Christine & Natasha in Grandpa's Jaguar

1. Natasha, Natasha, Natasha, Natasha, Natasha; my sweetest of sweets daughter.  I’ve been ‘in love’ with people and even music and other media/art, but having a child is the best of all.  You miss them terribly when they’re away, you get scared by their fragility, and at the same time you love them like nothing else and they truly are the most charming people you will ever know.

2. A great family including sisters that I can act totally crazy and bizarre around and they think it’s just as hilarious as I do!

3. A thoughtful husband who shares so many common interests with me.

4. Fond memories of people I’ve lost.

5. The ability to focus on what I can learn from tragedies and not on the negative (I was blessed with quite the self-preserving personality!).

M Ward

6. Incessant, uncontrollable… well, passion, for lack of more accurate word – I am constantly amazed by some new song, book, personality, color combination, weather, and it goes on and on – like M Ward sings, “God, it’s great to be alive / takes the skin right off my hide / to think I’ll have to give it all up someday.”

7. The fact that I’ve found a church that I actually like (it’s sometimes hard to be a Christian when you don’t like any of the Christian churches that you’ve been to and find some serious flaws in the members as well (and I’m still trying to figure out how much of that is my own problem)) – I recently started going to a small Methodist church and I think I finally feel like I’ve found a church that I feel I can grow in.  I love the social history and focus of the church, they’ve played an active role in American civil rights issues and to this day they are very socially active.  The church I’ve been going to houses our Meals on Wheels kitchen and is very focused on helping the poor in our community.  The are also spiritual without taking the whole of the Bible literally.  (This could be a very very long item and it’s already past midnight so I’ll leave it at that for now).

8 That I was born in the age of air conditioning, pain medication, movie shows, and teh internets! (Though this one could be a blessing and a curse…)

9 That I’ve found a home-based business that has been successful thus far, and that I enjoy (making sites).

10 That I have a nice, relaxed job that lets me wear jeans every day, and hang numerous plants, music posters, child drawings, and various art/craftwork around my desk until the grey walls are almost completely hidden.

Fuji's IJ Roll & Spicy Tuna Roll

11 Fuji’s sushi, particularly their spicy tuna rolls.

12 Iced coffee.

13 Anh Hung Tran.

14 Woody Allen.

15 Michel Gondry.

16 T.S. Eliot.

17 e e cummings.

18 Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

19 Glenn Gould.

Glenn Gould

20 Sergei Rachmaninoff.

21 Frederic Chopin (so in love)!

22 Claude Debussy.

23 My beautiful black Baldwin upright.

24 The joy of playing piano.

25 The feeling of the air moving against your chest while playing the accordion.

26 The Jersey shore and endless summers I got to spend there while visiting family.

27 Tulsa, with the friendliest people, cool architecture, magnificent thunderstorms, Cain’s, and its thick green-ness.

28 The time I got with a truly amazing piano teacher, Claire Jones.

29 Good friends I’ve kept over the years and friends to come.

30 Sonic Route 44 diet Coke with lots of lime.

31 Being born in an era of countless amazing bands & musicians!  

Rainy Fall

32 Rain.

33 Snow.

34 The magic in the perfect speed of riding a bike.

35 Recording devices.

36 Looking out the window of a moving car.

37 The mystical Tahlequah, OK.

38 The dreamy Peggy Lee tune ‘Where or When’ and the perfect snowy December morning I was awoken by that song on the radio.

Peggy Lee

39 The moment that I first heard Paul McCartney’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ (in high school right after a breakup with a boyfriend who I had mentioned this song to and who didn’t find anything special about it) and thought that it was so underrated and awesome that I would marry the guy who told me he intimated the same feelings toward the song without knowing my feelings about it (which is a small part of why I’m married to who I am today and whomever reads this first will be the first to learn this)!

Christian Bale!

40 Red wine.

41 Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

42 M Ward.

43 Christian Bale.

44 Leonard Cohen.

45 New Order and They Might Be Giants (and numerous others) for being major players in getting me through high school in one piece!  …But don’t forget the songs
That made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes, you’re older now
And you’re a clever swine
But they were the only ones who ever stood by you…

46 Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Neutral Milk Hotel, Animal Collective, Wolf Parade, The Fiery Furnaces, and Sufjan Stevens for showing up just when I thought there era of good music of my generation was over.

47 Talking Heads for managing to be so hot and intellectual at the same time.

48 NPR for their ‘driveway moments.’

Carlsbad Caverns + Doll's Theater

49 Caves.

50 National & State Parks.

51 Glorious blank paper and a black pen.

52 Magazine collages.

53 Smalti mosaics.

54 The Golden Number.

55 Hello Kitty.

56 Niagara Falls.

57 Growing up with parents who loved to take road trips.

58 Mojitos.

59 Gardening.

60 The Russian language with which I am enamored but haven’t found the time to get past general greetings.  Strastvitya.

From the Japanese folk tale "The Crane Wife"

61 Folk tales & mythology.

62 Shakespeare (I know, yawn, how quaint) – I like Hamlet and Midsummer’s Night Dream a lot, almost as much as the fact the he varied the spelling of his name.

63 Night swimming and that I was fortunate enough to grow up with a pool with lights and an overview of dreamy, spooky woods.

64 My propensity to daydream.

65 Symbols.

LOST

66 LOST.

67 That I got to major in two subjects that dealt heavily in symbols in mirror opposite ways – Mathematics and English Literature.

68 Dreams (“in dreams, emotions are overwhelming” -Science of Sleep).

69 Gael Garcia Bernal.

Gael Garcia Bernal in The Science of Sleep

70 Motorcycle Diaries (I liked the book and the movie) – even though I don’t agree with everything Che Guevara did in his lifetime, I’ve always admired the humanity of this book and his altruistic spirit – this journey really gives some insight into his life before it the politics (and what led him to that), and his love, respect, and care for the people he met.

