Faded Paper Figures

When my brother goes to the movies, he likes to purposely butcher the movie name when he buys his tickets. Just slightly. Getting Smarter, The Mr. Hancock, you know. Just enough so the ticket guy knows what movie he wants, but thinks, what an idiot. This kind of tempted me to entitle this post something like Fading Papered Figurines. But then I decided to be respectful to the band. But then I told you about it anyway.


So a few days ago I received the Faded Paper Figures upcoming album Dynamo to review, which I was a pretty pretty excited about. But my excitement did not even prepare me for how good Dynamo is. Like, Postal Service or Stars good. FPF balance the electric and the organic, the catchy and the honest. I don't always care a lot about lyrics, but in this case it only adds to the charm, something about the lines in the chorus of "Metropolis": Just south of here utopia/For sixty bones euphoria... The lyrical talent in FPF is especially apparent after the struggle I've had listening to The Long Blondes recently because of their laughable lyrics. With FPF it's like a game to see if you can catch the philosophical and historical allusions.

You don't know it yet, but you love FPF. Maybe you've seen Kael's work on that Lexus commercial? Not to mention, John is brother-in-law to the Libbie Linton. And a fellow Mormon academic. So get listening. Check out "Polaroid Solution" here, and a few more on their myspace. They have saved some serious gems for the album, like "Geneva's Gone" and "The Persuaded," so be sure to get it on iTunes when it's released next week or just grab it now from CD Baby.

mp3: Faded Paper Figures - Polaroid Solution

fadedpaperfigures.com

NYC Part VI: it's over!

Stretching out my NY post sure has made blogging easy. In honor of completeness, here's what I've neglected to mention about the trip.

Ate nummy food:
one last brekkie at Florent before it closes for good next month (sob!)
my first Shake Shack: maybe the best hamburger ever
Thai at Sea in Billyburg where the opening scene of Garden State was filmed

Sightings: (other than Christian)
Nole Marin (America's Next Top Model)
Ally and Tommy Hilfiger (couldn't care less about Tommy. But man I miss Ally and her rabbit teeth on Rich Girls. Remember the episode where she taught us how to tap the third eye?)

Coolest new museum with the worst art:
New Museum
Best thing there was the lime green corrugated elevator interiors.

Best roommates for the week, or, Mormons gentrifying Harlem:
Ashley, Becca, & obvs Amy

Here's a funny thing about Mormons in Harlem. During my visit we found out that a friend's husband had been writing a piece for BYU Magazine about the apartment I used to live in on 111th street. In talking to people he had figured out that Amy Middleton, Carlynne Cutler, and Jo Thomas had lived together. I'm not sure what the story was all about, something about how several other LDS kids lived in the building too and someone at one point started calling it Harleman Halls, a pun that would only make sense to those familiar with BYU student housing. One day in talking to the magazine people, he asked if the co-ed living in the story was ok, which it wasn't, so they put the kibosh on the article. Dear world, it's JO Thomas not JOE Thomas. Yeah, because of me a BYU mag article got tossed by the wayside. Or really because of assuming. Now that the misunderstanding is straightened out, we may eventually get to read what on earth all this was about in the first place.

So, yeah. Till next time, NY. And I swear I'll get some music up soon.

a churchy one

I'd been ward hopping for quite a while and recently finally committed to the one I'm supposed to be in. It's early in the morning which is difficult after late Saturday nights. My first week, the program for sacrament meeting said musical program, which actually just turned out to be the congregation singing hymns the whole time. Sounds boring but it unexpectedly turned out to be incredible. Then this week when I got there, Richard G. Scott was sitting on the stand. My view was blocked at first so I didn't even notice until the 1st counselor announced it and I thought he was joking. Nobody, including the Bishop, knew he was coming, and he didn't intend to speak. But of course he was asked to so he just gave a very short and simple testimony at the end of the meeting. It was so exciting to hear that familiar calm but dramatic voice in our own little church house. I found it interesting that he just popped in for no apparent reason. My brother Andy said he was just doing what he used to do at the high school dances. Andy was on student council and would stop and chat with all the groups of kids to make sure they were having a good time and stuff. So maybe he's just checking on the singles, giving us a little reminder that the apostles don't forget about us. It took me a really long time to join this ward, so I thought, I'm being told I'm finally in the right place. Then in Sunday school I found myself sitting near my chiropractor,who I hadn't known was Mormon. So the whole time I was very self-conscious about my posture and kept shifting around trying to keep my back straight, except then my chair kept banging on the chair rail in the wall. Blurg. But anyway, church is great and good.

Snoop Dogg a Mormon

Best April Fools ever. (Thanks, Niccole)