Miles to Go

I don't know about where you are, but here in Fairbanks, the change of season is in full swing...from summer directly into winter, it would seem, as our autumn here lasts only about a month. We had our first hard frost this week, and all the birch trees are now swept clean of their leaves; outside everything is golden, and ripe-seeming; a blanket of white will soon put all of that ripeness to rest, like plums stored in an ice box (W.C. Williams, anyone?). Change comes to us again...

It is amazing, to me, how often the subject of change comes up on this blog, in these mixes. I guess it truly is the one constant in our lives, but there's also no doubt that 2008 has been a crazy, topsy-turvy year. Kevin & Rowan are in Italy, Amanda is in Utah, Beechcraft is for sale, and--TMI alert--I'm about 6 true loves away from where I started the year. (If anything convinces me of the constancy of change, it is the changeability of my own stupid heart.) And now winter is coming at us. And then it'll be spring again. Round and round we go on wacky Planet Earth.

And all I really know about Merry-Go-Rounds is they usually have music, so here we are. The title of this one comes from Robert Frost, who knew more about winter than I ever will:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it's queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Miles to Go
1. Part One, Band of Horses
2. Too Much Space, Lisa Germano
3. White Winter Hymnal, Fleet Foxes
4. Mykonos, Fleet Foxes
5. Godspeed, Jenny Lewis
6. Black Cab, Jens Lekman
7. Lights Out, Santogold
8. Father to a Sister of Thought, Pavement
9. I Hate It When That Happens to Me, John Prine
10. I'm Your Man, Leonard Cohen
11. Acid Tongue, Jenny Lewis
12. Don't Think About Me, Earlimart
13. The Ice Is Getting Thinner, Death Cab for Cutie
14. The Lake, Antony
15. Endless Song of Happiness, Yael Naim
16. Nothing Is True, Earlimart
17. Sing It Again, Beck

Notes:
Band of Horses is a band of winter, if ever there was one...ditto for Lisa Germano. Check the beautiful album cover...Fleet Foxes are a band to watch, if you haven't picked up on them already. Alex saw them live, opening for Wilco, and he was impressed. They remind me of My Morning Jacket a lot...the new Jenny Lewis is the bomb! See my post about it...Jens Lekman is so good, such a unique and earnest artist. I love him and you should too, if you don't already...Thanks to Suzanne for the rest of the sweet Santogold album!...this Pavement song puts me in a reflective mood, perfect for winter...this is from Prine's newest album, Fair & Square. He put it out after battling cancer, and you can sense the weariness in his fighter's voice...here's L. Cohen to lighten our introspection...I went with two of the slower songs from Acid Tongue, but there are some great straight-ahead rockers on the album, too...I'll never get over Earlimart's Mentor Tormentor, one of my absolute all-time favorite albums...I just finally got hold of Death Cab's Narrow Stairs. Another solid album...thanks to Sarah for both this Antony & Yael Naim. Beauty from Antony, per usual, and doesn't this Yael Naim sound a bit like "Gloria in Excelsis Deo"/"Angels We Have Heard on High"?...some more Earlimart and then some classic Beck to bring it home.

Financial Meltdown, Pt. II

Only one thing left to do...

The Ice Palace, by Tarjei Vesaas

Here, the first ever Mixed Cookies book recommendation. I feel a bit like Oprah...

This short novel, Norwegian Tarjei Vesaas' The Ice Palace, comes in at just over 180 pages, but packs an emotional punch equal to anything I have ever read. Written in 1963, The Ice Palace tells the story of two young girls, Sis and Unn, girls who build a powerful, magical friendship between themselves, only to see it taken away from them quickly and tragically. In the aftermath of this tragedy, one of the girls must confront adulthood and loss at a much-too-young age. In a very obvious way this is a traditional "coming of age" story, but it is one of the very best I have ever read. To me it is even superior to Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.

