30 Days of Music. Day 22: A Song You Listen To When You're Sad

One day I was sad. This song came shuffling onto my iPod. I had never really listened to it before. It fit my mood perfectly. Now I can only listen to it when I'm sad as that is the feeling it brings out in me.

30 Days of Music. Day 21: A Song You Listen To When You're Happy

We're on the home stretch, people. Unfortunately, the "days" are getting more mundane. It's basically "pick a random song" time.

So, this song - and the album it came from - have been in my car for sunny day driving. I love to take a long drive when it's a beautiful day out and sing loudly to my favorite songs that, well, that make me happy.



This song started out probably at the bottom of the heap as far as which songs I like best on this album. But one day, driving along, I found myself singing to it very loudly and suddenly I loved it.

Hangover Sunday

I know better than to drink tap beer. I definitely know better than to drink tap beer from a bar like Palmer's, but I did so anyway. Stupid me. Lesson learned. I am hungover.

Tap beer just does not sit well with me. I heard somewhere that tap beer is more likely to cause a hangover due to the uncleanliness of the pipes it comes out of.

I should really know better.

The weekend was supposed to be full of sunshine, but as with the rest of the days lately, it was filled with rain - and I'm not being metaphorical. It rains all the time lately. The sun was out for a good hour today, but, looking outside right now, it looks like this:

Cloudy and grey with just slight teases of blue sky.

The sun also came out briefly on Saturday night. I was inside watching Mexico vs. USA at The Nomad. But I still felt it. Even if brief.

I caught some band at Acadia that was heavily inspired by the likes of the Jeff Healy Band and Michael McDonald. You don't see that much these days. They had a saxophone player. And they were youngish dudes. Very odd.

Then it was off to the aforementioned Palmer's where I drank heavily and enjoyed a set by the Rank Strangers.

I also played a show this weekend. I did a solo set at The Coffee Grounds. It had been a while since I played alone, so I broke out a bunch of songs that I don't get to play when I play with someone else. New songs, an old song, covers, songs from the album that I tend to neglect. I played a lot of songs. And I played them quickly. I had a running list of songs for my setlist that I was just picking and choosing from and, after only 30 minutes of playing, I had played through 10 of them.

The lovely Sarah Morris also played a set. Her voice is incredible. Make sure to catch her playing live sometime if she's in your area.

I picked up some albums today from Electric Fetus to keep up with my promise to myself that I am going to buy physical albums again instead of digital downloads. I got:

Bon Iver: Bon Iver

The Elected: Bury Me in Rings

Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs: No Help Coming

Lissie: Catching a Tiger

After a super quick scan through all of them, Holly Golightly is the only one to really grab my attention. But, that is bound to change, I'm sure.

And, finally, I finished The Hunger Games trilogy today. Wow. Is that a crazy series. I don't even know where to begin with it. All I can ever say when I talk about it is that it's brutal. Very brutal. Graphic, violent, sad, lonely. Not for the squeamish. I'm really intrigued by the prospect of the film version. How are they going to put such a violent movie to the screen? Kids are killed in terrible, terrible ways.

Setlist for the The Coffee Grounds 6/24/11

-Good

-Can't Even Tell

-Minnesota

-Flavor

-No Words

-Blue Whale (my friend who's poem inspired this song was there so I has so happy to play it for her)

-Thursday

-Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry cover)

-The Party

-Easy to Blame

-In the Company of Elvis

-Evaporated (Ben Folds Five cover)

-Ramble Song

-The Woods

-Cast A Spell

-Rayner Park (Rank Strangers cover)

30 Days of Music. Day 20: A Song You Listen To When You're Angry

I'm only on day 20? I should really step it up. The problem is these "days" are getting a bit tired. I'm not someone who gets angry and frantically throws a "go-to" song on the stereo to air punch to. When I'm angry, I tend to pout in silence. That's just how I roll.

But, I'm sure back in 1994 when I was 15 and thought I was an oh-so-angry girl, I put this song on and stomped my feet around the apartment I lived in.

Heartbreaker Of The Day

I love animals. My heart just swells when I see a happy dog walking down the road. I always say hello to animals I pass along the way. I'm kind of crazy that way.

So imagine the indistinguishable sounds that came out of me when I saw this video of a dog running around on 4 prosthetic paws.



