corrosion/colors

I climbed onto the table and stretched out, turning my gaze for a moment as I lay down, glancing lightly and quietly at the huge plastic and metal circular mouth of the MRI machine. My head came to rest upon a small pillow. The radiologist placed a frame over my head and locked it into place. I smiled up at her. "Woman in the iron mask," I nervously joked, staring up at the small mirror attached to the frame. My nose stared back, attached to a smile, attached to my eyes, my crinkled worry-worn forehead, attached to my face. The mirror was tilted strangely. It was supposed to reflect the radiologist's booth outside of the MRI room. It's purpose was to make the patient feel like they were not trapped inside a large magnetic machine, that the patient was still connected to the outside world. I kept staring at the reflection of my nose and thinking, "That is my nose. I like my nose. It's kind of pretty." As I thought these thoughts and kept quite still, the radiologist rolled me back into the machine, and then her voice came over the loudspeaker. "This should take about two hours. We'll take a break towards the end to do the injection. The first scan will be five and a half minutes." I closed my eyes. My breath became a slow rhythmic timer, my only companion. Charged little clicks and whirs resounded, then the pulsating, unending, staccato-ed "BUUURRRR" of the machine.



Give me this new lovely season. Give me cold air and cars rushing by. The leaves will start to turn. We'll sit on our porch in the crisp autumn evenings, smoking cigarettes and singing, squinting and smiling at the people walking past.

"i cross the line
and see a face that can’t be mine
through a long long night
to find a place where we all thrive
where every frail thing can survive
where we can live this dream of life..."

from handkerchiefs by the Winterpills

shortmix - songs to listen to while i cry into my yoga bolster

Head Home - Midlake from The Trials of Van Occupanther

Famous Blue Raincoat - Marissa Nadler from Songs III

In Silence - Low from Drums and Guns

Lump Sum - Bon Iver From For Emma, Forever Ago

Blue Line Swagger - Yo La Tengo from Prisoners of Love

Madzangara Dzimu - Green Arrow from 4-Track Recording Sessions

Freely - Devendra Banhart from Smokey Rolls

Clothes of Sand - Nick Drake from Time of No Reply

Where Do You Go To (My Lovely) - Peter Sarstedt from The Darjeeling Limited Soundtrack

Self-Portrait in Three Colors - Charles Mingus from Mingus Ah Um

I Give You What I Want - Hope For Agoldensummer from Ariadne Thread

Drive Me To The Center

Most probably my top pick for MidPoint Music Fest:

The Seedy Seeds - Drive Me To The Center from Soft City Lights on Vimeo.

I can't help it. I heart them like the madness.

Catch The Seedy Seeds @ the Contemporary Arts Center on Thursday, September 24th at 10:30pm.

Blue Ridge Mountains

Red Squirrel in the Morning

"Red squirrel in evening,
Red squirrel in the morning,
I'm coming to take you home...."
from Sun It Rises by Fleet Foxes

Sometimes I'm a little late. Sometimes I arrive hands wide open and wandering. Sometimes I turn and finally notice. Sorry it took so long.

These summer days have been long. I'm thankful that the weather has grown slightly cooler. I'm glad that the busy part of this season is over and we can finally enjoy a few weeks of quiet recreation and rest.

After James arrived home from the Vermont workshop, we packed up the car and set off for NYC. I was worried that such a big trip might add to the stresses of the Summer (workshop, broken toe, general hot season MS fatigue) but I think we both found the adventure rejuvenating. Two of our closest friends, Will and Amber, played host and guide for our very first visit to New York. We waited in the sauna-like subway, saw our first city rats, wandered the streets of Chinatown and Greenwich Village, pillaged Yogurtland, shopped in Soho, searched through the stacks in the Strand. The Strand is extraordinary and overwhelming. I found an out-of-print Nancy Mitford novel, Don't Tell Alfred. James wandered a bit, eyes large, taking it all in. It was a bit like the first time we reached the upper room of the Ohio Bookstore. We could have stayed there for hours...but we needed more coffee.

The Antlers CD release for Hospice was that Friday night at the Mercury Lounge on the Lower East Side. The show was incredible. I love the record. The narrative of the record is so powerful and I was unsure if they would be able to replicate that on stage, to interpret something so beautiful in a live (and uncomfortably hot) setting. I should never have had a doubt. They pulled it off beautifully.




Upcoming Events...happening in the near future...as in the next two days:

Tomorrow evening there will be a poetry reading at Sidewinder Coffee in Northside featuring several poets including but not limited to: Kristi Maxwell and Mitch Raney.

Saturday:
There will be a free performance of As You Like it at Eden Park.

Poet Matt Hart is reuniting with his band and playing in the front parlour of the Southgate House? That's the rumour, Kids. We'll be there to see if it's true.

Also, later in the evening we may stop by the Freddie Mercury Birthday Bash at Grammers.

Inbox (14)

The Birthday of James the Jim

For James's birthday, I shall post a song about his new ultimate hero:

(Parental discretion is advised (parental units, this means you!(I'm serious!(not kidding.) You can celebrate James's birthday by watching something else heroic (like that movie "The Great Escape" (or for instance the Billy Wilder film "Stalag 17")))).)




(This blog has been approved by the Strunk and White edition of the Elements of Style.)(somewhat)

Scoot, scoot. Hobble, hobble.

I hear the lovely beat of this song in my wobbley gait across the file room. The hand claps cheer me on.

Dear You -Thursday Clips

Check out this short interview with Chad VanGaalen on Stereogum. And then download the Black Mold track.

Then watch this: "Molten Light" Chad's latest record on Subpop/Flemish Eye, Soft Airplane.



Also: I've found an awesome replacement for Terry Gross, should she ever decide to retire.



or maybe I just wish that Joe were my grandpa.

This weekend, I'm going to try to make it out to the Sons of the Desert gathering in Clifton. I'm excited that there is an actual Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society in Cincinnati. Check out details at the Chimp Tent

Wednesday Song Awesomeness

The Besnard Lakes

five little fingers

Covered in stripes, strips of adhesive, adhering to me, keeping me stable, keeping me safe as I flip through these files, sharp edges with every turn, sharp little revenge for my morning's laxity.


And I'm back...from the holiday weekend, from the dry summer heat, from the strange little things that keep me from taking the time to post. So much I should have told you about. Sorry kids. I'll fill you in now.

We made it through Spring quarter, but barely. Had a great end of the year party at Dietrik's. Said goodbye to a few friends. Did some Spring cleaning. We only had a few days before James left for Birmingham for a week to visit family. While he was gone, I baked. A lot. And listened to music and watched some movies and gardened a bit and then went to see the Dirty Projectors in Columbus.

Beautiful. Amazing. Show. I didn't really get them at first, everything seemed sort of stuttered and discordant and strange. James put a couple their songs on his latest mix and I just didn't get it. But he made me promise to go to this show. I'm so glad that he did.

I've talked about the Sunny Day Real Estate show in St. Louis before, how seeing them actually changed the way that I listened to their music... and actually all music...from that moment that they broke into the first song from How It Feels...my entire perspective changed, it was cloudy and disorganized and all of the sudden, with the writhing bit of guitar and bass and drums, it became this clear and lovely vision of light. James talks about art, how real art should change the way that you see things. This...the Dirty Projectors on stage at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus...was one of those moments.





Can I also say that I love the new video for Stillness is the Move? And no, it's not the balloon panted jumpsuits or the mountain Yak. I actually don't know why I love it at all. But when it ends...I always have a joyous smile upon my face.

shortmix for a rainy thursday

King Porter Stomp - Jelly Roll Morton
You're Driving Me Crazy - Django Reinhardt
Toby Dammit Part One - 13ghosts
Slide Show - Travis
Monty Got a Raw Deal - REM
Book of Angels - Jim White
Downtown - Dexateens (coming to the Southgate House next week! (playing the parlour))
Katy Song - Red House Painters
A House - Doves

Today I am the dusk.

If I go about this like I should, you wouldn't get very far. You wouldn't be able to follow me down this particular path. You'd stop in your tracks and look around and begin to wonder and wonder and I would be gone. I would have disappeared from your line of vision, and more importantly, within a matter of seconds, I would have disappeared from your thoughts as well. Today I am the dusk. I'm those gray moments, dulling your surroundings. I am the wilting, careless dream.

Today I am the dusk.

****************************************

One of James' very favorite videos
Bat for Lashes

Little Lost Lolita and the Literaries short mix

Little Lost Lolita and the Literaries
Originally uploaded by SaraLeah

I felt this tightness in my chest. I felt this extraordinary light headedness. I floated, I fled, I found myself at the bar. The bartender placed a large Arrogant Bastard ale in one hand, a cold glass in the other. I turned with twisted appreciative expression on my face. I sat down beside Lyz and began to consume. The warmth calmed me. The conversation did too.

I couldn't believe how nervous I was. We'd come in about 7:30 to set up. Peter had broken a string on his guitar. I was to use the guitar to guide the David Bowie song. I would fake it. I would strum and turn and sing and hope that no one noticed the small amount of sound coming from my instrument. I think it worked. We sounded wonderful.







Here is my shortmix from the week of the show. My moodmaker, my heartshaker, my constant encouragement. At work, I forget that anyone is around at the end of the day. I listen to this and file and sing my heart out. No one has complained yet. I guess that's a good sign.

Marry Me - St. Vincent
Falling out of Favor with the Neighbors - Through the Sparks
Five Years - David Bowie
What Do - Vulture Whale
Some of them are Superstitious - Midlake
Hold on, Hold on - Neko Case
Annabelle - Gillian Welch
1000 Books - Leslie Helpert
Everything's Different Now - The Innocence Mission
Rebel Prince - Rufus Wainwright

Word with End

After two fierce full practices we are ready to go on the road...






an entire block and half away...

Tomorrow night, Peter, Brian, Lyz, and I will be debuting our latest at the Catskellar on UC Campus. Here's the info:



Hosted by The Cincinnati Review

Friday, April 3, 2009 at 8:00pm
University of Cincinnati, Catskeller

"Come join us for our first annual Word Without End, an open-mic, cross-genre extravaganza.

Read your own stuff—excerpts or pieces entire—read someone else’s stuff, play an instrument with a missing string, or sob uncontrollably while passing around pictures of your childhood dog. Make YOUR loss OUR loss.

We're hosting a silent auction of once-lost-now-FOUND objects. If you have fabulous crap (like a lone sock, a filthy barbie with matted hair, a pineapple, a hungry hippo) we want it! Proceeds go to the Cincinnati FreeStore Foodbank, which serves more than 160,000 people throughout southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and southeastern Indiana."