Robin Pecknold is my age. So I feel a fraternal bond when I hear the critical praise heaped on his new album and, as with all great albums/art, would like to think of his work as just a mouthpiece channeling the words from the internal convo between the right and left hemispheres of my brain (if only I was that clever).
While his music, with all its fancy baroque harmonies and stringed instruments, would ostensibly suggest otherwise, Pecknold is a child of the oughties through and through. In an interview with BBC, he praises music piracy’s effect on the creative process[1], which is definitely a reason I [and probably many others my age] have given in the past for what debatably amounts to stealing. It also reflects a bit of what’s going on lyrically/thematically, which is crucial for what makes Helplessness Blues such a special album.
It’s early to talk about how good of a series Chris Lilley’s Angry Boys is or how it will compare to Summer Heights High or anyothermockumentaryseries that seems to have become the comedic standard of the 21st century. There’s little denying that the series produced by Australia’s ABC, HBO and BBC, and taking place in Los Angeles, Australia and Japan is looking to expand beyond the confines of one continent.
It is also fair to say that with the larger focus, a certain hometown charm has been lost. Writer/director/creator Chris Lilley began his career with We Can Be Heroes, which received a large amount of acclaim; the press (fairly) placed Lilley within the same comedic vein as British comedian Ricky Gervais, whose role as showrunner/writer/actor does have a lot of parallels with Lilley’s work, as does the extent to which both writers/actors are willing to place discomfort ahead of comedy (they’re often treated as one in the same) and tinge episodes with a bit of atonal darkness.
“There’s nothing more embarrassing than some 50-year-old with his thinning gray hair pulled into a ponytail trying to re-live his youth. Get it out of your system now.”
“If you’re going to drink a lot, do it when you’re young.”
In a move stolen completely from my roommate, I have decided to create a list of things to do before thirty. It’s admittedly one of the most clichéd kind of blog posts in the handbook (alongside a picture a year, 30 questions, etc.), but maybe a spark of originality will escape from an overused form.
I’m at a disadvantage, both in the confines of the list and [on a larger scale] the more universal constraints of modern man (time and money): I’m 1/3 through my 20s (WHAT?) and seriously lacking the funds to make some of these things happen.Yet, the pressures of what is a pretty artificial challenge in a pretty artificial timeframe provide the biggest push to ensure a life less lame. That is, if this is anything like other deadlines, then most will be checked off in the last two months of my 29th year, using money I don’t have - but it’ll be worth it.
I’m proud to say that I’ve accomplished a few mainstays on life lists (skydiving, backpacking) and while there are still others, I hopefully provided (in keeping with the theme of my 20s) a few challenges that insist on making me appreciate the mundane.
Of course, more exist (don’t be so nosey), but included are the first ten:
Visit three of my yet unvisited continents
Memorize the presidents, as well as the any significant contributions of each
Two week silent retreat
Hot air balloon!
One month w/o meat/One month w/o alcohol (separate months)
See the Grand Canyon at sunrise
Put down $100 on roulette. Red?
Secretly attend church for a year, not knowing any members. Community functions included
I sit alone in an empty media center. Posters from the 90s hang from the ceiling,encouraging kids to read - in one, Stephen Hawking sits awkwardly on the sun, book in lap while sun flares shoot up on both sides. Across the room, Mel Gibson, stares unsettling into the camera lens of what seems to be a Sears portrait studio, 1984 on thigh. Coolio, Michelle Kwan and others round out the last bookcase posters. The guidance counselors chat about children’s shows while waiting for tardy students to enter for the late FCAT.
Robin Pecknold is my age. So I feel a fraternal bond when I hear the critical praise heaped on his new album and, as with all great albums/art, would like to think of his work as just a mouthpiece channeling the words from the internal convo between the right and left hemispheres of my brain (if only I was that clever).
![Excerpts from Bankrate.com’s [what?] Top 10 things to do before you turn 30:
“There’s nothing more embarrassing than some 50-year-old with his thinning gray hair pulled into a ponytail trying to re-live his youth. Get it out of your system now.”
“If you’re going to drink a lot, do it when you’re young.”
In a move stolen completely from my roommate, I have decided to create a list of things to do before thirty. It’s admittedly one of the most clichéd kind of blog posts in the handbook (alongside a picture a year, 30 questions, etc.), but maybe a spark of originality will escape from an overused form.
I’m at a disadvantage, both in the confines of the list and [on a larger scale] the more universal constraints of modern man (time and money): I’m 1/3 through my 20s (WHAT?) and seriously lacking the funds to make some of these things happen. Yet, the pressures of what is a pretty artificial challenge in a pretty artificial timeframe provide the biggest push to ensure a life less lame. That is, if this is anything like other deadlines, then most will be checked off in the last two months of my 29th year, using money I don’t have - but it’ll be worth it.
I’m proud to say that I’ve accomplished a few mainstays on life lists (skydiving, backpacking) and while there are still others, I hopefully provided (in keeping with the theme of my 20s) a few challenges that insist on making me appreciate the mundane.
Of course, more exist (don’t be so nosey), but included are the first ten:
Visit three of my yet unvisited continents
Memorize the presidents, as well as the any significant contributions of each
Two week silent retreat
Hot air balloon!
One month w/o meat/One month w/o alcohol (separate months)
See the Grand Canyon at sunrise
Put down $100 on roulette. Red?
Secretly attend church for a year, not knowing any members. Community functions included
Mentor kid for a year
Drive down westcoast](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llb9pgzpOX1qcsdw6o1_1280.jpg)
