But How We Move…

From A to B
It can’t be up to me
‘Cause I don’t know…

I know I’m probably way late to jump on the Lykke Li bandwagon (it probably isn’t cool anymore, is it?) but I just found this song, and I love everything about it – The toy piano, the tone of defensiveness, the inching towards the edge of falling completely, the tambourine!

I’m in the middle of reading Anaïs Nin’s “Henry and June” which has been an absorbing read for the past week, compelling reflection on a lot of my own feelings about feminism, love (what does it mean, “to love”?), passion, desire, beauty, ugliness, comfort, and being settled or unsettled. This song makes me think of that tension between being strong, independent, autonomous and that submission to love – a confession that the rational has lost out to the emotional? – which exposes us to invulnerabilities and weakness, and the occasional desperation for reassurance.

Come here
Stay with me
Stroke me, by the head
Cause I would give anything
Anything
To have you as my man

“It’s Your Ride”

I love my bicycle, even though I haven’t ridden in months because it’s not feeling well – It’s got a weird squeaky thing going on somewhere and the front brakes won’t release off the wheel. I have, however, promised multiple people that I will fix my bike in time for a) a party this weekend in Brooklyn, and b) the Five Boro Bike Tour which I think I will suffer at because I’m really out of shape and c) general riding in this New York City weather that is flirting with the idea of spring. I’ll just have to make good on my promise this weekend.

I do love bicycles, their shape, their sounds, their mechanics – it’s all more of an aesthetic experience to me than the need to ride like a speedmaven through New York’s concrete labyrinth. Hopping on for a slow, short ride towards an imaginary oubliette or a roundabout errand in my neighborhood makes me smile, and that’s usually all I ever do, really.

Enjoy this video by Daniel Leeb of Cinecycle Productions. Commissioned by Hutchinson tires, the short traces the bike paths of two different bike-riders in New York City. The music is original, by Alan Wilkis, and the track “The Hustle” can be downloaded for free on MySpace.

For posterity.

A ridiculous IM pissing contest between M. and I.

M: i hear people hollering in my courtyard, something must’ve happened in the superbowl

Me: i hollered in your mom’s courtyard…

M: … i hollered in your mom’s courtyard and it echoed

Me: … i made your mom holler in my courtyard. and it broke the sound barrier.

M: i broke your mom’s sound barrier in my courtyard

Me: your mom broke the sound barrier when i echoed in her courtyard.

M: i courted your mom’s barrier, and broke it, soundly

Me: your mom. is a ho. basically.

M: i’ll take that as a surrender