Midas Tongue

For the first time in a really long time, I'm looking forward to the New Year.  No long litanies or introspective monologues today.  This mix is all about jumping off of the bitter truck to dance in the street.  Licking everything and turning it into gold.  Let's skip together.

Okay, so it wouldn't be my blog without a little pretentious metaphor.

Happy New Year!

I Want To Thank You, Ray Don

One of my favorite TV programs of all-time is without a doubt, Designing Women, especially Julia Sugarbaker and Mary Jo.  Julia was my little girl hero and I really admired her feisty passion, which explains a lot now that I think about it.  Anyone in my company for more than, oh about an hour, is bound to discover my same penchant for dramatic explosive rants about justice, ethics, fairness and the plights of others.  Or something less humanitarian and lofty like why kiwi and okra should be banned from the fruit and vegetable bin and relegated to manure.

Here's to you Julia, for better or for worse, thanks for inspiring countless girls to rant, rave and express themselves.



Though my absolute most favorite speech of hers comes from the episode Reservations for Eight. Her speeches are just so over-the-top you can't take her seriously but she sure is funny.

Turning Stones and Leaves

Everyone has rough edges and we're all on some kind of journey, right? The hope being along the way we smooth ourselves with each rotation and revolution, without just spinning our wheels hamster-style. One of the things I would most like to change is my indulgent hyper-criticism - it's ingrained in this raucous antennae'ed brain of mine to have this running litany of snarky sarcastic overly acerbic commentary towards myself and others.

Normally, I don't believe in resolutions, at least not in a prescripted kind of lemming movement but for some reason my urge for change and mutation is syncing up with the rest of the world. One of my more serious resolutions this year is to embrace more tolerance and acceptance.



I could have been easier on you
I should have been a little bit easier on you.

I also want to learn to play guitar and speak another language [but I can't decide on which one]. Maybe some kind of immersion experiment would help, like only dressing, eating food and speaking the language of a particular culture for six weeks.
This is either genius or madness.

Do you have any resolutions this year?

Sail on Bloody Monday

What's hair of the dog if the dog was Blood Marys?  I definitely overdid the holiday cheer yesterday so today I'm being extremely lazy and borrowing a mix someone else made.  Don't hate me.   The good news is this mix is way smooooth and filled with awesomeness. C'mon, you know you want to.

Bathtime

Last night my good friend gave me the most amazing print and sooo perfect since I love wine, octopi and baths.

See more of Phineas Jones here and here. He has some amazing octopus prints like Octolope, but this one is my favorite.

Blue

Just a smidge of melancholy today. Grey clouds, grey heart.

I think this is one of the best choruses ever.


If only you believe like I believe
We'd get by
If only you believe in miracles
So would I

Run

 

Stockholm's husband and wife duo, The Forest and The Trees, have knocked the wind out of me.  I've listened to this track every day at least twice for the last week.  I know I said I would only share the one preview song from my holiday mix but this one is a shoe-in too.


The Forest and The Trees - Run

Run, while you are still alive
Before you act like them
No one else can save you

Run, run to save your life
Don't make the same mistakes again.

Hear more.

Play To Win

This one is easy to...you guessed it.  Repeatrepeatrepeat.



Song is set to their video We Live So Fast, just in case you start watching and get jackamo over it.

Winter Swan

Strange dreams last night filled with such whispers and shadows the brain dissolves into molecules.  Karin Dreijer Andersson will either speed the transformation or grind the process to a halt.  All bets are off.

Spectacular Spectral Spectacle

Total lunar eclipse tonight, the last fully visible eclipse for North Americans until 2014. I love the moon and hope wherever you are, you'll get the chance to view this spectacular spectral spectacle



link

Fantasy Nation

Because Fantasies Are Fun, Safe and Healthy.



And Because I've Decided Today I Will Turn Every Sentence I Type Into A Title.

More Than Okay

I know when you deceive me
Cuz you'll be acting strange

You can take me or you leave me
But I'm okay
Open your eyes and see me
I'm still okay

Well stab me in the back and deceive me
I'm still okay
So baby you take me or you can leave me
I'll still be okay

Sleazy Riders

This video is pretty. And the music is sleazy. Perfection.

You S.O.D!

Song of the Day brought to you by California band Weatherhouse and their take on Italo Disco which they've coined Calo Disco.  Love love love it... now if I could just get my paws on a full-length LP.  Actually, I'd settle for a teensy ep to keep the tracks Diamonds and Cometius company.  Stay tuned.

Video for Diamonds was just uploaded today and made by Mr. Vick himself.



Weatherhouse - Cometius

My Gold Mask Part II

Being deep in the throes of a repetitious aural love affair with My Gold Mask's A Thousand Voices, as I've already mentioned here, their latest A Million Voices (From Where We Were Last) is equally enchanting and addicting.

Spin spin little top, deep down into that pretty secret spot.

Ghost in Your Bed


It's a measure of how much I like this band that I even like their cover of Kim Carnes' Bette Davis Eyes. It's such a break-up song for me but I love Gretta's vocals so much.  She takes the haunting intensity of the original to such this growling level and with Jack's hypnotic guitars and those anthemic My Gold Mask drums...


Groans, sighs and one thousand shivers and moues. I'm crossing and wishing on all things musically holy they make it to my neck of the woods very very soon.

How To Be Alone

Still on hiatus but this is too synchronistic not to share.

Converging In The Quiet

Like Natasha Khan, it's time to take a little rest time.  I'll be back next week.  Have a lovely weekend friends.

Psycho Killer, Radiohead

A little work mix containing randoms from my work iTunes.  Bouncy, fun and best of all loud enough to drown out the grrrs of a busy Wednesday.



Datarock - True Stories
Van She - Mission
Collider - The Grid Goes Down Tonight
Starflyer 59 - Concentrate
Desert Session - Dead In Love
Magic Wands - Kiss Me Dead
The Raveonettes [Trentmoeller remix] - Lust
Memory Tapes - Pretend the Devil Isn't Real
My Gold Mask - It's All Up In The Air
The Magnetic Fields - Either You Don't Love Me Or I Don't Love You
Goldfrapp - Cologne Cerrone Houdini

Isn't that a beautiful photograph?  Courtesy of Imogen Cunningham, 1935.

Pretty

Taking a break from more serious activities like solving world hunger and feeding orphaned children with AIDS, just kidding.  I am though on a hunt for the perfect holiday boot.  Already in my closet is a pair of oxford very granny witchy-esque ankle boots, which incidentally pair super nicely with my octo tights, but these are just begging to join the throng.  Who am I to deny them?

 Sam Edelman

While I'm at it, here are few things on my keep-dreaming holiday wishlist.

My pup Mavis and I would fight continually over this chair.  Gorgeous vintage French poppy wallpaper print. 

 

Blythe Chair from Anthropologie // Stag Ring by Digby and Iona //  Malababa satchel

Fire Mountains

I've started working on a holiday mix.  I'm not too far along yet, rather I have way too many options and must now begin the arduous pare down.  Here's a small peek.  Just small one, though, the rest is a surprise.



What kind of comedy is this?
All of the danger you've discovered
What kind of comedy is this?
How can you say now you're frightened

You labeled me in fortry tries and in case you didn't realize
I was a landscape in your dream and all my mountains were on fire.

What kind of labyrinth is this that we're constructing through talking?
What kind of labyrinth is this that sends you laughing without smiling?
Age brings a sad little surprise
And in case you didn't realize
While you were calculating tears
My head expired

Monsieur Dandy Catkins

Last night, I had quite the funny dream starring a rather dapper and illustrious orange-striped feline resplendent in a grey velvet peacoat and a spectacular magenta pink floral boutineer on his lapel.  He kept trying to sneakily steal money from me with guileless wide eyes and a particularly wily cheshire cat grin.  I won last night's battles but he made it apparent he would return.  Now, whatever can that mean?!




