The landscape has altered:

http://supplesomething.blogspot.com/

Tags: changes
Soundtrack: "Good Fortune," PJ Harvey

Entrance:
Tuesday Morning - The Pogues

Cake-Cutting:
Ball and Chain - Social Distortion

First Dance:
(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For? - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Half the songs I compiled and requested weren't played. I hardly heard my self in the din of conversation and the distraction of flashing lights. No, it wasn't a club, but rather, a fortress-like building with mirrors in place of windows, and a tiled dance-floor.

He didn't even get to the Madge, save for her "Like a Prayer" stuff! But that's not the point.

The point is that nobody will ever become my personal DJ, to play anything and everything I ask for whenever, wherever.......

even (and especially, perhaps) my husband.

( I'll never grow out of mixtapes )

Tags: living out loud, mixtapeology

I can't resist. Forever and days on end have passed since the last time I wrote anything beyond the casual blog insert. Now, I steal shamelessly from brimful. Alas, the songs actually speak for the subjects of my life.

The game goes like this: I've put my relentless Windows Media Player - the iPod stand-in that goes nowhere but echoes throughout the abode - on shuffle, quoting the first line of the next twenty songs that appear, save for the few songs where the first line of the song is actually the title. Additionally, songs from the same artist are also excluded. Finally, this last rule is self-explanatory: instrumentals are skipped. You (anyone left out there?), dear reader, have the delightful little task of deducting the song title and artist. Leave your guesses in the comments to this post and I'll note the answers as they come. Note: no Googling. Honor system in effect.

And of course, everyone and anyone is tagged. :)

1. If it's love that you want, baby you got it
2. Under blue moon I saw you Maitri strikes silver with Echo and the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon."
3. Satellites are falling down tonight
4. I think you caught me on the downslide, downturn
5. I gave you all I had, I gave you good and bad Draupadi got part of this one first, followed by mystery reader: "Sometimes Always," Jesus & Mary Chain featuring Hope Sandoval.
6. No good, can't speak, wound up, no sleep
7. Hey boy, take a look at me, let me dirty up your mind Maitri gets this one, too, with "Queer," Garbage.
8. I am feeling very warm right now
9. This house is full of ears but I can't talk to anyone
10. I close my eyes and soon I'm feeling sleepy
11. The cat calls through the night and two chicks in the parking lot
12. All my life I failed to see one good thing standing in front of me
13. Go 'way from my window, leave at your chosen speed New reader Ashvin is also a fellow lover of the modern troubadour, Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe."
14. I had one friend in high school recently he hung himself with string
15. Didn’t know what time it was the lights were low oh how
16. It is time for stormy weather My favorite one-lined song - and possibly Maitrix's, too - Pixies' "Stormy Weather."
17. I know somebody and they cry for you Brimful got the classic crooner on target: "Somebody's Crying," Chris Isaak.
18. Now here you go again you say you want your freedom Andrea tagged this one right with "Dreams," a remake of the Fleetwood Mac song by Whiskeytown.
19. I heard all your reasons, I heard all your plans
20. This is the power since time began

Tags: laundry list
Bass or Treble?: optimistic
Soundtrack: "Melt Your Heart," Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins

I grabbed this from J.. Realizing how much of a copout this post is from the lack of activity otherwise displayed on this here blue space, I am now asking you readers (population = 2) to gauge what you think of moi. More details to come on what this little experiment yields.

Tags: stupid internet quizzes
Bass or Treble?: lethargic
Soundtrack: "Precious," Depeche Mode

It's the sixth day of 2006 and I feel like 55 Friday:

She stared at her right hand: lined flesh elastic enough to raise in unison with the advertisement. Cold platinum steeled against her fourth digit. She fiddled with the band binding against skin while admiring glittering gems, pink, white glinting against light. Too much. Relinquishing it to the saleswoman, she turned and walked outside, fingers free.

Tags: 55
Bass or Treble?: drained
Soundtrack: "Finding Out True Love Is Blind," Louis XIV

A wall of water and a trembling. More than 230,000 dead or missing. One year later.

Dear God, what spared some and took others? The living ask and the dead echo.

Tags: current events
Bass or Treble?: melancholy
Soundtrack: "Inaflood," John Cale

Twisting one's legs in pretzel semicircle formation overhead can actually yield clearer thinking. Maybe it's that shard of pain threading through muscle as the knee turns lateral and far beyond couch territory. Or maybe it's the lack of blood flowing through my muscles in the vespertine air. The caustic blow of cold breaths on this winter solstice night where everything sounds ten times sharper, sound muffled, slow, and yet strangely distinct in the frigid conditions. Outside, the glow of lights cresting bushes buried beneath hovels of snow, a cocoon of seeming warmth. Crunching my feet against packed snow, my legs taut again after the unfamiliar stretch.

That's what writing is like for me.

Tags: anxiety
Bass or Treble?: thirsty
Soundtrack: "Ambergris March," Bjork

Why does this not surprise me?


Which John Cusack Are You?

Tags: stupid internet quizzes
Bass or Treble?: energetic
Soundtrack: "Fall On Me," Cry Cry Cry

I've been absent on my beloved blue heaven for some time. It's hard to say why or what for, other than a sheer lack of inarticulation on my part.

Suffice to say that I haven't stopped the music. Coming off the tip of another young women in similar stages of flux, the latest mix celebrates the great American railways. The great age of steam engines are gone, Amtrak has all but vanished, but trains live in the American imagination, celebrating progress, westward ho, plains and prairie, landscapes blurring in the horizon, you're my next conquest, why don't you come back home?, simultanaiety vs. statis, etc. Were I living in Europe, the shape of this sound would smell different. Excuse my tactile excess, I'll elaborate (promise) in the next entry. For now, I let the music speak for itself.

///Note: Playlisting sure ain't the same as those precious analog tapes I'd trade with friends way back when. Nostalgia aside, the nature of playlists changes the way I order the mix. Without the hassle of CD lengths, I also don't think about the gaps and "sides" contained by the "album" moments of each singular disc. Heck, this changes the way I even listen to music. Gone are the interruptions of changing the side, or CD. Gone is the inconvenience of low-fi sound quality (unless the transfer speed interferes with the initial burn). The endless MP3 format: perfect for that Sunday drive to nowhere./// End of my mixtapeology geekdom.

"Tracks and Trains" -

1) I've Been Working On The Railroad - Uncle Tupelo
2) Super Bon Bon - Soul Coughing
3) Dig for Fire - Pixies
4) Surfing on a Rocket - Air
5) Across Yer Ocean - Mercury Rev
6) Hesitating Beauty - Billy Bragg & Wilco
7) Guided By Wire - Neko Case & Her Boyfriends
8) I Walk the Line - Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash
9) Freight Train Blues - Bob Dylan
10) Goin' Out West - Tom Waits
11) Come on! Feel the Illinoise! - Sufjan Stevens
12) (Don't Go Back To) Rockville - R.E.M.
13) You Could Feel the Sky - Boards of Canada
14) Postage Stamp World - Rogue Wave
15) My Wandering Days Are Over - Belle & Sebastian
16) Trains - Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
17) Railroad Man - The Eels
18) 16, Maybe Less - Iron & Wine + Calexico
19) Country Livin' (The World I Know) - Esthero
20) Here She Comes Now - Galaxie 500
21) From Her to Eternity - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
22) Infinity Girl - Stereolab
23) Inertia Creeps - Massive Attack
24) Train - Goldfrapp
25) In Space - Royksopp
26) Trains - Porcupine Tree
27) I Will Follow You into the Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
28) Train in Vain - The Clash
29) Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - The Arcade Fire
30) The Wind - Cat Stevens
31) La Noyee - from the "Amelie" soundtrack

Tags: mixtapeology
Bass or Treble?: grateful
Soundtrack: "Lucretia, My Reflection," Sisters of Mercy (It's Halloween)

(I promise, this is the only time I will EVER shill for anything on this site!)

Way, way late for the immediate relief efforts made on behalf of the Pakistanis/Indians/Kashmiris who suffered immense loss during and after the recent earthquake, but certainly not too late for the much-needed aid to the wounded and homeless struggling to find shelter before treacherous winter storms: Unicef has done excellent, non-partisan work on behalf of the thousands of refugees fleeing the mountains. A mere $87 (that's one round of cocktails for you and seven other friends at your standard upscale Chicago bar) will buy a basic water kit for at least ten families, with each family getting detergent, soap, a wash basin, towels, a bucket, and water purification tablets. Moreover, donating to Unicef will guarantee that your money will reach the needy. If you have a little money to spare, please consider donating to this worthy cause. Thank you.

PS - Anyone wondering why I didn't do something similar for Hurricane Katrina/Wilma relief should check in with their local chapter of the American Red Cross, a surefire guarantor of aid and equipment. If only there were a parallel organization with as extensive an internal network as the Red Cross within Pakistan and India! Feel free to comment and redirect accordingly if I've missed recognizing any worthwhile local not-for-profit organizations contributing relief efforts in either Pakistan or India.

Tags: do-gooder
Bass or Treble?: sympathetic
Soundtrack: "Mystify," INXS