boohooboo

boohooboo

it’s so embarrassing.

(Source: boohooboo)

this is a bit of video of the final match in the tournament they had before/after tonight’s Hollywood Theatre screening of a new documentary about competitive tetris players called “Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters”.

playing tetris on a movie theater screen was an awesome first for me. i’m on the right, my good friend Kevin Birrell, who also happens to be probably the best tetris player in north america, is on the left.

it’s sort of slightly maybe but not really that seriously important to note that, while kevin and i have both, over many years, invested an absurd amount of time and effort into playing tetris, neither of us have any idea how to play the SNES version seen here, or the NES version seen in the film. we’re sort of snooty, highbrow, pretentious tetris aficionados who only really care about the japanese Arika arcade games known as the “Tetris The Grand Master” series. that being said, i thought the movie was awesome, i really loved it, i think they did a fantastic job making it, and i had a great time meeting some of the people involved. if you have the chance, go see it! so awesome!

much love,
-mat

intheaeroplaneoveraveryisland

intheaeroplaneoveraveryisland

in absurdly good company.

go look at all of the crazy fucked up awesome that Philip Dearest does. rad deals.

love this,
-mat 

143monsters

143monsters

awww—a very sweet reference to the great Padraic Finbar Hagerty-Hammond’s song “I Can’t Sing (But I Love You)“ as seen here:

mp3 of this recording is here.

(Source: 143monsters)

Okay - “My” - Live at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco (2.21.2012)

Okay played their first show in some years last night and here is some video from it!

for those unaware, Okay is the music of Marty Anderson, who previously made music in the consistently fantastic bands Dilute, Howard Hello, and Jacques Kopstein. all of his records are amazing, and he’s been a huge influence on the way that i think about writing and recording (and listening to) music. i really can’t express how exciting it is to see him playing out, and i really can’t wait to see what happens!

much much love to marty,
-mat 

typewrittenword

alittlelissa

typewrittenword:

“This Fool” by The Sarcastic Dharma Society

Submitted by alittlelissa

oooo, i got typewrited. such a cool thing when someone takes something you’ve done and does something else with it. alittlelissa, you’re awesome. i think that’s pretty rad looking, even though this line, and really this whole song, feels frustratingly cheesy to me a lot of the time.

i don’t know if it’s obvious to people or uninteresting to people, but the part typed out here is a direct reference to the first line of the French Quarter song “Build Fires”:

our wills and our ways
are two very different things

which, if i remember correctly, was originally written as a poem by someone else (i don’t have my record in front of me and i can’t find the credits online anywhere, sorry to you, unnamed incredible writer of words) and then set to music by Stephen Steinbrink. i love this song. it’s fucking fantastic. and that line is so understated and so beautiful and so sad and so universal and so honest without trying to be anything. (as are most french quarter songs) i’m really interested in the weird sort of hypocrisy thing where people so often knowingly, willingly, regretfully, “sin”. we’re just so goddamn fallible. and impulsive. and weird!

that said, i suppose my line is less about personal shortcomings and more about all of the circumstance and mistakes and unintended consequences, and the sort of naive futility in “wanting” things, which is sort of an integral part of “sadness”, and which i have come to see as sort of the center of a lot of feelings and emotions (and, consequently, a lot of art): expecting one thing, receiving another—that you don’t really like as much.

i’m generally opposed to the whole “songs about writing songs” thing, mainly because it seems really indulgent when i do it, and pushes things into that “journaling” direction that i’m not very interested in. that is, i want to write something honest, but, more so, i want to convey something honest, in the best way that i can, which is rarely accomplished by taking a picture of my frowny face in the mirror. if it had fit the consonants better, i probably would have written “painter paints” to avoid feeling douchey, but, again, here i’m really just talking about “art”, and really only to talk about the strong emotions and difficult experiences that make our lives ridiculous and confusing; that make us “feel” things.

the other frustrating deal, is that it’s usually important to me to make sure that whatever i’m writing into a song sounds like something that could be spoken aloud in conversation without prompting someone to ask “what’s that from?”, and no part of this particular song really passes that test. it’s written from a much less “human” perspective than i’m accustomed to, and even though it’s a really intentional thing, it’s still difficult for me to read back and not feel insincere about. i guess it’s just not the voice i’m most comfortable being responsible for.

the three pieces of this song were written at three different points, each about a year apart from each other (in reverse chronological order) so some of these words are remnants of long gone thoughts and struggles, which can be a weird process. it took me a long time to feel like i was really saying anything clearly with it, and i still go back and forth a lot, feeling like i need to scrap the whole thing and try again, but, whatevs, it’s chill, i like pieces of it a lot, and i like the overall vibe of the thing. it’s also, on its own, at shows, quite a thing getting to scream “how worthless i am” at people. i don’t have a lot of moments like that in my songs. or in my life. i suppose most people don’t. weird dealz, man.

much love,
-mat

Lev did a valentine’s day thing. i used to go to in-n-out a lot.

<3,
-mat 

first comic from Levni Yilmaz’s upcoming book/DVD “The Doom Room”. If you haven’t seen all of this dude’s “Tales Of Mere Existence” youtube videos, i recommend you go watch all of this dude’s “Tales Of Mere Existence” youtube videos.

xgetxlonelyx

xgetxlonelyx

xgetxlonelyx:

The  Sarcastic Dharma Society - First day of my life ( bright eyes cover)