that unless Taylor had said that this album was linear to her, I would have never even attempted to feel that at all because I never would have thought of it. I think a better way to achieve that, especially on a sonically diverse album like this where she didn’t have to worry about the songs bleeding into each other, would have been to place the angry, mocking and media based songs first, then go to Delicate and slowly work her way through to New Year’s Day. This would have shown the split between what the media perception of her and the real her better and honestly, I feel like people would have enjoyed Delicate and End Game more. Because if you notice, doing it the way I suggest would mean that a lot of the back end of the album stays the same, and honestly, while there’s no way to prove it, I think that’s why a lot of people’s favourites come from the back end, because they feel like they’re in the right place for this story. Going from Delicate to Look What You Made Me Do feels rough and kinda weird. Don’t get me wrong, I get that Taylor did it to push the idea that Joe stayed with her through thick and thin, and that’s also why This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things is so late in the tracklist, but it just doesn’t work for me personally and I know others who have said the same. I’ve started listening to it in an order I think works more towards this more, and honestly, it’s made me appreciate the album as a body of work more than I did upon first listen. RED still 100% owns my heart and probably won’t be beat any time soon if at all, but Reputation is coming in strong fighting my nostalgic heart to take the second place away from Fearless.

[driveneed17-blog]

Laurent Clerc Details Little People’s Deep, Danceable New Album “Landloper”

Photo by Dee Ramadan

No one would ever accuse Little People for being the type of artist who’s quick to rush his music out, let alone one to take the path of least resistance. Born Laurent Clerc, the Anglo-Swiss electronic musician and producer has been putting out instrumental dance music with a playfully tongue-in-cheek bent for little over a decade under his ‘nom-de-guerre’ moniker Little People, touring across the States and Europe beside the likes of electronic music duo ODESZA and downtempo wunderkind Emancipator — all while he carves out his own lane, in his own time.

To describe Little People’s music is to describe a dozen different continents of sound unifying into a Pangaea of modern orchestration; he grew up listening to artists like A Tribe Called Quest and DJ Premier on his hometown radio station in the Swiss Alps, before discovering the wide and shifting world of electronic music when he moved to the UK to attend university. From the bass-heavy snarl of Mobb Deep and the mischievous plunderphonics of Xploding Plastix, to the cinematic sobriety of Endtroducing-era DJ Shadow and the minimalist serenity of Steve Reich and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Clerc’s inspirations prove just varied as his sound: an eclectic brand of downtempo electronica infused with the verve of classical music, underscored with the vivacity of hip-hop. That he refers to his stage moniker as a ‘nom-de-guerre’ is absolutely intentional.

Clerc’s newest album Landloper—his first in six years—is a cumulative one, pooling together the best learned lessons of his past work while pointing forward to a bright and beat-laden future. The producer’s most dance floor oriented record to date, Landloper pulls from the disparate corners of disco, John Carpenter-esque synth riffs, and glitchy IDM for a seamless expansion of Little People’s existing sound. We had the opportunity to speak with Clerc over the phone about Landloper’s production, his creative process as an artist, and what it means to create music in the very online space of 2018.

In the six years between the release of your first album, Mickey Mouse Operation (2006), and your second, We Are But Hunks of Wood (2012),  you’d taken a break from music, traveled the world, worked an office job, fallen in love, and had two children. What’s happened in your life now in the six years since your last album and this one?

It does feel like it’s been quite a long time, hasn’t it? In my head it’s almost felt twice as long. (After I released We Are But Hunks of Wood, I came out with a remix album and the [Csay Csay] EP three years later.) I’ve been raising my kids — I have a set of twins and a newborn right now—and all of us went over to the U.S. for a year in 2014, so that I could be out there, and write music. Which I did, and it was actually really quite productive. The album you’re hearing now kind of, really, the core of it was written over the course of six months. I’ll admit that I’m fairly slow with my music in that, I struggle to put things out the door because I want them to sound just right, which is why it can take such a long time.

But yeah, it is a bit ridiculous. Six years is a long time between albums, and I admit that [laughs].

Let’s talk a bit about the name of your new album, Landloper. It means “wanderer,” or “adventurer.” It’s a fun word, though not one you’d likely hear spoken often. How did you first come across it?

It’s a title that sort of represents my professional life. I’ve lived in a lot of places, traveled through a lot of places while touring. It comes from the experience of being in a lot of places, making new friends, experiencing new things—this feeling of wandering and finding your place in the world. So Landloper is a word to describe the journey of my move to the US, this chapter of my life, and the experience of playing music in all these different parts of the world. And on top of that, it’s just a lovely sounding word! I thought the title should be a word that looks familiar, but is also strange and exciting.

You’ve spoken before on how your collaboration with Tif Lamson of GIVERS came together on the track “Skies Turn Blue.” How did you first link up with your other two collaborators for this album, Reva Devito and Rahel Debebe-Dessalegne?

So for Reva, she lives in Portland and she’s a friend of a friend of mine. I was looking around to record someone whose voice could be used as, sort of, sound mix fodder, and it just so happened that she was in town and I asked her to come in and record something. So I basically recorded one of her voice sessions and then she sang some percussion stuff. So what I did was, I just got loads of samples of her singing and cut them up into syllables and sounds and resequenced them as a guiding point. And then I just chopped them up again and reworked them, and so her voice is scattered throughout the whole album. She’s a big part of the record in a lot of ways, not necessarily through lyrics but as a sound, as an instrument.

For Rahel, I saw her play a show and met her shortly after that. She tours with a lot of different artists, one of which is a musician and composer named Matthew Herbert, so she played a show with him and I thought “Well, I’ll give it a shot,” so I found her details and reached out through email about working together and she was really into the idea. I initially thought it would only be one song, but she was up for doing all three! [laughs] So we did the recordings in South London at a studio around when I had just gotten back into town. I remember us doing a take and she would just intuitively know where to improve on it and where to take the track next, so we would just re-do it. She’s extremely good at what she does.

And then Tif, I met her actually through Glassnote Records, who were looking at my record at the time, and they put me in touch with her. What she does with her band is quite far away from the stuff I do and I thought, Will this work? Yeah, this could work,’ so I sent her over some tracks, and “Skies Turn Blue” came out of that. I was very pleased with it and I think she was happy with it as well.

