songs about the suburbs

Japan 2008 Photobook

Me and a couple of buddies travelled to Japan in early 2008. I promised to my friends to make a photobook documenting the trip shortly after returning, but only finished off the job last week. It's off at the printers now, but here's a little preview. I hope they turn out fine in print!

The photobook was created (rather simply) using Apple iPhoto and the music is by Air (Alone In Kyoto).

soundtrack

I'm going to let you in on a bit of a strange quirk of mine. Part of my leaving-the-house routine includes spending up to five minutes deciding what CD I should bring with me to accompany the carride. I feel it is important to match up the music with a bunch of parameters: who will be in the car with me (further complicated by the combination of different people), where we will be driving to and whole bunch of other mysterious and undefinable variables. This can result in cases where the length of the drive is much shorter than the time spent looking for the soundtrack.

All of this misspent time is hopefully justified by the passenger inquiring about the music bouncing around the car...but that doesn't always happen! Next time you are in the passenger seat - make the driver happy - complement them on the strangely perfect music choice for the carride as they may have spent an unreasonable amount of time thinking about it!

On a related musically obsessive note - a few months ago I stumbled upon the 8tracks website. 8tracks lets you listen to and create online "mixtapes" to share. It has quickly become one of my favourite places to find new music.

I like my mixtapes to have a running theme that ties the songs together. My latest mix can be listened to below and relates to death and learning to live with it with songs by Sufjan Stevens, Iron and Wine and Holly Throsby. To check out a few other mixes (including a mix of songs about bicycles!) visit my 8tracks page. Also let me know if you have an account as I'd love to hear more mixtapes.