Song list

I still listen to most of my music on an ipod so itunes keeps track. Fifty most listened to:

	Jan ‘16	Jan ‘15	Jan ‘14	Jan ‘13		Plays
1	1	1	1	1	Different Worlds - Brittany Cairns	224
2	-	-	-	-	Happy & Sad - Kacey Musgraves	209
=3	3	3	3	-	100 Million Little Bombs - Buddy Miller	156
=3	-	-	-	-	Runnin’ Just In Case - Miranda Lambert	156
5	16	-	-	-	Vez Primera - Carla Morrison	153
6	2	2	2	2	This World Can Make You Happy - Amaya Laucirica	152
=7	7	8	9	-	Useless Desires - Patty Griffin	150
=7	4	4	6	43	State of Grace - Taylor Swift	150
9	-	-	-	-	Loner - Margo Price	146
=10	-	-	-	-	The Mother We Share - CHVRCHES	140
=10	14	-	-	-	Learn To Say No - Lydia Loveless	140
12	-	-	-	-	Don’t Pass Me By - Laura Marling	139
=13	-	-	-	-	Summer Pillow - Kasey Chambers	138
=13	-	-	-	-	Sweet By And By - Miranda Lambert	138
15	-	-	-	-	Pay No Mind - Beach House	137
16	6	7	7	5	23 - Blonde Redhead	136
=17	5	5	5	4	New Year - Beach House	133
=17	-	-	-	-	Heartache Is An Uphill Climb - Tift Merritt	133
=19	8	6	4	3	It Must Come Through - Jen Cloher & The Endless Sea	131
=19	-	-	-	-	Slow Burn - Kacey Musgraves	131
21	14	15	17	37	No Bad News - Patty Griffin	127
22	11	10	10	-	Starry Skies - Laura Cantrell	125
23	-	-	-	-	Vice - Miranda Lambert	124
24	10	15	14	15	Slow Show - The National	123
25	-	-	-	-	Bad Reputation - Haley Bonar	122
26	-	-	-	-	Dirty Dream Number Two - Belle and Sebastian	115
=27	13	12	12	8	Aeroplane - The Everybodyfields	111
=27	12	11	8	6	Out Loud - Mindy Smith	111
29	21	19	29	-	Red - Taylor Swift	109
=30	26	23	23	-	Manchester - Kishi Bashi	108
=30	23	25	36	-	From This Moment On - Shania Twain	108
=32	18	15	20	-	Don’t Tell Me - Buddy Miller	106
=32	26	28	36	-	Wild Old Dog - Patty Griffin	106
=34	18	13	13	7	Coming Home To Me - Patty Griffin feat Julie Miller	105
=34	-	-	-	-	Burn The Witch - Radiohead	105
=34	24	25	-	-	Afraid of Nothing - Sharon Van Etten	105
=37	17	14	14	-	Sweet Talk - Jessie Ware	104
=37	-	-	-	-	Nonbeliever - Lucy Dacus	104
=37	26	37	45	29	Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National	104
40	-	-	-	-	Best Years of My Life - Pistol Annies	104
41	36	45	49	29	Let’s Get Out Of This Country - Camera Obscura	101
42	18	15	16	11	Godspell - The Cardigans	100
=43	-	-	-	-	Drunk in LA - Beach House	99
=43	22	20	26	-	You Keep Me Hangin’ On - Janelle Arthur	99
=43	41	34	36	-	Don’t Let Me Die In Florida - Patty Griffin	99
=43	29	28	29	-	I Couldn’t Be Your Friend - Tegan and Sara	99
47	32	25	26	19	The Bleeding Heart Show - The New Pornographers	98
=48	39	45	-	-	Abducted - Cults	97
=48	36	35	29	17	I Got Nothing - Dum Dum Girls	97
=48	32	28	26	-	I Don’t Ever Give Up - Patty Griffin	97

Jorge Luis Borges - Fictions (trans. Andrew Hurley)

Some of these stories, perhaps many, I've read before; it's hard to be sure because all have a slippery familiarity, so that to read them is to feel as if you're retracing the outlines of maps that you already, somehow, knew. "The Garden of Forking Paths", "The Lottery in Babylon", "The Library of Babel", "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius", "Funes, His Memory"; even the titles are redolent with associations. It's a surprise to find so much story in some of these (it's not always so clear how much plot there is) - investigations, searches, journeys, knife fights. But it's the captivating quality of the ideas and how they're woven through which makes them stick. I think my favourite might be "The South", which also seems one of the most straightforwardly symbolic and allegorical - to such an extent that I'm troubled by the sense that there is a deeper layer below I haven't yet plumbed...

Three playlists

At the end of last year I distributed my usual end-of-year mix (for 2018) as a spotify playlist, and I've received three playlists in return, at least two - I'm not sure about the third - in similar vein as soundtracks of the previous year.

David's is the most familiar, in terms of artists and sounds, though taught me what a lot of acts whose names I've seen in dispatches actually sound like, of which my favourites are Jay Som ("Pirouette") and Frankie Cosmos ("Young"). Also, now I now what Weezer's cover of "Africa" is like, though I could've exactly guessed without hearing it, as it turns out.

Rob's skews largely towards Australian and independentish pop, and of ten songs, the only artist I'd even heard of before was Amy Shark ("All Loved Up" turns out to be pretty nice). Favourites: the rootsy burst of joy of "Don't Be Hiding" by Middle Kids and the catchy "Groceries" by Mallrat. All very listenable.

Julian's - in which he spared me "most but not all of the abrasive" - ranges widely as usual across prog, folk, power-pop, ambientish, glum singer-songwriter and dissonant pop from decades past. Of the ones I most like, two are from closest to my genre wheelhouses in Sam Hunt, David Kilgour and the Heavy Eight's "Maintrunk Country Road Song" and Tommy Keene's "Underworld"; there's also Paul Buchanan's gentle "Mid Air" and The Body's sinister, screamily industrial "Nothing Stirs".

Capernaum

The story and characters are engaging enough that the milieu - the streets and slums of extreme-poverty Beirut - acquires a sense of realness, including the context of the horrors of people-selling and exploitation being depicted, especially as the effects are felt by children, some very young. Very worthwhile.

(w/ Hayley)

"Frida Kahlo, her photos" & "Gothic Beauty: Victorian notions of love, loss and spirituality" (Bendigo Art Gallery)

The Frida Kahlo photos were photos from her collection, only a few of which she took herself, although some have her marks on them, notably kiss-shaped lipstick imprints on a couple of her lovers'.

The Gothic exhibition was good. I was generally most drawn to the more contemporary pieces with a clear connection to the style's Victorian origins.

Jane Burton - "It is midnight, Dr.__#4" (2016)

Kate Just - "Inward gathering" (2010)

Tracey Moffatt - "Invocations #5" (2000)

(w/ Erandathie, Nic and Simon)

On the Basis of Sex

Nicely made if maybe a touch hagiographic account of RBG's earlier career, culminating in her successful arguing of her first gender discrimination case. There's something a bit routine about how the film is put together (I also gather it's a bit fast and loose with some of the details, the better for dramatic tension), but it still made me feel a bit inspired and moved, so I guess it was a success!

(w/ R)

Mitski @ Corner Hotel, Thursday 7 February

Nice show. Most of her songs are about three minutes long, so in a bit over an hour she got through basically the whole of Be the Cowboy and Puberty 2, plus a fair lot from Bury Me at Makeout Creek (which I haven't listened to but now feel I should) and elsewhere. Mitski herself was instrument-less but performed throughout with physical movements that were much of a piece with the expressivity of her songs; there was a lot of crowd singing along, which I thought was a testament to her ability to capture slices of twenty-something experience in her music. The songs came through well live, with the ones that are good on record basically being the same live; it didn't really shed new light on any songs in particular, though I was struck anew by how much of an anthem "A Pearl" is.

(w/ R)

"Mirka Mora: Pas de deux - Drawings and Dolls" (Heide)

Charming. From her home and studio; conceived as being in honour of her 90th birthday but has ended up as more of a tribute following her death mid last year.

(w/ R)