there are 2 types of songs i've been thinking about lately.
the 1st is the song with spelling- you know, like when the singer spells out words. usually the name of the song, but not always. i love it when they do that.
here are the spelling songs i could think of:
"harborcoat" by r.e.m. ("r-e-a-c-t")
"i stand accused" by elvis costello ("s-t-a-n-d-a-c-c-u-s-e-d")
"the dark side of town" by grant mclennan ("l-o-v-e")
"feeling called love" by pulp ("f-e-e-l-i-n-g-c-a-double l-e-d-l-o-v-e")
"lana" by roy orbison ("l-a-n-a")
"rare breed" by the go-betweens ("r-a-r-e-b-r-e-e-d")
can you think of any others?
the 2nd type is the song that i hear in some random place, like the grocery store perhaps, and i don't know what it is, but i know i've heard it a lot in my life and i just immediately want to find out what it is and listen to it more. it's usually something old and slightly embarrassing, but extremely catchy.
or, this song might just appear in my head. a lyric might pop into by head, or a tune, and i have to find out what it is. usually it's not by a band i know well, but certainly a well known tune.
some of these songs are:
"who'll stop the rain" by creedence clearwater revival
"walk of life" by dire straits
"into your arms" by the lemonheads
"bad reputation" by freedy johnston
"summer in the city" by lovin spoonful
"amie" by pure prairie league
"fisherman's blues" by the waterboys
well then! that's all i've got!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Road Soda
i've been doing a lot of new things recently, due to my dire financial situation, and just because of life in general, & they are mostly good things! you know, we work with what we've got.
new things:
1. using my collection of vintage handkerchiefs to actually blow my nose because i don't want to spend money on kleenex. kind of old man-ish, but also kind of dainty!
2. wearing ripped up tights. i can't afford new ones, but they add a kind of nice subtle punky/grungy touch to my otherwise preppy outfits.
3. hanging out with lots of really really great & super cool people...
4. ...which kind of relates to the fact that i've only been going to shows that i can get on the guest list for. so i don't have to spend $$. it's pretty sweet knowing most of the people who you want to see play.
5. wearing this jean jacket i got like 10 years ago, when i was in middle school, at the Gap. i literally never wore it until a few weeks ago & now i can't stop, i totally love it!
6. eating subway sandwiches. i admit, i used to look down on subway, i thought i was just too good for them. but you get lots of vegetables, it's cheap, very easy, and it's really darn tasty. it's still sort of embarrassing though.
7. drinking coffee at work. i never used to, but um, free coffee? yes please. today i even made myself an iced one, with splenda & Silk soy creamer, oh my!
8. only being allowed ONE Diet Coke a day. this one is really sad actually. but i just can't afford drinking my usual, like, 4 a day. oh well, RESTRAINT is a good quality for me to practice.
9. not listening to much music. this is also not really a good thing. it's just too exhausting. i've been listening to um... Sex Clark Five & The Del Fuegos. um, yeah, what? weird. well anyhow, here's a video of Sex Clark Five's super terrific cover of a Clash song.
10. getting creative with decorations! i fashioned a table out of wood & books a while back, and now i've got some interesting things on my walls. i'm really into this little Stereolab 7" i got at work the other day that i put on my wall. i think it's so cute!
this isn't really new, but here's the view from my window, from where i am sitting right this second.
new things:
1. using my collection of vintage handkerchiefs to actually blow my nose because i don't want to spend money on kleenex. kind of old man-ish, but also kind of dainty!
2. wearing ripped up tights. i can't afford new ones, but they add a kind of nice subtle punky/grungy touch to my otherwise preppy outfits.
3. hanging out with lots of really really great & super cool people...
4. ...which kind of relates to the fact that i've only been going to shows that i can get on the guest list for. so i don't have to spend $$. it's pretty sweet knowing most of the people who you want to see play.
5. wearing this jean jacket i got like 10 years ago, when i was in middle school, at the Gap. i literally never wore it until a few weeks ago & now i can't stop, i totally love it!
6. eating subway sandwiches. i admit, i used to look down on subway, i thought i was just too good for them. but you get lots of vegetables, it's cheap, very easy, and it's really darn tasty. it's still sort of embarrassing though.
7. drinking coffee at work. i never used to, but um, free coffee? yes please. today i even made myself an iced one, with splenda & Silk soy creamer, oh my!
