Smileworthy today

1. new jeans! too expensive, but worth it.

2. learning that re:spring-loaded shotguns in abandoned homes — don’t do it

3. tiny! puppy at a hippie hideaway

4. lemon poppyseed pound cake

Not smileworthy today:

1. hangover

2. Juan in a Million. seriously, why is this place popular? i do not understand. nonetheless, it’s been checked off my Austin To-Do list

3. weekend ending. i need another day! or four.

1816 Meta

Delicious:

Virginia thought it was unconstitutional for SCOTUS to have anything federal appellate jurisdiction. It passes a law declaring so. SCOTUS overturns the law declaring its power to overturn the law unconstitutional, on the basis of its unconstitutionality.

Ranking the Decemberists

The Decemberists are one of those few bands whose new albums I am still excited about, a band that I’ve continued to adore even as I get older and my tastes change. But all albums are not created equal.

For no particular reason other than I am bored of researching negligent hiring, my preference in Decemberists albums.

1. Her Majesty The Decemberists
Maybe it’s because I have an epic poster of this album from when I saw them at Trees in ‘04, but I think mostly it’s Billy Liar that puts it over the edge, because it narrowly beat out
2. Castaways and Cutouts
I think the original is still masterful. My first joy at hearing lyrics of petticoats and joie de vivre resurges with every listen.
3. Picaresque
The name is a delight, 16 Military Wives is a subtle protest from a time when I seethed at the political landscape, and The Mariner’s Revenge Song lends itself to epic concert performances (‘05 in Asheville).
4. Hazards of Love
With a few undeniably genius songs (Wanting Comes in Waves & Rake’s Song) and the inspired recruitment of Shara Worden, this album stands out. I’ve gotta admire the commitment to concept and storytelling, but man, half the album boils down to one word: filler.
5. The Tain
6. Crane’s Wife
Its bottom-barrel ranking is largely a product of the fact I rarely, if ever listen to it. Or the cause. Like the red-headed stepchild of a whore mother (who is probably off shagging sailors on a sea shanty), this guy could live in a closet under the stairs and I wouldn’t miss it.

Bullet points

• The secret to a good brief? Be the sun and the wind. Who knew legal writing was so zen?
• Airport Boulevard is the Ural Mountains: gateway to The Orient
• Personal. Flying. Suit. http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/nasa-announces-designs-for-personal-flying-suit/

Point 1 has evolved to require its own miniature set of bullet points, to be entitled “Unexpected finds in my brief writing book” or “Nuggets of joy in a cold river of technicalities”

• Aforementioned zen belief, based on adaptation of Aesop fable, that one must be strong and kind in a brief to be successful
• The Seventh Circuit’s requirement that a clearly erroneous decision must hit one with the force of a five-week old dead fish (unrefrigerated)
• Football analogy. Standard of Review and other brief sections are your Special Teams.

Albums of the Year

Geez, I haven’t written since I took a road trip with my parental unit? I would say I’m surprised, but I’m in law school, so I’m not.

It’s nearing the end of the year, which means End-of-the-Year Lists! Are they arbitrary? often! Are they relevant? not usually! Do I love them? absolutely!

Today, I took Best Music of 2009 polls at NPR’s All Songs Considered and Pitchfork. My first thought? “My god the year is over?” I’ve been so focused on Dec. 15 (day of my last final), that I haven’t even considered the other things that will end this year. Ugh, and soon we’ll all have to endure forced jokes about getting used to writing 2010. My god, a whole decade is ending! The aughts are no more! The tens/teens are upon us!

Anyway, what a great year for music. I think last year produced more standout albums, but this was an excellent year for me and music personally. I went to three music festivals: Harvest of Hope in St. Augustine, in March; Austin City Limits, in October; and FunFunFun Fest, in November. In addition, I’ve gotten to see a lot of live music here in Austin. My favorite local band? T-Bird and the Breaks, who put on an amazingly fun show. I admit readily that I have not taken full advantage of the music scene here (see: law school), but I can’t even explain how it incredible it is to know that I could, if I wanted to. To read tour schedules and see “Austin,TX” on the list.

So, in no particular order, albums of 2009 I enjoyed (and why):

