I never knew they were called breezeblocks

She may contain the urge to run away
But hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks
Cetirizine your fever's grip me again
Never kisses, all do you ever send are full stops

 Do you know where the wilds things go?
They go along to take your honey
Break down now, weep, build up breakfast now
Let's eat my love, my love, love, love

 Muscle to muscle and toe to toe
The fear has gripped me but here I go
My heart sinks as I jump up
Your hand grips hand as my eyes shut

Do you know where the wild things go?
They go along to take your honey
Break down let's sleep build up breakfast now
Let's eat my love my love, love, love

She bruises, coughs, she splutters pistol shots
But hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks
She's morphine, queen of my vaccine
My love, my love, love, love

Muscle to muscle and toe to toe
The fear has gripped me but here I go
My heart sinks as I jump up
Your hand grips hand as my eyes shut

She may contain the urge to run away
But hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks
Germolene, disinfect the scene my love, my love, love, love
But please don't go, I love you so, my lovely

Please don't go, please don't go, I love you so, I love you so
Please don't go, please don't go, I love you so, I love you so
Please break my heart

Please don't go, please don't go, I love you so, I love you so
Please don't go, please don't go, I love you so, I love you so
Please break my heart

Please don't go, I'll eat you whole, I love you so, I love you so, I love you so
Please don't go, I'll eat you whole, I love you so, I love you so, I love you so
Please don't go, I'll eat you whole, I love you so, I love you so, I love you so

dancing barefoot

1.This, this is a song. Capital S.
2. When covering an iconic song, if you make the original artist weep, you've nailed it.

3. This song ... Oof.

visual christmas

Lots of fun and festive moments this holiday season!

The weather turned cold and snowy leading up to the big day ...



                                                   

Shopping got done, presents wrapped and  a tree trimmed ...

Spending time celebrating with friends warmed our hearts ...

As did taking in some live holiday music ...

Christmas morning was a buzz of activity ...

And food. Lots of food ....

And now, I'm wiped out! Happy New year ...

creative energy

Mmmm-hmmm .... I'm liking Matt Corby more and more.

Plus, how fun does this video look? I'd totally hang out with these guys at their next recording session. Got to love a group of creatives in the middle of an all-nighter 'project'.

mellowing out to radiohead's little brother*

Old friend come back home

Even though you always were alone
You had to push against the fates
Just to make it, make it through the gate

But now we’re getting older
And we’re growing up
So now less action in the water
And we know enough
Stood upon the roof top on a night so clear
That the lights from the city just disappeared

I know you
Don’t believe me
When I believe in you
I know it could get much easier if we want it to

Old friend come to me
Everything I was, I used to be
I went North, and I went East
Follow in the footsteps of
Some beautiful beast

But now we’re getting older
And we’re growing up
So now less action in the water
And we know enough
Stood upon the roof top on a night so clear
That the lights from the city just disappeared

I know you
Don’t believe me
When I believe in you
I know it could get much easier if we want it to

I know you
Don’t believe me
When I believe in you
but I know it could get much easier if we want it to

Oh, how we used to run up in the park
Cool air, and eucalyptus leaves
Oh, how we’d look out, out over the bay
Watch the fog roll through the gate
Couldn’t wait to get away

I know you
Don’t believe me
When I believe in you
and I know it could get much easier if we want it to

I know you

Don’t believe me

When I believe in you

But I know it’s getting easier,

Just like it’s supposed to do.

*no, not really but such a similar vibe! The band's website here. 

(via dooce)

despair

I'm joining millions of people around the world to say how devastated I am thinking about the children and teachers who lost their lives, and the families and friends who lost their loved ones, in Newtown, Connecticut. Contrary to my last post below, I'm not actually sure how one goes on intact after such a loss. My comments in that post feel trite now .... Of course this level of horror wasn't on my mind when I wrote it. How could it be? It's completely unimaginable.

I don't really have any observations or thoughts to share about this tradgedy that you haven't already talked about in your own homes, seen in the news, or read online. So instead, I thought I' d post an article from the New Yorker that a friend linked to this morning. It's a direct, concise piece that reflects a point of view I respect.

My overwhelming thoughts are:

1. Gun control and elimination of assault weapons. Yes, please.
2. How can we help people that are utterly broken and/or mentally ill before something happens? Or, how can we be a better, more loving and supportive community of people?

Ugh. Heartbreaking.

