On Stupidity and Ugly Honesty...

In the spirit of academic honesty I should probably introduce this blog by explaining it's title:

I stole it. I like to think I salvaged it - a kind of literary dumpster diving. It was stuck between the word 'need' and a period, nearly hidden, in an article on The National in Rolling Stone Magazine. The National's singer was describing his lyrical style:

The regrets and embarrassments are more interesting than running through fields holding hands. I need stupidity and ugly honesty. Otherwise it doesn't seem real.

I mentally plucked the phrase from it's place on the glossy white pages of Rolling Stone, with the intention of shining it up and finding a more prominent home for it someday. I always thought it would have been a great name for an album, but seeing as I won't be releasing an LP anytime soon, my blog will have to suffice.

I am, in fact, always collecting 'CD titles.' If you've known me long enough, you've probably contributed in someway; unwittingly removed of your words. I grab at sound waves (conversations, passing remarks, thoughtless sentences strewn away) and scribble them on post its, receipts, corners of notebooks - anything available before they bounce off into nothingness. Some of my favorites include:

My Mom Burnt My Toast and My Socks Are To Tight (clearly an album title patiently waiting for post-emo to be invented.)
It's Warm Cause it's Human (for a quirky singer-song writer.)
Abandoned in Panic (a socially aware, yet self-conscious punk band, mayhaps?)

There is a part of me that feels a little guilty about my thieving ways. (It should be noted that all contributors are aware of their, hmm... donations. Except The National.) But if taken in a larger context all the words I've ever written are stolen - from the way an aging man lurches a tired heart down the street. The way one of my film studies classmates uses his hands to physically push his point on to the class, only to turn his fingers in, adding a subtle caveat. The way my friend Saleena never misses a chance to laugh, always pointing out when my own words can be misconstrued and alternatively used. 'Squirreling' then, at least in my experience, is a necessary skill for a writer. Perhaps the only skill. Hopefully a forgivable kind of thieving.

Hey, Rolling Stone stole its name from Muddy Waters - kinda.

It should be noted that my friend Saleena wants to be a pirate when she grows up. Maybe she should give some thought to writing?