some kind things

while i'm using this blog as an avenue for positive press, i'd like to mention this nice thing USU has done on me. this appeared in this month's English department newsletter: 

UNDERGRAD ALUMNUS PUBLISHES IN “THE IOWA REVIEW”

Utah State University alumnus Taylor Christensen's poem “Banana Tree: 1964” appears on December 8, 2008, in The Iowa Review. The journal is a major literary venue for creative writers. Taylor attended Utah State in 2006-07 as a freshman in the English Creative Writing program and now resides in Salt Lake City attending the University of Utah. To read “Banana Tree: 1964”, click here. More

 

from: http://english.usu.edu/

another nice review

jamie gadette wrote this in her City Weekly live picks:

Monday 12.1
SPARKS & SPOOLS
We wouldn’t be surprised if Taylor Christensen tossed Three Cups of Sea Water in along with all the other random found sounds coloring his unique debut album as Sparks & Spools. The local artist runs a tight ship of organized chaos painstakingly assembled into minimalist folk recordings—a quirky symphony with movements featuring handclaps, squeaky door hinges, old-west whistles, bicycle bells, spoken word narratives, sweeping piano flourishes—and creepy, slowly plinked keys—that’s both comforting and eerie, like an antique doll collection. Listening to the album, you might wonder, “But can he pull it off live?” Christensen doesn’t engage his skills onstage all too often, so tonight is as good a night as any to score the answer to your query. Kilby Court, 741 S. 330 West, 7 p.m. All ages. Info: KilbyCourt.com

retrieved from:  http://www.slweekly.com/index.cfm?do=article.details&id=D9EECB3A-14D1-13A2-9F3E1F98B33AC9EC

in fact, i am not gay.

yes, it is true, i am not gay. not even bi, unfortunately. however, i am attracted to the following males in all but a sexual way:

andy warhol (factory era)

john lennon (that's right, sorry paul. although the rest of the beatles are undeniably sexy if you exclude ringo)

jimi hendrix. this man oozes from sexiness from every pore.

guy pearce playing andy warhol in 'factory girl' (2006)

robert plant of led zeppelin for obvious reasons

daniel day-lewis (without question, one of the most gifted actors of our time)

david bowie--a classic sexy male

zac pennington (member/founder of the inspiring band 'parenthetical girls')

rivers cuomo of weezer (although i am not a die-hard fan of the music)

there are probably more, but these are what i could think of off the top of my head. i hope this has been a convincing piece of evidence for my heterosexuality. 

review of the full-length i released this summer

as some of you may know (i expect i am talking to myself here, granted i don't promote this blog), i released a record this last summer called 'Three Cups of Sea Water' for free on a website (www.cavernsounds.com) i co-run with my friend jon lemmon (that's his real name). it was released on the 20th anniversary of my birth (2 july 2008).

here is the copied manuscript (?), or at least text from a review of that record. i thought it was very kind (maybe too kind?). from the Forest Gospel review:

Sparks & Spools
Three Cups of Sea Water
(07.2008, Cavern Sounds)
Verdict = Clatter organized into folk

It is always nice to go into a listening experience with virtually no information or expectations and come out the other side with an absolute gem. Sparks & Spools’Three Cups of Sea Water provides just such an experience. We received an email about the humble little release not too long ago and have been smitten ever since. Sparks & Spools is the musical alter ego of Salt Lake City resident Taylor Christensen. Christensen’s project emanates the quaint beauty of music created at home, employing everything within arms reach. Alternating between purely instrumental tracks and shy balladry, Sparks & Spools might be most easily categorized as folk, but to leave it at that would be something of an unfortunate over-generalization because Christensen does just about everything but follow conventions. Each song on Three Cups of Sea Water beams with childlike wonder and instrumentation ranging from a standard acoustic guitar to recordings of doors shutting and coins clattering (notable on the aptly titled track “coin”). In fact, Christensen seems to use just about everything he could within the confines of his recording space in order to evoke the melodic or percussive tendencies of every dust mite dwelling within the cobwebs of his songs. It is a bustling clatter to be sure, but at the hands of Christensen it is something of a home brewed orchestra that is an absolute wonder to hear. Trust me, after listening to this thing a dozen times over you will still be searching through these songs curiously identifying the individual instrumental cogs that make the songs work. That’s something that is important as well – these songs work; there is never a feeling of experimentation for experimentation’s sake. Every component feels absolutely necessary as if without it the whole album would collapse into a dusty rubble. There is also a playfulness here that bring to mind like minded instrumental rubble from FG favourites like Miki Odagiri, Shugo Tokumaru or The Books. If you’re a fan of any of the afore mentioned artists, Sparks & Spools’ latest will enter your record collection comfortably and notably. Three Cups of Sea Water is simply a timeless document of why music is so charming in the first place. Oh, and I almost forgot the best part, Christensen is giving this thing away for free online (check the link below) so you don’t even have to move from where your sitting in order to experience what is surely one of the best releases of the year.