What makes the book so moving and so profund is Tarjei Vesaas' spare style, which allows the turbulent emotion of the novel to be clearly seen and understood. The style feels like magical realism, actually, probably because Vesaas so perfectly renders the magic of youth itself. The author seems to have an amazing grasp of child psychology, and he transfers it to the page beautifully. The entire experience is exhilarating, sad, wistful, ominous, and joyful all at once...just as muddled as those years were for most of us, I suppose.

I do not feel I can do this work enough justice here. Let me say this for the book: I cried hard through the last 20 pages or so, at each and every revelation of the ambiguous truth of human experience that Vesaas has masterfully packed in. It is wonderful. If you were ever a child, or if you have ever been heartbroken, this book is for you. So go buy it at Amazon.

Mad Scientists--or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Worldwide Financial Meltdown

There is no doubt that our current financial downturn is worrisome, given the unprecedented and unexpected Perfect Storm of events that have occurred recently. Fractures have appeared in many vast and important segments of the economy, beginning with the subprime mortgage default crisis of 2007. Now it seems that the entire lending sector is in serious trouble, with many companies teetering on bankruptcy (these are the AIGs and Merrill Lynches we are hearing about right now), and the rest of the entire sector scared and definitely eager to hold on to their capital, therefore reducing lending (which puts pressure on interest rates to go up, which further exacerbates all of the problems in a marketplace sector that is wholy dedicated to lending money). Add to all of this the larger concerns we have had for our economy in the last 5 years--the price of fuel, the state of our airlines, the extremely wasteful spending by the government (which is now deeply, deeply in debt and in a poor position to help boost the economy)--and it is clearly a grave situation out there, especially for the little guy. This is as bad a financial crisis as our nation has seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s, which makes this definite gut-check time.

All of that said, however, we must be careful to not panic--and there are many reasons not to. For one, we must distinguish between finance and economics. Finance refers to money itself: distribution, investement and lending; economics refers to the study of choices made by people when faced with scarcity (scarcity is a universal principle appliable to any commodity...what resource isn't scarce when you come down to it)? The two overlap when we discuss macroeconomics, where money can be understood as liquid capital, but remain distinct at other levels.

One important distinction is the level of regulation employed by overseers (aka government) of the financial and economic markets. Economic markets are very much still free markets, free of regulation and red-tape (except in certain few sectors where it has been determined regulation is beneficial)--at a microeconomic level, it is still very easy, especially in America, for a single person to begin their business or develop their idea.

Financial markets, however, are very regulated. The Federal Reserve has a great variety of instruments at its disposal to regulate lending--exactly because the Fed itself is the largest lender in the nation, and sets important interest rates to the largest borrowers in the world. In other words, the financial markets have very active babysitters--and we all know this to be true, since in the last decade Alan Greenspan, former head of the Federal Reserve, somehow became a celebrity, and also because every 3 months for the last 10 years we have heard on the news the most minute shift in interest rates as set by the Fed.

In 1929, when the stock market crashed, these tools were not developed at all, not even close--understanding of all of finance and economics at that time was still in the dark ages, compared to what we know today. Information technology also helps the Fed react amazingly quick today. With the tools and the ability to quickly manipulate them, our nation is truly in an unprecedented position to help stabilize the lending sector.

Underscoring this strength is that governments and banks around the world have reacted to this crisis already, today sending a great influx of cash into strapped markets, thereby lowering interest rates and encouraging relaxed borrowing and lending. This may seem like a counter-intuitive thing to do, perhaps leading to inflation, but the truth of the matter is that in 1930 our government tightened lending policies--exactly when they should have relaxed them, encouraging the economy--and this is exactly what made the Depression so "Great." The fact that Federal Reserves the world over understand that this is a world crisis, and are acting in lockstep to react, shows how much strength we have, and how far we have come.

