Friday, September 8th 2006

It's a Mystery Category: Parties and Nightlife I'll write this with a disclaimer: my brain is fried, deep fried in stress, and I'm forgetting things left and right. I got three text messages this week from Joe and Kat, who are apparently having a "totally rad 80's party" next friday somewhere in Bellemeade. I know the address and the time, but the problem is, I don't know who Joe or Kat are. I must have met them, because they have my phone number, but I've jogged my memory and come up empty. I'm thinking that Joe and Kat are friends of friends and someone else has invited me to their party. The phone number seems vaguely familiar, but I'm still coming up nothing. So, it's a mystery. If anyone can help me solve it, I'd be grateful. It sounds like fun and I love dressing up 80's style - it's so not me but that's what makes it fun. 5:12 PM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Wednesday, September 06, 2006 Who Am I? The itrip, the little gizmo that allows me to run my ipod through my car stereo, decided to stop working today on my way to Murfreesboro. This left me with two options: listen to one of the two tapes I keep in my car, or listen to the radio. You don't want to even get me started on my radio rant - that could be a whole separate blog, one which I have threatened to write in the past I think, so I'll concentrate on the tapes. The first tape, one I made a couple of years ago, before beneficent forces brought the ipod into my life, is called Wussy English Mix, but unfortunately today, instead of playing, made those ghoulish moaning noises that tapes make when they die. That left me with tape no. 2. I made it in high school, when I was seventeen. It has survived all these years, somehow, and has come to live in my present car, four cars on from the one I made it to listen to in. Here's the track listing so you get an idea: (From memory, so it's probably not all correct) Ode to My Family - The Cranberries Bang and Blame - REM The Man Who Sold the World - (Nirvana cover of the Bowie Song) Just Like Heaven - The Cure Standing Here - The Stone Roses Where Angels Play - " Ten Storey Love Song - " (what was I thinking - I hate that song now) Tears - " Bad - U2 A Warm Place - NIN The Song With No Name - The Pogues Don't Go Back to Rockville - REM Zombie - The Cranberries I wouldn't make this particular mix tape now, as a 28 year old woman, but I find it interesting that I can still enjoy it and I still really like most of the songs on it. The themes of my music have stayed the same and I kind of look at my seventeen year old self with a sort of wonder. I hadn't experienced much yet. I knew nothing about love - sure I'd had crushes and experiences, but I didn't know anything about love, real love, how hard it is and how it requires sacrifice (both romantic love and the other kinds). However, as I listen to these songs, I realise I must have anticipated that or intuitively known on some level what those experiences would be like and how they would make me feel. There are a couple of songs that still resonate deeply and I wonder if my seventeen year old self put them on there just for her future self. Did she know something I didn't? It's strange to have a musical snapshot of a person, who in my everyday life, seems so far away from the person I am now. I must have changed, right? I've had ten years, after all. Reassuringly, however, she doesn't seem so different to me. Sure, I'm a little less rough around the edges; I've accumulated some real cynicism through experience that my teenage self only tried to emulate, but essentially I can see in this tape the same structure that makes up the person I am today. And I'm relieved; I wanted to grow up, but not into a stranger. 9:38 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Saturday, September 02, 2006 Antisocial Usually I am energised by other people's company, but this weekend, I feel an overarching desire to be alone, to immerse myself in the things that interest me, to throw myself into work. I'm supposed to go out tonight, and I might, for a little while, but I don't really relish the thought. What I want to do is stay in and read, and read, and read. I've been blogging for the past hour or so for my composition class and I'm really enjoying reading what other people have posted and responding. I do it all the time on Myspace, but having a blog that is specific to one subject is different. It's easier to respond and relate when everyone is writing about the same thing. Back to being antisocial: I'm reading my Linguistic textbook with a great zeal. It's endlessly fascinating to learn the characteristics of language, not only my own, but others and how all the languages fit together and share similar traits, even if they sound nothing alike. I guess I just have my learning head on this weekend. I went out last night. I was in the mood for something different, so we tried on East Nashville. It was pretty quiet, which according to Red Door East's bartender, is pretty typical for a holiday weekend. I enjoyed Alleycat. People are friendly, down to earth and easy to talk to there. I didn't feel any pressure. I didn't feel hit-on, or the pressure to even think in that way. I just enjoyed easy conversation. I would like to go back when it's not such a quiet weekend. But overall, I feel drained by my lack of alone time. It's been a stressful week, busy and different, and I've had to try on new hats, which if not labour intense is mentally exhausting. I think I need some time alone to decompress. 