Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Let Them Bleed
Friday, December 27, 2024
Blue on Blue
This. This is my soft spot. Blue on blue. A coquettish lambent moth fluttering in a Lynchian dream. Those precious night creatures.
IG: saccharinesylphs
2024: A Playlist Poem
No fanfare... just me posting a poignant poem based solely on song lyrics from my 2024 playlist. Imagine a slightly emo Dadaist approach to an end of year shenans and then you've got it. It's intense, dramatic, bleak and dripping with romance. Would you expect anything less from me?
When you wear the same face every day, worried you might have a small hole in your soul.
We’ll be fine, just take your time whichever way you go.
Another goodbye now, on and on. Dream Keeper, my dream keeper.
If we are infinite and there’s no end, I hope you live.
Doing what you say like a hund, hund, hund. Ich weiss, Ich weiss, Ich weiss! Das ist alles für mich.
You push it hard, I pull away, I’m feeling hotter than fire. I guess no one ever made me feel that much higher.
Oh. It’s our history. Everyone wants you to be something you’ll never be.
I can’t have it all and I wouldn’t want to.
This is gonna be a weird record.
How else can it be proven to you that I’m devout? I spill right out.
I wonder how a gap can feel this much. How a gap can feel that something this big. How it multiples in my veins and my blood and how it triggers itself in my thoughts. I’d like to be your beautiful hell.
When the tides turn elsewhere, I shall give myself to the moment somewhere. I am ever crashing, just waiting for you to pull me out.
I’m sanctified in my lover’s eyes. No way around it, no way to fight. A pull too strong. Don’t try to forfeit, the way is through. If you deny death, you deny life. Let it suffer, let it shine. What must be severed, left behind?
I have my sentence now at last I know just how you felt. I dig my fingers in expecting more than just the skin.
I can’t wait to consecrate this wondrous mess. Words unforgotten until we sing again. Start at the bottom and then we descend.
She tries to understand a never never land.
Scantily clad woman. Scantily clad man.
Wanna kiss you all over, wanna eat you up!
I lost my way in the fire. I am a moth to the flame. Dancing too close to desire. To feel again.
Could this be a life without love, without loss? When you met me, buried deep in my heart… Heavy metal.
Don’t ever put me on the moon again. Don’t ever see the moon again.
Me repugna esta sociedad.
While you are still alive, do not let your soul fade away.
I’m gonna win this game.
When the rage in me subsides, in this white wave I am sinking. In this silence. In this white wave, in this silence, I believe.
Forever is just a waste of time. You live, you work, you die.
You never stop, you never stop.
You broke my heart, it came in two. It was an accident, I didn’t mean it.
I’ve tried to fight this but you are my weakness. Pull back your eyelids, I’m lost in your iris.
It fills my wombs with a poisoned wine
It blinds my eyes with a veil of dark
It feeds my heart with a filthy blood
It grows inside me like the devil’s son
It burns inside me like a blazing soul
It sucks my life out of every bone
It blurs the truth with insane lies
It can’t be fought, ‘cause it keeps me alive
This anger in my veins makes me suffocate.
Are you alright?
I’ve got no feelings anymore. The evenings slide from being bored. No gleaming past or future formed. I run solo. I run to what I know.
It all started with a shiver. Just a little touch.
What if it’s not meant for me, love?
A thousand people I could be for you and you hate the fucking lot.
Because you know my ways now. There’s a phoenix fire burning in my house and it’s melting me down.
I think my kink is when you tell me that you think I’m pretty.
Bring your shadow into the light. Meet my lover on an astral plane.
You wrote my favorite song, now I’m fucked up and carrying on. And it hits me, I don’t want anyone else touching you like I do.
Stop, go, fast, slow. Who can deny this perfect symmetry?
If you walk through the flames, do you catch fire? And too much has already been said.
I get so frightened and no one else seems frightened. Only me.
One ticket out of your heavy gaze, I want one ticket off of your carousel.
So no thanks, I’m politely declining.
And a lust for life keeps me alive.
This isn’t a party, it’s a crime scene.
I must have died a thousand times.
I don’t like the way you run your mouth, no more letting secrets out.
You've got secrets too.
Very moody, yeah, yeah, yeah! Very up, down and all around baby.
