Shana Cleveland Album Review: Manzanita

(Hardly Art)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

On “Mystic Mine”, the whistling psychedelic folk tune from her third album Manzanita, Shana Cleveland sings, “I feel so relieved to be back in the country,” the last four words delivered in harmony with electric piano and whizzing synths. The singer-songwriter’s music has often occupied this reflective mood, whether embedded in the garage pop of La Luz or the abstract pastoral nature of her solo records. Yet, as they say, this time, it’s personal. The songs on Manzanita were written during the sort of major life changes many songwriters metaphorically describe as a move: relocating to rural California, and becoming pregnant with and giving birth to her first child. In a sense, many aspects of the album are literal, from the album title’s namesake California-endemic evergreen tree to references to the exploited natural areas and their resulting ghost towns. Moreover, Cleveland grounds you in the audible scrapes and squeaks of her close-miked fingerpicked guitar, getting you lost in the earthly sounds of fingers hitting strings at different angles. Still, Manzanita is a self-described “supernatural love album,” rich, lush, and as unmistakably strange as the country itself.

Many of the songs on Manzanita see Cleveland finding commonality between her own pregnancy and childbirth and her surroundings. Metaphysical opener “The Ghost” was inspired by her realization that pregnancy is a “psychedelic experience;” atop a Mellotron and acoustic guitar sway, she sings, “When you wake up in the night, I’m lying next to you / Can I come through?” She could be singing to her child in utero, or her life partner Will Sprott, who plays keyboards, dulcimer, glockenspiel, harpsichord, and synth on the record. “Faces in the Firelight” is addressed to both of them, its genesis a moment where Cleveland was watching Sprott tend to a burn pile in the distance and thinking he looked like the image of her ultrasound. Lilting guitars, crisp, relaxed drums, and golden hour synths soundtrack the multi-faceted question that buoys Manzanita: “Do you love me like I do you?” Her pause before “you” suggests Cleveland also recognizes the importance of self-love, as someone about to undergo a major life change, needing to balance her needs with her devotion to her family. And the shaky “Babe” revels in the strangeness of it all. When Cleveland sings, “Look at that beautiful babe,” the song breaks from its shuffle and atonally tiptoes to an off-kilter melody, calling back to the idea that being pregnant is psychedelic, indeed.

Yet, Manzanita is also an album of contrasts, Cleveland admitting that she’s imperfect, and so is the the living, breathing country. On “Gold Tower”, accompanied by Olie Eshleman’s melancholy pedal steel, she feels, and wants to give only. “If I let you down, bury me in the ground,” she sings, continuing, “I want to be yours totally.” Meanwhile, the presence fire does not always symbolize the ember of possibility. The minute-and-a-half spoken word track “Ten Hour Drive Through West Coast Disaster”, with its descriptions of “Cattle farms out of horror films” and “flames and fire planes” gives Cleveland doubts as a person and a parent. “Will you find a way to love this world?” she asks. The beauty of her fingerpicked guitar on “Quick Winter Sun” and “Sheriff of the Salton Sea”, recalling the likes of Jansch and Basho, is subsumed by the cloud of instrumentation beneath. Final track “Walking Through Morning Dew” describes spring bloom as not a picturesque view to fawn over but a time when the bugs come inside. “The wasps are crawling in our rooms,” Cleveland sings over instrumentation that sounds like your ear’s up to their hive. It’s a fitting end to an album that peels back the layers of life and travel experiences that some will tell you are nothing but idyllic. Manzanita knows better.

Second straight day of big departures from what I usually post... Just wanna give everyone a little background on Japanese ballplayers and athletes in America, and the type of support systems they tend to bring with them to the US. A common refrain in the reactions to the Shohei Ohtani saga has been along the lines of, "Shohei really let his interpreter, of all people, access his bank accounts? That seems way too fishy." A lot of sports fans, with a good amount of justification, look at the hype that comes with the signing of Japanese players with MLB teams — and more so the money on the contracts that those players sign — and assume that they must have a team of assistants and handlers who look after their every need 24/7 as they navigate life in this new country and new league. People would be shocked at just how small that "team" can actually be. Oftentimes, it's just the interpreter (either team-assigned or hired by the players themselves) and however many family members they bring with them to the US. In some cases, especially for lesser-known athletes, it's just the family. And occasionally, it's just the athlete coming here entirely on his or her own and not knowing anybody upon arrival. On that last point: WWE used to have a partnership with F*ll S**l where they would get students to help with the production of live shows at their training facility just outside of Orlando. Not too long into the venture, WWE signed a wrestler from Japan on a development-type contract. Now, this wrestler was well-known in the Japanese scene, and had received enough of a push that he wore the championship belt several times during his career. He was also married with kids.

So he gets to Orlando. He doesn't speak much English (if any), doesn't bring his family with him, and doesn't have much in the way of contacts or a support system in the US outside of whatever the WWE arranged for him upon arrival. Bear in mind that this is all before we had things like instant translator apps on smartphones, and before Japanese-language services became more common worldwide. It eventually got to the point where WWE had to look for someone, anyone, who spoke Japanese, and got Strip Mall U to track down my mom — who I'm guessing was the only Japanese speaker in the entire company — and enlist her to help him with some of the basic paperwork for life in America: setting up a bank account (but not running it), trips to the DMV, and so on.

