Henry Miller Memorial Library

Big Sur, California
We do not talk - we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.

Archive for September, 2010

Arcade Fire tickets sold out in -1:04 minutes

Posted on: by hmmler

What do you mean by that, you may ask?  I mean that the Arcade Fire tickets sold out in negative one minute.   It bent time.

You see: tickets went on sale at noon.  But by 12:01 it was sold out.  All ~300 tickets couldn’t have been sold in a minute, so it actually bent time.  It went back in time, and sold tickets in the past.  (Time is a curved thing; it’s relative.)  Pretty trippy.

By the way, they’re playing here, at the Henry Miller Library, in majestic Big Sur, on October 5th (same night as GBV reunion show in San Fran.  G-B-V!!! G-B-V!!!)

Note: Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices is, by far, the greatest songwriter of all time. No one has written more amazing songs. Discuss.

But I digress. This Arcade Fire/Steven Hawking business also makes you wonder: clearly, the Arcade Fire time-bending episode was the fastest sellout in Henry Miller Memorial Library history, but how have other sold-out shows compared?

Well, our interns pulled a report, and here you go.  A couple of surprises in there!  (Note: each show is notated by the time in which it sold out; shortest to first)

1.  Arcade Fire, 2010: -1:04 minutes (see above)

2.  Animal Collective, 2009: 2:34  minutes

3.  Band of Horses, 2010: 2:45 minutes (Animal Collective breathes a sigh of relief!)

4.  Phillip Glass, 2009: 3:56 minutes

5.  Yo La Tengo, 2010: 6:23 minutes

6.  Mike’s Powerpoint presentation of the history of Friend, his van, including a tour of “The Crow’s Nest,” 2010: 8:13 minutes

7.  Patti Smith, 2008: 10:23 minutes

I’ll stop now, assuming no one is still reading.

Sven, Kerouac, and finding satori on Bixby Beach

Posted on: by hmmler

If “House of Floyd in Big Sur” was Sven the Hippie’s “On the Waterfront,” than “Yack K” is his “A Touch of Evil.” (?)

Never before has Sven plunged to such murky, yet technicolor, subterranean* depths.  Sven’s experience lends credence to the theory that to your mind must disintegrate before you can put it back together again.  Very intense.

The film was created to celebrate the August 14th screening of “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur,” the fantastic collaboration between Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard.   The move traces the origins of Kerouac’s “Big Sur,” which documented his not-so-pleasant retreat from Beat stardom while renting out Ferlinghetti’s cabin in Bixby Canyon.  If “On the Road” was joyous and librerating, “Big Sur” is stiffling, uncomfortable, and tragic, as Kerouac speaks of his psychological meltdown in candid, impressionistic detail.

It is into this mythical narrative than Sven steps, seeking to attain satori and purge his Swedish soul of unspeakable – and as yet, unidentified – demons.

* That was a Kerouac pun.

Getting in touch with our inner (musical) child with Dan Bern

Posted on: by hmmler

I was eavesdropping on the Dan Bern songwriting workshop last night  and realized the participants were singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”  And later, “You are My Sunshine.”  So cute.  But to what end?  I thought.

Then it hit me: when you go retreat at Esalen, you get in touch with your inner child (while eating killer red quinoa.)  Why not do so musically?  Those melodies have been ingrained in us since an early age (less so for me, sadly; came from a circus family), and their simplicity is stunning.  And fun!

There’s an old saying that John Lennon wrote at least 10 songs that ripped off “Three Blind Mice” (eg. “My Mummy’s Dead,” “All You Need Is Love.”)

So why not get in touch with your inner musical child? This is a rhetorical question.

Look at ‘em go!

“House of Floyd in Big Sur” – break down The Wall, Sven!

Posted on: by hmmler

Sven the Hippie movies are kind of like children.  You say you love them all equally, but deep down, you love one the most.

That said, even if I did love “What is House of Floyd?” the most, I wouldn’t say.

I’ll say this, though: from a character-perspective, he we begin to see Sven the hopeless romantic, the lost soul, the drifter, the Swede in search of acceptance, love.  Pathos ensues.  Powerful stuff.

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