"The DJ that speaks to my insomnia and laughs at all I have to fear"

I am often asked “Colleen, how can one woman be so apprised in the music sphere? You blow my mind with your erudition and thought provoking insights.” Well, my little coterie, it doesn’t happen overnight. I wasn’t born with this but I was born with an intense personality that helps facilitate my insatiable need for music that helps my life make sense.

Also, I have YRock on XPN. I listen to it all day at work, in my car, and at home. http://www.yrockonxpn.org/

Their focus is on contemporary alternative music but they will often play artists who influenced said music so if you stick with the program you will develop a familiarity with the roots of alternative, punk, and rock. Plus you get to listen to marvelous new music and wonderful DJs who really know their stuff.

Program Director Jim McGuinn (see picture with him hanging with Iggy Pop and with an autographed guitar – I think he looks like Sting) is my musical guru and I am his devoted disciple. He understands that music isn’t just music. It is emotive and visceral to people like he and I. It’s life blood and like life it is a learning process.

Go forth with this knowledge and touch lives.

Title is from the Dar Williams' song "Are you out there"

Maybe If Camping Looked Like This...

Always had a roof above me

Always paid the rent

but I've never set foot inside a tent

Can't build a fire to save my life

I lied about being the outdoor type

I've never slept out underneath the stars,

the closest that I came to that was one time my car

broke down for an hour in the suburbs at night

I lied about being the outdoor type.

Too scared to let you know

you knew what you were looking for

I lied until I fit the bill

God bless the great indoors

I've never owned a sleeping bag never rode a mountain bike

I lied about being the outdoor type

I can't go away with you on a rock climbing weekend

What if somethings on TV and its never shown again?

Its just as well I'm not invited I'm afraid of heights

I lied about being the outdoor type

Never learned to swim
can't grow a beard or even fight

I lied about being the outdoor type

-Evan Dando's The Outdoor Type from the Lemonhead's Car, Button, Cloth album

I didn’t lie about it and now I think a certain manboy doesn’t like me because of that. So what? It’s not like I’m a shut-in. It is just so typical because guys will roll their eyes at large salon bills or make up clutter then proceed to talk about how they want a woman that will be "cool" enough to sit around watching football drinking beer and eating hot dogs. Yet, they don’t want a woman who looks like she sits around drinking beer and eating hot dogs all the time. They want some mythical There’s Something About Mary-type woman who wakes up with an airbrush perfect face and Breck girl hair.

Sure, I would not be compatible with someone who’s only idea of vacation is camping or likes to hunt or climb mountains in the winter and icky stuff like that. I get it, but for someone with a generally active interest in something that I am not inclined to enjoy, it shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t expect some guy to share my passion for gossip magazines or be a music know-it-all like I am. I would not make someone feel bad that I have to attend an avant garde installation exhibit with lecture solo. I would prefer to enjoy it without worrying about that person being bored and be able to linger as long as I want.

Why can't people celebrate the differences? To each her/his own.

I am what I is. I don’t false advertise. Take it or leave it.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38308

Where is Amnesty International?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/11/30/sudan.bears/index.html

No mention of Amnesty yet. I send them $50 a year so do you think that is enough of a contribution to complain about their lack of involvement in this poor woman's defense? This story had me really upset since I first read about it. Especially since Autumn is in an Islamic country at the moment.

Lashings? Execution? Imprisonment? Are you angry too?

Ugh.

Sorry I haven't been posting with the same zeal as I have in the past. It is just that I have been super busy at work lately. So much going on here. I have a few ideas for posts and I am hoping to get them up here soon. I am also working on my Holiday Mix for everyone.

Removal

I removed the last post because it was not only innapropriate but also insensitive. It is never funny when someone dies. David Letterman said that when asked why he refused to joke about the OJ Simpson case. He is a classy guy. I guess I thought it was ok since I truly believe that she had nothing to do with his death. I just got caught up in the excitment of personally knowing someone involved in such a sensational story. Still, that is no excuse. I'm sorry.

