David Guttenfelder

Solitary Confinement
Row after row of horrifying rooms
Damascus, Syria

How Suicide Drones Transformed the Front Lines in Ukraine Outnumbered and desperate, the nation began hacking cheap consumer drones with explosives — bringing a brutal new form of violence to 21st-century warfare.

Recent work. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/m...

Happy New Year
Damascus, Syria

Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,
That to be low is to be high,
That the broken heart is the healed heart,
That the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
That the repenting soul is the victorious soul

While I was making a video of our friendly neighborhood shawarma guy, he smiled & stuck handful into my mouth. Damascus 12/28

Syrian generosity

This Is Lorelei - Box For Buddy, Box For Star

I couldn’t put my finger on why I liked this so much and then just gave into it.

“I don't mind the present and I like the past. I think that the future's worth it”

Deception and Betrayal: Inside the Final Days of the Assad Regime President Bashar al-Assad, who wielded fear and force over Syria for more than two decades, fled the country under the cover of night — and a fake political address.

“It was a dream,” he recalled. “All of it felt like a dream.”

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/w...

Inside the Final Days of the Assad Regime in Syria President Bashar al-Assad, who wielded fear and force over Syria for more than two decades, fled the country under the cover of night — and a fake political address.

Inside the final days of the Assad regime.

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/w...

How the Rebels in Syria Captured Damascus A visual timeline of the stunning rebel advance in Syria

The fall of Damascus in picutres.
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/w...

Kite War

open.spotify.com/track/6Pwiut...

Good Morning-The Accident

(Good Aussies)

Hard Quartet

If you likes Pavement, Stephen Malkmus, Chavez, Emmett Kelly, Matt Sweeney, The Jicks, and Jim White then you might like this super group. If you don’t you won’t.

hip hop
I listen (mostly when editing pics) but never an expert

MF DOOM-MM.FOOD (20th)
ScHoolboy Q-Blue Lips
Cavalier-CINE+Different Type Time
Shabazz Palaces-exotic birds of prey
DJ Muggs-The Eternal Now
Kendrick Lamar-GNX
Doechii-Alligator Bites Never Heals
Previous Industries-Open Mike Eagle+

Kim Gordon-The Collective

It’s- follow her into her sonic universe or get the fuck out of her way- record of the year. + She’s 71

I recalled her famous quote: “People pay to see other people believe in themselves” when reading Thurston Moore’s Sonic Youth days memoir this year.

Mt. Erie- Night Palace

More raw truthful Phil Elverum sound

The Felice Brothers - Valley of Abandoned Songs

Thank you CJ Chivers for this music recommendation and for the great times we spent traveling/working/listening together

Friko- Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here

Please pass the indie rock torch to these Chicago area kids who started the band Friko in highschool only 5 years ago.

Helado Negro

I heard in an interview with Lange on why he named his new record PHASOR. I’m dumb and math, physics, vectors are over my head. But I could understand how it related to creativity for him and then for me. Check it out. NPR maybe.

I saw Helado Negro play at The Turf Club. The crowd was grinning & singing every English or Spanish word. Sometimes at concerts we get defensive in crowded shared spaces making it hard to unlock & get lost in the music. But his show was such a chill lovefest. Maybe my happiest couple of hours of ‘24

Helado Negro- PHASOR

I listened to this record while rushing through a busy, massive modern airport & felt like I was inside the architecture of the electronic music or a cascading number in a complex math problem.

Idles- TANGK

Tough but tender, unapologeticly masculine, big positive bold fun for all. See them live to experience it.

Advance Bass

Owen Ashworth starts one of the saddest and prettiest songs, called Tooth Fairy, like this:

Melody lost a tooth the other night
I only had a twenty on me

Advance Base- Horrible Occurrences

Backed by melancholic Casiotone, his painful, plainly spoken/sung scenes are more like Raymond Carver or Denis Johnson short stories than typical songwriting.

The complete record was released today 12/6

The Cure- Songs of a Lost World

16-yr-old me would also approve of this great as ever goth record

MJ Lenderman- Manning Fireworks

I love this indie rock record full of guitars, humor, everyday life observations elevated.

He makes “sincere but unserious” storytelling seem effortless.

Last year his band called Wednesday also made great music.

Waxahatche- Tiger’s Blood

MJ Lenderman’s guitar and backing vocals couldn’t be cooler. When we saw Waxahatche In St. Paul they also added drummer Spencer Tweedy, so it was cooler.

Seeing Crutchfield, MJL, Tweedy together felt like a new generation’s anointed Americana music royalty

Waxahatche- Tiger’s Blood

It’s an amazing record with the best title of the year, no doubt.

Katie Crutchfield’s song, Right Back To It, is this year’s gold standard of classic, structured songwriting perfection.

Adrienne Lenker

First day, she closed her eyes and introduced herself to us this way.

Adrianne Lenker

Earlier this year, my teenage daughters and I attended Adrianne Lenker’s online, month-long songwriting course together.

She wrote & played live, deconstructed songs, shared her process, considered inner & otherworldly creativity, dished out homework & made us think in new ways.