John Beck

Bon vivant par excellence
Organizer of good things. Skeptical romantic. Needs pasta.

Happy Mother's Day

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Happy mother’s day to all the mothers out there. My grandmother recently found this old photo of my mother during Halloween. I found this picture interesting and had to share it. My mom is the one on the right, the hobo.

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The Knife

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Last night I saw the Knife at Terminal 5 in NYC. It was one of the stranger shows that I’ve been too. They took the idea of a concert and then took the concert out of that idea. It was a strange abstract dance performance. I enjoyed every minute of it. Though I didn’t like it as much as Fever Ray, my favorite show of all time, this show still is one of my favorite and most memorable performances.

Here are some pictures and video that I took. In order of appearance in the performance.

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Top 50 albums of 2013

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My favorite albums of 2013 in order from most favorite.

1. Kanye West – Yeezus
2. Forest Swords – Engravings
3. Darkside – Psychic
4. Dirty Beaches – Drifters/Love Is The Devil
5. Oneohtrix Point Never – R Plus Seven
6. Tim Hecker – Virgins
7. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
8. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away
9. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest
10. Savages – Silence Yourself
11. Holy Ghost! – Dynamics
12. David Lynch – The Big Dream
13. Majical Cloudz – Impersonator
14. Austra – Olympia
15. Katie Gately – Katie Gately
16. Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus
17. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol 3: See More Light
18. Deafheaven – Sunbather
19. Zomby – With Love
20. Burial – Rival Dealer
21. Haim – Days Are Gone
22. The Haxan Cloak – Excavation
23. Four Tet – Beautiful Rewind
24. Gesaffelstein – Aleph
25. Kavinsky – Outrun
26. James Blake – Overgrown
27. Autechre – Exai
28. London Grammar – If You Wait
29. Matmos – The Marriage of True Minds
30. William Basinski – Nocturnes
31. M.I.A. – Matangi
32. Arcade Fire – Reflektor
33. The Knife – Shaking the Habitual
34. Factory Floor – Factory Floor
35. Jon Hopkins – Immunity
36. The Field – Cupid’s Head
37. Matt Elliott – Only Myocardial Infarction Can Break Your Heart
38. Suuns – Images Du Futur
39. Foetus – Soak
40. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
41. oOoOO – Without Your Love
42. Sleigh Bells – Bitter Rivals
43. Phosphorescent – Muchacho
44. Charli XCX – True Romance
45. Au Revoir Simone – Move In Spectrums
46. Grouper – The Man Who Died in His Boat
47. Lorde – Pure Heroine
48. Adult. – The Way Things Fall
49. Atoms for Peace – Amok
50. Depeche Mode – Delta Machine

Treme: Mardi Gras Indians

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I started watching the HBO show Treme not too long ago. It’s about post-Katrina New Orleans and it’s culture and inhabitants. What I’m most amazed about is the whole Mardi Gras Indian culture. The tribes take the entire year to make these elaborate costumes and then on Mardi Gras they “battle” other Indian tribes. I find this scene from Treme absolutely beautiful and I had to watch it 4 or 5 times before I finally got it. It’s hard to understand what they say with their pseudo-African language but you get it. It’s all quite beautiful and the fact that the battles are non-violent and really based on creativity and art makes it that much more wonderful.

There is footage of real Mardi Gras Indian battles on YouTube and it’s not much different than the depiction in Treme.

Spartan Race World Championship on NBC!

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In September a few members of my team and I competed in the Spartan Race World Championship at Mount Killington, Vermont. NBC was there filming a special documentary that airs tomorrow, December 7th 4pm on NBC Sports. I hope you all tune in to watch!

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Thousands of top-ranked Reebok Spartan Race athletes, Olympians, and amateur athletes alike from around the world converged on Killington Mountain, VT in September 2013 to compete for $250,000 in cash and prizes. NBC Sports filmed the athletes as they competed side-by-side. Catch the action on December 7, 2013 at 4 – 5 pm EST on NBC Sports.