There are plenty of places in the world where a kid dying is pretty common, but we can’t deal with it because a dead child is the greatest failure of a culture that believes it’s reversed the order of nature.

Billy Chenowith, from Season 1, Episode 9 of Six Feet Under

Another one to file in the “westernized culture has way too many problems” category. I’ve got major writer’s block right now so I’ll just leave it at that.

In other news, I think I could be considered a quote collector. Every time I find a quote I like, I write it out, save and categorize it with Evernote. Not kidding.

I’m probably apologizing to myself more than anything, but I hate that it’s taking me so long to get my songs written. Too much going on, and now I’ve got this ear infection that I’ve been using to excuse myself from getting things done for almost a week now. It’s a valid excuse because I really am having a hard time focusing on things, especially in the musical realm.

I have nothing on my calendar for the evening, so I will try to hunker down and get something done. It probably won’t be anything like the last two singer/songwriter type things I’ve done since singing and playing guitar are questionable activities for me at the moment. (although watching Once twice this weekend was very inspiring in that regard). You may end up with some random electronic tweak-out that consists of me trying to figure out how to sound like Radiohead, Burial, Daft Punk or Massive Attack without any equipment other than my laptop.

In other news, with all the downtime I had last week, I was able to get back into Six Feet Under. Consequently, I started to wonder why it was I enjoy the show so much. The pilot was compelling enough to draw me in, but the show as a whole isn’t quite what that first episode made it out to be, and yet I still like it, albeit for different reasons than the pilot.

I realized that it was that the cast is made up of highly (sometimes excessively) rational people, much like myself, so I identify well with all of them. Then these well-developed characters are written into story arcs that have, not even two seasons in, addressed nearly every kind of life situation imaginable: death (obviously), sickness, failed relationships, successful relationships, affairs, parenting, drugs, homosexuality, sexuality in general, faith, money, broken family, business… the list goes on. I don’t know how they’ve managed to elegantly pack in so much in so few episodes, but they have.

So, apparently I am most satisfied with stories that take a cast of deep thinkers and throw everything possible at them, and they come out the other side stronger and wiser for the wear. It seems so simple a realization, but I’m finally starting to understand myself in that regard to the extent that I don’t just get it, but I feel it.

This one is late for good reason. I’ve been sick all week and am just now beginning to see the end. Not only have I been busy resting, watching the entire Freaks & Geeks series, as well as several episodes of Six Feet Under, but the doc I went to looked at my ear, which is highly prone to infection after colds, and said I had a major tear halfway across my ear drum. Closer inspection indicated that wasn’t the case (whew) but neither of the doctors could figure out what was going on. “Cool ear,” one of them told me on his way out. Uhh… thanks?

Anyway, on to the music (which will be slightly garbled to me until I finish this course of double-strength antibiotics). Last month I finally started catching on to This Will Destroy You’s new one, I continued to fall in love with The Snake The Cross The Crown, I saw Ryan Adams live for the first time (yay, bootlegs!) and discovered Modeselektor thanks to Radiohead guest-DJing some BBC radio show I’d never heard of. Enjoy some tunes.

1. This Will Destroy You – “They Move On Tracks of Never-Ending Light” (This Will Destroy You)
2. The Snake The Cross The Crown – “Gypsy Melodies” (Cotton Teeth)
3. M.I.A. – “Hussel” (Kala)
4. The Snake The Cross The Crown – “Maps” (Cotton Teeth)
5. Michael Cera & Ellen Page – “Anyone Else But You” (Juno soundtrack)
6. Sigur Rós – “Hafsól” (Hvarf/Heim)
7. The Magnetic Fields – “California Girls” (Distortion)
8. M.I.A. – “20 Dollar” (Kala)
9. Circa Survive – “In The Morning And Amazing…” (On Letting Go)
10. Ryan Adams – “Shakedown On 9th Street” (Heartbreaker)
11. Collections Of Colonies Of Bees – “Flocks III” (Collections Of Colonies Of Bees)
12. Modeselektor – “The Dark Side Of The Sun (feat. Puppetmastaz)” (Happy Birthday!)
13. Modeselektor – “The White Flash (feat. Thom Yorke)” (Happy Birthday!)
14. Burial – “Prayer” (Burial)
15. Vampire Weekend – “Walcott” (Vampire Weekend)
16. Vampire Weekend – “Oxford Comma” (Vampire Weekend)