Neil Armstrong

August 5, 1930 - August 25, 2012

I know that I'm posting this late. I apologize. This is something I've been wanting to put here since the day he died, but I haven't really had the time to put the post together until today.

I felt speechless about the topic on the day it happened, and I feel the same now. So I'm taking a cue from one of my friends and posting an excerpt from the speech William Safire wrote for President Richard Nixon to give if the moon landing had failed, stranding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Obviously the speech was unused because the mission was a success, but part of the speech feels relevant and appropriate now.

"In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood. Others will follow and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied but these men were the first and they will remain the foremost in our hearts."

"Plague" by Crystal Castles

I don't intend for this to be a music blog, and don't really think of it as one, but when I have little else to post about and there's good music coming out, it kind of becomes one.

I love the band Crystal Castles. It's not a shocker if you've been reading my blog for a few years. I love their first two albums, which were both self-titled. I also love their version of "Not In Love" with Robert Smith doing vocals. The band has a new album coming out some time this year. I wonder if it will also be self-titled. Anyway, the reason for this post is that there's a song called "Plague" from the new album.



I'm really looking forward to hearing the rest of the new album.

UPDATE: "Plague" is a free download on the band's SoundCloud.

Secret Empire releases album Storm Command

I made a post a little over a month ago about Secret Empire announcing a release date for the album Storm Command. The highly anticipated album was finally released yesterday morning, right at midnight. I've just been too busy to post about it until just now.

I love that album cover. It will look great on my iPod. It can look great on your iPod too, because Storm Command can be downloaded for free from SoundCloud. Just use the widget below to download the 10 tracks. You can, of course, also stream it on there.



If you haven't seen them, or if you'd like to see them again, my previous post about Storm Command has a music video for the song "Alien (Burial)" as well as a short video about the making of the album. Check them out.

The Afghan Whigs playing "LoveCrimes" live

Remember my previous post about The Afghan Whigs covering a Frank Ocean song? Here's a video of them playing it live.



And if you want to download the studio version for free, check that previous post.

The Afghan Whigs cover "LoveCrimes"

As I've said before, I'm a huge fan of The Afghan Whigs, and a few months back I posted about them releasing a cover song. They released another new one recently. This time it's a cover of a song originally by Frank Ocean, called "LoveCrimes". Just like before, they released it for free on The Afghan Whigs website. You can stream the track at The Fader, or download it for free using the widget below.

 

I have a movie blog.

I'm a big fan of movies, and a few months back I created a movie blog called INT. A CINEMATIC MIND - NIGHT. It's just a place for me to post anything I want about movies, and maybe sometimes television. Several of the posts on it were actually originally on this blog, but then I moved them over when I created the other one, so if you've been a reader here for a while, many of the early posts on my movie blog will be familiar to you. Check it out.

I am an American.

Yesterday I met some children from Ireland who are staying with some relatives of mine. While spending time with them, I kept thinking about how they must have a fairly limited amount of experience with Americans, and how weird it is that I'm now personally a part of their general idea of Americans.