Crystal Bubbles Will Eliminate Our Troubles

NYC was funfunfun but I am wore out. Of course, Jesse still hasn't moved out yet even though he had almost 5 full days without me around to get it done. I WILL scream at him if his stuff isn't out by tonight. Even Dennis is mad now.

I haven't taken my shots for my photojournalism class yet, and they're due on Wednesday. 40 pictures of 2 different events. I don't know why this is so difficult for me to get done, but it is. I hate taking pictures for class and of things I don't care about. If I could, I would drop this class but it's already too late in the semester to get the money back and Jason is the professor. It would be really shitty to have to tell my own brother that I hate his class.


Today was a good day at work because James and I went to the movies! We saw Monsters Vs. Aliens and it was pretty cute.

This cheered me up though:

Twenty-Four Seven, From Heaven

I have so much to do today! Somehow, I managed to get enough sleep to wake up at 8:30 and take my laundry to that place on Cayuga and Marshall. Maybe it's because yesterday I got some really excellent pieces of news.

1.) I got my scholarship from Loyola back! The whole thing! I was planning on going back in August even if I didn't get the money, but it would have meant lots of loans and I'm absolutely terrified of being in debt.

2.) Jesse is really moving out. Yes, yes YES! That means that when I get home from the City, he won't live here anymore. Words can't express how excited I am.

Dennis' mom is probably getting her sentence tomorrow, and if (when?) she has to go to prison, Dennis will get her car and anything he wants from her house. Prison or no, he's bringing a couch back from her house. Apparently, she kind of deserves to go to prison. She was up on at least 5 felony charges and refused to take the deal (which involved no time inside) because she didn't want to go to drug counseling.


I am super excited about going to New York! I will drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, see some cool stuff, laze around, get wasted, discuss. I can't wait!





I've been listening to this obsessively

It's Nothing Personal, It's Just, You Know, the Alphabet

SPRING IS COMING!

crocus!

snowdrops!



This past week went by slowly and quickly at the same time. I spent the first half of it with Rachel at Nate's, watching what is possibly the best spy show ever, MI5.



I'm basically in love with the protagonist, Tom Quinn. He's just so hot. It's funny, because I remember going to see Pride and Prejudice with Hattie and fighting about whether he was hot or not. She, of course, could see beyond his wispy hair and fluffy sideburns but I could not. I am officially admitting, right now, that I was wrong. Matthew Macfayden is beautiful:



He's married to that blonde girl from MI5, which is really cute:


Best outfits ever

The second half of the week, Nate got really sick, so it was just me and Rachel. On Saturday, Zuri came over with her cutest bundle ever, Haruun.

The entire time they were over was one giant coo fest. It would have been sickening if he wasn't so fucking adorable. He's six wees old, and astonishingly well behaved. I'm used to babies crying all the time, but Haruun only really cried at the end of the night, and he was still cute. It's incredible that Zuri has a baby, but she's so good to him. He's a lucky boy.

Sunday at 12AM Rachel turned 21, so obviously we had to do something.

This is the second picture of Rachel's 21st year. The first was a disaster.
The bars in this hick ass town have last call at 1AM, which is stupid, but Rachel managed to get a decent amount of liquor in a pretty short amount of time. Taz met us at Moonshadows, which was preposterously full, so we went to the Chanty.

Because he's always absconding with something of mine whenever I see him, he asked to borrow my sunglasses and disappeared with them. Luckily, I ran into Lexi outside of ShortStop this afternoon and she was wearing them.

Of course, Tattoo Chris was there, and Jake Miller and Mallison stopped by for a bit. Zac Alling was there and after what I imagine was a vaguely awkward hello, Rachel and I ended up going back to his house in the middle of nowhere and drinking and playing scrabble. I lost, of course, because I am an awful scrabble player. But we listened to Beirut and Animal Collective and it was good.

