There’s an interesting article on MusicThinkTank.com that I just read titled “Farewell to the Casual Music Fan” which personifies the super fan/true fan. Interesting, lengthy read that we’ve all been crying/screaming about for years. Find it under the jump…

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teaser.

…and it’s hard to ignore that it feels like summer all the time.

i bought myself a present today. soon to be proud owner of a signed/numbered badass screen print from one of my favorite contemporary artists:

yeah yeah!!!

My favorite releases of 2009:

1. Passion Pit “Manners”
2. Band of Skulls “Baby Darling Doll Face Honey”
3. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Its Blitz!”
4. Metric “Fantasies”
5. Jacks Mannequin “The Dear Jack EP”
6. Grizzly Bear “Veckatimest”
7. Conor Oberst “Outer South”
8. Fun. “Aim and Ignite”

Most listened to albums from the past:

1. The Arcade Fire “Neon Bible”
2. The Arcade Fire “Funeral”
3. Cat Power “The Greatest”
4. Wilco “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”
5. Bob Dylan “Greatest Hits”
6. The Beatles “Abbey Road”
7. Radiohead “In Rainbows”
8. Radiohead “OK, Computer”

(I wish that I could make it past the number 7 on my favorite releases of 2009, but in all honesty, I can’t say that I was impressed with very much more…)

“Sharpen the tongue, but by all means, protect the heart.”

I feel like I’ve abandoned my blog a bit this semester and I apologize sincerely.  My first semester in the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts is officially over and it gave me a first class ass kicking.  We watched over fifty films and television shows over the sixteen week period, analyzed the unanalyzable and made me absolutely sick of watching films (only for a short while, I hope.)  For those that don’t know me well, I transferred in enough credits for about half of my undergraduate degree, so I’m not starting from scratch (in case you were wondering…)

I have also worked on some incredible projects.  A segment that I did for the Inglourious Basterds DVD will be coming out on the worldwide DVD release of the film.  I also shot in the studio with a bunch of new artists and spent a ton of time working with my friends at Shangri-La Music.

In fact, last night I directed a multi-camera live shoot for Band of Skulls (check ‘em out!!!) at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.  The show was beyond sold out and we had cameras planted in just about every corner of the venue.  A few really great friends came out to help on the shoot and definitely made it a success.  I’ll spend the next couple of weeks in the editing bay now.  We’ll see how my sanity keeps up in those stages of production…

I also took a mid-semester trip to Boston to visit my friends at Emerson.  It was pretty strange being back in the city after such an abrupt harsh ending this past May.  My brother and a bunch of friends from all over the East Coast came to visit. We had a formal dinner at Kingston Station and spent hours in the North End.  New England during autumn is gorgeous and I was there for the perfect weekend.  We got a downpour of rain, freezing weather and then a beautiful last day (it was like a sampling of the seasons…)

Thanksgiving break came and went faster than my usual weekend (I had school three days a week, so my non-school days outweighed them…)  My family celebrated in Santa Barbara with the aunts, uncles and cousins.  That is always a pleasure and extremely relaxing.  My brother and high school friends came back to Los Angeles for a couple of days, so it was a constant rush to see everyone.

I can’t complete this entry without saying that one of my best friends – who ditched me for the road for four months or so – finally arrived back in Los Angeles.  I’ve been spending enormous amounts of time in Venice and I am slowly gravitating back to a (possible) westside lifestyle.  Abbot Kinney, you are undeniably awesome.

In order to see some sort of snow, Sir Leming and I decided to travel up into the mountains outside of Los Angeles.  Actually, we were hunting for locations to take some pictures and realized that the downpour in Los Angeles probably meant snow in the mountains.  We went out to Frazier Park and, sure enough, ran around in the snow for an hour or so.  As soon as we got back home, I turned on the news and found out that they shut down the freeway that we took because there was just way too much snow to deal with.  It was some sort of mid-finals day long vacation that made me (I think that I can speak for both of us…) remember again why traveling with him is so awesome.

I know that it isn’t Winter just yet, but we’ve had a few weeks of cold weather.  Because of that, you can drive pretty much anywhere in the city and look out to the snow on the mountains that surround it.  Los Angeles is beautiful and I’m so glad that I’m here.