8. only being allowed ONE Diet Coke a day. this one is really sad actually. but i just can't afford drinking my usual, like, 4 a day. oh well, RESTRAINT is a good quality for me to practice.
9. not listening to much music. this is also not really a good thing. it's just too exhausting. i've been listening to um... Sex Clark Five & The Del Fuegos. um, yeah, what? weird. well anyhow, here's a video of Sex Clark Five's super terrific cover of a Clash song.
10. getting creative with decorations! i fashioned a table out of wood & books a while back, and now i've got some interesting things on my walls. i'm really into this little Stereolab 7" i got at work the other day that i put on my wall. i think it's so cute!
this isn't really new, but here's the view from my window, from where i am sitting right this second.
Friday, April 10, 2009
"life sucks, again"
I walked upstream
And I sat in the mud
Life sucks again
Watching trees decompose
And they talk to me
And they smiled at me
-Galaxie 500
...memories of happier times:
1. in high school, during one Good Friday we had off, my best friend & i were going to go to Goodwill and our favorite coffee shop. but instead of both riding our bikes like we usually did, i rode my bike & he rode his rollerblades alongside me. it was a disaster. he was skating across this big busy highway, and i was trying to maintain his slower speed, and we were falling and tripping all over each other. it was kind of scary and really hysterical.
2. it was one of the first warm weekends in the Spring of my second year of college and one of my best friends was having her birthday party at the radio station. we spent the night drinking wine and playing songs on the radio. also, i had a crush on this old guy who had an office near the station and i wrote a note telling his as much to stick under his door. my roommate & i rode our bikes, drunk, back home, which we quickly realized was very, very difficult.
3. last year at this time, i was finishing my Senior Project, staying up all hours of the night like a crazy person to work on it. one Friday night, i'd stayed in to write, and ended up not getting into bed until about 6 am. i had to wake up only 1 or 2 hours later to babysit. despite my only half-alive state, i remember feeling so blissful, sitting out in the kids' big back yard, it was warm, they were running around like mad and i was just sitting there, unable to move, but very happy.
4. in the Spring of my 10th grade year of high school, i heard Galaxie 500's Today for the first time & it changed my life, then and there. exactly 6 years later, as a Senior in college, i read Dean Wareham's memoir which chronicled in detail the history of Galaxie 500, & he changed my life again.
HAPPPEE, SEE:
And I sat in the mud
Life sucks again
Watching trees decompose
And they talk to me
And they smiled at me
-Galaxie 500
...memories of happier times:
1. in high school, during one Good Friday we had off, my best friend & i were going to go to Goodwill and our favorite coffee shop. but instead of both riding our bikes like we usually did, i rode my bike & he rode his rollerblades alongside me. it was a disaster. he was skating across this big busy highway, and i was trying to maintain his slower speed, and we were falling and tripping all over each other. it was kind of scary and really hysterical.
2. it was one of the first warm weekends in the Spring of my second year of college and one of my best friends was having her birthday party at the radio station. we spent the night drinking wine and playing songs on the radio. also, i had a crush on this old guy who had an office near the station and i wrote a note telling his as much to stick under his door. my roommate & i rode our bikes, drunk, back home, which we quickly realized was very, very difficult.
3. last year at this time, i was finishing my Senior Project, staying up all hours of the night like a crazy person to work on it. one Friday night, i'd stayed in to write, and ended up not getting into bed until about 6 am. i had to wake up only 1 or 2 hours later to babysit. despite my only half-alive state, i remember feeling so blissful, sitting out in the kids' big back yard, it was warm, they were running around like mad and i was just sitting there, unable to move, but very happy.
4. in the Spring of my 10th grade year of high school, i heard Galaxie 500's Today for the first time & it changed my life, then and there. exactly 6 years later, as a Senior in college, i read Dean Wareham's memoir which chronicled in detail the history of Galaxie 500, & he changed my life again.
