Here's to you, 2010

We are nearly three months into the new year and I am feeling quite besotted with 2010 thus far.  Call it a bit high-flown, but I think 2010 could be my best year yet... or at least a close second to 2007 (my blue-ribbon year) and maybe 2003... no no, not 2003.  '03 was good, but it ain't got nothin' on '07 (paging Mr. Curtis!).

The reasons behind the cheerfulness are mine to keep for now, but today it could definitely have something to do with the sunshine, the extended light, and the 60 degree weather.  I ditched the coat and my socks this morning for a light-weight sweater and a pair of sparkly flats... sorry Winter, our relationship has been strained for years now, and while I have grown to appreciate you, I never miss you when once you're gone.  You can go now.  Seriously,  you've worn out your welcome.

To celebrate what could be my most delightful year to date (I am being wildly optimistic here, people) and the beginnings of the season before my favorite season,  I give you my monthly playlist:

2010: A Dedication

1. "November was White, December was Grey" by Say Hi - nothing like kicking off spring with the lyrics: "I feel better when the winter's gone."  yeah, me too.  
2. "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel - you gotta love Simon and the Funkel.  I recently watched the rock and roll hall of fame concert on HBO and was blown away by how amazing S & G still sounded after all these years.  This song is a mood changer.  
3. "Noticed" by MuteMath - listen to this on a sunny day with sunglasses on.  If you have a sunroof, open it.
4. "Gravity Rides Everything" by Modest Mouse - a little Modest Mouse throw back to when I liked them much more than I do now.  
5. "Electric Feel" (Justice Remix) by MGMT - quickly becoming a favorite amongst the teeny boppers (I know this because my 15 yr. old brother asked me if I had heard of them the other day),  MGMT has some really good songs that are even better when Justice takes a stab at them.  
6. "Out of The Blue" by Julian Casablancas - I am still patiently waiting for The Strokes to band together again and make another album, but until that time, I will settle for Julian's solo work.  His album,  Phrazes for The Young, is quickly moving it's way up my most frequently played, this song sitting casually at the number one repeat.
7. "If I Ever Feel Better" by Phoenix - also becoming wildly popular, I am surprisingly happy to see they have found such success.  I love Phoenix and have since I found "Long
   Distance Call" several years ago.  If you only have their latest album, take a look at some of their older stuff, cause it's all good.
8. "Castaways" by Shearwater - a recent find thanks to Pitchfork, this dramatic, melancholy tune has won my heart  and I think it should win yours too.
9. "Julia (b-complex)" by The Very Best - I love their style, and while I don't know who Julia is, I am wishing that was name so I could dedicate this song to myself.
10. "I am a Rock" by Simon and Garfunkel - yes, S & G made my list twice this month. What can I say? I'm a huge fan.
11. "Help I'm Alive" by Metric - this song made it's debut on my running list and I am digging the rhythm and lyrics while my feet pound the pavement.
12. "Any Fun"  by Coconut Records - being the huge Jason Schwartzman fan that I am (Please see Rushmore, I heart Huckabees and The Darjeeling Limited for more details), when I discovered his one man band awhile back I jumped on it and bought up what I could. I'm not normally too fond of actors trying to make it in the music biz, but the Schwartz can do no wrong. He is quite the talented musician (and writer).
13. "Dawn of the Dead" by Does it Offend You, Yeah - stupid band name, good song.
14. "Diplomat's Sun" by Vampire Weekend - this song is catchy and I could listen to it many times over.
15.  "Human Wings" by Fictionist - I attended high school with one of these guys and I am happy to see him still pursuing music and making it good.  Kudos. 
16. "Islands On The Coast" by Band of Horses - in honor of their upcoming album Infinite Arms. Haven't seen them live since they were here in '06 ('07, maybe, since that was my stellar year) but am hoping to get to a show of theirs soon.
17. "Stone Cold Sober" by Paloma Faith - my lifelong friend, Leah, said this song reminded her of me and so introduced me to Paloma (Spanish for dove) and her wildly entertaining music.  Loving her right now.
18. "Wide Eyes" by Local Natives - I like these guys.  
19. "The Weary Kind"  by Ryan Bingham - by far the most depresso song on my list, but it had to be on it.   The theme from Crazy Heart,  this track emits gritty beauty.  I will be listening to this song for years to come.

And there you have it, folks.  Like my choices?  Don't like my choices?  I don't really care either way, but if you have any suggestions for me or perhaps some new music I should know about, please send it my way.

