Looking Ahead

Let the looking back be behind us.

Top Ten lists are great. Reminiscence and nostalgia are really nice this time of year.

But just like getting over the hump of the solstice and knowing that, even though it's tough to tell, the days are getting longer, I always love the feeling of turning that corner of December far enough to be able to look ahead.

There's a new year coming. I'll stop short of making resolutions just yet, but there's plenty to be excited about. Like: This veritable butt-load of new music I just got to sift through for the radio station. Much of it is me catching up (Amon Tobin, Christopher Willits, singles from Crystal Stilts, Daedelus, Bass Drum of Death!), but not all of it (Weekend, Ford & Lopatin, Prefuse 73) and there's lots more coming. Great to see we're on the radar of labels and publicists and artists, and the library is swelling. This will only get better.


Better: Theo is talking nonstop. New words every day, seriously. Cathy was delighted when last night he finally, clearly and without a doubt as to what he meant, said Mommy. The kid can melt your heart without even trying. And he climbs everything, including me. We are having a great time together, getting out a lot, spending time. The family's good.

Both grandmas are here these days, which is fantastic. It's so nice seeing Theo grow up with our moms, and his aunt and uncle, seeing them taking care of him and teaching him stuff.

And then, there's snow. Not much. But there was snow on the ground this morning. We must be optimistic here.

So, winter's here, 2012 is coming, and it's time to get ready for it. For all of it.

Fish Watch

Apparently, Edwards Greenhouse is Theo's new favorite place. I can see why.

Skiing on Streets

JP Auclair Street Segment (from All.I.Can.) from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.

I'm not big on ski movies, but this is amazing. And the soundtrack is pretty awesome too.

PNYE.11!!!!

Hey y'all, it's that time again. RadioBoise's 6th annual Practice New Year's Eve Party is this Saturday night, and it's gonna be a great one. Great bands, KRBX DJs, food, beer from Payette Brewery, and a whole lot of people who are really excited about their new community radio station.

Starts at 6:30 in the ground floor of the Empire Building, at 10th and Idaho. You won't be able to miss us. Hope to see you there!

Motian on KRBX

An update to the previous post:

Our man John McCarthy will pay tribute to the late and truly great drummer Paul Motian on his Wednesday morning radio show, Jazz: Beyond the Sky. I can say with all confidence that this will be a great show, so don't miss it. In fact, once you listen, you'll probably start tuning in every week. Bet ya.

Wednesday, 9 to 11am, 89.9fm and www.radioboise.org.

Paul Motian

I just read that Paul Motian died a few days ago. He was 80.

His passing is a huge loss for jazz and for drums. His playing was always remarkable and identifiable, loose and fun but never ostentatious or flaunty.

My first recording with him on drums was on a Montreal Jazz Festival CD with Geri Allen and Charlie Haden. It blew me away, and that led me to my favorite of Motian's recurring collaboration, with Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell.

This feels like a good time to cozy back up to my jazz records. They've been getting dusty lately, and that just ain't right.

Them Gourds

Our favoritest indescribablest band gets their rock tipped up and looked under by NPR Music this week. Read the article, enjoy the interview, dig the great set.

Uncle Kevin

Theo had fun meeting his Uncle Kevin this past weekend.

Bleep

I guess this is sort of a commercial, except for the part where I get paid, but for you electronic music luvvahs out there who don't know about this yet, check out Bleep.com. Great music, attention to art, easy to explore and learn about new stuff. I subscribe to their newsletter and read through it every time.

Radiothon Wrap-Up

This is tonight, starting at 6pm at the station headquarters. That's the Alaska Center, on Main St. between 10th and 11th, next to the Bouquet, in the basement. Should be fun!

Happy Friday

This ad for Gernika is awesome.

Wye Oak:Danzig

Wye Oak covers Danzig

First Radiothon Headed Your Way!

Hey people, here's a heads-up for you. If you read this blog, you know about RadioBoise, and you know how awesome it is and how much it means to me, and to this community.

This Wednesday we start our first fundraising drive, and it goes through next Thursday, 11/3. I'll be sending out requests for support and info on special programming we're having. We have a goal of 500 new members and/or $25,000, which may sound like a lot but is a pretty modest goal.

So, look for a message from me, tune in to 89.9fm or http://www.radioboise.org/ whenever you can, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Happy Friday

Fall Hike

Cathy and the boy took Henry for a hike today. I love fall in Boise.

OWS v. FOX

Nice to see this stuff gaining traction. And nice to see the actual peeps on the ground state their case so eloquently, much to the chagrin of the establishment and their fellatiators.

Happy Friday

Stole this from the Facebutts. But is that really stealing?

Future Islands

New album out this week! It's called On the Water, and so far I'm loving it--more of the intense, howling break-up songs that we loved on last year's In Evening Air, but with more mood, more bass, more rending of throat and garment. Great and unique stuff.

Middle Fork Salmon River

We launched on Sunday, 9/25, about 2 in the afternoon. You load your boat up on this humungous ramp and slide 'er on down--or in our case, push hard to get it down the ramp as the boats were so heavy they wouldn't slide.

The clouds and rain that hit us this first day and night would be the last we'd see on the trip.



Spent out first night just a few miles from the put-in, at Gardell's Hole. Very nice site. We got rained on overnight, and in the morning our tents and tarps were coated in frost.

The next day we got into some serious fishing. The rapids were tight and the boulder gardens required much jumping into the water to free up the boats, but that made for an active day in the raft and was actually really fun.







Camp was busy and fun. Always work to do, always cocktails being made.



And there was costume party for Linda's birthday. Derek washes the ball...



And the scenery? Sheesh. Some nice hot springs, too. This is sunflower.



The fishing only got better, too. The cutthroats did not disappoint--they were plentiful, and they were hungry. Most were in the 8 to 12 inch range, but we pulled a few nice ones out, along with a veritable butt-load of rainbows (future steelhead).

I spent a little time on the oars, but our boat was big and heavy, and my skills not quite up to the task of keeping us off the rocks. So, Zach gave me a few turns, but he was at the help for most of the trip. Which, for me, meant more fishing.


The views were amazing, whenever I could look up from reading water or watching a fly to appreciate them.

The camps and sites were fairly spotless, too. Nice to know that rules and protections, when respected and enforced, can work, keeping this stretch of river all but pristine in the face of thousands of visitors every year.


Camped in among the boulders our last night out. Lived like the mountain sheep. And saw some, too.

7 days passed in a flash. We were busy nearly the whole time, but that's the price you pay for going with friends and not on a commercial trip. And it was fantastic. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I Like My Bike

Time to Get Mad... and Active

About time. The first minute tells it all. (Thanks, Kurt.)

The Best Audience

Dad and grapes from cathy fischer on Vimeo.

Back Home

The overflow pond over in the Military Reserve may be no Middle Fork of the Salmon River, but it sure is good to see these two again. Lucky guy, I am.

Trip report and pics coming soon. And if you're wondering, the fishing was as amazing as you've heard it is.

Gone Fishing

Sunday morning at 7pm we leave town and head up toward Stanley, to Boundary Creek, to launch for a week on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. 7 days of floating and fishing and oaring and fishing and hiking and fishing.

I've never done this trip--never done any river trip of this length, let alone of this remoteness. And it'd be a gross understatement to say I'm excited.

Full report to come when I return. Have a lovely week.

Kerosene

If you didn't already love Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent), this might convince you. And as her new album drops, it's good to get a sense of what she's capable of outside the bounds of her own intricate, often subtle compositions and performances. Here, covering Big Black's Kerosene, she just rawks.

Freedom

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”

― David Foster Wallace, This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

Two

Just because it's so great.

