Love this video, especially the second part. The third part is freaky, but great.
9.20.2008
Bjork and Antony: Dull Flame of Desire
9.16.2008
which reminds me...
Tracy Chapman reminds me of Joan Armatrading. You guys know her? LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wish I could sing like that. But I'm a silly white girl with weak vocal chords.
Another good song from same taping, Show Some EMotion (I used to sing this with my pops!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yqgqd4nkoc
And she reminds me of...Nina Simone.
Watch this when you have 11 uninterrupted minutes, watch this. I had never really heard this song until I watched this. Her face, her talk, her piano playing - she goes Chopin all over that song - are inspiring. To me.
Songs that made me cry when I was 7
Nostalgia, people. It's a strange thing. For years I would think about this song as being one of the most meaningful songs of my childhood. My dad would watch MTV constantly in the 80s, and when this video came on, I was riveted. Hearing the song in the car, in the grocery store, watching the video, I would cry. Lots of tears, lots of staring out the window.
The song was a sort of hit, so it was off the radio and MTV within a year or so. I never knew the name of the song, nor did I know the band. Only the chorus stayed with me. Then, 11 years later, senior year in high school, I was reminiscing about favorite songs from childhood with a friend, and she new instantly the name of the song. Watching it now, it still made me cry BECAUSE I AM A LOSER. Okay, the song doesn't move me anymore, but my memory of my experience listening to the song is very strong.
Read on to see what it is. Be underwhelmed. Laugh at me. Then let's see if we can figure out why the song got to me.
Apologies, you have to go to the url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSyRFLlYnWI.
So, WTF? I have a few ideas about why it made me cry: the lovers across-time theme. I actually thought the refrain was, "I know you're out there somewhere/somewhere, out there/I know you're out there somewhere/somewhere in eternity out there." In reality, the refrain is: "...I know I'll find you somehow/and somehow I'll return again to you."
Now that I think about it, I know exactly why the Moody Blues' song made me cry. Just a year or two that song was released, I was sobbing like a fool in the movie theater because of this:
Oh. My god. Don Bluth was an evil monster. Mystery solved: sadness and fear about being separated from family becomes sadness and fear about being separated from loved one.
Here's another song that had me in tears every time I heard it in the car:
Fast Car also came out in 1988.
Hell hath no fury...
like a horny rabbit.
Last night Stuart got friendly with my neck roll (the little pillow I have to help reduce neck strain/pain). It was on the floor sticking out from under my bed. Stuart straddled it and was going full steam ahead. Crazy FULL STEAM AHEAD!
I was at a loss. I haven't seen him engage in such a lustful act, and this time it was so desperate. Painful. I tried to gently slide the neck roll out from under him, and he held on with his front paws. So I pulled hard. I tossed it on the bed, and Stuart gave chase. I sat in my chair, pulled my feet up. He stood on his hind legs and peaked into my hands. He thought I still had it. He ran around the room for a bit before settling in Cottontail Cottage. Phew.
9.06.2008
Colostomy bags and photos of Europe
You guys, I went to see Lillie today (yes, that's her real name, I think it's fine to use it), and she had a colostomy! I haven't been to visit her in several weeks, maybe a whole month - August sorta kicked my ass - and so I finally went to see her today. She didn't recognize me, which I expected, but she was very agitated. She's always been such a sweet, happy person, always laughing. This was not normal.
I asked her how she was, she showed me her hand (which she fell on last November and hurt pretty bad - I guess it still gets achey), her stomach (right by her belly button she's got a little pouch of fat - she's gained weight since she's been there), her leg (also hurt in the fall), and touched her forehead and said "high blood pressure." This is all normal, but usually she laughs about it and forgets and we talk. This time she wouldn't let up. She talked about how she wasn't supposed to be there, she's 80, she should be somewhere with old people. They don't give her medication, they don't take her to the doctor when she's sick, they just give her a pill, she can't sleep because they're too loud, etc, etc. She was very distressed.
