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John Darnielle wants to tell you a story

newyorker.com

1–10 of 16 posts

Re: John Darnielle wants to tell you a story

#6

A Mountain Goats show was the last concert I went to before lock down started in NYC.. Which makes his omission of Golden Boy from the set list all the more egregious.

A mountain goats show without egregious omissions would be about 3 days long.

They're also playing the first post-lockdown concert I will be attending :-)

Re: John Darnielle wants to tell you a story

#7
I haven't read this yet but I'm excited to see John Darnielle on here and have to plug the podcast I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats with Joseph Fink and John Darnielle. Each episode they dissect a song from his catalog and have a discussion with someone else as well as a cover of the focus song. The concept is good, but for me the best part of the show is all of the other conversations and general discussion of music/writing/art. That podcast gave me a deeper appreciation for a lot of things I either was clueless or even skeptical about. I think it's made me a better listener of both music and other peoples life perspectives.

Re: John Darnielle wants to tell you a story

#9
"The problem is not that people know, but that expectations form, both within the community and outside of it. Expectations are death. Before something has a full-on, identifiable identity—that’s the exciting time. That’s the time when you don’t really know where something is going, but there’s a feeling, and you can’t quite name it."

It is why I think I am drawn to the pre-Apollo U.S. space program. I don't think anyone knew what was and was not possible. Some engineer decides to make the pressurized rocket tank itself the structural part of the rocket — the thickness of a nickel. Someone calculates velocity and altitudes achievable from staging and then a rocket is put in orbit. Hey, Van Allen belts! We're testing the Saturn vehicle, unmanned with just a dummy cargo — so someone suggests exploding a payload of water high up in the upper atmosphere ... for science. Why not?

You could be forgiven at the time for beginning to believe that anything was possible.

I don't know when or why space travel became boring to the public. But maybe it was when we had begun to know the extent and limitations of what in fact was possible (affordable).

Re: John Darnielle wants to tell you a story

#10

A Mountain Goats show was the last concert I went to before lock down started in NYC.. Which makes his omission of Golden Boy from the set list all the more egregious.

The first MG show I went to I shouted 'Golden Boy!' during one of the 'what should I play' moments, only to have a very large fan turn to me and helpfully say 'he doesn't play that one anymore.'

Fast forward like five years, and we're watching the Jordan Lake sessions livestream in the depths of the pandemic. And it was so so sweet to hear those opening chords: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7vivr-Jjos

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