-Mr. Thistle

see www.cavernsounds.com for download

       

taken from: 

   http://forestgospel.blogspot.com/2008/07/sparks-spools-three-cups-of-sea-water.html

theft, update

i was able to fix my window, and although it doesn't seal totally at the top, it's mostly better. take that, thief.

theft?

so my car was broken into for the second time in as many as four months. fortunately, i have nothing of value in my car (as if the burned cds that were stolen the first time go for much). unfortunately, that doesn't stop strangers who suspect i have money or heirlooms hidden under the seats from beating the shit out of my car. truthfully, i can't blame someone glancing at my severely dented, miserably dirty car and thinking, "wow. jack-pot. this is the absolute lottery of petty-theft--the apex of my career as a suck-fucking car jockey. i will never have to steal and sell stolen garbage after this."

i know there are many reasons to steal from an individual. i just wish there weren't. my window is jimmied and kinked out of place (perhaps irreparably) as a result. the irony is that generally, if someone were that desperate for cash, i would help as best i could.

i'm happy i'm okay. it could be much worse.

sincerely,

taylor

p.s. i don't apologize for my use of the 'eff' word; i'm pretty upset about the whole thing and i think the phrase i used was warranted

make something.

make something. make anything. just leave the world when you do having left something you made out from yourself. make a picture, a drawring, a cartoon, a painting, a music song, a word, make many words, make a book, make something that means something to you. make love, make a sand castle, make a marijuana cigarrette, make a comedy joke, make a traveling trip, make a lie. make everything you've always wanted. make a question, make your own clothes with buttons on them. make your own wine. make your own friends. make your own forest. make teeth if you still can.

gay rights, rights now!

america, don't be like that. you know who you are (california). you've either got to deal with it or build a time-machine to transport yourself to an age when your archaic ideas were justified by ignorant societies (aka salem, 1692). or at least keep the hate-mongering  to some healthy variety of self-hate (unless of course, you are gay; i am writing to halt gay-hate, so take it easy on yourself).

what i'm saying is, there is no plausible or morally/legally just argument for the denial of equal rights (marriage, etc.) for our gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered neighbors. what i'm saying is NO on bills like california's 'proposition 8'. 

religious views simply cannot be enforced in our secular government (don't you dare tell me the u.s. is a christian nation--if you believe that, i'm going to be a big enough jerk to tell you frankly  that you don't know a thing about history or the founding fathers or the constitution) and the primary ideas justifying anti-gay marriage laws are based in religion.

no, there is not a good argument for denying human rights, it is indeed that simple.

just relax.

as far as i know, no one i know knows about this blog of mine because i've told no one about it (you know?). if, by some chance, you do knowme (and i do mean in the 'biblical sense') and you've stumbled across this hot-bedded gold mine, don't be offended (or too offended).

this blog is my secret means of catharsis and small way of dealing with things that frustrate me now and again. mainly, it acts as a balance; when i read something on the internet i strongly disagree with (or am plainly irritated to no end by), i publish my opposing ideas on the internet in counter. simple.

that said, relax. if you know me and you're offended, relax. just relax.

interesting fact: i haven't been outside my house once in two days and have spent almost one-hundred percent of that time in my underwear drinking tea.

consider atheism for the first time, honestly.

listen.

the best advice i can give anyone is to abandon the idea of god and live your life.

it's preachy, i know, but dammit, there's logic in it, which is a helluva lot more than faith has got going for it.

all in all, it's a private matter (indeed one that is to be kept out of the public sector), but if you asked me (and you did, by reading this blog), just scrap the whole god-thing and stop hating yourself for insignificant things and start hating yourself about things that matter.

really, just consider it honestly; read books, search the philosophies of hume, dawkins, harris, and many others. why should your faith be so weak as to avoid serious criticism? if your beliefs are logically true, you have nothing to worry about. after all, it is truth, not comfort, we need be concerned with.

may i end with this quote from thoreau's walden:

"rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."

i love the books.

do yourself a favor and listen to the books.

the books.

on the same note:

i also like the term "lord-lobbying" or "lord-lobbyist" for the forceful christian/fanatical/offensive type. i think it is an original, i don't know.

Stop god-mongering me.

i don't believe in god, so stop bothering me about it.