Somewhere Between Very Late and Very Early

In France in the wintertime, eight out of ten people wear black wool peacoats. The ninth person wears a black leather jacket, and the tenth person is me.

No real news this week, other than I'm finished with semester one in France and am headed back to Bozeman for the holidays. There may or may not be a show next week. We'll see what happens.



This weeks show:

"Somewhere Between Very Late and Very Early"

1 Roads - Portishead - Dummy
2 Let's Make This A Moment To Remember - Chromatics - Night Drive
3 Universal Traveler - Air - Talkie Walkie
4 You Are Here - Nathan Fake - Drowning In A Sea Of Love
5 Tuxedo Hat - The Octopus Project - On Ten Hundred Thousand Million
6 Couleurs - M83 - Saturdays = Youth

Download here.

It's another pseudo-narrative. I prefer doing them this way. What do you think?

Fresh wild rosemary!

Went climbing in Les Alpilles today, well to the East of Montpellier. It was cold (for France, anyway - almost 0* Celsius), windy, and sunny. Therefore, we went in search of south facing cliffs in the shade of the wind. Found some, and did some climbing. The rock was extremely clean limestone covered in little pockets. Most pockets were not very deep, leading to a style of climbing that was at the same time very technical and precise, and also a little bit physical. Warmed up (fell) on a 6b that I thought was a 6a, French freed up another 6b (when in France...), then did a 5+ to boost my ego. Belayed my partner on a couple 6c's then climbed (poorly) a couple slabby 6a's. I like slabs. It was a very cool location and surprisingly agreeable in the middle of December. The real kicker was the lack of other climbers and the abundance of fresh rosemary all along the crag! I trimmed a bunch and am now drinking some rosemary "tea". Not a bad final 2009 trip with Vertigo. No pictures, because I forgot my camera like a dunce.

I'll be back next Wednesdayish with another blog and some music.

I saw a magnificent landscape. It might have been a dream.

Speaking of magnificent landscapes, here are two photos of Seynes. This is an incredible limestone cliff about an hour from Montpellier. We simply don't have rock like this in the states. My photos are about as mediocre as the weather was that day, but basically it's a huge, slightly overhanging cliff littered with colonettes (basically stalactites that are attached to the wall because it's not steep enough for them to be free hanging) and neat colored rock. Great friction on the limestone and cool (hard!) climbing. There were a few climbs in the 5, a few in the 6, and the rest were from about 7a-8b or 8c (5.11d-5.14b). I don't climb that hard, so my options were a little bit more limited, but I did have the pleasure of onsighting a 6b and falling off of a couple 6b+'s (.10d and .11a, respectively). If you look closely at the second photo you might see a climber working on a route a little farther down the cliff.

This week's show is another pseudo-narrative:

"I saw a magnificent landscape. It might have been a dream"

1 On A Highway - Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP
2 Vanity Suite, Part A (One By One, The Lights Burn Out) - The Modern Electric - The Modern Electric
3 Vanity Suite, Part B (Divine, Starving, And Sleepless) - The Modern Electric - The Modern Electric
4 Comforted Full Version - Snowglobe - No Need To Light A Night Light On A Night Like Tonight
5 Ms June Remastered - Snowglobe - No Need To Light A Night Light On A Night Like Tonight
6 Simplest Love - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes - From Below
7 Pretend - LIGHTS - Daytrotter Session 12/3/2009
8 Turning On - Cloud Nothings - Turning On
9 Hurts So Bad - Digital Leather - Warm Brother

Download the show here.




In music notes, I'd like to mention two artists. The first is Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes. They're a newish band with a record out called "From Below", and if you haven't already heard these guys you probably should. NPR has been all over this band's music, and for good reason: it's feel-good, sing-along folky radness. Buy the record, or download it using your favorite illicit method. Here's a concert they did with NPR.

Secondly, The Cloud Nothings. I just discovered these guys, and was pleasantly surprised on my first listen. I'd describe their sound as Lo-Fi, kind of a cross between Micachu and That Ghost. It's catchy, and you might like it. The record is called "Turning On".

That's it for this week. Check back around next Wednesday(ish) for more goodies.

Wednesday came WAY too fast this week.

And I don't have a playlist. For a change of pace I present you with some pictures.


This one is from the hike in the Cevennes about a month ago. I think it's pretty funny because everybody looks very irritable, which couldn't be farther from the truth.
Looking out over the "mountains."
The fog was cool, and this hike gave me the impression that everything in France is just a little bit softer and more user-friendly. We stopped for an hour and a half for lunch, which involved an appetizer, entrée (literally translated, "entrance" or pre-main course), main course, a desert and no less than three (3!) kinds of alcohol, cheese, chocolate, and coffee. Then somebody blew up an empty bag of wine, placed it on the ground for a pillow, and promptly took a nap.This is a view down the street from the balcony of a "gite" (pronounced [jeet]). A gite, as far as I can tell, is a house that you can rent. We (the climbing club Vertigo) were there to eat and party and ostensibly climb the next day.
On this: This is the awesome tower of limestone that dominates the landscape surrounding St. Jean de Buèges. There are multipitch climbs on the far left face and on the pillar right in the center. There are also a number of south-facing single pitch routes on the right side.Which is where I took this picture. This is Sebastien, a skinny, chain-smoking, number-crushing stereotype-fulfiller of a Frenchman, and he's climbing something hard. He did it pretty fast, probably because he started craving another cigarette right around the third bolt.That's it for now. I might put up some music this week, but given my record, it's pretty likely that I'll just wait until next Wednesday.