Tumblr (3.0; @refrshingapathy)http://refreshingapathy.com/<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-man-with-the-google-glasses.html?_r=2&ref=opinion">The Man with the Google Glasses</a>: <p>What a technology promo video tells us about the role of solitude in our culture.</p>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/21142845497http://refreshingapathy.com/post/21142845497Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:45:43 -0400<p><a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://etherealdefiency.tumblr.com/post/20279698838/the-bbc-have-outdone-themselves-with-this-years-april" target="_blank">etherealdefiency</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1spy1iZ8j1r5323t.jpg"/></p> </blockquote>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/20298190378http://refreshingapathy.com/post/20298190378Sun, 01 Apr 2012 14:23:24 -0400<p><a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://frequencyskye.tumblr.com/post/20293735852/lemonjello-every-time-i-take-and-shower-and-i" target="_blank">frequencyskye</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://lemonjello.tumblr.com/post/20290697502/every-time-i-take-and-shower-and-i-dont-have-to" target="_blank">lemonjello</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>every time I take and shower and I don’t have to be anywhere immediately, I end up naked on my computer. every time.</p> </blockquote> <p>yep</p> </blockquote> <p>pants? who needs &#8216;em.</p>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/20296259197http://refreshingapathy.com/post/20296259197Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:50:09 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1t2dcXpzN1qzlt8mo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/20286884704http://refreshingapathy.com/post/20286884704Sun, 01 Apr 2012 10:46:24 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1h4hzpnCN1qzlt8mo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19946145125http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19946145125Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:51:05 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1h4ho82qZ1qzlt8mo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19944992071http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19944992071Mon, 26 Mar 2012 02:53:05 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1h4g5UZNO1qzlt8mo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19943514080http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19943514080Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:56:05 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1h4friOZZ1qzlt8mo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>some day…</p>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19941589772http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19941589772Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:59:05 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1h4h2HTkx1qzlt8mo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>It’s going to be a good week. See? Garfield agrees.</p>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19939089618http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19939089618Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:00:37 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m165dwIc8n1r8ijtio1_500.png"/><br/><br/>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19667637978http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19667637978Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:39:16 -0400<iframe width="400" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TnbLXAfrPvY?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19617231152http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19617231152Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:56:06 -0400<iframe width="400" height="299" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/R1lE9bXH8FM?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/><p>TesseracT - <em>Concealing Fate</em> - Part I: Acceptance</p>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19615470407http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19615470407Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:59:06 -0400<iframe width="400" height="299" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MIb2I6QGVFU?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/><p><h1 class="p1">Neurosis, <em>Given to the Rising </em>(2007)</h1> <p class="p1">Sludge. Dear lord, sludge. For some reason, lots of people have been recommending that I listen to sludge albums in the past few weeks. I’ve grown to be discerning about sludge, appreciating both the borderline stoner-rock stuff and the dynamically altered tracks that Neurosis is capable of. Not just seething distortion with similar riffs, “Given to the Rising” strings harmonically consonant ideas into an interesting blend of both long- and short-form tracks.</p> <p class="p1">The title track (also the first track) stretches across bleak deserts and winds through the mountain valleys of dissonance, pausing briefly at an oasis in the middle to refresh the ears before launching into a swirling descent to the end of the track, blending beautifully into the beginning of “Fear and Sickness.” The half-growled, half-sung vocals tangle beautifully with spindly guitar lines, pulsing rhythmically until reaching a bone-crushingly heavy breakdown around 3:10. It’s odd, I grew up with Albany hardcore breakdowns, chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga-SQUEEEEEEE. This is a different kind of breakdown. Not one that makes you “throw down,” but one that makes your brain just… stop. This is what I love about me and sludge music.</p> <p class="p1">To the Wind starts ambient, and remains that way for about a third of the song.  