Now Playing

Snow Patrol – Ways & Means
Guster – Amsterdam
Peaches – Boys Wanna Be Her
Decemberists – Yankee Bayonette
Snowden – Black Eyes
Chad VanGaalen – Mini T.V.s
Ester Drang – One Hundred Times
Camera Obscura – If Looks Could Kill
Mates Of State – Think Long
Dirty On Purpose – Kill Your City
Keane – Is It Any Wonder
What Made Milwaukee Famous – Selling Yourself Short
Panurge – Sweet Fanny Annie
Slender Means – Hidden Groove
Soccer Team – Traffic Patterns
Fugazi – Furniture
Gran Bel Fischer – Edible
Sigur Ros – Saeglopur
Roman Numerals – The Rule Of V
Rosebuds – Hold Hands And Fight
Long Winters – Blue Diamonds

Regrets, I've Had A Few

There's a great thread at Fark concerning the advice people would offer their twelve-year-old selves if they could. I'd say the following:

• Get out of that school. It's destroying you. Whatever you have to do. Whoever you have to assault. Just get out.
• Less skating, more soccer.
• When the time comes, wear your retainer, dummy.
• The violin is a waste of your time and your parents' money. Stop. If you can convice them to let you switch to drums, great. If not, quit anyway.
• On your next birthday, your parents will give you a Commodore 64. Therein lies your future, my lad.
• Your cunning plan for your Yale and Penn interviews won't work. Just be honest. And for God's sake, spell-check your applications.
• On your first trip back home during your first year of college, you will learn that your highschool sweetheart has found a new special friend. Collect your belongings and quietly walk away. Trust me. Just walk away.
• In college, you will meet a crazy girl named Kate who has a crush on you. Accept her, ahem, affections. Early and often. Everyone you know will believe you did anyway, despite your claims to the contrary. You may as well hit it. The previous item will make this much, much easier.
• It going to be OK, Josh. It really is.

Guilty As Charged

Blogthings is reading my mind again:

You Are Guinness

You know beer well, and you'll only drink the best beers in the world. Watered down beers disgust you, as do the people who drink them. When you drink, you tend to become a bit of a know it all - especially about subjects you don't know well. But your friends tolerate your drunken ways, because you introduce them to the best beers around.

The Sound Of A Slowly Breaking Heart

When it comes to music, I'm not much of a lyrics pusher. The impact of lyrics, good lyrics anyway, are extraordinarily personal. One person's epiphany is another's dross. But I can't let this one pass without chronicling my response. This guy crawled right into my head to write these lyrics. This is "Nora" from the album When I Pretend To Fall from The Long Winters. Most of their stuff is clever, upbeat indie pop, but this one is a heartbreaker.

Nora says I don't love her
the way she wants to be loved.
Nora knows I love trouble
but she wants stable trouble once.

No one holds her to her story.
If she says she's done it, she's done it.
O.K., she's done it.
Lord knows I owe her so much.
I'm just who she said she was.

Nora

Nora
Now I don't feel she feels
the same way about me.
I bet she wonders if I'll ever be
who she dreamed I'd be.

But she never says I love you
'til I say I love you.
Like we're exchanging hostages.
I guess it's all for the best.
She knows what she wants
and I know what she's gonna get.

Nora

Nora
Now I don't feel she feels
the same way about me.

If you're interested in knowing what a slowly dying long-term relationship sounds like from a male perspective, buy this album and listen to this song.