I'm woman enough to admit this. I heard an awesome song on a commercial and Googled the lyrics and then quickly jumped into bed with this band. The song, which was from a Liberty Mutual commercial (I know--that makes it so much worse) has a languorous melody that's superseded by one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. It's a feminine voice that doesn't try to sound young or vulnerable but manages to come across as belonging to a fragile source, even though it has its own strength to it. Hard to describe and I'm not doing it justice.
Anyway, the voice is Sally Ellyson's (a mellifluous name if I ever heard one) and she makes me glad I have iTunes. Except that it makes it way too easy to indulge myself. I downloaded "Half Acre" by the band she sings for, a band called "Hem", and have already listened to it multiple times. It's a little bit country, a little bit lullaby, a little bit make-you-maudlin, a lot calm-you-down. I see myself baking cupcakes to this song, with an apron on, my hair tied in a bun.
I don't frequently fall so hard in love with bands, but occasionally, I'll find one band or singer whose entire catalog just knocks me out. Last year it was Electric Six. The year before it was Neko Case. This year, it's been Amy Winehouse, and now Hem.
In a way, their music feels too pretty and valuable to attach to commercials but I forgive it because a) these people deserve to eat and support their families more than most of the musicians whose crap makes it to the radio, and b) if not for the commercial, I would never have found them. So thanks Liberty Mutual. If Aetna or Chase ever do me wrong, I know where I'll be turning to.
And, Hem, when are you people going to make it to Chicago? I'll bring cupcakes that I baked while listening to your beautiful music.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Don't Look
I'm making a promise to myself. I'm not going to look up people anymore. I'm not going to Google, Facebook, MySpace (I'm not on MySpace, so that helps) or anything to anyone anymore. Because it just confuses everything.
I recently met a person who reminded me a lot of another person. So I looked up the other person. And found out way more than I ever wanted to know about said person. What was I looking for? What type of information would have made me happy? Once you learn everything about the person you're looking at, short of their blood type, how does that enrich your life at all?
I googled myself. And based on that alone, I appear to be far more interesting online than I am in real life. My "Google Self" runs races, writes papers, wins awards. My real, live, actual self makes ice cream on the weekends, loves cats, and knows the entire nighttime lineup on Lifetime: Will and Grace, Frasier, the Golden Girls, and the Nanny. Which is an inversion of their morning lineup. So you can see the discrepancy.
I suppose we (meaning me) want to look at the lives of people we know because we're too cowardly to actually reach out to them. In some cases, I guess we want to compare ourselves to others, though I tend not to do that because I always disappoint myself. Oh, she's married and has three kids and has gone hiking in the Andes and won a MacArthur Genius Grant? Cool. I recently learned how to straighten my hair without singeing it.
But, what's the point of looking for these people if you're too scared or unwilling to connect? I don't like being a voyeur, it just makes me feel distant and alienated from my past experiences. Maybe it's just too creepy. And though my method is probably more annoying to my past acquaintances, I'd rather go ahead and just drop them a line. I know if someone out there was stalk-Googling me, I'd prefer them to just say "hi". Assuming we've been friends at some point. I have my limits.
I recently met a person who reminded me a lot of another person. So I looked up the other person. And found out way more than I ever wanted to know about said person. What was I looking for? What type of information would have made me happy? Once you learn everything about the person you're looking at, short of their blood type, how does that enrich your life at all?
I googled myself. And based on that alone, I appear to be far more interesting online than I am in real life. My "Google Self" runs races, writes papers, wins awards. My real, live, actual self makes ice cream on the weekends, loves cats, and knows the entire nighttime lineup on Lifetime: Will and Grace, Frasier, the Golden Girls, and the Nanny. Which is an inversion of their morning lineup. So you can see the discrepancy.
I suppose we (meaning me) want to look at the lives of people we know because we're too cowardly to actually reach out to them. In some cases, I guess we want to compare ourselves to others, though I tend not to do that because I always disappoint myself. Oh, she's married and has three kids and has gone hiking in the Andes and won a MacArthur Genius Grant? Cool. I recently learned how to straighten my hair without singeing it.
But, what's the point of looking for these people if you're too scared or unwilling to connect? I don't like being a voyeur, it just makes me feel distant and alienated from my past experiences. Maybe it's just too creepy. And though my method is probably more annoying to my past acquaintances, I'd rather go ahead and just drop them a line. I know if someone out there was stalk-Googling me, I'd prefer them to just say "hi". Assuming we've been friends at some point. I have my limits.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Nice and Simple
So today I was considering things I like and things I hate, just because when one is stuck in an airport/on a plane/in general transit for more than six hours (a thing I hate) one can't help but consider the issue. So, let's live up to the title and make it nice and simple:
Things I Hate:
1. The act of traveling. I love the idea of traveling, and I'm really big on destinations. But traveling sucks like nothing else, especially when one must do it every single freaking week, with a broken suitcase, hair that's totally crazy especially after being mashed up against a pleather Southwest seat, or having to deal with people who suck. Examples of people who suck? Oh, lots.
Take the dude today who freaked out on the plane, so badly that we had to taxi back to the gate to let him off. What was the ironic message written on the back of his leather jacked? "Root of All Evil." Oooooo. You badass.
