Gone in a second

I just found out that Brandi Carlile is a huge nerd, and here is why:

I've discovered what those "ball of snakes" tattoos on her arms actually are: they're the fuckin' auryn from The Neverending Story, and so they are also actually balls of snakes (of sorts). What a geek! Even though I don't really remember The Neverending Story, I love her for loving something so nerdy so much that she had it permanently stamped on her body. Twice. The other great thing about this is that at least one of the twins (Tim, I think) has a matching one on his right arm. I don't know about Phil--I've never seen his bare arms (I think--I can't tell them apart unless they're holding their instruments).

I wonder if she's read the book. I don't know if I want to know the answer to that, because nobody ever reads the book, and it breaks my heart every time. You think I'd learn, wouldn't you? However, this book is German, so if she hasn't read it, I'll give her a pass. And start to wonder if she's functionally illiterate... No! Just kidding. But the spelling in those lyrics for the new songs is horrible.

Then this just makes me thing of that stupid Strong Bad cartoon where Homestar pours Mountain Dew on Strong Bad's keyboard and sings, "the neverending sodaaaaaaa." Heh heh.

Now that I've wikipedia'd the novel (to make sure there was a novel), I think I have to read it. And watch the movie again. That's good, because The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is not holding my attention. I am so over all that beat nonsense, though I've finally realized that I like Tom Wolfe's writing style. I'm just sick of hearing about the beat generation, you know? Also! Much like with Ken Kesey and the movie adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Michael Ende got so pissed off at the changes the movie was making to his novel that he sued the film people to get them to stop production or change the name of the film. Obviously, he lost. But how's that for a strange connection between the things my brain has kicking around in it?

PS: Just in case my relentless babbling causes somebody else to finally try to discover just why I keep going on and about this girl, here are my top 5 Brandi Carlile songs for your downloading and discovering pleasure:
1. "Downpour" - Sweet, simple song about missing her parents while she's livin' the transient life of a rock star. For whatever reason--the cello, her voice, mostly--this is actually my absolute favorite song of hers.
2. "Closer to You" - Rambling, countryfried, written with Tim, I never get tired of this one.
3. "The Story" - I dare you not to like this song (written by Phil! who I love, because he frequently performs barefoot).
4. "What Can I Say" - Featured on season 2 of Grey's Anatomy and quite possibly how I heard of her in the first place.
5. "Late Morning Lullaby" - Just beautiful. And it's about not wanting to get up in the morning, which is the story of my life.
Bonus: If you can find it, get "Boys Don't Cry." It's one of those songs I liked so much, it hurt me. If you can't find it, I will give it to you.
(If you want to go the whole album route, get The Story before Brandi Carlile.)

Part III

Okay, this is the last one.

Melinda Doolittle
Clearly, my fave. I have already said how I didn't even care that she sang one of Kelly Clarkson's Idol songs, and it is still true. She killed it! She is amazing to watch perform. I can't even tell you. One of my favorite parts, though, was at the end of the first act, when they all came out with Blake at the end of "You Give Love a Bad Name," and she banged on the cymbal with their awesome drummer. That was fantastic. She was clearly having the time of her life, and I really hope she goes on to be, like, the next Tina Turner, because she is amazing like that. I just hope she doesn't turn to be the next Tamyra Gray, awesome on the show, but totally fading into obscurity soon after.















Blake Lewis
Clearly, the audience fave. This guy--and every guy who has ever been on American Idol, actually--never did anything for me. He's just...not my cup of tea, I guess. I suppose he's talented, and the beeping I suppose is...interesting if you're into that sort of thing. But he sang Maroon 5. I did like "You Give Love a Bad Name," though--I think that was definitely his best performance on the show. He did this five-minute-long "song" of nothing but the beeping, and it was overkill. He didn't really appear to be on stage a lot--he did a duet with Richardson and was in the boys' "band," but that was, like, it. I guess he got the special second-place treatment by not having to perform with the riffrafff so often?

Jordin Sparks













Okay, this girl's winning the show was clearly destiny. I mean, look at her. She's a more real Carrie Underwood. Maybe there's some kind of depth to Jordin, but to me she just seems like your regular goofy teenager. Which is fine. I kind of love her for being like that. But she's just not all that interesting. I mean, her singing is fantastic, and she even made me pay attention to "This Is My Now," which I think is even worse than "A Moment Like This" (but better than "Before Your Love"--poor Kelly and Justin got saddled with two hideous songs. Did that happen to anyone else?) Anyway, Jordin was good, and I had a lot of fun watching her, and that Jewel cover totally killed me, it was so cute, but...Melinda was the more compelling performer, I think. I mean, even when she made herself cry during "I Who Have Nothing," I was, like, "Well, we've already seen this, Sparks." That performance on the show was amazing, at least for me, because I was not expecting something like that to come from her. She still sounded beautiful, but it was less amazing, you know? But! The other best thing (besides "You Were Meant for Me") was that she did "Livin' on a Prayer," which was totally her worst performance on the show. But she fixed it somehow, because it was rockin' and awesome, and I may have just screamed along with the chorus like no one could hear me.

Final verdict: Jordin Sparks is certainly no Kelly Clarkson, but she just may be the second-best winner. (Suck on that, Underwood).

(The rest of the pictures are here.)

AI concert review continued!

Phil Stacey













He was another one I never really got the appeal of, and he always looked so sickly on tv, but he wasn't bad. He sang that song with Gina, and he was having a great time, and I may have even liked him, but there's only room in my heart for one bald musician named Phil, and it sure ain't this guy. He also did "Blaze of Glory" and some smurfy patriotic medley with the girls that started out with "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and went into "God Bless America," and the girls kept laughing which was really the only compelling thing about it.

Chris Richardson
I think this is the only picture I have of just him, and I don't even know why I (or Jess) took it--we both hate him. He, I think, was my least favorite contestant, because, well, Sanjaya's just a kid. What's this loser's excuse? Anyway, he did a kind of sweet duet with Jordin, where they both played acoustic guitars (because they are Serious Artists!), and he did "Geek in the Pink" and some beatbox war with Blake, and I was so not impressed. Fortunately, he was just kind of always in the background, and I never really had to pay attention to him.

LaKisha Jones
Oh, LaKisha. I didn't really understand her--maybe she's just more mellow than the other spazmatoids of season six, but she didn't seem to be having a whole lot of fun. Though she did giggle with all the other girls during their turn as Phil's back-up singers. And she did absolutely blow "I Will Always Love You" to pieces. She was not really one of my faves on the show, but she can sing, y'all, and that performance was killer.

Caught in a landslide

If you thought all this American Idol business was going to distract me from talking about Brandi Carlile, well...you're an idiot.

First, let's talk about one of her new songs, "I Write These Words." I love this song so hard, but my fave part is the beginning of the second verse: "Do you need me to be in love? Is that what you're thinking of when you think that I'm too angry?" I could be way off, but it makes me think that Brandi's critics (whoever these idiots are who say her songs are too angry and depressing) have told her she needs to get laid, and then maybe she could write a lighter song. Because I'm a perv. But if she does need to get laid, I'm pretty sure her entire female fan base could help her out there.

Second, apparently she's been doing "Bohemian Rhapsody" at her shows these days, and if she doesn't do it in Boston, I will cry. I will. That song will always and forever be Wayne's World for me, and I looooooove it. And if I could just hear Brandi Carlile sing it? I might be able to die happy.

Third, I finally got my hands on all of her unreleased stuff, and it's making me crazy, how much more I have to love her now. I didn't realize I could love her more, but I mean, I have all these new songs to listen to, and some of them are so good that they hurt me. But I have to say I really like the way she's worked her voice to sound for her two major release records. It was more raw on her early stuff, which I like plenty, but now it's, like, pure and clear and utterly beautiful. Not that she's left the raw stuff behind--just listen to "The Story"--but her voice is sweeter when she smooths it out, I think--and it makes the breaks more powerful and emotional, and I listened to "The Story" on repeat for days after that album came out, just to hear her voice break on "all of these lines across my face." And I don't really know what most of that was supposed to mean, because this girl makes me inarticulate. The end.

Snob alert

Well, now I'm scared. Apparently, strangers have found this blog (well, one), and I just realized how effing ridiculous I must sound to people who don't know me (and quite possibly to the people who do). But what was I expecting, putting all this crap on the internet? I think I should cool it on the Brandi Carlile thing, though--that was getting insane.

Except, let's still talk about her music. Big ups to the aforementioned stranger for getting me the lyrics to Brandi's new songs, but if those lyrics legit came straight from the source, then I am distraught, because it means girl can't spell. Or use apostrophes. And you know how important those things are to me. I'm just hoping the words got filtered through somebody, somehow, who had to use his or her own interpretive spelling in order to share Brandi's songs with the internet.

You know how I looked past those grammatical things for Miss Clarkson? I think I could do it for Brandi.

Oh! But the best thing is that the lyrics to "How These Days Grow Long" actually do include "a tin can for the road"! Haha! Usually, I don't hear crazy things like that in songs unless they're there.

In which I attempt a photo essay of sorts

Okay, so now that the American Idol pictures are up on flickr, I decided to try to do a slightly more in depth concert review. With pictures! Let's see how this goes.

Chris Sligh
Okay, so this fool only sang one song, and I don't know what it was. Of course he played the guitar for it. Oh, wait, he sang that Fallout Boy song with Gina. Whatever, I didn't really hear him, because Gina was better. He seemed to be having a good time, though. And he came out for the opener in a David Ortiz jersey, which of course guaranteed him some applause. It really is easy to pander to your New England audiences. At least in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. I don't know about the other four states, but I imagine they all have a lot of Yankee fans there.

Gina Glocksen
Surprisingly, at least to me, since she came in 9th place, Gina was quite the fan favorite--especially among the younger girls. She also seemed to have a lot of stage time, which was just fine with me, since I think she was actually my favorite non-Melinda contestant, even though I never voted for her. For a while I was, like, "She's, like, Nikki McKibbin! Bleh," but she's actually so much better. And she was having a grand old time, and she was really sweet to her eleven-year-old fans, and all in all, I have to give her a big ol' thumbs up. It did not hurt that she was smokin' hot.

Hot Pants Scarnato
Remember that time when Seacrest called her Stacey? Because she was in the bottom two with Phil Stacey? Yeah, even Seacrest forgot who she was. Jess will kill me for this, but I just don't get the appeal. She's not even that pretty, but she flaunts herself like there's no tomorrow. I wasn't really paying attention to anyone's actual singing (save for Melinda's--and Jordin's, because, um, she got the whole end of the show to herself, rightfully so, since she won and all), but Haley was so...bleh. There was this part when the non-winning girls were doing "Ain't No Other Man," and it had some cheesy choreography where they were supposed to turn around and shake their boot-ays, and Haley totally played it up. Lakisha was not havin' it, Gina was, like, whatever, and Melinda did it playfully, but Haley took it so seriously. That skank. (Love ya, Jess!) Anyway, she was okay--better than Sligh and Richardson. And Malakar. I also don't know the song she sang by herself either. Good grief--was I even there?

Sanjaya MalakarOkay, so he was so much less ubiquitous than I thought he'd be. I think he only did one song by himself, and then he was singing with a million other people, so you couldn't hear him, and his hair was no big deal, and I was so grateful. I could forget he was even there. Which I did, most of the time--until he pulled out the guitar when the boys got their "band" together. Then I laughed.

Don't worry! The rest shall follow.

