For reasons inexplicable to me, I find myself on a Relient K kick.
Somewhere my teenaged self is very, very happy.
I am the greatest ThunderCat of them all
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Category Archives: music
oh, have you seen my ghost
My Aunt Dee lives in Vermont surrounded by the Green Mountains. It is truly one of the most beautiful places in New England. But in the winter, she says, it’s hard not to feel like a rat in a cold, white maze.
This year I am finally starting to understand what she means.
I feel claustrophobic in my own life. I work, I sleep, I work some more. Outside it’s cold and it’s wet, and half the week I’m not even awake during daylight hours. When I am awake, I tend to hole up in my studio, haven of my sanity. I was talking with Stephen this week and confessed that I spend so much time in my studio because it’s easier to imagine there that I live alone. When you’re already feeling trapped in a very small space, being around people is akin to input overload.
“Emily,” he said. “That’s just sad.”
It is, and yet winter isn’t going away anytime soon, so I’ve just got to push through. With that in mind, I went shopping on Craigslist this week:
Exercise gives you endorphins, and endorphins make you happy, and walking is the exercise I truly love. I would LOVE to walk for hours every single day…and have I mentioned just how cold and dark it is here? Daily walks outside are hit or miss, at best. But you know what else I love to do for hours every day? Watch TV. Really, really good TV, and really excellent movies.
2 + 2 = treadmill.
I am far from an exercise aficionado, and now I look forward to getting up and getting on the treadmill. It’s become my reward for getting up early, eating a good breakfast, and making time for morning prayer. Now I can blast my way through whole series at a time, guilt-free! Having just finished Angel (hello, heartbreak!), this morning I watched the first episode of SyFy’s Being Human. Despite my cardinal rule to not watch American remakes of much better British things, I decided to check it out. I haven’t seen the British version, and I’m really not that interested in yet-another-vampire-story, but I certainly am a sucker for good sci-fi/fantasy.
I am intrigued so far. And I like it.
post title: Weighty Ghost – Wintersleep
2010: an ode to the internet
We are a family that loves the internet.
Dad uses the internet for research. Every day my inbox is filled with e-mails, links to articles about everything from Why Comcast is Evil to French Batman-Hating Racists. Dad stays informed and on top of current events, and since I rarely-to-never follow the news, I get the trickle-down benefit of his inquiries. Hey, did you know that fast food wrappers are killing us?
Mom has grown to really love Netflix. Stephen seeks out new music and artists. Hannah, like me, uses the internet for research of a different kind. If it is cute and/or amusing, Hannah has probably found it. There are over 100 million videos on YouTube; I’m betting that Hannah has watched several thousand of them. The internet is a wonderful, magical place where people can seek out reems of obscure and very specific information, and Hannah puts it to good use. A girl after my own heart.
According to this nifty little chart on io9, in the past 10 years internet use has increased over 500% worldwide and broadband subscriptions have shot up dramatically. More people are on the web (more people are also dying of natural disasters, but that’s not really the point here…) My point is that the internet is awesome, and here are just a few of the things that have lately renewed my love for the world wide series of tubes…
1] Filmography 2010. This makes me happy. This makes me so, SO HAPPY. I’ve watched it a few dozen times since it was first released and I still love it. Plus a snagged a few songs from this (and the Pixar vid) for my new music in the new year.
2] Beauty of Pixar. I love the internet, I love creative sharing, and I love this video.
3] United State of Pop 2010 (Don’t Stop the Pop). I look forward to these mashups every year. Last year’s was incredible, and on their own, I don’t even like half these songs. But put them together and they wrap up an entire year of dance parties in my car.
4] Hulu. You know what we did on New Year’s Eve? We watched Bewitched, and the Bob Newhart Show, and Mary Tyler Moore, and it was awesome. Hulu is awesome. I don’t ever find myself missing cable.
5] The A.V. Club. Surprise, surprise: I am incredibly selective about what I watch. I take it very seriously, and I think about it waaaay too deeply. Thanks to the internet, I know I’m not the only one, and thanks to The A.V. Club, I can analyze and overanalyze to my nerdy little heart’s content.
new music for the new year
Thanks to Christmas, and stocking stuffers in the shape of iTunes’ gift cards, I get to start off the new year with new music. I could use the money to buy a whole album of a favorite artist, but I much prefer taking a chance on music that, based on 30-second previews, sounds kind of interesting. This year’s spree includes a lot of solid beats, mostly alternative, but with a little Disneymania thrown in for pizazz.
I mean, why not?
1] Intro – The xx
2] Can You Tell – Ra Ra Riot
3] Horchata – Vampire Weekend
4] Only You (Imogen Heap Mix) – Joshua Radin
5] Love Lost – Temper Trap
6] Nostrand – Ratatat
7] Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare – Matt & Kim (also, awesome little kinetic typography vid)
8] Little Baby Pines – Sunbears!
9] Kiss the Girl – Colbie Caillat
