word association: darkside

There’s been a darkness to the day so coming across Darkside feels right. Composed of Nicolas Jaar, still an undergrad (studying comparative literature), and Dave Harrington, the group just released an eponymous EP available for $5. The song I heard, “AI” is ambient but grounded in a soulful guitar riff and seems made for staring at your computer screen and playing word association games with yourself.

“Darkside” –> Star Wars, Darth Vader, Superman, villain, evil, capes, juggernaut, comic books, video games, childhood.

It’s difficult to know if you’re being honest when you’re playing alone.

Listen to “AI” here.

yellow ribbons

The Veterans Day illustration

What does Google’s yellow ribbon mean?

According to some oral traditions, women began wearing yellow ribbons in their hair to symbolize that a beloved was away, sometimes in battle. In the 1949 John Ford film She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, John Wayne famously played a captain who must help two women—one wearing the ribbon of remembrance—evacuate after Custer and his cavalry are wiped out. The film was said to be inspired by the tune, “Round Her Neck She Wore a Yeller Ribbon.”

Our Past, The Avalanche, Its Memory

In a swirl of color and time,
that tepid cloth,
history is a detached movie scene

I saw it about me

those rotten and perfect teeth,
the wailing voice of a torn robe
who tightens his cravat,
and puts the pen to the stone, the papyrus

a silk scarf is whisked over my eyes
I walk its caress
to where I now sit
this desk, here

in its drawers
and habitants’
habits

fools, and clowns, scholars
Sewing mother
Drunk father

I am a small tree in an avalanche
stay inside, carve out a home
the pressure, Claustrophobic
but warm,
quilted from indulgences,
who straighten their collars, sit on the bench

those who came before me
all the passions

those inventors and lovers,
corncob pipes, toothbrushes
the Hamstring,
the Snare,
Aerosol,

Without a breath in my body

my head inside a heart
which is an unceasing drummer
or
the collective bow of an opening night

The avalanche man is at the summit

Looking down,
a tiny fir, peaking,
like a child,
a tiny finger, needles, then a hand
the air its promise of a future

unladen with a sight such as its past