Your second album marked a transition away from the sample-heavy sound that defined your first and had you experimenting with new equipment, like using an old Akai reel-to-reel tape machine to record and process a string ensemble to resemble the textured sound of vinyl compression. What were some of your favorite instruments or equipment to use in the making of Landloper?

It’s kind of a whole host of different instruments, but I guess just generally it’s a crossover between synthesizers, analog and digital, and I just think that for me it’s less about tools and more like using what I have on hand at the moment. I’ll just mess around, create sounds on a synthesizer, sample that, and then play with that again. My songs will go through so many iterations where samples are cut up, cleaned, and tweaked that sometimes, I can’t even remember how I got to a particular sound!

So that’s kind of the essence of what I do: very iterative, spontaneous, and in-the-moment.  The laptop is home to everything I do; that doesn’t change. I like to start off from a point ‘in the real world,’ with analog sounds and instruments like a piano or xylophone, but generally, it’s [about] taking those sounds and bringing them into a digital realm. I’ll record strings, woodwind stuff; I love collecting and playing with high-pitch bouncing samples and incorporating those into my music. I never do just one thing. I want my music to have a lot of variety, a lot of color, and a lot of character.

The orchestration on this album is impressive. Who did you work with to record the strings? What did you learn working with a string section back in 2012 that came to bear on making Landloper?

Well, when I was working on We Are But Hunks of Wood, I was learning how to direct a string section—how to gesture towards the sound I wanted, and guide the section to that outcome. This time around, I had a more cohesive approach to achieving that; I actually went to a studio when I was living in Portland, and worked at replicating the sound of a much larger string ensemble. We only had four string players, but we still had eight chairs—so we recorded one take with players sitting in one set of chairs, and then did a different take of them sitting in a different set of chairs, and then overlaid those recordings, so [that] it ends up sounding like eight players at once. That resulted in a much fuller sound, which I feel really comes through on the tracks for this record.

Photo by Vania Read

What are some things that surprised you in the course of producing Landloper? Is this album, this evolution of your sound, what you had in mind when you first started work on it back in 2014?

I find it very hard to pinpoint one idea from the next. It’s more like, ‘This is where I want to get to’ and ‘This is what I want to do.’ As it often happens, my process starts with trying for a certain sound and then ending up with 50 different ones, which I think is fairly typical when making music. I have many artists that I admire, tracks that I think are incredible and I’ll think ‘Wow, how did they do that?’ And then I’ll give it a go and probably not end up anywhere near with what they did. But by doing that, I’ll have probably landed somewhere with a track that no-one else has done.

That tends to happen when you’re chasing a sound: it forks into several different ones, and you end up in a richer place for having followed your instincts. But as far as where I wanted to go with this album, I wasn’t sure. I think that the time I spent on this one made for a richer album than what I could’ve imagined at the start, in my opinion; when I first started, I didn’t think this album was going to have so much collaboration going into it and that was kind of a nice surprise—to have so many people to work with and share this experience.

You’ve cited a fairly eclectic range of influences over the course of your career, from Mobb Deep and DJ Shadow to Steve Reich and Ryuichi Sakamoto. What sort of music and artists have been your points of contact while producing Landloper?

I think it tends to be fairly varied. I’ll admit that my listening habits have kind of changed a lot with the advent of Spotify. I’ve always loved discovering new music, but Spotify makes it almost too easy now [laughs]. I have a big playlist of music I was listening to while I was working on the album, but picking out one or two particular artists is difficult. I think whatever algorithm they’re working with is fantastic, and it does a good job of accommodating to diverse tastes. Y’know, if you’re listening to a little bit of Afrobeat here and there, and a little bit of hip-hop as well, but also throw in some classical music, all those things will be represented in your mix somewhere. So, I guess as far as artists that have influenced me, there’s only a few artists that I listen to that I feel like, outside of what they do, have been a guiding light for what I do. The usual suspects in my book are Jon Hopkins, Four Tet, Caribou—people like that. But I also love one-off songs. Some people make moving tracks that eclipse anything else that I’m aware of [from] them, in terms of their output. It could be something I find incredible. So I wouldn’t say I’m influenced now by any one artist, but by ideas I come across that happen to spark something in me.

Tell us about your new label, Future Archive Recordings. I noticed that some of your co-founders and signees, like Sun Glitters and Blockhead, are people you’ve worked with before in the past. What influenced your decision to launch Future Archive Recordings?

It’s actually all very recent. When it sort of came around was, I had been working on my own for awhile and thought I would benefit from working with an actual record label, but things didn’t really quite materialize. I was toying with the idea of self-releasing the record, but then I started talking with a few people and just thought, ‘Welp, it seems kind of stupid to be doing all this work on your own.’ The first person I talked to was Blockhead, and then a bunch of others had been thinking the same thing, so we went from there. We started talking about it in July, I think, and then by September we had our first compilation out, so we moved really quickly.

Basically the idea is to have a platform in place for us to put out new music—not in a way that’s predicated on making money, but on encouraging creative expression. We take a lesser share of whatever profits the record makes, and it all goes directly back to the artists. It’s a like-minded group of musicians who want to do their best work, either on their own or together. We all have our own skills that we share, so it makes for a nice division of labor.

What’s next for Little People in 2019? How do you see your career, your journey as an artist evolving and changing in the future?

Well that’s the thing—it’s down to how this record does. There’s a bit of a question mark at the end of that, how things are going to go. I think what I have seen over the past, let’s say, three or four years, is that music has kind of gone from being initially a hobby to now a trade or a craft, which only now I feel like I’m beginning to master. I’m excited to, once this record’s out the door, put my head down and write new music. I’m pretty sure the next bit of music might take some time to come out [laughs]. I still feel like I’m mastering my field. It’s funny, the more you work in a field the more you realize you knew so little before. But I finally feel like I know what I’m doing now. It’s tough to say what I’ll be doing, but I’ll be looking into more collaborations, ideally producing for some other people. But yeah, I’m looking forward to releasing more music under the Little People moniker in the future.

One last question. You’ve said in the past that if you weren’t a musician, you’d probably be a cook, and one of your favorite hobbies is trying out different foods while touring. What’s your favorite food to cook, and what’s your favorite food to be served?

