12 x 15

(photos courtesy of Concrete Cowgirl)

The older I get, the more my childhood home becomes its own wilderness. I stay up late in this 12x15 jungle & get lost in the thickets of my mind... Draped in secrets, I blanket this old ceiling with question mark clouds.


My room looks like A.C. Moore's schizophrenic sister... littered with colors & textures & mistakes. New projects begin before others finish & coffee breath scorches tangerine walls.


Here, isolation is my armor. Silence is my switchblade. And solitude nurses the scrapes of inquisition marred on the skin of my youth.

01-01-10

The first day of the New Year is up and at-em. Now, I'm not going to pledge all my 2010 resolutions, but I am going to post a bundle of some of my favorite quotes... hoping to stir hidden passions & light a fire under all our asses. Let's make twenty-ten the year we find that certain lust for life we had as children. Stay open. Stay vulnerable. Stretch yourself...



"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." Albert Einstein


"True feeling justifies whatever it may cost." May Sarton


"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle


"I've come to learn that the only real pressure is the pressure you put on yourself." Pete Sampras


"To err is human, but it feels divine." Mae West


"So in a world dominated by the digital, the metronome I listen to beats inside of my chest." RJD2


"Do you want to be an artist & a writer, or a wife & a lover? With kids, your focus changes. I don't want to go to PTA meetings." Stevie Nicks


"Every man dies, not every man really lives." Braveheart


"Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always." Rainer Maria Rilke


"I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind." Leo Buscaglia


"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself." Anais Nin


"For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice." T.S. Eliot

M-E-L-O-D-Y

I think Kate & I should be BFFs... officially.
http://www.myspace.com/kateearl


No matter what has ever come to me
I got my own brand of company
I got da da da inside my head
And i play songs back to back until i got to bed...

...Wandering, waking in an empty wood
It is quiet here, I am powerful
I look down below serenade the world
From inside my soul

My top 3 according to itunes...

There's nothing better than waking up after a full nights rest on clean sheets... Now I've got my coffee and I'm listening to some music in my itunes library. Just curious, I clicked the play count tab to see what songs I've habitually gravitated to over the years. I was impressed (but not surprised) with what the numbers revealed. Here's my top 3 according to itunes:

1. In Your Atmosphere - John Mayer


2. I Still Care For You - Ray Lamontagne


3. Secret - Maroon 5

Battle Studies Premiere

Ok, so this is my first album review... here goes!

During my first run through of the track list, I'll have to say that only two songs really stuck out to me. The rest seemed like one giant blur of calm, simplistic sounds... Definitely not what I was expecting after devouring his previous bluesy beast of an album:Continuum.

One of my immediate favorite tracks was Assassin & after immersing myself in Battle Studies for the past two days, I feel that an assassin is exactly how this album operates. Simple, genuine, soft spoken... then WHAM! You're done for.

His 2nd track, All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye, brought out emotions in me that have obviously been lying in wait. That's where I think John gets it right every time. Honesty always prevails... An artist brave enough to broadcast his vulnerabilities will always draw out honest emotions in the listener. John never fails to uncover all those things I work so hard to avoid & bury deep within myself. His music is infectious because of that.

As the tracks progress, I feel as if it subconsciously draws out more & more of me with it. An immensely mature sound, paired with his heartbreakingly honest lyrics leave me wanting just that: more!

I drift & die during tracks like Heartbreak Warfare, Half Of My Heart, Perfectly Lonely, & Edge of Desire. Truly great music pushes us to explore & question the depths of our own lives, love stories, & self sacrifices. Simply said, John Mayer's art validates & sustains me throughout all the transitions in my life.

I live for music that makes me sink & swell into a restlessness for something more... & Battle Studies is doing just that.

The only fault

It's a rainy day & I've got my usual coffee, pancake, & music goin on... Then I came across this song, or rather this song came across me. Half listening, the opening lines hooked me & I immediately searched lyrics. Rachael is a refreshingly free artist as well as a graceful lyricist. The only fault I found in this song is that it only lasts 4 minutes.

Tuesday Oct. 13, 2009

Photo from atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris. summer 08'

Life's storms are bound by nature to rumble and threaten rain, but a soul that has weathered the storm before knows this. And if there's one thing this soul has learned; it's endurance. Endurance with a thankful heart brings grace... To be ambushed by adversity is a blessing.