burning the letters

I apologize for being such a bad blogger lately! Once again, a combination of an overwhelming amount of work and some personal issues have kept me away from here. I’m hoping that things are finally calming down a bit. We’ll see, I suppose.

I should be asleep, but I’m not tired. So, instead, I’m drinking Diet Dr. Pepper (not terribly bright, that) and singing along to Belle and Sebastian songs. I recently bought The BBC Sessions (& more info) and it’s gorgeous. Every bit of it is lovely, but the versions of “Slow Graffiti” and “Judy and the Dream of Horses” (the subject line is lyrics from it) are especially heartbreakingly beautiful. Sigh. I also love the bonus disc of live recordings from a 2001 Belfast concert. I already had some of the live songs from various bootlegs and such, but it’s quite nice to have them all together and in such high quality.

& Speaking of Belle and Sebastian, I made a new bedroom wall collage out of a 2007 calendar of concert poster reprints:

I love it! Very pretty. & This is the calendar that I used:

(& Here’s the studio album version of Belle and Sebastian’s “Slow Graffiti”: rcpt.yousendit.com/668462979/c64a11a14ac684dd073d685b5fac8248 Definitely check out the BBC Sessions, too, if you’re interested. Swoon-y, heart-achingly, and beautifully written gorgeous stuff.)

I was able to take some photos (like the previous one) out on my porch yesterday because the weather was lovely and somewhat sunny, which made me quite happy. It was the first time this year that it’s felt like Spring to me. I love that feeling; it’s like swirling warm giddy beautiful excitement and it makes me feel hopeful and full of desire. It’s fantastic, really.

Another good thing about the weather improving is that I’ve been able to go on walks again, which I love. I walk for about an hour each time, and usually end up about eighteen or nineteen blocks south of my apartment, which is an uphill walk, to say the least. It’s thus a good workout, a time for me to be alone with my music or an audiobook or whatever I feel in the mood for, and a time for me to think, watch trains, look at beautiful old houses, and think, think, think. It’s very therapeutic for me. I’ve even been going on days when it’s rather cold, which is usually fine as long as I remember my mittens and a hat and all that. Walking is always preferable to doing the treadmill, most definitely.

I took this on yesterday’s walk. I’ve walked by it a few times & have thought to myself that it’d be a lovely thing to photograph, so I finally did it:

I love the color & the reflected trees.

& Here’s me, this week. I love that top so much. It’s vintage and I’d say it’s probably from the early to mid-sixties. It needs a pretty pencil skirt to go with it, me thinks:

Speaking of pencil skirts, I’m terribly tempted by so many of the wonderful clothes and shoes over at ModCloth, specifically, at the moment, this skirt:

(omg the bow! Swoon!)

& these delicious shoes:

Such tempting prettiness! I shouldn’t be spending money right now, though, of course, so I’ll just have to pine away for the time being.

Also, I’m terribly excited for March 31st, because it’s the day that Leonard Cohen’s Live in London CD set and DVD come out! Yay! Yay! Yay! ♥
Until then, NPR is streaming the entire album. Very exciting!

I really must try to sleep now. I have lots more to blog about and will do so very soon. Thanks again for your patience and for reading and commenting & all that. ♥ ♥ ♥

xoxo

I apologize for being such a bad blogger lately! Once again, a combination of an overwhelming amount of work and some personal issues have kept me away from here. I’m hoping that things are finally calming down a bit. We’ll see, I suppose.

I should be asleep, but I’m not tired. So, instead, I’m drinking Diet Dr. Pepper (not terribly bright, that) and singing along to Belle and Sebastian songs. I recently bought The BBC Sessions (& more info) and it’s gorgeous. Every bit of it is lovely, but the versions of “Slow Graffiti” and “Judy and the Dream of Horses” (the subject line is lyrics from it) are especially heartbreakingly beautiful. Sigh. I also love the bonus disc of live recordings from a 2001 Belfast concert. I already had some of the live songs from various bootlegs and such, but it’s quite nice to have them all together and in such high quality.

