Break Up Albums

I'm not including the years because I don't know them all, and I'm too lazy to look them up:

Amy Winehouse, "Back to Black" - any album that includes the lyric "I cried for you on the kitchen floor" is clearly an album for me.

The Good, The Bad, and the Queen, "The Good, The Bad, and the Queen" - ah, Damon Albarn, master of the building song, how did I get by before I knew ye? This album makes me feel there is something larger than myself to which I belong.

Of Montreal, "Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer?" - again, a lyric: "The mousy girl screams 'violence, violence!'" But everything about this album is a huge release. I love it. Thanks, PB.

PJ Harvey, "White Chalk" - already got its own write-up here, but the decadence of this pathos is too rich not to mention. I cry just thinking about the white chalk hills...for me they're red clay, but we've been over that too...

Tori Amos, "Boys for Pele" - it's all in the title, really, and this album has seen me through a few. "Don't take me back to the range" is a standout thematically correct lyric for this one...but again, there are so many.

Iron and Wine, "The Sea and the Woman" - ok, it's not a real album, but the ground it covers in five short songs leaves me bereft enough. To be enjoyed in moderation, along with these other artists: Ben Trickey, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, Aphex Twin, Sparklehorse, and Mogwai. For different reasons, of course.

In addition to GBQ, these all make me happy in a forget myself and sing along way:

No Doubt, "Best" - don't knock it.

Cake - anything, really. I can sing pretty much all their songs, and I do it so well.

Regina Spektor, "Begin to Hope" - it's all in the title, and she has a piano.

The Sugarcubes or Bjork - again, pretty much anything makes me happy.

Blur, "Parklife" - Blur makes me happy, but "Parklife" sticks out as the shiniest album (to me).

Um, that's enough for now. I wish more (any) of you had music blogs. It would be a good way for us to learn about good music. Do it!

Oh, where are you, Mr. Darcy?

Stephen Colbert is the funniest person in the world. To me today.

This was too impossible to resist, as we're still in the year of Jane Austen:



I'm actually rereading "Sense and Sensibility" right now. Can someone give me proper web punctuation rules on that?

Still feeling audacious

Back on Nov. 4, I had the pleasure of being on the phone with one of my Atlanta friends as we watched the election results roll in, and I told him I'd blog about it, and I haven't yet, so here we go...

I know you're all sick of reading/writing about the election, but I've been pretty quiet overall about the whole thing, so allow me a moment. I hadn't realized how much I've been personally impacted by the culture of fear that has permeated my consciousness for the last seven years. I've always tapped into it, and been aware of it, of course, but also, I'd always somehow imagined myself to be above it. When Obama won, I felt a physical relief. No matter what else you think about him or other politicians, I think you have to recognize that the message of hope and perseverance is a much healthier and happier one that the one of fear-mongering, de(of)fense-oriented knee-jerk belligerence we've all been inundated with for the last eight years. I am proud of my country again. I wouldn't say I'm all rosy-eyed innocence, but I do believe my faith has been somewhat restored in my fellow Americans and in the political process. I would never have imagined two years ago that this man would be our next President. Americans have been too caught up in protection and agression (and it's not worth getting into the race part of if because I just don't have anything to say that's new) for me to have thought this was possible. I'm still just really happy and excited, and I hope this is part of a cultural shift in general.

Personally, I've often been criticized for making decisions based on fear and avoidance, a sort of "what if" comes up for every alternative when I'm planning. One of my ongoing initiatives in personal growth has been to make decisions based on knowledge and contentment (my two questions "Is it smart" and "Is it fun" fit in here) - this has been a struggle for me, but over the years, I've seen it improve. It delights me to think that the whole country is joining me in this shift. I'm even deluding myself to thinking it has something to do with some epoch shift and universal alignment and whatnot, but seriously, whatever I think - I feel a little bit better knowing the figurehead in my country is respectable and inspiring to all sorts of people all over the world, and that at least a lot of people are thinking with hope instead of fear.

Oh oh oh, one sort of funny thing DID happen...I'm used to voting in GA, which is a much more controlled and content-heavy process than voting here in the small town in VA where I was registered. When I went in, I handed the 90-year-old monitor lady my voter registration card and chatted while I fished out my license. She waved me on in and told me she didn't need my license. So I asked if she needed any picture ID, and she said "No, you have your registration card right here." I said "What if someone had stolen that from me?" and she says "Well, then I'd need to see your ID." At this moment, a couple of guys sitting at a table nearby were all "Yep, that's right" and "You got it" and whatnot, and the younger monitor woman just looked sheepish. I asked her this way "What if I had stolen this from someone?" but she just sort of glazed over. Now, I voted at like 6:45 pm - am I REALLY the first person to bring this up to them today? The old woman never did understand what I was talking about. So don't get too worried - I'm still plenty jaded about the process and about the general stupidity level of people in the world - but it is also kind of funny.

So, there it is, my politics post. One day I'll get on about religion, but let's just leave it where it is for now, shall we? I'm still on a hope high.

Sniff sniff

I love smells. Um, that's not exactly it...my life is strongly impacted by the sense of smell. That might be more it. It's somewhere in between maybe? We all know I love sounds, and most of us do too, but I think smell is less common, or less discussed anyway. So for me, it's really important. Let's talk about it.

In my last post, I wrote about the smell of Target. I got to smell Target again today. It's distinct. I like it. I have known folks who don't, even folks who find it headache or nausea-inducing. There are stores where I can smell the dye in the clothes (I find this a lot at Marshall's and Filene's Basement, eh?), and that is headache and nausea-inducing for me, but the sweet smell of packaging doesn't do it. So there's that.

I had Indian food for dinner from the pretty good restaurant here in C-ville. (It's no MSB, but it's pretty tasty.) The smell of that food is like eating a meal to me. It's so hearty and thick and layered and delicious. I would love to learn to cook food that smells that way.

And now, perfume and cologne and other scents, oh my...remember what your first boyfriend smelled like (or g/f, sorry)? I remember mine. I can't remember the name of the cologne he wore, but I remember it so distinctly, sweet and just a little tiny bit musky and almost feminine but a little earthier and like it would taste really good, like sugary chocolatey fruit almost. Very rarely I'll smell if these days...far more often I smell what my later boyfriends wore. And then there's a perfume my aunt wears that I love (Happy) but can't wear myself (just doesn't work) and when I smell it, it comforts me.

And my mom's hands had a smell when I was a kid...clean and lotion-y maybe, but I don't know what kind. It was probably just Ivory soap. She wasn't really big on decadence when I was a kid, since she was a stay-at-home mom and spent a lot of time, well, mommying. But I smelled my hands the other day, just moving hair out of my face or something, and they smelled like her. It was weird.

So, as I'm moving and settling into my new space, smells are new and old and catching my attention. My new place has its own smell. My stuff all has its own smell, and there are many different smells...so, since nothing can stop me and put me somewhere else like a familiar smell, I thought it might be a fun game to list some of my favorite smells:

- fresh-cut grass
- maple syrup
- oranges
- vanilla
- lavendar
- lemon pledge
- diesel fumes
- Oil of Olay
- rosewater
- bacon, preferably a little on the burning side
- coffee, but not flavored, which makes me a little sick
- Lola the cat
- baby hair
- earth (leaves and dirt, a little water)

Hmm, aren't you all fascinated? My blog never ceases to amaze me. It is an exercise in nothingness, and it's a little more challenging to write about nothing than I'd thought. Kudos to Larry David.

Last bit on sniffing - I finally found a daytime perfume that I like. Molton Brown, Gingerlily. It's quite good, and I can reserve the last stuff I bought for evening time since it's a little heavier. And I do go out in the evening quite a bit...my cocktailwear is really getting used these days. (That's sarcasm.)

I need to stop stalling and just unpack.