Mixtape Mondays - Disenchanted Love

In honor of Valentine's Day and its often unmet expectations (yes, we have some ex-emo kids on staff), we present to you a mix of disenchanted love.

Special thanks to Howard Han of http://www.fixitinpost.org/ who contributed some song recommendations:

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Songs Included and contributors rationale:

"Denial Revisited" - The Offspring: Im embarrassed to say this, but I listened to the offspring beyond 'keep them separated' and pretty fly for a white guy. For me, this has always been the perfect break up song: two people know that it's over, one of them is walking away but the other just won't let go. In the end, however, he knows that it's over.

"It Ain't Me Babe" - Bob Dylan: The ultimate 'f&#$ you song' for a girl. It says, "you know what, everything you need, i don't have and won't give to you girl."

"Love Will Tear Us Apart" - Joy Division. Title says it all.

"No Children"- Mountain Goats: This song is what I would play if I knew I was getting a divorce.

"Fuck You Lucy"- Atmosphere:  I listened to this song the first I was really heartbroken. For me, it expresses all of the negative/raw emotions associated with breaking up with someone.

"Come Pick Me Up" - Ryan Adams: For me, anti-love songs are about hurtint he other person as much as they've hurt you. This song has a lot of that.

 "Song for the Dumped - ben folds five (Yes we did find a japanese version!)
"Dakota" - Stereophonics
"Dry Your Eyes Mate" - the Streets
"(I Hate) Everything About You" - Three Days Grace 
"Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" - Nancy Sinatra 
"Positive Tension" - Bloc Party
"Tiny Vessels" - Death Cab for Cutie
"Kiss Off" - Violent Femmes
"Funeral" - Saves the Day  
"Emily Kane" - Art Brut
"Lost Cause" - Beck
 "Driftwood" - Cursive
"Dickhead" - Kate Nash
"90 Mile Waterwall" - The National
 "Piece of My Heart" - Janis Joplin
"Get Yo Shit" - Black Joe Lewis
"Me/A Man/Then Jim" - Rilo Kiley
"50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" - Paul Simon "
"I Should Have Known Better" - She + Him

Chapter 1

2009 was marked by a myriad of developments that left us craving smaller bites of information.  Through Google reader and iPhone apps we got headlines and snippets to satisfy our data hunger.  Twitter speak limted us to 140 characters and drove an Iranian uprising.   Obama's first year in office could be credited from an internet campaign that generated a grassroots base. 

 

Around the Couch was founded in part to combat this trend.  Longer essays allow us as writers and readers to grapple with complex ideas in our complex world.  Hopefully, you enjoyed the ride thus far and thank you for reading and, to the team, for writing. 

 

Sure it was also founded to tell stories about first encounters with excessive amounts of alcohol, avoiding grime in the streets of manhattan, and comic book heroes. 

 

But one gets sentimental around birthdays.

 

Happy 1st Birthday Around the Couch. 

Mixtape Mondays - Best of 2009

The contributors of ATC thought long and hard. After a few games of darts and rock, paper scissors, we each assembled our lists of best songs of 2009.  Here is the synthesis of those lists.  Enjoy! Other suggestions welcome!

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

If issues here is a link to the playlist - http://www.mixpod.com/playlist/37408181

*****

List of the songs included and occasional rationale as to our thinking:

* Passion Pit - "Folds in your Hands" - Song of the year according to one contributor
* Flight of the Conchords - "Carol Brown" - "obligatory fotc song.  my favorite of last season"
* KiD CuDi - "Simple As "
* Cursive - "From The Hips"  

* Suckers - "It Gets Your Body Movin' (Alternate Version)" 

* Los Campesinos! - "The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future"

* Throw Me the Statue - "Hi-Fi Goon" 

* Juelz Santana feat. Yelawolf - "Mixing Up The Medicine (Main)"

* Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - "Om Nashi Me"

* A Camp - "Boys Keep Swinging"
* Kirby Krackle - "Ring Capacity"
* Sondre Lerche - "Heartbeat Radio"
* Weezer - "(If You Are Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To"
* MSTRKRFT - "Heartbreaker"
* Parry Gripp - "The Girl at the Videogame Store"
* Royksopp - "The Girl and the Robot"
* Wilco - "You Never Know"
* St. Vincent - "Laughing with a Mouth of Blood"
* The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Young Adult Friction"
* Neko Case - "People Got A Lot Of Nerve"
* The Flaming Lips - "The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine"* Dirty Projector - "Two Doves"
* Dananananaykroyd - "Some Dresses"
* Bill Callahan - "Too Many Birds"
* Andrew Bird - "Masterswarm"

Wanted to include but the program we use has limited reach:

* The Very Best Warm Heart of Africa - "Yalira"
* J.Period & K'NAAN - "Don't Think Twice (Messengers Remix)" 
* Jim Johnston - "Oh Radio"
* The Mountain Goats - "Matthew 25:21"

Mixtape Mondays - Boo

This months theme is to gear you up for the months biggest holiday! We here at ATC are waiting with bated breath for the Great Pumpkin to arrive. Are you?

Rationale behind some of the picks:

Spinal Tap "Stonehenge" - This song always terrifies me.

Nine Inch Nails "The Perfect Drug" - A dark song with a music video that looks like something out of a Edgar Allen Poe poem. A tribute is needed to also mark the end of this long running forefathers of synth in hard rock. Not to mention it is pretty darn catchy.

Tracy Jordan/Morgan "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" - Okay, so the song is not exactly about Halloween, but it's about werewolves and bar mitzvahs, two genuinely scary things. What could be scarier than being an awkward 13 year old boy becoming a man in front of all your family members. Spooky Scary! Boys becoming men, Men becoming wolves!

"Send in the Clowns" - To this day, I am terrified of clowns. ... Get that rubber nose away from me!

Ghetto Boys "My Mind is Playing Tricks on Me" - It's kind of sad how much of America--the pasty white population-- is only familiar with the Ghetto Boys because of Mike Judge's Office Space. No doubt every white crackah in your 'hood was rockin' out to 'Damn it Feels Good To Be a Gangsta' at some point or another. Houston's Ghetto Boys were more prolific than that. Take 1991's "My Mind is Playing Tricks on Me". The song is a narrative of paranoia, depression, and schizophrenia. All 3 Ghetto Boys talk about being pursued, causing them to be violent, uncertain, and above all, scared.

Dead Man's Bones "My Body's a Zombie for You" - It is spooky in the spirit of the times and also a fun ditty that is newly out this fall. Tip of the Hat to NPR's All Songs Considered to letting me know about the song.

"Monster Mash" as covered by the Misfits - A double whammy as far as band as song that are in the spirit of all hallow's eve.

Modest Mouse "Perfect Disguise" - A holiday that reveals in disguise needs at least one song that explicitly talks about it.

"You are the Blood" by Sufjan Stevens - Both epic and eerie, the perfect song to end us with.

There are few obvious ones in there which we are sure you enjoy as well.

Mixtape Mondays - Tailgating Tunes

The rationale behind some of the tunes from our contributors

Garth Brooks "Beer Run" - Because that is needed as a precursor to the tailgate. You have to start there.

Bruce Springsteen "Glory Days" - Football and tailgating are about having a desire to hold on to your youth. This song is about that,too.

Johnny 'Guitar' Watson "Booty Ooty" - We dare you not to have a great time listening to this song.

Devo "Uncontrollable Urge" - One of the few good things to ever come out of Ohio. Mark Mothersbaugh & Co., beer, and barbecue? Admittedly, it's a bizarre combination, but it works well.

Unknown Hinson "Cheeseburger" - There is only one thing that' more American than football and tailgating, and that's Unknown Hinson.

Refused "New Noise" - Off of 1998's The Shape of Punk to Come. The song was featured in Peter Berg's Friday Night Lights--arguably the best football movie ever made (you can quote me on that)--right as the Permian Panthers are walking out to the field for the state championship game. It's a great fit. The first minute of the song rattles and serves as a perfect psych up to releasing your inner beast. The high energy is a consistent high voltage current that should carry you from the tailgate to your seat

NOFX "Beer Bong" - May or may not fit the feel or the rest of the tape, but it's sort of a "why not" pick.

The Mountain Goats "Fall of the High School Running Back" - It's not really an optimistic or early-season type song.

Simon & Garfunkle "Leaves That are Green" - About passage of time, rituals of youth and the sights and sounds of the fall.

Beach Boys "Be True to Your School" - At the core of your tailgate comes this rationale

YPMB "March On Down the Field" - Because you need to be true to your school

Talking Heads "Stay Hungry" - The motto of a griller who has too many burger patties and not enough mouths. Plus is groovey bass line will keep those waiting in line for that burger tapping their toes - thus burning calories for more consumption.

Toni Basil "Hey Mickey" - Dedicated to the cheerleaders out there.

Screaming Trees "All that I Know" - For the game that gets away.

