stuck in my head ALL DAY

"Queen Bitch" 1972 from David Bowie on Vimeo.

How does it work for you when a song gets stuck in your head? For me, it can go a few different ways. Today it was little snatches of it here and there until it held together and my brain would basically play the whole song. Other times it's just a particular part over and over - the shorter the bit the more annoying the earworm. Sometimes it is brief but super intense. Sometimes it's a CLUSTER of songs. I should keep a log. I know this one was particularly strong because more than one person at work was talking about very earworm-friendly songs and none of them dislodged Queen Bitch. I didn't mind.

videos on boats is what we need!

Yeah, I heard this on the new Android commercial and I LOVED IT and looked it up and here it is.

< 3 u, eyepatch guy

it makes me happy. 

beep beep, who got the keys to the jeep?

Like many spectacle-loving Americans, I watched the Super Bowl halftime show this morning on youtube. MISSY ELLIOTT!!!  I miss Missy! I didn't even know how much until I saw her again. I've collected a few videos so I have them all in one place when I want to watch them.

(other Katy Perry Spectacular note: I really loved that lion puppet she rode in on at the beginning - all that PLUS dancing sharks?? Come on! No complaints here.)



These videos are like a time machine to the late 90s/early 2000s. Wouldn't it be cool if they WERE a time machine? I'm not ruling it out.



Lots of MTV at the time familiar faces in all of these videos.




The Rain is the first time I remember seeing/hearing Missy Elliott. What a memorable song/video!  It seemed so different to everything else out there - so deliberately weird but compelling - like an alternate science fiction future in which we all look magnificent in our garbage bag garments and gold glitter head pieces.

I keep almost getting to what I want to say, but it's battling with the fact that I have to go to bed because I work in the morning so I can't quite get it right. Probably just as well. In a nutshell: she's an idiosyncratic national treasure and a hugely talented writer/performer/producer and I'm glad she's back.

no water

I've had this song stuck in my head since I woke up this morning and since it's great and fun I don't feel bad about getting it stuck in your head, too.  Besides sounding just like a Tune-Yards song, it also reminds me of Tom Tom Club and I think of Busta Rhymes with every WOO HA WOO HA.

PLUS, if you even needed a plus, the video is pretty great.

summer video

HELLO. I had to get one more post in before July was gone until next year.

I had a good July! It's always one of my favorites because it is my birthday month. I read somewhere that people often have an affinity for the time of year they were born  - does that sound legit or ridic to you? I vote: LEGIT.

Anyway - someone linked to this song and video on twitter and I LOVE IT.  It's mega summer guitar pop with a boat and stripes and an amusement park... just watch it.

See you in August!

PSA Pap Rap

I saw this on twitter shortly after I got back from the gynecologist:TIMELY. The puppet Mary Wollstonecraft hype men made me laugh and I'm totally going to wear a skirt next time - brilliant idea!

Best in-video summary of the pap smear experience: "it ain't a thrill, but it's fine. Honestly, it's fine."

I would add  DITTO for Mammograms.  My advice for making it easier, (which is also stated in the video) is to remember that the people doing these up close and personal exams are professionals who have SEEN IT ALL a thousand times. Don't even worry for a minute.

here's some info on The ACA and women's health. It's important for people to talk about!

Back to book week(s) shortly!

by the fire or in the snow

Today I decided it was time to start work on a new Christmas mix, since the last one I made was in 2004 or so. (it was a good one!) First thing I do is head to my iTunes and see what I've got in there. Weirdly, a bunch of things that I thought I had don't show up… Some google later, I figure it out: sometime in the non-christmas past,  I'd deselected some but not all of my Christmas songs so they wouldn't play in the summer or whatever. Since iTunes is now all fancy, there is no way to find and RE-select them without making a smart playlist, blah blah blah. I think I found them all, except I couldn't find 2000 miles by the Pretenders, which I know I have. Why are you holding out on me, computer???

I had to do some ornament wrangling so I listened to my laptop christmas selection (or what I could find of it) to evaluate for the aforementioned mix and discovered - well, not really discovered, more like articulated in my own mind - that I have a definite preference in Christmas music. If you roughly divide it all into snow or fire, cold or warm, etc. I prefer the cold! Which is not something I would have necessarily thought before. Although I guess it's also divided between secular and (what's the word for non-secular? sacred??) - there are some warm secular songs that I really dig, but if it's a carol or mentions baby Jesus at all, I'd rather it be one that sounds like an angel is singing it outside where it is cool and crisp and even. (there are exceptions! this is a working theory.)

Do you like Christmas music? What do you love? What do you hate?

impossible to refuse

I was at the dentist for three long hours today. My jaw still hurts, but it's all in pursuit of maximum mouth health so I can grind rocks with my teeth if I feel like it. (note: I have not checked this dubious eventual goal with my dentist.) Anyway -  the important part here is that when I got home I watched a bunch of INXS videos. I don't know why - it just felt like the right thing to do.  I'm just including a couple here because I have committed to blogging every day for December so I may need some for later!

The thing that struck me the most once I started listening to/watching these videos is why haven't I been listening to this record straight through since 1987?? (ha ha! I typed 1897 - that would be something…) They're a great band that I sort of forgot about, somehow. (HOW?) (I even saw them in concert (!) in the early 90s with Material Issue opening.)

What I notice watching New Sensation: A suit is clearly not Michael Hutchence's native attire (he looks like he'd be most at home in leather pants and unbuttoned shirts), yet here he is in one. Why? Are they pretending that he's a lawyer by day and a rock star by night? "Your Honor, dream baby dream of all that's come and going," gavel, gavel, case dismissed, etc. His strange suit doesn't matter because he's got so much raw charisma it powers all the stray light effects in this video.





Okay, I was close - leather jacket and NO shirt. ha ha hahaha! And a white rat, for some reason. He was some kind of charisma wizard - when he's on the screen he draws focus from all the other dudes. (sorry, other dudes! I did manage to notice that one of the band members has a truly impressive mullet and some of them (one of them? all of them?) dress like roller derby referees, but that's about it.)

While perusing youtube I found the Beck Record Club version of Kick, but I'm going to save it until I've listened to the real deal 200000 times. (or however many times! I'll know when I get there.)