This was shocking to me. There was a wheelchair at the foot of the bed that I sat on while she talked to me. After about 10 minutes of this, I reassured her that I would be talking to someone about her situation. Then I pulled out my pictures from Europe and went through them and talked to her about it. She laughed quite a bit, smiling, made a few comments (she really liked the picture from Cinque Terre with P and the cat). Then I said goodbye. I just emailed her care manager, and I should be meeting with the both of them next week.
As I was walking out, her roommate asked if she could see the pictures. Her sister just went on a vacation to Greece, so she was interested to see those. She is a woman in her 40s (I think) who is bedridden. She doesn't seem to get confused, she can carry on a conversation, but she does a lot of exclaiming. "Oh, that's so beautiful!" "Oh my gosh!" She has a very soft southern accent, and I can imagine that if her situation wasn't as it was, she would be somewhat of a southern belle. She seems to be quite a flirt, wears her heart on her sleeve. In fact, she was really taken with the pictures of A! A new question for every picture of him. She asked me if that was my husband, I said no he was my boyfriend; she asked me if we were still together, I said no we broke up in March; she asked if there was any hope of getting back together, I said no, I was the one who ended it. The picture of him standing against the railing over a canal in Amsterdam (which is one of the better pictures I took), she said, "Oh, there he is again!" And the picture of him on the train to the airport, WITH A MULLET, the light streaming in behind him in a very angelic way (another good picture), she said, "Oh Laura, he's gorgeous!" HA HA!
So that was my morning.
9.04.2008
I went swimming this morning...
after so many months of not going. It was very nice, I split a lane with a really slow girl.
9.03.2008
...teleport the whole planet here through music.
I just requested this at the library. Can't wait to watch it! Afrofuturism! Crazy jazz! Science fiction! *LOVE*
8.29.2008
8.28.2008
8.14.2008
Confessional
More sharing! Chime in!
Sometimes when I'm in the bathtub I say to myself, "Laura, don't pee in the bathtub. You can wait until you get out." The water is so warm, I feel so relaxed, I'm always drinking water or green tea, so I always gots ta go. I know my pee won't hurt me, urine is pretty benign, but what bothers me is it just seems kinda lazy. "You can hold it."
Got that itch - no, not down there, in my brain
P sent me this wonderful article on the neurological basis of itching and other sensations like phantoms limbs:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all
Please read it, then let's discuss! Continue to read my thoughts (ha ha, that sounds funny)...
Thoughts on itching article:
-I can feel pain sometimes by thinking about it, but only certain thoughts. Not stubbing my toe or bumping into something, but thinking about paper cuts or sharp things under my nails and slicing of the skin makes me feel it - I will often have a tingle reaction in the tip of my tongue and in my teeth!
-"Richard Gregory, a prominent British neuropsychologist, estimates that visual perception is more than ninety per cent memory and less than ten per cent sensory nerve signals." Amazing! Love it.
-"Children have used phantom fingers to count and solve arithmetic problems." Amazing!
-I was under the impression the phantom limb experiences only happened to people who had lost a limb, not to people who had never experienced the limb in the first place. Mirroring?
-I love proprioception! This is your sense that tells you where you are in space as you move or remain still. This is what gets all screwy when you get drunk and you have a hard time touching your finger to your nose. It is second only to balance as one of my favorite senses. I mostly like balance because when it gets f'ed up, your world is turned upside down and you are rendered almost helpless, it is so essential and so taken for granted. And also because we have rocks in our ears. Close your eyes or cover your ears. Now stand up and walk around. Sure, you might bump into something, but you can still walk around. Now spin around twenty times, get plenty dizzy, and try walking around - very difficult. Spin around and try to look at something, try to focus on a noise, even talking can be difficult - you are probably shouting! The vertiginous attacks of a disease like Meniere's is debilitating whereas blindness and deafness are not (not that I would want either).
-I love the plasticity of the brain. It is so beautiful, provides so much hope. The study involving phantom limbs and mirrors and retraining the phantom limb over a few months is inspiring, much like the stories of rehabilitating seemingly-paralyzed stroke victims. Love it!
