knowledge is a tree growing up just like me

Vietnam, part II

2012-01-31T05:55:00.001-08:00

I suggest you step out on your porch...
Run away my son, see it all
Oh, see the world
There's much more than this
-Pearl Jam

Confession: one of my biggest reasons for coming to teach English in Korea was the opportunity to travel. I had a good life in Seattle: friends, a decent job that I usually enjoyed and was sometimes good at, a nice apartment, enough money to see 7 Eddie Vedder concerts in California last summer.

But something has always been missing. I’ve always had this Pearl Jam lyric playing in the back of my head: “Run away and see the world… There’s much more than this.” There has to be much more than this, right? This itch to find a little bit of that “something more” started the first time I traveled to a Pearl Jam concert, and only got stronger when I moved across the country, got my tattoo (a move that was completely un-Megan-like) and went to Ireland by myself for three weeks. There is something more.

I have wanted to go to Vietnam ever since I first saw pictures of Halong Bay. One day I will see that in person, I told myself. And I did. Sitting on the top deck of a boat in Halong Bay by myself in the morning watching the fog lift and settle again over the limestone cliffs was incredible. One of those moments that makes you think about how big and awe-inspiring the world really is. And how lucky we are to live in it.

On my first morning in Hanoi, I remember walking around Hoan Kiem lake, and taking a picture of a phone booth that said “Vietnam” because I couldn’t quite believe that I had made it. And that feeling is a memory I will carry with me: no matter what happens from now on, I not only went to Vietnam by myself, but I survived, had fun, had amazing experiences and met friends who have inspired me in ways they will never know.

A few of those great experiences were: riding on the back of a motorbike, kayaking through Halong Bay, having a few amazing dinners and conversations with some new friends from California, going to a jazz club in Hanoi and hearing covers of songs by Elvis Presley and the Eagles, hiking through rice paddies with a Hmong tour guide who took me to his house, and having a foot massage from an… ahem…. handsome Vietnamese man.

In all, I stayed in Hanoi for six days - more than enough time, I think, to explore the major sites, but nowhere near enough time to drink enough fresh Passionfruit juice or iced coffee. During those six days, I went to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, Quan Su Pagoda, the Vietnam history museum, the Vietnamese women’s museum, the Temple of Literature, and the water puppet theatre. I also spent a lot of time wandering around the streets of the Old Quarter, and more time that I care to admit standing on the sidewalk trying to work up the courage to walk into the crush of motorbikes on the street. In Vietnam, moreso than in other places I have traveled, I talked to many other tourists: there was the Malaysian couple who seemed as confused by the map as I was, the Australians who I met at Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, and the Canadians who couldn’t seem to figure out how to get their train tickets.

Although seeing Halong Bay was the reason I decided to go to Northern Vietnam, I was apprehensive about taking a group tour. I generally prefer traveling alone - even though it can be hard at times, it also gives you the freedom to do what you want, when you want. With a group tour, most of that freedom is taken away. However, the tour turned out to be one of the high points (if not the high point) of my trip. Our group was small - there were only 7 of us - and everyone was genuinely kind. My fear that there wouldn’t be enough down-time to sit by myself and just enjoy the moment was never realized. I think that if I hadn’t gone with the tour I went with, I would have missed out on a lot of great experiences: kayaking, singing karaoke, meeting great friends, seeing monkeys, and climbing a mountain that I was sure would result in my death (well, maybe I wouldn’t have minded missing out on that one).

Sandra and Adrian were the other Americans on the tour, organic farmers from California who had been traveling in Southeast Asia since Christmas. They had already been to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and told me about their boat ride down the Mekong river in Laos, making me wonder why I had never thought of the most obvious next step for me: taking at least a month off during the Fall to travel through Asia.

After a night spent on the boat and a night spent at a hotel in Cat Ba Island, we headed back to Hanoi. From Hanoi, I took an overnight train to Sapa, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It had been foggy and chilly during my entire time in Hanoi and Halong Bay, but the sun and clear blue sky were what greeted me in Sapa. By blind, dumb luck, I happened to have booked a gorgeous hotel with a balcony overlooking the mountains. I spent a good portion of my time there sitting on that balcony - despite the chill in the air - drinking passionfruit juice, listening to Pearl Jam and staring at the sky.

I was in Sapa for two days, and each day I went on a private tour with a Hmong tour guide. The first day he took me to his village, showed me his house and I met his children. The second day we went on a 7 kilometer trek through the rice fields to two other villages. It was muddy, sometimes steep, and alternated between being chilly and hot, but it was also one of the most cool things I have ever done. As we walked, we talked: he said, "many Hmong live in America, right? In California and also Minnesota?" He told me that two years ago his village got electricity - and later, when we stopped at a house for lunch, he seemed glued to whatever American show was playing on the television. We saw some animals, and I asked him what they were, and he looked at me in surprise and said "Those are buffalo, you've never seen buffalo?!" Then he told me to stand in front of them so he could take my picture. "Will they bite me?" I asked. He laughed.

That night I had dinner with Sandra and Adrian, the farmers I met in Halong Bay, who happened to also be in Sapa. On the night train back to Hanoi, I met two women who, proving just how small the world really can be, were from Seattle, one of whom spent a few years working as a park ranger in Acadia National Park, Maine.

I spent three more days in Hanoi, and one of those days was spent with Adrian and Sandra. We had lunch, walked through the Old Quarter, went to the Opera House, and then finished the evening at a jazz club, where I discovered my newfound love for ginger tea.

The next day, it was on to Hong Kong, which will be for another post. I can say, however, that even though I had a great time watching the Chinese New Year parade and taking a cruise through Victoria Harbor and riding the cable car to the giant seated Buddha at Po Lin Monastery, Hong Kong was a bit of a letdown after Vietnam. Even though it was so nice to go to Starbucks and be able to cross the street without fearing for my life, I found myself missing the incessant beeping horns of the Old Quarter. Perhaps I am romanticizing my vacation a bit, but that's okay, that's what vacations are for. All I know is that I loved Vietnam and have some incredible memories and friendships to treasure. Not to mention a new plan for traveling around Southeast Asia this fall: I know that I want to go back to Vietnam. I also want to see Cambodia, Laos and China. Life is too short to keep putting off the things you really want to do.

My world begins where the road ends

2012-01-20T04:39:00.000-08:00

watch me leave it all far behind
Eddie Vedder

How to begin describing my vacation to Vietnam? It has been like a dream. A very magical, slightly nerve-racking, at times frightening but always beautiful dream that has, I think I can say without exaggeration, changed my life. The people I met, the things that I did, the sights that I saw have all been out of a movie, not my life. I will never forget sitting by myself on the top deck of a boat anchored in Halong Bay during sunrise. Nor will I forget overcoming my fear and kayaking through limestone caves. Or trekking through terraced rice fields with a Hmong tour guide named Fa who took me to his house and introduced me to his children. Whose life is this, because it doesn't seem like mine. One of the Hmong women in Sapa who I bought some earrings from tied a bracelet made of yarn to my wrist. It finally fell off this morning while I was in the shower. I left it as an offering at a Buddhist temple in Hanoi. That seems like a fitting end somehow to my magical vacation.

More to come when I get home to Korea. To be continued....

wake up and fight

2012-01-03T23:49:00.000-08:00

woody guthrie's new year's resolutions. my favorite is the last one.

Feel the air up above, a pool of blue sky

2011-10-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

...See the waves on distant shores awaiting your arrival
Dream the dreams of other men, you'll be no ones rival...
A distant time, a distant place that's where we're living
A distant time, a distant space, so what are you giving?
Pearl Jam, Unthought Known

Few things go together as well as Pearl Jam and nature.

Last weekend I went to Busan, which in the space of 48 hours became one of the best cities I have visited. And that's saying a lot after my first day.

I left Daejeon as early as possible on Saturday since I wanted to have as much time in Busan as I could. I arrived around 10:15 AM (it's about an hour and a half from Daejeon on the KTX, making Busan totally do-able as a day trip. And I think it shall be one quite often in the future). Unfortunately, when I got to Busan the rain that had kept me awake during Friday night had followed the train south. But no problem, a little rain can't deter this Seattle girl - plus, I had the trusty umbrella that I bought in Seoul two months ago (the first umbrella that I have ever owned, believe it or not). Despite the rain I still decided to stick to my original plan to go to the ocean - oh, how I have missed the ocean. 45 minutes later when I got out of the subway in Haundae, the most famous of the beaches in Busan, the rain had let up a little bit but was still coming down pretty hard. I walked around a bit, and then decided to get some lunch at a cute little sandwich place called Breezeburns and then go to the aquarium in hopes that the rain might ease a little.

Ease, it did not. When I came out of the aquarium it was so windy that the rain was pouring down sideways. And then my umbrella broke. There I was standing on a sidewalk in Haundae with my broken umbrella, a backpack on my back, and clothes that were getting increasingly more soaked every minute. I saw 2 choices in that moment: find my hostel and call it a day, or buy some new, dry, warm clothes and hope for the best. I chose the second option, and that is how I ended up at the world's largest department store spending 90,000 won on a pair of corduroys, some socks and a sweater that has, in a matter of only a few days, become my favorite item of clothing.

From that point on, the day got much better. By the time I left the department store the rain had all but stopped and I was dry and warm and even had a new pink (the only color they had) umbrella. By now it was about 4:00 so I decided to go find my hostel and drop off my backpack before the fireworks show at 8:00. When I was looking for a place to stay in Busan, I grudgingly decided to go the hostel route - I am not much of a fan of hostels, especially after a bad experience at one in
Dublin. But it turns out that Busan is a pretty expensive city and while I am willing to pay a little bit more for a motel there were none available in the areas in which I wanted to stay. Luckily, the Busan Hostel proved to be one of the best parts of my trip. They had emailed me very helpful directions, which involved taking the subway and then a bus. The bus ride from the subway station was about 20 minutes and all uphill. We passed the UN cemetary and a couple of parks, and then I saw my holy grail: the ocean. I got off at the very last bus stop, as the email directed me to, and walked up to what looked like an apartment complex. I found the hostel, met the owner who was really nice, spoke good English and confirmed that yes, indeed, the fireworks would still take place that evening regardless of the rain.

The view beside the hostel was absolutely breath-taking. Normally I'm not one for nature, but there is just something about being in this part of the world that every once in a while makes me feel so alive. Maybe it's because I still can't quite believe that I'm livng in Asia, maybe it's because I'm in awe dreaming of all the places I want to travel to, or maybe it's because it's so much easier to live in the moment when you're taking a year out of your life to really live and don't have the weight of a million responsibilities on your shoulder.
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After checking in and leaving some of my things at the hostel, I headed back out on the bus to the beach where the fireworks would be. I'm always so proud of myself when I successfully navigate public transportation in this country. Truly, the journey is usually more important than the destination sometimes. After a dinner of fried chicken and beer, I made my way to the giant inflatable soju bottle set up on the edge of Gwangalli Beach for a night of fireworks competition between countries. Despite the fact that the beach was crowded, that I was shoved several times by Koreans that don't have the same personal space boundaries as Americans, I LOVED the fireworks. In general, I have loved the festivals I have gone to in Korea. Rarely do I feel more at ease than in a crowd. I love being in a sea of people, and as counter-intuitive as it may sound, it is comforting at times to be surrounded by people speaking another language. I think that's probably why I love Seoul and Busan so much - crowded they are, but they are also full of experiences, independence, and life.
After the fireworks ended, I walked around for a little while, enjoying the peacefulness of the ocean contrasted with all the neon of a Korean city.

The next day, I got up early and headed to Yonggunsa Temple. It was incredibly beautiful and none of my pictures seem to do it justice, so just go to the link if you want to see it. I spent two hours exploring the temple, pouring water on the statue of Buddha that was underground (!!), and sitting on the rocks by the ocean, enjoying the peacefulness of listening to the waves.

When I left the temple, I decided to head back to Haundae Beach and walk around for awhile. The ocean waves surprised me by being bigger than I anticipated and soaking my pants, but I loved it! In fact, walking along the beach reminded me a little of walking along Coronado Beach in San Diego last July, and I felt a little homesick. In a good way!

Before going back to the train station, I decided to take a side-trip to try to find a temple in Haundae that my Lonely Planet guidebook recommended but said most people don't bother visiting. I'm not sure why - it was within walking distance from the beach and unlike most places in Korea, the directions the guide book gave to find it were very easy to understand. After turning down a side alley, walking by people's houses and laundry and climbing a hill, I came to the temple which was very peaceful and had a gorgeous view of Busan. I sat there for a while, on a bench in front of Buddha and his students enjoying just being in the moment.

Too soon it was time to head back to Daejeon. More adventures to come! I feel restless, and as someone pointed out at dinner tonight, we now have nine months left of the year. I don't want to leave Korea with any regrets about not traveling enough, so onward and upward!

Night-time in Seoul

2011-08-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

A posting of pictures...

I decided to go for a walk last night, and ended up following a sign for Namsan Park. I walked up a very narrow, crooked street and ended up at a beautiful park that overlooked Seoul. It was beautiful to see the night lights of the city, and I think that in this picture you can see Seoul Tower in the distance (which I am excited to go to because I think that they have a cable car leading up to it!) I followed the crowds of Koreans to the top of the park where people were exercising on stationary bikes and elliptical machines (a good idea, no? exercise with that view in the cool air at 9 PM).

... In other news, I signed my official contract with the Daejeon MOE today and got the debit card and bank book for my new Korean bank account. After that, EPIK took everyone out to a really nice restaurant. It was a buffet, so we were able to eat as much as we wanted. The Korean government must be spending a fortune on us. Tomorrow, we have a closing ceremony and then get on our respective buses and go to our new cities. There, we will have some sort of ceremony that will undoubtedly involve lots of bowing. We'll meet our co-teachers, perhaps see our schools and go to our apartments. I am SO looking forward to having the weekend to orient myself and get to know my new neighborhood. Perhaps visit Costco, find the local farmer's market, go grocery shopping, buy a hair dryer, etc... I am, needless to say if you know me, excited beyond words not to be living in a dorm anymore!

The best part of the evening was after dinner when I went to a little club called Jazz Alley. You have not lived a full life until you have seen a Korean band sing "No Woman, No Cry" and "Smooth" by Santana. The best part? The bartender's shirt - it was tie-dyed, with a picture of a mushroom and the words "the magic mushroom" on the front. Amazing!

Gangwha Island

2011-08-23T06:41:00.000-07:00

Today, instead of having classes all day, we went on a field trip. I'm pretty sure this was Korean for "ride a bus for a long time, get out for a few minutes to listen to a lecture you don't understand, take some pictures, get back on the bus, repeat." No, I'm being sarcastic, it was actually quite fun. but being herded around in a group
is not really my idea of traveling. that's okay though.

As has become my normal schedule during orientation, I woke up early, showered, got dressed, and headed out to take a walk around the neighborhood and to get some coffee. The weather this morning was wonderful, not to hot nor too cold. I've been trying a different coffee shop every morning. Sometimes it's Paris Baguette, one time it was a little place called Ediya's Coffee, and my favorite is Cafe Bene. Not only can you get an Americano (or latte or drip coffee), but you can get a homemade waffle with fruit, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. I may have tried one. Or two. This morning, however, I walked further down the road to a place called Cafe Gunururu. I don't think I'll be going there again, because it was fairly expensive - my iced Americano was 4000 won compared to 2500 - but it was lovely to go upstairs and enjoy my coffee while overlooking the neighborhood. There was a TV film crew (or TV news crew more likely) filming something on the sidewalk, and it was fun to watch.

Around 8:20, I headed back to board the buses to Gangwha Island. These Korean teachers are pretty organized and they like carrying signs. We had a two hour bus ride, during which I had a really nice conversation with Arlene, a teacher from Nova Scotia also going to Daejeon.

The bus ride was actually quite pleasant, and I have to say that Korea is much greener and prettier than I thought it would be. I was looking out the window at the green trees and rice fields when I started to see soldiers, tanks and barbed wire. That's when the tour guide told us, "You are lucky today. It's really clear. You can see North Korea." She told us that North Korea was 2 KM away, across a river. "You can swim across the river in 15 minutes," she explained. I think I'll pass on that one.

At the island's observation deck, we were able to admire North Korea, as it were. It was really sort of creepy - I looked through a telescope and all you can see on their side are some small houses that all look the same and then vast open areas with nothing. I can't imagine living there, especially at night, seeing the lights of South Korea knowing that it's only 2 KM away but impossible to reach. I also can't imagine living on the South Korean side, knowing that this country is so close by. It was really interesting, but the most interesting part is that this whole thing served to remind me that I need to register with the American Embassy.

After walking around the island, we went to lunch. I must say, as someone who has continually been faced with white rice and beef (and canned fruit if I'm lucky) in the school cafeteria - don't worry, I've been spending some of my millions of won going out to eat because it's either that or starve - it was like heaven to see heaping plates of fresh vegetables: lettuce, spinach, mushrooms, bean sprouts, pickles (they have sweet pickles here.. that is one Korean food that I really enjoy). It was called BiBimBap, and is quite possibly what I will live on for the next year. Everyone was given a bowl of rice and could choose to add beef and an egg (I had the egg, but passed on the beef). Then we went to our seats, where we could use our chopsticks to add whatever vegetables and sauce we wanted to our bowls. Since I am not quite adept at using chopsticks, my food may or may not have gone flying over the table.

After lunch, we went to what was called on the schedule "a manufacturing experience." Turns out that meant weaving mats. I was not very good at it, but it was interesting to try, especially when the Korean women who worked there guided my hands without speaking. Needless to say, since I am artistically challenged they had to come help me a lot.

After weaving our mats, we got back on the bus and headed to the Gangwha Dolmen. None of the tour guides really explained what it was, but it looked like a stone formation in Ireland, so I'm assuming it was used as some sort of burial chamber.

Finally we got back to the university around 6:30 PM. Two more nights in this dorm and then I get to go to Daejeon and have my own apartment! And buy my own food, and explore my new neighborhood. Can't wait!

see the waves on distant shores awaiting your arrival...

2011-08-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

I’ve been in Seoul for about a week now, and here are some of the things I have done: taken the subway by myself, gotten lost and found, visited a palace and the Korean Folk Museum, wandered the streets by myself in Insadong, Itaewan and Myeongdong, had a waiter tell me that I have a “gorgeous tattoo,” bought things at a store, ordered things in a restaurant by pointing and smiling, hiked up a gorgeous mountain, eaten Korean barbeque, visited a farmer’s market in Seoul and met people from South Africa, Ireland, England, Canada and the US. I have also almost been run over by cars and motorbikes that drive on the sidewalk, been stared at because I am the only white woman on the subway, gotten ice cream when I wanted an Americano, been frustrated by the never-ending selection of white rice and beef served in the orientation university’s cafeteria, and been coughed and sneezed on by people who, shall we say, seem to view basic hygiene differently than Americans.

But I’m still so glad that I came here. It’s an adventure, a chance to explore a small corner of the world, an opportunity to meet people from all over the world. It’s all that and so much more than I know now. Tonight when I was frustrated with the squid served with dinner, I decided to go out to a restaurant specializing in “beer and chicken” where I pointed to what I wanted and smiled like the clueless foreigner I am. Afterward I went to a café where I again smiled and pointed, this time to a homemade waffle covered in whipped cream and strawberries (yum!) I guess that regardless of my thoughts about Korean food (and it’s probably not fair to judge it by the quality of what is served in a cafeteria), I won’t starve. Especially since there’s a Costco in Daejeon!

It's also oddly comforting to be in a country where I don't understand any of the language. It can be frustrating and maddening, for sure, but it's also fun to walk down the street and not have any idea what anyone around you is saying. There's a certain freedom in that. When I travel to places like Boston, San Francisco or even Ireland, I sometimes am mistaken for a local and asked for directions, and I take pride in that and am almost afraid to do things to mark myself as a tourist - even things that would make life easier for me, such as taking out my camera or looking at a map. Here, none of that applies. There is no way I can be mistaken as a local who knows her way around, so why not just embrace my foreign-ness? It's also pretty safe for being such a big city, so why not stand bewildered in the subway station wondering how to swipe my T-money card until a Korean man takes pity on me and helps me through the turnstile?

Right now, I am in Seoul at orientation, and I absolutely cannot wait to get to Daejeon, the city where I will be living. I am excited to see my apartment, to go grocery shopping, to find the nearest farmer's market. I already have a few ideas about things that I want to do and see: I want to have fish nibble the dead skin off my feet (yes, that's a real thing), I want to stay in a buddhist temple, and I am so looking forward to exploring the mountains around Daejeon and the surrounding areas.

Tomorrow is a "field trip" (Orientation makes me feel like I'm in high school) to Gangwha Island. More later on what exactly that is! We're going to have Bibimbap for lunch, which our Korean teacher has assured me doesn't have beef - or if it does: "We will just pick it out for you. Please don't worry."

2011-05-16T21:33:00.000-07:00

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. (Anatole France)

mike mccready

2011-04-17T12:20:00.001-07:00

we'll rise this sunken ship out of the lake.

2010-11-13T23:02:00.000-08:00

and it's not too late
(augustines rise ye sunken ships)

My favorite band at the 2009 Capitol Hill Block Party was, quite unexpectedly, a group I had never even heard of. They were named Pela, and I was mesmerized by their songs and stage presence. I think that I even compared them to Pearl Jam, which is no small praise from me. I liked them so much that I not only bought their album, but I also read every interview I could find and watched all their videos on youtube. However, soon after this Pela announced that they were breaking up. I think that I remember them saying something about a record deal that had fallen through (they had several songs for a new album, if I recall correctly).

