What's the best thing about your mom?
Well .. my mom was my most faithful cheerleader. She always had confidence in me when my own confidence failed. I thought she hated me when I was fifteen and sixteen, as most girls feel about their mothers. In fact, my mom loved me more than anything and would have done anything for me. We just butted heads so much back then I just couldn't see it. When you're sixteen, you have a very narrow and self-centered view of your own life. When I grew older, I realized that and saw what happened through matured eyes.
I went to visit her today. I took her flowers and sat beside her on a grassy knoll, overlooking a gorgeous mountain view.
What a shock it was for me when she suddenly died last summer. It took me a while to accept it. Even now, it's hard to actually believe she's not just gone on some extended holiday.
I miss her. A lot.
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05/16/08 Toad’s Place New Haven, CT
Discography
05/22/08 Slims San Francisco, CA 05/24/08 Les Schwab Amp Bend, OR 05/25/08 Sasquatch Festival Quincy, WA 05/28/08 Henry Fonda Theater LA, CA 06/06/08 Wakarusa Festival Lawrence, KS 06/07/08 Slowdown Omaha, NE 06/08/08 Bluebird St. Louis, MO 06/10/08 Bricktown Ballroom Oklahoma, Ok 06/11/08 Granada Theatre Dallas, TX 06/12/08 Warehouse Live Houston, TX 06/13/08 Emo’s Austin, TX 06/14/08 Rev Room Little Rock, AR 06/15/08 Hi-Tone Memphis, TN 06/17/08 Southgate House Newport, KY 06/18/08 Mr. Small’s Theatre Pittsburgh, PA 06/21/08 Popped! Festival Philadelphia, PA 06/25/08 Pemberton Festival Pemberton, BC 08/01/08 Lollapalooza-Grant Park Chicago,IL 08/08/08 All Points West Liberty State, NJ 09/26/08 Austin City Limits Festival TX
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Mates of State are back with Re-Arrange Us, coming out May 20th. Let me tell you that this girl-boy duo knows great pop music.
I first heard about them on a 2003 CMJ compilation with a little song called "Ha Ha", but I didn't think much of it. By 2006, after being signed to Barsuk Records, I remember I started seeing that distinctive "indie cover" artwork with Mates of State's husband and wife team, Jason Hammel and Kori Gardner, in a very strange half embrace.
There's some great pop tunes on Re-Arrange Us, but the song that the record label approved us to use is "My Only Offer", which I already liked so I have no problem with using this particular song. I thought the trumpet, played by Gary Olson, was a very nice addition to the song.
There's a few great songs, including, "Jigsaw", which basically has Jason repeating lyrics sung by Kori (actually, after reading the credits, it lists Ben Gibbard, from Death Cab For Cutie, as backup vocals). It's really easy to sing along, so I think this would be a great live concert pleaser. Also would play great is "Now", which has the simple, but catchy "Now now now now now now. Now now now now now now, who who who?"
I also really dug "The Re-Arranger", which is basically what the album was named after. This song sounds like it's escaped from the 60s and made a stop in the 80s, before resurfacing now.
The duo are currently doing some tour dates to promote Re-Arrange Us, so catch them if you're able. According to their official website, if you pre-order the album, it should arrive in your mailbox on the 20th, but you can usually find Barsuk records at most good record stores.
PS, apparently the band is a fan of the "Little Boxes" song (there is a live rendition on their myspace). I wonder if they got involved with the song because of Death Cab for Cutie's version or because they're also doing a theme song for Weeds?
Show us your mother.
Hurricane Hetta has tagged me to write eight random things about myself. I will go as fast as I can...
- I have been to many schools since I graduated from High School, including DeVry, Musician's Institute, multiple community colleges, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where I finally got a degree.
- I went through a phase where I loved epic poems. I read everything I could get my hands on, including the Iliad, Beowulf, Icelandic literature, the Kalevala, Nibelungenlied, The Song of Roland, and many, many more. They gave me a great sense of what it means to be human, and to struggle.
- Current favorite video game: Dance Dance Revolution, Mario Mix. Favorite dance in that game: Always Smiling.
- I am on the Atkins diet. The first three days of no sugar and no caffeine had me weak and shaking and convinced me that I had an addiction, not a habit. The snack I spoil myself with now is apples with peanut butter.
- As soon as I know I want to watch a movie or read a particular book (for example, if somebody I trust recommends it), I don't want to know a single bit about what it's about--not even if it's a comedy or a drama. I like to come in completely blind and let the storyteller bring me into the world.
- I have lived in 10 different states in the U.S. and even more cities.
- I wrote a computer program in Java that generates moves on a Rubik's Cube and checks to see if they did anything interesting (for example, swap only two corners). I used the output of that program to create a solution where you only have to learn four moves to solve the cube.
- I have a HAM radio license.
It's really for the last couple days.
Where are you?
And I'm so sorry.
I cannot sleep, I cannot dream tonight.
I need somebody and always
This sick strange darkness
Comes creeping on,
So haunting every time.
And as I stared
I counted
The webs from all the spiders
Catching things and eating their insides.
Like indecision to call you
And hear your voice of treason.
Will you come home and stop this pain tonight?
Stop this pain tonight.
Don't waste your time on me
You're already
The voice inside my head.
- Blink 182, "I Miss You"
Some pop culture heresy is about to transpire here.
First: I liked Iron Man very much. It's a fun, cool, exciting movie, and Robert Downey, Jr. is so at the top of his game, he's about to become one of the biggest movie stars in the world.
However.
I fucking LOVED Speed Racer. If I could inject this candy into my veins and feel all the time the way I felt while I was watching this movie, my face would eventually cramp up from my ever-present grin of childlike glee. It's tracking at something like 35% at Rotten Tomatoes, and I can only assume that it's because "serious" movie critics have either a) never seen the source material, which the movie captures perfectly, or b) forgotten how to have fun. This is a movie for kids, but unlike most kids' fodder nowadays, it doesn't talk down or pander to them (except for one monkey-poo joke, but no movie can be perfect when it's aiming to entertain the midget set). It's exciting, fun, filled with eye-popping action scenes, and grounded in surprisingly heartfelt emotion.
If you don't take your kids to see this, you are a bad parent; if you see it and don't love it, I'm sorry that your over-developed sense of irony has killed your inner gee-whiz.
I'm not even a fan of the cartoon, but I unreservedly LOVED THIS MOVIE.
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Not-for-kids addendum: Holy shit, Christina Ricci's Trixie is SO MOTHERFUCKING CUTE. You can upgrade my Mach 5 any time, sweetie. WOOF.
Quand tout allait mal, et que je regardais les circonstances difficiles autour de moi, inextricables et déprimantes: je les croyais là pour toujours, emprisonnant ma vie, limitant ma vision, anéantissant mon espoir. Je me demandais comment les choses allaient bien pouvoir changer, comment la roue allait bien pouvoir tourner, je ne voyais pas le début d'un bout de solution.
Et pourtant, petit à petit, en prenant un problème après l'autre (trancher le noeud gordien est alléchant mais c'est une fausse bonne idée, il se reconstitue "magiquautomatiquement" ^^), donc, en prenant les circonstances une à une, et avec un peu de temps (tant qu'il y a du temps, y'a de l'espoir^^).... un jour, je regarde autour de moi, et je constate gaiement, que oui, tout, ou presque tout, a finalement évolué dans le sens que je cherchais....
Rien n'est figé pour toujours. Ni George Clooney, Ni l'Empire Romain, Ni Facebook, Ni La Bastille, Ni Apple, Ni le Titanic, Ni les Circonstances... :)
Le cours des choses peut toujours changer.
Et maintenant que tout va bien (allez, presque, mais on ne va pas chipoter), et que toutes les circonstances autour de moi, de ma vie, vont plutôt bien et dans le bon sens, je pense encore qu'elles sont solides et immuables, des circonstances en béton armé: la vie est belle..... Je refais la même erreur, mais avec des circonstances positives^^,
Mais c'est toujours plus agréable d'être sûre que les circonstances positives vont durer, plutôt que celles négatives... ;) ça me va très bien comme ça :)
Malheureusement, on a beaucoup d'occasions dans la vie de perdre l'espoir que la roue tourne, mais elle tourne, avec de l'huile de coude, un zeste de hasard bien placé, et du temps.... c'est ce que j'ai appris, et je tacherai de retenir ma leçon si d'aventure la roue semblait à nouveau bloquée à un sale endroit..... ce post sera là pour ça :)
Je me met un mot clé au cas où: Un à UN, tout est possible.
Bonne fin de journée à tous :)
Show us the person you'd most like to switch bodies and lives with for one freaky Friday.
I was with Sarah on this one when she said that this smacks of an earlier "would you want to be someone else" entry. But after reading her idea that it's just one day, I began to think about it in a different way. What would I want to experience for one day, who would I want to learn from for one day.
There's a couple:
I'd want her talent, her humour, her unbelievable beauty, her humbleness and groundedness. I'd like her ability to speak French fluently. I also find it amusing that she was in the original Freaky Friday.
Show us your mother.