3:35 PM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Monday, August 28, 2006 The start or the middle of something Summer of 1985. I was seven and it was perhaps the first time I had stayed up that late, the first time I'd been allowed. But it was a special occasion, a musical epoch: Live Aid. My grandparents had MTV Europe, very progressive for them, but it was really just so my grandad could obsessively watch Gaelic Football. My uncle and I watched the whole thing. I think we only left the room for tea, food and other necessities. My uncle John had his hair cut like Bono. As my Grandma said, "I think he wants to be that Bono." I remember watching U2's performance like it was yesterday. I remember the pure brilliance oozing through my seven year old skin, knowing how important this moment was in the history of popular music, knowing somehow what I was witnessing. I grew up in a family obsessed with football (soccer) and music, and in England, its surprising how frequently the two intersect. I heard tales from my mother of driving around listening to David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars on 8-track. She explained that if you wanted to listen to a song again, you had to drive around until it came on again. Torture, I thought. This seemed so archaic when you had great modern technology like the cassette tape you only had to wait a matter of seconds to listen to that song, that temporary obsession, again. For my fifth birthday, my parents bought me a record player, and every Saturday my dad and I would go into town and buy vinyl singles. They were £1.49 each and came out of my pocket money. I had built up an impressive collection by the time we moved to America seven years later. Although many different artists shaped the music listener I am today, U2 always pervaded the background. It was always somehow the soundtrack. If I more actively listened to Dire Straits, Bruce Springsteen, and Queen, I more passively heard U2. It was always playing. My mother bought Joshua Tree the day it came out because Steve Wright, a DJ on Englands BBC Radio 1 played one track each day for eleven days before its release. She still thinks its their best album. I disagree. 11:09 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Sunday, August 27, 2006 It's probably a sin Shoelust. Shoelust is probably a sin, for which I should serve a hefty penance. Shoelust on a Sunday morning is probably even worse. I've been looking for shoes to wear with my suit on Tuesday, but I just couldn't find anything that was a little out of the ordinary. I swear that everything just looks like the same old shit. But then I let my fingers do a little walking - to explore what people who don't live in Nashville have access to. And oh my goodness, it's a whole different world. Here's an example: Seychelles .. Currently listening : Asleep in the Back [Bonus Track] By Elbow Release date: 22 January, 2002 11:55 AM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Annoyingness Current mood: annoyed My "currently listening to" is more a "currently would be listening to" unfortunately. I finally got around to buying Elbow's Cast of Thousands, brought it home, stuck it in my computer and my computer spat it back out. I tried again: same thing. Hmmmm. I put it in a normal CD player. It registered, did the thing where it flashes up the total minutes, but then didn't play. How annoying is that? Very, especially since I've been listening to a couple of the songs from it the past couple of days. I'm annoyed because I know I'll take it back, and Tower only had the one copy and I'll have to wait for them to get more. I haven't even seen it anywhere else, and I've been looking. That's just annoying. I was looking forward to putting it on my ipod and listening to it with headphones before I go to sleep. Oh, the minor annoyances. An addendum to this blog: Be wary of buying CDs from Tower. I took my defective CD back. The guy didn't believe me that it was defective and tried it himself, which didn't bother me. However, he complained about the number of finger prints on it, to which I said, "well it doesn't matter how many finger prints are on it now, it doesn't play anyway, which is why I'm back here trying to give it back to you." He then told me "I can't give you money back on defective merchandise because it's been opened." I said, "aahhhh, I see, I didn't find out it was defective until I opened it and it wouldn't play, hence displaying its defectiveness - sounds like a true retail catch 22 to me." the other guy behind the counter, not the supervisor actually laughed and the supervisor wanted to crack a smile but couldn't quite bring himself to do it. Maybe his face would've cracked. I now have to wait for them to ship me one from Opry Mills. Great service. Maybe I'm critical because I worked retail too long and that's not what I would have done to please me, but really I wasn't in the mood for a fight. I just let Tower do its crappy thing and I'll wait, patiently, like a good little customer. Currently listening : Cast of Thousands By Elbow Release date: 27 January, 2004 1:12 AM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Monday, August 21, 2006 Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam............ Current mood: amused I recently joined the cult known as the g-mail users. What attracted me to The G-mails was its mega capacity for storage, its chat (my friends are on it), its conversation based e-mail storage (this is really cool if you've never seen it), and its lack of advertising. The only advertisments it has are either a link above the inbox that is relevant to your e-mail or little sidebars that are also relevant. I was checking in my SPAM folder and saw this link above the list of messages I was about to delete: Spicy Spam Kebabs Intrigued, I clicked and found an actual food recipe. I don't know if it was a computer generated association of words or a clever play. Either way, We were amused. 9:29 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Sunday, August 20, 2006 Sundays are the business! Current mood: relaxed I said, as we drove around Hillsboro Village with the top down on my car, "We still smell like Grimeys. Its a potent combination of used records and incense." We went to an in-store show there. The band put on a spread of bagels and fruit, and best of all, bloody marys. It was fabulous to spend a Sunday afternoon listening to music in a crowded record store, standing amongst the racks of cds with fellow music junkies. Ive not really listened to Lambchop, but Ive heard songs here and there and always liked what I had heard. Once I get a bloody mary, it is inevitable that more will follow. We went to Boscos and Noshville, where I sampled one of each. I have to say that Noshville won. Then I came home and took a nap. What a good day! Currently listening : Damaged By Lambchop Release date: 22 August, 2006 11:02 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Saturday, August 19, 2006 The Many Joys Current mood: tired Today I experienced the many joys that comprise IKEA. We, my mother and I, drove down to Atlanta specifically to go there. I needed bookcases because the books are now both double shelved and stacked on top of the bookcases I have. I don't know where they all come from - I swear they breed while I'm sleeping. Kinky sods. We stayed the night in Chattanooga, a town that's changed drastically since I was last there. I barely remember when that was, but it now has a viable downtown area complete with lots of great restaurants. We ate late at a seafood place there. They had crab legs on the menu, so I was required to order them. They also had wine on the menu, so I felt obliged to order copious amounts of that too. I love crab legs, screw the alleged cholesterol. I don't buy it. They're not bad for me. Whatever. I never heard that. Lalalalalalalala (picture me with my fingers in my ears). I learnt a valuable lesson on this trip: never ever go on a road trip without a corkscrew. I had to beg, steal and borrow, only to discover that one of my bottles of wine had a screwtop. We made it to Ikea about 1 or so. I think we spent about four hours in there. Before we even got to the showroom, I had already picked out a new dining room table and chairs - it's very 50's Alfred Hitchcock movie. I love it. I bought new light fixtures, new bookcases, a new bin, and various other bits and bobs. It's a great shopping experience. We totally filled up the SUV with only $800 of stuff. We thought we had spent much much more. How often does that happen? We left IKEA around rush hour and toyed with the idea of going to Lenox Mall, but we had three big boxes tied to the top of the Land Rover so we couldn't really let it out of our sights. I had a bit of a scare on the way home. We stopped in Chattanooga again for dinner and I was driving down the interstate and something slowed down in front of me. I had a moment of instant reaction, forgot I was driving an automatic, and slammed on the brake with my left foot (I forgot I didn't have a clutch). The car came to a halt. I panicked, still in stick-shift mode and couldn't figure out how to get the car going again. Fortunately no one crashed into me, the boxes didn't fly off, and I finally sorted out how to get it into drive and pull over. I was shaking. I've done that before when driving an automatic. I just don't drive them very often. It was scary. We did get home safely, despite my moment of stupidity. Currently listening : Eyes Open By Snow Patrol Release date: 09 May, 2006 1:19 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Sunday, August 13, 2006 Try this - it's lovely Marinade for Fish (good with Seabass, but would probably work for most fish) Orange juice (about 1/2 cup or so) Soy Sauce (I used about ten or so sachets from the Chinese take-out, but adjust for taste) About 2 Tablespoons honey About 1/2 cup strong black tea Adjust the proportions 'til the marinade is salty but still pretty sweet. Marinate fish in it for about an hour or so. Then grill over hot charcoals. Yum.