They think he's lost on some horizon...

I took the stars from my eyes and made a map...

I am so desperately in love with this song right now.

Hello Everyone!

I'm back! I've actually been here for about a week now, but I've been too tired to want to write. For some reason I find catching up on my journals a real chore, so I think I will slowly share tidbits of the trip with you instead of writing big long entries.

Since we've returned I've started looking for work, joined a job hunting class, gotten sick (again) and spent quite a lot of time at the All American Quarterhorse Congress with the family. I've been reading about Queen Victoria and Tasha Tudor and old-world superstitions. I'm planning to alter a skirt of mine, and a buy a petticoat when I can, and I've been looking at pictures of young Goldie Hawn from the 60's and now I'm in love with her hair. I want so badly to watch The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe again, those scenes where Lucy first enters Narnia always fills me with childish wonder, and the end always makes me cry. I've also discovered the song "Fireflies" by Owl City. So sparkling, and light and beautiful. It makes me think of what living inside a snow globe must feel like.

Can you imagine...

... walking through town, going about your business, and suddenly this song, and this scene appears before you? I don't know how I'd be able to leave.

A Two-Hearted Dream

"They say for every high there must be a low
And every sun ascending a lonesome moon will grow
Drive my heart, drive my heart, into the fire of a burning heart's desire
The only spells you'll be seeing, do you hear me coming in my blue dream
Lonely, lonely, lonely, his mother told me
The dream of love is a two-hearted dream
Lonely, lonely, lonely, his mother told me
The dream of love is a two-hearted dream..."

Lately when I close my eyes and open my mind, this song is all I hear.

Ellipse

Along with my upcoming month-long, continent-crossing vacation in September, the one thing I am most stoked about is the release of Imogen Heap's new album, Ellipse. Are any of you familiar with Imogen Heap? She is a brilliant songwriter/musician/singer from the UK, and was formerly part of the awesome band Frou Frou (best known for the utterly glorious song "Let Go".) Her music moves in this endless loop of gorgeous electronic sounds, classical instruments and heavenly vocals and her songs change from whimsical to haunting at a moment's notice. She writes, orchestrates and sings all her own music, and provides most of the sounds herself (whether it involves heading out the park and recording passing jayhawks, or banging on empty carpet tubes with CD cases.) She is ridiculously inspiring, insanely talented and her album Speak for Yourself is one of the few CD's I could take to a deserted island and never get tired of.


Although I've loved Frou Frou forever, it was only about a year and a half ago that I finally tracked down Imogen's solo work. (You could say this is kind of cheating, since coming so late to the party cut down hugely on time spent in impatient "omygosh, when is the new album coming" thumb-twiddling, while the rest of her fans had to wait through the last four years.) However, as she has been sharing tidbits from the new CD via Youtube for quite awhile, I did become very impatient, especially to finally hear the finished version of a little song called "Canvas". Thankfully her newest work is finally all wrapped-up and will finally be released this August. And I could not be more excited. So, I thought I would share some music videos with you ("Headlock" is just lovely, and "Come Here Boy" is one of her best known songs.) Also, a little trailer for her new album!

The Frozen World

I dream of winter. Winter like the winters in fairy tales, where the world is a blanket of white, when the branches are like roses dipped in glass, the windows etched with icy lace, when all sound is muffled in the utter stillness, and in the silence the senses grow heightened to a razor's edge.




Winters that bring thoughts of wrought iron walls hiding snow-white gardens, of glass coffins and endless forests, of nights where the wind howls like wild beasts and the windows rattle in the cold. Winters that whisper of secrets beneath the whiteness, waiting for the ice to thaw and the snow to melt and reveal them to our eyes.




Wintry Inspiration

Books

Clockwork by Phillip Pullman
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
The Veil of Snows by Mark Hellprin and Chris Van Allsburg




Music

Bjork - "Aurora"
Bjork - "Frosti"
Emilie Simon - "The Frozen World"
Enya - "Athair ar Meamh"
Enya - "Lothlorien"
Vanessa Carlton - "Half a Week Before the Winter"




Movies

Legend
"Lithium" (Evanescence music video)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship