nonpretentious

While we do have a mix tape prepared – or, shall I say, while we did have a mix tape prepared – thanks to the wonderfully fabulous, genuinely hilarious Sasha Pasulka, we are going to postpone publishing Sasha’s mix for one week.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we were unexpectedly unavailable. (Read: We’d tell you more but then we’d have to kill you.)

We feel that Sasha deserves the full attention of the nonpretentious audience. (What we like to call “the I-bored-at-work-so-I’m-surfing-the-web crowd.”) Unfortunately, most Americans have decided to take the day off. Slackers.

In the meantime, we’ll listen to Sasha’s mix and brag about it thoroughly. You, on the other hand, may want to catch up on your Evil Beet Gossip and
Zelda Lily. There will be quizzes next week.

Upon first glance, it’s hard not to compare Jenny Deller to Al Gore.  (Although, let’s face it, Jenny Deller is much better looking.)

In Future Weather, Jenny’s first feature film, the main character finds the effects of global warming so terrifying that she sets out to try to stop it.

As it states on the eco-film section of the film’s website:

One of our key aims in getting Future Weather in front of audiences is to raise awareness about global warming now.

Moreover, like Vice President Gore, Jenny Deller’s efforts to bring awareness to environmental issues extend off-screen. The Future Weather team maintains a complementary blog documenting the filmmakers self-described “humble efforts to develop a sustainable independent film + news, interviews and commentary on all things green.” (As if working on a movie wasn’t enough work….)

Heck, even Future Weather’s website is doing its part to save the environment. Ecological Hosting “operates from a data centre running on solar power with a solar panel array capable of generating upto sixty kilowatt-hours of electricity each day.”

Upon second glance, the similarities start to fade and Jenny shines through for what she is: a damn good storyteller.

* * *

When Jenny Deller tells me how Future Weather was born, she describes an imaginary postcard that relays a message like this:

“Dear 13-year-old daughter,” writes single mother. “I’ve longed to move to California to try my luck in show business. I’m sorry I had to abandon you but I need to follow my dreams. I left you some money in the cookie jar. I love you.”

While those aren’t Jenny’s exact words, it is a fair representation of the image that inspired her: A flimsy piece of cardstock that tells so little and changes so much.

After hearing this, all I can think about is the very first story I wrote in college. It too started with an image of a postcard, never sent, but tacked to a wall.

Feeling self-conscious that I only think about myself, I quickly replace that thought. I think about an essay I recently read by Michael Chabon who also tacked his inspiration to a wall. Not a postcard, his inspiration took a more literal shape. It was an incomplete map of his childhood neighborhood given to him by one of the developers.

Chabon reminds his readers of the power of maps, citing other literary examples – Heart of Darkness, for one.

He expresses gratitude for being given this map. In years to come, it would serve as inspiration to explore a modern day terra incognita – the unknown world of writing.

* * *

Beyond Laduree’s experiments, Future Weather depicts not one but three characters – Laduree, Laduree’s mom, and Laduree’s grandmother – trying to make sense of their environment.

It’s Jenny Deller’s talents as a storyteller, how she navigates through the complex relationships between mothers and daughters, that have the biggest impact on her audience.

It’s the final days of the competition. Take a few minutes and vote for Future Weather. If you already have, why not pass it on to a friend?

With Michael Jackson’s death, Perez Hilton’s reporting of Michael Jackson’s death, and reporting on Twitter’s reporting of Michael Jackson’s death, it’s hard to think that anything else went on in the world this week.

Die hard cultural connoisseurs may have caught glimpse that Farrah Fawcett also passed away, the NBA draft occurred, the Supreme Court ruled the strip-search of a 13-year-old girl illegal, and violence in Iraq heated up.

If you missed any of those headlines, you can think of yourself as caught up. No news source was wasting pages on these items.

It makes sense then that the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post hardly wasted a breath – a sentence, a web page – on a story about Chris Anderson’s verbatim use of Wikipedia entries in his new book “Free.”  The story, scooped by those literary nerds over at the Virginia Quarterly Review, could not compete with the juicier pieces of the week and was left to cultural irrelevance.  No matter that Anderson serves as Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine nor that he’s author of the NY Times Bestseller, “The Long Tail.”

The short of it:

The VQR realizes that many passages from Chris Anderson’s new book resemble Wiki entries and report on the issue (complete with highlighted comparisons).

Anderson admits to his errors and explains them as oversight during a rushed, final stage of the drafting process. His publisher supports Anderson’s story and apology. Anderson engages with readers of the VQR piece and responds in the comments himself.

For those who think this story is less culturally relevant than Michael Jackson’s death, I hear you.  I’ll be the first to admit that the story lacks the appeal of a major celebrity’s death, the circumstances thereof, and the consequences thereto.  Surely, it does not reveal who owns the rights to the Beatles songs or the liability of MJ’s personal doctor.  However, let me bring up a few talking points – the sexiest that I can think of – to try to persuade you that this news item is as complex as Liza Minelli’s prediction of Michael Jackson’s autopsy results.

1.  The LA Times cited to a commenter on Gawker who said, “‘Can’t decide which is more embarrassing — failing to cite Wikipedia as a source or using Wikipedia as a source.’”

Is it irresponsible to research on Wikipedia?  Doesn’t this prove that Wikipedia is a go-to source for many people, not only asinine college students who don’t know any better?

Hasn’t the site put in safeguards to make sure the information is accurate and complete? When will it be legitimate to cite to Wikipedia as a source of information without the stigma of lazy college student?

2.  The call-and-response function of comments sections on blogs.  Anderson manned up to his error and addressed the source itself via comments.  If plagiarism lowers our respect or trust for an author, has Anderson’s honesty mitigated these consequences?

3.  In a world where Kaavya Viswanatha and Jayson Blair faced massive repercussions for their plagiarism, why haven’t there been more news outlets reporting on Anderson’s actions?

Dear Undergrad,

You are correct, my young padawan. The Force is strong with you. It obviously took all of your reasoning and logic skills to figure out that the reason I decided to screen Fahrenheit 911 was because I had not prepared a lesson for the week. No, I don’t actually think you will learn anything you don’t already know from the movie. But it will, nonetheless, provide me with some much needed relief from having to prepare lessons and grade papers for at least three class periods: two to watch, one for debate (i.e. I sit at the desk and pretend to listen to you prats argue back and forth about what you perceive to be well-reasoned arguments but are in actual fact long held prejudices handed down from your parents and/or peers).

It is obvious, however, that you weren’t paying attention on the day I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt and try to teach you something. That would be the lesson on Logical Fallacies. You wrote (p.s. I’ve edited your post for grammar and style issues. Forgive me, force of habit):

Simply, I’m not sure I can respect you. For one, your entire community seems to be divided into two equally unappealing camps:

1) People with knowledge, ambition, and sensitivity—who are painfully awkward and have physical deformities that will sabotage the attention of a lecture hall for eternity (female mustache, dental work that deserves its own multi-disciplinary study, bookshelf-sized booty);.

2) The funny, outgoing, individuals who lack a working knowledge of anything, but still try and speak with authority in front of sort-of-impressionable students. In some alternate universe, I’d call you “cool” or facebook friend you. Even if we shared a sizable wall-to-wall, it couldn’t justify taking your suggestions to heart.

What you have exhibited above is called the “False Dichotomy,” or sometimes called the “either-or” fallacy. It is characterized by the presentation of merely two options or solutions to a problem or condition. Often, one of the options is overwhelmingly undesirable, so we are really only being presented with one option. At first glance, you seem to genuinely provide us with two options, both equally undesirable. But you continue:

But its it’s what your camps share that’s the most upsetting. As academia’s freshest faces, you should be able to connect with us, or at least impart some kind of understanding and optimism about our experiences. Instead, you seem no more human than our god-complex professors and cracked-out advisors.

You have cleverly disguised your single gripe as two equally undesirable categories, attempting to fool me into choosing the lesser of two evils, when in fact, in your parochial worldview there is only one type of graduate student: one who is “no more human than [your] god-complex professors and cracked-out advisors.”

I sympathize with you. No, actually, I empathize with you. For you see, I have been in your position. I have had that graduate student instructor who seemingly doesn’t care or doesn’t know. But now I am a graduate student and I can emphatically tell you this: I am both, I am neither, I am someone you have not even bothered to think of with your selfish, unseeing blob of gray matter you call a brain.

Most of the time I know what I’m talking about. Some of the time I don’t care about what I am supposed to be teaching you. And certainly, on occasion I have no idea what I’m talking about. I do wish and hope you think I’m “cool” or “with it,” as it can only add to my credibility as instructor and purveyor of knowledge. But if you plagiarize, cheat, or blatantly display a lack of interest in my class or subject, I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think of me.

But let me answer your final question, my eager apprentice. For in posing your final question, you inspire in me the possibility that you did listen as I explained the finer points of Post-structuralism as exhibited in the Architect/Neo conversation scene in The Matrix: Reloaded (this is an example of that fresh-faced enthusiasm that you crave); that we are constantly being fooled into thinking we have only one or two choices, when in fact we have an infinite number of choices to choose from in any given situation, for any given problem. Those graduate students who you perceive to have lost their humanity have indeed given up and are “hoop jumping, groveling, and eating shit until [they] are published/tenured/die.” But there are those of us who still believe that we have choices other than those few that are presented to us. And we try hard to negotiate the restrictive course descriptions, grading policies, and course content requirements to make the course we teach certainly more interesting and rewarding for you, the undergraduate, but we also do it for our own sanity. And every time you copy and paste shit from wikipedia into your rhetorical analysis paper, the light grows a little dimmer, we lose a little more hope, we become slightly less human. And so I’ll ask this of you–the same thing I ask all of my students at the beginning of each term:

1) At the very least, pretend to be interested in my class, you will get a higher participation grade, and I will be less suicidal.

2) Don’t plagiarize. It’s tiring to deal with. And if you are, put a little more work into it and don’t just copy and paste something from one of the top ten Google search results regarding your paper topic. It will at least lead me to believe that you respect my intelligence and years of schooling slightly more than your advisor who has already had to answer, “Is there any way I can get out of this writing credit?” approximately 473,562 times before you arrived on campus wearing your COLLEGE t-shirt. On second thought, don’t go through that much effort, it’s a waste of time, for you and for me.

What it really comes down to is that you musn’t forget the “student” part of Graduate Student Instructor. We’re taking classes, writing theses and dissertations. And the only way we can afford to come to graduate school is to take the measly 10 grand a year for 9 months of lesson planning, teaching, and grading. They don’t offer us scholarships for showing our prize pig at the local 4-H Fair.

Yours with Eager Anticipation,

Graduate Student

I haven’t been much of a betting man ever since my first trip to a casino where I ran up against a table full of unemployed hold ‘em enthusiasts who played to pay the bills, but even I’d find it hard not to wager that Jeff Miller made quick work of this mix tape.

After all, his job as editor of L.A.’s Thrillist.com involves making recommendations every day.  For those of you who don’t know, Thrillist.com is a daily e-mail and online magazine aimed specifically at guys.  The publication maintains its local focus by creating twelve metropolitan-specific editions in addition to its national – best of the web – edition.  Again, Jeff is at the helm in the City of Angels.

Plus, Jeff began his career as a music journalist writing freelance reviews and in-depth artist profiles for Variety, the LA Times, and Relix. When he’s not publishing new or relatively unknown facets of LA’s landscape for Thrillist.com, he continues to write music articles/reviews for various other outlets. Talk about an expert.

And not just the douche-kind of music expert who can answer – er, write – trivia questions.  (Ever play “Shout about Music?”)

Not the kind of expert who has unfounded opinions either.

Though I imagine taste-making and knowledge-sharing take up a decent chunk of Jeff’s time, somehow he still manages to play in the LA-based band City Museum.  If you’re in the area, stop by City Museum’s upcoming gig (with Jake Busey!) at King King on July 2 and/or their annual CityFestockaroo MuseumAchellaPalooza (Man) festival over Labor Day weekend.  (You can also buy their EP from Amazon.)

Jeff spends a ton of time in his car, so for his nonpretentious mix tape, he decided to give us 12 songs that make him want to roll his window down and sing to his neighbor on the 405.

Perfect for summer.  Listen up.

1. Henry Clay People, “Working Part Time”

This sibling-led band’s my favorite local club band, though they’re on the way up right now — they’re playing Lollapalooza later this summer, and are constant tourmates of The Airborne Toxic Event. My friend Kevin Bronson, who runs BuzzBands.LA, describes them as “Pavement Meets Petty,” and he couldn’t be more accurate; they’ve got the countrified soul of Tom and the f-em-all attitude of Steve Malkmus.

2. MGMT, “Time To Pretend”

I feel stupid for even thinking about this song — it ruins my best-new-music kinda indie cred — but what the hell. I love it, no matter how ubiquitous it may be. The only problem with it is that every time I hear it I think about quitting life, heading to the hills, and becoming a hermit, ’cause I’m never going to write a song that good.

3. Jurassic 5, “Concrete Schoolyard”

I grew up in LA and when I was young I was something of a hip-hop head; this song’s got all the elements that made west coast the best coast, back in the day.

4. Cold War Kids, “Hang Me Up To Dry”

Before they broke, I’d go see the Cold War Kids at the Echo or Spaceland. I’m a big guy, and their shirts only were available in small or medium. Eventually, I got upset, and made my own shirt: “Cold War Kids Don’t Make Shirts In My Size.” The guys loved it, and eventually a picture of it ended up on one of their European tour fliers.

5. Wilco, “Heavy Metal Drummer”

Wilco are my favorite band on earth, bar none. I just saw them in Pomona and am planning on seeing them at least three more times this summer. This song captures the feeling of rock-band innocence better than any other I can think of.

6. Portugal. The Man., “People Say” (N/A on iTunes)

This one’s a cheat; I’ve never actually listened to it zipping around in my car. Just saw them at Bonnaroo, though, and to say my mind was blown would be an understatement; they take the proggy aspects of The Mars Volta and take away Cedric’s sometimes-annoying yelp to make it more accessible. Fantastic.

7. Louden Swain, “Rock Song”

OK, this whole tape is ending up being just a bunch of shout-outs to my friend’s bands. So what? This is 4:22 of power-pop perfection.

8. moe., “Plane Crash”

I’ve tried to hide the fact that I’m a jam-band guy (as well as a punk-rock guy, and an indie guy) for far too long, but now that I’m bearded, its much harder. So screw it: this song wails, and live it can go on for 20 or more guitar-helixing minutes.

9. Green Day, “She”

“American Idiot” and “21st Century Breakdown” have gotten all the attention recently, but it’s easy to forget how classic (and consistent) “Dookie” actually is, too: I could have picked any song off that record, and it would be equally applicable.

10. Ben Lee, “Catch My Disease”

So dumb. So clapalongable. So perfect.

11. Steel Train, “Alone On The Sea”

I spent 10 days on the road with this New Jersey band for a story many years ago, and I broke the cardinal rule of rock journalism: I became friends with the rock stars. If Henry Clay People are Petty Meet Pavement, they’re Petty meets Arcade Fire — broad and rootsy, reaching for the stars and for deeper meaning at the same time. This song somehow manages to reference the loneliness of coming home from tour, the devastation of 9/11, and the passing of time while still feeling imminently hopeful.

12. City Museum, “Telephone”

What kind of shameless self-promoter would I be if I didn’t name-check my own band? This song sounds like the Foo Fighters, and takes their place on this list, so instead of it you can swap in just about anything from “One By One” or “The Color and the Shape” and it’ll work.

–
http://nonpretentious.com publishes mix tapes every Wednesday in its [mix tapes] column. Our goal is to create a digital version of trading mixes, sharing music, etc. AND also publicize the work of “common people” (i.e. not superstar celebs but celebs nonetheless) who are doing cool things around the globe.

It was love at first sight when we first heard Jenny Deller, the writer/director of Future Weather, speak at an Ignite Philly event.

Out of all of the awesome (literally, all of them) Ignite Philly presentations, the Future Weather team – Jenny Deller and Kristin Fairweather – made this shy girl go up and introduce herself and beg for an interview.¹

Jenny and Kristin were there promoting Future Weather, the environmentally-friendly story of a young girl’s crusade to change the world. The two emoted enthusiasm, gratitude, and a contagious eco-chic vibe that made me want to take up composting. These two hardworking had something to celebrate.  They had just received word (again, literally) that Future Weather was a finalist in Netflix’s Find Your Voice Competition.²

Now, you probably wouldn’t have guessed that someone (me!), completely inspired by Deller’s mission to make a coming-of-age film reminiscent of some of the best Young Adult fiction out there – Harriet the Spy, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – centered around environmental issues – post-Inconvenient Truth – would miss not one but TWO interviews with the creator.

