Dirt and The Distillers

This week's favorite thing is the smell of dirt. I love it. I've been trying to get various flower types to grow in my apartment (with very little luck) but I love that when I walk by I can smell the wet dirt.

I'm not sure what it is about the smell I love so much. Maybe it's just flashbacks to childhood. We always had a garden when I was growing up and I always liked digging around in there. (Until I found a worm. Worms grossed me out then and they still do now) If they made wet dirt scented candles, I would certainly buy one. (Business opportunity?!)

I love when I go home to visit my parents because the whole place is pretty much covered in dirt (although, it's really not dirt, it's decomposed granite. But I digress) and if I come home at night everything smells earthy and fabulous.

Maybe that's why I love the smell so much...It just reminds me of my various homes.

Hot jam of the week is City of Angels by The Distillers. Punk rock, pretty much as a whole, falls in the hot jam category as far as I'm concerned. Next time you hear a good punk song, try to not get up and dance. Or at least tap your foot. It's loud. It's fast. And I love it.

One of the things I like about The Distillers is the lead singer is a girl. (Brody Dalle, ex-wife of Rancid front man, Tim Armstrong. How's that for a punk rock power couple?) Any girl that can successfully join the boys' club of punk rock AND play her own guitar gets an A+ in my book. Not to mention she has a voice that you can only get from screaming to punk music your whole life.

City of Angels features lyrics like "It's a ghost town rabid underworld/Dionysian night vitriolic twilight." How many times have you heard Dionysian or vitriolic in a song? Not that many, I'm sure. 


Now get up and dance.

Jorts and Dog Police

My love for jorts (jean shorts, if you prefer) is well known. Note in the header photo my sister and I are BOTH wearing jorts . I even tucked my sweet polka dot shirt in, as if to show off even more of my jorts. But clearly my love didn't stop when I turned 8. 

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

And this doesn't include the countless photos of me as a child wearing jorts. I don't think it's the jorts themselves that I love so much, it's what the represent. Jorts mean summer and music festivals and drinking beer and relaxation. They say, "Hey, I got hot one day so I cut off the legs of my pants. No big deal."

The hot jam of a the week is Dog Police by Dog Police (from the album Dog Police.)  Chances are you've never heard of Dog Police. The video won MTV's 1985 Basement Tapes Competition, but that's their only claim to fame as far as I know.

I was unaware my life was incomplete and then my dear friend Jonathan showed me this (award winning) video. After I watched it I realized that a piece of me had been missing, and that piece could only be filled by this song and video. Be warned: it WILL get stuck in your head and when you finally get it out, it will pop back in randomly. But that's the beauty, every time you randomly start humming a few bars of the chorus you'll laugh. So you're welcome.

Bucket Lists and Bobby Darin

 This week I'm featuring a topical favorite thing: crossing things off my bucket list. Last week I got to cross a very exciting item off my bucket list. See the northern lights! Thanks to a solar episode and Maggie J's aurora buddy phone app, I ran outside at 11:15 and there they were, shining away. It was amazing even here in town (where you can't see them very often). I wish I could have gotten out of town, but I'm not complaining.

(Best when viewed large. Click it, folks)

I've kept a written bucket list (or as I call it "Things to do and places to see list") for 4 or 5 years. It includes all sorts of things and every once in awhile I get to cross something off. Last time it was sea kayaking (Resurrection Bay Aug 10). I always get such a feeling of accomplishment when I can cross something off. It's like a To-Do list but even cooler because I get to cross off stuff like sea kayaking and northern lights instead of do laundry and clean humidifier. I like to go through and edit my list occasionally; it's fun to see what I wanted to do when I wrote it and what I want to do now. Sometimes, if I've done something cool, but don't have it on my list I'll add it, just so I can cross it off. That might be cheating, but I really don't care. It's like putting easy stuff on a To-Do list just so you can cross it off ("Make To-Do list: check")

I think this song is a little too cute to be considered a full-on hot jam, but it's my blog and I can do whatever I want.

