Void the Cold Moon: an Anti-Valentine's Day Playlist

The hat's annual Anti-Valentine's Day playlist comes in January this year, because of an early start on both lists when I had the flu earlier this month, and a bit of lunar-related inspiration, which fueled this post, and provided the name of the anti-Valentine's playlist (which I hasten to add is not Moon-themed, though this post is.)

A dream a couple nights ago prompted a bit of research into matters of the Moon (I dreamt of a song that doesn't exist. Other than the word "Moon", it has no relation to anything in this post.) One thing I learned about is a fairly obscure (at least to non-astrology buffs) but rather frequent Moon: the Void of course Moon.

Some astrologers don't take much note of the Void of course Moon, which partly explains the semi-obscurity. Its meaning sheds more light on the matter. During this time, the Moon does not bring about any major aspect on any planets before entering the next sign. It's allegedly "a period in which new ventures are not likely to succeed", which seems noteworthy. Thing is, we have a Void of course Moon a few times a week. Constantly urging people to use caution and avoid starting anything new would be a bummer.

Both its name and meaning almost invite people to ignore the curious little Void of course Moon. The name is rather fun. Void, of course. Void, of course! I thought of "Blame It on the Moon" and "Blue Moon".

It's a "classic", but I've never cared for "Blue Moon". I find it rather moany, or whingy, as they might say across the pond. It's not exactly a proactive song. Sends rather the wrong message to The Kids, doesn't it? Someone is alone, and doesn't want to be. Their response to the situation is to hang out alone, wallow and pray to the (rarely-occurring) Blue Moon. Also, how can the singer both pray for "somebody I really could care for" and claim to be "without a dream in my heart"? Where did the desire for someone to care for originate from, his pancreas? If it came from his heart, he's a disingenuous cunning fellow. Maybe he just wanted to take the easy way, to get that wispy creature the Blue Moon doled out without having to fill out some pre-Internet-dating-service matchmaker's questionnaire.

So I thought of a scenerio in which a "Blue Moon" prayer was rejected. If the Moon, or the Blue Moon had the power to give someone a love/soulmate/robot "companion" and chose not to, the sight of the Moon could provoke all manner of unpleasant feelings, perhaps even a wish to void the cold Moon.

That's cold as in the emotional sense, which a Moon might be thought of if they denied someone a Valentine. It's not currently a "Cold Moon" in the "Full Cold Moon" sense... It's a Wolf Moon... Void the Wolf Moon sounds silly, doesn't have that emotional connection, and doesn't seem as Valentine's-related. But there's a list of the 2008 Moon names at the end of the post, 'cause that's fun too.

The Moon is "a symbol for the soul" in astrology. In horoscopes, it it "determines the subject's capacity for reflection and adaptation".

Pausing to reflect could be interpreted as a form of caution, but not all reflection is wise, and whether or not it's for the best, some leap after looking.

True reflection and adaptation and sincere attention paid to the soul is arguably a better way to meet someone to care for than this praying-to-the-Blue-Moon business. However, it sounds more like the the theme of a month's worth of Oprah episodes than anything related to romance.

Religion isn't necessarily something people want to/should "dabble" in (disclaimer), but if one has their heart—sorry, if one feels that they want to pray to a Moon-related deity, there are indeed scads of lunar gods and goddesses. They're an interesting group, from a Polynesian God credited for creating females and buildings to an Aztec Earth and Moon Goddess, who, legend has it, is decapitated and dismembered every month... You know, to explain the changing phases of the Moon. Hey, they didn't have television back then, and no Interweb either. Instead, they relied on a little something called an incredibly lurid imagination.

Regardless of our romantic situation, it's heart-warming to take in the fact that we don't have to rely solely on the bizarre imaginations of our neighbors, friends, and family for entertainment. (Though they do try their "best" through e-mail forwards and reality television.)

♥ Void the Cold Moon: an Anti-Valentine's Day Playlist: to listen to/download the songs, go here, and type Kofi'sValentine in the password box.

Bonus Track: Trio - Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha

Moon Miscellany:

• What the Moon looks like today

• Moon phases through 2015

• Moonrise, moonset, and other lunar data (illumination percentage!) Note: the times on this one are PST.

• 1960 Cheerios/V-8 Juice commercial (yes, there's a moon-tie in):



• "Romance and Reality" (which would make a swell subtitle for the playlist), the full 1852 Punch sketch from the top of the post.

• Farmer's Almanac has lots of Pop-Ups, so I hate linking to them and warn that their pop-ups make this an awful link of doom. Plus, the Full Moon info for 2008 is printed below. They don't yet have the info for 2009, and the names for 2007 were the same.

2008 Full Moons:

We're currently in a Full Wolf Moon, which began January 22nd.
Full Snow Moon starts February 20th at 10:31 PM. Then:
Full Worm Moon starts March 21st 2:40 PM.
Full Pink Moon - April 20th - 6:25 AM
Full Flower Moon - May 19th - 10:11 PM
Full Strawberry Moon - June 18th - 1:30 PM
Full Buck Moon - July 18th - 3:59 AM
Full Sturgeon Moon - August 16th - 5:16 AM
Full Harvest Moon - September 15th - 5:13 AM
Full Hunter's Moon - October 14th - 4:02 AM
Full Beaver Moon - November 13th - 1:17 AM
Full Cold Moon - December 12th - 11:37 PM

A Dozen Undeservedly Obscure Words We Should Embrace & a Logophilia Playlist

"I hate music
It's got too many notes"
- "I Hate Music", The Replacements

Someone might just have a touch of melophobia, the fearful cousin of melolagnia ("Amorous feeling inspired by music").

Phobias cause suffering and of course that isn't funny, whether or not the fear is one we relate to doesn't much matter. However, the words chosen to describe some phobias can be a bit amusing, at least for logophiles (word-lovers). There's a certain beauty and quirkiness in the choice of pantophobia to define "a fear of everything":



For some reason, the word paranoia is bandied about casually, but people don't seem to accuse others of having pantophobia. Odd, that. Did a series of pantophobia accusations create too much confusion due to mistaken (although understandable) assumptions that charges had been made involving something pants-related?

While the term pantophobia seems iffy at best, many obscure words have a charm, usefulness, and/or fun factor that merits their popularization. Anyway, we deserve some nice words after our Clockwork Orange-style reintroduction to the unlovely word "widget" (I dislike widget spam and the word widgets, but I try to find some solace in the fact that they're "a dream for marketers".)

After perusing two eximious sources of obscure and interesting words, the Grandiloquent Dictionary and Luciferous Logolepsy, I made a Logopgilia Playlist, with tracks inspired by obscure words. But first... after intense deliberation, I drafted a list of a dozen words I propose we start incorporating into our vocabulary:

A Dozen Undeservedly Obscure Words We Should Embrace:

1. bromatology - "A discourse on food". Not eating carbs, not eating meat/animal products, not eating anything their great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food, can't eat gluten/peanuts/etc., only buy organic, only buy local, only buy union/fair trade... A lot of people have dietary needs, beliefs, and preferences... which others may not want to hear about, at least not at length. "Bromatology" has a boring, slightly painful ring to it. If you didn't know what it was, it would sound like something to avoid.
2. blatherskite - "An obnoxious braggart". Simply fun. Plus, unlike some popular modern insults, using it doesn't automatically gray your white hat.
3. bletcherous - "Pertaining to something poorly designed or disgusting in design" Another joy-inducing word; it rolls off the tongue beautifully and is amusing to read. Opinions will differ, but with design everywhere, how could there not be frequent occasions to dub it bletcherous? Injury-inducing toys, cars with design defects... a couple of the easy "bletcherous" calls.
4. chiliad - "A period of one thousand years". Could be a helpful term when exaggerating to make a point.
5. emacity - "An urge to buy or to spend money". "Emacity" sounds like a young actor's name, created as a cross between "Emma" and "Felicity". Picturing some young "Emacity" in an After School Special or PSA about our global footprints and corporate responsibility, and such might be a good way to remember the meaning of the word, or teach it to your own little Emacitys.
6. fashimite - "Someone who is a slave to fashion". Although it sounds kind of like "termite", it still sounds too much like "vegemite" to make a terribly cruel insult. It's a soft, strange-sounding term, perfect for using whilst explaining why you don't intend to purchase gaucho pants now or ever. "I am not a fashimite. No matter how many times I'm told something is 'stylish', I won't buy it if I think it's bletcherous."
7. lusa - "An Indonesian word for the day after tomorrow". How handy is that? Doesn't everyone waste time confirming "Right, not tomorrow, the day after tomorrow" with people? If a word meaning "the day after tomorrow" was commonly used in the U.S. since Pilgrim days, we might have put someone on the moon in the roaring 20s.
8. nullifidian - "skeptical". There's already a perfectly good word with the same meaning as nullifidian, but that shouldn't push it out of anyone's vocabulary. It's a funny, lovely word. If people have room in their thesauruses, and in their hearts, for ginormous, there should be room for nullifidian.
9. perendinate - "To delay until the day of tomorrow or to delay indefinitely". I'll write thoughts on this one later (don't hold your breath).
10. risorial - "pertaining to or causing laughter". That's great, and easy to incorporate into our vocabulary. Sure, at first some people might say "a spot of risorial entertainment" sounds perfect without knowing what it is. But they might find it harder to be disappointed while they're laughing.
11. sorbile - "Drinkable". This pleasant-sounding beverage-centric version of "edible" would be a useful edition to the popular vocabulary. We most commonly use "edible" rather than "eatable", so it seems a bit odd to use "drinkable".
12. sphallolalia - "Flirtatious talk that leads nowhere". Slightly tricky in terms of pronounciation? Yes, but I think this word makes up for it in terms of its potential for good. If sphallolalia caught on, think of all the long, redundant stories friends just might be spared.

Logophilia Playlist:

1. anaxiphillia - "The act of falling in love with the wrong person"

I'm not what I could be, I need a true love
I went looking and I found one

The wrong girl
The wrong kind
The wrong hand to be holding
The wrong eyes to go searching behind
- Belle & Sebastian - The Wrong Girl

2. ananthous - "having no flowers"

"Send me no flowers, baby
Don't need any flowers, baby
I need affection sometimes
To soothe this heart of mine"
- The Supremes - Send Me No Flowers

3. deliquesce - "melt away; gradually dissolve"

"Jackie Cane was everybody's sugar
She'd melt away if only she could've"
- Hooverphonic - Jackie Cane

4. jentacular - "Pertaining to breakfast"

"You can try to be smart,
You can try to be fancy,
You can even call them crepes,
But I know what they really are,
They're just plain ol' pancakes"
- Lucinda Williams - Pancakes

5. metrophobia - "hatred or fear of poetry"

"Don't tell me what the poets are doing
Those Himalayas of the mind
Don't tell me what the poet's been doing
In the long grasses over time"
- The Tragically Hip - Poets

6. pantophobia - "A fear of everything"

"I've got nothing to be afraid of,
So I'm afraid of nothing.
I've emptied out the cupboard underneath the stairs
Because I think the sky is gonna fall in."
- The Boy Least Likely To - I See Spiders When I Close My Eyes

7. philematology - "the study of kissing"

"A nice way to maintain self-control without offending the other person is to say, 'I'm not ready to handle what I think is coming.'
Then you both go home and daydream.
Tomorrow you can start again fresh.
Remember: you can not get pregnant from kissing."
- Will Powers - Kissing With Confidence

8. wegotism - "The excessive use of 'we' in writing, particulary in newspaper editorials"

"We need a war
We need a war to show 'em
We need a war to show 'em that we can
We need a war to show 'em that we can do it
Whenever we say we need a war"
- Fischerspooner - We Need A War

BT's Daughter Found, Her Mother Arrested

According to TMZ, last night, BT's daughter Kaia Transeau, who was kidnapped by her mother over a month ago, was found, and her mother was arrested. Ashley Duffy is being held without bail at Lynwood Jail. "A team of U.S. Marshals, two private investigation teams and the Santa Monica P.D." were looking for Kaia, aged 3 1/2, reports TMZ. No word on how Kaia is doing in their brief article, but that's not necessarily a good cause for a major panic; they also didn't report that she was taken to the hospital. No official statement from BT yet, but it's a bit early to reasonably expect one...

Surrealistic "Melting Building" in Paris

If you're already in Paris or thereabouts, you probably already know about the "melting building" at 39 Avenue George V. I first caught a glimpse of its surrealistic wonders this afternoon in a brief Metropolitan Home article.

Athem, which specializes in temporary architecture, was asked to build a false front at the site to conceal building renovation. Sculptor Pierre Delavie responded to the challenge by creating a giant work of art, constructing, according to Metropolitan Home, an 8,200 square-foot canvas from polystyrene, resin, and metal. Delavie's melting building is much more interesting and attractive than the slapdash structures that are often built to block construction from the public.

Several websites have videos and pictures of 39 Avenue George V, as well as more information about it. Some, alas, are in French, but that doesn't much matter with videos and pictures. Take this video. It provides an excellent, though brief, look at the building front, then gives a lingering look at some explanatory French text:

La Minute du Surréalisme Urbain
Uploaded by 39georgev

Some of that is universal; some of it is Greek to me. Although... maybe it's some of my three years of French coming back to me, but I think I can decipher a bit of that text. Like "perspectives" could mean "perspectives" and l'intention artistique" could have something to do with "the artistic intention".

There are also some very good Flickr photos, and more good pictures at this French-language site named Parisian boys (Some of their links are really easy to understand! "Brad Pitt", "David Beckham", "Jake Gyllenhaal"... Hey, they aren't from Paris. I'm confused again.)

There's another another video and photo at the Parisian blog DeStructUred Blog. (I use her wacky capitalization, but this does not mean I endorse it.)

For a look at another of Athem's projects, called the Vuitton suitcase, word has it we can also turn to Flickr (once they're back online. They're currently offline, and will be for a while still, according to their blog. I will delete the link if it turns out to be photos of someone's hilarious lolcat collection or something else entirely unrelated to Athem's cool temporary architecture.)

Props to Athem for bringing art to public areas, and ones that might otherwise look fairly drab, at that (although perhaps not, if they're all in such ritzy neighborhoods.) It's possible that making the construction site look... attractive... is a legally-imposed requirement (worded less vaguely). Still, Delavie's odd, lovely "building" goes above and beyond what one might expect if there was such a requirement. It's a shame it's destined to melt away.

BT's Daughter, 3, Remains Missing Weeks After Abduction

Musician/producer BT has issued a statement regarding the abduction, over three weeks ago, of his 3-1/2 year old daughter Kaia Transeau by her mother.

Kaia has been placed on the National Crime Information Center's National Missing Persons List. The NCIC's phone number, i.e. the place to call if you have any information about Kaia, is 304-625-2000.

BT's statement about the abduction of his daughter: "I am diligently and delicately working to do everything possible to amend this tragic family situation. As a father my only goal is to get my daughter back home in a stable and safe environment. I appreciate your continued support and understanding in this desperate hour."



Jan. 16. Update: According to TMZ, last night, Kaia was found, and her mother was arrested.

Shins' Crandall & Girlfriend Arrested for Domestic Violence; Crandall Still in Jail

Photo of Elyse Sewell's arm, posted at her Live Journal

Model and writer Elyse Sewell has posted a disturbing story of violence at the hands of her now ex-boyfriend of seven years, singer Martin Crandall of The Shins.

"It is not the first time," Sewell responded, when one of her Live Journal readers asked whether Crandall had "behaved this way" before. "But it is the last."

About this weekend's incident, Sewell writes, in part:

"1.) On the drive home (home?) from Albuquerque to Portland, my ex-boyfriend got shitfaced and roughed me up in a Sacramento hotel. I escaped from the room through a blitzkrieg of violence and talked to hotel security, who called the fuzz.

2.) Because he had a bite mark, inflicted in self-defense, on his arm, Marty told the police to PRESS CHARGES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST ME."

Crandall has been charged with two felonies— domestic violence and corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant. He remains in jail on $25,000 bail, and has a court date scheduled for Tuesday January 8th at 1:30 PM.

Sewell paid her bail and was released. She writes that she has been charged with "two counts of domestic violence ('corporal injury' [the bite mark] and 'general domestic violence'), both felonies."

Update: Charges against Sewell have been dropped.

Go Björk or Go Home

In my last post, I wrote "Once an artist decides their photo should grace the cover of their album, the odds of that cover becoming memorable, at least for a positive reason, decline drastically."

I had a few 2007 album covers in mind when I wrote that. Each helpfully provides artists some lessons on what not to do if they're going to pose for their own album cover.

1. General Rule:Avoid a beach setting.



That's Linkin Park posing on the beach for the black-and-white cover of Minutes to Minute but you could hardly be faulted for confusing them with...



Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, standing on the beach, in the black-and-white photo taken for the cover of their album Raising Sand.



They called their album Psychedelic Sunrise, so it's no surprise that Chesterfield Kings opted for the wild, wild, wild route of a color photograph for their "band standing on the beach at sunset" shot.

There are way too many album covers with beach settings. The biggest offenders might be bands. When I think of a beach album cover, I think of a generic beach setting and a band not dressed appropriately for the beach, standing in an anonymous boring pose. The Linkin Park cover could have been from 10 or 30 years ago, and I don't mean that in an "it's timeless!" good sense.

Lessons: decide which is more important, the beach or being on the cover. If it's the beach, think of a creative way to use the setting—something interesting, playful, relevant to the album, and/or beautiful.

Beirut's Zach Condon, who has something of an old-world-sound rep., chose a vintage photo for the cover of his latest album:



For their collaboration, You Follow Me, Nina Nastasia and Jim White also offered creative beach art:



2. General Rule:Don't over-groom and over-photoshop.



Yikes.



However, a very glam look can be great, as long as it's done well. Kylie's cover is very glossy and stylized, and there's nothing wrong with that; she looks really good. Costumey can be good, again, as long as it's done well.

Céline Dion likely wanted to project glamour, but instead she sort of looks like she's posing for an ad for "Havisham!", an off-broadway musical about the adventures Miss Havisham encounters when she moves to Texas and becomes a hairdresser... but to stay in the U.S., she has to get married, fast! And in all the confusion, she's the one who winds up in a suit on her wedding day. Oh, Havisham! (Not sure how she ends up without a shirt. That's quite a pickle.)

Lessons: Don't get hair weaves. If you must, try to make them less fluffy than your head. Try to have the photo look like yourself on a good day or people will see you in real life and think you're very insecure and/or are aging rapidly. At least have someone in your life who will tell you, "It would look sexier if you wore a shirt!"

3. General Rule: If you go the costume route, go Björk or go home.



When you're Björk and you wear an outlandish, harmless, inoffensive costume on your album cover, you're pretty much criticism-proof.

But most people aren't Björk. Almost everyone, in fact, is not Björk.



So Tori Amos released an album built around the concept of five "dolls" representing different aspects of her personality. Got it. Once she decided to dress up as some, but not all of these dolls, for a photo to be used on the cover, wouldn't it make sense to exclude the photographer character? Did the shutterbug character want to charge too much or just insist on being on the cover? Regardless of the personas she chose, collectively (with a chicken—if (s)he is real— involuntarily along for the ride), their image represents her album American Doll Posse. And that picture looks like it was inspired by an old America's Next Top Model shot. The barn setting and extra clone/twin don't hide the homage to Tyra Banks, and neither does the chicken. Plus, the barn almost long for yet another beach cover. Amos' posse of catatonic dolls not frolicking in the sand would have made for a funny picture.

Lessons: Wear your inspiration proudly, never hold animals with their feet dangling in the air, and strive for funny, or otherwise engaging covers, rather than ones that if they provoke any discussion, likely provoke discussion of how they're kinda boring and/or silly. Oh, and remember to wear sunblock if you do go the beach route.