Musical Activity

My Top Artists according to Spotify:
-Suprême NTM
-Das Racist
-Jay Z (and Kanye, but they leave him out for some reason)
-The Decemberists
-Brigitte
-Booba

What I actually feel like I listen to the most:
-Chris Thile/Punch Brothers
-Suprême NTM
-Das Racist
-Saintseneca
-Brigitte
-Podcasts on itunes

Other music I enjoy regularly:
-Louise Attack
-Ratatat
-Ben L'Oncle Soul
-Raphael Saadiq
-Brittney Spears
-Adele
-Lil Wayne
-Radiohead
-Fleet Foxes

Concerts I've been to recently:
-Punch Brothers (Jackson Hole, WY)
-Saintseneca, etc (House show in Provo, UT)
-Flaming Lips (The Saltair in Magna, UT)
-Bright Eyes (SLC, UT)
-Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (SLC, UT)
-Fictionist (Provo, UT)
-Mindy Gledhill and some other equally boring musician (Provo, UT)
-some random concert at Muse (Muse Music, Provo, UT)
-Jesse James (Provo, UT)

Studying Playlist

Music I Think Everyone Should Hear At Some Point In Their Life:

-The Smiths (especially "The more you ignore me" and "Some girls are bigger than others.")

-Fats Waller (especially "You're not the only oyster in the sea" and "Ain't misbehavin'.")

-Sigur Ros (who doesn't like "Hoppipolla?")

-Tété

-Cloclo (Claude François... especially "Alexandra Alexandrie" and "Belles belles belles."  But don't forget "Le téléphone pleure" and "Chaque jour c'est la meme chose.")

-Mum

-"Gibraltar" by Abd al Malik

-"Minuet Chrétien" (... because the English version sucks and the French version is possibly the greatest Christmas song ever written.  Ever.)

-Basix (especially "Simarik" and "Treat her like a lady.")

-Charlotte Gainsbourg, "The Songs that We Sing."

-Serge Gainsbourg (especially "Bonnie & Clyde," "Requiem pour un con," "Elisa," "Comic Strip," and only "Je t'aime... moi non plus" or "Lemon inceste" if you're not creeped/grossed out easily by sexually implicit french music.)

-Georges Brassens ("La Mauvaise réputation," "Les copains de bord," "Je me suis fait tout petit," and "Chanson pour l'auvergnat.")

-Jacques Brel (see also: "Quand on a que l'amour," "Ne me quitte pas," "Madeleine," "Les bonbons," "Le Plat pays," "Jef," "Le Diable, ça va" and "Les bourgeois.")

-Edith Piaf (we've all seen "Inception."  Now go listen to "Non, je ne regrette rien" and contemplate her intense uvular fricative trills.  See also, "La Vie en rose" and "L'hymne de l'amour.")

-Blur, "When the cows come home."

-"Belle" from the French musical "Notre-Dame de Paris"

-Christophe Maé

-"Adulte et Sexy" by Emmanuel Moire.  Then watch "Le Sourire" or "Ca me fait du bien" to see a good contrast.

-Any Serge Gainsbourg songs written for France Gall ("Annie," "Laisse tomber les filles," "Poupée de cire")

-Françoise Hardy

-Leonard Cohen (the early stuff, before he gets all creepy-chanty on us-- see especially "Suzanne," "The Stranger Song," "Sisters of Mercy," and "Bird on the Wire.")

-K'naan ("Fatima," "ABCs," "Dreamer," "TIA," Soobax.")

-"New Workout Plan Part 2" by Kanye West

-MC Solaar ("La Vie est Belle," "L'hemoglobine de la concubine," "RMI," "Carpe Diem," "DaVinci Claude," Bouge de La" and "La belle et le bad boy.")

-Kenan Dogulu ("Cakkidi" and "Patron")

-Tarkan ("Kuzu kuzu," "Vay anem vay" and "Hup." But mostly, just watch the music videos and see a man belly dance.  Hilarity.)

-Yelle ("Ce jeu," "A cause des garçons" and "Je veux te voir."  The last one comes with a strong warning of sexually explicit lyrics, but it's for a funny purpose...)

