Not a sky in the clouds

Gluten-free Baking (and Pancake recipe!)

2012-01-22T15:42:00.000-08:00

I admit I’m a little cynical about gluten-free baking. Since a lot of the reason I continue the gluten-free diet is to be free of so many blood sugar ups and downs, it seems ill-advised to simply replace a wheat product with one that makes me just as jittery. Tapioca starch, potato starch, corn starch…all these starches are bad news, at least for a person like me who does better on a more caveman-like diet.

But then I got sucked into contributing to the school bake sale, and didn’t really want to bake something I’m not going to eat. I’ve offered to contribute some gluten-free goodies, so the next thing I know, I’m buying things like rice flour and xanthan gum. I will be a gluten-free baker, even if I have to be dragged into it via such methods.

On that note, I will share with you my gluten-free pancake recipe:

Gluten-free pancakes

We love the texture and taste of this. It makes the best pancake ever! This is a very forgiving recipe. You can vary it quite a bit and still get a decent pancake. The main things to leave constant though: a 2 to 1 ratio on the rice flour and corn meal, the baking powder (you can use a little less though, than the recipe calls for), and using the egg in the final mix.

Dry Mix (2 servings):
2/3 cup rice flour
1/3 cup corn flour or corn meal
1 Tbsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. cinnamon

When ready to make pancakes, take 1 cup of the dry mix and add:

1 Tbsp. canola oil (or your favorite oil)
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 egg
Enough milk or water to make a batter

Cook in a nonstick frying pan with a little oil. Flip over when bubbles form and cook the other side.

If you like this recipe and want to make it often:
I make a large quantity and store it in a big glass mason jar. Then when I want to make pancakes, I just take a cup full of the dry mix and add the wet ingredients to make pancakes.

Dry Mix (large quantity):
1000g rice flour (4 1/3 cups)
500g corn flour or corn meal (2 1/8 cups)
5 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon

I love me some annoying music

2012-01-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

“Alyssa always tortures me with her music,” my friend M said one time. I’ll side step the fact that years later, she learned to love the music of the very same band (Sigur Rós) whose music I was “torturing” her with.

The truth is, I enjoy some musical expressions that others would find irritating. The goal of this post is to share some of them with you. Provided you do not currently have a headache, please proceed to listen to each sound clip below, as much as you can tolerate. I love you.

First, I’ll tell you about Natural Snow Buildings’ 22 minute long composition, “Loki’s Trick.” (Available for free download here) One day I was overhauling the litter in the cat boxes and had this on in the kitchen. My husband came and switched it off, probably because any music that sounds like a wall of noise to him is not generally welcome in his aural landscape.

“Hey!” I protested. “I was listening to that!”

“You…were?” He gave me that look which says, “I question your sanity.”

“Yeah, I was waiting for the good part…the part where he screams.”

“O-Okay…”

So since 22 minutes is a lot to listen to, I’ll tell you that the song starts off as noise, then gets all pretty around 1:30. It builds and builds, till the screaming commences at around 20:20 or so. Enjoy!

The first time I heard Björk’s “Pluto” I thought it was pretty much unlistenable. Then I heard it a second time and it clicked for me. Now I think it’s great! Especially the screaming part, which comes it around 1:45.

Holy Fuck’s “Korock.” I adore this song, but it has this funky, discordant beat that prolly annoys those who are used to more standard fare. Then around 1:20 the beat dissembles into a different form and the fun really begins. They start taking the sounds and running them through some kind of fuzz grinder. This one almost doesn’t belong here in my opinion.

Next, a song that even I would call irritating, Drop the Lime’s “Doomsday Device.” It has this repetitive beat going, and that is fine, until you’ve heard it 200 times too many, and they start conveying it with the keyboard equivalent of a police siren on LSD. It creeps in at around 1:15 and intensifies till the guy intones the title of the track. There’s a blessed brief moment of calm…and then the demonic riff comes back! If you want to induce a headache, this is the song for you. Note: Dancing or hula hooping while listening to the track reduces its Irritation Factor considerably.

Now keep in mind this list is irritating songs that I actually like. There are plenty of annoying songs out there that I don’t like, for example, Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair.” But who cares about them, ah?

I Love Tea. But Not ALL Tea.

2012-01-12T13:46:00.000-08:00

My friend Amber Strocel is encouraging blog posts about tea. So here’s mine.

As you can see, my tea shelf is so crammed full of stuff I can’t even see half of it. It can be roughly divided into thirds:

1. Tea I Drink Happily
For the most part, this category of appreciated tea includes unflavored black tea, green tea, white tea and jasmine green tea. Because I like tea, a lot of people assume I like flavored teas, but generally, I do not. I rather appreciate George Carlin’s take on the matter.

2. Tea I Drink When I’m Sick or Something
There are several boxes of weedwater, I mean, herbal tea, in my collection. Many are for healing some ailment or another. Whether it be low immune function, sore throat, unhappy tummy, or grumpy girl parts, there’s a weedwater available for it.

3. Tea I Do Not Drink
These are the boxes I look at with some consternation, and then try to convince my six year old that yeah, she would love to drink some of the Raspberry Zinger or whatever icky stuff she talked me into buying. I heat up the water, dose it with the tea bag and a smattering of sweetener, then she drinks a few tablespoons of it and is done with it.

I look forward to my kid growing up and having a tea shelf of her own.

Which button are you?

2012-01-11T21:02:00.001-08:00

If your life was a recording device, which button would you press most often?

Play: You’re happy living life in the present moment and wouldn’t change a thing.

Fast Forward: You often want to skip over the boring and unpleasant parts of life.

Rewind: You enjoy reliving the past.

Pause: You feel life is going by too fast, and are trying to catch up.

Stop: You are ready to be done with life entirely.

Record: You prefer recording each moment (perhaps via photography, video, audio or writing) to actually living it.

Gluten Free for Me

2012-01-08T20:42:00.000-08:00

I’ve had some strange experiences with food. Once I ate a candy bar and felt like my brain was lifting out of my skull like a UFO. In my twenties, I used to regularly get this crazed, stressed expression on my face if I ate sugary food on an empty stomach. Those were interesting, unpleasant times. But as I’ve aged, the weird phenomenon shifted; the Crazy mellowed out and was replaced with an insatiable hunger. Until I became gluten-free.

As a teen, I could eat six cans of Campbell’s soup in one day. I was thin as a piece of asparagus, weighing no more than 110 lbs. on my 5’ 6” frame, until my late twenties. Then I started to gain weight, and that was okay. I gained enough to be able to get pregnant and nurse a child for four years. I was fine with weighing 140 lbs. instead of 110. But then a couple of years ago, something changed. I was eating all the freaking time. Even my parents noticed it when I visited over the summer. And I was gaining weight, and weighed up to 155 lbs at one point.

I tried a couple of methods of losing weight, which have been chronicled on this blog: South Beach Diet, and walking. They worked for the short term, but then the weight would come back. I didn’t really know what to do.

Then I was visiting my in-laws over Thanksgiving and was talking to my sister-in-law, who has been gluten-free for a couple of years. She noticed I got really tired after eating a bunch of wheat products. She got me to thinking about it…what if I just quit wheat? And then, all the gluten-y wheat family grains like rye, barley and spelt? What would happen?

In mid-December I quit wheat, thinking it would only be for a few days. I was astounded; the hunger went away. I no longer needed to snack every few hours. I could eat food and it didn’t make me hungrier.

I was doing alright wheat-free, but then two days into it I felt really out of it and wonky. Kind of how I felt a couple days into the South Beach diet (which coincidentally also has you quit wheat in the early phases). I stayed off the wheat, soon felt better, and merrily went to see the in-laws for Christmas break, where I was easily able to continue the gluten-free course, since my sister-in-law was already doing it and foods were readily available for me.

At one point during our trip, we went to a Chinese restaurant. I didn’t ask, but know that my appetizer must have been using a wheat-containing soy sauce. I knew because the hunger came back for the short term. Along with the hunger came a crazy, out-of-it feeling. My husband even noticed I didn’t seem right. I couldn’t really contribute to the conversation anymore and just sat there.

In past years at the Christmas family party, I would sit quietly and not really talk to anyone until they spoke to me. Now free of gluten, I could go around and have active conversations with people. It kind of blew my mind, really. Could part of the reason I’m an anti-social introvert be simply because I’ve spent my entire life up to now in some kind of zonked out food coma?

At one point I ate a wheat-free cookie that was not gluten-free. It contained barley malt as a first ingredient. I ate it rather innocently, not expecting any real problems. But it made me feel awful. I was so wiped out I had to take a nap.

I’m now about 3 weeks into the gluten-free diet and have lost 4 pounds. But better than that, I am no longer controlled the need to eat every couple of hours. I have more energy and I rarely get tired after I eat.

I’ll try to write more about gluten-free stuff in the weeks and months to come.

Florence & the Machine, Live at WaMu Theater, Seattle, Dec 8, 2011

2011-12-09T20:48:00.000-08:00

Because I tend to have that human need to categorize everything in order to understand it, I’ve been trying to figure out how to categorize Florence & the Machine, who we saw perform last night at WaMU Theater in Seattle. The phrases “goth Motown” and “gospel for sinners” keep popping in my head, and so I’m sticking with them. On the surface, I guess you’d call this music “pop.” Maybe “alternative pop.” If that’s the case, then I am grateful that pop music today can include harp and the occasional bit of tribal drumming and chanting. TIME Magazine just voted her song "No Light, No Light" Song of the Year. Here it is performed on SNL:

If you can get past the occasionally flat, yell-iness of Florence’s voice, you’ll be delighted with her power, range and creativity. With multi-layered vocal stylings (performed live with the help of backup singers) and the charisma of a shaman, Florence belts out the tunes with a flourish of arms and the occasional twirl around the stage. It did seem to take her a few songs to really get her game face on, and occasionally we were certain that she was zoning out and thinking about something completely unrelated to performing the song. But those were minor sins in a concert that seemed to promise a kind of salvation for the believers.

The background décor was some of the most appropriate I’ve seen in a while. Of course nothing can touch what Jónsi did on his last tour. But I really enjoyed the five tall fabric panels that looked like stained glass windows in the cathedral of Florence’s musical rapture. With a change of lighting, they magically morphed into primal human forms. It perfectly captured the essence of her latest album: a glorious, primal mix of ritual, praise and enthusiasm.

Clearly there's no video of the show up online yet, but here's something from this tour, at least:

The torture begins

2011-08-14T11:20:00.001-07:00

Well, one might say the torture began when my daughter was a toddler, when I started playing "Toddler Favorites" on the CD player for her. Listening to "Wheels on the Bus" and similar ditties can make a mom a little nutso. But still, I have mostly myself to blame for that. You see, I wanted to to indoctrinate my child into the culture, figuring that when she was older, she'd at least be familiar with the tunes and could sing along when necessary (in preschool, or around a Girl Scout campfire or something).

Fast forward to a few years later. My daughter has been pretty good about accepting my music, even liking it on occasion. She recently declared Paavoharju's "Kevätrumpu" her favorite song, and can recognize Sigur Rós when I play their music. She has patiently sat through many hours of the ancestral drone sounds of Natural Snow Buildings, and rarely complains when I play "Bride of the Spirits" by TwinSisterMoon nearly every single day.

But I knew the day would come when she would begin to have her own musical tastes that would differ from my own. A recent trip to visit her cousins resulted in her talking about Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift. Then she began singing this one sing over and over again---not the whole song, just the chorus---and she sung the words wrong. I knew it couldn't be "Hey there Mister, hanging on a blister on the radio on the radio..." For better or worse, my husband knew she was trying to sing Train's "Hey Soul Sister" so I looked it up for her and played it so she could read the lyrics. Now she sings it correctly, but still...I don't like this song. My kid likes a song I dislike. She sings a song I dislike.

What's a poor mom to do?

Paavoharju

2011-05-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

A short while ago I became enchanted with Finnish music collective Paavoharju. Imagine lying on your back in a meadow next to an abandoned train platform, listening to various neighbors tune their radios to different stations. One's playing what sounds like a Finnish folk tune, another's playing Indian film music, you think you hear a reggae rhythm being strummed on an acoustic guitar, and church organ in the distance. The radios keep fading in and out, crackling and popping, and the tinkling of wind chimes and the cawing of crows add to the whole wash of sound that reverberates across a landscape of industrial decay, while a cool breeze wafts a scent of wildflowers across your face. This is the best way I can describe the music of Paavoharju.

The group centers around a pair of ascetic Christian brothers, who assemble a collage of sounds that according to their MySpace is ambient, experimental and folk in its nature. In spirit, they appear to have found beauty and peace in the chaos of hard scrabble existence. The music is a perfect backdrop to peaceful day.

In essence, this is one of the many sorts of music that sits well with me. It paints the contentment I feel wallowing in my own despair, so that I can stop stressing about my own inability to convey such feelings, and simply live my life surrounded by the musical outpourings of people who Understand.

They've released two albums: Yhä hämärää (2005) and Laulu Laakson Kukista (2008), as well as a DVD, Unien Savonlinna (2010). The EP/Single for Laulu laakson kukasta contains that song, plus Kirkonväki and a 12 minute collection of live material under the title Kasetti Moskovasta.

Music Meme Day 30: Your Favorite Song at this Time Last Year

2011-04-22T09:20:00.001-07:00

day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year

Probably one of these:
Jónsi "Boy Lillikoi"
CocoRosie "Animals"
Jeremy Enigk "Chewing Gum"

Oh my, the music meme is over and I had to leave out so much magnificent material. Now I feel compelled to blather a bit. I have music on all the time here, finding it elevates and enhances life in myriad ways. If you have no idea what I mean, try listening to Sigur Rós "Ágætis byrjun" next time you fold the laundry.

Music Meme Day 29: A Song From Your Childhood

2011-04-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

day 29 - a song from your childhood

The first thing I thought of was how, sometime between the ages of 5 and 9, I used to drive my mother crazy with asking her to put on "The Wild Bull" by Morton Subotnick. This early synthesizer composition evoked visions for me…visions of rabbits being murdered by chainsaws, and for some reason I enjoyed the horror of it. I'm sure it paved the way for some of the horrifying music I enjoy today.

Music Meme Day 28: A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty

2011-04-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty

Huh? Guilty? Mm. Well how about this. I used to really love Bright Eyes. I've seen 'em live four times, more than any other band. But after "Lifted," their music lost its soul and passion to me. Conor Oberst learned how to sing and write songs with proper meter on his lyrics, and they just weren't the same. So not only do I feel bad for not liking their newer stuff, I also feel bad that I'm just not as much in the mood for teenage boy angst these days. That said, here's the track that turned me onto Bright Eyes in the first place "Calendar Hung Itself."

Music Meme Day 27: A Song That You Wish You Could Play

2011-04-19T09:14:00.001-07:00

day 27 - a song that you wish you could play

"Opal" by Syd Barrett. I wanted to learn this on guitar, but I couldn't find the guitar tab, and couldn't figure it out from listening to it. The bridge is one of the most awesome things ever, imo.

Music Meme Day 26: A Song That You Can Play on an Instrument

2011-04-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument

I could probably still fake my way through "Two Headed Boy Pt 2" by Neutral Milk Hotel if I had the guitar chords in front of me. And of course my own original songs.

Music Meme Day 25: A Song That Makes You Laugh

2011-04-17T09:54:00.001-07:00

day 25 - a song that makes you laugh

I believe Strong Bad's polka-inspired "Sweet Cuppin Cakes" is likely to amuse anyone who spends the 1 minute necessary to listen to it. It certainly does me. But I prefer to dance to it. It takes a certain kind of humor to make me laugh out loud.

Music Meme Day 24: A Song That You Want to Play at Your Funeral

2011-04-16T08:45:00.001-07:00

day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral

Well I talked about my funeral on Day 22. But there's also Antony & the Johnsons "Bird Gerhl" which I think is the perfect funeral song for a transgendered man who wishes to be a girl. Oh, I guess I'm not really a transgendered man, but some days I feel like there's one hidden inside me.

Music Meme Day 23: A Song That You Want To Play at Your Wedding

2011-04-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding

Already had a wedding…and I already mentioned "Come on Fhqwhgads" in Day 7 so how about the opening track of our wedding soundtrack, which was Bel Canto's "Mornixuur."

Music Meme Day 22: A Song That You Listen to When You're Sad

2011-04-14T11:52:00.001-07:00

day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad

Sigur Rós "Von" is so creepingly epic in its sadness I want it played at my funeral just for the catharsis effect. Then afterward I expect someone to break out the beverages (how about Kraken rum, Sangria and Thai Iced Coffee), and the party can begin. I hope to see (from my soul hole up in the corner of the venue) hula hooping and aerial acts, a puppet show acting out my life story, and people cosplaying characters from my favorite mangas. (The reality is my funeral will probably end up as boring as the rest of 'em, but I can dream). Oh and then people will ritually wrap my body in a piece of cloth they've all written wishes and prayers on, and dump me in a hole in the ground. No coffin please. Let the worms eat me.

Music Meme Day 21: A Song That You Listen to When You're Happy

2011-04-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy

Hard to pick something I haven't already posted…I don't have a lot of happy songs in my collection. So I just picked something from my "Absolutely Joy" playlist (which only has 11 songs in it). Here's Kate Bush "The Big Sky"

A Vocal Mystery Solved

2011-04-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I debated whether the high soprano vocals of TwinSisterMoon and Natural Snow Buildings could possibly belong to male Mehdi Ameziane. Then I found this video, which proves that they do! If you go to minute 15:00 you can see the man himself is the owner of that pretty voice. Sweet!

Mehdi Ameziane at Dwars Festival, 2008

Music Meme Day 20: A Song That You Listen to When You're Angry

2011-04-12T09:24:00.001-07:00

day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry

Deftones "When Girls Telephone Boys" is a good one for that purpose. Deftones have saved my sanity on multiple occasions, most notably when I needed to calm down after a f&c$in% tai chi / yoga class.

Music Meme Day 19: A Song From Your Favorite Album

2011-04-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

day 19 - a song from your favorite album

That means I have to pick a favorite album! Impossible! Okay it's tough, because to be a favorite album, I should probably like darn near every track on it, right? Most Sigur Rós albums are like that for me, and some Sunny Day Real Estate albums, too. Since I have already handed you the former, how about something from the latter. Here's something from a Sunny Day Real Estate album that almost never got finished and released. By the time the album was done, the band was so fed up they didn't even want to bother choosing a cover, which is how the cover ended up plain pink and simply called "The Pink Album." The whole thing is a meandering bliss fest for those of us who appreciate whiney emo bands. Here's the opening track, "Friday."

Music Meme Day 18: A Song That You Wish You Heard on the Radio

2011-04-10T08:52:00.001-07:00

day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio

I'm going to give you three:
Jónsi & Alex "Happiness"

Paavoharju "Tuoksu tarttuu meihin"

Natural Snow Buildings "The Ice Fortress"

Because we need an entire freaking radio station that sounds like it's playing a soundtrack for the post-apocalypse through a defective transmitter while I lie in a grassy meadow on a warm summer day with breeze blowing across my face. Please?

Failing that, listen to my blip.fm station.

Music Meme Day 17: A Song That You Hear Often on the Radio

2011-04-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio

I hear that Owl City "Fireflies" song in every store I walk into, it seems. Luckily, the inhuman sounding vocal enhancements are not audible in such environments, and that almost makes the song bearable. But I still prefer Her Space Holiday, which is who I mistook Owl City for first time I heard them. You may not hear any resemblance, but there's something about the cadence of the singing and the scales they use, I think, that is similar.

Music Meme Day 16: A Song That You Used to Love But Now Hate

2011-04-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate

I can't think of any song like this. Normally if I love a song I will always at least 'like' it, even years later. If anything, I might find a song I hate and later find something to like about it.

Music Meme Day 15: A Song That Describes You

2011-04-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

day 15 - a song that describes you

The obvious choice is this one...

"Only Human"

original version by Heidi Berry (lyrics in the second person)

or cover version by The Hope Blister (lyrics in first person)

Music Meme Day 14: A Song That No One Would Expect You To Love

2011-04-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love

Well, that certainly depends on your impression of me, doesn't it?
If you think I'm a middle aged old bag, then you might not expect me to love "Spit it out" by Slipknot, but I do.

Music Meme Day 13: A Song That Is a Guilty Pleasure

2011-04-05T09:44:00.001-07:00

day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure

"The Prayer" by Celine Dion w/ Andrea Bocelli. The lyrics are so cringeworthy I wish they were ALL in Italian so I wouldn't be able to understand them. But the way they tweak the melody and harmony throughout the course of the song is just wonderful, imo.

Music Meme Day 12: A Song From a Band You Hate

2011-04-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

day 12 - a song from a band you hate

I tried to think of which hated song by the hated Bee Gees I should include, and "Stayin' Alive"'s irritating chorus popped into my head.

Music Meme Day 11: A Song From Your Favorite Band

2011-04-03T11:13:00.001-07:00

day 11 - a song from your favorite band

Any random Sigur Rós song? Okay how about this one that has an epic video (about two twelve year old boys who fall in love) to go along with it.

Music Meme Day 10: A Song That Makes You Fall Asleep

2011-04-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep

Stars of the Lid "A Lovesong (For Cubs)" (in three parts!) and several other SOTL tracks have lulled me to sleep on occasion.

Music Meme Day 9: A Song That You Can Dance To

2011-04-01T09:57:00.001-07:00

day 09 - a song that you can dance to

Scraping Foetus off the Wheel "Water Torture" has provided many enjoyable moments of dancing joy during the witching hour when everyone is on the short end of a long day and trying not to lose it. With this song, you can lose it in a manner that is almost socially acceptable.

Music Meme Day 8: A Song That You Know All the Words to

2011-03-31T12:11:00.002-07:00

day 08 - a song that you know all the words to

I used to sing "Queen" by Heidi Berry to my daughter:

"She's so high she's in the upper atmosphere
and she will fly, her hair will brush across the sky.
And then it's down down down down she flies
it's down down down to drag you through the night.
She will smile when it is not the time to smile
and she will sing a song to lullaby the stars.
And then it's down down down down she flies
it's down down down to drag you through the night.
She will call just as you lay your body down.
She will crawl through the open window frame.
And then it's down down down down she flies
it's down down down to drag you through the night."

It is interesting to try to sing all the extra syllables into the words (you have to listen to the song to know what I mean).

Music Meme Day 7: A Song That Reminds You of a Certain Event

2011-03-30T10:26:00.000-07:00

day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event

"Come on Fhqwhgads" by Strong Bad reminds me of my wedding. Because we played it there, yes we did.

Music Meme Day 6: A Song That Reminds You of Somewhere

2011-03-29T10:15:00.001-07:00

day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

"Time Has Told M e" by Nick Drake (and pretty much any Nick Drake song) reminds me of living at 14 Choate St. Those who remember 14 Choate St (probably no one who is actually reading this) may recall the humble slumlord abode I shared with my then boyfriend and three others. Whether we were using the grill to cook TV dinners and fish sticks, harboring fugitives and homeless youth (one of whom, incidentally, could play Nick Drake on guitar and sing), or watching the neighbor's cat stick its head up through the ever-present hole in the kitchen floor, surreal times were had by all. But Nick Drake was mostly played in the attic, where I lived for several months until winter came and my boyfriend and I decided to move downstairs to the one room in the house that actually had heat.

Music Meme Day 5: A Song That Reminds You of Someone

2011-03-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone

Soon after I met the man I'm currently married to, he put on Terry S. Taylor and told me this was the soundtrack to his normal mental state. That's how I knew I'd found someone happy-go-lucky to balance my gloomy, jaded self (my own mental soundtrack is more like this).

Music Meme Day 4: A Song That Makes You Sad

2011-03-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

day 04 - a song that makes you sad

"Torch Yourself" by the Gloria Record just builds and builds into a crashing wave of desperation and beautiful angst. It's a hopeful sad though, especially if you listen to the lyrics…

"These people have no feelings
their heads are the only things that ever teach them anything about love.
And I'm not sad, I just want to trust someone so badly.
I just want something beautiful to happen here right now."

Music Meme Day 3: A Song That Makes You Happy

2011-03-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

day 03 - a song that makes you happy

I'm not usually a big fan of happy music, especially when it seems to be mocking me. I prefer music that reflects the mood I'm already in, and slap-happy grinning is not a state of mind I'm in very often. Being forced to listen to upbeat, cheerful tunes when I'm not in that state of mind reminds me of that song by Bright Eyes where the depressed person is told by some clueless but well-meaning bystander, "You would be happy if only you'd TRY."

"Lovelife" by Lush is the kind of happy song I can enjoy, however. Because if musicians like Lush who are normally shy, gloomy shoegazers like me can gush forth something this bubblegum sweet on occasion, then surely I can lift my head and smile once in a while, too.

Music Meme Day 2: Least Favorite Song

2011-03-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

Honestly I don't spend a lot of time thinking about which songs make me want to kill somebody. So when I was faced with the question of which song is my least favorite, I just asked my husband. He told me that I'd once called "Rag Doll" by Aerosmith "soul-killing music" so we'll just go with that, so I don't have to spend another minute on this question. (Except to mention that I generally detest Bee Gees, the Eagles and the Doobie Brothers as well).

Day 1: Favorite Song

2011-03-24T20:39:00.000-07:00

"Ivo" by Cocteau Twins

I've liked this song since it came out in 1984. The texture, flow, melody, harmony, rhythm...it's all exactly what I want in a song.

[BTW I'm starting a new thirty-day meme and cross-posting it to my LJ.]

A Vocal Mystery

2011-02-27T14:37:00.001-08:00

I've been listening quite a bit to Natural Snow Buildings and TwinSisterMoon this past year, and puzzling over whether or not the person who sings in TwinSisterMoon is Mehdi or Solange. Here's the thing: Natural Snow Buildings is comprised of Mehdi and Solange, while TwinSisterMoon is supposedly Mehdi's solo project. But the vocalist on TwinSisterMoon sounds female, and Mehdi is male. Yet there are a number of blog posts out there saying that is for sure Mehdi's voice, however girly it may sound, while at least one other blog states that it was actually Solange guesting on the vocal tracks.

Natural Snow Buildings clearly sounds like it has two vocalists, one that sounds 'male' (which I assumed was Mehdi) and one that sounds 'female' (which I assumed was Solange). Here is an example of the 'male' sounding voice:

And here is an example of the female sounding voice:

Now compare with the vocalist for TwinSisterMoon:

What the hell? Is that really Mehdi singing there? Is it possible that a biological male could sing that high, without the nasal sound of a falsetto? Heck I can't even sing that high, period. But I am willing to accept that it is him, if it is true, which I don't feel certain about.

Then check Solange's solo project "Isengrind." I've only heard two of the four albums she's released, but the vocals all pretty much sound like this:

...the vocals are so distant I can't tell if this is the 'male' voice from NSB or the 'female' voice. If anything, this sounds like a third person entirely! If Solange is capable of any of the beautiful intimate singing I hear on either NSB or TSM, then I can't imagine why she would want to make herself sound so monotone and processed on Isengrind.

I realize there are more important issues in the world I should probably be concerning myself with. Ultimately...I enjoy it when I can't tell if someone is male or female. But I would like to know the truth...it is frustrating to see music bloggers stating completely different 'facts' about who is singing what.

What would really help is a bit of live footage showing them singing, but I haven't been able to dig that up. If anyone can definitively answer the question of who is singing which of these songs, I'd love to see your comment!

My Top Ten Songs of 2010

2011-01-03T10:15:00.001-08:00

I noticed other people doing this, so I thought...why not?

I just went into my Last.fm and looked the most played tracks for the past 12 months, and chose the top song for each artist (otherwise it would have been nothing but Jónsi and TwinSisterMoon in my top 10), and here we are:

Jónsi – Boy Lilikoi

TwinSisterMoon – Bride of the Spirits

Jeremy Enigk – Chewing Gum

Moby – Into the Blue

Antony and the Johnsons – The Snow Abides

Holy F*ck – SHT MTN

Cindytalk – The First Time Ever...

CocoRosie – The Moon Asked the Crow

Echo & The Bunnymen – The Cutter

XTC – Rocket From a Bottle

And if you haven't heard most of these songs, well...to be honest, I haven't heard of most of your favorite songs either!

Happy Birthday, Tangerine Screamer

2010-08-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

This July, my car (aka Tangerine Screamer) turned 10 years old. Except for some scratches she's doing pretty good. And I'm doing pretty good, too.

Here's what we looked like in 2000:

And here's what we look like in 2010:

As you can see, that dress still fits.

The Way I Hear Music

2010-07-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

"Love is the light in which we see each thing in its true origin, nature, and destiny. If we could look at the world in a loving way, then the world would rise up before us full of invitation, possibility and depth." - John O'Donohue, from Anam Cara

When I read this quote, I realize why I hear music differently from most people. Because I truly love music, I usually hear it in the most loving way...the same way a mother loves her child; it can do no wrong, and it is full of wonder and possibility.

This is how I hear most music...with the hope that it will bring me joy and help me transcend the everyday banal. I expect the best from it, and usually it delivers. I try to hear past the flaws of the music, the singer, the off-key notes and clumsy performance. I let it transport me somewhere else and show me the best it can be. It takes hold of my imagination and becomes something greater than what it really is. It is soul and spirit unified with flesh.

I can hear the vibrato that isn't there, and strengthen the singer's voice with my mind. I hear the off-key note that exists, and add to it the on-key note it should be, and combine the two into a lovely harmony. I convert cheesy synth sounds to violins, guitar to dulcimer, and spiff up dull arrangements with a bit of added instrumentation. It's a rare song that I hear as is, without altering it in my mind.

In this way, listening to music becomes a creative act, kind of like parenting. Musicians are my children, and I place their compositions upon my refrigerator, proud of their work. What other people might view as mere scribble, I notice the craft of a genius.

Continued adventures in dieting

2010-06-14T21:04:00.001-07:00

Here are some things I knew gave me blood sugar fits even before I started this diet:

--white potatoes

--alcohol on an empty stomach

--fruit juice sweetened yogurt plus granola sweetened with honey and maple syrup

--waffles with maple syrup

I've also recently learned that eating fruit at breakfast is likely to make me hungry much sooner. Sticking to a protein heavy breakfast seems to work best for me.

Since I started this diet, I've lost 5 lbs. I'd like to think I've gained a bit of muscle weight in the past week, since I've been doing some circuit training along with the "30 day shred" DVD. But who knows? The important thing is that my pants are no longer tight!

South Beach Diet, Phase 2

2010-06-08T22:59:00.001-07:00

I started adding grains and fruit to my diet a few days ago. I've had apples, nectarines, pears, rye, popcorn, and today I tried wheat (for the first time in over 2 weeks).

Wheat is the only thing that threw me a little. I ate a Phase 2 friendly muffin (made with wheat bran and whole wheat pastry flour), and suddenly wanted another. Even after 2 I was still hungry in a weird way. Later in the day I ate a third muffin, and had this "ick" I didn't need that feeling.

So I don't quite know how to explain it, but I have this feeling that wheat doesn't quite agree with me, even when it is whole grain. But the effect wasn't hugely bad, so it's still worth testing some more.

South Beach Diet, Day 13

2010-06-05T21:46:00.000-07:00

I guess I must have moved into Phase 2 today, because I went to a Mariners game and ended up eating some popcorn. Later at Gorditos I had a few corn chips.

Tomorrow I am planning to get some apples. So slowly, I'll be adding back fruit, grains and sugars in limited quantities. I'll keep you posted if there's anything worth mentioning!

South Beach Diet, Day 11

2010-06-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

I have gone through 1 liter of olive oil in less than 2 weeks!

I feel pretty good, but do miss some of the things I'm not eating, like apples, corn chips and wheat bread. I don't miss candy and sweets though (after all, I am getting my chocolate fix from sugar-free chocolate, and chocolate has always been the only candy that matters to me, (as an adult at least)).

Although I feel pummeled by the amount of cooking (and dish washing I have been doing), we are not eating out hardly at all now, and Troy has gotten in the habit of packing a lunch.

I'm not paying super close attention to the actual weight loss, but I think it has been 4-5 lbs. so far. Last I checked, I had lost about 1 inch to my general circumference. Not bad for just 11 days.

Perhaps one of these best things about this is breaking free of the tyranny of simple carbs. I am no longer shoveling crackers in my mouth or just because they are there, or eating candy and ice cream simply because we have it in the house. I have learned to plan meals around veggies and proteins, not around bread, tortillas and corn chips. Having a garden full or spinach and lettuce helps on those days when I haven't gotten to the store and am short on greens. I snack on mint and parsley, and enjoy it!

Stay tuned for future updates.

South Beach Diet, Day 8

2010-05-31T22:25:00.001-07:00

As of last night I had lost 3.5 lbs, so that's about 1/2 lb. a day for the first week.

Generally speaking I feel better on this diet. I am not hungry all the time anymore, and don't get intense cravings (though seeing the corn chips my husband brought home have been a bit of a distraction).

Today I was at the mall with no choice but to eat the offerings at the food court. I ended up with a salad from Taco Time, which seemed perfectly legal on the diet, except for the corn kernels sprinkled throughout. I wasn't about to pick them out, so I ate them, with no ill effects (like hunger or sugar rush).

So I have 6 more days and then I shift to Phase 2!

South Beach Diet, Day 5: Zero Calorie Sweeteners

2010-05-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

So I'm feeling pretty good, but this morning I was craving sugary tea for some reason. I don't normally have sweetener in my tea, but this morning I decided to try some zero calorie sweetener that is permitted on Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet: Stevia. I put some powdered Stevia in my tea, stirred, and tasted--ick. Not the taste I was looking for.

So I went to the store and bought xylitol and erythritol. The former I am familiar with. We've been chewing xylitol gum for years and I believe it has helped my cavity prone daughter avoid getting any more cavities. The erythritol is a tooth decay preventing sugar alcohol like xylitol, and the kind I bought looks like granulated sugar. I added some of the erythritol to one of the South Beach Diet's more interesting dessert recipes: Espresso Custard Cups. Not bad. I will try it in my tea next time I'm craving sweet tea.

Meanwhile, my friend Mel (who lost 40 lbs on the Atkins Diet) turned me on to sugar free chocolate. So I bought some of that, too. The kind I got was Vosges Sugar-Free Red Fire Chocolate, which contains maltitol. Not bad, not bad.

In the old days of my youth, all artificial sweeteners were demon spawn. Saccharin was (and still is) rumored to cause cancer. Now there's aspartame/Nutrasweet which I've heard causes migraines in some people. Then there's sucralose/Splenda, which I also feel wary of.

But the maltitol, xylitol and erythritol...all I've heard bad about them is potential digestive issues---a "laxative effect." I haven't experienced any ill effects myself, and I think as long as I don't overdo it, I should be fine consuming these sweeteners during the sugar-avoidance phase of this diet.

South Beach Diet, Day 4: I think I can do this

2010-05-27T18:48:00.001-07:00

On day 4, I am feeling much better than I did yesterday. I'm not very hungry and I don't feel like I'm fasting either. I eat when I am hungry, and am sticking to the Phase 1 regimen, though doing it my own way. As I mentioned before, there is only so much cheese I can stand. I have a garden and every day I'm picking fresh greens from there and making salad. This morning I picked some kale and made some on-the-fly concoction involving kale, black beans and lime juice.

My energy level is improved from yesterday, and I took a walk and also did some hula hooping for 20 minutes.

South Beach Diet, Day 3: Okay, now I feel like I'm fasting

2010-05-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

This morning my stomach finally adapted to this diet and complained very little about being hungry. Instead, the rest of my body finally figured out that I am no longer feeding it grains or sugars, and let me know by making me feel worn out and on the verge of a headache for much of the day. It's like a sensation that I am fasting, even though I am eating, lots, and throughout the day.

It looks like I might actually be losing a 1/2 pound a day.

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

South Beach Diet, Day 2: Who knew parsley could be so yummy?

2010-05-25T20:06:00.000-07:00

First let me mention something I realized at the end of Day 1: I felt fine, except my body said, "too much cheese." On Day 1 I had consumed a stick of string cheese, some low-fat Monterey Jack, and an intriguing but slightly repulsive concoction from the South Beach Diet book called Vanilla Ricotta Crème (1/2 cup low-fat ricotta cheese, 1 packet of Stevia (or other 0-cal sweetener), plus 1 tsp. of vanilla extract). Today I decided to eat a lot less cheese, replacing the overwhelming cheese snacks with bell pepper and hummus, or celery with almond butter.

On Day 2 of the South Beach Diet, Phase 1, I had an interesting experience.

It started with lunch. I was eating some zucchini roasted in olive oil that was leftover from the night before. The night before (as on all other nights I have eaten it), the zucchini was a rather ho-hum side dish. But this afternoon for lunch, it was absolutely delicious. It had a sweetness I had never detected before.

This revelatory taste experience continued throughout the day. I was in the garden picking and eating some Italian Flat Leaved Parsley (as I have been doing every few days for months), and was suddenly struck by a sweetness I had never noticed before in it. Granted, it was still mostly bitter, but so sweet and tasty at the same time I just kept eating and eating it.

That night at dinner I had the same experience with steamed cauliflower and also with ground beef. It's as if my body is cleaned out enough now of sugar that I can actually taste the sugars in other foods I don't normally think of as being sweet.

This is totally worth it! I wonder how long each of my meals will continue to be a miracle of flavor and deliciousness that was formerly reserved only for things like triple chocolate cupcakes?

A note about Troy: he's home sick with a cold, and somehow managed to lose 2.5 lbs in 1 day on this diet, even after getting up at 4 am to have a bowl of cereal. He's basically given up on the diet though, because he found that first day too hard on his system.

Me, I didn't lose any weight at all the first day. I don't really expect to lose much. I wonder if the people who lose the most weight on this diet are the ones who find it hardest to do it?

South Beach Diet, Day 1

2010-05-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I mentioned I have a few pounds (or more accurately, inches) I would like to lose. Troy's getting a bit round about the middle as well, so he agreed (perhaps under duress) to do the South Beach Diet with me, at least for a few days.

You can read more about this diet at the above link, or their website, but I just want to briefly state that this is not one of those "low-carb" diets like Atkins. In Phase 1 (the first two weeks), you eliminate simple carbs, but not complex ones. Your goal in Phase 1 is to avoid foods that make you ride the blood sugar roller coaster: sugars, starches, flour. Instead you emphasize things like olive oil, complex carbs like vegetables, and proteins like beans, cheese, and meat. In Phase 2 you add back whole grains and fruit, slowly, testing them to see how they make you feel. Do they restart the cycle of cravings for simple carbs? That's my understanding.

This diet is not hugely different from how I eat anyhow. For Phase 1, I have hidden the chocolate and sworn off alcohol and fruit juice. I no longer start the day with an apple, and end it with popcorn and/or grapefruit (I can add the fruits back in 2 weeks). I have switched to low-fat cheese, and am trying to not eat quite so many nuts.

The biggest and most difficult change for me is that in order to get Troy on this diet with me, I have to get up early and make him breakfast, and also pack him a lunch and enough snacks to last him a day. And I have to be sure I'm cooking him dinner everyday. Prior to starting the diet, the poor man had to subsist on sugary cereal for breakfast, whatever sandwichy thing he could find for lunch, and bananas, nuts and energy bars throughout the day. When he'd come home from work (2-3 hours after Ravenna and I had already had dinner), he might be lucky enough to find some leftovers in the fridge, or not.

And how did we do on this first day of Phase 1? I was a bit hungry at first, and I attribute that to the mistake of starting the day with a V8 (these are supposedly allowed in Phase 1, but contain beets and carrots, both of which have a fairly high glycemic index). I looked at the portion suggestions for breakfast, and they were puny. I tend toward eating a larger breakfast, and feel justified in doing this, since it has been shown that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and that skipping breakfast usually makes you fat. So I felt no guilt at having additional food at breakfast; even eating part of my lunch for breakfast. Then I did fine the rest of the day.

Troy meanwhile, was miserable. He said he spent the whole day feeling like he was fasting; he was shaky, irritable, lightheaded, felt cold and weak and had a hard time concentrating. By dinnertime, he had come down with cold symptoms. His reaction is a mystery to me, but apparently this is not an uncommon side effect from withdrawal from sugar. I think the fact that Troy spent the weekend leading up to the diet binging on pizza, chocolate and potato chips contributed to his misery. He feels he is going to have to modify the diet in order to survive the week. I wish him the best with that, but hope he will try again in a couple of months (after cold season is over), since clearly he is in much bigger need of detoxing from sugar than me.

Stay tuned for further adventures in dieting!

Here I go again

2010-05-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

So February 2009 I set off to lose 7 lbs in 85 days and did it. One year and three months later, I'm back to my Feb 2009 weight. What the heck happened?

I'd like to think some of it is muscle weight, as I am somewhat stronger than I was a year and three months ago. But the real test is how well I fit into certain clothes. And certain clothes are much too tight for me to be happy about this situation.

A few truisms about me:

-- I enjoy the journey and the seeking more than I enjoy the goal and getting and having

--When I feel like I can't control some aspect of my life, I try to get control back via whatever means I can

As a result: when I go on an inches-loss kick, I find the fun is in starting a new program and going on the journey. It's not that I especially want to be thin, it's just that I want to gain control of my size. A subtle but important distinction.

So what am I doing now? I'll let you know in subsequent posts.

Learn from Art

2010-04-03T21:01:00.001-07:00

I've started a new blog dedicated to my artwork and what I've learned from doing it. Unfortunately, it currently contains some recent sketches only, and none of them are very good, as I am so out of practice and was always more of a painter than a draftsperson anyhow. But, the point of the blog is to learn from the process of doing the art, not necessarily get some amazing art out of it.

I encourage those of you who do any kind of art (painting, drawing, videos, graphics, music, etc) to submit something you've done with a blurb about what you've learned from doing it.

Favorite Quote of the Day

2010-01-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: a human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him, a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.”

—	Pearl S. Buck

Sunny Day Real Estate live at Paramount Theater in Seattle, Oct, 16, 2009

2009-10-17T00:44:00.000-07:00

Sunny Day Real Estate – along with other emo-type bands like Mineral, the Gloria Record and Bright Eyes – helped me immensely during my years of abject loneliness (2000-2001). Helping restore my faith in male humanity, this music was there for me when the several assholes I had previously been romantically involved with were not.

So it was a momentous occasion – both for me personally, and for the band – when the original configuration of Sunny Day Real Estate took to the stage at the Paramount Theatre to play live in Seattle for the first time in fifteen years.

Usually when I see shows like this, I wait for hours for the main act, and then suffer through terrible sound where I can barely hear the vocals. By some incredible miracle, the band started playing just an hour after the doors opened, played a wonderfully crisp, tight set (where I could actually understand some of the words being sung!) and were done by 10:30pm.

I got to hear some favorite songs I thought I’d never hear live like “Friday” and “Theo B,” was entertained by Jeremy Enigk’s intense vocalizations and facial expressions and Dan Hoerner’s effusive happiness, in the midst of a sweaty and polite crowd. They even played a brand new song, which sounds pretty darn good.

There are rumors of a new album in the works. Which is great ‘cause I loved every song on their last studio album, and there aren’t too many bands I can say that about.

[Read my husband's review and the Stranger's review]

CocoRosie @ King Cat Theater in Seattle 9/15/09

2009-09-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

I have been anticipating seeing these two sisters and their backing band for so long I had a lot of expectations about what I was going to see and hear. Most of those expectations were ripped apart by the reality of what faced me at the King Cat Theater last night.

I knew it would sound different from their studio recordings, but I was pleasantly surprised that in many places their live show was an improvement upon their studio sessions. I especially like how they’re doing “Rainbow Warrior” these days (it appears to have morphed into a song called “Black Rainbow"). The only real negative for me was that at times the kids’ toys were a little too high up in the mix.

I wish I could find some current tour footage, but this material from 2008 will have to suffice:

I expected them to just stand up there and act weird, arty and pretentious. So I was pleasantly surprised at their expressive energy…Rosie and Spleen (the beatboxer) seemed especially keen on reaching out to the audience.

I expected them to put on an entertaining show, with lots of variety, crazy get ups, and visual effects. And that…I definitely got!

This video below was a bit of a surprise for me, because it is a blend of two of their songs, one of them ("Happy Eyez") wasn't released when this video came out.

The Great Silkie

2009-09-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

I love the melody of this song. I first heard it sung by Judy Collins as "The Great Silkie of Skule Skerry" and Joan Baez does a version as well, both lovely. The lyrics, however, always disappointed me. They are mostly nonsensical to anyone who doesn't know the legend behind the song. I wanted a version that even a modern American could understand, without the benefit of folklore study.

Here's an mp3 file of me singing my version. If you'd like to record it with me, let me know!

By an Orkney shore there stands a maid

Waves at her feet on a midsummer's eve

And from her eyes there fell seven tears

But don't think that her heart did grieve

From the sea so deep the grey silkie came

Cast off a seal skin upon reaching land

And then he spoke to the yearning maiden

As they walked along hand in hand

"I am a man upon the land

I am a silkie on the sea

And when I'm far and far from land

My home it is in Sule Skerrie"

That night they spent on a bed of flowers

And when they awoke to a fine morning

Her lover gave her a bright golden chain

Saying, "It's for our child who'll be born next spring"

"And it shall come to pass on a summer's day,

When the sun shines bright on every stane

I"ll come and fetch my little young son

And teach him how to swim the waves."

It was seven years till she saw the man

Unearthly father of her dear son

The boy was wearing his golden chain

As he swam to sea in the evening sun

And she did marry a seal hunter

With two grey seals he one day came home

And around the neck of the younger one

Was the golden chain still wet with foam.

"Alas it hurts," the mother cried

"To feel the pain of a son who has died

If only I had not beckoned the silkie

With the seven tears of yearning that night."

The Lake

2009-09-12T22:35:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying this song immensely and thought I'd share. It's kind of a goth-flavored piano ballad with meandering vocal melodies and a string quartet. Lyrics are by Edgar Allan Poe.

The Lake by Antony & the Johnsons

In youth's spring, it was my lot

To haunt of the wide earth a spot

The which I could not love the less;

So lovely was the loneliness

Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,

And the tall trees that tower'd around.

But when the night had thrown her pall

Upon that spot -- as upon all,

And the wind would pass me by

In its stilly melody,

My infant spirit would awake

To the terror of the lone lake.

Yet that terror was not fright --

But a tremulous delight,

And a feeling undefin'd,

Springing from a darken'd mind.

Death was in that poison'd wave

And in its gulf a fitting grave

For him who thence could solace bring

To his dark imagining;

Whose wild'ring thought could even make

An Eden of that dim lake.

Testing!

2009-08-19T16:03:00.001-07:00

This is a test to see if I can use Blip.fm to put links to complete songs on my blog. Here's a song I've been digging a lot lately.
XTC - Rocket From a Bottle (2001 Digital Remaster)

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Post-rock: (Mostly) Instrumental Soundscapes

2009-08-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

Years ago when I first heard the Album Leaf, I felt like I was discovering a whole new genre of music. I know there has been plenty of instrumental music over time, but the Album Leaf was different to me. It was like new age for indie rockers.

Since discovering the Album Leaf a whole new raft of instrumental rock (sometimes called post-rock), has come to my attention.

Much of what I enjoy from this genre sounds like a hybrid of 90’s emo core and shoegaze music.

Here are a few of my current favorites:

Joy Wants Eternity make crushingly beautiful music with dense and evocative soundscapes.

Hard-rocking Gifts from Enola impressed me with their live show at the Sunset recently. Three guitarists!

A bit more mellow, and replete with strings, is the music of Yndi Halda.

If you just want a sampler of this music, Silent Ballet webzine (devoted to instrumental and post-rock music) has a series of free compilations you can download. I’m especially digging the tracks by Hermitage and Immanu el on Volume V. Joy Wants Eternity, Gifts from Enola and Yndi Halda have tracks on these compilations as well.

And of course there’s Sigur Rós, one of the few post-rock bands to have a vocalist. But I’ve written about them in an earlier post.

Ambient Music: It’s not just New Age Fluff

2009-07-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

Some play music to set a mood, but I usually prefer listening to music that reflects the mood I’m already in. Playing angry music when I’m angry or stressful music when I’m stressed calms me faster than trying to sway my mood into the happy zone by force-feeding it sweet fluffy “marshmallow music.”

Likewise, ambient music can either set a mood or reflect the mood you’re already in. Or simply provide background music so you can think or work.

As the mother of a four year-old, I really appreciate calm, peaceful stretches of time when I can get them, and ambient music is part of my current game plan to retain my sanity while feeding my soul. And for me, any music with a touch of melancholy is what’s for background.

Thanks to Victory Rose Music and Last.fm, new sources of ambient music are coming my way faster than I can process them. Here are a few of my current favorites:

Ah, the beautiful slow drone sounds of Stars of the Lid, including their string trio. Don’t let “explicit” song titles likes “December Hunting for Vegetarian Fuckface” fool you into think this music is at all brash. I think if I ever saw this bad perform live I would cry.

David Beans is one of the few performers I’ve found who can utilize spoken word without it being too overbearing or annoying to me. Listen to “Dream” all the way through and give this man a job scoring your next epic movie.

Five years in the making, Jónsi & Alex created their music with found sounds from their house, as well as a choir, a string quartet, and animal sounds. It is perhaps not true ambient music since the sounds are all organically derived instead of electronic, but they manage to create a wash of sound and texture that’s not quite like anything else I’ve ever heard. And I mean that in a good way.

I'm also keeping my ear on Josh Varnadore, who is an up and coming musical artist with some lovely soundscapes.

Cooking Shows for a Brave New Audience

2009-07-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

Most people enjoy eating, but not everyone enjoys cooking. Of the people who enjoy cooking, few manage to get filmed working their magic in the kitchen. To see yourself grace a TV screen or computer monitor you either have to be a celebrity chef or have some kind of shtick going for you. It also helps if you are the lead singer of a famous rock band.

Brand new today is installment 1 of the Jónsi and Alex Recipe Show. Jónsi is the lead singer of Sigur Rós, and Alex is his boyfriend and art partner. Meant as an accompaniment to their new cookbook (available in PDF format on their site), the first episode shows you how to make what they call Macadamia Monster Mash. I tried it and it's delicious. I can also vouch for their Thai Coconut Curry and Strawberry Pie recipes: top-notch.

If watching Jónsi and Alex look awkward and shy in front of the camera is too painful for you (and you’re not into raw vegan food), you might appreciate what has to be its polar opposite: Coupla Fat Guys Cooking Show. With their witty banter, devil-may-care attitude and mise en place in Ziploc bags, they are totally the Cartalk of cooking shows. They have numerous episodes taking you through the not-so-fine details of making everything from Tuna Casserole to Bananas Flambé.

The More I Listen the Better It Gets

2009-06-24T23:58:00.000-07:00

One time I was talking to friend and we agreed that you need to listen to a song or album at least five times before it “clicks” (or doesn’t). It’s kind of like dating. It takes a certain amount of time (for me, two weeks) before I’m sure that this person is right (or wrong) for me.

With music, I find that if I like a song a lot immediately, it may not have staying power. Once the thrill is gone, that catchy little ditty gets cast back into the sea.

If I’m not sure about a song, sometimes it just takes a few more listens. Sometimes thirty. Sometimes I need to wait until the band or performers next freakin’ album comes out. Then I buy the new album and while listening to its unfamiliar sounds, I think back to the familiarity of the previous album. Then (and this is the magic part) I put in the previous album and WHAM! Suddenly it clicks. The old album is brilliant! A thing of beauty and wonder!

Has this ever happened to you?

It happened to me recently with Jeremy Enigk (who you may know as the singer for Sunny Day Real Estate). He’s had four solo albums. I liked the first one. Then I bought the second and third ones but couldn’t get into them. Then I bought the most recent one and…WHAM! Suddenly the second and third albums are brilliant! (The fourth album also has some great songs…check out “Life’s Too Short” from his Myspace page).

Music Podcasts Aplenty

2009-06-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

When podcasts first hit cyberspace, I was a new mom living in Vancouver, BC. My husband suggested I video myself cooking in our kitchen while chatting with our 6-month old infant (who has such fantastic facial expressions her preschool teachers recently crowned her with “Best Facial Expressions” at the year end potluck). I never got around to filming this, but the podcast idea was planted in me.

When I started using iTunes last year, I checked out the available podcasts. Here are some of my favorites at the moment (please share yours!):

All Songs Considered – This once a week podcast from NPR shares some of the latest music. They always manage to find the newish bands with the most buzz and play those tracks, but occasionally they come up with some oldies, too. They also put out a podcast of Live performances.

Last.fm – Not exactly a podcast, but it does push free mpeg audio tracks your way if you are subscribed. They tend to send you songs similar to the type of music you are listening to in Last.fm, so I’m getting a lot of post rock and ambient material. I’m not complaining.

The Interface – from Spinner.com…”handpicked live performances.” This is a video podcast and worth checking out to see if they have anything you’d like in there. Again, mostly indie music.

Parlophone Records – I also subscribe to the Parlophone records video podcast (hoping for something from Riceboy Sleeps one of these days). If you have a favorite record label, search ‘em out to see if they have a Podcast.

KEXP – Your favorite radio station probably has a podcast, too. This one has Song of the Day, Live performances and more.

Everything's Coming Up Trannie

2009-05-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

I’m sometimes perplexed to find myself in a body. By some random chromosomal dice-roll, my body is female. Whatever.

Since this is partly a music blog, I wanted to share with you a couple of musicians who defy the stereotypes of the gender they were born into. However, I must emphasize that is their music and singing I find wonderful. The fact that they identify with a gender other than the one that matches their chromosomes is just an added bit of intrigue, and an opportunity to provide a unifying theme to this post.

Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk. I’ve been listening to Cindytalk since the 80s but somehow only recently became aware that vocalist Gordon Sharp dresses like a woman more often than not. His vocals for Cindytalk reflect so much discontent and yearning, and --- you know me --- I just can’t get enough discontent and yearning. I live for music like this. If only I could stream “Camouflage Heart” into your soul. You’ll have to settle for this lo-fi demo recording of “It’s Luxury,” or turn on your Cocteau Twins John Peel BBC Sessions version of “Hazel” to hear Gordon wailing in the background.

Here's Gordon:

Antony Hegarty of Antony & the Johnsons. The first time I heard Antony sing, I pictured an Italian lounge singer, dressed like Liberace. I was so wrong. He exudes melancholy, hopeful innocence from every pore. The real story though is Antony’s music: timeless lyricism and complex melodies…the kind that meander and shift like a river, varying the melody ever so slightly with each musical turn.

Here's Antony:

The "bet dieting" trend

2009-05-22T20:15:00.000-07:00

I recently heard that bet dieting is the new thing in the US and UK. Like my plan to lose 7lbs within 85 days under the threat of having to return my new iPod if I failed, these dieters are betting they will lose a certain amount of weight in a certain time, too. If they fail, some of their money will be donated to charity: usually a charity they don't approve of.

Weigh-in Day is Here...

2009-05-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

..and I’m down to 142 lbs, which was my goal. Now I’m officially keeping the iPod! I even got it a little case. My intention is to not only keep the weight off but also see how much more I can lose. This should be easier in the coming months, since there will be lots of seasonal fruits and veggies around.

Over the coming months, the focus of this blog will likely shift from “weight-loss and music” to “food, health and music.” Hope you’re staying with me for the ride.

Soundtrack to God's Orgasm

2009-05-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

I’ve listened to Sigur Rós since 2000 or so but about six months ago decided I finally had the time and inclination to be one of those nutjob fans; the kind who downloads their concerts from the web, who carefully peruses their back catalog to make sure I have every song the band ever performed, and so forth. (The latter is no easy feat. Sigur Rós have a tendency to give multiple names to what is actually the same song, like Untitled A combined with Untitled B is also called Smáskifa, and Untitled 4 is also called Njósnavélin, the Nothing Song, as well as the Spy Machine.)

One of the things I’ve done in my insanity is setup a comprehensive Google Alert for “Sigur Rós” which gets me everything that everyone in the freakin’ world is saying about the band is on the web. (If you haven’t played with Google Alerts, I highly recommend it. You set an alert for anything you are interested in, and I mean anything). The end result of alerting is a whole lot of crap in my Google Reader, and a few diamonds. But those diamonds are totally worth it. Because of Google Alerts, I was one of the first to hear about their acoustic performance of Við Spilum Endalaust at La Closerie in France, and I got ahold of an unmastered “rough mix" of the new Riceboy Sleeps album (a collaboration between Alex Somers and Sigur Rós’s Jón Þór Birgisson).

Perhaps the most comforting thing about reading other people’s spewings about Sigur Rós is learning that I am not alone in my obsession. I came up with the phrase “soundtrack to God’s orgasm” to describe their music and then was pleasantly surprised to read that others are thinking along the same lines.

This article speaks of their music as charged with the grandeur of God. “There's such a hugeness to this music--the melodies are clearly in service of something more than entertainment or selling CDs.”

Another discussion (in the context of being a pastor) centers on Sigur Rós’s gibberish language (sometimes called "vonlenska"). In sum: the feeling of the words is more important than the words themselves.

God may not have a gender, but I couldn’t help but notice that many Sigur Rós songs follow the pattern of the female orgasm…building up to a plateau, building some more, coming to a climax or crescendo, then slowly melting into detumescense. If you don’t believe me, listen to Glósóli from “Takk,” Untitled 7 (aka Dauðalagið or the Death Song) from “()” or Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása from “Ágætis Byrjun.” I think this person (who suggests listening to Sigur Rós while getting busy between the sheets) would probably agree.

Photo below is Jónsi Birgisson with typical performance-face, somewhere between weeping and ...?

Nice example of "vonlenska" here in Heima:

This one is in Icelandic and has one of the best crescendos I've ever heard:

Hoppin’ back to Hip-hop

2009-05-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

[Me in 1990]

Whenever I see a female with a drawn-on moustache, I get a flash of recognition, a sense that I might be seeing a kindred spirit. As a woman who has been known to wear a fake moustache from time to time, I feel a sense of fellowship when I see another woman who does the same. So when I stumbled upon CocoRosie one night while surfing YouTube, I spent more time considering their music that might have otherwise.

CocoRosie started as a kind of lo-fi freak folk band, but have morphed into a kind of fairy tale hip-hop group. And you might say it took cross-dressing Bianca “Coco” Casady to remind me that I actually enjoyed rap back in the 80s: Public Enemy, Schoolly D, Erik B and Rakim, De La Soul, Tribe Called Qwest.

So now I am back seeking beats, rhymes and good times. Send me your rap recommendations.

Rend My Heart

2009-04-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

Everyone has addictions. You might be addicted to sugar, chocolate, alcohol, a certain TV show, sex, or drugs. I’m addicted to intense emotional states, especially that feeling that wavers between intense joy and tears of angst.

This feeling may be what Tim Buckley had in mind when he named one of his albums "Happy Sad." The French have a word for it, too: chantepleure which is normally translated as “laughing and crying/singing at the same time” or “alternation of joy and sorrow”

What better way to get into an intense emotional state than to listen to music? But everyone experiences music a bit differently and it is a very personal thing. What makes me pleasurably melancholy might put you to sleep, and what fills me with joyful anxiety might give you a headache.

Nevertheless, here are some songs that I think provide a good example of ecstatic angst:

Antony & the Johnsons: “Bird Gerhl” “Man is the Baby”

Bright Eyes: “The Difference in the Shades” “Kathy with a K’s Song.”

The Popular Front: “State to State”

Harold Budd with Liz Fraser, Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie: “Why Do You Love Me?”

Sugarcubes: the chorus of “Birthday”

Nick Drake: “Fly”

Jimmy Scott: “Day by Day”

Dead Can Dance: “Sanvaen” “Avatar” and the string outro in “Mesmerism”

Richard Strauss: “”Metamorphosen for 23 Strings.”

Sigur Rós: The majority of their catalogue, but “Gong” and the crescendo in “Viðrar vel til loftárása” stand out to me as good examples.

(Now if there was an easy way to share this playlist with you I would, but I’m not really into the idea of creating a MySpace page.)

Do you have an intensely emotional or "happy sad" song to share?

My Bloody Valentine, Live at Wamu Theater in Seattle, April 27, 2009

2009-04-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

Since my husband felt obliged to write about the My Bloody Valentine concert we saw last night, I thought I should chip in with my own observations.

I feel bad trying to review this concert since we didn’t get to stay until the end (we needed to be home by 11pm to relieve the babysitter. This the second time we’ve had to leave a concert before the end for this reason. I’m getting a little tired of this, but the only other option is to not go to concerts together anymore. Or try to convince bands to go on earlier (hopeless). I mean, when it says “doors at 6:30pm, show at 8pm” I still naively expect that the band I paid to see might actually start around 8pm. Not 9:45pm which was the case last night. Such is life.)

For the hour of the show I did manage to see, I would say it was great, because I love their songs. But for me, the show was not as great as the CDs. Primarily because MBV play so freakin’ loud that some the subtle nuances of the songs are lost in waves of distortion. You have to wear earplugs to protect your ears (earplugs are distributed at every MBV show) and so right there you are missing out on something: perhaps about 32db worth of sound that might contain subtle nuances.

It’s clear to me that you go to an MBV show for the experience, as much as anything else. By combining the wall of sound with repetitive visuals and flashing lights in your eyes, they seemed to determined to assist the audience in entering some kind of hypnotized state. That was nice, but part of me would have preferred to see close ups of the band so I could see their faces and how they played their instruments. I guess I’ve been spoiled by watching Sigur Rós live videos from Victory Rose on my computer. (BTW I wrote the Mac portion of the Help & FAQ file on the Victory Rose sites). That way could have perhaps finally figured out how MBV are making some of those cool sounds. Oh well.

Finally Got Some Blood From the Starbucks "Pick of the Week" Stone

2009-04-26T22:21:00.000-07:00

When I get the chance I stop into Starbucks and pick up one of their “Pick of the Week” cards. I love the thrill of free digital music, and have been faithfully downloading these songs for months in hopes of finding something I actually like.

Past Starbucks downloads have mostly either bored or offended me (like Diana Krall singing “the Boy from Ipanema”…give me a break…no need to change the word “lovely” to “handsome.” Boys can be “lovely,” too.) But I kept coming back for more.

Finally my patience was rewarded by the Boxer Rebellion’s new song, “Flashing Red Light Means Go." I had not heard the Boxer Rebellion before, but they remind me a bit of Muse, Doves, and Radiohead. Good driving-too-fast-and-hydroplaning music.

Check out the Boxer Rebellion on Last.fm or Myspace.

The Genotype Diet

2009-04-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

Peter D’Adamo’s latest book The Genotype Diet expands his Blood Type Diet theories, parceling people into six different “types.” Part One of the book is titled “Genotype: The Key to Understanding Who You Are.” Indeed, if you enjoy such self-exploratory ventures as palm-reading, Facebook quizzes and personality tests, you will probably get a kick out of this book., though I cannot vouch for the diet advice deemed appropriate for your genotype.

Still I had a fun time looking at my fingerprints (according to Dr. D’s analysis, I am probably sensitive to wheat and/or grains and could have a tendency to cognitive disease later in life). My teeth apparently suggest I should be eating meat.

Key measurements include: ratio of torso to legs, and upper to lower leg; ring finger vs. index finger length. You measure these to narrow it down, and then look at things like blood type information to hone in on your actual genotype. I read the description for my type (“Hunter”) and was not too terribly surprised, having read similar things my blood type (O+ secretor) in Dr. D’s previous book.

During a walk around Green Lake last week, nearly everyone I saw looked like their torso was longer than (or equal in length) to their legs (especially if you count the head as part of the torso, as Dr. D’Adamo does). Who are these people who have super long legs?

For your amusement: new songs

2009-04-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

Let it be known that I have posted a new slate of songs for your amusement. These are silly songs I made up to entertain myself and my daughter.

One Month Till the Deadline

2009-04-15T19:44:00.001-07:00

I have until May 17^th to lose 7 lbs. And guess what…I did it already! Now I just have to keep the weight off. This weight loss project is turning out to be easier than I expected. Losing 3.5 lbs a month is a cinch, so far. Eating less, walking more. That’s it.

Eat Right 4 Your Type

2009-04-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was inspired by VegFest to try a mostly vegetarian diet (something I have never been successful at doing). When my husband got wind of my efforts (possibly due to recipes involving celery root and rutabagas), he was distressed.

He told me (I paraphrase), “I’m type O. I’m supposed to eat meat.”
I said, “You believe in that? I didn’t think you did!”

