Music

I'm in the public library (home visiting family and friends for a few days), and I'm quietly laughing so hard that people are craning their necks to see what's on my screen.

What I'm listening to, and singing along with, as I alternately pack boxes and knit potholders for my mother :) :

Pat Benatar - We Belong
Daryl Hall and John Oates - Private Eyes
Stevie Nicks - Stand Back
Duran Duran - New Moon On Monday
Madonna - Material Girl
Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels
Taco - Puttin' On The Ritz
Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love
Pat Benatar - Love Is A Battlefield
Hall & Oates - Say It Isn't So
Laura Branigan - Gloria
Daryl Hall & John Oates - Kiss On My List
Duran Duran - The Reflex
Lionel Richie - All Night Long
Daryl Hall & John Oates - Maneater
Madonna - Dress You Up
Europe - The Final Countdown
Scandal - Warrior
Stevie Nicks - If Anyone Falls
Olivia Newton-John - Magic
Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder - Ebony And Ivory

What I'm listening to, and singing along with, as I pack boxes:

Hank Williams Jr - Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound
Hank Williams Jr - All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down
The Judds - One Hundred And Two
Wilson Pickett - In the Midnight Hour
Tanya Tucker - Some Kind Of Trouble
Crystal Gayle - Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue
Doris Day - Shoe Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
Eddie Rabbitt and Crystal Gayle- Just You and I
George Strait - Baby Blue
George Strait - If I Know Me
Janis Joplin - Me And Bobby McGee
Janis Joplin - Piece Of My Heart
Johnny Cash - A Boy Named Sue
Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton - Islands In The Stream
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama
Marc Cohn - Walking In Memphis
Melanie - Brand New Key
Patsy Cline - Crazy
Patsy Cline - I Fall To Pieces
Patsy Cline - Walking After Midnight
Randy Travis - On the Other Hand
Rosanne Cash - Seven Year Ache
Rosanne Cash - Tennessee Flat Top Box
Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
Wilson Pickett - I Found A Love
Reba McEntire - Fancy
Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant

Buy Diana Krall's new CD. I've said before that Diana Krall, Sade, and Joni Mitchell are the holy trinity of musical artists, and Krall proves it yet again with The Girl in the Other Room. Many of the songs are written by Krall and Elvis Costello, but there are some covers on the album too, most notably the cover of Tom Waits' "Temptation," which I've been listening to over and over again. Aaah, perfection.

Feministe inspired me to create the soundtrack of my life. I guess this is the next big meme. I purposefully sat out of the page 23/fifth sentence one, so I'd better get on task.

Edited to add: Oops, I forgot to include the criteria set forth by Green Fairy: "These aren't necessarily your favourite songs, or even ones you like, just ones that you associate with a particular time, incident or memory." Lest anyone think these are my favorite songs, heh. Others haven't put them in any particular order, but I've done mine chronologically: two from childhood, two from junior high/early high school, two from high school, two from college, and one from my master's program. It was hard to think of some recent ones; I don't have the perspective yet.

Celebration - Kool & the Gang

This is the first song I remember. My parents had the 45, and my mom showed me how to arrange the little arm on the record player above the needle so that I could make the 45 play over and over again. The exuberance of the song stuck with me, and to this day I love it.

...since I haven't been blogging.

Working, of course, and having a pretty rewarding time with it. I'm in good shape where that's concerned. Soon I'll post my prelims reading lists and the presentation I'm doing in Fargo this weekend once I get it pared down and finish the coding.

Partying with good, good friends. Imagine a backyard, gorgeous weather, witty conversation, lots of laughter, and CCR and The Band in the background. Times to cherish.

Knitting baby hats: I've recently taught myself how to knit on double-pointed needles, a technique which requires knitting with five needles. It makes me feel like the Zenmaster. The pattern is the Umbilical Cord Hat. Right now, I've got one friend who's due Monday, another due in about a week and a half, another due in September, and another due in November--not to mention the babies who are already here for whom I'm knitting hats.

Off to the gym, and then to class. Life's been mighty fine these days. :)

For all those people who email me requesting it, I've finally provided "The Unknown Stuntman" for your listening pleasure--but just for a few days. See right hand column.

Yesterday, I woke up crushingly depressed for absolutely no reason. I had parts of "Me and Bobby McGee" in my mind:

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose...



I'd trade all my tomorrows for one single yesterday...

These lines were playing in a continuous loop, over and over like a pathetic scrolling marquee. Then I was absently flipping through a copy of BUST and saw a personal essay by a woman who had run away from home at age 15 and started hitchhiking all over the place. She said,

I left because my skin was on fire and everything broke my heart. I left because I could hear lust in the screech of a tire and craved it. I left because I was 15 years old and I was done with being a child.

Since the dark cloud was already there anyway, these sentences joined the marquee. I rarely get like that, and the first thing I want to do when I feel that way is try to shake it off. So I loaded my Winamp playlist of songs that cheer me up: "Let Me Blow Your Mind" by Eve featuring Gwen Stefani, "Family Affair" by Mary J. Blige, "Hypnotize" by Biggie, and "Head Over Heels" by the Go-Gos. (That Jerry Lee Lewis-esque piano solo will usually do the trick.) It didn't work. I tried to amuse myself by imagining making my students do silly things in class, stuff we used to do in my church youth group, like trust falls. That made me chuckle, but still didn't really get me over the hump. However, today I woke up determined to give my entire apartment a vigorous cleaning. I applied scalding, pine-scented, soapy water to everything, and now I'm much better, quite relieved. Here, then, is my valentine to myself:





Conversation heart maker via Feministe.