scissors happy

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

concerted effort: a

so i was recently a little dismayed to look at the 14,500+ songs in the itunes i share with pos and realize:

1) since we loaded everything to our new laptop in january, we haven't listened to much. well, somehow, we have listened to peaches' song "the inch" 48 times (really? i don't think that was me, even once), and others in our "top 25 played" look like the soundtrack to a day's outing for a group home (ie schizophrenic) - joss stone, joy division, sisters of mercy, mandy moore, dirty projectors, deerhoof, al green, indigo girls covering dylan, jamiroquai, depeche mode, everclear (what year is this?), beastie boys, metric, etc. we have over 14,500 songs and have somehow managed to get a duet between the girl from belle & sebastian and the guy from screaming trees into a most-listened-to list. this is odd. it makes me sad to see so many amazing albums just sitting there, "date added: 1/24/09" and "last played: [blank]." apparently i haven't listened to most of my favorite albums in full since january, if not well before then.

2) i have the habit of acquiring new music without really knowing what it is that i am downloading/buying/borrowing. i love music blogs and troll them weekly for new bands to check out, covers that are sometimes terrible but often amazing, old gems that are new to me. yesterday i found: a new flaming lips song, david gray covering "like a rolling stone" in 1993, new dizzee rascal, old ok go, some stuff i have never heard of but were on a best-new-music list (the postmarks, julian plenti), etc. also, and this is not typical, i bought three albums on itunes yesterday - the new air, zero 7 and david gray. i sometimes collect a bunch of new songs (and i say "collect" because i might be teetering towards "hoarding" although there are not 17-year-old newspapers and cat skeletons involved - thank god digital music is stored magically and invisibly in the pretty glowing clamshell of a laptop and does not require actual space) and never quite get around to listening - really listening - to decide whether i should keep it, delete it, or look for more from that band or musician. so i can easily scroll through the list and wonder "who the hell is jenn grant? or sundayrunners? how did i ever acquire so much badly drawn boy when i do not recall ever listening to him? why didn't i ever delete that james blunt album?"

3) i need to clear some harddrive space, and get more of pos' old cds imported. getting married means that you merge almost everything in your life. so i suppose it's time that our computer stores less tori amos and more slayer.

4) i like projects, especially ones that i can do on my commute (and justify that i play tetris on my ipod instead of doing anything productive).

so i am going to go through all of my songs and listen to them, and delete the crap, and rediscover old stuff i love and forgot about, or face my demons and admit that some of my old favorites are actually really bad and that while i might OWN lou reed's "transformer," it's not like i have ever listened to anything on it other than "walk on the wild side." and why do i have so many smashing pumpkins albums if i hate them?

so, ahem - A

bands:
from A-Trak to Azure Ray

number of songs by the A artists:
before going through - (i didn't know that i would be blogging this so i didn't check)
after going through - 696

dates:
9/14/09-10/13/09

highlights/surprises:
"come crash" by a.c. newman (i like the chorus, which is "christine, come crash on my floor")
"miss you" by adiam dymott
"lightbulbs" by the answering machine
"one crowded hour (live with strings)" by augie marsh
some guy named adrian champion mashed a bunch of rap tracks with white stripes songs. some aren't so hott, but the jay-z vs nas diss tracks back-to-back are fun.
there's a song called "the day before you came" on abba's more gold that is really fucking strange and i like that there is a shout-out to marilyn french.
i listened to nothing but alice in chains for two days - and i quite enjoyed myself. "over now" is my favorite re-discovery.

deleted:
some live tracks by art brut
an action action album
some super-terrible and random antony and the johnsons tracks - i don't think i will ever be in the mood for that
that nonsensical song about jessica simpson by adam green
some dickcheese rock by acceptance
this drowning-cats-sounding track by adrian orange & her band
a few other non-notables

lessons learned:
it really is a shame about amy winehouse
at the drive-in was FUCKING AWESOME (i knew this already, but i forgot just how much)
the avalaches' "since i left you" is really fun (i just wikipedia'd it and it says that the album was "assembled from approximately 3,500 vinyl samples")
do not put your husband's art of noise tracks into the "maybe delete" playlist

on to the Bs . . .

