May.

Summer Summer Summer makes me want to drink Arnold Palmer and Lone Star beer and make pasta salad and sit in the sun. My skin is already peeling.

april showers bring may music.

In the summertime kids act like it's their indisputable birthright to be lazy; and they are absolutely correct. All those papers you wrote, and tests you studied for, extra hours you put in before and after classes on campus seem like a distant time and place. And there is nothing more lazy than lounging around in bed listening to music and not leaving the house all day until midnight, to meet up with other summer souls to get drive thru food.

For me, 2009's summer soundtrack is going to sound a little something like this:
Outer South, Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band. Since Bright Eyes Cassadaga, I feel as though Conor has been an integral part of many of my summers. Four Winds took me into Denver Colorado, while Saulsalito helped me move into Boston, and now Nikorette is making me dance to more ridiculous Oberst lyrics.
Passion Pit, Manners: This album will require a good stereo and a room full of people dancing under strobe lights. make it happen.
Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest: If Yellow House was winter in music form, then Grizzly Bear did a fantastic job recording May through September.

Stories.

"And I didn't think about, I just jumped off and into the water."

"When I sing in the shower, I'm the best there is."

"And I walked into the party and all these strangers already knew me, it was a big surprise, and really just kind of awkward..."

Best shot: the girl I used to meter my camera on, not sure what happened.

Dancing Warriors/facepaint

"There is a vast difference between taking a picture, and making a photograph."
-Robert Heinecken-

Rabbit Ears

Rabbit Eats Entertainment is a company that gets stars like Cher, Danny Glover, Robin Williams and Meryl Streep to read children stories, and when I was little I use to watch How The Camel Got His Hump, on VHS read to me by Jack Nicholson. The still animation would creep onto the screen as Nicholson's voice somehow lulled me into sleep. I can't find any video to it, and also, I don't know how as a child you are suppose to understand the words used such as "oriental splendor," but I liked how they talked about cake within the first minute of the film.
Take a listen: