may you build a ladder to the stars...

i love this. swell season with liam o maonlaí singing forever young a few days ago in prague. they also did this song in seattle and it was wonderful.


speaking of the swell season, there's an interview with glen and marketa in performing songwriter. (unfortunately if you go to that link, you can only read the first page or so; you can, however, see the cover, which i love. glen hansard on the cover of a magazine!). it's a good read.
how does it work when you write together?
hansard: i enjoy that, because it's like my foot is off the gas. she feels it's my song, and i feel it's hers. when i feel it's hers, that means i don't feel responsible for it, so i play around and kick it into different shapes. i feel a lot less precious about it. and she doesn't get precious about it, because she thinks it's my song. the idea is it's just a song, it's neither yours nor mine. the songs that mar and i write together are like sketchbooks, not paintings. you sit with your friends, do some doodles, and have a laugh with it. it's still very serious and personal but because it was written by the two of us, we have less fear about what it ends up being.

and this:
music is something i will never do as a job.. if i think about it that way, it's dead. music's very shy. it's like a bird. it's with you until you catch it.

oh.. and this. i want someone to say something like this about me.
she's really smart and together. in our relationship, i spend all my time not knowing where i'm going. she's the one who's more grounded. i'm the one who deals with life in a different way. she has this easy pace and even temper that i admire. she's a good person to be around.

in something completely unrelated, if anyone who is reading this happens to be looking for a ticket to pearl jam on the 30th, leave a comment or email me.

no matter how cold the winter, there's a springtime ahead

i'm going to see the swell season in san francisco on saturday!

they'll toss and turn forever but no rest will they find

i did something really dumb yesterday. i guess i wasn't really watching where i was walking and i tripped over my own feet, twisting my right foot in the process. it was really swollen and painful last night (i didn't sleep well, hence the title for this post. it's also from a song by the frames, but i digress), but seemed to be okay this morning, and i thought i'd be able to go to work, but then it started swelling up again. so i decided to go to the doctor, and she took one look at it and told me that it was probably broken. peachy. but an hour later, she looked at the x-rays and said that it was just a really bad sprain. thank goodness. my foot is still really swollen, but at least now i can walk. kind of.

after i managed to hobble home, i found a pleasant surprise waiting for me: my package from amazon.com. with my swell season dvd and rem album (more about that when i listen to it some more) that i didn't expect until thursday. yay!

i put my foot up, and watched the dvd (which is what i think i'm going to do again after i write this). this particular concert is from a series called "live at the artist's den," which showcases "emerging and established artists" (their words, not mine) at unique venues. the swell season show was filmed last november at the good shepard center in seattle (there was a write-up about this place in the paper a few weeks ago. i think i now will make it my new mission to see a concert there) in the early 1900's, it was a "home for wayward girls" (i.e. pregnant out of wedlock) and now, it has been turned into a really intimate concert venue.

the dvd is great and exactly what i expected and wanted - very simple, just glen and marketa (and colm and joe on violin and bass). almost like being at a swell season concert, although i can't help but wonder what was left out. glen's crowd banter is there, though, as are two unreleased (i think concentric is unreleased, although i guess i'm not positive) songs - concentric and golden. i guess my only complaint is that i wish there were more songs (sleeping and the moon, please)

one of the best parts of the concert is the last song, star star. glen asks the audience to whistle the ending, which they do (although it takes them awhile to warm up to it). he then puts down his guitar, goes to sit by the piano with marketa, and the four of them (glen, marketa, colm and joe) leave the stage while everyone is still whistling. awesome.



(this is not from the dvd. i just really like this song)