296/365

three songs I'm listening to:

what am I to do (ezra collective+loyle carner)
it takes time to be a man (the rapture)
fallaway (kid koala + emiliana torrini)

218/365

songs that go on every single summer mix I make:

sweet thing (van morrison)
here comes the sun (nina simone)
make you feel that way (blackalicious, tor/sufjan stevens remix)
rill rill (sleigh bells)
swim team (arms and sleepers)
gold silver diamond (generationals)
genius of love (tom tom club)
happier than the morning sun (stevie wonder)

162/365

songs I can't stop singing:

just a lil tack in the shingle of your roof (reverend howard finster)
I am going to make it through this year if it kills me (the mountain goats)
dreams, take 2 (fleetwood mac)

no really, I can't stop. 

134/365

record stores I have loved:

criminal records (atlanta)
wax-n-facts (atlanta)
mississippi records (portland)
jackpot (portland)
everybody's records (cincinnati)
peaches records (new orleans)
wuxtry (athens)
wuxtry (atlanta)

(spent some time at wuxtry today)
(happy record store day, y'all)

116/365

songs that are doing it for me today:

peach fuzz (KMD)
ok, meet me underwater (jay som)
beating myself up (cuckoolander)

(thank you for that last one, tracy)

74/365

vinyl on heavy, heavy rotation this week:

miles davis: kind of blue
stevie wonder: music of my mind
aretha franklin: I never loved a man (the way I love you)

44/365

three songs currently on repeat:

agape (nicholas britell)
blue in green (miles davis)
two of us on the run (lucius)

prince forever

preteen saturday nights, 1999 on little white casio boomboxes. cheerleading routines that begin with dearly beloved, nervously performed underneath fluorescent lights during junior high basketball games. small town saturday night junior high dances, lavender sweaters with puffy sleeves and faded guess jeans. I would die 4 U and 13 year-olds who feel like they could dance forever, live forever. 

post-football game friday nights, beth's house. under the cherry moon on cassette tape, blackest eyeliner, frostiest lip gloss, phone calls from boys, multiple so many phone calls from boys. new position over and over, again and again and again.  anotherloverholenyohead screamed out car windows, 15 year-old girls who feel like they could sing forever, live forever. 

late monday night drives in old white datsuns through cincinnati streets with cute college boys. mix tapes with extended versions of prince songs, endless forever rarest of rare extended versions. college boys who play phantom keyboards on navy blue dashboards with one hand and drive with the other while you pretend to like clove cigarettes. cute college boys who turn into boyfriends who turn into husbands who end up as best friends. adore on repeat during early dating days, adore on repeat during newly wedded days, adore on repeat through all the in between days, adore on repeat for always. 19 year-olds, 21 year-olds who feel like they could love forever, totally, forever and ever.

sweaty tuesday nights at star bar, dj romeo cologne and the sounds of early prince, rushes of sweaty, happy people onto tiny dance floors, 27 year-olds who feel like they could probably dance forever, live forever. sweaty sunday afternoons at dancespace on sixth avenue, alexandra beller's class and the sounds of new-ish prince, rushes of sweaty, happy people across generous wooden floors, 33 year-olds who feel like they could probably dance forever, maybe live forever. or, at least until the end of the song.

rainy thursday night drives into the city with your best friend for purple rain tickets. when nothing else can be done. prince on the radio, the internet, in the newspapers, on your phone, in your texts, for all the wrong reasons. prince in the news when you wish he wasn't. starfish and coffee as loud as it will go, feet on the dash, fingers interlaced. 45 year-olds, 47 year-olds who wish prince could live forever, know that he can't. wish they could be young forever, know that they can't.

RIP sweet prince. singer of the soundtrack of my life. you will be so sorely, so terribly missed.

number twelve

number twelve off the list: own a pink ukulele.

because, january. because, february. because, I don't know. I just wanted one. it's a very twee sort of thing to want to own, I realize this. and I will admit to something else. I did not even think about actually learning how to play it. I just wanted it. I wanted to hold it. and look at it and take photographs of it. I wanted it like a kid wants candy. because it's sweet and pretty and good, because surely it would lead to happiness.

but when I got a little bit of birthday money (an amazon gift card, actually, thank you sweet in-laws), all I could think about were the practical things I needed. a new kitchen knife, for one, because I have been cutting fruits and vegetables with something akin to a butter knife. I have lost my mind over the cutting of pineapples, have thrown my fists up in the air over a pile of carrots. people, I need a new kitchen knife. desperately. and new sneakers. I have worn mine down to the nubs and my body has had it. she tells me this after every walk I take. I need new sneaks.

but I think you know how this story ends. to be fair, I researched the heck out of trainers and a most excellent kitchen knife sat in my little amazon cart for weeks. in the end, I went for the pink ukulele. because, of course I did. and when it finally arrived in the mail, it made me as happy as I thought it would. happier, even, because I've started to teach myself how to play. at night, of course, after everyone has gone to bed and the house is quiet. and you know what else? ava has started to play too. I hear her plink plink plinking away and it fills me with so much happy that it just spirals right out through the top of my head.

and we don't really know what we're doing, we're probably doing it all wrong but we're making up silly songs and we're learning chords and strum patterns and at least now there's a little bit more music floating around these parts. dang it if it hasn't been the best thing to happen to this house in months. also? favorite pink thing, ever. ever. of course, I still curse every time I cut into a pineapple and wince a little bit after a long walk but I'll take it. because I don't know what we did before this little pink ukulele. I really don't.

one two three four five

monday//golden

tuesday//red

wednesday//brown

thursday//grey

friday//orange

poppytalk's fall color week= fini. but karen's nanoPHOmo is just beginning. clearly, I am a girl who needs an assignment.

in other news, I have been singing this song all. week. long. endlessly looping in my head, over and over and over. colors and the kids, you know. colors and the kids.

dy-no-mite

so yesterday ezra sang with his second grade class and is there anything better than elementary school music performances? no, there is not. because they sing with their whole bodies, they sing with everything. they sway and they wiggle and they get so excited about the music they JUST HAVE TO MOVE. and they practice and practice these songs and then there's a whole gymnasium filled with people who've come to listen to them sing. it's a big day so they show up wearing things like gold sequined capes and red velvet vests, miniature bow ties and tiny tiaras. special dresses and shiny shoes and tucked-in shirts. and then some kids show up wearing tee shirts. the whole scene makes my heart swell. it always does.

they sang a few of the classics but then the music teacher threw us a curve ball. and it's not like I ever even liked the song dynamite but there is no way not to like it now that I've seen it performed by fifty-three second graders. because my goodness. when fifty-three second graders throw their hands up in the air and sing how they 'GON LIGHT IT UP, LIKE IT'S DY-NO-MITE', all bets are off. the song took on a completely different meaning and don't you know they brought the house down. the crowd went wild and fifty-three second graders (my son included) beamed. and if that is not the best thing to happen all week well then I don't know what is.

shout who you are

(an oldie but a goodie)

glaciers

something new, something I really really love. listener's newest video directed by my brother nate.

p.s. no small feat, freezing a vintage typewriter in an enormous block of ice. harder than you might think. but worth it, I think. absolutely worth it.

wooden heart

Listener "Wooden Heart" from Nathan Corrona on Vimeo.

brilliant beautiful work from that guy listener (who you might also recognize from here or here) and directed by that guy nate (who you might also recognize as my brother). watch it big. watch it big if you can.

happy national record store day

get thee to the nearest record store, good people. for today is a day to show record store love.

he is

one of my favorite people to photograph. that friend of mine, that dan smith.

last week found me on a shoot with my brother-- first to atlanta to an abandoned trainyard off dekalb avenue and then to the outer edges of a crumbly ghostly town in southern illinois. I love my job. even though it occasionally takes me away from my family, I love my job. I love the brainstorming of ideas, the researching of locations. I love the styling, the working out of the details, the finessing of story lines. but mostly, I love working with my brother.

so anyway, dan was at the trainyard in atlanta with us and there was a little bit of 600 polaroid film (such a sad little bit) and a smidge of magic light and if nothing else ever even came out of the shoot but this polaroid, well then I'd still be happy. because polaroid portraits like these make my world go round and round and round.

I do have more to share, so much more.

list twenty-six: records I'm playing

ward came upstairs yesterday with the nina simone record album that I thought was lost forever and I wanted to lay down on the floor and cry like a baby. am wearing out the record player and this can only mean great things. currently listening to/planning on listening to:

1. nina simone/here comes the sun

2. stevie wonder/talking book

3. john coltrane/a love supreme

4. sara vaughan/tenderly

5. michael jackson/off the wall

6. xanadu/the soundtrack

7. prince/more prince records than I can even name here

music

is the word over at le collaborative blog words to shoot by. stop in and say hello, if you like.

my sunlight

'know this' by remnant featuring scar, directed by nathan corrona

he does good work, that brother of mine. I'm so proud I could cry. and I did, actually. in the middle of the stupid coffee shop the other day when I first watched this. while people were eating their eggs and drinking their coffee and tap tap tapping away on their computers. you should know, I do not cry easily.

it's a love letter to color and light and I can't stop watching it. and I'm thankful that my kids are growing up with this kind of hip hop. I'm thankful when words and music and pictures come together like this, I'm so very thankful.

and I've got a brand new song to add to the list.

list two: songs I listen to over and over

1. here comes the sun- nina simone (for when everything is wrong)

2. love- mos def (for when everything is right)

3. lo boob oscillator- stereolab (for when I need air)

4. crayon- caribou (for when I need color)

5. feel that way- gift of gab (for when I need light)

6. predatory wasp of the palisades- sufjan stevens (for when I'm steeped in uncertainty)

7. anthems for a 17 year-old girl- broken social scene (for when I'm steeped in melancholy)

8. kissing the lipless- the shins (for when things need to be loud)

9. galaxy of emptiness- beth orton (for when things need to be quiet)

10. starfish and coffee- prince (for when the rain won't stop)

11. from the outside- deepspace5 (for when I miss my brother)

12. will not be sold- dust and poems (for when I miss my hometown)

13. go west- liz phair (for when the road calls)

14. gymnopédie no. 1- erik satie (for when I need to get lost)

15. we have a map of the piano- múm (for the dances in my head)


(two lists down, fifty to go)