Fast forward a year and a half to last Friday. I was driving to work, listening to KEXP when I heard a familiar song that I recognized as "Philadelphia" by Pela (I had downloaded a live performance podcast from KEXP and listened to that song on repeat approximately a million times during that year and a half). After the song, John Richards said that indeed it was Pela (or 2 of the members of that group) who were now known as Augustines. After work, I came home and devoured everything I could find about this group; I listened to their live session on KEXP (which you can listen to here and which I can't recommend nearly enough) and spent hours watching the three videos I could find of them on youtube over and over. During the interview with KEXP, the lead singer Billy talks about his brother who had a mental illness, was in prison, and ended up committing suicide.

Admittedly, I have a weakness for charismatic lead singers and Billy McCarthy is definitely one. Yeah he occasionally makes funny faces while he is playing and makes generous use of vocal fillers (the "come on, come on, come on's" and "hey-ya's") but I think that is what makes the songs sound so real and, dare I say, anthemic (is that a word?). When he sings, "Kid, I drove all night to tell you I love you," how can your heart not want to burst? I'd follow his voice anywhere. During their KEXP interview, Billy talks about the music community that they are a part of that helped them survive Pela's breakup, and how that community is totally outside of the music industry. I love them. And despite all that they went through, the fact that their new album is going to be called rise ye sunken ships says a lot about the group and about why I like them. I listen to music because it makes me feel - happy, sad, mad, frustrated.. but, ultimately, uplifted. And that is what these Augustine songs make me feel, ten-fold. That's a cliche, but I don't care because it's completely true.

Here's another video from that Augustine's show at the Middle East in Boston, just because I can't choose only one:

Please play in Seattle soon. John Richards from KEXP seems to love them, so that's a good start.

p.s. on their website they have a free download of Book of James as well as a promotional video for their new album that's pretty darn good. I think it was directed by someone from Seattle.

sometimes i need a revelation...

2010-08-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

sometimes it's all too much to take

sometimes i need a revelation

this time i'm making my own...

the swell season in portland, oregon 8-21-10

So much has happened since I last wrote in this sadly-neglected blog that I don't think I'll ever catch up (and I want to!), but I'll start with the most recent: seeing the swell season in Portland and Seattle this past weekend.

If you know me, you know that my two favorite bands - and my yardstick for that is that they are the only two bands i would ever consider traveling any distance to see (as you will come to understand in subsequent posts) - are Pearl Jam and The Frames. and my two favorite singers are Glen Hansard and Eddie Vedder. Really, I think that, money and time willing, I would eagerly follow either of those men to the ends of the earth. And still want be left wanting more.

The Oregon Zoo was, surprisingly to me, a GREAT venue for a concert. I walked past the people sitting on the lawn to the small standing area in front of the stage, where I positioned myself on what I affectionately refer to as "Mike's side" (as in McCready) for Black Francis and my beloved Glen and Marketa (and the rest of The Frames).

Glen and Mar began the show with a solo cover of Cactus; this was the first of many moments during this concert that reminded me of why I love this group so much. It must take guts to show up on stage and not only play but open with a song by the man who played right before you and whose music you love (in fact, later in the concert, Glen said that Surfer Rosa by the Pixies changed his life). I hate to bring up Eddie Vedder again (ok.. full disclosure: that's a lie, I love any opportunity I can find to talk about Ed), but it reminded me of him singing on stage with Bruce Springsteen or Pete Townshend.

Seeing Glen Hansard perform - whether it be with the Swell Season or the Frames - reminds me of why I love music so much, and of the transformative, cathartic power of witnessing songs performed live. One of my favorite songs from the Swell Season's first album, Leave, starts off with Glen strumming his guitar quietly and sounding like a man who is resigned to his fate; by the end of the song, it feels like he is purging his demons, or something, as he screams and plays his guitar so fast that strings break and pieces of wood go flying. And I'm serious when I say that; that's what happens. You can't take your eyes away, nor do you want to. This is what music is about. Joy, pain, happiness, anger, frustration... rolled up into one and delivered by a master storyteller.

At this point in writing this, I'll pause and admit that I actually wasn't looking forward to this show because I don't really like the last Swell Season album. In fact, more than once on Friday morning I almost talked myself out of driving to Portland for this concert. So it's a testament to the group that I can honestly say that, while I'm still not a fan of Strict Joy the album, I loved the songs performed live. And I'm not giving Glen an easy pass here because he's Glen (well, maybe I am), but honestly when Low Rising started, I wanted to do nothing more than close my eyes, sing along and pretend that I was the only person in the audience.

"This is an old Frames song," Glen said, before they started Revelate. This is one of the first Frames songs that I heard, and hearing it instantly brings a smile to my face. And when Glen sings, "My open arms, my lucky charms," I just want to reach my arms into the sky and hug myself all at the same time. I think of Revelate as a plea to god, a list of grievances to the world, and an embrace of life all put together into one song.

One of the best moments of the concert was at the end when they did the Pixies' Where Is My Mind? There is a video of this song taken from a concert at the Henry Fonda in LA on youtube that I have watched countless times. Before they begin, Glen says, "There is a song that we allow ourselves to play when we're in a really good space, and we're in a good space now." And I'm guessing they must have also been in a good space in Portland. Anyway, somewhere during the second verse, Black Francis came out on stage to sing with Glen. And it's apparent that these two are really good friends - there is something really amazing and cool about witnessing musicians who obviously have mutual respect for each other perform together.

And the most exciting part of all? Before the show even started, I noticed a postcard at the merchandise table that listed the North American cities on the Frames' upcoming twentieth anniversary tour. As they have now officially announced, the Frames will be playing in both of those cities in late November. And as luck will have it, the Seattle show is on the Friday after Thanksgiving and Portland is the following Saturday. Another perfect weekend? Yes, please.

hootenanny for haiti

2010-03-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

my pain is self chosen
at least i believe it to be
i could either drown
or pull off my skin and swim to shore
now i can grow a beautiful shell for all to see.
mad season, river of deceit

i've said it before, and pardon me while i say it again, but i LOVE living in seattle. what i witnessed last night at the showbox is reason number 25433 why. or reason number 1, i can't decide which.

you know that feeling that you get before a show you've been looking forward to FOREVER? that feeling of nervous anticipation, like butterflies in your stomach? yeah, i kind of love that feeling. and i had it all weekend. i wish that i had a good camera that could really capture what the stage looked like at the showbox - there were a couple of big couches, some stools, some music stands, and a lot of candles. basically, it was like a living room. and right above where i was standing, there were microphones pointed at the crowd.

according to wikipedia, a hootenanny is an informal, festive performance by folk singers, often including audience participation. that's really the best way to describe the night. all the musicians - too many to count, but i'll try: mark pickerel, kim virant, kristen ward, duff mckagen, jeff rouse, tim dejulio, mike mccready, star anna, gary westlake, chris friel, matt cameron, and other people i'm forgetting - sat on the couches with their instruments and each came up front one at a time to sing a song while the rest played along. mike did a rolling stones song, for example, kim virant sang neil young, mark pickerel did tom petty, star anna sang a FATASTIC version of what i think is an otis redding song (watch me be embarrassed that i'm wrong) which makes me want to immediately run out and purchase her records, and etc...

a definite highlight was when kim warnick, formerly of the fastbacks, came out and sang belinda carlisle's song just like heaven. i can't believe i'm admitting this, but i knew literally every single lyric to that song. somehow the music pulled that out of the deepest recesses of my brain. it's sort of frightening to think about what portion of my mind is made up by song lyrics. plus, she made a somewhat dirty joke when she said she had come out of retirement "only for one night.. and that's what she said."

brad, who i wrote about in my last post and who will be playing at the showbox in april (!!), played buttercup. and i suppose this is as good a place as any to write about shawn smith coming out later to sing crown of thorns with mike, stone, et al. despite the guy singing off-key in my ear (or, heck, maybe because of him - he sure seemed to know all the lyrics to EVERY song and his enthusiasm was kind of infectious), i don't think i'm exaggerating to say that this was one of the best moments, musically or otherwise, i have experienced since seeing pearl jam in philadelphia last october. SERIOUSLY.

... but only one of the best. another of those moments was to be had at this show when mike, duff and jeff rouse (who i also now feel the need to find out more about) played the mad season song river of deceit. the song that i quoted at the beginning of this post. the song that i remember first hearing on the pearl jam radio show self pollution radio in 1995, sitting in my bedroom listening to with the volume low so that my mom and dad wouldn't hear. earlier tonight, i found a video of this song on youtube, and i told myself i would only watch it once.. well, now it's 2 and a half hours later, and i've been pretty much listening to it nonstop. seriously. and i have an overwhelming urge to dig out above, the mad season record. perhaps the best thing i can say about this entire show is that it makes me want more. i want to listen to mad season for the first time in about 10 years, i want to go see brad in april, i want to hear more of star anna's (and kim virant and mark pickerel, and everyone else honestly) music, i just want. music.

here's that video of river of deceit

it's only a matter of time

2010-02-26T21:23:00.000-08:00

thanks to the person who commented on my last post, i now feel re-energized to get back to blogging. we'll see how long this lasts...

i do have something to write about, namely the satchel reunion show i went to at the crocodile cafe last week. satchel is a band that i didn't really know anything about, honestly, until pearl jam posted a link on their website about their upcoming show. i was curious, so i did some digging and found out that the singer for satchel was none other than shawn smith from brad. shawn smith's voice is, i think, really amazing, unique and powerful. so i immediately decided that i'd go. what the heck. i love music, and i love playing six degrees of pearl jam. (that's how i've found some of my favorite bands: sleater kinney, goodness, death cab for cutie.. but i digress).

the show was great. from watching a few live satchel videos on youtube, and of course also from listening to brad, i knew that my favorite songs were the ones that shawn played on keyboard. so i positioned myself right in front of that for the show.

the setlist mostly included heavier songs, a few of which i recognized, most of which i did not. the highlight for me was when shawn came out solo for the encore and sat down at the keyboard for buttercup. it sounded like the whole audience was singing along with him when he got to the chorus: it's just a matter of time..."

speaking of brad, they are going to be playing at the showbox in april (!!) and speaking of the showbox, i will be in attendance this sunday night for the "hootenanny for haiti" which features, among others, mike mccready and matt cameron of pearl jam. (and also kim virant, who i adore). and speaking of pearl jam, i am going to ireland in june to see them in dublin and belfast. and to spend two weeks traveling around a country i have always wanted to see. who knows, i might even run into glen busking on grafton street. tee hee.

i love music.

i can feel like i have a soul that has been saved

2009-11-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

cut to later, now you're strong
you've bled yourself, the wounds are gone
it's rare when there is nothing wrong
survived and you're amongst the fittest
love ain't love until you give it up
riding high amongst the waves
i can feel like i have a soul that has been saved
i can see the light coming through the clouds in rays
gotta say it now, better loud than too late.
pearl jam, amongst the waves

what better way to get back to blogging than to write about the pearl jam show i saw in philadelphia last week? it's been three days now, and what i saw is still setting in. for all of the nights as a pearl jam fan that i've sat in front of my computer watching setlists and kicking myself in the head for not being there... well, finally, i was.

many of my most memorable life experiences have had something to do with this band - from my first concert in 1996 to flying across the country by myself to sitting in a bar with people i wouldn't know if it weren't for our shared love of pearl jam. and now high up on that life experience list will be standing outside the spectrum on a cold saturday afternoon in philadelphia with my ear pressed against the wall listening to PJ soundcheck pilate and out of my mind.

it was sometime during the middle of corduroy when i looked around and watched all the people who were clapping that i realized that this experience was worth every single penny i spent and headache i had in getting to philadelphia. no words that i write can describe the feeling i had inside the spectrum on saturday - it's like there was an electricity in the air and i wish i could somehow figure out how to have that feeling with my forever. it was a mixture of sadness, happiness, hope, and love. (just like every good pearl jam song). as i was telling someone today, before going to this concert i had absolutely no emotional connection to the wachovia spectrum - (in fact, i really only knew of it from all the time i spent on its website checking to see if tickets to this show had been released) - but by the time pearl jam played rockin in the free world and streamers and balloons were released from the rafters, i was crying. even days later, i have no desire to read other people's reviews of this show - i don't want anything to cloud my memories; i want them to stay mine forever.

so here are some of my other personal highlights from the show:

pilate - "this will fall into the category of stuff we hardly ever play or have never played and probably never will again. at least in this building." for me, what makes this song is the third verse - "stunned by my own reflection/looking back sees me too clearly/and i swore i'd never go there again." and i swear that at the end of the song, ed said something like, "given the encouragement, we'll play a lot of f*cked up stuff tonight." ha! that's for sure...

out of my mind - speaking of weird and random songs. it started with eddie telling a story about some mystery person who would give a large donation to something if only pearl jam would play this song, which isn't really a song at all, but an improv from a concert in 1994. 1994 also happens to be the year that i really started getting into PJ to the exclusion of everything else. i remember buying a copy of the not for you single that had this as a b-side, and listening to it over and over.

bugs - my seat for this show was on stone's side, about 5 rows up. i've never sat on the side of the stage like that, and it was pretty cool to be able to see the guitar techs, sound guys, band, etc.. were up to when they came offstage. i was also able to see every time someone took out what i assume is a stand for lyrics, and i knew that probably meant that something kind of rare was about to happen. so i saw that come out, and then i saw ed putting on an accordian and i kind of felt like i was dreaming. so cool.

amongst the waves - this was one song that i was hoping they'd save for tonight. after some initial reluctance, it has easily become my favorite track on backspacer. you know when ed sings "i can see the light/coming through the clouds in rays"? something about the combination of his voice and the music makes me want to close my eyes and live in that moment forever.

i'm open - can i count the number of times i have fallen asleep while listening to no code, and particularly this song? (and i mean that in a good way). actually, no, i don't think i can. no code remains my favorite pearl jam album precisely because of songs like this - songs that make me want to cry and smile and laugh and yell all at the same time. even after all these years, to me eddie's voice is a major force in my life; from the first time i heard him when i was 12 years old sitting in front of my television in bangor, maine, to now when i am almost 30 years old, it has not lost its power to make me feel at home.

rockin in the free world - "let's do this." it was during this song that the balloons and streamers were released from the rafters. the house lights came on, and there are simply no words to convey how awesome it was to be in the crowd, and to feel like i was sharing something really special and private with not only the band but all the people in the audience. for all the bad things one can say about the spectrum (it was confusing to find your way around, going to the bathroom during the break after the opening band literally took me half an hour because it was so crowded i couldn't even move), looking around at the crowd during the show literally made me cry from happiness. and i will not soon forget the expressions of joy that i could see and feel on the band's faces even from my seat.

there were so many moments from this night that will stay with me forever, and when i close my eyes i can still see them and can feel like i am there. what i saw is still settling in my mind, and i'm not sure that it will entirely sink in for awhile. from eddie coming out with boxing gloves, to jeff singing sweet lew while eddie dribbled a basketball, to the band dressing as devo and playing whip it, to mike playing the star spangled banner as a send-off to the spectrum, i am left with some awesome memories that make me want to nothing but dance around my house with a great big smile on my face.

*edit: i totally can't believe i forgot lowlight and smile! sheesh! i have only been waiting since 98 to hear lowlight live. idiot, megan. please forgive me for my oversight pearl jam. now please play hard to imagine the next time i see you.

i want to live my life with the volume full

2009-10-09T23:49:00.001-07:00

pearl jam, seattle (9/21 and 9/22) and portland (9/26)

i have seen this band live every tour since my first show in augusta, maine in 1996 and, while it's impossible for me to objectively rate their live performances (as an example, any other show i see, no matter how mindblowingly awesome, automatically ranks below every pearl jam concert), the three shows i saw last month have to be up there as among some of the best i've witnessed.

i've been trying to write about these concerts for 2 weeks, and nothing i can put on paper has come close to describing how i really feel. i'll try starting at the end this time: as a i type this, i am looking at the new picture frame next to my computer that contains a ticket stub and eddie vedder's guitar pick. in portland, my fanclub seats were in the 3rd row but, as it turned out, there were no seats in front of ours. so, basically we were in the front row. at the end of yellow ledbetter, in what is easily one of the best musically-related experience of my life, eddie pointed at me and handed me his pick. that moment was one that i won't forget, and i think the surreal feeling i had about the whole thing pretty much sums up these shows. for me, music is so much more than a fun diversion; it is honestly an essential part of my life. and days like this remind me just how true that is.

i'm not exaggerating when i say that there were multiple moments in all 3 of these shows that literally made my heart want to leap out of my body. i think it's pretty amazing that happens even after 16 years. i've had so many great pearl jam experiences this year, from seeing eddie in tennessee and hawaii to listening to backspacer with hundreds of other people on release day at easy street. yeah, i'm a pretty lucky girl.

feel the sky blanket you with gems and rhinestones

2009-09-18T21:24:00.000-07:00

see the path cut by the moon
for you to walk on
pearl jam, unthought known

(the picture is a mural on the outside of easy street records in seattle)

i know i've been MIA for awhile - there have been a bunch of things i've wanted to write about, namely the flaming lips concert, and the band at bumbershoot whose guitarist was wearing a green river shirt.

but.. forget all of that. i am so excited about the new pearl jam album! it comes out sunday, but i got mine yesterday from the tenclub. i listened to it once last night, and all day today at work i was thinking, "man, i want to go home and listen to that CD again." it is an understatement to say that it is good. i honestly wasn't expecting to like it, much less to be blown away by it, since i haven't really been crazy nuts about a pearl jam record in about 10 years. (that is not to say that i haven't been completely won over every time i have seen them live. i have. that's why they've continued to be my favorite band. no musicians can come close to making me feel the way this band makes me feel. anyway).

maybe some of this is the newness of the record, but i haven't felt this excited about music in quite awhile. backspacer (i didn't like that name at first, but it has grown on me) has fast songs, it has slow songs and it has those gigantic pearl jam songs that make me want to cry and smile at the same time. all in 36 minutes. i'll write more about this record after i've had a while to digest it. there's a lot more here than what is on the surface, that's for sure.

and i'm going to see them 3 times next week! monday and tuesday in seattle and saturday in portland (well, near portland). i can't wait!

i'm feeling the pull...

2009-08-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

some random notes on a sunday evening...

1. a friend told me about this thing called pandora radio, and i have been having way too much fun with it this week. you can make your personalized radio stations based on bands that you like. for instance, i have a pearl jam station, a minus the bear station, an REM station, a frames station, and an afghan whigs station. the whole thing is based on something called "the music genome project" which groups music that is similar, and so stations play artists that are relatively alike. my minus the bear station plays tons of band of horses and postal service (you can also tell it which songs you like, so that it plays those bands more often); and my REM station plays u2, wilco and radiohead. in short, i enjoy it and it's cool to have a visual aid that shows me how many of the bands i like sound like each other. it's a good way to pass the time until the new pearl jam album is released. :)

2. on tuesday, i went to see the cave singers at easy street where they did an in-store performance for the release of their new record. their songs are good for listening to on a cold, rainy night, and i am finding the singer's voice quite comforting. looking at their tour schedule, they are playing at bumbershoot and then again at neumos in october. i think i might have to be there.

3. i don't know why i didn't see this sooner, but i literally dropped everything i was doing when i read that the swell season did a set for npr's
tiny desk series and that video was online. i recommend that you do the same and watch it immediately. although, having said that, i must also say that i am a little underwhelmed by the "new" (many of which they played in concert last year) songs (save low rising and feeling the pull. i've listened to that one about 5 times). however, it is great to see them together again, and i am loving that glen is still playing his beat-up guitar. and i have missed hearing him say "brilliant." plus, they play an absolutely stunning version of when your mind's made up. i mean, wow. and, it's awesome to see their little sidelong glances and grins. i love watching musicians who are obviously loving playing their music. it makes me happy.

however, i will also say: dear swell season, please play in seattle. preferably at the moore theatre. love, megan

the waiting drove me mad

2009-08-09T10:57:00.001-07:00

keep your head up kid

2009-07-26T21:27:00.000-07:00

i know we can swim/ but you've gotta move your legs (pela, augustine)
the capitol hill block party 7/25/09

one of my favorite parts of living in seattle is all the summer festivals. even though they can be hot, sweaty and crowded, they are also, in my opinion, made of love. maybe i'm weird (and i'm quite certain that i am), but i enjoy wandering around aimlessly and getting lost in a crowd. i also really really enjoy discovering bands that are completely new to me but nonetheless re-ignite my excitement about live music (see: sleater kinney, minus the bear, blitzen trapper, kings of leon...) more on that later.

on saturday, i rarely had stretches longer than 15 minutes without music to listen to (not that it was always *good,* of course, but it was there). i also loved that, because i am over 21, i had the option of spending the hottest part of the day inside neumos, standing in front of a big fan and drinking free water (nothing beats free water).

my favorite band by far - and the one band i was really excited about seeing this year - was the thermals. they put on a great live show and never fail to put a smile on my face. hutch, the singer, doesn't talk much, which is actually kind of refreshing and their 3-minute long songs make for a really fast-paced show. they are also obviously fans of the early 90s - they played awesome covers of sappy by nirvana and basketcase by green day (full disclosure: both of which i was singing along with!) they ended with now we can see, and the song began with the drummer joining hutch and kathy for the hand-clapping part and then waving to the crowd before racing back to the drum set to play the rest of the song. the rain that had been threatening to fall also started during this song, and seeing live music while rain falls and breaks the heat wave is now crossed off my list of life goals. people all around me were like children, opening their mouthes and trying to catch some of the rain. it was great!

so now back to the band that i unexpectedly fell in love with - pela, who are from new york city. go figure that all the bands i enjoyed were ones that the stranger didn't like (unless it's a good thing to say that the "lead singer is a balloon... filled not with helium or pee but with serious emotions." uh, ok). i was kind of surprised to find that they have only been a band for a few years, because, honestly, the way that they played and fed off the crowd made it seem to me that they had been around forever. and while i was watching them, i decided that the kind of music i really love is rock n' roll that makes me smile and want to clap my hands - music that sounds like it was made to play in an outdoor ampitheatre on a hot summer night. kind of like - dare i say it? - pearl jam. if that is uncool, so be it. and, yes, i am comparing pela to my favorite band. the stranger would probably agree - after all, their description of pela's singer could easily be applied to eddie vedder.

upon further exploration, it seems that pela is a favorite at KEXP. (and where was i last summer when they played at one of the free shows at the mural ampitheatre? argh). there are no less than 3 in-studio performances to listen to, each one better than the last. i especially like the acoustic performance from this past may, which suggests to me that they may be coming out with a new album soon(!!) their tour page doesn't list any upcoming shows, but they seemed to like playing in seattle (the lead singer kept smiling at the crowd and said this is such a rock n' roll town! i love it!) and i hope they'll be back soon. i will definately be there.

be yourself, every one else is already taken - from the bathroom in neumos.

i need the beach to set me free

2009-07-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

i need the wind to make me breathe
i need the water to wash my soul (pearl jam, santa cruz)

or, 2 girls, a gps navigator (aka the british man), a rental car, and eddie vedder.

words cannot express how much i loved hawaii.

this was my first ever mai tai on my first ever day in hawaii! i didn't really like it, but it made me feel good.

on my first full day in hawaii,we decided to drive to the north shore. there was a particular beach that kristine wanted to go to, but the parking lot was really full, so we just decided to keep going and ended up driving around the whole island! along the way, we stopped at random beaches, some of which turned out to be beautiful and out-of-the-way little spots. i couldn't get enough of walking in the sand and feeling the waves crash on my feet.

at one of the beaches, we even "saw" sea turtles. or, rather, saw people who had apparently seen said turtles. and, i couldn't get over all the people surfing! i've only seen surfers in magazines or on television, so it was pretty cool to see all the little dots in the distance and know what they were. even though i have never had any interest before, i think it would be kind of cool to go to the north shore during the big surfing competitions in the fall. wow! honestly, i could sit on the beach for hours listening to the water and be perfectly happy.

unfortunately, i don't have any pictures of the hawaii theatre since i left my camera at home the night of the eddie vedder show, but believe me when i say that it was *beautiful.* what was not beautiful, however, was getting lost after the show and having a tour of downtown honolulu at night. that was sort of scary, actually.

the next day, we went on a hike to the manoa waterfalls. i have never been covered in so much mud! but it was great. and i counted at least 3 people wearing eddie vedder shirts!

after our hike, we drove to kailua beach, where i entertained myself by watching a man bury himself in the sand, taking pictures of my feet, and marveling over the bluish-green color of the ocean. once again, i could have sat there all day. heck, i could still be sitting there and enjoying myself, i'm sure.

we finished the day by watching the sun set in waikiki.

the next morning, we got up early and climbed diamond head. i have never walked up so many stairs at once. but i'm glad i did - it was worth it, finally, at the top. my guide book said that, on a clear day, you can see the outlines of some of the other hawaiian islands in the distance. maybe it was just my imagination, but it almost seemed like i could. it almost seemed like you could see forever.

we also went to hanauma bay, which now ranks up there as one of the most gorgeous places i have ever been. it is now my goal to learn to swim so i can go back there and snorkel. we spent the whole afternoon there, lying in the sun and walking on the beach.

i wanna go back!!

rest of my pictures are here

gonna rise up, find my direction magnetically

2009-07-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

eddie vedder, the hawaii theatre, 7/2/09

i freely admit that i have no objectivity when it comes to music that i like (see: pearl jam, the frames, minus the bear, et al). after every single pearl jam concert i have seen, i've told someone that it was the best show ever. so, maybe you should take it with a grain of salt when i say that seeing eddie vedder in honolulu was one of the best musical experiences i've had.

... or maybe not.

as soon as the into the wild intro music started, i was on my feet with everyone else, clapping so hard that i thought my hands might fall off (seriously. they were red by the time the show was over). out came ed, sitting down on his stool to play cat stevens' trouble. before he started, eddie said something like, "we will start out in a sad place and end up in an uplifting place."

i am really liking the brain damage intro. to sometimes. i didn't think this was the best version of the latter song on this tour - the audience took a while to warm up to the sing along. in fact, eddie joked that one side of the crowd was "noticeably better" than the other side - but there is just something comfortingly familiar and right about hearing the opening notes to it. as in nashville, he added are you here, god? to the end.

i think it was after this song that eddie stopped and told a story about how, as a teenager, he would be so excited when he got tickets to the last show of a tour only to discover, as a member of a band himself, that it is usually the "second-to-last show that is the best." but, he said, he had worked "very hard" on tonight's setlist in order to counteract that.

before gone, eddie said that he was going to play a song he didn't play often live, and he might make mistakes. if he did, i didn't notice. i think that he also said that it could have fit perfectly on into the wild. (like most pearl jam songs).

then here come the run of songs from the movie that brings us all here, including what i thought was a PERFECT (but, again, i'm proudly unobjective) version of guaranteed. at one point, eddie brought out his ukelele and asked, "do you know what this is?" and the woman next to me yelled "luke!" once again, can i say how much i love that this man and this band inspire such a community that people know and yell out the name of his musical instruments? and how much i love that, for two hours during a concert, i can feel like i belong here?

one of the things i love most about these shows (besides eddie's guitar playing, voice, stage banter, etc, etc..) is the cover songs. and i think that millworker is officially my favorite. i just love the way he sings this song. it seems almost like the lyrics are perfectly suited for his voice, and i can only guess at the amount of time he must spend deciding which covers to play. this show alone had 11, by my count (wow!). including i can't help falling in love, and hide your love away, one of my favorite songs to sing along with. i'm only sorry that i missed hearing him play bobby jean by one night. i was really surprised to read the setlist and realize he played so many cover songs, but i think that eddie has a way of making those songs seem like his own. when he started her majesty by the beatles, people cheered and clapped, and ed stopped and said something like, "whatever you think this is, i can guarantee you it's not."

some people around me were talking and clapping when eddie started arc, and others quickly shushed them. i love that i have now witnessed this 3 times live, and am still almost driven to tears by it.

when ed brought liam finn out for the 2nd encore to do santa cruz, it was clear that he didn't really want to leave. they both said that this had been a really fun tour that had gone from "albany to hawaii," and when people cheered, ed said, "and it seems some of you did too." after liam left the stage, ed took a drink, sat down with his guitar and said that the next song was one he has participated in many times, but never played by himself, so he was a little nervous. he played a little bit of the first verse of crazy mary, but then stopped because he forgot the lyrics. but apparently someone in the front was singing along, and eddie told everyone to be quiet because "this man seems to know what he's doing." then he brought the guy onstage, and had him sit in front of the monitor for the rest of the song! haha. in the middle of the song, boom came out for his keyboard solo, and stayed for the last few songs.

for hawaii 78, eddie introduced a man he said he had seen performing in an irish bar in honolulu. then they played hard sun, and the show was over. i didn't really want to leave my seat, since i knew that it was quite possibly the last (at least for awhile) eddie solo show i will see.

...but, thank you pearl jam, for answering my pleas and deciding to play a show in seattle! i'm already counting the days. love always, megan

megan is going to pee her pants

2009-07-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

ok, i like summer a lot, but i officially cannot wait until september! not only is pearl jam going to be playing in seattle, but the swell season will release another album! (no word of US tour dates from them yet. boo hoo!)

from the latter's website:
We are happy to announce.....Thursday, July 9th, 2009
The Swell Season, the Oscar-winning duo of Frames frontman Glen Hansard and Czech ingénue Marketa Irglova, are putting the finishing touches on ‘Strict Joy,’ (Sept 29/Anti- Records), the follow-up to their beloved, surprise hit 2007 film and gold-certified soundtrack ‘Once.’ The twelve new, original songs on ‘Strict Joy’ were recorded last year and document a time of great change.
‘Strict Joy,’ which borrows its name from a work by Irish poet James Stephens, was co-produced by Hansard and Peter Katis (The National, Interpol), and recorded mostly at Katis’ Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT. In addition to Hansard and Irglova, the album features Frames members Colm Mac Iomaire (violin), Joe Doyle (bass), Rob Bochnik (guitar), Graham Hopkins (percussion) plus guitarist Javier Mas (Leonard Cohen), pianist Thomas Bartlett (Doveman), percussionist Chad Taylor (Chicago Underground Duo), horn players Steven Bernstein and Clark Gayton from Levon Helm’s band, and others.
‘STRICT JOY’ TRACK LISTING
1. Low Rising
2. Feeling the Pull
3. In These Arms
4. The Rain
5. Fantasy Man
6. Paper Cup
7. High Horses
8. The Verb
9. I Have Loved You Wrong
10. Love That Conquers
11. Two Tongues
12. Back Broke

i know 5 of those songs! and i love them! i'm so excited!!

i think that i used more exclamation points in this post than i have in my whole life!!!

.. pictures and writing about hawaii/eddie vedder coming soon. i will just say now that i wish with everything that it was last week at this time. what a magical state. what a magical man. i could literally spend hours staring at the ocean and walking in the sand.

lucky stars in your eyes

2009-06-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

i got up early on friday morning for my 3 + hour drive to memphis. the entire way there, i was practically bouncing out of my seat with the combination of nervousness and excitement that i always get when i am going to see a concert i've been looking forward to for ages. i admit to playing a little bit of "what will be on the setlist?" just because there is so much musical history in memphis. here were some of my secret fantasies: sittin on the dock of the bay (how amazing would THAT have been??), i can't help falling in love with you, suspicious minds, any song by johnny cash. and at every solo show i've seen, i confess that i've harbored a secret wish that ed and liam would do stuff and nonsense. (and i overheard a woman saying the same thing to her friend in line for the show. so i'm not the only one). oh well, one of those isn't bad, is it?

i got into memphis friday afternoon, checked into my hotel, and then walked downtown. after a great dinner and a while spent walking around beale street and listening to random bands play, i went to check out the orpheum theatre. i probably spent at least 20 minutes staring at it, waiting for the "eddie vedder, june 20th" sign to light up at just the right moment so i could take a picture. i love this stuff. once again, look how small it is! if someone had told me five or ten years ago that one day i would be seeing eddie vedder at venues this small - three times, no less! - i would have thought they were lying. incredible. i hope this feeling of wonder never ends.

so, on to the show. ed came out with his usual direction to "make yourselves at home, i plan to," and then started walking the cow. next up, sometimes, with the same treatment as in nashville. but, god, this time i am close enough that i can actually see ed as he's playing and watch him get so into the music that he's stomping his foot and leaning forward on his stool. i know that i said it in my nashville review, but it bears repeating - i am so in love with what he does with this song. no code is, depending on the day, my favorite pearl jam album, and hearing a song that i've listened to hundreds of times brought to a new life is just breathtaking. breathtaking! sometimes there are no other words. this is the first song i ever heard pearl jam perform live (september, 1996 in augusta maine) and it's kind of like coming back around to where i began, albeit in a better way than i ever imagined.

my notes were scribbled after getting back to my hotel room so they don't follow the setlist, but the next song i have written down is last kiss. when i first recognized this, my thought was, "uh oh. why is he wasting good setlist space?" but this only proves that first impressions can be misleading. because, once again, the audience interaction is what made this song tonight. i think that it must be amazing as a singer to have people singing along with you - to know that you have inspired and touched people enough to want to imitate your voice, your inflections, every little "oh" you put in your songs. and as an audience member to be a part of this communal experience literally makes my heart want to burst.

next came a run of songs from into the wild, complete with what was, to me, an awesome version of guaranteed. before the song, eddie told a story (that i've heard before - i love that, at this point, i've been to enough shows that i can anticipate what's coming but that at the same time, it's always a bit suprising. does that make sense?) about his daughter and the line don't come closer or i'll have to go. when she first heard the song she asked her father what that lyric meant and, not quite knowing what to say (and i can completely relate to the feeling of not always knowing how to respond to an astute five-year old's questions), he told her that it was referring to a bear. but.. oh crap.. he told the story so much better than i did. oh well. something else that cracked me up, that i forgot to mention in my nashville review - when people were screaming out requests and "i love you eddie," ed said, "if someone next to you is acting like an idiot, you have my permission to hit them." and then later on in the evening he was telling a story about being a security guard and people started laughing and he said something like, "what? why is that funny? don't you see how i handled those people earlier in the show?" damn.. it doesn't seem funny when i write it. but trust me, at the time it was hilarious.

and then... i think that ed said he was going to try a song that he's only played live once before. a couple of different options ran through my head, until i recognized i can't help falling in love with you. i was in las vegas in 2000 when the full band played this song, and i have to say that i thought tonight's version was better. ed's voice sounds amazing. so full and rich and expressive. this is one time when i wish there was a recording available, because i'd love to hear this again and figure out if it is just my memory that is playing tricks on me, or if these shows really were as incredible as i remember. either way, i suppose it doesn't really matter.

during the encore, liam finn came out and played the drums on santa cruz - a song from the last PJ fanclub single - and i need to find a version of this song ASAP because i realize now what i've been missing out on by not having a record player. liam's singing partner EJ (who has a brilliant voice in her own right) sang john doe's the golden state with ed. i highly recommend that you check out her myspace page.

as luck would have it, i am going to see ed's show in honolulu again next week. i have been planning to visit a friend who is living in hawaii for the summer and the first week of july was the only week when there was available vacation time at work. i knew that ed would be playing there then, but, since i didn't get tickets before they sold out, i thought i would be okay with not seeing him. i don't know how i got that crazy idea... because every day for the past week (starting the second i got home from memphis), i have been checking the hawaii theatre's box office for tickets and all of a sudden on thursday night, i was able to find two orchestra seats. it's like a drug.

i just want to scream hello

2009-06-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

best. vacation. ever was the text message i sent my mom on sunday morning. i had such a great time seeing eddie vedder in memphis and nashville that i don't think words can come close to describing it. but i'll try.

sometime during last thursday night's show in nashville, ed said something about how making into the wild and knowing sean penn has opened up a whole new world of experiences to him. before he knew it, he said, he was paddling down the colorado river and singing alongside amazing musicians. and i thought, well, wow, that's kind of how i feel about pearl jam. because of them, i have had so many great life experiences - and i have a scrapbook full of ticket stubs, pictures, and notes scrawled on hotel stationary after shows to remind me of them - that i never would have had otherwise. why else would i have flown across the country by myself for the first time in 2000? or why would i be sitting on beale street in memphis on a friday night, drinking a beer and watching a band play sittin' on the dock of the bay? this is the stuff that life is about. ed thanked sean penn, and i in turn will thank ed.

my seat for this show was in the balcony, literally the second to last row. as liam finn played, i started to get nervous because people around me were talking loudly, getting up and doing other generally annoying things. but once eddie took the stage, i forgot about everyone else. seriously. i read a reviewer describe one of these shows as feeling like you are sitting in ed's living room. i don't think that anyone who hasn't experienced one of these shows will believe me, but it was that and ten times more. rarely have i felt that purely happy, that completely in the moment as i did on thursday night.

the opening song was far behind, probably my favorite song on into the wild. i'm almost embarrassed to comment on ed's guitar playing, because i have pretty much no technical knowledge of music - but i will anyway. it has gotten so much better, and he seems more comfortable on stage than he has in the past - certainly the last time i saw him in vancouver. and his voice! my god, his voice. the sound in the ryman was incredible, crystal clear even up in the no man's land of the last row, and he absolutely owned that place.

next up, sometimes. (i won't go through song-by-song, i promise; these are just the highlights i scribbled down after the show). another one of my favorites, and the way he is doing it on this tour brings the song to a whole other level. this is one of those songs that just builds and builds in intensity, and it seems unreal to me that the noise on the stage is coming from only one man. when he finished the song, he led the crowd in a singalong of the ending - have i mentioned how many goosebumps i get when he does that? - and i'm pretty sure that after sometimes i reach to myself/dear god he said are you there god? cue the goosebumps again.

speaking of songs getting reworked (for the better, in my opinion) for these solo shows, wishlist is a prime example. a few weeks ago when i went for a haircut, my hairdresser and i were chatting about eddie vedder (she knew i was going to these shows) and she asked me if he ever played wishlist, because "that's my favorite song." i had to think for a second, and then i said that no, i didn't think he would play that. well, i guess i was wrong. it's almost completely different here though, with a lot more of the foot stomping from ed and clapping from the audience. plus, did i mention his voice yet? my god, it's gorgeous. whatever magic was in the air around me that night, i want to bottle it and have it with me forever.

fast forward in the show: the next thing i wrote down was porch. main set closer. best version of that song i have ever heard. maybe i was exaggerating or maybe i wasn't. again, i wish i could relive the night, just to experience the electricity i felt in the room. as a pearl jam fan - as a music fan - there are not many things better than experiencing a crowd who is feeling the same thing you are. by the time eddie was screaming the end of the song (you know, the part that goes hold you, feel you, ever again), everyone in my section of the balcony was standing up. how could you not? i think that there are few better cathartic experiences in life than singing along with the last minute or so of that song. my god.

and then, the last song of the encore. i have never been in the right place to hear arc live, and even from reading people's descriptions of it, i had no idea how powerful hearing it live would be. seeing ed hunched over in the darkness, and hearing him layer his voice on top of itself made me cry.

onward to memphis!

*during the day on thursday, i paid 12.50 to go inside the ryman on a "self-guided tour," because i figured that would be my only opportunity to take pictures inside. the theatre was incredible! like i said, it was unbelievably small and had incredible acoustics. if you go on the tour, you're allowed to walk around the seats, sit down, and go all the way up front. it's now one of my life goals to go back there. see? when else, if not for pearl jam and ed, would i have gone to nashville and seen a show at one of the most beautiful places i've ever been to? i love it.

you've been running so fast

2009-06-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite videos on youtube. i heart glen hansard.

this makes me SO HAPPY: from the swell season myspace page.

