Harken, Fellow Artists/Musicians/NMH Fans!

During my tutoring-turned-babysitting session this afternoon, I finally got around to reading the book that's been chilling in my bathroom for a few months now, Kim Cooper's addition to the 33 1/3 Series, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

First off, let me just say this book will make you want to turn off that tv, quit your job, move far far away, and live in someone's walk-in-closet. Oh, and make some badass music.

I'd like to share a quote from bassist/saw player Julian Koster that finishes out Cooper's homage. For some reason it gave me chills... and you'll see what I mean about getting out there and making our own little contributions to the world.

I think what Elephant 6 meant for us is very simple: there's something pure and infinite in you, that wants to come out of you, and can come out of no other person on the planet. That's what you've got to share, and that's as real and important as the fact that you're alive. We [the Elephant 6 members] were able, at a really young age, to somehow protect each other so we could feel that. The world at large, careerism, money, magazines, your parents, the people at the rock club in your town, other kids, nothing is going to give you that message, necessarily. In fact, most things are going to lead you away from it, sadly, because humanity is really confused at the moment. But you wouldn't exist if the universe didn't need you. And any time I encounter something beautiful that came out of a human somewhere, that's them, that's their own soul. That's just pure, whatever its physicality is, if the person can play piano, if they can't play piano, if they're tone deaf, whatever it is, if it's pure, it hits you like a sledgehammer. It fills up your own soul, it makes you want to cry, it makes you glad you're alive, it lets you come out of you. And that's what we need: we desperately need you.