The Boy Least Likely To...

new band - of course british, of course quirky and has the most interesting version of Faith by Georget Micheal that I have ever heard.  Very cool band who i've been listening to for a few months now, definitely worth the listen. Check em out.  My favorite from their debut album, The Best Party Ever, is I'm glad i hitched my apple wagon to your star although Hugging My Grudge is a close second....link is under Listen Up! list.  I'm just hoping that i haven't missed them in concert recently.  lately i've been off the concert scene, however last week i attended 2 concerts. (Just trying to make up for my lack of  concert attendance fo late..) My favorite..The Shout out louds from Sweden and Blue october.  The shout out louds were brilliant.  I hadnt seen them in a couple of years and i must say that they didn't disappoint.  I've also decided that The Parish Room in Austin has perhaps the best acoustics for live music in the state of Texas as their website purports.  theres' no smoking which is enjoyable and it's small enough to where a shorter individual like myself can find just the right place to stand and have an excellent view :)  Blue October as usual was excellent.  it wasn't cool when a couple of guys started a fight and that led justin to ask them to be removed from the concert.  I also didn't enjoy the song that consisted of using the F word constantly and flipping the bird...just not my kind of song, but other than that they were excellent and i'd definitely go see them again.

A Haiku for You

So today there was a news story about how the japanese have created a new "toy bank" that is supposed to encourage savings in the ever greying population in japan. basically when you don't put money in the bank after a predetermined time, it will explode and scatter all your money everywhere. Now, I love Japan, but sometimes the Japanese people have some crazy ideas. just check out this "Japanese Ninja Skirt". That being said Nisha has offered up a haiku that aptly describes our bafflement at the culture.

People of Japan ... Japanese people you are sometimes crazy ... sometimes, crazy you are Explodingpiggy bank ... Bank shaped like a pig that explodes Ninja vending machine outfits ... clothes to camouflageyourself ninja style Ramen spa ... Human ramen stew
Check one, check two ... checklist complete Tee hee tee hee ...
giggle giggle giggle giggle ....

"I can't remember that song"

Not normally the words you want to hear come out of a singer's mouth when you've paid good money to hear them perform...However coming out of Mat Kearney's mouth they were endearing. I went and saw this guy play La Zona Rosa in Austin on Sunday night. it's the first time i've gone to a concert by myself. Initially I was a little concerned about attending by myself because of the location. The last time i was there i saw Travis which was great but what transpired afterwards will forever be a part of me and i wasn't sure if i could let go of those memories without tainting this new show. I must say that standing around by oneself can become tedious but once the concert started i didn't need anyone around me and i was able to push bad memories to the back of my mind. Mat opened the show with "Crashing Down" and then proceeded to play for nearly 1.5 hours without stopping. He played some new stuff, I heard Chicago earlier this year when i saw him open for Ok Go. He also played a song he'd never performed live that he wrote with someone that tours with him. It was great! I love it when i see a live performance and they sound exactly like their recording and give you just a phenomenal experience. The show itself had no fancy lighting or production, just a spotlight on mat and his guitar and shifted over when he moved to the keyboard. it just goes to show you that a good show doesn't require fancy lights and dancers. I have to say that the intimate setting of the venue coupled with a small crowd made for an excellent time. I was able to reach out and touch the man. he could have spit or sweat on me and i would have been fine with that ;) anyways this was a good experience and now i know that when the shout out louds come to town in november i can go by myself and enjoy the concert without worrying about needing a concert buddy. It's nice to have..a concert buddy..but not mandatory i've discovered. if you've been wondering where i've been for the last month, i'll be posting about that not so great experience in the coming week.

Are you ready for some football???!

So someone recently told me that my blog is very music oriented. I can't help it...I LOVE MUSIC. You know what is music to my ears in the fall? The NFL music!!! That's right people..preseason football has officially begun and my boys are kicking the Colts proverbial ASSES. This is so frakking brilliant. There are certain times of year i love. I love the holiday season because i get to bake all the time and eat to almost excess. i love the spring time because of the weather and tulips. i love when ramadan comes around because it centers me for the next 11 months..and i absoultely love FOOTBALL SEASON. I love sports in general..but there is just something about football season. I wait for preseason with bated breath from the moment the NFL draft ends. Basketball is okay and i can tolerate baseball. I do enjoy a good hockey game and i love soccer mostly cuz of the cute boys...the game is good too i suppose...but there is just something great about football. What's weird is that i don't have brothers..at least real blood brothers. i have cousins and very very good friends who are just like my brothers, but i just have one girly sister and a dad who loves to watch cricket. So where did i get my love of football? who knows. growing up in dallas there wasn't a lack of sports teams to follow. But the cowboys now they just have always been my team and i can't wait to find out what game i'm going to this year. My mondays and sundays are officially booked. poor peyton manning someone wake him up from this slaughter that hopefully leaves the Colt in my boys dust.

Holy Frak!

So I do listen to a lot of music, but I also watch a lot of different TV shows. I blame my father. there's a picture out there somewhere of me when i was months old laying in his lap he has the tv on and a book open. I definitely get my habits from my father. I can never just watch TV, or listen to music, or read, i'm always doing 2 out of 3 of these things..one day i'll figure a way to do all 3 at the same time. This weekend was brilliant, i didn't move anything. Actually this is a lie, i moved some of the stuff from my car into storage so now i look less like a bag lady. Since i had nothing pressing to do this weeked i finally sat down and watched the first season of Battlestar Galactica. how the hell did i miss this show when it first came out??!!! normally i'm the first person to jump on to a new show, but maybe cuz it was on Sci Fi i missed it. anyways the brilliance of being 3 seasons behind is i can watch the seasons straight through. no waiting for the next week for a new episode. this show is so fascinating. It's got some crazy religious undertones you wouldn't expect from a sci fi show. It's also extremely well written and beautifully shot. Frak is a bad word in space apparently and i'm totally mixing that into my vocabulary...next time someone messes with me i'm gonna say "Don't Frak with me..i'm in no mood for it!" I also watched 2 new shows that are set to come out this fall. Can i just say that Pushing Daisies and Reaper are my two new favorite shows. They are both so oddly funny and whimsical. I'm not sure what it says about the entertainment industry that the theme this year is death, but the way these shows deal with death is so different. Definitely more uplifting and a pleasure to watch. Pushing Daisies definitely has an Amelie feel to it which if you haven't seen the French film..watch it..the travelocity gnome makes an interesting 3rd character. Daisies is gonna be starting Wednesday nights off for ABC on Oct 3rd. Reaper can be caught on the CW Tuesdays at 8PM beginning 9/25. On a side note i booked my mat kearney show..so very excited about it. the small amount i saw him earlier this summer just barely whet my appetite. i'm beyond thrilled that i get the opportunity to see him play again and this time a full on set of music. couldn't quite get through an entire post without at least saying something about music...ah well..i'll try again next time.

Stop Me!!!

"Stop me, oh, stop me Stop me if you think that you've Heard this one before..." Ever heard this one before? I did, and now i've heard it again. Back from years ago, reinvented as they say by a talented producer, Mark Ronson. British of course and uber talented. He's also kind of cute and great accent (of course i don't like him because of those particular attributes). He's worked with the likes of Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen who are all the craze this summer. He has his own album out now where he has collaborated with a few of his friends. Stop Me is a remake of The Smiths hit. It's got this great Jazzy vibe to it. I'm really loving how different the song sounds with Daniel Merriweather singing the lyrics. It has a great bluesy, jazzy feel to it that is absolutely different from anything out there right now. On the same note Mat Kearney has a completely different sound as well. I'm loving him. I love how he transitions from singing to speaking back to singing flawlessy. Thank GOD he's coming back to Texas, I might have to just follow him from city to city, dallas, to houston, to austin...i'm not beneath it you know. I'm not a music snob and I will listen to just about anything, but the same old stuff has been boring me lately. I guess i just need a change from the norm. Maybe the jazzy blues sounding music just matches my mood these days. Who knows why, but if it took a blue mood for me to discover the real depth of these artists then at least something good is coming out of the situation.

p.s. check out the video for Stop Me as well...visually it's one of the most interesting and appealing videos i've seen in a long time, its simple..but very cool.

Music and Breakups

So lately i have been thinking about how music means different things to us during different times of our lives. I love music and when i'm happy there are certain bands i like to listen to whereas when i'm sad there is a whole other list of bands i find myself drawn too. Somehow the lyrics speak to me on a level i don't recognize when i'm in my happy place. Recently I had to separate myself from someone i became close to over the last year and half. it feels like something died inside of me and i have this feeling of nothingness at times. When i'm sad i listen to music almost with a different ear. What's on rotation on the ipod these days? Aqualung, james morrison, travis, paolo nutini, and coldplay. Coldplay's Shiver seems to be mirroring my inner thoughts lately as does Last Request and Rewind by Mr. Nutini. I actually saw Travis in concert last week, they were so brilliant and I was so excited to see them after so many years of listening to them. Too bad they will forever be marred by the numbness and shock that i felt the rest of the evening. Somehow I am still able to listen to them and remember the greatness of the live performance however even the happy songs like My Eyes are tinted with sadness. If you haven't discovered the greatness of this band you should listen to them http://www.travisonline.com/. My entries won't always be so depressing and i'm sure no one is really reading this, but i will strive to post more uplifting musings in the future. The silver lining in all the clouds that have recently taken over my life is that there are several concerts coming that should be great shows. And congratulations to my good friend Ramona who is now a new mommy! See the baby at http://www.ramonat.com/.