I’ve always really been into Asian food. That’s usually my go-to. It’s fresh, it’s quick to do, and always flavorful. I also really enjoy heavier, European fare; between those two are generally where my palate sits. If someone’s cooking for me, I like to choose things I could never be bothered to do myself, things that are messy or tricky to do. So anything to do with frying—I’ll gladly go to restaurants and pay for that instead than do it myself [laughs].

-Toussaint Egan

Source: https://daily.bandcamp.com/2019/01/03/little-people-interview/

[junker-town]

Jordan Spieth's wild British Open win prompts comparisons to the all-time greats again

With one of the greatest ever closes to a major championship, Jordan Spieth captures the third leg of a career slam faster than Tiger Woods.

Where does Jordan Spieth want our expectations to go now?

"It seems a bit unfair at 22 to be expecting something like that all the time," he said at last year's Open in a memorably frosty press conference.

After it became academic that his chances of winning at Troon had been blown away in the wind, a frustrated Spieth met the media and had clearly had enough. Spieth was asked an open-ended question about where his game and mind were and he, with a refined Spiethian bite, laid into the gathered inquisitors. The gist of his monologue was that every question he was getting was framed against a 2015 standard, the year he won the first two majors of the season, and it made him feel like he was having a bad 2016. He used the word "unfair" twice and asked people to stop being so negative. It is true that winning the Masters and U.S. Open back-to-back is a Hall-of-Fame accomplishment and Spieth may have had his career year at the very start of it.

But a year later at the same major championship as that gentle rant, Spieth took the Claret Jug in a major performance that may be his most impressive yet. And now we're invoking Tiger and Jack and the career slam.

Spieth might not win two majors every year but his accomplishments force us to keep reevaluating where he's going in this game, measured against its history. Sunday's incredible show, what the censorious Johnny Miller called "the greatest finish I have seen in championship golf," pushed Spieth past Tiger and into territory where only Jack Nicklaus has strutted. Spieth's British Open win earned him three legs of the career slam before his 24th birthday, and only Nicklaus, in the history of golf, had gotten that far before turning 24.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Jordan and his new jug.

We can only measure Spieth against the likes of Tiger and Jack based on age-thresholds. It's not an actual discussion of careers because he obviously has a long way to go. It is preposterous to say anyone is the next Tiger. It is preposterous to say it with Spieth, but he's making it slightly less preposterous with every win. Spieth keeps doing things that remind us of the best the game has had to offer and at a historically fast pace during a time when the fields have never been more loaded.

This time, he did it in a different way that might make this major the most impressive of the three. On Saturday night, when he walked off with a three-shot lead, we heard so much about how great a frontrunner he is and how he almost always closes these 54-hole leads to win. But he was on tilt this final round, a "buddy, it seems like we're collapsing" walk-to-Augusta's-13th-tee kind of tilt. He'd lost his lead, his game, and seemed mentally shook.

Then he made a bogey that will go down in major championship lore and ground Matt Kuchar to dust to win his first Open. It was an outrageous turn, one that just exploded quickly and ended it in what felt like an instant. Golf is, often rightly, criticized for being too slow-moving, especially for a TV broadcast. This felt like a Steph Curry three-point assault that puts the Golden State Warriors on a 15-0 run and flips an entire game in 90 seconds.

Oddly enough, the flurry actually started with a bogey. The one thing that matters the most to a golf outcome, the scorecard, often tells us so little about what happened. A simple bogey 5 on the card at the 13th hole laughably under-represents just what happened there. This was the kind of turn that golf media love to purple up, and for which we now also have Twitter for a mass freakout.

There was a British countryside search party, a summit expedition, and a game of Risk baked into one bizarre 20-minute scene that didn't feature a single golf shot. The pictures and video, some captured from above with low cloud cover invading the shots, are instantly a significant part of the story of Spieth's career and Open Championship history.

☝️ #TheOpen http://pic.twitter.com/rswR92D9hM

— SB Nation (@SBNation) July 23, 2017

The hilarity of the pictures made it seem like this was sure disaster, far worse than just some bogey on the card. But Spieth was using his rules cognition, and as he said after the round, vast experience of hitting wild drives, to mitigate the damage. It all looked quite mad because there were pictures of trailer trucks and dunes and fans scrambling in every direction. There was Johnny Miller telling him to go back to the tee and re-hit. The unorthodox move was jarring, but it was actually getting him ahead and probably saving him.

It will become one of the most entertaining, interminable, and critical bogeys in major championship history. Spieth only needed four strokes from behind an equipment semi on the driving range. He lost a shot and the lead to Kuchar but somehow gained a "momentum shift," as his caddie told him walking off the green following the critical bogey-saving putt. Think about that — he dropped a shot and out of the lead for the first time but felt like he got a momentum boost from the hole. That's Spieth sorcery.

The adventure of the 13th rightfully became the most notorious bogey, but Spieth was unsteady from the very first tee. It was there that he tugged his drive left and got what he called a "crap" break when his ball stayed up in the thick hay. The bogey at the leadoff hole was the first of four on the front nine. It ended with Spieth standing over a short bunny putt forever and then missing it to drop back into a tie with Kuchar. Based on how this entire week had gone, and the way he finished the third round Saturday night, few people could have predicted his three-shot lead evaporating by the 10th tee.

Even fewer people could have predicted what came after the 13th, that legendary bogey that would be his final of the day. By the 13th, the linear takes being drawn from Sunday at the '16 Masters to Sunday at the '17 Open were almost fully cooked. But that's when the explosion happened, the Steph Curry unconsciousness that came completely out of nowhere given the way he'd played the first 13 holes.

How did Spieth respond to the mess of the 13th? By nearly jarring a hole-in-one, settling for a tap-in birdie, bombing an eagle putt, and pouring in two more birdies to play the final five holes in 5-under. Kuchar played a four-hole stretch in 2-under — a great closing run — and went from 1-up to 2-down. A birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie response is Tiger and Jack stuff.

The run extinguished Kuchar and claimed the third leg of the career slam. The score was a 1-under 69 that tells about 2 percent of the story that was Spieth's major-clinching round. As he told his agent afterwards, "17 pars and a birdie would have been fine, too."

Until Sunday, this looked like Spieth using his best to coast to another win. Nothing seemed difficult. A fan stepped on his ball and gave him a worse lie on Thursday. He just shrugged it off. On Friday, with the wind blowing and it raining sideways in some of the worst weather of the championship, he holed out for par from off the green. It was a Spiethy-save that left his playing partners shaking their head and stopped a big number that would have brought him back to the field. On the 18th hole Saturday, he hit what he thought was a poor shot short in a bunker, but it cleared the trouble and landed safely on the green. Kuchar almost holed his out from the fairway for eagle. Spieth made his putt, Kuchar missed his much shorter one. The entire swing reminded of that crucial up-and-down he had to finish Saturday at the 2015 Masters to keep Justin Rose at arm's length and remove the drama for Sunday. This put him three shots up on Kuchar and felt like it would have the same effect on the Sunday round.

Spieth has seen some things, however, since that 2015 Masters win. He has chased distance (a little bit), blew a 5-shot lead on Augusta's back nine, been an all-world putter but a poorer ball striker, and receded to a mediocre putter and become the best iron player in the game. In 2015, he was an entirely different kind of Masters winner in a game that had become consumed with power and distance buzzwords. There's no flashy thing that makes it facile to say or cover why he's so good, as there is with, um, well maybe your favorite power player who hits it 330 yards off the tee.

Spieth is just good at everything. Sometimes he's the best putter you've ever seen. Sometimes he's the best iron player on Tour. He has a way of getting the ball in the hole better than anyone else, or as my colleague Kyle Porter wrote recently, he's the golf version of a guy who just "gets buckets" in every conceivable way and leaves you in the dust dumbfounded. Rory McIlroy confirmed this at the 2016 Masters with the now oft-cited "How the hell is he 2 under par today?" line when they were paired together on the weekend.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Jordan and his first pump react to another birdie at the 16th.

This post-Tiger era has left us with a carousel of players who seem to be the next generation star. One month it's Rory and the next it's DJ and then's Jason Day and then it's back to Spieth. The new champion golfer of the year has now shown he gets it done in a bunch of different ways, and sometimes without his best. Can we say that about everyone else?

We saw it last month at the Travelers, where he hung on for dear life, and we saw it Sunday for 13 sloppy holes. At the Travelers, he scratched his way to a playoff, holed-out from the sand, and joined Tiger as the youngest to 10 PGA Tour wins in the modern era. At The Open, he joined Jack as the youngest to get three legs of the slam. It's left us with the remarkable possibility that Spieth could get the career slam before Rory at the PGA in three weeks (that dynamic, and the course being Quail Hollow, a second home and feasting ground for Rory, has juiced the final major of the season).

Spieth's message at last year's Open expressed a frustration at being measured against a career year. But his statements at the Open two years ago expressed a frustration at not capitalizing on those positions he put himself in to make history.

"Right now, it's just a tough feeling to be that close in a major," he said after going to the wire on Sunday and coming up just short of a playoff at St. Andrews. "It doesn't matter about the historical element of it. Just to be that close on our biggest stage and to come up just short ... you know, how many chances do you get?"

Two years later, he got another chance at the oldest major in golf. It was adventurous, but this time, he made sure he'd wrap his hands around the Jug with one of the great closes in major championship golf.

[catghost1993-blog]

I decided to join a few friends who were part of a paranormal group and joined them on an 8 hour lockdown in Kentucky last year. I was lucky enough to have my first paranormal investigation take place in one of the most haunted sanatoriums, Waverly Hills- an absolute dream come true for me. I had been obsessed with the Waverly Hills Sanatorium since I was 13 years old (That was about 12 years ago). During our lockdown, I had a spirit whistle to me and then hiss when I crossed the threshold into the stairwell where the whistle came from. As I heard this chilling hiss, a cold mist came flying up the stairs and into my face! I backed into one of my fellow investigators and was literally frozen in place for about 15 seconds. Shortly after this happened to me, my entire group heard loud footsteps coming up the same staircase; But nobody ever appeared once the footsteps reached the top. A little while later, in the same hallway, I seen what I can only describe as a hazy visage of a 1930’s-1940’s era nurse, but only from the waist on up, walk quickly out of a room and into the next at the end of the hallway, as if running behind on her duties or going into an emergency situation. Later on, we all decided to go into one of the terminal rooms and conduct an EVP session. The moment I walked into the room, I got sick to my stomach. I told another group member and the two of us decided it was best to go down to the bathroom, just in case. But the second I left the room, it suddenly went away. (For the record, I have a stomach condition and get nauseous sometimes. However, when this happens, I’m sick for days afterwards. Therefore, I know my body and the nausea never just goes away like that!) A few minutes later, another group member came out of the room feeling sick too. She quickly felt better after leaving that room. We all went to the very end of the Death Chute/the Death Tunnel later and heard footsteps run up the stairs at us while a few of us seen the full-bodied apparition of a tall man pulling a coat around himself. I also had a bat screech at me and then brush against my cheek as he flew passed me… Not paranormal but oh well, it happened! While up on the fifth floor towards the end of the night, I had a spirit roll a ball to me TWICE- The first time, we had just walked down the short hall and into a room (ROOM 502, to be exact) when an investigator from a separate group came and asked me if I had kicked the ball. I wasn’t even aware that a ball had been nearby in fact but I turned around and seen a ball literally resting against my foot. He told me that a few seconds after I walked passed the ball, it had began to roll and had followed me into ROOM 502! A fellow investigator and I then decided to take the ball and lead any child spirits into their sunbathing/recess room to see if they’d play ball with us since they had made their presence known by hitting the ball to begin with. We sat the ball firmly on the level ground and knelt down in a triangle formation with our hands open and asked, “If you’re a child, we don’t want to hurt you- We just want to play! So can you roll that ball and let us know that you’re here so we can all play together?” Right on command, it rolled about 1 foot AWAY from us! We tried to debunk it by putting it back where we had originally put it, blowing right on it, and stomping all around it but were unsuccessful on finding any explanation. The ball stayed in the exact same spot the rest of the early morning; It never moved a single centimeter the rest of our lockdown! At the end of our investigation, I did a spirit box session with another investigator and our guide, Melanie. We were trying to make contact with the nurse who felt she had no way out other than to commit suicide after being raped by a married, highly respected doctor, which then resulted in a pregnancy. It is said that she was pregnant for 5 months when she tested positive for the TB infection and an abortion was done on her. (Because TB was such a threat then, any pregnancy that was found to be in a positive mother was automatically aborted. Also, having a child out of wedlock was highly frowned upon during that time.) She hung herself shortly after her baby’s death. They later found the fetus in the 5th floor well/sewer system around the time she was found hanging. She was also said to be very protective of the children’s spirits on the fifth floor and would become extremely active whenever people would try to talk to them. During our Spiritbox session, she intelligently answered our questions, made us feel her emotions, and even told us who the doctor was and what happened between them. Our tour guide and a few people, including myself, teared up knowing what she had gone through and feeling her deep, depressing emotions. At one point, we asked her to try to guess our names, and she successfully guessed several! But she kept calling me “Rachael”… But she finally came through and said “Brittany” right as we were standing up to leave and the sound of it in my memory still gives me chills! At one point, she said “Brittany Hoop”, which is way too darn close to my full name! (I’m guessing she wasn’t able to fuel enough energy to finish my full name.) We had an amazing time and it was definitely everything everyone said it would be! There are a lot of emotions and energy all around that building, even outside. It never shuts itself off and is just as active in the bright light of the day. It’s the truth when they say that this place stays within you forever and that you’ll never be able to stop the addiction to it. You don’t even have to be on the property to still be able to feel their emotions and the pain they had to endure through one of the scariest times in our history. I have not been able to get my mind off of this place since we left and it drains your entire body of energy. I literally felt like I was hungover and sick afterwards and I know it was from them draining my energy through emotions and manifesting. But this won’t matter in the years to come! It’s the memory of being there and the experiences I shared with those spirits that will stay with me! Even though this was almost a year ago, I still feel like I’m there all over again whenever I think about what happened or talk about my experiences there. I’m planning to go again in just a few short weeks and I cannot wait to see if I can come into contact with the same entities as before…

