Things that make bring to the mind the question, “Is she the most uncool person alive?”
1. I’m scratching my armpit while writing this.
2. I stayed up the other night until 4am reading an article about Lil’ Wayne and then had a nightmare that I was a drug dealer.
3. I am REALLY excited right now for two reasons – I have NO plans tonight except to write AND the nurse at the doctor’s office was so helpful and got me connected to a new pharmacy. Bite me, CVS!
4. I slept in until noon on Saturday, got up and took a walk, then came back and took a nap. I then slept until noon the next day. Because I’m 14 and apparently experiencing a growth spurt.
5. Last night over dinner I kept repeating, “Oh my god, are these the best fries you’ve ever had? Are they? Oh my god!”
6. I make plans to watch shows on Eastern time even though I live on the West coast. “So the game starts at 6:30?” I say. “3:30, you live in California,” my roommate corrects. “Oh right. Man, why can’t I remember that?”
7. I make a lot of jokes about burning things down. “This is so much fun! We should burn this place down!”
8. I am turning 30 in two weeks and my friend David said today, “Why are you so dramatic? You’ve been thirty since I met you.”
Love you.
H
Why am I up in the middle of the night watching Dolly Parton videos?
Because she’s awesome, that’s why. I have been laughing so hard – but really, I love her.
I was listening to music just now – songs played on guitars and mandolines and banjos – and it filled me with something old and familar. Growing up I was surrounded by stringed instruments – mostly guitars (I learned on my father’s beat-up classical)- but there were ukuleles, mandolines, a fiddle, some kind of harped instrument, even a banjo.
The shape of home for me is a mixture of stained glass and bells (collected by my mother), shelves of brown, burgundy and dark blue dusty books, some pinch of San Francisco, a clear blue lake, old cameras, pictures that reak of chemicals created in our garage, Ancient King James’ Bibles and endless music played on records and tape decks – The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Paul Simon, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil Young, Tracy Chapman, The Cheiftains, Winwood, Clapton, Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, a gospel song here and there, and the sound of my mother’s voice, and my father’s harmony, and the all those stringed instruments tied together in some equisite memory box I’ll never find again – not fully.
Flow gently sweet river, disturb not her dreams…….
Listening to these two songs just now…
To find music (old, new, forgotten), which I am always eager, desperate to do, I am spying, creeping around Nonesuch’s website: http://www.nonesuch.com/
You can even put on the nonesuch radio and it plays through all their artists.
Tonight on the playlist for me is:
1. The Low Anthem
2. The Black Keys (attack and release)
3. Wilco (Being There)
I am tempted to talk about the cover of Rolling Stones this month, which seems to be the only thing I can discuss these days. It’s John Mayer and he’s looking quite healthy. The article, however, is something else. John Mayer on reading his article: “Just read my Rolling Stone cover article. I’m still not sure if I would want to hang out with me.”
But no, more importantly, and more meaningfully (maybe), I’m excitedly going to hear Chris Thile play on Thursday night. Mr. Thile was formerly a part of Nickel Creek. He plays the mandolin in just about the prettiest, most complicated, heart-achingly ways possible. And he’s got a sweet voice to boot. I am hopeful for a night of relief – of music and goodness and the possibility of being lifted up, up, up.
He’s playing at the Largo – which I love. And supposedly he’s not playing with his band? Maybe? It says with friends. Maybe the band is the with friends. None-the-less, his band is incredible too – The Punch Brothers. Nothing like hearing/seeing people do what they love.
Pictures by Matthew Spencer (matthewspencerphotography.com) – taken from Abigail Seymour’s blog.
And these by Autumn De Wilde …
He Owns My Heart. Yes, he does. Yes, he does.
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Achin+All+The+Time+Live/23640227
Gosh, I love The Weepies. Wish the video was clearer.
Nights when the heat had gone out
We danced together alone
Cold turned our breath into clouds
We never said what we were dreaming of
And a new video…don’t love the video, but like the song… especially the chorus.
Inspired by the rain on my way to work, I wrote this…
(I want to be Amy Gerstler).
Rain in Pasadena
Welcome rain. Welcome lady in yellow sweater under black umbrella. Welcome fingerless gloves, stocking caps, wool socks, galoshes. Welcome foggy breath on my driver’s side window. Welcome tea sachet, big mug, long wooden stirrer. Welcome rain. Come wash New Year’s Day away. The muddy mess of celebration. Rose petals, candy wrappers, the footprints of zealous travelers now gone home to their Southern states. Make our streets dark with your down pouring. Dark and clean. Bathe my sap-stained car as it sits beneath our weeping tree. Rinse my dying roses, that ivy I can’t bring to life. Welcome rain. I will look after you, Later, This evening, When my day is done Through the stained glass window of my reading room, Under Sarah’s Christmas gift – An oversized red and chocolate fleece afghan. Welcome rain. Welcome sound, smell, taste. Welcome cliché – make us new! Yes, we beg, Make us new. Welcome scarf tight around my skinny neck. Welcome rain.
