Happy 2010

(Click pic quick for juicy view)

("Country View", 1/10, Laurentian Mountains)

Happy 2010 to all. More fun coming to EzSez.com this year. Drop on by when the spirit moves you.

All the best,

Ez

Goodbye, Vic

("Oh, death..." Feb. 2006, Bowery Ballroom, NYC, pic by Ezra S.)

...and when the crisis passes
when the coast is clear
I'll be buffed down to a liquid
and the world, world, world it is a sponge

Throughout this entire ugly outing
I've been mumbling the convex of what I should be shouting
but I'll soon be silent you'll soon hear nothing
'cause the world, world it is a sponge...
(From "Sponge" by Vic Chesnutt, 1992)

He sang from his wheelchair like a steam-powered locomotive boiling to leave the station at noon sharp. This train has just now left the station. A few minutes early too.

I had the pleasure of meeting Vic Chesnutt on a several occasions before or after some of his concerts in New York and Montreal. We also bumped into each other and chatted coming out of a Bob Dylan show at Madison Square Garden one night.

I always thought he was a vastly talented performer and poet and knew that someday others would catch up with his shockingly honest music and and savour its jagged and dark, yet upliftingly twangy angles like I had these past fifteen years or so.

Maybe now that he is gone more people will.

One can start with my two favourite albums Little and Is The Actor Happy for an easy-wrenching way in. I started with Little. I vividly remember buying it at the now gone Tower Records on Broadway in The Village and not even being able to make it all the way home with it I was so excited to have the CD a friend had sampled for me the day before. I was hooked from the first second.

After leaving Tower with the CD, I was compelled to duck into a schlocky discount electronics store not a dozen doors up Broadway to ask if I could have a listen to some speakers in their demo room. I politely asked the salesman if I could put on my gleaming copy of Little into the CD player.

The salesman put it in, had a listen to Vic singing "I dreamed I was a-dancin' with Isadora Duncan" and swiftly drifted out of the room rolling his eyes. I listened undisturbed in that soundproof room for nearly the entire album. I may have even tried to get Vic's key-twisting voice to come out of all the stack of speakers in the room at once. The salesman never returned. I ended up buying every one of Vic's 15 or so CDs from that point on.

Vic died at the age 45 on Christmas day. People are saying it was suicide related to depression and being hooked on painkillers after years of post-car crash pain and disabilities. They're saying he was also in debt from medical bills. (Read NY Times article)

Whatever they say, I'll say this... here was a totally one of a kind artist who will live on through his prolific piles of albums. Nobody sounded like Vic and nobody, really nobody, wrote like the guy. Not even Dylan. I humbly and proudly say it.

Dylan wrote like Dylan, Vic wrote like Vic.

His songs will always tickle my mind and punch at my heart.

Vic, I'll miss you.

Ez

P.S. Right after writing this, I opened up iTunes and in 2 seconds flat called up the 122 Vic songs in there and hit Shuffle...

the song that came on...

"I'm Through":

"I'm through living my life for you/
yes, I hope for both our sakes, I'm through, through, through."

("Because I'm Through" Feb. 2006, Bowery Ballroom, NYC, pic by Ezra S.)


"Flirted With You All My Life"
(from Vic's 2009 CD At The Cut)
listen to free full song here

I am a man
I am self aware
And everywhere I go
You're always right there with me

I flirted with you all my life
And even kissed you once or twice
And to this day I swear it was nice
But clearly I was not ready

When you touched a friend of mine
I thought I would lose my mind
But I found out with time
That really I was not ready

Oh, death
Oh, death
Oh, death
Really, I'm not ready

Oh death, you hector me
The death some make, those dear to me
Tease me with your sweet relief
You are cruel and you are constant

When my mom was cancer sick
She fought so hard but then succumbed to it
But you made her beg for it
Lord, Jesus, please I'm ready

Oh, death
Oh, death
Oh, death
Really, I'm not ready

Oh, death
Oh, death
Oh, death
Clearly, I'm not ready
No, no...

***

(Filmed live by hmc1410 on Nov 4th, 2009 at Lincoln Hall in Chicago)

In an interview in the online magazine Aquarium Drunkard, Vic had this to say about about "Flirted With You All My Life":

"Well, this song just kind of happened. It is very personal. During run-through, when I was showing it to everyone, in the first couple of takes, I had tears in my eyes. It was very emotional to me. I’d never sung this song out – it was only on paper. But when I sing it out loud, it was very emotional for me and very personal. I wanted to write a song about a suicidal person. It’s about me – I have suicidal tendencies. So it’s about a suicide who wanted to live...The song is about realizing that I don’t want to die. I want to live."

In an interview with NPR's Terri Gross on Fresh Air: "This is a joyous song. It's a heavy song, but it's a joyous song. It's a breakup song with death."

***

Vic,

You told me your late grandpa once said, "Woody Guthrie music's good but you can't dance to it."

Please tell Woody we're now dancing to it down here. Tell your grandpa we're now dancing to your music too.

I think they'll both be proud of the true gems you created.

Thank you for making me cry and laugh and always think, Vic.

Ez

Hemp Motorcycle Jacket...

What a great idea... hemp motorcycle jackets!

Kudos to Joe Rocket for not using leather for this jacket and instead going with a greener material.

More about the jacket HERE.

Ride on, Ez Sez Readers!

Ez

Doomsday

What a song by Elvis Perkins in Dearland! It's called "Doomsday" and you can watch it in full doom n' boom glory HERE.

Ez

Gazette article on the MFG today...

(Click article for big text version)

Here's a nice article on the Montreal Film Group and CinemaSpace that came out today in the Montreal Gazette. Thought I'd share it with you...

