Pickles and Persimmons

Due to the rainy weather and the complexity of post-college life, Lauren and I felt that a compilation of angst-ridden ballads would be ideal for this week. Sometimes you just have to channel the angst, and we believe these 10 songs do that quite well.

1. I Will Survive—Gloria Gaynor  Empowering or angsty, I don’t know, but this song always seems to be an ideal way for people to channel their complicated feelings through the delightful vehicle of karaoke. So this had to be included.

2. Napoleon—Ani DiFranco A playlist of angst wouldn’t be complete without a song from the goddess of unchecked frustration, Ani DiFranco. I loved this song during my rebellious teenage period (which consisted of frowning on the schoolbus) and I love it now…

3. What’s My Age Again—Blink 182 This playlist may or may not have some teenage tendencies, and few songs can express it as well as this one. God its good, although now that I’m 23, I hope their prophecy about this age isn’t true…(listen to the lyrics!)

4. Anything You Want—Spoon The inherent passive aggression of this song “anything you want” speaks to my angsty side. I love this tune and I love Spoon and that rhymed, SHAZAM.

5. Tears Dry on their Own—Amy Winehouse If Ani DiFranco is the goddess of unchecked frustration, Amy Winehouse is the queen of spurned love. This song is downright angsty.

6. Barely Breathing—Duncan Sheik Although I was a bit too young for angst at the time of this song’s release, I believe it spoke to a generation of 1990s adolescents. And it is evocative and just a classic.

7. Coffee and TV—Blur This song really exemplifies angst. Just listen to the lyrics. Also, back in the day I bought the single and it was played over and over in my walkman. The video is really engaging too.

8. Come As You Are—Nirvana I don’t really think this song needs an explanation in this category…

9. 2:45 AM—Elliott Smith Nothing helps me wallow like listen to Elliott Smith. Cathartic to say the least.

10. You Oughta Know—Alanis Morrissette This was the first song that Lauren and I thought of when conceiving this playlist. I think it is pretty self-explanatory…

BONUS TRACK! Piece of My Heart—Janis Joplin Lauren and I were hesitant to put this on here only because we’ve included it in so many playlists. But it is one of the best songs out there and couldn’t be left off the list.

ENJOY!

Hey there,

So you all don’t think I’m neglecting my song of the day duties, I am, in fact, crafting an extra special, super wonderful PLAYLIST OF THE WEEK! It will be posted on Sunday, but all of my musical inspiration is being harnessed in order to create a most lovely list of tunes for you all to enjoy. So sit tight!

Leah

Today is the fifth birthday for 

Here’s some pretty amazing stats. According to MacApper:

#tweets

• 3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.
• 1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.
• 50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.
• 140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.
• 177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.
• 456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).
• 6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.

#accounts

• 572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.
• 460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.
• 182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

#employees

• 8. 29. 130. 350. 400. Number of Twitter employees in Jan 2008, Jan 2009, Jan 2010, Jan 2011 and today.

Pretty impressive.

Best, Lauren

Today is the first day of the Persian New Year—Nowruz. My family is Parsi, or Zoroastrian, meaning we come from a religion that originated in Persia (click the link above for more info). Although my fathers’ family is in India, we still retain our Parsi heritage, although it is unfortunately a rapidly-shrinking group. In any case, Happy New Year to me, (and you!)!

Leah