marathonpacks’ Year-(Fri)end Bonanza, Volume IV: Michelle, Rebecca and Maureen

Au Revoir Simone
These girls are dear friends and I frequently collaborate with them as a stylist. We just did a shoot in the Met and ran through all of the different rooms as if it were an over-sized dollhouse. The experience was almost as dreamy and surreal as their music. Loving them on the new Friendly Fires mix of “Paris”. The Teenagers also did a great remix of their song “Fallen Snow”.

Erik Satie
Speaking of fallen snow, I woke up to my roommate playing one of the “Gymnopedies” on the piano last week as the snow was falling outside. Dreamy…I wish every morning was like that.

Hot Chip
Great album. “One Pure Thought” is my favorite song; I love the message. It elevates! Sweet guys. Met them backstage at an event where they had to collaborate with Chaka Khan. Weird.

Franz Ferdinand
Saw them play a secret show in Brooklyn with songs from their new album a few months ago. Amazing performers. Their new stuff is better than ever. I’m loving “Ulysses.”

Beach House
Thoroughly experienced Devotion in its entirety while walking through the Turner exhibit at the Met. (I know, the Met again! wtf?) Almost sensory overload, but a great way to really get to the heart of an album.

Warpaint
All girl experimental psych jam band from L.A. I love their song “Billie Holiday“. I happened upon them on a visit to L.A. earlier this year. I loved the show because I could tell they were just living a dream. Plus: there just aren’t enough girl jam bands out there.

Lykke Li
I listened to her album over and over again this year and had the opportunity to work with her on the lookbook for my friend’s clothing line. She has the most amazing personal style and kept coming up with these great ideas on how to put the outfits together.

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Rebecca Huehls has worked as an editor for ten years, aspires to be a writer as well, and lives in Indianapolis. When not working, she often runs around her historic neighborhood, listening to her iPod (softly, to preserve what’s left of hearing subjected to too many loud shows and discos) or trying to be more like her excited, curious, and happy pooch. She’s old enough to be married and recognize the ways in which her mother was right.

An Evening with David Byrne, Indianapolis, October 25, 2008

David Byrne walked onto the stage alone, dressed in white jeans, t-shirt, shoes — even his guitar shoulder strap was white. He started the concert casually with comments about the patched jackets kids were wearing for the FFA convention in town, the new album, his collaboration with Brian Eno. The band and backup singers came on stage, everyone dressed in white. Three dancers added theater to the show. They too were dressed in white. The white motif piqued my interest: was it riffing on the color of Apple computer products, millenial hopes, astronaut suits, a blank canvas?

The whole show was choreographed: at one point David, the backup vocalists, and the dancers all turned in small increments, first on their feet and then in office chairs. I felt these synchronized movements wound up the musical tension, so the energy of songs like “Once in a Lifetime” unfurled with full force, sounding new again. The crowd got up and danced, sweaty, since most people were old enough to dress sensibly for the late October chill. The lights trended to solid bright colors, with the exception of a tie-dye-like swirl. The songs mixed new material from Everything That Happens Will Happen Today with Talking Heads classics like “I Zimbra,” “Heaven,” “Crosseyed and Painless,” and “Life During Wartime.” I felt caught up in a moment that took on a life of its own.

And that moment touched a feeling within that I didn’t know was there, a feeling I link to that music and the shared experience between artist and audience. It was a feeling that the show was spectacular because so much work went into creating it. Experiencing the success of that work —the way it connected people and offered a fresh perspective — reinvigorated my desire to have an artistic life, to explore what that means to me. My head and heart merged on a single point: I have to find time and space for creativity in my ordered life of daily work. If I want the color and light, sound and dance, past and present and future played out so exquisitely on the stage, I have to give these things the same priority I give to taking out the trash each week. David Byrne and his team had a vision, and it reminded me that I might have one, too.

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Maureen Forman is an artist who lives in Bloomington, Indiana and teaches drawing and design classes at Herron College of Art and Design, Ivy Tech Community College, and the John Waldron Arts Center.

WINTER

Gillian Welch Soul Journey
driving home from Christmas break somewhere in the middle of Ohio at night. Singing along loudly with a close friend, very very tired but satisfied.

SPRING

Ray LaMontagne, Iron and Wine, and Be Good Tanyas: studio music. These artists helped me paint my heart out as I worked towards my MFA thesis show and tried not to freak out.

Bon Iver
I saw him perform at Bear’s Place in Bloomington. I had never heard of him before and really really liked him. Very sweet and subtle.

SUMMER

Jens Lekman
summer time giddiness.

The Once Soundtrack
driving home after saying goodbye to very close friends who moved. It was a very early summer morning and the Indiana landscape was really pretty but I felt terribly sad.

FALL

Justin Timberlake
anytime I need some motivation, usually while cooking or cleaning.

Eartha Kitt
when I want to feel more sophisticated than I am and drink a glass of wine.

Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
impatiently driving from one teaching job to the next.