Summer Playlist

Guess what lovely feature is being resurrected today! That's right- your favorite one!
SEASON PLAYLIST!
Drum roll please for summatime and music!
[Prepare yourself; since the creation of Spotify, it's gotten easier than ever before to find new music as well as find old music that I loved and forgot about. Hence, this summer's playlist is a doozy! One that I happen to be very proud of.]

1. Bad Girls: Asia Bryant
2. Back In Time: Pitbull
3. Bubblegum Bitch: Marina and the Diamonds
4. Synthetica: Metric
5. Scream: Michael Jackson
6. Movin Out': Billy Joel
7. Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music Really Be A Bad Person?: Kaki King
8. Where Have You Been: Rihanna
9. Shelter: Birdy
10. From Finner: Of Monsters and Men
11. Standing Outside A Southern Riot: River City Extension
12. Wild One: FloRida ft. Sia
13. Carry Out: Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake
14. Boyfriend: Justin Bieber
15. Hazy: Love Darling
16. Speak Up: Infantree
17. Club Music: Tatiana Owens
18. White Lies: Stacy Clark
19: Just Like You: Phantods
20. Little Talks: Of Monsters and Men
21. I Get Down: All Wrong and the Plans Change
22. No Moon: Iron & Wine
23. Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman: The White Stripes
24. Into Dust: Mazzy Star
25. F*** The Pain Away: Peaches
26. Boys Boys Boys: Lady Gaga
27. It's Raining Men: Weather Girls
28. Somebody That I Used To Know: Gotye ft. Kimbra*
29. I Think I Like You: Donora
30. I Am You: Kim Taylor
31. Calabria 2008: Enur
32. Rain Over Me: Pitbull
33. Prank Calls: Kelley Stoltz
34. Cheated Hearts: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
35. Victim: Win Win
36. The Way We Get By: Spoon
37. La Ritournelle: Sebastien Tellier
38. The Chemicals Between Us: Bush, Gavin Rossdale
39. Whipped: Erika Fatale
40. Feel So Close: Calvin Harris*
41. Settle Down: Kimbra
42. Birthday Sex: Jeremih
43. Chicago: Sufjan Stevens
44. Hella Good: No Doubt
45. The Greatest: Cat Power
46. Artificial Nocturne: Metric
47. Closer: Stacy Clark
48. Everybody Talks: Neon Trees
49. Young Folks: Peter Bjorn and John
50. Toes: LIGHTS
51. Paper Bag: Fiona Apple
52. (I've Just Begun) Having My Fun: Britney Spears
53. Lakehouse: Of Monsters and Men
54. Answering Bell: Ryan Adams
55. Neptune City: Nicole Atkins
56. One Moment Is All It Takes: The Ultrasonics
57. Good Girl: Dawn Jackson
58. Fibber: Infantree
59. Smooth Criminal: Michael Jackson
60. The Void: Metric
61. I Need A Dollar: Aloe Blacc
62. Never Close Our Eyes: Adam Lambert
63. Soon, My Friend: M83
64. Junkie Love: Nycole Valentina
65. Lost You There: Sub Rosa
66. Femme Fatale: Erika Fatale
67. Not The Same: Drew Davis
68. I U She: Peaches
69. Cockiness [Love It]: Rihanna
70. Hanging On: Ellie Goulding ft. Tinie Tempah

*Honorable Mention* Birthday Cake: Rihanna

*The stars are to indicate songs that are huge radio hits now, but are by bands that have been around for years. I just want you all to know that I've been listening to Calvin Harris for 4 years now and Gotye for 3, so I'm not a follower, I'm actually a super cool hipster or whatever, and yes, it's pathetic, but I needed you to know this.

December Playlist

Would you forgive me if I said-

This week has been insane, in some good ways but mostly bad ways, and I've barely had a chance to take a breath, so no I haven't edited the tattoo post yet, and I don't want to rail about all my personal crap on this blog, because let's face it, that's just uncomfortable.

But I made this dumb commitment where I said I'd do a post every week, which kind of ruined blogging for me, because I hate commitment. As soon as I commit to something, I stop wanting to do it. However, I'm trying, for once in my life, to stick with something. So I am going to post this week, even if it isn't about anything terribly significant at all.

You know what that means. December playlist time! Enjoy my dears.

(First, before you read on, go and buy these three albums and listen to them on repeat. Then you can listen to the rest of the playlist.
- Ceremonials: Florence + the Machine
- Metals: Feist
- Nine Types Of Light: TV on the Radio)


1. Lonely Boy: The Black Keys
2. Androgyny: Garbage
3. Sea of Love: Cat Power
4. Video Games: Lana Del Rey
5. Poison & Wine: The Civil Wars
6. Flashing Lights: Chase & Status
7. Life is Long When You're Lonely: Monastir
8. The King and All of His Men: Wolfgang
9. How Come You Never Go There: Feist
10. Nicest Thing: Kate Nash
11. Quicksand: La Roux
12. More Than Life: Whitley
13. Bite Hard: Franz Ferdinand
14. Get On: Dirtmitts
15. Colors: Grouplove
16. Falling Slowly: Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
17. What You Know: Two Door Cinema Club
18. Lisztomania: Phoenix
19. All I Ever Wanted: The Airborne Toxic Event
20. Let's Sick On The Decks: Grandadbob
21. F*** Was I: Jenny Owens Young
22. One Evening: Feist
23. Set Fire to the Third Bar: Snow Patrol
24. We Are Young: Fun ft. Janelle Monae
25. What Beats Within: Jenny Owens Young
26. Stealing Babies: Our Lady Peace
27. Dissolve: Jenny Owens Young
28. Clean Break: Jenny Owens Young

Simple Joys and Christmastime

Today I went to a second-hand clothing shop in Cambridge called The Garment District. I bought 11.6 pounds of clothing for $11.60. I bought three more shirts for around $9 bucks each (they were deemed too nice to go into the dollar-a-pound pile) and also, a hat. I love a good hat. And I love a good bargain. Some of the clothes are, well- understandably discarded by others. But I can make them into something cool, I think. I think almost anything can look cool. It's all about the confidence of the person wearing it.

It rained today: it should've snowed. But even without the snow, tomorrow is still Christmas Eve, and I'm glad. I've discovered something about being home that I never used to know. Since college is in New York and the only time I'm ever home is during school break, it's become a lot more enjoyable of a place. The only things I associate home with anymore are hanging out with people I love, sleeping late in my old bed, playing with my dog: just relaxing. It's really lovely. I like being home so much more now than I ever did in high school. I like it a lot.

I drank a lot of coffee today, far too much- I can't really have caffeine anymore since it does terrible things to my body, but I'm indulging because it's the holidays. Currently I'm in my favorite pajamas (my favorite pajamas always consist partially of worn, faded, over-sized t-shirts.) They're not sexy pajamas, my friend pointed out to me. She said she could picture me, married someday, writing, wearing my skirts all day and then getting home to my cold apartment and climbing in bed with my laptop and my oversized t-shirts and my glasses next to my husband...She can picture my whole life very well. Apartments and the city in the winter and simple joys, takeout meals and candlelight and cheap living all around. Book-reading and throw rugs and things that are broken and things that are recycled and creative and homemade and a lot of making do. I think it sounds like an okay picture.

I'm sitting in my bed, surrounded my my secondhand clothes, watching Bridget Jones' Diary, which is a fairly terrible movie, except I love Renee Zellweger and I love Hugh Grant and I love Colin Firth, and I love Jane Austen remakes too, even crappy ones. And anyway, BJD is one of those crappy movies that I love to indulge myself in once in a while. I'm watching it and eating homemade fudge: one of the perks of having a mother whose a 2nd grade teacher: at Christmastime she gets lots of presents from the kids, and one of those presents is always, inevitably, fudge.

