COMPASS READINGS
by Sean
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

Image by Rona Chang

Emily Reo - "Witch Mtn". At the top of a mountain, the air gets thin. L perches on a rock, eating a granny smith apple. She breathes in shallow inhalations. Across the gap, there is mist and sharp spires. From her pack, she takes a transistor radio. It is the size of a dental floss container. She unravels the earphones and slips these on. The sun will soon begin to sink. L hears mist and sharp spires. She swivels the tuner with her thumb. The voices are thin. The melodies are like spring-water. L is not sure she will remember A's face. [MySpace/buy]

Murzik - "In Nothing". Even Leonard Cohen needs songs to listen to. He is sitting in his living-room, in his robe, staring at his 5-CD changer. He has eaten a bowl of cereal and later he will shower. Right now he just wants to hear a song. He wants a song like a song he would sing, but lustier, in a way, and a little plainer. He craves a kindred spirit, not mimicking words. He does not want to mope. He wants to be lifted into his day, up and into the streets, full of beautiful women. [MySpace/buy]

---

My story from the summer 2010 issue of Brick, "The Lizard, the Catacombs and the Clock: The Story of Paris's Most Secret Underground Society", is now online in full. (Albeit without the pretty photographs.) I invested much of last summer, and my Banff Centre residency, on this non-fiction article. The title tells the tale, I think: it is the first major investigation into UX, known also as the Untergunther and La Mexicaine de la Perforation. It is quite long. It is a true story. I get lost. (Please share it far and wide.)

Later this afternoon, I fly west and north, to the gold-rush town of Dawson City, for a music festival. More on that when there is more to tell.

(image above by Rona Chang)

Posted by Sean at July 15, 2010 10:27 AM
Comments

Hi there, you wrote for The Guardian (UK) that Jimi Hendrix died of a drug overdose. He did not. You are misinforming millions of youngsters. He died because his stalker gave him barbituarites which she told him were a fraction of the strength he was used to (a lie)on top of alcohol. He threw up in his sleep and she watched him choke to death. She has admitted this. After she was certain he was dead she called Eric Burdon rather than an ambulance. This information is freely available.

Posted by sonofwebcore at July 15, 2010 3:03 PM

thankyou thankyou for the leonard cohen vignette. it is a lovely thing to contemplate

Posted by oliver at July 15, 2010 8:31 PM

Dear Sean,

I love you. It's pretty gay. You ignore the misery of this business and remind me of the magic of the music. Bless you.

Cory

Posted by Cory Brown at July 16, 2010 1:03 AM

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Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.

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