Ez

Bouquets of trees...

(Click pic quick for juicy view)

I took this photo and somehow knew

Something told me you'd see it too

Thanks for dropping by

From the ground up to the sky

Bouquets of trees they never die

Ez Sez to you...

Thanks for dropping by

Ez

Whatever you may say today...

Openization...

Seven senses...

Most of all...

Simple solutions...

9 weird-looking animals...

(The baby-faced Mexican 'Axelotl'; [photo source unknown])

This is my type of thing... a photo series I just spotted of the "9 Weirdest-Looking Animals You Didn't Know Existed".

Check it out HERE.

Stay weird.

Ez

Hemp Planting on the DEA lawn...

(Photo by VoteHemp.com)

Two farmers, two activists, a clothing designer, and a soapmaker.

Kudos to these six brave leaders of the hemp industry in the United States for driving up to the lawn of the DEA (U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency) in Virginia and planting hemp seeds.

They did this to make a statement about the fact that the USA is still the only industrialized nation to prohibit the growing of industrial hemp.

The six men were swiftly arrested by police, but not before snapping some excellent pix and shooting a short video commemorating the historic event. See them HERE.

The Washington Post did a great job capturing the event in a big article that came out today. You can read it HERE.

Super stuff.

Ez

Soon come winter...

(Click pic quick for juicy view)

("NYC Winter", 3/09, NYC, by Ezra S.)

Soon come winter
In like splinter
Out like lamb

Ez

Shoes/wires/clouds/wire

(Click pic quick for juicy view)

("Shoes/wires/clouds/wire", 8/09, MTL, by Ezra S.)

Pomme d'arse

(Click pic quick for juicy view)("Pomme d'arse", 9/09, MTL, by Ezra S.)

Pomme d'amour

(Click pic quick for juicy view)

("Pomme d'amour", 9/09, MTL, by Ezra S.")

Welcome Lulu! (plus 1st year pix)

(Click pix quick for juicy view)

Good News, Friends...

On Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 2:52pm, my sweet wife Alexandra gave birth to our sweet daughter Talula Anne Feigeh Rivke Lulav Soiferman (we call her "Lulu" for short).

Lulu was 7lbs and a few ounces at birth.

Mom n' baby gal are doing wonderfully.

Send telepathic diaper changes anytime!

Love to all from Montreal,

Ez

P.S. Here, from the future, is Lulu's first year in pictures...

La famille

(1 hour old)

(13 days fresh)

(4 weeks bouncy)

(5 weeks fuzzy)

(6 weeks sleepy)

(7 weeks cute)

(8 weeks warm)

(9 weeks giggly)

(10 weeks portraity)

(11 weeks bobbly)

(12.5 weeks Muppety)

(16 weeks Curious)

(17 weeks serious)

(19 weeks squeakety clean)

(21 weeks wide-eyed and sun-lit)

(6.5 months King Tut and Queen Tush)

(7.7 months "aaaaaaaaaaaaah!")

(8 months silly daddy)

(9 months pointy)

(10 months fresh-faced)

(11 months strawberried)

(12 months wavilicious)

This Luluness can go on forever but you've got other blog postings to get too!

Thanks for dropping by,

Lulu's dad (Ez)

eGuiders featured on Blip.tv

Here's my old NYU buddy Marc Ostrick featured in a big new video interview on Blip.tv. The interview has Marc talking about his new project eGuiders.com, a site that brings the finest web videos, handpicked by media mavens, right to your digital doorstep.


I'm one of the core eGuiders on the site so you can be sure I dig what's going on over there. I think you might too. Have a peek.

Enjoy the video!

Ez

From my Twin Towers files... "New ol' New York"

(Click pic quick for juicy view)

I created this photo/poem montage not long after 9/11.

When I lived in NYC (91-95) I used to take walks down to the Twin Towers and go to the observatory at the top to see the city from the perspective of a drop of water in the clouds. It was a great way to humble oneself.

I also used to photograph the Twin Towers regularly, doing that had a bit of the opposite effect. So grand and photogenic were those buildings, one would think he or she was just maybe the very best photographer in the world.

Alexandra and I are expecting a baby any day now. At a party recently someone said, "Yikes, I hope it's not born on September 11th!" Someone else cut in, "Actually, I think that would be the most beautiful thing. That day needs more souls."

I leave you with that as I head out on a jog on this special day.

Enjoy the poem and pix above.

Go, go, go...

Ez

Yesterday's thought...

Just like trees tall...

May you grow, as rain may fall
With shoots and roots
Just like trees tall

Ez

Put a smile on...

("Smilon", 7/25/09, MTL, Ezra S.)

Nice things come
to nice people
who like nice things.

And nice versa.

Thank you for dropping by, friendly friend or friendly stranger.

It's nice to slow down from the traffic with you.

I have been busy awaiting a new member to our world. Keep you posted.

Enjoy the site anytime. I'll keep adding stuff for you.

Ez

Doin' pine in 2009

(Click pic quick for juicy view)

(Pine Tree Branch, 7/09, Laurentian Mountains, by Ezra S.)

Every time it rains and we complain,
Another sunny day disappears down the road

Hard to prove
But I have a hunch

Summer on,

Ez

Cool it all down...

(Click pic quick for juicy view)

("Pass the Pastec", 7/09, NYC, by Ezra S.)

Cool it all down for the summer at Ez Sez.

Ez

July 4th in NYC

(Click pic quick for juicy view)

Regards to all from NYC.

The fireworks over the Hudson River were a blast (give or take five thousand million for 30 mins straight!).

Ez