Friday Music Lurve: The Mountain Goats

So the comp is pretty much pooched at this point. My boxing day miracle was short-lived as a software update required me to restart and it just never came back. So after 6ish years I am faced with the prospect of computer shopping. Those who know me well know that big-ticket purchases generally make me itch and/or hyperventilate. I can put it off for a bit because my company was nice enough to gift us iPads for Christmas this year. A friend of mine came over to finally set up the router I was given, after I spent a few weeks struggling to figure out the bloody thing myself. So I'm all wifi'd and working from the iPad. I feel like I should name it. Maybe Jerry.

So onward and upward. I've been listening obsessively to The Mountain Goats for the last week or two, as those on my Facebook and my cubicle neighbors at work already know. I became aware of them a year or two ago after hearing 'Cubs In Five'. I thought it a quirky lo-fi tune and a great little passive-aggressive fuck you.

And the Chicago cubs will beat every team in the league
And the Tampa bay bucks will take it all the way to the top
And I will love you again
I will love you like I used to

Now, I'm no expert on baseball, but I'm pretty sure this is the equivalent of saying "yeah and monkeys might fly out of my butt."

(I really wanted to include a picture of Mike Myers as Wayne Campbell here but I haven't figured out how to scam pictures with this thing. Use your imagination. )

I started listening to them more this year as I discovered tracks off of The Sunset Tree and Talahassee. The last couple of days I've been setting up playlists of five or six albums and just listening for hours at work. I love the themes of encompassing passion and self-destructive love that seems to pop up. I don't know who writes the bulk of the lyrics but there's a feeling of not-quite-impotent rage that pops up again and again... The feeling of someone about to burst out of their shell and go absolutely apeshit on the place.

As someone who fancies herself both a bit of a musician and a bit of a writer, I've always been drawn to powerful lyrics. Here's a few samples of lines that have been running through my head.

From 'Up the Wolves'

I'm going to get myself in fighting trim
Scope out every angle of unfair advantage
I'm gonna bribe the officials
I'm gonna kill all the judges
It's going to take you people years to recover from all of the damage

From 'No Children'

I hope when you think of me years down the line
You can't find one good thing to say
And I hope if I find the strength to walk out
You'll stay the hell out of my way

From 'This Year'

Then Kathy showed up and we hung out
Trading swigs from the bottle all bitter and clean
Locking eyes, holding hands
Twin high-maintenance machines

Again, still getting used to this iPad. I wanted to link to all these songs, but i'm sure all my readers are savvy enough to know how to go to YouTube and look them up.

I highly recommend you do.

I almost forgot. This is super-cute.

Mountain Goats sing The Mountain Goats

Still alive.

Stealing some time on my parents computer to do a quick check-in.  God, I miss my computer.  I thought I'd get a lot more done around the house without it, but all I'm really accomplishing is more movie watching.  I've rediscovered the DVD player PS2 (that we use because DVD players have a very short life span in our house.  Game consoles, I find, are much more hardy than DVD players).

Grundy Lake was fantastic, relaxing in spite of the army of mosquitoes and deerflies that descended upon us after two hours of rain we got on Monday.  My oldest seems to be in the full thrust of pre-adolescent moodiness, which caused some conflict but overall a good time was had by all.

Getting too old for two nights out in a row, I think, but had a good time karaoking on Thursday in celebration of the good news re: car, and again dancing Friday night for another girlfriend's birthday.  Yesterday I spent driving around Barrie and Orillia, looking for a birthday gift for my grandmother, finally finding some cool Coronation Street memorabilia at the Orillia Scottish Festival.  This is awesome, because Nanny, bless her heart, is the hardest person in the world to buy for.  You could give this woman a Mercedes Benz or a box of Kleenex and the general reaction would be a completely sincere "Oh, well that will come in handy."  Zero reaction.  The only gift I've ever seen elicit a reaction was a hand-held carpet shampooer, which garnered a very enthusiastic 'WAHOO!'

She's a cute lady, that one.

But I'm using my whole ass!

Lies.  No, I'm not.  Frankly, I'm a follower, and who doesn't want a donkey on their blog, at least once?  So a ala the Simple Dude, here is my half-assed weekend post.  Go visit Simple Dude and give him some love, since he has given me a donkey.

I'm attempting to scan some pics so I can list some new goodies on my Etsy store, 100 Watt Smirks.  My scanner is temperamental.  It was gifted to me by Lori at A Vintage Witch, which was super cool of her.  I wonder how many people I can pimp in one half-assed post.  However at some point in time one of the demon cats knocked the damn thing off the desk.  So now, mid-scan, it starts clicking and making godawful noises and I have to give it a good thump to get it back in order.  It still scans better than my craptacular HP 3-in-1.  Hewlett Packard, you suck.  I may keep an eye out for a nice little printer so I can get rid of the 3-in-1 completely because honestly, the thing is junk.  Trying to use the software grinds my entire system to a halt, which is a giant pain when all I want to do is resize a couple of pictures.

My campaign to win back @jplaskett to my Twitter-fold was an utter failure.  *sigh*  Not only did it not take off and become the internet meme of the decade, but it didn't even warrant a courtesy 'Will you STFU and leave me alone' follow.  Even Jann Arden threw me a bone, when I hinted.

Today is laundry day.  Taking kids to the Seventh circle of hell to get some Xmas portraits taken today.  Time to take this ass and put some pants on it.

It Figgers

I start anew, and get back into blogging and my internet goes down at home.

I think they want money or something. Bastards.

*sigh*

FML.