presidential visit

One of the really cool things about where I live and work now is that Lyndon Johnson's presidential library is right across the street. For some nerdy reason, I became an armchair presidential historian a few years ago (mostly due to my quasi-obsession with The West Wing) so the ability to just walk across the street and see this thing satisfies my fetish for all things presidential. The George H. W. Bush Library is only a few hours away so, at some point, it might be fun to go see that as well.

The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library is in Iowa and, having been there on a middle school field trip, I will say that the LBJ one is much more impressive (as you'd predict). Here are a few pics I snapped whilst walking through. Included are:

• A moon rock.
• LBJ's bowling ball.
• The teletype hotline thing used between the White House and the Kremlin during the Cold War.
• A portrait of LBJ etched out on a whale tooth (what presidency is complete without one of those?).
• Racist signs.
• The presidential limousine.
• The fumbly animatronic version of LBJ which tells jokes (and creeps you the hell out).
• The Great Hall where all of the archives are kept.
• The insanely un-stylish furniture in the Oval Office at the time. The replica is at 1/8 scale for some odd reason and kind of claustrophobic to walk around in.

It was a massively fun way to spend an afternoon. I didn't really have a good idea what he did during his time as president other than my tacit knowledge of the Vietnam War so it was really interesting to see the exhibits. Homeboy helped found the National Endowment for the Arts. Holla!

currently listening

Christmas is always good because I usually end up with a bunch of gift certificates which, in one way or another, feed my terrible addiction to downloading tons of new stuff. First off, Robyn's Body Talk is on loop when I'm running through downtown Austin. This album has been on every "Best of 2010" list I've seen and it's not hard to understand why. Club-ready and kickass. "Call Your Girlfriend" and "Love Kills" are two favorites but I love bubble gum vibe of "Fembot."

I've been listening to a lot of electronic stuff lately while I engrave stuff into Finale and the new Deadmau5 album, 4x4=12, is pretty prominent in the mix. "Animal Rights" is my favorite cut but, if you don't know anything by this guy, you need to check out the track "Strobe" from his album, For Lack of a Better Name. It's almost 11 minutes long with one of the most intense crescendos I've ever heard.

I also sat through an obligatory viewing of Tron:Legacy with my college friend (and brilliant cellist), Eric. That movie was stupid, y'all. Like truly dumb. But the soundtrack is incredible. "The Game Has Changed" makes me want to get all Mason Bates symphony/electronica and "Derezzed" has this throwaway chromatic drop that gets me every damn time. It never comes back so its effectiveness is never diluted. Brilliant.

The last entry from the electronic front is Minneapolis dubstep prodigy, Vaski. He entered the scene at what seems to be the exact right time because it blew the hell up pretty much immediately after he started making records. The title track from the World On Fire EP is absolutely incredible but his other EPs are pretty good too.

Son Lux's Weapons EP is an exploration of one of the standout tracks from his full-length At War With Walls and Mazes. I saw him a few years ago in a concert with Nico Muhly and it's good to hear some new stuff. In fact, Nico's "remix" is probably my favorite track what with the frenetic viola writing.

On the quasi-ambiant front, composer Hugh Lobel totally hipped me to the Danish group Efterklang. Their album, Tripper/Springer, will fill the void in the time it takes for Sigur Rós to come out with some new stuff. I love the one-two punch of "Doppelgänger" followed up by "Torturous Tracks."

And last-but-in-no-way-least is the incredible new album of music by Morten Lauridsen that The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists just put out. The amount of his music that has been recorded over and over and over again is absolutely staggering but here Matthew Culloton & Co. manage to add some startling new entries from the 1970s that are so rarely performed that these are actually the world premiere recordings. "Three Psalms" is finally heard in its entirety (Stephen Layton and Polyphony recorded a great version of the first two movements a few years ago) and his Four Madrigals on Renaissance Texts is on record for the first time since it was written in 1970. (The central two movements of that cycle are my absolute favorites on this album.)

And, in the way of diversity, the a cappella "Slow, Slow Fresh Fount" is a lot thornier than we're used to hearing from Lauridsen. It points forward to the music he would write in the Madrigali as well as his brilliant Mid-Winter Songs. If you have a minute you should hop on iTunes and take a gander. It's Lauridsen like you've never heard him!