New Running Playlist - Special Guest Star Todd!

Since my Ipod died, I have been using Todd's dinosaur (about four pounds!) Ipod on my runs. I haven't quite gotten around to convincing him that I should control what music he puts on his own Ipod (yet), so I have been using his Running mix. Lots of the same stuff I have, plus some I haven't used that worked out well. The only thing we definitely don't agree on? I just can't run to The Shins or Vampire Weekend. I don't even like Vampire Weekend, actually. And I think The Shins are boring.*

There. I said it.
*Except for "New Slang," which is, of course, brilliant.

Todd's Running Playlist:

1. There There Radiohead Hail to the Thief
2. Feel Good Inc (Single Edit) Gorillaz Feel Good Inc - Single
3. Ch-Check It Out The Beastie Boys To The 5 Boroughs
4. Obstacle 1 Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights
5. Blue Orchid The White Stripes Get Behind Me Satan
6. Hopeless The Wrens The Meadowlands
7. What Ever Happened The Strokes Room On Fire
8. Banquet Bloc Party Silent Alarm
9. Harnessed in Slums Archers Of Loaf Vee Vee
10. Helicopter Bloc Party Silent Alarm
11. Favours In The Beetroot Fields British Sea Power The Decline Of British Sea Power
12. 7/4 (Shoreline) Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene
13. Sister Jack Spoon Gimme Fiction
14. Smack My Bitch Up The Prodigy The Fat Of The Land
15. Vertigo U2 How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
16. Where's Your Head At Basement Jaxx Rooty
17. B.O.B. OutKast Stankonia
18. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) Arcade Fire Funeral
19. Richard III Supergrass In It For the Money
20. Alec Eiffel Pixies Trompe le Monde
21. Alison Pixies Bossanova
22. Wolf Like Me TV On The Radio Return To Cookie Mountain
23. Handful Of Billions Sound Team Movie Monster
24. Anti-Anti Snowden Anti-Anti
25. Now That You're Home Manchester Orchestra I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child
26. Wolves at Night Manchester Orchestra I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child
27. Cowbell Tapes 'n Tapes The Loon
28. Pitfalls Film School Film School
29. Australia The Shins Wincing the Night Away
30. Wasted Time Kings Of Leon Youth and Young Manhood
31. Common Reactor Silversun Pickups Carnavas
32. No Cars Go Arcade Fire Neon Bible
33. Keep The Car Running Arcade Fire Neon Bible
34. Bone Broke The White Stripes Icky Thump
35. Icky Thump The White Stripes Icky Thump
36. Finer Feelings Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
37. d is for dangerous Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare
38. teddy picker Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare
39. Red Alert Basement Jaxx The Singles
40. Under Pressure David Bowie & Queen
41. Bump Spank Rock Yoyoyoyoyo (Record-Play)
42. Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats Los Campesinos! Hold On Now, Youngster...
43. Liferz Blood on the Wall Liferz
44. Rize Blood on the Wall Liferz
45. Go Go Go Blood on the Wall Liferz
46. Hibernation Blood on the Wall Liferz
47. Living Well Is The Best Revenge R.E.M. Accelerate
48. Time to Pretend MGMT Oracular Spectacular
49. Sissy Blues The Deadly Snakes Porcella -Or- A Bird In The Hand Is Worthless [Vinyl]
50. I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You Black Kids Wizard of Ahhhs
51. Boston Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
52. A-Punk Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
53. Mansard Roof Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
54. O Katrina! The Black Lips Good Bad Not Evil

My Buddy

The other day, i was listening to the radio on my television. One of those music channels options. I do that sometimes when i am washing dishes or cleaning the main floor of the house, because i get tired of the CDs in my kitchen. (You can only listen to my usuals: Blonde on Blonde, Pleased to Meet Me, and Picaresque so many times. It is funny how my recently played songs on Last.fm never actually take into account my time listening to cds in the kitchen the old-fashioned way.)

A song came on, and as so often happens in my distracted life, it was halfway over before I realized that I had known and sang along with every word, despite the fact that I don't think I had ever heard the song before. I stood at the sink, up to my elbows in dirty dishes (we are currently grieving for our deceased dishwasher), looking blankly out the window on my fall garden, and trying to pull a memory out of the ether. It came to me in a flash, a quick glimpse of my grandma's smiling face, with thick coke-bottle glasses, laughing at the piano in our old house.

My Buddy. It was My Buddy.

I used to love to watch my grandmother play the piano. She could still play, even into her 80s, and i think now that it is a lost art. Now, only the virtuosos play piano. But in her day, all young girls learned to play the piano, and standing around the piano playing songs and singing together was one of their favorite past-times. My grandmother would play songs out of the Cokesbury Hymnal. Her favorite was In the Garden. To this day, i get weepy every time I hear that beautiful hymn. I think that when I was little, I had no idea it was religious in nature, and the walking with, and talking with, and telling me that I am his own just made me feel so very loved. I never hear that song without thinking of Grandma Smith. But it was Grandma playing the songs My Buddy, and I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles that I really loved. She would sing as she played, and Lisa and I would sing along with her, following along in the songbook the words that she sang by heart, the songs she had listened to as a girl in Slidell, Louisiana and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

"Nights are long since you went away I think about you all thru the day My buddy, My buddy, No buddy quite so true

Miss your voice, The touch of your hand Just long to know that you understand My buddy, My buddy, Ooh your buddy misses you

Miss your voice, The touch of your hand Just long to know that you understand My buddy, My buddy, Your buddy misses you

Yes I do"

Grandma, you've been gone for 16 years now, and your buddy still misses you every day.

My Running Playlist

I've been running a lot lately, and getting bored with my current running playlists. Here's what's on them, in case you're bored with yours:

Living Well Is The Best Revenge R.E.M.
Shellshock New Order
The Grey Estates Wolf Parade
Blank Generation Richard Hell & The Voidoids
Power Doesn't Run On Nothing The Thermals
A Ghost To Most Drive-By Truckers
Breathe Me Sia
No Pause Girl Talk
Hands In The Air Girl Talk
Here's The Thing Girl Talk
Don't Stop Girl Talk
Konichiwa Bitches (Album Version) Robyn
Destroyer Kinks
Weightless Nada Surf
I'mAlright Kenny Loggins (bite me)
Digital Love Miracle Fortress
Long Division Death Cab For Cutie
Shut Up and Let Me Go The Ting Tings
I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You Black Kids
That's Not My Name The Ting Tings
Could You Be The One Husker Du
Great DJ The Ting Tings
List of Demands (Reparations) Saul Williams
Stay Positive The Hold Steady
Right Hand On My Heart The Whigs
5 Years Time Noah & The Whale
Hold Up Girl Talk
Knife (Girl Talk Remix) Grizzly Bear
What's Golden Jurassic 5 Power In Numbers
Pavilion Velcro Stars
Secret Identity How I Became The Bomb
No Cars Go Arcade Fire
Common Reactor Silversun Pickups
Keep The Car Running Arcade Fire
I Still Remember Bloc Party
Tom Courtnenay Yo La Tengo
Beautiful Day U2
Head On Pixies
Thieves Ministry
50ft Queenie PJ Harvey
Song 2 Blur
(Drawing) Rings Around The World
Sister Surround The Soundtrack Of Our Lives
If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Feel Good Inc (Single Edit) Gorillaz
Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta Geto Boys (Kinda like to cool down to this one.)

What do you run to? For the love of god, give me some suggestions. I am bored silly with most of these.

Anybody Wanna Give Me $179?

If I had a spare $179 lying around, this would be totally cool.

Bulldawg Bounce

This is just plain funny. Not great, but fun. Go Dawgs!



HT to Pecanne Log, whom i don't know, but read pretty regularly.

These Important Years

So, you've probably been wondering where the hell I am, as normally I don't take a shit without blogging about. I alluded to it in an earlier post, but we have our house under contract and are moving. I haven't really had time to digest what that means for us, but I do know that I am having some serious identity crisis. I am a city girl now. I have lived in East Atlanta almost as long as I lived in my parents' last house. But now the conflict between personal identity and parenthood has come to a head, and we made the decision to move into a better school district. We tried our damnedest to find a house we could afford in a decent intown school district to no avail. We just can't afford private school. So, we are off to the burbs. No, we didn't go whole hog and buy a house in Cumming or Suwanee, although we did consider the pros and cons of doing so. But when it came down to what we really wanted (shorter commutes, better access to the city (Braves game, etc.), and proximity to my sister (and my impending nephew!), we decided on . . . Atlanta. Turns out Atlanta is pretty big. The Atlanta we decided on is Dekalb Co., barely outside the perimeter, and in a great elementary district. We are getting a decent amount of house for our money, we will be close to some other friends who live in the area, and we will be staying true to our promise to educate our children well, which is the most important thing in the long run.

So, this week, Todd and I are counting down our last days in the EAV, and pretty bummed out about it. Sure, we will still come over here to drink and see old neighbors, and see shows, and for his book club, and when I just have to have a Blue Bacon Burger, but it is one of those moments where we feel really torn, and we know that having children means sacrifice and this is a sacrifice for us in many ways.

So, my sister (a.k.a. "The Best Sister in the World") is watching the kids today while Todd and I make a seriously huge dent in the packing. (This of course also included a two-pint lunch at the Flatiron; All work and no play makes Annie very sad.) Afterwards, Todd started packing up Rollie's room, and I have been packing the kitchen. On a side note, packing the kitchen is like playing a very weird game of Tetris; the spices are particularly satisfying to pack tightly together in the most streamlined of space-saving manners.

I was listening to an Itunes mix, with an ass ton of music on shuffle, and the Husker Du song, "These Important Years" came on, and I was reminded of the summer of 1990, packing up all of my stuff to leave for college, listening to that very song. It was one of those really strange deja vu moments, where time seems to have passed in a millisecond and to stand still at the same time, and I could be 18 or 25 or 30 or 36 (minus the tight abs and ass, of course) and I have that same sense of bittersweet excitement and sadness. The difference is that, at 36, I know that change is almost always a positive, and i have the power of hindsight, of knowing that i never regretted any of my moves, not one. They all meant the end of things that I look back fondly on now, but they also always meant that i was about to embark on something completely new that I had never experienced before: New friends, new love, new job, new place all by myself, new place all the way across the country, promotions, and learning, and husbands, and dogs, and cats, and kids. All of these were impossible if not for the constant change. Change is good. Change is responsible for these important years.

Pooped Out

I am so tired. Todd and I went to the EARL last night after his book club at Flatiron. Anna Kramer opened, and I loved her! Got this video of a new Band of Horses song they say they hadn't played before. Me likey. Their whole show was really great - I was impressed. I think they were much better than I thought they would be.

Must go to bed now - stayed up till 2:30 and woke up with kids at 7:30. I don't know what their problem is, always wanting me to get up and feed them and stuff like that. They are so needy.

Sir Duke: Tiller Pitches a Royal Fit

Dragging a kicking and screaming Tiller, age two, into Publix. As I lifted her into the buggy, trying to force her legs into the holes of the seat as she attempted to keep them straight and throw herself out onto the cement floor at the same time, the first notes of Stevie Wonder's ever-so-cheery "Sir Duke" came on over the store music system. As my Mama says, sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.

All Hallows Eve

Halloween was ultra fun. We carved the pumpkin (yes, I am a total slacker and waited till the last minute) and then went and had pizza at Grant Central. After that, we walked around East Atlanta Village for the Eav-O-Ween celebration.
All of the shop owners hand out candy to the local kids, and the people-watching is pretty fun. The kids were pretty cute, and I have to say that kids don't get hipper than those who trick or treat The Earl and The Flatiron. Nothing like seeing your little ones waltz right up to a bar for trick or treating. Definitely beats the toothbrushes we used to get from Dr. Grove, the dentist who lived down our suburban street growing up.
After that, we came home and Todd traipsed the kids down the street, while I stayed back to drink beer, er. . . hand out candy. There is something so heartstring-tugging about seeing your husband walking down the street, holding hands with the costumed kids, their other hands gripping the pumpkins so tightly and with such purpose. I had a lovely time talking with the neighbors and then Todd and the kids returned, the kids dove into the candy, and we sat around talking some more, while handing out candy. Halloween in the hood is a little different than in the 'burbs. The first few years, you are kind of put out by the older kids trick-or-treating (as one neighbor put it, if you are out on a date, you are probably too old to trick or treat) and the lack of discernible costumes, but you start to realize that it's just the way that folks do things here, and you get into the spirit and go with the flow after a while. And I dare say that this year, it seemed like more people dressed up and that they were trying just a little bit harder.
Todd hosed the children down from layers of stickiness and put them both down. About nine, we closed up shop (lights out, candles out), and Todd walked down the street to check out the Gay Superheroes. It seems that the money house (what I call the neighbor's house where everyone meets to party while handing out candy every year - a jackpot for the trick or treater) was doing a Superhero costume theme this year. I am sure they went all out and I should have sent the camera. Damn.
I'm drinking beer, fucking around with the Halloween photos, and listening to my Creepy mix. Decemberists' Leslie Anne Levine is on right now. Awesome song. Awesome holiday.

The Meaning of 8

I am totally digging the new Cloud Cult album The Meaning of 8. It's kind of quirky like Flaming Lips. Kind of atmospheric. Seems like it would be a good album to trip to, but I am way too old for that now. Todd thinks it sounds like Tortoise, but I think Tortoise is a total snooze, so I don't see that. The album title makes me think of this book that I loved called The Eight. (Not great literature, but just one of those entertaining quest reads, kind of like The DaVinci Code. A great beach read kind of book.) And I love the 8s scattered throughout the lyrics, like clues to a puzzle that I am supposed to solve.

Favorite tracks: Chain Reaction, Chemicals Collide, Dance for the Dead.

Of course, I've only been listening for a couple of days. So those favorite tracks could change. I am pretty confident, though, that going into September as we are, this is a likely top ten of the year for me.

The Dogwood Shuffle

I've seen this around the web a few times before. You open ITunes, put every bit of music you own on Shuffle, and then you have to post the first five songs that play for everyone to see. No matter how embarrassing. Here goes:

1. The Smiths - This Charming Man. So far, so good.
   
2. Aimee Mann - Invisible Ink. Another good one. Great song, actually.
3. Depeche Mode - Somebody. Okay, still retaining credibility here as a music lover. The embarrassing part about this song is the number of times that I sat in my room and played it on my cassette player, then rewound it again and again, all the while bawling my eyes out over some stupid boy. Ah, to be a middle-school-aged, angst-ridden Depeche Mode fan.
4. Moby - Porcelain. Makes me want to buy diamonds. The first four here have pretty much set up a nice slit-your-wrists soundtrack.
5. OutKast - Interlude. Okay, that ruined the mood, but i still got my rep protected.

The true test, folks, is to see what shows up if I do the same with my IPod:

1. Archers of Loaf - Web in Front. One of my running songs.
2. Sufjan Stevens - Chicago. One of Rollie's all-time faves.
3. Reindeer Section - You are My Joy.
4. Don Henley - Boys of Summer. Shit. Not so cool, but I can't help it. I have always loved the moody sound of this one. And I loved the black and white video.
5. The World Has Turned and Left me Here - Weezer.
   

Phew! This could have been way worse. WAY worse. Thank God. Spank Rock's "Bump" didn't show up. Oops.

New. Favorite. Band.

From an interview with Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell on Pitchfork.

Pitchfork: Is there anything else that you want to get off your chest?

BB: College football starts in about fifty days.

Pitchfork: You're not soaking up the baseball season?

BB: I am, actually. We haven't been near it. When we were in Seattle for those three weeks I got to watch some Mariners games.

Pitchfork: So the M's are your team?

BB: Yeah, the Mariners are my favorite pro baseball team, and the Georgia Bulldogs are my favorite college football.

Holy Shit. And more:

Bridwell, the songwriting force behind Horses' acclaimed debut Everything All the Time, lives in a ranch-style home that will soon be smartly appointed with Georgia Bulldogs football memorabilia. He's just moved in, so only the oblong G doormat is in place. A framed photo of the all-white English bulldog "Uga," wearing a red t-shirt and performing a leaping chomp at a nervous Auburn wideout from the end zone sideline, sits on the hearth waiting to be hung.

And also:

They serve micheladas-- cold beers with soy sauce, Tabasco, and half-limes.

Dear God. This might be love.

Okay, I really liked Band of Horses already. (They were number one on my Top Ten of 2006 list.) But the convergence of good music and SEC football fandom (and my Bulldogs, no less!) really gets me excited in an altogether freaky way.

Thanks to Todd for recognizing this momentous item, giving me the heads up, and being okay with me daydreaming about watching football with Ben all day and then going to watch Band of Horses that night. I will try to make said daydream include a victory over Tech or Florida, rather than Todd's lil' tigers. I'm nice that way.

Dance Mix

I was out with the girls a few weeks ago, and one of us asked everyone else what songs really made us want to get up and dance. She is putting a playlist together for her wedding, and was looking for suggestions.

Since then, I have been creating the wedding dance playlist of the century; 12 hours of butt-shaking goodness, which needs to be weeded down to about four hours. I have it down to about 7 at this point. For example, I can dance my ass off to Jesus and Mary Chain's "Reverence," but it is a wedding reception, with grandmas and great uncles, after all, and is your Mama's best friend really gonna get off on a song that says, "I want to die just like Jesus Christ?" Probably not. It turns out that, upon reflection, much of mine and Todd's music is the devil's work, and we are going straight to the fires of hell. Right after I finish this playlist.

I thought, though, that before i started the weeding process, I would poll the Internet for final suggestions. What are your all-time favorite dance songs? And I know. You don't like to dance. You can't dance. BlahBlahBlah. You know there are a few songs that you can't help moving your feet to, even if it is only in your bedroom with a hairbrush, or while you are cooking dinner alone at night.

Be honest. If it is "Let's Hear if For the Boy" or "Dancing in the Sheets" from the Footloose soundtrack, just say so.

Not that I like that one or anything. I mean, what? No. I never owned that album. Shut up, Lisa.

About an Old Friend

There's a pretty cool article in today's New York Times, written by Aimee Mann, about "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." This weekend is the 40th anniversary of the release of the album; It came out about five years before I was released.

The interesting thing about the article is that she reminded me of what I thought of the album as a kid. At 35, I have lots of other ideas about the album that I've picked up here and there throughout the years, but she reminded me of the sheer curiosity with which a child picked that album up out of all of her parents' other albums.

I am a lucky girl - My parents listened to some pretty cool stuff. Mom liked folk and rock and roll: She was a card-carrying member of the Elvis Presley Fan Club, but also listened to The Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Jan and Dean, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and Peter, Paul, and Mary. I still remember wondering what "Virgin" meant - One of her friends had written it on her Bob Dylan album cover. (Her name is Virginia.)

Dad listened to rock and roll, too, but his tastes leaned more towards Jerry Lee Lewis and lots of 60's soul. I still to this day think Otis Redding is the best "cleaning up the house on Saturday" music ever. I wore out all of the Otis discs and that Stax/Volt Review album he had. My sister and I put on clown makeup and danced around the playroom to the Everly Bros.' "Kathy's Clown." To be fair to my parents, they also listened to some great classic country and 70's honky-tonk Country and Western, too. People, we had a dog named "Waylon." I shit you not.

Nothing, however, could compare to the magic a kid felt looking at that Sgt. Pepper's album, and then finding that what was on the inside was just as other-worldly. In later years, Sgt. Pepper's was the album I listened to (on endless repeat, all night long) the first time I did LSD. In fact, that experience made me not want to listen to if for years and years after.

But after reading Aimee Mann's article this morning, I decided it was time to pull it out and listen to it again. Okay, i don't have the album anymore, but Todd has a Beatles problem, and we own 22 Beatles albums; We could listen to The Beatles for 17 hours straight, according to ITunes. So, here I am, listening to "Good Morning, Good Morning" and thinking that it has been too long since I listened to this old friend.

Gotta go. The dog is barking. Oh wait. That's just Sgt. Pepper's.

You've Come A Long Way, Baby

I've written about how I just don't have time to keep up with new music like I used to do. It frustrates me at times that music is just one more thing that gets short shrift in my life next to my children. I think that means I am a good parent, but I still miss buying a new CD (and holding it and opening it, and smelling it, and reading all the liner notes while I listen).

Anyway, in a shotgun blast attempt to hear new music, I often listen to KEXP online (LOVE the morning show with John. Okay, love John) and I record MTV2's Subterranean weekly and watch it when I get a chance. (I am a first-generation MTV child, after all.) I hadn't watched in a while, though. Boy, was I surprised.

I think over half of the artists or bands they showed were female! And they weren't just bassists, either. (With apologies to the Kims, of course.) Feist, Lady Sov, Amy Winehouse, Charlotte Gainsbourg, new Bjork (great video, as usual), Lily Allen, new Tori Amos. I don't even like Tory Amos that much, but damn, she is looking good. She seems to have shed the hippy dippy, new agey blue-green look she always has going, and was pulling off more of a PJ Harvey attitude. Plus, she's got ginormous balls - I don't know if there is any amount of money that would make me utter any version of the statement "I am a MILF," much less have it flashing in my video in huge Frankie Goes to Hollywood block lettering. It was cool stuff.

Seems like music is such a male realm that the females that were there in the past packed a huge punch for me. I was elated that last night, I actually had the option of saying, "God, she sucks," or "Eaaahhh, not bad, but not really my style," or "ooh, it's nice to see a female playing guitar, even if I am not sure if I like the song or not." (Which usually means I will like the songs after a few listens.) There was a band, CSS, with more girls than guys from Brazil. Brazilian women, can't beat that.

Okay, now I went and looked at the Subterranean website, just to see if I missed anything, and there is a "Girls of Indie Rock Heat Up Subterranean This Week" headline. That explains that. It was a farce. That would explain the segment with Atlanta's Mastodon in between the videos; It's not like any female artists might have something interesting or intelligent to say about their music.

Guess we haven't come such a long way, baby.

