Keep Busy Your Mind

The Slits “Newtown” – Last weekend I moved in to a new apartment. If I’ve seemed distracted or disengaged any time in the past month or so, that’s more or less the reason — first it was the stress of finding the place, then getting everything in order for the actual move, and now that I’m here, I’m overwhelmed by all the things I need to buy to make this place feel like a home, and all the additional work I need to do in order to afford my new, more expensive lifestyle. Also, I’m living alone, which is definitely something I’ve wanted for a while now, but I’m discovering very quickly that I need to schedule waaaaaay more social time for myself or I’ll probably go crazy. I’m very optimistic about the change in status quo, but the adjustment stage has been more awkward than I’d anticipated. Hopefully things will be better next week after the cable/internet is finally set up (there was an obnoxious complication — thank God for whoever has the password-free wireless set-up around here, they totally saved my ass this week) and I’ll have, y’know, a living room. But the internet thing has been a real pain — I haven’t been able to download much of anything, and all the upheaval in my life has made me focus on old, familiar music, and so doing this site has been a bit tricky lately. Also, sorry if the posts have been a bit self-absorbed and emo recently.

Anyway, this Slits number — well, to be honest, aside from loving this song for years now, it was selected almost entirely because my new cross-street is Newtown Road, and every time I see the sign, I think of all the different ways Ari Up sings the name in this song, sometimes shifting from cool and collected to wild and aggressive in the span of one syllable. It seems right. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: My review of Ratatouille is up on The Movie Binge.