Well, I have Type O blood, too. If you know anything about Dr. Peter D’Adamo and his blood type diet, you know that Type O’s are the original Hunter types. We thrive on meat, and whither on wheat (see my earlier post, Bread is the Devil).

It had been a long time since I’d thought about the blood type diet, so I looked up Dr. D’Adamo’s website and learned he has a new twist on “Eat Right 4 Your Type.” It’s called the Genotype Diet, and further personalizes the generalizations made in his earlier books.

In 1995 I visited Dr. Jenefer Huntoon at the Naturopathic Clinic. She did a lot of things for me healthwise, but one of the things she did was to send my blood and saliva samples to Dr. D’Adamo’s lab for testing. The first “Eat Right 4 Your Type” book had not even been published yet. I submitted to a blood draw and spent several long minutes drooling into a test tube.

I got back a report informing me of various details about my ABO blood type (O positive, secretor, etc) including a list of foods to eat and foods to avoid.

After “Eat Right 4 Your Type” came out and Dr. D put up his website about it, I wrote to him and asked whether I should be following the food recommendations in my personalized report, or the ones in his book. He told me to always go with the most recent information, in this case, the book.

I must admit that when I have followed this list of blood type specific food recommendations to the best of my ability, I actually feel better. And after eating meat for the first time after a week of playing vegetarian, I felt a surge of vitality and wellness.

When Dr. D’s Genotype Diet book came out, I got it from the library. It’s the latest research, so should supersede the earlier books, for the most part. I will write more about the Genotype Diet in a future post.

Cast iron pan seasoning: the secret

2009-04-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

I have found the secret to keeping a good seasoning on a cast iron pan.

For years I struggled with this: I’d try to scrub the pan clean and couldn’t seem to do it with out soap and water, but this would take the seasoning right off. Then I’d have to go through this whole process of oiling the pan and putting it the oven for an hour, which would stink up the kitchen.

Here’s the secret: get the pan as clean as you can with hot water and scrubbing, but don’t worry too much about stuck-on food. Then dry the pan and pour a tablespoon or two of cooking oil in it (I use canola). Then add salt (I use cheap iodized salt), about the same quantity that you added of oil. Take a cloth and scrub the oil/salt mixture into the pan. The salt will scrub off the debris, while the oil will season the pan. When the stuck-on food is scrubbed off, wipe the pan clean. You’re done!

Eat This Not That

2009-03-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Barack Obama was on the cover of Men’s Health magazine and I bought it. Partly because Barack Obama was in it, and partly so I could have an excuse to inhale the “guyness” of such a magazine. My husband read that issue, too, and found out about the Eat This Not That serious of books. Next thing I knew, we had the three Eat This Not That books in our home, and copies on the way to certain family members.

Since I cook most of my meals from scratch and rarely eat out at chain restaurants, the bulk of the content of these books is of limited use to me, but I can appreciate how helpful they are for many. Especially for men and children (their aversion to the written word is part of their charm), who prefer to learn from full color photographs.

The premise is so simple even my three year old understands it: on the left side of the page are the “Eat This” foods, while the “Not That” foods grace the right side of the page. In fact, my daughter was paging through the book and saying things like, “Oh no, Mommy. Our favorite salad dressing is BAD” and “Oh, Mommy, my favorite bar is good for me!” (Clif-Z chocolate bar?) I try to explain that even though there are things like candy on the “Eat This” side, it doesn’t mean you “should” eat candy.

Some of the suggestions may surprise you, like the recommendation to eat Breyer’s YoCruch Light Yogurt Cookies n Cream (containing Oreo cookies) instead of Horizon Organic Fat-Free Strawberry. But if you look at the ingredients and calories, lo and behold…the latter contains more calories and sugars than the former.

And some of the information is sobering, like the knowledge that the orange chicken from Panda Express is one of the worst things on the menu for you health wise (500 calories, contains trans fats). Dang, we’ll have to steer clear of that place for a while…the orange chicken is Ravenna’s favorite.

My favorite parts of these books for me are the magazine article style tidbits:

-- Eat This Not That contains suggestions on what food to eat to help you sleep (nonfat popcorn, sesame seeds, or oatmeal with bananas and walnuts, cherry juice) and how to decode restaurant menus. I admit I gloated when they came down on people who mix wasabi with soy sauce and drench their sushi in it.

-- Eat This Not That Supermarket Survival Guide has information on how to choose vegetables at the market, and how to determine if you are lactose intolerant.

Check ‘em out from the library and see what you think.

In Praise of Off-key Singing

2009-03-24T22:49:00.000-07:00

Off-key singing will always have a special place in my heart. I like it because it is instant harmony to my ears; when the singer goes off key, I hear the note as it is actually sung, and also the note as it should be sung (in my head). The two harmonize in my mind's ear and it is a beautiful thing. Usually.

I really wanted to link to some custom-made sound files demonstrating some of my favorite moments of off-key singing. Then I learned it is illegal for me to post even a second of someone else’s song. Sort of absurd, really: I can quote from someone’s book when I’m doing a book review. But I can’t provide a musical “quote” from a song to illustrate a point, even if it my point is “listen to how wonderful this is!”

Here are some glorious examples of off key singing:

The Appleseed Cast: the chorus of “Antihero” -- This is just classic. Warbling, crashing guitars plus warbling, crashing singing equals bliss.

Mineral: “Take the Picture Now” -- Chris Simpson really is one of my all time favorite singers. His candid singing and gift for finding the melody in the music are rarely matched by anyone else. This song is a great example of aching sincerity winning the day over dissonance.

Bright Eyes: “All of the Truth” – Conor Oberst was probably no more than 17 when he did this home-recorded song. I absolutely love not only the off-key moments of singing, but also the way the tape changes speed and slows down for a second at one point. The wobbly, amateurishness of the singing and recording supports the longing, forlorn nature of the lyrics. Perfect.

Felt: -- Just about any song on “Forever Breathes the Lonely Word” – You really can’t appreciate Felt unless you can get past Lawrence’s voice and the way it meanders around like a drunken river, sloshing stray notes onto the shore. Rock on.

Keeping a Food Journal: Not

2009-03-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

When I first started this weight loss venture, I was advised by various sources to track the food I eat in some sort of food journal. Various online food journals exist. For example, there’s Calorie Count (focused on calories consumed and burned), My Food Diary, and Weight Watchers (which uses a points system to balance food and exercise). Calorie Count is free, while the other two cost money to use.

It didn’t take me long to realize that entering every single thing I’ve eaten into a database is a pain in the petookis. I think that’s where the utility of food journaling as a weight loss tool comes clear: it is such a hassle to enter in all these foods that you will think twice before eating anything, knowing you have to enter it all into a database and keep track of it.

On the first day of my diet, I was faced with the task of entering half of a Gordito’s burrito into the Calorie Count database. I had to guesstimate the amount of beans, tortilla, rice, onions, lettuce, cheese, sauce (what's IN that sauce?) that was in the burrito. What a nightmare! Next time, I thought, I’ll just have an apple instead.

Another problem with food journaling: How many minutes would it take the average person to enter all this information into their computer? Wouldn’t that time be better spent working out or at least moving around?

If you’ve had the good fortune to lose weight while keeping a food diary, I celebrate your success. I think I’ll use my computer time for downloading music and creating iTunes playlists instead.

Am I Making Progress?

2009-03-19T22:03:00.001-07:00

On February 22, I planned to lose 7 pounds by May 17. If I don't lose those pounds, I'm supposed to return my new iPod to the store where I bought it. How have I done so far?

One third of the way there, I have lost about 1/3 of the weight. Yay! On target. And I haven't even quit sweets or alcohol entirely; I’ve just generally been eating less. The first week of this diet was the hardest, because I was hungry, but once I got past that first week, my body had adjusted to eating less and I wasn’t really that hungry.

I haven't walked 5x a week like I had hoped. I really want to walk more, but my daughter has been sick on and off and has missed some days of preschool. Some days, the rainy weather has deterred me, though I have walked in the rain a few times. My favorite routes are at Carkeek Park and Green Lake.

Like Mother, Like Daughter: Dig Those Music Videos

2009-03-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

In the early 80's I used to watch MTV for 16 hours straight when I'd visit my grandmother, since she had cable TV and we didn't. My nearly four year-old daughter appears to have inherited my appreciation for music videos. Recently she latched onto this new one from Steven Wilson:

I am actually a bit surprised that my little Teletubbies girl who fears "Shrek" enjoys such a post-apocalyptic video. In places the video reminds me of the Korean version of horror film "The Ring" as channeled by Joel-Peter Witkin. It shows people with bird-heads and gas masks, showers of sparks, things on fire. Nevertheless, my daughter has been watching it three times a day.

The music video fare I was watching in my youth was a bit tamer. Like this classic from the era of the girly-men: "Oblivious" by Aztec Camera. The YouTube version has gone missing, and the one I've linked to has a brief ad at the beginning of it, unfortunately. But it's worth looking at if you like to see cute boys wearing eyeliner.

Bread is the Devil

2009-03-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

Many years ago, I was eating lunch on the floor with a group of people who were mostly from Middle Eastern and Asian countries. A bit of sauce spilled on the carpet, and without thinking, I grabbed a small chunk of bread and used that to sop up the sauce. Someone immediately chastised me, saying, "That's food! Don't treat food like a cleanup rag!"

I gave it some thought and realized that I can't remember when I last considered bread as food. It ceased to be food for me so long ago. What is it then? Why, bread is pure evil, that's what. It is an addictive, horribly fattening substance. It is a vehicle for butter, another addictive, horribly fattening substance. It is the basis for pizza, another addictive, horribly fattening substance.

I must not be alone in my notions about bread; many of the popular diets of today (such as Atkins and South Beach) eschew bread as something to be avoided, at least in the early weeks of the diet. And when bread is reintroduced back into the dieter's diet, they say it should only be the whole grain variety, not the pasty white bread that is rumored to coat the insides of your intestines with a sticky crud.

This Q&A by Dr. Andrew Weil refers to a study where they found that dieting people eating refined grains like white bread lost less belly fat compared to those eating only whole grains.

Even whole wheat is problematic because it tends to be addictive. This sets up a craving cycle, which is unhelpful when you're dieting. For this reason, Phase 1 (the first two weeks) of the South Beach Diet has you avoiding bread entirely.

In addition, bread (even whole grain) is somewhat high in calories, especially when it contains a sweetener like sugar or honey. I checked the Nutrition Facts on a certain local baker's bread which we often buy and found even the whole wheat version contains 125 calories per slice. And this is the "good" bread...whole grain, hippie-dippy bread with no unpronounceable ingredients!

For now, I think I will be avoiding even home made bread, because I cannot restrain myself from eating half the loaf in one day. Evil yummy bread, get thee gone!

I leave you with this quote from Dr. Andrew Weil
"...there is universal agreement that high fructose corn syrup, white flour, white sugar and hydrogenated fats have no place in any diet. And there is near-universal agreement that a diet should be rich in vegetables and fruits and quality sources of protein, especially fish." Source.

