Saving the Environment in 3 Easy Steps

The environment is out there and it needs to be saved. Sure, you can’t see it, or hear it, or touch it. But it’s there, lurking just over the horizon waiting to smack you in the face with a bit of global warming. If the horizon even exists by then. It’s probably the first thing to go. So if you want to save all the things you like, like puppies and rainbows, and all the things you need, like air and water and dry land, then you best make some lifestyle changes and follow my advice.

1 – A lot of people talk about saving the whales. The whales’ biggest problem is that they can’t see in the dark. So when it’s nighttime, turn on all the lights in your house. ALL OF THEM. Turn on any light-creating appliances too. If you’re not sure whether it makes enough light or not, like a coffee maker, turn it on anyway just to be safe.
The whales need to see, so don’t be selfish. Every little bit helps, and together we can light the way for these nocturnally challenged creatures.

2 – You’ve probably heard that taking the bus can help the environment, but this is a bold faced lie. Everyone knows that the metro transportation systems don’t make money and have to be government subsidized. A lot of buses run on bio-diesel, which is more expensive and guess who’s paying the bill. The government. And you. This is totally unfair, and what the government should do is give all of that money to the people so that they can buy gas. And then the price of gas will go down. And when the gas price goes down, that means less people are using gas. Everybody wins.

3 – When you’re at the supermarket, buying your industrial strength super glue and Frito Lay fun packs like I do so that you can glue some trees together and have a tree-friendly snack at the same time, you’ll be indubitably asked the environmentally fatal question – “paper or plastic”? Paper bags are made from recycled paper, making them inferior and likely to have their flimsy handles rip off, causing you to wastefully spill the contents of your groceries who knows where. It’s like a mini oil spill. However, plastic bags remind everyone of homeless people and homeless people are bad for the environment - they eat trees and they pee all over the place. So, the best thing to do when confronted with this double-edged sword of a bag choice is to compromise. Go with both. Make that grocery bagger earn his 7.50/hour and tell him to put the plastic bags inside the paper bags.

With these three simple steps, you will soon be on your way to making the world a better place. It won’t be easy. But think of how great you’ll feel if you do these great things for yourself. Pretty great, huh?

"Twilight" Glee

Several months ago, a couple respected comrades raved to me about a new group out of Scotland called, The Twilight Sad. I procured a copy of their EP, and was immediately hooked by the brooding lyrics, banging drums, and pulsing guitars with splashes of keys & accordion for good measure. Their first full-length LP, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, was released last week and it pretty much has instantly become my favorite record of the year thus far. And it is up against some pretty strong competition. 9 cuts deep, running at a trim 45 mins, leaves nary an ounce of fat on this album, which definitely sets it apart from the rest.

Well last night, I had the pleasure of seeing The Twilight Sad live in concert at The Knitting Factory here in lovely Hollywood, CA. After a glowing review of their recent show in NYC by my trusted music connoisseur associate, MRL, my expectations were running particularly high. The three young Scotsmen, took the stage stealthily and proceeded to cast a spell over all those in attendance. Playing half the songs in their known canon, the set was a robust albeit brief delight. Frontman James Graham's verses are certainly poetic and you can see every ounce of emotion pour as he both croons into his 50's style microphone and bellows to the heavens throughout the performance. The real show stopper came with the track 'Talking With Fireworks/Here, It Never Snowed' where Graham kneels in front of drummer Mark Devine's kit and with a single stick straight up murders the cymbal whilst on his knees until a few measures of quickly paced tick-tick-ticks by Devine's own sticks mellow out the pace for Graham to come in pondering, "And does your fear not grow when you see that you're all mine/See that you're all mine/With a knife in your chest." Who else but a bloke from Glasgow could come up with lyrics like that?

There's something so nostalgic about seeing an emerging band play a small venue because you know the chances of seeing them again in this type of setting are finite. Living in L.A. has granted me many such opportunities; e.g. Muse at The Mayan, Arcade Fire at Spaceland, and most recently Menomena at The Echo. These gloriously fortunate events are few and far between, but obviously that's what makes them so monumental; memories that do not soon fade into the twilight.

