music for a sunday groove

WJPP here bringing you no stranger. Andrew Bird is a musician featured here several times in the past. So.enjoyable. Thanks KEXP for this live studio performance recorded earlier this year.  Set list: Capsized, Are You Serious, Left Handed Kisses, and Roma Fade. Three out of four of these may be familiar from a recent TinyDesk concert I posted a bit ago. Not sure about you, but I don't tire of any of these. Back to the day full of allergens, scratchy throat, and heavy eyelids. Wishing I didn't have to work this afternoon/evening. So goes life.

atomic number and nine others

WJPP sharing a recent top ten songs list by WFUV:

1. Wilco  "If I Ever Was a Child"
2. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings  "I'm Still Here'"
3. Maggie Rogers  "Alaska"
4. Father John Misty  "Real Love Baby"
5. Michael Kiwanuka  "Love & Hate"
6. The Head and The Heart  "All We Ever Knew"
7. case/lang/veirs  "Atomic Number'"
8. Radiohead  "Burn the Witch"
9. Ray LaMontagne  "The Changing Man/While It Still Beats"
10. Beck  "Wow"

I had some fun searching these out on YouTube and checking out lyrics. I decided to showcase Atomic Number by case/lang/veirs.  Neko Case,  k.d. lang and Laura Veirs. Honorable mentions to Wilco, Michael Kiwanuka, and Ray LaMontagne. I actually like nearly all of these. Have some fun. 

things you can change

"when combined, they look like wisdom."

Jessica Hagy - thisisindexed.com

voices and breathing - how they should be

WJPP here bringing you a recent NPR Tiny Desk Concert with Jesca Hoop and Sam Beam. They perform three songs off their new collaborative record, Love Letters For Fire. This set is perfectly relaxing and a nice reminder of the inner state I should tune into even when I have about 7 hours of "to do" ahead on this Sunday. I am trying hard to keep on track with what has to be done before the next three busy weekends... visit to Dad Saturday and then concert Sunday next weekend, high school graduation the following weekend, and graduation party the following.

I really enjoyed the Tiny Desk description of this gorgeous music: "the album's sound fits right where you'd hope it would: between the inventive hookiness of Hoop's terrific solo work and the more somber ruminations of the work Beam makes at the head of Iron & Wine." Lovely harmonies. Set list: "Sailor To Siren," "Know The Wild That Wants You," "Every Songbird Says."

Carry on.

bird in flight

WJPP here sharing a wonderful Tiny Desk Concert with Andrew Bird, a musician I've featured here before. I really enjoy this guy! So talented. His latest album, Are You Serious, is one of his most personal, and this tiny concert features songs from the new album. I especially like the last piece, Capsized, at about the 10 minute mark. You can read an interview, here. Do take the time to give yourself this treat. Thanks NPR and YouTube!

I completely appreciate what Bob Boilen wrote: "It's been a joy to hear the music of Andrew Bird shift and change. Bird's early music, from the late '90s, was steeped in hot jazz and blues music from the early days of the phonograph, then later shifted to new technologies using loop pedals to layer voice, whistling and violin. His lyrics often have a calculated quality, filled with abundant wordplay and observations."

love of strings

This is a most beautiful video to accompany Moby's Love of Strings. Hat tip to  blog-friend Sabine for sharing this over at her place. How does this make you feel about your place on our planet? I am feeling inspired and protective . . . and part of a larger, beautiful world that I often forget to remember.

aurora

Aurora is a 19 year old singer from Norway. Her voice is strong, pure, clear and her emotions come through her voice, lyrics, and even body movements. You get the feeling that you are right inside her head as she sings her heart out. I hope you can find 13 minutes to enjoy this performance recently published over at the Tiny Desk Concert series on NPR. (Thank you, NPR and YouTube!) The three-song set list includes: "Runaway," "Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)," and "Running With The Wolves." I'm off on a road trip now . . . to a favorite place to see a special speaker. Ciao!

nearly forgot my broken heart

WJPP here rebroadcasting an excellent and blogworthy tune/video by Chris Cornell called "Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart." I first heard this on the New Music Sampler put out by WFUV. After just a couple of listens, I felt like I had always known this song. It got into my brain and stayed. That is the sign of a good song.

