off day

it has been one of those days. i feel like i'm one step behind the rest of the world and every time i try to run ahead a little, i trip. come to think of it, most of my week has been like this -- if the world around me is a marching band, i'm that sousaphone player whose hat keeps slipping down over her eyes as she meanders around the parade route, taking out spectators with her oversized tuba. i don't exactly know what's wrong. conversationally, i'm a flop; there's a good 5 second delay before i can get it together enough to answer. physically, i'm an accident waiting to happen (my partner and i flipped our boat *again this week ... and that's only the beginning). emotionally, i'm just missing the beat; usually i "get" people, especially those close to me, but lately, even my dearest of friends have proven inscrutable. the one thing that has been clunking along reasonably well is my work, and this, while it does fill me with a certain degree of satisfaction, also worries me. perhaps i've been reading a little too much about degeneration and hereditary taints lately (thank you sir arty c. doyle!) but i'm beginning to think that the closer i get to finishing my dissapoint ... er, dissertation, the further i will regress until i'm nothing but some kind of weird, drooling ball of human flesh.

in a quiet moment this morning, inspired by the mythology pile in G's closet, i made up this playlist. the other night she and i were talking about personal mythologies and i realized that while i have many a concrete talisman stashed away in various corners of my life, i also have musical markers that somehow manage to get at who i am. this cluster of tunes is nothing if not eclectic.

Mythology (Radio Edit)

Holland 1945/Neutral Milk Hotel
Terrien D'Eau Dounce/Paris Combo
Where Do You Go/Peter Murray
The Jackal/Ronny Jordan
Lodestar/Sarah Harmer
Je Ne Veux Pas Travailler/Pink Martini
Giving Up the Fight/Eleni Mandell
Shred A/Le Tigre
(Antichrist Television Blues)/Arcade Fire
My Funny Valentine/Chet Baker
Après un rêve/Renée Fleming
Cities in Dust (Extended Version)/Siouxsie & the Banshees
We're Not Gonna Take It/Bif Naked