An introduction to Joanna Newsom.

In all fairness you should know first that I am in love with Joanna. I would do anything for the chance to give my life to save hers, except going so far as to endanger her life just so i can save her... it has to be real to count. I first heard her while i was in Urban Waves, i went to the girl who was working, and she told me the name. I forgot by the time i was home. I went back every day until the same girl was once again working, and she once again gave me the name. This time i wrote it down.

This was roughly October two thousand and five, and i went for what was almost six months listening to her every morning when i woke up. Often to the annoyance of my room mates. For as much as i love her, many people find her to be rather hard to appreciate. The complaint, on her first album especially, is that she sounds like a child. This is something that i have little issue looking past, having always been a fan of people with strange voices. However Out side of those people who simply cannot look past her voice, i do not believe i have heard a word of negativity about her, given you give her the chance.

She has been playing the harp since she was wee little girl, but has only been singing for the last two or three years. As a child she went to a school where they would throw javelins, recite translated German poetry about fairy's and witches, as well as various other alternative learning activities. Later she went to a school for new age composition, which she sort of regrets, wishing now she had gone to a more traditional music school. It becomes painfully clear after listening to just a sample of her work that this kind of education turned her into a very strange kind of flower.

Her first album, The Milk Eyed Mender, is a collection of music she had released on two previous self released albums, (Walnuts and Whales, Yarn and Glue) along with a few new additions. Most of the tracks consist of just her and her harp, with a few piano numbers, and one with a harpsichord i believe. Her songs have no course, very little repetition, and often tell a winding fairy tale from some far away place. It was her words that spoke to me. Touched me, moved me in a way no female vocalist had ever managed before, her stories cryptic yet so sincere. I was hooked for life.

Last November she released her second studio album, Ys, fifty five minutes long, and brilliant. The album chronicles a year of her life, with four songs describing major events through out the year, and one sort of bring it all together. The album features a full orchestra on four of the tracks, with arrangements by Van Dyke Parks. If her last album told fairy tales, this album tells epics, with the shortest song weighing in at just under eight minutes, she continues to raise the bar on the expectations she has for her fans. She started to repeat herself, but only once in a while, which gives the words an added weight. It took me a good three months before i was able to understand the why behind the album, listening to every word she says for as much as fifteen minutes is a challenge, even for a devotee such as myself. A picture started to form, as i drew closer and closer to the why. Why she had to write about this year in her life. Why it needed to be done. When i finally understood, it broke me, moving me to tears, something no other recording artist had managed to do. and even since then i have found myself in tears listening to her. It is still breaking my heart every time.

I have never had to work so hard listening to anything before. The fun of the first album was half in figuring out what she was trying to say with her side ways hintings at larger pictures or abstract notions, delusions. So on. The same can be said of Ys, the keys to the album lay hidden in plain sight, if you read the lyrics enough times, i am sure that you would be able to figure it out. Either way, you really should try to give her a chance.

Do it.

Back to being
Uehen

Life is a lost opportunity. Think of all the things your parents could have done.

The Trouble With

It is rarely fun to be forced into waiting for anything. I sit and i think of all the more productive things i could have been doing. I think of all the things i will do once the waiting is over, when finally it happens. The delivery guy brings me more o2.

Oh joyous i think gleefully, my new tanks are here! I spring into action, unlock the door, allow the man in when... wait! no! there is a problem! Only one tank has been delivered! I have ordered and been charged for two but have only one tank now to show for it! they have fucked up my order once again!

this all on top of a history of incorrect delivery dates, wrong tanks being delivered, the delivery of tank not filled completely. It is not as if i am getting this all at discount from some bargain basement o2 supplier, this is a huge global cooperation, the cornerstone of their business model is delivering over priced tanks of gas to people.

I am looking for another supplier, but have no yellow pages and the Internet is being no help. Every time i deal with these people i get one step closer to snapping and just spending the five grand on a o2 purifier. It would save me money over the next five years...

Long term solutions to short term annoyances. After it all, i am hardly in the mood to be doing anything productive. It sure would be nice to never have to wait for the delivery guy again. Even though he is a good guy, and very understanding of my annoyance.

i saved a post as a draft a while ago, and it is now a little dated.

I could have gotten a Wii and a dozen games.

I could have gotten most of a new computer.

Instead i got five pair of tweezers ranging five to seven inches in size, bead release, blow hose kit, corks, PBI Gloves, scoring knife, holding fingers, twelve millimeter tube (one case), six millimeter tube (half case), Glass Alchemy colour rod sample pack and a North Star Glass colour rod sample pack.

i ended up getting a whole new computer as well.

Tweezers are my favorite of my new toys. Having a range of tweezers is more important than you could imagine when it comes to moving hot glass around. They have allowed me to expand my creative possibilities far beyond pendants. So now i feel that i need more of them. And Jacks. And Shears. then perhaps a Puffer. This is too cool not to get. This will place me within stabbing distance of having everything i need. Before i start buying multiple of the more useful tools... i will just need a glass lathe, an o2 generator, and perhaps a bigger torch.

