May 2013
1 post
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Experimental Prototype Album of Tomorrow
I haven’t been on a plane to Florida in years. And why would I? My father’s railroad hands have allowed us to take the AutoTrain from Virginia to the greater Orlando area every time we’ve wanted to since 2000. Though it’s several times as long, the ride has provided me with two meals and the opportunity to watch the country pass by while I sit in contemplation. But here I...
April 2013
1 post
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February 2013
0 posts
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Soundtrack Stories | Radio Waves
Hey all. It’s pretty quiet around these parts. I hope you’re out there banging some pots and pans together yourself, because we all certainly are pretty busy. The Compass is, to be honest, not what it once was. But it still matters and will still serve as a space for our creations, your creations, for whatever we want it to be.
This is the latest episode of Soundtrack Stories. Can...
January 2013
7 posts
4 tags
Moving Day Part 2
Here is the long awaited Part 2 of the riveting tale of moving! (Part 1)
[[MORE]] Walking out the door, Emil was still unsure where he was, but things around him indicated that the shame he felt was particular to last night. This home belonged to Erica. The bedroom emptied into a dining room. It was nice. Too nice for Emil. The furniture all matched.
Erica in...
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Friday Tidbit: The Power in Songs
Howdy there folks! I hope you’re all doing well.
1) You may have seen previous posts about Carey Murdock. He’s a young musician with a wonderful voice and in “Shot In The Dark,” a powerful song. I’ve posted a video of a live performance of the song before. Below is the studio version that he recorded as part of his 45 Project. Every four months starting this...
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Moving Day
This is part one of a two part story:
The movers were strong and fast. They were all men and bigger than Tim’s father. Some of them knew how to speak Spanish. They had tattoos. Mother directed them around the house. She told them what went where. The beds upstairs. The table in the great room. The men moved as if moved as if mother was unnecessary, as if mother didn’t need to say a...
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Artist Bio
I’ve been registered on ReverbNation for a few years now. I don’t use it as much as I could, I guess. I’ve never been really good with the self-promotion aspects of life as a musician. I don’t have that driving force to get out there and find gigs, and I’m not sure how to describe what I do. So when the time came to write an Artist Bio, I avoided it. Until now.
...
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Friday Tidbit: The Mother We Share
Since James and I are the only ones to have posted in 2013, it seems appropriate to share this song. I found it on The AV Club website this week as part of their “Hear This” series. So yeah, you should hear this.
“The Mother We Share” - Chvrches
I’ll post another essay or piece on Monday, and I’m working on another episode of Soundtrack Stories for this...
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NEW POKEMON GAME ANNOUNCED!
So a few days ago, there was a little Hebrew boy’s birthday. Maybe you noticed it. I myself practically missed it. For all the kvetching about the awful commercialism of Christmas (something I don’t feel nearly as offended by as the consumerism of just after Christmas. In my mind buying gifts is better than returning them.) this year just didn’t feel right. Maybe Toby Keith was...
December 2012
6 posts
5 tags
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Friday Tidbit: Christmas Radio Show
There was a time, some months ago, that many of us thought it would be cool to relive our college radio days by posting fake radio playlists. That “many of us” includes Anthony and Tim, spectres who still cling to this world of The Compass. It is said that if you are a very good little boy or girl, they will visit you in the night and deliver a thoughtful essay or striking painting...
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Back in October, James and I hosted The Riley...
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Friday Tidbit: Tony's Mix Disc
So, I have this good friend named Tony. I met him through City Year New Hampshire (a place I’ve talked about a great deal before). When we graduated, he gave me a mix disc. Today’s selections are my favorite songs from that disc.
1) The past few years have seen me grow more interested in songs like this: slow, repetitive and ethereal tracks. The lyrics may be unintelligible, but the...
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The Terror of Werewolf Words: A Choose Your Own...