I guess he was left out in the cold and abandoned and his feet became stuck to some ice. They had to be amputated.

My mind cannot comprehend how people can be so cruel.

30 DAys of Music. Day 19: A Song From Your Favorite Album

My favorite album? That is impossible. It changes all the time.

I guess right now, I've been listening to London Calling pretty consistently lately - even declaring it my summer album. So, that being the case, here's my favorite song from that album:

Festive

I’ve said it before; there are few things I like better than being outside, listening to bands play, and drinking beer at the same time. What was great about this past weekend is that I got to be one of the bands playing. I played my first outdoor summer festival (Stone Arch Bridge Festival) on Sunday and it was ridiculously fun. I want to play all the festivals. I want to play outside all the time. I really think it was one of our best sets, even though I completely forgot the second verse to “Cohabitate”, it all worked out.

Thanks to Lindsay and Matt for the photos!

I briefly attended Rock the Garden on Saturday. I worked a 90 minute shift and then stepped outside into the dismal rain and just was not feeling it. The place was packed, though, so people seemed to be able to stick it out better than me. And I guess My Morning Jacket played an awesome set, so my loss, I guess.

The weekend was capped off with a fantastic show by Erin McKeown at The Aster Café. Really, you need to be listening to her if you aren’t already. She is delightful. Yes, I think that is the best word to describe her.




Setlist for the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts 6/19/11
-The Paul Simon Song
-Cast a Spell
-Minnesota
-Can’t Even Tell
-The Party
-Good
-Cohabitate
-Thursday
-Here
-Adore

30 Days of Music. Day 18: A Song That You Wish You Heard On The Radio

so tempted to say myself...so tempted to say myself...

But that would be lame, right. I can't really say that I would like to hear myself on the radio. Or can I? Because I would. I know I have been on the radio. I've just never heard it. So, that would be cool.

But,for the sake of this 30 Days of Music thing, I'll go with this:



She does it right. She does it well. And the world would be a better place if people paid more attention to her.

30 Days of Music. Day 17: A Song You Hear Often On the Radio

I'm fortunate to live in a community with a few really good music stations. I don't listen to the radio that often, but when I do, it is more than likely tuned to 89.3 The Current. One of the cool things about The Current is their focus on local music. They even recently created a 24/7 online webstream of all local music.

So my post for this day is this song by local singer/songwriter Jeremy Messersmith:

I hear this song every time I listen to the radio.

Dream Log #8

I was at a place like Applebees or TGIFriday or something equally as bad. I was having lunch while waiting for my husband to pick me up. There was a group of girls in the corner being very loud. The speaker overhead was playing “Bridge Over Troubled Water”…and that’s when I saw him. Art Garfunkel sitting at a table across from me, singing along to the song.

I was shocked and couldn’t even fathom why he would be there. I pulled out my iPhone to say something about it on Facebook, but there was a really bright light above me and I couldn’t see the screen.

So I just tried to play it cool.

A little while passed and then “Cecilia” started playing. I took a glance back at Art and suddenly Paul Simon was sitting there, too. They were both singing and smiling and looking right at me. I once again pulled out my iPhone, but I still couldn’t see anything. I was so frustrated. How often does something like this happen?

For whatever reason, I went outside and Matt was there to pick me up. We headed to the airport and I updated my status on Facebook to something about going to the airport. We get there and I suddenly remembered I wanted to post about the Simon and Garfunkel reunion I just witnessed.

But the light was too bright and I couldn’t see my screen.

Then I woke up.

Dog Days

Ugh. It’s been a crazy few days.

Murray, my dog, is old. He’s been old for a while now but he’s always seemed very youthful still. So much so that my husband and I would joke about how the vet must have guessed his age wrong by a few years.

But over the past couple of weeks he’s become old. Really old. It was so sudden yet so gradual. One day he came stumbling down the hall like he was crazy drunk. He shook it off and seemed fine. A few days later it happened again. Then on Sunday it happened again and this time it didn’t go away.

We left him his Kong full of treats on Monday morning before we headed off to work, as we always do and which he always devours immediately, but when we came home, it was still full. We called his vet and brought him in and she said all signs point to a brain tumor.

We were thisclose to putting him down, he was in such bad shape.

But I didn’t want his last day to have been spent home alone, so I brought him home for the night to have one last goodbye. But, oddly, he started acting a little better. He ate some food. He tried to play.

So now, 2 days later, he’s still the same. He’ll eat sometimes. He’ll get a little playful sometimes. He walks, but crookedly. His balance is all off. I guess at this point we just wait and see.

But, of course, this all happens a week before my big Stone Arch Festival show. That’s just the way things seem to work. 2 weeks before we leave for London, the sewer pipe breaks. 1 day before my Turf Club show, my dad has to have emergency surgery. Now, Murray. Not that any time is a good time for any of those things to happen, but come on. As always before any show, I begin to panic at all possible signals that I might be getting sick. This stress only ends up causing me to feel like shit. My body finds really weird ways to manifest stress into some physical form. I’ll get muscle spasms, hives, chest pains, headaches, toothaches…just about anything. So today I woke up with a painful – what I think is – a cut in the back of my mouth on the back of my upper gum. It hurts when my tongue brushes against it and it seems to be making it slightly difficult to swallow. Obviously the cut is real and not some fearful delusion of mine, the difficulty swallowing is probably stress related.

I find myself counting down the days until the show - both out of excitement and out of impatience. I just want it to get here so I know that I’m well and will be able to perform at my fullest ability. It’s almost like I can’t fully enjoy the thought of the performance until the day of when I know that I’m not sick. It’s really no way to go about things.

We had band practice last night and I’m feeling pretty good about the songs. We’re going to try something new with one of them that I’m very excited about.

But since I’m stressed and being stressed to me equals being sick and it’s been a while, let’s take inventory of what’s playing on the iPod while I get some work done today with another 25 songs.

1. “Strange Loop” – Liz Phair
2. “Home and Somewhere Else” – Mimicking Birds
3. “My Love” – Lykke Li
4. “Billy” – Haley Bonar
5. “True Blue” – Madonna
6. “All & Everyone” – PJ Harvey
7. “Signing Up For This” – Erica Russo and the Good Sport
8. “X-Ray Man” – Liz Phair
9. “New Yorker Cartoon” – Jenny and Johnny
10. “Northern Lad” – Tori Amos
11. “Just Like the Movies” – Regina Spektor
12. “I Don’t Know” – Lisa Hannigan
13. “Pawn Amerkia” – Rank Strangers
14. “Isobel” – Bjork
15. “Past in Present” – Feist
16. “My Night with the Prostitute from Marseille” – Beirut
17. “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” – They Might Be Giants
18. “Goodnight Movies Goodnight Moon” – Rank Strangers
19. “Get Over It” – Solid Gold
20. “Wendybird” – Haley Bonar
21. “Just So” – Agnes Obel
22. “Cosmopolitans” – Erin McKeown
23. “Black Sand” – Jenny Lewis
24. “Ripchord” – Rilo Kiley
25. “I Didn’t See It Coming” – Belle and Sebastian

I’ll get back to the 30 Days of Music countdown tomorrow.

The Hunger Games

Last night I finished book one of The Hunger Games trilogy. This was one of the fastest reads I’ve ever read. I could not put it down. It is full of action from start to finish. Each page drives the story, so you never feel like you’re just dawdling on a conversation for conversations sake.

The story takes place in the future where North America no longer exists (and most likely the rest of the world). The land has been split into 12 Districts controlled by the “Capitol”. To enforce their power, The Capitol holds The Hunger Games. Every year, one boy and one girl from each District between the ages of 12 & 18 are randomly selected to take part in the nationally televised Hunger Games: A survival fight to the death. Last one standing receives a life of riches.

It’s a brutal story. I had to really remove my brain from it a bit so I wasn’t constantly questioning how society could let something like this happen and actually enjoy watching it. To openly watch the slaughter of children and bet on it and have it be this grand televised event, like the Olympics or something. But, it does take place in the future and, really, with reality TV and torture porn being in mainstream theaters, how far away are we really from this sort of thing?

I do recommend this book. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy. I had to force myself through the first two books of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and have had no desire to pick up the third book. Hopefully the rest of The Hunger Games books hold up.