71 Dark chocolate with orange.

72 Icicles.

73 Coconut lime verbena body spray from Bath & Body Works which gives me a little extra vigor each and every day.

Arctic Wolf

74 Wolves.

75 Language.

76 Silence.

77 Chinese silk shirts and dresses.

78 A cat who has so much personality that she’s more human than cat.

79 Google Adsense

80 Coffee Shops

Mt Fuji woodblock print by Hiroshige

81 The early Christmas present my husband just gave me – a MacBook – yay!

82 Hobby Lobby so my daughter and I can easily find a new craft project to do any time.

83 Hiroshige.

84 Vladimir Horowitz.

85 Hoodies.

86 Banana Republic.

87 Illuminations Candles.

88 Andrei Tarkovsky.

89 Richard Kelly for making Donnie Darko.

Philbrook's 1st Garden Glow 11-29-08

90 College radio.

91 Starry nights.

92 Connections.

93 Noodle bowls.

94 That I discovered the combination of saltine crackers, plain cream cheese, and green olives.

Creepy Cute Crochet: Zombies, Ninjas, Robots, and More!

95 The city.

96 The country.

97 Holidays and the events they inspire, like warm lingering meals, The Nutcracker ballet, and Philbrook’s Garden Glow.

98 iTunes Genius.

99 Creepy Cute Crochet for getting me back into crocheting and sparking some ideas.

100 WordPress for being the most awesome CMS and making this easier than it could have been.

101 You!

Glenn Gould

I couldn’t sleep this morning – I was wide awake at 4:00 and couldn’t get back.  I tried the usual plane crash daydreams but to no avail… so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to start my new regime.

I’d been planning to make some changes this week anyway and was falling behind, so really, this was perfect.

For one, I want to really get back into piano so I’m getting to know the keys again – I plan on spending each week being intimate with a different key, starting with C of course and going around the circle in the usual fashion.  I hope to get through Hanon (sans the nasty thumb-under excercises

Glenn Gould

which my brilliant piano teacher advises cause carpel-tunnel and of which I was painstakingly reminded after trying them this weekend) once a week in one key, then I’m picking two (or more in the case of C) interesting but not terribly difficult pieces in each key for each week.  Part of being intimate with the songs and keys is going to be listening to different well-done versions of the songs each week as well.

This week (week of C) I’ve been playing Bach’s “Prelude #1 from The Well Tempered Clavier” and have been listening to M Ward’s version (everything Ward touches is golden) as well as Glenn Gould’s (my former teacher studied under the same master teacher that Glenn Gould did!) – he had Bach down:

Glenn Gould was so hot.

And my other piece for this week is Debussy’s “Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum” from “Children’s Corner,” what a dreamy tune – I just get lost… Alfred Cortot playing here:

My other regime involves health – I’m starting by having no more than 1200 calories a day and taking a variety of vitamins. I’m also slowly moving towards becoming fish vegetarian but I’ve got some work there… though I very rarely eat beef so that’s a good start.

I would like to include some sort of exercise, but it just won’t fit in right now because I want to spend as much time with my daughter as possible and I’m already getting up early to do most of my piano playing before she wakes up and putting my internet publishing business on hold (just hiring out some work right now).

(Let me preface this by saying that this blog post is written with a a few glasses of red wine… I feel so chatty but I’ll pare things down!)

I finally got around to watching The Go-Getter (starring the lovely, dryly humorous, and interesting Zooey Deschanel) and while I haven’t had the time between watching the movie (which ended ten minutes ago) and stewing over it (which Wordsworth or Blake think is necessary in which to write something decent – I don’t really care to look up which right now), I still have the audacity to say that I thought it was a very good movie.  Not great.  Not great, mind you – it was no Donnie Darko; nor The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; nor Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, nor Wuthering Heights (1939 ONLY).  But it was good.  And it featured the music of M. Ward… to be honest, I still can’t tell if a movie becomes great in my mind solely because of the music (hence my admiration for Marie Antionette) or because it’s truly a good movie… I guess I need to continue on my ongoing work of being objective (at what price?).

Between the humble/beautiful cinematography and the music – music by M. Ward! – and the movie’s theme – it was really good.   It touched on familial ties, existentialism (“doesn’t anyone know anyone anymore?!?”), and offered a ‘slice-of-life’ scene of life today.

For me, it was a bit sad, hopeful, and true.  It wasn’t witty or breaking, but just true in its way.

The movie starts with the premise of freedom… which I would really like… only I don’t know how or why (right now).   I mean… I love my family, my church, music, playing piano, like my job, my hobbies, and my online business… but I think I like too many things, I’m stretched a bit thin (or just feeling that way right now) and feel like I need to free up some of my time – give up something… only it’s a difficult choice that I can’t really go into the details of in a personal blog (fie!).

Anyway, stay tuned to see what I drop.  And watch The Go-Getter. 

And Appreciate M. Ward.

Bright Eyes I’ve always liked, despite the drama and immaturity, Ward I adore, and that’s why I’m giddy with excitement at the fact that they may be forming a band together! According to Pitchfork:

They’ve allegedly gone and formed a band.

The news comes from an Omaha City Weekly report, which indicates Oberst and Ward’s unnamed band plans to record an album next year. Representatives from neither Oberst’s nor Ward’s camps could confirm the collaboration, however. But given these guys’ history, it falls a wee bit closer on the likeliness scale than, say, a Bright Eyes/Soulja Boy collabo.

Here’s a video of the two performing “O’Brien” – not only one of the best performances of a song that I have ever ever seen, but the fateful performance that turned me head over heels for Ward-