"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: