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Castle Yonder

May 142012

‘Now Jennie has everything. She is the finest leading lady The World Mother Goose Theatre ever had. Jennie is a star. She performs every day and twice on Saturday. She is content. Once Jennie sent her old master a letter. This is what it said:

Hello,

As you probably noticed, I went away forever. I am very experienced now and very famous. I am even a star. Every day I eat a mop, twice on Saturday. It is made of salami and that is my favorite. I get plenty to drink too, so don’t worry. I can’t tell you how to get to the Castle Yonder because I don’t know where it is. But if you ever come this way, look for me.

Jennie’

This collection is dedicated to the memory of Maurice Sendak. His writing and artwork were such a big part of my young life, and I’m so pleased that my daughters are also growing up with his stories. I have included a separate PDF featuring drawings that they did this week to go along with this post. Please visit the Maurice Sendak Wikipedia post for a rather extensive overview of his life as an artist, illustrator, and writer.

Please support the bands by buying their records and going to their shows. Click on each link for more info.

6forty on twitter :: 6forty on facebook :: mike@6forty.com

Bye Horus – Ave Coloniale! [00:00]
Powder! Go Away – That Is What Everybody Fears And Wants [07:49]
New Century Classics – A Small Misunderstanding [12:35]
Beyond This Point Are Monsters – Plain Song [16:35]
The American Dollar – Heavy Eyes Ignite [19:46]
Explosions In The Sky – The Long Spring [23:52]
His Name Is Alive – Drive The Dreamy Demon Down [29:20]
His Name Is Alive – Lake (Theme For Sweet Hearts) [32:53]
Hood – Your Ambient Voice [35:35]
Mogwai – Now You’re Taken [42:33]
Roy Montgomery – Down From That Hill And Up To The Pond [49:28]
Last Lungs – 66 [55:47]
Milhaven – DRZ [58:15]
Caspian – Sycamore [74:38]

640.060 playlist.pdf

Sendak-inspired art.pdf

[Maurice Sendak, Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More To Life, 1967, HarperCollins Publishers]

over pebbles and worn rocks

General No Responses »

Apr 282012

‘Suddenly Tom’s talk left the woods and went leaping up the young stream, over bubbling waterfalls, over pebbles and worn rocks, and among small flowers in close grass and wet crannies, wandering at last up on to the Downs. They heard of the Great Barrows, and the green mounds, and the stone-rings upon the hills and in the hollows among the hills. Sheep were bleating in flocks. Green walls and white walls rose. There were fortresses on the heights. Kings of little kingdoms fought together, and the young Sun shone like fire on the red metal of their new and greedy swords. There was victory and defeat; and towers fell, fortresses were burned, and flames went up into the sky. Gold was piled on the biers of dead kings and queens; and mounds covered them, and the stone doors were shut; and the grass grew over all. Sheep walked for a while biting grass, but soon the hills were empty again.’

Please support the bands by buying their records and going to their shows. Click on each link for more info.

6forty on twitter :: 6forty on facebook :: mike@6forty.com

Wassermanns Fiebertraum – Jetzt Oder Nie   -00:00-
If These Trees Could Talk – Red Forest   -03:32-
Pg.lost – Sheaves   -11:57-
Chemtrail – Poison Bag   -19:15-
Flares – Antares   -25:54-
Aerials – Lights And Motion   -32:39-
Arbor Lights – Constants (Part 2)   -38:46-
Adolf Plays The Jazz – Oddy   -44:16-
Whale Fall – Rumi’s Nation   -56:00-
Mr. Maps – I See Them, They’re Like Mountains (Lines Version)   -62:29-
The Day We Left Earth – Lights   -71:27-
The Shaking Sensations – Homage To Boyhood   -78:56-

640.059 playlist.pdf

[J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954, George Allen & Unwin]

requited by destination

General No Responses »

Apr 142012

‘The hour of my irresolution is past, and the period of your power is arrived. Your threats cannot move me to do an act of wickedness; but they confirm me in a determination of not creating you a companion in vice. Shall I, in cool blood, set loose upon the earth a daemon whose delight is in death and wretchedness? Begone! I am firm, and your words will only exasperate my rage.’

The monster saw my determination in my face and gnashed his teeth in the impotence of anger. ‘Shall each man,’ cried he, ‘find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by destination and scorn. Man! You may hate, but beware! Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness forever. Are you to be happy while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness? You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains – revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict.’

Please support the bands by buying their records and going to their shows. Click on each link for more info.

6forty on twitter :: 6forty on facebook :: mike@6forty.com

Vasquez – Dad Rock   -00:00-
Mental Architects – Here Is Where, Where Better   -04:26-
Etiquette – Portugal (Down Old South America Way)   -08:28-
They Say We’re Sinking – Telos   -13:08-
Cloudkicker – Push It Way Up!   -21:05-
Lord – Totems   -28:22-
Kokomo – Arcade Romania   -34:18-
Dumbsaint – Don’t Forget To Bring Down The Sky   -39:04-
Terraformer – Cross Bearing   -46:22-
Pet Slimmers Of The Year – I Am The Ocean   -49:58-
Three Steps To The Ocean – Collider   -62:20-
What The Blood Revealed – Cast Adrift In A Harbour Of Devils   -70:40-

640.058 playlist.pdf

Mary Shelley, ‘Frankenstein,’ 1818, by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones
The image is courtesy of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia – Mütter Museum. An amazing place.

often solitary

General No Responses »

Mar 312012

‘These fancies, and such as these, have always given to my meditations among the mountains, and the forests, by the rivers and the ocean, a tinge of what the every-day world would not fail to term the fantastic. My wanderings amid such scenes have been many, and far-searching, and often solitary; and the interest with which I have strayed through many a dim deep valley, or gazed into the reflected Heaven of many a bright lake, has been an interest greatly deepened by the thought that I have strayed and gazed alone. What flippant Frenchman was it who said, “Solitude is a lovely thing, but you need someone else to tell you so?” The epigram cannot be gainsayed; but the necessity is a thing that does not exist.’

So blended bank and shadow there,
That each seemed pendulous in air.

Please support the bands by buying their records and going to their shows. Click on each link for more info.

6forty on twitter :: 6forty on facebook :: mike@6forty.com

Moonlit Sailor – Fresh Snow   -00:00-
Do Make Say Think – Say   -05:28-
The Fierce And The Dead – On VHS   -18:08-
Fighting Kites – Mustard After Dinner   -22:45-
Deadhorse – No Particular Night Or Morning   -30:35-
Broken Cities – Homage   -37:18-
Canyons Of Static – Challenger   -42:24-
Jet Plane – Every Possible And Endless Way   -52:40-
One Hour Before The Trip – Yen   60:38-
[The] Slowest Runner [In All The World] – We, Burning Giraffes   -63:38-
Adolf Plays The Jazz – Nameless   -73:02-
Sunlight Ascending – Vanil/Requiescat   -77:51-

[Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Island of the Fay,’ June, 1841]

640.057 playlist.pdf

the captain

General No Responses »

Mar 072012

It now became apparent (despite the lack of library paste)
that something had happened to the vicar;
guns began to go off in the distance.

At twilight, however, no message had come from the asylum,
so the others retired to the kiosk,
only to discover the cakes iced a peculiar shade of green
and the tea-urn empty
save for a card on which was written the single word:
Farewell. *

Please support the bands by buying their records and going to their shows. Click on each link for more info.

6forty on twitter :: 6forty on facebook :: mike@6forty.com

Waking Aida – That’s Not My Trick, Michael   -00:00-
You Slut! – Magnifiererer   -05:50-
Rumour Cubes – Triptych   -09:38-
Alpha Male Tea Party – Depressingly Shit Lunchtime Sandwich   -16:13-
Vasudeva – Back To The Feeding Ground   -21:23-
We Arrive Alive – Walls   -25:16-
North End – G-13   -29:54-
The Silence Of A Whisper – Happy And Sad Times   -34:20-
Eno – Ser Roen   -40:05-
Whale Fall – Swagger   -47:30-
Sky Flying By – The Longer the Fall   -54:16-
3epkano – Distant Outings   -59:32-
Arsiesys – Why Do you Leave Me So Soon?   -64:07-
Sleepmakeswaves – A Gaze Blank And Pitiless As The Sun   -71:28-

