A letter from the Campbell Soup Company to Andy Warhol, May 1964.
The Snackpot Asks: What Is Your Favorite Snack? (by TheRealSnackpot)
Some good thoughts here on snacking from your favorite indie rockers. I especially feel for the guy who likes PB & America cheese.
Brain scans are revealing what happens in our heads when we read a detailed description, an evocative metaphor or an emotional exchange between characters. Stories, this research is showing, stimulate the brain and even change how we act in life.
Researchers have long known that the “classical” language regions, like Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area, are involved in how the brain interprets written words. What scientists have come to realize in the last few years is that narratives activate many other parts of our brains as well, suggesting why the experience of reading can feel so alive.
[…]
The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.
[…]
The novel, of course, is an unequaled medium for the exploration of human social and emotional life. And there is evidence that just as the brain responds to depictions of smells and textures and movements as if they were the real thing, so it treats the interactions among fictional characters as something like real-life social encounters.
So I finally had a chance to see Willis Earl Beal at Cole’s Bar on Wednesday night.
It was a spur of the moment thing, but there was no way I was missing the free 7” release show (yes I got one) put on by Saki and BVChicago, after everything I have been reading and hearing about the guy.
In two words it was stupefyingly amazing.
Here are some of my thoughts and reactions:
Before the show Mr. Beal was just calmly sitting in the corner of the room with his sunglasses on, and a toothpick in his mouth. It sounds contrived, but it wasn’t. From what I could tell he was incredibly gracious to everyone that spoke to him, but he also had a highly focused intensity to him. My Friend Joshua put it best when he said, “If someone told him that his only job was to look like the coolest MF’er in the room without even trying, he definitely succeeded.”
When he got on stage, Willis Earl just sat in that same way in a chair, while two guys set everything up. He just looked totally calm and secure with what he was doing. It was impressive. Then when he got up to sing, he was gyrating and sweating and pumping his hips all over the place. It was like a slowed down more intense version of Elvis up there or something.
Let me say this though, he IS a weird and intense and charismatic dude. There’s a temptation to think that his whole backstory is a put on, but when you see how he carries himself, and the kinds of things he says/writes, he has an undeniably unique personal aesthetic.Creativity just pours out of him. Not in a pretentious or contrived way, but as if that is what he was made to do. He just seems incredibly honest, while also being aware of how this whole thing is being constructed, if that makes sense.
I think it’s important to note that in and of it self, nothing he is doing is outrageously groundbreaking, but when you put all of the pieces together I think that he is an incredibly compelling person/artist/character. This was further solidified by the show the other night.
Also, I was able to get ahold of his first record “Acousmatic Sorcery”, and have been listening to it over the past few days. Super duper low-fi, and aspects of it are incredibly dissonant and almost offensive, but overall, the man has a way with words and telling stories that is really very special.He hasn’t played out much, but I was extremely impressed by his level of comfort and command of performance. He even handled a heckler adeptly, though I’m not sure how well his act would play in larger settings unless he gets a band. Then again, getting a band might interfere with what he’s all about.
His voice/presentation reminded me of a mixture of Al Green, Howlin’ Wolf, Tom Waits, Wesley Willis, Daniel Johnston and James Brown. It’s definitely a low-fi approach that mixes all sorts of genres. It will be interesting to see how this develops as more eyes and attention are focused on him. I have a weird feeling that he will be able to handle it, but won’t be a pop guy in any way because he doesn’t seem interested in writing hooks.
The craziest part to me was that he seemed to be re-writing songs/lyrics on the fly, and that when the show was done, someone suggested that he do one more song. He decided to do an acapella track, and started it by having the whole room stomp and clap. It worked so incredibly well that I couldn’t believe he wasn’t planning on playing that song. It was the perfect ending to the show, and it had the feeling that he just decided to do it because it felt right. Again just really impressive, and cool. I’m glad we got a chance to see him before the hype machine kicks into high gear.So yeah. Needless to say, I would highly suggest checking out Willis Earl Beal as soon as you get the chance. One way to that is to watch his recently released self-written, self-produced new video for “Evening Kiss” below or catch him in person at The Hideout in April.
I was there and this is the truth.
People waiting in line at Lambeau Field this morning… to shovel the snow.
(via @packers)
Awww…(via simplesinger)
Milwaukee Public Library Billboards
So true. Hahaha.
Love this! Hometown, represent!
Nice!!
Night 1 - Civic Opera House
Night 2 - Riviera Theatre
Night 3 - Vic Theatre
Night 4 - The Metro
Night 5 - Lincoln Hall
Many thanks to the tapers and to the wonderful folks at The Steam Engine for compiling the recordings!
So here’s a list of some of my favorite songs from 2011 in no particular order. I also made a more robust playlist on Spotify if that’s more your speed. However, I also wanted to link to some of my other favorite songs that didn’t make it on either of these streaming services this year,…
This mix is full of nuggets you’ll want to hear - listen now!
The Unimpressed Astronaut Meme (more of them here)
AHHHHHHHH GENIUS
Howard Tate’s rich, soulful cover of Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country.”
Learn more about Howard Tate, from his start as a teenage gospel singer to his late-career rise out of hard times and back to recording, on this week’s American Routes.
Tomorrow, we remember Howard Tate with excerpts from a 2003 interview. The Philadelphia soul singer died on Friday at the age of 72.
Yes.
When Smart Kids Grow Up: Were you one of those students who made schoolwork look easy, earning a galaxy of gold stars and an alphabet of A’s between your first morning of kindergarten and your graduation day? Did everyone gush over how smart you were?
If so, you might know the curse of the gifted child. An overload of affirmations can hamper the future success of bright kids, reports Heidi Grant Halvorson for Harvard Business Review. Students who receive praise for intellect rather than effort, she reports, develop a belief that their abilities are innate and unchangeable. As adults, they lose confidence in trying to develop new, difficult skills. They get stuck. Halvorson writes:
People with above-average aptitudes—the ones we recognize as being especially clever, creative, insightful, or otherwise accomplished—often judge their abilities not only more harshly, but fundamentally differently, than others do (particularly in Western cultures). Gifted children grow up to be more vulnerable, and less confident, even when they should be the most confident people in the room.
Very interesting stuff.
Stripped-down but exciting Tiny Desk Concert from tUnE-yArDs
