Friday, June 26, 2009

my favorite michael jackson memory

Ok, so maybe we've never actually met, but who doesn't have their favorite MJ dance party moment? That's what I thought. Mine takes place in middle school in good ole dance class; they made EVERYONE take it at my middle school. Imagine every kid you knew in middle school (yes, the awkward years to make things even better) aimlessly flailing their arms and legs in every direction all to the dismay and entertainment of the human being who chose "middle school dance teacher" as a profession. If only they made everyone take dance in college...Anyway, back to MJ. My favorite and most memorable dance routine learned in middle school was our dance to Thriller. Man, dance teachers sure do love to whip that song out around Halloween. When the song starts, we'd all be laying on the ground, then get out of our invisible coffin when the music cues, and then burst out into the Thriller dance. There is nothing better than thirty 7th graders doing the Thriller dance in unison. If only I could have fully appreciated it at the time. RIP, Michael Jackson!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

this is like...LIFE, man...

so, since everyone is doing top 10 lists...

I guess I'll throw one out there. In the month of June, these songs have managed to keep me sane.

10. Where I Stood-Missy Higgins

9. Against the Wind-Bob Seger

8. The Sun Also Sets-Ryan Adams

7. Heavenly Day-Patty Griffin

6. Come Downstairs and Say Hello-Guster (I mean...I had to)

5. Lying in the Hands of God-Dave Matthews Band

4. The General Specific-Band of Horses

3. Mykonos-Fleet Foxes

2.You Are the Best Thing-Ray Lamontagne

I'm suddenly feeling a lot of pressure about my number one song at the moment...that's a pretty big shoe to fill. But I'll go with...

1. Come Pick Me Up-Ryan Adams


Stay tuned (no pun intended...ha ha ha..) for next month.

Monday, June 22, 2009

City Stages identity crisis

As an introduction, Guster played at City Stages Sunday night; they opened for The Doobie Brothers and Lynard Skynard. Sooooo....this was the crowd at the Guster show...



Pretty self explanatory. I can't even make up the kind of things going on in this picture. If the camera had ventured a little further to the right, you would have seen me and my dad. I'm pretty sure the lady caught mid-sip on her beer was just letting her 12-year-old daughter play with the can, meanwhile her husband(?) had his arms outstretched for most of the show probably convinced the entire Guster show was just a really long version of "Freebird". Welcome to Alabama, Guster.

Most of the lovely citizens you see in the front row most likely had their lawn chairs parked there since noon...and they were so drunk by the time Guster played at 6pm half of them probably thought it was Lynard Skynard playing and were wondering when "Sweet Home Alabama" would start. I'm pretty sure Guster got a pretty big kick out of this whole redneck situation, however. They commented on their twitter (see...having twitter can come in handy!) that the lyrics to "Freebird" were taped down on the stage...no lie. But I think if me or my dad had mentioned to any of these loyal Skynard fans that half the band (including the lead singer/frontman/songwriter) was wiped out in a plane crash in the 70s one of them would probably have taken out their gun and shot us. And yes, I am making the sweeping generalization that 1 in 3 of these people probably carried a gun into City Stages. Don't get me wrong, Lynard Skynard is pretty rockin'. But come on. It's pretty comical that an eco-friendly, philanthropic, well-known liberal band like Guster happens to be the openers for Skynard; about as redneck as it gets (and if you don't believe me, see above picture). God Bless America.

Back to Guster: check this out. It kind of fills in the blank on my lack of explanation for changing the name of my blog. Come Downstairs and Say Hello.



And yes, they did play this at the show Sunday night! Dad and I tried (and failed) to take a picture of me in the front row with Guster behind me...but I got some shots of just Guster.






Summing things up, I'm pretty happy about the fact that this show was priceless in so many ways: great music, but mostly you just couldn't beat that atmosphere. And I never want to try to.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

due to summer classes...

my blog habits have not been as sound lately. I'm sure I'll pick back up in July when all I have to do all day is trespass at Two-21 pool and pray they bring me free pizza again.

True story: I'm sitting at the pool a week or so ago, vocally wishing I was eating pizza, threatening to order it to the pool...when all of a sudden...SUMMER MIRACLE! Some lady brought out pizzas from the office and handed them out to us pool bums. "Would YOU like some pizza?"....yes please!

Anyway, taking a little break from homework because everyone needs to check out this album recommended to me by my bro-in-law, Scott: it's called Endless Highway. The whole CD are The Band covers by various artists including Gomez, Jack Johnson, Widespread Panic and The Allman Bro's to name a few. If you're into bluegrass, I think you'll like it. A few of my faves are Guster's rendition of "This Wheel's on Fire" and MMJ does a pretty great version of "It Makes No Difference".



Check it out. Only 4 more days of summer class!