the compilation i would make for myself if i was trying to win my own heart

It’s a two-discer.

Disc 1

Art Brut – Good Weekend

Ben Kweller – Thirteen

The Beatles – Martha My Dear (I don’t care if it’s allegedly about Paul’s dog; it always has my heart.)

Billy Joel – Rosalinda’s Eyes

Ben Folds Five – Don’t Change Your Plans

Bob Dylan – Girl from the North Country

The Box Tops – The Letter

Bright Eyes – First Day of My Life

Ryan Adams – Gonna Make You Love Me

Peter Gabriel – In Your Eyes

Buffalo Tom – Late at Night

The Everly Brothers – Dreams

Tom Waits – I Want You

Voxtrot – Every Day

Hall & Oates – You Make My Dreams (Don’t make fun.  It’s delightful.)

James Taylor – Only One

Jack’s Mannequin – Made For Each Other, parts 1 & 2

Disc 2

Sam Cooke – (Ain’t That) Good News

Pete Doherty ft. Wolfman – For Lovers

Jim Sturgess – All My Lovin’ (See how I did that?  I avoided my own dilemma – I’m very against the same artist appearing more than once on one CD, but love “All My Lovin’” and “Martha, My Dear” equally – by bringing in the very loverly version from “Across the Universe.”  Bam.)

Cory Morrow – Live Forever

Joshua Radin – Only You

The Decemberists – Red Right Ankle

Kaiser Chiefs – Ruby

The Kooks – She Moves in Her Own Way

Gavin Osborne – The Greatest Thing There Is

Little Man Tate – You and Me Might Be Alright, You Know

The Maccabees – Toothpaste Kisses

The Romantics – What I Like About You

Mason Jennings – Darkness Between the Fireflies (I may or may not have included this solely on its mention of the Appalachian mountains.  But it’s still wonderful.)

Mary Chapin Carpenter – Passionate Kisses

Modern English - I Melt With You

The Mountain Goats – International Small Arms Traffic Blues

Wilco – I’m the Man Who Loves You

Neutral Milk Hotel - In an Aeroplane Under the Sea

The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up is hard to do. It takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick it off with a killer to grab attention. Then you gotta take it up a notch. But you don’t want to blow your wad. So then you gotta cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules. Anyway, I’ve started to make a tape, in my head, for Laura. Full of stuff she’d like. Full of stuff that’d make her happy. For the first time I can sorta see how that’s done. – Rob Gordon, “High Fidelity”

this gave me such delight, i had to share it

Melissa ’s celebrity dinner would include: Susan Sontag, Howard Zinn, Salman Rushdie, Jack Gilbert, Annie Dillard, and a few others. 7:18pm

 - 30 Comments

Melissa at 7:20pm November 24

The obvious: that we have a mix of “now” and “then” going on here.

Susan Sontag (then), Howard Zinn (now or then?), Salman Rushdie (btwn now & then), Jack Gilbert (now), and Annie Dillard (likely lovely and brilliant at any point)

Nora at 7:23pm November 24

Ahem. Howard Zinn is going to be at the Peace Ball during Inauguration. Sponsored by Busboys and Poets (I sent you a link to their website). Held at the Postal Museum. Did I mention I love Howard Zinn? Did I also mention that an outfielder for the Tampa Bay Rays loves Howard Zinn, and that is why I chose them to be my team this year? (He also mentioned in a NYT article that as a child he idolized Herman Hesse.)

Melissa at 7:27pm November 24

I almost just typed “Dude!,” so as to exclaim, “Dude! I nearly idolized Hesse when an adolescent!” It’s true – I read nearly all of his books for heaven knows what reason when 13 or so – except for the ever-famous Stephenwolf (sp?) and The Glass-Bead Game.

I would NOT want him at this table. He would make the others want to end themselves.

Any news on tickets, lovey? Congrats on that AWESOME MEETING, by the by (involves a proper noun beginning with an “L”).

Melissa at 7:36pm November 24

OH, OH! Add Vik Muniz and Cindy Sherman to the list. And yourself, Nora, and yourself.

Michael at 7:53pm November 24

I don’t see Harold Bloom on that list; you ought to be ashamed of yourself!

Melissa at 7:56pm November 24

I’m mentally – and physically – flipping you off right now, M. This is a very complicated, layered bit of gesticulation. Thereby making me proud!

DOWN with Harold Bloom! (Can we please, please, please make this a riculous divisive point in our cohort/larger program?) DOWN with Bloom; on with the hilarity!

Melissa at 8:07pm November 24

Goodness me. I know better: those gestures/sentiments needs be saved for the experience of playing Guitar Hero/Rock Star for the first time.

I am duly sorry

Nora at 8:21pm November 24

Among others, my dinner table will have: Fareed Zakaria, Michelle Obama, Freddie Mercury, AJ Jacobs, Bill Bryson, Ken Jennings and, of course, Melissa Bagley.

The “L” appointment was fantastic — HUGE potential — about which elaboration will have to wait until I’m in a much less restricted forum than the status-message-comment-area. But it was delightful!

Ticket status: functioning under the assumption that none will be received. Plans are in place to stake out a spot on the Mall at dawn, January 20. Thermoses are being pre-purchased to fill with soup and hot drinks.

Nora at 8:22pm November 24

Oh! Oh! And Lois Lowry. I loved her pre-teenage level books. I probably read “Number the Stars” a thousand times between the ages of eight and twelve.

Melissa at 8:50pm November 24

I knew that this might be the wrong forum, thus the “code-talk”!

And, AND, I totally thought of Bill Bryson as having excellent potential to build bridges and fill the gaps in ways that conversations so often need at said parties. He would be PERFECT in that capacity, and an interesting little bugger all on his own.

I forgot musicians! And am gonna think about the recently posted Owen Pallett (of Final Fantasy fame).

Gonna try my damndest for that now slightly postponed DC trip. I should start a Paypal account

Oh, oh, oh: and I LOVED that Lowry book, too! (Though clearly not as much as Ms. Nora Cobo.

Melissa at 8:51pm November 24

Oh, and hell: Let’s add Paganini, if we are going to do the musician thing right.

JUST IMAGINE when and how the egos at this now ridiculous table will hit and burst! Heh.

CJ at 9:00pm November 24

Cindy Sherman is a must-have for this kind of thing. I’m thinking, Anne Carson, Joan Didion, and Brecht. But that’s just because I’m perverse.

Melissa at 9:04pm November 24

AUGH! HOW idd I forget Anne Carson and Joan Didion? They were already on my list. Not thieving them, I swear. They were.

ADDED.

And I think that I need to drop my two musicians. They might just make the whole thing awkward.

Melissa at 9:05pm November 24

Oh, and Joan Didion = then. Anne Carson? Who knows! Now, I guess.

I am going to fail out of school, and it will be because I gave too much of a damn about my fake celebrity dinner.

Nora at 10:22pm November 24

Oh! And Tony Danza. Don’t make fun. He seems like a genuinely sweet person. He also tap dances.

Melissa at 10:26pm November 24

Girl, you know he has some road rage, right? I think you may read the wrong newspapers. Give up the Times for that sweetness to the left of the checkstand

Nora at 10:54pm November 24

Oh, no! Oh, no, no, no! And just after I looked into the first season of “Who’s the Boss?” on Netflix!

Melissa at 10:59pm November 24

Dear Nora,

Just watch this, repeatedly, and calm down:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WALKbCNlU2c&feature=related

Converting you away from the Danza and bringing you into the light of Hammer-Ortiz feels like missionary work to me. Breathe in that sweet air, Nora. Am I freaking you out yet? Do you associate this uncomfortableness with your devotion to Tony Danza?

Good.

It’s only because I love you, honeypie.

Melissa at 11:01pm November 24

(Embarrassing revelatory moment? – Notice that I stuck with the religiously connotative language?! – MAYBE I MAYBE miss that show, too.)

Facebook makes me miss italics.

Andy at 4:18pm November 26

there’s nothing wrong with a tony danza obsession. i myself have a Bill Cosby obsession. must watch two episodes of the Cosby show daily. that and Lamictal help keep my bipolar in check!

you really should invite Bill Cosby. Now and Then.

Melissa at 4:21pm November 26

I will always love Cosby for his “Chocolate Cake” sketch. That is hilarious.

Nora at 4:28pm November 26

Oh, my God! I was eating a chocolate cupcake for breakfast this morning (there’s no shame in that) and started singing to myself “Nora’s great! Gave us the chocolate cake!” I’m not even kidding. The cupcakes are delicious — baked, excitedly, last night for my roommate’s birthday — devil’s food with funfetti icing.

Andy at 4:33pm November 26

“i’ve always heard about people having…a conniption….but i’d never seen one….you don’t want to see ‘em.” – Bill Cosby

if he gets (and accepts) an invite to your dinner, my presence is thereby required at said dinner. it’s a law. you can tell because of all the legal words i used.

Andy at 4:35pm November 26

“My children who had been singing praises to me…LIED on me!”
“WE ASKED FOR EGGS AND MILK, AND DAD MADE US EAT THIS!”

okay i swear thats the last Cosby quote. today.

Melissa at 5:59pm November 26

You are totally “in,” though I myself will be having a panic attack before this variety of minds and talents comes together. I’m gonna recommend that course of action for you as well?

Let’s develop this scenario: Because you and I are the only ones at the imaginary dinner who are glistening with anxiety (euphemized sweat, and so on), we will be asked to sit at the fold-out card table, normally reserved for kids. Despite the fact that it is MY dinner

LOVE IT. And that selection from the skit was great – I just read that and said “Yes! Yes!”

Melissa at 6:00pm November 26

NORA! I love, love, love you – but more still because you were hopping around the kitchen, singing this, WHILST eating a chocolate, funfetti cupcake.

Spellcheck just told me that “funfetti” is wrong. How could anything be. more. right?!

Julie at 11:01pm November 26

Howard and Annie will fight.

Melissa at 11:04pm November 26

I can imagine Anne Carson and Annie Dillard fighting, as they would have the most at stake with each other. If Paganini came, I would imagine him as a s#it-starter, just a self-important pain. And Harold Bloom would end up in the corner, getting annoyed and side-long glances from Zinn and Rushdie through the whole of it

Andy at 2:20am November 27

I think Rushdie and Cosby would get along swimmingly.
an hiarious interesting thought, and at the same time, a legitimate opportunity to use the word “swimmingly.”

an interesting aside – i couldn’t remember how to spell “legitimate” so i went to dictionary.com , only i misspelled it dictoinary.com . if you have time, compare the two. fun stuff.

Melissa at 2:26am November 27

IF YOU JUST SENT ME PORN, ANDY…Just kidding. I already clicked and checked it out. Why would they spell it that way?!

Saying it outloud, with that spelling, is fun. Go ahead. Try it. Try it…!

don’t forget the geometry review

I’m pretty sure this clip speaks for itself.

Also, we should probably discuss that this show is so perfect that it evokes entirely different emotions in me as an adult.  I mean, aside from the painful recognition of what is probably the truest representation of adolescence in the 1990s, I dislike characters that I loved in my teenage years and vice versa.  I kind of have a retroactive crush on Brian Krakow.