sounds of the living!

hipsterdiet: LA bound. NashVegas Bud heavy and smoked turkey....

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:16:32 -0500

LA bound. NashVegas Bud heavy and smoked turkey. Yeehaw.

What’s with people calling Budweiser “Bud heavy” now? It’s weird.

Rainer Maria Rilke, "Autumn Day"

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:15:36 -0500

Lord: it is time. The summer was immense.
Lay your long shadows on the sundials,
and on the meadows let the winds go free.

Command the last fruits to be full;
give them just two more southern days,
urge them on to completion and chase
the last sweetness into the heavy wine.

Who has no house now, will never build one.
Who is alone now, will long remain so,
will stay awake, read, write long letters
and will wander restlessly up and down
the tree-lines streets, when the leaves are drifting.

Posted by Wesley Hill.

Photo

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:38:16 -0500

"Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory."

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:41:29 -0500

“Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory.”

- Oscar Wilde (via amplequotes)

My Update

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:33:53 -0500

dearoldlove:

I checked your Facebook today and your ‘about me’ said you were really happy. I was overyjoyed and terribly depressed to hear it.

I’m terrified of this feeling.

cliché breakup post

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:07:51 -0500

I lost my love last night.

She decided we were too different to ever have any sort of lasting relationship. It caught me very off guard. I thought she was happy; she told me she was happy. She’s always said that our differences were deep. Our respective sets of parents are pretty different in lifestyle and philosophy, which obviously molded our worldviews and personalities. I love her parents (and her little brother). Spending time with them was very rewarding and challenging at the same time. The same goes for spending time with Emma. She pushes me like no one else, but isn’t cruel or harsh while doing so. She expected things from me. Apparently, she expected things that I couldn’t deliver all the time. I am still very much in love with her; more than anything or anyone else I’ve ever known. She’s deeply hurt me, but all I want is for her to love me again. I know she still loves me, but it’s not the same. It’s not the same kind of expectant, excited-for-the-future love that we had before this.

We are still kind of working through things right now. There were a few moments where I wanted to do a clean break off of our relationship; no more being friends at all, no more hanging out or doing homework together or anything. But I couldn’t do it. I can’t lose the girl I love and my best friend simultaneously. I think this week will be extremely illuminating for both of us, emotionally. It will for me, anyways. I’m in one of the most vulnerable positions of my entire life and I need to learn how to handle myself. I’m just starting a bunch of new classes, trying to find a routine for the semester, and then this happens. It’s not easy and it’s not fun. But it will be something to propel me forward to be a better, more reliable and stable person. That said, all I want is to kiss Emma.

"Thursday the 16th of July is the 58th anniversary of Catcher In The Rye’s publication. I think..."

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:53:23 -0500

“Thursday the 16th of July is the 58th anniversary of Catcher In The Rye’s publication. I think Catcher In The Rye is one of those books where if you still like it once you finish university you’ve made some pretty bad mistakes and probably do not have a good life.”

- Riaz M (via syntheticpubes)

look, there’s no way that this book should hold emotional appeal for someone over the age of 18 unless it’s for nostalgia’s sake (and even then.. really?). i’m sorry, i just can’t stand the level of love this book gets in the world.

awkwardcommas: Trust me, this Sarah Palin resigning story is...

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:02:23 -0500

awkwardcommas:

Trust me, this Sarah Palin resigning story is going to get crazy. No one with a narcissistic personality disorder buries something like this on a holiday weekend if the reasoning isn’t going to be devestating for her.

Also, it is a little weird that her tweet claims “this is in Alaska’s best interest.” I understand what the implied context is, but there is something about that phrasing that makes it sound like Alaska will be better off without Palin running it at all, not just in her “lame duck” state.

She’s obvz preggos.

nickdouglas: (via classics)

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:54:44 -0500

nickdouglas:

(via classics)

rorymarinich: Achewood mastered the art of being both...

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:20:38 -0500

rorymarinich:

Achewood mastered the art of being both sentimental and funny and absurd back when it was first getting started. This entire comic arc, which is fairly late Achewood, still moves me more than any other comic I can think of, save perhaps the dead bird comic of Calvin & Hobbes. The finale to this whole sequence was incredible.

Also, this was the arc where I realized that Frida Kahlo’s eyebrow was a funnier punchline than anything I’ve come up with in my entire life. I still crack up at that comic.

I am still in the first few months of Achewood, slowly working my way through the old strips, but I am already beginning to see these things throughout. It’s really a beautifully written comic strip. Highly recommended.

Wilco - Venus Stopped the Train Bennett/Tweedy Venus stopped the...

Sun, 24 May 2009 23:48:11 -0500

Wilco - Venus Stopped the Train

Bennett/Tweedy

Venus stopped the train
While the brakeman lost his place
Satellites were spinning
In outer space
They televised her feelings
While the light
The light struck terror

I kept my distance
Because she fell in love with everyone
Smoking grass and taking Christmas trees
She fell in love with me
I was polite to her
A soft sadness had her much more than her loneliness

Her father warmed the benches
Vice President of southern branches
He reached out to her
When her mother slept
He would never forget
The light
The light
The light striking terror

I kept my distance
Because she fell in love with everyone
Smoking grass and taking Christmas trees
She fell in love with me
I was polite to her
A soft sadness had her much more than her loneliness

Satellites spinning
Satellites spin

The light
The light
The light
The light
The light
The light strikes terror
The light strikes terror

I keep my distance
Because she falls in love with everyone
Smoking grass and taking Christmas trees
She falls in love with me
I’m polite to her
A soft sadness had her much more than her ugliness

I keep my distance
Because she falls in love with everyone
Smoking grass and taking Christmas trees
She falls in love with me
I’m polite to her
I reached my soft hand out to her
I’ve known her for a very, very, long time

"And they who for their country die shall fill an honored grave, for glory lights the soldier’s tomb,..."