This Must Be The Place

I was reading the New York Times online yesterday morning, and came across a pretty long article on the band Arcade Fire, whom I love. They have a new album out, er . . . coming out tomorrow, officer, I swear I never illegally downloaded any of it already, cross my heart and hope to die. The new album, Neon Bible is totally not a disappointment, as those things can be sometimes; I am digging on it, and it was the weekend-without-children soundtrack. You should go out and buy it today (putting money in their brilliant pockets, and maybe those of good ole Mac and Laura - of Superchunk fame - and their label Merge. Love me some Merge. And if you have not heard the Arcade Fire's debut, Funeral, well . . . get thee to a music store! You will not be disappointed, although you will be late to the game.

Funny Arcade Fire aside: They were in one of the skits on their recent SNL appearance and it was really hilarious, because, well, Rainn Wilson from The Office, and Arcade Fire. I tried to find a Youtube link and got overwhelmed, because evidently the internet brings into focus the fact that I do not have focus. (U2 and Arcade Fire doing "Love Will Tear Us Apart;" Arcade Fire and Bowie doing "Wake Up" and "Five Years." Holy Shit!!!" I will die on YouTube.)

And that brings me, quite roundaboutedly (it's a word, because I just made it up) to the point:

Arcade Fire. David Byrne. Together on a stage. DOING MY FAVORITE SONG OF ALL-TIME.

First of all, to all you lucky motherfuckers who happened to go to an Arcade Fire show in NYC and then had the unexpected pleasure of seeing them joined on stage by David Byrne, and then to realize that they were doing "This Must Be The Place (The Naive Melody)" - Well, I hope you all die, especially those of you who didn't recognize the song, and so didn't get how huge it would be to see the whole thing. For the one person who managed to get a little video of it and post it on YouTube - I love you and want to have your babies, and why couldn't you have gotten the sound just a bit better, because really, the sound is so disappointing, but beggars can't be choosers.



I cannot imagine. Okay, I can try to imagine the completely elated mindfuck of this whole moment, but really, how many Arcade Fire fans really even knew this song? It was old when I first heard it thanks to an ex. I immediately loved it. I have never stopped loving it. Boyfriend? Long gone. Still love the song, though. Everything about the unabashed cuteness of it and the way that it is so starry-eyed and dramatic, just like teenage lovers, and about how it still rings even more true and honest and sincere now that I actually know about adult love and what home really is. And God Almighty do I love that cowbell at the end. That cowbell is my soul ringing out joyously every time I hear it.

Best. Song. Ever.

Oh, yeah, and about how I get sidetracked and lost on the great Internet? Try to find something about Byrne and the Arcade Fire show and come across David Byrne's blog, and not only find his thoughts on playing with Arcade Fire, but also an interesting entry about his visit to Savannah and SCAD with his daughter. How weird would it be to be in Savannah and run into David Byrne? At Lady and Sons, no less. And then I look at the date and it was written right after the weekend we were there. Damn. Of course, Todd has already had his run-in with Byrne and his bicycle, but it could happen twice, right?

The Only True Currency

"The only true currency in this bankrupt world... is what you share with someone else when you're uncool."
- Lester Bangs

Damn. Should have named Dogwood Girl "www.theonlytruecurrency.com."

Kids and husband left around 3:30. I fucked around with my dying motherfucking DVR and cable for thirty minutes or so. Turned music up really loud. Removed all vestiges of life with children from my view. Then I put on mascara and switched my stuff from rather large Old Navy backpack Sharpied with "Rollie" and "Tiller" on the straps to my petite Kenneth Cole purse. (Note to Mike: This reminded me of a pair of jeans I had that you wrote on with a Sharpie, and also the Army hat you had in high school/college, again with writing on it, that I always tried to steal. Remember what they said? I cannot for the life of me.)

Went to Kroger. Bought two bottles of wine and one Martha Stewart spring gardening magazine. I want to plant stuff and watch it grow, for the second spring in a row, but with the house on the market, it is just container gardening all the way. Went to Outback. Ate petite filet, baked potato, and salad with blue cheese, along with rye bread, and a glass of cabernet. Crikey. Read Martha Stewart magazine and lingered over meal by myself.

Drove home. Came inside. Loved on dog. Went upstairs to put on PJs. Came downstairs. Bestowed treats on pets. Poured glass of wine. Sat on floor and pulled out DVD baskets to decide what to watch. Really wanted to watch American Idol. (The Shame!!!!) Decided on either: St. Elmo's Fire. Say Anything. Some Kind of Wonderful. Almost Famous.

Almost Famous won out.

Almost Famous is one of those movies that I never really get tired of. Todd makes fun of me, but I love Cameron Crowe. Can't help it. He is sentimental in all the right ways, and few of the wrong ones. Even Elizabethtown was bearable. Not perfectly executed, (Brit as an American? Fucking KIRSTEN of wet t-shirt Spidey action DUNST ??? Please.) but perfectly well-meant.

I got nothing much else. Kinda drunk. Listening to music and blogging. Totally uncool.

Think that's bad? Tomorrow night I am having dinner with my parents and wouldn't be upset if they wanted to spend the night and play some cards. Because that is what the uncool, non-DVR-capable, Amish-like do on a Saturday.

Soundtrack: Fairport 1979-1980

I skim the New York Times online just about every day, and the last thing I look at is the "On This Day" feature. From the New York Times today:

"On Feb. 22, 1980, in a stunning upset, the United States Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets at Lake Placid, N.Y., 4-to-3. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.)

You can see the a picture of the actual front page that day here.

This event, along with the Georgia Bulldogs winning the national championship earlier that year, is one of my earliest sports memories. It also elicits thoughts of the two years I spent living in Fairport, New York, near Rochester. I watched this hockey game at my friend Karen Rapp's house. All of her brothers and sisters and their friends were there and it was the second time I ever heard the F-word. When the U.S. won, all the crazy hockey fans all over the neighborhood ran outside and honked car horns and I just thought it was the best thing ever.

