The Readiness Is All

Since you've all been so lovely about being excited that I'm posting again, I'm going to post a playlist that I've been working on, because it's been awhile, has it not?
This is music that, for one reason or another, really resonates for me (you guessed it) "in my gut." I don't know how else to explain it. It's that music that makes you sick and gives you chills and swells your rib cage and raises the hair on the back of your neck and so forth. I'm not sure whether it works for everyone - I'm sure that not all of the songs do - but when I call the list "Gut Music" I am, of course, referring to my gut. Also, there may be some repeats from other playlists, but the new computer means that I lost my old ones, so everything is fair game again! So here we go.

Gut Music

• "Brainy" - The National
  
• "Winning the Battle, Losing the War" - Kings of Convenience
• "Love's Lost Guarantee" - Rogue Wave
• "Evaporated" - Ben Folds
• "A Comet Appears" - The Shins
• "Sky Blue Sky" - Wilco
• "Leave" - Glen Hansard
• "Vienna" - The Fray
• "Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid" - Sufjan Stevens
• "Coffee and Cigarettes" - Augustana
• "Me Ves Y Sufres" - Hope of the States
• "Creep" - Radiohead
• "Crown of Love" - The Arcade Fire
• "I Asked When" - Brett Dennen
• "In My Own Eyes" - Brandi Carlile
• "Raining in Baltimore" - Counting Crows
• "Rock and Roll Suicide" - David Bowie (really, there is a David Bowie song on this list.)
• "Detlef Schempf" - Band of Horses
• "Your Heart is an Empty Room" - Death Cab For Cutie
• "Brothers in Arms" - Dire Straits
• "Cocoon" - The Decemberists
• "People Get Ready" - The Frames
• "Hannah Hold On" - The Get Up Kids
• "Cathedrals" - Jump Little Children
• "Hide and Seek 2" - Imogen Heap
• "Keep Breathing" - Ingrid Michaelson
• "New Slang" - The Shins
• "Gospel" - The National
• "Existentialism on Prom Night" - Straylight Run
• "I'll Follow the Sun" - The Beatles
• "If Work Permits" - The Format
• "Delicate" - Damien Rice
• "Waitin For A Superman" - The Flaming Lips
• "Split Screen Sadness" - John Mayer
• "I Want You" - Bob Dylan
• "These Arms" - Matt Costa

Okay friends. I am back with a vengeance. Old Mill has internet, even wireless, and I am prepared to blog up a storm. Especially right now, because I am taking a break from packing.
First, I like my new apartment a lot, especially now that Whitney's mom made our shower stop smelling. Here are my reasons:

1. I have my own bathroom. This has several implications that are positive. I will know exactly who used up the last of the toilet paper and didn't replace it. I will be the one who fills the garbage and has to empty it, but it will be my garbage, and if the floss is hanging out, it will be my floss, thank you very much. I can buy my own cleaning supplies, and they will be there until I use them up.
2. I have a double bed. And it is beautiful.
   
3. I have a lot of wall space, and no one seems to care if you put stuff up on the wall, so I intend to put up all kinds of stuff, including my Lawrence of Arabia poster. You can think it's weird if you want, but it's my room, so it only has to make me happy.
   
4. Our couches are BEAUTIFUL - leather (or a reasonable imitation thereof), comfy, big, not caving in, and a reasonable color (tan).
   
5. The shower between the rooms (I don't even know how to explain this, so just bear with me) means that Whitney and I can open up the doors when we aren't showering and pretty much have a joint room. Sort of. It's like when we wanted to cut holes in the walls at Belmont so that we could talk, only we didn't have to break any rental agreements.
6. The new roommate that I've met so far has a Kryptonite necklace, and we made dinner together tonight - Hawaiian haystacks (mostly just rice and chicken soup), spinach salad, and corn.
7. I have what feels like a lot of room, especially because I didn't bring too much down yet. I love having lots of room.
8. We already had a shower adventure, when Whitney's mom lost control of the shower head and it sprayed all over my room, all the way to the window. I'll have to take a picture of the shower so you can understand how this could happen (I'd do it now with my camera on my compy, but there isn't a lot of light in here, because there is in fact no light in this room and I haven't got my floor lamp from home yet.)
9. There are drawers all over the place, and the furniture in the room isn't horrible! Also, the desk was under the window when I got here, and I kind of love that, so I'm leaving it here.
   
10. I got a really cheap and awesome bedspread/sheets/bedskirt combination at the BX for $45, and it actually looks fabulous in this room, which has this weird wall with something that looks like woven grass on the wall like a bulletin board - the whole wall.
    

Anyway, the other plus is that we have wireless internet, so I can blog and look for jobs and keep up on current events and so forth.
Although I'm not quite unpacked yet, I'm going to movie night in a few minutes (some time has passed since I started writing this post) to watch Dr. Horrible again (hurray!) and see what has become of our tradition.
Never fear, I am back, and I'll be delighting you in the blogosphere yet again. Thanks to the two or three of you who missed me. Miri is right - you should get badges.

