TEACH ME TO FORGET

I started this tape at the beginning of September 2011 because I had already gone months without making a fun mix tape, but at that point I was not comfortable with making tapes around any other people so I waited... and waited even longer.  On November 1st songs were removed and added and removed again until I had enough wine that I just went with it.  Most of these songs are a bunch of favorites, which is quite unusual for me.  This tape has some funky transitions and I wouldn't expect anyone else to like this, especially for the random songs of deep heartbreak, but that's OK because I made this tape for me. I'm funky, heartbroken, & I've always been a fan of bad transitions in music.

I DJ-ed the Olympia Record Show last night and found Juju by Siouxsie & the Banshees, as well as the SON OF DRACULA soundtrack by Harry Nilsson (even came with the iron on!  BITE ME!) which has my favorite song by him, "Daybreak."  I was happy to add these songs to the B Side.  I was supposed to get a lot of reading done on my GYPSIES OF EASTERN EUROPE book that I have to write a paper about, but instead I just distracted myself with something that's far more important to my well being.  Making tapes is an important therapeutic event in my life.  I hope I never stop.

I just got the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook in the mail!  So many pastas, soups, salads, stews, stir-fries, etc!

Tonight I made my 3rd batch of pico de gallo in 2 weeks.  I'm obsessed, ritualistic, and rather healthy living this way.  I feel my body beating all the sickness I see in Olympia.  This is the cure, the answer, and the future.  Maybe I should make pico de gallo commercially?  What else am I going to do with my life?  Professional cat-petter?

This Sunday makes two weeks of zero social networking in my life & I already feel a lot better, more curious, and more optimistic.  Now I just need to get back into running, stretching, & doing my push-ups and stuff again.  I went swimming at TESC and that was pretty nice.  Routines!  The ROUTINES!

Prepare for: Presentation on COMMUNIST ALBANIA!

It's nice to find an article about lovely owls in the news a midst dozens of articles about various occupy movements and seemingly constant police brutality against free speech.  Elderly women, college students, & a young woman in Portland all caught on film getting a blast (from what looks like a fire extinguisher) of pepper spray in the face.  Who knows what kinds of things photographers aren't capturing that cops are allowed to get away with.  Even when the cops are handed consequences, it's usually something like losing vacation days.  Vacation days!

These are 2 scenes from the 1960 documentary film JAZZ ON A SUMMERS DAY, filmed in at the Newport, Rhode Island Annual Jazz Fest.  There are lots of greats in this movie that were nice to see perform, particularly Big Maybelle, but I  was most excited to learn about the Chico Hamilton Quintet by this one scene below.  Chico is the drummer & that's Eric Dolphy on the flute.  At the 2:00 minute mark the guitar section makes this some really interesting jazz, especially in 1960.  The precision and delicacy all the musicians create envoke a quiet power that builds and builds on the circular and constant rhythm section.  I was completely moved & my cats were licking each other.  It's also humorous that this scene is right after a pretty rockin' and off-key Chuck Berry tune.  This movie is so relaxing. I've been watching it over the course of weeks now, bit by bit.



I was surprised to find that someone had uploaded this Nathan Gershman clip from the film as well, a really nice interlude in the movie that is away from the bop & rag jazz, in the neighborhoods of Newport, & just really beautiful at the end.  This style of film-making must have really inspired people like Les Blank & D. A. Pennebaker.
  

Something amazing is happening in Ghanaian cinema.

I made this tape May 3rd, 2009 in an attempt to make a tape that is completely lovely.  There are many more tapes I would like to make with this theme.  I never had a tracklist or sleeve for this tape so I just made it.  Obviously not all the songs are filled with romance, but I do love every song selected.   Love can go in many directions.

This picture really blew my mind.  A young Kevin Stanford back home from college (Denver) on his mother's east Jackson Ranch, myself about age 10 (?), & Dad with dark hair & a fresh face doing what he does best.  Around this time my Dad had rebuilt Nancy Jackson's house & lived alone on her 700+ acres.  The boulders on this ranch down in the draw are so enormous.  That live oak behind Kevin makes me really homesick.  I miss those trees.  I miss this day, & these feelings.  I'm so happy my Dad is still alive & that we get along better than ever.  I feel so lucky to have such a strange family.  I love steak.