Short Post and a Song #34: Four years old and already her schtick is better than mine.

A conversation with my four-year-old niece:

Niece: (Eating Arby’s fries) These are so good! Do you ever get fries at Arby's?

Me: No, honey, I don’t really eat fast food.

Niece: Oh. I eat fast and slow food.

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“Hey Jane” by Spiritualized

“Hey Jane” is one of my favorite songs of 2012 so it felt fitting to feature it in my last post of this year. The first time this song came up on my shuffle, I checked at three different points to see what cool new song was playing for future reference—only to realize that it was the same song the whole time. This nine-minute-long tune travels to a variety of places and all of them are glorious. The music video is very good as well. It centers on a transwoman who tries to raise her children between shifts at the strip club and turning tricks on the street. The video is raw, disturbing, and beautifully done.

Have a fantastic New Year’s, my Velocininjas, and I’ll see you in 2013!

Short Post and a Song #33: Yep, laziness had nothing to do with it.

I failed to prepare a Short Post for today because the world was supposed to end Friday. I will try not to let doomsday predictions guide my blogging decisions in the future.

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“Real Rain” by Randy Newman

  

Rather than pelt you with more of the Christmas music that’s been haunting every store since Thanksgiving, I thought I’d focus on a piece of music that reminds me of my parents. I don’t get to see them very often, and getting a chance to spend some time with them is what makes the holidays special for me. I took a trip with them to Vancouver when I was eleven while my sisters were off at summer camp. One day we went driving in the Whistler Mountains, and the only tape I had to feed the car’s tape player was the Pleasantville soundtrack.

Just as we got to the area with the most beautiful views around us, this track started playing. And now whenever this song comes on while I’m writing, for a second I’m back in that car watching the sun peek through the clouds in rays over the mountains, and hearing my dad saying he was so glad that we hadn’t had any other music to play.

I hope you Velocininjas are enjoying the holiday with your own families, be they biological or just the people you love most. 

Short Post and a Song #32: Goddamn it, Alejandro.

I hate when I ask my server to recommend something, and he or she recommends a dish that sounds just fucking terrible. I have a near-crippling fear of letting others down—even perfect strangers. So it is more likely that I will spend the evening slurping goat brains through a fake smile rather than tell Alejandro (who came to New York to DANCE but has to work this stupid job to be able to pay the rent for his tiny studio in Queens) that his recommendation was in vain.

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“Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners

I saw The Perks of Being a Wallflower this week and it has been a long time since I’ve loved a movie quite that much. It’s a very honest movie. It faces both the very best and very worst parts of being an introverted kid in high school. One of my favorite aspects of the movie was the music. “Come On Eileen” plays during a particularly cathartic scene at a school dance in which the main kid realizes that he’s not the only weirdo in his school, and that maybe he and the other weirdoes could be weirdoes together.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is still playing in a few theaters—I highly, highly encourage you to go see it. And if it’s not playing near you, buy the DVD when it comes out on February 12th. That movie deserves a hell of a lot more success than it's seen thus far. 

"Are you a big person or a little person?"

Every Thanksgiving, my aunt, uncle, and two cousins drive to Ohio from Washington D.C. and spend the long weekend with my family. Before our relatives make the long drive back to D.C., my family always (semi-illegally) meets up with them at their hotel for the continental breakfast. 

During that breakfast this year, a lady who worked at the hotel came over to our table bearing a coloring book and crayons and asked my twenty-year-old cousin, "Are you a big person or a little person?"

It was the greatest moment of her older brother's life.

Short Post and a Song #31: Seriously, it's all they had in common.

Every conversation Margaret and Owen ever had on the show Boardwalk Empire:

Owen: Do you remember (insert random aspect of life back in Ireland here)?

Margaret: Why, yes. Yes, I do.

Owen: God that is so hot.

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“Jackson” by Johnny Cash and June Carter

I try to keep up some variety with the artists I feature, and realize that I just featured another Johnny Cash song a few weeks ago. But how cool is it that you can watch this video of Johnny Cash and June Carter singing “Jackson” on the Ralph Emery Show in 1967 on any old computer? June Carter really was the most adorable human.

Updated: Short Post and a Song #30: These are the gems one finds at the bottom of an IMDB rabbit hole.

H. Jon Benjamin, whose vocal talents have graced Home Movies, Archer, and Bob’s Burgers (AKA three of the funniest cartoons in the history of ever, largely thanks to Benjamin), was once in an episode of Sex in the City. He played Miranda’s coworker who mistakenly set her up on a lesbian date. When Miranda told him she wasn’t gay, H. Jon Benjamin just looked her up and down and said, "Seriously?"

My life got the tiniest bit better after learning that random fact, and I hope yours did as well.

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“My Neighbor Totoro” by Joe Hisaishi

I saw Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle while I was still quite young, but didn’t end up seeing this particular Miyazaki film until only a year and a half ago. I loved the movie and only a few days later I began sketching out ideas for Moorhouse. My story’s quite different from My Neighbor Totoro—substantially darker in tone—but I was very inspired by the beautiful whimsicality of the film and the strong familial relationships at its core. 


P.S. I realize now, hours later, that I could have made this post cohesive for once if I had said "I saw Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle when I was a wee baby Jillian." Opportunity wasted, right?

And if you didn't get that, start watching Archer. Seriously. Danamaniac just got me into it and it is fan-fucking-tastic.