Muzak

I'm in a rut. I am in need of new music, but since I can't remember what I want when I'm ready to buy, I'm making a list (shout out to Nikol & Kelly Sue, the Queens of the List) right here on ye olde blogger. Do add your suggestions below in ye olde comment section.

Jenny Owen Youngs
Amy Winehouse
Marie Antoinette Soundtrack
The Radio Department
Klaxons
Ray LaMontagne
Django Reinhardt
Yves Montand
Sol Seppy
Emily Haines
Pink Martini (seriously, get on this)

File Under: Our Amazing World

Giant crystals found in blast furnace cave.

The world is far more incredible than we can comprehend and beings far more conscious of its power and beauty should have inherited it. We seem to just be intent on trashing the place.

Scattered PICtures

of the smiles we left behind. Misty watercolor mem'ries of the way we were now updated on Flickr.

(I really wanted a shot of Tom Hanks on the phone in "Big", but searching for "big" on Google yields some rather sketchy results.)

Our State, In A Broad Sense

Dropping Knowledge

How is it that after all this time I just now heard of this and yet I know that earlier in the week Britney and her dad threw down in some spate over who's to blame for her recent mania?

The state of the world is slightly off-kilter.

I Just Want To Remember This

Because I certainly can't watch it again.

Father and Daughter by Michael Dudok de Wit

Cute, Cheap Shoes

And isn't that what we're all striving for, really? Here's a link to the new Abaete collection at Payless - not as cute as the last collection, but at least this time 'round you can get your hands on a pair.

I'm buying the Spring Slide in Navy. And why wouldn't I at only $20?

Hoowhee I love this fireplace and that tile.

(stolen from Happy Mundane.)

The Funniest Things Ever Written, Vol. 1

Special Collections: The Kenny Rogers Notebooks, 1975-1977
Although this was a much more popular meme a few years back, I am still frequently caught singing "The Sidewalk Caricature Artist" and I firmly believe this Eric McHenry has got something. You keep on keepin' on, combination-of-the-names-of-my-brother-and-my-boyfriend.

When I Have Millions Of Dollars

After my Cows in the Distance goes bestseller, I'm going to buy myself this bitchin' grill.

The Title Of My New Novel

Cows in the Distance


It's going to be very Jane Smiley.

April Is Poetry Month

I was feeling nostalgic for Old Aunt Amy's Poetry Corner today. Those were emails about the human condition with some poems added in for fun that I sent out ages ago. Now it's this blogging business which is far less personal. But, all the same, here's some poetry to break up those posts about the human condition and what not.

Naming the Stars

Joyce Sutphen

This present tragedy will eventually
turn into myth, and in the mist
of that later telling the bell tolling
now will be a symbol, or, at least,
a sign of something long since lost.

This will be another one of those
loose changes, the rearrangement of
hearts, just parts of old lives
patched together, gathered into
a dim constellation, small consolation.

Look, we will say, you can almost see
the outline there: her fingertips
touching his, the faint fusion
of two bodies breaking into light.



The Summer I Was Sixteen

Geraldine Connolly

The turquoise pool rose up to meet us,
its slide a silver afterthought down which
we plunged, screaming, into a mirage of bubbles.
We did not exist beyond the gaze of a boy.

Shaking water off our limbs, we lifted
up from ladder rungs across the fern-cool
lip of rim. Afternoon. Oiled and sated,
we sunbathed, rose and paraded the concrete,

danced to the low beat of "Duke of Earl".
Past cherry colas, hot-dogs, Dreamsicles,
we came to the counter where bees staggered
into root beer cups and drowned. We gobbled

cotton candy torches, sweet as furtive kisses,
shared on benches beneath summer shadows.
Cherry. Elm. Sycamore. We spread our chenille
blankets across grass, pressed radios to our ears,

mouthing the old words, then loosened
thin bikini straps and rubbed baby oil with iodine
across sunburned shoulders, tossing a glance
through the chain link at an improbable world.



Before She Died

Karen Chase

When I look at the sky now, I look at it for you.
As if with enough attention, I could take it in for you.

With all the leaves gone almost from
the trees, I did not walk briskly through the field.

Late today with my dog Wool, I lay down in the upper field,
he panting and aged, me looking at the blue. Leaning

on him, I wondered how finite these lustered days seem
to you, A stand of hemlock across the lake catches

my eye. It will take a long time to know how it is
for you. Like a dog's lifetime -- long -- multiplied by sevens.

Bag THIS!

It's no wheat bag (sorry, inside joke), but unlike wheat bags, this one actually does some good. Buy the FEED bag and feed 1 child in a developing nation for 1 full school year. It's actually the perfect tote for summer and although it was designed by a Bush, Lauren Bush (the pretty model one dating a Lauren spawn, not one of those boozy twins) is actually doing something to help developing nations.

Buy a FEED Bag here.


Anya Hindmarch's insanely popular "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" bag is ready for U.S. pre-order and will be available around June 1st. Originally designed for the UK's wearewhatwedo.org to highlight bag reuse as opposed to snapping up all those plastic bags you'll never use again, this cutie is $15 to order and carries a hefty $15 shipping charge, but for $30, you can stop getting all those ugly bags and actually carry a cute one. And isn't that worth it?

Check here for boutique locations and order yourself one!

(Shout out to fantastic Faran and her delicious Fashionista site for the heads up on the bags.)

Bad News For The Caboose

This eloquent article elucidates so much that I will simply let it speak for itself, but it shall not go unmentioned that my desire to take violin lessons was just increased to near epic levels and although I'll never be Joshua Bell, the house may have to wait to be painted yet again.

And Speaking Of Audrey...

I missed the "Twin Peaks" Season One DVD boat hoping there'd be a release of both seasons in one set and now it's $90. Season Two is available for a scant $36, but then I read things like this:

We've got a bit of an update for you today on CBS/Paramount's plans for David Lynch's Twin Peaks TV series on DVD in 2007. As most of you should know by now, the long-awaited Twin Peaks: The Second Season is already set to hit DVD on 4/10. Our sources are telling us that this release is designed for those who may already have Season One (released back in 2001 by Artisan/Republic) and the unaired pilot episode (released on DVD in Japan and available only as an import) on disc. However, for those of you who are patient and want it all in one shot... we're told to expect CBS/Paramount to announce a Twin Peaks: The Complete Series box set for release later in 2007 that contains both seasons AND the pilot episode, PLUS lots of newly-produced extras. Watch for details on the box set to be announced in the next few months.

from places like here: The Digital Bits

Now obviously the release date was incorrect, but is that really that important? So, all 6 of you, do I order Season Two and save my pennies for One or do I wait, potentially in vain, for the entire set? Do note that I have the VHS copies of everything that I bought years ago on eBay for $110. (Yes. You read that right.) So, vote away, and remember, the owls are not what they seem.

Charming and Insidious

Songs for Ice Cream Trucks

I've been listening to these tracks through MySpace today and have decided they're a cross between Danny Elfman, Teletubbies music, and something Lolita might have played for Humbert Humbert. They're slightly tinny, slightly devilish, and for some reason the combination of these things makes me slightly delighted. As Audrey Horne might say to the question of cup or cone, "Cone. I like to lick."