Or what about guy who kept pushing all my stuff out of the way at the security line? If my contact lenses hadn't been trying to lemming jump their way out of my eyeballs, I would have kneed him in the groin multiple times. But it was six am. I had my limits.
2. I hate hate HATE hate hate Gwen Stefani's "Lamb" perfume. I love Gwen Stefani, don't get me wrong. She has this jolie laide thing about her that works fantastically well, like Charlotte Gainsbourg or, before all the plastic surgery, Hilary Duff. But the perfume, for which I had high hopes, made me smell like a cheap hooker that someone sprayed Windex on. It was weird. I do not exaggerate when I say I started rubbing my wrists against each other Lady Macbeth-like in a futile attempt to rid myself of the damned smell. I'm not a perfume snob, but I knows what I likes. And considering the most expensive items I own are the $500 worth of perfume I am obsessed with, I'd say I'm a fair judge of what sucks. And "Lamb" totally sucks.
3. I hate being tired. Lately, I've been incredibly tired to the point of passing out around 8pm. The fact that I'm awake right now can only be attributed to my circadian rhythms doubling over from dysfunction to the point where my body probably thinks it's actually 10am. This does not bode well for my multiple meetings tomorrow. Yipes.
Things I Love
1. Baby goats. I don't even think I need to explain that.
2. My mom. Why'd I put Mom after baby goats? I didn't want to be *that* obvious, so I thought I'd surprise you.
3. I love the concierge level at the Hilton. Because honey mustard dressing and free vodka gimlets takes the edge right off.
4. I love bad (and good) 80's music. But I seriously need to stop listening to "White Lines (Don't Do It)" by Grandmaster and Melle Mel because every time I take my headphones out of my laptop without turning off my iTunes, all my coworkers get an earful of "rang dang diggity dang da dang".
5. I love lip gloss. My lip gloss is cool. My lip gloss be poppin'. Whatchu know 'bout me?
6. I love Southern guys who open doors just because I happen to be vaguely female (or at least they give me the benefit of the doubt).
7. I LOVE David Letterman for this clip alone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKSxHYK_wfs
8. I love per diems. Really, I can find meals for under $5 a day. So thank you for rewarding my frugality, I love it.
9. I love that I'm so addled that I still think, on some level, that I could be anything when I grow up, including an astronaut, cowgirl, or marine biologist. Or writer.
Things I Hate:
1. The act of traveling. I love the idea of traveling, and I'm really big on destinations. But traveling sucks like nothing else, especially when one must do it every single freaking week, with a broken suitcase, hair that's totally crazy especially after being mashed up against a pleather Southwest seat, or having to deal with people who suck. Examples of people who suck? Oh, lots.
Take the dude today who freaked out on the plane, so badly that we had to taxi back to the gate to let him off. What was the ironic message written on the back of his leather jacked? "Root of All Evil." Oooooo. You badass.
Or what about guy who kept pushing all my stuff out of the way at the security line? If my contact lenses hadn't been trying to lemming jump their way out of my eyeballs, I would have kneed him in the groin multiple times. But it was six am. I had my limits.
2. I hate hate HATE hate hate Gwen Stefani's "Lamb" perfume. I love Gwen Stefani, don't get me wrong. She has this jolie laide thing about her that works fantastically well, like Charlotte Gainsbourg or, before all the plastic surgery, Hilary Duff. But the perfume, for which I had high hopes, made me smell like a cheap hooker that someone sprayed Windex on. It was weird. I do not exaggerate when I say I started rubbing my wrists against each other Lady Macbeth-like in a futile attempt to rid myself of the damned smell. I'm not a perfume snob, but I knows what I likes. And considering the most expensive items I own are the $500 worth of perfume I am obsessed with, I'd say I'm a fair judge of what sucks. And "Lamb" totally sucks.
3. I hate being tired. Lately, I've been incredibly tired to the point of passing out around 8pm. The fact that I'm awake right now can only be attributed to my circadian rhythms doubling over from dysfunction to the point where my body probably thinks it's actually 10am. This does not bode well for my multiple meetings tomorrow. Yipes.
Things I Love
1. Baby goats. I don't even think I need to explain that.
2. My mom. Why'd I put Mom after baby goats? I didn't want to be *that* obvious, so I thought I'd surprise you.
3. I love the concierge level at the Hilton. Because honey mustard dressing and free vodka gimlets takes the edge right off.
4. I love bad (and good) 80's music. But I seriously need to stop listening to "White Lines (Don't Do It)" by Grandmaster and Melle Mel because every time I take my headphones out of my laptop without turning off my iTunes, all my coworkers get an earful of "rang dang diggity dang da dang".
5. I love lip gloss. My lip gloss is cool. My lip gloss be poppin'. Whatchu know 'bout me?
6. I love Southern guys who open doors just because I happen to be vaguely female (or at least they give me the benefit of the doubt).
7. I LOVE David Letterman for this clip alone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKSxHYK_wfs
8. I love per diems. Really, I can find meals for under $5 a day. So thank you for rewarding my frugality, I love it.
9. I love that I'm so addled that I still think, on some level, that I could be anything when I grow up, including an astronaut, cowgirl, or marine biologist. Or writer.
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