Flux Productions

My brother makes amazing shirts. You should go buy them on his Etsy Page.

BARCC Walk for Change

I'm doing BARCC's walk for change. It's April 6th, and you should SPONSOR ME!

Liberate Yourself from Marketing

I had a whole sermon written about it, but it comes down to this: delete yourself from the social networks/marketing engines. You'd be surprised how good it feels.

premature is a bad word

What happens if you get a cut in the palm of your hand that leaves a scar right on your lifeline? Does that fundamentally alter the course of your life? Because if that's the case, I'm going to die much sooner than was originally intended, just because I insist on working on my own bikes. That, or my love life will get weird. Just throwing that out there, folks.


latiflearned.com is devoid of philosophy.

I have a friend coming
so i'll just wait 'till
he arrives

to ask anything of you

In the meantime, enjoy
your freedom/respite

from servitude

however brief

Or perhaps
clear some tables?


latiflearned.com

The Rhythm

The rhythm... the rhythm of life.
like a guitar strumming strumming
pulse beating.

Get a pulse. Pulse. Pulse.
wait for the beat to mature;
after a while, the beat plays

you.

Then,
(when you're inside the beat you play your solo)
(but don't play all of your solo. not all at once. don't
use up all of your
licks.)
give it time nobody's goinganywhere
take your time:
let it come out. (let the beat do its work).
It's like life: get the rhythm, let the rest
flow.



latiflearned.com didn't make a song out of this poem.

Art, Clothes, Life

This falls into the category of "self-evident, unless it's never occurred to you before". (Have you ever noticed that nothing is really "common sense" if nobody told you about it before? "Common sense" is only "common" for people who are regularly told how things work.) Anyhow, I was thinking today about clothes, because sometimes I feel guilty for having more clothes than I strictly need. For being so anti-capitalism/consumerism, I've got a lot of stuff.

(The stuff thing comes with a bunch of caveats. The typical bourgeois capitalist pig-dog rationalization goes like this: "If I need something, I should have it. Also, if I'm going to purchase it, it should be of good quality." That's the camp I'm in.)

I have lots of nice clothes, maybe more than average, but strictly more than I need. Fortunately for me and my (minor) guilt about this, I came up with another rationalization this morning for the rampant clothes purchasing: The one weak link in most people's anti-capitalist campaigns/life strategies/axes to grind is art and music. You should only have one pair of jeans, two dirty t-shirts, but your CD collection can fill up the wall, and you're not a rabid, foaming consumer.

What are clothes but art that you can wear? Clothes fulfill a utilitarian function, sure, but also, they look good, and when well made, please in an aesthetic sense. Furthermore, there's the whole phenomenon of printed t-shirts and the like (such as my brother's at Flux Productions, which amounts to mobile art. Hence, from this point forward, I'm going to think of my clothing collection as an art collection. And you can think of me as a walking sculpture/art gallery. Thank you very much.

-The Curator


Latiflearned.com isn't all about the merchandise. I swear.

The Album Is Up

I posted the entire album "The Big Finish" online just now. Actually, I'm in the process of posting it online. But, you know, by the time you read this, it'll probably be online, which means you can download it in it's entirety into your sleazy, sweaty little internet hands/pods.

If you don't want to download it there, it should show up in the jukebox, along with the albums of hundreds of other February-inspired musicians, including Bob Boilen of NPR, over at RPM Challenge by the end of March. I hope you enjoy my album, and the albums of the other challenge-ees.



Latiflearned.com is so fresh and so clean

The RPM Challenge

As many of you (all three of you) know, I recently participated in the RPM Challenge, wherein musicians challenge themselves to write and record an entire album in the month of February. You can go to their website for the whole spiel; suffice it to say that I did this, and now that February is over, I'm feeling relieved.

A common problem I run into with writing music is my quality control. It's so strict that I nix potential songs before I even try to write them, because I'm worried that the lyrics are trite or the hook isn't catchy or the harmonic movement isn't profound enough. It's been really nice to put that aside and just write, because it turns out that, yeah, some bad stuff got through, but a lot of this music is totally different from what I made before. This excites me and makes me happy. I hope that it excites you and makes you happy.

