Saturday, October 02, 2004

there's no one I'd rather do nothing with than you

It makes me happy when all y'all comment on my blog. (Blog! Blog! It's the most horrible new word in the English language! AAAAAH!) Seriously, though--I would probably still write if I thought no one was reading, but it's better if someone is, even if it means that every time I write something inadequate or stupid, there are witnesses. It's hard to figure out how to stay connected to the people I care about. You can't really sit down after six months and say "So tell me all the deep joys and worries that are running through your life right now." You have to be there to see them, and how do you do that as people with full-time jobs and a gazillion life committments?
I hate this part of growing up. I feel like I'm beginning to understand how people end up with no friends other than their roommates, and since I only live with spook, I'm all "No! Nonononono!" He's a truly excellent little monkey, but he's only one guy. It's my nightmare to have no friends other than my partner, it's like the awful repetition of some imagined fifties hell. I would be Mrs. Robinson in no time flat.

So I write here, and that's one way you can hear what I'm thinking, although it doesn't replace the conversations where you make me laugh so hard I think I'm going to die. Just for Paul, though, here are the songs I've been listening to lately:
~The Weakerthans' One Great City! and Time's Arrow, both from their album Reconstruction Site.
~A tape Jennifer made me that has Jenny Toomey, Andrew Vincent and the Pirates, Mirah, and the Shirelles.
~Kate and the Ghost of Lost Love, by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, because spook and I have been singing it together for more than two years without really locking the harmony in, and I'm convinced it's my fault. Plus singing along helps me remember my breathing, and makes me think about phrasing, which all conspires to make me think that someday I might be a singer again, even if only in my own mind.
~A playlist I made myself that echoes a lost tape spook made, especially Toy by the Murmurs, Revelator by Gillian Welch, and Boy from Tupelo by Emmylou Harris.
~Aimee Mann's cover of The Scientist, which I think is an improvement on Coldplay's lovely original.

I love you.

6 comments:

Jennifer Jane Whiteford said...

I am so happy that you are writing! I wish I could force all my long distance friends to keep a constant, accessible journal of their thoughts and obsessions.

My latest songs:
(BTW, I am now capable of making mixed CDS!!! I was slightly embarrassed by being mentioned as a mixed tape making luddite in your entry, but now that embarrassment is a thing of the past.)

my baby love love loves me - Jonathan Richman
wild horses - Flying Burrito Brothers
do right woman do right man - F. B. B. again
My boyfriend's learning karate - Thee Headcoatees
The langley schools music project
feel the magic - belinda carlisle

I sent the lyrics of that Weakerthans song to my Dad who grew up in Winnipeg. He is in India right now, so I'll have to wait until he gets back to hear his response. I may have to buy that album for everyone in my family, what with my Grandad being all Shakleton obsessed!

happy sunday...

J.

Anonymous said...

You'd start seducing young men? Hmmmm...

You can check out my new journal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/monster_grrrl/ if you want. It'll probably be full of inane ramblings about post love/lust/funny things that happened. But it'll have its moments. ;)

~heather

Adam said...

Oh, is this where we plug our own blogs? You can find my shared blog here, though I'm gonna be awfully embarassed if my html sucks out loud.

As for music, there are a couple of albums I've been listening to over and over and over again - but thats more work than play. Other than that Feist's "Let it Die" Ron Sexsmith's Retriever and the Magnetic Fields "69 Love songs" have all been in rotation.

Anonymous said...

paul's list, i guess
danny michel's first album
'city full of cowards' and 'black monday' by the lowest of the low
hmmmm....nothing else is really in heavy rotation, nor those picks so much either...
good to read your voice jen. i miss you. i found a copy of the lyrics and chords to 'sarah' the other day. maybe your idea of blogging is pretty smart. don't know if i'd be so disciplined though. also i might be embarrassingly dramatic. (melo-? hmmm.) i'll give it some thought. if anybody is in touch with dan these days (jen?) could you pass on that we're thinking of him. also i've lost my phone book with his phone number (and lots and lots of other phone numbers now that i think of it....[jen?]).
quite lovely to read so many familiar and missing (from my life) voices. thanx 'col
paul

Anonymous said...

oh yeah, i'm also sometimes listening to sam cooke's 'cupid' and marvin gaye's 'let's get it on'. it makes really happy for at least the 4 minutes that the song lasts.
paul

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