Take your recommended dose of wanderlust...

Here's a little light reading for you about travel books that are sure to ignite your wanderlust. Yeah, I wrote it. Please read it anyway.

Song of the Day - My Morning Jacket

Song of the Day - The National

I had the sudden realization that I've never shared this brilliant video, shot by the one-and-only Vincent Moon, for one of my all-time favorite songs by The National.

Soak it up...it's delish.

Song of the Day - Avett Brothers

Song of the Day - Jolie Holland

Your light overwhelmed me
When I lay beside you sleepless in the night
And when you dreamed my guardian spirits appeared
And the moon stretched out across your little bed
They said they'd started to get worried about me
They were happy we had finally met
We had finally met

"Men willingly believe what they wish"

I have so much to say on the topic of health care reform, but for now I will leave you with a quote from Julius Caesar, as well as images of the more amusing signs from the town hall protests.

"I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it. It was mere foolery...the rabblement hooted, and clapped their chapped hands, and threw up their sweaty night-caps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath...and for mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad air...." - Casca, Julius Caesar

These two are clearly mocking some of the arguments being made by opponents of health care reform.

An unfortunate typo by a semi-literate protester - proof that you don't need a brain to attend a protest, just a Sharpie and some poster board.

I love the cheeky grin on the guy in the middle. He's my hero. (You might need to click on the image to enlarge it if you're unable to read the signs.)

Song of the Day - Yann Tiersen

It's somewhat of a commonly known fact that I have a bit of a love affair with Yann Tiersen. Not the man, mind you (although I'm sure he's a lovely man as well), but rather, his musical compositions.

It began with the "French" film, Amelie, one of my all-time favorites, which, ironically enough, led many French people to balk and turn up their noses on account of its "Hollywood" feel. Yann Tiersen is the genius behind Amelie's soundtrack, which is simply intoxicating. After exhaustive listening of the soundtrack, I explored some of his other compositions and picked up on a very distinctive personality to his music that is so emotionally stirring. At times, when playing his songs on the piano, I will be so moved that I will literally have tears streaming down my face (this tends to make reading the sheet music somewhat difficult, obviously).

I was walking into work the other morning, on a typical foggy San Francisco morning, and I was tuned into the iPod on random shuffle, as per the usual. And then, Yann Tiersen's "Le Moulin" began to play in my ears. The inherent chaos of a typical weekday morning in the city at rush hour, along with the soothing piano of "Le Moulin," gave my morning a sudden dream-like quality - like a kind of impromptu dance. Business-clad people scurrying along sidewalks, flower merchants setting out their wares, buses and cabs zooming past, steam from the city sewer wafting up from the street. It was so poetic - the whole paradox of it all.

Caught in this sort of trance, I momentarily paused at a department store window (which I never do) and admired what was a rather stunning display. I caught my own reflection and the blurred images of those behind me who were rushing past, oblivious to the shimmery, colorful presentation in the window. And suddenly I became the paradox - caught in a vortex of stillness and calm, amidst a flurry of chaos.

Maintaining that sort of calm in a flurry of chaos is my constant struggle. The piano is one of but a few secret weapons I have that will take me to that place. And Yann Tiersen is another.

Yeah, I actually get paid for this crap

Please view my lil write-up on free stuff in San Fran...then view it again. And again.(Baby need new shoes.)

Free Things to Do in San Francisco

Song of the Day - Keane

Keane is right up there with Editors and Kasabian when it comes to UK bands that never really seemed to resonate in the US like they did back home. Some people in the States will know of them, quite possibly own an album or two, but they don't seem to get much airplay or even name recognition. In the UK, however, if you were to say, "Keane who?" you would promptly be asked what rock you had been living under.

I'll never forget standing under the cloudy England sky at dusk on a summer's eve, in the middle of an open field packed with people, all facing an enormous stage while a cool mist kissed our faces. Keane was a headliner at the Reading Festival that year, and while on stage they seemed completely dazzled by their own fame - so exhilarated, and yet so humble.

