I was reintroduced to the soundtrack of Once recently by The Boy.  I had seen the film back in October in a hotel on a business trip.  It was one of those random choices…many films to choose from and I chose it without thinking much about the choices…it was just something to do on a rainy, late night in DC.  Little did I know how I would be touched by this film.

At first glance you expect it will be another one of those tired ‘boy meets girl’ films but it quickly develops into something moving and tangible.  The music quietly drives much more of the story than you realize on first watching it.  The music is simple but with such raw emotion that it makes you both elated and heartbroken at the same time.  The film doesn’t drop its emotions on the characters’ sleeves – it trusts you enough to leave some of the best stuff unstated. In other words, it trusts you to know that half the music lies between the notes.

Stand out songs from the album that you should seriously consider downloading:

Falling Slowly – A sweet ballad with simple harmonies.  It really showcases Glen Hansard’s vocal range and how easily his voice can manage to melt your heart.  This is the best known track from the film as they won an Oscar for Best Original Song.

If You Want Me – This is one of two songs featuring Marketa Irglova.  Her voice is simple and true.  The banjo playing really reminds me of Travis‘ ‘Sing’ on the chorus of the song.  A long distance love song.

Leave – Glen Hansard defines my bitter reality in this song.  It’s very David Ford-esque with just a guitar, vocals and emotion.  His repeating the lyrics, “Leave, leave, Let go of my hand, You said what you have to now Leave” at the end of the song can only be described as raw, honest pure angst.  I can only describe it as wanting to jump up and down and scream and yell and yearning to get out of your skin joy/pain.  That may not sound appealing, but I think you’ll see what I mean when you hear it.  It ends too abrubtly for me though…it’s such a great song but it needs some sort of refrain at the end for it to be perfect.

When Your Mind’s Made Up – Something about this reminds me of Badly Dawn Boy but I’m probably the only one who hears it.  This is a great scene in the film where they’re recording in a studio and the engineer is ignoring them and realizes how good they are and starts actually doing his job.  This song has a brilliant crescendo of vocals and instruments.  It really features the instrumental talents of all the players as well as the singing.

To be honest I could sing the praises of all the songs from this film.  Even the silly Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy makes you smile.  This album is a story even without the film…you can paint the songs in your head quite easily and adapt it to the realities that so many of us face each day. It’s real.  It’s true with no pretense.  I hope you’ll check it out and let me know what you think.

…until my half marathon!

This will NOT be my reaction to finishing...

Ugh, long story short, I got roped into doing the running portion of a a triathlon for my company.  Tomorrow morning, 5 teams (15 of us) will be either swimming, cycling or running in The Big Kahuna Triathlon in Santa Cruz, CA.

Now, most people who do this sort of thing would probably be pumped about tomorrow.  I am not one of those people.  I got coerced into doing this only a month ago, so I’m really not as prepared as I should be.  Yes, I ran in The SF Marathon a year ago….but haven’t been running regularly since then (sadly).  That being said, I did manage to run 10 miles on Labor Day, so I know I can at least finish.

To try and get myself more excited, I created a playlist today for the run tomorrow.  When I did the SF Marathon we weren’t allowed to have mp3 players on the course (although I saw a few).  Now that I know I’ll likely be running myself the whole way, I’m happy to have some tunes to keep me company (and keep me going!) while I’m out there.  I got loads of suggestions from friends on Plurk; some good, some bad.  But I’m pretty please with my final selections.  Most of them are rock or dance.  Check it out!

Again & Again – The Bird And The Bee
Tony the Beat – The Sounds
Song With a Mission – The Sounds
Night After Night – The Sounds
Us -Regina Spektor
Apocalypse Please – Muse
Time Is Running Out – Muse
Hysteria – Muse
Butterflies & Hurricanes – Muse
Starlight – Muse
Supermassive Black Hole – Muse
Take A Bow – Muse
Soldier’s Poem – Muse
Exo-Politics – Muse
F-cking Boyfriend -The Bird And The Bee
Assassin – Muse
Invincible – Muse
City Of Delusion – Muse
Hoodoo – Muse
Knights Of Cydonia – Muse
New Born – Muse
Rapture – IIO
2 People – Jean-Jacques Smoothie
Romeo – Basement Jaxx
American Dream (Joey Negro Club … – Jakatta
Lovely Day – Brancaccio & Aisher
Bushes (Noman Cook Club Mix) – Markus Nikolai
Getting’ In 2 U -  W.o.s.p
Finally – Kings Of Tomorrow feat. Julie McKn…
Song For Shelter – Fatboy Slim
The Soulshaker – Max Linen
Smoke Machine – X – Press 2
Jetfunk – Kidstuff
Let’s Dance – David Bowie
Under Pressure – David Bowie
Above You, Below Me – Badly Drawn Boy
Chocolate – Snow Patrol
Run – Snow Patrol
Walking In The Sun – Travis
All I Want To Do Is Rock – Travis
Good Feeling – Travis
Spitting Games -Snow Patrol
Gleaming Auction – Snow Patrol
Hung Up – Madonna
Get Together – Floor Madonna
Future Lover – Madonna
Forbidden Love – Madonna
Club Foot – Kasabian

