Best of 2011: Songs from December

LP - Into the Wild
Don't be fooled by the uke-laden opening. It really starts rocking when you get into it.  Then you may recognize this song from the "Accessories" Citibank commercial where the woman puts her points toward the "rock she really had in mind."  It's a little weird to see a big bank, which let's just all admit is inherently evil, sell an ideal that counters popular patterns of female consumption.  Wait, she means climbing shoes! Instead of buying a diamond and fitting snugly into a stereotype, she climbs a big, freakin' mountain.  The new American dream in consumerism may not be to merely consume, but to experience.  (I bet they're calling them adventurcations now, but I feel a little sick every time I type a portmanteau.) As a left-wing, commie, socialist, hippie, conglomeration of derogatory terms I get called, I have to admit, the only way I could love this commercial more is if the voiceover said, "my girlfriend and I were thinking of going on vacation." Now, I try not to publicly make statements about a person's sexuality unless they do so openly, and I really don't know that much about LP except that she just signed to Warner Bros and is working on her debut album. So I'll just say that she has a pretty solid lesbian following. And every time the camera opens into that aerial shot, and LP's voice comes screeching in with, "Somebody left the gate open," I want to climb a big, freakin' mountain too. I hope somebody leaves my gate open. (That's not a euphemism.)

PS. If you go to her website, you can get a free download of this live recording.



The Black Keys - Tighten Up / Unknown Brother
I was a little late jumping onto the Black Keys bandwagon, but here I am.  Just about the time they released El Camino, I was putting "Tighten Up" and "Unknown Brother" on repeat.  I've listened to a lot of their music in the last month, but these are the only two songs that I've really fallen for. Though, after listening to the depress-fest that is "Unknown Brother"--Those jingle bells are really deceiving--"Tighten Up" is my favorite. When it came time to chose between which song to include on the list, I went with the one with the best video.



GROUPLOVE - Tongue Tied
If you've seen the new iPod Touch commercial featuring this New York based-band, you've probably walked around for hours afterwards singing, "Take me to your best friend's house. I loved you then; I love you now."



Gotye - Somebody I Used to Know
This song barely made the list.  I heard it in passing a few weeks ago, but didn't really like it.  Then I heard a great cover and had to compare.  Now, two days later, I can't stop listening. The combination of passionate voices in harmony and lyrics like "You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness" and "Now and then, I think of all the times you screwed me over." It's a great breakup song.  Everyone knows the feeling of moving someone you once really loved into the "somebody I used to know" category.  Really, I'm pretty sure I wrote this song first, at least five times.




Ingrid Michaelson - Parachute / Parachute / Ghost / Somebody I Used to Know/ Every Single Song
I. Love. Ingrid. I love pretty much every single song she does. I had listened to Parachute a lot, but sometimes songs come back to you and touch you in a way that they never did before.  I really like the video too.  There was a huge backlash against it.  Apparently, a vocal portion of her fanbase (of which I am a member) thought the video "wasn't her," whatever the hell that means.  So she shot a new one that's more of an homage to New York than what happens if you take too much cold medicine and fall asleep reading The Little Prince.  Ingrid has a new album coming out next month, which is why I didn't already include the first single Ghost. More on that later.

And here's where a few covers come in. First, there's Ingrid's own cover of Gotye's song, then there's British popstar Cheryl Cole's cover of Parachute, which she took to the top of the UK charts. If you thought Ingrid's video was weird...at least it didn't have Flamenco dancers wearing their suspenders weirdly and gowns stolen from Oxbridge undergraduates.



Kensington - Let Go
You can't really sit still when this Dutch band gets going.  It doesn't matter that the entire chorus just repeats the contradictory lines, "We gotta let go. We gotta let go. We gotta hold on. We gotta hold on. We gotta let go" because it's so damn peppy.

Rounding up December has been pretty difficult because most of my favorite songs of the year, I started listening to (or listening to more) in December.  Like "Into the Wild," "Let Go" is packed full of energy, and they'd probably make my top 5 of the year. I'll be listening to both of these songs on repeat well into 2012.

Best of 2011: Songs from November

When I listen to "Attaboy", I imagine the opening credits of the movie about my life. It's a pretty short movie, for lack of interesting plot material.  And south Mississippi is played by Ireland.  But the thing that gets me about watching this video is that these musicians--each a master of his own instrument--recorded in the same room together, not in separately little cubes separated by thousands of miles and then pieced together by a skillful engineer.  And you can see how much they enjoy being Goat Rodeo.



I know I've already covered a lot of Sarah Jaffe in October's songs, but here's Clementine.  It's been about every third song in my ears for two months now. It's so good. Seriously, listen.

See? So good.



People are usually pretty shocked that I like One Republic.  They're boys! And they're on the radio! Hell, they're on commercials for Disney World.  But then, my friends are usually shocked at how much I love Disney World too.  But these are just great songs.

Here's another.

Best of 2011: Songs from October

If September was a month of male vocalists, the ladies invaded my iTunes with a vengeance in October.  One of those women was Sarah Jaffe.  This is one of those great finds that was sent my way by my buddy over at Engine145.  Even though we rarely agree on music (or Lenny Kravitz), she has a good ear for knowing stuff I'll like. This next one, just to warn you, is NSFW.



See, I told you.  The thing that makes this song scandalous is not the language, it's the fact that it's a woman using the language.  This is a cover of Drake's song, and no one bats an eye when he sings these lines.



"Bedroom Eyes" was a free download on iTunes one week, and it was one of those rare occasions when it's actually a good song. Dum Dum Girls have since become one of those bands like Fleet Foxes or The Black Keys that are available in vinyl at your local Urban Outfitters.  You know what I'm saying. But it will make you dance.  It's like Florence + the Machine, but without the annoyance of actually listening to Florence.



I first heard of BOY from Dorothy Surrenders, the best written blog on the internet. Really.  And that's all I have to say about the matter.

Best of 2011: Songs from September

When you're done watching that, I'll continue.  Go ahead, I'll be here all day.

Isn't that the  BEST thing EVER?! It's all I can do to keep myself from embedding it again.



This is City and Colour, the "band name" of Dallas Green. Get it?  Dallas Green /City and Colour. The u's because he's Canadian.  Anyway, this is a lovely song, that I liked the first second I heard his voice.



I've always loved Joe Purdy, but somehow this song had escaped me.  Purdy also sings one of the songs that I stayed on the repeat play list longer than maybe anything else....The City.

Best of 2011: Songs from August

I said when I started this list that many of these songs were not from 2011, and August's playlist really proves that. Two important things happened in my music-listening life back in August.  The first was that I finally got Spotify, after waiting for years for it to make it to this side of the Atlantic.  Spotify doesn't take the place of Pandora, but it does have some advantages, like listening to songs when you want to, instead of waiting for them to randomly show up.  The other advantage is the ability to make playlists and share them with friends, so if you've got a little Bill Withers obsession, like I do, you can share songs with other like-minded music fans.



The second thing happened, oddly enough, in a Starbucks, where I ran to get out of a storm.  I sat down, had a cup of coffee, and "Cry to Me" started playing.  And any child of the 80s knows exactly where they know this song from. So I took advantage of my newfound technology to set a retro playlist that kept me, well, grooving, as it were, through a very large stack of work. Here are a couple more songs from that Spotify playlist.





And in case you haven't figured out what playlists are good for, here's your final hint.

Best of 2011: Songs from July

Back in July I was pretty much still thinking about my birds and listening to Adele's "Someone Like You."  But when I wasn't doing that, I was listening to Over the Rhine, the Ohio based duo Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist, who've been married and making music together for a couple of decades now.  I went to see them back in March, thanks to my buddy Juli Thanki over at Engine145. Linford tells great stories, and Karin sings her ass off, and that's pretty much what everyone's looking for in a concert right?  Well, not everyone, but, you know, everyone not looking for meat dresses.  "Days Like This" is from their recent album The Long Surrender, but my favorite OTR song is still "Spark" from the 2005 record Drunkard's Prayer.

Best of 2011: Songs from June

Who were you expecting?

