I'm in love with Massachusetts when it's cold outside

[sovay]

I am spending my first night in my new apartment.

It is very much an apartment in progress. There are still-packed boxes everywhere. My books are in the library, stacked against the wall with the closet: there are over fifty boxes of them and they weigh just half a ton, according to the springs of the truck my brother brought them over in yesterday. I had to open three different boxes in the kitchen in order to assemble the pot I warmed tonight's chowder in, the oversized mug and the spoon I ate it with, the water glass on my windowsill and the mug from which I am currently drinking tea. (It has Greek fir honey in it from Follow the Honey, because nineweaving when she gave me the small spinet desk at which I am now writing said no one should ever give a cradle empty, or a desk.) I am sleeping on an air mattress borrowed from gaudior and rushthatspeaks until Friday when the futon mattress I have ordered comes in. I have to be awake and dressed earlier tomorrow than feels medically advisable in order to let in adrian_turtle's movers at ten in the morning, because of logistics. There is no art on my walls, I have no bookcases, I'm going to need to clean everything, and the closet built belatedly across the corner of my already small room is one of the most unhelpful architectural features known to man. My clothes are all in garbage bags.

It is very good to be here.

These are all the songs my computer seems to know about living in Boston. Admittedly I'm in Somerville, but I haven't got any songs for that specifically besides the ENSMB. Anyone know any? Want to write them?

Willie Alexander, "Mass. Ave."

You might see an old friend or run from a ghost
On Mass. Ave.

Jonathan Richman, "Roadrunner (Thrice)"

I can see the whole Boston harbor from where I am
Out on the rocks by Cohasset, in the night

Human Sexual Response, "Marone Offering"

I met you on a Rat date, Rat date by the river
The bonfires on the Fenway stretched away forever

Consonant, "That Boston Life"

They slept sweet on a dirty floor
Just once in that tiny flat
That first night of sirens

The Dresden Dolls, "Boston"

New York will still be there in the morning
Come back to bed, my darling

Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers, "Devils in Boston"

Mama always said Devil'll meet you at the railroad tracks
I ain't seen nothing but the subway here in Boston

Amanda Palmer, "Massachusetts Avenue"

Storrow Drive is pretty in the springtime
Storrow Drive is pretty in the fall
You don't have to go home in a straight line
You don't have to go back home at all

Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band, "Davis Square Double-Time"

Comments

[thistleingrey]

*toasts you*

[sovay]

*toasts you*

I am smiling.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

Yay apartment!

[sovay]

Yay apartment!

Amen!

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

Jonathan Richman's "The Lonely Financial Zone" and "Government Center".

Yay for the new apartment. The only part I enjoy at all about moving is the opportunity to have a clean slate for arranging the furniture and setting up the rooms.
I'd enjoy seeing pictures of the place, but I also completely understand if you don't want to post them online.

[sovay]

Jonathan Richman's "The Lonely Financial Zone" and "Government Center".

I don't have the first of those! (I didn't post "Government Center" because I didn't want to overload anyone on Jonathan Richman, but it's also possible that's simply not a rational concern.) Will hunt up and listen.

I'd enjoy seeing pictures of the place, but I also completely understand if you don't want to post them online.

I'd post if I had a camera! My phone is strictly for calls and texts and it's never given me much of a problem before, but I am currently without access to digital photographic technology and therefore I cannot brag about my well-spread bed (temporary mattress or no) with Doppel-Abbie on the pillows* or the way the desk fits into the corner of the walls. The rest of it is a mess, because it is a very small room and I have not unpacked anything in common space because I am waiting on adrian_turtle's stuff, but I'd have shown off if I could!

* Doppel-Abbie is a black-and-white tuxedo stuffed animal cat discovered on Friday in the process of packing. He resembles derspatchel's own Abbie to an uncanny degree and was mistaken for a real cat by waitstaff at Mr. Sushi in Arlington. He's become sort of the presiding spirit of this move. I have pictures of him, but only in my old bed in Lexington and at the restaurant last night.

[edit] All right, this is Doppel-Abbie in his formerly natural habitat. (Actually, I suspect he would be happy to haunt Mr. Sushi again.) He has eyes, they're just hidden in the plush. Right now, he's on my bed next to the 1905 signals diagram I still need to frame. Also my calendar. I need nails and shelves.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

This all sounds amazing.;) In terms of music, I've got "Boston" by Augustana and "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" by the Dropkick Murphies (natch)...otherwise, I believe all my Bostonian music comes from you. Will drop you a line tomorrow, probably, with links...

[sovay]

Will drop you a line tomorrow, probably, with links...

Yay! Thank you. I don't think I've even heard of Augustana . . .

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Tea and a writing space (and books waiting)--bliss. May you evermore have rooms of your own.

Hope the desk is comfortable to work at--and may wonderful things be written there.

Nine

[sovay]

Hope the desk is comfortable to work at--and may wonderful things be written there.

It seems to play well with my rolling office chair, which was not necessarily to be expected. At least, my shoulders aren't screaming at me. And I am putting things away in drawers already. Thank you.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

You are most welcome. I feel I'm supporting the arts.

Nine

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

The first summer after college was made so strange by being hundreds of miles away from my Boston. When we finally travelled back, me helping drive the minivan away from suburbia and back home Home HOME to the city I loved, my flagship song was one I'd learned so many months prior --the Dropkick Murpheys sing "Shipping Up to Boston" and I sing it with them whenever I return.

(and in a quick look in my musicbox, I find I have an instrumental version done by the Pops. Oh *my!*)

That, and the only other band I've to add is Great Big Sea, who sings so mournful that "there isn't that much ocean between Boston and St. Johns"

I like very much your list, and may investigate it all in the near future. In the meantime, I am so happy you are creating a place that feels like home.

~Sor

[sovay]

That, and the only other band I've to add is Great Big Sea, who sings so mournful that "there isn't that much ocean between Boston and St. Johns"

I have that also! I left out most of the folksongs that turned up because they were things like the Watersons' "Boston Harbour" or "The Boston Burglar." (I find the latter conceptually neat, because it's a local variant of a transportation song—Charlestown standing in for Botany Bay—but as someone who suffered a break-in two weeks ago in my old place, I don't want to encourage the experience here.)

In the meantime, I am so happy you are creating a place that feels like home.

Thank you. asakiyume sent me a card of a golden fox demon as a housewarming present: I have it sitting on my desk right now, the first thing that has come to me in this place. It's a shape-changer. I'm good with that.

Enjoy the music!

[ookpik.livejournal.com]

Ellis Paul, "Trolley Car"
Greg Greenway, "She's Just Gone"
--, "[Driving in] Massachusetts"
Jake Armerding, "Peace of Mind (Lost in Back Bay)"


And if you stretch it to elsewhere in Massachusetts
Mark Erelli, "The Farewell Ball"
Denise Gendron, "Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchubunagungamaugg"

[sovay]

And if you stretch it to elsewhere in Massachusetts

Oh, totally. I linked my favorite version of "Roadrunner" because it has the lines about Cohasset and Deer Island and Amherst.

And I don't believe I've heard any of the songs you name, so thank you!

[aedifica]

The Tim Malloys' "One Night In Boston," which I think is one of the ones Adam Stemple wrote. (The Tims are a Twin Cities-area Irishish band, and once upon a time my main social activity was to go see them play every Tuesday night at a bar--almost all of my friends would be there too.)

(I went looking for "One Night In Boston" online, but all I can find is the lyrics, and an instrumental piece that's not at all the same song, though it's linked various places as though it were.)

[sovay]

(The Tims are a Twin Cities-area Irishish band, and once upon a time my main social activity was to go see them play every Tuesday night at a bar--almost all of my friends would be there too.)

Huh. I know Adam Stemple from Cats Laughing and Boiled in Lead, but not any other bands. Neat!

(I went looking for "One Night In Boston" online, but all I can find is the lyrics, and an instrumental piece that's not at all the same song, though it's linked various places as though it were.)

I know it's a throwaway line and not the point of the song, but I like the idea of almost killing the Devil on a pub crawl in Boston.

[aedifica]

At "He said that he knew me from Adam," we'd all wave and shout "Hi, Adam!" Because of course Adam is the one who'd sing that song.

Cats Laughing was before my time in Minnesota, unfortunately. I've seen Boiled in Lead a few times, always on a St. Patrick's Day, because First Ave would always have a show that day that would start out with some band I'd never heard of (and which band tended to vary each year), then the Tims, then Boiled in Lead.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

I love Somerville. I have family in Somerville, though i have never lived there. I did live in Allston in the late 80's.

There is nothing like that early time in a new place, with boxes everywhere.

I wish you joy.

[sovay]

I wish you joy.

Thank you.

I hope you have joy of where you are.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

How's the postal delivery to your new address?

[sovay]

How's the postal delivery to your new address?

See above to kdsorceress!

Thank you.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Excellent--glad that nothing stayed your courier from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on your new apartment!

There's also "Boston" by Gene Clark and "The Boston Rag" by Steely Dan.

[sovay]

Congratulations on your new apartment!

Thank you!

There's also "Boston" by Gene Clark and "The Boston Rag" by Steely Dan.

I know neither of those and I have kind of no excuse for the Steely Dan, since my mother went to college with them.

[skotodes.livejournal.com]

Titus Andronicus, "A More Perfect Union".

I'm doing 70 on 17, 80 over 84
And I never let the Meritt Parkway magnetize me no more
Give me a brutal Somerville summer,
Give me a cruel New England winter
Give me the great Pine Barrens
So I can see them turned into splinters
And if I come in on a donkey, let me go out on a gurney
I want to realize too late I never should have left New Jersey

The album, "The Monitor", is about moving from NJ to Somerville, then failing at a new life and being forced to go back home. (It's also about the Civil War.) Not the most positive thing to listen to upon moving to a new apartment, admittedly. But if you like lyrically dense punk music, it's basically the best album ever.

[sovay]

But if you like lyrically dense punk music, it's basically the best album ever.

I've never heard of it and I like both of these things. Thank you!

[kraada.livejournal.com]

Please email me your new address when you get a chance - I'd love to know whereabouts you are these days :)

[sovay]

Please email me your new address when you get a chance - I'd love to know whereabouts you are these days

Shall do!

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Happy new apartment.

[sovay]

Happy new apartment.

Thank you.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Hell yeah!

[sovay]

Hell yeah!

Thank you!

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on being in the unpacking stage! I hope this apartment sees many happy days with you and takes next to no time at all to start feeling like home.

My primary Boston song is The Nields' Going to Boston. I have dropped you a copy in the usual way. :)

[sovay]

Congratulations on being in the unpacking stage! I hope this apartment sees many happy days with you and takes next to no time at all to start feeling like home.

Thank you! I think once books are on shelves and I have hung some of my art, it will. At the moment it is slightly dormitory-like, but I really do like the light in the mornings.

I have dropped you a copy in the usual way.

Yay!

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I am glad to see you in a home of your own.

[sovay]

I am glad to see you in a home of your own.

Thank you. And adrian_turtle's stuff all arrived safely this afternoon, so she has a home now, too.

[edited for icon that actually expresses the emotion I feel]

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Excellent.

[weirdquark]

Yay, having an apartment!

[sovay]

Yay, having an apartment!

Thank you!

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Do you need bookshelves? What size/type?

[sovay]

Do you need bookshelves? What size/type?

The idea is to fill the library with floor-to-ceiling bookcases or bracket shelving, whichever is more space-efficient and/or doesn't break us financially. I'll also need some smaller shelves in my room, but because my room is extremely small, I'll need to put some thought into the design first. The library is a normal, ten-by-twelve rectangular room (with a closet which must be accessible, because I plan to keep my dresser in it).

. . . Do you have floor-to-ceiling bookcases to spare?

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Not a room full - one, which is 81" tall, 30" wide, 9+" deep.

[sovay]

Not a room full - one, which is 81" tall, 30" wide, 9+" deep.

E-mail me (or at least LJ-message me your e-mail address). It is of interest!

(Thank you.)

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for the new apartment! I hope all's going very well.

Thanks for the tracks! I don't think I've got any songs relating to Boston, unfortunately. I'm acquainted with some very good Irish musicians who live in and around Boston, but for some reason New York seems to have made more of an impact on our lyrics.

I'll try to remember to ask somebody about that.