Daim is one of my favorite things, ever.

So happy I found this! It’s a magazine logo from another era… #Mondo2000 #wereapiratemindstation #howfastareyouhowdense #findtheothers

Kicking off Summer in St Paul

“Odin will not save you but he will give you inspiration and courage to save yourself…” I don’t remember where I first read, but I like it. #selfie #bearded #dramamuch

My first! I’m excited! #unimitsubishipencil #kurutoga

In the business parlance of our times, I have some “deltas” or “do-betters”

Brand new journal #leuchtturm1917 #startatthebeginning

Current Status

Learning more every day

Oh look, it it’s finally at the log in screen. But, wait, no! No it is not …

Currently #mnwx #blizzardwarning #ramseycounty #snow

It’s not #snowmagedon, but we planned ahead with provisions and are cocooning this weekend. #mnwx

Morning cuppa. Thank you, @joelgroethe #apisupply #apisupplylifts

Springtime. More than eight inches of snow today, because Minnesota. #mnwx #stpaul #bearded #beardstagram #theboldnorth

I would never have guessed anywhere near this number of detonations, ever.

What is the longterm legacy in our environment?

A big question I have is whether there is a correlation between the number of these devices set off and the heat in our atmosphere. If a single volcano can change global temperatures for years, what is the net effect of the waste heat and radiation generated by more than two thousand of these?

The news can keep happening. That’s just fine.

I love the counterpoint between the refrain saying “Half of the time we’re gone, but we don’t know where…” and the backup singers singing “Here I am.”

The album Bridge Over Troubled Water, featuring the title track, came out in 1970, before I was two. I started listening to it in earnest when I was a teenager about ten years later. It’s still one of my favorite albums.

I’ve always enjoyed The Only Living Boy in New York, it stands out to me even as much as the more famous tracks.

Lyrics for The Only Living Boy in New York

Bridge Over Troubled Water on Wikipedia

Did we ever deserve them? Did we love them enough?

I listened to the Purple Rain soundtrack, watched the video of Prince’s Superbowl halftime performance, then spent at least an hour listening to the song Purple Rain on repeat.

Joy. Awe. Sadness.

Tears.

Awash.

I listened to parts of two different albums tonight.

When I first listened to each album, my life couldn’t have been more different, emotionally. The albums were released only a few years apart, but one came during a happier time and another came during a dark descent.

Listening to each one, tonight, brought back places, names and faces.

Funny, the places one can travel, just by picking an album out of a list.

There is no end to discovery in music.

I have been listening to Pink Moon by Nick Drake on repeat for about the last two hours. Just the one song, which is something I rarely do.

I watched The Lake House on TV last night, and it was featured in the soundtrack. And I remembered that it was in Volkswagen convertible commercials a long time ago. Maybe ten years ago? I had assumed at that time that it was a current song by a current commercial artist. You know, because Volkswagen and Mitsubishi had been using Crystal Method, Dirty Vegas and Propellerheads tracks. I won’t lie: I have purchased albums on the basis of television commercials.

But hearing it again made it fresh and I was determined this time to find it and download it.

It’s not on the soundtrack album for The Lake House. Fortunately, IMDB lists the songs in the movie, in what I’m guessing is order of appearance.

I made a lot of wrong guesses as to which song it might be, because I didn’t think through the lyrics as they related to the song title. And I assumed incorrectly the song was from the late 90s.

SO. If he was still alive, I would owe Nick Drake an apology. And I find myself wondering what the rest of his œuvre is like. Pink Moon is the title track of his third album, released in 1972. He didn’t live long enough to produce a fourth.

It’s a sweet, stripped down, two-minute song. Two guitars and a few notes on a piano, and a few lines of poetry repeated twice:

See also: Nick Drake Pink Moon 1972 Full Album

Kim and Jessie is a song that I can easily put on repeat.

M83’s last two albums have been trending toward a sound that is very nostalgic for me, and this particular song is a stand out example.

Though the song was released in 2008, it is heavily evocative of mid-1980s groups like ’Til Tuesday, Flock of Seagulls, and Tears for Fears. If you played a string of Top 40 hits from 1985 or 1986, and slipped in Kim and Jessie, I think a lot of people would think it sounds similar and familiar. Whether that makes you die inside a little or makes you a little giddy is personal, of course.

The lyric is simple, and most of the song is repetition of the chorus:

Somebody lurks in the shadows
Somebody whispers
Somebody lurks in the shadows
Yeah, yeah, yeah

But the repetition of the lyric in the last part of the song really works for me, because it gives me a chance to notice the additional vocal parts and the simultaneous guitar solo which are layered subtly, not detracting from the melody but awaiting your attention.

I had not seen the video until just before writing this piece. While it doesn’t sync to the lyric, I think it tells a similar story that is equally open to interpretation.

Album information at M83’s official site
Video at Last.fm
Video at YouTube
Lyrics Sites

Tonight, I signed up for Amazon’s free cloud player service—specifically because of news items I read about Amazon’s new AutoRip service.

AutoRIP is something that ought to have been done a long time ago. If you buy a qualifying CD, subject to the terms of licensing between Amazon and the major record labels, you get the dics shipped to your house and you get an electronic copy placed in your Amazon Cloud Player library. These electronic copies are back-dated as well. Amazon says any qualifying CD purchase since 1998 also (eventually) will be put into your Cloud Player.

So, naturally, I had to sign up for the free account. As an aside, I learned that you can store 250,000 tracks in your cloud player for $25 per year. This is ten times the music that iTunes Match allows for the same price. I find myself tempted to store music here, too. (This has changed. iTunes Match allows 100,000 tracks)

Of the few CDs that Amazon initially has put into my Cloud Player library is a CD I purchased in November of 2004 by an artist whose name I am not familiar with. In fact I do not even know where I would have heard about the album at all. What’s more, I don’t see the CD on my shelving which is a concern because I try to strictly alphabetize by artist and album.

This doesn’t mean I never had it. This doesn’t mean that the album isn’t associated with my Cloud Player account by mistake, either.

I don’t know.

I have binged and purged music, bought, sold, gifted and traded. But this one just doesn’t ring a bell at all.

Lhasa - The Living Road

Update: Most of the discs I’ve bought have been via Amazon’s web site, but actually were purchased from a lot of private sellers. So those will never show up via AutoRip and therefore I am sad.