640.056 playlist.pdf

testing metals

General No Responses »

Feb 202012

Timothy was still marvelling at the dark circling birds when the first tornado landed. Jolted from her own quiet reveries, Lightening Paw lifted her nose from a bruised daffodil and sniffed the troubled air with determined inquisitiveness. “Quick Timothy, under the dock with you,” she barked hoarsely, padding swiftly in Timothy’s direction while frantically gesturing at the approaching funnel cloud with one outstretched paw. The sky was already darkening, the warm autumn sunbeams rapidly being swallowed by a huge spiralling cloud of uprooted trees, their mighty trunks flailing helplessly…

(front cover text – ‘Pretty Little Lightening Paw’ by Thee Silver Mountain Reveries)

Please support the bands by buying their records and going to their shows. Click on each link for more info.

6forty on twitter :: 6forty on facebook :: mike@6forty.com

Thee Silver Mountain Reveries – More Action! Less Tears!   -0:00-
Hrsta – …And We Climb   -5:15-
Le Fly Pan Am – Partially Sabotaged Distraction   -11:35-
Exhaust – Wool Fever   -15:56-
Indian Summer – Birth   -20:54-
Fourteen Nights At Sea – The Climb   -24:08-
Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster – Calligraphy   -30:40-
Exilym – Transmission.N511   -39:40-
Caspian – Book IX   -42:15-
Oak – I’m (Not) Dying   -48:00-
Godspeed You Black Emperor! – Sleep   -56:27-
Set Fire To Flames – deja, comme des trous de vent, comme reproduit   -79:27-

640.055 playlist.pdf

the western sea

General No Responses »

Feb 102012

Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

And all night long they sailed away;
And when the sun went down,
They whistled and warbled a moony song
The echoing sound of a coppery gong,
In the shade of the mountains brown.

‘O Timballo! How happy we are,
When we live in a sieve and a crockery-jar,
And all night long in the moonlight pale,
we sail away with a pea-green sail,
In the shade of the mountains brown!’

Please support the bands by buying their records and going to their shows. Click on each link for more info.

6forty on twitter :: 6forty on facebook :: mike@6forty.com

If These Trees Could Talk – Barren Lands Of A Modern Dinosaur   -00:00-
Meniscus – Cusp   -05:59-
Flares – 299 792 458 m/s   -13:12-
The Shaking Sensations – Home Is Where The Heart Is   -20:21-
Concord To Seas – Merrimack   -29:19-
Glories – Mechanical Mariner   -33:20-
Administration Shock Him – I   -41:45-
Milhaven – Animal 3k   -48:28-
Icaro – Samanco   -53:41-
Nice Wings, Icarus! – Birth   -59:35-
Rocket Miner – Lotus   -68:56-

640.054 playlist.pdf

through the eyes of the heart tree

General No Responses »

Jan 282012

‘A man must know how to look before he can hope to see,’ said Lord Brynden. ‘Those were shadows of days past that you saw, Bran. You were looking through the eyes of the heart tree in your godswood. Time is different for a tree than for a man. Sun and soil and water, these are the things a weirwood understands, not days and years and centuries. For men, time is a river. We are trapped in its flow, hurtling from past to present, always in the same direction. The lives of trees are different. They root and grow and die in one place, and that river does not move them. The oak is the acorn, the acorn is the oak. And the weirwood…a thousand human years are a moment to a weirwood, and through such gates you and I may gaze into the past.’

Please support the bands by buying their records and going to their shows. Click on each link for more info.

6forty on twitter :: 6forty on facebook :: mike@6forty.com

640.053

Mr. Maps – Your Heels In Sand, Soul In Pursuit (Lines Version)   -0:00-
Collapse Under The Empire – The Sky Is The Limit   -4:45-
We – With The Stars As An Audience   -11:41-
Canyons Of Static – Wake   -16:33-
And Stars Collide – When Our Eyes First Met   -24:16-
Blind Architect – KCW   -32:30-
To Be A High Powered Executive – The King Has Bled, We Have Slept, And Now We Must Wake   -42:30-
Giants – The Sleep Of A Laboring Man   -51:31-
Enemies – Fierce Pit Bosses   -55:06-
Kovlo – Qujing   -59:26-
Rest – To Learn   -63:07-
Kasper Rosa – Scaling Mount Improbable   -69:45-
Sky Architects – Burst   -77:53-

640.053 playlist.pdf

the vagrant

General No Responses »

Jan 202012

At the corner of Lodovico Street, she looked back. The house had not capitulated to the forces unleashed within. It stood now as quiet as a grave. No, quieter.

As she turned away, somebody collided with her. She yelped with surprise, but the huddled pedestrian was already hurrying away into the anxious murk that preceded morning. As the figure hovered on the outskirts of solidity, it glanced back, and its head flared in the gloom, a cone of white fire. It was the Engineer. She had no time to look away; it was gone again in one instant, leaving its glamour in her eye.

Only then did she realize the purpose of the collision. Lemarchand’s box had been passed back to her, and sat in her hand. Its surfaces had been immaculately resealed and polished to a high gloss. Though she did not examine it, she was certain there would be no clue to its solution left. The next discoverer would voyage its faces without a chart. And until such time, was she elected its keeper? Apparently so.

Please support the bands by buying their records and going to their shows. Click on each link for more info.

6forty on twitter :: 6forty on facebook :: mike@6forty.com

Bleaklow – Margravine / The Vagrant   -00:00-
Rest – Operation: Impending Doom   -10:14-
Naisian – Take Me To The Mountain Dew Mountain   -16:50-
Cosmonauts Day – Rift   -24:20-
Annapurna – Lester   -28:11-
Russian Circles – Mladek   -35:54-
On Wings Of Wax – The Approach   -43:34-
UpCDownC – Wolves In The Walls   -46:22-
Khuda – Marchmen   -53:17-
Refraction – Until We Reach   -57:37-
Colaris – Reconsidering   -65:12-
Damascus – Khalida   -70:42-
Oak – Last Day Of…   -76:18-

640.052 playlist

the hinges of the world

General No Responses »

Jan 012012

‘I have dreamed your Wall, Jon Snow. Great was the lore that raised it, and great the spells locked beneath its ice. We walk beneath one of the hinges of the world.’ Melisandrea gazed up at it, her breath a warm moist cloud in the air. ‘This is my place as it is yours, and soon enough you may have grave need of me. Do not refuse my friendship, Jon. I have seen you in the storm, hard-pressed, with enemies on every side. You have so many enemies. Shall I tell you their names?’

‘I know their names.’

‘Do not be so certain.’ The ruby at Melisandre’s throat gleamed red. ‘It is not the foes who curse you to your face that you must fear, but those who smile when you are looking and sharpen their knives when you turn your back. You would do well to keep your wolf close beside you. Ice, I see, and daggers in the dark. Blood frozen red and hard. and naked steel. It was very cold.’

‘It is always cold on the Wall.’

‘You think so?’

‘I know so, my lady.’

‘Then you know nothing, Jon Snow,’ she whispered.

Please support the bands by buying their records and going to their shows. Click on each band name for more info.

6forty on twitter :: 6forty on facebook :: mike@6forty.com

Labradford – Sliding Glass   -00:00-
This Is My Normal State – A Glimmer Of Hope   -06:13-
Arab Strap – Revolution   -13:38-
Junius – A Day Dark With Night   18:55-
The Burning Paris – The Sun Also Rises   -27:00-
In Violet – Half Full   -33:11-
All Shall Be Well – History Is Ever Ours For The Reliving   -39:35-
Atlantic Drop – Fields Of Life   -48:16-
The Eternal Twilight – Another Quiet Night   -52:00-
Mender – Note To Self   -56:15-
Rachael Boyd – Don’t Be Selfish Now   -61:19-
Anoice – Aspirin Music   -65:18-
Clear Horizons – A Child’s Eyes   -71:05-
Sigur Rós – Ný Batterí   -73:55-

640.051 playlist.pdf

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