August 2011
1 post
Every now and then
It hits me out of nowhere, and for a few minutes I can’t help but think about how nice it would be to be able to call up dad and talk about nothing important. Just chat, and I don’t know, go get a drink together. I don’t know what my dad’s drink of choice was, and as I get older, that seems like a pity.
The nuance of spending half your life without someone is that the...
July 2011
5 posts
Hype Tumblr: Fade to Black →
crumbler:
For all the finger-wagging that accompanied Amy Winehouse’s slide into oblivion, it strikes me that she had no harsher critic than herself. What is Back to Black but a chronicle of failures, glumly owned up to? Her American debut, which came courtesy of a free download on iTunes,…
I remember being 16. I’d just learned to...
A year ago, I hoped I'd be exactly where I am.
My one year anniversary at the magazine is coming up soon (July 19, not that I remember or anything).
When I started, I dreamt of living in Avondale someday. Having my own place. Spending my nights cooking interesting things, watching classic movies, filling my coffee table with issues of Vanity Fair.
And now here I am, in my apartment in Avondale. My magazines sit on a vintage army medical...
June 2011
2 posts
Sometimes when you're wine tipsy and all alone in...
… you just need to type 1,200 words about how your piano was probably the only thing you’ll ever truly love in your life, and how all you ever want is to spend almost 20 years caring about anything, anyone else that much. To know every nook and cranny, to know instinctively which notes work together and which ones are dissonant. To spend a lifetime turning to something at your darkest...
May 2011
1 post
“Beware those who seek constant crowds; they are nothing alone.”
– Charles Bukowski (via lizardkings)
February 2011
1 post
January 2011
10 posts
“It’s time for those who support repeal to give up the federal health benefits...”
– http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47831.html
http://www.spin.com/articles/sneak-peek-pavement-ro... →
Ace of Cakes + Pavement = AWESOME.
“All I want now is to look at life. You may come and look at it with me, if you...”
– Lord Henry Wotton to Dorian Gray
“You better bet we’re gonna tie one on tonight / you never left even though...”
– Ha Ha Tonka
Here's to 2011.
Tomorrow, I will return to work at the Jacksonville Magazine office. For two days a week, I will write, copyedit, proofread, brainstorm and busy-body my little heart out, just like I did as an intern and contributing writer. Except this time, there’s no end date on anyone’s calendar.
It’s only a part-time, freelance gig for now. But it’s something I talked my way into, and...
January Hymn
Let’s take a second here to appreciate The Decemberists. If I recall correctly, the first song I heard by them was “Pale Bride.” Then came more songs of vitriol and rugged maritime fables. And that was kind of it for a while.
THEN! Then their new album, “The King Is Dead,” was available for streaming on NPR music, and I found myself sharing my morning coffee ...
December 2010
17 posts
▲ved▲nke: 03. LCD Soundsystem | "I Can Change" →
avedanke:
“Musically, “I Can Change” finds LCD Soundsystem diving wholeheartedly into early-80s synthpop. With its nagging and simplistic keyboard melody, its dry electronic percussion, and its grid of interlocking pieces, the entire backing track could’ve come off a Soft Cell or early Depeche Mode record.
The Wainwright Family Circus
When I was a kid, my dad played a lot of Loudon Wainwright III. Particularly “Dead Skunk,” but that’s a different story.
I avoided delving into Loudon’s discography for a long time, probably on account of the emotional wounds I was afraid I’d reopen by doing so. Lately, though, I’ve been reading up on the Wainwright family stories and spending a lot of time...
Truth:
My cat is such a weirdo. But she makes the silliest noises when she blindly runs into things.
The rhythm of my footsteps crossing flatlands to your door
have been silenced, forever more.
And the distance is quite simply much too far for me to row, it seems farther than ever before.
Regarding the song "Dead Skunk"
Me: it's the greatest roadkill song of all time
Devon: hahaha
it's not the ONLY roadkill song?
Me: oh, devon.
sometimes i forget that you haven't had the misfortune of spending the last twelve years in the south.
The Million Dollar Question: Why Does The Web Love... →
“Well, you know, I think the minute you mention death, people run for the...”
– Rufus Wainwright, in an interview with Vanity Fair
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk →
1 tag
Appreciate quiet moments. Embrace stillness, but don’t shy away from acknowledging discord. In all things seek balance, but not complacency. Believe that the universe is unfolding just as it should, and believe it wholeheartedly.
All these things that I've done.
Since graduation, I’ve managed to do the following things:
Establish a semi-cordial relationship with my cat. As in, she no longer hates me. At least not all the time.
Pay my first student loan bill
Teach my 4-year-old niece how to write “Happy Birthday” on a card for her mom
Trade in my malfunctioning Nissan Maxima for a Chevy Monte Carlo
Get published! Several times,...
“Never pick sides, never choose between two. But I just wanted you.
I just...”
– Vampire weekend
June 2010
3 posts
Great article in the Wall Street Journal about Mad... →
May 2010
4 posts
He keeps saying that Rome wasn't built in a day.
He wrapped his arm around me, kissed my cheek and whispered in the silence, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
And I know he’s right but it never makes it easier. Because no, nothing worth having, or owning, or loving, or bragging about, or dreaming about, or waking up for, or treasuring, or lying awake at night and worrying about losing is ever bred in a day.
But one day...
I just packed up my room. My walls are bare. You’d hardly know that anyone ever lived here.
My box of books is next to me. The following titles are visible from the top brim of the many, many books crammed inside:
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama.
The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms.
Our Mutual Friend by Charles...
It’s 3:22 AM and I’m still awake.
I’m joining the real world within a week.
This is NOT the time to develop insomnia. No, sir, this is the absolute worst time for my sleep schedule to go through its ‘pay attention to me, I’m so unconventional’ phase.
April 2010
11 posts
“A cool, tall drink of water is all you ever wanted to be.
If you had another...”
I've always wanted to see someone else use this...
When I studied abroad, I made sure that this quote was listed on the top of my blog (shameless self promotion: www.nataliewearstler.blogspot.com). Richard Brautigan writes beautiful, beautiful words.
cloudkate:
i’ll tell you about it because I am here and you are distant. wherever you are, we must do the best we can. it is so far to travel, and we have nothing here to travel, except watermelon...
So I prayed for what I thought were angels, ended...
Sometimes I wonder if I chose the right major.
That’s not to say I regret my choice; nay, there’s a certain cache to being a scholar of the English language and its greatest literature. I like to believe that disclosing my path of study conjures enviable images to others; scenes of oak trees, novels written by dead men, and spirited debates in ancient classrooms about things like...