hikaru's vox thing.

Okay, I don't know if I can talk about the concert without just making PAGES AND PAGES OF HYPER KEYMASHING but I will try.

First off, we got there about an hour early, due to the train (our alternative was to be an hour late.  Um, no.).  Which was good, as it gave us time to wander around the park, since we'd never been to Ravinia before.  It's really very pretty up there, though I would never, ever get lawn seats to a concert there because you're so far away, and there aren't any gigantic projection screens to show what's happening on stage.   The lawn is also very noisy as it's more filled with people there to picnic and chat than watch the concert.  Additionally, my worry about taking a camera was sadly unfounded, as security was like, nil.  I guess I'm used to going to concerts at shadier places, not in the wealthy northern Chicago suburbs.  So now I'm really wishing I'd brought my camera, but oh well.

We grabbed food and --- ended up running into RW, who I went to middle/high school with.  CRAZY.  I knew he was in Chicago, because his mom told my mom, but the last place I expected to run into him was a crowded concert venue in the north 'burbs.  Anyhow, we traded numbers and maybe someday we'll actually hang out.  It was SO RANDOM though.

A Fine Frenzy opened, and they blew us away.  I'd heard their music before and knew I liked it, at least, but I always wonder if a group will sound as good live as they do recorded.  They definitely didn't disappoint -- the lead singer has a very powerful voice, and she's absolutely adorable.  Her voice sort of reminds me of Missy Higgins, so much to the point that I thought she was Australian, but nope.  Just a unique voice.  Anyhow, they performed for about half an hour -- they did "Come Out, Come Out," "You Picked Me," "Almost Lover," "Borrowed Time," "Rangers," and maybe a couple more.

Magic Numbers were next, and they were SO ENERGETIC.  Polar opposite of A Fine Frenzy, which is very low-key indie piano rock.  Magic Numbers are two brother-sister sets from London, although they looked like they stepped right out of some Southern rock group.  (As an aside, when I think "Magic Numbers", my brain connects it with Patrick Wolf's "Magic Position," and then I get that damn song stuck in my head and can't think of anything else.  ANYHOW.)  They were really good -- just the right amount of energy and excitement to get you pumped for the concert.  The lead singer's voice reminded me a bit of a more rocking Martin Sexton.  Their bass player, a woman, was completely rocking, and her playing and enthusiasm was half of the show, really.  Songs included "This is a Number," "Undecided," "Take A Chance", and a bunch of others.  They played for probably 45 minutes or so.

And then, of course, Rufus.

Oh, my darling.

The band comes out -- a full band this time, complete with french horn and trumpet and sax -- dressed in delightfully tacky, mismatched suits.  They do riffs on the melody of Release the Stars, and I'm already excited, because if he's OPENING with that number, well.  fgkdjd.

So after a few minutes of band noise, Rufus strolls out in delightfully tacky lederhosen, and it just entirely sets the stage for the rest of the concert, because the man is in LEDERHOSEN and looks AMAZING.  (Apparently in other cities, he comes out in a tacky, stripy suit like the band wears and changes into the lederhosen later; this concert set list was a little shorter than his other more recent tour stops, so there might just not have been enough time on this stop.) 

He belts out Release the Stars, which gives me chills live because of the way his voice just hugs and caresses every lush syllable.  He goes from release the Stars right into Going to a Town, which is still very powerful and right on point with its message.

At one point, the backdrop raises up, which is a black and white striped flag, with sparkly shapes like flowers and butterflies in place of stars.  "What is that?" M asked me.  "A very, terribly gay flag," I respond.  Because what else can it be?  Rufus explained it as the black and white stripes representing everything that's wrong with America, and the sparkly things are the good things about the country.

Now, let me say this about Rufus.  One of my favourite things about him is how absolutely terrible he is at working a crowd.  He starts telling a story and then gets distracted and doesn't finish it, or decides he doesn't like the story, or shouldn't tell the ending and will just start singing again.  His mind obviously goes about 10000 miles an hour, and it's like he doesn't have the attention span to banter.  And I LOVE it.  It fits exactly with his personality and his style and his music.  He doesn't NEED to work the crowd with his words and silly stories; he works it instead with the cocky tilt of his head and the way he tosses his hair and his absolute command of his music.

He goes through most of his new album, performing Sansoucci, Rules and Regulations (which ROCKED live), Tiergarten, Leaving For Paris #2 ("This is the European segment of the show.  There's lots of great things about Europe.  Like fabulous European hair."), Do I Disappoint You, Not Ready to Love, and Slideshow (equally ROCKING live).  From older albums, he performed The Art Teacher ("Why is he singing about being a girl?" Manuel asks.  "Shh," I say.), Beautiful Child, and 14th Street.  I was somewhat disappointed that there weren't other old songs, but that's what you get when you go to a concert in support of a new album.  If he was going to do any older songs, though, I'm thrilled that he did those three.  The Art Teacher live, with a horn section, was beautiful, and the last two just really took it up a rocking notch with the full band.  They're three of my favourite songs of his, so I certainly won't complain.

By far one of the highlights of the night, however, was "Between My Legs."  I saw him debut this song in State College in 2005, and it was a nice little full circle moment to see how far the song in its live version has come.  And oh, baby.  You've come so far.  When I saw him perform it in State College, his voice cracked on the opening because they played it up too high, but his voice wasn't quite up to hitting the bottom range of notes that the song called for.  He was flawless last night, though, and the song is completely fabulous in its camp.  As always, it's a song "about the end of the world".  What made the song even more amazing this time, however, are two things:

1.  Rufus opened the song by telling a story about going to the gym the other day in Ohio.  He used one of the leg exercise machines, one that he described as one where it was easier for you to keep your legs open than to keep them shut.  Anyway, he said, he worked out on that one "a little too vigorously" and now his inner thighs hurt like hell.  He said that he had the band and crew backstage rubbing his thighs to make him feel better.  :D

2.  There's been a promotional contest going on for all the stops on his summer tour for a local person to come up on stage during Between My Legs and perform a spoken word reading that's at the end of the song.  You enter by "making a fool of yourself" on YouTube, according to Rufus.  Chicago's winner was a very perky blonde girl who came out and danced and shimmied and had a grand old time on the stage during the song.  She was HILARIOUS.  "God bless the Midwest," Rufus quipped at one point as she pranced around onstage.  Her delivery of the spoken word section was great, but she really stole the show with her dancing around.  ("I think she forgot that Rufus is gay," Manuel said when she shimmied and shook right next to Rufus.)

The last song of the show was 14th Street, which ended with the band leaving the stage one by one.  The horns did a little march around the stage, very New Orleans jazz style, and then all that was left was the banjo player.  An extended banjo solo.  Amazing.  I love the banjo.  He tossed his pic into the crowd, which landed in the row in front of me.  Some crazy girl a few seats over made a dive for it.

And then, of course, the encore.

Rufus strolls out onto the dark stage in a fluffy white bathrobe and sits down at the piano, solo, to sing Complainte de la Butte, a beautiful little song in French.  So glad he sang it -- he knows how to do an encore, that's for sure.  Something quiet to start out with, to get asses back in seats.

He followed it up by moving to a chair, putting on some sparkly jewelery, bright red lipstick, and some amazing black heels, in order to do a dance number to Come On, Get Happy.  If those Judy Garland shows have been doing anything for our boy, they've taught him how to camp up a show, that's for sure.  Anyhow, the entire band comes back out in black suits and pink shirts and dances along with Rufus, who is now in a black jacket and fedora, and it is FABULOUS. 

The closer is, of course, Gay Messiah, which is amazing all around.  (I recited the lyrics to M later, as he didn't really understand them.  And then, of course, when he did, he was all o_____O.)  He performed the song in the same drag that he performed Come On, Get Happy in, and dfhdsjfs words can't explain how much I love this song, and how much I love it as a closer.

I have to say that my favourite observation about the concert is the complete shift in his stage presence and his showmanship from 2005 to now.  Maybe it's the elation of a new album, the added excitement of having a full backing band, his beautiful German boyfriend and (apparently) happy and satisfactory personal life, being clean and off drugs (hopefully!) for several years now, the fact that the croud was there and loving him, or channeling his inner drag-queen-lounge-singer to do his Judy Garland shows.  I don't know what it is, but he is so much more there on stage.  He's dancing, moving around, hopping with his guitar, singing with his hands -- such a different show from when I saw him before.  His facial expressions are priceless, his little scowls at the piano when he misses a few keys, his glances at the band members, the way his eyes got as big as saucers when the girl was dancing around during Between My Legs.  He may not have good banter, but he more than makes up for it with everything else about him.

If you're ever looking for a flawless musical performance, and a great overall concert experience, do go check him out in concert.  ♥

IMG_1572b.jpg

We went down to the Chicago Pizza Fest, which ended up being kind of boring and more annoying as far as waiting in lines than the Taste itself is, which sure says something.  But that didn't matter, because I was there for Over the Rhine, and oh, they did not disappoint.

I am so sad that I've missed them the past few times they've been through Chicago, because every time I see them, it's like discovering an old friend all over again, or wearing a warm sweater that you can't ever get rid of.  Seriously, there are not enough words out there for me to say just how much I love Karin and Linford.

I'm hoping someone at the message boards posts a set list, but here's what I remember.  They opened up with Fever, and then went in to Long Lost Brother, which I love SO much more live.  There is a LOT of power in that song.  Karin eventually moved over to the piano for Ohio and Firefly and... something else, I think.  God, I love Firefly.  My memory will not fail me now.  I didn't ever expect to love that song as much as I do, but it's one of my favourites.  Other songs that cropped up were B.P.D. (You're makin' a mess / Somethin' you can't hide / A slow suicide / Just one bite at a time.), Spark, and a cover of This One Goes Out to the One I Love.  They also did a few new songs from their new album, Trumpet Child, which hits stores in August, including a beautiful song called I Don't Wanna Waste Your Time, that they wrote about going out on the road again.

They closed with Orphan Girl, which is a Gillian Welch tune, and ooh, it just gave me chills.  Beautiful.  Their encore was Hush Now (Stella's Tarantella), which I adore live, but am always a little meh about on the album.  The live version just makes me want to dance a dirty, dirty waltz. 

Setlist from the Forums
Fever
Born
Long Lost Brother
Spark
I Don't Wanna Waste Your Time
Who'm I Kidding
Trouble
The One I Love
Last Night On Earth Again
Firefly
Ohio (full band)
BPD
Orphan Girl

encore:
Hush Now

The crowd was atypically crappy -- not too enthusiastic, and most of the people were drunk and obnoxious.  I've chanced upon so many good concerts (and good crowds) that I'd forgotten how awful they could be otherwise.  But for about an hour and a half of beautiful music and basking in the glory of Karin and Linford, all for $5, well, I can't complain.

If you ever have the chance to check them out, please go see them live.  It's a mesmerizing experience that's worth every cent.

We took M's family to the airport on Saturday morning.  They got home safely. I think they're coming back in the summer, though I don't know if we'll actually see them. They're all going to Florida, to Disney, I think, and M and I don't really have the time or money (or desire) to go to Florida. We're thinking about going to Europe some time next year (if I don't kill him first for being an ass, that is) and want to save money for that. M's grand idea is to go to Spain and Italy, which I'm all for. I'd love to get to England someday, and I really want to go back to France someday, too. I told M that if we definitely decide to go to Italy, that he can't stop me from enrolling in an Italian class somewhere. Even though I know that a lot of Europeans do speak English, I really do like knowing something of the local language of where I'm going.  It's one of the things that frustrated me most about going to Venezuela, my absolute lack of knowledge of Spanish.

I think I may eventually try to enroll in one of those Spanish immersion sort of classes here someday. I'd love to be conversational, at least.  Fluency is a lot to ask for at this point, but I'd like to be able to go shopping with K and not have to resort to hand gestures and saying random words in english and adding an 'o' to the end of them. XD Like M tells me, it's not like she (or I. (my other brother-in-law's wife), or my mother in law) are going to ever make the effort to better their English to talk to me.

hi kids, i feel really really crappy.  i took a sick day from work today because i was so miserable - don't  think i'm going to go to class either today, which sucks because it's the teacher who is all crazy about attendance but i am in no mood to sit through the class.  

i finished reading fingersmith the other day and holy crap, guys, it's awesome.  i love it.  go read it.  just go.  i started reading melusine now, which is good so far.  i'm not too far into it yet.  there are some things about the writing that bothers me - particularly the fact that the author switches a lot from past to present tense in different scenes.  i sort of get it, because it's something that i do when roleplaying -- if the scene i'm writing seems very immediate to me, i'll put it in present, but everything else largely is in past.  it seems like the author takes the same approach, but it still confuses me sometimes.

blah and now i'm going to go write my papers to email my prof since i'm not getting out of bed today.

I haven't really read this whole article on a case before the Supreme Cout regarding a teenager, freedom of speech, and a sign that said "Bong hits 4 Jesus". But I do find this quote and image downright hilarious:

Now, I can't even say that I've heard of Justice Breyer before - I'm terribly ignorant of Supreme Court Justices that don't get a lot of media coverage - but really.  Just picture it in your head.  A judge of the high court saying, out loud, the phrase "Bong hits 4 Jesus heh heh heh."  Particularly in the Beavis and Buthead voice.

Now isn't that the best thing ever?

Kids are insane.  L, my brother-in-law asked me if I was ready to have kids yet, after a couple days of getting knocked in the head and poked in the eye and jumped on by L-ito.  I looked at him like he'd grown a third head.  I'm totally digging playing with my nephew, but there's also the light at the end of the tunnel, as I get to give him back to his parents.

I have increased my repetoire of Spanish to include the words for "tickle" and "cowboy".  Also, shopping for shoes with K yesterday was hilarious, as we somehow ended up in the only store in Chicago that didn't have any clerks that spoke Spanish.  I had to use my broken Spanish and a lot of pointing to help her pick shoes and get the right sizes.  Sometimes I feel bad that I can't communicate with her more easily, but her English consists of "Is this beautiful?", "Come on, S", and "I call M", so I'm okay. 

When do you file your taxes?  Do you do it yourself or get outside help?

My dad does my taxes for me (and also my husband's).  He went to school for a little while to be an accountant, but decided he hated it and quit.  ;)  He's mostly self-taught, but he's always been really interested in finance stuff for as long as I can remember.  I should be filing them soon - he emailed them to me, I just have to print them out and send them in.  Part of me wants to learn how to do them on my own, but really, I've got so much else to worry about that learning tax law is really low on my priority list.  Eventually we'll probably have to get an accountant of our own - my dad can't do them for us forever, and we've been toying with the idea of starting our own business sometimes, which would complicate our taxes further.  But for now, I'm perfectly content to just let my dad have his fun with them.

So you've probably noticed that occasionally, I make posts here that are sponsored by PayPerPost, a great form of blog marketing.   PPP has slowly been gaining more buzz and popularity, and with that comes higher paying offers.  It's commonplace to log in and see offers for $5 posts mixed in with offers for $50, $100, or even $1000 for a single post. Now that's pretty amazing, if you ask me.

It's even better for bloggers with high PageRankings -- they're the ones that will most often be eligable for the big money posts.  My page rank is pretty low or nonexistant, but even I can still find opportunities to blog about here at PPP.

