step into my office, baby

There are two perks of being a postgraduate research student.
Perk #1 is having a card that says "[University] Researcher"
Perk #2 is spending my days in an office where the only directive is really just to read.
(Implied Perk #3 is that i have an office.)

Luckily I'm the sort of person who can read and listen to music at the same time, but unluckily we do not have access to Pandora here in the UK. I understand there are ways around this, but lately I've been playing with the Genius Button on iTunes for a similar sort of effect. There have been some great things coming out of this, actually.

Since it has been a while since I've posted some music (braver! newer! oh god!) I return triumphantly with THINGS I HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO IN THE OFFICE, the mix. My office faces all of the city; it's a beautiful view and I've been trying to get a halfway decent picture of it, but the major weather pattern here is "Gray", which makes it kind of hard to get a good picture. I've been trying for ages, believe me. So here is another picture of me, because clearly I am important, in my office. Come listen to some tunes with me.

1. 23 - blonde redhead
2. mistaken for strangers - the national
3. gila - beach house
4. lloyd, i'm ready to be heartbroken - camera obscura
5. shine a light - wolf parade
6. all my friends - lcd soundsystem
7. i heard it through the grapevine - the slits
8. bigmouth strikes again - the smiths
9. undertow - warpaint
10. i didn't see it coming - belle & sebastian
download this (.zip)
So now you too can pretend to be in Glasgow reading about pronouns! Fun facts: Camera Obscura and Belle & Sebastian are both from here, and this city might be the perfect place for fans of The Smiths. (Seriously. The Queen is Dead could be the soundtrack to this city.)

Also, I just started writing some stuff this week, and I also just started compiling a database of sorts. For reasons I can't quite explain, I really like listening to pop music and/or hip hop when I do this (I may or may not have written large chunks of my senior thesis to Lady Gaga.) Girl Talk just released a new album which you can get for FREE here, which is perfectly timed! I am very pleased. Like any mashup album, it has its hits and misses, but it is worth a listen to just to hear "Hey Ladies" (the beastie boys) vs "lust for life" (iggy pop), even for a few seconds.