Music: The Beautiful & The Tragic

I'm in love with Burial's album Untrue.

I've owned it for a while now, and I'm just now really listening and paying attention to it.

This is the album I didn't know I'd been searching for all these months. Love, Love, Love. Haunting and beautiful.

Have to admit, a downside of music downloads and iPods, I don't buy CDs anymore (well, unless it's one of my all time favorite artists who have been tested and proven). I used to buy CDs, maybe one or two or three at a time and spend the next week or two listening to them over and over again, at least 5 or 6 times all the way through before I would skip through to my favorite tracks. But now, I buy in bulk (yes, I appreciate the cheaper prices), and often don't get around to listening to the albums I download for weeks or months, or listen to them passively while working or driving as the tracks play through on the iPod. And I never listen to them in chronological order--my iTunes & iPod are permanently set to do the shuffle. So, it's rare that I can give you a full and complete track listening, in order at that, like I used to with CDs. And when I finally do listen attentively, I'm often shocked to find hidden gems like Burial that have been just waiting for me to come around. Such a pity really.

TJs Goes Gangsta

Have to share. This is just too good not to!

Was in Trader Joes this afternoon. As I'm walking down the frozen food aisle to get a jar of pears (I have an addiction. I'm getting help.), I thought my ears were deceiving me, or that I was at least having a 90s flashback, but there it was. It wasn't an auditory hallucination. That was Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise playing overhead.

What made this truly hilarious, I was in one of the whitest TJs around. La Canada-Flintridge (California), in case you're wondering.

And since the song has been stuck in my head ever since, a trip down memory lane seemed in order...Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise"

Ummm...That's It?

Coachella lineup announced yesterday.

Disappointed.

Not sure who would have got me jumping up and down, but Jack Johnson and Roger Waters aren't it.

In all, am really only interested in: Portishead, The National, Tegan & Sara, Sia, Battles, The Swell Season, Death Cab, Rilo Kiley, Autolux, Justice, and Shout Out Louds. Not sure if that makes a 3-day pass worth it.

Want Coachella to be an annual tradition...but...might opt for the LA Times Book Festival this year.

Although, am intrigued by the All Points West Festival...but torn, because I want to support a local festival, like Coachella, not trek to NY...but do have a free place to stay in NY, so could be worth it.

Must ponder....

First Submission

Well, in holding to my New Year's resolution to finally get moving on freelance writing, I have submitted my first piece.

Yeah. Pat on the back.

At this point, I'm just glad I wrote something and submitted it, even if it never gets published.

Baby steps, baby steps.