paper graffiti

Starsailor - Love is Here : This was another band mentioned this weekend via a conversation about singers and their folk singer fathers–Rufus Wainwright and Jeff Buckley, respectively. Starsailor was named from a Tim Buckley song. (Thank you to my totally smart boyfriend for that bit of musical trivia.)

Red House Painters - Songs For A Blue Guitar : This CD is hauntingly beautiful, full of the kind of songs that choke you up and make you hurt. When I’m in an introspective mood (kind of like I am today), this disc gets some heavy rotation along with Mazzy Star, Radiohead and Cowboy Junkies.

Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See : This is one of my all-time favorites. It was the last album I purchased on a cassette tape before I got my CD player, back when Sound Warehouse was still in business. Hope Sandoval’s voice is ethereal and lush, and listening to this CD is like wrapping up in a warm blanket and being a teenager again.

Jeff Buckley - Grace : Last night on my way home from work, the song “Lilac Wine” popped up on my iPod, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It doesn’t matter how many times I have heard that song, it kills me all over again the next time it comes on. “Lilac Wine” is a great song anyway, and while I love the Nina Simone version, the Jeff Buckley version is utterly stunning.

Over the Rhine - Ohio : I fell head over heels in love with Over the Rhine’s newest album, Drunkard’s Prayer, but now I’m going back and picking up their earlier recordings at the behest of YayCoffee, who is a big OtR fan. It’s an enjoyable journey, and it’s making me itch to write songs as beautiful and moving as some of the gems I’ve encountered in Over the Rhine’s catalog.

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So, on our river adventure we attempted to pass some time by talking about the top 5 albums that changed our lives. I had trouble thinking of a 5th, but I think I finally have them all:

Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes (1992) : When we were in 7th grade, my friend Elizabeth introduced me to the greatness that was Tori Amos. I rapidly fell in love with her music and discovered the greatness that was The Adventure Club on 94.5 The EDGE in the years 1992-1994. The next year Elizabeth gave me a tape that had Little Earthquakes on one side and Under the Pink on the other. Little Earthquakes was one of my first CD purchases when I finally got a CD player of my own. I am still a Tori fan to this day, and she was the first artist to introduce me to music that really moved me and inspired me to create on my own.

Depeche Mode - Violator (1990) : One of my most vivid memories of junior high is walking into my first junior high dance and hearing “Personal Jesus” being played. Was that the only good memory from said dance? Maybe. But I loved Depeche Mode then and I love them now. A conversation in the car on our way back to Dallas yesterday made me remember that Violator needed to be the 5th album to round out my top 5. Depeche Mode was a really big break from what I normally listened to back then, and it started me on a journey that culiminated when I finally saw DM live back in 2001 on the Exciter tour.

Patty Griffin - Flaming Red (1998) : This was the first I heard of Patty Griffin, who is one of my musical idols. After collecting all her albums, I can definitely say it was a big change from the more dulcet acoustic tones of Living with Ghosts. But this album shook me up. It changed the way I looked at being a musician. It made me want to rock out with a guitar. I saw Patty open for the Dixie Chicks when I was in college right after this album came out and I wanted desperately to be just like her. Her song “Fly” (recorded both on her own album and on the Dixie Chicks’ same-title album) was my anthem when my college boyfriend and I broke off our long-distance relationship. Well, that and a lot of angry chick-rock and melancholy REM, Counting Crows, and Live. 1000 Kisses and Impossible Dream are my favorite Patty albums, but Flaming Red will always be my first.

Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Toward Ecstasy (1994) : I originally put my first Beatles album in my top 5, but while that was life changing (hello, first Beatles album!) it didn’t directly shape me in the way that Fumbling Toward Ecstasy did. It was the first album I bought at the greatness that is CD Source, and I used to listen to it on my Sony Discman on repeat while I holed up in my room and wrote teen angst-filled poetry in one of my many journals. I was listening to this album when I wrote the first poem I ever read in public at a writer’s group. I might not be as prolific a writer today if I hadn’t written that, because it introduced me to my favorite teacher in high school, who encouraged me and taught me and helped me more than she may ever know, and a group of amazingly creative students that I may have never connected with otherwise.

Puccini - La Boheme (recording feat. Pavarotti, 1990) : This is lauded as the greatest recording of Puccini’s famous opera, and I am inclined to agree. It was also the first time I heard La Boheme in its entirety and it inspired me to want to study classical music and someday become an opera singer. Now, I may not have accomplished all of that, but I still have an enduring love for La Boheme. It fueled my love of its modern cousin RENT and I desperately wanted to see the 2002 Baz Luhrmann production of the opera, since I love his lavish creation on Romeo+Juliet, Strictly Ballroom, and Moulin Rouge. It’s too bad my voice has changed enough that I can no longer pull off my favorite Puccini arias with quite the same aplomb.

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Something new happened to me last Sunday at dinner after church. It was surprisingly amusing to me when Kerri introduced me to her friend by my blog name.

“This is paper graffiti.”

If that conversation could have had a hyperlink, it would have.

Viva new people and viva la blog!

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OK, y’all, I only need TWO more referrals to get my Mac Mini!! (then I promise to stop my consumer whorist begging, I swear!!) Everyone who has stepped up to the plate so far, I really appreciate it!

If you haven’t done a referral yet, pretty please go through my referral link and either do the eFax Pro trial or the Rhapsody 99cents for the first month/5 free downloads trial. They’re the easiest, most painless, and most free.

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OK, so a friend of mine plus eleventy bajillion other people on teh Intarwebs have gotten stuff from freeipods.com, freexbox.com, freeyourmom.com, and other Gratis Internet sites (I had a really hard time not typing Gratis Intarwebs). My poor computer at home is about to give out, so I decided I’m going to do the freeminimacs.com thing and get enough referrals to get a free Mac Mini in the mail. I know it really does work, and so even though I hate signing up for crap like this I’m doing it anyway. I created a new Gmail account just for this purpose to avoid getting any spam, though reports say you don’t really get any spam from it.

Now this is where I need help from the MOL Nation and beyond…I need 10 referrals to get said free Mac Mini. To complete a referral you need to go to their site through my referral code and sign up to complete one of the kind of lame offers. I suggest either Rhapsody or eFax Pro. (I did the eFax offer.) Rhapsody’s music service is along the same lines as Napster and is totally worth a one month trial for 99 cents (I actually pay for it monthly and use it every day, so you might even want to keep it!), and if you sign up for it I will totally refund you the 99 cent trial charge. eFax is just easy and doesn’t cost anything. Both of them you’d just cancel before the end of the trial period (i.e. before you get charged), and I’d get my referral from you and you wouldn’t be out more than about 10 minutes of your time.

You should keep the service for at least 2 weeks, closer to 3, if the referral is actually going to count. If you do a referral for me, I’d be happy to do one for you. Make a poor tech geek happy and help her get a Mac Mini!

Don’t forget, I’m not just poor…I’m also:

-cool
-attractive
-willing to trade services (not THOSE kind) for a referral. I can fix your computer (just because my normal policy is “I won’t” doesn’t mean I can’t), teach you how to swing dance, write business documents for you, edit your term paper, or help you with your website. I am also well-versed in all things Buffy, should you have any questions or want to borrow my DVD sets.
-lots of fun
-hard-working (but The Man keeps me poor)
-really cute (you’d help a penguin get a Mac Mini, wouldn’t you? I’m no penguin, but I’m pretty damn cute!!)

oh, and PS…you can sign up multiple times to give multiple referrals (like for me and also for suburban jesus if you just use a different email address every time you create your “new” account. Want a Gmail invite to do so? Let me know.

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