Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

krisis

Krisis has been creating Crushing Krisis since 2000, writing songs since 1996, and reading comics since 1991. He is a Customer Success and Digital Brand Strategy executive, serial organizer, parent, and feminist, among other things. Based in Philly through 2017, he now resides in Wellington, NZ.

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Elliott Smith dead, of apparent suicide, at age thirty four. First read at Alison’s, then at Pitchfork, with additional information gleaned from a recent Under the Radar article, Sweet Adeline, Rolling Stone, and the AP obit.

I don’t remember buying XO, or why i bought XO, or the first time i listened to XO, all of which is highly out of character for me. I was oblivious, i’m sure, to the fact that Elliott had been nominated for an Academy Award. All i knew of him, i think, is that Anastasia liked him. The music that went with the name was instantly familiar, drawn straight from a McCartney-like obsession with simplicitly. It made me want to play guitar and sing, sing higher than i could sing, sing fragile and delicate and about to break just like Elliott.

Elliott Smith was one of the first men that i listened to whose music i could simultaneously covet and aspire to. I only ever bought one other album of his, because i couldn’t imagine a more simple, more perfect record than XO. It was a record that did not have a skippable song; a record my mother stole from my apartment; a record whose songs represented a kaleidoscopic promise of genius, and of more to come. And now it will live eternally as the penultimate record Smith’s life, followed by Figure 8 but never by the promised From A Basement On The Hill.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2003/10/106688062111213516/

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This morning i downloaded the newly released iTunes for Windows.

Now, we already know my feelings on MP3 exchanges, which can easy be extrapolated to P2P networks, but i’ve yet to form an opinion on iTunes, other than that nothing will ever truly render purchasing a physical album obsolete for me. I need to open the case, touch the liner notes, and remember how and when each scratch and crack on the disc and case were acquired. For me, consuming music is as much tactile as it is aural … i need to hear, but also to touch (which is probably why i like buying sheet music to my favorite albums so much; playing along is the ultimate tactile accompaniment to sound).

A service like iTunes does have its benefits, though (i’ll mention here that i’ve never even seen the Mac version; for a more comparative discussion, see Benjy). For example, tonight i was putting together a rehearsal disc for the Treblemakers and thought for a second that i hadn’t actually borrowed one of the source discs that included two that i don’t own. on it. I was about to tear apart my room apart looking for them when i realized that both songs would probably be on iTunes and, sure enough, both were available for just $.99.

iTunes will never be more than that to me — just a quick resource for making mix tapes. In a way, it is something i’ve dreamed of ever since i sat by the stereo, anxiously awaiting the chance to tape a new favorite song; it is a standing resource, a library of music that’s available at a moment’s notice. However, between my need for a tactile music experience, my uber-completist CD collecting behavior, and the fact that it currently has nary a song by Madonna or Ani DiFranco, i can’t say that i find it indispensable.

Maybe if it had streaming radio… (as if i don’t have enough things to listen to here already). On that note, TDavid has some praise for another new application, Rhapsody. If your a PC music fiend who doesn’t mind shelling out for the priveledge of listening, it seems worth looking into.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2003/10/106640401208683649/

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The alarm rang at 6:20 to give me a warning shot — two more hours of sleep, it was to announce, and i would hit the hour button twice and then fall asleep curled up at the foot of the bed. However, when i reached the foot of the bed i couldn’t even begin to recall what the order the buttons were in, and every time i though i had the “set alarm” button under my thumb i instead had the “sleep” button, which, as near as i can tell, just blares talk radio higher than the current volume setting for 60 seconds. I’m not sure what that has to do with sleep, but eventually i just yanked the plug out of the well and decided to go it alone. Sleep, that is.

Of course, i am far from alone, because October is our house’s official Pest Month. Subsequently, i was thoroughly (and with much alarm)awoken by the current pest troika. First, i was nudged towards consciousness by squirrels performing rodent ballet on my roof, which i guess is not nearly as bad as when the one fell through Lindsay’s ceiling, but that’s not my story to tell. Next, the tiny mouse that has taken up residence in the eaves of the roof ran out of it’s bolt hole that is, apparently, about three inches from the foot of the bed. Suffice to say, discovering that a rodent has set up a proverbial welcome mat within spitting distance sent me into quite a frenzy, and back up to the head of the bed. And, finally, the coup de grace came from the single indestructible fly that has taken control of my room since i arrived at home last week with two cans of RAID Home and Garden spray and emptied them into the air of my room (mmm, carcinogens). He circled my head three times (just long enough for me to be mildly aware of the buzzing, and then proceeded to dive bomb my ear repeatedly until i ran, screaming, from my bedroom to the bathroom.

To wash my ear, of course. And, so, here i am.

You have to understand, it isn’t that my room is dirty, or filled with pest-sized treats, it’s just that we live in West Philly, and when it starts to get cold outside all these little buggers want in, and as a renter there’s only so much i can do about the integrity of our battlements, so to speak. And, yes, we’ve tried traps and sprays and sticky pieces of paper — the whole nine yards, but for every one we kill there’s another one that wants in.

Anyway, at least i’m up.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2003/10/106640112916401501/