It’s true.

How can I show Jenny Deller – and the world, for that matter – how excited I am for her film and how thankful I am that she gave me a third chance to pick her brain?

Well, I’ll write a few blogs, of course.

In the spirit of film-making, I present one girl’s story – er, another girl’s story – of realizing that a person’s actions or inactions have consequences, affect others, and can even impact “Future Weather.”

In three acts.

¹ Okay. Maybe I’m not shy. But I was starstruck so it took guts.

² Have you rocked the vote yet?  What about a t-shirt or tree rings tote bag?

One of my sophomore roommates in college said that I’m “open to suggestions,” which is something that has stuck with me because the truth of it was undeniable.

In college, it was true because I would prioritize doing something fun over schoolwork (who didn’t), even though I worked enough that I didn’t have a lot of time for screwing around. Ask if I wanted to do something, and the answer was “yes.” Still is.

I’ve always thought of it as pertaining only to fun things that friends suggest, but recently, I’ve started to consider: have I always taken the path of least resistance? Have I truly made any significant decisions in my life?

Looking back on the college application process in high school, I don’t feel like I prepared well for it. Up until everyone else started applying to colleges, I had no idea what I was going to do after high school. There was only a vague possibility of going to college, and those chances were so remote that I only applied to three schools. I was accepted at two of them, and I went to the better of the two. No decision there.

Law school too. Sure, I took steps to take the LSAT and apply to a few schools, but it was because I was only partially employed at the time that any of that came to pass. Going to law school seemed like a better idea than sitting on the couch for another year or two. It doesn’t feel like it was a real choice.

Every job that I’ve ever taken was because I knew someone who put my resume in; they didn’t necessarily “get me the job,” but it undoubtedly smoothed the application process.

After I had this realization about myself, it occurred to me that it’s probably human nature to take the path of least resistance. Choices that we think we have, we don’t. Everyone does this all the time without thinking about it. When we do think back upon it, we can see it.

What’s the most significant non-decision you’ve made?

It was never easy splitting bilateral beliefs in God. School and home. Methodist. Catholic. That was the great divide. Educated within the confines of Catholicism, born and raised Methodist. Every Sunday, with freedom from Indulgences, saints and the proposed 8th Wonder of the Ancient World, transubstantiation—I downed my shot of Welch’s and Wonder bread, the symbolic body and blood, without the slightest of hesitations.

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Every young girl remembers their first love. For me, his name was Dan and we met in the preschool playground. It was true love – he shared his chicken fingers with me at lunch and always requested to sleep next to me during nap time. It seemed like I had found the man of my dreams. Then, reality hit: First grade. I was going to one elementary school and he was going to another, and we knew that although our love was strong enough to survive the long distance, we needed to branch out and meet new people. It was a hard decision to make, but Dan and I were just looking out for each other’s best interests.

After Dan and I separated, I never thought I could love again. But one day….”Boy Meets World” became a part of my after school routine. Every day after school, I would come home, eat a pickle, and sit in front of the TV and watch two episodes of “Boy Meets World.” While most of you probably watched “Boy Meets World” because of the intense romance between Corey and Topanga, I was focused on something, er, someone, else…..someone that made my heart yearn the same way it used to yearn for Dan: Shawn Rogers. Now, I know Shawn doesn’t have the best reputation – he’s a ladies man who has that bad boy thing going for him – but he took my television boyfriend virginity, and for that reason, he will forever have a place in my heart.

Now, I know some of you are like “TV boyfriend? What is that?” You might be thinking – “tough love is such a fool for loving these boys.” But let me tell you, I’m not alone – each woman (and man, TV girlfriends exist too!) has a TV boyfriend, whether they only watch Jeopardy! (Alex Trebek is shmokin), or if they have a variety of shows they are addicted to. Either way, TV boyfriends/girlfriends are serious. Think about it – our entire lives we are taught “chicks over dicks,” “bros before hos” – so, when we are faced with a tough decision (boyfriend/girlfriend or friends), we choose the latter because that’s what the right decision is. But shouldn’t that rule come into play with TV boyfriends/girlfriends? I mean, think about it, how many times have you “not felt like going out” because you just wanted to stay home and finish the third disc of “insert favorite show with hot tv boyfriend/girlfriend?” Wouldn’t THAT be violating the rules? I think so!

And so, readers of nonpretentious, I wonder – who are your television boyfriends? Who would persuade you to ditch your friends just to watch 17 more episodes of the shoe he stars in? Need inspiration? Read on for my list!

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There are people who influence your life.  Some of these people you’ve met.  Some of these people you aspire to be.  Some you can’t quite place into categories.

These mixes are from, inspired, and made possible by two people who usually stand behind the scenes in the music industry, Paul Sommerstein and Marc Goodman.  So, screw VH1.  We’re celebrating the real people behind the scenes.

DISC ONE:  PAUL SOMMERSTEIN’S PICKS

Paul Sommerstein is an attorney in New York City who specializes in entertainment law.  His bio from his website states this about him:

Print too small?  Too hard for you to understand?  In other words, he is LIVING the dream (well, the dream for anyone who loves music and is an attorney – a small niche, perhaps).  He’s also living proof that there are cool lawyers.  And, judging by our e-mail exchanges – he’s even more living proof that not all lawyers are twiddling their thumbs waiting for layoffs in this economy.  (I guess it helps that he’s self-employed.  But, again, that’s besides the point.)

Because he obviously has better music taste than most people on this planet – we here at nonpretentious asked him to make a mix for us.  (We’re so happy he said “yes!”)  How many songs on this mix do you know?  If it’s more than two (our score), you’re good in our book.

DISC TWO:  A SAMPLE OF PAUL SOMMERSTEIN’S CLIENTS

And, we also decided to make a mix of a few of his clients – just to give you musical proof about why he’s so cool!

DISC THREE:  STRANGE WEATHER MIX

Marc Alan Goodman is an owner and engineer at Strange Weather recording studio in Brooklyn NY. By himself and along with his studio partner Joel Hamilton he’s worked on records with Tom Waits, Jolie Holland, Soulive, Lettuce, Talib Kweli, Mike Patton, Michel Gondry, Marc Ribot, Zeena Parkins, 2 Foot Yard, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Alfonso Velez, Deradoorian, Lou Reed, Beauty Pill, Colin Stetson, and tons more. He also has played in a number of touring bands over the last decade including illuminea, Circle and Square, and his current project Model Barbers.

More importantly, Marc Alan Goodman was my first crush ever (…a girl knows how to pick ‘em…). AND, this nonpretentious contributor/editor distinctly remembers when Marc Alan Goodman called her out for having her first crush ever. It was at the pencil sharpener. In a Hebrew school classroom. In fourth grade.

HE (in all of his infinite fourth grade wisdom): My mom said you were mean to me because you secretly like me.

ME (in all of my infinite fourth grade wisdom): No way! I am mean to you because you are a(n ever so dreamy!) dork!

(Note: That’s definitely not how the conversation went. I only remember the “he” part and I don’t even remember that part too well. I only remember how embarrassed I felt when that little tattletale called me out! From that day forward, I swore I’d never admit my feelings for someone. He scarred me for life – that’s why I am pretending here and now – in this revised version – that I called him a dork. Anyway, I’ll get over it.)

Marc Alan Goodman continues to impress me. He is less than thirty years old but he’s been passionate about this recording stuff for as long as I can remember.¹ The folks at nonpretentious are excited for his mix tape, which we’ll present to you without further ado.

Artist – Song – Album²

Chavez – Break Up Your Band – Gone Glimmering
Something all good bands should do at some point. Chavez then took their own advice.

Jolie Holland – Corrido por Buddy – The Living and The Dead

I never thought that within three years I’d go from listening to Jolie Holland every day to recording her most recent album. Jolie couldn’t even play this song without crying the first few times we tried. I still hear it in her voice.

Deradoorian – High Road – Mind Raft EP

Angel is a musical prodigy. It was an honor to get to record the drums for this song, and I’m hoping she can find time to keep working on her own stuff while touring with the Dirty Projectors

Alfonso Velez – Plymouth Barracuda – The Weather

The third and final song that I recorded on my playlist. Alfonso is one of those people who you just know is going to be a legend in twenty years. If there’s any record to buy someone as a gift this is it.

Bran Van 3000 – Couch Surfer – Glee (N/A on iTunes, Amazon link)

James Di Salvio’s bored affectation was always a treat for me. And having spent my own years as a couch surfer since I can finally understand his understated annoyance. What a bunch of jerks we are.

Nina Simone – It Be’s That Way Sometimes – Silk and Soul

Of all Nina’s records this one comes out of the box the hardest. The drums make almost no sense but she’s never been one afraid to take things in a whole new direction.

Jon Guez – Tired of These Butterflies – Compassionately Drawn (N/A on iTunes, myspace)

Super-genius Jon Guez’s tireless tirade against indecision will always stand up amongst my favorite music of all time. I just wish other people would hear it. Not available on itunes, but you can get it on vinyl. Just ask.

Tom Waits – Strange Weather – Beautiful Maladies (N/A on iTunes, Amazon link)

The song that’s title inspired my studio. Not his greatest song of all time, but one few people have heard. Though originally written for Marianne Faithful I still thing Tom’s version is better.

Bill Withers – Ain’t No Sunshine – Just As I Am

Speaks for itself

Nina Simone – Don’t Smoke in Bed – Little Girl Blue

Advice you can’t turn down. She’s leaving, you’re leaving, anyone’s leaving. Just remember…

Kate Bush – The Sensual World – The Sensual World

A lot of people seem to consider this album the end of Kate Bush’s career. If you ask me it’s a high point. When denied the rights to use a pasage from Ulysses as the lyrics she wrote her own. And they’re just as good.

Brainiac – Hot Seat Can’t Sit Down – Hissing Prigs in Static Couture

If Tim Taylor had never died in a car crash in 1997 I’d like to believe that we’d all know who he was. But from the reaction of people I’ve spoken to at least the ones who do seem to appreciate it.

Dirty Projectors – Temecula Sunrise – Bitte Orca

David Longstreth is the most valid and prolific artist I’ve heard of who’s as of now still seemingly undiscovered. But people have taken notice. His recent colaberations with David Byrne and Bjork should help bring some recognition to this beatiful work in a time when nothing seems to sell.

The Modern Lovers – Someone I Care About – Precise Modern Lovers Order

I don’t want just a girl to fool around with. I don’t want just a girl to ball. What I want is a girl that I care about. Or nothing at all. This live record is my personal highlight of Jonathan Richman’s career. Too bad it was so early.

The Kinks – Arthur – Arthur
Perhaps the most heartbreaking album finale of all time. I still cry every time they break into the chorus at the end.

There you have it.  It’s still Wednesday in some time zone, right?

¹ In his archives, there may or may not be a video that he produced with me and this red head kid, both of us dressed in black tights, singing a Spanish song explaining how to conjugate “gustarse” – red head kid: Me gustan tus ojos, me: Me gusta pelo rojo – to the tune of “What a Feeling.”

² I really appreciated that he included the album.  When I create these mixes and there are a number of different versions, especially versions with different track lengths, I’m always scared that I picked the wrong one.  (If I did this to you http://www.seanbonner.com/, http://www.twistedphysics.typepad.com/, http://manbartlett.com/, or http://pulpandcircumstance.blogspot.com/, please feel free to send me nasty e-mails.  Plus, I can always go back and change it for anyone who comes across your mixes now.  <– BTW, if you haven’t come across their mixes, I highly recommend them – feel free to listen on our last.fm station – we only play mixes from nonpretentious.)  Point is, I’m sad to say that even with Marc Alan Goodman’s effort, some of his album choices were not available and I had to go with what was there.  I’ve kept his album picks in the playlist in case you’d like to find those tracks on your own.

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nonpretentious publishes mix tapes every Wednesday.   Our goal is to create a digital version of trading mixes, sharing music, etc. AND also publicize the work of “common people” (i.e. not superstar celebs but celebs nonetheless) who are doing cool things around the globe.  Check out the [mix tapes] archives to hear more.