In light of my life, I stood basking.
And so the things that have been keeping me steady and clear lately are such things of power and goodness that I felt I'd share them. Never before have I felt a gratitude so huge for the precious things I know and have. All these little glimmering stones in the wet sand of my life.
I'll start with what I've been reading.
Just Kids, by Patti Smith. (thanks to my lovely sister Heather (moonshinejunkyard) and my beautiful fiancee Emma for the recommendation.)
It's a beautiful book about love and freedom and art. It's keeping me inspired and glazing all things I see and hear and feel with a thin veil of magic that I think will stick around for a long time to come. Just ordered a couple of Patti Smiths books of poetry and I am anxious to get those words into my belly.
What I've been listening to.
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.
These four guys have really been doing it for me lately. I just bought their latest album, Let It Sway, at Amoeba Records on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, and have been playing it over and over ever since, which I rarely do with any specific record, let alone let a song play on repeat over and over, which I have been doing with the song "Everlyn." Look it up, give it a listen. Their style is unique, paying homage to such indie rock loves of my childhood as Weezer and Pavement, with pop-indie rock melodies and lyrics full of subtle brilliance. They've really infiltrated a part of me residing in my bones from the wee days of my youth, persisting on into the finished version of myself here as some strange adult, reminding me of the real things, the inexplicable joy of living. Simplicity can really rule. And check out this awesome record cover.
And the forever enduring wisdom of Townes Van Zandt.
So these things, along with reading Dylan Thomas, watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, writing music again, poetry, good food, goat cheese and basil, Twin Peaks, Joe Hisaishi videos on youtube, bicycling, coffee, sunshine, my cats, handy-work, drawing and gluesticks, have rekindled that electric fire that is so vital to just existing, to knowing what's real and what's right in front of your little eyes. So thank you to all of it. And most of all, to this girl, who naturally and divinely floats like a phantom around this world granting grace and peace and wonder unto all of us, and to whom I give all the love of my whole soul, eternally, up against those bones, it is good in my home, just think of the ocean to remind you what is ours.
