the good that won't come out: memorium.

20060509

memorium.

I doubt that anyone who reads this will really actually gather how incredible this was for me, but here it goes- the other day ( the day after watching one of the best friends I've ever had rock an improv show), I went up to the Elliott Smith wall w/ Laura.
OK. I think like, Byron would really get this, but hey-I'm listening to "Late" right now, and it JUST dawned on me that the wall Ben was singing about is the elliott wall on sunset. It never actually hit me until now...I suppose it's because when Elliott took his Figure 8 album cover almost 10 years ago there, there was no writing...now it's flooded with fan writings and song lyrics, whoch both Laura and myself contributed to. In any case, under some dirty words on a dirty wall...and it IS dirty. I didn't really know what to expect when I got there, except that it was on the side of a music appliance store. (Music applicance, because, well, some really weird people fix amps and the whole cement office and alcoves are cluttered with bits and pieces of soundboards).

I saw it so quickly and Laura had to use her L.A.-born driving skills to swerve into the empty parking lot right next to it...I don't even really know how to explain how amazing the experience was for me, but if anyone is even slightly interested in going up to see it, I'd love to again while I'm still here.

I guess that what I should say about it to TRY and summarize its importance is that when Elliott died a few years ago, there was no memorial, and so fans lined the dingy wall with candles and flowers and eventually began writing all over it. Because his death was never really clear as to why it occurred or what really happened, it was really powerful to see that people had written some of his own beautiful words alongside things like, "I know you didn't do it."

In any case, here are some of my most treasured pictures as of now: (The second one is my impression of thealbum...close, but a different angle)

Under some dirty words
On a dirty wall
Eating take-out by myself
I played the shows
Got back in the van and put the walkman on
And you were playing

Just wanted to share something beautiful...if anyone wants some of his stuff, please just let me know-I've gotten Laura more into him and I completely introduced Sloane to it-and there is so much more out there. His work was so incredibly beautiful and there really isn't a day that goes by that I don't listen to at least one of his songs. He was a true artist.

The songs you wrote
Got me through a lot
Just want to tell you that...

posted by stephy_andthejets @ 1:28 AM

4 Comments:

At 2:14 AM, Anonymous said…

yeah, the wall is pretty sick. i've passed by it a couple months ago while cruising sunset and i freaked when i saw it. - byron d.
At 10:08 PM, Imp said…

I've never been to LA other than...Universal Studios...sad I know :(
At 12:58 AM, Unknown said…

awesomeeeee. love the pix. can you burn me some elliot smith, if possible? or just a mix? (if you have time) i love your mixes.

:)
At 10:33 AM, Collin said…

hey Steph. Sorry about not calling last night; scene night ended up being a 2.5 hour affair that made all parties involved want to kill themselves (and there was lengthy discussion about it).

Anyway, I'm coming up short on our little dilemma... I just don't know what other options there are.