So I haven't been blogging much since I got back because of the dialup internet connection, but I thought I'd throw out an update about the MLS endeavors.
I went down to Provo on Wednesday and talked to the HR guy at the library. For whatever reason, he's willing to pull some strings for me, and it's almost a definite thing that I've got a paid internship in the music and dance library at the HBLL. There are still some details to work out, but it looks like I'm on my way to something at least. It's not a very long internship, and the pay isn't great, but it gives me some experience and something to put on a resume, and it also gives me a little bit of wiggle room while I try to find a job and push ahead with my latest bout of insanity. \
I move down to Provo in about a week (I could go earlier, but I think I'll spend a little more time with the fam and move down when Whitney moves in) and hopefully I'll be able to figure more of this out as I go along. Keep crossing your fingers for me - it's working!

Just so we're getting both sides of the story, here's Mikhail Gorbachev's article in the Washington Post today.
There's a lot of rhetoric in there, but I've always liked Gorbachev. I don't know where all of this is going.

Update: Well, there's this. Does that mean it's over? Troops are still there, but they aren't actively attacking at the moment, or at least that's the word on the street. But they were still bombing just a few hours ago, and according to this, the Georgians claim there is still some bombing going on. Modern technology, how can you give me access to everything and still leave me so confused?

By the way, the protest hasn't stopped.

Just thought you all should know: Nate Ruess of The Format has a new project at last. Although I can't give my full support to the rather lame band name, I can't wait for the CD, which is slated to be released in February. (Just in time for my birthday, everyone, especially if you forget and are a little late . . .)
So. For your listening enjoyment and to fill the hole in the heart of so many, I give you . . .
Fun.
Shout out to Sam Means: I'll always love you, Sam, and I'll miss you. But I am so glad that Nate's voice will be singing new songs for me.

I feel like I need to say a couple of words about something serious. They probable won't be very intelligent words about it, but I'm thinking about this a lot and I feel like that fact needs to be reflected here.
I am happy to tell you that, thanks to Emily and David introducing me to Drudge Report (it's now a link in my sidebar - check it out, but be warned: it's very addicting), I am actually more informed about things than I usually am. When I walked through the protest in front of the Russian Embassy (which, by the way, is at the end of my street - we can hear the whistles and chanting from the Centre when the window is open), I wasn't confused for more than a minute (and I was pretty tempted to grab a Georgian flag and go down and brave the bobbies).
Do you all realize that Russia is at war with Georgia, and that Georgia is one of our allies in this whole Iraq thing? They're calling for us to help them, but if we do, what would happen? Haven't we been effectively staying out of war with Russia for the past 60-odd years for a reason? So really, I guess there isn't a lot we can do, which is the reason for this and other useful responses by American politicians. It's all sounding a little too much like WWI for my taste - countries backing up their allies until it's one big mess. And it's easy to say just stay out of it, but this whole situation has very quickly stopped looking like something easy, especially when we are issuing warnings and Russia is ignoring them completely.
This is a crazy and sometimes nasty world, my friends, and I wish I knew more about what I'm talking about. But I am trying. This thing is getting uglier by the day, and I don't think we're done yet.

This will be a really boring post to anyone who is male. Sorry.
Preface: I am not an impulse buyer. I'm always sure that right after I buy something that's kind of cool I'll find something amazing and not be able to buy it because I wasted my money on something lame. This is a good money saving device in general, because I always say I'll come back and then I don't.
So once upon a time I decided that I really wanted a coat from London. I don't know why, I just thought it would be a really happy thing to get, and I had seen some cool ones at Primark, and I thought I kind of wanted one, and then I decided that I really wanted one, and it was ridiculous, but see my post about shoes and you'll understand.
So I've looked at coats several times, and I changed my mind about the Primark ones, and I was going to go to Portobello Road, but instead I went to the Camden markets today with Erin and Annie and Kristen. The Camden markets are pretty great, and in the first area I found a couple of okay coats - one that I even talked the guy down 10 pounds on because I was so indecisive about it, but really it just wasn't quite what I wanted (which was actually nothing like what I got, but that's coming.)
So then we wandered around the other markets - Camden Lock mostly- and I found one coat that was cute but one size too small and the only one, but nothing that was quite amazing enough. Just when we were about to abandon all hope, Erin and I stumbled upon some random vintage shop (not usually my thing, but they had a lot of coats) and I was looking at some weird but kind of cool thing, and Erin walked away and I saw it. A beautiful coat. In my size. (In Europe I wear a 12, and a 7 in shoes. This makes no sense at all - a bigger sounding size in clothes and a smaller size in shoes? No clue.) So I tried it on... And it was love at first sight.
This picture doesn't really show the amazingness of this coat. I thought I wanted a trench coat - a tan one, Casablanca style. But I was willing to negotiate for something amazing, and here we go - perfect and only 5 pounds more than the somewhat mediocre coat that I talked the other guy down on (which was the Casablance trench type) and basically I'm really excited that I didn't snatch up the first coat I saw, because it paid off big time. And I can't believe I wrote a post this long about this. Sorry.