[itsworn]

Be Ready for Bristol

History, Tips and Tech To Help You Prepare

Bristol Motor Speedway is hosting short track race cars once again. The races, slated for this May 19 thru 21st are always a racer favorite. Billed as the U.S. Nationals of Short Track Racing, it is sure to attract a lot of teams. And who doesn’t like Bristol! As for me, it is my favorite track of all time. That being said, there are some things you need to know about Bristol that you probably didn’t. If you are going there to compete, this is a must read.

My perspective comes from racing at this track in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s as both an engineer and Crew Chief. I worked with Goodies Dash teams, All Pro Late Model teams, Pro Cup and a part time Craftsman Truck team. And I have helped Cup engineers with their setup for this and other high banked tracks like Dover and Daytona.

The All Pro Series Super Late Models ran at Bristol from 1994 to 1997 and from 1999 to 2002. The Pro Cup series under various title sponsors ran Bristol from 2004 until 2008 in what were more like the XFINITY cars of that era. I was at the first race and I saw a lot of scrambling to adjust the cars to the high banking.

On my first visit to the track, I was helping out with a local team running the NASCAR Goodies Dash series, which also ran at Bristol for a number of years, but I was not in charge of the setup. Nonetheless, I evaluated it and said to the team owner/driver that it looked balanced, but too soft. It had 400ppi springs up front and I felt it needed at least 700ppi springs.

The guy who had chosen the softer springs was also the engine builder and made a smart remark like, “Oh, well then, we’ll just put in 2,000ppi springs. That should fix it…” I had to leave the trailer to keep from knocking him out.

I had developed a method of calculating the mechanical downforce and therefore the suspension travel based on the banking and G-forces that were expected here. From the calculations, the travel exceeded the ride height. You can probably guess what happened next, right? Yep, on the first hot lap, he bottomed out, took off the bottom of the oil pan and cooked a brand new motor.

I wanted to tell you that story to give you some kind of idea what you might expect. Bristol has not changed in its un-forgiveness, it’s only gotten more unforgiving. If you remember anything about this piece, remember this. Most teams new to Bristol show up with spring rates too light for the extreme downforce the car will experience. And there will be very few teams with previous experience running there.

Why Is Bristol So Brutal? – In years past, Bristol was advertised to be the highest banked track in the US and the fasted half mile. The later is true, but the former was exaggerated. The published banking was 36 degrees, or five degrees higher than the turns at Daytona. On my first visit there, I measured the banking at both ends, top to bottom and I came up with a consistent 26 degrees.

When I got home, I phoned a friend of mine who was one of the few Cup engineers around at the time and told him my results and he was very surprised. He confirmed my numbers on his next visit to the track.

That’s still a lot of banking to deal with. And it’s only gotten steeper. A few years ago, the track management decided to shake things up a bit and changed the shape of the track. They decided to create three different banking angles, a lower third, higher middle, and highest top third.

They did this by cutting the middle third down a couple of inches and then matching the top and bottom thirds to it whereby the middle is still 26 degrees, but the bottom is something like 24 degrees and the top is around 28 degrees. If you watch most NASCAR races run there lately, the cars mostly run the top third, they have to.

…probably the most important message I can give a driver running Bristol. Never, never ever, turn right at this place… I know, you think you can save it, but everyone familiar with this track will tell you, no you can’t.”

Comparison To Other High Banked Tracks – It is interesting to compare Bristol and its high banking to other high banked short tracks. For instance, the only three that come close to this much banking are Slinger (or what it is purported to be), Winchester and I-70 Speedway that is no longer there. I-70 was a true 26 degrees and looked the part. I won a race there in 1999 with Brian Hoppe.

As for Slinger, I had always heard it was twenty something degrees, but I had a few teams measure it and the reality was somewhere between 16 and 18 degrees, far off the banking at Bristol. Heck, Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is around 16 degrees, so Slinger is not that far out of the ordinary. And Winchester is 16-18 degrees from what I have had teams tell me that have measured it.

At Daytona, the advertised 31 degree banking is a real number, I know. When I was in high school, myself and a friend of mine went into the speedway one night to look around. We weren’t there to vandalize the place, we just wanted to see what it was like. I think alcohol was involved.

We entered over the banking between turns one and two and I could hardly crawl down the banking. You cannot walk up or down it without using your hands for sure. So, with nearly Daytona like banking, Bristol is like no other short track speedway you have ever been to, that is a fact.

What I Think Will Happen – Based on past experience, here is what I think will happen. About 95% of the teams will show up sprung too light. The cars will bottom out at best, either hard on the bumps or hitting the track. Remember we are talking about not only Super Late Models, but Pro Late Models, Late Model Stock cars sanctioned by NASCAR, Modifieds, Street Stocks and Compacts.

