playlist 6/30/09

brian jonestown massacre - anenome
the ponys - double vision
funkadelic - music for my mother
soulsavers - revival
les nubians - el son reggae
the roots - how i got over / baby / long time / what they do
santigold - lights out
tv on the radio - dlz
flunk - blue monday
rchp - my friends
portishead - glory box
lamb - stronger
twilight singers - when doves cry
martina topley bird - testimony
rokia traore - kaman neni
bat for lashes - tahiti
bjork - immature
telescopes - space ship
cat power - cross bones style
ride - driving blind
swervedriver - never lose that feeling


current song obsession even if I think that Anton is ridiculously full of himself.

defining normal

Friday night, I got home and was so tired I crashed. I'm still sore from the accident but the pain is finally starting to leave me. It still hurts when I laugh really hard. I still get nervous when I'm driving. My time is up on the rental car so I'll be utilizing my bus pass and I got a fill-in for my show tomorrow.

My roommate came back, and we went up to Edgewater to walk along the beach and watch the sunset from the pier. This has become our ritual when we need to chill and there's nothing better for that than water, waves, and the best people-watching ever.

There's been a lot in the way of parties and showers and people getting married and it's only getting to be moreso. It's hard to be single during wedding season, when the weather's gorgeous and all these girls younger than you are flashing their diamond rings and talking about interior decorating and wedding colors and cake flavors. When you get snubbed with some weddings and wonder if you can get out of going to others. I was always bored with the idea of planning an event that may or may not happen, and often speculated more on what happens when you get old and hoping that you're not bored with whoever you tied your life to.

I don't mind being single 95% of the time because I've got a great crew of people to hang out with and there's so much good stuff going on right now. I'm grateful that there's no pressure and that I can take this time to really do something wholeheartedly because I don't have many other obligations. I can pour myself into the lives of the kids and the families I work with, hang out with a lot of different people without worrying about making a boyfriend jealous, work on my music and my art, immerse myself in other languages and cultures.

And I visited a friend of mine this weekend who called me from the mental ward at Lutheran. I've never been to a place like that and we sat there and played board games and tried to act as normal as possible. I wonder what everyone's story is as they shuffle by and ask me and the roommate questions and talk about their kids and their goals and what they used to be when they weren't in there and you wonder how much of it is true and what everyone's stories are. And how true anyone's stories are in general.

hyped

Very much looking forward to seeing these guys on Tuesday night.



What started out as me wanting to go whether no one went or now has turned into a crew of 9 people meeting up and hanging out there together and who knows who else. I have missed the Roots every single time they came through, and now I'm finally getting the chance. I don't go to shows as much as I used to so I'm really looking forward to this one.

playlist 6/23/09

Seriously, people, do I seem like an N.W.A. fan? Look at the rest of this playlist and explain to me why I get more requests for early west coast gangsta rap than anything else.

sonic youth - unmade bed
folk implosion - no need to worry
kasabian - lsf
twilight singers - love / annie mae
alice russell - let us be loving
j dilla - time
curtis mayfield - give me your love (live)
marcia griffiths - band of gold
eric b & rakim - microphone fiend
black star - respiration (pete rock remix)
the roots - good music
angelique kidjo - voodoo child
soul coughing - idiot kings
fela tribute (red hot & riot) - water get no enemy / gentlemen
(featuring femi kuti, positive force, d'angelo, me'shell ndegeocello, yerba buena)
bajofondo with julieta venegas - pa bailar siempre quiere nos
amadou & mariam - m'bife / coulibaly
ollabelle - see line woman
ramata diakite - sonte samarala
pharaoh's daughter - enpesare
robert plant & alison krauss - gone gone gone
martina topley-bird - sweet and dandy
sleater-kinney - 02
heatmiser - low flying jets
kristin hersh - your ghost
jawbox - i've got you under my skin

accident waiting to happen.

Got in a car accident yesterday, rear-ended someone, totally my fault, no one was hurt, but I feel so bad. And the front end of my car is all smashed up. Thankful that no one has any serious injuries, thankful for good friends and my sister who stuck with me, and for Mukhtar giving me a ride home even though it's completely out of his way and he and his girl were supposed to go see a movie. And he made me laugh which I needed so badly.

life goes on I guess, right?

Salman Rushdie, I love you.

..."there are bands that are hit machines, bands that earn the respect of the music crowd, bands that fill stadiums, bands that drip sex; transcendent bands and ephemeral, boy bands and girl bands, gimmick bands and inept bands, beach and driving bands, summer and winter bands, bands to make love by and bands that make you memorize the words to every song they play.

most bands are awful and if there are aliens from other galaxies monitoring our radio and tv waves, they're probably being driven crazy by the din. and in the whole half-century-long history of rock music there is a small number of bands, a number so small you can count to it without running out of fingers, who steal into your heart and become a part of how you see the world, how you tell and understand the truth, even when you're old and deaf and foolish...