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

yeah, it must be wednesday night.

went to the jewel after work to buy bacon and tomatoes so i could make this (it's just okay - tastes kinda like a soggy blt. gonna throw it back in the oven for a while).

older professional man in line in front of me: buying a 12-pack of miller light cans and a box of chocolate chip cookies.

younger professional man in line behind of me: buying a giant can of foster's and a frozen pizza.

i feel ya, dudes.

i google-image-searched "hump day" to add a graphic but i am not going to post any of those.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

this made me laugh so hard.

the top equation is mine. the second was written by pos after he must have noticed the piece of paper discarded by the laptop, and left to remind me that i am dumb.

love him.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

this is my 500th post

(according to blogger. i did not personally count them).

to celebrate, and to avoid actually having to write anything, here is a collection of internet objects d'arte that i have collected and like.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

obamapalooza

pos and i headed down to grant park around 7 or so, taking the el to the loop and walking. have no fear, capitalism is alive and well: there were people selling obama t-shirts, pins, towels, bracelets, glow necklaces, flags, etc, every ten feet. i liked the black shirt with the white american flag printed on it with the words "my president is black." we walked up roosevelt to michigan avenue, where there was a very strong police presence, mostly standing and watching the throngs of people. they had flexi-cuffs on hand in case we started to riot. i liked walking past the johnson publishing company building - they publish jet and ebony - and see their awesome framed obama covers. the mood in general was excited and chill.
we had to access the park through the congress street entrance, near buckingham fountain. there were supposedly two lines, one for ticketholders and one for those without. the crowds of folks just trying to get to congress to cross the bridge into the park was giant and there were people joining the lines so constantly that all i could see were people. we ended up running into my friend jw and his wife so we stood in line with them and slowly inched our way across the bridge. one check-point person looked at pos' ticket and the crowds were held back by police on horses, so it was slow-going. everyone in the crowd was checking online and texting to find out the latest election returns. when we found out that obama had won pennsylvania, everyone started screaming and jumping and cheering. some guy ahead of me was streaming cnn on his phone and held it up for me to watch. as we made our way closer, we found out about ohio, and it was more collective good cheer and excitement. the second check-point was a dude waving me through when i opened my handbag for inspection, and a woman looking at pos' drivers license and ticket. that was it for security. i was sure that there would be metal detectors, wands, pat-downs. i guess 175,000 people was too many to search.
when we were finally able to get into the park itself (mounted police were good at staggering the crowds), a bunch of people broke into mad sprints to get close. at this point, probably 8:00 or so, a fence had been erected to help divide the field and allow for police to walk through. the field was a quagmire of people, fences, distant tents lit up where i assumed media and VIPs were, and a giant screen for us to watch cnn. we lost jw in the initial jockeying for position, but pos and i ended up wandering around and meeting up with other friends. the crowd was courteous, friendly, excited and energetic. it felt like we were at the largest-ever tv-watching event. i liked how the screen would cut to a normal "election night 2008" image when cnn would break for commercials. whenever mccain would win a state like arkansas or whatever, everyone would boo. and the obama numbers kept piling up. it became quite clear, after pennsylvania and ohio and HOLY SHIT, florida too, that obama would be winning. but then he won virginia, and everyone got really excited and hushed and waiting, and right around 10:00 cnn flashed a screen that said "barack obama elected president" and everyone went apeshit, hugging and crying and screaming and jumping and laughing.
we had about an hour to kill before obama came out to speak. we watched mccain's concession speech, which actually riled up a lot of people around me. he was doddering on about how this was such a momentous event for black people, and people were yelling at the screen "it's not about that!!!" i was standing next to an older black man and his white ladyfriend, and when mccain was talking he just kept shaking his head and saying "for everyone. this is for everyone."

we got to dance a lot, as they kept piping in songs to keep us occupied. stevie wonder, some motown, some country (barf). i wish there had been bands and shit. a preacher came out and delivered a nice prayer, a woman came out and sang the national anthem (i think she got some of the words mixed up) and some guy came out and led the pledge of allegiance. i couldn't tell you the last time i did the pledge; high school maybe? and then the next president of the united states, barack hussein obama, came out and spoke, and he is such a beautiful speaker, one who inspires millions of people to feel like someone out there does care that you are alive and struggle and have to make choices and are fed up with the past eight years of insults and bullshit, and you want someone who you can look at and be happy with the idea that "you speak for me - you represent me - and i am proud of you and proud of america."obama's speech is here, in case you ever want to go back and read it.

and we clapped and shouted and cried and i said to pos (kidding) "now we can have a baby" and it was amazing to feel like you were a part of something historical, beautiful and healing.

oh, and pos spotted bill ayers on the way out. i looked him up online later and that was indeed him. he was in the field with all of the other excited chicagoans. no special VIP access for him.

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

election night (at long last)

music for kids who can't read good has a nice election day mix of mp3s for you, as well as one of the best gif animations i have ever seen. adorbs!

pos got tickets for us to attend the grant park obamafest tonight. we were a little concerned about the huge amounts of people and the possibility of it being a clusterfuck of crazy, but we decided that we want to be a part of this monumental historical evening, and we will have further proof for our kids that we were once awesome.