I don't know what took me so long. The album came out in February, and I didn't get it until June. Obviously, this was a major oversight on my part.  By June, I was sitting in empty rooms belting out the lyrics, and feeling the pulse of ever beat ripple through my soul.  Melodramatic much? Have you heard this song?  This song makes me want to tear open a bag of flour and burn down paper cities.



From the first notes of the piano, before her voice comes in, I always catch my breath before releasing in a long, slow exhale.  When I first heard "Rolling in the Deep" I was pretty certain that it was the best song every in the world ever, ever.  Then I heard "Someone Like You."  Then they set it to a black and white video in Paris.  It's like they put a giant bow on it and said "To Lori." It was made for me. You'll never convince me otherwise.



There are so many great songs on this album, from Don't You Remember to I Found a Boy, to  a handful of other bluesy, heart-wrenching ballads.

But it's really Someone Like You that makes everyone tingle.  Well, everyone with a heart and an iTunes account.

Best of 2011: Songs from May

It seems back in May that I went pretty mainstream for a while.  I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to see Mumford & Sons and Adele at the top of all the nominations this year.  I'm one of those people that tunes into awards shows just to see GaGa get all bat shit, just so I know what the hell everyone is talking about the next day.  Usually, most of the night is spent with me yelling phrases like "That's not music!" and "Kids these days!" Mumford & Sons gets extra credit because their lead singer Marcus Mumford looks like Stephen Fry's straight love child.

I really have to thank the people of this website for making this post so much easier to write, and also for validating my weird "celebrities that look like celebrities compulsion."

So, in conclusion, "Little Lion Man" is a contagiously great foot-thumping song.  If you don't believe me, watch Sara Bareilles do it.



Isn't your whole day better?



And here's another song that everyone loved at first, clapped along with, then slowly started to hate.  I'm still on the "Dog Days" bandwaggon because it'sjust a great song for walking around the city, and to be honest, that's really what I'm after in music.  Whether you love or hate it, or loved it and now hate it, or hated it all along, I'm going to make this one wager.  Ten years from now, you're going to be driving for some long distance, and somehow this song is going to sneak in the playlist, or whatever we're calling it then, and you're going to start singing along with abandon, nostalgic for the days you couldn't escape Florence + the Machine. Then you'll get on your whatever we're using then and download it from the Cloud or iForce or whatever. Then you'll come across "You've Got the Love" and say "Oh! I hated this one too" and immediately start jamming.  Enjoy yourself, ten-years-older you, enjoy yourself.

Best of 2011: Songs from April

"Her Beautiful Ideas" by Guggenheim Grotto is my favorite video of the year.  It's also in probably in my top 3 songs.  It's so energetic and happy but with terribly depressing lyrics like "I just can't seem to get out of bed anymore," as it retraces a relationship that has somehow fallen apart.  When they sing, "Once she let it slip that I was the best of her beautiful ideas" there's a little glimpse into the intimate, confessional moments of love, followed by all the peppy passion of "Let's get naked and get under the sheets" repeated until it sounds almost angry. And then everything dissolves into strings.  Perfection. Listen to when happy.



For a more acoustic look at the Irish duo, here's "The Universe is Laughing," another song that stayed on repeat thanks to its tight harmonies. Also, it's just full of feeeeelings.

If it's sunny outside and you're wanting to hit the pavement for a good run or just to head out for work full of determination, I highly recommend "Her Beautiful Ideas."  If it's raining or overcast, and you happen to find yourself staring out a window into the mist or watching the rivulets merge and diverge, maybe Marques Toliver is exactly what you need. Listen to when sad.



There was a great piece in The Guardian earlier this year that talks about Toliver's experience busking in New York and London, and being recommended to Jools Holland by Adele.