I'm also listening, while I write this, to my winter playlist. Right now it consists of Feist's new album, "Metals", particularly the songs "Graveyard" and "How Come You Never Go There". It also consists of Greg Hansard and Marketa Irglova's song "Falling Slowly", The Civil Wars' song, "Poison and Wine", Lana Del Rey's song, "Video Games", Kate Nash's song, "Nicest Thing", Snow Patrol's song, "Set Fire to the Third Bar"...and well, a lot of other music I'm not going to list right now. But it's beautiful stuff, and it's perfect for the mood I'm in right now. (It's not all depressing, I only listed the sadder songs, because they're what I'm listening to now. They seemed fitting.)

I wrote a long post about tattoos and things, and I'm sorry I didn't post it last week like I said I would. It needs editing and such, but I'm off to watch the rest of the movie now, and eat more fudge, and enjoy my new clothes, and enjoy the rest of my evening. I'll post it in the near future, but until then, Merry Christmas to you all. Take baths while you're home, listen to "Metals", light candles, gaze at your Christmas tree, go into the city at night, try to ice skate if you get a chance, wear scarves and hats and mittens, see old friends, hold hands, sleep late, and drink coffee. Let your souls be brightened, because it is that time of year. I wish you all peace and happiness, if only for this holiday. Tis the season.

Meanwhile, if you're desperate for some good reading and this blog has once again let you down, maybe this will satisfy you till I get some better stuff posted up: http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/one-sentence-love-story/. I certainly enjoyed it.

Autumn Playlist

Autumn will soon be coming to a close, and, in the spirit of continuity, I thought I'd post an Autumn playlist.

Enjoy.

My Autumn Playlist:

1. Shame: PJ Harvey
2. Embrace: Chase & Status ft. White Lies

3. The Rockefeller Skank: Fatboy Slim

4. Summersun: Miami Horror

5. Another Case: Uh Huh Her

6. Godless Brother In Love: Iron & Wine

7. White Blank Page: Mumford & Sons

8. Body 21: Morningwood

9. Kiss Cam: Arkells

10. Where Eagles Have Been: Wolfmother

11. You Know You're Right: Nirvana

12. Day Old Hate: City & Colour

13. Barbra Streisand: Duck Sauce

14. Feel Good Inc.: Gorillaz

15. Fool: Cat Power

16. Back Stabbin' Betty: Cage the Elephant

17. Hurt: Johnny Cash

18. Fly Away: Lenny Kravitz

19. Adelaide: Old 97's

20. Body Work: Tegan & Sara (not the collaboration with Morgan Page, look up on Youtube their own version they did live over the summer)

21. Cupid's Trick: Elliott Smith

22. Broken Jaw: Foster the People

23. Space + Time: The Pierces

24. Heart of Stone: The Raveonettes

25. Forever: MEME

26. Destroy Me: Lilofee

27. Is This It: The Strokes

28. MMMNN: Grandadbob

29. Mongrel Heart: Broken Bells

30. Next Girl: The Black Keys

31. Only Girl: Ricky Eat Acid

32. Glad Man Singing: Iron & Wine

33. Heart's A Mess: Gotye

34. Judas: Cage the Elephant

35. A Million Miles An Hour: Eastern Conference Champions

36. The Only One: The Black Keys

37. Don't Stop (Color on the Walls): Foster the People

38. Sleep the Winter: eagleowl

39. His Love: Tegan Quin

40. Love Me Tender: Norah Jones

(This is just what I have been listening to this Autumn, or listening to the most rather. This is not my comprehensive, pervasive, all-time epic Autumn Playlist. Maybe someday I'll post that one. Probably not though.)

