I know I've touched on the subject, but for those of you that didn't know; I've moved into a new place! It's so full of exciting new opportunity and positive energy. Some days, I wake up and I feel like my heart is just going to explode from symptoms of extreme jubilation. Of course there are other factors that have been making things incredibly blissful, but right now we're talking about the physical space.
I've moved into a much smaller room and have been working hard to find creative and visually appealing space saving solutions while buying as little furniture as possible. It's been tricky, but I love the way things are shaping up.
One of my first DIYs in my new bedroom is this fantastic record wall, I have a growing collection and my record console can only hold so many.
This DIY really is as simple as sticking a binder clip on either side of the record, and hanging it on two clear pushpins. Of course you get get really fussy and measure everything out, probably do some tricks with a level and string or something, but I just lined everything up with the baseboards and the corner of the wall and filled in the negative space. I don't like over thinking projects or waiting too long to see my vision come to fruition.
You really don't need to buy those fancy record frames to show off your collection. You can just go to the office supply store and buy a few bags of binder clips.
I just saved you $100. You can Paypal me the difference.
My life has been insanely busy lately. So many things are happening; a giant project (that most of you know about), a new house, and a little bit of dating have had me feeling overwhelmed in the most positive ways possible. I'll talk about all of these things really soon, I promise.
That being said, I've been gravitating towards really somber music in my down time. I've been exploring the Songza app on my phone/iPad and it has introduced me to tons of bands that I would have never heard of.
Y'know all of those stupid ads on the sidebar of Facebook? I actually clicked one. I had a good reason though. See that picture at the top of the post? Yeah, you would have clicked it too.
I prepared myself to hear some really sad, folky tunes. I grabbed a cup of herbal and thick sweater; necessary accessories for grumpster coma I was about to put myself into.
Turns out, Allen Stone is the most soulful son of a wheat farmer I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. It probably doesn't hurt that he's also the son of a preacher man. We all know what those guys are capable of.
I CANNOT stop listening. I even made an Allen Stone Spotify channel on my phone, so I can get a lil' fix when I need it.
I really need all of you to watch these videos because, I want to help change your life.
Yeah. I know that you loved every second of that.
You're welcome.
I'm taking a class on identity and culture and it requires a lot of introspection. One of our most recent assignments was those choose the five most personally meaningful songs and to share them with the class. I really struggled with the assignment at first because music just seems so personal. I looked through my record collection and my iPod trying to find songs that played significant roles in me figuring out just who i am.
Eventually I was able to narrow it down to five, and here they are:
1. Nina Simone - "Aint Got No/I Got Life"
Throughout the years that I've been blogging, I've probably shared this video a dozen times. Of course Nina is incredible and the song is powerful, but for this class I had to dig a little further to figure out why I love it so much. As a kid, I really didn't have much. I don't want this to turn into some sob story or a plea for sympathy, because I learned a lot from that situation. One of my biggest pet peeves is listening to someone complain about the things that they don't have. My mother and grandmother were staunch believers in the ideology that if you can't make (create) it, that you probably don't need it. They were basically right. Necessity is the mother of invention, isn't it? Your given a body and tools, and the way that you choose to use them is up to you. So, this song is akin to my mother and grandmother inspiring me the same way they did as a child.
2. Bright Eyes - "Shell Games"
I discovered Bright Eyes at a time when i was deeply involved with figuring out who I was. This song in particular reminds to never have serious expectations. I know that seems weird but having high expectations is seems like a destructive force to me. Life is a shell game. You never know what's going to be under the cup, do you really want to set yourself up for disappointment? Or would you rather take things as they come?
4. Sufjan Stevens - "Too Much"
Shortly after my grandmother (meemaw) died, a friend took me to a house shaped like an elephant near the beach. We didn't really talk, but we listened to Sufjan Stevens on the way there and on the way back home. The music made everything seem so surreal but safe; uplifting even.
4. Tilly and the Wall - "Defenders"
Tilly and the Wall hold a special place in my heart. My best friend Kellyn and I have seen them live every single time they have played locally. It's such a good band to associate with such a positive friendship. When I hear them, I think back to all of the fun things we've already done and all of the fun things we will do in the future.
