Archive for the ‘Tidbits’ Category

Beauty Catch Me On Your Tongue

October 26th, 2013

This is beautiful and hard to put descriptive words to. I used to write as a way to let the crazy voices escape my head. I need to start writing again, as the voices have only gotten louder as they have been trapped. But a video like this, reminds me that I will never be a “good” poet. Not sure if this video encourages me to write more, or discourages me as I will never be this good. This is good. Watch this.

Birthday

At 12 years old I started bleeding with the moon
and beating up boys who dreamed of becoming astronauts.
I fought with my knuckles white as stars,
and left bruises the shape of Salem.
There are things we know by heart,
and things we don’t.

At 13 my friend Jen tried to teach me how to blow rings of smoke.
I’d watch the nicotine rising from her lips like halos,
but I could never make dying beautiful.
The sky didn’t fill with colors the night I convinced myself
veins are kite strings you can only cut free.
I suppose I love this life,

in spite of my clenched fist.

I open my palm and my lifelines look like branches from an Aspen tree,
and there are songbirds perched on the tips of my fingers,
and I wonder if Beethoven held his breath
the first time his fingers touched the keys
the same way a soldier holds his breath
the first time his finger clicks the trigger.
We all have different reasons for forgetting to breathe.

But my lungs remember
the day my mother took my hand and placed it on her belly
and told me the symphony beneath was my baby sister’s heartbeat.
And I knew life would tremble
like the first tear on a prison guard’s hardened cheek,
like a prayer on a dying man’s lips,
like a vet holding a full bottle of whisky like an empty gun in a war zone…
just take me just take me

Sometimes the scales themselves weigh far too much,
the heaviness of forever balancing blue sky with red blood.
We were all born on days when too many people died in terrible ways,
but you still have to call it a birthday.
You still have to fall for the prettiest girl on the playground at recess
and hope she knows you can hit a baseball
further than any boy in the whole third grade

and I’ve been running for home
through the windpipe of a man who sings
while his hands playing washboard with a spoon
on a street corner in New Orleans
where every boarded up window is still painted with the words
We’re Coming Back
like a promise to the ocean
that we will always keep moving towards the music,
the way Basquait slept in a cardboard box to be closer to the rain.

Beauty, catch me on your tongue.
Thunder, clap us open.
The pupils in our eyes were not born to hide beneath their desks.
Tonight lay us down to rest in the Arizona dessert,
then wake us washing the feet of pregnant women
who climbed across the border with their bellies aimed towards the sun.
I know a thousand things louder than a soldier’s gun.
I know the heartbeat of his mother.

Don’t cover your ears, Love.
Don’t cover your ears, Life.
There is a boy writing poems in Central Park
and as he writes he moves
and his bones become the bars of Mandela’s jail cell stretching apart,
and there are men playing chess in the December cold
who can’t tell if the breath rising from the board
is their opponents or their own,
and there’s a woman on the stairwell of the subway
swearing she can hear Niagara Falls from her rooftop in Brooklyn,
and I’m remembering how Niagara Falls is a city overrun
with strip malls and traffic and vendors
and one incredibly brave river that makes it all worth it.

Ya’ll, I know this world is far from perfect.
I am not the type to mistake a streetlight for the moon.
I know our wounds are deep as the Atlantic.
But every ocean has a shoreline
and every shoreline has a tide
that is constantly returning
to wake the songbirds in our hands,
to wake the music in our bones,
to place one fearless kiss on the mouth of that brave river
that has to run through the center of our hearts
to find its way home.

Talk It Up, Like Yeah

September 7th, 2013

I added new songs to my home page under “Songs On Repeat.” I’ve been really digging these songs lately, and continuously hitting back on my ipod or car or itunes (too bad you can’t hit repeat on Pandora). I hope you enjoy them too.

I can no longer post the mp3 on my site for download, as I have been hacked too many times by china. Long story.

Lorde Tennis CourtTennis Courts
Pure Heroine
Lorde

I first heard of the 16 year old New Zealand singer indirectly through my friends Amber and Tiffany. I heard the track Royals and I could not get enough of it. But then, you ask, why isn’t that the track that you post here? Well, it nearly was. But the track Tennis Court off the upcoming new album (to be released Sept. 30), does something for my ears. Not exactly sure what it is.

Because I’m doing this for the thrill of it killin’ it
Never not chasing a million things I want
And I am only as young as the minute is full of it
Getting pumped up from the little bright things I bought
But I know they’ll never own me

Tennis Court by Lorde on Grooveshark

PearlJam-RiotActI Am Mine
Riot Act
Pearl Jam

I revisited this song when I saw someone quote the lyric below, one day on twitter. In life we are accosted from all directions (north, south, east, and west) that it is sometimes difficult to breathe. In those crazy times, we must realize that we control our minds, our thoughts, and our actions. We must take our thoughts captive, as we own our mind.

The north is to south what the clock is to time.
There’s east and there’s west and there everywhere lying.
I know I was born and I know that I’ll die.
The in between is mine.
I. am. mine.

I Am Mine by Pearl Jam on Grooveshark

underwatersunshineLike Teenage Gravity
Underwater Sunshine (or what we did on our summer vacation)
Counting Crows

Although I haven’t done a ton of these posts, I am still surprised that the Crows have only made my list once. Easily one of my favorite bands of all time, I am often transported emotionally when I listen to their music. So many lyrics have poked my heart, that I am often a well of emotion when singing along in my car. This cover song is no exception. I have loved this song when I have been in love, and I have loved this song when I have been out of love (even though it is a love song). I also love all of the gambling references in the song :).

you don’t need laws to tell
that if it feels like fallin’, boy, you probably already fell
the whole table saw your hand, so you might as well just play it
and you ain’t fooling anyone, so you might as well just say it
so, i guess i’m in love
i guess i’m in love
some people get scared of those words ’round here, but that’s alright

Like Teenage Gravity by Counting Crows on Grooveshark

Dexter In 60 Seconds

June 18th, 2013

Dimes

May 24th, 2013

A great game to play at a baseball game, better with more people, but I have played with as little as 3.

It is your batter…

Out = -.10
1B = +.10
2B = +.20
3b = +.30
HR = +.25
Beach Ball on Field = -$1
HBP = +.10
Walk = +.10
Sacrafice = Even
Reach By Error (unless it is a single and an error etc) = Even
RBI = +.10
SB = +.10
CS = -.10
K Swinging = -.10
K Looking = -.25

Paid out to each player, or from each player

Here With Me

December 14th, 2012

Don’t want your picture
On my cell phone
I want you here with me
Don’t want your memory
In my head now
I want you here with me

–The Killers

Here With Me by The Killers on Grooveshark

Photo Shoot Of Robbie’s Fam

December 9th, 2012

Using a camera I wasn’t used to, as well as taking pics of kids that would not sit still proved to be adventurous. But thankfully for digital cameras (and the ability to take 150 pics in 20 min), these were my favorites of the day.

Skinny Love

October 26th, 2012

And i told you to be patient
And i told you to be fine
And i told you to be balanced
And i told you to be kind

Birdy, covering Bon Iver

Generic Statement

September 3rd, 2012

I wish you were truly into me.

Susan Cain: The Power Of Introverts

July 30th, 2012

‎”When it comes to creativity and to leadership, we need introverts doing what they do best”.

Beerfest

June 3rd, 2012

Was just retweeted by Zane Lamprey to his 46K followers. How fun.

Retweeted by Zane Lamprey

This Week I'm Thinking About: Jason Roth