Objective: Prepare for a trip which will involve “camping” (at a music festival), rock-climbing and walking around a lot in a much warmer climate than I’m used to (the average temperature in late April in the Indio Valley is a high of ~90°F, low of about ~60°F).

Item 1: Comfortable walking shoes.
Method: Shopping.

My 6 year-old Sauconies just aren’t cutting it in the all-day comfort department anymore, but they are seriously the most comfortable just-kicking-around shoes I’ve ever owned. After much research into available color combinations in my size, the pictured sneakers were ordered and will be arriving on Tuesday. That color combination is called Bayou/Black.

Item 2: Single-person tent and lightweight sleeping bag.
Method: Excavation?

I am assured that someone in my family owns both of these already - but that they’re either in the basement or the attic. I have a week and a half to put on my miner’s helmet and gas mask and see what I can find… and if they cannot be found or are found to be in an unacceptable condition, I think I can borrow a tent from a friend at work, and might just have to pony up the ~$40 for a sleeping bag. Perhaps the Columbia Double Whammy Fleece Sleeping Bag and Pillow.

Item 3: TSA-approved luggage lock
Method: Damn, a trip to Target.

My big “trans-Atlantic” suitcase is equipped with a TSA-approved lock. But the suitcase I’m taking to California is not quite as fancy or huge or heavy, so I’ll have to buy a lock. I don’t want to find the contents of my suitcase strewn about the luggage carriage because they decided to randomly inspect MY suitcase and then just zipped it up halfway (it’s happened to more than a few people I know). Chances are that if there’s a lock, it will be second nature (while running through their robot-like procedures) to replace it after closing the suitcase.

There’s more (shorts! a hat!) but I’ll deal with those later.

Today is my brother’s 29th birthday. I’ve already welcomed him to Old. There will be family dinner tonight. There may be blood (or just verbal aggression). I should do some mental preparation - maybe even go running so I’m feeling relaxed before we embark upon the excitement of the evening.

• Violet is a repository of beautiful things. They sent me a “Penmanship” themed newsletter last week… and I am in absolute lust with these two items:

On the left, Cards for a Year… “40 cards and 42 envelopes. Each card is imprinted with an icon; text inside the card states the occasion.” Simple… perfect. I love the look and feel of these types of cards - just heavy white cardstock with a single iconic image. It plays right into my esthetic.

On the right, Punctuation Cards. Each card has punctuation marks letter-pressed onto it in bright colors. Striking!

• Then, there’s the new Portishead CD, “Third.” It’s been my soundtrack for the car/train/walk/computer since Saturday afternoon. It releases on April 28th, but some songs have been circulating on music blogs - and here are two that are in my top 4 from the album (so far):

  Portishead - Machine Gun
  

  Portishead -We Carry On
  

• Portishead will be performing at Coachella. So will a plethora of other musical acts I enjoy. Luckily, I will be attending Coachella, so I will get to benefit from all of these musical acts I enjoy performing in once place over a span of three days. Here’s another band I am looking forward to seeing - Cut Copy. They’ve a very retro 80’s feel to them which I enjoy… it’s not world-changing, but it’s fun. Especially around the 1:14 mark. I might be posting sample songs from several of other bands over the next few days:

  Cut Copy - Future
  

• I finally acted on the LibraryThing early reviewer email that I get every month and decided to throw my name in the hat for a few review copies of forthcoming books. I got an email today notifying me that I will be receiving one of them: Love Marriage by V.V. Ganeshananthan. It sounds right up my alley.

“‘In this globe-scattered Sri Lankan family, we speak of only two kinds of marriage. The first is the Arranged Marriage. The second is the Love Marriage. In reality, there is a whole spectrum in between, but most of us spend years running away from the first toward the second.’
The daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants who left their collapsing country and married in America, Yalini finds herself caught between the traditions of her ancestors and the lure of her own modern world. But when she is summoned to Toronto to help care for her dying uncle, Kumaran, a former member of the militant Tamil Tigers, Yalini is forced to see that violence is not a relic of the Sri Lankan past, but very much a part of her Western present. … (show rest)

While Kumaran’s loved ones gather around him to say goodbye, Yalini traces her family’s roots—and the conflicts facing them as ethnic Tamils—through a series of marriages. Now, as Kumaran’s death and his daughter’s politically motivated nuptials edge closer, Yalini must decide where she stands.

Lyrical and innovative, V. V. Ganeshananthan’s novel brilliantly unfolds how generations of struggle both form and fractures families.”

• Here’s a super creative move: this spiffy perfume tester technique from Givenchy. Elegant, eye-catching, and a bit unusual: ribbon. Three styles of ribbon, actually, each pre-printed with the name of the three fragrances in this new line (which they’re treating like a wine - complete with a vintage). Long enough that you can tie it around your wrist/hair/purse strap.

The fragrances themselves are a bit too strong, too floral and too “my summer mink is at the cleaners” for me (and I realize that that might mean something different to different people… I guess it’s my shorthand for something that’s cloyingly sweet and reminds me of extremely wealthy older women).

And yes, I did actually hear a woman utter that sentence once upon a time. It was surreal.

Coolness experienced today, in order:

1. the sense of accomplishment achieved through finding free and legal parking on the streets of Manhattan (after circling blocks for 45 minutes)
2. getting a tasty lunch at a cafe in Chelsea (savory crepe! ham & cheese croissant! hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate syrup!)
3. climbing the big climbing wall at the Chelsea Piers for several hours and getting all the way up a challenging 5.9 level climb (challenging for me, anyway - only the second 5.9 I’ve ever completed)
4. walking around Manhattan for a few hours and stopping in Mxyplyzyk, Other Music, The Strand (where I bought bargain-priced books by Paul Auster and Angela Carter that I didn’t own yet) and the Virgin Megastore
5. warm drinks at one of the omnipresent Starbucks because it was getting quite cold and windy around 8pm
6. spazzing out like stupid New Jerseyans at a club down the shore (except it was during the car ride home from NYC) while listening to a Benny Benassi CD:

   Benny Benassi - Satisfaction
   
   
   (You may recognize this from a Burger King TV commercial from last year - the actual video is totally NSFW, but so over the top and sexually charged that I can’t help but laugh. In a phrase: chicks in bikinis with power tools - or just listen to the song.

7. getting home and purchasing tickets for Coachella… because I’ll be heading out to California just in time for that three-day festival of musical loveliness
8. eating some leftover tamarind lentils, putting on a fun eye candy crap movie (X-Men) and maybe getting to sleep early

I blame the suckfest (that was today) on the time change.

Or perhaps my petulant four year-old inner child is to blame. I haven’t decided.

Waking up this morning sucked, getting into the car and having the gas light go to empty sucked, getting to the gas station and finding out that pump I pulled up to was broken sucked, being called “sweetie” by the gas station attendant also sucked, going to Dunkin’ Donuts to get a hot chocolate and whole wheat bagel with cream cheese was good - until I pulled up to the window to pay and learned that they were out of hot chocolate (I got chai instead) and out of vegetable cream cheese. I asked for scallion - to which they said yes… and then no. So I got no bagel with no cream cheese and just went to the train station to wait out the remaining time.

Once on the train, I was just overwhelmed by (non-bagel related) sadness of a nondescript and nonspecific nature and was sitting there like a fool, crying. Not bawling… but the tears were flowing in freakish silence and being dabbed away by a Dunkin’ Donuts napkin. Not the softest stuff, so I was quite rosy-rimmed in the eye region. I got to work, turned on my computer, and it froze up. I restarted it and then it refused to accept my password. I think one of the keys was stuck, so I just did some random hitting of shift and caps lock (case sensitive passwords) to jostle it loose and managed to login. Trying to print an agenda resulted in a printer error - not a jam, but an unspecified driver or software error that prompted a pop-up box stating, “printer error” with the only option being to cancel. I hit “cancel” and restarted my computer again. Meeting, meeting, lunch. Nothing looked appetizing, and I couldn’t even find something to provide pure sustenance sans enjoyment… so I went for the cheap option. A slice of pizza. Meeting, spreadsheet, cancelled meeting… and time to go home. On the train ride home, I was wedged between two over-cologned middle-aged men, which just made that 50 minute voyage endlessly pleasant.

For dinner, I explored the as-yet-unexplored (in my world) potential of Brussels sprouts. I have a vague recollection of wanting my mother to buy them for me when I was 9 and wanting to use them as huge heads of lettuce for my Barbie dolls. Instead, they were cooked and I distinctly remember a noxious sulfurous stench which has turned me off of them ever since. Well, according to the package, the sulfur stench can be avoided through proper preparation methods.

