Hang Me Up To Dry

Have had this Cold War Kids song on repeat all day. Despite not caring much for this group generally, something about it is just grabbing me, randomly. I like the real simple riff, played emphatically, that carries the song all the way through. I like the weird "cat walking on a keyboard" piano that kicks in late in the song, which make me wonder if someone in the band was trying to engineer a Jonny Greenwood-esque destruction of it. I dig the lyrics, which you can make work for pretty much any situation you care to. I'm making 'em a soundtrack to a tough deadline. Careless in our summer clothes/splashing around in the muck and the mire.

In A Hurricane Without An Umbrella

Yesterday morning was supposed to be wet and windy, as Hurricane Hanna rolled through, but instead it was just overcast and oppressively humid. So with a friend, I made the trek into Manhattan to pick up some wine and some fancy groceries, keeping a wary eye on the sky, mindful of what a little rain can do to the New York subway.

Come 3 p.m.-ish, Hanna got serious. Pulled out the cheap-ass umbrella I bought at the subway the other day and within instants - not even minutes - it was blown inside-out and busted. Picked up another umbrella at Kmart, which either teleported itself to a Caribbean island without me noticing or wandered away from me while I was distracted by some boots at the Union Square DSW (they were nice boots). Rather than go for umbrella #3, I gave up, took the subway home, and walked the half-mile from the subway stop in nothing short of a torrential downpour. The paper grocery bags, ever more sodden, finally gave out right at my front door.

Inside, we shut the windows, made dinner, drank two bottles of wine, and blasted some blues music. The hurricane did whatever it did outdoors, but we didn't care none.

This here is what we played. A super cool cover of Ri-Ri. And an appropriate message for those who would venture out in a hurricane without an umbrella.