January Music

Bored, I decided to listen to all the mp3s I've downloaded between W and Z...

Amethyst - Wake Up Call
Arthur Yoria - I'll Pretend
Band of Skulls - Death By Diamonds And Pearls
Beyond The Element - Walk Into Fire
Black Mountain - Queens Will Play
Blackamore & Company - Dead Man
Bon Iver - Skinny Love

Boyce Avenue - Not Enough

Caro Emerald - Back It Up

Chris Harper - The Pain Beneath

Closure in Moscow - Sweet#Hart

Dave Matthews Band - The Stone (I know, even though I generally loathe DMB)

Doves - Compulsion

Esterlyn - Faster, Faster

John Randolph - Rewind

Loney, Dear - Everything Turns To You

Mechanical Moth - Black Queen Style (this one got overlooked)

My Brightest Diamond - Tainted Love (Soft Cell cover...actually, their version was a cover too)

Shaka Ponk - How We Kill Stars

Small Town Boredom - Void Lighting

Spanking Machine - Cult of Lies

Summerbirds In The Cellar - Beware Of False Prophets

The Kills - Fried My Little Brains

The Kooks - Stormy Weather

The Starlight Mints - Power Bleed

Thermostatic - So Close So Near

Thornley - All Comes Out In The Wash

Tom Petty - Turn This Car Around

Warpaint - Elephants

Washed Out - New Theory

Waz - Mine to Remember

We Are Scientists - Chick Lit

We Versus The Shark - I Am Destined For Greatness

Wiskeytown - Sit and Listen to The Rain

White Rabbits - Rudie Fails

WhiteMoor - Three Words

Wintersleep - Danse Macabre

Wohllebe - Not Quite Right

Wolf and Cub - Seven Sevens

Woodhands - Dancer

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Dull Life

Yeasayer - Forgiveness

Yo La Tengo - Periodically Double or Triple

You Am I - Berlin Chair

You Me At Six - Kiss & Tell

Young Dubliners - Foggy Dew (Carbon Leaf fans who need more penny whistle tunes will like this one)

Young Vinyls - Avalanche

Youngbloods - Darkness Darkness

ZAZA - The Call

Zebra & Giraffe - Fight! Fight! Fight!

Zero 7 - Pop Art Blue

Zigmat - Machine

Zorch Boomhauer - Wanting U is EZ

As usual:

Bold = I have other songs by them in my mp3/cd collection

Italic = I'd heard but didn't like other songs by them

Neither = never heard of them before

"I want nothing but the love of the next stranger who walks through that door" - The Black Ghosts, I Want Nothing

Wakefield Discredited

Well, it's been a long time coming, but that quack Andrew Wakefield is finally having his falsefied autism study discredited. It's too damn little, way too late, though. Too much hurt has been done in his name and people who believe him are too rabidly consumed by the fabricated connection between the MMR vaccine and autism to see reason - otherwise they'd understand that Japan stopped using the vaccine a decade ago and has seen rising autism rates since.

You know how they say the path to hell is paved with good intentions? I think it's closer to the truth that damage is done through unintended consiquences. Did Doctor Wakefield intend to scare people into not vaccinating their children, and by doing so spark a reinsurgance of diseases like the measles that haven't killed scores of children in decades? Probably not. But the fact remains that he falsified a study at the behest of lawyers who were looking to sue vaccine makers over autism, and "made" the study fit the conclusions that they wanted. Everything after that was a dominio effect. Evil doesn't necessarily rely on the intentions, because in many cases like this one, you can determine it from the results instead.


I've mentioned why I care about this before, haven't I? I worked with kids with autism a couple of years after I got out of college. And I do think that they've been done a disservice through Wakefield's work - there have been counter-studies done over and over again in attempt to discredit Wakefield, and these unnecessary duplications have stolen time and resources away from other research that might help kids like those two little boys and countless others like them. What if someone who was laboring at proving that there's no link between vaccines and autism might have found a way to prevent it?


"Now that the statue has toppled, the word is all over town. The mob has already gathered to pick the jewels from the crown" - Adam Cohen, How The Mighty Have Fallen

Top 29 of 2009

As promised, here are my favorite tracks from 2009. I figure 29 of them is good, given a lot of the songs I dug last year were from 2007 or 2008 so that narrowed the field.

Drumroll please...

29. 7 Worlds Collide "Red Wine Bottle"

28. A Place To Bury Strangers "In Your Heart"

27. Baby Gravy "You Set Me On Fire"

26. Wes Carr "You"

25. Starlight Mints "Paralyzed"

24. La Roux "I'm Not Your Toy [Data Remix]"

23. Chris Cornell "Enemy"

22. Carbon Leaf "Another Man's Woman"

21. Blue October "Say It"

20. Mechanical Moth "Black Queen Style"

19. Dan Black "Yours"

18. Juliette Lewis "Fantasy Bar"

17. Smile Empty Soul "Don't Ever Leave"

16. Eyes Set To Kill "The World Outside"

15. White Lies "To Lose My Life"

14. Sugar Army "Tongues In Cheeks"

13. Project Jenny, Project Jan "Pins & Needles"

12. Metric "Gold Guns Girls"

11. Peter Bjorn & John "It Don't Move Me [The Knocks remix]"

10. Bear in Heaven "You Do You"

09. The Color Turning "Me vs Me"

08. Doves "Kingdom Of Rust"

07. Simian Mobile Disco "Audacity of Huge"

06. Sliversun Pickups "Panic Switch"

05. The Ropes "Be My Gun"

04. FUKKK OFFF "Love Me Hate Me Kiss Me Kill Me"

03. Manchester Orchestra "Wolves At Night"

02. K-OS "Uptown Girl"

01. Bombay Bicycle Club "Evening/Morning"


"I fed them bullshit, I fed them fake gold. We all were waiting..." - Summerbirds in the Cellar, Beware of False Prophets

Goodbye "Kennedy Seat"

Okay, okay, I won't gloat too much. I knew Brown was going to win, didn't you?

Man, I can't wait for November now. Halloween and the dems getting their asses handed to them will happen the same week!


"Make every phone ring at exactly 11:14, we'll tied up the lines, throw in the wrench, make a big enough stink, make you gnash your teeth at night, we just might... throw some money at it."- Black Lipstick, Throw Some Money At It

Baby Got Shot

Finally, after waiting for months for NH to get enough stock in, I got my flu shot today. Who ever would have guessed that people would be so eager to have a needle jabbed in their arm? (A lot of people are getting a nasal mist, but I'm not one of the people allowed to due to having asthma.) If anyone out there is wondering, it doesn't hurt. I barely felt it.

I'm really relieved to have gotten the shot at last because so many of my coworkers think nothing of bringing their germs into work with them when they're under the weather. That's how I got the flu the only time I ever have. I know it'll take a week or so before I'm fully immune to this flu, but that's okay. I'm just glad to have gotten it now, when the normal peak of flu season is still a month off.

FYI - when determining which version you should get, the question can be a little vague. "Are you in good health" is code for asking if you have asthma or an auto-immune disorder, so if you do, say no, and they'll assign you to get the shot rather than the mist.

Stay well!


"You make me sick, but I love what we're doing here" - Egypt Central, You Make Me Sick

December Music

I'm working on a list of best singles from 2009 (once I'm finished adding years to songs), but it might take me another week or so to get my act together on that. Having 3/4ths of your Christmas vacation unexpectedly canceled does stuff like that to even the most anal rententive of music listeners. You can bet my best of list won't have The Mountain Goats, Animal Collective, Neko Case, or The Flaming Lips on it, unlike Pitchfork's. blech.

Anyway, besides listening to my favorite Christmas songs, I added a whole bunch of new MP3s to my collection last month.

30 Seconds To Mars - This Is War
A Match For The Curious - Solid Ground
Able Baker Fox - Brand New Moses
Absent Kid - Shoot On Sight
AFI - Prelude 12 21
As Tall As Lions - You Can't Take It With You
Astro Firs - Battery Power
Bear In Heaven - You Do You
Blood On The Tracks - Without You
Blue Knives - Million Stars
Bombay Bicycle Club - What If
Boy & Bear - Mexican Mavis
Brand New - Sowing Season (Yeah)
Dan Bryk - Love Me For Christmas
Deacon Blue - Your Town
Deadboy & the Elephantmen - Waking Up Insane
Dirty South - Sleazy
Dredg - I Don't Know
Elevator - Memories Of You
Elf Power - The Spider And The Fly
Elysian Fields - Bend Your Mind
Evermore - It's Too Late
Field Music - She Can Do What She Wants
Flyleaf - Again
Ginny Clee - I Wrote Your Name
Grand Prize - Break Me
Gyroscope - Beware Wolf
Hymns of Eden - All I Need
Juliette Lewis - Ghosts
Kori Linae Carothers - Crystal Fields
Looking For Heather - Night Song
Noon Blue - We Always Said
Pearl Jam - Immortality (I know, I'm surprised too given I generally dislike them)
Plants and Animals - Feedback In The Field
Rachael Yamagata - Faster
Red - Death of Me
Shooting John - War (I Hardly Know You)
Simon Field - Need Out
Starlight Mints - Paralyzed
Taking Back Sunday - Sink Into Me
The Bicycles - Australia
The Cure - Lullaby
The Kooks - Do You Wanna
The Phoebus Mass - Attention Seeking Behaviour
The Pigeon Detectives - This Is An Emergency
Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun - Bones
William Fitzsimmons - Heartless (Kanye West cover?!)
Winter Gloves - Invisible

As usual:
Bold = I have other songs by them in my mp3/cd collection
Italic = I'd heard but didn't like other songs by them
neither = never heard of them before

So...if I really like a song, I'm prone to putting it on repeat...for as long as an hour or two. So it shouldn't surprise you, then, that not only do I collect multiple versions of my favorite Christmas songs (all neatly filed into folders by song title), I also on occasion will listen to several versions of the same song all in a row too. This apparently makes other people around me a little stabby, but what can you do?

I'll limit myself just to a favorite version of each of my favorite holiday songs, though.

Robert Downey Jr - Wish I Had A River (from Ally McBeal)
Barenaked Ladies - Footprints
Elvis - Blue Christmas
August Burns Red - Carol of the Bells
Death Cab for Cutie - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Christine McVie- Coventry Carol
Vertical Horizon - I Believe in Father Christmas
The Kinks - Father Christmas
Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings
Wham - Last Christmas of the twenty-two versions I have, I still like this one best
Doll Squad - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)
As Fast As - Wonderful Christmastime I like this despite their association with Rusted Root

"Satan, settle down. Keep your trousers on. You can warm the globe, but leave my wretched soul alone. I don't know you, and I don't owe you a thing." - Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos, A Children's Crusade on Acid

Horror for Wusses

Warning: this rant contains spoilers for Paranormal Activity and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.

When I'm in charge around here, people who are complete wusses will no longer be allowed to recommend "scary" books or movies. Why? Because their picks oughtn't scare anyone who doesn't sleep with a nightlight on. As to why I'm het up about this all of the sudden, I recently saw the movie and read the book listed above.

Let's take on Paranormal Activity first. I want to know what people in the trailer were watching, because it couldn't have been this movie. You ever watch that show ghost hunters or its clones, and sit through people making a fuss about a loud noise or two, and maybe a book falling off a shelf? This movie exactly like that. Except it also contains two fairly unlikable characters who swear a lot, and forbid each other from doing things. If you think a moving sheet or footprints in flour are scary, you're in for a treat. Otherwise, you'll probably think the movie is lame too.

Then there's The Little Stranger. A book that is almost 500 pages long and nothing happens. Ever. I'm going to spoil this for you right now and spare you the pain of reading it: the so-called scariest parts of the book - according to people who actually liked the book, mind you - involve the terror of moving a cabinet and discovering that someone wrote on a wall (gasp!) and another scene where a shadowy figure runs up and down a hallway (covers eyes). Don't you feel a thrill of fear reading about that? You won't after suffering through the other 460 pages of descriptions about why living in a decaying mansion sucks and why a homely girl who won't be loved by anyone else not putting out for you sucks, either. This is the tamest, most tepid, most tedious ghost story I have ever read...considering I have an English education degree and have read lots of boring books, that's saying a lot. I'm angrier about it than the movie, because the book took a lot longer than two hours to read.

So, if you recommend either of these works, you're going on my secret list of people to ignore recommendations from. You'll be joining people who think House of Leaves was a horror novel, and those who wet themselves with fright while watching The Ring or The Grudge. That is all.

"Who's getting scared? Who's getting scared now?" - Imogen Heap, Getting Scared

November Music

Well, better late than never!

Alpinestars - Carbon Kid
Biffy Clyro - Who's Got a Match?
Bliss N Eso - Field of Dreams
Blonde Redhead - Publisher
Breaking Benjamins - I Will Not Bow
Calexico - Red Blooms
Crystal Castles - Vanished
Dead Confederate - Get Out
Dirty on Purpose - Send Me An Angel (Scorpions cover)
Eels - That Look You Give That Guy
Elastica - Stutter
Fire Theft - Hands on You
Great Northern - Telling Lies
Headwater - Death Of Me
IAMX - After Every Party I Die
IAMX - Bring Me Back A Dog
Jets Overhead - I Should be Born
Keren Ann - For You and I
Kill Hannah - New York City Speed
LostProphets - It's Not the End of the World But I Can See It from Here
Madina Lake - Let's Get Outta Here
Mellowdrone - Elephant
Metafonik - Day BeforeYou Come
Michael Nappi - Gone
Mundy - Wherever Whenever (Shakira cover)
Mute Math - Clipping
Scary Kids Scaring Kids - The Deep End
Silversun Pickups - There's No Secrets This Year
Simian Mobile Disco - Audacity of Huge
Simian Mobile Disco - Cruel Intentions
Sneaky Sound System - UFO
Sons & Daughters - The Nest
Starsailor - Four To The Floor
Sugar - Can't Help You Anymore
Sunset Rubdown - Idiot Heart
Super Massive - Fists In My Pocket
The Bravery - This Is Not The End
The Charlatans - You Cross My Path
The Color Turning - New Hooligan
The xx - Blood Red Moon
The xx - Heart Skipped A Beat
Washington Social Club - Jarvis Cocker

Bold = I have other songs by them in my mp3/cd collection
Italic = I'd heard but didn't like other songs by them
neither = never heard of them before


"I wrote your name I won’t say it, in places you‘ll never see it. Gonna try and forget it. You seem to have forgotten mine" - Ginny Clee, I Wrote Your Name

Thanks etc

So, how was everyone's Thanksgiving? Mine was fairly nice. My parents told Vynce and me that Shrinky Dinks were a waste of money, so we never had them - until now. They're actually kind of neat, and thanks to the kits I bought at The Christmas Tree Shop, we now each have a new set of tiny, colorful, Christmas ornaments. In other news, Vynce and Megan are thinking of skipping the wedding with family and friends thing, and eloping to Vegas. Since that's always appealed to me too, obviously I don't disapprove.

2009 has hardly been a banner year for anyone, yet there are things to be thankful for. Despite the twin scares of H1N1 and the mounting unemployment rate, I don't know anyone who has really been affected by either yet. Both babies arrived safely. My sick friend does have cancer as I've feared, but his doctor thinks that his prognosis is very good. I made it to 50,000 words last Tuesday :) though I have a ways to go get before it's truly a complete novel - I'm shooting for Ground Hog's Day, but we'll see.

Before I sign off this last November post, I have a story for you.

I think I mentioned in another post that my best friend and I brave the Black Friday crowds every year. (Oh boy, waking up before 4am is the worst part) As it turns out, I learned a few months ago that she really liked lobsters as a kid. Well, while we were out shopping, we found a light up Christmas lobster. Yes, really. It lights up and it waves its claws. As you can imagine, we went home with it. And then we set it up, hoping to make her parents roll their eyes when they saw it.

I went home shortly afterwards. Then I got an e-mail... the gist of which was that her parents didn't notice it, but an elderly neighbor did. The neighbor couldn't see it clearly from her house, and from her perspective there was red wavy lights coming off the porch. Would your first thought been "oh, it must be a light up lobster"? Hers either. So she called them all upset, worried that their porch was on fire. Oops! Our plan to make her parents smirk had a fatal flaw. At least they were able to bring the lobster over the the neighbor's to reassure her that it was just a light, not a fire. I'm glad she took it in good humor, because I like the neighbor, who puts up with us visiting her every year at Halloween.

Hope you had a good November too, everyone.


"I’m a fire and I’ll burn burn burn tonight" - Biffy Clyro, Who's Got a Match?

A Disquieting Dream

So, I had a dream last night that's still bothering me. I'm crush-less at the moment, which is the only reason I've been able to write 45,000 words in three weeks: no one is taking up space in my head, (well, except for brief daydreams that what I'm writing becomes a best selling novel that gets turned into a show resulting in me meeting him or him), so I suppose that it's not unexpected that the dream was kind of, sort of about my most recent infatuation though it has pretty much run its course. Not that said guy was in the dream, though.

Instead the dream was about me having given a baby we'd had to his mother without even bothering to name her first. In the dream the baby was around two, and I hadn't kept in touch with her father or grandmother, but I was standing in their neighbor's yard watching her being pushed on a swing and regretting not staying in her life.

Geez, I know I've said I don't want daughters, but awake I can't imagine simply giving one away! It's not as though I have anything against little girls, but I know what it's like not to have a great role model for being a girl, and I have serious doubts if I'd do any better a job than my own mom did. She was unwell most of my early childhood, so my father was very much the more involved parent, which is probably why I've been told more than once that I can sometimes "think like a guy."

I'm sure that Liam's birth is what put the baby dream in my head, but not why I'd dream of giving it away. I hope that's not my subconscious commenting on how good a parent I'd be.


"I don't need you here to validate me. I don't need you here to tell me anything. Fire away with a loaded gun, light the night I'm on fire." - Kill the Alarm, Fire Away

They're Here!

Do you remember over the summer me saying that two friends were expecting babies? As of last night they've both arrived.

I'd like to take a moment to welcome Liam and Ari to this strange and not infrequently beautiful thing we call life. Welcome, fellas, please make your stays long ones!

"You should know how great things were before you. Even so they’re better still today. I can’t think of who I was before. You ruined everything in the nicest way" - Jonathan Coulton, You Ruined Everything

Nanowrimo 2009

As you may or may not know, November is National Novel Writing Month, more commonly known as NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It sounds like a daunting task, but thousands of people "win" every year, and I have twice myself.

This year's story is going pretty well. I've had this week off, so I've tried to make the most of it, knowing that things will get harder once I go back to work on Monday. It's been my goal to write 25,000 words by bedtime tomorrow, and given I'm up to 23,084 words, I'd say that's probably going to happen. This will leave me needing to only write 1100 words a day for the rest of the month instead of the usual 1667 people shoot for, and with some luck I might not need to worry about writing at all Thanksgiving Day or the day after (I'm one of those brave souls who "does" Black Friday with a friend every year) which has been a problem in the past.

I think things are going so well because I really like my story this year; hopefully I won't immediately jinx myself by saying that. I haven't won since 2006, because in 2007 I got the flu and then pneumonia in November so I didn't even try, and last year I scrambled for ideas and picked two that didn't have any real mileage to them. (my complete score since 2003 is 2 wins, 2 loses, and two years sitting out. come on lucky number 7!) This year I'm doing what I said back in June that I some day should - write a story about someone who can cross between life and death. The current story has little in common with the fragment I wrote down then, and somehow involves our heroine helping the police look for a serial killer, by crossing over to talk to his victims. Who knew that was going to happen?

Anyway, I'm having fun crafting an urban fantasy story that completely lacks vampires, werewolves, ghosts, fairies, and elves. Instead Caitlin is dealing with a teenage foster kid with the same ability as she has, the first person she saved who grew up to be her neurotic ex-boyfriend, and a guy who'd be perfect for her if only he'd ever been born. Oh, and of course the female detective who is trying to solve a string of murders with Caitlin's reluctant help. Not too complicated, right?


"Oh my God, I'm sitting on a time bomb. It's just a matter of time. I can't wait forever. Nothing lasts forever." - Educated Animals, Time Bomb

October Music

I listened to a lot of new music in October, but I didn't like most of it. This month's music round up is a heck of a lot shorter than usual. Oh well, maybe November will be better.

7 Worlds Collide - Red Wine Bottle
10 Years - So Long, Good-Bye
A Place to Bury Strangers - In Your Heart
A Place To Bury Strangers - Keep Slipping Away
Armor For Sleep - Hold The Door
Autolux - Turnstyle Blues
Azure Ray - 4th of July
Barenaked Ladies - Take It Back
Biffy Clyro - Semi-Mental
BLK JKS - Summertime
Bloc Party - Flux
Blur - Beetlebum
Cedars - This Century
Chris Walla - Sing Again
Controlling the Famous - Heart Attack
Eddie Pedalo - Bulletproof Wolves (La Roux VS Prodigy)
Educated Animals - Time Bomb
Five Thirty - You
Hurt - Talking To God
Ian Brown - Keep What Ya Got
Iron & Wine - Peace Beneath the City
Kasabian - Underdog
Kate Walsh - Your Song
Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers
KT Tunstall - Another Place To Fall
KT Tunstall - White Bird
Les Elephants Bizarres - Down the Stream
Loreena McKennitt - Huron 'beltane' Fire Dance
Marina V - Something Of My Own
Michael Zapruder - Ads For Feelings
Nickel Creek - You Don't Have To Move That Mountain
Papercranes - Treasure
Porcupine Tree - Shesmovedon (Tim Palmer Remix)
The Kills - U.R.A. Fever

Bold = I have other songs by them in my mp3/cd collection
Italic = I'd heard but didn't like other songs by them
neither = never heard of them before


"You reach me. You bleach me. You teach me of me how familiar. We're bad, what we do. Stupid fools." - Damien Rice, Woman Like a Man

Happy Halloween!

What do you do for Halloween? I help scare kids at my best friend's parents' house, because there are never any kids at mine. Most of the kids call it "The Spooky House" so they usually know they'll be scared by someone...or something.

This is my favorite new addition

There are quite a lot of gravestones this year...

This is Hanging Chad. He kicks when a motion detector is triggered. I was co-fashion consultant for this particular project. By the end of the night he also wore a sign that said "Took four pieces of candy" ('cause the kids were told to take three.)

This year two kids were too scared to come into the yard and two cried; the crying was a surprised because timid kids tend not to even come in the yard. The rest of the kids had fun, including my favorite kids from last year (they fell in love with my doll Blix then) who asked about how to make Hanging Chad. They're young teens, mostly girls, and we're tempted to recruit them as scarers when they get too old to trick or treat.
I hope everyone had a good Halloween!



"we are, we are the shaken (shaken), we are the monsters (monsters) underneath your bed!" - Matchbook Romance, Monsters

World's Ending

I'm not loving fall so far. It's unseasonably cool, which is kind of depressing after a cool, extremely wet summer. And I'm also worried about getting the H1N1 vaccine before I get the flu, because when I got the flu two years ago I got pneumonia too, and this one is supposed to be leading to that even more often. But things could be worse...

It could be like the reality that encompasses Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood! That would be much worse, because both books are dystopias by Margaret Atwood. Neither are as depressing as Cormac McCarthy's The Road, but they are pretty bleak, anyway.

Imagine a reality where a powerful person could position himself to purposely destroy humanity by the time he's in his mid-thirties, and you're on your way towards understanding the situation of Oryx and Crake. However, even if you read the follow up, The Year Of The Flood, you still won't know why Crake does what he did. As frustrating as that is, perhaps it smacks of realism: we won't exactly be able to question the motives of the eventual architects of humanity's destruction, after all. Instead we are left only with the clues that Crake's best friend Jimmy (also known as Snowman) gives us through a not entirely reliable narrative. You have to forgive him that, being as he's slowly starving to death and alone but for a race of genetically altered, and strangely perfect, beings that aren't quite human though they're decidedly humanoid.

While I recommend Oryx and Crake, it has sadly turned out to be one of those books that is only genius upon a first reading. I reread it just before the sequel came out, and it didn't seem nearly as profound or clever as it did the first time. I've definitely grown a bit older since reading it six years ago, but not enough wiser to account for the disappointment. The Year Of The Flood was slow-going too, and not as good as the original, being filled with characters less interesting than Snowman in the first book. I suppose it leaves the door open for a sequel, but we'll see.

It's a good time for the book to come out, however, given that The Road is about to come out in theaters. Perhaps the movie (and the recession!) will lead to a mini-surge of interest in dystrophic movies and books, who knows? I'd like some recommendations in that area myself.

As for that movie, I'm not sure I'll be seeing The Road in theaters because I'm annoyed that the actor playing "the boy" (neither main character is ever named, just called "the man" and "the boy") is far too old. The director said that he cast the boy as older because it would be too hard to see a child the proper age, which would have been about seven, in such a bleak setting but I think the switch is likely to rob the story of a lot of its power. I suspect such a squeamish director will leave out or heavily edit the two most shocking scenes in the book, which will leave it far too sanitized to do the book justice.


"You burned your bridges, your world is burning down. No one will save you, your ship is going down til the end of the world." - The Sweethearts, End Of The World

September Music

I know, it's later than usual, but I have no proof that anyone cares about the music posts anyway, so I'm not going to sweat it.

Afghan Whigs - 66
Bat For Lashes - Sleep Alone
Baxter - Love Again
Black Bone Child - Fill Me Up
Blaqk Audio - No New Tale To Tell (Love & Rockets cover)
Bombay Bicycle Club - Autumn
Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy '94 [Acoustic Mix]
Cold War Kids - I've Seen Enough
Colder - To The Music
Dan Black - Yours
East of Anything - Innocent
Elbow - Grounds For Divorce
Electric Six - Feed My F*ckin' Habit
Electric Touch - Sounds For The Underground
Elliott Smith - Southern Belle
Elysian Fields - Black Acres
Emphatic - Goodbye Girl
Eyes Set To Kill - The World Outside
Fukkk Offf - More Than Friends [Omni's Vocal Remix] (this video isn't for the remix)
Girls Under Glass - The Virtual World
Juliette Lewis - Fantasy Bar
Katerpillar - Lost
Kelly Harper - BoyfrienD
K-OS - Uptown Girl [feat. Emily Haines & Murray Lightburn]
La Roux - I'm Not Your Toy [Data Remix]
Leaves' Eyes - Lovelorn
Letters Vs. Numbers - Forget Everything
Living Things - Oxygen
Manchester Orchestra - I've Got Friends
Manchester Orchestra - Wolves at Night
Mark Lanegan - Where Did You Sleep Last Night (folk song cover, didn't orginate with Lead Belly)
Metric - Gold Guns Girls
Modest Mouse - Parting Of The Sensory
Modest Mouse - Spitting Venom
Monogrenade - Ce soir (Not speaking French, I haven't a clue what this song is about)
Morningwood - New York Girls
New Models - Surrender
Perfect People - They Don't Make 'Em Like You Anymore
Peter Bjorn & John - It Don't Move Me [The Knocks remix] (this video isn't for the remix)
Polvo - Beggars Bowl
Pony Up! - Making More Beneath
Project Jenny, Project Jan - Pins and Needles [feat Fujiya & Miyagi]
Ritche Blackmore - Wish You Were Here
Sam Sparro - Black & Gold
Silversun Pickups - Sort Of
Smile Empty Soul - Don't Ever Leave
Sneaker Pimps - Bloodsport
Sugar Army - Tongues In Cheeks
The Black Ghosts - I Want Nothing
The Builders And The Butchers - Golden And Green
The Color Turning - Me Versus Me
The Dead Weather - Bone House
The xx - Crystalised
Triptaka - Lost & Leading
Waiting for Signal - Mistakes of the Century
White Lies - To Lose My Life
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Down Boy
You Can Be A Wesley - Creatures
Yves Klein Blue - Make Up Your Mind


Bold = I have other songs by them in my mp3/cd collection
Italic = I'd heard but didn't like other songs by them
neither = never heard of them before


"There's times I could run you flat out, just surender." - Your Black Star, The Silent Me

York's Wild Kingdom

C, K, and I (along with K's husband and his friend) went to York's Wild Kingdom yesterday. It was the first time that any of us had been there for twenty years, and neither of the guys, having both grown up down south, ever went there. It's interesting to return to a place like that after so long. I have no idea what has changed, because my memories of the place are all a bit fuzzy.

The most amusing part of the zoo visit was the fact that K thought that this duck was following her. It was, but she thought it was acting in a sinister way. I think he was just hoping for food. On our bestest behavior, we didn't tell her that it was amused that she waddles like it does =) Nah, that joke would be more appropriate in another month or two.


I was sad to learn that K and JJ are going to be stationed in NC again early next year. Sigh. It was nice having them in Maine while it lasted. We're going to try to get together in November, before their baby is born.

After we left the zoo, we went to the beach for a while. York beach is almost as ugly as Hampton beach. This far north is not known for their beautiful beaches, and I find the idea of beaches lined with parking meters to be sort of depressing.

All in all it was a fun day. Who knew that I'd still be hanging out with friends from college a decade after I graduated. It's nice.


"And you and I will find that when I need you I need it quickly. In fact, you'll never know" - Manchester Orchestra, I've Got Friends <-- mp3

Sequels?

I've been thinking about a couple of sequels that might come out. At this point I have all the faith in this happening as I do seeing the Fraggle Rock movie that was supposed to come out this year, but has been pushed off another couple of years. Well, I don't think I'll actually see the Fraggle Rock movie, but you know what I mean. Maybe you do. I don't know.

Anyway... The first movie of dubious destiny is a sequel to Silent Hill. Rumors that there's going to be a sequel have abounded since the first movie came out. I've probably seen Silent Hill a dozen times since dragging poor C to see it three years ago (I so did not realize the last 20 minutes would be that gory. She was not impressed. What can I say? I never played the games.) and at first I really wanted them to continue where they left off. Would Rose and Sharon ever get back to the real world? Now I don't really care. I'd watch a sequel, but if it's about something else, that's fine. Will they ever make this rumored sequel? Time will tell.

A sequel rumored for far far longer would be the sequel to The Boondock Saints. It's been a decade since the first movie, and about nine and a half years since rumors about a sequel began. Supposedly it'll finally come out on October 30th, but I'm not holding my breath. I know, you're wondering how this movie became one of my favorites, right? Besides the fact that I've always appriciated hitmen flicks, I studied Freud in pysch classes and thought that most of his theories were baseless. Then I saw this movie, and realized he's not wrong about guns. You know the two scenes were the twins pray and then shoot someone at the same time? Depite the fact that neither of the brothers is much to look at, that's about the hottest scene in a movie that I can think of where everyone stays fully clothed. So, yeah, I'd like to see a sequel eventually...


"You dont care who lies to you. You've finally found something to do. Don't it make your black eyes blue?" Summercamp, Drawer <--I was totally in love with this song in 97.

Who Steals Mail?!

The network adapter I have for wireless internet has developed a nasty habit of overheating and losing connection to the internet over and over again. So, after asking for some advice about Windows 7 compatability (I bought this current adapter because my old one wouldn't play with Vista) given I hate Vista and will probably upgrade to Windows 7 eventually, I found one with good reviews and ordered it. Then waited and waited for it to arrive. Why, if it arrived in Nashua on Thursday, was it still there through Monday afternoon? Wait wait wait...

The box finally came yesterday. It felt really light too. When I opened it I discovered that the box had been retaped and contained only a crumpled packing slip. F*ck!

Our post office wondered if it could have been a neighbor who swiped it. Um, no. First, none of our neighbors is that sort of person, and second, whoever did it retaped the box - how many of our neighbors have packing tape on hand? Besides, it was only scanned into our post office less than 24 hours before it was delievered, so someone would have to have been camped by the mailboxes to get ahold of it so quickly. I can't believe a neighbor would have gone to the trouble over a mystery box.

At first I assumed that it was a problem with Nashua's post office, since the tracking on the package said it sat in that city so long, but wiki lead me to discover that there's an Amazon warehouse in Nashua, so it probably wasn't at the post office in Nashua all that time.

Fortunately, my grim imaginings that Amazon would give me the runaround over it didn't come to pass, and I got an apologetic response to my e-mail this morning with a promise to send me a replacement immediately. I should have it by Saturday. Maybe. The empty box was supposed to have arrived the day before it did, so I won't hold my breath that I'll be able to have a functioning network adapter before Tuesday.

But really, who steals outgoing mail? Odds are greater that it was one of the employees who opened the box, took out my item, mangled the packing slip and put more tape on it than someone at the post office who'd have no idea what was in the box. Aren't most people smart enough to realize that the customer isn't going to shrug off spending $35 for an empty box? At Amazon or the post office, I hope whoever it is gets caught before someone else gets an empty box in the mail.


"You don't want a taste of the fantasies that I create." - Riddlin' Kids, Stop the World

August Music

Same deal as last month: If I can link to a song I added to my music collection this past month, I will.

Adelitas Way - So What If You Go
Against Me - Don't Lose Touch
Alanis Morissette - One
Albert Hammond Jr - GFC
Amy MacDonald - This Is The Life
Amy Ray - Pennies On The Track
Angela Desveaux - Shape You
Army of Robots - Too Close
Ash - Goldfinger
Assembly of Dust - Samuel Aging
Ayo - Down On My Knees
Babygravy - You Set Me On Fire
Bang Sugar Bang - The Machine Gun Song
Battlelion - Tempter they got the name from He-Man, right?
Benjamin E. Morsberger - Don't Forget To Regret
Biffy Clyro - That Golden Rule
Black Carl - Hussy
Blackout101 - Too Cool
Bloc Party - Blue Light
Blue October Say It if you've only heard "independently happy" check them out again
Bombay Bicycle Club - Evening Morning
Brian Borcherdt - Scout Leader
Butterfly Assassins - Give It A Chance mp3
Cage - Look At What You Did
Caledonia - Restless Year mp3
Carbon Leaf - Lake Of Silver Bells
Carbon Leaf - Pink
Carbon Leaf - What Have You Learned?
Chris Cornell - Enemy
Circulatory System - Overjoyed
Cityzen - Restless
Civalias - We've Got Company
Covenant - We Stand Alone
Dead Confederate - The Rat
Deep Samadhi - The Stake
Dido - Don't Believe in Love
Diving With Andy - Sugar Sugar
Eels - Fresh Blood
Eisley - Taking Control
Ely Guerra - Tengo Frio (trans "I'm Cold")
Fobia- Mas Caliente Que el Sol (trans "Hotter Than The Sun")
Frank Black - Calistan
Freda - Far Away (Guitar Mix)
Giant Ears - Fake Hotel
Gomez - Airstream Driver
Great Northern - Houses
Hatcham Social - Murder In The Dark
Holler - Follow
Io Echo - Addicted
Kaki King - I Think She Knows (Justin Timberlake cover)
Kat Frankie - Fake
Kings of Leon - Closer
Kyle Andrews - Sushi
Love Song Of The Month - Valerie Loves Me (Material Issue cover)
Margot and the Nuclear So and So's - A Children's Crusade on Acid
Margot and the Nuclear So and So's - Pages Written on a Wall
Marvelous 3 - Reelin' in the Years (Steely Dan cover)
Motorbaby - So Surprised
Muggabears - The Goth Tarts
Nickel Creek - Helena
PJ Harvey & John Parish - Black Hearted Love
Richelle Putnam - See The Boy
Sean Paul - Temperature (yet another DDR song sneaks into my MP3 collection)
Tape Deck Mountain - In the Dirt
The Dandy Warhols - Now You Love Me
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 3
The Papertiger Sound - Cold Fingers, Smiling (I recognize the singer. Any ideas where from?)
The Pierces - Kill! Kill! Kill!
The Ropes - Be My Gun
The Tender Box - Beautiful Sin
To All Our Saviors - Falling & Crawling
VAST - A Better Place
Wes Carr - You
Wiretree - Big Coat
Your Black Star - The Silent Me
Your Somber Ghost - Breath
Zinc - The Morning After


Bold = I have other of their songs
Italics = heard other of their songs, but didn't like them
neither = bands new to me


"I could have swore I saw a spark, but then again it was probably just my desperate heart." - Composer A, October <--mp3

Sparklepires

It didn't seem right to make fun of Twilight when I'd only seen the movie, so I forced myself through the bloated book. The book isn't quite as absurd as the movie (the movie version of Bella's interest in Edward was more baffling) but even trying to picture myself as a fourteen-year-old, I still can't find the reason for the outpour of love for the book; which might be more than a wee bit hypocritical given I saw these Team Eric shirts this weekend and my Id yelled about wanting one. The most positive thing I can say about the Twilight book is that I was expecting worse writing.

There is one part of the book that's glossed over in the movie that makes me a little uneasy: Bella looks up the, um, symptoms of vampirism, and while the websites don't mention sparkling, they do say that vampires are colder to the touch than normal, extemely pale, and have eyes that change color. Yikes. I've said before I'm often colder than everyone else, my skin is as pale as milk, and my eyes roam the blue-gray-green palettes depending on my mood and health. Do I need to be wary of teenage girls holding wooden stakes? I've already admitted to vastly prefering this vampire to this one, surely that's already a strike against me...


"My vampire, my vampire's fine. My vampire, my vampire's OK. He wants to break the rules I've made. He wants to crash my castle gate. Prince of Darkness you woke up too late." - Soho Dolls, My Vampire

Design Star

Okay, I'll admit it. Even though I generally rag on people who watch a lot of reality shows, I do watch them occasionally myself. There's no Last Comic Standing this year (my favorite came in 3rd last year, and my 2nd favorite won) so I've been drawn into something else...

I love this show. Truly. I can't believe that I missed three seasons of this! There are only 4 of the 10 contestants left, so I've already had the pleasure of watching all the annoying people get booted. This week was a little harsh, though, because even though I didn't like Jason at first, he grew on me.

I'm hoping Torie goes next, because she's my least favorite of the ones remaining and it's clear that the judges weren't impressed with her presenting. I'm rooting for Antonio to win, but I like Lonni too, and Dan too to some degree though he's a bit too young and relentlessly cheerful to be taken seriously. Dan's apple-themed white room challenge was beyond belief, though which makes it clear he's a good designer, so who knows, maybe he'll beat Lonni out for second before the end.

This week one of the judges called Antonio the "Tony Soprano of design" which I think was a good thing. Besides the fact that he's a darn good designer, I'm tickled by the idea of a tattoo'd straight 40 year old guy possibly winning the show. Not so much for an easy on the eyes factor (unlike say, Frank Fontana) but more like Angelo Surmelis, who I always think of as "Interior Design with Lex Luthor." Yes, always. I've watched an ungodly amount of HGTV at my mother's behest over the years.

If Antonio wins, I might even watch his show on my own.

"Cold. I wanna be keepin' you warm. I got the right temperature for shelter you from the storm" - Sean Paul, Temperature

Point Of Prayer

Prayer is one of those things that non-believers like to bring up as a gotcha, asking why we faithful continue to pray when all prayers are not answered. The thing is, though, that they are all answered. But, as some wisely point out, sometimes the answer is no.

I'll admit that I pray as much out of habit as piety. There are those with unshakable faith in God, but I'm not one of those people. I'm not entirely convinced that there is anyone listening to us, but I'm more convinced than not. So I pray and hope that I'm not wrong about God, an after life, salvation.

Prayer isn't just about asking for things for yourself and others. It's also a way to direct yourself towards things within your power. While it's true that my newest prayers do include asking that an *elderly friend regains his health, that Flora remains safe, and that friends have easy deliveries and perfect babies, but I also pray lately that I will be more productive when it comes to writing, that I'll resist temptations - sweets mostly. I have more of a will to avoid other excesses - and waste no further energy on men who are unattainable (maybe I'll finally learn to not be fooled by those who are attached but take a damn long time to get around to mentioning girlfriends) and really, those are things within my control. Mostly. So, one of the values of prayer is to force yourself to contemplate what you need to do to be a better person. If some spiritual entity is helping us get there, all the better. Another is to make you evaluate your weaknesses honestly, which is something that the world could do with a lot more people doing.

I do have more faith than to shrug and say "it can't hurt" but I don't fault those people much either. CYA is a legitimate strategy as long as it doesn't harm anyone else, and it's hard to think of ways that prayer can hurt anyone. Of course, I also don't think we should pray for the favored outcomes of things as frivolous as sporting events or as serious as war.


* When I saw him today I told him that I'm keeping him in my thoughts. I've known him for eight years and religion has never come up, so I'm not sure how he'd feel about being prayed for. I hope good, but you never know.


"Lie awake, lie awake because you don't know who you are. Lie awake, lie awake because you know just who you are." - Wyrick, Inside Out

Immigration Woes

Right now a nice boy is hurting, and there's nothing we can do about it. The whole situation strikes me as damn unfair, too.

Vynce met *Joe a year after I met C, and they've been best friends ever since. He was a nice kid then, and still is at twenty-five. It's still a little hard to think of the gangly 14-year-old I once met as a grownup, but he is, of course. Three years ago Joe met a girl, Flora, from Indonesia and started dating her a couple of years ago. He's been saving up money to buy her a ring.

A few months ago Flora discovered that her mother had never applied for citizenship for her and her siblings after being granted a visa to escape danger at home; she was still a child when they arrived here, and was under the impression that citizenship had been an issue settled years ago. It was a terrible shock to both Flora and Joe, but they jumped through all the required legal hoops in hopes of getting the immigration folks to change their minds.

Flora, along with her siblings and Mom, are being deported in less than a week.

They're being told that she only has to stay in Indonesia for a year before being granted a fiancée visa, but it's still so damn unfair. Why is it that an illegal alien from Mexico can stay here even after committing other crimes, but a girl who did nothing but believe her mother that they were here legally is being sent back to the danger she once escaped? Issues of immigration are a lot broader than our issues with Mexico, but no one seems to remember that.

At least not until a nice boy is hurt after trying to do everything right.

* Joe and Flora are similar to their real names. I know Flora probably isn't an Indonesian name.



"We're all just shades of gray in a long and frantic race to catch a dying day (I just want to get through the day.) For one second I'd slit your throat, spill blood across the floor. Put an end to this game." - The Killing Moon, Subject A

Yahoo Answers

Does anyone else amuse themselves by giving sarcastic answers to questions at Yahoo Answers? I don't always give a sarcastic answer, since there are some earnest questions which deserve real answers. But...deliberately stupid questions and ones asking you to do their homework deserve insincere answers.

How can you resist questions like these?

Question: How to make a man penis rise with out touching it?
Answer: Study to be a magician. Then, develop a commanding voice and tell it "Rise Penis, Rise!!" If you're a good magician, it'll respond to your command. But the way magic tricks are, you might need to use some fishing line to pull the trick off.

Question: In What Ways is Batman a Byronic Hero? Give examples if you could
Answer: He's a ladies man, but not interested in settling down. Byron mentions utility belts in several of his poems.

Question: Is it annoying to moan a whole lot during sex?

Answer: It is for the neighbors listening.

Question: What is an occupation that has changed over the past 50 years?
Answer: Being a student. Used to be that students had to do their own homework, now they just ask people on the internet to do it for them.

The best part is two of the above answers were voted as "best answer" by readers. heh.

As a total aside, my home torture device arrived in the mail today. I expected this epilator to hurt quite a bit more, but it's not so bad. It sure doesn't induce screams like the Epilady from the 80s was rumored to. I wonder if any guy has been talked into trying it yet. Imagine not having to shave your beard for a month.


"Tonight make me unstoppable and I will charm, I will slice, I will dazzle, I will outshine them all" - Bloc Party, The Prayer