March 16, 2009

What I’m Listening To, and Why

Posted by mayiwrite under friends, lists, music, my life | Tags: , , , , |
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One my seminary students mentioned reading my blog and wondered about all the boy talk and whether I’m worried these boys will ever read all this stuff. I said I wasn’t worried. I also said I do draw a line and that there are things I won’t write about.

This is one of my favorite Fleet Foxes songs. The lyrics are simple and dark, and this video is quite creative. It’s about blood and snow and wolves. … Or is it? I love the folky sound it starts off with, and then the drums kick in around the same time the mountain man starts cranking the seasons to pass more quickly. You know how much I want to usher winter on out of here.

 

more about “Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal“, posted with vodpod

 

One day last week before seminary class, we discussed what swear words are in different countries. A certain adjective in Britain is essentially the mother bomber, and if you don’t want to get in trouble, according to one of my students, you have to say “bleeding.” And that made the class laugh.

I have no idea why we had that discussion. It’s probably the same reason we have all the marginally questionable conversations we have. They’re not all my fault, I promise.

Yesterday, I sent this link to a few my friends in light of the recent Ingrid Michaelson concert. It’s a good song, and I like the sparseness of the performance, even with the full band. (Sorry, the video wouldn’t embed.)

Swearing on this site is pretty rare, and today, I kind of became a sailor under my breath.

And today, little did I know that song would become my mantra.

And today, I have to acknowledge one of those things I won’t write about on this blog. It’s frustrating and a little scary, I guess. If I won’t write about it, it’s not for the public to know.

I’m trying to wrap my brain around it.

Winter can go away, but maybe time could pass a little more slowly. Maybe that would work.

No matter what happens.

All we can do is keep breathing.

At least it’s something, breathing.

Hell.

 

January 31, 2009

I’ve Consigned My Soul to Virgin Records

Posted by mayiwrite under friends, movies, music, my life, new york city, nostalgia | Tags: , , , , , , |
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I walked into the store at Union Square today and I had what I wanted in mind and I wasn’t going to wander and be impulsive, but I couldn’t control myself. Walking into that store was maybe a bad idea.

I picked up Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago. This has got to be one of the  most absolutely heartbreaking records I’ve ever listened to. Justin Vernon’s previous band split up, he and his girlfriend broke up, and he locked himself in his father’s hunting cabin in northern Wisconsin and came out a couple months later with this album. It’s brilliant.

I picked up Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes. They remind me a little bit of the Avett Brothers. I love their inviting voices and folky feel.  The instrumentation is fun and solid and rich, but relatively simple. Not a song I don’t like on this one.

I picked up the Schoenberg and Sibelious violin concertos performed by Hilary Hahn. This album is a double-Grammy nominee, for best solo performance and best classical album. I’ve been a Hilary fan forever, and I’m very excited to listen to this one at full blast.

Then I went downstairs to tempt myself with DVDs. I shouldn’t have gone downstairs. Of course. I picked up The Visitor. I saw this movie in the theater, and I really liked it. Richard Jenkins does a fabulous job. The movie is wonderfully cast and acted superbly.

Actually, I didn’t pick up anything I wasn’t planning on getting. Still, I don’t really need those things. The music is incredible and the movie is fantastic. Dangit.

Now, I am watching the 2006 Academy Award short film nominees. This was from Netflix, so as long as I don’t step into another Virgin Records store anytime soon, there’s still a chance for me.

***

I took the elevator back up to the top floor, and a song I immediately recognized floated into my ears, “Stop Whispering,” by Radiohead, from Pablo Honey. I wanted to cry. I wanted to sing at the top of my lungs, “Stop whispering, start shouting!” The song became one of my first mantras when I moved to New York City. The song reminds me of my good friend, Janine, my first real friend here. I knew about Radiohead before I met her, but she got me to really listen to them. Janine is 5’8″ with a skinny body type and beautiful, short curly red hair. She has a quick sense of humor. She’s highly principled and has a very strong moral compass. We hit it off right away. She received me and my personality and sense of humor with very open arms. We used to stay up late, sometimes even into the early morning, watching movies or listening to music or even just talking. We’d sometimes burst into song in building lobbies just so we’d hear our echoes. Once we met in a Starbucks and we came up with a subject and wrote about it for 10 minutes and shared what we wrote with each other. The subject was “victim.” We went to quite a few gigs together. She encouraged my writing, and I got her a book about songwriting, because she used to be in a band. She loaned me books about depression. I went to church with her a few times. I got to meet her friends, and once I started making more friends, she met mine. She left the city to study at a theological seminary just outside of Philadelphia. I’ve not had another friend quite like her. So when I heard Radiohead today in Virgin Records, it was as if I could hear Janine singing it herself. “Stop Whispering,” in the elevator bank on the floor of my office at work, while we’re waiting for the elevator so we could take the train home. “High and Dry” in the foyer of her apartment building, almost sounding like a hymn.

I miss Janine.

 

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