Figure 8

I was walking through my new Silver Lake neighborhood in LA, when I stumbled upon the wall that Elliott Smith stood against in his Figure 8 album. It was shocking. I used to love that album deeply and tenderly. I listened to it so much that I feel like it is part of my DNA code somewhere.

I remember when I was in college and found out that he was dead. It was devastating. It felt as if a whole piece of my identity was gone forever. As soon as I got home from my walk, I listened to the whole thing again. It sounds different to me for some reason – maybe a bit happier or maybe that is just me. I suggest you get down on this amazingness.

“I liked the idea of a self-contained, endless pursuit of perfection. But I have a problem with perfection. I don’t think perfection is very artful. But there’s something I liked about the image of a skater going in this endless twisted circle that doesn’t have any real endpoint. So the object is not to stop or arrive anywhere; it’s just to make this thing as beautiful as they can.” -Elliott Smith on Figure 8