my celebrity playlist

When I'm famous, this may be what I put on iTunes.

Fiona Apple's Across the Universe
The Temptations' Ain't Too Proud to Beg
Nancy Sinatra's Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
Peter Gabriel's The Book of Love
Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto's Desafinado
The Beach Boys' Wouldn't It Be Nice
My Morning Jacket's Rocket Man
Alice Russell's Hurry on Now
Echo and the Bunnymen's The Killing Moon
The Psychedelic Furs' Love My Way
Remy Zero's Over the Rails & Hollywood High
The Pipettes' Pull Shapes
Duke Ellington's Ocht O'Clock Rock
Magnetic Fields' Strange Powers
Harry Nilsson's Without You
The Pretenders' 2000 Miles
K-OS's The Rain

I know, a lot of covers.

Don't Husk With Me

Badass expressions don't make up for the fact that the front man is brandishing A CORN COB.

Reasons I Am Grateful for Hitch

So last summer when I was working at Emma Willard, we showed the girls Hitch, and while the movie isn't exactly one of Mr. Smith's best films, I am grateful for its soundtrack. Can you imagine these little kiddies' lives without the joys of Heavy D and the Boyz? Or "Don't You Worry About a Thing"? Granted we get John Legend's version, not Stevie Wonder's, but it's not a bad cover at all.

Note to self: you don't like crepes and you never will, no matter how highly a creperie may come recommended; just give it up and stop getting them.

I had a highly productive literary day, which is why I am posting this. Also, I watched a little TV online because I haven't been watching it on TV. It's nice. Who needs Tivo, when you have the Internet? Smita finally defeated me at Blokus, though she took 20 minutes for every move. That's how I got so much reading done. I was so irritated that I didn't even try. Not to take anything away from her victory...

Back to Sarasota tomorrow, and hopefully I'll see my other sister, Allie, who is at her roommate's grandparents' timeshare for spring break near Tampa, getting a tan because her skin is genetically different from mine and doesn't go straight from ivory to crimson like the rest of us. I think it's gotta be the Native American drop of blood because the rest of our ancestry is very much Northern European albino. I, on the other hand, look precisely like the Irish horse thieves that make up the brunt of our long and distinguished line....

Vegetation, Venice, and Top Ten California Songs

Vegetation is a good word -- at first, I thought it was the v followed by the soft g, and then I realized that the only other word that has those sounds is vagina, which I don't think has the nice soft warm green sound vegetation has. Vestigial is close, but other than that it's only vegetable/vegetation and vagina.
Anyhow, Florida smells good, which I think is aromatherapeutic. I'm not sure what all the flowers are, but one of them definitely smelled like a candle I enjoy (isn't it sad how I have to identify the source by its product rather than vice-versa), so I think it may be jasmine (I just wikipedia-ed it, and I'm closer to certain now).

Went to Venice (FL) today. The beach is beautiful, as is the pier that runs right off a touristy shack of a restaurant called Sharky's across from the municipal airport. Boogieboards on the frond ceilings, plastic palm tree sculptures in impossible colors, and really bad burgers.

I've been thinking about California songs, and how many good ones there are. I think it warrants a Top Ten, so here's the working Top Ten so far. If you have different opinions or have thought of songs I forgot, lemme know. I'm not explaining my choices because explanation of such a list would be utterly silly.

10. California, by Phantom Planet
9. Hot Fudge and Song 3, by Robbie Williams
8. Route 66, by (I don't know which version is best; most need to pick up the tempo)
7. California Stars, by Wilco (not a great "California" song, but still quite good)
6. Dani California, by Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Folsom Prison Blues, by Johnny Cash ties w/ All I Wanna Do, by Sheryl Crow
4. Californication, by Red Hot Chili Peppers
3. I Left My Heart in San Francisco, by Tony Bennett
2. Hotel California, by the Eagles
1. California Dreamin' by the Mamas and the Papas.

If I thought "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" was a California song more than a general dock on any old bay song, then I would have put this way up there... I've also discluded Beach Boys songs about California b/c personally, I find their non-California songs far superior. I don't mind Yellowcard's Ocean Avenue and Weezer's Beverly Hills, but I don't think they really cut it.