Mes Belles Lettres

It's time for my Christmas edition of "Chansons de Semaine." I post two songs a week that I love to listen to at Christmas. I'm going to try to not post any of the same songs from last year, but I can't really remember all of them, so if I do I'm sorry. This week is My Chemical Romance's version of "All I Want for Christmas is You" made much better than Mariah Carey could ever imagine. Then Copeland's version of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" Which is really so good. I have  turned off auto play (you're welcome) so if you want to hear my holiday jams, just push play.

I've longed for my Walden Pond because I would love to just sit and think and write music for hours and hours without any interruption. Maybe that is why I connect so much with this new album from Relient K. Because the lead singer did just that to create this album. For the very same reason I did, he got his heart broken. This next part comes from their website. On their latest release, Forget And Not Slow Down, Relient K carry the break-up album into the 21st century, tweaking it with clear-eyed songwriting and a four-to-the-floor optimism that is positively refreshing. Yes, there’s sweet sorrow in “If You Believe Me.” And yes, there’s lingering nostalgia in “Part Of It” and “Savannah.” There’s even the occasional recrimination, as in the bitter sting of “I Don’t Need A Soul” and “Over It.” But when it comes to regret, lead singer and songwriter Matt Thiessen is not one to wallow. As he sings on the rousing title track, “I'd rather forget and not slow down than g...

Remember how I made those banana cookies and blogged about it and asked how people felt about my blogging about my baking adventures? Well most people didn't respond to whether or not they would like my blogging about that, except Ande. Fortunately, having Ande's approval is all I need, so, here is another adventure. Let me first give you a history lesson. For most of my life, I have hated avocados. Like many foods I don't like, I had never actually tried  avocado, it just looked gross. Then, in April, I was having a bad day. Like, a supremely awful supremely horribly awfully bad day. Like move to Australia with Alexander bad. Times one billion. My friend Tyler was there for me, he took me out to lunch to this Chilean restaurant so we could talk and I could be a completely lame lunch companion because I actually had no desire to speak, or act like a human. He bought me a sandwich that had avocado on it. Since he was doing me this grand favor of buying me food, which I...