the verve - life's an ocean
k'naan - fire in freetown
amadou & mariam - je te kiffe
manu chao - primavera / me gustas tu
goodie mob - free
me'shell ndegeocello - andromeda & the milky way
digable planets - black ego
NASA w/ RZA & john frusciante - way down
U2 - until the end of the world
massive attack - man next door
gokh-bi system - kaesal (senegal)
ollabelle - see line woman
morcheeba - on the rhodes again
alice russell - someday
jane's addiction - summertime rolls
pigeonhed - marry me
the dirtbombs - trainwreck / they hate us in scandinavia (request)
the bellrays - black is the color / stone rain
jawbox - apollo amateur
afghan whigs - beware
john frusciante - second walk
jeff buckley - mojo pin
love - a house is not a motel
amadou & mariam - welcome to mali / batoma
the constantines - hotline operator
dengue fever - tip my canoe
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
trust fund slum
I was laughing this morning when I saw the link to this article
I lived on that street for a year because I had friends looking for roommates and it was a short walk from campus and downtown.
It was more or less a slum for rich white kids who wanted to have their own "Animal House" with old homes that were literally falling apart and yards that were littered with old kegs and red plastic cups. There was broken glass everywhere and blackened pieces of old couches that had been burned in the middle of the street. I get really mad when I hear people in suburban Cleveland talking about any group of "other" people bringing down the neighborhood, because their own kids would do a damn good job of it.
The city council called it a "blighted neighborhood" for good reason. And Peter Frampton's daughter lived a couple houses down from me. I was living there when the first College Fest went down, and while there were no riots with tear gas and pepper spray, it looked almost exactly like this. Really, it looked like this pretty much all the time.
We didn't have keys to the front door, just deadbolts for our rooms and it wasn't uncommon to come home and find a drunk high school kid standing in your living room wondering where the party's at and trying to tell you that he's 23 or someone you've never seen before passed out on the couch. The girls upstairs used to throw water balloons off the roof at people walking home from the bars. One time three strippers showed up at my door looking for Jimmy and I sent them elsewhere.
The year after I moved to more quiet and less expensive environs, kids from Akron used to come up and rob and pistol-whip people walking home from the bars because the combination of stupidity, alcohol, and money was just too easy of a target.
I got to hang out with my old roommate this weekend, and it says a lot about dorm life that living here was better, but also that we wondered how we ended up there, and how we thought that life was actually normal.
I lived on that street for a year because I had friends looking for roommates and it was a short walk from campus and downtown.
It was more or less a slum for rich white kids who wanted to have their own "Animal House" with old homes that were literally falling apart and yards that were littered with old kegs and red plastic cups. There was broken glass everywhere and blackened pieces of old couches that had been burned in the middle of the street. I get really mad when I hear people in suburban Cleveland talking about any group of "other" people bringing down the neighborhood, because their own kids would do a damn good job of it.
The city council called it a "blighted neighborhood" for good reason. And Peter Frampton's daughter lived a couple houses down from me. I was living there when the first College Fest went down, and while there were no riots with tear gas and pepper spray, it looked almost exactly like this. Really, it looked like this pretty much all the time.
We didn't have keys to the front door, just deadbolts for our rooms and it wasn't uncommon to come home and find a drunk high school kid standing in your living room wondering where the party's at and trying to tell you that he's 23 or someone you've never seen before passed out on the couch. The girls upstairs used to throw water balloons off the roof at people walking home from the bars. One time three strippers showed up at my door looking for Jimmy and I sent them elsewhere.
The year after I moved to more quiet and less expensive environs, kids from Akron used to come up and rob and pistol-whip people walking home from the bars because the combination of stupidity, alcohol, and money was just too easy of a target.
I got to hang out with my old roommate this weekend, and it says a lot about dorm life that living here was better, but also that we wondered how we ended up there, and how we thought that life was actually normal.
Friday, April 24, 2009
sun and cars
So after all the fun of this weekend, I haven't done too much really, and found myself dead tired on Wednesday night after a lack of sleep due to hanging out and watching Tanzanian music videos with the older brothers of the kids I tutor, and then them coming for guitar-playing and leftover pizza the next evening.
Back in my punkish college days, I used to think that when you get older and get a REAL JOB that your life gets routine and mundane, and that you never do anything. If anything, I'm much more freed up now than I was before, and I'm thankful that I live in an area where friends and places are within walking distance or on the bus line so that people feel cool with calling me up if they're in the area.
I have new neighbors downstairs and while it feels weird to have people my age in close proximity to me again, they seem like good people, and they're friendly. One of the things that I liked about the previous tenants is that there were always people chilling on the front porch and I'm glad the new people have continued that.
My car is evidently going to be implode in the near future, so I'll have to start looking for a new one. I feel at a disadvantage here, knowing nothing about the inner workings and being female. I wish I could be like Maggie in Love and Rockets and be awesome but she's not a real person and I am.
