Florence + the Machine / Ceremonials
Favourite tracks: Shake It Out, What the Water Gave Me and Heartlines

Gotye / Making Mirrors
Favourite tracks: Somebody That I Used to Know, In Your Light and Bronte

Jay-Z and Kanye West / Watch the Throne
Favourite tracks: Church in the Wild, H·A·M and Why I Love You

Adele / 21
Favourite tracks: One and Only, Rumour Has It and Turning Tables

City & Colour / Little Hell
Favourite tracks: We Found Each Other in the Dark, O’ Sister and Fragile Bird

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross / The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Original Score
Favourite tracks: She Reminds Me of You, Immigrant Song (Karen O), Please Take Your Hand Away and Revealed in the Thaw

Coldplay / Mylo Xyloto
Favourite tracks: Paradise, Don’t Let it Break Your Heart and Major Minus

Rachael Yamagata / Chesapeake
Favourite tracks: Even If I Don’t, You Won’t Let Me and Full On

Blake Shelton / Red River Blue
Favourite tracks: Over, I’m Sorry and Drink On It

Honourable Mentions:
Stateless / Matilda
Favourite tracks: I’m On Fire and Miles to Go

Lady Gaga / Born This Way
Favourite tracks: Edge of Glory, Bloody Mary and Government Hooker

Note: There are no stars in the insert symbol menu so I’ll be rating out of five ♦.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
From the first trailer that was nothing more than Karen O screaming Immigrant Song and shots of a snow covered house, I couldn’t wait. The book was one of the best that I read last year and despite not really being a mystery fan, I literally couldn’t put it down. From the original film adaptation, David Fincher’s remake was leaps and bounds an improvement. Everything about it was so much better than I could have imagined it would be. The scenery, the direction, the sets, the props, the music and especially the actors. Daniel Craig was brilliant as Mikael Blomkqvist and I was completely floored by Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. Every lesbian I know (on the internet, you know) is sad and stands by Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth, but she’s got nothing on Mara – in any arena. I loved every moment of this movie and have been thinking about it obsessively since the moment it ended.
Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. II
Can you guess how much I cried both times watching this in the theatre? Is “the whole way through” your choice? Because it is the correct one. I kid you not, once I started – about fifteen minutes in – I essentially did not stop. It was perfect and exactly what I expected it to be, and exactly what it needed to be. Life without Harry Potter is going to be really weird and I’m still as sad about it this year as I was last year.
Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Bellflower
This movie started out a bit slow and about fifteen minutes in, I was really considering turning it off and just calling it a loss. I am so glad that we didn’t because once it got going it was just fantastic. Bellflower is the story of two friends who spend all their time planning for the apocalypse by building flame throwers and building their bad-ass apocalypse-mobile Medusa; but then Woodrow meets a girl. The climax of the film is so completely amazing and jaw dropping. This movie is so worth the time. The moral of the story is that women ruin everything.
Rating: ♦♦♦♦½

Scream 4
I was initially worried for the quality of this movie, because the last two had been sort of crap and Wes Craven hadn’t done anything good in a really, really long time. Oh, how wrong I was. Scream 4 was everything it needed to be. It was gruesome, funny, shocking and totally fucking awesome. Sidney Prescott is the Lori Strode for my generation and that’s perfect. Also, I can never tire of Gale Weathers.
Rating: ♦♦♦♦

Super 8
Kristi had been so excited to see this but I was on the fence. In the end, I’m so glad that we went because it was really one of the most enjoyable films of the year for me. The train crash in the first third of the movie was one of the most incredible effects ever and the story was really just very sweet. Who doesn’t ever hope or wish that their town could be inhabited by an alien? Just me? Oh. Anyway, I love child actors.
Rating: ♦♦♦♦½

Fright Night
David Tennant. That’s all.
Oh, but also Colin Farrell, who I don’t normally enjoy, was really creepy and great as the vampire neighbor. It was quite a bit different from the original but still maintained the integrity of it and told a great story. It’s always a bonus for me too when great nods to the original are contained. Bonus cameo from Chris Sarandon and that terrifying vampire face from the poster.
Rating: ♦♦♦½

Bridesmaids
Funniest shit ever. Way funnier than those stupid Hangover movies could ever hope to be. Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy are perfect. Bonus hilarious (and hilariously unexpected) performance from Rose Byrne. It feels like you just never stop laughing and it will always kill me when Maya Rudolph just sits down in the street while she’s wearing that wedding dress.
Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Paul
I will watch anything with Simon Pegg and it’s always nice when Nick Frost is on for the ride as well. The supporting cast of this movie was awesome with Seth Rogan, Kristen Wiig, Jason Bateman, Bill Hader and Sigourney Weaver. As an X Files obsessed believer in aliens, the reality of this movie is like a most fantastical dream.
Rating: ♦♦♦½

Beginners
A late entry on the list, we just watched this last week. It was exactly what I like in a movie. It was sad, quirky, romantic and featured animations and a talking dog. God, I love indie movies. It tells the story of a son coping with the recent death of his recently announced gay father while falling in love with a sad, quirky, romantic French actress. Ewan McGregor is so cute and I really enjoy Mélanie Laurent.
Rating: ♦♦♦½

The Devil’s Double
This movie tells the true story of the man chosen to be the double for Sadaam Hussein’s son, Uday. It featured really stellar acting from Dominic Cooper in the role of both Uday Hussein and Latif Yahia and was a very intriguing, interesting and frightening story. Well worth the two hours.
Rating: ♦♦♦♦

Just wanted to let you know that I’m still here. Albeit a little dry for non-fiction words. But still here.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
Obviously. I had so many Harry Potter related feelings this fall that I literally sat for days and dreaded the release of this movie. I’m fairly certain that I held my breath approximately 73% of the time during my first viewing even though I was prepared for and knew what was going to happen. It’s been really amazing watching these kids grow up and get super good looking; but even more so getting to see live action representations of things imagination can only take so far. Ralph Fiennes is stunning, Helena Bonham Carter is perfect and Emma Watson carried the whole thing on her very intelligent shoulders. The Harry and Hermione dancing scene made my secret inner lover of that pair twirl in delight. They were really able to make this adaptation almost completely perfect. I have already begun preparing my stash of tissues for the coming release of Part II.

Black Swan
I have spent a lot of time over the last eleven years being in awe at the places Natalie Portman is able to take herself in her roles. V for Vendetta left me breathless and her variations in Closer never fail to impress me. But, as anyone who’s seen this movie can attest to, she transcends to a completely different level as Nina Sayers. She navigates a role with a million different complexities with a complete mastery and effortlessness. This movie had me utterly captivated from the moment it began and thinking about it and asking questions for days after we left the theatre. It was creepy, it was scary, it was sexy, it was dangerous and beautiful and it was so far, the very pinnacle of her talent.

Shutter Island
Shutter Island was that movie where, when you saw the previews on television, you thought for a moment and went “That’s the most obvious ‘twist’ I’ve ever seen.” And that was all before you even saw the movie itself. However, Leonardo DiCaprio is really talented and there’s more than one twist to the ending of this movie. Beyond that, it succeeds in making you feel completely isolated, trapped and panicked. Sure, the basic gist is plain within the first thirty minutes. But that’s okay because it has its own atmospheric pressure to it and before it’s over, you’re wondering who really is the crazy one here. And if it might even be you.

Splice
This movie was so weird and bizarre that I don’t think you can really prepare yourself for it. It’s three parts science fiction, two parts whoa, that’s fucked up and one part horror. It really helps to be morally ambiguous when watching this movie because if you can’t get beyond the idea of scientists “playing god,” then there’s really no point in venturing into Splice. And really, that’s the very base of levels that are reached. The first viewing is rife with tension and anxiety. The most horrific thing about it is the pondering of the extents that humans will go. To get what they want, to gain notoriety, to stop what they’re afraid of.

Inception
I don’t even know where to begin talking about Inception and how great and mind bending it is. Anything coupling Chris Columbus, Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard and Ken Watanabe together has “amazing” written all over it. The visuals were so stunning and impressive and it is literally the most original and unique story probably ever. My brain thought so hard that I still probably don’t have it all figured out. In fact, it is definitely time for a return viewing. DID THE TOP EVER STOP SPINNING?!

The Human Centipede
I think there’s probably three categories of people when it comes to The Human Centipede.

1. People who watched it enthusiastically and loved it.
2. People who were too grossed out and terrified by the concept to even think about watching it.
3. People who watched it and hated it.

I happen to fall into the first category. And with no shame whatsoever. This movie was sick, depraved and totally awesome. It straddled very carefully the incredibly fine line between horrifying, disgusting and strangely funny.  The “You are the middle piece!” scene was one of the best cinematic moments of the entire year. No shame.

Catfish
While watching this movie, your feelings about it run the entire gamut of emotion. Initially, it’s sort of creepy and you feel uncomfortable about this guy and like, what is he even doing? And then you start to feel sort of confused and scared and like something bad is about to happen. Then in the final third of the movie, you’ve rounded back to uncomfortable and creeped out except now you’re on his side and you just feel bad and sort of sad for him. The tag-line that was advertised with the previews was “Don’t let anyone tell you what it is” and you probably should hope that no one does before you watch it because the big reveal is a literal codfish moment. One of the best documentaries of the year, definitely.

Toy Story 3
Kristi thought it was real funny how much I cried watching this. The first Toy Story came out when I was ten years old. It was real exciting because it was kind of the first animated movie in that style and it just looked so amazing and real. Over the last fifteen years, a lot more movies have been done in that style and they’ve looked better and more life-like, but Toy Story is still the most special one. Buzz and Slinky Dog and The Potatoheads and Rex and Woody… especially Woody. They were the best. The moment at the end when Bonnie waves Woody’s hand goodbye to Andy and he gasps; that was the moment. You know, even at 26, I still remember my most favourite thing from when I was little – it was one of these guys. I called him Wrinkle and my mom had a special voice she’d use with him when she’d tuck me in for bed. It instantly turned me into a fit of giggles every time, because I loved him so much. I have him still, in a box; even though he has replacement eyes (buttons), his tongue and nose and been chewed on and he no longer has a sporty jumper to wear. Everyone knows what it’s like to love a toy the way Andy loved Woody, and I think that’s why Toy Story is just so damn special to me.

A Single Man
So technically this came out in 2009. But I really don’t care because it was one of the best movies we watched last year, of which there were many. Julianne Moore is flawless, as ever. But Colin Firth is so completely perfect as a grieving man just looking for some way to feel anything other than hollow. Everything about this movie was beautiful and perfect; the cinematography, the direction, the music, the design, the acting. It was just flawless. I hope Tom Ford continues doing movies because if A Single Man is any indication of what he’s capable of, it could only mean good things.

Robyn – Body Talk Pt. 1, 2, & 3
Up until about six weeks ago I was painfully oblivious to Robyn and her fantastic hair. She guested on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and gave a performance of Dancing On My Own that I was completely riveted to. It was stuck in my head for days after. Since then I have been listening to the entirety of the Body Talk trilogy on an almost veritable loop. Kristi doesn’t understand what it is I so much love about her and I’m not sure how to explain it. The beats are insane, she makes me want to dance even though I can’t (I’m consistently impressed with her moves), and In My Eyes really gives me an odd sort of comfort (sort of like how Lady GaGa’s Dance in the Dark did last year).
Favourite tracks: In My Eyes, Dancing on my Own, Indestructible, Call Your Girlfriend

The National – High Violet
The best way I can think to describe this album is that it heavy like a weight and hard like bricks and cuts me completely to pieces. Every single song is beautiful and perfect, building slow and deep. While Matt sings exquisitely written lyrics in his rich, smooth voice. I had a difficult time getting into The National before this album. But High Violet is just a completely perfect piece of art. It’s impossible to deny it.
Favourite tracks: Conversation 16, England, Lemonworld

John Lennon & Yoko Ono – Double Fantasy, Stripped Down
Finding out that Yoko Ono was releasing a “naked” version of John’s final album (my favourite), Double Fantasy, to commemorate his 70th birthday was a total thrill. Listening to it for the first time felt like it was a gift from her, from John; for John, for me. His voice rings out so crisp, it’s perfect. Every single little detail of his speech is so clear. I love remastered versions for this quality. It is like hearing him right inside your brain.
Favourite tracks: Watching the Wheels, Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy), I’m Losing You

Fistful of Mercy – As I Call You Down
Fistful of Mercy is the side project for Dhani Harrison – George’s son; some guy named Ben Harper (jk) and Joseph Arthur, who is a boy with a really beautiful voice. The way these three harmonise is amazing. Harper’s more rough voice sounds so good over smoother, sweeter tones of Dhani and Arthur. I think a lot of people are most excited about this group because of Ben Harper, but the truth is that Dhani Harrison is almost as perfect as his father was and I would listen to him sing a phone book.
Favourite tracks: In Vain or True, With Whom You Belong

Gogol Bordello – Trans-Continental Hustle
Ever since I saw these guys open for Tegan and Sara in 2006, I’ve been hooked. They’re the most energetic and exciting live show I’ve ever seen and their albums stay fresh because the sound changes based on where Eugene Hutz is living at the time. For Hustle, he was living in Brazil and the music is infused with it in a perfect marriage with their natural sound. Instead of Ukranian and frantic like Gypsy Punk, or dirty and Brooklyn like Super Taranta!, it’s a little bit spicy and sexy and Portuguese.
Favourite tracks: My Companjera, Pala Tute, Immigrandia (We Comin’ Rougher)

Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
While everyone else was fawning over Taylor Swift and her stupid song about Kanye at this year’s VMA’s; I was busy being amazed by Kanye himself and his red outfit. As if there was ever any doubt that he would outdo himself and deliver another incredible record, they were all completely dispelled within the first two minutes of this album. I don’t know much about “rap,” but I know that Kanye West is a genius and I could care less he’s the most arrogant man in the business. It’d be something different if it wasn’t totally warranted.
Favourite tracks: Power, Monster, All the Lights

Paul McCartney and Wings – Band on the Run
Another remaster with that perfectly crisp and clear quality to it. Paul is a master of pop music and that is never more clear than the three songs in one that make Band on the Run. Let Me Roll It is the most perfect and simple love song in the history of love songs. And these remastered and cleaned up versions are just breathtaking.
Favourite tracks: Let Me Roll It, Band on the Run, Jet

Scissor Sisters – Night Work
There was something lacking in Ta-Dah that was recaptured with Night Work. Perhaps it was the dirty, it was the sex and it was the debauchery. Those elements are most definitely not lacking on this record. I can just picture Jake – all sweaty and half naked – doing a shimmy as he sings lyrics like “harder you get, all in my sweat, never too wet to want it all.” It is then… then that I know that the Filthy/Gorgeous Scissor Sisters are back.
Favourite tracks: Fire With Fire, Skin Tight, Whole New Way

Lissie – Catching a Tiger
Kristi and I were fortunate enough to see Lissie open for City and Colour way back at the beginning of the year. She’s got the most beautiful, haunting voice. In the months between the show and this release I completely played out her e.p. Why You Runnin’. This first full length record is a force of beauty and sadness, love and loneliness. The most played song in my entire iTunes library is on this album.
Favourite tracks: Worried About, When I’m Alone, In Sleep

Angus and Julia Stone – Down the Way
Of all the things Autostraddle has taught me or told me about this year, these two are very near the top of my favourites. Beautiful voices, beautiful lyrics and beautiful music. What more could you possibly ask for. This album is top to bottom gorgeous.
Favourite tracks: For You, Walk it Off, I’m Not Yours

The feeling I had happened when Sam told Patrick to find a station on the radio. And he kept getting commercials. And commercials. And a really bad about love that had the word “baby” in it. And then more commercials. And finally he found this really amazing song about this boy, and we all got quiet.Sam tapped her hand on the steering wheel. Patrick held his hand outside the car and made air waves. And I just sat between them. After the song finished, I said something.

“I feel infinite.”

And Sam and Patrick looked at me like I said the greatest thing they ever heard. Because the song was great and we all really paid attention to it. Five minutes of a lifetime were truly spent, and we felt young in a good way. I have since bought the record and I would tell you what it was, but truthfully, it’s not the same unless you’re driving to your first real party, and you’re sitting in the middle seat of a pickup with two nice people when it starts to rain.

When moments like that happen, it’s usually when you’re not really looking for it or paying attention too hard. They usually happen at the simplest of times, when everything is normal and quiet. Infinity can be found in the smell of a newborn baby’s head, a boy wishing on pennies in a fountain, your very favourite song live for the first time or a quiet moment with yourself.

We pulled back and relcined against the cement of the driveway. It was warm from the day and smelled like dirt and sun and I could feel tiny grains of grit pushing into my skin as my arms propped my head. Kristi layed back down into me – resting her body against mine – and her dad was laid next to her. The three of us, in a row, with our feet in the grass and our skulls against the pavement. Our eyes were to the stars. It’s so full and dark out where they live that you can almost see every illumination against the night sky. I had the stunning and shrinking realisation that they were all enormous balls of fire burning a million billion miles away. And I felt so small.

There was a wind blowing over our bodies, from right to left (the direction that they read it in some countries). It was heavy and fast enough to push my hair back from my forehead, but not enough that I cared how it looked. It was cool enough to make me think ‘a sweater would be nice,’ but not enough that I needed one.

There’s a big tree in the front yard and as the wind passed through its branches, the leaves rustled. There was country music to the right and voices all around, but the only thing that I heard was the wind pushing the leaves against each other. It was so loud and quiet at the same time. Just that perfect rustling sound. As the branches moved back and forth, the light that shone against the leaves caused them to look like they were glittering. Like sunlight shining through a pool or a candle flame behind textured glass.

