Author Archives: Jon Martin

Site News

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Hey there,

This is just a little update to let you know what’s going on this month.  If you’re a longtime visitor, you’ll notice that we’ve started up again.  If you’re a new user, then you’ve come along at what (I hope) will be a very interesting time for the site.  I’m now experimenting with articles on music-related topics, as well as the usual posts about songs themselves.  Some of this experimentation has led to cross-posting with Geek Force Five.  That cross-communication will hopefully continue in the form of our “super secret” audio project.  More on that in the next week or two!

Also, we’re experimenting with Twitter.  (It happens to the best of us, right?)

As ever, I’m eager to find new contributors, submissions, and ideas.  Drop me a line if you have any thoughts!  You can also find more information here: Contributions and Submit!

That’s all for now!  See you all soon!

~Jon

Black Tape For A Blue Geek: The (D)evolution of Mixtapes

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This entry is cross-posted on my friend Chris’ site Geek Force Five. It’s a veritable cornucopia of high geekery, and just about the only place I can get published chock full of obsessive fun.  Go and have a look around!

maxell_ur90_2There are a lot of ways to get to know people that take time, involve boundaries and labor, and generally allow for each participant to set their own pace. Pfft, I say! I’m a twentieth-century digital boy (which means, as we’ll see, that I’m using an analog-digital converter and have set my channel to 3). If I like you, for whatever reason, then I’m not going to wait. I have a great gut, and it tells me everything I need to know. So, chances are that when I’ve met someone new that I feel I’d like to know better, I’m going to ask: “Hey, do you want me to make you a tape?” It’s a reflex that despite changes in time and social norms I will never lose. And it’s also the quickest way to see whether you’re going to be taking any long car trips in the near future. Shallow? Maybe. Ephemeral? Absolutely. Practical? Quite possibly. Now, granted, I am most likely going to deliver that “tape” in CD format or on one of these adorable things. Still, for reasons that I’ll try and lay out for you, I just can’t bring myself to shake the habit of calling it a “tape,” or relying on its Magic-8-ball-esque utility.

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M. Ward, “Chinese Translation” and Fleet Foxes “Ragged Wood”

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Seven months, huh?  Man, that’s got to be some sort of record…

Anyway, hello!  I wanted to share these two songs with you because, well, I sort of owe you, and because I went to see live music on Friday and it made me very happy indeed.  On Friday, I went with my friend Chris to see our friend Andy/The Pluto Tapes perform at the Kick-Off Cabaret in Arlington. { There.  Is that enough links for you?}  The Pluto Tapes were, as ever, lovely and it was great to see friends and to get stuffed with barbecue beforehand.  I miss getting out.  The dissertation is a terrible beast, which won’t even let me post on this blog. { Please don’t tell it.  It thinks I’m just in the next room…}  Sitting there, and watching people perform, was a wonderful, uplifting experience after so much time spent toiling away. Of course, it did also drive home just how much I miss living in a place with good, live music. { Notice how you’ve never heard of York, England as one of the U.K.’s premiere music scenes?  Well, you would have, if you’d ever noticed York!}

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Bob Dylan, “Desolation Row”

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And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain’s tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers

Like most people, when asked, my father’s favorite Dylan record was Highway 61 Revisited.  It was, for him, a landmark.  While he definitely liked certain tracks from earlier records more, this was the album that he felt most comfortable listening to from start to finish.  My father was definitely much more of an album over singles person than most people that I know, and so it was the album that I spent so much time listening to when my father chose to play Dylan.  I can remember sitting on the floor, next to the speakers, wondering what on Earth might be going on in all of that “noise.” This song took years to make any sense to me at all – and now, well, it’s strangely the shortest eleven-minute song I know.  I never feel that it takes very long to run its course, and I’m always a little sad when I’ve finished shaking hands with all of these characters. Continue reading →

Site News

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Hello!

Well, that last entry turned out to be a bit of a false start, eh?  I wanted you all to know that, starting next week, the site will be returning to action!  I’ve had a lot of real life things going on – dissertations, relationships, rabid wombats – and it’s been a pretty busy few months.  Still, don’t think that means that I haven’t missed you!  So, when the site returns to action, I would expect an entry a week to start with.  Sometimes, I will post more, and sometimes it will stretch to ten days – but I think we’d all like a routine!  Hopefully, we’ll be able to settle on a “post day” that we can all come to rely on.

And with deepest sincerity, I want to extend my gratitude to all of you who have kept watching and reading.  It’s wonderful to see so many of you come and go, even when I give you no reason to!  I love having you as readers, and I hope to return to making it worth your while!  And, as ever, I’d love to hear your stories… do consider keeping this thing going by contributing!

See you very soon,

Jon