... and it was the voice that did it, it's always the voice; the beat catches your attention and the melody makes you remember but it's the voice against which you're defenseless, the unholy cantor, the profane muezzin, the siren call that knows its way directly to the rhythm center, the soul. never mind what kind of music. never mind what kind of voice. when you hear it, the real thing, you're done for, trust me on this..."

-From "The Ground Beneath Her Feet"

playlist 6/16/09

queens of the stone age - in the fade
afghan whigs - come see about me
oumou sangare - djorolen
90 day men - we blame chicago
morcheeba - never an easy way
burial - etched headplate
mos def w/ slick rick - auditorium
ramata diakite - na
massive attack - safe from harm
les nubians - brothers and sisters
twilight singers - when doves cry
malatu astatqe - asmarina
chambers brothers - love peace and happiness
amadou & mariam - fete au village
hadag nahash - kamti
letters to cleo - here and now
the editors - orange crush
blonde redhead - equus
nightmares on wax - 195 lbs
sidestepper - san juan
kumba sira koita - aye to
bob marley - could you be loved
tinariwen - aldhechen manu
martina topley-bird - carnies
fela kuti - upside-down

best of the blotter 4... crazy people.

COMPLAINT, LAKE AVENUE: Police received reports of a man and a woman giving people tattoos at Lakewood Park at 4:31 p.m. Saturday. The couple were actually drawing on each other with pens.

DISTURBANCE, DETROIT AVENUE: A man threatened a Burger King employee because his sandwich was made wrong at 8:12 p.m. June 3.

DRUG OFFENSE, TRAIN AVENUE: Police seized a bag filled with marijuana and marijuana growing accessories when they searched the vehicle of a suspected drug dealer on June 5. The suspect, a 48-year-old woman, was arrested for violating state drug laws. Among the items confiscated, police found a notebook that was being used as a drug ledger, a digital scale, plastic bags, several marijuana cigarettes and a suspected marijuana seeds. Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence found was a grocery list written out by the suspect that included "weed" as one of the items.

PROPERTY FOUND, WEST 117TH STREET: A car worth $54.50 was found on June 1.

SOLICITING: Police looked into two solicitation complaints in the last few days. One involved an Abbey Road resident who said a solicitor rang her door bell and told her it that "Today was bug your neighbor day."

The second involved a man soliciting on Friar Post for a trip to England.

THEFT: A banner promoting an event at the fairgrounds was reported missing from a building on the grounds June 3. The sign, valued at $200, had a photo of singing star Hannah Montana. The person reporting the incident suspects a group of kids are behind the theft.

MENACING, LIBBY: A 30-year-old woman was charged with aggravated menacing for threatening to use "an army and guns" to shoot a neighboring woman May 12 in the 19400 block.

GARFIELD HEIGHTS

CRIMINAL DAMAGE: Things got medieval on May 21 when a man was attacked by another man with a sword.

The woman that called lives with her ex-boyfriend. She was talking to another man when her ex came outside and attempted to assault him. When another friend tried to break it up and pushed the ex, a small ax fell to the ground.

The ex then went back into the apartment and returned with a large sword and tried to strike the man with it. They ran away.

The friends on the scene said he never swung the sword at them but did strike one of their cars with it. The man said he didn't want any further police action. The one who owned the car signed a complaint for criminal damage and having a weapon in a public place.

The police found three samurai swords, two long swords and an axe sheath.

moments and grace

So this weekend, I drove down to Kent to hang with Scott and Beth and their amazing kids, went to the Natural History Museum and up to Coventry with some friends, geeked out of old antique store photos because I love imagining people's stories through snapshots and vintage prom pictures, worked on a painting, chilled at Edgewater, jammed on some roots reggae with a couple friends, and came home to promptly crash and go back to my normal existence.

I can never say that I am ever bored.

darn kids and other fun from the blotter

COMPLAINT, CLIFTON PRADO: A resident witnessed some children giving each other rides in the new garbage cans delivered by the city at 8:30 p.m. May 12. The kids put the garbage cans back for the night.

MISCHIEF: Kids were throwing tennis balls into the street on Waterford Parkway aturday afternoon. One ball hit a vehicle, but did no damage.

SHOPLIFTING, WEST 150TH STREET: A Kentucky Avenue man faces petty theft charges after workers at a BP gas station caught him April 29 stealing 54 packs of Hubba Bubba bubble gum valued at $54.

THEFT, LAWN AVENUE: A resident told police May 10 that somebody stole two rabbits from his residence. The animals, valued at $40 are described as brown bunny and a white bunny.

COMPLAINT, DETROIT AVENUE: A caller reported seeing several large girls sitting on planters in an Adopt-A-Spot area at 7:04 p.m. April 27. The caller told police that she was concerned that the planters would break.