I've put up some new tracks from the new album, called The Big Finish for you to download. I'll be putting up a couple of tracks every few days for the coming 3 or 4 weeks. The first two are tracks one and three:

• 1. why ought i to


• 3. nantucket

I haven't decided yet whether I want to take down old tracks as I upload new ones, so you'll probably want to get them while they're fresh and hot!

Send me an email or contact me on my obligatory MySpace account if you like (or have a strong reaction to) what you hear.

latiflearned.com - where the magic happens.

Big Peepers

...and when you look at your face
look at this place
look at my face
with a new set of big peepers
write it all down on large paper
with big letters
for the type setters
try to slip it under the line
under the fence
under the watchful eye of
guardians of
lemons and love
protectors of our innocence
and once you've sent it away
given it up
seen it along
with the aims of a star person
put out the arms of your big feelers
and do it again
do it again
do it again



latiflearned.com

Berate, Chastizer!

I ate the taller
I bate the master
irate, the smaller
I'm late, but faster.
I hate the squalor
I grate the cheddar
I ate what's under:
my mate would holler
"Berate, Chastizer!"
Checkmate! I wonder...
Cut tape, another
hater turned to lover
Great perm, my lover
ate sperm, I'd rather
be worm than maggot
I squirm with magic
We yearn the tragic
return to ashes
we burn the stash
to re-learn the past.

latif learned; how to rhyme

poetry

poetry is like a photograph done in black and
white, makes life real and sweet like
fruit that's ripe, making trite and
useless things take on light and duplicitous
or delicious meanings, the meanderings of
mights and maybes taking on solid life
like sex makes babies. anyone can
do it and it's potent every time because
for some reason when you see it,
it's heavy like iron, heady like smelling
salts and slippery like teflon, it's tough
to put the book down and join the
living, it's the gift that keeps on giving
as long as you look down.

latiflearned.com - it's hard to put down

Warning to Prospective iPod Purchasers

This device will play music in your ears all the time. This is awesome.

However, this device will also insert more noise into your already noisy head. It will allow you to tune out by adding more noise pollution to your already crowded psyche. If you have no room in your psyche, we recommend that you meditate. Loser.

This device will distract you from your environment. It is not recommended to operate heavy, medium, or light machinery, computers, other humans, or farm animals while using your iPod. You stand a good chance of running over somebody's chihuaha with your Volvo, crashing into a pedestrian on your bike, or disemboweling your livestock with the hay thresher if you use your iPod in conjunction with these machines.

This device will also send a message to your fellow humans - "Fuck off." If you don't want to tell your fellow humans to Fuck Off, you should probably wait until you're alone to use it. Or on the bus. Anywhere but a crowded sidewalk.

This device will send a clear message to would-be muggers: "Hey! I'm not paying attention to you! You could walk right up to me with a gun and I wouldn't notice until you had it shoved up my ass! You could probably get a few swipes in before I even registered that you'd stolen my wallet! In fact, go ahead and steal my wallet! As long as you leave the iPod in, I won't notice or care!"

In summary, your iPod will make your life and your interactions with other humans more robust and satisfying. Please enjoy responsibly.

Latiflearned.com - where the wild things are.

The Cadence of This Language

the cadence of this lanugage can
bring you pain and anguish,
it can drain reserves and leave
you laying languid or it can serve
to uplift you, sift you through
the strainer, the gift of subtle
gestures, swerve you left and
right on the lanes of layers,
aim you to the central matter and
the smatter of random noise, the
mad-hatter mercury danger boys,
lay you gently after dark on
the scented mattress of reason, it
can move you through a season in
a second then retrieve you on a
lark and place you in harm's way
but protect you
these are just some of the ways
it can affect you.



latiflearned.com

Reply to the Poem I Never Read

don't you see that when you act
crazy
it doesn't matter how many grains of truth
fall from your lips
like crumbs of bread?
they slip through my hands
like grains of sand
when you act crazy. it's like you're
dead.
so if you want to scream at me, scream
yourself a higher hoarse because
the source of your action is losing traction.
you're the captain of a norse vessel
clad in bearskin with no need for psilocybin
and it fills me with remorse

Latiflearned.com - Go Listen

the unsung hero of Boston
just rung up your change
while you were lost in
thought: "isn't it strange
that no one here ever smiles?"
you ponder and frown;
your creases dig deeper down.

the unsung hero of Boston
just opened the door
to the gasp of the frost in
the air: "is it just the poor
who have to ride the bus?"
you think, and you frown,
and you leave it behind a while
after you step down.

