I’m converting the last untouched room in our house. We’ve called it the office, but it has basically been a room sized book closet. The goal is to turn it into a space we actually want to inhabit and create in. In this process, the one splurge I allowed myself was a set of Harman/Kardon SoundSticks III. They came from Amazon today.
Saying they are the best part of my day so far is akin to saying the Grand Canyon is a really big hole in the ground. Still, they’re the best part of my day so far.
October will soon be upon us. I’ll write that one more time to be certain it sinks in: October will soon be upon us! That means the time is soon approaching when, if I have the time, I’ll be making an assortment of lists to celebrate my favorite things from 2011. The movie lists might be pretty lackluster, because I’ve got a 2 month chunk in my year where I barely remember anything, and didn’t have time to watch movies. Sad.
Music never left me. In part because I can listen to it at work. Also, because it was the only thing I could do to recover much of the time. Here are five things I’m listening to these days that will be on some of the 2011’s lists.
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1. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy ($3.99 on Amazon mp3)
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2. AA Bondy – Believers
Listen to the album here.
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3. Beirut – The Rip Tide
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4. Liam Finn – Fomo ($5.oo on Amazon mp3)
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5. Feist and Lisa Hannigan
These albums aren’t out yet, but the first singles combined with previous track record give me the impression these will be on the lists as well.
Feist – How Come You Never Go There – Listen Here. – Buy Song Here.
Lisa Hannigan and Ray Lamontagne – Oh, Sleep – Listen Here. – Buy Song Here
In the next few days I’m going to write a post about Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys, the reading of which may have saved my fragile mind over the last few weeks. However, first I wanted to tell you about Neil Gaiman being my literary soulmate in yet another sphere.
While I was reading Anansi Boys, I made that playlist post several days ago. Jeff made that comment about trying to volunteer at a smaller radio station for a shift of some sort to give it a whirl from time to time. I thought, “That’s a great idea!”
Then, this great idea combined with my more delusional writer fantasies in which I get published, and become well-known enough to call up ole’ KEXP and say, “Hey, it’s local writer Scott Small. Can I be on your radio station sometime when a DJ is sick or something?” And they’d be like, “Hey, I heard about you, you sold like 15 copies of your book to the local public, and it wasn’t even your mom who bought all of them! Sure, you can have the graveyard shift next week when our normal DJ is in Fiji.” And I’d be like, “Score!” Then I would punch the sky and freeze as if that was the end of the episode, just like Kenneth Parcell at the end of the Night Court reunion.
It was soon afterward that I learned that from time to time, Neil Gaiman guest DJs on various Minneapolis radio stations. He is living my fantasy life in so many ways. Yup, be still my heart. I love that man.
I forget, did I ever tell you all about that quote I found from Gaiman? I probably did, but here it is anyway:
“There have been two times in my life where I know how God feels, and only two. The first was in 1988, writing Black Orchid, the first time I brought Batman on and had him say words that I’d written. I was like, ‘Batman is saying words that I’ve written. If the world ends tomorrow, I will still have made Batman talk. It probably won’t, and this comic will be published, and Batman will be in it, and he will have said stuff that I wrote.’ It was this incredible power. So, there was that, and then there was the first time I got to type the words, ‘Interior: TARDIS.'”
Anyway, if you know me at all, you probably understand how excited that would have made me. It was as if someone had said, “Hey, Scott, I want you to make up a quote for Neil Gaiman to say that would make you disproportionately happy.” The only other thing I would have added if I wrote it would have been beginning the quote with, “I was just telling my friend Scott the other day that…”
I’ve been starting to make playlists for work, since lately I’ve been able to use my iPhone to make the musical selections. So far, I’ve made one playlist, which I really like, but I was also under the influence of sleeping pills, so it’s not the opus I someday hope to create.
Being a DJ was the first job I ever wanted. If I could afford the hours to volunteer at KEXP in the slim hopes of someday working up to getting on the air occasionally, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment. During the summer when babysitters had to come over while my mom was at work, I used to use our record/cd/tape player in the living room to create an all day music mix for the sitter. Thus, picking music for a cafe full of people to listen to a few times a week makes me glad, especially when I get positive reviews in various forms.
So, I’ll share some of these playlists with all of you, via Groove Shark.
There are all sorts of hidden nuances and connections in the transitions, so if you notice any, share them. =) Some portions even tell a story, at least in my own imagination. Also, maybe there are some accidental ones in there that it would be fun to discover.
Sadly, there are a few songs that aren’t available on Groove Shark, and since I bought them on iTunes I can’t upload them. BS!
Said songs are: ‘Almost Like Being in Love’ – Nat King Cole, ‘Crazy Love’ – Van Morrison,
Some bands are on there twice, some bands didn’t make it but would have if I spent more time working on it.
Now I’m getting ready for the fall with a rainy day playlist, just in case I’m still working at Java Bean in Autumn.
If I’m going to be completely honest with you, I most often feel like this blog is a big waste of time. I know, I shouldn’t allow lack of comments and such to get me down, I should do it for the sheer joy of writing and enjoying the things that I enjoy with fervor. Yet, much of the time there’s an editor in my brain that tells me I should quit.
Well, that definitely won’t be happening. In this busyness of late, when I’ve had no time to blog here on RtM, I’ve missed it so much. So, to the four or five faithful readers of this blog, thanks for being here, because apparently I’m going to be doing this even if I’m the only one reading it.
Here’s to hoping I have time to get back at it over the next few weeks.
Today, I was sad waking up, because in my dream I was playing a really amazing role-playing video game. The game doesn’t exist in real life, and I was so disappointed to realize I couldn’t keep playing. I was about to start this really sick quest chain to enable one of my characters to summon elementals, but I couldn’t find the outskirts of the Battlefield of the Dead on my map. I think I’d just found it near the Forest of the Damned when I woke up.
This has been all over the internets now. I saw it because Brian sent it to me last night.
A simple video, but one I enjoy quite a bit.
If someone said I could party with any five people alive, Kanye, Jay-Z, and Aziz would be three of those people. This video makes someone wish someone would say I could party with any five people alive. They looked like they had a great time filming. This leads me to believe that they had just as much fun recording the album, and why shouldn’t they have, recording in various cities all over the world.