The Few, The Loud, The Ignoramuses

Here's a breath of fresh air and a trend I hope continues. From an article in the NY Times about slipping support for the Tea Baggers:

Of course, politicians of all stripes are not faring well among the public these days. But in data we have recently collected, the Tea Party ranks lower than any of the 23 other groups we asked about — lower than both Republicans and Democrats. It is even less popular than much maligned groups like “atheists” and “Muslims.” Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right.

Their brand is toxic, as the article says, so why is this small but vocal group holding our entire economy hostage? Because Obama has tried too hard and for too long to be bipartisan. Failing to pass reasonable bills would be better than passing any of the garbage that could possibly move through this House's blocked and gnarly digestive tract.

Plus, really, the Tea Party is not all about small government. They're about White America and the intersection of religion and politics.

So what do Tea Partiers have in common? They are overwhelmingly white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do.

More important, they were disproportionately social conservatives in 2006 — opposing abortion, for example — and still are today. Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being a Tea Party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics. And Tea Partiers continue to hold these views: they seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates. The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government.

My hope for the upcoming campaign season (I know, it's started already, I just can't acknowledge it for at least a few more months) is that Obama gets mad and goes partisan. It has to happen, because he's working alongside a Republican House (and all Republicans everywhere lately, who all seem terrified of the Tea Baggers) that believes he must fail, and they're willing to take our economy down to see it happen.

Tea Baggers: Party Before Country. It's pretty disgusting. And it's time to stop trying to work with them.

Show them for the fringe element they are and stop pretending they are mainstream America. Get mad. Before it's too late.

Good morning, beautiful

It's a slow start today.

Here's a good way to start your work week. Roll outta bed with this gorgeous video from Matthew Dear for Slowdance, off his latest, Black City.

Back from Montana

What a wonderful trip. Theo started walking (11 steps in a row!), we hung out with great friends, ate great food, drank a beer or two, did some gorgeous hikes, and caught lots of fish.

It's always sad to leave, this year more than ever. But we'll be back.

Right and Wrong

Olbermann is annoying and self-righteous, but there's a whole lotta truth in here.

The shame is that we're all of us so far gone that we can't even see how far gone we are.

Alberto Strikes Back

Kudos to Contador, who gave at least one of these costume-wearing interfering jog-alongsiding douchebags what they deserve.

I mean, dude was trying to pretend to check his heart rate. Seemed like the yahoos went wild this year, moving away from the realm of overzealous support that has always made these mountaintop stages nervy and into the realm of trying to get camera time by being the biggest "look at meeeeee" a-hole on the mountain.

Too bad more of them didn't get this treatment.

Watch the race. Don't be in it.

Theo Meets Nika

John and Tamara got a new puppy and brought her round to meet the boy. They liked each other.

Horseshoe Canyon

I forgot I had these photos. We went to Driggs for the 4th of July, and I got a ride in over at Horseshoe Canyon one day.


It was so gorgeous, we ended up hiking there a couple days later. You can see the Tetons across that valley.

TR Turns 1!

A baby no more. Theo has joined the ranks of kid-dom. He had a wonderful birthday.

A Great Day

Slept in til 8. Got a nice road ride in. Brunch with friends for Judi's birthday. Bike ride with Cathy and T. Quick nap. Homemade raviolis and wine over at John and Tamara's with all the moms. Now a book and bed. All that, and I got the coolest hat ever, too. Happy Father's Day to me.

Gold Cup

US v. Jamaica on Sunday. Anyone gonna watch?

No Politics

I know, I've made a vow to ignore all election-oriented information and activities until about this time next year. But I couldn't resist at least checking in with the first Republican debate. I didn't watch it, and I won't scour the blogosphere for juicy bits about it, but I had to at least read the NY Times op-ed. And I wasn't disappointed. At least we'll have some comic relief.

The idiocy seems astounding. Santorum, Gingrich, Bachman. I mean, it seems like a Democrat's wishlist, doesn't it? Even the smart one is a few bricks shy of a load.