HAPPPEE, SEE:
Thursday, March 19, 2009
King of the Monkeys
through my newly found love of Southern Literature, i've recently discovered Eugene Walter. how i did not know about him before, i do not know-- after all, he grew up in Mobile, Alabama, was the city's most infamous character, and after decades spent living in New York, Paris, and Rome, came back to Mobile in the late 1980's and lived there until his death in 1998. Sucks for me that I never knew him, afterall, I grew up in Mobile from about 1990-2004!
anyway. he was quite an amazing person. he was a writer, poet, editor, actor, translator, puppeteer, basically everything good in life.
he was gay, though maybe never admittedly, as it seemed was the case with a lot of Southern writers/people in the art world in his day. like Truman Capote for instance, who Eugene knew, and who spent a lot of his life in Mobile too. one of my neighbors at home in Alabama was part of Eugene Walter's circle in Mobile back in the day. he & my mom are good friends. he has some other cool-gay-old-dude friends who own antique stores around town & my mom found some of Eugene's books there for me.
i just started reading Milking the Moon, which is his oral biography as told to Katherine Clark. i've only read a tiny bit of it so far but already i am completely enthralled with Eugene Walter.
one thing that Clark wrote about him in her introduction that really made an impression on me was how, though he was a very talented writer/actor/etc., he put his real genius into living his life; as if, his life was his greatest work of art. that idea, to me, is really incredible.
he also loved monkeys. they were his favorite animal. and he loved all "wayward things." in his most famous novel, The Untidy Pilgrim, the main character, who spends most of the book in Mobile, is based off himself. the title "untidy pilgrim" is a juxtoposition of the unrelenting work ethic of early Puritan pilgrims, which was passed down generation after generation to those hard workers up in the North. but in the South, there were only UNTIDY pilgrims, who did not have their lives mapped out, and who were more leisurely; they were the "monkeys" according to Eugene, who lived in the "green and crazy land" of the South.
i love that sentiment.
anyway. he was quite an amazing person. he was a writer, poet, editor, actor, translator, puppeteer, basically everything good in life.
he was gay, though maybe never admittedly, as it seemed was the case with a lot of Southern writers/people in the art world in his day. like Truman Capote for instance, who Eugene knew, and who spent a lot of his life in Mobile too. one of my neighbors at home in Alabama was part of Eugene Walter's circle in Mobile back in the day. he & my mom are good friends. he has some other cool-gay-old-dude friends who own antique stores around town & my mom found some of Eugene's books there for me.
i just started reading Milking the Moon, which is his oral biography as told to Katherine Clark. i've only read a tiny bit of it so far but already i am completely enthralled with Eugene Walter.
one thing that Clark wrote about him in her introduction that really made an impression on me was how, though he was a very talented writer/actor/etc., he put his real genius into living his life; as if, his life was his greatest work of art. that idea, to me, is really incredible.
he also loved monkeys. they were his favorite animal. and he loved all "wayward things." in his most famous novel, The Untidy Pilgrim, the main character, who spends most of the book in Mobile, is based off himself. the title "untidy pilgrim" is a juxtoposition of the unrelenting work ethic of early Puritan pilgrims, which was passed down generation after generation to those hard workers up in the North. but in the South, there were only UNTIDY pilgrims, who did not have their lives mapped out, and who were more leisurely; they were the "monkeys" according to Eugene, who lived in the "green and crazy land" of the South.
i love that sentiment.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
post #1000000 devoted to Elvis Costello
i've been having a bit of a SUCKY week & the only thing that's been really keeping me going is Elvis (especially Get Happy!!, GOD that album is gorgeous) so i thought he deserved a little love. i am very grateful he exists.
this is the cover of Punch the Clock, which M & i listened to recently in Athens, in the car everywhere we drove. we think his look is saying, "Oh, me?" in a seductive, coy tone.
M & i made fun of his song "Shabby Doll" because he keeps singing "shabbydoll" over & over again & it's really silly. HAHA. but it's okay, because we're both in love with him. Elvy knows it's all in good fun.
hear for yourself:
i made a list of my favorite Elvis songs about a year ago, & i decided to make a new one, because i think it's changed a lot. this is just like VERY VERY FAVORITES, 'cos i have about a million favorites.
1. WATCH YOUR STEP
2. Possession
3. Wecome to the Working Week
4. Everyday I Write the Book
5. No Action
6. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
7. Miracle Man
8. No Dancing
9. Hand in Hand
10. White Knuckles
11. Senior Service
12. Oliver's Army
13. Veronica
14. Man Called Uncle
15. King Horse
16. Pidgin English
17. Really Mystified
18. Man Out of Time
19. Busy Bodies
20. Sulky Girl
okay, that's all for now. Elvis is bored. goodbye.
this is the cover of Punch the Clock, which M & i listened to recently in Athens, in the car everywhere we drove. we think his look is saying, "Oh, me?" in a seductive, coy tone.