Best of 2011: Songs from March

In July of 2010, Back Ted n Ted, a solo project by eclectic musician Ryan Green, released "The Mirror," a rather mediocre album of electro-pop.  But right there amongst forgettable songs more fitting to a John Hughes soundtrack than, you know, the twenty-first century, "Lose Control" jumps out at you, surging with adrenaline and catchy hooks.  It's like a five-hour energy drink for your ears-slash-soul.  Sadly, there's not a video for the song, so I'm posting a fan made video full of a curious montage of beautiful women and Conan O'Brien with a watermelon on his stomach.  But, even with the weird images, the lyrics still speak for themselves. Over the synth and the drum machine and the clapping, lines like "Every time I see someone running I think it's you" come through, speaking of that universal, yet unnamed, experience of catching ghostly glimpses of someone you still love.  Even if you know there's no chance of running into the person who just broke your heart, you're still flooded with panic every time you see a face or silhouette that even slightly resembles her, and everyone resembles her.



So here's a question: what has been in British water for the past few years that it keeps turning out soulful singer-songwriters, from the bevy of retro songstresses like Adele, Kate Nash, Amy Winehouse, et al, to the raspy blues of James Morrison and Paolo Nutini.  As you can see from the Jools Holland clip above, Nutini was only 19 when "Last Request" became the big hit off the 2006 record These Streets.  I had heard the song a few times on Pandora in '08 or so, but somehow last March the music gods really wanted me to pay closer attention, and I did.



Yeah, I don't even have a back story for this one.  But like the Black Eyed Peas' "I Got a Feelin" and Flo Rida's "Club Can't Handle Me," it's just an irrepressibly happy song on an increasingly longer list of songs that I really have no excuse for loving; I just can't help myself. So go ahead, throw your hands up in the air sometimes. You know you want to.

Best of 2011: Songs from February

Like yesterday's list, this one starts with a little cheating.  I first became obsessed with "Poison and Wine" about 6 months earlier. I don't even remember how I first heard of The Civil Wars, but I stumbled across this song and fell into the depths of sweet, painful love. Sometimes songs grow on you over time, or perhaps you like them but it takes a while to really pack the sentimental baggage into the them.  Other songs--very few songs--punch you in the gut with a visceral reaction that you can't explain or describe; you just respond instantly.  I think I knew I was going to love this song before the second bar.  I wore out the figurative grooves on their first EP, and when the band, made up of Joy Williams and John Paul White, announced they'd be releasing Barton Hallow, their first full length album, in early 2011, I looked forward to its release like I hadn't done an album since I was a teenager. I literally counted down the days.  By the time the album came out in February--and now, as I re-listen to it while writing--I was still obsessed with this song, and I got to watch the band's meteoric rise to stardom.  They made it onto many much more prestigious best-of lists this year, including Paste Magazine's 20 Best New Bands of the 2011 and NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums. One of my other favorites from the Album was the beautifully haunting "Falling," which turns romance on its head with lines like "I can't help falling out of love with you."





I heard Matisyahu's "One Day" on the trailer to Waiting for Superman, and then spent hours (or at least 20 minutes) searching the internet for it.  It didn't stay on repeat play very long, but for the month of February, I really needed something peppy and uncharacteristically optimistic. It gets on my nerves sometimes now, but that's sort of why I'm making this list, to keep track of the music that made an impact on my life, so that I don't just lose it all.



Confessional: I got Metric's "Raw Sugar" from someone I went out with a few times.  So I had it on repeat for a week or two, but then it was prematurely taken off of repeat when the relationship didn't work out.  To be honest, the song made me feel a bit like an ass. Then I rediscovered it later, and it's still one of my favorite songs for walking around the city.  So, with every relationship, you learn a few things,  meet interesting people, make good memories, and, if you're lucky, get a great song out of it.

Best of 2011: Songs from January

It's that time of year when everyone posts their Best o' 2011 lists, so I thought I'd do a similar thing.  I'm not a music writer though, and I don't know much of what's been released this year.  And I like even less of what I have heard. (Also, get off my lawn, ya pesky kids) So this list will be in no way comprehensive or accurate.  What I've done instead is look back through my iTunes library at the songs I've added and became obsessed with each month of 2011.  That doesn't mean they're the best songs ever. It doesn't mean they were even released in 2011. Some of them are a few years old, in fact.

So the first song that got stuck on repeat play during 2011 was Greg Laswell's "Take Everything," one of many songs from the 2010 "Take a Bow" album. And this, I'll admit...is a little bit of a cheat.  I was obsessed with this song throughout the end of 2010, and it bled over into 2011. It's also one of my favorite music videos. I'm included here (because it's my blog and I can do whatever the hell I want right?) because, according to my iTunes, the other song I was obsessed with in January of 2011 was....TI and Rihanna's "Live Your Life." (Embedding is disabled.) This one is a few years old too, and...[mini-rant warning] TI annoys me, especially after his recent homophobic ramblings on behalf of Tracy Morgan's homophobic jokes.  TI says that gays threaten to "shut you down" if you disagree, but that's "not American." You should "have the right to be gay in peace, but if you're against it, you should have the right to be against it in peace."  So, if you are against a different racial minority or women, for instance, that's totally okay too. Whatever.  Anyway, so that's why I decided to give the lovely and charming Greg Laswell top billing. Because TI is a dickhead. Rihanna seems pretty great though.

On Downton Abbey

I may or may not have planned my recent trip to the UK around the season premier of Downton Abbey.  Or maybe serendipity just loves English period dramas as much as I do.  And what's not to love?  ITV's award-winning series has all the sexual tension of BBC's Pride and Prejudice, all the extravagant costumes and country houses of a Henry James adaptation, and all the haughty Maggie Smithness of every other English film. The characters are compelling and complex, with a touch of mystery in every hero and a touch of sympathy in every villain. No one is ever what they seem, and no one is ever completely bad or uncompromisingly good, well, except for Mr. Bates.  Can't he be just a little bit evil, just once in a while?  Sometimes I want to punch him in his kind, handsome, crinkly eye.

If you haven't seen the show, here's the PBS trailer for the first season, complete with history lessons like "Girls can't inherit," just in case we Americans don't get it.



The second season began airing in the UK in September, but won't make it to the US until early next year. I've been watching it covertly, and since the last episode of the season aired last night, Downton Abbey is what's making me happy this week, but empty and impatient by next week.



The second season couldn't do a better job of showing the impact of  the "Great War" if it came with a reading list of Modernist poetry.  I don't want to give too much away about the second season, but there will be some of this:

Little hints of this:

And a whole lot of this:

I can't help but think that if I were to do a cross-spectrum study of identity politics in British media, the most unfairly misrepresented group would have to be older English ladies.  They're always curmudgeons, telling you how to live your life, scaring away your suitors, or generally sticking their noses in where they don't belong.  And why are people always mysteriously dying every time they're invited to a dinner party or weekend retreat? (See also: Miss Marple) You have to wonder what these women are like in real life.  In interviews, Smith refers to Judi Dench as "Jude," and you just know that when they get together they drink like fish, smoke like chimneys, and curse like a Winslet. There's probably scorching stares, undoubtedly. Smith has also been close friends with Carol Burnett for several decades.  Go ahead, blow your mind.



So, while your mind is still reeling, notice how much sultry sex appeal Dame Maggie has in this clip or how little Hugh Bonneville has in this one.  But be careful how much poking around on the internet you do, though.  There are a few interviews out there with Brendan Coyle, where he's casually dressed in a suit, the top two or seven buttons unbottoned.  I never needed to see Mr. Bates's chest hair. Never ever.

But really, everything about this cast and this show makes me happy.  And when it finally airs here in January, I'll rewatch the whole thing excitedly, and I'm already looking forward to a Christmas special and Season 3 set in the Jazz Age--really, so much, dorkily, looking forward to it, you have no idea.

Boats, Bikes, and Balloons: Getting Around in Oxford

As in "that other university city," punts are nearly as ubiquitous as long, black robes. Actually, during my recent visit, there weren't many robes around. I remember my first visit was around exam time and everywhere you looked undergrads glided through the streets of Oxford on their bikes, black wings flapping behind.


Obligatory "people in foreign countries ride bicycles" shot. The basket's just a bonus.


Longer travel time but considerably more leg room than the Virgin aircraft I used.

