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Well, on the plus side, i had a most excellent bike ride with Nat and his dad on Sunday evening. Stopping for food, however, was most abominable. Let's just say that beach tourists can't understand why anyone would ever NOT wear as few clothes as possible. Also, remember staring problems? They still exist.

In any case, we probably rode about 5 miles one way, then turned around to head back to the car. (There is a loooong path right above the beach, which we took from Hermosa up past LAX.) As we neared the place where it all began, the sun was setting, and it was absolutely amazing. Speaking of staring problems, we stared at the sun a lot. (ha, ha: once, in high school, i dropped acid and sat staring at the sun as it went down. Don't ever do that, please.) It seemed to take forever to go down, which was fine with us... the whole world around us was glowing with pink and orange and coral hues, turning to roses and violets and eventually the light was leaving and the grass began to exude that sharp, eveningtime smell that it gets when it starts to cool off. i was listening to "I Love A Man In A Uniform", by Gang of Four (groovin' song!), and then, because i am super cheesy (and because it came on right afterwards on Shuffle mode), "She's So High" by Tal Bachman. Ah, the nineties.
Anyway, the sunset reminded Nat and i of Sirena Beach, from Super Mario Sunshine, if any of you have ever played that game. It was lovely, like a dream.

Some minuses of our trip included eating quite possibly the worst meal of my life at an English Pub in San Pedro, and getting extremely mad at Nat's parents for micro-managing me in the kitchen while we were all making lunch on Monday afternoon. Blame it on the PMS; i actually walked out of the room. :/ Never had that problem with his parents before.

Some pluses, though, were getting to watch Labyrinth again after all these years, and re-watching some X-Files gag reels that Nat's sister owns. So hilarious. And what is the deal with Labyrinth? Her wicked stepmother tells her that she wishes she would date: lady, the girl is like fourteen years old! What in the hey? But anyway. We all love David Bowie and his balls. (Go on, click it- i'm not a perv.)

We also got to open some belated x-mas gifts, which were wonderful: Nat's sis gave me Anne of Green Gables on DVD (::swoon::), and Nat the book on astrophysics that Brian May (of Queen!) co-wrote. Too cool! Nat's mom gave me my very first pop-up book, of The Nutcracker, which i am utterly enthused about. i don't know why it took so long for me to have one of these; i love them so much! And we got some cute English-themed (always!) fridge magnets: Nat's was a jar of Marmite, and mine was a ration card from WWII. His mom is so cute :) Also, they always do the christmas stockings thing, where you get a bunch of chocolates and nuts and fruit and small gifts all in one container, and it is so much fun. We never did that in my family, but i'm hoping to do it for my kids (if i ever have any).

Um, anything else? Hm. Did i watch the inauguration? Nope. Know why? i guess i'm not one for ceremony. Especially not state ceremonies that are rife with religious under(or is it over?)tones. ::shrug:: Call me a wet blanket, i don't care. Isn't it enough that i am thrilled for our new president? i am not totally naïve, though. i know he will disappoint a lot of us. i know he will be different than he presented himself to be. But they all do that, don't they? Par for the course, at this point. i guess i'm trying not to be too hopeful, lest i get let down. The earlier in his campaign, the more i liked him, and i am pretending like everything is going to be fine. Just fine! He has a lot of work ahead of him. Of course we wish him luck ;) At least now i am not ashamed to be an American, at least not as much.

Until next time.

p.s.) On making an "Animals" playlist, i went in thinking that Cat would be predominant. How wrong i was! Apparently (in my music library, anyway), it's Horse, Dog, and then various Birds (Swan, Raven, Sparrow, Chicken, Eagle, etc.), followed by varieties of Fish/Sea life (Herring, Lobster, Octopus, Starfish, and so on). Who knew?

People stop and stare, they don't bother me.

For x-mas, my sister gave me two tins of lovely Russian tea that they sell at her work. Went to the cupboard this mornin', to make a cup- but i could only find one of the tins, and it was (of course) not the one i was pining for. What the hell? A search of basically the entire apartment was fruitless... then i remembered:

i left it on the freakin' plane.

Now let me tell you something, folks: don't put shit in the seatback flap in front of you when you're on an airplane, okay? Not even for a nanosecond. None of that "oh, i'll just put this here for a second while i-" bullshit. Because it is not for a second- it is for fucking ever. The minute your hand leaves that item, it is gone. For serious. You will never see that thing again. Those who have done it know exactly what i am talking about. And did i learn when i lost my lens cap on the way to Hawaii years and years ago, DID I? Nope. It's like Bushy says: "Fool me once, shame on- shame on you. Fool me- you can't get fooled again!"

This all being said, it's just a fucking tin of tea and i should really get over it.

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As much as i detest the film My Fair Lady, it does have some awfully adorable songs in it. After having my first cup of coffee in almost 2 weeks (!), i found myself in the kitchen singing a hammed-up version of "On the Street Where You Live". Good times. Not embarrassing at all, nope nope. The reasoning behind all of this is that when i first met Nat, almost 9 years ago, he used to sing these two songs and i thought it was the cutest thing ever, of course. Too bad i then watched the movie, though. Ick. The ending had me in a rage, much like the sentiment behind the song "Love the One You're With".

Oh, really? You've "grown accustomed to her face"? How darling. Nothing says true love better than a woman bringing a man his slippers. Barf.

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After this bout of singing musical numbers, i moved on to "Johnny Get Angry", then realized that i have a million* other 'Johnny' songs. Time for another playlist!

>Johnny Angel ~Shelley Fabares
>Johnny Sunshine ~Liz Phair
>Goodbye Johnny ~Gun Club
>I'm Straight ~Jonathan Richman ("Hippie Johnny" in lyrics like 50 times)
>Little Johnny Jewel ~Siouxsie & The Banshees
>Sleep Walk ~Santo and Johnny (okay, this one was a reach.)
>Johnny, Are You Queer? ~Josie Cotton
>Johnny Get Angry ~Joanie Sommers
*"a million" may have been a slight, slight exaggeration.

Well, off for an evening bike ride to burn off some of this caffeine... and to try not to think about cigarettes. What am i, zen all of a sudden? (My mom used to sometimes say, try and run around the house ten times without thinking of a wolf. It was supposedly some sort of zen exercise... zany!)

Happysad.

Alright, so i was in a dolorous mood last night, and decided to make a Sad Songs playlist, à la Guy Maddin. (Wow, i just totally learned how to type characters with a French accent. Coolio.)

Along the way, i realized that half the songs i was choosing could easily go on a Dreamy playlist, something i've been meaning to make for Nat as a study aid when he needs to put the old headphones on. So after putting lots of Cat Power, Low, Magnetic Fields, and PJ Harvey on the first one, i hoped the second one would be more diverse. Incorrect! After the thousandth Cocteau Twins song, and the hundredth by My Bloody Valentine and the third Mazzy Star selection, it was even more specialized. Ah well- praise be to the Shuffle option!

In any case. Have you listened to Low? i only have Things We Lost in the Fire, but what an album it is. To understand better what it sounds like, imagine an even slower, more wistful Sufjan Stevens. i know what you're thinking: is that even possible? Well, yes. Yes it is. They might even be a tad more lo-fi, but i'm not positive. Once i listened to Sufjan's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" while smoking a cigarette outside a strip mall in Las Vegas, staring at a tree blowing in the wind, with huge cumulus clouds in the background, and i almost lost my mind.

(In a good way.)

That's all for now.

Beirut

So i remember reading an interview with Zac(h?) Condon, the frontman of the band Beirut, about what he had chosen to name his band. He mentioned something about how awful it would be if fighting erupted there again, and now it has. I wonder how he's dealing with that? And what are some other, similar band names? Japan. Boston. Architecture in Helsinki?
Nah, that's stretching it.

But on that note, i've been making lots and lots of themed playlists (yes, this is a good argument that i have too much time on my hands).
#1: Songs with colors in their names. ("Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Orange Crush" by R.E.M., "She's a Rainbow" by the Rolling Stones, "Gold Lion" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs etc.)
#2: Songs that spell something out. ("Washington, D.C." by The Magnetic Fields, "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice, etc.)
#3: Songs with handclaps. (! a personal favorite sound in songs.)
#4 (in progress): Songs with whistling. So far this consists mainly of Andrew Bird tracks, but there are a few other gems in here as well; an Irish drinking song, the Air track "Alpha Beta Gaga", that whistling refrain from Kill Bill, and so on.

My next project is going to be place names, i decided. Cities, states, countries. Or maybe just cities? Not sure yet. I'm sure this is all really interesting for you guys, too. Don't worry! I'll post a list of the songs once i'm done :P The good news is, i'm sure this will all be over soon. I mean, how many new themes can i possibly come up with?!

In other good news, i've started another blog to deal with my memories. When i started this whole thing, it was a way to sort of clear out and untangle all of the mumbo-jumbo and memories i have stacking up in the ol' attic... things i can never seem to stop remembering, and longing for. I'm definitely a slave to nostalgia, and for me it's not really a good thing. I mean yeah, i enjoy a memory now and then, but to live one's life firmly entrenched in the past is just not healthy. So this blog was helping with that. Little by little, i can purge myself of the anecdotes that threaten to sink me with their combined weight day after day. However, there were too many people that i had to chronicle, and this made it seem tedious (especially for any actual unlucky readers out there!). So i remembered a project someone else was doing, x365 (see previous post), and decided to go ahead with that.
So, freedom!
Also, all hail fresh strawberries and grapefruit with Odwalla's Vanilla Al'Mondo Super Protein drink (god, i can't believe i actually just typed that) as a chaser.