One great thing about PPP for advertisers is that they only charge a 35% service fee, rather than other companies that charge a 100% markup.  With PPP's business model, advertisers can afford to offer more posts to more people, or can offer higher paying opportunities, which is good for everyone.  Regardless of if your page rank is zero or seven billion, you can always find great topics to write about at PPP.  Credit cards interest you?  Unsigned bands?  Technology?  Travel?  Real estate?  Just a sampling of sites you can talk about and get paid for.

And one more thing, PPP bloggers are required to disclose that they're being paid for their posts.  I'm getting paid for this one -- my disclosure policy is in my Vox profile.  I think disclosure is a great thing; viral marketing is the future, but think of how duped you felt whenver you found out that something you saw on the net was actually an ad for something else.  The one that jumps to mind is the blog/youtube videos by the woman who supposedly found out her husband was cheating on her -- she left him and then did all sorts of crazy stuff like trashing his car, throwing out his belongings, and taking out a billboard saying how scummy the guy was.  Turns out, the whole thing was viral marketing for a new TV show -- I know a lot of people who felt totally scammed by that.  With PPP, you don't have to worry about that.  :)

Go check it out -- blogger or advertiser.  It's a lot of fun, and you can even learn about new products and services that interest you.

I forgot, for the record, how great it is to go to a concert where all the concert-goers aren't drunk and rude, where you get to sit down and don't have to fight for a good spot, where people are respectful and wonderful and yay.

Dar was wonderful and lovely, two hours of perfect music. She told a lot of fun stories, including how she left her guitar (number 59 of 59 custom guitars made for Joan Baez, who gave it to Dar) on a train and had to have her mom drive into NYC to get it back, and how she thinks Comfortably Numb would make a really great surrealist play, listing to crazy liberal talk radio as a teenager, and *flail* she's just great.

She did a great mix of songs, old and new, and when she played February, I almost cried. I don't know why, but that song always just gets me.

A setlist, in no particular order:
Teen for God, Empire, Comfortably Numb, Blue Light of the Flame, The Beauty of the Rain, Mercy of the Fallen, Are You Out There, If I Wrote You, Spring Street, February, End of the Summer, When I Was a Boy, The Babysitter's Here (which I love SO much more live), and Calling the Moon. There were more, but I can't recognize them from the titles alone.

Some of her songs that I'm kind of Meh about -- The Babysitter's Here, When I Was a Boy -- really just captured me so much more live. She has a great, storyteller quality about her that I don't think you can capture on a sound recording. It's in her presence, her calmness, her complete comfortable-ness with the stage and performing. Very simple, just her and a guitar on a bare stage. She said how nice it was to be somewhere that the people doing sound and lighting were people who actually went to school for it, and not just a bartender that got conned into running sound -- the show was at the Steppenwolf, which is primarily a theater house, but apparently has concerts sometimes, too. (The lobby has a huge photograph of the cast from the 2000 season -- photo done by Annie Leibowitz, with all sorts of famous people like Gary Sinise and John Malkovitch. Sometimes living in a city where stuff like that is possible seems so unreal to me.)

So yes, go see her some time if you can. It's good, solid music, the kind I really wish more people were making.

Who taught you how to cook?
Submitted by Donna.

No one.  Bwahaha.  I am a really, really horrible cook.  I never really showed an interest in learning how to cook when I was growing up, so my mom never really showed me how to do it.  I was interested in baking, though, so I picked up a moderate interest in baking cookies and the likes.  Until I went to college, though, the extent of my cooking abilities generally involved the usage of a toaster or microwave.  I branched out a bit in college to things like spaghetti, though still, at a bit of a loss for things that don't involve sugar and flower.  M -- who doe all the cooking -- has been trying to teach me, mostly to take some of the burden off of him for nights he ends up working late.  I can cook, technically, and the food's not bad, but I'm not creative enough to do anything beyond chicken and pasta, or chicken and rice.  Well, I can do tacos.  And chicken parmesan, sort of.  But really, I'm content to just stick with making cakes.