All I kept thinking was ‘I love this moment, I love these people.’ I love this moment.

I love these people.

I like being this age and I like that there’s (hopefully) a lot more years to come than have passed. I’m excited about sitting here four years from now and thinking about how cool it is to be thirty and how I can’t wait to see how much cooler than my twenties it will be. I’m excited to have another block of memories – good ones and even sad ones – and milestones to come to. I’m excited to have a five year old that I can explore with and learn with and teach and experience his universe. So go on and keep your youth; I’ll take experience and wrinkles like a road map of my life any day.

That turned into a bit of a tangent, didn’t it?

Earlier this month Kristi and I received a visit from my mom and her boyfriend. It was short, but a good visit. She’d just spent three months in jail for her previous indiscretions and I was happy to see how much healthier she looked. It was also the first time I’ve spent time with my actual mother since my Gramma died almost six years ago. I haven’t seen her sober and unintoxicated in a very long time and it made me feel good. I missed her. However, she gave me some news that was surprising in every single way. As it turned out, my great-grandmother, who I called Nanny, had died. Of cancer. A month before. I was baffled as to why my Poppa didn’t feel it necessary to fill me in on this information. In fact, the truth is, I’m still rather unhappy with him for it. But I digress.

After my Gramma died I spent a lot of time thinking about how much less broken I’d be if it had been Nanny that died. That’s the most horrible thing to think about someone in your family, I know. I have no excuses for such deplorable thoughts and the truth is I’m still ashamed of it.
When I was very little, Nanny and I were extremely close. I used to spend a ton of time over at her house. I’d sit under the butcher’s block and hit it with miniature tools; I spent countless hours in their big leather recliners watching Disney cartoons; I played my first game of computer solitaire at her house. I would stay the night and we would lay awake in the dark and tell jokes and stories and she would scratch my head with her long fingernails. Six years ago as I stood over my Gramma’s hospital bed and wept as I said my goodbyes, Nanny came up behind me and placed her hand on my shoulder. “That’s enough,” she said. The relationship all of us had with her had thinned immensely over the previous seven years for various reasons; but at that moment she had turned into a completely different person to me. Someone she’d never been to me before. I felt as though she was hurrying me through the hardest moment of my life and telling me to quit my blubbering. It was something that I never forgave her for.

The last time I saw or spoke to her, I’m fairly certain, was at my Gramma’s memorial service on October 26, 2004. I spent a lot of time in the following months being angry and most of my time in the following years forgetting she existed in my life at all. I used to think that when she died, it wouldn’t affect me – that it wouldn’t make me sad or that I wouldn’t shed a tear. When my mom told me, the initial shock and disbelief stunned a few tears out of me. But later as I sat alone at work and couldn’t stop thinking of it, it dropped down on top of me like a weight. Someone I knew and once loved very much was gone. She was gone before I could tell her that despite it all, I did love her somewhere inside me. She was still someone who meant a lot to my growth. There is a sadness because of it that permeates much of my moods lately. There remains a huge disbelief. I cried much more than I ever imagined I’d be capable of. I just hope that as her last thoughts of me came and left through her mind before she drew her last breath, that she knew I loved her. Even if the memories were twenty years old.

On the other hand however, we also received a fantastic visit from my Aunt Jenny and Uncle Don this weekend. They’re on a trip across the country in a van from New York and rerouted their plans to make room for a few hours with us. I’ve spent more time with them in the last two years than I have with the rest of my New York family in the last ten years. It’s something that saddens me a lot, but I loved so much having the chance to spend a few hours with them. Talking and laughing and hearing stories and learning about my family. I found myself missing my father, the rest of my aunts and cousins, my grandmother so very much that it’s just an ache.

Another thing I love about being this age is being able to interact with my family in a new way. Just sitting and talking with my Aunt Jenny about everything possible felt so good to me. I sort of feel like I barely know that part of my family (which I suppose is basically true), and it was sort of like learning about her from scratch. Although at the same time, it wasn’t. Because when I think back to my summers spent back east with my dad and the time I spent with my cousins at their house, I always remember my aunt as nurturing me.

