"The custom concern for the people is build up monuments and steeples to wear out our eyes. I get up just about noon, my head sends a message for me to reach for my shoes and then walk. Gotta go to work, gotta go to work, gotta have a job. Goes through the parking lot fields, didn't see no signs that they would yield, and then thought, this'll never end, this'll never end, this'll never stop. Message read on the bathroom wall said, "I don't feel at all like I fall." And we're losing all touch, losing all touch, building a desert." ~modest mouse

I love that song. I love forgetting how much I love it and then hearing it and being reminded of how gorgeous it is.

I have lots of recent stuff to write about, but here are just a few things fresh in my mind.

I saw Whip It tonight, and I loved it. It's a movie about roller derby and a teenager's search for identity, and it's a mother/daughter story. The mother/daughter team is made up of the brilliant actresses Marcia Gay Harden and Ellen Page. I love both of them, so it was such a treat to see them onscreen together. The supporting cast is very strong as well, featuring Drew Barrymore, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, and Jimmy Fallon. It's Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, and I was very impressed. The movie has a nice balance of comedy, action, and drama, and it flows well. I loved the music, although of course I wasn't surprised by that (I already knew about Drew Barrymore's good taste in music). It's just an all-around good movie. So go see it.

The cool thing about the screening was that Drew Barrymore came out afterwards and talked for about twenty minutes. I really like her, and hearing her talk about the film further cemented that for me. She seems so down-to-earth and has such a good attitude, and I really admire her. I took some videos while she was speaking, and I'll upload those tomorrow. For now I'll just share the Whip It trailer:



Oh my Glee. If you are not watching Glee, do yourself a favor, go here, and start watching it from the beginning. You've only missed five episodes so far; it'll be easy to catch up.

Kristin Chenoweth is on the most recent episode. How I love her. She plays an alcoholic floozy whom Will recruits to go back to high school and join the Glee Club, and she's hilarious. Here are her musical numbers:
Maybe This Time (oh.my.goodness. jaw->floor):

Alone:

Last Name:


I know Cheno can sometimes be grating, but I liked her in this role. And I like her in general. I won an essay contest that she judged (I won a ticket to see her perform at Carnegie Hall). Here's her response to what I wrote; I think it's special that she took the time to personally handwrite something on my essay.

That's all for now.

"And it starts sometime around midnight. Or at least that's when you lose yourself for a minute or two. As you stand under the barlights, and the band plays some song about forgetting yourself for a while." ~the airborne toxic event

When I'm listening to them on my iPod, the band name gets cut off so all I see is "The Airborne Toxic Ev" and for some reason it always makes me think of The Toxic Avenger.

Yesterday I went to a free concert with Christin and Todd. It was a Japanese group called AKB48. We went because it sounded intriguing (and it was free). It was interesting all right. Here's a video I took, just to give you a snapshot:


I absolutely love KBell, she's one of my favorite actresses ever, so I couldn't be more thrilled by this, but what is up with all of her magazine covers?! She gets no publicity during Veronica Mars, and now, all at once, she's on three major covers. And all for Couples Retreat?? I don't know, it surprises me. But it is nice to see her face everywhere when I'm in line at the drug store or something.

Tomorrow night I'm going to a screening of The Wizard of Oz in Central Park. It's opening with a concert, and Jennifer Hudson is one of the performers, so that'll be cool. It's Nic's birthday so we're bringing a picnic and I baked a cake, which I am now trying very hard not to eat because it smells so good.

Scroll down and listen to Snow Patrol! I can't stop listening.

"I feel like I am watching everything from space. And in a minute I'll hear my name and I'll wake. I think the finish line's a good place we could start. Take a deep breath, take in all that you could want." ~snow patrol

I've been posting a lot lately, so be sure to scroll down to make sure you haven't missed anything!

Okay, I shared about U2, so now it's time for some more Snow Patrol. I met Amy and Bill on Interference. They had an extra ticket to the concert and very kindly offered it to me for free, so I accepted. I met them for dinner at a nice restaurant called Pearl. They give you free wine; we would finish a pitcher of it and suddenly another pitcher would appear! That was pretty cool, even though I'm not crazy about wine (when it keeps appearing in front of me, I'll drink it). We talked a lot about U2 (they were also going to the show the next day; in fact, after the Snow Patrol concert they were driving straight to Giants Stadium to get their numbers). The Snow Patrol concert was at the Beacon Theatre, which is a beautiful venue. Our seats were in the center of the front row of the balcony, and we had a perfect view. The band was fabulous live, and they played so many of my favorite songs. Before launching into the encore Gary commented that "everything that could go wrong has gone wrong," but the only real problem we noticed was during their first attempt at "Run" (they stopped the song and played it again in the encore). Amy said she noticed Gary was having problems with his monitor, but it didn't affect the music. Gary's banter between the songs is hilarious. I particularly like listening to him after "The Finish Line" and "Somewhere a Clock is Ticking."

I recorded the show, so here it is. I highly recommend listening to it straight through; just leave this window open while you're off doing something else on the computer. At first I started to list the songs I love, but there are just too many. And you really do want to hear him talk between songs. It was a fabulous concert. The recording isn't perfect (the loud songs aren't great), but the quiet songs (The Finish Line, How To Be Dead) sound really good (as do Gary's ramblings; you must listen to the end of "Somewhere a Clock is ticking"). I was so glad I got to meet Amy and Bill, who are so incredibly nice, and go to this show with them.
For anyone who wants to download my mp3s of the concert, here they are.
Scroll down the page for my videos, posted a few days ago.


Get Your Own Player!



Sorry, one more thing! U2 is on the season premiere of SNL tonight, so check it out! (I hope they do the Crazy remix.)

I love this promo. Edge reacting to Megan's last line is priceless. And Larry is so still he looks like a cardboard cutout for most of it.

"Oh sugar, don't you cry. Oh child, wipe the tears from your eyes. You know I need you to be strong, and the day is as dark as the night is long. Feel like trash, you make me feel clean. I'm in the black, can't see or be seen. Baby baby baby, light my way." ~u2

Okay, here's my U2 post.
I am currently running on three hours of sleep and a long day at work, so don't expect brilliance right now.
I do want to write about Snow Patrol and the great evening I had, but I'll get back to that some other time.

*Nic and I got to Giants Stadium for the U2 concert at 9:00am. We had GA tickets so we had to get in line in order to get a good spot on the field. We were numbers 162 and 163 in line (the line had begun at 3pm the day before). In line we played cards for a few hours, I read, and we ate a lot of junk. Around 6:00pm we finally got into the stadium. It was a mad dash; I wish I had filmed it (I was too busy running, though). A huuuuge crowd of people running across a football field is quite a sight to see. I felt like a superstar athlete charging onto the field before a big game. I got into the pit and managed to grab us two spots along the back rail in the pit, which was exactly where we wanted to be. The front wouldn't have been ideal because the stage is really high so you can't see much (especially when you're short), so we chose a spot where we were right along the walkway, had a good view of the main stage, and still had the amazing energy that can only be found in the pit.

*Muse was the opening band and they were good. They're much bigger in Europe than they are here (they sell out stadiums in Europe), and I think they're on their way to catching on in America.

*U2 came on at 9:00pm. Their setlist was a little disappointing to me, although I was happy about a few things. Once you've seen them live a lot, you get sick of hearing the same songs. I understand that they have to play the classics at every show ("One," "Where the Streets Have No Name," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"), but they recycled way too many songs from the Vertigo tour that I didn't need to hear again. They have such a massive catalog of music from which to draw, and I wish they'd vary it up a little more.
*I was thrilled to hear "Your Blue Room," although most people didn't seem to know it. It was also nice to hear "New Year's Day" and "Desire."
*I found it funny that they launched into "Beautiful Day" immediately after it started raining (luckily the rain didn't last). These funny umbrellas were brought onstage when it began to rain.
*The claw is amazing. Pictures do not do it justice. It's absolutely massive.
*I was so relieved that they did "Ultraviolet." I LOVE that song; it was my favorite song of the night. They've been playing it at every show on this tour, but I was afraid that with my luck it would be the first time they skipped it. They didn't.

The worst part of the evening was getting home. It took three hours (that's why I only got three hours of sleep). It was a 10-minute bus ride to get to the stadium, but it took 3 hours to get home. Ridiculous. And I love how most articles about the concert are about the train problems.
Train in Vain: U2 Fans Stranded for Hours After Concert
NJT Officicals Expect More Delays After Concert

Brooklyn Vegan has some great pictures here:
U2 played Giants Stadium - pics, reviews, the setlist & lots of angry people stuck waiting in train stations
And the New York Times has a nice review:
U2 in the Round, Fun with a Mission

I took a video of Ultraviolet:


I uploaded pictures here so feel free to check that out, but here are some of my faves:










Finally, the setlist:
U2 @ Giants Stadium - 9/23/09 - setlist
1. Breathe
2. Magnificent
3. Get On Your Boots
4. Mysterious Ways
5. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
6. She's The One / Desire (snippet)
7. Elevation
8. Your Blue Room
9. Beautiful Day / Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (snippet)
10. No Line On The Horizon
11. New Year's Day
12. Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
13. The Unforgettable Fire
14. Mofo (snippet) / City Of Blinding Lights
15. Vertigo
16. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
17. Sunday Bloody Sunday
18. MLK
19. Walk On / You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet)
20. One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
21. Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love (snippet)
encore:
22. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
23. With Or Without You
24. Moment of Surrender

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a completely unrelated note (I'm thinking of it because Grey's Anatomy returns tonight), Ellen Pompeo (Meredith) had her baby and named her Stella Luna. How adorable is that?! I love that name.

"This could be the very minute I'm aware I'm alive. All these places feel like home. With a name I'd never chosen I can make my first steps, as a child of 25." ~snow patrol

I don't have a lot of time now, I'm heading out to see U2 in a few minutes, but I'm pausing here to share my Snow Patrol videos from last night. A concert report will come later, but I'll say now that it was absolutely fabulous. They played all of my favorite songs of theirs. Here are a few:

Chocolate:


Run (take 1):


Chasing Cars:


Open Your Eyes:

"Most people who think they’re happy just haven’t thought about it enough. Most people who think they’re happy are actually just stupid." ~next to normal

I don't think I actually believe that (is there really a difference between being happy and thinking you're happy?), but what a line.

Why am I posting now? Seriously, there are a million other things I should be doing. I'm such a procrastinator. But after a long, draining day at school and then three hours in a grad school class that requires movement and participation, I'm not in the mood to do anything I should be doing. So here I am.

Yesterday I went to see two Broadway shows. The first was After Miss Julie, starring Sienna Miller, Johnny Lee Miller, and Marin Ireland. It was a good play. Not perfect, but good. Sienna Miller really impressed me. She's more famous for her romantic escapades than her acting skills, but it's too bad because she's talented. She has a strong stage presence.

I also saw Next to Normal again. It's my favorite musical. I was disappointed because J. Robert Spencer was out, and I love him. I thought he should have won the best actor Tony this year. His understudy (Michael Berry) wasn't bad, though. Not as good as Bobby is in the role, but he has a good voice, and it was interesting to see someone else's take on the role of Dan. And all the other main cast members were on, so I was happy about that. Every single one of them is so talented it is unbelievable. Please go see this show before they leave. I promise Alice Ripley is giving one of the best performances I have ever seen on stage (probably the best). And by now they seem to have developed such strong relationships with each other. It's beautiful. I could see this show every day and be moved by it every time. I love listening to the audience reactions. You can hear gasps and murmurs a few times, and there's always a lot of crying. A lot. The guy with whom I went to see After Miss Julie had no problem admitting to me that he cried during Next to Normal. Male, female, old, young...doesn't matter. No one is immune. The theater is filled with sniffles and muffled whimpers and somehow it's a lovely shared experience. If I had to recommend one Broadway show, this would be the one.

I'm busy the next few days. Tomorrow I'm going to see Snow Patrol at the Beacon Theatre. I'm excited. I really like them. I was offered a free ticket, and it's a good seat (front row lower balcony), so that makes it even better. Plain White Tees are opening, and they're not bad.

On Wednesday I'm seeing U2 at Giants Stadium. Nic and I have GAs, and we're spending the day in line to get a really good spot. I've been following setlists religiously to see what they're going to play, but I'm trying not to let myself get my hopes up about anything (not even about hearing "Ultraviolet," because with our luck this could be the first concert where they don't play that song on this tour).

On Friday I'm seeing Bye Bye Birdie on Broadway (for free). On Saturday is the Housing Works book sale. On Sunday is the Broadway Flea Market. That might be my favorite weekend of the year, the Housing Works sale and then the Broadway Flea Market back-to-back. So yeah, I'm busy. And I could keep going. My calendar looks ridiculous it's so full. It's good and bad. Even though I get overwhelmed, when I take a step back, I realize how lucky I am to live here. So it's good.

Ooh, EW sent me an advance screening of the new TV show Modern Family and it's hilarious, so I recommend checking it out when it airs (Wednesday? I think?).

It seems like I tend to post a lot when I'm busy! I've posted a lot lately. So I'll probably find time to post about all this fun stuff.

I'm leaving you with one of my favorite moments from Next to Normal. This is their Tony Awards performance. Bobby is so good here.

"A pool is running for miles on the concrete ground. We're eight feet deep and the rain is still coming down. The TV's playing it all out of town. I'm grabbing at the fray for something that won't drown." ~mat kearney

Oh my goodness, what a gorgeous song. I love Mat Kearney.

Movie review post! I've seen a few movies lately, so here are some thoughts. I'm going to a screening of Whip It this week (I CANNOT wait, I love me some Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore), so I'll definitely report back on that by next weekend. Tomorrow's my two-play day (two Broadway shows). That'll be fun. And then on Monday it's back to...well, let's not think about that yet.

The Informant - I love Matt Damon, even when he's heavier than usual and even when he has an unattractive mustache and even when he's missing some hair (he's almost unrecognizable at the end of this movie). He's such a great actor (I hope he gets an Oscar nom for this). The movie is a very clever, well-done satire; Steven Soderbergh further proves his prowess. I'm a fan of his directing and he definitely didn't disappoint. Go see this movie.


Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - Part of the reason I wanted to see this was because Lauren Graham's voice was in it. She had a really, really small role, but that was okay; I really liked the movie anyway. It was sweet and funny and had some great vocal talent.


It Might Get Loud - Loved it. So, so good. It's a documentary featuring The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (the White Stripes) discussing the electric guitar. That may sound boring, but trust me, it's not at all. I particularly loved the U2 footage, of course. There was some concert footage I haven't seen before. I love listening to Edge talk. He just might be my favorite member of U2. He tends to be quiet and thoughtful, but when he speaks he's very well-spoken and always has something worthwhile to say. He's also surprisingly funny. He often gets overshadowed by Bono, but he's an incredibly talented musician who has learned to make the most of his instrument and I admire him very much. The film is like a love song to rock 'n' roll.


Extract - I mostly saw this for Jason Bateman, and it was nice to look at him for a couple of hours. It was also nice to see him reunite with his Juno costar J.K. Simmons (such a good actor). I liked the acting and the characters (Ben Affleck was a particularly nice addition), but it was missing something. Maybe I just expected too much from the creator of Office Space (a brilliant film). It wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. It wasn't bad at all, it just didn't quite meet my expectations considering the talent involved.


Not in theaters, but I just saw Easy Virtue on video and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I watched it because I love Colin Firth and because someone highly recommended it to me, but I wasn't so sure because I'm not crazy about Noel Coward and I'm not a huge Jessica Biel fan. I was glad I watched it, though; it was a pleasant surprise. It was predictable and I did not like Jessica Biel, but Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas (and Kris Marshall in his small role) totally saved it.

"I'd like to rest my heavy head tonight on a bed of California stars. I'd like to lay my weary bones tonight on a bed of California stars." ~wilco

The first full week of school is over and I'm exhausted. I had something to do every night after school (two three-hour classes, back-to-school night, a play...). I'm so glad it's the weekend. This is a random post because I don't think I can put together a sensible collection of coherent thoughts right now.

Of course now that I have hardly any time to actually watch TV, my shows are starting to return. I liked the Gossip Girl season premiere, and Glee was good this week. Matt Morrison is so freakin' hot, and I think he's a great dancer. The Acafellas were absolutely hilarious. I think the show's spotlight on the teachers is one of the things that makes it so much more than a traditional high school show. And I thought it was cool to see Josh Groban making a guest appearance playing himself.

I got a new student this week, and I can't imagine how difficult life must be for him right now. First of all, my school is made up of Dominican students. I teach ESL students, and they all speak Spanish at home. My new student just moved here from Africa (from the country where I used to live when I was little, actually) and he only speaks French. We speak English in class, the kids speak Spanish amongst themselves, and this new boy doesn't speak either one of those languages. He looks so lost. He also looks like he's in second grade; he is incredibly tiny. He's the smallest kid in the school (even smaller than all of the sixth graders, and he's in seventh grade). I took six years of French, but I can barely carry on a conversation, and anyway I can't really teach him separately in a class of almost 30 students. I don't know how it's going to work. But I was so happy today to see some of my other kids welcoming him, even though they can't communicate with him verbally. This one troublemaker came in this morning, sat next to him, and held out his hand for a high-five. It was a really surprising and sweet moment. But seriously, how difficult would that be, moving to a new country where you don't speak a word of the language and being thrown into school there? I can't even imagine. And I feel helpless.

This coming week will be another busy one. On Sunday I'm seeing two Broadway shows. First is After Miss Julie, with Sienna Miller and Johnny Lee Miller. I'm looking forward to it. Then in the evening I'm seeing Next to Normal (again). It's my favorite musical on Broadway. I'm going to a U2 concert at Giants Stadium this week, so be prepared for a full report (probably not until next weekend, though). I'm seeing Bye Bye Birdie on Broadway (with John Stamos, Gina Gerson, Allie Trimm, and Bill Irwin) later in the week. I'm not sure when things will ever die down; my calendar looks so busy right now. When I open iCal there's at least one thing written on every single day except for a few.

Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs had their baby (Walker Nathaniel) two days before my birthday, and a picture was finally released! Look how cute he is:
Congrats to them. I love that name.

I'm leaving you with one of my favorite performances from Glee so far, the wonderful Lea Michele performing "Take a Bow:"

"Was there no safety? No learning by heart of the ways of the world? No guide, no shelter, but all was miracle and leaping from the pinnacle of a tower into the air?" ~virginia woolf

Ladies and gentlemen, look what is in my possession:

How beautiful is that?! I love that label on the front that says "ADVANCE READING COPY." That makes me feel so special. This is the bright spot in my week. If I don't post for a few days, it will be because I will be spending my free time devouring this book. Random thought: I think it's interesting that they wrote, "By the Booker Prize winning author of The Handmaid's Tale" when she won the Booker Prize for The Blind Assassin, not The Handmaid's Tale. I guess The Handmaid's Tale is her most famous novel, though. Anyway, I love her.

Other highlights of the week: Clijsters and Del Potro winning the U.S. Open. Hooray for Federer being taken down! I really don't like him. The first U.S. Open match I watched this year was Clijsters vs. Serena Williams, and I sure picked a good one. I also watched the finals (well, the last set of each match). I'm very happy.

Other recent highlights: Sunday (yesterday) I went to Broadway on Broadway and then the Brooklyn Book Festival. I'd like to post about them but I just don't have time now. But they were great.

Oh, and Kanye West is a jerk and an idiot. To put it nicely. Seriously, I can't get over his stunt at the VMAs. It really pisses me off.

RIP Patrick Swayze. :(

"Catch a boat to England, baby, maybe to Spain. Wherever I have gone, wherever I've been and gone, wherever I have gone the blues have run the game." ~jackson frank

I survived the first few days of school, but it wasn't easy. A five-hour happy hour on Friday helped me unwind. For about the first hour it was just Lauren and me, and then some former teachers from our school joined us. It was nice to see them again.

I saw A Steady Rain on Broadway this weekend. It's a two-person cast, and those two people are Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, so that alone gives it quite an appeal. I'm not surprised the whole run is nearly sold out already, even though it just started previews on Thursday. Unfortunately the play isn't that great. The acting is very good, the background sets are very impressive, but it's just not that well-written. John Crowley is the director and Scott Pask is the scenic designer; I loved their work on The Pillowman (one of my favorite plays), and they did a good job with this play as well, but there's only so much you can do with the material.

The stage door was a mess. There were SO many people there. I had a really good spot, and then they moved one barricade and that screwed it up for me. I ended up with bad pictures. Here are two of them, though:


I hate it when people go to the stage door without seeing the show. I was one of the first people out of the theatre, and there was already a crowd outside. If you want an autograph, you should have to buy a ticket. It's not fair to the people who actually paid to see the show.

Margaret Atwood is my favorite author. I collect her books. In anticipation of the release of her newest novel, The Year of the Flood, I reread Oryx and Crake. I don't think The Year of the Flood is exactly a sequel to Oryx and Crake, but they're related. They share some characters. So I needed to revisit Oryx and Crake. And I was reminded of how much I love it. It's such a good book; it's definitely one of her best. I think it's interesting that it's her only novel with a male protagonist, because it works; I feel like I can really see inside Snowman's head. It's funny and heartbreaking and terrifying and just wonderfully written. I highly recommend it.

The Year of the Flood is coming out at the end of this month, but my friend Lauren's roommate's boyfriend got an advance copy, and Lauren is being kind enough to lend it to me (I've lent her all of my Margaret Atwood books in the past). Hopefully I can start it on Monday.

"Ring out the bells again, like we did when spring began. Wake me up when September ends." ~green day

The first TV show of the season is back, and I'm quite gleeful about it! (Sorry for the awful pun.) Yes, of course I'm talking about Glee. I mostly love it because of the actors (and the music). I always think it's cool to see people I've seen on Broadway in films and TV shows.
I saw Lea Michele (she plays Rachel on the show) in Spring Awakening; in fact, I sat next to her onstage (they had onstage seating, and the cast members sat amongst us during the scenes in which they weren't acting). I saw her half-naked from very close-up. So it's cool to see her on TV. And she has a gorgeous voice.
I've also seen Matthew Morrison (he plays Mr. Schuester) on Broadway, in The Light in the Piazza and Hairspray. Gah, I adore him. He is so freakin' gorgeous. And he has a beautiful voice as well; I hope they showcase it more on Glee. He can do much more than "Gold Digger" (although that was a great scene).
The extended pilot and the second episode (which aired last night) are both on Hulu, so go watch them. It's a fun show. Not necessarily quality TV, but fun. Next up on my list of returning shows: Gossip Girl on Monday! I know I don't really have time to waste watching TV, but I honestly need it for my mental health. I need to unwind or I'll go crazy.

School has started and I'm already exhausted. Seventh graders are not easy to handle. At all. Ugh. It was good to see some of my kids again, but some of them I could do without. I think it'll be easier once we get into the swing of things and really dive into the curriculum. The beginning of the year is always chaotic.

My favorite cousin uploaded some ridiculous photos to facebook. Here are my faves:




This is how I feel about going back to school:

"You just wanna have a good time, just like everybody else. You don't want to fall apart this time." ~counting crows

I recorded the Counting Crows concert I went to on Thursday. I'm already seeding the .flac files, but it's a huge torrent (1.2GB) and it's mostly the hardcore fans who want that. So I'm posting it here if you just want to listen to it (let me know if you want to be directed towards the torrent).

The concert didn't start until 6 but AD and Dave Bryson came out to do The Ghost in You at 5 and I didn't have my equipment ready, so I'm missing some of that song. Which is a bummer, because they never play it. But at least I got some of it. I was so thrilled they did that, too. They came out and did an acoustic song about every 20 minutes until the concert started, playing Blues Run the Game (I LOVE that song) and Washington Square.

My highlights:
*The three opening acoustic songs.
*A Murder of One, my favorite song.
*A Long December w/ I Am Feathered alts. Gorgeous.
*Going Back to Georgia, with Emmy Rossum (probably best known as Christine in the movie version of The Phantom of the Opera). She's spent some of this tour with them and has a beautiful voice.
*All the Stars and Boulevards (Augustana). Great song, I was thrilled to hear it live.
*Sound of Sunshine and I Got Love for You were my favorite Spearhead songs.
*Good Time is SUCH a good song, and I couldn't believe I was hearing them play it. I was bummed that my sound is screwed up at the end of it, though.
*Why Should You Come When I Call. They were never able to play it in concert before because they didn't have enough people to do the harmonies, but having 19 people onstage definitely solves that problem. And I'm glad.
*It's a fun version of Rain King.
*They always do such great covers: Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkel), Just Like a Woman (Bob Dylan), Caravan (Van Morrison), This Land is Your Land (Woodie Guthrie)...they're so well-chosen.

It really is an impressive setlist. There are a lot of unexpected songs (Another Horsedreamer's Blues, Catapult, and some already mentioned). Because I've been to so many of their shows, I'm always most excited about hearing songs that I haven't heard live before. And it was a really long show. It was nearly four hours of music. I highly recommend listening to it. When you have time. Maybe bookmark the post so you can go back to it.


Get Your Own Player!



I go back to work tomorrow. Ugh. Not looking forward to getting up so early.

"Inside you the time moves, and she don't fade. The ghost in you, she don't fade." ~the psychedelic furs (covered excellently by counting crows)

I'm heading out to spend my birthday with my cousin Bess, but I want to quickly post about Counting Crows at Central Park Summerstage last night. Because I've been looking forward to this all summer. And it was fantastic. I was the first person in line (a little before 8:00am). Some people I know from previous CC concerts and some people from the CCMB lined up after me, and I got to spend the day in line hanging out with them. The doors opened at 4:30pm, so I was in line for almost 9 hours, which is a long time. I got sunburned. But it got me the best spot once they let us into the venue (front row dead center).

The concert wasn't supposed to start until 6:00pm, but a little after 5:00pm, Adam and Dave came out and did an acoustic version of The Ghost in You. I wasn't ready to tape yet (the concert wasn't supposed to start for another hour), so I had to pull out my gear and quickly set it up while freaking out about them playing that song. Because it's rare. And I love it. I got about half of it. But it was really cool to just hear it. Especially with AD and Dave sitting a few feet away from me.
Before the concert started, they did a couple more acoustic tunes. AD and Immy did Blues Run the Game (I LOVE that song), and they also did Washington Square (with Dan Layus on harmonica). Those small acoustic songs were really great to hear, especially because they provided such a contrast with what was to come.

This was not a Counting Crows concert. It was The Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus and Medicine Show. That consists of the members of Counting Crows, Augustana, and Michael Franti & Spearhead. They began with Caravan, with nineteen people on stage all playing together. Then they launched into mini-sets featuring each band. Counting Crows definitely mixed up their setlist; they played Good Time(!), Catapult, Another Horsedreamer's Blues...those are unusual. And it was really cool to see them. They also did A Murder of One, A Long December, Omaha, Hanging Tree, Hard Candy, Mr. Jones, Have You Seen Me Lately, Why Should You Come When I Call, Angel from Montgomery, Going Back to Georgia (both of those with Emmy Rossum), Hangin' Around, Cecilia, Rain King, and This Land is Your Land. Mix some Augustana songs and some Michael Franti/Spearhead songs in there and you end up with a pretty freakin' amazing concert.

I'll post more later; I have to go now. But I'll leave you with a link to my photos from the show (there are some good ones).

And a couple of videos I took (unfortunately I ran out of memory on Rain King).
A Murder of One (Probably my absolute favorite song in the world. A line from it was the inspiration for my tattoo.):

Rain King:

And one photo that I love:
Just look at that face. I love him.