The second third is strangely uplifting - the faster tempo and interesting chord characters make it a toe tapper for sure. Then it goes back into the murky, swirling, phased guitar lines, with low growls - climaxing at 5:30 with a riff that mashes your ears into bloody pulp. Add a pick slide on top of the downward slide at 5:31 and I probably would have had an orgasm too. If someone asks how make a sludge breakdown, this is a masterful example.</p> <p class="p1">My least favorite track has to be the fourth, “At the End of the Road.” It stays ambient far too long (about 5 minutes out of 8:30), and the break-ish riffs don’t have the same heaviness as if they were worked up to like in previous tracks.</p> <p class="p1">Shadow and Hidden Faces, two of the shorter tracks on the album. Shadow is more of a filler track, with some strange synthy and feedbacky things and spoken vocals going on. Hidden Faces returns to the riffage, though, but in a strangely brief way. The first thing you’ll notice is the drums have a very wide feeling on this track, coupled with soaring guitar harmonies layered behind the main riff. This eventually dissolves into chaos, and then into another foot-tapping track full of great riffs. </p> <p class="p1">Water is Not Enough is a serious nod towards groove. The instruments are as tight as they get over the whole album, banging out a hard rut into the roadmap. The song stays with essentially the same groove throughout, keeping that tight feeling until about 2/3rd of the way through during a break. The drummer gets to shine a bit more here, and his fills sound positively massive.</p> <p class="p1">Distill starts in atypical fashion, with big extended chords and a strange diddle on the snare drum - but settles down after a few minutes. An ambient break in the middle gives the ears a break, but made my mind wander a bit. Nine picks up right where Distill left off,  wtih spacey, screechy guitars and a strange tape warble in the background… the song belongs in a horror movie sound track as someone is walking through the woods about to get their head lopped off with a rusty chainsaw. </p> <p class="p1">The final track, Origin, is a slow-bloomer but beautiful. It takes all the elements the band has explored through the previous tracks and puts them all together - spacey sound effects, short rhythmic breaks, riffs chunky enough to rival Fat Albert. It crescendos to a blazing finish, blaring triumphantly with screeching guitar and cymbal crash.</p> <p class="p2"><strong>Rating</strong>: 11/10, I loved this album, it fit my mood and state so well lately. It’s been on in my car everywhere I’ve driven for about two weeks now, and I’ve delayed reviewing it because needing to do the review gave me an excuse to keep listening to it.</p></p>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19615026540http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19615026540Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:46:43 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0ur6lxBHq1r1ih6go1_r1_500.jpg"/><br/> <br/><img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0ur6lxBHq1r1ih6go2_500.jpg"/><br/> <br/><img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0ur6lxBHq1r1ih6go3_500.jpg"/><br/> <br/><img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0ur6lxBHq1r1ih6go4_500.jpg"/><br/> <br/><img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0ur6lxBHq1r1ih6go5_500.jpg"/><br/> <br/><img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0ur6lxBHq1r1ih6go6_500.jpg"/><br/> <br/>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19489190766http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19489190766Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:34:05 -0400<iframe width="400" height="299" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tqHgZhLLTc0?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19488267557http://refreshingapathy.com/post/19488267557Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:17:56 -0400<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://assets.tumblr.com/swf/audio_player_black.swf?audio_file=http://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/17044950411/tumblr_lyvw025V3k1qzlt8m&color=FFFFFF" height="27" width="207" quality="best" wmode="opaque"></embed><br/><br/><p>Do you like music? Do you like good music? Do you want to discover good new music? Press play.</p> <p><em>Buke and Gass - Naked Cities</em></p>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/17044950411http://refreshingapathy.com/post/17044950411Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:40:00 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyvvcjiP5X1qzlt8mo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>For those of you who haven’t seen yet - I finally dumped the old glasses and haircut.</p> <p>PS:The fold on my cuff in that picture is driving me nuts.</p> <p>PPS: My closet needs organization. Badly.</p>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/17044175972http://refreshingapathy.com/post/17044175972Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:26:43 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyvmn0x9N21qzbcawo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/17044034058http://refreshingapathy.com/post/17044034058Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:24:11 -0500<p>Seriously. The last year has flown by like nothing else I&#8217;ve ever experienced.</p>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/17043389481http://refreshingapathy.com/post/17043389481Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:12:19 -0500<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lye3ycHaLM1qzlt8mo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>http://refreshingapathy.com/post/16509089780http://refreshingapathy.com/post/16509089780Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:15:48 -0500