The question arises, from a purely engineering evaluation, are these cars built strong enough to withstand the extreme forces both laterally and through down-force that they will experience? I ask that question so that those who will go there will think out how their cars are built and maybe make changes to strengthen certain parts of the car.

When Bristol spread dirt over the track a few years ago, and ran dirt late model cars there, it was a huge success. But many of the cars broke shock mounts, frames and control arms in the process. Some of that will happen this time around.

When short track cars ran back fifteen years ago or so, they were built differently. The Goodies cars were little Cup cars and built to be very strong. They could handle the extreme downforce very well. The Pro Cup cars were larger and built equally strong.

The All Pro series Late Models were what we call perimeter cars. This means they were built symmetrical and with strong frame rails and door bars on the right hand side.  Basically the offset late models of today are offset designs and the right side of those cars, the part that will impact the walls first, are built very flimsy in comparison to the All Pro cars of yesteryear.

I’m not sure of the construction of the Street Stocks or Compacts, but I do know they have never seen the punishment they will see here at Bristol. I have talked to a few Late Model teams who might go, and are not decided as of this date, and they all tell me they will be taking an older chassis.

What You Need To Do To Prepare – In preparation for this race, you will need to pay attention to a few things. Regardless of what type of setup you will be running, the forces on lower control arms, shock mounts especially and wheels and tires will be like you’ve never seen or will see again.

Reinforce your lower control arms, reinforce your upper shock/coil-over mounts and check them throughout the event for cracks. Bring strong wheels built to withstand the high lateral forces. Check with your wheel supplier to make sure you have sufficient strength in your wheels.

Reinforce your safety fuel cell mounts. Most current designs in late models do not do a good job of mounting the cells for this type of track. They are fine for normal banked tracks, but with the speed we’ll see here, a cell could exit the car in a hard sliding rear end hit with the wall.

Do not come to Bristol without a head and neck restraint system, period. I don’t know all of the rules for the five sanctions, but whatever they are, buy and use a H&N system here. Check all of your other safety equipment and make sure everything is in working order and within the proper dates.

Setting Up For Bristol – It used to be that if you went to Bristol, you would multiply your normal spring rates by three. So, if you were running a NE touring modified and were running 250ppi front springs, you would show up with 750’s on the front. If you didn’t, you soon would.

As for the Super Late Models in the All Pro series, normal spring rates for the conventional setups were around 250 to 300ppi back in the day before bumps and soft setups. So, the winning car at the last Bristol All Pro race had 700ppi front springs on the car.

Let’s think about that for a minute. We would usually jacked the ride height up an inch or more for Bristol for All Pro cars. The original ride height was four inches, so we came with say five inch ride heights. The wheel rate for the 700ppi springs was around 450ppi.

The right front traveled about 4.5 inches, so that times 450 = 2,025 pounds of force on the tire. That’s just the right front corner. Probably 80% of that is on the left side tires, or 1,620 pounds, so the total vehicle loading is twice each of those added together, or 7,290 pounds of downforce. That does not include lateral forces, only mechanical downforce. That represents 2.6 times the vehicle static weight. The G-forces will be a bit higher than that, or around 3.0 G’s.

If you currently run on bumps, either bump stops or bump springs, you can still run those and do well. What you do need to change are the ride spring rates. If you current run 150ppi front ride springs, you need to bump those up to 450-500ppi, seriously. Then you’ll be helping out the bump stops so that they won’t get crushed in the first two laps and disintegrate.

As for bumps springs, the same applies. Help them out and make them do less work and they won’t go into coil bind. With the above higher ride spring rates, the current shock rebound rates that will work with those bump setups will take care of the new higher ride springs and keep the car down on the bumps. We are just trading force on the bumps into force in the ride springs. The overall force will be the same.

For the other classes that do not run bumps, spring up my friend or suffer the loss of your car or worse. If you are running a Pro late model on 200-250ppi springs, you’ll need to go to what we ran years ago, 600-700ppi springs. And don’t forget to raise your static ride height.

For stock spring cars running in the 600-700ppi range, you’ll need to triple those rates and I’m not sure you can even find 1800ppi springs for those cars anymore. Hopefully you’ll go into coil bind before you bottom out and then the tires will be your springs.

For all teams and division, remember that there is no advantage to aero down-force at Bristol. There is so much mechanical down-force that any small aero down-force will be insignificant. Lateral grip here is never a problem.

How To Drive Bristol – I won a race here a few years ago, using a simulator program on my computer. Hey, I won. But I did get a chance to actually drive Bristol in my capable Acura Legend Coupe while helping dry out the track before a test day event. As it dried out, I could really get my car going and I had very good low profile tires. It is the most awesome experience you’ll ever feel.

From what I have observed and talking to drivers who have won here in Late Models, you drive hard into the turn, burp the throttle just before entry, and then when the car takes a set (and it happens quickly) you throttle up again.

You have to build up a trust for the banking that it will grip the tires and you won’t slide up the track. The G-forces are very high. Get used to the high groove because if you don’t run there, you’ll not make the show. I hear there will be a lot of entries and a lot of teams will go home early.

You can take a little time to work into that trust thing, but eventually you’ll need to go for it. I went there with a rookie driver near the end of the last era of late model racing at Bristol. I disputed the talk about “needing to hold it wide open all the way around” that was impressed on the driver by others. But when it came time to qualify on stickers, I told him, I had some bad news. Yes, you’ll have to almost flat-foot it all the way around. Such is Bristol.

Now for probably the most important message I can give a driver running Bristol. Never, never ever, turn right at this place. Yes, I know, you think you can save it, but everyone familiar with this track will tell you, no you can’t. If your car goes sideways entering the turns or in the middle, keep turning left and ride it out. If you try to correct by steering right, you’ll never be fast enough steering back left to keep the car from pointing into the wall and you’ll hit head on.

A Final Note – OK, maybe I have painted somewhat of a grim picture of Bristol you might be saying. No, I think I have painted a true and accurate picture of what you can expect when you go to race at the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” race track. I did it this way because I want you to have fun, be safe, run well and come home in one piece.