BTW, I guess I should mention that for a few months now I've been thinking about a multi-part blog posting on Sound and Balance. I love sound and balance; I love that the ear houses both; I love that they are so intricately tied. There were two things I wanted to study in physical anthro grad school: evolution of intelligence and creativity (so the biological basis for both and possible fossil/ancient-dna evidence and primate neurological and hormone and behavior study/testing) and the evolution of the inner and middle ear in primates and euprimates. People: we wouldn't be able to walk upright if we didn't have the types of semi-circular canals we do! (and pelvis shape and knee joints, et cet-air-ah)....So, maybe in a few months you'll get to read my musings on Sound and Balance, including a post on secret government attempts to control us with sound waves!
Thoughts?
My dad says the water polo team have the best bodies for male athletes at the Olympics. My mom thinks they look swollen. I don't know, my TV doesn't work. Thoughts?
Technology Vortex Dissipating...
Crap! My A/C broke, I lost my iPod, my TV broke just before the opening ceremonies were starting, my computer has been running slow and having a few issues, and the internet connection I piggy-back on disappeared a few days ago!
~~~~~~I have been in a technology vortex~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BUt I think it is dissipating. My A/C was of course fixed week before last, still haven't found the iPod, 'puter still heading to a crash, BUt my TV is working intermittently and that generous/lazy/uninformed person with the open internet connection has returned! Maybe they're stealing my info? Well, if so, they haven't done much damage since March, so we're good for now.
Maybe I'll find my iPod??????????????????????????????????????????????????/
8.08.2008
Thank Jah for Ex-Boyfriends
Ludacris - Obama is Here
Great song and great video, in my opin
We Are the World in Japan
Celebrity impersonators! This may be the best video on YouTube period.
Which one is your favorite? I think my favorite is the Bruce Springsteen, but I love the roar from the crowd when the Cyndi Lauper comes on. When did they do this?
8.07.2008
To Do List before I can start dating
1. Buy new underwear
2. Have alien baby removed from uterus
3. Replace shower curtain liner
I guess I could also use a new bra, too. Dammit! Why does dating have to be so expensive? At least insurance will pay for task #2.
8.06.2008
Holy Crap!
Big Boi loves Kate Bush. Me too!
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/142781-big-boi-welcomes-us-to-the-world-of-luscious-left-foot
I also like his detailing the creative process.
Cry me a river - I lost my iPod! (And a question for you, my friends)
True, it is only a shuffle (the old version - the shape of a lighter); true, it is most likely somewhere in my apartment; true, my radio and cassette player work in my car and I have iTunes at work.
But I need me my Kool Keith on my morning commute! In the last several
weeks, I have been listening almost exclusively to his soothing voice and eloquent raps about robots, secretaries, the feds, spacemen, hot wings, and gynecological matters. I have no way of getting him onto a cassette. After I type this, I am going to put Black Elvis-Lost in Space and Octagonecologist on CDs. And Matthew.
So here's my question:
What is the most recent album/artist/composer/song/genre of music that you have discovered? That you love and can/couldn't stop listening too? How did you find it? What do you love about it?
I will post my answer later in the comments section.
Thanks!
PS At work I listen to Fine Girls twenty times in a row and daydream he's singing to me.
8.04.2008
Tour of my apartment
Hello Voyeurs: you want to see what it looks like inside my apartment? THis is when it was really messy a few weeks ago - it's cleaner now, but I don't want to take more pictures.
THis is my kitchen. I have an apron from Gourmet magazine.
My bathrrom:
You can see part of my TV. And all of my laptop!
Ikea bookshelf with lots of stuff - including *Donnie* - and look! another computer. I must be rich.
that's my bed. ah-cha-cha! and my old A/C unit. so many memories!
There's the front door. That's where you would walk in if you came over. All the quilts on the wall: it's like the American Folk Art Museum in here!
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