*Recent Honorable Mention: Cheers (Drink to That): Rihanna

Why Ayn Rand Was A Hipster

I am a music snob. Which is the nice way of saying I judge people (sometimes, I'm trying to get better) based on the music they listen to. It's also a nice way of saying that I have really high standards for the music I listen to. And nothing gets under my skin so much as when I discover some underground hidden gem of a band and then suddenly, a few weeks later, every little radio-feeder and her brother is jamming out to it in their car saying OMG OMG I love this song, it's just like sooo good.

That pisses me off.

That, to me, is like if you went down into a mine and you spent hours of your time just chipping away at the stone with your little pick. And you kept coming up with rock after rock after dusty, dirty rock. But then finally. Finally, you found a diamond. And you were so excited, you raced all the way back up into the daylight with your treasure, barely able to contain yourself, only to walk into the local jewlery store, the sweat and dirt of your labors still streaking your face, and find that they're just giving away diamonds. Just like yours. To every single person who walks in the door. Not cool.

Apparently, this makes me a hipster.

Which is cool. I mean, I honestly didn't even really fully understand what a hipster was until I came to college and all of a sudden all these people were telling me that that's what I was, just another hipster. Here I was my whole life thinking I was all original and individualistic, only to discover that there's actually a cliche for people who hate cliches. And that's all I am.

Awesome.

But in all seriousness, despite the fact that there seem to be many negative associations with hipsterism, I truly don't mind being categorized that way. Because it's kinda true. I kind of agree with a lot of what these hipster people seem to subscribe to. And they have cool style. And they listen to awesome music. They are fellow music snobs.

The funny thing is is that I didn't become hipster just to be hipster. I didn't even know what that was. I used to be the only other person I knew who thought this way, who went on these insane, annoying rants about creativity and individuality. So that's really just how I think, I'm not trying to subscribe to some trend or culture. Although it is kind of cool to finally feel like maybe there is a place I belong, even if it's a place that's really weird and the rest of the world seems to hate on.
Not that I'm labelling myself guys. Hipsters don't do that...

So anyway, I got to thinking about all this again yesterday, actually all due to the song "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. That has been one of my favorite songs for probably about a year now. I found out about Edward Sharpe from my friend and the first song I looked up was 40 Day Dream. And now I love them. Desert Song blows my mind every time I hear it. And Home is just lovely. It's just a lovely, happy song.

But it's also a song that, suddenly, mainstream culture seems to be aware of. People whose taste in music I don't respect, people who don't get a lot of exposure to different bands and who certainly don't go out and search for music themselves: these people know about Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

And I hate to admit it but it makes me crazy. I have a totally irrational reaction to that fact. I freak out. Like these people don't deserve to listen to Edward Sharpe, because they only know one song. and their medium of discovery was the radio.

So, let's evaluate. I found out about them through a friend's recommendation and then looked them up on Youtube. I don't have their whole album, and I have about three songs on my iPod. Does this mean I am more worthy of listening to and enjoying them?

No. When I think about it honestly, I don't think it does. In fact, I think all it makes me, is a hypocrite. There are plenty of bands I only own one song from; there are bands I own a handful of songs by but still claim them as a favorite on my facebook page. Is that any more authentic than the radio-feeders (my self-coined term) who just happened to catch a song on a popular radio station?

What is this selfish tendency inside myself to want to hide away my favorite things in life? This even extends beyond music. It still gets me worked up that it's "cool" to like The Office. If Parks and Recreation becomes trendy, I'm probably going to have a breakdown. Just today a friend and I were talking about Jane Austen and how the fact that I love her makes me just another cliche, girly, hormonal, chocolate-consuming English major. It makes me so mad, when other people love the things I love. When I discover something beautiful, real art, I want to keep it for myself and I don't want anyone else to be let in on the secret.

Remind you of someone? I know. When we read The Fountainhead in high school, it might not be a surprise that the character who resonated with me most was Dominique Francon.
And so it makes me wonder: Could Ayn Rand have been a hipster?

I'm not trying to make a literary analysis piece out of this. I don't intend to give you quotes from Rand's novels or support from her personal diaries to try and prove Ayn's identity as the original hipster. (Her clothes might pose a problem with the validity of that thesis...) I just think it's funny, when you think about it, to realize that this idea of superiority in orginality and creativity and all that snobbishness that accompanies that...it's nothing new.

Roark and Dominique did it first. And they probably did it better.

Listening

Son of Sam- Elliott Smith

Did you know that Elliot Smith is dead? He is. I did not know this until a few weeks ago when I happened upon Jon Foreman's blog or something and he wrote about going to an Elliott Smith concert where the power went out and Elliott came on stage with candles and played acoustic till the power came on and then he finished the night with a bang and a light show and it was beautiful. And then Jon Foreman talked about hearing of Elliott's death and the profound impact it had on him.

To be honest, I read that blog post and I thought, huh, the name Elliott Smith sounds awful familiar, and I checked my iTunes and there it was, a hidden gem of a song, Elliott Smith's "Son of Sam". I've always loved that song. It is the only song by Elliott Smith I have ever heard but it's one of the most lovely.

Elliott was depressed. He died at the age of 34, and, considering that at the time he was working on his 6th studio album and was world-renowned with a dedicated fan following, I'd say he did pretty well for himself. Success-wise anyway.

But when he died, who was there? His girlfriend? Who else? Anyone? Was he glad? Or surprised. You know like in action films when a character gets stabbed, they fall back almost instantly and die with an expression of shock still frozen on their faces.

I wonder why. Why people who make things so beautiful are always so sad. I hope that isn't a non-negotiable. Like how art and angst go hand in hand, you can't have one without the other. I hope you can be happy and still create things that will speak to people's souls.

It feels odd to be listening to Elliott Smith now, to hear his voice so close to me singing lyrics so, potent, and know that he is no longer alive. That this piece of him I hear is just a fragment left behind, something he couldn't even take with him. That the thing that made these sounds that croon me to sleep at night- that body is decomposing in the dirt somewhere.

Summer Playlist!

Thought I'd post up my summer playlist, simply because I'm bored and it's a nice distraction from school packing. This isn't an official playlist or anything, nor is it a complete one (that would be way too long!) But basically, here's a sampling of some of the lovely artists whose musical creations have been making their way to the coveted status of "repeat" on my iPod all summer.

Summer Playlist!

1. L-L-Love: Blondfire

2. Can't Get You Out of My Mind: Kylie Minogue

3. I'm a Mess: Mumurs

4. Helena Beat: Foster the People

5. My Delirium: Ladyhawke

6. Two Left Feet: Anya Marina

7. Midnight City: M83

8. I Won't Be Left: Tegan & Sara

9. Amazing Glow: Pernice Brothers

10. It's Alright Baby: Komeda

11. Angst in My Pants: Sparks

12. Take Me to the Riot: Stars

13. Kool Thing: Sonic Youth

14. Pumped Up Kicks: Foster the People

15. Sunrise: Yeasayer

16. We Are Stars: The Pierces

17. Love Burns: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

18. Lights: Ellie Goulding

19. Get Away: Yuck

20. One Week of Danger: The Virgins

21. Reflecting Light: Sam Phillips

22. Here, Here And Here: Meg & Dia

23. This Is Our Sound: Ladytron

24. Whether You Fall: Tracy Bonham

25. Blood Like Lemonade: Morcheeba

26. Where I Stood: Missy Higgins

27. On the Verge: Le Tigre

28. What is Love: Haddaway

29. Glory Box: Portishead

30. Walking on the Sun: Smash Mouth

31. Changing: The Airborne Toxic Event

32. Praise You: Fatboy Slim

33. Relax, Take It Easy: Mika

34. Blinding: Florence + the Machine

35. Mockingbirds: Grant Lee Buffalo

**Honorable Mentions- Pelican Rapids: Holly Miranda; Drifting Away: Tal & Acacia**