books

"the true university of these days is a collection of books." /thomas carlyle

animal collective - college

beauty in the abstract

"i begin to get a little acquainted with my own strength and weakness. --praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own works." /john keats

bonnie "prince" billy - easy does it

patiently through time

"africa has always walked in my mind proudly upright, an african giant among the other continents, toes well dug into the final ocean of one hemisphere, rising to its full height in the graying skies of the other; head and shoulders broad, square and enduring, making light of the bagful of blue mediterranean slung over its back as it marches patiently through time." /laurens van der post

charles spearin - mr. gowrie

man in the wilderness

"the man in the wilderness asked of me
how many strawberries grew in the sea.
i answered him as i thought good,
'as many as red herrings grow in the wood.'"

/anonymous nursery rhyme

the beatles - strawberry fields forever

something we can trust

"the key to the mystery of a great artist: that for reasons unknown to him or to anyone else, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another inevitably...the composer, by doing this, leaves us at the finish with the feeling that something is right in the world, that something checks throughout, something that follows its own laws consistently, something we can trust, that will never let us down." /leonard bernstein

led zeppelin - white summer (paris, october 1969)

be quite still

"you do not need to leave your room. remain sitting at your table and listen. do not even listen, simply wait. do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. the world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet." /franz kafka

kaki king - close your eyes and you'll burst into flames

friends we love

"we're tenting tonight on the old campground,
give us a song to cheer
our weary hearts, a song of home
and friends we love so dear."

/walter kittredge

phoenix - love like a sunset (animal collective jam)

the most fun

"the most fun i've ever had without laughing." /woody allen

lindstrøm - there's a drink in my bedroom and i need a hot lady

smoke

"and a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke." /rudyard kipling

african brothers dance band - mmobrowa

absolve you to yourself

"in the mountains of truth you will never climb in vain: either you will get up higher today or you will exercise your strength so as to be able to get up higher tomorrow." /friedrich nietzsche

animals - it's my life

leave a trail

"do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." /r.w. emerson

relatively clean rivers - easy ride

accept the inevitable consciously

"when i take a long look at my life, as though from outside, it does not appear particularly happy. yet i am even less justified in calling it unhappy, despite all its mistakes. after all, it is foolish to keep probing for happiness or unhappiness, for it seems to me it would be hard to exchange the unhappiest days of my life for all the happy ones. if what matters in a person's existence is to accept the inevitable consciously, to taste the good and bad to the full and to make for oneself a more individual, unaccidental and inward destiny alongside one's external fate, then my life has been neither empty nor worthless. even if, as it is decreed by the gods, fate has inexorably trod over my external existence as it does with everyone, my inner life has been of my own making. i deserve its sweetness and bitterness and accept full responsibility for it." /hermann hesse

the ozark mountain daredevils - mr. powell

you hear what i'm saying

"unless i get something real good for [senate candidate 1], shit, i'll just send myself, you know what i'm saying? i'm going to keep this senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore i can drive a hard bargain. you hear what i'm saying? and if i don't get what i want and i'm not satisfied with it, then i'll just take the senate seat myself. [the senate seat] is a fucking valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing." /rod blagojevich

michael andrews - fuck

julia

"half of what i say is meaningless
but i say it just to reach you, julia."

/john lennon

the very best - julia (javelin re-do)

delicious bed

"o bed! o bed! delicious bed!
that heaven upon earth to the weary head."

/thomas hood

atlas sound - my bed

patience

"the strongest of all warriors are these two--time and patience." /leo tolstoy

betty harris - break in the road

every sound is sweet

"sweet is every sound,
sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet;
myriads of rivulets hurrying through the lawn,
the moan of doves in immemorial elms,
and murmuring of innumerable bees."

/alf tennyson

animal collective - bees

real dark

"in the real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning." /f.s. fitzgerald

danger mouse + sparklehourse + david lynch - dark night of the soul

summertime

"summertime
and the livin' is easy."

/ira gershwin

girls - summertime

he's a peninsula

"no man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, apart of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, beause i am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." /john donne

jefferson airplane - a small package of value will come to you, shortly

performing backwards

"guitar is rarely considered a solo instrument; you have classical and flamenco guitar, alongside finer picking and folk. but its a style that [kaki king] became comfortable pursuing upon meeting [preston] reed at the 1998 swannanoa gathering in asheville, north carolina. and so began a style that king has used to transform herself into a prodigy by performing 'backwards' from the stuffy techniques found in your common 'how to' book or instructor's lesson plan. similar to playing the piano, kaki places her left hand over the neck, so her middle three fingers can top out lines on the strings, freeing her right hand to continuously finger pick or move onto the neck and tap out its own lines." /glide magazine

kaki king - magazine

masters of repetition

"there are, of course, inherent tendencies to repetition in music itself. our poetry, our ballads, our songs are full of repetition. every piece of classical music has its repeat marks or variations on a theme, and our greatest composers are masters of repetition; nursery rhymes and the little chants and songs we use to teach young children have choruses and refrains. we are attracted to repetition, even as adults; we want the stimulus and the reward again and again, and in music we get it." /oliver sacks

panda bear - chores (all tomorrow's parties, 9/11/09)

patience

"how can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young?" /paul sweeney

beach boys - mama says

a very everlasting album

"it was very competitive in the '60s. and everybody caught the bug, y'know? it was like a “competitive bug.” and, as far as i could see, everybody was turning everybody on. ... the beatles were a part of that whole “competition” thing. rubber soul blew my mind. it really made me wanna record; it made me wanna cut. it sounds like a collection of songs that belong together, and it was an uplifting feeling. so i thought i'd make a collection of songs — called pet sounds — together. that's how i got that idea...i'm proud of it. i think it's a very everlasting album. i'm very proud of the love that went into it. a lot of love went into that album. and people pick up on that too, and they really like it 'cause they feel the love." /brian wilson

bullion - god only knows

living dead men

"round about california in that day were scattered a host of these living dead men--pride-smitten poor fellows, grizzled and old at forty, whose secret thoughts were made all of regrets and longings--regrets for their wasted lives, and longings to be out of the struggle and done with it all." /mark twain

johnny greenwood - prospector arrives

little deaths

“whether they’re your friends or your old lovers...they’re little photographs and little deaths. like 'losing you,' that song, i’m sure when I’m 72 I’ll still relate to it. whenever you’re with somebody and you fall in love with them, you think they’re the one. that’s why you do it. that’s why you go head first.” /amy millan

jason collett - we all lose one another

feels just fine

"to keep rollin',
to be wise,
to be yours,
feels just fine."

/avey tare

quiet village - keep on rolling

willow sky

"listening for the secret, searching for the sound
but i could only hear the preacher and the baying of his hounds.
willow sky, whoa, i walk and wonder why,
they say love your brother, but you will catch it when you try."

/grateful dead

mixed by dutch baklavah - willow sky