Mark Richardson

February 14th 2012

For the past 9 months or so, I’d call this, “Sycamore”, by Bill Callahan, my “favorite song.” The idea of a favorite song is pretty dumb, but hey, I’m never as excited to hear anything else, so I guess this is it. Thing about this song is that it’s useful to me. Makes morning commutes better. Makes me believe good things could happen. So far, it’s been right. This version was apparently recorded at the First Presbyterian Church in Austin, back when Joanna Newsom was playing keyboards w/ Callahan live. Seeing this got me excited for the people who will see Fiona Apple in this space when she plays Pitchfork’s SXSW event. I like that he got to sing “Christian, if you see your poppa, tell him I love him” in a church.

Posted at 8:56pm and tagged with: bill callahan, joanna newsom,.

January 22nd 2012

13 notes

One of my favorite things ever posted to the internet. A high school student at Capital Area School for the Arts, an arts magnet school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, made this film. This kind of animation is a lot of work. There is so much detail here, bits of humor, clever storytelling. Great reveal at the end. Just remembering back to high school, and how tough it was, even for me, who had it easy, and imagining someone going through that time being inspired by Joanna Newsom’s “Bridges and Balloons” and making something like this. It was a nice thought. Made me feel hopeful. We posted this in Pitchfork’s Forkcast in 2007.

Posted at 9:39am and tagged with: Joanna Newsom,.