what a beautiful place I have found in your face (2008: A Musical Retrospective)

2008 was a great year for music. I was introduced to a lot of great new songs. I'm kind of a casual listener to music - it seems I never just sit down and listen to music while doing nothing else. I'm always listening to it while I drive, clean the house, work on the computer, etc. Still, I'm able to absorb what I'm listening to pretty well, although I must confess that I'd like to become a more conscious listener of music.

Without further ado, my top music picks for this year.


My Favorite Albums of the Year

1) She & Him - Volume One



How I love this album. I listened to it constantly during the spring. I love the retro sound of it - to me, it's pretty timeless. I love Zooey Deschanel's voice and its raw imperfections. It's rare for me to like every track on an album, but I enjoy every single song on Volume One.

2) Coldplay - Viva la Vida



This was probably the album of the summer, at least in my world. One listen, and I was hooked. This album really carried me through the summer.

3) Roma di Luna - Casting the Bones



Roma di Luna was probably my best music discovery of the year. I had the pleasure of seeing them live on our anniversary trip; that was my introduction to them, and I've been hooked ever since. I love their folksy style, and I love the lead singer's ethereal voice.


My Favorite Song of the Year

I listened to a bunch of different songs this year, some of them over and over, but my favorite song of the year is Roma di Luna's cover of "In the Aeroplane over the Sea". I'm not a big fan of the original version, but lordy, I love Roma di Luna's version. I wish I would have known about this version back on our wedding day - I would have loved to walk down the aisle to it.

Here are the lyrics to "In the Aeroplane over the Sea":

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
What a beautiful dream
That could flash on the screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Soft and sweet
Let me hold it close and keep it here with me, me

And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be
In the arms of all I'm keeping here with me, me

What a curious life we have found here tonight
There is music that sounds from the street
There are lights in the clouds
Anne's ghost all around
Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me
Soft and sweet
How the notes all bend and reach above the trees, trees

Now how I remember you
How I would push my fingers through
Your mouth to make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet
Now we keep where we don't know
All secrets sleep in winter's clothes
With one you loved so long ago
Now he don't even know his name

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
And when we meet on a cloud
I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all, at all

You can listen to Roma di Luna's version here. Do it! Do it now!


The Strangest Albums I Downloaded This Year, Neither of Which Were Actually Released in 2008

1) Lady & Bird - Lady & Bird



This album gives me the creeps. It's haunting and melancholy, and I can't listen to it that often. But it has just the right amount of strange to keep me intrigued.

2) Beirut - Gulag Orkestar



A head trip to listen to, but it's very fun and enjoyable (and weird).


My Favorite Playlist of the Year

I love making playlists in iTunes. I used to make them based entirely on genre or mood, but now I've switched to making playlists as a soundtrack to a particular time in my life. My favorite playlist of the year is called "So Summer Doesn't Suck So Much," and it features the songs that made me feel really happy, thus saving this past summer from complete suckage.

(I'm too lazy to link to all the songs - sorry about that.)

1) "Appels and Oranjes" - Smashing Pumpkins
2) "Blue Monday" - New Order
3) "Bury Me Beneath the Killin' Fields" - Roma di Luna
4) "Effigy" - Natalie Merchant
5) "Fight Test" - The Flaming Lips
6) "Funky Goes to Hollywood" - DJ Earworm
7) "Head On" - Jesus and Mary Chain
8) "I Can't Afford to Be Broke" - Roma di Luna
9) "I Hate Everything About You" - Three Days Grace
10) "In the Mood" - Cadillac Kolstad and the Flats
11) "Lost!" - Coldplay
12) "Lost?" - Coldplay
13) "Radio Song" - REM, featuring KRS-One
14) "The Romance of Wolves" - Roma di Luna
15) "Safe in my Lover's Arms" - Bering Strait
16) "These Arms of Mine" - Otis Redding
17) "Trouble Down the Road" - Roma di Luna
18) "Violet Hill" - Coldplay

And this concludes my 2008 Musical Retrospective.

Now I'd like to hear your top picks of 2008 - or of all time. I'm in desperate need of new music for our vacation, so the more recommendations you can give me, the better. Thanks, everyone!

things that make me happy

I'm in real need of counting my blessings. Without going into a ton of detail, things have been quite hard for quite awhile now. I had a really nice weekend, though, and here are the things that are making me happy right now.

1) a baby shower for a very special Spaniard - My friend and co-worker is pregnant with her first child (due in September). We had a shower for her on Friday during lunch, and it was a really good time for all of us. My favorite part was when she teared up when she saw that we had all pitched in and gotten her the stroller she wanted.



















2) my hot pink toenails



3) revisiting the coffee shop where Roy and I used to meet when we first began dating



4) finding new places to eat that are pretty





4) visiting a new, unexplored museum









5) noticing things that normally go unnoticed





6) cookies



7) a new pretty thing to hang on our wall



8) seeing The Pierces live at Hotel Cafe - This video is not from the performance we saw, but they did open with this song. They are really wonderful performers with a strong stage presence and extremely powerful voices.



9) taking engagement pictures for Jenn and Dave - Watch for the "official" teaser coming tomorrow!

And the Cherry Ran Away With the Spoon: Day Five of Our Anniversary Trip

Thursday was probably my favorite day of our trip to Minneapolis. Yes, I loved our anniversary and all the other days, but Thursday was dynamic and exciting for many reasons.

First of all, it rained! I love rain. I love clouds. I love that special darkness a room has when there are thunderclouds looming outside. I love that it decided to rain while we were there. It felt like a gift especially for us Southern Californians who don't see a drop of rain during the summer. Thank you, rain gods!







Secondly, I had a photographic breakthrough. I had started reading Understanding Exposure the day before, and I was having a hell of a time making sense of how one can tell when an exposure is "correct" based on the camera's light meter. That morning, as we were trying to decide what to do with ourselves that day, I was complaining to Roy that I didn't know what the hell the author of the book was talking about. We managed to make sense of it together, and I spent the rest of the day shooting many correct exposures! (Well, I'm not sure they were entirely correct, being as there are so many small things to take into account when shooting. But they were more correct than I was shooting before.)





This is the bird that was trapped in Wade's basement. See how he's standing in the corner, all Blair Witch style? Wade was able to wrap a towel around it, pick it up, and put it outside.



This is a shot of the hallway of Wade's building.



We decided to go to the Walker Art Center to start our day. With the rain, our original plan of going to Minnehaha Falls didn't seem like such a good idea. So the Walker it was - and it was a great choice.



The museum's focus on modern and contemporary art pleased me very much. (I have come to realize that I am actually quite taken with more recent art movements. It has taken me awhile to get here, but it's a good place to be.) I wasn't able to take any pictures of the art itself (I couldn't even use a pen to write down the names of the things I liked!), so here are some photos of details of the Walker design/decor.





We crossed the street and went to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, otherwise known as Heaven. I cannot tell you how excited I was to see all the amazing pieces! Here are some of my favorites. (I bet you can't tell which one is my absolute favorite!)













This one is a product of that camera waving stuff I love to do.



The grounds of the Sculpture Garden were gorgeous as well.







At this point, I was pretty giddy with excitement. And once we walked back to the museum, I realized that I was also pretty hungry. And then I got pretty grumpy when we learned that the museum cafe was closed. So we ended up leaving (even though Stacy had just arrived) to feed the monster.

We went to French Meadow for lunch, a yummy health food place. It was really tasty. We need more of these places here (and less chain restaurants, please). We went back to Wade's to rest up for the long night ahead. And once we were rested and it was time, we went to the Mill City Museum to see a free show by Roma di Luna.

The Mill City Museum was very cool, especially the courtyard. The show was supposed to be held outside in the courtyard, but with the rain earlier in the day, it was moved inside.







A few words about Roma di Luna: I'd never heard them before this trip, and I am so glad we went to their show. They are a truly amazing group of musical artists (and happen to be Minneapolis locals). I bought both of the CDs they had available for sale and was able to get one signed by the main singer/violinist of the group. And by the way, her voice (the lead singer's) is heartbreaking and beautiful. I sat through the entire show just transfixed by the power and energy of the music unfolding before me. It was incredible. Also, I was pretty much a born-again concert virgin, not having been to a show since 2002 or 2003, so that made the experience that much better.

One of the best moments of the show was when they announced that their next song was for Jane for the occasion of her 52nd birthday. Jane was sitting relatively close to us, and so I got to watch her cry happy tears throughout the song (requested by her significant other), which of course made me tear up as well.

I didn't get any good pictures, but here are the two kind of decent ones I took.





Check out this 2007 video. It's not the same as seeing them live, not even close, but it's still pretty cool.



And of course, you can hear them here; listen to "The Romance of Wolves" (it's my current favorite song).

After the show, we walked next door to the Guthrie to use the bathroom. (There was no way I was going to use the crowded bathroom at the museum!) The Guthrie is this giant blue theatre that offered some good photo opps.

I love this picture! It's of Roy looking out of the window, but I took it of his reflection in the reflective window sill.







This is another reflective picture.





We walked to Sawatdee for dinner. I absolutely love Thai food, and this place did not disappoint. I had the massaman curry and some drink called a Monkey Lover. Well, I can't be sure of the name of the drink anymore, but it was something having to do with a monkey. My favorite part of the menu was this:



After dinner, we drove over to Grumpy's for karaoke. I'd been hearing about karaoke all week; apparently it's a big thing with Wade and his friends. They were all pretty excited when they saw that a big group of drunken women were doing karaoke. Wade wrote a really good blog about the experience, which you can read here.

I didn't actually think I would do karaoke (again, that shyness factor), but later I decided that Wade and I had to do a song together. The most natural choice seemed to be "Baby One More Time" by good ol' Britney Spears, and Wade was all for it. Once we got up to the front of the room, three of the crazy drunken women asked if we needed back-up dancers. Like, duh. Of course. We performed our set, the crowd went wild, and I sealed my place in Grumpy's Hall of Fame.

Um, not. I think Wade sang over me the entire song, which is probably the best thing that could have happened for everyone in attendance.

All in all, it was an interesting night. I had five drinks and didn't even catch a buzz, which was shocking. Grumpy's had the best tater tots ever, and of course, the drunk women will hold a special place in my heart forever.

(Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures during karaoke, but one of Wade's friends did, so maybe Wade'll send them along to me one of these days.)