Here's to a promising year. Cheers.

And you all thought Lady Gaga was sooooo orginal...

...little did you know she was stealing her looks from the people of walmart:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/14-styles-gaga-stole-from-people-of-walmart/

Someone please explain her fame to me... I don't get it.

Salt Lake Scavenger

Being that I spend the bulk of my day sitting in front of a computer screen writing, researching, editing etc.  I take lots of precious breaks to check out my favorite sites and blogs.  One of those precious sites is Apartment Therapy.  If you have never seen it, go there now and check it out.  It rocks.
Almost daily on AT, they have a scavenger section where they have someone scour craigslist and local paper furniture ads, finding the best stuff and reposting it on the site.  I love the stuff they find, but there is one problem:  they scavenge in NYC, LA, DC, Chicago, San Fran etc.  Big cities.  Poor SLC is left out of the scavenge section and despite my best efforts to get the peeps in other cities to ship to me (see my "so blue" post from a few weeks ago) it has proven ineffective.
SO, to remedy that, Kim and I have decided to create our own scavenger section to find the best "junk" SLC has to offer and bring it to all of you.

I present to you Salt Lake Scavenger.

Check us out.  Send us your thoughts, ideas, criticism.  It is still in its baby stages, so be patient with us while we bring it up to speed.

The Handsome Men's Club

My dear friend and coworker sent me this video this morning and it more than made my day.  It is 9 minutes long, and totally worth it.  trust me, you want to watch this:

This Modern Love, Vol II

I'm just going to be really honest for a moment and let everyone know that I have a strong aversion to Valentine's Day.  I always have (yes, even now that I am married and don't have to wallow in my sorrows anymore because I am probably the only single person without a date on Valentine's Day!!!).  I think it is a lame invented holiday that allows men to buy the obligatory flowers and cheesefest card to tell your spouse, lady, significant other, etc. etc. that you really do love and care about them and so that anytime your wife complains that you haven't bought her flowers lately you can say: "But honey, I bought you flowers on Valentine's Day!"  Now,  menfolk, this isn't great for you either.  Why, you ask?  Because women feel the need to express their love as well, so we frame stupid pictures of us kissing, or modge podge a stool or a box that holds the memories of our first date, ticket stubs from that first romantic comedy we saw together, a pillow we made that has our initials embroidered on it.  It is all enough to make anyone gag.  Then you have to pretend you like it, because we spent so much time on it, so you place it in your room somewhere, hoping no one ever sees it but you, just so we know that you really really loved it... seriously? Is this what it has come to?  If I really wanted to show Ben I loved him I would pay his registration fee and enroll him in a poker tournament in Vegas... he would think I was the coolest wife on the earth!  But that is SO not romantic... and I am NOT paying for him to enter a poker tournament, so there goes my great gift idea.

So yeah,  Valentine's Day blows, people, and I feel fine saying that.

What doesn't blow?  Music.  Good love songs. Love songs that don't make you think of your highschool junior prom ("Lady in Red" anyone?). 

So, without further ado, I bring you my latest playlist for all you lovers out there:

This Modern Love, Vol. II

• "Think I'm in Love" by Beck

•  "This Modern Love"  by Bloc Party

• "Lover"  by Devendra Banhart

• "Toothpaste Kisses"  by The Maccabees

• "Destiny" by Zero 7

• "Part One"  by Band of Horses

• "Publish My Love"  by Rogue Wave

• "Consequence" by the Notwist

• "Sweet Diposition"  by Temper Trap

• "Gigantic"  by  The Pixies

• "HeartBeats"  by Jose Gonzalez

• "Somebody Loved"  by The Weepies

•  "Wonderwall" by Ryan Adams

• "No One's Gonna Love You"  by Band of Horses

• "Shelter"  by Ray LaMontagne

• "Love You More"  by Alexi Murdoch

• "Find Love"  by Clem Snide

• "Brand New Colony"  by The Postal Service

Enjoy. Like it or don't like it.  Burn a CD for your lover if you so choose.  Just don't label it "V-Day love Mix"  and cover it in heart stickers, please.

so blue...

I have a minor obsession with blue. Okay, so it isn't so much minor as major.  I would love to paint every wall in my house a different shade of blue and buy blue furniture like this gorgeous blue crate and barrel sofa below:

I need this couch in my life.  I need this room in my life.  This photo hails from a funky eclectic LA home tour on apartmenttherapy.com.  To see the full house tour (which I absolutely love) click here. 

