Lost Connect

I focused in and found my core,
But in the process I became
 woefully unhinged,
The stars above leaned down
and spoke to me
they whispered in twinkling voices,
"You need to rest",
they said,
"Its not your time to etch a mark into the sky
yet, Go back, Go back,
reattach yourself to your sphere!"
And so I floated back, drifting spectral
 in the night, like
a dolphin I dove and splashed
 through the atmosphere,
Until I found the connection I had lost

Swing Prom (or Masquerade in Blues)

Last night we had our annual winter quarter swing dance here in Athens, Ohio and it was fantastic.  The dance was entitled Masquerade in Blues, and near everyone was costumed in a festive mask of some sort.  The "Blues" in the title refers to the four hour blues work-shop we had before the actual dance with instruction by Paul Carryer and Sarah Chapman, and the late night blues dance we had from 12:00 am to 3:00am. The dance itself had live music complements of The Royales, a swing-jazz-funk band that kept the energy lively and never dull. I think during the entirety of the dance I probably only sat out 2 songs. In high school I always thought it would be awesome if one of our school dances had a ridiculous explosive band like this and everyone had actually danced, so in some ways it was like having a belated Swing-Prom. It was so much fun and I am glad I spent my entire Saturday dancing.

Miss Julia Nunes

   I have been a fan of the wonderful ukulele-playing, cute song creator Julia Nunes for a few years now (see here  and also more recently here). Over the past few years she has gone from a Youtube sensation, with some of her videos garnering hundreds of thousands of views, some well over a million, to touring with first Ben Folds then Ben Kweller and getting gigs at Bonaroo Music festival.  Today she came out with a brand new music video for her song Stay Awake, from her album "Settle Down" which comes out February 28th, I will be sharing that video with you shortly. Not only is that exciting, but tonight Julia Nunes will be appearing on Conan O'brien tonight on TBS as the musical guest. I am excited, phenomenally so.

Julia Nunes
Stay Awake


 Get Pumped!

Icy Wasteland

  All week the temperature has fluctuated between way below freezing with snow, and up in the high 40's.  More than anything its been a gamble each day. Fast forward to last night, it had been near freezing all day then around 10pm it started to precipitate icy rain down upon the night.  Covering every possible inch outdoors with a hefty layer of ice.  Trees, grass, sidewalks, buildings all are coated, slick and shining.  I wish I had brought my camera along when I went outside, the frozen bits of grass look over-worldly.  It is an icy wasteland out there. As if Mad Max had occurred in Siberia.  Be careful out there, be smart, and step softly.

Noah and The Whale
Give it All Back

All the Sodium

I felt sick from all the sodium,
 I felt high from all the helium,
    Floating through the night,
     Floating through the night

 My synapses fired endlessly,
 Senses going bang, bloop, boom!
           Lost in the night,
        Lost in the night

 My legs carried me from the hunt
 The rockets were bursting into light
        Running in the night,
      Running in the night

Richard's Basement

   We all sat in Richard's basement listening to pop music as Richard himmed-and-hawwed over who to bring to the upcoming dance. He was saying something like, "well I could take Sandy, but I don't know how good she is at dancing-"

   "Hey! I'm sitting right here!" Sandy exclaimed, throwing a pillow at him.

Richard took no notice of the pillow or Sandy's outburst and kept rambling on.  We all rolled our eyes, "-Or there's Cindy she's a damn good dancer...but she's blond and I usually go for brunettes-"

  "Usually? Richard, I'm not sure dating two girls and talking speculatively about half our class amounts to usually." I said

  Again ignoring any interruption he continued, "plus she's in calculus and I'm only in Geometry, there's no way I could date someone that much smarter than me"

In the background Nick Lowe was singing, "I love the sound of breaking glass/especially when I'm lonely"  Richard had a singluar gift for talking himself into any choice and straight back out of it again without anyone's assistance.  Some days it was depressing, some days it was frustrating, some days it was endlessly entertaining.  Mostly we put up with Richard's endless monologues because he had the basement and good taste in music.

