I think we should talk about how much of a boner Jack White gave me last night at the Grammys. He just killed it... absolutely knifed it to within an inch of its life.
In particular, please take note of the moment at 1:10 when Ruby Amanfu delicately molests Jack's chest. I think Ruby deserves a lot of respect for showing an incredible amount of restraint and aplomb.
I run. 3 times a week I run. It's a thing that I do that I hate doing, but do anyways.
I don't recommend it.
The only thing I like about running is getting to make a new killer running playlist every week. That's it.
Here's what I'm listening to this week:
1. Marina and the Diamonds - Obsessions (Ocelot Remix)
2. Of Monsters and Men - King and Lionheart
3. Stars - Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It
4. Mumford and Sons - Lover of the Light
5. Mikhael Paskalev - Jive Babe
6. Ke$ha - Die Young
Starships used to be my go-to running song, but I injured myself a couple of weeks ago because it makes me feel like I can in fact run as fast as a starship. So we're on a break from each other for awhile while I'm listening to Ke$ha.
I've decided to ask the Universe for something very important.
Love?
Money?
Power?
Those would all be great too, but what I really want are Björk tickets.
You guys, in February and March Björk is doing 4 shows in Paris, on an island in the Seine, IN A FUCKING CIRCUS TENT.
I just love her so much and I want to see her perform live before I'm dead and buried.
So this is me lighting a million sticks of strawberry incense in front of the statue of the Patron Saint of Icelandic Pixie Gnome Electro-Folk-Pop-Whatever She Feels Like Singers, imploring her to hear my prayer and send me concert tickets and a few plane tickets and maybe accommodations at a 3 to 4 star boutique hotel.
Idris Elba... who directed and starred in the new Mumford and Sons music video for Lover of the Light.
And, you guys, if you have a weird (possibly creepy) obsession with men's hands, this is basically pornography. Just straight up pornography. Yowza.
Currently listening to....
I made a playlist for myself called 'Slow Strut' because it makes me feel like a fucking HBIC even when I'm just filing paperwork. I love it. (Side note: A lot of these songs are incredibly not safe for delicate ears and sensibilities)
Track list:
1. Bad Girls (Switch Remix) (featuring Missy Elliott and Rye Rye) - MIA
2. You Be Killin Em - Fabolous
3. Y.U. MAD (featuring Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne) - Birdman
Days when you look like a librarian on the outside, but feel like the Black Widow on the inside.
Days when you just feel like you need to shoot a Kalashnikov or throw a grenade at something. And then casually waltz away as the world erupts around you... all set to a kick ass soundtrack.
Well I can't do any of those things today... especially not the skin-tight leather body suit part, but I can listen to my new kick-ass super villainess soundtrack.
1. Demons (Diplo remix) - Sleigh Bells
2. Army of Me (Sucker Punch remix) - Björk (featuring Skunk Anansie)
3. Titanium - David Guetta (featuring Sia)
4. Bitch - Plastiscines
5. Immigrant Song - Karen O, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross (from the Girl With A Dragon Tattoo soundtrack)
6. Ich Will - Rammstein
7. Boys Wanna Be Her - Peaches
So, my fellow bad bitches, let's suit up in our skin-tight leather and go kick the shit out of life.
A couple of months ago I read a paragraph length review on Tumblr of Lykke Li's cover of Fleetwood Mac's Silver Springs that I really liked.
I really like the song too. It's beautiful. You should listen to it... here.
But this part of the review really got to me:
“Let’s take the best shy girl singing about being a shy girl in 2k12 and make her sing this fucking classic song about being bad at love and turning into a feelings ghost,” they said.
Something about that phrase 'feelings ghost' really hit home for me.
As a person who loves to write, is in love with language, and collects words and phrases the way others collect porcelain figurines, I love finding a phrase that really manages to encapsulate an entire state of being in a succinct, perfect way.
I would struggle to explain to you what 'feelings ghost' means to me because it would be hard to define it without using the phrase 'feelings ghost'. Sometimes a writer finds such a perfect way to describe something you don't know how to explain it without just repeating the phrase back, but with slightly different emphasis. Like repeating the same word over and over in a slightly louder voice to a person that doesn't speak English, as if volume was the key to making them understand what you meant.
