e.e.

today is the birthday of my favorite poet, e.e. cummings who said, "to be nobody-but-yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." check out the poem below (featured today on The Writer's Almanac) and if you want more you can visit poemdot.

o by the by
has anybody seen
little you-I
who stood on a green
hill and threw
his wish at blue

with a swoop and a dart
out flew his wish
(it dived like a fish
but it climbed like a dream)
throbbing like a heart
singing like a flame

blue took it my
far beyond far
and high beyond high
bluer took it your
but bluest took it our
away beyond where

what a wonderful thing
is the end of a string
(murmurs little you-I
as the hill becomes nil)
and will somebody tell
me why people let go

— e.e. cummings
Poem "87" from 100 Selected Poems


ipod geeking it

i am in full blown ipod geek mode. i wear it like an accessory. my earbuds and i are now one. hearing music i have long forgotten that i had burned. i've already got 1100 songs on it and have only used on 25% of the diskspace. purr purr purr.

and okay i will admit this: i have listened to my own songs several times now and i am totally inspired to do some work on them. i think it is a combination of listening to my songs and listening to some tunes i really admire and wanting to add a little o' this and a little o' that to my songs too.

i think my hearing is a little shot from too many nights of dancing near the speakers in the clubs of my youth. but these headphones seem to deliver all the little nuances. so now i have nuance envy. what i need: an eight-track and or a friend who loves to play engineer/produce. a patient friend who wants to layer and suggest. first stop: doubling the vocals. second step: adding more instruments.

lately on the empod: latest lyle lovett [my baby don't tolerate]; m. ward [transfigurations of vincent]; wilco [a.m.]; a man called adam [punta del este sunset]; the graves [love love love]; inga sweringen (not sure of the name of this, but it is really good).

local girl makes good

and speaking of inga swearingen... she is a local girl who is studying voice and choral direction in florida and recently her name has come up again and again in conversation because she just won montreaux! and i ask you, what is cooler than that? i don't know her personally (though have met her; we have mutual friends) and yet somehow i feel proud of her! proud of our little county for producing such a talented person who had the guts to follow her heart and her song. nicely done. meanwhile, her songs are really really good and her voice is beautiful. but what else would win montreaux? she ain't shabby.