Dyson FTW

I'm a fan of bathing - of baths that is, because I tend to be a cleanly person. So here's my pickle - I live in a pretty cold house. Generally if I close the door and the windows tightly and make sure the hot water heater is full I'm pretty set, other than the fact that a) my bathtub is not long enough for me b) there's no goddamn tv in the bathroom. So I did all of that today. Except I've been using eucalyptus epsom salts (shut up I've been sick) and um...there's this odd effect. You know how...you eat a tic tac and breathe in and suddenly your mouth is super cold and stuff? Yeah. Think of that happening to your entire body as you get out of your really hot bath. #fail

It was worth it though, I was reading this awesome Nathaniel Hawthorne short story - Roger Malvin's Burial. That's usually why I take baths lately, because I need to read something and I find myself not being able to expend the focus.

So I'm standing on my bath mat shivering, and suddenly I think: hey Dyson, make an airblade. For my entire body!

I take my music way too seriously

So I'm going to fill it out here and hopefully people aren't horrendously annoyed by it. It's that whole 15 albums in 15 minutes thing so feel free to skip it, but it's something that is important to me and I may take more than 15 minutes to fill it out because well, I'm me.

1) Hello Nasty - Beastie Boys - the first album I ever bought, loved Intergalactic, still do -- I mean they namedrop Spock. Word.

2) Synkronized - Jamiroquai - one of the first albums I ever listened to all the way through, and he's an avid car collector, amazing dancer, and it just makes me wanna shake my ass, as it were.

3) Siamese Dream - The Smashing Pumpkins - I love Billy Corgan, he is such a dictator in his bands, I identify with his control freak tendencies. But that's not why I love this album, there are some really beautiful songs on there and some horribly sad ones, it got me through the first few years of high school and appealed to my inner goth (we all have one so shut up).

4) Lateralus - Tool - my initiation into probably the most influential and important band in my life, as y'all know from one of my previous posts. I don't think I need to say anything else.

5) De-Loused in the Comatorium - The Mars Volta - their first album. Niall played this for me the first time he ever came over to my house. The name had been bouncing around in my head for a long time before I listened to it. I loved it almost instantly. The first song that got stuck in my head was Eriatarka, and it still harkens back to that time. I can smell the snow in the air when I listen to it. But Cedric had me at the opening line of the first song "Clip side of the pink-eye flight/I'm not the percent you think survives/ I need sanctuary in the pages of this book"

6) Relationship of Command - At The Drive In - I didn't get into this album until fairly recently - my relationship with ATDI was almost contingent on my breakup, I started seriously considering their work near the end, and it sort of snowballed from there. Originally I was listening to This Station is Non Operational which is a compilation of their stuff. But Relationship of Command is where I really started appreciating Omar's musicianship. He says he hates the way the album is mixed but I just don't care. It's a seminal work. Anton Corbijn directed the video for Invalid Litter Dept. which is the inspiration for the name of my non existent second blog (registered, never used). One Armed Scissor - the third song and most commercially successful ATDI single is what this blog is named after - "self destruct sequence/ this station is non operational/ species growing/ bubbles in an iv loitering".

7) 808's and Heartbreak - Kanye West - I started listening to this almost as soon as it came out - and it's not necessarily the album itself that's important, but the surrounding occurrences. September 2008 was a schism in my life, and the first single was out and for some reason I started listening to Kanye. Also I had seen him on some sort of awards show and noticed him for the first time in my life. I always thought he had a weird name, one that I liked saying but now I realized that he was good looking, but more importantly, damn he dressed well. In a way I suppose I actively sought him out. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I liked listening to the album the whole way through. Then for some reason I went to his blog which I found hilarious, but it led me to something even better. 'Ye links to a lot of interesting things, one of which is highsnobiety, which led me to selectism, which in turn led me to Tony. So there are all sorts of amazing associations surrounding this album.

8) Amnesiac - Radiohead - it took me forever to get into Radiohead, or I should say it took me forever to finally listen to Radiohead, and the first song I ever really heard was I Might Be Wrong. Tracy (mom's friend's girlfriend's kid) downloaded it onto my laptop and then dragged me to their concert in Montreal. Radiohead is like that old comfortable sweater that you love and will never ever get rid of. And I mean that in the best way. I feel like there's nothing I can say about them because they're that good. Almost everyone accepts it. For good reason.

9) Raindogs - Tom Waits. Just watch Down by Law.

10) Return to Cookie Mountain - Tv on the Radio - Tunde Adebimpe, seriously, I love his voice. They're just ridiculous fun and have meaningful lyrics. I can dance to this album which is new-ish for me and I've found myself listening to them a lot in the past year or so.

11) Latin - Holy Fuck - I discovered this band thanks to Karis, we were in NYC because I bought tickets to go see Omar and the next day Karis dragged me to this show. I say dragged because I was being a sulky child. But I am so very happy that she did because the headliner was Holy Fuck (she wanted to see Indian Jewelry). There was some sort of instant chemical connect-- like love at first sight. I downloaded their albums as soon as I got home and dragged a friend to come see them in concert (again) immediately thereafter. They're from Toronto, lucky me! This album is currently in heavy rotation.

12) Xenophanes - Omar Rodriguez Lopez - everyone who knows me knows the name Omar, I don't even have to say the full name anymore, they just know. You've already seen his name in this post. He is half of the Mars Volta. He is a musical prodigy. A genius. This album is sung entirely in Spanish and the vocals are by Omar and his girlfriend Ximena Sarinana. It feels like a product of their love. That's the only way I can describe it. When looking in my iTunes top 25 played songs, the first five songs are all off this album. I will never get over it.

13) Medulla - Bjork - it is a vocal soundscape. The use of instruments is kept to a minimum. Guest stars include Rahzel and Mike Patton. It is at once incredibly simple and very complex. I think everybody should listen to this album at least once.

14) Station - Russian Circles - in the past few years I've been getting more and more into exclusively instrumental music. Russian Circles is a band I ran across on the SargentHouse website. I like to call my foray into this band a type of musical nepotism. Because in truth Omar belongs to that label. That's besides the point - these guys own. Seriously. I saw them at Sneaky Dee's when I was still living in Little Italy - I went alone, I stood beside the drummer during the entire opening act and didn't know it. It was hands down the best $12 I've ever spent on a semi random show. They shook my world and continue to do so on a daily basis, Harper Lewis is one of my favourite songs on this album and it is a sonic assault on my ears. But don't just take my word for it. GO!

15) Amputechture - The Mars Volta - the one Mars Volta album that I didn't listen to immediately when it came out. In fact I didn't listen to it until after The Bedlam in Goliath. I don't know why - I was afraid maybe. I have one word for all of you: Tetragrammaton.

So yes, that's it - it took forever. Hope it makes sense.

Halloween...

That's me in the background -- how was your night?

Stay Lit

I've been AWOL. You must forgive me - I've been living this incredible life for the past little while and I'm afraid of waking up and finding that it's all been in my head. Let me give you the reverse chronology of what has been happening, starting with the week I've had. I've been getting better at some things you see - levelling up so to speak, in Mario terms. About a week ago I did something incredibly out of character for me, an aberration. And I don't regret it- not one bit. The week following this has been a wide spectrum of feeling. Immediately thereafter I was feeling peaceful, calm and balanced. As the days passed it became less so and I started becoming that person I always had been - neurotic, cynical. So somewhere between my shower and getting dressed and going to class yesterday I decided to put an end to it. It happened, it was awesome, I wouldn't give it back, it is now out of my hands - so let's throw it all to the wind and say it is what it is and let it go. Regardless of how ridiculously strongly I feel about it. The idea that I can feel this way - that I am capable of it, is freeing.

I'm being intentionally obtuse because I feel a bit bittersweet but you know what? I'm only 25, there will be more of this I'm sure.

