coffee's on

So I am not normally a YouTube fanatic. I'm just not. I've tried to be hip and find videos of sleepwalking dogs but I always get bored. But when music surfaces on YouTube, I will take time to let that little red bar do battle with my computer's perpetual nap time in order to see what happens. And based on a recommendation, I did indeed find things to make me a YouTuber for the day.

First a video of a 2007 performance by Ryan Adams and Neal Casal in County Kerry, Ireland. I'm putting up Two, but the whole set is beautiful. Ryan Adams' pained lyrics in Two are made even clearer by his honest body language; his foot moving in rhythm but sticking at an awkward angle, pointing directly up with rigidity, giving away his authenticity. Ahhh...and it just sounds real pretty.





My attention was drawn to this music video by Israeli theatre director, Oren Lavie, by a friend of mine who is way more versed in YouTube than I. It's a stop motion music video for a captivating folk tune called Her Morning Elegance. The video is just brilliant. Oren Lavie chases a dreaming girl across pillow and blanket landscapes, as she sleepwalks through terrifying and beautiful adventures; running on clouds, swimming in the deep blue seas with sock fish going through her fingers, and gray sky days with only a scarf for protection.

The album was released on iTunes in January (on my birthday), but the physical copy came out in March, and I'm dismayed that I haven't heard it until now. Lavie has a voice that makes me think of sanddollars whispering under low tide, and barefoot callouses sliding along rocky coastlines. Though the rest of the album isn't exactly what I would normally put on, I just can't get enough of Her Morning Elegance. Oren Lavie gets my respect unconditionally for posting the bad reviews of his album on his website, which causes me to pause and consider when I would put on his Nick Drake-y voice and jazzy melodies. Because I think he has a place in my ears. What a way to start off the morning, with a song that takes my heart rate down from the pace my coffee pot determined.