Tunes Tuesday: "What's That Perfume That You Wear?," Jens Lekman

Jens Lekman is one my all-time favorite musicians. We picked one of his songs for our first dance at our wedding! What I didn't know is that I could've hired the man himself — apparently he's picked up wedding singer gigs to supplement the dwindling financial returns of being an indie singer in the days of online streaming. Gah!! Jens, you an inordinately talented songwriter, musician, performer, and observer of life and I will always spend my money on your album or DC shows.

My advice: buy his new album, which includes this lilting song that makes you want to dance and cry, perhaps simultaneously. (No, I don’t understand the video at all). He just came to U Street Music Hall last week, and he ended his set with a tune penned after Obama won in 2008, but now it didn't seem as hopeful. "These are dark and troubling times," he said. "So be kind to one another and don't let anyone stand in your way." 

“Because it wasn’t a life job. Working there, I felt I was going to be fired every day. And then one day I was. ”

— Linda Wells on her 24-year tenure at Allure

“[Federer] overcame two break points at 15-40 as he served for the match, and the thing threatened to thicken. He did it with an ace up the middle and a driving forehand winner, and soon the whole barrage had come to exemplify one of the essences of why people watch sports: to watch people overcome.”

— Chuck Culpepper in the WaPo on Fed's Australian open win

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!