You seem to be caught up, like so many in our present society, in feeling like everyone owes you something, and that the appropriate response to not getting what you want is to insult and threaten other people. That kind of behavior is what we tend to see from children, and what we should be coaching them against. So you are disappointed, fine. Find a positive way to channel it. Say that Cleveland has lots of great players and that you’ll win some other way. But launching a bunch of insults against someone who spent 7 years in your organization fighting for a ring is unacceptable. In this country if you don’t like your job you can change it. Just because someone is from somewhere, or has worked somewhere, doesn’t mean they all of a sudden become an indentured servant to some nonsense notion of a fairy-tale story where the local boy never leaves.

You owe Lebron an apology. You owe your organization a better, more rational, or more reasonable voice. Learn to lead, and perhaps more of your soldiers will stick with you. After reading the scandalous pile of bunk you posted to the world today I can only think that if I were Lebron dealing with someone like you, I would have left too, only a few years earlier.

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa kicked off today with two group A matchups. They both ended in ties.

In the opener, the host team South Africa (with Steven Pienaar) took on a promising Mexican side. The game ended 1-1 after 90 minutes of fairly open play. There were exciting moments on both sides, with a hotly contested yet correct offsides call in the first half that denied Mexico the opening goal of the tournament. After dominating the first half though, Mexico were the first to give up a goal in the second as a glorious strike by Siphiwe Tshabalala into the upper right interior corner was the first goal of World Cup 2010. This is actually the first ever goal by an African team on African soil, and if any were worthy for the history books, this strike was it. Near the end, Mexico fought back and tied it, when Rafael Marquez cleaned up after a period of really poor backline play by South Africa and knocked one in in the 79th minute. At the end, the score was tied, but viewers surely couldn’t complain after a very worthy and exciting opening match. It did though end in a tie. Both teams earned a point.

In the second Group A game, a star studded France full of soccer celebs like Henry, Riberrey, Sagna, Anelka, Malouda, Diabi, and many more fought a boot fierce defense in Uruguay. Despite some fine play on both sides, even after Uruguay went down to ten, France couldn’t put one in. Uruguay, though mostly fighting off the French pressure, had some excellent chances of their own, most importantly a late miss of a volley for the much heralded Diego Forlan. At the end, the score was 0-0. Again, each side earned a point and it ended as a tie.

Rather than bemoaning the two ties though as somehow evidence that Soccer is a dull game, we should take this moment to celebrate the virtue of the tie in sports. There are after all those times when it truly is a tragedy that either team has to lose. Take one of those multiple overtime games from NCAA basketball for example. Did any of those athletes really deserve to lose?

It seems to me that the tie can at times be the ultimate celebration of skill and that special C word ,Craft, as opposed to the other C word, Competition, and the dominance of others that is represented by a rules system which requires that someone always has to win.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some boring-ass ties in this world. I’ve seen lifeless clashes that ended goal-less, neither side exhibiting enthusiasm or skill in the slightest. If the goal isn’t clear before you walk on the pitch, you won’t leave the field with anything, trust me.

It’s those other ties that I’m talking about. The ones where each side battles its guts out and neither can best the other, where both teams deserve it, and either walking away empty-handed would feel terribly cruel of fate.

Especially let us celebrate now, when the world is so divided, and people seem incapable of meeting strangers with anything but fear or fury, let us celebrate that sometimes both sides can win.

Ok, with that out of the way, let me get to the new album. Overall, I’m hugely disappointed. Their punk sound is gone and the retro casio-tone vibe that replaces it does not adequately fill the gap. Much of the album sounds like a poor attempt at an 80s retro sound mixed with some techno elements from the mid 90s. While there are a few moments here and there which shine, they are very few and very far between. This album feels rushed, the product of someone with too many other things to do. The music is severely underdeveloped and sadly, forgettable. As I streamed through, all I could think is “Is Murphy really boning it this badly? Yes, this is really happening.” This album is in severe need of editing, with annoying synth nonsense layered in on various tracks for no discernible reason, and with several extra throwaway minutes in nearly every song. Anyway, I think you get the big picture, let’s move on to the songs themselves.

The album starts off very quietly with a bossa nova soft bongo thing at the beginning of the track “Dance Yrself Clean”. Murphy’s lyrics accompany this very drab opening section which thankfully transitions to a techno clash number a few minutes in. While the sound after the transition is much less snoozeworthy, it fails to be memorable and transitions back to the tragically flawed opening riff again at the end. I feel distinctly unclean and not at all inclined to dance through the entire song.

Next we move on to Drunk Girls. Another forgettable track. Seriously, I just listened to it and I can’t remember anything except a very basic pop song about drunk people. At least this has a bit of the punk energy of old LCD songs though and the best vocal performance. So after hearing the rest of the album, this is actually one of the better tunes. As with the rest of the album though, it is repetitive and tiring. This should play well at frat parties.

“One Touch” follows. This is the best track on the album, though the most derivative. It sounds very like early Moonshake or even Laika, but a significantly simplified rhythmic structure. If you don’t know those references, go get Sounds of the Satellites and Dirty & Divine right away. They are both much better albums than this one. This song is like mid 90s art techno rock. So, it mixes interesting electronic sounds with rock elements and lyrics. “One touch is never enough” is the refrain, and for this song at least I would hit the play button again.

Next up is “All I want”. We start out with a simple beat and Echo and the Bunnymen style guitar through an crunchier effects pedal. This song really feels more and more like a late Echo song as it goes along, though it is far more boring. It is kind of like an M83 song with worse music and a flat vocal performance. At various points, annoying synth freakouts occur, the first major sign this album needed to be edited down.

Next is “I Can Change”. Here perhaps we learn the reason this album is so bad. Maybe Murphy has a chip on his shoulder and is trying to show he can do something different than what he has put out before. However, this overly repetitive dance number doesn’t demonstrate any new directions of substance. This feels dated and dull. If you have to change Peter, move in a new direction!

Moving on, we get to “You Wanted a Hit”. Yuck. We start out with subpar ambient music that goes on endlessly before turning into a standard dance house beat with 80s guitar in the background. “You wanted a hit”, the lyrics tell us, “but maybe we don’t do hits.” Well, certainly not if you are pumping out this kind of garbage. At one point pan flute comes in. That’s right, pan flute straight out of the Peru. I was laughing out loud. Total Fail.

Next up is “Pow pow”. This song sounds like a terrible remix of “Losing my Edge”. Unlike that song though, the lyrics aren’t as compelling and the music is awful. The bongo fury that has haunted us at various points of the album reappears here. Peter’s vocals are almost identical in tone and timbre to Losing my Edge, but imagine that song with an awful pre programmed casio backing track, and maybe you’ll understand why I NEVER EVER want to hear this song again. It goes on endlessly (like many songs on this album) and builds to nothing.

We are almost done. “Somebody’s calling me” is next. This is basically a variety of dissonant piano tones accompanying soft vocals. The tones are really unpleasant and monotonous, and I found myself looking around for the Advil.

“Home”, the final track (thankfully), is decidedly upbeat, which is an interesting change. Again though, it is little more than Peter Murphy singing over a soft techno track you would have heard in Miami in the mid 90s. I get that the 90s have to make a comeback at some point but not here, not now. Don’t take my LCD Soundsystem you damn retro cancer!

So, overall, I would give this album 1 or 2 out of 5 stars. I would never pay money for this. That’s not to say you shouldn’t give money to LCD Soundsystem. You really should. Just go buy everything else they’ve put out instead. I truly hope this is not their final album, as this is a really sad and sloppy way to go out.

Which leads us to the new video!!! Checkout the lo fi action as Brian performs “i just don’t care anymore” by the Warring States.

You said:

I don’t wanna go
I don’t wanna go
I don’t wanna go
To Idaho
(repeat)

hell no
I don’t wanna go
I don’t wanna go
Away
To Idaho

Hell no
I don’t wanna go
I don’t wanna go
All the way
To Idaho

Why do you wanna go
Why do you wanna go
Why do you wanna take me out
To Idaho

What can they do for you
What can they do for you
What can they possibly
do for you

But:

I wanna go
I wanna go
I wanna go
And live
In Idaho

I want you to come with me
I want you to come with me
I want you to come with me
What do I have to give you

How bout a ring
How bout a ring
How bout a ring or I sing
or something like that

A ring on your finger
A ring on your finger
How bout a pretty ring on your finger

But still, you sing:

I don’t wanna go
I don’t wanna go
I don’t wanna go
Live in the wilds
Of Idaho

You know I’m not alone
You know I’m not alone
And I never want to be alone

So don’t make me go
Don’t make me go
Please baby don’t make me go
To Idaho

How bout we just stay right here
How bout we just stay right here
How bout you flip over
And let me cuddle your rear

Come on let’s go (repeat)
Let’s go (repeat)
Let go (repeat)

Abby was performing down on the waterfront today, but the tourists were largely ignoring her, fixated instead on yet another guy making metallic tone spray-paint space art (what do people see in that stuff?). I was completely mesmerized. At first, it seemed she had created a special two spoon connected device, but no, in the end it is just two spoons turned with their bulbs inwards towards each other, their handles covered in white tape. She was kind enough to give me a quick lesson in which she explained how the positioning of the spoons relative to each other, the part of your hand or other surfaces you hit, and even the wind effect of moving your other hand around the spoons, and swooping the spoons in the air, all play an important part in terms of the musical tone produced. I was impressed by the washboard contraption she had built which had two tin cans, some bells and small finger cymbals all worked in together to give her a wide variety of percussive options. She explained how she watched lots of people play, and slowed down various videos to really learn the different technical traits of different techniques. Clearly her hard work has paid off, as she is now a joy to watch. Sure, we need great violinists, but I’m glad we have some spoon players like Abby as well.

(Abby was kind enough to pose with Cutie also, but she seemed a bit confused by his wings and articulated bum. )

Abby and Cutie

The first find was the self-described artist and surrealist Chuck E. Bloom. Chuck explained how over the past 7 or so years he has been painting on increasingly smaller and smaller canvases, getting down to a size as small as 1 by 2 inches. He displayed a variety of surreal landscapes peopled with coffee cups, fantastical tree buildings that seem a mix of Dali and Hieronymous Bosch, and a variety of other wonderful, thought-provoking images. He described his creative process as feeling like a kind of wanderer through a landscape, arriving just after some important moment has occurred, but too late to encounter the person that was actually there in that moment. So, the paintings are devoid of people, but you can see the traces they have left behind (if they ever were indeed there in the first place). Some of the pieces have quite complicated geometry and masses of swirls and waves, while others are more serene. We purchased a piece named “Been though this Before”, a 3 by 3 inch picture with a half barren tree, a flash of lightning in a green sky, and a coffee cup on top a pile of books on a small mound of rocks, its vapor rising all the way to the top of the canvas. This is one of his calmer works, but it immediately resonated with a variety of very personal images for us. The lightning reminds us of the trip we made out to Portland from the east coast, driving through some of the worst storms the midwest had seen in the last century. The tree means a ton of things for us (the Fall season in the East, the proverbial feeling the grass is always green on the other side, the split feeling of wanting to stay and wanting to move on that has haunted us over the past few years). The books of course signify my library, and the rocks Sahar’s love of the mountains of the pacific northwest. But above and beyond it all is that grand cup of coffee, with its hopeful soul rising above the storms and the decay of time. It is rare you find something so personally resonant by chance like that, but it seems this time we were lucky. You can see more of Chuck’s work on his website ChuckEBloom.com. The piece we purchased was only $35, a complete bargain for such a meaningful piece. His other work was also very affordable. So, if you need gifts for someone that likes heady art, check his work out.

We then stumbled upon the booth of Renee Lynn Hartig, who at one time actually did an “inch by inch” show with Chuck in the past. We previously encountered Renee at the Alberta Arts Festival, and actually had taken a picture of one of her works before with Cutie.

Renee does a variety of things, including abstract landscapes and incredibly funky pet portraits. She had a series of Rooster portraits on display that were absolutely marvelous. I particularly like her series of very small landscapes (1 by 3 inch) that are painted as multiples on a single sheet. She will cut these up so you can buy individual ones, but shame on you if you do. Save up and buy the full run. They work exceptionally well as abstract animation, the kind of thing the child of Cezanne and Eadweard Muybridge might produce. We purchased one that has lovely blue tones with clouds and the colors of mountains and the desert. The small multiples like this can be purchase for $10 per painted image, again a super affordable price making her work the perfect present for anyone (who doesn’t love pretty abstract landscapes?). Renee has a very appealing painterly style and will one day be a big success I would bet (and hope of course).

Since it is Portland, of course both artists were exceptionally sweet and friendly people. It is people like these that make us loathe to ever leave our beloved Stumptown.