Innocent Sufjan

"I'm in awe of big songs, national anthems, rock opera, the Broadway musical. But what I always come back to, after the din and drum roll, is the small song that makes careful observations about everyday life. This is what makes the music by The Innocence Mission so moving and profound. 'Lakes of Canada' creates an environment both terrifying and familiar using sensory language: incandescent bulbs and rowboats are made palpable by careful rhythms, unobtrusive rhyme schemes, and specificity of language. What is so remarkable about Karen Peris' lyrics are the economy of words, concrete nouns-fish, flashlight, laughing man-which come to life with melodies that dance around the scale like sea creatures. Panic and joy, a terrible sense of awe, the dark indentations of memory all come together at once, accompanied by the joyful strum of an acoustic guitar. This is a song in which everyday objects begin to have tremendous meaning."

-Sufjan Stevens

Update: New download link. http://www.box.net/shared/8yvrh0585h
Please post a comment if it doesn't work. I read them.

This track came from a video. Link
Asmatic Kitty is Sufjan's record label. You'll find his stuff there. Link
The Innocence Mission. They've got a website, too. Link

A Fav Sings A Fav

#50.2 - Sufjan Stevens (MusicNow) - The lakes of Canada
Uploaded by lablogotheque

I don't know the backstory to where and why this video was shot and I'm okay with that. The song Sufjan sings is The Lakes of Canada from The Innocence Mission.

$85 Apple

It took me awhile to realize that even though I don't have a digital camera at the moment, I can still take pictures. MacBooks have a built in camera, so picture taking is available to some extent. Since I received the computer so -ahem- inexpensively, it seems appropriate to post a pic to back up my story.

iSmoothie

My blender seems so inferior now.

Which One Is Evil, I Wonder

Have you ever had this thought, "I wonder if there's another person in the world with my name and if there is what is his life like?" I have. And thanks to the wonders of the internet and specifically, Facebook, now I know. Yes, there is another. We share a first, middle, and last name, thankyouverymuch. We seem to be approximately the same age even. It makes me wonder what else we have in common. Maybe everything! That's sort of frightening. If we ever met, we might end up in this endless cycle of mirrored movement. Like, I'd go to open the door for him, to be polite, but he'd have thought the same thing and go to open it for me. We'd both be like, "Oh sorry", but end up saying it at the exact same time. Then we'd laugh totally in sync with eachother and then slowly we would realize that everything we said or did would be at the exact same time as the other person, so we'd never actually even be able to have a conversation. Well, I won't have to worry about it for a while, since he lives in England. If I ever do meet him, I'm sure we'll have a nice chat over a cup of tea. I have a hunch his favorite is Earl Gray.

Free* MacBooks?

*Since receiving a new MacBook Pro for about $100, many friends and relatives have been asking me how it was done. The secret to this kind of success came through the blog of JoshClark.com. He essentially told me everything I needed to know and it all worked out. The bad news: the website I got my computer from is no longer working. The good news: there's another website that's, in my opinion, better! ShopFreePay.com ends up costing more but is easier to navigate and they seem to ship their "gifts" out quickly. For those of you who are unfamiliar with exactly what's going on here, I'll fill you in. You've seen the annoying internet advertising that says "Click here to claim your free iPod!". If you've ever clicked on one of those you've found that you have to complete some offers with third party companies like Netflix or Vonage and also refer your friends in order to get the item. In the end you end up only paying whatever you spend on completing the offers and don't pay anything for the actual item. The bummer thing to the whole thing is the referring of friends. That's where the beauty of these sites come in. With these particular sites you don't have to refer anyone. You just have to complete the offers, jump through all the right hoops, and then you get the goods. With the MacBook Pro, I spent about $500 initially, but then about $400 was refunded as I canceled offers and returned items. If you're wondering if it's ethical, we can have that talk.

Find Your Way Again, Sorta

With all the twists and turns my life has taken in recent weeks, one thing has fallen by the wayside, Lost. Now, I've found myself a month behind and they're starting to talk about the season finale coming soon! I'm committed to getting back on track. So, in looking to catch up via ABC.com, I realized that with the coming of last nights episode it bumped off the one that I need from a month ago. I googled "Lost 4/4/07" hoping to see a illegitamate video somewhere else pop up, but nothing. There was however, this: tubewad.com. It's a recap of the episode in less than four minutes complete with pictures, strong language, and a lack of patience for stupid turns the Lost story sometimes takes. Granted, I'm only speaking for this one recap, since I've only needed one up to this point. But I might check back every so often to see what they're saying.