To that end, I cooked them for about 10 minutes in a little milk (low-fat), butter (not low-fat - but compensating for the fact I did not have heavy cream for this recipe suggestion), garlic and basil. Then I removed them from the heat and squeezed a little lemon juice on them, sprinkled chopped pecans on top, and added a little salt and pepper. Toss to combine and hey - they aren’t half bad and they smell pretty good, if a little garlicky (I’m not a huge fan of garlic, but it serves a purpose.)

You know what also serves a purpose? “Jump Around” by House of Pain. The purpose it serves: inviting me to make a fool of myself by rapping along to it. Yessir. Of all the things I could possibly remember from my high school days (useful things like calculus, history, chemistry, and perhaps even driver’s ed), this is what’s stuck with me.

House of Pain - Jump Around

And “One Pure Thought” by Hot Chip. The purpose it serves: making me want to dance (and my friend Sara can attest to this… I think we’ve done the whole “dancing in the car” thing to this song a handful of times now). Nothing else does that right now. It’s magical and mood-lifting.

Hot Chip - One Pure Thought

Until tomorrow, then. Arbitrary reassignment of time. Ugh.

I fully intended to come home, go running and then go shopping for spring sandals. But it’s raining. My wrist hurts. I would much rather get into bed and read a book while listening to the rain hitting the roof and the windows.

I think I’ll still go running (treadmill, indoors, Law & Order) but this might be a night to sit home, go to sleep early, and hope that tomorrow is sunnier - not in terms of weather, necessarily, but in terms of mood.

These songs seem appropriate listening choices:

The Dixie Nightingales - All I Need is Some Sunshine in My Life

Beth Orton - Don’t Need a Reason

Caetano Veloso - Cucurrucucu Paloma

Enjoy the tunes.

I read today that one of my favorite music videos of all time (and definitely of 2007) for a song I really like was selected by Directors File as one of their top ten videos of 2007. Well, yeah. I know I’ve posted it before, but I think that was on the “old” blog, so here it is on the new - “What’s a Girl to Do?” by Bat for Lashes.

And one that’s quickly moved to a top position in 2008 (though that’s not a big deal since it’s only the 22nd of January) is this one by Hot Chip for “Ready for the Floor.” Other versions have been pulled down by the record company (when will they learn??) so here’s hoping this one stays up for a bit:

The video made me love the song. The song made me really like the band (and yes, I downloaded some free mp3s from music blogs to learn this), and THEN I bought their previous CD and pre-ordered the upcoming CD from Amazon. They got $30 of my consumer spending dollars. See how that works?

Also, I want to make this herb bread.

All right then. “O Fortuna” is up in my playlist. I think I’ll call it a night after that thunderous finish and finally finish reading “Seeing.”

Dude. That’s totally a bad and sort of weird pun/play on words for a post title. Oh, well. The snow outside is all sparkly and inspiring introspection, my work-week is done, and while I’m feeling a little drained, it’s OK. There’s knitting and reading to do, Netflix en route, and a few possible weekend plans. It’s not bad.

The post title just popped into my head because I was listening to this song in the car, and remembered that the last time something reduced me to tears (other than my own internal crap) it was this song. I watched “Dancer in the Dark” over the weekend - somewhat universally acknowledged to be a horribly depressing movie, and a decent one - and that got me a little choked up, but not teary. There was no lingering sadness.

There might be something wrong with me.

So here’s the song - “Cycling Trivialities” by José González, complete with lyrics, though you have to hear it to get the full effect:

Too blind to know your best
Hurrying through the forks without regrets
Different now, every step feels like a mile
All the lights seem to flash and pass you by

So how’s it gonna be
When it all comes down you’re cycling trivialities

Don’t know which way to turn
Every trifle becoming big concerns
All this time you were chasing dreams,
without knowing what you wanted them to mean

So how’s it gonna be
When it all comes down you’re cycling trivialities
So how’s it gonna be
When it all comes down you’re cycling trivialities

Who cares in a hundred years from now
All the small steps, all your shitty clouds
Who cares in a hundred years from now
Who’ll remember all the players
Who’ll remember all the clowns

So how’s it gonna be
When it all comes down you’re cycling trivialities

So what does this really mean
When it all comes down you’re cycling trivialities
Cycling trivialities
Cycling trivialities

I’m calling this volume 1 because I can’t imagine that I won’t do some sort of post like this in the future - a summary of stuff that’s been helping me occupy my time lately. So here goes:

White Dwarf : a fairly addictive (simple) Flash game. You gather green circles with the white circle, while avoiding the red circles. Blue circles bank green circles and are OK.

Project Prostitute: utterly NSFW warning. So this person had the idea to ask random people to draw prostitutes. It’s spread and people are submitting their own illustrations to the site. Some are raunchy, some are wrong, some are funny, some are surprisingly lovely. When I’m not laughing at the stick figure renditions (I guess some people really can’t draw) I can even recognize this for what is really is: a supremely interesting sociological project/experiment capturing how people view sex workers… some with disdain, some with disgust, some with degradation, but some with sadness and even a certain kind of admiration. Interesting to say the very least, once you get past the surface.

A Selection of Perfect Ads: These things inspire me. I’m sad that way.

The Hype Machine: It’s been a few months since a friend told me about this site. At first, I looked and wasn’t all that impressed with the look and feel so I didn’t return for a while. What was I thinking? I mean, really - a music blog aggregator that lets you search for freely and legally shared mp3s from bloggers who are reviewing music and introducing you to new music you might not stumble across in your daily travels? How on earth could that be cool or useful?

Yeah, I was a bit slow on the uptake, but I’m pretty officially addicted (thanks, Kofi!) You know how you can go to Wikipedia or IMDb and look for one fact or actor and end up going on a fantastic voyage for 45 minutes, adding books to your Amazon wishlist and DVDs to your Netflix queue? (Or is that just me?) Well, the Hype Machine does the same thing but with music. Search for an artist or a song and then see how your trip unfolds as you discover them on a lists bands someone saw this year, along with another band who made their list of top albums of 2007, then listen to an mp3 from that band, link through to a post about who they’re touring with… etc. etc.

CHA MA GU DAO: “(ancient tea and horse trail) is a contemporary tea house offering 250 of the world’s finest teas, herbal and fruit infusions.” OMG. Best new place ever. Located in nearby Montclair, NJ - a teahouse from the heavens. Tons of teas and tea blends and tisanes to choose from, and cookies made with tea to boot (the lemongrass-ginger cookies were the favorite of the variety my friend and I tried). Perfect for an afternoon or evening of tea and conversation and cookies. And you can order the teas online, too - ship a bit of Jersey home to you?

For those who aren’t grammar and punctuation nerds (albeit a bit free-thinking when it comes to blogging), here’s a definition of the Oxford comma from Wikipedia:

“The serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma or Harvard comma) is the comma used immediately before a grammatical conjunction (nearly always and or or; sometimes nor) that precedes the last item in a list of three or more items. The phrase “Portugal, Spain, and France”, for example, is written with the serial comma, while “Portugal, Spain and France”, identical in meaning, is written without it. There is no consensus among writers or editors on the use of the serial comma. It is closer to being standard use in American English than it is in British English.”

I don’t generally use the Oxford comma in a list of items, but I do before a grammatical conjunction. I need to deal with this inconsistency. It’s simply unacceptable.

In the meantime, though, there’s a good song by Vampire Weekend called “Oxford Comma.”And really, I think the first line of the song speaks for most people and their stance on the Oxford comma issue.

Vampire Weekend - “Oxford Comma”

Maybe it should be varieties, but varietals just sounded fun and brings to mind grapes and vineyards and fun.

There’s crap insomnia that results from stress, being emotionally overwrought, or from knowing that you have to be up way early the next morning. This is the kind that will make you feel sick and horrible the next day.

Then there’s not-so-crap insomnia that results from having a weird holiday sleep schedule and having problems getting re-acclimated to the work/sleep schedule. This is the kind that will make you feel mildly out of sorts the next day, but not so bad that you’ll crash.

Then there’s pseudo-insomnia - where you stayed up late, were tired at one point, but had a second wind (or, in my case, stepped out into the 17°F windy night and then drove) and are now wide awake physically and incapable of falling asleep because you’re doing something that requires little thought (i.e. watching TV, reading the newest crap best-seller, looking at pictures on lolsecretz) but is still a half-step beyond brain-death.

In my case, I have the third, and this “something” is updating my iPod with new music from CDs acquired before Christmas as well as iTunes purchases made since then. And writing this entry. There’s a reason it’s short. I’ve got 3 more CDs to get on here and some of them are mixes, so no CDDB help for me.