Listening to bluegrass: [click to continue…]
And so the lyric goes. I woke up with this tune in my head this morning. It’s from a film I saw about a month ago called Once. When a song creeps up on you weeks after you’ve heard it, you know there’s a hook that can’t be denied.
I loved this little Irish flick. Short and sweet. A musical, stripped down to the classic tale of Guy meets Girl. We never even learn their names. The plot: A street musician with a past meets a musically gifted immigrant with a present. Over the course of a week, the two kindred souls write and record a batch of songs that mirror the relationship that develops before our eyes.
To make things even cooler, the lead actors wrote and performed the songs themselves. And they are KILLIN.
So yesterday — a gorgeously summerish January afternoon in the South Bay of L.A. — we decided to rendezvous in Hermosa with our brother Naylor, just back from a month in Thailand and the Nam. Before that, we cracked a bottle from Hector’s fridge stash called Otokoyama. I’m not the biggest sake fan in the world, but this stuff was perfect on an empty stomach. I think it’s the rice or something. Like a little chilled brunchy carbosnack with a buzz. Hai!
Although I’ve never seen a drop of the show, I’m pretty sure you kids know Hector. He’s the guy that took home the gold on American Idol that one year.
We’re all pretty stoked about the upcoming release of our book on February 5th, counting down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds. Some early reviews:
- “Will thrill minimalists and inspire maximalists.” – Vanity Fair
- “If you have only 30 seconds, skim the pithiest of life stories.” – Oprah Magazine
- “Will make you value the words you speak and write—no matter how few or many.” –Penthouse
SMITH Magazine and Harper Perennial are throwing a big book release party in NYC in early February, encouraging minimalists, maximalists, Penthouse fans, and Oprah devotees to show up and go big. Looks like I need to book a JetBlue flight. The New York bash will be followed by additional parties in other cities across the country. I’ve been asked to keep those details private, but we’ll be taking lots of pics and blogging and tweeting our asses off!
Meanwhile, here’s how you can help spread the six-word love!
The Video: Ripe for sharing, blogging, embedding, humming along to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBnP0DoGjRI
The Widget: You know you’re counting the days anyway. Got a blog of your own? Grab the widget here and plug it in.
The Facebook Group: All the cool kids are doing it.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4738151858
And of course, The Book. Better than wine to bring to a dinner party, smarter than roses for Valentine’s Day, a conversation firestarter: Link to the book’s amazon.com page.
My brother Luke back east just took a couple pix of a project he did in his living room. Starting with a posterized image of Billie Holiday, he threw a grid of .5″ squares on it for reference. Then he threw a 2″ grid on his wall, and handjobbed the thing with paint at 400%. Nice job, kid! Don’t get cocky.
There’s an obvious shadowbox vibe opportunity there just screaming to be taken advantage of. I’d like to see some halogen bulbs thrown behind the couch, pointing up, with the rest of the lights off. It’d create a blue glow in the room.
I’ve always loved this photo of her. They’ve got a copy hanging behind the bar at Lucille’s. In a single image, it visually captures the collision of pain and triumph associated with the mid-century jazz era in general, and Billie’s story in particular. A beautiful shot.
I just watched Helvetica, a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of this 50-year-old typeface as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.
Hits the spot. Go queue it up. And try this.
