Tunes Tuesday: "Get Low," James Vincent McMorrow

This is the other song I constantly find myself humming from Kate Miss's excellent best-of-2016 playlist. I didn't know the artist, so I googled and found a podcast I wish was in my life years ago. It's called Song Exploder (there's 80+ episodes, most recently Solange and Metallica, so clearly I'm late to the party.).

Each episode consists of an artist breaking down how exactly how a song was created. Which is how I learned the genesis of Get Low's singer-songwriter-meets-minimalism feel and that call and response intro. Not to mention why it has a Lil Jon-esque title.

Why I March

The night I read Andrew Sullivan's famous Donald Trump essay in May, I remember not being able to sleep, it was so disturbing. I turned over and over in my mind how I could take matters into my own hands and personally bring down Trump. 

I thought the answer could be somehow messing up his hair and making him look even more ridiculous and impotent, but then that happened — to no end, unfortunately.

The thing I worried about all summer is actually here: Donald Trump is president. I wasn't sure that I would march on Saturday: for awhile I wondered if it was a march against democracy, because I thought the side of reason had lost and we just had to live it (at least I thought that before the Russian revelations). 

Of course, that's not what the march was about at all. My best friend convinced me of that, and that graceless Inauguration speech made it even more clear. The thing I can't get over about Saturday in DC beyond the sea of humanity (we were so packed in at one point we could barely move), was that the marchers were everyday people, people who were young and old and everything in between. Women who love their country and deserve better. They've had enough of Trump's egotism and crassness and lunacy. These were people who, like me, were afraid of what's next.

I have to say, I'm confused by headlines like "Women's March movement: What's next and can the momentum last?” I stood by the Trump Hotel on Saturday and watched a never-ending stream of marchers walk toward the White House, carrying signs that were more clever than anything Trump has ever said or tweeted in his life. Then I went home and my blood boiled over that pathetic excuse of a press conference. My only thought, then and now, is that this march is clearly just the beginning.

Tunes Tuesday: "Left Handed Kisses," Andrew Bird featuring Fiona Apple

This has been the trend of the past two years: ignore music all year and then figure out what I missed via too-cool graphic designer/blogger Kate Miss's year-end playlist. It's so good!! 

This is my favorite track from the playlist, and I know I've heard it before because I gave Andrew Bird's latest album a cursory listen. But now I realize how extraordinary Andrew Bird and Fiona Apple arguing to music really is — complete with slide whistle!

“It is not an easy thing — maybe the work of a lifetime — to live as if we are loved. To quiet the voices of self-condemnation. To live outside the tiny cosmos of our own desires. To extend the grace we have been shown. To act on a vision of humanity in which all are equally loved by God.”

— Michael Gerson, The Washington Post

To Xfinity and Beyond

Two years ago, Joe got really into Mr. Money Mustache. I rue the day he found that blog. Mr. Money Mustache advocates an intense cheapskate sensibility that was diametrically opposed to my profession at the time (running a fashion/shopping blog called Racked DC). 

Mr. Money Mustache writes posts with names like “Luxury is Just Another Weakness” and he would surely scoff at $30 fitness classes. He retains special disdain, however, for anyone who subscribes to cable. Enjoy your 100+ channels now, he would say, because you are destined to die a pauper.

So Joe somehow ended up talking me into cutting cable, even though it was only $20 more a month than our stupid internet service. I've been making that argument to him for the past two years and he must've finally got sick of me saying it, because we just got cable back! Ironically, I'm balling out with cable after I got laid off. 

For some reason, I'm OBSESSED with Morning Joe. I can't even tell you why. I love Mika and I felt so informed while watching it. I thought I needed Morning Joe now that we are in the Trump era, shudder, but the jury is still out on this one. 

Anyway, we have this fancy voice-controlled Xfinity remote now. The cable guy told me all about it when he was setting it up, but in the back of my head, I thought the remote was extravagant and I would just use the guide like old times. This voice control thing works really, really well though.

Maybe the best part about our new cable is listening to Joe talk into the remote, saying the names of the ridiculous shows he loves in a very slow, deliberate manner. It sounds a bit like this:

"White. Collar. Brawlers"

"Axe....Men"

"Moon....shiners"

I'm not any better though. "America's. Next. Top. Model." 

"Real Housewives. Beverly. Hills." 

GOD IT FEELS GOOD TO BE BACK! 

New Year's Resolutions, 2009

I've been on an organizing kick, and started pulling old, half-written-in notebooks off the shelf. So amusing to see my New Year's Resolutions from eight years ago. This list could be my resolutions today! I'd replace "start a blog" with "write in my blog" but the rest are spot on. Does this say something about the futility of our attempts every January? Or maybe these resolutions from 2009 are just very general. 

I did accomplish one of these, though! I was obviously trying to play it cool by putting that "Get a boyfriend" resolution second-to-last, when it really always was top of mind. The exclamation point gives it away. As it turns out, it would take me one more year to meet Joe, and I am so thankful everyday to have him in my life.

And just for laughs, check out the top of my to-do list a few pages back from that resolutions page. 

Right, right.