Robin Benway

Cool kids never have the time...

My cousin left yesterday. It's a bummer because not only do I miss her, but she was an excellent iPod DJ. We listened to a lot of Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, and then we had to go buy Tom Petty's Greatest Hits because she was scandalized by the fact that I had no Tom Petty on my iPod.

For the record, I am not anti-Tom Petty. I was just neutral.

Anyway, here's a fun conversation that took place between us the other day. And by "fun", I mean "painful".

Location: My Car

Cousin: When I was out for a walk this morning, this sweet car drove by and they were playing this cool old song!
Me: Wow, awesome!

Now, at this point, I'm thinking the Beatles. The Stones. CCR. Kinks. Neil Young. Led Zeppelin. Oh no.

Cousin: (scrolls through iPod) Oh, this is the song I heard!
Cousin: (puts on "1979" by the Smashing Pumpkins)
Me: (weeps on the steering wheel for my lost youth)

In less depressing news, here's a really cool article with Brendan Benson in Newsweek, where he talks about the new Raconteurs album, his iTouch commercial, and why Apple hasn't even given him a charger.

It's New Music Tuesday tomorrow, kids! Get excited.

Anyone who ever had a heart...

I'm hanging with my 16 year old cousin Rachel this week. You can tell she's very smart because she's chosen to spend her spring break with me in Santa Monica. She's from Idaho, and she's somehow managed to be cooler than I could ever hope to be. Well played, Rachel, well played.

We went to Amoeba this afternoon, the first of what I'm sure will be many trips there. I bought a license plate frame because I'm a dork. Then we went to The Waffle and we talked about how I have to work on Book #2 tomorrow.

"So I'll probably just go work for a few hours in the morning," I told her.

"Cool," she said. "So how long do you work? Just 'til, like, the end of your vibe?"

Never before has anyone explained it so well.

Then I found out she had never heard the Velvet Underground, so you know I went bananas (ha, no pun intended!) and played "Rock & Roll" and "Sweet Jane" while we drove up Mulholland towards home.

Spring break rocks.

A series of text messages between me & Friend M while watching "American Idol" last night:

Me: What in the WORLD is Paula wearing. My eyes are burning.
Friend M: Not watching yet, will let you know when I start.
Me: Brace yourself.
*a few minutes later*
Friend M: What.
Friend M: The.
Friend M: FUCK?!
Me: LOL. Right? RIGHT?
Me: Are those arm things even legal?
Friend M: You know your life has taken a wrong turn
when you model your wardrobe choices after Cher.
Me: I'm listening to Amy Winehouse & the lyrics "What kind
of fuckery is this?" just came on. How perfect.

In related news, I like Carly Smithson just 'cause I liked her cover of Heart's "Alone".

Things have changed for me...

Oh boy, New Music Tuesday!

Sometimes New Music Tuesdays are sort of anti-climactic. Like, "Yay, new Insane Clown Posse. Let me throw the confetti." But not today, party people! New Music Tuesday is on the upswing!

First off, we have What Made Milwaukee Famous. You might be saying, "What made Milwaukee famous?" and all I can come up with is "Laverne & Shirley." To make things more complicated, WMMF is actually from Austin, Texas. So thanks for making it difficult, guys.

Anyway, I love them. I love their new album, too, and I love the fact that they're on barsuk records because you can download one of their new songs, "Resistance St.". Or you could buy the whole goshdarn album.

What Made Milwaukee Famous, "What Doesn't Kill Us" (I recommend "Sultan" to start.)

Also, new Raconteurs today! I haven't listened to it yet, only because I'm working like Insane-O Woman on Book #2 and Jack White tends to divert my attention. But in interesting news, I guess iTunes accidentally leaked the album over the weekend, which means that the iTunes employee count is probably down by one this morning. Anyway.

And finally, new Panic at the Disco! (I'll put that exclamation mark wherever I want, thank you very much.) "Pretty. Odd." is streaming here, but I feel the best way to talk about this album is to share a conversation my brother and I had back in 2005 about good old PatD. Suffice to say, neither of us have changed our minds.

Brother: So you need to tell me about music. I need to learn more about music. What's this one the kids are always talking about? Death Cab...?
Me: 'The kids'?! You're 25! The kids are the same age as you. I'm going to buy you a wool cardigan with elbow patches for Christmas, Grandpa.
Brother: (all excited now) Really?!
Me: (heavy sigh) You know who you would love? Panic! at the Disco. They're incredible.
Brother: What.
Me: Panic! at the Disco.
Brother: *snort*
Me: What?
Brother: *snicker, muffled guffaw*
Me: THEY'RE A GOOD BAND! WHY ARE YOU SO JUDGMENTAL?
Brother: *not even trying to muffle his laughter now*
Me: You said you wanted to know more about music. I'm trying to help you out.
Brother: *Literally crying from laughing so hard* Panic? At the Disco?
Me: Write it down. Are you writing it down?

Sigh.

And the sun gets passed from tree to tree...

It's early spring now. How lovely.

This is normally the time of year where cute little ladybugs start to flock into my apartment. It's so pretty! They float around and hang out on my windowsill and I name them all Lucy, for some reason, and then they gently fly away and I think, "Wow, nature is so beautiful."

This year, though? There's been a change.

Ladybug count so far? Zero.

Bee count so far? WAY TOO MANY OH MY GOD.

So apparently the bees ran the ladybugs out of town and now I spend most of my day listening for "bzzzzzz" sounds in my apartment. I'm living in terror, people. I read an article where it said that honeybees are disappearing at alarming rates, so if you're a beekeeper, I have your bees. Please come get them asap.

Wilco wrote a song called "Muzzle of Bees". How nice to have a soundtrack for my current events.

Wilco, "Muzzle of Bees"

Some Things about Some Things

A few notes:

1. Hi again!

2. Last.fm has apparently gone a little bonkers and decided to throw random songs into my playlist. Not cool, Last.fm, not cool. So if it says that I'm listening to Hoobastank, it is lying to you. Don't be fooled!

3. The other day, I went with my friend Johanna to lunch at Fred 62, which is pretty much my favorite restaurant in LA. Anyway, when we got there, we saw a baby asleep on top of one of the tables while his parents were eating lunch. Kinda brilliant. But when we got closer, we realized that was our friends Kathleen & Matthew's baby, Luke! We then made a lot of noise accidentally woke him up because he is supercute and watching him is better than watching TV.

Luke chillaxing while we eat Thai Cobb salads. Please note the camo pants.

4. I'm working on a mini-playlist to upload for you peeps. It's hard to narrow down songs, don't you think?

5. Tour dates for "Audrey, Wait!"! Please look to your right and take note if I'm coming to your city!

6. Some of you have emailed me and said, "I know you're busy" or "I almost didn't send this email" or "I know you probably have a full inbox" (so not true, btw). Please. I love emails! If you want to write to me, knock yourselves out, kittens.

Be good! Have fun!

Patience

Hello kittens!

I'm working super-hard on about 10000 different things right now, including this website, so please be patient with me & I'll return the favor tenfold. I hope!

In the meantime, look what I found!

Billy Bragg & Kate Nash, "A New England" (live at SXSW 2008)