Uninspired.

Personally, I've been horrifically uninspired recently, mostly because I simply haven't had the time to read and write as I would like. I've been holed up day and night at my apartment cramming textbooks into my head. I've been wading through midterm after midterm, paper after paper all this week. All my free time has been at my desk, muddling through Powerpoint slides about the many Mercator map projections in ArcGIS and the difference between Cnidaria and Ctenophores... LOLZ!

Music has been insurmountably inspiring, though. All this studying has allowed me to become reacquainted best friends with iTunes. Hooray. Where would I be without thee?

I might admit that I have an unnecessary amount of music. (But I won't admit it...) But through all the random downloads, test albums, artists/songs being referred or sent to me by friends, and so forth, I have a large backlog of music I just haven't listened to. To combat this, I have made an "unlistened" playlist, consisting of those song whose "Play Counts" are ZERO. It started at about 8 days worth of unlistened music (seriously). More or less through this week alone, I have knocked it down to under 6 days. (Currently sitting at 5 days, 22 hours.) It is a fun challenge. And it is also letting me check out new music and dust off some old favorites I just haven't listened to on my laptop yet. Good times.

I'm going away this weekend. I hope a few days in the woods will spur me into some sort of creativity. This drought is driving me a little more insane.

COMING ATTRACTIONS
- post about some of my favorite movies
- post about those albums that are solid start to finish
- post with recent album reviews
- hopefully more fun little playlist downloads
- other jams, just for kicks

For now, a completely non-cohesive teaser five songs that have been making me happy.
1.) A Change is Gonna Come - Ben Sollee
2.) Bells - Anathallo
3.) Dirty Orchestra - Black Violin
4.) Let's Embrace - Joseph Arthur
5.) Shiver - Xavier Rudd

There's a folk cellist, a minimalist band, a hip-hop violin duo, a singer/songwriter, and a didgeridoo rocking Aussie. Ya dig?

Download.

Fall is vulnerable.

Fall is vulnerable. You can’t be verbose about fall because it is a season of whispers and secrets. To talk about it too much would be taboo. There are chills. There are hints of winter. But no one says a word. We all want to hold on to the last traces of summer.

Fall is poetic. The air is fresh in fall. It is crisp. You can feel it expand in your lungs as you breathe. The hairs on your arms get rigid. Skin gets an extra covering of clothes as trees shed theirs in elaborate and envious ways. You pull your collar closer to your neck and breathe hot air into your hands. A shiver.

Fall is nostalgic. The sun shines bright yet appears somehow dimmer, realizing its own warmth will soon take a bow and let cold steal the limelight. We see our frosty breath for the first time on an evening of fallen leaves and cotton hats. We grow anxious. But we still don’t talk about it. Not a word.


Songs for watching leaves change.