For this week’s issue of my sister’s webpaper The Media I interviewed the prolific Jes Aurelius (of Destruction Unit and Marshstepper) about Ascetic House’s new Prisoner Outreach Program. Illustration by Faye Orlove.
August 13, 2006
Hey Mr. Somerville,
How are you doing? Enjoying retirement?
I know I’m late, but I wanted to thank you again for the CD. I’ve been listening to it a lot this summer, and I’ve gone out and bought a bunch more Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin CDs. I’ve always listened to them but they’ve really become obsessive favorites of mine this summer.
I also wanted to let you know again how much everything you said to our class on the last day of school influenced both me and my sister. I’ll always remember what I learned from your class, not only about the subject, but about what I’m actually doing here.
Hope all is well, talk to you soon.
-Jenn Pelly
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August 29, 2006
Hi Jenn (and Liz) -
Sorry for the delayed response. I was in the wilds of Colorado and southern Utah. Some absolutely incredible territory and stunning National Parks (see attached 500 hundred year old cliff palace! Unfortunately not much e-mail capability (no one has a cell phone either - they just don’t work!)
Glad you enjoyed the CD and the class(math and otherwise!). Dylan and Joplin are both interesting talents and compelling life stories. The older I get, the more I appreciate the stories that music tells. Oddly enough, I find myself listening to lots of different stuff - literally from classical to country depending on the mood.
Believe it or not I’ll be back at school doing the “Yellow Jacket” chaperoning thing in the afternoons and subbing once in a while. So I’ll be able to see firsthand how the newspaper is progressing. Keep me up to date on your college plans. I’m really counting on you guys to radically change the world!
Bill Somerville
Lately I have tried really hard to not take photos or videos or look at my phone at all while watching a band play. Sometimes the impulse to document a moment is too strong though and I feel like I have to do something, so I have been making little voice recordings on my phone. I have tons of them. Here is one I took last night at the Majical Cloudz record release show at Glasslands. Devon sang “What That Was” a capella after performing Impersonator from front to back. There’s honestly not a single new band I’ve seen this year who come off as so completely devoted to what they are doing while playing, squeezing every ounce of life/emotion they’ve got into the performance so that everyone there can feel more alive etc. It reminds me a lot of what John Maus tries to do live but with songwriting that is way more interesting and specific. Impersonator is one of the best records of the year and this was a perfect moment.
like all of lana del rey’s music, this song is profoundly depressing, which is why i keep coming back to it…
pretending that I was in a Galaxie 500 video
this is a new project
Faye Orlove & I have been working on it for the past month or so
it launches tonight around midnight
we are very excited
if you want to know why it’s called “The Media” i will talk your ear off about it sometime
how bout @ our launch party? it’s this Friday @ Lorem Ipsum
;)