Fantastic Cat
I play my mini mini moog
Fantastic Cat
I play a piece of chic music
I'm a fantastic cat
Are you ok?  Here I go!

The Most Tender Place

 It's unavoidable, the holiday season is upon us.  Are you ready for it?  I'm not yet sure if I am, for whatever reason at this time of year I reflect upon certain experiences and persons, as I'm sure many do.  I ponder lost loves, family members and opportunities and perhaps it's a bit of a cliche but sometimes I dread the landslide of memories.

When I was younger, I thought  people who regret were people who, for whatever reason, could not  appreciate the moment regardless of its positive or negative associations.  Wild, reckless frivolity or staid, comfort. In my folly, it, seemed like the "older people" were wasting their time looking back.  Imagine my own surprise and subsequent chagrin that I, too, could harbor such thoughts.  Someone once said to me, we only have regrets because we aren't living honest lives.  Regrets are things that we cling to because we know we should have chosen differently.

Immer gerade aus.  Smart words.

Neko Case - Hold On, Hold On


The most tender place in my heart is for strangers
I know it's unkind but my own blood is much too dangerous
Hangin' round the ceiling half the time

Compared to some I've been around
But I really tried so hard
That echo chorus lied to me with its
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on"

In the end I was the mean girl
Or somebody's in-between girl
Now it's the devil I love
And that's as funny as real love

I leave the party at three a.m.
Alone, thank God
With a valium from the bride
It's the devil I love

And that's as funny as real love
And that's as real as true love

Toast

Ok Go's take on toast-mation.

Spill The Beans, McNally

This Spill the Beans McNally has been told in no uncertain terms not to say a word but since you don't know who I'm talking about, this is probably safe.  It bends the rules but it's not technically illegal.  Let's just hope she doesn't see this post.  Shhh... Don't tell.

One of my dearest friends has joined the dark side and will be the proud owner of her very own spawn.  Meaning, in nine months we'll have a mini firecracker bouncing around.   She's the first in my little circle, always the leader of the pack.  My baby's all grown up and now I get to be the kooky oddball aunt, which let's face it, isn't really that different from what I am anyway.

This calls for a special mix for her.  These deserve a spot, don't you think?



And I just couldn't help but love you
When you were my baby
Just the way you wore your hair
And the way you just didn't care
And the way you danced do do do



I have yet to discover a situation that Mag Fields and Pulp don't apply, the most versatile comfy sweater in my collection.

Amanda Fucking Palmer

Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls babies covering Radiohead on a ukulele, what more do you need I ask you?? All is right in the world.

Silver Hands

If ever you were looking for something that would bust the cute, this is it.

Black Swan

Perhaps, I've had ballet on the brain lately, or maybe just always, who knows?  Rreferencing The Ballerina Project of last week or the book Russian Winter I just finished.  Which is dismal, don't bother wasting your time, you can read my bread and butter review of it on Goodreads.  Bread and butter because I won it in a free book giveaway and in return had to write it. Regardless, I've been hungering for the release date of Aronofsky's fifth film, The Black Swan since the summer.

Supposedly, it's set to release in select cities today.  The score, a quasi re-interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake by Clint Mansell, already gives me chills.

Knee Deep

Crystal Antler's latest 3 tracks have been on repeat, repeat, repeat.  Hear Summer Solstice and Seance at Room 205 along with my favorite below.



I'll go days without saying anything.

Star Gazer

Star Gazer sounds like the name of a Shetland pony or a cute little electro side project band or the glittery nail polish I might have used as a kid.  Lately, I've been really into watching the night sky.  My head pulls upward like a ventriloquist's puppet trying to focus on those elusive sparkles and I'm drawn to the moon moth-like to note its nightly fluctuations.  The stars here at this time of year seem more close and twinkly than usual, a rare feat in our light-polluted sky.  Sometimes I wish I lived in a less populated city and owned a massive space-age telescope so that the only thought in our pretty little heads could be to spend the evening naming pinpricks of light.

This will be my last post for this holiday week. With the break from work I also realize it's time to take a break from everything else and go a bit analog, surrounding myself with food, friends and frippery .

There is so much for which to be thankful, I  hope you have a lovely time with your loved ones too.

 The Iris Nebula

 The Trifid Nebula

Dust Pillars from the Carina Nebula

   NGC 602

 

photos See Creatures

Beauty Ain't Dead

Gorgeous harmonies, swoony riffs.







via Secretly Canadian

L'Amour Est Mieux

Model Margaux and her boyfriend Warren made a video and maybe even a blog too called The Kooples.  Admittedly, I can only understand every third word but I love her style.

The Ballerina Project

There's something about ballerinas I just love.  Their grace, elegance and poise which belies an intense strength and discipline, probably because I have the exact antithesis to a dancer's body.  I'm all curves, softness and klutziness.  Or maybe it's because my mother, despite her Venus of Willendorf pear-shape, would go to dance classes multiple times a week and bat her eyelashes at her dance instructor boyfriend while I twirled and mock-pirouetted in a practice room filled with mirrors and ballet bars creating whole schemes in my head of one day becoming a prima ballerina or champion figure skater.  Yeah that's right, feel free to boycott my blog from now.  It's just that my whole life I can remember choreographing dances to songs, this irresistible compulsion to dance and hum every feeling.

The Ballerina Project started in NYC as a collaboration of dance, fashion and photography against the city's backdrop. 

Love Love Love is an Ocean

Cliches abound and my heart feels so big today.  One of my best friends got engaged last night and I'm beyond cheesy happy for her.  Now I'm off to a champagne brunch in a schmancy loft.  Could life be more surreal?  Hope you're all having a lovely Saturday.



I thought so long and suddenly I realized, I love love.

Adam Niklewicz

 Adam Niklewicz is an odd one, for sure.  I don't really know what I think of the actual work but I admire his dedication to concepts.  These are a few that gave me chuckles.

Monument to Borscht, 2008

Untitled, 2008 oil paint, bread [bite eaten by artist to reaffirm commitment to art]

Romantycznosc, 2002 Dry Sausage, fully functional "A tribute to the Polish psyche"

Sometime Last January I Had Awoken In The Morning With My Hand Up, 2005 autobiographical

See more here and here.

Nothing Newer than '98, Oops That's Not True

Happy Friday lovelies!  I made a mix filled with happy and sexy tracks perfect to grease those get-over-here-and-sit-in-my-warm-obliging-lap-you-luscious-weekend wheels.



Adam and The Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier
White Rose Movement - Alsatian
Morrissey - Alsatian Cousin
Air - Sexy Boy
Grant Lee Buffalo - Whole Shebang
The Stranglers - Skin Deep
Echo & The Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset
Nina Simone - My Baby Just Cares For Me
The Velvet Underground - Sunday Morning
The Bolshoi - Lindy's Party
White Rose Movement - Deborah Carne
David Bowie - Love You Til Tuesday
Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World

He's in Fashion

This is one of my favorite fun silly blogs to follow..  Nerd Boyfriend posts photos of celebrity icons and their corresponding outfits in today's market.  Like I said silly, but I love the vintage photos. Gems upon gems.

source NerdBoyfriend

Ghost Song Revisted

Daniel Knox's Ghost Song has an official video now!  Remember when I mentioned how much I love this song? 


Daniel Knox "Ghostsong" from Daniel Knox on Vimeo.

This morning I received a lovely email from the croonster himself and he's sending me some discs that will include cover songs, instrumentals, live ditties and even music he wrote for a play.  I say all this as calmly as I can muster but I'm beyond excited and I hope this means he'll be putting together a tour very very soon.

Included also, will be some download cards for his Evryman album.  If you're interested, let me know and I'll happily spread the wonder that is this incredible songwriter.

