Shooting at a Mountain of Dirt - Great Song Lyrics for your Ponderation

 "We were shooting at a mountain of dirt / well nothing was broken and nothing was hurt / but I probably really should have been at work / but when my free time's gone / will you promise me this / that you'll please bury me with it."  Bury Me With It by Modest Mouse. - I love the imagery of wasting your time, doing something you want to do (doing something like shooting at a mountain of dirt!) instead of doing something you should be doing.  We all need to waste more time.  Which leads me to one of my favorite quotes (who said it, I don't know):  'You don't truly get to know someone until you deliberately waste time with them.'  

"Everybody knows that somethings wrong, but nobody knows what's going on" - Lonely Day by Phantom Planet. - I think that pretty much sums up our world as we know it right now.


"I'm amazed at the lack of evolution.  I'm amazed at the lack of faith. I'm amazed at the love we're rejecting. I'm amazed that we accepted this place" - I'm Amazed by My Morning Jacket.  I love all of the lyrics to this song.  It really is amazing what we are willing to settle for instead of reaching for what we really deserve and really want and doing things that could really make life awesome.

"He is jealous for me / loves like a hurricane / I am a tree/bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.....if grace is an ocean we're all sinking" - How He Loves by David Crowder.  I love these images of God and the amount of his love and grace for us.  I'm not a big Christian music fan, but this song give me the chills every time I hear it.  His grace is so amazing and abundant (which is why I struggle with the concept of Hell, which is another story for later). 

"There's nothing else / just remember to fall in love / there's nothing else."  Swoon by The Chemical Brothers.  Yep.

"What's the point of knocking me down? Everyone knows I'm already good on the ground."  Bird Flu by M.I.A. I don't know a woman who is tougher than M.I.A., and I think these lyrics are a great demonstration of that. I'm of the assumption it the second part of the quote has dual meaning, too. :)

"....just as I'm thinking about repairing it some little friends come along with some two-string, one-string, no-string guitars (hey guys, wanna jam?)...." Back Porch by The Presidents of the United States of America. This might just be my all-time favorite song lyric.

"Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face/do you realize we're floating in space / do you realize that happiness makes you cry / do you realize that everyone you know someday will die / and instead of saying all of your goodbyes let them know you realize that life goes fast, it's hard to make the good things last / you realize the sun doesn't go down / it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning 'round."  Do You Realize? by The Flaming Lips.  This song is always a good reminder to me to not waste my time worrying about death....it's going to happen no matter how much I may fret about it, so I should stop worrying and make the very best of life while my loved ones and I are all still here!  Also, this is mine and Jacob's song.

Something's coming, sky is purple / dogs are hounding to themselves / Days are changing with the weather / like a riptide come rip us away.  Earthquake Weather by Beck.  I love Beck.  He's one of my favorite musicians.  This song (as well as the entire Sea Change album of his) however, make me feel nervous and uncomfortable.  I love the title Earthquake Weather, but as soon as the song starts I get anxious.  I can't not listen to it, though, because I love the song just the same.


We like you / This is a game already won / the time has come / stop trying.  Stop Trying by Sia.  Basically, anyone worth having in your life will like you just as you are.  It shouldn't be a lot of work to be friends with someone....they should like you, and you should like them, without having to try. 
  

I Love Lists! 10 Celebrities I Should Be Friends With! Annnnnd....GO!

1. Parker Posey! Because what one sassy bitch needs is another sassy bitch for some sassy-bitch competition. Plus, she’s who I’d have play me in a movie.




2. Jason Schwartzman! Not only is he a great actor, but he’s also a drummer! Yes please!



3. Jeremy Clarkson! Who in the whole wide world is cooler than this guy (except for Steve McQueen, probably)?



4. Jim James! He is an amazing musician and is crazy in his cape-coat.



5. Gael Garcia Bernal! For obvious reasons.



6. Kristin Wiig! Because she’s a freekin’ hoot! And everyone could use more laughter in their lives.



7. John Goodman! Probably the one I’d most want to have as a friend. I adore John Goodman.



8. Steve Buscemi! The best actor of our time.



9. Christopher Walken! Say what you will about him being creepy. The man is brilliant.



10. Anthony Bourdain! See my comments regarding Parker Posey.

Conundrums

I love the word Conundrum. Here are a few conundrums in my life:

I don't like Coldplay all that much, but I love the song Violet Hill so much that I usually will play it at least twice in a row when it comes up on my iPod.

Conversely, I love Jimi Hendrix and think he is one of the most amazing musicians of all time, but I almost always skip over his songs when they come up on my iPod.

I don't like grapes or anything artificially grape flavored, but I love me some wine!

I don't particularly like the kind of music genre of the band Red Fang, but they have THE BEST music videos.  So funny.  Check one out here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuRKRFjm-HA

I absolutely love to cook, but most of the time it really doesn't turn out that great.

Tomatoes = Yum! Ketchup = Yuck!

I love hot weather and would love to live in a tropical climate, but my body can't actually handle the sun. I have to reapply SPF 45 or greater on at least an hourly basis and it's best if I just wear long sleeves outside.  I crave the sunshine but am forever bound to the shade.

During the week, I will happily take a nap in my car on my lunch hour instead of getting stuff done that I need to be getting done on my lunch hour (errands, etc), but on the weekends, no matter how tired I might be, I can't bring myself to be that restful because I feel like I am wasting time and need to get things done.

I am very much a "do what you want to do, live how you want to live, believe what you want to believe" kind of person, but I have the very strong opinion that birth control should be required until potential parents meet certain criteria (not necessarily financially). There should also be a limit on how many babies one can have. Do you really need more than three? No, you don't. (That said, I do love my nieces and nephews who are born after child #3 in a family...and I have a lot of them and many more to come....but still.)  If I didn't think it would be so distasteful of me to do so, I'd love to give a few in-laws a piece of my mind about it.

Hippies doing drugs couldn't bother me in the least.  White trash doing drugs whips me into a frenzy and I'm very judgmental about it.

Okay, so some of these are more just contradictions, but I think that contradictions and conundrums are pretty similar.

The end.

To Quote Brak Exactly, "To Quote Wally Exactly, Here's Some Stuff That I Like:"

A very brief overview of some stuff that I like (I am sure similar posts will follow....)

• Driving with the windows down instead of using the A/C
• Positive Vibrations on KEXP
• My very handsome hubby
• All this sunshine!
• Warm mornings
• "This is your captain speaking. Next stop is whenever. Just be, like, 'stop.'"
• Free coffee at Dutch Bros.
• The palm trees in my yard
• The chickens in my yard
• The adorable naked Roman running around my yard
• Pineapple upside down cake. ("Why's it upside down? WHY'S IT UPSIDE DOWN??")
• The hot, hot heat (the actual hot, hot heat, not the band Hot, Hot Heat, which I am sure is a perfectly fine band, I just don't know them well enough to add them to this list)
• "Hey Beaver, what was that sound?"  "Gee dad, I don't know. I think it was some sort of noise." - Leave it to Beaver. One of the best quotes ever.
• Wearing a watch
• I've had this twitch on my cheek all morning...I'll like it when that's gone
• The Tin Shed. I was so happy to go there for breakfast for Mother's Day
• Believe it or not, I love it when Roman wakes me up at 6:30 in the morning on the weekends (but I won't like it if you quote this back to me when I complain about it later)
• I will REALLY like it the day my neighbors across the street move away. Someday....
• Music from the mid 90s, especially 1995
• Fireflies
• Music in general.  Music is an incredible thing....it's amazing what it can do
• I like wine
• I like to check the mail.  It's my favorite chore.
• Line-dried clothes - the smell and the crunchy feel
• Really green trees against a really dark (as in stormy) sky, especially if the sun is also shining on the other side of the sky
• Baseball games on the radio
• Cabooses
• "rif-raff" and "toodaloo" and "ruckus" "lady friend"
• I've taken up jogging in the last month or so and have been doing better at it than I ever have before. I like that.
• The very satisfied/relieving feeling that comes after sneezing
• Grilling
• Dirty feet at the end of a warm and productive day
• Payday!
• QuickBooks
• Mid-Century Modern
• Tiki
• My job.  Which I should probably get cracking at. 

Toodaloo!

Knowledge is Power? Not in This Case....

For someone who has a journalism degree, I sure hate the media.  I mean really, really hate.

I think people in general are more afraid now than they were before this interweb era.  Every day I look at sites like MSN and Yahoo! and every day I tell myself that I'm not going to read the news anymore. No matter which site you go to, they have nothing good to say.  But somehow, they keep sucking me in.

They report on such things as a girl who is being attacked by some flesh-eating parasite that she contracted while going ziplining on a vacation. Now I bet tons of people who had "go ziplining" on their "bucket lists" are going to be too afraid to go, even though this was most likely the rarest of cases and it was just her bad luck. 

I just wish more people would use their power for good.  Everyone I talk to likes to read good news, and I think good news sells too, not just bad news.  I think more and more people are getting frustrated with the media fuleing the fire and giving bad people more ideas on how they can be even worse. All of the knowledge I now have from the crap the media gives to me has not made me more powerful.  It has made me more afraid and thus feeling more weak.  Why is the media okay with this?  If I were a news anchor, I'd want to go home and kill myself every single day after reporting the news.

Maybe this is me just being my pessimistic self, but even if it is, to you, dear Media, I give a giant EFF YOU for making everyones lives more miserable.  Now you sit there and think about what you've done.

Thus endith my rant for today.

10 Albums That Have Shaped Me, For Better or For Worse.

1. Elliott Smith, “Figure 8” – the album that launched my love affair with indie music and opened me up to the thing I love most in life (certain people excluded. I don’t consider my husband and my son to be “things.”) 

2. Manu Chao Radio Bemba Sound System - I just love Manu Chao, and this album was the first one I owned of his. It makes me happy. It makes me feel energized. It reminds me of our first Cuatro de Mayo celebration and Amy Mohler’s simple but amazing concoction of tortillas with cream cheese and black beans. It reminds me of running up Craig’s Hill in Ellensburg. It reminds me of the smell of our first apartment on a hot summer day. It reminds me of our trip to Central America. I could go on and on….

3. Buena Vista Social Club, “Buena Vista Social Club” – makes me feel nostalgic for something I’ve never known.

4. Zero7 “The Garden” – Zero7 was the best band I ever serendipitously discovered, and this was the album I bought when it happened. And it is signed by Sia, whom I love. Thank you, Bumbershoot, for searching backpacks for beer when going to the main stage to see Kanye West. If we hadn’t been so unwilling to dump out our contraband, I’d never have seen Zero7. Side note, I couldn’t care less about Kanye West. I appreciate his talent, but I’d never seek out his music (except for Love Lockdown. That’s a great song). And I’d always choose beer over Kanye West.

5. The Flaming Lips, “The Soft Bulletin” – For me and Jacob, it marks the start of a beautiful relationship. Especially the song about bugs.

6. Fiona Apple, “When the Pawn…” - Brings back pleasant memories I am unwilling to divulge. Not that they are something I shouldn’t divulge, it’s just nice to have some things all to yourself.

7. My Morning Jacket, “Evil Urges” – It serves as a perfect reminder that even if you hated an album the first time around, give it another chance. There’s nothing wrong with a band experimenting a little and it could turn out to be one of your favorite albums after all. Yes indeedy!

8. The String Cheese Incident, “Carnival 99” – because on a sunny day, there is nothing better than a jam band.

9. Lee “Scratch” Perry & The Upsetters, “Super Ape” and “Return of the Super Ape” – because on a sunny day, there is nothing better than reggae. (P.S. I know…I am cheating here because this is two albums. But they are by the same folks and practically have the same name and one album has some songs I love and the other album has other songs I love. So too bad.)

10. Bjork, “Post” - This album represents the greatness that was the music of 1995, which is my all-time favorite year of music. And I think it takes a good ear to really recognize and appreciate the immense talent that is Bjork.

11. Upon receiving the news, almost literally the second I finished my list, that Adam “MCA” Yauch of the Beastie Boys died, I have deemed it necessary to add a number 11. I love the Beastie Boys. I have so many fond memories that float to the surface when I hear so many of their songs. So for my number 11. (with a bullet), the entry is The Beastie Boys, “Hello Nasty” – plus the song “Sabotage” – Wendy, I hope that brings back as awesome memories for you as it does for me!