All I Can Say

It's Business Time

Thanks to my friends Annie and Phil, your day, too, can be brightened by this.

A little Joni is good for the soul

I lay on the couch and listened to a two hour long radio program on NPR a couple of weekends ago called The Emergence of Joni Mitchell. If you have some time I highly recommend it. I was reminded of her brilliance and fearlessness as an artist — as a poet, a painter, a singer, a songwriter, and a musician. She is a modern day Renaissance woman, and I am in full awe of her talent. Court and Spark played practically non stop in my bedroom in my last years of high school, and I knew every word, note and nuance to every song on the album.

I found this video on YouTube from her Japan tour in 1994. In my opinion, this is what YouTube is for.

Hejira – Joni Mitchell

I’m traveling in some vehicle
I’m sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away

There’s comfort in melancholy
When there’s no need to explain
It’s just as natural as the weather
In this moody sky today

In our possessive coupling
So much could not be expressed
So now I am returning to myself
These things that you and I suppressed

I see something of myself in everyone
Right at this moment of the world
As snow gathers like bolts of lace
Waltzing on a bridal girl

You know it never has been easy
Whether you do or you do not resign
Whether you travel the breadth of extremities
Or you stick to some straighter line

Now here’s a man and a woman, sitting on a rock
They’re either going to thaw out or freeze
Listen: strains of Benny Goodman
Blowing through the pinewood trees

I’m porous with travel fever
But I’m so glad to be on my own
Still the slightest touch of a stranger
Sends up a trembling in my bones

I know - no one’s going to show me everything
We come and go unknown
Each so deep and so superficial
Between the forceps and the stone

I looked at the granite markers
Those tributes to finality, to eternity
And then I looked at myself here
Chicken scratching for a piece of immortality

In the church they light the candles
And the wax rolls down like tears
There’s the hope and the hopelessness
I’ve witnessed all these years

We’re just particles of change, I know, I know
Orbiting around the sun
But how can I have that point of view
When I’m always bound and tied to someone

White flags of winter chimneys
Waving truce against the moon
In the mirrors of a modern bank
From the window of my hotel room

I’m traveling in some vehicle
I’m sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
Until love sucks me back that way

Shall we hit the links?

Some things you should see:

What struck me about this was how many faces I recognized visually but could not put a name to. Even the faces in transition looked familiar, faces of women who don't even exist...

Making fun of this may be akin to shooting fish in a barrel, but Jake still has some fresh and funny thoughts up his sleeve about mocha grande lattes, blah blah blah. Does he not remind you of a male Ellen Degeneres?

If you are suffering from feelings of guilt (and who isn't?), then here's a way you can clear your conscience. Confession is not just for Sundays anymore. (Warning: do not click if you need to pee.)

Modest Mouse — Missed the Boat

Blog? I have a blog?

After such a long time away from here, I can at least offer you this for now, which has been running, continuous loop like, in my head today. But that's a good thing because it's an excellent song. And someone independent of the band made a very cool video, too.

I was searching for the lyrics and was alarmed that so many seemed to have missed the boat on the words. The vocals have a kind of mouth-full-of-cherry-pits quality, which I love, but it makes discerning the song's meaning tough. I'm fairly confident that I've got the lyrics right, with the exception of the highlighted line, which I'm certain isn't right. But I just can't decode it.

For me, the song seems to be about the band's rise to more commercial success and the loss of clarity, control and joy that has accompanied that journey. Who knows? Just my interpretation.

Anyway, here's what I hear when I listen to this brilliant song:

While we're on the subject
Could we change the subject now?
I was knocking on your ears
Don't believe you were always out
Looking towards the future
We were begging for the past
Well we knew we had the good things
But those never seemed to last
Oh please just last

Everyone's unhappy
Everyone's ashamed
Well we all just got caught looking
At somebody else's page
Well nothing ever went
Quite exactly as we planned
Our ideas held no water
But we used them like a damn

Oh, and we carried it all so well
As if we got a new position
Oh, and I’ll laugh all the way to hell
Saying yes, this is a fine promotion
Oh, and I’ll laugh all the way to hell

Of course everyone goes crazy
Over such and such and such
We made ourselves a pillar
We just used it as a crutch
We were certainly uncertain
At least I'm pretty sure I am
Well we didn't need the water
But we just built that go god damn

Oh, and I know this all myself
I’ll say as much for all the people
Oh, and I know this all myself
We’ve listened all life, single men
The sound of life's sweet bells

Was it ever worth it?
Was there all that much to gain?
Well we knew we'd missed the boat
And we'd already missed the plane
We didn't read the invite
We just danced at our own wake
All our favorites were playing
So we could shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

Tiny curtains open and we heard the tiny clap of little hands
A tiny man would tell a little joke
And get a tiny laugh from all the folks
Sitting drifting 'round in bubbles and
Thinking it was us that carried them
When we finally got it figured out
That we had truly missed the boat

Oh, and we carried it all so well
As if we got a new position
Oh, and we owned all the tools ourselves
But not the skills to make a ship with
Oh, what useless tools are selves

In which I cross a line

Middle school talent show + camera-wielding mother = you decide.

Evolution of dance

This guy's got moves!

How to shower: women vs. men

Yes, this is pretty much how it is.

The Courtship of Eddie's Father

I had a HUGE crush on Eddie.

Remember the show?

Father and Daughter

As discovered on Been There, watch this and try not to cry. Or don't try not to cry. That's perfectly fine too.

All new Gap?

Wouldn't you love to do this?