my life to live

15 November 11

DJ Drama Visits Atlanta Middle School

So here’s a funny fact: the head of my grad program at Penn is DJ Drama’s mother. She was a 30+ year veteran of the School District of Philadelphia is still one of the coolest ladies ever. Looks like she raised her son right!

20 June 11

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Find an old-school reggae station on Pandora, and coast your way through a day of making PowerPoints at your desk.

11 November 10

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10 plays

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Crystal Castles+Robert Smith+’80s cover=I am racking up “number of plays” as we speak

BTW I had a minor crush on Robert Smith in middle school

6 October 10

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oh just a little Cure to brighten up your day

(particularly if your idea of “brighten” is more along the lines of goth makeup and black clothing)

(and especially if, like me, this has been your favorite song since you were 12)

28 September 10

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20 plays

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I’m thinking about jazz. I’m thinking about darkened cities in early autumn, breezes weaving their way through glistening streets, genteel trees of deep blue shadow and gracious windows of yellow light. I’m thinking about deep green smells wafting in the air and polished families winding down their days. In one of the yellow squares, an elegant lady lifts her hair so her husband can unclasp her necklace. An elderly gentleman walks a fussy dog. I’m thinking about quiet museums and art galleries spilling light onto silent streets; I’m thinking about skyscraper lights winking on the horizon; I’m thinking about a roseate aurora pulsating about the skyline; I’m thinking of pinpoint stars scattered across a velvet sky. I’m thinking about lying in the dark on cool sheets with a streetlight glow creeping in my windows, the glass hardly separating me from the rest of the city at night, hushed but never still.

26 September 10

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My life up until I was 18 was so closely intertwined with the playing and practicing of instruments that it seems strange that, as an adult, my relationship with music should be such a passive one, restricted only to listening and watching.

My first instrument is the piano, which is too large to fit in my current apartment, let alone get up the three flights of stairs; my second is the French horn, which is too noisy and not really as therapeutic to play. (No one plays French horn when they want to unwind.)

I may try to take up guitar again—fourteen years later—if I can find one for a fair price!

10 September 10

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Way before Juno copped his songs for the soundtrack, my parents were playing Barry Louis Polisar tunes for my sister and me in the car to distract us on long drives.

7 July 10

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37 plays

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This is my new favorite band. I want them to come to Philly. This is my new favorite song, too; I just feel like it is so romantic and transcendent and moving and perfect.

From what I’ve read about the lead singer and his feelings regarding this song, and from what I can discern of the lyrics, I have a feeling the song itself is actually intended to be much more mournful than its uplifting vocals and dreamy, wistful arrangement, but there you have it.

27 June 10

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90 plays

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How’s this for a mashup?

British bird Florence Welch de la Machine covers the disco favorite, “You Got the Love”.
Extremely low-key indie sensations The xx, also from England, then remix Welch’s b-side.
The Very Best—a collaborative project consisting of Malawi expatriate and British resident Esau Mwamwaya and duo Radioclit, famous for its clever sampling—“redoes” The xx’s remix of Florence and the Machine’s cover.
All three iterations burn up music blog aggregators.

Whew! Hope you got all that.

7 June 10

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30 plays

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During the snowpocalypse, I listened to Sufjan Stevens’ Christmas album nonstop. Not because I was still in the holiday spirit, not because I have a raging, obnoxious twee boner for Sufjan Stevens, but because the golden, orchestral arrangements made me feel cozy and warm.

What is it about computerized synths and a relentless beat that make one think of summer nights? Mixes like this one are like aural air conditioning, reminiscent of those icy blasts cutting through the humid soup of a club.

Themed by Hunson. Originally by Josh