Latiflearned.com - Go Listen

computer guy

The other day, I was asked what I do, and I responded "I work in computers." I neglected to mention that I'm a guitarist, or a musician, or that I build guitars, or record music. I completely left out the music element of things entirely. I'm worried because this may be the first step toward full-fledged "computer-guy"-dom, and it may be the last. I may already be a computer guy.
Let's take a look at the facts: I own several routers (for internet), but none for woodwork. I have very strong opinions on powerpoint presentations. I haven't gotten a gig playing music in many months. I get excited about databases. I haven't practiced guitar regularly in many months. My eyeballs hurt.
It's not looking good, folks. So I need you to do me a favor: if you're a friend of mine, and you think I should be pursuing music more actively than I appear to be, let me know. Force me to make new albums. Force me to write a song about you. Get gigs for me and then force me to go play them. And so on.
In related news, the guitar that I started building about a year and a half ago is nearing completion. I'll post some photos... maybe. Maybe I won't. It's got a body and a neck, and the shapes are all there. It just needs some hardware, some finish, some frets, and the baby's good to go. More on that later.

Latiflearned.com - For when you're feeling a little too chipper

Back on MySpace

Seeing as how MySpace changed their policy from one of pure evil to one of basic evil, with an option for pure available for professional musicians, I've added myself back to Myspace. The link on the side of this blog will work again. And the links in my previous posts will work as well. Sweet. Sort of.
However! One can still go to Latiflearned.comn and get the latest news and show dates! The MySpace page is a necessary, basic evil.
Et voila!

hate dogs

Seriously, folks,
What's up with you all hating hot dogs? Why all the lack of love? What's not to like about tubular meat? Now, granted, the pig lips and rat tails that you get from an Oscar Meyer weiner (which, I think we can all agree, nobody wants to be) aren't what I'm talking about. Nobody in their right mind can get behind junk food. I'm talking about all beef, I'm talking about relish, I'm talking about gourmet, sesame-coated buns. Why can't we all get behind sesame-coated buns? Why all of this hate? Why can't you let go of your vegetarian, mildly homophobic neuroticisms and appreciate one of the greatest inventions of Person?
Speaking of hate, I've found out that I know people who have it! One person I know has hate for people who listen to reggae music. If you listen to reggae, this friend of mine automatically hates you! While I think this a little bit harsh, I can see the path one could go down to get to reggae-hating.
I also found out that I know somebody who is a spirituality-hater. You like crystals? Don't talk about them around this person: you will be hated! It must be something about Boston (cities?) that makes people want to enact that hating. Some sort of self-preservation mechanism that lets you transfer your rage at the driver who almost ran your bike over, the surly waiter, the drunken crazy person who accosted you, transfer all of that rage to reggae, or hippies.
The moral of the story is: don't let the city get the better of you! Tame that hate! Take Shaolin White Crane Long Fist Kung-Fu and feel better by punching! Punch-therapy, or as I prefer to call it: acupunchure.
Aaaaaaaaaand, I'm spent.

Latiflearned.com - Go Transfer your Rage

there i was
watching movies at my feet with my neck craned
while i should have been biking
jerking, the road bumps underneath
evading cars, but instead
there i was playing pool
when i should have been thinking
of a better way to describe
the way you make a tiny noise
when i accost you unexpectedly
and lift you off your feet, then another
noise, but
there i was trying to coax a rhyme
out of a vacuous phrase,
looking for a pattern or a meaning
when i should have been sleeping

Latiflearned.com - Go Listen