Five Great Songs

There are no particular themes to these Five Great Songs. I just like them. But perhaps the next time that I scan the abyss that is YouTube I'll come up with a theme. Anyone else like folk music and Swedish techno yodeling? No?

Well, then, in the meantime you will have to be subjected to Jon Thor Birgisson (otherwise known as Lives Up to His Divinity-Inspired Name), Raison d'etre, Monsters of Folk, Simon & Garfunkel, and Guns N' Roses (one of these things is not like the others...be doo be doo...).

And YES, I understand that adding a link to a video on YouTube is not nearly post-tastic as putting the video straight on the post, but I don't know how to do that. Technology: you elude me.

Anyhow, onto the good stuff.

This is why I still worship my Jonsi (even if I wasn't invited to his birthday party). If you listen to this and do not see cherubs floating about your room sobbing, then just give up on life. Right now. "When Fat Little Cherubs Everywhere Sat Still and Sobbed, Quiet."

Raison d'etre (God, I hate how Peter Andersson doesn't finish capitalizing the name- damn Swedes) is a single (Swedish) man with a mission (that would be Andersson, Our Damn Swede with a 'Thing' Against Capitals) to create ambient and somewhat creepy music to listen to at night. But his chief inspiration is, evidently, Jung, so it's not as though he's being spooky for spooky's sake. I mean, come on- he's Swedish. "This Would Be 'Emo' If It Weren't So Mature and Swedish-Like."

Monsters of Folk is kind of the go-to groupie band for folk nerds. They're not Swedish. But M. Ward is a member so they're alright in my book. Oh, that and they're geniuses. "The Soundtrack Fairy Squees at Finding the Most Epic Soundtrack-Sounding Song EVER."

Simon & Garfunkel- perhaps you've heard of them while bopping about your daily life. This struggling, baby bird of a band that limps along, I'm afraid. "Those Crying Cherubs Find a Song That They Know the Lyrics To."

Has anyone seen Axl Rose lately? He still squeezes into those leather pants...twenty years and forty pounds on. I have so many cocaine jokes, but somehow, I think that I'll leave it to your fertile imaginations (being all writerly and such) to make your own and also there's that nagging fear that they won't be quite original enough to do rock music everywhere justice. Guns N' Roses is one of those bands you listen to everytime you want to punch some pop starlet in her plastic nose for daring to compare herself to David Bowie (that's right...you know who I'm talking about- BACK OFF). "The Fat Cherubs in Unison: Air Guitar!"

I keep referring to a "you," but I'm not sure who this "you" is. Who is "you?" I don't know who reads what I write, but I talk to myself all of the time, generally a trait reserved for the Swedes. But now I talk to the internet all of the time. And, really, I slapped this post together because I thought the little bar at the side made me feel pitifull at only having six posts thus far this year and it's already May.

Hello, Collective You. Or do you prefer being referred to as "Fat Cherubs?" Everyone loves Fat Cherubs, even if that is a little redundant since there's no such thing as a Skinny Cherub. Those would be called groupies n' emos. I doubt you're Swedish, but-

"Oh well, whatever...never mind."

-Kurt Cobain.

Patterned Animals & Constellations: Musings on Skin

Some animals have neat patterns: cats, domestic and wild, zebras, ladybugs, horses, hyenas, birds (too many to list...), piggies, spiders, giraffes, baby deer, fish, freckled humans.

I'm thinking of freckles in this manner after seeing a ladybug last night. We freckles are people with spots. And neat-o patterns. This way of looking at things is known as "a nice try."

But unfortunately, wolves don't have spots- oh the powers that be...

But I think that perhaps I was made to resemble the night sky: I could always draw constellations on my arms and connect the freckles into the Big Dipper, Orion, or Gemini. I have big planet eyes. I have sharp teeth like the Pillars of Creation (I counted my canine teeth the other day: besides being unusually sharp I have twelve prominent canine teeth but only three wisdom teeth- for the win!). I have a scar in the shape of a moon. It was meant to be, I suppose. And I could always draw a wolf constellation, Canis Major, on my arm connecting the freckles ("spots").

Though "freckles" is a dumb word. "Patterned" is better. And I would be okay without the freckles. Very okay.