 Dream Lover by Bobby Darin. My Pandora station has been playing this song a lot and I totally love it. I mean, could Bobby Darin get any cuter? Only if he was holding a baby animal. My favorite thing about this video are Bobby's sweet shoulder shakes in the chorus. And that he's looking right in the camera. Bobby Darin are you singing right to me? Swoon.



Interesting fact: In 1968, Bobby Darin learned that his mother was really his grandmother and his sister was really his mom. Crazy!

pie iron pizza and led zeppelin

This week's favorite thing is pie iron pizza. If you are unfamiliar with a pie iron you are missing out on one of life's great treasures. They look like this:

They can make pretty much anything you want, assuming you want it covered in white bread. (No, wheat bread is not an option. Yes, it's possible, but it's just not right.) But the all time best thing you can make in a pie iron is a pie iron pizza.

Ingredients:
2 slices of white bread (x how many pizzas you want to make. You'll want at least 10 pizzas, I promise)
Butter (margarine, if you are feeling health conscience, I guess.)
Mozzarella cheese
Pizza sauce
Toppings (I recommend the classic pepperoni, but I won't judge if you choose something else)

Butter the bread, put it butter side out in the pie iron, add the toppings and put it in the fire. In mere minutes, you'll have the most delicious dinner of all time. If everyone ate more pie iron pizzas there would certainly be fewer problems in the world.

Hot jam of the week is Hey Hey What Can I Do by Led Zeppelin, it's raunchy and a little heartbreaking and fabulous. I love that it starts out sounding like a love song. Then, surprise! It's not. I was cooking the other night, listening to my Pandora station, as usual, when this song came on. I was vaguely singing along, not really sure why or how I knew the words, when I stopped and really listened to it. That's when I realized what a hot jam it was.

Here's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page performing it in 1995. Which is oddly the same year I was enjoying a lot of pie iron pizzas. (Thanks, Girl Scouts)

here goes nothing

In order to help keep a positive attitude in the face of substitute teaching (which, let's face it, sucks for everyone involved) I've decided to write about my favorite things each week. I'm hoping that this will help me see the little things in life that keep me sane. These are in no particular order.

So here we go. This weeks favorite thing is...

Obituaries. Okay I realize this is a weird place to start, but obituaries really are one of my favorite things. I've always had pretty neutral feelings about death; it is, after all, one of the few constants in life. I'm nosy. Maybe even super nosy and obituaries provide a look into other people's lives. I consider myself a connoisseur of obituaries and I think these things make for a great obit.

1. Old photos. I love seeing high school photos of 90 year olds. Unless you live to be 100+ you should use your high school year book photo. If you do live to be 100+, use a current photo. That's damn impressive and you should show it off.

2. Odd details. Something like, "Betty loved to garden, collect glass bells, and, in her younger days, race hot rods. At age 18, she won Miss Dairy Princess of Northern Iowa" Do I really need to know that Betty collected glass bells and raced hot rods? Of course not, but it does paint a great picture of Betty.

3. Borders, gray shading, etc. Oh man, if you get some sort of border or detail around your obituary, you really made it. That is the ultimate in obituaries.

My parents live in a small town with a newspaper that regularly features great obituaries. For example, Larry Pearce, on board of directors of the water district. His obituary featured great odd details (his boy scout den mother was Norda Zamboni, wife of Zamboni Inventor Frank Zamboni) AND and gray box. Congrats Larry Pearce, you made it.

One of my other favorite things is hot jams (jamz?). So each week I'm going to feature one. This week it's....Freebird. Cliche, I know, but regardless of the number of drunk people shouting out "FREEBIRD!" at dive bar cover bands, it's one of my favorite hot jams.

For your viewing pleasure...
Skynyrd. Live. In 1977. You know it's going to be awesome. Americana at its finest. Skip to 7:00, if you just want to hear the guitar solo.

Thank you Lynyrd Skynyrd for providing the world with anywhere from 9 to 15 minutes of pure heaven. All I want in my obituary is my high school yearbook photo and the lyrics to Freebird. Oh and a nice border.