Arms and shoulders

Come on home.

"Person Person," from Mirah's You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This (best album title ever?)

When I get low, I get high.

Fiona Apple + Nickel Creek

Damn your eyes!

Just one of those days. Oh, Johnny Cash, you are missed.

All the trouble you looked for all your life.

The genius boys of Spoon combine so many tasty sounds on last year's Transference that it is hard to pick which track is my favorite. The whole album is a good one for walking in the cold.

Wasted hours in the library of man.

What brought us to this.

So envious of Anna Ternheim's voice.

Perfect

I went for a walk at sunset today and this song just felt so right.
Kaki King is a goddess.

Be kind to me, or treat me mean.

Even though I specifically remember where I was the first time I heard this song (my car, November 2005, Dublin, Ohio...) for some reason it is inexplicably spring-y and hopeful in my mind. From the eternally marvelous Fiona Apple, who owes me new music in the worst way.

101 things in 1,001 days.

Claire inspired me to do this, and so here it is. My own Day Zero Project, a listy of 101 things in 1,001 days. This list is active starting today, and it will live over there under "Elsewhere" until the conclusion of the 1,001 days, which is about 2 3/4 years. Is anyone else skeptical about my ability to clean out the trunk of my car in the next 2 3/4 years? Yeah. Anyway, here we go.

Travel
1. Get my passport
2. Use my passport
3. Visit Seattle
4. Go to NYC with someone who has never been there before
5. Go to the beach

Creative pursuits
6. Submit at least 10 things to literary mags
7. Knit myself a cardigan
8. Give exclusively handmade gifts for Christmas
9. Play at Gallery Hop at least 5 times
10. Finish recording my full-length CD
11. Put this list on my blog
12. Establish a routine for posting on my blog
13. Join a writers' group
14. Make my own soap
15. Start another novel
16. Finish it
17. Do something with it
18. Enter a songwriting competition

19. Take photos of that insane Wonderbread sign before they sell the building Disqualified: they took the sign down

20. Write a poem every day for a month
21. Start a new etsy shop to pay off my library fine! Counting this as done because I paid the fine in full.
22. Make an art card every day for a month
23. Inspire someone else to write something
24. Write 10 new songs (10/10)
25. Put new songs on my Myspace music page

Big stuff
26. Live in the same place for longer than 18 months
27. Find someone to date who doesn't suck
28. Pay off credit card debt
29. Buy a new car (I'll need one within 1001 days...)
30. Graduate!
31. Save up for a pair of Fryes instead of buying crap from Target
32. Go on a vacation for at least 5 days
33. Learn how to relax / control anxiety better

Quality of life
34. Do some form of exercise at least 3 times a week and keep it up for at least 10 weeks
35. Take a tap class
36. Buy a bike
37. Try vegetarianism for a month
38. Try veganism for...a week
39. Get real health insurance
40. Walk Columbus half-marathon with my parents (Fall 2010)
41. Stop saying "like" as an all-purpose verb
42. Try Pilates
43. Learn 5 tried-and-true recipes by heart
44. Learn how to make a salad at a salad bar so that it doesn't turn out like a Dumpster Salad
45. Cure my caffeine addiction
46. Try going carless for a week
47. Go to a therapist
48. Get totally, completely, forget-it-ever-mattered over __________
49. Stop fiddling with my cell phone so much

Organization
50. Clean out my closet
51. Clean out my trunk once and for all
52. Organize my desk and file cabinet
53. Make my bed every day for a month

Good will
54. Pay my library fine
55. Donate graphic design services to a local non-profit
56. Buy someone dinner just because
57. Loan out my favorite books with no intention of getting them back
58. Make scarves for a homeless charity
59. Give to NPR
60. Send postcards to everyone who matters

Appearance
61. Get tattoo #6
62. Buy The Perfect Black Heels
63. Get tattoo #7
64. Buy a decent bra
65. Nose piercing?
66. Find the black pencil skirt of my dreams
67. Drop 1 dress size

Upgrade
68. Buy pots and pans that aren't pathetic
69. Get a new cell phone
70. Get new glasses
71. Upgrade my makeup collection
72. Find a bedspread I like
73. Buy an amazing, expensive (?), last-forever bag
74. Buy an iron

Higher learning
75. Finish Level 1 of Rosetta Stone Russian
76. Apply to NYU & Hunter College MFA programs per my pact with Jessica
77. Learn to shoot a gun (research purposes!)
78. Learn the proper way to sew on a button so the experience isn't so agonizing
79. Teach Claire to play a song
80. Learn to like red wine

Just because
81. Get a Russian penpal
82. See Regina Spektor in concert
83. See a real play in a real theater
84. Send birthday cards to everyone
85. Send thank you notes whenever I get a gift
86. Make creme brulee
87. Read Flannery O'Connor
88. Go out for good sushi
89. Go to Shakespeare in the Park
90. Learn to drive a manual transmission
91. Buy the Elsa Peretti K pendant from Tiffany & Co because i've been wanting it for years  Joanna bought it for me :)
92. Sell my old computer
93. Do a thrift store scavenger hunt
94. Visit a winery
95. Go to an estate sale
96. Buy myself flowers
97. Host a party
98. Try 1 new restaurant every week for a month
99. Go out to dinner by myself without a book
100. Replace the battery in my watch
101. Give that guy his Georg Simmel book back

Extra Credit

102. Fix front screen door so I can actually have the door open

103. Make screen for bedroom window so I can actually have the window open

Do you really know the difference?

Ohioan Joey Hebdo, who rocked the house at the Rumba Cafe last night.

Life's a great balancing act.

Yesterday would have been Dr. Seuss's birthday--106 years old. I'm a bit obsessed with the man's work, both the words and the art, because being a writer and artist myself, I am in absolute awe of his ability to make nonsense so very meaningful. Today's title is from Oh, the Places You'll Go! which, aside from being a fairly common graduation gift, is a lovely and (oh God, I'm going to say the i-word) inspiring poem that makes me feel hopeful despite the bleakest bleak sky through my window right now.

Such great heights.

Luke Beard is creating artwork based on a song lyric, every day for a year. Him: brilliant. Me: jealous. Found via Hot Child in the City.

Lesson time.

Have you seen Obsessive Consumption? Brilliant blog (& now a book) detailing one woman's "battle" with consumerism. Kate Bingaman-Burt draws what she buys and posts it on her blog. It's visually interesting, but it also makes you think twice before you grab a bunch of crap off the check-out aisle at Target. Consumerism is a pretty complex and interesting topic, and I really like her approach.

I also really like Annie Leonard's "The Story of Stuff," a blunt but fun look at the problems related to consumerism. Here, now, the latest in the series: a look at the front-running "solution" to the climate change problem. I just wanted to share!

Well, hello there.

I want to share this lovely image, which I find hopeful and compelling. By Jocelyn Nevel, whom Claire & I met last night at a Wild Goose wine tasting.

But anyway: I'm not all that thrilled about the way 2009 has turned out. There, I said it. But, it's now November and after a month or so of sulking about recent loss of job and other displeasing life circumstances, I'm determined to eek out the rest of the year with as much positivity as I can muster. And to that end, out of my half-lit apartment and back to observing the world.

Birds all sing as if they knew.

Ellie Greenwich, October 23, 1940 – August 26, 2009. Legendary co-writer of numerous pop songs from the '60s, when it was rare for a woman to be on the behind-the-scenes end of the music business, and much more rare for a woman to succeed there. And by "legendary," I mean legendary. Ms. Greenwich penned tunes such as "Chapel of Love," "Leader of the Pack," "River Deep - Mountain High," and so on. As a performer, she was the lead-and-background singer of the "girl group" The Raindrops, a duo made up of Ellie and her husband/songwriting partner, even though the group allegedly featured two females--album artwork featured a photo of Ellie's sister Laura, who otherwise had nothing to do with the band. On the rare occasion of public performances, Laura appeared onstage but merely lip-synched into a dead microphone. Ellie Greenwich was also credited with the discovery of Neil Diamond, and even provided background vocals on a number of his songs. Even if '60s pop music isn't your thang, you have to admire the sheer volume of her body of work, and the fact that she made a name for herself in a boys' club like the record industry of 40-some years ago. RIP.

Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?

I had a dream last night that I got a Dr. Seuss tattoo, and I woke up thinking that this was a very interesting idea--I am a big Dr. Seuss enthusiast, maybe that explains things. Maybe not. But anyway, in case you're a fan too, I wanted to share this, Who's Who & What's What, a 157-page "directory" of Dr. Seuss characters with descriptions. No images, but still very interesting reading. This was compiled by someone at Dartmouth, and it's possible that person is my soulmate.

Blog love.

red nails; wrong city is the most breathtakingly gorgeous photo blog ever.