Because they used to be together or some other such nonsense, Rachel was all squeely and saying she wanted to hook up with him, which is a TERRIBLE idea. When they were together she was miserable, and he's with her friend Kirsten now anyway, which kind of seals the deal. I told her that if she tried anything trixy I would walk the 2.5 miles home in the middle of the night. Of course, that was an empty threat. At some point I passed out and she tripped to the bathroom to vomit and ended up in Zac's bed. Thankfully (for everybody's sanity) nothing happened, but she thought I really did walk home because I was gone when they woke up. Really, Jason called me to do some photo stuff, and he picked me up at 11.


I suppose it could be said that my tentative venture into the soup of a social scene in Ithaca is going well. I haven't a clue if it will continue to even be a venture now that Rachel is back in Brooklyn, but we'll see. I have to see Nate at some point, because Rachel left some library books at his house and I left all my liquor there, which he will drink unless I get it back. Also, I really, really want to watch more MI5, and he's got the entire series at his fingertips. Zac made some kind of noise about driving down to New York this weekend for Rachel's birthday party, but he probably won't do it.

And speaking of New York City, I'm going there! This weekend! It's exciting, because I've never been to the City before. I mean, I've been in Port Authority, and I spent about 5 hours walking around with my parents, but everybody was miserable and we had all our travel stuff with us, so I don't count it. And Caleb said he'd be there too, which means we can discuss some things that I guess we need to talk about. I am excited!

Summer Jams

Summer time is a serious time. All that sun and swimming and lazing around necessitates the perfect playlist of summery jams. These are some of the prizels in the running for the sunny, swimmy, lazy days I expect from the summer of 2009.

METERMAIDS - No Matter What You Will Feel The Illinoise (Or We Will Punch You In the Mouth)
Sufjan Stevens + rap = YES.




Andrew Bird - Plasticities
He wears cute socks when he performs, how could I not?





Hot Chip & Peter Gabriel - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Vampire Weekend cover)
When I downloaded this song, I listened to it obsessively. That hasn't happened to me since Albert Hammond, Jr.'s Cartoon Music for Super Heroes. Coincidentally, it was the first track on 2008's Summer Jams.





Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Rent a Wreck
Scandinavia has such a limited summertime they need to capitalize on every ray of sun that shines their way.




Lily Allen - The Fear
I want to be rich and I want lots of money, too. And loads of clothes and fuckloads of diamonds. Doesn't everyone?




Noah and the Whale - Shape of My Heart
When the Backstreet Boys released their gem Shape of My Heart I was afraid that no one would ever be able to make a better song with the same title. But lo! I was wrong.




Matt & Kim - Silver Tiles
Imagine riding a white 1985 Schwinn Collegiate down a tree lined side street along a creek on the way to a summery fun time full of cold beer and illicit drugs. Include sandals and tank tops at your discretion.


Ignore those girls though. I don't like their couch.


Adele - Right As Rain
It's the perfect summer fling song. And I love her.



François Virot - Say Fiesta is also on the list, as is Consolation Prize by Julie Doiron and Here Comes the Summer by Corduroy Utd.
(hint! clickem links! you get a downloadable summer jam!)

The order isn't set at all, and I'm hoping for more options. Any suggestions?

A Crispy Realization

I knew there was a reason I like Bon Iver so much.

It is because he takes pictures of himself with his cat.

Also he writes beautiful songs. In true broken-hearted artist fashion, he hid alone in a cabin for months after a break up and recorded an album. All the songs on For Emma, Forever Ago were composed with only a melody, and the words were added later. Its an interesting idea, to fit the words into the song based on the shapes of their sounds and not the meaning behind them. Clearly, he didn't just randomly throw words around, but he might not have thought about them too hard. I can't always tell what the words are, so I guess I'm only getting bits and pieces anyways.

This is my favorite song, and coincidentally the only official video in existence:



The whole album is lovely, really. It feels personal, delicate even. Maybe what I mean is that it makes me feel delicate. I can only listen to it alone, though. I've never managed to discover if other people have music like that too, that they can only listen to when they're alone because it makes them think too many things at once.