I was in 2nd or 3rd grade at that time and Karen was in Kindergarten or First grade. She was the youngest of one of about 10 kids, and I loved to hang out at their house, because it was kind of like being in an episode of The Brady Bunch or Eight is Enough. She shared a room with two of her sisters and I still remember sitting on her sister's bed while falling asleep, gazing at their Pink Floyd The Wall poster. It creeped me out. In their den in the afternoons, all of the kids and their friends would huddle around a little television and watch M.A.S.H. I hated MASH at the time, but grew to love it later. The other reason that I loved to hang out there was that Mrs. Rapp made homemade pizza for all of the kids on Friday nights. She would slave away making pizzas for the kids and their friends, serve it to us all, and then retire to the living room couch, lay down, put a pair of huge headphones on her head (plugged into the humongous stereo receiver) and listen to Neil Diamond. Mrs. Rapp loved Neil Diamond. She would have left Mr. Rapp, despite his kickass homemade maple syrup, for Neil Diamond.

Neil Diamond, in turn, reminds me of New York. Except for "Cracklin' Rosie," which reminds me of drinking with Dan and Evan, or "Sweet Caroline," which reminds me of that crappy Jimmy Fallon baseball movie, Fever Pitch, based on the book by Nick Hornby, whose writing I really like, even though he seems to keep writing the same book over and over and just changing the characters' names. Okay, I admit it. I even kind of like the movie, because I could drink with Drew Barrymore, and I would be lying if I said Jimmy Fallon isn't rotated in and out of my top ten every once in a while, and because I would fall in love with a Sox-lovin' Jimmy Fallon type if I was ten years younger and a workaholic Drew Barrymore lookalike.

Which brings me in a very convoluted manner to the rest of the post. A while ago, an acquaintance posted this video from YouTube on his blog. It is Christopher Cross' "Ride Like the Wind," live. Boy did it bring back the memories of living in New York, at about 7 or 8 years old. I thought about my Fisher Price doll house, and turning the lights off for bed, then reading horse books or playing dolls by flashlight till late at night, the radio on so low that only I could hear it.

That was back when you mostly listened to the radio or your parents' albums. (I could and might dedicate a complete series of posts to those.) You had no idea what the musicians looked like, or what an album was. You just liked a song or you didn't, and you'd better hope you liked it, because either way, you would hear it run into the ground for the next year, blaring out of the hard plastic speaker in the side of the faux-wood-sided station wagon as you rattled around to the grocery store in the way back (there were three sections to our station wagon: "Front," "Back," and "Way Back.")

Seat belts? What are seat belts?

Soundtrack: Fairport 1979-1981

"Ride Like the Wind" - Christopher Cross
"Sailing" - Christopher Cross
These two are kind of interchangeable, but i associate both of them inextricably with New York and listening to the radio undercover at night in my room

"Band on the Run" - Paul McCartney and Wings
This came out in like '73, but I distinctly remember it playing on the radio while my sister and I took a bath in our bathroom in New York. The bathroom was brown, and had this weird wallpaper that had a Sherlock Holmes-like character with a brown bloodhound. The toilet seats were plastic and cushioned. Fancy.

"Keep on Loving You" - REO speedwagon
The ultimate Fairport song. Lisa, Karen Rapp, Matt Recht from next door and Jennifer Lofberg from across the street would all hang out in our garage. We were in an airband. We did this song.

"Another One Bites the Dust" - Queen
I remember this song coming out and everyone went crazy for it. I remember Karen's brother, David, talking about it with my babysitter, Sarah. They were in high school. David was holding a Simon. Simon is this weird toy where it plays a noise, and you have to hit the colored bar corresponding to the sound you heard, and it starts playing more and more intricate patterns of sound. The person who can play what Simon plays the longest without fucking up wins. David, nerd that he was, pretended that he was some scientist who could control animals with sound, and the Simon was the sound machine he used to control us. Yes, the rest of the younger kids were animals.

"Another Brick in the Wall" - Pink Floyd
See above mention of the poster.

"Suicide is Painless" - MASH theme song - Mike Altman and Johnny Mandel
Yes, I had to look up the artists' names. Reminds me of the dread i would feel every time I heard it ("Ugh, 30 minutes of complete boredom coming up"), much like the feeling I still get upon hearing the infernal ticking of the 60 Minutes clock.

"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" - Rod Stewart
Another of the my babysitters, a next door neighbor, was a total stoner, I am pretty sure. She invited her boyfriend over while she was supposed to be watching us, and she let us watch Solid Gold and Rod Stewart did this song live, wearing these tight black pants, shaking his ass and she said she thought he had a cute butt. I thought she was a bad, bad girl for saying that, and I also wondered what could possibly be cute about someone's butt?

"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" - The Charlie Daniels Band
I still love this song. It's like a folk song, but it has that shock factor that you love as a kid ("I done tole you once, you son of a bitch, I'm the best that's ever been.") My parents had the album, and we played it on the record player in the office and totally spazzed out dancing to the electric fiddle bridge in the middle of it.

"Lost in Love" - Air Supply
I am not sure that this is not the same song as the Christopher Cross songs. Same feel. Bedroom at night, radio down low.

"Upside Down" - Diana Ross
Leftover disco 45 in my parents record collection. We wore this baby out. Dance Fever!

"Y.M.C.A." - Village People
I cringe when i hear this now, but god almighty did I like it back in the day. At that time, I thought they just liked to dress as what they wanted to be when they grew up.

"The Winner Takes It All" - ABBA
Off of the album Super Trouper. Thank God I was not a boy, or i would be completely gay now. Village People? Diana Ross? ABBA? Dear God. We sang our guts out on this one. I wanted flowing dresses like the ones they had on the cover. I thought they looked like sexy Greek goddesses.

"Rumours" - Fleetwood Mac
I am not sure where Mom got this from, but i LOVED it. Probably the first album I ever really loved. I have to say, best album on this list. (Todd will probably argue that based on Wings being on here, but he is the only one who really listens to Wings.) I was forever staring at the cover and wondering why that guy's belt looks like testicles hanging between his legs.

Trip down memory lane completed. Please exit the bus in an orderly manner. Maybe tomorrow you will get a recap of my parents' albums' influence on my musical tastes. Or, maybe you will get more ridicule of my sister and husband. Maybe you will be on the hotseat. You just never know with me.

Road Trip! Ronnie! LeatherFace!

My sister Lisa came to pick up the kids this morning. She and Mark took them to the Georgia Aquarium. Todd and I went to his office, picked up the Ryder Van and Ronald McDonald, and hit the road for Orlando. Yes, I said "Ronald McDonald." (I call him Ronnie. We are on first name terms after riding from Atlanta to Orlando all day. He likes classic rock.) He is starring in a shoot that Todd is working on in Orlando. Ronnie cost $10,000 to make. Unfortunately, I forgot my cord to upload pictures to the computer, so you will have to wait on pics of Ronnie. Suffice to say that his fucking clown feet are huge, and I got a little scared when the sun went down and it was just Todd, Ronnie, and me in the van.

Other gems of wisdom obtained by riding in a van for 9 hours with my hung over husband (Advertising Awards - who knew those addies were so wild?) and Ronnie:

• Mrs. Winner's biscuits are awesome, but the ones at Cracker Barrel are better. That being said, if you eat both, along with mac and cheese, fried okra, mashed potatoes and fried shrimp, you will feel sick. Especially while bumping along crappy roads in north central Florida.
• When choosing a ten cent peppermint stick at Cracker Barrel, just choose Butterscotch flavor. Other good flavors include: Cherry Cola, Strawberry, etc. Do not choose "Horehound" flavor, simply because it sounds like a good fit. You will spend the next forty minutes eating a stick of candy that you do not find that appetizing, and regretting your faulty choice while your husband sucks merrily away on his butterscotch one.
• Radio stations from about Macon, GA to Orlando suck ass, with the exception of the University of Florida station, which played Fugazi's "Suggestion," but neglected to play the next track, "Glue Man," which sucks for anyone who really likes the album, because it just ruins it when the tracks split. We then drove out of their piddly range. U of Florida itself, and the greater Gainesville area, also suck ass.
• The other exception to the radio rule is the awesome bluegrass show with a local doing the dj thing and giving shoutouts to the regular listeners, who are all named Mac or Bud or Bubba. "Wabash Cannonball" at sunset was rather nice. Also the song about letting the racehorse run.
• Another radio rule: If you come across a song you even remotely like, for instance, "I Just Called to Say I Love You," or ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down," just go ahead and go with it, because it is the best you are going to do for, like, an hour. You will spend the next ten minutes just scanning through the GodRock, scripture-readers, scary-talk, and new country stations. If you find a classic rock station, just leave the dial the fuck alone. If you, like us, manage to get a run of Van Halen, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, CCR, and Tom Petty with Stevie Nicks, count yourself lucky. BTW, that whole intro to Van Halen's cover of "You Really Got Me" is fucking awesome.
• Don't be alarmed when you enter Florida and are greeted by the Shoot First, Ask Questions Later signs. Or the "Repent Sinners!" signs. Or when you are cast in shadow by the frighteningly large Confederate battle flag by the highway. The people are so nice, despite the fact that they try to scare you with their flags and guns and bibles and gators.

Okay, so we get to the hotel (Doubletree Orlando, across the street from Universal.) We go in, get a bellhop/valet guy to help me with the bags while Todd secures van and Ronnie. I start talking to the guy - turns out it has been a wild weekend. There is a TNA wrestling event going on tonight and tomorrow night. I didn't know anything about this, but according to my awesome bartender Tony, they do it once a month at Universal, and everyone is totally cool, and a lot of the women are really skinny and have implants. I am so excited about my people-watching tomorrow.

That being said, the people-watching tonight wasn't too bad. I didn't see R2D2, as we missed him by about five minutes at the hotel bar, but I did get to see LeatherFace from the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and also the artist who did all of the KISS album covers. Awesome. Oh, and some gray-haired old guy who is in a Geicko commercial - Peter Graves, maybe? Other people who were at this nerd orgy: http://www.fxshow.com/guests.htm

More to come from the Starbucks downstairs in the morning. Will have camera and laptop in hand. Come on, hot guy from Eureka! Or The Greatest American Hero!

Top Ten: 2006

I don't buy CDs as often as I used to - We only bought 20 albums this year. We downloaded a few songs, but this just isn't the same rabidity with which we voraciously devoured new releases before having kids. I also find that I end up listening to more of the "Coffee" music, as I call it, because that is what goes well against a backdrop of Sesame Street. It is strange how having kids changes your tastes and how you listen to music.

Without further ado, my 2006 Top Ten:

1. Band of Horses - Everything All the Time. No surprise here. This was just a fixture for me this year - Lots of starting dinner to this album in the afternoons.
   Favorite tracks: "The Funeral," "Part One," "The Great Salt Lake."
   
2. Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways. This one just about took number one, but I went on how much I listened to them, and Band of Horses was my most listened-to album in 2006. I think that if I had bought American V earlier than I did, this would be on top. I also think this is the one on my list that I will still be listening to in five years. There was a part of me that wanted to give him the top spot for purely sentimental "last album" reasons. The album track choices seem calculated to elicit that kind of response; All of the songs seem like something uttered in a dying breath. Johnny Cash is so timeless, and I can never quite get enough of him. There is an authenticity to his voice that cannot be replicated.
   Favorite tracks: "God's Gonna Cut You Down," "If You Could Read My Mind." My mom listened to this Gordon Lightfoot song when i was a kid and I always liked it in a 70's Peaceful Easy Feeling way, but Cash's version is transcendental. "Rose of My Heart" - a love ballad unmatched by any I've heard recently.
3. Silversun Pickups - Carnavas. This album is just sugary pop-rock goodness. They manage to make every track seem shiny, like a cool old car, chrome shining in the sunlight.
   Favorite tracks: "Lazy Eye," "Common Reactor."
4. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. I really like New Pornographers, and more than I like Neko Case's solo stuff. That being said, I really love this album. I think that I have a tendency to not want to jump on the bandwagon with some things that are really popular - A good example is my refusal for the longest time to really give the White Stripes a chance. When I finally did, I begrudgingly admitted they were brilliant. Neko Case isn't brilliant, but she is really talented, and I didn't want to admit that. I guess I just got so sick of hearing about the hot rock chick that I didn't want to give her a chance. Todd bought this one, too, and I ended up really digging it. She is a truly original songwriter, and she has a strong , distinctive, and beautiful voice.
   Favorite tracks: "Margaret vs. Pauline," "John Saw That Number."
5. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife. I really don't know how The Decemberists pull off this pretentious lit-rock shit, but they do. Each song is like a short story unto itself, or a time-worn folk tale, and they almost fall into the whole concept album genre, but it is so fresh and well-performed that I forget how ridiculous it is. Romantic, theatrical, and beautiful. It is no Castaways and Cutouts, and the slight disappointment over that probably prevents it from being any higher on my list, but the melody of "The Crane Wife 3" makes me want to cry it is so pretty; the second track, the modestly-named "The Island-Come And See-The Landlord's Daughter - You'll Not Feel the Drowning," is so long that it makes me want to cry. Good, but I never pay attention the whole way through. I imagine an origami crane throughout the whole album. Too much Prison Break, I guess.
   Favorite tracks: "The Crane Wife 3," "The Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)."
   
6. Manchester Orchestra - I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child. I wish i could say that I was at the top of the curve on this one, but I really caught the tail of this wave. This one came out of nowhere, a December purchase on Todd's part. Suddenly it is everywhere. I had heard a couple of songs and liked them, but the whole album is really good. It sounds a little like Death Cab meets Bright Eyes. I will be listening to this one into 2007, without a doubt. I was unsure about giving it the number six spot, but then thought to myself, "you know what? When was the last time you heard an album by a band you hadn't heard before and you liked it this much immediately?" This album instantly made me a little excited about music again. Not easy to do when I am old and jaded and not as impressionable as I once was.
   Added plus: Local band.
   Favorite tracks: "Now That You're Home," "Where Have You Been," "Golden Ticket."
   
7. Alexi Murdoch - Time Without Consequence. Great coffee-in-the-morning music. At once weary, melancholy and hopeful. Kind of like me.
   Favorite tracks: "All My Days," "Love You More," "Orange Sky."
8. M. Ward - Post-War. More coffee music. Todd bought this one and it grew on me.
   Favorite tracks: "Magic Trick." "Roller Coaster" - Makes me think of young infatuation. I love the line "You're like a roller coaster, you give me heavy metal dreams." Gets stuck in my head for hours, and is fun to improvise the words and make them songs for the kids.
   
9. Yo La Tengo - i am not afraid of you and I will beat your ass. Always new-sounding, always original. They never fail to surprise me on a few tracks with something that sounds different.
   Favorite tracks: "Sometimes I don't Get You," "The Weakest Part," "The Story of Yo La Tengo."
   
10. T.V. on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain. This one is in the top ten purely on speculation; I bought it so late in the year that I didn't have time to run it into the ground, but if I had it earlier, it easily could have made the top five, if not number one or two. I'm sad I didn't buy it earlier.
    Favorite track: "Wolf Like Me" - It's catchy as all get-out.
    

Honorable Mentions:

• Johnny Cash - The Johnny Cash Children's Album. Rollie has as addiction to the Dinosaur Song that is like a contagious disease.
  
• The Long Winters - Putting the Days to Bed
• Ambulance Ltd. - New English EP
• Sparklehorse - Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain
• Calexico - Garden Ruin.

Favorite Songs of 2006:
TV on the Radio - "Wolf Like Me." Good God Almighty. This one makes me wish I played an instrument and that I had written this song. Hope this is inspiring some sixteen-year-old girl somewhere.
Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy." I read that they did this track in one take. Awesome. Pure magic.
Band of Horses - The Great Salt Lake. This is my kitchen song, 2006.
Regina Spektor - "Fidelity." Beautiful like fine porelain. Translucent and unadorned, but not plain. Cool video, too.
Flaming Lips - "The W.A. N. D." This one is catchy, but doesn't make up for a crap album.
Snowden - "anti-anti." Atlanta band. Fun driving song.

I Just Don't Get It, or Todd Bought It, but I Never Would Have:
Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit. They bore me.
The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea
Starlight Mints - Drowaton
The Streets - The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
Wolfmother - Wolfmother. I have already listened to everything by Led Zeppelin.

Complete Disappointments:
The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics. The most universally disappointing album of the year. Did anyone like it?
Granddaddy - Just Like the Fambly Cat. You already made this album. Twice.