Vignette: Sitting in a room and watching the snow

I’m sitting in a chair that was given to me by a friend, who was taking care of cats for a woman that was getting rid of her things because she had grown too old to live by herself. The chair is leather and you can recline in it very far. I have tipped over several times. 

I’m drinking coffee from a mug with, “I love you Grandpa” printed on it and some kind of design put together with triangles and brown lines. I purchased the mug from The Salvation Army store that exists about 3 minutes from the room I am currently sitting in. The coffee that is contained in the mug was brewed in a Mr Coffee machine that I have distant memories of seeing in the house I lived in when I was very little. 

I am sitting in this chair and drinking this coffee and watching the snow because the store I work in was closed today due to the snow. The job I work at was introduced to me by a lost lover, whom was lovers with a friend of mine I went to high school with, who also worked before me at the store that I am currently employed at. The coffee I am drinking is cold, and has been cold for a while now. 

Poem: Dark blue, light blue, light green, white, gray

Dark blue, light blue, light green, white, gray 

It is enormous. The only 

word that comes to mind is Mother. 

Tiny whirls and swirls, some girls with

pearls and the clouds are stormy looking.

Ishmael says that we have an affinity for the ocean. That it is in our DNA to gaze in that 

direction. Toward the sea. We dream of what 

our life could be. My mother sits next to me,

and asks me what I want my life to be. But right now we are both children of the Ocean. 

Poem: Drinking Beer on a Beach

The lip of the beer bottle whistles if you angle it right in the wind. 

The pitch deepens as you drain the liquid. 

If you’re really good, you can bend the pitch while the liquid drains into your open, upturned mouth. 

Rustling leaves sort of sound like a fire burning. 

Overhead planes disappear momentarily into clouds.

They sort of remind me of what I pictured a soul going to heaven would look like. I thought about that a lot when I was little. 

What makes Panda Bear important to music in 2019?

PANDA BEAR 2019 IRON WORKS 
What makes Panda Bear important to music in 2019? 
By Jack Candido 

Panda Bear’s 2019 Valentine’s Day show at Iron works in Brooklyn made me feel like I had gotten on a boat(or ark if you will) with everyone that I love, and we were sailing towards our dreams and a brighter future for everyone on board. You may think this sounds cliché, well that’s because it is, and that is exactly my point and Panda Bear’s. Mr. Noah Lennox isn’t afraid of sounding cheesy or contrived. He is a master of the age old saying, it’s not what you say that matters— it’s how you say it. You see, Mr.Lennox conveys messages of positivity and hope with a reverence and sincerity that is palpable and dripping with intensity. 
His most recent album, Buoys, is a prime example of the virtuous—borderline motivational— style that Panda Bear has crafted throughout his career. With lyrics like “look up from the screen,” from the track inner monologue, Panda Bear takes on the persona of a 2000s parent concerned with what they perceive to be a child’s addiction to technology. 
Taken out of context this line has every reason to be corny and hyper-cliché, especially considering everyone in the audience is encouraged to stare slack jawed and wide eyed at the 3 huge screens projecting psychedelic imagery, and the not so subtle fact that Panda Bear’s stage did not contain a single traditional instrument, given that his music is almost entirely— if not entirely— composed of samples and electronically produced sounds. 
But it is exactly this paradox that creates the sincere and genuine atmosphere that is Panda Bear. He is unafraid to sing (beautifully I might add) these words, while knowing full well that himself and his fans are active perpetrators of the actions his words command against. It is a result of musical progeny that Panda Bear can transmute a command (look up from the screen) into what feels like a humble suggestion that is in the best interest of everyone. 
Panda’s sincerity comes from his identity, both his projected and his actual. Noah Lennox is a family man who lives with his wife and two children in Portugal. His foil, Avey Tare front man of Animal Collective, elevates Noah’s identity by providing a counter to the rhythmic order of Panda’s message and sound. Avey projects an energy of chaos by summoning characters that evoke a sense of madness and disorder. While Panda is everything but that. His music, identity, and message, all evoke a sense of composure, order, and unity. 

There is no question that our generation is ruffled with an anxieties of an uncertain future, and plagued by depressive tendencies that are charged by a divided country and rapid technological advancement. Panda Bear attempts to deliver a message of hope that is constructed from, and is born out of the same anxieties, depression, and computerization, that created this hole to begin with. 
  Nothing proves this point more than the wonderful addition of Panda performing comfy in nautica, perhaps a Valentine’s Day gift to his longtime fans, during his set. With the mantra, 

“coolness is having courage
 Courage to do what’s right
I’ll try to remember always 
Just to have a good time”

Panda Bear led the audience in a chant promoting self confidence, and a brave moral suggestion—it takes courage to do what’s right, be brave. 
I think the experience of going to a Panda Bear performance can be a profound and uplifting event if viewed from the perspective I’ve suggested. But a morally enriching experience that isn’t deprived of the sensuous human desires that make us feel alive and excited to exist; happy to be present and witness to life.