WIL COme together

Preface: I think i'm cool. Now, this is not true, but none-the-less i continue to think it's true.

I went to see WILCO and the Fleet Foxes a couple nights ago. The Fleet Foxes were money. I think these 5 dudes grew up in the foot hills of the Appalachians with only one guitar. Because they only had one guitar they all learned to sing really, really well and make sweet, sweet harmonies. Somehow they found a Rhodes and a mandolin along side of the road and turned up the reverb way too much. I love it.
Wilco was magical. I haven't been the biggest Wilco fan, despite Andy and Nard's best efforts, but recently have been getting into them more and more. Alt/Country/Noise/Funk/Folk/Rock = awesome. But That's just the music. I think there was something a whole lot bigger going on... These dudes are not cool. They're all middle aged or older, they don't dress cool, they were kinda funny, but like nerdy funny. I thought, maybe the drummer was cool, but then I realized his drum set was made of clear plastic- clearly uncool.
Between acts, i was chatting with Tricia who is quite a people watcher. We were noticing how many different styles of people were there, in addition to the fact that we never thought there'd be that many people in Boise who would come out to a Wilco concert. This group was so diverse. There was the guy wearing a sarong with a flower behind his ear, there was the bro (aka- short spikey hair and abercrombie t-shirt), there was the guy from the Record Exchange with the grandiose mustache, and a drove of normalish, unoriginal, rather uncool looking people of all ages, literally 5 to 75. I said to Tricia, "Well, I guess the lesson tonight is- Wilco brings people together." I said this kind of jokingly, but as the night went I realized how true it was.
After the sun went down in our beautiful (aka- dusty) southern Idaho sky and things cooled off a bit, the band got into it a little more and so did the crowd. The back lights on stage were overthrowing enough to put light on the faces around me. Every head was bobbing and most singing along. Those that weren't singing were smiling wide. Somehow 5 uncool dudes armed with instruments and songs brought together a most unlikely and uncool group of people. There might have been someone there that was cool, but no one knew it. If no one recognizes that you're cool, are you? All cool powers were lost that night because people weren't surrounded by others like them that thought they were cool. Everyone was uncool together....Which i think, then, makes everyone cool. All I know is I was pumped that the guy next to me, who was bobbing his head so hard that his whole body was shaking, was having a great time.
Bravo Wilco! I think redemption is afoot here. I probably need to do a little more investigation in Wilco's tunes. Maybe in 15 years i'll be uncool enough to have a really cool band.

Sorry this is so long. I leave you with this:

listen. to music.

So most of my roommates moved out. Kyle still remains, but who knows when he'll be gone again off to wild fire fighting...Anyway, last night I had the house all to myself. After watching a little TV while eating leftovers, I turned it off. [sigh] that's nice. I think the TV has been on for a great majority of the in-house waking hours (some sleeping too) in the last year of my life. With a quick little patch job, I plugged my computer into the surround sound system that Vinnie left us and just listened to music. The lamps seemed a little too bright so I grabbed some candles that Jeff left us and just got to listen. So often we play music in the background, a soundtrack to our lives while we drive, work, play, talk, cruise the internet. That's great. I've got some playing right now. Life would be a little dull without it. But it's nice once in a while to bring music to the front of our perception and enjoy it like we'd enjoy an art show or a movie. I think one of music's jobs is to bring justice (more on this later. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this idea) to our souls. It can help make things right. So let it. Do it. Listen. to music.

I want to try out a little something new here too. We'll call it 'song of the season,' because i'm not sure i would keep up 'song of the day' or even 'song of the week' (and because of the nice alliteration!) This one is "Blue Rondo a la Turk" from the 1959 Dave Brubeck Quartet album Time Out. check out how these brilliant geniuses mess with time and make you like it. Just when you think you've had enough of trying to figure out what meter they're in they bust into this smooth swing, Paul Desmond's sweet tone just soothing away all those thought of, "oh, i could never make music this good."

oh. wow. John. that was big.

is anyone else getting really annoyed by the negative, nasally gymnastics announcer. He never gives any technical clue to what he's talking about. He just says, "oh. that was a mistake," or, "oh. wow. oh. my," with huge pauses in between and never tells us anymore. My favorites today were, "Gi. Gantic. Number," and "Gymnastics 101. Grab the bar." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! SHUT UP NASAL MAN! Could somebody please fire this guy? I love watching gymnastics (along with many other events) in these, The Games of the XXIXth Olympiad of the Modern Era, but seriously, I'd have a lot more fun if NBC would fire this guy...

a mustache brotherhood

I have a mustache. it's just a subtle one, nicely trimmed, with a soul patch, you know, to get that artsy flavor.




Last week during a routine lunch stop at the Great Harvest Bread Co. something that i'm sure has existed since the beginning of time (or maybe since the sixth day of creation) became known to me. I was standing in line waiting to order a sandwich and there was a guy slicing off bread samples for those waiting in line. I heard him saying, "Sir, can a slice you a piece of (fill in the bread of the day)?." But when he got to me it was, "What can I get you Bro? I called you bro becuase I noticed your mustache and [pointing at his upper lip] i'm trying to get one of those going too. Is it that simple?

Mustache [pointing at me] ?
Mustache [pointing at you]?
Brothers?

Then today...
When i went to send off my scholarship application today (which was way too expensive, cuz I waited till the last minute) something fantastic happened! As I was leaving the parking lot another guy with a mustache was entering. We both had our windows down. We smiled. We nodded. We knew. Brothers.

Stella...er?

Ok, I know, I haven't posted in over a week. Don't worry, I've been both verbally and blogally abused. Part of the reason was I was working on a scholarship application (if you didn't know i'm going to Musicians Institute in LA in the fall). It's a performance scholarship and it required video of me in a few different contexts, one being a solo number. I haven't done that since school...so I dusted off the old jazz chops and here's what you get. Time was limited at the shoot and I needed to mail it off today, so there are some flubs...but hopefully Marcus made me look cool enough that they'll forget that I messed up...

mere mortals?

I was reading the other day at my favorite coffee shop (the shop with the biggest pastries!...and some pretty good coffee) and was just smacked upside the face with this passage from C.S. Lewis. As odd as it my be this is my first Lewis, so...sorry if i'm just way behind. Something my pastor said tonight reminded me of this. It comes from the last page of the first chapter of The Weight of Glory:

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean we are perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously- no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to you senses."

And a few quotes from Pastor Krist:

"Love is inconvenient."

"What would happen if the Church started doing something creative with the Golden Rule?"

I used to be better at this neighbor loving stuff. And by neighbor i mean the people around me at any given point. When i was a kid i loved people. In elementary school i used to talk to everyone, "be nice" to everyone. What happened? Well somewhere along the line I started caring what was cool, what I looked like, what other people looked like, what other people could get me...and I lost some of that innocence. I want it back! I want to see people as glorious, precious creations. Lord, help me.

oooh wow, eh, and bleh (this is the throw up sound)

I went to see Andrew Bird and Josh Ritter tonight...

Oh wow! - I've been into Andrew Bird for a quite a while, and I enjoy him immensely, but it's been a while since I've listened to his I knew he was great on the violin (i'm pretty sure it's violin, not fiddle. His lines lean more classical than they do blue grass), and his singing is fantastic, or perhaps, croontastic...But what i'd forgotten about was his whistling!...maybe the sexiest whistle i've ever heard. Whisting, hand claps, violin, all through a loop pedal and then piped through a spinning double gramaphon - amazing...not to mention his great band.

eh - I'd heard Josh Ritter's name around quite a bit, and someone recommended his album "The Animal Years" to me, to I checked it out. It's great, cool neo folk vibe to back some stand-up lyrics. He's got a new one out called "The Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter," which I hadn't heard any of until tonight....I wasn't impressed. He came out with this big goofy grin on his face, all nervous because he's playing his home state. Ok, it was kinda cute...for 2 songs maybe...but he was just giddy and cheesin' all night... The hip textures from the Animal Years turned into some cheesey, straight country and the lyrics? - a little cheese sauce on the side. Occasionally he played one of the older tunes, which kept me around, but really the only thing he had going for him was this kick-ass bass player. He was dressed all classy with matching slacks and vest. To add to his class points he sported some dark horn-rimmed specticals and a big, fat, handlebar mustache, you know, the kind that culrs up on the end....oh yeah and he was a great musician as well.

Bleh (this is the throw up sound)- When I got home i made myslef a little plate of Nachos ( i know, it's late but I didn't have a chance to eat dinner) and sat down to watch some Conan. It was a re-run with an uninteresting guest, so I flipped over the the Craig Fergison show to check it out. Ooo, just in time for the musical guest...no namer? well, i'll give 'em a whirl. NO NO! what is this?
This is what he sang (well something like this, cuz it's late and I was trying to block it out):

Things are gonna get better
Things are gonna get better
This is true
Things are gonna get better
Things are gonna get better
For me and you

Are you serious? This is when I threw up. Really? If that's what it takes to sell records, I think I could write like 4 a year that would sell and still have to make some real music....