& Speaking of Belle and Sebastian, I made a new bedroom wall collage out of a 2007 calendar of concert poster reprints:

I love it! Very pretty. & This is the calendar that I used:

(& Here’s the studio album version of Belle and Sebastian’s “Slow Graffiti”: rcpt.yousendit.com/668462979/c64a11a14ac684dd073d685b5fac8248 Definitely check out the BBC Sessions, too, if you’re interested. Swoon-y, heart-achingly, and beautifully written gorgeous stuff.)

I was able to take some photos (like the previous one) out on my porch yesterday because the weather was lovely and somewhat sunny, which made me quite happy. It was the first time this year that it’s felt like Spring to me. I love that feeling; it’s like swirling warm giddy beautiful excitement and it makes me feel hopeful and full of desire. It’s fantastic, really.

Another good thing about the weather improving is that I’ve been able to go on walks again, which I love. I walk for about an hour each time, and usually end up about eighteen or nineteen blocks south of my apartment, which is an uphill walk, to say the least. It’s thus a good workout, a time for me to be alone with my music or an audiobook or whatever I feel in the mood for, and a time for me to think, watch trains, look at beautiful old houses, and think, think, think. It’s very therapeutic for me. I’ve even been going on days when it’s rather cold, which is usually fine as long as I remember my mittens and a hat and all that. Walking is always preferable to doing the treadmill, most definitely.

I took this on yesterday’s walk. I’ve walked by it a few times & have thought to myself that it’d be a lovely thing to photograph, so I finally did it:

I love the color & the reflected trees.

& Here’s me, this week. I love that top so much. It’s vintage and I’d say it’s probably from the early to mid-sixties. It needs a pretty pencil skirt to go with it, me thinks:

Speaking of pencil skirts, I’m terribly tempted by so many of the wonderful clothes and shoes over at ModCloth, specifically, at the moment, this skirt:

(omg the bow! Swoon!)

& these delicious shoes:

Such tempting prettiness! I shouldn’t be spending money right now, though, of course, so I’ll just have to pine away for the time being.

Also, I’m terribly excited for March 31st, because it’s the day that Leonard Cohen’s Live in London CD set and DVD come out! Yay! Yay! Yay! ♥
Until then, NPR is streaming the entire album. Very exciting!

I really must try to sleep now. I have lots more to blog about and will do so very soon. Thanks again for your patience and for reading and commenting & all that. ♥ ♥ ♥

xoxo

So…

Tickets for Leonard Cohen’s upcoming Seattle show went on sale a couple of days ago, but I didn’t know whether or not I could justify spending so much money on a concert, and I didn’t know whether or not I could work out getting over to Seattle on a Thursday night. By the next day, though, I had decided that yes, it was worth it (it’s my dream concert, really) and that I could probably manage to make it to Seattle that night. But, sadly enough, when I went back to check on tickets, all were sold out. Very sad. Ticketmaster is horrid. They have their own scalping site now. Huh? That makes no sense to me. And people are selling tickets to that show at about seven or eight times face value (which was already expensive.) Sigh. So, no Leonard for me. I’m quite disappointed, to say the least.

Here’s a Cohen-y post. It cheers me up a bit & I hope that you might enjoy it, too.

Current favorite lyric (this changes almost everyday, I swear):

From “Stories of the Street”:

“Oh lady with your legs so fine, Oh stranger at your wheel,
You are locked into your suffering and your pleasures are the seal.”

Oh, yes. So very lovely & it rings quite true for me right now.

Download the song here:
yousendit.com/download/U0d6a3ZIcHY1R05FQlE9PQ

& Here’s a gorgeous live concert from last month that can be downloaded as an NPR podcast. Highly recommended! It’s shatteringly beautiful.

& Here’s a wonderful and very pretty performance of “Suzanne” from the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival(I got a little teary watching this):

The entire song is so lovely, but this always gets to me the most:

“And you know that she will trust you
For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.”

Lovely, lovely, lovely.

I’m very sad that I won’t be able to go to the show, but Leonard Cohen always makes me happy.

More soon. Thanks for reading. xoxo

Oh, goodness!

I’ve been away for a long time. I apologize for that. I’ve been dealing with some personal-life stuff and haven’t felt much like writing, here or anywhere. I think that I’m back again, though. I greatly appreciate your patience!

I don’t think I will ever get enough of this video. I could watch it over & over again. It makes me giggly and happy and I just love it to bits. It’s The Who’s “Happy Jack” video, from 1966:

I adore darling Keith, so much:

So lovely. I think that I’ll watch The Kids Are Alright again soon, even though I’ve already seen it many times.

I’m STILL excited about having a new president. I smile and feel so excited when I hear “President Obama” after so many years of hearing “President Bush.” It’s such a new and lovely thing to feel such excitement and hope:

(I added the little hearts! Aw!)

(They couldn’t possibly be any cuter or more awesome, I swear.)

The inauguration was so beautiful & fun. I got to watch part of it with BFF Kate, and we had a great time being excited, proud, giggly, etc.

 
The snow is finally melting! I hope that we’re done with it for the year. Six feet is enough!:

I’m still wrapped up in Anais Nin and Henry Miller, and am constantly reading and/or re-reading both Henry & June and A Literate Passion: Letters of Anais Nin & Henry Miller, 1932-1953. I dive into them, read bits and pieces of them fervently, and then close my eyes and think about/reflect upon/swoon over the passion, desire, drive, torrid lust, and sheer throbbing vitality (of many kinds) that is constantly and beautifully exhibited in their words.
 
Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from Nin’s Henry & June:

“I’ve met Henry Miller.[...] When he first stepped out of the car and walked towards the door where I stood waiting, I saw a man I liked. In his writing he is flamboyant, virile, animal, magnificent. He’s a man whom life makes drunk, I thought. He is like me.”

“Love reduces the complexity of living. It amazes me that when Henry walks towards the cafe table where I wait for him, or opens the gate to our house, the sight of him is sufficient to exult me. No letter from anyone, even in praise of my book, can stir me as much as a note from him.”

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Also, I realized last night that although I’ve been familiar with her work for many years, I had no idea how to pronounce her name. I looked it up and it’s pronounced “ah-nah-ees.” I wrote it out like that on my hand so that I would remember to say it aloud a few times today, in hope of committing it to memory.

I saw Frost/Nixon recently and loved it and enjoyed it a great deal. The subject matter is very interesting to me, and it was a highly emotional, passionate, and thoughtful film that displayed a clear understanding of how ambiguous things often are, and how that’s sometimes alright or even preferable to a clear, black and white delineation of good vs. evil. And Frank Langella is amazing. And gorgeous, too.

I really, really love having long hair. Maybe that’s silly, but I am often a silly girl, so that’s okay. I’ve wanted long hair for a very long time, and it’s finally getting there. The first two photos are from before my haircut, and the second two were taken after I had my hair cut and colored last week. It was getting way too shaggy and messy and it’s nice to have it be under control again. Plus, I love the shade of black she used on it. It’s really lovely. I heart my hairstylist:

I’m sorry that this is so scattered and all over the place. That’s kind of how my brain is lately, honestly. I’m trying to catch up on things and I’d imagine that I’ll very soon be back to regular posting. I don’t plan to disappear again, but, if I do, or even if I don’t, you can also always find me at Twitter, Facebook, at last.fm, and at other places, too (check the sidebar for more links.)

(The subject line is from Leonard Cohen’s beautiful “One of Us Cannot Be Wrong.”
Download it here:
rcpt.yousendit.com/659364824/f85cb3fbd1d1cb41e1ef695760308bf8)

Anyway, thanks again. More soon, for sure. xoxo