Paean for a New Day

Having kind of a funny moment here. It's not every day that I have little to say. Just reflecting on how everything came together. I went to school for a year, which re-activated my student status, which enabled me to work on a J-1. None of that was planned, or even desirable, but it happened and here I am.

The The - This Is the Day




I'm here because I persist. An aggressive person with vision would be in a different place. I'm a lazy person with a vague dream, but I also have a canny ability to Make It Work. And yet I don't know how it will work -- I'm not sure it can, sans citizenship. But I'll try.

I'll try because I can't not. I have a life to make, and I only get one. I have good parents that think critically. I have never left a dinner table discussion with fewer angles considered.

I have so much love around me.

Drifting into la la land

A quick song couldn't hurt, right?

TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me

Gloria in excelsis deo

Patti Smith - Gloria (In Excelsis Deo/Gloria)

Dog Days Are Over!

Yup, they're really over. Hello, new/old life.

Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over

From loneliness to deliverance?

I hate it here
When you're gone

Wilco - Hate It Here


the path to redemption...

I'm going to view the host in white
Who travel both day and night
Comin' up from every nation
On the way to the Great Carnation

Aretha Franklin - How I Got Over


Am I saying that Jesus delivered me? No, no, probably not. Not even the liberal Jesus (Howard Dean?) did that. Mostly there's reason to hope again.

My love's growing stronger

Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)

There's Something Happening Here

Tonight's movie was supposedly the best film of 2009, The Hurt Locker, although it was actually made in 2008. It got me thinking: what's the best war-related song of all time? I think "For What It's Worth" has a pretty strong argument. It's so clichéd, I know, so how about a bunch of a different takes on it? Sure, why not!

Lou Rawls - For What It's Worth


Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - For What It's Worth


The Staples Singers - For What It's Worth (Low Quality)


...and of course, the original:
Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth

Sweet Jane

It's a great song by the Velvet Underground, but a smoky female voice, like Margo Timmins's, more than does it justice.

Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane