Tuesday, January 31, 2006

hearts up, heads down

Why, pray tell, do I never seem to have time to do ANYthing anymore? ARRGH.

I'm seeing Aimee Mann tomorrow night (...I think. I got nervous that it might be cancelled when I heard of Chris Penn's untimely demise last week--Chris being her brother-in-law and all--but no word from Ticketmaster or the venue about cancellation, so all systems appear to be go), and while I'm VERY excited and love love love her... I kind of wish I had the time to myself for schoolwork. How sad is that? I haven't gone to a bar review all semester, but I'm tempted this week because it's back at the bar where the Boy and I talked for the first time. (As the Boy pointed out, this bar was RIDICULOUSLY loud and I lost my voice from having to shout over the music... but aww, gee whiz, nostalgia.) Also, I feel somewhat like a hermit for my lack of social-ness so far in '06. However, this Friday is Barrister's Ball, this Saturday is a Wigmore cast party, and Sunday is a Superbowl party with the dean of the law school (and next Tuesday is my lunch with my Torts professor from last semester, so the brown-nosing does, in fact, have an end in sight). I suppose I'm having my fair share of law school fun. And the YGC reunion is nigh approaching, so that's something else to look forward to--but it's also a source of stress, thanks to the CLR assignment due the 13th. Basically, next week is going to suck, because I have to get a LOT of work done in advance, and I'm not sure how successful I'll manage to be.

Anyway, I saw Colin Meloy perform a solo show last Monday, and for my first concert of 2006, I can only say that it's setting the bar pretty darn high. He was SO much fun. I was front row, which hasn't happened much in my concert-going experiences of late, so I had a delightfully unobstructed view. He brought out a table with a skull (Cheryl), a stuffed sheep (Erick) and a model tall ship (Maya Angelou), as well as a bottle of red wine. He played just about every song I'd ever want to hear, including "Shiny," "We Both Go Down Together," "Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect" (!!!), "Engine Driver"... yeah. Fantastic. He ended with "California One," which he played for a full 14 minutes. Someone shouted out a request for The Tain and he scoffed, but, like, he was practically there, length-wise anyhow. Most importantly, he was witty and charismatic between songs--and you know how I eat that up, having cut my teeth on concerts in the folk tradition. He only played one song off the Shirley Collins EP he sold at the show ("Barbara Allen"), but he opened with a Tarkio song, in homage to the re-release of all the material off his Missoula, MO college band. He also played his just-written paean to his unborn child, and Ben Folds/Steve Page, take note--it was cute and quaint without being treacly, and I dare say I'm looking forward to an album version.

[I'm actually listening to the EP right now, and I was very excited for "Charlie" until the female singer broke in with a duet... Colin, you may love your girlfriend, pregnant mother of your first child; she may do delightful, whimsical drawings for your albums and your merchandise, but she CAN'T SING. Nothing grates more than flat singing (both in pitch and in color). *sigh* Love makes us all blind and deaf in some way, I suppose...]

Anyway. Aside from a bizarre instance in the gym last night wherein I discovered in one fell swoop that a college acquaintance of mine both won the 1994 Spelling Bee and was the subject of ridicule for same on ESPN, life has been fairly unremarkable. Mostly good, a little bad. I'll let you know if things shift drastically.

Right. Back to work.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ok...you've piqued my interest. i need to hear this song for myself. gotta hear that flat singing although it's probably gonna make my ears bleed...

Rent60 said...

Your SO lucky you got to see Colin. I, sadly had to miss my planned night of Colin Meloy because my trip to NYC just didn't end up happening...geeze, why do these people not come to Canada?!?! Glad you enjoyed it though, sounds like it was awesome. I'm surprised he did Decemberists songs. For some reason I thought that the purpose of this tour was to get away from that.

I simply must get my hands on those EPs. My friend is burning me a bunch of his stuff but as I guess you could still call me a Decemberists newbie of sorts, I don't know which ones she's giving me.