Eagle-Eye Cherry - Save Tonight

thank you
helen for perfect fifths
yau for the holga
hayley for an almond
gphong for the inspiration
zalo for season-appropriate headwear
aaron for being my bday buddy
sagar for the chocolate martini that destroyed my brain
sam, sabina, and roomies for initial cakes
dheepa and rachel for a smirnoff-brownie surprise
dinnercrew who paid for aaron&my italian dinner
to everyone who wished or called or texted or came last night

i've never had a better birthday :) despite the previous day's paper all-nighter and the following day's unparalleled hangover, everyone made this day an incredible end to an incredible semester... and now i'm going to stfu before i get really, REALLY sappy k

anyways, this is a pretty fawesome & appropriate song :)

Ben Folds Five - Alice Childress (on Naked Baby Photos)

In Freshman year, came for our school's Spring Fling concert and I waited nearly alone in the freezing cold for him for three hours because everyone I knew had gone home after Third Eye Blind finished. An hour to midnight he finally got onstage, and I swear the piano melodies were so captivating that each note took with it a piece of my loneliness as it echoed into nothingness in the night sky. Part by part, the pain evaporated, and despite all the crap of that first year I felt just happy singing my heart out to "Army" and looking like a lunatic doing so. But I didn't care. Happy makes you stop caring about a lot of inconsequential shit like that.

He did a concert at the school neighboring ours in Sophomore year, and I was ecstatic when my friend from there told me she'd get me a ticket. The afternoon of the concert, however, I decided that I desperately needed to study for my math final and had no choice but to skip -- so I expressed my regret to her over the phone, then turned my attention back to the textbook. Three hours later, she called me. "Hey. Just wanted to tell you that we just saw Ben Folds sitting on the grass with his kid, and we went over and chilled with him," she said nonchalantly over the phone. Still one of the biggest disappointments of my short, boring life. I failed the exam anyway.

Now it's Junior year and I have a chance to see him play live again: he's going to Boston for MIT's Spring Fling the same weekend we're going up there for the Open Ballroom Competition. It's like DESTINY. Bahahah. But I have a hugeass paper to write by Monday, which I'm obviously (and stupidly) neglecting at the moment. What do I do? Do I choose homework/GPA/future job prospects, or music?

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. -- Maya Angelou

Guster - Barrel of a Gun

In honor of their appearance at this year's Spring Fling... :) awesomeness

Smashing Pumpkins - 1979

*The* defining moment of this song in my life is the morning after my NZ flatmate's legendary birthday party last summer; amidst the rubble & duct tape & morning sun, i heard this song play as we cleaned up and everything felt weirdly peaceful.

The street heats the urgency of sound
As you can see there's no one around

Mazzy Star - Into Dust

I can't fall asleep. Before Melatonin and the prevalence of wireless internet in laptops, which together made my insomnia seem a little less daunting, late at night when I couldn't sleep I'd do what I was doing five minutes ago: staring at the lights on my ceiling. It's a rare sight nowadays, that blank corner at the top of the room decorated with illuminated stripes let in by the blinds. This scene is a faded memory of countless other sleepless nights in my life, all important in my mind... because nowadays I never see the ceiling lights anymore unless I've just gone to a new place and haven't yet settled into the routine of escaping online. After the commotion of moving subsides and leaves me nothing but darkness and quiet, I start to think. And everything begins sinking in.

I remember being scared that first night in Dunedin, where the cold repeatedly jolted me awake to sight of yellow streetlamps flooding into my too-large room. I remember my first night in New York this past winter, the blinds letting rows of light into my cousin's shoebox apartment, the excitement that came with being there. Sansom and the curtains that prevented the dim glow of the city from entering the dorm, how I felt when viewing them from below. My first night at home, in near-complete darkness. Moments long ago when I crawled into my parents' bed after being scared by some bump in the night and felt safe between the sheets watching the headlights of passing cars roll across our ceilings and walls.

This is my first time sleeping in Rodin 13, the last few hours before class begins again, and the first time since I've come to Philadelphia that I've felt comfortable, really comfortable, with my being here. Just another ceiling-light memory I'll remember for the next time.