Zeus (Dad's cat) had his vet appointment this morning to examine the lump on his belly. A needle aspiration revealed that it's only a lipoma -- a harmless fatty tumor -- and nothing serious. The diagnosis was not surprising considering Zeus's rather hefty physique and the staggering ripple of paunch along his underside. Dad and I are relieved and ( Read more... )

Good News ( Read more... )

Andrew Bird is playing in Kalamazoo on October 18th ( Read more... )

Sometimes it's easy to ride and muck and study my way through the solitude, and sometimes it's harder than I ever could have imagined.

Tomorrow marks one month since I arrived in Michigan. Maybe I've finally been fully broadsided, just as I was a year ago, by the realization that this summer is decidedly not a vacation.

Oh, hurry up September, with ( Read more... )

And the flag marked with blood, with the blood of our hands
And our hands marked with death, with the blood of a man
And a man on the cross, and the cross on our hearts
Has it done nothing more, than to drive us apart?

Sufjan's rendition of the national anthem is now officially my absolute favorite version of the song. Altered melody, minor key, and ( Read more... )

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SING TO ME, SPENCER KRUG!

Remember how I posted about wishing for a musical discovery that occurred in Michigan? Well, today I finally gave Sunset Rubdown a proper listen, and OH MY GOD. It's a little ridiculous, seeing as they've been around for a few years, but their music is driving and inspirational and vastly epic and reminds me of standing under an enormous purple-and ( Read more... )

While driving back from Borders this evening, it occurred to me that all of my current favorite music reminds me of Providence in some way or another. Aside from the Townes Van Zandt compilation my dad lent me last week, I have yet to play anything that is not directly connected to the memory of a specific moment or conversation or person. As ( Read more... )

1. If you can only hear one song for the rest of your life, what would it be? Tough, tough question. Probably Dylan's "Boots of Spanish Leather." Would I get irritated by his voice after 13048608435 listens? Possibly. But I can't think of anything better right now.
2. What one song would you like to be played on your funeral? Okkervil River, "John ( Read more... )

I finally have internet back at my house, I'm studying for the GRE like a motherfucker (albeit a rather time-wasting, procrastinating motherfucker), and I miss my old life so much it makes my stomach hurt.

The horses are doing well, though, and clearing my head on the farm, alone, under the sprawling Michigan sky, is not really that bad most of the ( Read more... )