5.Cat Stevens - "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out"
Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam is my all time favorite guy ever. Not just as musician either. He just seems to radiate good vibes. I had never heard anything by him until watching Harold and Maude the first time and I was immediately his biggest fan. He is one of the very few artists who can move me to tears in less than 3 minutes. I chose this song because it was the first of his that I ever remember hearing.
It was really fun to do this project and the class is going great!
I think it would be really sweet if all of you joined in on the fun! I'm going to set up a link party at the bottom of the post and I'd love to see what you come up with!!! Blog about your 5 most meaningful jams and click on the little blue frog, he'll tell you what to do!
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Rebecca Loebe for an hour between classes. Stockton does these events called "Tunes at Noon", where bands/artists come in and play an hour long set in the student lounge. Usually, it awkward older couples playing jazz standards. However, Yesterday was so much cooler.
I was sitting in the lounge drinking a PSL an reading "The Road" for a Lit. class and Rebecca was warming up on the stage. I was pretty sure I heard the first couple of bars of TLC's "No Scrubs" and from that point on she had my undivided attention. I kept looking up and smiling, concurrently and repeatedly losing my place on "The Road". I was meeting some friends to color pictures for the contest on McSweeney's blog.
I moved over to table closer to the stage and settled in.
I was totally in love. Rebecca has a sound described on her website as "post-brontosaurus indie folk/crunk" and will be described on my website as ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I HAVE EVER HEARD/JAMS.
Seriously though, watch her videos and tell me you don't love her!!!!
Oh, dude! I forgot to mention that may recognize her from "The Voice"! I only use Hulu now, so I had no idea, but yeah. She's good.
Being back in school can make a guy quite nostalgic. Gone are the days of inflatable sofas and color drip candles, late night punk shows and UFO pants, but something about carrying around a backpack full of composition books leads me back to that same place.
I don't smell like patchouli oil anymore and I no longer have Marylin Manson posters on my bedroom wall. I can't go pick up a new shirt at Shifty's, and Limbo Lounge closed it's doors a long time ago. But somehow, being back in school makes my function with a certain child-like wonder and amazement at even the simplest moments.
Music is huge catalyst in maintaining a that nostalgic mindset and so of course, I turn to the same records or cassettes that played a huge part of my formative years.
Empire Records was one of the first movies that seemed to really make sense to me (followed by things like Reality Bites and later, Ghost World). It's probably the solitary reason that I've been working at my current day job for over 6 years; it evokes the same kind energy and atmosphere that I connected with so strongly as an awkward adolescent.
So clearly, the sound track is kind of a big deal to me.
My god, I'm rambling. I'm not trying to sound profound or anything. I'm not even sure exactly what I'm getting at.
All that I've eaten today is a few cookies and a bowl of soup. Maybe this will make sense to me in the morning.
Tomorrow, I'm going to pull together all of the instagrams I've taken so far this semester to give you a little tour of the campus. Kind of.
So, I can't stop watching My So-Called Life. My life for the past three days has consisted solely of knitting on the couch sharing the company of Angela Chase and Jordan Catalano while trying to eat my body weight in parsley.
Since all that I can think about is Claire Danes, I found the Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet Soundtrack most apropos for today's (analog) Monday. This cassette appears courtesy of the always supportive Rich Russell, who feeds the angsty teenager that still lives inside me every chance he gets. Well, that sounded weird. Whatever. It's late and I'm hungry. I really can't think of anything except the moment when Dave is going to get home with a 7-layer burrito and a root beer for me.
I've been feeling really anxious lately because I start classes at a new school on Wednesday. I keep having dreams about high school, or dreams where people from high school show up. Not bad ones or anything. High school was actually a pretty good experience for me. I guess this Analog Monday has a two-fold purpose for me, actually. The summer before I started high school, two friends and I watched Romeo and Juliet religiously. We must have seen it in the theatres at least ten times. As soon as it came out on VHS, we watched it every single day and so the soundtrack has become super nostalgic to me.
As I embark on yet another educational facet of my life, I'm looking back to what made the others so special and hoping for the same.
This post is definitely dedicated to my high school BFFL's Heather and Sheena, whom I haven't seen in quite awhile but still think about always. I miss you girls!!!!
And with that being said, Wish me LUCK!!!! I'm gonna need it :-)
I want to marry Alanis Morisette. Seriously. I saw her tonight and she was incredible. STILL. She still harnesses the same energy that made her so amazing 10-15 years ago. I've seen her a a handful of times, and you'll just have to believe that the woman keeps getting better.
My angsty little heart could have exploded tonight, and that would have been just fine. For a couple of hours, I was back in high school belting out some of my favorite anthems at the top of my lungs.
I revamped the VINYL MONDAY header! Do you love it?
It rained all day yesterday, so I didn't have a chance to take pictures outside. I took these at about 11:00 pm in the hallway between my bathroom and bedroom, I didn't shave or do my hair, so looking down kinda masked all that nasty. Enough about the pictures! It's VINYL MONDAY.
Did you know that I love Cat Stevens? BECAUSE I LOVE CAT STEVENS! His albums make up about 90% of my record collection and I'm totally not embarrassed by it. The first time I heard him, I was moved to tears; powerful stuff. As he gets older, he just keeps getting better. I hope that in some ways, I'm like him.
Does that make sense? Like, maybe some of his luminosity will brush off onto to me if I listen close enough?
I'm ready to shake the stardust out my hair but, first I'm going to go flip the record over. What have you been listening to?
I have been so incredibly busy with some deadline knitting that I completely neglected my blog all of last week! So sorry! It will all be worth it in the end, trust me. HUGE things are happening at La Casa de Knitxcore. It seems like there is yarn in the mailbox every day. There is, actually. If I disappear, the authorities will find me under a mountain of brightly colored wool. I guarantee it.
In addition to knitting and making my eyes real big while listening to Mama Cass, I've watched just about everything single thing Hulu has to offer; if you have any TV series suggestions PLEASE leave a comment. I'm almost finished the Mary Tyler Moore show. The other night while I was waiting for pizza dough to rise, I actually watched an episode of Mister Roger's Neighborhood; things are getting serious. Actually, it did end up making me cry somehow. Whatever.
OMIGOD. I forgot to put on the pasta sauce for dinner. I'm making it from scratch and I haven't even started yet!
If I could only listen to one artist for the rest of my life, I would pick Conor Oberst without hesitation. His trembling vibrato and genius lyrics easily make him the Bob Dylan of my generation. So many of his songs are so moving; like an audio equivalent of a Miranda July film, really.
At the end of the album, you sit waiting for more; hoping for more because nothing else will be good enough. You're left with a feeling of emptiness or connected-ness or something. Whatever. Contemplation, maybe? You float around in an emotionally "hungover" state, waiting to find a greasy plate of cheese fries or a bottle of Gatorade to help you sort things out; but no matter what you take in, the music sits there, inside of you. An inspiration? Yes, an inspiration.
And so I turn to his music when I need a little of that. Inspiration, I mean.
If you're haven't heard him, you're definitely missing out.
Scopitones have become my latest obsession. According to what I have read, they were a type of jukebox that played 16mm films along with music that found their heyday in the US somewhere around the early 1960's.
I found a few Scopitones videos one day after searching for some Herb Alpert stuff and was immediately hooked . Bright colors, fun music and quirky dance move abound.
Check out a few of my favorites!:
Herb Alpert is the king of fun!
I've loved Lesley Gore ever since the first time I watched Hairspray!
This song's an old favorite!
You not still sitting down, are you? Get up and shake those hips!
Have you ever heard of a Scopitone before? Do you love these videos or what?
We've already discussed my gigantic crush on Mike Nesmith, but I wanted to make sure that ALL of the Monkees got a fair shake on my blog.
The are such a source of positive energy! You can't listen to them without smiling. This morning, I felt moody and little groggy before going into work. I wasn't really sure how to psych myself into happy mode until I dug out this record (the sleeve above isn't mine; mine is in VERY bad shape). Almost instantly, everything turned around.
Have you ever read about Maslow's theory regarding peak experiences? Basically, a peak experience is one of those moments where you are immediately flooded with intense feelings of happiness and inter-connectedness; a moment of transcendence. While it is considered to be insanely difficult to facilitate these experiences outside of using hallugenics, some things may trigger smaller (but still powerful) states of euphoria.
Listening to the Monkees this morning, gave me just enough personal illumination to make it through the rest of the day with a smile on my face.
