An hour of Radiohead. Enjoy.

Music Notes

I've had a good 2 days at the farm this week. We were really productive, even though it was really hot and humid. I harvested for the first time and we sent down our first delivery to the restaurant. I heard that the chef seemed to be overwhelmed with how much lettuce there was! There were a lot of greens that were affected by the flea beetle in the last week, so I got to take home a lot of the "imperfect-looking" produce (lots of holes but still good!) We also prepared some beds, weeded and raked them through and applied compost, then spent some time seeding again. It's nice to have experienced a mini cycle, from seeding in April to harvesting this week. Now I have a good idea of how we will continue this process over the rest of the season.

I wish I could post up pictures of the place, but it's on a private estate. So instead... here's a photo (which I wish I took!) of Mick and Keith. Like most of my interests-- but music especially-- I am stuck in a different time, and have been since I started getting into (good) music during high school. However, the discovery process has proved to be extremely slow over the years; there was a 2 year period during college (and working at Tower Records where I was continually exposed to "new" music) when all I had playing in my cassette player in the car were Van Morrison's Moondance and Live in Harlem by Sam Cooke. For 2 years! When I love something, I really get into it. So to this day, I still spend a lot of time on one album. And just when you think you've got a good grasp of what a certain artist has done, I discover something else of theirs that just blows me away. 

On the way back home driving from the farm this week, I hooked up my phone to the audio and listened to a couple of documentaries on Netflix-- Tales From the Script and Rolling Stones: Stones in Exile. It's made me rediscover Exile on Main Street again. My favorite Stones album has been Sticky Fingers but I think a lot of that is because I haven't been able to move on from it to start listening to something else! There's a lot of songs on Exile that are very familiar but it's totally different when you listen to an entire album from start to finish, the way that it was intended. I also like how documentaries (or books, articles, friends, etc) propels you to re-discover something great that you may have overlooked before. It's also the same way I get into the influences of the artists themselves. I started listening to a lot of blues this year: Robert Johnson,  Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf... there's really not enough time for me to listen to all the songs I have!

Speaking of the Stones, have you heard the Terry Gross interview with Keith Richards talking about his book Life? I guess they replayed it recently during the most recent of WNYC's pledge drives. I like how he gives her a hard time in response to some of her questions! But deservedly so-- she really asks the most inappropriate things sometimes. Anyways, new found respect for him. He's intelligent and articulate and funny all at the same time-- which I truthfully have to admit I didn't think he would be after all the drugs he did and the crazy, amazing life he's had! Now... if I could find time to read his book :)

Neil Young playing on my iPod while driving home. The rain makes me think of when I was a kid and my mom took my sister and I on a day trip to Peterborough, a small city northeast of Toronto. Halfway there, the rain started pouring down so intensely we had to stop in the middle of the highway. I cried so hard, I must have thought we were gonna die. I think I was 10, lol.

I got 2 teeth pulled out today. One of the spaces really hurts. But I'm still very resistant to taking any meds, even if it's only a Tylenol. I have become very skeptical of medicine lately-- and healthcare in general, I wonder why ;) 

While I'm on the topic, did you listen to Terry Gross on NPR the other day talking to a reporter who did an investigation about the dangers of medical radiation? It was very interesting and I think it's important to know about.  

Time to rest now.

California on my mind

"It seems like the wrath of the gods got a punch on the nose

And it's startin' to flow, I think I might be sinkin"

I am a Pisces (is that a correct usage of language?) or at least I used to be. It's an appropriate sign for me, as it pretty much accurately describes my personality. I am sensitive, imaginative, unworldly, and melancholic. I'm misunderstood. I'm behind-the-scenes, I don't like the spotlight. I am internally conflicted, swimming in opposite directions. I am mutable!!

But under the new zodiac change, I am now an Aquarius, whose qualities are almost the complete opposite of me. I'm no longer passive? Eccentric? Clear and logical?? This water carrier is a stranger to me! Can I learn to embrace my new sign? After all, I think it is about time to stop being a dreamer. But I'm not sure if I like everything I'm reading. Some of the health problems that Aquarians are susceptible to include diarrhea, goiter, and my favorite-- delirium tremens. That would be alcohol withdrawal. Hmmm.

Regardless of what sign I really am, here's some of my Piscean creativity coming out. Please enjoy listening to my playlist.

