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ByGD
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Pollyblog: Iceland on My Mind

Pollyblog: 1. When you don’t want to say too much, but 140 characters just won’t cover it. 2. Good ideas that haven’t got their legs yet.

You know how when you buy a new car, you suddenly see that kind of car everywhere? Or you discover a new band, and suddenly it seems like everyone else is talking about them, too?

Lately, I’m having that experience with Iceland. Since coming home from Airwaves, I’ve written about my trip nonstop. When I finally wrapped up all my interviews, and “what I did in Iceland” blog posts, I thought I would be able to go back to my normal life. And in many ways I have. But it seems like Iceland is lurking around every corner.

I walk down the street, and the bus driving past me reminds me of Iceland.

Iceland bus ad

I clean up the house, and stumble on unintentional souvenirs.

Icelandic water bottle

I pick up a new tube of mascara and only think to look at the ingredients after I get home.

mascara made with Icelandic moss

Sometimes, when I’m convinced that I don’t have a thing to wear and need to buy clothes, I look up the day’s date on The Uniform Project. It’s a nice reminder that taking a new look at your clothes is cheaper than buying something new and just as effective. So last week when I did this, look what I found. (Note the collar.)

uniform project with Icelandic knit

Day 238. Thu, December 24 2009

Santa’s little helper

Hand knitted icelandic collar made by Bebe. Thrifted blouse from Beacons Closet, vintage suede hat from a brooklyn antique warehouse, tights from Sockdreams and vintage boots from eBay.

I am trying desperately to find meaning in these coincidences. I think I need to watch I Heart Huckabees again to see what the coincidences with the African guy meant. I vaguely remember that they were just coincidences and meant nothing.

Now that I think about it, I Heart Huckabees stars Jason Schwartzman, whose brother Robert Schwartzman was in the movie I watched last night, The Princess Diaries (it was kids’ choice) with Anne Hathaway. She was also in Brokeback Mountain with Heath Ledger. He was in the Batman series. Batman Begins, the first in that series, was filmed in Iceland. So there’s that, too.

What, you think I’m stretching?

ByGD
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Pollyblog: Sudden Weather Change

Pollyblog: 1. When you don’t want to say too much, but 140 characters just won’t cover it. 2. Good ideas that haven’t got their legs yet.

My first experience with Sudden Weather Change was at the Reykjavík Calling show that KEXP put on at Neumo’s in October. The show featured Ásgeir Trausti, Sudden Weather Change, and Apparat Organ Quartet from Iceland; and Redwood Plan from Seattle. There was also this cool thing where the Icelandic bands worked with local writers and the Seattle band worked with an Icelandic writer to create new music for the show, but describing that would turn this into a proper post instead of a pollyblog.

Sudden Weather Change

I use this picture a lot.

Sudden Weather Change lived up to their name with music that shifted from abrasive punk to melodic indie so suddenly that sometimes they were actually doing both at once. It was angular and unexpected and awesome and I couldn’t wait to see them again at Airwaves a couple weeks later. Except somehow, I didn’t, and Sudden Weather Change became one of the ones who got away.

Eureka!

Recently, I discovered this gem on KEXP, and got a Eureka! moment  when I heard that the band’s first album was straight up garage rock. They weren’t satisfied with it, so they started working to develop a new sound with a producer – Ben Frost at Greenhouse Studios.

Greenhouse Studios

Greenhouse Studios

I visited Greenhouse Studios to interview Bedroom Community co-founder Valgeir Sigurðsson when I was in Reykjavík. Preparing for the interview, I had listened to music from each of the label’s major members, which is how I became acquainted with Ben Frost. All of the Bedroom Community folks do experimental, primarily electronic music, but each has a different take on the fundamental concept. Frost has a more industrial aesthetic, which makes him more accessible to me than some of the other members of the community.

E = mc2

Garage band + Ben Frost = Sudden Weather Change

Simple equations that tell great stories.

{2018 Update: Sudden Weather Change, like most of the bands listed on this page, have since split up. You can hear some of their members in Oyama.}

ByGD
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Pollyblog: When I Go Out With Artists (in Iceland)

Pollyblog: 1. When you don’t want to say too much, but 140 characters just won’t cover it. 2. Good ideas that haven’t got their legs yet.

Some people make things more interesting by adding “in bed” to the end of every statement. I use the phrase “in Iceland.” Anyhoo, this one time at band camp, I mean in Iceland, I interviewed many bands and it was very cool and I learned many interesting things. I am fascinated by what is, to me, the mysterious process of creating something new and beautiful. And the whole time I was doing interviews with bands in Iceland, this song was stuck in my head.

 

Here are the lyrics to “When I Go Out With Artists,” off the Crash Test Dummies 1993 album, God Shuffled His Feet. I copied them from this website because I’m too lazy to dig out my old CD and type them in.

When I go out with artists
They talk about language and the cubists and the dadaist
And I try to catch their meanings
And keep up with all the martinis
I don’t know which should be my favorite paintings

If I could see, if I could see, if I could
See all the symbols, unlock what they mean
Maybe I could, maybe I could, maybe I
Could meet the artists, and get to know them personally

If I were David Byrne
I’d go to galleries and not be too concerned
Well I would have a cup of coffee
And I’d find my surroundings quite amusing and
People would ask me which were my favorite paintings

What if the artists ran the TV?
All the ads would be for fine scotch whiskey:
Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, the whole single malt family

The artists of the future
Will make up new things and different nomenclatures
And they’ll stand amongst their pictures
And they’ll sing and laugh and quote from scriptures and
When they go home they’ll dream of brilliant paintings

ByGD
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We Got a Family Here

tadpole clip art

Pollyblog: 1. When you don’t want to say too much, but 140 characters just won’t cover it. 2. Good ideas that haven’t got their legs yet.

Family, Defined

Because our family is partly built through adoption, we spend a little more time defining what ‘family’ means.

I mentioned that I returned from Iceland Airwaves to a lice breakout at my daughter’s school. Ever since, I have spent up to two hours each night checking every head in the house for recurrences. Like the monsters in horror movies, every time I think it’s over, they rise from the dead to attack again.

This has resulted in some very cranky exchanges, as my daughters begin to take every tugged tangle personally, and I fight the urge to scream in frustration. Tonight the girls’ dad tried to break the negativity by letting each girl pick the music we listened to while they got their heads checked.

My oldest immediately shouted, “Lady Gaga!” A second later, she said, “No, wait. Journey, because that’s less annoying for mommy.”

The result; me and my daughter belting out “Don’t Stop Believing” as I searched her head for lice.

Raising Arizona

And I thought of  the words of H.I. McDunna, “What! We got a family here!”

 

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