• Phosphorescent – To Willie.  What a simply beautiful album. It takes great songwriting and wraps it in a package that doesn’t offend my country-insensitive ears. It opens up simple, clear, poignant words to a whole new audience.
• Bat For Lashes – Two Suns.  Weird and wonderful, Two Suns is like a fantasy novel of music. It’s all galactic space queens and epic journeys across time and space, wrapped in lush packaging with utterly memorable melodies. Makes me wish I could sing.
• YeahYeahYeahs – Its Blitz.  Maps was my jam in high school and through college, and I’m glad to see it finally getting the recognition it deserves. I wasn’t a big fan of Show Your Bones, and I found Its Blitz to be a return to the Fever to Tell style of music that first made me get a big ol girl crush on Karen O. Seeing them live at ACL was the cherry on my music sundae this year, not only because it was a stellar performance, but because I’ve wanted to see them for so long. Anyway, back to the album, which I was prejudiced to like: My favorites are the dance tracks Heads Will Roll and Zero, and the slower ones Runaway and Hysteric.  Almost immediately after the album came out, I would hear Hysteric on the piped-in radio stations at horrible big-box stores, but I still love it.
• The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You.  I’ve been aware of the Avett Bros for a few years, but never sat down to really listen to their stuff. Boy, was I missing out. If you don’t want to marry one of these boys after listening to this album, you’re missing a romance gene.
• Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms.  Jam, jam, jamitty jam. Winding, evocative, and intriguing. Can’t wait to hear more.
• Windsurf – Coastlines.  Perfectly mellow.
• The Dead Weather – Horehound.  The band I most regret not seeing at ACL. Rock out.

• OK, so it wasn’t an album that came out in 2009 – and I don’t think they’ve even recorded an album, but SLEIGH BELLS. I can’t recommend them enough. Crown on the Ground is dirty and raw in the best way.

What did you love? What was overrated?

How to survive an 1,111-mile road trip with your parents and without A/C

I can no longer call myself an islander, which is rather upsetting. I’m in beach withdrawal, bike withdrawal, and most of all, friend withdrawal. Living with the parents, even for a few weeks, is far from my cup of tea.

But before I started staying with them again, we had to survive the trip from St. Simons back to good ol’ Tejas. This is an 1,111-mile journey, made longer by a detour to Alpharetta, frequent bathroom stops for a certain small-bladdered parent and a scoot along country roads to avoid I-20 traffic. In a 2002 Hyundai Accent. That has no A/C. Or legroom.

My recipe for success:

• Patience. In bushels.
• Smiles.
• More patience.
• Music. Some for you, some for them.
• Personal fans/spray bottles with ice water – trust.
• Freeze a dozen or so water bottles. Even 10 hours into the trip, you’ll have somewhat cool water.
• Plenty of snacks.
• Variety of reading material – newspapers, books, magazines.
• Stop every 3 hours to change drivers.
• Patience.

And a TomTom, so when traffic backs up for nooo reason, you can zoom along windy back roads looking at cows instead, but still make it home.

11 days until Austin!

6 a.m. Music Dump

It’s nearly 6 a.m. and I’ve been up for about four and a half hours. I fell asleep at 7:30 p.m., woke up at 1:30 or so, and now I’m just hoping I haven’t totally ruined my weekend with this way-off sleep schedule.

As there is little else to do at 4 a.m., I’ve been downloading new music and trying to organize some of my old music. I’ve really filled this computer up, and need an external hard drive. It runs sooo slowly. I tried to put in some Rosetta Stone time earlier today…yesterday, rather, but it kept freezing.

So, here’s a playlist I made, with careful consideration, to try to help me deal with the cavalcade and roller coaster of emotions that stemmed from I talk I had with my former boyfriend in April. I call it the “Indie Rock Guide to Dealing with Unresolved Feelings”

1. Band of Horses – No One’s Gonna Love You
2. Eels – I’m Going to Stop Pretending I Didn’t Break Your Heart
3. Bob Dylan -It Ain’t Me Babe, covered by Johnny Cash & June Carter
4. Ben Folds ft. Regina Spektor – You Don’t Know Me
5. Bob Dylan – I Threw It all Away (with George Harrison, live in studio)
6. Bill Callahan – Eid Ma Clack Sha
7 . Handsome Furs – What we Had
8. Camera Obscura – You Told a Lie
9. She & Him – I Thought I Saw Your Face
10. Chairlift – Make Your Mind Up
11. Cat Power – Half of You
12. Papercuts – You Can Have What You Want
13. Daniel Johnston – Sweet Heart
14. Willie Nelson – Heartaches of a Fool (covered by Phosphorescent)

Listening to it over and over again has been an unexpected comfort.

I’m in search of some new summer tunes though! Everything has been too slow or wholesome. I need a new MGMT! Seriously, I listened to MGMT for about a month and a half solid last summer without tiring of it. Send me something at least half as captivating, music world!

If you need to dance, may I highly recommend Buraka Som Sistema – Black Diamond (the album). I cannot listen to it and not dance. And not just bob-your-head-and-sway dance, but lose-control-look-ridiculous-feel-awesome dance.

So can we agree, also, that Robin Pecknold has a mesmerizing voice? Fleet Foxes or White Antelope, he can grab my attention.

15 books meme

Though I admit I still don’t entirely get why a meme is called a meme or how it’s even pronounced, I present to you the “15 books” meme that I picked up on from John McIntyre.

That is, list in 15 minutes 15 books important to you.

I have to start with a caveat, that while I was a voracious reader in high school, my book time plummeted to nearly non-existent in college because a) I had too much other reading to do and b) I had a blossoming social life, unlike in high school.

So, in no particular order

-Catch-22, because it has an astonishing amount of irreverance and pointed out the good that can come from challenging authority.

