I was lucky enough to spend a few hours in the company of my dear friend Raldo during my Thanksgiving visit to E-Town. He has, in my opinion, flawless taste in music and so was kind enough to make me a mix of songs that he knew I would like (and I do!). The whole CD is stupendous, but this song is definitely a standout to me.
For chats with old friends over really good coffee.
For Pendleton whiskey on a chilly Friday night (and coffee and pancakes the next morning).
For roads clear enough that I was able to spend my favorite holiday with my favorite people (and for the numerous invitations I received from new friends in PDX if my travel plans hadn't worked out).
For snow - real snow, not what would pass for an arctic storm in Oregon.
For my Catholic faith, and all the blessings God has poured on my life.
"Take out your iPod. Press 'shuffle'. What memory do you associate with the first song that plays and why?"
"Touchdown Turnaround" by Hellogoodbye. This song evokes memories of my two years spent at Baron U. During the final semester of my senior year, my dear friend Inadequate made me a DVD of videos and pictures from our time together, and this was one of the songs she used to accompany the memories. As it happens, I pulled said DVD off the shelf the other night for a little trip down memory lane and found myself getting a little misty-eyed as I relived our trips to Pitt, ethnic parties and general mischief-making at the Steel Cross. Thanks for the memories, Inadequate, Epic Fail, and Needy.
I spent a large part of my great pinkeye adventure last winter catching up on previous seasons of "Chuck" and was instantly charmed by Zachary Levi's (apparently) genuinely sweet nerdiness. Since then, I've added the show to my DVR list and Zach (see what I did there? It's like I KNOW HIM) has become one of the people (among Ben Folds and Jimmy Fallon) that brings instantaneous joy to my day.
Speaking Jimmy Fallon, he interviewed Zach earlier this week. Hands down, the best part of this clip comes when the Roots play him onto stage (right around the 12" mark); the look on his face made me laugh out loud.
"For the nine months that He was cloistered within her, all the food, the wheat, the grapes that she consumed served as a kind of natural Eucharist, passing into Him Who later was to declare that He was the Bread and the Wine of Life. After her nine months were over, the fitting place for Him to be born was Bethlehem, which meant 'House of Bread.' Later on He would say:
God's gift of bread comes down from heaven and gives life to the whole world. John 6:23 It is I Who am the Bread of Life; He who comes to Me will never be hungry. John 6:35
"When the Divine Child was conceived, Mary's humanity gave Him hands and feet, eyes and ears, and a body with which to suffer. Just as the petals of a rose after a dew close on the dew as if to absorb its energies, so too, Mary as the Mystical Rose closed upon Him Whom the Old Testament had described as a dew descending upon the earth. When finally she did give Him birth, it was as if a great ciborium had opened, and she was holding in her fingers the Guest Who was also the Host of the world, as if to say, 'Look, this is the Lamb of God; look, this is He Who takes away the sins of the world.'"
"If you were going to make a mix of love songs, what five songs would you have to include?" [via]
I'm the first to admit that I fancy myself a hopeless romantic (whether or not that's actually true is debatable, I suppose, but humor me). Some years ago I created an iTunes playlist of what I consider to be romantic songs (I suppose the Emery tune is pretty subjective, but I threw it in the mix because Toby wrote it for his wife, and things like that make me go "aww"), and it's traveled with me through several iPod upgrades and two new laptops. I don't listen to it much anymore, but every so often I find myself in the mood to daydream a bit, and that's where this particular playlist really shines for me.
In no particular order, these are among my five favorite songs from that list:
"Eight Days A Week" - The Beatles
"Blue Eyes" - Cary Brothers (might be loading slowly, but please be patient! It's a phenomenal song)
"Nothing Like You and I" - The Perishers
"Your Rocky Spine" - Great Lake Swimmers
"With or Without You" - U2 (Ross and Rachel? Anyone? Bueller?)
In my weekly round of DVR catch-up this weekend, I happened to catch Rainn Wilson plugging his book "Soulpancake: Chew On Life's Big Questions" on Jimmy Fallon. Intrigued, I noodled around the site for a bit and wound up joining, really only so I could access the database of questions (hello, wealth of writing prompts!). Here's my answer to a question that really resonated with me.
"What do you wish you'd accepted about yourself sooner?"
Oddly, I had a discussion with a friend about this concept quite recently. I was introduced to this particular kid not too long after I moved to PDX, and one Sunday we went to Mass at a Benedictine monastery not far away. During the ride back to my neck of the woods, we were chatting and continuing to get to know each other, and at one point, he made a stray observation:
"I'm still trying to figure you out. You're... different." Worried that he might have offended me, he started to backpedal a bit, but I assured him that I took it in stride. I did note, though, that while I can understand where that observation came from, I've never thought of myself as particularly "different"; I'm just me. I quickly realized, though, that this was not always the case. I spent a lot of time growing up trying to figure out what was "wrong" with me: why I didn't look like every other girl, or why other girls seemed to have such an easier time with... with life in general, I guess. What struck me about the question I stumbled across on Soulpancake was that it's taken me 25 years, but I've finally accepted that I am a little different from every other girl, and (opinions of my ex notwithstanding) THAT'S OKAY.
Due to the fact that I've hit a wall and none of the NaBloPoMo prompts are currently interesting or particularly inspiring to me, here's a YouTube video!
Few things in this world make me happier than punk covers of non-punk songs. Please to enjoy Goldfinger's cover of "99 Red Balloons".
Life has been full of introspection lately. Maybe it's just my way of getting used to all the rain, I don't know. Anyway, I do a lot of thinking these days. Through this internal examination, it has occurred to me that I have a tendency to work really, really hard to keep my life compartmentalized (buzzword for this post brought to you by the most recent episode of "Dexter"). The example that immediately springs to mind involves relationships with the people that I work with. Aside from coworkers that have, in time, become close friends, I don't really share personal details at work. That part of my life is separated (compartmentalized, if you will [see what I did there?]) from the rest, though that's not to say that it's a bad thing. In fact, I'd argue that a healthy amount of reservation is fairly necessary to maintain professionalism in the workplace, but I digress.
Returning to the subject at hand, I wonder how to reconcile all the compartments that I've created in my life with one another. It follows logic that, at some point, these separated areas will have to come to some sort of merger, right? I worry sometimes about how things will be explained, how exactly things will come to light. It's not that I have anything to hide, necessarily, but the idea of shifting my method of operation from calculated withholding to full (or at least increased) disclosure is daunting enough to give me more than a little pause.
*NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. I know, I've sung this song before, but this podcast has truly become one of the highlights of my week. Please, do yourself a favor and check this out.
*The Walking Dead. I was initially on the fence about even giving this one a shot, but a few well-placed recommendations from friends convinced me to check it out. I'm not typically a horror fan, and sure, I watched much of the premiere through my fingers, but WOW. Bonus points: stars the adorable poster-board guy from "Love Actually".
A tiny piece of my heart died when Copeland broke up.
That piece came back to life just a little when I stumbled across this video on YouTube.
I tried to explain to a friend earlier this week exactly what it was about Copeland that made them so special to me, and I could only stammer and sputter about how amazing they were. Granted, I was watching the above video at the time, and I've always been a sucker for both acoustic songs and Aaron Marsh's voice, but still. Words can't express what a beautiful falsetto will do to my insides (although "turns them to utter mush" is as good a place as any to start, I suppose).
I guess it's kind of cruel to do a Saturday Music Special on a band that's no longer producing new music (although, hell, I did it with Rilo Kiley way back when), but I have such a compulsion to share amazing music with people that I can't help it. When I was up visiting Breener a few weekends ago, we listened to Copeland's last album, "You Are My Sunshine", as we drove around her small town on a rainy Pacific Northwest night, and it occurred to me that their music (particularly "YAMS" and "Eat, Sleep, Repeat") is the ideal soundtrack for a rainy, but not necessarily gloomy, day. I kid you not: the next time you find yourself at home on a rainy Saturday, make a cup of tea, put on some comfy (read: stretchy) pants and play some Copeland on YouTube. It will all make sense, I promise you.
Additionally, this post from the TWLOHA blog about Copeland's last show brought me to tears when I read it back in May. It says all the things I couldn't. Please to enjoy.
I've long declared Thanksgiving to be my favorite holiday. For a girl (and former fattie) that loves food, how could I not? A Steubie friend once referred to it as "Lots-of-Pie Thursday", and I can think of no better descriptor, especially since I discovered the Pioneer Woman's flat apple pie recipe and adopted it as my own.
However, as I was perusing the Almighty Facebook on my lunch break today, I discovered today that February 5th is AKA'd as World Nutella Day. Ah, Nutella, that glorious food. For me, it holds amazing memories of Ireland; Schmoopy and I more or less (okay, less) lived on the stuff during our ten day adventure. Amazon made some delectable dark chocolate-hazelnut-Nutella mini cupcakes for my last day of work in Godforsaken Idaho. In short, I love the stuff. I deliberately don't buy it, because if it's in the house, I'll eat it straight from the jar with a spoon.
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