close your eyes
 
[meta]

A name is a name is a name


Just a couple of words about the name of this blog.

In my late teenage years I read a book called Das wiedergefundene Licht (English title: And There Was Light) by Jacques Lusseyran. It is an autobiography by a blind. Jacques lost his sight in school by an accident. He writes about a world without light. Slowly he gets accustomed to the situation. During the Vichy regime when he is in a résistance group his job is to do the interviews with the new people who want to join the group. Without listening too much what the people say he chooses the trustful by the tone of their voice, by the way how they say what they say. And he never fails. He sees through them. He can distinguish the honest from the pretenders, the liars, the future traitors. As Lusseyran had lost his most important sense which is responsible for much more than half of our entire perception he concentrated on the other four and intensified them. This book told me something I knew already unconsciously but hadn't fully realized. That with deprivation you can gain much more than you can lose.

This blog is mainly about listening to music and my reaction to it and closing your eyes is a way to intensify the listening experience. Without visual detractions one is much more at the mercy of the music, there is a more direct contact with it. And it is easier to delve into the music, to hear details like instruments, voices and noises.

There is another less hopeful reason for the name. When looking at today's world I am often inclined to close my eyes not to see all the ugliness, degeneration and decline.

This may sound overly emotive and dramatic but I think there are still realms and retreats of beauty like e.g. in some music and I will try to find those and transform my perception of them into words whenever possible.

P.S. I started blogging on June 13th, 2001. Here are the first posts from my old blog sax & sunshine. I began close your eyes on October 7th, 2002.


 
 

Close them, indeed

First, I'd like to thank you for supporting my nascent blog, listening to the music found there--and linking your readers to me.

Second-- you're spot on in reminding everyone that sometimes to subtract a sensory input or two (temporarily, voluntarily) is to add a greater depth in others. Most of my mixes are designed to reward even the more typical sort of casual listening we mostly partake of as adults--nothing wrong with "background music," I say, and if our attention is only half there, that doesn't mean we deserve only half-as-good music. That said--where I really fall madly in love with sound is when I allow myself total immersion in it--eyes closed, body still, preferably in the dark. There, my ears become my eyes, and the music has feeling in every sense--emotions, yes, but it becomes physical, visceral, experiential in a new way. That's what I'm trying to get at with the "Sensory Replication" mixes, and I hope you will enjoy those.

On a smaller note--I'm glad you enjoyed the Suburbs--'Credit in Heaven' is an incredibly overlooked record, a truly winning combination of a midwestern American sensibility casually and gracefully married to a more European (think Ultravox or Magazine) post-punk-unto-pop genteel quality. Effortless, and fun.

Thanks again, and I look forward to reading what I can (the English-language parts) of your blogging.

... link  

 

i try to do my best to make your blog known to the world wide web but unfortunately there aren't too many readers around here anymore. somehow i lost most of them on the way. my blogging was rather irregular for a while and then i couldn't decide in which language to write. and finally started writing in german. that was more or less the end for my english speaking readership, i guess.

besides i kind of lost interest in music for a while. i hope that period is over now. slowly i begin to appreciate music again. for years i was missing innovation in new music but somehow my focus seems to have shifted. i mostly listen to old (not necessarily classic) stuff these days. johann sebastian bach for example. but i also enjoyed some of the music you posted on your blog. besides the encyclopedic nature of the 1981 series which by default attracts me, your mixes with different overlayed tracks were a challenging listen. your last upload, the post post-punk mix is playing right now. many goodies there as well.

ps maybe i should actually close my closed eyes. that is open them again. i have had my eyes closed for too long. there is more than a grain of truth in that.

... link  


... comment





 
last updated: 12/8/21, 5:41 PM
subscribers: 390
contact: alex63 at bigfoot dot com
40 years, 40 albums
why this is called close your eyes
some photos
status
Youre not logged in ... Login
menu
... home
... tags

... antville home
recent
...
Hier geht es weiter. Schon mehr oder weniger seit über 10 Jahren...
by alex63 @ 12/8/21, 5:41 PM
...
Der Schachchamp hieß entweder Miguel oder evtl. Manuel. Es gab noch eine ...
by alex63 @ 2/23/21, 8:55 AM

mp3 blogs/rotation etc.


Update: The most useful site in this category is the mp3 blog ...
by alex63 @ 1/26/20, 12:23 PM
...
du hast recht, die angeblichen lifetime forward mailadressen von bigfoot wurden irgendwann ...
by alex63 @ 12/20/19, 11:23 PM
...
Weil es auch mit John Lennon zu tun hat, würde ich dir ...
by klagefall @ 12/20/19, 4:12 PM
...
Ich bin doch nicht der Einzige, der die Sun Bear Concerts für ...
by alex63 @ 11/25/19, 8:54 PM

After the ecstacy, the laundry


Moments of transendence remind us of what is possible. We are here ...
by jacksawyer @ 11/4/19, 11:08 PM
...
Another phantastic release from 1991 I only discovered a couple of days ...
by alex63 @ 6/8/18, 11:05 PM
March 2024
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31
December

03/02 GIANT SAND, F, Brotfabrik............. .


they rock
music (EN)
---------------
aloof from inspiration
an aquarium drunkard
the art of noise NEW
aurgasm
the blue in the air
bradley's almanac
destination out
disquiet
dissensus
dj martian
egg city radio
eyes that can see in the dark
fingertips
i love music
an idiot's guide to dreaming
k-punk
largehearted boy
leonard's lair
misha4music
moistworks
motel de moka
musicophilia
one faint deluded smile
organissimo jazz forums
the perfumed garden
said the gramophone
silence is a rhythm too
stereogum
swens blog
utopian turtletop
vain, selfish & lazy
vinyl mine
warped reality
wordsandmusic

music (DE, FR)
--------------------
la blogothèque
euroranch
hinternet
machtdose
le musterkoffer musikstrom
satt.org: musik
schallplattenmann
die zeit - musik

other (EN)
---------------
josh blog
open chess diary
orbis quintus
the ringdahl family NEW
time4time
wood s lot

other (DE)
---------------
ahoi polloi
bahnchaos NEU
bloggold NEU
cargo NEU
chill
daily ivy
dichtheit und wahrung
einschicht
etc.pp.
filmtagebuch
goncourt's blog
herdentrieb
hotel mama
(i think) he was a journalist
jacks blog NEU
ligne claire
malorama
meine kleine stadt
mek wito
passantin
passe.par.tout
pêle-mêle dans ma tête
private collection
reisenotizen aus der realität
schachblätter
schachblog
der schachneurotiker
with or without words...
x.antville

blog bardo
---------------
the absintheur's journal
brain farts
buked & scorned
dd denkt laut
ja zu aa
the mystical beast
ohrzucker
sofa. rites de passage
sound of the suburbs
spoilt victorian child
three hundred bars
yo, ivanhoe


blogs arranged by birth date of their authors

RSS Feed

Made with Antville
powered by
Helma Object Publisher