A random exercise

Top 8 Most Played Songs in My iTunes (non-repeating artists)
1. Closer to You - Brandi Carlile (Not actually my favorite Brandi Carlile song, but it is the one I've been listening to the most. Um, clearly.)
2. Don't Waste Your Time - Kelly Clarkson (I don't even know why, since this isn't even my favorite song from My December)
3. I've Just Seen a Face - The Beatles
4. You Picked Me - A Fine Frenzy
5. A Case of You - Joni Mitchell
6. Fireworks - from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
7. If It Were Up to Me - Rooney
8. Rock and Roll Heaven's Gate - Indigo Girls

Other than the Brandi Carlile and the Kelly Clarkson, these kind of surprised me. While we're talking about iTunes, though, can I just tell you my new favorite thing about it? I have discovered (belatedly) that you can sort your songs/albums by something different than the display song/artist/album. So, for example, all my Brandi Carlile songs display "Brandi Carlile" as the artist, but they're sorted as "Carlile, Brandi," so that you have to go to the C section to find her. I did that with all of my artists who go by their first and last names. It took forever, but it made me so happy that I kept going with it. Ever since I started loading my music onto my computer, way back when the internet was first invented (um, or 1999), it's bugged me that the songs, if you had them ordered alphabetically by artist, would be arranged by the artist's first name, unless you changed the file info to the "Carlile, Brandi" crap. That's why iTunes is so amazing! She displays as "Brandi Carlile," but she's sorted as "Carlile, Brandi!" Just like my actual CD collection. Ryan Adams is in the As, Alanis is in the Ms, Ben Folds is in the Fs, Lisa Loeb is in a different place in the Ls--it's beautiful.

Gah!

Brandi Carlile and some stupid iTunes widget caused my iTunes library to explode, which means I just lost my playlists, the playcount record of 75% of my songs, and the ratings for those songs as well. That re-sorting by last name thing, though--it held onto that, because that's actually file information. So, I guess that's good. But this is wicked annoying. Fortunately, I have an exact replica of this library on my laptop. So... I'll fix it tomorrow, because I can't handle an incomplete library.

I still can't figure out the lyrics to "I Write These Words" or "Love Songs"--or the beginning of "How These Days Grow Long." I'm pretty sure she doesn't actually say something about "a tin can for the road," but that's the best I can do. Clearly, I need to see this girl in concert as soon as possible. Next Friday can't come fucking fast enough.

Can't talk about American Idol and not bring up Kelly Clarkson

Okay, so last night Jess and I went to the American Idols' concert at the Verizon Wireless Whatever in Manchester, and it was quite possibly the gayest thing we've ever attended. Including that party full of drag queens we went to at the beginning of the month. It was more entertaining than I was expecting. The girls outperformed the hell out of the boys. Blake was fun to watch in the beginning, but then he got all self-indulgent with the beatboxing, and I was, like, zzzzzzzzzz. I unexpectedly actually fell in love a little bit with Gina Glocksen, but Melinda Doolittle was still the star of my show. Also, unexpectedly, the tween set was totally in love with Gina. I have the same taste as the eleven-year-olds. Just so you know. Lakisha brought the house down with a really amazing "I Will Always Love You," and I remembered that she was one of the ones who could really turn it out. Melinda totally rocked out "Natural Woman," and even though I have this thing about Idol contestants performing songs Kelly killed on during her Idol tenure, I loved it. Melinda's the only person who could do that--she could have sung every song Kelly Clarkson has ever sung in her life, even "Stuff Like That There," and I would have eaten it up. Girl knows how to sing--and perform. However, it was the actual winner--bless her heart--who provided the highlight of my night, though, when she totally earnestly did Jewel's "You Were Meant for Me," playing the guitar for her own self. It was just as cheesy as you'd think it would be, but it was adorable. When she started playing it, I was, like, "This sounds like Jewel," and then it actually was Jewel, and I couldn't not laugh. But she was so earnest! And sweet! And I almost forgot about how she was involved in all that anti-legal-abortions crap. Oh, but she made herself cry during "I Who Have Nothing," and I was kind of like, "Cut the crap, Jordin," but she did seem to genuinely and utterly love every minute of her time onstage, so if she's happy, if it's real for her, good for her.

Jess and I took a million pictures, which I plan to post to flickr tonight, because we had surprisingly good seats, and even though I am not the most talented photographer, and she was having issues with my digital camera, I'm sure some of them came out. There are a million pictures of Hot Pants Scarnato, because Jess is in love with her, but well, hopefully there are other good ones. I tried to take as many of Gina and Melinda as possible, but who knows. They all kept moving! It was hard.

First sign of morning is grey and alarming

Mike does not like the Beatles. He says they're boring and that he doesn't like "old people music." Are you effing shitting me? "Old people music." The Beatles are timeless, and they are far from boring, and they've probably influenced at least half of the artists he likes. That girl I talk about too much, for example. And I guess this means he won't go see Across the Universe with me.

Speaking of the Beatles and that girl I talk about too much, I kind of feel like "Late Morning Lullaby" is her "I'm Only Sleeping." Of course I effing love both of those songs. I wish I were sleeping. Leave me where I am, man. (That means you, Charles Wallace.)

Haha, I forgot I had "Hollerback Girl" in my iTunes. It's still fun. I think we may have sung it tripping home from the Peddlar's Daughter some summer night before we graduated from college. Obviously the "this shit is bananas" part.

I feel I'm wastin' my days

I used to have my eyebrow pierced. I did it sophomore year of college. Lizzy and Carlos went with me. We went to some place down by Johnson & Wales. It cost $27 and took six weeks to heal. Ish. And it itched. But I loved it. I took it out the summer before senior year, intending to replace the ring with something else, but I... never got around to it. And now it's closed up, and now I miss it. I would get it pierced again, but facial piercings are not allowed at Bath & Body Works. Although, with my glasses, the eyebrow ring was hardly noticeable--I liked that. It was subtle facial mutilation. Maybe I will get it pierced again anyway, if I ever get around to getting that tattoo. (Guess what else is not allowed at Bath & Body Works.)

What do I want to get a tattoo of? Guess. No. A book. (Nice try guessing the letters BC, but my love for Brandi Carlile is not that insane.) An open book on the inside of my arm (I still haven't decided right or left yet). The other thing I haven't decided is if I want the book to have words in it. Ideally, I would ask for the first sentence of my favorite book to be on the right page, but the first sentence of A Wrinkle in Time is, "It was a dark and stormy night." That's too cliche. And Goodnight Moon is too juvenile for a tattoo, I'm thinking--plus, it's no good without the pictures. I don't want the tattoo to be that big, so maybe I should just get an approximation of text, rather than actual words that would be impossible to read and take too long to etch into my skin.

I will not talk about the Red Sox today, because my heart can't take it.

But I will talk about Brandi Carlile, because I can't stop. She did this Elvis tribute concert thing on ABC the other night, singing a duet of "Love Me Tender" with Chris Isaak, and while she was entirely lovely, she looked orange again. What the hell? Also, we have this stupid hand cream at Bath & Body Works called Glove Me Tender (queer!), so while I was doing inventory last night, I kept singing "Glove me tender, glove me true..." and then contemplating slamming my hand in the doors of the service elevator to make it all stop.

God, the tv show made a mockery of these books

I appreciate that Charles Ingalls was apparently not as bigoted as the other white folk settling in Indian Territory--including his wife. And I understand that all of these events took place a hundred and fifty-ish years ago, and I love tiny Laura for being curious about the Indians, rather than hating and fearing them like her mother and her older sister, but re-reading Little House on the Prairie made me kinda itchy. One of the things I hate most about this country's history is what we did to the people who'd been living here for probably thousands of years--just because their skin was darker than ours. A lot of times throughout the book, Laura hears, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian," but her father doesn't believe it, so she doesn't either. I don't think she sees the Indians as people, just like her, but she's, like, six. So I'll let it go. Still. It makes me uncomfortable, reading about the way these white people just decided that they should have the land because they wanted to settle it and farm it and "civilize" it (whatever that means). This is good children's literature, the kind that makes me antsy, because it deals with things. One of the greatest things is that grown-up Laura does not impose any of her own views--she tells the story almost entirely through tiny Laura's knowledge of the world. The only time she interjects--that I recall--is when she explains about malaria and how people didn't know back then that you could catch it from mosquitoes. So she doesn't preach about how to treat Indians (and what she even believed, when she grew up, about her time in Indian Territory, I have no idea), she just tells us how she experienced it as a small child who couldn't comprehend the entirety of this pioneering situation. I like that. A lot.

Did anyone else totally hate Mary Ingalls? Until she went blind, and then you kind of felt bad for her? I have totally and utterly identified with Laura since I was six years old. She's one of my literary heroes, and I didn't even realize it until I started reading the books again.

Every fall

Two and a half games. Let met just say this: I was never impressed with Eric Gagne. What has he done for us? He is not Jonathan Papelbon, and now he is most certainly dead to me. He's pretty much worthless.

I am pissed. I think it was Kirt who said that the Yankees would catch up, way back when they were fourteen games back--and Pete was like no way. They may have even jokingly put money on it. Damn you, Kirt.

Yeah, like it's Kirt's fault. This was totally inevitable. Boston chokes, New York becomes invincible. Blah.

I've always said that the best folk music comes from the Dutch

Since last summer, Wikipedia has removed every reference to Brandi Carlile's being a lesbian from its info on her. Way back when I'd spend most days at my internship listening to a loop of her self-titled album and Regina Spektor's Begin to Hope, I decided, during "Happy," that this girl was kind of gay, so I went to the internets for confirmation. (Also, just look at the cover of her debut CD--pretty gay.) Then, the Wikipedia article claimed she'd come out in 2003, and there was a link to an article in some Washington university's paper in which somebody connected with the Brandi Carlile Band said something like, "Brandi's a lesbian, so our shows are always full of girls." That link was still there a few months ago. Now it's gone. What the eff? Is someone shoving her back into the closet? Is she not a lesbian anymore? (How is that possible?) Was she ever a lesbian in the first place? I don't know anything anymore--but I do know that she wore a Boy Scout uniform to her tour opener in Oregon. That's pretty gay, right? (Picture stolen from againtoday.com)

While I'm talking about Brandi Carlile, I'll add this to my "I love country music, and I have to kill myself" story: one of her new songs "How These Days Grow Long," which I fucking love is even more country-fried than "Closer to You." So there. That's all.

Also, she did a video for "Turpentine," and in it, she is wearing this horrible vest (with nothing underneath it--which has to mean she's either a lesbian or Ani DiFranco--and Ani's at least half gay), and the whole time I was watching the video, I was not really paying attention to the song or the story, because this exchange was running through my head:

Gretchen: Regina, you're wearing sweatpants. It's Monday.
Regina: So...?
Karen: So that's against the rules, and you can't sit with us.
Regina: Whatever. Those rules aren't real.
Karen: They were real that day I wore a vest!
Regina: Because that vest was disgusting!

Because, y'all? That vest was disgusting. But it did let me see that Brandi has matching tattoos on her upper arms of what looked to me like balls of snakes, but were most likely not actually balls of snakes. I'll have to watch the video again to see what they really are, but seriously. That vest. It kills me. I've even seen her wear it before, but she was wearing a t-shirt under it then, and so it wasn't so bad.

Also! In some shots, she looks orange, like they put bronzer on her or something, which--unnecessary. On the whole, though, she looks more like real Brandi than she did in the video for "The Story," but I just totally don't love it when they put all that Hollywood makeup on her.

That vest, though. I wouldn't let her eat lunch with me if she were wearing it, either.

Oh, of course I would. She's Brandi Carlile, and I'm certainly no Regina George. I do prefer the Boy Scout uniform shirt, though.

On a completely unrelated (but still important) note, why do the Red Sox do this to me every year? 3 and a half games? When once it was 14? What the fuck? Every year. And every year, the Yankees suck until the All-Star break, and then they're like, "Later, suckers!" and they steal every hope and dream away from Boston. (Except for 2004, which was sweet, but seriously, if that shit only happens once every eighty-six years, I will cry tears of blood.) 14 to 3 and a half. 11 games left. Good Christ, please, please, please, don't blow this, Boston.

Do you know what that's worth?

Look, I'm trying to exorcise this Brandi Carlile obsession, okay? So I'm just going to keep talking about her until I finally grow tired of it. For Kelly Clarkson, that took about five years, since I became obsessed in the summer of '02, and once I'd burned holes in My December from playing it too much, the obsession was put to rest. I still love her, but I'm not crazy anymore. I hope it doesn't take five years for Brandi, but well. We'll see.

