Last ditch pre-dialup post

Well, I'm sorry for the blog drought. I'm going to try to update here before I go home and am sans internet for a couple of weeks (although I am planning to spend a day in the Bountiful library filling out grad school applications, so maybe I'll take a break and write about Christmas then). Also, note that I've started a new playlist on my sidebar (yeah, still working on that feature), so feel free to offer suggestions.

It's been a busy week, largely because I worked all of the hours I possibly could before they kicked me out of the MAD for good. Yesterday I worked a solid 12 hours, and I think I got a good eight in on the other days this week. Needless to say, my neck and back are even more full of knots than they usually are from hours at the desk, but it was fun, and I'm still going to miss that place, my excellent coworkers, and finding all of the cheesy pictures that cheesy musicians put all over their albums. Amazing. (Today I shelved a new DVD called "Harp-felt Song" or something like that. Ridiculous.) I did make use of my continuing privileges in the library for the break though - everyone gets all of their materials until January right now, so I checked out five operas, two Messiah scores for a sing-in we're going to try to hit over the holidays, and four movies. I don't know when I'll make use of them, but I figure that if I fill out grad school applications to opera I'll probably sound smarter.

On Wednesday, Miri and I had our final hours together. We went to Olive Garden for soup, salad and breadsticks, then watched "What Not To Wear" (GREAT episode with a lady who had the ugliest pants I've ever seen) and the beginning of an episode of Gilmore Girls. We'd had our roommate Christmas Eve-ish already, but it was nice to have one more outing with just the two of us. I'm really going to miss her. (And you too, Mike.) Best of luck to both of them in Texas.

To console myself, I found something new and amazing, and I converted Torie and Amanda as well. 

This is BBC's Robin Hood series, which I found out about because it features Richard Armitage of my favorite BBC miniseries. You know I'm a dork if you read this blog, but good crimony. This show is so great. I'm a little sad that I accidentally ruined a big plot twist for myself on the BBC website today, but I'm still excited to get a hold of season two. My favorite moment was the Eric Clapton reference in the 3rd or 4th episode. Some random guy: "I shot the sheriff!" Sheriff: "No, you shot the deputy." Oh, those Brits and their Eric Clapton.

I thoroughly enjoyed both Christmas Eve-ishes with both sets of roommates - they all know me so well, and we had a blast giving each other awards in the new apartment or just being generally awesome as part of the old 154/36. Lindsey wrote about this in a lot more detail, and I just don't feel coherent enough to go into it at the moment, but it was grand and funny. 

Finally, I'd like to leave you with this list of things you may have missed so far this Christmas season, but should check out before it's over. 

• Joyeux Noel - possibly my favorite Christmas movie after It's a Wonderful Life (and Muppet Christmas Carol, but we're not talking about that, which by the way was again amazing this year with scones and hot chocolate and Doug's amazing set up). It's an absolutely beautiful film about a Christmas Eve truce during WWI, and I don't think they could have made it more wonderful and poignant. Check it out - even the less movie-obsessed members of Mushie night liked it . . . and watched it with us a second time when we watched it for Whitney's sake two days later.
• Sufjan Stevens's version of "The Friendly Beasts." I noticed it because of the incredible version that showed up at the Tabernacle Choir concert this year, but it's delightful.
• Please tell me you've already listened to David Bowie and Bing sing this year. You know you want to.
• Notice when Ingrid Michaelson mentions Christmas in "The Hat" and when Ben Folds mentions it in "You to Thank," and when the National talks about holiday lights in "Gospel." Christmas is everywhere!
• Listen to Blues Traveler's "Christmas," which was partially composed by Trey Anastasio of Phish (I just found out!) and includes the line that sounds dumb when I type it but great when it's sung: "I wish a one-horse open sleigh would come and carry me away, but I've been waiting here all day and one just hasn't come my way." Yay.
• Last year's Tabernacle choir concert, which is now on DVD. The King Singers are just generally fabulous, but their version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is almost as amazing as the rendition performed at the Winegar family Christmas party every year. 
• Anything by John Rutter that says Christmas in front of it. 
• All kinds of amazing Christmas stuff that I missed last year and this, but you can include the Decemberists' song, "Daddy, Don't Get Drunk This Christmas." I think there was some better stuff - Death Cab last year, Ingrid Michaelson and Brandi Carlile this year - all I know is it's out there and you can find it if you need something new that isn't the same Christmas music that you hear on the radio every year. (Let's be honest - some of it just gets obnoxious after awhile. It's nice to mix it up.) 
• Enjoy lines like "The logs on the fire fill me with desire," and "the lights are turned way down low, let it snow," and then think about why so many Christmas songs are about lust. Seems a little out of sync to me, but then people do get trampled to death at the Wal-mart Christmas sales, so it's better than that. At least it's lurve. 
• Claymation Christmas, which is definitely available in BYU's music and dance library. Trust me.

And now that I feel thoroughly crazy, I'm going to go to bed so that I can go sledding with my roommates before I go home (because I decided I didn't want to drive home in the snow and then it stopped snowing and then I didn't want to drive home in the dark, but as long as I'm still here, I may as well take an hour out to hurl myself down an ice-covered hill with nothing but a garbage sack for protection). 

If you were all waiting for this post with great anticipation, I apologize for the lack of flow and the atrocious punctuation. I just reread it and realize that I sound like a loon. But there you are. Now I go to the strange internetless land of home, so you'll have to have human style interaction with me. (And Trebby's coming home in just a couple of days!) 

The end. 

I'm sad how close to right on this is.

Eleanor would be proud.

Last Saturday, Whitney and I went to see The Joy Luck Club at International Cinema. It was fabulous, but there was one part that really stuck out to me, and I've been thinking about it ever since.

There are about eight story lines in that movie, but in one, the girl gets married and tries to do everything for her husband behind the scenes. They final start divorce negotiations after he asks her one night if she's happy because she won't offer an opinion about what to have for dinner, and he tells her that she's not the woman he married because she doesn't ever do anything for herself or speak up for herself or have any kind of personality. I don't know why I'm trying to explain that - here's a kind of bad quality clip of it so that you can be less confused.

Anyway, her mother tells her a story and talks about how she's undervaluing herself, and when she confront her husband she says something like, "I'm the one who told you that my love was worth less than yours. I'm the one who did it. But it's not, and you're not taking my house. Get out of my house."(I wish I could find a clip of that part, but alas.) It's this really amazing moment in the movie, and it hit me really hard.

Can anyone else really diminish us? We are always the ones who undervalue ourselves. When I'm feeling bad about myself, it's inevitably because I've decided that there's something wrong with me, not because of what anyone else said or did. Other people can make a difference, but only if you value their opinion more than yours, right? 

I guess we could take this one step further and pull out some eternal truths about divine nature - I know I'm doing it in my head, because the conclusion that comes from this train of thought is that I can't trust anyone's opinion of myself over my own opinion of myself, except that sometimes my perception is off, whereas if I add one more extension and say there is one opinion that I can value over my own, then it becomes a little more perfect in the idea department. 

In any case, it was some much needed food for thought.
Also, I'm about to hit my 300th post. Hopefully I can think of something good.

Weekend Music Update

Despite the fact that the majority of my music consumption this week has been opera, I do have some things to say about music that the rest of you may or may not actually care about. (However, if you care about the opera fetish at all, I can tell you that it was much easier than I thought it would be to fall in love with it. After Don Giovanni and The Flying Dutchman, I listened to Rigoletto and half of La Traviata and Candide at work while I was working on a big boring search project, and I'm more than halfway through Fidelio. Also, did you know there's a part of Madame Butterfly that sounds like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" for the first half of the line, and "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the second half? "Have yourself a, by the dawn's early light." That's how you should sing along to it.) So anyway, here are my thoughts:

• Have you heard about seeqpod.com? My friend Logan introduced it to me this week when he was encouraging me to listen to the new Sigur Ros album. It's a little like Pandora, but you can actually pick which songs you listen to and make playlists. Pretty cool stuff. 
• You radio-listeners have probably heard it a million times already, but I was reminded of it again tonight. The Killers new song "Human." Um . . . Would someone please explain to me what the question "Are we Human, or are we Dancer?" even means? I have to admit that I like the song, but that doesn't stop me from giving it a resounding "huh?" whenever I hear it. I'd really appreciate anything you all can offer me by way of explanation. 
• I just found out that Andrew Bird is going to be in Utah in February. I'm pretty sure that this would be a fantastic show, so if anyone out there wants to go, by all means let me know sometime before February. 
• I'm going to see the Aquabats with Clark this weekend. I am so ready to fight those villains. 
• I'm pretty sure that my 10-year-old boom box is about to die, which is sad, because although I have no problem listening to most things through compressed files and computer speakers, I feel that opera, like jazz, should be listened to on CD. However, it doesn't seem to be an improvement when the CD player starts fuzzing periodically. I'm grateful that my car sound system has some pretty quality capabilities. It's not like I'd have room for a new sound system right now, but someday I would so love to have an awesome entertainment system so that I could listen to my music and see my movies the way the were meant to be enjoyed. I can't wait to be a rich, eccentric, opera-loving supervillain librarian someday. 

A plug for something really cool.

For those of you who don't hover around the links portion of my blog, I thought I'd point one of them out. 

Long ago, my brother Clark had a dream - a dream to write a great science fiction novel. Later, the dream expanded and he wanted to write a movie. Then he wanted to make the movies himself, so he started learning about film equipment and started entering film contests and creating movies with friends. He's gradually been working toward acquiring the skills to fulfill some of these dreams, and somewhere along the way, he found a couple of other guys with a great idea to help other people who wanted to learn how to create better writings, movies, etc., and thus Review Fuse was born. 

I think this project is really cool. They've created a writing community where people can get honest reviews from their peers and also learn by critiquing others' work. You don't get reviewed unless you review, and there are guides to help reviewers to give really constructive feedback. Soon they'll be adding private writing groups where you can create your own group with people you know or with other people who are writing the same kinds of things. 

I was recently exploring the site in more depth because I was helping the founders with something they were trying to add, and it has really grown since it first appeared on the web. I think it's really a cool service for people who are trying to improve their writing, and it's getting better all the time based on the ideas of the founders and the feedback of the people who are using it. 
For those of you who are interested in learning more, I'm posting the how to video from the website, www.reviewfuse.com. (The narrator is actually my brother. Very professional, no?) Registration is free, so you should check it out if you have any yen to write.

End of shameless plug.

An Addendum

I have to add that I wonder if it's wise for me to start liking yet another thing that very few people I know actually like. Am I not elitist enough as it is? Should I really be giving myself another pastime to enjoy on my own?

Alas. I fear it is too late. Don Giovanni has me hooked. On to Der fliegende Hollander. 

Aria Ready?

I've decided that I want to like opera.

I've wanted to like it for a long time. I've been to a couple of operas now (La Boheme, The Marriage of Figaro), and I enjoyed them, but I've never just liked listening to it.

I've been reading a book called Bel Canto. It's a very lovely book, one of those that make me feel the  way East of Eden made me feel. Some books are sit on the edge of your seat and devour books, and other books are sit back and savour books. This is the latter type of book, as was East of Eden. Anyway, several of the characters in this book are opera lovers, and while I'm reading about them I'm thinking, "Huh, I want to like opera too!" But what really pushed me over the proverbial opera edge was finding this CD at the library today.  

Mostly this is because I know two of the singers in this performance, which is saying something, because I know about 5 opera singers total. I think it's a sign, especially because I've had a thing for Bryn Terfel's voice ever since I saw him sing at the Mo Tab concert.
On the way to devotional, I asked Whitney for a couple more suggestions and ended up with these two. Funny how Whitney picked German operas, isn't it?


So I'm giving it a shot. So far I like it, which will probably seal my fate as a future super villain. (Have you noticed this? Lex Luthor is the only one I can think of right now, but I'm telling you - bad guys love opera.)

The trick is not minding that it hurts.

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who reads this blog that I love movies. I love long, drawn-out dramas, I love quick, smart comedies, I love classics and I love waiting for new movies to come out. I love everything about the movie-watching experience.

I love to see movies in the theater. I like the smell of popcorn, the over-the-top, color-clashing garishness of the theaters, the neon lights, the movie posters. I like settling into a squeaky seat, hoping that no one will sit in front of me so that I can put my feet on the back of the chair in front of me. I'm actually disappointed when I miss the previews, because I like the anticipation - both of waiting for the actual movie to start and of waiting for the movies with exciting previews. I like seeing the names of my favorite stars in big, dramatic letters and wondering if the movie will be any good. I like making fun of the movies that look horrible, feeling disgusted that people are making some of the crap that shows up on the screen, and committing the person next to me to seeing some of the movies with me. 

My favorite part of seeing movies at the theater is that moment when the movie you've been waiting for finally spreads across that screen and you just fall in. It's that beautiful moment when you know that you don't have to worry about anything else for at least two hours, but that you will worry. I know that I always get sucked into the lives of the characters on screen, and I worry for them. I gasp, I cringe, I laugh, I grin - I just generally can't help but get involved. But at the same time, I'm usually watching for camera angles, listening for soundtrack choices, and trying to figure out what other movie I've seen that guy in. 

I love watching movies at home too. Sometimes I watch movies while I'm cleaning my room or folding my laundry or even (since the invention of laptops started influencing my life) doing the dishes. These movies are usually not the kind I care too much about, and if they are, I've usually already seen them. 

I like to watch movies with friends, but sometimes it's a struggle. I hate missing crucial parts of the movie because someone was talking, and I hate being shushed when I want to comment on part of the movie. I hate having movies I love trivialized by people who don't like to work for their movies. I even hate the process of picking which movie to watch, because I almost always care and almost never have the same opinion as the majority of the group. But at the same time, I love having someone with whom to talk about the movie afterward, to make fun of the movie throughout, to quote the movie later. I love having someone else who will help me figure out why I know that guy with the funky hair. I love the shared experience of mutually loving or hating a movie. 

The reason this experience is such a tossup for me has a lot to do with the way I learned to love movies. I spent a lot of time watching movies on my own while I was growing up. When I was learning to drive, I made sure that I knew the way to my favorite video rental place (Top Hat Video - best video store ever) and I spent a good part of my sophomore year of high school renting big stacks of movies and watching them in my basement. I spent summers working on projects - tying quilts, scrapbooking, ironing - so that I'd have more excuses to watch all of the movies I wanted to see. I made lists that I kept in my wallet, and inevitably I'd find something else to see when I got to the rental place anyway. I wrote down titles when I saw bits of PBS documentaries. I found out what obscure movies my favorite actors had made and worked through those lists. I talked to my older brothers, who were just as passionate about movies as I was, and I wrote down the movies they told me to see, which is why I saw The Seventh Seal when I was 15. 

The thing that's funny now is that I find myself more and more interested in movies as art, and less and less interested in movies as entertainment. I still enjoy funny movies, some of the old musicals, the movies that are so bad they're great, but when it comes right down to it and I have a choice, I'd rather watch something serious. I've thought a lot about the reasons for this. Some of it may have to do with the number of movies I've seen at International Cinema over the years. Some of it probably has to do with my love of having snobby conversations with my brothers. A lot of it probably stems from the fact that I really hate bathroom humor, and so much of what's made today in the comedy department just seems like it relies too much on stupid gags and the gross factor. But I think the biggest reasons is that I'm always trying to make my movie watching an experience. 

When I was 15 or 16, I saw Lawrence of Arabia for the first time. It was one of those movies that I thought about for weeks after I watched it. I saw all of the special features and then searched the internet for more information about it. I bought the soundtrack just so that I could listen to it and replay the part where Lawrence rides out of the desert and says, "Nothing is written."  I have since purchased a poster of the real T.E. Lawrence and have been given a copy of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I tried to share the experience with my friends, but they fell asleep during the movie. Twice. I've never been able to help someone else to duplicate my experience with the movie, but when I watch it, I get the same thrill. It's the art of cinema at its finest. 

When I was 17 or 18, I had my own personal wake for Gregory Peck and rented a stack of his movies. I'll never forget the night when I watched On the Beach, and not just because of the cockroach incident that happened on the same night. The movie was chilling and human and moving in so many different ways for me, and although I tried to share it with other people, it was mostly just mine, and I liked it that way, even when I wanted to talk about it. 

There are some movies that I finish and want to start over again immediately (Like North and South or Little Women). There are others that make me want to write essays so that I can work out just what I think about them (I actually did this with Shadowlands and The Willow Tree, and would have with The Lives of Others if I hadn't had Whitney there to talk through it all.) Some movies are just so good that you have to take a step back and sigh when they are over because you've experienced something sublime (oddly enough, I felt this way about Sunset Boulevard. It's just so perfect to me. I felt the same way about On the Waterfront.) Some movies are become experiences because you compare them to other versions of the same movie that have been made, others because they are so completely new that you don't even know what to think.  In all of these cases though, they become a part of your consciousness - the images, the lines, the ideas - and a really good movie can change the way I see the world in a very indelible way. It's the reason I choose the movies that I see carefully, and ignore other movies completely. It's the reason I make lists and then blog about the movies that I see -  I like to consider my movies both before and after as I search for more movies that will impact me and give me experiences rather than entertainment only. 

This was an exercise in insomnia because I've been wanting to write about why I'm such a nut, but now it's time to go to bed and hope that it wasn't complete nonsense. 

Fabulosity and such.

Here are various pieces of news in all shapes and sizes: 

• When I was little I had a cassette tape called Lamb Chop's Nutcracker Suite. It was utterly delightful, and I still hear some of the words Sherrie Lewis put to Tchaikovsky's songs whenever I listen to or see the ballet. I don't even remember whether I saw the ballet first or heard the tape first. All I remember is that my mom gave me the tape for Christmas one year with a Lamb Chop puppet, and that I listened to it a few hundred times. However, a couple of years ago I brought the tape down to Provo and I haven't been sure where it ended up. I was looking for it because I wanted to digitize it so that it wouldn't be obsolete when my current boom box died (which will probably happen soon - the CD player makes funny noises, and after all I've had it since I was 12). In any case, I haven't been able to find it, so I decided to look around for it. It's very out of print, and buying used copies runs anywhere from $60-360. So I turned to my favorite place - the Orem library. They came through again, and even had it on CD. Since I own the tape somewhere I didn't even feel guilty about ripping the CD to my computer, which gives me about the same result as digitizing the tape would have, but without all the hassle. Hurrah! I think every single person should hear this production, so if you're interested, by all means talk to me.li>I finally found some movies I want to see this holiday season. Seven Pounds starring Will Smith looks at least good enough to give a chance. Valkyrie looks like it could be decent despite the weirdness of Tom Cruise being a Nazi with a bunch of other British Nazis, mostly because the rest of the cast includes people like Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Terrence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson, Tom Hollander, and Eddie Izzard. It's such a random assortment of people I have liked in one place or another (even Tom Cruise, as much as he bugs me, has made the occasional good movie), and it's pretty weird that Bryan Singer is directing it, but I just think the weirdness could add up to something enjoyable. I'm crossing my fingers.
  I still very much want to see Doubt, largely because of its cast, and despite the not-so-stellar reviews I want to see The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I still want to see W. as well, so hopefully it sticks around until I can find someone else willing to see it. 
• I don't know if any of you remember this show, but I used to love the show NewsRadio. Dave Foley was amazing (sad that he's not doing much these days) and how can you go wrong with a show featuring Phil Hartman and Stephen Root? (I didn't know Stephen by his name either, by the way. He's in lots of stuff, including O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and he played Jimmy James on the show.) In any case, I recently discovered the Hulu has some 60 clips of that show online for all to see! I'm pretty delighted about the whole thing. 
• Thanksgiving was great, and not only did we discover this amazing recipe for lemon cream pie (maybe I'll swipe it from my mom and post it here, because it is truly fabulous), but our Thanksgiving took many unexpected but welcome turns. It started with Clark and Linda deciding to come to ours before going to Linda's family's (it was going to just be me, the parentals, Aunt Helen and Grandma Winegar), and then proceeded to a whole party of people when Sister Kristina Hoffman and her companion stopped by. Sebastian (her brother, for those of you who don't know the Hoffmans - they were both in my ward at the Glenwood) had called me a little while before to ask for the sisters' phone number, because he knew that Kristina was serving in my home stake. They got permission to see each other while he was up at his roommate's house for Thanksgiving, but couldn't get in touch with each other. In any case, when Kristina stopped by, I called Sebastian back and told him to come over, so we ended up with a Glenwood/missionary reunion in our living room.  
• The final news is this: I think I need to go away to grad school. After several months of having bad luck with jobs and of having an abysmal dating life, I'm beginning to feel like the universe is trying to tell me something, and that something is that I can't stay in Provo and do my little online degree. There are lots of reasons for this, including the fact that I probably wouldn't ever work at BYU if I stayed here to go to school (if I end up doing academic libraries), there are other internship/assistantship/etc. possibilities when you actually go to a place that you don't get when you're trying to work through it online, I'd probably get more bang for my buck (which is going to be a lot of bucks, so I'd better be getting a lot of bangs) and I'd get the experience of living outside of Utah. I told my mom that it's like a mission but I can talk to her whenever I want and come home for Christmas. :) Anyway, I'm heading that direction at the very least, and looking into several good schools in cool places. I'm grateful to have friends in a few of them so that I can talk through some possibilities with people who know. All of that said, I'm scared to death, and the idea of taking off to go somewhere across the country where I don't know anyone is completely horrifying. I hate it. But I also think it could be really good for me in a lot of ways, and I think it's what I'm supposed to do. I'm sure there will be more updates as I get my lazy self in gear and start filling out applications. Sigh. 

We Like Us . . . the sequel

Some of you may remember the greatness that was apartment 154 of the Glenwood. We had a lot of love for each other in that apartment, and it wasn't unusual for us to tell each other we loved each other and we loved "us" as a unit. During the time that my roommates and I lived there, we were voted "best apartment to hang out in," we started a group called "We Like Us," we called ourselves "The Hottest Thing Since Soup," and as far as I know, our mural to ourselves is still in the hall. Never, I thought as I moved out, would there be another apartment of girls so full of themselves . . . collectively.
Some examples of how full of ourselves we were from our quote wall:

You guys are pretty awesome, let’s be honest. –Lindsey

You have a definite lack of suckiness. –Megan

Mandy: I think you’d be hotter than them.
Whitney: Oh, I would be.

Miri: Megan, I like you a lot.
Megan: Well, I can’t blame you. I’m great.

Megan: He probably just realized how much he misses us.
Miri: Yeah... probably.
Megan: That's probably what everyone realized tonight, not just him. Haha... just kidding.
Miri: No you're not, you liar.
Megan: You're right... I'm not.

I assure you this is not a complete record of the pompous things we've said over the years.


I thought those days were gone once I moved away from Jennie and Miri, but since I live with Whitney "Hot and Spicy" Roberts and since Lindsey is back, I wouldn't have been particularly surprised to see some isolated incidents of self-importance. However, the other day after church we were all in the kitchen making lunch:

Torie: "I'm glad all of us are so attractive."

So true. The spirit of 154 lives on in 121. We also have our own gang sign, call each other things Whitney has taught us in old high German. ("We call each other "uuinni," which is pronounced "weenie" and means "friend," which is fun because we all call each other "weenies." Really.)



Long live us and the Zion that comes from thinking we're all awesome. 

YES!

I promise that a real post is coming soon. Last week I had all kinds of ideas but had already posted 3 things in one day, so I didn't post them, but I have more to say now, but not NOW now. In any case, to tide you over I give you the following, which I stole from Elise Crane.

Awesome isn't it? It's almost as good as the pick up line in the MAD library: "Are you an overdue book? Because you've got fine written all over you."
hahahahaha. Ah, library humor.

Pure Awesome.

In anticipation of a certain movie release this week, allow me to present the following amazing article from the A.V. Club: What Will Be the Next Abstinence Vampire?

Adherence to metre does not militate against naturalness.

I've just discovered one nerdy interest and reawakened another, all in one fell swoop. 

First, I just discovered that I love Mod Podge. I don't know what it is about it, but tearing paper and gluing it to something else is just a lot more exciting than it has any right to be. I covered a composition book this week with some pretty paper and a few of the magazine scraps I'd been saving for Giant Journaling (which, by the way, I haven't done for quite a long awhile. I think my goal for the new year will be to organize some art supplies into some usable system - and in the process acquire some more, like at least one complete set of markers and maybe some paints and paint brushes. But I digress.) In any case, it turned out very nicely, and since I am a journal hoarder, I had to find some really specific purpose so that I could start using it immediately, so I'm using it to start writing poetry again. 

A couple of years ago, Treb sent me this book.  

I was excited about it at the time, but I didn't realize just how amazing it was because I didn't yet comprehend the amazingness that is Stephen Fry. 

Anyway, this book is all about writing poetry, and it's a nice refresher course on meter and form and all kinds of other things, which is nice, because the reason I stopped writing poetry was the same sort of reason that I haven't giant journaled for a long time - my tool kit is a little depleted and I'm creating crap instead of cool stuff. 

It's kind of fun. Stephen Fry is hilarious, and the book is conversationally entertaining. For some reason that makes the exercises more appealing, so I've been writing a lot of lines in iambic pentameter. I've started reading his stuff and writing before bed, which means I go to sleep thinking in iambic pentameter. I think that one of these nights it will give a funny lilt to my dreams. (No matter how naturally I read poetry when it's done, I always do an exaggerated mental lilt when I'm writing it to make sure I'm actually getting five feet and real iambs.) 

I'm not very far into this, so I'm excited to move beyond that, but already my poetry is getting less icky, scattered and cheesy. It may still be notebook-worthy only, but at least I'll feel like I'm making something worthwhile instead of repeatedly creating collections of illogically-spaced sentences. 

Our new pastime

For a long time it's been a policy that we often take pictures and say "be candid, then end up with something like this.
It's completely posed and ridiculous, which, naturally, you would expect with such a ridiculous request.

Our new favorite thing to do is along the same lines, except we actually pose our "candid" shots so that they look candid. The following pictures were posed so that they would look candid. I think they're kind of amazing. 

This is a fun game. You should play it sometime. 

Zeelightful

Since Christmas is coming, and since I have faith in Lindsey's products, I'm going to give her a little plug here. 

Last month when I went to pick Lin up from Maryland, we were hanging around Annapolis for a couple of hours and saw some little girl tutus in a shop. They were about $30, and Lin said, "I make cuter tutus than that." And it's true. Exhibit A: 

She also makes tutus for dolls, and last night I watched her make an adorable one on a onesie. She's selling them right now for about $15, but so far only a few of her styles are up on her Etsy shop website. After Thanksgiving she'll be adding more pictures (some gifts are in the works, and after she gives them she'll have some ready-made models) and probably a few more styles, although the tutus are custom, so there are quite a few possibilities out there. Last night she was working with some bright blue tulle and a big pink flower. 

Check Lin out at her website and on her crafty blog, and if you have lots of friends with little girls (Julie, Linda), spread the word. These are cuter and nicer than most of the tutus you can find in stores, and they are definitely less expensive. 

End of plug.

Aw.

I'll write more later when I stop being lazy and upload my own pictures, but this is my adorable new nephew, Maddux Henry Winegar.

I took this picture, so I feel justified in stealing it from Julie. The other one is just too cute.

A couple more:

In case you're wondering . . .

. . . the job interview seemed to be okay. I certainly wasn't expecting to be interviewed by four librarians, but they were all very nice and a couple of them even knew Aunt Helen. I only sounded like a complete loon to myself on a couple of questions, and I will say this: any interview that begins with one of the people telling you that you have beautiful eyelashes and ends with someone else telling you they love your purse can't turn into a total self-esteem dive, so hurray for those sweet ladies.
The person in charge of processing is on vacation until Monday, so they said they won't be able to tell me until the end of next week. I'll just try to relax until then.

In other news, Julie is, to the best of my knowledge, having a baby as I type this. I should have a new nephew by the time I wake up. Yay!

More lists

Top on my current reading list:

• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
• World War Z by Max Brooks
• (And now that I'm looking at my book shelf, everything else that's there.)

Songs of the week:

• "Soon We'll Be Found" by Sia
• "Pressure Suit" by Aqualung
• "Kicking the Heart Out" by Rogue Wave
• "Parting Gift" by Fiona Apple
• "Promises Like Pie-Crust" by Carla Bruni
• "Miniature Birds" by Grand Archives

Movies I am interested in seeing (especially after goofing around on The A.V. Club this morning): 

• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
• Doubt
• The Accidental Tourist
• W.
• The Fall
• Ghost Town
• Frost/Nixon

Things I like about winter coming:

• Wearing my coats, which are adorable
• Being inside sipping hot chocolate
• The impending Christmas season
• The urge to make blankets
• The fact that it brings my new nephews closer to coming (one of them this week!!)

More coming later, because I've been composing mental lists all week.

To Become a Librarian

Warning: this post may be excessively boring to those of you not interested in library schools.

Today I bought myself a shiny new notebook so that I could get down to the business of really applying for grad school. Anything is better if you're using a shiny new notebook.

Exhibit A

In any case, I've started the process of researching which schools actually deserve my application fee, and it's scaring me. My grades in college were pretty decent - well within the range they keep throwing out. My GRE school was okay - above the basic requirement for some schools, but who knows on some of the others? I'm beginning to think I should take it again, and I really don't want to. I think that I'll make some phone calls to admissions offices and ask the schools I care about whether they really care about my ability to memorize words and remember 7th grade math. Maybe I'm worrying about nothing, but one school talked about their average acceptance and it was higher than my score (at least the raw one from test day - still waiting for the official score) which was a really weird feeling for me. My test taking abilities paid my way through college, for Pete's sake! How is this an issue? (Answer: I probably should have studied more instead of being cocky about it. Sigh.)

In any case, I'm starting to zero in on the things I like about schools. I like it when there is interaction with faculty. I'm looking at online programs almost exclusively, and I'm really drawn to the ones that emphasize their small class sizes and online chats with classmates. I also like it when the classes are fairly structured so that I don't end up doing my course work in December and April. There are a couple of places so far that I particularly like. I've looked into Rutgers more than any of the others, so the other explanations aren't very comprehensive yet. (Rutgers has a killer website - very easy to use and therefore very effective at convincing.)

• Rutgers University - class sizes are limited to 20 people, there's only one visit to campus (but it's in New Jersey, so maybe I could go before the orientation and visit Treb in NY . . .), the online classes are taught by the regular faculty, and though the classes don't have set times, they are very scheduled. 
• Drexler University - supposed to be one of the best programs in the country, seems to have a nice setup
• University of Alabama - live classes, least expensive program out there by a long shot. But it is Alabama.
• University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana - this program is supposed to be the best in the country and it's in Chicago, which would be cool. However, it has the most ridiculous application process and has visits to campus almost every semester. Although I'd love to visit Chicago, that seems excessive.
• University of Washington - looks like a good program, and I'd love to visit Washington frequently. Also very expensive.
• University of North Texas - some residencies, but there's a center in Vegas, so I could always go there instead of Texas. Lots of BYU students go this route. 

Anyway, that's the list so far. I've looked into some others - Emporia State in Kansas, University of Texas in Austin (which is where Janssen is getting her degree, and which had the website that scared me about my GRE score) and a few others, but these are the schools I've been coming back to. 

It's scary applying to grad school. I wasn't scared when I applied to BYU - I had ridiculous, I-have-no-life grades, good test scores, lots of extracurriculars - no sweat. This seems different somehow. I did well in college, but I wasn't nearly as much of a perfectionist as I was in high school. I wish I had more idea of what these programs accept, but I just don't, and it kills that uber-confidence I had before. (Especially because I don't have the money to pay $800 per credit and I really want a fellowship or something like unto it so that I don't bury myself in student loans and then have them forever because I'm a librarian. Seriously.) I'm not excited about writing my personal statement or asking people to write nice letters for me (Dr. Benfell already agreed to do one of them, but I need two more, and I have people who will write them, but some of them are my English teaching professors and I'm not excited about telling them I'm not teaching for an indefinite period of time.) Add to all of this the fact that I read Makayla's blog and she is crazy on top of things (and is studying for the GRE about 10 times more than I did) and still nervous about everything . . . well, ick. 

Anyway, my great hope is that I get a job in the library and they help me out, but especially it's that I get accepted to a good program so that I can learn how to shush people and wear my hair in a bun and all of the other library essentials. I think the notebook/list method is a good start. :)

For Treb (and me)

Also, just because, I really like this video, and especially the song. I only know a couple of things by Sia, but I kind of like her.

Things that are obnoxious or amazing

Obnoxious:

1. We have no water in our apartment. No one told us it was going to be turned off, but suddenly there was none. I'm just glad I got to take a shower before it happened.
2. Our internet has also, inexplicably, stopped working. The good news is that we can swipe internet from a few of our neighbors, but where is ours and why is it dead? Are the internet people and the water people conspiring against us?
3. Pat the crazy blog stalker, who told Miri that she was a bandwagoner who didn't have any idea why she voted the way she did, and called us her cronies. (Okay, the cronies bit was a little funny. But overall, Pat was absurd. You have no right to demand explanations from people you have never met and whose situations you don't understand.)
4. Now it turns out that lots of people in Provo are waterless, and no one knows why, so Clark and Linda, I might be coming to your place when I start smelling. 
5. Background first: I just finished reading Dracula, and while it was a decentish story, I just couldn't get over the number of times Bram Stoker thought it was necessary to talk about a) how some things are just lessons that poor women must learn, b) thank goodness for stout-hearted, strong men and c) women do not remember details or think logically, but Mina thinks like a man because she's actually intelligent. So the obnoxious thing there is that I can't let it go. I realize that it was a different time, but I've read lots of people from that time period who didn't find it necessary to point out the (stereotypical, false) differences between men and women on every other page, and it really cut down on my enjoyment. Also, the climax was fairly lame after all of that effort. Oh well. 

Amazing:

1. The fact that we are going to get Indian food tonight with a large group of people I really like.
2. The scarf I got for pretty cheap at Target last night while Lindsey was buying fingerless gloves. It's black with colorful polka dots and looks pretty in my hair.
3. Yesterday I was sitting in the MDML cataloging, and one of my coworkers came in singing "Say It To Me Now" by Glen Hansard. 
4. The fact that a new baby is expected in my family any day now.
5. 30 Rock, which I watched a little of last night and may have to start watching. Kind of awesome. 
6. Omelets + What Not to Wear.

That is all. 

Another uninnocent, elegant fall Into the unmagnificent lives of adults.

I have an interview next week for a more permanent position in the library. They've been letting me stay on at the MAD library (because they love me) in spite of the internship ending, but it's still crappy pay and not enough hours, and what's more, it really has to end by Christmas. I'd really love something that would last beyond December, pay better, and give me another 10 hours a week, not to mention a little more potential for getting help with my MLS tuition. Anyway, this is a plea for some good vibes or prayers to head my way on Wednesday of next week so that I can stop being a bum living off the sale of my own bodily fluids. 

Meanwhile, I am sick of the political fighting that's been going on for the last few days. I don't want to be afraid of which friends are going to launch sarcastic attacks on me or my friends next. I'm tired of having my loyalty to my religion questioned because I didn't vote the same way as someone else. It's childish and it's hurtful and it's wrong. I love this post that has already been passed around by a few of my other friends. My favorite part goes like this: 

  ". . . no one party is going to fit everything that you believe. And it will definitely never represent your LDS values if there are no LDS people involved in it. I'm not saying this is about joining the enemy camp just because, but if you find that the Democratic Party or your local Democratic candidates match up with your views on education, taxation, energy, health care, the environment, and whatever else, then you may want to take a second look. For example, the Utah County Democrats are pro-life. Because you can be pro-life and a Democrat." 

In other words, if you don't support the Democrats on those issues, be glad that I do, so that maybe someday people in Utah will stop running uncontested because there will be good candidates from both parties, and you won't be stuck voting for Huntsman just because there's no one who's anyone running against him. (And really - 11,000 people voted for SUPERDELL? Clearly something in the system is broken.) All of you who are so fond of the market system (winkie face) must see that competition is a form of quality control in politics too, and Huntsman barely had to do any campaigning to win again by a landslide. 

I've already said more than I actually wanted to about politics, because really, I just can't take anymore explanations about why I'm wrong, simplified for my poor, led away by fancy rhetoric, misguided brain. Accept that not everyone has the same opinion, even (gasp!) within the same religion, and celebrate the quality the emerges when we "reach across the aisle" (to quote our good buddy McCain, who, by the way, was a classy as could be the other night) and try to solve problems together. You can't do that unless you first have an aisle. 

Change America Could Believe In

I'm bracing myself to be bombarded with disappointed comments already, but . . .

YAY!

All up in my grill sayin' "Nevermore!"

It was a good Halloween this year.
After a week of working on our costumes while watching scary movies, they turned out to be fabulous. Add to that Lindsey's mad hair skills, some very gold eyeshadow, boy entrancers and a less than horrible dance party, and you have a recipe for success.
Earlier in the day, I took advantage of early voting. I'll be working at the library from 9-5 on Tuesday, and I knew that the polls would be insane after that, so I made sure that my voice was heard.
I got to talk to my brother a little after that, (he got a job in New York!) and then read some Dracula. In the evening, I put Whitney's hair in curlers for the coming costume preparations, and as soon as Lindsey came down, we got to work braiding, curling, pinning and painting. We helped Amanda and Torie a little with their costumes, and we all had fun getting ready together. (I even got to put green eyeliner on one of their guy friends. See the vampire below.)
Amanda's costume was my favorite - she was a black and white movie star. Awesome, huh? Torie made a gorgeous Egyptian, and as the Fates, we were rockin.
The music was mostly decent, and I did manage to enjoy the dancing to some extent. (Dances are still not even close to my favorite way to spend the evening.) Poor Lindsey tried to take a picture of me dancing at the beginning and I kind of rudely shut her down. I don't dance on demand, and I feel really uncomfortable at dances, especially at first, so I was in no mood to have my discomfort recorded. Luckily, Whitney is amazingly uninhibited on the dance floor, so Lin still got lots of pictures.
My favorite moment of the evening was actually when we were leaving (after our party was broken up by cops. Hahaha. Good old noise ordinance). Lindsey and I were trying to follow Whitney out, and she started singing "I will follow her, follow her wherever she may go..." and I joined in and we sang the entire song at the top of our lungs. It was hilarious.