So instead of shouting the phrase 'FEELINGS GHOST' at you over and over, I thought I would share some music that make me feel like a feelings ghost in the hopes that you might understand some glimmer of what I'm struggling to say.
Björk - Hyperballad
"I go through this before you wake up so I can be happier to be safe up here with you."
Sarah Jaffe - Clementine
Death Cab For Cutie - Marching Bands of Manhattan
"Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole. Just like a faucet that leaks and there is comfort in the sound. But while you debate half empty or half full, it slowly rises. Your love is going to drown."
New Order - Temptation
Van Morrison - Sweet Thing
"And I will walk in gardens all wet with rain, and I will never, ever, ever, ever grow so old again."
Well at 7:00 am this morning it already felt like an armpit outside... so we've officially hit the part of summer where I rarely leave the air-conditioned confines of the indoors.
And I'm realizing that it's well into the summer months and I haven't done anything even vaguely summer-y.
I haven't gone to a lake. I haven't gone swimming. I haven't had a picnic or eaten watermelon or whatever the fuck it is you are supposed to do in the summer.
Mostly I've driven back and forth to work and watched soccer.
My life is at a nadir of boredom.
I need to stir things up a little. So that's what I'm working on this week.
In the meantime, here is what I've been listening to on an endless loop:
1. Usher - Hot Thing (featuring A$AP Rocky)
2. Lady - Yankin (NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR LIFE YOU GUYS)
By the way, have we ever discussed my unironic love for incredibly filthy rap music? Probably not because I don't really have an explanation for it.
My iPod did me right today and I thought I should give it props by posting the first five it delivered to me this morning.
I really needed a kick in the ass this morning, and Senor iPod knew what was up.
1. A Town Called Malice - The Jam
2. Telephone - Lady Gaga and Beyonce
3. Creator - Santogold
4. If - Janet Jackson
5. Someday - The Strokes
You know what one of my favorite things in the whole wide world is? I just love it when you see someone in their car just absolutely losing their shit listening to a song. I saw a guy last week doing a vicious drum solo in his car on the morning commute, and it put a smile on my face for the entire day. We should all be doing that more often.
Have you ever noticed it's really hard to blog about things you really REALLY care about?
I can write forever and a day about the silly goings ons of my brain (mostly full of glitter and cute boys), but as soon as I decide to write about something that I passionately care about I get supremely tongue-tied.
It sucks.
So I'm going to leave you with something lame today because I'm going to save all of my brain moxie to write about something awesome that I love with all of my heart: SOCCER (specifically Spanish and FC Barcelona soccer).
I realize it's not exactly world peace or solving rampant poverty, but I've started and deleted about 100 drafts about this topic, and I'm finally going to talk about it... tomorrow.
So in the meantime, here are the first five songs that greeted me on my iPod this morning:
1. Old 97s - Timebomb
2. Van Morrison and The Chieftains - Irish Heartbeat
3. Metric - Collect Call
4. Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Halfway
5. Dion and The Belmonts - Runaround Sue
So I guess my iPod has decided to bombard me with songs I kind of sort of like but don't really care about that much today. iPod filler... if you will. Except the Dion and the Belmonts song... that one I love hard.
Also, I 100% picked the Derby winner on Saturday!! Using the super scientific method of choosing the horse whose trainer said 'Hi' to his mom in his interview on the walk-over from the paddock. Too bad I only wagered imaginary money on the race.
Do any of you guys really feel like adults? Like responsible, tax-paying, chardonnay-drinking adults?
I don't.
I think the last age I remember being good at is 13. Seriously... I was awesome at being 13.
When I was 13 I spent an entire summer laying around a swimming pool, reading Seventeen Magazines, and day-dreaming about cute musicians. So, basically, the same things I enjoy doing now (just swap out the teen magazine for Glamour or Architectural Digest).
Today's Imaginary Boyfriend has the honor of officially being my longest running crush. We're pushing 20 years together (in my mind). That's a lot longer than most marriages, you guys. That's commitment.
His name is Graham Coxon, and when we first met he was playing guitar for Blur (a band that continues to be one of my all time favorites). He has since moved on to make critically (and Jess)-acclaimed solo albums. He is rad, you guys.
But the thing is... he's not really eye candy in the traditional sense.
He's got that whole nerd chic thing going on (which he was doing waaaay before Weezer and their ilk dreamt it up). He wears glasses and sweater vests and tweed and corduroy... all while on stage rocking out.
Bestill my 13 going on 31 heart. I still think he is pretty terrific.
Here is one of my favorite songs by Graham. I was going to pick one of his original songs, but he does a cover of The Libertines 'Time For Heroes' that blows my mind... sososo good.
I'm feeling lazy today... probably because I stayed up too late reading Game of Thrones and daydreaming about my favorite Scotsman.
So I'm taking the easy route today by playing the first five game with my iPod.
Let's see what shenanigans Sir iPod is up to today.
1. Bryn - Vampire Weekend
2. Live Bed Show - Pulp
3. Miss World - Hole
4. Benny and the Jets - Elton John
5. When the Stars Go Blue - Ryan Adams
I think my iPod is trying way too hard to be cool. It's like one of those teenagers that works in a record store desperately trying to impress everyone with the depth and breadth of it's musical tastes. My iPod is a real hipster douchebag today.
On the other hand, I really like all of these songs... so who is the real douchebag?
Well I woke up this morning with Rebecca Black's Friday stuck in my head with no idea how it even got there.
But I guess that's cosmic payment for the terrible thing I did last night.
What did I do? Weeeell... I may have downloaded something for my iPod that pretty much trumps every other awful thing I've ever downloaded.
And, you guys, I have a Ke$ha song on my iPod... and more Flo Rida than any one person has a right to own... so that's really saying something.
Okay... here goes. Last night I downloaded this:
I know. The entire thing is on my iPod right now.
Here's the thing, though... just look at that track list! With the exception of Christina Perri and Bruno Mars, it's pretty awesome. And you can only get most of the songs (besides the Christina Perri and Bruno Mars) by downloading the entire GD thing. So I did it. So there.
Okay... let's see if my iPod can palate cleanse this Rebecca Black situation away.
1. Pot Kettle Black - Tilly and the Wall
2. The Trolley Song (from Meet Me In St. Louis) - Judy Garland
3. It's Oh So Quiet - Björk
4. Nasty - Janet Jackson
5. Candyman - Christina Aguilera
Whoa, Mr iPod Man... you just blew it out of the park today.
And this photo I found on the internet machine is blowing it out of the park at pretty much explaining my entire existence.
This kid (guy probably) who looks like he spent all of his allowance money at Hot Topic. And he's a deejay (ugh).
But he has this song called 'Kyoto'.
And it makes me feel like a total badass when I'm listening to it... like I'm planning a heist or some kind of elaborate revenge plot, but really I'm just picking up my dry cleaning. It turns everything I do into a movie montage scene.
Not my usual cup of tea, but I'm just going to go with it.
So I had another clever clark blog about Aleksandar and my cruise (plus another cocktail recipe!) ready to go for this morning, but I've got something else on my mind.
Actually, I have a song on my mind.
Have you ever heard a song for the first time and it just stopped you in your tracks?
It happens to me fairly frequently... enough that I've nicknamed these songs 'Mental Patient Songs', but it happens rarely enough that it still feels momentous and exciting.
So then I was thinking about what it is exactly that makes these songs 'Mental Patient Songs', and I think I've decided that I have almost no ability to understand, let alone explain why these songs speak to me so much... I just know the symptoms.
The immediate intoxication of hearing something that gives a voice to some emotion, some deep essential part of yourself that you never knew how to express to anyone or even that you needed to express it. It's like the universe sending you text message that says 'Hey, you aren't the only one.'
And it just makes me soar. It infiltrates and informs every part of my day. And that is why they are called 'Mental Patient Songs'... because I listen to them all of the time. And when I'm not listening to them I hear them anyways.
So this is my latest one... Bushwick Blues by Delta Spirit
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