29 December 2009

I could be worse!

I had an e-mail exchange today with Rob Carmichael, the graphic designer that designed:
Animal Crack Box (Animal Collective) Bitte Orca (Dirty Projectors)

Merriweather Post Pavilion (Animal Collective) Water Curses (Animal Collective)

Red, Yellow, & Blue (Born Ruffians) Strawberry Jam (Animal Collective)


Peacebone Single (Animal Collective) Person Pitch (Panda Bear)



Gulag Orkestar (Beirut) Feels (Animal Collective)


And he told me that the font used for a lot of the Animal Collective stuff (seen above on Peacebone and also on the inside of Strawberry Jam as well as a load of posters and stuff) was based on Dave Portner's (Avey Tare) handwriting. He said there's a program that generates fonts based on handwriting samples you submit. They decided not to use it after Strawberry Jam.

SO WHAT I'M SAYING IS: for all those people who say my handwriting is illegible, that may be true (or not) but it's not as crazy as Dave Portner's. That's all.

I'm sick so this is how I'm spending my 22nd birthday.

08 December 2009

There goes the last of my hope . . .

How deviantART describes itself:
The world's largest online community of artists and art-lovers!

And they might be right, as the site as over 10 million members. Luckily for all of us, deviantART does not leave out writing.
If you mosey on over to the poetry section, you'll find the top rated poem ever posted on deviantART.
And here it is.
Downfall
And in this dark harvest of season
My life has completely lost reason,
For which or against to decide.
All lost in a savage and endless, bleak tide

In sadness and in kindness
In light and in darkness.
In a boat made of hope
I shall sail to tomorrow,
In a winding hurricane
Made of treachery and sorrow.


There’s a spear, endless, and colossal spear...
Piercing, slashing though my head.
Starting somewhere in heaven,
Ending somewhere in hell.
Fighting, burning, crying, crashing.
Are the armies within.
In my head they are all thrashing.
On the heaven’s and hell’s whim.
To be light or to be darkness.
A perpetual array.

It’s not merely my choice,
But the choice of the way.
It’s an option of the voice,
It’s a thin line of gray.

Is it a choice forced by fate,
Is it a pre-set time and date?
Or a choice to which I myself sway?
But here’s our story anyway….

“Nothing that I do will matter.
As all things will merely shatter!”

All my hopes thus darkness scatter,
As it shoves me a decree.
As it simply wants to win,
And to just take over me.

“Have a purpose, bend the world,
Act out upon your wishes, and ______ will love you a lot”
That’s what light then says to me,
Because it wants to set me free.
Winning slightly over me.

“But this cage of gold so shiny, it will shield you from untrue
And protect you from the odd,
Nothing inside its walls can harm you,
In your own little world!”
Whispers darkness in my ear,
“Only me you should now hear,
And with me you will survive,
And with my help you will strive,
And achieve your paradise,
In illusion’s disguise!
With no hardships and no pain,
Every task you will then tame!”


The light sternly yells at me:
“These are lies as they can be!
If your world is built on lies,
Then yourself you will despise.
And illusion’s paradise,
Will fall down on you.
Crashing, burning, dying, crying are your dreams
And uprooted is your tree!
And no longer will you see
Where to go or what to be!
When you face your final trial, what will the judge say to thee?”


“These are lies and mere dogma,
Based upon the fear of death!”
Darkness then just yells at me:
“You have your right to disagree!
Make a lovely pact with me.
I will offer you salvation,
No more fear or deprivation!
If you would me then just hear,
You have nothing at all to fear.
Since we do not have a soul.
There’s nothing with which to pay a toll!
Sign here, over there.

In the name of pleasure and hope.
In the name of revolution,
Let your path be just a gentle slope!”

Its arguments are winning over me,
And thus with darkness I agree,
And so I sign the decree,
And with a treacherous and jolly glee
Darkness enshrouding, standing over me

“With the light here once and for all undone
You and I shall become one!”

And so, I enter into the storm of shadows.
As pitch-black as the depths of sea.
Become a mere castaway, amidst the weary crowds.
Consumed by somber, ashen clouds,
With heavens frowning over me.

A storm of ice and fire, dancing all around with a glee.
A ring chrono-storm encapsulating me.
Just like a stove turned up to high degree.

Tearing up roads, buildings, picking up debris.
Into the air it takes me.
My wings have turned to blackened ash
The pacifying, freezing fear taking over
My heart is covered in frost
And all I wished, is to be free…


I am ashamed for my art and generation.
And because I'm sure you are, too, here's a picture of Charlie watching Mad Men with me to ease your pain: