Saturday, December 31, 2016

Saturday Verse: "New Year" - Langston Hughes


LEAVES 
The years
Fall like dry leaves
From the top-less tree
Of eternity.
Does it matter
That another leaf has fallen?

                                              - Langston Hughes

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Music for Your Midweek: Glen Campbell -"Good Riddance (Green Day Cover)"


12/26/2016

Couldn't find a more fitting tribute to this crapshoot of a year. Sing it, Glen:


Friday, December 23, 2016

December Mix: Cry If You Want To


12-12-2016


After the sucker punch that was the first couple weeks of November, I just could not get it together enough to make a mix. THAT'S HOW BAD IT WAS YOU GUYS. Everything is so strange in this new world we're moving into. I already didn't know my place in the world we were in before, so I'll just keep on this aimless floating till I hit some ship. Here's all the confusion of the past month (past year, past 3 years?) all wrapped up in song form. A retro-heavy soundtrack to not being so excited for the future. Next one will be more hopeful guys, I'm really trying.

1. Plastic - Moses Sumney


2. It's My Party (Prod. by Mark Ronson) - Amy Winehouse + Quincy Jones


3. We Can Work It Out - Stevie Wonder


4. Harvey - Alex G


5. Ojos Del Sol - Y La Bamba


6. Ivan (Revisited) - Von Sell Electronic


7. Constant Craving - Annie Gardiner


8. Never Going Back - Caveman



9. Special Night - Lee Fields & The Expressions


10. DsharpG - Sharon Van Etten


11. Everybody Loves the Sunshine - Roy Ayers


12. My Big Nurse - Brian Eno & David Byrne


13. All This Time - Sting


14. Heroes - Peter Gabriel


15. Eleven - Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (Stranger Things Soundtrack)


16. Corpus Christi Carol (For Roy) - Jeff Buckley



NOTES:
1. Bless my soul his voice is heaven
2. Me post-election
3. Me trying as imaginary referee in all my friends facebook fights post-election. Anyone else notice that we are speaking different languages? Like we are totally talking past each other? Who can be translator? ALSO. This song is better than the Beatles original for real.
4. I'm a sucker for this kind of music. Jeremy sent to me and it immediately brought tears to my eye. WHY?
9. After I saw Lee Fields and the Expressions I took this picture home walking to the car:


10: "Everyone thinks I'm a liar/Walking on the edge of fire with you"
13: I watched The Last Ship with my mom back in November. It wasn't too memorable, but it did make me remember how great some of Stings old songs were.
14. One more time. Truly heavenly:


Saturday, December 17, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Winter Field" - Ellen Bryant Voigt


WINTER FIELD 
The winter field is not
the field of summer lost in snow: it is
another thing, a different thing. 
"We shouted, we shook you," you tell me,
but there was no sound, no face, no fear, only
oblivion— why shouldn't it be so? 
After they'd pierced a vein and fished me up,
after they'd reeled me back they packed me under
blanket on top of blanket, I trembled so. 
The summer field, sun-fed, mutable,
has its many tasks; the winter field
becomes its adjective.
                                   For those hours
I was some other thing, and my body,
which you have long loved well,
did not love you.

                                                         - Ellen Bryant Voigt 

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Music for Your Midweek: Belle and Sebastian - "Fox in the Snow"

Are you enjoying it? This time?





Belle and Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister turned 20 this month, and not a single bit of it has faded. Here's one of my all-time favorite tracks from that album:


Saturday, November 19, 2016

Saturday Verse: Jo'lene Dailey - "What I Want to do Most of the Time"



11-12-2016


WHAT I WANT TO DO MOST OF THE TIME 
It feels like I need
To go to my dad's house
And when I'm at my dad's house
I want to go to my mom's house
I want to be at both houses 
                             - Jo'lene Dailey

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Many Voices Speak - "Blue Moon"

11-12-2016


All this moon talk the past couple days. Just looking for something pretty up there cause things down here on earth are cracking. But I guess that's ok too. Let's just try to have a nice time:




And another favorite mooney cover for old times sake:

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Music for Your Midweek: Three songs that are getting me through


10-29-2016


How are you feeling post-election? I think I've gone through every stage of grief, and ended up on ... hopeful.

For reals.

Here are some songs to help:






Saturday, November 5, 2016

Saturday Verse: 'Untitled" - James Baldwin



11-02-16


UNTITLED 
Lord,
          when you send the rain
          think about it, please
          a little?
Do
          not get carried away
          by the sound of falling water,
          the marvelous light
          on the falling water.
I
          am beneath that water.
          It falls with great force
          and the light
Blinds
          me to the light.
                                                      - James Baldwin 

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Mad Girl's Love Song" - Sylvia Plath



Happy Halloweekend


10-29-2016


MAD GIRL'S LOVE SONG 
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.) 
The starts go waltzing our in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. 
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.) 
God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. 
I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.) 
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.) 
                                                        - Sylvia Plath

Who needs to wander a spook alley when we are all walking haunted houses?

Friday, October 28, 2016

October Mix: The Death of Me

10-28-2016

I love this phrase, "the death of me". It can describe the worst, most annoying thing. Or the best thing if you're into eliminating the ego. Take it how you want! You're the boss of your own experience:

1. I Put A Spell On You - Annie Lennox



2. Can't Seem To Make You Mine - The Seeds



3. Sunglasses at Night - Cory Hart



4. Radio, Radio - Elvis Costello & The Attractions 



5. Save Us - Tracy Chapman



6. Marrow - ANOHNI



7. Dark Turn of Mind - Gillian Welch



8. Tin Foiled - Andrew Bird



9. Cry, Cry Darling - Chris Thile & Michael Daves



10. Keep Your Name - Dirty Projectors



11. Blank Space (Taylor Swift Cover) - Ryan Adams



12. Lie In The Sound - Trespassers William



13. Blackberry Song - Kurt Vile



14. Atlantique Sud - M83 Feat. Mai Lan



15. Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall - Coldplay



NOTES:
1. Get it, girl. Spooky time. Remember this?
2. Thanks, Stranger Things!
3. This song is this. Also, listened to this song on the regular in real life WHAT WAS I THINKING. She's just being Miley, guys.
4. Everyone still loving all the election coverage?????
5. For real.
6. This album... was not for me. But I quite like this track.
7. "I want to electrify my soul"
8. Click here if you want to waste hours with literally all of my favorite people.
9. I love them, and they're too loud everything. There's nothing better than singing like this.
10. You already know how I feel.
11. According to my brother, Ryan Adams knows all the pinball tricks. That's the only fact I have.
12. You know I'm a sucker for any song featured on the WB/CW
13. Give me more of those kaleidoscope sounds.
14. Just lovely.
15. You know you're almost thirty when this song makes you tear up every time you listen to it. And here we go again if you want to remember to love Chris Martin a little more.





Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Darkstar - "Deadness"

10-16-2016 Site A/Plot M

I visited a nuclear reactor graveyard on Sunday as part of a walk-about with Deep Time Chicago. (Day of rest, indeed!) This song is a pretty good accompaniment to that experience:


If you would like to read more about the experience (and to see a photo of me with my arms crossed, looking thoughtful-ish) click here. Maybe we should start our own Anthropocene discussion/walk-about group in Salt Lake City?

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Music for your Midweek: The Dirty Projectors - "Keep Your Name"

10-2-2016


Uffff. This song has been twisting the knife since it was released a couple weeks ago. Impregnable Question is one of my favorite love songs, and the way it's sampled in this track is devastating.
No hyperbole. Made me cry. Big surprise:

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Housekeeping" - Natasha Trethewey

9-28-2016


HOUSEKEEPING
We mourn the broken things, chair legs
wrenched from their seats, chipped plates,
the threadbare clothes. We work the magic
of glue, drive the nails, mend the holes.
We save what we can, melt small pieces
of soap, gather fallen pecans, keep neck bones
for soup. Beating rugs against the house,
we watch dust, lit like stars, spreading
across the yard. Late afternoon, we draw
the blinds to cool the rooms,  drive the bugs
out. My mother irons, singing, lost in reverie.
I mark the pages of a mail-order catalog,
listen for passing cars. All day we watch
for the mail, some news from a distant place. 

                                                       - Natasha Trethewey

Friday, September 30, 2016

September Mix: dusky by stars

9-28-2016


I've started running again, which mean my mixes have improved. Good news for you, good news for my muscles. Trying to make more room for the things I like, and get rid of things I don't. Blah blah blah. Anyway, here's the result. I like it quite a bit IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF.

*Mix title from this poem

1. Summers Over Interlude - Drake



2. Vitamin C - CAN



3. How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths



4. The Worst In You - Andy Shauf



5. The Glow Pt. 2 - The Microphones




6. Edge of Town - Middle Kids



7. Hi-Definition - Lupe Fiasco Feat. Snoop Dogg & Pooh Bear



8. California Dreamin' - Bobby Womack



9. If It Makes You Happy - Sheryl Crow



10. No Cars Go - Arcade Fire



11. Good Bye - Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin



12. Sunday Night 1987 - M83



13. Acrobat - Angel Olsen



14. Orphan Girl - Gillian Welch




NOTES:
1. I like Drake but I'm not allowed to listen to him to much anymore so here's this.
2. These drums are sick for real. Hypnotizing. Shout out to The Get-Down for inspiring me so much, I've only watched the first episode so I can draw it out and make it last longer.
3. A Public Service Announcement:
In the song, Morrissey sings, "I am the son / and the heir" and not "I am the sun / and the air" like I thought he sang my whole freaking life.
4. Cutie
5. I could not get through September without a battle / I faced death / I went in with my arms swinging / but I heard my won breath / and I had to face that I'm still living
6. This song is part of my daily dance workout. Video forthcoming.
7. Thanks Julia
8. Bobby Womak - voice like honey - bless my heart
9. My new karaoke jam once someone invites me to karaoke. Also love this cover version.
10. Women and children
      LET'S GO
11. These two.

I mean, really.
12. I am a 1987 Sunday night kind of girl. Literally.
13. Learned how to play this one on guitar a couple years ago and it's still stuck in my heart.
14. Bonus Emmylou Harris cover:



Sunday, September 25, 2016

Saturday Verse (on a Sunday): "Rice" - Chun Yang Hee

9-15-2016


RICE 
To you you eat a lot of rice because you are lonely
To you who sleep a lot because you are bored
To you who cry a lot because you are sad
I write this down.
Chew on your feelings that are cornered
Like you would chew on rice.
Anyway life if something that you need to digest. 
                                                              - Chun Yang Hee

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Saturday Verse: "And The Days Are Not Full Enough" - Ezra Pound

8-29-2016


AND THE DAYS ARE NOT FULL ENOUGH 
And the days are not full enough
And the nights are not full enough
And life slips by like a field mouse
     Not shaking the grass

                                                    - Ezra Pound

Monday, August 29, 2016

August Mix: Goldtone

8-21-2016


Second verse, same as the first. A little bit louder and a little bit worse. If you're looking for a good time, this mix is not it, though it gets a bit more hopeful at the end. See you at school:


1. Bad Religion - Frank Ocean



2. Present Tense - Radiohead



3. Armonica - Darkstar



4. Lady Of The Ark - Kyle Craft



5. Snowflakes Are Dancing - Kurt Vile



6. Diddy Bop (ft. Raury & Cam O'bi) - Noname



7. Oh Marie - Sheryl Crow



8. Girl Called Alex (3.2.14) - Lady Lamb



9. Familiar - Agnes Obel



10. To Whom It May Concern - Rodriguez



11. The Things I Regret - Brandi Carlile



12. Always Love - Nada Surf



13. Stand By Me (Live At The Late Show With David Letterman) - Tracy Chapman




NOTES:
1. In honor of Frank Ocean long-awaited new album, even though I probably won't give it a listen for a good long while.
5. "Disc man is pumping
    headphones are loud
    chilling on a pillowy cloud"
                       *my version of the lyrics
6. Everyone watching The Get Down or what? If it were set today, this song would be in it.
9. I've missed you, Agnes Obel. Just in time for fall weather music.
12. Soundtrack to all your favorite WB teen shows


BONUS TRACK:

The song this mix is named after. Managed to cram 3 of his songs on one page. Kurt Vile is a gem and a poet. I'm am beyond pleased I got to sneak in and see him perform a couple weeks ago. His songs are too much and I'm getting sensitiv-er and sensitiv-er by the minute:



"I might be adrift,
but I'm still alert
concentrate my hurt
into a gold tone"


Thursday, August 25, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Gretchen and Julia - "Lovefool" (Cardigans cover)

Back, due to "popular" demand! 


Trying to do this for real, maybe. Leave me a comment for details ;)

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Saturday Verse: "My Doubt" - Jane Hirshfield



August 15th, 2016

MY DOUBT 
I wake, doubt, beside you,
like a curtain half-open. 
I dress doubting,
like a cup
undecided if it has been dropped. 
I eat doubting,
work doubting,
go out to a dubious cafe with skeptical friends. 
I go to sleep doubting myself,
as a herd of goats
sleep in a suddenly gone-quiet truck. 
I dream you, doubt,
nightly–
for what is the meaning of dreaming
if not that all we are while inside it
is transient, amorphous, in question? 
Left hand and right hand,
doubt, you are in me,
throwing a basketball, guiding my knife and my fork.
Left knee and right knee,
we run for a bus,
for a meeting that surely will end before we arrive. 
I would like
to grow conent in you, doubt,
as a double-hung window
settles obedient into its hidden pulleys and ropes. 
I doubt I can do so:
your own counterweight governs my nights and my days. 
As the knob of hung lead holds steady
the open mouth of a window,
you hold me,
my kneeling before you resistant, stubborn,
offering these furious praises
I can't help but doubt you will ever be able to hear.

                                                                       - Jane Hirshfield


Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Brandi Carlile - "The Story"

August 13th, 2016
A concert with a view


I went to the Brandi Carlile concert up at Deer Valley on Saturday night, and ugly cried through this whole song. Thank goodness it was dark:


Saturday, August 13, 2016

Saturday Verse: "For Mohammed Zeid, Age 15" - Naomi Shihab Nye

June 11th, 2016

FOR MOHAMMED ZEID, AGE 15
There is no stray bullet, sirs. 
No bullet like a worried cat
crouching under a bush.
no half-hairless puppy bullet
dodging midnight streets.
The bullet could not be a pecan
plunking the tin roof,
not hardly, no fluff of pollen
on October's breath,
no humble pebble in the street. 
So don't gentle it, please. 
We live among stray thoughts,
tasks abandoned midstream.
Our fickle hearts are fat
with stray devotions, we feel at home
among bits and pieces,
all the wandering ways of words. 
But this bullet had no innocence, did not
wish anyone well, you can't tell us otherwise
by naming it mildly, this bullet was never the friend
of life, should not be granted immunity
by soft saying–friendly fire, straying death-eye,
why have we given the wrong weight to what we do? 
Mohammed, Mohammed,  deserves the truth. 
This bullet had no secret happy hopes,
it was not singing to itself with eyes closed under the bridge
like the exiled lady in her precious faded hat.


                                                                    - Naomi Shihab Nye

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Saturday Verse: "God Says Yes To Me" - Kaylin Haught

August 4th, 2016


GOD SAYS YES TO ME 
I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

                                                    - Kaylin Haught

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Loud Music" - Stephen Dobyns



Anderson .Paak
July 28th, 2016


LOUD MUSIC

My stepdaughter and I circle round and round.
You see, I like the music loud, the speakers
throbbing, jam-packing the room with sound whether
Bach or rock and roll, the volume cranked up so
each bass note is like a hand smacking the gut.
But my stepdaughter disagrees. She is four
and likes the music decorous, pitched below
her own voice–that tenuous projection of self.
With music blasting, she feels she disappears,
is lost within the blare, which in fact I like.
But at four what she wants is self-location
and uses her voice as a porpoise uses
its sonar: to find herself in all this space.
If she had a sort of box with a peephole
and looked inside, what she'd like to see would be
herself standing there in her red pants, jacket,
yellow plastic lunch box: a proper subject
for serious study. But me, if I raised
the same box to my eye, I would with to find
the ocean on one of those days with wind
and thick cloud make the water gray and restless
as if some creature brooded underneath,
a rocky coast with a road along the shore
where someone like me was walking and has gone.
Loud music does this, it wipes out the ego,
leaving turbulent water and winding road,
a landscape stripped of people and language–
how clear the air becomes, how sharp the colors.

                                                           - Stephen Dobyns

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Anderson .Paak - "The Bird"

July 23rd, 2016


Going to Twilight all on my lonesome to Anderson .Paak do his thing live, and in person. He's too good and none of ya'll know.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Beyond Recall" - Sharon Bryan

BEYOND RECALL 
Nothing matters
to the dead,
that's what's so hard 
for the rest of us
to take in–
their complete indifference 
to our enticements,
our attempts to get in touch–
they aren't observing us 
from a discreet distance,
they aren't listening
to a word we say– 
you know that
but you don't believe it,
even deep in a cave 
you don't believe
in total darkness,
you keep waiting 
for your eyes to adjust
and reveal your hand
in front of your face– 
so how long a silence
will it take to convince us
that we're the ones 
who no longer exist,
 as far as X is concerned
and Y, that they're forgotten 
every little thing
they knew about us,
what we told them 
and what we didn't
have to, even our names
mean nothing to them 
now–our throats ache
with all we might have said
the next time we saw them.

                                  - Sharon Bryan

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Saturday Verse: "I Wish in the City of Your Heart" - Robley Wilson



June 3rd, 2016

I WISH IN THE CITY OF YOUR HEART 
I wish in the city of your heart
you would let me be the street
where you walk when you are most
yourself. I imagine the houses:
It has been raining, but the rain
is done and the children kept home
have begun opening their doors. 


                                  - Robley Wilson

Friday, July 15, 2016

July Mix: Summer Sick

July 3rd, 2016

Here we go!

Halfway through!

This summer's going by without being a summer at all

And it's giving me a panic attack



Oh well!


1. Summertime - Kat Edmonson



2. Yes I'm Changing - Tame Impala



3. Two Hands - Mideau



4. Jealous Guy (John Lennon Cover) - Donny Hathaway



5. Nobody Speak (Featuring Run The Jewels) - DJ Shadow



6. Sun - Two Door Cinema Club



7. You And I - Margaret Glaspy



8. A Day's Pay For A Day's Work - Darkstar



9. Both Hands (Over My Eyes) - David Bazan



10. My Heart Is An Apple - Arcade Fire



11. Monad - Chris Cohen



12. Before - Wye Oak



13. Owl Eyes - Devendra Banhart




14. Ticket to Hide - Guided By Voices



15. Can I Stay - Ray LaMontagne



16. Prayer for the Dying - Lisa Hannigan



17. Glass Eyes - Radiohead



18. I Think It's Going To Rain Today - Madeleine Peyroux



NOTES: 
1. Thanks to Bekah for this
2. This is a great song if you are driving through a carwash
5. This is a great song if you love vulgarity and always want to go on a run WHICH I DO
6. This is a great song if you want to pretend it's early summer of 2013 in Provo
9. Be still my heart
10. "I can't explain why it's a sin, the state I'm living in a sin"
18. One of Nick Drake's "favourite songs from his favourite album"



Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Tired" - Langston Hughes




TIRED 
I am so tired of waiting,
Aren't you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two -
and see what worms are eating
At the rind.

                                  - Langston Hughes 

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Music for your Midweek: David Bazan - "Both Hands (Over My Eyes)"

June 26th, 2016


Julia introduced me to this song a few weeks ago, but it wasn't till more recently that I became obsessed. Has all those sad things I like. I listened to it on repeat 17 times on Monday. That should give you a sense of what my Independence Day was like.
Here it is:


Anyway, I prefer the solo version best. Though the original is still just as much as a heart break. I would like to record an acoustic version as soon as I buy a mic so STAY TUNED.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Pearl and the Beard - "River"

I watched Hello, My Name is Doris this past weekend. It was fine enough, and was a good kick in the pants because you know what, things could be worse! And I love Sally Field.

Anyway.

The soundtrack featured Pearl and the Beard who I saw for the first and last time almost a year ago. Here's a nice little song I liked if you are itching for a heartbreak:

Sunday, June 19, 2016

BONUS: Sunday Verse: "Not bad, Dad, not bad" - Jan Heller Levi


NOT BAD, DAD, NOT BAD 
I think you are most yourself when you're swimming;
slicing the water with each stroke,
the funny way you breathe, your mouth cocked
as though you're yawning. 
You're neither fantastic nor miserable
at getting from here to there.
You wouldn't win any medals, Dad,
but you wouldn't drown. 
I think how different everything might have been
had I judged your loving
lie I judge your sidestroke, your butterfly,
your Australian crawl. 
But I always thought I was drowning
in that icy ocean between us,
I always thought you were moving too slowly to save me,
when you were moving as fast as you can.
                                                         
                                                              - Jan Heller Levi

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Rites" - Leonard Cohen

RITES 
Bearing gifts of flowers and sweet nuts
the family came to watch the eldest son,
my father; and stood about his bed
while he lay on a blood-sopped pillow,
his heart half rotted
and his throat dry with regret.
And it seemed so obvious, the smell so present,
quiet so necessary,
but my uncle prophesied wildly,
promising life like frantic oracles;
and they only stopped in the morning,
after he had died
and I had begun to shout.

                                                - Leonard Cohen


It's been three years ago since my dad passed it way.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Chris Cohen - "As If Apart"

Lounge Town
6/13/2016

I went to Kilby Court to see Chris Cohen play last night, and it was a treat. Check it:


Informal poll: How do you feel about living the exact same life you did as a teen? I was talking to a new employee at my office, getting to know each other. She grew up in Salt Lake and we had some mutual friends. We talked about music and going to Kilby Court in highs school, and I realized it was a very "past" thing for her. Like she hasn't been back in 10 years and I'm thinking "hm, can I borrow mom's car to go to a show" JUST LIKE I DID 10 YEARS AGO WHAT IS ALL THIS?

Whatever. It was a nice time.

Artist's Way tells me I'm fine so I'M FINE.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Bear Lament" - Margaret Atwood

BEAR LAMENT

You once believed if you could only
crawl inside a bear, its fat and fur,
lick with its stuffy tongue, take on
its ancient shape, its big paw
big paw big paw big paw
heavy-footed plod that keeps
the world-wide earthwork solid, this would 
save you, in a crisis. Let you enter
into its cold wise ice bear secret
house, as in old stories. In a desperate
pinch. That it would share
its furry winter dreamtime, insulate
you anyway from all the sharp and lethal
shrapnel in the air, and then the other million
cuts and words and fumes
and viruses and blades. But no, 
not anymore. I saw a bear last year,
against the sky, a white one,
rearing up with something of its former
heft. But it was thin as ribs
and growing thinner. Sniffing the brand-new
absences of rightful food
it tastes of ripped-out barren space
erased of meaning. So, scant
comfort there.
     Oh bear, what now?
And will the ground
still hold? And how
much longer?

                                                 - Margaret Atwood 

Miss you, Dad.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Tour" - Carol Snow


6/3/2016

TOUR 
Near a shrine in Japan he'd swept the path
and then placed camelia blossoms there. 
Or—we had no way of knowing—he'd swept the path
between fallen camellias. 

                                                      - Carol Snow 

Friday, June 3, 2016

June MIx: Old New(s)

05/21/2016
This was not a good day.

Some fresh songs, some not-so-fresh, but truly loved songs. Get at it:


1. Social Skills - Naps



2. Can't Get Enough Of Myself - Santigold Feat. B.C



3. Boyfriend - Best Coast



4. Til I Die (Beach Boys cover) - Lightspeed Champion



5. Please Forgive My Heart (Bobby Womack) - Bahamas



6. Hannah Hunt - Vampire Weekend



7. Eye In The Sky - The Alan Parsons Project



8. I Am Chemistry - Yeasayer



9. KAE - Chris Brown



10. Allan Align - Drangsal



11. Where No Eagles Fly - Julian Casablancas + The Voidz



12. No Woman - Whitney



13. The Center Of The World - Bright Eyes



14. Pusher - Alt-J



15. Tapes - The Weather Station




NOTES:
2. Yeeeessss we're all FINE
3. Saw these guys IRL last year, and this song is all I remember but that's good enough, right?
4. Still thinking about it.
6. Still not over it.
7. Never over this song either.
13. Hello teen me! Nothing's changed.
15. Beauty


Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Moses Sumney - "Moanin'"

This is no way to start the first day of June, but I'm feeling the blues for no reason at all. Listening to this stuff alllllll the time.



Bonus:

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Practice" - Ellen Bryant Voigt

May 26th, 2016

PRACTICE 
To weep unbidden, to wake
at night in order to weep, to wait
for the whisker on the face of the clock
to twitch again, moving
the dumb day forward— 
is this merely practice?
Some believe in heaven,
some in rest. We'll float,
you said. Afterward
we'll float between two worlds— 
five bronze beetles
stacked like spoons in one
peony blossom, drugged by lust:
if I came back as a bird
I'd remember that— 
until everyone we love
is safe
is what you said.

                                                - Ellen Bryant Voigt

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Procol Harum - "Too Much Between Us"

May 13, 2016


A lovely little song. That melody in the verses is a sweet thing:

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Saturday Verse: "A Cicada Shell" - Matsuo Basho

May 9th, 2016

A cicada shell;
it sang itself
     utterly away.

                            - Matuso Basho (translated by R.H. Blythe)

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Music for your Midweek: Gallant - "Weight in Gold"

This guy sang at The Depot a couple weeks ago. How can you resist this voice???



And on top of it all, he's just a real person. Gold indeed.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Music for your Midweek: "Your Best American Girl" (Mitski cover) - Gretchen Devine

Well. Long time no sing. Here's a cover that took far too too much time for what ended up making the cut. Out of practice, but eager to keep trying:


And click here for the original. She's coming in July. Check her outttt.

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Saturday Verse: "Special Problems in Vocabulary" - Tony Hoagland


4-29-2016


SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN VOCABULARY 
There is no single particular noun
for the way a friendship,
stretched over time, grows thin,
then one day snaps with a popping sound. 
No verb for accidentally
breaking a thing
while trying to get it open
—a marriage, for example. 
No particular phrase for losing a book
in the middle of reading it,
and therefore never learning the end. 
There is no expression, in English, at least,
for avoiding the sight
of your own body in the mirror,
for disliking the touch 
of the afternoon sun,
for walking into the flatlands and dust
that stretch out before you
after your adventures are done. 
No adjective for gradually speaking less and less,
because you have stopped being able
to say the one thing that would
break your life loose from its grip. 
Certainly no name that one can imagine
for the aspen tree outside the kitchen window,
in spade-shaped leaves 
spinning on their stems,
working themselves into
a pale-green, vegetable blur. 
No word for waking up one morning
and looking around,
because the mysterious spirit 
that drives all things
seems to have returned
and is on your side again. 

                                             - Tony Hoagland