April showers bring May flowers + [Songs of the Moment]

[dhpdesign]

Here are some things I've found to make me happy as April bleeds into May:

• I will in fact be working the Cure show for the radio station on May 10. I don't know how much I'll be able to watch, but I will finally get to see them play live. The openers, 65daysofstatic, rock right out as well.
  
  
• Kids in the Hall on Wednesday! Neil Diamond in August! w00t
  
  
• If I haven't already heaped praise on Famous Fourth St. Deli and their sandwiches, fried matzah plates, and in particular french toast servings that are as big as your head, let me do so here. I've been meaning to do some sort of "Favorite Philly Meals" series of posts, so of course
  holzerhedrpca had to go and beat me to it... or something similar. Nevertheless, Fourth St.'s french toast would be on that list.
  
  
• The last time I was at a wedding was a medieval-themed and -dressed one and OMG was it ever Flirt City, friends of the bride and relatives of the groom pawing at me and talking my ear off. I have an actual tuxedo wedding Memorial Day weekend and can't help but wonder what would be "better" or "worse" about it.
  
  
• AT&T has this little thing it calls The Blue Room where they provide professional video feeds of events like music festivals for People Who Can't Be There. They went to Coachella again this year, and by some strange strokes of luck and agreement they were showing Saturday's performance by Portishead -- still their only scheduled U.S. show behind Third and fixing to stay that way. I hauled my ass home after my radio show and apparently didn't miss a single note of their 70-minute set. Let me say this: If I was getting chills watching them on an old computer monitor in my dark apartment, no doubt there were some people in the crowd bawling their eyes out. Beth Gibbons is intense, and the band's take on "Wandering Star" triply so. A stunning show.
  

Another thing I'm really digging lately is a 2007 single from Danish electronica act Trentemøller called "Moan," featuring female vocalist Ane Trolle. When I first heard this pulsing minimal-techno balled I thought, "Not bad" -- then I saw the video, which literally launched the track into a new orbit for me. It's a creative, somewhat psychedelic retelling of a historic event, with the emotion turned up to 11 because... well, watch what the video's SFX start to do at the :39 mark. Sad, maybe disturbing, but very well done.

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