Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (RIP blogs)

For the non-unicorn people who care, here's the excerpt from Erik Davis's profile I refer to two posts above:

Rough stuff. But Newsom’s relationship with the Yuba goes deeper than such idylls. Towards the end of high school, when she was eighteen, Newsom went down alone to a wild spot along the river. After asking their assistance, she arranged some stones into a circle, and then sat down within the ring. She stayed in the circle for three days, fasting, facing the river. Her best friend and some pals camped a few miles away, bringing her water and small portions of rice while she slept. She had assigned herself things to do but abandoned them all. She just sat there and watched the river, and, even more, she listened to it.

“I was a completely different person before I went to the river, and a completely different person after,” Newsom says. When she first got back the girl was a total wreck. She would start crying when she woke up and not quit until she slept. She stopped going to school. She’d pick up the local paper, and read a headline like “Man Dies in Car Crash,” and then the crash would be in her mind, and the man’s bloody crumbled body, and his pain and dread and fearful exit from this world. “None of the calluses or borders or walls we put up to protect ourselves from going absolutely insane while experiencing life – none of those stood anymore. They had been worn completely away. I was like infantile and dysfunctional, a weepy, drunk mess.”

Weird. It's like instead of her liminal moment inaugurating her into adulthood, it had the opposite function. Maybe this is what happens sometimes when people invent their own liminal rituals based on cartoons they've seen and that one Carlos Castaneda book they've read and not on personal, communal, familial traditions.

the NY Times piece was pretty meh, but the magazine sucks these days anyway.

^ A++

glad you at least gave it a chance, tbf

not sure what was A+ about my comment. it was either read that article or the one about "can we teach teachers to teach better," or better yet the article last week "clinical depression might actually be good for us"

gotta say that excerpt appears to be grade-A evidence for the case against going on a vision quest

yup

hahaha, the A+ was just because a lukewarm comment from you on Newsom was in character. no big thing. but i'm glad you gave it a chance, really

i feel like my childhood is meaningless after reading that. i threw a history text book into a river once but that's it

my comment was on the article not Newsom.

http://www.google.com/search?q=reading+comprehension&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

no wolves tbf

http://www.neatorama.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/article-1192276-054d437a000005dc-575_634x734.jpg

you knew what i meant dude. yawning @ you

maybe you need to go on a vision quest and learn how to read

christ get a room you two

i haven't fucked a sock since high school

okay no

i laughed

lol

http://dinosaursinnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/221106-unizoom2.jpg

Only vision quest I've ever done was when I picked up my new glasses.

I do love "1981."

"'81," rather.

retagged "51" in my playlist - sounds better now

the more i listen to this the more i think she could have just released the first disc as a whole album and i would have been satisfied

second disc pretty important too imo. third disc i'm not totally sold on.

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/newsom2.JPG

http://i49.tinypic.com/igcjed.jpg

I swear that "slow as molasses [. . .] time passes" line is from the opening theme song to Evening Shade...

http://sharetv.org/images/evening_shade-show.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV0PfHemuvs

snorg girl looks crazy

xxxp

calling a song about AD 1, '81 is very shrewd

so is the domesticated wolf story — it's the whole born-in-the-80s thing of being aware of how ludicrous yr attempts at 'spirituality' are and feeling the need to undercut them

on the other hand ppl seem v capable of missing the point

where is that gif oh yeah:

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj303/Thatairsoftkid/HatersGonnaHate.jpg

yeah i thought the wolf story was kind of sweet. clearly it was an experience that meant a lot to her but its also clear how silly she realizes the whole thing was

And then I saw three white wolves...

http://timberwolfhq.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/3-wolves-howling-tshirt.jpg

http://maliciousglee.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/joanna-newsom.jpg

Has she always made such faces while singing?

Thats what I was wondering, never watched any live performances before this. I wondered if she has always done that, or if that was something that went along with her voice changes.

Yeah, gotta admit that it was a bit offputting. I don't recall this from the concert I saw, but maybe I just forgot. I feel pretty confident saying that the facial contortions and other odd tics are not at all necessary to achieve a particular vocal effect.

fallon clip is a good song.

kinda reminds me of brian wilson's weird facial contortions

i don't think the faces were a put on...kinda weird but lots of times it looks like she might have some issues with singing and playing piano at the same time, like she would make a little face before a chord change or something..or maybe they are just tics she developed when she was learning...i do little weird things playing bass cuz it's just habit

Yeah, I don't think they are put on either, just a bit odd. Didn't keep me from enjoying her performance.

She certainly does it - or has done it - playing harp, no doubt because of how she has to awkwardly turn to face the mic. Not a lot of harp playing vocalists to compare to.

ah man whose that one NY art scene transvestite dude that does the harp stuff??? gah i saw him once opening for someone

Baby Dee?

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1303/1071346137_0536951fab.jpg

the jimmy fallon clip reinforces my impression that she's really toned down the vocal tics, and as a result, her material is a lot easier to digest and enjoy. her voice is so much better on what i've heard from this disc than it has been in the past.

Shame about the song.

lol