The reason I've not been here other than what I said previously is that in some ways this blog was dedicated to me working out my issues with ...well you know...that kid. That's done now. And I do still feel the need to write but - it's easier to write about harrowing adventures and misery than it is about happiness for me. But you know what? I had an adventure with Karis a few weeks ago - and it was awesome. We went to NYC -first time for me, second time for her. And it was a shit-show. Three days spent in Manhattan/Williamsburg and lots of running around. I mastered the subway almost immediately, not afraid to whip out a map whenever I felt like it. We packed a lot of stuff into three short days. Neither of us had gotten any sleep before we left and as Karis was getting ready and I was already waiting in the car complaining about being late for the ferry to the airport her dad asked "so what concert are you going to?" at which point (much like Bart Simpson realizing his permission slip for the awesome field trip was lying under his pillow) realized that my Omar Rodriguez Lopez tickets were sitting inside Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 on my incredibly messy desk. And for the first time in 12 years I was glad that Karis had a tiny bit of a tendency to be late.

Stomping around Manhattan was fun after we had dropped our bags off - resting in Central Park and walking around 5th Ave., wondering why there were guys with earpieces walking around, envying the 13 year olds gathered around one of the exits of the park arguing about where they were going to go for a snack and which route they should take. Lucky. After Lego store (at which I picked up gifts for friends and took many pictures and repeatedly squealed with young-boy-ish delight) we decided to get food and head over to the show. The burger joint we stopped at was Bill's Burgers where the poutine was named "Disco Fries" and Karis not so subtly pointed out to Tony (who recommended the place) that as I ordered them I made a very 80's dance move. *facepalm* @ myself. But if I can't laugh at myself I may as well quit trying to live. I won't even try going into how incredibly amazing the Rodriguez Lopez Group concert was. Deantoni Parks is a master, a fucking drum master. I...there are no words. If there's anything close to a religious experience for me - this is it. This was it. This is one of those things in life that is worth trying to hold on to your existence for; this type of moment. Everything just clicks and suddenly life makes sense and everything is perfect.

Don't take my word for it.

I stocked up on Omar shirts and then skipped and sang all the way home on the hipster shuttle (the L train) with Karis and got home and dreamt of Omar and little dancing Cedrics all night (even though Ced wasn't there). Next morning we were going to meet Tony for the first time. Which is funny - because I had bought tickets to the concert first and this was a bonus, but I had realized (and noted to Karis and Karen), that really....I was more excited about this than the Omar thing. It turned out to be awesome. I mean TG's body of work speaks for him as a cool/interesting/stand up guy more so than mine does, but I was really really happy. Still am. We went to this ridiculously awesome little restaurant with fascinating seemingly original fixtures - the kind of place - had I lived in NYC would become my watering hole just because of the amazing light and a truly comfortable feeling. I used to feel that way about Tequila Bookworm before they moved. So we hung out, talked, I feel like we probably could have been there all day. We had to keep moving though because we had such a limited time.

Karis mentioned that there was a concert going on that night at Le Poisson Rouge - and I was somewhat tired and whiny - as I'm apt to be when I don't have enough alone time or time to digest and process everything I had just taken in. So we decided to go see this thing. On our way there we stopped at a cafe to have some sandwiches and beers and we bumped into a lovely young man named James Perkins - I couldn't help but notice he was reading the Fountainhead (which is one of my favourite novels) and we struck up a conversation. He's pretty interesting, into fashion, used to be in finance or something like that, and an outside correspondent for FOX, blah blah. He was very kind and funny and a delight. Gave me his card and told me to keep in touch. I found New Yorkers to be very friendly. So then we schlepped ourselves over to Poisson Rouge - turns out the opening band was Holy Fuck, from Toronto - and I fell in love. I do that a lot. They blew me away - and finally there's a Toronto band that I can feel excited about. (except for You Handsome Devil) They're interesting, dynamic, kinetic, creative, everything. We enjoyed ourselves, got a bit smashed (as it were) and danced up a storm (separately) because I don't like going in the pit area. The music they make - there's a feeling of it traveling through you on a molecular level, like neutrinos through everything, becoming part of you. We made our way home and then the next day we slept in and went to meet up with my friend Emile and Karis's friend Joanna in Greenwich Village. Stopped off and got some comics (om nom nom) and hung out all night long. It was a good end to a really good weekend. Emile was really funny - a sense of humour I could really relate to. And walking around NYC was a lot of fun. We didn't see all of the things I would have loved to see, but I got to visit New York at last and it started out with one incredible reason: seeing my favourite musician, and I left with a lifetime of amazing, happy, wonderful memories.

I think that's it for now.

when I am king!

First day of school. My first class was absolutely phenomenal. 19th Century American Lit with Professor Paul Downes. I was sitting in the corner with a 2nd year student - and I've had class with Downes before so I was anticipating him walking into the room for a reason. He's wiry, has the perfect sprinkling of grey in his black boyish hair, and dresses well - sort of like a late 80's to early 90's British hybrid of punk/Radiohead, but academically. It works for him. Then he opens his mouth...my remark to 2nd year student "And cue all the red blooded females in the class falling in love". I like to think I'm a wit.

Anyhow I really wanted to get into something that really annoyed me during the class. Well it was less annoying and more just "what happened?". We're starting the class off with the Declaration of Independence, and today we looked at photocopies of the pages of an actual US passport. Some part of my brain kept telling me that there was something illicit about that, probably because I'm crazy. Anyway the overarching theme was this harkening back to the frontier and symbols of Freedom such as the bald eagle. Downes pointed out the irony that the bird almost went extinct, that was very enjoyable. The images broke down a bit like this: bald eagle/mountains, Mount Rushmore, the west coast/train, the midwest/man ploughing, cowboys, Statue of Liberty, a totem pole, a ship, and a satellite. Very very frontier, and new in depiction.

So...usually when I'm in a class where I feel very engaged a I get this build up in my chest and it becomes this explosive thing that just has to come out otherwise I might spontaneously combust. I like participating. Can you tell?

I forget what line of questioning we were following but my mind made a jump re: the design of the passport. He motioned for me to make my statement so I launched into it and was trying to explain that rather than it being the people who designed the passport trying to romanticize the frontier/self made man aspect of the United States it seemed more like a practical choice. The fact that there are no cities represented in the passport [to me] points to the creators/designers need to avoid controversy. How does one pick cities that are emblematic of the United States without creating some sort of outcry from citizens about how one city is better than the other? I think that if it were Russia, at least they could just put Moscow in the passport, and nobody would say anything because that's just how it is. But the US is actually a conglomerate of many little countries. NYC, it can be argued is it's own country, and LA is just whack (I say that in a loving way). To me it points to a kind of fracturing (which is so American Lit) of the unity of the US (in the present), the designers had to go back to a different time to create a sense of again - unity, etc.

I'm halfway through this statement when some girl just randomly cuts in to what I'm saying, very loudly. She was trying to claim that there was a city represented in the passport because of the Statue of Liberty, and kept trying to run away with this, so I countered with the fact that there was absolutely nothing other than the top part of the statue seen in the image which I believe was a deliberate choice. Lady Liberty is an emblem for Freedom. (it has to be capitalized, you know it does) I finished my statement, which was appreciated. I just don't understand why this girl felt it was so important to not let me finish and had to jump in and not wait. Was that so important? Why was it so important? It just threw me off for a moment in terms of pettiness.

I later decided that it was because I had looked at her earlier and possibly showed some form of disapproval for her choice of outfit. She was wearing white dress socks with black leather secretary shoes with thick chunky heels, grey bell-y bottoms and a white oxford-ish shirt, but with embellishments. It was kind of wanna-be Audrey Hepburn but not quite hitting the mark. Missing it by almost a mile. It was the shoe/sock combo that got me I think. I was going to make a comment about it earlier but then it developed into a whole story because she decided to go and be passionate about something I actually think was insignificant and eventually banal.

