this is just so good.

You should listen to it.
I think it's my favorite album of theirs yet.

(Look at this juxtaposition, oi?)

Tomorrow will be a day of no homework.  'Twill involve a physics quiz, but also much reading of novels and frying of my brain on Netflix, and getting much-needed extra sleep, and listening to my sweet new soundtracks:

limbo word count and some obsessiveness with new music

NaNoWriMo day four, except that it's the middle of the night, so it's sort of a limbo between days 3 and 4.  I'm currently about 230 words ahead of my day 4 quota, and dawn hasn't even risen on day 4 yet.  I am going to be a little computer monster on Friday, hunched over my laptop, dividing my brain ignobly between the passionate fit of novel-writing mania and all the mound of ever-present schoolwork that is my bulwark against social anxiety.  (Pardon me if some of my sentences don't make sense; I would offer to translate them, but I may not be any more able to than you once I've gone to bed and come back.)  Also, I listened to the indie singer-songwriter genre station on Pandora for an hour or so and discovered this and this — I wish I could remember our iTunes password.

I CAN'T QUIT LISTENING TO CHAMELEON CIRCUIT.

So much nerdy goodness. It's not helping me make progress on my collegiate workload (e.g., homework! Studying! scheduling counselor appointments and volunteering stuff!, e.g., stuff that needs focus!). Also really not helping my TV/movies/books fast to listen to music about Doctor Who. If my brain is focused on Doctor Who even if I'm not actually watching it, my fasting is ineffectual.
…So now I need to get at least temporarily unhooked from Still Got Legs. How is this possible? :0

A Playlist for Change (Summer 2011)

Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never been this way before
All you can do is try to know who your friends are as you head off to the war
Pick a star on the dark horizon and follow the light
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye


             The people were overjoyed, they took to their boats
             I thought it less like a lake, and more like a moat
             The rhythm of my footsteps crossing flood-lands to your door
             Has been silenced forevermore
             The distance is quite simply much too far for me to row
             It seems farther than ever before
             Oh no—
             I need you so much closer

I woke up and wished that I was dead, with an aching in my head

I lay motionless in bed

I thought of you and where you'd gone

And let the world spin madly on

     "Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Tumnus."

     "I am very pleased to meet you, Mr. Tumnus," said Lucy.

      "And may I ask, O Lucy Daughter of Eve," said the Faun, "how you have come into Narnia?"

      "Narnia? What's that?" said Lucy.

     "This is Narnia," said the Faun, "where we are now:  all that lies between the lamp-post and the great castle Cair Paravel on the eastern sea.  And you – you have come from the wild woods of the west?"

      "I – I got in through the wardrobe in the spare room," said Lucy.

      "Ah!" said the Faun in a rather melancholy voice.  "If only I had worked harder at geography when I was a little Faun, I would no doubt know all about those strange countries.  It is too late now."

      "But they're not countries at all," said Lucy, almost laughing.  "It's only just back there – at least – I'm not sure.  It is summer there."

      "Meanwhile," said Mr. Tumnus, "it is winter in Narnia, and has been for ever so long, and we shall both catch cold if we stand here talking in the snow.  Daughter of Eve from the far land of Spare Oom where eternal summer reigns around the bright city of War Drobe, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?"

Welcome to the fallout

Welcome to existence

The tension is here, the tension is here

Between who you are and who you could be

Between how it is and how it should be

Am I losing my mind?

Vacuumed every room for the second time today

You can't go through your life without killing something or someone at one time

Losing touch with everything that I like, keeping busy day and night

Am I farsighted or just blind

It was right there in front of me, but the whole time

I swear I saw nothing wrong; I swear I saw nothing wrong at all

       With the mention of Derbyshire, there were many ideas connected.  It was impossible for her to see the word without thinking of Pemberley and its owner.  "But surely," said she, "I may enter his country with impunity, and rob it of a few petrified spars without his perceiving me."
       The period of expectation was now doubled.  Four weeks were to pass away before her uncle and aunt's arrival.  But they did pass away, and Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, with their four children, did at length appear at Longbourn.
       …The Gardiners staid only one night at Longbourn, and set off the next morning with Elizabeth.


                                   Dreams come clever, hearts now severed
                                   Difference of forever
                                   And I'm lost there
                                   I finally found that life goes on without you
                                   And the world still turns when you're not around
              

I would find a different way to go

There's no signs in life to guide you on that road

And if it's the most important thing you say, make sure they understand

Every way you wonder if you're wrong…

Inaccurate and imprecise, there is no gift without a price

 It's lonely out in space on such a timeless flight

 And I think it's gonna be a long, long time

 'Til touchdown brings me round again to find

 I'm not the man they think i am at home, oh no no no

 I'm a rocket man

 Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone

Yo, el otona

Yo,  el vespero

He sido un eco.

Sere ina ola

Sere la luna

He sido todo, soy yo.

Yo, el verano

Yo, al ebano

Soy la sonadora.

