Art of Virtue

Ignore the video because it has absolutely nothing to do with the song, but this song has consistently been one of my favorite Pandora picks for the past couple months. I can't help but smile when it comes up because it's not every day you hear such a catchy little domestic sermon. It's almost like a good girl anthem for us indie/folk women :)

You can find more of her stuff here if you're interested: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/AdrienneYoung . The album this song came from looks pretty good. It's on my "need to buy" list.

(And yeah, I don't why anyone would think otherwise, but nobody asked, bribed, or otherwise persuaded me to write this post. I just thought it was so neat to find a song actually titled "Art of Virtue." It's a far cry from what the Rihanna's and Katy Perry's are putting out today.) 

A comfortable sort of find

I'd been checking Craigslist and generally keeping my ear to the ground hoping that I could find a decent piano for sale. Even the used ones at the piano dealer were more than Allen and I could comfortably afford for a few months, and my sister in law had warned me that good pianos are pricy. But Monday night I was poking around craigslist and saw a pretty nice looking piano for sale in a nearby upscale part of town (where all the "old money" lives). Since the price was nearly a third what we could expect to pay elsewhere Allen agreed that we could go look at it Tuesday. Now I haven't touched a piano in probably seven or eight years, but I could tell it was reasonably in tune, the pedals worked, and the key action wasn't too bad. We also talked them down another fifty dollars :) Then we had to figure out how to get it home. Fortunately my sainted brother in law agreed to come help us. The three of us managed to get it loaded into the back of his truck (I still think it would have fit in our car) and safely unloaded at our place. It's now standing in the den against the very wall I had designated for it some months ago with a smattering of old music books scattered around it. I've already been to the music store to pick up a couple books for myself and have started working away at a favorite hymn "For The Beauty Of The Earth." I'd really forgotten how addicting piano is. Every fifth note I'm having to stop and count and figure out where my fingers go, but it's such incredibly satisfactory work. With my camera and my piano and my new sketch book I'm remembering what it's like to be really creative again. It's like opening a box and discovering a favorite old sweater, your good day sweater that meant new books and long hikes and a crisp wind rifling your bangs, that had been laid away one spring long ago and feeling, in retrospect, that somehow each autumn in the intervening years must have been tinged with an unidentified nostalgia. Something hidden that you never knew you were missing and yet suddenly, inexplicably is back, and it's good.