AN INTERVIEW WITH JOURNALIST Aj Reynolds

JUST WROTE AND RECORDED THIS IN ONE FOUR HOUR BLOCK IN THE LIBRARY STUDIO AT UNC. SPONTANEOUS FREE VERSE SONG OVER A CL

Holler at P-Rob Mother fucks.

I’m in New York City for the summer now. Before coming I watched some of the Ric Burns documentary about New York City entitled “New York: A Documentary Film.” (Ric is Ken’s younger brother.) It’s quite enlightening about American and New York history to see it’s many transitions from an island inhabited by the Manhattoes, to a rowdy money making base for the Dutch West India Company. The Company would kill beavers and sell their silky smooth furs back in Europe to make hats. (As well as using the Beaver’s anal gland secretion for medicine.) That’s right, NYC was founded on beavers! Essentially Manhattan was owned by a corporation, they bought the island from the Indians for around $1,000. Some Manhattoes were angry about this and refused to leave the island, they were known as “occupiers,” or as some Dutch capitalists called them “whiney people with face paint banging drums.” Anyway, it’s a damn good documentary and damn long too (seventeen-and-a-half-hours! That’s almost a full work day for an investment bank intern!) The creation of the Eerie canal, the creation of Central Park, the Draft Riots and Alexander Hamilton getting capped all are included in the first three installments that I watched. I would highly recommend it, it’s all on YouTube. Here’s the first part. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAl7M0Le1Kg

Walt Whitman and his flowing, passionate poetry was prominent in one of the installments, Whitman, after all, was a New Yorker. Whitman really dug the scene in Manhattan. This led me to turn to my copy of “Leaves of Grass” which I haven’t touched since my Junior year of High School. Whitman loved all the people of New York, he was fascinated by them, and as mentioned in the documentary “viewed everybody and everything in the city as a potential lover, even the street lights.” Sounds like MDMA had Walt feeling like a champion… None the less, I think Whitman’s positive and passionate view of humanity in the city is intriguing and will keep me mentally healthy throughout my stay here. Whitman says the “genius of the United States is in its common people.” He feels that “not nature nor swarming states nor streets and steamships nor prosperous business nor farms nor capital nor learning may suffice for the ideal of man…nor suffice the poet.” The ideal of man…New York is certainly a city carved out of lofty ideals of man, most notably efficiency and capitalism. However, Whitman seems to believe that man’s dreams and visions for the future, however intangible and unrealistic is the most important thing in America. (Ugh, well he’s a poet, he would say that!) True, but still intriguing and justifiable for someone who is interested in becoming an artist or teacher for that matter. From what I can gather Whitman believes the spiritual heart of America is in its diverse and ever changing population of humans. For us American’s living today we often turn to Whitman as one of the first poets or artists who sought to capture honesty in the American spirit and identity. I find Whitman’s views interesting because I’ve been reading a biography of John Muir, another 19^th Century American who, like an old Whitman, had a beard that makes the Fleet Foxes look like 15 year olds. In my opinion, Muir was also revolutionary in establishing an organic spiritual understanding of America. Muir however did it through  the establishment of National Parks, as well as some incredible stories of his treks, botanical writings, and nature inspired philosophies. When Muir spent a few days in New York on a freighter in route to San Fran Cisco and Yosemite valley, he “barely got off the boat” he didn’t want to be somewhere so inhabited. Muir find’s America’s true nature not in its people but in its uninhabited, vast majestic spaces. Luckily this land still exists thanks to Muir and Roosevelt for establishing our incredible National Park system. In America we don’t need ancient temples when we have the gapping Grand Canyon, the lush Yosemite, and the ghostly Badlands. Whitman, in contrast, feels this crazy country’s heart lies in the masses of  common people, all immigrants with ideals for a better life. For now, since I’m living in the city, I’ll try to look through Whitman’s eyes in this wholly artificial city, this coral reef of humanity, and be inspired by the “chrome canyons of lattice Manhattan” (shout outs to Jeff Tweedy.) What about the Manhattoes though? Are they only mentioned for your politically incorrect joke Pat? Indeed, both of these poetic views of America, and all conceptions of America and Americans is darkened with a shadow of slavery, genocide, and greed, yet this can’t be our identity, this guilt can’t weigh us down, we gotta keep progressing and protect our people and land. Blah, blah, blah. Enough of my rant! I’m gonna go eat some Italian food then get drunk.

Kinda creepy animation, but Whitman’s got an NYC state of mind as sharp as NAS. Close your eyes and try to envision New York in 1888.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_ljR2UnI8o

READING THROUGH “WHERE THE OCEAN MEETS THE SKY”

Just giving the working script of “Where The Ocean Meets the Sky” a edit/read through. Haven’t touched it since the production. Reading the words reminds me how awesome the actors were, I hear their voices and see their movements when I read, and that’s a pleasant experience. I’m heading to NYC on Wednesday…Very excited and ready to start working at New Dramatists for the summer.

CITY SWEAT

 ”don’t put the lights on, cause tonight I want to see you in the dark”

Is making a compilation of music a shallow art? In this day and age when we have so much free access to listening to digital audio files at our finger tips to the point where they are like sea shells on a beach, is collecting these recorded files and putting them in a certain order something to give any time of day too? I think it is. It’s fun and it’s easy. I ain’t no Thom Yorke, but this is a hip play list right here, and if you get on a long board and listen to this playlist I guarantee you will have a better day then yesterday. Or if you don’t skate, then go somewhere your parents aren’t and turn this up and act like you don’t give a fuck. It’s summer 2012, enjoy the city sweat.

1.       No Joke (The Magnets Remix) – Jay Rock featuring Ab Soul

2.       How Long (Ticklah Remix) – Sharon Jones

3.       Take Care Of You – Cherokee

4.       U Don’t Know (Remix) – Jay-z featuring M.O.P.

5.       Nature Loving Dub – Ticklah

6.       All Feeling – Ab-Soul

7.       Concrete Waves (Remix) (Instrumental) – Dj Premier

8.       Record Collection (Perseus Remix) – Mark Ronson

9.       I Wish (Remix) – Yelawolf featuring CyHi Da Prince, Pill

10.   Don’t Turn The Lights On (Aeroplane Remix) – Chromeo

11.   Maliblue – Darius

12.   Block Episode – Masta Ace feat. Punch & Words

These are some rhymes I came up with driving down I-40. I recorded them over a classic wu-tang beat and got my boy and fellow no9to5 rhyme spitter, Topiq the Smooth Prophet to add a second verse. It’s on the new no9to5 mix tape entitled “Unemployment Lines.” Just bars no hook.

It’s called “CONTENT”

Here is a strange, instinctual poem I wrote last night before turning off my bedside lamp and going to bed. It’s about sleeping with the door open, which I don’t often do. It’s called:

/Sleeping with the door open/

tonight the door is open in my bedroom.

I’m too tired for bitter thoughts

and my acquaintance among the ceiling fan spirits

and the distracting blood pumping

heart I carry

through these halls and roads is Sunday.

sunday, sunday, sunday,

just the flat rhythm of instinct you are now.

tonight I’ll sleep with the door open

and let the monsters creep in and sniff the sleeping skull, where

{I} swim in desire and fear,

like a bear sniffs a metal trash can

full to the brim

or a pup a piece of shit.

Tonight the door is open

and the ceiling fan creaks

and I.

and I.

am never like have I been before now,

just, and fair is the sun and reliable is the dark

and when I turn off Edison’s piercing white pearl,

it is blackness outside my open door

and it is blackness inside my open door and it is

Blackness my open door

The Walkmen have been one of my favorite bands this past year. They write simple songs about struggling for peace, love and happiness in life. They began at a prep school in Washington D.C. where all of the current members, except for bassist/organ player Peter Bauer attended school.

They have titles of songs that sound like Raymond Carver short stories like “Danny’s At The Wedding” and the song that first won my heart and made me a believer in The Walkmen, “While I Shovel The Snow.” In the aforementioned tune, the Roy Orbison inspired crooner and frontman, Hamilton Leithauser turns a dead frozen winter night into an illuminated moment of clarity, “tonight, I see tomorrow.” The song is simple and honest, and not over the top, yet it gives me great hope. Just simple hope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Tw4r0Ar8I

That song is from their last album “Lisbon.” After spinning “Lisbon” for awhile I then acquired the 2006 release “A Hundred Miles Off.” (2006…what a year bro.) Here we see the not yet polished band making wonderfully frantic, dirty tunes about a guy who takes pills and calls his ex-girl and a road trip through Tennessee. Wow, it is a great album. Second to “Snow,” the song that reaffirmed my faith that these guys hold a unique and special place in my ears was the drunken romp of “Lost in Boston.” In fact I began writing a screenplay completely inspired by the one song. (Hot damn wait for the bass line to drop in, great for riding a bike on a busy street)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zVRrrLKYFs

Anyways, my love affair with the subtle sounds these prep school boys (well, now men with children…holly hell the 00’s are gone) couldn’t have been at a better time. Their 6th album just came out. It is simply called “Heaven.” Now that I have an idea where these guys have been creatively it’s fascinating and charming to hear their new work. It’s astounding. My friend John called it “warm like a pecan pie at his gamma’s house in Eastern Carolina.” It’s a fresh album, I won’t rate it or give you a track by track or any of that nonsense. Just give your self a blessing and give it a listen straight through. The good folk at NPR are streaming it, which is conducive to album listening. The song’s really balance each other out. It’s cool to see the band strip their sound down more then they ever have. What’s great about these guys is that their music is good and they are also singing with honesty. Not over the top “oh my god peace! i’m in love with this beautiful girl, stop war, be your self!” bullshit. It’s enlightening in it’s brevity and simplicity. And if you don’t think it’s perfect, well that’s fine, because “no one loves perfection.”  Think about who you are and you love and who your family is and then give this a god damn listen. This is one of the coolest and most consistent indie band’s in America.Below is the link to the stream. If it’s stopped streaming, then maybe buy the album or something crazy like that.

http://www.npr.org/2012/05/20/152853333/first-listen-the-walkmen-heaven