-- M

LP vs. MP3

5 and 1/2 years ago, the iPod was introduced to the marketplace, and listening to music hasn't been the same since. I had just become an Apple OS convert after a summer internship at Sony Music, and I was psyched on all things out of Cupertino. At first I was skeptical of the little white wonder because it was expensive and mp3 players were usually so poorly designed. But iTunes changed my perception of iPod's possibilities. By ripping all my CDs I would have instant access to anything I wanted to hear at the click of a mouse. Waiting for my beloved 400 CD changer to switch between disc to hear a random playlist on shuffle would be a thing of the past. Now, my new PowerMac wasn't just a fancy word processor with Internet access, now it was the jukebox of my dreams. Couple that with the portability of iPod meant no more lugging around my CD collection on trips, no more skipping Discman while riding the T to class, and no more buying AA batteries. God bless you, Steve Jobs.

Fast forward to present day... The iPod is a massive success having sold over 100 million players world wide satisfying both music lovers and Apple stockholders alike. I've called the iPod the greatest invention since slice bread and have owned 3 different models. Even my mom has an iPod (Hi, mom!). It certainly has changed the way I listen to music for better and for worse. On the positive side it has forced me to acquire music at an accelerated rate, which has allowed me to discover tons of new bands. The downside is that I do not give the usual focus to an album in its entirety as I once did after a trip to Sam Goody in days of yore. The Internet takes blame for both sides of the scale. Now that you can hear an album before it is released, which will leak sometimes several month before it is in stores, getting your hands on the actual, physical CD just is not the magical event it used to be. I know you're saying, if you want it to be magical don't listen to the leaked music. Well that's a valid suggestion, but that's like trying to not eat some of the cookie dough before putting it in the oven. And don't even try to tell me you never tasted that sweet, sweet cookie dough.

Every CD I buy, and yes I still do actually buy CDs, gets opened, ripped, and put on a shelf nary to be used again. So why don't I just save myself some time and effort by purchasing from iTunes or Emusic? It simply comes down to sound quality. While watching movies has evolved for the better; have you tried watching a VHS lately? Yikes indeed. CDs eliminated many of Vinyl and Cassettes cumbersome traits. Instant track selection, no flipping, and no hissing or pops to interrupt you listening experience. But while mp3s are an evolution in convenience, they are a step backwards in aural quality. I'm no audiophile, but the quality of the music you purchase online is not equal to what you pay for. The kids buy it like hot cakes because they don't know any better. Here's an easy way to hear for yourself. Take a CD of an album you have on your iPod. Listen to the opening track on your iPod, then listen to that same track on the CD. If you can't notice the difference, then you can stop reading now because clearly this argument is wasted on you. So why should I pay $9.99 for an album on iTunes that is not only inferior in terms of sound quality but is also crippled in terms of what I can do with it by Digital Rights Management (DRM). I can get that same album on CD for a very close if not exact same price elsewhere. Then I can rip it at higher quality (still via iTunes) and listen to it on as many computers and iPods as I'd like as well as have the real physical CD as backup with linear notes and all.

It all comes back to the magic of buying an album and listening to it as it was meant to be heard. The album is an endangered species. Apple invented the iPod shuffle not just because it was a much cheaper alternative to the original iPod, it's because they surveyed iPod owners and the majority of them filled their players with singles and listened in shuffle mode. But being an old soul I like listening to bands who actually care about creating quality albums, not just one song destined to be the newest sensation on the Billboard hot 100 singles chart and 9+ throw aways. Which brings me to the original point for writing this now way too long entry. How can I have my cookies and cookie dough too?

On a recent trip to the record store, I picked up a copy of the new Of Montreal on vinyl from the shelf and on the front was a sticker. This sticker mentioned there was a coupon inside that allowed you to download high quality mp3s of the full album from the record label's website. This was an interesting revelation indeed. Vinyl has always held some mystical properties. Sure it is inferior to CDs in terms of shelf-life and purity in both sonic fidelity and seamless playback. But because of those things, there is more of a connection between the listener and the music. You're not just letting a machine automate the experience and zoning out instead of paying attention. For my 27th birthday, Elizabeth got me a record player and it has allowed me to develop a deeper appreciation for my passion of music. I can listen to my iTunes library at work and discover new artists via the internet. When it is released, I can go buy their album on vinyl and legitimately receive the mp3s for my iPod all inclusively. I win, the record store wins, the artist wins. What a magnificent time it is for all music lovers. I will close with some wisdom from the recently passed Kurt Vonnegut who I think would agree music is the most powerful medium in our lives:

"My epitaph, should I ever need one, God forbid: ''The only proof he ever needed of the existence of God was music."


-- M