esprit de l'escalier

Dinner and a song

I some how made it through last week with next to nothing in my kitchen. I had bread, eggs, and dwindling cheese, though no milk. I kept avoiding the store. I was busy most nights last week and just left groceries as the last priority. I made it, and actually packed lunch one day, which is a feat just shy of miraculous. (Okay, overstated a bit.) I am now fully shopped, even mostly ready for my hosting of book club on Thursday. (Minus the fact that my living room is covered in fuzz from a project for weaving class.)

Tonight I've got some Sweet Potato Soup with Miso and Ginger simmering on the stove. I am all ready to break out my new immersion blender. I've seen some headlines recently about how most people are now getting their recipes from the internet instead of cookbooks. I didn't bother reading the articles because that seemed pretty obvious to me. Both my mother and I get most of the recipes we use from the internet. What I want to add is how one goes about organizing said recipes. For a while I would email recipes I found interesting to a friend or my mother and copy myself and then move the email to a folder for recipes. This was not exceptionally efficient.

More recently my friend Esther suggested that I use Evernote for my recipes. Brilliant idea. Evernote is multi-platform, so you can use it on your desktop, the internet, and on your mobile devices. You can tag the things you save and save them in different folders. Plus most internet browsers have add-ons for Evernote, so you can quickly save content from websites. I just started keeping a second folder, "Current Recipes" for the recipes I'm interested in making soon. It's great because I can quickly call up recipes on my phone while I'm at the grocery store. I love it. And I keep trying to indoctrinate others into its greatness. (I use it for other things as well. I am an inveterate list maker and Evernote hits all the sweet spots.)

Apropos of nothing, here is a song, "Melody" by Kate Earl, that I have been rocking out to tonight. My friend Nickleen put it on a mix a couple of years ago and I love both the song and mix. Thanks again, lady! Enjoy! 

Some tunes for Valentine's Day

I made some little Valentines in my screen printing class and handed some out to co-workers today. I wanted to bring some third grade back into our lives. I do miss the tin-foiled covered shoe boxes, though. And the little packets of candy. Not to mention the class bunny that year, Snickers. (Third grade was a good year for me.)

I'm off to dinner at some friends' house. I'm making Orangette's Winning Hearts and Minds cake for dessert. I do love that recipe. Here's a romantic Sam Cooke song for tonight. It demands to be danced to - nice and slow. God I love Sam Cooke. No one tugs at my heart and makes me want to dance like him. Enjoy.

Oh, and because I can't help myself and love this song so damn much, here's a faster dance song from Mr. Cooke. I have so many happy childhood memories dancing to this song with my family.

Okay, I fell down a Sam Cooke rabbit hole. It's Valentine's Day, I can't miss "Cupid."

Beatles for Sale

I was an early convert to the Fab Four, after my mother slipped me a compilation tape one year in my stocking in elementary school. I loved them and loved that tape to death. When I think of the Beatles, several super fan friends pop into my head, but first and foremost is my friend Joe Peppercorn. He was my first die hard Beatles fan friend. He introduced me to lots of music in high school and college, but to me, he is synonymous with Revolver. We were on the school paper together, and he played that album again and again in the staff room. I own it either because he gave it to me, or I just was convinced of its greatness and/or missed him and hearing it in college.

I bring this all up because I just came from listening to him play the Beatles. He's playing all of the recorded Beatles works in chronological order tonight, with a little help from some friends. (He was in the paper today about it!) He started around 4pm and probably has another couple of hours to go.This is the second year he's done this crazy marathon, but I missed last year's performance. I'm so glad I was able to see some of this year's.

I had hoped to get in to hear A Hard Day's Night, but missed it, arriving to catch Beatles for Sale. (I do love the early Beatles. I am a sucker for early 60s pop.) I hadn't planned on staying that long, but evetually my friends and I decided we needed to wait to hear Revolver. I left after the band closed out Sgt. Pepper.

My friends and I were the dancing girls in the back against the wall. The night was one big sing-a-long, with us twisting and shouting along. A favorite moment tonight? The audience participation in "I Just Saw A Face." That was a song I remember listening to over and over, rewinding the tape, so I could memorize the words. Or maybe how every so often he would preface a song by shouting, "And this one is by the Beatles!" I stayed for about 80 songs, out of the 215 they are planning on singing and playing tonight. I hope Joe doesn't lose his voice for too long after this. Great fun all the same. Well done sirs.

Two songs on a Tuesday

I am sitting in my kitchen, waiting for some things in the dryer to finish, smelling my dinner cooking, listening to some Billie Holiday. Her sad, beautiful voice is perfect on this cold, rainy night. One of my all-time favorite songs is the one above. I'd like to be dancing to it right now.

This next song is another favorite, this time by Ryan Adams. Yesterday I ran across this version of it, with Laura Marling providing back-up vocals. It gives me chills.

Oh good, I got up from this to chop an onion and managed to cut two fingers. I own THE CRAPPIEST knives ever. I hope my sister got my note about getting me a good chef's knife for Christmas. (Hint, hint, Alix.) Anyone want to come chop an onion for me? Enjoy the music. I'm going back to it. Wish me luck.

Rainy Friday music

Today is the first day of fall and it feels it. It's cold, rainy, and a bit dreary. In spite of that, I enjoyed my walk in to work, snug in my jean jacket and scarf. (Coffee and an orange brioche from Pistacia Vera, my favorite sweets spot, helped.) I'm hoping the rain clears up for an event tonight, as the Weather Channel promises. In the meanwhile as I work, I've been listening to M. Ward's album The Transfiguration of Vincent. His low-fi sound is a perfect for this weather.

Enjoy your weekend!

Last wedding of the summer

I went to three very unique weddings this summer, ending with my dear friend Stacey's this weekend, up at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I spent the weekend dividing my time between her and her husband Ben's friends and family, and my friends Amanda and Mike who live nearby and put me up. It was all great fun. I love Stacey and Ben's families, made a couple of new friends from Ben's friends, and got to catch up with some old college friends. I love weddings where I leave feeling like I have more love than I went in to them. Thanks for including me in such a wonderful weekend.

Since Stacey and I have always bonded over music, I thought I'd share an EP I've been listening to this week from a band from LA called Little Brutes. Enjoy! (Also, I might be a little in love with the website Bandcamp.)

Memories of the Perseids

August nights in Wisconsin. Campfires with cousins. Sleeping out under the stars and watching them fall across the sky. The Perseids hit their peak this Friday night. There will a full moon, so visibility will be low, but I'll be up on Lake Erie with friends, and I'm hopeful I'll see some of them this year.

From "One for Sorrow" by Jeffrey Foucault:

I was driving out on County N

With my high-beam headlights on

In the late night FM no man’s land

Looking for a Tom Petty song

The Perseids were falling

In that hothouse August night

I saw two come down together

And I thought it looked about right

"One for sorrow, two for joy" they say

I’ve had my fill of sorrow anyway

Things afoot and some summer tunes

I have big things afoot. I am moving. On Saturday. My room is not packed. The moving men, however, should be fine with my storage unit full of stuff. Almost four years after "temporarily" moving in with my parents I am moving out. I'm moving to a historic neighborhood in Columbus and will be less than a mile from work. Which means after four years of driving almost an hour to work, I will be a 20 minute walk to the office. AKA, I will be living the dream.

I am super excited to be getting back on my own and to be really committing to Columbus. I am nervous about living alone, as I have shared space since the womb (since I'm a twin). But it will open up my social life more and I'm happy to be still close to my family. And Frank. He's staying at my parents' house for now as it is a cat paradise and he couldn't go outside at the new place. (I am really trying not to think about this aspect of my move yet. It will hit me soon enough.)

This week I have been obsessing over Heather Browne's latest summer mix. The song above is on it, as is the song below. Download the whole thing and love it for yourself. I will be listening to it as I pack and unpack. And possibly as I dance alone in my cube tomorrow.

Heather Browne: Inspiration

I mentioned yesterday how much I liked Heather Browne of the Fuel/Friends music blog. Today she posted one of her kick-ass mixes and I thought I'd take a moment to appreciate her.

A long time ago, I want to say at least 5 years ago or something, I read an article about how the internet was leveling the playing field in terms of gender and music consumption. That the internet was allowing women a space to purchase music without having to interact with snooty music store clerks, and thus increasing their purchase of music. Now, I read this a long time ago and can therefore NOT recall the source, but I remember thinking, "THIS MAKES PERFECT SENSE." Yes, the music store represented in High Fidelity had something to do with that response, but mostly it was because of my own experiences. Because, you know, GIRLS DO NOT HAVE VALID TASTE IN MUSIC. Or something. At least that is how I had been made to feel (and sometimes continue to be made to feel). Music continues to be a boys club, which is why the existence of women like Heather Browne give me hope.

Growing up, my main music inspiration came from my Dad. Later it came from my friend Joe. It wasn't until college when I met my friend Stacey that I had a female to truly talk about music. In high school I didn't really have any money, so I couldn't afford new music, but I lived down the street from a fabulous public library. That, coupled with my Dad's tapes, fueled my mix-tape making until I convinced my Dad to buy me a cd-burner for my college computer. (Is it ridiculous that I still feel guilty for asking for something that expensive for my 19th birthday?) Then came those heady, hazy early days of file-sharing. I gorged on music. I met my friend Stacey when I was 20 and we were studying in Prague. Meeting a female to discuss music with was revelatory. We could discuss our musical tastes without fear of reprieve or taunting for thinking a muscian was cute. We could discuss music for music's sake and talk about what we liked or didn't like. To this day we still share music and I will love her forever for that bond.

I discovered Heather Browne and her blog Fuel/Friends a number of years ago (possibly through Stacey or my friend Sara, who I know through the internet and our overlapping music tastes; I can't remember, maybe it was through someone else or on my own). Finding Heather was another revelation. Not only was it another female whose taste I respected and aligned with immediately, but she exposed me to a wider expanse of musicians. AND she was respected. She was on World Cafe (multiple times). She had a freaking blurb by NICK HORNBY. (AKA one of my favorite writers about music, and AUTHOR of the book High Fidelity.) A woman whose musical tastes are respected. HELL YES. Thank you Heather Browne. Really, one day I hope I get a chance to meet you, because I want to give you a huge hug, buy you a beer, and tell you a little bit about how your writing about music on the internet validates my own musical tastes. We don't always agree, but the fact that you are out there, loving music and writing about it, makes me listen to what I love with even more pride. Thank you.

The Head and the Heart

A couple of months back I fell hard for The Head and the Heart, a band out of Seattle. Heather Browne, in all of her wisdom, turned me on to them. (Some day I'd like to meet Heather and give her a giant hug for all of the music she's championed. Check out this Chapel Session with she did with the band.)

I love them. I am such a sucker for harmonies, layered sounds, and jangly songs. They recently got signed by Sub Pop, and who just re-released by their first album. They are playing Cincinnati next month, and I'm planning on being there. Enjoy some of their songs. Check out their album.

The song below is why I fell for them. I love the soaring vocals at the tempo change and that refrain. "These are the places you will find me hiding. These are the places I will always go."

I really wish I could have been at this party.

The Head and The Heart - Ghosts (Queen Anne House Show) from Tyler Kalberg on Vimeo.

The Head and The Heart - Honey Come Home from Welcome To The West on Vimeo.