06.15.011

this blog comes in 3 parts.

part one; the clean food challenge.
i don't know if anyone recalls, but this past december, i half-heartedly partook in something called the clean food challenge that my friend and former teacher and current blogger challenged her readers to do. i say half-heartedly because my monetary situation was tight and i think i only managed to actually post for three days during the whole thing. WELL! emilie has challenged her readers again, and this time, since i am in a better financial situation, i am going to go 100% whole heartedly into this clean food challenge. if you are interested, you can read more about it here. i am still debating whether or not i am going to cut out coffee completely (i didn't last time, and thusly ended up consuming silk and sugar in the raw as well). or maybe i just go the special agent dale cooper route and drink it black as midnight on a moonless night. my reasoning for doing this more fervently this time is that i have been eating a lot of pasta and a lot of bread for months, because they are cheap. but now i have money andso it would be nice to kick those overly carby, overly processed habits. plus it's warm and there is a plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables available now that most places are not snowy tundras. and i haven't been drinking enough water at all. so, that'll be happening the twentyfirst through the twentyseventh, and i will be blogging every day, so you have that to look forward to!

part two; purim's shadows (the dark tours the world).
this should arguably be part one, because it is the most important thing to happen in the past month, but i wanted to get the business end of things out of the way before going on to the solely pleasurable aspects of everything.

SO. the music tapes released purim's shadows (the dark tours the world) yesterday. it is a six song ep that is only available digitally and on kazoo. well, by "on kazoo", i mean merge is selling music tapes kazoos that come with a download code for the ep that includes a bonus track, that comes along with some sort of special julian surprise. i love julian surprises, and serendipitously, i realized monday night that i have either lost or temporarily misplaced the kazoo that lives in my purse for kazoo emergencies, so i purchased one (i am not entirely sure that i want the music tapes kazoo to be subjected to the rough and tumble neighborhood that is my purse, though. i usually always am carrying box cutters and butter knives or serrated knives or scissors or other stabby things that could wound such a fine looking kazoo. maybe only for special occasions. i'm writing this as though i do not have any other kazoos. i do have another plastic one). it's already been shipped, and i am looking forward to it's arrival so much.

BUT. because for some reason merge didn't announce that they were actually doing anything for this release (i found out about it monday morning through a friend), i ended up purchasing the ep off of itunes at five am, after one of hillary's cats woke me up by pretending she was going to vomit on my bed. it was funny because i had stayed up well past midnight in hopes that it would be active on amazon, but since it got to be around one am and there was no activity, i went to bed. and then after the cat incident, i figured "well, i'm already awake. might as well check." and i saw that it was available on amazon, as well as itunes. i opted for the itunes route (it was cheaper, and came with a little digital pdf thing). so i ended up buying it twice. which is alright with me because oh my gosh. it is just. so good.

i have been likening it to a the most perfect teaser trailer for what will undoubtedly be the best release of the year. it is the tastiest amuse-bouche for the third imaginary symphony, which is apparently going to be in two parts; the first of which will be called mary's voice and will hopefully be out later this year.

all but two of the songs are shiny new music tapes songs that i have never heard before. the ep starts with so the day long, with just julian's warbling voice and the sound of a distant metronome (maybe not distant, but muffled, as though escaping headphones) before the guitar and bells and some other instrument that i am not entirely sure of kick in before the chorus, which just slays me. "show me the lonely room that really can't let the evening in." it all builds up to the ending and it's perfect. the seven foot metronome is back as the main percussionist on a lightning's cheeks (everything gets born here). sort of an in an ice palace-y feeling song, but much different. these first two songs sound as though they were written for some sort of movie soundtrack. the middle two songs are transitional pieces; 3 being an instrumental song sounding a bit like one imagines the band organ at a carousel run by tom waits would sound like. 4 being the sweetest, most sentimental 27 second song i've heard ever; jeff, jill, and julian serenading julian's dog rudolph on the beach at nantasket. the whole ep is dedicated to rudolph, who was one of the sweetest dogs i've ever met (and i have met my share of sweet dogs). i am glad it's only twentyseven seconds long, since i start getting really emotional around the halfway mark, but then it's over so quickly that i don't have the chance to completely break into tears (confession: i most definitely cried at 5 in the morning when i read the digital liner notes). the last third of the album consists of a re-recording of night and day (better than the single that was tucked away in the new york public library two years ago), and a recording of nantasket (best known for haunting my mind all during pneumoniafest 2k9). the ep as a whole is so well done and it has me so excited to hear mary's voice.

part three; other.
the past month has been odd. we had a big family yardsale memorial day. my parents have listed their house for sale. i sang and played xylophone for a cover of the music tapes' majesty that i did with a friend of mine for one of the elephant 6 fanfares, which was odd. the first time i've ever recorded and publicly shared my voice. ever. of course, it's like an entire chorus of me on the song, and it sounds really good. which is weird and kind of gives me the creeps. i've been cutting up books for craft purposes and watching random things on netflix. i don't see many people most days and i don't get enough sleep. i read dandelion wine recently and it is one of my favorite books of all time now. i am currently reading children of the albatross by anaïs nin, which i am enjoying. i just bought eat, pray, love, which i am planning on reading during the clean food challenge. i became friends with a butterfly today. my brother is offering to sell me a set of drawers that i am currently stripping at least seven layers of paint off of. if i buy them, i am pretty certain i will base coat the thing with white and collage it. the sunroof on my car is broken and i can't open it, but somehow my hair is getting lighter. i've been having some weird ear issues today, and i'm not sure why. generally lonely but mostly alright with it. i ended up bringing jenga home after the yard sale. i play by myself. i don't know how to feel about that. i am not writing enough.

anyway, the other of hillary's cats woke me up at five in the morning to puke this morning, so i am fairly sleep deprived and weary eyed, so we will solve that now.