BUT I think it's interesting that I've never experienced something like it before at U of T. It whet my appetite for shooting people down.

I'm gonna let my brain marinate in that for a bit. It's gratifying.

not so linear after all

Remember how I mentioned on twitter that we should talk about how Lateralus was a seminal record/song to my maturing as a person, or a stage thereof? That time is now come.

Lateralus came out May 15th, 2001. I was like what...in grade 10 or 11? It was the first Tool album that I had ever listened to. From beginning to end. I was hanging out with my friend Jonathan at the time and he wouldn't stop going on about this one band who had a hilarious song named "Prison Sex". So finally I gave in. And it was everything I had ever been looking for from a collective and spoke directly to some part inside of me that I could never place until then. A place I couldn't really put into words. I'm not going to review the record, I'll just tell you what it means to me.

First off the men in Tool are incredibly technically proficient. Danny Carey is someone I will always look to as one of the best drummers of our time. But right off the bat the thing I connected with most was Maynard's voice - absolutely primitively growly, yet at the same time he has this capacity to sound like (for lack of a better word) an angel. This duality is instantly obvious and incredibly magnetic. Then there are the lyrics. Usually that is what I listen for first - this is what gets me hooked. So it's grade 11(ish) and of course I'm going through an incredibly angsty phase. My parents are being dicks, mostly my stepfather, life at home is...unbearable, I'm depressed, problems feel insurmountable, I feel disconnected from society as a whole. I'm not accepted -- the people at my school, well they're not nice. Yet despite everything I have this amazing capacity to try to live life as fully as I can, it's been one of the constants in my life. The fact that I experience things very intensely in terms of my feelings means that the lows are incredibly low, but the highs.....are unlike anything else -- the closest I've come is being on fentanyl when I was in hospital.

So this record comes around and I listen to it, and I'm discovering all of these interesting things, realizing the references. Finding out more about what this band is all about. Finding out about the origins or influences of the songs. The first one I really listened to a lot was Schism - which to me is about how lack of communication is what causes the breakdown of relationships, universal right? But...just...the way it's put, and yes it's pretentious but it's so eloquent and elegant at the same time "The light that fueled our fire then has burned a hole between us so / We cannot see to reach an end, crippling our communication" wordy and kind of complex, but absolutely beautiful. But....lateralus - the song...was what really opened my eyes, I suppose. I don't even know what I mean by that.

Anyway here's a little bit about the technical side of the song: via wiki:

The song is known for its distinct time signatures. The time signatures of the chorus of the song change from 9/8 to 8/8 to 7/8; as drummer Danny Carey says, "It was originally titled 9-8-7. For the time signatures. Then it turned out that 987 was the 17th number of the Fibonacci sequence. So that was cool." (this made every magazine, though Spin mostly label Tool as math rock)

This is going to sound so granola-y but, it's probably the most positive, life affirming song I have ever encountered. It's funny because it comes right after a song that is so absolutely angry - Ticks&Leeches (about the record company and the shit they had to deal with re: that). Maynard sings about everything that people experience "over thinking over analyzing separate the body from the mind" I have a tendency to pick everything apart, obsessively, compulsively. I have such a hard time turning my brain off so that lyric is hilarious to me. It's like "dude you are speaking to me!" But it's about more than that - it's about pushing oneself to new levels, to keep going, despite everything that's trying to hold you back in your life, to fight against gravity, to break free. "There is so much more and beckons me to look through to these infinite possibilities". And my favourite line, one I use all the time "Feed my will to feel this moment/urging me to cross the line", it's about living in the moment, living for the moment, about embracing the things in your life that make you feel the way you need to. It's about pushing the envelope "watch it bend".