30 Days of Music. Day 16: A Song You Used To Love But Now You Hate

Back in 1998 when Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road first came out, I listened to it constantly. I loved it. But it seems as the years have gone on, her voice has become more and more drunken and slurred and, well, it sounds like she is singing while vomiting. Her voice these days has become so grating to me that I can no longer listen to her old stuff, back when her voice was more in the “unique” category.

So, there was a point when I loved the song posted below, but now I can’t listen to it anymore.

103

Today, the temperature is the hottest it's been in 23 years. 103 is the recorded high for today, but my car said 102 degrees:

23 years is a really long time. We're talking 1988. People who are legally able to drink alcohol today weren't even born yet. That's crazy.

And that makes me old.

On this day in 1988, I was a couple of months shy of my 9th birthday and just leaving the 3rd grade.

I lived in Waconia, MN in a 3rd floor tiny apartment with my dad across the street from the elementary school I attended. My mom had died 2.5 years prior. Dad worked a lot. I fended for myself a lot. This meant I skipped school a lot. That was my 8 year old life.

I loved watching Lassie and Mr. Ed on Nickelodeon. I was about a year away from discovering New Kids on the Block. I loved Michael Jackson's Bad album and Weird Al's parody, Even Worse. I'm fairly certain I had this poster on my bedroom wall:

And I didn't even like Kirk Cameron.

I remember my 9th birthday party. I had a sleepover with about 5 girls from school. I vaguely remember sitting with the lights off with something that glowed in the dark. I want to say it was a hula hoop, but that seems weird.

Bush Sr. was the VP and won the Presidential election later that year.

Celebrities born in 1988:

Haley Joel Osment - April 10th

Adele - May 5th

Princess Beatrice - August 8th

Top 5 singles of 1988:

"Faith" - George Michael

"Need You Tonight" - INXS

"Got My Mind Set On You" - George Harrison

"Never Gonna Give You Up" - Rick Astley

"Sweet Child O' Mine" - Guns N' Roses

Rain Man was the top grossing film of the year and also won the Oscar.

23 years ago. I don't even feel like I've been around for 23 years yet. How is that possible?

23 years from now it will 2034. I will be 54. 54!!!

How will I look back on this year?

30 Days of Music. Day 15: A Song That Describes You

Oh, boy. This was tough. I felt like I really had to think about this one as I didn't want to come across in a certain way. You know, picking "Baby I'm A Star" by Prince or something (totally joking).

So I picked this one, as a lot of it does describe me and lot of it is what I strive to be.

Was It All A Dream?

I have this very vivid memory of driving on some country road with my parents and other family members when I was a very little girl. I was sitting in the front seat between my mom and dad (back before every car had bucket seats). We were behind a car that had a canoe strapped to the top. As we were rolling along, the canoe flew off the top of the car, narrowly missing us, and landing in the ditch.

It was a definite moment of terror in my young life.

But, the thing is, I have no idea if that actually happened.

It's all so clear to me. The road, the car, our car, the canoe in the ditch. But part of me, for whatever reason, thinks it might have just been a dream.

It's something I always try to remember to ask my dad about, but then I always forget when I talk to him. And would he even remember? As a kid, it was pretty scary. But for an adult, it was just a moment on the road.

If it happened at all.

Either way, to this day, I get freaked out driving behind cars with anything strapped to the top.

30 Days of Music. Day 14: A Song That No One Would Expect You To Love

This category is very similar to yesterday's topic. So, here's a song that I love that maybe people wouldn't realize I truly love as much as I do.



Great video, too.

30 Days of Music. Day 13: A Song That Is A Guilty Pleasure

I've been stalling on this "day" because I don't have a lot of guilty pleasures. I like what I like - and that includes Britney Spears and Tiffany and songs by American Idol alumni and Skid Row and old school gangsta rap. I could have put any number of songs here that fall into those categories because they are supposed to be guilty pleasures. But, I honestly don't feel guilty about a single one.

So, I searched my brain and came up with:



I picked Jennifer Lopez because she's not really a musical artist in any way. She thinks she is and a lot of people tell her she is, but she's really not. And if you tell almost anyone that you like a J.Lo song, they will give you a really bad look.

And, the thing is, I not only like this Jennifer Lopez song, I like several, yes several, Jennifer Lopez songs.

(but not that song about Ben Affleck)

So there.