Tuesday 26 July 2011

Dum Dum Girls - Take Care of My Baby



She rested her head on his chest as they swayed. This is what slow dancing feels like. This is what loneliness feels like.

Sunday 26 June 2011

Dirty Beaches - True Blue



The archaeologist's assistant suddenly felt not as if he were possessed, but as if he were an evil spirit taking possession of his own body. He felt a desperate urge jump in the biggest lake, with the deepest water.

Thursday 9 June 2011

Inelegantly, and without my consent, time passed.


I feel like most of my life has been spent waiting for things to happen, and then somewhere along the way, I stopped waiting. I started moving on. Suddenly, I was accumulating life lessons like Pokémon cards, not really sure what to do with them, but hoping that they'd prove to be valuable with time. Yet, now more than ever, I find myself wanting to wait again. Theoretically, it doesn't get much better than this stage of my life. This is life in limbo. This is the in-between stage where I've accomplished enough to feel like an adult, but haven't really had to face anything too scary like finding a job with health insurance or raising a child.  It's like thinking of unrequited love as the most romantic kind of love because as long as it stays unfulfilled, nothing can taint it. 

Sometimes, I don't think it'll get better. I think that these are my glory days, and the only things the future holds for me are shitty jobs and student loan debt. Sometimes, I think that things can only get better. I think that I'll find a person with whom I'll want to pass the time, in a place worth exploring. Mostly, I don't think any of that matters. Who I was and who I'll be are neither here nor there. I find myself nostalgic for the present. I am so utterly overwhelmed by the people in my life, by the immense happiness they bring me, that I feel myself losing them as they stand in front of me. I spent my last discussion class eating cookies, drinking almond milk, playing Super Mario World on my Super Nintendo emulator and listening to my TA explore the screen aesthetics of digital technologies, and I thought, 'Well, fuck. It really can't get better than this.' It's like I move on from these moments before they're over only to try to bring them back. I feel like every day is a battle between wanting to move on and wanting to hold on to this feeling forever.

This feeling is fleeting.
  1. Little Scream - Your Radio
  2. Typhoon - CPR - Claws Part 2
  3. Jared Mees & the Grown Children - Shake
  4. Saskatchewan - Dreamboat
  5. Wise Blood - Hannah Motown
  6. Sam Means - Yeah Yeah
  7. Mirah - Dancing in the Dark
  8. Silent Film Star - The Oceanographer
  9. MGMT - I Found a Whistle
  10. Sleeping Bag - Slime
  11. Smith Westerns - All Die Young

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Beach Fossils - Sometimes


Instead of writing a story, I'm going to tell you a joke by Robert Walser:

Monday 14 February 2011

Love Me, Leave Me

You always let go first.

The Way I Feel Inside - The Zombies
Starry Eyes - Veronica Falls
Won't Someone Tell Me (with Mirah) - Gigi
Unattainable - Little Joy
True Affection - The Blow
Boom Boom - The Granny Smiths
Your Father - The Radio Dept.
If It's the Beaches - The Avett Brothers
Missya - Toro y Moi
I'm So Depressed - Abner Jay
I Didn't Understand - Elliott Smith
Fade Into You - Mazzy Star
Love More - Sharon van Etten

Saturday 12 February 2011

Ominous Clouds - Broadcast


For a long time I enjoyed storms. The region we inhabited was prone to particularly violent, unclassifiable weather, which was never announced on the weather report. These ferocious, convulsive gales, lightning and oppressive humidity, these gleefully painted Victorian landscapes of hell, were called, in the weather reports, ‘rain showers.’ I soon began to associate storms with mendacious weathermen. I stopped imbuing them with any mystery or power and instead suddenly and urgently craved sunlight. At first I obsessed over the white, overexposed light of the desert, an inhospitable world I might not survive, which was better than suffocating in the controlled temperatures of my single-story home. Later I became fixated on the wet, choking heat to which I was more accustomed, whose harshness assaulted whoever drew breath as if it were a poisonous gas rather than fresh air. One night, as the ‘rain storms’ shook our house, I dreamt that every field and hill was moved out of its place and dislodged like a continent with each note of thunder; the town shifted into the woods, unplaceable as a false memory.

Monday 17 January 2011

Chad VanGaalen - Willow Tree


When I was in third grade, I had a project that involved me building a dinosaur using whatever materials I wanted. The morning it was due, I came to my dad crying with no dinosaur in hand. He took me to the fridge, grabbed a large and small potato, some baby carrot sticks, and built a t-rex with toothpicks. I thought it looked dumb, but I brought it to class anyway. I got a creative nod of approval from my teacher and shamelessly took credit for it. I also shot the girl with a papier-mâché dinosaur--one that still had its Made in China sticker--several dirty looks throughout the day. The dinosaurs were on display in the classroom all month, but my teacher had to gingerly ask if mine could be thrown away after the first week because the potatoes began to rot.

Monday 10 January 2011

Twin Sister - Phenomenons



It's the apocalypse? That's okay, we're just going to watch movies on tv with the windows open.

Sunday 9 January 2011

Y La Bamba - Juniper


I like the names used for the shades of a color. Take yellow for example. There's gold, lemon, mustard--the list goes on and on. I like that familiar nouns are used for the names; it makes for quick and easy association. Like jaundice? I know that exact shade of yellow.