Since I have not had a chance to write a longer form story, I return this week with another choose your own textventure. Join me won’t you for…The Terror of Werewolf Woods
Today you are moving in with your uncle, Rang Dipkin, in his cozy home in the Carpathians. Your parents are going on a year long sabbatical to the Congo to monitor the state of their fiscally and ethically unsound...
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Soundtrack Stories | Masquerade
I had hoped to upload this video on Halloween since it centers on that day in 2004. I didn’t for a few reasons, none of which matter much now. I really enjoyed putting this video together and I think that it’s even better than the last one. However, it is lacking any performance footage for the music portion, to its detriment. But I’d rather have this video up now than have to...
November 2012
6 posts
13 tags
This Is The First Day Of My Life
Sitting in a lounge of an Atlantic City casino, I think, “I would love to come into easy money.” I have spent enough money to know that the big payoff isn’t going to happen this weekend. After finding a game that I liked, a game that I could understand, I devoted myself to it. I realized sometime later that the big money comes from the tables, but I didn’t want to learn how...
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Choose Your Own Textventure
While I have several stories I’d like to get out soon, school is making that a rather arduous task. That said, I don’t exactly want to go another two weeks without posting anything, so today I will begin sharing with you what I do three Fridays of just about every month.
At the University of Louisville School of Medicine our course work is divided into month-long, or perhaps a little...
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Hey there everyone!
So, James and I have started...
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The World of Tomorrow!
Hey ya’ll. I wrote this update before the election so it does not mention how glad I am that Mitt Romney is not our President. I hope you voted and are happy with the new world you helped shape.
[[MORE]]
These are artistic renditions of space colonies that NASA commissioned in the 1970s. Look at how cool they are. Take a moment and just look through them.
Great! The “vision...
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Building Community
Just about every week, I send out an e-mail to friends and family across the world. The e-mails started about three years ago when I was out of school and serving with City Year as a way to keep in touch with the people I care about. The number of people who get this e-mail has grown, as has the scope and design of the words I send out. I’d like to share an essay taken from this week’s...
October 2012
10 posts
12 tags
Beyond the Scenes (Guest Post)
A few of us here at The Compass went to college with Ryan, the author of today’s guest post. He is a deep thinker, able to conjure elaborate sentences and cut them down with a funny line. His post today is dense, but worth your time. So take a few minutes and read this story. Ryan shared this as way of introducing the piece: “…all I ask is that you say it is fiction so people...
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John Green's tumblr: Radiohead wouldn't exist... →
immutableinscrutable:
In the wake of recent future-of-music discussions—Louis CK’s direct-ticketing move, which may indeed revolutionize touring for artists with that large of an audience, and the Emily White/All Songs Considered/David Lowery thing—I’ve been having arguments about record labels and money.
I was kind of shocked that few people knew the ground-level math, the...
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A Quick Exercise
Hello everyone,
Good to be back on the Compass. I’ve been keeping up by reading all of your posts while on hiatus. Sorry to have been gone for so long. I had undertaken two very demanding projects that sucked up all of my free time. I’ll hopefully share some of my reflections on those projects in the coming weeks.
In order to get myself back into posting mode, I decided to jump...
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Dusting Off the Cobwebs
Hey everyone, sorry for the long hiatus. Life has been hectic these past few months. I’ve moved into a new home, it is old and very possibly haunted. We keep finding strange things in the basement and sometimes at night I think a figure is looking down at me. But that is a story for another time. School is also quite time-consuming and I spend my weekends doing autopsies at the medical...
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Stage Presence Vol. 2
Hey everyone!
It’s good to be back! I have a piece I’ve been working on for awhile now, “Goosebumps”-esque, that I should be showing you guys soon. It’s about a toaster.
Anyway, here are more videos of awesome live songs that I think you all will enjoy. I wanted to showcase this idea of well-timed madness, a control of chaos. It may sound insane at some points...
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Friday Tidbit: Joe Biden Rulez
All I’ve got this week is a video from the Gregory Brothers from the Vice President debate last night. The chorus is outstanding. This is my teaser for the forthcoming essay on the upcoming election. We here at The Compass are nothing if not informed - even if our love of silly videos may lead you to think otherwise.
-Paul
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Friday Tidbit: What I Was Listening to in Fall of...
In my Soundtrack Stories episode from this week, I mentioned both Pete Yorn and pop punk. For this week’s Friday Tidbit, I’d like to share some other songs shaping my state of mind in fall of 2001.
1) “For Nancy (‘Cos It Already Is)” - Pete Yorn
I’m a sucker for power chords, as you’ll soon see. This video is the foundation for all of my visions of...
7 tags
How River got his Water back.
Hello all,
I hope you have tumbled gently the past few weeks. He is a story about a cool looking monster:
[[MORE]]
Once there was a river who loved his water. He loved his water jealously and one day he said to her, “Water, I am your river and I don’t like that you have other things inside of you. I don’t want to share you with the fish and turtles and snakes and logs and...
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Soundtrack Stories | I Wanna Know: Discovering...
I had hoped that Soundtrack Stories would be a monthly thing. The last time that I posted a Soundtrack Story - actually, the first one - was in June. I have been working on this episode since before I even started that one. This video has a few big flaws in it: two static images in the essay piece and a lack of editing for the performance piece. But I decided that I could either spend another...
September 2012
6 posts
16 tags
Dichotomies: The Works and Life of Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut was a name I first heard in childhood. I knew he was a writer, but I wasn’t reading his books. I was a kid, not ready to encounter the lamentations and joys they contained. All I knew was the name on the cover of Timequake. I never opened the book, never attempted to discover what made some faraway man so important to my parents. I was content to satisfy my urge to read with...
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Friday Tidbit: Music and Intellectual Engagement
We are still alive. Here are some links to prove it.
1) James recently purchased “How Music Works”, a book by David Byrne of Talking Heads. I have not yet started reading it - I just started a biography on FDR that I will probably put down soon - but this video is making that text seem quite enticing.
2) Following along those lines, here is a video about starting your own...
24 tags
Stage Presence Vol. I
Hey motherfuckers!
It’s friday! You know what that means? Party? No. Work in the morning. That’s what that means.
Anyway, Paul sent and email out to us here at the Compass awhile back with some ideas, one of which was a weekly thing where we would make playlists. He wanted to chronicle our lives with music (which is an awesome idea) and share them with the rest of you.
I...
16 tags
Recommendations! Just for You!
Hey everyone!
Recently I was hired to work at a bookstore thinking it would be awesome and I’d learn a lot and great things would pursue. I was wrong. It is boring and I don’t like it. I just shelve things and answer the phone. That’s it. So I went today to get a job at an awesome multi-story junk store and I think I got it! I’ll find out soon. I’d rather work...
Black Hole
Hey everyone!
Yesterday I held a contest on my facebook wall. Whoever could post the most on my status would win $20 and a short story written about themselves. Second place would also appear in the story but would not receive any money. Our very own James Riley took first place and Luke See took second. Here is the short story! Congrats to James! Enjoy.
-Anthony
——-
Black...
August 2012
10 posts
13 tags
Friday Tidbit: Positive Thinking
Here are some videos that I watched this week that I liked.
1) I wrote a few weeks ago that “Call Me Maybe” has been received with much more positive feelings than “Friday” ever was. As proof: this video.
2) Here is a video about Anthony and his delivery service. This is not our Anthony, though the “our” in that clause is a limited one. It references The...
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A Sample Conversation between Me and Myself
You haven’t done anything on The Compass in a while.
I know. I’ve been busy.
It’s probably going to fall apart soon.
Come on, don’t say that. We’re just in a rough patch.
A rough patch that’s lasted eight months?
People get busy. I know I haven’t done anything lately, but I’m working on a new episode of Soundtrack Stories. It’s just...
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Chronophage
After another two weeks without internet, I’m back with another story.
Chronophage
7:00 AM “Goooooood morning Harwick!” exclaimed a distressingly chipper voice through a faint haze of radio static. “It’s your old buddy Wailin’ Wally Williams here to guide you through another long work day. It’s a hot one out there folks, weatherman says it’s going to be in the nineties all week. Might...
Recommendations and You
Hey Everyone!
I bought a new notebook to carry around. It’s pretty cool and it’s all graph paper which helps me think.
Also: I have another idea for the site that is not the porn website spinoff The CompASS. It will be nothing but videos of us dancing around our living rooms. We can call it the Krumpass. Let me know what you think.
That’s it. Here are some...
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Sam Slaughter's Songs He Wants to Hear Before He...
The Trailhead that I posted on Sunday has gotten a few responses over the past few days. Here is the first from a reader. Sam Slaughter is someone I met roughly six months ago. He’s a writer, and this is hopefully the first of many guest posts to come. A quick reminder: if you’re interested in responding to this week’s Trailhead, please do so! Send your playlist to...
18 tags
KISS of Death
I’ve read and thought a lot about death. I am afraid of it. Probably somewhere deep within the posts you may be able to find a phrase I wrote that suggests otherwise but it is wrong. I do not want to die. It scares me to the point where I don’t want to leave the house sometimes.
Perhaps in the past I was braver, less afraid of the unknown. Now I have experienced more, gained a...
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Jen's Penultimate Playlist
I put a lot of thought into this week’s trailhead response. I wanted my song selection to be just right. I wanted to think of a really creative way to present these songs to you. And I wanted the sentiment that came with them to be sincere and meaningful.
Then I decided to stop trying so hard. Stick with the most straight forward answer and do it simply. So I’m coming to you with a list...
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Paul's Penultimate Playlist
In response to my Trailhead yesterday, below is my Penultimate Playlist and its corresponding commentary.
How do you define your life? How, in your twilight hours, would you like to look back on your past for one final sonic journey? I wrote Sunday about death, about the fear it causes many (including myself), about its necessity, about how it marks not a true end but a continuation. The...
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Trailhead: The Gospel Songs of Dying
Death is a fearful thing to many. Our recent posts on the shooting in Aurora, Colorado reflect that fact. What makes death so terrifying is its suddenness, its arrival without warning. When people say, “He was too young,” they really mean that death has laid asunder another’s plans for the coming years. I think that, in these moments, we’re attempting to provide ourselves...
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Uma Thurman got a Bum Deal
Do you know when someone re-imagines popular characters in different contexts? Like when someone draws sexy/creepy Disney Princesses. Or like these Star Wars Action figures? Or when someone draws a realistic picture of a cartoon character? You can see the elements that connect the two things but ultimately they are not the same. Well that is what The Dark Knight Rises is. It is a take on Batman...
July 2012
17 posts
16 tags
Lost in Translation (Guest Post)
Today’s guest post comes from an old friend of mine, Liana. Liana does a pretty good job of introducing herself below, so I won’t attempt to add anything. I will say that if you are ever interested in contributing something to The Compass, we would love to post it! Click the “submit” tab at the top of the page or send an e-mail to wethecompass@gmail.com. I hope you enjoy...
6 tags
Inspiration in the City
Hello fellow Compassers!
I trust you all had a marvelous weekend. I had the good fortune of attending Rufus Wainwright’s Boston show last night, which wasn’t terribly well attended since Coldplay was in town last night as well. The night started off with Adam Cohen (son of Leonard!!) and was followed by the lovely Ingrid Michaelson. She did a cover of Nightswimming with nothing...
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The Haint
Recently I’ve been reading a lot of M.R. James ghost stories, and I’ve been really enjoying the conversational way he writes. It lends itself particularly well to ghost stories, which are, I think, better told than read. They are also quite short, and often somewhat uneventful, which helps to make them more like the kind of ghost stories one might actually tell. To that end I’ve...