My friend, Charlie, turned to me at the time and said, "They can't believe they're here right now." Almost immediately afterward, the main camera zoomed in on Tom Chaplin, Keane's frontman, and caught him with an enormous, boyish grin, shaking his head in disbelief as he looked out at the crowd. "See?" Charlie said, with a smile.

Tom's songwriting is simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting, and this song is one of the better examples of just that. Every time I think my heart has been transformed to a blackened piece of coal, I just have to listen to this song and I'm reminded of my own humanness again.

Song of the Day - Fever Ray

What did I ever do before Shazam. (And the Internet, for that matter - but let's stick to the matter at hand.)

It's not uncommon to see me sitting in any given bar on any given night, iPhone in hand, hand poised in the air while I'm waiting for Shazam to analyze whatever song is playing at the time. It's always fun to lie in bed the morning after the night before, perusing the catalog of new music I "Shazamed" while I was out and about.

This little gem from my girl Karin Something-swedish-son (formerly of The Knife) is something I came across on just such a night - where I was I can't say. I vaguely remember being quite certain at the time that this was her singing, and if it wasn't her, it was an insanely convincing rip-off. Either way, I loved it.

And so shall you.

Song of the Day - Human League

I'm inclined to believe the singer in the video would sooner be pining over the groom than the bride in such a scenario, but that's just me.

So eighties-licious...yummy yum yum....

In search of inspiration...

Found it

Song of the Day - The Cure/Bloc Party Mash-up

Hell. And yes.



(Thanks, Josh)

There is no "one"

This is reposted from a Flavorwire article on Paper Heart, a documentary about love (suppress your gag reflex, though, because the documentary's creator doesn't actually believe love exists). The comments from some of Flavorwire's "favorite musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, comedians, and designers" on the subject were the most interesting to read. I particularly liked the very first one by Zia McCabe from The Dandy Warhols because I wholeheartedly agree with her philosophy:

There are no “perfect” matches.

I’m assuming by The One you mean that there is one special person out there for you, your one true love? If that’s the question, for me the answer is NO. I believe that there are all kinds of people out there that I could make a happy life with. Men and women. I feel that we make decisions about who our partners and friends and lovers are based on how we fit together and complement each other and that there are no “perfect” matches. I do believe that there are magical connections between individuals and that settling too soon can cause one to miss out on making these special connections. I feel that love is beautiful and vast and it would sadden me to think that there is just one person out there for me on this entire planet, and I would be consumed with worry that I had chosen the wrong person to be with. For me that’s no way to live.

- Zia McCabe is a percussionist, bassist and keyboard player with The Dandy Warhols. The band released The Dandy Warhols ARE Sound, the “Director’s Cut” of 2003’s Welcome To The Monkey House, in July 2009 on their own label, Beat The World Records. They will be touring in the US in September.

Song of the Day - Trio

I don't love you, you don't love me. Da, da, da....

Song of the Day - Junior Boys

Oh my yed

The fourteen-year-old English girl inside me LOVES this damn song. Even with its painfully forced English accent ("My yed"? C'mon, you're from Cali, dude) and the I'm-so-emo-I-can-hardly-stand-myself lyrics. I'm fully aware that by acknowledging my love for this song, I'm basically aligning my music tastes with the type of suburban white male in his twenties who uses a song like this to demonstrate his deep, sensitive side (because spiders "catching things and eating their insides" is hella deep). But I'm otherwise comfortable enough with my music tastes to be ok with that.

The video for this song is actually very goth-fab but these bitches are so mainstream they disabled embedding abilities. So you just get the song here. Which you probably hate unless you also have a fourteen-year-old English girl living inside you.

Song of the Day - Mumm-ra

Saw "500 Days of Summer" today, which was exactly as indie-licious as I expected it to be, right down to its soundtrack (containing the song I've posted below). It's a little known fact that that movie was loosely based on nearly every relationship I've ever had, all rolled into one. The male and female lead characters actually represent my dueling personalities. Considering the number of cheesy previews leading up to it (one of them was actually called "Love Happens" starring - who else - Jennifer Aniston), the movie itself was remarkably not cheesy at all. It certainly doesn't deserve to be ranked among those typical romantic comedies that make you feel like sticking your head in the oven after watching. At most, there are a few moments when it makes you sigh a little on the inside, because your heart remembers what it feels like.

Song of the Day - Bloc Party (with inspirational contribution from mah boo)

i'm pretty sure (and by "pretty sure", I mean absolutely positive) that i've posted this poem before by mah boo, e.e. cummings (or "eddie", as i like to call him). i think it's a safe assumption that the chorus of this bloc party tune, "ion square", was inspired by (aka "ripped off from") this very poem. which makes me love it all the more.

eddie would have loved this song too, i'm sure.

i carry your heart with me
e.e. cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)



(For SF)

Song of the Day - Joe Purdy

I love the rain the most...when it stops.



UPDATE: Decided I needed this song, too.

Song of the Day - The Smiths

Had I been old enough, I totally would have been a Smiths groupie back in the day. And I would have had absolutely no shame.

The Philosopher

The Philosopher
-Edna St. Vincent Millay

AND what are you that, wanting you,
I should be kept awake
As many nights as there are days
With weeping for your sake?

And what are you that, missing you,
As many days as crawl
I should be listening to the wind
And looking at the wall?

I know a man that's a braver man
And twenty men as kind,
And what are you, that you should be
The one man on my mind?

Yet women's ways are witless ways,
As any sage will tell,--
And what am I, that I should love
So wisely and so well?

Song(s) of the Day - St. Etienne & Roxy Music

So I've been battling my internal perfectionist recently, which is nothing new. The cause of the fight this time is the "new" blog I've been aspiring to create, which has ceased to materialize into something that bitch is satisfied with. Unfortunately for both of us, I haven't had the time/energy necessary to devote to this mini-project of mine, so we're settling with the status quo for now.

Life has been INSANE recently - although to say "recently" would imply it's not usually insane, which - HA! - we all know is certainly not true. My life is generally never dull or anything resembling sane, at least not for very long, anyway. I've actually been told that I'm "proficient at complicating [my] life." I don't even have to try, that's the beauty of it - it just comes naturally.

My keyboard has suddenly decided to sabotage my attempt to write a longer post by delaying my keystrokes, which is somewhat maddening, so I'm going to go back to watching The Tudors so I can lick the screen every time Henry Cavill comes on.

Oh, but first - this is for V:

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

This performance from the Grammy Awards is around the time when I was deeply in love with Michael Jackson and my wall was adorned with his poster.

More specifically, this one:




He was a truly loving, well-intentioned soul - and a talent we aren't likely to see again in our lifetimes. Rest in peace, MJ.

What I'm Listening To. Right. Now.

A new playlist I made - this will hopefully make up for my blog negligence these last couple of weeks. I'm actually working on a couple of new blogs and will soon have one specific to all things musical - for all you silly music junkies.

The Time Being

In my copious free time

It's funny what idle time does to a person. When you don't have free time, you sit and dream of all the things you would do if you had the time: learn a foreign language, read one of those books on the shelf you keep meaning to, start that novel that's been swimming around your brain for months. And then, the time finally comes at last, and you find that you piss it away on things like Photofunia.com. Ooh, but what 'funia' it is!
Oh, and here's your song for the day:

	The Walkmen - Another One Goes By
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Song of the Day - Cocteau Twins

Song of the Day - The Postal Service

So this is a little weird because there's no visual to go with this 'video' but I was jonesin for this song, and this is the best I could come up with. I may replace this later if I find a better version.

Anyway, this is "Be Still My Heart":

Song of the Day - The Boxer Rebellion

These are ones to watch. Mark my words.

Song of the Day - Kings of Convenience

Yep, this one's for you, David. Your interpretation of this is exactly why we are meant to be friends.

Quote of the Day

"Like the great philosoper Lil Kim once said, 'Nigga, it is what it is.'"

-AJ

Tribute video to John Hughes

We're getting older, kids.

Song of the Day - Bon Iver

Just because.

Blindsided - Bon Iver

New Bloc Party

WARNING: If you are feeling particulary tired and/or hungover, this video may make your head spin and/or explode. Totally diggin the song though.



(Thanks, Alex)

Song of the Day - Hot Chip

Only, like, my favorite Joy Division song ever, covered by one of my, like, favorite contemporary artists. I love this. Like, a lot.

Transmission (Cover Joy Division) - Hot Chip

Song of the Day - Cold War Kids

Seeing these guys at the Fillmore tonight for the first time ever. Sooo stoked.

Them Chicks Got Moooves

Last night I was having dinner at Beretta, consuming something in the vicinity of 5,000 calories, and this song just happened to come on in the background. I believe I may have actually squealed outloud when I heard it. I remembered how much I adore this video and just had to watch it today:

Song of the Day - Iron & Wine

Maybe it's the rainy weather...but this is right up my alley this week.

Flightless Bird, American Mouth - Iron & Wine

Song of the Day - English Beat

Pretty sure I've gotten nothing done today. Pretty sure I don't care.

"Save it for Later" is definitely the theme of the day. Ha.

PANIC PANIC PANIC!

"I don't eat that" - Paris Hilton, regarding swine flu

"Bracing for the Worst" was the headline of the Examiner today, paired with a picture of people in surgical face masks. I admit I kind of rolled my eyes when I saw it.

This whole swine flu mania is kind of bugging me. And when I say "mania," I'm referring to the fear-mongering media and their love for instilling a sense of panic in the general public. A general public that is already afraid of everything, including anyone with the name Hussein, plastic water bottles and Mexicans. Oh, and don't get us started on our Black president (whose middle name also happens to be Hussein - a rather unfortunate coincidence).

The whole sky-is-falling mentality almost got me for about half a second until I realized what any semi-rational person would, which is that tens of thousands of people die from flu-related causes every year, and the only reason people are freaking out right now is because there is no vaccine for this particular strain of flu. It's not easily controlled in that respect, which can be understandably a little unnerving. But flu vaccines are overrated anyway, in my opinion. At least for me - vaccines generally don't work at all for me. I end up getting sick anyway - and probably more sick than I would have had I simply contracted the flu without getting a vaccine in the first place.

Swine flu doesn't scare me. People who panic scare me. People who freak out and slaughter tens of thousands of pigs when there hasn't even been a single case of swine flu reported in their country scare me.

I don't doubt swine flu can be more dangerous for some than others, just like any form of the flu can be. Toddlers, elderly people and those with sensitive immune systems should likely take extra precaution and avoid public places. We get it. Mass hysteria, however, is probably not the best solution to the problem, people.

Me? I'm trying to appreciate the humor in a rather twisted, disturbing situation, and I thank God for some of the more rational people on the planet who can laugh at this with me:


Oh, and I've already got my eye on this season's hottest masks to hit Mexico City. When the time comes to truly panic, at least I'll still be able to demonstrate my keen sense of fashion: Stylin' Face Masks

Song(s) of the Day

Thoroughly, completely, whole-heartedly today's song. Yes - yes, indeed it is:



Complete sidenote: I love this site I was just introduced to (thanks, Josh) designed specifically for music junkies (see: yours truly). In fact, I love it so much that you get two more delicious little treats to nibble on today.

So chew away:



And this one's for Mariana:

Song(s) of the Day

So you get two songs today because I was too cranky yesterday to do anything beyond what I was required to in order to maintain my currently employed status.

This first one I'm pretty sure was on the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack, and if not, it should be. A montage of close-up shots of sentimental saps gazing wistfully out of windows at the rain would seem quite appropriately paired with this song. All mocking aside though, the truth is I love this girl's voice. That, and I AM one of those sentimental saps who gazes wistfully out of windows at the rain.
And this is just classic. And if I had a soundtrack to my life, I'm quite sure this would be on it:

Song of the Day - Friendly Fires

My disdain for Tuesdays makes sense now

It's official - Tuesdays suck. Click here to find out why.

