DOS82. Meatballs Toscano, 2007.

I envy those who cook. They say it’s simple enough and the celebrity cooks you see on TV certainly reinforce that notion. Just a wee bit of salt here and a sprinkle of pepper there. Simple ingredients, simple methods.. etc.

I can’t even chop an onion properly. It takes me a while to realise that you’re supposed to peel the paper skin off garlic cloves before you chop them up. In fact, I peel more off my fingers than actual potatoes. I get splatter burn just putting oil into the pan.

It’s a disaster. But I like cooking. It’s almost like alchemy to me. These simple everyday ingredients chopped up and mixed together in a hot pan and somehow some sort of magic happens and you get hot food to fill your stomach! It never ceases to amaze me that I, me, the klutz, am able to cook to feed myself at least. That is a power previously unknown to me .

More than that, cooking kinda calms me down as well. Repetitive action is known to be calming, though sometimes there is a fine line between therapeutic chopping of onions and “I’m going to fucking kill someone if I see another onion” chopping. I still enjoy it though. It’s something new to me and well, I’m not sick of it yet.

Playlist:
1. (0:00) The Arcade Fire – Neighborhoods #1 (Tunnels) (Funeral)
2. (4:48) Yo La Tengo – My Little Corner Of The World (I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One)
3. (7:12) Badly Drawn Boy – Something To Talk About (About A Boy OST)
4. (10:50) Belle & Sebastian – Asleep On A Sunbeam (Dear Catastrophe Waitress)
5. (14:15) Coeur De Pirate – La Vie Est Ailleurs (S/T)
6. (16:43) Headlights – It Isn’t Easy To Live That Well (The Enemies EP)
7. (20:50) God Help The Girl – God Help The Girl (S/T)
8. (24:13) The Clientele – These Days Nothing But Sunshine (God Save The Clientele)
9. (27:40) Luna – Friendly Advice (Best Of)
10. (34:18) The Mountain Goats – Color In Your Cheeks (All Hail West Texas)
11. (37:11) Richard Hawley – Lonely Night (Late Night Final)

Duomo in Milan, Aug 2009

Europe in August is also hell. Nothing much is open and those who are exploit the opportunity to charge exorbitant prices. The city looks deserted which might have a romantic feel to it, if only it’s not so bloody hot. There’s nothing much to do, not in Milan at least, except to shop. And shop I did. It’s the only thing I can do!

Playlist:

1.(0:00) Bright Eyes – At The Bottom Of Everything (I’m wide Awake It’s Morning)
2. (4:34) Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out Of This Country (Let’s Get Out Of This Country)
3. (7:54) Manic Street Preachers – Everything Must Go (Everything Must Go)
4. (11:01) Pavement – Unfair (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
5. (13:35) Teenage Fanclub – Nothing To Be Done
6. (16:37) Aimee Mann & Michael Penn – Two Of Us (I Am Sam OST)
7. (20:10) The Mendoza Line – Go Shopping (30 Year Low + The Final Remarks Of The Legendary Malcontent)
8. (23:50) Yo La Tengo – Something To Do (Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo)
9. (26:07) The Organ – There Is Nothing I Can Do (Grab That Gun)
10. (28:38) Voxtrot – The Dream Lives Of Ordinary People (Berlin, Without Return)
11. (33:06) Beirut – Postcards From Italy (Gulag Orkestar)

kathryn_rotondo. clover card, 2008.

But there is still plenty to be thankful for. It’s easy to take basic amenities for granted when it’s an everyday occurrence. Potable water is one thing; easy access to food is another. We all have a roof over our heads and that’s something to be grateful for. We probably don’t need a lot to survive but we all want to do more than survive, do we not? We want to thrive, in our professional, private lives.

Playlist:
1. (0:00) Robert Johnson – When You Got A Good Friend (The Complete Recordings)
2. (2:38) Weezer – The Good Life (Pinkerton)
3. (6:52) Tegan & Sara – Where Does The Good Go? (So Jealous)
4. (10:30) Aimee Mann – Nothing Is Good Enough (Bachelor No. 2)
5. (13:40) The National – Lucky You (Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers)
6. (18:05) M. Ward – Good News (Duet For Guitars #2)
7. (21:22) Radiohead – Lucky (OK Computer)
8. (25:36) Kevin Tihista – Don’t You Know (Don’t Breathe A Word)
9. (30:22) Richard Hawley – Tonight The Streets Are Ours (Lady’s Bridge)

There’s no shortage of advice out there for people who need to speak publicly. “Imagine them naked” says one, or “move your eyes from one face to the next”, “smile” etc. I think the most useful one is actually “practice, practice, practice.” I read somewhere that Steve Jobs spent days and days practicing his speech, perfecting even the pauses and dramatic flick of his remote.

That somehow made me feel better. Sure, he is Steve Jobs but he still has to memorise his lines and perfect his routine like the rest of us mere mortals.

Playlist:

1. (0:00) Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs – A Nervous Tic Of The Head To The Right (S/T)
2. (5:00) Oasis – Some Might Say (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
3. (10:29) Tegan & Sara – Speak Slow (So Jealous)
4. (12:52)  Pavement – Speak, See, Remember (Terror Twilight)
5. (17:12) The Strokes – You Talk Way Too Much (Room On Fire)
6. (20:13) Sufjan Stevens – All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! (Greetings From Michigan)
7. (24:48) Interpol – Public Pervert (Antics)
8. (29:30) Shearwater – Sing, Little Birdie (Palo Santo)
9. (32:39) God Help The Girl – If You Could Speak (S/T)
10. (35:23) The Magnetic Fields – I’m Tongue-Tied (I)

It’s a different story at work though. I have files and folders, highlighters, diaries, post-it pads, you name it.. I get excited about production schedules and time lines. It’s definitely easier for me to organise my work than my life. Putting order onto chaos and assigning proper places to things are inevitably very human desires. But so is the need to feel unbound and free from responsibilities. It’s this tug-of-war that makes us human, no?

Playlist:
1. (0:00) Bloc Party – Plans (Silent Alarm)
2. (4:09) The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Doing All The Things That Wouldn’t Make Your Parents Proud (S/T)
3. (6:46) Okkervil River – No Key No Plan (Black Sheep Boy Appendix)
4. (9:46) The New Year – Plan B (The End Is Near)
5. (12:43) The Delgados – If This Is A Plan (Hate)
6. (17:08) Beirut - No Dice (March Of The Zapotec & Real People: Holland)
7. (22:30) The Mountain Goats – Balance (All Hail West Texas)
8. (24:36) The National – So Far Around The Bend (Dark Was The Night)
9. (28:18) God Help The Girl – God Help The Girl (God Help The Girl)
10. (31:40) Bright Eyes – Make A Plan To Love Me (Cassadaga)
11. (35:53) Yo La Tengo – Today Is The Day (Today Is The Day EP)

Pragmagraphr. 366 . 36. Two Hands, One Cup, 2008.

While I’m not opposed to freshly baked pastries and the odd drink or three, my poison is really just a simple cup of tea. But not just any old cuppa, mind, it has to be English Breakfast with lemon and honey. I don’t know what it does exactly but something in the process of rinsing out my favourite mug, placing the tea bag and the wedge of lemon while waiting for the kettle to boil calms me down tremendously. And then there’s the pouring, the steeping and throwing away the tea bag. Of course I won’t be able to drink the hot tea immediately, and that is the beauty of it to me I think. I bring the cup to my room and set it down to cool while busying myself with whatever I was doing. After letting an optimum of 15 minutes pass (yes, I experimented), I sip the tea and sigh at the perfection of it all.

A simple cup of tea, with lemon and honey. It’s really that simple.

Playlist:
1. (0:00) The Clientele – Step Into The Light (Strange Geometry)
2. (3:59) Muddy Waters – Take A Walk With Me (Feel Like Going Home)
3. (7:03) Yo La Tengo – Our Way To Fall (And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out)
4. (11:22) Great Lake Swimmers – I Will Never See The Sun (S/T)
5. (14:59) Belle & Sebastian – For The Price Of A Cup Of Tea (The Life Pursuit)
6. (18:18) The Mountain Goats – Colour In Your Cheeks (All Hail West Texas)
7. (21:00) Alexi Murdoch – Breathe (Time Without Consequence)
8. (25:16) Luna – Chinatown (Penthouse)
9. (29:58) Sufjan Stevens – For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti (Greetings From Michigan)
10. (34:00) Nina Nastasia & Jim White – How Will You Love Me (You Follow Me)
11. (37:15) American Analog Set – Punk As Fuck (Know By Heart)
12. (41:29) Feist – Tout Doucement (Let It Die)

Rick Harris. These Old Booths, 2008

I guess it’s a testament to the concept of communication that people misunderstand what we mean. It’s easy to do that too. We may profess to speak the same language and refer to the same word in the dictionary but in our minds, we may be looking at totally opposite images.