LSF – Kasabian

Reason Is Treason – Kasabian

Cut Off – Kasabian
Can’t Get You Out Of My Head – Kylie Minogue
Come Back To What You Know – Embrace
All You Good Good People – Embrace
Ashes – Embrace
Someday – Embrace
Wish Em All Away – Embrace
Laid – James
One of The Three -James
Say Something – James
Sometimes – James
alive – Festizio
Kids – Kylie Minogue
Your Disco Needs You – Kylie Minogue
Fever – Kylie Minogue
Burning Up – Kylie Minogue
On A Night Like This – Kylie Minogue
In Your Eyes- Kylie Minogue

Now, this is far more music than I’ll need to run 13.1 miles tomorrow.  But I figure I’ll be waiting around and before the swimmer and cyclist finish so I’ll have some time to kill.  Plus I may want to fast forward through certain songs depending on how I’m feeling.  I’m planning on playing it on random so I didn’t put them in any specific order.

What songs would be on your playlist for something like this?

Time and time again I find myself being run down and exhausted because I’ve become TOO social. Is that possible? Yes, quite. My friend Tim would probably disagree with me, but considering I’ve not had a night to myself in about 3 weeks, I’d say I’m due.

So what have I been up to? Well lets see, there was the Date My Friend Event last night at Supper Club . For $10 you can get shots of wine, eat cookies, bad cheese and brownie bites and mingle with some of SF’s hottest…or nottest! Wednesday night we had a surprise birthday party at La Fondue. The food and service were outstanding. Definitely worth a visit if you even want to make it a point to be down in Saratoga. Reservations are a must though and expect at least a 3 hr meal. Tuesday night was Yelp’s Elite Event at Butterfly. There was a great pic of me taken at this by my friend Carlos.

My true love...

It was a great chance to catch up with some friends I hadn’t seen in a while and overall, I liked the event. The restaurant has a cool layout and the food was really good! Definitely will have to keep that on the list of potential date places. Monday night I had a date with a guy from OKC. Had drinks at Madrone and dinner at Herbivore (he’s a vegetarian….ooh!). It actually went a lot better than I would expect any first date to go. We had been chatting for almost a week and it was very natural and great. I’ll keep you posted on this one! Sunday was WordPress’ Scavenger Hunt. Pics can be found here. Team SoberFAIL didn’t win but we were the most coordinated team out there.

Check us out:

Team SoberFAIL

I think that catches up my week. I’m off to see Radiohead tonight. I’m not going to link to that because if anyone DOESN’T know who Radiohead is…well, lets just say don’t admit to it on here for fear of retribution!!

Being a musician and someone who is extremely passionate about music, I have no doubt that I’ll be regularly posting songs up here that are either special to me, have some relevance to my current state of mind or that I just think rock.

Some of you may not care and can therefore stop reading at this point. 🙂
I heard this song shortly after 9/11.  I thought it very fitting for that time where there was so much chaos going on in our country and inciting much fervor across the world.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P_TIMBP_oE]

The lyrics are especially poignant. I hope you enjoy.

we’d gather around all in a room fasten our belts engage in dialogue
we’d all slow down rest without guilt not lie without fear disagree sans judgement

we would stay and respond and expand and include and allow and forgive and
enjoy and evolve and discern and inquire and accept and admit and divulge and
open and reach out and speak up

This is utopia this is my utopia
This is my ideal my end in sight
Utopia this is my utopia
This is my nirvana
My ultimate

we’d open our arms we’d all jump in we’d all coast down into safety nets

we would share and listen and support and welcome be propelled by passion not
invest in outcomes we would breathe and be charmed and amused by difference
be gentle and make room for every emotion

we’d provide forums we’d all speak out we’d all be heard we’d all feel seen

we’d rise post-obstacle more defined more grateful we would heal be humbled
and be unstoppable we’d hold close and let go and know when to do which we’d
release and disarm and stand up and feel safe

this is utopia this is my utopia
this is my ideal my end in sight
utopia this is my utopia
this is my nirvana
my ultimate

Some of you may be asking yourself, why would Melanie bother with online dating? Doesn’t she go out enough on her own?

Well, yes I do. But to be quite frank I needed a distraction. Recent drama in my life has been giving me stress and I thought the best way to get around it would be to have some fun and join OK Cupid. I’ve had two friends tell me of their success (well, some success) on the site and I thought it would be a great way to distract my attentions for the time being.
Now, I don’t know how many of you have done anything like this before. Years ago I was on The Onion’s personals but times have changed! I signed up Monday morning and the madness started almost immediately. As of today, I’ve received over 100 emails…I can’t keep up! They’ve ranged from very interesting to wtf. I particularly enjoyed the fact that two men from Egypt and Jordan felt the need to message me….talk about long distance! 😛

Trying to figure out a system of how to go about this has been difficult.

Do you respond to everyone, even if you’re not interested?

If people are adding you as a favorite, do you look at their profile?

If they “wooo” you (yes, this is a function on this website if you can believe it) do you bother checking them out.