You can bite the sound apple here: CTST 2024 Love Letter Playlist
TRACK LIST:
The Clean - In the Dreamlife U Need a Rubber Soul
La Luz - Strange World
The Veldt - The Everlasting Gobstopper
BLACKSHAPE - Itiiitiatiihylihyl
Schnallo - Ich Weiss
Lana Del Rey - West Coast
Gliss - 21st Century
Miya Folick & Skinny Atlas - Can't Have It All
The Saxophones - Desert Flower
Gigi Perez - Please Be Rude
Adna - Beautiful Hell
SRSQ - Ever Crashing
Chelsea Wolfe - Tunnel Lights
The Last Dinner Party - Nothing Matters
Devendra Banhart - Won't You Come Over
Beach House - Once Twice Melody
Haute & Freddy - Scantily Clad
Vicious Pink Phenomena - Take Me Now
deary - The Moth
Cindy Lee - Heavy Metal
Tim Presley - Morris
Jonathan Hulten - Afterlife
Kontravoid - Losing Game (ft Chelsey Crowley)
Delirium - Silence (ft Sarah McLachlan)
The Mad Walls - Television
TR/ST - Dark Day
Virgin Prunes - Baby Turns Blue
Aurat - (Language Unknown)
Sidewalks and Skeletons - Slip Away
Pastel Ghost - Iris
Minuit Machine - Black Is My Anger
Modern Heaven - Midnight Cowboy
TR/ST - Run (ft Cecile Believe)
Fever Ray - Shiver
Wolf Alice - Don't Delete the Kisses
Lola Young - Messy
Warpaint - Melting
Blondshell - Kiss City
Say She Say - Astral Plane
Del Water Gap - Ode to a Conversation Struck in Your Throat
Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?
SDH Semiotics Department of Heteronyms - Lovers Wonder
Strawberry Switchblade - Trees and Flowers
Bleachers - Merry Christmas, Please Don't Call
Bea & Her Business - Safety Net
Lana Del Rey - Lust For Life
Male Tears - This Party Ends in Tears
The Chameleons - Less Than Human
Geneva Jacuzzi - Keep It Secret
Röyksopp - What Else Is There?
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fleez
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Windows
Does anyone actually blog anymore? I miss it so much - discovering what people are actually without knowing what their faces look like or how many followers they have. The adrenaline junkie visual world has replaced this seemingly simplistic verbal world with static two dimensional images... and if we're lucky embedded audio images.
This vociferous hungry visual organ and its equally greedy eye machine ... are we its godparent or is it a part of us? I think we should go analog... totally.
I love this something awful, because it's beautifully true and we need to cherish that.
Sunday, July 5, 2020
Friday, October 4, 2019
I'm Still Undone
Since then, listening to anything else has proven more than difficult. I tried TR/ST The Destroyer Part 1, in preparation for The Destroyer Part 2 coming out next month and was even tempted by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' Ghosteen but I just can't yet. Even when I try, I'm only half listening. In between recorded tracks, wisps and phrases of Orville's songs just continue to reverberate and haunt me across those moonlit mind deserts.
Hope to Die is my dark night of the soul track but there are so many standout gems. Dead of Night. Winds Change. Roses are Falling. Queen of the Rodeo. Turn to Hate. Buffalo Run. Kansas (Remembers Me Now).
Pony is a truly a phenomenal debut album.
I'd like to say, for the record, how happy I am that a masked incognito gay cowboy crooning in beautiful vibrato baritone with tenor to soprano soaring swoons about homoerotic dark nights of the soul and transvestite Queens of the desert is making waves and winning over people by the hundreds of thousands. The world needs him. I need him. Also, his whistling prowess is tear slash whoop worthy.
At the concert, he said several times how a song was about SOLIDARITY. Yes, love, it is. Thank you.
**Edit: New Order Age of Consent and Fleetwood Mac Gypsy caught me on my sojourn into the world tonight, so maybe there's hope for me. *winking riding a horse into the sunset emoji
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Call Me By Your Name
The other night I watched Call Me By Your Name. It's been out for some time but I'm late, as usual. Have you seen it? It really touched me, deeply.
I felt so much after watching it - like I had wondered into a room inside myself I haven't been to in a long time. Even now, days later, I still can't quite put my finger on the emotions it evokes, it really was more of a sense of solid self. An entity, a force and presence. And in this room, she was a breathing part of the ether who lives and exists all on her own, without me. She needs neither my permission or my approval, in fact, she/It are unaware of such notions.
There is only this love, this connection to oneself, others, food, nature. It is so intimate too, soft and tender, breathing pink rainy mists of vulnerability. Without fear of reprisal or shame.
And since then, for three days I have only been able to listen to one song. It's from the soundtrack and it's by Sufjan Stevens, who is someone in the past I was resistant to. I think maybe because it reminds me of Elliot Smith and that's a sad thing. Regardless, for days, it's the only thing I could stomach as I let the tears fall. As I stayed curled up in that pink misty room inside myself.
Nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spots.
Friday, January 18, 2019
Machiavellian Aliens
I hate myself a little for kind of crushing on it. I said kind of.
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Wild Is The Wind
Two of my favorite versions of this song, gifts from those gone ahead. We can feel ourselves, in our decaying bodies, in the dreams behind us and the lessening tomorrows.
David Bowie
Nina Simone
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Holiday
Released June/July 2018 via Snowstar Records here.
Per their site:
Donna Blue is a collaboration between Danique van Kesteren and Bart van Dalen, both each other's muse, lover and band member. The creative duo plays sultry indie pop, under the influence of sixties ye, ye, Lynch movies and old Hollywood romance - perfect for practicing those slow dance moves.
<3 p="">3>
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Happy Pills
Released August 1, 2018 so you're right on time.
hearts x
Monday, October 23, 2017
This Means Nothing To Me
Still as lovely as it is, lately I only long for mountains and wide, pristine open spaces crisp with frost. Preferably the kind next to towns with bustling night lives where you can enjoy a cocktail and feast on the dreamy eye candy. But, that might be asking for too much.
April Stevens // Teach Me Tiger // 1959
Ultravox // Vienna // 1980-1981
Friday, October 20, 2017
High Heeled Moss
Here's a little precious gouter to tide you over. What do you think of the art direction? I'm torn between wonderment and excited schadenfreude to something else, something uncomfortable. A lot of comments have already been made comparing this to The Knife, but I suppose I've never separated Honey is Cool, The Knife or Fever Ray as separate entities. For me, that would be akin to divorcing one period of an artist's repertoire from the others. It's all one glorious journey. That said, I do find myself drawn to one or the other, depending on my mood.
Fever Ray // To The Moon And Back // 2017
Concurrently, this gem is very relevant to me and I hum a few key lines over and over, Tourette's style.
Fever Ray // When I Grow Up // Fever Ray // 2009
When I grow up
I want to be a forester
Run through the moss on high heels
That's what I'll do
Throwing out a boomerang
Waiting for it to come back to me
When I grow up
I want to live near the sea
Crab claws and bottles of rum
that's what i'll have
Starting at a seashell
Waiting for it to embrace me
(Honorable mentions: here, here, here, here ... amongst others)
Friday, September 29, 2017
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Feel Better
The past few months have seen me vacillating between intense periods of introverted seclusion, concocting the makings of a brand new life and setting into motion the pawns and stratagems of something utterly whole and different versus returning to the familiar strut and hunt, shaking out the solitary cobwebs and engaging in general mayhem.
Only to discover those quiet spaces I've created sustain me in ways I never allowed them to do previously. As the luminous Kate Bush croons in this gorgeous live performance, "I've been out before. But this time it's much safer in."
As it turns out, breathing and finding comfort in one's own company and in the quiet spaces between yourself and your past holds its own treasured adventures. The longings change; morphing into something less desperate and depraved. And when you drink from that reservoir, the tiny fractured crevasses begin to heal. Simple perhaps, but when you come from a chaotic wilderness, half beast, half woman - simplicity is a foreign language.
So... I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I feel better than I've felt in a long time. Longer than I can remember... or maybe I've never been here before. Sometimes, I'm frightened. Frightened of losing the identity I've spent years carefully crafting, frightened of what stripping away that artifice will reveal.
No surprises then that this track has been on regular rotation.
Blue Shoes // Better // 1980 // Fervor Records
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Fractal Prisons
I'm going through it in a super quantum way. Which sounds probably way more dramatic than I intend but you all know, that's my special super hero power.
Soviet Soviet // Going Through // Endless // 2016
Pay no attention to me. I'll just be sitting here stewing on how much I hate everyone and everything.
But do check out these guys. They're the opposite of lame.
Friday, March 10, 2017
Sunday, February 26, 2017
The Juiciest Juice
All caught up? Dreamboat, being of the Scorpion ilk, charms, cajoles, and confuses me into abject capitulation every single time. He resurfaced in November, like some sort of sexy groundhog, pillaged the fields for his birthday and submerged himself once more. Since then, quite randomly and rather humorously, he pops up like one of those Wack-a-mole games at shitty arcades with virtual words so tempting and beguiling. Words, words, words. My Achilles heel but so ephemerally flimsy. Still... there are some people that have that knack for crawling inside to secrete their essences into your cells. Sleeper clones, lying in wait to rekindle the bloom.
It's bloomed, this decadent viral herpetic romance. Bamboozled yet again! We spent ten glorious hours together, touching on all those sappy cliches I adore. Picnic in the park, snarkily laughing at the half naked Yoga Man, resplendent in a man bun exhibiting undoubtedly psychedelic inspired dance moves to unheard music, and soaking up the sunshine with side-splittingly easy camaraderie. All perfectly platonic, of course. Twice bitten, I've learned my lesson. Or so I thought. Then come those kryptonian flowing champagne words. Silvery tongued and so hypnotically rapturous, laden with charmingly awkward regretful expressions, languid deliciousness and promises there will be no more Peter Pan disappearances into the ether.
Can snake charmers ever truly sleep soundly? My own inner snake reincarnated and lies coiled, poised with panther tail twitching, ever alert and watchful. In the months following his strangely familiar, frustratingly obvious repetitious oddities, I did what any self respecting autonomous individual should. Created and dove into a life that I really love, finally accepting that something broken requires only acknowledgment, not repair. Once clefted, the stones's job is finished. It is now the microcosms purpose to wriggle and perform the dance.
Perhaps it is possible for two snakes to bewitch each other into submission briefly and then go their separate ways once the morning heat begins to singe delicate scales. Meaning, we can rationalize just about anything we choose in order to satiate those other needs. Returning to lick the acidic juice again and again.
Broadcast // Corporeal // Tender Buttons // 2005
Do that to me. Do that to my anatomy.
(Try to catch the video version created by Wonder Mundle)
Cocteau Twins // Those Eyes, That Mouth // Love's Easy Tears // 1986
This is everything.
Still Corners // Don't Fall in Love // Don't Fall in Love/Wish 7" // 2011
Still Corners // Beginning to Blue // Strange Pleasures // 2013
Can't hold my breath for long
Baby blue... your eyes are deeper than the oceans go
Tell me love, is there hope?
Monday, February 20, 2017
Bacchus' Palace
It's a grey day and I've recently said goodbye to a lot of other things in the last couple of weeks. So, what's one more?
Their silhouettes, proud and aberrant. All dancing and swapping saliva somewhere anyway.
Friday, February 3, 2017
WOMAN
Ministry // Revenge // With Sympathy // 1983
Also, the world has gone utterly bonkers and I no longer recognize my country.
Currently, my listening tastes are soooo wildly disparate (fitting the schizoid climate in which we find ourselves), I'm not sure how to post about them. So without much fanfare, here are just a few.
Angel Olsen // Woman // My Woman // 2016
A popular choice, for sure, but digging deeper into her third album, besides the poptastic Shut Up and Kiss Me track, you'll find several gems though it's this moody 7 minute opus that is really doing it for me. Contemplative perfection
I dare you to understand
What makes me a woman
Broadcast // Ominous Cloud // Haha Sound // 2003
There has yet to be a moment that Trish Keenan's beautiful voice doesn't make better. This track is so very fitting right now.
I've got to get away
From this town, don't want to face
The ominous clouds
Be myself and learn to face
The ominous clouds
PJ Harvey // This is Love // Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea // 2000
Because, Polly Jean.
I can't believe that life's so complex
When I just want to sit here and watch you undress
Ohhhh... look at that! There's a theme here after all, funny how that works. xo
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Allegory of Winter
Monday, December 19, 2016
Lowlife
Music acts included Chelsea Wolfe, Lower Dens, Blonde Redhead (who cancelled due to flight/weather conditions), Liars, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Bjork (dj set), Matmos, Arca, Aphex Twin and many many more. Light and art installations by Michael Fullman/VT Pro, Tundra, Limb, Nonotak, Damien Echols, Shoplifter etc.
I'm completely knackered so my festival stories will have to wait. Taking today to just absorb the blessed solitude after 48 hours of sensory overload and listening to a much needed palate cleanser.
Lowlife, such a blissful respite.
Lowife // Ramafied // Diminuendo // 1987 (2006 Reissue)
Also available on: From a Scream to a Whisper, 1990
Lowlife // Wild Swan // Permanent Sleep // 1986
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Your Pretty Little Face
The Underground Youth // Alice // What Kind of Dystopian Hellhole is This? // TBR February 2017
I never want to see your pretty little face again.
Word of advice, in the event you happen to be even more naive than I. Never go back, darling. Even if they beg, plead, cajole and soothe you with word balms. It's always a farce because those true colors never lie, dearest.
In other news, taking a moment to acknowledge the sadness of the Oakland fire on December 2nd where, Cash Askew, member of Them Are Us Too, lost her life along with many other talented souls.
Them Are Us Too // Us Now // Remain // 2015
Beautiful and haunting. What an absolute shame.
Monday, November 28, 2016
A Rainbow Out of Your Hole
On a selfish note, there's been too much. Shaking my head as I write this. How can anything be made right anymore?
The world's gone beyond mad and at this desperate point, well....listen to this and yeah, you've guessed it. I've been listening to this song for 3 days straight.
The Charlatans (UK) // Between 10th and 11th // Can't Even Be Bothered // 1992
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Darker, Always
Leonard Cohen // You Want it Darker // 2016
Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the help that never came
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my lord
There's a lover in the story
But the story's still the same
There's a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it's written in the scriptures
And it's not some idle claim
You want it darker
We kill the flame
They're lining up the prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggled with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim
You want it darker
Really looking forward to seeing this stylized, trippy 60s inspired homage to witches.
The Love Witch - 2016
In a recent interview, Biller states:
“There are two versions of the witch,” Biller explained. “The old, ugly hag and the young, beautiful temptress. They’ve both been around since early Greek mythology, when Circe enchanted men and turned them into pigs. They all stem from male fears and fantasies about women. Men want the woman but they’re also afraid of her. That’s the reality for women. They’re made to feel like they’re weird and creepy and insane, especially if they are sexual...
Biller understands Elaine as a stand-in for all women who give up pieces of themselves to satiate the desires of men. “For women, you will be more powerful if you play by the rules, the way Elaine does,” she explained. “But there is a terrible price to pay. I’ve known girls and women who have gone insane trying to be too much of a man’s fantasy. Elaine is strong until she isn’t. She goes past being a goddess and into place of mental illness.”
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Give A Damn
I sometimes get snobby when it comes to new music but I can't help but tap the old foot with the following:
Kristin Kontrol (Dum Dum Girls) - X Communicate
Thoughts on love currently.
Nice as Fuck - Door (official video only, cuz it's funny)
Thoughts on the political world currently.
War on Drugs - Under the Pressure
Thoughts on existence currently.
Not new - just amazing and a total current MOOD.
Dominatrix - The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight
Thoughts on art and revenge currently.
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Summer Juices
Summer Heart // I Wanna Go // About a Feeling // 2012
(Even thought it's early September, in the Groin of America, we're still blazing with summer heat and humidity. It's like Senioritis lasts for far longer than the rest of you folks living outside of the swampy Nether-regions.)
Thursday, September 1, 2016
The Gap
My 20-something colleague talked about how "weird" Vitas is and laughed with mirth. My face while watching the video was....deadpan doesn't do it justice. The interior monologue was much more prolific, I assure you.
Vitas// 7th Element (clip NYE 2001)
If you can't view this video, in order to understand this post, please search for it.
I said he copied Klaus Nomi and then showed her this:
Klaus Nomi // Total Eclipse // Live 1981
I really hope with every fiber of my being this video isn't deleted so you can see what I see. Klaus Nomi is one of the most original, impassioned artists and he always gives me goosebumps. He paved the way for the extravagant pop artists of the 80s, 90s and even the ones now. Even though he was completely misunderstood, hated and/or dismissed in his time, which I hate, he influences so much of what we see that is considered "avant garde".
Innovation lost because the gross consumer doesn't look beyond the glop/slop on the plate in front of their face. Sadly, my coworker said it was, "weird" and didn't see or acknowledge the copy. It's upsetting when Vitas what's his face becomes more innovative or important in the eyes of those that can't see than our beloved Klaus.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Endless Summer
Still Corners // History of Love // Remember Pepper? // 2008
Saturday, August 20, 2016
The Deepest Breaths
Taking the challenge to breathe inward into my intestines, where the deepest part of my lungs reside.
If we can release that deepest air, so stale and laden with emotion, we can be free. I'm almost there. Before I say goodbye to these darkest bits, let me loose this first. These things cling barnacle hard.
Fleetwood Mac // The Chain (demo) //
Club 8 // Jesus Walk With Me // The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming // 2007
I've been humming this tune for the last three days. As much as I wish I wouldn't because of its implications. So, we feel. I'm trying not to.