Oh My Ears!

Whirr... external hard drive = on.
Flooding my ears is everything I missed and forgot and love - Bjork's black hole emotional spacescapes, reverbed Azure Ray musing on her favorite cities, Beirut and their quirky accordion/warbling trumpet combo, all the histrionic Blonde Redhead i could ever want. It's heaven: free choice & possessing so many beautiful mp3 and mp4s. To know that I finally have the power to avoid the Decemberists' pathetic whining (that was a training time favorite of some of the boys in my Education group in Malawi - feel free to listen if you want to!) and drown my thoughts in dreamy trip-hop! or I can check out some freestyles by rappers who I actually know now that I didn't before like Lil Wayne (thanks Devin (: ).



.. digging up some punk roots I find Fugazi's The Waiting Room, Ev's bassy/dreamy cover of the Dismemberment Plan's The City, chill again with Buddha Bar and Cafe Des Pres, get my twitchy rhythm section instincts going with Brubeck, Arturo Sandoval, Fapy Lafertin, then feel just groovy with some Eagles, Cat Stevens, CCR (video below), even Woodie Guthrie.



And who could forget about Spanish language smoothness? Put on the Juanes and crank it up! Ojos de brujo! And Indie.. there will be indie.

So what is this, some kind of nostalgic ramble? A little, yeah! I just plugged in my dinosaur-age external HD for the first time since being home in October. I don't know why I waited; music makes the world a brilliant place. In a way, I feel so out of touch since I was away 2 years with mostly pop drivel stuck in my brain, kind of a pathetic excuse for art but at least it fuels that after-dark, candlelit dance party that you need sometimes in a lonely teacher's house in a Malawian village - but now that I have some stuff that was appropriate for 2008, it can't be hard to catch up to 2010.

Shopping in my own stuff has been super fun - this maybe coolest of all! Because sweaters can only get you so excited. Having a supply of thongs again is cool, but it won't entertain for hours. But music! Now I have a solution to these long, job-less days. And a possible way to make workouts more fun. How do you like that? I might be transitioning into the 21st century in my habits! (FYI - old as hell ipod shuffle STILL works! That is, if I can get the old version of iTunes software for it)

Shaking and grooving.

Have It Your Way: Wifi Is Everywhere.

Can't believe it! Free WiFi at the most ubiquitous place in America, even more populous than starbucks. I had *heard* that the internet is everywhere but I didn't really believe it. Now I'm watching football in front of a weird flashing fake fireplace on a squishy couch at Mickie D's.

Here are some of my early observations / culture shockin thoughts after being back in America for a few weeks, since October 3, when I came back from Africa where I lived for 2 years:

• 495 Capital Beltway driving is scary
• Blowdryers & Makeup are fun!
• Why does my family need 5 cars?? That's ridiculous.
• Salads are delicious
• Refrigeration is revolutionary, if it comes from the right need (ie. food not booze)
• TV is a dangerous time suck
• It's hard to walk from one destination to another. That makes it hard to get exercise!
• Why are so many people treating me like 1 of a number of cattle? Doesn't seem right.
• Americans aren't used to touching, but they seem to like it / be OK with it sometimes.
• Men (&women too!) spend all day looking at idealized images of the human body so anyone who looks any different is hated on/hates on themselves.
• Water tastes icky, and there's really no variety in flavor. Mmmm, chemicals.
• Bar bitches are mean
• Pavement/tarmac is pretty ugly and has an effect on me that is the opposite of relaxing. It's everywhere in 'Merica. I guess because walking on the tarmac used to be the most crowded, dangerous place in Malawi, I'm still not comfortable. Where the mountains? Trees? Maize fields??

I published this first in my Malawi blog because I'm finished my service in Malawi! Time to blog about America some more.