Anyway, just a bit of a lunch-time-listen as I take a break from working at my desk through lunch. Not a good habit I am in. Cheers.

truths and the everyday

Jessica Hagy - thisisindexed.com

Hello blogosphere. If you happen to be stopping by, I hope you are doing well. We have been enjoying abnormally warm for November (and welcome) temperatures in the 60s this past week. I haven't written in this space in more than a week - hard to believe. I am having a bit of a lazy Saturday morning before heading off for a visit with friends. My yoga teacher is unfortunately sick and so there is no class this morning.

Last weekend we saw a great movie called The 46ers. Recommend. Halloween was fun. We never did carve our other pumpkin, so it sits on the porch as an autumn decoration. We had quite a few trick-or-treaters, but still we managed to have leftover candy. Tragic, I know. And the spouse has given up sugar again, so let's just say I have had more than my share of Skittles (minus the green yucky ones) and Sour Patch Kids in the past week.

The week was fairly busy at work. I showed a film on campus Thursday evening called The Hunting Ground. If you haven't heard of it, it is an expose of sexual assault on college campuses and how some colleges have done an incredibly poor and shockingly unethical job of handling reports. It will be shown on CNN on November 19th. Catch it if you can. It is by the same makers of The Invisible War from a couple of years ago - available on Netflix. This is the subject matter that I work with at work quite often. The added excitement came when the location of the screening had to be closed for the evening due to toxic fumes from a construction project. The announcement came at 4:30 p.m. and the film was set for 7 p.m. I knew quite a few faculty members were bringing classes or offering it for extra credit, and I had worked on getting the film in our library collection with presentation rights for months, so with the help of a colleague, we got it rescheduled to another location, blasted email and social media location changes and put signs up on all the doors of the lecture hall that had closed. We managed to get about 175 in attendance in the new location. That was pretty great.

The next day, yesterday, I gave a talk as part of a Women Working Together community lunch and lecture series. I had written my notes last Sunday and practiced them once to be sure I wasn't over the 30 minutes, and actually was quite nervous about doing it. Public speaking on a training topic is something very comfortable for me. I do it all the time. Public speaking about myself - personal stuff- is definitely outside my comfort zone. I have only ever done one other talk like this a few years ago in my home town for one of my mother's social groups, and I talked about open adoption, so it really wasn't "all about me." As it turned out, not having over-practiced worked to my advantage. I had some friends in the audience and they put me at ease. I decided to tap into the inner calm that we all have, smile, and I just spoke from my heart (and glanced at my notes). I even read a few of my poems. I had never read any of my poems out loud in public before. It was fun! I ended it by reading my all time favorite poem, The Summer Day, by Mary Oliver. It ended up going well and yesterday afternoon I felt a very nice TGIF relief that was greater than most weeks.

So today we are off on a jaunt to visit some old friends. Tomorrow I have tickets to a fundraiser kitchen tour, and later in the week I head to NYC with a friend to see Jon Kabat-Zinn. Good things are ahead, and I am trying to keep all my attention on all that is right now. I will try to check in when I can.

nexus

one maple tree

with its straight trunk

branches outstretched

flush with greens and reds, haloing round

calls autumn to order

swearing in the hundreds of leaves

some blowing around in the wind

some assembled below

I feel threats of winter come

pressing in to share its chill

onto the surface of my tender face

infiltrating fingers and toes

I list to the left, with gradual freezing

I whimper

to no one

who can hear me

© nan, 2015

[Written for The Sunday Whirl and posted over at Poets United.]

our world needs this

thisisindexed.com

Thanks, Jessica. Yes, you are so right.

on quality of life (and hindsight is 20/20)

Jessica Hagy, thisisindexed.com

mind the limits

Credit: Jessica Hagy

Another great one by Jessica over at Indexed. I have been accused more than once (rightfully so, I suppose) of pushing the limits on how much I can pack into the schedule. After a nice restful vacation, I am going at warp speed with work and social plans, and so may not be around much on this space in the next few days. As the spouse said tonight, "you are really packing it all in again, Nan." Yes. Yes, I am. I hope I am minding the limits.

breathe

I found this incredibly beautiful and moving video over at Sabine's place. I couldn't not share. The breath... worth contemplating. Ahhhhh.

