the riyl revolution

I had five deadlines today. Several thousand words needed to be submitted electronically by 5pm, and thanks to the procrastination skills now refined from 10+ years of experience, I didn’t get started on any of it until mid-afternoon. The last time I put something off this much was when I ended up plastering Dory’s facebook wall with photographs of elaborately decorated cupcakes. Whatever, I finally managed to perch myself on my porch with a mug full of ice water, ready to produce something spectacular.

As my luck would have it, my last minute crunch happened to coincide with the outdoor bagpipe conference! I had half an hour and approximately 600 words to go when I began working on Item #4. Key the bagpipe players: people of all ages each carrying the instrument of their common affection creeped out of the dorms by the tens and converged under the solar panel-roofed parking lot next door. While I tried to write a decent book review on a work that connected the feminist movement against sexualized violence and neoliberalism I listened to three fucking rounds of thirty bagpipe players standing in a circle playing Amazing Grace. But miracles happen sometimes, even in Oberlin, Ohio, (487 miles away from 34th Street according to MapQuest) because twenty minutes and about a million dirty looks later, I e-submitted my fifth and final assignment with seven minutes left.

Maybe I wouldn’t have cut it so close if I hadn’t started my first assignment three hours before my final deadline. Oops. Maybe I also wouldn’t have cut it so close if I hadn’t been subjected to the trope of bagpipes that have infiltrated my surrounding areas and will remain for approximately a week. In retrospect, Berlin’s Phon°Noir would have provided just the perfect tunes for buckling down and focusing, two acts I haven’t gotten down quite yet. He did get me through much of my final-paper-writing-marathon, after all. I’m not usually one for instrumental music – Explosions in the Sky being a major exception – but Phon°Noir aka Matthias Grübel has managed to arrange the perfect blend of indie, electronic, and minimalism to a beautiful hailing of satisfaction from my ears. There are hardly any vocals, and it’s just so intimate and pleasant without being distracting. Intimate and pleasant. Two qualitites I don’t associate with bagpipes, and certainly not in mass quantities.

Phon°Noir:

the objects don’t need us

my paperhouse on fire

origami [sandklang remix]

riyl: focusing, getting whatever you need to do done, and enjoying it.

xx
yujean

(Oh, and here are more cupcakes.)