Decisions, decisions!

I’ve mostly just been checking out the people who take the time to write a message. That being said, I can’t respond to everyone. One particular gentleman wrote me twice…the second time saying something along the lines of, “write me back, I don’t bite!” So I wrote him a quick note to tell him that I was overwhelmed as still going through a lot of mail, etc, but that I was saying hi (FYI, not really interested based on his profile).

This was his response back:

Nice to hear from you. Thanks for saying hello. So your inbox is overflowing with desperate, lonely, sensitive men, eh? How… nice for you. haha! Beautiful women on this site get a lot of attention. Enjoy it! It’s nice to feel appreciated.

But I’m afraid you’re going to have to work a lot harder to keep my attention. Sure, you’re ok looking I suppose, but show me some of that quick wit and charm! Wow me!

Oh, and I’m on to you! You say you’re looking for decent men (yawn), but I think it’s just a ruse to find someone who is exciting, charming and fun. You can’t fool me.

As you can tell, I’m in something of a playful mood. Hope you’re feeling it, too. Write back after you get done letting all those decent (boring) guys down easy. I’ll be here. 😉

Cocky much? 😛 Why is a guy like this even online? Oh wait, yeah, because he probably get shot down when girls meet him and he opens his mouth!

It is truly amazing some of the responses I’ve received back. But for the most part, there DO seem to be a lot of decent, good guys out there…at least from what you can tell online. The good news is that it’s restored some hope in me that I am attractive and worth making an effort for.

It’s a time honored tradition.

Long day at work, drinks after…we know the drill. I never used to be a big drinker but living in SF has not been kind to my liver.

There are some great bars in the city but who can resist $2 beers & well cocktails?! Welcome Jade.

I’ve been here a few times but strangely enough, NEVER at Happy Hour. Recently I went there for a friend’s birthday and I was surprised by how crowded it was. But when I saw the $2 price tag, I realized why. Despite it being crowded, we managed to score a spot upstairs. I always think it’s interesting when bars have lofts -you have to manage to carry your drinks upstairs to sit down…drinkFAIL is definitely a possibility. Somehow we managed and even though it was a small bar area and the bar was crowded, our gay-straight bartender Johnathan managed to get drinks out quickly and efficiently. I also managed to check out the downstairs for the first time. There’s a second bar down there that I didn’t know about – but was packed during the happy hour. The ceiling is quite low so we all felt a bit claustrophobic and quickly headed back upstairs.

I think there’s a good chance this could become a regular happy hour location for my friends…which is good in some ways as it’s a short bus ride away from my house, but I can already hear my liver crying.

For you local people, where are some other good happy hour locations? I know there’s a ton downtown (Dada, House of Shield’s, etc). I’ve also heard The Tonga Room is supposed to be great but I’d like to hear your thoughts. And for those of you who aren’t local, where do you go in your town/city? What dictates a great happy hour spot?

For some reason I somehow have this strange belief that after you turn 30 you stop doing the stupid things that you do in your 20’s.  That some great wisdom comes over you that prevents you from doing the things that will hurt you the most.

Yeah, that’s a bunch of crap – but the question remains, will I ever learn?!

Sorry for the emo post….I don’t let this side of me come out too often, but every once in a while it escapes.

I’m fat.

Okay, bold statement, yes I know. Maybe a bit too strong. But overweight, definitely. I’ve known all this year that I’ve slowly started to gain back weight I lost in 2004, but haven’t been putting enough effort into getting it under control.

Yesterday I went to the gym for the first time in a long time to start running again (as I’ve been roped into a half marathon in 5 weeks). It was definitely a struggle running and I could tell I was really out of shape. But what really did it for me was when I got on the scale after working out and I was heavier than I’ve been in over 4 years! I had guessed I’d weigh what I did, but I was hoping to be wrong. Sadly, no. Reality STRIKES!! No more half-assed attempts. I will NOT let myself get to be where I was prior to 2004. So what this means is working out on a daily basis (with maybe 1-2 days off), really paying attention to what I’m eating (not eating out as much which fits in well with my desire to stop spending so much money!) and to start going back to Weight Watcher meetings. I used to go on Friday’s but as I have meetings all day tomorrow, I’ll be going on Saturday morning.

Some of you may think I’m being a bit ridiculous (how many times have I heard, “you look fine!” & “you’re beautiful as you are, you don’t need to lose weight”) but pictures don’t lie (and neither do clothes…there are several items in my closet that I’m avoiding because I know they’ll be tight). Take a look at this picture for Dec 2005. It’s a group photo – I’m in the lower right corner (with the red glasses).

Even just seeing my face in this photo, I can tell it’s much thinner there than it is now. So to accomplish this I need your help! For those of you who see me/talk to me on a regular basis, encourage me/motivate me! If I seem like I’m veering toward not going to the gym or eating/drinking something I shouldn’t, give me a hard time about it! If I talk back, tell me I TOLD you to do this! I promise I wont get mad.

Any tips from anyone who has lost weight in the past and kept it off? Or like me had a relapse and needs to find motivation again? Thanks in advance.

M.