Friday Facts (2008/10/10)

Date October 10, 2008

rain-windowpane
[photo by Eva the Weaver]

Some facts in lieu of a post:

  • I believe a significant part of the next 25 years of new music was prefigured by E.L.O.’s concept album Time
  • Grating the frozen butter into the flour with a cheese grater makes perfect biscuits and pie crusts every time
  • Baking Illustrated is the best baking book ever
  • A partial list of songs that have, at one time or another, made me weep:
    • “Still Fighting It” (Ben Folds)
    • “Father and Son” (Cat Stevens)
    • “Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen by way of Jeff Buckley)
    • “On the Radio” (Regina Spektor)
    • “Needle in the Hay” (Elliott Smith)
    • “Leaving Town” (Aimee Mann)
    • “In the Sun” (Joseph Arthur)
  • My new therapist is a leggy, toothy blonde named Kirsten. I haven’t had a lot of luck in my life with women named Kirsten (and all variations thereof)
  • Book 9 of Ulysses (”Scylla and Charybdis”) is freakin’ complex
  • I’ve had the song “To the Dogs or Whoever” in my head constantly for months
  • I share a birthday with my Grandma Lori Beaver
  • Incidentally, you really want to have Google’s Safe Search on when searching for anyone with the last name of ‘Beaver’
  • I also share a birthday with Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe’s sergeant at arms
  • I’ve looked too long for words that can save me
  • Four weeks ago about this time, David Foster Wallace was hanging himself… it still hurts
  • Loneliness is a lathe

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5 Responses to “Friday Facts (2008/10/10)”

  1. Jared Stein said:

    October 10th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

    Your therapist is “Toothy”? Is she also “toothsome”? I’d prefer the latter.

    “Hallelujah” presses me to the point of tears almost every time. “By way of Jeff Buckley”? What does that mean?

  2. Chris said:

    October 10th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

    No, I really mean “toothy” :)

    “By way of Jeff Buckley” meaning that I recognize that Cohen authored it, but the version I prefer is Buckley’s…

  3. Michael Towson said:

    October 11th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    Have you heard the Johnny Cash-Fiona Apple “Father to Son”? Sounds like Cash is singing to his son post-”The Wanderer”(U2’s Zooropa)

    That and Weather Report’s “Birdland” are the only thing I can recall ever getting me close to tears.

  4. Chris said:

    October 11th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

    I haven’t heard that, but will definitely search for it. I have heard Cash and Apple’s cover of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” which was OK, despite my fondness for both of them. I remember the first time I ever heard/saw Fiona Apple, on Saturday Night Live– she was stunning in pretty much every sense of the word.

  5. Angela E. Taylor said:

    October 14th, 2008 at 5:23 am

    With regard to “Hallelujah”, I too prefer Buckley’s version to Cohen’s. Have you heard Susanna and the Magical Orchestra’s version on Melody Mountain?

    http://is.gd/42PB