Stay in the loop at his website.

Soft Moon

Luis Vasquez's one man self-titled debut was released today.  Dark, synthy fuzzy noise with a relentless bass line. I'm in love and haven't been this curious to listen to an entire album since I came across Zola Jesus.

The Soft Moon - Tiny Spiders

The Soft Moon - Parallels


via Captured Tracks

Losing It

One billion expletives are swarming wasp-like in my head.  My friend just got tickets to this because he lives in a cool city where cool stuff happens and if any of you are lucky enough to live in a city where they're playing you would be idiots not to go.  IDIOTS.  Remember when I mentioned this last May?

Peter Hook and The Light play Joy Division - She's Lost Control


Unknown Pleasures Tour

Dec. 1: 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.
Dec. 2: Voyeur, Philadelphia, PA
Dec. 3: Webster Hall, New York, NY
Dec. 4: Royale Nightclub, Boston, MA
Dec. 6: Double Door, Chicago, IL
Dec. 7: Showbox at the Market, Seattle, WA
Dec. 9: Doug Fir, Portland, OR
Dec. 10: Mezzanine, San Francisco, CA
Dec. 11: Music Box at Henry Fonda Theater, Los Angeles, CA

source 

Rhyme Time

Rhyming really does make anything better.

Pustules and splinters and arsenic snowcones.  Mask-wearing killers and black and blue bones.  Stabbings and bat beatings and worm-covered rings.  These are a few of my favorite things.

Now you try it.

These Days

I've been out walking
I don't do too much talking
These days, these days.
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
And all the times I had the chance to.

I've stopped my rambling,
I don't do too much gambling
These days, these days.
These days I seem to think about
How all the changes came about my ways
And I wonder if I'll see another highway.

I had a lover,
I don't think I'll risk another
These days, these days.
And if I seem to be afraid
To live the life that I have made in song
It's just that I've been losing so long.

I've stopped my dreaming,
I won't do too much scheming
These days, these days.
These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten.
Please don't confront me with my failures,
I had not forgotten them.

Dolls Gone Wild!

Marionette dolls reenact scenes from classic slasher movies in a trailer for Fujiya and Miyagi's upcoming January album Ventriloquizzing. Pretty hilarious.



Remember this one loves?  It made it onto last year's winter mix.




Project Jenny, Project Jan [with F&M] Pins and Needles.   Super cute love story between a glove and sock.

Mr. Musicbox Underwater

Video installation.

This song is from a collaboration J. Spaceman did with Sun City Girls and is also on the soundtrack from the movie Mister Lonely. If you've not seen it, the story centers on an oddball group of impersonators and more specifically the relationship between Michael Jackson, Diego Luna of Y tu mamá también fame and Marilyn Monroe, played by Samantha Morton who's childlike wide-eyed primality is breathtaking. As an actress I think she's quite spectacular and this role almost tops Morvern Callar. Almost. Other impersonators include Madonna, James Dean, Abraham Lincoln and Charlie Chaplin [a very scary man!] amongst others. Surprising and raw, it will stay with you as only the best stories can.

Sulk

Sometimes we sulk, sometimes we burn.

Radiohead - Sulk

Octo Buster

 

via Everything Octopus

Queries

It's been a long while since I answered formspring questions, I forgot my password and well, I'm just kind of loopy most days.  Many apologies.

What blogs do you read all the time?
Sheesh, too many!  My google reader is 100+ and every time I pare down, almost immediately I add 5 more.  Daily reads include See Emily Play, Owl and Peacock, The Sartorialist, Street Style, Jen Loves Kev, Orchid Grey, and The Daily What.  What about you?

Do you live alone or do you have flatmates?
I do live alone, unless you include my little puppy Mavis.  Most days she resembles a very dirty black dust mop, because her fur is so silky and floppy, not because she's dirty!  Part terrier, part terror, part 10 pounds of pure circus love.