june, moon, tune

"Sonnets and songs about love capture the real commonality of the experience while flattering our sense of its singularity"

The link below takes you to a New Yorker piece by the brilliant Adam Gopnik on Why Love Lyrics Last...some of the best writing I have read in a while! Not only do I find thinking about Shakespeare and lyrics to love songs interesting, this piece contains truth and humor and some paragraphs that send me off thinking... especially at the end. What is love? Do men and women view love differently? How do I see the world and why? It really doesn't get better than this piece. When you have a few minutes, take a read: June, Moon, Tune. We might want to see things as singular. Singularity is surface, y'all.

As a side note, I am so grateful to have The New Yorker in my life.

song for the setting sun

Thanks, NPR, for bringing us Daniel Bachman and a really nice field recording with an interesting backstory. This is a great way to wind down on a Friday evening. Excellent acoustics and some fine playing. I can feel and see that sun going down. (For more Daniel Bachman, check out his TinyDesk Concert: https://youtu.be/LKvFhPF0xYA.)

on a roll

I just stopped over to Jessica's blog, Indexed. She is on a roll! Three cards jumped out at me equally as so worth re-posting. Think about these. Enjoy.

sunday chuckles

Ready to have some cartoon fun? The New Yorker now has a random cartoon generator page, here. (Yes, I am still submitting captions for the Caption Contest when I remember to. One of my dreams is to become a finalist and be published in The New Yorker.)

My stroll through a few cartoons popped up this one, and I really like it.

And my caption submission for today which was not well thought out, but was the first thing that I thought of when looking at it (the Rorschach of caption process) is here:

being bold. because.

Thank you, storypeople.com.

It was an absolutely delightful weekend. The weather was my kind of perfect: sunny, low 70s, breezy, dry. It was way too  nice to go anywhere near my computer. I realize now why so many turn to Facebook or Instagram or Tumblr -- those quick takes one can easily access or post by cell phone. Blogging by cell phone is really tricky and not pleasant. So I chose to just live instead. I finished a good book called The Art of Hearing Heartbeats. I gave it three stars out of five - which still means good, but not among my favorites. I started a new book yesterday called Missoula. This one will be a difficult one to get through. I may have to re-read The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry to get the images out of my mind and get back to a book I truly enjoyed reading.

Yoga thought: was amazing Saturday morning. At the end of each class, after coming "to" from meditation, our teacher reads us a short phrase and repeats it once as we lie there before getting up for final yoga mudra - to send us off with a good message. The message was for us to try to go through the entire day without uttering one single complaint. She added, "you might find you don't have a lot to say." I giggled. Silently, but visibly. It wasn't her usual type parting phrase. I thought to myself that it would be easy for me to do. I am not really that much of a complainer. I tend to be relatively optimistic or at least calm. So imagine my surprise that I caught myself not once but twice later that day in complaining mode - once verbally and the other internally as thoughts. I am going to try to be more conscious of not complaining. Wise words, those.

We received some extremely difficult and heart-breaking news recently. I now have two people dear to me who have cancer that is metastatic. That means cancer that was once thought "gone" and in remission is back and is spread. And there is no cure. There is only finding the best path to a good, but finite amount of time left as living - and hopefully living with pain in check. Today's StoryPeople.com piece seems to reflect the natural reaction to dealing with this kind of challenge. Any matter of the heart presents a choice, really, in how we react. I want to be bold and courageous. I want to jump in loving the last that we have with people - however long it is - and yet it is so emotionally difficult at times, we want to jump in with just one foot in order to have the other ready for a quick get away in case our hearts get into something we are not ready for yet. (Fear, sadness, avoidance...)

I have had experience "living with" the dying before. The more I reflect on it, it doesn't take courage so much as love. Simply love. And so - I am going to be bold and hope that it rubs off on others too. Let us all be bold together.

colors and truths

WJPP here on a surprisingly sunny Tuesday evening after three pretty gray and rainy days. And to keep that sunshine and surprise going this evening, take a listen to this! This is Genevieve and a fun Tiny Desk Concert courtesy of NPR. This might be a good way to spend 15 minutes of your time. This woman has a strong voice and something to say.