-Johnny Cash ("Boy named Sue," anything about drugs/prison/crimes)

-"Le Diner" by Benebar

-"Je t'emmene jusqu'au vent" by Louise Attack

-"La Tribu de Dana" by Manau

-Renan Luce

-"Les Marchands des reves," "C'est avec classe," and "Sur la tombe de mes gens" by Corneille

-"Killing a Stranger" by the Cure.  (Don't even bother reading Camus afterward.)

-"Der Computer No. 3" by France Gall (yes, it is indeed a song from the 60s by a French pop singer, sung in German, about computer dating.  It doesn't get much better than that.)

Nous sommes ce que nous sommes: des hommes

Musical Songs I've Thought of/ Sung/ Referenced Recently:

-"Nous sommes ce que nous sommes" from Dracula: Entre l'Amour et la Mort

-"Master of the house" from Les Mis

-"Who am I?" from Les Mis

-"I Like Rice" from Home Movies episode "Writer's Block"

-"Stop Looking at his Particles" from a musical my friends and I wrote that I don't think ever even had a working title outside of "the musical."

-"Rum Tum Tugger" from Cats

-"Memories" from Cats

-"The Way We Were" from The Way We Were

-"A Little Fall of Rain" from Les Mis

-"Un peu de sang qui pleur" from Les Miserables

-"The Legend of the Rent" from School of Rock

-"Math is a wonderful thing" from School of Rock

-"Teacher's Pet" from School of Rock

-The Franz Kafka rock opera from Home Movies, episode "Director's Cut"

The Dead of Winter

Music That Makes Me Happy:
-"The Rise and Fall of Ziggie Stardust" by Bowie
-K'naan (especially "Dreamer" and "When the Lion Learns to Speak")
-Tété
-Francoise Hardy (especially "Le Premier Bonheur du Jour")
-"The Great Escape" by Blur
-Some Beyoncé ("Freakum Dress" especially)
-"Dead Flowers" by the Rolling Stones
-"Norwegian Wood" by the Beatles
-Debussy
-Ragtime music (Joplin and James P Johnson)
-Early jazz (especially piano in stride style- ie Fats Waller)
-ABBA (mostly just the upbeat disco songs)
-Dick Annegarn
-"Mercedes Lullaby" (and most of the other songs off the Pan's Labyrinth soundtrack to a slightly lesser degree) by Javier Navarrete
-"Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" by the Grateful Dead
-"Je Me Suis Fait Tout Petit" and "Mauvaise Reputation" by Georges Brassens
-"Ne Me Quitte Pas", "Le Plat Pays", "Marieke", and several other Jacques Brel songs

What Exactly Is Getting Me Through My Final Semester?
-I actually like the subject matter in my classes
-I'm taking my classes for fun
-I refuse to fail
-It's my last semester, so I should make it the best one
-The actual class part of my life is the easiest part of my life currently
-The above point makes it an excellent method of escapism from the rest of my life
-I am slightly perfectionist, and must do as well as I can
-School is one of the few things I'm competitive about. I have to be above average in my classes or else I won't function.
-Did I mention the rest of my life is harder than classes? Thus homework is a way to distract myself from other problems
-I think I've finally got the whole undergrad education thing figured out. It's time to move on...

The End of a Semester

Music I Listen To Regularly As of Late (AKA the Past Two Weeks or So):
-The Great Escape (Blur)
-Parklife (Blur)
-The Essential Leonard Cohen (Leonard Cohen)
-A mixed CD of classic Francoise Hardy songs
-A recording of the Grateful Dead concert on 3/31/86 at Providence, RI
-The Fats Waller Centennial Collection
-The Pan's Labyrinth soundtrack

What I Do in My Spare Time (Even Though I Technically Should Have None):
-txtmsg people
-Watch TV
-Sleep
-Eat
-Do my hair
-Clean my room (not so much lately...)
-Clean the kitchen
-Clean the front room
-Go for walks (not anymore because it's too cold)
-Call my mom
-Surf the internet (does the term 'surf' seem passé to anyone else?)
-Homework