"You didn't see me, I was falling apart. I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in the park. You didn't see me, I was falling apart. I was the television version of a person with a broken heart. You didn't see me, I was falling apart. I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in the park. You didn't see me, I was falling apart. I was the television version of a person with a broken heart." ~the national

Fargo's finale was this week, and it was a fantastic closer to a fantastic show. I've thought a lot about TV's recent fascination with antiheroes, and this article from Time beautifully expresses how Fargo breaks the mold. Of course the show is brilliant because of the writing and the storytelling, but it's also brilliant because of the acting. Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman's performances are stellar and have gotten lots of well-deserved praise, but Allison Tolman and Colin Hanks also gave extremely nuanced, wonderful performances that should be recognized. I'll miss this show.

ETA: Allison Tolman literally just won a Critic's Choice Award for her performance! Yesss! And the show won Best Miniseries! Billy Bob Thornton also won for his role! (Martin Freeman was nominated in the same category as BBT for his role in Fargo and I actually would have preferred to see him win, but I am glad it went to someone from Fargo.) The show is racking up the awards tonight, and rightfully so!

BTW, Tatiana Maslany also won a Critic's Choice Award: Best Actress in a TV Series (Drama), for the second year in a row. This makes me unbelievably happy. Just give her an Emmy already!


The National. Prospect Park. Oh my gosh. This was my 17th concert of theirs, but it ranks among the best. During "Terrible Love," Matt (the lead singer, in case you're not up on the best band in the world, which you should be) leaned on me while singing for about a minute. He comes into the crowd during a couple times ("Mr. November," "Terrible Love") and I happened to have the perfect spot. I was in the front row, on the railing, and he stood on the railing as he sang. He leaned on me as I helped hold him up. During some of it I was holding his thigh and during some of it I was holding his arm. It's all a bit of a blur, but it was fantastic. His arm was strong and sweaty and hairy and magnificent. At one point I just stood there thinking, "I'm currently holding Matt Berninger up by his thigh. This is really happening. Seriously." It was a crazy feeling. Having seen the band 17 times, I've seen most of the songs I've wanted to see. The setlist this time was great, though. The one song I've wanted to hear that I got to hear last night was "Green Gloves." They also did "Santa Clara" and "The Geese of Beverly Road," favorites of mine that I've heard live before but always give me chills. I'll post some video and audio later. For now, here are some photos.

BrooklynVegan has some great photos. You can see me in one of them, so go play "Where's Claire?"

Here's a panoramic photo I took of the crowd behind me:

 Here's Matt:

 And Bryce, playing two guitars at once:

 The band:

 Matt:

And these are photos that other people took:

From chophaus on Instagram (I'm up there close to Matt):

From patiobop on Instagram (I think that's my hand on his leg):

A good one from mattmartin507 on Instagram (again, I'm in there somewhere):

From theartistree.fm:

When Matt was in the crowd, he somehow cut his head. It looked pretty bad, but he didn't even seem to notice; he kept right on going. LOTS of photos from the show here (including the one below), taken by David Andrako: