January Mix: Problematic Nineteenager

01-20-2019

I like listening to music again!

1. Buckeye Jim - Burl Ives



2. In Another Life - Foxwarren



3. Faded Dream - Goldmyth



4. Army Dreamers - Kate Bush



5. Moonlight - XXXTENTACION



6. Darling - Real Estate



7. Hungry Heart - Bruce Springsteen



8. Rich Girl - Daryl Hall & John Oates



9. When Love Breaks Down - Prefab Sprout



10. when the party's over - Billie Eilish



11. Here Before - Vashti Bunyan



12. Red Wine & Promises - Mike Waterson, Lal Waterson



13. Your Dog - Soccer Mommy



14. Be the Song - Foy Vance



15. No Matter Where I Roam - Tom Brosseau



16. He Came From The Mountain - Bruce Cockburn



17. Ol' Man River - The Beach Boys



And here it is on Spotify:



NOTES: 
1. When you'd rather live in a Disney movie than real life
2. When you'd rather live in a Andy Shauf party than real life
3. When you'd rather live in a dream than real life
4. When you'd rather be in Kate Bush's army than real life
5. Sorry
6. They made good
7. I'm reading Warm Bodies and wish I was just watching the movie. I think it's my favorite? The soundtrack is the best
8. A banger
9. It slaps
10. This is what the teens are listening to
11. I read a tweet about about a mom saying her daughter talks about her life "from before" and she's 4 years old and it freaked me out so bad I almost couldn't sleep
12. The best best best that you can't hear on Spotify so listen to it here
13. More neu emo
14. More from the Warm Bodies soundtrack
16. The sweetest song that I heard for the first time when Emily Golightly played it at a Christmas acoustic night
17. Always the best harmonies from these brothers

A Poem: "The Birthday of the World" - Marge Piercy

12-28-2018

The birthday of the world

BY MARGE PIERCY

On the birthday of the world

I begin to contemplate

what I have done and left

undone, but this year

not so much rebuilding

of my perennially damaged

psyche, shoring up eroding

friendships, digging out

stumps of old resentments

that refuse to rot on their own.

No, this year I want to call

myself to task for what

I have done and not done

for peace. How much have

I dared in opposition?

How much have I put

on the line for freedom?

For mine and others?

As these freedoms are pared,

sliced and diced, where

have I spoken out? Who

have I tried to move? In

this holy season, I stand

self-convicted of sloth

in a time when lies choke

the mind and rhetoric

bends reason to slithering

choking pythons. Here

I stand before the gates

opening, the fire dazzling

my eyes, and as I approach

what judges me, I judge

myself. Give me weapons

of minute destruction. Let

my words turn into sparks.

December Mix: DrEaMO

12-11-2018

There she is:

1. Saturday - Real Estate

2. No Fear of Hellfire - Nap Eyes

3. Shipbuilding - Robert Wyatt

4. Alone (feat. Lily Elise) - Twin Shadow

5. I'm Not Scared - Tomberlin

6. Sunday Light - Choir Boy

7. Caledonia, My Love - Hiss Golden Messenger

8. Bring Your Love To Me - The Avett Brothers

9. Beautiful - Bazzi

10. Imagining My Man - Aldous Harding

11. Necessary Evil - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

12. We Were Meant to Be Together - Tom Brosseau

13. Palace (Sam Smith Cover) - Cam

14. Show You a Body - Haley Heynderickx

15. Smoke Signals - Phoebe Bridgers

16. L'Inconnue - Beach House

A poem: "Day in Autumn" Rainer Maria Rilke

11-23-2018

I subscribed to the Poetry Foundation's daily poems and it was a great decision. Today's:

Day in Autumn

BY RAINER MARIA RILKE

TRANSLATED BY MARY KINZIE

After the summer's yield, Lord, it is time 

to let your shadow lengthen on the sundials 

and in the pastures let the rough winds fly. 

As for the final fruits, coax them to roundness. 

Direct on them two days of warmer light 

to hale them golden toward their term, and harry 

the last few drops of sweetness through the wine. 

Whoever's homeless now, will build no shelter; 

who lives alone will live indefinitely so, 

waking up to read a little, draft long letters,   

and, along the city's avenues, 

fitfully wander, when the wild leaves loosen.

Another Mix: Ember

11-16-2018

Hi!

From too little to too much music. I'm trying in podcasts for music at work, which means more and more mixes, for better or for worse. Here's Ember

1. Country - Porches



2. Rollin' With The Flow - Charlie Rich



3. Baltimore - Randy Newman



4. Die Young (Rhye Remix) - Sylvan Esso



5. breathin - Ariana Grande



6. Sympathy (feat. Rainsford) - Twin Shadow, Rainsford



7. passionfruit - Yaeji



8. Silent All These Years - Tori Amos



9. It Is What It Is - Kacey Musgraves



10. The Bug Collector - Haley Heynderickx



11. Standing in the Doorway - Hiss Golden Messenger



12. Brighter! - Cass McCombs



13. Goccia - Christina Dona



14. Asheville Skies - The Milk Carton Kids



15. Dark Room (Demo) - Choir Boy




And you can listen on Spotify here:

Don't miss the election

I revisited the ol' blog back in July and found this forgotten draft from before the election:

"When the election has ended, one candidate will come out victorious. But that doesn't mean their supporters or detractor will dissapear. Friends, neighbors, and strangers will still be there. Ways of thinking will still be there. Those core beliefs and issues will still need to be met, challenged, debated and considered. Our work won't end on November 8th, it should be just beginning."

At the time, I was confident of a Hilary Clinton win, and anxious to leave the sideshow of the election in the past. Opinion pieces were saying that they were ready for the election to be over so that there could be some sort of return to normalcy. Reading these old op-eds are a strange sort of time travel, and living history lessons. I hope I can learn from that past.

I was sitting in a GRE math prep class the day of the election. One kids mentioned he was winning Florida, and then more chimed in with updates, and I just started crying and had to leave. I sat at home alone, and put my wasted "I Voted" sticker on a framed print in my living room.

Lighting every candle, crossing every finger, and adding a bunch of Canadian universities to my grad school list, just in case 😥 #imstillwithhill

A post shared by gretchen devine (@gretchdevine) on Nov 8, 2016 at 8:20pm PST

It's still there. It was supposed to serve as a reminder not to be complacent, but it hasn't really worked. We have a chance tomorrow to do something about it. Let's try.

November Mix: Never (Always) Alone, Always (Never) at Home

10-16-2018

1. Your Wildest Dreams - The Moody Blues



2.  Alone - Halsey



3. Look What I Found - Lady Gaga



4. Little Bubble - Dirty Projectors



5. The Night Comes Down - Queen



6. Friends of Mine (Mono Version) - The Zombies



7. Love Hurts - Mountain Man



8. Everybody Loves You - SOAK



9. Richardson Road - Grasscut



10. Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel



11. Me & My Dog - Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus (Boy Genius)



12. Rivers - The Tallest Man On Earth



13. Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye - Feist



14. what can you say - Adrianne Lenker



15. Slack Jaw - Sylvan Esso




NOTES:
2. New anthem
3. dun dun dun dun dun duuuuuuunnn dun dun dun dun dun dun duuuuuuun dun dun dun dun dun duuuuuun duuuuuun duuun
4. Guys. Dave Longstreth wrote the most heartbreaking songs from this album and convinced me that love is impossible and then he go married just a couple months ago? Anything is possible, I guess.
5. I should be watching Bohemian Rhapsody instead of writing this right now
8. She's back and this video is way better than it needs to be
14. She's a poet
15. A bonus special session: