It's such a big mistake, lying here in your warm embrace

Today's Rilo Kiley song is The Good That Won't Come Out, in honor of my epically horrific public breakup tonight at my recently former battalion's military ball.

It's (probably) about being trapped in a doomed situation and being too afraid to escape it

Let's get together and talk about the modern age.
All of our friends were gathered there with their pets
just talking shit about how we're all so upset about the disappearing ground.
As we watch it melt....

It's all of the good that won't come out of us
and how eventually our hands will just turn to dust,
if we keep shaking them.
Standing here on this frozen lake.

I do this thing where I think I'm real sick
but I won't go to the doctor to find out about it
Cause they make you stay real still in a real small space
As they chart up your insides and put them on display.
They'd see all of it, all of me, all of it.

All the good that won't come out of me
and all the stupid lies I hide behind.
It's such a big mistake
lying here in your warm embrace.

Oh, you're almost home.
I've been waiting for you to come in.
Dancing around in your old suits going crazy in your room again.
I think I'll go out an embarrass myself by getting drunk and falling down in
the street.
You say I choose sadness
that it never once has chosen me.
Maybe you're right...

Let's talk about all of our friends who lost the war
And all of the novels that had yet to be written about them.

It's all the good that won't come out of them
and all the stupid lies they hide behind.
It's such a big mistake
Standing here on this frozen lake.

It's all of the good that won't come out of me
And how eventually my mouth will just turn to dust
If I don't tell you quick.
Standing here on this frozen lake.

'Cause you're just damage control for a walking corpse like me - like you

Today's Rilo Kiley song, Portions for Foxes (CD quality file), is dedicated to the wife of one of my soldiers, who accused another one of them of rape this weekend under highly questionable circumstances. I got to conduct the administrative, non-legal, investigation today. Which is good, because I'd hate to prejudge the results of the rape kit just because she's previously recanted another rape accusation and [...] and [...].

Portions for Foxes is a catchy, upbeat tune about a trainwreck of a relationship.



There's blood in my mouth 'cause I've been biting my tongue all week
I keep on talkin' trash but I never say anything
And the talkin' leads to touchin'
and the touchin' leads to sex
and then there is no mystery left

And It's bad news
Baby I'm bad news
I'm just bad news, bad news, bad news

I know I'm alone if I'm with or without you
but just bein' around you offers me another form of relief
When the loneliness leads to bad dreams
and the bad dreams lead me to callin' you
and I call you and say "C'MERE!"

And it's bad news
Baby I'm bad news
I'm just bad news, bad news, bad news

And it's bad news
Baby it's bad news
It's just bad news, bad news, bad news

'Cause you're just damage control
for a walking corpse like me - like you

'Cause we'll all be
Portions for foxes
Yeah we'll all be
Portions for foxes

There's a pretty young thing in front of you
and she's real pretty and she's real into you
and then she's sleepin' inside of you
and the talkin' leads to touchin'
then touchin' leads to sex
and then there is no mystery left

And it's bad news
I don't blame you
I do the same thing
I get lonely too

And you're bad news
My friends tell me to leave you
That you're bad news, bad news, bad news

That you're bad news
Baby you're bad news
and you're bad news
Baby you're bad news
and you're bad news
I don't care I like you
and you're bad news
I don't care I like you
I like you

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

For ten years, Boulder residents have staged a spontaneous “naked pumpkin run” on Halloween, in which dozens of runners (150 last year) don only shoes and a pumpkin on their head, then jog a four-block route through the city.

Fail.

Least. Informative. Lede. Ever.

Way to go, AP:

BEIJING (AP) -- Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo sure know how to make a comeback.

Who? Comeback at what?

Competing at their first event since winning the 2007 world title, Shen and Zhao claimed gold at the Cup of China on Saturday with a landslide victory. Their score of 200.97 points was almost 15 ahead of reigning world silver medalists Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao.

''Our goal is the Olympics,'' Zhao said. ''That is why we're here ... to reach our goal step by step.''

The Olympics in what? Something with points, I guess.

Japan's Nobunari Oda won his second Grand Prix title of the season, beating world champion Evan Lysacek. Akiko Suzuki of Japan was the surprise winner in a lackluster women's competition, while Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto easily won the ice dance title.

Why were a Formula One race and ice dancing happening at the same event?

Shen and Zhao retired after winning their third world title in 2007. But the two-time Olympic bronze medalists decided to try one last time for that elusive Olympic gold.

Though they were rusty in spots, their free skate to ''Adagio in G Minor'' showcased their power and their passion. Their triple twist was huge, and their lifts were smooth and featured unique positions.

Oh! I don't know how a piece from "Ice Skater Journal" got lifted without any modification for a general audience and reprinted in the New York Times.

You're gonna crash on the barrelhead son / You'll regret the things that you done

John O'Quinn has died, not too far from where I once lived.

I'm selling people things they don't want when I don't know what you need

This blog, obviously, has been somewhat adrift of late. Lacking any better ideas, I'll go back to that old volume (output, not readers) standby, music blogging.

My latest music obsession is Rilo Kiley, discovered some months back on Yglesias' blog. I like Jenny Lewis' voice quite a lot, and find something nicely romantically forlorn (or straight up interestingly depressing, on The Execution of All Things album) in a lot of their lyrics.

Today's sample is A Man / Me / Then Jim, one I just came to new appreciation of today.



Lyrics:

I had one friend in high school recently he hung himself with string
His note said
"If livin' is the problem, well that's just baffling."
And at the wake I waited around to see my ex first love
And I barely recognized her, but I knew exactly what she was thinking of
We sat quietly in the corner whispering close about loss
And I remembered why I loved her, and I asked her why I drove her off

She said
The slow fade of love
Its soft edge might cut you
And our poor friend, Jim
Well he just lived within
The slow fade of love

A woman calls my house once a week; she's always selling things
Some charity, a phone plan, a subscription to a magazine
And as I turned her down, I always do, there was something trembling in her voice
I said
Hey, what troubles you?
She said
I'm surprised you noticed
Well, my husband, he's leaving, and I can't convince him to stay
And he'll take our daughter with him, she wants to go with him anyway
I'm sorry I'm hard to live with, living is the problem for me
I'm selling people things they don't want when I don't know what you need

He said the slow fade of love
And its mist might choke you
It's my gradual descent
Into a life I never meant
It's the slow fade of love

I was driving south of Melrose; I happened upon my old lover's old house
I found myself staring at the closed up door like the day she threw me out
"Dianna, Dianna, Dianna I would die for you
I'm in love with you completely, I'm afraid that's all I can do"
She said
"You can sleep upon my doorstep, you can promise me indifference, Jim
But my mind is made up, and I'll never let you in again"

For the slow fade of love
It might hit you from below
It's your gradual descent
Into a life you never meant
It's the slow fade of love

Down

This is a strange one.

The mystery appeared to be deepening in Fort Collins.

The authorities were investigating whether Falcon Heene could have been in a box attached to the bottom of the balloon. According to The Associated Press, one of the boy’s two older brothers had seen him climbing into the box before the balloon lifted off. But the box was not attached to the balloon when it made its soft landing in a field in Adams County, Colo., about 20 miles northeast of Denver International Airport.

Kathy Messick, a spokeswoman for the Larimer County Sheriff’s office, said that the box had been attached with pegs.

Ms. Messick, briefing reporters on the Heene family’s narrow, tree-lined street jammed with emergency vehicles, said that the authorities were now searching the three counties — Larimer, Weld and Adams — over which the balloon flew.

Apparently balloons are big around here. I saw one drifting along as I left work today. No children were observed falling from it.

Update: Disappointing.

A six-year-old boy thought to have been carried away by a helium balloon in Colorado was in fact hiding in a box in an attic at home, an official has said.

Larimer county sheriff Jim Alderden told reporters that apparently Falcon Heene had "been there the whole time".

And from Twitter:

#balloonboy, imma let you finish, but Amelia Earhart had one of the best disappearances in flight OF ALL TIME!!

and

Yo Balloon Boy, I'm a let you finish, but Anne Frank had the best attic hideout spot of all time.

And one to grow on

Tomorrow postdeployment block leave ends; it's also my last official day with my current company and battalion. On Monday I report to the artillery battalion headquartered 50 meters from my current company office for a job TBA.

As a going away present tomorrow I get to do the end of the week arms room inventory, a task that normally requires a few hours, that since our return from Iraq has taken little more than one hour, and that tomorrow, if they decide to open and unpack our sensitive items containers that just arrived, will take all day plus some.

Thanks, guys.

Faith in humanity rises 2%

After longer than I care to think about, Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" has finally fallen out of the #1 selling slot at the iTunes store.

To #2. And replaced by Britney Spears.