The intro for this song is so great. I love how everything just sort of builds-builds-builds until we get to the first lines: Now that everybody’s here / May we please have your attention? Perfect.
“Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood” / Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (2005)
Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse, Iceapalooza: Regardless of the cutesy un-word you’ll use to describe this forthcoming Midwest storm, the only thing on which the local (and national!) meterologists seem to agree is that some sort of Storm is coming, and it could be Big.
I’ll believe it when I see it (and yes, I’m completely okay with standing corrected later).
Contrary to many folks, the Weather Forecast (substitute trademarked phrase here, ie: ForeWarn Four! or SkyWatch Six! or It’llFuckingRain Five!) is the seven minutes during which I change the channel, get up to take a pee, or check on the water I put out to boil twenty-three-fucking minutes ago what is wrong with you, stove?! I’m hungry and not for dry pasta! And yeah, I am hyper-aware of the fact that this is because I do not drive, or do any other form of self-commuting (walk, bike, Rollerblade) that would be directly affected by foul winter weather. Uh, whatever: when will they get to the sports report?
Or the celebrity gossip. Oooh.
Sometimes I think "Man, it'd be cool to live in Canada!" And then I see pictures like this. Please, Weather Gods, don't let this happen here. Ever.
Ahem. Okay. In spite of my uncaring for such “news,” I’ve been made aware that things could turn nasty in the Near Future, and it is sending a Large Number of local folk into a milk-and-bread-and-SnowMelt buying frenzy. Myself? I’d be lying if I said I hope it didn’t impact my work schedule. It’d take one hell of a batch of Foul Weather for me to get a “snow day,” but the weather has the potential to affect the time I’m spent punched in. I also enjoy shoveling snow, which might sound odd until I remind you that I enjoy menial, mindless, repetitive tasks involving physical labor (if only I lived in the day of Rosie the Riveter. I’d rivet the shit out of… uh…whatever needed riveting).
Oh, you want me to get to the point? Ha-ha, fooled you! I have no point! But, uh, no. Seriously: I’ve heard that the potential for a foot of snow exists, and I am moderately intrigued to see how this plays out.
Ben Folds writes songs the way that, in Alternate Universe Land, I’d write songs if I could.
A quick browse through the internets reveals that approximately half of Youtube “identifies” with some sort of angsty, misguided mess that they’ve projected on this song. I desperately beg to differ. To be sure: growing up does have its sucky points. But I don’t think Mr. F is writing about Oh-Dad-Oh-Mom-I-Hate-You-And-You-Fucked-Me-Up gibberish. He’s just singing about life. Which, incidentally, goes on.
Watch the video. It’s nice.
“Still Fighting It” / Ben Folds (2001)
Nope, no Elliott Smith today…
just kidding. Here he is before he went solo.
Also, the dude (always a dude) who posted this video to YouTube? Nice screen name, weirdo.
“You Gotta Move” / Heatmiser (1996)
Wow, what a dearth of actual posts lately. I strive to correct this. In the meantime, take a listen to this and – if you’ve got the time – check out the video. It’s silly and fun.
“Pretty Good at Drinking Beer” / Billy Currington (2010)
It was really, really hard to find a decent video of this song, so please ignore the screaming in the background of the video.
Also, this is my alternate universe – if – i – auditioned – for – american – idol song.
“All I Really Want to Do” / Cher (1965)
I admit, I took a little respite from my compulsive job-search recently. Checking the same websites fourteen times a day proved to be less-than-fruitful (go figure!), so I scaled it back a bit. As I flipped over the ol’ calendar into 2011, I restarted my searching with (somewhat) renewed intensity. Here’s a snippet of what I’ve found:
the cast of Nurses, an NBC spin-off of Empty Nest. And now your television history lesson is complete.
* I’ve had to wade through a lot of medical and faculty positions posted at my local universities, two of which have major teaching hospitals / medical programs. Some of these sound pretty intriguing, but as qualified as I think I am for the position of “surgery scheduler,” watching reruns of Nurses (anyone else remember that show? Anyone?) doesn’t seem like it fits with the “two years experience” criteria.
* There’s also an interesting number of student affiars/teaching positions open for some new institutions based in the Middle East. And when I say “interesting” I mean “duh.”
[Side note: nothing against these schools, I’m just saying it takes an extra-super-special person to want to relocate to these areas from the United States. In this case, I am not extra-super-special.]
* It wasn’t very long ago that I invested in resume paper and large manilla envelopes in anticipation of a post-graduation job hunt. I’ve not had to submit a single application/cover letter/ resume by mail in this ENTIRE, most recent, process. Everything is electronic. I have mixed feelings about this.
Also, I still have some of that paper.
* I genuinely feel as if I’ve learned some pretty valuable and applicable lessons in my current position – things that would serve me well in a 9-5 job. But I can’t seem to communicate this in cover letter form without sounding like a form-letter-writing idiot.
No, really, I love to write the way Keith Olbermann loves to hear himself talk. But when it comes to putting together a cover letter I am helpless and the words just sort of fall limply out of my brain and lay there on the page like a wet blanket. Blah! It all sounds like crap! Crap, I tell you!
That’s all I have to say about this. It was real nice talking with you.
Hey, do you remember that time I went out with some folks the first time I tried out grad school? And we went to that club in Broad Ripple and we drank, like a lot-lot? And this song came on? And I danced to it? Like, really danced? And I think people might have possibly been standing in a circle around me?
Yeah, I don’t really either.
“Dirt off your shoulder” / Jay-Z (2003)
I used to be really, really, really against using music that I liked in commercials and on television shows. I don’t know why, really. I once heard an Iron & Wine song I really liked in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy before I liked Grey’s Anatomy and it made me arbitrarily irate. Again, for reasons unknown.
But you know what? If commercials and programs didn’t do this, there’d be a whole lot of music I’d probably never hear, i.e. Mr. Sean Hayes (no, not that Sean Hayes, I was briefly confused too), as featured in an ad for Subaru. Take a listen to the whole thing:
“Powerful Stuff” / Sean Hayes (2010)
the sloppy copy 