This here is mein miniature brother doing what he does...which might be singing.
AFord helps out. It's pretty cute.

The Hazards of Love is driving me bonkers. In order to fully enjoy it, I really need to know what the crap is going on in the story and who’s doing what, and I still haven’t gotten around to reading the liner notes, fearing that perhaps it won’t actually clear anything up. But it is pretty epic, I give you that. The Tain was like a simple version of it, a solid, ancient story told in about 5 chapters. This is like an epic novel with Tolkien-esque adjective strains expressed in music (and often words) and a complex storyline that is probably easily understood once you actually sit down and listen to it. So let me clear this up: this is not a casual listening album. I repeat: This is NOT a casual listening album! The Crane wife was like episodes of a storyline, interspersed with other stories; Each song stood on its own fairly well. But this one…the couple songs that they released by themselves (The Hazards of Love and The Rake Song) are about the only ones that truly hold their own once separated from the narrative. So far, the rest seem pretty intertwined (even though they are separate tracks.) I might change my mind on this later, but at the moment it’s pretty much an Opera of sorts, and when listening to an Opera, you’re just not likely to crave a reprise. This is not one of those albums that is going to have much airplay, sadly, but that explains the release of their very radio-ready singles earlier this year and late last year.  You Decemberists are smart cookies/marketing geniuses! I knew there was a reason I loved you! But anyway.
The use of the two Diamond girls was an interesting choice, but not unexpected. I'm not used to so much female vocal in my Decemberists albums, but I can get used to it in this situation, especially since the "play" that is The Hazards of Love calls for it. I've seen them both live (their respective bands, My Brightest Diamond and Lavender Diamond, opened for the band on two occasions) and they play Margaret and the Queen distinctly and beautifully.

One thing I really noticed with this album is electric guitar, which in previous Dec'ist fare played little part, only truly introduced in full in The Tain and the Crane Wife. Here, the electric guitars are a poignant and sturdy backbone, yet never so harsh as to be out of place or out of time period, strangely enough. They are the sharp pen and ink lines that are filled with the softer colour of voices---except the Queen, whose part is never understated. She is somehow the electric guitars, just like in Peter and the Wolf, the cat is the clarinet. You can feel who she is and what she is by the music that surrounds her and the way that she sings it...a musical done right, if you ask me. All in all, this is perhaps the the piece de resistance for Colin and the band's already luminous career. I'm not sure how they will top it, but I have little doubt that they will---they always do. Now I just need to figure out what the heck this album is about, and everything thing will be on the up and up....
And that's what doesn't suck!

On more Decemberists-related news, I’m also excited to see Carson Ellis (lead singer Colin Meloy’s GF and in-house band art Illustrator) grow in her illustration popularity. It seems she will be illustrating the newest Lemony Snicket book, The Composer is Dead, along with The Mysterious Benedict Society (a series that runs in the vein of Lemony Snicket, but in this writer’s humble opinion, not on quite the same entertainment level.) Of course, I simply ADORE Brett Helquest, the original illustrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events, but I’m rather excited about the exposure this is going to give Carson (I emailed her once…I still have her reply! *fangirl’d*) I admit that I have a tendency to rather snatch up books when Carson’s on the cover, whether the book is good or not. So much for judging a book….

And that's all I got. It's late.

So much of my life has been spent (I won't say wasted quite yet) falling in love/like/lust with people who will never ever love me back. So in the course of time, I've learned to quelch crushes, stifle friendships, nip any signs or hints of interest the moment he backs away, or says something, or gives any sort of clue that "he's just not that into me." I've learned to spot those things because I know that's all it will ever be, because that's all it ever has been; I like a guy, but it is never reciprocated. Learning to take that step back first is so important because it is far easier than hearing the words, "I'm sorry, but..." fall from those lips that you've admired from a far and finding out that after all the hope, you aren't anything to him. That's the hardest hammer that I'll never have swung at my heart if I can help it.

And so I'm nobody's dream girl, it seems. At least, not yet. But at nearly 24, that seems a long time to exist without at least one person having the delusion that, perhaps, I'd be someone they'd like to dream about---and yet, no one has. Well, okay, one did. I assume he thought I was the one for him. I knew from the beginning it wasn't going to work. I tried, but I just couldn't be what he wanted and he couldn't be what I needed, whatever that is. Which is why he's dating my best friend now. And I'm still here, fawning over someone who will never NEVER be mine. He might as well be a movie star or a picture in a book for all the chance that we'll be together. But still, the feelings remain.
The human heart is kind of retarded that way.

Either way, it'd be so much easier going about my day if I didn't feel the way I did about him without knowing whether I should keep my distance...