There's more. I feel like ever since actually digesting this, all of it, I try to live a no holds barred life. There is no tomorrow. There is only today. There is only this moment which keeps going but will never be the same. And sometimes I slip, but ... damnit I only have one life, I refuse to regret anything. I would rather do, and fail, than not try at all. And if I'm afraid at the moment...I will do what I need to so that hopefully, if my moment extends itself to a future, I will be braver then. "Whatever will bewilder me". This song reinforces that even though the world can be a horrible, terrifying, hostile place - it can also be beautiful. Sometimes you have to seek the beauty out, it's not always just there for the taking. But...but but but....even when life has you down, even when everything seems like it's falling apart, even when you're incandescent with rage...you need to remember that a moment will exist, or has existed where everything came together, everything fell into place, even if it was just for a split second there was that joy where you were aware of that one amazing feeling of just...getting it, getting life. Sometimes they're few and far between - these moments - and sometimes they won't stop coming and you get overwhelmed. But they're what we live for. I grasp them tightly. I look forward to more.

So even though I'm cynical, and bitter, and humorously angry half the time -- I do still believe in people. I mean...I say I have no faith, and to a certain extent this is true. I operate under the logic that mostly everyone I know will disappoint me somewhere down the line, it's just a matter of time. But this doesn't preclude me from still loving them. Because I guess despite everything even though it doesn't seem like it, I'm a huge optimist, huge. But that's our secret okay?

ps. here's a link if you're interested

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateralus_(song)

an ancient shrewdness in the vein

Sometimes someone comes into your life and is able to clarify things that have been stumping you for ages in a split second. I'm always suspicious when I become fast friends with newbies because usually it ends badly, but I think this is different. Okay okay I'll stop being cryptic. A friend from LA came to Toronto this weekend and we had such a great time. It's rare that I connect so well with another female. It's been happening more lately - oh my god we're growing up.

Anyway we went out to dinner and everything just flowed so naturally, it was easy, and it was such a relief. I only wish she could have stayed longer -but...responsibilities, husband and gorgeous child were waiting. We talked about everything under the sun as if we had known each other forever. And she helped me clear up a huge mystery in my life - something that has been a source of pain in my life, and I am grateful. I wrote about it a while ago. You know "this is not-blank-blank-dot-com". I felt that someone I had respected and admired had kind of shafted me, but she explained it to me from a perspective where...it made sense. And suddenly that...pain (an ache sort of) had been lifted. I also didn't really realize that it had been weighing on me that heavily until the weight was gone. Shit gets intense fast around here.

So over dinner we talked about many things. And I think I'm finally able to (thanks to our conversation) write about this thing that's been germinating in my head for just...like...you know....the past year or so. Every time I've tried to write about this it's been a pain in the ass, because I get all muddled and about four hundred different things come out but....I'm going to try, damnit. And also I just found out that someone is doing a PhD candidacy about the use of sound in animation, so if I wanted I could totally use this as PhD material...if I choose to do that. Shit. Scholar for life?

I'll start this the way we started speaking about it. One of the things about Emma I love is that she straddles the line, her background is American but also Mexican. I think that's a one-two punch that she packs - speaking another language (if only that) is an advantage, always. Not to mention having a sort of perspective on things two times over. Anyway - so I was fascinated because - of course I'm fascinated with Omar and Cedric and everything they do. I don't know why, but all of their work is just incredibly satisfying to listen to for me. They too straddle that line between American and not. The reason Omar/Ced are different from other immigrants/newcomers to the states is that a) Omar is from Puerto Rico which is basically part of the states, and Ced is from Texas. Moreover Spanish speaking denizens of the United Sates are becoming more prevalent and accepted - correct me if I'm wrong but is Spanish not a language that is actually taught in American schools also?

One of the things Emma and I talked about - or that I naively brought up was that I think Spanish should totally be adopted as a second language in the US of A. I know - the squishy middle of the passion flakie that is the United States would NEVER go for it. People are too afraid of change - even if I think it would be so so so beneficial to the population.

So then I went on to my larger point - I've been in discourse with a lot of American Literature, learning about the tradition of it, marinating my brain in it so to speak. Reading a lot of Frank O'Hara, Williams, Raymond Carver, Henry James, Pat Parker, etc. There are so many that I'm not mentioning -- but these people really set the American Tradition in terms of writing, even if a whole whack of them were Ex-Pats.

I feel like the entire list of authors we read was incredibly well curated and Scott Rayter was incredibly intense in the way he delivered his lectures, it was phenomenal and I'm sad the class is over. Having said that -- because we read a lot of poetry it reminded me of the strains of a thought I had a while ago.

A little while after Spook Country originally came out there was some sort of convergence in my life. I had been listening to a lot of Frances the Mute and the Bedlam in Goliath because I was deathly afraid of listening to Amputechture (I still don't know why to this day, but it's become so dear to me). To complete this trifecta I had begun taking a class with Skye at his behest because one of his friends (Stuart) was teaching - it was Latin American History from x Century. (I forget exactly) but I think we started somewhere in the vicinity of Porfirio Diaz, well give or take a hundred years. So I had Spook Country which from one angle submerged me in this crazy world of this Cuban immigrant to New York - Tito, and his intensely idiosyncratic and religious family (I was re reading the book). I was thinking "this is weird, but kind of beautiful". At the same time I was listening to two albums by a band I love-- and frequently describe as being the only thing that can describe or define everything that's inside of me that I can't translate into words--which were more than 30% in Spanish. Not to mention when the band started Omar wanted it to be some sort of offshoot of salsa music. Which it is. You can definitely shake your ass to a lot of their material. Or at least I think so anyway. And then on top of it I was buried in all this information about Latin America, tonnes of primary documents - and Stuart really delivered in his lectures. It was some sort of nodal point for me.

After everything went down in my personal life that year - I needed a distraction, so I became ensconced in a haze of just...mostly Omar's music. It was comforting. I branched out, listened to more of At the Drive In, and then started exploring the larger catalogue. There are so many things he's done, De Facto, El Grupo Nuevo, At the Drive In, The Mars Volta, and then independent stuff or collaborations with John Frusciante. Diving into this world was a relief. I think this is where the idea started gestating. I think that Cedric Bixler Zavala is probably one of the most interesting lyricists of our time. I think this is because he has to bounce off of Omar's control freak qualities all the time....so let me explain.

Omar is kind of a megalomaniacal dictator, and I say this with awe, love, and respect. (I've pieced all of this together from interviews I've seen and read over the years...). Something about how he writes all of the music and then has everybody record it separately and then Cedric gets to listen to it and write the lyrics. Cedric has his own process too - instead of explicitly trying to write lyrics that have some sort of larger meaning he sounds out words that he thinks flow properly with the music - which is how he's able to get that beautiful juxtapositional cadence. You know what I mean? Not really? Over the years though (in the Mars Volta) Omar's been letting go of that, and generally meaning can be derived. It's just a very interesting way of writing. The other thing that tickles me pink is that Cedric's biggest vocal influence is Bjork.

Knowing that, I really want to get into the meat of my thought. Having read the lyrics of Cedric for the Mars Volta, and subsequently getting so involved with all of the other music Omar makes, and the stuff he's done with Ximena Sarinana, I really think that overall these things they've written should be considered poetry. And if they are poetry they are definitely part of the new canon of the American Literary Tradition. Yes, some of the lyrics are in Spanish, specifically those from Xenophanes, but so is a large portion of Amputechture, and Frances the Mute. I think that the lines are definitely blurring - especially (as I've mentioned previously) since Puerto Rico is part of America, and Latin culture becomes so much more prevalent across even say just the southern States. I have a feeling that people would argue against this -- specifically from a xenophobic point of view. But I also think that it's something beautiful and enriching. Anyway - this is kind of a conclusion I've come to on my own, and I'm sure it's not...unique or new or whatever, but it's something that I've wanted to explore for a long time now. Especially since I find that so much of TMV's material is so meaningful to me. I would definitely have to sit down and gather everything up and analyze the influences and all that fun jazz, and I think that's a project that would be really fun to take on in the future. It's easier to write about what you love.

Yeah...I think that's all for tonight.