Hey, stop defiling my birthday!

I agree heartily with the sentiment expressed in this Slate article. Then again, my birthday is on Valentine’s Day, so maybe I’m a bit biased…

I’ve maintained for many years that I like my birthday being on the holiday, because regardless of whether or not I’m dating someone, I get candy and cards and presents. It’s a win-win for me, yay! This year, the high school newspaper staff that I advise has strongly hinted that they will have a cake for me, so that should be awesome.

(Although, I should note that I still find it odd that several of them read this blog. They’re the young looking folk in the “Followers” section. Thankfully, I haven’t written about anything super embarrassing in here, or really gotten into great depth when it comes to my guiding of their young minds… Maybe I should stop talking about this before they REALLY comb through everything I’ve written on here, or I actually do say something that gets me into trouble…)

One of my Patch freelancers has a list of her favorite romantic songs, which you can read here. It comes complete with YouTube links, so it’s definitely worth checking out. It got me thinking about my favorite romantic songs, which I’ve listed below in no particular order.

(Note: Yes, I’ve been watching Glee, but I haven’t had a chance to write about it yet. Sorry! I’ll do a two-part entry on it, folks – Wednesday, I’ll look at the new episodes since I last blogged, and Friday, I’ll talk about what I’d like to see them do.)

Without further adieu, the list of songs I like to listen to when I’m thinking of romantic things, and following Mel’s lead, I’ve provided YouTube links:

- "Call Me" by Yoko Kanno (Note: Cowboy Bebop spoilers)
- "Come Pick Me Up" by Ryan Adams
- "Emaline" by Ben Folds
- "Falling For You" by Weezer
- "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie
- "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney and Wings
- "Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service
- "We Will Become Silhouettes" by The Postal Service
- "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd

Birthday Links: A few of my favorite things

I'm home early, so I thought I'd throw in a few links to things I like. For example, the above image is from my Southern friend Kristi, who got it from this funny site.

- I've always been a big fan of Dana Carvey, since I was a kid, in fact. One of his best impressions is of Johnny Carson, another one of my favorites. Although the audio is synced oddly, you can get him at his best at this YouTube link. It's one of the clips they don't really show all that often on the SNL Best Ofs, so I heartily recommend it.

- I belatedly recommended Vampire Weekend yesterday, so I'll try for another band today: The Wombats. Their most popular song would be the literally-named "Let's Dance To Joy Division".

- However, the above I realize is just the song, and not an actual music video. I love music videos as an art form. One of my favorites that you would never, ever see on MTV now is "Elektrobank" by The Chemical Brothers. As a warning, it is kind of long at 5 minutes, 47 seconds, and it is techno. It is nifty at telling a little story in this short time frame though, and one that syncs well to the music of the song. It is one of Spike Jonze's works, if that helps sway your opinion.

Other great music videos that I like: "Star Guitar" by The Chemical Brothers. "Sabotage" (with an extra intro and outro) by The Beastie Boys. "Love in this Club" by Karys Rhea (not Usher), acoustic. "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" by Lemon Demon.

- A thing I really like that I always forget about: light gun games. Tonight, in honor of my birthday, I'm playing some Time Crisis 3. Like four years ago, I got that game AND the gun NEW for like $30! It was at one of those music stores in the Wakefield Mall that does not know how to properly price games at all, because right next to it, they had Bugz or some other crap for $40. Oh well, their loss! I also have Time Crisis 2 (not as good) and Vampire Night (cheesy but kind of fun). Some sort of House of the Dead game is on my GameFly list for the Wii, since I didn't realize until like two weeks ago that the Wii-mote would be PERFECT for light gun gaming.

- And to close things out, another image from that card site from my buddy Mike (not Smith):

Hey omg it's my birthday!

Yes, you read the title correctly - Valentine's Day is my birthday! As a result, I'm taking the day off. You can listen to my birthday song, performed by my future wife, here.