Monday, June 30, 2008
No Surprises
wow.
what a weekend. well week i should say. business week? 5 days.
anyways
wow.
i still have a gigantic grin on my face from friday night and it is monday morning. i have had radiohead stuck in my head all day everyday and do not want to listen to anything else.
i guess i should start from the beginning.
well continuing from my last post. tuesday night was very fun. well tuesday as a whole was.
JD and i (for those of you who dont know JD plays volleyball for pepperdine and is also from ventura... we concluded that it is more than likely that we played basketball against each other in high school) went to santa croce for the calcio storica game(historic soccer). we were late and it was difficult to get in because i guess we needed tickets and we did not know that. but we finally managed to get in and see the last bit of the game and the final ceremonies. everyone was dressed head to toe all out in medieval attire. it was so cool! literally it was as if we were in the middle ages, the 1300s, it was insane. trumpets drums, tights, horses, armor, the whole nine. the game itself was insane, more like, boxing, soccer, rugby in one. that evening there were fireworks on the ponte vecchio. it was fun, but america does fire works much much better.
we left around 8 for the train station to start our journey on wednesday. austin was so kind to lend me 160lbs and i would pay him back when i got back. i figured that would be enough, 80 for london, 80 for glasgow. boy was i wrong. the UK is ridiculously expensive, and i did everything as cheap as possible.
we took a train to pisa and then flew to standsted and then bussed to london.
i didnt know this prior, but i was one guy traveling with 5 girls. luckily they happened to be the down to earth cool, dont really care what we do bunch, otherwise i would have killed myself. i tried to stay positive the entire traveling process and it worked out very well. everything went very smoothly and we had relatively good luck the entire trip. our first night in london, after checking in and riding the underground(which is so great there, and fairly nice compared to metros of rome or new york and relatively cheap) we went and got some incredible thai food. which i have been craving so badly, well anything except italian. i wanted indian but thai did the trick and it was GOOD. we then went and met up with erik and sarah and the london program. i knew only about 8 guys at pepperdine before coming to florence, and about 7 of those guys happened to be in this program so that was great. the people in that program are ridiculously rich. it was insane. they took us out to ridiculous places, spent ridiculous amounts of money. tables, bottles, crazy things, views of the whole city. it was there last night there so they went all out, and we lucked out, had a GREAT time and spent pretty much zero dollars, well pounds.
after sleeping in the great beds our hostel provided we had breakfast and then all went on our own ways. erik and sara did the whole touristy trip through london, changing of guards, buckingham, big ben, london tower,etc. the girls went to camden to get tattoos, and i went on my own to the tate modern. i know i have said i have been to some of the greatest museums in the world, and i will stick to what i said before, overall the vatican museum is the greatest when it comes to works form all time periods from all over the world, but when it comes to modern and contemporary works, nothing beats the tate. absolutely incredible. i spent about 3ish hours there on my own. wandering through the giant building at the many galleries. TATE
there was a great exhibition on street photography from the invention of the camera to contemporary works. another stand out was the exhibit on Cy Twombly
another one of my favorite pieces was "Ishi's Light" by Anish Kapoor
Ishi's Light 2003
Fibreglass, resin and lacquer
object: 3150 x 2500 x 2240 mm
sculpture
Presented by Tate International Council 2005
T12004
An egg-like structure opens to reveal a dark red interior. Kapoor has related this work to Barnett Newman’s paintings, in which a vertical stripe represents the creation of the universe. In Kapoor’s sculpture, a column of light appears at the centre, produced by reflections from the curved interior. ‘The column of light is like a virtual object’ he has said. ‘It isn’t simply on the surface’. The work is named after Kapoor’s young son Ishan.
some other stand outs were pieces by francis bacon and paul strand.
after the museum i walked across the Thames by means of the millennium bridge. which again. was awesome. haha. after that i was a little lost and didn't really know what to do. i got some lunch and a pint (thats another thing we did a lot). and decided i would try and meet up with the others in camden. i took the tube over there and realized there was no way i was going to find them so i decided i would h ave a good time on my own. Camden could also be known as the punk district of london, pretty much heaven for me if i were still in 8th grade. it was crazy and i loved talking to everyone, looking through cds and tshirts, thanking god i never got a mohawk and met some very very nice jamaicans. i bought a few cheap cds a poster and 2 shirts, one joy division and one sex pistols. haha. i was feeling nostalgic. that evening i met up with everyone, got some fish and chips, and some ales and called it a night early because we had to wake up at 4am the next morning. i pretty much got everything done in london that i wanted to do.
the next morning we got a bus back to stansted and then a plane to glasgow, scotland.
immediately first thing i noticed is how nice everyone was. first place i saw i got probably the best meal i have had yet which also might be my favorite meal to hvae in the world. lox and bagels. i saw a bagel place and said "we are going there" and got a mixed seed onion bagel with smoked salmon lemon and pepper onion tomatoes and cream cheese. YUM! oh man SO GOOD!
we then got a cab to our hostel. we used taxis the entire time b ecause surprisingly they are cheaper than buses and the metro. so weird and the most expensive trips ended up being about 1 pound each. our hostel was foul to say the least. it smelled of mold, death, vomit, feces, animals, each room was distinct yet equally grotesque. we threw our stuff down, and met our roommates who agreed we should get out of here as soon as possible and not come back till after the show. we wandered around, everywhere we went we found radiohead fans. we stopped at a pub which yelled my name because the sign of the place was Joy Divisions cover for unknown pleasures which happened to be the same thing on my t-shirt at the time. inside we ran into our roommates and drank, and killed time until the show. the jukebox was pretty much my ipod so i was very happy. another thing i noticed, glasgow knows music, everywhere we went they were playing great stuff, from arcade fire to new order to bloc party, to beatles, to bob dylan, to the smiths no radiohead though which was nice. we got to the gates jus before 4. i was so excited. when the gates opened we ran to the front of the stage. we had the best spot on earth. about 3 people back from the barricade and id say... 20 feet from thom. man. only 4 hours to wait. haha. bat for lashes opened. they were very good. very good. i had heard them before and id say she is a mix between cat power and bjork maybe some...... i dont know what... i guess herself. just another half hour and radiohead would be on. the excitement was driving me insane and when those drums of 15 step came on the place exploded. holy hell.
one of the greatest experiences of my life. i couldn't believe what i was seeing.
my favorite band of all time
in front of me.
performing,
every song i would ever want to hear.
flawlessly
wow
it was perfect. i was best friends with 25,000 people for 3 hours. i jumped together, swayed together, danced together, sang together, yelled together, sat in awe and silence together. insane. i will have pictures up soon but here is a youtube someone has put up. and yes i was sooooo close. much closer than anyone taking these videos
fuck iget chills wathcing that, putting myself right back there. holy shit. man. it was incredible man. it was raining the whole time too. the best rain. i've only loved rain so much once before while riding my bike. the lights the music the people the rain. wow. here is the set list.
i was high as hell from just the experience. exhausted and overjoyed and so energized all at the same time. we stopped for just one guiness on the way home and then i passed out after putting a tshirt around my pillow for a pillow case until about 1230 the next day.
the next day my phone died fairly fast. and then we really didnt do anything. we had to kill the day until we took our 1030 pm night bus back to london. we went to the GoMA, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow for a bit. went to more pubs, listened to more good music. and then took the horrific bus which arrived in london at 7am. luckily radiohead was so good that i am still in such a good mood. in london we got breakfast then kind of wandered the streets. we went to buckingham palace and were so delerious and tired that we just sat on the steps for about an hour, maybe more. i was just day dreaming of the night, well 2 nights before. because of the bus saturday and sunday seem like one long day. other than that. we flew home. trained home. and then well. that was my weekend. well business week. 5 days. it was pretty incredible.
J zavala and friends finally got ahold of me since they have been in europe. i dont really know what they are doing because talking to her and planning things are very difficult and i had completley forgotten that they were going to be in europe. they are supposed to be in florence this evening. we will see how that goes.
i am going to do laundry.
it is about . a million degrees out.
:-)
what a weekend. well week i should say. business week? 5 days.
anyways
wow.
i still have a gigantic grin on my face from friday night and it is monday morning. i have had radiohead stuck in my head all day everyday and do not want to listen to anything else.
i guess i should start from the beginning.
well continuing from my last post. tuesday night was very fun. well tuesday as a whole was.
JD and i (for those of you who dont know JD plays volleyball for pepperdine and is also from ventura... we concluded that it is more than likely that we played basketball against each other in high school) went to santa croce for the calcio storica game(historic soccer). we were late and it was difficult to get in because i guess we needed tickets and we did not know that. but we finally managed to get in and see the last bit of the game and the final ceremonies. everyone was dressed head to toe all out in medieval attire. it was so cool! literally it was as if we were in the middle ages, the 1300s, it was insane. trumpets drums, tights, horses, armor, the whole nine. the game itself was insane, more like, boxing, soccer, rugby in one. that evening there were fireworks on the ponte vecchio. it was fun, but america does fire works much much better.
we left around 8 for the train station to start our journey on wednesday. austin was so kind to lend me 160lbs and i would pay him back when i got back. i figured that would be enough, 80 for london, 80 for glasgow. boy was i wrong. the UK is ridiculously expensive, and i did everything as cheap as possible.
we took a train to pisa and then flew to standsted and then bussed to london.
i didnt know this prior, but i was one guy traveling with 5 girls. luckily they happened to be the down to earth cool, dont really care what we do bunch, otherwise i would have killed myself. i tried to stay positive the entire traveling process and it worked out very well. everything went very smoothly and we had relatively good luck the entire trip. our first night in london, after checking in and riding the underground(which is so great there, and fairly nice compared to metros of rome or new york and relatively cheap) we went and got some incredible thai food. which i have been craving so badly, well anything except italian. i wanted indian but thai did the trick and it was GOOD. we then went and met up with erik and sarah and the london program. i knew only about 8 guys at pepperdine before coming to florence, and about 7 of those guys happened to be in this program so that was great. the people in that program are ridiculously rich. it was insane. they took us out to ridiculous places, spent ridiculous amounts of money. tables, bottles, crazy things, views of the whole city. it was there last night there so they went all out, and we lucked out, had a GREAT time and spent pretty much zero dollars, well pounds.
after sleeping in the great beds our hostel provided we had breakfast and then all went on our own ways. erik and sara did the whole touristy trip through london, changing of guards, buckingham, big ben, london tower,etc. the girls went to camden to get tattoos, and i went on my own to the tate modern. i know i have said i have been to some of the greatest museums in the world, and i will stick to what i said before, overall the vatican museum is the greatest when it comes to works form all time periods from all over the world, but when it comes to modern and contemporary works, nothing beats the tate. absolutely incredible. i spent about 3ish hours there on my own. wandering through the giant building at the many galleries. TATE
there was a great exhibition on street photography from the invention of the camera to contemporary works. another stand out was the exhibit on Cy Twombly
another one of my favorite pieces was "Ishi's Light" by Anish KapoorIshi's Light 2003Fibreglass, resin and lacquer
object: 3150 x 2500 x 2240 mm
sculpture
Presented by Tate International Council 2005
T12004
An egg-like structure opens to reveal a dark red interior. Kapoor has related this work to Barnett Newman’s paintings, in which a vertical stripe represents the creation of the universe. In Kapoor’s sculpture, a column of light appears at the centre, produced by reflections from the curved interior. ‘The column of light is like a virtual object’ he has said. ‘It isn’t simply on the surface’. The work is named after Kapoor’s young son Ishan.
some other stand outs were pieces by francis bacon and paul strand.
after the museum i walked across the Thames by means of the millennium bridge. which again. was awesome. haha. after that i was a little lost and didn't really know what to do. i got some lunch and a pint (thats another thing we did a lot). and decided i would try and meet up with the others in camden. i took the tube over there and realized there was no way i was going to find them so i decided i would h ave a good time on my own. Camden could also be known as the punk district of london, pretty much heaven for me if i were still in 8th grade. it was crazy and i loved talking to everyone, looking through cds and tshirts, thanking god i never got a mohawk and met some very very nice jamaicans. i bought a few cheap cds a poster and 2 shirts, one joy division and one sex pistols. haha. i was feeling nostalgic. that evening i met up with everyone, got some fish and chips, and some ales and called it a night early because we had to wake up at 4am the next morning. i pretty much got everything done in london that i wanted to do.
the next morning we got a bus back to stansted and then a plane to glasgow, scotland.
immediately first thing i noticed is how nice everyone was. first place i saw i got probably the best meal i have had yet which also might be my favorite meal to hvae in the world. lox and bagels. i saw a bagel place and said "we are going there" and got a mixed seed onion bagel with smoked salmon lemon and pepper onion tomatoes and cream cheese. YUM! oh man SO GOOD!
we then got a cab to our hostel. we used taxis the entire time b ecause surprisingly they are cheaper than buses and the metro. so weird and the most expensive trips ended up being about 1 pound each. our hostel was foul to say the least. it smelled of mold, death, vomit, feces, animals, each room was distinct yet equally grotesque. we threw our stuff down, and met our roommates who agreed we should get out of here as soon as possible and not come back till after the show. we wandered around, everywhere we went we found radiohead fans. we stopped at a pub which yelled my name because the sign of the place was Joy Divisions cover for unknown pleasures which happened to be the same thing on my t-shirt at the time. inside we ran into our roommates and drank, and killed time until the show. the jukebox was pretty much my ipod so i was very happy. another thing i noticed, glasgow knows music, everywhere we went they were playing great stuff, from arcade fire to new order to bloc party, to beatles, to bob dylan, to the smiths no radiohead though which was nice. we got to the gates jus before 4. i was so excited. when the gates opened we ran to the front of the stage. we had the best spot on earth. about 3 people back from the barricade and id say... 20 feet from thom. man. only 4 hours to wait. haha. bat for lashes opened. they were very good. very good. i had heard them before and id say she is a mix between cat power and bjork maybe some...... i dont know what... i guess herself. just another half hour and radiohead would be on. the excitement was driving me insane and when those drums of 15 step came on the place exploded. holy hell.
one of the greatest experiences of my life. i couldn't believe what i was seeing.
my favorite band of all time
in front of me.
performing,
every song i would ever want to hear.
flawlessly
wow
it was perfect. i was best friends with 25,000 people for 3 hours. i jumped together, swayed together, danced together, sang together, yelled together, sat in awe and silence together. insane. i will have pictures up soon but here is a youtube someone has put up. and yes i was sooooo close. much closer than anyone taking these videos
fuck iget chills wathcing that, putting myself right back there. holy shit. man. it was incredible man. it was raining the whole time too. the best rain. i've only loved rain so much once before while riding my bike. the lights the music the people the rain. wow. here is the set list.
01 15 Step
02 Airbag
03 There There
04 All I Need
05 Nude
06 Arpeggi/Weird Fishes
07 The Gloaming
08 The National Anthem with Hunting Bears outro
09 Faust Arp
10 No Surprises (Thom: “There was a guy showing me his nipples in that one”)
11 Jigsaw Falling Into Place
12 Reckoner
13 Just
14 Bangers and Mash
15 Everything In Its Right Place
16 Fake Plastic Trees
17 Bodysnatchers
Encore 1
18 Videotape
19 Paranoid Android
20 Myxomatosis
21 Optimistic
22 Karma Police
Encore 2
23 Like Spinning Plates
24 2 + 2 = 5
25 Idioteque
i was high as hell from just the experience. exhausted and overjoyed and so energized all at the same time. we stopped for just one guiness on the way home and then i passed out after putting a tshirt around my pillow for a pillow case until about 1230 the next day.
the next day my phone died fairly fast. and then we really didnt do anything. we had to kill the day until we took our 1030 pm night bus back to london. we went to the GoMA, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow for a bit. went to more pubs, listened to more good music. and then took the horrific bus which arrived in london at 7am. luckily radiohead was so good that i am still in such a good mood. in london we got breakfast then kind of wandered the streets. we went to buckingham palace and were so delerious and tired that we just sat on the steps for about an hour, maybe more. i was just day dreaming of the night, well 2 nights before. because of the bus saturday and sunday seem like one long day. other than that. we flew home. trained home. and then well. that was my weekend. well business week. 5 days. it was pretty incredible.
J zavala and friends finally got ahold of me since they have been in europe. i dont really know what they are doing because talking to her and planning things are very difficult and i had completley forgotten that they were going to be in europe. they are supposed to be in florence this evening. we will see how that goes.
i am going to do laundry.
it is about . a million degrees out.
:-)
Monday, June 16, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
oh yah.
i have been obsessed with m83 lately. i love every song. and have been listening to them non stop. a new band put on the top of my list to see live. they have a song that goes with any mood i am in, any thought any feelings that i am feeling. fast, slow, deep, heavy, soft, intense, smooth, happy, sad, angry, exciting. beautiful.
i have been obsessed with m83 lately. i love every song. and have been listening to them non stop. a new band put on the top of my list to see live. they have a song that goes with any mood i am in, any thought any feelings that i am feeling. fast, slow, deep, heavy, soft, intense, smooth, happy, sad, angry, exciting. beautiful.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.
an incredible video i found while i was getting excited about radiohead.
this goes along with the video. it is pretty incredible.
i am dropping off my film as soon as this is posted.
i love you all.
"
I'm a student graduating from the Glasgow School of Art's visual communication course in a few days. This is my final project.
Radiohead held an online contest to remix "Nude" from their album - "In Rainbows" This was quite a difficult task for everybody that entered, as Nude is in 6/8 timing, and 63bpm. Most music that's played in clubs is around 120bpm and usually 4/4 timing. It's pretty difficult to seamlessly mix a waltz beat into a DJ set.
This resulted in lots of generic entries consisting of a typical 4/4 beat, but with arbitrary clips from "Nude" thrown in so that they qualified for the contest.
Thom Yorke joked at the ridiculousness of it in an interview for NPR radio, hinting that they set the competition to find out how people would approach such a challenging task.
I decided to take the piss a bit, as the contest seemed to be in that spirit.
Based on the lyric (and alternate title) "Big Ideas: Don't get any" I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.
It doesn't sound great, as it's not supposed to.
I missed the contest deadline, so I'm offering it here for you to enjoy.
Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Guitars (rhythm & lead)
Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer - Drums
HP Scanjet 3c - Bass Guitar
Hard Drive array - Act as a collection of bad speakers - Vocals & FX"
-james houston
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
i am an amico degli uffizi now, meaning i have a pass that can get me into pretty much every museum in florence for free. it is exciting and i spent a couple hours in the uffizi yesterday. pretty much just fell in love with the caravaggio's and well thats all i have to say about that. austin bought a bike today. i was his translator and the man spoke ZERO english. it was pretty difficult to say the least. um. yah. nothing today really. rome pictures are back and are great and i will post them later.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
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