I think I’ll make this a monthly thing.

They played India.Arie’s song at the Dublin rally and I’ve been listening to it an awful lot since then: There’s Hope

One night a million years ago I’m watching Northern Exposure and there’s a scene with something about Shelly’s pageant and there’s a song in the background, something odd and the people singing have accents maybe and there’s a drifting twirling while they show the pageant women spinning in their gowns.

I wanted that song.

I didn’t know how to find it — this was before google — and all I could remember is that it says “pretty” in it. Pretty girls? Pretty something? I remembered the swirling skirts, slow motion and the word pretty — a delicate cacophony of skirts and singing but I had no idea how to find it.

I’ve looked for that song since that show aired in 1991.

I recently realized I could get the series on DVD from the library and comb through them to find the song but c’mon — that’s a lot of television to scan through and I’m a busy person. So I started hunting episode lists trying to find the one I needed figuring I could just get that year and do a lot of fast forwarding ’til I came to a pageant scene. And my friends, I have found it.

It took me awhile because I remembered the scene as if Shelly was watching but I figured out it was actually Maurice watching the pageant in the episode The Big Kiss. And once I figured that out, I found the song. And it’s by Sondheim and I already own it and I love it and I play it all the time and now I can play it in a new context.

Here you go: Pretty Lady mp3 from Pacific Overtures

(Hey, was Northern Exposure the first television show to really utilize their soundtrack? Does Grey’s Anatomy owe them a debt or what?)

I’m waiting for my sister to pick me up and I’ve listened to this Elbow song for the third time. Download it for yourself if you like (reminds me of Peter Gabriel). Because I love you all:

Mirrorball (right-click to save)

Oh my blog is a precious thing to me! No matter what’s up, I can find someone who will console me or reprimand me or remind me of what’s really important. You buck me up, cheer me up, set me back up on my feet and send me on my way. Thank you. I’m feeling much less miserable and much more inspired today.

And so my gift to you, dear internets, is a muxtape. It’s like a mixtape only the magic of the world wide web makes it easier to share. You can find my muxtape here. And if there’s a song you dearly love, let me know and I’ll hook you right up. (I made the tape because I personally can’t stop replaying “To the Country” — first song on my mix, I mean mux.)