Several members of the 208th ward

The fates + Amanda

My favorite picture of Lindsey and me from the night

All of the roommates in our Halloweeny glory

The Fates

We followed up our night with a little dose of SNL, and our roommates finally got to understand how funny our constant repetition of "With my by myself" and "I like chasing cars" are with this video, which gets funnier to me every time I see it, probably because we reenact it so often.

Don't forget.

In The Know: Has Halloween Become Overcommercialized?

There's another choice . . .

If you are a Utah resident preparing to vote, you should know that there's another choice for governor. You don't have to vote for Huntsman or Springmeyer.
You can vote for this guy.
It should be noted that this is not entirely a joke. He is actually on the ballot with a statement about how if you open your heart and ask God, your answer will be that he should be our governor.

(It should also be noted that just because you can vote for him doesn't mean you should.)

Speaking of choices, I've been looking at some of the other things that will be on my ballot, and I'm annoyed. Every single proposition has an argument for, but not one has an argument against. Surely there is some opposition to these proposed amendments, but how am I supposed to find out what it is? How can I participate in the democratic process if I don't know the full story on these things? And why on earth should I care if the legislature meets a week later? These are important issues, and I want answers. This, more than anything, is the reason I'd really like to see a two party system in Utah.
I was going to vote early yesterday, but I wasn't feeling well, so I think I'll head over tomorrow. Nothing like voting to make your Halloween. Maybe I'll do a Thriller dance out of the booth.

Ah yes! I remember it smelled . . .

I think that smell is the greatest vehicle for nostalgia that we have. Sometimes I find myself thrust into the past over sounds (songs especially) or sights (pictures, returning to places), but as far as that really crazy near deja vu experience goes, smell is in a class on its own.
I started thinking about this concept a few weeks ago when I was walking home from the park. I smelled some overripe grapes while I was walking by one house, and it reminded me of the grape vines in our backyard in Bountiful. That has always been part of the smell of fall to me: overripe grapes, rotting leaves, bonfires. It takes me back to those days of raking up the leaves from our maple tree and building forts out of them with Tyson and Melissa.
Since then I've been noticing smells. I think fall is one of the more potent times for it, because everything has been sending me reeling. Last winter my mom gave me this little stuffed dog with a rice bag in its stomach. Every time I heat it up now the smell reminds me of the craziness of last winter, especially of waking up at 5 am with my bed still a little warm and trying desperately to talk myself into getting up and driving to Spanish Fork again.
I also go through stages with my lotion, which creates some interesting smell memories. I'll wear one scent for a little while, then switch to something else or nothing else. Lately I've been using my White Tea and Ginger again, and it's been taking me back to my first reading of Twilight. Weird, huh? Wearing Brown Sugar and Fig takes me back to the Christmas when Landon set me up with a kid named Evan, who took me to see The Chronicles of Narnia.
That rotting leaves smell I talked about earlier - that shows up all over the place, especially in canyons and parking lots. You know the one I mean - kind of a sickly sweet smell of decay and rain and leaves. It makes me think of one year at the Glenwood when I always smelled it in this one little place on my walk to school and it was a comforting smell. It brings back memories of listening to the Black Crowes and getting over things.
Add to that smells like baking cookies and cinnamon potpourri and new car and the blue Herbal Essences shampoo, and you pretty much have me remembering my whole life. It makes complete sense to me that the change of seasons and Christmas and things like that hit you harder. There's more to smell and more to remember.
I thought if I wrote long enough I'd figure out a point to this post. No such luck, just some meandering thoughts. Annie Dillard I am not, but maybe if I keep it up I'll work it out someday.

GREat

I am really happy that the GRE is over. After a week of harder core studying (especially yesterday) and six weeks of less hard core studying, I went to Lindon this morning to brave my first computerized standardized test.
I liked doing the writing part on the computer. I inevitably change my mind about how I want to start essays, and it was nice to have that option instead of just sticking with my initial start because I didn't want to scribble things out.
There's always a dummy section on the GRE - you either get two verbal sections or two quantitative sections, and you don't know which one doesn't count. Except I'm pretty sure that the first of my quantitative sections was my dummy section, because I completely bombed it, and the second one went a little better. My score wasn't as ridiculous as it would have been if I'd got the first score, so I'm thankful for that. The verbal was okay - it's kind of luck of the draw on whether you know the words, but it wasn't too awful.
I had knots in my stomach for several hours afterward. That stupid timer is stressful. It didn't help that BYU cut it a little too close for comfort today.
Tonight was our family Halloween party, which meant doughnuts, apple juice and homemade chili. (How do you spell that when you mean the food and not the country? Chilie? Chilli? Chilly? Okay, now they all look weird.) My nephews were adorable as super heroes (Ironman, Captain America, Batman, Robin) and Savy made a beautiful Sleeping Beauty with light up shoes. I'll have to steal pictures from someone and post them.
Sleeping tonight and beginning next week without feeling like I should be studying vocabulary is making me happy right now. Also, the thought of making Halloween costumes with Lindsey and Whitney, and the fact that Sami will be trying to make my hair less boring on Monday. (Not shorter, just more exciting - layers, possibly pin-backable fringe. We'll see how brave I get.)

I suck at studying.

But have I mentioned lately that I love M. Ward?

And M. Ward playing with Zooey Deschanel?


Because it's a lot.

Down with the creepy Stepford picture!

This is mostly for Treb, but the rest of you can enjoy as well.

About Today

In the spirit of Halloween, today I rented two movies. 1) Truly Madly Deeply (not scary, but has ghosts) and 2) The Stepford Wives (1975 version). I'm pretty excited about both. The picture on the back of Stepford is absolutely terrifying (it's a different picture of the character whose picture I posted - why are her eyes completely black??), but honestly, what could be better than a horror movie with a feminist agenda? (Nothing. That's the answer. Unless you also have popcorn as well. That would be better.) Anyway, Lin and I have plans to watch one or both tomorrow night, and hopefully Miri and Krissie and Whitney will be joining us when their schedules permit.
I took a GRE practice test today. I need to brush up on my math. Yikes. But my timing was pretty good - I managed to answer all of the questions, and once I got the hang of things it wasn't too horrible. I'll be taking a few more this week, as well as reading other select bits of my Princeton Review book and studying GRE hit list words. Sigh. C'mon 1000 the first time so I only have to take it once.
Also, Mormons are weird. Tonight we played dodgeball for FHE. With toilet paper. Being pegged with a roll of toilet paper hurts more than you would think. I'm pretty sure I have a bruise from my home teacher hitting me in the arm with a roll. It was a fun time . . . but pretty funny in terms of what people do for fun in the real world verses what we do here.
I applied for a cataloging job in the library today. I would really like it. I'm afraid that there will be other, more experienced catalogers who have friends in high places. But I can dream, can't I? Keep your fingers crossed just in case.
And now I am very excited to go to bed, because I washed my sheets and pajamas today and they smell good.