I remember one particular summer when she bought me a sketchbook and some pencils. I suppose that was probable the last summer I was there. But I remember her caring so much about giving me this book and encouraging me to fill it. And I did. I did a lot of drawing in that sketchbook, that summer especially. I know it’s still floating around in my things – full of simple, shading free portraits of the people I loved then. One memory so vivid in my mind is that of sitting on the floor before my Grandma’s coffee table and drawing a picture of Jewel by candlelight because the power was out. Jewel’s cd Spirit and my Aunt Jenny’s sketchbook: those were the most important things to me the summer of 1999.

And still nothing had changed. The four of us sat at the table and talked about everything possible, but when the conversation came around to what I wanted to do and schooling, I was fifteen again. And she was encouraging me and telling me how achievable my dreams are. Even if I still barely know what those dreams are. She and I sat in the backseat of their van on the way back from dinner and she said to me, “I think if you decided to go back to school you’d find that you had a lot of support from your dad and us.” It was something I’ve always known in the back of my mind. But hearing her say it to me – it just made me want to cry from love.

I’m satisfied with where my life has taken me for the most part. I wouldn’t want change anything that has led me to Kristi. However, I wish more than anything that I’d always had that in my every day. I have this huge and incredible extended family and the fact that I hardly know them at all… it just literally breaks my heart. But knowing that they’re there – knowing that they’re mine – well, that makes it all a bit better, doesn’t it.

My entire day in great detail? Well, that’s boring. Anyhow, I woke up at a few minutes to nine and stayed in bed a few minutes to check the bank and catch up on Twitter. After I got out of bed I greeted the cats, went pee and put on a pair of shorts before sitting at my desk to check/read LiveJournal, Facebook and Autostraddle. That took a while. But then I was responsible and paid my phone bill, our cable bill, made sure my insurance cards were in order and paid my Playstation Magazine subscription. I looked at ONTD for a bit while listening to Angus and Julia Stone. But then I remembered I didn’t post a picture yesterday so I looked at my WordPress stats and decided I’d better get a few of these down. After completing the previous one, I started this one while listening to the Eclipse soundtrack and eating a cold piece of pizza.

It’s nearly eleven now and in a little bit, I’ll take a shower and get ready to go meet Kristi for lunch at one-thirty. On my way I’ll get gas – hopefully I’ll have enough to make it up the street to the station. After lunch, I’ll go to WalMart to get a few things that we need urgently like cat litter and shampoo. Then I will definitely go to the Goodwill Bookstore where I will hopefully bring home a good loot of Stephen King books with which to build my book castle with. Maybe I’ll get my truck washed, it’s pretty filthy.

Upon my return home, I’ll clean up after the cats and be grumpy about it and also feel lonely while I wait for Kristi to come home at five. When she gets home, we’ll go to the gym where I’ll sweat and be tired and want to die, probably. Then we’ll come home and have something for dinner and lay on the couch watching Six Feet Under. Sometime around eight, I’ll take another shower and start getting ready for work. I’ll stomp around for ten minutes asking “What am I going to listen to?!” Then I’ll settle on something and leave for work at 9:30, arriving around 9:53 depending on traffic and lights.

Once at work, I will make lunch for my clients and feel grumpy and sad that I didn’t get the job I interviewed for twice last week. I will probably watch Jimmy and Doctor Who again. Maybe I will download a movie today to watch or maybe I will get some more reading done.  It will be a long haul until six am…

Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Autostraddle is going to Bonnaroo and they did a little Artist Spotlight with this  video. I’d never heard of these two but I’d been missing out horribly. Because their new cd Down The Way is positively addicting and beautiful. Between his sweet voice and her Bjork-like sound. Their lyrics are incredible and moving and make everything feel like a love song.

And then there’s this…

Another artist I’d never heard of and was introduced to via AS and am so happy about. This video is probably the saddest thing I’ve seen since the Swell Season video for Low Rising. I love songs that tell stories and I love it when the video goes along with it. This one is so lovely and sweet. And also, marionettes are cool.

I found this wonderful thing by happy accident. I thought Ooh, what is this?! and as I watched it a series of things happened: I grinned ear to ear, my jaw dropped and I giggled wildly. Okay, probably it doesn’t mean much or matter much to someone without a rabid obsession with Doctor Who (read: someone who is not me). But for me, this video was four and a half minutes of pure joy.

Imagine my surprise and glee to discover that Chameleon Circuit is an actual band that has an actual cd and play a type of music called Trock. Which means “Time Lord Rock.” You guys, that means that they only sing songs about Doctor Who! I’ve listened to their cd several times since discovering it and look at me, I’m getting all excited as though I’ve just discovered this wonder!

Be right back, I’ve got an awful lot of running to do.