PJ Harvey - The Piano

"new" kate bush!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5UsjqXXcZ4

a sort of re-make of the song from The Sensual World, one of the few Kate Bush albums that failed to completely enrapture me, until just this year, when i discovered a cassette copy of it in my collection of cassette tapes comprised of tapes from high school and tapes i picked up for extremely cheap at thrift stores or the flea market. i've been driving my dad's car and it only has radio and a cassette player, which had me listening to The Sensual World for two weeks straight.

Kate's new album is remakes of songs from Sensual World and Red Shoes, her most underrated albums but also her less brilliant ones.

This new version of 'deeper understanding' kind of rules though. You can instantly hear the difference in technological ability that might prompt an artist to release remastered or reworked versions of songs released in the 80's. The song is about a person who feels more of a connection with his computer than with other people. The computer offers him deeper understanding. But this was back in, what, 1988. People's relation to computers has obviously changed drastically. I suspect that these reworkings will have more of a concept, rather than simply working as remasters.

I'm very pumped to hear the rest of this album. We'll see how the rest of it sounds but judging by this one track so far, Kate B still stands as a musical genius in my mind

now that i'm living in miami, i feel that i do less socializing than in gainesville. for one thing, i don't have as much income as i did in gainesville. plus the few friends i do have in miami live pretty far away and driving to them (when i am lucky enough to have my dad's car at my disposal) can be a mission.

Therefore, i'm watching more movies. I'm also supposed to be reading more but i've tried that a couple times from the comfort of my bed and i doze off after five or six pages. Simply i need to find a reading spot less conducive to napping. I discovered the Video Rodeo of Miami, Lion Video (website doesn't seem to be working now).

It's pricier than I'm used to ($10 membership fee, $5 per 5-day rental with a rent-3-get-1-free deal, and $2 late fee per day per movie) but it seems well worth it. I did the Rent 3, Get 1 Free deal, but four movies on a five day span (esp when New Years Eve is included in that span) is not always an achievable goal. I watched two in full, one half way (wasn't that impressed by the Hollywood-esque, talk-in-English-with-thick-Cuban-accents-while-in-1960s-Havana Before Night Falls), and had to skip out on one altogether. But I wanted to recommend the first one i watched and totally loved:
Glue (2006, directed by Alexis dos Santos)



It's the kind of movie with minimal narrative or plot development, but awesome composition, awesome shots, great acting, great colors, great soundtrack (mostly Violent Femmes). No real beginning, no real ending...I love it when a movie does it and I really love it when it pulls it off well.

The director is cool as fuck. He has a MySpace.

I also loved the main actor:


nahuel perez biscayart

i love how quickly the sun comes back up in the summer.

now, however, when i was in germany during a summer. where the sun had still not set at 10 o'clock and was rising when you left the club at 4AM, as opposed to Miami's 6AM post-club rise

as per usual, summer came and went in such a flurry i can barely remember what happened. a new living situation with new roommates. a trip to miami for the birthday weekend. a couple tori shows. some heartache. some fun times. some drinking...probably a lot of drinking. new hours at work. i feel like i'm still learning a lot, developing month by month, sometimes day by day. the end of summer and the onset of the fall months and i have noticed myself becoming slightly more rational, ever so slightly more clear-headed, and slightly inclined to actively continue developing and advancing the intellectual parts of my brain. i want to also continue learning more from conversation, something i think has come about recently, an active and productive way of having conversations that both entertains and educates.

the first tangible signs of the change in season and the rotation around the sun was felt early this week when the clouds were all gone from the sky and the permeating feeling of humidity could no longer be felt. i remember first noticing it on monday, on kenny's twentieth birthday, as we went to one of the favorite spots to go to anytime but especially on gorgeous days, cafe gardens. the temperature had barely dropped but the change from summer to fall was there. it's exciting for seasons to change, for the sun to move out of one seasonal cluster of constellations and into the next, to remember that our life is a pattern that changes and evolves consistently, constantly. the past two days were the first temperature sign of the change. everyone seems to be in good spirits. i forget what one side of the sun feels like as it compares to the other, completely forgot the months of sweaters over short shorts, firepits over swimming pools, and the comfort of a warm bed over the mild distress of a moist soggy one.

i know gainesville's a tricky one and this tangible change should only last until tomorrow, but soon enough the change will be fully here (at least as fully as it can be in northern florida) and the weeks will be filled with cool sunny days and chilly dry nights. sometimes music sounds that much better with the onset of these months. i claim i'm more of a summer person--and i am insofar as i will take hot and sweat over bitter cold and 40 degrees any day of the year--but i like the overall feeling of comfort, contentedness, and agreeableness that seems to come with the arrival of the cooler fall/winter months.

am i feeling stagnant or comfortable or intentional?

August means going on year six of living in Gainesville, Florida.

Am I stuck with no where to go? Have I developed a life that is too easy and just fulfilling enough? Or do I want to be here because it's the place I need to be and the time I need to be there?

yesterday was so hot like a hot southern day where you picture people sitting on porches in rocking chairs just barely rocking back and forth and savoring any tiny bit of breeze that comes their way. I stood leaning against a pole at Common Grounds next to Coral for abut 15 minutes. When I walked inside my back was soaked and I was dripping droplets of sweat from my forehead as if I just got back from a 30 minute run with Mo. I don't love it but I have a unique appreciation for this type of summer heat.

definitely recommend checking out this blog: Catch Us If You Can

I met these two cool girls in Key West when I went down with my coworkers in March. I did some couchsurfing.com research before the trip to try to meet some cool-seemin' locals. found one of their profile sites, sent a message and she agreed to meet up. i was able to hook her and her roommate/travelbuddy up with a free jet ski tour from the company i work for and we met up again later that night, totally hit it off like old friends. Like when we met up again the 2nd or 3rd day it didn't feel like two girls i had just met, it felt like two girls i'd known for a long time and was visiting on the island.

anyway, they were down in key west spending a few months sleeping at kelly's mother's house, sharing a bed, living rent free and saving every dime they could to go on this 12+ month trip over to UK through asia and into Melbourne. Their journey just started a month ago in mid May and they are currently just out of Turkey. Their blog is pretty damn awesome, great stories, great pictures.