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May 28, 2007

hips don't lie

on saturday afternoon i settled into my seat at the diane wortham theater in asheville, nc to watch my niece - the incomparable eve imogen foreman perform in her very first dance recital. and of course it was a big deal. such a big deal that my parents made the drive up from crossville, tn for the performance. and my parents never travel anywhere for anything. actually that's not true. my parents travel constantly. they just never come to see me. but i'm okay with that. really. in all there were at least 15 people in attendance to see eve dance. which was hilarious because her class was on stage for approximately 123 seconds. and eve did a fabulous job. there was even an adorable bit where she sternly pointed to the piece of tape that the girl adjacent to her should have been standing on. and by sternly pointing i mean she bent down to the ground and tapped the line with her finger. the point of the performance was a dancetastic retelling of the sleeping beauty story and it included members of the entire dance academy in various roles.

and that's really where things got interesting. because there was this one guy - probably in his early forties with just a moustache who bounded and tumbled around the stage like a drunken flightless bird. and it was hilarious because he was obviously not comfortable in his tights and thus wore a abnormally long t-shirt to obscure his whatnot which added to his overall aura of gracelessness. and i don't mean to be hard on the guy - i mean he was obviously really into the performance and he had probably been waiting his entire life to unleash his inner diva and after a late nite showing of billy elliot he finally summoned the courage. unfortunately time was not on his side because i'm pretty sure that the graceful languid movements of the ballet must be instilled at a very young age. i know i certainly could not pull it off.

at one point this faux barishnikov was rolling around the stage with his legs at 10:00 and 2:00 and i had a hard time keeping a straight face as i couldn't help but recall that scene in the big lebowski where the dude's landlord marty puts on his one man dance extravaganza with hilarious results. and if you've ever seen that film (and if you haven't shame on you) that would be a pretty accurate depiction of how this gentleman was moving around the stage. but he solidered on and when the house lights went up the crowd erupted in orgiastic appluase. so, all in all it was a pretty rewarding experience. sadly - we were nowhere near the in 'n out burger

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May 16, 2007

gorgeous and alone

my copy of sky blue sky arrived in the mail today one full day after the album's official release date - and even though i had the songs on my computer for the past several months (how they got there i will never know) - and even though i grew impatient and bought a copy in knoxville yesterday so i could listen to it on the way home, it wasn't until i opened the envelope today that it finally felt real. of course i indulged in the deluxe edition complete with bonus dvd - t-shirt and a vial of jeff tweedy's irridescent dna. what can i say? i'm a big big fan.

i'm really curious to see how this album is received by the masses. some reviews have hailed it as a timeless classic. others have shredded it for being too sedate...and don't worry heidi, i won't say anything about how i feel about the album on a personal level. but i will say that the fact that wilco released a record like this really confirms why they are my favourite band. i haven't immediately loved all of their recent material. but i continue to be impressed with the way their music can change shapes and still remain unchanged at its core. because wilco are not a band that is interested in deconstructing their own myth (hello radiohead) as they are in fearlessly exploring something new each time they make a record.

and that's really what making records should be about. and so now the countdown begins to the big show june 19th in atlanta and then at austin city limits in september...and speaking of acl - honestly i need everyone to understand that this is a realization of a lifelong dream for not so young christopher. next to bob ross' joy of painting austin city limits was the only other pbs show i made a point of staying in for on a saturday nite.



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May 11, 2007

We Found The Light!

Last night I saw the Arcade Fire at the Orpheum. It was awesome. It was bliss. They didn't hit the organ as hard and loud as I had hoped for the opening of Intervention, and it was clear that they were way more comfortable with their older stuff, but man it was cool. Being a person that loves to sing along but doesn't want to be that person at concerts and frequently holds back, I was really happy that so much of their stuff you just have to sing/shout along with. As hoped and expected Neighborhood #3 was off the charts with energy. The only bad part? The idiots in front of us.

At first it was kind of cute. This guy and girl were late teens, maybe early early twenties and were dancing. He did the subdued guy thing with a few fist pumps, and she was just sort of doing the indie chick jumping and spazzing thing. Who could blame her, right? The beats in Arcade Fire are hard not to spazz out to, and who hasn't done a little living room grooving to some of their songs? But she got worse. Way worse. She started jumping and flailing so much that she switched places with her grooving guy so she could conduct her epileptic fits in the aisle. When they started singing Ocean of Noise, she finally stopped, but then proceeded to loudly chat with her dumbshit boyfriend (I turned on both of them for their inappropriately wild thrashing during My Body is a Cage), and then there was kissing and laughing and ass-grabbing. Shut. Up!

Next to me was another young couple, who were so nice that it balanced things out. The girl was shorter than the spazzy dancer, and did much eye-rolling and/or laughing since the spazz was in front of her. She could have gotten seriously pissed, smacked a bitch and been justified, but she had a great attitude. The guy - bless his heart - couldn't keep a beat to save his life. He was fine as long as the crowd was clapping, but whenever he tried to keep it up afterward it was a mess. He was gloriously out of tune when we would sing along, but he was so sincere and excited that it made it more awesome.

The dumbshit duo left during the first encore, securing my utter disdain for all time. Jeff, meanwhile, was establishing a little crush on Régine Chassagne. She's totally cute and crazy fun to watch perform, plays every instrument, and has a fantastic voice. My husband has great taste, I must say.

* Forgot to mention the (not expected) raging cheer that erupted after the lyric "I don't want to live in America no more." Hahahahahahahahaha! People are stupid.

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May 4, 2007

I'm gonna buy you a really big hammer

I learned some things about myself during the move, which I thought I'd share:

1. As I waited in TruValue Hardware for my quart of flat finish "Pioneer" paint to mix, I realized that I really enjoy hardware stores. The smell of wood and paint, the piles of glittering nails and screws and bolts, the baffling variety of light switches, the sand paper, swatches all combine to give me this intense desire to build something. A treehouse, cabinets, whatever, it doesn't really matter. So when I had to go back a third time to TruValue in a vain attempt to find a matching paint to touch up the walls we were leaving, I really quite enjoyed it aside from the waste of money - and I decided that I desperately needed some needle-nose pliers.

2. I love a good exploration. This isn't really something totally new, but rather relearned. Yesterday as I grew weary of the rearranging and unpacking process, I went outside and wandered for hours in my new neighborhood and even stopped to get a cupcake from the highly lauded South End Buttery. It was glorious. south_end_buttery_2006.jpgOur new area is an actual neighborhood with schools and parks with playgrounds. People say hello to you on the sidewalk (bizarre!), and there are kids. Everywhere. Which brings me to...

3. I miss having kids around. I don't want my own just yet, but it's really delightful to walk about and see kids pedaling around on their bikes, shooting hoops and fighting over fouls, or simply chattering away on stoops. It makes life slow down and feel less urgent.

4. Music motivates me. If I don't have something playing, I will get easily distracted by the computer or the sunshine, or whatever might be laying around or sparkling. It doesn't take much. But if I can get lost in music and sing along and bebop my way through my chores, I can be productive for hours. Best packing and unpacking music? Mix cd's. I ordinarily don't care much for them because when I want to listen to music I'm in the mood for a specific artist. But I popped in the Sexy Results Vol's 3 and 4 compiled by our very own Christopher Carl, and they were perfect. Upbeat music is generally best when cleaning or organizing - which these feature heavily - and something about the variety of artists worked even better. When those ran out, I put in The Refreshments because sometimes sunny day driving music and cleaning music coincide, and I had a handy list right here to fall back on. Thanks Carl!

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