Hi everyone, So, the first bit of the long awaited tour dates is here. Please find the details below for the upcoming Irish concerts of the Swell Season. These gigs will be seated theatre shows with the full band of Glen, Mar, Rob, Graham, Colm and Joe. The new album will see a late September worldwide release (no date confirmed yet) and the band will return to tour the U.S. around September/October and Europe around November/December this year. As soon as we have the dates and venues we'll post it.

it's not the frames, but it's close enough. i'm already excited to see glen hansard again. new albums/possible tours from pearl jam, minus the bear, AND the swell season this fall?

this post is about nothing

2009-06-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

this post brought to you by: megan has entirely too much time on her hands while she waits for her laundry to dry.

for all that i love to complain about work (doesn't everyone??), i do really enjoy it most of the time. in the middle of a particularly hectic afternoon (kids screaming at each other, fighting over blocks, running inside, etc...), a father who likes pearl jam and knows that i do too says, "so, megan, did you catch the secret show they played at the showbox last weekend?" immediately (and showing what an obsessed nerd i am) i started to panic and thought, oh my god, PJ finally played in seattle again and i missed it. but then i realized that he must have meant the video they were shooting at the showbox. (unless i happened to overlook some news). but i was a teensy bit jealous there for a minute.

my nashville ticket came in the mail today!! *happy dance* i told a co-worker today that i would be on vacation june 17-19, and she asked where. i told her, and she knows me all too well, and said, "are you going to a concert? is it pearl jam or the frames?" hehe. i LOVE that people ask me that (and i kind of wish that it was the frames, but oh well... ed vedder will have to do ;D

this weekend (as i do many weekends during the summer), i went downtown and had lunch at pike place market where, unbeknown st to me, they were having their annual street fair. they had a "busker's stage," showcasing some of the market's street performers. first up, were these guys who usually stand outside starbucks and sing songs like my girl and down on the boardwalk. they're really good.

next, were a group that i see a lot at festivals and at the market, and stop to listen to every time. they're called the tallboys, and the singer said that they have a twice-monthly square dance at the tractor tavern. that sounds fun! anyway, they are a string band and, as the fiddle player said, play "all the rock-n-roll hits from the 1800's." ha! and the guitarist dances a jig while she plays - which cannot be easy. i heart them.

it's been wonderful tonight

2009-05-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

just a quick note before i go to enjoy the sunshine (three weekends in a row???!! is this really seattle?)...

i think that this video might be the embodiment of why i love eddie vedder.

it's funny because this has always been one of my least favorite songs on my least favorite pearl jam album. i never even gave it a second chance until recently when i took the time to listen to the lyrics.. it just so perfectly captures that feeling of restlessness and hope that i have most of the time.

on another note, i was cleaning my living room the other day and found a pearl jam show under my couch cushion. it was nashville 2003 - i took that as a sign that i should go ahead with my plan to go there. heh. less than 3 weeks! i just realized that the day i'm leaving is also our first field trip at work. so hopefully i will be tired enough to sleep all night on the plane.

wave to all my friends

2009-05-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

this is for kristine, who told me that she misses reading my blog, although i can't fathom why. i am a very uninteresting person i think. but.. anyway, here are a few things i'm liking lately.

goodness/kim virant/and others at the tractor 5/23

i had so much fun seeing these guys on saturday night at the tractor tavern in ballard. kim virant is awesome - i highly recommend the song love ain't for the weak, i'm a little obsessed with it at the moment. goodness is also incredible - i'm sure i've written about them before. i adore the lead singer, carrie akre, and devour almost anything she puts out - be it goodness, hammerbox (her pre-goodness band, which i have started listening to a little... 'tis good, in my humble opinion), the rockfords, or, especially, her solo albums. an aside that really has nothing to do with anything is that when i moved to tacoma in june, 2001, the very first show i saw in seattle was kim virant and carrie akre at local 49, which was the vera project's all ages venue at the time.

plus, during most of the show, i was standing behind rick friel. if you've seen my posts about shadow, you probably know how much i like him. my inner teenager was excited by this. (i have no idea what that means, but it's late so i'm just going with it).

here's someone's video of superwise from the show. i think whoever made this must have been standing right next to me. you can see rick friel playing the air guitar. heh.

folklife and, sunny weather
i went to folklife today, which is a free festival at seattle center that basically kicks off the summer. to me, anyway. my favorite thing about living in seattle is probably all the summer festivals. and, it was sunny and warm today! bonus! here are some pictures:

perhaps my favorite part of folklife is the rhythm tent, where people go to basically sit in a big circle and play drums. there's just something about being part of that that is great. i spent about an hour there when they were doing west african drumming.

i also love the street performers; i don't particularly like the artists that play on the stages (just not my musical cup of tea), so i prefer to wander around and let whatever happens happen. really, at what other festival can you listen to a man playing the didgeridoo, walk ten feet and see a band playing the steel drums, and be passed by a guy carrying a washboard? heaven, i tell you.

eddie vedder
not only have i been on an into the wild soundtrack kick lately, but i have decided to see him not once, but twice next month. i had already planned on seeing him in memphis with my fanclub tickets. but as i was contemplating booking plane tickets and making hotel reservations, i had a crazy idea that i could make the whole thing into a mini roadtrip and also go to nashville. so off i went to ticketmaster with this hare-brained idea in my head, and lo and behold, a ticket for the 6/18 show in nashville came up! of course i had to buy it. so, that's that story. plane tickets to nashville are actually quite a bit cheaper than tickets to memphis. who would think that? i'm even more excited for this trip now than i was before. less than a month!!

a few random things

2009-05-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

sometimes, i wish i had a time machine. i want to travel either backwards or forwards in time at my own discretion. for example, i want to fast forward to next friday when i will be at safeco field watching the red sox and then will be getting ready to spend the weekend in vancouver. after that, i want to go to june 20th, when i will be in memphis seeing ed vedder. and, hey, while we're playing, can i also go to an unspecified point in the future when i will be seeing pearl jam from the front row at the gorge and glen hansard will come out to sing indifference with ed? basically, i just want to skip the suckiness of my life right now, and get to the parts that will make me happy.

some things that ARE making me happy...

minus the bear is recording a new album! this makes me smile. i can't wait to see them again. hurry and play a show, please.

goodness (plus kim virant, et. al) will be playing at the tractor on may 23rd. yay!

and last but certainly not least, rob pattinson. or, specifically, the movie how to be. i've seen the movie two times now, and i think i can unequivocally state that he is the best part of it (i know.. it's shocking that i think that!) it's a quirky, funny film about a guy who's not really good at anything he does, but wishes desperately that he was. boy, do i relate to that.

How To Be Trailer (film festival version) from How To Be on Vimeo.

maps, a mountain range, a piggy bank

2009-05-04T22:49:00.000-07:00

kristine and i are going to try to see iron & wine do an in-store at sonic boom records in capitol hill tomorrow (i saw *try* because i'm sure it's gonna be crowded given how quickly his seattle shows sold out [darn it] and we are coming from work. yikes!) i know that it's unlikely, but i'm going to put in a request (with the two people that read this blog) for him to play this song:

beautiful.

"and this is mike on the guitar"

2009-05-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

shadow, loaded, flight to mars
showbox, seattle. may 2

every year i've lived in washington, i've gone to the CCFA benefit show mike mccready, et. al put on at the showbox. and every year i've had a great time, but i gotta say that this year was probably the best. seriously, i have always believed that pearl jam is greater than the sum of its parts, but in the absence of them, i sure as hell am enjoying all their side projects (i swear that PJ's guitar tech - who was working on the show - had a shirt on that said "ev tour crew." i can't wait until june!!)

just like he did in august and december, mike came out first to do a couple acoustic songs. then chris and rick came on stage and they did their jimi hendrix stuff (which is great - LOUD, but *great*). as a pearl jam fan, you might never know that there's this whole other side to mike, one that he probably doesn't often get the chance to express in the confines of PJ (not that that's a bad thing, it just is what it is). also, i love when he sings. the other thing i love is when he points to people in the audience when he plays. makes it seem more intimate, somehow. towards the end of shadow's set, mike said that they were going to bring out a special guest... stone gossard! cool. 2/5 of pearl jam makes me a happy girl.

honestly, i don't remember what stone sang ;) it was good, though. then he left. (wow, this is an insightful review, huh?)

i wasn't really expecting to like duff mckagen's band, loaded. but i was pleasantly surprised. quite pleasantly. i really really thought they were great.

they ended with a cover of i wanna be your dog that absolutely floored me. in fact, flight to mars also did that song later, and i must say that i preferred loaded's version.

flight to mars came on around 11:30.

as we were driving home, i told my friend kristine that it seems like it's not often we get to see old-fashioned rock-n-roll like that. during the encore, they brought out this guy named jeremy who had the highest bid on an online auction (to benefit CCFA) and got the chance to play guitar on stage with flight to mars.

arms wide open with the sea as [her] floor

2009-04-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

an addendum to my last post: i am in love with hutch harris and kathy foster from the thermals. can i marry them both? their new album rocks my socks and has been on constant repeat for the past week. they were on KEXP sunday as i was driving to the movie theatre, and i sat in the car for 20 minutes (thus missing the movie.. whoops) listening. they're going to be at the capitol hill block party in july. guess where i'll be that day? outside in the sun watching them. sounds good.

as a member of the tenclub, pearl jam's fanclub, there are not many better emails you can get than ones that begin "congratulations! you have been successful at securing tickets. here's what you need to know to get your tickets..." yes, i'm going to go to memphis in june to see ed vedder. yes, i'm aware that i'm my own special brand of insanity. it's awesome. i'm already giddy with the thought of standing in line waiting to get the envelope with my name on it.

here's a video i found online of ed playing you're true at a PJ show in 2006and then singing happy birthday to matt cameron. it made me chuckle:

sigh. i heart him bigtime. i'm not even going to try to play "what will he sing?" because i just don't care. it could literally be *anything* and i'd be thrilled. he can sing pop goes the weasel and i will applaud (as well as laugh.. can you imagine that on the ukelele? haha). seeing his solo show last year was one of the best shows i've ever seen (i say that about every show! i can't help it!)

as my mother told me tonight, i'm always happier when i have a concert (or 2!) to look forward to. yes, i certainly am. even when said concert will end up costing me hundreds of dollars. let's not think about that, shall we?

i can't believe i got so far with a head so empty

2009-04-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

every time i think to myself that i'm going to post something in my blog, i end up getting distracted (usually by my new addiction to facebook) and forgetting. what an excuse...

last night, i had an awesome time seeing the thermals . their songs make me smile and want to jump up and down (although last night i watched them from the upper bar at neumos - the first time i've stood up there - and was kind of glad that i wasn't down in the crush of bodies pushing on each other. does that make me an old lady?) this is how they describe themselves on their website: "since the summer of fear and hate (2002), we, the thermals, have been cranking out 3 minute, no-fi sonic gems with a neo-grunge attitude." they go on to describe their new album as "post-power pop." i really have no idea what that means, but it makes me laugh.

and they put on a really fun live show. i don't think i've enjoyed myself so much in a long time - plus, their short song lengths (2-3 minutes) lend themselves to my attention span. here's them playing st. rosa and the swallows (from their last album, the body, the blood, the machine) at south by southwest last month:

have i got a little story for you...

2009-03-15T18:27:00.000-07:00

i have woefully neglected this blog, mostly because i have been feeding my addiction to facebook lately. and because i haven't really had much to write about. but now i do, because two things that i am excited about are coming out this month: the twilight dvd and, most of all, the reissue of pearl jam's first album, ten.

at first, i wasn't too excited about the reissue. i thought it was just a scheme to make money (and i'm sure that's part of it), but then i thought about it and realized that the songs that meant so much to me once upon a time are going to be remixed by brenden o brien, who produced three of my favorite pearl jam albums. plus, new artwork, bonus tracks, and other stuff (if - ahem - you pay 140 dollars for the "deluxe edition").

on top of all that, there's this little bit that jeff says in an interview:
ed and I dug through boxes and boxes of memorabilia and journals that we kept during the tours and the making of that first record and we created a journal with a lot of those artifacts and it was super fun. i think it was the first time that either one of us had dug through that stuff for 17 years and it filled in some memory loss that we had from that time. i think it has turned into a really cool package, a real fans package.
:) and megan smiles.

what i can't believe is that it's been 17 years - more or less - since ten came out. 17 years - almost - since i first saw them play jeremy on the 1992 mtv video music awards. this band has been such a huge part of my life. so maybe you can understand when i say that this video kind of makes me teary (and if admitting that makes me seem weird, then so be it):

what does pearl jam mean to me? happiness, freedom, excitement, friendship, comfort, home, release.

now they need to celebrate the reissue of their first album with a show in seattle! i can dream...

walking into sweet oblivion..

2009-02-17T21:01:00.000-08:00

i'm not sure how i've survived without greg dulli in my life. good thing he has so much music that it will probably take me quite awhile to digest it all. i bought black love, an afghan whigs album from 1996, at easy street records yesterday, and i'm already pretty postitive that it won't leave my cd player anytime in the foreseeable future (except perhaps for other afghan whigs/twilight singers/etc.. albums i may acquire).

i listened to black love all yesterday afternoon, i listened to it on the bus to work, i listened to it during lunch, i listened to it on the bus home, and i'm listening to it right now. that voice - my god, that voice. that is almost always the first thing i notice about a band. my cd case is full of bands with singers whose voices are like home to me - eddie vedder, micheal stipe, glen hansard, etc... and now i will add greg dulli to that list. because i can tell already that that's what it will be.

even though black love came out in the middle of the 90s, it does not seem dated to me. in fact, i'm not even sure how to describe what it does sound like - and that's probably why i like it so much. i can definately imagine my angst-filled 16 year old self listening to it alone in her bedroom. but this is also the kind of music that gets under my skin now , and i think there's something to be said about that. i also think there's something to be said for the lyrics greg dulli writes. i'm sure i'll have more to say about that after i listen to the album another 20 times, but for now i'll just say that i've had these lyrics running through my head all day:
go to town, burn it down, turn around
and get your stroll on baby
i'll get the car
you get the match and gasoline

the twilight singers - bonnie brae (i am so in love with this song)

mark lanegan and greg dulli

2009-02-16T09:53:00.000-08:00

i haven't written anything lately, because i haven't really had anything to write about.. my life pretty much consists of work, coming home and having dinner and falling asleep on the couch. but last night, i went to see mark lanegan and greg dulli at the showbox and, pardon the cliche, but i was absolutely floored. it was billed as the "stripped down in the gutter tour" and it definately was - it was mark and greg, plus another guitarist and a cellist. greg alternated between the acoustic guitar and keyboards. and mark didn't alternate between anything - his gorgeous voice was the only instrument he needed.

i go to a fair amount of concerts and i really like most of them, but every once in a while you see a group that makes you remember what you love about music. seeing mark and greg - the stripped-down gutter twins, or whatever you want to call them - was a show that will stand out in my memory for a long time. it's one where you wake up the next morning and are genuinely sad that it is over. there's a lot to be said for feeling like you are in the presence of talented, seasoned, heartfelt musicians who are taking you along with them for the ride.

one of the highlights for me (there were a lot.. they played from 10:45 to about 12:30) was sworn and broken, a screaming trees song that i used to spend hours listening to over and over again. another one was during the encore when they played all i have to do is dream by the everly brothers. THAT got a lot of smiles from the stage, and i don't think there are many things better than seeing mark lanegan and greg dulli smile.. seriously, it lights up the entire place.

at one point, greg said that this was the 106th time they have been on stage together (which got a big smile from both he and mark) and the last time they would play together for a while (which earned a collective groan from the audience). but that's okay, because they have opened a wealth of music to me that will take quite a while to digest. i have an overwhelming urge to go to easy street records and dive into the afghan whigs and the lanegan solo albums that i don't have.

the stations

all misery/flowers

shawn smith opened the show, and he has an incredible voice in his own right. he played a couple of brad songs, including buttercup - which made my heart do flip flops. what a beautiful song:

a few things i am liking right now

2009-01-25T20:36:00.000-08:00

1. i'm reading a book called this is your brain on music . i saw someone on the bus with it, and thought it looked interesting, so i checked it out of the library. i like it a lot - even though i'm not smart enough to completely understand it. the author is a neuroscientist, who tries to understand and explain what it is about music that affects many people on such a fundamental and emotional level. i can't always follow all the scientific and musical jargon (man, when you think about all that is involved in making the brain work, it is absolutely amazing), but the whole book is basically an argument that music is an integral part of human nature. in fact, the chapter i found most interesting is the one i'm on right now when he talks about the evolution of music. he writes, "music may be the activity that prepared our pre-human ancestors for speech communication and for the cognitive, representational flexibility necessary to become humans." wow. does anyone else think that's pretty incredible?

plus, the author reminds me of the lead character in high fidelity. he strikes me as the kind of guy who would make lists of music to correspond with certain periods of his life.

2. ocean by john butler.

i probably watched this video 4 times in a row. i am completely fascinated by his guitar playing. from the 6:00 point to the end - especially when the audience starts clapping along- is just GORGEOUS. the john butler trio is from australia; i first saw them live at bumbershoot five years ago, fell in love with them, and bought their live CD. i have seen them a few times since then, and cannot wait until the next time they come to seattle.

this is supposed to be the new world

2009-01-22T22:18:00.000-08:00

well, darn it. the father of a boy in my class (who knows i like pearl jam. one day i was wearing my eddie vedder tour t-shirt and he asked me about it and then we got into a big conversation about how we both love PJ and it turns out that he plays basketball with jeff ament. anyway) asked me this morning if i had seen eddie vedder at the tractor tavern on inauguration night. sadly, no, but a google search turned this up on rollingstone.com

The country’s best inauguration party Tuesday night turned out to be in the other Washington: At Seattle’s tiny Tractor Tavern club, the Knitters (the rootsy side band led by X’s John Doe and Exene Cervenka) played a Americana-soaked barnstormer of a show — complete with a guest appearance by Eddie Vedder. Doe invited Vedder onstage to duet with Cervenka on a gleefully frenzied version of X’s 1983 tune “The New World,” with its sardonic lyrics about another election: “It was better before they voted for what’s his name.”

Vedder, who had managed to blend in to the crowd (which also included his Pearl Jam bandmates Jeff Ament and Mike McCready) with his hair tucked into a big black knit cap, was in a mood to celebrate: He pounded out the beat on Doe’s back with his fists, slow-danced with Cervenka, and played air guitar while the Knitters’ Dave Alvin (formerly of the Blasters) finished the song with a lengthy solo that incorporated both Chuck Berry licks and what sounded like part of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” “Thank you, man in the black hat,” Doe said.

oh to see ed play air guitar. haha.

the waiting drove me mad

2009-01-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

yesterday afternoon, i decided to clean my apartment (which, as the state of my kitchen floor can attest to, i do not do nearly enough. sorry, mom) and i thought that while i was doing it i would listen to a CD i haven't heard in awhile. so i stuck my hand into my dark hole of messiness and came out with the molo sessions, the album that eddie vedder recorded a few years ago with a south african choir. i had completely forgotten how much i like that album - and how hard i heart the versions of love boat captain (normally one of my least favorite songs on my least favorite PJ album) and betterman.

so, anyway, the point is that the little act of listening to that CD got me excited about pearl jam again. maybe they'll tour the west coast this summer? ooh.. but maybe they'll play in europe! and maybe i can somehow manage to go to ireland! and maybe the frames will be playing at the same time! and maybe glen and ed will sing together! and... tonight, i took a look around pearl jam's website, which i haven't done in a long time (i made the mistake of logging in to my tenclub account and adding up the purchases i've made since 03. i stopped when it was over 1200 dollars. and that's only since 2003. there's a whole other 11 years of purchasing power to add in to that. and oh yeah it's also not counting plane tickets and hotel rooms. ok, i'm depressing myself), and i noticed that they have a new video section up. one of my favorites is shadow:

on the pearl jam message board i read, there's a thread about favorite moments at pearl jam concerts. since i don't like posting there, i'll do it here because that got me to thinking..

1. the line for tenclub tickets. then getting the envelope with my name on it and wondering where my seats will be...

2. ed doing a set before the opening band. sadly, i have only seen that once but it still qualifies as a favorite moment.

3. the moment when the houselights go off and PJ comes on stage. what will the opening song be? will it be release or corduroy or something else? PJ's opening song can set the mood for the whole show like no other band i have ever seen.

4. going to the bathroom during evenflow. i used to never ever leave during a concert but once i had seen this song 15 times, i decided to break my rule. and it's actually kind of fun - at least in boston last june, there were probably about 50 other people who sprinted out of the front sections during this song. so i'm not the only one. plus, i when i left and came back, matt was still doing his drum solo.

5. i've said it before, but i'll say it again, there is something amazing about looking around a big ampitheatre (or, ahem, a small club) and seeing pretty much everyone doing the same thing at the same time: clapping during corduroy or hail hail, counting down at the beginning of animal, singing hallelujah during do the evolution, singing the first verse of betterman.

6. will there be a save it for later tag on betterman? what will the daughter tag be?

7. baba o riley. or rockin in the free world. either is good. but now i have to stop myself from listing every other song that i love.

8. the signs (mostly). even when i don't get them ("play leash." for the love of god, why that song??) i used to have a tape of the madison square garden concert on 9.11.98, and every time i heard breath, the cheer of the crowd made me feel like i was there. (if you don't know the story of that, basically it was a song that the band hadn't played in a long time but some fans organized to bring signs for it to multiple concerts and then PJ finally played it on that night. i listened to the bootleg so much that i remember that after the first verse ed said something like, "is that okay?" i always loved that)

i'm sure i'll think of more things to add to this list. man, i love pearl jam. i rarely get this excited about anything. tour already!

to the universe i don't mean a thing

2009-01-18T21:07:00.000-08:00

i went to the drugstore today and felt really bad for a girl in the checkout line. she was trying to pay with her debit card, and apparently the cashier's computer screen said "declined due to insufficient funds," a fact which she repeated loudly to pretty much the entire front half of the store. the poor girl looked like she was about to start crying, and ran out of the store while the cashier shook her head and said in a really annoyed voice, "now i'm going to have to void all of this stuff out. idiot." nice. people rock.

since i don't have much to say (except that woo-hoo i'm going to see mark lanegan and greg dulli feb. 15 at the showbox!), here are a FEW pictures from christmas:

my parent's dog, annamae
my mom cooking lobster for christmas eve dinner

death cab for cutie

2009-01-13T20:10:00.000-08:00

last november, death cab for cutie's first album, something about airplanes, was reissued in honor of its tenth anniversary. i am not a big fan of death cab's last two albums, i do, however, consider something about airplanes, the photo album, and transatlanticism to be some of my favorite cds. there's just a rawness and passion to the band that i don't think is as evident now that they've made it big. and it really pains me to say that, because don't you always want a band that you love to become successful (maybe to even somewhat validate your obssession with them)?

but anyway, back to something about airplanes . i first heard this record when i was in college and going out of my way to find obscure little bands from seattle to listen to. my favorite song on the album is bend to squares, about which sean nelson writes in the liner notes to the reissue, "this song, with its desire, its demand for gravitas, contains the germ of everything Death Cab would become capable of, and everything people would come to love and probably hate about them." um, okay, i won't pretend that i'm smart enough to follow that, but it sounds about right. plus don't they look cute in this video? and that is really all that matters.
kidding.

the cave singers

2009-01-10T21:36:00.001-08:00

i always feel like i'm late to the party. the first album by the cave singers has been out for over a year and i have now only just heard it. they were one of the bands playing with minus the bear at the showbox last night, and i liked them so much that i bought invitation songs today.
here's dancing on our graves, live from the BBC:

there's just something about this group that i find really charming. one of the band members, derek fudesco, used to be in pretty girls make graves and the murder city devils (hey, i've heard of them:) one of my favorite parts of finding a new band is playing six degrees of separation. i just wish the day were longer so that i could listen to everything..

this is what their biography says:
Here is the mystery of Seattle’s Cave Singers: They never listened to much folk music, they never intended to play folk music, and more importantly, their guitarist never picked up the instrument until recently. Yet, this strange trio is writing and performing some of the most hypnotizing folk music we have today.

here are their upcoming tour dates:
Jan 23 2009 8:00P
Troubadour West Hollywood, California
Jan 24 2009 8:00P
The Partisan Merced, California
Jan 25 2009 6:30P
Cafe Du Nord San Francisco, California
Jan 25 2009 8:00P
Cafe Du Nord San Francisco, California
Jan 27 2009 8:00P
Doug Fir Portland, Oregon
Jan 28 2009 8:00P
Neumos Seattle, Washington
May 8 2009 8:00P
ATP Festival Minehead

i think i might go see them at neumos, even though it will break my not staying out too late on weeknights rule.

my boyfriend

2009-01-03T15:42:00.001-08:00

i came across this interview and had to put it here so i would be able to find it forever because it made me laugh and cringe at the same time. it's very strange and funny in its randomness (is that a word?). and i love robert pattinson. his facial expression at the end is hilarious. yes, it's twilight-related. sue me.

Robert Pattinson Part 2 from Radio Planet on Vimeo.

so this is the difference between living and not living...

2008-12-30T22:19:00.000-08:00

the title of this post is taken from a minus the bear song - my new obsession.

i have figured out that this is how my mind works: i find something i like (be it a band, a book, a movie, an actor, even a tv show) and i become completely consumed by it for an indefinite period of time. i cannot stop listening to minus the bear - and, except for making a copy of vitalogy as a christmas present and a mixed CD of some of my favorite songs by seattle bands as another gift, no other bands have seen the inside of my CD player since thanksgiving time. i've even started taking a longer bus to work (i.e. one that takes 45 minutes to get me to my destination vs. my normal one that takes me 20 minutes) just so i can listen to minus the bear a little bit longer on my ipod. i'm not entirely sure what it is about this band but i don't really want it to go away. and i'm super excited to see them at the showbox on january 9th (with rocky votolato!). counting the days. eagerly. 10.

i came across an old interview with jake snider and this kind of cracked me up:
Q: Someone wrote that your voice is so passionless, you might as well be singing about the ham sandwich you had for lunch. Does that make you want to belt out a song about a ham sandwich?
A: No, not really. I'm a laid-back dude in reality. My personality is mellow and not in-your-face and not aggressive. When we're playing, I'm not like, "Hellooo, New Jersey!" If it sounds like I'm singing about a ham sandwich when I'm not, then oh well. Maybe I'm singing about a ham sandwich and I just don't know about it.

ha!

in these arms

2008-12-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

LOVE.

Backstage Sessions : The Swell Season - "In These Arms" from Hard to Find a Friend on Vimeo.

run run rudolph

2008-12-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

i have been meaning to post about this all week, but i never quite got around to it. on tuesday, i went to see shadow (mike mccready's first band), kim virant, star anna and kristin ward at the tractor tavern in ballard. it was a benefit for treehouse, an organization that provides toys to foster kids in king county.

i'll start at the end. mike played yellow ledbetter again, and asked the crowd to sing along because he said he didn't know the words (haha, does anyone?) and, for some reason, this time i found the singalong even funnier than last time. everyone was singing something different - it was like yellow ledbetter in the round. as a finale, everyone came back on stage to sing run, run rudolph
, hence the title of my post.

it was an early show, which i loved, since i'm like an old lady and i hate staying out late. first, mike came out by himself and played a few songs, one of which was a cover and the other of which was a song he had written. it was pretty good, although i am biased. he also said that pearl jam is currently working on thier new album and that "ed brought in a song that was pretty punk-sounding." what a surprise.. but that makes me happy! new pearl jam!! now play a show in seattle, please!!!!

once again, i found myself standing in front of rick, which i liked since he is so fun to watch. he just seems so.. happy while he plays. like a kid. and he's obviously really good. i'm a dork - at one point, mike stepped out onto the table in front of me to play and he put his foot on my jacket which was laying there and i just thought, "oh my god, mike mccready is standing on my coat. i will never wash it again." hehe. just kidding about that last part, although the whole thing was pretty surreal.

other notes: shadow is really LOUD - even with earplugs, my ears were kind of hurting. i really like kim virant more and more every time i see her. she has a great voice, and she's kind of funny. and the tractor is a cool place to see a show.

favorite things, part I

2008-12-06T20:37:00.000-08:00

oprah has a list of her favorite things. i thought i'd try one.

twilight - a friend gave me this book in october, and i remember calling my mom and saying, "it's a book for teenagers! i'm sure i won't like it, but i have to read it because i don't want to offend her." that was on the friday before i went to LA (to see the swell season), and by monday morning, i had finished twilight and its sequel, new moon. i don't know what it is exactly about these books (there are 4 in the series, but i don't recommend the last one) that make them so hard to put down. they're not always well-written, but the story that stephanie meyer tells is interesting, funny, sad and happy all at the same time. it's like a fairy tale with some fantasy and mythology thrown in. and, really, what woman does not want edward to come sweep her off her feet? i realize he's fictional, but he's ten times better than any man i've met in real life. speaking of, if you by any chance agree with me about the wonder that is this book, you should read midnight sun on stephanie meyer's website. it is twilight told from edward's point of view. sadly, only chapters 1-12 are online, but it is fascinating (seriously. i think i like it more than twilight. almost)

although the movie based on the book is not great, the line i had an adrenaline rush, you can google it has provided me with endless amusement. also - cue teenage girl reaction - rob pattinson, the actor who plays edward, is GORGEOUS. i wonder if he will marry me? hehe.

minus the bear - this is the band that i first saw at bumbershoot and was blown away by. three months later, the love affair has not ended - in fact, it has grown. i even have a minus the bear sticker on my water bottle sharing space with eddie vedder. their new ep of acoustic songs is, as i discover every time i listen to it, beautiful. and i think i have decided that pachuca sunrise has got to be one of the prettiest songs ever. (well, i'm sure that's an exaggeration, but let's go with it anyway)

pearl jam - of course. the highlight of my year was my vacation to boston, and that would not even have happened (i'm sure) if it had not coincided with a pearl jam concert. my next goal is to see them play in europe. it WILL happen... better yet, a joint pearl jam and frames show in dublin. where both bands play two hour sets. please??

eddie vedder - he gets his own category, because seeing him in vancouver last april was one of the best shows i have ever been to. and i just realized that he can be connected to twilight (which i'm sure thrills him), since kristen stewart (bella) was in into the wild. hee!

the swell season - last on this list, but certainly not least. i saw them three times this year, and every time was better than the last. i love it when i can combine a concert with a trip to another city - if seeing pearl jam in boston was the highlight of my year, seeing the swell season in san francisco is probably the second best.

last stop on the west coast line

2008-12-03T20:04:00.001-08:00

(i call this picture "cliff diving in la push." if you understand that, you have probably read new moon)

my parents and i went to friday harbor for thanksgiving. they rented a little house on the coast, and we saw deer and foxes. it was fun and relaxing and i didn't want to come back.

click on the picture below to see the rest.

Friday Harbor

mike mccready

2008-11-23T19:55:00.001-08:00

hehe. look what i'm going to on december 9th. yay!

MIKE MCCREADY AND SHADOW '86 JOIN KIM VIRANT, STAR ANNA AND KRISTEN WARD AT SEATTLE'S TRACTOR TAVERN TO BENEFIT TREEHOUSE FOR KIDS11.18.08

Patrons Donating a New Toy to Treehouse at the Show Will a Receive Free Drink Voucher

WHAT: Pearl Jam's Mike McCready and his band Shadow '86, a Jimi Hendrix Tribute band, join Kim Virant, Star Anna and Kristen Ward for an evening of music to benefit Treehouse for Kids. Filling an important need in the community, Treehouse for Kids provides vital services for children throughout Washington in foster care.

Volunteers from Treehouse for Kids will be on-hand to collect toys for children of all ages. For a wish list of wanted toys, please visit treehouseforkids.org.

WHEN: Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Doors at 6 p.m. and show at 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Tractor Tavern
5213 Ballard Ave NW (at the corner of 20th Ave NW and Ballard Ave NW)

TICKETS: Tickets for the event can be purchased for $15 at ticketweb.com. A service fee of $3.43 will be added to each ticket price. Event is for ages 21 and over.

what a difference it would make if we were finally awake

2008-11-23T18:56:00.000-08:00

to borrow a word from one of my favorite men, i had a BRILLIANT time seeing minus the bear at the showbox last night. seriously, if you are reading this blog and you have never heard this band, what are you waiting for?? i think you'd like them. i counted at least four people wearing pearl jam hats and/or shirts. me approve.

as we left the showbox, i said that the reason i like minus the bear so much is that many of their songs end in a totally different place than they started - like they become entities of their own, if that makes sense. i really enjoy that unpredictability. last night, i was hard-pressed to think of a better show in my recent memory. (i know, i know, i always say that when i enjoy a concert. sue me).

highly refined pirates, which came out a few years ago i guess, is my favorite minus the bear album and i have to admit that i am not a big fan of planets of ice, their newest cd. the songs just seem, i don't know, bland. kind of lifeless on the album, and it kills me to say that - but live, they absolutely blew me away. a couple of the songs had different arrangements - they released an 8-song acoustic EP on itunes and printed some copies for their tour. it's very good. i especially was impressed with lotus, their first song. it's the last song on planets of ice, and it sounds like three songs rolled into one, but somehow it works. and to quote glen hansard again, it is brilliant. i am always super-impressed when a band can take songs that i don't like on CD and make me LOVE (not just like, even) them live.

plus i would be remiss if i did not mention the incredibly awesome drummer. i had to crane my neck to watch him, but it was well worth it. the way his sticks fly through the air is almost mind-boggling.

last night was the end of their tour, and jake snider must have mentioned about 4 times how happy they were to be playing in seattle (they're from seattle - a fact which endears them to me even more). i'm sure that part of them saying that was to appease the crowd, but it's always nice to hear that bands like playing in this city that i have come to love. (unlike, ahem, some bands who might very well enjoy playing in seattle but haven't done it in about 4 years. seriously, would it kill them to play a show within driving distance? the gorge doesn't count).

pachuca sunrise

lotus

the walkmen

2008-11-15T13:08:00.001-08:00

another album i have found myself obsessed with lately is you and me by the walkmen. i saw them at bumbershoot in august, and enjoyed their set, but had honestly forgotten about them until i heard a song by them on KEXP.

i love the singer's (whose first name is hamilton, like my last name. ha) voice. and i always like when i find bands that have big back catalogues that i can discover. it's fun. and that's all i have to say about that.

next week will be awesome. on thursday, a bunch of us from work are going to see the midnight premiere of twilight (and i'm going to go to work the next day, which will be it's own kind of excitement, i'm sure). on friday, my mom and dad are coming to visit, and then on saturday, kristine and i are going to see minus the bear at the showbox!! i have been looking forward to that since september.

lovesick vampires - or, kings of leon

2008-11-11T21:10:00.000-08:00

so, i recently got kings of leon's newest cd, and i think i am in love with a new band. again. i don't know why i never paid attention to this group before now, but ah well, at least i found them. and this might be my new favorite video on youtube. who IS that awesome tambourine player?? :) every band should have one of those. (i think that it's funny how most of the bands i like are somehow connected to pearl jam).

i was reading a little bit on their website and i'm sure that my twilight-obsessed friends will be interested to hear that closer, the first track on the album, is - honest to god - about a lovesick vampire. 2000 years of chasing has taken it's toll. ha. could be from edward's perspective, no?? (kristine, you were right, everything i think about somehow relates to twilight. i am very sick).

cold desert is my favorite song on their new album. i have been listening to it over and over this past week, so much that it'll probably quickly become a song i skip over (or, maybe it won't. we'll see), and it occurs to me, seeing them play it live, that it could easily become one of those cheesy power-ballad love songs, but i can't resist caleb's voice or that intoxicating bass. LOVE.

i REALLY REALLY regret not going to see them when they were in seattle in september. looking at their tour schedule, it doesn't look like they'll be anywhere near here anytime soon:(

it seems that you live in someone else's dream

2008-11-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

death cab for cutie!

wow, ben got a haircut, i think. i liked the way he looked before. he looks.. less nerdy now, i suppose. but that's what i liked about him before. he looks a little too much like a model in this video and it's creeping me out. but this is one of the only songs i like from their new album, so here it is.

i spent a good part of the afternoon today looking for an mp3 player to replace the one that got wet when my water bottle leaked the other day. i hate buying stuff like that because sales people intimidate me and i usually end up buying more than what i want and then feeling bad about it afterward. one of the salesmen at best buy was babbling on to me about ipods and bluetooth until i looked at him and said, "i have no clue what you're talking about." and then he went on about video games for about 5 minutes and i didn't want to interrupt him and tell him that i STILL had no idea what he was going on about.

but i managed to get something and i'm looking forward to being able to listen to music on the bus tomorrow morning. the first thing that i downloaded was a bunch of ray lamontagne songs because i have discovered a fondness for him. and i thought that it was awesome when i read that he's from maine. ha! we already have something in common. i also am completely IN LOVE with the new kings of leon album. wow! i love the singer's voice, the music.. everything about this band. listening to them almost makes me feel the way i felt when i first heard pearl jam. they're THAT good. wow. listen to cold desert. that song is completely owning my world right now.

pearl jam's newest newsletter has a look-a-like contest. you're supposed to dress up the way that one of the members looked in the early 90s. i'm tempted to try to be jeff. not that i'd win or anything, but i think it might be fun to try to find some wacky hats and crazy outfits to wear. i bet i could do it.

oh! speaking of fashion, i saw the cutest shirt in the mall today that i think i want to buy. it said, i'm a caffeine craving, flannel wearing, raindrop dodging seattle girl. do i look like i used to be in a grunge band? LOVE.

i love seattle

2008-11-06T22:44:00.000-08:00

from an article on komotv.com:

A crowd spilled into the streets near the Pike Place Market and on Capitol Hill Tuesday night. Perfect strangers were hugging and giving high-fives. Fireworks were going off, and people were crowd surfing.

But police say the scene was very peaceful, and when the party began to wane, people grabbed brooms and starting sweeping up the mess, with officers thanking them as they drove through.

how civilized.

guess you don't want me to repeat it

2008-11-06T21:05:00.001-08:00

well, my day sucked. my water bottle somehow leaked in my bag and now my ipod is very unhappy about floating in an inch of water for who knows how long. who would guess that ipods don't like water?!? how am i supposed to survive my morning bus rides without the frames or pearl jam?!?? someone at work told me i let it air-dry for a couple of days and it'll magically start working again. i'm not going to hold my breath, though.

plus, today was parent-teacher conference day (as is tomorrow). i enjoy those, for the most part, they're just really draining for someone like me who is not very good at talking. i don't like to talk about work on here much because that's something i like to (theoretically) leave behind at 5:30, but today i didn't have my ipod to calm me down on the bus ride home and that's thrown off my entire night i think.

this is another thing that sucks: ray lamontagne is playing in seattle on sunday and i didn't buy tickets and now the show is sold out. i do that a lot. i think of a show i want to go to but not enough to buy tickets to right away, and then i just forget and forget about it and when i finally remember, tickets are sold out. i'm really irresponsible, i think sometimes. this video is awesome:

i love his voice, and this song just seems to fit with the weather and my mood tonight. much as i love this time of year, i also hate it. it gets dark so early, and it seems like my bus has been late every night this week. and i don't even have my freaking ipod to entertain me. and i can't read my book because it's dark.

2 weeks till twilight and minus the bear! not that those two things have anything at all to do with each other - i'm just excited about both. in fact, i think i'll go to bed and read twilight right now. that sounds like fun.

i fell into a burning ring of fire

2008-11-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

..or a happy days rerun.

last night at the showbox was.. different. i was wondering how all the opening bands were going to fit into the show without it running four hours long, but the show was structured kind of like a musical revue, which was interesting. first, vince mira came out and played a couple of songs, and then a duo made up of a man and woman named the antiques came on. the guys behind me were joking that they looked like the white stripes (the man did resemble jack white in passing, i suppose) and that they were going to say, "our first song is called seven nation army." ha. they were alright.

then stone gossard and his "hank williams khoir" (which i guess consists of a female singer and vince mira's backing band?) did some songs. for some reason, it always cracks me up when i see a member of pearl jam on stage in something other than pearl jam. especially here. for the last song, he played 1999. party over, whoops, out of time/tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999. that alone may have been worth the price of admission.

(excuse my crappy picture. but it's stone!)

one of the last bands to come out was called the dusty 45's. they played some songs, some of which were alright, some of which were a touch annoying. i think the singer described them as "honkytonk." uh, alrighty. however, for the grand finale, the singer nodded to some woman in front of me and she lit his trumpet on fire. he played the end of the song - with his trumpet blazing - standing on top of the stand-up bass. it was cool, but i was a little bit afraid that he would fall and set the stage on fire. that would have been exciting, i suppose, but nothing i really wanted to see.

i enjoyed vince mira. he, if you don't know, is a kid (16? 17? something like that) who sounds uncannily similar to johnny cash. he got his start playing around pike place market, and it was pretty impressive that the showbox was almost full for him last night. i'm no johnny cash fan, but, judging from the women down front who were screaming like they were on the ed sullivan show or something, he must be alright.

i'm a dork

2008-11-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

i want this shirt:

in case you can't tell, it's from twilight and underneath the apple, it says "bite me." heh. i wouldn't ever wear it in public, but that's not the point. i'm a 28-year-old teenager. no shame in that, right? maybe edward will be my boyfriend.

as if anyone needs further proof that i'm a dork, i now have a ticket to see the midnight premiere of twilight.

did you fall on your way?

2008-11-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

things that i like...

this video

i love his voice. doesn't it look like the veins in his neck are gonna pop out?

speaking of glen hansard, i read about this a few weeks ago:
'Once' musical headed for Broadway
The Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová-starring movie 'Once', which won the Oscar for Best Original Song with 'Falling Slowly' in 2007, is to be made into a Broadway musical.
i'm not actually sure if i like that news or not.. i wouldn't want once the musical to become like rent the movie. now, THERE is a play that i love and have seen 4 times and now have memorized - but, man if the movie doesn't suck. i can see that happening with once. much as i adore it, i think there comes a time to let something go and move on. this smells of people just wanting to make money for money's sake rather than for art's sake. i wonder how much glen and marketa have to do with this... the article goes on to say that the musical will include some songs that didn't make the cut for the movie, which is interesting to say the least.. but i'm still skeptical.

christmas music
now that it's november, i can start playing this, right? i heart my transsiberian orchestra cd. heh.

the cost
as in, the frames album. i have never really cared for it (and probably haven't listened to it all the way thru more than a handful of times), but i've been playing it nonstop for the past week. maybe it's something to do with the weather - some music just seems to go better with cold, rain and wind. and heaven knows we have plenty of that this time of year in seattle.

lazy saturdays
i have spent the day watching the west wing marathon on bravo (i love that show), baking pumpkin bread (trader joe's has a yummy mix. there's nothing better than the smell of bread baking), and reading. i'm just relieved that halloween is over, and enjoying the peace and quiet - much as i love the kids in my class, there definately is such a thing as TOO much candy and i think they passed that point at 10:00 yesterday morning. heavens. my mom will love to read me admit this, but sometimes i think that i'm being punished for whining so much when i was a kid.

i am going to see vince mira tonight at the showbox, so maybe i'll have something more interesting to write about tomorrow.

twilight

2008-10-26T17:42:00.001-07:00

i'm sorry, i am completely obsessed with these books. i have crossed over to the dark side, and last night i even had a dream about edward. and i can't believe i admitted that.

if you've never read these books (there are 4 in the series), they are basically about a vampire and a human who fall in love with each other. the books were written for "young adults" (i'm still one right?) and they are by no means great literature (you can easily read 500 pages in two days), but the heart of the books is the love story between edward and bella. and it's so great because it's unconditional; they'll do anything for each other. they sacrifice everything to be together, but somehow it is worth it. i don't think anything close to that exists in real life (or at least, not in my life), but it's fun to read about and let yourself be immersed in for hours at a time.

what woman, no matter her age, wouldn't want a boyfriend who opens doors for her, writes songs for her, sings her to sleep, and generally goes out of his way to protect her while asking for nothing in return (seriously, nothing). not to mention kills vampires who threaten her and flies into her bedroom window to watch her sleep.

anyway.. this video is hilarious. it's an interview with the actors who play edward and bella, and i guess that they are being asked about the kissing scenes (it's an mtv interview, after all), and the guy who plays edward says "there's always the elephant in the room of i want to kill her. all the time." haha. i do think there is a point when he gets past that feeling, robert.

i pledge my grievance to the flag...

2008-10-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

everyone should go to REM's website to watch the documentary about pearl jam's vote for change tour in 2004. (why that is on REM's site instead of pearl jam's, i don't really understand). it's long -over an hour - but pretty interesting. there are a couple of really cool moments - masters of war on letterman (i don't think i had ever actually seen that before), all along the watchtower with neil young, and eddie voting (!!). hehe. i really want to see pearl jam again now.

speaking of voting, my ballot came last week (i'm a permanent absentee voter). this will be the third time i've voted for a president, and hopefully, the first time the person i vote for will actually win.

also speaking of pearl jam, i must note that eight years ago tonight (holy moly, that seems like a long time ago), i was in las vegas seeing their tenth anniversary show. if you are reading my blog, you most likely know me and know that PJ is a huge part of my life - i have spent unknown sums of money on them (but wouldn't want a cent of it back), and have traveled around the country to see them and had some memorable experiences along the way. even though i don't listen to them every day - sometimes i go months without listening to a pearl jam album - when i do finally hear a song like given to fly, it feels a little bit like meeting an old friend again. anyway.

