They say the best is for the best...

1/8/11: New year, new obsession, new banner. :P

Book meme for 2010. Read significantly more than I did last year, and I feel good about that.

( Books Read in 2010 )

It's always nice to break out the yearly cookie icon. :)

Holiday Card Post:

I don't know if I'll be hand-making them this year, but if you would like some holiday cheer in the form of a card from my neck of the woods, let me know and drop your address in the comments. Comments are naturally screened. (You are also welcome to PM addresses, if you prefer).

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and that you are being safe on this crazy Friday. I'm off to the library for a few hours of Edgar Sawtelle. ♥

If you don't vote, you don't get to bitch about the outcome.

sigh I am very concerned about the future of our country, and about the outcome of this election in particular. Reading statements from folks who are actually on a ballet somewhere that say stuff like "If I'm elected, my entire goal while in office will be to see Obama not get reelected" makes me so helplessly angry. Now, look, I'm not Obama's biggest cheerleader. He's made some good moves, he's made some bad moves, he hasn't explained his reasoning very well so the American public can't see the big picture towards which he operates. (He doesn't seem to get the fact that most Americans can only see about a foot in front of their own noses and are mostly focused on the contents of their own wallets.) But to publicly state that your whole purpose for running for office is to make sure that nothing gets done in the next two years is fucking criminal. Not only should these people not be elected, they should be arrested and possibly jailed for treason against their country. How dare you be so divisive when we're in real trouble as a nation. How dare you.

Bipartisan-ism is killing this country. It shouldn't be about who's in charge, it should be about doing the best for the American People, you know, the VOTING PUBLIC. I look at the state of our public schools, at my Aunt with Parkinson's and her husband with severe diabetes who are already benefiting from the healthcare bill championed by this administration and would be kind of screwed without it, at this 2.1 million dollar mansion that my republican essentially-tea-party bosses are building, and I despair for the possible results of today's election.

So please, whatever your belief system, whatever your feelings about the economy/gay marriage/the healthcare bill/abortion/taxes/*Republican Catch Phrase of the Day*/etc.: Vote. Vote because it's the only way for our small voices to be heard amongst all the bipartisan screaming. Vote your conscience and vote for whoever you believe will actually make a difference instead of just gumming up the wheels of our flailing "democracy."

/psa

eta: Your Misha Collins themed Unicorn Chaser ( behind the cut )

Happy Rally to Restore Sanity Day! Although I am unable to be in Washington this weekend to lend my indoor voice to the proceedings, I can dedicate today's OSaD to the occasion.

The song for today is the only song I know of that's been written about Stephen Colbert. It is so damn catchy you'll find yourself singing it, oh, pretty much all the time.

"Stephen Stephen" by The Apples in Stereo
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In less awesome news, with all my standing around on concrete at work and long-walk taking from yesterday, I seem to have messed up my left knee badly enough that I'm having big trouble going up and down stairs. :( It would be funny if it didn't hurt so much. No running for me today, I see.

Finally, I want to write a review about last night's episode of Supernatural (which was significantly better than 6x05), but I don't have the time. Maybe tomorrow.

This one has got its hooks in me right now. Sometimes it makes me happy, sometimes it makes me sad. Tonight, I feel nothing, but I've listened to it four times in a row.

"Tightrope" by Yeasayer

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Happy Johnny Flynn American release day!! \o/ I was going to post something from the new album tonight, but I wanted to listen to it all the way through first and this was more important anyway.

I listened to a lot of Heather Nova when I was in college. I was particularly fond of her album South. This song of hers popped up on my iPod today and I just had to smile. I've been doing a little too much introspection lately, and I've been letting societal norms/expectations get me down. This is my "time-out" song, my reminder that, hey, the folks who aren't following the prescribed path of their contemporaries are usually the most interesting people, and I should be happy because I'm not tied down by anything in this life.

"Virus of the Mind" by Heather Nova
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Doing this early because it's been a bit of a rough morning and I need to focus on writing for the rest of the day.

It's really stormy here today. On days like this I prefer to listen to artists like Nina Simone, Al Green, and Billie Holiday. Antony and The Johnsons fit into this category as well. I like this song perhaps a bit too much considering that, while I've read other interpretations, I'm pretty well convinced that it's about domestic abuse. But the arrangement is so danceable and smile-inducing. I'm conflicted. I love Antony Hegarty's voice, and any song that has Lou Reed doing a spoken word intro is automatically awesome.

"Fistful of Love" by Antony and the Johnsons
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A little drunk from dinner tonight and so nothing of importance to say. Oh, there was this very sweet looking young man who dropped off bagels at our office this morning. He & his partner wanted to talk to my boss who is at a trade show, so I got to talk to them instead, unfortunately I was wearing my zombie shirt and my computer glasses and my hair was all frizzy. *sigh* Isn't that always the way? Anyway.

When people think of Joan Osborne, most folks think of the slightly annoying chart-topper, "What if God was One of Us." Relish, the album that song appears on, is chock-full of some amazing tracks. One of my favorites is "Dracula Moon." This has been a Supernatural song for me for a long, long time and I get the feeling from the preview for the episode for this week that it is particularly fitting.

"Dracula Moon" by Joan Osborne
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(psst - dissonant_dream, we need to talk about this song)

As I posted about earlier, I wore purple today in remembrance of all the young people who feel ostracized and alienated because of their sexuality, and especially for those who have chosen to take their own lives as a result of homophobic abuse in their homes or at their schools. While thinking about what sort of song to post this evening, I remembered Patty Griffin's "Tony", a song that made me sob the first time I heard it alone in my bedroom six or seven years ago. It seems like we, as a society, should've grown in the twelve years since this song was recorded, but I look at those six young men to whom this day was dedicated and I wonder.

"Tony" by Patty Griffin
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In an effort not to be a total downer, I will also post this song in honor of the birthday of Viggo Mortensen. Until very recently (ugh, the film version of The Road) Mr. Mortensen has been one of my very favorites, and this song still makes me think of him.

"World Falls" by Indigo Girls
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