Would You Wear It In Your House?

If Dr. Seuss designed evening wear, it would probably look a little something like this. Would you wear it here or there? I would wear it everywhere!

image source unknown

Dream Tree

Trees belong to no one, but I secretly wish this tree was mine.

The Angel Oak - specific image source unknown

Some Songs I Love

God Only Knows - The Beach Boys (Pet Sounds, 1966)

The Sound of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel (Sounds of Silence, 1965, and an earlier version from 1964)

Time In a Bottle - Jim Croce (You Don't Mess Around with Jim, 1973)

Diane Izzo: 'One'

In 1999, Diane Izzo released her debut album One. It is an arresting and perfectly executed album. Raw and dark and elaborate. Damage, disintegration and harrowing, devastating beauty. It is so pure and honest -- you can hear her truth in every lyric and every chord. This may be one of the only posts I do about an album without linking to a song. While I know all the songs can stand on their own, I could never listen to them that way. This, probably more than most I've encountered, is an album. A whole. An experience. A work of art.

One never got the attention it deserved. Journalists are now calling it "one of the best singer-songwriter albums ever to come out of Chicago." I think that's an understatement. In my opinion, it's one of the best albums to come out of anywhere ever, regardless of geography or genre. I waited and waited for something else from her, but it never came. It seemed like Diane just disappeared from the face of the earth. Every couple of years or so I'd do a Google search in hopes that there would be a new release, but I never found any mention of anything. Last night I checked again and I found some very sad news. Diane passed away in 2011 from brain cancer. I am heartbroken. It strikes me now how fitting her debut album title is.

One.

This Boy Has Broken Down

I love this song so much.

Old Town - Phil Lynott (The Philip Lynott Album, 1982)

Unconstrained Coiffures

Taking their cues from the fearless Decorator Crab, ladies of all stripes have been beautifying their tresses with vegetation and objects for centuries. From the feathers, shells and beetle wings favored by some, to the flowers and ribbons woven through the locks of others, most women see little reason to exercise restraint. I've even heard rumors that Marie Antoinette kept birds' nests in her hair, complete with living songbirds. Unhinged? Maybe. But it was probably kind of charming, too.

Here is a particularly striking arrangement from the very beginning of the 20th century.

Marie Doro, 1903

In This Theater That I Call My Soul

I love this video. They're just so damned chill.

So Lonely - The Police (Outlandos D'Amour, 1978)