Gwenda

Headbang Your Pen

3 Comments / Write Talk / By /

Y’all will remember that making playlists can be a useful outlining and writing tool for me. And I hadn’t made one in awhile, not since way back when the novel had an entirely different name. I prefer writing to certain kinds of songs, so that’s the kind of playlist this one is, not necessarily one I hear as a soundtrack to the novel.

Well, it is, but not in an overt way. There’s way more slow, drawn-out quiet songs on here than there are chapters like that in the novel (I hope), but I like those for thinking and writing. They blend into invisibility easier. So, without further ado, here it is. Remember that my iTunes is all stuff I’ve downloaded since I got my computer last summer, so it’s all from music blogs and albums I’ve bought since then.

Warning also: It’s long. That means I don’t have to keep hitting repeat. Most tracks findable online at the Hype, if you’re intrigued by something.

Hotaru – Kama Aina
She Was a Girl, She Was in Love – Matt Baldwin   
Splintering – Arizona       
The Funeral – Band of Horses   
Mushaboom (Postal Service Remix) – Feist       
Minors – Flying       
My Dad Is Rich – Brian Ross    
This Sentence Will Ruin/Save Your Life – Born Ruffians
True Affection – The Blow       
I Turn My Camera On – Spoon (Live at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley on 8-12-2006)      
Cursed Sleep – Bonnie "Prince" Billy 
Crowd Surf Off A Cliff – Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton      
Hunters Map – Fionn Regan      
My Head Is Blank – François Virot       
Hello Hello Hi – From Bubblegum to Sky       
Rich Man – Ghostland Observatory         
Holy Cow (demo) – Margot & The Nuclear So And Sos      
On a Neck, On a Spit – Grizzly Bear       
Wild is the Wind (Nina Simone Cover) – Cat Power                     
My Heart Is An Apple – Arcade Fire   
I’m Just a Child – Coming Soon         
Bonnie & Clyde – Headset       
Citizens of Tomorrow – Tokyo Police Club   
Gotta D.J. – Hot Springs                   
Strange Desire – The Black Keys       
Winchester Gun – Katamine   
Under the Gun – Kristin Hersh       
Elephant Gun – Beirut       
Vertigo – Kristin Hersh       
Alaska – Camera Obscura       
Everything’s Just Wonderful – Lily Allen                   
We Were Sparkling – My Brightest Diamond       
I Can Get Us Out Of Here – Lucero       
To Go Home – M. Ward   
Volcanoes – Islands       
Dancing Queen – Mantissa                   
Up To My Neck In You – Mark Kozelek       
I Am Not Willing – Moby Grape               
I Was Wrong – The Morning Benders      
Hold On, Hold On – Neko Case   
Breathless – Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds      
Shade And Honey – Sparklehorse       
Something of an End – My Brightest Diamond       
Home As A Romanticized Concept Where Everyone Loves You Always And Forever – Woodpigeon   
Scientist Girl – North Atlantic       
Cross My Heart, Hope You Die – This Is A Process Of A Still Life 
The Fatal Flaw – Lucinda Kruy & The Sun-Ups   
Song for Augustine Pt. 2 – White Flight       
Celebration Guns – Stars      

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Friday Hangovers

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Poetry Friday

Poemtry / By /

In honor of Alan DeNiro’s Read This! status over at the LBC, here’s a Friday poem from his chapbook "Atari Ecologues." (Ooh, and perhaps there will be DeNiro poems every Friday until the Festival of Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead has concluded.)

j

Reset. I won’t expect endings to end–
as long as the power’s on, I’ll chew pixie
sticks and cellar bubbles, think that
perhaps Lawrence Welk is the eater of worlds.
In the restaurant, a woman from the other
windowside
mouths, Loser, to me. Give me an L-
sign with her game-over hands. Not at 13, I’m 27.
The now,
the current place bookmarked. I heartily
agree, we’re all losers, goners,
husks waiting for money to come back,
to hear the words you were not cheated
by someone in authority, even though we
know we won’t. Death smells like shoe polish,
never one’s favorite star.

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Wednesday Hangovers

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When Oh When is the Bus Gonna Come?

