October 14th

It's been a long week, I felt like sharing some more songs for the season.  Don't forget to download the music (right click+save link as) if you like it, I'm trying out a new program, so if it doesn't work lemme know.

Autumn Sounds pt. II

Landmines by St. Vincent
St. Vincent aka Annie Erin Clark is a master of the devil's details; each time I re-listen to a song I get more and more overwhelmed by how intricate and eccentric every song is.  I've honestly never heard music like Clark's, and probably never will again.  If this song isn't strange enough, check out her newer stuff from the album: Actor and the recent Strange Mercy.

Listen to this song while you lay in bed with a big down comforter, preferably with someone right beside you.

Modern World by Wolf Parade
Indefinitely hiatused  Montreal band Wolf Parade is wierd, but they got a good sound, 'nuff said.

Listen to this song while sitting in the drenching rain.

Troubles Will be Gone by The Tallest Man on Earth
Sweden born champion of the folk-revival Kristian Matsson aka The Tallest Man on Earth is the reason why the word 'cool' exists.  Whether it's his mystic and whimsical lyrics, his charcoal soaked voiced, or the absolute intensity of his guitar, or his 1940's fantastic mustache, I am constantly swept into a new world by this guy. 

This song goes best with a breakfast of coffee and crepes with some moccasins.

Ready, Able by Grizzly Bear

I think I've said enough about Grizzly Bear for anyone to know that they're my favorite band.  The work by this band creates an alternate universe covered in mossy trees and ancient cobblestones soaked in scotch whiskey, I live for this music.

This song goes best with an afternoon driving through old streets covered in leaves and twigs.

Miss Misery by Elliott Smith

The late Elliott Smith was the king of depressing indie acoustic guitars and whispery singing, and it's not cliche because he was the one who ultimately made it cool in the first place. Good music for when women run you down... I definitely need that right now.

This song is good with warm wool socks.

Asleep by The Smiths
What need be said about the Smiths?  Morrissey is a god and he's not even dead yet.  I thought I'd finish up the list with some golden oldies, and so here they are: you can't get much more classic than The Smiths, let alone my all time favorite song by them.  As well as Elliott Smith, good music for women problems.  Morrissey is lyrically holding my hand through these days.

This song is of course great for going to bed, but also goes well on a bus to wherever and a pea-coat.



Well that's my music update for the weekend.  Let me know if somethings not working.  Wish me luck on surviving myself!

October 12th

Fall's has come around; the cold crisp air drys my throat and warms my soul, the rain dampens my stride and makes each step more gentle.  Autumn truly is my home.

Venetian sunset.

Just got back from Venice and Verona, they were two absolutely gorgeous cities.  I love the absolute diversity of the regions of Italy, the country is a whole world inside a city.  I am now back in Firenze and it's gonna be a slower weekend here I also plan on trying out a new way to share music so that I can get more music on the blawg quicker.  I may head to the coast for one more ounce of sun before Autumn really sets in, and there is also a chocolate festival here in some random town in Italy, so I may take a 7 Euro train over there with a few friends and recreate the actions of hormonal pregnant women.



I have finally finished soldering all of the brass onto my amulet, now I have to burn off the soldering residue with acid, bend the piece into a low convex, make the loops for the leather necklace, sand and polish it, and then it will be complete.  I have been able to talk my teacher into allowing me to come into the work-shops on Thursdays as well so now I will have more time to work on not only pieces for the course, but for my own pleasure.  Here's the piece so far:

Still alot of residue and all the metal has burn marks, after some elbow grease, all of these metals should be immaculate.

My marble sculpture has gotten far too, the back is done and formed as well as the right shoulder and upper arm, I've started the left shoulder and upper arm and will be done with them in a week.  After that I will do the forearms the head, finally the hands, and then I will shape the base, once that is all done I will polish and finish, and then I will have finished my stone sculpture. Here it is so far:


















Autumn Sounds:

 In the Afternoon by Chris Garneau
Cooling piano chords and a crisp warm voice go along way with this song.  You'll be more than welcoming to a strong gust of wind while this song rings.

Hey Cool Kid by Cloud Nothings
Excuses by Cloud Nothings
Can't get enough of Cloud nothings... seriously, no wonder there producer is from Grizzly Bear.   Hit these songs up with a nice light rain.

Mr. Lonely by L'Orange
Compliments the red and orange trees and the grey sky and streets.

Most Wanted by Cults
Goes best with the crunch of leaves on the street.

A Coin on the Tongue by Benoit Pioulard
Keeps you warm on those windy dark nights.

This beautiful song is like your breath on the pane of a cold bedroom window.

Warm your soul with a little music and maybe some late night coffee.  Pretend each falling leaf is a music note of the season. 

October 7th

Just hanging out....

It's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy, so this is gonna be a big one with a lot of goodies.  Got back from Oktoberfest, I'd tell you more... if I remembered... here is a little taste my experience in Munich:

3 hours into Oktoberfest...

This week I did a bunch of work on my amulet, and none on my stone sculpture.  All that's left to do on it is punch out some 24 brass circles and then solder them + the rest of the brass ontop of the silver.  After that I will cover it in melted tar, let the tar cool, and then bend the whole disk convex. The tar is so the amulet will stay as one piece while I bend it.  Finally I will file all of the imperfections off polish the whole thing and then make the worn leather strap for the necklace and then it'll be complete
Here's where it's at now:

Dope.

I also headed out to a small town called Carrara, which is the mothership of marble sculpture in Italy.  Its about a 2 hours train ride North from Florence, and is chocked full of everything marble.  The sides of the mountains which envelope the city's horizon are all cut out, and the city itself has marble everywhere.  While I was there I stopped at a few museums, a few workshops, and museum dedicated to marble, the rock itself.  This place truly embraces is past-time.

Here's a sculpture in the town center dedicated to a bunch of miners that died in the nineties from a mine collapse.  It's absolutely epic and the stylization is phenomenal. It was constructed at one of the oldest marble workshops in Italy, let alone the world.  The shop happened to be right across the street, however photos were not allowed to be taken there so I got no proof of its epic-ness.




These two pieces are outside of one of the workshops I visited near the bottom of town.  I have an album on my facebook that shows more of these guys' works,  They are absolutely fanatic about their pieces.  The master of the workshop is in a family that has sculpted for far over three generations and has been sculpting for 72 years, he started when he was 14. 

 Nothing too exciting happening here back in Florence, I went to a Muay Thai class and got my ass kicked, I plan on going every week now, my room-mates and I also got bored of the same old looks so we grew mustaches:

Ladies...

Here's some of the old work I did before I got here, I found a few pictures on my phone:

All of these paintings, which are in shitty lighting, are black and white acrylic paintings ontop of  1'x1'x1" wood frames that I constructed (the stop watch is 1'x1'x2" so that it sticks out).  After I painted the pieces in black in white first.  Then I mixed my colored acrylics a little at a time with a gloss and did about 8 layers of color, painting mostly with my hands and fingers, this effect left the colors splotchy aged and very textured.  These four are by far my favorite paintings and also were the most fun I've had painting. Just thought I'd share 'em with everyone.

Heres the music I've been listening to lately.  The Phoenix song and The Dogs song aren't downloadable but just as enjoyable, as for the others, right click and save link as.  Macs: hold control and click, then save link/file as.

1901 by Phoenix (DLID Customization Remix)
Good ol' Phoenix sound with a little bit of razmatazz.

Eyesore by Women
Catchy tunes and riffs kinda old school and low-fi, it reminds me of October.

Ashes to Ashes by Warpaint
Watch out Bowie, this remake kicks ass and is even that much more trippy.  Go float in space for a bit with this song.

The Start of Something by Voxtrot
Perfect song.  A refreshed version of the smiths that makes me miss the close moments with the people of my past.





Also here's a link to my favorite artist, everyone keeps asking me who this guy is and what his works look like so here's Gerhard Richter's Artwork.

Tomorrow I head out to Venice and Verona for a night, I plan on taking lot's of pictures, so I'll let you guys what is there when I get back.

September 29th

"UND... UND!" ...Das Becks? "UND DAS BECKS!!!"


And what a way to end this month of September it will be!  Tonight I'm headed out to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest.  I've got my outfit ready, and I'm about to hit the store for a new backpack and a cheap sleeping bag.  Debauchery ensues.


I finished off the week with pretty good pace, next week I'll be able to hop right into work again and I convinced my Jewellery professor to let me in the shop on Thursday afternoons whenever, I'm looking forward to it.

I carried on with my marble sculpture and it's really starting to take shape:

Her it is from two different angles along with the 1/3 size clay model.  It's starting to really turn out, I've finished it's outline and now I've began leveling the model starting from is lowest points and working high.  It should be done in a matter of weeks now.



I also finished the final model for my pendant, and it should be done in about two to three weeks.  Here it is:

The metal is actually 7mm thick silver, it's just covered in wax so that I could transfer the design and scratch it in, hence it looking brassy.  The whole deer head in the center of the piece will be carved and pierced along with the antlers.  The dots, tooth, and bordering shapes will have bronze soldered over the top of them. I will then round the edges of the pendant so it's actually silver, then I will make the whole piece convex.  Depending on how much time I have after that I may make a back to the pendant out of bronze.  The necklace will either be small chain or if I can get my hands on it, leather.  All in all I am really happy with the final design and am excited to rock it out for showcase/when I get back to the states.

And now for some music to get ready for the first weekend of Oktober. Mmmmmchillwave much?

Spruce Bringsteen by Run DMT
Sounds like Vietnam era B-sides with a touch of animal collective.

Talamak by Toro y Moi
'Illwave, phoenix-esque plus a juicy beat.  Sounds good, feels good.

All Die Young by The Smith Westerns
An LSD wedding at a funeral. "You're my boy Blue!"

Like I Do by Starslinger

Leave it to Star-Slinger to make a party feel like it's soundtrack is a new wave disney chill-wave festival.


Well it's off to Munich, it should be a great cultural and eye-opening experience...

yeah...

September 25th

Let me just tell you a little bit about Balsamic Vinegar:

When done right, it's really damn fucking good.
This weekend I went to Bologna and Modena, both were equally amazing.
Balogna

Bologna is a town up north famous for its stuffed pastas (like tortellini), two giant medieval towers, and of course its ragu sauce.  But to be honest, there is so much more to Balogna than that, as a matter of fact, I hated the ragu.  The city itself is an old Roman colony and it shows it, it's very ancient and is full of old castles and churches as well as the oldest university in the world.  Deep underneath the 'modern' roads of the city are actually the old ancient roman roads, I headed into a french furniture store called Paris Bobois, from there I headed into the basement where underneath some overpriced furniture was an ancient Roman road.

 There is also a giant complex of seven churches, ranging from pre-medieval to twentieth century, all connected into one turbo church.  The sights inside are overwhelming, some of the buildings were so ancient that the churches' pillars themselves have been completely warped by the sheer weight of time.

Displayed on the left is one of the entrances, middle is a huge cross in a medieval church, and right is the fountain of Ponchus Pilot(it's a fountain full of innocence).
Not only is the city absolutely gorgeous and full off rich history but the shopping is much more diverse and original the scenery is much more genuine and there is a lack of tourism which is more than refreshing.  All in all I think that I must spend some more time in Bologna, it's earned it.

Modena

After Bologna we headed out to a farm in a small town called Modena, the farm was an original balsamic vinegar producing farm. Here we learned all about the process of creating balsamic vinegar from a concentrate of two different types of grapes, and then letting it age over twelve to twenty-five years (or as long as necessary).  Two of my friends actually had a taste of balsamic vinegar that was ninety plus years old.  The end product of this process leads to a very syrupy but sweet liquid which, as soon as it hits the back of your throat, burns like a sweet acid... it's overwhelmingly delicious.

I couldn't help but pick up a bottle to cook with.  The thing about balsamic vinegar is that you can use it on anything; bread, meat, cheese, ice-cream, tomato, fruits, and so on and so forth.  The point is that this concoction is fantastic and everyone sometime in their life needs to try a bit of genuine balsamic vinegar, the other stuff that is claimed to be it just doesn't nearly compare.

The rest of this week I am really going to buckle down on my work and start my pendant/get my marble sculpture's foundations finished, this coming weekend I will leave for Munich and enjoy a weekend at Oktoberfest.

And now for some music that will help carry me through the work week.  Please take pleasure in these vibrations, if you like 'em download 'em by right clicking and pressing save file/link as.  If you have a mac, press ctrl and click, then go to download/save linked file.

Solo ('4 Claire) by Wise Blood
Every time I hear this song I just feel like a bad-ass with penchant for women and whiskey.  Its a southerny new age beat, and I love every line in it.

You by Gold Panda
This song will make you enjoy everything life has to offer, period.

Killing the Vibe by Ducktails

Ducktails is a great feel good band with the best tunes that make you feel warm on the inside and calm on the outside.