7.24.2009

sigh.

you can wear your new white shoes
in the muddy afternoon
walking past the stay-drunk stoop
they whistle with their hands
but i could be your catcall, too
anything you wanna do
anything you wanna do

you can take your slide trombone
play it in the catacombs
find a town that moves real slow
and turn it on its head
and i could be your pharaoh's tomb
anything you wanna do
lover, anything you wanna do

and if you want to be common
i can claim that i tamed you
a demigod in a bonnet
they're gonna know it ain't true

you can paint your nails lime green
rent yourself a limousine
kidnap the professor's niece
let's tell 'em that she's dead
we'll party in a hotel room
anything you wanna do
sister, anything you wanna do

you can get your hair all wet
sleeping on the riverbed
kiss a frog and then dissect
gotta find out what's inside
but you can have my bad side, too
anything you wanna do
sugar, anything you wanna do

and if you want to be common
i can claim that i tamed you
a demigod in a bonnet
they're gonna know it ain't true

and yes, you are king david's star
and the crescent moon, and the crescent moon
you must sweep the bodhi tree
i sit beneath, oh i sit beneath

you can wear your new white shoes
in the dirty afternoon
walking through the traffic fumes
a flower in your hair
and i will swing upon your moods
anytime you want me to
just tell me what you wanna do
anything you wanna do
lover, anything you wanna do



White Shoes by Conor Oberst


7.21.2009

wilco will love you, baby


The concert was (unsurprisingly) amazing. I preached at you last time I went to a Wilco concert, and I'm going to shamelessly do the same thing again. Everyone should see Wilco live at least once in their lifetime.

Every time I go to a show, I love everything a little more.



7.15.2009

the long and short of it

I've decided it's time that I finally try to explain why it is I think running is so very valuable. After extensive discussion with Ciera, I think I might be halfway prepared. So here's at least part of it...here it goes.



Running is very much a huge, extended metaphor for life. If you decide to get up early to get a run in, that's up to you. You set the alarm, you haul your sorry ass out of bed, you tie your shoes, and you take those first few reluctant strides. When you set a goal in running, that's up to you, too. You can choose to train hard, add in new workouts, and do everything in your power to achieve it. If you don't reach it, it's simply no one's fault but your own. The actual running itself provides the best alignment to life. You choose to speed up, to slow down, to give up, to keep going. Sometimes you push it too hard and hurt yourself, and sometimes you take it way too easy and lose weeks of hard work. No one is telling you what to do when you're on a run - you are entirely and wholly on your own. Whatever you do, whatever happens during that run, is a direct result of nothing other than you. You can't blame it on anything else, and you can't give credit to anything else.

What it all boils down to is a very simple pre-school lesson: you are in charge of you. That's running, and that's life.


7.13.2009

live in concert

There is a certain amount of prestige and pride associated with attending a concert. That unique atmosphere of anticipation, excitement, and smug satisfaction is unfailingly found at every concert worth going to - and for good reason. Something about seeing musicians perform live is pleasantly shocking and ridiculously uplifting. You finally see for yourself the passion and genuine thrill they get from music, and this in itself is a validation; permission to be as absorbed and in love with their music as they are. It sounds ridiculous, but it's confirmation that the people who wrote and played the music you take to heart do, in fact, exist. The indulgence of listening directly to the songs or albums that have served as your own personal soundtrack is almost overwhelming, and entirely necessary. Music has a terrifying ability to overthrow any current emotion with ease, for better or otherwise, and hearing it performed live amplifies this power tenfold; you know you're finally hearing it as the musician wants you to hear it, and nothing is more beautiful than that simple truth. Having seen Wilco, I can testify firsthand. That wasn't a very cleverly disguised name drop, but you should still listen to them.

I guess what made me think of all this was Kaitlin's ongoing countdown of "Days Until We Are In the Same Room With Conor Oberst" and my inversely-proportionate ratio of excitement to the number of days left. Really, whoever thought of pairing Conor with Wilco, beautiful people with beautiful music, I love you. Congrats on being an utter genius.

7.02.2009

casualties of time

used to be the one of the rotten ones
and i liked you for that
now you're all gone, got your make-up on
and you're not coming back

bleachin' your teeth, smiling flash
talking trash, under your breath
bleachin' your teeth, smiling flash
talking trash, under my window

park that car, drop that phone,
sleep on the floor, dream about me


used to be the one of the rotten ones
and i liked you for that
now you're all gone, got your make-up on
and you're not coming back 





What a wrenching, inevitable decay.

7.01.2009

spook

After watching the horror movie 1408 (a classic skeptical-ghost-hunter-is-finally-convinced-of-existence-of-the-paranormal tale), I got thinking about the supernatural.  Not so much the theoretical part of it, where you analyze every single possible alternate reason to everything considered to be paranormal; attempting to explain every if, and, and but is just not necessary.  I was thinking more about the normal side to the supernatural as a whole - about our relation as human beings to things we believe are otherworldly.  Why are we so willing and able to buy into it all, as (mostly) logical life forms?  I think we view the paranormal as semi-solidified evidence of the Beyond, whatever you consider that to be.  Faith is definitely a force to be reckoned with, but a little bit of hard proof is a wonderful reinforcement, and that's really what the supernatural comes down to: proof.  Proof of something very different from our level of existence.  Proof of things in our world that are way beyond simple explanation.  It's a way to confirm our beliefs (and perhaps hopes) that we are not the ones who hold all the cards - that is, if you believe in that stuff at all.