Anyway, here's a thing that drives me crazy: When people who are older than I am hear her name, they always go, "Belinda Carlisle?" No, you fuck nuggets! Not Belinda Carlisle. Christ. I heard that at the Indigo Girls show--and my dad said it to me, and Mike's manager said it to him (though I don't think Mike knows who Belinda Carlisle is...), and it made me insane. But here's the kicker: when the River first started playing her (in 2005, I think, because I was definitely still in school, and I remember this happening in the kitchen of our old house), and the DJs would be all, "new one from Brandi Carlile," I was, like, "Belinda Carlisle? What? No, that's not right." Sorry, Brandi. And suck it, Belinda.

I wonder if Brandi gets that to her face. That would make me sad. But then if I were Brandi, I would start playing a cover of "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" just to fuck with people.

I don't know what I'm talking about half the time

You know, in my "I hate country music, but not all of it" post, I neglected to mention that Brandi Carlile is pretty effin' country. I meant to, while I was writing it, but then I didn't. But she is, and it's okay, because she does the good stuff about country. Like the songs on the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack.

I think the thing about country music is that it is full of novelty songs, and those I just can't stand (um, except for "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" for some reason). But the country-ishness of the music itself, I don't hate that. Sometimes I love it. Witness one of my very favorite Brandi Carlile songs "Closer to You": it's pretty country, and it's got the highest playcount on iTunes right now.

And Brandi herself, though she's from Washington state, sounds more to me like she's from Tennessee or Georgia. Although I know no one from the Northwest, so maybe they all have what I think are Southern accents. Or maybe it's just this, like, generic hick accent that people who live in rural areas have. Um, maybe I should shut up before my snobbery grows even further. No, but really! The Indigo Girls are from Georgia, and Brandi talks just like them. Ish. No, she doesn't, but there are times when she sounds bona fide Southern and times when she just talks like a regular person. Uh-oh, yes, I am a regional snob, okay? Everyone not from New England is a loser!

Please. Kelly Clarkson is from Texas, and I still love her.

In listening to Rilo Kiley's new album, I have come to decide that I will listen to Jenny Lewis no matter what she's singing. And I didn't even know I liked her that much. But her voice is pretty amazing, and even though I don't think I'm too wild about most of the songs on Under the Blacklight, I still won't skip past them when iTunes shuffles to them. Except "Silver Lining"--that song is awesome, and I can't stop listening to it. But Jenny Lewis. Awesome no matter what.

So Charles Wallace now has free access to the basement, which means that he won't stop bugging me when I'm trying to sleep. He squeaks and squeaks, and best of all, he attacks my limbs. Yesterday, he launched himself straight at my left eye. That was fun. Fortunately, he's just playing, so his claws are rarely entirely extended, and I only have one tiny mark on my hand from our tussling. But the thing about this kitten is that he will sleep for two hours or so, and then he will wake me up, wanting attention. So last night we slept from midnight to two, then from two-thirty to five, and then from six to seven-fifty-five. I need to put a door on one of these rooms right quick. I even tried to put up the door to Jeff's room, but I could not, for the life of me, separate the hinges. Plus, the hinge holes are in the wrong spot on the doorframe, and I'm not sure I'm dykey enough to be able to fix it--especially if I'm not even dykey enough to separate some door hinges. That was really disappointing. But I need Charles Wallace to be not in my face at night, because I need sleeeeeeeeeep.

In happier news, Mike and I are hanging out tonight! Finally.

OH! And Ryan Adams, whom I totally adore, is country too. Alt country or whatever. Wilco, too, falls into that category! Crap. I totally love country music. Don't tell anyone.

Baseball season never ends!

Jess and I went to the Red Sox game last night, and even though they lost it was awesome. I got to sit up in the company seats in the club pavilion, where we had the best view of the entire park. And! We got in-seat service, so I didn't have to keep getting up for beers. Bonus. I may have spent close to seventy dollars, but whatever. The tickets were free, and I got to leave early from work to go to the game.

It was pretty effin' sweet.

Presenting...

Charles Wallace, the most adorable kitten who ever lived.

I got him on Saturday after work with my brother from the Humane Society of Greater Nashua, and he was already fixed, and he'd had his shots, and he was litterbox-trained. He's three months old; he's wary of people, and he likes to chase his tail. Just yesterday, he started purring while we played chase the string.

I named him Charles Wallace, but I've been calling him Charlie, C-dubs, Chuck, Two-Buck Chuck, and Squeaker--because when he meows, it comes out like a squeak. My stupid brother didn't want to name him Charles Wallace, but! Madeleine L'Engle just died, and his name at the shelter was Murray. Charles Wallace Murry--I mean, come on. It was like a sign.

Anyway, I love him, and we have to go to the vet this week, so I have to figure out how to do that around my work schedule...

RIP

I am distraught, honest to goodness, because I just found out that Madeleine L'Engle died on Thursday. She was the author who meant the most to me in my entire life, and I've read her words more often than anyone else's in the world. I just... I am so grateful to have found her; everything she's written (that I've managed to read) has meant so much to me. So... Thank you, Madeleine. Thank you from the bottom of this girl's very heart.

Apple is bad for my impulse-control

You guys. You have no idea how bad I want an iPod Touch. You can download songs from iTunes directly on it. And watch YouTube videos! So I wouldn't have to find some nerdhack to save YouTube videos as files and then sync them to my iPod, which I would have done a million years ago, if my stupid computer wasn't as slow as molasses in January. (How's that for a folksy simile?) But as long as iPod Touch's largest capacity is 16GB, I have no use for it. Seriously. I just found out that I have 19GB of free space left on my 80GB iPod, which means I'm actually using 55GB (because of formatting and whatever). So I couldn't even put all of my music on an iPod Touch, never mind any of the video I have. So what the eff? I need at least 60GB for an iPod, y'all--especially a video-playing iPod. I would prefer 80. When is that going to happen, iPod Touch? Probably not soon enough to stop me from buying a 160GB iPod Classic. 160GB! That's the hard drive on a MacBook! I could never use up the space on that. Never. Or at least not before Apple created the terabyte iPod. Christ.

Nerd alert!

Here's a post wherein I will not talk about Brandi Carlile at all. I promise.

Do you know what grammatical rule I love to flout (other than splitting infinitives)? (Also, did you know that apparently people confuse the words flout and flaunt quite often? I find that bizarre, but it's true. It says so in this book I have of commonly confused words.) No double negatives. I am kind of in love with double negatives these days, and you know what? They were all the rage in English until, like, um the sixteenth or seventeenth century when somebody decided that language had to be like math, in which two negatives make a positive. While that is true in math, there is no need for it to be true in language. In fact, it is not true in any of the romance languages, so what is up, English? If the sentence was meant to be negative, every related word in the sentence would be negative. Like so, "I do not have no eggs." Or, really, "I have not no eggs," because when they were using double negatives in English, they didn't use the verb do to form negatives like we do now. Even better, you could say something like this, "I never have not no eggs." Maybe--that sounds horrible--but you could get sentences with triple or quadruple narratives, I swear. I'll dig one up from Chaucer some day, just you wait. And I'll reproduce it Middle English and then attempt to translate it myself, which could be ludicrously easy or deceptively difficult.

(Do we miss the girl crush talk yet?)

Basically, I really only use double negatives in my head to say things like, "I ain't got no money" or whatever, because that sounds tough. In my head. And it's fun. If you said that it Spanish--no tengo ningun dinero--it would be doubly negative, but it would also be grammatically correct. Who changed this rule in English and why? I blame the scientific revolution/the great enlightenment/the renaissance perhaps. Those are all different time periods, I realize, but it happened during one of them.

Also, I think I only enjoy double negatives when I'm already using grammatically suspect structures, like "ain't" or "don't got." Like, "I don't got no time for this, fool." Like I'm Mr. T or something. Once again, these things only happen in my head. But I think they're fun. And English is not math, so two negatives shouldn't make a positive.