Forty and Proud of It

2009-03-11T20:50:00.001-07:00

If you are under 35 and reading this blog, you may be thinking "What kind of rock has this woman been living under? Who gets excited about things like RSS and Internet Radio? Those things are so...2004."

Well, you may be right, but I don't care. I have always been the sort of person who happily plays the role of the bright-eyed bushy-tailed dweeb. I ask the questions other people are embarrassed to ask for fear of people finding out they don't already know the answer. I translate the new technologies for those who aren't as tech-saavy as today's Generations Y and Z. I also enjoy anticipating the criticism people may have before they actually voice it, and responding to criticism before it comes to light.

So there!

The Effect of Weaning

2009-03-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

If the truth can be told (and I'm telling it), I am still nursing my daughter, who will be four years old in May. I'm planning to wean her completely over the next couple of months (she only nurses a few minutes a day now anyhow) and have been trying to determine what effect (if any) weaning will have on my weight loss plans.

I have heard rumors that your body hangs on to a little bit of fat (especially midriff fat) while you are still nursing, but that it will go away once you wean completely. I have also heard that it is common for some women to gain weight once they wean completely. This makes sense, too, because the child is no longer sucking calories out of you, but you may still be eating as if she is. I guess my own situation will come clear once I actually do it.

I've been nervous about calling it quits on nursing entirely for several reasons. One is that breast milk -- even in small quantities -- provides valuable antibodies to a child. Children's immune systems don't reach adult level of functioning until the child is around six years old. (Refer to the article "The Natural Age of Weaning" for reference) So I've been afraid that if I cut her off too soon, she's sure to get some horrible stomach flu or something right after and I'll wish I hadn't weaned.

Another reason (and a more selfish one) is that I'm worried about the hormone havoc that awaits me post-weaning. I realize I'm only delaying the inevitable, but there never seems to be a convenient time to have a hormone-induced nervous breakdown. If you think I'm making this up, read this.

So in a month (or two, or three) I'll let you know how it went, if there's anything interesting to report.

The Dreaded Muffin Top

2009-03-04T16:53:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons I never wear low-rise pants is the dreaded muffin top.

I never had a muffin top until after I had a baby. Within four months I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I still had this roll of extra skin and flab around my mid-section. Will it ever go away? The extra skin part is especially scary. I mean, I have an idea of how to lose fat, but I have never heard of a skin-loss program. Have you?

First lets approach the fat question. What's the best way to get rid of that flab around your mid-section so you resemble the slender person you are, rather than the Michelin man?

My research tells me that walking quickly -- with two minute "cardio bursts" -- is the way to go. What is a "cardio burst"? That's the point when you find yourself unable to speak during exercising. It's that fast walk/slow jog (or whatever it takes you to become breathless) section of your exercise routine.

I found a couple of articles that tout this type of exercise as the way to lose your flabby middle: One from MSN and one from Prevention.

So the best thing for getting rid of -- or at least reducing -- a muffin top is a combination of walking, cardio bursts and exercises that strengthen and tone the "core" muscles in your abdomen.

As for the extra skin leftover from pregnancy, alas, there doesn't seem to be anything one can do about it, short of surgery.

The Joy of Being Alerted

2009-03-03T23:15:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been blindsided by the news that a favorite band or performer released a new album, rushed to the store and found it already sold out?

Have you ever heard too late that a favorite band or performer is going to be playing live in your city and missed your chance of getting tickets before the venue sold out?

Thanks to the Internet, you can be alerted to the latest news about the music you love, and virtually anything you are interested in.

For example, login to Ticketmaster and customize your "PerformerAlerts" to list performers you are interested in, and Ticketmaster will email you when they are going to be playing in your area.

Fun with RSS

Be one of the first to know when a favorite band is releasing a new album: use Google Reader or a similar aggregator to subscribe to RSS feeds published by a favorite band web site, or music magazine.

I found these and subscribe to them...

NME news: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/nmecom/rss/newsxml

Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/rss

Pitchfork Media: http://feeds.pitchforkmedia.com/pitchfork/today

...but would love to hear about any favorites you might have. If it wasn't for these feeds, I would never have learned that Spinal Tap will soon be touring North America or who is playing live on which TV show this week.

Other feeds you can subscribe to include a performer's Flickr photostream (even Barack Obama has one), or You Tube channel, for example, here's the one for Sigur Rós.

Just look for the RSS Feed icon:

The Road Ahead

2009-02-27T20:24:00.001-08:00

Typically, I like to have a plan before I do something. Losing weight isn't just going to happen if I go about it willy-nilly, I figure. Any time I make a plan, it starts with research.

So here's the plan:

1. Research the topic of "how to lose weight." This includes polling friends for advice, googling, reading up on various popular diets like the South Beach Diet, and posting questions on forums.

2. Spend the first month researching, trying to apply the advice that is easiest for me to apply (seriously cut back on sweets, eat less starchy and simple carbs, eat more fruit and vegetables, go walking several times a week for at least 45 minutes). Then weigh in around March 22 and see if I've lost any weight.

3. Depending on the results of March 22nd weigh-in, I either keep doing what I'm doing, or do something new (I don't know what yet) that will be based on the research I culled in the first month. Then I go another month and weight-in around April 20 or so.

4. If I am on track April 20, I keep doing what I'm doing. If I'm not losing weight at a rapid enough rate (you'd think that losing 2-3 lbs a month is a reasonable goal), I look at more drastic solutions. Perhaps the Atkins diet? My husband is going to blow a fit when he reads this.

The Wonderful World of Internet Radio

2009-02-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

Years ago my husband told me about www.pandora.com, a website that recommends and plays music to you based on what musicians you already enjoy. I refused to listen to it, annoyed that some program purported to know what music I ought to like.

"I like music because of its structure and emotional content, not because of its superficial texture!" I insisted pompously. Many times someone has come up to me and said, "Oh you like this band, so you'll probably like this other band which sounds similar" and so I listen to the recommendation and usually find I don't like it.

Then a friend mentioned "Edith Piaf radio" on Pandora (thanks Denis!) and that inspired me to give it a try. I played with Pandora for a few weeks. I tried Edith Piaf radio, Cocteau Twins radio, Sigur Rós radio. But eventually I got annoyed that it seemed to be serving up the same songs over and over again. It is possible, however, to add variety to your station by adding additional artists or songs as "seeds." I have only just recently begun experimenting with this feature. (which you can access via Station Options > Add Variety to this Station.

I've had better luck with www.last.fm, especially with the "Sigur Rós radio". Of course, your results may vary depending on the performer you input. Last.fm introduced me to the music of Max Richter, Stafrænn Hákon and Yndi Halda, which I could not find at all on Pandora. Each artist page on Last.fm provides easy access to all available tracks by that artist, and also has videos, photos, news and more.

Although Pandora and Last.fm both call themselves "Radio," their playlists are customized for the listener. There are plenty of other Internet radio stations out there that simply serve up playlists in various musical genres.

For example, tune into SomaFM which features playlists for musical styles underserved by regular radio, such as ambient, house music, American roots music, lounge, avant-garde jazz and indie pop. They even have a Halloween station called "Doomed." SomaFM requires a third party music player like iTunes or WinAmp

Then there's AOL Radio, which has more traditional music categories, like metal, hip-hop/rap, rock and world/international. It has it's own player window that comes up and shows you the album cover for the song that's playing. One thing that's nice about the AOL Radio is that you can skip ahead to the next song if you don't like what's currently playing. Last.fm and Pandora have that feature, too.

Radio-locator provides a search engine to over 10,000 radio stations from around the world. From there I can easily locate, for example, WVUD (the station I used to dj for in the late 80's and early 90's when it was called WXDR). You can search by music style or country. Bonanza! When you listen to these "real" radio stations, you are typically hearing the live broadcast, complete with dj comments and commercials.

If you keep an open mind (and open ears) Internet radio is a great way to discover new music.

Exercise Me

2009-02-25T11:06:00.001-08:00

I love to exercise. Really, I do. I feel so much better afterward and sleep better, too. But there are obstacles to exercise; let me count the excuses:

1. I have a little kid at home. I can't take her with me to the gym or go on a good, fast walk with her. When I try to do yoga or pilates or stretching at home she sometimes tackles me or screams "no!" or demands I play with her instead.
2. I live in Seattle, where it rains a lot. Granted, I could carry an umbrella. But if I wear my walking shoes (my sneakers) out I'll get wet feet. Do I need to spend even more money -- on waterproof walking shoes -- to motivate me? Can I get the same workout pacing back and forth in the living room?
3. Pain and injury (as well as fear of pain and injury). I walked an hour the first two days of my venture, and my ankles and legs hurt afterward. I know it will get better if I keep at it. But what if too much walking makes the bursitis in my left knee flare up? Or I hurt myself so bad that I can't walk at all?

Getting past these excuses is as much a mental game as a physical one. Your advice is welcome!

For the love of music

2009-02-22T22:55:00.000-08:00

This blog is currently focused on two things: my attempt to lose weight and my love of music. These things are connected for right now, since I have made a pact that if I do not lose 7 lbs. in 85 days (weigh-in day is May 17, 2009), I will return the iPod Classic that I have recently purchased.

I have been wanting an iPod for a while now, and part of my motivation for getting one is that I believe it will get me out of the house more if I can just put my tunes in my pocket and head out the door for a walk. So now I have to make good on this notion, and actually exercise more. Today I took a walk with my iPod, up a neighborhood street to Carkeek Park. I walked for an hour! See, it's working already.

Being a natural sedentary individual, I attack any new undertaking by first sitting down at my computer and researching it. So today I googled things like:

calorie agave honey sugar xylitol stevia

(I learned that agave syrup might be bad for you ... too much fructose, and that stevia has no calories)

Well aware that I should be exercising instead of sitting at a computer, I merrily googled some more, looking for weight loss web sites. I also posted status messages on Facebook about my quest to lose weight and got advice from friends. And for dessert, I started a blog about it.

I was aware before I made this agreement with myself (with my husband as a witness) that in order to lose 1 lb. a week, a person needs to take in 3500 calories less over the course of the week, OR burn 3500 more, OR (better yet) some combination of the two. So I can simply burn 250 extra calories a day, eat 250 less calories a day, and lose 1 lb a week. Easier said than done?

Trouble is I've never actually dieted or tried to lose weight before, so I can't be sure my body will cooperate with this. I was 105-110lbs until I was around 27 years old. Then began the slow steady upward climb toward plumpness, which peaked in 2005 when I was pregnant with my daughter. I gained 35 lbs with my pregnancy and topped the scale at 171 lbs. Four months post-partum I was back in my pre-pregnancy clothes (thanks to my daughter's enthusiastic breastfeeding).

But then what happened? Over the course of the next 3 years, ten more pounds showed up, squeezing me out of my trousers, and rendering a chunk of my wardrobe unwearable.

So over the course of the next three months, I will be chronicling my attempt to lose 7 pounds, as well as lavishing you with the music I love.