It is kinda sad that I have a "Sorry" post label.

The World Spins Madly On

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1419604348

I have been working feverishly to get my Christmas CD done so that I can have it out to you in the mail by Black Friday. You don't have to request this time; I will send them out to all of you. This will again be a double disc and it will be a blended album with some of my favorite Holiday songs along with a sampling of new music I have been listening to. Probably something from the new Band of Horses album as well a song from The Weepies (check out the sweet claymation video for "The World Spins Madly On") and of course some surprises. I strive for balance when creating these things. I don't just throw these things together haphazardly!

Like Rob said in Nick Hornby's wonderful book High Fidelity - when if comes to making mix tapes (CDs) "There are a lot of rules."

Best haircut. Ever.

I guess he is supposed to be The Edge?

This cut is very different from mine but part of wished I didn't cut it.

You know what they say about hair... it grows back.

The New Queen of Mean

You can cut the tension in this office with a machete today for which I am partly responsible. Long story short I told the office manager to “Chill the fuck out” yesterday. Not my finest moment, I know. Not terribly classy or diplomatic either. Those words did not just fly out of my mouth unexpectedly in a way that would cause me to clasp my hand over my mouth in shock either. No, those words were deliberate and clearly enunciated – forced out after wrestling and losing to my better judgment and leaving my frontal lobe in a frozen panic from the impending verbal faux pas.

The argument that spurred my inappropriate language was one where I was in the right. Sadly, my position lost a measurable amount of credibility when I dropped the F-bomb. I knew exactly what I was doing. I knew what I was dealing with (Keith once said “you can’t fight crazy”) and yet instead of diffusing the situation I provoked it for the cheap thrill of winding someone up. This is not to say that I wasn’t legitimately pissed off but to exhibit behavior which can only be described as petulant was not in anyone’s best interest. Because the rest of the office knows that the scary bitch in me has woken I was not adequately reprimanded. I was told, as a side note, to keep the vulgar language in check later by my boss.

Which brings us to today… I have not apologized for my poor choice in words and acting like a total asshole in general - yet. I think I should but I would have to find out how to and still make it clear that I was not in the wrong. I did this. I am responsible for upsetting things.

Maybe I will write it in a note card with cute kittens on the cover. That might be a good idea. She like cats. She has 12.

( the pic is of Leona Helmsley and the dog she left her millions too. she is famous for being a massive bitch)

So there I was . . . just relaxing in front of the T.V. when the kids yelled, "Hey Dad, come see the kittens."

Someday I'll finish "The Executioners Song" and maybe then I will understand

I’ve always thought Ted Bundy was kind of dreamy. He went to Temple at the same time as my mom and dad did.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/62172?GT1=10450

I’m here all alone in my office bored so I’ve been doing some putzing around on news sites.

You can find me in St. Louis rollin on dubs

Seems like everywhere she goes somebody wants to know what Kate Ryan thinks about art and architecture these days. Nobody gives a shit what I think but that doesn’t stop me from talking and talking and talking about it. Maybe they can tell just by looking at her that she has her Masters from SCAD. Not me.
Nope. Not me.

Anywho, she emailed this to me this morning:

I was in St. Louis last weekend. It was a really, really cool town. We went to the Arch on Saturday (see link, turn on caption). We were also photographed at the 10th anniversary of the City Museum on Friday. This is one of the coolest museums I've been to. It has an aquarium in it, and a whole bunch of reclaimed architectural elements, from bank vaults to building facades to gargoyles, and a indoor carnival/circus, and a thrift store. And, it has this whole big maze of plastic and metal tubes and slides running throughout its many levels, kinda like a hamster cage. Anyway, We were interviewed and photographed, like, 4 times at different places we went to. I guess the arch picture was the only one that was used. It was nuts. They must be familiar with my American Folk Art Museum interview.

http://www.stltoday.com/mds/news/html/643