For WWE's part, they gave my mom free tickets to the shows in exchange for helping this wrestler out, which her (and my old) co-workers might have cherished more than she did. And for the wrestler's part, he managed to carve out a career in the US in the years afterwards; his Wiki indicates that he still does occasional shows in the US, albeit in the independent circuits. But the fact that they wound up entrusting someone who was a complete stranger to the wrestling world to serve as a de facto liaison to one of their overseas performers was, and still is, pretty wild to me. And regardless of whose plan it was for his support system to be that thin from the jump: if that's what it looked like for an entertainer of that caliber and fame, then it would stand to reason that the amount of help that is afforded to, or is possibly asked for by, the typical Japanese pro athlete in the US isn't all that much higher... and in that scenario, having just a single point of support for the athlete, or the athlete plain fending for himself or herself in an unfamiliar country using an unfamiliar language, could absolutely lead to some unintended consequences. I should make clear here that none of this will prove definitively that Shohei Ohtani is free of any and all wrongdoing. There's certainly a non-zero chance that he's actually a degenerate who stays up all night placing bets on random D2 college basketball and lower-league Japanese soccer games, and is using his now-former interpreter as the ultimate fall guy. But I do think this background might explain (what I personally think is) the more likely possibility that Shohei was okey-doked by his own interpreter, slash accountant, slash media liaison, slash workout partner, slash clubhouse attendant, slash Ubereats driver, etc etc.

i’m fucking crying this is why i cant text my dad during school i start laughing and get looks

Angela's the only one who signed their cast

AF Campari

lil attack on a cutie Tomato cat :3 Even the cutest of the cute can't be spared in the war that is #Artfight2022 Campari belongs too @RedAsATomato on twitter

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new work for @lululemon, their NYC athletes in and around the city.

yes I Liev in philly. no I don't care about sports. we exist.

THE GUY IN SMOKE AND MIRRORS IS AN ABOSLTUE BUFFOON A FRKEIAING FLAPAOIUJN DUMBASS

Berita bola terbaru dan terupdate 2023/2024

*🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️*Annual Athletic Meet(2023-24)* 🏃🏼‍♂️🏃‍♂️* " Sports has the ability to empower an individual" Annual Athletic meet (2023-24) was held at the sports ground of our school to showcase the zeal and athleticism of our students. Finalists in various categories were chosen on the basis of *heats* . Students of classes(1-12) from 4 *houses-Daffodil, Tulip, Scarlet and Lavender* participated in this athletic meet. 🚶🏼‍♀️🚶🏼‍♂️ Our guest of honour - Respected Director Sir and worthy Principal Sir graced the occasion with motivational speech and highlighted the dedication, confidence , team spirit and hard work of all the participants. An oath, to ensure fair play and true sportsmanship was administered by the house captains along with the athletes. Then athletes of four houses led by flag bearers of each house along with house Captains rendered salute to the guests during their majestic March-past. The momentous occasion highlighted the spectacular performances of our students with boundless zeal and enthusiasm in 200m, 400m, 800m, relay race , Hurdle race and Shot put throw . Students and teachers cheered and applauded for the athletes . The culmination of the meet was witnessed with smiles on the faces of the winners securing 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions with gold, silver and bronze medals and certificates being awarded for their outstanding performances. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻.Kudos to them! Heartiest congratulations to the Tulip house for securing 1st position in all the categories of this event👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Big departure from what I usually post on here, but I just have to get these thoughts out because this is about a guy who has been a massive source of pride for me as a Japanese dude living in Merica...

1) If there's a reason that I'm inclined to believe Shohei here, it's because he would never be able to set foot in Japan again if even one part of his story falls apart. And even if he is, he would never be allowed to show his face in public ever again. He's the de facto face of Japan at this point, a borderline living god in a country that doesn't have a conveyor belt of global icons. How do you think a fall from grace would look like in that scenario? It would legit be unlike anything we've ever seen before. You think the heat he'd get Stateside would be bad? Whooooo buddy.

2) Let's say Shohei is actually telling the truth here. Will people still believe him, especially here in Merica? The wealthy in this country lost the benefit of the doubt on this stuff a long time ago. There are so many cases of the rich and the ultra-rich engaging in some shady (and often illegal) activities, and then using their fame and fortune to skirt responsibility, that we all just assume this is how it is for them. Even if he's innocent in all of this, and even if the authorities clear him of any wrongdoing, his stature — and his bank account and his salary — means he'll never be able to shake off the perception that he's gotten away with it. In retrospect, he lost the PR battle the moment the allegations against the interpreter saw the light of day.

twirling my hair & gigglin rereading the u20 arc/game ૮꒰っ´༥'ς꒱

The Sport

ID: Screenshot of the Spot from Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse. End ID.