Thursday, May 14, 2009

traveling musical boxes



dear isa-chan, 
oh, i have been traveling even while staying in one place and it is delightful. and there are multiple musical boxes.
musical box of an anticipatory nature: 
before i graduated i was writing poetry inside a tiny closet in the upstairs of my house when my friend doug, who i once went walking in a cemetary with, interrupted me to underground steam tunneling with him. i got a huge bruise the shape of indiana on the underside of  my right arm when i jumped down into the grate but it was worth a clumsy maneuver to see the inside of the steam tunnels. we crawled through clay and cockroaches, under pipes, went up makeshift stairs finally, until we saw a tiny light and arrived above ground gloriously filthy. 
musical box of a defeating nature:
after graduating with a degree in stories we had a party at my house where distant relatives made (from scratch), all the whilst sitting on our back porch, home-made vanilla ice cream in an old-fashioned wooden barrel cranking it with a handle. my parents gave me a lei which was half a million  velvet flowers
 but also part snake.  later i fell asleep for a bit but then woke up in order to accidentally freestyle on a rooftop. i did poorly.  that night i sung a song in the arabic language that i did not know the words to and danced even though i had left my feet at home. the sun started to drip into the windows and the earth was wet so we walked the long way home. 
musical box in transit: 
i ran away to austin for a few days to see what the house i will be living in is like, as a physical manifestation. it is not a rainbow but there is a porch and secrets/sweat painted colourfully onto every wall and ceiling and trimming and it was built in the depression era but there are mothers who are not mine that come and visit and a pecan tree and an invisible hammock and trampoline and a gorilla painted on a wall in the neighborhood. i saw the library that is within walking distance and there was a latin polka band playing tween the library and its parking lot outside. i flew back to an island across the aisle from a little child who ate free ice cream via the flight attendant and who said he ate a lot of sugar, 500 to be exact,  and then asked me if i liked airplanes because he liked airplanes  and told me we were going to the hawaii. 
musical box suggestion in the form of a question: 
have you ever read   
flotsam by david wiesner
the poetics of space  by gaston bachelard 
the wall  by peter sis ?
for all-time,
emi-chan



Wednesday, May 6, 2009

reading list






"i love artists" by mei-mei berssenbrugge

"the savage detectives" roberto bolaño

"history of everything and more" david foster wallace

"i love dick" chris kraus

"man, play and games" roger callois


Chainpaw

We could make records of songs for whales!

A beluga whale is a big white whale.

Crochet an ocean cozy.

Or a killer whale spout doily.

The teeth of whales.

Recording a record.

Songs for whales.

One time I found a bendy page of a record in a National Geographic in Madrid...

A record with an anchor attached so to sink!

To give to the whales.

Ocean suicide is a pretty thing to sing about (weird).

20,000 leagues (down is up on the other side of the world).

Play baseball at 20,000 leagues.

Knit cozies for coral, or walrus tusks...

It comes to mind to name our band like the Bones or Teeth and Bones or Feathers and Whales. Or wind, spires, golden black metal magic or something, but it’s just a much much. So weird, so corny. 

Hippy shit pervades youth culture in the city

Last summer I loved to eat the free meal at Seward café 

There was this one weird girl I used to always see there with a shiny black jumper

I think we all are obsessed with jumpers, let’s make some this week. 

So I started transfering sound effect records from the 50s to digital so we can use them. 

Elyse likes to play backgammon... She and Rachel went to Peru, I love the pictures

Staying up late - bull red wine or the one with the girl and the fabric on the label.

Whales take up big spaces in the ocean!?

Like Battleship - but not a war game, just slow movement from Alaska to Hawai’i

Rachel your hair could reach 20,000 leagues!!! Haha

Have you ever seen footage of snails mating, it’s crazy

That one picture of that crazy Peruvian dog is so crazy

I should lend you West With the Night

Monday, May 4, 2009

cream puffs, takoyaki

dear emi-chan,

today i rode my bicycle, wandering around town until i ran into things. i passed by a guy named sam and we waved. then i ran into my friends greg and joey sitting on the steps of a house. then my friend marshall was riding by on his bike and i hopped on my bike and we went to go eat vegetarian chinese food down the street. then i rode my bike to the library and thought about you.

xoxo,
isa-chan





and ... my friend marshall ... and nona, they are in a band called dark dark dark i think you would like them. a video of them playing ...