Oh my goodness, what have I been doing?

Well! Not updating my blog, obviously. For someone who sits in front of a computer all day at work and, you know, "writes", I'm pretty terrible at this. One thing I'm currently doing is a SECRET, but it's awesome and taking up loads of my time right now. It is a mildly musical endeavor. Mildly.

I've been busy! Busy eating. Jamie invited me to Minnie's with Jenn and Angela. Miniature food and good company is delightful. I was strangely social that night and promised to meet up with folks later on so I had to bail early. Pfffft, should've totally spent the rest of the night with the fabulous blog girls instead.

This isn't a food blog but a music blog so I will spare you the deets of how I spent the rest of my weekend at Veggie Bite. Basically. All weekend. Nom nom nom.

I did go to the CHIRP Record Fair this weekend. Formerly the WLUW Record Fair, it now benefits the Chicago Independent Radio Project, a much-needed endeavor. I was there for a while shifting through a surprising amount of Madness and Melanie. I should've made a list of stuff I wanted but came away with Leonard Cohen's Recent Songs, Talking Heads' 77 and More Songs About Buildings & Food, the soundtrack to Valley of the Dolls, and Television's Adventure. Nothing too exciting. I almost bought Harmonicats' Dolls Dolls Dolls just for sheer kitsch factor but even I refuse to pay $6 for kitsch. I wish I had the $$$ to pick up some of the amazing girl group, soul, and doo-wop 45s that were organized really, really well, but jeez louise, they were a bit on the pricey side. I want to be that dude when I grow up.

So that's that. Hi. Hello. I'll be back again. I had the day off today so I caught up on watching Top Chef, reading for fun, and indexing twenty years worth of poetry. Fun fun fun.

English Twee Bands Everywhere

Nope, not talking about the artsy drunk in this Hans Namuth photograph today.

I don't know much about Action Painting! other than what crops up on Google and I would assume that they've probably named themselves after, well, action painting. Blah blah blah stuff: they were from Brighton, had a few singles on legendary Sarah Records, Fierce Panda, and Damaged Goods, and they are somehow affiliated with something called Shampoo (I don't know why, but I keep on mixing up Shampoo with Squeeze in my mind). The following is the Damaged Goods release which seems to still be available and I urge you to buy it mostly because supporting indie record labels is good for everyone and the quality of the rips I made is not the best they could possibly be. It's also on pretty white vinyl and the single's not as twee as I am. Really. Not as jangly as you'd expect.

Action Painting! - Alice Power
Action Painting! - Laying the Lodger

ETA: So these links are dead. A few have contacted me about 'em. Feel free to send me an e-mail and I'll see what I can do!

I Am Not Hungry, I Just Think About Food and French A Lot

Almost a year ago, I procured about a dozen (maybe more. What, you expect me to count?) Franco-Canadian 45s via an internet auction site everyone is familiar with. It was one of those late night, impulse bids. I'm totally into it.

This is my favorite of the set, thus one of my Favorite of All Time Ever.

Les Sinners - Les Disc-Jockeys.

...like I should be wearing better clothing and living in a city with far superior public transit and friends I see more often. Like I should be packing a picnic lunch and dancing at dance parties. Like I should mail out the letters I write and listen to the radio in the park.

Les Sinners - Ne reste pas sous la pluie

Cute, right? Don't stay under the rain is pretty solid advice, too. I like their garage-y stuff best but this is so nice. It makes me want to play with my hair, jump into puddles, and use the proper accents when writing en francais. I would like to get my hands on their earlier LPs but they are $$$ and I am spending too much $$$ as of late. This month should be good on the cash flow, though.

Both tracks from the same 7" put out by Jupiter Records. Apologies for the crap quality; it's the old vinyl, the mostly plastic record player, the cheap cables, the lack of editing. More of 'em to come. Maybe.

I obviously didn't flip the image because I am laaaazy (also, heeeey, that's part of my kitchen where culinary delights no longer occur on a nightly basis now that school and work and internship is in full swing). Did you know a flip, according to Barron's Food Lover's Companion (I finally bought a copy) is a "concoction of rum, beer, sweetener, and spices" that you mix together by "plunging a hot fireplace poker" into it? Sounds great! Except the whole putting a beaten egg in it part that the hip kids are doing now. In the words of the elf of over-zealous, pseudo-cooking who happens to be on my box of whole grain, wheat crackers, "YUMM-O!"

What's Your Favorite Record?

This is me. Hi.

In greater detail, this is me with three days unwashed, straightened hair holding on to a copy of one of my Favorite of All Time Ever records in beautiful yellow vinyl with white and pink marbling. This copy of Beat Happening's You Turn Me On cost me a bit more than I would like to admit to having spent on a record seeing as I am not exactly in the financial state to be spending any money at all on anything other than rent and bills and possibly food and tampons, but I essentially am an irrational young adult whose priorities are mixed up. All said and done, this record cost me a pair of quarters shy of $25 and, let me tell you, it was worth it.

The record, physically and audibly, is simple and beautiful. The embellishments are subtle and fuzzy. I want to laze around the apartment with the love of my life (not just summer love, I mean apartment love, love love) while listening to this record. Maybe not lazing but doing an activity that isn't much of anything like, say, rearranging books.

You know Beat Happening. Everyone knows Beat Happening. It's that warm tingle in the bridge of your nose when you've met a cute somebody who has a skinned knee and squints a lot and just wants to walk quietly in a park with you, but you both end up on the beach instead, digging your toes into the sand, past that warm layer and deep into the more compact, water-cooled layer while your bikes are resting nearby somewhere and you don't even mind that it's getting late and there's sand in your trousers because that tingle* in your nose bridge is lasting for more than a moment. This is it. Everyone knows that, right? Some of us could pretend to and ache for it until it happens, oh god, if it ever happens, this deceptively simple kind of love, and really, Beat Happening is it. This band, this record, is one of the few that breaks and reassembles my feeble, little heart.

*Or it may only be allergies.