7" of Separation

Something like three weeks, really, two and-a-half. That’s all that stands between me and the road, freedom. During the workday, I tie up loose ends. Evenings, visit Grandpa Norman in the hospital — his health declining, the end approaching. He jokes and cries. It’s hard, but not overwhelming — so far.

I was able to find some free time on Sunday to work on Pam.

She got out of the shop last Thursday — fresh breaks, news hoses and belts, new electrical in the dash. When I took it in to the mechanic, I asked him to do a pressure check and take a look at the transmission. When I went to pick it up, he had done all sorts of little things that I wasn’t going to worry too much about, like the dash electrical, which worked but was fussy. He said he was having so much fun working on it, he just kept going, at no cost.

This is something that seems to happen with Pam. The tire guy just called, in fact. He said the alignment looked fine, but that he was going to play with it because he never gets to work on VWs in that good of shape. No cost for the alignment, too much fun, he said. I understand completely.

So on Sunday, I was able to get to REI to pick up a few camping goodies.

I saw this first addition on another VW blog, and it works great. Above, you can see a standard bike light attached to the pop-tops support bar. This way, I have battery-powered LED light and I don’t have to worry about draining my main or secondary van battery to see or read at night. Also, with the bike light’s secondary flashy setting, I can have dance parties.

I spent most of the day cleaning and packing. That’s right, I’m at the packing stage, which is super exciting, obviously. One you start packing, that means you’re going, right?

Anyway, there was upholstery scrubbing — evil toxic stuff. Plus I got bathroom stuff, art supplies and kitchen stuff all sorted and put away.

At REI, I picked up my Road Atlas! This is one of the most exciting things for me. I love maps and this particular atlas is made for RV/Van camping, so it has a list of every national, state and county park, their camping setups and other such camping related goodness.

And, of course, I had to have the dash compass. I had to.

Ellyn gets in on Wednesday. We will be doing some wedding site shopping. Then, my last full week at work. Holy molé (the chocolate burrito sauce).

Who wants a visitor?

Meet Thao Nguyen, a 23-year-old singer-songwriter from Virginia, who signed up with Seattle-based Kill Rock Stars to release her first album with her band, The Get Down Stay down.

Thao is pretty wonderful, hitting notes somewhere between Cat Power and Kimya Dawson — that is, it’s as if Cat Power were singing Kimya’s lyrics. Basically, she has perfect timing, as the above two ladies couldn’t be bigger right now.

I first heard about Thao on my fourth-favorite NPR show, Studio 360. (For those keeping score, 1: This American Life, 2: Wait Wait Don’t tell Me, 3: On the Media.) She has a lovely little story, which includes her delightful mother, a laundromat owner. Take a listen to the entire story:

Thao, to me, represents part of a new wave of music for my generation. It’s quirky, but adult, grown-up. As shown by the Studio 360 story, Thao is an amalgam of many of the social issues facing our generation, including being a second-generation, American minority, as well as overcoming the broken-home syndrome and honoring family and tradition. We, as twenty-somethings, seem to be guided by our humor, which has its quirks and takes its foundation from reality. I hear that humor in Thao’s music, even though it isn’t really “funny” music. Listen to “Geography:”

Thao’s new album, We Brave Bee Stings and All is out now. It’s worth every penny. Plus, it’s on KRS, meaning buying the album helps a great artist and a great Pacific-Northwest label. Meanwhile, another song:

Sigur Ros, everyone’s favorite Icelandic, post-rock quartet recently made their tour documentary Heima available in it’s entirety at Youtube. Great move, even better movie.

Now, I don’t know what I can say to convince you readers to watch all 97 minutes of this flick, but you really should, and I’ll do my best to argue for it.

I took it Heima last night before bed — a very relaxing experience. In the end, I was blown away with the beauty of the photography. Most of the visuals in the film are of barren Icelandic fjords, set the the band’s live performances, which are artistic and beautiful in their own right.

Speaking of the music, the set list is perfect, including tunes you will remember from movies like Vanilla Sky and Life Aquatic. Remember?

The best part of Heima is watching the band make music. I have always wondered how they create the sounds they do. Turns out, its pretty simple, surprising because of how complex it all sounds. Also, as the narrative of the movie unfolds, you get to know the band. (And yes, this tour documentary has a narrative.)

The film follows the band as they make their way across Iceland, playing free shows in tiny villages, condemned fish factories and protest camps in the rural hills. Just as much a film about Icelandic culture, Heima goes beyond a lot of music films. It easily falls into the category of a travel documentary and a cultural study.

The music and performances are blended perfectly with the cultural viewpoint. In one memorable scene, the band plays inside the Icelandic equivalent of a Grange. The meeting hall is packed with children, teens, adults — everyone came to see what was going on. Everyone seems transfixed by what is in front of them.

Youth are also central to the movie, as almost every scene of an audience focuses on children. There seems to be an extraordinary number of children in Iceland, making it hopeful there will be groundbreaking music emerging from the country for years to come.

Also, there are many sweaters. Amazing, colorful sweaters.

So, if you want a relaxing evening, filled with strange views and ethereal music, watch this film. If you want to learn about another culture, one that almost seems trapped in time, watch this film.

Without further ado:

Watch the whole movie here, or click through to Youtube to watch in full screen. You loose resolution when you go full screen, but you get a better movie experience.

Stick around through the credits to hear “Untitled 3,” one of my favorite tracks. Or, listen here:

I was watching some TV tonight with my dad, when I saw the current ad for University of Phoenix, featuring one of my favorite New Pornographers songs, “Bleeding Hart Show.” You might know I am a huge New Pornographers fan. Mostly for their delicious pop music and use of Neko Case in the creation of said music.

Listen, while you read:

Anyway, indie bands in commercials can be a heated topic. Most indie fans are also anti-TV, anti-advertising and anti-corporation, making it a pretty heinous crime to allow underground music to be in TV advertisements for major corporations.

But hey, Flaming Lips play as Land Rovers thrash over the earth. Modest Mouse has sold mid-range four-door sedans once or twice. Goldfrapp sells diamonds and reminds us its time to Holiday shop at Target.

And heck, Steve Jobs has crafted a corporate image by playing indie-rockers and poppers behind his gadgets (wonderful gadgets, mind you). Brendon Benson, I’m most recently looking at you.

So, even as silly as University of Phoenix is, I guess they can use good music too. Very likely, some young, creative ad-type in Portland had it on his iPod and his boss liked it and that was that, it was in a commercial.

I wondered though, how an artist comes to release a song to a corporation like UP, which, honestly, I don’t know a whole lot about. Turns out, neither did Carl (A.C.) Newman, the Porns’ main man, who told Pitchfork back in 2007:

It’s one of those things that just, you get a call, and somebody said “hey, the University of Phoenix wants to use the end of “Bleeding Heart Show” in a commercial.” And I thought, “eh, fair enough.” And I really honestly didn’t know that University of Phoenix was a huge online university. I actually thought it was, like, the University of Phoenix; like, every city has its big university, you know? And I thought, “oh, it’ll show in the Southwest.” It seemed kind of odd to me, like, I’ve never heard of a university having a TV commercial, but I thought, oh well. All of a sudden, people started saying “I saw your commercial during ‘Saturday Night Live’” or “I saw your commercial during ‘American Idol’,” and I thought, “what the hell is up with that?” Then I began to realize that, well, I guess we inadvertently signed up to be in a big commercial. How about that?

(Read the whole interview at Pitchfork, as Carl goes on to slam Of Montreal for allowing their song to sell Outback steaks.)

With that explanation, it’s hard to get upset over the whole thing. Especially seeing it’s kind of silly to be upset about something as trivial as a band in a commercial. Unless a song was ever used to sell a Billy Mays product. That man needs no music.

Now that some of you might be clearing out of the In Rainbows haze, Amplive, the Oakland, Calif. DJ, has handed over, for free, some great remixes of Radiohead’s latest disc.

There was some struggle by Amp to get these tracks out, mainly a letter from Radiohead’s lawyers telling him to pull the remixes. But, that all seems settled now, and the tracks have been online for free for a few weeks.

I recommend them, though the whole experience at only eight tracks seems a bit short. The guest vocals are divine, adding indie-hip-hop personality to the haunting, post-modern instrumental remixes. Thom Yorke’s broken and spliced vocals are also very well done, bringing a new level to the already timeless album.

I drive to this at night. So should you.

A plea from Amp when it was in lawyer-limbo:

And when it was released with band approval:

“Nudez” featuring Too Short and MC Zumbi, with a remix video, as well:

Lately, I’ve been spending weekends toiling away with my dad in his machine shop. We have been getting Pam ready for the road. The trip kicks off in less than one month, that’s hard to believe. So all you friends spread out across the country better get ready for a visitor.

Pam is nearly ready.

She has fresh paint:
The majority is what VW calls ‘Ivory’ and that’s the color Pam was when she came out of the factory. She has returned to her natural state, with a little ‘Mahogany’ filling in the accent lines. It looks fantastic, I think.

We took her down to a mechanic this morning, and he should do a once over on the engine and let us know if there is anything major that needs done.

Over the last three weeks we have:

• Replaced the tent canvas in the pop-top.
• Replaced all the weather stripping.
• Installed a new fuse set and another! fan switch.
• Cleaned and reinstalled all the chrome.

Plus, a few other little things, too.

It has been loads of fun. Now, if I could only get packed.