Yet another film to look forward to-- The Illusionist by French animator Sylvain Chomet. I don't know if you saw The Triplets of Belville but I had never seen anything like it before, a beautiful hand-drawn animated movie capable of bringing out so many emotions. It has been eight years and I can't even imagine how many millions of hours has gone into making the The Illusionist, but I am going to have to find some way to persuade my grandfather to see this with me (though we'll have to wait until we're back in NY.)

Now, meditate on beautiful music.

 

It's -6 degrees celcius today! And sunny too! Lovely day for taking a walk, although it's still very, very cold. 

Here's the beautiful cowl my sister knitted for me. 

Now... try to sing along to all the "oh"s in the last part of "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side!"

This is major Tom to ground control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in the most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders "Excuses" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Daysleeper

I see today with a newsprint fray. My night is colored headache grey.

Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio!

The day after Thanksgiving and I'm having cheesecake for breakfast =) And turkey too.

While prepping for the big meal, we busted out the Kitchen Aid mixer for the first time. I don't know why I haven't used it earlier-- it really makes baking so much easier! Mandy and I made red velvet cupcakes, which were delicious. Mandy brought over ice wine from Pellar Estates, which we visited last week on our way to Toronto.

More cooking: I made (pretty awful) cornbread for Neil's (really good) oyster stuffing. He also cooked us up a beautiful breakfast of steak, eggs, and asparagus with his new sous vide machine.

Other news: I have wasted about 20 hours of my life in the past 3 days playing Scramble on my phone.

On another note, here are pics of the concert we went to see with Lang Lang and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. I think even if you don't like classical music, you would be moved in some way by Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. But then again, Neil didn't seem to be too impressed. He said, "It was alright."

#12.3 The Kooks - Ooh la by lablogotheque

This is one of the older take-away shows, but I still can't get over how great it is (especially the end) every time I watch it. Got off of work yesterday morning and for the first time I stayed awake until night (though I became increasingly delirious after 8pm!) It was an amazingly warm day, and I was still trying to digest the events overnight. Floating is a nursing term we use when we are assigned to a different floor other than the one we normally work on. So I "floated" for the first time, and of all the places-- to the VIP floor, where (I heard this first on the radio, so I don't think this violates HIPAA!) a certain US Supreme Court Justice is recovering from surgery. Flustered at first, but made it through the night alright with 6 "VIP"s in my hands, haha.

Obama. Everywhere.

NPR did a little piece on page turners yesterday, considering them as "the unsung heroes of the musical stage." It reminded me of when I used to turn pages for my piano teacher during her concerts/recitals, and also of how nerve-wrecking it was! Losing my spot on the page, forgetting to repeat, grabbing 2 pages instead of one... I'd love to do it again though, as it's an extraordinary experience to be on the stage of a concert hall, soaking in all the music-- but it's an obscure job that's usually reserved for piano students, which I can no longer classify myself as!

I have to confess that for a political science major, I have been deliberately ignorant about politics since the onset of the recent presidential campaign-- mostly because I didn't care who won either way. And even after it was pretty clear that Obama had a very good chance of winning, one of the reasons why I still wasn't eager to jump on his bandwagon was because I was tired of hearing the word "change" uttered so many times, riling up such fervent cheers at its every mention. However, as I watched Obama deliver his victory speech last night, I want to say in the most non-partisan way that... the man has good taste in music! Obama said, "It's been a long time coming," an allusion to one of the greatest songs ever, A Change is Gonna Come, which Sam Cooke wrote after hearing Bob Dylan's Blowing in the Wind, but wrote-- and sang-- from a much deeper, personal perspective (that of a black man living in America during the 1960's). In contrast to Sam Cooke's beautiful but aching tone, last night Obama declared in a calm, steadfast voice, "Change has come to America". And so it has.

I recently watched Reign On Me and I'm Not There and although I didn't think they were very good movies, they've inspired me to listen to The River again, as well as to revisit countless Bob Dylan songs from my long-ignored collection. Some things you may not know about me: 1. I have 14 Bruce Springsteen albums 2. I have 11 Bob Dylan albums 3. I've seen them both in concert I want to confess that I ran over a squirrel yesterday while driving home. I swerved but still managed to run it over, and saw it's tail twitching in the air from my rear view mirror. I am horrible. Horrible.

I assumed the weather in Toronto would be pretty similar to NYC's, but it's not nearly as muggy or hot here. Cool, breezy, and sunny. Listening to this mix while drinking a milk tea.