Sun, 24 May 2009 23:22:39 -0500

“And they who for their country die shall fill an honored grave, for glory lights the soldier’s tomb, and beauty weeps the brave.”

- Joseph Drake (via affremblequotes)

R.I.P. Jay Bennett (1963-2009)

Sun, 24 May 2009 23:08:53 -0500

R.I.P. Jay Bennett (1963-2009)

mills: Keith Jarrett - Excerpt from Vienna Concert, Part...

Tue, 19 May 2009 10:57:47 -0500

mills:

Keith Jarrett - Excerpt from Vienna Concert, Part I.

Taking an excerpt from the Vienna concert is like showing a two-minute clip of one’s most cherished movie, or reading three pages from one’s favorite book, or perhaps like having a long-distance relationship.

But Part I, which is available in its entirety here, is 41 minutes long; in its astonishing perfection, too, it can require more attention than is reasonable to request. I hope, perhaps absurdly, that this excerpt appeals; I think Jarrett is one of the finest musicians of our time.

(And here are some previous videos and comments about him).

Listened to a good amount of David Bazan today. Strangely, his cynacism always ends up encouraging...

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:38:30 -0500

Listened to a good amount of David Bazan today. Strangely, his cynacism always ends up encouraging me, but I’m not sure why.

Also, at the suggestion of Rory a few months ago, I checked out a fantasy novel by David B. Coe. The cover is super fantasy cliché and ugly, but I haven’t read a non-Harry Potter fantasy book in years. If I actually get to it, it should be interesting.

In addition to my attempt at pushing through Harry Potter again, I bought Atlas Shrugged yesterday. My friend Jaycie has been reading it and telling me how great it is and I’ve been telling her how much I dislike Ayn Rand, but I never finished Atlas Shrugged so I’m giving it another shot. It’s so so so long. It might be well into next semester before I finish it.

Andrew Bird - Masterfade Sorry for the Bird overload. I am...

Sun, 17 May 2009 22:55:21 -0500

Andrew Bird - Masterfade

Sorry for the Bird overload. I am listening to this for the first time in probably six months and it’s hitting me really hard. I forgot just how fantastic it was. This might become my song of summer ‘09.

"my dewy-eyed disney bride, what has tried swapping your blood with..."

Sun, 17 May 2009 22:46:00 -0500

“

my dewy-eyed disney bride, what has tried
swapping your blood with formaldehyde?
monsters?
whiskey-plied voices cried fratricide!
jesus don’t you know that you could’ve died
(you should’ve died)
with the monsters that talk, monsters that walk the earth

and she’s got red lipstick and a bright pair of shoes
and she’s got knee high socks, what to cover a bruise
she’s got an old death kit she’s been meaning to use
she’s got blood in her eyes, in her eyes for you
she’s got blood in her eyes for you

certain fads, stripes and plaids, singles ads
they run you hot and cold like a rheostat, i mean a thermostat
so you bite on a towel
hope it won’t hurt too bad

my dewy-eyed disney bride, what has tried
swapping your blood with formaldehyde?
what monsters that talk, monsters that walk the earth

and she says i like long walks and sci-fi movies
if you’re six foot tall and east coast bred
some lonely night we can get together
and i’m gonna tie your wrists with leather
and drill a tiny hole into your head

”

- “fake palindromes,” andrew bird.

I love the lyrics of this song. I love Bird’s voice in this song. It reminds me a lot of Dylan’s songs that just sound really nice, even if they have no apparent meaning.

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."

Sun, 17 May 2009 22:15:51 -0500

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

- Ernest Hemingway (via affremblequotes)

And now I really want to write some gender studies about Shakespeare. Before this past semester I...

Sun, 17 May 2009 22:14:17 -0500

And now I really want to write some gender studies about Shakespeare. Before this past semester I had never even considered gender studies as something that would interest me, but I think it is actually one of the most interesting aspects of literature. It becomes more and more relevant as gender roles and sexual preference become political issues, argued over by politicians instead of philosophers.

It’s weird that I want to be working on literary studies during the summer. Yes! This is a good thing! School is having a positive effect on me! Thanks to Dr. Alanna Preussner for inspiring such an attitude.

"Shakespeare is bent on finding men and women who, without losing the virtues and integrity of their..."

Sun, 17 May 2009 22:09:12 -0500

“Shakespeare is bent on finding men and women who, without losing the virtues and integrity of their own sex, have also the virtues of the other. If Shakespeare had no admiration for the womanly woman in the sense of the clinging vine, neither had he for any of the manly men as embodied in what our generation refers to as the “he-man” or the “red-blooded man.” He scorned the gentleman, but all his best men are gentle men.”

- Harold Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, quoted by one of the smarter people I know. (via mills)

This is an interesting issue that I dealt with in my Applying Literary Theory term paper on Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People”: the fact that resolution (or at least a conclusion) in literature is often found in the form of a movement toward androgyny. I certainly hadn’t considered it as a widespread idea until I read a few articles about O’Connor and started thinking about it in other stories, movies, novels, etc.