So I’ve been listening to a LOT of music lately which just goes hand in hand with bad breakups. It’s super cliche! But for a reason. It helps. I guess.

Anyway, the point is that I’ve rediscovered some old music I haven’t listened to in a million years or so, give or take a decade. Most of it is stuff from well-known artists or at least artists with major record labels. But a few songs are by people I know, personally. Back when the world was different and I ran witha different crowd, I was surrounded by artists. My friends were all into music or art in some form or another. None of them ever became well-known or rich and famous, but they were still talented. When one of their songs pops up I think about them and memories just wash over me. It takes feel good music to a whole new level.

I’ve lost touch with all of these people over the years. Something I thought would never happen at the time, I’m sure. I wonder about them when I hear their songs. One moved on to Nashville, I know. But I wonder if he is still there. The other, I think, moved back to Canada, but I can’t be sure. Doesn’t matter anyway, I wouldn’t reach out to them even if I knew how. That’s a long time gone from where I am right now and I don’t need or want to go back again.

Still, when their music comes up it makes me smile and it makes me wistful and besides evoking those personal memories, they’re just good music. The lyrics are thoughtful and well-written. The music is mellow and just right. It makes me proud to have known them at one time. And I wonder if they realize it? It kind of makes me sad to think about how good their music makes me feel and they will never know. Neither of them hit it big like they thought they would and isn’t that always the way? I’m sure they are probably respectable adults with “regular” jobs now. I’m sure they have 2.5 kids and a mortgage. I’m sure they grew up. I hope they are happy and content in their new lives and I hope they don’t regret the choices they made. I just wish I could let them know how much their music meant to me and still means to me and I want them to know that they made a lasting difference and mark on someone’s life.

Try this one as well. Good stuff!

I was super excited to get one, but was also afraid I wouldn’t like it and then I’d be stuck with this gadget that amounted to nothing more than a paperweight in the end.

I love books, but my reading has really fallen off lately. Since I got the Kindle on Christmas morning I have read three books. Yeah. THREE. In five days.

This is going to sound like a commercial for the Kindle, but I don’t care. It’s super portable, it’s got a heckuva long battery life, it does everything. I can search the web, listen to Mp3s, play games and, of course, read books. I can download books in sixty seconds. From anywhere. I can either buy them from the Amazon store, or choose one of hundreds of their free book downloads. I can download them from other places for free, like here, here, or here. Because Amazon bought out Audible I can listen to my audiobooks and organize them and — I’m hyperventilatin’ y’all!

Anyway, I love it. I still love books and I’ll still continue to collect them and the Kindle will never, ever, ever, never take their place — but if you’re on the fence about owning one yourself, I’d highly recommend it. They’re affordable and versatile and practical and awesome. Thhaaaannnk you, Yeti. <3

Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and best wishes to you all for a terrific 2011!

Oh, and also download the full video podcast from NPR’s website that shows the making of the song. (Or watch it online.) It’s a really interesting look at the construction of a song from conception to completion. Moby did it astoundingly fast with awesome results, and time to spare so he recorded another couple versions. He was given nothing more to work with than a collaborator, a photo and a choice of two or three “concept” words. From that he extracted this. Lyrics and various music tracks, everything. AND he had to do it all in one sitting. So. Yeah. I feel real good about the filing I managed to accomplish today.

“Somewhere there’s a Sunday in the Fall,
Where everything you love is safe and warm.
Where everything was right.
But I’m never going home.

The sun is down, the lights have gone to sleep.
I never knew the dark could be so deep.
Somewhere you are warm.
But I’m never going home.”

While helping me make dinner and do the dishes tonight he popped in Led Zeppelin. He discovered Led Zeppelin because he really likes the White Stripes and the reason he likes the White Stripes is because I turned him onto them.

(Which is not to say that he likes everything I like. I like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, but when I shared those with him, thinking he would really like them, he just wasn’t interested. He likes a few Nirvana songs and I think he’s warming to the rest, but on the whole he’s not a fan. I got a couple Kings of Leon for Christmas and after listening to both, I decided it wasn’t his cup of tea. I didn’t share it with him because I had already made the decision he wouldn’t like them. When he heard me playing them in the car he asked if he could put them on his iPod. So, I guess I just don’t have a clue. Is the point of that story.)

But I digress. So, where were we? Oh yeah. The point is, he likes the White Stripes and I commented one day when he had them on the that they reminded me a lot of Led Zeppelin. He said, “Who?” I said, “Shhh Shhh. Don’t say that too loud. They’ll come and take you away.” I let him listen to some and he loved it. I got him the anthology for Christmas.

He rinsed while I washed and we started talking Led Zeppelin and the similarities between the bands in the songs as they came on. He said, “You know what I think? I think all these good, new rock bands are the reincarnation of all the classics. They’re just born again to rock out.”

“So, when the old bands died, they became reborn as new rock bands?”

“Yeah, that’s what I think.”

Well, that would explain why the old bands suck when they try to reunite as well as all the similarities in music stylings, yes? They are actually already musically dead and they just refuse to lay down and accept it.

Keith Richards, I’m looking at you.

“i’m walkin’ on sunshiiiinne…whoaa whoaaa …. boy do my feet hurt…. WHOAA WHOAAA!”

take for instance when i’m visiting my parents. you know? my southern pentecostal, god-fearing parents. and for no good reason other than the fact that i’m one of satan’s favorites, i got the song, “i touch myself” by the divinyls stuck in my head. i bit my lip until it bled, but still i found myself walking around their house going, “i don’t waaaaant anybody elssssse, when i think aBOUt you, i touch myself oooooh!” i don’t know if they heard me. i don’t know if they understood me. i’m sure they did. and i’m sure once again i’ll be the number one subject of their prayers tonight. i’m such a disappointment.

also, as you can see here:

here:

and here :

kaileb is really concerned about his broken arm and is being extra, EXTRA careful. of course with a role model like this:

you can see what he has to build on. i ask you, is it any wonder at all i haven’t developed a very acute valium/coke/alcohol problem? hmmm?