Well, TODAY is indeed a special day.

My dear Andrew Dupuy has at last launched his eagerly anticipated website/podcast: Discover A World Of Sounds! 


Yes, the site is incredible and I am not afraid to say I am biased.  I daresay Dupuy is one of my favorite people in this great big world.  He's a Southerner in origin, and thus carries with him that particularly Southern sense of ballsy/cutting humor and deliciously gross charm, but most importantly and like me (perhaps why we get along!), he's a total pop culture whore.  His new site is many things, but it's mainly an exploration of how music relates to memory.  And trust me, Dupuy's memories and comments are HILARIOUS.  You can listen to his first podcast here.

Just push play!

This first podcast is an amalgam of childhood memories, setting the scene for what's to come.  Dupuy's gonna post a new radio show every two weeks, and just trust me here, dude's got it down!  His production is seamless and layered, but more importantly his detailed tales of growing up in Louisiana as well as living in the now here in San Francisco are quality entertainment.  He's not shy.  There will also be constantly posted blogs related to music and memory on the site.


Perhaps I will have to interview him sometime soon for this site.

So I went to see Old Joy back when it was at the Red Vic.  It's out on DVD now and it's really different from any movie I can think of at the (tired) moment.  In a good way.


I'd like to stress again here on my blog (strongly) that I am not a Yoga Mat Person, but I will say this movie has a meditational feeling to it.  By that, I mean while you watch it there is so much silence and there are so many moments of a quiet kind of reflection that when you finish watching it you really do feel like you went somewhere else on a journey.

The journey of the film takes place in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon.  Old friends from way back Mark and Kurt meet up and go camping.  They haven't seen each other in a long time and it's obvious that their lives have branched far away from one another in those years apart.  What's great about this film is that the issues that  this growing apart have caused are never directly addressed.  Instead, the filmmaker Kelly Reichardt allows the viewer to use those gorgeous silent moments to absorb thoughts and scenery and to reflect, bring about one's own ideas, and draw one's own conclusions.  I love it when movies don't preach their message to you,slam you over the head with whatever it is they are trying to get you to feel,  and this one is brilliant in that regard.


The film definitely sparked my own memories about similar experiences.  It got the awkward silences right for sure. Mark is the Reformed And Now Responsible Guy and Kurt is the Wild Dude That Never Grew Up Totally.  Kurt is still flying by the seat of his pants and Mark is uncomfortably wearing his like Urkel.  I read a review a few weeks ago that said how the viewer sees both Mark and Kurt by the end of the film will say a lot about how that viewer sees life in general and I think that is a fair and interesting comment. 

You might as well know this early on my postings: there is no music I like better than Neil Young's music.

Like any good Rustie, I already had some of the bootlegs from his solo acoustic 1971 tour, and have practically worn out the tapes and vinyl over the years.  This tour in 1971 came at a particularly prolific moment in Young's life. He had released After the Goldrush, one of his very best, and was done writing Harvest, widely regarded as his career best. (Although to me that's a debatable call.) Since at the time it had not been released, the songs from Harvest were completely new to the audience during the performance. As someone who has been listening to Harvest for 27 years, this is both difficult and also very exciting to imagine.

So, a few weeks ago on March 13, again like any good Rustie, I got ahold of the official release of Live at Massey Hall (the special version of course, including the dvd) as quickly as I could.

It rules.

The dvd is mostly footage from the show at Massey Hall, but it also includes vintage super 8 footage of Neil on his then newly-purchased ranch in Woodside with his dogs, fences and dappled light. The images only enhance the warm quality the music already exudes.

I'm not really one to use the word peaceful. I don't
own a yoga mat. But this footage, this voice,
these songs, made me feel just that-- peacefully at home. I guess that's in large part because I grew up with Neil Young's music, was taught to sing harmony by my mom to his songs, was quizzed while a child as to who was guesting on his albums and where they were recorded. I remember our green station wagon and those long family drives to Yosemite, rocking the Neil all the way, dad drumming along on the steering wheel.