Low - 1994 - I Could Live In Hope
"In Metal" is a simply crushing Parker-sung ode to she and Sparhawk's new baby, Hollis. Parker's chilling voice, as she confesses her hopeless longing for the child to stay small forever, simultaneously attains both heartbreakingly desperation and jubilance: "Partly hate to see you grow/ And just like your baby shoes/ Wish I could keep your little body/ In metal." There's a bizarre David Lynch quality to the concept of immortalizing a baby in some kind of Han Solo freeze that prevents the song from crossing over into blatant sentimentalism. But Parker's affection for the child, who can be heard squeaking at low levels during the song's first verse, is not feigned. The song serves as a flawless finale, to the point that it can alter your view of the album as a whole.
Low - 1994 - I Could Live In Hope
Selected discography
Albums
I Could Live in Hope , Vernon Yard, 1994.
Long Division , Vernon Yard, 1995.
The Curtain Hits the Cast , Vernon Yard, 1996.
One More Reason to Forget (live recording), Bluesanct Musak, 1998.
owL Remix Low , Vernon Yard, 1998.
Christmas , Chair Kicker's Union, 1999.
Secret Name , Kranky, 1999.
Paris '99--Anthony, Are You Around? , P-Vine, 2001.
Things We Lost in the Fire , Kranky, 2001.
Trust , Kranky, 2002.
EPs
Low , Summershine/Vernon Yard, 1994.
Transmission EP , Vernon Yard, 1995.
finally... , Vernon Yard, 1996.
Over the Ocean , Vernon Yard, 1996.
Songs for a Dead Pilot , Kranky, 1997.
(With Spring Heel Jack) Bombscare , Tugboat, 2000.
Dinosaur Act , Tugboat, 2000.
The Exit Papers Soundtrack , Temporary Residence, 2000.
(With Dirty Three) in the fishtank , Konkurrent, 2001.
k./Low , Tiger Style, 2001.
Last Night I Dreamt that Somebody Loved Me , Chairkicker's Music, 2001.
Appears on
A Means to an End: A Tribute to Joy Division , Virgin, 1995.
Indie-Rock Flea Market Part 2 , Flip, 1995.
Don't Get Too Tense , Vernon Yard, 1995.
Jabberjaw...Pure Sweet Hell , Mammoth, 1996.
A Tribute to Spacemen 3 , Rocket Girl, 1998.
Duluth Does Dylan , Spinout, 2000.
Naked in the Afternoon: A Tribute to Jandek , Summersteps, 2000.
Take Me Home: A Tribute to John Denver , Badman, 2000.
My name is Maria. I'll be a senior this school year in Vancouver, WA. I have post-polio in my right leg and use a brace for mobility support. My mom and I moved here from the Philippines almost five years ago. Some of my hobbies include camping, swimming, and writing friends back home. I am interested in the medical field. I want to go to college. Ten years from now I hope I have my own family, am truly content, helping people, and my mom is still around to help me spend my money shopping! Having a computer around could help me to cut my research time in half, especially this school year with my four science classes.
My name is Takuya. I will attend high school as a senior beginning September, 1994. I live in Kirkland, WA. I am looking forward to attending the University of Washington. My major and career might be computer science or medical care. My interests are trigonometry, physics, biology, chemistry, laboratory work, and the theory of math. My hobbies are collecting stamps and playing tennis. The nature of my disabilities are health impairment, congenital scoliosis, and nervous system dysmorphia. The value of computer use, as a disabled student, is grammar and spell checking.
My name is Megan and I live in Caldwell, ID. My interests include biology, medicine, and algebra. On the non-academic side I enjoy piano, voice, and relaxing. I attend Treasure Valley College just outside my hometown. I receive dual credits for high school and college. It has been a great alternative to high school. I hope to pursue a career in medicine, preferably in pediatric cardiology. Now I am a biology major. My disability is chronic Lyme Disease. It affects my immune system and energy level along with other more minor symptoms. I am much healthier now due to a diagnosis and treatment. That is, basically, me.
Each of us must be the mapmakers of our lives. We travel down the comfortable or challenging routes our hopes and imaginations set for us. If we are neither lazy nor content to merely do the easy thing, we reach for a goal, a particular career or place to live or ideal to embody, and then we head with hope and some trepidation along our self-styled path.
Throughout it all, the children have made new friends in new schools and found that once again they can belong. I hope these years of traveling toward our goal, toward a permanent, not rented home, may come to be part of a bright pattern in the mosaic of their lives.
Let me say to all of you, the people I met then, many of whom have been my friends over all these 35 years, made me believe that anything was possible. President Kennedy spoke to us and made me believe that together we could change the world. I think that is certainly no less true for you and your generation because you will live in the time of greatest possibility in all human history.
We also articulated a new role for Government. We tried to break through the debate that had then dominated Washington for nearly 20 years, some people saying Government could solve all our problems and others saying Government was the source of all of our problems. I had been a Governor for a dozen years, and I thought the argument was frankly ridiculous. I thought that neither extreme was true. And we have sought to create a Government whose primary role is to create the conditions and give people the tools to solve their own problems and make the most of their own lives and build good lives, good families, good communities, and a strong country.