Well, whatever the case, For Emma, Forever Ago is great. As is this:


Cats and saws? BEST.

This is where you can download Re: Stacks

And this is where you can download The Park, which is a Feist cover.

He has a blog, which is probably more informative and better than mine, so here. It is called Creature Fear, which is also probably why I like him.

Is There Any Good Reason That I Should Be Scared?

This is pretty much my new favorite thing:



This guy, François Virot, does not even have a Wikipedia page. The closest thing Wikipedia has is some Marquis who got his head cut off in the French Revolution.

So, this guy is from Lyon, and he was in a noise pop band called Clara Clara which has no videos on YouTube. He's been playing the guitar since he was seven because he wanted to impersonate Kurt Cobain, but thank goodness that he doesn't sound like Kurt Cobain at all. He does, however, make very frightening faces when he's singing his own songs:


There are loads of La Blogotheque videos here, including some more Fançois Virot. And here is where you can download you very own copy of Say Fiesta! It's labeled Cascade Kisses, but that's incorrect so just change it yourself. His debut album came out in September, and it is a lo-fi freak pop masterpiece called Yes or No: Here is what last.fm had to say about the album:

"In a nutshell, then: it’s the record of a sage, recorded by a kid. Achieved with no superfluous addition: one guitar, sometimes two, one voice, sometimes two, or three, plus an acoustic rain of hands on wood, bits and pieces of percussion. Or else, a beautiful suppressed anger against whatever, overflowing with generosity, acoustic guitar strings assaulted with no second thought whatsoever, escalating songs, funk to the core, rageously melodic, that never fears total exposure be it in full sun or a car’s headlights in your eyes. What does François Virot’s pulsing heart look like, you’re wondering? Depending on the moments, what you will hear in this programmatic Yes Or No is: an either melancholic or joyous folksy rout, a fake grand reunion recorded onto tape in total solitude, moments of mingled pavement-esque and beatlesy descent, and that same brio that you like to hear in Animal Collective (we’ll be frank with you: you will think of Animal Collective from time to time, François does like to strum his guitar like it was a percussion piece, and play in dark, savage forests). Eventually, you will hear a voice that is both singular and precious. People who were lucky enough to see and hear François consume himself on stage at the back of a basement or a spacey flat know it too too well: François needs to wince in order to hoot, yet his chanting never sounds like groans. From deep down in his throat, his voice, gently saturated with matter, likes nothing more than to settle in your ear and levitate, harangue it without assaulting it. You either love it or conjecture about the fact that you may hate it, and then you end up loving it anyway."

YES.

Lets All Eat Baloney Sandwiches And Be Racists

I hate Rick Owens. Probably I don't hate the actual guy whose name is Rick Owens, but I really really really hate his designs. Observe:




THERE ARE NO SHAPES! What is that? Why is that?




The super fray was definitely already done by the Olsens and their devoted following of tiny 12 year olds. Plus, this is for a dude, which I extra don't like.




And what is going on with that jacket? At least its for a lady.


It one thing to wear some kind of baggy ripped up shit that you found at the bottom of your dad's closet, but its another to pay a gozillion dollars for something you could make yourself. I know its not supposed to matter how simple the garment was to make if the design is genius, but that is simply not the case. I like my dudes to look sharp, not like they were just dragged out of the river and Frankenstein'd to life.

Sharp, I say, sharp! Some nice sweaters, freshies, you know. Kind of like this guy. Like half that guy and half Kanye West.




Yeah. Like that.


Yesterday I dropped my phone in a pool, which was highly upsetting. Ollie dove in and got it for me, the sweet boy, and it was buzzing and seizureing and shit, and I was afraid it would never work again. But I held it under one of those automatic hand dryers in the locker room and then used a pocket knife to unscrew the entire thing and left it to dry over night, and lo! It worked! I hear its supposed to be freeing to not have a cell phone, but I was in a state of distress.

Also: Noah left for Maui last night, and I don't know when I'll ever see him again. Bummer. (I know that doesn't sound like I'm sad, but really I am.)