sovay | All the things that came apart in my head

What I should write about is the experience, last night and this afternoon, of helping

rushthatspeaks make char siu bao (two batches with the original pork, one with a vegetarian recipe Rush invented), Tibetan vegetable momo, and homemade custard buns for my cousins' going-away party this afternoon. It was epic. The dough did strange and malevolent things in the humidity. We made our own five-spice powder. It is surprising how much spinach diminishes as you cook it and how cabbage never seems to go away.

But since I just bit into a nectarine, heard an unpleasantly gritty snap, and now there is a visible half-circle missing from the bottom of my left front tooth, I am instead going to use the rest of this post for a mix I was putting together earlier in the evening and then read my newly acquired translations of Stanisława Przybyszewska's The Danton Case (1929) and Thermidor (1935) until I pass out, because my mouth hurts and I am in the kind of mood whose comfort reading is historical dramas about the French Revolution.

The Secret History is the band that formed out of the breakup of My Favorite, whom

lesser_celery introduced me to in 2004 (and interviewed for Not One of Us). They share with their predecessors a recurring concern with the mythologies of adolescence, suburbia, and Catholicism, and I was not expecting the Bride of Frankenstein to turn up in their lyrics. In her honor, and because I haven't posted any music in forever, have a selection of monsters.

The Secret History, "God Save the Runaways"

I know I am a monster
Just a mess of dead things all stitched together
So you probably should not see me
For I have spent all my life in this laboratory

Pere Ubu, "Heart of Darkness"

Where none of the faces fit a human form
Where nothing I see there isn't deformed
Where in a secret lab works Dr. Moreau

Murder by Death, "Ash"

And who could tell the dogs from the men?
I seen their faces and I know where they've been
I know I'm with them, but I ain't like them

Imogen Heap, "Glittering Cloud (The Plague of Locusts)"

I'm not always like this
It's something I become

My Favorite, "Le Monster"

'Cause after your shelf life expires
You're not a kid, you're a monster, monster, monster

Concrete Blonde, "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)"

Oh, you were a vampire and baby, I'm the walking dead

The Mountain Goats, "Grendel's Mother"

And you can run and run some more
From here all the way to Singapore
But I will carry you home in my teeth

Florence & The Machine, "Howl"

I hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hallowed ground

Anthony Stewart Head, "Legal Assassin"

The nightmare that she should fear
Is the father you left alone

16 Horsepower, "Black Soul Choir"

Every man is evil, yes, every man's a liar
Unashamed with the wicked tongue
Sing in the black soul choir

David Sylvian, "The Devil's Own"

The devil beats his drum
Casting out his spell
Dragging all his own down into hell

PJ Harvey, "Who Will Love Me Now?"

In the forest is a monster
It has done terrible things
So in the wood it's hiding
And this is the song it sings

Squirrel Nut Zippers, "Plenty More"

All the girls are monsters
All the boys are whores
So when you lose the one you love
There's always plenty more

And as a sort of triptych, because I couldn't fit them into the mix proper:

The Jazz Butcher, "Peter Lorre"

It's all right, you can trust him
Peter Lorre's on your side
You can trust him with your secrets
He'll give you someplace to hide

Kate Bush, "Hammer Horror"

You stood in the belltower, but now you're gone
So who knows all the sights of Notre Dame?

The Jellybottys, "Peter Cushing Lives in Whitstable"

Peter Cushing lives in Whitstable
He goes shopping on his bicycle
You can meet him buying vegetables

All the things that came apart in my head

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