April 2009

I’ve been in taxland for the past five days or so. It’s a miserable, terrible place, especially when, during the prior year, you lived in multiple states, had multiple jobs, your husband was self-employed, you sold your house, paid off your student loans, rolled your 401(k) into your IRA, and inherited money from your grandmother. Oh, and you aren’t sure whether to file married joint or married separate. And then, when you finally figure it all out a mere three hours before the filing deadline, you discover that you can’t e-file because you are filing married separate in a community property state. I don’t even know what a community property state is, and I’m too tired to read what Wikipedia has to say about it. Anyway, it was a rough road doing our taxes this year, and although everything turned out in our favor I am completely spent from the process. I’d rather not discuss how many versions of our taxes are scattered across my computer desktop. Instead, I want to show you this picture that I took at the post office at 9:30 PM last night as I was preparing to mail (yes, mail) our taxes to The Man. But first, let’s all take a moment to be grateful that Washington doesn’t collect income tax, and use that gratitude to find the wherewithal to forgive them (it?) for being a community property state.

Now, on to the photo, in which you will notice several things:

1. Envelope containing Brian’s entire childhood stamp collection, which we liberated from its binder earlier this year. It was determined that the collection was of no value aside from the inherent value as postage, so now we have enough postage to last us until paper mail is obsolete.
2. My gorgeous new (used) Marc Jacobs wallet, which I purchased to replace my beloved Kate Spade wallet that was stolen along with my purse and all of its contents on our last day in Seattle. Since we’re already in gratitude mode, take a moment to be grateful for eBay, because I could not afford to buy such a lovely wallet brand new from an actual store.
3. The hilarious pairing of stamps that I chose to mail our taxes. Behold:

When Brian saw this photo his first response was something along the lines of, “No! You didn’t give them the spaceship stamps, did you? Damn!” and I was like, “Yeah I did, cause it’s funny to use spaceship stamps and cat stamps together.” Isn’t it? I think it is, though I do concede that the lower right-most stamp in the photo is really, really cool and maybe shouldn’t have been “wasted” (Brian’s word) on our taxes.

On a somewhat related note, Brian pointed out today that it seems that I make it my mission to choose the weirdest or most inappropriate stamps for our outgoing mail, and I guess that’s true. I inadvertantly proved his point this afternoon when I sent off my plea for the charge of speeding to the Hardeman County, TX Justice of the Peace with stamps that read, “I love you Mom,” and, “I love you Dad.” Maybe they won’t notice the stamps, but that doesn’t mean the stamps aren’t funny! And, for the record, I’m not guilty of speeding because our speedometer is broken. So there!

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Back when we were in Seattle I compiled a sampling of albums I’d been listening to a lot to share with you, and for some reason never published the list. Most of this stuff seems very inappropriate now that we reside in the land of sun and fun and only listen to T.Rex, but it’s really great music nonetheless. I couldn’t not share, so here you go!

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanagan: Sunday at Devil Dirt
I am usually on the fence when it comes to Isobel Campbell. As a longtime Belle & Sebastian fan I of course love her contributions to that band, but I’ve always had issues with female singers who sound like they’re using their “head voices” (that’s what my choral teacher used to call it) rather than their real, diaphragm-driven voices. All that floaty stuff, so high on the register, and so sweet that it’s cloying, just icks me out. This album, however, is fantastic! She sounds great paired with Mark Lanagan (whose magnificent voice I have no issue with), and the songwriting is tight.

Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes are a Seattle band that we sadly missed when they played in the fall. The show was at a sit-down theater, how rad would that have been? Brian says they’re reminiscent of The Shins, I say maybe he’s onto something but these guys sound more like proper musicians to me. Just straight-up good, organic-feeling music. When I don’t know what I want to listen to, this is usually a good choice.

Iron & Wine: Shepherd’s Dog
Um, it’s Iron & Wine. Need I say more?

Electrelane: No Shouts, No Calls
This is my favorite Electrelane album by far. Too bad they broke up and it’s their last album. I’m grateful we had the opportunity to see them play a kickass show at the Black Cat in DC when they toured this album shortly before they disbanded – it was definitely one of the better shows I’ve seen. There’s something about the variety and energy of the songs and the fact that the album still has a nice cohesive feel to it that is just right. Plus, these girls can really rock when they want to!

Comet Gain: City Fallen Leaves
Comet Gain is a British band that I feel is often overlooked. They are consistently, if secretly, awesome. They sound like pop with a little old-school punk mixed in. This album in particular, while from 2005, has a very distinctive old-school sound that I just love love love. The second track, “Days I Forgot to Write Down,” is one of the slower songs on this album and is great for when you want (need?) to play one song over and over again. Not that I do that or anything.

The Breeders : Mountain Battles
My old favorites still have it! I actually prefer this album to their other post-hard times release, Title TK, because it sounds more like classic Breeders to me. According to Brian, who got to see them live this past fall (I was too pregnantly ill to attend), they are aging and their voices don’t sound quite as crisp as they used to. But the production on this album is so good that they sound perfect to my untrained ears! “Bang On” and “We’re Gonna Rise” are highlights, for sure.

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But they didn’t exactly lose either. Have you heard about this? I’m not April fooling, I swear! The Texas State Board of Education met last week and made decisions about how to teach evolution in elementary and secondary schools. Specifically, they argued about whether to include a phrase requiring students to study the “strengths and weaknesses” of all scientific theories, including evolution, in the state science standards. Apparently that phrase used to be in the standards but was removed since it’s a favorite phrase of the critics of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The Creationists tried to get a few almost-as-bad alternative phrases into the standards instead. Luckily, the Creationist agenda was defeated, but they did succeed in getting language in the standards that would require students to “analyze, evaluate and critique” scientific explanations and examine “all sides” of the scientific evidence. So, this opens the door for allowing critiques of Darwinian evolution into classrooms and textbooks.

Salon.com has a pretty good explanation of the situation:

Dan McLeroy, the Texas State Board of Education chairman, a dentist and self-described creationist, led the charge to mandate teaching the “strengths and weaknesses” of the theory of evolution. After three days of high-pitched argument on both sides, the 15-member board, by a vote of 8-7, rejected the language, relieving textbook authors and publishers of the pressure to insert what opponents called “junk science” into their pages. But in a compromise that alarms and dismays many science education advocates, the board did adopt language that attempts to cast a shadow of doubt over the validity of the central evolutionary concepts of natural selection and common ancestry.

The situation isn’t as bad as the mass freakout on Twitter would lead me to believe, but it’s not good either. My first thought when I heard about this was, “Well, I guess our kids are going to private school, or we’re moving back to the east coast.” Austin is great, but the fact that there is even a shadow of a doubt that my kids will be able to get a complete and unbiased science education is definitely one of the downsides of living in Texas. I think the New York Times editorial sums it up best:

One can only hope that teachers in Texas will use common sense and teach evolution as scientists understand it.

If you want to read up on this issue a little more, check out Texas on evolution: Needs further study on Salon.com or Evolutionary Semantics, Texas-Style on the New York Times website. Or, just use Google–everyone seems to have something to say about this.

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