Today’s Vibe

It’s not where we’re at, but maybe it’s where we’ve been, or else it’s just where you’re heading, who’s really to say. Either way, it’s there, and it’s been, and it’s not going nowhere, at least not now, not here not today.  No depression in heaven.  And what are they doing in heaven today?  Man, you tell me.

Dewing It Country Cool

OK wow, these videos.  Funny to think before X-Treme sports there was: Mountain Dew Commercials.  We love pretty much everything about these videos, and we highly suggest you watch them all in a row so as to get the insane tune lodged in your head for a week.  It gives us a feelings, this one.  And that weird bridge?  It’s like beyondo emotional.  Jayzus.

This one is particularly wild: just some cowboys driving 80’s/Bigfoot style monster trucks racing on some kind of dusty mesa, concluding with a cowboy being thrown off a pier into a river, cowboy hat still on his head.

Dude seriously: Actual cowboys surfing on horses in a river.  I mean yeah.  Yeah!

Bro!  Come on!  Skateboarding feckin COWBOYS.  DA FUG?!?!

Suffice it to say that deep in our Zelda-addled pre-teens, we’d watch these commercials in between sugary doses of Thundercats and Silverhawks and think: fuck yes.  We are going to do these extreme things ourselves some day, if only they would release us, if only they’d let us, if only we could just…escape this basement, with this empty box of pizza, with this grubby Nintendo controller, these mint/NM Todd McFarlane comic books, and all these cracked-case Motley Crue cassettes.  Some day they’ll see.  Some day they’ll know!

Meanwhile, looking at the image of the 80’s version of the can, I have this feeling like the Dew WAS a little more refreshing back then.  It seems more syrupy now, doesn’t it?  When things get hot, cool is all you got.  Well.  It was all you had.

Everybody Loves Raymond

Your intrepid reporter Fort Saint Davids caught — by pure chance, no less — this quality clip on our trusty digital camera hell back in 2007 and we’ve been meaning to share it with you ever since.  Well, we’re sharing it now.  Basically this: Thurston Moore, @ Doug Fir, kinda stoned beach-rambling off about how he’s this big Jon Raymond fan and how the tune was written for — well you just go have yourself a click-see and find for yourself, okay?  It’s pretty durn awesome.  Enjoy.

We’re Gonna Make It

Hello, and welcome once again to the Daily Miltonian: Your #1 Source for All Things Live, Active, Thoughtful, and Miltonian. I’m your host, Fort Saint Davids. Today’s photographic accompaniment hails from Summer 2008, the sweet taste of which still lingers on our mental tongues like divine finish of Valhallan elixir. In other words: strong stuff, best vintage.

A couple items for this gray/cold Saturday afternoon here in beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon. First up we’ve got Lost, which is back, and is now officially Batshit Fuckin’ Crazy, which is the Highest Attainable Level of Miltonian Awe and Praise possible. Wednesday can’t come soon enough.

Speaking of Wednesday: the final issue of Final Crisis is actually coming out and we couldn’t be more excited. I mean wow, what a series, right? If the last issue was any indication, this one is going to go down as the Greatest Event Book in the history of comics — maybe not for everyone, but DEF for those of the Miltonian Persuasion. We’re just re-read Grant Morrison’s JLA Classified run (Ultramarine Corps!), we’re finally going through Seven Soldiers, dipping into his Animal Man and JLA proper runs, and are even re-reading the whole RIP thing straight from the Kubert issues because seriously? It’s pretty clear at this point that all of Morrison’s DC work is one Great Big Fuggin story, just as the whole 70 plus year history of the DCU is, in Morrison’s eyes, one Great Big Fuggin story, and maaaang oh mang, what a Great Fuggin story it is. This is Modern Mythology the way the Greeks couldn’t even begin to imagine, because this is a world where everyone is literate and anyone can write it. Marvel kinda died on us sometime not too long ago. We’re all DC kids now. Y’dig? Call us floppy-reading flip-floppers. But the Distinguished Competition has done right by us.

Windmills beware: Alexander Zahradnik and Erik Bader are reviving the True Jersey project just One More Time, this time to create what they’re tentatively calling True Jersey, Volume One: The Definitive Addition. Not to be confused with the Annotated True Jersey, Volume One, which got started and scrapped in the blink of a 2008 day. No, this one is playing for keeps, for no reason other than to give a failed project a proper burial, or maybe just get the thing in the Hands of the People the right way. Considerations include a zine-quality serialization, with updated text by Bader and streamlined design by Zahradnik, all overseen by newest FSD Counselor Joshua D. Carr and illustrated by M.C. Doyle. Will it actually happen? Who the fug knows, but we figured if we announce our intentions here you’ll be there to bug us not to fug the whole thing up. Help us with our sure-fire no-loss plan, something like pre-subscribers pay for the first printing and assured sell-outs pay for the 2nd edition, and so forth. Give us the model, we’ll give you the goods.

Did we mention the food? We may have. But yeah, there’s photography of some of the Completely Delicious Food that we’ve been nourishing ourselves with, here at the FSD Lodge. Keep your eyes peeled and your appetites hungry, we’ve got a feast for your eyes coming right up.

This Week: Gift the Gift of the Miltonian

Everyone has a friend or loved one who loves literature, photography, music or film.  So why not give them the gift that’s sure to keep on giving: the Daily Miltonian.  As any long-time reader can attest, each hand-crafted entry on your Daily Miltonian is jam-packed with thoughtful insights, provocative photography, and a bare-minimum of headache inducing links, which tend to send a reader away from a page.  At the Miltonian, we like to keep you right here with us, the place where you belong.  So please, if you know someone who has all the makings of a proper Miltonian (flair, style, taste, chutzpah, an ord) send them the only link that matters, the link of the Miltonian.  Check daily, check obsessively, and always bookmark in good health.

Take note: the more traffic this place gets, the more content we’ll provide.  That’s our Miltonian promise.  You read it, we’ll write it.  So what are you waiting for?  Send out your Miltonian links today!  We’ll be right here when you get back.

Autumn Four: A Retrospective

All that hoopla, wild holidays, strange days, and we gone done forgot all about our steadfast duty to you, our ever-faithful reader.  And by duty we mean Dutiful Documentation, of every season, not just part one, or two, or even three.  Meaning: we forgot all about Autumn Four.  Easily the ripest and most rewarding of the penultimate season’s quarters, A4 in Portland, Oregon was nothing short of a knockout.  Like outta the park, Phils in the World Series style.  Color us impressed.  Here’s the evidence.

I suppose this space could be used for other updates.  We were back up on the North Side this afternoon (without a camera, unfortunately, so no photos exist of the poured-gold ale-pint sunset that melted all over the town, pines and firs emerging in the sun-bathed hills like buoys on a sea of molten wheat, Whitmanic in its widescreen grandeur.  Days of Heaven indeed!), nosing around Mississippi Records, and we discovered a fourth new LP, this one called I Woke Up One Morning in May, with a definite return to BLUES, in a way we can’t argue with.  Gripped the latest in their cassette series.  Peep:

That place can do no wrong.  Well OK, the “OMG wait till you hear about MY wild night last night!” crummy PBRpsters who somehow get hired to bum out potential customers  at such a magical place  sometimes do wrong, but once I get home with my sweet wax and drop the needle the tunes instantly erase any Jerk-Buzz left lingering in my old ears.  Phew!

Crisp days, fog-damp nights, and colors!  Colors!  That was our Ord for A4.  We were thankful that the rain came gently, in gentle mists rather than savage torrents, and then winter came with snows!  Of course we beg you to stay tuned to our Humble Online Magazine for the People as we DO have documentation of said snows.  We’re just waiting for the rainy day when it’s time to show ya.

It should be noted that the majority of these Falls Photos were snapped within the vicinity of the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Southwest Portland.  That’s generally where we be.

All the best, and we’ll see you next post.

Great Depression

Recession Habits, 2009.

Rentals: Netflix.  Recent perfect films included Days of Heaven, Cisco Pike, and The Conversation.

Comics: DC only.  Marvel got dropped.  And currently just the books penned by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns.  If there’s anything else I’m missing, let me know.  Secret Six, anyone?

Vinyl: Generally just Mississippi Records.  Hands down the most nourishing and only 10 bucks a pop.  Now they’ve got a tape series, we’re heading up to the store to scope them today, actually.  Plus under-ten used scores all over town.

Food: Homecooked, handcrafted, and always delicious.  Some of our recently FSD Meals will soon be posted here at the Miltonian for your savoring pleasure.  Stay hungry.

Alcohol: waste of money in ‘09.  Get buzzed on: poetry, winter woods, laughter, romance, mineral water.

Novels & Literature: we’re sharing the books these days.  Current: The Gift by Lewis Hyde and 2666 (3-volume slipcase edition) by Roberto Bolano, on sale at Powell’s.

Serialized Television: Deadwood Season 1, Buffy Season 4, Battlestar Galactica Season 3, Wire Season 2 (2nd viewing).  Plus Lost/Office/Fringe when they return (any day now!) And that new Whedon series in February, Dollhouse.  We’ll give that a try.

Films in Theaters we’d like to see: Revolutionary Road, The Wrestler, Milk.  Benjamin Button was OK, really pretty to watch.  50 days until Watchmen.

RIP Andrew Wyeth.  We’re from those areas, met his grandson in the 80’s, got haunted by the same Brandwine Valley, same river, same skies.  Saw the retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and will never forget it.  He always brought us back home.  Now you really can’t go home again.  So it goes.

The Saturday Evening News

ITEM: Thanks to our good friends at Aquarius Records – well they’re not our friends but boy do we like ‘em — we now know that there are two new records from our favorite Portland or anywhere record label, Mississippi Records (no website, thank fuggin’ GAWD).  Here’s the AQ folks on the newz:

NATH, PANDIT PRAN Earth Groove: The Voice Of Cosmic India (Change / Mississippi) lp 11.98
***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***
Like a Pavlovian bell, just the mere utterance of this vinyl-only Portland label gets everyone aflutter, ready to eagerly acquire, no matter what the sounds contained inside. We suppose if they put out a record solely of sounds made by cement mixers, back-hoes or traffic noises and packaged it in a sweet homemade album cover with nostalgic photos of antique construction equipment, and called it something like “My Heart Belongs To The Public Works”, we’d sell out of them just as fast as their awesome compilations of pre-war blues or their reissues of obscure post-punk groups. As cool as that actually sounds, the not one, but TWO Mississippi releases we have this week are both super stellar and we know everyone is going to want at least one if not both of them.
Earth Groove is a reissue of the debut 1968 recording by Master Hindustani classical singer Pandit Pran Nath. Considering his major influence on the giants of twentieth-century minimalist composition and drone music of all forms, as well as the amazing dearth of available recordings on cd let alone on vinyl, this is a MUST HAVE!! Featuring two fantastic side long ragas, Raaga Bhoopali designed for meditation after sunset and Raaga Asavari designed for meditation after sunrise, this is spiritual music of the highest order made for the purpose of destroying negative energy. But it is its amazing sounds of buzzing tamboura drones and tabla rhythms with Pran Nath’s perfectly intonated and slowly unfolding vocal style that should please all fans of otherworldly cosmic sounds.
Master of the Kirana Ghirana school, it is believed that Pran Nath spent five years of his life in a cave perfecting his austere intonated singing style. Heavily emphasizing the alap, the opening section of the raga that is unmetered, improvised and unaccompanied (except for the tamboura drone), that sets up a slow tempo and can often last more than an hour. Pran Nath’s unwavering adherence to the principles of his vocal style was not that popular to the ears of modern Indians, but it is this recording that reached the open minds of minimalist composer La Monte Young and visual artist Marion Zazeela who persuaded Pran Nath to move to America and start his own school of music in New York. Just rattling off the names of his top students shows what an indelible influence Pran Nath was to late twentieth century music: Terry Riley, Charlemagne Palestine, Henry Flynt, Jon Hassell, Douglas Leedy, Don Cherry, Lee Konitz, Jon Gibson, Yoshi Wada, Rhys Chatham, Michael Harrison, W. A. Mathieu, Sufi Pir Shabda Kahn, Catherine Christer Hennix, and Simone Forti. Enough said.
After being completely enraptured with the extensive and expensive double disc Midnight we reviewed a while back, some folks may not have had the time or means to see what we were raving about, so it’s really nice to have this perfect and affordable introduction to Pran Nath’s intense and penetratingly beautiful sound world, while they last! 

***

Oh Graveyard, You Can’t Hold Me Always is Mississippi Record’s third (and arguably best) compilation of obscure gospel recordings. But instead of focusing on church revival songs featured on Life is a Problem, or the personal redemptive blues of Fight On, Your Time Ain’t Long, here we have a compilation of joyous private pressing recordings from the sixties and seventies featuring mostly small family vocal groups and band ensembles, like the Mosby Family singers, Straight Street Holiness Group, Laura Rivers, Rev. Lonnie Farris, Radio Four, Joe Townsend, White Family, Silver Quintette, James Carter & The Mighty Stars, Farris and Williams, Traveling Echoes, Brother Willie Eason, Happy Travelers and an anonymous final track that sounds like either small children or munchkins singing “We Shall Overcome”. Often sounding like they were recorded on street corners or in small community halls or city shelters, we can imagine that like the picture on the cover, these songs were recorded with the whole group surrounding one microphone. Although there are a few old school blues moments, there is a greater emphasis here on R&B and soul motifs than on previous gospel comps. Many of the songs feature mostly just guitar and bass, with the guitars playing out chiming circular riffs in an almost Afro-Caribbean vein, suggesting that many of the tracks were recorded far outside American urban centers (there’s no liner notes, so we’re guessing). One sweet instrumental track features some very nice Hawaiian-style slide guitar. This is a stunning collection of gospel tunes, amazing for its atypicality, showcasing an innocent simplicity and a transcendent independent spirit. 

***

Yes, we want these records, and will own them soon.

ITEM:  Looks like they found a shoe-filler for our recently-passed favorite Harper’s cat John Leonard (who filled the shoes of our previously favorite Harper’s cat, Guy Davenport.  Well.  Here’s info on the new cat.  Us?  We never heard of the cat.  Time will tell.

Which reminds us, we should renew our subscriptions.  Hard to get motivated after eight years of bummer cover stories like WHAT DEMOCRACY? or DEATH, TAXES, AND THE REPUBLICAN DEMONS WHO CONTROL YOU AND OWN YOUR SOUL, or DICK CHENEY: BABY EATER or whatever else Bad News we Already Knew, dig?  And now with the Economy (def. a capital E on that one) it’s like they still got room to bitch.  Nothin’ wrong with none of it, but how much of a Bummer can one Miltonian take?  A lot, man, hey you’d be surprised.  But still.  Like we said, depends on who replaces Leonard, and how.

All we know is what we did know, which is we was already fine and plan on stayin’ fine.  And why not?  If it’s worth doing, we’ve already done it, and if we haven’t finished then we’ll continue to do so till we do until we got it done, and done right.  Got that, comrade?  Like old Wild Al says, You Be Cool.

Two Thousand Nine

Welcome back.  Another year, another post, and you know what?  I can’t believe it either.  The Miltonian remains.

Does 2009 even need the Daily Miltonian?  An unreliable blog born well over two years ago with nary a format change or even a facelift.  Is it a creaking old machine yet?  Or one of those ‘comfort’ sites, a place where you know you can click and get the same results every time, year in, year out (see: McSweeney’s.)?

We never know what you want here, so we just give you what we got.  Today?  Here’s your Saturday Morning Cartoons.  Enjoy with sugary cereal and fuck it crack open a soda too.  Our vote?  Vanilla Coke.

Happy New Year, reader.  Another year, another post.  Onward.