white houses

Has it really been a month?  Yikes!  Guess counting people took more time than I anticipated.  But now I'm back - committed to the cause - and have a yummy little number that you need to play on repeat immediately (if you don't already).

So wanna know the fastest way to make me happy?  Play Vanessa Carlton.  Not only do I love her music, I think I want to be her.  Only she can match the enthusiasm and ADHD-ness to which I bang My Heart Will Go On out on the piano (wearing this, wearing only this).  She dated my future blog-subject/husband Stephan Jenkins, is a classically trained ballerina, has long shiny brown hair and likes to wear a lot of eyeliner.  Did your heart just explode in envy?  Yeah, mine too!

Initially, I wasn't too impressed with Vanessa and her completely unrelatable hit A Thousand Miles:

Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you...
Tonight.

Don't count on me walking a thousand miles in one night to see you.  Even if you've got Ryan Reynold's wit, Justin Bieber's 'bama bangs and Brad Pitt's ability to eat on camera, I would only get about 55 miles - putting me in Woodbridge, VA.  Vanessa, it's ok that you weren't a math major, but a song about being so in love that you'd spend all night walking to a place that just got a Target isn't going to tickle my pickle.

Shockingly,  I don't remember when I first heard White Houses.  I can't give you details as to what I was wearing, what I was thinking, what homework I was ignoring - all I know it was sometime early senior year at Duke.  I've been a Vanessa believer ever since.

Whenever I hear White Houses, I just want to spin around in happy little circles just like Vanessa in her banned-from-MTV video (apparently her coming-of-age lyrics were too descriptive for the land of fist pumps and Justin Bobbys).  I love the melody - so sweetly vulnerable - and how it interplays with antsy, awkward tempo.  And the lyrics?  I feel like I'm playing house on the set of The Wonder Years - so excited, filled with self-importance and no a clue as to what I'm doing:

Maybe I'm a little bit over my head
I come undone at the things he said
And he's so funny in his bright red shirt
We were all in love and we all got hurt

So give Vanessa a spin - if you like it, I also recommend Nolita Fairytale and Hands On Me.  If you don't like it, well, you're probably a communist.