What a bizarre week for me, and what a good one for NGFM. I dug all the photo posts this week, especially that one of Tanya Donnelly.
And I really liked Kat's meditation on MIA yesterday, as that pretty much nailed my opinion.

Now (keeping my fingers crossed that NGFM doesn't eat my post like it did last week -- and I started out saying nice things about each of your Snapshots, too!):

Listening: “Pirate Prude” by Helium; “Live from the Relapse Contamination Festival” by High on Fire; “Nigeria 70” compilation.
Watching: “The Hangover” and “Brute Force,” a ‘50s prison flick starring Burt Lancaster.
Reading: I started flipping through “Alpha Dogs: The Americans Who Turned Political Spin into a Global Business” last night, but with few blocks of unbroken time of late, I’ve mostly been reading the comics equivalent of summer blockbuster films – IE Marvel superhero fare like “The Incredible Hercules” and “Damage Control.” Also I re-read “Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight” which only got better the second time through.
Eating: Still eating a hybrid homegrown-veggie/frozen-dinner diet.
Wanting: I’ll settle for a quiet weekend with lots of sleep.

THANKS, MASON

'pirate prude' is a good record.

First, QUESTION: Why do people listen to "Graceland" by Paul Simon? I'm just curious. Because so many cool people do, but I would never even consider listening to it, myself.

Listening: Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Musics 1918-1955. Oh & the Double Rainbow song...I am a sucker but it was the best thing that happened to me this week!
Watching: A 1962 documentary about the Tour de France by Louis Malle.
Reading: Man I never have time to read any more. I listen to stupid shitty talk radio in the car commuting with my dad every day.
Wearing: I have tended towards jeans & t-shirts & workout clothes this week. Not particularly proud of it.
Wanting: A life free from emetophobia. Is this something I can write in to LJ's DO AS I SAY column about?

Kat, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were a California girl. I've got a surplus of good vibes this week, so I'm more than happy to spread a little towards the fruition of this mysterious superspecial something.

And yes, Pirate Prude is pretty damn good. But then, there's very little Mary Timony has done that isn't.

Listening: the two albums Steve Poltz released prior to his brand new one that I love so much; Paul McCartney's Working Classical (wherein he presents new compositions and reinterprets some of his classics via a string quartet and the LSO); the 2nd and 3rd Fireman albums (Rushes and Electric Arguments).
Watching: the best Seinfeld moment ever, because I just hilariously lived a moment like this yesterday.
Reading: I've returned to Steve Almond's "Rock And Roll Will Save Your Life." It too is filled with lots of great awkward humor.
Wearing: an orange button down shirt with blue pinstripes, bleach stains, a tiny hole on each sleeve in non-related spots, and white showing beneath the worn cuffs. And jeans.
Wanting: my mother to be fully healed well before Thanksgiving so she and my father can fly out here for Turkey Day.

michael, actually, i lived in san francisco for about four years! so i'm up on the good vibes/cosmic yoga tip, definitely :-)

thanks for sending the good vibes, i will return them for your mother!

xo k.

Graceland was the first album I ever loved. When I was a little kid I wrote Paul Simon fan letters and he sent me autographed headshots back. I was working an overnight shift a few weeks ago and one of my coworkers put it on and it really took me back. So now I listen to it sometimes. I just like it.

good vibes, good vibes! sending them your way, even more than usual.

L: my boyfriend keeps playing lots of The Cure and I keep playing lots of Jay-Z and then sometimes we play the Pixies and we're both happy.
W: I keep watching random Sex and the City episodes, like the one where Charlotte's taking tap lessons to get over her divorce and Samantha gives Carrie advice about marrying Aiden. SO FUNNY!
R: Paul Auster is so great! I love the New York trilogy. I'm reading a bunch of stuff about farming, both urban and rural, and also I keep picking up Bad Mother but Ayelet Waldman bothers me a lot so I keep putting it down.
W: When I got home from work and errands, I peeled off my two sweaty tank tops and my sweaty jeans and found blue-jeans residue on my legs. That's how sweaty I am these days. It's my sweatiest summer yet, I think. So now I'm wearing my bathing suit cover up sans bathing suit.
W: I just got these great towel things that are supposed to replace paper towels in my life, so what more is there to want, really? Except for all of NGFM's creative efforts to find a welcoming home in the universe, of course.

Paul Auster! I read Moon Palace for a two-person bookclub with a boy I have a major crush on and then The New York Trilogy because I liked Moon Palace so much. And for sure, sending all sorts of good vibes at this very moment.

Listening: I've been listening to a lot of old mixtapes my friend made me years ago in my car.
Watching: Not much, but I might watch an episode of 21 Jump Street later.
Reading: Forced Entries by Jim Carroll. Another book given to me by the boy. I started reading it the other day while sitting on his stoop and drinking beer.
Wearing: heathered grey and red baseball tee and ugly pants.
Wanting: To see/talk to the boy. I think I might need some awesome Laura Jane advice.

Totally sending good vibes your way!

Listening: Guess Who, Dizzee Rascal, Howard Tate and Chet Baker. Not sure what that says about me lately, but I'm digging it.
Watching: Last movie I watched was Toy Story 3, but that was a while ago... I'm kind of over movies right now, but I just found out that Cillian Murphy is in Inception, and now I NEED to see it because he's one of my pretend boyfriends, and I'm kind of hyped on Machete and Predators.
Reading: New York Magazine, and a lot of news online.
Wearing: Gray tri-blend deep-v from American Apparel, old gray jeans from the Gap that I turned into cutoffs, and gray desert boots from J.Crew with black socks. Today's been a very gray day for some reason.

Felt super New York in my outfit though especially with my giant headphones on the train, carrying sunflowers home.
Wanting: A better job, more dollah bills, and someone to make sense of my not-dating life.

cillian murphy is beautiful. and beautiful in Inception. he gave one of the few genuinely emotional moments in the film. (sorry, can't buy leonardo dicaprio as a father and husband for some reason!)

xo k.

Betty-Draper-in-Rome hair! Is literally the most amazing coif I've ever seen. Reminds me of a bunch of Audry Hepburn updos, weirdly. Maybe from Sabrina? I'm currently begging my boss to give me Sunday off so I can watch the new premiere.

OK I want to play this game too (especially since I haven't done a blog post of my own in almost a month (eeep))
Listening: Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Buble, and horrible pop incarnation of opera songs by Andrew Bocelli (this is the soundtrack at my place of work)
Watching: Mad Men, Jaws, and the Shining for a horror movie column I'm writing
Reading:Winesburg, Ohio? I need new books.
Wearing: Charchol Uniqlo v-neck, khaki H&M shorts, sebagos from LL Bean.