Quote of the Day

"Man ... I'm never buying tuna from Dollar General again."

Mount Righteous

I might just have a new favorite band.

But first, a little Lillian musical background.

I have a very wide selection of musical interests. My favorites as a young girl mainly consisted of showtunes and Disney songs. I've had all the colors in Joseph's amazing technicolor dreamcoat memorized since I was about seven. (Red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ocher and peach …) And, of course, I've always had a fondness for the folk music I was raised on. Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, etc. And, of course, we can't forget the Beatles.

In elementary school, I listened to Faith Hill, Sarah McLachlan, the Backstreet Boys, N*Sync and the Spice Girls. Even now, I really appreciate popular music. I went to a Hanson concert last October. Yes, Hanson.

In high school, my major musical loves were John Mayer, Weezer and Ben Folds (and more showtunes). In my later years of high school, I was introduced to Rilo Kiley, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sufjan Stevens and Death Cab for Cutie. I guess that's where my interest in so-called "indie" music began.

Nowadays, I will listen and want to listen to pretty much anything, including bluegrass, country, rap, hip hop, punk, folk, rock, pop, electro. Put something in front of me and I will check it out. Probably the only music I just cannot make myself like are screamo, emo, Christian music of the annoying variety (this doesn't include hymns and old religious songs), and some of the more disgusting and/or degrading rap songs.

My favorite songs are inevitably the ones that leave me feeling really ridiculously happy, and let me tell you, you don't get much happier than Mount Righteous' album called "When the Music Starts."

Let me introduce you to the band – the ELEVEN-piece band. There's a sousaphone, snare drum, xylophone, accordion, bass drum, melodica, a few acoustic guitars and two trombones. Everything they play is completely acoustic – no mics, no amps, no synthesizer, no electric instruments whatsoever. As it states on their MySpace, they sound like a "happy marching band choir."

Just a few examples of their lyrics:

Lollipop roads custom made for painted toes
all landscaped by people in the know
I've never been there, but I've heard it's gorgeous.
Walking the streets, you wave hello
to all the birds you meet (tweet, tweet).
The bumble bees will never sting your feet,
Well, they're too busy making honey.

Don't worry baby there are cupcakes in the sky
Everything will be alright, you're the apple of my eye.
We'll take a paper airplane flight into the licorice night.
- from "Licorice Night"

–––––––––––––

Love the world a little more,
Give them what they're hurtin' for.
Open up both your arms and stretch them wide.
Learn, learn, learn a little more,
Ignorance is such a bore.
Learn and then you can soar above the lies.

Run, run, run while you can,
God will hold you in his hands,
Set your feet back on the ground when you fall down.
Give, give, give a little more,
Of your live so sweet and pure.
When you give all your love you shine, shine, shine.
- from "A Little More"

–––––––––––––

Never met a martyr but I met a lotta men,
Never met a zero, never met a ten.
If I ever met a hero I could tell you then,
But I never met anyone quite like you, my friend.
One, two, three, four you're the one that I adore.
Four, three, two, one, now I'm telling everyone.

Met a lotta chicks, met a lotta dudes.
Met a lotta not a lotta never like you.
- from "You the Magic Number"

–––––––––––––

Doesn't it just make you go :-) ?
You should check them out.

Blog Neglect

I apologize for the inevitable period of blog neglect.

My absence is partially caused by pure laziness. This laziness in only enhanced by the fact that, since last week, I've been working a different job at the paper.

A copyeditor/page designer recently moved back to her hometown, and because I know the pagination program, InDesign, I was recruited to work on the copydesk. This also means that instead of working from 10 a.m. to around 6 p.m., I go in at 4 p.m. and don't leave until after midnight. So the hours aren't great, but I'm learning a lot about InDesign which will make my job with The Cluster next year SO much easier.

Welcome to the most thankless job in journalism.

Legalize Books!

From one of my favorite web comics, Toothpaste For Dinner.

Come craft away with me.

If you're anything like me, from time to time you get these grand ideas about projects and crafts that will be oh-so-trendy yet oh-so-easy. 

If you're anything like me, these projects rarely work out. 

Since attending the craft festival this weekend in Cave Spring, Ga., the itch to craft has become … itchier.

Here are a couple interesting ideas from Readymade magazine, a bimonthly do-it-yourself instructional handbook. It's a crafter's dream. And who's to stop me from dreaming?

This updated suitcase lookes delighfully retro with just a small addition. 

This inventive bookcase is way too complicated for my pitiful crafting skills, but I'm drawn to it's eclectic, home-y and geometric look. 

I'm currently working on re-covering four chairs that live on our backporch with a nice printed fabric and sewing a matching tablecloth. I'll let you know how the crafting goes. 

Random Newsroom Outbursts, Vol. 1

One of the things I love about my new job is working in an environment where you are constantly interacting with others.

No, there's never a dull moment in the newsroom.

Because a career in journalism requires a certain amount of – how shall I put it? – loquaciousness, it is only natural that newsroom conversation be thoroughly saturated with sarcasm, hilarity and the delightfully absurd.

Here are just a few tidbits from my growing Post-it note collection of newsroom absurdities.

• On my very first day, someone sang Poison's greatest ballad. "Eeeevry roooose has it's thooooorn." But why? The world may never know, but every cowboy has his sad, sad song.

• "Oh yeah, that sounds like an interesting story...NOT."


• The Web editor's ringtone is the theme song to "The Golden Girls."


• "Steve, wanna go to the strip club? Go ahead!"


• (singing) "The Looooooooove Boooooooat!"


• I passed an isolated desk in the Past Times section (not in the newsroom and therefore much more dull) and heard a person snoring behind his computer.

• "Ugh, I am so behind the times. Do you know how many recreational drugs I need to be trying?"

• "Who's the floozy on the train?!"

• In my first week, I was drafted to judge a Play-Doh sculpture contest between the Features Editor and one of the primary photographers. They were making tigers. I chose the editor's because his had stripes.

• "Oh, so what was your Boy Scout troop called? The shimmering dragonflies?"

Some of these don't even make sense to me, I'll admit.

If you're worried that my coworkers' obvious mental complications might rub off on me, be comforted in knowing that I am extremely resilient when it comes to avoiding unwanted influences. It's become hard in the past weeks, what with the high concentration of crazy and all. But you know how it goes …

… all in a day's work.

For future reference…

People know when you link to their blogs. Or at least Aunt Carol does.

I didn't realize this little tidbit of information and thought that no one knew about this blog yet. Silly me. This is a lesson many people should learn about the internet: someone aaaaaalways knoooows. Dum, dum, dummm.

Well, now that you know, Welcome!

If you (like someone I know) are confused about the name, LilyPutty is supposed to bring to mind that wonderful, sticky, gooey, play-doughy concoction Silly Putty.

I hope this blog will be equally delightful, though the chances are small.

I should be getting ready for my new job as ace reporter (read: intern) for the local newspaper. In case you haven't heard the big news, old people did stuff at Berry College. I was on the scene to investigate.