You have a Julius Caesar world?

Last night Whitney and I saw a production of Julius Caesar in Cedar City that completely changed the way we will see that play forever. In Whitney's words, it rocked our Julius Caesar worlds. (Lindsey and Miri immediately noted that it was cool that we have Julius Caesar worlds. Not everyone does.)
It was a modern dress production, which always makes things more interesting for me. I had never see Caesar live, and though I've read it a few times, the only version I'd seen was the old James Mason/Marlon Brando version, and I'd always read it just the way they performed it. I saw Antony as a big hero standing up against terrorists or power-hungry fanatics. I saw Cassius as a sleezy, smooth-talking creep who pulled the wool over poor, noble Brutus's eyes.This production was not the same old Julius Caesar.

This picture comes from the second act. Antony is the Italian-looking guy in green, Brutus is the one with the red beret, and Cassius is the one snarling.

The way the characters were played contributed a lot of my new mental version of this play. Cassius was played more sympathetically than I had ever imagined him. I could actually understand why Brutus respected and followed him. Antony, on the other hand, was a crazy playboy who seemed out of touch with the political implications of Caesar taking the crown. Brutus's speech seemed completely legitimate, while Antony seemed to be working to incite the citizens to riot, which he did. The end result of his "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" speech was a lot of screaming and breaking glass and fire, and after intermission we had entered a military state that reminded me of some African countries and a documentary I saw about elections in Bolivia.

Although I still didn't think that Brutus and his buddies were in the right when they killed Caesar, it made more sense to me this way. They didn't seem to be after power, and Brutus in particular didn't seem to be lured by the idea that he should raise himself higher. They seemed genuine in their push for a better Rome, their desperate attempt to save their country from tyrants. When Cassius and Brutus killed themselves at the end, it didn't feel like they were doing it because they were feeling guilty; instead, it referred back to a speech Cassius had made about how all men are free from tyrants if they choose to be so (with the help of a knife). They seemed to have abandoned hope under the new Octavius/Antony administration and saw no other way out.
It was truly a fascinating production, and I am glad to say that not only do I have a Julius Caesar world now, but it has been rocked like crazy.

My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion - A Playlist

A few weeks ago the A.V. Club posted a pretty great autumn playlist, "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground: 25 Sad Songs for the Changing Seasons." I like the idea of this playlist, and thought I'd add my own autumn songs to the list (although with less explanation than they write. I'm not getting paid for it.) My current iTunes playlist includes theirs (as availability in my library allows) and the following:

• "Yardwork in November" by The Actual Tigers - The Actual Tigers are severely underrated, and this song is one of their best. It's perfect for this time of year, with images of flower beds losing their color and life, people listening for the sound of snow on their roofs, etc. It's a beautiful and worthwhile song at any time of year, but more so right now.
• "Autumn" by Carla Bruni - Even her voice sounds like leaves rustling. It's awesome.
  
• "Autumn" by Paolo Nutini - This is a beautiful song with a nice use of the autumn/death metaphor.
  
• "Lost in Autumn" by The Sea and the Cake - Chill, melancholy, the end of autumn equals the realization that there never was a relationship and life is dark and gloomy. Perfect. :)
• "Autumn Walker" by Jets to Brazil - Autumn is a reminder that "all things must end, but did you know what that meant?"
• "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion" by The Flaming Lips - This is awesome. It provides a reminder that everything dies and changes, and "only a fool believes that he is different from the birds in the sky," but ends up with the rebellion - "This one bird didn't leave you . . . yes it's true, everything dies, but we won't let that defeat us." As trippy as the Flaming Lips are, they still have some pretty great sentiments.
• "September Baby" by Joseph Arthur - "You can feel the falling leaves filling up our vacant lives/When I fall onto my knees, I pray you don't leave me behind. Summertime is over, I don't owe you nothing."
  
• "Summer Skin" by Death Cab for Cutie - The saddest of all relationship endings - "the season's change was a conduit, and we left our love in our summer skin." Tragic.
  
• "Pale September" by Fiona Apple - A reversal of some of the other songs - September comes and she thinks that everything is going to sink into the oblivion of death and sadness, but instead someone comes and she keeps him warm. Lovely.
  
• "August & September" by The The - Summer ends, so does relationship. Typical. But a pretty classy song.
  
• "November" by Duncan Sheik - an incredibly over-the-top melancholy song about how sad and dark November is as we remember May.
  
• "A Long December" by The Counting Crows" - There's still little that is more poignant than the thought that "there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last.
  
• "Cold December" by Matt Costa - Despite the winter month in the title, this song is still about the birds flying south, the guy weeding the garden, and the girl leaving, and the plea, "If only time could slow down." Indeed.
• "December Baby" by Ingrid Michaelson - You guessed it - it's December, and the guy is avoiding her eyes and refusing to hold her hand. Tragic.
  
• "Snow Don't Fall" by John Gorka - a lovely song that is maybe a little more hopeful about the winter relationship than most. :)
  
• "The Other Side of Summer" by Elvis Costello - a reminder that "there's malice and there's magic in every season."
• "The End of Summer" by Dar Williams - Dar turns the end of summer into the time of year when you leave - "It's just that time of year when you have to move ahead." Incredibly melancholy with images of hanging flowers up to dry and leaving the familiar behind and going off to school with boxes in your car. Good stuff.
• "Scattered Leaves" by The Be Good Tanyas - a new discovery which I love - "Fall was just the calm before the next spring riot." Yes.
  
• "A Hazy Shade of Winter" by Simon and Garfunkel - Need I say more? "Seasons change with the scenery, weaving time in a tapestry, won't you stop and remember me?"
• "Winter" by Joshua Radin - an excellent song "I should know myself by now." Indeed, Joshua, and isn't winter the time when we realize that?
• "Things to Forget" by Sarah Harmer - Autumn as a time to move on, ahead, etc.
  
• "Poses" by Rufus Wainwright - This song isn't as autumn-centric as some of the others, but it's got the same introspective melancholy, and I love the line "The green autumnal parks conducting/ All the city streets, a wondrous chorus singing . . ." Beautiful.
  
• "The Swell Season" by The Swell Season - An instrumental peace by Glen and Marketa that definitely sounds like autumn going into winter to me.