You have to choose - astronaut or deep sea diver?
Haha!  This question is too funny and too hard.  Can I split my work day in two?  Mornings in space, afternoons in the ocean?

Why did you name your blog crank the shiny tune?
My first post on my blog tells the story.  It is so named because I frequently mistake song lyrics and instead of looking for them, I just make up my own.  I thought the lyrics in the chorus of Bjork's song Crying  were "Crank the shiny tuune.. Crank, I can feel you".  But they're not, though it took me years, literally years, to discover otherwise.

How do you find all the music on your blog?
Hmmm well a lot of the bands I love and have loved for a long while.  New things I discover while reading music blogs.  For instance, say I like this band, I'll find out who their record label is and then start researching other bands they've signed and down the rabbit hole I go.  Myspace is a great place for indie bands, probably the only reason I still go to the site.

What is your favorite color?
All of them!  Though I especially like saturated tones, like prussian or royal blue, brown grey, pinks, mod orange, leafy green and fire engine red.  [Edit:  Lately I've been obsessed with bright almost obnoxious bathtime duck yellow.  Over the summer it was a little overkill, I even found some bright banana yellow sandals and wear them all the time.]  These aren't really the style but the color is spot on!

What are you listening to right now?
At any given moment, I'm lily pad hopping from band to band but lately I've been revisiting some old bands.  Today thus far I've listened to these 3 songs on repeated rotation.

Spiritualized - Broken Heart



If fashion is your trade, then when you're naked, I guess you must be unemployed.

Beat Happening - Godsend


Curious?

Trash Compactor

My friend has started a new tumblr dedicated to wacky Star Wars references called Trash Compactor. I say new because her other one is pretty awesome as well and is called Badass Classical, a collection of really awful awesome classical music album covers.

Anyway, she's invited me to post on it too.  These are my contributions so far.

via 18 Dogs That Look Like Chewbacca

Wow Times Infinity

Best Costume Ever. End of story.

source Charmed

If The Button Is There, The Monkey Will Push It

If you're like me and like to push people's buttons [playfully kind of like a wicked little elf], then you will love these suggestions.  Prepare yourself for a snort fest then go forth and poke the bear.

Is it weird that I've already done a lot of these?  Reference: 2, 7, 8, 12, 14, 17, 18, 21, 24, 30.  I wish I had thought up 32.

1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
3. Specify that your drive-through order is "TO-GO."
4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
5. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."
7. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."
8. Practice making fax and modem noises.
9. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc" them to your boss.
10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
11. Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophesy."
12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
13. Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.
14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you "like it that way."
16. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
18. Honk and wave to strangers.
19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
20. TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
21. type only in lowercase.
22. dont use any punctuation either
23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
    "DO YOU HEAR THAT?"
    "What?"
    "Never mind, it's gone now."
25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
26. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "No, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.
27. Ask people what gender they are.
28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
29. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
30. Sing along at the opera.
31. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn't rhyme.
32. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles."

Take me underground
Take me all the way
And bring me to the fire
Throw me in the flames

Show me love
You've got your hands on the buttons now
Show enough
You've got your hand on the button now

via ArtLung

The Egg Cremes

For lovers of Mousetrap .  




source StumbleUpon

Do You Remember The First Time?

Gasp. Curse. Whimper. Thousands of wordless exhalations. Squeals. Scrowls. After months of speculation...

Is this a hoax?  Is this a collective mid-life crisis waiting to happen?  Is this the last chance to see the last truly great pop group this country [UK] ever produced?  Is it time to decide who's side you're on [again]?  Is this messing with your head? 

These and many more questions may be found at PulpPeople.  But, as they urge, all you really have to ask yourself is:


DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME??




I do.  And what an introduction.


All the stuff they tell you about in the movies,
but this isn't chocolate boxes and roses.
It's dirtier than that,
like some small animal that only comes out at night.
And I see flashes of the shape of your breasts,
and the curve of your belly,
and I may have to sit down and catch my breath.

