For Larry

This post is mainly inspired by my friend Larry, a huge music lover (and Sigur Rós fan).  Some random thoughts and maybe a picture if I can figure out how to squeeze one in after the jump.



Jónsi-
My new favorite album this week is Go by Jónsi (Jón Þór Birgisson, the lead singer of Sigur Rós). What a fun, fantastic record. It has all the elements I love; huge, expansive sound coupled with Jónsi's wonderful falsetto. The sound is certainly reminiscent of Sigur Rós, but with more frenetic energy driving the songs. "Animal Arithmetic" and "Boy Lilikoi" are two favorites, though it's hard to go wrong. This might be one of the best album titles in a long time; it absolutely describes the emotions in the music. I can't listen to "Animal Arithmetic" without wanting to get up and jump around (and half of it's in Icelandic, so I can't sing along, which is tragic).


Heima-
If you are a fan of Sigur Rós, or ever wondered how a sense of place could influence music, you must watch Heima, a documentary film Sigur Rós made while touring their home country of Iceland. I love their music, it is so close to perfection in so many ways. This film in some ways makes their music more complete. Maybe it's my love of image, but this music springs from Iceland and belongs in Iceland and listening to these expansive sounds while watching the Icelandic landscape unfurl in front of you is as close to transcendent as I can imagine in a music film. I've recently watched Under Great White Northern Lights by The White Stripes and It Might Get Loud, which features Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page. All are fantastic (high on my list of bands to see live- The White Stripes), but Heima really shows how powerful image and sound can be together.
(Edit: So on re-watching the film I still think it's amazing, but maybe transcendent is too strong a word, probably for just about anything.  In my defense it was late at night when I wrote the original post!)


It was while listening to Go this morning that I thought I should post about this album, and I immediately thought of my friend Larry in Arizona, who has also been on my mind because of the World Cup, I don't know a bigger soccer fan.  I would have loved to watch the matches with someone who cares as much as he does and missed him during the World Cup!  Too bad about the consolation prize, I was hoping for the Dutch and Germans in the final. Here's hoping that next time we can finally get by the Black Stars.

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And now for a picture.
This is why I love f1.8.  Natural light and real narrow focus.  Probably too narrow for a face, but still very nice.  (Of course having a beautiful daughter makes the picture that much better for me!)