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For the kitty:Travelingcatnti_468x376

Passenger, Paul Brennan, 19, who catches the 331 to work, said: "I first noticed the cat a few weeks ago. At first I thought it had been accompanied by its owner but after the first stop it became quite clear he was on his own.

"He sat at the front of the bus, waited patiently for the next stop and then got off. It was was quite strange at first but now it just seems normal. I suppose he is the perfect passenger really – he sits quietly, minds his own business and then gets off."

(Via Sara Gran.)

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Crazy Hairdressers & Evolutionary Theory

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I hope you understand the seriousness of the situation when I say that my hair stylist for the last few years — the wonderful Holly at J. Allen — is moving away next month. I adore Holly. She’s the only hairdresser I’ve had as an adult that: a)doesn’t do something weird with my hair that makes me want to wash it immediately upon leaving and b)isn’t completely batshit crazy.

For awhile there, every stylist I saw turned out to be a little too crazy for comfort. There was Joseph, a sweet small-town gay guy who was fabulous at first but then had back surgery and found religion. To be honest, he was always kind of crazy. The first time I saw him, he told me in a whisper that he was "a little bit psychic." His religious conversion came after he was able to pray away his back pain (or could it have been that the surgery was successful?). He could talk of nothing else and was a bore on the topic of my immortal soul. I stopped going there.

The next stylist had probably better remain anonymous, since his salon bears his name. Anyway, things were so far, so good — until the topic somehow came around to evolution. He was one of those "I cannot understand how people believe that we came from apes, isn’t that stupid?" types. How this is polite conversation to make with a client I still don’t understand. I believe my response was a horrified: "Oh, I don’t know. I could show you some pictures of politicians that would convince you." I stopped going there.

Anyway, the NYT has a fascinating article today on the latest insights into just how humanlike chimpanzees really are:

Chimps display a remarkable range of behavior and talent. They make and use simple tools, hunt in groups and engage in aggressive, violent acts. They are social creatures that appear to be capable of empathy, altruism, self-awareness, cooperation in problem solving and learning through example and experience. Chimps even outperform humans in some memory tasks.

I plan to bring up this article for discussion early on in the appointment with my new stylist, just in case she’s hiding some sort of anti-science proclivity. Which pretty much guarantees she’ll think of me as the crazy client who talks about chimps and evolutionary theory. Oh well.

The price of a good haircut is ever steeper.

p.s. Christopher — in this instance serving the role of guinea pig — reports that evolution was not mentioned during his haircut.

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Sadness (updated)

Goodbyes / By /

And now word is starting to spread that one of the victims of this terrible, unthinkable tragedy may be SF writer Michael Bishop‘s son, who apparently teaches/taught German at Virginia Tech. I hope it’s not true. I don’t know Michael Bishop at all, but E Bear is right: the field is small and we’re a family in some odd, real way. And my heart goes out to the Bishops’–if it’s not true, for believing that it was, even for a little while–and to all those who are hurting tonight because they lost someone important to them.

I always have nightmares after a school shooting and I can’t imagine tonight will be different.

Updated: And Locus has now confirmed that Jamie Bishop was among the victims. There is really nothing to say in the face of such senseless tragedy. If you visit the site at that link, you can see some of his beautiful artwork.

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Read This!

1 Comment / LitBlog Co-Op / By /

So, y’all head over and check out Pinky’s big announcement that this quarter’s Read This! pick is the one and only Alan DeNiro‘s wonderful debut collection Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead. I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity for a bunch of smart people to converse about these stories.

See also Pinky’s post at her own site about her MFA classmates’ lukewarm reception to the title story. I can only respond by calling those in question boobyheads.

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Dear Other People

4 Comments / Cat and Dog Theater / By /

at the Dog Park: Control your dogs! Do not let them gang up on a less-than-20-pound tiny dog so that he practically climbs up onto Christopher’s shoulder after the two of us attempt to intercede on his behalf with your gigantor dogs.

We went to the other side of the dog park. All was well. We glared. (Seriously, these people were USELESS.)

Anyway, we finally signed Puck’s official papers this afternoon. He’s ours. As you can tell by the Professor H.P. Lovecraft Miskatonic University nametag he’s trying to shake off his head in photo one. (Long story, but Emma tried so hard, all her photos are blurry.)

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Sunday Hangovers

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