January 31, 2006
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!’s frontman Alec Ounsworth has some solo stuff floating around the internet, and thanks to Brooklyn Vegan and others, I’ve tracked down most of it (the rest is here). If you enjoy CYHSY! and think you might like it even more if it was a bit more lo-fi and rough around the edges, check out this stuff. “Telling the Truth” reminds me of a Talking Heads demo from the late 70’s, and “We Met at the Cemetary” is very much a CYHSY! sounding tune, sporting a little sentimentality that Ounsworth wears well. “Wide Awake” is my favorite, channelling classic Springsteen (think Nebraska) and Neil Young.
This flattering image of Alec Ounsworth was brought to you by The Internet.
Built to Spill are gearing up for their new album due out in April entitled You in Reverse. In the meantime, you can check out a couple of new tracks, all in typical Built to Spill fashion. Luckily they don’t sound quite as produced as I’ve become accustomed to (I’m a There’s Nothing Wrong With Love purist, after all).
The album is said to be a return to Perfect From Now On’s sprawling and time consuming (in a good way) landscape.
I’m also really enjoying this Arcade Fire song:
I’m not the first to share these “new” Shins songs, but that doens’t mean that I won’t. What’s so great about being first, anyway? I’m probably last, damnit, and that’s just fine.
Check out I Guess I’m Floating for the rest.
One last thing, and it’s worth it. Please download this song, ok? Last week, I found Tmwsiy and this Jeff Tweedy song, which is just beautiful. Send it to your brothers and sisters.
January 30, 2006
So we’re in the new house as of this morning, and it’s a mess. Clothes everywhere. I can’t figure out where to put all my things, and keep pushing the fact that there is still another truckload of stuff coming from Germany into the back of my mind.
I need measuring cups.
Anyway, here’s how the painting went:
I’m so glad all this painting is done, you have no idea. Now I have to deal with bag after bag of clothes. I have to say though, having every item of clothing I own on the floor is a much easier way to find things. Just this morning I found a pair of pants I thought I’d lost, and my own mess is taking all the credit.
As you can see, the bedroom was this nasty green color. This is the first room we tackled. I had picked out a steel blue/grey color, and about halfway in I realized I’d kill myself if I had to look at it every day, so I started over.
With brown. (It looked kind of like this.)
As my dear friend Ian promptly realized, it was apparent that I was subconsciously hedging my bets by preemptively painting my walls a feces compliant color. After one large swatch, I ditched the brown, too.
I finally settled on one of my favorite room colors, a warm cranberry. I’m pretty pleased with the result, as the contrast with the white trim is beautiful, and it wears all the wood furniture we own nicely as well. Now all I need is the furniture. But anyway…
We had to go back and touch up the white in some places, but that’s about it.
The bathroom was the last thing I did, and that was simply because the window is painted shut (yay old homes with tenants who don’t know how to paint!) and the paint fumes were killing me. I did it in sections over the weekend. Thepurple it was before was so terrible, I didn’t even want to look at it for longer than a few minutes at a time. The finished product is much easier on the eyes:
It’s off-white or “bone white”. That’s what the good folks at Glidden call it anyway. The light from the window makes it hard to tell the exact shade of the color, but whatever. Having this much light in my bathroom has also informed me of just how many pores I have, and what exactly lives inside of all of them. I also found a strange eyebrow hair on what I can only describe as my forehead. If you’ve seen my tweezers, please send them my way.
I didn’t get a photo of the living room before I painted because the morning I was over here painting, my camera battery was dead. The former tenants had the living room, dining nook and kitchen this bright yellow color, which is fine in the kitchen, but terrible in a living area. Never mind the fact that I don’t own one single yellow accent piece to match that potentially devastating color scheme.
I better get back to work. If you don’t hear from me in a day or so, send help.
January 30, 2006
Check out the Blogher beta site, which I’ve been writing for here.
January 29, 2006
I decided to try out Adbrite, and yes, I realize it’s annoying. I’m going to change it, but I’ve been painting and moving and standing in line at Uhaul all weekend and I’m exhausted. It will be fixed tomorrow.
Thanks for your patience. I’d like to see if I could make a couple bucks here or there, but I don’t want it to interfere at all, so apologies!