"-Terry could be a good choice, she's awfully funny, but not quite as cute as Sandy-" Richard blathered

   "We're twins, you cotton-brain!" Sandy and Terry exclaimed together, throwing more things at Richard.  He really didn't have any sense of tact sometimes.

   "Tina! She's a brunette, a great dancer, a regular babe if there ever was one.  I'll ask Tina to the dance then!"

Jeremy scratched his head, "Hey man, Tina graduated last year.  She's off at some state school studying biochemistry or nursing or something."

 "Ahh, that's right.."Richard said a bit dejectedly snapping his fingers, though we could tell he was more excited to keep talking.  Now David Bowie was singing, "Turn and face the Strain/Cha-cha-changes!" on the tape.

"Well there's always Mallorie, she's not bad," he continued babbling, "or then again there's Claire-"

Nick Lowe
Breaking Glass

Holiday Weekend

   It is Sunday night of a holiday weekend and I am waiting for my late night snack of baked potatoes to finish baking downstairs.  It has been a good weekend, full of running, old friends, new friends, good music, sing-a-longs, shouting and much more. I'm taking Hockey this quarter as an elective and we had our first actual class session this week: it was a lot of fun. I learned the difference between a wrist-shot and a slap-shot, and how to implement each.

Now for some tasty, tasty tunes! Here's Future Islands with a track off their latest album, On the Water.

Future Islands
Balance


Discovery: peanut butter on baked potatoes is pretty tasty. Or that could just be late night me talking, but either way, something to try. Goodnight everybody.

Not Awake

   The groggy eight-year old sat down at the breakfast table, blearily rubbing his eyes for clarity.  Reaching out semi-blindly the boy's hand grabbed the glass of orange juice which he proceeded to chug mightily.

" What'll it be James? Oatmeal?" His mother asked

   "No..hold the oats...I might just have toast and jam" James replied

The boys mother smiled, she loved her son, and his head was always full of so many interesting ideas, but really she had to admit that in the morning James much more resembled a washed up drunk than an eight-year old. She turned her back to find her son inserting not bread, not bagels, but rather powdered donuts into the toaster. "James!" his mother exclaimed, popping the scorched donuts out of the toaster and exchanging them for bread.  Honestly you could not trust the boy until he was well and properly awake.

Mates of State
Palomino

The New Year

     It’s a new year once again. I think the last one was good overall, insomuch as 52 weeks can be graded as a whole. Yes, there were high points and low, low points, but overall I think it was a pretty snazzy year. I got to see the Northwest portion of the United States which were dazzling in nature and in the cities. I wrote more than ever before; about double my usual output on this blog. I think I've come closer to finding my voice and a direction with which to take this blog. I'm coming closer to finishing my college career and that leaves me with a bunch of emotions all bundled up, both good and bad. There were concerts, dancing, parties, and much more.

   Last year also had challenges, stress, and tribulations. At the end of last Winter I was close to breaking from all the stress, but I made it out alive which I am very happy about. This coming year will have who knows what? It will be an adventure; it will be filled with adventure. In March I'll be going to Ecuador for a study abroad program, I am incredibly excited, it’s going to be awesome, I hope. I'm nervous, but I probably should be. The future always scares me a little bit, though what is a greater adventure than what comes next?

  Here's to ice cream and pie, to cold beer, to finding places you've never seen. Here's to fresh snow, to ice that sparkles on tree branches, to sledding on steep hills or backyards on trash-can lids. Here's to good friends and family, to warm clothes and spiffy shoes. Here's to running in the dark, to star-tipping, to being completely and utterly ridiculous. Here's to good books, to staying up way too late reading, to telling stories until our tongues get tired from talking. Here's to trying to be who we want to be, to accepting who we already are, to being ready for anything. Here's to another year of joys, of challenges, of trials and tribulations.

LCD Soundsystem

Tribulations

Thanks everyone who has been reading, it means a lot.