Make no mistake about it, if you go, this will be the most fun you’ll have in your racing career, both for the drivers and for the team members and fans. There is nothing like the speed and excitement that this “Last Great Colosseum” creates. I will be there and supporting a few teams I have known since the last time we ran here. I hope to see you there too.

In this shot from 2004, you can get some idea of the banking at Bristol. This was before it was changed and at that time had 26 degrees of banking top to bottom. It is now shaped differently with three different banking angles, somewhere around 24 bottom, 26 middle and 28 degrees at the top.

In this 2004 photo taken when the Pro Cup cars raced at Bristol, we see Jay Fogleman talking to long time car builder Jay Hedgecock while Bobby Gill looks on. The best of the best raced here during those years.

The high lateral force combined with the gravitational force creates a resulting force that on high banked tracks points down and between the two tires. This sketch shows the banking at around 18 degrees, 10 less than now exists the top at Bristol. This force mostly pulls down on the car more so than trying to roll it over and is the reason we need such high spring rates.

Jimmy Spencer was here in 2004 seen here going over his notes to try and balance the setup. From his history running the Trucks, Busch and Cup series, I bet he came stiff enough.

A lot of work was done under the cars as the frame and cross member dragged on a lot of the cars. No one knew initially how stiff the springs needed to be to hold the car off the track. They soon found out. Almost to a car, no one showed up stiff enough.

Shock mounts, control arm mounts and lower control arms take a lot of abuse at Bristol. You need to continually check all mounts for cracks and failure as the testing and practice proceeds. Bring a welder.

It became very common to see crews under the right front repairing damage and changing the spring. I talked to one driver who ran late models back in the 1990’s and he said they needed to weld strap metal around the lower ball joint mount to keep it from blowing out, especially on the left front.

This seemingly heavy spring was not sufficient to hold the car off the track. For bump setups, teams need to run a much stiffer ride spring and then the force on the bumps won’t be so severe. Choosing 450-500ppi ride spring rates up front would not be too high. The rear spring rates should go up as well and the spring split in the rear can be less at a place like Bristol.

It was surprising how much travel the left rear corner had on these cars. Not only did the front spring rates need to go up, the rear ended up in the 350 to 400ppi range and more. For the Super Late Models, I expect they will need no less than 350 in the left rear and about 100ppi more than that in the right rear corner.

Sources:

Eibach Springs 800-507-2338 www.eibach.com

Gale Force Suspension 251-583-9748 www.galeforcesuspension.com

Hyperco Springs 800-365-2645 www.hypercoils.com

Intercomp 800-328-3336 www.intercompracing.com

Landrum Performance Springs 574-353-1674 www.landrumspring.com

Longacre 800-423-3110 www.longacreracing.com

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N.Y.E.: End of Mimi?

Following a turbulent New Year’s Eve performance on Dick Clark’s annual special, social media has been ablaze in regards to the state of Mariah Carey’s future. Many speculate that the superstar’s career is over, with her being the target of several unfavorable remarks and antics. With 2017 officially six days in, will Mimi recover?  And if so, how exactly does she recover from what many consider a career ending performance and the end of her vocal domination?

The fact of the matter is Mariah has been in this position twice before; at the end of  her rope professionally and at the expense of her critics. Recall Mimi’s 2001 debacle, known now as a cult classic, “Glitter”. The release of both the movie and the soundtrack came at a time where Carey suffered an emotional and physical breakdown, as well as simultaneously occurring during 9/11. If you don’t recall that, think back to 2014. Not only did she release an album that many Americans don’t even know exist (yes it sold that little), but she separated from her then-husband of six years Nick Cannon, and suffered two tepidly reviewed performances: the opening to her Elusive Chanteuse Tour in Europe and the extremely popular 2014 performance of “All I Want for Christmas Is You”.

So again, what happened and what’s next for Mariah?

What happened: There are various stories that appear to be surfacing; one from Mariah’s camp, and the other from Dick Clark productions. Despite the saga of what did or did not happen in rehearsal, backstage, etc. the fact remains this. Mariah took the stage to perform for millions of fans watching at home, and hundreds of people in Time Square. Unfortunately, her ear monitors went out. To the normal person, that means absolutely nothing and you would think a performer can still hear what is going on right? No. With hundreds of people yelling and screaming in Time Square colliding with the music blasting from the loud speakers all coming together to echo off of the massive buildings in time square, there is nothing that you can hear; hence, why performers wear the ear piece. There have been several performances where Mariah has snatched her piece out before, however, that has been in environments more intimate where she could at least hear her audio. For anyone who missed it, check her brief interview with Ryan Seacrest prior to the performance, where she tells him she can barely hear him. After attempting to push through the opening intro, it became apparent that Carey couldn’t hear a damn thing. Instead of walking off of stage, she attempted at little moments to go through the motions and produce something, but to no avail. During “Emotions”, she was accused for lip-syncing for singing with a backing track, which is something that ALL performers… I repeat, ALL PERFORMERS do in certain environments as such. As evident in her backing track, Mariah was to sing to the music LIVE. Her verses and choruses were empty, nothing at all was present on the track to indicate she was going to lip-sync, with the possible exception of some of the whistles notes. Realizing she had been through a disaster, Carey attempted to fake through “We Belong Together”, and grew with frustration forcing herself to lip-sync to the backing track and ultimately giving up at the very end of the song. Photos of the night indicated Carey seen crying alongside the stage. While some may complain that even in these circumstances, as I did initially, a performer with Carey’s seasoned experience should’ve been able to finesse something to maximize the situation, in such a situation even that would’ve been cumbersome. At the end of the day, to quote Carey herself ‘shit happens’, and her performance proved that on live television.

Now what?

So what does this mean for the sake of Carey’s future as a superstar? The one thing that was a huge question with Carey’s tepid performance in 2014 was the quality of her voice and her ability to hit her higher register notes. That was not the case with this performance, as she simply didn’t sing at all. As for the sake of her career, let’s revisit Carey’s history with overcoming adversity.

Mariah has been defying obstacles her entire life. Carey grew up biracial — which has been a subject of discussion throughout all of her career. She grew up in poverty and worked tirelessly to make herself a star, establishing herself as a working machine to ensure that carpet could never be pulled out from under her and her accomplishments. Her first album alone has sold close to ten million copies in the United States alone and gave her four consecutive number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. She won two Grammys the following year. She would continue by becoming the first artist to have their first five singles reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, become the first female artist to have two diamond certified albums (sales exceeding ten million copies in the US), first female artist to debut at #1 on the single’s chart (and only artist to have three #1 debuts), release the biggest selling holiday album and modern holiday song in history, have the most number one singles for any solo artist, spend the most weeks at number one more than any other solo artist, has written and produced the most number one singles for any female artist, and have the songs of both the 90s and 2000s decades. These are just some of Carey’s many accolades obtained since “Vision of Love” in 1990. For a woman who won the awards of “Artist of the Decade” from Billboard, “Pop Star of the Millennium” from the World Music Awards, and “World’s Best Selling Female Artist” all within a month of one another, Mariah Carey will forever be apart of music history and should never be written off by anybody for her massive contributions, intellect, and legacy to the music business.

When Mariah went through her first divorce with Tommy Motolla, she released what is arguably her greatest album to date, Butterfly. The album itself continued the sound that she integrated into her previous album, Daydream, in fusing blends of hip-hop and rap with soulful pop and R&B. A style that Mariah perfected with her 1995 hit, “Fantasy”, and it’s infamous remix with ODB — responsible for single-handedly revolutionizing the way that every pop singer here after released, marketed, and remixed their future uptempo/urban singles. Period.

So while 1997 was recovery from a personal quarrel, her professional career seemed in tact. Unlike the train wreck that was the “Glitter” era. After having the lowest first week sales of any Mariah album, having samples stolen from her by Jennifer Lopez, her first lead single peak at #2 instead of #1, a physical meltdown, and a soundtrack album that was released on September 11, 2001, the stage was set for a world of dissatisfied reviewers when the movie was finally released. Not to mention, Virgin Records dropped Mariah from their label that spring. After releasing a moderately selling album in 2002, ‘Charmbracelet’, and teaming with rappers Busta Rhymes and Jadakiss and successful urban records in 2003 and 2004 respectively, ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’ was the biggest thing of 2005. The album sold over six million copies in the United States alone, and over twelve million worldwide. It would win Mariah three Grammys and give her two more number one singles; of them was ‘We Belong Together’, the second longest running number one single in Billboard history, only bested by Carey’s 1995 duet with Boyz II Men, “One Sweet Day”. Combined the two songs spent thirty weeks at the number one spot. The third single, “Shake It Off’, would be blocked from reaching number one due to the massive success of “We Belong Together”, and peaked at number two. The fourth single, “Don’t Forget About Us”, would become her seventeenth number one single, then-tying her with Elvis Presley for solo artists with the most number one hits; a record she would shatter in 2008, when “Touch My Body” would become her eighteenth number one single, not only giving her the most number ones of any solo artist, but earning her a total of 79 weeks at the number one spot in total. The single also set a record at that time for most digital downloads in one week. She married actor Nick Cannon in 2008. Her acting career saw a resurgence with an award-winning performance in the film, ‘Precious’. In 2010, she would release her second Christmas album, which would be the second Christmas album in history to top the R&B Chart. She gave birth to twins, Moroccan and Monroe, in 2011. The word comeback is a complete understatement.

Fast forward to 2014. After what was a debacle of a promotional push, Carey’s fourteenth studio album, “Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse”, tanked in terms of sales. What didn’t take however, is the quality of the album, arguably one of the greatest albums in her entire discography. The album is a complete body of work from start to finish and received critical acclaim from most critics, comparing the album to her classic ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’. Her personal life, however, was a wreck. She and husband Nick Cannon had separated in the fall of that year. Her opening show for her “The Elusive Chanteuse” tour was panned due to weak vocals from Carey having bronchitis. And the epic “All I Want for Christmas is You” performance that she was attacked for that came that December. Carey was indeed at an-all time low.

Later that month, Mariah began what would become an annual residency of Christmas shows in New York City at the Beacon Theater. Each show all three years has been a sold out venue, with critical acclaim of her performances. She would begin a residency in Las Vegas in the Spring of 2015, titled “#1 to Infinity”, that has too been met with critical acclaim from fans and audiences alike. She fell in love again in with former finance, James Packer, and was virtually everywhere on your television screens, including launching a deal with Hallmark to produce holiday films. Her Christmas classic, “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, would reach its peak position of #11 in the winter of 2015 and exceed 3 million in digital downloads. And Carey charged into 2016 with an international tour, both of her residencies, and headlining the 2016 Essence Music Festival all on her agenda. Her Essence concert was one of her best reviewed showcases in years. She launched a docuseries, “Mariah’s World”, and appears to be dating her backup dancer. Combined in 2015 and 2016, estimations are that Mariah has made at least $65 million in the United States alone.

So after these credentials and these degrees of comeback, you’re worrying if she can overcome an N.Y.E. performance? The answer is yes. Technical issues happen to the best of stars and talents. Anyone who is in the entertainment business, with the exception of Jennifer Lopez apparently, understands that. Mistakes take place and life moves on, and so will Mariah and her career. With her two residencies expected to continue this year, a tour with Lionel Richie, the conclusion of her Vegas residency, her Hallmark projects, a role in the upcoming Legos Batman movie, and a rumored new album, you don’t have to worry about your girl bouncing back… it’s obvious she can do that all on her own with the support of her Lambily.

The fact of the matter is, love her or hate her, Mariah is held to one of the most unrealistic levels of expectations by people who claim to not even ‘like’ her, but they can sing plenty of her hits. Or, they judge her antics and completely discredit her legacy in this business, which is complete blasphemy. If you really want to know what this woman is capable of, ignore her singles and listen to an entire album, i.e. Butterfly, Daydream, The Emancipation of Mimi, Me. I Am Mariah, Mariah Carey, etc. Once you’re done, watch her Essence Live Festival Show or Sweet Sweet Fantasy Tour performances from last spring. Lastly, read any professional statement by professional entertainers on what really happened with her NYE performance. After you’re done, done bother giving your opinion because the queen will collect her coin and continue to troll your fave’s entire existence alongside your own for by ignoring or reminding you, “I don’t know her (0r him), either”.

In the meantime, if anyone would like to come at Ms. Carey about her performance you can either “Come up to me and introduce yourself, and say ‘hey, this is my opinion’ That’s how you handle shit” or come reply below to quench your Mariah-bashing thirst…”Baby come and get it, let me give you what you need.”

*drops mic*