multimedia

Today I'm playing with music. I'm putting CDs, those ancient relics, onto my iPod. I have an iPod? For shame! Thanks, Sam. But I was thinking about my favorite music, and got into a list-making mood. So two top-10 lists here, just for the hell of it, and in no particular order.

List #1 = Best CDs of All Time (Or, ones that I have had a continuous love affair with for many, many years)

1. Beastie Boys "Hello Nasty"
2. Faith No More "Angel Dust"
3. Dave Matthews Band "Crash"
4. Violent Femmes "Add It Up"
5. Fiona Apple "Tidal"
6. Live "The Distance to Here"
7. Toadies "Rubberneck"
8. Beck "Odelay"
9. FatBoy Slim "You've Come a Long Way, Baby"
10. System of a Down "System of a Down"

List #2 = Best CDs -- Runners Up (Or, ones that I hope to still be in love with for many, many years)

1. Girl Talk "Night Ripper"
2. The Killers "Hot Fuss"
3. Dresden Dolls "Yes, Virginia"
4. Duffy "Rockferry"
5. Amy Winehouse "Back to Black"
6. Queens of the Stone Age "Songs for the Deaf"
7. Eagles of Death Metal "Peace Love Death Metal"
8. The White Stripes "Elephant"
9. Outkast "Stankonia"
10. Jem "Finally Woken"

I admit to leaving out a lot of awesomeness, but when I limit myself to 10, I have to let Pearl Jam, Cake and Stone Temple Pilots step aside. Yes, even Tori, but she's a special case. I also admit the last few on the latter list were difficult to type there. Basically that means I haven't fallen in love with enough new music lately. Individual songs, sure -- but entire albums? That's much more difficult. I'm close to adding Gogol Bordello. Now that I have my iPod, perhaps it will be time to expand my horizons some more. More Raconteurs, more Justice, more Feist ... I'm sure someone super-important (and I don't mean The Beatles) is missing from these lists. It's time to spend some quality time in New Music Land.

nourishment

So it seems that my semi-daily blog has become a monthly. I aim to remedy that. The transition occurred because I came to New York and took on a chaotic lifestyle that has forced me to be "currently reading" "Eat, Pray, Love" for more than two months. Pathetic? Probably. Fixable? Definitely. I swear I am almost done with the book now, with a mere 60 pages to go. The long subway rides are helping a lot, though! But I am totally in love with the book. I can think of two people I will be buying copies for. Somebody told me the first third of this book (eat = Italy) was the best, but I'm loving the more philosophical portions, too. I've been inspired to make meditation a part of my life, especially because I feel like I need some time every day to really clear my head.

I like the way Ms. Gilbert thinks. I like the way she takes what could be an over-your-head philosophical memoir and spreads it out like she's icing a cake everybody wants a piece of. Here's a big lesson she's revealed on page 260:

Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment. It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.

I also like how the book is winding up. The author has come full circle, from self-indulgence to self-discovery and finally reaching a point of balance. Balance is what she is seeking in Bali, and yes, she makes me want to go see that place just as much as she made me want to see Italy. Every person I tell about this book wants to know how she managed to take a year off of life and travel the world. She says right in the beginning that she used the advance for the book to take the trip that inspired it. What an amazing thing. I know Liz had her troubles in life, but how fantastic to be able to reach "enlightenment" and share the story with those of us who can only dream of spending four months in culinary heaven followed by four months in deep meditation with no responsibilities ... and then four months to figure out how to apply it all to real life.

It has been nice to stretch out this book, though, because the author does manage to transport me to wherever she is at the time, even if that place is the inside of her mind. I'd like to find the inside of my head one of these days ... I'll be working on it.