DISTURBANCE, COOK AVENUE: A caller told police that a group of kids was running around with sticks on fire at 10:29 p.m. Friday. The group was roasting hot dogs on sticks in their back yard.

ANIMAL COMPLAINT: Residents on Shagbark Trail at Little Brook called police last Thursday afternoon about a deer attacking people as they walked by.

books books and more books

Randal tagged me. So here it is.



1. Name a few of your favorite books.

Anything Jane Austen, Salman Rushdie's "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," "The Conjure-Man Dies" by Rudolph Fisher, "Ah but Your Land is Beautiful" by Alan Paton, Calvino's "Numbers in the Dark," Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere," Zadie Smith's "White Teeth," Calvin and Hobbes, Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey novels, James Baldwin, T.S. Eliot, Walker Percy's "The Moviegoer," "A Confederacy of Dunces," mostly everything by C.S. Lewis., Nikolai Gogol's "Dead Souls."

2. Is there an author that you don't like, yet so many people seem to love?

I can't stand Charles Bukowski, especially in the hands of sensitive new age English major types who claim that he really isn't as misogynistic as he writes. Anthony Kiedis references him on this song and we all know how much he values women.



3. Name a book to film adaptation that you really like. Name one you think was done poorly.

I love the 5-hour-long BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice." It might be my all-time favorite movie. The Keira Knightley version, on the other hand, made me splutter with outrage and throw things at the tv.

4. Where do you buy your books?

The Lakewood Library book sale is my favorite, but I also love Half Price Books, Last Exit Books in Kent (the best college town bookstore ever), I tend to browse at Borders and order interesting ones through the library.

5. What genre do you read the most?

I read whatever looks interesting at the time. Since I feel like I'm close to exhausting much of the dead white males, I'm currently working through the Harlem Renaissance, Peter Uvin's "Life After Violence: a People's History of Burundi," and I love reading the writings of the early church (Augustine, Ignatius of Antioch, some of the medieval mystics) because it's much more immediate to me than the feel good drivel at your local bookstore. I love folklore, travel writing and nonfiction about places that I've never been to but hopefully will see someday.

Uh yeah, I read too much.

6. What genre do you dislike?

Political books that will be dated in 6 months and spend a lot of time saying nasty things about other people (Ann Coulter, Michael Savage/Moore, Al Franken, ya hear me?). Seriously, what a waste of paper. I don't read Harlequin romances either but anyone who reads this or knows me already knew that.

That's about it.

7. Is there a book that has changed your life?

I thought that "Our Band could be Your Life" was going to change my life when I was 17 and wanted to spend the money I saved up for college to start a record label like K or Dischord. I had all these plans of underground punk glory but...

Honestly, the Bible continues to do that for me on a daily basis.

Alan Paton's writing has also had a profound effect on me.

8. Have you ever met an author? What author would you like to meet?

I've never met a famous author to my knowledge but I did hear Henry Rollins (hilarious) and Kurt Vonnegut (disappointing) speak. Like Randal, I am hoping to see Neil Gaiman this October.

mi familia

I took off a little early from work to get my plates for the Toyota and have the Sexy Saturn towed away to the happy hunting ground that is the A&C junkyard. I felt a little twinge of sadness seeing it go because it really was my first car, and it reminds me of how my world has opened so much in the past two years when I got my license and finally was able to quit my part-time Hell Job in Sticksville and be somewhere pretty awesome.

But then I remembered that I now have a CD player with a better stereo system and ended up finally picking up copies of Massive Attack's "Mezzanine" and Morcheeba's 'Who Can You Trust?' at the Record Exchange in Parma because I've been on this trip-hop kick and I've listened to those albums since high school and it's about time I actually owned them.





I got to hang out with my dad too, which I love because I don't see him as much as I'd like to since he works on Saturdays when I usually stop by my parents' house.
It's uncanny how much of him I see in me with our interests and personality and unpartisan political views and the same way of looking at people.

When people meet my dad, they always say "oh it all makes so much sense now why you're the way you are."

playlist 6/2/09

my morning jacket - it beats 4 u
radiohead - there there
cafe tacuba - tengo todo
tv on the radio - DLZ
the roots - break you off / what they do
k'naan - fire in freetown
love - alone again or / a house is not a motel
janelle monae - sincerely jane
portishead - sour times
lamb - one
twilight singers - live with me (massive attack cover)
U2 - exit
sleater-kinney - steep air
john frusciante - this cold
jeff buckley - dream brother
pharaoh's daughter - ka ribon
me'shell ndegeocello - thankful
cibelle - so sei viver no samba
boubacar traore - samba
kasabian - butcher blues
erykah badu - that hump
d'angelo - the root
alice russell - 7 nation army