Tim Blood Stuff

http://controlforce.bandcamp.com/album/still-bleeding

Here's the final Tim Blood recording. Although I think I said that about the b-sides thing, this feels more final now that none of us are gonna be in Moscow. We gave away 27 burned cds with origami sleeves at the final show at Mikey's the other day. It was fun seeing everyone again, especially Kentaro who I hadn't seen in two years, and the show went better than I think any of us expected. It was cool playing with Nailbastard cause Ryan and I had been in every band together from 18 to 25, so it's cool seeing how he sounds with other people. I'm too sentimental.

We recorded it last week. I think it came out sounding really good. I feel more satisfied with it than any other release besides the "Summer of Our Discontent" album. Because we had to do it long distance we recorded to a metronome, which was strange. So I did the guitar on my practice amp in my room. Also, it was just Tim B., Ryan, and I, because of time constraints. But hardly any Tim Blood show or recording after the "Summer" album had the "original" lineup. I think I may be so satisfied with the recording because I didn't have to do anything except record the guitar. I think Tim's vocals sound better than any other recording except, again, maybe the "Summer" album.

Now I wanna start another "pop" band.

Tim Blood's Year In Reading

In 2007 I started keeping a list of every book I read. What follows is 2011's list.

A lot of re-reading this year. A lot more 'educational' and a lot less 'recreational' than years past, which makes it difficult to pick 'favorites'.
Though I'm satisfied and looking forward to 2012's reading lists. I'm shooting for 50 books. Ambitious.

2011:
“The Atom Station” – Halldor Laxness
“Pan” – Knut Hamsun
“Special Orders” – Edward Hirsch (twice)
“Hunger” – Knut Hamsun (twice)
“The Best American Short Stories 2009” – Edited by Alice Sebold
“The Writer’s Portable Mentor” – Priscilla Long
“The Shell Collector” – Anthony Doerr
“The Double Helix” – James Watson
“The Time Machine” – H.G. Wells
“Brave New World” – Aldous Huxley
“Freedom” – Jonathan Franzen
“Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968” – Daniel Singer
“Plaza of Sacrifices: Gender, Power, and Terror in 1968 Mexico” – Elaine Carey
“A Tale of Two Utopias: The Political Journey of the Generation of 1968” – Paul Berman
“The Tiger’s Wife” – Tea Obreht
“Orientation and Other Stories” – Daniel Orozco
“The Mezzanine” – Nicholson Baker
“Out Stealing Horses” – Per Petterson
“A Journey into the Past” – Stefan Zweig
“Earthly Measures” – Edward Hirsch
“Everyman” – Philip Roth
“Mysteries” – Knut Hamsun
“Humboldt’s Gift” – Saul Bellow
“Fear and Trembling” – Soren Kierkegaard
“Invisible Cities” – Italo Calvino
“The Orange Eats Creeps” – Grace Krilanovich
“Victoria” – Knut Hamsun
“Blackbird and Wolf” – Henri Cole
“Of Human Bondage” – W. Somerset Maugham
“Against Interpretation and Other Essays” – Susan Sontag
“Selected Poems” – James Schuyler
“The Virgin Suicides” – Jeffrey Eugenides
“Tadao Ando: The Geometry of Human Space” – Masao Furuyama
“Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self” – Marilynne Robinson

American: 21
Norwegian: 6
British: 4
Icelandic: 1
Italian: 1
Danish: 1
Swiss: 1
Japanese: 1

Fiction: 22 (Novels: 14, Novellas: 5, Short Story Collections: 3)
Poetry: 5
History: 3
Philosophy: 2
Literary Criticsim:1
Writing: 1
Memoir: 1
Architecture: 1

Total: 36

Favorites in no order at all:
Hunger, Mysteries, Pan by Knut Hamsun (I read Hunger for the first time in 2009, but it's still a favorite)
Special Orders by Edward Hirsch
The Shell Collector by Anthony Doerr (I read it for the first time in 2008, but it's still a favorite)

Right now I'm reading "Sources of The Self: The Making of the Modern Identity" by Charles Taylor and "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides. Who knows will I'll finish those two mammoths.