I have been assimilated.

An add to the Halloween mix below:

Bodysnatchers / Radiohead

Curse "All Songs Considered"! It always forces me to go buy new music. I resist listening to the podcasts for just this reason ... then I overindulge and listen to, like, five at a time.

I've never been much of a Radiohead fan, but hearing just a few clips from the online release of "In Rainbows" made me crave it. So lush and orchestral ... without the self-indulgent weirdness of "OK Computer." I can't listen to anything else.

Also "have to have" the new Jolie Holland, a Senegalese singer named Youssou N'Dour, and some Chinese punk compilation.


Quote of the day:

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." -- Andre Gide


Annoyance of the day:

Have you ever finally, after much searching, found exactly the perfect product -- after trying many, rejecting each, finally happened upon the perfect solution to your problem -- and then been unable to find it, anywhere, ever again?

For me, it's a hair clip. It's so great. It has rubber grips so it really stays in place. It's big enough to hold my thick hair. It simply does not budge. And I cannot find another. Anywhere.

If you see such an awesome, rubber, hair-gripping, badass black hair clip, buy it -- I promise I'm good for it.


Also ISO ...

I need a new word. Not a mantra, exactly. I don't know what to call it. I have a word (a name, actually) that is the first thing in my head, on my lips even, in the morning, the last at night. It has absolutely no connection with my current life. Its meaning has long since transcended the person to whom the name is connected. I think it is just the word I put to my yearning for ... more. For what I want my life to be.

And so, entonces, I need to find a new word to associate with this feeling, a substitute I can use to retrain my thought pattern. Something positive; something forward-moving; something that puts me, mentally, in charge of my own destiny, instead of giving a smidgen of even symbolic power to someone long since gone from my life.

Ideas?

OK, off to bed -- up early for my tuberculosis test (for Peace Corps). Wish me luck! ;-)