The Secret of Roan Inish

This movie is truly coastal. It makes me want to jump in a curragh and set to the oars, fog or clear weather. Set on the coast of Ireland, the story blends folklore and real life to tell of a small boy carried away to sea by the seals in a wooden cradle, and his sister who finds him. There's plenty of coast and ocean, green islands with rocky shores, meadows of wildflowers, and a sky that changes and changes. The people speak with a way about them; the grandmother tells the girl "That's not your worry. Your shoulders are too narrow to carry that load." And when the silkie changes into a woman, well. It's worth watching. It's a wonderful story.

Our Endless Numbered Days

Iron and Wine. If you're lying around feeling good about life, this is the band to listen to. And if you want to lie around and feel a little better about death, too, his album Our Endless Numbered Days is good for that. I never think about death. It's just not something I'm concerned with. But here it is anyway, Naked As We Came, my new favourite song. Pass me on the sidewalk and you'll probably hear me singing it.

Naked As We Came

She said, "Wake up, it's no use pretending"
I lay smiling, breathing her.
Birds are leaving over autumn's ending
One of us will die inside these arms.
Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes round the yard.

She said, "If I die before you, darling,
don't you waste me in the ground."
I lay smiling like our sleeping children
One of us will die inside these arms.
Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes round the yard.

Bitter Backed By Happy Bass

Some nights are uneventful. Some nights you just drink gin with your brother, sing Mountain Goats fragments, try to convince him their songs are optimistic, not bitter backed by happy bass. Real-life footage from an Iraqi documentary is your entertainment, and you feel bad about that. Ice cubes rattle in your empty glass. When there's no dialogue in the footage, just chants and gunshots, you continue conversation where you left off, and tell him your most brilliant thought of the night: dog walking is the social opposite of wearing headphones.