Look around the world at all of the problems we have that are based on racial, ethnic, and religious differences. Why did those three little children have to die in that firebomb in Ireland a few days ago? Because somebody just cannot give up the idea that they ought to fight until the end of time over their religious differences. Why can we not achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East? What is at the root of the problem in Bosnia, in Kosovo? Why did hundreds of thousands of people die in Rwanda in a matter of days in 1994? All over the world you see this. If America wants to do good in a world like that, we must be good at home. We must be able to live in all of our communities like you're working and living together here. And you can lead the way on that.
Almost the entire increase in the trade deficit is due to the Asian economic trouble, which is why, since January, I have been saying we should make our proper contribution to the International Monetary Fund to promote economic reform and economic recovery in Asia. And the fact that we have not done so is endangering the livelihood of American farmers and American factory workers because we are not making the exports, especially to Asia, that we otherwise could be making if those economies were coming back. And a critical part of that is our contribution to the International Monetary Fund.
----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Or you could ask someone--why do you stay on the farm? The Sept 1994 issue of Home Office Computing did a feature story on 51 "Entrepreneurs who live the American dream," and just glancing through it I see that a number are either "farmers" or at least rural. There's Scott Olson, the guy who invented Rollerblades and lives in Waconia, MN (pop. about 3,000). The picture shows him on rollerblades, in a barn, holding a calf--so he's at least living on the edge of town. And the Doolings, who had a 100 acre farm that couldn't support them, so they imported cashmere goats from Australia and now own knitting business (Montana). Or the Banfields with a lovely house on 200 acres in New Hampshire, so now they own a country inn, grossing about $150,000. Now, this is not "research," only anecdotal evidence that some people pursue things other than money, and others can live well and be rural at the same time. Viewed with Marxist glasses or capitalist glasses, I'm sure the story comes out differently. They were all using computers (that's why they were featured) and we all know that there are captive cybersmurfs toiling away inside those cpu's and someone ought to investigate this labor abuse!
----------------------------Original message---------------------------- On Mon, 24 Oct 1994 11:57:23 EDT said: Since I never lived on a farm I didn't feel that my response was defensive -- ar had to be. Rather, I thought that like good historians we were trying to seek a loving solution. However, my memory of the farm kids in my high school is that they were as interested in school as any other sweaty, hormaonal teenagers. But, on reflection, maybe you are right: Iowa has always been a special place. . . . >----------------------------Original message---------------------------- >It seems to me that the meaning of my original posting has been lost in >some rather defensive (and perhaps not well considered) reactions. In >describing the successes of themselves and their siblings in academia, >business, etc., Jeanette Keith, Eric Rousey, and Lowell Dyson are using >precisely the wrong examples. Yes, many people can leave rural areas to >achieve success elsewhere. My father did so. > >But that isn't what this thread is about. I am not talking about the >people who left, but the ones who stay. I submit that there are >obstacles -- not insurmountable, but obstacles nonetheless -- to easy >transitions from rural areas to the city. In areas of the country where >disparities in funding exist between rural and urban school districts, it >is often the rural districts that are disadvantaged. When I lived in >Colorado, there were initiatives proposed to replace property tax funding >of schools with more equitable state financing. The argument was that >rural districts' (in a state where the land is not so rich as Iowa's) tax >revenues were lower, and that costs, particularly transportation, were >significantly higher than those of urban school districts. This, it was >believed, restricted the access of rural students to the state's institutions >of higher education. More recently, Arizona's universities have considered >raising admission standards. The concern, again, is that this might >discriminate against students from rural high schools. > >And then there are the cultural biases against education Mary Engelmeyer >referred to. I shouldn't have to say that not _all_ farm children hold >education in low esteem. I would expect professionals to be comfortable >enough with nuances of meaning to refrain from reading absolutes into >general observations. Since that is apparently not the case, however, I >will be very cautious and say that _some_ farm kids see little reason to >pay attention to school when they can learn about farming from their >parents. A shortsighted attituded, perhaps, but it does exist, and it >can do grave damage to a young person's future. _Those_ are the people >who may find it difficult to find jobs in town with satisfaction equal to >that of being one's own master on one's own land. And having spent no >small amount of time in the guts of a combine, I can say from personal >experience that exposure to farm equipment isn't half as useful to a >technical education as a good calculus class -- not when even diesels are >going to computerized fuel-delivery systems. The job market isn't what >it used to be. > >Actually, the intent of my original posting was to try to draw the thread >down from a theoretical level to a more practical consideration of the >options available to farm people. It is my hope that people who have >actually experienced the transition from farm to city might be able to >participate in a dialogue on the subject with open minds, and without >assuming that I am hostile to farm people. Must an interest in rural >history be accompanied by a defensiveness in the face of any perceived >criticism of rural life? Now _there's_ a stereotype. > >Scott Riney, Department of History (Graduate) >Arizona State University > >Internet: sriney@asu.edu 041b061a72