UNTITLED (2023), AN ORIGINAL

-sum

SNOW PIECE, YOKO ONO

there are many conclusions to draw from the word ‘freefall’ – surrender, exhilaration, renewal, transition, the act of letting go…all these questions about intention and destination wrapped up in the word. but what about to freely fall? that is what snow does, and it’s what we do sometimes, too. fulfilling a simple action without connotation. doing the thing we are meant to do. in the case of snow: to fall. this poem was written in the summer, and what was yoko thinking about? the snow. she wanted us to imagine it was falling all around us, free of season, expectation, and even the laws of nature.

-liv

LIV

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tracklist:

1. Country — Porches

2. Everything at Once - Hippo Campus

3. Good Woman - The Staves

4. The Cause - Tommy Lefroy

5. The Concept - Benjamin Gibbard

6. Bluefish Season - Nick Cianci

7. Valentine - Snail Mail

8. Is There a World - Another Michael

9. Fool - Adrianne Lenker

10. Gravity Rides Everything - Modest Mouse

11. Same Ghost Every Night - Wolf Parade

12. I Know the End - Phoebe Bridgers

SUM

♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.

tracklist:

1. Hero - Family of the Year

2. FRANKIE MUNIZ - BLACKSTARKIDS

3. Re Moon - Big Thief

4. Pretend - alex_g_offline

5. Interlude 2 - alt-J

6. I don’t love nobody - Elizabeth Cotten

7. To Live is to Fly (Live) - Townes Van Zandt

8. Temperature’s Rising - Galaxie 500

9. Untitled 2 - Panda Bear

10. Ultralight Beam - Kanye West

11. 2009 - Mac Miller

12. Some things Cosmic - Angel Olsen

13. It All Feels Right - Washed Out

14. Whatever Fits Together - Skullcrusher

15. Biking (Solo) - Frank Ocean

16. Clouds - Alex G

17. Crucify Your Mind - Rodriguez

18. The Golden Age - Beck

19. An encounter - The 1975

20. How to disappear - Lana Del Rey

21. Can’t Hardly Wait (Outtake - Acoustic) - The Replacements

HEAVEN OR LAS VEGAS, COCTEAU TWINS

a head rush comes on quickly. unexpected and dizzying, it can also be vibrant if greeted with open arms. on this album, i hear an acceptance of this state of being and the freefall that comes with it – an agreement to see it through. in the thick of motion, there is pleasure in being untethered, even if it’s complicated. maybe some sounds are only accessible when our feet leave the ground. i love how the instruments shimmer on this album. an ethereal brightness sails through all of the expected and unexpected feelings that are called to the surface. the vocals morph into strange shapes, big and billowing like clouds (with light coming through them, of course). body and mind are one with the air. ‘fall’ tends to imply down, to the ground, but i’m sure this album is falling up, towards heaven.

- liv

WHO ME?, JUAN WAUTERS

i adore this album, and juan wauters. i saw him live once at a tiny venue in berkeley and he was jumping all over stage, running around, laughing maniacally, my favorite kind of person! this album can be interpreted a lot of different ways, but in the spirit of freefall, and with this album’s lyrics that weave around self-doubt and revelation, i hear shadows of past lives and the liberation of letting go. midway thru the record, he sings “all those oceans will be swam because I can and cause I want to.” perhaps despite uncertainty, it’s worth it to go all in, because what else is there really to do? i love some of his other lyrics about seeing without looking, like finally understanding something and this becomes intuitive. a testament to the existential quest for purpose amid doubt. i feel from the music a strength in the vulnerability, a surrender to all known and unknown, and the courage of owning your circumstance.

- sum

BABYTEETH, SHANNON MURPHY

i watched this film not knowing much about it. there was something about the poster, the way she’s looking up at the sky with a kind of enlightened wonder. what is she looking at? or thinking about? what does she know, or what has she let go of needing to know?

everyone in babyteeth has a different problem occupying their thoughts, informing how they interact. we get to explore them all, without being funneled through the tight coils of an emotional spiral (not every misfortune takes the same shape!). instead, we’re sent on a character-driven journey without any pattern or predictability – a roller coaster with no real track to guide us. dare i say, a freefall through these characters’ deepest hopes and fears? what we see on the way down is scary and stunning and endearingly sincere. at the heart of it all: a girl who is going to die, but is determined to love before she does.

- liv

“CONFESSIONS OF A SHINAGAWA MONKEY” from FIRST PERSON SINGULAR: STORIES, HARUKI MURAKAMI

i read this collection of murakami stories not too long ago, and while they all capture sentiments of love and loss, childhood and aging, the great ends of the arcs of our lives, this one story in particular stuck with me. the narrator goes to a hot spring and meets a monkey by the water and they end up having a rather remarkable series of exchanges, including some nice cold beers. presumably the narrator has gone to this hot spring to seek relief, freedom, or peace of some kind from the chaos of the world around, and in this meditative and liminal space there comes something so fantastic that it does not disrupt the peace but saturates it completely, enchants him even. the narrator’s balance of awe and openness makes for a fantastic and timeless encounter, and a revelatory reflection later in life. from this i take that messages we are open to and also need to receive come from peculiar places, and surpassing the doubt of the extraordinary, allowing an enchantment to guide, can bring on a type of revelation. an encounter itself may be the lesson to decode.

-sum