.. but watch the video. it's cool.

*edit: whoops, i guess they took it down. maybe the tenclub is planning to release it as a DVD?

it's okay, you don't have to run and hide away

2008-10-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

here's a completely pointless post...

coming home on the bus tonight, my ipod decided to play a pearl jam show from 2006, and daughter/it's ok came on, and on a dreary, cold evening this song made me remember one reason why i love this band so much:

speaking of pearl jam, it was so helpful that their fan club sent an email about the tom morello/mike mccready/stone gossard show after tickets had already gone on sale and sold out. rock on. of course, if i hadn't deleted my email from the showbox announcing the show i might possibly have a ticket now, so i should probably shut up. but i hate going out on week nights, so it's all for the best i suppose. i can be zen about it.

the other day, carrie brownstein (who has an awesome blog at NPR's website, but i'm too lazy right now to look up the link) made a post about cassette tapes, and i was surprised to find that i still have some - mostly pearl jam shows. i also found my tape of pearl jam's radio show, self pollution radio, in 1995 (?). so, then, of course, i started listening to it and got hit by a wave of nostalgia when i remembered staying up late the night when it was on. since i was in maine and the show was live from the west coast, i was up until 2 or 3 in the morning, keeping the radio low so that my parents wouldn't hear. to this day, every time i hear corduroy, i imagine hearing "WKIT" (the name of the radio station in bangor) in the middle, because during the show, they cut into that song with their station name.

i can also remember listening to the 2 dave grohl songs - exhausted and gas chamber - that eddie played over and over. i remember that he said those songs make him want to take his car over a cliff. heh. in a good way, i suppose. oh - i also remember that krist novoselic read a chapter from a book that he was writing and i fell asleep listening to it almost every night for a few weeks (i was a pretty big nirvana fan for a while after in utero came out).

maybe i'll just go listen to the entire tape again. ha. sounds like a fun evening.

(more) things that make me happy

2008-10-19T20:57:00.001-07:00

kristine and i went to one of my favorite places in seattle, discovery park, today. the weather was perfect for walking in the woods - it was a great fall morning; not freezing cold, but there was definately a chill in the air. we walked in the woods to the beach and then out to the lighthouse. in the afternoon, we went to another of my favorite places in seattle - easy street records. i restrained myself and bought only 3 used cd's, which is pretty impressive for me.

i love this time of year for lots of reasons: i love wearing comfy sweaters and corduroy pants, i love walking through leaves, i love the fact that days are shorter, i love halloween movies and tv shows, i love pumpkin spice lattes at starbucks (one of my many weaknesses), i love the (all too rare, here) sunny, chilly days and i even love (well, okay, like) the rain.

something that makes me unhappy, however, is the fact that the red sox lost tonight and won't be in the world series. no good! i even missed most of the amazing race so that i could watch what i hoped would be their big comeback. i am going to cry now.

things that make me happy...

2008-10-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

i just bought a ticket to see this nov. 1 at the showbox:

Country music's newest young star's rise to fame has captivated America. Born in Los Angles, California and raised in San Antonio, Texas the young singer/songwriter Vince Mira, was discovered by entertainment producer Chris Snell (owner of Seattle night club, Can Can) while playing for tips in Seattle's Pike Place Market. He is now on his way to becoming a household name. His first album was produced by John Carter Cash (Johnny Cash and June Carter's only son) and recorded at the Cash Cabin (built by Johnny Cash) in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to the completion of recording "Cash Cabin Sessions" the Vince Mira buzz began to spread followed by a media frenzy. First featured on KOMO News in Seattle, Washington, Good Morning America picked up the story immediately... 2 weeks later Vince captured the nation with a breathtaking live performance in front of over 5 million viewers. Subsequently, the Ellen DeGeneres Show aired his Good Morning America clip where Ellen personally invited Vince to the Ellen Show during their national broadcast the same day... two weeks later Vince received a standing ovation on the show while performing in front of millions of viewers during yet another outstanding live performance. Mr. Mira's other television appearances include Northwest Afternoon and Univision; as well as features in print media outlets such as Seattle Sound Magazine, Seattle Times, Seattle Magazine, Seattle Weekly, and many others. He recently recorded with Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam for Stone's upcoming "Hank Williams Tribute" CD. Mr. Mira's "Cash Cabin Sessions" CD release was February 26, 2008 at the Tripledoor Theatre where he performed two shows to sold out audiences with his band The Roy Kay Trio.

this kid is awesome. i first saw him last summer at the pike place market 100th birthday celebration, and then at bumbershoot this summer. plus, how can i resist the pearl jam connection? (no matter how tenuous)

this song by iron and wine. i don't own any albums by him, but he opened for the swell season in LA and this song was his first. it is one of those songs that you don't want to have end.

the trailer for twilight. i cannot believe that the first movie i'm considering going to at midnight on opening night is based on a book written for teenagers.

the fact that tomorrow is friday!!

things that make me sad...

the fact that i missed this. (now tickets are long gone of course) how i can miss an email from the showbox that screams "pearl jam guitarist!!" is beyond me. i did, though. the email is in my trash folder, although i don't remember ever seeing it..

Showbox presents
Get Out The Vote Rally & Concert
Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman
with Mike McCready and Shadow '86, Stone Gossard's Hank Williams Khoir, and Boots Riley (of The Coup)

i have a dentist appointment on saturday. boo!
i'm going to cry now...

you've gotta hear this band, they'll change your life

2008-10-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

a friend asked me to list my favorite albums for her. first, a disclaimer: the 'classics' are woefully absent from my CD collection. so instead of trying to pretend i'm something i'm not, i'm listing the albums that *i* love, not necessarily the ones that any rock fan should own - because i, most likely *do not* own those. make sense? they're in no particular order - except for the first 2. i also tried to pick only one album per band, although i broke that rule a few times.

1. a tie: no code by pearl jam and yield by pearl jam.
i cannot choose between these two. they both changed the way i listen to music.

2. dance the devil by the frames. also: for the birds

life's rich pageant (REM)

achtung baby (u2)

in utero (nirvana)

siamese dream (smashing pumpkins)

daydream nation (sonic youth)

tommy (the who)

RENT soundtrack

from the choirgirl hotel (tori amos)

new adventures in hi-fi (REM)

all hands on the bad one (sleater kinney)

august and everything after (counting crowes)

the photo album (death cab for cutie)

the color and the shape (foo fighters)

the swell season. only because i love glen hansard :)

those are the ones that come to mind first. i'm sure i'll keep adding to this list.

we have all the time in the world to get it right

2008-10-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

the swell season, los angeles, october 4, 2008

the swell season concert was AMAZING. kristine and i got to the greek theatre (after a LONG but fun walk from our hotel in hollywood) just in time to buy t-shirts and get to our (second row!) seats for iron and wine. i got a shirt and colm's new cd, the hare's corner (which i highly recommend by the way. i'm listening to it now. perfect music for cold, windy nights when all you want to do is cuddle in your pajamas and read a good book). so here are some of my personal highlights and pictures (which will, as usual, probably end up not so much "highlights" as "a complete rundown of what megan remembers from the show." sorry. i'm not good at editing my thoughts)

into the mystic glen and marketa came out at exactly 8:50. (before i continue, i will note for the record that i feel stupid calling them by thier first names but what else should i call them?) i know because i looked at my watch right before that and gauged that i had enough time to go to the bathroom and make it back before the show started. i got out of my seat and started walking out when suddenly the lights dimmed and glen started singing. i love this song - everything about it; the joy it seems to bring to them to play it, the way their voices harmonize, i want to rock your gypsy soul... in the middle of the song, i'm pretty sure that someone yelled, "kiss her," and i'm equally sure that a few seconds later, glen smiled and said, "i think i just got what you said." after the song, someone yelled, "you look beautiful marketa and glen." and glen smiled again, and said "you're lucky you included glen in that." hehe. he never fails to entertain me.

the moon this song, along with sleeping, is my favorite song on the swell season. i love the way it starts out so quietly and ends up in another dimension with everyone on stage playing so hard that you wonder if the world is about to end. i think that it's easy to see that these musicians have become a band in every sense of the word. in fact, glen himself said that the frames had been at the point where they felt like they needed to take a break and try something else. and now what has happened? the swell season are touring, but the frames have become the band that are playing with them, so it's almost like the frames have just expanded to include marketa. on one hand, i'm kind of sad about that because even though i LOVE the swell season and adore just about anything glen hansard would want to do, the frames are one of my favorite bands and the thought of never seeing another FRAMES concert is a bit disconcerting... on to happier thoughts..

astral weeks my mental setlist is not in any order here, as this came later in the show. but, this song.. what can i say? i've seen videos and heard recordings of glen playing it, but i think that until you witness it in person you never quite believe the intensity that one human being can have. i've been to a fair amount of concerts, and i don't think that i've ever - excluding pearl jam, because i can never objectively consider them - seen another performer play his guitar like that. WOW. and when he sang, "will you kiss my eyes?" someone from the audience yelled, "yes!" (of course) quite enthusiastically, and glen smiled.

say it to me now glen came out onto the edge of the stage with no amplification for this one. i know that he does that a lot, but it is quite one thing to be in the 8th row during that song and another to be literally right underneath him. i snapped a picture and thought i might die.

new songs! after seeing glen and marketa in april, i wrote about how much i LOVE the new song she sings. time hasn't changed that. it's still beautiful. and i especially love the ending, when the song gradually fades until everyone on stage is singing, "always on my mind" in perfect harmony. gorgeous. another new song is called low rising, and i don't really know how to describe it except to say that i am falling in love with the sound of glen's guitar and marketa's piano. plus, as a girl particularly, i must confess an unexplainable love for the lyrics ("i want to drink with you all night until we both fall down") and the way that glen's voice has a teasing smile in it. sigh.. i just watched a video of that song on youtube so that i could get the lyrics right, and now it will be in my head all evening.

the hill this song by marketa opened the first encore. this is the song she sings in once when she and glen's character are alone in the recording studio. i never really thought much about this song on the album, but it really fit in a live setting. marketa really does have a beautiful voice and it is awesome to see her confident enough to take the stage by herself. not that i know much about the technical side of music, but i love watching her play piano during songs like when your mind's made up and fitzcarraldo.

mary poppins during the month they were in LA for the oscars, glen became friends with the man who wrote the music for mary poppins. he came out and played piano on that song-that-is-impossible-to-pronounce. i include it in my highlight list because it was absolutely awesome to watch how the rest of the band looked while they were playing with this man. it was like a mixture of "holy cow!" and "am i gonna get caught for sneaking into a party i wasn't invited to?" i can relate to that feeling..

my girl during the second to last song (fitzcarraldo), glen broke a string on his guitar, and while he was trying to fix it, someone else in the band started playing a bit of my girl. a guy who was sitting a few rows from me took out his harmonica and started playing along, and eventually glen and the audience joined in. it was just a great moment of audience-performer interaction.

my friend kristine commented that glen would not be out of place on a comedy stage. somewhere around here, he started talking about how sorry he was for the people that had listened to their soundcheck (don't be sorry you idiot. if i hadn't wanted to do all i could during my weekend in LA, i probably would have been camped out there listening) because they had played some bad, easy-listening songs from the 80s. then he started singing, "sailing, take me away..." haha. it was funny at the time.

people all get ready if there had to be a last song, this was a perfect one. it's almost unbearable when the entire audience sings along. this is one of those songs that i can believe in.
and we have all the time in the world to get it right
to get it right
and we have all the love in the world to set alight
to set alight
just look up

*sigh..*i take pen and paper with me to every pearl jam/swell season/frames show i go to, but not once have i remembered to take them out. i try to write things down when i get home, but we had such an ordeal getting a cab (seriously, i had no idea it could be that difficult to get ahold of a taxi company in a big city on a saturday night) that i crawled into bed as soon as we got back to our hotel. maybe i'll remember more later... all i know is that, during the third song (the moon), i turned to kristine and unequivocally said that this was one of the 5 best concerts i've ever seen.

5 days

2008-09-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

until i will be in LA seeing the swell season. i'm excited, but that goes without saying. i've been following their setlists as closely as i can and it seems like they're mixing stuff up a little bit more and playing a few more frames songs every night. i think my chances of seeing red chord, people all get ready and, perhaps, 7 day mile (i can hope, right?) have just increased.

since the swell season are touring (i do this when pearl jam and the frames are touring, too), one of my daily routines is to look online for reviews/videos/pictures of their shows. this video is, i think, from one of their concerts in the czech republic this summer, and it is one of my favorite frames songs.
headlong

i met some people from work today for lunch and a movie at SIFF (seattle international film festival) cinema, and, as i walked through the seattle center on a gorgeous fall day, i thought about how much i love this time of year. the air was warm but not hot and it had that edge of crispness to it. cool enough for a sweater but still sunny enough for sunglasses. in my last post, i wondered what it was about certain bands/songs that make my heart stop and that i keep wanting to go back to over and over until i know them so well that i can close my eyes and sing along without concentrating or missing a beat. well, i think that it is close to the feeling i had walking outside today. for a while, everything is alright and all you want to do is wrap yourself up in life.

i also accomplished one of my goals for the weekend today - buying the new blitzen trapper album. i'm in the middle of listening to it right now, so i can't write a review yet, but so far i am really liking it. they played a bunch of the new songs at bumbershoot, and i'm actually glad i have heard most of the songs live before hearing the album. buy it.

you're every now and then on my mind

2008-09-21T19:12:00.001-07:00

i'm going to LA in 13 days to see the swell season! the way it usually goes when i'm traveling to see a concert: i get excited when (usually months ahead of time) i buy the tickets, my interest wanes in the ensuing weeks, and i start to get giddy with anticipation again about two weeks (give or take a few days) before the show. or, in the swell season's case, when they start their fall tour. i swear, the frames are one of my favorite bands and i CANNOT WAIT for a new album from them , but the news that glen and marketa are recording together is incredibly awesome. after watching the videos on youtube from their shows in new york, boston and toronto, i have again remembered that magic that they have on stage together. these pictures are especially awesome.

as is this video of a new song from a concert in northampton, ma last month:

i almost want to watch once again. who knew that going to see that film at the seattle film festival in 07 would start such a wonderful love affair with the frames/swell season (swell frames, perhaps?) out of all the music that we hear every day, what is it about certain bands that stops you dead in your tracks?

hey, let's cross the sea and get some culture

2008-09-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

to the person that took my ring from the bathroom at the university village on friday: you suck. you could have turned it into lost and found, but i guess you decided to keep something that didn't belong to you. not that you'll ever read this. but still.

here's a cool video:

and this completes the trifecta of awesomest bands that megan saw at bumbershoot. it is the whigs performing on letterman. i had heard a few things about this band, but had never listened to their music and so decided to check them out. i found a spot down near the front of the stage. one of the guys in the band brought someone a cup of beer before the show and the stage manager (i don't know what you call those people. roadies? person who stands around pretending they're important?) took her beer and poured it into a starbucks cup and handed it back to her with the lid on it. so i spent the first song or two contemplating the nastiness of drinking beer through the hole on the top of that lid. yuck.

once i was able to get into the music, i really enjoyed myself. the whigs are, i suppose, nothing terribly original, although i am no longer sure that's a bad thing to say about a band. after their performance, i walked over to the cd-buying tent, and i noticed that rolling stone had apparently written that they are "a band to watch." whatever that means. i got their record, mission control, the other weekend at easy street (in a particularly good shopping trip - i found a used copy of the gutter twins, a used copy of no code to replace the one that was eaten by my pearl jam eating monster, blitzen trapper, and two minus the bear cd's) and i have since listened to it over 5 times. which is a lot for me, because, although i adore music, i rarely have the attention span these days to sit through an entire record.

i love the way the singer (whose name, by the way, is parker. i love when singers in rock bands have preppy-sounding names. hamilton from the walkmen is another one) jumps around while he's playing. i was telling someone the other day about my new fascination with watching singer's feet. i think that it started with glen hansard, because his foot stomping is such an integral part of the frames/swell season (i give up.. i'm just going to call them the frames season from now on).

speaking of the frames season (ha! it has a ring to it), i will be seeing them in 20 days! yippee! some lady emailed me today to ask if i thought the swell season would be appropriate for a 10 year old. first of all, i love it when someone emails me because it means that someone, somewhere is reading what i write. second of all, her email got me excited about my upcoming concert adventure. third of all, i think she's a very cool mother for taking her child to see glen and marketa.

red wine with every meal

2008-09-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

god, i love this song:

absinthe party at the fly honey warehouse

after a careful scientific study, i believe this is the best video of this song on youtube.

i have officially become obsessed with minus the bear. i bought two of their albums at easy street yesterday - their newest, planet of ice and also highly refined pirates, which i think is their first one (?) i have been listening to them nonstop since. i am slightly in love.

hey let's cross the sea
and get some culture.
red wine with every meal
and absinthe after dinner.
we'd look good side by side.
walking back to the hotel.

over the past week, i've been reading some reviews and interviews with the band, and over and over again, they are referred to as "prog rock." that didn't mean anything to me - well that's not true; for some reason, that word made me think of danzig and their song mother mother that i hated when i was in high school - until i googled it and found that "prog" is short for "progressive." ah, that makes a little more sense. in fact, there was one song at bumbershoot - that i now know is called thanks for the killer game of crisco twister - where i thought the drummer was messing up the beat and playing faster than the rest of the group, but after a few moments i decided that he was doing that on purpose. i've also seen them described as "math rock," which also means nothing to me, but i guess may have to do with the fact that they use a keyboard and that their songs do not necessarily follow a conventional structure. which is what i find interesting.

i also find it interesting that many of jake snider's lyrics are about 1) women and 2) drinking. but they're also really endearing (see above) so i can't hold that against him.

also: i booked a hotel room for LA. i'm excited to see glen and marketa again! yay! 27 days. yes, i'm counting.

minus the bear, or let's drink all night.

2008-09-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

the best completely new-to-me band that i saw at bumbershoot was definitely minus the bear. i don't know how i have never heard of them before (maybe i've been living under a rock?), but i will definitely remedy that quickly.

with most of my favorite bands, love has been instantaneous. i can remember seeing pearl jam on the 92 mtv music awards and feeling the need to immediately run out and buy ten. likewise, i bought all of the frames albums after the first time i saw them live. there is something about seeing some bands that can be magical - it's like all the stars collide, and for an hour or so, everything in the world is perfect. does that make sense to anyone?

i don't think it's exaggerating to say that that's the feeling i felt when i saw this band close bumbershoot on monday. i judge concerts primarily based on the question of whether or not i am able to enjoy the music and forget about all my other worries. after about the third song or so by minus the bear, i was definitely in that state of mind. plus, there is something awesome about hearing live music outside - i think that the notes float through the air and gain even more power before they hit your ears.

watch the drummer during this video. there's a moment at about 2:00 that i think is close to complete sonic perfection, and almost makes me want to cry. yeah, jake snider's voice is not too terribly different from most other rock singers, and i can't tell what the heck he's singing about (something about a girl with gorgeous hands smoking a cigarette, i think), but i guess i have a weakness for this kind of music. and the lead guitarist is wonderful. i am discovering more and more that i love watching musicians perform. i used to be happy just standing in the back where i couldn't see anything (and i still am! i'd stand on the ceiling with my eyes closed for pearl jam, for instance), but i think it's since i moved to seattle and got used to seeing shows at small clubs that i really developed this fascination with watching bands up close. and no matter how many years i live here or how many times i go to bumbershoot, i will never get tired of seeing a show at night under the space needle.

they're playing november 22 at the showbox. yipee!

i still dream of running careless through the snow..

