Aquarium Drunkard has posted news of a Great Lakes Swimmers live (free!) EP here . It's taken from a recording of a sold-out show at Toronto's Church of the Redeemer. I just love their song Various Stages off their latest record, Ongiara , so I'm excited to see it here. Check out the album version: Great Lake Swimmers -- "Various Stages" mp3 off Ongiara ( buy ) GLS will be playing U.S. cities this October, [...]
Sure Juror is an old band you probably haven't heard but should. They're working on a new album and have generously posted all tracks from their first two albums here . Fans of fellow Jersey boys, the Wrens (Meadowlands, anyone?), will adore Sure Juror's sound, although I honestly didn't make the connection until I read about it at Heart on a Stick . These guys more than stand on their own. The vocals also remind me of Randy Kaplan , a NYC singer-songwriter worth checking out. After listening [...]
"Life is a long lesson in humility." --James Barrie I've had a hell of a week for someone living what amounts to a pretty low-stress, fortunate life. My classmates and I spent a fantastic Sunday down the shore with one of our favorite professors and his wife. I managed to get about 5 hours of passed-out-dead sleep before crawling to an 8 a.m. small group session on Monday morning. So I started exam week exhausted as well as behind. I've been so distractible lately that the big positive gain for the week was that I [...]
I'm not quite back from the dead (after the week I've had, I can use that phrase with less irony than usual), but I just have to post the National's new video for their song, Apartment Story . My blog title screams that I'm a big fan of most everything the National has put out. It all started with a mix tape (yes, I'm that old, a tape!) my even older music-producer/starving artist ex-boyfriend made for me back in 2003. I immediately dug their excellent eponymous first record. When the band sent the demos for [...]
Alas, not that kind of business. So technically I'm not allowed to spend any time on this self-indulgent blogging thing until after my Hematology & Immunology module & Standardized Patient exams in 6 days. Seems fair, since my entire life purpose is to learn to help people maintain & regain health (not to mention the whole trying-not-to-kill-anyone crusade). I'm going down the shore (after a year in this place I'm pretty sure that's NJ-speak for "going to the beach") all day tomorrow for some group hug time with my classmates. And since [...]
I am inappropriately devastated * by news that a mentor I idolized is apparently quite the asshole. Yelling, screaming, throwing things -- the whole 9 yards of what a great physician just doesn't do. I know everyone is human, but the disparity between this (repeated) behavior and the image I once held of this person is guttingly disappointing. This comes on the tail end of my disillusionment with another mentor I'd held in similarly high esteem. Maybe I expect too much of people, but I find that when I expect great things people tend to [...]
Yesterday I went to the dentist to get my tooth fixed. Here's the whole exchange: Dentist: "Hi how are you?" Me: "Fine. thanks for fitting me in! How are you?" Dentist: "Fine. [command]Open." Next thing I know there's a needle in my mouth. Didn't even see it coming. She acted as though I were some kind of freak for wanting a little advance notice ("I assumed you're accustomed to having foreign objects in your mouth," she might have said. But, [...]
Jemaine Clement & Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords , New Zealand's 4th-most famous folk parody duo, are collectively my dream man. These videos of their song, Business Time , illustrate why I am putty in the hands of anyone who can repeatedly make me blow a mouthful of grape soda through my nose. This one is an actual scene from the eponymous television show on HBO: [WARNING: Contains brief, blurred nudity] [...]
This Aesop Rock song should make any sane & able-bodied human under the age of 40 move to the groove. If you're anything like me, it will be an embarrassing scene. Here is an interview posted by Brooklyn Vegan. The Aesop Rock myspace page says he's playing the Starlight Ballroom in Philadelphia next weekend ( order tickets here ). Dare I go? Last time I [...]
My friends politely refer to me as a coffee whore. Sure, I have preferences (oh how I miss Peet's coffee), but in the throes of fatigue I'm not one to be picky. If I don't see mold growing, it's fair drinking game. I am 85% Addicted to Coffee Mingle 2 - Free Online Dating That said, I know great coffee when I taste it. And cold-brewed coffee made with the Toddy Cold Brew System is the greatest. This super-smooth [...]
It's Labor Day. A day for no school. I spent the weekend preparing to study. I organized my apartment enough to clean & vacuum. I moved all the books on the floor to shelf space. I organized my New England Journal of Medicine archive by date. I downloaded music from all the hipster music blogs (live Cold War Kids, anyone?), burned bootleg DVDs of boards prep videos (relax, they're not available for sale), got groceries from my favorite store in the world (gimme a shout out for Trader Joe's, yeah!), called my dad, and caught up on my guilty pleasure [...]
...'cause in addition to no shoes as usual, I'm now semi-toothless. A rare flossing expedition at the start of the big Labor Day weekend left me searching my bathroom floor for a tooth-colored filling that had flown out of my mouth. [Note to self - Clean bathroom floor; take better care of teeth] I've got a hole where part of my tooth should be. I've got some woods behind my apartment. Now all I need to achieve white trash nirvana (see subject line) is a gun-totin', mustache-wearin', sperm-carryin', Nattie Lite- drinkin', & cheatin' skinny white [...]
Cold Girl Fever
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
