quird

I’m not a huge MM fan, but I like a couple of their songs.  This is my favorite.  I love how the guitar sounds like it’s crying.  Thank you to the Viking for introducing me to MM’s music!

I love Florence + the Machine.  She’s a fantastic songwriter.  But she’s got one song that really bothers me: “Kiss with a Fist.”

It’s perky.  And catchy.  And it upsets me every time I hear it.  It’s about two people beating the living shit out of each other, and the main line of the song is, “A kiss with a fist is better than none.”  Um, no it’s not.  Maybe I’m taking the song too seriously, but it bothers me.

Here’s a better Florence song to make you feel better.  She really is fabulous.

The mind is a funny thing when it comes to music.  What prompted this post was that a few minutes ago I got Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It” stuck in my head.  A) I do not like this song and never have; B) I haven’t heard it in probably 15 years.  This happens to me all the time.  It happens to lots of other people, too.  Science has no idea why.

About a year ago I read a book by the always-great Oliver Sacks, a neurologist and author who writes about strange cases of brain damage and what the damage says about how the mind works.  This particular book was called Musicophilia, and it documented how many questions there still are about how music affects the brain.  Nobody knows why we get songs stuck in our head, or why music therapy helps autistic kids, or why Alzheimer’s patients can remember songs from their youth when they can’t even remember their own names.  It’s neat, neat stuff.

Sacks’ other books are worth looking for, too.  The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is a classic.  Looking at his Wikipedia page, I see he had a new book come out in 2010 and I missed it.  I hope the library has it as an ebook…

I didn’t even know there was such a thing as electro-swing until somebody on a forum I frequent posted this:

Holy crap.  This is awesome.  I’m going to ask the guy for recommendations of more stuff to find on YouTube.  Fascinating.

The therapist has decided he can’t fix me.  Depressing.  I may have to give up running altogether.  He wants me to talk to my GP about it.  The problem is that if the foot bone is grinding against my leg bones when I run, then the bones will wear out faster.  Walking doesn’t hurt as long as I don’t go too fast.  So I may be limited to moderate-speed walking for my cardio.  Bugger.  I can’t see my GP until February 28th, because he’s out of the office until the 26th.  I can see his assistant, but I’d much rather talk to the doc about it.  I only like seeing the assistant when I have the flu or something lightweight.

To change the subject entirely for the moment: the television just played the Subaru commercial about the mom driving around the kid hockey players.  While the Pogues’ “If I Should Fall From Grace with God” is an awesome song, who the hell thought it was a good idea for this commercial?  I mean, the part they use is about dying.  It has nothing to do with children, hockey, or cars, and one would think it’s too depressing for a commercial.  Very odd.

(15 minutes later…)  Adventure Time is fucking AWESOME.  I love that show.  (It was just on.)  Rebecca Sugar, artist/songwriter/sometimes-writer for the show, has become one of my favorite entertainers.  The Viking introduced me to her work.  She posts her versions of AT songs online sometimes, and I love her voice.  Hearing her sing makes me want to give her a big hug.  Check YouTube for her stuff, and watch the show if you’ve never seen it.

And now, it’s time to do homework.  Bleah.

A few days ago, the Viking introduced me to the music of Daft Punk.  They’re awesome.  How is it they’ve been making music since like 1997 and I never heard them?  But I’ve fallen in love with their sound and I have them on repeat on the iPhone.

The reason I bring it up is because the Viking’s watching Tron 2 at the moment, and while I don’t give a damn about the movie, I’m loving the soundtrack.  It’s a character in the film, it’s so present.  Awesome!  Must buy soundtrack.  Now.