mixtape (april 2009)

Unity concepts of the rational doomsayer
Sam Prekop “Practice Twice”
Nina Simone “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”
Atlas Sound “Dovers Jam”
Pavement “Grave Architecture”
Camera Obscura “My Maudlin Career”
Calexico “Trigger”
Iron & Wine “Love and Some Verses”
Devendra Banhart “At The Hop”
M. Ward “Shangri-La”
Beach House “Turtle Island”
Grizzly Bear “Cheerleader”
Big Star “O My Soul”
Yo La Tengo “Paul Is Dead”
Dum Dum Girls “Jail La La”
Matthew Sweet “Sick Of Myself”
Andrew Bird “Fitz And The Dizzyspells”

Walking Spanish: I am sure I have shared with some of you, in conversations probably, how much I love the smartass Tom Waits reference in Joshua Ferris’ very readable novel Then We Came To The End, where folks being laid off becomes “walking Spanish down the hall”. On a related note, I am currently, officially, out of work this week, though I must say that the realities and circumstances surrounding the decision to leave I had made some six weeks ago have not truly resonated with me yet. In better times, I might have felt in some way liberated from the drudgery of dispassionate work, and looking forward to some time off for holidaying, long-term decomposing and what not. But these are different times of course. These days, I don’t need to remind anyone (i.e. myself) that there is rich cause for apprehension instead. The economy, as you might have heard, is way down in a hole. Employment opportunities in my line of work have actually been rather limited even before the shit hits the fan, plus I’ve got this worrying tendency to strike out at job interviews as naturally as A-Roid taking bad swings at breaking balls. (Speaking of Rodriguez, below is my prediction for the MLB 2009 season, with the teams in bold making the playoffs but I end my predictions there because, as they say, it’s crapshoots from that point – if I don’t find a proper job soon, the silver lining is that I would have plenty of time for baseball.) I put together this current mixtape in that murky, lack-of-sustained-confidence kind of mood I was in, the whole thing took a while to really “click” (not until I added Nina Simone, because I am really starting to relate to the sentiments of the song in so many ways; the Atlas Sound live recording that follows is so insanely good), and perhaps that is not so surprising.

AL West
LA Angels
Oakland As
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers

AL Central
Cleveland Indians
Minnesota Twins
Chicago White Sox
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals

AL East
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays
Tampa Bay Rays
Baltimore Orioles

NL West
LA Dodgers
Arizona Diamondbacks
San Francisco Giants
Colorado Rockies
San Diego Padres

NL Central
St Louis Cardinals
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
Houston Astros

NL East
New York Mets
Atlanta Braves
Philadelphia Phillies
Florida Marlins
Washington Nationals