reading:
John Bowe (ed): Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs
Gail Simone: Birds of Prey
Sarah Vowell: Take the Cannoli
Howard Zinn: People's History of the U.S.
So recently, my eyes have been bugging me a bit because of all the computer time I've been putting in. It's not too bad - the strain gets to them, is all. And yesterday it came to a head. I came home from work, checked my email, checked my friends list... and then had to shut down the computer.
Because I didn't want to watch TV, either, I had to figure out something else to do - which ended up being cleaning up the apartment a bit (turns out that our stove is white *g*), reading a backlog of Video Watchdog and Pulse magazines (Pulse is this free Tower Records publication that can be found a lot of places around LA, and it's such a hardcore music geek mag that reading it makes me feel like I actually know who Brian Eno is - actually, I almost do!). I even started writing the Savant article - by hand! Which was new and exciting. As was listening to Ani Difranco's Dilate all the while.
And I went to bed early and slept FOREVER. And I'd forgotten how good so much intense sleep can feel. As soon as I wake up entirely, I'm really going to appreciate it.
I'd also forgotten how much I love Zero 7. I'd been avoiding them for a while, not letting them come up so often on my iTunes list - but they've come up now, and the music is really quite beautiful. I needed the distance, I suppose. They were in danger of being overplayed earlier this summer.
The majority of the CDs in my van right now are mix CDs that I made when I was editing my short films last semester. Because often I would use extremely different songs for the same films (my favorite has to be the combination of Sonic Youth, Pink, Bill Withers, Rob Zombie, and James Newton Howard), there isn't much rhyme or reason to them. I think for next semester, when I, once again, spend half of my life in the car, I'm going to replace them all with CDs from old school artists - Joni Mitchell, Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix. And Bill Withers, of course.
Because Bill Withers is another artist I'd forgotten recently, which is strange, given that I have such love for his work, and get pretty pissy when people think that Will Smith wrote "Just the Two of Us." His songs are simple, romantic, and kick some major ass. "Soul Shadows," "Lovely Day," "Lean on Me," "Use Me," "Ain't No Sunshine"....
I can't jog without music, and LA radio stations are so commercial-filled that I've had to switch to something else. My CD players skips like a mo-fo - but I first got The Best of Bill Withers on tape (before getting it on CD), and so recently I've been listening to it during my pathetic runs.
My tape collection is pretty sad, containing mainly relics from childhood and some sampler tapes from local punk artists. But there's nothing like reaching the last block of my run just as "Lovely Day" kicks in. My spirit soars.
If only I had access to all of my old tapes. Nothing like sweatin' to THE New Kids on the Block.