Poem for Thursday: "The End" - Elizabeth Alexander

The last thing of you is a doll, velveteen and spangle
silk douponi trousers, Ali Baba slippers that curl up at the toes,
tinsel moustache, a doll we had made in your image
for our wedding with one of me which you have.
They sat atop our coconut cake. We cut it
into snowy squares and fed each other, while God watched.

All other things are gone now: the letters boxed,
pajama-sized shirts bagged for Goodwill, odd utensils
famed to graduating students starting first apartments
(citrus zester, apple corer, rusting mandoline),
childhood pictures returned to your mother,
trinkets sorted real from fake and molten
to a single bar of gold, untruths parsed,
most things unsnarled, the rest let go

save the doll, which I find in a closet,
examine closely, then set into a hospitable tree
which I drive past daily for weeks and see it still there,
in the rain, in the wind, fading in the sun,
no one will take it, it will not blow away,

in the rain, in the wind,

it holds tight to its branch,

then one day, it is gone.

Music for your Midweek: Aaliyah

This was probably the best part of 6th grade.

Guys, let's bring this look back. Honestly, Aaliyah was FIERCE. 

R.I.P.

I'm just obsessed with my job, I guess.

Here's a new post I did for the South Franklin Community Center!

I think my job is the bees knees. 

You should be especially jealous, cause I got to hang out with this guy:

I know all the best people.

Poem for Thursday: "As Much As You Can" - Constantine F. Cavafy

Poems are back! I know you missed them. I've been devouring this book of poems, and highly recommend it. So the poems for the next few months will be from there. Here's the first !

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And if you can't shape your life the way you want,
at least try as much as you can
not to degrade it
by too much contact with the world
by too much activity and talk.

Try not to degrade it by dragging it along,
taking it around and expecting it so often
to the daily silliness
of social events and parties,
until it comes to seem a boring hanger-on.

I don't need some inanimate disk telling me the alpha and omega of my earth bounty

Happy Thanksgiving!

Music for your Midweek: Tim Eriksen

November Mix: What I Have Is Right Here

Guess what.

My faithful MacBook Air has passed on.

Such a pity.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the mix! Since I am computer-less, I'm not sure how I'll put together new mixes, so this may be the last one in a while :(

1. Diamond Day - Vashti Bunyan
2. In Our Talons - Bowerbirds
3. Shut Eye - Stealing Sheep
4. How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep - Bombay Bicycle Club
5. Storm - Django Django
6. Pull My Heart Away - Jack Penate
7. Mardy Bum (Live Beat 106 Session) - Alex Turner (of Arctic Monkeys)
8. I Think I Need A New Heart - The Magnetic Fields
9. Happy Up Here - Royksopp
10. Pa Pa Power - Dead Man's Bones
11. Its Real - Real Estate
12. Crutch & Cane - Peter Wolf Crier
13. Dance Me to the End of Love (Leonhard Cohen Cover) - Madeleine Peyroux
14. Islands (XX Cover) - Atlas Genius
15. Hood - Perfume Genius
16. All At Sea - Richard Waters

NOTES:
1. Tell me more about Vashti Bunyan. She is a mystery to me. Lately, I've been trying to avoid wikipedia, and find out information from friends and family. It's much more interesting and sparks some great conversation. Let's connect more, right?
5. Have you seen the preview for Django? It looks great but it also looks like it might make me throw up :(
7. Me and this song celebrated our 6-year anniversary this past summer :)
10. You need to watch this video. Oh man, I'm dying over here:


But just to make it clear, Jack White did it first.

11. PUPPPPPPPIIIIIIEEEESSSS

15. This artist reminds me of a  Peruvian boy I once met. We were waiting for the bus and started chatting. We hardly said anything, I just asked him how his day was, and  tears started falling from his eyes. He had a look of desperation, it was clear he was holding onto so much hurt...

This is great also:


You can use Spotify to listen to tracks here. Mind you, a couple are a little different:

Music for your Midweek: Richard Walters

I think I found this through Spotify radio. 

Richard Walters - "American Stitches"

I like using low view-count videos. They're my favey.

If you can't dance to this, you can't do nothing for me baby.

All y'all know I have much respect for guys who know how to move. 

So here is a gem of a video that I love:

"I did not live until today..."

I really just need to stop watching these trailers. 

waterworks

EV

-RY

-TIME.

Oh yeah. 

Remember who's singing at the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert this year?

ALFIE BOE

Known for...

and guess who just got invited to to the show?

THIS GIRL!!!

Oh man. 

It's going to be a very emotional holiday season. 

Tissues please. 

Music for your Midweek: "Just What I Needed" covers

"I don't mind you comin' here 
And wastin' all my time 
'cause when you're standin' oh so near 
I kinda lose my mind... 

You always knew to wear it well and 

You look so fancy I can tell 
I don't mind you hangin' out 
And talkin' in your sleep" 

I think this is one of the best love/anti-love songs in the world:

One of my boyfriends (Casablancas) with the Strokes and Jarvis Cocker:

My Beloved Punch Brothers:

And Toshi Reagon with a heartbreak version:

Today's the day. You go girl.

Here's a song to get you into the voting spirit:

This song un-ironically brings tears to my eyes.

New Start: Read the Book of Mormon in 30 Days!

Hi kids!

Time for a check-up. It's been a month since LDS general conference; what's your spiritual temperature? I needed something to help get me motivated to set-apart time for more meaningful scripture study, so I found this 30-day reading plan! I started today (Fast Sunday) and if I follow this plan (and read a little extra the last day) I'll be done with the Book of Mormon next fast Sunday. Here's the chart you can print out to keep track of your reading. Please join me and let me know how it goes!

If you would like a little mood music while you read, you can check out my "Sabbath for a Hipster Christian" mix. It's pretty hip if I may say so myself. 

Ad don't let some of the artists fool you! All the songs are totes Sunday apropes :)