"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:

I went to an Old 97's concert on Tuesday at Webster Hall. I've been a fan of theirs for a long time, so I was eager to see them live for the first time. They've been together for 20 years, they have ten studio albums and four EP's, and they're pretty awesome. My favorite album of theirs is Fight Songs. Because they have so much material, I know it's impossible to go to a concert and hear everything you want to hear, so I tried not to get my hopes up too much. They did play my favorite song of theirs, "Question," so that made me very happy. I also loved hearing "Indefinitely," "Wish the Worst," and "Nashville." There were a LOT of songs I love that I didn't get to hear, though, like "Salome," "Adelaide," "The New Kid," "Jagged," "Lonely Holiday," "Oppenheimer"...again, I know there's no reason to expect them to play all those, it was just wishful thinking on my part. Of course they played a lot from their new album, Most Messed Up, which is good. It's gotten awesome reviews. I think I need to give it a few more listens to fully digest it. Anyway, here are some videos I took. I recorded audio of the whole concert which I'll upload later; the videos are of my favorite songs.

First of all, a .gif I made of Rhett Miller falling (gracefully):

And now for the videos!

We'll start with my favorite, "Question:"



And here's another one I love, "Indefinitely:"



One of the best songs from the new album, "Nashville:"



And an oldie but goodie: this is where you can see Rhett fall, if you find that kind of thing funny (which I do):



And finally, "Four Leaf Clover," another song I love, performed with Lydia Loveless (who opened for them):

The Drama Desk Awards were last night. They were entertaining, largely because Laura Benanti was the host and she's hilarious. The highlight for me was Sydney Lucas performing "Ring of Keys" from Fun Home, my favorite musical of the year. This song has stuck with me since I saw the show, and I was thrilled to see it performed again on last night's awards.

I could write a detailed essay on the song "Ring of Keys." It makes me cry it's so wonderful; it's one of the most powerful songs I've ever seen onstage. First of all, the music is gorgeous; I love the melody (and I love the fact that the only accompaniment is a piano). The lyrics really make the song astounding, though, as well as the delivery. Sydney Lucas hits it out of the park with this song. She's ten years old (actually, she might be eleven now, but she was ten when the show opened), and she gives one of the best performances I've ever seen, and this song clearly demonstrates why. She perfectly conveys such a wide range of emotions; she's confused and awed and is trying to process her feelings in this situation. The song beautifully captures a child's perspective, and it's a turning point for the character. Basically the music is absolutely gorgeous, the song propels the story perfectly, and the performance is fantastic.

Like I said, it's been a busy week! First of all, last night at 3am (actually, I guess it was this morning at 3am) I went to the starting line of The Amazing Race. I'm one of the few people I know who actually still watches the show, and I was excited to see the beginning of the race. The cast includes Bethany Hamilton ("Soul Surfer") and Whitney and Keith from Survivor (I wasn't huge fans of theirs). The race began in Times Square, and there was a large crowd there to send the racers on their way. I didn't get many good photos, but here's one not-so-good photo I took (you can see Whitney and Keith in bright yellow on the left and Bethany on the far right in blue). Phil is facing the racers.

After the start of the race, I got to meet Phil! (Keep in mind that this photo was taken around 3am).

I've also spent this weekend at BookCon. It was kind of a disaster; it was the first BookCon, and it was not organized well at all. I still managed to see some good things, though.

On Friday night I went to the panel for This Is Where I Leave You. Jonathan Tropper, the author of the novel, was on the panel. He also wrote the screenplay for the movie version that's coming out soon. The director of the film, Shawn Levy, was also there, along with stars Tina Fey and Jason Bateman. They showed a few clips from the film, Jonathan read a couple passages from the book, and they discussed the adaptation of the story from novel to film. It was interesting, and I'm definitely eager to see the movie when it comes out.

Saturday's BookCon was incredibly chaotic and disorganized, but I was able to see the one panel in which I was most interested, so I suppose I shouldn't complain. I saw Amy Poehler talking with Martin Short about her new book, Yes Please. I love her. That's really all I have to say about that. I filmed the panel.

I also attended Danielle Fishel's panel. I loved her as Topanga on Boy Meets World, and the panel got me even more excited for Girl Meets World. She's funny, and she has a great perspective on life.

Finally, I got a glimpse of Grumpy Cat! I really, really wanted to meet her, but it was either her or Amy Poehler. I settled for a peek at this famous feline.

I got some book swag that I now have to find space for, and I'm exhausted, but I did enjoy the weekend.

I've had a super busy week this week. First of all, we went on field trips three days in a row. We went to a place called Club Getaway, which is full of adventure activities. Here are some highlights for me and my teacher buddies:

I loved doing flips on the trampoline.

The next day we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. We figured it would be a good way to keep the kids moving. Here are some of my angels: 

Today we went to Victorian Gardens, the amusement park in Central Park. The kids enjoyed it.

It was three days in a row of being outside and moving around all day. Luckily we had good weather each day. I'm exhausted now, though.

After school for the past two days, I went to Broadway Bakes. It's an event at Schmackary's Cookies raising money for BCEFA. Broadway stars have been spending time behind the counter serving cookies. I went to see Audra McDonald (Broadway goddess, winner of five Tony Awards and nominated for a record-breaking sixth this year for her unbelievable performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill) and her talented hubby Will Swenson (currently starring on Broadway in Les Miserables). Aren't they adorable?

I also went tonight to see Joshua Henry (whom I really want to see win a Tony this year for his fantastic performance in Violet). James Brown III (currently in Rocky) was also there (see him below doing a Rocky pose), and they were both super nice.

It's been a busy week, and things aren't going to settle down anytime soon. Tomorrow begins BookCon, which I'm really excited to attend. Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Martin Short, Grumpy Cat, Veronica Roth, Jason Segel, Danielle Fishel, John Green, and more will be there, so I'm looking forward to it!