These last three are more down the road kind of ideas.

Enough!

Sean

on the wire

Well, I almost missed the bus again, i only have a few short minutes to tell you of what is new.

i made four pipes today. they range from the ultra crappy, to kinda cool. Lots of marbles as well. Did some tests with the new colours i got, and already have found a few that i am going to need much more of. Like periwinkle. things are no longer shattering as often. I think i only had one thing explode all day. However a piece of that molten glass managed to land on my shirt, burn through it, and then stick to my skin burning it all the while.

needless to say, i will be back here tomorrow to get right back into it.

for now, i will go home and i will sleep.

No time to spell check! the bus!

Sean

Missed the last bus blues.

You know, up until yesterday every day of this new year had simply been getting better than the last. I have been feeling better than i have in years. Today had enough bad news to bring it all to an affirmed end however. It is not that important in the grand scheme of things, but one of those missed opportunities that hangs heavy on you for your own lack of insight. Style, or pause.

I made my first glass pipe. It works too. Nothing pretty perhaps, but it has all the needed parts, shot gun, bowl, mouth piece. Got me stoned, what more could you demand?

I have been writing a fair bit at home, as there is little else to do. Advance Wars, Magma, Joanna, sitting under the bed writing about things i see and hear. It is getting to be of a size that i am starting to think it may be worth my while to port it over on a floppy disk, to archive if for nothing else. I hate losing my writing, for what ever reason, it is not as if i go back and read it over and over again. I hardly take the time to read it over before i post it the first time.

The anticipation is the best part. The part right before, because once you smoke it, it is gone and you will have to wait until it is time to smoke some more.

I read in an interview that the album Ys was written to chronicle a year in Joanna's life. She said she did not want to explain the album, but rather just let it stand on its own for us to figure out. this morning sitting in my towel i think i finally understand why she wrote the album. It snapped me in half, i will not try to hide it.

Anyways, i burnt my hand, but i really should get back to it. i will have to head home sooner.

Sean

Was written before i missed the last bus.

Is being written after i have missed the bus.

I went back and edited it. Only a little.

But then you know, i am not fooled. I realize that i messed up, and worse i was realizing i was messing up, i just kept trudging along like some child with OCD chewing on his door frame. Knowing what i was doing was wrong, but compelled none the less.

I do not care if you forgive me. You wanted some one who was not going to be superficial, some one to talk to. You wanted some one who was willing to meet you at a bus stop at midnight. You wanted some one who had their head outside of the laws involved with attraction. I do not care if you forgive me. i have made enough mistakes to keep things in perspective. I have always been good at keeping things in perspective. Knowing when i have it good. I do not care if you forgive me.

And say sorry for flirting with me before. I made another pipe tonight, with colour on the outside. It shattered just as i was putting the finishing touches on the shotgun. I knew blind rage for a split second. Normally this would not happen. I have been having trouble keep things in perspective these last three days.

I finally understand my favorite album! I get it! It made me cry! I do not think i have broken down and wept since Charles Schultz died. I was listening to the album, it was my least favorite of the five songs, and i just listened to what she was saying and it all became clear. Everything else she had been singing about had centered around this one thing i had been missing. It all makes sense, and it broke my heart. But I am not going to tell you. You have to listen for yourself.

Russel has said he will give Sean a ride home so he does not have to sleep on the couch in the gallery. I stopped working the first time because i was too tired. Then i went back. It is two in the morning, i am in no position to be staying up all night. Though it is funny that the one day i am almost forced to spend the night is the one night i have my volcano, my ds, my ipod, and a pomegranate. Things did not work out so sweet.

I wish now that we had gone dancing. I can dance.

The pipe, it was so close to being done. I will save what did not break until the future. In the future i will have the skills to pay the bills and perhaps will be able to salvage the pipe from an otherwise broken existence. I can see a sherlock or something of a similar nature in its future. Today i did some things that i had not yet been successful with. I made a bowl for a two litre bucket hooter. I was going to make some glass blades, but then the bitch hurt my feelings. I burnt my hand. The skin is already doing the, i am going to fall off, thing. At least it did not crack this time. I made some replacement buttons for my favorite jackets. I am thinking about doing some really fancy ones and replacing all the buttons. It is just tricky getting them thin enough.

Having tweezers makes life possible. If you ever decide to order lamp working supplies order some fucking tweezers. The ones at the super store are not good enough. Get at least five. And maybe an egg timer.

Our hell is a good life.

I am torn for the first time in ages. So long have my emotions sat on the fence, leaning only slightly in the chaotic winds whipping around me. Yet for the last three days it has been like i am menstruating or something. I am interested to see how this all pans out. When it finally pans out.

Our hell is a great life.

Sean

Why the sad face?
Life is beautiful.