Steve Slagg -- I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World
Steve Slagg paints epic vistas with breathless intimacy on his new masterpiece I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World
Steve Slagg begins his masterpiece I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World with a sprawling epic. In "The Newest Soil," Slagg places us amidst the death of his father, having just scattered the ashes. We glide through Slagg's meditations on death and the things we leave behind afterwards – the ashes to be scattered, the tissues donated to science, the intangible love and memories we create with others, the way the land centers us even after the people are gone.
It's heady stuff, and Adjusted is only just getting started. With meditative care, Slagg invites us to glide through atmospheric songs about death, boredom, and beauty with an inexorable surge – perhaps like the mighty Mississippi. While Slagg paints with broad, synth-oriented brushes there is a folksy sensibility here, too. Maybe it's the vivid natural imagery Slagg employs, or perhaps the breathless intimacy in ordinary moments.
"Allelui (Again)" drives these themes home with a sweet queer love song. Slagg compares the object of his affection to all the things that make life in the country a little bit quirky, but no less enjoyable. With each piercing observation, Slagg shows us how to view our world with curiosity and delight each and every day. He's clearly poured his heart into this one, and only a stone could refuse Slagg's teachings.