________________________

Newton and the Madness of Guns
-Adam Gopnik

After the mass gun murders at Virginia Tech, I wrote about the unfathomable image of cell phones ringing in the pockets of the dead kids, and of the parents trying desperately to reach them. And I said (as did many others), This will go on, if no one stops it, in this manner and to this degree in this country alone—alone among all the industrialized, wealthy, and so-called civilized countries in the world. There would be another, for certain.

Then there were—many more, in fact—and when the latest and worst one happened, in Aurora, I (and many others) said, this time in a tone of despair, that nothing had changed. And I (and many others) predicted that it would happen again, soon. And that once again, the same twisted voices would say, Oh, this had nothing to do with gun laws or the misuse of the Second Amendment or anything except some singular madman, of whom America for some reason seems to have a particularly dense sample.

And now it has happened again, bang, like clockwork, one might say: Twenty dead children—babies, really—in a kindergarten in a prosperous town in Connecticut. And a mother screaming. And twenty families told that their grade-schooler had died. After the Aurora killings, I did a few debates with advocates for the child-killing lobby—sorry, the gun lobby—and, without exception and with a mad vehemence, they told the same old lies: it doesn’t happen here more often than elsewhere (yes, it does); more people are protected by guns than killed by them (no, they aren’t—that’s a flat-out fabrication); guns don’t kill people, people do; and all the other perverted lies that people who can only be called knowing accessories to murder continue to repeat, people who are in their own way every bit as twisted and crazy as the killers whom they defend. (That they are often the same people who pretend outrage at the loss of a single embryo only makes the craziness still crazier.)

So let’s state the plain facts one more time, so that they can’t be mistaken: Gun massacres have happened many times in many countries, and in every other country, gun laws have been tightened to reflect the tragedy and the tragic knowledge of its citizens afterward. In every other country, gun massacres have subsequently become rare. In America alone, gun massacres, most often of children, happen with hideous regularity, and they happen with hideous regularity because guns are hideously and regularly available.

The people who fight and lobby and legislate to make guns regularly available are complicit in the murder of those children. They have made a clear moral choice: that the comfort and emotional reassurance they take from the possession of guns, placed in the balance even against the routine murder of innocent children, is of supreme value. Whatever satisfaction gun owners take from their guns—we know for certain that there is no prudential value in them—is more important than children’s lives. Give them credit: life is making moral choices, and that’s a moral choice, clearly made.

All of that is a truth, plain and simple, and recognized throughout the world. At some point, this truth may become so bloody obvious that we will know it, too. Meanwhile, congratulate yourself on living in the child-gun-massacre capital of the known universe.

Read more

reflective time of year

I started writing this post thinking I'd reflect on how much of a relief it is that 2012 is almost behind me. It has been a struggle, full of challenge, and even a little exhausting at times (and great, too). But that got me to thinking about how things work out, generally. And how perception and outlook can make a difference. Because it’s not just this year that’s challenging, its every year. It’s life, really.

There are an infinite number of hurdles to leap, bridges to cross, relationships to mend, and difficulties to navigate each year. As a friend recently observed, our hard times are “never going to end.” … Until it’s the end, of course!

If you’re a glass-half-empty kind of thinker this may sound hopeless. But I see it another way.

 I see the majority of challenges as a normal and expected part of living a full life. They bind us and create opportunity for us to connect, because we all deal with them (and yes, to some degree, always will). In the best sense, I see them as a measure and a  reminder of how alive we are. 

The trick is to not become overwhelmed by it all, and to do your best to face obstacles with the most positive energy possible. It’s hard, and it may not work every time, but the act of presenting your best effort means you can look in the mirror without cringing, and also means that if you fail at maintaining optimism or the tough-stuff wins … well, you can accept it and rest easy knowing you did your best. Sometimes things are just crappy and there’s nothing that can change it.  At the end of the day, the only thing you can control is you. 

My friend continued her sentiment above by saying, “ bad shit is just never going to stop happening, so it’s how I choose to process it that will determine my outlook on life.”

Exactly. And its thinking about that exchange with my friend that led me to change the focus of my reflecting.

So. This year I have had challenges, as one will. I've done okay with some, and less okay with others, and as always, I’m grateful for the wonderful things in my life (which far, far outnumber the alternative). I’m looking forward to moving on and seeing what’s next in 2013 and beyond. I’m also a little terrified. I hope that the hurdles are ones I’m able to negotiate easily, and when tough stuff comes up, I’ll face it all with grace.