Letters From Fresno, CA

This past weekend I went up to San Francisco with my friend Sim to see Archers of Loaf play as part of the Noise Pop 20th Anniversary Festival. Funny how things work, last year when they were doing the whole reunion tour I really wanted to see them but couldn't find anyone to go with. This year, knowing they were playing I didn't get tickets until Sim called me asking if I wanted to go. If he hadn't called, I probably wouldn't have gone.

The show was a killer, I hope I get to see then again but if this was their last time in SF I'm glad I got to sight of em.

After the show, Sim and I went to a bar to meet up with his friends since it was one of their birthday. It was my first time legally drinking in the city and first time going to a bar in the city so I was pretty excited to see what was up. He forgot to mention that the friends we would be meeting up would be four girls from the UK. A wonderful pleasant surprise for me. Overall, it was a really fun night.

My housemate and I burn wood in our backyards when it's cold and we are bored. It's a very unsafe habit.

Also I made a mix for a friend of mine titled 'Letter From Fresno, CA'
You can stream it on 8tracks here: http://8tracks.com/prufrock23/letter-from-fresno-ca

Rescue

I'm not sure if I believe in perfection anymore. Though I can honestly say that the closest thing I've ever come to having a perfect moment was when I was watching Explosions in the Sky outdoors during sunset at FYF Fest in 2011.

Speaking of sunsets, I consider myself to be very lucky to be living in California where the weather is really great and the sunsets are quite beautiful. Even though sometimes, you have stand on top of a car to take a truly beautiful picture.

About a week ago, I went to Oak Hill Memorial Park with three friends of mine. We were collecting data for our Gravestone Seriation Project. We ended up collecting data from about 200 gravestones, this was the only one I took a picture of. 

Uncorrected Proofs.

Here is a list. If I were to encounter my confused 16 year old self, I would give him this stack of records. It's not a greatest or essential list. (Not even the best album by some of the artists.) It's a list about establishing an attitude towards music that would have been useful; I wish these albums had been the bulk of my music listening when I was a teenage. (Only a few of them were.) I wish this had been my starting point.

1.   Siamese Dreams, Smashing Pumpkins
2.   Horses, Patti Smith
3.   Tennessee, Lucero
4.   Transformer, Lou Reed
5.   Icky Mettle, Archers of Loaf
6.   Left and Leaving, The Weakerthans
7.   Gold, Ryan Adams
8.   Being There, Wilco
9.   The Greatest, Cat Power
10. Let It Be, The Replacements
11. Vitalogy, Pearl Jam
12. Chelsea Girl, Nico
13. Lonsesome Crowded West, Modest Mouse
14. The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits
15. Disintengration, The Cure
16. Different Class, Pulp
17. London Calling, The Clash
18. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
19. Out of Time, R.E.M,
20. People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, A Tribe Called Quest 

Help Rademacher

Want to do a good deed for 2012? Then help out one of my favorite bands reach SXSW. Rademacher are from Fresno, CA and are currently working on their second full length. If you have been around me, then you know how much I love their debut album 'Stunts.'

You can listen to them here
You can help them out here.

Seriously, please contribute. Your ears will be thank you. 

Little Motel.

San Jose is beautiful. 

It's about growing up low class in a working class setting. It is about wanting to get out of place for so long, not only a space on a map, but a space in your head- and then coming to an understanding that those years were somehow still some of the best of your life...and that space is home. 

Matthew Teardrop

Matthew Teardrop (frontman of Manhattan Murder Mystery) has a wonderful acoustic EP out for Pay What You Want I highly suggest you check it out and at least give it a try. 

Smokin'

Few things that I learned last night as I got back from seeing Wilco at the San Jose Civic:

1. I love seeing parents bring their kids to concerts...makes me feel like the future won't be too bad.

2. I love how I can still get blown away by seeing a band live even after going to hundred or so concerts so far. Wilco was unbelievable and their guitarist, Nels Cline is hands down the best musician I've seen live.

3. The amount of pride I have for living in San Jose is a lot more than I expected. Part of the reason why I was excited to see Wilco was because the show was in San Jose instead of San Francisco or Oakland, and the fact that it was sold out makes me excited for the future of music in this city.
I'm going to miss this place a lot.

I love how you can see Jeff's shadow on the side wall. 

Great way to start my 2012 concert year. 

Brian Pain

is technical term to what happens when you read. Today was my first last day as an undergrad at San Jose State. I had a total of four classes and the definition of Brian Pain is the only thing I remember today.

The first class I had was 'Native North American' an archaeology class that I wanted to end early but the professor decided to give us a 30 minute lecture on plagiarism, which I thought was completely useless. I'm not a big fan of Archaeology classes but this one seems kind of interesting, most of the class is focused on the diet of Native Americans and what it tells us about their culture.

The second class was 'Frontiers of Anthropology' a senior capstone class which I'm not sure how I feel about yet.

The third class is an elective that I choose to take called 'California in Historical Perspective' I'm looking forward to this class because I love the California History and learning more about it will just give me more places to visit in the Golden State

The last class of the day was 'Culture through Film' another class which I feel like I will enjoy a lot. I mean any professor who makes Wes Anderson and David Lynch references can't be that bad.

Only one class tomorrow, Historical Archaeology. Anyways, these are some pictures I took the last few days. 

Cloud Nothings 'Attack on Memory' is hands down the best/most impressive thing I have heard in months.