I'm going to be sad to lose the Sexy Saturn, as it's taken me on many adventures through the forgotten parts of Cleveland and carried all manner of people and things, but I'm not feeling like getting my engine rebuilt at this point, and I just want something that won't break down and that won't use too much gas.
I'll be meeting up with one of my lovely coworkers and my former roommate/very very good friend (and significant other) for a poetry talk tonight at CSU. I'm not sure quite what to expect, but at the very least it'll be good to hang with some of my favorite people.
As I explained to someone today, "I don't make plans, they just happen to me." I'm sure that will be in full force as the days get longer and the weather gets warmer.
Back in my punkish college days, I used to think that when you get older and get a REAL JOB that your life gets routine and mundane, and that you never do anything. If anything, I'm much more freed up now than I was before, and I'm thankful that I live in an area where friends and places are within walking distance or on the bus line so that people feel cool with calling me up if they're in the area.
I have new neighbors downstairs and while it feels weird to have people my age in close proximity to me again, they seem like good people, and they're friendly. One of the things that I liked about the previous tenants is that there were always people chilling on the front porch and I'm glad the new people have continued that.
My car is evidently going to be implode in the near future, so I'll have to start looking for a new one. I feel at a disadvantage here, knowing nothing about the inner workings and being female. I wish I could be like Maggie in Love and Rockets and be awesome but she's not a real person and I am.
I'm going to be sad to lose the Sexy Saturn, as it's taken me on many adventures through the forgotten parts of Cleveland and carried all manner of people and things, but I'm not feeling like getting my engine rebuilt at this point, and I just want something that won't break down and that won't use too much gas.
I'll be meeting up with one of my lovely coworkers and my former roommate/very very good friend (and significant other) for a poetry talk tonight at CSU. I'm not sure quite what to expect, but at the very least it'll be good to hang with some of my favorite people.
As I explained to someone today, "I don't make plans, they just happen to me." I'm sure that will be in full force as the days get longer and the weather gets warmer.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
playlist 4/21/09
radiohead - there there
twilight singers - there's been an accident
ride - driving blind
peter chemist vs the scientist - work to do dub
jamie woon - wayfaring stranger (burial remix)
metric - help, i'm alive
amadou & mariam - djuru
morcheeba - the sea
manu chao - por el suelo
wyclef jean - 24 e tan pou viv
sierra leone refugee allstars - seconds
nina simone - nobody's fault but mine
extra golden - jakolando
habib koite - cigarette a bana
kadda cherif hadria - djezair
cafe tacuba - eres
bole2harlem - bole 2 harlem
manu chao - mentira
viva voce - let's bend light
toubab krewe - bamana niya
rokia traore - koronoko
amadou & mariam - m'bife
twilight singers - there's been an accident
ride - driving blind
peter chemist vs the scientist - work to do dub
jamie woon - wayfaring stranger (burial remix)
metric - help, i'm alive
amadou & mariam - djuru
morcheeba - the sea
manu chao - por el suelo
wyclef jean - 24 e tan pou viv
sierra leone refugee allstars - seconds
nina simone - nobody's fault but mine
extra golden - jakolando
habib koite - cigarette a bana
kadda cherif hadria - djezair
cafe tacuba - eres
bole2harlem - bole 2 harlem
manu chao - mentira
viva voce - let's bend light
toubab krewe - bamana niya
rokia traore - koronoko
amadou & mariam - m'bife
Monday, April 20, 2009
continuations
So me and the roommate had a houseguest this weekend. My friend's daughter evidently thinks we're really cool so she hung out with us to do "girl things" on her spring break, which involved me taking her to the mall, eating ice cream, talking about boys, attempting to go and see the supposedly legendary karaoke night at Bo Loong (nothing going on there at all), and going on the swings at Lakewood Park on a gorgeous Saturday morning.
Then we went to the West Side Market and to volunteer with the kids. Vanessa had a book about this girl from Kenya that talked about fruit, so we bought bananas and oranges and read the story. The girls loved it and told me what all the names for the animals and fruits were in their language and said that the pictures reminded them of home. Then we went outside and played soccer and basketball and enjoyed the sun before I take a few carloads home. I get some interesting looks from other drivers as the kids are singing along to T.I. or telling me that this song by the Roots is good, and the older kids want pictures posing next to my car even though it's not remotely close to sweet ride material.
So I'm sitting out in the front yard with babies crawling all over me, helping her with my math homework while the kids are taking pictures of each other with my camera and the rest of us are talking and hanging out just enjoying being outside.
Then we went to see her uncle's band play and as before, they're fun to watch and I get those shivers you get when you hear a song that really hits you. And a good set of choice covers just sweetened it more.
I hung out at Swahili church Sunday afternoon, and I'm to the point where I can pick up some of the words or at least know what's going on, and I'm taking a class in it this fall, because I know I'm not going to pick it up as well if I don't have some structure.
