Sunday, October 27, 2002

May
The ONLY mention of "cream cheese hotdog" on the web, according to google.com... and it's from someone talking about the cream cheese hotdog stand in Pioneer Square. I wonder if that's the only place that sells them? And I wonder what tiny percentage of his clientele is sober? I'd never heard of these hotdogs before Friday night, but the stand is down on 1st -I think outside Central.

Thursday, October 24, 2002

Twilight downtown, it's dark on the sidewalk; store windows, streetlights, cars taillights give off a yellow light that hugs downward. If you forget to look up and notice that the sky is still bright, it feels later than it is. I still haven't found any gloves from last year, so with no pockets my fingers are freezing. Low Tide (by The Town Pants) has been on repeat through this walk. If my player has a repeat 1 mode, I haven't found it, so I keep fishing it out of my pocket & hitting the back button. I'm intrigued by the play between the words--a lot of regret & loneliness-- and the upbeat fiddle & guitar that sound like a rock interpretation of traditional Celtic folk music.
Bear in mind that this is an aol-time warner publication.... does this article make any sense?

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

nytimes.com covers the birth of DFA (home of Radio 4, LCD Soundsystem)
So an influx of new sounds, new bands, new clubs and nostalgia led to the re-emergence of New York as an innovative music hot bed....
whoops, double posting for a moment there... *(@&# netscape. the article is pretty good- the most interesting part to me was the mention that they plan to compile "all of its singles on a CD next year" -nothing further about that, but hopefully it will happen; it would be a nice compilation to have.

Tuesday, October 15, 2002

All Music Guide: Souvlaki
I'm up too late, I'm stressed out, but I'm happier than I've been in months. Not directly because of this CD, but I listened to it a few times tonight, and it fit my tense but blissful mood well. Trying to motivate myself to stand up, walk a few feet & go to sleep isn't working; mostly because I know that I'll lie there & stare out the window at the lights.
BBC Wallace and Gromit film premières
Wallace & Gromit!!!!!

Friday, October 11, 2002

Dunkin' Donuts Coffee this morning- it's really good. No doubt that's because I asked for cream, and they put in so much that it's only a few shades darker than white. For all the regional differences that mass media and plane travel are supposedly killing off, a few remain- I can't imagine a shop in Seattle putting your cream or sugar into your coffee for you, for one. Coffee cup lids out here are also largely the annoying kind that you have to rip open-- they seem (thankfully) to be few and far between back home. I'm not the only visitor here dying for some Dunkin Donuts coffee, though- I saw a few other sleepy folks walking through the hotel lobby this morning clutching syrofoam cups of it- there's one only about 3 blocks away, so it's an easy walk.

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

Seattle Weekly - SFA @ the EMP Of course, it's while I'm gone.
Music for a looooooooooong day at work before leaving:








The drums in Live Forever were my favorite bit- I've been feeling wiped & unable to come up with anything useful to say all week. Bits of happiness (a great latte Sunday night, email from a friend) have been making me happier than any CDs I've listened to recently. It's probably what's led me to choose albums this week which I don't really listen to, but let just sit in the background of my mind. Music as a mental pacifier- hopefully something that a change of scenery will jolt away.

Saturday, October 05, 2002

The Village Voice: Music: What the Geezer Saw by Sasha Frere-Jones
US Release is on 10/22.
Music for waking up ridiculously early on a Saturday morning: New Order- Age of Consent. There's no way to tell if the sun's not up yet, or if it's just hiding behind the thick clouds. The first really cloudy and rainy week of autumn here has just passed, bringing with it a weekend of more cozy gray. I've been up for ages, drinking coffee and listening to Power, Corruption & Lies. Your Silent Face seems to tie into Run Wild (from Get Ready); both have a grandiose melancholy (melodrama?). No synth strings in Run Wild but it's the saddest song I can think of. but if jesus comes to take your hand, i won't let go... i won't let go.... Cheesy songs usually annoy me to no end, but the simpleness of these two is arresting.

Tuesday, October 01, 2002

Crumpled up next to my desk is a small stack of pages ripped out of magazines. They're ads, photos, scraps of images that I thought would make good mix cd cover images; every so often I ruffle through them, find one which makes me think of a song, and spend a while trying to put it together into a CD. Rubber cement- used for attaching the images to a sturdy piece of paper to write the tracks on for the cover- smells like mix CDs for me now; like hunting through my stacks for a track or lying on the floor & watching my writer's light blink as it finishes up. So different from high school, when I would cart a shoebox of tapes down to my dad's two deck tape player & sit curled up on the floor next to it. Thinking of trying to write small enough to fit all the songs on the tape insert makes me glad for the larger size of cd inserts- more room for more song titles, and the writing can be big enough to read!