M & i made fun of his song "Shabby Doll" because he keeps singing "shabbydoll" over & over again & it's really silly. HAHA. but it's okay, because we're both in love with him. Elvy knows it's all in good fun.
hear for yourself:
i made a list of my favorite Elvis songs about a year ago, & i decided to make a new one, because i think it's changed a lot. this is just like VERY VERY FAVORITES, 'cos i have about a million favorites.
1. WATCH YOUR STEP
2. Possession
3. Wecome to the Working Week
4. Everyday I Write the Book
5. No Action
6. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
7. Miracle Man
8. No Dancing
9. Hand in Hand
10. White Knuckles
11. Senior Service
12. Oliver's Army
13. Veronica
14. Man Called Uncle
15. King Horse
16. Pidgin English
17. Really Mystified
18. Man Out of Time
19. Busy Bodies
20. Sulky Girl
okay, that's all for now. Elvis is bored. goodbye.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
death, blood, birds, & elves
my dad alerted me to this http://www.simonhoegsberg.com/we_are_all_gonna_die/slider.html
photo project called "We're All Gonna Die" by a Dutch artist. it's 100 meters long. it's pretty awesome.
i took a trip to Ocean Springs, Mississippi the other day. i've decided i really like Mississippi. we went to the new exhibit at the Walter Anderson Museum. Walter was AMAZING. i wish i was insane & brilliant like he was. here's a sweet bird painting of his:
in my bookbinding class i made a bird accordian book for a special friend.
this is the cover
and these are some of the pages
i also recently took a trip to Athens, Georgia with M. it was quite a bloody trip, between the bloody lip, coughing up blood, and bloody-ing up the hotel room. deceptively innocently drinking champagne and talking on the phone before the massacre:
we also saw Elf Power and Vic Chesnutt. i wore a bird in my hair. which, along with my green ankle boots, made me look like a woodland creature. or an Elf, if you will.
M & i think A.R. is a hot Elf
and Vic is amazing
photo project called "We're All Gonna Die" by a Dutch artist. it's 100 meters long. it's pretty awesome.
i took a trip to Ocean Springs, Mississippi the other day. i've decided i really like Mississippi. we went to the new exhibit at the Walter Anderson Museum. Walter was AMAZING. i wish i was insane & brilliant like he was. here's a sweet bird painting of his:
in my bookbinding class i made a bird accordian book for a special friend.
this is the cover
and these are some of the pages
i also recently took a trip to Athens, Georgia with M. it was quite a bloody trip, between the bloody lip, coughing up blood, and bloody-ing up the hotel room. deceptively innocently drinking champagne and talking on the phone before the massacre:
we also saw Elf Power and Vic Chesnutt. i wore a bird in my hair. which, along with my green ankle boots, made me look like a woodland creature. or an Elf, if you will.
M & i think A.R. is a hot Elf
and Vic is amazing
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
crying with laughter
my new favorite activity is watching hour upon hour of Two & a Half Men. it's HI-LAR-I-OUS.
the theme song & ADORABLE intro gets me every time
so does the "Oshikuru" theme song written by Charlie, a jingle writer
i have 3 favorite scenes & they are so funny they make me literally cry with laughter.
1. at about the 9 minute mark- when Charlie, Jake, & Alan are dressed up as the Flying Monkeys
2. when Jake yells "SQUAB!" & the spaghetti flies in the air- about 1 minute in
3. BEST OF ALL, when Charlie & Alan pretend to be gay. i can't find my favorite part of the episode, but this is pretty funny, especially when Alan says, "Back off sister, I caught this fish!" around 28 seconds.
the theme song & ADORABLE intro gets me every time
so does the "Oshikuru" theme song written by Charlie, a jingle writer
i have 3 favorite scenes & they are so funny they make me literally cry with laughter.
1. at about the 9 minute mark- when Charlie, Jake, & Alan are dressed up as the Flying Monkeys
2. when Jake yells "SQUAB!" & the spaghetti flies in the air- about 1 minute in
3. BEST OF ALL, when Charlie & Alan pretend to be gay. i can't find my favorite part of the episode, but this is pretty funny, especially when Alan says, "Back off sister, I caught this fish!" around 28 seconds.
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