textual manifestations
by christopher on May 10th, 2008 • No Comments »
taken from a review I read :
The stark landscapes of the American West have long inspired mingled awe and dread in the creative mind. Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven both deconstruct the impermanence and loneliness of this forbidding environment, setting antiheroes adrift in a morass of long shadows and bad men.
The Grave Is a Grim Horse, a folk-noir collection by Neurosis frontman Steve Von Till, is inspired by this darkness but chooses to turn his focus inward. Von Till, a transplant from the California coast to the forests of Northern Idaho, offers a set of brooding, contemplative songs that search for man’s place in the unforgiving and often brutal path of history.
The album is a work with serious themes, and Von Till imbues the songs with the appropriate gravity. The arrangements are sparse, and Von Till’s gravel-tinged delivery takes center stage. Though the foreboding mood is greatly enhanced by the oddly bent, atmospheric guitar and strings, Von Till’s voice sounds as if it is a part of the windswept plains. The Grave Is a Grim Horse moves eerily through a spare sonic landscape. The album’s quiet is appropriately foreboding and encourages the kind of introspection that is obviously occupying the artist’s thoughts.
And despite a resume that tends to bombast, Von Till shows great restraint throughout the album. The Grave Is a Grim Horse ruminates quietly on the fleeting nature of human life. Von Till reaffirms his commitment to theme by including some eclectic covers. His choices underscore his attention to detail, particularly “Clothes of Sand” by Nick Drake and “The Spider Song” by Townes Van Zandt. These songs work on two levels; in addition to being thematically related, the songwriters’ fates marry perfectly with Von Till’s brooding depiction of life and death.
this could be my favorite album thus far this year.
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by christopher on April 17th, 2008 • No Comments »
pruning sheers came out today
and I, I became more domesticated.
the miracle of owning a home is that you find yourself doing things (and enjoying doing) that you never thought you would.
hacking away at the dead bushes, sheers in hand, raking up the wreckage.
steaks on the grill.
cold beer in hand.
bliss.
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by christopher on April 10th, 2008 • No Comments »
I’m listening to Acid Motherly Love right now and hanging up pictures. Outside it’s sleeting on my spring.
old man winter needs to go away.
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by christopher on April 8th, 2008 • 2 Comments »
so I own a home.
and I’m moved in and have a porch where I sit and think and smoke and drink and watch and laugh and relax and….
everything.
it’s nice.
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by christopher on April 1st, 2008 • No Comments »
but I’ll return.
moving and all that jazz.
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by christopher on March 31st, 2008 • No Comments »
I pack up a truck and move.
will it be to our first house, I really hope so. This process has drained me in every capacity. I have hardly eaten anything in days, I barely slept, I break down on a whim. To say “everything is grim” is an understatement. We are in limbo, literally. and we wait wait wait wait and are told to wait some more.
I don’t want to wait.
it’s mine and I want to move into it. fuck you for telling me I cannot.
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by christopher on March 29th, 2008 • One Comment »
the line between homeowner and homelessness is pretty fucking thin.
a date is set and all the boxes are packed.
will we enter the front doors of our first house
or pack our belongings into a garage and wait it out.
irregular
everything is irregular and fucked.
answers coming, I just have to wait.
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by christopher on March 25th, 2008 • No Comments »
calloused feet walking on paths.
toes wrapped around stone and grass.
stoney high
and I’ll gaze into the horizon but not see towers and development
but nature as intended.
i’m sick of being human.
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by christopher on March 25th, 2008 • One Comment »
no new posts for a while.
but I’m still here. I’m moving and such so time for blogging has been minimal. I’ll get right on that
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by christopher on February 22nd, 2008 • One Comment »
and here I am. sitting in this chair reliving yesterday.
laying in that emergency room bed
poked and prodded, breathing forced oxygen through my nose.
they didn’t find anything, thank whatever.
but chest pains at 26 years old is like a wake up call.
so yeah, things need to change.
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