Sunday Songs: Father John Misty – “Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins)”

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A long time ago, in a place two neighborhoods away from where I now live, I dreamed of being a music journalist. It didn’t happen for a variety of reasons, but, as I’ve started work on a new book project, it’s been on my mind. So, in an attempt to get back to my roots, I’m starting a new series on this blog: Sunday Songs, where I go in depth about songs that have been on my mind for one reason or another.

A lot of (non-)ink has been spilled on the brilliance of Father John Misty’s recently-released sophomore album, I Love You, Honeybear, and rightfully so. Josh Tillman, the man behind the faux frock, created a masterful persona on his debut, Fear Fun where he spent an album in various rooms in Los Angeles, both taking in and taking shots at the scene. This time around, life got in the way of ironic detachment. Continue reading

Up in Smoke

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When I was in first grade, my teacher organized a thing called Star of the Week, where each student took a turn being featured. Details of the week elude me all these years later, but a few things remain: Being first in the lunch line, making a poster-sized collage representing my life to date (mine was in the shape of a trolley, inspired by Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood), and a presentation to the class about my family.

That last part was kind of delicate, at the time. Continue reading

One in a Million

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When I was a kid, maybe eight years old, a case of Diet Pepsi showed up on our front door unannounced.

To many, this might not seem like a memorable moment. But we were a Coke family in a Coke city—a city where “Coke” was the generic term, instead of soda or pop. My mom didn’t drink coffee in the morning, she drank Diet Coke. And she kept drinking Diet Coke through the day, until evening fell, when she’d switch to Caffeine-Free Diet Coke.

Diet Pepsi on our doorstep? How did that get there? Continue reading

The Mile-Sigh Club

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As I type these words, I’m thirty-thousand-something miles aloft in the air, somewhere over middle America, en route to Florida for a family gathering that I suspect will confirm one of my long-held theories about my family’s dynamics. (That will be a different post, if it’s a post at all.)

But the point is, unless there’s a remarkable coincidence going on in this metal tube in which I’m currently constrained—and I wouldn’t consider it impossible by any means—I am a thousand miles and counting from anyone I’ve dated for the first time in months.

My friends—or, honestly, anyone who’s a) ever resided in Seattle and b) had more than three conversations with me—have all heard plenty about my Extras Theory, which states that there are only 200 actual people in Seattle, and everyone else is background noise. The story behind its genesis is long-winded and nearly seven years old; the most recent evidence for it isn’t even a week old. Continue reading

Her Eyes Were Just Blue, Okay?

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Three things I’ve known to be true for a long time now:

  1. The Postal Service’s “We Will Become Silhouettes” is a much different song if you assume the phrase “pictures of you” in the first verse refers to the classic Cure song instead of actual photographs.
  2. Blake Sennett’s guitar solo in Rilo Kiley’s “The Execution of All Things” encapsulates the post-breakup he-said/she-said dynamic better than most lyrics about that subject.
  3. Any popular work of art will be misinterpreted as much as, if not more than, it’s properly interpreted.

All three of these things came up yesterday, and all three are manifestations of the same problem. Continue reading

Resolutions and Reasons

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“What’s your resolution?” she asked.

“To not make any stupid resolutions I’m going to break in a week,” I answered. Everyone at the party agreed it was the best resolution anyone there had offered.

That was moments into 2004; seven years later, I offered the same reply to the same question, because it’s pretty much the correct one. (This is not unlike how I tend to answer questions that start with “Why” which I don’t want to answer with “Reasons.”)

Continue reading