Playlist:

1. (0:00) Ambulance Ltd – It Goes Without Saying
2. (2:25) The Shins – So Says I (Chutes Too Narrow)
3. (5:09) Stars – What I’m Trying To Say (Set Yourself On Fire)
4. (8:31) Rosie Thomas – Say Hello (These Friends Of Mine)
5. (10:52) The Legends – Everything You Say (Up Against The Legends)
6. (13:00) Cat Power – Love And Communication (The Greatest)
7. (17:33) Superdrag – She Says (Changin’ Tires On The Road To Ruin)
8. (21:15) Margot And The Nuclear So And Sos – Talking In Code (Dust Of Retreat)
9. (25:00) The Mendoza Line – Let’s Not Talk About It (Fortune)
10. (28:46) Explosions In The Sky – Your Hand In Mine (Friday Night Lights OST)
11. (32:47) Yo La Tengo – Don’t Say A Word (Hot Chicken #2) (Electr-O-Pura)
12. (36:12) Elliott Smith – Say Yes

Gordes, March 2009.

Maybe things will be easier if we remember that. So many times we get upset with a situation or a person just because we thought things are going a certain way when it may not necessarily be the case. How much simpler things will be if we just remember that we can’t always be right!

Playlist:

1. (0:00) Yo La Tengo – Leaving Home (They Shoot, We Score)
2. (2:44) The Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride (Heretic Pride)
3. (6:24) The National – So Far Around The Bend (Dark Was The Night)
4. (10:08) M. Ward – Epistemology (Hold Time)
5. (14:00) The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (S/T)
6. (16:32) Army Navy – Dark As Days (S/T)
7. (20:20) Teenage Fanclub – I Don’t Want Control Of You (Songs From Northern Britain)
8. (23:23) The Arcade Fire – The Well And The Lighthouse (Neon Bible)
9. (27:25) Seachange – In (On Fire, With Love)
10. (33:01) Bedhead - Living Well (What Fun Life Was)
11. (37:29) Alexi Murdoch – Towards The Sun (Away We Go OST)

lcrf. LEVITACIÓN / LEVITATION, 2008.

The immense pain dictates a major overhaul of my daily routine. Now I take at least double the time needed to get to work and think far far ahead so that I don’t have to make additional trips. For example, in the office, I’d print out all the documents I need (if I need them at all) then head off to the toilet, come back to fill up on more water, just in time for the documents.

Playlist:
1. (0:00) Le Tigre – TKO (This Island)
2. (3:25) The Arcade Fire – Keep The Car Running (Neon Bible)
3. (6:50) The Velvet Underground – Run Run Run (The Velvet Underground & Nico)
4. (11:13) Wolf Parade – You Are A Runner And I’m My Father’s Son (Apologies To The Queen Mary)
5. (14:09) Saturday Looks Good To Me - Keep Walking (Every Night)
6. (16:50) Mojave 3 – Running With You (Puzzles Like You)
7. (18:59) Belle & Sebastian – The Loneliness Of A Middle Distance Runner (Push Barman To Open Old Wounds)
8. (23:30) The Delgados – Knowing When To Run (The Great Eastern)
9. (27:01) Wilco – Walken (Sky Blue Sky)
10. (31:23) Nina Nastasia & Jim White – I Come After You (You Follow Me)

Jean Chatillon. Street in Budapest, March 2009

From a distance, like a miracle that’s come from above, the neon lights beckoned. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief.

“Do you want KFC?”
“Holy fuck I’d eat anything right now,” I growled.

I began to feel better after the third hotwing. I can focus. I can speak again. I didn’t realise that we had been silent for so long. We picked up where we left off. We talked about the people around us and made up stories for them. We were laughing so hard that people were staring and we tumbled out onto the cold, cold street again.

It’s quiet outside and we immediately regretted stepping out into the cold. Damn, it cuts right through whatever you’re wearing, doesn’t it? We had to seek refuge in a pub and when that got too loud, we stumbled around for another and another until everything’s deserted and dead.

There’s something magical about slumbering foreign cities. As the city lies asleep recovering from the toils of the day, I can’t help but feel like we’re the last two humans on earth.