Past is past, you never really gave it a shot

To survive with your one last shot in the dark

And if your conscience weighs a little heavy tonight

Maybe you'll find that

Empty boxes on the stairs remind you that there's no one there

Is it everything you thought it would be?

Can you tell I'm not myself

I'm a slow-motion accident

Lost in coffee rings and fingerprints

I don't want to feel anything, but I do

                                                                                                      I want to change the world 

                                                                                                      Instead I sleep 

                                                                                                      I want to believe in more than you and me

                                                                                                      All that I know is I'm breathing

                                                                                                      All I can do is keep breathing

                                                                                                      All we can do is keep breathing—now

             

              And so it is, just like you said it would be

              Life goes easy on me

              Most of the time

              And so it is: the shorter story

              No love, no glory

              No hero in her skies

I said, "My pretty Creole girl, me money here's no good.

If it weren't for alligators, I sleep out in the wood."

"You're welcome here kind stranger;

our house, it's very plain.

But we never turn a stranger out from the lakes of Ponchartrain."

I need a heart that carries on through the pain

When the walls start collapsing again

Give a soul that never ceases to follow

Despite the infection within

I'm waking up now in this empty house 

Doing my best to keep my comments down to a minimum

But it's just so hard to bite my tongue

I'm waking up now and its just so loud

'Cause everyone here loves somebody else

And somehow I always seem to get left out

                                                                                                           Trees fall, and so do men

                                                                                                           Even the walls start caving in

                                                                                                           And you feel like there's no pretend for you

CREDITS:   (yes, these are all links)

"The Call" – Regina Spektor

"Transatlanticism" – Death Cab For Cutie

"World Spins Madly On" – The Weepies

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – C. S. Lewis

"I Dare You To Move" – Switchfoot

"Keeping Up With Changes" – glowfriends

Pride & Prejudice – Jane Austen

"Naïve Orleans" – Anberlin

"Everway" – Circa Survive

"Rocket Man" – Elton John

"La Sonadora" – Enya

"On Your Own" – Green River Ordinance

"Hear Me Out" – Frou Frou

"Keep Breathing" – Ingrid Michaelson

"The Blower's Daughter" – Damien Rice

"The Lakes of Ponchartrain" – Deanta

"Deteriorate" – Demon Hunter

"A Deluge of Separation" – The Sophomore Attempt

"Falling" – Ben Kweller

I'm always excited about new music purchases, but especially this one, because I've been debating about buying it for months—and then finally remembered I have a gift card.  And it is now sitting in my iTunes, and I'm awfully happy.

This picture always makes me really happy.

I felt the need to advertise it. This picture has always made me really, really cheery.  It's just a very smile-inducive picture, in my experience.

I should print it out and stick it somewhere.  It's so optimistic and jocular (Happy.  Happy is a good word for it.  I like the word happy.), but not in a sick fluffy way.  

Plus, It's also a great musical compilation made by a great bunch of guys, who I kind-of-sort-of [well, fine, almost] met once at a youth conference.  (Yes, I'm going a tad bit link-nutty lately.  Sorry about that.  Sort of:)  I know this album is four years old, but that serves naught to lessen its amazingosity.

Meditation on a fictional dystopia, and Cruella de Vil in punk.

Writing today.  I looked at a random panel in a Marvel graphic novel yesterday and it has inspired thirteen pages (thus far) of manic dystopia and forbidden love.  —Haha.—  My two main protagonists are either newlyweds or courting, in a society outlawing male/female interpersonal relationships.  So far it's making for some interesting dynamics.  The family in power doesn't allow the solidification of family units, but operates under forced breeding to control genetics and eliminate different ethnicities.  My dad had some good thoughts to add to my mental stew.  I'm a very detail-oriented person, and am not always that good at looking at the big picture.  Worldbuilding isn't usually my strength in writing, except where specific aspects of a culture directly influence my character interactions.  It's nice to get some wider thoughts.  (So if anyone else wants to proffer ideas—go for it, please!:)  I love it when my brain spins these elaborate premises out of one tiny, completely unrelated thing.  Unfortunately it doesn't happen as often as would be helpful.

I bought Children 18:3's new album yesterday.  (Christian punk band.  They are insane in the most awesome way conceivable.)  Christian, homeschooled siblings who write crazy fast songs.  I love that they write on a wide variety of themes—from Biblical topics (and not always the "obvious" ones, either), to the value of performance vs.the unconditional love of family, to budding boy/girl relationships, to the danger of stereotyping others, to suicide, to uncertainty about the future, to (I think) abortion, to—and this is my favorite—Cruella de Vil.  They just wrote this random song about Cruella de Vil! <—[YouTube link, there.]  One of the lines refers to "the smell of fear and two-toned hair."  How do you not love that?!  Honestly, I thought they were obnoxious when I first heard their debut album about two years ago (and the lead singer looks freaky scary on the jacket cover), but they were so unusual they intrigued me to the point where I listened to them anyway; and now I've actually come to really love their music, and respect them a lot as artists.  I would pay in a heartbeat to see them in concert.