Friday, June 18, 2010

“Q&A: Junip's Jose Gonzalez & Tobias Winterkorn on Philosophy, YouTube, and FIELDS . - Seattle Weekly (blog)” plus 3 more

“Q&A: Junip's Jose Gonzalez & Tobias Winterkorn on Philosophy, YouTube, and FIELDS . - Seattle Weekly (blog)” plus 3 more

Q&A: Junip's Jose Gonzalez & Tobias Winterkorn on Philosophy, YouTube, and FIELDS . - Seattle Weekly (blog)

Posted: 18 Jun 2010 01:15 PM PDT

​Tomorrow night, Sweden's Junip -- vocalist/guitarist Jose Gonzalez, drummer Elias Araya, and organist/synthesizerist Tobias Winterkorn -- will play the Vera Project. It's a show well-worth checking out, particularly if you've been a fan of Gonzalez's inimitable solo work over the years. Junip just released a stellar EP called Rope & Summit, a preview to their first upcoming full-length, FIELDS. I recently spoke with Gonzalez and Winterkorn as they were kicking off their national tour. Here's what they had to say about their new music:

Some people are getting confused and calling Junip a new band...
JG: It's fine with me. It's new in a way because it's our first full length album. It feels new for me, even though we started playing 12 years ago. All the songs are new.

Tobias, did you ever feel left behind during the years that Jose's solo career was taking off? And what were you doing during that time?
TK: I'm lying if I say I didn't. But not in a bad way, not like I'm angry at him or something. I was teaching philosophy at the university. I was -- I can't pronounce the word in English - it's pedagog in Swedish.

Pedagogue?
TK: Yeah, that's a really hard word. I'm into all the pedagogic thoughts about finding out how everything is possible and why people do what they do. So that opens quite a lot of doors in my lyric-writing.

What are the sonic difference between Junip's songs and, Jose, your solo material?
JG: It's still me on vocals, so some people are already saying it sounds the same as my own [music]. But I think musically it's not similar at all. It's based around the drums and the keyboards and not so much at all around the guitar. I don't think too much about trying to impress people with my guitar.

Is that what you usually try to do?
JG: Yeah! Usually I don't feel like the song is done until I write something intricate and difficult to play. But not with Junip. It's more about how it sounds together with the drums and synthesizers and organ.

Are you still playing a nylon string?
JG: Yeah, I was a bit wary, and I tried out the steel string and electric guitar, and it didn't really feel right, so I'm still playing nylon string. So live you can't really hear the nylon string at all. Only on the intros.

You become well-known for your covers of songs like Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad" and The Knife's "Heartbeats"? Are there any covers on FIELDS?
JG: No, they're all originals.

How would you describe the songs on FIELDS?
TK: It's a happy record, but not too happy. The mix of the songs, I think is really perfect. We have a pure ballad on it. It sounds like a power ballad. And then we have songs that are quite naïve and maybe childish. I think it's a great mix, and the sound is so different from song to song.

Jose, were you reading anything while working on this record? I heard you were reading a lot of Richard Dawkins when you were making In Our Nature.
JG: No, not really. I got a bit tired of reading heavy books. I've been watching YouTube.

Anything good?
JG: Louis C.K., I like some of his stand up comedy. But it's not that I've been inspired by that at all. Sometimes I go into poetry websites and read random poems to get vibes.

Do you have plans for another solo album anytime soon?
JG: Yeah, I try to write riffs once in a while and record them on my computer. I don't have a deadline though, so it's gonna take a couple years.

Junip's show at the Vera Project begins at 7:30 p.m. It's 14 and Born Anchors will open.

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Donna Karan Design Philosophy: ‘If I Can’t Make Love in It, I Am Not Interested ... - Nymag.com

Posted: 18 Jun 2010 02:27 PM PDT

Photo: Wendy Goodman

In the latest installment of Design Hunting, Wendy Goodman checks out the furniture and home offerings of two fashion legends, Donna Karan and Diane Von Furstenberg; heads out to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for a behind-the-scenes tour of Design Within Reach darling Pigeontail's studio; pays a visit to the inspirational Hispanic Society of America; and wraps up with a walk-through of gallerist Liz O'Brien's new Upper East Side space.

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Philosophy Lite: We have power to influence others - Victoria Advocate

Posted: 18 Jun 2010 12:39 PM PDT

  • Originally published June 18, 2010 at midnight, updated June 18, 2010 at midnight

By Raymond Smith

One of the greatest rewards we can have on Earth is to have a part in saving a life or to turn someone's life around.

We often hear stories of someone having saved a person from drowning, pulling someone from a burning building, or challenging a drunk to stop drinking and get his life in order. These are the dramatic cases, but there are other less dramatic cases, such as the schoolteacher who hears from a former student about what a difference that teacher made in the student's life. What a reward Bill Wilson must have felt as he started seeing the results of his Alcoholics Anonymous organization, and before he died, seeing many other "Anonymous" organizations start up, such as Overeaters Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous, just to name a few.

Then there are professional counselors who get people's lives straightened out and marriages saved. There are organizations and clubs that exist to train people to become leaders, such as Toastmasters International. Such organizations motivate people to accomplish greater things in life.

Of course, the greatest life changer is Jesus. He has accounted for more turnarounds of life than any person in history. While some accept His gift of grace rather unemotionally, others come into great visions of what their new found lives can mean and then set out to change their world.

In Luke 8:26, we read of a man who was possessed of demons. When Jesus cured the man of his problem, he wanted to follow his savior, but Jesus told him to go back to town and tell the people of his experience. Verse 39b says, "So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him."