Mr. Romney, the presumed front-runner, provided almost no details of his economic plan, except to attack Mr. Obama for making the recession “worse and longer.” (He didn’t mention that the recession ended in June 2009.) He said the government’s bailout of General Motors and Chrysler was a waste of money and accused the administration of catering to the auto unions. He did not mention that it saved at least 1.4 million jobs and a vital American industry, which has already paid back half the cost.

Gingrich wants oaths of allegiance. Bachman just wants to close the EPA. All this, and Palin isn't even in the race yet. Hoo boy.

Austin:Archers

Oh, I'm going alright. Crazily, awesomely, I'm going. I missed Pavement last year, but I can't miss this.

Might as well live in Portland...

Same weather, better food.

Happy Friday

It was a matter of time, I guess.

Clap Your Hands!

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah / Hysterical from CYHSY on Vimeo.

New stuff on the way. This is exciting.

Glen+Mar

Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova "Drive All Night" from Patrick Glennon on Vimeo.

Love these two.

The Crawler

Theo has mastered crawling from cathy fischer on Vimeo.

NYT on Bin Laden's Death

I hate to say it, but I can identify with how Giulliani feels about the news of Osama Bin Laden's death. He said, in Politico, "I feel satisfaction and some emotional relief, but I don't feel great elation. I watch a lot of the celebrating and it makes me feel a little strange, I don't know. Nothing erases the loss of all those lives."

I fee relieved and ecstatic and proud, of course, but I and I assume many others have been going back over images and stories that I haven't experienced in many years, and they still conjure the same mix of very strong emotions. So I feel a bit unsettled, a bit less high-fivey than I might.

But, that's neither here nor there, whatever that means.

The New York Times has what I have to call, at the risk of being excited over the pure narrative of it, a riveting account of the events leading up to and surrounding the killing of Bin Laden in Pakistan. It's really thrilling reading, like we don't often get in major sources of journalism.

"Sixteen hours later, he had made up his mind. Early the next morning, four top aides were summoned to the White House Diplomatic Room. Before they could brief the president, he cut them off. “It’s a go,” he said."

...

"The commando team had raced into the Pakistani night from a base in Jalalabad, just across the border in Afghanistan. The goal was to get in and get out before Pakistani authorities detected the breach of their territory by what were to them unknown forces and reacted with possibly violent results."

It's a long one, but it's really good. Amid the sea of articles and opinions, don't miss this gem.

This is reason to celebrate, though it feels strange to do so. It's a time to be proud and to think about our place and role in the world.

It's also a time to think about the casualties of not only 9/11 but the "war on terror" that ensued, whatever your opinion of it. As one image that really struck me had it, in a note left at the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site on Vesey Street near ground zero on Monday, "Dedicated to all those who fought, suffered, and died to bring us this moment. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten."

Sunday Rides

I got out for a great mountain bike ride this morning. Just the standard 3 Bears loop, but it's been a while and it was a beautiful, brisk spring day, so it was a tremendous ride.


Then we loaded the boy into the sidecar and took him for a ride around town. And to Bardenay for a late lunch.


We rode the greenbelt for a while and even stopped to throw bread at some geese and ducks. Theo was thoroughly entertained.

New Burial

So I missed out on the vinyl of this. But the digital's now available via emusic and elsewhere, and it's awesome. Burial moves his signature sound forward without simply repeating himself, expanding it without losing the empty, spooky quality that made his music stick.

Ardennes Sweep!

It's been an amazing couple weeks for Philippe Gilbert. The Belgian has become a dominant force in the spring classics and has pulled off victories in all 3 of the Ardennes races: Flèche Wallonne, Amstel Gold, and now the crowning jewel of Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Yep, that's both Schlecks following him to the line.

Roll on over to VeloNews for the story.

Sunday

Started the day with a great ride over the Fat Tire Traverse.


Then got fancied up and took the boy to his first Easter church. He cleans up nice. And he wasn't as grumpy about it as he looks.


Then we ate a wonderful traditional ham dinner at Jan's, got too full, and laid around in the grass on sleeping bags.