martin douglas martin, esquire profile picture

martin douglas martin, esquire

the champs and the chumps wear the same jewelry. amen.

About Me

an art-damaged singer/songwriter. a long-winded music blogger. a hip-hop beatmaker. a laughably amateurish "photographer." not always, but usually, the only black guy at an indie-rock show. a writer who doesn't read enough. an artist, i guess. "a chuck klosterman fan with an IQ of 142." a son, brother, and uncle of a small army of children. an art-punk enthusiast. a guy who doesn't eat red meat. a novice vinyl collector. an outsider. a casual sports fan. an air-guitarist. a neat-freak. a guy who doesn't take himself very seriously.

My Interests

TURN ONS: pretty girls. art. gushers fruit snacks. obscure pop bands. 70's and 80's new york city drug kingpins. vintage headwear [not like hats, but leather football and vintage army helmets]. lady tunes. cranberry juice. fashion as an art form. hip-hop beats with no hi-hats. vans slip-ons with no socks. clever writers and speakers. oishi rolls. ambient punk bands. enthusiasm. classic, obscure american cartoons. ice cream sandwiches. flashy adverbs. tight jackets and skinny jeans. analyzing different types of personalities. reverberated guitars and delay pedals. sleep. alternative music magazines. seven-inch vinyl. carson ellis .TURN OFFS: racism. sexism. homophobia. elitism. ironic appreciation. entitlement complexes. the playing of amplified acoustic guitars on studio records. high-waisted pants. celebutantes, socialites, or anyone in general who is famous for no reason. bad lyrics. cute girls who wear too much makeup. ringtone rappers. negative criticism without valid reasoning. lack of ambition. people born after 1970 who don't write their own songs. rhinestones. tardiness. jeans with no back pockets. people unwilling to see the other side of the coin. the guy who gets the girl at the end of the movie. adidas sneakers. non-compassion. divorce. snidely whiplash [although his mustache is pretty rad].

I'd like to meet:

creative, intellegent people. arty, indie rock weirdos. but if you're not, that's okay, too. speedy gonzales: the fastest mouse in all of mexico. suicide girls. lots of them. people who aren't afraid to make fun of themselves. a girl who looks exactly like maggie gyllenhaal and dresses exactly like olive oyl. the ghosts of poets who've drank themselves to death. people who would think going out to eat in bunny costumes would be fun. a beautiful girl who can juggle knives. someone who would like to sign fresh cherries from yakima to their boutique indie label. anyone whose ringtone is the breeders' cover of "happiness is a warm gun." a young woman who owns a copy of "nuclear physics for dummies." people who are masters of the art of sarcasm, but who aren't afraid to not be cynical. armchair existentialists, bedroom poets, jewish lawyers, and no-name artists. someone who knows how to tune a ukulele.oh, and annie clark, because she's cute, waifish, and can melt your fucking face with a guitar. and honestly, what guy doesn't love that?

Music:

perpetual favorites: the mountain goats are my favorite band. fresh cherries from yakima [but i'm a little biased ]. radiohead. radiohead. radiohead. nirvana. tv on the radio. the microphones. no age. kanye west. the thermals. the decemberists. silver jews. grizzly bear. sunset rubdown. mf doom. emily haines. the velvet underground. bloc party. jay-z. pavement. royce the 5'9". wilco. joanna newsom. outkast. jesus and mary chain. the national. ghostface killah. yeah yeah yeahs. death cab for cutie. daniel johnston. cat power. sonic youth. the strokes. modest mouse. cormega. pixies. j. dilla. the long winters. neutral milk hotel. wu-tang clan. smog. interpol. my bloody valentine. elliott smith. the white stripes. [i wanted to be cool and cutting edge and one of those hipster tastemaker people, but at the risk of sounding like "indie rock for dummies," these really are my favorite bands.]current playlist trailblazers: tiny vipers. fleet foxes. atlas sound. bon iver. sleeping states. au. phosphorescent. wale. shearwater. elzhi. why? valet. dirty projectors. el-p. lightspeed champion. rio en medio. panda bear. lupe fiasco. deerhunter. tickley feather. castanets. beirut. espers. horse feathers. abe vigoda. midlake. laura veirs. the twilight sad. PWRFL power. jesse sykes & the sweet hereafter. fuck buttons. adrian orange. madlib. celebration. dyme def. crystal stilts. jose gonzales. ayatollah. grand archives. black lips. st. vincent. sera cahoone.

Movies:

i told ceanne to never ask me if i've seen any one particular movie, because the answer's probably "no." for some reason, i never actively seek out movies. however, if it has anything to do with drug dealers or organized crime [or a combination of both], count me in. with that said, i can safely say that napoleon dynamite and the back to the future trilogy are my favorite movies of all-time.

Television:

i'm fascinated with cheesy reality television shows; they're like post-modern social experiments. if you think about it, the most inventive method of displaying the ills of society is reality TV. but i don't own a television and haven't in almost two years.

Books:

currently reading: on the road. favorites: adverbs. high fidelity. the picture of dorian gray. street players. fight club. chuck klosterman IV. sex, drugs and cocoa puffs. what matters most is how well you walk through the fire. me talk pretty one day. betting on the muse. dewdroppers, waldos and slackers.

Heroes:

"people should be their own goddamn heroes."-joe strummer

My Blog

budget fashionistas.

while riding the train down to portland, i sat next to a young lady with a beatles tote bag and a wedding ring. when i saw the ring, i decided that "sure, of course you can sit here" would be the exte...
Posted by martin douglas martin, esquire on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:12:00 PST

cheap and cheerful: a retread.

i think that people who read my last blog entry and sort of wrote me about don't quite have me figured out. some of them took it as me being depressed; others took it as a "woe is me, look at how bad ...
Posted by martin douglas martin, esquire on Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:17:00 PST

empty bottles.

people often remember the time where they felt more disappointed than they ever had in their entire lives. this time for me was when i tried to kill myself, and woke up alive.in late july of 2005, i d...
Posted by martin douglas martin, esquire on Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:12:00 PST

for chris walla.

nervousness is starting to build towards moving to portland.don't get my words twisted; i'm not getting cold feet. it's just that september 1st is starting to be visible on the horizon, and this move ...
Posted by martin douglas martin, esquire on Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:21:00 PST

inside jokes.

i feel somewhat of a kinship with outcasts nowadays.katherine and i had a wonderful talk last night; among many other things, we talked about the nature of individuality and elitism [and the hilarious...
Posted by martin douglas martin, esquire on Sun, 25 May 2008 08:25:00 PST

buckets of gold and other tales of perpetual dreamers.

"graduating college is like the end of my life," she told me, as i brought merchandise to the edge of the shelves, "for all of my life, my life's goal was to go to college, and now that it's over, i'm...
Posted by martin douglas martin, esquire on Thu, 22 May 2008 09:22:00 PST

rejection letters.

so, lately, i've been navigating this weird middle ground, where people feel fresh cherries from yakima is too arty for the pop kids, and too poppy for the art kids. it's naturally confusing, being to...
Posted by martin douglas martin, esquire on Mon, 05 May 2008 11:42:00 PST

stools.

"your stool should have lights on it that light up whenever you sit down."i was walking through downtown seattle, sort of lost, with shanah and duncan, whom i've tagged as the "ideal married couple." ...
Posted by martin douglas martin, esquire on Sun, 04 May 2008 06:14:00 PST

bagger’s choice.

heavy eyelids and sore shoulders got me through the last couple days.last night at about 10:40pm, i stood across from her, smiling from behind a mass of buttons and screens. you know that thing that g...
Posted by martin douglas martin, esquire on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:13:00 PST

for lester bangs.

"he's not even twenty-one, yet?" jeff asks about forty minutes prior to our friend for the evening gets turned away from a hotel bar for being underage, with equal parts bewilderment and pride in his ...
Posted by martin douglas martin, esquire on Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:56:00 PST