The song has changed

Every so often, I get completely obsessed with a song*. I'm talking repeat-track setting on iTunes for hours at a time. HOURS, literally. That isn't hyperbole. Of course, before iTunes, there was the single-repeat setting on my CD player.

When I say "every so often," I mean it might be once or twice a year, or it might be every several years. For example, the last time this happened (until today) was with the New Pornographers' "The Laws Have Changed," from Electric Version. I still love it, but I doubt I could sit through more than, say, three playings. Anyway, that was 2003 or 2004, so six or seven years ago.

Today I am obsessed again, this time with "Dreams," by the Twilight Hours, whose name I loathe, by the way. Anyway, the band has a free download of the lo-fi version of their album at the website, so I downloaded that track and have listened to it no fewer than a fifty times today. It's playing right now.

*The song is almost never by the band with which I am concurrently obsessed. You will recall no doubt that the obsession band was recently the Ting Tings. They remain so.

SAHD blues

This has never been a blog about being a stay-at-home dad. There are plenty of such blogs out there, many worth a read. Still, I recently was made aware of this song from A Prairie Home Companion, and feel compelled to share the lyrics. They're really spot-on as to how it feels out there some days.

I bundle up Moira and Kate
And take them to ballet which is great
And I sit and read a book in the hall
And mothers do not talk to me at all.

They sit down at their end and I at mine
And they glance my way from time to time
And those little glances really hurt:
I can see that they are thinking: per-vert.

Read the whole thing and listen to the song here.

Top Ten Tunes

Local excellent radio station the Current is holding a vote. From all the songs that debuted on the station in 2009, listeners are being asked to select ten as their favorites of the year. From the votes, the Current will be taking the top 89 as their top songs of the 2009.

Typically I don't do any year-end top-ten lists, but since this one is already made, thanks to the Current, I figured I'd list my picks. So here they are, in no particular order:

Art Brut | DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake
(Art Brut vs. Satan)

Gossip | Heavy Cross
(Music For Men)

The Avett Brothers | I and Love and You
(I and Love and You)

Animal Collective | My Girls
(Merriweather Post Pavilion)

The Noisettes | Never Forget You
(Wild Young Hearts)

Cornershop | The Roll Off Characteristics (Of History In The Making)
(Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast)

Neko Case | This Tornado Loves You
(Middle Cyclone)

M. Ward | To Save Me
(Hold Time)

Thao with The Get Down Stay Down | When We Swam
(Know Better Learn Faster)

Grizzly Bear | While You Wait for the Others
(Veckatimest)

So what are your top tunes of 2009? And yeah, if you're wondering, the Ting Tings album We Started Nothing came out in 2008, or it would obviously dominate my list.

"We're getting the band back together"

Strictly speaking, the band never actually broke up. We just only see each other maybe every six months for a spurt of practices before some late-night gig at Stasiu's, and such it is again. Our first practice of this spurt will be this Thursday, normally write night.

So I might miss a write night this week, and I'm okay with, because it will instead be a night of music and merriment and I get to have some beers!

Hopefully, I can squeeze in some writing time at some other point this week. I tried to do some freewriting this afternoon while Sam was playing happily on the rug with some new toys of his, but what I wrote--and it wasn't much--included the line of dialogue: "I'm not running anymore." When I saw that appear on the page, I rubbed my eyes, checked it again, then deleted the whole mess. Then I made some tea and sat on the couch to watch Sam play.

Written

I'm about to really get to work now, for the next several hours, I hope. I've settled in at White Rock, which so far is pretty good, as far as free wifi, plenty of outlets, fairly quiet, friendly staff, good Americano (served in a glass; too weird). The coffee cake has too much crumbly on top, which I hadn't realized was even possible. Oh, and one other negative: outside, one-hour parking. No meters, though, so I don't see how anyone would have any idea how long I was sitting there.

Simply Red just came up on my iTunes. I'm laughing. Probably I look crazy.

So anyway, I came in here to the blog to mention two things:

1. YA MS the First is now, I think, finished, which is to say that the major (though fairly easy) changes discussed with Aforementioned Editor have been implemented, including the creation of a new epilogue. I've decided the melodrama and pretentiousness of the new copy is allowable and even desirable because the narrator in that section is a college student. Makes sense, right? I mean, you should see my journals from when I was in college. Lord forgive me for that crap. But it served it's purpose, which was to purge myself of the drive to imitate everyone from Sam Beckett ("Oh boy") to Franz Kafka.

2. Some of what I wrote last night (if you follow my twitter) was incoherent crap and has been replaced, so my announcement last night was premature. But this one, I think, is not.

Either they're having a celebrity-lookalike contest in here, or Ted Danson and Kevin Kline are hanging out here. Maybe neither, actually. But eerie.

iTunes update: Ah, the Foundations, "Baby Now That I've Found You." This is a goddamn song. (It's also one of the two songs that makes Harry bark when I sing it.)

Oh! One more thing: I've decided, after speaking with some more experienced friends, to seek an agent. I am hoping this will not be difficult, given some aspects of my current situation, and have therefore sent out several query letters.

It just gets harder and harder to sleep through the night, for serious.

I'll Squeeze the words out!

I've started this last scene of YA MS the First about seven times now, I think. I've tried starting at the beginning of the scene, the middle, a random line here and there--I've even tried starting with the last line of the book and working sort of backwards. Nothing is helping.

I probably should put some music on. Argybargy, I'm thinking. "Vicky Verky" has been in my head for days on end anyway. "And though she's only fourteen, she really knows her courting."

Tomorrow will be a big one. I'll finish this scene, for sure, during the five hours of free-write time I should have in the afternoon. Which reminds me, prof has moved my Wednesday night class again, this time to the Ford plant. What?! Something feels fishy about that. But the good news is I can work at White Rock, on Cleveland, possibly eat at Highland Grill or Cecil's or Punch for dinner, and have a much shorter trip home.