For Ben

Beautiful song by an old friend who understands what it is to have an undying passion for all the goodness of the wild music world, while fighting valiantly against the ugliness that inherently goes with it. So happy to see you achieving your dreams, darling. You are authentic to the core.



(Thanks, Josh. Brilliant choice.)

Sorta kinda obsessed

Saw these guys with White Lies over my birthday weekend, which was crazy in all the best possible ways. I have no brain power to expound on the topic and intend on slipping into a coma shortly after wrapping up this post, but I wanted to assure you I am in fact still among the living and doing very well.

Now put yer dancin shoes on:

Never is a promise

You'll never see
The courage I know
Its colors' richness won't
Appear within your view
I'll never glow
The way that you glow
Your presence dominates
The judgements made on you
But as the scenery grows
I see in different lights
The shades and shadows
Undulate in my perception
My feelings swell and stretch
I see from greater heights
I understand what I am still
Too proud to mention
To you

You'll say you understand
But you don't understand
You'll say you'd never
Give up seeing eye to eye
But never is a promise
And you can't afford to lie

You'll never touch
These things that I hold
The skin of my emotions
Lies beneath my own
You'll never feel
The heat of this soul
My fever burns me deeper
Than I've ever shown
To you

You'll say
Don't fear your dreams
It's easier than it seems
You'll say you'd never
Let me fall from hopes so high
But never is a promise
And you can't afford to lie

You'll never live
The life that I live
I'll never live the life
That wakes me in the night
You'll never hear
The message I give
Youy'll say it looks as though
I might give up this fight

But as the scenery grows
I see in different lights
The shades and shadows
Undulate in my perception
My feelings swell and stretch
I see from greater heights
I realise what I am now
Too smart to mention
To you

You'll say you understand
You'll never understand
I'll say I'll never wake up
Knowing how or why
I don't know what
To believe in
You won't know who I am
You'll say I need appeasing
When I start to cry
But never is a promise
And I'll never need a lie

"Never is a Promise" - Fiona Apple

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

by e.e. cummings (ma boo)

Karma Repair Kit

Karma Repair Kit:
Items 1-4
by Richard Brautigan

1. Get enough food to eat,
and eat it.

2. Find a place to sleep where it is quiet,
and sleep there.

3. Reduce intellectual and emotional noise
until you arrive at the silence of yourself,
and listen to it.

4.

About today

If I could go back to three years ago today, I can't say I would have done it any differently. I would have washed my hair, applied my lipstick and adorned my neck with my mother's pearls all over again.

There are plenty of things I would have done differently, but being there - in that room, with you, when neither of us could find the right words to say - isn't likely one of them. I can say this because at that moment, my heart was actually - for once - completely open and vulnerable and in the most hopeful of places - and there is nothing more beautiful than that.

If there's one thing I miss, it's that foolish, hopeless optimism that led me to that very place, where love is not yet acquainted with the harshness of reality and the endless imperfections of humanness.

Cover me

Yummy covers mix from yet another music-sharing site that will probably disappear in a month simply because I'm about to sign up for it.



If you're interested, you can visit said site here.

O how I love thee

I. Can't. Fucking. Wait.

Coming April 14th

This Charming Man revisited

I'm a huge fan of covers - and I don't mean the kind that are essentially the original versions being recycled and redistributed with new packaging. I love when artists get creative with good songs, particularly classics like this, and make them different and original without destroying the essence that made them brilliant in the first place.
On that note, one of my favorite songs by The Smiths, with a Stars spin on it:

Black Cab

I love this on so many levels.

A) It's The Cold War Kids
B) Performing in a black cab
C) With a London backdrop.

Nuff said.

I was actually introduced to this a while back, but revisited it today because it makes me all content-like.



For more deliciousness for your ears and eyes to feast on, visit all the Black Cab Sessions here.

What my computer would sound like if it sang to me

Seriously? They couldn't find someone else to sing this song? Someone with a decent voice that they didn't have to digitalize to the point of eradicating any trace of humanness from it? Maybe my hopes of stardom aren't in vain - I just need to sleep with Rihanna, apparently. (WARNING: Music snob rant ahead)

I get so aggravated by these artists who have no apparent talent besides being marginally good looking and exceptionally well connected (See: Paris Hilton). I know nothing about this guy beyond the whole Rihanna debacle and now this song, which I heard in Barracuda last night and was drunk enough to Shazam. This really isn't a bad song for having been written in less than an hour - dare I say it's even catchy, if you ignore the fact that he sounds like he's receiving electric shock under water and the inane lyrics were apparently composed by fifth graders. (Did he really just say "Double your pleasure, double your fun"??)

All this being said, I actually kind of like this damn song and it's earned a reluctant place in my "Songs I Wish I Could Hate" file. Right alongside this one:
God, I want to hate her so much - but I simply can't. I love her.

OMFG I just found this kid - now that Chris Brown has outed himself as a low-life woman beater, let's get this kid to stand in for him. No digital enhancements on that voice, baby!



His gaze is so penetrating and oddly seductive in this creepy, prepubescent way - it actually makes me a little uncomfortable to watch it, and I end up blushing and looking away before it's over.

How can you not love these

Some images of our new president and family on Inauguration Day:

A new day

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." - President Barack Obama



Buy the poster here and give it to your favorite Bush supporter.

My new favorite thing of the week

Seriously - I'm a little too much a sap for this today. It's hard to pretend you're concentrating on work when either a)you've got a ridiculous grin spread across your face, or b)you're fighting back tears and your whole face looks like it might just combust upon itself at any moment.


Bloc Party, 'This Modern Love' - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

For the entire collection of impromptu acoustic sessions that will blow your mind if you have any taste in music whatsoever, go here.

Thank you to Alex for this.xo

On the topic of change

I think it’s human nature to want to hope for the best.

We want to believe things will get better on their own. That’s why we stay in that job we don’t particularly like, or hang on to that dysfunctional relationship that is draining us of our life source. If only we hold out long enough, eventually things have got to get better. Right?

Change scares some people. In fact, I suspect it scares most people. Sometimes even if every fiber of your being is screaming for you to get out of your current situation, the alternative – the unknown – is disconcerting enough for you to justify doing nothing differently. Disturbing the status quo means you could be setting yourself up for a potentially worse situation than the one you’re already in.

Change doesn’t happen overnight. Once you’ve made that first step towards change, you might think you made a mistake and doubt your decision. You might have to make a few missteps before you make the right one that’s going to truly make you happier. But at least you’re making an attempt to better your situation, and eventually you’ll see your efforts pay off.

Life has a way of strolling right in and having its way with you if you let it. I’ve been Life’s bitch on more than one occasion, but I’ve never taken it lying down. I‘m going to take moment to pat my own back for all the changes I’ve made in my own life, despite how incredibly painful and difficult they’ve been. I tend to beat myself up more than I congratulate myself, so this is one of those rare instances when I’m doing the latter. Way to go, Mands.

On that same note, I’m incredibly proud of our country and the direction we’re taking to improve our situation. It took us a long time to get to this point where we decided we’re ready for a change in direction, but we’ve arrived at that place now and we’re finally saying, “We deserve better.”

There are a lot of people who aren’t pleased with the changes we’re facing, to put it mildly. They would rather stick with the abusive husband who’s been bloodying their face for years. Who is this guy with the funny name who’s shaking things up with all of his crazy ideals? We’re more comfortable with the good old boys who have been robbing us blind and fucking things up for years, thank you very much.

We’re going to be just fine – you, me, all of us are going to be just fine. We’re doing exactly what we should be doing to improve our situation, which is to not settle for the way things are. The world is watching us; let’s show them how it’s done.

All hail President Barack Obama!