2008-09-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

i think that what i am loving most about blitzen trapper is that they cannot be categorized. are they country? are they rock? are they that word that i hate, "alt-country"? garage rock? experimental? who knows, and does it even really matter? i think the reason i can't stand to listen to the radio (KEXP excluded, for the most part) is that so many of the songs sound alike. i'm not interested in hearing the 90s again ad nauseum.

this band has a crazy number of musicians. i think i counted 3 guitarists and at least two keyboard players. and at the risk of sounding like a fan girl (which i'm not! i swear!) i think i am a little bit in love with the lead singer. i can't believe i just wrote that...

they released their first few albums independently, and then got signed by sub pop (hence their appearance at the 20th anniversary festival), and their new album will be out later this month. i think that the songs that they said were new ones sounded a little bit mellower and less obviously rock oriented. one of the songs on the album, furr, is on the free compilation sub pop gave out for their birthday.

oh, and they're from portland. i hope they come back here soon. aside from great music, they were a whole lot of fun to watch. a lot of their songs were suited to clapping along (but NOT in an annoying way), and don't you just have to love a guitar player who plays an enthusiastic cow bell for one of the songs? after seeing them in july, i put their last album, wild mountain nation, on my ipod and i listen to it most days on my way to work, and the songs can't help but put a smile on my face. i don't know if it's the singer's voice, or the lyrics, or the music itself - or probably a combination of all three..

wild mountain nation. they are, literally, a wall of guitars. awesome. and i love the singer's hand motions. does the beginning of this song make anyone else want to sing, signs, signs everywhere there's signs.... what song is that even from??

country caravan.

p.s... here are my bumbershoot pictures. you can tell what bands i liked because i have the most pictures of them (minus the bear, the whigs, tapes n tapes). i would have more of blitzen trapper, but my camera batteries died. i will never buy walgreens brand again.

this band will change your life x2

2008-09-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

i will upload all my pictures of bumbershoot (and i have a lot! i think i have found a new hobby - taking concert pictures. i may suck at it, but hey.. it's fun) during the week, but for now suffice it to say that i have had the best weekend in a long time. i have been going to bumbershoot since i moved to washington in 2002, and i can never remember seeing so many good bands. usually, i may see one or two that blow me away, but this year every single group that i saw was incredible! (that's due to the fact that i only went to see bands i was interested in, of course, but it's also owing to the line up bumbershoot put together this year)

today was perhaps the best. i started out with vince mira, a kid (i think he's a teenager?) who sounds exactly like johnny cash. i mean EXACTLY. i saw him last year at the pike place market 100th anniversary, and i was sure to get to bumbershoot by noon so that i could check him out today.

next up was mark pickeral and his praying hands who i absolutely adored. the guidebook thingy described him as "alt country." hmm.. that description seems to be thrown around a lot. but, whatever, he was great.

then i pretty much stuck to the stage under the space needle, which was clearly the best stage of the weekend (all of my favorite bands, with the exception of band of horses, were on the stage). first was blitzen trapper, who i am completely in love with. last month, i said that they were my favorite group at the sub pop anniversary festival, and today they were ten times better than they were then. seriously, i can't say enough about them. you know how every once in a while you see a band who completely and utterly floors you and makes you want to go home and buy all their albums and see all the shows that you can? this was that band.

another one who i loved today was john vanderslice. i've heard him before, but never gotten a chance to see him live. he was really great, and had some excellent banter with the crowd about the restaraunt at the top of the space needle. i've heard that it sucks and charges 11 dollars for a hamburger. i think someone told him that it was called denney's. ha. that would rock, actually.

i made the decision to forego seeing death cab on the mainstage - actually not a hard decision; although i loved them at one time, their last two albums (with the exceptions of 2 songs - marching bands of manhattan and cath) have left me feeling like something is missing. incidentally, once their show started, i noticed an absence of the annoying teenagers (not that all teenagers are annoying, but, i have to say, many are) that had been, well, annoying me all day. i don't know if that is some kind of remark about death cab, but there you go.

anyway, instead of seeing them, i went to see minus the bear, and it turns out that was by far the best choice i could have made. WOW. i've never had a chance to see them live before, and i was completely mesmerized. from the second they took the stage to the second they left, i was utterly transfixed. there are very few bands in the world who are so good that they can make me cry (a cookie for you if you can guess who two of them are), but minus the bear surpisingly did just that. i cannot believe i have wasted my time not being a fan of them before, a situation that i will remedy as soon as possible. it was kind of funny to watch some stupid kid try to crowd surf only to fall flat on his butt when no one wanted to play along. ha.

a note: iced coconut mochas from dillentante chocolate (i think i spelled that right) are really, really good. yum. so good that i got one both sunday and monday mornings. mmmm...

sigh. back to real life. why can't this be real life?

you've got to hear this band, they'll change your life

2008-08-31T23:53:00.000-07:00

sometimes, i think music can do just that. at least for a little while.

just a quick post to say that i apologize for complaining a few weeks ago about how there is no new music that i like. the problem is mine for not taking the time to seek out more new-to-me bands, because i have already seen so many good performances at bumbershoot (and i still have a full day tomorrow!). in no real order, we have: band of horses, nada surf, the walkmen (i will note that i think it's hilarious that their lead singer's first name is the same as my last name), tapes n' tapes (WOW. they blew me away), the whigs (likewise. WOW. they won me over once and for all with their cover of the kids are alright. i do love a song i can sing along with), and the blakes (although i liked them better last year when they were on an outdoor stage and had an awesomely enthusiastic tambourine player). i had doubts about seeing band of horses in this setting (they were playing on the mainstage), but they were so great that i remember thinking during their set that it was the best mainstage performance i've seen since wilco/REM four years (i think) ago. not only is ben's voice suited for the outdoors during sunset, but who can help but love a singer who yells "woooo!" after every song and calls the audience "dudes"? i've seen them five times now, and i think every time is better than the last. tapes n' tapes (who were the last band i saw tonight) had me leaving the seattle center on an absolute high, loving life and feeling like i don't have a care in the world. they kind of reminded me of the frames in a way, not so much because they sound alike but because the songs just build and build until the musicians are on stage going insane and i just want to close my eyes and enjoy it. and how have i not heard the whigs before? they were INCREDIBLE. and they're from athens, georgia, like my beloved REM.

i am already dreading going back to work tuesday. ugh. i love bumbershoot, but it's always kind of sad when it's over. oh... i had time today to browse flatstock, the poster exhibition, and i am salivating over a swell season poster. it is a deep orange (it would match my PJ LA 2006 one!) with a big swan in the middle and the words "swell season north american tour 2008" on it. it's only 20 dollars, but i'm sure that if i got it, i would do what i have done for all my PJ posters, which is order a custom frame for it which ends up costing more than the poster itself. so i don't really need it. except for if i do, in a moment of weakness, tomorrow.

was it a box or a bag?

2008-08-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

FINALLY!!! i have something exciting to write about! (well, for me anyway, no guarantees it'll excite you!)

tonight, i left work early to go see mike mccready and company (aka rick and chris friel, with a few other singers thrown in to the mix) at the tractor tavern in ballard (can i see a show there every week? i love the cowboy boots hanging from the ceiling). if you know me or have been reading my blog, you will no doubt understand why i was tickled pink by mike's introduction of the last song: it was one that he wrote before his "other band" (aka pearl jam) started to happen, and he hoped that we "know the lyrics, because i sure as hell don't." as soon as he said that, i knew that it had to be yellow ledbetter (hence the title of this post). haha! seeing mike play that song while an audience tries in vain to sing along (who the heck knows what ed is mumbling? even he doesn't always know i think!) has got to be one of the highlights of my summer.

the show started out with a little acoustic set: mike did a couple songs, kim virant (who has an amazing voice) did a couple songs, and tim de julio sang one too. kim also sang on little wing during the hendrix portion of the set. (as she did at the flight to mars benefit in may).

the fact that i was literally touching the stage is one of the best moments in my life as a pearl jam fan, as is the fact that i got a guitar pic from mike (i know he hands them out like candy, but it still made me happy).

there is something really special about watching mike play guitar. it's almost like watching a private moment: he puts his head back, closes his eyes, and you can literally hear the emotion flow out of his fingers. i don't think i ever fully appreciated him until recently. plus, he seems like such a nice guy. he came out before the show, thanking people for coming, posing for pictures and signing things. i also have to mention how awesome chris and rick friel were. i found myself right in front of rick and i had lots of fun watching him play.

as usual, the rest of my pictures are here

hey, don't write yourself off yet

2008-08-25T20:08:00.001-07:00

yay! my swell season tickets came today!! i can't wait. god bless ducatking. not only do they not charge half the face value as a "convenience charge," (like, ahem, these people), but they included with the ticket a card to download 25 songs for free. i have to admit that i was a little annoyed at first that i had to drive all the way to the fedex warehoue in south seattle, but i'm over that now.

in honor of glen and marketa, here is a video that i am loving lately:

and play this song, please:

argh. i have to stop myself before i post all of the frames videos i can find on youtube (i've seen them all, i'm sure)

superwise

2008-08-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

i find it amusing that someone googled "meeting josh beckett" and found my blog. i guess i've written all those words, although certainly never together. (josh beckett, by the way, is my baseball boyfriend, although he doesn't know it... yet. heh)

anyway... back to your regularly scheduled programming. last night was the last of the four free concerts KEXP has had at the mural ampitheatre. i went to two - rocky votolato last week, and ms. led and goodness this week. due to a very tramautic dentist appointment, i missed most of ms. led's performance, although their last song was really really good, i thought.

but goodness was wonderful. a few entries ago, i wrote about seeing them at the showbox. that was one of the best shows i have seen in a long time (ok, ok, i have a horrible habit of saying that about every concert i see). it was great to not only see them again, but to be so close. *warning: i am not a very good photographer, obviously.

i couldn't really find many goodness videos on youtube, but i did find this one by the rockfords, which includes several members of goodness (including carrie akre, an incredible singer who i can't say enough about). if you have an eagle eye, you might also spot mike mccready (pearl jam).

speaking of mike, on wednesday i have a date with him at the tractor tavern. yay!

when i fall to pieces...

2008-08-11T20:42:00.000-07:00

i really LOVE the new kings of leon song they posted. their album comes out 9/23.

that's all.

my weekend

2008-08-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

i went to see goodness at the showbox last night. goodness is a band from the mid-late 90s who i found through carrie akre, who i'm sure i have posted about here before. she is an AMAZING (and that is an understatement after what i witnessed last night) singer who i first heard in 2000 when the rockfords, a band that included mike mccready from pearl jam as well as chris and danny from goodness, released their album (if you go to the link, do yourself a favor and listen to distress. wow). i LOVED that record, and started listening to carrie's solo albums because her voice impressed me so much (there are 3: home, invitation and her newest, last the evening). since moving to washington, i've seen carrie live 4 or 5 times and the rockfords twice.

despite not knowing all of the songs goodness played, they were wonderful. i can't remember the last time i saw a show at the showbox full of such energy from both the band and the audience. every time i've seen carrie live, she does this weird, charming kind of robotic dancing and jumping around the stage. during superwise, the last song of their main set, she told the audience to jump up and down, and by golly, i think that everyone did. the entire band was amazing.. i especially loved watching garth reeves, the guitarist, and fiia mccann, the bassist.

i was right; goodness will be playing at the mural ampitheatre on the 23rd (and it's free!) and then they're going to do another show nov. 22 at the tractor tavern.

there were two opening acts - the first one kind of cracked me up because his name was "buddy." nothing else, just "buddy." despite having my hands on the stage for most of his set, i could hardly hear him through all the chattering in the bar.

the second band definately did not have that problem. their name was, i think i have this right, "my life in black and white." they obviously had a big following (i think they're from portland). i liked them okay, but i kind of hate them for one of their lyrics that is stuck in my head: goodbye, farewell, i'll see you in hell. i don't remember the rest of the song, just those lyrics.

i slept in today until 9:30 (which is really late for me, even on a sunday), had breakfast, read the paper, and decided to go downtown. since they close the streets in pike place market to cars on sundays (as far as i'm concerned, they should do that every day of the week), i ate lunch at a little cafe there and listened to a man outside who was playing bob marley songs. afterwards, i went to a coffee shop and read some more of i capture the castle , a surprisingly good book that is the first novel for our book club at work. a lovely way to end a weekend that has, surprisingly, felt more like fall than summer.

at the moment, i am listening to the free cd subpop gave away at their festival a few weeks ago. it has a bunch of songs from albums that were released this year on it. have i mentioned that i am in love with blitzen trapper? they'll be at bumbershoot september 1. my favorite song on the cd, though, is by the gutter twins, who i sadly (and, again, speaking to my musical ignorance) did not pay much attention to until now. it's made up of greg dulli (afghan whigs) and mark lanegan (screaming trees), the latter of which has got to have one of the most interesting voices in rock music.

clouds roll by; or, the crazy accordian man

2008-08-07T21:12:00.001-07:00

kristine finally (!!!) put her pictures of boston online; she said i could link to them, so here they are.

this picture

makes me think of the crazy accordian man we met while we were sitting outside the T station in cambridge on a sunday night. we had ended up in a discussion about music, and being the person that i am who constantly is trying to convert kristine to a pearl jam nut like myself, i'm sure they were the subject of our conversation, which somehow drifted to bugs , the PJ song that ed plays on accordian. i think that i was first telling her that i read that at one of ed's solo shows someone yelled a request for vitalogy, and ed said something like, "ok, but i need 45 minutes and an accordian." (i have absolutely no idea if that really happened, but i think that it's funny).

i think that it was at this point that the elderly gentleman sitting beside us spoke up. (maybe accordian piqued his curiousity). he became very animated, telling us emphatically that american music is "no good," because it doesn't have any soul (hardly a new idea, and one that, with a few exceptions, i am hard-pressed to argue with). what i liked (and feared, a little) about this man was his passion in trying to win us over to his point of view. kristine asked him where he was from; i forget exactly where - somewhere in eastern europe, i think. he kind of reminded me of my grandfather; he was this very curmudgeonly old man who liked to argue more than anything, i think. he told us we should listen to indian music. i gathered that he didn't like the sound of guitars, and preferred pianos (or accordians i guess. maybe even ukeleles? i should have told him to check out pearl jam). "american music bad."

kristine also has some pictures of the scariest ever holiday inn in mansfield. in a vacation where i found some great deals on priceline, this was by far the most expensive hotel (i use that term loosely) we stayed at. first, we arrived around 4:30 and all i wanted to do was take a shower before the concert, but our room didn't have any toilet paper. that's kind of a necessity no matter who you are. so i called the front desk, and 20 minutes later a maid brought us one (!!) roll. we also happened to be in a wing of the hotel that was i guess under construction -there was plaster falling from the ceiling, and when we finally got back to the room after the show, kristine decided she had to take pictures of the crumbling walls and a random styrofoam cup tied to the ceiling. (it was funny at the time).

we got back after the PJ concert around 1 AM, and i hear kristine say, "uh, megan, there's blood on my sheets." "come again?" "THERE'S BLOOD ON MY SHEETS." we probably should have called the front desk, but didn't, and poor kristine had to sleep on top of the blanket. sorry about that....

i think that my favorite memory of that trip (not counting pearl jam) was the restaraunt we ate at on newbury street. i think it was called joe's diner. i remember that we argued about going there, but i'm sorry, when my watch says it's time for a meal, i need to eat (it's a personality defect, i guess. i blame my parents). again, i don't recall how this joke exactly started, but kristine and i started saying that if she ever ordered a drink in a restaraunt, she would ask for a "pint of whiskey." i told her that i didn't think that would taste very good, and we started laughing and somehow the waiter (who, as an aside, was sort of cute) overheard us and i told him that kristine wanted one (a pint, that is) to give to a small child. crap... i totally messed up the joke, but trust me that it was funny, and thinking about that dinner is making me crack up again.

since i haven't posted about my love glen hansard in a while, here is some goodness from a swell season show the other day in the czech republic.

no retreat baby, no surrender

2008-08-03T17:17:00.000-07:00

(from boston.com)

this is from the opening night of eddie vedder's east coast tour in boston on friday. this picture is currently rocking my computer's desktop. i'm wearing my tour shirt from april today, trying not to think about how much i wish i had been there (i know, i know, i just saw pearl jam a month ago..)

i can't believe it's already august. last night i had an urge to clean my apartment (very out of character for me, sadly). i rearranged the living room (which pretty much means moving the couch around, since that's the only piece of furniture i can move, really), swept, mopped, vaccummed, and thought about tackling my messy cd collection, but decided to save that for another day. i will admit that i did find a bag from easy street with a cd that hadn't been opened since i bought it in june 2006 (the receipt was with it). oops. guess i probably didn't really want that album to begin with.

looking at my unloved (from its appearance) music collection did inspire me, however, to listen to an album i haven't listened to in a few years - the rising by bruce springsteen. that, in turn, inspired me to watch the concert dvd from that tour, which made me remember seeing springsteen in tacoma in 2002, which made me sad that i missed him when he was in seattle a few months ago. this all also made me want to look for bruce springsteen videos online, and i found one of ed with bruce playing no surrender. i love this song, and forgot to mention the other day that it is also on my EV playlist. (an aside: i swear that i can remember once hearing ed vedder play bobby jean, but have no idea where it was from. does anyone know?)

here are some of the things i'm looking forward to this month:

next saturday, i'm going to see goodness at the showbox. very excited for that!

kexp is having four free concerts at the mural theater in seattle center. 8/15 is jessie sykes and the sweet hereafter, who i have never heard but have read good things about. 8/16 (my birthday!) is, i think, rocky votolato, who i really like. and i think that goodness are playing again on the 23rd, although i'm not positive. yay!

the 27th, of course, is mike mccready at the tractor.

bumbershoot! i always say i won't go all three days, but i usually end up going, so this year i just bought a 3 day pass (only 80 dollars if you buy before a certain date). off the top of my head, i'm excited to see band of horses, the black keys, lucinda williams, the blakes, old 97s, blitzen trapper, and a bunch of others i can't think of right now, plus i always see at least 2 or 3 bands i've never heard before but fall in love with (last year it was kings of leon and black rebel motorcycle club).

awesomeness

2008-07-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

from seattlest:
On August 27, McCready’s Shadow 86 (his first band, reunited after 20 years) plays an early show at the Tractor. If you want to see one of the planet’s best axemen go to work on a tiny stage, we suggest you get your tickets right now.

done. i'm excited! it's listed as a jimi hendrix tribute, and honestly i thought that this was the best part of the flight to mars show at the showbox in may.

also, the site links to an interview with mike that somehow i missed. here is my favorite part:
You might see me staring up in the sky with my eyes closed. I’m not faking it. That just kind of happens. It happens a lot with Pearl Jam. There’s something the five of us create that I don’t get anywhere else on this planet. We all kind of speak to each other in a musical sense, a non-verbal sense.

grandfather was a sailor

2008-07-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

ahh, i am so jealous of these eddie vedder tour dates. (notice that it starts friday in boston. speaking of boston, if i were to ever live any where beside seattle, i would want that to be it. i've never been homesick for a city i've gone to on vacation before, but i want to go back to boston. so much). i wish the jerk would add a show in seattle (for the last time, vancouver is NOT seattle!!! argh... of course, i wouldn't mind taking the train there again). i don't know why he won't play here.. he could play at the moore or the paramount or, dare i say, benaroya hall... heck, he could do a private show for my friends and i in my apartment and we could irritate the hell out of the jerks who live underneath me.

this morning, i was listening to my "EV" playlist. not in any order, the songs are: millworker, growin up, porch (solo acoustic), goodbye, brokenhearted, my hometown (bruce springsteen and eddie), man of the hour , i am a patriot, if you want to sing out sing out, parting ways, and setting forth. a lovely little playlist for my ride to work.

speaking of pearl jam, i so want this for my birthday. from the tenclub website:

thanks in advance.

the room, the sun and the sky

2008-07-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

in the mornings, i can generally be found on the bus listening to headphones (on my pseudo-ipod). usually - lately - it is one of two things: live pearl jam (for most of july, 6/30/08 has been on repeat) or setlist, the live frames album. clearly, i am a creature of habit. however, for the last few mornings, i have stepped outside of my comfort zone to listen to carnavas, by the silversun pickups (oddly enough, the song titles never made it onto my music player - translation: i was too lazy to type them in - so, although i have had the album for a few years, i know the songs by the titles "track one," "track two" etc..) i first heard this band at the capitol hill block party (1 year ago? 2 years ago?) i've read opinions that they sound like the smashing pumpkins, but i honestly don't hear that (and i used to love the pumpkins - when i first started using the internet, i picked starla, a pumpkins song, as my america online screen name and i have used some form of that ever since). maybe i just don't mind - every band is derivative of another.

if i may, i will put music into three categories: that which i listen to daily; that which i listen to sporadically, but when i do, i remember why i started listening to it in the first place; and that which i wish i could forget i ever listened to. bands like bon jovi or mr. big fall into the latter category for sure. pearl jam and the frames are in the first. u2, rem, nirvana, and a bunch of others, including the silversun pickups, are in the second.

speaking of musical categorization, perhaps i should give the fleet foxes a second chance. carrie brownstein likes them. (if you have not read her blog, please do. it is one of my first stops every day. i love her writing, and i especially love reading the comments her entries inspire).

i especially love her for writing this: Instead of following my usual trajectory for show-going -- the one wherein I plan on going all week, but then bail at the last second due to tiredness, old age or an excuse to hang out with my pets... hello!! seeing a rock star admit that makes me feel a little less pathetic for once in a while skipping a show for that very reason. and i'm only 28. what will i be like in ten years?

can't let you roam inside my head...

2008-07-25T21:37:00.001-07:00

a few things that are amusing me this evening...

for some reason, i think this is hilarious. at about 5:40, some lady with a terrible voice starts singing along and glen kind of stops and wags his finger and keeps going. a few seconds later, she starts again and glen says something, the beginning of which i cannot for the life of me decipher and marketa cracks up. then the lady says something like, "if people would sing i wouldn't have to sing so loudly." glen has a blank look on his face for a second, but without meeting a beat he says, "jesus. do you talk to your tv too?"

this website. while it is not about music, it is about being a fan (of the red sox, in this case). i am finding that i enjoy reading people's blogs about things i don't even care about, because it is interesting to read about the way others express thier fandom (is that a word?), if that makes sense. plus she seems to have a little obsession with josh beckett, of which i approve, and the graphic of him in her post for today is cracking me up.

the grand archives. i especially like the song swan matches. sometimes i feel like i don't listen to enough new music (i need to expand my musical horizons, me thinks). it seems like every time i listen to KEXP, for example, i hear a new band and think to myself that i should check them out but then i get discouraged because there is never enough time to listen to all the stuff i want to, so i don't. but, seriously, of all the bands i saw at the subpop thing a few weeks ago, i think that they might have been my favorite.

don't let me down...