There are other stories of how Jesus had changed someone's life, but the point I wish to make concerns the rewards Jesus surely felt from His ministry that bore Him up through many difficulties and deprivations. Finally, He was able to endure the cross, knowing His work had changed the lives of thousands of people at that time and uncounted millions up to now. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) stated, "He who has a why can endure any how."

Pastors, evangelists, deacons, Sunday School teachers and lay persons all are bearers of the Good News. Our country was formed by men who had a great vision because of their spiritual life. A life on fire for God can influence hundreds of other lives.

Dwight Moody had such a vision for changing lives, that he made it a point to talk to at least one person every day about God's plan for salvation. Each of us in our own way can spread this gospel or inspire people to higher and nobler things.

One does not have to be a lifeguard, professional counselor, preacher or teacher to make a difference. Each in our own way can inspire the lives of our fellow men and make a difference in their lives.

Raymond Smith is president of the Strong Families of Victoria.


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Diary of an Unemployed Class of '10 Philosophy Major in New York City, Part 1 - The Awl

Posted: 18 Jun 2010 01:36 PM PDT

Diary of an Unemployed Class of '10 Philosophy Major in New York City, Part 1

The MetAt what point do I stop checking Craigslist? Why is there an ad for "MYSTERY SHOPPING" in the "writing/editing jobs" category? How much is their purported "nominal compensation"? A ten dollar per diem? A bag of buttons? A punch in the throat? "THIS IS NOT A FREE MEAL!," the ad warns. Well, then. Forget it! Why does this company leave the 'i' in 'iNC' uncapitalized? Perhaps this is some sort of test—for a prospective mystery shopper-slash-editor? What other horrors can I spot? I wonder if the person who wrote "boutique mystery shopping company seeks strong writers" felt as sad writing that as I do reading it.

When I think boutique, I think of lots of little hanging crystal beads, baskets with pearls in them, stacks of folded crimson scarves, a dour woman with cropped hair staring into a cold vacuum. I imagine myself saying "No thanks, I'm just browsing," which is my anxiety response at any store, boutique or otherwise. I know it will probably be a long, long while from now, but the first thing I'm going to do when I get a writing job here in New York City is march into the first J. Crew I see and, beaming, reply to the robot working there, "Why yes, I do need help. Bring me some moon-proof socks—I'm covering the Space Election for the Observer!"

But for now I'm just going to stick with looking at my feet and saying "No thanks" before the clerk says "Hey! You! You idiot! You moved to New York to be a writer! Have you even looked at Craigslist?! Ten thousand people just applied to fill out forms at a boutique mystery shopping company!"

I'm pretty sure "boutique" has become a business-world euphemism for "insignificant and unsuccessful"—the quivering in my friends' voices when they describe the boutique hedge fund or boutique consulting firms they work for indicate as much. Would that make me a boutique recent college graduate? I just realized I've been in New York for a full week!

* * *

I'm getting dinner with A____ tonight. I like meeting up with my high school friends because around them I needn't feel so bad about being unemployed. This is probably because they all knew me when I was 14 and had the haircut of a lesbian and the physique of an anorexic straight girl. They've seen me at some rather low points, so what's one more, I suppose. A____ works in some sort of PR consulting thing—nobody is really quite sure. I'm beginning to doubt whether my newly employed peers know what they or anyone else are now doing for a living. Inquiries of this kind are usually met with a "ah well ah some sort of, well it's a media consultancy, ah…" met with an "Ah, okay, oh, cool, oh so that's like—…," at which point both parties trail off and take out their iPhones to compulsively check for app updates.

* * *

I went to the Met yesterday. I'm not sure how I convinced myself that going to a museum at 2 p.m. on a weekday would distract myself from the fact that I'm unemployed, but I usually find Attic vases affirming in some primal way. And besides, reading the "writing/editing" jobs was getting bad to the point of being, frankly, a bit shocking. "$1 LASER TEETH WHITENING – WRITERS ONLY!" What? Come on. WHAT CAN THAT POSSIBLY MEAN?

"Ten dollars is the recommended entrance fee," they said. "Is that okay?"

If this had been phrased in any other manner I would have paid less, but there was really no way for me to look that woman in the eye and tell her that it wasn't okay. It was okay. Only days before I had paid $17 for a sandwich and a lemonade at Bryant Park. The cashier did not ask me if $17 was okay. I just told him, "Okay, here, here is seventeen dollars. Take my money. Take all… of my money," and then blood started pouring out of my eyeballs.

Ten dollars is an okay price to pay. Paying zero would make me a dick, paying one dollar would make me more of a dick, and paying nine dollars would out me as a cheapskate at best, and most likely some sort of a dick. After studying moral philosophy for the past four years, guilt remains the most formidable practical principle of them all. It's okay. Ten dollars is okay. I know you don't like guilting people into paying ten dollars. If I can be candid here, I'm not even a student. I should be paying more than ten. This student ID is expired. I graduated last month. I'm defrauding your employer. Do you need an intern?

The Dead Germans have some things right though, and if life is as horrific as Schopenhauer suggests—and how can Craigslist lead us to any other conclusion?—escaping into art could have saved this afternoon. But the usual red-figure scenes—discuses hurled upward into a clay sky, a young boy being seduced by his gym trainer, Zeus raping a giant fish—didn't rouse me as I had hoped. Here were gathered men and women of virtue, immortalized through their activity. My most laudable activity of the day up to this point was putting on pants before 11 a.m. S____ texted me with good news about his job interview, and wanted to meet me at the museum. We had a drink on the roof of the Met. So far, I resent New York's tendency to stick cash bars where they shouldn't be.


Sam Biddle is a recent college graduate in New York City.

Photo by doobybrain from Flickr.

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