Yo yo yo yo

I hope y'all are grilling and chilling on this fine sunny day.

G. called me this morning for getting coffee. We talked trash and discussed philosophy cackling in our outside voices. We then went to her place where she played me some Elliot Smith tunes, some Nick Drake (who I did not know had committed suicide), The Anniversary, electro songs by the Faint, and Aloha. She always plays Aloha. She loves Aloha. She has acquired her boyfriend's CD collection ( and a very well rounded a literate one at that) and guitar while he is gone. I played it a little which I haven't done in ages. The muscle memory is very deteriorated. Noodled around with some new chord progressions.

I am starting to like Nick Drake with his furry voice and his delicate lattice of tender sounds and Elliot Smith with his gorgeous guitar work and much touted lyrics but I am glad that I am discovering them late in life. I used to listen to lots of Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith and the Indigo Girls (who are nothing like ES or ND but also play beautiful and very sad music with beautful and very sad lyrics) but I had to stop because I would get so depressed I wanted to curl up in the oven with the gas on. "The Step Inside This House" double album in which Lyle covers some of the most sad and beautiful songs by Texas songwriters *sigh* it's a real heartbreaker. The hope is that I am stronger and less impressionable now. And I can hack it. Because as Nick Hornby (who I do not know but do adore) once asked, which came first the music or the misery? Are you sad and need to listen to a sad song or do you listen to a sad song and have it pull you down?

After that kind of morning I was at loose ends. I washed the litter box I got from K and made a half-hearted stab at doing some cleaning. Got distracted by my shadow while doing it. So to help with that, I got 4 unremarkable movies for a grand total of $2 which I will "watch" as I continue to "dust" my things.

I was graced with a long long distance call from RB letting me know that she is there and all is well. Amusingly I had "The Dish" on the TV at the time and thought to myself: "Yes, the Eagle has landed."