-The Giver. Not only did I study this book for school in 3rd, 5th AND 8th grades, I find myself thinking of its themes of homogenization when I am being contemplative about, you know, Society and Life. When I see myself going down the easy road, the one where it’s simpler and less complicated to let others make my decisions for me, I try to think of this book and the extremes to which that complacency could lead.

-The Harry Potter series, not because I find them life-changing, but because I adore the story and enjoy how much the books have wormed their way into mainstream life – I venture to guess more people you know are familiar with Quidditch than aren’t.

-Scott McCleland’s “What Really Happened” because it softened my stance regarding George W. Bush quite a bit. I went from near-hatred to great dislike, combined with a more broad anger about the administration in general and with Americans for re-electing him.

-Sadly enough, Aaron Karo’s Ruminations… make my list. I read them as a bored high schooler and they opened my eyes to a seemy, seedy, debaucherous and delightful world that soon became part of my college experience. I wonder if I would have gone down a more academic road without them.

-Eats, Shoots and Leaves – I name that book because it’s easy to remember, and delightful to read, but am using it to represent all the grammar books I’ve read. Caring about syntax is a joy best shared with the like-minded.

-All the President’s Men. It may have an unfair advantage in making the list, because I’m reading it right now, but I’m kicking myself for not having read it before. So much devotion to the job, so much dogged perserverance, so many anonymous sources. So much fun!

-Slaughterhouse-Five and other Kurt Vonnegut books. I can’t put a finger on the exact reason why, but they provided the same sort of derision of the status quo that I was feeling in high school but couldn’t express in the way he so masterfully did.

-Hard Times, David Copperfield and Dombey and Son. I can’t say enough about Charles Dickens. Love, love, love the man’s books. These are all such touching tales (more so than Great Expectations) about rising up from poverty and challenging the rich establishment. They probably have something to do with how intimidated I can be by wealth.

-Confessions of a Shopaholic: It may have somewhat legitimized my love of shoes.

Oh and I’m just out of time. Only got 10 in. This is why I’m bad at internet memes, and also probably why I never did the “25 random things about you” list, although, who knows, it’s not like I”m going to get less random with age.

New songs of the…arbitrary time unit.

I realize I update this blog almost never, but it’s usually just easier to twitter or, easier yet, just tell a friend whatever I’m thinking.

However, I feel like it’s time for some Songs of An Arbitrary Time Unit. I have undertaken some new music gluttony in the past few weeks, and want to share some songs that I love.

-Hello Seahorse! – Won’t Say Anything. I listened to this song over and over again for about an entire weekend, and many times on my drive to Philly. I’m kind of over it now, but it’s poppy and upbeat and damn catchy. Hello Seahorse! is from Mexico City, and the two albums of theirs I listened to (the names of which I, of course, forget) were decent.

-Alaska in Winter – Close Your Eyes. There’s the original version of this song on Dance Party in the Balkans (2007) and a remix on Holiday (2008). I dig it hard. It’s kind of haunting. It has that dude from Beirut on it (Zach Condon? Yeah.) And I highly recommend both of those albums. Not many words, but such a good sound.

-Ladyhawke’s Paris is Burning and Friendly Fires’s Paris (Aeroplane remix) are both good. (Paris is Burning takes like a minute to get to the good part). They’re making me consider making a Paris mix cd.

There’s a lot more, but it’s all escaping me at the moment. I am gravely concerned, however, because this morning when I was sorting some music, all of a sudden, all my music that started after “I” disappeared. There’s a LOT of good stuff after I. I have nooooo idea what happened, and I left for work desperately hoping that when I come home, it will all be back.

Songs of the day

Dangerous Muse – The Rejection http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxuYZnlG8Oo

Fischerspooner – The 15th http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0xglCPwqco

I had two Fischerspooner songs in my music library since high school and loved them but at the time had trouble finding the rest of the album to download. I rediscovered the band this summer, especially the album #1. The song The 15th especially, I love. It makes me get up and dance in the morning instead of groaning as I get out of bed.

I discovered Pandora the other week and totally.love.it. Of course I had heard of Pandora but never used it. Now that I’m often in the office at my computer without my iTunes library for much of the day, I finally have a reason to listen. I expected it to be Last.Fm style, where I plug in all my favorite bands and it recommends new ones to me, but I actually like the Pandora system better. You enter a band or song you like, it finds music similar to that. You have different “stations” based on the favorite song. While at first I thought this was annoying, to have so many different stations to choose from instead of one, it’s actually perfect for someone like me, who has a range of musical tastes and for whom the concept of a favorite band is hard to realize because my favorites change from day to day, sometimes from hour to hour.

With all that background out of the way, I set up a fischerspooner station a couple of hours ago and have been totally digging 85 percent of the songs that come out of it. Especially the Dangerous Muse song I posted above.

So enjoy this dance-friendly tunes and go set up your own Pandora station. Then tell me about the badass song or band you discover through it.