2008-07-20T18:32:00.000-07:00

did anyone else watch vh1 rock honors the who? pearl jam's performance of love reign o'er me is.. just... wow:

(i'm not sure what happens in the video around 3:15.. crazy sounding)

god, ed's voice sounds AMAZING. this performance is a perfect example of why i love this band. they take a song that's not even originally by them and make it theirs. (i don't mean that their covers are better than the originals, but that, somehow, pearl jam can take songs and re-do them so that they sound like theirs.. kind of like what glen hansard does in astral weeks). as a side note, i also love, how at the end of the real me, mike casually drops his guitar and walks away. awesome.

now i now next to nothing about the who (my musical ignorance is staggering really.. so much to learn, so little time) other than the songs pearl jam has covered over the years. any PJ show without baba o' riley in it seems a little incomplete to me. about 15 years ago, i bought a live who cd (which is probably still at my parent's house.. or more likely, sold in a yard sale) and tommy, which i love.

in 1999, pete townsend released a solo cd to benefit a school in chicago. ed performed on a few songs, and also at a show in chicago:

two things:
1. check out ed's hair.
2. how cool must it be to perform with someone whose music you love? it would be like me singing with PJ or the frames (well, actually it wouldn't, because i can't sing worth crap). that's one lucky man. he's sang with the who, neil young, REM, bruce springsteen..

sub pop 20th anniversary - part 2

2008-07-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

sunday started out much more promising than it ended. i got to marymoor park a little before 1, in enough time to see grand archives who were awesome.

next, i saw a band called blitzen trapper who i again have never heard of but LOVED (yes, that much). i can't really describe their style of music because it was not any one thing. i guess if anything, i would say wilco-ish. but not really.

one of the bands i was most excited about seeing was kinski. after them, i went to listen to the foals, who i totally did not get at all, although the singer did tell a semi-funny joke about british people having such bad teeth that they have party games where they spit out blood. ha. he also ended the first song by breaking the amp, which necessitated much hand-wringing by the crew.

seeing green river would have been awesome if i had chosen a better spot to stand.

another thing - all the bands (and subpop itself) donated their proceeds to charities of their choice, which is pretty darn cool.

marymoor park is a cool place to see a concert. i was there once a few years ago to see tori amos; wilco was playing there a while back and i thought about going, but ultimately decided not to since the park is kind of a pain to get to from seattle (especially on the bus.. don't even get me started about that). but i did think that it was awesome that a lot of the cups, plates and utensils were compostable. very cool.

now, if you will excuse me, i am going to go watch the premiere of project runway. and then tomorrow is the who tribute on vh1 with pearl jam! the hits keep rolling!!

sub pop 20th anniversary - part 1

2008-07-15T19:11:00.001-07:00

i had a great time on saturday. first of all, i have to say that this was a great festival - the atmosphere seemed really laid back, and i especially loved the fact that they had 2 stages ("this" and "that") going on, which meant that, generally, there was no wait time when one band ended and the next band started (or if there was, it was only 20 minutes, more than enough time to go to the bathroom or get something to drink/eat). i also loved the fact that i got to see a band like mudhoney alongside newer sub pop groups, some of whom i had never heard of before. i loved being able to spend an entire day listening to music; i got to marymoor park at 2:00 and i looked at my watch at 5 and was amazed that 3 hours went so quickly.

speaking of newer bands, i think my favorite on saturday might have been helio sequence. i'd heard of them before, but i'd never actually listened to their music. i really enjoyed it.

next on the "this" stage were the fleet foxes, who i was moderately interested in seeing. i have to say that i think they are quite over-rated. their songs are okay, but nothing special to my ears. (i've seen them described as "the next big band from the northwest, and they drew a pretty big crowd). i thought they kind of sounded like the foo fighters (their later stuff, not the first two albums).

next, i went over to the other stage to see a band called the fluid, and i'll show my ignorance by saying that they were one of a handful of bands i had never even heard of. i guess that, for lack of a better description (or more knowledge on my part), they sounded kind of like nirvana crossed with mudhoney. i liked them more than the fleet foxes for sure.

then i saw low, who i had also never heard of but really enjoyed. i had lots of fun watching their female drummer who had a really great voice.

next was mudhoney who i loved, especially since i had the good sense to stay away from the mosh pit. i like this picture because mark arm looks absolutely insane in it.

after mudhoney, i saw the vaselines who kind of sound like belle and sebastian (or i guess that belle and sebastian sound like the vaselines technically). they were really good - kind of sunny but depressed at the same time pop. a good counter to mudhoney; balancing the types of music is another thing i think they did well at this festival - and the lead singer, frances, was pretty funny too. they opened with son of a gun and also played molly's lips and jesus don't want me for a sunbeam, 3 songs that nirvana covered (and, showing my ignorance once again, the only 3 songs of theirs i knew).

then there was a 20 minute break and iron and wine came on. i've never quite gotten around to listening to him, but i LOVED (yes, so much that i have to capitalize it) his first song. after that, he kind of lost my interest a little bit. he seemed to do more talking than playing, although he was clearly very charming and funny (he kept asking us to clap along and then stopping us because "i can't play that fast"), but when you have a 40 minute set maybe you should just get to the music. when he played such great heights (a postal service cover), he forgot the lyrics (to the one song i could have sung along with!)

2010, watch it go to fire

2008-07-13T22:59:00.000-07:00

all in all, i had a great weekend at the subpop anniversary festival (pictures and highlights tomorrow), but right now i am going to vent. what good is your blog if you can't complain on it?

as much as i love seattle, i hate the fact that buses are the only form of public transportation (well, and monorails and streetcars that go basically nowhere). having said that, i take the bus practically everywhere - not because it's always convenient, but because i hate driving and think that supporting mass transit is really important (as is not giving my hard-earned money to greedy oil or parking companies). i left the show tonight right after green river (and they are the reason for my next complaint.. hold on a sec) and just missed the 545 to seattle. instead of waiting an hour for the next one, i decided to take a bus to the bellevue transit center, which means that i got a wonderful tour of pretty much all the bus stops between redmond and bellevue. it was almost as fun as ride the ducks. every time i go to another city- boston, portland, san francisco, even LA - i am amazed by how relatively easy it is to get around with just a map and a rudimentary knowledge of the transit system. you go to a train stop and one is there within 5-10 minutes. that must be too simple for seattle. it's not even the city's fault entirely, the blame also lies with a short-sighted public that would rather fund roads than mass transit.

(if you're reading this and you live in seattle, please don't stop riding the bus. but keep making noise for better transportation options)

ok, so on to number two. stupid me somehow thought that it would be a good idea to get a spot towards the front for green river. about ten minutes before they started, it suddenly dawned on me that i probably really didn't want to be that close, but by that time there was a crush of people at the front and no way to get out. i don't think i've ever actually seen a mosh pit up close before. or touched crowd surfers before either. both are things i'm looking forward to never experiencing again. why grown people think that it's fun to smash into each other like idiots is beyond me. i was so focused on trying to stay upright and away from that craziness that i couldn't even enjoy the band at all. it's like a whole crowd of preschoolers gone mad. does anyone actually enjoy that? why??

but the worst part was at the end of the show. honestly, i thought to myself, "thank god, i'm still alive and now i can get out of here." but, no. someone from the stage started throwing shirts at the audience and people went insane diving for them. i had almost gotten through the crowd when a bunch of shirts came sailing over my head and a lot of people went for them at once causing everyone around me to fall down on the ground. i know it sounds stupid now, but i can't remember the last time i was that scared. for a split second, i thought that if i fell, people would step on me and i would die.

i have often wondered why, as a musician, you would continue playing when you see people basically trying to kill each other in your audience. i don't get it. does acting like an idiot somehow heighten your enjoyment of the music? and then to egg that behavior on by throwing things into the crowd for people to fight over... the whole thing just leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. thank goodness people don't do that dumb stuff at pearl jam shows any more.

so that i can go to bed on a lighter note, i think the funniest moment for me was on saturday when the guy from iron and wine (who i only knew from his cover of such great heights, but who i really loved) actually started playing free bird when someone requested it.

here we go again

2008-07-10T20:13:00.001-07:00

argh, i CAN NOT get this song out of my head and it's beginning to drive me insane. may it drive you insane also.

this weekend is the sub pop 20th anniversary festival. there are a couple of bands i'm really excited about seeing: the helio sequence, kinski, green river, mudhoney, iron and wine (who i will also see opening for the swell season in LA in october!!!!) and the vaselines (hey kristine, they're from scotland!).

unwrap your gifts, take your time

2008-07-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

a search of the seattle public library's catalog for "nick hornby" turned up a book he edited in a series about music writing. since i love nick hornby (read high fidelity and how to be good before you do anything else), i borrowed this. i started reading it today during my lunch break, and got through a hilarious interview between jim derogatis and the lead singer of third eye blind (i know absolutely nothing about thier music but stephen jenkins comes off as such an arrogant jerk that i'm glad i don't listen to them) and am partly done reading a review of lucinda williams that makes me want to find and listen to the 2 cd's of hers that i own. (which will probably never happen since my cd's/records/dvd's are such a mess)

i am way too tired to write about pearl jam tonight, but i did find a video on youtube of ed and jeff doing bee girl in mansfield. this song makes me think of the girl in the blind melon video for no rain who dresses up like a bee and ends up looking really sad and lonely. maybe someone knows better than me, but i seem to remember that video is what this song is about. (at the beginning of the song, ed says, "this is for jack." jack irons?)

i'll be in my own dance

2008-07-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

i had an AMAZING time in boston. it's good to be home, and sad to be home at the same time. i'm happy to be back in my routine of daily life (i went grocery shopping this afternoon; although tomorrow when i go back to work, i may be singing a different tune). pearl jam was, of course, incredible (and that's an understatement). i have purposefully not read any reviews of their shows, because i don't want them to cloud my own memories. one thing that i learned is that i will never be a rock photographer - by and large, my pictures of the concert turned out horribly, but that's okay, it was still fun taking them. honestly, i was so happy with my seat (until a few weeks ago, i thought i would be sitting in the very last row of the last section) that i had to force myself to put away my camera so that i could enjoy the show.

i think there are very few things in the world that can make me feel the way a pearl jam concert makes me feel; i don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. does that make sense? i am completely in the moment, singing along with the crowd, not caring what other people think of me because they are all doing the same thing.

i took some paper and a pen with me to write down notes during the show, but my plans for doing that never seem to work out. i didn't go to saturday's show, but i used the hotel's business center to check the setlist sunday morning, and a little bit of me died when i saw that they opened with hard to imagine. why couldn't they have saved that for one more day? but, i swear, as soon as i heard the opening notes of wash last monday, i was in another world. and for some reason, songs that i've listened to a hundred times seemed to take one new lives - the lyrics for education, for example, seemed to hit home in an unexpected way. and when jeff and ed played bee girl, i think i might have even started to cry. i'm not sure why - it's not a great song, or anything - but there was just something about that song at that moment that seemed right.

i'll write a more complete review tomorrow when i'm - hopefully - more awake than i am right now. now, here are some of my admittedly not-so-good pictures. i took the most pictures during the pearl jam show and our tour of fenway park. i think that i may have an obsessive personality - if it's not a band, a movie, or an actor, it's a baseball team. perhaps there are worse things to be in the world than a fan.

our restarant in cambridge. i liked the name; can you tell why?

rockin in the free world
the rest of my pictures are here.

you play with my world like it's your little toy

2008-06-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

i came across this video from 1992 of mike and ed singing masters of war, a bob dylan song.

i'm biased, but i don't think you can watch this video and deny what an incredible voice eddie vedder has. PJ still plays this song sometimes; perhaps they will in boston?

you know what i hate? when you try to do a load of laundry only to have the washing machine take your 1.25 and not start and your apartment manager basically tells you, "tough luck." it's not "tough luck," jerk, i pay a lot of money to you every month, the least you could do is make sure your washing machines don't eat my quarters.

well, i feel a little better now.

could this week go by any slower? i am so excited to go to boston!!! since the weekend, my living room has been a mess with half-packed bags and clothes spread out everywhere.

right now, i'm reading when you are engulfed in flames, by david sedaris. if you've never read anything by him, do yourself a favor and check him out. to say that he's hilarious is an understatement. in fact, i think i will go read some more of him right now, and then go to bed and try to make saturday come sooner. (have i mentioned that i'm going to see pearl jam???) enjoy masters of war.

got me a big wave...

2008-06-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

this time next week, i will be in boston! ahhhh...

i am spending my evening listening to a live stream from the telluride bluegrass festival, where the frames are performing later tonight. (believe me, i thought about going but turns out it's kind of complicated to get to telluride).

i went to the fremont fair today; the highlight of which is the solstice parade, with it's wacky floats and, my personal favorite, naked bicyclists!

(the rest of my pictures are here)

take me for a ride before we leave

2008-06-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

pearl jam countdown: 1 week!!

who you are, 6/11/08

doesn't sound half bad, although the video is kind of making me dizzy. i don't know why i love this song so much, but i do. just a little time before we leave...

is that the same backdrop ed used on his solo tour?

it's been such a long week at work, that the only thing that's keeping me going is knowing that i only have to get through 5 more days of work, and then i get 6 days off! i can hardly wait.

step out on your porch

2008-06-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

there's much more than this.

breath, from 1991:

nice hat, jeff.

now for something completely different.. long road:

i love the lyrics to this song. i might be wrong, but i don't think i've ever seen this song live. i just realized that both of my songs today are from movies; breath is from singles and long road is from dead man walking (which is a great soundtrack all around).

a little more than a week and i will be in boston! i am so excited but getting ready for a trip is really stressful. i have a to-do list about 2 pages long. i also have to spend time this weekend figuring out train schedules. i don't like to be unprepared. i only spent two days in san francisco in april, but i took about 10 pages of bus and subway schedules with me. yes, i'm a dork.

mine is not a celestial state

2008-06-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

in which megan posts a new favorite pearl jam song each day in anticipation of seeing them in concert at the end of the month. today, here is angel from 1992.

i think that if i could take the minute or so from 1:30 to the end and bottle it, i would be happy forever. ed's little pause before the first "i'm by your side" just kills me.

this song was never on an album, it was a song on pearl jam's fanclub christmas single in 93 (i think? it's the first one i have) every year they send a single to ten club members but it's always a record. when i was a kid, every time my parents went out i used to sneak down to the basement and listen to my fanclub singles on their record player. i particularly loved sonic reducer and history never repeats from the 95 single, although those are a post for another day.

in further proof that i need to cut up my credit cards, although i do not own a record player, i do own three pearl jam albums on vinyl, and they are currently decorating my walls. along with my posters from LA 2006 and philadephia 2000. i also own more concert t shirts than i care to admit, and i never even wear most of them.

ok, i lie. now i am watching old videos from bridge school benefit shows, and i came across sometimes from 96. i think this must have been during eddie's hair gel phase:

this is the first song on no code, my favorite PJ album. i love the lyrics: seek my part/devote myself/my small self/like a book amongst the many on the shelf... sometimes i speak of nothing at all/sometimes i reach to myself, dear god. i could write an essay about what pearl jam's lyrics mean to me, but it would be too personal and, i'm sure, too long.

it's time for you to raise your voice and capture what you're after

2008-06-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

pearl jam played at the bonnaroo festival on saturday night, and i am so jealous because their setlist (and i know you can't judge a show just by the setlist, but...) looks AMAZING. i found a little blurb about it in the associated press, and this is my favorite part - because i can picture it, and it makes me so excited for boston (as if i weren't excited enough.. how am i going to make it through two more weeks of work?)

If he wasn't already, Vedder appeared completely converted to the joys of mega festivals when the band played "Better Man." The audience sang along and lifted lighters in the air, and only then did Vedder realize how large the crowd was. He muttered, "That's ... beautiful."

this weekend, i made copies of live on two legs and pearl jam for kristine, who i am dragging to boston with me (i already copied vitalogy for her. i would have done yield but my cd's are such a mess that i can't find it). it was really fun to listen to those, especially live on two legs which i'm sure i haven't heard since 1998. i also had an urge to watch some dvd's... i have a really odd relationship (well, it's hardly a relationship if it's only one-sided, but let's pretend) with pearl jam (and my other favorite band, the frames) in that i can go weeks without listening to them but then, when i do, it feels like i'm talking to my best friend again. i don't know how else to explain it. i guess it's because i've been listening to the music since i was 12 years old - i literally have grown up with it and have stories for almost all of the songs in my head. that's why i don't think i would ever want to meet any of the band members. what do you say to someone who has been such an important part of your life even though they don't know you? "uh, you're my favorite band" (all i unfortunately said to glen hansard) just doesn't seem to cut it.

i've been meaning to write about the book that i'm reading right now. it's called the cellist of sarajevo. you know how sometimes you find a book that you just don't want to put down? but at the same time, you're a little bit afraid to finish it because you love reading it so much? that's this book. the author has such a lovely rhythm to his writing, he can make words sound like songs. it takes place during the siege of sarajevo, sometime in the 1990's, and the character referenced in the title watches his neighbors killed by a morter while they stand in line for bread. he decides to play his cello on the street where they died for 28 days in rememberence. he never says why he decides to do this (well not yet anyway; i'm more than 2/3 through the book). is it an act of defiance? of resistance? of hope? i suspect a little bit of both. i think that, ultimately, his music becomes a source of healing for the city. even though there are snipers and morter attacks happening all around them, people can still gather and feel better together for a little while at least.

are you there? it's me, again

2008-06-15T21:40:00.000-07:00

i spent an embarrassingly large percentage of my weekend sitting in movie theatres. after work on friday, i went to see the happening. this was a really strange movie. i can't say i really enjoyed it, but i didn't dislike it either. it just left me with an odd feeling. i think that one thing it did do was tap into the feeling that there is something not quite right going on in the world at the moment. be it global warming, war, whatever... mark wahlberg was surely the bright spot in the film; i think he's a great actor, and there were several moments during the movie when he made me laugh out loud. zooey deschanel was really good as his wife (and i realized halfway through that she looked so familiar to me because she plays the sister in almost famous).

the basic premise is that something is going on that causes people to decide to kill themselves. it starts in central park and moves to philadelphia and, eventually, every town in the northeast. at first, the government says that it is some kind of chemical attack, and orders new york to be evacuated. mark wahlberg's character, eliot, lives in philadelphia - he takes his family and leaves the city on a train that ends up getting stranded in the middle of nowhere, and from here the movie becomes an escape story as eliot, his wife and his niece try to outrun "the happening."

here is where the plot holes in the movie started to distract me. while eliot and his family are wandering through a field in pennsylvania, they meet a soldier who says that everyone at his base has been affected by whatever is happening and has killed themselves. yet, despite knowing that that this mysterious illness causes suicide, the soldier does not get rid of his gun. so when he, predictably, comes down with the sickness, he has an easy way out.

this was also the last weekend of the seattle international film festival, and yesterday i went to see a documentary called accelerating america. it is about a school in providence, rhode island, that tries to take kids who are at risk of dropping out of school and accelerate them (i.e. have them complete 2 years worth of work in 1 year) through middle school so that they can, hopefully, be successful in high school. the idea is that a kid who's been held back a lot is not very likely to stay in high school until they are in their early 20s.

this morning, i went to see a canadian movie called the 5 senses. i was excited to see that because mary-louise parker, one of my favorite actresses, is in it. it was a good movie, although at times i thought that it had too many story lines going at once. but while i was in line, a lady came by who was giving out passes to see gus van sant's new movie on wednesday night for free. it sounds quite good so i'm pretty excited: "acclaimed filmmaker gus van sant teams with the incomparable sean penn (!!!) and a supurb supporting cast including emile hirsch (!) to tell the inspiring, thrilling and deeply emotional true story of harvey milk, openly gay and one of the world's most visionary and charismatic leaders who was assassinated in 1978." lady, you had me at sean penn. i love him.

pearl jam countdown: 12 days!!

i'm still alive

2008-06-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

from my email:

Event Reminder
Sun, 06/15/2008 Hello Megan. Your event is happening soon!
Pearl Jam
When:Monday, June 30, 2008 7:30pm
Where:Comcast Center
885 S Main St
Mansfield, MA 02048

...as if i needed to be reminded. trust me, i won't forget. i've already started packing.

pearl jam countdown: 13 days!!!

love the hat. ed looks like a truck driver. and i love how he forgets the lyrics at the beginning. awesome. mike mccready is some sort of god, i think.

this is our heyday baby

2008-06-14T22:10:00.001-07:00

and we're not gonna be afraid to shine
cause we can make our heyday last forever
and ain't that what it's all about?

the swell season/frames at bonnaroo, june 13, doing a mic christopher song.

i love how happy everyone looks. i love glen's dance moves - watch out, new kids on the block. most of all, i love how glen is able to get the crowd to sing the chorus to a song most of them have probably never even heard. i also like what he says before the song - "it's a dance song - i don't really care about you dancing in terms of our egos; i just care in terms of your enjoyment." ha!

i found a little blurb with glen in the new york times (he really gets around).

When the band was in Louisville, word came that it was invited to hear Barack Obama speak. “It was amazing, just like everything else that has been happening for us,” he said. Mr. Hansard is contemplating a move to New York from Dublin. “I don’t really live anywhere right now, but Dublin is where I keep my stuff,” he said.

while i find it insane that someone would want to move from europe to the united states, may i suggest seattle? not only do we have coffee and music, but we are also colder than siberia (according to an article in the seattle times this morning). if you need a place to stay, i even have some room on my couch. (kidding!)