| Three lists (I do believe in fairy tales, after all) |
|
|
| 12:49am 10/09/2009 |
| |
mood:  crazy music: The Weight : The Staple Singers : The Best of the Staple Singers
|
One list is the list of things I might have enraptured you with—had I ever gotten around to writing the Update of All Updates, allowing myself to begin posting “regularly” once again.
Two is the list that is finally breaking my resolve to make said update.
Three is the list which countermands the spirit of list two, with some forced cheerfulness but also genuine gratitude.
( One. )
( Two. )
( Three. ) |
|
| |
|
Read 16 - Post |
| |
| from the other (one of the others) Emily B |
|
|
| 07:44pm 23/01/2009 |
| |
“The first Seven (7) people to respond to this post will get something made by me.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for you.
- It’ll be done this year (2009).
- You have no clue what it’s going to be. It may be a mix CD. It may be a poem. It may be concocted from yarn. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well, if you expect me to do something for you!” |
|
| |
|
Read 5 - Post |
| |
| another iTunes meme from Ellen |
|
|
| 09:30am 07/08/2008 |
| |
|
music: NPR: 08-04-2008 Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! : NPR : NPR: Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Podcast
|
On the last one, the left-over tricky ones: 5 was the Beatles; 6 was Dar Williams; 7 was Debussy; 14 was Mark O’Connor; 18 was Pete Seeger.
Okay, Ellen’s quiz:
How many total songs?
8739 items, equal to 26.4 days or 35.47 GB.
Sort by song title - first and last?
(odd, Ellen’s iTunes lists numbers first)
* First: “À quanti già felici in giovinezza” - Ars Nova (Lassus)
* Last: “20000 Meilen über dem Meer” - Xavier Naidoo
Sort by time - shortest and longest?
* Shortest: “Drums of War” (0:10) from The Civil War soundtrack (well, really a blank Bethans track)
* Longest: “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoeniz” (26:22:52) read by Jim Dale
Sort by Album - first and last?
* First: The A to Z of Opera (Disc 1) [Monteverdi]
* Last: (no album) “I’ll Be There” (Jackson 5)
Sort by Artist - first and last?
* First: ABBA
* Last: (unnamed, then) 1993 Broadway Cast of She Loves Me
Top five played songs?
(only since 2006, and skewed in other ways)
1. “Ghost” - Indigo Girls
2. “The Wooing of Katherine” - Patrick Doyle, Henry V
3. “Willow Weep for Me” - Chanticleer
4. “Ending Theme” - Gabriel Yared, The English Patient
5. “Another Year Ends” - Patrick Doyle, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
|
| |
|
Read 1 - Post |
| |
| iTunes Meme |
|
|
| 06:21pm 16/07/2008 |
| |
(usual disclaimer about how a real update will follow shortly)
from yoda4554
1. Open a music player.
2. Go to ‘all music’/’library’.
3. Hit shuffle/repeat/randomise.
4. Find photos of the first 25 artists/bands that come up (no repeats and no cheating).
(I eliminated the no-chance ones [e.g. Fettes Brot, The Gordon Highlanders...], so all of these are gettable.)
( good luck guessing! ) |
|
| |
|
Read 16 - Post |
| |
| momentary thought |
|
|
| 12:15pm 08/05/2008 |
| |
mood:  awake music: You've Got To Show : Indigo Girls : Become You
|
I think when I grow up I want to live in a house isolated enough to have big open windows in the bathroom with no shades. Showering in sunlight is so nice. |
|
| |
|
Read 3 - Post |
| |
| Memory |
|
|
| 11:00pm 04/05/2008 |
| |
mood: silly music: Precious Lord : Williams College Concert Choir : Heaven and Earth
|
Tonight I went to my elementary school playmate’s senior recital at Macalester. I sat with another Urbana friend, who dropped this wonderful analogy:
“Yeah, sometimes you think you’re doing fine with post-college life, and then sometimes you just want it like you want your mom.” |
|
| |
|
Read 1 - Post |
| |
| Pavlovian Music |
|
|
| 06:30pm 26/04/2008 |
| |
mood:  curious music: I: Lento-Sostenuto Tranquillo Ma Cantabile: Górecki: Symphony #3
|
I suppose it’s a truism (especially among my friends) that music elicits unexpected emotions. But it’s probably equally common to kill a song by overloving and overplaying it. I noticed just now while fiddling around on the piano (there should be a better verb), though, that there are still some pieces for me that somehow resist that. For example, I was feeling totally chipper moments before starting to play (cue embarrassing reveal) “I’d Give My Life for You” from Miss Saigon. Then two minutes in my voice was breaking and my eyes welled up, like someone had tugged on the wrong wire. The fact is, I always get that melodramatically distraught singing about poor Kim and her *sniff* baby...no matter what my real emotional state is.
Other songs that fit in this category, off the top of my head:
“We’ll Meet Tomorrow” from Titanic the musical (specifically when Barrett sings to a photograph ”all this love of ours will soar...” and if by some miracle that doesn’t get me, “Come say you love me” and “if tomorrow is not in store”)
the climax of the Dixie Chicks’ “Not Ready to Make Nice.” I can get righteously angry at a potted plant listening to the chorus.
Jerusalem. It makes me forget that I’m a Scot.
“I Will Never Leave You” from Side Show: no matter how many times I play it, complete flashbacks to Uni graduation night and missing Karen.
the last trio from Der Rosenkavalier. I don’t even really know the plot of the opera, but if it comes on in the background, I’m completely overcome.
What music consistently evokes sudden irrational emotions in you? |
|
| |
|
Read 19 - Post |
| |
| History talk |
|
|
| 10:59pm 09/04/2008 |
| |
|
mood: emotional music: (Elgar) Cello Concerto in E minor Op. 85: I. Adagio - Moderato : Jacqueline Du Pre, London Symphony Orchestra & Sir John Barbirolli
|
Just a brief observation that really demands later thinking...
Earlier tonight I was a breath away from screaming the next time I read the words “categories of difference.” I had a disappointing class this afternoon, and I’ve just been feeling so tired of this game of reading, pulling apart and piecing together, hoping for the rare lovely word to interrupt the predictability of my own writing. It’s double jeopardy, because this intellectual exhaustion (unsurprisingly) makes me question my life plans, always a good project to engage when you’re paralyzed by the actual work as it is.
And yet, when somehow interesting contradictions fall into place, it feels so good. I get this burst of energy and pride and feel so affirmed by even a few well-connected sentences. What I’m wondering is if this is equivalent to what those crazy people who actually enjoy running feel when they’re babbling about endorphins. I need to face a lot of this more directly in the summer when my spirits are in more tender care.
Glory be for cello concerti, anyway! |
|
| |
|
Read 6 - Post |
| |
| Just can't make myself write tonight... |
|
|
| 12:31am 03/04/2008 |
| |
mood:  tired music: watching Apollo 13 in the background
|
I am dangerously ready for summer. Lots of fulfilling things going on in my (supposedly work but still think of it as) school life, but I’m too tired to detail them now. I’m working on a short reaction paper that should have been the warmup for prepping a presentation for tomorrow and outlining the 10 page draft I need to have for Friday, but the train is stalled at the station. If only it were the kind of train where you stop and see John Thornton coming the other direction.
Things That Make Me Happy (cont.)
talking to Alaya on the phone
Joe and Rachmaninoff
rereading old emails
heartfelt anything
Louisa May and Laura Ingalls
a classmate interrupting her closing comments to tell me my hair was cute
Is it contradictory that when I’m drained from too much writing and too many books that I think longingly of planning my summer of writing and books? At least words and I still are in this committed relationship, despite current strains. |
|
| |
|
Read 3 - Post |
| |
| I thought about writing peaceful or jubilant as my mood, but this works better |
|
|
| 11:22pm 06/03/2008 |
| |
mood:  loved music: Ave Maria (Franz Biebl) : Chanticleer
|
Dear all,
Tonight I had three phone conversations in a row while cleaning my kitchen that made the world full of light in a familiar way, but in a feeling that hasn’t been coming around as often recently. Alaya has been such a comfort for me, a sustaining love even when I’m low. And talking to Sarah tonight made me feel more myself and more wanted than anything since Dave and Rachel’s visit.
New playlist project: choral “quiet joy” music.
My aunt and uncle are coming to Minneapolis this weekend!!! We got last-minute tickets to Prairie Home Companion and by chance it’s the Annual Joke Show!
Lunch on the history department’s dime today was another chance for me to appreciate the awesomeness that is my advisor MJ.
I’ve finally settled in the last couple weeks on my seminar papers this semester. They are, in minimally excruciating detail for you all:
a historiography of childhood and empire
a research paper on Eleazar Wheelock’s “Indian Charity-school” in eighteenth-century Connecticut
an historiographical essay (comparative?) on female friendships in the nineteenth century
a study of “generation” as a concept in studies of the life course.
My grandmother is going home to Texas this weekend. Mommy’s taking her, and then going to California. But I’ll be with my whole family over spring break.
Things That Make Me Happy (cont.)
chamomile tea, and feeling like a Victorian girl
mops, and the satisfactions of domesticity
contemporary communication technologies, despite all their problems
flutter, and accepting it (vigorously) in my voice
dust removers, and some small compulsive tendencies
solid conducting gestures, even alone in my room
prospective grad students, and realizing I have grown more than I knew
dreams of Thompson Chapel
A Bit of Fry and Laurie
Gently transported to this frame of mind, I remain your loving
Emily |
|
| |
|
Read 8 - Post |
| |
| Bemused |
|
|
| 12:26am 05/03/2008 |
| |
|
mood: better music: Indigo Girls stuck in my head
|
(written recently in an email)
render
mediate
constitutive
explanatory power
category of analysis
gendered
forms of knowledge
inscribe
Sometimes I feel like my mind has been swept away by someone else’s dictionary. The apparently instantaneous replacement of my own thoughts in the last few months with the buzziest of jargon is sometimes exhilarating (that “part of the club” feeling) but lately disturbing, like I can’t think about anything (news articles, encounters on the bus, friendships, television shows, dishwashing) without interpreting and writing it. I think I’ll play the piano and swim a lot this summer. |
|
| |
|
Post |
| |
| End of movie meme... |
|
|
| 05:07pm 01/03/2008 |
| |
mood:  accomplished music: Rocking Chair : The Band
|
So weird to use the word meme in this context after a semester of Jack Z. referring to the mimetic power of folklore day after day...
1. “I think we define ‘woman’ differently. I don’t define it as ‘punching bag,’ for example.”
...is from De-Lovely. Cole Porter (played by Kevin Kline) says it to Linda’s ex-husband.
6. “Sellerie” “Basilikum” “Kognak” “Steranise” (”Celery” “Basil” “Cognac” “Star-anise”)
...is from Bella Martha (”Mostly Martha”), which I didn’t expect anyone to get, though I think I’ve made some of you watch it. This is from the most amazing kissing scene ever filmed.
18. “He keeps mentioning Anna Karenina. I think that’s his idea of a man-to-man chat.”
...is from The English Patient, which ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) violettavalery really should see. Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) says it to Katherine (Kristin Scott Thomas) about a mutual friend who knows about their affair. |
|
| |
|
Read 6 - Post |
| |
| movies still up for grabs |
|
|
| 11:13am 27/02/2008 |
| |
mood:  mellow music: P&P theme in my head
|
At least one of you has seen each of these. Practically everyone on my friends list has seen #4, I’m sure:
1. “I think we define ‘woman’ differently. I don’t define it as ‘punching bag,’ for example.”
4. “She’s the coolest girl in school and everyone worships her because she’s heaven.” (So hard to pick one line!) Love Actually (hawk2720)
6. “Sellerie” “Basilikum” “Kognak” “Steranise” (”Celery” “Basil” “Cognac” “Star-anise”)
18. “He keeps mentioning Anna Karenina. I think that’s his idea of a man-to-man chat.” |
|
| |
|
Read 15 - Post |
| |
| the movie meme |
|
|
| 12:06am 27/02/2008 |
| |
mood: impressed music: watching #20 in the background now
|
1. Pick 20 of your favorite movies. [note: I still love you, other favorite movies. these just came to mind]
. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
. Post them here for everyone to guess.
. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
1. “I think we define ‘woman’ differently. I don’t define it as ‘punching bag,’ for example.”
2. “There is only one page left to write on. I will fill it with words of only one syllable. I love. I have loved. I will love.”
3. “Why can’t you be happy for me?” “Because you are an affront to gay people everywhere and I am a gay people!” (harmonylover)
4. “She’s the coolest girl in school and everyone worships her because she’s heaven.” (So hard to pick one line!) Love Actually (hawk2720)
5. “Proudfeet!” (kmunson779)
6. “Sellerie” “Basilikum” “Kognak” “Steranise” (”Celery” “Basil” “Cognac” “Star-anise”)
7. “That was only when I first knew her. For many months now I have considered her one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance.” Pride and Prejudice (violettavalery)
8. “No, no, nothing can help now. Nothing!” “But, you see, I have the other slipper.” Cinderella (violettavalery)
9. “You think because I am poor, plain, obscure and little, that I have no heart?” Jane Eyre (violettavalery)
10. “So okay, I don’t want to be a traitor to my generation and all but I don’t get how guys dress today. I mean, come on, it looks like they just fell out of bed and put on some baggy pants and take their greasy hair - ew - and cover it up with a backwards cap and, like, we’re expected to swoon? I don’t think so.” (Again, far too many choices.) Clueless (violettavalery)
11. “Compliments of the Concord Ladies Coffee Club/ and the Sisterhood of the Truro Synagogue/ and the Friday Evening Baptist Sewing Circle/ and the Holy Christian Sisters of St. Claire” 1776 (violettavalery)
12. “They never did return their plunder; the victor gets all the loot/ They carried them home, by thunder, to rotundas small but cute.” Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (violettavalery)
13. “I was looking up. It was the nearest thing to heaven. You were there.” An Affair to Remember (violettavalery)
14. “I happen to like nice men.” Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (violettavalery)
15. “She’s heading an expedition to China shortly. I’m to go as her servant. But only on the understanding that I am to be very badly treated.” Sense and Sensibility (violettavalery)
16. “Is this the ear you can’t hear on? -- --, I’ll love you till the day I die.” (because it’s my favorite line) It’s a Wonderful Life (violettavalery)
17. “My, she was yar.” Philadelphia Story (violettavalery)
18. “He keeps mentioning Anna Karenina. I think that’s his idea of a man-to-man chat.”
19. “At times like this, continuing with one’s life seems impossible... and eating the entire contents of one’s fridge seems inevitable.” Bridget Jones's Diary (userkmunson779>)
20. “Well, they... they resemble humans.” “But I’d say a mite smaller.” “Aye, and they walk on all fours.” “And if I remember correctly... they beller a lot.” “And they’re very expensive. You’ll not be permitted to play wi’ it.” “But they’re mighty sweet.” “And very, very soft.” (kmunson779) |
|
| |
|
Read 19 - Post |
| |
| Amusing Email Exchange |
|
|
| 10:54am 11/02/2008 |
| |
mood: awake music: Language Or The Kiss : Indigo Girls : 1200 Curfews [Disc 2]
|
E: The baby girls (Maynsarah) are coming that week to see me...
Brian: And -- out of curiosity, as I may be a bit behind the times -- aren’t the baby girls now juniors?
Sarah: No! I’m still a baby girl!
EDIT
Brian: My apologies: I should know that it's never polite to question women
about their age. |
|
| |
|
Post |
| |
| Query |
|
|
| 04:02pm 30/01/2008 |
| |
mood:  thoughtful
|
In movies and television, people (usually women) are always wrapping themselves up in the sheets from a bed and then walking around the room. Why do they do this? I have never had the urge to pull the sheets off my bed and use them instead of clothes. |
|
| |
|
Read 4 - Post |
| |
| Not a substantive post... |
|
|
| 09:14am 24/01/2008 |
| |
mood:  disappointed
|
That will have to wait for the time and grace to write as eloquently as Joe did of this magical Reunion weekend. I also want to give some highlights from Ireland. But for now, I need to show this simple pairing to someone in my disturbance about what maybe might be wrong with American youth culture..
War Dance
Never Back Down |
|
| |
|
Read 3 - Post |
| |
|
|
|
