To be honest, I've listened to the Phoenix record pretty much nonstop for the last few months with a little bit of The Horrors thrown in there for balance. We saw live last week at Bowery Ballroom and it was a good show. Phoenix plays summerstage this weekend and I don't think we're going to get in.
With the changing of the season, I've started to rummage through the ipod during my commute. Dipping into The White Stripes has been most satisfying. This song is certainly appropriate for the beginning of the school year and all that autumn has to offer.
When I listen to this song and close my eyes, I see a ghost ship out on the ocean just breaking the razors edge of the horizon. Tattered sails, craggy wood. A worried pirate paces the deck at dawn.
"Will there be enough water when my ship comes in? ... just because you caught me does it make it a sin?"
I don't much care for the video but I'm loving the song.
Over the weekend we drove out to Princeton Record Exchange (my favorite East Coast record store) for a new music infusion. One of the discs we picked up was Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix. When we popped it in on the drive home, I thought this sounds like an 80's movie.
Then I got an email linking to this video made in Brooklyn to the song Listzomania by Phoenix:
Which is an homage to this video, which is an homage to dance scenes from 80's films, set to the same song:
For further edification, watch the official video for the song.
Watching these made me want to shoot video again after being away from the camera since last fall. You've just got to watch these. It will totally make your day.
Seeing the first one got me fantasizing about having a real live Friday Dance Party this summer. Wouldn't that be crazy cool?
I was helping Cyndemouse do some yard work and this song, "Walking After Midnight," by Patsy Cline popped into my head and it won't leave. I'll find myself singing it as I drive. Patsy is definitely one of my favorite gals to sing along with. Usually when I want to wallow in a little self pity, I'll go to "I Fall to Pieces," "She's Got You," or "Crazy."
This video is a treat, to see her singing, white fringe on her cowgirl outfit swaying as she moves. It's such a pity her life was cut off so early.
I can hardly believe this but today is the last Friday I'll be working at the newspaper. Monday I'm taking a personal day, Tuesday I'm archiving my videos and Wednesday will be my last official day. There are some plans brewing for a little post workday celebration that day before I sail off into the sunset.
There are only so many times in your life that you can invoke the spirit of Johnny Paycheck, so I'm taking the liberty here today.
Really, playing this song today is all in good fun.
I had an amazing ride at this paper. I came here when I was burnt out on the business and wanted to quit. Instead, the director of photography here convinced me I could help build an award winning photography department. We did just that. I did more than that. I filled my world with tremendously talented photographers, writers and editors who I count as friends and mentors today.
If I was just leaving a job, I would be sad. Sure. But I am really leaving a family, my chosen tribe, a respected institution and a way of life.
Trying to take in the conclusion of a 19 year run working for newspapers and the beginning of a new era of democracy for our nation has me dizzy and out of breath. I'll be taking a few weeks off to adjust before I begin school in December.
This year is the 25th anniversary of the release of Thriller by Michael Jackson. I can remember my eleven year old self being mesmerized by the video. It made me want to dance. (Unfortunately, I never got the hang of dancing to choreography, I am more of a free style dancer myself. )
More importantly, Thriller has made millions of people want to dance over the years.
Like 1,500 prisoners in the Phillippines moving as an army of orange jumpsuited zombies in unison.
Or wedding parties as surprise entertainment for the guests.
Here's a nerdy parody made in the 80's called Throbber where the dance sequence happens in a shopping mall. All the feathered hair and fashions scared the bejesus out of me.
Next up the penguins from Happy Feet.
The original Thriller video is not embeddable, so you may view it here.
This week I had to fight the man, got robbed, tried to maintain my integrity while others are letting theirs fall and oh, yeah, I still don't know if I'll have a job come Oct 1.
So I think this classic by Miss Gloria Gaynor is in order. It's gotten me through other rough patches in the past. I'm turning to my fellow Jersey girl for some support today. I hear she'll be putting out a 30 year anniversary edition soon. Can't wait.
What do you listen to when you feel like you have to summon the will to survive?
I've been thinking alot this week about the days I used to go out dancing all the time. The last few years of high school and the first few of college, going dancing was something I worked my schedule around. I would go out on Thursday nights at the Fast Lanes for the alternative rock nights dj'd by local radio station WHTG host John Yarusi. Or, there were countless nights dancing on the teensy floor at the Green Parrot in Neptune. Another dj from the radio station, Bart Cross-Tierney would spin there. He was a gruff guy but I amused him. He called me "The Nine Inch Nails Girl" and if it was early and slow, he'd play the entire Pretty Hate Machine record for me. Which I would dance to in its entirety and then keep dancing all night to whatever else he wanted to play. It was in that club that I met Trent Reznor for the first time which started a crazy string of events that is a story for another day.
The dancing then was the main thing. I was unstoppable.I would dance for hour and hours. I would dance even if I was the only one dancing. I needed to dance that bad. I would drive an hour to little places in Newark's Ironbound where I learned to slam dance at a time girls just weren't out there doing it. I needed to keep moving physically. I needed to feel the weight of someone else's weight pushed upon me at that time to remind me I was alive and to encourage me to push back, defend myself, keep living and keep dancing. Those years were hard and dancing kept me sane.
One song I loved to dance to back then was "Grey Cell Green" by Ned's Atomic Dustbin. I still love it. Listening to it today, I still feel this swelling in my chest and the urge to start moving across the room. I remember how I would sing along to the words as I danced and I still want to do that. To tell myself that "it's inside me." Today I need to remember that.
My copy of the new Lykke Li record Youth Novels arrived in the mail yesterday. Sweets pre-ordered it for me because he is awesome. Last week's Friday dance party was so much fun, I decided to continue the movement.
Today I offer you a pretty video for the track "Dance, Dance, Dance."
I'm loving the lyrics, too.
Having troubles telling how I feel
But I can dance, dance dance
Couldn't possibly tell you how I mean
But I can dance, dance, dance
So when I trip on my feet
Look at the beat
The words are, written in the sand
When I'm shaking my hips
Look for the swing
The words are, written in the air
Dance
I was a dancer all along
Dance, dance, dance
Words can never make up for what you do
Easy conversations, there's no such thing
No I'm shy, shy, shy
My hips they lie 'cause in reality I'm shy, shy, shy
But when I trip on my feet
Look at the ground
The words are, written in the dust
When I'm shaking my hips
Look for the swing
The words are written in the air
Dance
I was a dancer all along
Dance, dance, dance
Words can never make up for what you do
Dance, dance, dance
Life in general is giving me such aggra this week that I really need a dance party to get it outta my system. This track "Light and Music" by Cut Copy has been my soundtrack today. I think it's reminiscent of New Order, which I started the week out with. Makes me nostalgic for all those nights spent twirling under blinking lights for hours upon hours as we raved til dawn. I used to go out dancing up to three nights a week. Being on the dance floor, alone, working it out, saved me from a lot of damage over the years. These days I'm mostly tearing up the kitchen floor. We've got tickets to see Cut Copy at the Bowet Ballroom in a few weeks so I'll have a new floor to dance on.
What are Magpies?
Magpies are talkative birds that have an eye for shiny things. I consider myself to be a magpie. This is a collection of all the shiny, wonderful things I would normally carry around in my pockets. Scraps of paper, bits of string, shooter marbles and diamond rings.