In the meantime, the overall economy shows mixed signals, as it largely has for the last 7 years. Greening the economy, finding renewable energy sources, and war-spending are still much greater long-term concerns. What we face now is a credit crunch--a HUGE one, but a credit crunch nonetheless. It will require some buckling down in borrowing, as lending giants and the government itself will need to rebuild capital before borrowing can be executed as swiftly as it was in the mid-to-late 1990s, but a careful and concerted effort by all Americans and by our next president will undoubtedly be able to keep our economy growing--if ever so slowly--over the next few years.

Mad Scientists, like that guy above, taking care of us one dollar at a time.

Ray LaMontagne...Perfect for Sunday Morning

Sunday morning, nothing much to do but wait for football to start (let's go fantasy team!)...otherwise I'm just up early to sit at my desk, balance the ol' checkbook, and stare dreamily out the window at the beautiful greens and golds of our Alaskan autumn. So beautiful, so perfect...and then Ray LaMontagne came on my iTunes, and suddenly the morning got even better!

I'm a fairly recent convert to the Church of Ray, but I am happy to be here now. Ray is amazing: his voice often draws comparisons to Van Morrison, but to me it is a little more lush (if a little less powerful); I think of him more of a musical descendant of Nick Drake or a contemporary of Iron & Wine than anything else. But those comparisons come up short, I think, because while Mr. LaMontagne does do the folk/soul fusion, it is the intensity of his perception, the accuracy of his lyrics, which set him apart. I was lucky enough to get a copy of his 2006 Till the Sun Turns Black, and I was quickly amazed by how many of the songs seemed to speak straight to my soul, like great poetry on the page: "Gone Away from Me," "Empty," "Lesson Learned," "Within You," and "Three More Days" among them (and all on that one album!).

So here are some Ray LaMontagne videos, perfect for Sunday Morning. These are outtakes from a BBC Four special Ray put on in 2007. Awesome stuff (with decent sound quality)! Enjoy!

"Three More Days"


"Empty"


"Be Here Now"


"Shelter"

Jenny Lewis' New Album, Acid Tongue, out 9/23/08

Sometimes I like to think I'm pretty ahead of the curve on knowing what is out there as far as music goes. And then I find out one of everyone's favorite artists, Jenny Lewis, has a new album coming out in just two weeks, and I wonder: how ahead of the curve could I really be? Two weeks? What a poseur...

No matter, though, because the main point is we should all rejoice in this new hearlding of joy...new Jenny Lewis material! Excuse the Biblical connotations there, but that is the level of my excitement for this news. After all, Lewis does have the voice of an angel, doesn't she?

She does...but Acid Tongue is an apt title for this album, which sees Lewis exploring a grity, blue-collar rock'n'roll sound, something more akin to the gospel-fired blues of the Rolling Stones or Emmylou Harris than anything Rilo Kiley has done (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and White Stripes seem more modern touchstones.) It's a dark angel kind of thing. Also haunting this album are the spirits of Carole King, Carly Simon, Chrissie Hynde and, seriously, Diane Keaton (check Lewis' hat above and compare to the singing Annie Hall).

And check out the amazing list of guest stars on this album! I about died when I realized Elvis Costello had started singing...

The gospel is clearly carried forward from Lewis' work with the Watson Twins on 2006's Rabbit Fur Coat, but the heavy guitar blues fog that cloaks her in this album feels brand new, suitable to Lewis' voice and aesthetics. She seems slightly mysterious and aloof on a lot of this album, which I don't think I'd normally accuse her recordings of, but I like it here. Key tracks for me (on first listen) are: "Pretty Bird," "The Next Messiah," "Acid Tongue" (4.5 stars there), "Godspeed" (5+++), and "Carpetbaggers." And everything else, too.

But, friends, do not take my word for it!!! You can listen to all of the album at:

Jenny Lewis' Myspace.

And then on 9/23/08 we'll have another entrant for album of the year!!!

UPDATE: Today, Sept. 16, I doubled-back to the MySpace to listen to the new album again...and sadly found that they've taken most of the new album down. It was apparently a limited-time thing only. Still, you can check out a couple new tracks, at least!