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Sob

at the beach

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Christmas

Alicia Keys is corny. Not slickly schmaltzy like Leona Lewis (who I love), but corny. Occasionally it makes her insupportable in outfits and a few songs, standing while she plays the piano. But mostly (at least musically) the corniness is perfect, as in her hook for "Empire State of Mind" or her 2003 single (with Mos-featuring video) "You Don't Know My Name." This new track, "Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart" (off a record called [ahem] The Element of Freedom) is that exact kind of perfect corn, sweetly, Reunion-ly old-school, making obvious choices with total earnestness. I would be terrified to write a chorus that goes, "So tonight I'm gonna find a way to make it without you/ I'm gonna hold onto the times we had..." But thank goodness Alicia isn't, ever-ready to soundtrack rolling credits and homecooked New Moon montages.

Love in This Club

In late 2004, Petrova and I (and a few other people but it was our idea) started saying "be Charlie Sheen" or "be Tony Danza," intermittently, as advice. The phrases were distinct. I think to be Tony meant to be fearless in a wholesome, fall-on-yr-face way (like having a talk show). And to be Charlie...well it's obvious (and pretty damn 19-year-old-y). The whole thing was so wrapped up in early statement t-shirts and trucker hats and Facebook culture and was totally suitable back then I swear.

Michael K posted this picture yesterday and then Pillow said something about it and it's mesmerizing.

Verses

Song
Frank O'Hara
(around 1959?)

Did you see me walking by the Buick Repairs?
I was thinking of you
having a Coke in the heat it was your face
I saw on the movie magazine, no it was Fabian's
I was thinking of you
and down at the railroad tracks where the station
has mysteriously disappeared
I was thinking of you
as the bus pulled away in the twilight
I was thinking of you
and right now

*teen drunks*

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oh no!---'those were gifts'...

Wassily Kandinsky
Composition IX
1936

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