Your autograph is worthless

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:11:30 -0800

The Cardigans

I was listening to The Cardigans' Super Extra Gravity again just now. Every few times I listen to this record, a new song grabs me, and this time it's "Don't Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds)".

(I think it's coincidental that it happened to also be the first song in my musical horoscope from the other day, but maybe it was subliminal and I'm just that easily influenced.)

Besides being a lovely song, the lyrics were what drew me in this time. I found the video on YouTube and it's also pretty interesting. If I can't come back in my next life as Stevie Nicks or Nancy Wilson, I wouldn't mind coming back as Nina Persson. I could be even more Swedish than I am now, sing beautifully, become a better songwriter as I get older, and oh yes marry the dreamboat supertalent Nathan Larson. Sign me up.

"Don't Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds)"

Don't blame your daughter
that's just sentimental
and don't blame your mom
for all that you've done wrong
Your dad is not guilty
you came out a little faulty
and the factory closed
so you can't hold them liable
You come from an island,
you're cutting diamonds
with a rubbery knife
Your autograph is worthless
so don't send me letters
and don't mail me cash
'cause your money is no good
What's left in your mattress
is holes and lack of love left
some hair from a horse,
and none of it is yours, man
You come from an island,
you're cutting diamonds
with a rubbery knife
And the song you sing today
wasn't always in your head,
the words you tryin' to say
are the ones you shouldn't 've said
they're glistenin' like diamonds,
go out and find' em
but don't blame your daughter
Read me your tombstone,
tell me you're sorry, fax me your will,
you owe me something still
Blood is like water
the bath that you poured me
has drained and it's gone,
don't blame it on your son
And the song you sing today
wasn't always in your head,
the words you tryin' to say
are the ones you shouldn't 've said
they're glistening like diamonds,
go out and find'em
The world is full of diamonds
go out and find'em
but don't blame your daughter

The Cardigans - Don't blame your daughter

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Short Storytelling

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 21:54:31 -0700

This Too Will Pass

I'm not exactly recommending This Too Will Pass by The One AM Radio, but I do want to share the lyrics from one song. The CD is nice enough, if you're in the mood for something extremely mellow you should check it out, but these lyrics to "In The Time We've Got" are pretty captivating.

I took you to the place where I was born. You said that it was just as I'd described. We moved in soon after the days turned warm, just in time to see the spring arrive. I watched you through the windows in our room. Your hair grew long under the arbor shade. Our love was new, but the hour grew late too soon; how suddenly that honeyed light would fade. You had the city in you. Always in the way you moved were the skyline and the avenues. You had the city in you, I knew. When the autumn came, the leaves turned one by one, 'til the barren trees were left to stand alone. You still felt the same, you said, as since we had begun, but a longing crept into the eyes I'd known. I watched you pack; I was rooted to the spot. We fell asleep awhile beneath the oak. "It's our job to live as well as we can in the time we've got," was written in the note I found when I woke. You had the city in you. Always in the way you moved were the skyline and the avenues. You had the city in you, I knew. So before the weary ache wore through, you slipped back into the avenues.

Maybe Hrishikesh Hirway can have a career as a novelist if the singer-songwriter thing doesn't work out. Listen to "In The Time We've Got" or download it.

I saw the film Paris, Je t'aime this weekend. It's 18 vignettes about love in/for Paris each by a different noted director, so it is, as you would guess, quite a patchwork of stories. It's worth seeing for a few different reasons, but what fascinated me most was the sheer challenge of telling an entire story in five or so minutes, and seeing solutions from different minds in back-to-back succession, with hardly time to pause and absorb in between. Go see it while it's still in theaters (but only after you've seen "Once".)

I'd gone to RottenTomatoes.com to skim the reviews beforehand, and several of the critics used the word "omnibus" to describe the film. So after heading to dictionary.com, I learned a new word this weekend. Problem is, it's such a specific term that I might only find one or two opportunities to use it in the remainder of this lifetime, and it's one of those words that you can't just throw into conversation without sounding like a pretentious jerk. Because no one knows what omnibus means without looking it up. OK maybe one of you knew. Mind you, I love strange, specific and unwieldy words, but words are meant to convey meaning, not stump people.

Vox is serving me up Jeff Buckley banner ads. I have no idea how I feel about this.

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when the lights go down in the city

Your autograph is worthless

Short Storytelling