Then we went to the West Side Market and to volunteer with the kids. Vanessa had a book about this girl from Kenya that talked about fruit, so we bought bananas and oranges and read the story. The girls loved it and told me what all the names for the animals and fruits were in their language and said that the pictures reminded them of home. Then we went outside and played soccer and basketball and enjoyed the sun before I take a few carloads home. I get some interesting looks from other drivers as the kids are singing along to T.I. or telling me that this song by the Roots is good, and the older kids want pictures posing next to my car even though it's not remotely close to sweet ride material.
So I'm sitting out in the front yard with babies crawling all over me, helping her with my math homework while the kids are taking pictures of each other with my camera and the rest of us are talking and hanging out just enjoying being outside.
Then we went to see her uncle's band play and as before, they're fun to watch and I get those shivers you get when you hear a song that really hits you. And a good set of choice covers just sweetened it more.
I hung out at Swahili church Sunday afternoon, and I'm to the point where I can pick up some of the words or at least know what's going on, and I'm taking a class in it this fall, because I know I'm not going to pick it up as well if I don't have some structure.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
funereal
If you're Catholic, you can't get buried during Holy Week, we had the funeral yesterday and the wake the night before. I'm more morbid than some, but I can't stand funeral homes. I thought it'd be hard to see her in a casket but it looked so much unlike her, it didn't even seem real. I didn't tell too many people initially because I hate going to those places and I'd hate to drag other people to them.
Even though I haven't been Catholic for about 15 years, I still know all the words to the mass. It's strange how that sticks, even if I no longer remember when I'm supposed to kneel.
I was glad I got to see the extended family. When I get old I want to be like them, still able to get around and laugh. I look around at all of us and I see what I'll look like when I'm older. We all have the same eyes and the same weird sense of humor. My great uncles (her brothers) are joking about growing their cash crop marijuana in the vegetable garden back home and asking us how we can stand living in Cleveland with all these people around. I forget that for many of them, Canton's a thriving metropolis.
We all went out for Polish comfort food (stuffed cabbage, kielbasa, noodles,passed on the czernina (duck-blood soup) that was on special). I was tired and it was rainy so I was glad to get home.
Even though I haven't been Catholic for about 15 years, I still know all the words to the mass. It's strange how that sticks, even if I no longer remember when I'm supposed to kneel.
I was glad I got to see the extended family. When I get old I want to be like them, still able to get around and laugh. I look around at all of us and I see what I'll look like when I'm older. We all have the same eyes and the same weird sense of humor. My great uncles (her brothers) are joking about growing their cash crop marijuana in the vegetable garden back home and asking us how we can stand living in Cleveland with all these people around. I forget that for many of them, Canton's a thriving metropolis.
We all went out for Polish comfort food (stuffed cabbage, kielbasa, noodles,passed on the czernina (duck-blood soup) that was on special). I was tired and it was rainy so I was glad to get home.
playlist 4/14/09
My playlist is at home, but here's what I remember. I'll fill in the blanks later (edit- now updated).
dj cam - he's gone (kid loco remix)
common - geto heaven pt. 2
see-i - why not tonight
pharaoh's daughter - yona
blockhead - serenade
martina topley-bird - sandpaper kisses
a. r. rahman - innisai
habib koite - i ka barra
boubacar traore - baba drame
funkadelic - maggot brain
mifune - be human
kokolo afrobeat orchestra - more consideration
extra golden - street parade
chambers brothers - people get ready (live)
love - 7 + 7 is / alone again or
rem - drive
cream - pressed rat and warthog (request)
love battery - dayglo / see your mind
the dirtbombs - earthquake heart
amadou & mariam - masiteladi
joe strummer - get down moses
zani diabate -
I've been so emotionally up and down the past week that I didn't even feel like coming in that morning. This has always been one of my favorite bits of guitar playing since I was 15 and use to listen to WMMS and WNCX on headphones prior to discovering the goodness of college radio. If you haven't listened to this, you need to RIGHT NOW.
I think it's an interesting indicator of the listening audience that I get a request for Ice Cube last week and one for Cream this week.
dj cam - he's gone (kid loco remix)
common - geto heaven pt. 2
see-i - why not tonight
pharaoh's daughter - yona
blockhead - serenade
martina topley-bird - sandpaper kisses
a. r. rahman - innisai
habib koite - i ka barra
boubacar traore - baba drame
funkadelic - maggot brain
mifune - be human
kokolo afrobeat orchestra - more consideration
extra golden - street parade
chambers brothers - people get ready (live)
love - 7 + 7 is / alone again or
rem - drive
cream - pressed rat and warthog (request)
love battery - dayglo / see your mind
the dirtbombs - earthquake heart
amadou & mariam - masiteladi
joe strummer - get down moses
zani diabate -
I've been so emotionally up and down the past week that I didn't even feel like coming in that morning. This has always been one of my favorite bits of guitar playing since I was 15 and use to listen to WMMS and WNCX on headphones prior to discovering the goodness of college radio. If you haven't listened to this, you need to RIGHT NOW.
I think it's an interesting indicator of the listening audience that I get a request for Ice Cube last week and one for Cream this week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
