THE BEARS ARE INCAPABLE OF BEARING WITH THEMSELVES @sidebears - Tumblr Blog

#kindle #the yellow king #the king in yellow #book #fiction #robert w. chambers

My (hopefully not too) poor attempt of a cover

Made this super awkward looking elmo with the ever great Paper app #madewithpaper / fiftythree.com

#paper #madewithpaper #drawing #elmo #sesame street #illustration

One of the virtues of drink was how it reduced life to these simple matters, which engaged all the attention; seeing, walking, raising a bottle to the hole in your face. As though you were two years old again. No thoughts but simple ones. And an imaginary friend to talk to. He stopped walking; he had come up against a more-or-less solid wall; he rested and thought Lost

John Crowley's "Little, Big"

#quote #john crowley #drunk #literature #alcohol

#drawing #abstract #black and white

#spilled ink #writing #creative writing #poem #poetry #words

A review of Chvrches' The Bones of What You Believe

Impulse bought this during a visit to a record store recently. For reasons I can’t remember, I’d always assumed that barring the singles, the record would be average at best. And what a wrong assumption that was.

Overall, it is a very heartfelt yet dance-y record. The 3 first songs (the mother we share, we sink, gun) provide non-stop moment of head-nodding joy. The darker and more atmospheric songs, such as closer you caught the light give out a glimpse that they are also able to deliver with the more complex arrangements and to vary the overall mood of the record. Lead vocalist’s voice, brimming with such grace and feel-good positivity, suits the synth-heavy music perfectly. Far from being average, this is a record that I’d wished I bought much sooner.

Sample (from Chvrches' Soundcloud):

#music #album review #album #the bones of what you believe #soundcloud #chvrches

"Feed", Made With Paper

#MadeWithPaper #illustration #drawing #bird

#writing #creative writing #poem #poetry #spilled ink #words

#ios #huemore #photos #mountains #ios photos #photography #landscape

#words #poetry #poem #spilled ink #writing #creative writing

#writing #creative writing #spilled ink #poem #poetry #words #world poetry day #worldpoetryday

#writing #creative writing #spilled ink #poem #poetry

2013 in music, part I

The year 2013 has been very kind to me, music wise. It saw two of my most favorite bands, Yo La Tengo and The National, release a very good album. Discovery-wise though, it’s been limited. Probably me just being senile and not wanting to risk spending great portion of my money on “risky” albums. Do keep in mind that It’s not just 2013-released music. With a long queue of “to-purchase” albums that are still well populated (been maintaining: adding stuff, reordering stuff, etc. since 2011), most of my “new music” in 2013, weren’t released in 2013. So please do bear with me with some of these outdated stuffs.

First and foremost, the non-2013 releases.

Handsome Furs - Face Control (2009) Got this due to the fact that the guy is (was?) also in Wolf Parade. Dance and guitar-heavy music elements nicely combined to make a solid, easy-listening album. One particular line always sticks to me: “I don’t know but I’ve been told every little thing has been bought and sold” from Talking Hotel Arbat Blues. A traditional punky line sang in such a laidback manner followed by a tasty guitar-line. Pretty sweet.

Wilco - The Whole Love (2011)

Like many others, I adore Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (YHF). That fragile feel it brought to me is pretty scarce to be gotten from any other albums by any band. With that in mind, I bought The Whole Love. Well, frankly, I didn’t get what I expected. It’s pretty different to YHF. Here, the songs are better polished, with more emphasis on electric guitars. There are some slowies in here, but its more upbeat counterparts are the highlights for me. The opener, “the art of almost”, in particular, relies on slow-building, guitar-riff loops that end with a very loud bang. It’s very good, but I was just expecting something different.

The Microphones - It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water (2000) Gotta be honest with this one. I haven’t really clicked with the album in its entirety. However, it has 3 of the best songs I’ve heard all year. “The Pull” and “The Glow” with the quick change of tempo that explodes with such violence; and the simple, serene and lovely “Sand” (my 3 months old daughter is currently really loving this song).

Low - C’mon (2011)

This is Low doing what they do best: breaking everyone’s heart with grace and beauty that only the likes of Wilco can muster. It opens with an upbeat (for Low’s standard), optimistic sounding “Try to sleep”. Yet, the lyric is anything but, such as with the line “.. You try to sleep, but then you never wake up..”. This formula is repeated throughout, with the highlight that is “Done” with its heartbreaking, minimalist sound that is in line with its “giving it all up” theme. To conclude, this fulfilled my yearning for more of Wilco’s yankee hotel foxtrot that the whole love failed to deliver.

Others of note:

How to Dress Well - Total Loss (2012) - my tumblr review here

Volcano! - Paperwork (2008) - possibly one of my most favorite bands at the moment; expect a dedicated blog post about them sometime in the future

Frightened Rabbit - Winter of Mixed Drinks (2010)

The Wave Pictures - Long Black Cars (2012)

That’s probably it for now. The next part, purely about the 2013 releases, will be posted later

#year in review #year in music #2013 #music #handsome furs #wilco #the microphones #low #how to dress well #volcano!#frightened rabbit #the wave pictures

A review of Charles Bukowski's Post Office

A dirty, funny and bittersweet tale of a common man's misadventures in life, revolving loosely on his work in the Post Office. The best thing about it is that it could manage to be very funny (I mean, proper LOL funny) while maintaining a very dark, and somehow sad feel that gradually builds until the third act. It also helps that despite the main guy’s drinking and shagging extremities, his tale is one that most people can easily relate to; with struggles at day to day work (e.g. being sore from sitting too much in the office), relationships and dealing with pets.

#book review #books #fiction #charles bukowski #post office #literature #lit

A review of Max Brooks' World War Z

A very refreshing, "human", take on the good old zombie apocalypse theme. As the title suggested, it tells the human kind's struggle with zombie crisis, as told by various people from all around the world with first hand "experience" on the initial attack to recovery.

While it lacks scares in the traditional sense (there's a few though), it relies heavily on how us as human react in the face of a zombie adversity, whether as an individual or group (e.g. country). The individual PoV hits it for me, particularly how common people can succumb to depression, insanity and how they give in or recover from it. There's some kick-ass zombie kicking action in here as well; but just not in a hollywood scale of 1 guy against 1000 zombies type of kick-assing.

To sum up, if a non-fiction accounts of people who survived zombie apocalypse is going to be written, it would somehow be similar to Max Brooks' World War Z.

#world war z #max brooks #book review #fiction #book #literature #lit

Serene strings and other stuffs

#guitar #ios app #hueless #black and white #photos #stairs #photography #art

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