sufjan_stevens silentbob www.sufjan.com he is doing a thing where he makes full length records of beautiful independent rock music in the tradition of folk, alt.country stuff and he is attempting to take on the task of writing about all fifty states, a different album for every state. each song having something to do with that state, putting himself in the perspective of a citizen. so far he has done michigan and illinois is his new one. "Come on feel the illinois." here is what he could write about if he did Iowa: the spirit lake massacre herbert hoover the grotto in west bend the worlds largest cheeto in algona the des moines river des moines having gold in its capital building iowa city once being the capital the valiska murders ambrose a. call, call state park in kossuth county kossuth county and how it used to be two separate counties , the top one of which was composed mostly of swamps, so they put them together. the swamps dried up and created beautiful fertile land. what state are you in? what could he write about it? 050908 ... silentbob another thing is the black angel of iowa city and the famous people that went to my school Kurt vonnegut Jr. john irving tennessee williams uhhhh yeah. also artie the strongest man in the world 050909 ... crOwl i think his song john wayne gacy jr. from the illinois record is one of the most beautiful, haunting, and disturbing songs i have ever heard. to see him live is quite the experience, complete with cheerleaders, one of them who is a ford model. what he is attempting is a daunting, but highly inspirational and motivating task. by the time he finishes, considering it takes a few years for each one, he will be in his 80's! as for your question, sb, i'm from pennsylvania. hopefully sufjan addresses the following: *the amish from lancaster *our country's beginnings in philadelphia *the battle of gettysburg *the reign of the pittsburgh steelers football team in the 1970's *hershey chocolate *the johnstown flood 050909 ... silentbob i hear next he is doing rhode island and oregon maybe he could just release albums and not tour with them. sit down, study the state a while, then write a while then put out albums. maybe he could generate material every couple of months. even still, we're talkin a long time. nevertheless, as long as he just did it and didn't try to pimp out each one... i dunno. he could get experimental too. say california will be all piano. you never know. what's more is maybe he will try to do more than one state per cd this is all speculation, mind you, its not like i've read any of this anywhere. i'm just trying to figure ways for it to be possible, because i want to remain hopeful and optimistic. i want him to succeed at this. fifty albums is a lot to committ to. jesus. 050914 ... crOwl check out this interview. he talks realistically about his project. http://youaintnopicasso.blogspot.com/2005/07/sufjan-stevens-interview.html 050914 ... silentbob hey sufjan way to dodge the question 050916 ... thorn a girl in my art class and i talked about sufjan for a while today. she was impressed that i knew who he was. she is going to burn a copy of one of his cds and bring it in to our art class can listen to it. 051003 ... unhinged yeah, i read something about his super model glockenspiel player on msn not that long ago. i hope that when he does ohio he mentions: - the rust belt - the mob - industrial abandonment - the birthplace of marilyn manson - basically anything but cows and corn since that's what everyone outside of ohio seems to think is going on here 051004 ... unhinged and if i wrote an album about pa i would definitely write about hershey chocolate. and how the lamposts in hershey pa are topped with chocolate kisses and when you drive through in the afternoon you can smell the chocolate. i think every town should smell like chocolate during rush hour. it would most definitely cut down on the road rage. i fell in love with eastern pa this summer. indian hills caverns, hershey, harrisburg, philadelphia and the bridge that crosses over to jersey. i made a list of all the burgs we crossed on the turnpike. pittsburgh shippensburg mcconnellsburg mechanicsburg chambersburg harrisburg i'm sure there's gotta be more than that. 051004 ... crOwl greensburg a small town 2o minutes from robin hill where bethany works as a chef and hilary used to live. 051004 ... silentbob he released an album of outtakes from illinois. i don't want more of illinois, i want a new state. 060905 ... crOwl check out the mp3 blog gorilla vs. bear... he reports that sufjan is putting out a massive christmas cd project...you can download one song from it called sister winter... 060906 ... cb Wendy’s fiancé said it makes a great Christmas present. Jessamine fought a kid in Chicago for a copy. I heard a song on the radio. On the XM. I might buy it on Thursday, or maybe some Massive Attack... 061211 ... no reason i don't know his music too well, but he's always been someone i've been meaning to listen to and knew i'd like. sure enough, i just saw him play live, mostly songs off the new record, and it was one of the best concerts i've seen in a long, long time. 101013 ... raze i still haven't forgiven him for the way he handled his christmas song exchange contest in 2007, or for what he did to arthur russell's "a little lost", but "seven swans" is still all kinds of gorgeous. "all the trees of the field will clap their hands" will never not get to me. 220113 ... nr erm, it's weird, and a bit worrying... i have NO recollection of ever seeing sufjan live, even though apparently, per above, the concert was one of the best i've seen. 220113 what's it to you? who go blather from