Oh. What is this feeling called love.
Why me, why you, why here.
And why now.
It doesn't make no sense no.
It's not convenient no.
It doesn't fit my plans,
but I got that taste in my mouth again oh.
F.E.E.L.I.N.G. C.A. double L.E.D. L.O.V.E.
What is this thing that is happening to me

source my darling christine, super researcher who knows how to brighten any day.

I Believe In Wolves

Give me your eyes
I need sunshine
Your blood
Your bones
Your voice
and your ghost

We've both been very brave
Walk around with both legs
Fight the scary day
We both pull the tricks out of our sleeves

but I'll believe in anything
and you'll believe in anything

If I could take the fire out from the water
I'd share a life and you'd share a life
If I could take the fire out from the water
I'd take you where nobody knows you
And nobody gives a damn


and I could take another hit for you
and I could take away your trips from you
and I could take away the salt from your eyes
and take away the spitting salt in you
and I could give you my apologies
by handing over my neologies
and I could take away the shaking knees
and I could give you all the olive trees
oh look at the trees and look at my face and look at a place far away from here

What Are They Making a Documentary About You For?

What are they making a documentary about you for?

Cuz I'm fascinating.  I write wonderful music.

What kind of music do you play?

Popular music.

What's your last name?

Merritt.

Merritt? Never heard of ya.

It's impossible to concentrate on anything today. Tonight is the screening of The Magnetic Fields documentary I mentioned here. We're driving right after work like bats out of hell and then will return home afterwards. 6 hours total just for an 80 minute screening and a Q/A with the director. That's how much I love this man/band.

I met Ferdinand de Saussure

On a night like this

On love he said

"I'm not so sure

I even know what it is

No understanding

No closure

It is a nemesis

You can't use a bulldozer

To study orchids"

He said...

So we don't know anything

You don't know anything

I don't know anything

about love

But we are nothing

You are nothing

I am nothing

Without love

Trophy Wife

Trophy Wife release their debut single today.  The video for Microlite is pretty hilarious.  Message: don't eat junkfood.

B-side Take This Night


Won't you show me how to dance, dance, dance?
Won't you show me how to find ourselves?
To that secret place
Take me there
You can take me there

Hmmm, possible Bjork reference?

A Beautiful Life

Yesterday my friend and I went to the beach for a picnic. Nothing fancy, just a mini roadtrip to listen to music, chow on food and lessen the restless wanderlust. Little did we know it was also the Lone Star Rally or some such noise. Something like 300,000 motorcyles will flock there this weekend.

We were surrounded by about half.

Despite the cacophony, it was a beautiful spontaneous cold day surrounded by pelicans skimming for food [have you ever had the moment where you realize how beautiful and astounding bird flight really is??] and greedy seagulls only outdone in their fight for food by the old greasy fishermen hungrily watching the brave girls in bikinis. Brave because it was cold!

We ate tacos from our favorite taco shack whose name translates to Jalisco Rooster.

The water was a gorgeous aquamarine, a rarity in these parts.

Too cold to wear just my plaid sunny outfit, I borrowed a hoodie and as is tradition wore funny awkward sunglasses.

Dipping my toes in the water I found my first sea snail.

Motorcycle caucus at local watering hole.

Then we came home and ate a yummy salad.

Happy days indeed.  Hope your weekend has been just as lovely.

I introduced my friend to one of my core of core bands.  This album slays me and always will.


What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
What a beautiful dream
That could flash on the screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Soft and sweet
Let me hold it close and keep it here with me, me

And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be
In the arms of all I'm keeping here with me, me

What a curious life we have found here tonight
There is music that sounds from the street
There are lights in the clouds
Anne's ghost all around
Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me
Soft and sweet
How the notes all bend and reach above the trees, trees

Now how I remember you
How I would push my fingers through
Your mouth to make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet
Now we keep where we don't know
All secrets sleep in winter clothes
With one you loved so long ago
Now he don't even know his name

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round' the sun
And when we meet on a cloud
I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all