Pop Culture Happy Hour Makes Me Happy

A few months ago a friend asked a particularly probing question: “What’s making you happy?” “What makes you think I’m happy? Does this look like happy to you?” was the gist of my reply, [obscenities omitted]. For several weeks, a few of us had been getting together once a week to discuss our work, bounce around ideas, brainstorm, provide a shoulder to cry on. Academia tends to be a solitary pursuit unless you fight it—and you really have to fight it. You can get so caught up in your own work that you don’t see another human for days, pounding out words that no longer make sense.

The question came from “Pop Culture Happy Hour,” a weekly podcast that brings together writers from NPR.com. The idea in our context—or at least the context as we initially understood it—was to focus on the positive aspects of our week. True to form, my other friend and I brought the gloom. “I’m happy that conference didn’t actually kill me,” she said. “I’m happy I didn’t go crazy writing that paper,” I added. An exasperated, yet sympathetic, face stared at us across the table. Clearly, we had missed the point.

One by one, we each got around to listening to the podcast, and suddenly it all made sense. I’ve always been reluctant about podcasts. Maybe reluctant isn’t the right word. Condescending is better. I was absolutely scornful. Why listen to a bunch of strangers discuss nonsense like some sort of local cable show? But Pop Culture Happy Hour shattered my preconceptions, though not my snobbery. It’s pretty impervious, and that’s okay, because PCHH (That’s what the cool kids call it.) isn’t lacking in condescension.

The PCHH crew is made up of Linda Holmes, the editor of NPR’s Monkey See Blog, Trey Graham, art and theatre critic, Glen Weldon, book and comic book critic, and Stephen Thompson, NPR’s music editor. These are smart people. They know stuff. Smart stuff. About a wide range of topics, and they’re funny. (And I secretly hope they google themselves and find my blog. Hey, it’s is much more realistic than my other fantasy about running into them at a local bar and becoming their new best friend.) Every week they talk about movies, music, tv, books, comic books, and, of course, German art song intelligently, analytically, and with quick, sardonic humor that will have you snorting in public. They talk about entertainment—what makes it entertaining, what makes it problematic, what it says about the culture that produces and consumes it. And I’m not kidding about the snorting. I’ve laughed aloud on the Metro. I once had to stop on the sidewalk and bend over laughing.

At the end of each show, the final segment is called “What’s making us happy.” They go around the table, and each panelist talks about the tv show they’ve been watching, the new band they found, the website, Twitter feed, etc., etc. that’s making them happy. It’s not just about focusing on the positive; it’s about sharing something that actually makes you happy—blissfully happy, deliciously happy, my life is better because of this thing happy. And I want to share it because I think it’ll make you happy too.

So I’m writing here on this little blog that no one ever reads because I want to share with those of you who stumble over here from my much more popular blog, District Daily Photo, or with those of you who found me the usual way, by googling “Annie Liebowitz Gwyneth Paltrow” or “Dana Parino’s legs.” Yes, I see you. I see you all. But I also really do want to focus on the positive, these things that make us blissfully happy no matter what else is going on in our lives. I want to sit down and write about the things that make me happy because, not to get all trite and needle-point-pillow on you, but that’s what makes life worth living. So…Pop Culture Happy Hour, and the friends who share it with me. That’s what’s making me happy.

Oxonian Doors

The Old Parsonage Hotel. Someone told me they have the best afternoon tea in all of Oxford, but sadly I didn't get a chance to confirm.

The locked gates of the Radcliffe Camera.

All Soul's College

Through the gates at All Soul's College

Red All Over

It's always been my experience that British people are intensely proud of their history and heritage, stretching back into the ancient, unrecorded past; yet, they seem strangely oblivious to the "every day-ness" of it, absentmindedly dropping a letter into a Victorian postbox.

All the postboxes in the UK belong to the sitting monarch and bear the royal crest of whomever is on the throne at the time, whether Victoria Regina, Edward VII, George VI, or Elizabeth II. If you spend your life reading and researching the Victorians, coming across something marked "VR" is a little more exciting than most people find mail boxes. Walking around Oxford is like a hundred nerdy-Christmases rolled into one.

Oxford, Black and White

Big Sky

I've just spent over a week with my parents in Mississippi, enjoying their backyard, the sky, the endless horizon, and the sweet tea.

Did I mention the spectacular sunsets?

[Embiggenable]

Doggy

This is what a thunderstorm looks like when it's just starting out in life. A few minutes later, this was a full-on thunderhead.

The Louisiana wetlands. With record or near-record flooding all down the Mississippi, Louisiana opened up a few levies and the spillway to keep the rising waters from flooding New Orleans again. This stretch of water is usually pretty calm and serene. Now there are flashing signs all across the highway instructing motorists not to stop on the spillway because everyone is surprised by the rushing water beneath the railroad tracks.

Ten Concert Photos

Celine Dion at the Verizon Center, September 2008

I love taking pictures, and I love concerts, and I love blogging, so why not do a blog post about how much I love taking pictures at concerts. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. So here are a selection of ten of my favorite concert pictures--It's not a top ten, just ten that I really like, in chronological order.

Meiko at the 930 Club with the Hotel Cafe Tour, October 2008

Thao Nguyen at the 930 Club with the Hotel Cafe Tour, October 2008

Missy Higgins, 930 Club, March 2009

Missy Higgins, 930 Club, March 2009

This was the third of four MH concerts I've been to, and, if you know me this goes without saying, every concert photo that I've taken of Missy has been my favorite concert photo ever.

Brandi Carlile, 930 Club, October 2009

Chely Wright, Capital Pride Festival, June 2010

Sara Bareilles, 930 Club, October 2010

Someday, I hope to take a good concert photo of a guy.

Does This Hat Make Me Look Silly?

Lincoln doesn't have to wear any bloody hat.

He was the first President of the United States of America, the nation's capital is named in his honor, as well as a university that was started by someone else entirely and then renamed after him. And he has a feather boa. Take that, Abe.

George's annual birthday...attire...is allegedly furnished by The George Washington University's not so secret society, The Order of the Hippo. They (or whoever is responsible) also decorate The Hippo.

In front of The Hippo there is a ceremonial plaque that explains the legend of the hippos that used to play in the Potomac. Children would go down to the water and, if they managed to touch a hippo's snout, it would bring them good luck. Rubbish. Local legend says that a previous president of the university bought it for his wife at an auction where there may or may not have been an open bar. What do you do if you are given a large, bronze hippopotamus? Precisely. It was immediately regifted to the Class of 1996. The Hippo has become the unofficial mascot of The George Washington University. It's a beloved feature, not only in front of Lisner Auditorium, but on many a coffee mug and sweatshirt, as well. You'd be surprised at how many people read the plaque and don't get the sarcasm, and, even for those who do, it's still tradition to rub the snout or grip the teeth for good luck.

Weekend Roundup: The Civil Wars and Eastern Market

I set two rules for myself when I started blogging again. The first--never go so long without posting that you have do a "round-up" of

everything you've done in a week/month. The second rule was to never write self-indulgent posts. But let's face it, it's a blog. That's what it's for. So, I might as well break the first rule too.

Last Saturday, I went with a friend, who has the coolest job in the world as a music blogger, to Jammin' Java in Vienna, VA to see the country/ roots/soul/bluegrassy/Americana duoThe Civil Wars. The funny thing about describing them like that is that I actually don't like any of those genres. But they've been on repeat on my pod since their first EP. If you'd like a soundtrack to play along with this post, You can open a new tab with this video(that I didn't record) from the concert. And since everybody likes free music, here's a link to The Civil Wars's (yep, that's grammatically correct.) free EP "Live at Eddie's Attic." You're welcome. I'm probably the only one who found this funny, but I went to see The Civil Wars on Lincoln's birthday.

On Saturday, I went to Eastern Market with another friend. And nothing says self-indulgent like a photo essay of one's day.

The food hall is full of independent grocers, butchers, fromageries, bakers, pasta makers, you name it.

It was the day before Valentine's Day after all.

I took the next two shots on a different day.

The first is of antique architectural elements that

are sold in the flea market outside section of Eastern Market. My apartment is getting

increasingly filled with stuff from the flea market; even my headboard is made of old tin ceiling tiles.

The picture on the right shows the inside of the food halls.

And finally rounding up the day with brunch at Pain Quotidien.