Simple Pleasures....

Some thing that just make me smile...

Saturday in New York, 70 degrees, sun shining.

The changing aspens in Colorado.

Colored match heads.

Soft pillows.

The perfect cup of coffee (cream, 1 1/2 sugars).

"Banana Wind" by Jimmy Buffett.

When someone holds your thumb.

Guilty pleasure movies.

A dirty martini w/ blue cheese olives.

Horseback riding.

Thinking the same thing as your best friend.

Taking a cat nap with a cat.

Azaleas.

Holding feet while cuddling.

Cupcakes.

Writing a really great sentence.

Reading a really great sentence.

Milk.

A good commercial.

Laughing when you're not supposed to.

Dogs.

Campfires.

Belting showtunes in the car with a friend.

Cold pools on hot days.

A smile from across the room.

Smelling cologne/perfume that reminds you of someone.

Great outfits.

Tea and scones.

Floating.

"I miss you."

Late-night sushi.

Meeting someone and knowing they'll be in your life forever.



What are yours?


Seth

The Fray: A Year Later

I'm a little slow on the uptake here, so please forgo the judgment--I'm well aware.

Nevertheless this post is a manifestation of opinion, mostly formulated this morning while I watched The Fray's AOL Music Session.

Let me interject here and give due credit to AOL for their Music Sessions. If you aren't watching them already you should be. Seriously, they have every artist from Neil Diamond to Dashboard Confessional and they are wonderful, intimate performances of the best the artists have to offer.

As I was saying, The Fray. I tried for a long time to avoid this band, not because I didn't like their music but because I just kept hearing everyone talk about them (and isn't interesting how every person in the world was the first to discover them?!). Not to mention "Over My Head (Cable Car)" was all over the radio. And I will openly admit: I tapped my foot to it, I bobbed my head, I belted it in my car, I knew every word...I loved it. However, the pangs of conforming kept me from buying the album and I moved on, or tried to. And then along comes "How to Save a Life." Poignant, beautiful, catchy and ultimately tied to one of the most addictive TV shows in history, Grey's Anatomy.

Obviously these guys and their managers know how to work a formula, and if it bothered me at first, it was something that I just had to resign myself to, because I like them. There I said it. And ya know why me, my mother and every other emotional soul out there loves them? Because they are the band you wish wasn't mainstream. They are the group you wished you stumbled upon on MySpace music or in some second hand CD shop. They are the band you wished you could say "Hey have you heard The Fray? No? Well listen to this," to which your friends would respond with awe and admiration for your uncanny musical prowess.

The Fray is not this. But they sound like they are, and that's why I can't help but adore their music. Perhaps some, or most, of this is tied up in my existence as an emotional junkie, one who is never afraid to wear his feelings on his sleeve or the find the next sad song to express how I'm feeling. I respond with a great deal of relevancy to their lyrics--most recently and tortuously to "Look After You" which I can't stop playing because it so describes my life right now. And I know they are sometime sappy and a little too addicted to the song that sends a message, but even if that's not your fare, everyone can still relate to it publicly or privately.

Beyond content is the aesthetic of their music. Pianos, violins, acoustics: all those instruments that only serve to aggrandize the emotional punch of the songs. The most effective "instrument" though for me is Isaac Slade's voice. He cracks it in all the right places; he pushes it when it needs to be pushed; pulls it back when appropriate; and, his tone is so undeniably sexy that it becomes the perfect addition to The Fray Formula which produced The Fray Fixation for The Fray Fans. And--ugh--I am now amassed forever with The Fray Fans.

I feel like I'm in The Fray's Anonymous meeting. "Hi, I'm Seth...and I like The Fray." But isn't that first step to reconciliation? I feel proud of myself and, yes, I like--oh Hell--I love The Fray.

Random Lists

Though most of you don't know it, I'm sort of a list maker. I'm always thinking about the Top 10 this or the Top 5 that, and occasionally I jot them down--and spare me the Reality Bites comparison. I know I'm not that original. Avril Lavigne inspired the original post, so I present, with no precision, some random lists.

*none of these lists are in any particular order. I'm too indecisive to differentiate. I like what I like.

Top 10 Recorded Vocal Performances:
10. Bartender - Dave Matthews Band
9. Defying Gravity (Wicked) - Idina Menzel
8. He Touched Me - Heather Headley
7. Star Spangled Banner - Whitney Houston
6. Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
5. Not Ready to Make Nice - The Dixie Chicks
4. I'm With You - Avril Lavigne
3. Romulus - Sufjan Stevens
2. Time to Say Goodbye - Andrea Bocelli (the one with Sarah Brightman isn't bad either)
1. The Flesh Failure - The Actors' Fund of America Benefit Performance

Top 5 Writing Utensils:
5. Paper Mate Sharpwriter (the yellow ones with the twist up lead)
4. Pilot Precise V-7
3. Ticonderoga lead pencil
2. Any Mont Blanc Fountain Pen, preferably the Meisterstück
1. Sharpie Marker (on large surfaces)

Top 5 Cereals:
5. Captain Crunch
4. Count Chocula
3. Fruity Pebbles
2. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
1. Frosted Flakes

5 Thing that Make a Perfect Saturday:
5. Latte
4. Shopping in Soho
3. An afternoon movie
2. Great dinner with great wine
1. A few drinks with friends

10 Songs that Make Me Cry:
10. Night After Night - The Sounds
9. Sailing - Christopher Cross
8. The First Day of My Life - Brighteyes
7. Amazing Grace
6. Angels Among Us - Alabama
5. I'll Cover You (Reprise) - Rent (seriously, I've cried all 15 times I've seen the show).
4. Look After You - The Fray
3. Colorblind - Counting Crows
2. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye - David Gray
1. The Luckiest - Ben Folds