Friday Insomniac Random Ten

Couldn't sleep. Incredibly cold in the apartment -- this happens a handful of times every Winter. It's really drafty in here, and when the wind blows hard, it comes in every crack, and for some reason, for most of the night, the heat wasn't on. It came on sometime between 3.00 am (when I finally got to sleep) and 5.00 am (when I woke up), but it's only making a dent in the chill now. It'll take hours of heat to help things in here.


This is, as I said, a rare occurrence. Usually, it's so hot in here with the heat on that we have to crack at least one window. Right now, though, I'm freezing.


I gave up trying to get back to sleep at 6.00, and decided to do some work on various posts I've been trying to finish, and my director's draft of Hamlet that I have to get done if I'm going to have the show up in June. I got some work done, but I'm beginning to feel tired again. It's going to be that kind of day -- fragments of work with bits of collapse that don't quite become the naps I'm hoping for, plenty of jobs/errands to do that don't happen. Too much of this lately.


I've barely been posting here because I've been thinking, and writing notes here and there, and everything just seems confused right now. I have fragments of things to say, but nothing cohesive. I'm stuck between processing what I did and learned in 2006 and trying to figure out what to do in 2007. Or even more, how and in what order to do all the things I already know I need to do in 2007 (though I'm still not entirely sure of a good deal of the "what" -- I have time assigned to me at The Brick, so I need to put up some shows; which ones?).


19,220 songs in the iPod this morning. What comes up?


1. "Yes, Yes!" - Sam Browne & The Carlysle Cousins - Pennies from Heaven (film soundtrack)

The original recording that was heavily overdubbed and added to with new material for the film, pristine on the soundtrack. Slight, lovely song, catchy. Winds up in my head often on happy, sunny days, walking down a street, carefree.


2. "Call Me" - New Classic Singers - Ultra-Lounge 8: Cocktail Capers

Kitsch instrumental with wordless vocals. Not really lounge, but they began reaching with these collections after a while. Worth having. Just.


3. "Bienvenue au Pays" - Jacqueline Taieb - Ultra Chicks Vol. 4: Ye Ye Girls!

(For those to whom it matters, sorry about my continual dropping of proper accents, etc. from names/words in non-English languages -- I am still a Mac User at heart and have never figured out how to get these things on an IBM PC, as I'm currently using)

Nice French Pop number, but not one to make me sit up and really pay attention. It was over before I ever finished writing about it, and gone from memory immediately.


4. "Tojo" - Hoodoo Gurus - Stone Age Romeos

Jesus, where the hell did this come from? Well, it's a spiffy little power-pop number. Very 80s production doesn't help, though. When is this from? [one Wikipedia check later] Ah, 1984. Yes. That explains it.


5. "With the Sun In My Eyes" - Schadel - The Pye Story Vol. 4

Gorgeous, grand, melodramatic, 60s British Pop.


6. "Kokomo" - The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys

Well, this is embarrassing. I have all the good Beach Boys material from the beginning to the mid-70s, and then nothing until this thing from '88. That said, I have it 'cause it has a KILLER chorus. The verses are dopey as all hell (that's Van Dyke Parks in there playing accordion, though, for whatever reason - odd, since he only ever got on with Brian Wilson of all the Boys, and Brian had nothing to do with this track). But that CHORUS -- especially ending in a great Carl Wilson falsetto . . . Lovely.

I tend to agree with my friend Johnny Dresden, a big Beach Boys fan who didn't particularly like this song or Brian Wilson's solo album of the same year, that if they'd only had all of them working together on something combining the aesthetics of both projects, they would have had something.


7. "The Holy River" - The Artist Formerly Known As Prince - Emancipation

[sigh] Another sweet, lovely, insignificant pop song. I get the worst mixes when I sit down to actually do a Random Ten.

Yup, lovely, sweet, whatever. Would be perfect in a different context.


8. "Mammal" - They Might Be Giants - Apollo 18

Jesus. Continuing the trend, here with a song I really, really love - TMBG with more than a bit of their admitted Elvis Costello influence showing - that's just not working for me now.

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood from the insomnia, and ANYTHING is going to sound dopey and boring to me now.


9. "Julia Dream" - The Pink Floyd - downloaded

Oh, god. Well, maybe it'll help make me sleepy enough to catch a few zees. Early, Syd Barrett Floyd, still with the "The" in front. Acoustic psychedelia. Gorgeous, but not what I need now.

What DO I need now?


10. "She's Coming Home" - The Blues Magoos - Psychedelic Lollipop

Well, this is better. A "Nugget"-style rocker with Farfisa. Always cheers me.


Now what? Maybe some sleep and then up and try to get some more actual productive work done. Everything is confused right now. So many things to do. What order?

Well, laundry is an immediate one -- Berit and I are going to a funeral tomorrow. Very sad, but a family thing that very likely doesn't belong here, at least now.

Okay, attempt to sleep now.

Friday Late Cat Blogging

Actually got some work done today - not as much as I'd like, but more than I figured.


Hooker had to have the hematoma in his ear drained and sutured, and it'll be kinda scarred, but he'll still be cute. He has to wear one of those "cone of silence" things around his neck for at least a week, maybe more, and he's none too pleased about that. But at least he's all okay, and the floppy terrier ear he'll have will probably be quite adorable, like the Little Rascals' dog or something.





So, it's not quite as chilly in the apartment as it was this morning. When it's that cold, the cats just want to lie around like lumps.





Give em a little heat, though, and they're back at attention.





And maybe they're even plotting something crafty.





Now I have to go clean up the mess Hooker makes when he tries to eat wet food from a plate with the plastic cone around his head -- half winds up in his mouth, a quarter on the floor, and a quarter on the plastic cone, with Hooker craning his head around trying to reach the little meaty bits.