So I stumbled upon this music video tonight and thought, "Hey, I like this song and I'm not ready to go to bed yet. I'll watch it."
All I have to say is this: Chris Martin, never again make a music video that relies on you dancing. And also, you have the line "Roman cavalry choirs are singing" to work with and what you come up with is you putting your hands to your mouth and bopping around?
It's not like you're a small time operation, Chris. You are a big deal these days. You can make a decent video. You could reenact Ben Hur if you wanted to. And this is what you choose to do?
Anyway. You can decide for yourselves, but as for me, I'm going to stick with the "Chris Martin is ridiculous" line of thought.

By the way, I just have to post this (partially so I don't forget to continue pursuing it.)
I don't very often discover music on my own. I swipe stuff from my friends and brothers and sometimes discover the true beauty of a band before someone else does, but I get enough stuff from various sources that I don't often seek after it.
Last night on the tube I was leafing through one of the free newspapers that the hand out by all of the tube stops and happened upon a review of the new Conor Oberst CD.
I know dear Conor, but I didn't by his real name. I've been listening to him for a couple of years as Bright Eyes, and I love some of his songs, but I've never been able to get into a whole CD for some reason.
Today Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band released a CD, and I've been streaming it online for a little while. (If you click on the earlier link you too can stream it.) Wow. The first song sounds very Simon and Garfunkle, some of the CD sounds like old timey folky music or like it belongs in a wild west bar or something, and all of it seems to be pretty good. I've always liked his kind of interesting voice and his poetic lyrics, but for some reason this particular CD seems to be working for me more than Bright Eyes has.
Check it out. I recommend "Cape Canaveral" and "Danny Callahan."

Also, Spence just turned me on to a new version of "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap from a new CD called Songs for Tibet. KILLER. I like it better than the original.

I'd like to say a word about my feet. (I hope you recognize the reference in the title - it's from some song Miri always used to listen to. "Hey, I've got some new shoes on and suddenly everything's right . . .")
There is something that really doesn't work about buying shoes in London.
Reasons:
1) Because of the exchange rate, I only buy cheap shoes (Chockers being the shoe store of choice.)
2) London is a place where one walks a lot and quickly.
3) It is the natural law of new shoes that you must wear them.
4) New, cheap shoes + lots of walking = destruction, absolute and irrevocable.

So last week I bought these really ridiculous shoes and wore them to Wicked and ended up with giant blisters/sores on my feet, and it was lovely. They're starting to heal now. But wait! Later, I stopped by Chockers with Annie and company, and Annie bought some shoes - very cute ones, even though they were too small for her. After a day, they nearly destroyed her feet because they were too small. I had offered to buy them because I liked them and they were inexpensive and they fit me, so when they didn't work out for her, I made good my offer and wore them to Hard Rock. They're really cute shoes - flats instead of heels this time.
I ended up with blisters and sores in different places - some smaller blisters just above the instep (and just above the previous giant blisters) and some raw places on my heels, just below the raw places from the last pair.
Now, I know from experience that I can work these shoes in and they'll be fine (well, maybe not the heels, but I'll just be smarter about where I wear them). It just means that I need to wear them with socks or bandaids in certain places until I break them in. But why do I persist in breaking my feet for new shoes?
Because I'm a girl and I like them.

Sigh.

On a related note, I just rediscovered Edward Monkton (I say rediscover because Lindsey introduced us to The Shoes of Salvation last November - I distinctly remember laughing my guts out in our room at Belmont), which is why you've been seeing some of his pictures popping up. You will see more. Here's one more which is somewhat related to this post.

So today I was buying some little thing because it made me think of Jennie, and Annie said something about, "Oh, that's nice that you're getting stuff for your roommates," and I was thinking about how I don't think anyone can understand the relationship I have with my roommates. I wasn't buying it because I felt like I needed to get my roommates presents, it's just the natural reaction to things that I think will be amazing for them.
I love my brothers a lot, but I missed out on the sister thing. I had some good girl friends growing up, but not a lot, and they often seemed to be leaving me. (This means you, Melissa.) I didn't realize what it was to have true sisterhood in friendship until college, particularly during my third year (the second year that I lived with Miri and Jennie and Lili and Mandy.) I was just looking at a post that Miri wrote about missing me (and by wrote I mean she posted a bunch of pictures of me on her blog) and I thought I would post some tributes of my own. I will miss living with Jennie and Miri and Lili and Marci, but I'm excited and happy about living with Whitney and Krissie, and maybe Lindsey will come to visit again (winky face).
I've probably posted all of these before. Oh well. That's why it's my blog.

I love you girls. A hug.