Mixtape Mondays - Summer Driving Tunes

As a new feature to Around the Couch, we introduce to you Mixtape Mondays! On the first monday of every month, ATC will bring to you a sampling of songs. They may revolve around a theme or simply the tastes of one of our contributors. Regardless, enjoy!

This Month's Theme - Songs to listen to when hitting the open road!

August is the month of summer vacations and seeing what this big planet has to offer via the freedom of four wheels and gasoline. We feel these tunes help put your pedal to the metal and soak in the air of the drive.

Some of the rationale for some selections:

* "Teenage Riot" by Sonic Youth - The slow syrupy dripping intro of the song fits well as an introduction to the album "Daydream Nation" and to any summer drive playlist. The first lazy riffs are the perfect aural accompaniment to pulling off the driveway and the mounting energy of the song is complimentary to speeding through concrete

* "Factory" by Martha Wainwright - This was actually on a summer mix by Q magazine, and it has an oddly appropriate-for-summer feel.

* "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M. - There sort of has to be a song by them on there, and there may be a more appropriate one, but this is pretty sing-along-y and we didn't want to just pick "End of the World" based on Tommy Boy.

* "Drive Slow" by Kanye West - Appropriate easy summer feel for some cruising.

* "In a Daydream" by the Freddy Jones Band & "In God's Country" by U2 - Appropriately anthemic and grand when moving through the expanse of the west

* "Saturday Morning" by the Eels - The uptempo beat and optimistic and playful lyrics are just what you need to kick it up a gear and enjoy the ride.

Contributor Bio: RTTF (“Rachel The Token Female”)

Rachel the Token Female (RTTF for your abbreviation pleasure) is a left-wing, drunken-philosopher type with an awkward sense of humor and a love of bowling. But (to quote Samantha Bee of the Daily Show speaking of Sarah Palin) what’s most important here is that she has boobies. She will bring a "feminine perspective" to Around the Couch, with all the mediocrity that that implies.

Rachel was raised in the lush environs of Irvine, California, and now makes her home in New York City. There she is employed in fighting bureaucratic baddies with the irrefutable power of statistics, and her mind (official title: Research Analyst at the Vera Institute of Justice). Rachel graduated from Yale in 2006, where she had the dubious pleasure of spending her college years with Fidel Martinez. She is also writing a novel.

Contributor Bio: Doug Lieblich

Doug Lieblich is a comedy writer based in Los Angeles. Nurtured in a small suburb in Long Island, Doug attended Yale University and graduated Magna Cum Boner in 2008 with a special boner in History. He is now a hilarious and wildly successful writer with respected credits including "Around the Couch Blog bio" (Drafts 1, 2, and 5).

Doug is a sexually active omnivore with basic motor and cognition skills. He can be found on grasslands, taigas, and an unkempt apartment in Hollywood.

As a professional, Doug will remind you that you can hire him for your very own comedy writing needs. Price billing is as follows:

Fart joke: 3 dollars

Joke involving a lobster: 5 dollars

Farting lobster joke: 7 dollars (bargain!)

Politically germane observation: (Pre-Herbert Hoover: $1.50) (Post-Herbert Hoover: 30 dubloons)

Contributor Bio: je

Hailing from Binghamton New York, je attended Cornell University and graduated in 2005, finally majoring in Philosophy. A technologist by profession, je fell into it by accident after college, but is pretty much useless if you ask him to fix your computer. He spends his workday solving business problems with technology. In his free time, he is a glutton for information, haphazardly amassing a substantial knowledge about pretty trivial topics. He regularly takes a half dozen movies to the face over the course of a weekend, and enjoys cooking when his stomach can be patient.

He lives in Manhattan with his imaginary pet cockatiel, Lola. Follow him on twitter http://twitter.com/seemonkea

Friends of the Couch

Other sites to check out by friends or our contributors:

http://www.policyinpractice.org/
http://www.wordgnome.com/
http://www.overthinkingit.com/
http://www.fixitinpost.org/
http://humpdaywebpage.blogspot.com/
http://justanasterisk.com/
http://iamanamericanaquariumdrinker.blogspot.com/
http://www.mysocalledemployment.com/
http://anyguey.guanabee.com/

If you want your site added to this list, contact ned.

Contributor Bio: Observation Deck

The man known to the world simply as Observation Deck died today at the age of 26. His life is most notable for its complete lack of distinction. Friends and acquaintances remember Deck as an eccentric hermit whose ramblings lacked all semblance of coherence or purpose. Deck’s penchant for drollery finally found its calling in an online weblog enigmatically titled "Around the Couch."

Deck started his life in the Orient where he grew to love his eventual adopted country through the prism that was Growing Pains and Full House, two of the only forms of pop culture that were deemed acceptable by the censors in the motherland.

Arriving in the United States in the ninth year of his life, Deck was shocked and awed by the fact that San Francisco wasn’t always sunny and Long Island wasn’t always cloudy.

After diligent study and what could only be described as complete “bullsh-tery,” Deck enrolled in a prep school in New York City on a scholarship and proceeded to matriculate at college in Connecticut.

Following college, Deck was inspired to pursue public service and embarked on a journey to the nation’s capitol where he quickly realized why the early residents of Maryland and Virginia were so quick to cede this particular wedge of land.

Deck’s long and rather circuitous path finally brought him to his beloved blog in the latter part of his 26th year on earth. He could be found writing tracks on the desirability of puffins and treatises on the much maligned infield fly rule. But just when he had given what he thought was his last full measure of devotion to his blog, Deck’s life was cut short in a freak gasoline fight accident.

Deck is survived by his blogmates: Fidel, Boomer Jr., Mike Corey, CL, Standard, Josh Cain, je, ned, and LeKeith.

Contributor Bio: LeKeith

Between the ages of 0 and 4, my two favorite shows were, inexplicably, I Love Lucy and the Honeymooners. No one in my family knows why I was drawn to these pioneering sitcoms over programming more suited to my demographic. Or why I preferred these particular black-and-white shows over honorable others like Dick Van Dyke. Or if I even understood what I was watching.

What they did know is that I was comfortable watching Lucy get in and out of every scenario imaginable but needed to hold someone's hand for the first 30 seconds of each
Honeymooners episode. Here's why: In the opening credits, there is a depiction of Ralph Kramden's face - bearing an ear-to-ear grin - projected onto the moon. For whatever reason, that image was "hide under the covers" scary to me.

In New York, WPIX Channel 11- currently the CW, formerly the WB - shows a Honeymooners marathon on New Year's Day and has been doing so for as long as I remember. Every 30 minutes is a chance to face my fear, which is both thrilling and terrifying. I can't remember the
exact moment I got over Gleason's face - if I ever truly did - but I remember to respect it. And to respect the moon. And Alice.

Contributor Bio: Josh Cain

Josh Cain is a globe trotting adventurer masquerading as a respectable corporate citizen. By day a slightly out of place office worker, by night a jujitsu fighting, pun-making, obscure-country visiting explorer of the absurd. Josh's primary goal in life is to get himself into as many awkward, dangerous, or otherwise interesting situations as it takes to generate a seemingly endless supply of anecdotes which he will endlessly repeat until his friends pre-empt him with the oft-heard "yeah, you've told us that one before."

Since his days as a humor writer in high school and college and a staff writer for the now defunct video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly, Josh's audience for his stories has primarily been confined to bar patrons and females on increasingly uncomfortable first/only dates. While his friends and fellow bloggers discuss music, politics, and ways to make the world a better place, Josh lies in wait until the perfect opportunity to bring up the time he was almost murdered in a Turkish brothel or make artful use of the phrase "that's what she said." With this blog, his inane bar room ramblings are now yours to enjoy and relate to others as though they were your own. You are truly blessed.

Contributor Bio: Fidel Martinez

Fidel Martinez is a freewheelin' ramblin' and gamblin' man. He hails from the great state of Texas, with a couple of stints in Chicago and Oshkosh, Wisconsin (yes, the town of Oshkosh B'gosh'). He's got everything he needs, he's an artist, he don't look back. Interests include writing fictions and elaborate stories that make you forget they're not real.

Contributor Bio: Ned

Please post your answers in the comments to this post. Then read below the line.

1 – Adj.:
2 – Noun:
3 – Place:
4 – Present Verb:
5 – Noun:
6 – Activity:
7 – Gerund:
8 – Plural Noun:

=====================

Ned Young was raised by a (1 – Adj.) ___________ (2 – Noun) ___________ in the heart of (3 – Place) ___________ . Currently, he (4 – Present Verb) ___________s in New York City, the big (5 – Noun)___________ . His interests include (6 – Activity)___________, (7 – Gerund)___________, and (8 – Plural Noun): ___________, which he plans to write about frequently. He is the Editor-in-Couch of aroundthecouch.com

Contributor Bio: Mike Corey

They shot the white girl first.

So it was for the first ever Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, perhaps the most iconic annual in the brief history of print journalism. But it is equally instructive in demonstrating journalism's 150-year rise and fall, blossoming before it was a sense of entertainment, and then taking a turn for the worse as muckraking and skin slowly surrounded the industry and forced the quality stuff into a virtual Thermopylae. It remains there still, fighting a massive army of cloned magazines and newspapers, indistinct and undistinguished all. But even the booby-tassled-horde that has made its living at grocery store checkout lines has begun to sag, as the internet gives readers access to more. And for free.

That plague long ago overtook television news, particularly after Rupert Murdoch decided that he didn't need broadcasters, but articulate models and actresses in order to draw a crowd, sprinkling in a few shock jocks to bring'em back for more. The Howard Stern School of Journalism.

This was once the industry I hoped to join while an undergraduate at Duke University. But during the 2004 presidential race, the indirectness of journalism dissuaded me from seeking it out as a career, and pushed me toward something that struck me as more urgent and satisfying: education. I still love to write—and am eager to do so with such a talented group of individuals on this blog—but have gone down a different path since my days as a sports and news magazine editor at Duke.

I moved back to Columbus, Ohio upon graduating, and began work at the Ohio Board of Regents as an educational consultant. This ambiguous term essentially meant that I was, euphemistically, a utility player willing to do whatever project was sent my way. I enjoyed it enough to pursue a master's in education administration, which I obtained from Ohio State in 2007. I then worked on a local political campaign for a few months, then at a non-profit called the Children's Hunger Alliance, and have since returned to the Board of Regents, where I will remain until fall when I will matriculate in law school.

Although my career has gone down a different path, I continue my writing hobby through aroundthecouch.com, a sports column for GoDuke and by being a member of the USBWA.

The rest you'll learn in time. In the meantime, enjoy the latest Swimsuit Issue. It hit newsstands Wednesday.

Contributor Bio: Standard

Eric Vivier, who would like to be (but is not currently and will never be) known as "Standard," is from Buffalo, NY. He now lives in Madison, where he is a graduate student in English Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Contributor Bio: CL

Between this bio and my pseudonym (which is my initials...OR IS IT?), no one who knows me will have much trouble figuring out who I am. But at least pseudonymity makes it hard to google me.

Let's see...I was born in Ireland, as was my entire (immediate and extended) family. We subsequently moved to Belgium, Connecticut, Indonesia, and Nebraska, in that order. I went to college with a few other ATC contributors and majored in economics, and as of the founding of the blog I'm in my third year of law school.

The third year of law school is essentially a reward for the first two years of law school, and one last chance to enjoy yourself before life as a lawyer (it is the Mardi Gras to a legal career's Lent, for all of you Catholics out there). As a result, I've had a great deal of free time this year, which I've spent attending concerts, watching comedy series that are no longer on the air, arguing about inconsequential things, and downloading music.

With my posts on Around the Couch, I'm hoping to avoid writing excessively about the things I think about most - the fortunes of my sports teams (all of which seem to have declined severely in the last five years) and whatever blog-discovered band I'm currently obsessed with - so that people who aren't me may be interested in reading my posts. Wish me luck.

And so it begins ...

On a Saturday afternoon, not too distant from today, a group of young adults sat waxing politics, sports, pop culture and the like. By this point, their temperaments were relaxed and their cheek grooves well established in their vinyl cushions. You, the outsider, would likely picture cheap cold ones mingled amongst our protagonists. Lo! … you would be correct!

With a rousing college football competition as white noise, rants were volleyed back and forth. After a particularly humorous account of a weekend escapade, our politically engaged friend made a particularly insightful comparison of the platform of Sir Winston Churchill with the characters of SNL’s Horatio Sanz. Who knew?

After a brief moment of silence, the following dialogue took place which may have altered the very fabric of civilization.

“Hark, this chatter is such fun! Why not makest such merry musing public,” cheered one whose diction derived from seeing to many medieval period pieces and may perhaps be the author of this post.

“Here, here!” bullied another of Ivy League distinction smugly sipping a tini.

“We could each write on a recurring basis on variety of topics. It could even be posted on the ‘internet’ on a blog” interjected the practical, literalist whose comments only help to conclude thoughts to prevent awkward and abrupt transitions.

“Hooray!” exclaimed the conformist of few words who was not invited to contribute.

At that it was settled. All concurred and all was good.

Thusly, started "Around the Couch" and its journey through the depths of the human mind.