Archive for March, 2010

a quick look at the name

and a quick look at today’s date

will tell you I’m early,

but this track,

and this narrative

couldn’t wait.

sorry, Tara.

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Being an intensely emotional person can have its drawbacks.  I operate in sharp bursts most of the time.  I get fired up, blaze a wild streak and then fizzle out, all at break neck speed.  Often if you blink, you’ll miss it, which is, you know, too bad for you;)

But there are certain areas of my life where I feel this emotionosity (hehe) comes in handy.  Give me any piece of poetry, from any era, and I will get to the meat of the matter for you. And songwriters the world over, I’ll be your muse.  I will tuck myself into your song and wrap myself up with the warm sweet blanket of your lovingly crafted lyrics.  I will!  And I’ll do it for free.  It’s a positive outlet for my emotionosity (are you feeling that word?).

For me the difference between a good song and a great one is easy to identify: a great song transports me.

Years and years ago, myself and a few of my music geek pals conceived of a mixed CD project for ourselves.  We each made an aural landscape CD.  Each song had to be accompanied by a small blur about where that song took us.  Example: for Beau, Interpol’s “Say Hello To the Angels” took him back to looking out the window of a speeding train in Germany at the frozen wonderland outside. Emotional journeys.  Music is full of them and made for them.

And THIS song takes me somewhere in time: New Years’s Eve 2000.  Big flippin’ deal all over the world.  People I knew were discussing where to go blow it out.  Jerusalem?  Istanbul?  Berlin?  But I was mourning a divorce and didn’t feel much up for partying. I had a friend whose family owned a small log cabin in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania.

I made my way there, arriving just shy of nightfall.  I threw whatever I might need on my back, hiked through the apple orchard, crossed the creek until I found my small homestead.  Just me and a bottle of Jack Daniels, a whole mess of tears and a wedding dress that ended up in the fire.

In the morning, I awoke at the first breath of dawn.  I walked down to the creek, splashed ice cold water on my face, curled up in the nook of an apple tree bough, watched the deer nibble the dewy grass and began anew.

Avett Brothers – ‘It’s The Beaches’

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I’ve kept Tara to myself long enough. started feeling bad and shit. see, I run with a large group that has insanely good taste in music. insanely. but only my b.f.f. Scott has opened me up to more stuff than she. am serious. so, starting today, it’s ‘tuesdays with tara’ – she’ll soon be on your mental redial. and Christmas list. I ain’t lying.

Tara lives in Istanbul. she writes about living in Istanbul.

she’s also scared of the Amish. which is nothing, if not understandable.

if we’re lucky, she’ll be here once a week.

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I don’t live in America anymore, so I am usually not hip to the new shows until they bomb and make their way to the foreign market. We don’t have HBO as a channel, but we do get thrown the occasional HBO presentation bone, like Entourage.  My week isn’t the same without Ari Gold screaming at me.

Well, if you’re livin’ in America and lovin’ it, maybe you’re watching How to Make It in America, at least long enough to hear this here track, which serves as its theme song?  I don’t know your life.

This here’s Aloe Blacc and I suspect that may be an alias. Unless you are from Southern California, went to USC or happen to be familiar with an über obscure hip hop group called Emanon, you have probably never heard of him.

It’s not often that I burst out laughing to the point of fearing that I may have wet myself slightly when reading something from Wikipedia, but a fact from Aloe Blacc’s entry caused me to do just that.  Of course, if you are a USC alumnus, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.  To Mr.Blacc’s credit?  The song, “I love USC (and I hate UCLA)” sung to the tune of Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” is apparently a campus legend. Needless to say, this is a man who is NOT taking a royalties check from HBO for granted.

So, yeah, Aloe, I’ll give you a dollar because I really, really want to hear YOUR story, for realz.

Aloe Blacc – ‘I Need A Dollar’

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