Favorite of 2009 thus far

Wild Light. An indie band from New Hampshire. Have been compared to early U2, Arcade Fire (with whom they've toured) and Bright Eyes. Not convinced yet?

I first heard their single, "California on My Mind," on WFNX out of Providence while driving home after another bleak day at work. I couldn't get it out of my head but I also couldn't remember the name of the band. I kept hearing parts of the song on the radio, but the band name escaped me for a good 2 weeks. Why? Who knows. Incongruous black holes along Rt. 9 that only hit when I hear a good song. Or maybe I'm just very dull after a day full of bank-tellering.

Doesn't that drive you crazy when you hear a song that you instantly love, and need to hear again, but it alludes you somehow? Finally, on one rainy ride home, I heard the song again. I pulled out my notebook and wrote down some of the lyrics so I could ask my friend Google to find the song for me. Google, once again, prevailed.

I went to Newbury Comics that day and bought the album, and it's been spinning in my car stereo since. It's turned out to be a really amazing writing tool, too. I always think most clearly when I'm driving, and that's why I get most of my pages written in random parking lots up and down Massachusetts. Turns out, driving + Wild Light gets the pages written even faster.

I'm seeing them at Iron Horse in Northampton in May with Bodega Girls, a completely ridiculous group [that I think will be amazing live] with a sound best described as a "lo-fi hedonistic dance party."

Ironically, I'm going to San Francisco the very next weekend. Fuck California, though.

It's them Brits again

I don't know how well The Charlatans are known in the US, but I do know that it isn't easy to find their albums at my local record store. What gives?

I've been listening to this song a lot. The video tries too hard to be indie and it features the trust fund hipster "celebuspawn" of the UK, but...I have no good excuse to justify my actions. I hum it at work and try to reenact their hip English dance moves in the mirror at the end of the hall, even though my brother tells me my moves are heinous.

Nevertheless, here's a bit of good ol' Brit Brat Pop.

What have you done for me lately?

I'm very inconsistent with this thing, and it has absolutely no focus aside from whatever youtube video or wandering thought I'm focused on for at least a minute. I have reviews of some restaurants and bars to do, but I need a little free time for that. Surprisingly, working inconsistent hours, writing/transcribing, the occasional nap, hair cuts and damaging my already dismal ligaments at the gym has left me with little time to sit down and play on the googlynet or watch a bit of tv.

There's also a lot of time dedicated to cats. I know for a fact I would be a happy cat lady because I have no problem telling my cats jokes and letting them claw at me all day.

This isn't my cat, but he is about 95% identical to my Binx Monster. Binx looks a bit more like a bat and his eyes are almost popping out of his head. He also has tufts of white hair on his chest, armpits and crotch. He matured so fast!

Anyways, I dropped a major bucket of change on my first writing workshop yesterday. This month I start a multi-week fiction workshop with Grub Street and I can't wait. I've been stalking this organization for over a year now, waiting for the right time to join. I thought maybe I would try for an internship there because then classes would be free, but it just doesn't work into my bank lady schedule. Bank hours are great. So easy. Wonderful. Home by 4. But internships are out of the question.

So I saved some green and called them up, and I'm one step closer to achieving my one goal in life: write awesome books, have publishers kiss the rings on my fingers and beg for my manuscript, have the awesome books turned into amazing movies starring whichever hunk I may or may not be interested in at that point, and then take my money and move to a mountain overlooking the ocean in Maine. If only a mountain overlooked the ocean in Maine. I'll be famous and wealthy by then so I'll just call up my (soon-to-be) friend Stephen King, and he'll lead me to/build me my dream Mainer Manor. I mean, we both went to UMaine. Our paths are destined to cross.

I don't really like his books though. But I bet he won't like mine either.