Category Archives: music

music, photography, random thought, writing

sister winter

i love winter. when i lived in wyoming, winter was considerably more “involved” than it is in texas. but the fact remains; winter is the season of death.  no matter where you live.

certainly i am no lover and harbinger of death. “slayer” is not carved into my arm.  but i am obsessed with what inevitably walks patiently beside death:  the opportunity for renewal.

where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.  ~  rumi

there was a time in my life when my heart froze over – it took so many years to thaw.  sufjan’s song sister winter reminds me of this time.  

it seems to be a beautiful and poignant letter of explanation to his friends.  he tells them that his heart has returned to sister winter, and is as cold as ice.  the weight of sadness is almost too much to bear.

he goes on to describe in filmic detail a failed relationship.  it cuts deep into the listener. 

but what i love most about sister winter is the end of the song. it builds and builds… and when all of this scar tissue and raw emotion culminate and burst forth, breaking free from the frost, sufjan belts out an intense, “and my… friends, i’ve… returned to wish you all the best…  and my… friends, i’ve… returned to wish you… a… happy Christmas!”  the ice melts, and love flows again.

it ends with bittersweet undertones.  sustained strings in unison fade.

may spring come!  but not before we have proper time to mourn our losses.

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music, photography

avett again

the avett brothers apparently love dallas.  i saw them again last thursday night at the granada for the second time in four months.  and only months before that, they performed another show here… but i missed that one.

  

once again, they brought the intense energy and raw sound that their fans have come to expect.

  

  

  

  

  

and again, it was a very enjoyable experience.  i highly recommend this band.  live especially, but i have also been enjoying their albums.  check them out as soon as possible – they’re going to be big…

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2008

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music, random thought

farewell, rick wright

my best friend, trotter, and i used to dream of a pink floyd reunion.  roger waters and david gilmour sorting out their differences of course.  back to the days of dark side and meddle.  we envisioned this interstellar re convergence of rock giants to take place at the pyramids of giza.  obviously.

however, today, that dream died with richard william wright, 65.  rick was a founding member of arguably the greatest rock-n-roll band of all time.  he succumbed to his battle with cancer, but his contribution to the world of music will continue.  for more info on rick and his phenomenal career, please visit richard wright wiki.

insert cliche condolence…  shine on, you crazy diamond, rick!  wish you were here…  we’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl.  set the controls for the heart of the sun,  etc.

you’ll be missed rick wright…

all that you touch
all that you see
all that you taste
all you feel.
all that you love
all that you hate
all you distrust
all you save.
all that you give
all that you deal
all that you buy,
beg, borrow or steal.
all you create
all you destroy
all that you do
all that you say.
all that you eat
and everyone you meet
all that you slight
and everyone you fight.
all that is now
all that is gone
all thats to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

there is no dark side of the moon really.  matter of fact its all dark…

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music, random thought, writing

it’s not “world music” to everyone

i started to laugh to myself the other day when i had this thought. while making a mix for a friend, i thought i’d expand my musical prowess by experimenting with a few new non-english tracks.

the dreaded term “world music” popped into my head, and i immediately thought of ian. yeah, you remember ian. the ponytail-wearing kickboxer in the movie high fidelity, that steals john cusak’s girlfriend, and “listens to whatever world music is in fashion that week”.

well, i don’t fancy myself to be much of a kickboxer, and i sure as hell don’t have a ponytail (kind of a sore subject really, considering my ever growing bald spot).  also, i can assure everyone here that i would have no chance stealing any girlfriend from the great john cusak. so what gives? what is world music?

i’ve been enjoying a lot of yann tiersen lately.  he’s a french pop superstar.  but “pop” is way too narrow a classification for this guy.  he’s also a composer, rocker, experimentalist, rapper, you name it, he can do it.  anyway, so how do we in america categorize folks like yann, and manu chao.  or even carlos vives or keren ann?  well, according to the itunes music store, they’re all in the blanket genre of “world music”.  

so, i guess that the main, and perhaps only, criteria for this broad genre is that it’s not american in origin.  we have been the driving force behind the modern music industry, so it kind of makes sense.  but i’m sure if you visited the french version of the itunes store, yann tiersen would certainly not be found in the dreaded “world music” section with the long-forgotten riverdance and obligatory amazon mood music.

there’s some really great music out there though… even beyond the reach of american record labels.  so don’t hesitate to check out some good world music today.  don’t worry, you won’t become like ian overnight… at least i hope not.

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music, photography

the sight of music

when people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they have never had and never will have.  ~ edgar watson howe

my friends and family might say that i’m obsessed with music.  i would like to think that i’m not obsessed with anything, but i will whole-heartedly admit that if music were not a reality, i would not want to be alive.

were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead.  ~ benjamin disraeli

without music, life would be a mistake.  ~ friedrich wilhelm nietzsche

so it always happens that i love to shoot these things that i am most passionate about, but practically, i just shoot music for fun.  it’s very hard to make any substantial living shooting music.  however, a few months ago, i went to an avett brothers show with a few friends, and captured some images that i really liked.  they were different than any performance work i’ve done before, and i’ve been thinking of entering them in a contest or something.

  

i just received an email today about the pdn/ billboard summer music photo contest, and i decided it might be fun to enter a few images.  but it’s very hard to edit your own work sometimes, so here’s where you, the lovely passer-by, come in…

  

please help!!  the deadline is august 29, and i’d like to narrow these down to 3 or 4 of the best images for two of the categories, performance and spontaneous moment.  it’s always better to have many sets of eyes seeing from many different perspectives, than just one.  so, either email me directly (andrew@andrewslatonphoto.com), or post your comments here… please!

thanks much in advance…

the only proof he needed of the existence of God was music. ~ kurt vonnegut

  

a painter paints pictures on canvas.  but musicians paint their pictures on silence.  ~ leopold stokowski

  

music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.  ~ berthold auerbach

  

music is the language of the spirit.  it opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife. ~ kahlil gibran

men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.  ~ henry david thoreau

  

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2008

 

 

 

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