This couch is selling for $1,000 in LA but I can't have it because they won't ship it.  Anyone want to make a quick trip to LA with me for a pick up?

We somehow go on

In the wake of the terrible tragedy that has beset the people of Haiti, I have done a lot of praying.  Praying to understand why such things happen, in particular in areas that always seem to have so much already against them.  Homelessness, political turmoil, starvation. A prayer for the suffering.  A prayer for families of lost loved ones.  A prayer for doctors and medical personnel desperately attempting to reach and treat the thousands upon thousands of wounded.  A prayer for their government and for ours, that we may find the resources to aid our tiny, crippled, shattered neighbor. 
While researching ways I could help from the comfort of my computer at my office desk, I found a poignant article that touched me.  It comes from the Miami Herald, and I want to share it:

Cruel as it is, we somehow go on

By LEONARD PITTS JR.

lpitts@MiamiHerald.com

Sometimes, the earth is cruel.

That is ultimately the fundamental lesson here, as children wail, families sleep out of doors, and the dead lie unclaimed in the rubble that once was Port-au-Prince.

Sometimes the rains fall and will not stop. Sometimes the skies turn barren and will not rain. Sometimes the seas rise and smack the shoreline like a fist. Sometimes the wind bullies the land. And sometimes, the land rattles and heaves and splits itself in two.

Sometimes, the earth is cruel.

And always, when it is, we do the same thing. We dig ourselves out. We weep and mourn, we recover and memorialize the dead, we rebuild our homes. And we go on. This is the price of being human. And also,

arguably, the noblest expression.

Sometimes, the earth is cruel, and you have no choice but to accept that as part of the bargain called life. And when it is your turn to deal with it, you do.

But what if it's always your turn?

Surely some homeless, dust-streaked Haitian can be forgiven for thinking it is always Haiti's turn this morning, two days after the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere saw its capital city smashed by the strongest earthquake it has ever known, a 7.0-magnitude monster. Surely, the rest of us watching from afar, experiencing tragedy and devastation from the comfort of desk chairs and living room couches, are tempted to believe the same thing.

Bad enough, Haiti is wretchedly poor. Bad enough it has a history of political instability and colonialism, of being ignored by the major powers when it is not being exploited by them. Bad enough, all that, yet at the end of the day, those are disasters authored by human hands, by human greed, human corruption, human economic predation.

Sometimes, though, you have to wonder if the planet itself is not conspiring against this humble little nation.

After 1994, when Tropical Storm Gordon killed several hundred people, after 1998, when Hurricane Georges swept away over 500 lives, after 2004, when the rains of Tropical Storm Jeanne claimed over 2,000 souls, after 2005, when Hurricane Dennis took 25 lives in July and Tropical Storm Alpha snatched 17 in October, followed by Hurricane Wilma which stole 11 more, after the double whammy of Hurricanes Fay and Gustav in 2008 killed over 130 people and destroyed over 3,100 homes, after all that, comes this latest insult -- and a death toll officials cannot begin to even imagine. Perhaps as many as 100,000, they were saying on Wednesday.

Sometimes, the earth is cruel. To crawl the planet's skin, scanning for tornadoes in Oklahoma, charting storm tracks in Florida, running from wildfires in California, is to understand this in a primal, personal way. It is to breathe a prayer that begins, ``There, but for the grace of God . . . '' It is to write relief checks, donate blood, volunteer material and time and to fear, even in the doing, that these gestures are small against the need, inconsequential against the ache of a people whose turn seems never to end.

But what else are you going to do? As the playwright put it, your arms too short to box with God. Even less have we the ability to answer the question that burns the moment: Why are the most vulnerable repeatedly assessed the highest price?

We are hamstrung by our own limitations, so we can only do what we always do, only send prayers and help. And watch, staggered by the courage it takes, as Haitians do what human beings always do, the thing at which they have become so terribly practiced.

Dig out. Weep and mourn. Memorialize the dead. Rebuild. Go on. And show the world once again a stubborn insistence on living, despite all the cruelties of the earth.

The Earth is cruel and oftentimes a fist is raised at God, angry and bewildered with the unanswerable question of: "why me?".  I will never know such tragedy.  I will most likely never suffer the way the people of Haiti have suffered. Over and over and over again.  But what can we do but send prayers, write relief checks, volunteer and watch, as the Haitians do what we human beings were meant to do on this earth:  Endure.  And somehow, they go on.

My heart goes out to all affected by this calamity. If only I could do more.  so much more.