SPIN December 2007

This month's SPIN is the best I have ever read! If you don't subscribe or have zero interest in actually reading it...here is the Cliff's Notes version.

Win Butler (of Arcade Fire) and Springsteen (no first name necessary) are simultaneously interviewed regarding both career and personal lives. They discuss influences, current music interests (The Boss listens to Rhianna!), their latest albums, popularity struggles and as the mag states 'the early days, the glory days, and the end of days.' Such good reading.

Major takeaway for me is Win's choice of gift to Bruce, a trio of three books:
Why I Write by George Orwell
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
All of which I hope to pick up by week's end.

Also in the issue:
Beth Ditto interview
Maynard James Keenan interview (!)
Radiohead album/new business model review
Awesome Holiday gift guide (hint hint)
Shia LaBeouf's musical taste/latest project (more interesting than you might think)
15 Songs You Need to Download NOW!!!!
Concert pictorial featuring
The Go! Team
The Hives
Crystal Castles

So, hope this inspires you to buy/subscribe. If not, borrow my copy because this is a must read. Peace.

FYI:

There is no such thing as 'the bigger half.'

This concludes our lesson on fractions for today.
Class dismissed :)

I heart Trent Reznor

Dear Mr. Reznor,

I heart you for a lot of reasons. Your musical ability and level of creativity is limitless and off the heazy. Your collaborations (thus far) cross genre lines and have defined albums and artists. Your opinions and world views should make any politician or activist envious. But most recently, Trent, I heart you for this quote:

"I do actually believe in love. I can't say that I am 100
percent successful in that department, but I think it's one
of the few worthwhile human experiences. It's cooler than
anything I can think of right now."

Awesome, simply awesome. Thank you.

Love,
Sarah

This Girl's New Music Favourites (as promised)

Feist
Arcade Fire
The Decemberists
Cansei De Ser Sexy
Motocade
Battles
MUSE
The Fratellis
Viva Voce
YOAV
Regina Spektor
K-OS

This Girl's Highly Recommended Not-So-New Music

The Shins (raise your hand if you knew I was gonna type that)
Flogging Molly
Tori Amos
Talking Heads
The Stone Roses
Peter Gabriel
The White Stripes
The Pixies
Kings of Leon
Spoon
Flight of the Conchords

BTW, I am 'This Girl'
Please leave your music suggestions as comments.
Three people besides myself will see them, but I'm not telling you who.

Red Rock Canyon, Nevada

13 mile scenic drive and some moderate hiking.
No wild donkeys that day :(
However, in the pictures below, you can see a jack-ass :)





Thank you, Em, for being my sherpa!

Happy 25-hours-long-19th Birthday Lizard :)

"Girl Sailor"

The gutter may profess its love,
Then follow it with hesitation,
But there are just so many of
You out there for rent

A stronger girl would shake this off in flight,
And never give it more than a frowning hour,
But you have let your heart decide,
Loss has conquered you,

You've won one too many fights,
Wearing many hats every time,
But you wont win here tonight,

You've made it through the direst of straits alright,
Can you help it if plain love now seems less interesting?
You haven't changed an ounce in my eyes,
And I cannot lecture you,

And does anything I say seem relevant at all?
You've been at the helm since you were just five,
While I cannot claim to be more than a passenger,

But, you've won one too many fights,
Wearing all of your clothes at the same time,
Let the good times end tonight,
Oh girl, sail her, don't sink her,
This time,

Just a moment or two from now,
Not a mind will retain even a trace,
Of the thoughts that I struggled to tell
And how our stack of cards just fell,

So settle this once and for all,
The light no longer shows the cracks around my door,
And I have no lantern to light your way home tonight,

You are not some saint who's above,
Giving someone a stroll through the flowers,
You've got so much more to dream of,
Oh girl, sail her, don't sink her,
This time,
This time,
This time.

House Sitting Wilderness Safari

That's right...I'm house sitting and dog sitting again. I don't really understand the concept of house sitting. Houses don't need to be sat, they can take care of themselves. However, it is probably a good thing that I am here. If I wasn't, how would anyone know if the flat screen was working properly. Or the jacuzzi. Or the washer and dryer (I am 5 loads and counting in the last 24 hrs). Or the elliptical machine. Or the bar. Or the pool and patio loungers. Yeah, it is a good thing I am here giving all of these things routine use and maintenance. This kind of job does not come without its share of danger and risk though, hence the title of the post...

First of all, spiders. They are everywhere (outside). All of them harmless, of course, as there are only five occurring poisonous spiders in FL: the southern black widow, northern black widow, red widow, brown widow and brown recluse. Nonetheless, I have been documenting the nocturnal activity of a ginormous and very colorful spider who routinely spins a web at dusk each night in between a tree and a lamppost on the edge of the property. This thing is big. And scary looking. The web could easily catch and contain a bat or a small bird (exaggeration). So far I have only see it get a giant moth and the other tiny bugs that flutter around lights at night. also around the house are spiny backed orb weavers, jumping spiders, long jawed orb spiders and wolf spiders. The pool cage is like a rainforest's canopy of spider webs. Blurg!

Second, a box turtle. Hank first discovered the turtle specimen. He was outside with me while I washed my car and he started barking, a lot. Hank doesn't usually bark any type of alarming, fast paced, high pitched excited bark, but he was. He was barking with his head down at something on the ground. I got scared thinking it was a snake about to strike (foreshadowing a later story - you like that?). I came around the bush to get a better look and it was a tiny box turtle scared and boxed in his shell. He was about the size of a gourmet half pound hamburger with a big sesame seed bun. I picked it up and brought it into the grass and waited for it to poke its head out. It did. You know what that means...a turtle head was poking out! That's so juvenile and hilarious. I have since seen the turtle twice more. Once in almost the exact same spot I originally saw him and once about 4 houses down in the mulch of some landscaping.

Third, an iguana, in a small palm tree right in front of the house. It was early evening. I was standing under/next to the tree and all of the sudden there was some loud rustling above my head. A two foot iguana was falling from the tree and hitting the frawns on its way down. It caught itself on the last possible frawn, right next to my head, before what would have been its five foot fall to the ground!! I screamed loud as it scurried back into the thicker foliage of the tree and ran away. I also ran away.

Fourth, a giant albino frog (the albino part was possibly because it was dead). It was on the golf course on the edge of the lake. It was pretty big, the size of my hand, but not moving. I got closer expecting it to move but it didn't. I got really close expecting it to move but it didn't. I poked it lightly with a stick expecting it to move but it didn't. I got another stick and picked it up and put it in the shallow water of the lake expecting it to move but it didn't. If it was dead, it had just died because it wasn't rigor mortis or petrified. If it wasn't dead, it is a very good actor and/or was an opossum in its former life.

Fifth, a poisonous venomous aggressive tiny snake that I tried to rescue that was stuck in the pool overflow reserve that I got scared of when it tried to attack me that I left there overnight hoping it would just drown that we eventually had to get the pool man to capture in a bucket and release outside and FAR AWAY. That little guy could not have been more that seven inches long but thought it was an anaconda or something. I didn't know snakes could suffer from Napoleon Complex (aka survival instincts I know).

Sixth, and most terrifying (cue cheesy Hitchcock suspense horror flick music),
TWO PUGS!!!!!!